Why Do You Call Me Good? | Pastor Daniel Floyd

WoW Crys Overcomesikat WoW Crys Overcomesikat WoW Crys Overcomesikat WoW Crys Overcomesikat WoW Crys Overcomesikat WoW Crys Overcomesikat WoW Crys Overcomesikat WoW Crys Overcomesikat We've gathered in the name above all names The name of Jesus No limit to what He's about to do Every power and authority bows before The name of Jesus No limit to what He's about to do He's on the move He's on the move We sing The Lord is here The Lord is here We welcome Him with songs of praise Let faith arise In the atmosphere The Lord is here We glorify His name We glorify His name We surrender We surrender everything we lay in at the feet of Jesus No limit to what He's about to do Every chain, every curse is broken at the name of Jesus No limit to what He's about to do

He's on the move The Lord is here The Lord is here We welcome Him with songs of praise Let faith arise In the atmosphere The Lord is here We glorify His name We glorify His name If you've tasted heaven We glorify His name If you've been forgiven We glorify His name If you know He's risen We glorify His name We glorify His name If you've tasted heaven We glorify His name If you've been forgiven We glorify His name If you know He's risen We glorify His name We glorify His name The Lord is here The Lord is here We welcome Him with songs of praise Let faith arise In the atmosphere The Lord is here We glorify His name

The Lord is here The Lord is here We welcome Him with songs of praise Let faith arise In the atmosphere The Lord is here We glorify His name If you've tasted heaven We glorify His name If you've been forgiven We glorify His name If you know He's risen We glorify His name ♪ We glorify His Name Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ If you taste in heaven, glorify His Name ♪ ♪ If you've been forgiven, glorify His Name ♪ ♪ If you know His risen, glorify His Name ♪ ♪ Glorify His Name Yes we do, Lord ♪ ♪ We glorify Your Name All the praise to You, Jesus ♪ All the praise, Lord, we thank You, God. Yes, Jesus, we glorify Your Name. Be magnified in this place today, Jesus. We worship You. We pour out our praise on You, Jesus. Worthy One, Worthy One. Come on, we sing these promises together today. We sing. ♪ Blessed are those who run to Him ♪ ♪ Who place their hope and confidence in Jesus ♪ ♪ He won't forsake them ♪

♪ Blessed are those who seek His face ♪ ♪ Who bend their knee and fix their gaze on Jesus ♪ ♪ They won't be shaken ♪ ♪ Come on and praise the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Oh, sing if you love His Name ♪ ♪ Come on and lift your voice with me ♪ ♪ Because He is worthy of all our praise ♪ Yes, He is. We sing, blessed are those who walk with Him. ♪ Blessed are those who walk with Him ♪ ♪ Whose hearts are set on pilgrimage with Jesus ♪ ♪ They'll see His glory ♪ ♪ Blessed are those who die to live ♪ ♪ His joy it is to give it all for Jesus ♪ ♪ And for Him only, oh Jesus ♪ ♪ All for Your glory ♪ ♪ Come on and praise the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Oh, sing if you love His Name ♪ ♪ Come on and lift your voice with me ♪ ♪ Because He is worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ Come on and breathe your all for me ♪ ♪ All for me ♪ ♪ Oh, sing if you love His praise ♪ ♪ Come on and lift up your holiness ♪ ♪ He's worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ Bless God in the sanctuary ♪ ♪ Bless God in the fields of plenty ♪ ♪ Bless God in the darkest valley ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, I bless Your Name ♪ ♪ Bless God when my hands are empty ♪

♪ Bless God with the praise that calls me ♪ ♪ Bless God when nobody's watching ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, I bless Your Name ♪ ♪ Bless God when the weapons forming ♪ ♪ Bless God when the walls are falling ♪ ♪ Bless God cause He goes before me ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, I bless Your Name ♪ ♪ Bless God for He holds the victory ♪ ♪ Bless God for He's always with me ♪ ♪ Bless God for He's always worthy ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, I bless Your Name ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, I bless Your Name ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, come on and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh sing if you love His Name ♪ ♪ Come on and lift Your voice beneath the heavens ♪ ♪ Cause He's worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ Come on and bring your offering ♪ ♪ Oh sing if you've known His grace ♪ ♪ Come on and lift up your holy hands ♪ ♪ Cause He's worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ Yes He is, He's worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ You're worthy, worthy, worthy ♪ ♪ You're worthy Jesus ♪ ♪ Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me ♪ ♪ I will bless your holy name in every season ♪ ♪ In every season ♪ ♪ Would you find your church blessing your name ♪ ♪ In every season ♪ Come on church, He's worthy, He's faithful and He's good. He's merciful and kind.

Come on, if He's been good to you, would you open your mouth and bless His name today? We bless you Lord. You're so good, you're so kind. We remember all that you've done. We remember your faithfulness and your goodness. How your presence has never left us. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Come on, we sing. ♪ And I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the evening ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the evening ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ Come on sing it out. ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the evening ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I bless your name ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the evening ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I bless your name ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the evening ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪

♪ Every chance I get I bless your name ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the evening ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I bless your name ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the evening ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name in the morning ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I bless your name ♪ ♪ Yeah, well it's alright, I see, cause I love your name ♪ ♪ Jesus, oh come on and lift your voice with me ♪ ♪ He's worthy of our praise, yes He's worthy of our praise ♪ ♪ He's worthy of our praise, yes He's worthy of our praise ♪ ♪ He's worthy of our praise, yes He's worthy of our praise ♪ Come on, would you lift a shout of praise today? ♪ So good is the Lord, so good is the Lord, so good is the Lord ♪ Be slow. We worship you Jesus. So good is the Lord, so good is the Lord, so good is the Lord. We worship you Jesus. ♪ Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether one, here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Wonderful to you Lord ♪ Sing it again. ♪ Oh here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ And you're altogether lovely, altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me ♪

♪ Yes you're altogether lovely, altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ One more time. ♪ Yes you're altogether lovely, altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord Jesus. So we give you the highest praise. ♪ Cause you deserve it all, you deserve it all ♪ ♪ Yes we give you the highest praise ♪ ♪ Cause you deserve it all, you deserve it all ♪ Yes God. There's no one like you Jesus. Worthy of praise. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Come on we sing found in your name. ♪ Found in your name the power to save ♪ ♪ With only a whisper of mountain shame ♪ ♪ Jesus our hope and strength ♪ Yes you are. ♪ Cause you made a way when you unlocked these chains ♪ ♪ Now here in your presence strongholds break ♪ ♪ Freed by the love you gave ♪ Come on we sing through Him. ♪ We give you the highest praise ♪ ♪ Cause you deserve it all, you deserve it all ♪ ♪ So we'll give you the highest praise ♪

♪ Cause you deserve it all, God you deserve it all ♪ Come on. Come on lay on a tree. ♪ And there on a tree without merciful king ♪ ♪ Broken and shamed for all to see ♪ ♪ The Father laid down his son ♪ ♪ And there on a tree without merciful king ♪ ♪ Broken and shamed for all to see ♪ ♪ The Father laid down his son ♪ ♪ And there on a tree without merciful king ♪ ♪ Broken and shamed for all to see ♪ ♪ Highest praise ♪ ‪ Cause you deserve it all, cause you deserve it all ♪ ♪ So we give you the highest praise ♪ ♪ Cause you deserve it all, cause you deserve it all ♪ ♪ So we give you the highest praise ♪ ♪ Cause you deserve it all, cause you deserve it all ♪ ♪ We give you the highest praise ♪ ♪ Cause you deserve it all, God you deserve it all ♪ Yes Lord. You deserve it all, yes you deserve it all. For only you are worthy, it's only you are worthy. ♪ Holy, so with every breath that's in my lungs ♪ ♪ Oh my heart cries out to you belongs the glory ♪ Come on, through every loss we'll sing. ♪ Through every loss or victory ♪ ♪ Yes my soul will rise to only bring you glory ♪ Come on, with every breath we sing. ♪ With every breath that's in my lungs ♪ ♪ My heart cries out to you belongs the glory ♪

♪ Through every loss or victory ♪ ♪ My soul will rise to only bring you glory ♪ ♪ We give you the glory, we give you the glory, yeah ♪ ♪ We give you the highest praise ♪ ♪ Cause you deserve it all, you deserve it all ♪ ♪ We give you the highest praise ♪ ♪ Cause you deserve it all, God you deserve it all ♪ ♪ We give you the highest praise ♪ ♪ Cause you deserve it all, God you deserve it all ♪ ♪ We give you the highest praise ♪ ♪ Cause you deserve it all, you deserve it all, God you deserve it all ♪ ♪ With every breath that's in my lungs ♪ ♪ My heart cries out to you belongs the glory, yeah God ♪ ♪ Oh we'll give you the glory, yes we'll give you the glory ♪ ♪ Yes we'll give you the glory, yes we'll give you the glory ♪ ♪ My soul will rise to only bring you glory, yeah ♪ ♪ We give you the glory, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ In the book of Psalms, it says this, Psalm 36 verse five says, your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. In Ephesians two, it says this, if we're unfaithful, he remains faithful. Why? Because he cannot deny who he is. That's good news today, if you're a church. I was sitting with my daughter, Everly. My daughter is three and we were sitting at breakfast together several months ago during the hardest season of my family's life.

The reason we were sitting together alone is because my wife was with our son Samuel at the hospital who had a lot of medical conditions and I'm proud to report that against all odds, he's about to turn one year old next week. But I'm sitting there with Everly and Everly has no idea that mommy and daddy have been begging God for a sign, a dream. God, you can split the sky, ride it out in the clouds if you want to. Like, I just need you to do something for us. And my daughter, my three-year-old looks at me and she said, daddy, last night, Jesus talked to me in my dream. Yeah, and I did what you just did. Amen, God, you have given me a sign. And my three-year-old looks at me at that breakfast table and I said, Everly, what did Jesus say? And she looked at me and she said, Jesus looked at me, daddy, and he said, hello, Everly. And I thought, that's probably not Jesus. And I went and told my wife and we laughed about it, but here's the point. In a very difficult season where I was begging God to do something new, he was just behind the scenes being who he is, faithful. And you might be in here this weekend, you might be a first-time guest, you might be thinking, we just said bless God 4,500 times, why are we saying, here's why we do it?

Because he's been faithful to us. Because when I needed healing, he was a healer. Because when I was depressed, he was my light. Listen, if you've got a reason to thank and praise God this weekend, would you give a shout of praise in this room? He cannot deny who He is, He is good even when we are not. And this weekend, God, we give you the highest praise. We give you the highest praise. Come on. We give you the highest praise. You deserve it all. You deserve it. We say we praise. With every breath that's in my lungs, my heart cries out, for You bring us to glory. We give You the glory. Through every loss or victory, my soul will rise to only bring You glory. We give You the glory. We give You the glory. Yeah. Yes, Lord, yes, Jesus. Our God is so good, amen. No matter what season we find ourselves in, He is worthy of praise and adoration. And if we take our eyes off of the things we're going through and say, God, I will fix my eyes on You,

we can see it's gonna be all right because He holds us in the palm of His hands and He is King of kings, amen. Our God is good and worthy of praise. Well, thank you so much for being here today. Why don't we spend a little bit of time, get to know the people around you, our church family, and Pastor Daniel has an amazing message for us. Thank you for worshiping with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I'm getting excited about Easter coming up. Come on. It is three more weekends and then the greatest day in all of history, right? The day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. And here's what I want to encourage you. This will be the best Easter you've ever had, I promise you this, if you bring somebody with you. That you don't just come to be like, I'm gonna have a great Easter and your wonderful outfits and go eat with your family. All that is wonderful. But how about you decide, I'm gonna bring somebody with you. And here's what I want to challenge you to,

is to move past information to invitation. Information is, hey, we got some services at our campus or hey, here's the times that they are. That's information and that's wonderful. But how about you move past information and say, will you come sit with me? I'll take you to lunch afterwards. Do whatever you got. We talked about last week that Jesus leaves the 99 for the one. So my question is, who's your one? Who's the one person in your life? I'm praying even right now, God just brings a name to mind. Somebody at your office, somebody at school, somebody that's your roommate, whoever it may be that God puts that one person in your mind and you go, you know, this Easter, I'm gonna make sure I have somebody with me. I'm telling you, it will be the best Easter you've ever had if you have somebody sitting beside you. We're gonna give the gospel as plainly as we can. How many of you gonna believe with me that hundreds of people are gonna cross from death into life? Come on, every campus,

we're gonna see God do wonderful, wonderful things. Do wanna say hello to all of our locations, everyone joining us online, of course, on demand later in the week. Some of you on spring break and hope you're having an awesome time with your family and that you're sleeping in and eating all the stuff you need. You shouldn't, it's the week to do it. And I wanna give a special shout out to our Justin Campus. Tammy and I got to visit there last weekend. God's doing wonderful things at our Justin Campus. Got to meet so many wonderful people and just so many amazing stories of how God is working in the life of the church and in people's lives. And I wanna give you one just crazy story last week that happened if I could. Is that okay, everybody? At our Justin Campus, before the nine o'clock service in the foyer, just greeting, Tammy and I were talking with people. This 20-some year old girl walks up and says, has tears in her eyes. And I'm like, are you okay? She goes, you don't remember me, but you baptized me when I was 13. And God moved our family to Texas. And when we heard y'all were coming, we've kind of been out of church.

We decided to get back in the church and is going to the Justin Campus. Come on, how good is God, right, everybody? Come on, we serve a great God. He's always working. Great things are happening in the life of the church. How about this? If you don't know this, once a month, our children's ministry, they really focus in on giving the gospel and giving children an opportunity to respond to the gospel in our elementary classes. And last week was that weekend, and listen to this, 154 of our children gave their lives to Jesus. Oh, come on, you can celebrate better than that. So a huge shout out to every person that serves, every one of you that serve with our children, you're not babysitting, you're making an eternal difference in the lives of children. Everyone that gives, you may not be like, well, I know the lights are on, I know we do some missions. Let me tell you, 154 children, their eternity's forever changed because of your investment. And that's the best return on investment, I think. You know, people talk about the return on their investments. I talk about the eternal return on your investment. That's something that'll outlast you and live for eternity. And I'm just so grateful for all of our kids' team and how they're serving. Well, let's get into the Word of God.

You ready for that today? Oh, come on, I know Justin is. They talked back to me last week. You ready for the Word of God today? All right, we're continuing this series, if you're new this weekend, called That's a Great Question. And if you don't know this, Jesus asked and was asked a lot of questions. As a matter of fact, Jesus asked 307 questions that are recorded in the four Gospels. So just over four Gospels, and the Bible says that if we were to contain in books all that he did and all that he said, libraries couldn't contain it. So there may have been even more questions, but 307 recorded. 183 questions were asked to him, and he only directly answered three, maybe eight, depending on your definition of a direct answer. Isn't that interesting? It's just like a great teacher, to not answer the question, but make you discover the answer to the question. And that's often what Jesus does to us. So today we're looking at Mark chapter 10. If you have the copy of the scriptures with you, if you're not, it'll be on the screen. Mark chapter 10, I'm gonna read two verses, and then we're gonna continue to read into Mark chapter 10 as we go through the message.

But I wanna give you the question that's found in these two verses. As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. And he said this, good teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now that's a great question, don't you think? It's a question all of us have to wrestle with. And Jesus responded to the question with a question, and this is the one we're gonna look at. Why do you call me good? Jesus answered, no one is good except God alone. So the title today, the question we're looking at is why do you call me good? Let's pray together. Father, our hearts and minds are open to you. Holy Spirit, would you speak to us, challenge us, stretch us, make us more like you. We believe because of your word we'll never be the same as we leave this weekend. We pray this in Jesus' name. Everybody said amen. Amen. I found in most relationships, marriage relationships, friendships, there's one person that wants to say yes to everything and fill the schedule. And there's one person that is like, have you thought through all the implications of your yes?

Can I get an amen if you? Okay, if you're sitting by the person that says yes to everything, just raise your hand every way. Okay, there's one that's like, that's me. I'm the like, sure, let's say yes, you know, let's do it. We can do it, I can do it. I can pack the days in, right, until you fall over dead tired, right? I'm just like, sure, we'll do that. Sure, we'll do that. Sure, I'll take that. Sure, I'll go do that. Sure, we can do all that. Tammy is the one that's like, we have children. Have you thought about them? I was like, I love them. They know where the fridge is, right? She's the one that thinks through all the implications of everything going on around it. Like, if you say yes to that saying, did you remember we're out every night this week? Are y'all tracking with me? Like, if you say yes, so she kind of gives me the bigger picture of what's going on when I need to go, okay, I forgot about that domino, we'll hit that domino, we'll hit that domino. There's always one that will say yes to everything. Like, here we go, let's do this. There's one that's trying to help give the bigger picture.

And I would propose that in the exchange we're gonna see between this rich young ruler and Jesus today, that Jesus is giving him a bigger picture. He's giving him a bigger picture of this, of what it truly means to follow Jesus. He's saying to him, the young ruler comes to him and says, hey, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus, as we're gonna see in the text, kind of zooms out a little bit and goes, okay, I know you wanna inherit eternal life, but there's a bigger picture going on here, there's more implications to this, there's more details around this than what you realize, and I wanna make sure you realize them before you sign up for this thing called eternal life. If you're with me, say amen. Matter of fact, in the book of Luke, a teacher of the law came to Jesus and said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? So this is the second time in the gospels that Jesus has asked this question. I think you could also include Nicodemus in the book of John when he came to him, but he said, what must I do to be born again? So not the same wording, but two times given the same wording, and Jesus' response to him was, love your neighbor, love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Then he told the story of the Good Samaritan. And so what he was saying to him,

and what we'll find, he says to the rich young ruler, is this, it's not enough to know about love, you actually have to live love. In other words, I'm not coming so that you could have a mindset change, I'm coming so you could have a heart change that would lead to the way you live your life. That if you really wanna inherit eternal life, and you really wanna know what it is to follow Jesus, it's more than just following some religious checklist. Matter of fact, if you want a working definition of disciple, it's simply this. It's a follower that is moving to deeper and deeper levels of commitment to Jesus, and I would say to his church. That a disciple is someone who is moving to deeper and deeper levels of commitment. So if you're on this journey of following Jesus, just let me tell you, and you're like, man, he's asked a lot, he's not done. Hello. He's gonna keep calling you up, he's gonna keep, let me say it this way, peeling the onions of the layers. Pulling back a layer by layer, going, okay, we've dealt with that, now let's deal with this. Oh, we got that attitude under control, now let's deal with pride. Oh, we've got that same, are y'all tracking with me? This is what Jesus is doing, is calling this young man, he's saying, hey, I'm gonna bring you to deeper levels of commitment, and I want you

to get the bigger picture of what that means. And so I want us to talk about four things today from this story that show us what it means to follow Jesus in deeper and deeper ways. If you're with me, say amen. Let's revisit those two verses again, John chapter, or Mark chapter 10, verse 17 and 18. The scripture says this, it said, the rich young ruler, as Jesus was on his way, a man ran up to him, fell on his knees, he said, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And he said, why do you call me good? No one's good except God alone. Thought number one, if you're the note-taking type, write this down, if you're not, go ahead and write it down anyways. Number one is this, admiration isn't the same as devotion. Admiration isn't the same as devotion. And when we read this, the rich young ruler, he approaches Jesus in verse 17 in a really sincere start. The Bible says that he ran to Jesus, he fell on his knees before Jesus, and he asked them his question. So when you look at the posture of this young man, it's like, of course he has a heart for God, but we'll see later on in the story that a posture of worship doesn't mean a commitment to worship. That just because he had admiration of Jesus

doesn't mean he had a devotion to Jesus. And I think it's interesting that in response to his question, what must I do to inherit eternal life, Jesus says, why do you call me good? So he answers his question with a question, but I wanna point out this, is that Jesus began with, who really do you think that I am? Why do you call me good? Because no one is good except God himself. And so I think what Jesus is reorienting him and going, all right, if I'm God, then what I'm about to say really matters. And what I'm about to call you to really matters. So let's get that. That's solidified first because no one is good but God. So if you're calling me good, then you must be calling me God. And if you're calling me God, then there's some trailing indicators behind that. Are y'all tracking so far? But the guy had admiration for Jesus. Well, see, that doesn't mean we have devotion for Jesus. We admire a whole lot of things in this life, don't we? I mean, I admire Rory for winning the Masters last year. Wish I could play like him. I admire Coach K, the greatest college basketball coach of all times. No debate. Don't even come talk to me. Don't send me an email.

Send me an email. It's you'rewrongatgatewaypeople.com. That's the email for you. Coach K's the best of all time. All right. There's leaders I admire, right? You may admire people you follow. You're a fan, you're a follower on this, right? You admire the fashion influencer or you admire the restaurant recommender on your social media. Whatever it is, you may admire them, but you don't know them. You don't have relationship with them, right? You can admire them, but not have any devotion to them. And it's so easy to admire Jesus. It's easy to admire the teachings of Jesus. Well, I like that Jesus is loving and I like that he's kind. And I think there are people in culture that admire Jesus. There's people in the church that we admire Jesus, but it doesn't mean we have devotion to Jesus. I admire him as long as Jesus is doing for me the things that I want him to do. Bless God in church. Bless God when he's favoring me. Bless God when he's providing for me. Bless God in the hospital. Bless God when the deal didn't go through. There's a difference between admiration and devotion.

The crowds admired Jesus. The people admired Jesus. I mean, even Pilate's wife thought there was something special about Jesus. She didn't have devotion to Jesus. I gave some contrasting thoughts. Admiration is impressed by Jesus, but doesn't mean it's loyal to Jesus. Admiration may give you a feeling, but it doesn't affect how you actually live. Admiration likes advice, but it doesn't want loyalty. Admiration is inspired, but it's not submitted. Let me say it this way. Admiration will get you to the altar. Devotion will change how you leave the altar. This is the difference. You can respect him and still resist him. And this matters so much. Listen to me, church. This matters so much because whatever you are devoted to is what is discipling you. Whatever you are devoted to, whatever has your highest affection, your greatest commitment, that is the thing that is discipling you right now. And we live in a culture that is so like commitment resistance. Are y'all tracking with me? Like we don't wanna commit to anything because there may be something coming better along.

We don't wanna commit to relationships. We don't wanna commit to family these days. Are y'all following with me? Don't wanna commit to church. We don't know. Don't wanna commit to that. If I commit to that relationship, but something else better comes along or there comes a rub, I don't know how I'll deal with that. So I don't wanna get too committed. I kinda want my foot in the water. Kinda wanna dip my toe in the water, but I don't wanna like jump all in the water. Are y'all following me? Listen to me, darling. If he just wants to date you, but won't commit to you, may need to let him walk. If it's been several years and he don't know where he's going, can't make up his mind, hello, somebody. Can't move out of his mom's basement. Okay, I'm just, I'm meddling now. Can't get off video games. Okay. All the parents said, amen. Okay. We don't like commitment. Don't wanna commit to things. Don't wanna commit to church. We treat the bride of Christ like a vending machine.

Are they serving the chips I like today? If not, I'll go to another church that's got the chips I like. Is this too much? Remember, my name's Daniel. I'm your friend. I like what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, if you've never read him, he was a German pastor, author, theologian, and was pastoring during the Nazi regime. Actually ended up in prison and some of his letters from prison, they're fascinating, you should read them sometime. But some of his letters from prison and talking about the church, he said the church's primary role isn't to preserve tradition. The primary role isn't even to serve its members. He said the primary role. of the church is to reach the world and take the gospel to those who are far from God. We've made the church about something altogether in this 21st century in Western culture. Because we like admiration, but devotion has a price. We don't love the price that comes with it. He says to this rich young ruler, why do you call me good? Your posture looks good, but if I'm God, I will call you to something a whole lot higher. If you're with me, say amen. Verse 19, it goes on in the story and he says this to him.

He says, you know the commandments. You shall not murder, shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal. This would have been a young Jewish boy. He would have known these things. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not defraud, honor your father and mother. Teacher, he declared, listen to this, all these I have kept since I was a boy. I'm good. Thought number two, performance isn't the same as surrender. He did all the performative things. Don't commit adultery, don't murder. I wanna call his bluff on honor your father and mother. Come on, you were a toddler once. You know what I'm saying? I'm just like, that one, really? You got that one right? And he says to him, said, I did all those things. I checked all the boxes. I've done all the duties. I performed well. Can I tell you something? There's a difference between performing for Jesus and having a heart that is fully surrendered to Jesus. Anybody can do the performative things. Anybody can check the boxes, go through the religious rituals, take the class, do the thing, check the box, go through the routine.

Anybody can do that, but Jesus isn't calling us to a performance-based faith. He's calling us to a surrendered faith. He's calling us to a heart that is fully surrendered to him and says, God, whatever you want from me, whenever you want it, however you want it, I'm living with open hands before you. Whenever I was, probably about five years ago, I think I stopped running about five years ago. My joints couldn't handle it anymore, everybody, just to be honest. But I'd do these races and I would train for these 10Ks or these half marathons. I participated in a couple of full marathons. Let me make sure of that clear. There's a difference between participating and performing well. Are y'all with me? I was there. I had a T-shirt. I got the medal at the end. I'm saying that's as far as it went. I don't want you to think better of me than what's happening, all right? I participated. I paid the fee. I didn't get a medal because I earned it. I wrote them a check. They had no other choice than to give me, okay, some of y'all have been in those.

But I would do these trainings, and so you end up training for hours. You end up in the cold and in the morning because if you're doing a full marathon, you end up with these long training days that are four hours on a Saturday, and you're out running for four hours so that you're prepared for the race. Are y'all following me? You with me? And so then I would not do it for a while. I would be like, I'm not gonna do a race for a while, so I'd take the time off. And then I'd have to go retrain, and I would have to rebuild the stamina that I'd build up because I took too much time off. And then I'd do the race, and then I'd be like, oh, I'm not doing this for a while again. And then it would just kind of get cyclical. Are y'all with me? I think this is somehow people face their Christian life sometimes. It's that they're like, all right, I'm gonna be so committed to God. I'm so devoted. I'm gonna surrender. And then they're running on the spiritual treadmill, and they're going and they're going, and they're like, oh, I'm exhausted.

I have nothing else to give. And they take some time off, and they're like, not gonna serve, and I'm gonna kind of half-heartedly show up to church. I'm gonna kind of read my Bible. And then they think, okay, I'm getting committed to God. I gotta get back on the treadmill. I gotta get back in the training. And no wonder your faith is like spurts of energy with exhaustion, spurts of energy with exhaustion. I'm gonna perform, perform, perform. Does God like me? Is he happy with me? I can't do this any longer. This is exhausting. Then I'm gonna perform, perform, perform. I'm gonna love you even though you're hard to love. And I'm going to Thanksgiving, and I'm gonna be nice to my in-laws. And I'm, you know, you're just giving it everything you got. And it's like, I can't do that anymore because our faith was never meant to be performative. It was never meant to be, I don't commit adultery. I don't do, I check the list. It was never meant to be that. Jesus didn't come so you could perform better. Are y'all listening to me? Justification doesn't happen because. you perform better, it comes because you surrender better. We are saved by grace through faith, period.

It goes on to say not of work so that anybody gets the credit. It's not because you worked hard or you performed well, it is the grace gift of God. Salvation is the grace gift of God. Hear me say that. In the South where we think, well if I come to church and it's buttoned and the kids look right and they're smiling right and we walk through the doors and God bless you brother, happy Easter, we're so glad we're here, it's good. Everything's wonderful, the kids behaved well. No, when you slap them, you tried to get them in the back seat on the way. Are y'all tracking with me? There is no amount of work you could ever do to outweigh the depth of your sin and that's why Jesus came. He didn't come to make you a better performer. He came so you would surrender to him. Justification is I did nothing to deserve this. I can do nothing to earn this and so I receive it with open hands. It is grace alone everybody. Now some of you thinking, but you gotta act right after you meet Jesus. There's a difference between I'm performing to please God and I'm living because I love God. Those are drastically different approaches and some of you, you're exhausted in the faith

and you end up in these cycles of in church, out of church, in church, out of church, trying harder to do better, get out, get frustrated. Now I'm done, I can't do it anymore. I'm gonna be committed again. A new year comes, start of a school year, worship night, you get inspired and you go back because you're trying to perform out of your strength instead of live out of love for God. Nobody has to tell me how to love Tammy once I fell in love with her. I don't get a text from somebody every morning going make sure you kiss her goodbye, make sure you tell your lover, make sure you look her in the eyes when you tell, why, because I fell in love and my want to changed. When you fall in love with Jesus, surrendered life, your want to changes. So now I don't wanna live like I used to live, why? Not because I'm trying to make him happy because I'm in love with Jesus. Are y'all getting this? So this sanctification process, yes, I'm gonna begin to act different. Yes, I'm gonna begin to talk different. I'm gonna begin to think different. I'm gonna begin to grow. I'm gonna become more holy, yes. Yes, I am, but I'm not becoming more holy so God will like me.

I'm becoming more holy because I'm in love with God and the closer I get to him, the more I wanna look like him, think like him, talk like him, act like him. Clap your hands if you believe this today. That's where I'm living from. That's where I'm living from. So I'm not performative. I'm wanting to be surrendered, wanting to be surrendered. It goes on in verse 21 and I'd love this. It says, Jesus looked at him and loved him. That's important. One thing you lack, he said. So he just listed all the things. I don't commit adultery, I honor my father and mother, you know, all the things. And then Jesus looked at him and out of love, this is what he says to him next. One thing you lack, he said. Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you'll have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me. And it said at this, the man's face fell and he went away sad because he had great wealth. In the original text, it has this like idea that he went away depressed, that Jesus called him to a place that he was unwilling to go. Number three thought is this, convenient faith isn't the same as costly worship.

I want you to notice this, is that Jesus loved him, so he was motivated out of love. It wasn't motivated out of condemnation or anything of that nature, but it says Jesus loved him, which calls Jesus to go, okay, I'm gonna call him higher. Can I tell you something? The call to commitment to Jesus is always a call to higher. The call to discipleship is always a call to higher. It's always a call to higher. It's always a call to better. It's always a call to Jesus going, I know what's best for you. I created you and the creator of you knows what is best for you. And so it's always a call to higher. And so he said to him, one thing you lack. In other words, Jesus was narrowing the hallway. He was like, all right, if you're serious about this, you're still hanging around in this conversation. You're like, I did this and I did this. I've done that since I was a kid. And Jesus is like, great, let's narrow the hallway a little bit more. Because narrow is the road that leads to salvation and wide is the path that leads to destruction. So let's narrow the hallway a little more. And he looks at him out of love and he goes, you lack one thing, sell everything you had.

Sell it all and give it to the poor. And the man walked away sad. Can I tell you something? You never know what an idol is in your life until Jesus asks for it. You never know what the idol is in your life until Jesus puts his finger on it. And he asked for it. This was the thing, this man's wealth. This was the thing that had his heart. Jesus goes, what I'm really after is your heart. And this is the thing that has your heart and Jesus knew it. And that's why he called him to it. That one thing, I would ask you, what's the one thing in your life? What's the one thing that you're like, Jesus, don't touch that. You can have everything else, but don't ask me for that. Don't ask me to do that. Don't ask me to go there to... This kid was rich, so he had all the resources he needed. He was young. He probably thought he had all the time he needed and he was a ruler, so he had authority. But Jesus put his finger on the one thing. And I wanna say to this, you don't build a whole theology off of one scripture. I've heard people say that, well, if you're fluent, you should sell everything you have

because that's what Jesus told this guy. No, Jesus was zeroing in on this guy's issue. Are you following me? And can I just say to you in general, don't build a theology on one verse. It's dangerous. Like have good doctrine. Hello, can I get a better amen? All right. You don't build that, I mean, why did Paul tell Timothy to tell those who are wealthy that Timothy was ministering to? He told him, he said, enjoy what God has given to you, but make sure that you're rich in good deeds as well. So you can't build a theology on one verse. What he was saying is this is the idol in your life and that idol needs to be consecrated or it needs to be given because I require a worship that costs something, not a faith that is convenient. This is what I call you to. And for some of us, the thing is it's security or it's control or whatever you would fill in the blank there. Maybe it's comfort, maybe it's relationships, maybe it's reputation. I don't know what it is, whatever that thing is, but we all have that thing in our life that when Jesus begins to prod around that, we're like, whoa, hey, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, Jesus, I don't know about this.

And he's going, listen, the call to discipleship, the call to following me is greater levels of commitment. We're not getting less committed, everybody. We're getting more and more committed to Jesus and I would say to his church. Thought number four, if you're still with me, say amen. Number four is that following Jesus always leads to more. This is what the rich young ruler missed. I don't want you to miss. Verse 26 says, the disciples were even more amazed and said to each other, then who can be saved? And Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God. And then Peter spoke up, because Peter always speaks up. He's my favorite disciple. He said, we left everything to follow you and truly, I tell you, Jesus replied, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age. Homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, childrens afield, along with persecutions, I love how Jesus throws that in. You're gonna be blessed and persecuted. And he says, and in the age to come. So don't people that don't believe people either that build a theology that God wants you destitute and living on the streets in this life and that all your treasures are in heaven.

That's not good theology either. Jesus says, you're gonna be blessed in this life and in the next. a life to come, and he says, but many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. Following Jesus always leads to more, and this is what he missed. The rich young ruler came to Jesus wanting eternal life. Jesus called out the idol in his life and said, if you'll surrender the idol, you can have eternal life, but the young man was unwilling to give what was in his hands. He had so got gripped onto it that he couldn't receive what Jesus had for him, and Jesus didn't tell him in the story, hey, if you'll just give your wealth, you're gonna receive more in this life because you can't sow without reaping. You can't give without me returning it to you because the motive of the young man would have been wrong in the moment. He needed him to do it through surrender and by faith. Are y'all tracking with me? But what he didn't know is that the moment he was able to live surrendered with open hands, then God would bless him with all the things that he thought he was giving up to follow Jesus. Here's the irony of the Christian faith

is that everything in your hand is a blessing from God. Friends, family, resources, the life you built, whatever it is, everything, everything, everything in your hand is a blessing from God. Pastor, I worked hard and I went to the right school and I got the right education, I got the right, well, who gave you the intellect to be able to get into the school and the ability to fill out the application? Like, everything in your hand is from God. Are y'all with me? And the irony of our faith is this, is that the more God blesses us, if we're not careful, the more we grip on to what God gave us. And then what is in our hand becomes what prohibits us from receiving the greater thing God wants to do in our life. God is the one that made that young ruler rich. So God put that in his hand. But it was the very thing that God put in his hand that he was unwilling to let go of that kept him receiving the greater thing that God really wanted to put into his hand. Can I tell you something? When you follow Jesus, there's always more. No sacrifice isn't met with a blessing. No surrender isn't met with something greater in your life. Because in the kingdom of God, whenever we surrender, it's not subtraction, it turns into multiplication.

How many of you have found in your life that when you live with open hands before God, that whatever God asks of you, God returns to you, press down, shake it, come on, this is the Bible, if you don't know it. Press down, shaking together and running over because with God, there is always more. So may we be a people and may we be a church that we live with devotion to God. Not just admiring him, not just kind of liking what he does, but heart devotion. May we be people that are fully surrendered to God. God, open hands, no matter how much you put in my hand, I'll continue to live with open hands. And may with surrendered lives, we present costly worship. Not convenient faith, but costly worship. Because he paid the ultimate price for us, did he not? And here's the great news, is that when you follow him, whatever you thought you gave up, he said, oh, I can bless you with more. Not only in this life, but more importantly, in the age that is to come. Y'all, we're not living for here, we're living for the day we see him face to face. You receive the word of God today. Come on, every campus, you receive it today. Woo! Will you pray with me? Every head bowed, every eye closed, across all of our locations, if you can,

were you there online or at our prison campuses? Maybe some of you today, you need to answer the question, or maybe you need to ask the question, how do I inherit eternal life? Well, the way you do that, it starts with surrender. Surrendering control to Jesus. That's what it means when you say you're gonna make him the Lord of your life, you're surrendering control. You're saying he's gonna call the shots. He's the director of the story of my life. What he says I'll do, where he says go, I'll go. When he says move, I'll move. So the Bible says that if you make Him the Lord of your life that's a decision you have to make. And you'll believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved, that's the resurrection. And according to the scriptures, when you confess that with your mouth, you are made new. All the things in your past have gone away. And you have a brand new start with Jesus. And some of you need that today across our church family. You've admired Jesus, never surrendered to Him. You like the thought of Jesus, it's part of your family. It's in your parents and your grandparents, but you've never personally surrendered to Jesus. And today's the day for you to do that. So in just a moment, we're gonna pray together. But before we pray, I just wanna know who I'm praying with. No one's gonna come to you or point you out.

No one's looking around, just myself or the pastor at your location. But if you'd say, that's me today, I need a fresh start. Today, I need a new beginning. Maybe for some of you, you've strayed away from faith, and today is a day of returning. Saying, God, I'm not coming to jump back on the treadmill, I'm coming to devote my life and fall in love with Jesus. If that's you today, when I count to three, you just shoot your hand up high enough, long enough for myself or a pastor at your campus to see. And then we're gonna pray together on three. One, two, three. You just shoot your hand up high in the air. God bless you, God bless you. I see you, hands going up. It's incredible. You can put them down. Church, will you pray this out loud with me for the benefit of all those who just slipped their hand up? Just say, Jesus, I need you. I ask you to forgive me of all my sin. I believe you died for me. I believe God raised you from the dead. Today, I make you my Lord and Savior. Thank you for a brand new beginning. In Jesus' name, everybody said amen. Come on, let's celebrate those across our whole church family.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we never want to end our time together without the opportunity to minister to you in a personal way. We wanna be able to pray with you and walk with you. That's what church family does. And so in just a moment, our prayer team's gonna come down front. If you're new to Gateway and new to church like this, we just want an opportunity to pray with you. If you have a need of any sort, maybe it's something I spoke to or maybe it's something altogether other in your life that you've just been carrying. Maybe you got a phone call this week or family issue or whatever it may be. We believe that we serve the God that hears our prayers and the God that answer prayers. And we see prayers answered all the time here. We'd love to join our faith with your faith and believe God to do something miraculous in your life. If you made the decision to follow Jesus, would you please let somebody know about it today? We'll have prayer team in the balcony and down front.

And so I want you to slip out and say, hey, I prayed that prayer and made that decision today. We would love to know that. And we'd love to celebrate and rejoice with you. The Bible says that all of heaven is rejoicing over one person that takes that step of faith. So they just broke out the charcuterie boards in heaven. They're partying like crazy over your decision to follow Jesus. We wanna celebrate with you too. So I'm asking you to stand to your feet, ask our prayer team to make their way down. As the team leads us in a chorus, you just slip out from where you are. We wanna minister to you, pray with you, make your way down front. ♪ How can I breathe that which cost me nothing ♪ ♪ You've given more than I deserve ♪ ♪ I offer you a love that's burning ♪ ♪ Only because you love me first ♪ ♪ I will not breathe that which cost me nothing ♪ ♪ You've given more than I deserve ♪ ♪ I offer you a love that's burning ♪ ♪ Only because you love me ♪ ♪ Cause I just love you ♪ ♪ I just love you God ♪ ♪ I just love you God ♪ ♪ Oh, I just love you oh ♪ ♪ I just love you God ♪ ♪ Oh, I just love you ♪

♪ I just love you God ♪ ♪ I just love you oh Lord ♪ ♪ I just love you God ♪ Our prayer teams will be down here for as long as we need. If you're in the balcony or you're in this room and you're like, man, that was me, but I haven't responded. We'll stay here as long as we need. If you have any other prayer need as well, we'd love to partner with you in prayer. This team of staff and volunteers prays for you even when we're not here. And they'd love to partner with you in prayer. Hey, can we give a hand to everyone who made a decision to give their life to Jesus today? And we wanna walk with you on this journey. And I wanna let everyone know when you walk out of these doors, we have Connect Central in the lobby. That's you when you made that decision. Go and connect with someone on our team. We'd love to partner with you, walk with you on that journey as well. I really have one announcement for you before we close in prayer. And it's that Easter is coming up. Easter's coming up, everybody. And Pastor Daniel said it, information turned to invitation. And he told us in the back, really what that means is this.

It's not just saying, hey, we have a church service. It's saying, hey, you can come sit with me at our church service. So go invite somebody to our Easter service. Let me pray for you, and then we'll dismiss. God, thank you so much for meeting us here at church this weekend. Lord, we receive the word. We receive the challenges. I pray that it would fall on good soil, that we'd go home tonight, that we'd get in our cars and we'd really chew on it. And God, we just take a minute and we just say to you, we commit to you as a body. And God, we love you. We give you glory. We give you honor. We give you praise. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, amen. Thanks for being a gateway this weekend. We'll see you soon. ♪ More precious, more costly ♪