### Quotes for Outreach

1. "God never wanted us to go through life only with an intellectual understanding of him and a reasoning that he is God. He actually wants every single person to have a moment where you know that he is God, that you encounter him as God." [03:23] (14 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "God wants you to have an emotional moment. Now, let me clarify. God doesn't want us to be emotional. Thank you, Jesus. But he's created us in his image. And God has emotions. And I thank God that he appeals to our emotions." [04:40] (12 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "The life that you're looking for in Jesus is on the other side of full surrender. See, here's what I know about you, because we're all human, and we share this as human beings, is you're not looking for religious activity. You're not that bored that you just want to go through some motions, right?" [13:38] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "If you're here today and you're just checking out church, if you're at one of our locations and you're new to this whole thing, you're not here just to go through the motions. I believe you're here because you're saying, I need something and someone to tell me purpose that I've never heard and give me meaning that I've never heard before." [14:14] (15 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "Stop looking back. Stop looking at the door that leads to the other options if this whole Jesus thing doesn't work out, because I'm here to tell you today, it will not work out as long as that door exists. And so today, sacrifice the ability, to go back." [17:34] (15 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




### Quotes for Members

1. "Do you remember the moment when you were first on fire for God? Like any believers, you've been in the room, you know, any of our locations, you've been serving God for any. You've been serving God for any period of time. And I'm talking about way back when your heart was first gripped by God." [02:45] (13 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "Life with God really is that simple. And as you know, you read the Bible, it's as simple as saying just do what the word says. And you understand that that is infinitely complex. And it will take the rest of your life. And I get it. But this heart of ours is not to reason away the things of Scripture, not to reason away the things of God, and not to justify how our pursuit has changed, but just to come back as a 40-year-old, as a 50-year-old, as a 60-year-old, decades into your walk, and just say, God, it's gotten too complicated." [12:40] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "When you came to Jesus, you laid down your rights and you took up his rights that he gives us through the word and tells us in his word. If you lay down your rights, you will truly live. Psalm 16, 11, David writes this. You, God, make known to me, what? The path of life. And in your presence, there's fullness of joy. And at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." [20:53] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "Jesus said, no, if you wanna follow me, there's gonna be hard times. There's gonna be suffering. There's gonna be trials. But see, in our Western form of Christianity, it's like Jesus saves me from trials. That's not in the Bible. Jesus walks with us through trials. Jesus will use trials." [23:14] (19 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "We gotta follow Jesus. He is the authority. His is the opinion that matters. His word is the word that is worth giving my life to. He is worth reading. He is worth following. He is worth worshiping. We follow him and never look back." [32:20] (16 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Come on, let's all, as we're on our feet, let's welcome all of our locations outside of this room right now. Come on, we love you. Love all of our church family. Come on, are you ready for the Word today? Why don't you stay on your feet with me? Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you so much for your house. God, we thank you that, Lord, at all of our locations, this is not just a church building and something that we come to, but, Lord, this is a place that we gather together because we just simply want you. If that's your heart today, would you just pray that however you want to pray? God, I just want you today. Lord, I want you. I want to know your thoughts. I want to feel what you're feeling today. And, God, I want to know what you think about me.

And so, Father, we thank you. We simply just sit under your Word today, under the authority of your Scripture, and we say, change us, speak to us in Jesus' name. And if everybody said amen, amen, you can be seated at all locations today.

And, come on, if you've got a Bible, why don't you get it out? If you have your phone or any other device you have the Bible on, I'll allow it. But you can get that out as well. I encourage you to take notes so that, you know, as learning goes, it's one thing to hear it. It's another thing to hear it and write it. And you can go back to it later. It'd be helpful. And you can pray through things that maybe God was speaking to you about in the message.

And so, whatever you have today, turn with me to Mark chapter 8. We're going to continue in our series in the book of Mark today. And Pastor Dave preached an amazing message last week. Not that we expect anything less from our lead pastor. But if you missed that message, go back on YouTube or on our app or any of the messages in this series.

I just, I love, I don't know about you, I love opening up the Word of God and just letting the Bible preach to us. Right? We do series around here that are topical, and I love those too. But there's something about just opening the scripture and saying, what does Jesus want to speak to us today? And we just sit under the authority of his Word. And so, we're going to do that today as well.

And so, we're going to read one verse. Now, I understand that that's, you know, it's almost irresponsible. But there's just so much good stuff in Mark chapter 8. Pastor Dave's like, we can't be in Mark until 2025. And so, I've just felt the Spirit of God lead me to this verse today that we're going to unpack.

And so, Mark chapter 8, verse 34. It says this: Then calling the crowd to join his disciples, he, that is Jesus, said, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me."

If you're taking notes, the title of the message today is this: Give Up. We're going to give up today.

Let me ask you this. Do you remember the moment when you were first on fire for God? Like any believers, you've been in the room, you know, any of our locations, you've been serving God for any period of time. And I'm talking about way back when your heart was first gripped by God. And you can think about, I mean, what was that? Where were you? Were you in a church building? Maybe for some of you today, it was this actual room or any of our locations. And it was this place that God gripped my heart. Maybe it was a camp. Maybe it was a conference. Maybe you were by yourself. Maybe having a quiet time in a car somewhere or in your bedroom or your office or wherever it was.

I think you can think, if you've had that moment, you can think back to where you were, the music that was playing, the worship song that was in that atmosphere, the message that was preached. And why is it so vivid? Well, it's so vivid because that moment changed everything.

You see, God never wanted us to go through life only with an intellectual understanding of him and a reasoning that he is God. He actually wants every single person to have a moment where you know that he is God, that you encounter him as God.

And here's what I want to say today: that if you're in this room or at any of our locations and you've yet to have that moment, I just want to encourage you. God does not have favorites, right? Like the people on staff. Well, the pastors need encounters. And yes, we do. And the staff needs encounters. Yes, they do. And our young people need encounters. God knows they do. But every single person in the room, every person listening, every person watching, God wants you to have a powerful encounter with him that changes your life forever, that you will always be able to go back to. You'll always be able to reference. Because he's a God to be experienced.

He wants you to have an emotional moment. Now, let me clarify. God doesn't want us to be emotional. Thank you, Jesus. But he's created us in his image. And God has emotions. And I thank God that he appeals to our emotions. And you start to feel what God feels. And you might start to tear up and cry and weep when you sense the presence of God. Why? Because he appeals to our emotions in order to appeal to us and show us that he is moving on our lives.

And so I believe that, again, today, if you haven't had that, that today could be your moment. And at the end of the service, I want to allow time. And I want to encourage you now at all the locations not to just run for the parking lot, not to run for the car. But I believe that even a brief moment of lingering at the end of this message, God might make today that day for you. And this is why we come to church. Because that day might be that day for you.

And I remember, for me, my earliest moment I can remember. See, I grew up in church. But I remember when I was 15 years old, like Pastor Jude was just encouraging us with our youth conference. When I was 15 years old, my faith really became mine and not just my parents' anymore. And I loved church. I loved going to church. And it was awesome. But it's really when it became my own.

And for me, that moment was on a school bus driving to summer camp. And I remember like I'm there right now, the smell of that bus. The diesel fumes, the dirty feet, school bus leather. You guys know what I'm talking about. School bus leather. I remember like all those smells. And I just remember I was sitting on the seat and we're winding through the foothills up to the camp that actually our youth just went to this winter. And I got to take my sons to that camp. And that was a very surreal, nostalgic moment. Because I remember on those same roads and I'm sitting there and I have my Sony Discman. How many of y'all had a Sony Discman? Not an MP3 player, not all this wireless stuff that we got now, right? You just download an entire catalog of music. No, a Sony Discman. You had to put a disc in. And I had this massive binder of CDs that I'd be flipping through that I brought to camp.

I put this CD in and I had my headphones on. No, they weren't Beats. These were those real thin plastic with the foam that disintegrates the longer you had them. You know? And I remember sitting, I was listening to this music, fighting back tears on the way to camp. Because I was like, God, I just want to know you. I just want you to use me. God, I just, I don't really care what happens with my life as long as it's you. And I just remember I was fighting back those tears because I was a teenager and I was insecure. I didn't want people to see me. And why is that guy crying? He has emotional issues.

But I remember, so I'm going to try to do this. I'm going to try to juggle a guitar and a microphone at one time. Not actually juggling. Someone's like, this is going to get good. But I just remember this song that I was listening to was really the soundtrack of this moment for me. And for those of you that have been around for a long time, you might remember this song. And I remember just looking out that window on the way to camp. And just going, God, that is my heart. Like everything that I just listened to.

Sitting silent, wearing Sunday bests. The sermon echoes. It echoes through the walls. Or through the halls, whatever the words were. It was echoing. Just people staring into nowhere. Can't feel the chains on their souls. But he's more. All the things we said. And just when I got to that chorus. And I just remember fighting back the tears. God, I want to fall in love with you.

So come on, whether you know this song or not. Would you just join me with that? Maybe this will be your heart today. Let's sing that. So I hope that's your prayer today. That's your cry. And in those days, just fully sold out for God. Like I said, I didn't care, God, where I would go, what I would do. If anybody knew my name. I just wanted. I just wanted that.

And for you, whatever that moment was for you. Or maybe today is that day for you. I bet Mark chapter 8 verse 34 was the theme of your life. I know it was for me, man. I just came back from that camp. And I was rocked by God. And I went to the Christian bookstore. And I bought the t-shirt. Deny myself. Take up my cross. Follow him. Right? I even started a band called Daily Walk. This is not a lie. In Luke's account of this moment with Jesus, it says, it says, daily take up your cross. Right? So I'm like, God, I'm sold out. I'm starting a band called Daily Walk. I was looking for pictures. I don't know if he's here at this service. But Joe Courtney was in that band. He was my drummer. Joe, you're lucky wherever you are that I could not find a picture.

But in that picture, I was so sold out. I wore all black. And I had a shaved head. I had a puka shell necklace. I was all in, guys. I was all in on this thing. This is what my daily walk looks like. I'm going to bear the burden of a puka shell necklace in this band where we look like we're playing hard chord music. But we're playing acoustic adult contemporary rock for the Lord.

All that to say is that, you know, we've read this scripture before. If you've been around, you've read it. It was your theme at one point. And life was really that simple that, God, I will give up my own way. I will take up my cross. And I will follow you. But something happens, right? As life gets complicated and life gets complex, so did our walk with God. Right? And somehow we get from that moment of, God, I'm going to give you everything. So you're like, well, God knows the season I'm in. And God knows that I've got some things going on right now that I've got to take care of. But I'll be back. I'll be back.

I'm not here to beat us up today. I promise you I'm not. But all I'm saying is that I just sensed in the spirit of God today, and I hope you can sense it, that there is a call to return to the simple again. Life with God really is that simple. And as you know, you read the Bible, it's as simple as saying just do what the word says. And you understand that that is infinitely complex. And it will take the rest of your life. And I get it. But this heart of ours is not to reason away the things of Scripture, not to reason away the things of God, and not to justify how our pursuit has changed, but just to come back as a 40-year-old, as a 50-year-old, as a 60-year-old, decades into your walk, and just say, God, it's gotten too complicated. I just want to come back to the simplicity of giving up my own way, denying myself, taking up my cross, and following you.

And so that's what I'm calling us to. And I want to look at a Scripture and a story of a guy that illustrated this well. But before we do that, I want to give you the big thought for this whole talk today. If you're taking notes, write this down. The life that you're looking for in Jesus is on the other side of full surrender. The life that you're looking for in Jesus is on the other side of full surrender.

See, here's what I know about you, because we're all human, and we share this as human beings, is you're not looking for religious activity. You're not that bored that you just want to go through some motions, right? You're not looking for some meditation tactics from the Christian universe instead of all the crystals and journals and all the things that the world is selling and New Age is selling right now. No, no, you're looking for the real thing. You're looking for a real God who knows you from the inside out, that fashioned you in your mother's womb. He knows all of your days before you breathed one.

And I'm telling you, if you're here today and you're just checking out church, if you're at one of our locations and you're new to this whole thing, you're not here just to go through the motions. I believe you're here because you're saying, I need something and someone to tell me purpose that I've never heard and give me meaning that I've never heard before. And he is here in the presence of the Holy Spirit. It's found in Jesus. It's not found in a religious system.

And I get it. Like, we look like a religious system. We're a church, and we have locations, and we have service times, and we have ways that we do things. But underneath all of that, we're a group of people who are literally just desperate for that same God. That I was staring out that window of that bus, holding back the tears, going, God, I know you're real, and you're gripping my heart.

Every person across this room, every person at all of our locations, that is the cry of your heart because God has given you that ache in the center of who you are. The Bible says that God has put eternity in the hearts of all men. What is that? It's a longing for your creator and the one that knows you. And I believe you're going to meet him today if you don't already know him because the life that you're really looking for in Jesus is on the other side. It's on the other side of full surrender.

If you would turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 19, I just want to illustrate this from the life of a guy named Elisha who in this little small cameo here demonstrates this so well in what God does and captured this in scripture for us.

1 Kings chapter 19, verse 19 says this: So Elijah went and found Elisha, son of Shaphat, plowing a field. There were 12 teams of oxen in the field, and Elisha was plowing. He was plowing with the 12th team. And Elisha went over to him and threw his cloak across his shoulders and then walked away. That resembled the call of God coming upon Elisha.

Verse 20, Elisha left the oxen standing there and ran after Elijah and said to him, "First let me go and kiss my father and mother goodbye and then I'll go with you." And Elijah replied, "Go on back, but think about what I have done to you."

So Elisha returned to his oxen and slaughtered them. He used the wood from the plow to build a fire to roast their flesh and he passed around the meat to the townspeople and they all ate. And then he went with Elijah as his assistant.

So see what happened. I love this story. I love this. This wasn't just this weird, like why was he so antsy to go? But we're gonna look at this. But look what he did. He gave up his own way of working in the field, right? When the call of God, when that moment came, when God started to move on his heart and appeal to his spirit, he said something's different about today.

And so he gave up his old way of working the fields. Then he took up his cross. He literally put the mantle that Elijah had put upon him. I can't help but notice too that there was another one who would take up a cross upon his shoulders. And I think this was a foreshadowing where Elisha was taking a new call and a new way of life upon his shoulders, not one determined by his own emotions and his own motivations.

And it says then he followed Elijah. So he literally sacrificed the way to go back. See, many of us, many of us have had a moment with God, but we never sacrificed the ability to go back. I'm here to tell you today, the fulfilling life in Jesus is impossible when we have one eye on him and one eye on the door that leads back to our old ways. You will not experience the fulfilling, supernatural, miraculous realities of God if you're always hedging your bets.

See, this term all in that I'm gonna refer to later, it's a, really, it's a term from poker where you literally take everything you have, and you slide it across the table, you have no other options, you're all in. This is what Elisha did in this moment. He literally sacrificed the oxen. He built the fire with the plow. He's like, I can't go back there even if I wanted to.

And maybe for some today, if you hear nothing else, it's this: Stop looking back. Stop looking at the door that leads to the other options if this whole Jesus thing doesn't work out, because I'm here to tell you today, it will not work out as long as that door exists. And so today, sacrifice the ability to go back. Because the life you're truly looking for in Jesus is on the other side of full surrender.

I want to give you three points, and these points are gonna be shocking. How did he come up with these points? You'll see.

Number one, give up your own way by laying down your rights. How do we do this? Well, it's literally the scripture itself. I tried to make it real easy. It's a summer message. I want you just to read that scripture and never be able to think about it differently than go like, no, I just gotta do this.

So number one, we have to give up our own way by laying down our rights. We were in a meeting years ago, probably, Pastor Lee, and I remember Pastor Lee saying this, and she said, you know, back in my day, I remember that when you came to Jesus, everybody just knew you laid down your rights. Why is it today that we come to Jesus and we take all our old rights with us? And we forfeit the life that Jesus has for us, because the life we truly want in Jesus is on the other side of full surrender.

See, there's a lot of rights that we have in our society today, and many of those protect people and they're for the good of people, but there's a lot of rights that our nation gives people that's killing the soul of our nation and killing the soul of people. And if you take up those rights as a believer, it is the antithesis of what God has for your life.

And so we literally need to give up our own way and lay down our rights. What do you mean lay down? Lay down your right to share every opinion you have. Our nation lets you share every opinion you have. TikTok lets you share every opinion you have. But Jesus says, I have a higher way for your life because I want people to follow you. And if you keep airing out all of your stuff, nobody's gonna wanna follow you.

I'm protecting the gold that I... See, we lay down our rights for Jesus's rights. When you come to Jesus, you lay down the right to date like you wanna date. You lay down the right to talk like you wanna talk and think like you wanna think and speak like you wanna speak. Why? Because the life you truly want is on the other side of full surrender.

So we need to give up our own way by laying down our rights. When we bring that mindset that, man, I have rights around here, and we bring that into our walk with God, it doesn't work. William Mount said this about this portion of scripture. He said, in a real sense, we face a double choice. To choose to put our own interests and ourselves first and thus deny the Lord Jesus, or else to deny ourselves and in place of that to choose to live for God.

So to every disciple of Jesus today in this room and watching through the stream, when you came to Jesus, you laid down your rights and you took up his rights that he gives us through the word and tells us in his word. If you lay down your rights, you will truly live. Psalm 16:11, David writes this: You, God, make known to me, what? The path of life. And in your presence, there's fullness of joy. And at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

And that sounds like if we take up Jesus's rights, it's a pretty good day, right? The enemy and our souls and our culture tell us if you take up this whole Jesus thing, then it's gonna limit your life and you're gonna have a lame, boring life. No, no, it sounds like a path to life, fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. That's the kind of life I want. How many are with me today?

So we need to give up our own way by laying down our rights. Number two, we need to take up your cross by going all in. Take up your cross by going all in. What does that really mean? Like when I read this, okay, take up my cross? Like, I need to be crucified? Or like, see, in the 21st century, we read that scripture and say, take up your cross. Here's what we think. We think everything you've ever imagined and read and any artist has ever depicted about Jesus and the cross, right?

See, in their day, Jesus hadn't gone to the cross yet. So when he says, take up your cross, it's like him saying, hey, you need to literally die. You need to, it's like, it was their form of execution in those days. And so he was, this is a very confronting, okay, like, what does this really mean, Jesus?

And I wanna read just an excerpt here from James Brooks, who wrote the New American Commentary. I think this is gonna help us as we look at this. He said, in the first Christian century, an admonition to take up a cross could only have been an admonition to martyrdom. It reflected the practice of compelling a condemned person to carry the horizontal piece of the cross on which he was going to die. That is what James Brooks said.

Jesus called on his followers to be willing to do. Many of his early followers did, in fact, die by crucifixion and in other ways. When martyrdom ceased to be common, cross-bearing properly became a symbol of following Jesus in sacrificial service. It is closely related to self-denial, involving a willingness to give up everything dear in life, and even life itself, for the sake of Jesus. It is a willingness to suffer for Jesus and for others. Such a concept of discipleship is so radical that many contemporary Christians in the West have difficulty relating to it.

So let me be clear today. I am not saying that if you give your life to Jesus, you literally need to die soon. We are not some weird cult, all right? What I am saying is that Jesus was the model. Jesus was the example for us. And it's not all fun and games, and it's not all lollipops and balloons all the time. Jesus said, no, if you wanna follow me, there's gonna be hard times. There's gonna be suffering. There's gonna be trials.

But see, in our Western form of Christianity, it's like Jesus saves me from trials. That's not in the Bible. Jesus walks with us through trials. Jesus will use trials. But I just wanna remind us today, we gotta come back to a biblical Christianity, the simplicity of, oh, we have to literally give up our way and take up our cross.

And what does that mean? That means we gotta go all in. We gotta go all in. Because remember, this thing doesn't work unless we go all in. The life we truly want in Jesus is on the other side of full surrender.

I'm not saying either that we need to go looking for pain. There are religions in the world that they purposely inflict pain upon themselves as a way to get to God. That is not what Jesus is saying either. So we don't go looking for pain. We're just not surprised when it happens because there are trials and there are suffering.

But look at what Jesus said in John 16. He said, "You will have trouble." Right? Jesus, you nailed that one. But take heart, I have overcome the world. So you're gonna go through some stuff. The thing is, is as believers, we gotta make sure that we're not falling into a weird doctrine that Jesus saves us from all the trouble because once you go through trouble, which he said you'll have, then you start saying, well, where's Jesus? This thing isn't working.

But that's not Bible. That's a Western mentality. The Bible was written to an Eastern culture. We won't go there today, but we need to make sure that we're reading the Bible and applying it accurately to our lives.

See, I believe that Satan loves it when the Westernized church is content just to sit in rows whenever we gather. And we love to consume, but we stop just short of full surrender. As soon as it gets uncomfortable, as soon as it's not convenient, talking about our entire Western culture, not the Father's house, grading on a curve, we're doing pretty awesome. I love you guys. But take it if you need it.

I believe Satan loves it when the church acquiesces to anything less than giving up our own way, taking up our cross, and following him. Why? Scripture says that we'll have a form of godliness, but deny its power. Man, my cry for my kids is I don't want them to have a form of godliness. I don't want them to just come to church. I don't want them to look the part and go through the motions and say the right things and raise their hands at the right times, but deny the power, resist the power, not qualify for the power because we haven't fully surrendered.

This is real, and Satan loves it. The enemy loves it when people of God, when Christians come in and don't fully surrender because following Jesus does not work unless you go completely all in with him. Eliminate the opportunity to go back. Sacrifice that thing and follow Jesus with everything in you.

See, when we don't go all in, we get bored with church. We get bored with sermons. Oh, this song again. Oh, communion once a month. Wish they would do it more. Wish they would do it less. Whatever your opinion of communion is. You get bored. You get weird. God wants you to live this life of anticipation. Sitting on the edge of your seat. Why? Because I'm all in. I have no other options. What's he going to give me from this word today? Oh, what's going to happen in worship today? Today might be the day I might get healed in the middle of worship because I know he said he'll do it.

I got no other options. I'm all in on this Jesus thing. So if we could just do the simple things well, give up our own way, take up our cross and follow him, we will live a life of fulfillment like nothing else in this world.

I will say this. In my 41 years on this planet, through highs and through lows, and I've seen them all, he's faithful and he's good. He's with me. He's leading me. He's using me. He's fashioning me. He's taking me from glory to glory. And while I don't go looking for trials, if I look back on my life, I'm thankful for the moments where I had to press into God like never before.

It's almost like I took up my cross and God wants us to take up our cross and not shy away from the hard times. James chapter one says, consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face many trials. Ooh, there's a doctrine that's fun to preach in America, isn't it? No, my 401k saves me from trials. Thank you, Jesus. My stock portfolio. Oh, cryptocurrency. Thank you, Jesus, for insulating my life from the attack of the enemy.

If you have crypto, you know the enemy is alive and well. It's the second time I've used a crypto joke. I should probably learn a new one. But this is not the Bible that God has given us. This isn't the doctrine he gives us.

I will say this. Sometimes it's been hard. Sometimes it's fun. But it's always been fulfilling. I want to ask you at all the locations today, come on, if you've been serving God for over 20 years, over 20 years, how many of you would say that that's been your confession as well? That there's been highs and there's been lows, but it's always been fulfilling.

Come on, I want you to take a look around the room, all the locations. Take a look around. Look at all the hands that are up. If you're tempted to give up, look around. If you're tempted to acquiesce to the hard times and the complicated times, the confusing times, look around. Find one of these people that you know and you'll be able to ask them, how'd you make it through that season? Guess what? They'll say, but Jesus was with me and I'm so glad that I'm here and he never left me. He will never leave me. He'll never forsake me. I'm so grateful.

Because if you think about the context, see this scripture didn't appear out of nowhere like it did in the message today. I just jumped way right in. But if you look at the context, Mark chapter one through the first part of eight, we see Jesus healing people. We see him walking on water. We see him raising the dead. We see him doing miracles and profound things. We see his heart for a broken world and we see his heart for us.

And then it's into that that then he says, if you want to follow me, give up your own way, take up your cross and follow me. And I love that he allows us to see eight chapters of love and goodness and mercy and miracles and supernatural before he asks us this simply difficult thing.

And I've seen that in my life. I'm so grateful that God has let me see his goodness and his mercy so that when I walked into trials and hard times, it's like, wait, but I have something to go back on. He's the same God that healed. He's the same God that spoke. He's the same God that met me on that bus when I was 15 driving through El Dorado, right?

I love that because God wants us and he allows us to taste and see that he is good and then invites us into deeper, more difficult things. Romans 12:1, right? One of my favorite things in different scriptures, it says, in view of God's mercies, I urge you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice unto God.

I love it that it's not the other way around. Offer everything and maybe you'll see my mercy. Now, God is so good that he would allow us to experience his mercy. I would take him upon that deal. But he's even better than we can ever comprehend and so he says, no, no, I'm gonna show you mercy so that then you can follow me into some more difficult things.

Elisha saw the power of God through Elijah and he gave up everything. He denied himself, took up his cross and followed him because he knew that the call of God is better. And I'm here to tell you today, no matter how hard it gets, Jesus is better. No matter how confusing life gets, Jesus is better. No matter how much of the future you can or cannot see, Jesus is better.

He's always better. He will forever be better than you will ever ask, think or imagine. He is that good and you can follow him for the rest of your life because the life that you're looking for in Jesus is on the other side of full surrender.

And the last point then is just what Jesus said. I'd urge you today, follow Jesus. Give up your own way, take up your cross and follow Jesus.

See, don't follow him like you follow people on Instagram. How many in our culture, yeah, I follow Jesus. I also follow the Crate and Barrel outlet and Joe Rogan and my best friend's baby cousin Tracy. Right? He's just one voice of many but I'm here to tell you today Jesus is not an influencer that we compare our lives to. He's a savior that we give our lives to.

He is not a man with thoughts to consider. He is a savior to whom we surrender. We need to eliminate the ability to go back because today you can make it a moment where you return again. You step out of a comfortable casual Christianity back into that emotional experience of exhilarating, fulfilling life of full surrender in God.

We gotta follow Jesus. He is the authority. His is the opinion that matters. His word is the word that is worth giving my life to. He is worth reading. He is worth following. He is worth worshiping. We follow him and never look back.

Revelation 2:5 says, look how far you've fallen. Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. I'm here to tell you today if you're a believer and you've wandered, you know the Holy Spirit is just appealing to you through this message today and you're just like, I long for that moment again. I long for that touch again. That ache in my heart again where I was never content to go through the motions. I just had to have Jesus.

Revelation tells us that we can repent, which literally just means to turn. To change your heart, change your mind and just say, I'm not gonna do the, I'm gonna turn back and do the things that I did at first when it was simple. When I would just give up my own way, take up my cross and follow him.

God honors your step toward him and if you're here today, you've never had that moment. God honors the step that you take toward him. Campus pastors, I'm gonna give it to you to take it into ministry time and here in the room and all those watching, if you just bow your heads with me as we prepare to close today.

If you're here and you're a believer, and you simply wanna respond by repenting. Again, that means just to turn and go the other way. The Holy Spirit has been moving in your heart, moving in your spirit today, drawing you to himself and he's illuminated that you've been living that casual, that unfulfilling life as a believer and today you're saying, I wanna return to being an on fire, all in, full surrender disciple of Jesus.

I wanna invite you right now to respond however you want. If you wanna stand, stand. If you wanna lift your hands, lift your hands. If you wanna get out of your seat and go to your knees, go to your knees. If you wanna come out of your seat and come to the altar right now, I just urge you right now to begin to respond because God sees you.

James chapter four tells us when you draw near to God, he draws near to you. Your step and your heart even today, God's already running toward you. Father, I thank you for every person responding to you right now. I thank you that you see their heart. Man looks at the outside but God looks at their heart and today I thank you and I thank you that there's a return, the intimacy, a return to the true, a return, God, to following you wholeheartedly that people are making in this moment and I thank you, God, that you've been waiting and now you are running towards every single one of them.

God, we just break off a boring Christian existence. We break off just singing songs. We break off making it through the word and drawing pictures on notes because they're bored. Father, we just right now, I prophesy.