When I was a kid there was a commercial on TV for a drink called “V8.”  The commercial featured people holding up a bag of chips or some other snack and then hitting themselves upside the head and saying, “I could have had a V8!”  The commercial advocated choosing V8, which included 8 vegetables, instead of choosing a sweet and salty snack.  You can watch it here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld8eAH0MW00).  For a long time afterwards, whenever I found myself making the wrong choice, I would mimic that commercial and hit myself upside the head and say, “I could have had a V8.”  I even found myself doing this recently in a meeting when someone told me about a wrong choice they’d made; they just looked at me funny when I said it. 

Have you ever had a V8 moment?  A moment when you realized you didn’t do the right thing or make the right choice? 

We started a new teaching series last week called “Greater Than.”  This series is built around something Jesus said in John 14:12, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”  The “greater than” life is all about living the life Jesus envisions; it is about how everything that is broken in our lives and in the world can be made right.  Jesus said, “ the Kingdom of God is here, but not yet”, meaning there is something greater for us to experience in this life – we just have seek it.   The “greater than” is about discovering the Kingdom life Jesus envisions for us, which starts here in life and finds completion in heaven. 

As I have thought about John 14:12, that old V8 commercial keeps coming to mind.  It comes to mind because I don’t want to have a V8 moment when it comes to the “Greater Than” life that Jesus is inviting us into.  The last thing I want to happen is to step into the throne room of God, either when Christ returns or I pass from this world, and stop cold in my tracks, hit myself in the head and say, “I could have had this sooner?”  You see, the “greater than” life is about heaven invading earth, that’s the life Jesus envisions for us.  The problem is that too often we don’t seek the fullness of what Jesus envisions for us.  That’s why we are spending time from now until Easter exploring the “greater than” life.  Friend, Jesus wants more for you – he doesn’t want you to have a V8 moment. 

I hope you’ll join us this Sunday as we continue our discussion about the “greater than” life by looking at the story of a father who was desperate for help, and the path he followed to find the “greater than” life that Jesus envisioned for him. 

See you Sunday,

Pastor Kirk