Satanic Robbery

The Fourth sermon in our series: "This Means War"

Scripture: John 10:10

Dr. Nick Floyd

Senior Pastor

Transcript

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Thank you for joining us today. At Crosschurch, we believe people need Jesus. People need each other. People change the world. And people leave legacies. Our desire is for you to understand, accept, and grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening. If you would like to know more about Crosschurch, please visit CrossChurch.com.

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All right. Well, good morning, everybody. Awesome to see all of your lovely faces out there. So glad you're at church today. And this is a One Church Sunday. I want to welcome all of our campuses wherever you are watching. We are so thankful you are here. If you're maybe even at home or on vacation watching online, glad that you have tuned in with us in this way. And we are excited about all that God's doing here. Let me just piggyback on the video you just saw and give a word to all the parents. I would just tell you, student camp is a non-negotiable uh for you as a parent with your teenager. Uh, we've had uh one now in college who went to student camp all the way through. We've got a couple teenagers now who are going all to camp. And I would just tell you, you know, it is a one of the most impactful things that our kids have ever been through and been to has been student camp. And you say, well, they don't want to go. Well, you make them do a lot of things they don't want to do. They probably didn't want to go to bed last night or go to school, you know, when school was in. And so I would just encourage you, one of the most beneficial things you can do as a parent is to get your kids in spiritually fertile ground where they can hear from the Lord. And there is maybe no more spiritually fertile ground than student camp, a week away from all the stuff and where they can really focus on the Lord. And so encourage you to do that and uh sign your kids up for that. Uh, last Sunday we had a big Sunday. Uh, all of you down at Highway 62, we got to open up your brand new building. Uh, as a reminder for those of you uh who are here, we launched this campus on February 1st, and they've been meeting at Farmington High School for the last several months as we've renovated the building that we bought. And uh, and so this past Sunday we were able to open up uh for the grand opening and have uh just an amazing time in that building. You see all the footage behind me. Uh there's Noah, our campus pastor. There's Bethay again, he's always on the screen. Uh that guy's good looking. I don't know who he is. Um, but just a fantastic time. Listen to what the Lord did. We had a hair under 1700 people show up for the grand opening Sunday. And here's the best part. Don't clap for that. The best part is we gave a clear gospel presentation. We had 44 people make a profession of faith last Sunday at Highway 62. So, church, uh man, I just piggyback on all you've already heard. Thank you for your generosity. Anytime we start a new campus, uh, that means that our our other campuses are carrying the ball and carrying the weight of that financially. And so if you are giving regularly, you're a tither like Meredith and I are, then the cool thing is that everything that you are witnessing on the screens, I want you to feel like you had a part in that and that you are able to reach all across Northwest Arkansas and America and the world because you're giving. So thank you, church, for that. And uh really looking forward to what God's gonna do in the future there. And hey, let's go do more. Y'all saying all right, let's go. I leaned over to Meredith uh in the middle of the second service and was like, why would we not do this again? Like, why wouldn't we not do more of these? Uh just a powerful, powerful time. So I could talk about that all day, uh, but y'all didn't come to hear that. Let's let's look at the word of God together. Y'all want to do that? John chapter 10 is where we're gonna be today. If you got your Bible in your journal, you can turn there with me. Uh, we are in a series called This Means War. We're talking about spiritual warfare. You gotta fight. And we're talking about the seven battles of spiritual warfare. And today we're gonna talk about this subject. We're gonna talk about satanic robbery. Now that that sounds a little weird uh as soon as I say it, but I want you to understand this that uh you do have someone who is set on stealing from your life. And we'll talk about him today. In that I I don't know about you, I've never been robbed actually, but I thought I was being robbed at some point in my life. Let me tell you a horrible story. Uh, my senior year of college, I lived in a uh in a house that we rented with five other college guys. So there were six of us total in this house. That's a separate sermon series altogether about that season uh right there. But uh basically to make a long story short, they had played a prank on me over a period of days, and I just like bought it hook, line, and sinker. I did not see it coming, and I just like looking back, I was such an idiot. Okay, like I should have gotten a hold of this, should have seen it, and just just missed it totally. And before I even go any further, what I'm about to share with you is horrible. No one should ever do this. Someone could have gotten killed. Everybody good on that? Like it says it's that bad. So we're hanging out, it's about midnight. We're all down in the living room, and uh we're all talking again. This has been building for nights, uh night after night after night, and so I'm I'm a little freaked out. And uh, and then somebody yells, there's a guy with a gun. And they all start running from the from like where the back porch door was. There was a masked man that ran in the house carrying a shotgun, and they're all like stampeding in this direction. They they forgot to tell one of my roommates who went like this, like just freaked out in the moment. And so I'm I'm along with it. And they're kind of like laughing and running all at the same time. So I kind of think it's a prank as well. And so I run right past the front door, otherwise known as a window of safety. Okay. And I open up the coat closet door where one of the guys had stashed his golf clubs, and I grab a golf club and I run up the stairs. Me and a few of the guys lived upstairs in different rooms, and uh, and then the guy, the guy in the mask and the gun comes to the bottom of the stairs, and I can tell he's trying to disguise his voice. And he's like, Hey, y'all come down here. I'm like, Okay, this I think this is not not for real. And then he he grabs a shotgun and he cocks it, he goes, I went, Oh gosh. And so he's like, get down here. And so I go down and he's like, get on your knees against the couch. And so I am on my knees against the couch like this, and I think that he's got the gun pointed at my back. They later told me he didn't even have it pointed at me, but I am in my mind, I can still remember as a college kid thinking, what is it gonna feel like to get shot in the back? It was just a horrible experience. And uh then he's like, Where's your wallet? And like by this time, I'm starting to almost cry. I mean, I mean, I wasn't really crying, you know. My my voice is cracking, and I'm like, it's in my it's in my car. And then he he acts like he gets spooked and he just runs out the house. Well, I stand up and I again I still think this all this is all real. And I'm like, oh y'all, this is for real. Call 911. And I run upstairs to grab my felt my cell phone, which is like a little bitty cell phone back in that day, and um this pre-iPhone for those of you who was the world before that. And so uh they all started like, no, no, no, it's a joke, it's a joke, it's a joke. And so it's just it was like a just a horrible experience that can I just I have horrible friends. In fact, I need friends, I need new friends, I need counseling, I need a lot of things based on that experience because I legit thought that I was gonna die, but I also thought I was being robbed in the moment. Now, I don't I don't know if you've ever had that experience. Surely, like somebody in this room has maybe been robbed, even like pickpocketed or something. And you probably feel like I felt like a little scared at the moment uh when you realize that, or you feel a little violated. And um what I'm talking to you about today is not that kind of robbery of the stealing of possessions. I'm talking to you about something much greater, much deeper, and that's talking about your spiritual life and really just your life in general as a Christian. The Bible doesn't tell us a story about a masked man with a shotgun. It tells us about a real enemy who, listen, will use anybody and use anything to steal, kill, and destroy your life. So we're gonna look at John chapter 10 today, a very familiar passage of scripture. And here's my guess, okay? My hunch is this is that those of you who grew up around the Bible or at least familiar with the Bible, the passage I'm gonna read, you're gonna be surprised that it doesn't mean what you think it means. Like it says something different than what you think. On the flip side of that, if you're like brand new to the Christian faith or newer to the Bible, it's the first time you're gonna hear it, you just get to hear it fresh today. You get to hear it as it should be taught. This is why we study the Bible. This is why we we look at context. What what chapter is the verse in? What chapter is the book in? Who is being spoken to at the time of the writing? Uh we misinterpret the Bible when we cherry pick a verse out of context, out of who is intended for, and we just make it apply to our own lives, and we or we just come up with some interpretation. That's when you get in trouble. So, John chapter 10, what you gotta understand, you gotta back up one chapter to understand what's going on. John chapter 9, Jesus has just healed a blind man on the Sabbath. There's these people named Pharisees who the Pharisees were the spiritual leaders of the day. And um you you would think that they would be like fired up to hear that some guy has been healed of blindness, right? And yet they do the exact opposite. They're like, well, who told, you know, who did this for you? And like, well, this guy named Jesus healed me, and here's what their response was This man, this Jesus, is not from God because he healed you on the Sabbath and he did not keep the Sabbath. You say, Well, I don't I don't understand what what is the Sabbath, what's the deal? In Judaism, the Sabbath is Saturday and it's a holy day, and you're not allowed to do any work on the Sabbath, even spiritual things like healing a blind man. And so, uh, in other words, their response was not joy at this man's healing, but skepticism and legalism over what you could and could not do on the Sabbath. Well, you can't heal a person on the Sabbath. Now you contrast that if like that happened today in our church. If we had a man who was blind, who Jesus healed and now he can see, he would come up on stage and we'd be like, What's up, baby? Worship team, come back out, roll it again, like we're gonna celebrate together, right? And yet these people are responding with uh with such skepticism. They call the guy back a second time and they're like, Hey, you need to give glory to God because Jesus is a sinner because he did not keep the Sabbath. And and homeboy's like, I don't know if Jesus is a sinner or not. All I know is this I once was blind, but now I see. You heard that phrase before? Send that famous hymn, right? And he's like, Man, I I don't know anything about what you're saying about Jesus. All I know is that I can now see. And Jesus then shifts the entire conversation, and he and he's basically doing this. He's showing the difference between what these false shepherds were doing, the Pharisees, false leaders and teachers, with what he really is. Now, chapter 10 of John is the same chapter where Jesus says a few of the I am statements. He says, I am the door, I am the good shepherd. What is he doing? He is showing the difference. I am different from y'all. Like y'all say you're shepherds of the people, but you're actually not. You're actually false teachers and false shepherds. And he's basically saying, I'm I'm going to show you what a real shepherd is like. Then you get to John 10, 10, which is our one verse of scripture we're going to study together today. And let's look at it together. Again, if you're familiar with the Bible, if you were raised in church, you've heard this verse, you think it means something, and I'm going to propose to you today that it may be something different than you actually expect. Here it is. The thief, we'll describe who that is in just a moment. They come only to steal and kill and to destroy. And then Jesus says, I came that they may have life and have it what? Abundantly. If you got your your Bible in your lap or your journal, circle or underline the word abundantly. We'll come back to that here at the end. Now you've got to understand John chapter 10, verse 10, within the overall context of the story here, okay? Um, let me answer two questions. You may be asking. Number one, who is the thief in this passage? And who you think the thief is may be different than who it really is. Who are who is the thief in this passage? It is actually contextually, Jesus is speaking about the false shepherds who are the Pharisees, okay? The false shepherds who are the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day. These are false teachers. They speak a different gospel. They lay a weight upon the people, they guilt them more than they lift them up, and they reject Jesus at every turn. So when the Bible says the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, he's saying, You false leaders, you false shepherds, you are coming to steal, kill, and destroy the people of God. Question number two, maybe going on in your mind right now. So is this passage not about Satan? Because I've grown up my entire life believing John 10 10 was about Satan. So what's the real story here? Here's how I would answer not directly. It's about false shepherds who have the spirit and the influence of Satan. Okay, so it's not directly about Satan, but no doubt it's about false shepherds who have the spirit and influence of the enemy. Now let's do a little uh, you want to do a little group participation here. Uh, do you believe that Satan has the desire in your life to still kill and destroy everything about your Christian life? Yes or no? Okay, I'm in agreement with you. And so so we're on the same page. There's no doubt that Satan desires to steal your Christian life, to kill your Christian life, to destroy your Christian life. What John 10 10 is describing is how he does that. And how he does it in this passage is it is often through people like these Pharisees, through false shepherds, false teachers. These false shepherds, listen to me, they reflect the heart of Satan. So let's talk about satanic robbery today. In other words, let's talk about how Satan does this in your life. Okay, there are numerous ways that he tries to steal, kill, and destroy. Uh, I'm gonna mention only three of those, okay? And we'll start where the passage starts. Well, write this uh down, okay? First of all, he uses selfish leaders. Selfish leaders. This is in context, this is what Jesus is speaking about right here, these Pharisees, all right? These people do not care for the people of God, but instead they care about themselves. Uh, there's a biblical scholar that I studied in uh in prep for this message by the name of Andreas Kostenberger. Now, doesn't that sound like a biblical scholar's name? Andreas Kostenberger. My name, however, is Nick Floyd. Sounds like I own an amusement park. All right? But Andreas Kostenberger has a sweet name. Here's how he writes about this passage and writes about these leaders. He says they are self-serving leaders, not self-giving leaders. They're self-serving leaders, not self-giving leaders. Let me pose a question to you. You ever known anybody like that? You ever worked for anybody like that? Where he or she, their MO was, they're worried about themselves. They're not worried about you or anybody, any other employees that are worried about themselves. Um, maybe you're in a dysfunctional family and your mom or dad was like this. Not self-giving, self-serving. Here's the context of the passage. Maybe you've been in a church where the pastors, the ministers, the lay leaders, a Sunday school teacher, a volunteer, somebody at the church was self-serving and not self-giving. Part of the reason why this is so destructive is it's the people in your life that shouldn't be this way that are that way. Leaders in the church, leaders in a family, leaders in a business or company or in a school or you name the organization you work at. It's people who should be giving and yet they're self-serving. And so when that hits you, it just messes you up, does it not? Like I've been I've been messed up in a lot of different ways by people who were like that in my own life, as I'm sure you probably have as well. Let's take it within the vein of spiritual leadership because that's really where the context lies. Here you have false shepherds who have responded to the news of a healed man in a terrible way. They're not joyful, they're not calling the worship team back out, like I said, and round it up again. Like they're not doing that at all. But they are trying to figure out how this man's story fits in their nice, neat, perfect little religious box. They're not thinking about this man who's been healed, they're thinking about themselves. Think about it this way: they have responded with legalism. Now, let's talk about legalism for a second. What is legalism? Let me give you two uh two quotes on this. Uh, one is by a guy named Brian Chappelle, not Dave Chappelle, that's a different uh different Netflix thing. Uh, Brian Chappelle says this legalism is the belief that my standing with God is based on my performance rather than Christ's. What this means is as a Christian, you feel like, well, I have to do things for God so that God will continue to love me. I have to have a good prayer time and Bible reading time. I have to come to church every single Sunday. I have to do other things that we would say are are good things, but they don't make you right with God. Kevin DeYoung goes further in this uh in this vein. He says, Legalism is when we turn good things into ultimate things and measure spirituality by them. So when we when we make good things, ultimate things, and measure spirituality by them. So again, let's uh question for the crowd. Uh is it a good thing for you to read your Bible and pray every day? Yes or no? Okay, thanks. That's good. Is it a good thing for you to come to church on Sundays wherever you live? Yes or no? Okay, so so those are like two examples that I mentioned earlier. That these are these are good Christian disciplines. But reading your Bible and praying doesn't make you right with God, Jesus makes you right with God. Coming to church on Sundays doesn't make you right with God, Jesus makes you right with God. Legalism takes it away from being all about Jesus and what he's done, and instead makes it about all that I can do for the Lord. Um, their their first response is to bend towards legalism, these Pharisees. Now, write this statement down. When you don't have a relationship, you turn to legalism. This is true in a lot of facets of life, but it's true especially in your Christian life, is when you see people who are often like the Pharisees here, who they look good, smell good, sound good like church people, like godly people, but their life shows a completely different thing. Here's what it ultimately boils down to. When you don't have a relationship with Christ, you turn to legalism. When you don't have an intimate walk with God, you turn to rules. And it becomes about all the things that you can do for God instead of all the things that God has done for you. And that's that's just never a good thing. Now, let's take this within the overall context of the passage. Uh, write these couple statements down. Number one, legalism steals joy, it steals joy. If you've ever battled legalism in your heart, uh, I think you'll agree with me on that. Uh, you have constant thoughts of, well, am I am I doing enough for God to love me? Uh, you don't rejoice at a man's healing, but you wonder how the rules got broken. This could play out with your kids, this could play out in a myriad of ways. It steals joy. Uh, secondly, legalism kills faith. It kills faith. It becomes more about what you can do for God than what God has done for you. Uh, here's what I tell you. In legalism, you become the center of attention and it becomes very man-centered instead of God-centered. And here's what I would tell you. Whenever your Christian walk becomes man-centered, you're like in a world of trouble. So whenever it becomes about you, you're at a slippery slope already. Uh, we're here together in a church setting. Can I make it about us collectively? Whenever our church gets man-centered, so if it ever all becomes all about me, or if it ever becomes all about you, we're at a bad place. We are a God-centered church. Even why that's why we sing the songs that we do in church, we try to make them not about us, we try to make them about God. Make sense so far? Okay, look at this third thing. Legalism destroys your life. It destroys your life. Okay, do not miss this, all right? I have never met a thriving Christian who is living an abundant life who is trapped in legalism. Let me say it to you again. I've never known a thriving Christian who is living an abundant life who is trapped in legalism. Legalism destroys relationship. Okay, that that that's one extreme is legalism. On the far end of that, I've met a lot of people in church like this. They so don't want to be legalistic that they Run to the far extreme of the other thing. And here's what I would say: I've also never met a thriving Christian who is so concerned about legalism in their lives that they are like full out living in just about every sin that you can imagine. Because I don't want to be legalistic. You know these kind of people in your life? Well, I I can do that. I mean, that's legalistic for you to say that I can't do that. Here's what I would say. Both are extremes. You don't need to live in legalism. You don't need to live in just like outright sin because I don't want to be legalistic. You need to live in the healthy middle, which is where God has given you a place and a position. You're a child of God. You don't have to work for God's love. You also don't have to be like super weird and just live in sin because you don't want to be that. I'm just going to live in the position that God has saved me to be in, and my whole life can be different from there on out. Okay? What's the right balance? Think about this way. Don't ever forget this. Relationship is greater than legalism. That's a parenting sermon on its own right there. But just take it within the context of what we're talking about here. Your relationship with God is greater than legalism. So don't bend towards legalism. Uh let that statement be seared in your mind. Okay, so number one, how does Satan try to steal, kill, and destroy? He does it through selfish leaders. Secondly, write this down. He uses sinful choices in our lives to steal, kill, and destroy all that God is doing in us. Sinful choices. I could walk you through my own life. I'm sure you probably could too, if you were honest. And I could give you story after story after story of when I bought into sin and the painful consequences that resulted and the different ways that it it, you know, Satan used it to steal, kill, and destroy in my own life. Okay. There's a statement in leadership. You may have heard it before, maybe even like in a business context, you've heard it before. Companies will sometimes say, we want to under-promise and over-deliver. So we're going to commit, like, we're going to do this for the customer, and then we're going to win them over long term because our customer service is going to be just out the out the park, man. We're going to do an amazing thing, and it's going to be beyond their expectation. Can I give that to you within the context of sin? Sin always over-promises and under-delivers. It over-promises and underdelivers. It's the opposite of that equation. Um, by the way, this this is the message from last Sunday. If you were here, Satanic Lies. If you missed it, I would encourage you to go back online. You can watch that. Here's what Satan does. Satan talks a lot. Okay? Satan says things, he is the entier. Man, you deserve this sin. It's gonna feel amazing. Nobody will know. It's just this one time. It's not that big of a deal. It's legalistic to say that you can't do that. He says things like that. And then what do we do? We buy into the sin, we do it, and then we feel the guilt, the shame, the conviction. We feel all the feels in a negative light, right? Then guess who keeps on talking? He goes from being the entier to the accuser. And then Satan said things like this you know, I can't believe he did that. If people only knew who you were, you're finished. God will never use you again. God doesn't love you. He doesn't want to hear from you right now. Man, you you might as well just like go away. Like, God's never gonna do anything in your life again. You're trapped, so you may as well continue to sin. Anyone ever heard the accuser in your life? Sinful choices are one of the main ways that Satan will get at us. Here's a third one, and uh, I'll spend the majority of our time remaining on this, okay? Satan will use worldly voices, he'll use worldly voices to still kill and destroy your life. Can I be honest with you this morning? Can I give like a nod or something from you? Okay, thanks. Like the two of you do that. Um for many of you in this room, this is what's going on right here. This is subtle in nature, it is a slow drift. Um it is the the settled life, is what I call it. The stealing, the killing, the destroying work of the enemy is just more subtle in nature. It's just a s it's just a slow fade. It's just a slow drift in your life. You say, Well, I you know, how do you get there? Like, how does it happen? Um let me give you several several ways. Wrong voices from the wrong friends. Okay? Some of you have friends who you wouldn't trust like to make any major decision in your life, and yet you listen to their unwise, unbiblical uh advice again and again and again. Uh, how about this? How about family members who don't have a biblical worldview? Uh maybe you had you know unbelieving parents and you've come to faith in Christ, and for your entire life you you leaned on them for wisdom, and now you know you've been saved, and they're giving you advice directly against the word of God, and you're trying to wrestle with all that. This is a massive one. How about um media or social media that is ruling your everyday life and thoughts? Can I ask you this question? How many of you are being discipled by your social media algorithm? And it's feeding the thing that you are already thinking. And so you search for it, and then it just brings up more posts about it, and more posts about it, and more posts about it, and slowly but surely you just drift. Once I heard a guy say it this way you never drift anywhere worth going. You just don't. You ever heard the illustration about the the the frog in a pot of boiling water? I shared this with Meredith yesterday, and she's like, Oh my gosh, I've never heard that. So it the saying is if you put a a frog in a pot of boiling water, what will it do? It will jump out of the boiling water. But if you put it in a pot of like room temperature water and you put it on the stove and you turn it up and you slowly heat that thing to boiling, that poor frog would just die. I've never tried this. I don't know if it's legit. You let me know if you if you do try it, okay? But do you see the principle? The frog doesn't even know it's happening. I I just sense the Holy Spirit telling me to just dive in on this a little bit a little bit more. How many of you are the frog in the water right now? You don't even know it, you don't even sense it. May the Holy Spirit of God like wake you up today to how far you've drifted, how far away from the Lord you you are. You didn't even intend to get there, but it was a slow fade. It was a slow drift. It was just some some worldly voices from worldly friends, or it was just from family members that really don't believe the Bible. It was just my my social media or cable news that just discipled me over a period of years, and now I'm at a place over here, and I didn't want to be here, I didn't mean to get here, but you're here. Write these two statements down. Number one is this when the world is the dominant voice in your life, your faith will begin to fade. When the world is the dominant voice in your life, your faith will begin to fade. And again, that that's a slow process. It is a frog in water being heated up over a slow time. On the flip side of that, write down the second statement. When the word is the dominant voice in your life, you will begin to change. When the word of God is the dominant voice in your life, you will begin to change. Some of you like you need nothing else from our message today than this simple word from the Lord. You need more of the word of God in your life. Not less of the word, more of the word. I sometimes um have given you like year-long challenges like, hey, this year, 2026, let it be the the year of more of the word of God in your life. That's like saying you're gonna lose 20 pounds in January, and you know, you're thinking about a year-long process. Let's just boil that down to the summer. This summer, I want more of the word of God in my life, not less. So when I'm in town, I'm gonna be in church under the word of God. If I'm on vacation, I'm gonna stay tuned and I'll watch the message and keep on where we're going as a church. Or I'm gonna find uh some other great preachers of God's word that's gonna supplement what I'm experiencing at church. I'm gonna read more of the word of God this summer. I'm gonna read a book about the word of God. You see what I'm getting at here? More of the word of God in my life, not less. And when that becomes the dominant voice in your life, you will begin to change. Some of you know you need to change, you you even want to change, you're just not sure how to change. You know how you change? More of the word of God in your life, not less. More of the word of God overtaking your thoughts, not less. Anybody need to change? Anybody recognizing that? I I think I've I think I've kind of like drifted to a place I didn't want to be. More of the word of God. If you go to the end of the passage here, remember the whole context is Jesus saying, I am what you are not. So you false shepherds, you false teachers, false leaders, you're leading people astray, you're stealing, killing, and destroying people through the influence of Satan. I am not like y'all. I am the good shepherd. And what does he say? Look at the end of the passage. I came that they, that's Christians, that they may have life and have it abundantly. So it's like one final contrast here. They want to do this in your life. I've come that you may have life, and not just life, but life abundantly. I had you circle or underline that word in your Bible. What does it mean to live an abundant life? I'll close with this. Um, what is the abundant life? If you're a churched person or you're familiar with the Bible, you've heard this passage before, but if I were to say, hey, come up and explain what it means to live the abundant life, we probably maybe would struggle to define what it actually is. The Greek word here for the word abundant carries the idea of exceedingly, very highly beyond measure. In other words, it is more than you can anticipate. Exceedingly, very highly and beyond measure. Uh, think about it this way you ever had a vacation that didn't live up to it? Like you expected one thing and it was like way down here. Or maybe on the flip side of that, you had a vacation, you expected this, and it exceeded your expectations. Several years ago now, uh Meredith and I, with our family, we we had a family reunion at the beach in Florida. And uh the family thought it would be a great idea to go where they had been like 30 years previously, and they'd do family reunions as kids at this particular hotel. And for me to call it a hotel is generous, exceedingly beyond measure. Okay, it was a motel uh with smokers, you know what I'm saying? Like one of those type of things. And uh and it was it was horrible. I mean, it was just horrible, but it was disgusting, it was like broken down, uh, it had carpet, and so people you can imagine like decades of wet people coming in from the ocean onto the carpet, and it had a stench that you cannot imagine. And so Meredith and I are laying in bed the first night, and our kids were younger, and so they're all asleep in the bed next to us, and uh, and it's so bad. Like she could tell you, we're we're laughing in bed of how bad this is. And the thought crossed our mind should we just get up and leave? Like, literally, should we just get up and go and leave the family reunion? Because this is so bad, all right? On the flip side of that, two years ago, Meredith and I went to Cabo. Have you ever been to Cabo? Always heard about Cabo, and it's the place in Mexico where like the waves crash on the rocks, and it's like it's just awesome. And we went to this great resort, just the two of us, and we were looking at the beach, watching the water, and here was my pattern in that vacation. I would read, and then I'd fall asleep, and then I'd wake up and eat. And I'd listen to the waves, and then I'd read a little bit more, and I'd fall asleep, and then I'd eat again. And it was like the greatest vacation I've ever been on. It exceeded what I even expected. You see the difference there in those two? What Jesus is saying about following him is whatever you think it is to follow Jesus, it's more. Whatever you think the benefits of following Jesus are, they're more. Whatever you think the cost is of following Jesus, it is worth it more than you can imagine. And so, man, I am I am burdened for those of you who are Christians. And when I say you're a Christian, it means this: at some point you've heard the gospel. God loves you, sent his only son to die on the cross for you. You can be made right with God by putting your faith and trust in him. And so you hear that message, you turn away from a life of sin. That's called repentance, you put your faith in Jesus Christ, and in that moment you are saved. That's what I mean by saying you're a Christian. So if you've had that experience, I want to ask you: are you experiencing the abundant life that Jesus says He has come to give you? I don't know that about your life. Only you know that. But if you're if your Christian life is kind of like this, well, I mean, we go to church. I mean, it's kind of boring. I mean, I don't really know. I mean, it's it's fine. I mean, yeah, I was probably on fire more, you know, my younger years, but I don't know. If that's your Christian life, like you are not living the abundant life that Jesus has provided. Okay? So again, may the Holy Spirit of God wake you up from your drifting, wake you up from your spiritual slumber, and tell you there is more. There's more. Every day when I pray through my prayer list on my phone, the very last thing I pray is this Lord, if there's more of you, I want it and I need it. I wonder how many of you who are Christians today just need your make your way to this altar as we close out in time of invitation, and just say, Lord, if there's more of you to be had, I want you and I need you. How many of you are facing a major thing in your life, major trial within your family, major step in the business, major something in your life personally? And you're convinced, man, I I need, I need what you're saying, Nick. Like I need the exceedingly beyond measure, beyond comparison type of life that Jesus is providing me. Because I'm not living it right now. Some of you may be honest enough to say, Nick, I I've just kind of drifted, honestly. I didn't I didn't mean to get here. It's been very subtle in nature, but I'm at a place that I didn't expect to be, but I'm here. Let today be a wake-up call for you and let God wake you up from your spiritual slumber. I'm gonna invite you just to come and get on your knees and do business with the Lord. Others of you would be honest enough with God just to say, Lord, I think I've been living, listening to worldly voices in my life. I've made some selfish choices, sinful choices. Maybe I've had selfish leaders that have just kind of messed up my mind, messed up my heart, and I don't know what to do with that. Like I don't know what category of hurt to put that in. I don't know which file that that fits in spiritually. Um and here's what I just tell you. Oftentimes I think the most healthy thing spiritually you can do is, Lord, I don't know what to do with this. I don't know what to do with this. And I'm asking you to heal the parts of my life that only you can heal. And so Lord, I'm just bringing this to the altar. This is family dysfunction. This is uh church hurt, this is um relationship things, and you don't know what's right. You know it's our it's our right thing always just to come to God and say, Lord, I don't, I don't know, but I know you know, so I just calm. Would you do that today? There are some of you in this room who you need to give your life to Jesus Christ. It's never happened before. You've played a good spiritual game, you've been moral, you've done some religious things in your life, but you've never had the experience I just talked about of hearing the gospel and intentionally, knowingly, tangibly, turning away from a life of sin and putting your faith in Jesus Christ. If that's never happened in your life today, that can happen for you. I want you to bow your head and close your eyes as we wrap up our service today. Our staff's making their way to the front of each aisle. And uh if you're here today and you'd say, Nick, I uh I need to receive Christ, like I need to give my life to Jesus. I'm gonna encourage you in just a moment to uh to come to one of these men or women. These are all members of our own staff. And if that's you, I just want to encourage you to grab them by the hand and say, Hey, my name is so-and-so, and I need to give my life to Jesus today. And they'll lead you to faith in Christ, they'll answer any questions that you have. But for some of you, this is the day to stop running from God, to stop doing this thing on your own, to stop living in self-sufficiency, and to once and for all stop playing the game, take off the spiritual mask and for the very first time be saved today. Would you come? Again, there are many of you out here who are Christians. How's God speaking to your life right now? In what ways do you need to just come to the altar and just say, Lord, I'm just I'm giving you what's in my hands and I don't know what to do with it. I wonder how many of you are like, Lord, I want to live the abundant life, but I'm not experiencing that. I just I want to. Lord, if there's more of you to be had, I want you and I need you. Would you come to the altar? If you need our staff to pray with you about anything in your life, we'd be honored to pray for you. Whatever God's saying to do, would you obey Him in these next few moments? Lord, it's our desire to uh to not only hear the Word of God, but to obey the Word of God. To not only sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but to move in obedience to what he's saying. So, Lord, would you move in us now? And it's in the name of Jesus that we pray.

unknown 41:18

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

If you have questions about what you have heard or would like more information about your relationship with Jesus, please email us at infocchurch.com or visit our website at crosschurch.com. At Crosschurch, our mission is to reach Northwest Arkansas, America, and the world for Jesus Christ.