This is the Moment | Gary Wallace

Here's a point I want you to get coming out of this that It's worth the cost Following Jesus is worth the cost because whatever Jesus asked you to surrender He intends to replace it with something better I want to start out this morning with a question How many of you in here have ever been in love? Let me see a show of hands been in love Come on, come on. I mean you can you can know the answer out and if you have your house if you're married Raise your hands or is he gonna get nudged or as you know, it's not gonna be a good night All right, if you're married, all right, so How many of you have ever liked somebody and they liked you back? All right, let me see. All right. All right, that's good I think we're about ready to I'm trying to cast a wide net to catch everybody How many of you like maybe you're in elementary school and you wrote on a paper? Write one if you love me or write two if you don't say anybody like that I was one of those, you know, I was like I was a little shy and I had to figure out a way to Get I actually wasn't gonna say this, you know like back then when I was younger They didn't have like cell phones or anything. I had so we had to like call on phone. We couldn't text There was no cell phones and I used to be so shy and like I didn't know what to say I'd write up a whole series of things to say. So when I get on the phone at a girl I could like oh, yeah Hey players move players move, all right When I was in high school, I was I don't know if I would say I was dating this girl we were going out we were We're we're I mean I was having a good time right and and I was I was I remember man I was I was vibing one day and we were sitting out We were watching a movie and as my hands around there as I explained it to me and and and then she popped a question On me that messed me up. It messed me up big-time. She goes And I'm like thinking to myself I'm doing it This is what we're doing and I so, you know, I looked at her I'm like, you know with a dumb look like like She goes what kind of relationship do we have? And and I returned some more dumb looks I'm like It's like I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm just I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm

Where is this relationship going? I'm like, I was not prepared for this man. And then she says I want us to define this relationship and I tell you I truly was not prepared for that question, right? And and I'll just digress a little bit here Like if you're in a situation ship if you're going out with somebody your dates and you guys been hanging out Maybe you know, maybe you're living together and stuff like you need to ask that DTR question You're like, what are we doing? Like where's this relationship going? And really I just said that one two because it's true, but two to mess somebody up like I was messed up That's not really true, yeah it is all right, but at that moment in time I was faced with a decision is This relationship is this thing that I had with this girl? Let's call her name Sarah for now because I don't want to trace back to who it was Is this for real or is this like for fun? right was I more in love with the idea of a Relationship than I was in love with the person who was in the relationship Did we both want did I want the same thing that Sarah wanted out of this? But right then and right there I had to decide There was no more middle ground The title of my message this morning is this is the moment if I had a tagline for this message, it would be when the question demands an Answer when the question demands an answer. Let's just pray a Father, I pray that you'll just speak through me now Lord Let me say nothing more or nothing less than you want me to speak in Jesus name. We pray Amen in in John and in the Bible in the book of John John who was one of Jesus's closest friends and John certainly thought so he he would always refer to himself as the Disciple that Jesus loved so he thought it was really close He wrote a biography of Jesus called the gospel according to John and in chapter 6 of it He is telling about a story when Jesus had a DTR moment with his disciples the story starts out at a time when Jesus was at the height of his popularity and You know large crowds were gathering them. They came for all different kind of reasons John himself

recognizes in chapter in verse 2 where he said he said the crowd of people followed him because They saw so they came for a show Right, and they receive healing and they and the healings that he had performed So imagine that, you know people would pay money to go to a magic show, right? There were people who were going to the Jesus rally because they could get a show. They could see him tell a crippled man to get up and walk and get up and walk. And so they showed up, but they also showed up for this particular rally for another reason. They showed up for food. And how do I know that is that the disciples were worried. So these 5,000 people, so it was 5,000 men, maybe about 12,000 people, including women and children. They show up at around lunchtime to a Jesus event, to where Jesus is speaking, and they all show up without any food. And the disciples are like, these people have no food. How are we going to feed them? And so Jesus, you know, in John 6, it tells that Jesus goes and he asked this little boy and he had, you know, five loaves and two fish and Jesus prepared this great meal. And if Jesus was Jamaican, which judging by pastor to you last week, maybe he is, right? You know, he would have fish

and what Jamaicans call Bami and festival, right? Yeah, there you go. But fish and bread and it was really good. And the people were like, Jesus did not disappoint, man. They got dinner, they got the movies, they got everything. And the people were going wild and they were going like, Jesus pull off this huge miracle and they're all, you know, just got their belly full and all this food that was left over that they could take home and all this other stuff. And they were so excited that John tells us that they wanted to make Jesus King. Now, I want you to get into this story. I want you to imagine yourself being there. It's almost as if you came to like church and, you know, there's a worship team going and then, you know, somebody calls up and say, anybody's sick? And we pray for somebody and they're in a wheelchair. They get up on the set walking and like, represent Jesus and everybody's like really happy. Well, that's the kind of scenario that was happening. And the people in all their excitement, in John 6, 15, they wanted to make Jesus King. John said, Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and making King by force, withdrew himself into the mountain. On the surface, this sounds really great. This sounds like great meeting.

It sounds like great worship. It sounds like enthusiasm. It sounds like, man, these people are really committed to Jesus. But if you pause for a second and recognize that they wanted to make Him King by force. They didn't care what Jesus wanted. They wanted to make Him King by force. You realize then that they were really not submitting to Jesus. Rather, they had an agenda for Jesus. They had a political agenda for Jesus that they had a plan for Him. They had a role for Jesus in their story. And if Jesus would just play His role, everything would be perfect. Jesus would come and He'd be King and He'd take over from the Romans and He established Israel back as His own country and all this. And it was a neat little thing. All Jesus had to do was and all they had to do was insert Jesus right here into their story. And Jesus, He walked away from them. He withdrew. He went up into the mountain and He stayed there. Well, John tells us what happens next. In John 6, verse 16, it says, when evening came, His disciples went down to the lake where they got into the boat

and set across the lake to Capernaum. By now it was dark and Jesus had not joined them. Now, I wanna pause here for a second, right? To slow this story down. So imagine lunchtime, Jesus feeds them. It's now one o'clock. He maybe preaches for a couple hours, two, three o'clock. They wanna make Jesus King. He goes up into the mountains. Nobody's seen Jesus. And Jesus is not right there. So disciples like, we can't wait for Jesus. And disciples decide to leave Jesus and go on a journey by themselves. Verse 18 tells us that a strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. That oftentimes happen when you go the route without Jesus. A word to somebody there. And when they had rowed for about three or four miles, now imagine this, the boat's rocking and everything and the storm is coming. And they look and they see Jesus approaching them, walking on the water and they were frightened, just like you would be. Because just like I would be to see somebody, I don't know what way they're more frightened are, the boats about to capsize or somebody walking on the water in the middle of the storm. So Jesus rightly said, hey guys, don't be afraid.

It is me, it is I. And. I like this verse, verse 21 says, they were willing to take him on the boat. I don't really kind of get that, but they were like, they almost had a debate, like, hey, this man's walking on water, we should be bringing him in a boat. They're willing, but Jesus gets back in their midst and something happens. It says immediately the boat reaches shore to where they're headed. It's like they're in the middle of the lake, Jesus steps in the boat and bam, it just happened like that. And I wanna tell you when Jesus steps into your situation, sometimes it happens all of a sudden, right? And don't discount it. Don't say, well, Jesus, maybe, you know, you could do it. No, no, I said, Jesus, like if you pray for something immediately, pray for it immediately, because sometimes Jesus be like that. I tell you, it's a pretty wild story right here in walking water. I could spend the whole time preaching about it, but that's not where I'm preaching from today. Anyway, the following morning, the crowd realized that Jesus had snuck out from them. That's how they felt because they were waiting, right?

So you imagine that they show up at lunchtime and then they got their belly full and then Jesus leaves and they stayed there waiting for Jesus to come back. And you think that's really a good thing. So they waited in the morning. They found out that Jesus was at the other side of the lake. They're like, how did Jesus get away from us? In verse 24, John says, so when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got in their boat and they went across the Capernaum to look for him. And they found him on the other side of the lake and ask, rabbi, when did you get here? Now this is shortened down because it would have gone something like this. Jesus, how did you get away from us? We were right there. Like, if you came down from the mountains, we would have seen you. Like, how did you get past us? How did you get here? Like, I was like, didn't you see us? That's how that story would have gone. They were not, Jesus was not at the spot where he left them. And they wanted him because they had an agenda for Jesus. They weren't there because of Jesus, but they were there because of what they could get for Jesus. They had a picture of Jesus and a worldview of what Jesus is supposed to do.

And when he didn't do it, they weren't too thrilled about it. You know, for many of us in this room, we carry a picture in our head of who Jesus is and what he's supposed to do. And the problem is, is that sometimes our expectation of Jesus is different than how Jesus shows up. Sometimes we were expecting a promise on something that Jesus never promised us. We just made up that promise in our head. I was like, this girl gonna be my girl, Jesus' name. Like, in Jesus' name, you gonna bless this girl. Like, oh, I feel like she's my girl. Thank you, Jesus, for that word from you and for that promise. We have a picture that lined up that oftentimes or sometimes doesn't line up. And when he doesn't come true the way that we scripted it, because we have a way in which it should work out, is sometimes we get disappointed. Like, we complain, like, you know, like, man, you know, I gave my offering this week, you know, and I was expecting a return and I'm broke. And we complain. We get mad and we think we're doing all these things. And in our frustration, we may even yell out, like, Jesus, what do you want from me? What do you want from me? I'm doing what you want. Like, what do you want from me? And I wanna tell you this morning

that Jesus is not afraid of your hard questions. It's like, you know, we try to pretty things up and like, we think Jesus don't know what's going on in our head and in our hearts. Like, okay, I can't say it that way because Jesus is gonna think I'm a bad person. Like, you know, let me pretty it up. And I think Jesus, if you ever asked Jesus that question, because I have, I think Jesus would say, that's a good question. What do you want from me? But I think a better question you should be asking, maybe you should be asking this is that, Jesus, what do you want for me? You see, on the surface, that may sound similar. It's like, yeah, from, for, like, but they're actually very, very different. The from question is a transactional question. It is, I do this, Jesus, and you do this for me. Like, and that's the reason why, man, I'm going off script all over the place here. That's the reason why some of our marriages fall apart because we like, we expect a transactional relationship. Like, I'll do this, but you gotta do this. And if you don't do this, then I ain't doing this. The for question is a relational question. The from is a transaction, the for is a relationship. The from is a. Boss, the four is a son, a father to a son. You know, for me, the from question is a question

that I wrestled with, especially in my late teens. I am a scientist by trade, a computer scientist, and I ask questions why all the time. I always want to find out what's beneath, like what's going on. And I wrestled with this from question in my teens. And the reason I wrestled with it is because I had all these questions and nobody was giving me any good answers, any answers. And so I walked away from faith when I was around 16 or 17, which is kind of bad when your father is a pastor. It's very bad. So I couldn't tell him. So I just pretended. So I'd go to church with him and then come to church, I'd find a reason to be outside in the parking lot just talking to whoever would walk around. But I was checked out mentally. However, that started like a journey. And a journey for me to discover like, well, is there a God? Am I believing this because my parents told me this? Or am I believing this because I believe it? And I'm like, so is there a God? And I had to wrestle with that. And then I'm like, okay, I recognize I took more faith to believe in nothing than it took to believe in something. And I'm like, I don't have that much faith. So I gotta believe in something. And I'm like, okay, if there's a God,

there's a God, who is he? And I became convinced that it had to be Jesus because every other people that people worship, they're all dead and Jesus is risen. I was seen by over 500 people. So I'm like, all right, it's gotta be him. I'm like, then it hit me. Like, what in the world does he want from me? And in that search for the from answers, I got the answers to the for question. And I wanna share with you what I discovered in my journey, which is really my message today. I got some revelations. Like Jesus like popped open my mind. And some of these things may be so elementary for you, but they're revolutionary when you really ponder it for a minute. The first revelation that I had was that what Jesus wanted from me, for me, was oftentimes not what I wanted from Jesus. And the same is true with you. Like what Jesus wants for you and for us is oftentimes not what we want from Jesus. For some of us, like we want a Jesus who's, I'll say it like a blessing machine. He's a blessing machine, like almost like a genie. We follow him. And in return, he blesses us. We say, God, I'll do this. But you gotta do this.

We have an entitlement mentality that God owes us something. The, for some of us, maybe that's not our issue. We don't look at Jesus as a blessing machine. We look at Jesus, we want a Jesus who is the agreeable Jesus. A Jesus who agrees with whatever it is that we're doing. A Jesus that agrees with our politics. A Jesus that agrees with our lifestyle. You know, like, we like, hey, Jesus, I'm like, you know, this girl, I mean, I know she's not a Christian, but I'm flirting to convert. Like, I'm taking her to church. And you're doing this, and Jesus is like, like, you just want me to agree with you. It's validation. You find verses to make Jesus validate that you, you don't really care about the context. You may take one word from four verses and sit them together and make up your own theology. Because you want a comfortable Jesus that's not gonna make you, ah, I hate me. Or maybe the kind of Jesus, the Jesus that you want is the, what I'll call the 911 Jesus, the emergency Jesus. Like, you know, Jesus is right there. It's at the firehouse. Firehouse is always located within, like, four miles from your house. Firehouse is not in your house. So when you have an emergency, he's like,

hey, 911 Jesus, and Jesus shows up, and he comes in a crisis and he makes it better. You're like, okay, go back to the firehouse, Jesus. I don't know where you sit, but there's a truth in all those, right, that Jesus does bless. He does provide comfort. He is there in your emergencies. But when your worldview of Jesus is as narrow as that, you are not worshiping the Jesus of Bible. You're not worshiping the Jesus that I know. You're worshiping a version of Jesus that's just shaped to fit your lifestyle and your choices. And the fact is, here's something for you. Like, Jesus ain't here to fulfill your agenda. He's here to reveal his. And that revelation led me to a truth about what Jesus wants for us, which is Jesus wants to forgive what we've done. And he wants to forgive us for what we've done. Jesus wants for us to see him as a sustenance And he wants to forgive us for what we've done. and not the supplement. And he wants to forgive us for what we've done. He wants us to see him as essential for not just some aspects of our life, but every aspect of our life. He's not a supplement to improve your life. He is a sustenance that gives you life. Verse 26 of our story, Jesus says this to the crowd.

It's the same crowd. He's like, I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the reason why I gave you the bread, why I healed the sick, why I did all these miraculous signs. And man, right there, you see how you guys are quiet? That's literally what happened to the crowd. It's like Jesus called them out. He's like, you're here just because of the food, ain't you? But Jesus starts calling them out. He goes in like hard, man. He starts, then he starts sending them some stuff. You know, like, you know the bread that I gave you yesterday? You're going to eat that. And just like how you stayed around from lunchtime to dinner, you're going to be hungry again. If I give you that bread again, you're going to be hungry again. You see, you know why? Because that is just a supplement. But I want to give you some bread that you'll never go hungry again. And every time I say that, I think of like the hyenas in Lion King, you know, stick with me and you'll never go hungry again. If you've never watched Lion King, that movie's like spiritual, man. There's like so much good stuff in it.

See, I want to give you some bread that you'll never go hungry. I don't want to just give you food that you're going to go hungry. I don't want to give you supplements. I want to give you sustenance. And then the people go wild. They're like, what? I can eat bread and never go hungry again? I'm like, I want that bread. I want that bread. Give me some of that bread. Give me some of that bread. And they're going wild. And Jesus is like, I am that bread of life. I am the bread of life. And at that statement, Jesus starts losing the crowd. They're like, whoa, it's kind of heavy. Like, I just wanted some more fish and festival. I was like, what are you? And then Jesus, realizing that he's losing the crowd, he doesn't tone it down. He amps it up. I said this in the first service. Like some of our young people say, he goes in 100. He goes in 100. And he starts amping up and he says this. He says, in verse 51, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.

The bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. In verse 53, he says, very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man, which is what he called himself, and drink his blood, you will have no life in you. And the people are like, Jesus is done, lost his cotton-picking mind. This guy is nuts. Ain't no way I'm eating his flesh and drinking his blood. My name is not Hannibal Lecter. John tells us in verse 60, on hearing it, many of his disciples said, that's a hard teaching. Who can accept it? John 6, 6, 6, John 6, 6, 6, 6. From that time, many of the crowd turned their back and no longer followed him. They clicked, unfollow. And in doing so, they missed the opportunity of a lifetime. What they missed, because they left too early, that Jesus wasn't literally talking about cannibalism, eating flesh and drinking blood. He was telling them about real life. He was telling them about that by consuming him fully, which really is by believing in him, by trusting in him, by building your foundation on him, by building your whole life around him. That's what he meant by consuming him. And if they had stayed for that, they would have walked away

from more than just another meal. They left too soon and in doing so, they walked away from complete forgiveness. They left too soon and in doing so, they walked away from intimacy. with God. They walked away from the gift of heaven. They walked away from being sons and daughters that he would never disown and he could never disown. They walked away from the best part. They walked away from assurance that there is nothing that they could do to lose the love of God. And that is the real sustenance that they walked away from. But they couldn't see it. They couldn't see it because they were so locked into what they wanted from Jesus that they missed what Jesus had for them. I don't know if I'm talking to somebody today. That you're locked into what you want from Jesus has got to be this. You're missing what Jesus had for you. Which brought me to the second revelation I discovered. That what Jesus wanted for me is actually better than what I want for myself. What Jesus wants for us is immensely better than anything we could want for ourself. And for some of that, that's like a little hard to swallow. Because we are in love with our own ideas and thoughts. And that's the reason why we pray that we do. If you ever took the time, and I would love for you to do this, the next time you're praying, you pause in the middle of your prayer and think about all the things that you just prayed for. And when you do that, what you'll realize is that, I think my ideas are phenomenal. I'm like, God, please bless me by giving me this job because it's gonna earn me $70,000 a year. I get to work from home and I get to do all this. I get to do this. So God, you know this is a good job. You better bless me with this job. The revelation's a little bit hard to swallow because sometimes you secretly believe that the cost of following Jesus is too high. You think about everything that you got to give up. And the truth is, following Jesus will cost you something. It will cost you something. It may cause you some friends. And by the way, some of y'all know that your friends need to have an expiration date. Some of your friends need to have an expiration date. Some of you

need to know that the expiration date passed two years ago. You need to get them out of your life because they're not edifying. They're dragging you down and you are not strong enough to pull them up. It may cost you your sex life if you're not married to a woman and a man together. And Jesus is saying, you want my ideal for you? This is my ideal. This is what I want for you. Like you want my best, my highest and best? It may cost you that relationship that you're in that's not God-honoring. It may cost you some time. It's like, I can't go to the beach on Sunday morning because I'm going to be in church. It may cost you some money. It may cost you a little bit of comfort. And for the crowd in John chapter 6, following Jesus would have cost them, in their minds, their dignity. Following somebody, talking about eating flesh, drinking blood. That's what we talk about. Eating flesh and drinking blood. It would have cost them their reputation. So they walked away because they didn't want to give up looking good. They didn't want to risk looking foolish. Here's the point I want you to get coming out of this, that it's worth the cost. Following Jesus is worth the cost because whatever Jesus asked you to surrender, He intends to replace it with something better. He just does. Watch what I mean by that. Another writer of the story of Jesus wrote the other biography of Jesus, therefore, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. This is Mark. Mark wrote about a time in Mark 8, and just to set that up, where Jesus fed some other people. Two chapters earlier, Mark 6, he tells the same story about Jesus feeding the 5,000 people. Fast-forward two chapters, it's Mark 8, and 4,000 people show up at this Jesus conference. Like, I'm going to use today's terms. It's Jesus' event. So 4,000 people show up, and this one is a multi-day event. So they're day one, day two, day three. Day three, they're hungry, right? All the food that they brought has run out, and the disciples, who knew that Jesus had fed 5,000 before... They saw it, they still asked, Jesus asked them, he's like, hey, feed these people, give these people something to eat. And Jesus is asking the disciples that, the disciples are like, okay, Jesus,

where in the world are we gonna find food to feed 4,000 people? And I can imagine Jesus going on there like, did you just not see me feed 5,000 people? And so he asked the disciples, like, what do you have? How much food do you have? And about 8.4 says, you know, where are you gonna find it? 8.5 says, Jesus asked him, how many loaves do you have? And they said they have seven loaves, there are 12 disciples, and the loaves aren't like big, hard old bread, Haitian bread loaves, they're like these little American-sized rolls, right? I like hard old bread, if you guys know what that is. And they didn't wanna give up their seven loaves, to these people, because we don't have enough, we only got seven, and there are 12 of us. And Jesus, if you eat, that's 13. And Jesus is like, give me that. And he used it to feed 4,000, another belly full feeding miracle. How many of you know that sometimes, the solution to somebody else's problems is right there in your hand? You got them loaves in your hand. It's a message to somebody. Mark 8 says that, 8.8 says, when the people ate and were satisfied, and afterwards, the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of leftovers, the disciples gave Jesus seven loaves,

and they got seven basketful of loaves in returns. Jesus didn't just replace what they gave up, he multiplied it. You know, that's the pattern with Jesus, is that there's always a positive ROI, a positive return on investment, that whatever he asks you to give up, it's never the end, it's really just the beginning of it. It's just the beginning of the math, which is why what God wants for you is so oftentimes different than what you want from God, because what he wants for you is better. And it's not because God is withholding something good, he's like, I wanna see them squirm. God is not like an evil God, it hurts him when we hurt, when there's a need, but it's like, hold on a second, hold on a second, don't just stop on eating flesh and drinking blood. I got more for you, I got more for you. Don't click on follow yet, and too many of us click on follow, or we get into the boat like disciples and leave Jesus behind, we're like, we gotta go to Capernaum, I can't wait on Jesus. So the fact is, no matter how much I think my plan is a great plan, no matter how much I think that my agenda is a great agenda, his way is better, your way is better. Trying to be like Pastor T.

You start jumping and doing some breaking thing, I can't do that, he has younger knees than me. This led me to the second truth that I discovered, that what Jesus wants for us is to realize that his way is always better. And it's something my wife and I, we say when we do pre-marriage counseling, that when you're with your spouse, never use absolutes, because when you use absolutes, you're always wrong, like you would never take out the garbage, you would never take out the dishes. Because if they find just one time, when it's not true, they have invalidated your whole argument, the marriage tip there, this, Jesus' way is always better. I can unequivocally say that. So the challenge though is that, we all know that, like, oh Gary, that's not revolution, revolutionary. The challenge is that knowledge alone is not good enough. And you know, an alcoholic could say something like, I'm an alcoholic, I have no problems, I drink, get drunk, fall down, no problem. Give me another drink. Knowledge of him being an alcoholic does not solve the problem. Knowledge doesn't change anybody or change anything,

the only thing that changes things is actions. But my problem was, I knew the truth, but I didn't know how to turn that knowledge into action. And so, I'm gonna share with you today, like, what turns knowledge into action? the right thing to do, but I struggled with doing the right thing. And every time I do the wrong thing, it's because I've forgotten this one principle, that the key to moving from knowledge into action goes through the word belief. Belief. And that's what Jesus revealed to me and led me to this revelation, revelation number three. What Jesus wants from me is to simply believe Him. Not just believe things about Him, but believe in Him completely. Jesus wants me to literally put my foot upon the rock and cement myself on the rock of Jesus and His truths. And if He says something, regardless of how it looks, because every time something looks a certain way, imagine that it's like a wind, and the wind will blow you. And the storms will come and the storms will buffet you. But when your feet is cemented into the foundation, you're not gonna go anywhere. You're just gonna bob around, but you're like, I'm standing on Jesus. I don't know what He's doing, but I'm standing right here on Jesus.

If that analogy don't get to you, you ever seen a lizard on a limb? Imagine that to your head. The wind's blowing and the limb's going like this, and the lizard's just like. That's what it's like to put your faith and confidence and trust in Jesus. And then right after that, get back to our story here. John tells us that the crowd clicked on follow and they left and the room empties out, 5,000 men, about 12 or 13,000 people, including women and children. And there are only 12 disciples left. Maybe a few others, but 12 disciples in particular. And Jesus turns around and He asked them probably one of the most vulnerable questions that I can recall Jesus asking. And He looks at them and He says, you don't wanna leave too, do you? I can't just imagine that Jesus is like, you guys don't wanna leave too, do you? And that was the DTR moment for the disciples because right then, they had to decide. Are they gonna leave too or are they gonna stay? Even when they don't understand what God is doing. Even when it seems like God has brought them to the edge and the only place left is over the edge. They had to decide. And I like Peter's answer to this question. He answered and he said something that was really just interesting to me.

He didn't answer a good spiritual response, a good church answer. He didn't say, God, I love you. I'm gonna stay with you. Like, God, you're the best. You're the best. Like DJ Khaled, he didn't do that. He said this in verse 68. Give this raw answer. He said, Lord, where are we gonna go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe. Come to believe and to know that you're the Holy One of God. And Peter doesn't say this because he's got it all figured out. Peter is not asking the question, okay, Jesus, before I answer, what do I get by staying? He's not asking that question. He's saying that I'm choosing to turn my words of I believe you, Jesus, into trust. I'm choosing to turn it into trust. It's like, I don't understand what you're doing, but I'm gonna trust. I don't understand what you're doing, but I'm gonna trust. And you know, that's what Jesus is asking us to do today. He says, I want you to trust. When you don't understand why it's taking so long, he's like, I want you to trust. When you don't understand

why you may be feeling a little broke, he wants you to trust. When you don't understand why you failed that test that you studied for, he's like, just trust me. And it's hard. And like Peter, Peter's like, I really wanna go, but I'm choosing to stay. And trust. Plus my feet are cemented into the rock, I can't leave. You know one of the questions that I get asked all the time is how can I know what's God's will for my life? How can I? I don't remember if people have ever asked that question. How can I know what's God's will for my life? And we treat this question like it's really an elusive question. But Jesus gives us the answer. In verse 40 of John 6 he says, hey you guys want to know what my Father's will is? You want to know what God's will is? Is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes. That's what my Father's will is. That's what God's will is. He wants you to look to Jesus and believe. And when you do that you'll have eternal life and you'll be raised up with him. And everything flows out of that foundational truth. Which is the third truth that I realize. That what Jesus wants for us is to realize that by fully believing in him, by trusting in him, it doesn't just open up heaven later. It opens up peace today. It opens up victory today. And here's why I explain that.

Well in John 10, 10 Jesus said that I came that you may have life, that's eternal life, and life to the full. And the Amplified version says to the overflowing. Because when you trust in Jesus, you're like, I don't know how it's going to turn out, but I know it's going to turn out good. I don't know what you're doing, but I know it's going to be good. Lord, I can't wait for you to see how you're going to show up for me. But this is going to be good because right now it's looking pretty bad. But I'm trusting you. I'm sitting down. I'm riding that limb like that lizard. I'm standing on the firm foundation. And that's where my journey back to faith landed. After those three revelations, Jesus turned around and asked me my very own DTR question. He asked me a DTR question where I came to the moment where I had to decide. And my answer is the reason why I'm standing in front of you today. I was 41 years ago, and somebody asked me the question. He's like, Gary, I want you to come serve with me. I said, I can't serve because I'm not, actually, I said, you don't want me serving because I was doing some stuff. And he's like, what do you want your future life story to be? And then he asked me something else, which I'll tell you in a second. In the 41 years since, I've come to believe that I'm not unique, that Jesus is asking every one of us a DTR question today. Before I got up on stage, while I was preparing, I prayed that God would only bring people in this room that needed to answer a DTR question. And I asked God, like, what DTR questions would you want me to ask these people from you? And so here they are. So just like that girl in high school asked me, I want to ask you the first DTR question

I believe Jesus is asking you. Why are you here? Why are you here? The people showed up to Jesus for all kinds of reasons. They showed up for food, they showed up for the show, they showed up for healing, they showed up because they could get something. And Jesus is asking the question, are you here because of what I can do for you or because of what I have already done for you? So you may be here, you know, you may say, hey, I get a free concert every week. Hey, maybe Pastor T will dole out some hundred-dollar bills, maybe I don't have any babysitters and I can come to three services so I can get freedom from these screaming kids. But Jesus wants something from you and that's why he laid it down on the line for you. He wants a relationship with you. The second DTR question that he's asking some of us today is, who am I to you? He asked Peter that before, you know, who do you say that I am? But he's asking, who am I to you? Am I sustenance or am I supplement? and the fact is that many of us in this room are living on supplements and our supplements maybe can't be found in many way like we're we're we're eating things that only satisfy for a moment we may be eating the supplement of achievement like God please just bless me so I can get this next promotion because if I get this next promotion life is gonna be great life's gonna be phenomenal life is going to be swell God just give me some more money it's all I need just a million dollars just a million dollars God you do that you do that for me you're my God who am I to you some of you may be running on empty carrying around guilt and shame because you're doing some things to maintain the supplements when Jesus says come to me because I am the sustenance who am I to you the third DTR question I believe that he's asking today is this what are you going to do about me what are you gonna do about me you see that's the question that Jesus asked me when I had to decide what am I gonna do about Jesus

am I gonna talk about all the reasons why you know the church hurt and people hurt and hypocrites and she's like forget all that what are you gonna do about me for some of you that question maybe you need to trust Jesus for the first time like you may have raised your hand a number of times but you haven't really trusted Jesus and she's like you only need to do this once because when you put your faith and trust in me you're saved forever there's nothing that you can do that pull me away from that maybe this DTR question for you is not about believing for the first time maybe it's about going public with it maybe it's about it's about you know letting everybody know and and you know like people are always in our house and I joke all the time I said my wife and I we live in a fishbowl because we teach marriage course and we lead pre-marriage counseling and all this other stuff and and you know right now my son just got married and so my daughter-in-law is there and like everybody sees us and what that does for us it makes sure that whatever I'm saying I'm living there's something about going public that people will hold you accountable because when you go public and today I'm encouraging some people to go public with baptism there's a baptism later on that you go public with you and post it on social media every time you're gonna make something a move somebody's gonna say wait a minute I saw you got baptized gotta act right keeps you accountable Jesus wants you to get out of that a quiet safe life and get out in the public get on the public and say that's my Jesus I'm with him who am I to you said stop sample for some of you you've gone public you've accepted Jesus but you're still sampling you're sampling you're like a little bird just taking a little bit of word you take a little bit of word on Sunday come to church and you get a little bit of word but you're at the rest of the week you know you don't really sampling Jesus like look you're taking me as a supplement and not as a sustenance you can't build your faith without trust without without without trust and you can't get your trust without hearing in Romans 10 17 it says that's the only way you build your faith

is by hearing the message and it's not just Sunday it's like every day so you got to be in your word every day you got to be listening to podcasts every day you got this to preachers all over the place and you know you got to be in small groups you got to be like places where the word is being spoken into you because trust and belief leaks you got to keep filling it back up in order for you to have victory and peace so whatever your answer is whether it's to believe to go public or to go deeper Jesus is asking the same thing he's asking the 12th you don't want to leave also do you so right here right now this is the moment this is the moment where you have to answer that question so with your head bows and your eyes closed if the Holy Spirit has been speaking to you in any one of these and I'm not gonna call you forward or anything In any one of these three DTR questions, why are you here? Who am I to you? What are you gonna do about me? If you just raise your hands, I just want to recognize you and pray for you. I see that hand over there. I see that hand. I see those hands. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. There are hands going up. I can't even count. I see your hands, all the hands on this side of the room. Let me just pray for you. Father, I pray Lord that this moment that their answer will be God, I don't know, but I know my answer is yes. Lord, I want to trust you. I want to be here for the right reasons. I want to recognize you as my God and my King, as my sustenance, and I won't treat you no longer as my supplement. God, let's pray for each and every person. If there's anybody here who is the first time saying yes to Jesus, I just want you to say this prayer with me, and I'll ask the entire room to join us in prayer. Say this, dear God, I'm sorry for the things I've made it when it should be all about you. God, I pray that you'll come into my heart, take control of my life, and enable me

to trust you and to live for you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Hey, heaven is celebrating, and we are celebrating with you, and we want to walk this journey together. So if you prayed that prayer, or you just want to know more about Jesus, follow the prompts that are on the screen right now. We are so proud of you, and honestly, God's vision for you is to see you live that better story, epic and eternal. We say it like this, to see you holy, healthy, happy, and bring in heaven to earth. And if you're watching and you want to help others find Jesus like that, you can partner with us, and together we can make that epic difference. Hey, giving details are coming up on the screen, and we just say, if God's blessed you, you can be a blessing to other people as well. And hey, if you're here in the South Florida area, we'd love to see you in person. Check out the description below for times and the location where you can come to a service. We would love to see you soon. This is History Makers Church, where friends truly become family. See you soon.