From Ladder to Path: Start Over in Spirit

One that is not guided by your strength and your skill and your ability to get it right, but one where you trust the guide. One where you trust he who calls you down off the ladder and onto this path. The invitation is wide open to us today. Not our strength, not our achievement, not our ability. The story of Pentecost is a story that says it's not about you. It's about the presence of the Holy Spirit, God's work through us. Starting from the inside out, a transformation of the heart that then leads to transformation of the world, one life after one life after one life. [01:13:45] (52 seconds)  #TrustTheSpirit

Jesus is the gift every human heart longs for. Some can articulate it. Some are on a journey towards realizing just how significant that presence of Jesus is in their life. Would you take this invitation to walk with the spirit? That it's not in your ability. It should just bring so much freedom and an ease that you leave the building with. It's not on me, actually. My living within the ways and on the path that Jesus has, it's not on how well I do it. [01:30:03] (48 seconds)  #JesusIsEnough

It's the only thing lacking for this man, just one thing he needs to sort out. He's so close, but the tragedy, the heartbreak, the disaster of this story is the one thing he can actually control. He chooses not to submit to God. And all of the brokenness and dysfunction in the world around him and all of the things that go wrong from poor health to to to to previous decisions that you've made, the things that you can't change, none of them matter except the choices of the heart. [00:59:19] (37 seconds)  #ChooseYourHeart

You've left so much. You've surrendered everything. You've thrown it away for me. And because you've done that in obedience to follow me, there's a return. There's some compounding interest that's taking place. There's some seeds that have been planted. You can't see the return yet in your life, Peter. You don't know what it will look like. You don't see the path that's ahead. It's too far away. It's too distant. It's too difficult for you to understand, but there is something of a greater return that is coming for you. [00:49:11] (29 seconds)  #SacrificeReturns

A destination that at times can be somewhat unclear, a road that contains some tricky, challenging, difficult sections, but a journey that is exponentially higher without a ceiling, without a cap, without a limit on where Jesus may lead us towards. The latter provides security and value, but it's limited. The journey Jesus invites us into is one where the spirit would be given, where we would be individual temples honoring God, living in his ways. The rich man is close. He's close, but he falls short because his desire is to do it in his own strength. [01:11:52] (47 seconds)  #NoCeilingJourney

You're back to front. You don't know what you're doing. You need to sort all of your stuff out. No. He actually says, you've got a lot right. There's just one thing that you need to fix up. Just one thing. This guy is really, really close. It's just one thing. He just has to do this little thing that Jesus asks him, and he'll be set. He'll have the answer to what he's seeking. [00:44:28] (22 seconds)  #JustOneThing

No one calls Jesus good teacher. In fact, no one in the scriptures calls anyone good teacher. Because to use this title, to use this frame would be to say, you, teacher, are not just a teacher. You're the divine. You have a heavenly influence. You have something of God's presence within your teaching, within your life, within your person. You are someone set apart. [00:44:56] (27 seconds)  #JesusIsDivine

I wonder if there's people in the world around you, people here in this church, people in your life who you look at and you think they have it worked out. If I could be like them, I'd be happy. I'd be satisfied. I'd be blessed. If I could structure my life the way that person has, then I too would have God's blessing in my life. There's people that sometimes we put up as the poster images of what blessing looks like in our lives, and this man is it [00:47:45] (34 seconds)  #DontChaseTheImage