Give Up

And he was going to bed and he told his as he was getting in

bed, his wife told him that she thought the light was on in the

garage. Of course, he always shut the

light off, but he couldn't figure out.

He said, well, maybe I just left it on.

So he walked down the stairs and he opened up the back door and

he could see that the garage light was on.

But as he got ready to walk out the back door, he saw that there

was people in his garage stealing things.

And so he called the police and he said, hey, somebody is, is

somebody is in my garage right now stealing things out of my

garage. And they said, well, is the, is

the garage detached from your house?

They said, yes, it's detached from my house.

And they said, all right, go back inside, lock the door.

We don't have any units available right now.

You just have to wait a few minutes and we'll send somebody

out. When, when, when we have

somebody that's available. And he hung up the phone.

He waited about 30 seconds and he called back and he said just

wanted to let you know, don't worry about it.

I shot all those guys, they're all dead in my garage.

And he hung the phone up. And about 5 minutes later, 6

police cars, the SWAT team, a helicopter and an ambulance all

pulled up out in front of his house.

And of course, they caught the robbers red handed and they

walked in to talk to this guy and they said, I thought you

said that you shot all these guys dead.

He said, I thought you said you had no units available.

Let's face it, it's a it's not an easy time to be a police

officer and it's not an easy time to be alive, if we're

honest. But especially if you're a

police officer, you have to go through so many of these

different things on a daily basis.

They put on that uniform in the badge.

They walk out the door not knowing if they're going to come

back, not knowing if some crazy person with a gun they're going

to have to shoot or that person is going to shoot them first.

They just don't know. And you know, honestly, a large

part of the forgotten side of that thing is the families that

are dealing with that too, right?

I mean, there's a lot I, I, I think I'd be willing to put my

life on the line if it came down to it.

It's just me, but I've got a family and the family side of

things. They, they, they send their,

their, their officer out every single day, not knowing for sure

if they're going to come back, hoping and expecting that they

will, but not knowing. And it seems like at least once

a week, if not more often than that, we hear of, of an officer

that got killed in the line of duty.

Just last week, two officers were killed in the line of duty.

And in the same incident the week before that, there was a

couple officers that were just sitting in a car and, and, and

got shot. One of them passed away after a

couple weeks of, of battling for his life.

That's a, it's a difficult, difficult thing to do.

And I, and I say often too, that that many times our

communications officers are the ones that get forgotten in that

whole mix because they're the ones that are taking those

calls. They're the ones that are taking

the calls, hearing somebody say I just shot 3 people and hanging

up or listening to the screaming on the other end as somebody's

dying and they're trying to keep them alive and then the call is

dead. The call goes dead once the

officers arrive on the scene. Many times they don't know what

happened until until hours later.

It's a difficult job. It's a difficult profession to

be in. And on top of that, then they

get lambasted by the media who only seems to care about getting

viewers. They're not looking for the

truth. They just they're just looking

for people that that that want to watch.

And of course, thankfully, I think a lot of that kind of

stuff is going away. People are interested more in

the truth than they are just in in hearing a sensational story

anymore. But Paul Harvey said it best.

He served to his face and pig or worse behind his back.

And I think now it's even changed the fact where people

don't have any problem calling him pig to his face and other

names to his face. That was, that was years ago.

And still it, it, it's, you know, he said that.

Imagine how much worse it is today.

We can go on and on. But if I suffice it to say that

for police officers, things are tough.

It's a tough profession to get involved in.

Obviously, I, I enjoyed my part that I have in the Police

Department. If I didn't know that this is

what God wanted me to do, I might have gone that direction.

I, I really think that I probably would have, but that's

a hard job for most people to do.

It's a hard profession for most people to want to get into.

This other issue that many of them are having is just short

staffed. They're working non-stop because

there's not enough people to fill those positions.

So I have a message for you this morning, something that I want

to tell you that I hope will be an encouragement to you.

And the message then, and really it's the title of my message as

well, is just two simple words. And I hope it's an

encouragement, but it's simply this give up, give up.

And that's not just a message for police officers this

morning, by the way. This is a message for all of us.

Let's pray and I'll expand a little bit on what I mean.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. Thank you for the opportunity we

have to be here this morning. I do thank you so much for all

of our law enforcement, for all of the police officers, the

communications officers. And I know that we, this is

specific for police this morning, but we have a lot of

firefighters as well that do the exact same thing.

Their first responders and their job may not be as dangerous, but

they still have a lot of things that they face a lot of danger

that they face as well. I pray that you protect all of

them. I thank you for their

willingness to, to do that. God, I thank you for their

willingness to, to put their lives in the line to protect us.

And God, I, I pray that you would help them to have wisdom,

give them discernment as they, they go about doing their job

and making the decisions that they make on a daily basis.

God, I pray that you would help thee, the political tide to turn

in favor of our police officers. And I believe it's turning a

little bit, but God, I pray that you would give them favor in the

eyes of the community. I pray that there would be more

people who would be appreciative of what they do.

God, I pray that this message this morning would be a help.

It may be a help to all of us this morning.

And God, if there is somebody in here that does not know for sure

that they're on their way to heaven, that Jesus Christ is

their savior, that they'd get that taken care of today.

But thank you again for all that you do for us in Jesus name,

Amen. You'll understand maybe the

direction I'm going with this as soon as I give you the first

point, Give up. That's what we all need to do

honestly. And I don't mean give up in the

way of quit. I mean first of all, give up

sin. So many people are searching for

the answers to life. What is the meaning of life?

What's the purpose of life? What's the secret of living?

That's the age-old question. And so many people have been

asking that question for years and years and years.

And there's a lot of people who spend their entire life in

pursuit of that question. What's the meaning of life?

You're sitting around and somebody says, well, what do you

want to talk about it? And somebody always says, what's

the meaning of life? It seems like, right?

Let me tell you this morning that I've found the purpose of

life. The purpose of life is to know

Jesus Christ as your Savior. The purpose of life is to pursue

a real relationship with Jesus Christ after you've come to know

him as your Savior. And I know that to be true

because the Bible makes that very clear and makes it very

clear that only one life will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last.

It's not a Bible verse, but it's a Bible principle.

Everything that we do, the only thing that matters is what we do

for Christ. And so the way to enter into

relationship with Christ starts by giving up our sin.

Turn over to Romans chapter 5 if you're already there.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

I want to look at verse #12 the Bible is very clear that sin

cannot enter into heaven. Verse #12 of Romans chapter 5,

Romans 5 · chapter mention

the Bible says, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the

world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for

that all have sin. Romans chapter 3 If you want to

Romans 3 · chapter mention

turn to a few of these verses with me, where most of them are

going to be close, they're in Romans.

But Romans chapter 3 and verse #23 the Bible makes it very

Romans 3 · chapter mention

clear that every one of us is the Sinner.

For all have sinned, it says, and come short of the glory of

God. For all have sinned and come

short of the glory of God. Sin cannot enter into heaven.

God is absolutely just. God is absolutely holy and it

would be in just and unjust for God to not punish sin, for God

to say, well, you're only a partial Sinner.

You've only send a few times so you, you can bring your sin in,

but you've sinned a lot. So you can't bring your sin into

heaven. God has to be God.

God is completely just. God is the definition of

justice. And I know many times, you know,

police officers work and they, they, they run down leads and

they finally catch the criminal and they bring them to court.

And, and many times it's, it's months and months and months or

even years later that the case finally makes it in front of a

judge. And then the judge says, well,

this was his first time. I know he only killed somebody,

but this was the first time he's done that.

So he doesn't get any jail time this time.

Let him pay a fine, let him go on time served and let him go

out and kill somebody else. Again, I know it's an extreme

example, but that happens so often.

It happens so often that that, that you bring them before a

judge and justice is not done. And it's frustrating.

Imagine if somebody killed your relative and, and the day

finally came and, and, and, and, and this person went before the

judge and the judge said, you know what?

It's late in the day. I've been it's been a long week.

I'm feeling very friendly today. I'm feeling very nice.

Let's just let him go. Let's just let him go.

Everybody agree? All right, let's let him go.

You'd say what in the world that wasn't justice?

My loved one is dead. He doesn't deserve to go free.

And you'd be exactly right. And that's exactly why God has

to punish sin. Sin cannot enter into heaven,

and God makes that very clear. But for him to say, well, this

person is all right, you can come in because your sin is

different than this person's sin, then it would be unjust.

And I don't think you would want God to enact justice that way

because it's not justice. And so when the Bible says for

all have sin and come short of the glory of God, that means

that every one of us is a Sinner and cannot get to heaven because

of that sin. I've used this illustration

before. Maybe you've heard it, but

imagine if this building were on fire and all the ground around

it was on fire and the only place that was safe was across

the road in the building, across the street, broad streets along

a wide Rd. When you're trying to jump

across it, and especially if you add the grassy area that comes

up to this building in the grassy area that goes to the

building on the other side, that's a pretty long jump.

But this building is on fire and we've made it to the roof and

we've got to get off of this roof.

And so we're going to make our attempts and we find the the

oldest person in here, Mr. Forbes, he's gets to go and take

his jump 1st. And Mr. Forbes is still pretty

athletic for 9394. I always forget 9494 years old,

pretty athletic for 94. But we're going to let him go

jump and he runs and he jumps and he goes 7 feet.

And guess where Mr. Forbes ends up in the fire, because he can't

jump across Broad Street. Now, maybe I'm being a little

presumptuous, but I think I'm a little bit more athletic than

Mr. Forbes is. And so now it's my turn, and I'm

going to make my attempt to jump from this building to the

building across the street where it's safe.

And I run and I jump and I'm scared for my life.

And I go the farthest I've ever gone.

I jumped 20 feet. But where do I end up in the

fire? And now we have a competition

and see who the most athletic person is.

Johnny, he should be the most athletic.

He's going through Marine Corps training.

You better be in shape. He's going to run and take a

jump. He goes farther than he's ever

gone in his life. He breaks a world record and

goes 50 feet. But guess where Johnny ends up

In the fire? Because you can't jump across

Broad Street. It's too far.

Nobody can make that jump. And the same thing is true when

it comes to our attempt to try to get to heaven.

Oh, there's some people who are the worst of the worst when it

comes to criminals and they're sitting on death row in prison

somewhere for killing 10 people. And we think, oh, that person,

there's no way in the world that guy's ever going to get to

heaven. Look what he's done.

That's his attempt. And maybe he only made it a

short way, but he all he falls short of the glory of God

because of his sin. We might say that, well, I'm not

perfect. I'm not a St.

I've I've done a few things wrong, but I'm not that guy.

That's my attempt to get to heaven.

And I might make it a little farther than he does, but I'm a

Sinner and I fall short of the glory of God.

Now you put somebody that the Catholic Church looks at is a

St. somebody who has done a lot of good things in their life,

But I know that they're a person too.

They're a human too. And the Bible says for all have

sinned, and they might make it farther than that guy that's on

death row, and they may make it farther toward heaven than me,

and they might make it a little farther than anybody else.

But the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the

glory of God. So I know that no matter how

good they are, and I know that no matter how bad they are, they

cannot get to heaven because the Bible says we all fall short of

the glory of God. It's impossible.

It's impossible. Now suppose that somebody built

the bridge from this building to that building, and instead of

trying to run and jump across Broad Street, somebody said,

hey, there's a bridge over there that you can take.

And you say, well, I don't know about that.

I don't know who built that bridge.

I don't know if that bridge is going to hold me up.

I don't know if I'm going to get halfway across Broad Street and

the whole thing's going to collapse on me and I'm going to

end up in the middle of the road.

I just don't know if I can trust it.

And I said, no, no, hang on. I know the builder.

I was, I, I saw him build it and we have, we have a book that

shows all of the plans in the whole way that he built this

bridge. It's perfectly safe.

And you just have to trust that he knew what he was doing to

help you get across. And every single person that

takes that bridge across instead of trying to get there on their

own makes it across Broad Street to the other side to safety.

It's only ones who say, well, I don't know if I can trust that

or not that don't make it. And do you know that when Jesus

Christ died on the cross, he made a bridge from here to

eternity? And he gave us a book that tells

us exactly how he did it. He gave us a book that shows us

the plans that he laid out from the foundations of the world.

And we're saying, hey, all you have to do is take the bridge

that he built from here to heaven and you can get there.

Well, I just don't know. I wasn't there when he died on

the cross. How do I know that that's not

just some fiction story that somebody made-up?

How do I know that there's even heaven?

How do I even know that there's a God?

How do I know any of those things?

And we're saying, listen, the Bible tells us these things.

You just have to trust it by faith.

You have to trust it by faith because we don't know any of

these things but if they're true or not.

But you have to take it by faith that what he's saying is the

truth and that we cannot get to heaven on our own.

But he's made the way to heaven possible by his death on the

cross. Because, you know, the Bible

says, and if you want to turn a couple pages over into Romans

Romans 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 and verse 23, that there is a payment for our sin.

The Bible says for the wages of sin is death.

For all the attempts that we try to get to heaven on our own, for

all the things that we do to try to get us there, we cannot do it

on our own. There is no possible way because

the wages of sin is death. I know the police officers are

doing this because they, the, the, the job that they've, that

they're doing, they do it because they want to help

people. But I don't know if there's any

officer out there who would do the job for free.

You got to make a living. You expect to get a wage for

doing the work that you're doing.

It's not great money, but you still have to make some money to

live. You wouldn't do it for nothing.

And the Bible says the same is true with our sin.

You can't just sin and sin and sin and sin and sin and expect

there not to be any consequences.

The wages of sin is death. God has a record in heaven of

all of those sins, and those sins are held against our

account, and they condemn us to a hell to spend an eternity

there. But when we confess our sins to

Jesus Christ, he blots them out and He writes His name over the

top of our name. And when I stand before God and

I and I show him that list, he's not going to see the list of all

of my sins. I've accepted Jesus Christ as my

Savior. I've asked Him into my heart to

forgive me for those sins, and when he looks at my account, he

doesn't see the list of all of the wicked things that I've

done. He doesn't see all the things

that have been added to my account for years and years and

years. He only sees the name of Jesus

Christ covering all of those sins.

That's what Jesus Christ does for you.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life

through Jesus Christ our Lord. What a wonderful gift that is.

I heard about a shopkeeper who had taken a photo of a man that

was stealing from his store. He took this picture because he

wanted to turn it into the police and say, I have all the

evidence that I need. I've got everything that I need

to convict this man of stealing. And when he printed the picture

out, he gave it to the police officers.

But what he didn't realize is that he had overexposed the

photo. And so the picture was

completely blotted out. And that's exactly what Jesus

Christ does with our sins. Oh, Satan says, look at all the

things that I've got against him.

This is all the evidence we need to send them to hell for

eternity. And he puts that picture out

there and he turns it in and God says, I don't see anything.

His sins have been blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ.

There's no complicated process that you have to go through.

There's no confessing to a man that you about the things that

you've done, no long list of things that you have to do to

maybe hopefully one day possibly have the chance of making it to

heaven. I like Donald Trump, I think

he's doing a good job as our president.

But he was meeting in the White House last week and maybe you

heard about this, trying to help end the war in the Ukraine.

And as he was talking to some of the reporters, I think in a very

candid moment, he said, I want to try and get to heaven if

possible. He said, I'm, I'm hearing I'm

not doing well. I'm really at the bottom of the

totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this

will be one of the reasons Donald Trump completely missed

the point of what salvation is all about.

Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8 says, for by grace are you saved

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should

boast. If we're trying to get to heaven

by all the good things that we're done, that we've done,

we're going to fall so short. There's no way that you can do

enough good to earn your spot in heaven.

Oh, this. Well, I know that I've done a

lot of bad things. I'll probably have to go to hell

for some time and get all those sins burned off, and then

eventually God is going to let me into heaven.

That's not found in the Bible anywhere.

That's the doctrine that was made-up by the Catholic Church.

There's no such thing as purgatory.

There's no such thing as getting your sins burned off.

And hopefully at some point you'll be able to get out of

hell. There is no exit signs.

There's no fire escapes in hell. Once you're there, you are there

for eternity. And I know this sounds harsh,

but I have to tell you that I don't want to see anybody spend

an eternity in hell. It's not about getting you into

this church, and you may never darken the door of this church

again. But I want you to walk out of

here this morning knowing for sure that Jesus Christ is your

Savior, that your sins are forgiven, and that you're on

your way to heaven. But that's a decision that you

have to make for yourself. If I could go get saved for

everybody in the world, I'd do it, but I can't.

The only person that I know 100% sure is saved is me.

Because I know my relationship with God and I know that there

was a day, there was a time, there was a moment when I put

all my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and I forsook the sin

that I had lived my life in. And I turned to Jesus Christ and

asked Him for forgiveness for those sins.

And I know He forgave me, and I've heard the testimony of a

lot of you in this room who have experienced the exact same

thing. But I don't know for sure that

you're saved. Only you and God know whether

you've truly accepted Christ as your Savior or not.

Only thing you have to do to give up sin and enter heaven.

Let's take that heavy burden of guilt, the sins that you've been

carrying for all of those years, that burden that's weighing you

down. Walk over to the foot of the

cross and lay it down there. Hey, Jesus died on the cross for

your sins. He died on the cross for my

sins. Look up and see Jesus hanging on

that cross because of your sin and mine.

And say, Jesus, I know that I'm a Sinner.

I know that I deserve to die and go to hell.

I know that my sin is what's going to keep me from heaven.

But I know that you died on the cross to pay for my sins.

Won't you forgive me once you come into my heart and save me?

Isaiah chapter 55 and verse #7 The Bible says, let the wicked

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts,

and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him

and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Well, that's the God that I serve.

Oh, God punishes sin for sure. God can't let sin go unpunished.

He can't. His justice demands that sin be

paid for, but he's also a God of mercy.

He's also a God who sent Jesus Christ to take my place so that

I didn't have to pay the penalty of my sin.

Many people would say, well, I believe in Jesus, so I know I'm

on my way to heaven. Hold on just a second.

There's a big difference between knowledge and possession.

Let's pick on cops this morning. Everybody knows cops love

doughnuts. That's all they do is sit around

and eat Donuts and drink coffee, right?

That's the perception anyway. I know that's different than

that, but let's just say that I know a wonderful place where you

can go and get the greatest Donuts in the world, and you'd

probably believe me if I told you about that place.

You might even tell somebody else how good those Donuts are

based on my recommendation of those Donuts.

But until you actually go and try those Donuts for yourself,

you will never know how good those Donuts really are.

Possessing that doughnut changes everything.

And that same thing is true. You may know everything there is

to know about Jesus. And you may have, from the time

that you were a little kid, heard the story of Jesus dying

on the cross and staying in the grave for three days and then

rising again. And you say, I, I believe that

story. I believe that Jesus died on the

cross. I believe that he rose again.

But until you put all your faith and trust and hope in Him, you

don't have salvation. You can tell me all you want to,

but that you believe that the chair that you sat down and is

going to hold you up. And every one of you expressed

faith in that chair. Because I didn't see anybody

over there this morning testing it to see whether it was

actually going to hold you up before you sat down in it.

Everybody just plopped down in the seat because you expect that

the chair is going to hold you up.

That's faith. That's what faith is.

And that's exactly what it is when it comes to Jesus Christ.

I just put all my faith and trust and hope in him.

I don't have to say, well, let me test it first.

Let me let me try to see some crazy miracle first.

Let me try to see something supernatural to prove that God

is there. And once I see that, then maybe

I'll see that bright light or something.

Then I'll know that it's true. And then I'll put my faith and

trust in Him. No, faith is not faith unless

it's all you're hanging on to. God wants you to have his

salvation. And I'm not telling you this

this morning because I'm mad at you.

In fact, the quite opposite, quite the opposite is true.

I love you and I want you to know the truth from God's word.

I don't know why you would want somebody to tell you anything

other than the truth, but there's so many people out there

to just say, well, well, you just, you just try to be a good

person. You just try to to love Jesus

and you try to go to church every now and then and you'll be

OK. That's a lie.

That's a lie, and I'm not going to, I'm not going to tell you a

lie. I want to tell you the truth.

You're a Sinner and your sin is sending you to hell.

And until you accept Jesus Christ as the payment for your

sin, you cannot go to heaven. I want you to know the peace and

the joy that I've come to know through Jesus Christ there's no

sin. We're spending an eternity in

that awful place called hell. But that's where those who

reject salvation, that's where those who reject Jesus Christ

are going to spend forever after this life is over.

God wants you to know Him. He wants you to find that

meaning in life. He wants to save you.

He's not the man upstairs sitting in an easy chair and

hoping you can figure everything out.

He's pursuing you. He's begging you to give up your

sin and to come to Him in faith so that He can save your soul

and take you to heaven when you die.

But He'll never force it on you. He leaves that decision to you.

It's your choice. Oh, if God could do that, I'm

sure he would. He'd make everybody get saved.

He'd make everybody go to heaven when they die.

But he doesn't. He gives every single person

that choice. You have the choice to accept

him or to reject him. And so this morning I say give

up. Give up sin, first of all, but

#2 and very quickly give up self.

Turn over, if you will, to second Peter chapter 3 near the

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

end of the New Testament. Give up self.

By that I mean this. Give up the right to your life.

Your life doesn't belong to you. It belongs to the One who

created you. Our job and our responsibility

in this life is to find what God wants us to do with our life and

do it. The first step is to come to

Christ in repentance and faith. Second Peter chapter 3 and verse

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

#9 The Bible says the Lord is not slack concerning His

promise, as some men count slackness, but his

long-suffering to us were not willing that any should perish,

but that all should come to repentance.

There's this idea out there called Calvinism that God

chooses some people for heaven and some people he chooses for

hell. That would that goes directly in

opposition to this verse. God is not willing that any

should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Oh, God says, I want everybody to come to repentance, but you

can't because you're destined for hell.

No, everybody has that choice. Not willing that any should

perish, but that all should come to repentance.

The second step is then to give your life to Christ for him to

use it however He wants to use it.

You can't give your life to Christ until you know Jesus

Christ as your Savior. There's a lot of people who are

trying to do that, and I explained it this way, that many

times people are trying to be a good person.

They're trying to do what a Christian does.

And So what essentially they're doing is they're putting the

sanctification in front of the justification.

You cannot be, you cannot live a sanctified life, you cannot live

a righteous and holy life before God until you've been justified

by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so many people are trying to

put sanctification in front of justification.

Justification has to come first. You have to know Jesus Christ as

your Savior if you expect to be able to live a life that's

pleasing to the Lord. You can't do it without that.

Most of you are doing what you believe God's called you to do.

Police officer. God called you to be a police

officer. But you can.

Can you say I want to be whatever God wants me to be?

I want to do whatever God wants me to do.

I want to give up whatever God wants me to give up so that my

life can be used for His glory. Galatians chapter 2.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

Paul said in verse #20 I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the

life which I now live in the flesh.

I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave

Himself for me. He said I crucify my flesh every

single day. I die to myself because I don't

belong to me. I belong to Jesus Christ and I

want to do what He wants me to do with my life.

When we're dead to self, we're only concerned with how God

wants us to live. Psalm 37 and verse #4 says,

Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the

desires of thine heart. Oh, do what God wants you to do,

and He'll give you everything you desire.

That's not what that verse means.

That verse means you do what God wants you to do, and He'll

change your desires to be what He wants your desires to be.

Oh, you come to know Jesus Christ as your Savior, and

you'll find out that money and things and power and fame and

all of those things don't really matter.

And so many people want those things so bad that they cannot

give up their lives for the cause of Christ because they

don't want to give those things up.

Oh, what, what am I going to do if I, if I don't have millions

of dollars? What am I going to do if I don't

have power that I've always used to have?

What, what am I going to do if I can't sway people the way that I

want to do? What if I can't do the things

that I've always wanted to do? I'll be honest with you.

It's not that God wants your life to be miserable.

Oh, if I surrendered my life, God's going to make me go do

something that I never wanted to do.

Not necessarily. But when you surrender your

life, you don't care what it is that God wants you to do.

You just want to please him with your life.

And I'll say I knew from a pretty early age that God was

calling me into the ministry, but that's not what I wanted to

do. I surrendered to it because I

was willing, but I didn't want to do.

I wanted to go to the military. I wanted to fly.

I'd always loved jets, F sixteens, all of those.

That's what I wanted to do with my life.

And on top of that, I always wanted to be a police officer.

But God called me into the ministry, and I don't regret it

one bit. I'm so glad that I'm doing what

I'm doing. But you know what?

Not only do I have the joy of doing what I'm doing now, but

God gave me a big part of what I always wanted to do.

Working together with the Police Department, being able to go out

and do ride alongs and do all of those other things.

God doesn't take something away from you without giving you

something so much better in its place.

But the problem is that what most people don't realize is

that the thing in their hand that they think they can't give

up isn't worth a whole lot. And they just, they, they, they

squeeze it and they clutch it and they don't want to let it

go. And God saying just let go of

that, You don't realize how valueless that thing really is.

I've got something that's so much more valuable for you.

Just let go of it and I'll give it to you.

No, this is mine. I can't let go of it.

It's worth so much to me. I, I spent way too much of my

life trying to get this thing that I can't let go of it.

God says just let go of it and I'll give you something that's

way more valuable than what you think you have in your hand.

It's like a fake Rolex. Oh, I, I spent a lot of money on

this thing. I can't let it go.

And he's, I got a real one for you worth way more than that.

All right? It's like a little kid with

their fake jewelry and a mother that's got real jewelry that's

trying to give it to him and won't let it go because this is

mine. God wants us to have his best,

but you have to be willing to let it go.

Give up, give up sin, give up self.

And lastly, give up small living.

What I've been describing to you this morning all along is

essentially giving up small living.

God didn't intend for us to live defeated lives.

He intended for us to live a victorious Christian life.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 37, the Bible says nay, no, in all

Romans 8 · chapter mention

of these things, we are more than conquerors through him that

loved us more than conquerors through him that loved us.

He's given us the victory through Jesus Christ.

And when you come to Him and accept Him as your Savior, God

becomes your Father, and He passes on all the benefits of

being His Son. John chapter 16 and verse 33,

John 16 · chapter mention

these things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have

peace in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good

cheer. I have overcome the world.

That's the side I want to be on. He's already told us that he's

overcome the world. It's not a question of who's

going to win in the end. We already know that he wins.

All right, Somebody said it a long time ago.

I read the back of the book and we win.

Why would you want to be on any other side than his right enough

of small living. I want to be a warrior for the

cause of Christ. I want to be a conqueror through

him. When Jesus is your savior and

God is your Father, we can live that victorious Christian life.

I love life. I don't have a lot of money.

I don't have a lot of things, but I have Jesus.

I have a good family. I have a have a wonderful church

family and the list could go on. And as a Christian, I get all of

that and then heaven besides, and I don't know what else you

can ask for. A little boy and his father were

driving down a country Rd. on a on a beautiful spring afternoon.

And the windows were cracked open a little bit because it was

such a nice day outside. And a bee flew in that window

and started buzzing around the little boy and he started to

panic because he was definitely allergic to bees.

And he started, he started squirming around in his seat

and, and, and going into a panic, breathing really heavy.

And, and his dad knew that this was a very serious situation.

He became frantic. And so the father reached out

and he grabbed that bee and he squeezed it in his hand and he

held it for just a couple seconds.

And then he let that bee go. And the bee started buzzing

around. And again, the kid became

frantic and he started panicking again.

And the dad actually reached out his hand over to his little son

and he said, hang on, hang on, don't panic.

Look at this. And in his hand he pointed to

his son, or that bee had stung him, and left the Stinger in the

dead's hand. He said that bee can't sting you

anymore. It already stung me.

That's exactly what Jesus Christ did for us.

You know, death, the Bible says, has lost its sting.

Do you know why death lost its sting?

Because Jesus Christ took the sting of death for us.

He took my place. He died on the cross that I

should have died on. I don't have to go to hell

because of what Jesus Christ did for me.

Seems that the world's going crazy.

There seems to be a whole lot of things to worry about.

Coming to know Jesus Christ as your Savior doesn't make all of

your problems go away. As an officer especially, It's

not necessarily going to give people a different view than

what they have, but it will. What it will do is give you a

completely new perspective on life.

And I'm not afraid to die. I don't want to die right now,

but I'm not afraid to die when the time comes.

I love life, I love living, but I'm not afraid to die.

And the reason I'm not afraid to die is because I know Jesus

Christ is my Savior. I gave up my life a long time

ago, and I took His in exchange. My life is going to end someday.

The life that He gives, His eternal life, and it'll never

end. I want the life that He has.

So just give up this morning. Give up your sin, lay it at the

foot of the cross and let Jesus be your savior.

Give up yourself, your plans, your desires.

Let him exchange those for His and give up small living.

So many people feel that they would be missing out on all the

fun the world has to offer if they repent and come to Jesus

Christ, but they don't know what they're missing out on.

Life doesn't even begin until you know Jesus Christ as your

Savior. And for those who do, they can

testify to that fact as they've experienced it.

The new birth, born again, all terms that the Bible uses to

describe somebody who comes to know Jesus Christ as their

Savior. That's my plea to you this

morning. Just give up your sin.

It's not worth it. Your sin is not worth spending

an eternity in hell for. Jesus Christ died to pay for

that sin. Won't you come to him this

morning? If you don't know Jesus Christ

as your Savior, won't you accept that gift while you still have

the opportunity to do it? Let's pray.

Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.

Thank you for the opportunity we've had to be together this

morning. God, may you speak to hearts.

And if there is even one person in here this morning that does

not know for sure that they're on their way to heaven, God, may

they get that settled. May you give them the courage to

step out and come forward and let somebody take a Bible and

show them how they can be saved beyond that.

For those who are saved, God, may you help us.

May you help us to live lives that are completely given over

to you, completely surrendered to you for you to use however

you want to. Well thank you for all you do

for us in Jesus name.