Strive To Enter | An Open Door | Pastor Dan Perkins

Transcript

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What's up? Well good thing we don't go to a boring church because we got plenty to do. If you're bored, it's your fault. Okay. There's plenty to get involved in. Uh we were taking um very Christian very Christian bets in the back over unders. Um how many people would would uh let you know that Pastor and Pastor Dina are not here today? So if this is your first time, I am not the pastor, so please don't judge your experience based on me today. The real pastor will be back next week. He sends his blessing. They're getting to spend some much needed time with their family down in Florida. And how many of you just thankful for the presence of God already today? Why don't you uh turn in your Bible? We're going to start in a passage. Uh is it okay if we just jump right in? Okay. Let's do 1 Peter 1. We're gonna read uh verses 13 through 17. Uh for the past couple of weeks, we've been in a series. Uh pastor started two weeks ago called an open door. We've been kind of going through this idea of entering in through the door, Jesus, what that looks like, what that means, what comes with that, the cost that's connected to entering down the narrow way, and what happens after that. So we have this idea of salvation that we enter in John 10 through the door. He is the shepherd, he is the gate, he is the way. The Bible says that he is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes unto God but through him. He is access to God today. I'm gonna be thankful for the access to the presence of God this morning. So so this is this is kind of the framework that we're gonna be working on today. So, 1 Peter, are you there? Okay. A call to holy living. So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God's obedient children. Listen to this. Don't slip back into the old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. Don't do it. You didn't know any better back then, but now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God, who chose you, is holy. For the scriptures say, you must be holy because I am holy. And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. Okay? Did you hear that? He will reward you according to what you do. Okay. So you must live in fear of him during your time corners in the land. For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors, and the ransom he paid was not paid with mere gold or silver. It was paid with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days. Lord, I thank you for your presence here with us today. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would be just present today. Would you open our eyes and ears to see you, to experience you, to know you? Lord, I ask that you would teach us your word today. Lord, that your word says that you are our helper. Lord, that you come to teach us, instruct us, and guide us in all things. So we just welcome the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Would you reveal yourself in the scriptures today? It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. So for the past two weeks, pastors have been speaking on this open door. One of the main dilemmas that we've been looking at is this Matthew 7 dilemma of people who are convinced, who have convinced themselves, or someone has convinced them that they're going to heaven even though they're not. That in inside their mind or in their heart, they they've convinced themselves, yes, I'm saved, I'm going to heaven, I'm on the way there, I can't wait, it's gonna be awesome. But in Matthew 7, Jesus says, those there will be those who say, Lord, Lord, didn't I fill in the blank? Didn't I cast out demons? Didn't I lay hands on the sick and they recover? Didn't I fast? Didn't I attend church? Didn't I do communion? Didn't I, you fill in the blank? They they they say his name and they do things in his name, but Jesus' response to them and to what they have to say is depart from me for I never knew you. Depart from me for I never knew you. And and we see in Matthew 7 this dynamic that there are people who come and sit in services like this, who've been going to church their whole life, who have been around the Christian thing their whole life, who have a perception of godliness, they have a perception of holiness, but the Lord is teaching in Matthew 7 that they're actually far away from him. And I'll just say our dream come true at Without Walls would be that every single person who comes through those doors would have have an encounter with Jesus, that they would enter through the door of Jesus, and that they would leave safe forever, and they're going to heaven, we're gonna see you in heaven one day. That would be a dream come true. We also know that that's the will of God. The Bible tells us that the will of God is that none should perish, and that he actually paid the price for that will with his body and blood. He sent the best that heaven had to offer to ensure access so that that will could be accomplished. But at the same time, we also know that there's a wide road, he says, that many will choose. So this is the dynamic that we wrestle with as a church, as a team, as at not just our church, every church in the world. We're fighting against that wide road. We're fighting against the people who are choosing to go down that path. In Matthew 7, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all of these things in your name? And he will say, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. These are the kind of people who are claiming to be justified, to be in right relationship with God, because they confess his name. Again, they've said, Lord, Lord. Uh they can recite all of the things that they've done using his name, such as prophesying, that they cast out demons, that they've done all the things. And and Jesus' response, I don't know about to you, but to me, is one of the most sobering, thought-provoking responses in all of Scripture. He says, I've never knew you. Which is in you know, in the natural when you just read that, it's weird for someone who's all-knowing to say, I never knew. Do you know what I'm saying? So we know that Jesus knows everything. He, the Bible actually says he knows the beginning to the end. He he was the first amen and the last amen. That's what Alpha and Omega begin Alpha and Omega means. He's the beginning and the end. He knows both sides of the timeline. You know? And so for him to say I don't know you is pretty sobering. Because what he's actually saying is that we've had no relationship, we've had no fellowship. Even though I created you, died for you, and wanted communion with you, you've opposed me with your life. Heaven is reserved for those who spend their life giving it to Jesus. So, so it's possible, like heaven is the will of God for your life. We just said that. Heaven is the destination that he has in his heart for you, and it's now your responsibility to enter through the access he's provided for you. Does that make sense? So let's keep going. Jesus is teaching in Matthew 7 that simple verbal confession and your religious activity or actions of themselves are not the qualifications that he prescribes for salvation. Again, Lord, Lord, they said his name, they called his name, they did it out loud. Didn't we do these things? Some of you in this room, maybe you're watching online today, you're you're asking yourself the same question. What do you mean I'm not saved? Or it could be a possibility that I'm not saved, that I don't have fellowship, that I don't have relationship, I've said the prayers, I've done the things, I've called the name, I've said the Lord, Lord. I've actually laid my hands on people and used that name and things have happened. How is it how could it be possible that I don't have this thing called salvation? And for the next few moments that we have together this morning, let me just show you some examples from scripture of what Jesus would describe as someone he knows and someone he doesn't know. 1 Samuel 16, 7, the Bible teaches us that the Lord is unconcerned with what we appear to be like on the outside. When they're appointing a king in 1 Samuel, the Lord says, I don't care what they look like on the outside, because I know the inside. And so he's looking on the inside. Just let me just say today, it's possible to appear spiritual on the outside while you're dying spiritually on the inside. It's possible to put on the facade that I'm following someone, but I'm actually just living for myself. Okay? So yeah. In Matthew 5 7, this was referred to the Sermon on the Mount. Okay? I like to call it the law of the heart. Because everything that Jesus prescribes deals with what's on the inside. So in Matthew 5, 5 through 7, he he's actually introducing that not only is he after your godly outward actions and activity, he's actually after godly motivation and intentions on the inside. It actually matters where your actions come from, what they're unto, what I'm doing them for. It's not just, hey, I did the thing, it's why did you do it? Who did you do it for? Who did you do it unto? Who did you do it to be seen by? All of these things are are are being dealt with on the inside. So let me just go there. Okay? Matthew 5, you ready? This is Matthew 5. You you've heard the commandment that says you must not commit adultery, right? That's pretty bad. But I say, anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already done it in her heart, his heart. You've heard it said that you should not commit murder. But I say, anyone who's angry or who hates his brother has already done it in his heart. So you see that the Lord is after what's going on on the inside. The standard actually gets raised. The standard actually increases when we're in Christ. But before we were in Christ, even in Old Covenant, they weren't regenerated. We've been regenerated. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit. The standard gets raised for my responsibility. Okay? In Luke 13, 37 through 44, Jesus gets invited to share a meal with some Pharisees, okay? Which that would just be amazing to have been there. That'd be awesome. He sits down, I'm sure he's hungry, like I would be. Sits down, he starts eating, and the Bible says that the host of the meal was amazed. He couldn't believe it. That Jesus had actually started putting food in his body without washing his hands. So in this time, there was this ceremonial cleansing and hand washing ritual that all Jewish people, especially those who were elite, very rich religious elite, they would do this hand washing ritual so that they would not put anything impure inside their body to keep themselves clean. And so we don't actually know, the Bible doesn't tell us whether or not the host of the dinner party said his amazement out loud, or if he just kind of thought it in his head. We know there's plenty of passages of scripture where Jesus will say, Knowing their thoughts, he answered. So here's what happens. The Bible says, the host was amazed that he didn't wash his hands. And Jesus responds by saying, You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup, but inside you're filthy. So Jesus is saying that until the inside has been cleaned, your outside actions don't even really matter. It's the the cleaning of the inside of the cup that makes what you do on the outside matter. This speaks of your behavior. It speaks of your conduct, it speaks of your actions. He's wanting both to be truly clean. Jesus is teaching that transformation starts internally in the heart, and the only natural byproduct is that it begins to change the way you behave and live. Okay? You see, the Pharisees loved having the appearance of spiritual death without having any true substance of it. They wanted to appear very spiritual in nature. We know the rules. We know the rules. We know what to do. We know how to do it. We do it better than anyone else. And that's why we have the status that we have. It's how we've gotten where we are. And Jesus is saying it's possible to appear that way on the outside, but your inside is filthy. And if we'll spend more time working out the inside, then our outside will be washed as well. Okay? So while confession, going back to the beginning, calling Lord, Lord, and actions are great, Jesus is looking on the heart. And he knows your intentions, he knows your motivation. He knows if you truly have fellowship with him. I'll just say one of the one of the main problems that we encounter, I would say, even as a pastoral staff, not just me, but as an entire pastoral staff, is that many people want the proximity to the things of God. Many people want to be like right next to it. They want to be close to it. They see that it has some things that, you know, it offers some really nice stuff, but we don't want any of the responsibility that comes along with following Christ. So there's plenty of people who are interested in the benefits, but want none of the responsibility. And this is what Pastor was teaching on last week: that there's people that come to the door of Jesus, John 10, he's the door, but they'll never enter through the door. They'll just come, just like he was saying, you might go to somebody's house, they open the door, or if you're in Arizona, it's 120 degrees, and you can just stand there and let the AC, you know, kind of hit you. And this is, we see this a lot in people's walk with the Lord is that they they've come all the way to the door of Jesus and they're content because actually stepping through changes what you behave like. Stepping through changes what you're allowed to do. Stepping through actually requires some effort to strip off things that I've picked up from this world. And so we're we're okay. We're content to just, I'm at the door. I I I've been with Jesus, I've, you know, I had that one moment, somebody prayed for me. I said yes to what? I don't know, but I did. I said yes, you know. And and we we get stuck there. You with me? Do you know what I'm talking about? We get we get stuck right there. I believe Jesus gives the answer to the Matthew 7 dilemma in Luke 13's interpretation of the story. And Luke 13, they ask Jesus, okay? Everything you're saying seems like it's really impossible to be saved. So who can even be saved then? If this is the expectation, who can be saved? Only a few, Lord? Can only a few be saved? And Jesus' response was to strive to enter through the narrow door, for many will try to enter but will fail. Who can be saved, Lord? Who can be saved? Will it only be a few? And his response, his teaching to us, to you and I today, is to strive to enter through the door, because many will try to enter, but many will fail. And the Greek word that Jesus uses here in his response for strive literally means to agonize and to struggle. It is the same kind of word that would suggest intense effort for how a runner tries to finish a race. He when he sees the finish line, it it kind of you're gonna get it more energy. When you, okay, I know I'm finishing there. It's that kind of striving that I'm gonna give everything I have to cross that finish line. And Jesus is suggesting that if you want to enter through the door into Jesus, then it's gonna it's gonna cost you agonizing all the way to the end. This is not something we graduate from. Did you hear me? This is not this is not one-time prayer. I came up here, somebody put their hands on my head, felt kind of cool. I really enjoyed that moment, and then I walk away and I just let life happen. No, this is this is my effort every day to continually enter into him and go down the narrow way. Okay. The writer of Hebrews would copy the same language in chapter 12. Is it Paul? Who wrote Hebrews? Paul? We don't know, right? Technically, yeah, it's Paul. Don't email me. All right, he says, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross. Listen, Jesus and the writer of Hebrews both place the responsibility of striving to enter into Jesus on you and I. Striving to enter is not on Jesus. Striving to enter is your and I responsibility. It's our race to run. It's our struggle to get through the door and continue down the narrow path. It's a daily thing I can give myself to. It sounds like works, brother. You sound like you're stuck in works. Sound like you're stuck under the old covenant there, Pastor Daniel. It seems like it seems like you need more grace in your life, brother. Seems like you're really working for your righteousness there. Okay? Can I show you where it says that in scripture? Hold on, here we go. You ready? The problem is that we've been we've been discipled by social media. Who who convinces us that anything that feels like effort has to be unbiblical? Anything that feels hard must be unbiblical. Anything that tests my character must be unbiblical. Anything that causes me to get rid of things in my life must be unbiblical. Anything that causes me to be more like Christ has to be unbiblical. Because that's striving. And let me just rebuke the rest narrative right now. Listen. Jesus is your rest. You get to rest every day while you're working really hard. Okay. Let me let me just let me let me just continue. Let me allow it to explain that there's actually correct big biblical striving and there's biblical effort that you have to place on yourself. You need to feel the responsibility to enter through the door. Because unlike the easy broad way to hell, the easy broad way to destruction, the narrow door actually requires much of you and I. It requires that we leave behind our sinful habits, our old way of thinking. It's the passage we read to begin with, 1 Peter 5. Stop doing what you used to do, now that you're in Christ. This narrow door actually requires me to get rid of the things that I used to enjoy that were sinful. This door actually requires me to change my mindset, to have weights that slowed me down thrown off. It requires effort to resist everything that this world has to offer so that I might gain Christ. This is a lifelong pursuit. One of the reasons that entering through the door Jesus takes so much effort is because everything about your life and this world is trying to drag you down the wide path. It's trying to keep you from going down the narrow path of Jesus. Most people reject the narrow door simply because the wide door is easy. It's so simple. It's easy. It requires nothing of you. You get to bring whatever you want. It's wide enough for your baggage. The wide way is it's it's wide enough for your sin. It's wide enough for your sinful mind. It's wide enough for anything that you want. Because it's the exact opposite of Hebrews 12, which says, set your eyes on Christ, it's set your eyes on yourself. Do whatever's you want. Do whatever you think is good. Do whatever comes to mind. When you enter through the narrow door of Jesus. You're actually committing to repenting. You're committing to accountability, to discipleship. You're committing to renewing your mind according to the scriptures. You're committing to allowing Christ to be fully formed in you. James says, lacking nothing. Which means my flesh, your flesh, if we're entering through the door of Jesus, is going to be crushed on a regular basis. Listen, I want to be very clear this morning. Let's not get confused between the two kinds of striving. There's nothing you can do to earn the access that Jesus provided for you. Okay? One of the last things that Jesus told the disciples was, He's the only way to the Father. Lord, how can we find you? I am the only way to the Father. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. So there's nothing that you and I can do to strive, to try to achieve, to create access to God. There's nothing that we can do to create a pathway to God. Hebrews 10.19 tells us that the reason we get to come boldly into heaven's most holy place, into the very presence of God, is because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving door through the curtain in the most holy place, which is his flesh. How many of you enjoyed the presence of God this morning so far? If you've enjoyed access to God this morning, it's because of the body and blood of Jesus. It is because of what he accomplished for us on our behalf. We could not sing of the blood in the body enough. And if you feel like that's strange or that's weird, that's okay. It's okay. You just don't have a revelation of what is accomplished on your behalf. It is the doorway to God. That's what Hebrews says. That his flesh, instead of being a big fat curtain that's super thick, that only one person gets to go in, everybody gets to come in through the flesh of Jesus. Okay. So striving to obtain access to God through our human efforts and self-righteousness is useless. The only door to God Himself is through Jesus. Dear friends, we are not striving to get access to God. We are not striving to obtain a way to get to Him. No, dear friends, we are striving, agonizing as Jesus teaches, to enter into the access that He's already provided for us. Striving to enter. We're agonizing all the way to the end of our life, to enter in, just like a runner, giving it all he has, and when he sees the finish line, that's how much effort we're giving to enter into what he's already provided on our behalf. And this is where many people just get stuck. We get stuck right there. We live in a culture that creates worldviews and doctrines that appear Christian or Christ-like in nature until you open this book. And they frame the way we live our Christian walk. We've been educated by AI. AI is cool. I don't have a problem with AI. We've been educated by social media influencers because it's easier to scroll and to search than to dedicate myself to a prayer life. It's easier to ask chat instead of learning how to hear the voice of God. Pastor, I can't hear the voice of God. When's the last time you tried? Seriously. There's so many people, you'll sit down and talk to them and they'll like start talking to you like, hey, that's literally God talking to you, dummy. What are you doing? He told you not to do that, and you did it anyway. Oh, I just thought it was my conscience. We've been force-fed the fake gospel of grace that enables us to do, say, and behave however we want and believe that there's no consequence for my actions. Unfortunately, this has made a generation of churchgoers spiritually lethargic. It's lulled us to sleep. It's one of the one main functions of sin. Is that it takes you farther than you ever thought, and it'll keep you there longer than you ever wanted to be. And once you get down that path, you're just sleepy to the things of God. Your senses are are dulled. And I say fake fake grace gospel, of course, because there's a real one. There's a real grace of God. The grace of God actually is the empowerment to live a holy life. It's actually the empowerment that you can live a life you could never do on your own. 1 Peter 5 teaches us that it's the very grace of God, that's the divine empowerment, that transforms you from who you were into who God destined you to be. It's the grace of God that teaches you how to resist being ungodly, not give you the license to be ungodly. It's the very grace of God that empowers you to say no. It's the very grace of God that empowers you to be different. It teaches us how to be holy. That's the true grace of God. It teaches us, it instructs us, 1 Peter 5, that grace gets added to me. So there's nothing you and I can do to earn access to God, to the Father. Jesus paid the ultimate price for you and I to have that access. And now that how now that Jesus has made a new and life-giving way into the Father by his blood, he instructs us to strive to enter through that door. And now that we're striving to enter through that door, the only natural byproduct is that we start living holier and holier and holier and holier. I want to get to the point where I'm not praying about sinful things. I'm asking the Lord, you know, what is he touching on my life right now that's not sinful in nature, but it's just not beneficial for me. But one of the problems is that we we keep sin around. We just keep it lingering around. It's like, yeah, I do that thing, you know, whatever. And we never graduate to actually maturing in Christ because we're still asking the same, asking forgiveness for the same thing until we die. And that's not the life that Jesus died for. He actually died. Romans 8 says that he actually broke the power that sin has over your life. James says that if you are still living in sin, it's because you want to be there. It's not because the blood can't touch it. Are you kidding me? There's nothing that the blood of Jesus can't touch or break off your life. If you're struggling and you're stuck in sin, James says, look at yourself. Do you want to be there? Do you want to continue in that? Because everything that can free you has already been provided for. There's nothing more that the blood could do to make you more free. You can do anything else. So last week the pastor spoke out of Exodus 19 and kind of shared the story of how God brought the children of Israel out of Israel into the wilderness and unto himself. I love this line that God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt to get Egypt out of the children of Israel. He had to bring them unto himself to teach them how to be like himself. And this is the story of the church. That the children of Israel were stuck in bondage. Right? They were slaves. They were carrying heavy burdens every day. They had um yeah, you know, they were they were slaves to sin. I mean, to to the Egyptians, they were slaves. They had to work all day long, heavy burdens, heavy tasks. But then they cried out to God, and God remembered them, and he heard them and answered their prayers and delivered them out of their bondage, brought them out of slavery, set them free. Okay? This is the gospel message. This is the only message we have. That it this is what God does for you and I. That we were stuck in bondage of sin and slavery. Sin was our master. Romans 8. Sin dominated our old nature, carrying the heavy burdens of sin and shame. Even while we were living to contrary to God, Jesus died for you and I. Romans 5. That while we were sinners living in opposition, he sent his son to die on the cross for you and I to break the power of sin. Christ came at just the right time and died for us. And now that he has saved us, and now that we belong to him, he takes us into the wilderness as well. He brings us into the wilderness as well to begin the process of purifying us unto himself. He does that to make us like him, just like he did with the people of Israel. He brought them into the wilderness to get Egypt out of them, to get that all the old mindsets, all of the old ways, all of the old ways of thinking, all of those actions. Yeah, he brought into the wilderness to get that out of them. And now that he's saved us, this is what he's doing to us. For everyone who's walked through the door, Jesus, he brings us into that wilderness time in life. We call that sanctification. He uses that time to purify us unto himself. And if we're not careful, we'll spend most of our wilderness time with the Lord praying that he'll take us out of it. But he's actually trying to form things in you. Listen, the wilderness is where you learn to worship God for real because you're learning who God is for real. Okay? The wilderness is where you receive fresh manna from heaven every day. It's in the wilderness that you learn that he's actually daily bread. He's not just something I come to once in a while or when I need a prayer request. He's my food. He becomes my source. It's in the wilderness where my appetite changes from physical food to spiritual food. It's where you learn that he's your true source and your true substance. The wilderness purifies me. It teaches me dependency on God. And it teaches me how to not act like a slave in Egypt. It changes my mindset. It changes who I am. Pastor said it a couple weeks ago that the Lord will use life and circumstances and situations to teach you how to be like him, to be fully formed, lacking nothing. He does this to make us like him, not because he hates you. He's doing this to form you into the image of Jesus. As I was praying and preparing for you today, I felt the Lord say that there are people in the room right now that you feel like that's where you are. You're in that wilderness time in your life, and it's painful. It's been agonizing. It feels like everything in your life that you once held dear is just being stripped away thing by thing, relationship by relationship. In some ways, you actually feel like your life has gotten worse. You feel like, for as much as I've stepped forward in Christ, it seems like maybe in the physical, I've been stepping backwards. And as I was praying for you, let me just encourage you. I heard the Lord say, this is what it feels like to be entering through the door. This is what it feels like to be entering into Jesus Himself. To be formed into Christ. Just like God brought the children of Israel into the wilderness unto himself, he's doing that with you right now in your life. He's bringing you unto himself. If you've been praying prayers like, Lord, make me holy, he's doing it. If you've been praying prayers like, Lord, purify me, make me like you, he's doing it. He's doing the work in you right now. So we just encourage you not to give up. Don't go back, 1 Peter, don't go back to what you used to do before. Stay the course, agonize to enter in, struggle all the way to the end. There's consecration that's happening. He's making you holy. And by faith, I just want to declare over your life that God's doing his best work in you and forming you into the image of Jesus. 1 Peter 1. Don't go back. Don't go back. Don't keep doing the stuff you did before Christ. Don't slip back into the things you used to do. Everything we did before we encountered Christ, we didn't know any better. 1 Peter says. But now that we've encountered Christ, now we know better and we must be holy in everything we do. The bank income. I think it's important to know that striving for this kind of holiness doesn't get birthed or sustained simply out of religious duty or a simple list of do's and don'ts. It's like we saw earlier that simply religious activity isn't the goal. My motivation for living a holy life is as I'm running this race, as I'm striving to enter in, as I'm keeping my eyes on Jesus, I can't help but honor his sacrifice. Man, if I can get my eyes on Jesus, if we were to continue to read Hebrews 12, that's what it says. When I get my eyes on Jesus and I'm looking at the passion of Jesus, I know that I haven't even given my body yet, like Jesus did, in my fight against sin. So it fuels me to keep going. It fuels me to keep struggling, it fuels me to keep agonizing and struggling to enter in. My motivation is Jesus Himself. This is why we keep our eyes on him, because the moment I don't, I forget the cost he paid. And I end up returning to everything he saved me from. And it's such an easy, easy path. The moment I stop looking on who saved me, on what it took, the cost that he paid to save my soul, I'll forget. I'll just grow numb. I'll just grow numb and I'll just was it really that bad, all the stuff I was doing before? And we'll start to question even if this whole thing is worth it. Let me just tell you, the Bible says that there's nothing compared to the joy of knowing Christ and being in him and being formed into his image. As I'm keeping my eyes on Jesus, I can't help but offer my body, Romans 12 says, as a living sacrifice. The only sacrifices that he receives are holy and pleasing. And I understand that it costs the Son of God his very life to save me, to sanctify me. Listen, the precious blood of Jesus did not save you and I, so that we could continue to live in everything he came to die for. I believe there's an encounter that the Lord has for many people in this room who have lived on the fence, one foot in on their faith, and one foot in on their past. One foot still in their old habits, one foot in their new habits, one foot still wanting to live a life of sin, one foot wanting to be righteous, one foot still not willing to cut ties with those relationships, one trying to be in church, one foot on each side. And the Lord says he does not share. Ephesians says it's our responsibility to carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Listen, if you're stuck in sin this morning, if there's habits in your life that you're not proud of, if there's things in your life that you've been struggling with for years, let me just encourage you, come step into the light this morning and let's get that thing off you. Come on. Listen, listen, the power of sin has been broken. We said that earlier. The only power that sin has on your life is that you're keeping it a secret. That's the only power sin has. Is if nobody knows it has power. This is why the Bible instructs us very clearly, confess your sins one to another. Because sometimes you'll hide behind your prayers to God. If I just if I just confess to God, I'll I it'll be fine. He'll take we'll take care of it. I took care of it with God. I took I God knows what I'm going through. Yeah, and no one else does, and so no one's keeping you accountable, no one's walking with you, and you're staying the same. How long have you been sharing your sins with God for? How many years? How long until you want to live free? How long until you want to walk through that narrow door of Jesus and be formed into the image of God? How long is it going to take? The Bible's very clear when I confess my sin to one another, I get free. Because there goes the power, the secrecy is gone, it's out in the light. There's this powerful analogy that darkness actually cannot compete with light. It's not like they're two opposing forces. Darkness is just where there's no light. It's not like if I were to turn on a flashlight in a dark room, the dark is like, no, we're really dark today. We're like super dark, so that light doesn't work here. Anywhere there is a light, the darkness goes. Anywhere there's light, the darkness goes. And God is calling you and I to come live in the light, to come out of darkness. That's where all of the power is, is in those shadows, in the secrecy, is hiding behind. And if you and I will just bring our heart before the Lord and say, Lord, shine your light, he'll regenerate your life just like that. Every power of sin will be broken off your life. There's this story in one of the gospels that marked my life about two years ago. Jesus is carrying his own cross for at least for a portion. He's carrying his own cross, and there's a group of women who are weeping behind Jesus. And to sum it up, Jesus basically turns around to them and says, Don't weep for me. I'm the cure. Weep over your sin that put me there. I feel so strongly from the Lord that this morning there's an invitation to end partnership with the sin that we've had in our life. And instead of just crying tears because you did something wrong, cry over the thing that put Jesus on the cross. Oh, it's my sin that put you there. This is what true repentance looks like. It looks like godly sorrow. Not just asking for forgiveness, it means I'm I am have godly sorrow and I turn away. And I'm never the same. I can just feel that the Lord is wanting to deal with that today. So as we close today, I just here's a promise from Scripture. I mean, if you feel distant from God, if you feel far from God, if you feel like I haven't felt the Lord in who knows how long, I don't even know if that's a thing I'm supposed to be able to do. You haven't heard from the Lord, you haven't heard his voice, you haven't heard anything, you feel like you're just all alone. The Bible promises in James 4 that if we come close to him, if we draw near to him, he does the same. That he draws near to us. Revelations 3.20 actually says that at all times he's standing outside your door. He's standing outside the door of your soul and he's knocking, asking to come in and be with you. He's always closer than it than we think. He's just one moment away, one prayer away. And if you would say today, man, I want to today, I want to quit playing games. I want to fully enter into the door of Jesus today. I'm done playing around with my life. I want to fully surrender to him today. I don't want to just be outside the door. I don't want to just have a little experience of Him anymore, but I want to be in Christ, fully formed, fully developed. Will you just raise your hand if that's you in the room right now? Man, I want to be fully in Christ. Fully developed. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Come on, thank you. I want to be fully developed. That's you. Thank you, Jesus. The other thing is I was thinking about today, just praying for you. Everyone could just close their eyes, honestly, right now. There are areas of compromise that you know are not pleasing to the Lord. There are there are things in your life that maybe God has touched before. Maybe you got freedom from things before, but you've allowed yourself, 1 Peter 1, to slip back into old sinful habits. You've gone back because you've forgotten. Who Jesus is. I just want to say that today is the day to come and have godly sorrow, to come and repent truly, to come get on your face before the Lord and turn away and turn back to God and to fully enter in. Today is the day I feel the Lord saying it's time to get clean again. It's time to be washed in the water. It's time to be washed by the blood of Jesus again. Man, if you'd say that to me, I just need I need prayer today. Man, I need prayer today. That's you. Just raise your hand all across the room. That's you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Come on, let's stand all across the room. Prayer team, will you just come make your way? The band is gonna lead us in and it doesn't even matter, they're gonna sing. But the point is, if you raise your hand, if you need something from God, you gotta get it for you. Come on, you can't expect to strive to enter through the narrow door and not even be able to receive prayer. Come on, if that's you, you raised your hand, you want to enter in fully into Christ, just begin to make your way down. If that's you, you want to get clean today, you want to get free from sin, just begin to make your way down. Come on, don't hesitate, don't wait. Get down here, get down here. Come on, come encounter the Lord today. If that's you, come on, come on, you're coming.