All or Nothing

Title: "All or Nothing | Pastor Joel Mason (Sunday Service)" URL: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmqWkJwM8q0" Transcript: "(00:00) All right. I love the conversations, but I'm going to I'm going to interrupt now. Bring us back to what we're here for today. I want to give you a little um there's going to be something different after church today. We had a um a generous donation to the church of a pingpong table. (00:28) And you're wondering, why do we need a ping pong table? Because Nate's been whining for a long time. then he needs a ping pong table. And there are some others that was discovered in here that like to play ping pong. So, we're gonna give it a shot that uh today after church there will be a ping pong table back there and see it's kind of the intent. The kids have their area back in the youth room. (00:49) This will be an adult play center and u just want to make you feel like kids again. So, yeah, just thought I'd let you know that that's that's happening. Does that have anything to do with the spiritual nature of what we're going to talk about today? Absolutely not. However, I think there's there is good that comes from and spiritual health even that comes from even around a ping pong table. (01:08) So, I think it can be very very good. On the way to church this morning where Renee and I were driving here, um we pulled out, as many of you know, we live up on Cooper Mountain, come down 185th to come here. I pulled out on 185th and there was a squirrel crossing the road and he was I mean he was two jumps from the edge of the road. He was he was crossed. (01:37) He was almost there as we were coming up on him and um suddenly he panicked and as squirrels are want to do and he decided he was safer back in the middle of the road and so he runs back to the middle and so I had checked nobody was behind me and I didn't want to squish the little guy and so I was slowing down and here he is running in front of us as we're going down the road and he's going I don't know if he was trying to avoid an alligator. I don't know what he was trying to do, but he couldn't make up his mind. (02:03) Finally, I went around him and uh as far as I know, he's still still breathing as of right now. But um so why do I tell you that? Because kind of what I'm going to talk about today, I think a lot of us in our spiritual life spend a lot of time not sure where we really are, where we want to be. We're wanting to run down the middle of the road and and this spiritual truth sounds good, but but this looks good over here, and then there's this. And we do this little weave thing all the while not realizing that that uh there's reality is going to (02:32) catch up with us eventually. And God is merciful enough to be holding back what's about to plow over us. But I think we maybe will listen today with a little more than a squirrel mind and maybe a little less uncertainty in where you are. (02:51) I'm going to challenge you on that idea if you're want a follower of Jesus um that you truly consider um where you are with God. Uh we spend a lot of time I think Christians do and especially in our culture of trying to do the minimum of being a follower of Jesus without it causing any inconvenience in our lives. And maybe I'm being too harsh there, but I I wonder that and I think there's re there's reasons that maybe we can think about it as we go through today. (03:30) But I there is a truth that runs from all through the Bible that God is calling us to himself. He created us to have relationship with him. And we as human beings are born into and we've talked about this uh a state of being separated from God. We are already separated from God at the moment of birth because we are born in the image of Adam. We've talked about this. And in the image of Adam, we are born in sin. Separated. (03:54) We have totally missed the mark of a relationship with God because we inherit and then we reinforce our rebellion against God. And so we already start off uh distant, but God in his mercy has made possible a relationship with him. He's done that for us. Now, if God has done for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, extending to us in his mercy, extending his grace, forgiving us of that which separates us from him, and and paying for the cost of our rebellion, if that is what God has done, do you think he wants us to find the bare minimum we can do in relationship to him? Do you think he has (04:34) written a here's here's what will make me happy and you can do whatever else you want to do with your life? Or do you think it's possible, and I'm gonna say you might want to lean this direction, that God's intent is that we seek him with our whole hearts. That with our whole expression of our life is the reality that he exists. He owns me. (05:00) He uh and my life is used to worship him in everything that I do. And I can't overstate that. And I'm going to tell you that's what God says he wants. That's what God says is the absolute best for us. God says that's where life is, but we somehow get in the middle of the road and we're wanting to do this. What are we going to do in response to that? There were three Hebrew boys, literally probably teenagers, maybe a little bit older by the time some of the things we read about them took place. But they found themselves having lost their families. Their (05:39) families had been killed. Their nation had been overrun. They were taken into captivity. And now they were living in a foreign land of their captor. So we read a bunch about what happens with them. But they find themselves in a culture that is foreign and unknown to them. And as part of that culture, they are being forced to to mold to be part of to exist within that culture. So much so to begin with, their names are changed. (06:15) So that their Hebrew identity is lost. They their captor doesn't want them to have any connection to who they are, to their people or their God. And so he changes their names. He then begins to he says if they're going to uh be changed they got to change their diet everything that they've eaten because the king also realizes that their diet is an expression of their relationship with God. (06:46) It is a very tangible means for them to be able to say what goes into me is going to glorify my God. And so one of the first thing the king does is says I want to put them on a diet that defiles their god. They refuse. Let's make a test out of it. They say, "Let's see what happens if we eat what we would normally eat and the others can eat the others that have been taken captive and the can be fed whatever. (07:17) " And God allows their faithfulness to set them apart. And these three Hebrew uh men now, young men begin to be given positions of authority within this foreign country. All the while, and we need to catch this in our minds, all the while there is a cultural pressure for conformity, not a slight pressure, a major pressure that they must conform. (07:42) And they are being watched and observed in everything that they do. And if anything they do creates a question of loyalty to the king, somebody's going to go whine to the king. Those Hebrews that you put in charge, they're doing this, this, and this. Well, it pops up again because one day the king gets this grand idea that everybody needs to recognize his greatness and worship him. (08:13) And so he erects a statue 90 feet tall, 9 feet wide, made in a human form. Historians tell us it was made to look like the king because the king wanted people to worship him. And it was made of gold. wouldn't mind having that. But he makes it of gold because he wants to show not only how important he is, how he's worthy of worship, but the he can make a statue out of gold because he's so wealthy. (08:40) He rules the world. And then he gets this idea along with building the statue that everybody must come out and when the all the musical instruments play, everybody's to bow down and worship. Hey, if I'm king, sounds like a great idea. And at least it did to to Nebuchadnezzar. And so, you probably know the story. (09:09) The the music plays, all the instruments make their sound. There's this loud noise that arises and everybody bows, but three Hebrew men. They refuse. the other people who are in and remember these guys have been given positions of authority. That's part of the reason why they're in a they're in a crowd that notices what they have done because everybody else is always bowing to the king. (09:38) These three men have shown they only bow to one king. And so after not having bowed, somebody scampers off to the king and says, "Hey, you know those three three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneo, they didn't bow to you. They refused. And you had said that if nobody bows, if they don't bow, they're going to be thrown in the furnace. We want to see them roasted. Roast them. (10:08) Roast them. Roast them." So the king calls them in. And he says to them, "Surely you must have made a mistake. You didn't understand the edict. Let me clarify for you. When the music plays, you bow." It's that simple. Music plays, bow. You know, there. That's all I got to do. Okay, we're going to try it again. Here we go. Crank up the band. (10:33) They're not going to bow. In fact, we read this. They say to the king, "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty. But even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up." Please put yourself in that context. (11:01) This wasn't a couple buddies sitting around the counter at the bar, okay? This was life and death. This is the guy that's the most powerful man in the world at that time. And this is under an actual king who can say, "I don't like you. Kill him." You see, there there wasn't a lot between life and death when you're standing between before the king and they're saying to him respectfully, "Not going to happen. We serve one God. (11:33) We're not bowing down." Well, that didn't go over real well with uh Nebuchadnezzar. He didn't like it. In fact, it kind of describes in there in the book of Daniel that he kind of had a bit of a temper tantrum and he required that the furnace they were going to throw them in. (11:56) U these furnaces had been used previously or were used for uh most likely just prior to that used for melting the gold to shape the the uh statue the the idol the image. That's why they were as big as they were because they melted vast quantities of gold and they were very large. And if they were hot enough to melt gold, they're hot enough to melt human flesh. (12:16) But then he goes and says he's so upset now. He says, "I want them cranked up hotter than they've ever been cranked up before. You create the heat in there so hot that there's no way that this is they're they're going to live." And then he tells his soldiers to tie tie these guys up, all three of them. and he wants them thrown into the furnace. (12:35) What's interesting is the guys throwing them in the furnace die before they even can toss them in because the heat is so hot. But yet they end up in the furnace. It says they they rolled in Shadrach, Mesa, and Abedo securely tied fell into the roaring flames. Well, he could have avoided it. They didn't have to be there. (13:00) If that was the end of the story and that was the the last period that's placed uh on the sentence, they were thrown or fell into the roaring flames, we'd all go, "Man, that wasn't very smart." But let's read on. We go down to verse 25 of chapter 3 in Daniel. And it says Nebuchadnezzar now speaking. (13:25) He said, "Look, Nebuchadnezzar shouted, "I see four men unbound walking around in the fire unharmed. The fourth looks like a god or if you're a fan of veggie tales." And one of them was real shiny. Um yeah, one of them it says shown with the light of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meach, and Abedneo, servants of the most high God. (13:50) " You see how he recognizes him now? Servants of the most high God, come out. Come here. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed and their clothing was not scorched. (14:14) And I love this extra line they throw in there. The author throws Daniel gives us. He says, "They didn't even smell the smoke." In fact, what it's you getting the context what he's saying? Nothing touched them. Not even the smoke from the fire. Now, maybe we sit here and we think about this story of those guys and we think, "Yeah, but that's in the Bible. That's not me. (14:39) they could do that because that's inspirational stories and and uh you know it's that's good that it's there. Now, if I could only get partway there, I'd be doing well because God doesn't expect me to be thrown into a furnace. I would take you to the Bible and I'd argue just the opposite. God expects the followers of his those that have a relationship with him to be living for the furnace as an opportunity to express their relationship with him. (15:20) We often live close to the fire extinguisher. We want to make sure if it gets hot, we'll step away. But that's not the the relationship that God calls for. What does he say? If you seek me, you will find me. And he puts a condition there. If you seek me with your whole heart. Last week, we talked about the the response of faith is one that we live single-mindedly. (15:48) Jesus talked about that. You've heard me say this many times in Matthew. Blessed are the pure in heart. or as it literally meant, blessed are those who are single-minded, those who have one agenda, blessed are they because they will see God. Isn't it the desire? It should be of every one of us who says we have a relationship with Jesus to see God. (16:17) However, I am afraid and I want you to think about this today that culture has become that which has formed you and you think from a cultural lens. You act from a cultural lens. You want to fit in culturally. You don't want to stand out. You don't want to be pointed out. You want to just skate through. (16:38) Keep your head down, lay low, and give Jesus a little praise on Sunday. If we had a lot of time this morning, I could walk you through within God's word where that mentality is going to leave you very disappointed. Not only in this life, but when you meet Jesus and he says, "Depart from me. I never knew you." I'm not trying to be harsh. I'm not trying to be unkind. I'm not trying to uh scare. (17:16) I'm just talking about what Jesus himself has said and what the Bible tells us. And I am afraid that too much of what takes place within the Christian faith takes place from a cultural mold. And it's time for us to say, "No, we're not we're not doing that anymore. We're done. We will live for Jesus and Jesus alone. (17:35) We will seek him in the morning. We will live for him throughout our day. We'll express praise and worship to him every opportunity we have. We have said and we've been building on this idea. We looked at the foundations of our faith. But the life of faith that flows from those beliefs has got to be one of sole solely of worship. We worship in prayer. (17:58) We worship in time in God's word. We worship in the way that we approach life single-mindedly. And now today, I want you to hear this. This may be the most important message I ever preach. We have to live not only single-mindedly, but totally surrendered to the truth of Jesus. Not partially, not I like him. I think he's a good guy. Totally surrendered. (18:23) He has to define the way I think, the way I speak, the way I act, the relationships I hold to, what I believe is right, and what I believe is wrong. And I will surrender and bow to nothing but Jesus. We must stand alongside Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneo because the trumpets are blaring loud in our culture today. Bow down. Bow down. Bow down. And we've got to stay and say, "I serve one king. I will bow only to one. (18:50) He gave me life. It's his life to take. I will give glory to him with every breath that is mine." Joel, you're going overboard. We don't have to get that fanatic. Okay, then I've got to throw out a bunch of things that Jesus said, and I'm not wanting to do that. I said he's my savior and that we say we live for him, but I still think we're like the squirrel. (19:38) It's time to straighten out the path, know the one on whom we focus, and live it. Live it fully. It's kind of like u Hebrews chapter 11. If you're familiar with that book, it's the the chapter there in Hebrews. The author there gives us a um it's kind of like here I want to give you encouragement by the time we get to chapter 11 and living your faith. (20:05) And he lists out for us all the things that those who have gone before us went through and they did not waver and they did not bend. And it's in that he begins that passage by saying this. He says the fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God is uh in God. This faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. (20:31) It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. So he's telling us and the Hebrews at this point in Hebrews chap 11 is the state of encouragement. You can get discouraged and bow to culture or you can choose to stand. (20:59) But let me show you what happened to those who stood and how God was pleased and it brought glory to God in the willingness to stand. I would take you from that to take you into uh first John and and actually 1, second and third John. I would take you to Revelation where it talks about those who overcome. And in fact, John in his uh in those letters that they end there, 1, second, third John, he gives the challenge. You can bow to culture or you can serve God, but you can't do both. (21:24) And if you choose to do to uh bow to culture, you won't overcome and your heavenly father will not meet you when the end is there. You have to overcome. Like we seem to be le living life that I can live how I want today because Jesus took care of tomorrow. So it'll be fine. (21:49) But the Bible actually says I live today like Jesus took care of tomorrow because he forgave my sins. Therefore, I will not live as I lived separated from God. I will live in relationship to God. And if culture tries to force me to live different than that, I'll stand because I've totally surrendered to Jesus. Maybe I put it this way. (22:15) How many of you like bacon? I love it. Went camping this week. We had a great time. I made sure we had a lot of bacon when we went camping. That's just kind of what you do when you go camping in my opinion. You have bacon. So, I made sure we had plenty before we left. And we fried up bacon every morning. And I like bacon. It's great. (22:38) So, it made me think of a little story that I heard. The farm animals all got together one day and they wanted to do something special for the farmer because he was a great farmer. He treated him really well. Took care of him. They realized they needed to give some recognition to the farmer. (22:57) And so the chicken got up and said, "We all have to give our best. I'll give the eggs." And they turned to the pig and said, "You bring the bacon." You see the difference? We're called to give the bacon. I'm not trying to make light of our faith, but sometimes I think if we can look at it from a different perspective, that's the reality. To give the bacon requires sacrifice. I give up myself. (23:26) To give an egg, I do what I would naturally do. I got to move away from being the chicken and I got to come become the pig. Now, I can find all kinds of problems with this analogy, but but the reality is I think I'm hoping you get it. We got to have our bacon moment. We've got to decide that we're living fully surrendered to God. (23:53) I could go on on that analogy and talk about the fire of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneo or how they were Jewish and they wouldn't eat pork, but that's not my point. My point is, have you come to the point where you want to please your savior enough that you're willing to give up yourself? That's the question we have to ask. (24:26) Now, as we think about that, I want you to consider something else with me. I believe we've seen an example of this in just the last few weeks. Some of you, I hope you'll I'm going to say this right up front. Hear what I have to say. Um Charlie Kirk was shot what three so weeks ago. (24:52) And as a result of that, you may not be aware of this, there are thousands upon thousands of people who have committed their lives to Christ. I'm thankful for that. What someone meant for evil, God meant for good, and he used it for his kingdom. Now, I have heard over and over and over again how evil Charlie Kirk was. I keep hearing this. He was a bigot. He was a racist. He was a misogynist. (25:23) He was Let's Let's just fill in the blank. It's been said. It's there. So, I wasn't a big follower of Charlie Kirk, but I thought, well, I'm going to be fair to him. I want to I want to learn something. So, I have been watching for the last three weeks as much of him as I can find. I'm looking for inconsistencies. I'm looking to see what drives him. (25:50) I'm looking to see and I'm still still watching, still reading stuff that he's done. Culture is trying to form one truth, but it can't be supported. There's one truth that I have found in regard to Charlie Kirk. The man loved Jesus. And it was his desire to serve Jesus that he said, "I'm willing to stand and speak what I believe will bring people to Christ. (26:24) " You know what I found and discovered in his debates? He is not asking people to become conservative MAGA followers. I can't find that. Maybe it's out there. If you know of it, show it to me. You know what I hear him come back to every time? You need to follow Jesus. You need Jesus. That's it. Just time and time and time again. (26:50) Well, I didn't like the way he presented it and I didn't really based on whose definition is that cultural definition who hear carefully what you're hearing. He chose not to bow to culture but lives solely for Jesus. I think we've been blessed with the opportunity to see what that looks like and for us to wake up to say enough's enough. I will stand on the truth of Jesus. (27:17) I will live out my faith totally surrendered. I will love my neighbor as I love God and surrender myself so that they know him. We've had an opportunity to learn. I hope we don't miss it. I hope we don't just kind of go, "Well, well, that happened. Maybe he deserved it. Maybe that was a shake that off. (27:46) " He was a fellow brother in Christ. That was the one thing he claimed, the one thing he wanted to be known for. He his prayer, as his wife said, was, "Lord, here I am. Send me." He wanted his life to be a full expression of faith. Don't let culture determine for you how you view his faith. (28:13) Do not let culture determine to to be able to write off what he has done to downgrade to denigrate and then you to say I'll just stay over on this side. We can't do that. I'm not asking you to be Charlie Kirk. Please don't hear me. That's not where I'm going. I'm asking you to totally surrender to Jesus. (28:35) Not partially, not kind of, not feel good, not on Sunday. Totally surrender. So that your very thoughts in the morning are of him. Your words just drip with his presence in your life. Your actions express the fact that he has redeemed you. Your values are his values. Your future is his future. You live s surrendered totally for your king unwilling to bow when the trumpets are loud. (29:08) But how do we do that? Here's the good news. God told us how. So if you'll stick with me for a couple of minutes, I'm going to walk through how we do this because I want you to understand and hopefully you caught this. the expectation of God on the follower of Jesus, the one that has a relationship before Jesus even came. (29:31) His expectation of Abraham, his expectation of David, his expectation of the prophets, his desire for the nation of Israel was total surrender. It was not. He wanted a little bit so that he could see him on on Saturday, right? He wanted their whole life. And this is the theme that runs through the whole Bible, and we want to coat over it because we're afraid culture won't like it. (29:51) No, it is the theme that is ours to live. And so God was kind enough to tell us how. Last week I ended when talking about single-mindedness on Romans 12:es 1 and 2. We are going back there now to dig into it because it tells us exactly how to live totally surrendered to God. Let's just walk through it. Romans 12:es 1 and two. (30:18) Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (30:39) Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. I'm going to literally walk you through this verse now, these verses. Now, there's two of them, but I'm going to break it down for you so we understand exactly what Paul was saying. He starts out with the word therefore. And if you're familiar with the writing of the Bible and especially with Paul, when he says therefore, it means he's already laid the foundation for the resulting action. (31:05) Okay? He's now stating this is what needs to happen because I've told you shown you all of this. Now, here's what the result is. So we hit chapter 12 and the therefore refers to chapters 1- 11. Chapters 1- 11 start out with the condition of you and I of humanity. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. (31:30) They took the incorruptible and instead desired to worship the corruptible. They took images of animals and of themselves and they worshiped them. It talks about how we as foolish people uh abandoned God and walked our own way. But here's the good news. God in his mercy sent Jesus that we might have life with him. He would redeem us back to what we were created to know. (31:56) And now we get to chapter 12 and Paul says, "Therefore in light of what God has done, here's how you should live." Catch what he's saying now? So he goes on. He says, "Therefore," and then he goes into, "I urge you." The language that Paul is using there is, "I'm pleading. I'm begging with you. (32:23) If you see what God has done, you only have one response. I'm begging you, do what I'm asking you to do. He's not giving a suggestion. He is giving you the one way for you to have life, as we've said in this series, unlocked, the doors opened, to understand the presence of God, to be transformed by his power in your life. (32:52) And he's saying, I'm begging you, if you've heard anything I've said in the first 11 chapters, they weren't chapters then, but now we have them. verse 11 uh the whole treatise I've given you to this point then you must respond to what God has done brothers and sisters this is being written to those who have already put their faith in Christ this is not a a pleading with everybody you've got to do this is those who have recognized what is stated in chapters 1 2 3 this is I live my life separate and independent from God. But if you and and Paul is now writing that they have come to that point that they've recognized (33:34) what God has done in Jesus. They've put their faith in him. And he's saying, "Brothers and sisters, I'm urging you as followers of Christ with the Holy Spirit of God living in you. I want you to listen to me now. I want you to change how you approach life. It is not yours. It's your kings. Live for him. (33:59) And he says, "In view of God's mercy," okay, that's what we've talked about. That's what the first 11 chapters are about, the condition and the mercy of God. I Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy. (34:20) In other words, because of all that God has done, now I'm going to give you your response. What did God do? Romans 5'8. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's the That's the key point right there. Christ died for us. And in view of of God's mercy and the grace that he has extended to us, there is one response. If I recognize the grace, then I live in response to the grace. (34:51) Many of us want the grace, but I'll choose my own life, my own way, what I want to do. Paul's saying, "Look, I'm begging you, in light of what God has done, if you put your faith in Jesus, there's only one way to live." And now he continues on. I just say one more note on that. We will often in the church talk about mercy or grace. (35:17) But one thing that Paul was doing in his writings and especially specifically in Romans was that he laid the priceless nature of mercy before the reader. Because we as those who are lost do not understand mercy until we understand how lost we are. So maybe for some of us sitting here today, we I'm doing just fine. No. Okay. (35:46) Really, I'm not saying what you're accomplishing. I'm asking about your relationship with God. And God desires to unlock the fullness of life for you. Absolute fullness where you can see his his power, experience his presence, know that he hears your prayers and responds to you. Know the depth of his love for you. Know that you can never be abandoned. Know that your future has been secured. (36:09) God has done that for you. But you've got to come to the point where you recognize that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Until we get to that point, we don't understand our or have a desire for the kingdom. Jesus stated it this way. I have come to bring the kingdom of God. And the kingdom belongs to those who recognize their condition before God. (36:31) If I won't recognize my condition, I can't enter the kingdom. And maybe you're saying, "Well, that's no big loss. I'm fine without the kingdom. Yeah, okay. That's fine. But you're living life separated from God. And you're going to continue on your choice even after death. God is consistent. (36:55) The choice you make in this life toward him is going to be the choice made toward him for eternity. You and I are eternal beings given a physical body that will fade and fall away. But in eternity, I God still will exist and he's still in control. And he said, "I give you an opportunity in my mercy through Jesus to come and live and be present with me. (37:20) You chose to be an independent path for me than an independent path you get and my presence won't even be there." And the Bible says it's a hell of a place to be. So, we've got to recognize our need. No matter how good you are, we all fall short of the glory of God. But then Paul takes us further and he says, "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice." For the audience that was listening to Jesus or to to Paul's letter at that point in time, this would have made a whole lot of sense. (37:55) You see, the normal condition of the sacrificial system which they were under when Paul was writing would have been this. A living animal gave up its life to cause the person offering that sacrifice the recognition of the cost of sin. I've offended God. That separation is there. Life must be taken. This Paul says is different. (38:19) Now Jesus has taken your sacrifice. He died for you. So now you as a dead person separated from God. Now give yourself fully up to leave and live with God. You see the the the I don't know if I explained that really well. Living to dead. Now it's dead to living. That's what Paul's saying to the to the listener and the audience that would hear what he was saying. (38:51) This is a whole different sacrificial system. Jesus made the sacrifice. the least I can do in view of what God's mercies have been. I will give up myself, myself that's dead without God to become a full expression of the presence of God. I will be totally surrendered to the mercy and grace of God. Again, it's the bacon moment. Got to fully give up ourselves. (39:21) Total surrender is the full expectation all the way through the words of of the scriptures. Total surrender. If you can I I seriously mean this. Show me someone that brought pleasure to the heart of God that fits within the message of the of the words of scripture within these pages where somebody lived half-heartedly and it brought them life. It's not there. (39:51) I'm telling you, it's not there. It's total surrender. So, we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Why? Because this is your true and proper worship. I've told you in this whole thing time as we've been going along, it's all about worship. It's all about recognizing and living for the one worthy of my recognition, and that's Jesus and Jesus alone. (40:17) And so now Paul has described that my worship is to give myself full up in full surrender to God. That is what is pure and holy worship. I belong to God. I want to bring him glory with my life. Then he goes in to ch to verse two. Do not conform to the pattern of this world. (40:43) This is what we've been talking about this morning culturally and it's been true all through humanity. We saw it with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneo. It's still true for us. Culture wants to mold us. But Paul is saying something very interesting and very important. And I want you to catch it here as we go. Just a couple more points. He says, "Don't be don't uh uh what does it say? Do not conform to the pattern of this world. (41:08) " The picture and the words that are used there is that of actually a mold to which someone is poured into. Culture has already determined the mold. It's like the gold that Nebuchadnezzar hadn't uh had heated up till it melted. He poured it into uh forms to create the image that he wanted. Culture is trying to heat you up enough to f to pour you into a mold so that you look like one that does what culture wants. So you will respond the way culture wants you to. (41:38) You will have the values of a world that does not believe in the existence of God that has no place for a savior to come and bring redemption. Do not be molded by this world is what Paul is saying. But instead, what does he say? be transformed. I want you to catch the the uh what Paul is trying to draw or have us see mentally. The world is wanting to mold us and shape us from the outside. (42:06) It's created the molds of what we need to look like, how we need to act, what words we need to use, what we need to value. God works from the inside. And if I have been uh trying have been given my life in faith to Jesus, then God is working from the inside out. The world's going to work from the outside in. (42:27) But God has placed himself in you through his Holy Spirit. That if you put his faith in you, he is at work transforming your mind. the very way that you think that word mind that Paul uses there. I could talk to you for about that for quite a while because I did a that was my thesis in seminary was on the the that word in that verse 160ome pages later. So I'm going to go through all of those this morning. (43:00) Here's what I want you to understand. Paul is speaking to the reader of this and saying the world is going to be constantly trying to change you from the outside so that they can get to the way you think. The only way they can get to how you think is by applying more pressure. God is at work from the inside transforming how you see life and what you value. (43:34) And in that process, the way you think, he will change the way you view the world. He can do it. He doesn't have to do it through pressure. He does it through relationship. The more time you spend with him, the more clear your mind will become on what pleases God. That's why we said a couple weeks ago about reading the Bible. (43:53) They had that they discovered that if a person avails themselves to the word of God, it will transform marriages. It will change addictions. It will bring about uh mental health. God knows you and he works from the inside to bring you life. And so Paul is bringing that contrast so that we understand the world wants your mind but you have a choice. You have a choice. (44:21) Be pressured into a belief system or surrendered to a God who will give you a whole new way of seeing this life. The choice is yours. The choice is mine. But let's back up. If I am a sacrifice that was dead and is now alive, then I need to realize I need a whole new way of thinking. I I can't go on with the old way. (44:48) I need a new way of thinking and seeing the world. That comes from God's activity in your life. But the only way it will happen is through total surrender. You got to stay a sacrifice. Some of us say, "It was enough for me to ascent to Jesus." Don't ask for more. It's time we start living it. The how is right there. Present yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. You were dead, now you are alive in him. (45:23) Live your life daily as a sacrifice to God. Now, just so you don't think that I'm pushing a concept here that is and has skipped around Jesus's own words, I'm going to take you back to Jesus words now because Jesus actually talked about this a lot and I'll take you to Luke chapter 9 verse 23. (45:55) If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. Boy, we like to do some semantical dances with that one. Let's just read it again, though. You must give up your own way. Okay, we've been talking about that. You're a living sacrifice. Give it up. Take up your cross daily. What was a cross? It was an instrument of death. Starting to see the parallel here. (46:25) I take up my cross because I want to make sure and I do it daily that I stay dead to myself and alive to the ones that through the cross gives me life. That's what Jesus is talking about. And he hadn't even died yet on the cross. So he's given a challenge that they would have understood. He's talking about Roman crucifixion. (46:50) Why do I want to take up a cross? because it's an opportunity for you to die to yourself and you need to do it every day because we have a tendency because of the the unrelenting pressure of culture always wanting to form us. The only way I'm going to fight that pressure is being on the cross. That cross is going to keep me alive in Christ. (47:18) I take it up to die to myself that I might be fully alive in my relationship with God. He goes on, "If you try to hang on to your life, you'll lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you'll save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world, but you are yourself lost and destroyed?" Jesus is saying exactly what we talked about this morning. (47:44) If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the son of man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory. He can't make it any more clear. We want to soften the words of Jesus. You know that the words of Jesus, go through the uh the gospels. Jesus did not speak with soft words. He didn't make people feel good. (48:08) Do you understand that? We want to speak of Jesus, the loving savior. Oh, God loves me. But Jesus says, "Love transforms. Therefore, let me tell you the truth." We don't like that. But to the person that's willing to fully surrender, they will be transformed to where there is joy in the process of transformation. (48:35) They then come to see the full depth of love that God has for them. I hope this makes sense to us this morning. You see, the Christian life is a life full of surrender, jumping allin, choosing every day to worship God by giving him your life in response to his mercy. You and I need to hear clearly. (49:00) Jesus stated many times, "If you want to be my follower, you got to give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. So what are you going to do with this today? Where's your point of total surrender? Where is God talking to you? Maybe for some you got to start with surrender to Jesus and put your faith in him. (49:23) It's all starts there because I can't surrender to one I don't know. So you got to start there at the cross and say Jesus I put my faith in you that you through you through faith in you I come into a relationship with God. For by grace you are saved through faith, not by works. So none of us can boast. It's faith in Jesus. Maybe that's where you need to start today. (49:49) But then I'm going to go kind of like Paul said, brothers and sisters, what we've talked about today is how do we respond if we say we are those who know Jesus? So I'll say, brothers and sisters, where do you need to surrender? What's got control of you? Where are you being molded by this culture? Is it in your value system? Is it where it's easier to say, "Ah, that's okay and I won't look at it. (50:15) " What is where is it? Is it in your marriage? Maybe maybe the way you treat your spouse, the thought life that you have in the process of your relationship. You you you give words of praise, but in your mind you you are tearing them down. It's time for total surrender. Maybe it's in your finances. God asked for us in our finances. (50:41) Total surrender. Total surrender. That means that every dollar I earn came as a result of the mercy of God for me to be able to do what I do. And in that there is a theme in that surrender that I give to him the best and the first of what I have. So that he may I maintain within my life a surrender not to how much how big my bank account is but that God has control in everything that I'm doing that I depend on him. (51:10) It's part of being a living sacrifice. You see if I'm up there on the altar and saying Jesus you're bringing me to life now in you but I've got to sock away a little security and I got to make sure I have this. He's asking for total surrender. We've got to remember that maybe for some of you it's a simple step of it's time to get baptized and be seen publicly as a follower of Jesus. (51:36) Maybe that's the next step of surrender for you. Saying it's time. Let me know. We'll have a baptism next week. But maybe that's where it is. We would love to rejoice in that. We've seen seven people baptized so far this year. Let's quadruple that in the next few weeks. We want to see the kingdom grow right here. Maybe it's in the area of uh um just the abandonment of agenda within your own life. (52:09) What defines you? What are your goals? Where are you going? Are you praising and worshiping God in each of those steps you take? That's what he asks of you. God loves to reward us. He loves to give good gifts. But he gives good gifts to his children who are fully surrendered to him. You see, we want what we want and ask God to bless us and our ideas. (52:33) Surrender to God and you will be amazed at what he will do for you. You will discover what it is to be fully dependent on him. When things get hard and difficult, you're not shaken. When the furnace gets cranked up seven times hotter than it's ever been, you can be tossed into that furnace and you're dancing with the angels because God is with you. I hope you're hearing what God is saying to you today. (53:00) Not just hearing me and Joel with Cranky this morning. No, this is truth. This is life. I can't I can't preach a hey, this will make you feel good today. I'm going to tell you the truth and we need to be totally surrendered to the mercies of God.