The Trap of Average | Pastor Sam Lee

Come on. I wonder if on a Wednesday night, we can just get a little bit beside ourselves in the room right now. I wonder if on a Wednesday night, we can start lifting on praises. We can go to a whole new level and we can start jumping. If we can come to the engine and we can lift our hands up. Let's give them all the rise. Come on. [MUSIC] We didn't come into the house of God to pray church tonight. We didn't come into the house of God to sing karaoke. We came into the house of God to have an encounter with the Lord and the King of Kings, the one who was, the one who is, and the one who is to come. >> [APPLAUSE] >> Everybody in the room right now, but we praise you right now, Jesus. >> Uh-huh, there's just a sense of gratitude in the house tonight. When we think back to all that you've done for us God, we can't help but praise you. When we think back to where we were a year ago, I can't help but praise you. When I think back to how my life used to be, I can't help but praise you. When I think about where I should be, I can't help but praise you. So we came to your house for you and you alone, God, for nothing else. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen, and amen. >> [APPLAUSE] >> Oh, man, feels good to be in the house tonight. Feels good to be in the house. His presence is here. Hey, as you're being seated, I want you to stay in this same spirit. I feel like the spirit is high in the room. Clean over to your neighbor, say he's in the room. He's in the room, we know another neighbor, say he's in the room.

[MUSIC] Wow, well, I'm so glad you guys are here tonight. My name is Sam Lee, and I'm the young adult pastor here at Christian Life. And I have the incredible, I love you guys. I have the incredible, incredible opportunity and incredible honor to be able to preach the word of God to you tonight. And so I hope you brought your Bibles. Let me just, by showing his, how many people have a physical Bible in here right now? Any physical Bibles? Okay, what about digital Bibles? What about digital Bibles? Okay, we love both, we love both. We do, we do. Well, hey, let's go ahead and hop right into the Word of God. Can you stand to your feet? I want us to stand and just honor and reverence for the Word of God tonight. And we're going to be in Revelation. >> [APPLAUSE] >> Chapter three, Revelation chapter three, here we go. When you got it, say I got it, it's pretty easy to just go all the way to the very end. Revelation chapter three, we're going to start off in verse 14. To the angel of the church in La Osadiah, write these words, write, write, write. These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation that's Jesus. I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. You say I am rich, I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from the gold refined in the fire so you can become rich and white

clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness and salve to put on your eyes so you can see those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent, here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with this person and they with me, to the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne just as I was victorious and sat down with a father on his throne. Whoever has ears let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The title of the message for tonight is the trap of average. The trap of average. Let me pray for us. God let us have ears to hear that our hearts be good soil. Would you speak to us? not to be entertained, but to be moved by your presence, God. So we desire one thing, and that's you, Jesus. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen and amen. You can be seated. Let me ask you a question. What was your biggest fear growing up as a child? What were some of the things that you were afraid of? If you were like me, and you grew up in the church, if you grew up, don't wanna church every single Sunday and every single Wednesday, you might share the same fear as I had when I was a child. My biggest fear as a child was being left behind in the second coming of Jesus. Anybody else there, anybody else when you were a child, were you a little bit afraid of the second coming of this idea that maybe just maybe I would be left behind.

Anybody remember the "Left Behind" series? I remember I was a child and I grew up and this was one of the most traumatic movies I ever watched in my whole entire life because picture of random citizens and people was closed just in the middle of random places. And so I grew to have this fear that maybe just maybe one day I'd wake up and I would see random piles of clothes everywhere. And that would mean that I was left behind. No, no, seriously, when I was a child, if I went looking for my mother, my father, and it took me more than 10 minutes to find them, I started to think in my head. I'm cooked, I was left behind. They went and I stayed. Like I was like, if anybody's gonna go to heaven, it's gonna be my mom and my dad. So I was left behind, right? Now even to this day, there's specific people in my life who are like spiritual markers, who like if they go missing, I'm asking questions. I'm gonna tell you right now, if Pastor Rex and Sister Patti go missing and nobody knows where they're at. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, two hours far, if it gets to the hour market, I'm gonna start asking questions and I'm actually gonna think, maybe just maybe, we're all left behind and they're gone.

I don't know about you, but I'm just a very great picture. I'm like, they're definitely going to heaven. So if they're gone and I'm here, then I must have missed it. When I was a child, I was deadly afraid of the second coming of Jesus. I was deadly afraid of the book of revelation for a majority of my life. So much that I didn't even really study it. I would only read it whenever it was a part of my reading plan for the year. But I wouldn't actually sit down and study it because I had this fear of revelation, that this fear of the second coming. So for many years, I avoided it. Because what are we doing? We're afraid of something and we don't understand it. We typically avoid it. So we just avoided it, we avoided it, we avoided it as long as we come and sometimes we begin to believe misinformation about it. We begin to believe distorted views about it because of our fears and because we've avoided it. And then one day, I feel like God convicted me. He says, "Jesus Samuel, why are you avoiding this book?" I sat down about two years ago and I just began to study it. And over the past two years, I've began to study the book of revelation. And I've actually come to realize that it's not a book that we should be afraid of. It's a book that we should celebrate.

This right here is the end of the story. This right here is the final Victoria Slab of all of the bride of Christ. This right here, the book of revelation, tells us how this whole thing is. And I love the book of revelation. The book of revelation, first, those of you guys who have been in young adults, we've been in this series in young adults called The Apocalypse, in which we've been studying the book of revelation for the past four weeks and we've gotten really nerdy and really granular with a lot of the teachings. And I'm not gonna get super granular with the teachings on revelation tonight, but I do think we should have some type of context for the book of revelation because I do believe in a room this size, there's probably some people in this room who have been afraid of the book of revelation. The book of revelation translated in the Greek is the word apocalypsis, apocalypsis. Now, what does this word mean? Oftentimes, we see the apocalypse. We think the end of the world. We think destruction. We think whatever post-apocalyptic movie or TV show you that you can think of, but what the apocalypse really is is it's a revelation. It's an unveiling of something, of something that was previously hidden. Listen, when you think about it that way,

that doesn't seem like it's something scary. Like when something is disclosed, when something that was hidden before is now made available and accessible to you, isn't that good news? Isn't it when we approach the book of revelation and let me help us because many of us are still calling the book revelations, it's not revelations, it's the book revelation. And this means an apocalypse, and it's unveiling this revelation to humanity. And I believe that the enemy would love for the people of God The enemy would love for us to be afraid and never to step foot in the book of revelation so that we never actually have an unveiling moment where something could be revealed to us. I believe there are three things that we need to know about the book of Revelation before we get into the text for today that is gonna help to give us some context for it. And all of these things, funny enough, can be found in the first four verses of Revelation. I'm about to debunk so many of the myths that you believed about Revelation in the first four verses. It only takes four verses. I realized this when I started to read. The first thing that we realized about the book of Revelation is that it is a revelation of Jesus. Revelation chapter one, verse one. The revelation from who, from Jesus Christ,

which God gave him to show his servant what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. So this is not a revelation of John. This is a revelation of Jesus. It is both from Jesus and it reveals the nature and the character of Jesus. And so anyone who avoids the book of Revelation is actually avoiding actually having a key revelation of who Jesus truly is. The second thing that we realize in the book of Revelation is that those of us who read the book of Revelation are blessed. This happens in verse three. Revelation chapter one, verse three. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because the time is near. We should feel blessed when we're reading the book of Revelation. There should be no fear. There should be no confusion. There should be no doubt. No, there should be a wave of blessing that actually comes over us when we read and obey the commands that are found in the book of Revelation. The third thing that we realize about the book of Revelation is that we are not the original audience

of the book of Revelation. Oh, let's get into this, let's get into this. Have some fun. So verse four, once again I'm only gonna share the first four verses right here. The verse starts and says John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Who's the audience, the seven churches in the province of Asia? Why is this important? We need to understand something about the book of Revelation. We are not the original audience of the book of Revelation. And so therefore, it cannot mean for us what it did not mean for them. I'm about to help us out here. It cannot mean something for us that it did not mean for them. Why, because it is a letter written to a specific group of people. If I was in this room and I came to Eric and I wrote Eric a letter who's sitting on the front row right here and I wrote him a letter. And let's say that Mars in the room tried to read the letter that I wrote to Eric. There was about our own personal relationship, had our own inside jokes, had a history that we've had together, had conversations that we've had before. And Mars tries to come over and read the letter

that I wrote for Eric. She's going to be a little bit confused if she doesn't get the context of the original letter. And I think there are many Christians who have taken the book of Revelation out of context because we never read it in context of the original churches that it was written to. We have to understand, I believe that once we actually started to read the book of Revelation in the original context that the letter was written to, it will actually begin to debunk many of the theories that some of us have become to believe. And so to responsibly interpret the book of Revelation, we should first consider the context of the first century church. This will help us to weed out many of the misunderstandings. Isn't why I laugh when people start interpreting the book of Revelation and they'll say, what John was really seeing was he was seeing like some drones, they were hovering over and then AI was taking over and robots were taking over the world and then there were some missiles and that's what that fire was. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, it came out mean for us what it did not mean for them. We don't get the right to come in so this is what they were seeing when that was not the context or the culture or the history of what they were actually going through. John is writing a message, a letter of encouragement

to the early church who to be honest, their world looked like an apocalypse. What they were enduring looked like an apocalypse. They were enduring some of the most heightened levels of persecution that the Christian church had ever actually experienced. Matter of fact, let me just give you a little bit of history on this, there was an actual fire in Rome and this fire because of this disaster, on Christians, and so therefore it opened up this severe persecution of Christians. Christians were being boiled to life. Many of the apostles are martyr, they'll be headed. There are Christians who are putting put on crosses, both right side up and upside down. There are Christians that are being burned at the stakes. There's actually many Christians who were actually killed in the Roman Colosseum. There's actually an individual by the name of Ignatius. And history actually tells us that he was brought to the Colosseum and wild animals tore his body apart in front of a crowd of people for their entertainment. So he's writing encouraging words to the early church who is experiencing this severe level of persecution. And this is the message of revelation. This is the message, I believe this is the message of revelation. Is this, remain faithful in the midst of persecution, trials, and hardships.

That is the message of revelation. It doesn't matter what you're going through right now, remain faithful in the middle of the persecution you're experiencing, in the middle of the trials, and in the middle of the hardships in your life. This is the main message in the book of Revelation. We have to hold the two things in tension. The revelation though it is, it is a picture of our triumph, it's two things. It's both a picture of our triumph, but also of a tribulation. On one hand, we are saved, but on the other hand, we still endure suffering. On one hand, we're concurs, but on the other hand, we're still enduring the current problems of the world around us, both are happening at the exact same time. And here's what the author of Revelation is inviting every single one of us to do. And here's what the author of Revelation was inviting the early church to do. What's to see beyond the physical world? To see beyond their circumstances. What Jesus is saying to the early churches, I know things are hard right now. I know all hell has broken loose in your life. I know that everyone has abandoned you. I know that this is the hardest season of your life. I know that it feels like everyone has come against you. I know that your family has been torn apart. I know that in your mind, you're struggling mentally.

I know there's anxiety. I know there's worry. I know there's depression. I know there's wars. I know there's an attack, but I need you to look above. And I need you to see that even though those things are happening here, that God is still seated on the throne, that He's still in control. That Jesus is near at the right hand of the throne, that He's still on the lamb. And the lamb that was slain and the blood still covers everything, the blood still saves. The blood still transforms. The blood still has grace. This blood has been covered for every single one of our sins that even though what we see in the physical, everything is coming against us. There's still a God who is fighting for you. And can I tell you, Jesus is coming back. Can I tell you, Jesus is coming back one day and there's fire in His eyes and there's a sword in His mouth. And He's coming back to get His bride. Can we wake up and realize He's coming back. He's coming back for you and you and you and you without everyone in this room. Jesus is coming back. I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry, but this just makes me passionate. When was the last time you thought about eternity?

When was the last time you thought about His second coming? When was the last time you thought about the weight of His glory coming and filling up a place? When was the last time we should hold the book of Revelation with reverence? It's a healthy fear of God that we should read it with, with an expectation, with a joy leaned in, expecting a brighter future. And this is what He's trying to speak to the Church, Lao Sediah, if they're lukewarm and He wants to know, are you all in? He's speaking to the Church and He's saying, listen, persecution is about to come. Like there's gonna be hardship. I need to know if you're gonna be my bride. I need to know if you're really gonna live for me. I need to know if you're really gonna ride with me. I really need to know if you're gonna be 10 toes down. I really need to know. Are you gonna be all in for me? Or are you going to be lukewarm? You're neither hot nor cold, you're lukewarm. You know what that means? You're indifferent. How do you know if you're lukewarm? You're unmoved by the glory of God. You're unfazed whenever you're in a room and His presence fills up a room. Listen, you're Christian enough to get the blessings of God, but you're not Christian enough to make the sacrifices of God.

You're in, when it's convenient for you, but you're out when it's not convenient for you. You wanna love a little bit of Jesus, but you also wanna love a little bit of the world. You'll decide what you're gonna... when it agrees with you, but the moment that it doesn't agree with you, you just ignore it and you chalk it up too. Well, everybody's not working progress. Well, we're all just trying to get a little bit better. (audience applauding) Ladies, calling the church to no longer be indifferent. Ask yourself this question right now. What would it look like in five years from now if you made a decision tonight to go all in for Jesus? What would it look, how would your reality change if you said, "I've been going 20%, I've been going 50%, I've been going 70%, but what if tonight you made a decision that changed your reality, that changed the lineage, that changed the generations to come, that changed your destination? What if tonight you made a decision you said, "I'm going all in, I'm going 100%, I don't want to be a lukewarm Christian. I don't want to be all in." Come on, somebody say, "I want to be all in." (audience murmuring)

So you're speaking to this church and there's a couple of signs that the church has grown to be lukewarm. I want to walk through some of these signs so that we can be aware of these signs in our own personal lives. The first sign is this, that they were too rich in the physical world. They were too rich in the physical world. Revelation chapter three, verse 17, it says this, "You say, he's speaking to the church. You say, I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing." Interesting historical fact for anybody who likes this kind of stuff, Lao Sedia was actually a city of wealth. Matter of fact, there was a great earthquake in this region and they actually didn't have to rely on Rome's money to be able to rebuild the city. They had so much money, they were able to rebuild it off of the wealth that was already within the city. And so this is actually known as a very wealthy city. There's a lot of selling and trading that's actually happening here. And so there's a lot of wealth in this city. So he's speaking both to the cultural context, but he's saying something more. I don't think the God is saying that he wants us to be poor.

I don't think he's saying that we shouldn't steward our finances or gain wealth. And I don't think he's saying any of those things. But Jesus has said on several occasions and we see this even in the gospels that it's harder for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God. And even, let me just say this, even the lowest income person in America is still richer than over 50% of the rest of the world. This is the reality that we are the rich ones. We should be aware, we are all rich. You may not feel it. Just 'cause you can't get those boots you want to do. Just 'cause you can't stop at the COVID's or whatever, you know, wherever we're the rich ones, we're the ones. Here's the deal, it's so interesting because I've heard of such powerful things happening in third world countries. I've heard of miracles happening in third world countries. I've heard of people who were blind receiving their sight back. I've heard of babies that were dead that came back to life in third world countries. I've heard of entire cities that were, people were coming to raid and coming to kill entire towns and tribes and they began to pray. And for some reason, they couldn't find them

on the map anywhere and they weren't able to get to them. Like I've heard powerful, I've heard of people's ears being opened up. I've heard some crit, I've heard of legs growing back in third world countries. And the crazy thing is I say all these things and only 50% of this room believes I could happen. That's because we're the rich ones. That's because we're in America. You know, I was in Rwanda this past year with African New Life, which is such an incredible organization. We partner with them. They're gonna be here in the next couple of weeks. Yeah, give it up for African New Life. They're doing such incredible work in Rwanda. And I was there and I was preaching a three day conference there where there was like 1500, 2000 young adults who filled out and packed out this place. Listen, they were hungry. You know, there was one day, there was one day where we got to this conference and we were there about five hours early and there were already hundreds of young people standing outside of the conference. And I asked, I said, why are they here so early? And what they told me was it's going to rain later. And so they get here five hours early

so that they can still make it to the house of God. (audience applauding) Hungry? So they're there, they're waiting in expectation. And one night I just begin to pray faith. And that night we probably prayed over 500 young adults. Like literally laying hands on 500 young adults, all kinds of problems, all kinds of sicknesses, all kinds of healings, all kinds of financial issues. We laid hands on literally, we were there for hours just praying. My voice was gone. The next day we come back and before I go up to preach a young lady comes and she approaches me. And she said, hey, I just want to tell you this pastor Sam. She said, three years ago I was in a terrible car accident. And it was a motor truck accident, actually. And she said, "My back has hurt every single day since that accident. I've been to every single doctor. I've done everything that I can. And I had just given up and I came yesterday and some people laid hands on me and began to pray for me and tears began to stream down her face." As she said to me, "Pass your ship. You'll never believe this." She said, "This morning I woke up for the very first time in three years

and I've had no pain in my body at all." You want to know why? Because God is still a throne. Because God is still a healer. Because He's still doing miracles. You know what she said? She said, "My sister has pain." And so I reached out to her and I said, "You got to do whatever it takes. It's going to take her 60 minutes to get here." But she's going to get here tonight. We laid hands on her sister. And I believe her sister was healed as well. So why do I think that in these three four countries and in these places, we're seeing these powerful, powerful moves of God? You want to know why? Because they're hungry? And the reason why we're not experiencing is because we're just too rich. Well, we've never seen anything like that. It's just because we're too rich. Because the moment we get ahead of it, we just go pop a title on it. 'Cause if we have any type of sickness, we just go get medicated. We just go to the doctors. And here's the deal. I have no issue with modern medicine. I have no issue with any of those things.

But who did you go to first? Like we just live in a world where like we're too rich. When we don't feel good, we can figure out how we're going to medicate it, whether we're going to scroll on social media, whether we're going to watch TV. We feel lonely. We can go on only fans. We can go on whatever point site we want to. Like we're just too rich. Wherever we want, we can have it. So why would we need a God? Why would we even call on God? We've got everything that we need right here. I think that maybe just maybe this might be our downfall. We can get whatever we want, whenever we want, however fast we want. Doesn't matter. We don't even want to take the time to wake through something or process. You know, the scripture talks a lot about persevering, but we don't want to persevere anything anymore. We don't want to, we want to get as fast as we can, the food as fast as we can. We don't want to get the dream body as fast as we can. We'll go and take shots. We'll go and take pills. We'll go and deal with whatever it takes for us to get. There's no shot. I'm not throwing any shots at anybody.

But why would we need a God if we have everything we need? This is the church of Laosodia. They were too rich. Oh, we can take care of ourselves. When we have access to everything, we lose access to God. When you have access to everything, all the riches you lose, I don't want to ever get to a place where I lose access to God because I have everything. I want to remain in a posture of humility. I want to remain in a posture where I say, God, if you don't show up, I don't know what's going to happen. I want to remain in a posture. This is God, my life is submitted to you. I want to remain in a posture where I say, I never get too rich. I never start trusting in my own abilities. I never start trusting in my own money. I never start trusting in my own self. I want to always be in a posture in a position where I say, God, have your way. I never want to become someone who's looked warm. This was the church of Laosodia. The second sign of their lukewarmness was that they were blinded to their spiritual poverty. Says this, but you don't even realize, underline that word, you don't even realize that you're wretched, that you're a pitiful,

poor, blind, and naked. You don't even realize what he says. You don't even realize that you're spiritually impoverished. The church has lost its awareness. Man, can we stand in a place where we never lose our awareness? We're always aware, you ever go into the restroom and you look in the mirror after half a day or four day. And when you get there, you realize your hair's at a place. Make sure. Like, you get to the restroom and you realize, there's something in my nose, like, oh! Like, you get to the restroom and you realize something's on your shirt and you're like, oh my gosh. What is the first thing you think? How long has that been there for? Like, I went this place, I went this place. I had a meeting with my boss. I was here, I was there, I took pictures. Like, how long was this, like, on me, right? You ever felt that way? I'm not gonna get upset with the people who are around me. Like, y'all didn't tell me? You didn't wanna have my back. I had something in my beard the whole entire day. I had, like, a crumb. I don't know if I'm a croissant. I don't know. Croissants, they were pretty good. Making me hungry. Like, there's this lack of awareness,

but when you come into the mirror and you realize it, your eyes are opened. Can I tell you, I believe there are some people who will consider themselves to be Christians who will one day look in the mirror and realize, "Oh my gosh, I don't think I ever truly believed." Oh my gosh, I wore a cross on my necklace. There's this awareness, this awakening, this moment where you're looking for the mirror and you say, well, hold up, I was never really sold out for him. I'm looking in the mirror and I'm realizing there's something off here. You know what the mirror is? The scriptures tell us in the book of James that the Word of God is the mirror. You wanna know what you really look like? Get into the Word of God. You wanna really look at, see what's going on, because the Word of God, you know what it'll do to do? It'll do two things. On one end, it will expose areas of your life that need to be exposed. And on the other, on the other end of it, it will give you a vision of a future that you've never seen before. It does both, it both prunes you and it also encourages you. It exposes things, but it also sends you into your future. It is both of those things. If you wanna know what you really look like, get into the Word of God.

Are you looking for a book to read? I know several people who say, I don't really know where to start. Don't start in Revelation. (congregation laughing) So many young adults, you're like, yeah, I just started to read the Bible, but I got my first Bible, it's the King James version, and I'm reading Revelation. And I'm like, let's not, let's not, let's not do that. Let me give you, first of all, let me give you a Bible you can actually understand. (congregation laughing) Here's my challenge to you. If you've been looking for a book and you're in the room and you came in and you're like, I don't really know where to start. Start in the book of James. Read the book of James. Second, read one of the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. I like to read the book of Mark. It's shorter. I feel like I accomplished something. (congregation laughing) It works. There was, you're like, oh, I actually finished that. That's great. And then I would read the book of Acts. Start those three books.

And when you finish those three books, come find me. I'll tell you which one's the next one to read. But just start reading. James, one of the Gospels in the book of Acts. So no one in this room has any excuse why you can't start reading the Bible anymore. This is it. This is it. Read the Word of God. (congregation applauding) You know, on the other end, I think some of us actually are aware that we're spiritually broke. But I think we've just settled for looking the part. I think we've just settled for looking the right way. This rebuke of this church is actually very specific because Lao Sudia was actually known for textiles and fabrics that they actually wore garments that were beautiful. And so on the outside, they look like they had it all together. But on the inside, they were spiritually poor. On the outside, look, I'm the first person to admit, there was a season of my life where I just learned how to look the part. I learned how to look like a good Christian. I learned how to show up. I learned how I learned when to clap. I learned when to say amen. I learned when to raise my hands. I had just figured it out.

But I would go home and I had no relationship with Jesus. I would come to church and it looked like I had it all together. But I had no touch points with, I didn't worship, I wasn't praying, I wasn't reading my word. I wasn't even trying to facilitate a relationship with Jesus. What was I, I had it all together on the outside. But there was something on the inside that was off. Here's my warning to the person in this room who's been in the faith for a long time. Anyone who's been in the faith for a long time, whatever you think that is, five years, 20 years, 50 years, whatever it is, let me share this morning that I thought God gave to me. The most dangerous thing that you can do is learn how to give off the appearance that you're on fire for God. But be lukewarm internally. The most dangerous thing that you can do is learn how to give off the appearance. But you're on fire for God. You got it all together. But on the inside, you're lukewarm. You know why? Because you'll settle for appearance rather than an authentic relationship with Jesus. And I don't wanna settle for it. He tells him, he follows it up in verse 18. Jesus is saying this, I counsel you. He's giving them instruction to buy from me gold refined in the fire so you can become rich and white

close to where, so you can cover your shameful nakedness and solve to put on your eyes so you can see what, what is he saying? He's saying he's investing to the spirit realm. Become spiritually rich. Invest in the gold that is refined, that will not burn up, invest in something beyond, but you can see in the physical world around you. Listen, I'd rather be poor and have Jesus than rich and have nothing, than have no Jesus. I'd rather be poor and have Jesus than rich and not have Jesus. Jesus himself says it in Matthew chapter 16, what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and lose their soul? You've been in the pursuit of the whole world. I'm gonna ask the band to come. You've been in the pursuit of the whole world. The riches. You've been in pursuit of everything. Some of it's good, you've been in pursuit of a spouse, a marriage, you've got the kids, you've got the dog, you've got the house, you've got the opportunity, you've got the city, you moved to Austin, like you did all of those things. You got it all. But at the end of this whole entire thing, you lost your soul. What good is it? Why does Jesus speak to us like this?

You wanna know why? Because he loves us. It always goes back to his love. I know up until this moment, you've been like, man, this is really harsh, but it always goes back to his love. You know what it says in verse 19? "Those whom I love, I rebuke and I discipline, "tells them to earnestly repent." This word love here is the word fileo, which means a brotherly, a family love, this friendship. He says, "I wanna tell you this because you're my friend. "We're a friend of God." He tells us this because we're family, because I love you, but I think that our culture, our generation has gotten it all mixed up. I hear this all the time. I hate judgmental Christians. I hate judgmental people. And truthfully, I don't like judgmental people either. But I think we should start asking ourselves this question. Is it judgment or accountability? Let me ask you a question that might break your brain. And don't answer it out loud. Think to yourself, who's the closest person to you right now? That friend, that brother, that sister, I don't know that cousin, whoever it is, your spouse. Like, who's that closest person to you? Let me ask you this question. Can the person is closest to you, judge you?

Nope. Why, because I know you? Wait, wait, hold up. Judgment is, there's a preconceived notion about you, that they don't have the information about. Judgment is, I'm gonna make a decision about your character based on limited information. Wait, wait, hold up. So the people who are closest to me, can they really judge you? Is this something you have to actually ask yourself? And I think sometimes, we think, oh, I'm just running away from judgment, but really you're running away from accountability. Because accountability is uncomfortable. Because when someone calls you out on what you're doing, it says, I need to call you to a higher place. I need to call you to live a life of righteousness. I need to call you to what the Holy Word says in the Bible. I need to call you to something greater because I believe in you. We can easily say, well, you're just judging me. And I think the issue is not the judgment sometimes. Sometimes the issue is, we just don't like being held accountable. (audience applauds) This is why, this is why we can't stay in relationships. 'Cause the moment somebody starts holding us accountable, we just say, oh, they just judge me and they just push me away.

And I'm like, I'm starting to actually ask myself the question. Was it judgment or were they holding you accountable to the greatest version of who you could be? (audience applauds) Jesus says this, those who I love, I will correct. Out of love, I correct you. Out of love, I'm gonna hold you accountable. These are the words of Jesus himself. It's from a place of love. He says this, that I'm standing at the door knocking. (audience applauds) Jesus is standing at the door of our lives. He's knocking saying, invite me in. Invite me into every part of your life. Invite me into your parenting. Invite me into your job. Invite me into your relationships. Invite me in every aspect. He wants access to every element of your life. He's knocking at your door today. (audience applauds) And can I tell you, there's a sense of urgency. Jesus has a sense of urgency. You wanna know why? Because he's coming back. We can't wait anymore. Someone's been waiting, someone's been putting it off. Someone's been saying, I'll do it later. I'll get serious about my faith later. You can't wait anymore.

I'm not here to tell you he's coming back to. I don't know when he's gonna come back, but he tells us continually all throughout the scriptures. Stay ready. I'm coming back soon. There's a sense of urgency. He says, if you're a lukewarm, I'll spit you out. So there will be Christians who will be considered lukewarm if he'll spit out. Oh man, this is really hard to say, because for you, you know, people have always come to me and they say, well, pass your shame. I mean, you, you, whatever you believe is okay. You believe in that, you know, once saved, always saved. If I pray one prayer, then I'm good for the rest of my life? No. (audience chattering) No? That's just not what the... Those who are Luke 1 will be spit out. Let me read this for us and then I'm going to get us out of here, I promise. Luke 14, this is Jesus, and he's sharing this parable. I promise I'm about to close. I just want you to hear this really quickly. It's the parable of the great banquet. Luke 14, verse 15. When one of those at the table was with him, heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."

Jesus replied with this parable, "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests." Notice that word "mini guest" all invited. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited come, for everything is not already. But they all alike began to make excuses under on that word right there. The first said, "I've just bought a field and I have to go see it, please excuse me." The another said, "I bought five yoke of oxygen and I'm on my way to try the mouth, please excuse me." Still another said, "I just got married, I can't come." Verse 21, the servant came back and reported to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry. In order to serve it, go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Serve the servant said, "What you ordered has been done." But there's still more room. There's still more room, praise God. Verse 23, when the master told his servant, "Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in so that my house will be full." I tell you, this morning, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet. It's a lot of this to be just a sobering moment. I want to get rallied up, I want to get, no, no, no. We just need to live under the weight of this decision right here.

Those who were invited to the banquet but did not show up. My fear is that we're just a generation who has gotten really good at something. You know we become masters at excuses. I make a lot of excuses. Anybody ever been invited to a party that you didn't want to go to, don't raise your hand. Don't raise your hand. Or like to something, someone's like, "Hey, can you help me move this weekend?" I'm like, "Oh, man, man, I got all this stuff going on. Like, bro, we've just become master minds at making excuses. Like, why we can't do things. We're very invited to something." I'm like, "Well, you know what had happened was, so I worked a real long week and I put in too many hours, so I'm just going to kick it back at the house. I'm just in a season of rest right now. I'm just in a season right now. I'm just focusing on my inner health and I'm like, "Oh, I'm sorry, this is fun." We just make up all, "Well, my car the other day, man, it just got, I ran over a curb and I got to rest my car." We just start making up stuff. Yeah, yeah, we're like masters at it. Don't raise your hand. Have you ever used the excuse? Like, "Oh, yeah, like a family member's not doing too well there in the hospital or something." Don't raise your hand.

I've never done that. I've never done that. We just make excuses. And they sound really good, right? Every single one of these people who are invited to the banquet had a really good excuse. I just bought land. Wow, I got to go king do it. I got oxen. I'm gonna make it sound really spiritual. I've got to steward what God has given to me right now. Really got to take care of the things and God has put in my life so I don't really have as much time to go out and spend time with God or go to church. We'll just make it sound really spiritual, right? It's so funny. The third one's like, "Man, I just got married. I got to go home." When I got married, that was the best excuse. Like for everything. Oh, you know my wife, she wants me back at home. I got to get, I got to get back home. You know, happy life, happy wife, like, start making up stuff, come on, he knows it. He's going home with his wife tonight. He said, "Hey, oh, come on." Now I'm kidding. We just started making up all these excuses. And my fear is that God is saying, "Hey, come on in. You're invited."

All right, you know, God, I got a lot going on in my life right now. Hey, come on in, I want to spend more time with you. Well, God, you know, I own a business. And, you know, I got to do this. And I take flights every single weekend. And I'm always here, and I'm always there, and I'm making money, and I'm doing this. And he's like, "Hey, but when you come spend time with me, oh, well, God, you know, I got a lot of my plate right now. There's a lot going on, so I don't really have time for that. I don't really have time to go to church. I don't have time to go to church once a month right now. Like, we've just made up, I just want to spend Sundays resting at home and just getting brunch and laying around. You just become masters at making excuses. And here's my fear is that one day there'll be a great banquet. We'll all be inside, and then the music's going to be bumping. Shh, shh, shh, shh. I don't know if that's where they're going to be playing, you know? Maybe you'll hear it in your own way. Like someone who like rocks like, "Noooo!" (audience laughing) Anyways, right, we're all hanging out with the party. We're chilling out, man. We're drinking, like, I don't know, virgin mimosas. I don't know, we're just having a good time. It's partying, having a good time. And some of us will come to the party and say, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yo, what's up?"

And at the door, I was like, "Hold up, who are you?" Wait, I was invited. I just had to go finish some stuff up. And he said, "Wait, wait, we didn't spend any time together." Who are you? Well, you know, I had a busy schedule so I could only go to the church once a month and, "Well, I still wore a cross on my necklace." And it wasn't a, "Wait, who are you?" Wait, wait, the bank was already going. I came back for my bride, but you weren't apart. You're always coming back for his bride. If you're not a part of his church, he's not coming back for you. (audience chattering) It's just the weight of it. Would you stand your feet right now? If you don't say any word, just stand your feet. Just don't say anything right now. Because I want to give someone a decision, an opportunity in the room right now. Would you just close your eyes for a second? Just close your eyes. Just focus for a second. This is not fear-mongering or anything else like that. I just hope someone's just having just this sobering moment of reality. And having this real, the eternity is real, that hell is real, there's a great banquet. And I wouldn't have been planning on doing this.

But here in a second, I'm gonna count to three. And if you're in the room, and you fall into the category and say, "Man, I think that maybe I've been living a lukewarm life. "I want to live a life completely sold out to Jesus. "I want to commit my whole life to Jesus. "I'm done being half in and half out. "Maybe in the room." And you say, "I haven't even given Jesus a try." But today, I want to give him a try. Here in a second, I just want you to come down to the front up here to the altar. I want you to start thinking about it right now. Don't come, one, God's been whispering. He's been saying, it's time to come home, son. It's time to come home, daughter. God's been standing just like the father, the prodigal son, and he's looking out for you every single night, he's saying, "Hey son, hey daughter, "I'm ready, I'm waiting for you to come home." Two, you've been doing it in your own way. You've been living for him sometimes, not living for others, but you know, you know that life is so much better when you live it with Jesus. You want to be a part of the banquet. You want to have a relationship with him. He'll be on earth. So let me give us an eternity with him. You know that you need to go all in for him.

Three, if that's you, come on down. If that's you right now, come on down. Would you just be so honest. Praise God, praise God, praise God. I don't care if it's two, three, five, come on down. They'll begin to clap it up for the people who are making their way down right now. This is a personal decision. You're saying, "I'm going all in. "I'm going all in. "I'm no longer gonna be looking warm anymore. "I'm no longer gonna get in to be half in half. "Come on, there's more people in the room. "There's more people in the room. "You know he's been compelling it on your heart. "He's pulling your heart. "There's more people. "There's more people. "There's more people. "This moment right here, this moment right here." You