Jacob

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. So, we are in a series called The Cloud, and we've been rolling through this series. I think we're in week five now of the series, and it's been an incredible time just looking at those in Scripture that have gone before us. The Scripture, Hebrews 12, 1, is kind of our theme Scripture.

We've been kind of talking through this. This is one of my favorite Scriptures. I know that I say that every week, but I just absolutely adore this Scripture because it's something that I go to often when I feel like I just can't go on or I'm losing hope. And some of you here today are losing hope, and you just feel like, oh, life is just so, life is just life, right? I mean, we deal with a lot of things, and sometimes our faith just dwindles, and we don't know if we can go on.

But this Scripture is encouraging because it says this, therefore, and this is, the writer of Hebrews is talking to people who are struggling with their faith. A church that's struggling, whether they, is this even worth it? Our people are dying. They're under our government. That's oppressive.

And, Christianity then wasn't what it could be now, what it is now. You know, we have the liberty and freedom to gather together, and we don't even come to church. You know, even when we have the liberty to do it because we got better things to do, right? But here, these people were sacrificing their lives to come and gather together and be together and to serve because they experienced a risen Christ, and they had passion and excitement about that. And here they are, they're struggling.

And the writer of Hebrews says this, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked before us. So, I don't know all the things that are going on in the heavenly realms until I'm there. I can't really speak about that, but I do get a glimpse in Scripture that something's going on in the stands around us. The people that have gone before us, they're actually cheering us on. Somehow, they're cheering us on.

So, when we're walking and we're racing, and when we're, it's like a race. You know, this life is a race, right? And we're racing, and sometimes, you know, the sin and the things that hinder us hold us down when we're trying to make it in life. But there's people that have gone before us, and they've done it, and they did the very same things we did now, right? They went through the pain.

They went through the difficulty. They went through that challenge. But if they were here today, they would tell us some things. And great for us, we have Scripture. We have the Word of God we can go to, and we can get glimpses of what they went through.

They're speaking to us through Scripture. God is speaking through us through His Word and sharing these stories with us so that we can have confidence, and we can persevere when life throws things at us. So, I was debating on what to talk about today because it is Labor Day weekend, and a lot of people aren't here on Labor Day weekend, and you like to save your good sermons and your good messages for a big day, you know? Like, and I was going through all these guys, and I said, who am I going to talk about this weekend? Well, I mean, there were several people I was going to talk about Moses, and then for some reason, I didn't feel Moses was the direction to go this weekend.

And then I landed on Jacob, and I said, no, I love Jacob. This is just an amazing story, and I want to save it. But God just kept putting it on my heart. You need to share Jacob this weekend. So, if you're here today hearing Jacob, somebody here needed to hear this message, okay?

I was going to save this for a big event week, but you needed to hear it today. So, let's explore the story of Jacob. What would Jacob say if he were here today? What's the one thing, the overarching theme that Jacob would share with us today? If you're following your notes, you've got some notes in your bifold there.

If you want to write some things down, take some notes, and challenge me later on if you'd like to. That's fine. It says, when your life isn't turning out the way you hoped. This is what Jacob would say. When your life isn't turning out the way you hoped.

Because Jacob's life didn't really turn out the way he hoped. In fact, he tried to take it in his own hands because he didn't like the way his life was going. He didn't see, he didn't like being second in the family, fit second. He was the second son. He was a twin to a guy named Esau.

In fact, Scripture says that even in the womb, when he was coming out of the womb, he was grabbing at his brother's heel to pull him back because he was a manipulator. In fact, Jacob was named Jacob because he was a deceiver, a manipulator. And often in his life, he tried to manipulate situations. I mean, there's several examples of him manipulating. First of all, he manipulated his, I don't know what was going on with Esau, but he wasn't very smart.

And Jacob knew that, and he probably took advantage of him. But Esau traded his birthright for food. His birthright. I mean, his inheritance. He traded it for food.

He came in hungry, and Jacob says, I'll give you a bowl of food for your birthright. So he got him on that. But not only did you need the birthright, you also needed the blessing of the father of the family. So Isaac, their father, you know, Abraham, Isaac, the son of Abraham, Isaac, and then there's Jacob. He was there in the tent, and Jacob's like, I'm going to, of course, his mother was kind of involved.

Shame on you moms, you know, picking favorites. Jacob was her favorite. And she says, you need to go in there and, you know, pretend to be your brother and receive this blessing so you can take this family, so you can be the patriarch of this family. And what does he do? He takes animal hair because Esau was very hairy, and Jacob was very slick.

And he puts hair on him, and his father was blind, so he couldn't tell who he was. And Isaac blessed Jacob, thinking it was Esau. So, again, he manipulated the situation to get it the way he wanted to get it because he didn't trust God enough. So when your life isn't turning out the way you hoped, what would Jacob say? You need to trust God.

You've got to let God have control of your life. You've got to stop trying to do it on your own terms because what we learn about Jacob in his story is that when he did it on his own terms, it wasn't a very good life. In fact, he spent a large portion of his life running from his brother, so the fear, fear of his brother. And even in that, he tried to manipulate the situation because he was going back and saying, hey, let's send some goods and some gifts to my brother, and maybe, hopefully, he'll find my good pleasure. But he spent a large portion of his life running from him, hiding out.

Not only that, he married a woman he didn't want to marry because he was manipulated into marrying the wrong woman. So what comes around goes around. What goes around comes around, right? Someone asked me one time, well, that wasn't fair that Jacob got deceived into that. Well, Jacob deceived his brother, so it comes back to you, right?

So he had a lot going on in his life because he wanted to take things in his own hands. He wanted to use it on his own terms. He didn't trust God enough to put him in the place that he needed to be. He says, I'm going to be the patriarch of this family, and I'm going to make it happen. And that's what Jacob did.

And Christians often do this. We, as Christians, continually do this. We trust God with just enough. We like the idea of being a Christian, right? I'm a Christian, you know.

I love the Lord, and we like the Christian family and the Christian idea. But we're only willing to give God so much. We'll give him like a quarter. You know, I give him my church time maybe on Sundays. Oh, maybe I'll, you know, I'll even pull out back on that.

I'll give him a couple weeks out of the year, you know, to go to church, whatever. Or, you know, but don't mess with my money. Don't mess, certainly don't mess with my time, you know. Don't mess with my things. But God calls us to go all in.

When he calls us to be believers, he says, I want you to go all in. And if you'll go all in. And you'll trust me and not trust yourself because what you're doing is ultimately trusting yourself. I'm my God. I make my own decisions.

But when God says, trust me, lean into me, focus on me, do what, you know, there's something that comes out on the other end, although we can't see that. And the patriarchs that went before us, they couldn't see it, but they believed and they walked in it and they trusted God. And if they were here today, they could say that. Jacob learned on this place called Peniel, this place called Peniel where he actually experienced God for the first time. He got it.

He got it. He says, God, you are in control. And he began to follow God and lean into God from that day forward. So if God, so if you're following your notes, Jacob would probably say there's three things that happen if you lean into God, if you trust God, if you give God control of your life. Number one, you'll have strength.

You'll have strength. Because when you try to live life on your own strength, it's miserable. Trust me, I've done it. I've tried to do it. Even in ministry, I've tried to do things on my own strength and it is exhausting.

And Jacob knew this. And some of you are experiencing that right now. You're exhausted with life and life is a struggle. And I'm a believer. I'm following Jesus.

But why is all this? Because you haven't completely surrendered. You haven't completely given him control. If we look at the story of Jacob, Genesis 32, chapter 32. And if you'll look at verse 24, and that's in your notes as well, it says, so the lead up to this story, Jacob's running from Esau and things are happening.

He's sending gifts and trying to get on Esau's good favor after manipulating him. This was just a long battle. And Jacob was moving his family across to the other side to this land. And it says, this left Jacob all alone in a camp. And a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break.

And when the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of socket. Now, let's go back here. A man, a lot of theologians believe this was the pre-incarnate Jesus. So here, Jacob is wrestling with Jesus all night long. How many of you have wrestled with Jesus, wrestled with God, and wrestled with God all night long?

And he came, and then finally God says, okay, I'm not going to win this fight because you're too darn stubborn, right? You're very stubborn. So what I'm going to do, I believe the best for you. I want the best for you, Jacob. So I'm going to knock your hip out of socket.

Really, God? You know, you're going to hurt me? And sometimes God leads us to crisis points in our life so that we better see him. Because when we realize that God, we can't realize that God is all we need until he is all we have. When he is all we have, where else can we go?

He's all we need. And he brings us to a crisis point often. And he brings us low. And this is a good thing for us. Some people complain, why has God led me here?

Well, inspect your life. Look back and reflect on the things that brought you there. Can you say for sure that you have obeyed God on every level? Are you all in? In some cases, yes, we are all in.

And God knows what he's doing anyway. And we want to trust him because we want to give him control of our lives. But in this particular situation, he wrestled with God. And we often wrestle with God. And it's good for us because he's our children.

And if you have children, you do a lot of things that your children aren't pleased with because you know that in the end it's best for them, right? I'm thinking about my kids. They, you know, they're kids. And they're going to do what they want to do. And they're going to think that they know better than I do.

In fact, they're trying to correct me at six and four years old. You know, like they know more than me. And one thing they do, they love iPad. They love, they have two, we have two iPads. We both, grandparents got it for them, by the way.

Okay, you know, leave me alone. You know, this technology, you know, this thing. But yeah, I'm going to blame the grandparents for this. They gave them iPads. And they love iPads.

And they play. I mean, if I didn't put them on a timer, they would play all day long into the evening. They would sit on the couch playing. And what I discovered is that this is a good source of discipline. Yeah, because I would get on to them.

And I'd try all different kinds of things. And nothing was working. But man, when you take that iPad away from them, oh, my gosh. They were just, they are upset, you know. It's like the world has ended.

And one day, what, what? Okay, two days, you know. And they start fussing three days. And then it's just over, you know. And it hurts them, you know.

And their little worlds, you know, taking an iPad away is a lot like breaking a hip. And often God leads us to these places. He's disciplining us so that we can understand better that he has a better plan for us. And we need to trust him with what we have and what we do. I love how Jesus says it.

He says, when you follow me in Matthew 11, 28, 29, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke, get that word, yoke, upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls. Now, when we think of a yoke, any of you who have been in farming or know anything about old school farming, things like that, yokes, you put them around the cattle, an oxen. Back then, it was oxen mostly that they used, and they put yokes around them, and they drag and plow the fields and stuff like that. But the yoke that was used in this scripture wasn't the cheap Walmart yoke.

See, there were different types of yokes. Just like now, we have, like, the Walmart version, and then we have the custom version and things like that. It's like a good fishing pole or something like that. You know, you got the Walmart, you know, little thing you buy, and it kind of works okay, but then you get the nice rod and reel, you know, with the nice, you know, that really does its job. You know, because you know the difference, right, whatever you're in.

You know, there's golf clubs, you know, you've got the, you know, standard golf clubs. They do okay, you can get the job done, but man, when you get that nice driver, and it hits that ball, and it just has that nice, you know, and it just feels so good. You swing through, and it just feels great, right? I mean, if you're a golfer in here, if you're a surfer, you know the same thing, right? Like that perfect surfboard, that magic board, there's just something about you have to pay $1,000 for it, but, you know, it's a good board.

You know, there's something about it, you know, and it's much better than the, you know, the plastic version, you know, you try to ride out there. And whatever area you're in, you know that, you know that. And here we have the yoke, and the farmer, the type of yoke that Jesus is talking about is this custom yoke, fit specifically for you. And he says, if you wear my yoke, not that you're to be lazy, and not do anything, and just, just, he's saying, you work in rest. It's a matter of the heart, it's a matter of us internally, our condition internally, that your yoke is easy, and the burden is light.

So you can work with easiness, you can, you can walk this life, it's hard, but you can walk it with easiness, and peace, and hope. And he says, take my burden upon you, rest is not inactivity, it's a condition of the soul. So we rest in him, we rest inactivity. And those who hope in the Lord will have strength. I love how scripture says, hope in the Lord will have strength, you'll soar in eagle's wings.

Have you ever thought about an eagle? Have you ever watched an eagle, like out on Rudy Inlet? I was paddling the other day, paddle boarding with some friends, and they were talking about some nests up there. I didn't actually see an eagle out there, but I've seen, but I saw the nest, and how they're way up there. And if you've ever seen an eagle fly out of the nest, and I've seen that quite often.

I mean, when you see that happen, there's something glorious about it. I mean, there's something about an eagle. I don't know if it's because it's one of our mascots, you know, for the United States of America. You know, it's like all patriotic or whatever. But when they come out, what do they do?

Dude, they don't, they're not struggling, they're not struggling with their wings, they're just like, and they've got that beak, and they're all serious, you know, they're like, you know, their eyes are like this, and they're like, look at me, you know, they're just floating and flying, no struggle, but if you see a little bitty bird, you know, trying to, you see those hummingbirds, you know, they're just working really hard, you know, because they don't, you know, they don't have those, that, you know, that system. We want to soar like eagles. We don't want to soar like a, like a struggling little bird in life. God wants to soar us on the eagle's wings. He wants us to, to, to experience strength in our soul, and are you going to, so the question is, are you going to live by your own power, or are you going to live by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Spirit, because the Holy Spirit wants to soar you, wants to lift you up, wants you to, to discover the goodness that God has by lifting you up and giving you strength. I remember, uh, just, just a few, uh, I guess it was about almost, I guess, beginning of the year. Strength, you know, trying to find strength sometimes is hard in ministry. I think any of you that's been in ministry, my, my parents are here today, uh, praise God. They finally, my dad finally got to visit the church after, you know, he, he has, he, he pastors his own church, so he, in, in, uh, North Carolina, so he doesn't get to come out here a whole lot.

But I'm glad he's here today, and he can, you know, we've had some good, good talks about ministry, and how hard they are. And any of you who have, who's been in ministry, you know, there's something, people are just hard. And you, you think people are going to be easy, you know, like, they're just going to love each other and love Jesus. And, and, uh, the struggles are real in, in ministry and, um, and, uh, and in planting a church, actually beginning a church. If we go back to when we began this church, we began it in a very unconventional way, in a brewery with just a few people.

Right? I mean, it was very, very, uh, no money, no people, no anything. Let's just see what God does, you know. We gave God control, and we watched God grow the church, and we, you know, we've seen a lot of things happen. And, uh, but, but about a year ago, I was just, I was just exhausted, and I had no strength.

I, I just had nothing, and I was just ready, and, and, and I was tired, and I'd been betrayed, and, and some things had happened in the church, and it just felt awful. I felt like I just, God, is this really you? And is this really your plan? And, and I was talking to one of my, uh, my coaches in, in ministry, and he could see the defeat on my face when I just started talking about what was going on. And he just kind of let me talk, and he just kind of shook his head, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He says, you know what your problem is, Leon? You haven't given God control. You've let yourself control everything that's going on. You're running around like you're going crazy because you're trying to control everybody in every situation and trying to please everyone. And you cannot do that.

You've got to trust God. You've got to give him control. He's in charge, not you. And life's like that. And I'll tell you what, when I discovered that, I'm not saying that times are still hard, and, and, uh, the unseen is, is, is a hard thing.

You know, faith, walking in faith from time to time, discouragement comes. But I'll tell you, I go back to that. And I know that God is in control. I'm not. This is God's church.

It's not my church. Church, you're God's people. You're not my people. God has put me over you, but you're God's people. And he uses me, and I give him control of my life.

And when I, when I do that, the, the burden, the yoke, the yoke fits perfect. And, and it's light, and it's easier. And, you know, some of you here today need to hear that. You've been wearing a heavy yoke. You've been wearing a Walmart yoke.

And you need to get a custom fit yoke that Jesus has for you. Be all in. Secondly, uh, you'll have a new identity. You know, if you give God control, you'll have a new identity. In fact, it's not necessarily that you'll have a new identity.

You'll have the same identity, but you'll have the identity that God originally intended you to have. So he doesn't, like, actually change you completely into it. Like, from the very beginning, God made the earth and everything thereof good. And God is in this business called redemption. The redemption business.

Isn't that cool? And what is redemption? Redemption is bringing things back to what they were originally intended to be. In fact, he's even taking the earth and bringing the earth back to what it was originally intended to be. Right?

In the end, we know the end because the Bible shows us the end. In the end, God will make everything right. Paradise lost will be paradise restored. We lost paradise in the beginning. Now everything's working through God and his sovereignty to bring things back to what it originally intended to be.

So you were created. You were created good. Good, but sin tainted. You tainted. I tainted.

We brought sin into the world. And God is restoring us daily. Isn't that cool? And he brings us a new identity. And he did this with Jacob.

Here's Jacob in Genesis 32. God changes people's names often in Scripture. I like that. And he always redirects them down the path that they should go. When they're going off in another path, he pulls them back in.

And God changes people's names. In Genesis 32 with verse 37, it says, what is your name? The man asked. And this was the man, the angel of the Lord. And he replied, Jacob.

Meaning deceiver, right? Manipulator. He says, your name will no longer be Jacob. The man told him, from now on you will be called Israel. We all know the name Israel, right?

Israel. Because you have fought with God and with man and have won. And one of the literal translations of Israel is prince of God. From the King James root, they pull prince of God. So, look at this.

God, a deceiver? A manipulator? Jacob wasn't somebody that someone wanted to hang out with then. I'm going to tell you that. Maybe there's that manipulator in your life, that deceiver, that person, that pyramid schemer.

You know, like you're like, I'm going to stay away from them, you know. Or whatever it is. I'm just using that in a current context. I don't know. This was Jacob.

Jacob was going to get his, and he was going to do it any way he could do it, right? And if it wasn't God's way, he was going to do it his. I mean, Esau had every right to be upset with him, stealing everything he was promised through his family. And here's Jacob, and God sees him. God doesn't see a deceiver.

God doesn't see a manipulator. God doesn't see a man who no one wants anything to do with. God sees a prince. God sees a child. God sees a mighty man who wrestled with him all night long and won.

He sees the good in him, and he redeems Jacob. Another example, Peter, his name was Simon, John 1, 42. And he brought him to Jesus, and Jesus looked at him, that is, Simon. And he said, Simon, son of John, you will be called Cephas, which is translated Peter or a rock. And if we know anything about Peter, everybody loves Peter because Peter was the disciple that got it wrong most of the time.

And God looked, Jesus looked on Simon, this rough, redneck fisherman that always wanted to go zealot. He just wanted his way, do it his way. And he looked at him, and he said, I'm going to call you Peter because you are a rock, Peter. You are my rock, Peter. And I'm going to use you to build upon the rock that is me.

You're going to be one of the greatest in the church. And, Peter, we know the story. We know how it all worked out. One of the greatest disciples, apostles in the Bible, one of Jesus' closest, and what he's accomplished through that. God gives us a new identity.

He changes, he redirects our paths into the identity we are supposed to have. And thirdly, you'll have a new joy. And let me just dig into this. Let me just lean into this for a second, because you need to know this. Because I see it, and these are probably most of the conversations I have, people are looking for joy.

But they see joy as circumstantial, because they have those happy moments in their life, and they're on top of a mountain. And then when the hard times come, where are you, God? What's going on? I'm not experiencing this joy. But joy is not circumstantial.

Joy is deep. Joy is within you. Joy is, you're going to have sad times. I was talking to a friend of mine just the other day. He's like, oh man, I'm just like having these end of summer blues.

And I said, I get it. I'm having them too, man. I mean, cold weather's coming soon. That's not fun, you know? And that doesn't make me happy.

I love warm weather. I love, I love, I'm looking forward to the fall, but I'm not looking forward to the winter at all, you know? Especially yesterday, I'm looking forward to the fall, man. It was like a hundred and something degree heat index. I didn't want to be out there, you know?

But the fall's coming, especially when we got that little teaser the other week, you know? Where you got a little, you know, that 80, that 78, 80 degree day. And I was like, whoa, this is cool. Fall early. And I want that.

But man, winter's right behind that. Gosh. And I do not want winter. Winter is hard. It's cold.

I don't want to do anything. I don't want to go outside. I don't want to be active. I want to sleep all the time. I mean, I don't want that, you know?

And that's a sad time for me. And I was talking to this guy about that. But I'll tell you what, people decide their direction in life based on those seasons, rather than having an internal focus, a solid rock to stand on. And so our happiness is skin deep, guys. You'll be happy one day and unhappy the next.

But joy is eternal. Joy is internal. Joy is what you need to grasp onto. In Genesis 32, 29, NLT says this, please tell me your name, which is what God was asking. And Jacob said, why do you want to know my name?

And the man replied, then he blessed Jacob there. I love that word blessed. Because we say blessed. I'm blessed, you know? And we put a lot of emphasis.

We even put two syllables on it. Blessed. I am blessed. If you grew up in church and you're blessed. Preachers like to say blessed.

We like to say that, but we really don't know what it really means. And when we look at it, in the Greek, it's this internal, everlasting joy. Blessed are you. I want to bless you. I don't want to just give you a little bit of happiness or a temporary circumstance where you feel okay.

I want to bless you. I want to pour blessings over you, blessings that last, blessings that are passed through eternity, down through your family and your family's family and through generations and into eternity. That's the kind of blessing he wants to give you. That's why in Matthew 5, 6, it says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for doing what is right, for being in the righteousness of God, for they will be filled. You will be filled.

You will be content. You will be blessed. You will be filled. You will have a joy unspeakable. The Bible says unspeakable and full of glory.

An unspeakable joy, an unspeakable joy that we can't explain that when we go through circumstances, when things are hard in life, and they will be, but there's something we can dig into. There's something we can put our foot, we can put our grasp to and hold on to when circumstances are heavy. You'll have a joy. When you put God in control, when you lean into God, when you give God 110% of your life, you will experience a fulfillment, a joy that's everlasting, that's full of glory, unspeakable. Lean into it.

Try it. Try it. Try it. It's a promise that God gives you. So here, I'm going to leave you with this.

There's a few things here to end us off here. Jacob's words of encouragement. What would Jacob specifically say to us today if he were here? What would he say? Number one, brokenness precedes breakthrough.

Brokenness precedes breakthrough. See, you've got to understand the nature of God. God doesn't expect perfection, guys. I know some of you grew up in churches. You grew up in like a real, maybe a legalistic environment or something like that, and you fell away from church.

Well, I know a lot of people that are here today talking to you and knowing your testimonies. You were out of church for a long time because you were told that you had to be perfect, right? You had to be perfect. You had to come to church. You had to be perfect.

Now, I'm not saying you need to work towards right holiness and righteousness, but you came into this place and you know that we are real and we are raw and we show you. We're showing you how. We're discipling you to a place. We're giving you an opportunity because Jesus is full of grace. But God doesn't expect you to be perfect.

He wants you to be real. He wants you to be honest with him. He desires honesty more than just perfection or don't hide from him. And he wants brokenness. He's actually attracted the brokenness to humility.

Psalm 51, 17 says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise. He's actually attracted to brokenness, to humility. Isn't that cool? Isn't that crazy?

That he's not looking for the strong. He's looking for the weak. He's looking for the humble. He's looking for the the contrite in heart. In first Peter five, five and six, it says God opposes the proud.

So if you're proud, he opposes you. He doesn't want proud things in your life. He doesn't. He can't do things with proud people. He opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.

So humble yourself, therefore, under God's mighty hand and he may lift you up in due time. First of all, I love it says humble yourself because you're going to be humbled somehow. You might as well humble yourself, right? Humble yourself, therefore, under God's mighty hand. And then he'll lift you up.

And I love how he ends it within due time. Because when we say, well, I humbled myself, God. Now why aren't you doing anything? You know, I'm humble. I'm very humble.

And then you're being proud because you're saying you're humble, right? I'm so humble. I wrote a book on humility. You need to buy it. Humility 101, okay?

Come to my class and learn about humility because I'm so humble. But in due time. In due time. Sometimes it takes time because God never does things fast. I don't know why.

I wish he would. But he does things on his timing. And sometimes it takes a long time. In due time, he will lift you up. And he will lift you up.

He makes that promise to you. He will lift you up. So humble yourself before God. Second, you must lose yourself to find yourself. You must lose yourself to find yourself.

You've got to, first of all, lose yourself. Your life will never be what you hoped it would be until you give it away. Okay? When you're trying to find yourself, you're trying to do. The hopes and dreams that you have will never be completely fulfilled until you give it all to Jesus.

Because he has hopes and dreams for you beyond what you can understand. What you can think. Or you can imagine. So what does that mean? You've got to go all in.

I know I've said that in multiple sermons. Go all in. What are you holding back from? Lean in. Go all in.

110%. Mark 8, 34. I love how the message says this. This is calling the crowd. crowd.

And there are many who are in the crowd, in the church, right? You're in the crowd. There's crowds. There's crowds. There's churches meeting everywhere today.

The crowd. And here he is calling the crowd. Here's Jesus calling the crowd. He's calling out to you right now. Calling you from the crowd.

Calling from the crowd, okay? Did you get that? Calling from the crowd. He's calling you in the crowd to join his disciples. And he said, anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.

Well, God, I don't want you to lead. I want to lead. I just want you to kind of do your thing. Like, bless me. Bless me here and bless me there.

But, you know, I'm still in the lead. I want to do it my way, right? But he says, if you really want to be my disciple, if you really want to follow me, if you want to be called this thing, this word Christian, if you really want to be this, then you've got to be all in. And you've got to let me lead. And you're not in the driver's seat.

I am. I love how the message says that. You're not in the driver's seat. You know? You're not driving.

I had to realize that. I have to realize that all the time. I'm not driving this thing. God is driving this thing. God's not driving my...

I'm not driving my life. God's driving my life. I'm not driving my family. God's driving my family. And if I trust and obey and I'm real with him, I've got to lose myself in order for him to really take me where he wants me to be and to go and to really experience the fullness of life he has for me.

In verse 35, it says, if you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. And that's what we're doing, right? We're really trying to hang on, you know? We're trying to hang on to every little piece we can. But if you give up your life for the sake...

for my sake, excuse me, and for the sake of the good news, you will save it. Wow. That's just so counterintuitive, isn't it? Like, you're telling me to forfeit my life for you, God, so that I could save it? But he makes that promise.

If you go all in, go all in with him. Just give him a chance. In fact, give the next year of your life an opportunity for this to happen. Okay? I want you to just go all in.

I want you to get all involved in the local church. It doesn't have to be this church. If this is not the church for you, maybe you're visiting this weekend and you're in a church somewhere. Get involved. Get involved in the church.

Get committed to a small group. Get committed to a team. Get committed to a missions project. Get all in. Go for it.

Don't just be an attender. Be somebody who's involved. Because this is what God's calling us to. He wants to disciple you. He wants to build you.

He wants to make you another person. Right? He wants to lead you. He wants to redeem you back on the path that you belong. And the only way he can do that, you cannot do it on your own with your control.

You've got to give him control. And we've got some opportunities here in the church. We're having our next lunch with Leon is the 23rd. And if you want to get plugged into church, find out more about our church and what it's all about. There's no commitment at lunch with Leon, but there are opportunities for you to get involved.

And I promise you, everybody that's committed to this church is experiencing things that we don't experience in just normal living. And it's amazing. And you need to get involved. Get plugged in a small group. We're getting ready to launch small groups again on September 17th.

If you're not in a small group, get involved in a small group. It's an awesome opportunity to connect with people, grow deeper, get involved. And you do projects, missions. We do all kinds of things even through our small groups. And it's a good opportunity to do that.

Just give God this year. Whatever that is, just give it. Just go all in. Go all in. See what he does.

And you're going to come back to me and you're going to be like, wow, look what God has done to me this year. Wow. Pastor, you were right. No, God's right. I'm just reading the Bible.

I'm just sharing what God has for us. Go all in this year. And thirdly, when you find yourself on God's terms, you find fulfillment. When you find yourself on God's terms, you find fulfillment. If you take all that you would say defines you and who you are and you place it before God, only then will you find the joy that I talk about, the joy unspeakable and full of glory.

And you place it, place your life in Jesus' hands. Take your heart. Just symbolically, just take your heart. Say, God, this is yours. No longer is it mine.

It's yours. Everything I have, my heart and my soul. Give it all to you. All of it's yours. My life, my job, my wife, my kids, my family, my parent, whatever it is.

I give it to you. Everything you've blessed me with, take it, Lord. This means nothing. This means nothing. If I'm not following you, Lord, then it's all useless.

It's worthless. So I want to give it to you, God. Romans 12, 1 and 2 in the message, it says this. So here's what I want you to do, God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life.

And place it before God as an offering. I mean, everything. All our eating, our sleeping, whatever it is. And just place it before God. Put it before God.

And bracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. He actually enjoys it and loves it. And He's attracted to it when we do that. When we pledge everything to Him. Bracing what He does.

And don't become so well adjusted to the culture that it fits into, that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. Fix it on God. Readily recognize what He wants for you. And quickly respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level. And that's what it will do. And into immaturity. We're trying to mature, but we're allowing the culture to pull us back down to immaturity. And it says this.

God brings the best out of you. God brings the best out of you. Culture doesn't. Don't let culture affect you. Let God affect you.

Because God's going to make you the best you. Nobody else is going to do that. Nothing else in this world is going to make you. It develops well-formed maturity in you. You will never know what your life could be until you hand it over to the one who created you.

And that's my pledge for you today. If you're here today and you have not pledged your life to God. You have not made a commitment or a decision for Jesus Christ. Maybe you walked into church today. You don't even know why you're here.

I haven't been in church for years. Or maybe you just didn't feel like going to church today and God brought you. It's no mistake that God has you here. Maybe today's the day to make a decision for Jesus. Because he wants to make you the best you you could possibly be.

And only he can do that. You can't make yourself you. He only can make you you. And with all heads bowed and all eyes closed. I want us to take this moment very very very seriously.

Very seriously. Quiet in the place. It's the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is moving. Holy Spirit is moving.

Holy Spirit we're just asking you to come right now. Just touch some hearts God. Do your work Lord. If you're here today. If you're here today.

And you're ready to make a decision for Christ. Maybe you've tried it on your own for so long. And you're just at the end of your ropes. And you're hopeless. Maybe today's the day to make a decision.

If that's you. If you would just gently raise your hand. I'm not going to embarrass you. I just want to pray for you. Just to say I'm in pastor.

It's time to go all in. It's time to go all in with Jesus. Go on, Leon. Go on, Leon. You pray this prayer with me.

Because there's nothing magic in the prayer. It's just a commitment to Jesus, your heart, and your life. That's all it is. So just pray it with me. You can follow along with me or pray it on your own.

Father, I believe that you are the Son of God and you died on the cross for my sin. And I've done it on my own for too long. My sin has tainted me, Lord. But I believe that your blood has covered my sin. Today, I receive the cross.

I've received the blood. Cover my sin. Make me new. Change me from the inside out. In Jesus' name.

Amen.