Keep Climbing or Cut Bait

Recently I watched a movie called Everest, and it was set in 1996.

Anyone remember 1996?

Come on.

How many of you were there?

You were there.

Alright.

I was 16, okay?

I was born in 80, so 1996 I was 16.

The movie was about a cohort, a group of people that went to climb Mount Everest.

And it talked about, it kind of showed the process to get there because you don't just go climb up Mount Everest, you've got to go through a process.

Each of the people that were part of the cohort paid$65,000 to be a part of it.

So it's quite an expense, an investment.

You have to go through a process of training, learning of how to even do it.

And then when you start the climb it, it takes a very long time because the peak of Everest is over 29,000 feet.

29,000, I believe, 29,000 and some change.

32, I think.

So if you want to know how high that is, next time you get to cruising altitude on your flight, just open up the window.

Okay, that's what that is, right?

The captain comes on.

We're going to be cruising at 30,000 feet.

That's how high you are.

I mean, it's way, way up there.

In fact, humans aren't designed to live at that altitude.

They they say in the preparation, hey, at this altitude, your body will begin to die.

And so what we're going to try to do is get you to the peak and back down before that happens.

Okay?

Because you just, you're not designed to live that way.

So what they do is they start climbing, and you'll get to a camp, and you've got to stay there and let your body acclimate to that altitude, and you're there for a while, then you go up and up and up.

In fact, go ahead and bring up this picture.

This is a picture kind of, I don't know how well you can see it, but uh you've got kind of base camp at 17,000 feet.

So you've got to get 17,000 feet above sea level just to be at the base camp.

And then you start going to, you know, camp two, camp one, camp two is 24,750 feet.

Camp 3 is 26,700 feet.

Go ahead and bring up these uh uh go into the next picture here.

Um this shows the peak.

That's the highest, that's the top of the world right there.

The the peak of Everest, over 29,000 feet.

So you get to these camps and you can see the peak.

So in this in this movie, they get to that place and they it comes to the day that now we're going to the peak of Everest.

This is the day we've been training for.

This is the day we've been visualizing, we've been thinking about.

They had told stories about it, they'd seen pictures of it, and now I can see it.

And so they start to go up.

But they know that the conditions are such they have what's called a turnaround time.

In other words, it's if we're not there, by this time we've got to turn around because there is a storm coming in.

And storms at 29,000 feet are no joke.

They'll take your life.

And, you know, at that altitude, you're uh and with a storm, your oxygen can freeze over.

It's not even just about getting to the peak, it's about getting back down the mountain alive.

And so they have a turnaround time, they begin to climb, and some of the people were able to get there, and they got to the top, and you see at the at the peak of Everest, there are flags that are there.

Um, because uh people they get there, they put that flag in the ground, they take a picture, uh, but it's tremendously risky.

Um they put a stat at the beginning of the movie.

One in four people die trying to go.

That's how risky I'm 25%.

It's pretty intense.

And so, um, but these people get there and they put their flag in, they get to the top, and there were some that were slower climbers, and they're at the turnaround time.

And they're at the turnaround time, and they know that there's a storm that's coming in.

Although right now we don't see a storm, we know according to the weather report, storms coming in, we're at the turnaround time.

But imagine this.

You've put sixty-five thousand dollars, you've got some sunk cost.

You've spent months training.

You've gone from camp to camp to camp.

You've gone through the rigorous process of adapting to the altitude.

You can see the summit.

It's right there.

It's right there.

I've seen pictures, I've heard stories.

I can be a legend.

It's right stinking there.

I can see it with my own two eyes.

But it's turnaround time.

So in the movie, you have these people, and it's a true story.

There's a book called uh Into the, it's called uh Into Into Thin Air.

That's what it's called.

Into thin air.

In the movie Everest.

They're sitting there and they're trying to make a decision.

Do I keep climbing or do I cut bait?

And one of the guys is there, a few of them are there, and they're like, come on.

We've come this far.

We got to keep climbing.

I mean, can you imagine being there?

And on one ear, you've got Winston Churchill, you know, telling you to be brave, you know, and you've got the man in the arena, you know, playing in your head, and you've got every great quote, you know, uh, on, you know, courage is what gets you to the peak, and you know, whatever, fill in the blank.

You get the idea of, you know, history's written by the brave, blah, blah, blah.

You got all this, and then you got your mom in the other ear.

It's like, live to fight another day, man.

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

You gotta know when to hold them and when to fold them.

Come on, Kenny Rogers.

You gotta know when to walk away and know when to run, all right?

And so you got these two things going on in your head, and they look at each other, and the one guy says, I've I didn't come this far to turn around.

Now, it's right there.

I'm going.

And he talks the guys into it, and they go for it, and they get to the peak, and they put their flag in the peak, and they die on their way down.

Sorry to spoil the movie for you.

You're like, you're like, dang, I was gonna watch it tonight.

Well, now just spare you the.

I had to tell you, it's part of my sermon, okay?

I think we all find ourselves in similar type moments.

Let's use Everest and the peak of Everest as a metaphor.

They have in the climbing world, the mountaineering world, they have what's called summit fever.

Summit fever.

I can see the summit, I gotta get there.

I've got to get there at any cost.

I've got to get there.

And yet we've all found ourselves in some kind of summit fever.

Like, forget Everest, but think about it as a metaphor.

What is it that you're trying to climb?

Where is it that you're trying to get?

You've got something you're in hot pursuit of.

I've got a vision, I've got a dream, I want to get there.

And at some point we find ourselves in the place in our struggle.

Should I keep struggling or should I cut bait?

Do I keep climbing or do I turn around?

You know, we talked in week one about Job, and we talk about a guy whose family died, and he lost his family.

And if you've ever had someone die, you know that closure is forced on you.

You you have to work your way through it.

You have to grieve.

Like you start in denial, but at some point you come to peace with denial because you go, they're not coming back, and that reality is real, and there's nothing I can do about it, so I'm gonna have to work my way to acceptance.

But there are other things that die that aren't technically dead, like you could bring it back.

We lost the relationship, but we could get back together.

We could.

Should I, am I in denial right now about this?

Should I just cut bait and walk away and go back down the mountain, or do I need to keep climbing?

Should I call one more time?

Should we try this again?

What if we, what if I, what, what maybe if I can talk to him one more time?

Should I keep holding out hope?

Uh, maybe you lost your business and it was a good idea, but it failed once and it failed twice, and we went all in and we lost it all.

But yet, technically, we could go a third time, and there's plenty of stories in the world of people who third time was a charm.

The first one failed, maybe even the second one failed, but the third one went.

So am I like one or two faith steps away, one or two courageous steps away from a breakthrough and a great picture and a great memory, or am I in denial?

Am I going up a mountain?

I'm gonna die coming down.

Should I cut bait?

Should I keep climbing?

I got a word for you today.

Because we're gonna learn from Jesus.

That's where Jesus was.

Matthew 26.

He's in the Garden of Gethsemane, he's praying.

Father, should I keep climbing?

Or should I cut bait?

You can take this cut from me, but not my will, but your will be done.

Should I be done or should I keep going?

Is this my mountain to die on?

Or am I on the wrong mountain?

Um, I want to start by defining some things for us.

I want to talk about dreams, visions, and purpose.

Dreams, visions, and purpose.

If you're taking notes, go ahead and write those three words down.

Dreams, visions, and purpose.

It's very important that we know the difference between these three things.

Let's start with purpose.

Purpose is the really big picture of your life.

It's what matters the most.

It's why did God put me on this planet?

Why did God give me life?

And so if you think about your purpose, if you went, it would be in your best interest to take some time to sit down and to define your purpose.

So let me give you this, would be like, for example, this, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but this would be the type of thing I'm talking about with purpose.

You might say, you know what, my purpose is, I want to live a full life.

I want to live a full life.

Why are you taking on the projects you're taking on?

Why are you taking the risks that you're taking?

Where's this ambition coming from?

Why are you getting up so early and staying up so late?

Why are you refusing to be denied?

Why are you continuing to climb?

Because you want to live a full life.

Well, what is a full life?

If we were to break down a full life into bullet points, it might look something like this.

The first is discovering and maximizing my gifts to the glory of God and to serve people.

In other words, God has made all of us with talent.

He's put talent in you.

He's made all of us to do certain things well.

And man, it feels good to be good at something, doesn't it?

There are some things like you're just good at, and it may come so naturally to you.

You're gifted in that area.

At first, you don't even know you're good.

You just think everybody else is bad at it.

You just think everybody else is slow, everybody else is dumb.

How come they keep messing this up?

And it's like, no, man, that's a gift.

God made you to do that thing well.

So when you discover the gift that you have, the uniqueness of you and how God has made you to be bad at some things and good at some things, I start, I stop feeling bad about being bad at stuff, and I start feeling good about being good at stuff.

And I take those gifts and I work at them, and part of my worship is I turn my gifts into skills.

And so then I go from being good at this thing to being great at this thing.

And that's part of the joy of life.

In fact, uh it's it's part of your quality of life more than money, without question.

If you don't believe me, go find somebody who is making money doing something they hate.

That's a miserable human being.

Making a bunch of money, and they've got the golden handcuffs to that stinking thing because it's paying them so much.

And so they're too scared to walk away to actually do the thing that they love to do that would improve their quality of life exponentially.

So my point is that part of your fulfillment and full life is going to be discovering your gifts, glorify God with those gifts, serve people with those gifts, and be good at what you're good at, and take on assignments that are in alignment with your gifts.

If it's not in if it's not in alignment with your assignment, then say no.

All right, that's a whole nother message.

Second is relationships, depth of relationships and community.

Okay?

Trust me, if you have accomplished a lot, tons of trophies, all the respect of the world, and you have no relational depth, you will not feel full in life.

You will feel unfulfilled.

It'll be very, very, very empty.

A lot of people walking around mansions by themselves, totally depressed.

They don't feel like they had a full life.

They feel like they bought into a lie.

They feel like they climbed the wrong mountain.

And so part of your fullness of life is going to be not only using your gifts for God's glory and getting good at what you're good at, but it's also going to be great community, great relationships, depth.

You give yourself to people and they give themselves to you.

And you give and you receive.

It's awesome.

It's a big part of fullness.

The third is that you fully experience every experience.

You're present where you are.

Look at those trees, look at the details.

Drink in the beach in Miami, but drink in the snow in Columbus.

All right.

Your life, the human experience is the whole deal.

And don't just don't just migrate always to comfort, man.

It's the whole thing.

The human experience is grief and it's joy.

You win some, you lose some.

Sometimes you're down here, sometimes you're up there.

It is what it is.

Embrace the whole thing.

Embrace the conflict and embrace the peace.

Embrace all of it.

So you get every single part, and you're not just destination addicted to the next thing, to the next thing.

You are fully immersed wherever you are.

And so if we we had this sort of as a some kind of working definition of purpose, and and and there's probably more specific to each person, but you get the idea that's purpose, a full life.

Climbing the peak of Everest is a vision or a dream, it's a goal.

I want to go to the peak of Everest.

Why?

Because my I want to live a full life.

Well, how do you live a full life?

Well, how would Everest fit into a full life?

Well, it would be I have the physical ability to do this.

I've always wanted to.

I love nature.

I want to go see the sights.

I want to come over peaks no one's been over, and I want to see the stuff, and I want to see it for myself.

I'm tired of looking at them in pictures.

I feel compelled to do it, and I'm going to do it with this cohort, and we're going to build lifelong bonds, and we're going to do this thing together.

And when one of us is down, we're going to pick each other up and we're going to we're going to climb this thing, okay?

And I'm going to fully experience every single part, the freezing cold, when my oxygen freezes over, when all this stuff.

I'm going to, I just want to I want to feel how thin that air is.

I want to experience it.

Now, when you get to 28,000 feet and there's a storm rolling in, and you're at turnaround time, and you can see the peak.

It's right there.

It's easy to confuse purpose and vision.

Because the vision starts to feel like your purpose.

So you start to think, my purpose is I have to get to the peak of Everest.

That's my purpose.

No, it's not.

It's a vision.

So people develop summit fever.

I've got to get there.

I'm willing to die right here, right now.

What's interesting about this 1996 expedition was when they were there, the guide who gets talked into the peak.

He goes, No man, we got to turn around.

We're at turnaround time.

And they're going, the guy's like, Are you serious?

I'm right here.

I'm going.

I gotta go.

The guide who in the moment said, Okay, I'm going with you.

A few days before, finds out his wife is pregnant with their first child.

True story.

His wife's pregnant with their first child.

They find out they're having a girl.

They're talking about names.

What are we gonna name her?

And somehow, summit fever became so intense that even though he knew better, it's turnaround time, we gotta go.

That this guy goes, but it's right there.

And the seduction, something about that summit created a fever to forget I got a baby at home that I want to meet.

I got a wife at home that wants her husband to come back.

There's other times we can come back and do this next year, but you're so close, I've come so far.

Sunk cost bias.

I'm I've sunk so much into this.

And you, in the moment of summit fever, lose the reality and the perspective of the difference between purpose and dreams, purpose and vision.

So what happens is the vision cost you your purpose.

If you had the presence of mind to go, wait a second here, what is my purpose?

Full life.

What's a full life?

I want to fully experience all the experiences.

I can see the peak.

There it is.

I saw it.

But you needed to touch it.

If all you did was see it, snap a picture and go back, you get to go home to your baby.

But I needed to touch it.

I had to get there.

So what I lost track of is that this vision fooled me.

It made me think it was my purpose.

It lied to me.

It deceived me.

And what it ended up doing was costing me my purpose, which is I could have said, you know, I saw trees no one, almost no one gets to see.

You want to know what's wild about climbing Everest?

Is to climb to the top of Everest, you walk past dead bodies.

Oh, that's true.

Fact-check me.

People die up there and they leave the body.

Because if you die at 28,000 feet, we are not carrying your rear end back down this mountain.

Okay, I love you, but okay, we'll send that.

This is he died well.

I mean, he died with his boots on, you know, he was really going for it.

I mean, that's it.

They don't drag you back down, and because it's so cold up there, the bodies usually stay.

So you're walking past dead bodies.

Don't carry the analogy, man.

Some of you have been hiking up past dead bodies, going to peaks that are not for you.

Because you had a vision for it.

You could see it done.

You imagined being the Everest guy the rest of your life, and you thought it would fulfill you, and so you lost sight of your purpose to live a full life.

I already did the thing with the friends.

I have stories.

I've come over peaks, I've seen things that people didn't get to see.

But if I keep going there at that extra thousand feet, I'm not gonna make it home.

You gotta know the difference.

Jesus stayed focused on his purpose, and it actually started in Matthew 4.

So we've been in Matthew 26.

Matthew 4, Jesus is a temptation in the wilderness.

So in Matthew 3, he has this profound moment with his heavenly father.

This is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy.

Remember this?

He's baptized, he begins, he's starting up the mountain.

He's at the base of the mountain, and the baptism, this is my dearly loved son, and the father is setting the son with his identity.

I'm giving you something no one can take away.

And just like in a family, right?

A father, a good father, gives a name and gives an identity and gives his love and his affection and his approval to his kids.

He gives them something they can't earn.

You don't need to get to the peak of Everest for me to love you.

Gives you your value in the eyes of the Father.

That's what the Father God gives Jesus the Son.

And then he goes and he's led into the wilderness by the Spirit, into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days, tested for 40 days, and this is what it says.

Look at this.

In Matthew 4, 2, it says, For 40 days and nights he fasted and became very hungry.

In verse 3, during that time the devil came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.

That's such a loaded statement because ultimately there's a couple things going on.

The first thing is, notice what he says is, if you are the Son of God, well, 40 days ago the Father said, This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.

But that was 40 days ago.

If you're so loved, why are you going through this struggle?

If God loves you so much, why would he send you in here and not let you eat for 40 days?

Why would he have you going hungry?

Hungry for 40 days.

If you are the Son of God.

And when you think about that statement, what the enemy is trying to do to Jesus is to get him to operate out of insecurity.

By the way, the only reason we have this story is because Jesus told it.

There was no eyewitness to Jesus in the wilderness.

It wasn't like Matthew was sitting there watching him taking meticulous notes.

Mark wasn't doing it.

Jesus came out of the wilderness and he said, Let me tell you guys what's going what happened.

And he wasn't doing it because he needed somebody to know how hard his life was, and he didn't do it because, you know, he just needed somebody to lean on.

He did it because the way he was tempted as a human being is the way we're all tempted.

So he's like, this is going to be relevant for you because at some point you're going to have to try to figure out.

There are some struggles that just get put on you, like Job's struggle, but there are some struggles you're going to get to pick.

You're going to pick, am I going to keep struggling up this mountain to get to this peak, or do I need to walk away?

Am I in denial that this thing's dead and I need to walk away and it's turnaround time and I didn't get there for whatever reason, and it's time for me to go, or do I keep going and die on my way down?

And so he's what we see is Jesus is passing this on that he's saying, I was tempted in the wilderness with my insecurity.

If you really are the Son of God, if you really are, prove it.

Prove yourself.

And friend, I can't think of a more relevant.

I don't care how old you are, it seems like there's always some struggle with this.

That we have this need to prove something.

I've got to prove it.

I've got to get there.

I've got to prove I'm the son versus it was already given to you, given your value.

So think of it like this.

In the movie, they have this scene right before they try to go to the peak, and they have this scene where they took one of the guys says, Hey, before we go up this, you know, take this risk, why are you doing this?

Why are you here?

And they all kind of evade the question at first.

They laugh it off.

Oh, ha ha ha, because the mountain's there, which that's like the old mountaineering joke.

Why'd you climb the mountain?

Because it was there.

Right?

And if you just stop right there, then you don't go as deep as you should.

And the person wouldn't let him off the hook.

And the guy's like, no, seriously, dig deep.

Why, why are you doing this?

There's a reason we're sitting here at 20 some thousand feet, and then why you want to go to 29,000 and try to, you know, not die.

Why are you here?

And one of the guys said, You know the reason I'm here?

He said, I'm an average guy.

I've always been an average guy.

He said, Recently I've been working with elementary school kids, and I've been telling them that even average people can do extraordinary things if you'll stick with it, if you won't quit.

And he's like, you know, I want to inspire these kids, so I'm going up, I'm going to the peak, and I'm getting a picture, and I'm coming back, and I'm gonna stand in front of those kids, and they're never gonna forget me at the top of that thing, and I'm gonna say, if an average guy can go to the top of the world, so can you.

So I'm going up for that class.

And another woman, uh, one of the ladies, she said, I've been to the top six peaks in the world.

This is number seven.

This is the biggest one.

I gotta complete it.

I've got to complete it.

I can't go with six and not get seven.

I gotta get, I gotta come.

So they keep going in their reasons for doing it.

Okay, and here's the reality is if you think about it, probably all that is true.

And within that, there's probably like your reason for wanting to go to the peak of wherever your whatever your Everest is, there's probably like 80% nobility in what you're doing.

Man, I'm trying to make the world a better place.

I'm trying to make the I'm trying to make things better.

I'm trying to make this person proud.

I've got unfinished business over here.

I gotta prove it to myself.

I gotta do this, okay?

And so you've got some reason, and that might be like 80% true, and yet within there is maybe, I don't know what percentage, 20, 10, 5, 7, 13 percent of something in there that's insecurity.

I gotta prove this thing.

I've gotta be the Everest guy.

I've gotta be the guy who comes down with my picture here.

It can't just be I took a picture of the summit, I saw it, and there I was.

I've got to be there because I feel like that will bring a fullness to my life that will give me a validation by being there.

And so what's happened is the vision has become your purpose, and the vision has overtaken your purpose and put you at risk.

And so what we see of Jesus was he wouldn't operate out of insecurity.

It must have been a temptation to him, because it's the temptation in the wilderness.

If he'd felt nothing, it wouldn't have been noteworthy.

But Jesus did feel something after 40 days of hardship, and he's going, you know, if you turn these rocks into bread, see how much your father loves you.

Okay, and Jesus goes, get behind me, Satan.

Man doesn't live by bread alone, and so what does he do?

He refuses to operate out of insecurity.

And I wonder if our insecurities, even as grown-ups, cause a summit fever at 28,000 feet that would cause us at turnaround time to not have the wisdom to know that this is the time to turn around.

And we'll, if we need to, we'll come back another time.

Think about this.

The turn these stones into bread.

Well, what's wrong with bread?

Nothing's wrong with bread.

Jesus didn't say you don't need bread, he said you don't live by bread alone.

He's not talking about bread for those of you on keto.

I know some of you are like, I don't knew any bread.

Okay, well, good for you.

But what I'm saying is, he's saying, hey, you don't live by food alone, but there's more to it than that, but you still need it.

What the enemy was trying to get him to do was to get the right thing at the wrong time.

28,000 feet, I'll never be back here.

Why not?

Come back next year.

Come back two years from now, or be at 28,000 feet, see the peak, and be fine with that.

Don't die on this mountain if this isn't the mountain you're supposed to die on.

So the enemy tried to get him to do the right thing at the wrong time or the right thing in the wrong way.

Of course, we get to that.

He takes them up to the top of the temple and he's like, jump off and prove it and watch have the angels, you know, show your power and your value and all this stuff.

And this is the disparity, guys.

This is what we really have to fight through.

And I gotta go quick here.

I'm running out of time, but this is worth it.

The disparity is in we talk about knowing your worth, know my value, know your worth and add tax.

Okay, cool.

You gotta know the difference between your worth in the father's eyes and your worth in the world's eyes.

Because the the world may not look at you the same if you didn't get to the peak of Everest.

And they might say, Well, yeah, you're just a person who got close, but you never got there close, but no cigar.

Hey, that's cute, but you never got there.

And at some point to live your purpose, you might have to be devalued in the world's eyes.

So, what Satan did was he takes Jesus, you know, uh figuratively, he takes him in a vision to a high mountain to see all the power of the world, to see all the systems of the world, to see the empire of the world, and to offer it to him.

I'll give you the power, I'll give you the prestige, I'll give you the respect.

Do all this, just bow your knee to me.

He's trying to get Jesus to give up his purpose for an illusion of a purpose, for a vision.

And Jesus said, That's not my purpose.

That's not my purpose.

He's trying to get him to get the right thing in the wrong way.

Jesus was gonna have the ultimate power.

Jesus was going to touch the whole world, Jesus was going to save all.

Jesus was going to do this, but he wasn't gonna do it that way.

And the enemy was trying to get him for some summit fever, settle for the vision instead of purpose.

And Jesus never lost sight of his purpose.

He knew he not only came to earth to die and resurrect, he came to die a certain kind of death.

He came to live a certain kind of life.

Jesus lived a life so powerful.

There's not one of us that can look at Jesus' life and go.

Like we all look at it and go, I can relate to that.

I know what it's like to be disappointed by the people around you.

I know what it's like to be rejected by people who should have accepted you.

I know what it's like to deal with that sort of being misunderstood.

I know what it's like to walk and feel totally alone.

I know what it's like to be carrying a cross that you're supposed to carry and feel like you can't do it, and you you gotta you gotta be so humbled that you're bleeding out, your body's given out, and somebody else is carrying something that you were supposed to carry.

Like every part of Jesus' life, it wasn't just die and resurrect, it was the life he lived, the pain that he endured, the full human experience.

And so, what is Satan doing in his offering him?

If you'll just bow this knee to me, I'll give it all to you.

He's trying to give him the right thing in the wrong way.

And yet Jesus stayed fully aligned to his purpose.

Real quick, Matthew 16.

So we have Matthew 26 in the garden.

We backed up to Matthew 4 in the temptation of the wilderness.

In Matthew 16, says uh verse 21 From then on, Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for his purpose for him to go to Jerusalem and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law.

He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.

But Peter took him aside to begin to reprimand him for saying such things.

Heaven forbid, Lord, he said, This will never happen to you.

Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get away from me, Satan.

You're a dangerous trap to me.

You're seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's.

Let's read that according to what we've just been talking about.

You're seeing visions of what you think is the peak.

You are so preoccupied with your vision, you think your vision is the purpose.

Peter's vision was of Jesus, the revolutionary emperor.

Can I sit at your right hand?

Can I be your vice president?

Can I be your secretary of state?

He saw the empire of the world and thought, now it's our turn.

He said, You are a dangerous trap because your visions, you have confused vision with purpose.

He said, You're seeing things from a human point of view, not from God's.

And then he says the disciples in verse 24, if any of you wants to be my follower, if any of you wants to follow in my footsteps, if any of you wants to struggle the way that I have, if any of you wants to know what mountain you're supposed to die on and which one you're supposed to walk away from, he said, you must give up your own way, give up your own visions, take up your cross and follow me.

If you hang on to your life, if you try to hang on to your life, if you if you have to be the summit guy, if you have to be the one that made it to the top, if that's what it takes for you to be full, you give up your you'll lose your life, but if you give up your life for my sake, you'll save it.

I'll give you your purpose.

You'll be able to walk back down the mountain and go back to that baby.

You'll be able to go back to that family.

You'll be able to go, you know, I got to see things hardly anybody gets to see.

I got to do things with people.

Instead of now you're, you're, you're, you don't get the people, you lost the people.

Now you lost, you you didn't even appreciate what you had.

You got so focused on a vision.

He said, if you give up, if you give up your life for my sake, you'll save it.

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

Is anything worth more than your soul?

What does it matter that you climb to the peak of that mountain and put your flag there and took your picture and died on your way down?

And friend, I'll tell you, all of us die at some point.

I think it was the great theologian William Wallace in the movie Braveheart said, Everyone dies, but not everyone truly lives, right?

At some point there is a hill you die on.

At some point, even Jesus, right, knew his mission.

I know the mountain I'm supposed to die on.

I'm supposed to do this.

It's my purpose.

It's what God has for me.

And friend, I encourage you, don't keep climbing up a mountain you're not meant to die on.

How do I know the difference?

Don't operate out of insecurity.

Start with your identity.

There may be a disparity between the value that the world gives your life and the value that God gives your life.

Base your whole life on the value that you're his dearly loved daughter who brings him great joy, whether you got to the summit or not, don't get summit fever.

Don't let it overtake you.

Know the difference between an idea, a plan, a project, a goal, a dream, a vision, and your deeper purpose.

And be able to step back from that.

And that's between you and God.

If you're supporting a friend who's trying to figure out, am I in denial or should I give it one more shot?

It's not your job to tell them whether it is or isn't.

You point them to God and say, from a place of security, from a place of security, is this your mountain?

Should you keep climbing or cut bait?

And once you get to that place that you know your purpose, you've articulated your purpose.

This is in alignment with my purpose.

If that's the fact, keep climbing.

Do what Jesus did in Gethsemane.

Not my will, but your will be done.

Bring on Judas.

Come on, do what you must do.

I'm going.

Give me that cross.

My body gives out Simon of Cyrene.

Help me out.

Go to the cross.

Do what you got to do.

Climb your mountain.

Live your purpose.

But don't you dare get summit fever and die on a mountain you're supposed to walk away from.

Lord help us.