What Is Keeping You From Fully Following Jesus? | Into The Breach | Pastor Josh Howerton

Every week, release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon, it's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free, an episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now, enjoy this Bible teaching. - My personal life diverged and it was debauchery and it was doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons and I was just frankly trying to fill that hole and I don't think I could have got a big enough bulldozer to fill that. I know I couldn't because I tried. I grew up in a great family, I got good grades, I very much followed the rules. I went to college, got a degree, had a great job and that kicked off a career that ended up being incredibly successful and I got married fairly young, I had a couple of kids and work was very much my idol. I just was working all the time and it was maybe to some extent a way to keep score. It was a way to gauge success.

I started drinking too much. I started running around with women. I was very much living selfishly. I started racing cars, trophy trucks. I bought all this stuff and I was just aimlessly trying to fill this void in my soul that couldn't be filled with anything material. Next thing you know, I had cheated on my wife. She was of course destroyed and broken but she started reading her Bible and praying and I noticed it and I recognized it and said, I want that, then I began reading the Bible and we began praying together and we invited Jesus into our lives and into our marriage and I think it's a fantastic illustration of not only if we're left to our own devices, we will destroy ourselves but that Christ can cure and resolve anything. I very much lived the first half of my life living for myself and being selfish. The second half of my life is going to be living under God's word and for God's plan for me, not my own. The fact that he was chasing after me and through this brokenness and then this rebuilding of getting in the word and praying, it just became very obvious. And through that is where I gained a great deal of joy and giving because I very much believe that what I have is not mine and I'm just as steward.

I feel a tremendous responsibility to steward it better 'cause I know the best steward isn't me, it's Christ. It makes me comfortable giving because the true focus is to gain that one more. My name is Carl Williams and this is how Jesus changed my life. - Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. And hey, Lakewood family, I'm at all of our campuses. I think Carl, he's in one of our services today. Can you help me show him how honored we are by him being a trophy of grace? Let's go man, amen, amen, amen. Man, if you are, if you're brand new, I just need you to know what you're getting into. Jesus Christ, the Bible calls him a redeemer and what you need to know is when we use the word redeem, redeem just the word that means taking one thing and turn it into another thing. It's like when your wife takes a coupon and turns it into a box of Clorox, take one thing, turn it into another thing. Man, it makes my soul head every time I see it, I got the greatest job in the world. Man, my God could take a man who was one thing and he can turn him into another thing. And that's our whole thing, that's our whole thing. Well, hey man, if you guys got your Bibles, this is gonna be a really good day. It's gonna be a really good day.

If you guys got your Bibles, head over to Mark Chabberton. If you got your disciple journal, which I hope you do, turn to page 114 in your disciple journal for our sermon notes today. We are in week two of what I think is gonna be maybe probably the most important thing we've ever done as a church. And I'm gonna warn you right now. Today, I'm leaning in, not on what we're doing as a church, I'm leaning in on what God is gonna do in your life. Because what we're doing is we're in this series called Watch. It's called Into the Breach. It comes from a theme verse for my entire life. Isaiah 5812, where God says, "And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt, and you shall raise up the foundations of many generations." In other words, I wanna use you to do something that affects your great grandkids. And then he says, "You shall be called the repair of the breach." That's where the enemy breaks in, the restore of the streets to dwell in. And so what we're doing is, man, we're just leaning in and we're gonna, okay, God, use us to do it. Now, today is like a, it's a bit of like a life message for me and you're gonna see why. So let me, let me lead into it like this. I wanna plead with you.

I wanna plead with you to not waste your life today. That's what I wanna plead with you for now. There's a moment in my life that that came from. I talk about it all the time. It's the most significant moment in my life. I wanna ask this question. How many of you know where you were? There's only one dude in our church who probably knows the answer to this question. One, where you were on May 20th, the year 2000. I mean, you know, anybody know where you were? May 20th, 2000. That's what I thought, okay? There's one dude in our church knows the answer to that question. His name's Tim Smith, our senior executive pastor. I'll tell you why here in a second. Now, I don't know where I was on May 20th. I was somewhere in Bowling Green, Kentucky going to high school, but I know where I got named Dr. John Piper was. Who knows who John Piper is, by the way? Okay, John Piper, that's it. People who know John Piper, they're not really cheers. They're more quiet hand raisers. That was there, okay. John Piper, John Piper was preaching. He was doing something that day that would not just change my life. It would change the trajectory of my entire generation. He was preaching an event called Passion One Day, okay?

Now, you should go watch it. He preached that day. Here's what I did. There was thousands of college students who were gathered in a cow pasture just outside of Memphis, Tennessee, preaching an event called Passion One Day. Now, what he would do that day is come out and preach sermon. I'm gonna tell you about it here in a second. But that day, the sermon he preached changed my life forever. One year after he preached that sermon, the title of the sermon was, boast only in the cross, boast only in the cross. A year later, I'm a freshman at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. My buddy hands me a, by the way, raise your hand again. Actually, let me do this. Who wasn't even born on May 20th, 2000, okay? That's it. Man, that's adorable. Y'all are adorable. I just wanna, that's adorable. Those are the people who don't know who Randy Savage is or Striper, none of that stuff. They don't know who that is. By the way, Striper, that was a traveling evangelist group in the 90s.

That's who that was, that's it. What he did is, he preached that sermon. I had a college roommate, again, named Lewis Curge, shout out Lewis Curge, played intramural together. He handed me a burn CD. If you raise your hand a second and you go, a burn CD, we would take CDs and put them in toasters and it would, it made it sound better. And he, and he handed me this burn CD. And on the CD, it just said, it said, "Pass you in one day, John Piper." I put it in, in my dorm room, as a freshman in college, and those next 42 minutes wrecked my life forever. I am doing what I'm doing today because of what I heard in the, 'cause of what I heard in those 42 minutes. I got finished, I walked out, I grabbed all my roommates who they also loved Jesus, and I was like, "Y'all gotta listen to what I just heard." We all listened to the sermon. There was a bunch of dudes, it was my band of brothers in college, and we called ourselves the war room. We got together at like 9 p.m. every Thursday night. We studied the Bible together, we memorized Scripture together, we did ministry together, all the things. We got together a little boom box CD player,

all the people who raised your hands. You got no idea what I'm talking about at all. And we listened to that sermon, and for the next few years of my life, I stuck that CD in the CD player of my 96 Grand Am in Jesus name. That was a hot bro, that was a fire car, 96 Grand Am. And every time I got in that, my Grand Am, I would just listen, John Piper, passing one day, boast only in a cross. I could quote that sermon word for word, beginning to end when, true story, when Jan and I started dating, like on our third date, we listened to that sermon, it's very romantic. We listened to that sermon. And honestly, I was kind of like, hey man, this is what I'm all about. So she's not into this, I'm probably not gonna be into her. And so we listened to the sermon, okay? Now, here's what it is. If you go listen to it and you should, that in fact, that's your homework this week. Your home, your discipleship homework this week, get on YouTube, on a commute, John Piper, passing one day, boast only in the cross, that's your homework. What he did is he walked out to the, it's a whole group of college students. And if you know anything about passion, I'm from church nerd world. Passion, it's led by this guy named Louie Giglio,

he's super cool, he's very cool. Of passions, there's a hundred reasons I'll never be invited to speak of passion. One of us, and I'm not cool enough. I'm just not, everybody has their, you know, it's all skinny jeans and Chelsea boots and you know, complicated shirts. It's just not, I just not who I am. And they're all look so cool. Well then, everybody's real cool. And then this professorial nerdy looking guy in his 60s walks out as John Piper. And he's awesome, but he's not cool. He's wearing pleated doctors. He's wearing, if you watch the sermon, he's wearing these glasses and they're like a little askew the whole time. And he's got a shirt on that doesn't, He bought it at cash savers and he walked out and he preached a 42 sermon, 42-minute sermon called "BOST ONLY IN THE CROSS." In the sermon, he tells this story about two church members, women in their 80s from his church. Their names were Ruby, Elias, and Laura Edwards. God called him in a mission field. They go in the mission field. And he tells the story that right before he preached that sermon, they're taking food to people. They're trying to share Christ with in some country where people don't know the name of Christ.

The breaks go out of their car. The car careens over a cliff. Two women in their 80s taking food to poor people. You know, the car hits the ground, they die. And then he looks out and he asks all these college students this rhetorical question and he asks it just like this. He says, "I ask you, was that a tragedy?" And he asks it just like that. "Was that a tragedy?" And if you listen real close, there's one college student over here that says, "No, no, no, no, no." And then he says, "I'll tell you what a tragedy is." And then he holds up a reader's digest. If you raise your hand a second ago, go Google Reader's Digest. Yeah, that's what it is. Reader's Digest, that's a Joby Martin joke. Honestly, the only reason I know what a reader's digest is, I had an uncle on my dad's side who had a reader's digest in the bathroom of the lake house we vacationed in as a kid. That's the only reason I know. And then he opens the reader's digest and he reads a story about a couple named Bob and Penny that retired early in their 50s and now they're spending their early retirement in a motorhome riding up and down the eastern coast of the United States playing softball and collecting seashells. And then he says, "That's a tragedy."

And then he says, "This phrase in this world is spending billions of dollars to get you to buy it." And then he asks his question. There's a little phrase he asks in this question. This is what changed my life forever. He looks out at the college students and he says, "Don't waste your life. Don't waste your life." Today, I'm gonna plead with you from Mark chapter 10. Don't waste your life. And she's gonna tell a story about a guy who watched, he wasted his life now. If you're new to the Bible, we got tons of you who are brand new to Team Jesus, you never said it to the Bible before. Let me help you with something. If you look down in Mark chapter 10, starting at verse 17, you're gonna see three words at the top of that little story and it's gonna say rich young ruler. Now, if you're brand new to the Bible and you're in the gifted class, you start reading ahead and you start seeing like, "Wait, it doesn't say rich young ruler in the passage. Why we got rich young ruler?" Here's how this sermon's gonna go. Let me just tell you how it's gonna go. I'm gonna teach for a little bit and then I'm gonna preach for a little bit

and then I'm gonna teach for a little bit more and then I'm gonna finish preaching real hard. It's gonna be great. Let me start just being a Bible. Let me do some Bible teaching for a second. If you're new to Team Jesus, new to the Bible, here's what's happening right here. So there's three gospels this story's told in three of the gospels, they're called the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. If you're new to Team Jesus, here's how this works. The three gospels, they're telling the same events from different camera angles. It's kinda like tomorrow night, when you watch Monday night football, you're gonna go to ESPN and there's gonna be the normal broadcast, you go to ESPN2, there might be the man in cast, you go to a telemundo and it's got a different broadcast. It's the same event from three different camera angles. Here's why we call this story, the story of the quote rich young ruler is because what you got is they say it different. So the Gospel of Matthew calls this guy, watch this all gonna be important here in a second. The Gospel of Matthew calls this guy a quote young man. The Gospel of Luke calls him a quote certain ruler, almost certainly in the synagogue, that's gonna be important here in a second. All three of them mention that he has great wealth.

Put them all together, you got a rich young ruler. So here's what I need you to understand. This is a guy who had everything that the world said, what's gonna give him life. Everything that this world said, hey man, if you get this, you're gonna knock it down, you're gonna be happy, you're gonna be fulfilled, it's gonna fill you up, it's gonna be awesome. He's got provision, he's got prosperity, he's got power, he's got position, dudes in his prime, he's the young ruler. He's got it all, but how many of you guys have in your life or in other people's lives you've seen this, you can have everything on the outside and you can be empty on the inside. And that's this guy. So what you're gonna see is he's got everything out here, but you're gonna notice there's a desperation in him. He's like, bro, there's, he's Tom Brady from last week's sermon. He's like, there's got to be more than this. So watch what he does right here, verse 17. As Jesus started on his way, a man, a certain man, a certain ruler, a person with much, much wealth, ran up to him. Now in Jesus' culture, dudes didn't run. It was like a sign of indignity, only kids run. It was kind of that kind of vibe, only kids run. But this guy, even though he's rich, young ruler, and then he doesn't even wanna watch, and he fell on his knees before him.

And then he said, now for you Bible nerds, just stay with me, he says, good teacher, notice. He didn't say good Lord, he didn't say good Messiah, he didn't say master, he didn't say Yahweh, he just goes good teacher. Now for you Bible nerds, I just wanna point this out. This man ends up missing Jesus in the same way that Judas misses Jesus. He calls Judas, follow Jesus, but refuse to worship Jesus. Judas thought Jesus was a great teacher, you'll notice that's what he calls him, but he never calls him Lord. This guy thought Jesus was a great teacher, but he never bends his knee to Jesus. It is possible to miss Jesus by a space of 18 inches in your life, the space from your knee to the floor. This guy does this, here's what he thinks about Jesus. What he thinks about Jesus is, really cool teacher, really smart guy, but not a Lord to submit to, I wanna hear these cool things he's gotta say, and then he asks this question. Now I want you to say the words that are bolded and all caps out loud for me, what must I to inherit eternal? Now I wanna praise him on this, at least he's asking the right guy. What must, where can I get life? At least he's asking the right guy.

Let me say this, if you're here and you've never bent your knee to Jesus, but you're just, you're kinda Jesus curious, and you're here and you're like, man, I'm trying to find life, can I just honor you? You're looking in the right place. Because here's how we know this. Here's what Jesus said about himself. He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. John 1-4 says about Jesus. In him was the life, and that life was the light of men. John 10-10, we read it last week. It says, the enemy comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. That's what he wants to do in your life. But Jesus said, I have come today. They might have life and have it to the full, have abundant life. So what I like about this guy is he's asking the right person. Here's his problem, he's asking the right person, but he's trying to get life in the wrong way. Now I gotta do a little theology nerd thing here for a second, but just notice what he does. His question is, what must I, the question is, what must I, I'm gonna put it on the screen. What must I look at, what does it say? Do to inherit eternal life. Now, here's why this is a problem. This guy is touching on, important for you to know,

what I'm doing in the next 120 seconds. I'm giving you the core message of Christianity. This is what keeps you out of hell. This is how you enter into eternal life. So listen, most important thing I must say today. When this guy says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He's touching on the difference between Christianity and every other religion, worldview, and philosophy that has ever existed in human history. Let me boil it now and put the cookies in the bottom shelf. Every other religion, worldview, and philosophy in the world is spelled D-O-D-U. Come to the progenitor of, that means originator, of any other religion that has ever existed. And you're like, hey, how do I get eternal life? They're gonna give you a list, a to-do list. Eightfold path, Buddhism, five pillars, Islam. You go Mormonism, which by the way is a cult. They're gonna give you some things you gotta do. If you go to Christian scientists, by the way, who are neither Christian nor scientist. I just gotta point that out. If you don't, they're gonna give you a list. Here's what you gotta do. So here's how it works. In every other religion, worldview, and philosophy, if you do these good things and don't do these bad things, and if you're good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, eternal life, okay? At wrong, do not pass code, do not collect you $100.

Religion divides the world into good guys and bad guys. The gospel divides the world into bad guys and Jesus. So check this out, man. The difference between every other religion, worldview, and philosophy in history is all them are spelled D-O-Doo. Christianity is not spelled D-O. Christianity is spelled D-O-N-E done. It's spelled done. It is the message. Listen, it's bad news and then it's good news. It is the message that you are not a mistakeer in need of a life coach. You are a sinner in need of a savior. And that savior loved you so much. God so loved the world that he gave. That savior loved you so much that he came down. You don't got to work yourself up, he came down, and he lived the life that you have not, will not, and cannot live, and then he climbed up and across, and he died the death that you and me definitely deserved. And that when he pushed up on those nail pierce tans, choking to death on his own blood, and he cried out, it is finished in Greek, he cried out, to tell us die. One word in Greek, three words in English. It is finished, what he was saying is it is done. What's done? Everything necessary for you to be put in a right relationship with God and have eternal life. Everything, it's done.

That's the best news you're ever gonna hear. Jesus then goes here, but he's going, "Hey bro, you're missing it." But Jesus, you're gonna see it later. It says, "Jesus, I love this." It says he looked at him and he loved him. And because he loved him, Jesus tells this guy, "Hey man, let me tell you how to get life "and watch what he says, put it down there." He just says, "Here's how you get life. "Come follow me, come follow me." Now listen, if you don't understand this, I need to, again, the most important thing you're ever to hear. There's only one way for you to get life that's gonna fill you up on the inside, abundant life. And it's hidden in this little phrase, come follow me where Jesus goes, "Hey, walk with me, "be in a relationship with me." It's not about religious works, about a relationship. So check this out, man. There's a few things. I don't do repetition out of laziness. I do it for emphasis. When Jesus says, "Come follow me," he's pointing all the way back to Genesis chapter two. It's what you were created for. From the minute you were born, you were created with something hardwired into your bones. And it's the only way that you'll ever experience life. And you go back to Genesis and watch how you were created.

When God creates the first man in Genesis, the Bible says that he takes him out of the dust of the ground. This is really interesting. It takes him out of the dust of the ground. So it's almost like God gets his hands dirty. And then he fashions man, the Bible says, "Out of the," listen, "Out of the dust of the earth." But at that point, man is the first man. He's inanimate. He's not a life. He has no life in himself. And so the Bible says, I want you to think about this image, the sovereign God of the universe. The Bible says, the image is almost like the, that he leans over that first inanimate man. And the Bible says that he, quote, "breathe the breath of life into him." And so God gets down. And I just want you to picture it. And it's like he's, he just goes. And then I want you to imagine the first moment, Adam's laying on the ground, face up. So he's face up, God breathes the breath of life. And Adam takes his first breath and it's like, and his eyes open in that first second. The first thing you ever see is this, he's face to face with his maker. Hey, listen, here's what you know. You'll never be happy and you'll never be fulfilled until you're walking in a face to face relationship

with the God of the universe and the person of Jesus Christ. You're never gonna be happy. This is why Jesus tells this guy. He goes, "Hey man, you want life?" This is why he says, "Hey, come follow me." Okay, now listen, he goes to layer deeper and you just better buckle up, okay? You need to buckle up. He goes to layer deeper. Now watch what he does in the next verse, pick up, pick up right here. He says, "Why do you, now circle the word good right here. "Why do you call me good?" And Jesus answered, "No one is good except God alone." Now, I need to say this just to be a faithful Bible teacher. Sometimes you'll see like Reddit atheists, they'll point at verses like that. And they'll be like, "See, Jesus said he wasn't God." I'm like, "Oh, bless your heart, you two dumb to talk to." That's not what that means. He literally means the exact opposite. Here's literally what Jesus is doing. This is literally what Jesus is doing. Literally Jesus is going, he's going, "Oh, oh, hey buddy. "You are correctly noticing that I am good "and you're right, only God is good. "Hey, bud, can you put two and two together for me, please?" In other words, what he's doing is he's going, "Hey man, don't respect me as a good man "unless you're willing to bend your knee to me

"as the God-man." That's what Jesus is doing right here. So he goes, "No one's good except God alone." And then watch what he does next. This is really interesting. What he says is, "You know the commandments." Now, when he says the commandments, you may be like, "Ah, which commandments?" Now, we actually know from a context slew which commandments Jesus is talking about. Now, he's talking about the 10 commandments. Now, you've got to be a super bobble nerd to understand what happens here in a second. There's, listen, bro, there's so many times when Jesus, if Jesus does something you don't fully understand in the gospels, I guarantee there's a mind-blowing secret underneath it. That happens right here. So I got, he does a little Jedi thing, little inception thing and let me help you understand it. So we're going to do a fun little bobble teaching. He does the 10 commandments. Now, you've got to understand some things about it. We're doing a whole, I'm so excited. We're doing a whole series on the 10 commandments next year. I'm really excited. But let me do this real quick. I like to do this with my kids and I like to do it with you. I need to teach you something about the 10 commandments. Here's what we're going to do in all of our campuses.

I'm going to teach you the 10 commandments hand motions that I like to do, okay? So if you get your hands ready, the chance out of your pockets, and if you're a dude and you're like, "I'm not doing," I ain't doing no hand motion. Listen, a godly man knows how to teach his kids and his grandkids the 10 commandments. Okay, that's what we want to be that kind of guy, okay? So check this out. Just do this what you're never going to forget this. I love doing this, okay? So do this. First of all, hold up one finger. Hold up one first commandment. That's it, okay? Now, hold up two fingers, second commandment. Turn them sideways like scissors, do this. Cut out the idols. You should not make for yourself a graven image. Commandment number two, you never go and forget that. Number three, hold up three fingers. And don't do it like this, do it like this. Three fingers, what letters have make? Makes a W of your mouth, watch your words. You should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Number four, hold up four fingers. How many Sundays are there in the month? Four, honor this Sabbath by keeping it holy. All right, five, do this, it's my favorite one.

It's just the best commandment, best commandment, favorite one. I was gonna get this commandment tattooed on me but Janice said my body's perfect so I didn't do it. So fifth commandment, do this, do this, do it like this. Salute, yes sir, honor your father or mother. I like that one right now, honor your father or mother. Teach that to your grandkids, honor your father or mother. Now do this one, do this. Now this is where he gets a little dark. Then do this, boom, you should not kill. Boom, you should not kill. Number six, six commandment. Now, gets even a little darker on the seventh commandment. Hold up, do this, don't explain this to your grandkids so they're about 16 but you're gonna get it. Okay, then take the two fingers that are by themselves and they walk away, you should not commit adultery. Okay, let's do that, let's do that. It's a commandment, I gotta teach it to you. There you go, okay, now do this, hold up these eight fingers. No, I don't know if this is true but it helps with remembering them. In some countries they cut off your pinky if you steal something, eight commandment you should not steal. Okay, but then watch this, pop up that little pinky. Oops, I lied, I do have a pinky, you should not lie. Not a commandment, okay, not a commandment. And then hold up 10 fingers like this, grab the head of the person in front,

I'm just teasing, don't do that. (audience laughs) It's a, 10th commandment is you should not covet. Ladies and gentlemen, the 10 commandment's hand motions. Okay, that's it. Now you're never gonna forget that. Now, what the, watch this, what theologians have done all the way back into pre-new covenant Judaism. They have always watched this. They've always divided the 10 commandments into what theologians call the first table of the law and the second table of the law. And if you're paying attention, if you're in the gifted class, you probably noticed the first four commandments. You should have known their gods before me, no graven images, you should not take the name of the Lord you got invaded on to the Sabbath. The first four commandments are all about our vertical, right relationship with our father, the God. That's the first table of the 10 commandments. But you then you'll notice the next six are all about our horizontal relationships with people. Those are called the second table of the 10 commandments. Now, this is really interesting. I'm gonna show you the passage. What Jesus does right here is he lists off, he omits the first four of the 10 commandments, the entire first table. And he conspicuously omits only the 10th commandment. Watch when he asks, watch the rich, young ruler.

Why? Now check this out, watch what he does, okay? Jesus looked at him or he says, so he lifts him off version, I think it's 19. You should not murder six commandments. You should not commit adultery, 7th commandment. You should not steal, 8th commandment. You should not give false testimony. That's another way to say, you should not lie. 9th commandment, you should not defraud. He just went back to the 8th commandment on theft. And then he goes on to your father and mother, 5th commandment. Verse 20, the guy goes, so Jesus goes, oh, this is what you got it. You think you're gonna get life like this? Let me show you something, buddy, this is what he's doing. Teacher, the rich, young ruler declares, all these I have kept since I was a boy to which I think Jesus was like, ooh, ah, ah, ah. Why don't we lift up the pride rock, see what sins under there? Verse 21, then it says, Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lack, he said, now listen, why does Jesus do this? He does not do this to everyone he calls to follow him. One thing you lack, go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven and then come follow me. Now, class, let's go to the question. Why is Jesus leave off the first four commandments

about right relationship with God and leave off the 10th commandment about having a right relationship with your stuff? Here's what Jesus is saying to this guy, rich, young ruler. He's saying, hey, man, your relationship with money, wealth, and stuff is so out of whack that it is making it impossible for you to be in a right relationship with God. He's saying, hey, bro, you think you got the bag? The bag's got you. That is making it impossible for you to live in a face-to-face relationship with me. He's revealing to the man the one thing He's answering his question now. Can I just say this? We look at that and we're like, what a loser. It's guy, okay. I say, honestly, that's the case in more of our lives than we'd like to admit. There was a study done, I like, I'll give you a little example. There was an anonymous survey done a few years ago that was called, they now call it, it's famous. They now call it, "The Day America Told the Truth." And they anonymously surveyed thousands of people and asked them this question, "What would you be willing to do anonymously "for 10 million dollars?" Okay? Now buckle up and it's gonna make you

not trust anybody around you. Okay, here you go. Here we go, do the first one. 25% of people said they'd abandoned their entire family. Oh, that's not even the most shocking. Just get ready. 25%, do the next one. 23% said they'd become a prostitute for a week. They've been listening to Alex Cooper, this is what they've been doing. Number three, 10% said they'd withhold testimony that let a murderer go free. Yeah, let's do the next one. 7% said they'd kill a stranger. I'm just gonna tell ya, that's why I got a security team here. I don't trust any of you guys. 7% of you, bro. Ain't no way. And then watch this, look at this last one. 3% will put their children up for adoption. Now some of you were in a minivan on the way here and you're like, I do it for half. That's what you're doing right now. Now let me just say this, listen, listen, listen. What people like to do, there's a dumb thing that smart Christians believe. And some people, what they do is they say, oh man, it's not about money, it's about the heart.

Your relationship with God, it's not about money, it's about the heart. Hey guys, can I just say something to ya? Jesus said where your treasure is, there your heart would be also. Actually it is about the money because your money reveals what's in your heart. So can I do something? Can I ask you, in week one of the series, I asked you what I called fundamental question number one. And this is what I'm trying to disciple you towards in this series. Here's the question I asked, is where is the one place in your life that the enemy has broken in? Awesome, it may be a relationship, maybe a relationship with your daughter, maybe your marriage, maybe your finances. There's gonna be something that God is calling you to do during this end of the breach discipleship journey. That might be the thing, but let me do this. I wanna rephrase that question to help you figure out where has the enemy broken in watch? And a foothold became a stronghold that became a chokehold and now it's killing ya. Okay, let me rephrase that question. Let's see if we got it. Here's another way to ask that question. Let me ask this, what would Jesus have asked you in Mark 10? What would he have asked you?

Here's another way to ask it. What would you be unwilling to give up to follow Jesus? Whatever, whenever, wherever, no matter the cost, what would have been your thing? Can I tell you what it's gonna look like during this? I'm just gonna tell you right now, here's what it's gonna look like. This entire discipleship journey, by the way, guys, this is just discipleship. I'm just discipling you. This entire discipleship journey is figuring out what is Jesus telling me to do and then do whatever he tells you. So here's what's gonna happen in this series. I'm just gonna tell you right now. It's gonna wreck some of your lives forever. Yeah, like forever. Some of you, you're gonna hear about us translating the Bible into the language of the Brajbashah people and their heart language for the first time. You're gonna be hearing about a 1.5 million people who don't know the name of Christ, getting a New Testament in their language for the first time in human history because of what we do. It's gonna grip your heart. You're gonna be sitting in these seats praying, oh God, would you please call a missionary to go and share the gospel of them? Please call some missionaries.

And what's gonna happen to you? Is that calling's gonna come to you? He's gonna start wrecking you. And in that moment, you're gonna have to decide would I be willing to give up my entire lifestyle to do whatever he told me to do? Mark 10 moment. Some of you, I'm just gonna warn you right now. We're gonna start getting Bible teaching to 1.2 million prisoners in correctional facilities all over America. Listen, I'm hearing these stories already. It's insane. I'm just telling you right now. I don't have time to tell them. The stories are nuts. They're nuts. Or you're gonna see us doing during this deal, the special needs facilities, the Rockwall and these Dallas campus. You're gonna see families bringing in these precious special needs kids made in the image of God. And you're gonna watch them walking in. You're gonna see these families blessed. You're gonna watch those kids. And then you're gonna start praying, oh Lord, I hope you bless them. Please bless them, Lord. And then God's gonna be like,

I do wanna bless them through you. and help a down syndrome kid? Know the love of crime? Would you be willing to do that? And you're gonna have to decide, would I be willing to give up two hours every other week to do whatever he told me to do? So it's gonna be like the college campus. And some of you right, I hear it all the time. You asked me to pray for it. You got prodigal kids, you're praying for it. They're on a college campus, maybe even in Dallas. We're gonna launch that college campus and you're gonna be, have been begging God to move in the college students of America. And God's gonna be like, man, I'd love to move. If I need you to move in order to reach them, I need you to go help launch that campus. And you're gonna have a Mark 10 moment. Would I be willing to change where I worship in order to take the gospel to a college campus? Every all of us, you're gonna have this moment. You're gonna be doing what me and Jan are doing right now. You're gonna be staring at this card, asking God to speak to you. How does God want to use you to help build the kingdom and run into the breaches in this world? And watch, whenever you ask him to speak, he does this crazy thing, he speaks. And he's gonna move in your heart in some way

while you're staring at this thing. And that's gonna be your Mark 10 moment. Are you willing to give up what I'm calling you to give up in order to follow me more closely and build my kingdom, run into the breach? Are you willing to do it? And here's gonna be, it's gonna be the test, it might be the test of your life. This moment was the test of that man's life. And I'm gonna make you a promise. If you pass the test, life, life, abundant life, if you do not pass the test, here's what happens to this man. What happened to this man will happen to you. This man failed his test. And then here's what it says. At this, the man's face fell and he went away sad. Can I just point this out? The rest of this man's life was this story, walking away sad that he failed the test of his Mark 10 moment. And here's why, because something down deep inside of him knew it would have been worth it. It would have been worth it. It would have been worth it to lose all that stuff. Like, I just want you to think about this. I thought about this so much this week. If this guy had passed this test, bro, he could have become, I'm taking some liberties, he might have become one of the disciples.

He might have spent the entire rest of his life sitting with campfires around Jesus. He could have been there up on the Mount of Transfiguration when he watched Jesus face transfigured as lightning and he talked shop with Moses and Elijah. Brother could have been there when God looked out a hurricane and talked to a hurricane like it was a toddler, peace, be still, sit down, shut up. And a raging tempest became a sea of glass. He could have seen all the miracles, done all the miracles. He could have preached this or he would have been there on the day of Pentecost when divided tongues as a fire fell on him. And he would have preached the sermons that shifted the course of all of human history. He would have done miracles. His handkerchiefs may have healed the sick like they did in the book of Acts. His shadow may have fallen on the lame. They may have walked. He may have been among those guys and then he would have had the, listen, he would have had the honor, the great honor of instead of dying an ignominious death on a nice Roman couch wearing Gucci instead of Wranglers for 10 years, instead of that being the end of his life, he could have had the great honor of dying a martyr's death because he could not help but speak of what he had seen and heard.

And then he would have been glorified into eternity. He would be sitting on one of the 12 thrones, judging the nations next to the lamb who is slain on his throne. And that could have been his future, but instead he traded it so he could wear Gucci instead of Wranglers for 10 years and die a death no one even remembers. And something inside of him knew. And so he went away sad. And back how do I just tell ya? How do I just tell ya? God is going to bring you to a Mark 10 moment. And you're gonna have a test. Will you have life or will you walk away sad? I'm just gonna, let me just sit real quick. Some of you, God's gonna call you, watch, to do something. And you're not gonna wanna do it. I'm gonna confess a sin, an actual sin. I did not want to adopt a third kid. Jana wanted it real bad and she talked and talked and talked. And I was out and out and out. And then Jana finally gave up and she just was like, "Well, I'm never gonna bring it up to him again." God, I'm just gonna pray. And if you want him to do it, then you'll change his heart. But I can't change his heart. It's a true story. I walked into my gym to lift one day. And a woman I did not know said,

"Hey, are you the pastor of that church over there?" This is in Nashville. And she said, "Last night I had a dream I had a dream about you. And then she said, "I feel like I needed to tell you what was in the dream." And she said, "In the dream, you had three kids, not two. And in the dream, the third child was a boy, and the first two were a girl." And then she said, "Does that mean anything to you?" And I was like, "No, man, I don't know what you're talking about." I didn't know I didn't, I didn't know I didn't, and God changed my heart. Can I tell you something? And listen, I did. Listen, I did what Jesus told me to do. Can I tell you something? It was so worth it. It was so worth it. I would chop off every limb I got. I would empty every bank account I got. I would give everything I have for one more day with my son Hudson. It was worth it. I gave up this, and I got this. Let me give you the other one. God made it. I'm asking the Holy Spirit to start speaking to you right now. This is the moment the Holy Spirit starts speaking to you. Some of you, it may not be to do something, it may be to go somewhere. A lot of you know this. I did not want to come to Lake Point either.

I planted a church with my dad in Nashville. We were there for 10 years. My dad rubbed two sticks together, pulled that church out of the ground. It was like our family, baby. We love those people. I mean, I love those people. My little joke is, my little joke is, I'm going to stay here forever, and then I'm going to preach my own funeral and get in the casket and it'll be done. That was my little joke, OK? And then Steve, our predecessor, he asked me to consider coming here. We said no three times because we did not want to come. And then for real, this is a true story. God started speaking. Our oldest daughter, Eliana, walks down the stairs one day, and it was another thing. By the way, you know the Holy Spirit still speaks to people. You know that? Our oldest daughter, Eliana, walks down the stairs one day. We had not told her about possibly coming. And she says, hey, is daddy moving to Texas to be a pastor? And I looked at Jan, I was like, did you fail? She looked at me. Did you fail? And I was like, no, I didn't. And we were like, why did you say that? And she said, no joke. She said, last night I had a dream. And in the dream, we were in Texas. We moved to Texas for dad to be a pastor. We had been waiting to adopt Hudson, not getting any luck yet. And she said, in the dream, Hudson was there, not here.

And that's why we haven't gotten him yet. Two days later, we get a phone call from our adoption agency. Hey, we got a young baby that we think is going to work for you guys. Where is he? What state? Texas. Where? Dallas. God may call you to do something. I'll do one last one. God is going to call you to give something. You're going to have a Mark 10 moment. Mark 10 moment. What God does in me and Jana, very frequently, is we'll just-- and I don't want to-- it's hard to tell these stories without-- I don't want to self-glorify anything like that. But in our life, how to work is we'll be praying with people in lobby. And God will speak to us. You need to give to that person. Or we'll hear about a family that's adopting. And God will tell us to give thousands of dollars to somebody. And would he still say, OK, let's do whatever he says. Can I just tell you something? Like help families with adoption? We do that a lot. Can I tell you what's cooler than new countertops? I'll tell you what's cooler than new countertops.

Walk it around your church and seeing kids, they got adopted by Christian families that are happy. And they're growing up in the fear and admonition of the Lord in the house of God. That's a lot cooler than new countertops. So I want you to do this. At all of our campuses, would you stand with me right now? And by the way, the sermon is not over, and you're not allowed to leave. Don't you dare. It would make me mad. It's not over, and you're not allowed to leave. Don't you dare. Don't you dare. Security, get the doors, OK? I want to have a prayer moment, and then we're going to release you. Here's a prayer moment. We've got Samuel over here, Samuel, come on out. What I want to do is there was a time in your life that some of you can remember when it was like I was whole-hearted for the things of God. I don't know where I lost it, but somewhere along the way I lost it. And I'm not sure that I got totally open hands right now. What I want you to do is I want to take you back to a song you're probably singing around that time. When God started moving in your life, you're growing up in church. There's an old song called "Y'all Remember I Surrender All." Why don't we go back and let's make sure we're still ready to surrender all. So we're just going to do first verse, first time he sings it. I just want you to sit there and receive it.

Don't you dare leave. Second time he's going to call you sing it, and I want you to sing it with your chest like you mean it. As a prayer of return. Let's go. Let's surrender all. Let's surrender all to Jesus. All to Jesus. I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh I surrender, oh So come on church can we make that a prayer today? Let's sing that out together, all to Jesus and home And all to Jesus I surrender, oh to him I free Let's sing that a prayer, I will ever and I will ever love and trust in him So as a sign of surrender can we lift our hands towards heaven? Say I surrender, oh yes I surrender, oh Everything I have oh I surrender, oh all to thee And all to thee my blessed Savior I surrender, oh to thee my blessed Savior Wishing all to thee my blessed Savior I surrender Well hey thanks so much for listening, Lake Point Church is a movement for all peoples in no Christ, live free and change the world for God's glory If you're already a member of a local church we want you giving there, but if you'd like to make a donation to help this message go further faster It genuinely helps us boost getting out to more people If you'd like to make a donation you can text the word give to the number 20411 and then just choose church online from that drop down menu To find out more about Lake Point you can visit lakepoint.church