Thank you for listening to this message from LifeHouse Church.
Good morning, good morning.
It's good to have you here at LifeHouse.
Thank you for worshiping this morning.
I can feel God's presence.
How many of you felt God moving this morning already?
Amen.
It's just so good to be in the house and to worship God.
That's why we come.
That's why we're here.
We're here to lift up His name, to glorify Him in every way,
anytime we can.
So thank you for engaging in that.
But before I begin on the message this morning,
we're going to take just a few minutes and set aside here
because Pastor Alyssa Calhoun, who is with us,
she is new here on the LifeHouse staff,
but we have something to celebrate besides her being fairly new to the staff.
We are going to officially give her her certificate.
She's earned her certificate for ordination.
One of the great pleasures I have as a lead pastor is to watch this next generation
really come up in the Lord and watch them grow.
It's incredible to watch the next generation rise up in Christ,
but it's even an extra layer, maybe an extra blessing to see those who are called
into full-time ministry and vocational ministry.
And I've been blessed to work as an MIP coordinator in our denomination,
which is Ministerial Intern Program, and also serve on the credentialing board.
And I've got to see this over and over again.
But Pastor Alyssa is one of those people who I've watched the call of God.
Dixie and I have watched her.
We've watched the call of God unfold in her life.
Long before Jeffrey came to LifeHouse, Dixie and I saw this in her gifts and her talents.
We know her former senior pastor pretty well,
and we've heard lots of great reports along the way.
But she loves God, and she also loves students.
And that's what she takes care of here is the student ministries.
So I'm going to ask if Pastor Alyssa would come and stand down front.
Dixie's going to come with her.
And I just want you to just reiterate that she has successfully and faithfully
passed all the requirements for ordination, and she's done so with excellence.
She isn't just passed.
She's done it with excellence.
Yes, please give her a hand.
She has finished CAMHS, MIP, both the Exhorter and the Ordination Testing.
She's been recognized by the church leadership and has been found
with a great record of pursuing God and walking in her calling.
She's been faithful in training and living out her call
and have been found as a person of character and worthy conduct in ministry.
So she's been more than successful all along the way.
And I thought a fitting scripture to share along this would be your job description.
And this is for job description for all ministers in Ephesians 411.
They're going to put it up on the screens.
But it says this, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints
for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to
the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure
of the stature of fullness of Christ.
So the job description is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry,
to edify the body of God till we all come to a place of faith in him and the knowledge
of the Son of God.
So one of the chief tools that you'll need and have to do that is the Word of God.
It is the sword.
So we wanted to get you this Bible.
I know you have lots of them, but I'm going to give you another one.
But this is what we primarily use as ministers to really bring the Word of God.
It is the sword, right?
It is this is how and implement our instrument that we use to bring the Word of God and to
fulfill that calling.
And then along with this is her ordination certificate, which is given by the Church of
God.
And she is again fulfilled all those things.
So if you would one more time, would you just?
Yes, please give her applause.
And I'm going to ask if the Deacon Board here would come forward.
We're going to pray over Pastor Liston.
I'm going to ask the entire congregation to stand.
And if you would just place your hand forward and we're just going to pray over her.
This is a biblical thing to do is to lay on of hands and to pray.
And we're just going to believe and trust God for what he's going to do as she walks
out her ministry here at Life House as part of this family.
Well, that's by our heads.
Father, we come before you right now, just grateful and thank you, Lord, for Pastor
Liston.
We thank you for her calling.
God, we thank you, Lord, for all that you're doing in her life.
God, I thank you, God, for the great desire that she has to follow you.
And God, Lord, I just pray that your hand would continue upon her.
God, that you would make the path in front of her straight and obvious.
And Lord, God, as she moves in ministry, Lord, God, that there would be fruit in the kingdom.
God, that the kingdom would expand.
God, that it would go forward.
And Lord, we just thank you for the calling.
We thank you, God, for raising her up.
And we just give you praise and glory and honor in Jesus name.
Everybody say together.
Amen.
Thank you for being a part of this this morning.
You may be seated.
And if you get the chance, please congratulate her somewhere along the way today because
it's an awesome thing.
And that's no small feat.
I don't know if you understand the whole process.
If you want an explanation, I'll be glad to explain that to you.
But it's not a simple or easy thing to do.
And it really is a calling of the church to recognize and see that.
You heard about the Castle Shalom, but this taking place.
There's a meeting following second gathering today.
If you have any interest in Castle Shalom going on the missions trip in February, please
come to that meeting.
We're going to give you some information.
You're not signing up yet unless you really want to.
But we want you to come.
And here's what I believe.
I believe that as we've been talking about this, God's moving and speaking on your heart.
Some of you just see this as a construction trip.
It's not.
It's so much more than that.
There's a lot of different ways to get involved.
So if you're interested in going and you feel like the Holy Spirit's prompting you to go,
please come.
And just to give you a little amazing news, we set a goal of eighty five hundred dollars.
That was just for the roof portion of the whole missions trip.
And currently we are we are over eleven thousand dollars.
Yeah, come on to go to Castle Shalom.
So we're not only going to be able to do the roof, but we're going to be able to do extra
work when we get down there and bless that ministry.
So we're super excited.
We needed some tools to go along and we're going to leave them there for them because
they've got additional work.
So we'll be able to buy those, purchase those, leave them there.
And then also any work we're going to we're going to get in touch with them for extra
needs.
So if you feel like you're supposed to give, just continue to give.
It's all going to go there.
None of it's going to stay here.
We're looking forward to what God's going to do.
Amen.
Come to the meeting if you want to go.
Well, listen, we've been diving into God's word all month long in the pursuit of what
scripture talks about in great conversation.
All month long, we've been talking about conversations and we've been talking about
different different nuances of what might great conversation look like in Jesus, you
know, and at the core of a great conversation, there's one thing you've got to have.
If there's if you're going to get into a go from a good conversation or a regular
conversation or even a bad conversation, if you want to move it to a great conversation,
it's got to include new life in Jesus.
There's got to be new life in Jesus.
And we want you to engage in those conversations.
We've been talking about that.
We want you to get up close and personal.
We've discussed that just a little bit, right?
We want we want you to get nearby to have those conversations and interject as much
as you can along the way.
You know what it is to have new life in Jesus.
And last week, we even made a suggestion.
Get yourself a reminder, right?
Get a cross necklace, get a bracelet, get something.
You put on every single day of your life that reminds you that today is the day I can have
a conversation with someone.
Today is the day that I can bring new life in Jesus to somebody else.
So hopefully you've done that.
Hopefully you've taken that to heart somewhere along the way.
And I want to dive in today to the very last message that I'm going to preach in this
series.
And I've got a question that I want to propose to you.
All right.
I'm going to ask you this, have you ever been the recipient of a compliment sandwich?
How many know what that is?
Raise your hand if you know what a compliment sandwich is.
All right.
How well that some of you don't even know what it is.
So let me explain.
This is a compliment sandwich.
All right.
If I'm going to give somebody a compliment sandwich, I start off with some kind of something
that's a complimentary about you.
Right.
Now, once you think about a sandwich, this is one side of the bread.
How many of you got bread?
You got bread and you got something in between.
Right.
For a sandwich.
And on one side of the bread, it's a compliment of some kind.
It could be anything at all.
You just get like, man, you're awesome at singing.
You're awesome at tying your shoes.
All right.
You're awesome at, I don't know, you got you are great t-shirts.
I don't know.
Whatever it is.
Right.
You start out with a compliment on one side.
It can be something that's an attribute that they have.
But how many know after you give the sandwich, right, the one side of the sandwich, you got
to get to the meat in the middle.
All right.
And the meat in the middle is something different.
The meat in the middle might be a tough conversation that you got to have with someone.
The meat in the middle might be something that maybe is not going so well in what they're
doing in her performance.
You got to have a talk about that.
It could be something about a commitment that they need to make.
It could be something along the lines of, you know, the tough part of a conversation
or here's what's ahead of us and it's going to be difficult.
And I want to talk to you about that difficulty because we need to get through.
Right.
And then and then so that's the tough part.
And there might be even be some tension there.
And then at the end, you just compliment them again.
Man, have I told you that you have amazing taste in whatever.
All right.
Whatever it is, you know, so that's a compliment sandwich.
Right.
There's something complimentary in the front.
There's the meat in the middle and there's a compliment at the end.
How many of you have ever been a recipient of a compliment sandwich?
Now, now I've explained it.
Still the same amount of people.
I went into all that.
It's the same amount of people.
Well, listen, the idea of that is to soften the blow when somebody's going to do something
or give you something that's tough to swallow, tough to think about, tough to walk out.
And I don't know if you've ever had that happen to you.
You've not.
It might happen in the future somewhere along the way.
But and some of you may have given somebody a compliment sandwich.
Some of you like forget the compliments.
I just get to the meat.
Amen.
All right.
Come on.
How many of you just meet people right there?
You just throw it out there.
Right.
But here's the thing about great conversations.
We need to have great conversations that have new life in Jesus.
But the reality of following Jesus needs to be in the discussion as well.
You got to give them the reality.
You got to give them the meat.
You got to give them the lunch meat, whatever you put right in the sandwich.
You got to give them the reality of what it is to follow Jesus.
And I'm not talking about correction here as much as I'm talking about commitment.
OK.
You got to talk with someone.
If you're going to talk about new life in Jesus at some point in the conversation.
Now, that might not be just when you're doing a little quick conversation with somebody
or throwing some Jesus in there so that they start to get curious.
But somewhere along the way, if you're really going to have an in-depth kind of conversation,
you got to get to the meat.
You got to get to the commitment.
You got to start talking about that what that is.
Right.
And we forget the commitment sometimes in the conversation.
We like to just talk about all the benefits that come in Jesus.
We like to talk about His grace.
And we should write.
We should.
We like to talk about His mercy.
And we should.
We should.
We like to talk about how He changed our lives.
And we should.
We like to talk about how God raised us from from the dead.
Right.
We were dead and now we're alive.
And we should.
We should talk about all the beautiful things that the bread of life.
Right.
How many know he's the bread.
Right.
The bread of life that's done.
And come on, I worked hard on that all week.
All right.
Right.
Seriously.
All right.
So, you know, we should we should do that.
We should tell them all about that.
But don't leave out the meat.
Don't leave out talking about when you get to the in-depth conversation,
don't leave out the commitment to Christ because the commitment is part of the new life that is
in Jesus.
Right.
And Jesus is not just looking for fans.
He's not just looking for a fan club.
Right.
He's looking for followers.
He's looking for people who are going to commit.
He's looking for those who are going to be all in and following him.
And Jesus paid an enormous price.
He paid with his blood.
He prayed paid with a broken body so that we won't just be fans, but that we would be followers.
And we got to make sure that we're having that in-depth new life conversation in Jesus.
It includes commitment.
Right.
So turn to somebody today.
Right now, turn somebody sitting beside you.
Tell them we're going to talk about me.
Well, come on, we're going to talk meat today.
We're going to talk meat.
All right.
If you got your Bible, I want you to turn to Luke chapter 9.
We're going to Luke chapter 9.
We're going the whole way down to verse 57 is where we're going to begin.
And as you turn that, I'm going to pray over the reading of God's word.
Father, thank you.
Thank you for this day.
Thank you for your word.
God, thank you for the direction.
Thank you for your presence.
God, I pray that today, Lord, that we get to the meat in your word.
God, that we talk commitment when we talk.
When we get to that in-depth conversation, Lord, help us to talk about the meat.
God, the commitment that's in you.
And we just give you praise in Jesus name and amen.
Luke chapter 9, 57.
Hopefully you're there.
If you're listening online, welcome.
Hope you're getting there as well.
If you're already sure, Luke chapter 9, we're going to start verse 57.
It says this.
Now it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to him,
it's talking about Jesus there, said to Jesus, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.
How many know that's a bold statement to make?
If you're speaking it to Jesus or if you're speaking into anyone,
how many know that's a bold statement?
I will follow you anywhere you go.
You if you go to Australia to live, I'm going to get on the flight with you.
I'm pulling up stakes.
I'm taking everything I got with me.
I'm going.
How many know that's a bold statement?
Whether you're going to a different continent, you're going to a different country,
you're going to a different state, a different city, a different place, right?
Different place to work.
Just come.
That's a big talk.
You come up to somebody and say, wherever you go, I'm going to follow.
How many of those big talk and big commitment, right?
And I kind of picture this happening with Jesus.
I kind of picture this.
I don't know why this is just my listen.
It's not in the Bible.
It's just what I see in my head, right?
I kind of picture somebody coming up, you know, it's a guy coming up.
He's like, you know, Jesus, wherever you go, I'll follow.
All right.
I don't know if that's how it went down.
You know, I don't know if it was just this random moment of inspiration that somebody had.
I don't know if it was truly in their heart that they wanted to follow Jesus, you know,
but I'd be super curious to see what Jesus's body language was when this person came up
and said that because I'm thinking Jesus is probably like to his head a little like really.
I mean, do you ever have one of those really moments like really somebody comes up,
just I'll follow you wherever you go.
Right.
And I kind of think Jesus did that.
I think Jesus is like really.
Because the very next statement he says in 58, he says, and Jesus said to him,
well, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
What was Jesus saying?
Let me give you the realities of following me in my current position.
Let me give you the realities.
Let me give you the realities of what it is to follow Jesus, because this person's come out,
follow you wherever you go.
This person approaches Jesus in the height of his mission.
Jesus is not living at a particular home at this point.
Right.
He doesn't have ministry headquarters somewhere.
He isn't working.
He's not working.
He hasn't got one point five million dollar conversion bus that he's traveling down the highways
of, you know, of Israel, and he's going place to place ministering and taking his crew with him.
He's going from city to city.
They're going there on faith.
Right.
They don't know where they're going to sleep.
They don't know necessarily know where they're going to eat their next meal.
They don't know where they're going to get their next shower.
Right.
And they're going and Jesus saying, I'm currently traveling and ministering all the time.
I'm homeless, my friend.
All right.
I don't got a home base.
I rely on my father everywhere I go.
Do you still want it?
You're going to follow me everywhere I go.
You dine the self.
Right.
You come along with me and Jesus begins to address the reality of what it is to follow him.
Right.
One day, one day previous to all this, Jesus has kind of a reality discussion with his
disciples in Luke chapter nine, verse twenty three.
He said this.
He said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross daily and say daily daily and follow me for whoever desires to save his
life will lose it.
But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
Now, you might be thinking, man, I'm going to be a Christian.
Now, you might be thinking, man, I get into a new life in Jesus conversation.
I don't know if I want to bring all this to the table.
Right.
This is heavy.
This is a big deal.
Right.
Why would I do that?
I'm thinking if I had start, I certainly don't want to start discussion there because
somebody's going to run.
But this next verse tells us exactly why when we get in a new life in Jesus conversation,
a great conversation, when you get to that in depth part, I'm not talking about the beginning.
I'm not talking about just getting somebody curious.
I'm not talking about when you just start.
But when you get that in depth conversation, you got to go there.
You got to tell him what this is really all about.
Right.
And in the next verse, it says this in Luke 925, for what profit is it to a man if he
gains the whole world and himself destroyed or lost?
For whoever is ashamed of me, in my words, of him, the Son of Man will be ashamed when
he comes into his own glory and his father's and of the holy angels.
We got to give others the truth of new life in Jesus.
Don't just lay out all the benefits.
When you get in that in depth talk with somebody, start to talk about the expectation God has
for us.
Right.
It's denying myself.
It's taking up my cross daily.
It's making life about Jesus.
It's living a whole new way.
It's a whole new life.
And we can't make it sound just we do this sometimes.
I'm guilty as well.
Sometimes we make it sound like we're just giving somebody a Christmas gift.
Right.
We're just going to give them a Christmas gift.
If they say a prayer.
Well, awesome.
Right.
You said a little prayer.
Here's eternal life.
Whoa.
That's it.
That's all there is to it.
That's not what it is.
Now, listen, I know faith, right.
Faith.
It's a gift of God.
Salvation is a free gift.
God really does give it to us like a gift.
But he says, you know, faith in him equals following him.
Following him means living in him and living in him means dying to me.
That's the whole definition of what it is.
And you might be thinking, well, if I bring that into the conversation,
nobody's ever going to follow Jesus.
Nobody's going to want to listen to all that.
They're going to get up.
Listen, in new life, in new life conversation and in depth, great conversation.
They will be willing to die to themselves if they realize if they come to realize
they're not the answer for themselves.
Right.
We we don't have the answers for ourselves.
I can't fix the mess that sin is created in my life.
I can't close the gap between me and God.
I don't have it.
I can't do it.
Right.
I am completely powerless, powerless to fix some of the problems in my life.
I can't personally ensure where I'll spend all of eternity.
I can't make that determination.
Only God can.
I have I have no way of avoiding hell, the physical hell without Jesus.
I don't have that.
I have little power to change much in my life outside of Jesus.
When somebody starts to understand that reality, because that's where you got to get to.
Everybody who's saved, everybody who come to faith in the kingdom of God,
somewhere along the way, you came to that reality that you can't fix any of this,
that you're powerless in any of this and you need a savior.
And when you get to that place, you can say, look, Jesus died.
He paid it all.
He's given his blood.
He's sacrificed.
He's God's son.
Right.
And he wants you to come and commit and he will gladly give you eternal life.
All he's looking for is a commitment.
Commitment.
Die to you because you don't got the answers anyway in any of this and live for him.
Amen.
How many know that's how it happened for you?
Somewhere along the way, when you got saved, right, you realized I can't fix any of this.
The only one that can fix this is Jesus in my life.
And we've got to give him that reality.
Anyone who is saved has come to that.
And when you begin to unfold that reality, it dawns on somebody.
I got to die to me because it's only in him that I have life.
And if you unfolded that way, it's the only logical answer is to run to the one who can save you.
To run to it.
Man, it's like being out in the middle of the ocean.
Right.
And you're drowning.
You're out of energy and you're treading water.
And somebody comes along with a dinghy and throws it out there, a life raft of some kind,
throws it out there.
It's the only logical thing is to get in.
Right.
Because it's the answer.
If you don't want to get into that deep, I know this is deep.
You all are just staring at me.
Right.
When it comes time to get into that in-depth conversation,
and it may take a long time to get there.
Sometimes you've got to spend years.
I just heard a testimony last week of this.
You know, of somebody who spent three years talking to somebody just in conversation,
just throwing Jesus, right, life giving conversation to somebody, praying with them.
And this person would even cuss them out sometimes.
And they just kept going at it for three years straight, just these little opportunities.
And all of a sudden they sat down a week ago and it got to have an in-depth conversation with them.
And they realized they were lost and gave their heart to Christ and everything changed.
It's part of it.
We can't just talk about the hit and run stuff, right.
The little stuff that we do.
We sooner or later you're going to get to the in-depth.
And we got to give them the reality of what it is.
You got to give them the meat.
You got to give them.
Come on, say you got to give them the meat.
You got to give them the meat, right?
Let me read a passage.
Let's go a bit further.
I'm going to reread the passage that I started with.
I'll just go a little further in this passage.
And it said this.
Now it happens as they journeyed on the road that someone said to him,
Lord, I'll follow you wherever you go.
And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests,
but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
Now, listen, the conversation continues.
He starts with someone else and he said to another, Jesus says to another,
follow me.
Right.
I think it was a gang of people with this person, whoever this individual was.
There was more than one.
I think it was some extra people there kind of beating their chest together with him.
Right.
There was he was the leader.
The first one was the leader.
But but Jesus addresses one of them says, follow me.
But he said, Lord, first, I have to go bury my father.
Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead.
But you go and preach the kingdom of God.
And another said, Lord, I will follow you.
But let me go first and bid them farewell who are at my house.
People were asking Jesus if they can follow Jesus is asking them to follow them.
Right.
About falling and excuses start to come.
Right.
People start rolling off her tongue.
What's what's excuses?
I would follow you, Jesus.
But I got this thing going on.
Right.
I know you do miracles.
I've seen the healings.
I heard you teach.
Right.
I know that you offer salvation.
But how many know that anytime I stick, but into a statement,
uh, into a statement, I'm heading for trouble.
Amen.
It's not any time I say, but I'm heading for trouble.
And let me give you an example.
What I'm talking about.
I'm sorry I did that.
But you should have quit after I was sorry I did that because but just going to gate the whole thing.
Right.
I would do that for you.
Say with me.
But right.
Well, then you whatever excuse that is, I love you.
But here comes a flimsy condition.
Right.
I'll serve.
Say with me.
But right.
Only if I feel like it.
But whatever the condition is, we could go on and on and on in very real sense.
I mean, one of these people even said that.
Right.
I would.
But I got to go do this.
We can't follow Jesus and leave the but intact.
All right.
In our statement, we can't.
We can't make a decision.
We can't make a declaration.
Make a commitment to follow Jesus.
But leave.
But in the statement, if you follow Jesus, but first, I got to go attend to some family affairs.
Now, listen, in this passage, it sounds pretty legit to me.
Because the first person he says, I got to go bury my father.
I got to go bury a how many of that sounds legit.
Right.
Come on.
It's a funeral.
I get it.
But if you follow this out, if you study this out, scholars say this really wasn't a discussion
about an immediate funeral that was going to take place.
What this really was was an individual who was saying, I have to go back and take care
of my father until he passes.
And then I bury him.
And then I take care of all his affairs.
So he was saying, I got family obligations.
I got things because, you know, I got a family member who's not well, my dad.
And I got to go take care of that.
Geez.
And Jesus comes back with it.
He cracks back with a statement.
He really does.
He said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but go preach the kingdom of God.
That's pretty straight talk right there.
Do you know what?
And part of us is like, wow.
Right.
Part of us like, whoo, that's strong.
But here's the thing.
Do you know what millions and millions of Jesus followers have found out over the millennials
and over the decades of following Jesus?
They found out that if you follow Jesus, right, you can follow Jesus and take care
of your family at the same time.
You really can.
You can follow Jesus and do anything else in life that needs to be done.
And matter of fact, if you follow Jesus, he's walking with you while you're taking care
of all those other things.
He'll give you ideas.
He'll give you plans.
He'll give you things you never even thought about.
He'll make a way where there's no way to do it.
Right.
He'll do it and hard excuses, soft excuses.
Jesus never going to be OK with the butt in our commitment.
He's not going to be all right with that.
He says it right.
When Jesus came to this earth, just think about that for a second.
What if Jesus would have done that when he was in heaven?
Right.
All this mankind needs salvation.
He was like, well, I'd come.
But right there's this big party taking place on the north side of heaven.
I got to get there.
Right.
Maybe another month, maybe a different year, maybe a different millennial.
I'll come.
He didn't do that.
There was no button.
He was all in.
It was an all in thing.
I cannot follow Jesus and put butts in the state.
Jesus didn't put his hand in the plow and look him back as fit for the kingdom of God.
Following Jesus is about being all in and it's about never looking back.
You don't look back.
New life in Jesus is eliminating the butt in the commitment statement and never looking back.
Scripture gives us a vivid picture of this
in the Old Testament of what the earth does.
in the Old Testament of what it means to look back.
There's a small scripture that says
it's almost like a dog returning to its vomit.
Now I know that's pretty gross, right?
But it really is that kind of picture.
And there's an Old Testament story of Lot and his family,
and they're living in a city called Sodom.
And Sodom was a city, Sodom and there was another city,
Gomorrah, and those two cities were wicked.
They were so wicked, they were so steeped in sin
that it was violent sin.
It wasn't just people sinning.
It was violent, it was vile, it was wicked,
and God said, I'm gonna destroy this city.
And he sends two angels to Lot's home,
and he sends them there to get Lot and his family out
because they're the only ones following God.
And it says this in Genesis 19, 15.
When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry,
saying, arise, take your wife and your two daughters
who are here, lest you be consumed
in the punishment of this city.
And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand,
his wife's hand, and his hands of his two daughters,
the Lord being merciful to them,
and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
And so it came to pass when they had brought them outside
that he said, escape for your life.
Do not, say this with me, do not look behind you.
Do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the plain,
escape to the mountains lest you be destroyed.
Lot talks with these two angels,
and they agree that Lot is gonna escape to the city of Zor.
And the instruction from the Lord is,
through these angels is, don't look back.
Don't turn around.
When you leave, keep on going,
because this place is toast, this place is done.
It should just keep moving.
Don't look back.
But Lot's wife doesn't listen.
In 19, verse 19, 23 in Genesis,
it says the sun had risen upon the earth
when Lot entered Zor,
then Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah
from the Lord out of the heavens.
So he overthrew those cities, all the plain,
all the inhabitants of the city that grew on the ground.
But his wife looked back behind him,
and she became a pillar of salt.
She literally crystallized on the spot.
We don't wanna look back.
Now listen, I'm not telling you
God's gonna crystallize you.
That's not what I'm saying, all right?
That's not what I'm saying.
But we don't wanna look back in conversation.
We don't wanna look back in our walk with Jesus.
We don't wanna go back to,
like a dog were turned into its vomit.
Once we begin to plow with Jesus, don't look back.
No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back
is fit for the kingdom of God.
John, you know why he says that?
I don't know if you've,
probably most of us in here have never plowed a row,
right, in farming, right?
You've probably never plowed somewhere.
But if you plow forward, if you turn your head,
you know what happens to your row?
How many of you have ever turned your head
while you're driving?
Your car, how well does that work out, right?
Wah!
Right, you're going off the road.
Whichever way you turn your head,
you're trying to drive, you're doing like that.
That's what he's talking about.
What happens is when you start looking back,
if you twist your head the whole way behind you,
and you try to go forward,
how well is that gonna work out for you?
Not so much, right?
If you try to do that, you're gonna crash.
Jesus is saying don't look back, right?
Make the commitment.
Give him the meat.
Somewhere along the way, you know,
it's great conversations.
Sometimes you're just gonna be interjecting
the smallest of things.
Man, like Jesus is awesome.
He can save you, he's gonna message it to you.
He can do this in your life.
He wants to do this in your life.
He wants to heal you.
He wants to see your family whole.
He wants to bless you.
He wants to do all these things.
But somewhere in a conversation, right?
When it gets down to the curiosity
and they're wanting more,
and you sit down and talk with them,
you gotta say, I gotta give you the meat though.
Jesus is an all in kind of God.
He's full commitment.
He fully committed to you,
and he's fully committed to you,
but he wants full commitment back.
And you gotta die to that old sinful self,
and you gotta come up a new person in Jesus.
You gotta have that conversation.
Amen?
It's true, it's part of it.
If you listen, if we don't have that conversation,
we call Jesus savior.
What's he saving you from?
Why would we need Jesus
if we didn't ever need saved from something?
He's saving us from death and hell and the grave
and so many other things in our lives.
Why would we even need a savior?
He came as savior.
He came to do what we can't do.
We can't do this for ourselves.
Can't do it.
Amen?
Mass feed standard.
Where's the teams coming?
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from Life House Church.
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