SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what we won't say it, but we really believe that we are.
SPEAKER_01: Hey Jesus, you suffered, so I don't have to.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why does the Bible talk about fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: You say, What are you getting at?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: At our core, we believe that we are greater than our master.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, I can follow Jesus and not experience what he did, or I can follow Jesus and pick and choose the experiences that I'm willing to have.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to say to you, listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_01: Mental health for the Christian in America would improve if we would embrace things as a Christ-like experience.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together, Church.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we're able to say that because we know who you are.
SPEAKER_01: We know who the Bible teaches us that you are.
SPEAKER_01: We don't take our cues from the culture.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we want to understand the story today.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that we don't have the story ends.
SPEAKER_01: We just sang that.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that you're the author and perfector of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: So we're not here today to take the pen out of your hand and write the next chapter.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: We've experienced too much of your goodness to want to go back and try to sit on the throne that God sets on in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, bring all the ramifications, the implications, and the applications of the story to bear on our life today as we think biblically about what it means to follow you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Make it our experience, we ask for this in Jesus' name, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Matthew chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, let me say, good morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Neil, the lead pastor at Grand Park Way, and we are preaching through the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: We took a break for Holy Week, and now we're back in Matthew chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading in verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about the clarity and the priority of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The clarity and the priority of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to take you back to an experience that I had 35 years ago in the Dallas Fort Worth Airport.
SPEAKER_01: It was so imprinting on my soul that I could tell you the shirt that the man was wearing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what happened.
SPEAKER_01: This is before 9-11.
SPEAKER_01: And so people were at the gate, and it's pretty crowded.
SPEAKER_01: People are just saying goodbye to their loved ones, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm over there minding my business.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just kind of reading a book.
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm sitting in the area in the gate, and you hear this kind of murmur.
SPEAKER_01: And like people are talking, and some people are giggling and they're pointing, and I'm kind of looking around like everyone's in on something.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm looking in the direction they're pointing.
SPEAKER_01: And about from me to the third row over there, uh, there's a man sitting in the DFW airport, and he's got a Bible in his lap, and he's got one arm under it, and he's got his other hand, and he's doing it.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like a Bible like this right here.
SPEAKER_01: This is like a squirt gun compared to what that cat had.
SPEAKER_01: He had a white family Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not kidding you, it was this big.
SPEAKER_01: And he had it opened in his lap, and he was just following along.
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm, my and just talking to himself.
SPEAKER_01: And people are kind of clowning on him like that.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just thought, I'm gonna go over and encourage this brother.
SPEAKER_01: But I stood up and started walking before I got a plan.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm thinking, what do I say?
SPEAKER_01: Is that the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, thanks, John Dormas, of course it's the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And so I came up with a better question.
SPEAKER_01: I got over there and I'm I'm standing right beside him, and he's reading, and he just looks up, put his finger down, and he looked up and I said, Excuse me, sir, are you a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: And this is the experience I had that day.
SPEAKER_01: He looked up at me and he said, smiled, he said, No, my brother, that's a little broad for me.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people call themselves Christian, they don't follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I like to call myself a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And at that, he went back to reading, and I just slowly backed up as everyone stared, and now they're giggling at me, and I'm just backing up like, okay, that was kind of awkward.
SPEAKER_01: It was awkward and invitational all at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: Because in that moment, this man who I did not meet, I didn't ask his name, I don't know who he is, he caused me to think about this thing on a deeper, more biblical level.
SPEAKER_01: And so, one of the questions you gotta ask yourself this morning is do you just consider yourself a Christian uh because you vote Republican and you watch Fox News?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you consider yourself a follower of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And what you will see today, hopefully, uh in God's word, is it following Jesus has some implications, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just jump into the text.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Matthew chapter 8, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.
SPEAKER_01: And a scribe came up to him and said uh to him, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
SPEAKER_01: Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go bury my father.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to him, Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's my concern that Jesus talked about following him in a way that the American church doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: There's an abruptness to it and a priority to it and an urgency to it that we seem kind of lost with our slick slack programming these days.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to point to three things in the text around the clarity and the priority of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is this Jesus wants disciples, not a crowd.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to make disciples, not draw a crowd.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: He says, now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go to the other side.
SPEAKER_01: Mark this down and test me on this.
SPEAKER_01: If you read the New Testament, anytime Jesus realized, hey, there's a crowd around me, he didn't go, hey, somebody, he didn't have his photography team with a videographer, kind of get all this stuff so he can post it on socials and build his brand.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when Jesus saw there's a crowd around me, his first assumption was, these knuckleheads don't know what it's all about following me, okay?
SPEAKER_01: They're here and they're interested in something, but what they're interested in is not me.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus wants disciples, he doesn't want a crowd.
SPEAKER_01: And so he saw the crowd around him and he gave orders to go to the other side.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_01: The other side of the lake.
SPEAKER_01: Like, get away from these people, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because again, Jesus is like, hey, he didn't have agoraphobia.
SPEAKER_01: He's just like, I'm here to make disciples, not win a popularity contest.
SPEAKER_01: But it's natural to hear this and go, well, where'd the crowd come from?
SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, there was no social media.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't have a like a front man or a hype man.
SPEAKER_01: Context is important, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And in the previous section, Jesus just healed a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to go back and read verses 14 to 17.
SPEAKER_01: Look and listen to what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what this is where the crowd came from.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14 of Matthew 8 says, This when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.
SPEAKER_01: He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.
SPEAKER_01: That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.
SPEAKER_01: This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: He took our illnesses and bore our desires, our diseases, excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he said, Hey, listen, I want to get away from this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the there's two things you want to see.
SPEAKER_01: Why did the crowd come to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Why is there always a crowd around Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Two reasons.
SPEAKER_01: Two things that the crowds experience in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, spiritual authority.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual authority.
SPEAKER_01: And number two, physical dominion.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual authority and then physical dominion.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual authority.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, by the way, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Not only did Jesus have spiritual authority, but all through the gospel, the people that followed him, his disciples, many occasions he would say, he would send them out to do something.
SPEAKER_01: And look at me, he would say, the Bible says, and he gave them authority to do these certain things.
SPEAKER_01: Like Mark chapter 3 does it.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 28, verse 20, what's called the Great Commission is probably the most popular example of it.
SPEAKER_01: But we skip over the authority part.
SPEAKER_01: We hear, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_01: But the verse right before that says this Jesus said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_01: See, this command to make disciples is predicated on the promise of authority.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what I'm saying to you: the spiritual authority that Jesus had that he gave to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Hello, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You and I are supposed to have this spiritual authority.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, if you've been born again, if you have a relationship with Christ, you do have that.
SPEAKER_01: You may not know how to use it, but but you have it.
SPEAKER_01: It's like having features, like, there's features on my phone that I didn't know exist until it gets in the hand of my 20-year-old daughter.
SPEAKER_01: And then it's not like, oh, that does it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, here's a shortcut.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I don't want China hacking in.
SPEAKER_01: I'll put that back now.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Dad, you got to talk.
SPEAKER_01: You need that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, give me that phone back.
SPEAKER_01: All I do with this phone is make phone calls.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I do.
SPEAKER_01: I don't sit and stare at it and go fill my life with purpose as I doom scroll.
SPEAKER_01: And then my my my my my actually, she's not, she's 22.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, Dad, you're underutilizing your phone.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm never gonna maximize the capacity of this phone because it ain't that interesting to me.
SPEAKER_01: Now give me my phone back.
SPEAKER_01: But the same thing, you have this capacity that you're not using because you have spiritual authority.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing you have is physical dominion.
SPEAKER_01: You have physical dominion.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, he takes authority.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's why the Bible says one of his names is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our God, who heals.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not one of those people that says, Oh, we don't need medicine and doctors.
SPEAKER_01: No, not at all.
SPEAKER_01: God uses that.
SPEAKER_01: I think doctors and medicine, people's intellect.
SPEAKER_01: I was praying in a hospital just recently, and the nurse walked in.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, I'm gonna get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Can I pray?
SPEAKER_01: And I'll get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, Do you pray long?
SPEAKER_01: I said, less than 20 seconds.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, I doubt it.
SPEAKER_01: I went, you're my kind of new friend right here.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What's your name?
SPEAKER_01: She said, Diane.
SPEAKER_01: And I prayed.
SPEAKER_01: I said, God, you knit this person's together, body together in her mother's womb.
SPEAKER_01: Use Diane's intellect and her skill set to knit this body back together.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_01: Diane looked up and she had tears in her eyes.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What's going on, Diane?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, No one's ever prayed for me like that.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm not, I didn't bring like magic pixie dust to throw on this.
SPEAKER_01: You guys and the doctor, the surgeon who's gonna perform the surgery, those are gonna be instruments God's gonna use in this person's life.
SPEAKER_01: But here I'm here to say that you have spiritual authority and you have physical dominion.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, why why don't I why don't I exercise that?
SPEAKER_01: Because you can't exercise physical dominion over simple practical things.
SPEAKER_01: How can you expect to have physical dominion over powerful things?
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean, simple practical things like your smartphone, uh, like your morality, like your mouth, like your money.
SPEAKER_01: Like, ask yourself this question at lunch today.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have dominion over your money or does your money have dominion over you?
SPEAKER_01: Like I was talking to a friend this week about our shared experience with a financial planner.
SPEAKER_01: Like I have a friend that's a financial planner, and he's always trying to speed me up and tell me you're not prepared for retirement.
SPEAKER_01: You need to stop thinking about everybody else and think about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I ain't got time, man.
SPEAKER_01: I get what about this?
SPEAKER_01: What and I said this to my to my friend's a financial planner.
SPEAKER_01: He did not think it was funny.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What if I'm not supposed to retire?
SPEAKER_01: Then what are you gonna do for a living?
SPEAKER_01: Besides trying to speed me up, make me feel bad.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm just telling you, you know, y'all, duh, duh, blah, duh.
SPEAKER_01: People don't plan to fail, they fail the plan.
SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh, please, you said that.
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard that before.
SPEAKER_01: But see, here's the thing, here's my concern.
SPEAKER_01: That we have we want physical dominion in the big things, but we don't practice physical dominion in the little things.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible's very clear, you've been given spiritual authority and physical dominion.
SPEAKER_01: And here's my concern: here's what's happened to today's Christians because we cannot experience physical dominion over ourselves, so we take spiritual liberties with the message of Christianity, and in so doing, we promise the crowds what Jesus never would give them and call it evangelism.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we promise the crowds what Jesus would never entrust to them, and we call ourselves as having done evangelism.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens is you have big churches full of little lives that are void of gospel dominion.
SPEAKER_01: You have a big crowd, but we're not making many disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And again, anytime Jesus saw a big crowd of people, he immediately laid down some teaching that clarified what it means to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: Let me show you in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Don't believe me, find it in the Bible, Luke chapter 14, verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Now, great crowds accompanied him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Your greatest temptation in this life is the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: Are you here today?
SPEAKER_01: I know it's after Easter and you're hung over and everything, but y'all are like, hey man, you need to drink decaf and lighten up.
SPEAKER_01: I told you I had an experience 35 years ago and it wrecked me, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because some strange man just looked up and said, No, no, my brother, that's a little broad for me.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: What you're talking about, Willis?
SPEAKER_01: Uh no.
SPEAKER_01: So, so you say, What do you what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying now, great crowds accompanied him.
SPEAKER_01: Your greatest temptation, because look at me, there's conformity in the crowd and there's comfort in the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to talk to our kids about peer pressure, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Mom and dad, you struggle with peer pressure, if not, if not as much more than your kids do.
SPEAKER_01: Are you aware of that?
SPEAKER_01: Great crowds accompanied him.
SPEAKER_01: And he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, Jesus did not know how to win friends and influence people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, if you're unfamiliar or you're new to the Bible, Jesus is not saying hate your family.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying love me in such a way that it makes all these other relationships look like hate.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are kind of like, oh yeah, I can't wait to tell my stepmom I hate you, and it's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: See, I would go as far as to say that the crowd that Jesus worked to avoid is the crowd that the American church has focused on and settled for.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: The crowd that Jesus worked to avoid is the crowd that the American church is focused on and settled for.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus knew they weren't coming for the right reasons.
SPEAKER_01: They were coming to get something from Jesus, not give their lives to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're not there to commit to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so the church tells a lie to them and says, Oh, Jesus loves you so much, you don't have to follow him because he's following you.
SPEAKER_01: And whenever you get ready, he's just right there waiting for you to fall into his arms.
SPEAKER_01: You can talk about Jesus like he's this doughy-eyed teenage boy who's smitten with a girl, instead of the God of the universe who demands obedience and submission.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What?
SPEAKER_01: I don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what happens: you produce a generation, in our case in America, generations of people who have a great self-image and a very distorted image of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is why people that don't have a relationship with God have such self-confidence.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of it they got from talking to Christians that they work with are tragically going to a church at some point.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not looking for your vote, he's calling for submission that manifests itself in obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to understand Jesus did not come for the crowds, he came to make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing we see is that to follow means to experience.
SPEAKER_01: To follow means to experience.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you've been tuned out for the past, I don't know, six minutes, tune in because this is about to get real right here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 19, look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, uh, and a scribe came up to him and said, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to him, Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01: I was lonely.
SPEAKER_01: I've been eating by myself in the cafeteria for the last three days.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad to have a friend.
SPEAKER_01: No, I will follow you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_01: Good, because there's on the way I'm going, there's a Buckey's every 50 miles, and we're gonna get plenty of beaver nuggets and coffee and a pulled pork sandwich, and your wife can get that little bento box with the boiled egg and the almonds.
SPEAKER_01: Is that just mine?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, there's pulled pork.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you eating that?
SPEAKER_01: Because this is good, it doesn't look good.
SPEAKER_01: There's little sticks of celery in there.
SPEAKER_01: There'll be a room in hell where you go in and eat celery for the first thousand years.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what a compliment.
SPEAKER_01: I'll follow you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is so gracious, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He does not, he responds by telling him not where he's going, but what it's like along the way.
SPEAKER_01: Hear these words.
SPEAKER_01: Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
SPEAKER_01: And then crickets.
SPEAKER_01: You don't hear from this guy anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like, uh, uh, I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: Now again, to follow means to experience.
SPEAKER_01: To follow.
SPEAKER_01: You should ask yourself, here's how you know you're following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You're not just in the crowd, kind of waving at Jesus and clapping a little golf clap like they will today for Roy, Michael Roy at the Masters.
SPEAKER_01: Good shot, Roy.
SPEAKER_01: Geez, that was awesome.
SPEAKER_01: You healed that guy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, geez, you cast that there.
SPEAKER_01: That was good.
SPEAKER_01: That was good, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: Following Jesus, here's how you know if you're in the crowd or if you're following.
SPEAKER_01: If you're following Jesus, you have the experiences of Jesus, both positive and negative.
SPEAKER_01: Following Jesus means you have the experiences of Jesus, both positive and negative.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read from the Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: You don't think I've made it up.
SPEAKER_01: John 15, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is talking, he says, If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, you're never gonna have an experience that I haven't had.
SPEAKER_01: If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.
SPEAKER_01: But because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the word that I said to you?
SPEAKER_01: A servant is not greater than his master.
SPEAKER_01: If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
SPEAKER_01: If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
SPEAKER_01: But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it comes down to for me.
SPEAKER_01: It's about there in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what we won't say it, but we really believe that we are.
SPEAKER_01: Hey Jesus, you suffered, so I don't have to.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why does the Bible talk about fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what are you getting at?
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, okay, uh, here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: Uh at our core, we believe that we are greater than our master.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, I can follow Jesus and not experience what he did, or I can follow Jesus and pick and choose the experiences that I'm willing to have.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to say to you, listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_01: Mental health for the Christian in America would improve if we would embrace things as a Christ-like experience.
SPEAKER_01: Mental health for the Christian would improve if you would embrace more things as a Christ-like experience.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: So uh a while back, somebody came to see me.
SPEAKER_01: They don't go to our church.
SPEAKER_01: They just said, Hey, a man, older man and woman said, We got some issues in our family.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody recommended you.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'd glad to help any way I can.
SPEAKER_01: They come and they sit down.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the big moral dilemma for their family.
SPEAKER_01: They have a son who married a woman who rules over the son.
SPEAKER_01: The house is out of order, but I digress.
SPEAKER_01: Um, they got three kids.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, grandma and grandpa are pretty successful, and grandma and grandpa are taking all seven kids on a Disney cruise.
SPEAKER_01: Grandpa has uh the man had breakfast with his son.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm concerned about my son.
SPEAKER_01: My son is succeeding in the world, but he's failing spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: So at breakfast, he said, Son, I'm concerned you need to get your family in a church, find a church.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not about religion, I'm just about a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: And so you need to find a church, get your family planted in there and experience biblical community.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the son, because he lives in fear of his wife, he goes home and complains to his wife, and his wife's like, You tell your parents to back off, or we're not gonna let the kids go on the Disney cruise.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Apparently, this is the thing that you all threaten your parents with withholding your kids.
SPEAKER_01: I pray to Jesus, my kids threaten me, like we're not gonna let you have the grandkids.
SPEAKER_01: How long you wanna play this game?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing, I ain't responsible for your kids anyway.
SPEAKER_01: They're my grandkids.
SPEAKER_01: I can choose to leave them something or I can choose to spend it all on myself.
SPEAKER_01: But this man is dead, and the one they're dead, they're like, oh, and we don't know what we'd do if we didn't pick our kids.
SPEAKER_01: And I uh I said, so your your son loves his daughter, his wife more than he loves God.
SPEAKER_01: Men tend to appease the woman they sleep with.
SPEAKER_01: This is the way it works.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Yeah, but what are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: You say, Okay, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna you're not gonna blackmail me.
SPEAKER_01: You just save me all that expense, and your mother and I are gonna go to Europe after we take the kids on a Disney crew just to recover.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Oh, but but but what if we never saw our grandkids?
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like you'd have some free time.
SPEAKER_01: You feel it in here?
SPEAKER_01: Because some of you are blackmailing your parents with your kids.
SPEAKER_01: I say this from a heart of compassion.
SPEAKER_01: Shame on you.
SPEAKER_01: You should be embarrassed of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Who do you think you are?
SPEAKER_01: If people raise you, now you're gonna play this game, you might not see your grandkids.
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I pray my kids say that to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell them about twice a year hey, hurry up and have some kids so I can abandon them.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all think I'm kidding?
SPEAKER_01: I tell them, I can't wait to tell my grandkids, no, I'm not coming to your game.
SPEAKER_01: I got more important things to do.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't gotta come to every one of your games to prove I'm awesome.
SPEAKER_01: I'm awesome.
SPEAKER_01: I was awesome before you got here.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Stop worshiping your grandkids.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna raise a narcissist, it's gonna be your fault.
SPEAKER_01: Can y'all feel how awkward this is in here?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are like, man, I invited friends.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling the truth.
SPEAKER_01: To follow means to experience.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not having some of the experiences of Jesus, you're not following Jesus, you're still in the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to stop rescuing your kids from every negative experience they have.
SPEAKER_01: Stop wrapping them in bubble wrapping money and saying, Oh, baby, I'm so sorry you didn't get cheerleader.
SPEAKER_01: No, should you have gotten cheerleader, you should have gotten head cheerleader.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna stop writing checks to the school.
SPEAKER_01: Well, were you writing checks to the school to get your kids' way?
SPEAKER_01: Why'd you bring that up?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the thing if you insulate your kids from all disappointment, they'll never see things that are.
SPEAKER_01: Christ-like experience.
SPEAKER_01: You will release kids into the world who have to get their way in every environment.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, there's going to be hell to pray because I didn't get my way.
SPEAKER_01: Another lady came to see me.
SPEAKER_01: She said, You know, there's a thing called sober November.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I don't think my church knows about that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Yeah, you don't drink for November.
SPEAKER_01: So she didn't drink back in November.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I didn't drink.
SPEAKER_01: And I realized alcohol was too important to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Okay, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing wrong with drinking.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says don't get drunk.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I I understand.
SPEAKER_01: I agree.
SPEAKER_01: But I just found I was, I liked myself more, had more motivation, felt better about myself.
SPEAKER_01: So I just decided I'm just gonna, I'm not, I'm not saying I'm never gonna drink, but for the foreseeable future, I'm gonna abstain.
SPEAKER_01: And so she said, me and my friends got together like we normally do, and I just had water, and they were kind of like, hey, you're making us feel bad.
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, y'all, nothing wrong with what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: For me, this is the best choice.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, so December, we get together about every two or three weeks.
SPEAKER_01: So December, uh, yeah, and then January, I didn't get an invite.
SPEAKER_01: And then when in February, I didn't get an invite.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, and she goes, and then I'm embarrassed to tell you what I did.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I know what you did.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, No, you do not.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You stalked them on socials.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Okay, that's exactly what I did.
SPEAKER_01: And they were out, and ah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, this is a very Christ-like experience.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I said, rejection.
SPEAKER_01: Your friends rejected you because you're more fun when you drink.
SPEAKER_01: And she was like, You can clutch your pearls and not really wear pearls, you know that?
SPEAKER_01: She was like, I said, Yeah, yeah, this is a very Christ-like experience.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not gonna come around the desk and rescue you from this.
SPEAKER_01: This is just life.
SPEAKER_01: This is what it's like.
SPEAKER_01: If you if you if you you make choices that do not agree with your friends' choices, they will shun you.
SPEAKER_01: If the world hates you, know that it hated me for it, it hated me before it hated you.
SPEAKER_01: If you can't embrace that it hated Jesus, the only perfect being who's ever lived, why does it surprise you that they hate you and you're not perfect?
SPEAKER_01: She said, I said, What realizations are you having because of this experience?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Why?
SPEAKER_01: I said, What realizations are you having because of this experience?
SPEAKER_01: Because every experience you have, there's a realization you can make.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, I don't know what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you could suggest some.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'll do all the work.
SPEAKER_01: Great, I'll do the heavy lifting.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Here's one that I would have if I was you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying you should have it.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I would have.
SPEAKER_01: I need better quality friends.
SPEAKER_01: Friends that can celebrate your sobriety or your abstinence and just say, hey, you go, girl, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: I got friends.
SPEAKER_01: If you if I said that, they'd be good, great, more beer for me.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Yeah, but it's hard to make friends when you're 46.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, because you don't stop being catty when you're 17.
SPEAKER_01: Women are mean.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you, ladies?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, men are just as mean, we're just not direct about it.
SPEAKER_01: Women at least get together and talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: Men are like, I'm just gonna silently not talk to you anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, as I tell people, not talking to me is not punishment.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, this weekend somebody came up to me and said, Hey, you know, so-and-so said they don't really like you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And the person looked at me, you know, people say things to you kind of like to get a rise out of you, like, I'm gonna see you.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Okay, and go, what do you think about that?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I think not being liked is a very Christ-like experience.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, What'd you say?
SPEAKER_01: Not being liked is a very Christ-like experience.
SPEAKER_01: I don't get up and put my pants on to go out in the world and be liked every day.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I do, the world, he said, why not?
SPEAKER_01: I said, because if I did, the world would have power over me.
SPEAKER_01: The world doesn't have power over me.
SPEAKER_01: Because I see every negative experience and this is a very Christ-like experience.
SPEAKER_01: Anytime something happens, rejection, to be slandered, oh, it's very Christ-like.
SPEAKER_01: It's very Christ-like.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not some quippy little phrase that I read in a book somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: No, I read this book and I realized you know what, you know, to follow means to experience.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not having some experiences, positive and negative, you should ask yourself, am I really following Jesus or am I just kind of cruising along in the crowd, watching from a safe distance, so nothing bad happens?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the third thing we see in the text.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, are you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Did I lose you there?
SPEAKER_01: We kind of plunge there for a little bit because I just want to hang some granularity on it for you.
SPEAKER_01: Because to follow means to experience.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not experiencing, you should go to Jesus and get your money back.
SPEAKER_01: You should just say, hey, I don't, this faith is defective.
SPEAKER_01: I want a different one.
SPEAKER_01: I talked to a guy this weekend, and he was like, you know, I apparently I say God or Jesus a lot.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, you know, the universe, the universe, the universe.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, he goes, Well, you know, God, the universe, no, they're not the same.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh, well, that's a matter of opinion.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how'd the universe get here?
SPEAKER_01: What was the initial cause for the universe?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we can't discuss that here.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, come in where we can discuss it, and I'll meet you there.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not trying to win an argument.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just trying to say if you're trying to make the moral equivalency that the universe and God, the God is the universe, we're not gonna be able to get down on that.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the last thing following interrupts timing.
SPEAKER_01: Following interrupts timing, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: After the first guy's kind of like, I'm tapping out, verse 21, another of his disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to him, Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, Jesus was a jerk.
SPEAKER_01: No?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta, here's what you gotta understand.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like the guys, look at me, it's not like this guy's dad just died.
SPEAKER_01: Because in Jewish, uh uh in a Jewish family, if a man, if your dad died, okay, you were home prepping and preparing for that.
SPEAKER_01: You weren't out on the road waiting for Jesus to walk by.
SPEAKER_01: You weren't following some upstart rabbi, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So what he's really saying is, let me go back and handle my business, make all the money I think I need to make, let me alter the will to where I'm in, I've got durable power of attorney, and I can violate my siblings and get everything for myself, make all the money I think I need to, be around my dad until he dies, button up the estate, and then I'll come follow you.
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, what he fails to understand is that following interrupts timing.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus demonstrates the priority and the urgency of following when he says this let those who are spiritually dead, non-believers, bury the dead, the physical dead.
SPEAKER_01: A follower of Jesus has been brought to life and is now responsible for things that he wasn't before.
SPEAKER_01: Again, a follower of Jesus has been brought to life.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't come to make bad people good, he came to make spiritually dead people spiritually alive.
SPEAKER_01: So a follower of Jesus has been brought to life and he's now responsible for things that he was not before.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this other part.
SPEAKER_01: He's also not responsible for things that for things that he was before.
SPEAKER_01: He's responsible for things that he wasn't before, and I'm no longer responsible for things that I used to be responsible for.
SPEAKER_01: This is why the Bible says crazy things like Jesus, I didn't come to bring peace but a sword.
SPEAKER_01: I came to turn a son against his mother and a daughter against her father.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: Easy, easy now.
SPEAKER_01: Because following interrupts timing.
SPEAKER_01: Most people have a sense of timing as it relates to their life.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that?
SPEAKER_01: You got a plan.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of like my financial planner, friend.
SPEAKER_01: He's always like, hey, let me talk to you about your financial plan for retirement.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'm ever going to retire, so I don't know if I need a plan.
SPEAKER_01: I just keep working, and one day I die, I don't work anymore.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Yeah, but that's not the American dream.
SPEAKER_01: That's not my dream either.
SPEAKER_01: I see so many people who retire and they're just kind of like, What do I do now?
SPEAKER_01: And their wife calls the church and says, You got anything he can fix?
SPEAKER_01: He's making me crazy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, no, no, we got it.
SPEAKER_01: We got it.
SPEAKER_01: But most of us have a sense of timing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, I'm not saying retirement's bad.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a side dig at retirement.
SPEAKER_01: Retirement's great.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: Do whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01: My wife has told me, here's why I don't think I'll ever retire.
SPEAKER_01: My wife has said to me before in her loving tone, I can't take you all day every day.
SPEAKER_01: You're like a fat man at a buffet.
SPEAKER_01: You leave now, you'll be here trial, no more.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, all right.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you women are nodding your head like, oh yes, hail Mary and full of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Get this guy out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So we have a sense of timing.
SPEAKER_01: Like I have friends.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean by timing, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let me hang some flesh up.
SPEAKER_01: I have friends that are in the business world.
SPEAKER_01: They're very successful.
SPEAKER_01: And one of my friends said, Yeah, I think I'm gonna work from 55 or 60, then I'm gonna retire and I'm gonna go work for a church.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, and we're so glad to have you.
SPEAKER_01: But I didn't say that because I just thought you, I don't think you just choked on your depravity right there, bro.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Do you think you're called to?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, if you're called, there's an urgency with the call.
SPEAKER_01: Come on right now.
SPEAKER_01: We need help.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I want to finish out.
SPEAKER_01: Finish what?
SPEAKER_01: You want to make all the money you can make, and then you want to come and bless the church with your presence.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, like that wade guy that works on you, that executive pastor.
SPEAKER_01: That and I said to him, I said, You know what I told Wade Burgess, who is a regional vice president of a very successful company?
SPEAKER_01: You know what I told him?
SPEAKER_01: I used to tell him all the time, hey man, you get tired of cashing a big check.
SPEAKER_01: I got a little one you can cash.
SPEAKER_01: And he would say very politely, I like the big one.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: And then one day God called him.
SPEAKER_01: And look at me.
SPEAKER_01: He would never tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: He gave up the big one and took the little one.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That's what following Jesus does to you.
SPEAKER_01: It changes the math.
SPEAKER_01: You're not ruled by math anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You move to music.
SPEAKER_01: It's not math.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying math is not important.
SPEAKER_01: I got two of them in grad school.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I got bills.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not that guy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying the sense of timing.
SPEAKER_01: So I said to my friend, we're at Salada.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah, I think when I'm done here, I'm gonna get like an XP job like Burgess and bring some business acumen to the church.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh, and we're so grateful for your business acumen.
SPEAKER_01: Could you please talk about model netics?
SPEAKER_01: That'd be great.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to hear about all your little business corporate words, salad.
SPEAKER_01: The church is dying without that.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Can I ask you a personal question that I already know the answer to?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Do you tithe?
SPEAKER_01: Tithe means you give a you give a tenth or a portion of your income to the church.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Well, I mean, I got a lot of investments, I don't have the liquidity, and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: I said, the answer is no.
SPEAKER_01: You and I both know, because your wife cries over the fact that you're so stingy.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what, and it's in the commercial about giving to the church.
SPEAKER_01: Stop with your stereotypes.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just patting the camera back so you can see your hypocrisy enough to choke on it as much as I am.
SPEAKER_01: You don't give, well, you give a little bit every here and again, you know, Christmas Eve and Easter and this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_01: And then you want to retire golden, everything topped off, and then you want to come and work for the church and take a church for the check and live off other people's tithe.
SPEAKER_01: How do you shave?
SPEAKER_01: How can you look at yourself long enough to shave?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I've pushed aside.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we can be done.
SPEAKER_01: This is overpriced anyway.
SPEAKER_01: I can be done right now.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, let's walk out in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: We can take our shirts off and fight, or we can get in our trucks and drive off.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I miss hitting and being hit.
SPEAKER_01: At this point, some man in Salata walked over and he goes, Where's your church?
SPEAKER_01: It's right over there, sir.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I'll be there Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't eavesdrop it, I just enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: I'd love this man.
SPEAKER_01: But he acts like I'm God's gift of the church and I'm gonna come swoop in and save you from yourself.
SPEAKER_01: The church is a humble beast.
SPEAKER_01: She'll be here long after we're all gone.
SPEAKER_01: And we got in the parking lot and stood there and talked for 40 more minutes.
SPEAKER_01: And we ended up.
SPEAKER_01: I he said, he's well loved.
SPEAKER_01: I love you too.
SPEAKER_01: But man, you're kind of condescending.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I'm available for lunch this week.
SPEAKER_01: I've got some openings.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just here, I'm just making myself available.
SPEAKER_01: Again, following interrupts timing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, not only have I rubbed you the wrong way enough, let me just really get at you here, because not only do we have a sense of timing for our own lives, but even more so for our kids.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to picture this, mom and dad.
SPEAKER_01: You you're saved, you got a 529 when baby baby Susie was born, you got a 529 college plan.
SPEAKER_01: She goes to Baylor, she's she's uh majoring in accounting, she's in her sophomore year, she meets the little guy and she starts talking about Johnny, and and and and and you're like, I'm in it for your while, I'm hearing this Johnny kid a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And your wife's like, Johnny may be your son-in-law one day.
SPEAKER_01: So tread light, you're like, oh well, so Johnny comes for the weekend, Johnny's a good kid, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Johnny asks for your blessing, and then Johnny says to your dad, men, I'm talking to you now.
SPEAKER_01: Johnny says, Well, uh, I'm gonna write you a letter and send you a letter.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think about it and respond.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because Johnny's a missionary.
SPEAKER_01: Johnny feels called to the mission field.
SPEAKER_01: And your daughter's like, Well, I love Johnny.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna I'm gonna be called whatever Johnny's doing, so I don't know if I can do a count on the mission field, but so Johnny writes you a letter, and this is what the letter sounds like.
SPEAKER_01: This is a true letter.
SPEAKER_01: A young man wrote to a father.
SPEAKER_01: I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life, whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death.
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing so far, Dad?
SPEAKER_01: You're already cleaning your pistol right now.
SPEAKER_01: You're breaching it.
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm gonna go to Waco and bust a cap at this fool.
SPEAKER_01: But he's not done.
SPEAKER_01: Can you consent to all of this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you?
SPEAKER_01: For the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Can you consent to all of this in hopes of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall resound to her Savior from heathens saved through her means from eternal woe and despair?
SPEAKER_01: You could tell this was a long time ago, by the way, he writes.
SPEAKER_01: This was a man named Adniram Judson who fell in love with a young lady named Anne, and he wrote this letter to her dad.
SPEAKER_01: And get ready to get kicked in the face, men.
SPEAKER_01: Her dad said yes.
SPEAKER_01: And they went to the mission field and they had three babies, and all three of them died.
SPEAKER_01: Two of them made it, one of them made it to six, his son Jack, one of them lived to be eight, and then Anne got sick and died.
SPEAKER_01: And Adam Judson married another woman.
SPEAKER_01: See, you follow Jesus, you have the experiences of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are just kind of going through the motions because you want your kids to, you know, be socialized in an alcohol-free environment here at church.
SPEAKER_01: But deep inside, you know, I don't have any experiences, positive or negative.
SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of a life of neutrality.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, Adnaham Judson remarried, had a baby, and that woman died.
SPEAKER_01: And by then, he was in Burma and they hated him.
SPEAKER_01: And he was, they tied him up by his feet at night, and they would take bamboo sticks and beat the bottom of his feet so he couldn't walk around and spread the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But they were gracious, they let him out for an hour at night so he could take the baby into the village and find a nursing mother who just had a baby and pay her to nurse this baby so the baby wouldn't die.
SPEAKER_01: You're just like, why are you telling us this?
SPEAKER_01: Because to follow Jesus is to have the experiences of Jesus, both positive and negative.
SPEAKER_01: If that world hates you, it hated me first.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what it comes down to.
SPEAKER_01: Do you still want to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: That's what it comes down to.
SPEAKER_01: Do you still want to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
SPEAKER_01: Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead.
SPEAKER_01: This is why I remember 35 years ago the shirt the man was wearing when he said, No, my brother, that's a little broad for me.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people call themselves Christians, but they don't follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I like to call myself a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And look at me, and I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: I never thought the same about Christianity after that experience.
SPEAKER_01: It just something got broke off of me.
SPEAKER_01: Something got broke off of me.
SPEAKER_01: So I find myself, people say, Oh, so you consider yourself a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, more importantly, I consider myself a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's that like?
SPEAKER_01: Some days you're drinking the wine and some days you're stomping the grapes.
SPEAKER_01: Some days it's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just being honest with you.
SPEAKER_01: And some days, look at me, it's lonely.
SPEAKER_01: Lonely.
SPEAKER_01: I met with the 11th grade guy earlier this year.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, uh, I'm just kind of depressed because all my friends clown on me because I want to save myself from marriage.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Oh yeah, you're gonna get clowned on.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Of course they're gonna make fun of you.
SPEAKER_01: Your baseball team?
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And they always bring up crude things around me, try to embarrass me.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hey, this is not gonna make sense until you meet your wife and she looks at you and smiles and says, I've been waiting for you, you've been waiting for me.
SPEAKER_01: This is a great thing.
SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, you're gonna have some experiences of Jesus, of rejection and ridicule.
SPEAKER_01: As long as they pull your beard out and nug you to a cross, you'll be fine.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I came around the desk, I laid my hands on this kid's shoulder and started praying for him, and his shoulder started just shaking.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, is he laughing?
SPEAKER_01: No, he was sobbing.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, afterwards, I said, You okay?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, This was so good.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for just telling me this is what it's like to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, and so you gotta ask yourself, do you want to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you just want to abide in the crowd over there?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: If you like to teach the Bible, then we give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Some questions come up on the screen, that's for your consideration and contemplation.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about them in our community groups, but right now let's just be still and just ask the Lord, hey, what I had my name on it today.
SPEAKER_01: What do I walk out of here with and think about on Tuesday on the way to work?
SPEAKER_01: Father, it's whatever it's today may sound.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for it.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like we're trying to push a boulder uphill.
SPEAKER_01: No, we're riding the log ride at Six Flags downhill.
SPEAKER_01: There ought to be some shrieking and some joy and a little bit of fear.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good day right there, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So don't rescue us from those days that have fear and shrieking, and don't rescue us from the days that have joy.
SPEAKER_01: Because one informs the other, and we are better for it, and you died because of it.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want to follow you.
SPEAKER_01: We want to experience what you experience.
SPEAKER_01: We want to have spiritual authority and physical dominion.
SPEAKER_01: We want to exercise those things, starting with ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We do not think that Jesus lived a sinless life, died on the cross, rose from the dead for us to win religious arguments.
SPEAKER_01: That's a complete waste of our life.
SPEAKER_01: We do think you did all that so we could follow you and experience what you experienced.
SPEAKER_01: And so we avail ourselves to that today.
SPEAKER_01: We avail ourselves to that today, and we say thank you for it in advance.
SPEAKER_01: And all God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to this message.
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SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to go deeper with our sermon content, you can hear more on our Circling Back with Neil McClendon podcast at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.