verse out of Matthew 19 but I want to stick with the story in Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10 seemed to have a little bit more material in there that really jumped out at me and spoke to me but the verse over in verse 20 in Matthew 19 that verse that's our key verse this morning. So with God being a helper I hope that you'll get something out of this message which is entitled, What Do I Lack? What am I missing? While you're turning there, I want to share with you a couple of things that I read about. One, one person said, I have been rereading the record of the rich young ruler and his obviously wrong choice. But it has set me thinking, no matter how much wealth he had, he could not ride in a car, have any surgery like we do nowadays. He couldn't turn on a light. He couldn't buy penicillin or medicine. He couldn't hear a pipe organ. He couldn't even hear a wonderful piano. He couldn't watch TV, he couldn't wash dishes in running water, he couldn't type a letter, he couldn't go cut the grass. Some people like, they might say mow a lawn. He couldn't fly in an airplane, he couldn't sleep on an innerspring mattress, or even talk on a phone. But if the Bible says he was rich, what does that make you and I? Huh. Then I read something else. We find that America is a place where people spend money that they don't have to buy things that they don't need to impress people that they don't like. Lord, help us. Now, if you got your place in Mark chapter 10, I'm gonna drop down to verse 17. If you got your place there, please say amen. If you don't have it, please say hold on. Amen, that's fine, that's fine. Folks, I'll tell you what, God has been meeting with us in these revival services. And I encourage you, come on tonight. I know sometimes when we have a meal and stuff like that it gets late, but you know what guys, we can make time for God. I guarantee you if somebody ran up to you and shoved two Owls baseball game tickets in your face, you'd suddenly get a shot of energy and excitement and you'd probably make time to run over to the Owls stadium. So don't skip out on God. We encourage you guys, come on out to the church house this week. We've been having some really, really good meetings, I have to say. And I tell you folks, Pastor Kevin, he preaches a little bit different than I do. Pastor Jordan, he preaches a little bit different than I do, but you know what? It's the same message. It's the same God, it's the same Jesus, it's the same Bible, and I thank God for that. God can reach us with different other manners and different other ways. So without further ado, let's take a look at the story of the rich young ruler. It says in verse 17, And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. Now knowest the commandment, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. Now, I'm going to skip over that verse 20 and I'm going to flip back to Matthew 19 verse 20. So that's where I'm going to flip over here to this one, Matthew 19 and verse 20. Listen to what the young man said. The young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet? All right, now we're going to flip back to Mark chapter 10 and we're going to pick up in verse 21. Then, I want you to watch it, Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lacketh, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross, and follow me. But notice what he did. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions. Let's pray. Father, Lord God, I'm asking your Lord to anoint these lips of clay this morning. Father, in and of myself, I can't do anything. but make a mess of things. But Lord, Father, with you and your anointing, I know I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. And so, Father, I'm asking you today to use this little old vessel for your glory. Lord, just pour your words through me that it won't be me, Lord, but it'll be you up here speaking to the folks, Lord, here present, assembled, and those that are watching online. Lord, I ask that you'll bust our hearts wide open. Lord, that you'll melt the heart of stone. Lord, that you'll keep our thoughts and our minds centered on you. Now, Father, have your will on your way, Lord. Father, we thank you for the anointed singing that we heard this morning. Father, for the hymns of the faith. Oh, Father, Lord, I pray you'll continue to bless the group of Jacob's call, Lord, them and their families represented. Lord, Father, we just ask today that you'll just help us, Lord, a long life journey. In Jesus' name, amen. In verse 17, God, we find this young man, he come a running. He was in a hurry. But you know what? That's kind of like all of us, ain't it? Now, especially nowadays in America, it's run, run, run, run, run. It's like we can't get there fast enough. And then when we get there, we can't get these things done quick enough. It's like this whole country is bent on hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. I mean, that's the whole thing. This young man, he came a running. He must have heard Jesus was in town. And being a rich man, he obviously had a good business. He obviously had good things going on his way that he liked. And so maybe he was trying to put a business transaction on hold to get where Jesus was because something about Jesus sparked an interest in him. And he runs up to Jesus and what do we find? We find that he addresses him by saying, good master. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now, guys, I want you to understand something, that back in Jesus' time, nobody, and you don't ever see that in any context of any of the four gospel accounts, or even in the book of Acts. You never see anybody dress a rabbi. We would, inside of our faith, we would call these rabbis preachers, pastors, in a way. But nobody called these fellows good master or good teacher or good rabbi. That's the understanding of that word master there. And the reason is nobody called these preachers, these rabbis, these teachers good was because the rabbis themselves taught that only God is good, only one. Now, I want you to notice what that young man again was saying. He said, good master, what shall I do? What must I do to inherit eternal life? So this young man's thought is all wacky anyway. It's all faulty in this manner because he's thinking that eternal life is something that he's going to earn, something that I'm going to do a checklist on and knock all these things out and then I'm going to deserve that. But you see, the Apostle Paul tells us, and this is one of the glorious benefits of having our Bible in our hand. You know, a lot of people say, well, I would have loved to have lived back then. Folks, I'm happy that today I'm alive when I am because I've got the entire Word of God inside of my hand. I ain't got to worry and wait and wonder about, am I going to get all of God's Word? Yeah, they might have heard the Word direct from Jesus' mouth, but there's still more to come. And just think, guys, we have the complete realm of God's Holy Word that's been revealed. There ain't none buried out in the sand out there. You've got an old King James Bible. You've got the Word of God. You ain't got to worry about where it is, where to find it, where to dig it up or anything like that. All you got to do is read it and believe it. Read it and trust it. Why? Folks, there have been people that have been after this Bible for hundreds of years, trying to destroy it, trying to discredit it. You know that it was even put on trial in a New York court in 1939? An atheist put it on trial? And the judge said, in order to discredit this book, you're going to have to get historical records from that era, from that age, saying that it's a bunch of hooey. And we've not found any of that. Everything they've ever dug up in the Holy Land has done one thing. It's proven again and again and again and again that what this Bible says, what this old book says is 100% absolutely true. Yet we got blooming idiots out there that think they know more than this book, more than the guy that wrote the book, saying, oh no, that ain't right. It really gets me, guys, when a lot of times these atheists, they'll look at you and they'll say, well, that there was written by a bunch of men, but yet they're gonna hug a science textbook and I shoot back at them, well, that book right there in your hand was written by a bunch of men. They don't seem to, you know, trigger the light bulb in their noggin any. I don't understand. The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9, he said, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of worth, lest any man should boast. Now that says right there it ain't by going and being dunked in no water that you're going to earn salvation. That you're going to get wet and God owes you salvation. It ain't because you do what the preacher man says whether he's Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman, Catholic, you name it. It don't matter what we say to do's and don'ts are, it matters what God said. And God said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You better make sure that Jesus, by the way, is the Jesus of the Bible. Because you can come up alongside a Mormon and say, hey, do you believe in Jesus? They'll say, yep. I don't mean they're part of this crowd. Because, by the way, that Jesus they believe in is the brother of Lucifer, you know, the devil. My Bible teaches me that God created all the angels and Lucifer is an angel now. He's a fallen angel now, but Jesus is the creator, not the brother of Lucifer. And then our Jehovah's Witness friends out there, well, guess what? They say that Jesus is the first thing Jehovah ever created. My Bible, again, says numerous places that Jesus is the creator, not the first thing God the Father made. Now, where do they get this junk from? I'll tell you right now, it ain't from the Word of God. So that's where we need to be. We need to be in the word of God. This young man, he run up to Jesus and said, what do I gotta do to inherit eternal life? Folks, listen to me. The young man wasn't looking out for Jesus to be his savior. He wanted Jesus to show him how he could be his own savior. In other words, guys, the man didn't know a lick about who was standing right in front of his face. When you don't know who Jesus really is, you probably don't know who you are either. And knowing Jesus comes first. So Jesus responded. He said, what are you doing calling me good? Why are you calling me good? There's only one good, that's God. Now look, guys, this is not Jesus denying his deity. Instead, what he's doing is he's inviting the young man to reflect upon what he just said. Because back in the time Jesus lived, there were two Greek words that meant good, but one meant moral good, and the other one meant like it's a personal preference kind of good, like the picture looks good to me. Well, I think that picture's ugly. That means it's a personal decision. It's a different choice in the eye of the beholder. You know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But Jesus is looking, are you talking about the moral good that can only come from God? He's asking the young man to reflect upon these things. And he continues without skipping a beat. He said, well, you know the commandments. What do they say? And he starts going down the list. But now listen, guys, look again what he said. Let me go back over that just real quick. Thou knowest the commandment, Jesus said. Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. By the way, when we flipped back over yonder in Matthew chapter 19, did you happen to catch that? If you didn't, let me throw this out here. It ain't in my notes, so no extra charge. There's people that get things mixed up and wound up inside the Bible, turned upside down. Because they don't study. It's because they McDonaldized their Bible reading. It's like we got a little program here. We're going to read through the Bible in a year. Okay, I read my Bible. Okay, I'm good. But did you understand what you just read? A little bit here, a little bit there. No. Well, what good did it do you? I mean, you might as well be reading Chinese for all that matter. The Bible, by the way, the King James Bible is the only Bible that'll tell you this. Study all the other Bibles out there. They ain't gonna tell you to do that. Why? Because we're lazy. Let's just be honest. We want to go play our computer games. We want to go binge watch whatever the season and whatnot is on TV. We want to go out and play in the garden. We want to go drive our car. Well, if you got to pay the gas bill, you don't. Anyway, we want to go do whatever. We want to go nap all the time. Or we want to do this or we want to do that. But when it comes to the things of God, well, I'll just give God my little hour, then I'll check that off. I'm done now. God wants to have a relationship with you. All right, I'm going to go ahead and bring this out again. You see, inside of this Bible, There's a mind, there's a way to think. There's an understanding of right and wrong, of things that we're supposed to think about in a proper way and manner. You see, the trouble with a lot of us guys is that some of us were late bloomers when it came to Jesus. And the problem is we spend 40 years, 30 years, 20 years figuring out life, how to solve problems, what to do, what not to do. But we come to Jesus and then we go to church and we think, you know, okay, well, I'm kind of getting the hang of some of this. I kind of do good here, and then when I get out there, it stinks. I can't make this work. I can't make it work right. Well, how much time are you spending in the Word of God? You come inside the church house, then you get your Bible open, then you read a little bit of it, and then what happens? We leave our Bible in our pew, or we leave our Bible inside the car or the truck, and we don't pick it up again till we get back to church. What's the matter with us? There is a way of thinking that Jesus wants you to operate on and me too. The Bible says we have the mind of Christ. So what God wants us to do is to take this way we've been thinking our whole lives and chuck it and get rid of it. And then to get this way of thinking in the Word of God and put that inside of our noggin upstairs. You know, kind of like, you know, when somebody cuts you off in traffic, you think, well, I'm going to get them. I'm going to bright light them. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to cut them out with my horn. I'm going to give them a California howdy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, you name it. Road rage. Well, that person did this to me and they hurt my feeling. Well, guess what? Bless God, we hurt God's feelings all the time. There's all kinds of things we do, but we say, they hurt me, I'm going to get back at them. Jesus says, love them. Love them that despisefully use you and persecute you. Pray for them, not to kick the bucket, but pray for them. I don't wanna do that, I wanna get even, Stephen. That's your flesh talking. Look at the Son of God, for heaven's sake. Look at what Jesus did. He was scourged with a whip, and then he was made naked, and then he was nailed to a cross, and he was mocked, and he was scourged, and his beard was yanked out, and this is the God of all glory, the one that could have blasted them into hell itself. And what did he say? He said, Father, forgive them. And what's that Bible say? Oh yeah, Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ. Don't you sit there and tell me, I can't do that preacher, that's you, you're the preacher, you can do that. No, you can too. It's just our flesh wants us to do otherwise. And when we do, we grieve the spirit of God, we quench the spirit of God, and we close off the light of God to a lost and dying world. God help us. Let me tell you something about that over in Matthew 19. If you read the commandments how Jesus puts them down, does it not say over there, Thou shalt do no murder? And then you flip back over there in Mark or go back to Exodus chapter 20 in the 10th commandment and it says, Thou shalt not kill. There's been a heap of theologians and preachers down through the ages. They said, well, that means you never should kill, period. No, that's not it. You see, your King James Bible has a built-in dictionary. Scripture interprets Scripture. The kill he's talking about is premeditated murder. So capital punishment is fine, is authorized by God. A soldier going to the front lines and killing the enemy without hate in his heart, that's fine according to the Bible. If some moron breaks in my house and says, I'm going to kill your wife after I rape her, and I'm going to cut off the heads of your son, I'll say, bless God over my dead body, and I'll get my little friend and make him talk at him. No, this junk about saying, well, you just got to roll over and just do everything because you got to be a weakling sister. No. When Jesus said, turn the other cheek, when somebody bopped you upside the head, that don't mean for you to turn into a doormat. Here ain't in my notes neither. When they struck you, they hit you with the back of their palm saying, you are lower than me. You are dirt. You are nothing. You are worthless. Some of you have heard that your whole lives. I'm telling you, you need to stop listening to the devil. The fact that you are here, you are alive, you have a brain wave, you have air in your lungs, tells me that you are here by divine purpose. You are not a mistake. You are not worthless. The fact that Jesus Christ loved you and gave himself on the cross for you tells me that you're worth something. The life of the son of God. I'm sick and tired of the devil lying to our children and our kids with this epidemic of suicide among people that are younger than I am. They are told all the time they're a mistake, they're worthless, they're useless, they're rubbish. That's the lie of the world out of the pit of hell. God says I made you for a purpose in life. Amen, preacher, that's good preaching. Now listen, folks, if you think that's good, you say amen, you say glory to God. You say whatever the Lord tells you to say. Oh, for heaven's sake, I'll tell you what, folks, I'll tell you, I bet Jacob's call seen some of these. They go inside of a church and they sing and God just anoints them and gets all over and then everybody just like he was saying, Some churches, guys, I'm listening, I'm not attacking, I'm just telling you the way it is. I've been in some of them before. It's so cold in there, and I ain't talking about temperature-wise. If you're cold, get up here with me and run around a little bit. Anyway, we'll adjust the temperature, I promise. It's so cold, they might as well be hanging meat in some of them. There's a freezer. I'll never forget John Gatlin. He said he went to a church in this community somewhere around, and he said he went and sat on the back row, And nobody shook his hand. Next Sunday he went back, sat on the front row. Preacher looked straight at him while he was preaching. Preacher didn't even shake his hand. Nobody shook his hand. He said, well fine, I'm leaving. Then he come over here and he got hugged to death. Amen. So folks, That's neat that the Bible talks about meanings right there when you just do a little flip study even in Matthew and Mark. Amazing, right there. Jesus talks about these things. He says, you know the commandments? Now wait a minute. Ten commandments, right? Hold on. The first four commandments are our responsibility to God. The last six commandments are our responsibility to each other. And you know what? That's what Jesus is pinpointing. He ain't talking a thing about our relationship and duty unto God. He has not addressed anything. Jesus is addressing the second tablet, our duty to man. And that young man replies and he says, all of these I have kept, I've done all of these from my youth up. He's probably referring back over to when like his, we would call like a bar mitzvah. When the Jews say, you are a man now, now act like it, you know the word of God, and a man up, boy, and be a man. That's probably what he's saying. From his youth all the way up, however old he is, he ain't that old, but he's still considered a young ruler, and what he said is, I've done all these things. In my mind, I've kept them all, I've done them all, I've done what I'm supposed to, every one of them. So why can I not get this thing eternal life? Interesting. In my notes I put this, it said this man had made the law the norm for his life and no doubt he was confident that he personally fulfilled all of the demands. There might have even been maybe a smugness to his reply possibly, we don't know. But this man was anxious concerning his real relationship with God and this absence of peace of mind drove him to the Lord. You know, he was a rich young ruler. Oh, hang on to that thought. He had riches. Now look at you, even if you got $2 in your back pocket or your pocketbook or your wallet, according to 75% of the world, you're rich, you're richer than 75% of the world. If you had a bed to sleep in last night and you didn't go to bed hungry and you woke up with electricity and hot running water, guys, you are a very blessed rich person. We've got it so good in this country and yet still we bellyache about some of the things we ain't got. Oh, bless your heart. If you'll just look at the fact that you got shoes on your feet and we got food on the table back there and we're fixin' to eat. Oh, hallelujah. We got clothes on us that didn't come out of a trash heap. Some of you ladies even got jewelry on. Some of us got, we got some accessories on. We got watches, we got rings, we got all kinds of stuff. We are blessed beyond measure. Oh, we are so blessed! But yet this young man said there's something, something ain't right here. I've done all this stuff. I've done all these things. What am I missing? What am I lacking? Maybe you said the Lord's Prayer every day your whole life. Maybe you tried to keep the Ten Commandments. Maybe you've been to church every time the doors are open and you sweep the floors and you mop the floors and you even do the vacuum and you might even do some of the scrubbing with a toothbrush. I don't know. Maybe you go out and you cut the grass, and then you take meals to people that are shutting, then you go and you call and you check and do all these different things. Praise God, you're busy for the Lord. But even though you're so busy for the Lord, that don't mean you are born again. I have known even preachers to be in revival and then to come to the altar and then get saved. What, yes? Yes. Why? Because you can know it here and not here. And I think there's a lot of that in America today. There's a lot of people that darken the doors of the church. They know it. but they don't know Him. You remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, around verse 21, 22, and 23? He'll say unto them on the left, He'll say unto them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. And that's right after they stand before Him and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied or preached in Your name? Lord, Lord, have we not cast out devils in Your name? Lord, Lord, have we not done all these wonderful works in Your name? And that's when Jesus says that he never knew him. You see, it ain't about the big pile of riches and the big pile of works that you got or that you've done or whatever. It's the fact of what you and I do with Jesus Christ, whether or not we have a relationship with him. Do you know Him today? I don't mean do you believe He existed and lived 2,000 years ago. Guys, there's people out there that believe that all day long. Do you know that even the demons of hell believe in Jesus? But they ain't saved. Either Jesus is who he said he was, or he's the biggest con artist in history. And I'll tell you right now, I've never seen any evidence to say that he ain't what he said that he was. He demonstrated that he was the son of God. He demonstrated he is God in the flesh. Folks, it's an amazing thing. So suddenly now, in verse 21, what do we find? Jesus beheld him. That means he looked at him. That don't mean he just looked at him. That means beholding there. It means that there's a look of love, a look of concern, a look of interest. It means to fix one gaze upon, to look at intently. You married couples probably know the look. Yeah. That's it. But here it ain't just a steadfast gaze. Behind it, the Bible says Jesus beholding him loved him. He had compassion on him. Jesus has looked at you and me. And just like that rich young ruler, he's looked at us and beheld us. Ain't that something to stop and think about? The God of all glory trying to make all these galaxies and quasars move around and not destroy each other. You know, keep the earth doing its thing and the sun doing its thing and the comets and all these things. and all the animals doing what they're supposed to do. I mean, you got to send all the birds south for winter and then get them all back up here. That's a lot of stuff going on at the same time. And then hearing everybody's prayers and all that at the same time. I mean, 11 o'clock hour is a busy time for God, no doubt. But then if someone in here is lost, I'll tell you what God's doing. He's looking right at your heart, at your mind, at you right now, beholding you in love. All this stuff is happening in the universe and God's attention is on you right now just like it was that young man. And what did Jesus say? He said one thing you lackest. It means in present tense you're missing something. You lack something. What is it preacher? What is it? Well here it is. What do I lack? What am I lacking? All right, I'll give you, there's more. Yeah, this is the sermon. All that was intro. My stars, we're gonna be here till one o'clock. No, we ain't. I know how to knock it out, so let's knock it out. Number one, you gotta start. You gotta start somewhere. What did Jesus tell him? Get into this one thing you're missing? Look again what he said. He said, one thing that I like is, verse 21, go thy way. Go your way. What does that mean? It means you're not just gonna get in the vehicle and just drive and just take a drive just to anywhere. No, no, no, because anywhere will take you somewhere. No, this is you're driving on a mission. On a mission. You know exactly. You got a mission. Go that way. You got to start. You got to get up and you got to do something. That's what you got to do. Jesus said, you can't stay where you are. If you are surrounded by doubt, then bless God, you need to start, get away from that. If you know God's here and you're here and there's something between you, then whatever it is you've been doing ain't been working. You've got to start and get away from that, whatever it is. So you've got to start. You got a master start button. You got to start on this journey. Go thy way. Then what? Well, number two, you got to stop. Look what he said. He said, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast. There's his problem. You see, when we run the bathtub with water, and all of a sudden, by the time you get done with your shower, you look and you feel, and the water's all the way up to your ankles. That means there's a clog inside the drain, so it's time to get a plunger, or it's time to get Drano, or it's time to get one of them pipe snakes, or whatever it is, because there's probably a big wad of hair down in there that's clogging your drain. A bunch of that. Now see, I ain't got that much of a problem. Maybe here, but not so much up here. Or maybe it's inside of the sink. But whatever it is, something's not working. It's supposed to, water go down the hole. But something is keeping it back. God is supposed to be on our side. We are supposed to have a relationship with God. But something is dividing us from him. And a lot of times, guys, it's sin. That's what it is. It's clogging it. But here in this young man's life, it's not just sin. It's an idol. It's a little God. And it's his stuff. It's clogging the drain. It's clogging the pipeline between him and God. What is standing in your way with God? God's telling him, stop. You've got to stop what it is you got. And so instead of looking at God, He's looking at all this stuff. He's looking, OK, I'm going to check that off, check that off, check that off. Yep, I haven't killed anybody. Yep, I'm not committed adultery. I've not done this, and I've done that, and I've done this. I'm doing pretty good. Where is my eternal life? I deserve it. It's mine now. I've done all these things you said. Where is it at? Why don't I got it? Well, maybe I can go talk to that weird creature that always comes through here and always makes the news when he comes through town. Oh, he's in town now. Let me go see if I can talk to him, see what the holdup is. I need my eternal life because I done did his thing. It's mine. No, you need to go your way and you need to sell whatever you have. So, what I have, what I, I, me, what I, I have. What else? Number three, you need to support. What? Support who? Support what? He said give to the poor. In other words, let's break it down. Think of somebody other than yourself. You see, Jesus took, by the way, God, don't think there's only 10 commandments. There's actually 613 commandments God gave the Jews. The 10 commandments is what God gave to the world that he would write on their heart. Whether they heard of him or not, that's what would be on their heart. But God took all them 613 and brought them down to two commandments. And guess what? That's all we have. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your might. And love your neighbor, love your neighbor as you love yourself. You see, he said, back yonder, I done all these things. But he's been keeping the best for himself. His little God's gotta get out of the way. We've got to take our idols and knock them down, guys. We've got to stop going to our shrine that we have erected ourselves. You say, well, I ain't got no shrine, I ain't got no little statue, but there's something maybe, maybe in your life. I ain't saying there is because I don't know your whole life. But there might be something that you put before God. put before his Bible, put before Jesus. Jesus is telling you, I want you to do that. No, I don't want to. We are the only members of God's creation that has the audacity to say no. When Kevin last night was preaching about the storm and Jesus gets in the boat and he says, peace be still. You know what the wind and the waves and the water and all that did? It stopped immediately. It didn't say, well, let me think about it. No. Even if it all ceased, the waves would still be rocking. But the Bible says immediately it all stopped. When Jonah was thrown over, the whale came. Yes, it was a whale. Jesus said it was a whale. Don't argue with me about it was a fish. I know it was a big fish, but Jesus said it was a whale in Matthew 19, by the way. Anyway, he prepared that whale and he said, go swallow that man. That whale didn't say, I don't want to. Is he gluten free? He didn't say anything like that. Is he fat-free? Probably not, especially if he was a Baptist. Anyway, he didn't do anything like that. The whale said, you want me to eat what? He said, that man. The whale said, yes, sir. Then later, when Jonah was under the gourd, what did he do? He said, worm, wormy, I want you to go eat the gourd. Well, I haven't had supper. I don't need to eat that. I'll gain too much weight. He didn't do that. He said, go eat the gourd. He said, yes, sir. And he did. Every critter in all of creation, when God says do something, they do it. When God speaks to nature, it does what he says. But when God speaks to those made in his own image, we say no. And we're so smart. Really? God says, forgive that person. Well, they done hurt me. That preacher didn't shake my hand, didn't call me, didn't do this, didn't do that. I don't like him. Forgive him. You need to, because guess what? I put my pants on just like you do. I ain't no better than you. Don't you dare put me up here on no pedestal. If you do, I'll fall on my face, and then that might hurt you and get you away from the Word of God. Amen. The only one you need to elevate is Jesus Christ, because He's who it's all about. This church heard crap is just a bunch of hooey to tell God, I don't want to go to church, I don't want to be with God's people, and I want to do my own thing. I can do my own thing. Well, that just proves to me you ain't reading your Bible. God says His people will not forsake the assembling of themselves together, and we will live with the brethren. If you can love your haywire, cotton-picking, upside-down family member that get on your nerves and hurt your heart and yet you forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive and love and love and love, what does that say you need to do to your church family member? That's good preaching, preacher, amen! Y'all are quiet today. I don't know if y'all been amen and hallelujahed out this past week or not. I ain't preached out yet, I'll have you know. When you get down to Morning Star tonight, I'm gonna be in this form tonight, because I feel the fire set up in my bone. You say, well, you're gonna be horse by tomorrow morning, guess what? My students are gonna be just fine, because Preacher Craig knows how to teach his young'uns. And bless God, I may not know how to preach, but I ran back and I'll preach what God says to say. You got to think of somebody other than yourself. And that seems to be all the recipe for today. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me. I want to sleep in. I want to do this. I don't want to do that. It's not about Chris and Alex. It's not about Stacy and Scott and Charlotte or Tony or Cheryl or Uncle Junior or David or any other one of them. It's all about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. So what do you gotta do? Here we are. Number four, you gotta step. What do you mean I gotta step? You see, there's nine instances of this word in the New Testament. Three occur in the identical gospel command from Jesus, and it's usually described as come, follow. This is not, if you feel like it, get off your rear end. No, this is a direct durel in the Greek, which is a imperative command. When my daddy said, boy, get up, it wasn't. Well, let me sit here and contemplate the ideas if I want to get up or not. Because I'm gonna tell you right now, if I didn't get up within five minutes, this was coming off, and my honey was gonna get warm, and daddy was going to make me get up. That's the problem with most of our kids nowadays. We've given them 5,000 miles and they've turned into lazies. I'm gonna say slobs, but I won't be that direct. They've just basically turned into lazy youngins. They need to get some sense knocked in them, whether it be here or whether it be there. I don't care how. God does believe in disciplining because he says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. That means he skins alive with a whip. And thank you, Lord, that you're not going to use this one right here, you know. God's not gonna use that, but he could. No, I'm not Indiana Jones. Even though he and I have never been seen in the same room together, I promise. I got a big black felt hat back there, but it ain't like Indies, but anyway. This is the command. Notice he says, come. He tells the young ruler, come. Why can he come that way? Because he had to start moving, then he had to stop and chuck what was blocking the way out, because it was his responsibility, and then now he's got to come where? Come back to the Savior. You say, we've got to run away with our sin and get it out of the way, and then let's come to the Savior. And I'm talking about our idol, because I know who got our sin out of the way, Jesus did, on the cross. But these things that are blocking us, guys, we've got to chop our idols down and destroy that idol. Why? Because God's not gonna do it for us. We put that idol up, we take it down. And why? Because we put the one true God up. Now, the next one, he says, this is important. This is what he's lacking, sacrifice. He said, take up the cross. You see that? He says, take up the cross. Do you realize in the Bible this is the first cross mentioned? It ain't Jesus' cross. It's the disciples' cross. And do you realize that we have that same cross today? Even though you cannot physically see it, we have it also. Because look, guys, the cross means one thing. Nowadays, in the 21st century, we look at it and we think, Jesus. Back then, they saw death. So what does it mean, preacher? Now look, I know a bunch of my brothers. They're gonna say something like, well, beloved, you gotta take your cross up. Timmy Jane Granger, you gotta take your cross up. What's my cross, preacher? Well, it's just what your burden is. You know, maybe you gotta take care of a sickly mom or dad up in their 90s or 80s, and you know, it's just an inconvenience, but praise God, that's your responsibility, that's your... No, it ain't, preacher. We make it this cheap junk. We're always somebody that kinda annoys us and gets on our nerves and we gotta bend over backwards to move heaven and earth to do everything we can to help this person out. If I just get up off the rear end and do something, or if I just get a job, or if I just do this, or just do that, or just get right with God, then we wouldn't have to do all that. That's not your cross! I don't know who come up with that lame brain idea of interpretation, but that ain't Bible. Well, what is it? The cross represents, symbolizes death. So what I want to do, my thoughts, my will, my desire, I'm going to sacrifice it. I'm going to give it over to God because Jesus himself said no man can serve Two masters. And there's a heap a lot of us trying to keep one side on what we want and another side on what God wants. I'll tell you right now, if it's that way, you're straddling, you ain't on nobody's side. You're in the middle. And there's a clog in the pipeline. David, if you'll come. betwixt you and God. Is it any wonder then you feel like my prayers ain't getting answered? Is it any wonder then that you can't, everybody else is saying amen, hallelujah, and you're just sitting there like a knot on a log and the Spirit of God just passing you by. You know why? Because right now you're thinking about I'm hungry, when will he shut up and let me eat? Maybe you're sitting there thinking on your phone, thinking, wow, this thing, this little game, this little blah, blah, is so amazing, it's so interesting, I'm gonna plan out my trip, or I'm gonna see what I buy on eBay. Who cares about what he's up there like Charlie Brown's teacher, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Oh yeah, you can be here but not be here, you know why? Because I've been there. And yet, one of these days, when you get to heaven, God's gonna look at you and say, okay, sonny boy, all right, daughter of mine, when you got born again, your life became not yours, it's mine. I gave it to you to live out, but yet here you are doing this and this and this and this, and that does not hold a candle to the word of God and my word and my love letter to you. Yet you are off in la-la land doing my time on what you wanted. Hey, he's gonna hit me too, folks, amen. But that's just the thing, we got a problem. And the problem is, yeah, we're saved, we're on our way to heaven, but it's not hell insurance. You wanna know one reason why people don't come to know the Lord? It's because half the time the lost man ain't gonna touch this. But they'll watch you. They'll watch Michael or Andy at work. They'll watch Cheryl while she's with her clients. They'll watch Stacy checking people in and checking people out. And then when something don't go our way, or we get ill, or we get mad, or blah, blah, blah, they're gonna watch and see how we react. Well, if they're doing that, I can do that on my own. Hmm. Sacrifice. That means you've got to give up something. You won't. And all it is is our desire and what we have on our agenda to say, Lord, this life ain't mine no more. It's all yours. Here it is. What do you want me to do with it? Tell me. That's the sacrifice. And then he says surrender. What does he say? Follow me. You know what that says? That says that there can't be two kings doing whatever we want to do. Just like Mary said at the wedding feast. You remember what she told the servants? Whatever whatsoever he saith, do it. I ain't no Catholic, and I don't elevate Mary, but I'll tell you right now, that's some pretty Good advice from Mary, the mother of Jesus. Whatever he says, do it. Amen. So the rich man's question was answered, Lord. I've done all these things. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus told him what to do. And look what he said. And he was sad at that saying and went away greed, for he had great possession. You notice that? He was rich. He was rich and yet he was sad and he was grieved. Oh man, I thought, wow, if I just make a million dollars, if I just put $50,000 in a CD or something, I'll have it made in the shade. If I just had more money in the bank than I could ever spend, I'll have it made. No, you won't. Because that first 100,000, let me tell you what you'll want. You'll want another 100,000. And you get that first 500,000, you'll want the other, another 500,000. Your first million, you'll want another. You'll never, ever be satisfied. Look, look them up, guys, look them up. Look at the people that won the lottery. You know, they say, oh, you can't win if you don't play. Yeah, I know, but how many people do you know ever won the lottery? Let me tell you something, guys. All them people that won the mega millions and all that, go look them up on the internet. You'll find them, and I'll tell you what you'll find, the overwhelming majority. They committed suicide. So you really think, what, tomorrow? Oh, tomorrow? I don't wanna get up, I gotta go to work. Why you gonna go to work for? Why don't you just lay out? Just lay out all week for crying out loud. You don't wanna go to work? Fine, don't go. Well, sooner or later, guess what's gonna happen? Where you at? Oh, I just didn't want to come in today. You find somebody to work. You better get your hind end in here. Nah, I ain't going to. All right, that's a write-up. No show. I don't know what the policies are on some of them, but I'll tell you right now, when I work at the Dollar General, no show, out you go. You're fired. What do you need the old crummy job for? Oh, I got debts. I got bills, power bill, water bill, car bill, insurance bill. You need to make your income because it's needed. Well, what about church? What about Bible? What about prayer? What about all these? I don't want to go. I don't want to do that. But ain't this needed because Jesus said do this? Oh, I think I'll do what I want to do. Well, sonny boy, you done left your cross behind. Because guess what? At that moment, you're not following Jesus. Yes, I am. I'm following Jesus. Really? Are you? We like to say that to deceive ourselves. And we want to know why the power of God don't fall like it did. Because there's too many of us just half-heartedly, half-way following Jesus. Where is our selling out to the Lord? Where is our 100% dedication to the Lord anymore? This rich young man thought he had the world by the tail, and he thought he was done, and he said, but one thing, I ain't got that eternal life. I want to make sure about it. Where is it at? What am I lacking? And Jesus said, oh, you're doing a lot of nice stuff for a lot of people. In their eyes, you're doing pretty doggone good. But there's one thing you're missing, and it's sacrifice and surrender. And you can't do that until you get your little God out of the way. It's not a mistake you were here this morning. You're here this morning for a divine meeting. Not just to hear some wonderful song. Not just to eat some wonderful food. Not to hear some bearded, bald, little weird preacher man rant and rave and run around. You're here because God had an appointment with you on his calendar to change your life forever. The ball's in your court right now. You can't answer for the rich man, but you can answer for you. Your answer. You can't answer for your spouse. I cannot answer for Stacy. I cannot answer for Michael. I cannot answer for Chris. And I cannot answer for Alex. But praise God, I have my family here. And whether they tune in or tune out is not for me to know. Only God knows. You're here, but I don't know if you're here or if you're 5,000 miles away, I don't know. But all I know is God said, get up and preach, and I've done my duty. Now, if God's dealing with you, salvation, rededicate your life, baptism, join the church, I don't know. You ain't gotta tell me a blessed thing, but this altar's open. Alice is going to kill the live feed. I'm going to kill my microphone. But folks, this