Give Your Life Away

I love this series, Key to Everything, Key to Everything.

That is a huge title, Key to Everything.

So I'm just going to fall in line with this whole thought of key to everything.

And I want to talk for a few minutes about giving your life away.

Giving your life away.

And I believe God wants to speak to each of our hearts.

And I want to pray as we open up our hearts and receive what God wants to say to us in each of our lives right here at the NRH campus.

I believe God is going to speak to your heart right there also.

And I just believe God's got great things for us today.

Let's all pray.

Father, we love you.

We thank you so much for all that you're doing.

And Lord, we just love you, love you, love you.

And we believe that you're going to do great things today.

We lean in to know you.

We lean in to hear you.

Lord, we believe that it's not by power or might, but it is so by your spirit.

God, we decrease, decrease, decrease so that you could increase.

And Lord, we open up our life to you.

We pray right now that you'd speak to our life.

Lord, it's destiny that we're all here together.

It's destiny that we're here this day at this moment.

And I believe you want to bring transformation into our heart.

In Jesus' name, we love you so much.

And everybody said a good amen.

I want you to turn to the person next to you and say, I'm glad you made it to church.

Now look at the other person that was your second choice and tell them, I guess I'm glad you showed up too.

You do that also at NRH.

If you have your Bible, I'd love for you to turn to the book of Matthew, Matthew, Matthew.

Matthew's the first book of the gospel.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, if you're not really sure where it's at, you're in a church that will help you find it.

I remember when I first came to Christ, I remember visiting a church with a friend of mine, and I didn't know where we were.

They were in like the book of Hebrews.

I was hanging out like in Leviticus, and I was too embarrassed to look in the table of contents because everybody kind of knew about it.

So I just kind of hung out in Leviticus the whole time while everybody else was in Hebrews.

So in this church, you can look in the table of contents.

Can I have a good amen?

Kind of check it out, find out where you're at.

So, Matthew, the book of Matthew, and I want to read a portion of scripture that I believe could speak to us out of this series, Key to Everything.

And I've been watching some of these messages online and listening to Pastor Robert.

I love the thought about give up, give in, and give out.

Give up, give in, and give out.

And I'm gonna come kind of right alongside with that thought about giving our life away in Matthew chapter 16, verse 24 through 27, Jesus says this to his disciples if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Matthew 16:24–27

Verse 25.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it.

Whoever loses his life, and this is the key, I believe, of this whole little passage and this thought, whoever loses his life for me, for me, will find it.

What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his own soul?

Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

And in verse 27 it says, For the Son of Man is going to come in his father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.

Looking back at that scripture, verse 25, for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

So I was looking over that passage the last week, just thinking about the thought of giving our life away, the key to everything.

What a thought, the key to everything.

Could there be one key that fits everything?

And just the idea of what Jesus is giving to his disciples here about giving their life.

And this whole thought that he's letting them know that if you're going to find life, you're going to have to give your life away.

And the disciples sometimes are struggling with this.

A lot of times the disciples are trying to figure out who's who, who's number one, who's the favorite, who's the best, uh, who's kind of uh in the ranking of Jesus, who does he like the best?

I'm better than you, you're better than me.

A lot of the times the disciples had been modeled that it was a take-take, and they'd looked around and saw other things, and they were still trying to figure out what is this kingdom about?

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ?

So Jesus is constantly helping them to understand what it's like to be a follower of his way, of his kingdom, of his truth.

A lot of times he's having to remind them.

Over and over again, you see in Scripture where Jesus pulls the disciples aside and he unpacks truth for them.

And of course, it's truth for everybody, but he's wanting them to get it.

He's wanting them to get what it's all about.

I'm amazed that on the final night that Jesus is here with us before he goes to the cross and resurrection power and all the things that take place.

It's interesting that in John chapter 13, that when Jesus is spending those final moments with the disciples, one of the things he has to go back to is you've got to learn to give your life away.

John 13 · chapter mention

And he does a great illustration to taking a towel and a basin and he washes their feet.

And he's wanting the disciples to know that if you don't understand this principle of laying down your life for one another, you're never going to be able to take this gospel forward.

So here again in Matthew 16, he's teaching this thought of you've got to give it to find it.

You've got to give it to find it, because if you keep it, you lose it.

Give it, find it, keep it, lose it.

Give it, find it, keep it, lose it.

Give it, find it, keep it, lose it.

Over and over again, he's teaching this to the disciples.

And you know what?

He's teaching it to us today.

It's the same truth today.

Give it, find it, keep it, lose it.

Give it, find it, keep it, lose it.

I came to Christ when I was 18 years old.

And like most 18-year-olds, I pretty much knew everything there was to know about the world.

And could tell everybody about how to live that world and had an idea for everyone's life, and pretty much knew everything.

I was brilliant.

I was a genius at 18 years old.

Got safe.

Got to a little small church.

We called it a storefront church.

They had opened up a little church on the beach.

It was in a little beach in South Carolina, and they basically went to a pharmacy that had closed down, and they just opened up church like the next day.

Just put a pulpit up, get a sound system, and you walked in, and it was like greeting cards and drugs.

Wow, this is cool.

And uh, you know, never seen anything like that.

I was raised kind of Catholic, kind of Baptist.

My dad was Catholic, my mother was Baptist, we were like kabaptists or something like that.

We just kind of did both of it.

But when I came to Christ at 18 years old, got involved with this fired-up church.

I mean, it was full on.

Probably wasn't any more than this, this many seats in this little storefront just right here in this section.

And I I love my pastor.

He was a great man.

I look back now and I so thank God for that man in my life.

God placed that man in my life.

But he was old school.

He liked to preach long.

He loved to hear himself preach.

He'd go two or three hours, and you'd just sit there, he'd preach on and on and on.

It was like the endless gospel.

There was just no end to the gospel.

Many times, you know, I'd want to say, Pastor, the runway is clear, land the plane.

We're good.

He just preached on and on.

I just love my pastor.

He was old school too.

He'd get fired up, angry, angry preaching, like angry eyebrows.

Let me tell you something right now.

If you don't like it, you can leave.

And there's five people waiting on you.

Five people waiting on you.

Where are they?

Can they come now?

Uh and so, you know, it's just that old school kind of thinking.

One day he preached on uh about getting used by God, that God wanted to use you, that there was a place in the kingdom for you.

And I got so fired up.

I met him after church.

I said, Pastor, I want to be used by God.

I want to do some things around here.

He said, son, what do you want to do?

I said, Well, maybe I can do some of the things you're doing and probably do it shorter and quicker.

We can get, you know, get the Popeyes a whole lot quicker and give me some chicken.

I mean, what's up?

And uh, and and he just looked at me and I just said, I think I could help.

And I'm 18, I know some people in town, and I'm kind of it on a stick and kind of got it going on.

I could I could help do some poor little work.

Uh he said, son, see, you want to be used by God?

I said, Yes, sir.

He said, This son, you're you're gonna have to you're gonna have to start by surrendering your life because you you're you're holding on to a lot of it.

He said, Here's what I want you to do.

I want you to meet me Saturday morning at 5 o'clock, because I uh that's where I need you right now.

At 5 o'clock on Saturday morning, I'm 18 years old.

I'd never seen 5 o'clock on Saturday morning.

I met him and he walked me to the back of the church, and there was a little room called intercessory prayer.

I I saw the sign, but I had no idea what went on in there.

I looked at it and I thought it said accessory prayer.

So I thought there were like bracelets and scarves.

If you left your earrings at home, pick up some earrings and you're good to go.

So he walked me in this room and there were five senior adult women.

I was 18 years old, five senior adult women.

He said, He said, Excuse me, ladies, he said, This young man's gonna be praying with you now for the next uh three to four months.

And I need you to pray with him and help him.

And I walked in there, he said, now son, if you don't come to this prayer meeting every single Saturday morning, don't come back to this church again.

So I went there and I these ladies began to pray with me.

And for five months they prayed with me.

We'd stand in a circle, they would squeeze my hand and they would shake it.

I mean, squeeze it.

They would squeeze it so hard.

I'd want to say, Oh, you want some?

I will squeeze your hand back.

What are you doing?

At the end of every prayer meeting, they'd put a chair in the circle.

The chair in the circle.

And they'd say, Somebody needs prayer today.

That would be me.

After five months, my pastor came to me and he said, Son, do you still want to be used by God?

I'm not sure.

Don't put me in there with them ladies again.

They rub my head one more time, I'm out of here.

And he said, Okay, then he said, Meet me Saturday at five at nine in the morning, and I need your help.

But if you don't show up, don't come back to this church.

I showed up the next Saturday at nine.

He put a vacuum in my hand.

He said, Here's what I need you to do.

I need you to keep this church clean every Saturday.

He said, Now, if you don't show up and keep this church clean, don't come back to this church again.

And uh I said, yes, sir.

He said, There's one thing when you vacuum around the altar, I need to see lines in the carpet.

Because when I see lines, I feel the Holy Ghost.

If it helps us get out early, we're getting lines.

Whatever we need to do, my brother.

And so I vacuumed that church for nine months.

My pastor knew some things I did not know.

My pastor knew a lot I didn't know.

After nine months, I started taking ownership of what God was doing.

I started valuing, I started embracing, I started realizing the power of sacrifice and the power that it wasn't about Dino Rizzo.

Church was not about me.

It was about others, it was about him, it was about his glory.

It was not about what I could get out of it, it was about what I could give to it.

I didn't know that, but he knew that.

Well I'd start taking ownership, and I'd be walking around the church at the close of the day, and there'd be some moms in the back with their toddlers eating goldfish and fruit loops.

I'd be like, we ain't doing nothing here.

Bring it in the foyer.

It's the house of God.

We don't act that way around here.

Somebody got to clean it up.

That's me.

After nine months, my pastor came to me and said, son, do you still want to be used by God?

I said, No, sir.

He said, Then you're ready to preach, son.

I was about 19 and a half years old.

He said, Meet me Sunday morning and you're gonna preach.

Be ready to preach.

Bring a sermon.

Go buy a suit.

We were at a beach, all I had was shorts and flip-flops.

So I went out that day, that week, and bought me a suit.

Uh studied, about 32 pages of notes, fired up, bought me that suit.

I'll never forget that suit.

It was incredible.

It was back in kind of mid-80s, so it kind of had that cool in the gang look.

About 800 pleats, little short double-breasted jacket.

It was lavender.

I was bad.

Hey, skinny purple tie.

Where are you at, 80s?

Where are you at?

Look at me, talk to me, help me out.

Where you at?

I was so bad.

I walked in that morning before I had that suit on.

I was like, what's going on, Pastor?

He was like, I'll never forget what he said to me.

He said, son, you look like a grape.

He walked me into church.

I walked past the pulpit.

I said, Pastor, am I preaching?

He said, Yeah.

We walked to the back of the church.

He opened up a little door.

And there were eight metal chairs.

He said, Here's what's going to happen, son.

In about five minutes, there's going to be some nine, ten, eleven-year-old boys that are going to walk in this room.

He said, I need you to preach to them for the next 52 weeks.

Don't you miss one week.

If you miss one week, don't come back to this church again.

I stood there.

This really happened.

My pastor, he said, This is where I need you.

This is where God wants to use you.

This is where I need you in this house.

And I remember I looked at him and said, Is there any is there a curriculum?

Is there a workbook?

Is there some puppets?

Hello! Is there any, is there a drama team?

Is there some mimes?

He said, No.

All we had was a little felt board in the corner with some random biblical characters.

There was like an angel, Noah, Goliath, and like a beast out of the book of Revelation.

He's like, just preach on all that.

It's in the Bible.

Those kids walked in there, 9, 10, 11-year-old boys.

They looked at me like substitute teacher.

Oh yeah.

Metal chairs on a tile floor, Pastor Robert.

Boy, they scootin' for 52 weeks.

They scoot the chairs, punching each other in the head, spitting on each other.

I'm trying to preach and teach.

Every once in a while they'd raise their hand and say, I don't think Noah fought Goliath.

I'd say, work with me.

That's all they gave me.

You guys are going to hell anyway.

See, here's what my pastor knew that I didn't know.

My pastor knew some things I did not know.

My pastor knew that if I didn't understand that the kingdom of God and that the way of Jesus and that following Jesus was about laying down your life for the cause of Jesus Christ.

That literally the key to everything was to lay down your life for the cause of Jesus.

See, my pastor knew that if I didn't understand that it was through a heart of serving, it was through a heart of compassion, it was through a heart of brokenness, that my marriage would never work.

That if I didn't get that, how could I ever be a husband if I didn't realize that I was gonna have to lay down my life for my wife?

How could I ever be be a decent father as a role model to my son and to my daughters?

See, I thought it was all about me.

I thought the church was about me, but he realized that there were life lessons that I was going to learn, that he was instilling life lessons.

How could I ever lead a small group?

How could I ever passor a church?

How could I ever stand behind a pulpit if I thought that it was really about me and what I wanted?

How could I ever lead 500 people if I didn't care for five people?

See, he knew some I didn't know.

He knew the key to everything.

He knew the key to everything in the kingdom of God was giving your life for the cause of Jesus Christ.

He knew that.

See, this key, this key unlocks a lot of things.

It's unlocked a lot of things in my life.

And I just want to unpack and take a few more minutes and just bring some application to the stall and come alongside of the incredible messages that you're receiving around this series and just talk for just a minute about what does this key unlock?

This key to everything, giving our life for the cause of Christ.

What does it unlock in our life?

I'll tell you the first thing that this can unlock for us is all the separate compartments of our life.

We have a tendency, if we're not careful, to compartmentalize our life.

And to tell the Lord that, hey, you can have this, but I think I'll handle that.

You can take this room, but I'm gonna hold on to this room.

You can you can design this area, I can give you this space.

Uh you can you can craft and you can be uh Lord over this square footage, but I think I'll hold this part back.

Maybe, Lord, I'll serve you on this day, but leave my Fridays alone.

Maybe uh in my public life you can have Lordship, but in my private life, there's some things I'm holding on to.

Maybe on the weekends are mine, or maybe this part of my life is mine.

I want this much time, this this treasure is mine, and if we're not careful, we can compartmentalize our life.

See, the key to everything when you make a decision, Lord, I just want to live my life and I want to give my life to the cause of Jesus Christ, it opens up all the compartments.

There are no longer those off-limit compartments.

Do you know how I knew that my wife was the one?

One of the ways that I need to have people say, I didn't know she's the one.

When I was single, I'd ask people, how did you know she was the one?

And they'd tell you this, you'll just know.

To a single person, that's like, no, it's not what I need to hear.

I'll just know.

I haven't known it yet.

I'm never gonna know it.

I was just gonna sit by the phone and die.

How did I know she was the one?

I mean, she's fine, she's incredible.

Our church calls her beauty and the beast, she's got it going on, all of those things.

Do you know how one of the indicators I knew she was the one?

I was immediately ready to lay it all down.

I wanted her to know everything about me.

I was not holding back.

In other relationships, there would be questions or there'd be some things that would be posed to me, and I was like, No, there's no way.

I'm not willing to tell you that, nor am I willing to give you that.

You know, that's my biscuit.

Don't touch my biscuit.

You know, I'm not sharing my biscuit.

When I met Delyn, I was like, take the biscuit! Take the biscuit.

I was so willing to give her everything.

Why?

Because it was it was that was that was it with our Savior.

Lord, I want to serve in all the areas of my life.

I want to be compassionate in all the areas of my life.

I want I want to be merciful in every area.

I want to be surrendered in every area.

I don't want to hold nothing back.

The key to everything will unlock all the compartments.

The second thing that it will unlock in our life is space for others.

Space for others.

Do you have room in your world for others?

I love Leviticus where it talks about how in the Old Testament, when they gleaned the field, the Lord spoke to them and said, Don't don't glean to the corners.

Leave the corners.

When you harvest the grapes, if some fall on the ground, don't pick up all up.

Leave them there because people are gonna walk by that don't even know you, that are gonna need help, and you're gonna leave margin and space for other people.

And he didn't tell them to do that just in tough times or good times.

He just told them that's gonna be a way of life.

That's gonna be who you are.

You're gonna leave space for other people.

Last year we went through a storm goose stuff that kind of sat on top of Baton Rouge, and we we we had a tough time.

We lost power for several weeks.

I didn't have power for 14 days.

Our church didn't have power for 12 days.

Uh many people, uh, their company was shut down for about a month.

Uh it was just it was a wild time, about mid-September to end of October.

Cost a lot of money for people, generators, had to take family in, and trees fell down, and we put, gosh, thousands of tarps on people's homes.

It's just a crazy time for us as a church.

Well, what's interesting is about four weeks after that, we were going to receive our miracle offering.

And I know this is a strategic time for gateways.

You get ready for your miracle offering.

Matter of fact, I looked in your bullet day and there's commitment cards.

I mean, this is a strong time for a church.

This is a time where we we we totally depend on God as our source, and we we make a commitment that's really like over and above.

It's in the margin area.

It's it's in the room for others.

Why?

Because we've got to make room.

We're doing all these services and the campus that uh NRH is full and things like that.

We're making room for other people.

So we're making commitments where we're in that same time, we're walking through that same thing as a church that you're walking through.

So our people were getting ready to make a commitment for a miracle offering.

One weekend where we bring in commitments, but we also receive a cash offering to kind of keep us moving.

So with all that had gone on, I remember just thinking, wow, maybe I need to let the people know, hey, it's tough and uh you can back off.

And I remember getting up one Sunday about two weeks before the miracle offering.

I said, you know what?

I know it's tough times.

Many of you are in a tough situation, so you know, I understand if this year's miracle offering will not happen for you.

I had a couple of people stop me after service and said, Pastor, if trusting God in the good times is the only time we trust God, we're not trusting God.

Trust is trust during the tough times.

I was like, thank you very much.

Can you preach this Sunday?

Do you know that after that we received an offering at that miracle four weeks after many people had been through this?

On that Sunday,$1.6 million was given in cash for our miracle offering.

Through people that had been through a lot of things.

Well, you talk about, praise God.

I mean, we just sat and thought for in our context, in our world, that was huge.

That was massive.

In one Sunday, that came in our containers.

And I just look at the heart of the people that said, you know what?

Yeah, we've been through some stuff.

Yeah, it's a little tough.

Yeah, it's a little crazy at our house, but we have room for other people.

We're going to make margin in our life.

See, the key to everything will give space for other people.

And then the last thing, and I'll finish with this thought, is that it will unlock endless opportunities.

The key to everything, giving our life to the cause of Jesus Christ, will unlock endless opportunities.

Endless opportunities.

Because you just never know when you step out and reach out to another person.

Have compassion.

Reach out to the poor and the hurting.

Make a difference in your community.

Reach out on your campus.

Reach out to that person that you work with that's going through.

You never know the endless opportunities that it opens up in a person's life.

In Luke chapter 8, Jesus has arrived on a shore, and there's this man that comes out of the tombs.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

He's full of the devil.

The disciples run away.

Jesus runs to him.

He finds freedom.

He wants to go with Jesus after he finds freedom.

You know what takes place?

Jesus says, You're not getting in the boat with me.

I'm going to make you the first missionary.

You go back to your community and you tell him everything I've done for you.

So it's one man's life that turns around, that changes a whole region.

See, that's how the gospel works.

When you give your life away, there's endless opportunities.

Pastor Robert talked about how much you helped us after Katrina.

And there were so many churches that responded.

You were one of the key churches for us because that was something that we would never imagine that we would ever face.

You know, it's interesting is that two weeks before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, we had spent two weeks praying and fasting for a revival and a harvest.

And we had no idea that the harvest was going to come floating up at our doors.

Two days after Katrina took place in New Orleans, we went to our campus and there were two or three thousand people on our campus parking lot needing help.

And this thing began to build.

And over time, there were literally tens of thousands of people that we were putting in shelters and we were given medical treatment to and helping cooking meals.

I think at a three to four week period, we cooked 66,000 meals to feed people daily.

We ended up taking our whole campus and we shut down every type of ministry opportunity and we were full on for about nine months reaching people that had been displaced, people that had lost everything, people that had lost loved ones, and their whole life was scattered, and many of them were the poor and the hurting and those that were that did not have means.

And so day in and day out, we were involved with this, giving it all.

Massive amount of people.

I remember about nine days into it, we went up to the church.

We were open from six to midnight.

We turned our whole church into a distribution center.

Many of our staff had not gone home.

I was just running home to shower and lay down for a few minutes.

And I remember about nine days into it, I went up to the church at about six in the morning.

And throughout that morning, there were about 7,000 people that showed up on our parking lot, needing clothes, needing diapers, needing help.

And we just did our best to reach out and thank God for the body of Christ.

She responded and gave generously.

About day 11, I remember leaving the office at about midnight.

I was exhausted, worn out.

It was about 12:30.

We'd been open since 6 o'clock that morning.

I was running home for a little bit, come back at 6 in the morning, and I went by our parking lot where we had, it was almost like a Walmart and a parking lot free, just to help people.

A dozen things we got with.

And the people were closing down and shutting up and cleaning up, and they were all volunteers.

They'd been working shift work, man.

We're moms, and there were about a dozen people out there cleaning up, and many of them were going to come back the next day.

And I said, hey guys, thanks.

We're leaving.

I pulled out of the church parking lot and in the front of the church.

I saw this little car circling our front building, and I thought, it's another person needing help.

Just another person needing help.

We're closed, and you know, Lord, we'll help them tomorrow.

We've helped a lot of people.

And as I pulled out of the parking lot and got on that street to go home, it was like the Lord got in my car and bothered me.

How many knows the Lord will bother you?

He started bothering me.

It was like the Holy Spirit began to speak to my heart, burn in my heart.

Said, I thought you were a healing place for a hurting world.

I thought you cared about people.

I thought you've prayed for people.

And you're gonna drive away from that person who's needing help.

And I wish I would say that I'd have said, Yes, Lord, hallelujah! I didn't.

Angry pastor.

Waved them down, they pulled beside me.

And I said, Sir, can I help you?

He said, We just left New Orleans, and this is the first place we stopped.

We heard you help people.

I said, sir, we're closed and everybody's going home, but you can wait, either leave, you can't stay here overnight, so you come back in the morning, but we'll open up the church, you can get some water and use the restroom.

And I parked my car, they got out of the car, Pastor Robert.

There were three adults and seven children.

And they walked by me.

They were in a small Honda.

And they walked by me and I stood there and he looked at me and he said, Pastor, thank you.

He said, Because we've been in the water for eleven days.

Me and my family.

We walked out of the water and we found a car.

It was the first place we stopped.

They went into the restroom.

And at that moment, the Holy Spirit just broke my heart.

Said, You never know.

You never know.

I brought you a gift.

I brought you someone who is to be cherished.

I sat there so convicted.

I was like a heathen.

I was just like, God, I'm not saved.

I need desperate help.

I need counseling.

I need to go to Gateway.

I need something.

Where is the blessed life?

They walked out of the restroom and I said, sir, can we can we serve you?

Can we tell you?

I ran back to the back and said, hey guys, we need to open up the trailers.

We've got another family.

Here's what the volunteers did.

All right.

Woo! We were praying for another family.

I'm going to hell.

I'm going to hell.

We served that family.

We loved on that family.

I will never forget as long as I live being on the parking lot of our church, wiping this child down, this two-year-old toddler, who all he had on was a diaper that had mess all over him.

It was the dirtiest, smelling child I've ever seen in my life in America.

And I wiped him down with wipes.

Put deciding on him.

At three o'clock in the morning with a little new diaper on and a onesie.

We put him in the car with their family.

He walked by me.

Boy, had that tight diaper on.

He just and at that moment I felt like the Lord just burned in my heart.

Today you gave your life away.

Now go do it again.

And do it again and again and again and again.

You never know.

Giving your life not only has endless opportunities, it has eternal opportunities.

Amen.