I want to invite you all to take a trip with me to the beginning, when God first created man and woman. What was it like there? We read in Genesis that it was perfect, beautiful, where there was no dying man. When God first created Adam, he was made and meant to live forever. There was never supposed to be loss or struggle, where we work and we toil throughout all of our days just to make a living. Man was meant to dwell and to eat from the fruit that God had provided, to dwell in the land, the very place that God had made. Man was meant to have many children, to have a family without the fear of sickness, without the fear of disease, and most of all... the greatest thing... to dwell with their Creator, to dwell with the Lord God Almighty all the days of their lives. We know the story of how sin comes in and man disobeys God and the command that He had given. In that very moment, man decided to go another way, to go to another place rather than to God, and everything was turned upside down.

Now we face things in life that we were never meant to. We face death, we face struggle, we face loss, and we have to struggle every day working and sweating just to make a living and to keep our lives going. We experience sickness, we experience disease, and worst of all, separation from God, our Creator. The Bible says that, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way...” (Isaiah 53:6). We have decided to go another way, to walk away from God, but I have good news today. For those of you who are ready to go back to the beginning, to those of you who are ready to come back into what God has intended, there is a way back.

God has made a way for restoration, He has made a way for renewal, and greatest of all, He has made a way to come back into his presence! The way is very simple: His name is Jesus. Jesus is the way, He is the one and only way. He is the truth that sets us free and brings us onto the right pathway back to God, and the One who instills in us the life that God had intended, bringing us into the glory and the presence of the Father.

Today, God is ready to open up the ears that would hear and come back to His way. He is ready to open up our minds to receive the truth of the Lord Jesus and ready to bring us into the new life as new creations that He has intended for each of us. How do we come back to that? How do we come back to the life that God has intended? The answer is found in the Bible. We are going to be looking in the book of John, where Jesus was speaking to His disciples about a place He was going to prepare for them, a place that was going to be like in the beginning, where they were going to dwell with Jesus forever and live with God… a special place. One of the disciples there, Thomas, is looking at Jesus and says, “Lord, we want to go there, but what is the way?” And here we read in John 14:6:

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.””

Praise God today that from this scripture, we find the road back to God, the road back to the life that is intended for mankind- for you and me, for His church, for His people to step into and to live with Him! It's such a simple verse, and from it, we see that there are three things that we must understand in order to come back into the life that God has intended.

The first thing that we must understand is that Jesus is the Way. He says very simply in the scripture, “I am the way.” And let us think about the way that Jesus had taken in His life. What kind of road was it? It was a road of suffering, hardship, and persecution. Yet at the same time, it was a road of glory, it was a road of fulfillment, and it was a road on which God had directed Him to go. Now follow me, because Jesus had taken the way of His Father, the way that His Father has made. He, Himself, today, has now become the way for us as well, to come into the kingdom of God, to come into a new place with Him, born again into the freedom to which God has called us! He is the only Way to the Father.

In the past couple of weeks, we spent some time visiting the nursing homes and we do a little bit of music and worship there. I had the privilege of speaking to one woman, and as I am talking to her, she says, “You know, I just don't get it. What really is the way? How do we get back to God?” As she continues, she begins to describe her life, how she has tried to live by the way that she felt was right, and that all of her life, she has gone the way that she thought was the right way to be back with God.

Sadly, she is asking me this question in the latter years of her life, after spending her entire life seeking the way but not finding it, and still being left without God. Many of us can relate to that. We want to know the right way. We want to know- what is the way? How do we get to God? What is the answer? Just like this woman, after trying many of our own methods and our own ways, we still find ourselves away from God. However, I want to tell you today that God has already made a remedy for our problem. God has already made a way, and it is in the Lord Jesus Christ, by His blood that was shed on the cross! God has already laid out the plan, He has made the answer, and it is found in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!

All the way back since the beginning, God made a plan and established a way for the lost sons and daughters of God- those who were far from Him because of our sin and our wickedness that entered in. Those who were far can now be brought closer than ever to the Father through His blood, and there is no other way. His name is Jesus.

The only way for us to come into this is to finally realize that our methods are no substitute for Christ. What are our methods? Some of our methods may include our own ways of thinking, our own wisdom, maybe our own idea of merit, or relying on the things that we think are right. Whatever they may be, these things bring us further from God rather than closer to Him.

When we function in our positive thinking, when we function in our own methods, or our own thoughts and ways, it actually opposes the very work of the Lord Jesus, and we cannot receive the work of His sacrifice. God received the sacrifice of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice of the sinless lamb of God. He was pleasing in the sight of God! When He went to the cross, He was an acceptable sacrifice that has made a way for you and me today to throw our ways and methods aside, and to come into the way that God has made for each one of us, to believe and to step in as the way to God! “I am the way,” Jesus said! Hallelujah, praise God!

Today as we are here, will you begin your journey on the way back to God? Will you join with me in following Jesus as the Way? Something happens when we begin to go in the way of Christ, and it is incredible. Those who are on the right way of Christ, there is a change that occurs. Many of us have traveled to different places, whether on vacation or for other reasons, and depending on the route that we take, we may have to make a change.

For example, many of us have been to our church in Honduras. When we go, what are some of the things that change about us? For one, we cannot wear long sleeve shirts when we go down there since it is going to be hot! So although we like to dress up for church, we get short-sleeve shirts. Even when we are traveling, we have to prepare shorts and t-shirts because of the weather. We have to change the way we look. We cannot wear all of our jewelry down there. As a matter of fact, it may weigh us down a little too much because when we start following Pastor Janeth, we are moving... uphill, downhill, through the woods, through the church, and God always does incredible things. There really are some changes that we make.

Similarly, when we are on the way of Christ, there is a change that happens in our soul because we are being conformed to the very image of the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself! Do we look like him today? Are we filled with love like Him? Do we have the same walk as Him? He walked in surrender to God every step of His life. There has to be a change as God is saying, Come into my way!

On the path with the Lord, we cannot carry the same things. Sin is heavy. We have to let our sin go. Sin weighs you down, just like when you bring a little too much luggage; you get to the airport and you get charged the extra fee, and you are saying to yourself, “Oh man, I overdid it. I brought a little too much this time.” However, the one thing that we do take up is the yolk and the burden of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

When we take His way, He gives you and I exactly what we need for travel. He knows just how much you are going to need. He provides His presence as you are following His path, and He knows every single detail along the way. Psalms 139 tells us that He knows how many hairs we have on our heads. He is everywhere, and He is everything. As we walk with Him, we can prepare ourselves for change, but it is an exciting change. Sometimes we hear “change,” and some people think, change hurts. Sometimes it hurts a little bit, but when we change to become closer to the Lord Jesus, oh how the spirit moves in our life! The Spirit brings about a change and does things beyond what we could ever ask for and immeasurably more than we could imagine.

Finally, in following His way, not only is there change in the way that we do things, but even in our attitude and our mindset. This is really crucial. What I love about the apostle Paul is that he really, really, REALLY knew the way of the Lord. He knew that way inside and out and always followed Him. Paul, himself, said, Listen, I want you to take on the same attitude as our Lord Jesus, who, being in very nature God, who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but He lowered himself (Philippians 2:6-7).

He humbled Himself to be obedient even to death on the cross, that God would lift Him up so that He would now take the place as the Name above all names the Lord of all lords, and be exalted at the right hand of the Father! We adopt this attitude. Listen, with this attitude and mindset, you do not need to be convinced that He is the King, you do not need somebody to remind you of how powerful He is. You just know because you walk the road that He has called you to walk, you follow the way that He has called you to follow, you let go because He is the treasure of Heaven! He is everything that you can have- the Light of lights- and everything you need in this world. We change our ways to fit His ways; it is not the other way around. I have truly begun to learn in my life that my ways have to fit the ways of the Lord. Our ways are not His ways; His ways are much higher than our ways. It is so important for us to begin to grasp that.

All throughout the scriptures, we hear the incredible message of Jesus. He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near” (Mark 1:15). We see throughout the scriptures that in that call to repentance, to return, we hear God saying, change your ways. Turn from the way that you have been living. Turn from the way that you have been doing things. What does that really mean? When we change our way, this means we have to take on another way. When we change what we are doing, we change our direction. We are always going in certain direction, right? He says, Turn to My way. Jesus said, “I am the way.” Therefore, repentance- returning to God- is moving from our ways and coming into the only way, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! He has made a way today!

One of the descriptions of the early Christians according to the Word was “followers of the Way.” Their lives were identified, defined, and described by where they were going and by who they were following: Jesus, the Way. How many of you are ready to become followers of the Way today? Followers of the Way! Let it define our lives! When others ask, “Where are you going with your schooling?” we respond, “I'm just following the way.” When they ask, “Where are you going to go with your family?” we answer, “I'm just following the way.” If they ask, “Where are going to go since you don’t have enough money?” we say, “I'm just following the way… the way of Jesus.” Hallelujah! We know that He is the only Way.

Secondly, we must understand that Jesus is the Truth. He says, “I am the way, the truth…” We have to ask ourselves: What is truth? We talk about truth all of the time, and we know that it is something that is very important, something that lasts forever. Truth is what makes a difference. So what is truth? Paul called it a sword. Why did he call it a sword? The book of Hebrews tells us that truth is a sword because it cuts down sin, divides between bone and marrow, and cuts away every lie. Lies hold us back. Lies cover our minds and hold us in bondage from being free to walk with our King. Many of us have experienced that sword; It is very skillful, very deliberate. Scripture says that the Word of God will never come back void. When that sword is brought forth, it always does something special. 2 Timothy 3:16 says:

“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Is there a servant of God in the house? Is there a servant of God in the house ready to be equipped? Is there a servant of God in the house ready to take up the sword, which is the Word of God, to allow God to bring His truth and to do His work? The Word of God is a precise chisel. God is our Maker; He is the best sculptor that you will ever see. His work is tremendous, and it is perfect. God is that sculptor who takes the Word and begins to chisel away, perfecting us into the image of His Son, Jesus. Oh, the power of the truth of God!

His work is so incredible- how He brings us into His glory. Jesus is the Truth. Jesus is the Word made flesh. If we were to take every word off of the pages in our Bibles and try to create it into something or somebody, it would be Jesus! He is the one that has fulfilled every commandment, every precept. He has fully pleased the Father as the living word of God. He, Himself, is Truth. He is the Word made flesh, and as we take in Christ, we take in His word, and He is formed in His fullness so that Jesus would come once again in the flesh and bring Himself glory. What is truth? Jesus is the truth.

As we understand what the truth is, we also must receive it. This is very important for us to grasp because unless we receive the truth, we remain on the same way, the same road, and as I was speaking about before, it is a road moving away from God. Every road is made of something. We know that some roads are asphalt, some roads are rock. The truth is what paves the way of Christ.

When we walk in the truth, we are walking on the road of Christ. We are following His way, we are following His truth. The reason there is only one way is because there is only one truth. If we are not walking in truth, we are not walking on the path of God. Every day, each morning, I have to seek the Word of God. I have to pray and say, “Father, let your truth come in. Let me not just read these pages. Let me not just put it off until later. I need your truth, Father.” Why? I want to stay on the right way, I want to have His truth to guide me. I need His truth to keep me from stumbling. I need His truth to help me to walk around the obstacle and, sometimes, break through the obstacle. It is only done through the word that God gives us.

It is just like a compass; when you use a compass, or or anything to help you with direction, it is important that you stay exactly on point. You have to stay to the exact degree of the compass to wherever your destination is. Even if you are off by just one degree, by the time you are going on your journey, you are completely away from the destination that you hoped to reach.

This is the Word of God. The Word of God is a precise compass that will lead us directly to the Holy Spirit, directly to the Father, directly into the arms of our Lord and our Savior. That is the goodness of the Word of God and that is why we must have His truth and receive it. The word aligns us back to where Christ is.

Now we need to ask ourselves this question: As we receive the truth, what would ever hold us back? What would ever keep us from receiving it? Jeremiah 7:24 says:

“Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.”

This scripture refers to “the stubbornness of the heart.” What is stubbornness? It is deciding to walk out our own version of the truth. Stubbornness says, I really don't want to hear what it is. Though there is an understanding of what the truth is, stubbornness is a refusal to receive correction from the Word of God. What does it do? The scripture says we go backwards rather than forwards, away from God rather than to Him. Oh, but Jesus! Jesus says, “If you abide in my word you are truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

He calls us to abide in His truth. What does that look like? To abide in the truth of Christ is to begin to really become one with the truth, to literally have a relationship, to begin to love the truth. As we take on the truth in such a way as the lover of our souls, we are free because He says, “...you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” We must know the truth in such a way. I must know the truth as a lover, as my closest friend, as the best friend that I could ever hope for, and the only one that could lead me in the right direction.

This is what sets us free from a life of sin, to no longer be in bondage, no longer kept away from God! Free to not go backwards, but to go forward into the kingdom in which He has intended us to live! Never forget that truth drives us towards God. Truth brings us into restoration because it causes us to become a new creation in Christ Jesus.

As we receive the truth, we who were once so stubborn against the Word of God, now become stubborn against the world and all of its old ways, and we begin to stand on the Word of truth and embrace it as our very identity. The truth comes in, and when it comes in, there is a disruption. There is a change of relationship with the world. Although the world may have its ways and do its own thing, our relationship now is with the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ for ever and ever. It is a truth that cannot be broken, a truth that will sustain me. This truth will also sustain you and your children. Even in our darkest hour, the truth will never pass away because it is the truth of Jesus, who has been sent from God Almighty, who is the risen King with all power, in all truth, reigning over all things.

Will you embrace the truth of God in your life today? Hallelujah, Lord! I receive Your truth! There is power in that truth. Apart from the truth, we are all prone to wander away from God. Without the light of truth, we stumble in a world filled with darkness. Without truth, there are only lies, and we remain in bondage to the father of lies. However, God wants to break the power and the bondage of Satan today by setting us free in His truth. Living in His truth means we feed from it, we live from it, and it becomes our standard.

Thinking back to the days of the prophet, Elijah, we know that during that time, the people of the land of Israel were declaring that God is not King, that God is not the one true Lord of all. Yet, Elijah said, no, you guys got this wrong. Elijah was a man that was filled with the truth; he applied the truth in his life and he was filled with it. And so what happens? Jezebel and all of her prophets come, and there is a face off, a standoff. Somebody’s God was true, but not everybody’s because there is only one true God, one true Way. Elijah steps on the scene and says, let's build an altar, and we are going to call on our God. One god is going to light it on fire, but there is going to be a god that does not. We are going to see whose god is true, whose god is all powerful.

As we know, all of the prophets of Baal start dancing and doing all of their rituals, and they call, and they call, and they call, and what happens? Nothing… the altar remains dry and empty. Yet Elijah, filled with the truth, then calls on God in the truth, and begins to say, Father, the one true God... and as he begins to pray, something happens! God from Heaven, God Almighty, is stirred up from His throne and sends down the fire and the power of God, and burns up the altar! Not long after, every enemy of God is destroyed. When God does something in truth, He brings it to the fullness. Why? The prayers of a righteous man- the man or woman who is in truth- will avail much! Hallelujah!

The truth shall march on! The prayer of the righteous is powerful because the man and woman of God take in the truth and apply it; they let it lead their life. God empowers them to demonstrate to all the world, all the nations, that no other god is the one true God, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Will you receive the truth today? Will you change the relationship? Will you allow God to stir up a new relationship to love the truth and to walk in it with everything that you have?

We understand that Jesus is the way, and He is the truth. The last thing we now need to understand today is that He is the life. We read it again: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In the book of John, chapter 14, what was Jesus about to do? He was about to lay down His life, only to take it up again. He was about to defeat our biggest enemy: death, itself. By doing so, Jesus would become the only source of life for all mankind. Because He lives, we live. Because He rises, we rise! We are to receive Him as the source of all life. That same life is the life that broke through the grave. That same life is the life that could not be held down, but conquered all the darkness. Going back to the beginning, although sin has really torn things up and turned things upside down, though we have faced death and all of these hardships, I want to tell you today that I have good news! The Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Life is imparted into our mortal bodies even now, and through that life and through that power, we conquer death even now, overcoming the very sting of death that has come from sin! His life is all-powerful. If we have this life, it becomes everything for us. When the life of Christ is in me, and when the life of Christ is in you, we begin to draw from something supernatural. We no longer draw from our sinfulness, or from the power of sin, but we draw from the pure power of the Holy Spirit, who is a well that never runs dry and a life that can never be defeated.

We understand that life comes from Jesus, but let us talk about the meaning of life. Many of us have had an idea of what life is, and we have all been taught and told at some point to just live your own life. We are told that life is- get what you need, enjoy it, have what you want. Get a job that pays you a decent amount of money, get married, have a few kids, live in a big home, and all will be well. But is this really the end? Is this really what the Author of Life has intended for His people? To just go on with no internal fulfillment? Satan deceives and creates an illusion that this is what life is actually about, and man walks in that deception just wandering hopelessly, striving... a little bit more of this, a little bit more of that, then I’ll finally be settled, then I'll be happy. It is just a circle where you go around and around, like wandering in the desert with no end. I want to tell you today that Jesus, Himself, is life. He fulfills us in a way that no home, no job, no education or child can fulfill because He is the Author of Life! He is the answer! He is life, itself, as provided by God, life from the beginning, that is pure, holy, and awesome in the presence of God! John 1:12, one of my favorite scriptures, says:

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…”

Who are the children of God? The children of God are filled with life, and they are filled with light. So if we receive, if we surrender our lives today to the only One who is life, itself, He will impart to us His life and His goodness. He is the Life that will bring life into even our mortal bodies.

Lastly, the life of Christ is victorious. God guards the life that is within us. This is the victory of the Christian! As Christians, we are the ones into whom Christ brings His life, and there is no losing! We cannot be defeated. Why? Even at our worst time, even in our darkest hour, God is working in us and through us to be sure to carry the life of Christ. God has His eyes on Jesus, who is in us. Jesus is the apple of God’s eye as He is dwelling in me and as He is living in us! God will carry us through to bring glory to His name and glory to His Son! Hallelujah! We can receive the life of Christ. In this, I am reminded of Mary, the mother of Jesus. When the angel, Gabriel, came to give her the great news, God overshadowed her with the life of Christ, the very life of Jesus, and Mary embraced Him. Although Herod tried to destroy that work by destroying every child in that region, all along the way in their travels, God protected her and Joseph because Mary carried something so precious. She carried the life of Jesus. God will always sustain and protect the life of His Son. God will always provide for the life of his Son. God will make sure that Jesus is fed, taken care of, clothed, and that He has a place to dwell because He loves His Son! And God will be sure to bring forth the birthing of His Son in each and every one of our lives and to sustain us forever!

Jesus is the life. With every word of life that we allow to enter deep into our souls, we must know that it is not our word, it is God's word. When we accept the life of Christ, when we trade our life for His, He imparts His Son into us, and God will carry us through. Life is not a thing. Life is a person. No longer will we live as the world, who sees life as a thing to get ahead, a thing to make your money, a thing to get an education, to move on with your life... not that those things are bad in and of themselves… but life for us is a person! His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you embrace the life of Christ that God offers to us today through his Son? “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Now we know what that means. Christ in me, the life of Christ, is the hope of glory that God will carry me through. God will sustain His Church. We are the body of Christ! This is what we have been called to. Life in its purest form is the life of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Let us go back to the beginning, to the place where God created man to not suffer loss, where there was no sorrow or evil in the Garden of Eden.

In that place, everything was provided, every bit of fruit we could ever have, the animals, everything that we needed. He said, be fruitful and reproduce. He called us to have families and children and to raise them in the presence and the glory of God. This is the life that God has intended. Yet, sin has taken such a major toll. It has caused death, brokenness, darkness, and toiling without end… over and over. Worst of all, sin has caused separation from God, our Maker and Creator, who used to walk in the garden with man. After sin, that door to the garden was closed. God had put the sword at the door, and now no man would ever be allowed to come back to that place.

Man would now have to suffer with the rest of the world... but I have good news today. God has made a way back. He has made a way where there was no way. God has made a way for me and a way for you through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life of God. Praise You, Lord!

Where do you stand today in each one of these places with the Lord? Are you on the way that has been laid by Christ? Are you seeking out His truth as the one and only truth that brings you into freedom to serve Him and to walk with Him? Have you received the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that only He offers? We welcome you today to step into what God has called for His church. If God is calling you to repentance, to turn, then allow the Holy Spirit even now to begin to cause us to make a change from the old way into the new way of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us say to the Lord, Father, I've been stubborn. I have rejected your Son. I have rejected your truth in so many ways. I have not wanted to abide by your word. Lord, today I see that you are the truth, the living Word. You and You alone. Lord, I look to receive the truth of Jesus and to walk in it all the days of my life and to have a relationship with You. To love the truth and to embrace the truth as my closest friend, as a lover, as my husband, as my wife. Lord, I have walked in death and in darkness because of sin.

Would you allow Him to bring the life of the Lord Jesus? Life is not a thing, it’s a person. Jesus is the life. Will you receive him today? Thank you, God. Holy Spirit, as we sing this song, we want to follow you. God, I declare to You this day that I will follow you as never before. Where you go, I will go. What you say, I will say. What you do, how you serve, I will follow you, Lord. Here we come, Jesus! Here we come, Lord!