Decisions Over Desires with Pastor Tony Albano

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

So excited you guys are here.

If you're new with us, my name is Tony.

I get to hang out with us every once in a while up here.

I uh I lead our student program, our sixth through 12th graders, which is exciting, especially in this season season.

It's summer.

So uh we're actually two days away from going off to summer camp all next week.

We're taking 50 students and uh 10 of our leaders over to Piney Woods, which is north of Houston, and we're gonna hang out there all week.

One of my best favorite things we're gonna do is we're gonna strip them of all technology and we're gonna see how they do living out in the wild.

Uh it's one of my favorite things to experience.

I've already had students text me, like, hey dude, is that serious?

Uh can I bring an Apple Watch?

Can I do that?

Can I log it down?

And uh, it's just funny.

I really am uh I have a big heart for our students.

I really do have a heart for um allowing them to experience God in a different way.

And uh part of that is going away, getting outside of their normal circumstances.

Part of that is not having the daily distractions of their cell phone and being in service, you know, multiple times, worship multiple times a day in small groups, and really just this key factor of putting them in a place where they can experience God and allowing God to speak to them in a way where typically they might have been distracted, they might not have been in the right mindset, but uh really excited about that.

We're having youth tonight and right after our student camp, we come back Saturday, the 6th, we're having a huge wave, a huge event called the Next Wave Rave.

Make sure if you got a sixth through 12th grader, regardless if they went to camp or not, to get them there.

It's exciting, lots of stuff going on in summer.

I'm also our Holotus venue pastor, which launches in just four months.

We have a lot going on behind the scenes.

So exciting.

Yeah.

Lots going on, lots of checklists, lots of different things.

I love the summer, um, and I'm excited to be here with you this Sunday.

Uh, I want to talk to you guys about this idea of desires.

Would everyone here, would anyone put be willing to put their hand up and say that they desire to live a long, prosperous life?

Got a half the room, majority of you guys, here we go.

Yeah.

A long, prosperous life.

Or maybe you could say you desire to have healthy relationships.

Maybe you have the desire to live a successful life.

You know, desires are funny because they're always changing.

They're based on our emotions, they're based on the circumstances or what we're seeing in front of us.

And if you're like me, you desire a lot of different things, like my needs for today, the future, my lifetime, for my family.

And um, you know, desires can be good.

They're not inherently good or bad.

And growing up, I took a lot of different jobs.

Uh, I'm someone who I dropped out of the age of the ripe age of 15 and a half, legal limit, right there.

And my parents were educators, then my dad was a principal, and my mom was a teacher.

So just imagine the conversations that went happen, and I must have been a great salesman to make the pitch and let it happen.

But I can clearly remember, um, I wouldn't say, hey, tell your kids this is the greatest idea, or if you're a student, I wouldn't say, uh, hey, you should strive to do that.

But for me, and in my story, like that was one of the most beneficial things I ever did.

It got me out in the real world at a very young age, very ignorant, had no idea.

And, you know, sometimes just being young and having confidence is like the halfway through the door.

And, you know, I tried out a lot of different things.

Anything I desired to do.

I started a commercial facility maintenance company, I started a real estate sales company, I was an agent for a little bit, I was working at my broker's license, I did remodeling, um, lots of different small things, but all of them came to a point, very clear, where I got to the end of my rope and I got bored or my desires changed.

And, you know, as I grew in knowledge, as I grew in wisdom, uh I what I thought was I was gaining a better perspective of something bigger that I would create, I would be able to put my hands on.

And every single time I found that something was missing in all of it.

And you know, I know a lot of people living lives right now where, you know, they're caught up in that.

When you're young, it's not a big deal, but as you get older, um, you see a lot of people who, their desires, they start to fade away.

Like some people who were right off from the get-go, like, hey, I'm gonna succeed in this career, I'm gonna put time and effort into building these skills and learning these things, and then you know, 10, 15 years goes by, we get a little complacent, maybe we stop learning, we start building skills, or maybe we've allowed the desires in our life to consume us.

How many of y'all know desires can also be bad?

Right?

Desires can be bad, they can be frustrating, they can be thought patterns and these strongholds that we get caught up in majority of our life, some people.

And we feel stuck.

Some of us are tired, maybe even feel, if you're honest, ashamed of your desires.

And it's not like you're alone in that.

A lot of us get caught up, and if we really dug down to the roots of some of these things that we desire that are not good for us, we would pull up and deroot some really nasty things in our life.

If we're really honest with ourselves.

And you know, desires are hard, like I said, because they shift all the time.

They're constantly changing based on the season you are in life.

And if you're honest, some of the things that you desire are usually the easiest things.

So the things that give instant gratification, things that bring instant pleasure, because they feel good in the moment.

You know, let's define desires.

Desires is a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.

Not necessarily good, not necessarily bad, and we also don't necessarily know if they come from God or not.

And that's a hard one where it's like, you know, my conscience is telling me something.

I believe this is from God, but really, if you and I were to take some time and put it under a microscope, it's like, is this very thing bringing fruit in our life?

Is it leading me?

Is it my matchup with what God says in his word?

And there's this wrestle, this idea, maybe this unknowingness.

And, you know, we can relate to that.

It doesn't actually, our desires don't actually predict our future either.

We just got out of this relationship series, stupid in love, and you know, one of the premises of this was in this series was that just because you have an attraction or a desire for the opposite sex, this other person, doesn't necessarily mean that that is a good relationship to put your time and effort into.

Desires can be deceiving.

You know, we live in a world where the world is trying to tell us what to think, what to do, what milestones we need to hit, and what timeline we need to hit them in.

And if you're growing up in this world and you're a man or a young man, I remember, you know, just getting online, getting on YouTube, young, trying to figure out this world, start different businesses or whatever, trying to figure out what success meant for me.

And I can remember what the world was telling me, it's still telling me, it's becoming more and more evident that as a man, I need to produce this and to uh continue to chase after this endeavor of making as much money as I can as possible.

Forget about who I hurt in the process.

Forget about where my desires lead me to, who I'm hurting, who I'm manipulating.

And then if I ever do reach the success, now the new measure for my life is how much money's in my bank account, how many houses do I have?

What's the price tag of my car?

What kind of relationships do I have?

And if you're honest with yourself, we fight this constant temptation, this desire as men in order to pursue and dominate the opposite sex.

And for us, if we consume, if we get consumed by our hearts' desires, it will lead us down a place where so many men find themselves where their whole desire is to have as many sexual partners as possible.

We heard about this over the last couple weeks in our series.

It's nothing new to you.

And then if you don't get any of these things, you should be ashamed.

You're a failure.

And then the other side of the coin for women is hey, you have this desire to be fully known and fully accepted for security.

Hey, but let's take a pause on all these different things.

Let's slow down, let's don't start a family, let's focus on career.

That should be where you put your time, put your effort.

And then, you know, if things come up, let's mask them.

Let's mask our imperfections that we think are, you know, the worst parts of us.

And let's feed into this desire to be fully known and fully accepted and give ourselves away to as many people as we can.

And what happens many times is no matter who you are, you find yourself down the road, too old, with a bunch of baggage, fed into desires that you've been trying to break for a long time.

Strongholds, thought patterns that have been the same.

If you look through different seasons of your life, you can put like mark it out, and you can see it's clear that you've been doing and wrestling with the same things for a very long time.

We end up chasing after things we were never meant to pursue, putting time and effort, destroying relationships along the way when God never meant for you to go down that road.

And we wonder why God doesn't feel close.

We wonder if there even is a God.

Why does my life look like this?

Why does your life look like this?

And you could be thriving, you could be in this room thriving, but if you're honest, there are some desires that you wish you did not have, or you can remember back in your past, chasing after the desires of your heart.

And that's what a life that looks like being tossed back and forth, back and forth.

You never took the time to consider the cost.

Consider what is God actually calling me to.

What are the desires of my heart?

What lines up with God's word?

What is God calling me to pursue in my life?

And the reality is that most people, most people, if you talk to them, if you're honest with yourself, we're living lives that are caught up in our desires.

Solely, some of us solely based on desire and pleasure.

And this has a disastrous effect.

Just look at the world all around us.

Today, what I want us to do is to look at the Old Testament, look in the Old Testament, look at the people of the Israelites.

They're a great example of the danger of actually living a life solely based on your desires.

These people, they wandered the wilderness for 40 years.

Imagine being the chosen nation of God and being tossed back and forth by your desires, allowing the people in the land around you, these different cultures and tribes, their idols, their false gods, and you slipping in and falling into temptation in the wilderness.

Some of us here today, we know what it means to be in the wilderness.

You know, the right perspective of the wilderness is a period of time where God is preparing you for something.

The wilderness is a very tough place to be.

Because there's desires in your life, things that are actually from God, that you want to see come to pass, but you're in a waiting period right now.

Or you're stuck in a thought pattern that is preventing you from living out the life that God has called you to.

See, when we look at the people of Israel, we see a group of people led by Moses.

And they knew where God was taking them.

They knew that there was a promised land, there was an area of this actual physical land where God was calling them to, where there would be peace, there would be rest for this nation, a place flowing of milk and honey, and that just means that this place would be prosperous, they would have resources and food that they need to cultivate and to build their culture and to become this nation that God said he would one day bring the Messiah through.

They knew this, they had the words of God.

They'd experienced setbacks, they've experienced God's mighty hand blessing them, they've experienced miraculous miracles in the wilderness.

And what we see is a group of people who, through 10 generations, over 400 years, were enslaved by the people of Egypt.

And the Israelites, led by Moses out of the wilderness, like they went through some tough times, they were finally free, and what we can see we can see clearly is this pattern, this thought process of the Israelites seeing God do something, something happening hard in their life, and then complaining about it.

God had just done something crazy.

He sent ten plagues, he removed them from the oppression of Egypt, he split the Red Sea, the waters split, the people of Israel stepped on dry ground as they went through the riverbank, and as the last Israelite left the riverbank, all the water proceeded in as to this group of people that were chasing after them.

Pharaoh had changed his mind, and he wanted to bring them back towards the land, but God protected them with a miraculous miracle.

And what we see is the moment something of struggle came up for these people, they moaned and groaned.

In the wilderness they were hungry and they were thirsty.

And what we see is they point the finger at Moses.

If only you would have left us alone, if only you would have never taken us from Egypt, if only we can go back to Egypt.

And remember, they want to go back as slaves.

Instead of pursuing what the promise of God was, they decided, they desired to go back to living in a place as a slave.

The moment things got difficult.

See, because desires are always changing, depending on what you believe about the circumstances that are around you.

It changes your mindset.

And if that's what you're hindering on, if that's what you're leaning on, you and I will be tossed back and forth throughout our whole entire life.

What we see is that God's verdict of Israel in this period of time and Moses was that they had no faith.

We see in Numbers 14, verse 11, the Lord said to Moses, How long will these people spurn me?

Numbers 14:11

How long will they not believe in me, despite all the signs which I've performed in their midst?

And then in chapter 20, verse 12, kind of similar, but the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you've not believed in me, to treat me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.

And this is the human condition.

This is the pattern which we're caught up in, in disaster, in chaos.

God had a plan for his people, but it was because of their desires, it was because they did not obey God, because they didn't listen and trust in what God had for them.

He already told them, I'm giving you all of this land.

No matter who comes against you, I will destroy them.

No matter who curses you, I will bless you.

And the people of Israel found themselves a generation, this generation, all of them dying off in the wilderness.

No one entered into the into the promised land that was old in this generation, only the children, the next generation coming up because of this idea.

And we're gonna see two men in just a second who were allowed into the promised land.

But all of this generation, they allowed themselves to be consumed over their desires, regardless of what God was showing them and living out right before their very eyes.

Our desires changed based on our emotions.

And what we read about is two men who did not allow that to happen.

Caleb and Joshua, they reacted differently.

What had happened right before this idea?

We're reading this story in Numbers where they that God basically told them they will not inherit this land, this generation.

What had just happened previously, like, why is this strict punishment happening to these people?

Moses, their leader, had just sent 12 spies into the land of Canaan.

And this was the land that God had promised them that they would take over.

It wouldn't even be a battle.

Like God would protect them, they would have to go out and actually do the battle.

But really, if God already had, he already knew the end of the fight.

He already had his hand over it, he was already leading them.

They had nothing to fear.

Throughout the book, throughout Joshua, Deuteronomy, but throughout Numbers, we hear this constant idea that God told Moses to tell the people, and God told Joshua to tell the people, be strong and courageous.

And he told Moses, and he told Joshua, anywhere you put your feet, I have given you that land.

And Moses just sent out 12 spies.

They go to the land, and what they see is strong multitude of people.

They see fortified cities.

They see that the land is prosperous, there's crops, the soil is fertile.

They also notice giants.

And when they come back to bring the scouting report, when they these ten, these 12 individuals, 10 of them had the same opinion, and they actually derailed Israel.

They told them, We cannot take this land.

There are too many giants, there are too many people, there is no way that we take this land.

And they put fear into hearts of all the people of Israel.

And all of those people who bought into that desire, bought into that lie, that it would be tough.

And they thought, let's not do that.

Let's stay right here.

Or let's go back to where we were.

Except for two men, Caleb and Joshua.

Bible tells us that they had a different spirit.

Caleb was a strong man of God.

Joshua was Moses' right hand, he was his assistant.

And after Moses had died, he actually became one of the strongest military leaders we see in this story of the Israelites.

And you see, but there was something different about them.

They saw the fortified cities, they saw the giants, they saw the numerous people, but they did not believe what the other Israelites believed.

They believed that if God told us we can overcome the land, that we would.

You see, he didn't actually allow his fear to overcome him.

He didn't allow himself to lean into his own desires.

Joshua did not fear man, he feared the Lord.

He's 45 at this point in his life.

He has clearly seen the hand of God move and direct his people in miraculous ways that you and I will never experience.

That God used these chosen people in a very distinct way.

And yet these people leaned into their desires.

They didn't trust God, they saw the giants.

See, Joshua is the ultimate example of how you and I escape the dilemma of desire.

Escape the idea of letting our feelings and emotions dictate the direction of our life.

So how did he do it?

Well, if you study the life of Joshua, you see a man who trusted in the Lord.

He trusted as an adult all the way until the age of 110 years old.

This is a distinct life that we should look at because he's a person that ran the race to the very end of his life.

From the young age all the way to 110, he led God's people.

He trusted in the Lord, and God blessed and did everything that he said and promised that he would do for Israel and through Joshua.

He wasn't led by his desires.

It wasn't based on how he felt.

When the other side saw the fortified cities, when they saw the numerous men, when they saw the giants, Joshua saw God's mighty hand.

He saw where he was because of God.

The wilderness is undesirable, if we're honest.

Can you imagine being Joshua with the faith that he had in the wilderness?

How long it would have taken, how many thoughts of how many days you would have been in your thoughts thinking, like, is this actually going to happen?

Wrestling with things, allowing your desires to change based on your emotions.

Can you imagine how living in the wilderness would have been if that would have been your posture?

And at 110 years old, we see Joshua stand up before the Israelites one last time before he dies.

And before this, Joshua's lived a long life.

The Israelites, between Moses and under Joshua's reign, have overcome over 30 kingdoms, 30 kings, 30 strong nations.

Even when it seemed impossible, mighty hand of God would go before them, even sending down hail, chasing people back, chasing people out onto the hills, killing every last soldier.

And what we see is a group of people who should have been like, yo, anything that God says.

Whatever he told us to do, I'm going to obey.

But what we're about to read in a second is something that is very similar to about 40 years ago when Moses, right before he died, he shared with them the word, the decrees that God gave them, the way to live.

And Moses told them something very similar, we're about to read.

He told them either choose evil or good.

Choose life.

Choose to follow God.

And the famous words of Joshua we read in chapter 24 and verse 15 is But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself today whom you will serve.

Whether the gods of your ancestors served back from the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in the lands who you are living.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

They're standing in the land of these false gods, these gods who are tearing apart and bringing people to disaster based on their desires.

You see gods of the Canaanites who are have idols for sexual idols or even for the weather or for fertility, and they're sacrificing children.

They're not living the way of God, and he's up here standing, pleading them before the end of his life.

He's reminding them.

One of the cool things I think he says right here is if it seems undesirable to you, what is he saying?

Joshua's saying, I can't choose for you, I can't force you, I can't make you love God.

But for me and my household, Joshua has made a decision his whole entire life that he would follow God, that he would trust God.

No matter what the circumstances looked like around him, if it seemed impossible, if emotions were going up and down, depending on the day, regardless of that, today I choose to follow the Lord.

Joshua knew he was leading a people who lived based solely on their desires, but not him.

He was a leader by example.

And the world is going to tell you how to live, what to think, and what timeline you need to do this or that, and it's going to lead you astray.

If you follow the desires of this world, you will be tossed back and forth like the people in the wilderness.

We saw God's mighty hand and provision at times, but we saw them given over to their desires.

And God judged them.

And they dealt with chaos and destruction.

They dealt with the reality of their sin, not pursuing God.

But for me and my household, you have a decision to make today.

As an individual and as a family.

But for me, we've decided to follow God and to give him the desires of our heart.

The difference is a decision.

It's something that you come to.

I'm going to serve the Lord.

And I love the word undesirable that Joshua used.

Because it's not going to seem desirable at times to follow God.

It really isn't.

And it's so easy to get lost in the world that we live in.

Just remember, your desires are always changing.

You need to put everything that you do in a box of something that is more solid.

Something that you can clearly rely on.

He's asking them, will you serve the God who's been faithful?

Or are you going to serve something else?

You can serve a lot of things in this world.

Just look out into the world.

People are serving a lot of different things and they are not looking towards God.

People are staring at their phone in their pocket.

They're pursuing sexual relationships as pleasure.

This idea of instant gratification.

I promise you, if it is easy, it is coming from your desires.

Nothing worth in life will be easy.

Even the journey that God gave them, they still had to make the step.

They still had to believe.

Even though God's hand was over them and protecting them, they still had to get to the front line and go to battle.

We see Joshua, who dies at the ripe age of 110, the perfect age, who lived a life based on his decisions.

Joshua stood out and lived an incredible, impactful life because he allowed his decisions to determine his desires, not allow his desires to determine his decisions.

Let's say that one more time.

Joshua lived an impactful life because he allowed his decisions to determine his desires, not his desires to determine his decisions.

And we can trace that all throughout Joshua's life.

And the big difference is a desire, which is a, let's remember, it's a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.

And a decision is a conclusion that's drawn after careful decision.

If you remember in the beginning, we talked about this idea of desires, but we also asked the question: what does it look like when we actually don't count the cost?

So many people end up down the road in their journey missing what God had wanted to do with them, in them through their life, because they never counted the cost.

As we bring our thoughts over to God, as we consider, as we line up with what God's word says, what is the purpose for my life?

How is this bringing glory to God?

You and I can now make life choices based on our considerations in the light of who God is.

Scripture tells us not to lean on our own understanding.

Jeremiah tells us that this heart that we have, it's deceitful.

We can't trust this thing.

Your conscience is going to tell you a bunch of things.

But remember, desires, they don't necessarily are good or bad things, but it's hard to depict if they are from God or not.

You and I cannot live a life based solely on our desires.

We need to make some clear distinctions in our life.

Joshua came up a lot against a lot of adversity, but no matter what the adversity was, he had made a decision that for him, the people that he was leading, were serving God.

My family, I don't care what the world says, how other people raise their children, what my coworkers say, whatever it looks like in your life, you decide to follow after God.

And I promise you, over time, your desires will change.

40 years in the wilderness is undesirable.

And some of you guys here today, you've been in the same thought pattern for maybe 10 years, maybe a year or two, maybe struggling with the same exact sin.

And it's because your desires are leading you over to this sin.

What happens if you and I would reshape our mind, if we would actually put our mind towards Christ and allow ourselves to follow after him, your desires over time will change.

They will line up with his desires.

So many of us are just waiting on a promise from God, hoping God's gonna show up in our life.

You and I have some clear decisions that we need to make, some changes that we need to make.

Joshua's different.

I've made a decision.

I've decided today that for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

It's decisions over desires.

Will you and I let our desires to continue to determine your decisions, or will we be careful and consider God?

Consider what He wants to do in your life, through those in your life, the relationships that he's given you.

And if we're honest, if we're really honest, we can go a layer deeper.

It's decisions over desires, but if we're honest, it comes down to the real issue is the question do you and I believe who God is that he is?

Do we believe that he will do what he says he will do?

We have to consider that today.

We have to decide if we actually trust in who God is.

Do we believe in him?

Do we believe in the person of Jesus and why he came to earth and what he did through the cross for us?

Do we believe that?

Because we can't make great decisions without actually considering the facts before us.

Do you believe the stories you read in Scripture?

Do you believe what we see throughout history?

Because if you do believe that there are some key decisions, there are some different ways that you and I need to live our life.

It's worth considering today and for the rest of your life.

To ponder this for the rest of your life.

Desires will pop in and out of your life.

Decisions will need to be made.

But if you're solely focused on your desires, you're gonna be tossed back and forth.

You might have some great seasons, but there will be some seasons where God is sifting you, He is testing you, He is trying to bring about a better way, He's trying to rewrite the narrative.

And we can make it easy or we can make it hard.

The Israelites didn't have to go in the wilderness.

It was because of their desire to not follow God, to not trust God, that God had to lead them into the wilderness for 40 years to prepare them for what they were going to have.

To prepare them to live a life set apart.

Can you imagine if he just gave them over the land?

The whole point was for them to live set apart as holy priests, as a holy nation, to show the world what it looked like to follow the one true God.

They were not ready.

There's decisions that you and I need to make today.

For some of you in the room today, you've been following Jesus for quite some time.

And if you're honest with yourself, if you take a quick look at your life, up until this point, you've allowed yourself to be led by your desires.

It's a hard truth.

It's a truth for me as well.

We're the places that I have not given over to Christ, that I've not considered, to make key decisions on.

This is the way and I in which I will act.

It doesn't matter what's going on around me, this is how I respond.

See, but the beautiful thing about following God, regardless if that's where you find yourself is today, is that He's the great Redeemer.

And what we saw in the wilderness with the Israelites, we saw God's mighty hand, we saw the mercy of God, we saw the glory of God.

But what you read throughout these pages is you really get a key idea of how patient your loving God is for you.

He's willing to wait, he's willing to let us work through some things.

This is a season of preparation for you if you're in the wilderness.

Not to allow yourself to overcome with your desires for all these quick things, these quick reach schemes, you know, that are gonna draw us to a better life.

It's easy, this instant gratification.

No, some things take time.

Decisions take time, they take consideration.

There's a story in scripture, and uh, if you haven't heard anything I say today, those who are following God, who maybe you feel like you've allowed yourself to just at this point be consumed with your desires, this story is for you.

Peter's following Jesus for three years.

Jesus gets arrested.

And Peter had a desire.

He had a desire for a kingdom to be upheld.

He had a desire that the Messiah, Jesus, this person, he would rise up as a military leader, and his people, the people of Israel, will finally have their kingdom.

They'll finally be in charge, they'll finally be peace.

This idea of Rome, they're done.

But then Jesus gets arrested.

And we see a man who was given over to his desires, and what happens is he denies even knowing Jesus on three accounts, three separate times.

Maybe you relate to that part of the story.

People are looking at your life right now, and you're living it's hard.

I'm not denying that the season you're in is hard.

But don't deny when some people look at your life, maybe it doesn't look like you're following God.

One of the third times Peter actually cursed God to show that he was not in relationship with him.

Maybe that's you today.

But here is the patient part of our God, here's the redeeming part of our God.

After Jesus dies and resurrects, Peter, who met him three years prior as a fisherman, has no idea what's going on.

He goes back to doing what he knows best.

I can relate to that.

Going back to my old ways, my old habits before I knew God.

And they're not having much luck.

They're on the water, and a man from the shore tells them to cast their nets to the left side of the boat, and they cast their nets and they catch so much fish they can't even pull it up.

Peter's not concerned with this.

He notices who the man is from the shore.

The Messiah who he called out.

He said that Jesus was the Messiah.

He said that he was God.

And just a day prior, he's not even known about him.

He has nothing to do with this man, but he sees Jesus at the shore.

He jumps out of the boat, swims over, and before he can say a thing, he notices that Jesus is cooking breakfast for him.

And he asks Peter three times, Do you love me?

Three times for each time that Peter denied him, that he gave over to his own desires.

And one of the craziest things I think we read in scripture, I mean, I didn't think this was crazy, the more I ponder on it, the older I get, the more I realize what it means to follow after Jesus.

We see right here in John 21, verse 18, he's just asked him, Do you love me?

John 21:18

And he says in verse 18, this is Jesus speaking.

He says, I tell you the truth.

When you were young, you were able to do as you liked.

You dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go.

It's living life based on your desires, right?

But when you're old, you will stretch out your hands and others will dress you and take you where you did not want to go.

And Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death that he would glorify God.

Peter, you've been living your life based on your desires, you've been doing the things that you wanted to do.

It was easy.

It was easy when I was here showing you the miraculous signs, when I was healing people, when I was raising people from the dead, it was easy.

But the older you get, Peter, there's some decisions that you gotta make because you're gonna go places that you don't want to go to.

And the older I get, the more I follow Jesus, the more I realize that I'm gonna end up going places that if left to my desires, I would never go there.

You and I, if we're honest, we would never go to the places that God wants us to go if just left to our hearts' desires, this deceitful heart that you and I have.

And that was Jesus' sales pitch.

Right after that, it said, follow me.

Peter, you're gonna die.

Living out what I'm calling you to do.

And we've been wearing this idea of being a witness.

We've been hearing about this idea for weeks now.

It means to lay down your life and to follow after Jesus.

It's decisions over desires.

Regardless of what you and I feel today, no matter the circumstances around us, you and I have key decisions that we need to make.

And regardless of how you're living your life right now, today, praise God we serve a patient, loving, merciful God.

All throughout scripture, God's people have turned their back on him, and he's continued to pursue us, he's continued to love us.

I want to live a life like Joshua, 110 years of age, dying, ran my race, telling the people, the next generation after me, to continue running the race, and I can say that boldly and confidently because I've lived a life like Joshua.

If you and I could clearly show that and live a life based on an example, lead like an example that you and I will live a life based on our decision to follow after Jesus.

No matter the cost.

Some of you guys here today have never put your trust in Jesus before.

I want to give you that opportunity today.

But everyone bow their heads and close their eyes.

But with Jesus, there's hope no matter what you're going through in your life.

And Jesus loved you enough to step out of perfection, to step out of heaven, and to join us in this chaotic world to live a perfect life, to be tried as a criminal hung on a tree for your sins.

He's the scapegoat, he's the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He takes your screw-ups, your desires, and he changes them.

If you're here today and you've never had the opportunity to put your faith in Jesus with no one looking around, everyone's eyes closed, and you want that today, would you put your hand up?

Amen.

Amen.

God sees you and he acknowledges your faith.

Because of your acknowledgement today, you've been forever changed.

Your eternity has forever changed.

You are now with your Father for eternity in the presence of God.

I want to help you today, those who made the decision, to simply acknowledge the decision you're making.

Would everyone in the room, including the believers, pray along with me?

Jesus, today I choose you to put my faith in you.

I believe that you are God, that you came to earth, you died for my sins, and I believe that you rose again.

Thank you for loving me and for forgiving my sins.

Now let me pray for everyone in this room.

Father, I pray as a body of believers today that we would be reminded that empowered by the Holy Spirit, we have the power to decide.

Father, show us your desires, show us your heart.

I pray for those who are struggling with their own desires right now, caught up, stuck, maybe waiting on the Lord to do something.

Holy Spirit, heal them, guide them, show them a vision, Lord.

We are believing for change.

You are the merse, you're merciful God, you are a gracious God, you are a patient God for those who've been given over to their desires to this point, following you, God.

I pray that we would look towards the life of Joshua, look towards what you told Peter.

We clearly see a distinction in the life of Peter, empowered by your Holy Spirit, going out in the early church, being flogged and arrested.

But he could not help.

He could not change the fact that you had called him and he had made that decision.

And no matter what happened, the circumstances around him, whatever it looked like, was not based on his decisions, but on not based on his desires, but the decision to follow you.

He said he couldn't stop preaching of the things that he's seen and heard.

And I pray that that would be our posture, God.

That we would follow after you.

We'd make the decision to trust you, to trust that your way is better than our way.

Regardless of what's going on around us, help us, Lord, to make decisions and not live a life tossed back and forth based on our desires.

Holy Spirit, reveal what you need to in each of us as individuals as we walk out and go throughout this week.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

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Man, I love you guys and I hope you have a great rest of your day.