Entrégate — DawnCheré Wilkerson

And I think you're going to cheer up. I think it's going to challenge you. It's going to challenge us. And I think that through the word of God, our hearts will be open for change, for transformation through His Spirit. When Jesus was about to leave, a man came running and knelt down in front of Him. Good Master, I ask you, what should I do to give you eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered. No one is good but only God. You know the commandments. Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother. Master, said the man, all this I have done since I was young. Jesus looked at him with love and added, you are missing one thing. Go, sell everything you have, and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me. Hearing this, the man was discouraged, and he was sad because he had a lot of wealth. Jesus looked around and told his disciples, how difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.

The disciples were amazed at his words. Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God, Jesus repeated. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were even more amazed, and they said to each other, then who will be able to save himself? For men it is impossible, Jesus clarified, looking at them fixedly, but not for God. In fact, for God, everything, say everything, is possible. What about us, that we have left everything and we have followed you? Peter began to say. I assure you, Jesus replied, that everyone who for my cause and that of the gospel has left home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or land, will receive a hundred more times now in this time homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land, although with persecutions. And in the coming age, eternal life. But many of the first will be last, and the last will be first. I want to tell you about this idea. Surrender.

Look at your neighbor. Surrender. We bow our heads to pray. Lord, thank you for all the people here, those who look at us online. Lord, by closing our eyes, we forget all distractions, we focus on this moment, we are present, we are interacting, committed to you. Our eyes on you. Change us, form us, by the power of your Spirit. We believe it will be done in the name of Jesus. And everyone says? Come on, and everyone says? Amen. In this text that we just read, we are reading a conversation with Jesus. We are reading about a young man who is an influential leader who is called the rich and young ruler. He has an exchange with Jesus, the Messiah. And it's amazing how a conversation can change your life forever. All of us have had conversations that have changed the trajectory of our lives. I never take this lightly,

these moments, because God is always speaking. But are we listening? God is inviting us to be part of his story. The question is, are we following him? The young man says to Jesus, Good Master, what should I do to inherit eternal life? And instead of answering the question immediately, Jesus speaks about how he addressed him. Why do you call me good? Jesus answers. No one is good but only God. And he recites the commandments to them. And the young man says, I have only done it since I was young. Let's see, a moment. Let's take a moment. The reason why this man calls him good master is because, as he perceives it, he is trying to achieve salvation, to give the size. And you and I know that this is not the message of the Gospel. That is not the reason why Jesus came. He is a good master. He did not come to teach us how to achieve salvation. He came to pay the maximum price.

Who is grateful today? Because he is the only one who can open the way for us. Eternal life is not an achievement. For him it is an achievement, for this young man. He is saying, How can I achieve it? How can I have eternal life? Instead of asking the question, how can I have a personal relationship with the Savior himself? It's like Jesus perceives that he is saying, I'm doing well, but I'm looking for an extra credit. Let's see what else I can do. When I grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, in our living room, actually, the dining room had a wall. It was a mirror, but there was a wall that was a whole mirror. My older sister, when she was three or four years old, would sit at the table and have conversations around the table when they were talking. The parents realized that they were looking at them, they were looking at the mirror behind them. They were talking to them, but they were actually looking at the mirror all the time. How many of you know that my parents at one point decided, we have to remove this mirror because you're talking to us, but you're looking at yourself. And that's exactly what the young rich ruler is doing in this conversation. He's talking to Jesus, but he's looking at himself. How often does our being interfere with what we see? Sometimes our eyes are open and they're looking. We're just amazed by our own image, but we desperately need to not be amazed by our own being. We have to look at Jesus. I grew up singing a song that simply says, Open my eyes, Lord.

I want to see Jesus. Reach and touch him. Tell him, I love you. Open my ears, Lord. Help me hear you. Open my eyes, Lord. I want to see Christ. How often do we desperately want to see Jesus? But we don't see beyond our being. Our being gets in the way of what we see. To see the Savior, we have to stop focusing on our being. Our being, being focused on ourselves, our selfishness, our doubt, our self-sabotage, our own justice. Our being will block our view of the Savior over and over again. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to surrender. Leave your being aside. We know that Jesus calls Moses, declaring to the Pharaoh, Let my people go. Perhaps you are the one who keeps your being enslaved. Perhaps you are the one who retains your being. Could it be that you are putting your future as a hostage? Scripture says, Humble yourselves before the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you when the time comes. There are people who listen to my voice and have decided that they are not going to go to church. You are looking online

and you have skepticism when you listen to me speak. There are people who will not raise their hand, or will not pass through the aisle, or will not join a group because they think that is below them, because they are trapped in the prison of their own being. I want to speak to you simply and clearly. Release your being. No one is stopping you from finding a crew full of faith to describe your identity. No one is stopping you from breaking that toxic relationship. No one is stopping you from serving. No one is stopping you from offering. No one is forcing you to follow Jesus. and you're spending time with that group that puts pressure on you and that tears you down. No one else is holding you back except yourself. The good news is that at any time, at any time that you make the decision to surrender, you can enter the will of God, in the purpose that He has for you before you start your life. You have to surrender. The rich young man asks a simple question. What should I do to inherit eternal life? What should I do? This is the question of a man who knows that he still has to give something more, that there is still something more that he has to do on his part. There are areas of his life that have not yet been given to God. It is the question of someone who knows the quality of surrender. He approaches Jesus as an academic. He seeks personal development instead of approaching Him as a sinner who is desperate to find a Savior. And Jesus, after interacting with him, when he gets to the decisive point, says, Okay, you just need one thing.

Sell everything you have. Then come and follow me. You just need one thing. And he will have thought, How? What do I need? My money is a good thing. It's not something I need. This is an important part of my life. But what prevents you from doing the will of God is not a good thing. It is a risk, something that keeps you away. It is not something beneficial. It is an obstacle. What is there in your life that you have not given to God? What is that thing? Do we all have one thing? Your identity? Your security? Your comfort? Your reputation? What is that one thing? Because we all know what that one thing is for us. And I want to encourage you in the Spirit. Surrender. Because when we follow Jesus, we have to count the cost. There is no time in Scripture where God asks for forgiveness for causing us inconvenience. Carrying the cross is something essential. The cost of discipline is very clear. He makes clear what He has prepared for those who love Him. It is better than anything you are holding on to. He is the owner of everything.

This young man breaks your heart because he is sad. He moves away from serving Jesus. And Scripture says, because he had many riches. This young man, this leader, counts the cost and decides that the cost is too great. He could not do it. He could not surrender. In those days, wealth was not just an amount of money in your account. It was also your status. It was your identity. Wealth was linked to leadership. He had influence. His name meant something. He moved away from following Jesus. Instead, he decided to follow himself. He decided to follow himself. One of my faith heroes is a woman named Lillian Trasher. I told her story before and I will continue to tell it. Because we need to know the stories of the faithful men and women who preceded us. Lillian Trasher was born in 1800 in the United States, in the South. She was a beautiful young woman who had many talents in her life. She fell in love with a young man who was a very committed man, a great preacher. They were committed. But Lillian Trasher could not ignore the fact that she had been called to the missions. But the Promised One was not called to the missions. She felt called to the world and to fight. They could not align their calls. And there came a time when she looked him in the eye and said, I love you, but God has called me to the missions.

He broke his promise. He got on a boat and sailed to Egypt. A 23-year-old single woman found her calling by taking care of a young mother who was dying. And this dying woman gave birth to her baby. And she adopted that girl. And she started an orphanage, where for 50 years, she served the people of Egypt. And to this day, she is known as Mama Lilian. She left a legacy, leading the largest orphanage in all of Egypt. She followed Jesus, counted the cost, calculated the cost, and gave her life, gave her life to him. Mateo 22.14 says, Because many are called and few are chosen. Lilian Trasher is known for a radical dependence on God. There were times when she didn't have food for the kids, or she didn't have a place for them, but she trusted God, and God provided for them over and over again. She didn't come with a team to Egypt with all the food and with a presentation, but she went trusting God with all her heart. And where God led her, she followed him, and God worked. Let us praise the Lord. That is the God to whom we serve. Many are called, says Mateo, and few are chosen. I wondered how to distinguish between those two words, those two. Called, chosen, called, chosen. What does this mean? I think this conversation with the rich young man is one of the clearest images to distinguish between being called and being chosen, because God cannot choose you unless you surrender.

The rich young man is called by Jesus, the Messiah himself, but he does not want to surrender. But how can God choose you if you do not choose him first of all? How can he use you if you do not put your whole life in his hands? Not to be good, not to be successful, but to be who God has called you to be. Our conversation with Jesus, are they real? Are they authentic? Do we have authentic conversations with him? We pray, Lord, open a way for me where there is no way, and he opens the way, and we ignore him. We fantasize him. We pray, Lord, direct me, and he directs us, but we choose not to follow him, because we refuse to surrender. The call and the answer. The call is always safe. The answer depends on you. What is your answer? There are no exceptions in Scripture. Each of the people here had to make the decision to follow God. To follow God, they had to surrender. They were broken, they had a past like all of us. That is not the point. They had to surrender their being completely and choose to follow and trust God. Peter had to surrender, to give up his pride. Gideon, the fear. Moses, the approval of insecurity. Paul had to give up his religious reputation.

Abraham had to give up comfort and control. Esther had to give up her safety. Mary had to give up her idea of marriage and being a mother. Each person had to choose to surrender. Surrender your being. The more you have, the more you have to surrender. It says, the more you give, the more you ask. Yes, God asks for it, but it is also our safety. But we depend completely on the presence of God. When you surrender your being, sometimes you will not be understood. It is important that we know this, because we are in a culture where everyone has opinions about everyone. I want you to know that Scripture says that when you choose to follow Jesus, you will be misunderstood. The world says, oh, he really let himself be carried away. He let himself be carried away, maybe, to follow Jesus is like that, to let himself be carried away. Are we so focused on preserving our image that we forget to preserve our faith? Are we so focused on leniency in this world that we are not prepared for eternity with God? Are we so focused on reputation now that we are not willing to be misunderstood in order to follow Jesus? Because again and again we hear women who were misunderstood, but who completely surrendered to God. Ana cries asking God for a son and they think she is drunk. David dances freely in front of the ark and they criticize him. Paul disappears for years after that meeting on the way to Damascus with Jesus. He disappears for years from a place of prominence and influence when God reconstructs his life day after day for the ministry that he has in front of him. The rich young man could not give what he had, what he clung to, and he had no idea what was lost. God is the best invitation of his life. God himself is looking him in the eyes, making him a personal invitation, but he cannot see beyond his own being. The only person he sees in the frame is his own life and he loses it. God is inviting him to know him personally, to be his disciple. Who knows what God would have done through his life, what would have been part of history, and he moves away. Thinking about this text, this week, I remembered another young man who had many.

The prodigal son. He receives a lot. He asks for an inheritance. Before long, he says, I want it now. He is impatient. The scripture says that he spends it all. He spends it all in a life of pleasure. He loses everything he received. He is feeding the animals, surrounded by the mire of the pigs. He finds the food of the pigs desirable. At that moment, he realizes, even my father's servants have a better situation. I can be a servant again in my father's house. It would be better. He says he regains his senses and returns home. I love this image. It is not about his own strength. He is broken. He has nothing to offer. But when he gives up his being, he leaves aside his pride and his failure. The father comes running to him. He does not even wait for his son to come to him. The father runs to look for him. He gives him clothes. He puts a ring on him. He welcomes him to a party. It is a beautiful image of God's love. It cost him to lose everything in order to gain one thing. Here we have the rich young man. And that one thing is not God. He says it only from his lips. But that is not the only thing. God is not the only thing for him. What he wants is his wealth, his identity, his influence. He does not want to let it go. Do you know what? The wealth of the young man is like the chiquero where the prodigal son was. He may have been in that chiquero. This is compared to the wealth, compared to following Jesus.

Because God is the owner of everything. He calls him to heaven. What he thought was too little compared to what the King of kings and Lord of lords, the creator of heaven and earth, had for him, for his life. But he could not surrender. He could not surrender. Marcos 836 says, What is the use of winning the whole world if you lose your life? Jesus is not angry with him, and I am not angry when I preach. I am evaluating my own spirit, because this is a challenge for each one of us in all the seasons of our lives. Jesus looks at him with love. Imagine the Savior of the world looking at you with eyes of love, trying to convince you to stay away from what you know, so that you can enter what he created your DNA for you to live. Imagine the King of Kings looking at you with eyes of love, trying to convince you that what you think is great wealth is simply ashes, compared to what he has to give you. God looks at him with eyes of love. And today he looks at you with eyes of love. He looks at me with eyes of love, and he calls us. And the call is worth it. It is worth it. Pity, says Isaiah, all our acts of justice are like rags of filth. Let us know that we do not have to have a life, that we build a life of spiritual justice, and put Jesus in a box of success or growth. Success is to follow Jesus. Success is to follow Jesus, said David. Someone says, one thing, one thing I ask of the Lord, and that is the only thing I pursue,

to live in the house of the Lord every day of my life. This is the only thing. To live in the house of the Lord every day, forever. That we despise everything else and that we cling to God. Perhaps the rich young man could have been one of the best friends of Jesus. I would love to think that. Perhaps he could have written one of the letters of this holy book. We will not know. I was ministering this week in Texas, and it was a week of many activities. I am introverted and I prefer to be at home. I love being at home. It was a weekend full of activities. I was preaching. My father was with me. If I were frank, I would have preferred to stay at home, resting. My father looked at me and said, this is your call. You cannot stop. You cannot do that. You cannot stop until God tells you. You have to follow what God is saying. And when He changes, when He makes a change, you can make a change. I am grateful for the parents who make me follow the call of God. I am grateful for the parents who put me in the perspective of God. I think that this season for me, traveling with babies, with sick babies, or long nights, sometimes I can see them and say, oh Lord, it would be so easy to deliver this, but God has not told me to do it, so I cannot do it.

I have to follow it. And the greatest perspective for me, which is that when the cost I am paying pales in comparison to what men and women, not only 2,000 years ago, but today, in 2025, who breathe the same air as us, pales in comparison to the price that other people are paying in other parts of the world to follow Jesus. So, are you grateful for today, for men and women today, who are following Jesus, regardless of the cost? And I know that I cannot put aside my calling because I am a mother, because it would be easier, or because it is an obvious option. If He calls me, I have to follow Him. What is that one thing for you? History does not end with the rich young man. History ends with a conversation with one of Jesus' best friends. His name is Peter. Pedro is a witness to this conversation. He is looking at this young influential man who is moving away from the best invitation in the world. And how does Pedro know this? Because he had the same invitation. He sees that this is happening. And maybe the story is more about Pedro than about the rich young man. Because they tell us in verse 28, What of us that we have left everything and we have followed you, begins to say to Pedro? Jesus answered, I assure you that all who for my cause and that of the gospel has left home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or land will receive a hundred times more now in this time houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land, although with persecutions

and in the coming age, eternal life. But many of the first were last and the last were first. He speaks with Jesus. I know this one has just moved away from following you. He has no idea, but I want to remind you that we, this dispersed group, we move away from our lives to follow you. We give up everything, my family, my job. Lord, we leave everything to follow you, Lord. Pedro knows what the cost is because he paid it. And not only that, he will continue to pay it until it costs him his life. Because he is crucified upside down. At the end of his life, Jesus does not criticize him. He says, calm down, boy, I am the Savior. No, he does not give him attitude. Jesus loves him. He answers him. He continues the conversation because he has something to say to Pedro. To affirm the decision he has made to surrender. What Pedro is saying is a legitimate phrase. And Jesus gives him an answer. He already answered the rich young man. If you give everything you have, you will have treasures in heaven. Only the rich young man did not hear him. He could only focus on what he had in his hand and what he was going to give. And Jesus looks at Pedro and says, what you give in this life, you will receive a hundred times more. I want to assure you that there is a cost to your call. It has been a great cost. You have made a sacrifice. You have made a surrender. But friends, God sees all the steps of the way. And he has rewards that you can not imagine. He has dreamed of. What a good God. A loving Father. Jesus answers. He assures him that you have treasures. He says, you will receive a hundred times more. I see all the sacrifices. I see the pain. I see your surrender. I see the cost of carrying your cross. And you will not be without reward. But you will not know until you do it. You will not know until you surrender. Until you surrender. You do not know what is inside of you that will be freed by the power and presence of the Almighty.

Until you go, you will not know what God has ordered for you. The rich young man will have good memories of having had good moments, but he did not truly live. Because to truly live is to be in the adventure of a lifetime. A call written by God. And you will never know until you take that step. Until you advance. In high school, my brothers did sports. And the coach came and said, I need someone who has to volunteer for this race. Nobody wanted to do it. My brother raised his hand. He had to run 800 meters. He had never competed in athletics. 64 schools represented. He didn't even know how to line up, how to stay in his lane. But the signal was shot and he began to run with all his being, so fast that he passed them all. He was ahead and began to run and say, stop! Or slow down, you won't be able to finish. He finished, he finished with a gold medal. He won first place, he beat everyone else. They didn't come near him, he wouldn't have known what was inside him if he hadn't started the race, if he hadn't raised his hand and said, I'm going to go. And that's how it is for you. You won't know until you calculate the cost of following Jesus. There are talents, there are ideas, there are families, there is leadership. There is discernment, knowledge and prophetic gifts. Everyone is waiting for you from God, but you won't know until you surrender. Let's stand up. Surrender.

Someone say, go. Jesus says to Peter, follow me. Follow me and I will make you a fisherman of men. Think about this for a moment, think about Peter. The only thing he knows how to do is what his father and grandfather did. And with an invitation, God brings out the perspective of what he can achieve and do in life. There are no limits when it comes to the presence of God, but you're going to have to calculate the cost. You're going to have to take a step to follow God with all your heart. We can't take it lightly. He leaves the networks, leaves his sustenance, leaves the city that he has known all his life and follows Jesus with all his heart. Jesus is saying, I know you've only caught fish, but I know what I've put in front of you, but if you follow me, you're going to do more than you've dreamed. It doesn't mean that Peter was perfect, no. He denied Jesus, but Jesus came to him once again. The invitation is maintained. And Peter followed Jesus and waited in the high abode. And Peter is the first evangelist to give a complete sermon, to give a true sermon on the stairs of the high abode, full of the power of the Holy Spirit. And Mary ran to tell them, Jesus is alive, but Peter, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, preaches the first sermon, and with the first sermon, 3,000 people are saved. You don't know what's inside of you. And I often think of the men and women who preceded us. The scriptures tell us that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. And I think about that so much because it gives me strength. I don't just hear the voice of Father Don Shareem. If you are called, continue to obey. I think of the men and women, the generations that we don't know, but I heard their stories

of faith, and that encourages me to continue as a mother, as a participant of the body of Christ and the family of God. And I want to declare this in your life. They are in heaven telling you, surrender, surrender. Mary, Anna, Ruth, Elizabeth tells you, David tells you, Moses tells you today. Listen to your Savior sitting at the Father's table, interceding for you, praying that you surrender, because you are the only one who can surrender his being and follow Jesus. Here, let's bow our heads, let's close our eyes, to focus on the invitation that he is giving you. This is not my invitation. Do you know Jesus? Have you given your life to Him? There is one thing that you are holding back. Some of the greatest miracles in our life we cannot hold back. I think of Abraham, the miracle, who is Isaac, this is one thing, he tried his heart, he tested our heart, Lord, there is nothing that I want to retain from you, I am following you. Today, if you say, I do not know Jesus, but I want him to be my Lord and my Savior, I do not want to play the church or be good, I do not want to be religious, I do not want to give the cross or achieve this by my strength, I do not want him to look good, but I want my soul to be transformed by the Savior, if that is you, and I choose Jesus, on the count of three I want you to raise your hand, one, two, three. Here in this room, if you are looking at the child, I want to choose Jesus, I see your hands here, but the most important thing is that God see your heart, from back to front we are going to raise our hands, let's raise our hands as a sign of performance, I am releasing what I am clasping to receive what you are, everything that you are, that's what we do when we raise our hands, let's pray, dear Jesus, today I choose to put my life in your hands, I am celebrating that you rescued me, I believe that you died for me and that you resurrected, forgive me for my sins, clean me, I want to walk with you, I want to speak with you, I love you, in the name of Jesus, and everyone says amen, amen, amen.