“What’s Left?” by Joakim Lundqvist

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Maria and I are so excited to be back in the house.

And how wasn't that an amazing time of worship we just had?

Can we give some praise to Jesus in this house?

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

And Holy Spirit, we pray that you who were sent by the Father to lead us into all truth, we pray.

Open our eyes, open our ears, and open our heart so we can fathom everything that you want to tell us from the throne room this morning.

And we pray, Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that as we leave this church later on, we will be a little bit more like Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

I am super excited about this teaching series we're in right now called Follow Me.

We're talking about discipleship.

And if you brought your Bible, I hope you did, uh, like phone Bible, paper Bible, whatever Bible, uh please turn with me to Matthew chapter four.

We're gonna start by reading three passages from three of the four Gospels, all including people who chose to follow Christ.

And we're gonna start out in Matthew chapter four from verse 18.

These are classic follow-me verses right here.

And uh, it's about Jesus calling some of his first disciples.

Matthew 4, verse 18.

Matthew 4:18

We read, As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew.

They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

Come follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people.

And once they left their nets and followed him.

Okay, with this story in mind, would you turn to Luke chapter 5?

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 5, we're gonna read from verse 27.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

A short but important story right here.

Luke 5, verse 27.

Luke 5:27

We read after this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.

Follow me, Jesus said to him.

And Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

Okay, with that in mind, would you go with me to Mark chapter 10?

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And we're gonna read the third story, and then we're gonna like unlock them together.

But Mark chapter 10, and we're gonna read from verse 46.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Mark 10, verse 46.

Mark 10:46

We read, and then they came to Jericho.

As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city.

A blind man, Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside begging.

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet.

But he shouted all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.

Jesus stopped and said, Call him.

So they called to the blind man, Cheer up.

This is the same group of people who just rebuked him, by the way.

On your feet, he's calling you.

Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

What do you want me to do for you?

Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, Rabbi, I want to see.

Go, said Jesus.

Your faith has healed you.

Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on along the road.

So we have three stories here, all involving people who chose to follow Jesus, which is the theme for this teaching series.

Also, just I want you to notice that in all these three examples, all these three stories, not only did they follow Jesus, but they left something behind.

They laid something down in order to follow him.

Now, in the first story about the two fishermen, Andrew and Simon, they left their nets behind.

Now their nets are more than just an object.

These guys were fishermen.

And a fisherman without a net is not really any good.

Because the nets are all about his ability to provide.

The nets represent his security and his stability.

It's the net that will bring the fish in, and selling the fish will bring my paycheck in.

So leaving their nets behind was really about leaving their security and their stability.

Then we have the story of Levi, the tax collector.

Now, tax collector back then came with a certain status.

He came with an amount of prestige.

And when Levi now leaves his tax booth behind, he leaves that.

He leaves his position, he leaves his prestige behind in order for him to follow Jesus.

And then we have blind Bartimeus, who had a beggar's cloak, and he leaves it behind to follow.

What does that represent?

His beggar's cloak represented his old identity.

This was the way he knew himself.

This was the way other people perceived him.

And as he follows Jesus, he leaves the old identity behind.

Simon was later renamed Peter by Jesus.

He became the most prominent of the apostles.

He became the leader of the early church.

He wrote two letters that made it into the Bible.

And we still read them and we're still blessed by them.

Levi, now Levi is mentioned by Luke using his Hebrew name.

He also had a Greek name, which was Matthew.

This was the guy who wrote the gospel of Matthew.

He started out as a tax collector.

He left the tax booth.

He went on to follow Jesus and he wrote the gospel of Matthew.

This is the guy who actually wrote the story we read first of all about Andrew and Simon leaving their nets.

Levi wrote that.

And then we have Bartimeus.

He was actually the only one out of all the people that Christ healed, who is mentioned by name.

And a lot of people have speculated as to why he is mentioned by name, whereas nobody else is of all the people Christ healed.

But a lot of people would say that most likely it was because he was well known and respected in the early church.

So by mentioning his name, they realized oh, this is the story of Bartimius, this is his testimony, and also the healing miracle in itself was one of the most amazing and spectacular healings in the ministry of Jesus.

However, if these people would have held on to what they chose to let go of, they would never have reached the full destiny that God had in mind for them.

If they would have held on to their nets, to their tax collecting boost, or to the beggar's cloak, it would have limited God's plans and purposes for their life and future.

Why?

Because the kingdom of God is about receiving and about being blessed, but it's all it also contains an element of giving up something and leaving something behind for the cause of Christ.

And there's a freedom we find in the things we leave behind.

There's a freedom we find in the things we leave behind.

You know what?

Throughout my life, I've lived a long time.

By the grace of God, I've been able to travel the world.

I preach the gospel now in 63 nations, and I've been all over the place, and having done all that, only by the grace of God, having done all that, I've noticed a few things.

I've been traveling Africa and I've seen the fire of revival and the fire of God burn wild and free all over the continent of Africa.

I've seen the fire of revival burn all over South America.

I've seen the fire of God burn freely and wildly all across Asia.

But when I look at the Western world, Europe, North America, it seems we lack the same intense fire of God, fire of revival.

And I ask myself why.

So really the question we need to ask ourselves is what have I left behind for Jesus lately?

What have I given up for Christ lately?

Just to let you know, church, I've I'm I'm fully mentally prepared for the lacks of amen during this message.

It's I I prepared myself for the absence of spontaneous outbursts of joy.

This is what this is what I refer to as a broccoli message.

Uh it might be hard to swallow, but it's good for you.

And anyway, at the end of the day, we're not here to get a fix, we're here to get fed by the word of God.

Can we say amen?

Now, the principle of giving something up and leaving something behind is essential also for the process of holiness and Christ-likeness, which is what we're dealing with.

That's really the definition of discipleship right there.

The author of Hebrews tells us, Hebrews 12 and verse 1, for those of you taking notes, Hebrews 12 and 1 says, Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight.

Let's say every weight and the sin, which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

This is special, isn't it?

Lay aside every weight and the sin.

Now we can all agree that as a Christian, I need to lay aside sin.

You know, if there's anything in this book that this book defines as sin, I need to get rid of it.

But it also says, lay aside every weight and the sin.

Which means there's not only sin that weighs us down, there's some other stuff there as well.

And James in his epistle goes a bit deeper in teaching us about those other things.

James chapter 1, verse 13.

James 1:13

I don't know if you're allowed favorite verses in the Bible, but if I am allowed, this is a view of mine.

James chapter 1 verse 13.

James 1:13

James writes, When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me.

For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.

But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.

Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's full grown, gives birth to death.

Okay, so God has got a plan for you.

God has got a like a road ahead of you that will lead to abundant life.

The same way the enemy also has got a plan for you, and his plan is gonna be all about stealing, killing, and destroying, because that is his nature.

And this is like his three-step plan to get you to his destination or preference.

And this three-step plan that James is speaking about is desire, sin, and death.

Basically, desire, if it's not handled, if it's not dealt with, will eventually give birth to sin.

Sin, if it's not dealt with, will eventually give birth to death.

Now, death is not the physical death because we're all gonna die.

This is spiritual death as in separation from God, separation from the plans of God.

Now, every time I counsel someone who's got a problem with repeated sin, like a person who keeps falling back into the same pattern, the same behavior of sin, I always go here and read these verses.

Because what you need to do is you need to step back a few steps and not only focus on the sin, but the thing that gave birth to the sin in the first place.

Let's look at the desires.

And what desires do we need to lay down?

What desires do we need to give up?

And I I wish I could illustrate this somehow.

If I if only I had like a shopping cart or something.

Oh, what do you know?

Look at that.

This is just for me to explain basically how this works.

And and I just hope that you can follow along with me in an allegory here.

I do this so that you will never ever forget this message, okay?

Or at least that you will remember it for a few minutes after you leave this church.

So the allegory is this when we start out with Jesus, we're starting out with an empty shopping cart.

And there's nothing more amazing, especially for a husband, than an empty shopping cart.

Praise God.

This looks good for my credit.

And also, an empty cart is an empty shopping cart is easy to push, right?

Just like the Christian life, as you start out, you go, praise God.

There is joy in the house of the Lord, there's enthusiasm, woohoo! And there is there's the first love is burning inside your heart, and everything feels light and great and joyful, and then you move on in life.

And after a while, maybe a few years or so, I don't know, you come to a point where affirmation starts to become more important for you for some reason than it used to be.

Now, back then you couldn't care less about what people thought or what people said about you, but all of a sudden it becomes more important.

You start counting the likes of your Instagram posts and comparing them to other people.

You start asking yourself, why didn't she like that Facebook post?

She's my friend, she should like it.

I've had it up now for two days.

How come not more people are sharing my TikToks?

And and this starts to become a strong thought.

You see, the definition of desire is the Greek Greek word, the meaning, the the original word is a Greek word called epithumia, which means a strong dominating thought.

So epithumia is neutral in itself because you can have strong good thoughts.

If you meditate on the word of God, you can grow strong dominant thoughts from God.

And when the devil comes at you to attack you and send fear your way, those strong dominant thoughts will rise up and you will say, No, in Jesus' name, God has not given me a spirit of fear, and the peace of God that passes whole understanding will guard my heart and my thoughts in Christ Jesus.

But now we're talking about other kinds of thoughts that you have allowed to grow a bit too strong and a bit too dominant.

And if your search for affirmation becomes too big, it becomes a desire, an epithumia, and it goes into your shopping cart.

Now you might argue, I have not committed a sin according to the Bible.

You're right, but you have allowed something into your shopping cart that, if undealt with, might give birth to sin a bit further down the road.

You have allowed a strong, dominant thought that is not from God, and then you move on in life, and after yet a few years, all of a sudden, the thought of physical attraction, sexual attraction becomes bigger in your mind, and you start spending way more time thinking about that than you used to do.

And and you might say, Well, that's God given, that's positive, that's something that is good in itself.

Yes, it is, for a certain forum called marriage.

But now you start to dream and think thoughts that is outside of that forum, and maybe comes to the point where where you struggle to even relate to the opposite sex because you you have a hard time controlling your thoughts, controlling your eyes.

And this thought, this strong dominant thought, this epithumia, goes into your shopping cart.

And you might argue, I have not committed adultery, I have not consumed pornography, no, but you have allowed something in your shopping cart that might well give birth to sin a bit further down the road, and then you move on in life, and and after a while, money and wealth start to become a big thing on your mind, and you slide into what I understand you Americans call keeping up with the Joneses.

That's the thing, right?

And we don't have many Joneses in Sweden, but I I get the concept.

We have the same thing, I'll tell you that.

And and things that were not really important to you back then, all of a sudden they become very important.

Your neighbor or your best friend got a new car, and you go, hmm, I need a new car.

I need the same car or a better car.

And I mean, you only had your car for 14 years.

There's a new iPhone out, and even though you just bought your present phones, you need a new iPhone.

There is that pressure to just compete and be up there and and and think about money, think about the dream of wealth.

You're checking the stock market on your phone every 45 minutes, and you read your Bible every 14 days.

This turns into a desire, and it goes into your shopping.

Cart.

And you might say, hey, I have not been financially immoral.

I have not sinned.

No.

But you get it by now.

You have allowed a desire, a strong dominant thought in your shopping cart that will produce sin if undealt with.

And then you move on in life.

And maybe somewhere along the road, someone hurt you.

You put your trust in someone, and that person betrayed your trust.

Broke your trust, maybe broke your heart.

You feel betrayed, and you feel real hurt.

But instead of taking this hurt, this disappointment, and going to Jesus, and handing it over into his nail-pierced hands, you hold on to it.

You stick with it.

And all of a sudden, now your shopping cart looks like this.

And two things will happen.

Number one, it's getting harder to push it.

Buying water.

Anyone can relate?

Buying water at Costco and getting a shopping cart with a wobbly wheel.

Don't we hate that?

This is so heavy.

And you have to use all your strength, and with the wobbly wheel, it will pull to the left all the time.

You want to go into the aisle to the right.

You can't.

Because this shopping cart won't let you.

And you have to use all of your power and all of your strength to just walk straight and narrow.

Just like many Christians struggling to walk the straight and narrow, but now all their energy goes into simply try to keep their balance.

And you lose the joy of your salvation.

And you lose the beauty of simplicity, and you lose the fire of your first love.

And you it all gets like into frustration instead.

And you try to blame others.

Oh, it must be the pastor's fault, must be the worship leader, must be my spouse.

And really, it's because you have all this stuff in your shopping cart that weighs you down so that you can't run your race.

That we just read about in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

The second thing that will happen if your shopping cart looks like this is that these desires will become a trampoline for temptation.

When the devil comes from up here will shoot a temptation your way, that temptation will bounce off of the desires of your shopping cart, and it will hit your heart ten times stronger than it would if your shopping cart was empty.

If he sense uh a temptation, a sexual temptation your way, and it can bounce off a desire that you have left undealt with, it will hit your heart way stronger, and you will have a more of a struggle in resisting.

If he can send a temptation your way to cheat on your taxes, and and and and be financially fraudulent, and that can bounce off of a desire for money and wealth that is left undealt with.

Reveal to me if there are wicked ways inside my heart, if there are desires that I should lay down, just like Simon and Andrew lay down their nets as they started to follow.

I will lay down the unnatural desire for affirmation, and I'm gonna be happy knowing that you affirm me.

I will not be a man pleaser, I will be a God pleaser in Jesus' name.

I will lay down the unnatural desire for physical attraction and wait for the time in my life when when when that has got a natural forum, and I will lay down in Jesus' name my fascination for money and wealth.

I'm gonna be happy and satisfied, just following you and allow you to bless me in your time and in your way.

Now, what just happened is that I gave up something, I laid down something, I lost something that had a certain value to me.

But you know what also happened?

I made room for the presence of God, I made room for the joy of my salvation, I made room for the first love to come alive again, and I got my empty shopping cart back.

This is the principle you see, it's all about giving up something of lesser worth to gain something of greater worth.

Give up something that is temporary to gain something that is eternal.

Now, before we pray, and I want to allow you a moment to lay down anything that you might need to lay down before God, I just want to finish with one story.

It's a weird story.

Something that happened to me a few years ago.

Maria always asked me, Why do all these crazy things always happen to you?

I said, I don't know.

Crazy loves me.

Well, anyway, I went I was in Stockholm, which is the capital of Sweden.

Stockholm is a beautiful city.

It's really built on an archipelago, it's built on 1,200 islands, so there's water like everywhere and bridges everywhere.

So I was crossing one of these bridges, and um on the bridge, as I crossed, was a TV team, cameras and all.

And as I passed, they they called out to me, Sir, sir, excuse me.

And and they asked me, could we ask you some questions on camera?

And I said, What about?

And they said, Well, we're we're recording this commercial for uh for a company who has an antivirus program for cell phones.

So we would like to ask people how they use their cell phone, how important it is to them, blah blah blah.

I said, Yeah, yeah, sure, I can do that.

So this guy started asking me on camera, so how many apps do you have?

How many photos do you have?

How often do you use your cell phone, etc.

And all of a sudden, out in the out of the blue on camera, he says this if I would give you 2,000 euros, which at the time was about 2,500, would you throw your phone off this bridge and into the water right now?

And I just what that was a stupid and obviously hypothetical question, but then he took out the money two thousand years, two thousand five hundred dollars, and my mind was racing because I was thinking, in what universe is this anything other than an amazing offer?

Because I can go and buy a new phone for like 500 bucks, and I can download the whole content from the cloud, and then I'll have two thousand dollars.

So I said, What's the catch?

Like in my mind, I was going, what's the catch?

But he said, No, no, there was no catch.

So I did it.

I threw my phone off the bridge and into the water, and I was given two thousand five hundred dollars, and I went to a store, I picked up a new phone, downloaded the whole thing, called Maria, said, You will not believe what just happened.

And Maria went, Oh, praise God, because I just saw this new pair of shoes that I really want.

But guys, guys, when the commercial came out and I saw the whole thing, it turned out they have given the same or similar offers to so many people, and I was the only one who actually said yes.

Y'all want to see the commercial?

Okay, let's run it.

How much is a smartphone actually worth?

We've decided to go out and put it to the test.

If I offered you 500 euros in cash right now, would you erase the content of your phone?

Eat.

Yeah, the whole thing.

Everything?

Yeah, to wipe your entire phone clean.

I can't delete everything in my phone.

If I offered you a thousand euros, would you throw your phone off this bridge?

Yeah, to throw it off the bridge.

All of your contacts, your notes, your emails, all of your banking apps, they're all gonna go in there with your phone.

This is really hard to ask my mom if I should try my Yeah, sure, yeah.

Slow it off.

Yeah, 2,000 euros.

No, I don't think so.

Nope.

Sorry, uh really, it would be like throwing my baby over.

Really?

You're gonna do it.

Yeah.

This message is brought to you by Norton Antonio.

I couldn't believe it.

Because all of these people were given basically the same offer that was given, but they chose to hold on to something of lesser worth rather than throwing something away to gain something more valuable and precious.

Ah for a pastor and a preacher, this is just like, thank you, Lord, for this experience.

And you know what?

That's the question I want to ask you right here and right now.

Is there something you need to give up?

Is there something you need to lay down?

Is there a phone in your hand right now that you know in your heart you need to throw off the bridge and into the water to make room for something of greater value?

Is there a net?

Is there a tax booth?

Is there a beggar's cloak?

Is there a desire left in your heart?

And you know somehow that if left there, if left undealt with, it will give birth to sin in your life.

Here's the moment of freedom in Jesus' name.

Here's the moment when God is ready to receive whatever you need to lay down.

And even though something inside of you might cling to it, saying, It will be like throwing my baby off the bridge, the Spirit of God is saying, Let it go, let it go, don't hold it back anymore.

Because He knows that if you give it up, He will give so much more back to you.

Little did Andrew and Simon at that moment realize how much was at stake.

Holding on to their nets would have meant the plan of God for their future being limited, but laying something down of lesser worth meant that God was unlimited in the way He He could use them in the days ahead.

So let's just take a holy moment in the presence of God right now.

Would you stand to your feet, please?

And can I ask you not to move around at this moment, but just respect the presence of God and the holiness of this moment?

And I simply would like you to do this because only you and God knows your heart.

Would you close your eyes for just a little while?

Nothing magical about closing your eyes, but it helps you to be not so involved or concerned about me or other people around you, but just to be alone with Jesus for a little while.

And would you ask him in his holy presence right here and right now, Lord, is there a desire that I have allowed in my shopping cart?

Are there nets or toll booths or beggars' cloaks?

Elements of security, stability, position, prestige, identity that I need to let go of.

Is there a phone in my hand and I need to throw off the bridge to make room for your presence, make room for your glory?

Is there anything I need to leave behind?

Is there anything I need to lay down to fully respond to that question that he's still asking?

Would you follow me?

And I think because I feel the presence of the Holy Spirit all over this room, and I think he's speaking to you right now.

We don't have to drag this moment out.

I think many of you already know in your heart exactly what you need to lay down, exactly what desire that has grown into us too strong and too dominant thought in your life, and you just want to come back to that simplicity of the empty shopping cart.

If that's you, if you say yes, there is something I need to lay down, there is something I want to leave behind, and I want to take the opportunity that this moment brings to do so in the presence of God.

If that's you, would you just lift your hand where you're standing, please?

There are hundreds of hands lifted all over this church.

I'm not saying everybody should lift their hands, but if this is something that God's speaking to you about and he's dealing with you about, and this is a special moment, a holy moment, and it can be a life-defining moment.

I just want to be obedient to what the Holy Spirit led me to do right now.

So I want to ask all of you standing with an with a hand raised high, if you would just leave your seat and come to the front.

Just don't hesitate, just come.

If you just left lifted your hand and felt the need to lay something down, you're not coming to the front necessarily to be prayed for.

You can be prayed for if you want to, but this is not the reason why you're coming.

If you lifted your hand in the balconies, you can come to the front of the balcony.

Please come as as far ahead as you can to make room for all the people coming to the front right now.

So many times I responded to a calling similar to this one, and it made such a difference in my life.

Thank you, Lord.

There's so many people coming.

Now, if the aisle is blocked by people, just come as as far ahead as you can and then stop.

Thank you, Lord God.

Thank you, Lord God, thank you, Lord God.

There's joy in the house of the Lord right now because you coming with that black box, you coming with that net, that toll booth, that hurt, that desire, that foam that should be thrown off the bridge right now will enable freedom in your life, freedom in your marriage, freedom in your family, and even more freedom in our church.

As we lay down things in the presence of God, spiritual freedom and joy comes.

Let me just tell you this before we're gonna pray.

For some of you, there will be an instant transformation.

I've been praying for this moment, and God spoke to me so clearly.

He said, I'm gonna deliver people in a second.

And for many of you, even as you walk out of this church, you will feel a difference.

God brought freedom, supernatural freedom, through his anointing in this very moment because you invited him.

For some of you, instead, this moment will be a start of a journey to freedom.

And I'm so glad to be in a church where there are so many resources, like equip groups and different groups and people who are will be happy to walk side by side with you in the process to freedom.

But regardless of whether you're gonna feel that instant relief or this is a start of a journey, God is gonna work something beautiful in your life.

Now, what we're gonna do is I'm gonna pray for you and then we're gonna move straight into worship.

And as we start to worship, I'm gonna ask the prayer team to come.

And if you want to, they'll be happy to pray for you.

If you don't want to, you can just say, I'm fine by just being my by myself in the presence of God for a while.

But if you want them to pray, what a beautiful blessing to have someone speak out the blessing of the Lord over you, and then you can just stay in the presence of God, in the spirit of worship, and allow the spirit to shower freedom over your life and feel that burden leave you and those nets laying there on the ground as you move on following Jesus all over the church.

Let's lift up our hearts and lift up our hands, especially you up front, just allow that weight to fall right now.

Father, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, Father, we pray for freedom in the Holy Spirit as we lay down our burden, as we lay down the black boxes of desire, as we lay down the nets, as we lay down our security and stability, as we leave the tow booth behind, as we leave the prestige and the position, as we leave the beggar's cloak behind, as we leave our old identity, Father.

We leave something behind, we lay something down, we let go of the evil desires that would have given birth to sin in our lives.

We repent, Lord, and we open our hearts for forgiveness and restoration and freedom.

Father, I can see in the spirit phones flying off that bridge in Jesus' name.

Father, I declare freedom by the anointing of the Holy Spirit in this room right now.

Freedom come, Lord.

May chains be broken, may prison doors be opened.

Minister to your people, Holy Spirit.

Minister freedom, new joy, that first love burning on the inside of hearts again.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord.

Let's just worship him, lift our hands and worship the name of Jesus.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.