Identity Crisis - Denied

Denied usually feels like a bad word. Denied for a loan. Denied for a date. Denied the keys to the car after failing the driving test. But what if denial is actually at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus?

In this message from our Identity Crisis series, we look at Jesus’ powerful challenge in Matthew 16:24—to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. That’s not the version of Christianity our culture often sells. Jesus isn’t inviting us to keep our lives the same with a little religion sprinkled on top. He’s inviting us to surrender.

What happens when we stop following our way and start following His? And what might we be holding onto that’s keeping us from fully surrendering?

This episode will challenge you to rethink what it truly means to follow Jesus—and the life that waits on the other side of surrender.

Visit us at Generations Cowboy Church for more info about our church or find ways you can support what God is doing at GCC!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Listen, if you want to click, flip in your Bible, we're going to go to Matthew 16 in just a moment. We are in this series called Identity Crisis, week three of Identity Crisis. In today's culture, I think we use the word Christian so loosely that we're not sure what that really means anymore. And so we're intentionally over the course of this series trying to look at how Jesus and the word that he gave us calls us as Christians to live our life for him. And uh today's message is entitled Denied. Anybody ever play basketball when you were growing up? Man, I loved playing basketball. And I know compared to today's modern version of basketball, there used to be this thing in basketball that was called defense. They actually played it at one point. And so, like one of my favorite things when I played basketball was whenever I blocked somebody's shot and they got denied. I mean, I'm not a very big guy. So it was a big accomplishment anytime I could block one of those shots. And so sometimes when I was growing up, we had an elementary school about 15 or 20 minutes from the house that had eight-foot goals out there for those kids.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Man, as I mean, I felt like I was about seven foot tall and in the NBA when I played on those eight-foot goals, man. And it was so much fun in there battling around, banging around, and getting the moments to deny and block somebody's shot. And in today's culture that we live in, like being denied almost feels like it's such a negative thing. Like I filled out alone trying to get alone, and I got it stamped and it said denied. And it's like, oh man, I thought I was about to get asked out on this date by somebody that I really wanted to go out on a date with, and I got denied, right? There's these moments where it starts to feel like being denied is such a negative experience. And so we almost begin to fear this idea going for a driver's test. I don't know about you, but I had one teenager in my house since I only had two. I'll let them be nameless so I don't get in trouble later on. But one of my teenagers was denied the first two opportunities they tried to get their driver's license. It was a painful experience as a parent. But what if I told you when it comes to our faith that being denied is actually a good thing, not a bad thing? It's almost in our culture, we've been so trained that denying ourselves or being denied is such a bad thing that we forget in scripture. It's actually something that's spoken to as a positive thing. And so what does it mean to be a Christian? I think we have to have this conversation because a Christian in today's world, if I'm going to identify with Christ, there's going to be moments where I need to be denied in order to follow Jesus. That this idea that a Christian surrenders my way for Jesus' way. Essentially, a Christian is somebody who's willing to have my way denied so that Jesus can have his way with me. And that's a positive thing. And in today's culture, I'm concerned that somebody just takes the tag Christian, attaches it to their life, and then excuses any way they want to live because I'm a Christian. I'm under grace, is what you hear a lot of people say. And so because I'm under grace, you can't judge me and I can do what I want to do because I'm under grace. The problem with that idea are the red letters of Jesus that we're about to read today. The challenge comes from Jesus Himself. So if you don't like these words, you can take them up with him in a little bit, not me. I'm just quoting to you what he said, okay? But he actually speaks to this idea that in order to follow him, there may be moments where we need to deny ourselves. And so I feel like this is fitting because we're just a couple of weeks away from Easter, and it's where we pick up in this story, Matthew 16, starting in verse 21. He says this He said, From then on, Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. But Peter took him aside. This is Jesus, okay? Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him. Like I just I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but like either Peter really had some stones or he was really dumb. Like I don't know which, because I I don't think I'm going to take a stab at trying to reprimand Jesus. Peter did. That tells you a little bit of his personality. That's all I'm saying. And if you're like, I can't believe that pastor just said Peter had stones. I mean, you're welcome, all right? Cowboy Church, baby. Here we go. But Peter took him aside and he began to reprimand him, saying such things that heaven forbid, Lord, this will never happen to you. Jesus responds, Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get away from me, Satan. Ooh, they just got uncomfortable. You're a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's. Then Jesus said to his disciples, and if any of you wants to be my follower, all right, who in here wants to be a follower of Jesus? Are you ready, man? These are his words. Okay, here we go. You must, not an option, you must give up your own way. Take up your cross and follow me. Jesus words, not mine. That word give up your own way. Literally, some translations say deny yourself. Denied. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you'll save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? And pretty potent words coming from Jesus Himself. Pretty clear words that Jesus gives on what it means to follow him and to be his disciple or to be a Christian. Again, you can attach whatever label you want to your life, but at the end of the day, scripture is really clear about some things that should be in our life if we are true Christians. You can be the world's version of a Christian all you want to, but if we're going to be true followers of Christ, we talked two weeks ago. You can hop on the podcast or hop on the website if you want to find it, if you missed this. But it's all about his grace, that I'm saved by grace, that we don't earn our way into heaven. True followers of Jesus are followers of Jesus because we have been saved by his grace, but his grace doesn't excuse us to keep sinning. That same grace that brings us in also empowers us to leave sin. That's the part nobody wants to talk about in today's world, but that's what it means to be a follower of Christ. Last week we we talked about being connected to the vine, that at the end of the day, we got to stay connected to Jesus, that a Christian isn't somebody that has weekend visitation rites with Jesus. A Christian is somebody who makes their home with him every day. There's a difference. And this week, Jesus kind of drops the gauntlet, another layer here, and says, Man, if you want to be my disciples, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. These are pretty heavy words because Jesus is getting ready to head to the cross. Like that's coming. He's trying to prepare his people for what's coming. Peter does something crazy and says, yo, Jesus, you got this wrong. That's pretty gutsy move by Peter. And Jesus is pretty quick to let Peter know, hey man, you actually are looking at this the wrong way. You are looking at this from an earthly perspective instead of my father's heavenly perspective. And I wonder if for many of us, this is the first problem of where we miss what it's like to be a Christian, is we're looking for the world around us to dictate what a Christian is instead of getting a heavenly perspective of what it means to follow Jesus. You're not, hear me out, you're not going to be judged by the way somebody else lived their life. You're going to be judged by how you follow Jesus. And getting to heaven one day and telling Jesus, man, I didn't know isn't going to work in today's world. Because you have everything at your fingertips to read a Bible and to understand anything and everything you could want. There's never been a time in history where we've had access to this much knowledge to learn what it means to follow Jesus. And so Jesus is inviting us into this process that if we want to be his follower one, you must give up your own way. If you want to measure to see who a true Christian is, a true Christian is not somebody who demands their way. A true Christian is somebody who submits their way to Jesus and lets him have his way. So you want to a quick way to decipher is to just, well, I mean, anybody can call themselves a Christian. Yeah, so sometimes you got to sit back and watch the fruit of somebody's life. And that's not judging, that's actually called discernment. And the first evidence that we should find in somebody's life if they're following Jesus is somebody who's not looking to get my way, but I'm looking to surrender so Jesus can have his. That's why there's moments like I've been in church services and I've been in church settings where people are like, oh, they think worship is like this spiritual jukebox that I can just make requests and tell you songs I like or don't like. It's not going to be that way here. I don't sing songs for you, I sing them for him. And if we're singing them for him, then it doesn't matter what song we sing because we can always give him glory no matter what song it is. I can sing the hymns with the best of them, and I love some of those hymns. And I can worship with some of the most modern worship there is. Why? Because it's not about me, it's not about the song, it's about him. And when I've surrendered what I want to what he wants, then I can worship him at any moment in any space. And so the invitation in these moments is to surrender. Surrender locks or unlocks doors in God's kingdom. And here's the piece of advice is your pastor that I'm going to give some of you. Your greatest struggle in growing in your relationship with Jesus is not actually sin. It's your willing to surrender. Are you willing to surrender to Jesus? So many people think, man, the devil just keeps tripping me up. Well, does he keep tripping you up, or is it because you have some spaces in your life that you haven't surrendered to him? And that's what keeps tripping you up. I'm convinced most people that I've ever walked with, counseled with, come to me for coaching, whatever you want to call it, to grow in their relationship with God. Is sin a stumbling block? Yes, but it's because somewhere in their life, a little further back, there's a space they're not willing to surrender to him. And so that's the invitation from Jesus from the beginning. Why? Because when we surrender to him, we actually find the life we're looking for. That's the invitation. That's the crazy thing about him is our struggle that's holding us back are our own selfish desires and our own willingness to not surrender those to him. And so in today's culture, you'll often hear people say, I want to be a Christian, but I'm also going to hold on to my sin. It doesn't work that way. It's surrender it to him or have my way, but it's not both. Jesus isn't your homeboy that just buddies up with you living however you want to, and his grace isn't the one space that invites you to just keep living the way you want to. It invites you to surrender to him completely. That's the invitation. And so when we surrender to him, one of the other struggles for a lot of us, if we could just be brutally honest, and I promise to be uncomfortably real, is pride is another reason why many of us can't surrender. You want to know for some of us why worship is so hard? Because it would cost me a little bit of my pride to not worry about what somebody else might think of me and just totally surrender to God. And me, I'll get down on my knees, I'll cry like a big baby during worship, and I don't care what another human being in the room or in the world ever thinks about me. My wife says, Sometimes I wish I could be you like you, Jason. Like, I don't know how you just don't care what people think. Like, I just don't care. Like it legitimately does not phase me. And for some of us, surrender is so hard because we're holding on to pride because we're too worried about what somebody else might think of me. And the most freeing thing you can do is stop worrying about what people think about you and just focus on what does Jesus think about me. And at the end, that's all that matters, man. If we would focus on what he thinks about me and then look around you and see who's still around you when you do that, those are the people you want in your life anyway. That's the invitation from Jesus to be his followers. The other problem for most of us is we don't want to fully surrender our identity to Jesus. We want to have Jesus and I want to have it a bit of my way. And that's why we see in today's world, like we try to say things like, I'm a I'm a conservative Christian or I'm a liberal Christian. I'm a Republican Christian or I'm a Democratic Christian. And I don't know if we understand this, but Jesus doesn't fit in either one of those boxes. He makes his own box. And at some point it's got to not be about Jason, and it's just got to be about Jesus. And at some point, I have to be willing to surrender my complete identity to him and say, you know what? That means people won't see me anymore and they'll only see Jesus. Ah, now we're finally starting to get it. One of my prayers almost every Sunday is that people won't see Jason. That I will just be a silhouette in the background of Jesus' light, and all people will see as him. Because somewhere we have to reach a space where we surrender. Christian life is not about holding the title of Christian, it's about who we follow, and that person is Jesus. And if we're following him, we have to surrender everything to him. To deny ourselves and then take up our cross. This is the part that starts to get hard because for many of us, we have to understand the cross was actually an instrument of death. Jesus is essentially inviting you and I to say, die to self and live for him. That is the invitation that he's bringing to the table. That we would completely surrender so much to him that I would, like Paul literally says in scripture, I've been crucified with Christ. That I have died to myself and I'm only living for him. And in today's culture, I'm concerned for most Christians, we we don't have a bucket for this level of commitment to Jesus. And it concerns me as a pastor. Because somehow we've convinced people that if we're following Jesus, he's supposed to answer every prayer we have. He's supposed to make my life as comfortable as I can be and put me up in the nicest car that never breaks down, in the biggest house that always has more than enough room for what I really need, and a fridge that overflows with more food than I know what to do with, and a bank account that endlessly just magically keeps accumulating money. Why? Because I've given my life to Jesus. And the problem with that is that's not at all what Jesus promised us. And so we have to reevaluate what it means to follow him, what it means to surrender to him. And somewhere, I think we we've got to develop an actual theology, an actual belief system for when we have to suffer through hard things in life. Because here's what I can tell you Jesus loves you completely more than anybody else in this world. And yet at times we will suffer in this life. And while we suffer, he completely loves us. Bad does not mean God is mad. So many times that's the first thing the enemy gets us to think something bad is happening, God must be mad at me. Something bad is happening, sin must be in my life. And maybe the reality is sometimes we just suffer through some things because we've been invited to surrender to Jesus and take up our cross. And that's just part of the price of what it means to actually find true life in Him. Then I'm concerned that we don't quite have the spiritual grit and tenacity to navigate today's world. And so if you're wondering at all, like, does Jesus really mean what he just said? If you don't know the story of the 12 disciples, or you ever want something to give you a bigger picture of what it means to follow Jesus, find a book called Fox's Book of Martyrs and read it. So let me tell you about the 12 disciples, because it would be easy to think, man, Jesus had these guys follow me. And so they were going out to build his kingdom, so they must have lived to a ripe old age and had a lot of success. Let me give you the life story of those 12 apostles that followed Jesus. If you know this, if you don't, it's gonna be extremely fun. James was beheaded because of his faith in Jesus and died. Peter was crucified upside down and died. And he actually asked to be crucified upside down because he said, I don't deserve to die the same way my savior did. So crucify me upside down. Andrew was crucified. Doubting Thomas, the guy that said, I'll never believe. And Jesus shows up and says, Hey bro, see these holes? See that just go ahead, put your hand right in there. That guy that struggled to believe in Jesus ended up being speared to death as he was going out to share Jesus with the world. Philip, crucified upside down. Matthew, there's a couple of stories. He was either stabbed to death or he was beheaded. Bartholomew was filleted alive and then beheaded. James was stoned and clubbed to death. Simon the Zealot was crucified or swollen in half, depending on how that story goes. Jude was shot with arrows and then clubbed to death. Matthias was stoned and beheaded. And all that leaves us with is John, who wrote a few books of the Bible. They tried to kill John. If you don't know John's story, they threw him in boiling oil, thinking it would kill him. It didn't. So they banished him to the island of Patmos, and that's where he wrote Revelation, and we get some of the books that we get. Eleven of the twelve died for following Jesus. When Jesus said, take up your cross, he literally meant be so surrendered to me. That you would rather die than deny me.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

That's the invitation from Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

My concern is for most of us, we we hit just the smallest bit of opposition in our life. And we're ready to bail on Jesus. And the twelve men that walked with him were willing to die rather than renounce him. And Jesus loved them as much as he loves us now. And so, man, my challenge as a pastor is like, how do we learn to develop such a faith that no matter what comes our way, we'll endure through every set of circumstances? That's my challenge. How do we develop such a faith that the doctor can give me a cancer diagnosis and it won't phase me? Cool. You're threatening me with heaven, doc. I'm good. Let's go. That's the level of faith. That's the level of confidence. That's the level of hope that we should have in Jesus. Why? Because he said, Hey, just in case you guys forgot, I'm about to die. They're gonna do some bad things to me, but in three days, don't worry, I'm coming back.

unknown 21:59

Why

SPEAKER_01 22:00

They die for Jesus because they saw the dead man alive again. And they had hope that could not be shaken to the point of death. And for some of us, our hope is shaken when it's a little inconvenient just to get up to church and get on a Sunday because I'm kind of tired and it's hard getting the kids together. Our hope is a little bit hard when the finances aren't there, and so I'm just gonna tip God rather than give to God. Because it's a little hard right now, God. Our hope hinges on ah, like I might serve if it's something I enjoy doing, but if not, you're probably not gonna see me.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

And the invitation from Jesus is hey man, I need you to be so surrendered to me that there's nothing that would hold you back.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

And that's what it means to be a Christian. And so I'm concerned in today's world that we have made things too light and fluffy to be able to navigate the world that we live in. When Jesus gave us such a gritty face that he would say, no matter what your circumstances are, there is a hope inside of me that can navigate every one of those if you'll surrender to me and trust me. That's the invitation from Jesus. That's the true follower of Christ. Isn't moved by moments. Does it mean that we won't struggle when life happens and things are hard? Sure. There are going to be moments where I'm not going to feel like doing things. There are going to be moments where it's going to take effort to push through some things so that I can see Jesus do some things in my life. There are moments, believe it or not, where you're going to be doing good things for God in your life and you're going to face opposition simultaneously. Why? Because there's an enemy who wants to stop what Jesus is trying to do in you and through you. And one of the fastest ways for me to measure whether I'm following God is by the level of opposition I have in my life. And the more opposition I have is I'm trying to follow Jesus, I actually have learned to realize I'm probably heading in the right direction, and the enemy is trying to frustrate me and distract me and keep me from finding what God is actually trying to do. And so guess what? I'm just stubborn enough, I'm ought to lean in a little bit harder.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

And that is the invitation from Jesus. He's looking for some Christians that are gritty.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Stubborn, if you want to borrow that phrase.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

And I said, Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Because that stubbornness has accomplished so many good things for you that if I did not have it, those things wouldn't have got done and I'd have left a long time ago. Some of you like, I got a strong-willed child. You better thank God for that strong-willed child. I know right now it's hard, but I'm telling you, that child is going to do some things in this world. Because it takes that level of grit, it takes that level of tenacity to push through in those moments. And what they did was not an extreme version of Christianity. That's my concern, is that for some of us, we've created varying degrees of what it means to follow Jesus. And and Pastor, you're you're out there on the edge, buddy. It's like a little too much. And it's like, no, actually, this is what it was like to follow him. Those 12 disciples that died for their faith, that was everyday life when it came to following Jesus. That wasn't an extreme and a less extreme commitment. It was just following Jesus or not. And this is part of what it means to follow him.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

And so let me tell you: if it feels like in your life you're finding opposition pressing against you, and something seems hard, may I suggest to you that you might be actually following Jesus and heading in the direction that he's called you to?

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Like, man, God, I'm trying to fix my marriage, but every time I try, it just seems to get harder and fall apart. Okay, you're headed in the right direction. Keep leaning into that. Man, God, every time I try to share my faith with you, it's just like people keep attacking me and dogging me for being a Christian. Cool, you're heading in the right direction. Keep leaning into that. Man, every time I try to make the right decision and give and support what you're doing at the church, God, my car breaks down, things keep happening, and God, like I'm trying to give and my bank account's going backwards. Good, you're heading in the right direction. Keep trusting God because when you run out of money, when you run out of health, and you've got nothing else to stand on but him, you'll begin to realize I got everything I need. And that is the perfect place that God can use somebody. Why would he say surrender? Why would he say take up your cross? Because he needs us in a place where, man, I've got nothing else to stand on but him. And that's when we find out I've got everything I need. Listen, if you have Jesus in a plan B, you haven't fully surrendered to him. The third thing Jesus said, follow me. Here's why. Here's why I can follow Jesus. Because he didn't say, go do that. He said, follow me.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

And he did that.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

I'd say probably the best boss I ever worked for was somebody that just got out there with me. We were pouring concrete, and I would look over, and he'd be right there pouring concrete, sweating it out with us. It'd be a busy day, and we'd have to stay past and work late and kick in overtime, and I'd look over, and there's my boss. He's getting in the truck, he's running overtime, he's doing it too. Jesus didn't say go there. Jesus said, follow me. And then what did he do a few weeks later?

SPEAKER_00 28:41

He went there. He went to that cross. He died on that hill.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

And he led the way. And man, I'll tell you, I'll follow somebody like that to the gates of Helemach.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

The invitation is to follow him.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

The invitation is to be so surrendered to him that I let Jesus set the pace and direction for my life. Let me ask you, who's setting the pace and direction for your life? That's the invitation from Jesus. When he said follow me, let him. I hear people say, Man, I can't go to church, man, it's full of a bunch of hypocrites. You're right, it is, and there's room for one more. Come join us. If you think anybody in this room is perfect, let me tell you right now they're not, including me. But I'm not asking you to follow me. I'm asking you to follow Jesus. Follow me as I follow Christ. That was Paul's words. And so somewhere we have to reach this space and surrender completely to Jesus and take up our cross and follow him. And like I'll tell you, like, if you want to look to me, look to me, but only look to me as long as I'm following Christ. And I'm I'm trying, man. I'm trying to let you see what it's like to live the surrendered life. Like I love that we get to plant this church together and people have come in in varying degrees because when I told Jesus that I would surrender myself to him and follow him, it meant selling a house, giving up every bit of financial security I ever had in my life, in the middle of my life, to go leave and plant the church and start everything all over again from scratch in my middle 40s. That's usually not a great success plan for life. But he said, go. And I said, Yes, sir. And so I don't invite you to a committed life that I'm not committed to. I don't have a plan B. There's not a Jesus and. There's just Him. There's not a hey, if this church doesn't work out, I'll just find another church and go do something else. It's Him or nothing.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

It's the invitation.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

You want to figure out how to see who a real follower of Christ is. It's not somebody that just says I'm a Christian. There's a lot of people that say they're a Christian. It's not somebody that wears a golden necklace with a cross. It's not somebody that's got the right tattoo of a cross on their arm and a picture of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

You want to figure out who Christians are?

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Look for the people who move in grace. Because that's what Jesus did. You want to see who the real Christians are? Look at who is connected to Jesus every day and doesn't just show up for weekend visitation rites. It's easy to stand here and raise my hands and worship. But I'm asking you, can you do it on Tuesday when nobody's looking? Want to figure out who the real Christian is, then deny yourself. Give up your selfish ways. Take up his cross and follow Jesus. These are the things that we look to as we follow him. These are the pieces of the puzzle that Jesus is inviting us to in these moments. And so the challenge becomes if you want to follow Jesus, this is what it's going to look like. Give up your way. You want to give up your way, you're going to have to give up what I call the three C's. Okay? If you want to follow Jesus, you're going to have to give up comfort. Can I just tell you, man, there's nothing comfortable about following Jesus? Okay? And Jesus is not interested in your comfort. He's interested in what is eternally best for you. And so if you find yourself in a space that's uncomfortable, there's a good chance you're following Jesus. Give up comfort, give up convenience? It's inconvenient having two services on Easter Sunday. Yeah, it is. But I'm not going to tell somebody that needs to experience the eternal life and the hope that Jesus has for them that I don't have room for you here. So I'm going to do the inconvenient thing and we're going to do two services on Easter Sunday. And if one day we got to do two services at church, we're going to do two services. Why? Because it's not about what's convenient for me, it's about the people that are lost and need to experience this hope. The third C you're going to have to let go of, and this is the one where people lose their mind, is control. Control is an illusion. I don't know if you figured that out yet or not. But I promise you, if you've ever had a moment where you've experienced life-threatening moments in your life, you realize how quickly I am not in control. And the sooner we let go of those three C's, Jesus can actually do something in our lives. But not when we're trying to be comfortable. Not when we're looking for convenience. Not when we're looking to be in control. Jesus does not need your hands on his steering wheel. He's got this. There's going to have to be some sacrifices in our lifestyle to follow Jesus. There's going to be some sacrifices on our calendar to follow Jesus. There's going to be some sacrifices of our comfort and conveniences to follow Jesus. And follow him. It means I'm following Jesus means the priorities of my life circle around his priorities and not my own. Is my life following kingdom priorities that Jesus says is important, or am I following what the world has told me is important? Because here's what I can tell you. You can have the job. You can have all those things that you want. But to borrow Jesus' own world, what does it matter if we gain the whole world and lose our soul? There's gonna be a day, I'm telling you, as a pastor, I've sat with people on their deathbeds. And here's what I can promise you I've never heard one person on the deathbed said, Man, I wished I had worked a little bit harder. I've never heard that. I've never heard one person on the deathbed say, Man, I wished I had made a little bit more money in life. I wished I had bought a few more things. I've never heard anybody ever. Those moments, it's like, man, I wished I'd have followed God a little more. I wish I'd have given been generous a little bit more. I wished I would have invested in my faith a whole lot more. I wished I would have invested in people's faith around me. I wished I would have spent more time with my family taking them to church. Those are the stories I've heard over and over again. I'm trying to save you heartache down the road by getting a little uncomfortable and inconvenient now. Because there's something better in life if we'll follow Jesus. With every head bowed, every eye closed, nobody looking around. Man, I just these things are just stirred up inside of me, man. Maybe you're here in this place and you've never surrendered your life to Jesus before. You might even attach the label Christian to your life, but you're realizing, like, ah, I'm not really denying myself. I haven't really actually tried to take up a cross in any way, and I'm really not following Jesus. I'm trying to get Jesus to follow me. If that's you, today you get an opportunity to say yes to the greatest gift this world has ever had, and it's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that if we would surrender to him, we would actually find the life that we're looking for. And so if you're here in this place, maybe you have never made that commitment to Jesus before. You might even be calling yourself a Christian, but you realize I've never truly made that commitment to Jesus. And today you want to make that commitment to him. If that's you, would you just slip your hand up real quick and slip it back down so I can pray with you? Anybody say, man, I need to make that kind of commitment to Jesus because I've never done it before. I see your hand. Anyone else? See your hand. Who else? Can we just take a moment and pray together? Man, I want to invite all of you to pray with me if you would. We're just gonna pray this out loud. It's gonna be good for all of us. I promise. Say, dear Jesus, I need you to come into my life to forgive me of my sins. Jesus, I surrender everything to you. Help me take up my cross and follow you.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

In Jesus' name, amen.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

That's the grace of God at work. That's simple. And here's what I'll tell you when it means to follow Jesus. The only thing that separates somebody who's following him is somebody that doesn't, is when you fall down, I get back up and I run to Jesus. And here's what I can tell you: if you just prayed that prayer, there's gonna be a moment where you're gonna fall down. Get up and run to Jesus. Don't run away from him. If we can stand all across this place, we're gonna get ready to take a moment of worship. I got some friends that are gonna come down front for prayer. And and man, I just want to invite you to think about this one thought as we go into this moment of worship and prayer. What am I holding on to that is holding me back from completely surrendering to Jesus? What is it that you might be holding on to that is complete holding you back from complete surrender to him? And here's what I want to do as as these guys get ready to lead us in worship, I want you to ask that question of the Holy Spirit and just let him do some work inside of you. And if you need prayer today, I got some friends down here that would love an opportunity to pray with you if you're looking for prayer with somebody. Maybe you're here today and you're like, man, I don't necessarily want somebody to pray with me. I just want to come down and take a moment with God myself and just do a little business with him. Cool, man. There's stairs down here. Come make your own altar right here and take a couple minutes with God, just you and him. But here's what I'll tell you: the the word of God is only as good as we're willing to take it out of here and do something with it. This message will only transform us if I actually see something in my life and be willing to put it into practice. And so as they worship, ask yourself that question what's holding me back from completely surrendering to Jesus? And if there's something, take a moment to pray with him. Take a moment to come down and let somebody pray with you. Take a moment to come down and make a spot here just between you and Jesus, and let's do just a little bit of business with him as we worship here together.