But today, today, as you can see up here, we're talking about the good life, the good life, that's what we're all chasing after, right? That's what we all want, is to be able to live the good life. I want to live the good life. You guys want to live the good life. But what is it? What is the good life? I mean, I have a feeling that if I asked some of you what the good life was, I might get different answers to what the good life is. I asked Google this week what the good life was, and the very first thing that popped up was the good life according to the dictionary. So let me show you what Google what the dictionary says the good life is. It's the kind of life that people with a lot of money are able to have, a life of luxury, pleasure and comfort. That sounds pretty good, right? Sign me up for that. I mean, hey, a life of luxury, pleasure and comfort that sounds like the good life. Just the only problem with that is, as it said in the first sentence, it's only the kind of life that people with a lot of money are able to have, and so I guess the rest of us are just out of luck. We're not going to be able to experience the good life. I hear some people talk about the good life in that way. I hear other people talk about the good life this way. The Good Life is the pursuit of your goals and following your dreams. You have a dream on your heart, someplace that you want to get to, someone that you want to be, something that you want to accomplish in life. And so the good life is the pursuit of that dream. You figure out the right steps, the goals that you're going to have to accomplish along the way in order to get there. And as you pursue those things, that's the good life. And I think if we combine that with what we said earlier, then we get this. The Good Life is a life of luxury, pleasure and comfort as a result of the pursuit and accomplishments of your goals and dreams, which sounds a lot like what we call the American dream. Okay, I may not have a life of luxury and comfort and pleasure right now, because that's the life that it requires a lot of money to be able to do but I've got a dream to have a lot of money. I've got a dream to be able to accomplish these things. And if I set the right goals and I pursue those with everything, that I've got the right hard work, the right dedication, the right perseverance, then one of these days I'm going to get the money that will lead to a life of luxury, pleasure and comfort, as I have pursued those things. So there it is, that is it? That is the good life. And so make sure that you set your goals high. You make sure that you're dreaming big. Make sure that you pursue it with everything that you've got, and one day, maybe, just maybe, if you get there, you'll be able to experience the good life. And so I'm going to pray, and you'll be dismissed now get after it,or maybe not,honestly, maybe we should ask the people who have accomplished these goals, gotten there where they have the money to live a life of luxury and pleasure and comfort. There are a lot of people who have been successful in that way. So, so maybe we should ask one of them. Let's take this guy, for example. You know who that is? That's, that's Jim Carrey, right? He's, he's famous. From what I understand, at one time, he was poor, he was even homeless. He had a dream, though he wasn't living the good life. He was poor and homeless, but he had a dream, and he set his goals, and he worked really hard, and the right things fell into place, and all of a sudden, now he's a movie star and he has money, and he's living a life of pleasure, luxury and comfort. I wonder what he says about the good life. Maybe whatever it is that he says will give us enough inspiration to set those goals and dream big. Let's let's see what he said. He says, I think everyone should get rich. Can I get an amen? I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of. Can I get an amen to that? I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so that they can see that it'snot the answermust be a must be a misprint. Surely that's not what he really said. Right?No, that that is what he said.He's accomplished it.He's got it all the good life,everything it is that he's wanted, buthe's saying. Good Life isn't found in those things. It's not found there. You know what? He's not the only one that believes that. He's not the only one experiencing that in his life. I was watching a video online where someone had taken several, I mean, several clips of people who have accomplished the American dream, well known people, and they were making comments similar to what Jim Carrey was. I'll just read through of them really quickly. One of them said, I made it. I did it. I accomplished my dreams. I had money and fame in everything that I ever wanted, but there was no joy. Another one said I was a millionaire. I had beautiful women in my life, a house, cars, an incredible career, and yet, on a daily basis, I wanted to end my life. Another one said, I'm doing everything that I had dreamt of doing for the last 30 years. It all came true, and I'm the least happy that I've ever been in my entire life. Another one said I'm always depressed all the time. I thought that success was all that I needed, that it was going to bring the happiness, buy my mom a house, the fame, the accolades, having people say, Oh, you're the best in the game. I thought those things would bring me happiness, and then when those things came, the happiness wasn't there. So apparently, the good life isn't actually found through the accomplishments of your dreams in a life of luxury, pleasure and comfort.So then what is it?What is the good life?You know? What? Okay, so maybe, maybe they just shot a little too high. Maybe it's just, it's, it's still those things, right, the pursuit of your dreams, and the luxury and the comfort, but it's like, it's not that luxurious. I mean, it's that's a little greedy to get to the point that some of these people have been, and so maybe they just got a little too high, and that that's where it's found. Maybe, if we just pursue those things and we get to wherever it is that I think that I should get in life, then that's the good life. And so what a lot of us do is we talk ourselves into this kind of phrase when it comes to the good life. If I could just blank, then that would be the good life for me. And so maybe you're a student, maybe you're in high school, and you're going, Gosh, if I, if I could just get on varsity one day, like, that's it. That's all I want. If I could just get on varsity, then that would be the good life, right? If I could just make first chair, then that would be the good life. If I could get just, just 1000 followers. That's it. I don't want to be greedy. I need a man, just 1000 1000 followers is all I need. That would be the good life for some of you. It's, it's, it's, if I could just win state. If I could just win state in football or basketball or volleyball or whatever it is that I play, I just, I don't have to win it multiple times. I could just win it one time, man, I've seen that's the goal. That would be the good life. If I could just win state. For some of us, it's a if I could just be a better person. If I could just get here in my life and overcome this sin, or get to this place where, where I'm a better person in life. And I know I'm not gonna be perfect, but it just better person than that. That'd be good enough for me. Just want to be a good person, right? For some of us, it's a spouse. If I could just get married one day, if I could get married, then that's all I need. That's all I want. Then that would be the good life. And then we get married, and we go, Well, if, if I could just have kids too, right? And the the kids would come along the picture, then, then it would really be the good life. I mean, this is good, but then it'll really, really, really be the good life. And then the kids come along, and then we're thinking, Well, if we could just travel a little bit like, like, as the whole family, we could go on vacations and and travel and get to that place. Then that that would be the good life. And then maybe we begin to travel a little bit, and then we go, Well, that's good too, but, but, you know, if I could just do these hobbies, like I love my family and all, but if I could have some time, I mean, I'm working so hard to provide for the family, and we do all this, and on the weekends, I never have time for me. And if I could just enjoy some hiking or some golf, or some fishing, if I could just get to that place where I could do some of those things then, then I have my family and all those things, and it'd be that then that would be the good life, and I would be there too. And you ever notice that every single time we get to whatever it is that we had the blank there, that there always becomes a new blank, it's the good life never seems to be satisfying enough. We never have it fully, and there's always something that's just beyond our reach that we're going to have to get now for it to end up really being the most fulfilling and satisfying good life that there is to have. Why is that? Why does the good life never really seem satisfying enough? Because Scripture tells us that the things that we're chasing after and the way that we're defining the good life in these ways, isn't really the good life at all. Jesus, one of the things that he said whenever he even came on the scene, according to John is that He came to give us the good life. I mean, look at what we see in John 1010. John says, The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. But I came. Why did Jesus come? I came so that they may have life and have it abundantly, abundant life. You know what that sounds like to me, the good life. Apparently, Jesus came. One of the whole reasons that he came to was to give us the good life. Yes, well, if Jesus came to give us the good life, then how come my life doesn't look so good, right? And whenever he says it this way. It doesn't really define us. For us what the good life is. It just says he came to give us the good life. But Jesus does tell us what the good life is, just not here. Let's look one chapter later, and then a few chapters later, with what Jesus said, John 1125, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. John 14, six, Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus defines for us what the life actually is. It's himself. The good. Life isn't found in achievements and hobbies and experiences or a life of luxury and comfort and fame. The Good Life, apparently, is found in a person. The Good Life is Jesus Christ Himself. He isthe good life.I honestly thought that might get a few more, amen. So obviously, there's not really anybody listening in here, but I'm going to go ahead and preach the whole thing. Anyway,one of you is coming with me.Jesus said, I am the good life. When he said that in John 1010, he came to give us abundant life. He meant himself. He came to give us himself. Just a few chapters later in John, He tells the disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit, not just to be with him, that he was going to be going, but he was going to send the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit wouldn't just be with them, but the Holy Spirit would be in them. And we're going to talk more about that in in Acts. And he he even prayed during that time, when he was talking about these things, how we might be one just as or we might be one just as He and the Father were one. Then those things happen whenever the Holy Spirit was sent in Acts chapter two. And we'll see that as we go through our series, too. And now that whenever you and I put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation. He does come to dwell in us, and that's why the Apostle Paul could even write in Galatians 220 that he was crucified with Christ and that he no longer lived, but that Christ lived in Him. Jesus said that He came to give us abundant life, that he is the good life, and then he gave us himself. He gave he gave himself for us so that he could give Himself to us, and he actually put himself inside of us. Paul says, I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but the good life lives in me. And so apparently, if Jesus lives in you, you already have the good life. No matter what your situations and circumstances are, you have abundant life in him. But let's look back at this verse right here that we said earlier. We said that Jesus came so that we may have life and have it abundantly to give us the good life. But look at the first part of that, the thief. Who's the thief? Satan? Satan comes. Why does he come to steal, kill and destroy, to make sure that you do not experience the abundant life, to make sure that you do not experience the good life. He wants to rob you of the good life, to make sure that you don't experience what you have in Jesus. So what does he do? How does he do that? All the things that we talked about earlier, he convinces the world and us that the good life is found in fame, success, luxury, comfort. Convinces us that it's found in any type of achievement or experience. His motto and way of getting us to think is if I could just get here, if I could just have that, if I could just do this with my time, or live here, or enjoy these things, then when I get to that place in my life, I will have the good life. It's a lie. Those things may be good. They may be blessings of Jesus in certain ways. These but they are not life itself. If we make them the ultimate things in trying to get there to experience the good life, Satan knows that you'll never be able to experience the true, abundant life, the good life that He came to give you. And so this is what he does. He's out to do these things and keep you guys and me from experiencing it all. So quite simply, this is why John, who we've been looking at all morning, could simply write in first John 512 that whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. Whoever if you have the Son, then you have the good life. He just said it simply, you have him. If you've put your faith and trust in Jesus to forgive you of your sins and he's come to dwell in you, you have the good life. If you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and to come dwell in you, you don't have the good life. You'll never be able to experience the good life, and you will not experience it for all of eternity, because you will be separated from him, because he's a holy and a perfect God, and your sin still stands in the way between you and him. The good news is that, for if that applies to you, that you may walk in here having been in that situation, but you can walk out in a completely different situation, if you'll just put your faith and trust in Jesus, you'll have the Son, and then you'll have the good life, and He'll teach you how to experience the good life that you actually have in him. My prayer for those of us who who have taken that step of faith, who have received Jesus into our lives, is that we will not let Satan keep us busy or chasing after something that we already have in Christ. Do not let Satan keep you busy chasing after something that you already have in Christ. So what we simply see is that the good life is life in Christ, in a union, in a spiritual union with Him, is a new creation in Him. Life is in Christ. Now, this life that we experience in our union, this good life that we have in that does flow into other things lead into other things. Not only do we experience life in Christ, but we experience his life through a life with other people, a life together with other people. The apostle Paul writes about this in First Corinthians, chapter 12, beginning in verse 12, he says, The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is written with, or so it is with, excuse me, the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same spirit. And so those of us who have put our faith and trust in Jesus, the spirit comes to dwell in us, uniting us to Christ in this union. But he also unites us together. We share the same spirit. If we're the body, that means Christ is the head. And so not only do we have the good life as an individual part of the body, but guess what? We have the good life together as the Body, and we experience the good life together as a body. He says, We all share the same Holy Spirit. Now, this isn't some kind of like, well, this is some kind of invisible this, this spiritual connection that we have and and listen, the way this plays out is that we just continue to live our lives as the individuals that we are focused on our relationship with Jesus, and it's nice. It's nice to know that we have this little spiritual connection with other people. And so while I'm about doing my business and my personal walk with the Lord, I know I've got other people, I'm kind of spiritually united to out there. And that's kind of a comforting, neat, little, nice thing to think about. No, that is not what we are talking about in Acts two, and we'll see this in our series. When the Spirit comes and 3000 people come to know Jesus, and they're united together now, sharing the same spirit, the body of Christ, we see at the end of Acts two that they're sharing their lives together. They're experiencing the good life of Jesus Christ, in and through them and through the relationships that they have with each other.And so the good lifeis life in Christ, a life in union with Him and in authentic relationships with other believers. Charles Spurgeon says it this way, some Christians try. To go to heaven alone in solitude. But believers are not compared to bears, not compared to lions or any other animals that wander alone. Those who belong to Christ are sheep in this respect, that they love to get together. Sheep go in flocks, and so do God's people. We share the good life together. We share the good life together. The Good Life leads to a life together with other believers, carrying out the one anothers of Scripture as he works in and through us, engaging in safe, vulnerable relationships with other people, where Jesus, as our life, is working through us to to build up the body, as he says he does in Ephesians, chapter four.So the good life is life in Christ,it's life together with other believers. But then the last thing that we need to see is that it's also life expressed. Jesus puts His life in us, unites us together with other believers, and then begins to express the good life through us to a lost and a dying world around us, so that they too can experience the good life in the same way that we're experiencing the good life. Let's stay with John. John chapter 15, Jesus tells us that he said, or John tells us that Jesus says, I am the vine. You are the branches. And Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. The last time I checked, branches were receivers, branches don't produce fruit. Branches bear fruit. A branch is simply a receiver of the life giving stuff in the vine. And if Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, then we are receivers of his life, the good life, and that life gets expressed through us. We bear the fruit. Jesus produces the fruit as you and I make ourselves available to him, as branches, as instruments in his hand. He works in and through us to be a part of His kingdom, work things of eternal value, to make an impact in our schools and on our sports teams and in our families and in neighborhoods and work and in restaurants and on vacation and local missions and in missions all around the world. This is the work of Christ in us and through us. He does it through us collectively as a church, and he does it through us individually according to your unique design, your giftings, your personalities, the passions and things that he puts on your heart. So let's talk about this in alignment with what we were talking about earlier, because we talked a lot about dreams, we talked a lot about goals, we talked a lot about pursuing those things, and the idea that we can walk away with is those are bad, those are evil. We are not to be about those things. We're supposed to be about Jesus and all just stay poor. That could be a conclusion that you could draw if we're defining the good life as Christ Himself and all these other negative things. But that's not what we're talking about here. There is a way to pursue those goals and dreams where we're trying to find the good life in those goals and dreams and the pursuit of those and what we're going to get out of that. But there is also a way that Jesus has uniquely created us with passions and gifts and abilities to be used as a benefit and a blessing in this world and people living in it, and sometimes that includes leading us and in working through us to be very successful at something and maybe even make a lot of money along the way.Maybe not. That's up to him.It was a part of a previous church 10 or 11 years ago. I guess there was a guy that I was introduced to in the church, and he was a very successful businessman, and I mean very successful business man. And I got to hear a little bit more of his story. And I may not have it all right, but the general idea is that he became a Christian. And he was a teenager. He went to college, he he got involved with the Campus Crusade for Christ and and they really began to disciple him and pour into him and learning much more about his life in Christ and and how Jesus works in Him and through Him, so much so that he said, Well, the way that Jesus works in and through people is to sign up and be a part of missions like that's the ultimate calling. And so he signed up for that. Not only did he go to Campus Crusade for Christ, he started to work for Campus Crusade for Christ, and His job became letting Jesus use him. Him as His instruments to build relationships with other college students, to either share the gospel with them so that they'll be introduced to him and or disciple them and grow them and show them how to walk with Him and experience the good life in Christ and Jesus worked in through him to do that. He was producing the fruit. There were people coming to know Him, and people were being discipled, and it was a good thing, until the Lord began to put this dream on his heart of not just doing this around the college campus, but in and through business, through the giftings that he had within that area of things. But he was confused about that, because in his mind, the ultimate calling was to be in missions, to make an impact in God's kingdom. Was he was doing that? Where was this coming from? Was it his pursuit of some good life outside of Jesus? No, it was something that Jesus had put on his heart. And as he came to that realization, he stepped into it, and he began to share the gospel with those that he would consult in his business, and people in his business started to come to know Jesus, and then he started discipling them and and then along the way, as he pursued his goals, and Jesus continued to work in and through him. Not only did people come to know Jesus, but he started making money. He started becoming very successful at the things that he was doing, so much so that now Jesus was working in him, not just to share the gospel, but to give and to invest in the kingdom work that he was doing, and to be a part of that. And so for the last 20 to 30 to 40 years, he's been doing that, sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone, then and through business and through, through giving money towards great things of God's Kingdom work in local churches and sometimes to individuals, and sometimes just inviting people out to his property and place to share in those things, and giving things away to bless people and then open the door to share the good news with them so that more people will come. This is all Jesus expressing his life in and through him in his own unique way and according to the passions and the dreams and the giftings, not trying to find his life in the pursuit of those things, but in Christ, in resting in that and then allowing him to use him in those ways. And he does that, not just in him, but in each and every single one of us as well. And so again, we ask the question, Jesus, what are you up to in that regard? In me? How are you wanting to express your life through me? And so what we're looking at again today, way of summary, just to simplify, this is when we talk about the good life. What is the good life? It's first and foremost life in Christ. He is the good life. And as we begin to experience the good life in Him, He will lead us as an expression of that good life into life together with other believers in safe, authentic and vulnerable relationships with them, building up the body of Christ, and then he will begin to express that life through us, as individuals and collectivelyas a church. This,this is the good life.So what does that look like for you?What does that have to do with you and your life today? How does any of this apply to you? Because that's that's honestly what I prayed about before I began to share this sermon, this message with you was not just that Jesus would reveal His truth, but that he would reveal how it applies to our lives. Jesus isn't interested in you and I coming here and then leaving with more information. He's not interested in just the content, not saying he works apart from those things, he certainly does, and sometimes there's things that we need to know that allow us to be able to experience him. But as he does those things, he's leading us through that awareness to apply it to our lives in some particular way. And so we've got to ask questions. And here's the potential questions that I hope all of us are asking in one way or another. I think the great place to start is, if Jesus is the good life, he is the good life, then the question is, do you have the good life? Do you have life in Christ? Have you ever can you remember a specific time when you've put your faith and trust in Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, to forgive you of your sins and to come dwell in you and be with you forever? If you can't say that and you don't know, then you don't have life in Christ. Your sins still stand between you and a holy God, and you can keep pursuing to try to fill in the blank with everything that you've got about what the good life will be, and you will never, ever find it, until you come to this realization. Andso do you have the good life?You, and if you don't, as I said earlier, today might be the day that Jesus is leading you to take that step and to walk out of here, not missing the good life. And if that is you, and you feel Jesus speaking to your heart right now about taking that step, I will give you a chance to pray a prayer, to receive Him as your Lord and Savior and walk out of here changed forever in just a little while. For those of us who have put our faith and trust in Jesus, are we? Are you? Am I chasing after something that I already have? If Jesus is the good life and I put my faith and trust in Jesus and I have it,if I look at my life now,and I was able to watch it on that screen up there play out, would it look like I'm resting in the life that I have in Christ as my good life, or would it look like I'm pursuing if I could just fill in the blank,then I'll finally have the good life. IfI could just get this much money, if I could just get my kids to this point, if I could just get my spouse to this point, if I could just become this better person, or this better spouse, or this better parent, whatever it is about the blank for you, would that be what your life would show on the screen? Maybe you even know Jesus is the good life, but your activity activities that you're engaging in would suggest that you're not experiencing him as the good life, but that you're chasing after it, that Satan is leading you in in that way. And so maybe what he brought you here today for is to put those things down, to begin to rest in the life that you have in Jesus, and quit making the good things that even Jesus has given you and blessed you with the ultimate things that you need in order to have the good life. Think another great question for us to ask today is, are you allowing Jesus to lead you into safe, authentic and vulnerable relationships. If life is found in Christ and His life will lead us into relationships with other believers in this particular way, then have I taken that step? Maybe the application for you today is to get in a group. I mean, it's hard to experience that if you're not involved in some kind of group. And we have a number of great Sunday school groups here, and we're working on establishing some different kind of groups that meet in in homes, and you'll learn more about that later in discipleship journeys and things to be a part of. And so maybe it's going okay. I've been coming here. I come to the services. I come every now and then, but you've never stepped into group life, and so that's the step, is the starting point. But then there's some of you who would say, Well, yeah, I'm in a group. I mean, I'm in a Sunday I've been a Sunday School member for 20 or 3040, years.As being a part of that group,would you describe the relationships that you have in that group as safe, authentic and vulnerable, or is that just a place that you show up,learn a lot more contentaround a group of people together, and then leave,because that's very different. We'renot talking about showing up in a group and learning more content. We're talking about, are you engaging and safe? Does anyone know who you are really? You feel like you're having to put a mask on every single time you walk into your group life. Have you ever told anybody in your group what's really going on in your life? For the last 30 years you've been a part of it? Maybe that's the step. Oh, I'm in a group. There's people there. Who's he leading me to engage in these types of relationships with? And then finally, in what ways is Jesus wanting to express his life through you?Satan has convinced many of us that the good life is a life of luxury, comfort and pleasure. For a lot of us, we don't feel like the luxury parts there because of our finances, but we can still experience pleasure and comfort.What ways is Jesus wanting you, wanting to express his life through you,Jesus can bless you with a nap,a great Netflix series and time to leisurely enjoy some hobbies, but in and through those things, and even above and beyond those things, it's Satan that will convince us that that's the ultimate thing the life. Ofpleasure and a life of comfort.Jesus is saying the good life is found in me, expressing my life through you in the way that I want to use you to share the good news with someone at your school or or in your own neighborhood, next door, in your workplace, or be a part of a local missions or something going on at our our church, and in things that will will last as part of His kingdom, work forever. So maybe that's the way it applies to you going, oh, Jesus brought me here today to get me thinking about me being the branch, him being the instrument. And what passions and dreams and giftings and abilities has He given me to play a role in his kingdom. Work for me, to be a part of in my church, in a local mission, in the environments that he's put me in, not as a way to get the good life, but as a way of resting in the good life and allowing him to use me in those ways. And so is he leading you to take a step of faith today, to rest in Him as the good life, to get in a group and engage in safe, authentic and vulnerable relationships, or is he leading you to get involved in the ways that he's wanting to express his life through you to make a real difference with other people. The Good Life is a life in Christ, a life with others, and a life where Jesus expresses himself through us when we make ourselves available to him,let's be a churchthat's about those things together. Amen, amen, amen.