Mark 10:1-31 || The Book of Mark || Pastor Steve Smothermon

Amen, that's pretty exciting. If there's anybody that volunteers over in our outreach

center, just raise your hand. Anybody here tonight. There's some people,

great job, great job, unsung heroes. But you know, everybody's got

to find their place in ministry to give back and to share and to do

their part. So we just appreciate what everybody does in this church, and

how many of you are going to go and sign up or at least try

to be part of the praise and worship team. Any of you one person,

two person, three persons. I mean he practically rolled out the red

carpet asking me to come and try out. So many of you guys don't

know that I have a baritone voice when I sing. Yeah, And if

you believe that, then you know what, you're really full of it tonight.

So anyway, no, I can't anyways, but I hope you could

go up there and you could sing. You know what. It is really

our privilege tonight to have one of our friends of the ministry with us here

all the way from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He comes every year and he

really does an amazing job. And we learned every time we get together how

much our lives parallel one another, that he is eight days older than me,

and he married an older woman and are both our wives are named Cynthia,

and we went to the same Bible school. And then we just found

out that we have younger brothers eighteen months younger than us, and so I'm

probably missing something else, but that really represents the kindred spirit that we have.

And he has. I don't even know how many campuses. You have,

something like eight campuses. He's the largest church in New Mexico, so

it's a legacy church. Their main hub is Albuquerque, but they're spread out

all through New Mexico with they have an amazing My favorite one is where they

have a homeless center where people can that are homeless and then they rehabilitate them

with education and job and feed them and they're just doing tremendous work. And

he's going to be a good sport because we challenged him. We said,

you know, Wednesday night is the Book of Mark. So I know you've

got a favorite topic that you preach all around the world, but you can't

preach that tonight. You got to preach the Book of Mark. So he's

a good guy. He's going to do that. Let's stand on our feet

and get Pastor Steve Smotherman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, a big patrio,

warm, welcome, Well, good evening. It is good to be back

here in California. And as you're standing, can we pray fathering the powerful

name of Jesus. I thank you for this great church. I thank you

for Pastor Diego and Pastor Adam. We just thank you for their leadership.

We thank you God that you continue to bless and prosper this house, bless

the people. And we thank you. Father. You said if we acknowledge

you in all our ways, you'd lead and direct our past and crown our

efforts with success. So we acknowledge you in this place today that we would

have ears to hear what the spirit Lord is saying. And Father, we

thank you for speaking to each one, because I realize it's not so important

what I say that matters. Is what you say to each individual that matters.

So we thank you for being here. We thank you for your grace

and your mercy in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen, Well, thank you.

You know what, guys, Passadego and I we were just talking to

the day and we went and we found out something else. We found out

about our brothers. That he's got one eighteen months younger than I do.

And I'm like, man, Pastiego, we got we got so much in

common. You know, we're just brothers from another mother, right, So

but really, your pastor, past Diego is an incredible friend, and I've

been picking his brain out, you know, as you transitioned. And because

I'm getting older too, so we're about the same age. I guess I'm

a little older. For eight days you said eight eight days, Yet eight

days that makes me a senior. But he still didn't respect his elders.

So I don't know. I don't know, but it is an honor to

be here. I love this church, I do, and I'm just grateful

to be a part of this today. So they challenged me, they said,

teach on Mark ten. I'm like, I don't even know what that

says. So I had to go back and read it. I'm ok kidding

a little bit. So I titled this message for tonight a radical Call of

discipleship, And in Mark ten it deals with three subjects of what I'm going

to cover. Verses one through thirty one. It deals with marriage, deals

with children, and it deals with the cost of discipleship. And so we're

going to go through all of that today and as we look at this,

so we're going to start in Mark chapter ten, and I'm gonna read verses

one through twelve. The Bible says, then Jesus left Compernaum and went down

to the region of Judea and into the area east of the Jordan River.

Once again's crowds gathered around him, and as usual he was teaching them.

Some pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question, should a man

be allowed to divorce his wife? Jesus answered them with a question, what

did Moses say in the law about divorce? Well, he permitted it,

they replied. He said a man can give his wife a written notice of

divorce and send her away. But Jesus responded, he wrote this commandment only

as a concession to your hard hearts. But God made them male and female

from the beginning of creation. So, just so we understand the way the

culture is. God never made one gender. He made two sexes, male

and female. Period. All that other stuff is made up by the world,

but not by God. And so this explains why man leaves. Thank

you. This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined

to his wife, and the two are united into one, since they are

no longer two but one, letting no one split apart what God has joined

together. Later, when he was alone with his disciples in the house,

they brought up the subject again, and he told them, whoever divorces his

wife and marries someone else commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces

her husband and marries someone else, she commits adultery. Now, Jesus was

asked about divorce, and he reminded everyone that marriage is a special union between

one man and one woman, created by God and meant to last a lifetime.

And divorce was allowed because of people's hard hearts. And so when Moses

said it, Jesus said it. The word hardness of heart or heard hearts

means stubborn, unyielding, a heart that resists God. And people say,

well, how do I resist God by resisting the word of God? Because

when you resist this, you resist God. When you try to change this,

you're mocking God. This is the word of God. And he said,

and so that's what the hardness of heart means. It means that,

you know what, I'm stubborn, unyielding, and I resist. My heart

resists God in his ways. In today's world, divorce can seem like an

easy solution, but Jesus wants us to work on our marriages and stay committed.

Now we all know there's reasons. Sometimes you have no choice. Sometimes

someone doesn't want you after they've been married. Sometimes maybe they do something that

they shouldn't have done. But can I say this, no matter what anybody's

done, we can still fight for our marriages if we want to. And

when you when we enter into marriage, you're entering in to a lifelong commitment.

And that's a long time. I got married at twenty four and now

I'm sixty three and my wife is sixty almost sixty eight. She's a cougar

of cougars. She's like I told him last night, man, she looked

when she was a senior in high school, she looked at that sixth grader

and said baby one day. And I told him, I said I had

it as a sixth grader and didn't even know what I had. You know,

but she, you say, does she get mad? Now? My

wife's cool about it. I laugh about it all the time. In fact,

one day she plays a little golf, not much. You'll go out

with me every now and then, and she said, hey, look what

I bought. And she bought a golf bag and on it said cougar.

I said, yeah, baby, you know, you know, but it's

worth fighting for with everything you have, because marriage was established by God.

And a lot of times when we just walk away and say I'm done,

we get mad at each other. How many I'll have intense fellowship sometimes with

your spouses. You say, what's that? Well, the world calls it

arguing. We spiritual people call it intense fellowship because they like, what is

that? Because they can say all kinds of things, But we know it's

because she's not acting right or something. But Jesus wants us to work on

our marriages and stay committed. Marriage is a covenant of God that we should

never take lightly. And when people get married, it should not be an

option. You should take divorce out of the equation and say we're willing to

do whatever it takes. Because I'm always amazed when I do weddings and how

much they love each other. I love you and they cry, It's like,

oh, baby, I can't wait. And then about three years later

they're coming to mobs. I hate that person. I can't stand them.

And now a lot of times it's because sometimes we harden our hearts to God

and resist him. We'll resist him in every area. Sometimes you get up

here and you know people resist him and serving. I mean, I thought

it was great what Pastor Adam did with your worship leader about getting involved in

worship. I mean, if you can sing, I mean, you let

me put this way in my mind. If you can sing because someone else

told you you can sing, other than your mother, then you ought to

go because you know, moms are like you're so good, like yeah,

because you can't hear or whatever, but you should go. And you say

why because you step out of your comfort zone. But when you resist the

word of God constantly and continually, do you know your heart is being hardened

every moment every time you can come here and Pastor Adam and Pastor Diego and

the team can give you an opportunity to receive Jesus. And if you say,

Nope, I'm not going to do that. Nope, I'm not going

to do that. Nope, I'm not going to do that. Nope,

I'm not ready. I haven't had enough fun yet. Do you realize every

time you say that, your heart gets a little harder towards God. You

begin to resist Him, and it gets hardened towards the Holy Spirit's wooing of

you to get it right. Here's what I know some of you in here.

God's already dealing with your hearts to get it right. You just have

to choose to When they talk about whatever, serving, don't say no,

say yes. Well, I don't know if I can. Why not?

Well, I don't think I'm worthy enough. None of us are worthy enough.

I'm not worthy enough to be up here. But Jesus died for my

worthiness. I'm only worthy because of what Jesus did, not because of what

I did. Well, you don't know, preacher. I've messed up a

lot, so what everybody's messed up and so, but still God uses us.

So be used of God. And because He uses you in a way

that blesses you, never hurts you. People use you to get something God

wants to bless you. And so in marriage, don't harden your hearts,

work out things, resolve things, deal with stuff, and you're going to

be dealing with stuff to rest your life. You know, the issues that

my wife and I have today, they are the same, I mean the

same ones we had when we first got married. I mean it's the same

arguments, it's about some of the same stuff. It's nothing new, and

we resolve it and then we go back. We resolve and you just keep

working on it. Why Because it's worth it. It's worth it, It's

worth it, And I get it. Guys. Sometimes in our world somebody

just leaves. You can't do anything about that. If they don't want you,

they don't want you, and it hurts. But we should fight to

stay married. We should do everything we can. It shouldn't be just throw

away relationships. I say this about friendships in your life. You might have

a handful of real friendships that will stick with you in your worst moments and

in your best moments. Everybody else's everybody else's acquaintances. And when you have

those friends, you should fight to keep them, because you know how it

is with friends. You get mad at each other, they tick you off,

and then you call the next day and say, Okay, I'm sorry,

I shouldn't have said that, and then you keep going and that's healthy.

We should fight for those friendships. Your pastor's one of my greatest friends,

and I've talked to him about a lot of different stuff, and you

know, so you know, relationships are important and marriage is a covenant that

God established Verse thirteen. One day, some parents brought their children to Jesus

so he could touch and bless them, but the disciples scolded the parents for

bothering him. When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his

disciples, and he said to them, let the children come to me.

Don't stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like

these children. I tell you the truth. Anyone who doesn't receive the Kingdom

of God like a child will never enter it. Then he took the children

in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them folks.

And today we need to understand that when parents brought their children to Jesus and

the disciples tried to stop them, Jesus was upset and told them to let

them come. He said, the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are

like children. What does that mean? Do we have to be little kids

to come to Christ? Know? We need to be like them. Though,

children trust and for the most part, are humble, and then they

depend on others. Do you know why we lift our hands to God?

Do you know little two year old's, three year olds, four year olds?

What do they do to you when they come in Mommy and Daddy,

They hold they do this. They want you to hold them, they want

you to pick them up. What they're doing is saying you're the leader,

You're the comforter, You're the one that helps me. I depend on you.

That's why when you come to church and they were saying lift your hands,

I lift my hands because I want God to know I depend on you

and we have to have the same trust. Even kids. Can you conbuse

them, You can hurt them, and they still come back to mommy and

daddy and want your love. They're so forgiving too. It breaks my heart

when kids get harmed, It really does. It affects me because and so

Jesus is saying, you've got to come to me like the children go to

their parents. Jesus wants us to have faith like children, trusting God completely

and depending on him. You see in our world today, and I would

venture to say most of us have food, most of us have a place

to live, and I can see you have clothes. I always say thank

God for clothes because I think clothes covers a multitude of sin. It just

covers some stuff. I mean, how many I can say, man of

that? Like? You know, do I look good? Yeah? Just

don't take that off. You look great. And we need to understand that

when we when we live this life like we do that a lot of times,

we really don't depend on God like we should. We're not thanking Him

for the food, We're not thanking him for our clothes, we're not thanking

him for a place to live. And we get to where we don't exercise

our faith really in God. And so when you it's time to believe God,

you struggle. We struggle because we're not used to it. Some people

in other places they believe God every day just for a meal, and so

when that food comes there they see the hand of God. God wants you

and I to know that everything we have, everything He puts in our hands,

comes from Him. Your gifts, your talents. If you're smart,

you ought to thank God for your intellect. If you built a business,

you ought to thank God for the ability to build that business. See,

that's the thing we kind of get away from. Even in giving. My

wife and I, we used to give checks and we'd sit, you know,

I'd be preaching all the services. So we'd break our tithes and offerings

down to several checks so I could own always give a check in the offering.

And then the electronic age came and all we do is give on online.

Now my wife does it. She's like and she didn't even tell me.

She just does it. But sometimes I tell her, I said,

have you you've been given right? And she goes, oh yeah, And

I said, you know what we forgot to do is pray, because you

get so used to it, you forget to believe God. We got to

believe God for everything. That's how we know we depend on him. So

when we give my wife and I, whether it's electronically or you know,

used to be with the check, we pray over it. Don't just give

it and not pray, because then you'll think your blessings come from you,

or from the world or from somebody else. Everything we have comes from Him.

Everything. I mean, I look in my you know, I in

my backyard. My wife fixed it up and we've had this house. We've

lived in the same house for twenty two years in Albuquerque, and I always

wanted to pull in my backyard. I always wanted let my wife fixed it

up for the kids and g kids. And one day I was standing with

my younger brother, Pastor Troy Pastors where I used to pastor in Roswell,

and we're standing in my backyard when I first did it, and he and

I looked over, and he has a tear. He's like a tear,

He's got tears coming down. I'm like, what's wrong with you? He

said, Steve, don't you remember? I said, remember what? Because

I don't remember a lot of my childhood. He said, don't you remember

we were kids. I said, what are you talking about? He said,

we would dream about a backyard like this. Remember we could talked about

it. You nice have a swing set and a trampoline and a pool.

We talked about it. And I said, so what are you saying,

goes Steve, I can't believe it. God gave you that I'd forgotten.

It was a desire. I didn't even think about it, Jesus. And

then you know what. Now I walk around my backyard sometimes just by myself

and I said, thank you God for this. It's not the greatest house,

it's not the biggest house, but it's my house. Sometimes I back

out of my I do this periodically, probably once a week, and I

start to drive off and I stop in front of my house and I say,

God, thank you for that house. And you say, but at

my house is not that great. I don't care how great it is.

We have to learn to depend on God. We have to learn to be

thankful to God. We have to understand where our blessings come from. If

you can work with your hands and you're skilled, you ought to thank God

for that skill. Everything you have He's given you. And let me say

it this way to somebody, he say, why I'm giving me much?

Listen. I know pastors and people that are my peers, like your pastor,

that have so many gifts and talents, so smart. And I think

to myself, you know, I have a lot of past friends that can

sing. They can, they're big, they're just whatever, they just and

they're smart. And I look at him like, man, God, why'd

you give me some of that? I can't sing. In fact, my

worship leader says, can you can sing? Pasty? But you're in the

all church choir, Like what's the old church choir out there? And I've

always thought, God, why didn't you let me? See? I've always

wanted to sing. If I could sing, I could, I would sing.

I've always wanted to play an instrument. I'm just not I just I

just don't have it. And then one day I thought about this, or

God gave me a thought like Steve Quick, worry about what everybody else has.

And I may be the one talent guy, not the two or the

five. All I have to use is my one talent and if I use

it properly, God will bless me with more. And just maybe I'm the

one talent guy. Maybe you're the one talent person and the one with five

is not doing their part. And he says, you know what I'm gonna

do. I'm gonna go give him some more. See, that's why we

got to depend on God. We gotta trust God, and we got to

come to them like children, and and and then you know we have to

we have to train our children. We don't deny him. From God to

Christ. In our culture today, sports is more important than God. Every

education is more important than God. And we should be educated. But man,

we should be biblically literate. We should want our kids to know more

about God than anything else. That's what we should do. And as a

church, we should value and support our children, helping them grow in the

faith and feel loved by God. We should be those people that train them,

not just raise them. I'm shocked today when I see kids talk to

parents. Four year old saying no to daddy. My four year old said

no to me one time, and I said, what did you say to

me? And I drive that foolishness far from you will say that again.

Boy, you don't tell me no. My kids didn't rule my life.

I ruled their life. And today we give kids too much latitude. That's

why God said train them. Training means has no fun. Sometime. If

you've been in the military and you went to basic training, I don't know

anybody that loved that. Push ups and running and they hated it, and

sergeants beating them up when they could beat them up. And it's so amazing

to me how we we look at our children of fire like Johnny, go

do this. He throws a fit, and we just submit to them.

It's like, boy, you better get up I'm gonna give you a reason

to throw a fit. See, we don't even think about that now by

the time I've beating your kid. Don't beat your kids. But they have

to know who's boss. Because listen, as you love them and they submit

to you, you're training them to submit to God, and he's the ultimate

authority. And think about what God did in the Book of Malachi was the

last book before the Old Testament, I mean the New Testament. There's no

recording of God speaking for about four hundred years till John the Baptist four hundred

years And you know, one of the last two things he told people to

do, don't rob me with your tithes and offerings, do it bring him

to the storehouse. You know. The last thing he said to do.

Father's your hearts needs to turn back to your children. You know, in

America today, the father's hearts are turning away from their children. Because if

my five year old odle boy come up to me and said, you know,

Daddy, I think I'm a girl, I'd be like, I'll drive

that far from you. I book that we'd be woo and it goes out

like this, ah, like you get you know, because we know what

God made them. We give them too much. Well, I don't want

to do that. Well, I don't care what you want to do.

You'll do what I tell you. I don't understand where we missed this.

And when I was raised, my dad was a sergeant in the military.

Here's when they had friends over. Here's what we heard. You will go

to your room, you won't. We won't see you. We don't want

to hear from you. And if we walked out, my daddy, just

give me one look, we'd be whooped right back. See. We need

to love our kids enough to train them in God's ways. We need to

teach them to obey so they can obey God. And I watched little kids

at balls that you know, stores that throw fit and their parents are why

they're wallering on the floor. And I said, I tell my wife,

just give me that kid for ten minutes, ten minutes. It'll take me

ten minutes. And I guarantee that little boy he might throw fit and see

me coming and be like, whoop, I'm good, I'm good, We're

good. We need to love our children to train them. We don't let

the world train them. We don't let the schools train them. We train

them and what's right or wrong, that's the way God says to do it.

And then we come to him and like children, I trust you God,

even though I don't understand. Yeah, I depend on you because I

know everything I have comes from you. That's where God wants. And I

humble myself. That means we're teachable. I'm just teachable. Teach me God

doesn't mean I always get it right. Doesn't mean you won't make mistakes.

We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. What it means

is we just keep walking. You can think about quitting, just don't do

it. That's a heavy revie, isn't it. You can think about quitting,

but just never do it. You just keep marching. On Verse seventeen,

as Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came

running up to him, knelt down and asked, good teacher, what must

I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus

asked, Only God is truly good? And then amazing that people today in

our culture, this is what Jesus specifically said, And what do people say?

I'm a good person? Surely I'm going to heaven. Aunt, so

and so she was a sweet, kind person, so she went to heaven.

Surely God let her in. Folks, let me tell you this.

Good people don't go to heaven. Nice people don't go to heaven. Generous

people don't go to heaven. You say, who goes to heaven? Save

people go to heaven. So in the funny, we call ourselves good.

And I say this a lot. If you're going to compare yourself to Charles

Manson, you're pretty good. I guarantee you're pretty good. But we're not.

We're comparing ourself to a holy God. And Jesus said, nobody's good.

So no one gets to heaven because you're nice or good. You get

to heaven because you got saved. You accept the Jesus as your lord and

savior, because you realize, oh, your goodness doesn't compare to God's holiness.

See that's the reality. So anyway, that's a side thought. But

to answer your question, you know the commandments. You must not murder,

you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not testify

falsely. You must not cheat anyone, Honor your father and mother. Teacher,

the man replied, I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young.

Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. There is still

one thing you haven't done. He told them, Go and sell all all

your possessions and give them money to the poor, and you will have treasure

in heaven. Then come follow me. At this, the man's face fell

and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around

and said to his disciples, how hard it is for the rich to enter

the Kingdom of God. This amazed them, but Jesus said again, dear

children, it is very hard to enter the Kingdom of God. In fact,

it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle

than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. You know why,

because rich people start depending on their wealth, on their possessions, on

their things, and so it's hard for them to transition and say, no,

I'm going to depend on God. The disciples were standed. Then who

in the world can be saved? Because they thought the same thing. We

think that if someone's wealthy, they're blessed of God. People tell me all

the time, Bill gates are so blessed. I don't get it. I

serve God, and oh my God, I said, who do you?

How come you think God blessed him? He said, what do you mean?

Why do we think God bless them? He doesn't honor God. Why

do we think that all rich people are blessed of God? We think the

same thing. They thought. And when Jesus said what he said, they

said, well, my goodness, and who can go to heaven? See,

we got to understand there's a devil out there, and he prospers and

lifts up people say they can use their wealth and influence to influence a culture

for ungodliness. That's why God wants to raise up churches like this, great,

big, huge, and that's why you have so many things going on

because they want to help people. They want to be the influence to influence

people to heaven instead of letting the people influence others to hell. Jesus looked

at them intently and said, humanly speaking, it is impossible, but not

with God. Everything is possible with God. Then Peter began to speak,

We've given up everything to follow you. He said, yes, Jesus replied,

and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or

sisters, or mother or father, or children or property for my sake and

for the good news we'll receive now in return a hundred times as many houses,

brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property, along with persecution,

and in the world to come. That person will have eternal life.

But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those

who seem least important now will be the greatest. Then. We have to

understand. A rich young man asked Jesus how to get eternal life? How

do you get eternal life by asking Jesus to be lord of your life.

Jesus told him to sell his possessions give the money to the poor. But

the man couldn't. He couldn't put God before his wealth. And Jesus show

that following him means giving up everything that holds us back. For the rich

man, it was his wealth. For us, it may be relationships,

a career, personal dreams, our culture, and how about our traditions.

Traditions are huge. It can be beliefs that are not biblical that we hang

on to that are not biblical, because we'll say, well, my family's

always believe that this is why I was raised. I was raised to not

live for Christ. So when I got saved, it changed my whole life.

My dad freaked out, couldn't believe it when I told him I was

going to Bible school and quit college and go to Bible school. He really

he looked at me like what. There was no preachers in my family.

I went from being a knucklehead to not going out anymore and stay at home

and say I think I'm gonna go to Bible school and be a preacher.

I mean. One day was laying on my couch watching WWF wrestling back when

you only had a few stations, and they went off at a certain time,

and my dad walked by and he just stopped and he just stared at

me for a second. He looked at me and said, this is his

words, Steve, I know how the blank you are, and he used

a certain adjective and he said, I know the blankety things you do.

And he said, I'm going to tell you this one time, one time

only. If this is real, it better be blankety blank real for the

rest of your life. If it's not, you're not going And then I

just stared at him, because he's never talked to me like that, using

all the nice words, and I just looked at him. He looked at

me and walked off, never said another word. But after that, when

I got saved, went to Bible School, my whole family got saved.

My dad got saved before he died. You know why, because there are

people out there in your world that want you to succeed. They want you

to do well because it gives them hope that there's a chance, there's something

out there to hope for, there's a better way to live, and it's

and God is real. So if you're a yo yo Christian, you're hurting

people up, down and out. And then we allow our traditions. Mark

seven thirteen from the NABS version says, you nullify the word of God in

favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And yes, do many

such things, and you do many such things, such things. In other

words, we can't let the way we were raised. I wasn't raised to

be a believer. I wasn't raised to do what I'm doing today. I

wasn't. In fact, my mom and dad said, of the five kids,

there's five siblings. They said, the one we thought would never get

up in front of people and talk is steve me because I was terrified.

But God can change us if we're willing to let go of things, even

if it's with our family, we let go of him. We must give

up everything to follow Christ or willing to Matthew thirteen forty four and forty six

says, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure looking for the clock.

Words clock. I don't know where the clock is. I'm looking look up

down right there, there's nothing on it. Oh you, they keep going

there, all right. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a

man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again

and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field again.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for a choice pearls.

When he discovered a pearl of great price or great value, he sells

everything he owned and bought it. It's like when you find something. It's

like a guy going forward and saying, I'm gonna seek for the pearl of

great price. I'm gonna seek it, seek it and seek it, and

finally he finds it. And when he finds it, he asks the owner,

how much does it cost? And he goes, to cost you everything?

He said, what do you mean to cost me everything? He said,

you have a house? Yeah, I have a house. It's gonna

cost you. That gonna cost you my house? Yep, he goes,

is that it? No, do you have cars? I got to it.

I'll take those. He goes, you want my house and car.

That's what it's gonna cost for me to get this. And he goes,

oh yeah. He said, Oh, by the way, you have a

wife. Yeah, I got a wife. I'm gonna take her. How

many kids you have? Well the two point seven they say we have.

I'm gonna take those two point seven kids too. Is that all? And

he goes, I don't know. Do you have a dog. Yeah,

I'm gonna take your dog. What God is saying and Jesus is saying,

is that when you come to him, it costs you everything. You don't

get the whole back you gotta it'll take you if you want the pearl of

great price, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's talking about.

That's what this book is saying, and marked in that you got to

be willing to give up everything. He wants us to honor marriage, train

our children, and fully commit to following him. And some of us in

this room need to reevaluate our priorities and commitments. Who we the most committed

to and when you follow God is not always going to turn out like you

think. And the people you think do you wrong. Sometimes it could be

God leading them to help you learn. There was this bird in Canada.

He was with his bird friends and starting to get a little chilly, and

all the other birds were chirping and said, you know, we gotta go

south. This is getting cold. We gotta go, we gotta go.

And this one bird said, I don't think he gets that cold here.

I'm staying. They said you better come on, man, we gotta go

south. So all his bird friends flew south. He said, I'm gonna

hang. I'm tired, fine anywhere. So he stays and all of a

sudden, the kenny you know the weather can turn like that, Well,

the weather got cold, and he was like, oh it is cold.

He said, I gotta go south, and he starts flying south. He

crosses the American border and it starts raining, freezing rain and sleep and it's

so cold, and this and this bird goes, oh no, it's freezing.

And then he starts he's flapping. He goes, oh no, no,

no, no, I can't flap anymore. He freeze. He's frozen,

and he's like, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna

die. And then he he fly just lights because he's guiding, and he

and he lights in this barn. He said, no, no, am

I gonna die. I'm gonna die in this stinky barn. Well, about

this time a cow come walking over him. And when the cow got right

over him, he just put a PLoP right on him. And the bird

said, oh no, I'm gonna dinosaurry sticky barn. I'm gonna die with

this PLoP stuff all over me. You know what that is? Right?

And then all of a sudden he noticed something. He's like, I'm warming

up, and he starts chirping, IM warming up. I'm gonna live.

I'm gonna live, I'm gonna live. He starts dropping a laugh. And

about this time this old barncat hurt him. And though barncat went and licked

the stuff off, sa I was a burden, and ate the burden killed

him right there. He said, what kind of story is that here's what

you learn in life following Jesus. Not everybody who plops on you as your

enemy, and not everybody who cleans it off as your friend. And when

you do get plopped on, learn to keep your mouth shut and quit chirping

so you can keep living and go forward. Thank you guys. Yeah,

that's what it is. You all be thinking about that to night. Some

of you all be going to bed laughing, like, man, they'll be

plopping on me. Man, I don't like being plopped on, but life

is not fair. So we just say God, I'll purpose to do what

you want me to do, and when I make mistakes, I'll repent because

I recognize I depend on you. I need you Father and Jesus name.

I thank you for this great church. Thank you for Pastor Adam and Pastor

Diego and their families. I just thank you God for all the people who

came out on a Wednesday night to hear the gospel, to hear what the

Spirit of the Lord is saying to them. So I thank you. You

spoke to people in this place, and you're speaking to them so they can

reevaluate. And for some of us, we just got to make tweaks and

transition and changes just to so we can get more in line with you and

your word. God. For some of us we need a life change.

We need to experience you in a real way. For some of us,

we need to submit ourselves to you and humble our hearts and ask you to

forgive us. And for some ask you to save us because we know you

will. So Bless each one that's here today, everybody who's watching online,

Thank you God for speaking to each one and helping us because we need your

help. If you're here in Jesus' name, with every head badgers for a

moment and you say, preacher, would you pray with me? I have

walked with God, but you're right, I've walked away. I've allowed different

things in my life to distract me and take me away from God. But

today, you know what, I'm going to make that commitment. I want

to get my life right with him. I want to repent and letting God

know I really want to be on your team. I want to be with

you. I want to start following you again. Or if you're here and

you maybe prayed a prayer and think that you're okay just because you pray to

prayer, prayer, But what we need to understand is God said we need

to believe in our heart and confess with our mouths that you know, the

devil doesn't even care if you're here today as long as you don't change.

And you and I need to understand that we need to confess him as lord.

We need to ask Jesus be lord of our life, and the Bible

says, then you'll be saved. What we put in America's salvation before lordship,

Jesus puts lordship before salvation. That's why so many people can say,

well, I prayed that prayer twenty times didn't do anything for me. That's

because you wanted hell insurance. You did not want a Lord and savior.

And God's not an insurance salesman. He wants you to submit your life to

him. So if you're here and you're ready to make him lord of your

life truly, and you say preach, I don't even understand that. I

don't understand it all either, but I know enough to know this. He's

the boss. I'm not. He's Lord, and I'm the follower. The

word is my guide, it's the lamp to my feet. So if you're

here and you say, would you include me in your prayer? I just

want to get it right. I'm ready to ask him, the lord of

my life, to submit my will to his, even though I don't understand

or maybe know what's coming next. Because God will save you from eternal death.

He'll save you from your sin. If that's you in Jesus' name,

I just want to know. I'm not gonna call you Ford, but I

just want to know who I'm praying for. And I want you to have

a moment where you say God, I don't care what anybody else thinks.

I want you in my life. And if you acknowledge God, or if

you confess God or Jesus before man, He'll confess us before our Father in

heaven. You know that word. You can look at it and it means

like an acknowledgement. And what I'm going to ask you to do, is

you acknowledging in front of anybody that would see that lifts their head and looks.

I'm ready to acknowledge that I want God in my life. If that's

you right where you're seated, right now, in Jesus name, with no

hesitation, in the powerful name of Jesus. If you say, include me

in your prayer. God, I'm ready, and Jesus name right where you

see that you're ready. Would you just slip your hand all over this place

and say, God, that's me. Thank you, thank you, thank

you, thank you, thank you. God bless you, God bless you.

I'm just looking around. God bless you. God bless you. God

bless you. I may miss some of you, but God bless you.

God bless you. Over here. God loves people. Who else, God

bless you in the back. God loves people, guys. God bless you.

He wants you in his family. God bless you. He said,

whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Anybody else

willing to call and say that's me. I'm gonna humble myself. I'm gonna

learn to dependom. Thank you, ma'am, Thank you, ma'am. God

bless you, Thank you, sir, God bless you. Thank you,

Sir. I see your hand, thank you, thank you, thank you,

Thank you. Over here, sir, thank you, sir. God

bless you. God loves you. But you'll never experience his love until you

say yes and say you know what, I'm gonna put you first. I'm

gonna learn your way so I can put you first, Father and Jesus name.

You saw all the hands, and there were so many of them,

and they are people that you love, that you created, and you want

them in your family. You want them in your family, regardless of what

they've done, regardless of their good stuff their bad stuff. You want them.

And God, I'm so grateful that you care enough about your creation to

love us even in our bad moments and love us in our best moments.

Thank you for loving these people, blessing them in Jesus' name. If you

lifted your hand, I want you to pray this prayer allowed with me.

If you would, The Bible says we believe in our hearts and confess with

our mouths, and I want everybody in here. Would you in support of

those that is already right with God? Would you show those that lifted their

hand, that had the courage that we're with you when we'll support you.

You've got a family now, and maybe you didn't lift your hand, but

you should have. We're going to introduce you to Jesus tonight. Only he

is the savior of men. Would you pray this prayer with me? A

loud, Church, would you pray God, I choose to believe in your

son Jesus, and I believe he's your only son, and you raised them

from the dead to give me a new life. So according to your word,

I believe that in my heart, and now I willingly confess with my

mouth. Jesus be Lord of my life. Thank you for saving me,

Thank you for forgiving me. I choose you God, Thank you for choosing

me in Jesus' name. Amen and Amen, and America we thank the Lord

Church. Thank you guys. God bless