Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.
Amen, amen, amen.
Listen God's good isn't he?
Yeah, how many of you celebrated freedom this weekend?
Yeah, you should.
It is an amazing thing to be in a country where we are free to share the gospel of Jesus
Christ, we are free to live and I hope you took time to do that this weekend.
If you would please be in prayer after second gathering Dixie and I leave, we jet right
out of here, head to Indianapolis, our International General Assembly for the Church of God takes
place this coming week and we will be in business meetings all week there in Indianapolis.
And I don't know if you know this or not but the denomination that we are a part of is
in about 280 different countries and there is 8 million plus members and it really is
a reaching denomination and it is going to be, I love going to the international conference
because there is believers and ordained bishops and ministers who come in from all over the
world and come together so it is a great time to come together and see brothers and sisters
we haven't seen in eons and how many know what an eon is?
Do you know what an eon is?
In eons I just showed my age right there.
They come together and it is just an amazing time so just be in prayer as we head out there.
But this morning I am going to speak a phrase, actually two words that probably you don't
hear a lot and those two words are reckless abandonment.
They are going to put it up on the screen.
Reckless abandonment and this is a phrase that will either run chills of fear up your
spine maybe even a little terror for some of you because most of us like all things
comfortable I don't know if you know that or not but 7 out of 10 people do not like
change at all.
So reckless abandonment is kind of one of those phrases like might make you clench up
or you might be the opposite and instead of chills of fear running up your spine you get
a little excitement when you hear reckless abandonment.
If you are an adrenaline junkie raise your hand right now come on thank you for the confessions
all right.
If you are an adrenaline junkie you love the unknown, you love the challenge, you love
something that is just a little bit of danger involved this might kind of stir you just
a little bit.
And as a child, as a kid I grew up in both worlds to be honest.
My family lived in one world and my friends the guys I grew up with lived in another world.
My family is a group of very cautious calculating sensible thinking through the next day month
year right before you do anything at all kind of people.
They bleed what I call CS.
Do you know what CS is?
Common sense all right.
You got to have a good common sense they are all about the common sense.
That's my family on one side.
On the other side I grew up with a bunch of kids who they didn't have a lick of CS amongst
them.
They were the complete opposite.
If you could dream it up if it was a little daring if it was a little bit edgy they were
in.
They wanted to do it let's give it a try we will worry about the consequences later right.
Actually they didn't think about the long-term effects repercussions or obvious foolishness
in all of it as kids.
They were just a little bit crazy so I lived in both these worlds.
And you might think I'm exaggerating a bit about this I grew up in Western Pennsylvania
but I'm really not because one of the kids that I grew up with.
Listen in our town we lived in coal country and I don't know if you know anything about
coal mining but there's deep mining and then there's open mining which is kind of where
they take the coal out from the top of the ground and then there's deep mining where
they go down underneath the ground and everybody in our area either worked in a steel mine
or they worked in the coal mines and one of the jobs that went along with that was blasting
okay they would blast they would use dynamite either shakes things loose in the open mining
and my friend one of the guys I ran around with his dad had a blasting license.
He was trained in dynamite how to use dynamite how to set charges and that kid always had
some form of dynamite explosions with them anything from an M 80 to an M 1000 to a third
stick of dynamite and we lived out in the country listen I'm a transplanted redneck
I'll for the first one to admit it and we lived out in the country we used to go out
away from our houses because our parents you know were close to the house and we blew up
everything we could find we really did so you know I grew up with both worlds on both
sides listen my parents would have known that I would have got grounded until I was 25 years
old it would have happened but my childhood reckless abandonment for the sake of a quick
thrill as a child in comparison to the people in scripture right is nothing you see people
in scripture with reckless abandon who follow Jesus with passion with commitment with buckets
of courage all through God's word so I'm going to take you this morning to a passage of scripture
that really is about following Jesus with reckless abandon because how many know that
following Jesus is not really safe yeah I don't know if you know they're not it's secure
but it's not really safe Jesus didn't come to make us comfortable he did not come to
make us cozy he did not come to give us spiritual warm fuzzies or snuggles every time we get
in his presence he came to save us from sin and to engage us in the rescue of others who
were in sin to confront darkness to go find people and pull them from the flames right
so we're secure in him but it's not necessarily safe and he beckons us to recklessly abandon
to follow him and anything short of that is not worthy of the sacrifice that Jesus made
on the cross so if you got your Bible this morning I want you to make your way to Luke
chapter 5 Luke chapter 5 we are going to start at verse 1 this morning and as you turn I'm
going to pray over the reading of God's word Father we thank you for this day and for your
blessings God we ask right now that you will prepare our hearts that you will prepare our
minds Lord God your words already blessed we know that God it is already truth it is
already life so Lord help us to receive help us to hear God open our minds and God write
your word on our hearts God that we might not sin against you and God that we might
go forward in the gospel we just give you praise in Jesus name everybody said together
amen amen excuse me Luke chapter 5 verse 1 and it says this so it was as the multitude
pressed about him to hear the word of God that he stood by the lake of Ginnisarath now
this is talking about Jesus and Jesus right he saw two boats standing by the lake but
the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets and when he got into the
one of the boats which was Simon's he asked him to put out a little from the land and
he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat and when he had stopped speaking
he said to Simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch but Simon
answered and said to him master we have toiled all night and caught nothing nevertheless
at your word I will let down the net and when they had done this they caught a great number
of fish and their nets the net was breaking so they signaled their partners in the other
boat to come and help them and they came and filled the boats or both boats so that they
began to sink and when Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Jesus knee saying depart from
me for I am a sinful man oh Lord for he and all who were with him were astonished at the
catch of fish which they had taken and so also were James and John the sons of Zebedee
who were partners with Simon and Jesus said to Simon do not be afraid for now on you will
catch men so when they had brought their boats to land they forsook all and followed him
multiple self-employed self-made men walk away from their fishing business to follow
Jesus multiple men leave their livelihood their security their financial stability to
follow a man they barely know a group of perfectly sane capable individuals abandon their life
their business and stability that they built with their own two hands to follow this man
from Nazareth what causes these capable men to recklessly abandon everything they know
and follow this man and I believe it is this I believe it is the revelation that Jesus
is the son of God I believe that Jesus did not come to Simon Peter and the others just
selling them a dream a vision or a promise of a bright tomorrow he didn't come just convincing
them that their financial future would even be more stable in his care even though even
though they took in more fish that day than they probably did in an entire month that's
not what Jesus came selling he didn't come with the convention speech right of a life
of ease and this is going to be simple it wasn't even Jesus amazing ability to preach
and to teach and to move entire crowds and while he was preaching and teaching healing
the sick and casting out demons his spiritual authority listen Peter didn't drop to his
knees Simon the word of God doesn't say Simon Peter dropped to his knees when Jesus finished
his message right there wasn't this shoreline altar call where Peter falls down on his face
you know after the message is preached and he and he repents it and he says I'm sinful
that's not when it happens none of this convinced Peter and the others to abandon everything
that they have everything they build everything they know and walk away it wasn't until Jesus
speaks to a school fish to jump into the nets that Peter drops to his knees in front of
Jesus see Simon realizes that Jesus not only has spiritual authority over death and disease
not only does he realize that he has this amazing wisdom and knowledge that could only
be from God but in that moment in time I think Peter in his mind realized that this man not
only has spiritual authority he not only has heavenly authority but he can even command
nature to listen and at that point I believe in Simon's mind maybe he didn't even fully
grasp it yet but somewhere in his heart mind he realizes this is not just a man this is
the Son of God I'm here to tell you this morning no one will truly follow Jesus to the lengths
of reckless abandon unless they understand unless they are absolutely convicted convinced
and certain in their minds that Jesus is in fact the Son of God following Jesus with reckless
abandon is not it's not a personality thing it's not an adrenaline rush kind of thing
it's not even a sense of adventure thing it is conviction and it is it is being convinced
it is being absolutely certain that the one I am following whose name Jesus is literally
the Son of God and he is who he says he is that he's alive and well that he can be known
and that I can know him personally and he can know me personally right Peter and James
and John personally met Jesus the master they witnessed the mini miracle right in their
little world of fishing they witnessed this mini miracle and they get convicted they get
convinced they become certain that this is in fact Jesus the Son of the Living God and
anything less than that right anything less to us and to the people that we are talking
to about Jesus anything less than that there will not be reckless abandon it will lead
to little or no kind of response or change it might be mildly interesting to them for
a little while right it might they might follow as long as it's comfortable and it feels like
it's working for them they might even follow Jesus for a period of time and then just peel
away when the inspiration fades right but they will not run into the fire they will
not run into the fight they will not face giants right like a little guy named David
did in scripture with zero reservation in his heart they will not do that until they
are convicted until they are convinced and until they are certain that Jesus is in fact
the Son of the Living God these men were convicted they were convinced and they were certain
that Jesus is God's Son and it is the same for us it's the same for you and I it's the
same for the people that we're talking to and telling about Jesus sometimes we come
and talk to people about Jesus right and we tell them about his love and his mercy and
we should we tell them about all those things but more so we should be letting them know
you have to understand that Jesus is the Son of the Living God he came to this earth he
died for you he went to Calvary for you he rose from the grave but this is the Son of
God this is the one you can get into a personal relationship he has all power these men instinctively
knew that an unknown future with this man named Jesus was bigger and brighter than any
known future that they could have with themselves or something that they were in control with
the conviction that God has a better future plan for me than I have planned for myself
will cause me to recklessly abandon anything for Jesus it really will even if I have no
idea what that future entails if you go back and reread Luke chapter 5 verse 9 he says
for he and all who were with with them were astonished at the catch of the fish which
they had taken and so also were James and John the sons of Zebedee who were partnered
with Simon and Jesus said to Simon do not be afraid he tells Simon don't be afraid from
now on you will catch men then they had brought the broods to land they forsook all and followed
them I highly doubt that Simon Peter knew completely I don't think he had an idea what
it meant that he was going to catch men he probably had no idea what was going on he
just knew he met the Son of God and do you know what you don't see in this portion of
scripture sometimes when you read God's word you have to see what is there sometimes you
have to see what is not there as well it is both sides of those things here is what you
don't see you don't see Jesus gathering those men up and getting them on the shoreline and
sitting them down and giving them a detailed plan of what it was going to be to go follow
Jesus and fish for men right he didn't get them on the shoreline sit them all down in
a row in nice cushy chairs and give them binders that were embossed right that said fishers
are men right please turn to page one right check your index go to page one we're going
to start on Jesus doesn't do any of that right he does he just tells him follow me he shows
him that he is the Son of the Living God and he proves it to him and then he says follow
me from now on you're going to fish for men they probably had no clue what that meant
they were just in do you know that God does not feel the need to explain himself to us
I don't know if you realize that or not he's sorry he does not feel the need to explain
himself to us all the time if you're waiting for a 15 page report right with an embossed
binder that God's going to send you for whatever is in your future you're probably going to
be waiting a very long time he doesn't feel the need to explain himself God told Noah
to go build a boat right in the middle of a place that had no water it hadn't even rained
at that point if you study that out there was a firmament in the air it was like a subtropical
thing but it wasn't even rain he told him to build a boat he's going to send him animals
two of every kind one particular kind seven of a different kind and he says he's going
to flood the earth and that's all Noah knew he knew some plans and that was it God said
go build it right he isn't going he isn't going to explain all of it he did Jesus is
looking for people who you know he's not looking for people who are looking for some kind of
God guarantee about their future that just lines up with what they think their future
is going to look like he's not interested in that he's interested in people who are
convinced convicted right and are certain about following the son of the living God
he's looking for people that will say yes when when they realize and understand who
he is just this week we dropped our daughter Jenna and her husband Brad and their two daughters
often in Atlanta Georgia and I can tell you for certain they really don't know what their
future holds he Brad landed a job at Passion Church doing a job that he's never done before
you know but he thinks he feels fairly qualified to do they're not sure what it's going to
look like they're not sure the people they're going to connect with they're not sure of
any of that I watched the fear in their eyes okay I've seen you know and then and they
kind of pray and walk themselves back through the gospel for people who just follow and
say listen if God says it I'm going to go do it amen it's true people who are convicted
convinced and certain that he is the son of God and that he has their future he has your
future he has a plan you might not know what it looks like and we see people follow this
all throughout scripture and I'm not sure anyone fits that description more than somebody
named Rahab in scripture now let me just give you a little quick context before I read this
verse of scripture Israel is getting ready to invade Jericho but before they go in their
leader Joshua decides he's going to send in two spies into the land they're going to go
in and do some recon work right they're going to go in and see what's going on in this community
that they're going to go in invade and these two men go in to spy out the land and they
end up at this house a prostitutes house a harlots house we're just going to pretend
that they're hiding out there I hope that's all it was all right the word of God doesn't
tell us but I believe that's true right because there were men coming in and out it was a
great place to go hide they end up at this harlots house named Rahab Joshua 2 1 says
this now Joshua the son of Nunn sent out two men from Achaia Grove to spy secretly saying
go view the land especially Jericho so they went and they came to the house of a harlot
named Rahab and lodged there and it was told the king of Jericho saying behold men have
come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country the king and Jericho
finds out that there are spies in the land so the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying
out the men who have come to you who have entered your house that they might come search
out all the country the gig is up the spies are found out they know that they're at Rahab's
house then the woman right Rahab took the two men and hid them she doesn't turn them
over to the authorities she doesn't turn them over to her king she hides them so she said
yes the men came to me but now listen she lies too right yes the men came to me but
I did not know where they were from and it happened as the gate was being shut when it
was dark the men went out where the men went I do not know they were up on the roof and
she's lying down her tail on the king nope nope they took off right pursue them quickly
for you may overtake them but she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them among
the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof then the men pursued them by the
road of the Jordan to the fords and as soon as those who pursued them had gone out they
shut the gate how many know this is not safe for Rahab in Rahab they know these spies are
at Rahab's house they know they come and confront her and say where are these spies she lies
and says they left the city they're gone you ought to go chase them right do you know if
she had been found out they probably would have killed her on the spot they probably
would have killed her her family members everybody in her household probably would have been
dead it's not safe right why'd she do it why'd she do this she's not she's not part of Israel
she doesn't know Israel's God right other than what she's hearing Joshua 2 8 explains
it now before they lay down she came up to them on the roof and said to the men I know
the Lord has given you the land that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants
of the land are fain hearted because of you for we have heard how the Lord dried up the
water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings
of the Emirates who were on the outer other side of the Jordan Seehan and Og whom you
utterly destroyed and as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted neither did
there remain any more courage in any one of us because of you for the Lord your God he
is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath do you hear that she's convinced right convicted
convinced and certain for he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath now therefore
I beg you swear to me by the Lord since I have known your kindness that you also show
kindness to my father's house and give me a true token and spare my father my mother
my brothers and my sister and all they have and deliver our lives from death this heathen
harlot who is not any part of Israel who is in a land who worships foreign idols right
and she hears about what the Lord has done somewhere in her heart she became convicted
she became right she became convinced and she became certain that God of Israel is the
God of the universe he is God of heaven and he is God of earth and she recklessly abandons
everything she knows to connect with God she trusted him with her future amen she was convinced
we should trust Jesus with our future we should be convicted and convinced and certain I'm
going to close with this and when I say close that means I'm going to be a little while
yet with today but it's this people recklessly abandon if the Son of God invites them to
he really does who invites me to participate in something or anything right determines
whether I do it the level of my participation is dependent upon the one extending the invitation
in other words whoever invites us right it matters it's a big deal any one of you in
this place this morning after gathering and we're leaving for Indianapolis but if we weren't
going somewhere and you came up and invited us to go and have a meal together with you
we would probably go have a meal with you if there wasn't anything else planned it wasn't
anything else on the schedule we would probably do that right and hopefully that would be
vice versa you'd come with us we invited you somewhere to go get something to eat but if
some random stranger on the street comes up to me or comes up to you and says hey do you
want to go to lunch how many of the Holy Spirit better be speaking to me right come on if
it's a random stranger unless the Holy Spirit is going you know what Kip you need to go
right now unless he's speaking into my heart into my spirit and I know this is definitely
true for my wife she'd be like uh-uh he ain't going nowhere all right we are not going to
do that right let's talk to them for a little while this could be right this could be the
this could be a serial killer right here inviting us to lunch we don't know right so who invites
you matters who extends the invitation matters someone asked you to jump out of a plane with
them how many know the who matters right somebody asked you to marry them how many know the
who come on young people listen to me anybody young people old people anybody in between
the who matters someone asked you to go fight a war bleed with them possibly die with him
the who matters who's asking you who's sending the invitation people recklessly abandoned
when they know it is the Son of God who's extending the invitation to them my invitation
doesn't mean all that much but his does amen I recklessly abandoned everything in life
if I understand who's making the invitation who's inviting who's asking who's saying come
right whether it's whether it's comfortable or uncomfortable whether it's difficult right
or easy or somewhere in between a lot of times we're somewhere in between right come it's
about the invitation I'm going to ask if you'd stand and right now Pastor Eric's coming
at the East Shore campus and he's going to be ministering to people there and people
that are listen if you're listening online with us today it's so good to have you with
us in worship but I want you to ready yourself to respond to this message and if what I preach
is true if what I preach is true this morning God can call us each one of us to do anything
and what appears reckless to other people will absolutely not seem reckless to us if
it's Christ right it will seem like it's the only thing that we should do it's almost a
must do kind of thing we'll hide spies we'll build a boat right in the middle of a field
we'll move to Atlanta at God's word and what he speaks we got to be convinced we got to
be convicted we got to be certain about whatever God's speaking to us in the moment whether
it is small medium or large maybe maybe it would even be right maybe it would even be
going and and and going to lunch with somebody you don't even know and the Holy Spirit speaks
to you in that moment you'll do that if it's the Son of God that's speaking to you this
morning as a pastor my job is kind of twofold I see it is twofold one it is to bring people
to the Son of God is the lead him to the Son of God to introduce him to the one right who
paid such an enormous price for you and I the one who went to a cross right came to
this earth lowered himself and came to this earth in human form died on a cross rose from
the grave went back to be with the Father to make intercession for us that's part of
my job but the other part of my job is to engage each one of you in the mission in the
rescue God God calls us to reckless abandon not for our own selves and not for our own
purposes he calls us to reckless abandon so we reach other people so we give them the
good news of Jesus Christ so we pull them from death hell in the grave right as we connect
them with the God of the universe and our job is to convince them that Jesus is the
Son of God and that he is the Lord and that he wants a personal true relationship with
you and I so this morning I'm actually close your eyes and the first thing I'm going to
ask you to respond with is if you don't know Jesus is Lord and Savior I want you to know
this morning he is the Son of God he is who he said he is he has all power all authority
he loves you with an everlasting love and a grace that you can't even understand maybe
at this point probably none of us can get our head around and he wants you in the kingdom
of God with him he wants to connect with you right now he wants a Holy Spirit who he sees
sends into our hearts and lives the moment that we ask him to come into our lives because
he wants to talk with you he wants to commune with you and if you are here this morning
if you are listening online this morning and you don't know him as Lord and Savior you
can the word of God makes it super simple Jesus made it really simple he paid all the
price up front so he said here is the deal you just need to believe that I am the Son
of the Living God that I am the Christ that I am the Messiah that I am Savior that I am
Lord you just got to believe that in your heart and confess with your mouth that he
is Lord and he will wash away every sin everything that has separated you from him in that moment
in time if you just ask so I'm going to pray a simple prayer and if that's you in the house
if you are listening online I know Pastor Eric will be doing this up at the campus Father
we come to you today and we are so grateful and thankful God for your hand of mercy and
love we thank you Lord Jesus that you came you died on a cross you rose from the grave
and you are in fact the Son of the Living God and you did all of it so that we could
come into relationship with you God said we could know you so we could be rescued so you
could pull us from death hell and the grave so Lord we ask right now Lord for anyone that's
here as they come to you and they say they believe in prayer in their own words as they
believe and trust in you bring them into the kingdom if you are here just ask them say
Lord I believe I put my faith and trust in you my future is now in your hands you are
the Son of God you are Lord and now you are my Lord in Jesus name forgive me of my sin
forgive me of everything that separated me from you I commit in my life in Jesus name
amen amen now if you are in the house and if you are comfortable with this and I know
if you are visiting please don't feel obligated to do anything at all here but I am asking
you to do something I want you to make your way to the front and I have a reason for this
if you would just make your way to the front we are just going to pray we are going to
do two things we are going to pray and then some of you might feel obligated to sign a
paper and it's not you are not signing your car or your house to me trust me alright this
is about serving God two things right I got two jobs one lead people to Christ to the
living Christ two is to equip you and get you ready for the work of the ministry it's
the word of God declares that if you would just move your way up and here is what I want
to do I don't want to challenge you just to believe on Jesus and not give you an opportunity
alright God is going to use you in all kind of ways if you are convinced if you are convicted
right if you are certain that he is the son of God he is going to lead you in all kind
of ways he is leading you in all kind of ways I hear about it all the time in how he uses
you but I also want to give you an opportunity in this we talk about the East Shore campus
all the time here on Sunday mornings and we are one church in two locations but we really
feel prompted to get this location integrated with that location so what we want to do is
we want to create one time serve opportunity okay how many know what a one time serve opportunity
is it's super simple that means you serve one time okay super complicated we do complicated
things here alright it's a one time serve opportunity so over the next three months
we are asking people to get involved and we are going to do this over the next year we
want you to get involved and here is what we want you to do sign up for one week to
go to the East Shore campus on a Sunday morning and serve you and your family go up there
and serve they will have you working at something or some area in the church and we do this
for a couple of reasons one we do it for connection purposes to keep Carlisle location and Harrisburg
location connected together two we want you to go do something missional I know sometimes
we are like well I need to go do a mission work in Africa that's awesome if God called
you do it but you can go north of Harrisburg we can send you 25 minutes away right you
are going to go do a mini missions work that morning and you are going to go serve one
time and you are going to find out about the work that is going on up there right one church
two locations say it would be one church two locations and you get to go up and connect
it creates support it keeps us together and we begin to go forward you need to see what
God is doing up there you need to get a glimpse of what He is doing it isn't just in these
four walls here right there is another location there God willing in the future man who knows
where God will split us out to right He will move us from place to place I am believing
God for that so I am going to give you a first serve opportunity and here it is it is this
simple now we are going to pray one more time if God is speaking to you to do this one time
in three months just right don't come here go serve up there sign this paper so here
is what I believe I believe the Holy Spirit speaks to people right it isn't just my prompting
it is the Holy Spirit so I am asking you to bow your heads right now one last time I want
you to pray if God is prompting you to go to serve for one week I want you to pray about
that right now if He is tugging on your spirit don't dismiss it come sign this paper as soon
as we are done praying and that is how we are going to dismiss this morning now while
we are doing this if you need prayer individually for something the prayer team is always in
the back of this church following gathering they want to pray with you about something
individually I will pray with you but this right now is about this sign up Father we
come just grateful and thankful Holy Spirit as I pray you are speaking into hearts and
spirits God I believe that some of them won't only just sign up for one time but they will
go twice this quarter Lord I pray that you would guide and direct and Lord God we are
one church in two locations God we know what you have called us to so Lord I pray right
now God use guide direct and speak and Lord in this mini mission work Lord that we are
setting up this morning God let this just be one step in following you and serving and
God help us to recklessly abandon anything we have got set in life to follow heart after
you and we just give you praise and glory in Jesus name.
Amen.
Thank you for tuning in to this message from Life House Church.
We pray that you were impacted powerfully by this message.
If you have been personally affected by our ministry and you would like to partner with
us as we love God love people every day visit our website at www.lifehousecog.com