Heroes Week 3

Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.

Our mission is to take the gospel from the upper peninsula to the ends of the earth.

We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.

Enjoy our hero series where we dive deep into the lives of heroes in the Bible.

Good morning, everyone.

Good to see everyone.

Would you just welcome everyone that's with us online?

Appreciate everyone.

Weekly, I come across people who watch us online.

Sometimes they they show up in person.

Of course, we have four campuses across the UP, and we're excited all of you are here this morning.

I've been gone for a couple weeks.

We're on a forward trip uh to Peru, and I'm excited to be back.

I'm excited about next week.

I love Serve Day.

I love the aspect that we shut down church and we are being the church out in our communities.

And so I just want you to make sure that you're a part of what we're doing.

You can always sign up.

You can just show up to the only reason we have people sign up is to make sure we place you in different places and you get a t-shirt.

But of course, you can just show up and uh be a part of that.

And so we're gonna dive into a series that we've been in for a couple of weeks.

I wanted to really talk about what faith is and use the examples that we find in Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

That's where we're gonna be.

If you need a Bible, raise your hand.

Thank you to Pastor Brandon and Pastor Noah for leading us uh properly in the last couple of weeks.

Just raise your hand.

We have a great Bible for you.

We're gonna be in two places.

We're gonna be primarily in Hebrews chapter 11, which you're gonna find in the latter part in the New Testament of your Bibles, and then we're gonna be in Genesis chapter 15 uh in just a moment, also.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention Genesis 15 · chapter mention

And this morning we are going to talk about a really big figure in our lives.

Though you know it or not, you're directly here this morning.

You have a relationship with Jesus this morning, or you're just kicking around the tires of Christianity this morning because of a central figure that we call Abraham.

And we're gonna find his story in Genesis in just a moment.

We're gonna look at his life, and Hebrews writes about the what scholars call the great hall of faith.

I'm sure that uh Pastor Noah and Pastor Brandon talked a little bit about that in the last couple weeks.

I won't dive into it this much because there's a lot of um content to walk through in the life of Abraham.

Abraham, and by the way, uh just so you know, his name starts off as Abram, but God changes it to Abraham, so forgive me if I bounce back and forth uh in that, so it doesn't confuse you.

But he is the the father of three major faiths in the world.

Of course, uh Christianity, but uh the Jewish people look to him, and those uh who are in the Islamic faith also find him to be their father.

And some of you grew up singing in church that crazy song, Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham.

That's it, don't sing it anymore.

It'll get in that loop in your head, and things won't be good in the future for you.

It'll never leave.

And so, but you need to understand when it as the Hebrew writer is talking about these incredible figures, these spiritual men and women that walked and followed ultimately God or being Jesus in many cases, you need to understand that these weren't perfect individuals.

They weren't perfect individuals, but they had something in their following of God that literally changed the world around them.

And what does that mean to us likewise as the sons and daughters of Abraham?

Can I say that?

The sons and daughters of Abraham likewise are great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather.

Can we pattern our lives in faith after what and how he lived his life in following God and this incredible calling in his life?

And so I want to kind of maybe walk through the first aspect.

I mean, this might take me a couple weeks to get this out of my system a little bit here.

Uh, there's so much to talk about, and it's so true to what we're experiencing here at North Iron as children of God.

And so I want you I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4.

Hebrews 11:4

This is the the theme of this chapter.

You've looked at it before, a very powerful verse, and I just want to dive a little bit deeper into this.

We'll return to it again and again and again.

And without faith, that's the interesting part, that word faith there, and without faith, it is impossible to please God.

For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Should underline this in the Bible that you're reading.

Now, I think a lot of us believe in God.

That's that's an easy part.

It's not very often I come across people today.

It's not, it's like uh there's an there's an extinct bird out there, it's called an atheist.

I don't know if you've heard of it or not.

There's a few that try to stick around, but to believe that's one thing, but to seek God to do, it really comes down to you to to serve God and to follow him and to have faith.

You not only have to believe he exists, but you also have to do.

There is no belief without a doing.

And really, there's a a conviction that we find, and I'm sure uh Pastor Brandon and Noah talked about it, that that there's three convictions that God is real and God will keep his promises, and seeking him is it's worth it.

It's worth it.

We find that God sends three tests to Abraham, and we're gonna kind of focus on the first test today, but three tests that really develop Abraham into the person that would change the world.

That would change the world.

And you need to understand that oftentimes my mom is an incredible cook.

Her mom was an incredible cook.

And that's usually how it happens.

You always need to test before you marry a woman, you should test the mother's food.

That's that's my opinion.

I probably shouldn't have said that.

Anyway, it's how I think everything revolves around food.

I'm just telling you.

My mom was a great cook.

I never really realized that until I ate some of your all food.

But anyway, again.

Listen, I've been gone for two weeks.

I've been thinking about being up here.

Anyway, um, my mom had the this ability, she she never, and I'm not saying you're wrong by having a timer on your phone or like one of those timers to know when things are done or not.

I I think that's a great, a great option.

I just don't know why my mom never used one.

She just instinctively knew when something was done, if she was making a roast, or she was baking a cake, or she loved to make pies, and and it was just her get hospitality was my mom's gifting.

And so she just had this ability to, and if she ever wondered, she would just kind of go in there and stick a fork in something, pull it out, and be able to tell me or tell when that was that that whatever she was cooking or baking was done.

It always kind of amazed me that she could stick a knife or a fork in something, pull it out, and say, Yeah, well, it's not quite where I want it to be.

That was always an interesting aspect.

And even today, I think uh for you men or or women who are making steak, right?

Like, I get it, you can burn that thing and you can make it well done.

That's kind of gross, in my opinion.

It has to be perfect, like medium rare for me.

That's the way God intended it.

For some of you.

And yet, how do you know, right?

You just have to by faith lay that steak on the grill, and then you know you gotta flip it every so many minutes.

You can't see if it's done on the inside.

Some of you will cut it open and and look inside there.

But really, there's this thing called the thermometer that you you stick inside that steak, right?

And you can tell when it's done or how how rare it is, medium rare.

And and and that that that's a great way.

Let me say it this way: the tests that God brings you through are the way to tell if your faith is ready or not.

Or I'll say it this way: trials are God's fork to see whether our faith is really done.

Just because something looks done on the outside doesn't mean it's done on the inside.

And the tests or trials that God puts you through are there to develop you as a person so that God can move you into the calling that he's placed on your life.

And we see this as you read Abraham's story, where God brings him through different tests to develop who he is.

And that's that's a that's an incredible idea that you need to grasp that if God places a calling on your life, he's always going to take you out of your comfort zone to develop something in your life.

Let's let's let's look at that scripture scripture we find in Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, that God called Abraham out.

Abraham was a central figure early on in Genesis.

Noah and the flood has passed.

There's about 400 years, the sons of Noah have come out of the ark and they've populated the earth, and we find that even though it was God's plan to uh eradicate sin with the flood, but that it actually shows up again.

And we find that in Genesis, where we see, in Genesis chapter 11, we see Abraham's story, we find out that the people on earth are again entrenched in incredible paganistic idolatry, all of them except for the family of Abraham.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

So God shows up and he calls Abraham out of the city into the wilderness so that he could receive his inheritance.

Now it's interesting that that even this word here goes out in the in the King James Version uh translation, it says, it's more direct.

God says, get out, get out, come follow me.

I'm gonna place you in a land where you don't know where you're going.

You need to understand that that God always literally or metaphorically places you when he truly wants to use you, he places you in a literal or metaphorical wilderness to develop you who you are.

When God wants to use a man, he doesn't place a crown on his head, he breaks him.

God will only be able to use you to the level of persecution that you're willing to accept in your life.

Some of us get upset because, well, this person said this about me, or this person said this negative thing about you.

Listen, God will just keep you small to protect you.

Because he loves you, he'll keep you small because your eyes are on what people are saying instead of what he's saying.

Sometimes God just comes to us and says, I want you to get out.

I want you to move out of your comfort.

I'm gonna put you through tests, and I'm gonna develop this calling in your life.

I need to work on your heart, and for whatever reason, he always does it in the wilderness.

And so he sent Abraham out, scripture says next.

He went out not knowing where he was going, and by faith he went and lived in the land of the promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and as as Isaac and Jacob speaking of his descendants here, as they also followed, for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

And then he moves into Sarah, his wife's story.

Also, by faith, Sarah herself received the power to conceive.

Even when she was past the age, you need to understand that God blesses him with this incredible promise that I'm going to affect all the world, all the way up into the UP.

I'm gonna gather a bunch of youpers because of you, Abraham.

And Abraham's like, hey God, listen, I'm I'm I'm very old.

I'm I'm I'm like, we we don't actually know how old he is, but he's he could have been anywhere from 75 to 90s, beyond the child rearing age.

Sarah was even past the age, since she considered him faithful, who had made this promise, therefore, from one man and him as good as dead, meaning this guy's not having children anymore.

Were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven, and as many as the the the grains of the sand by the seashore.

And this is important in the story.

It says that all of these died in faith, not having received the things promised.

But having seen them and greeted them from afar, sometimes you just get a glimpse of what God's going to do through your faithfulness.

And having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, for who?

For people who speak thus, make it clear that they are seeking something greater.

That's what I want to talk about today.

Something bigger than what you see around yourself.

Seeking a homeland.

If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

You can always go back.

There are many, many people who start out following Jesus, but eventually it gets difficult, and so they kind of sit down or they return to their old lifestyle.

They also had the opportunity to return, but as it is, they desired a better country, a better citizenship.

That is a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared them for a city.

So why did Abraham say yes to God?

He had a permanent position, a permanent posture.

He wasn't in need.

His family were people of substance.

So why did Abraham say yes to this?

Well, he he wanted a better country.

A heavenly one.

He could recognize that things did not last.

Like I think everyone gets to that place, especially when you get a little bit my age, where you think, man, I did I worked so hard to create this.

And Jennifer started Jennifer started painting our house like four years ago, and we're still not done.

And we were just talking about this the other day, that where she first started four years ago, the paint is bubbling up and peeling, and we're not even done with our whole house yet.

I'm like, Jen, we just need to burn this thing down.

We're never gonna get done.

Our world is crumbling.

You get to the age where you think, man, I worked so hard, I I built this, I created this, and it just it returns to its original state.

Now I'm being funny with the paint on my house, but it it is in every aspect of your life that there's only one thing that is eternal, and that is the kingdom of God and the city of God.

But as it is, they desired a better country, a heavenly one.

And so Abraham was looking for a city that had foundation, whose designer and builder is God.

So let me talk a little bit about that aspect, because I think one of the one of the wrong moves, can I speak to the young couples who are just married?

Who are trying to build their life, organize their life.

Some of you are trying to recover from uh wrong decisions in your life, and you're trying to get your head above water, and and and you're you're doing everything, you're working hard, you're planning, you're saving, you're developing.

You got 15,000 different side gigs to get yourself over the top, and and and then you have children.

I'm just saying there's a lot of people who get to their 50s, and they look back at their life and said, We we invested in the wrong thing.

Our foundations in this world, they they crumble.

They crumble.

They fall apart, they're constantly through destruction or disease, fall apart.

And let me just point those out to you just a little bit, that that these cities of the world have no foundation.

No foundation, they all return back to their original form.

The the the sin of this world is destructive and it eats everything that we create.

It never lasts, everything dies, everything is destroyed, and yet we even get glimpses of beauty.

We I just was gone for a couple weeks in a forward trip in in Amazon, and someone was asking me, like, um, what was the most impactful thing that you saw?

A lot of incredible things.

I just was not prepared for the power of the Amazon jungle that I witnessed.

We went to a village, we built a church.

I'll talk about it later.

Um, but one of the conversations I was having with one of the villagers there distinctly said that we have to build our homes every three to five years, totally rebuild them, because the Amazon jungle and the power of it just takes over everything.

And I witnessed it.

I'm like, we need to slash and burn this thing.

It's a monster.

And isn't that kind of a metaphor for the life that we we live?

Everything crumbles, everything is destroyed, everything returns to the dust of the earth.

And not just that, but these cities, these relational cities, those foundations are also crumbling.

Oh, you put so much, so much.

Energy into so many relationships, it's just difficult to keep even our families together.

Families move apart and everything's moving.

You're like, no, I can I can keep all my kids around me and the security and I can create this incredible.

I'm just telling you that eventually everyone begins to kind of pass away or move away.

And it's hard to keep even friends.

It's hard to keep a family because it's not the eternal family that God has placed in our lives.

We try to do something with that earthly family, it it crumbles.

There's a very famous preacher called Martin Lloyd Jones in the early 19th century.

He was a very famous, famous preacher.

Before he was a famous preacher, he was a very high-end surgeon.

And he was a very esteemed young man who was in medical school.

He had a friend there.

And really there was kind of this almost this competition between them.

He was a very prestigious young man.

And in the middle of by in the middle of medical school, the young man that was kind of his friend and competition for like the top surgeon place in this medical school, his his wife died very, very quickly.

Very quickly.

Of course, Martin said, Absolutely, come and sit by the fire with me.

The young man was very, very distraught because of his wife dying very, very quickly.

And Martin said he sat at the fire and did not say two words to me.

In his grief, he just stared at the fire.

Stared at the fire.

And just sat there.

And Martin said, We were two of the greatest surgeons in the world.

And we could do nothing about his wife.

And he said that something changed in my heart.

And the vanity of human greatness was fleeting.

And he said to himself, Listen, I'm wasting my time in medical school.

I'm gonna preach the gospel.

It's the only hope to the world.

All of these things around us, I I love Conan O'Brien's comment.

I don't know if you've ever heard it.

He says, the least visited place in the world is the grave.

We come and go.

We grieve because we're in love with that person.

I love my father poured into my life.

But I have never visited his grave.

The least visited place is the grave.

Our relational foundations are fleeting.

The beauty and the talent foundations are are are are leaving.

Like I just noticed, I don't mean to be gross, but my my underwear band just naturally flipped over at some point in my life.

I don't even know how it happened.

I didn't plan it.

I'm like, what is that thing?

Sorry.

I just came to that realization the other day.

Like, who's anyway?

Like our bodies break down, right?

Even you, some of you young people are like, ooh, I look good, man.

You're not gonna look good in the future.

Like something just happens.

Our bodies break down.

Our foundations of our lives begin to deteriorate.

Our relationship, our our beauties and our talents begin to wither.

Even even our scientists and our philosophers, listen, there is no, there is no science foundation.

We believe that, and we live in the world of knowledge right now.

And it seems like I've talked about this before.

No matter what, every generation makes fun of the former generation and the ways that they live their lives.

And I'm sure that there's a younger generation right now that's going to look at my lifetime and say, look at those bunch of boomers.

They didn't, they they didn't understand.

They didn't understand life.

We we have the the new system.

Do you know that in the late 1800s there was this incredible uh period of enlightenment where where people were saying we're just too hard on humanity, we need to put all of our energy into education and science and and we're gonna move into an utopia kind of society.

The same kind of talk I hear about right now when it comes to AI involvement in our lives, that we're gonna get to a place where we're gonna finally be in this freedom and prosperity and we're gonna have all this knowledge in the world.

And that's the kind of thing that was happening in the late 1800s.

There were some incredible movements that were happening.

We just need more love, we just need more education, we just need more business, and we're gonna we're gonna move into a world of utopia, and then in 1914, World War I started, and 20 million people died, and then in the 40s, World War II happened, and 85 million people died, and then communism came in, and a hundred million people died.

And now we have a new generation that says, Oh, you guys got it all wrong.

You just gotta be woke.

That's gonna solve all the problems.

We just need to be more woke.

More woke! And look at it, that's already being destroyed.

It's not the answer.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't attempt a better society.

Listen, we're just not we're just in the wrong citizenship.

We need to invest in the kingdom of God, and at least we understand man's depravity.

No matter how smart we get, or how prosperous we get, or educated we get, listen, there's something wrong with our hearts, and that's what sin does.

It's depravity.

The point is, every generation attacks the previous generation.

Says, man, you guys got it wrong.

There's a very famous, some very famous letters between uh a young student of C.

S.

Lewis, where C.

S.

Lewis was teaching in Oxford.

They would kind of go back and forth.

This young man was very, very smart, and so they would always debate with each other uh publicly.

And one day, again, this is uh the same kind of story that I just told you, but this is different.

His fiance died.

And he came to the realization that he wasn't that smart.

And he wrote these fascinating letters between C.S.

Lewis and him himself.

And let me just kind of highlight one of those letters for you.

It's like I was standing on this cliff over there was Jesus, but to get to him, I have to leap.

To take a leap of faith, which I didn't want to do, but when I I looked down, I realized that the cliff I was standing on was also crumbling that foundation, his intelligence.

I had a choice.

I could jump out to something that seems uncertain, or stay standing on something even more uncertain.

Either way, listen, it's a choice.

He was looking for a city, a foundation, whose builder and maker is God everywhere.

An internal city.

And you need to understand that before before God can bring you to himself, he has to deliver you from yourself.

A breaking down.

A breaking down.

Jesus in in Matthew chapter 13 tells a very short parable or story about this very thing where he says this, that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and covered up, and then with joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Now, this is seems a little weird, but in in the day there weren't really banks, and so if you had any kind of wealth, you didn't you just didn't go to the bank and deposit it.

You went out to a secret place where a goofy-looking rock was or a tree, and you would dig a hole and you would bury your wealth down there because there was always invading individuals or thieves that would be able to break into your home and steal the wealth that you had accumulated.

This guy didn't have any wealth, but he was walking in the field, someone else's field, and he stumbles upon a treasure and he uncovers the dirt on it and opens it up, and he's just wowed.

But there was a Jew, uh I'm sorry, there was a rule with Jewish custom that if you were to find any treasure on someone else's land, that treasure actually belongs to that person.

So what he did was, Jesus says he's shrewd or kind of almost shady in a way, but this had such value that he covered it up again and he went out and he got the owner and said, Man, I'm just kind of interested in maybe buying this piece of property from you.

And the owner's like, Why would you want this piece of property?

I don't understand.

He says, Well, you know, I wanna I wanna plant a garden, put a little camp out by the Dead River, just you know, I I so the guy gives him, the owner gives him this outlandish price.

He's thinking, this guy's crazy, I'm just gonna shoot this price.

And and the guy who found the treasure says, Perfect, I'll give you that money.

And so what he does is he goes out and he sells everything he has.

He sells his house, he sells his Air Jordans, he sells his children, he sells everything.

I don't know what this is.

And he goes and he buys that piece of property.

And he says he does it.

Now look at this, with with great joy.

With with great joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field, it had such great value.

The kingdom of heaven is like the treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and covered up, and then with great joy, he sells everything he has to obtain it.

So, how was the kingdom of God, the eternal city that Abraham was promised?

How was that more important than the earthly treasure that he possessed?

Let me give you a couple ways, and I'll I'll hurry.

I want to give you these points.

Man, the eternal city has satisfaction.

Like nothing can touch God's relationship in your life.

I would say it boldly enough to say it's the only satisfaction you're gonna have that's not fleeting.

You hear me say it kind of flippantly, the new car smell goes away in your life.

Man, Pastor Mark, I just gotta marry this boy.

The new car smell will go away and he'll annoy you.

Pastor Mark, I just have to get this much money.

I have to be secure.

No, there is no security.

I know very many, many, many rich individuals whose lives completely fell apart in the process or thereafter them receiving the kind of padded lifestyle that they wanted.

Cancer does not care how much money you have in your 401k.

You hear me say it this way: everything plus Jesus is nothing.

And I'm not saying, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't have nice things.

I'm just saying if you think that everything plus Jesus is something, it's nothing.

It will rot.

It'll disappear.

Jesus plus nothing, everyone, is everything.

Everything.

There's a very famous band, I'm gonna show you my age called Hootie and the Blowfish.

Kind of a big band in the late 80s when Jen and I just got out of Bible school.

And there's a very interesting story about the the lead, uh, not the lead, but the their main the drummer who built that band.

Stanley Smith.

Bradley Smith, sorry.

Brantley Smith, there we go.

And just at the very heights of Hootie and the Blowfish, he decided to leave the band and pursue serving Jesus.

Became a student, young adult pastor, and worship leader.

Kind of shook not just the band, but everyone that were kind of in that circle.

And he says this, and it's very famous, maybe you've heard it.

He says, if I had, in response to everyone, like, why would you leave at the very top?

If I had 10,000 lives to live, I'd live every single one of them for Jesus.

I don't know anyone in their last breath who says, I probably shouldn't have served Jesus.

I wasted my years serving Jesus.

The eternal city also has certainty in your life.

It's the only thing that has made it through the world.

The church is the only organization that every generation has kingdoms come and go.

It has certainty in your life.

Matter of fact, Jude says it this way: this faith is handed down once for all the saints.

The eternal city has security in your life.

Everything else in the world will turn against you.

There's kind of this message in the things that we pursue.

If you obtain me, I'll take care of you.

If you fail me, I'm going to curse you.

God makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis chapter 15.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

And it's pretty weird by our standards, but it's very powerful in the message not only that it sends to Abraham, but it sends to us.

In this promise to bless Abraham, he says, Abraham in chapter 15, I want to make a promise, I want to make a contract with you, I want to make a covenant with you.

So I want you to go out and I want you to gather all of these animals: a cow, a goat, a ram, a turtle dove, a pigeon, and I want you to slaughter them or butcher them, cut them in half, and place them on two sides and allow the blood of all those animals to flow like a river.

Now this wasn't uncommon in this day because there really wasn't a a written language.

When you hired a contractor and you're saying, I want my house remodeled, there wasn't really a contractor that comes in and signs a piece of paper and says, This is what the estimate, this is what the price is.

And so they would they would do this kind of thing, and both parties would walk through the river of blood that was flowing between these animals, and it would it would brush up against their robes as a contractor saying this, or as a contract saying, if I break this covenant with you or this contract with you, like these animals that have been split aside or apart, I also hope this happens to me.

God says, I want to make this kind of covenant with you, Abraham.

I'm gonna give you this promise, and you and I are gonna walk through this river of blood together.

And so I want you to prepare, and that's what Abraham did.

And so he cuts these animals, he places them on both sides, and there's a there's a there's a kind of a small river, a stream of blood that's flowing.

And that night it says that that Abraham and God were going to walk through that together.

Matter of fact, even the word covenant means to cut, it means to cut.

So scripture says, as the sun went down, Abraham, God created this darkness, this sleep that came over Abraham, and he fell asleep, and a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him, and a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between these animals that represents God.

We find this in Mount Sinai, and on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham.

Now, what's interesting here that you need to catch is Abraham didn't walk through that.

God walked through it for both of them.

That's a picture of what Jesus does for us on Calvary.

God is saying, Listen, I'm gonna pay the price.

I'm gonna pay the price.

If I fail to keep this up on my end of the covenant, and listen, I'll pay the price if you don't keep yours.

That's how much he loves you.

And we see that with Jesus on the cross.

That Jesus has to walk through the blood, give his life because Jesus broke the covenant.

Because I broke the covenant.

Faith is believing and doing.

There is no pleasing or following God without it.

The believing part is easy, the doing part is not.

But he's righteous and just and loving and merciful and compassionate.

And even though we stumble, he picks us up, pays the price for the breaking of that covenant, and sets us up properly.

There are many people who came to Jesus and saw all that he was doing and wanted to follow.

Some did well, but oftentimes some just walked away from him.

Matthew chapter 19, there's a very famous instance where it says a rich young ruler came to Jesus after seeing all that he's doing, talking.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Jesus was teaching about the kingdom of God, and so the rich young ruler came to Jesus and says, Jesus, what do I need to receive eternal life?

And Jesus says, By by obeying the law.

By doing what is right.

And the young rich ruler said to him, Well, Jesus, I already do that.

I don't murder, I don't, I don't lie, I don't.

And Jesus almost in a way interrupts him and says, Okay, if you really truly want to follow me, take all that you have and sell it.

Give it to the poor and follow me.

And scripture says that this young man got up in a very sad way and walked away from Jesus.

The cross demands something of you.

It's something powerful to believe.

But the most important thing is what are you doing with your life?

It demands something of you.

The other day I got a phone call from a young rich ruler.

It felt like God was calling him to something deeper.

And in that process, I just began to confirm this is very evident that God was doing something powerful in his life, and it demanded that he make decisions and change his life.

He's a very prominent, good-looking leader who has an incredible job.

Everything's paid for in his life.

And yet, when it came to the decision of walking away from all that and following Jesus into the wilderness, I just couldn't do it.

We all get to the cross at some point where you have to surrender your life, as Jesus would say, and pick up my cross and follow me.

That wilderness experience, let me tell you, it comes in different ways, but there's always this surrendering process in your life.

So let me ask you what Jesus is asking you to surrender.

Amy, could you put up that list for me?

You need to leave something, go somewhere, give up something.

It's different for all of us.

But I'm telling you that the Holy Spirit's speaking to you right now.

And what's your going what what is your response going to be?

Lord, I lay this at your feet.

Are you gonna get up and walk away?

Sometimes those things aren't even negative, everyone.

Sometimes they're just positive things.

Why would God not want this in my life?

But as Abraham and Sarah, we see they didn't see the full picture of what's going on, and there has to be a trust in your life.

Lord, no matter what, I'm following you.

And so I am surrendering my life to you.

Let me end this way.

We're moving.

North Iron is moving into a season of uncertainty.

I, as your leader and pastor, I do not know the future.

We're about to this summer move into our Marquette campus.

Pretty pretty big things for us, and I don't know what's gonna happen.

I honestly don't.

I know for me to open up this summer, it looks like it's gonna happen.

I need$94,000 to buy the sound equipment.

Now, some of you might think, well, that's that's that's crazy, Pastor Mark, but you don't understand the size of sanctuary that we have at Marquette.

You probably need to stop and look at it.

Because we're anticipating that God's going to fill that.

And there needs to be the gospel needs to be preached and people need to hear.

This is one of the big ticket items that we're still needing to purchase and set up so that we can start this church service in Marquette.

And that that's a small thing, by the way.

But maybe the Lord's speaking to you.

Maybe maybe there's a surrendering that needs to happen in your life.

But listen, we need pastors and we need missionaries.

You're already in the room.

Antonagan, you're already there.

Lance, you're already there.

Marquette, you're about to be there soon.

Like we're moving into a new season of what God's going to do through this incredible movement of grace and redemption.

And I want your hearts to be open in this process for God to do something powerful in your business, in your peers and friends, and families, as God brings this incredible revival into the UP and beyond.

That's where we're at.

I just want you to know.

And that happens because we've followed Jesus and He's led us to this point.

And so with open hearts, we ask Him, Lord, where do you want us to go now?

And I want you to have that spirit also, Lord.

What do I need to surrender to you?

What do I need to surrender to you?

So would you stand?

I just want to pray over you.

Pastor Aaron is coming, and Pastor Arlen, Antonogden, and Lonce.

We typically just end in worship.

If you have to go, man, feel free to go.

But our prayer leaders are down front.

I'm telling you, some of you just need to move and get out.

And that means moving forward into the presence of Jesus and allow his healing presence to move in your life.

You'll never regret moving towards or following Jesus, everyone.

And so we want to give you that opportunity this morning.

I'm going to pray over you, Father.

Right now, we have generations who have served you well, Father.

And Lord, that you would hear their voices as they cry out to you, Father.

Asking for the nations, asking for their communities, asking for their families, Lord, as we surrender our lives, Jesus.

We know, Lord, that you are that you are real.

We believe in you.

We believe in your promises, God, and we know you're gonna do something powerful in our lives, Lord, as we lay down our lives and surrender those to you, Jesus.

So Lord, we ask for every circumstance, the more as the world eats at us, Father, we ask, Lord, that your healing presence would renew us, Father.

Renew our lives, our marriages, our families, our businesses, Father.

You're the only hope, you're the eternal city.

So we ask all of this in the powerful name of Jesus.

Thank you for joining us for this message.

For past disc sermons, giving link and more.

Check out the footnotes below, or visit our website at northiron.church.

We hope to see you soon.