When Life Is Up And To The Right

Well, good morning crossing Church.

How are you doing today? It is a good day.

It's a good day to be in the House of the Lord.

It's a good day to be with the people of the Lord and there's

no better way that you can start your week than that way.

I want to welcome everyone that's joining from all of our

locations all over this three state area.

If you're inside or you're online, we are thankful for you

joining with us as well and we pray that it'll be a blessing to

you that you spent time in God's word today and we would all join

in that blessing together. So we're in a series called

God's Way is the best Way, right?

And is that all the time or is that just some time?

It really is. It really is all the time.

So there are times when you're down.

There's times when the challenges or overwhelming you,

There are other times when maybe you would describe your life as

up and to the right. You know, that's kind of the way

that a lot of people in that are kind of in a success mode want

to see their lives described up and to the right, like on a

graph. It just keeps getting better and

better. And you and I all know that we

have different times and seasons in life where that would not be

a good description, but sometimes it is.

I have to say, in my life, the last couple of weeks have been

incredibly up and to the right. Last week, I got to take my my

entire family, fourteen of us to Disney World.

Some of you would think that is not up and to the right.

Some of you would go, that's like a horrible thing.

And it's absolute not true as far as I'm concerned.

It was incredible. And Allison's been planning that

for a long time. You know, we got the credit

cards that are the Disney cards to try to get points.

And we've been, she's been working on that for years.

But last August was Allison and my 25th anniversary being here

at the Crossing. And thank you. 25 years.

That's pretty good. And at 8:30 on a Sunday morning,

about 1/2 an hour before services started here at the

48th Street campus, the elders asked if they could meet with me

in the green room and Allison that we would be back there.

And they kind of shoot everybody else out.

And they spent some time sharing with me their appreciation for

that 25 years and Allison. And while they were talking, I

noticed that there was a little, there was a white box and it was

like a box you put a cake in. It had a little ribbon on it.

And I go, they're going to give me a cake.

That's really, that's really cool.

They're going to give me a cake. And they handed it to Allison

instead of me. And.

Yeah. Well, and she opened it and I

and I don't know what she was expecting, but inside there were

luggage tags for 14 people to go to Disney World.

And. And they knew that we were

planning that. And they said, we want to kick

that up a notch. And so we not only got to go to

Disney World, we got to go to Disney World first class.

And yeah, it was absolutely incredible.

And I, I, I mean, I've got videos like I can't do, I don't

have time for that. But I'm just trying to describe

to you how that felt, how, how it felt, you know, because kids

when they're preachers kids, they have their own little

purgatory that they have to live in.

And, and, and you know, I looked at them and it was like a

thankful, it was a thankful time not for just, you know, the

relationship between Allison and I and the crossing, but also

with our kids. And everybody got to be blessed.

I only have one granddaughter. I have 4 grandsons.

And I got to take her Allison, and I got to be the ones to take

her to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique where she was

completely made-up as the Princess of her choice.

And then, you know, to go out, to step out with the hair and

the the whole deal. And she's seven years old.

It's perfect time. And I actually watched her

change before my eyes. When it's one thing when your

grandfather or your grandmother or your mom and dad tell you

that you're beautiful and you're wonderful, but it's different

when you look in the mirror and you see that for yourself.

And the rest of the day she was walking like this.

Her, her cousins, all my grandsons, they, they as soon as

they saw her, they were like overwhelmed.

And they started hugging her that some of them bowed.

How can you not say that an experience like that and all the

other things that are associated with it.

I think Clayton talked a few weeks ago about going to Disney

and he talked about rise of the resistance and waiting in line

for 3 1/2 hours. Oh, not us.

We had the lightning lane thing. You know, we just like walk on

rides. It was awesome, you know,

absolutely incredible. And I have to describe that my

life last week was definitely up and to the right just before we

left on that trip. My son's Joe, my son Joey's

church, he runs multi site tech for this church.

They had a big conference, a lot of big name speakers and one of

the people that were that was working with those speakers in

the booth got to talking to him about his life.

And Joey was talking about us and, you know, being in ministry

their our whole lives and, and, and he said, so are you, are you

all right? And he goes, yeah, yeah, we're

we're we're all doing, we're all doing fine.

He goes, your parents are OK. And he's like, yeah, they're

doing great. Marriage is OK.

Yeah. How about the kids?

Are they still in relationship with Jesus?

Yeah, all four of them are. He goes.

You know how rare that is? It's incredibly rare.

Preachers in large churches able to retain their marriages, their

families and their faith in that framework.

You know what? I have to give God the glory for

that. I want to give God the glory for

that, for the success of this church and our family being

intact. And that truly is success.

That truly is up and to the right.

Now, you probably know people, I know people that could be

described that way. And I don't want to be too

binary in my thinking, but you know, some people have that kind

of a life, maybe because they were born into it.

You know, it that there's a lot of privilege in their life and

and that maybe they inherited it or they stand to inherit it and

and you know, they receive whatever they receive, maybe not

so much out of their own effort, but by effort that existed

before them. And then there's others that

kind of claw their way, right to have that description over their

life, this idea of up and to the right.

I've been to a lot of preachers conferences and you know,

there's some preacher families or ministry families that are

like dynasties, like they have a last name and everybody is kind

of following that like the family business.

And because of that they they have relationships and networks

and they have a lot of opportunities.

Maybe other people that feel called into the ministry but

that don't have all of those might find a lot more difficult.

So some people might have that privilege, other people may have

sacrificed greatly, but you probably know people or others

may describe you as a life that is up and to the right now.

You know, that's a wonderful thing, but it can also be a

trap. Can I get a name in for that?

It can be a trap because you can be led to believe that whatever

kind of blessing you have in life, that's you did that.

Like you're responsible for that, like you should get the

credit for that. And what I want to say is,

whether life is good or bad, all the glory needs to go to God.

All the glory always needs to go to God.

Because when you're giving the credit to God, you're putting it

where it belongs. In the book of Luke, we have two

stories that are actually very interesting stories, descriptive

of two lives that are up and to the right and particularly the

area of wealth. But apart from that similarity,

these two stories couldn't be any more different.

And one of the stories, we don't know the person's name.

We we have a description of this person, but not their name.

And you would recognize this person by this description.

Rich young ruler. There's a second person who is

described by name also a very successful life, and you would

recognize him maybe more by his attributes, but he has a very

specific name, even a song that goes with it if you're a kid,

and that's Zacchaeus. Both individuals lives could be

described as up and to the right.

And if we take these two lives and we lay them over our lives,

I wonder if we can get a better understanding of how we need

when those blessed moments come our way, how we can live those

moments out, giving glory to God and not getting caught in a

trap. I'm going to read from Luke 18,

Luke 18:18–23

verses 18 to 23. We're going to learn a little

bit about the rich young ruler, says a certain ruler asked him,

Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Why do you call me good? Jesus answered, No one is good

except God alone. You know the commandments.

You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall

not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your

father and mother. All of these I've kept since I

was a boy, he said. When Jesus heard this, he said

to him, You still lack one thing.

Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and you'll have

treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.

And when he heard this, he became very sad because he was

very wealthy. There's a lot to unpack in this

story, a lot more than I have time to do today.

And this story is recorded in three of the gospels, Matthew,

Mark and Luke. And it's important that you have

a view of all three of them because they all give more

insight into the person and his story.

We call him Rich because that part of his description is

mentioned in all three accounts. We call him Young because that's

mentioned in Matthew's account. And we call him a ruler because

Luke records that. And the idea that I kind of

connect to the beginning of what I said today, that I, I think

that this was a, a person who inherited his wealth comes from

what he says in two of those gospels, which is what must I

do? And he uses this word to

inherit, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

So maybe that was the way he understood things coming to him

in his life. You don't have to.

You don't have to think very far out to understand that.

Now, before we judge this guy or condemn this guy, there's a

couple of other things that I want us to read and understand

about him. And that's in the book of Mark,

specifically in Mark chapter 10 in verse 17, it says as Jesus

Mark 10 · chapter mention

started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees

before him. Good teacher, He asked, what

must I do to inherit eternal life?

What does that tell you about this guy that he's not putting

on heirs? He's not like walking in front

of Jesus with his, you know, like super cool outfit, you

know, like check me out. Wouldn't you like to have me

follow you? Wouldn't you like me to be in

your entourage of people? No, he runs up to him.

He falls down and bows before him on his knees, showing this

total humility, recognizing the authority of Jesus to speak over

this thing when he asked him that.

So that tells you a lot about this man's heart just because he

was wealthy and because he is a man of position, you know, and,

and had all of his life in front of him because he was young.

It didn't mean that he let that go to his head, right?

He can still be humble. He can still recognize

greatness. He wasn't afraid to do that.

There's another scripture that I want to call your attention to

and it's in verse 21. It says Jesus looked at him and

loved him. When he said one thing you lack,

go sell everything you have, give it to the poor.

Then you'll have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.

When I read that, I read that Jesus had a really positive

attitude toward him. So he had a very humble attitude

toward Jesus. Even though he was this man of

position and Jesus had a great attitude towards him, He loved

him. Do you think that Jesus was

setting him up to use him as a sermon illustration?

You think that Jesus was wanting to use this guy, Or do you think

that Jesus truly, as the the gospel says, loved him?

Oh, I, I agree with the gospel that he loved him, not just an

illustration for the crowd. Jesus honestly wanted him to get

what he was saying. When we read a little bit

further, we we understand that this young man was someone who

kept the rules of his faith. You notice that Jesus doesn't

dispute that. He doesn't say, you know, you

really aren't keeping the rule. You really aren't doing it the

way you're supposed to be doing it.

So he was a guy who was definitely putting in the

spiritual effort. The Matthew record of this says

Jesus says you need one more thing to be perfect.

And that word in the original language means to be complete.

You want to, you want to cover this all the way, You want to

dot all the Is and cross all the TS, then you need to do this.

And that's when he said, sell all that you have.

Give it to the poor. You'll have treasure in heaven

and then you'll, you can come and follow me.

The idea of giving his wealth in order to follow Jesus, though,

was something that this man was not willing to do.

He had an emotional reaction to the fact that he wasn't.

He was very sad. The Bible says, I want you to

know what's actually happening here.

This man is experiencing a calling.

Jesus put a calling on his life. I mean, it's one of the most

obvious callings in the Bible, right?

I mean, there's Jesus. He says sell all this stuff,

walk away from it, you'll come and follow me even tells him

that he's going to have heavenly treasure, right?

That's a calling. And to understand this is a

calling because the rest of the disciples that were following

Jesus did the same thing, right? We read about Peter, Andrew,

James and John, those four disciples that were all

fishermen, and it says that they walked away from their boats and

they walked away from their Nets and they walked away from a

miraculous catch. And they said, we're following

you now. We're walking away from our old

life. They had all done that.

So Jesus wasn't asking this young man to do anything that he

hadn't asked everyone else already.

And this calling was something greater than all of his wealth,

all of his influence, and all of his life potential could ever

provide him. You know, some people might read

that at first reading. They might say, well, that was

just too hard for this guy. It wasn't too hard for this guy.

I want you to understand something about Jesus.

It wasn't too hard because Jesus will never ask you to do

something that He hasn't already provided for.

He has already given you every bit of what you need to do what

He says. He will not unfairly ask you to

do the impossible. He will only ask you what He has

given you the ability to do. And this man had the ability.

So it was a choice that he made a hard choice, but it was a

choice. And the way he did it, way Jesus

did it with this guy's very interesting.

He made the commandments because Jesus asked him, have you kept

the commandments right. And and he, he lists some of

them out and the young man says, I've kept all of them from when

I from the time I was a boy. Now, in his own mind, that was

true. In his own mind, he wasn't a a

liar, wasn't a thief. He wasn't an adulterer.

He'd put God first in his life. He was a deeply religious

person. All of those things were true to

this guy until Jesus contextualized it into his life.

What Jesus did was he made it that commandment, real and

personal. What's the first commandment?

I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of

Egypt. You shall have no other gods

before me. Well, this guy hadn't been

worshipping any idols, but did he have a priority in his life

that was greater than his God? He did, and the choice proved

it. So in his own mind, he wasn't

breaking any commandments. But the truth of the matter was,

in the spirit of that commandment, He'd already broken

it, which mean he'd broken them all, just like us.

See, when Jesus made it personal, He changed the weight

of the commandment. Did this guy's money come before

his God? Was it his money at all?

Had it ever been his money? Listen to me.

We all have abilities. We all have talents.

Some of us have more than others, but we all have at least

one. But a talent does not become a

gift until you give it back to God.

A talent OR an ability does not become a gift until you give it

back to the one who provided it. You see, whatever God gave you

is something that He wants you to honor Him first with.

That was God's way for this young man's life.

That was the best way for his life.

That was the purest way for his life, but he didn't follow it.

Now, this is where the Bible leaves the story of the rich

young ruler after Jesus does some teaching on it.

But I want you to know this. That's where it ends.

Then I wonder how many stories there are of people who maybe at

the particular time said no, but then later on said yes.

Do you think that this calling on this young man's life was his

only chance? Do you think that's the way God

is? He gives you one.

How many of you think God that God is a God of one chance?

How many of you think that God is a God of second chances?

How many of you believe that God is a God of 72nd chances?

How many of you are in an illustration of 72nd chances?

So am I. I don't know what the rest of

the story is with this guy, but we have enough stories in the

New Testament to show us that just because we make the wrong

decision doesn't mean that God will completely abandoned us.

What we learned from him is that God's way is the best way and we

need to go all in. But I want to ask you a

question. What does going all in for Jesus

look like for you, and what might be preventing you from

going all in with Jesus? Are there things in this story

that you can relate to where maybe you've kind of kept the

rules, but you've kind of messed with the spirit of the

commandment? Are you trying to negotiate with

Jesus? Are you hearing that call on

your life? Next illustration, this is

Zacchaeus. Now we read this in Luke 19, one

through 10, and this is what it says.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through and a man was

there by the name of Zacchaeus, and he was the chief tax

collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was,

but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd.

So we ran ahead and climbed a Sycamore fig tree to see him,

since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he

looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down

immediately. I must stay at your house.

So he came down at once and welcomed him, welcomed him

gladly. All the people saw this.

All the people saw this and began to mutter.

How many people began to mutter? All of them.

He is gone to be the guest of a Sinner.

Wow. If Jesus ever came to your

house, would people mutter? Would they say he's gone to be

the guest of a Sinner? Yeah, and you'd be right because

we're all sinners. But Zacchaeus stood up and said

to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my

possessions to the poor, and if I've cheated anybody out of

anything, I'll pay him back four times the amount.

Did Jesus tell him that there was one thing he lacked?

Did Jesus tell him? Did he give him a calling saying

this is what you need to do, take your money, give it to the

poor? No, Jesus never asked him

anything. He was just eating a sandwich.

Jesus said to him, today's salvation has come to this house

because this man too is the son of Abraham.

For the son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

You know, this story is only found in the book of Luke.

I think that's interesting. There's some other stories like

that in Luke, like the Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the

two men from Emmaus. There's more.

And like the rich young Ruler, Zacchaeus was rich.

But again, that's really where the similarity ended.

While the rich Ruler would have been looked up to by the people,

loved and honored by the people, Zacchaeus would have been

despised by the people. That's clear.

They were muttering, calling him a Sinner, but it was way deeper

than that. They had.

They had a hatred for Zacchaeus. Why?

Because he was a tax collector, and tax collectors were Roman

sympathizers. But Zacchaeus wasn't just a tax

collector, he was the chief tax collector, which means all the

other tax collectors in that region worked for him.

And the way they made their money was not by charging taxes,

it was by overcharging taxes. The more you could get over the

bill, the more wealthy you became.

And you know all the tax collectors under Zacchaeus had

to pay him back. They all had to give some to

him. This is how Zacchaeus became

wealthy. This is why he was despised.

There is no indication that the rich young ruler gave up

anything for his wealth, but Zacchaeus for his wealth.

He'd given up everything. His reputation, his

relationships, his honor, his respect.

Why? Why would Zacchaeus do that?

Well, for some reason he really wanted a life described worldly

as up and to the right. He wanted money.

Do you think it had anything to do with being short?

Is it possible that he used something that he might have

been ridiculed for to fuel his desire for success?

Do you think that some people seek wealth because they know

what it's like not to have, or they want people to view them

differently? If we can't be the man, maybe we

ought to try to stick it to the man.

I'm going to ask you what's behind those things in your

life. What drives you, you see, was

Zacchaeus. You can see that Jesus saw

through all that stuff, and he saw through it to Zacchaeus the

person, even as at a distance up in this tree.

See, there's this empty place in Zacchaeus's heart that he keeps

filling with money. He just keeps piling the money.

But no matter how much money he piles into his own heart, it's

never enough. It never satisfies him.

He could never get it full, but this day was his divine

appointment day. And I love the fact that Jesus

calls him by name. How in the world would Jesus

know Zacchaeus, his name from Zacchaeus?

How does he know my name? How would that affect you to

have Jesus call you by name? I love that.

I love the fact that Jesus said I must stay at this house.

It tells you that this was part of his plan.

I love the fact that Jesus ignored those who judged him.

You call him whatever you want. You can call me whatever you

want, doesn't matter. I'm going to go seek and save

that lost guy. I love the fact that Zacchaeus

gave without being prompted. And I love the fact that Jesus

declared not just Zacchaeus saved, but the whole house

saved, that he called him a son of Abraham when other people

were calling a son of a son of something else.

And that seeking and saving the lost is what Jesus does.

Now I'm going to get real transparent with you because

when I read these two stories, the person that I relate to is

Zacchaeus. And there's a reason for that.

You see, I, I've spent my whole senior ministry life in small

towns. And when I went to Bible

college, I had this big idea, had this big idea of what God

was going to do in my life. I, that was kind of how I

translated The Calling. And it was a totally selfish,

convoluted idea that I had. I wanted to be famous.

And then he put me in Rochedale, Indiana, for 11 years.

Well, that'll cure that. And I kind of developed this

attitude. I didn't kind of develop it.

I developed an attitude and an attitude that I actually brought

to Quincy with me. So I never got over it when I

was in Rochdale. And when I came here, a smaller

town, a smaller church at the time than the church in

Rochdale. It's a much smaller building.

I, I, I took this idea of being overlooked for years and I used

it as a motivational tool, personal motivational tool.

And I can see all these other people that were doing so well

in ministry in these big churches, in these big cities,

big budgets and lots of tools. And I started to say to myself,

you know what? I'll show them.

I'll stick it to them. They won't overlook me anymore.

And that was my fuel for ministry.

You think that was of God? Do you think that came from the

throne of God? Do you think that's what God

wanted me to use to motivate me to be successful in ministry?

Do you think there's higher, better things than that kind of

selfishness? But I'm not in my life.

And it was 2006. I got AI got a letter on my on

my desk. I opened it up and I was invited

to a mega church pastor's luncheon in Kansas City, MO.

And I was like, wow, they, they actually know that I'm here.

Somebody figured that out and they invited me to this luncheon

and it was only four hour drive away.

And so I said, you know what, I'm going.

So Allison, I got in the car, we drove over there and I remember

I walked into and into this luncheon room and all of these

like, like big shots in the independent Christian Church

were in there. And I'm like, look, you know who

that is? Who's that?

You know, I'm, I'm fangirling like big time.

And the the guy that was the pastor of the church where I was

ordained was sitting there and I know sooner got in the room and

he looked at me because he never took a personal interest in what

I was doing at that time. And do you know what he said to

me? You think he said, I'm so glad

to see you here. He said these exact words.

What are you doing here in front of my wife and I?

There's my fuel. Part of me wanted to say, well,

because my church is bigger than yours, I'm telling you that's,

that's the sinfulness in my heart.

That's real. He just didn't know it.

When that luncheon was over, which was a great luncheon, a

guy came up to me named Ben Kacharis.

And, and he's in Baltimore, MD and, and he said, Hey, Jerry, we

have this, this thing that we do every year.

We have a, a, a mega church pastors retreat.

Would you consider coming? We'd love to have you.

Like he just invited me to this like retreat thing and I said I

would love to come. And Allison, I talked about it.

Well, I'll tell you what, it started freaking me out.

Like before I went, it was kind of, it was weird.

And we went there and I was so intimidated because you have to

understand for me and my world, these guys were like comic book

heroes. They were like larger than life.

At the time, the largest church in the independent Christian

Church was Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, ran

about 20,000 a weekend. And the senior pastor at that

time was Dave Stone. Dave and Beth Stone and I, we

were walking through a lobby and Dave and Beth were sitting on on

a couch and they said, you're Jerry Harris, right?

And Allison Harris, come and sit down.

Let's talk. And I started to freak out.

I don't. What am I going to say?

I mean, I'm going to say the right thing.

I'm going to say the wrong thing.

I didn't feel, you know, what it was like.

Do you know what I found out? I found out that my motives in

my heart were sinful motives that I would judge people so

that I could feel better about myself.

And you know what God did in that retreat?

He exposed that sin in my heart, and together we had to deal with

it. You know, I published a magazine

called Christian Standard, and Dave Stone wrote an article for

it. And I was preparing this sermon.

And, and, you know, he texted me and I texted him back.

And I said, you know, I've been thinking about you this week.

You have no idea what you did in 2006.

You and Beth sitting on that couch, making me feel like I

belonged. See, that's where Zacchaeus was.

He was a person for his own reasons that didn't feel like he

belonged. And then Jesus said, no, you

belong. You're a son of Abraham.

The Bible talks about accidental finders and earnest seekers.

Jesus does talks about the treasure hid in the field.

The guy just stumbles over it, right?

He was an accidental Finder. But then it talks about this

Pearl of great price that this Pearl merchant finds.

He was an earnest seeker. Both of those individuals in the

Bible, the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus, both wanted to

inherit eternal life. They were both earnest seekers.

One was willing to pay a price, so willing that he didn't even

need to be asked. The other went away in sorrow

because he wasn't willing to lay down what he could never hold on

to for something that was priceless that he could never

lose. One came to improve his own life

plan. The other came to discover God's

plan. And that's my question for you.

Here you are, all of our locations inside online.

Why are you here? What are you willing to let God

do to change your life? Because God's way is what we're

moving to a time of decision. We do so much.

We work so hard to try to give people a positive opinion of us.

And it's so much easier to live our lives with a minimum of

faith instead of a maximum of faith, right?

So we don't want to have faith about how people view us.

We want to be able to hear their approval and see their approval,

you know, in their eyes. And so we go to great lengths to

get that approval. There's a lot, right?

Now that makes up your life. That is all based on that,

right? The thing that your family.

'S involved in. House, you live the

neighborhood. You live in car, you drive

clothes, you wear places. Where you go out to.

Eat the friends you have associations you're a part of.

There's so much so. Much investment that we.

Put in that. How much investment?

Do we put in the space of faith where we're more concerned about

what does God think of me? Well, you don't earn how God

views you. That's good news.

Matter of fact, you. Can't earn that.

And even though. You can't earn God's love and

you can't earn God's respect and.

You can't manipulate. God's view of you.

I can tell you this. That.

God loves. You with a furious love that he.

Loves you with an. Overwhelming love.

That if you were to feel the. Full force of God's love roll

over you. You would drown in it.

That God's love is so great, it's more than you can imagine.

That's how he. Feels about you.

Our life. Isn't an action when it comes to

God and faith. It's a response because God's

the one who always initiates. That's why Romans 5.

Eight says while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And what was he doing? The first part of that verse?

God demonstrated his love. He demonstrates it today, His

love for us, and that while we were still sinners, while we

didn't care a bit. And he died for us.

He initiates. He's always initiated.

What's your response? How much of who you are are you

holding back for yourself? And how much of your life is

simply a response? Thanking him, loving him back.

See if I added up. There was. 11 years at.

Rochdale, a few years here and three or four years before that,

15 maybe, you know, 18 years of my ministry life, totally self

absorbed do you think? That God loved me any.

Less. No was.

He patient was I, the rich young ruler who was very sad and

walked away. I can't tell you how many times

if you're here today and you don't have an intimate personal

relationship with Jesus Christ right now, right now you can do

that. There's going to be somebody

right over there by that baptistry that would love to

talk to you and pray with you about it.

Right now you can do that online.

You can press that button and you can talk to somebody online

right now. You don't have to put it off

anymore. Do you have to have someone

motivate you anymore or can you just take Jesus at His Word?

And some of you today need to lay something down and that's.

What these steps are for? To come up here and just lay it

down and just say this is a sacrifice that you deserve.

This is something that I never, never deserved, Lord and I, I

just want you to know that I want to put it behind me.

I want more of you and less of me.

Would you stand with me? Let God work in your heart.

Listen to Him. Don't listen to me.

Listen to that small still voice inside your heart and then

respond to that. Heavenly Father, in Jesus name,

please take this moment. Use it for your glory.

Father, help us to understand your grace on a deeper level to

go just go down one more step into that grace to understand

just how much love you have for us and what you gave and

continue to give for us. I pray.

That you would do that. In Jesus name, Amen.