Rich Young Ruler | Crossed Paths | Pastor Jurie Kriel | Shoreline Church | Message

Good morning, Shoreline Church. It's good to see you guys. Good morning also to you online, if you're joining us online. There's something we just need to settle before we get going this morning, okay? So there are some amongst us in the service that has snuck in because typically they attend the first service, but today they slept in. And then they came to second service. You're welcome. Welcome to church. We love having you here. It's great that you made it. Whether you're regularly here at second service or you're one of those that snuck in like Amy in the front row, that will never forgive me. You are most welcome. And even though you lost an hour of sleep, Jesus is still on the throne and we get to worship Him together, right? Amen. Okay, so there's a collection of talks, a collection of talks, a collection of phrases that we say every week at the beginning of service. It's called the Shoreline Creed. And I want to invite you to stand with us as we say them together. If you're here for the first time, you can just read along. We say these phrases together. Apparently, though, I have a different rhythm to everybody else because of my accent. I'm blaming it on my accent, right? So I did do the oath ceremony to become a US citizen not too long ago. It was amazing. I'm so excited about it. But my ceremony was broken because when I did the oath, I didn't suddenly start speaking American.

So I still have an accent. So I thought it was going to fix it all, but apparently not. You guys ready? Ready. You don't sound ready, but we'll go anyway. Here we go. I am loved by God. I cannot earn it. I cannot lose it. I am forgiven and made brand new. In Christ, I live with passion and purpose. I am empowered by the Spirit to be the church in the world and to live this love revolution. Amen. You're so welcome to take a seat. Last week, Pastor Rob kicked us off with a message on crossed paths, and he started this conversation around how there were people whose paths crossed with Jesus as He was walking, and He actually crossed His path very deliberately with this one lady that He spoke about last week that was sitting at a well, and her life changed around. And if you missed this message, if you missed last week, I'm going to tell you it was an incredible life-changing message by Pastor Rob. You do want to go have a look online and make sure that you catch up. But what's interesting is this woman's life will change around entirely, and not only this woman's life will change, but if you go and look at Jesus' story in the Bible, you'll see that every person whose life, every person whose path He crosses, there's life change. Something happens, right? The blind man gets involved, Jesus gets involved in his life, and the blind man sees. The leper, his path crossed with Jesus, and he's cleansed. The broken people, their path crossed with Jesus, and they're healed, they're made whole. Lost people, their path crosses with Jesus, and they're saved.

Something happens when that happens. Now these are all amazing, great, encouraging stories. Today we're not going to talk about any of them. We're going to talk about the one time when Jesus' path crossed with somebody, somebody that was seeking Him, and looking for Him, and wanting to serve Him, and that person didn't leave changed, that person left sad. When Jesus' path crossed with somebody, and he left sad. It's the story of the rich, young ruler. That's what we're going to talk about. The question I'm asking you today is simply this, what are you unwilling to give up? What are you unwilling to give up? What's that one thing that you're holding onto, white knuckled, I'll never let this go? What is your price? What's the thing in your life? life that if Jesus asked you to give this thing up, you would stop following Him. It's said that every man has his price, but what if our relationship with God had a price too? What if there was something in your life that you were not ready, not willing to let go of in order to follow Him? So the story of the rich young ruler, this young man was rich, you've heard this. He was young, he was religious, and he had everything he could ever want. And this young man then comes and he throws himself at the feet of Jesus. We pick up the story in Mark chapter 10 from verse 17. It says, as Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him.

Good teacher, he asked, what must I do to have eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered, no one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud. Honour your father and your mother. Teacher, he declared, all these things I have kept since I was a boy. Jesus looked at him and He loved him. One thing you lack. Go and sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. At this, the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. Just picture this moment with me for a moment, okay? Jesus is on His way and He's got the disciples with Him. You know, if you read in the Bible, He always has some people following Him. There's a whole group of them walking and there's this theatrical moment where this wealthy man, this young man, this done-it-all man, this made man comes and runs in front of Jesus and he doesn't just come to Jesus as somebody of stature, but he actually throws himself down on the ground. And he, I mean, it looks like a proposal.

Have you ever been in public with a proposal, right? It's quite awkward. Everybody's looking, right? So everybody's there, man's on his knees. He's like, Jesus, what must I do to inherit the kingdom of heaven? And then Jesus speaks to him. And then, you know, it's this moment where everybody's expecting this good outcome, right? It's like, he's on his knees, he's got the ring. He's like, will you? And she's like, no. I'm sorry. You know, it's like the Jerry Maguire moment, right? Okay, as I'm giving away my age, if you haven't seen Jerry Maguire, it's a good movie, it's old though, okay? And the human head does weigh eight pounds if you haven't Googled it. But the reality is in Jerry Maguire, it's like the moment where he steps into the room and all the women is there and he does the whole you complete me moment. And she says, oh, I actually met someone else, right? It's not the outcome anybody was expecting. It's, you know, it's like Notting Hill. I'm just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. And he says, thanks, but no thanks, I'm good, right? It's this moment where Jesus says, come, follow me.

What every person and what every young person at that stage of life wanted to hear in the time of Christ was a rabbi coming up to them and said, come, follow me, become my disciple. Jesus says the thing. But the young man says, nope, I'm good. I'm not gonna be a part of this. I'm not gonna follow this. A couple of observations from the story to kind of just help us understand what this means to us is number one, it's interesting, the question he asks Jesus. He comes to Jesus and he said, what must I do, right? It's an interesting question. He doesn't ask Jesus, who must I follow? He doesn't ask Jesus, where must I go? He doesn't ask Jesus, who must I become? He asks Jesus, what must I do? See, he wants to know which boxes he needs to tick. He wants to know what are the next boxes that he needs to tick in the process. And then Jesus answers him and he shares the commandments with him. Have you read the story, right, when we read it? It said, you shall not, you shall not, you shall not, you shall not murder, you shall not do this. He reads the commandments. And then he says, I've done all these things. I've been ticking all the boxes all my life. But what's interesting in the story

is not the commandments Jesus reads, but the commandments that Jesus says. that He doesn't read, okay? So Jesus is reminding him of the 10 Commandments, okay? So He actually highlights six of the 10. If you look at it in your Bible, you'll find it, right? So He takes the last six of the Commandments. And it's interesting if you split up the Commandments, there's 10 Commandments. The last six Commandments, they're the horizontal Commandments. They're the from me to you. I'm not supposed to murder you. I'm not supposed to give false testimony. I'm not supposed to covet. I'm not supposed to, right? So it has to do with you and me. But the first four is not about things we must not do or do to one another. The first four is not about one another. It's not horizontal, it's vertical. It's you shall have no other God but the Lord your God. But Jesus doesn't mention them. Why? Because that's what this young man misses, is this young man that says, listen, I've done all these things, but he doesn't know why he's done all these things. If you read through the 10 Commandments, when they ask Jesus,

what's the greatest Commandments of all? What did He say? He says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul. Why? Because that's the first Commandment. That's the one thing you lack. But Jesus sets him up and He says these six things, sure, you've ticked the boxes, but you don't know why you've ticked the boxes. Second thing interesting about this, maybe before we get to that, a friend of mine, Jim Dennison, he makes this statement. He says, self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide. I love that. Self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide. Why? Because when we're self-sufficient, when we're enough in ourselves, when we build enough of ourselves, when we're building up our own thing, when we're ticking all the boxes to try and make our way to God, that self-sufficiency never lasts. Because you know what's true about self-sufficiency? It's never enough. I am not enough. I cannot tick enough boxes to make my way to God. There's no level of righteousness.

There's no level of sinlessness. There's no level of doing all the right things that I can do to please God any more. I can't earn my way to holiness. And the reality is that self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide, because when we try and do it ourselves, it'll never be enough. And our self-sufficiency has an expiration date. Have you ever seen that? Have you ever tried in yourself, tried to be good enough, tried to make it happen in your own accord, tried to have it all together all the time and lean on yourself? It works for a little bit, and then just like something with a sell-by date, it runs out. Self-sufficiency doesn't last. It has a sell-by date. It eventually doesn't make it. Second thing I wanna highlight in this story is that it says that he's loved, right? Jesus loved him. But do you know what? Being loved is not enough. Being loved is not enough. I'm convinced that God loved this young man. Before he came to Jesus, God loved him. When he was in front of him,

Mark is the, in the whole Gospel of Mark, right? In this whole account of Jesus' story, there's only one person in this story that it says Jesus loved this person. And in the Gospel of Mark, it's this young man. It says Jesus loved him. So he loved him before, he loved him during. And you know what's amazing about God? God loved him after he left him. God never stopped loving him. So God loved him throughout. But here's the thing. Being loved is not enough. Nothing you can do can make God love you more or love you less. God loves each and every one of us the same. But here's the thing. It doesn't matter how much God loves you, love doesn't change us unless we respond to it. Some of you have come here today and you're living your life, and you're saying, you know, I'm so glad God loves me. But I wanna tell you, God's love for you doesn't change you unless you accept it. It only starts making a difference in your life when you respond to it. Because here's the thing. God can love us as much as he wants. There's no limit to the love of God for our lives. And yet some people never change.

Why, because God loves them less? No, because they never respond to the love of God. You've gotta accept it. Love without choice isn't love. Love that is forced isn't love. Therefore God gives us a choice. This young man, Jesus gave him the choice. He invited him, he called him, he loved him. But this young man chose his possessions over his purpose, and therefore that's what he had. He missed out on the purpose God had in mind for him, not because God didn't love him, but because he didn't choose it. You can't make God love you anymore, but you can live outside of the purpose. the purpose that He has for you if you don't respond to His love. Second, third thing in the story is this statement that Jesus makes as He wraps it up. He says, Man, I love that. I love that Jesus says one thing you lack because remember when they asked Him about the commandments, He says there is one commandment above them all. That's the one thing this young man lacked because yes, he quoted the six commandments and the six horizontal commandments, he had it down. He wasn't murdering anybody. He wasn't slandering.

He wasn't giving false witness. He could tick all the boxes and that was wonderful. But one thing he lacked, he didn't love God above all because he loved something above God. And that's, I guess, my question to you today. What is that something in your life? Maybe it isn't possessions or money and maybe you'll give all you have and follow Him in the blink of an eye. But maybe it's significance or maybe it's your children or your spouse or something else, your dear, your name, your image, the perception other people hold over you. What is it for you that holds you away from the fullness? What is that one thing that if Jesus said, get rid of this and follow me, your answer would be, I'm good, thanks. What is that for you? I came to a point at the end of last year where I just, I was done. I actually felt like resting wasn't working to regain my energy. But the best way I can describe it to you is I felt like, you know when you take an elastic band and you take that elastic band and you stretch it, but if you've ever tried to stretch a very old elastic band, you know that one that was at the bottom of the drawer and you took it out and you stretched it

and you stretched it, but as you stretched it, it didn't jump back. That's what I felt like. I felt like I wasn't jumping back. I could rest, but I wasn't coming back. I could do the things that would normally rejuvenate me, but it just wouldn't bring me back. I got stretched, like I always got stretched, but I did what would bring me back and it wouldn't bring me back. And it wasn't just that I was busy, I was just done. I was done on the inside. So I was praying about it and I was spending time with God and really seeking His face because it was finished. It was over for me. And I said, God, what's going on here? I've done this and I've done this and I've served you in this way and I'm trying to do this as best as I can. And why don't you rejuvenate me? Why don't you refresh me? Why don't you fill me up? And I felt the Lord showed me something quite harshly and this was the journey He took me on. The first thing that He showed me is He showed me something that I believe, right? So I believe that things that are useful are valuable. Is anybody else with me here? Okay, if it works, it's good. If it doesn't work, it's bad, okay?

If something is broken, it needs to get fixed or it needs to get out of my house, okay? I don't do well with broken, okay? It's gotta work in order for it to be there. Anybody, am I, you've got me, okay. So that was the reality, but here's the problem is I decided that because things that are useful are valuable, I thought that the more useful I am to God, the more valuable I am to Him. So I became more and more useful, right? I'm gonna be more useful. I'm gonna do more things. I'm not gonna say, no, I'm gonna serve. I'm gonna show up because the more useful I am, the more valuable I am. So I'm not gonna say no, I'm gonna say yes because I wanna be useful. I wanna be used because when God uses me, I'm valuable to Him and He loves me. So I got used more and more and more and more and more and eventually I got used up because I thought my doing made me more valuable to God. But here's the thing is God loves me whether I'm useful or useless. God loves me all the same whether I'm useful or useless. He doesn't love me because of what I do. And here's the thing, we don't just do this with relationship to God, we do this with relationship to all kinds of other things in our lives. We fall into the strap of thinking when I'm doing,

when I'm ticking the boxes, what did the young man say? Lord, what must I do? I've gotta tick these boxes, right? I've gotta do the religious exercises. I've gotta bring my part. I've gotta do these things because when I do these things, God loves me. But when I don't, and so we do and we do and we do trying to earn what we've already earned. already received, and then I felt the Lord said, but Uri, if you don't receive what I've done, then you belittle what I've done. If you don't accept that what Christ has done on the cross is the finished work of Christ, then, and you're trying to finish the work, you're trying to make your way to me, you're trying to earn your way to me, then you're missing the point. And he shared this thing with me about how I'm finding myself in a space where I'm trying to build my way to God. And I thought, you know what, that sounds like a story. And so I started reading in the book of Genesis. So Genesis 11, we read about the Tower of Babel, right? But Genesis 12, we read about Abraham building an altar. And I felt the Lord said, I've got to stop trying to build a tower and I've got to start building altars. Let me show you what he showed me, okay? This is what he showed me.

He said that in Genesis 11, that people are trying to build a tower to reach to the heavens, right? So Genesis 11, and verse six, it reads as verse four, sorry, it says, And I realised that's exactly what I was doing. I was trying to build a tower to try and make a name for myself. I was trying to build a tower to reach to the heavens. I was trying to serve enough, to do enough, to go out of my way enough that God would be pleased with me, that God would be okay with me, that I would do for God enough that He would accept me. And I found myself in this place of building a tower. But look at this, okay? Next chapter, God calls Abraham, right? And then He calls Abraham. And when He calls Abraham, Abraham is called and asked to build an altar. And chapter 12, verse seven says this. It says, He built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Okay, now I want you to see these two verses side by side. Okay, look at this, look at this. The first one, if you look at Genesis 11, four, it says, let's reach to the heavens, right? Let's make our way to God. In the second one, what does Abraham do in chapter 12?

He doesn't make his way to God. He says, and he built an altar to the Lord. He saw the Lord and he said, because of you, I'm gonna build an altar. Both are building things. But the one is building to get to God and the other one is building because he's gotten to God. He's seen the Lord. He knows the Lord. He knows what God has done. And then he says, let's build a name for ourselves. Let's make our way to God. And the other one says what? It says, no, we're not gonna make our way to God. We're just gonna proclaim the name of God. We're not gonna make a name for myself. I'm gonna make a name for God. And so I realized this is it. See, I've been all along, I've been in the process of trying to build a tower to be good enough, to serve hard enough, to do enough so that God could be pleased with me. When all along I should have just known that God is pleased with me. And because he is pleased with him, I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. I've been accepted by God. And therefore I build in response to who he is, not trying to make my way to become who I wanna be. And I realized that I had to shift places.

See, because here's the thing, it's too often in life, we're building towers when we should be building altars. See, in our process of raising our kids, we had absent parents. And then because of absent parents, we're helicopter parents, right? Because we're trying to do everything we can do for our kids, but we forget that we aren't God for our kids. We've got to realize that it's not our job to build a tower to take them to the heavens. It's our job to build an altar and to say, God, these kids, you've given me these kids, so they belong to you and you can do with them. And we serve and we obey God. We're not building an altar. We're not building an altar. We end up building a tower trying to do it ourselves. Some of us are building a career. You're trying to get enough money. You're looking at that 401k because you're saying, well, if I can get this, then I'll be secure. If I can have that, then I'll be secure. Only a little more and then I'll be okay. Well, if we get to that number, then I'll have enough. We're building a tower. You're not called to build a tower. You're called to say, God, all I have is yours. And my life belongs to you and I'm secure,

not because of what I've built, I'm secure because of who you are. And everything you've given me belongs to you, O God. And I am your servant and my money, my wealth, my riches, it all belongs to you. See, some of you, when I said rich young ruler, you were concerned because you thought I was gonna speak about money. Little did you know. No, I'm speaking about a lot more than that. This isn't about your money, this is about your life. And yes, some of you are called to be extraordinarily wealthy because God wants to do great things through your life. But as long as you are building a tower, it'll never be enough. But the moment you start building an altar, it doesn't matter what you have, it's more than enough. Amen. Some of us are building towers and gaining friends and counting the likes and trying to be influencers because why? The more influence I have, the better. And others of us are laying down our influence and saying, God, all influence I have is for your glory. Use me as you see fit because I belong to you. And when you bless others, I rejoice with them, God, so that they might have more than what they could ever need. Lord, why?

Because I'm not stuck in what I'm trying to do. I am consumed by who you are. See, in both examples, we're building something. There's nothing wrong with building. It's why you're building what you're building. I love Dallas Willard's quote. He says, Earning is an attitude, effort is an action. Well, you can do effort in building an altar or you could put your effort in building a tower. But if you're gonna build a tower, you're gonna always want more. There's always gonna be an attitude of trying to earn what God has given you already. The rich young ruler was building a tower. And when Jesus came and he challenged his tower building and he invited him to build an altar, he chose not to. You know what I love about this story? Note Jesus' words. When he invites the rich young ruler to follow him, he invites him to follow him. He says, come, follow me. The rich young ruler came to Jesus and he said, Jesus, what must I do? What must I gain? Which boxes do I need to take? How do I climb this corporate ladder? What's the next step for me? What do I need to do? And Jesus said, no, I don't want you to do.

All I want you to do is I want you to do one thing and that's follow. Following is different than doing. We still do when we follow, but we do because of who he is. We don't do because of what we are ambitious to grab ahold of. It changes not that we're building, but it changes why we're building. There's another crossed path that's when Peter crosses paths with Jesus, right? So Jesus and Peter's paths cross and he's busy fishing and Jesus says, follow me, he drops the nets, he follows him. Now, it's interesting if you look at Peter's story because Peter kind of struggles with this whole altar building rather than tower building thing, his entire journey with Jesus, okay? You can see it in many different ways. At some point, Jesus is so frustrated with Peter that he calls him Satan. He says, get behind me, Satan. I'll have Pastor Rob preach about that one. But he'll do a much better job than me. So the reality is that there's this battle almost between Peter and his desire to build a tower rather than building an altar. And it comes to a head in this moment in John chapter 13, just a little bit before he actually, before Jesus is on the cross, it comes to a point when Jesus comes

and he washes the disciples' feet. And I want you to see something for a moment, okay? He gets to Peter and he says, it says in John 13 verse 69, it says, he came to Simon Peter, he said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? And Jesus replied, you do not realise now what I'm doing, but later you will understand. You shall never wash my feet, Peter said. Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then Lord, Simon Peter replied, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well. And I love this about Peter because Peter initially says, no, Lord, I can't accept you washing my feet. I've got this. I'll wash your feet. You don't wash my feet. I'm okay. I'm here to serve you. But you see, here's the thing, is we think it's humility to say, God, I don't need you. I will get this done. We think it's humility to keep going when there's nothing left in us, to keep going, to keep serving when there's nothing. left in us to serve. We think it's humility when we're serving our families in an effort to earn their love or to earn their forgiveness or to earn their appreciation. And we try and earn it and earn it and earn it

because it's humble, but actually it's pride because we don't accept who we are. We don't accept what He's done. And Peter looks back and he says, no, no, don't wash my feet. And Jesus says, well, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me. And then Peter immediately steps into his whole tower building kicks into high gear. And he's like, I'm gonna be the best feet washer, receiver in history. I'm gonna get a gold medal in foot washing, receiving. Right, not just my feet, wash my whole self. Look at Jesus' response, right? He immediately calls him out. He says, and Jesus said to him, unless you do this, you have no part of me. And then Peter goes, he goes through the whole thing. And then verse 10, those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet. You're already clean. You don't need to earn it again. Jesus has already done it. It's not about how well we receive what God wants to do for us. It's not about being the best surrenderer that we could ever be. It's about simply resting in what He has done. Don't make this another thing to tick off your list. Don't make surrender another task you need to complete.

Just let it go. I feel a song coming up, but I'm gonna resist. There's the movement. That's how far we'll go today. We've gotta let it go. We've gotta rest in the fact that He is God and I am not. It's not my job to be good at surrendering. It's not my job to read my Bible enough so that He would love me or to pray enough or to do enough or to go on mission enough. All I need to do is to learn that He is God and I am not. And I'm just gonna follow Him and I'm gonna build my altar. I'm gonna do what He tells me to do and I'm gonna do it with all my heart and the results I leave up to Him because He is God and it's not about my name and it's not about my fame and it's not about my success and it's not about how high I build my altar. It's how low I bend upon it because God, you are God and I am not. That is what it's all about. And it's great when we achieve great things and it's wonderful when we take those great things and we put them on the altar and we say, God, how do you wanna use them? Will you let Him wash your feet? Will you let Him be the one that touches you in such a deep way that you continue to read your Bible and you read your Bible not because you're trying

to earn the favour of God, because you're in love with God and you wanna know Him more. And we pray not because when we pray, we feel better ourselves. We pray because we believe in God and we trust in God and we're not self-sufficient. We need God to show up in our lives and we go to church, not because if we go to church, maybe we'll make it to heaven. No, we'll make it to heaven because of what Christ has done but we go to church because we are the body of Christ, the embodiment of God Himself on planet Earth and we serve not because we're trying to look good or want others to see us serving. No, we serve because that's who we are. It changes when we're building altars and we're not building towers. What are you building in your life? The rich young ruler was building a tower and he came to Jesus and he said, Jesus, how do I build my tower higher? How do I get my tower to reach the heavens? And Jesus said, well, here's some bricks you can build with but one thing you lack, come and follow me. And then Mark chapter 10 verse 22 says, at this the man's face fell and he went away sad because he had great wealth. I'm not one to say that a verse is interpreted wrong or the Bible is wrong but I kind of feel like

this last little bit of the sentence is worded just slightly wrong. I don't think he went away because he had great wealth. I think he went away because great wealth had him. What has you? What do you fear so badly that you're not willing to trust God with it? What do you hold on to is that one thing that you will just not let go? God, I will serve you, I will do anything but you don't touch this. What has you? It says that his face fell. The Greek word in the original language the Bible was written is stagnazo. And the only other place this particular stagnazo word is used is to describe a thundercloud or storm clouds gathering. And it was so striking as Mark writes down the story that he says that it looked like storm clouds were gathering in this man's face, stagnazo. His face fell immediately, not because he didn't know what to do, but because he wasn't willing to do what needed to be done. And I guess that's kind of the point today. It's the reality is when we're confronted with Jesus, we get to respond in one of three ways today. See, either you have no idea what's going on and you're just gonna keep on building your tower. Either you're finding yourself in a place where you're just gonna keep on building your tower,

one brick upon the next, and you're just gonna go along your way doing this. Or you're gonna hear the Word today and having heard the Word, you're gonna walk away and just go back to building your tower. See, because that's the thing with love, is it doesn't matter how much God loves us, it matters how much we know it and respond to it. Doesn't matter how much God calls us, it matters how much we embrace that calling. It doesn't matter how wonderful and beautiful the plans of God is for your life unless you respond to those plans. It'll make no difference to your life because God doesn't force Himself on anybody. You could walk away or you could start building an altar. A rich young ruler had his path cross with Jesus. And he fell down on his knees and he asked Jesus about the next steps for building his tower higher. Jesus loved him. And Jesus did an altar call. He called him away from his tower to rather start building an altar. And that rich young man didn't. Will you? Lord, I pray for every person within the sound of my voice. Lord, you know the towers we built. Lord, you know my tendency to try and earn your love,

do enough. God, would you come and convict us of those things? I remember a day I was, it's quite a while back now. I must've been in my early 20s and I was at a worship service. And somebody shared a word at that worship service. He read the story of the rich young ruler and he asked the question I asked you. He said, what's your price? What would be the thing that you would walk away for? And at that point in time in my life, I'd just taken up the call of God, left everything behind and followed God. And I remember standing there and thinking, you know, this really doesn't apply to me. I'm good. I've given up everything. I've given up everything I've owned. I'm following God with all my heart. I'm good. And then the Lord dropped a question into my heart. He said, Uri, if I ask you to not do a single thing for the rest of your life, you're not gonna pray for anybody. You're not gonna share the Word with anybody. You're gonna do nothing for the rest of your life. I'm just gonna call you to sit and worship me in a room for the rest of your life. Would you do it?

The answer was no. And I found my one thing. What's it for you? What would you not give up if He asked you to? What would be your Rich Young Ruler moment? I want you to take your fists and clench them like this and put them on your lap for a moment. Can you do that for me? Just grab your fists for a moment, put away whatever you're holding and just hold onto your fist for a moment. And I want you to close your eyes and I want you to imagine that thing in your life that would be the hardest for you to give up. And I want you to imagine holding onto that thing with all your might, white knuckled grip. Today Jesus is asking to wash your feet. Today Jesus is saying one thing you lack. What is that one thing that you are placing above the one thing that we should worship? And if you're ready, only if you're ready, I want to invite you to take that thing and to lay it on the altar, to worship God by simply opening your hands and saying, God, I'm gonna worship you with this thing. I'm gonna let it go. And if me giving it to you means I never see it again, so be it. I'm gonna let it go today. So if you're ready to surrender, would you open your hands

and simply open your palms before the Lord? Lord, we worship you. We honour you. Lord, help us to not build towers, but to build altars. Amen. If you're here today and you've never responded to the grace of Jesus Christ, the grace of God in Jesus Christ, you've never responded to what He's done for you when He laid down His life on the cross so that you may live. If you're finding yourself in a space where maybe you've fallen away from God, you've stepped away from the relationship you once had, and today's the day that you wanna make a decision to step into a new relationship with God or step back into a relationship with God. I wanna ask you with every eye closed and every head bowed in this room, would you put up your hand high up in the air and say, I'm saying yes to Jesus today. If that's you, I wanna see those hands. I see hands going up all over. Can we pray out loud and together with every one of them today, whether for the very first time or as a reaffirmation of your faith, say this out loud with me, dear Lord Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank You that You did all.

All that is needed for me to have a relationship with You. Lord, I accept Your favour, Your love and Your grace. And I will live for You from this day on forevermore. Amen, amen. Can we give them a great hand? If you responded today by lifting up your hand, I wanna invite you, as soon as we dismiss on your right, you'll see a sign that says, Made Brand New. Pastor Oscar is holding that up and he's ready to gift you a Bible and to give you some next steps on this journey. I wanna remind you guys that on the way out, there's some Easter invitation cards. As Luke said, you have no idea what God might be able to do through your invitation. So extend the invitation, use those cards. I wanna invite the prayer team to the front. If you need prayer, we would love the opportunity to pray with you today. You're welcome to come forward after the service. Let me leave you with this blessing. May you walk this week, not in the effort of doing it yourself, but in the rest of knowing what He has already done. Be blessed, amen. Have a great week. Amen.