There is a show on TV called “The Office.”  In one of the episodes, the manager was trying to prove that technology isn’t as great as everyone is saying it is, and so he is driving around being navigated by a GPS system.  Finally, at one point, the GPS tells him to “turn right.”  Well, it was obvious that if he turned right he would drive the car right into a lake.  But the GPS was telling him to take a right and he wanted to prove that technology isn’t that helpful, so he drove the car, with his fellow passenger, right into the lake!  An uninsured rental car.

Now, the guy who did that is goofy, but does he have a point?  It won’t be long before every car we buy has a GPS navigation system built right in.  And if you don’t have one built in, you can just put a portable one into your car.  You set your coordinates, punch in where you want to go, and it gives you verbal directions all the way to your destination. 

Have we gone crazy?  I gotta ask: what happened to good ol’ following directions? J Are we going to become so dependent on GPS navigation that we stop using our own brains?  Are we going to lose the ability to think for ourselves?  Are we going to be so focused on GPS directions that we don’t know where we are going anymore?

OK, there are some obvious benefits and uses for GPS navigation.  And I am sure we could have a lively discussion on what kind of effect it may have on the way people think and the way we develop sense of direction and the way we navigate to our destinations.  But here’s the point: I think the popularity of this shows how much we are looking for guidance, for leadership, for someone (or something) to show us the way as we navigate through life.

Life. Where is it Taking You?  It’s taking you somewhere, isn’t it?  We do have a destination! So, we need leadership, don’t we? I absolutely believe we do!  Who’s Leading You?

Is it your friends?  Sometimes that’s good and sometimes it isn’t.  There might be a time when the direction your friends give you is: “Just go get drunk and forget about it!”  And what’s the result of that leadership?  A hangover.  Or when tell you regarding the difficulty you are going through: “It happens to everyone.  Get on with your life.  Pick yourself up by your bootstraps.”  What’s the result of that kind of leadership?  Denial of the real problem.

Who’s Leading You?  The latest self-help books?  They promise the secret to success!  Just follow these directions, and you will get where you want to go!  What is the result?  Disappointment.  Their well-aimed intentions amount to nothing because they contain no power to take you where they promise to!  And by the way, relying on the latest book to guide you will end up being frustrating, because there are 3000 new books being published…every day!

Who’s Leading You?  Your Dad or Mom?  Usually that is a good thing.  But they aren’t perfect either. And sometimes the message from our parents that lingers, even though it probably wasn’t their intent, is: “I told you it would be like this one day.”  And what’s the result?  Guilt.

Who’s Leading You?  Your neighbours?  The world?  What kind of leadership do they give?  “Hey – don’t let your spouse treat you like that!  You have to watch out for yourself!”  The result?  Marriage problems.  “You need to have the latest fashion – you need to look like the girl in the ad!”  The result?  Low self-esteem.  “What?  You don’t have this kind of TV, that kind of car, or a GPS system?  Get with it!”  The result?  Discontentment.

Or is it Jesus Leading You?  He says: “Let me help you restore what has been broken.  Let me show you the way to where you need to go.  In fact, I am the way.”  And the result of that?  We have a solution!  We are going to reach our destination!

The problem standing in the way of our destination in life is one we were born with.  Sin.  The fact that we are not able to be perfect the way God created us to be.  So, we wander about being lost.  We could never get to heaven because we lost our image of God, our perfection, our I.D. card, our passport, our key to the gate, our map of the way there, our GPS system, and we are lost in darkness having no idea where we are!  And that lostness shows up in our lives.  Why do we do what we do?  What is the best way to live my life?  I don’t know!  What way do we take?  We don’t know!  Not only are we lost in our attempt to make it to heaven, but because our failures separate us from God, we’re really lost in how we live our lives every day here!

“Thomas said to [Jesus], ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’  Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.’”  Notice, Jesus didn’t say “I show you the way.” He said, “I am the way.”  He didn’t say: “I have the truth.”  He said, “I am the truth.”  He didn’t say, “I lead to life.” He said, “I am the life.”  Jesus lived for you.  He died for you.  He rose for you.  And by doing that, He became the way for us to get to God!  He IS the way to God!  We’re not lost anymore!  We have a way to God – one way to God – and that is Jesus Christ.  Who’s Leading You?

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” (1 Pet. 3:18).  Little Blake Rogers can help us understand what Jesus has done for us.  He did something similar for his friend Maura.  Blake and Maura go to kindergarten together.  One day she started humming.  Her teacher appreciated the music but told Maura to stop.  It’s not polite to hum in class.  She couldn’t stop.  The song in her head demanded to be hummed.  After several warnings, the teacher took decisive action.  She moved Maura’s clothespin from the green spot on the chart to the dreaded blue spot.  This meant trouble.

And this meant a troubled Maura.  Everyone else’s clothespin hung in the green.  Maura’s was blue, all by herself.  Blake tried cheering her up.  He patted her on the back, made funny faces, and offered comforting words.  But nothing worked.  Maura still felt alone.  So Blake made the ultimate sacrifice.  Making sure his teacher was watching, he began to hum.  The teacher warned him to stop.  He didn’t.  She had no choice but to move his clothespin out of the green and into the blue.  Blake smiled, and Maura stopped crying.  She had a friend.  And we have a picture – a picture of what Jesus did for us.

Colour us blue.  Every single one of us has sinned a blue streak.  Our clips hang from the wrong end of the rope.  Our sins have separated us from God.  But Jesus loved us too much to leave us alone.  Like Blake, He voluntarily passed from green to blue, from righteous to unrighteous.  But here is where the analogy ceases.  Blake took Maura’s loneliness, but Christ took so much more.  He took our place.  He passed from green to blue so that we might pass from blue to green!  He took our sin away and gave us a way out!  A way to our destination!

So Who’s Leading You?  Last week, we learned that God has given us a destination in life – heaven!  Who’s leading you there?  What path are you taking to heaven?  Are you going to try to make it there on your own?  Are you thinking, “I’ve got the skills, I’ve got the good standing, I’ve lived a good enough life, I should be able to get to heaven… I don’t need help.”?

Last week I told you about the mountain we climbed this summer.  This morning, I would like to tell you about Julie Smith.  The one who led us up that mountain.  She is a friend of the family, a member of my dad’s church from way back, and she also happens to be an experienced mountain climber.  She has climbed many of the major mountain peaks in the world.  Three years ago, she even summited Mt. Everest!  Now, if she made it up that 29,000 feet peak in Nepal, certainly she could get us up this 12,000 foot peak in Washington!  When it comes to climbing, Julie knows what she is doing.

And she certainly knows her way to the top of Mt. Adams.  She has been to its summit many times.  So she was our guide.  She led us up.  We simply followed her.  Where she stepped, we stepped.  She was our way up.  She not only showed us the way up, she helped us pack our gear before we started.  She showed us how to put on our crampons and even put them on for some of us.  She taught us how to use our ice axe, and the other skills we needed.  She brought extra clothes, food, water, and gear, which somehow we all managed to need to use.  And if that wasn’t enough, she melted snow for our water bottles, served us dinner, and served us breakfast the next morning with a wake-up call of hot coffee near the top of the cold mountain!

Let me make this very clear: Without Julie, there was NO way we would have made it up that mountain.  Oh, we were in shape.  We had the gear we needed.  A bunch of young Bucks (and Does) wanting to prove ourselves.  But if we would have attempted it this first time by ourselves, we would have been as lost as you can possibly be lost!  If we would have looked for leadership from one of our group, we would never have found the way.

Now, the destination was the top of the mountain, right?  I always thought so.  And that’s what I said last week.  But Julie kind of corrected me on that.  She said the way she always looks at it, the destination is actually at the bottom of the mountain!  You not only need to get up the mountain, you need to get back down!  Julie, a friend of the family more than a guide, told us before the last 1000 feet: “If at any point I don’t think I can get you back down, we are going to turn back.”  What good it is to summit a mountain and not make it back down?  So here is what Julie did:  she carried up a whole quiver of wands, little red flags, and every few meters, she would plant one into the snow, creating a trail of red flags showing the way we had come up.  And when we made our descent, we followed that trail, in complete fog, all the way safely down.

OK, listen carefully now.  Here is why we could trust Julie to lead us, to get us up and down that mountain:  She had been there before.  40 times!  She was leading us to someplace she had already been!  Now listen carefully:  Here is why we can trust Jesus to get us to the Father:  He has been there before!  He is leading us to someplace He has already been!  And He is the only one who has been there!  As I think about that trail of red flags that was our path up and down the mountain, I can’t help thinking about another trail of red which is our way to God the Father.  The blood Jesus shed to bring us to his Father.  To get us to heaven!

Friends, listen: the only one who has made it in and out of the grave is Jesus Christ!  Following another way, another person, or anything else in this world, is going to get us lost!  It will take us on a path that ends at the grave.  There is only One who can lead us in and out of the grave!  And that is the only One who has made it in and out of that grave!  The only One who has gone there and back!  And that is Jesus Christ!  Who’s Leading You?

If you have been a good person, if you have made the right decisions in life, if you have said the right things, and done the right things, and helped people, and even gone to church regularly, and given to the church regularly, and prayed regularly, and done all these great things, but do not trust in Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you will be lost without any way to God!  All you have done will be worthless to you.  My friend, religion cannot get you to heaven.  The only way you can get to heaven is through Jesus Christ and through Him alone.  There is one way and only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ.  He not only leads us on the way, He is the way, the truth, and the life!  Follow Him!   Amen.