Keep Going Pt. 2

Hey, what's up, everybody? This is Pastor Keith Battle, and I'm so excited about this series we're in now. Today is Keep Going Part Two. It is so important that we follow Jesus. We continue to follow him, but we got to know how. And there's a key ingredient to following Jesus, and it's called a cross. I want you to check this out. Let's go in the sanctuary. Colossians 2, 6 and 7 is our foundation verse for this series. It says in verse 6, where we'll focus today, and now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Somebody say this. I must continue to follow him. I must continue my faith journey. I must keep going. It is a must. Verse 7, make sure you let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Amen. Now, as you take your seat, on your way to your seat, please tell one person, keep going. Yeah. When the apostle Paul writes these words to the church at Colossae, he is writing to a group of believers who started off, you know, you remember you used to say, I don't hear this a lot, I was on fire for the Lord. People had a passion for their faith, but they were surrounded by distractions, just like we are. They had competing interests that kept them from being faithful to their faith walk with Jesus Christ, whether it was people or places or contexts.

Paul, the apostle, has seen this movie over and over again. In fact, one of the people that he even wrote about in the book of Colossians, who was a leader on his team named Demas, D-E-M-A-S, was one of the leaders. I'm not just talking about just a lay person, this was a leader amongst his team. He later talked about Demas in 2 Timothy 4, verse 10, and he says, because Demas loved this world so much, he has left me and went to Thessalonica. Not only did Demas leave Paul, he left the faith. Why did he leave? Because he loved the world so much. I've been a Christian for 45 years, and I have seen people start off with God and walk away from the faith, leave the church. There's an old song that says, the going gets tough and the road is rough and the hills are hard to climb. I started out a long time ago, and there's no doubt in my mind I've decided to make Jesus my choice. Then there's a hymn that says, I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. The cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back. There are people who started like that, but they have turned back. Many of them because they love the world. Paul told Timothy, he says, cling to your faith, because Hymenaeus, in the book of 2nd Timothy, he says, Hymenaeus and Alexandria have shipwrecked their faith. In fact, when he talked about Philetus in the book of Timothy, he says that not only have they left the faith, they're causing others to leave too. How can you state a course in a world and in an environment where people are walking away from Jesus, some of them because they fell in love with the world, the lust of the world, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, some of them because they said they got hurt at church. I'm saying if being hurt at church made you walk away from Jesus, you had your eyes on the wrong thing.

I'm a human being. I hurt people. Sometimes I have hurt people, but don't let me or anybody else make you walk away from God. God is too important for you. No man, no place is worthy of you, worth you walking away from God. Amen. And it's interesting. People say because they got church hurt, they don't go to church no more. You got work hurt too, but you still get up and go. You've had food poisoning too before, but I bet you're still eating. Just got to watch where they eat. You can find another church. Amen. How do we state a course? I want to go back to Colossians chapter two, verse six. That's what we're going to focus on today. Because in Colossians chapter two, verse six, Paul emphasized, he says, you must continue to follow him. You must continue to follow Jesus. But how do you do that? And this is what I realized, that something in the A part of that verse is critical to being consistent and keep going and following Jesus. And it is this. And now, just as you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, just as you have accepted Christ Jesus. It says you have accepted Christ Jesus. That's his savior role. That is his position as savior in our life. But when it says you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord,

that's a different word. It's the Greek word kurios. And it doesn't mean friend, even though what a friend we have in Jesus. When it says kurios, that is the word that means dominion and authority. He rules over a person's life. That is who Jesus also is. He's not just a friend and he's not just a savior. He is Lord. He is Lord. And that is supposed to be his position in our life. And one of the things, I don't remember where I first saw this in my life as a Christian. I can't remember who did it. I remember being somewhere and somebody wrote on a flip chart, they wrote a cross and then they wrote like a chair, a big chair, a throne. And they said, now Jesus died on the cross, but now he has been elevated to the throne. He's seated at the right hand of God. And he says, as Christians, now it is our job to make sure we don't dethrone him and put our lives on the throne. We should be bearing the cross. That's because as his work on the cross was his work for us as savior, but his seat on the throne is his position in our life

as Lord of our life. And that's where he belongs. The problem is too many Christians have dethroned Jesus and recrossed him. Because we'd rather keep Jesus on the cross and remain our savior than to put him on the throne and we must submit our life to him. There's a difference. There's a difference between, thank you for being my savior. You paid for my sins. You shed your blood. I'm going to heaven when I die. I got my fire insurance. That's easy for him to do that because that doesn't require any sacrifice on my part. But if he's going to be Lord, now I must submit my life to him, my money to him, my decisions to him, my relationships to him, my plans to him. He is sovereignly in control of my life because he is not just savior, he is Lord. And some of y'all are in his seat. I had the privilege of working with the Washington Wizards for 10 years as a chaplain. Now they're getting good. They're getting good. Anyway, I might go back now and see how they're doing this. Anyway, when we go to some of the games, it's a trip when you're sitting close to the floor,

if you see people, because I had this pass where I could walk around and you see people sitting close to the floor. If you ever see somebody that's sitting in somebody else seat the people whose seat it is be super extra. They come, they don't do it nicely. They'd be like this getting ushers and everything saying, hey, come over here. What's wrong? You're in my seat. I wonder if God is saying, when you say what's wrong Jesus, what are you saying? You're in my seat. You can't follow me. See, here's the thing. One of the things when Paul says continue to follow him, you can't follow him in his seat because this seat represents control. This seat, this position represents submission. And let me go to, first of all, he's earned the right to be in his position because Philippians chapter two, that's where I want to go. Philippians chapter two, beginning at verse five, it says, let this mind be in you that was also, or attitude that was also in Christ Jesus. Verse six, though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges.

He took the humble position of a slave and was born a human being. Watch this. He gave up his divine privileges. That means he chose to be dethroned. He left the throne. He took the position of a slave and was born as a human being. And when he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. So before Jesus went to the cross, he was already on the throne. He came down to earth to die on a cross. And then let's read the rest of the verse. Because he was obedient unto death, verse nine says, therefore God elevated him to the place of highest honor, gave him the name above all other names that in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He was on the throne. He came to earth, died on the cross, then was elevated to seated at the right hand of the Father and now he has been rethrown. So that seat is one that he has earned by deity and duty. Ooh, that's so good right there. So when he says you have accepted me as your Lord,

that means this is my seat. Deep for you to submit your life to because a life that is throne oriented when you have a throne oriented life That means you are the king of your own life. You are the queen of your own kingdom That means you call the shots you do what you want to do. You keep Jesus on the cross You like keeping them over here because that keeps you in charge You just be my Savior. I got this other part of it. I'll call you when I need you But when you have a throne oriented life, it is a self-centered life when you have a cross oriented life It is a self-submitted life. It is a selfless life and that is the life He's calling us to because here's the deal what the cross represents death now Why do I say what because go to go to Luke chapter 9 verse 23? This this got me this week because I realized the reason why we can't keep going the reason why we can't keep following him is Because we don't have a cross We're on the throne Listen what Jesus says he says he says to the crowd if any of you wants to be my follower you want to be my Follower you want to be my follower? Here's what you got to do first. You must give up your own way That means you got to dethrone yourself The second thing you got to do is you got to take up your cross daily and then follow me There could be no following without a cross How do you keep going you follow him? How do you follow him? You can only follow him with a cross now that cross is not for your salvation Your cross is not for your salvation Jesus's cross saved you Your cross allows you to follow him You cannot follow him now when he said that in Luke 9 23 Everybody in his audience knew exactly what he meant because everybody didn't knew that a cross represented the death penalty We have we have Commercialized crosses now to where we put them on and they're you know, a fashion statement It's bling but a cross is no different than having a Electric chair hanging around your neck or a gas chamber

When you when you picked up a cross in the Bible, that was it you were walking to your demise You never returned in the state you left in you were your life had come to an end So they knew that it meant to lay down your life to pick up your cross daily means every day God I'm rechecking in to make sure I'm under your agenda and not my own. I Had to dethrone myself and recross myself every day to submit to my cross in order to follow you Because that is the cost of being a follower of Jesus. In fact, I looked this up. I was like, okay Let me ask this question. What does it mean? I asked Google. Excuse me. I ain't get the GP chat on that or Claude or perplexity We just down with the basic old standard whammy Google Well, let's go with this He says I say what does it mean to take up your crosses and this is what Google said taking up your cross means dying to your own ego Selfishness and worldly desires watch this so you can put God at the center of your life Israel how it says Jesus at the center of it all Jesus at the center of it all From beginning to the end it has always been it will always be you Jesus. He's nothing else matters Nothing in this world would do Jesus. You're the center and everything revolves around you Can you say that about your life? From my heart to the heavens Jesus be the center and it's all about you. It's all about you. Richard Smallwood says Jesus You're the center of my joy Is Jesus central in your life Most of you I said this a few weeks ago. Jesus is an accoutrement to your life He's an accessory You got Jesus up on the wall. Your cross is on the wall next to everything else that you worship He's up there with your degrees and your organization. He ain't when he say He's on a par with quality with everything Really if he's not the center you're off and if you're off only God knows where you're headed

Do you know on a cruise ship? Once a cruise ship is off. It has these Instruments to show it which direction to go if it's leaving a port if it's leaving Baltimore if it's leaving Florida or wherever they have Instruments to show this you got to be on this you got to be on this you got to be on this because we go Into Cancun or whatever. I don't know. This is where we're going if that sucker goes like this This is where we're supposed to be going and it's going like this. I Said from here to here You go from here to here and you go in this like this for a week you in Africa And I'm saying since you've been off so long you in Africa. Jesus be the center of my life. Smith Wigglesworth says, when you are on the throne, you're in the way of what God's plan is for your life. God, people who live, people who live a throne life, their decisions are different than people who live a life submitted to the cross. It's a whole different life. Your choices are different. The way you, the way you decide on a career is different. When you are a throne oriented person, you decide on a career move with how much they're paying. That's all that matters. How much they're paying? What's, what's, what's, what's, what's the package? Not what, what will it do to my marriage? What will it do to my family? What would it do to my integrity? Well, is this what God has called me to do? That's a cross question. Do you understand what I'm saying? Now, you don't have to like this. You just have to deal with it. Amen. Because what you going to do? Like, I mean, we're in church. This is what you're supposed to hear, right? So, so he says, the first thing you do is you set, you give up, die to your own ego and selfishness so that you can put God in the center of your life. He also says this in Mr. Google. I don't know his real name. Continuous intentional surrender. It's every day. I'm back, Lord. What, what? Throughout the day. You can't, you can't just take up your cross one time and that's it. I got my cross. Now, you get saved one time. You want, Lord, save me. You saved. Cross, that's daily. Throughout the day. All you need is somebody to give you the finger on the road. Hey, Lord, I'm back. Because you already know. You already know. You already know. I told you, you told a child they supposed to do something and it ain't done when you get home. Now, you done went to ten in your head. You gotta go back to the cross. Say, Lord, I want to handle this your way because I have a stealing spirit on me right now.

Feel like stealing somebody. I'm not saying people are never supposed to get stolen. I'm just saying. Did Jesus tell you to steal a person? No. If you're from another part of the country, stealing means you just take, walk up to somebody and just hit them in the face. They're just, you stole them. I'm not advocating that. I'm just saying, that's what the devil will tell you to do. But when you're cross oriented, you, I'm not saying you can never challenge a person. You have to decide, Lord, what is the way, what is the best way to have this conversation in a way that keeps you glorified? Them claps are soft as a mud. You know, them, them courteous claps. Continuous intentional surrender. Walking with the Lord is about perpetual will surrendering decisions. Self-denial. Following Jesus when it's difficult, inconvenient, and unpopular. Let me tell you something. Following Jesus is even unpopular in church. I promise you that there are people in this church that ain't following Jesus. That ain't even on the agenda. Jesus is a part of the situation. It ain't all that serious to them. But we don't get our agenda from popular culture. We get our agenda from God and His Word. It's a higher flow. It's a higher standard. I like what Pastor Larry Page said. He had this quote that he brought to our church for baptisms. It's a powerful thing. This is what we say when we baptize people. He says, based on the profession of your faith, will you deny yourself, will you love God with all your heart, and will you follow Him even when it hurts? Oh, that's so good right there. That's so good. I love it because it doesn't ask the passive questions. It doesn't say, based on the profession of your faith, will you accept this free gift of salvation? First of all, if you're getting baptized, you've already accepted the gift of salvation. You don't get baptized to get saved. You get baptized because you are saved, and you're publicly declaring what has already happened in your life. So we don't need to go backwards. We need to know now, not did you put faith in Jesus. That's the profession of your faith. Did you put faith in Jesus? Now we need to know, can Jesus put faith in you? Hear the Jesus faith in you questions. Will you deny yourself? You've been on the throne of your life your whole life. That's why anybody that doesn't agree with you gets cut off. People don't agree with you, you block them, unfriend them just because they don't agree with you. Woo, we got work to do. Will you deny yourself? Will you love the Lord with all your heart? That's Lord stuff. That ain't Savior stuff. Will you, watch this, will you

follow Him even when it hurts? Even when the cross get heavy, will you tap out? Or will you follow Him even when it hurts? Pastor Larry said these words. you know what? Following Jesus and bearing that cross is a high cost and people want a discount version. But you gotta pay full price to follow Jesus because it ain't never on sale. I said it ain't never on sale. So how do we do it, pastor? What does the life look like that's cross-oriented? Well, first of all, remember the cross means I've died. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. In the life I now live in this flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So you know what I'm doing? I'm living where he died. And some of you are sitting where you should be bowing. Ooh, this is so good, I'm gonna go watch it myself. How do you do that? How do you live a cross-oriented life? First of all, watch how Jesus handled his cross. When Jesus first picked up the cross and was carrying it up Golgotha's hill, under the weight of it, one of the things he did was his words were few. He was very, very calculated and selective in his speech. People were hurling mockings at him, calling him names, disrespecting him, people who he had helped too. And he didn't say anything. One of the things that some of you need to understand that a part of your cross is when God elevates you, it comes with criticism. And you gotta learn how to understand that that's what comes with the territory. And you're so busy wanting to argue back with people who don't like you. That's throne stuff. We got a person on the throne in America like that. Petty. Every time somebody says something, run the country. What are you doing on Twitter anyway, responding to people? See, that's a throne mindset. When you have a cross mindset, you understand that people can talk about you, but they can't stop you. You don't have to like me. You can say what you want. Negatively, positively, you have your opinion. So Jesus, when he says, and one man tried to tell Jesus, he says, you better say something to me. Pilate says, you better say something to me. I got the power to end your life.

Oh, no, no, no man takes my life. Well, I wish y'all read the Bible. I lay it down on myself. I got the power to lay it down and the power to take it back up again. And you have no power over me except what God gives you. You need to be able to say to your haters, you ain't got nothing. You can't do nothing to me that God don't let you do. So I ain't going on live and fighting with you. I ain't rolling into the comments and trying to argue with you about I don't even know you. Who am I talking to in here? That's your cross. Your cross will deal with criticism. And some of you have listened. This is how you know you're walking in a throne walk or crosswalk. You shut your mouth. Because when people come at it with you. One of our leaders staff had a T-shirt on. It's so funny. I cracked up. I needed a laugh. He's got a T-shirt on today and he says, I'm half Jesus, half Peter. Step to me the wrong way and you'll see which one you get. That's so funny and so wrong at the same time. But some of y'all, that's just who you are. Oh, come on. I wish you would. I wish you would. That's throne stuff. See, throne stuff will control you. Throne stuff, you only do what's comfortable. That's why you'll cut somebody out if they cross the line. You'll cut somebody out with your saved self. I mean, just lay them out because they deserved it. And then the Holy Spirit tried to convict you afterwards. And you're like, no. No, cognitive dissonance says they made me say that.

That's the only way they listen to me. That's the only way I can get them to respond. That's the devil. Now you're in a cycle. And when I talk about how the president acts, you clap and say, yeah, he wrong. What does it sound like in your house? When you talk to your spouse and your kids, your mouth is out of control. You got a throne mouth. Mm. Where did Jesus, how did he handle, how did he handle the cross? The first thing Jesus did when he got on the cross, he says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. What? The people who are hurting, when you can forgive people who have hurt you, you walking under the cross now. He didn't just forgive him, he prayed for him. That's another level. When's the last time you prayed for somebody that hurt you? I'll pray for them, all right. I pray that they'd be in the traffic, walking at high rates of speed. How do you pray? I'm not talking about he waited 10 years. You know, some of us are ready to forgive. We done been to 10 years of therapy, 10 years at church, and we said, all right, I'm going to let it go.

While they were mocking him, boy, that's another level right there. The second thing he does is he helps somebody in a similar situation to his. There's a man down on the cross next to him, and Jesus took his attention off his own pain when the man said, remember me when you get to your kingdom, he said, I got you. Today you're going with me to paradise, I got you. I can help somebody else in a similar situation. Don't you know that dear, God has anointed you to help people based on what you have survived and what you are dealing with. That wasn't just for you. That was the grace of God on your life to take your attention, stop making your pain so private you can't use it to pull somebody else up. That's cross stuff. The third thing he did was make sure his mom was good. Woman behold thy son, John behold thy mother. He's dying, he said, John, I need you to make sure my mom is good. Even while I'm in pain, I'm still looking out for those God has given me to love. Is your family okay? That's cross stuff. We take care of everybody, but the ones God has given us to love, something's off in that. He says, and the next thing he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Watch this. He takes his deepest pain and vents to God, not to other people. He says, my God, my God. He started off praying, father. He's now so distant from the father, he calls him God. Just why have you forsaken me? But watch what he doesn't do. He doesn't vent to other people. He doesn't say to the other thieves, y'all deserve this, I'm innocent. Some of y'all, as soon as you heard and you don't go to God, you go live.

Yeah, I'm live on faith. Y'all come on in. I got to tell y'all something. Y'all ain't going to believe this. You're so busy trying to make everybody feel sorry for you. That's thrown stuff. You ever heard somebody that died and you went to the funeral and they say, you know what? She never complained. He never complained. That's just mean they weren't complaining to you. You can always take your complaints to God. I must tell Jesus all of my troubles. I cannot bear these burdens alone. In my distress, he kindly will aid me. Jesus will help me. Jesus alone. The fifth thing he does is he says, I'm thirsty. I'm almost done. He says, I'm thirsty. Take my time. Okay. He says, I'm thirsty. Not just because he was thirsty. He says he was thirsty. The Bible says in order to fulfill the scriptures. Check this out. He's bleeding out and he's got the scriptures on his mind. How can I fulfill scripture? What am I supposed to do?

Boy, I'm telling you when you're in your greatest pain, the word should come up in you. What verse do you have? Well, God, I need a verse and I need a song. I need it. I need something. I need the right content to come up now. That's when it matters. That's when it matters. The word mattered to him at that time. He was full of the word. He was full of the word. Even when he said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Thank you, Pastor Larry. That's Psalm 22 right there. He's still got the word. He's still fulfilling prophecy. You need a word in you. I went to a couple of movies when we were in Florida this past week. My wife. In fact, I went to more movies than I've been to in years too. I don't, I don't go to the movies anyway. One of the movies left a lot of music on the soundtrack of my heart. I like that sentence. What is the soundtrack playing on your soul? And it wasn't that the movie was, the music was evil. It's just because I heard so much of it in the, in the movie. It reminded me of my childhood and everything that it just kept playing. But, but when I was having challenges, it couldn't help me because it didn't have the right content. And I'm saying because you blaze 18 jams in a row and because you know all the R&B songs

and all the hip hop songs and all the rap songs, when you need a word, here's what, here's what the Bible says in order to be filled with the spirit, you, here's the sign. You can sing to yourself in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You got the wrong soundtrack. And when life matters, you need God. Give me a word. Give me a scripture. Give me a song. me a word. Does anybody understand what I'm talking about? When the melodies on the radio just won't work right now, I need something strong. And he had that. The sixth thing, he says, it is finished. I love that. He finished. You know why I'm telling you to keep going? Because you can't finish if you don't keep going. It matters that you finish, y'all. It matters that you don't walk away from the faith. I said it matters. It matters that you don't quit, because there will be a lot of things that will make you walk away, even the disappointment in God. Do you know how disappointed Jesus was in God when he says, why have you forsaken me? But when it was all said and done, the seventh thing he said was, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. He made peace with the Father. And I'm telling you, after God had disappointed him, after he felt abandoned by God, when it was all said and done, he says, Father, he called him Father again. Not my God, my Father. Into your hands I commend my spirit. And I'm telling you respectfully, I know you've been through a lot. I know you've been hurt a lot. And I know a lot has hurt you. But I want to tell you something. At some point, you're going to have to take your thumb out your mouth and stop being mad at God and say, and call him Father again. I'm still here. And after all these years, you're still good. That's how Jesus handled the worst day of his life. At the end of it all, I still trust my Father. Do you understand what I'm saying? You didn't answer the prayer the way I wanted it to. I wanted him to be healed. I wanted him to live. I wanted to win. I wanted the opportunity. You didn't do that. But Father, I trust you with my life. I trust you. In a moment, Pastor Alicia Simmons and Pastor David Swan and Pastor Donja McGee, Pastor Jackie Kilgore, they're going to come up and tell you how you can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That's important. They're

going to tell you about what step you can take to join this church or how to recommit your life to Jesus. They're going to do that in a moment. But I want you to think about this for a moment. Where on this continuum is your life? Are you in charge or are you submitted to the one who is? Where is Jesus in your life? Because you both can't be on the throne. Amen. Pastors, I turn the service over to you now. Hey, I trust that that message really challenged you and spoke to your life. It is so critical that we reach up to God's standard for our lives as followers of Jesus and not the world's. Not even some of the casual relationships that we see in church. We really have to follow Him and we have to take up our cross to do that. Hey, don't forget to like, comment, share and subscribe. And we'll see you right here next week.