Speaker 1: 0:09

Good morning guys. Welcome to Word Up. It is Monday morning and I hope that you all had an amazing Easter weekend, awesome time with your church family. Yesterday I know we did. It truly was a very special service just to see following Jesus come to life. So in our Easter service we ended the invitation with an outdoor baptism and, just seeing, we had one of our men playing Jesus and carrying the cross out and the church following Jesus to the watery grave. It really was a special, special thing to see and just to challenge us and each one of us. That should be every day. That should not just be on Easter Sunday, but do we wake up every day? Just be on Easter Sunday, but do we wake up every day and truly commit to dying to ourselves and following Christ? And so I had one of my daughters. She was baptized yesterday, gave her life to the Lord Wednesday night and I just think back to exactly what she said to me.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Our message was on the prodigal son, but we talked about negotiating with God, just like the prodigal son in the story, the way Jesus taught it, where he came and asked for his inheritance early. How many times do we just negotiate with God and ask for him to give us peace through a situation, because it's hard. And then we run right back out to living our life. And so she goes down to the altar that night and she said you know, I just went to apologize to God for negotiating with him. I hadn't truly given him my very best, I hadn't surrendered to him, I just negotiated with him. And she said, and when I got down there to apologize, he just made it clear that the first step was to completely surrender, that I needed to give my life to him in order to move on. And you know, then this morning I get up and I'm looking at. I've started a new discipleship group and through that discipleship they have set quiet times every morning, and quiet time number one 1, john 5, 11 through 13,.

Speaker 1: 2:33

God has given us eternal life. This life is in his Son. He who has the Son of God has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things so that you may believe in the name of the Son of God has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things so that you may believe in the name of the Son of God and that you may know that you have eternal life.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Guys, coming off of Easter Sunday, christ's death, his resurrection, that's what made it possible for you to be in a right relationship with God, both now and forever. The Bible calls this relationship eternal life. We get so focused on the things that we do and the way that we do them that we completely miss the point of what God did and where that assurance comes from. It says I have written these things so that you may know Not that we have to guess, not that we ever have to try to figure it out. He is the reason when he came and died on that cross. When we put our trust and faith in him, it changes everything.

Speaker 1: 3:44

And now a lot of the people that are listening to this. You know for sure that you've put your trust and faith in Christ. You know for sure that you have followed him at some point in your life. But now I think about the way that we're living it. Whenever I see that presentation of Jesus walking out of the sanctuary and the church, choosing to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus. Did you just decide that one time in your life, or do you decide that every single day when you wake up. If I look at where you're spending your time and your money, what does that look like? What is important to you, based on where we're spending our time and our money when we get up every single day, does our life look like we are sold out followers of Christ?

Speaker 1: 4:42

I think even deeper in my walk as I read that scripture. Yes, I know for sure that I have eternal life. I know for sure that I've accepted Christ. But I also think about he gave me eternal life. He didn't give it to me just so I could go through the motions. He gave me that so that I could be used by Him. And if I truly am a sold-out follower of Christ, if I truly believe that he is in control of all things, that he is great and wonderful and eternal life is the number one priority in my life, then you would think that you would see it in the way that I live every single day. You would see it in the things that I'm doing, that I wouldn't miss opportunities to share the gospel and to go out and build up the kingdom. That's where I would be putting my time and effort if, every day, I'm getting up and I see Jesus carrying the cross and I'm walking right behind Him.

Speaker 1: 5:50

And so why do we struggle with that? Because we get distracted by the things of this world. We get distracted by thinking that we need to go here and do this and fit in here and spend our money here, and soon enough we lose sight of where we're supposed to be and who we're supposed to be and what it is that we're supposed to be doing. So my challenge to you guys look back at that scripture today. Go to 1 John, 5, 11 through 13. Read that. Do you know for sure that you have the Son of God? Do you know for sure that you have eternal life? Is that the most important thing to you? And if it is, know that that power lives inside of you. What is it that God's calling you to do today? Make that the most important thing on your schedule. Take something off and put serving God in its place. Go out and be bold in your walk with Christ.