How to Know God's Will

You may be seated. On your way to your seat, say hey to somebody. Welcome to Orbit Church, if it's your first time. I didn't hear any clapping, but that's probably because I had headphones in. But can we celebrate those who came for the first time? Y'all know what I'm going to tell you. That's not good enough. Because, you know, the first time I showed up at CrossFit, and I don't do CrossFit anymore, you can tell. But the first time I showed up at CrossFit, and we were lifting weights, and I did that last week. They call it the squat snatch or whatever. I don't know what they call it. It's just weird. I don't like that workout. But the first time I ever got it above my head, people in the room who knew it was the first time said, "Yeah! Come on, bro! Woo! Good job!" I don't want CrossFit coaches and randos to be better than God's church when people come in for the first time. So can we celebrate our first time guests? I say guests. Maybe you're just a first-timer because this is the first time. But you're going to stick around and hang out with us and see what God does in your life as you offer Him your entire life. And that's what we're about here. We're about the entire life. And it's interesting that we live in a day and age where if the church asks me to do this, the church asks me to do that, the church is wanting this, the church is wanting this. I'm going to tell you up front, I don't want anything from you. Though I'm going to invite you and ask you to do a million things. It's like, make it make sense. He's just trying to fool me into serving. It's like, maybe, if I can. But no, genuinely, our vision statement is to help people find peace in Christ, develop purpose in their life by revolving everything around Jesus. So we never lied to you. If you looked at the website, you saw that vision, right? Like, we didn't say some things. We didn't say like part of your life. No, we said everything. Now, that doesn't mean show up at church every moment of every day. That means give God your all every single day. Every bit of you. Mind, heart, hands. He wants every bit of it. And we've been going through a series called Real Depth, guys. And y'all are probably like, yeah, this is not what I expected with real depth. Good. Because real depth is actually much more simple than people give it credit for. And today, we're going to be in Romans chapter 12. I think the pinnacle of Romans is probably Romans 8. And 9 through 11 are a close second. Those are the peaks of Paul's argument to the people he's writing to. He had already given them the reality that without Christ Jesus, we are all dead in our sins and transgressions. Our minds, our thoughts are futile, our hearts, they're darkened. There's no way that we can apprehend the nature of God on our own. So we needed Jesus. In Romans chapter 7 and 8, Paul lets them know that in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. And there's no separation. Last week in Romans 9 through 11, to summarize very briefly, I shared with you that there are a lot of deep things we could talk about. But in the end, the deepest we can go doesn't even, like, it doesn't even make it to the small portions of who God is. The Old Testament would tell us, like, these are, these are but like the fringes of all of God's glory. So the deepest you'll ever go, the highest you'll ever go, the widest you'll ever go, the most intelligent or intellectual in the scriptures, the most spiritual you'll ever go, barely scratches the surface of who God is. And so what we decided was, you know what, we're going to have a posture of humility. Like, if he's higher than me, he's bigger than me, deeper than me, more profound than me, I'm just going to try to trust him. And in Romans chapter 12, Paul comes in with, it's not the peak level, it's not the pinnacle, but it is the most practical portion of Romans. And through the rest of the book, it's going to be very practical feedback from Paul. All right, now what? Now that you have humbled yourself before God, now that you understand what that life in Christ is meant to look like, that there's no condemnation, there's no separation, so there's just you offering yourself to God. Now what do you do? And we'll be in Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2 today. It'll be on the screen. And I learned in the first service that I haven't memorized, but I haven't memorized in a different translation. So I'm going to be reading it with you. It's only two verses. So can we, can we stand for the reading of God's word? I got to stand for like 45 minutes plus that, you know, so let's just do it. All right, it's going to pop up on your screen real quick. It says, "Therefore, I urge you..." You can read it with me. I actually like that. I heard you doing it. So I'm going to read it like a normal person. All right, y'all say it with me. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your glory as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship." Verse 2. "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is." His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Amen, somebody? Amen. You can be seated. I want to give you my sermon title, "How to Know God's Will." Anyone ever wanted to know God's will before? Just raise your hand. Yeah. Anyone not raising their hand? I don't know what you're doing with yourself. Like, you've wanted to know it. I think everyone I've ever interacted with wants, at some level, to know God's will. I'm going to take these sunglasses for myself. I'm just kidding. I'm going to set them over here before someone steps on them. I don't know whose they are. They're right here for you. All right. We all want to know God's will. But here's the problem. The problem is, everyone and their mom and dad and grandma and granddad and kids, everyone who comes into church, they're like, "How do I know God's will?" We all want to know God's will. The problem is that we don't want to follow God's process. He just gave us a process. If you want to know God's will, there's a process to knowing His will. Because we're stuck in a puddle. And based on Romans, it's a dirty puddle. You know, it's like, ick. You know, it's a bad puddle. And we come in saturated, sometimes infatuated with that puddle. And we say, "God, what's your will?" Now, God has provided a solution for you in Christ Jesus. He has provided a word for you that you can read. He has shown us who Christ Jesus is in that very word. So we can know who God is based on His word. We can know what He says based on the word. And we can know more about who He is based on the church that He provided. It's almost as if we're stuck in a puddle. God threw a rope in that puddle. And then we're looking at Him, ropes right in front of us. There's one way to Jesus. You know, there's one way. It's Jesus. But yeah, the Bible's there. There are people there. There are suggestions there. There's random stuff that pops in your Instagram feed there. Like, God has provided for you. And you're looking at it and you're like, "God, what is your will? Tell me your will." And He's looking at you and you're in a little, like, cesspool. We were all in it. I'm not, like, it's one of those things I've been there so I can talk about it. You know, as a dude like me, I don't get to talk about a lot of stuff. But I get to talk about this because I've been in that cesspool. And He's looking at you, you're looking at Him. He's like, "There's a process whereby you can understand my will for your life. Just grab the rope and I'll pull you out." And don't spend too much time on that illustration. But I say it to help you understand that you don't understand God's will because you didn't step into the process. Now, let me walk you through the process. Toss the first verse up there again. Because it says at the end, it says if you want to be able to test God's will, approve His will, understand His will, it starts with, "I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, that you're reasonable." Not radical. Not profound. Not crazy. It's your reasonable act of worship in light of all of His mercies that Paul talked about in Romans 1 through 11. You should totally go back and watch some sermons and read your Bible on that. Tons of mercies. Crazy. Manifold mercies. Oh, the depth of the mercies of God. So cool. So crazy. Because of His mercies, we should offer our entire body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Right? And then he goes further and he says, "Do not be conformed to the world, but be." And you can't transform yourself. This isn't something you can do. He's the one who pulls you out of the pit. He's the one who brought you up. He's the one who saved you. He's the one who sent His Son. He's the one who sent His Spirit into you to transform you. He's the one who did all the work that was necessary. All you had to do was receive it. And by the time you received it, you stepped into the house. You're in Christ. The Spirit is in you. You just received this stuff. Amazon, doorstep, pick it up. Cool. I got it. That's how it works." So we look at the world and we say, "No. I'm not going to be conformed to you any longer." That was the earlier part of my life. And we look at God and we say, "Sure. Transform me." So he says, "Offer your bodies as living sacrifice, hand it over to God as a reasonable act of worship. Don't be conformed to the world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Then he says, "Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is." The problem is we're trying to test and approve God's will without God's process of offering our bodies as living sacrifices, refusing confirmation to the world, conforming to the world. I don't know how to say it. Conforming to the world and accepting being transformed fully by God. I know you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm grateful that you're here. But I found in the churches I've been a part of, it's really easy to step into my walk with God, yet remain conformed to the world. It's easy to step into my walk with God and say, "Because all I have to do is confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, and I'll be saved." It's easy to say that, knowing I'll spend eternity with God, yet for the rest of my life fail to develop the holiness that He desires. To not hand myself over wholly to God. We're all about that partial faith, but we struggle with an all-in type of faith. So if you want to know God's will accurately, you've got to step into the process. And if I've seen anything over the years, it is that stepping into the process of offering your whole self to God is so hard. Like, I am fully God's, I'm justified, I'm covered by the blood of Jesus. I'll spend eternity with Him. I am being transformed by the renewing of my mind. But I even know this about myself. There are still parts of me that the world's pulling at. I am still partially conformed. And my desire every day is to receive the mercies of God as I daily offer myself as a sacrifice. That's why He says living sacrifice. He doesn't just say sacrifice. He doesn't just say die for me. Speak positive things for me at work. Comment positively about me on Facebook when someone trashes my name in the world. Be articulate about it, please. No, that's not what it is. It's living sacrifice every single day. Now, we want the mercies, but we don't want the process. It's an everyday thing. Now, I won't spend too much more time talking about, I'm beating you over the head with this. I don't want to spend too much time saying the exact same thing over and over and over again. It's a daily sacrifice whereby you offer yourself to God. He takes your body, your mind, your soul, every aspect of you, and He transforms it. But if you only offer Him part, God can do what He wants. But the process that He chose means that if you don't offer Him your all, then He can't transform all. You'd be justified. But that sanctification process might look a little different for you than someone who offered their entire self to God. There's one thing I know, guys. I'm going to show you something. It's going to be a two-part walk. I'm sorry about this. All right. Can someone tell me what this is? Nope. Close. Gasoline. I feel gasoline. Just making sure. Yeah. The Bible says, "If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I just... It's living water over there. It's bleach, actually. And... Hello! And this is sinful Sally right here. I didn't give her a name in the first service, but I like it. My daughter worked on this. And someone say, "Aw." And I know. I know what you're thinking. The eye fell off. But you know what? You're not perfect either. So... You know what? We're all living backwards, aren't we? Just a little bit. You know? That's the whole point of the Gospel is that Jesus turned us around when we repented of our sin. I know. They ain't ready for the quipping. Okay. We got one-eyed sinful Sally here who's facing the wrong direction. And what happens is, when Sally accepts Jesus, she's covered. But haven't you noticed that, like, you're a new creation in Christ, justified for all of eternity because of what Christ did. But I would change my tune here if I didn't notice what I noticed. Many people will accept Jesus in here. Then they'll leave. And they're completely transformed, guys. Totally transformed. But when they walk in here the next week, they look the same. And that's a lot what it's like to trust in Jesus. Now, some of you have had the benefit of the moment you trusted in Jesus. Or, like, you trust in Jesus, then you hop into the baptism tank, and it was just that collection of moments was so powerful for you that God rid you in a moment miraculously of addiction. That's amazing. And God will do that sometimes. But all of you know this. Even those of you who are magic or, like, mysteriously and miraculously redeemed from something like addiction, that there are other areas of your life that didn't immediately shift. Right? For me, one of my biggest struggles was at nine years old, I was introduced to pornography at my friend Tim's house. And I trusted in Jesus at 15. But I wasn't redeemed from that fully. Praise God I was until 21. It took time. And so, you know, like, she didn't magically get an eye when she trusted in Jesus. It just, she was transformed. And it's an inside-out type transformation. But God wants to transform the outside. Amen, somebody? He wants to transform the outside. And we, in American Christianity, I think it's everywhere. For all of human history, we prefer partial living sacrifice. We partially offer ourselves to God. And again, if you only offer yourself partially to God, you're not, you're not going to experience the full abundance that he has for you. You may never step into the calling that he has placed in front of you. God may use somebody else to do the thing that he had initially intended for you, but because of disobedience or continuing to remain conformed to the world, you didn't give him yourself to fully transform. Now, I want you fearful of your salvation, but I want you concerned about what Jesus wants to do in you that you're missing out on. Because when he placed his spirit in you, it wasn't there just to flicker. It was there to be fanned until it built up into a flame that others see and give glory to God for. Amen. I like it when people clap. It's so cool. I appreciate it. The rest of you don't do it, so it's okay. But what we do, shut, shut, shut. She's turned around in Christ. That's where her eye went. It's in here. What did Jesus say? If your eye causes you to pluck that thing out. Sometimes the cleansing will do that to you. Anyways, say hi, Sally. Yeah, now it's sanctified Sally eventually. Okay. But what we do is we say, all right, I don't want to give my whole life to God. I want to test this thing out a little bit. I've trusted in you. I'm going to go to heaven for all of eternity. I don't need to go to church, though. I don't need to go read my Bible. I don't need to offer myself to him daily. I've got a plan and a way that I want to live my life. But I need to walk into church once in a while. I'm going to step in. Some of y'all are reminded of Ezekiel. I think it's chapter 47. The Spirit of God kind of comes into the land of Israel and it overflows. But if you're not in the living water, the flowing water of God's Spirit, if you don't put yourself in God's presence daily, you're going to miss out. But what we do is we just step in. It's like stepping into a pool, right? It looks a little chilly out there. And you're like, just keep tiptoeing. I like my world. I don't know about God yet. So we tiptoe in. We tiptoe in. And this is, dude, dude, he blesses you when you come to church. Amen. He blesses you when you come to church. But then if we just leave church, it was cool. We dressed up real nice. We heard a good word. It helped us on Sunday. And then I woke up on Monday morning. And because I didn't offer myself on Monday morning, it was only Sunday morning. Now I'm back into the fold of what I used to live in. But I got white shoes. You know, I got different drip. You all be wearing a Christian merch. Drip. Drip, drip. Okay. And then you go further in your walk with God. You're like, some of you, you're like, I can't just go to church. And I'm telling you, you cannot just go to church and expect to see the full sanctification process unfold in your life. And if you want to know the will of God and you only go to church, sorry to tell you, you might get some semblance of it. But the view is going to be really dim for you. Because this is all you got. I showed up and only got a little bit of a glow up. But, but God also told you to do something. Like, what's that say? Read your Bible. All right. That's how you know about Jesus. Open up the book of Mark. It's only 16 chapters. Read that thing. You're like, God, what's your will? What's your will? It's like, what are you asking me for, bro? Like, I gave you my word. You could read Mark and you'd realize really quickly that you're asking me for something that Jesus told you he wasn't going to provide for you. So you should read Mark. And when you read Mark, or when you read Luke, or when you read John, or when you read Paul, or when you read any of the people in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, you start to understand more about who God is. Because when you sit in his presence daily, it starts to make a significant difference. So little Sally's going to sit. She's sitting in reverse. It's kind of strange. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Spiritual Pilates right here. And that's beautiful. But how many of you know people who've been reading the Bible for a long time, but they're like, they know it. But like Paul says, knowledge puffs up, love builds up. Right? They offer themselves over to him daily to read something. And they're taking propositions from his truth. And maybe they attend church. But then, Pastor Elijah says this all the time. Sometimes God calls you to make some adjustments. Because you can read the Bible. You can go to church. But if you still conform to the world, it's going to cause you some big problems. The Lord's still teaching me this daily. He wants you to offer your whole self to him. Well, it's like, yeah, but with my hands, you know, I'm working all the time. And I got to do this. And, you know, sometimes I'll skip my time with God or I'll cuss somebody out on the commute, on the way to work. And, you know, I want to do the Lord's will. But people, God will understand that I got work today. Everybody else does it. I'll never forget. I was reading the Bible. I was going to church. But I was still being conformed to the world. I'm going to set this down for a second. Chill Sally. She's hot tubbing in the cleansing right here. I became a Christian at 15. And I didn't live where my church was at the time. So, praise God, God made it to where I had to move from where I lived at the time to where my church was. And so when I moved there, all I knew were church people. So I was going to church. I was reading the Bible. And then, so you know this, I went to high school between, I graduated 2006. Chill out with that. You're going to be there one day too. All the jokes that just came to my mind. Because I'm a millennial and I just heard the statistic that millennials were the last generation with a IQ bump. You know? So the Gen Z, Gen Alpha, it's like on the slippery slope. But you know, I'm old, so sorry. I'm just kidding with y'all. All right. So, if you remember the music back in the day. That was back when we said "crunk." Don't make fun of us. But you remember that? Anyone remember crunk? Yeah, let's get crunk. Yeah, whatever. And I didn't know much at the time. I loved Jesus. And I had offered myself to Him partially. And I was reading the Bible and attending church. But the homecoming dance was coming up. And R. Kelly's playing in the background. I don't see nothing wrong. And he didn't say, "With a little reading Bible." He didn't say it. And so I was like, you know, the world, it feels attractive even though it tears me apart. And so I go to this homecoming dance and then there's these. My church friends were there. They had gone to church their whole life. And I'm looking. And then all of a sudden, it was my first experience at a homecoming dance. When you get your cock in your system and bump and grind and all this other stuff. And I learned what that was that day. And I said, "Well, if they don't, I guess I don't see nothing wrong with a little." And so for four years of my life, I'm still conformed. I would even justify it when I'm talking at church. Because I would lead young adult. I mean, not young adult. Middle school. Middle school. I would lead middle school little Bible studies on Wednesdays because I was on the worship team. And I'd be sitting there and these kids would be like, "Yeah, you shouldn't be making out and homecoming dance bumping and grinding and all that other stuff." And I'm like, "All right, guys, it's not that big of a deal." Because I hadn't given the Lord everything. I could sit in his presence. I was cool with that. I could walk into church. Heck, I even got my hands a little clean. But then because I was going to the homecoming dance, I was getting them a little dirty. You know? And it's just like, you know what? There's still... Dude, I still haven't fully offered my body as a living sacrifice to Him. I'm still being conformed to this world that tore me apart, never provided for me in a way that I thought it would. Yet I am still sometimes darkened in my heart, futile in my thought. And I look at it and I'm like, "Man, clubbing might have been fun if I had to skip that part of my life." But no, here's what God wants. He doesn't want you to just take a dip. He doesn't want you to just sit in His presence a little bit. He wants you to say to Him, "I'm willing to make a full, holistic adjustment and submit everything at your feet." Everything. My mind, my heart, my hands. I give you everything, Lord. I don't just give you what I know about. I give you what I don't know about. I don't just give you my past and, you know, we'll figure it out in the future. It's like, "Lord, I'm choosing you when it comes to my career. I'm choosing you when it comes to my spouse. I'm choosing you in every facet of my life because I've chosen to put you first." And why do I choose to put you first? Because of your manifold mercies. What He's done for me, it is a reasonable response that I offer all to Him. Even this week, the Lord woke me up. I keep saying the Lord woke me up, Hannah. I just never fell asleep. It was frustrating. And my process, it was Thursday night and I'm laying down and I can't sleep. I'm just frustrated. And Hannah knows this, but I'm going to tell you guys. It's just what happens in my bedroom a little bit, right? So, what happens is I lay down on the bed and if I can't fall asleep after an hour, what do I end up? Floor. I don't know why. Just back to caveman days. Maybe it makes me think I'm going to sleep better. So, I lay down on the floor, grab my pillow. My wife, every single time, she's like, "Where are you going?" And I'm like, "I can't sleep." I can't sleep. She knows what that means. It means she's sleeping alone for a second. Still in the same room, but I'm sleeping on the floor. I'm trying to lay there. I can't sleep. And I wish this happened all the time. I wish I could tell you I was that spiritual. But for the first time in a long time, I felt in my spirit at about 2:30 in the morning because I couldn't fall asleep, I felt the Lord just like punch me over the face with an impression. "Get your butt up. Go downstairs, sit on the couch and pray." So, I get up. I'm moving my little comforter off the ground. And my wife's like, "What are you doing?" I said, "I'm going to pray." And she's like, "Okay." And then she goes back to sleep. And I go down and I pray for an hour. And what the Lord told me to summarize was, even now, Matt, like you have just the first 10 minutes of praying just complaining, stressed out, frustrated. And what the Lord told me is I had to wait for you to finish. You think of yourself way too often, but you committed to put me first. You don't think of yourself first. You think of him first. You submit to me. You do everything for me. And here's the thing. I gave you an example of what that looks like. Every iota of what you complained about, be it some variation of persecution, some physical pain, something you've got to adjust or do. My son already did it. And he did it for you. And your calling now in light of him coming from heaven to earth to die on the cross for you is to offer your life, your whole life as a sacrifice. I'm saying like, I did that, Lord. I already did that. And he's like, but dude, your brain. You keep thinking about what you think of you, what people think of you, what you've yet to do. You keep thinking about all these things happening on the outside of you. You think about the future and you're fearful. You know, you're not scared of what cosmic powers might be doing. You're just scared about what the future might hold. And you're constantly thinking, what happens to me? But that's not what I called you to. He said, my son came to die on the cross for you. His posture was not about him. It was about you. So you need to shift your posture. And that happens when you offer yourself to him. So he's just like, and I already knew what I was going to preach. It's just frustrating sometimes. I wish I could be perfect. And so he's just like in the middle at 2:30 at night. He's grabbing me and he's like, yeah, you got the feet. You've been to church. You've been called to ministry. Your hands are partially there. Heck, your heart's even in it. You eat, sleep, and breathe this stuff. But I just need to, just need to, just need to get you a little more in there. Oh, it's probably going to get. You know what? It's worth it. And I know that seems a little intense, but I need it. And so what I want to give to you today is this. If you want to know the will of God to test and to prove it, you've got to go through this process. And let me make it short for you. The quicker you offer your whole self to him rather than keeping parts to yourself and parts conformed to the world, the quicker you're going to know God's will on your life. You want to know what job he's called you to? You want to know what your spouse should look like, be like, act like? You want to know if the person you're currently dating at 15 is your spouse? We can probably tell you, but also. If you want to know what God's trying to tell you to do in something really specific, wholehearted submission. Amen. Therefore, in lieu of his mercies, offer your entirety as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him, which is your reasonable act of worship. And don't be conformed to this world. It's trash. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove that which is the acceptable and true will of God. And I look at where we're at as a church and like, I already told you God's still doing that to me. The difference between where I was and where I am is the Lord has taught that to be a little more enjoyable. And no, I don't have Stockholm Syndrome. I've just seen what God can do when I give him my life. And this process never stops. But if you hand your whole self to him, you get on that journey way quicker. And you might be thinking like, what does this practically look like? Maybe you came in here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus. It's the same thing for someone who already has a relationship with Jesus. It's confess and believe that Jesus is Lord. But that confession and belief follows with a reasonable response, right? And that reasonable response is wholehearted devotion. The team got together recently and we were just talking through, man, how do we gauge what success looks like in our church? Because I'm going to be honest with you, everywhere it's attendance, it's the number of baptisms, it's this, it's this. If someone wants to ask me how we're doing as a church and I say we're doing great, they're like, no. I mean like, what's your attendance? And we were talking about it. It's like, I want more people to come, cool. But our posture is we want wholehearted followers of Jesus. Everything around Jesus is our vision. And I don't feel guilty about saying it because you've already wholeheartedly given yourself over to the world if you haven't given yourself to Jesus. And I know which one is better. And I know it takes time, but it's 100% worth it. Or you might be thinking, well, what about my kids' soccer schedules? Or, you know, my wife and I, we like to go out with our buddies and do a little more of that. Does that mean that has to change? So I'm not going to tell you whether drinking is a sin or not. I'll tell you, drunkenness is a sin. And often, as you're giving your life over to God, God's going to give you wisdom in certain moments. And the question is, if you've given yourself over to Him fully, what He tells you to do in a moment can often shift. And those who have given themselves over to Him fully shift with them. Those who haven't say, I ain't got to do that as a Christian. I can't tell you how many conversations with leaders I'll have who are more committed than you can even fathom some of them. And I'll sense that God's telling them something. And again, I'm wrong all the time. I'm not saying spiritually, like I'm just manipulating people. I can be wrong all the time. But I'll look at them and I'll say, I think the Lord has got this in front of you. I could be wrong. And then they're like, yeah, I think He might. And now it's open conversation. And then I'm like, but you haven't given yourself over to Him in these ways. And they're like, don't judge me. And I'm like, hold on. Wholehearted devotion to God means that every day I wake up and I sacrifice that which is of me in the world so that the Spirit can invade and make everything better. And it's not just for me, guys. I'll never forget. I was a senior in college and I went to a business conference. It's not the Bible conference. God, anyone been to a business conference? Ain't nothing biblical at that thing. And so I go there and I'm hanging out. I'm sitting around the table. And there are several people around the table, some of whom I've gotten to know a little bit. Some of them are fully inebriated, giving themselves over to that. Some of them are partially inebriated and some of them are just -- no, actually, it was just me who was not that. And there was one person, she was kind of in the partial category. And she looked at me and I was just chill. And she looked at me and she said this. And I want to explain it because I don't want it to sound like I'm just patting myself on the back. And she looked at me and she said, man, usually I hate it when people aren't drunk when I'm drunk. But you're chill. I didn't know what that meant. But I remember thinking in that moment, based on what she said afterwards, which I can't quite remember, a little slurred up. That was like the first time that someone had looked at me and articulated out loud the drastic difference that happens when you give your life over to Jesus. Because he takes that, which is all jacked up, flips you around, puts you on solid ground, gives you a calling, and he starts changing you from the inside out. And you don't always notice that change. And that was the first time for me where someone had articulated that change. I've never forgotten that moment. And I want to encourage you with this. As you offer your body to Christ Jesus, you might see some things instantly. But most of it's going to take a minute. It's a painful process sometimes of cleansing. But know this. You might not see in you what other people see on you. And so let that be encouragement. And if you don't know Jesus, guys, knowing that you have already consented to what the world has to offer, what's it going to hurt you to try it out anyways? What's it going to happen is, you know, if it's right, you're going to go to hell that way. It's not wrong. So I'm not going to say that up here. But it may not work out the way that you anticipated it would work out. And then you're like, oh, the pastor said it. No, it's going to work out. But what I'll tell you, guys, what is the risk? The risk of staying stuck in this puddle when there's a rope right there. Take the rope off of your body, your whole body, and let him do what only he can do. And then come talk to me a few years later and see what happens. Just make the decision to follow him. It's that simple. But it's deeply difficult. I wish I could just tell you, like five years in, you're good. But the reason I never fell asleep is not just because the Lord woke me up. It was because I was so, like, ripped apart in my mind from various things that have been happening in and around me. And the solution for me that evening or morning was to put myself up there on the altar again and surrender to whatever his will is. And it's poetic, but I'm not making this stuff up the next morning I wake up. And I have a clarity that I've never had in these specific categories. And then I'd already planned to go to something because someone invited me to it. And I went to that thing. And one of the comments I made, again, 2:30 in the morning, I'm not held accountable for what I said to the Lord. But I said, "Lord, this is dumb. I need you to give me a vision. I need you to give me what your will is. I need you to tell me something because I don't have nothing at all. I'm too tired. I just need sleep. Maybe discernment, but also sleep." And the event that I said I would go to, just kind of on a whim, there was a person there who I guess had heard from the Lord that we had this gift of prophecy. And it comes up to me and Hannah. And, y'all, he spoke something so specific to me and Hannah that, like, I can't -- you can't write this type of stuff. And I don't say that to say Matt's got this crazy calling. I say that to say that in one subtle, chill moment where I argued with God, wrestling with Him like Jacob did in the Old Testament, He won, as He always does, you know. I submit it. Nothing special, nothing spiritual. He's like, "Ah, all right, fine. Whatever your will is." And I wake up the next morning and I realize, into the evening, all I got to do is grab the rope. All I got to do is hand myself to Him and say no to the world. And I don't have to transform myself. I don't have to lift myself up into the heavenly places. He'll do what He wants to do on my behalf. And all that was required was wholehearted submission. If you want the will of God, give Him everything. Could you all stand with me? Heavenly Father, we thank You for today. We thank You for what Your Son did on the cross. And I know that might be intellectually difficult for some people to ascend to. But it's also intellectually infuriating to ascend to what the world's already told us. So, I don't know. God, just give them the wisdom to choose right now. And God, we thank You for all that Your Son did. But I pray right now specifically that those in the room who have yet to give their all to You, that You would, by Your regenerative power, by Your loving kindness, that You would lead them to this place where rather than partial surrender, they wholeheartedly lay themselves at the altar. And God, as they do this, I pray, selfish, but God, I pray selfishly that You would show up for them quickly just like You did for me on Friday. But if not, I pray that You would give them a little bit of the ability to be patient and endure, always remembering that what Your Son endured is still more than that. And God, I pray for the people in this room who have not accepted You into their life. I pray they would. I pray they would commit today, even if it's just testing out. But if they want to test out Your will, they've got to step into the process. So, I pray that they would understand this truth. Y'all, listen if you're ready for this. Your Son, Jesus, died on the cross, and He rose from the grave. God, help them accept that right now. Go into their life and make it fresh. Turn them into a new creation. Make the old pass away. Let the new come. It's in Jesus' name that we pray and God's people said. Amen.

Romans 12 · chapter mention Romans 7 · chapter mention Romans 12 · chapter mention Romans 12:1