Our Faith: How God Works in Us

If you know Hebrews 11:6 it says, “Without faith, it is impossible,” not hard, “it’s impossible to please God, because those who come to God must believe first that He actually exists, and second that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” So, of all the things that God is looking for, more important than anything else, you can’t please Him, I can’t please Him, your morality can’t, your good works can’t. Without faith we can’t please God.

Sometimes we think faith is a feeling or faith is just a set of things that you might agree with. And so, Niagara Falls, in the middle 1800s, there was an acrobat, a fellow, true story, named Blondin. In the off season, he did circuses and the rest, but they would take a tightrope from New York all the way over to Canada, and they put it over Niagara Falls.

And this guy would walk back and forth and there would be huge crowds on both sides. And then he wanted to get even crazier so he put a hundred and fifty pound pack on him and he went from one side to the other. Later, he just got super crazy and got a wheelbarrow, put a hundred and fifty pounds on it. And, I mean, the people were going nuts, nuts, nuts. I mean, if he falls, he’s done.

And so, one particular guy, as the story is told, is going, “Man, you’re amazing! You’re amazing! You can do anything. I believe you’re the greatest acrobat ever!” And he says, “Fantastic.” He goes, “You look to be about a hundred and fifty pounds. Get in the wheelbarrow!” See, faith isn’t agreeing or believing that he can do that. Faith is to the point that you believe it, that you entrust yourself to that person and that’s what biblical faith is.

And then the third is the most important parable. In fact, Jesus would say, “If you don’t understand this parable, you can’t, it’s impossible, to understand any of the others.” And it’s a parable about faith, it’s a parable about life-change. Jesus calls it the secret of the kingdom of God. How is it that He changes a life supernaturally where we become more and more like Jesus? We adopt His values; we see life the way He sees it. And the Bible is really clear, none of us can do that in our own power.

And so, the question I have on your notes: How did Jesus make disciples in such a hostile environment that were so much like Him that they overcame the darkness and they changed the world?

I mean, think of how ridiculous a group of twelve and then a hundred and twenty or so, maybe, hostile culture, multiple gods, a cruel government, it was illegal to be a Christian, persecution. And, yet, here we are, well over one third of all the people living on the planet today would acknowledge at some level, “I’m a follower of Jesus.” How did that happen?

I’m going to suggest He did three things: Number one, He modeled what He wanted them to become. Second, He taught them the secret of the kingdom so they learned how life change actually would occur for an individual. And third, He tested their faith, not so they could fail, but He tested their faith so they could reveal His power so that when He said something in the future, they would actually believe it to the point of getting in the wheelbarrow and following.

Does it make sense? That’s an overview of the whole message. So, let’s jump into the first one. He modeled what He wanted them to become. Our hope is how God works in history. And the fundamental first way He worked in history is - Jesus’ life was the light of the world. Not just His teaching. His teaching for sure, but what He actually did was reproduced in the life of the disciples with a very intentional process.

Now, for those of you who take notes, who wonder what the blank is, are you ready? It’s coming. The result: His light continues to shine in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. The resistance, however, is the traditions of men and the lies of the enemy. If you read through the gospels and you see: Where did Jesus get the greatest pushback? It was among the religious community. And what happens over time is we want to take the world and our traditions and our religions and keep in control.

And the enemy wants us to believe that, you know, success and security and money and how you look and how much people think about you and how famous you are makes you a real someone. Those are always pushing against this life with Jesus. Isaiah would tell us that even in the Old Testament, the same thing has been repeated forever. He says, “Woe to those,” in Isaiah chapter 5, “who call right, wrong; who call light, darkness; and call darkness light. Who call bitter, sweet and who call what is really sweet, bitter.”

And He says that over time, what happens is there is this amazing gravitational pull of a world system that is contrary to God that wants to captivate your soul and your life and your mind and take you down a path that will not give life and you will not flourish. And it promises everything and delivers death. So, first He modeled it. Second, He taught them the secret of the kingdom of God and how life change really happens. And that’s, you’re going to find in Mark chapter 4, verses 13 through 20.

And He says, “The sower went out to sow seeds and he threw seeds,” and an agricultural community, right? “And he threw some on a path and it was hard and the birds came and ate it up. He threw some other seed on some rocky soil and it grew up quickly but when the sun came and it was very, very hot, it shriveled because it didn’t have a root system. He threw some other seed on thorny ground and it grew up very quickly but the thorns came and choked the life out of the plant. And then finally, he threw some seed on some good soil and it grew up and it began to flourish and there were seeds from that plant thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” And when He gets done He says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Now, can you imagine hearing about this teacher who fed five thousand people, raised a few people from the dead, everyone is talking about Him. That’s the message. And that phrase, “He who has ears to hear,” means pay close attention, what I said is really important. So, the disciples, when they get in a private time with Him they say, “Would You mind kind of explaining what in the world that message was about, because we don’t get it.”

Open your Bible; Mark chapter 4. I want to read to you the actual words of Jesus’ explanation. Mark chapter 4, we’ll pick it up at verse 10. “As soon as He was alone with His followers, along with the twelve disciples, they began asking Him about the parable. And He was saying to them,” listen to this, “To you has been given the mystery,” and the word just means a secret. Not mysterious, it just means this truth has never, ever been revealed ever anywhere until now. “…of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, everything comes in parables.” And then He quotes Isaiah here with people’s hardheartedness and why they won’t respond. He says, while seeing they may see, and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear, and not understand.

In other words, He says, “You know what? Their hearts are hard, and so I’m going to talk in parables. This is very special truth. And unless people are really willing to respond to it, I just don’t throw it out there.” And then He says this, ‘Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?’” Literally, it’s if you don’t understand this particular parable, you can’t understand all the others. And we’ll learn why.

“These are the ones who are beside the road where the Word is sown;” and notice as I read, “the Word, the Word, the Word.” In my Bible I have a box around the Word. “…where the Word is sown; and when they hear it, immediately Satan comes and takes away the Word, which has been sown in them. And then in a similar way, the ones that were sown on the rocky places, they hear the Word and immediately respond with joy; and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but it’s only temporary. And when affliction or persecution occurs because of the Word, immediately they fall away. And the others are those sown [with] seed among the thorns; and these are the ones who hear God’s Word, but the worries of this world, and the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and they choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones with the seed in the good soil; these are the ones who hear God’s Word, accept it, and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”

Now, imagine this. This is Jesus. According to Jesus, if everyone sitting in this room, everyone who ever might watch this, in fact, anyone who has ever opened the Bible and read this passage, if you don’t understand this passage and how it operates, you can’t understand all the others. Because what He basically is doing, He is now launching His kingdom agenda. And now He’s going to say this is how it actually works.

And so, there’s only five things that happen in the passage. There’s a sower who is the teacher, there’s a seed that is the message, there’s the soil which is the hearers, and there’s growth – different types of growth – and then there’s the desired outcome or fruit. And the teacher is the Son of Man with moral authority, it’s Jesus teaching God’s Word, empowered by the Spirit. The seed is God’s Word, His truth, His gospel. And the soil is the response of human hearts.

And these four responses are the same all the time, not just for our salvation. When God speaks to you about, say, forgiving someone, or God speaks to you about taking a step of faith, or God speaks to you about, you know, someone He’s given you a nudge that you’re supposed to go help that person. There are four responses. Sometimes you, “Oh, yeah, I really ought to do that.” And then your phone buzzes and then you forget about it. It gets taken away. Or, “Yeah! Yeah! I’m going to do that. I get really excited about it!” And then, oh, it gets really hard, it gets difficult, so you don’t end up doing it. Or you start to do it and you get really excited but then, “Oh man, it’s going to cost too much money and, you know, I’ve got other things to do. And I was going to go on vacation,” the thorns.

And then there are other people who it’s a good soil. And Luke’s one unique aspect of this whole parable, he explains what the good soil is, He says the good soil are those who receive and accept God’s Word, they persevere even when it’s challenging, and they have an honest and a good heart, and they actually put it into practice. You’ll notice there’s only one response that produces fruit. And, you know, if we lived in an agricultural society, fruit would be, oh, we get it. But in the Bible, the fruit usually has two aspects.

One is, the fruit of the Spirit - Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. In other words, it’s the character of Christ. When you take in God’s Word and respond in this way, you actually start becoming more and more like Jesus. But the other fruit is the kind of fruit where you care about other people, where you lead others to Christ, where you help the least of these. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” and then did you notice the application? He says, “If you respond to the light that I give you, you get more light.”

What’s, what’s responding? It’s obeying. If you don’t respond to the light that I give you,” remember what Jesus said? “Even the light you have gets taken away.”  And so, notice the three explanations: The lamp is the purpose of God’s agenda. “And He was saying to them, ‘A lamp is not bought to be put under a basket or under a bed, is it? It is brought out to be put on the lampstand. For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor anything secret, but that will come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’

And He was saying to them, ‘Take care how you listen.’” In other words, how you hear for the purpose of putting it into practice. “‘For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given besides. For whoever has,” truth, light, “to him more will be given; but whoever doesn’t have, even what he has will be taken away.’” Light is to be declared and reveal the way and the life of Christ and to expose darkness. So, He says, you know, if you have a lamp, you don’t walk into a room and go, “Hey, let’s put that one under a bushel.”

Or, in other words, what is the parable about? God’s Word - the truth - I have given you light, not so you have this private little conversation and I don’t want anyone to know that I’m a Jesus follower. And He said, “No, no, no.” When the light lives in you, you are one of Mine. Here’s a lampstand; you declare it by your life and how you live, you declare it with your words, and guess what – it’ll expose everything around you. And people that are hypocrites, and corruption that is in where you work, and people that are not caring about people that no one cares about – when you’re a light like that, you will expose it in ways that will bring about changes in culture and churches and communities and workplaces and neighborhoods.

He says the second is the growing seed. It’s the process of how this works. And He was saying to them, ‘The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and when he gets up daily, the seed sprouts and grows – how, he himself really doesn’t know. The soil produces the crop; first a stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. Now when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.’”

But did you notice? He made it really clear, “A stalk comes up, then there’s fruit, then there’s seeds.” God’s agenda in your life is not quick, it’s not easy, it takes time. When you walk with Jesus, He will change your life, but He doesn’t zap you. I was this way, but oh! Thank you so much, Jesus! All my attitudes are great, I love everybody, I have forgiven everybody, I am just…

That’s not how it works. He says it’s like a seed that goes into the ground and there is germination. And notice there is cooperation. It says He went out each and every day. He is working the soil, he is cultivating the soil; that’s our part. You can’t change your life. Only God can change your life, but He chooses to never do it alone. You cooperate. He does His part; you do your part, it’s a process, it takes time, and so for some of you with a real sensitive conscience, keep plugging away but could you, could you relax? I meet some people that no matter how much they are growing it’s not enough, it’s not enough, it's not fast enough.

God’s got a plan. If you’re in His Word and you’re it into practice and when He speaks to you about doing something and you respond, you’re going to wake up five years from now, ten years from now, twenty years from now if He doesn’t return. And we will remember how you used to be. How you used to be so quick and you had a temper that was so quick, and how you were just so focused on yourself, then five years later, they are not quite like that. And then now, we’re out here ten years and you’re one of the most compassionate, kind, others-centered person that we have ever met.

But there’s no such thing as saints by accident. And, by the way, there is no such thing as people who become spiritually mature by showing up and listening to someone talk about God and even discussing it. You have to have the intentional path of following Jesus and according to Jesus, the mystery of the kingdom is rooted in His Word and how we respond.

And then notice the mustard seed. This is the one that gives me great hope. “‘How shall we picture this kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of any of the seeds upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that the birds of the air can nest under it.’”

And so, what He wants you to know is that this new relationship, this walking with Him, it starts out real small. You know, you take a little baby step. You forgive your mom or maybe you forgive what your dad didn’t bring you or that he wasn’t around or whatever. And you ask Christ to forgive you. And you say, “You know, it sounds like God’s Word is really important,” and you might be sitting here going, “ I have tried reading the Bible a couple times and it’s just”…pshhh.

But you start to take a step and you say, “I want to learn, Lord, would You show me?” And what He says is it’ll start small and then there are two are three people and then they start praying about something and they begin to dream a dream and think, You know, I think God could do something in our neighborhood. You know, I think God could do something with this group of guys that I – we just used to go out and drink and do crazy stuff and now I’m a follower of Jesus. And I think God could do something with these other stay-at-home-moms while I’m in the park. I think… And then two or three people and then you start praying about it and then pretty soon, fast-forward eight, nine, ten years and pretty soon there’s a group of women or there are Bible studies or there is life change or there are things that are launched.

It happens small, seemingly insignificant with ordinary people who are listening to God’s Word. Here's what I can tell you, good seed, God’s Word, in a good heart – someone who says, “Lord, I may be really uncomfortable and I may not know a whole lot, but if You speak to me, I’m going to obey.” Good seed in good soil produces fruit one hundred percent of the time.
Let me summarize this and get it super practical. First summary point here is that their faith is to be in Jesus, the person, not the religious system or moral perfectionism. I don’t know about you all, I grew up in a church until I was about fifteen and I just decided: I can’t take anymore of this. No one took it seriously, no one expected me to change, they certainly didn’t change. I came to the conclusion, at about fifteen or maybe sixteen that, you know, I think church and God is pretty much like, the tooth fairy and Santa Clause. And, you know, when you’re young they want you to believe in it and sort of keep you on the moral, good path. And then we all get old enough and we realize, “Ah, we’re just kidding.” Right? Yeah, there’s probably some higher power somewhere but no one really expects anyone to live this loving, holy, others-centered life.

And so, I did what millions of people are doing now. That’s their experience. I just opted out. I just said, “I don’t know what this is all about,” but girls are a lot more interesting, sports were a lot more interesting, and my dad told me if I was really successful, I’d be really happy. And so, if you can become a workaholic at twelve, I figured out how to do that.

And if you can practice seven or eight at my size, hours a day, to get a basketball scholarship and then play around the world, I figured out how to do that. And if you have to study longer and harder than other people to get good grades to be successful, I figured out how to do that. And all I can tell you is I figured out how to do that and when I got to the pinnacle of my tiny little world’s success in a high school of, I don’t know, twelve, fourteen, fifteen hundred, I had never had the more empty feeling that I had ever had in my life.

And a coach invited me to go to a camp where there were basketball players, which was the only reason I went. And then I got there and found out it was filled with Jesus freaks in 1972. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I thought, Tom Landry, he’s the old coach of the Cowboys, in the Hall of Fame, I mean, he is speaking, how bad can this be? Well, after about two days I thought it was pretty bad. I mean, every morning all these guys and they are out there with Bibles open and I literally, the first three days, I’m not opening the Bible. You’re not going to indoctrinate me, you Jesus Freak people.

And then I watched them. And, yeah, I played a lot of hoop and had a lot of fun. I watched grown men love other grown men. I watched people of genuine character. I met people who took Jesus seriously. They’re making millions of dollars and have beautiful families and their priorities were not around: Look at how wonderful I am.

And I still remember walking off a practice field and watching two people talk in a way with whispers and genuine authenticity that just, it was like, I had no – I didn’t know anything about the Holy Spirit. All I knew is I thought, I don’t know what they have, but in my little world of I have a pretty girlfriend, I have a scholarship, and I get great grades that is empty. Whatever they have is what I want. And that night, that fullback sang the Lord’s Prayer and someone shared for the first time that I can remember, I’m sure I heard it before somewhere, somehow, I heard the gospel, the good news.

Not try harder, be a religious person, try to be nice to everyone. I heard, “Chip, you are far from God and inside what people can’t see is you are a very selfish, me-centered sinner who is far from God and Jesus came and loved you, lived a perfect life, and died upon the cross and He has paid for all your sin. And He wants to give you that as a free gift. And He is standing at the door of your heart and He is knocking. And if you will, by faith, let Him into your life, He will transform you and He’ll be with you all the days of your life. And, yes, He has prepared a place for you in heaven.

And I didn’t pray a very theological prayer, but all I knew was internally I was bankrupt. By the way, until you get there, you can play a lot of games with God, but you never really meet Him. I knew I couldn’t, like, Well, I think this sounds like an interesting option along with these other things that I’m doing, some of which I know… you don’t have to have really big belief in God to know some things are just outright wrong.

And they gave me a Bible that was fairly easy to read and no one told me I had to, and I hid it under my pillow so my parents would not think I had just, you know, freaked out. And I read it every morning and I read it every night. And this God who was way out there became close and personal and it was like having a coach who was speaking to my heart and my life.

And some of it was kind of hard, revealing my arrogance and my insecurity and my struggles. And some of it was, and You still love me anyway? And You still want to help me? And You have a plan for my life? And then He brought me with a group of people that were likeminded. So, I don’t know where you’re at, but this, this transformational life is about faith in the person of Jesus.

Second, Jesus creates new human hearts the same way He created the universe. You might jot that down. Anybody remember from Genesis 1 when God created the universe? What did He do? He spoke! Hebrews 11 says, “We, by faith, understand that there was nothing and God spoke the world into existence.” Psalm 33 says, “God commanded and spoke and it was.”

So, what you need to understand is this, this is not some little religious book. This just happens to be a written Word of God that is sharper than a two-edged sword, that pierces to the soul of joint and marrow, that is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. And it’s powerful!

And so, the same way that when God was creating new life, He just spoke it, what He wants us to understand and what the secret to the kingdom is, is Jesus is saying that I speak My Word into your heart and if you will receive it by faith, and that means by believing it to the point of action, getting in the wheelbarrow, new life! Bonds broken! New power! New perspective.

In fact, you can put it this way: Our relationship to His Word reveals our relationship to the Lord. I put three little passages under this. These are Jesus’ words, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” I mean, in other words, your relationship to His Word – am I in it? Do I study it? More importantly, do I apply it? – will reveal your real relationship to the Lord. In John 8, you know, we all, we want God to work. Jesus said to a group of Jews who just believed on Him, “If you abide or continue in My Word,” in other words, listen to it for the purpose and put it into practice, “then you’ll know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Knowing about the truth, agreeing with the truth changes nothing. It makes you smarter than most people. But He says the people that actually have power to break addictions, to solve marriages, to love people they don’t like, to be used in ways they never dreamed, they take in the Word and they put it into practice and they recognize this is what is true and there’s all this noise and all this junk and all these lies bombarding me, and I put that into practice and then you’re free.

And finally, Matthew 24:35 says heaven and earth may pass away, but God’s Word will stand forever. I mean, it’s so important. Obedience, not knowledge, is the organ of life transformation. Obedience. In the West, especially in North America, it’s subtle but we’ve made hearing God’s Word or even being in a Bible study – and by the way, is it important to hear God’s Word? Yes. Is it great and important to learn and study God’s Word? Yes. There is not a correlation between doing that and genuine, long-term life change.

It’s the application of God’s Word, it’s putting it into practice that brings about the life change.  But here’s the question: are you a Word-centered Christian? And I know, and you know, your faces are like, “Yeah, I’ve tried that a few times. I don’t know how to do it.” Some of you just need to just turn off your Netflix and social media and the TV just for a week. Just for a week. And stumble through getting in God’s Word every day. Everybody does what matters. You have plenty of time to do all things that really matter. I’m like you, I struggle. I mean, there’s so – I get distracted so often with so much. And I am, like, super working at not being distracted.

Don’t waste your life. Don’t find yourself like I did. Thank God it happened early.  God’s plan, Jesus said, “I came that you might have life and you could have it abundantly.” He, made you, He died for you, He wants what is best for you, and He said, “Look, there’s a way that seems right to a man,” here’s a path. It’s what everyone is telling you. It ends in death. Here's My path, right? “My Word is a lamp unto your feet, it’s a light unto your path.” Do life in community with others. Ask God, “Where do I fit in?” Step into living life with Jesus. Make that the center and the focal point of what you do and why you do it and what you are going to do. Here’s the paradigm: I am the sower and the Word of God is powerful, supernatural, life-giving. Take in the Word of God and respond and as you do, in the context of community, you will become, over time, just like Me.

And then third, Jesus tested their faith and revealed His power, but don’t miss this, so that when He said something in the future, they would actually believe it to the point of getting in the wheelbarrow and following. The author is very, very clear. It says, “Then He said to them, ‘Let us go to the other side.’” Think of you go to the best lecture you have ever experienced in your life. That’s this message. And then He didn’t actually say this, but then He says: Okay, now, let’s go into the lab and let’s try this on. Remember? It’s all about My Word. Did you hear Me? I said, “Let us go to the other side.”

So, they get in the boat, storm comes up, they are professional fishermen, “Oh, Lord, help us! Help us! We are going to die, we are going to die!” So, impossible situation, does anybody remember, how did He calm the storm? He spoke. “Peace, be still.” Whoo! Peter, John, James, “Oh my.” And Jesus shows His disciples that, number one, He’s the Lord of the natural realm; that was the storm.

The second, He’s the Lord of the supernatural realm. So, they go to the other side, they get there, and when they get there, there is a demoniac and each time it’s impossible. He has a legion of demons. No matter what they do, no one can control him. It’s impossible. And so, as Jesus approaches, He starts crying out, “Ahhhhh!” And Jesus speaks, casts out a legion of demons, he’s clothed and in his right mind. Before, he was cutting himself, they would put chains on him; he would break them. In other words, there’s such power that no one can calm.

Theresa and I lived in Santa Cruz with our family and all those things that you read about in some of those books, we got to experience. We saw overt demonic activity. And it was then amazing to teach our kids at a young age how to speak out loud who they are in Christ and their authority and watch demonic influences leave our home from the mouth of a ten-year-old. This is real stuff. We don’t have to be afraid.

Third, while He is on His way, He now hears about a little girl who is dying. And on the way it says a woman comes up and touches His garment. Most of you know the story. But she is described as a woman who has seen all the doctors, has lost all of her money. In other words, there’s no hope. Each time, no hope, impossible situation, she touches it, she’s healed, and then what does He say? “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” By the way, in each story, they worshipped Jesus after He does this. He’s the Lord of the physical world.

And then finally, He makes it and by the time He gets to where the little girl is, she has already died, they are mourning, and He says something like, “Hey, stop. She’s not dead, she’s just asleep.” And they laugh. “You don’t understand.” And so, He goes in and how did He heal the little girl? Anybody remember? He spoke, storms stop. He spoke, demons flee. And then He says to this little girl, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” Why did He do that? What did the disciples need to learn? They needed to be in the wheelbarrow with Him and be scared to death and look at their version of Niagara Falls and go, “How can we ever follow You?” And learn physical world, supernatural world, the natural world, and even the eternal realm.

I got you. You can trust My Word, for your relationships, for your finances, for your future, for your decisions. But if you’re not in it, you can’t. Or if you’re in it because you feel like this is what good Christians do. Oh gosh, we’re on a year-long reading program. I haven’t read it yet. I’ll read it really, really fast. I read my reading program, God!

The Lord is much more concerned about the Word getting in you and you putting it into practice than He is how much you read or how many Bible studies. Some of the most carnal people on the face of the earth know the Bible better than you and me. They are study-a-holics. They just have anger issues and they are selfish and they are religious and we don’t like to be around them and they are arrogant and they want to usually argue about stuff.

The kind of people we want to be around are humble, gentle people who realize they have struggles just like I have struggles and you have struggles. And they get up and they meet with God because He’s the most important person in their life. Lord, I am really, really struggling because it’s, even after all these years, Theresa really made me crazy last week and I’m having a tough time with it. Lord, you know, I got grown kids and now I’ve got grandkids and, you know, you know, we’ve got this big opportunity and Lord, I don’t know what to do.

You know what His answer to…trust Me. Trust Me. And “trust Me” isn’t like, mmmm. “Trust Me” is I’m going to respond to what I know and I’m going to take a baby step toward that truth. And I’m going to obey whatever You have shown me to this point. And I’m going to leave the outcomes to You. Anybody here feel like it might be time to maybe get in the Word for you to find life? It’s the secret of the kingdom. I promised to be gentle, but I can’t not be direct – are you a person that basically is like the guy, “I believe You can do anything! I believe You can do anything! Wow! Wow!”

And Jesus is saying: Great. Get in the wheelbarrow. Let’s start doing life together. Let’s stop talking about this and studying about this and agreeing with Me and how about we get a hold of your time, a hold of your relationships, get a hold of your money. Because the only reason that I gave you this is that My plan is better.

Guess what, I know where the stock market is going to be in a month. I know the day you’re going to die. Huh! I know the kind of person you’re looking for. I know what your kids need from you. I know what you need as a single person in this season to be sustained. I know exactly what is going to happen at your company and who is coming and who is going and the lane that you need to be in. Would you like to know? That’s God! That’s getting in the wheelbarrow. We so view commitment as what we are going to lose instead of what we are going to get. That’s why Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like someone who found a great treasure and it was hidden in the land and he realized this treasure is more valuable than anything that he has.

And so, he goes and sells all of his possession and sells his home and buys the land so he gets the treasure. That’s just being smart, that’s not being holy. If you knew there was three billion dollars buried in a field and you had to mortgage your house, empty your bank account, in order to buy the field and then laugh when you go, “Wow, that was a big sacrifice but I got three billion dollars,” would anyone feel sorry for you? No, you’re like really smart. So, my question, do you want to be a smart follower of Jesus or a dumb follower of Jesus? Boy, that was straightforward, wasn’t it? It boils down to that.