Let me pray real fast.
Lord, help me tonight.
Lord, be it all in the flesh.
Lord, have no worry of approval of man
or any self at all.
Lord, it's really all about You.
Father, You're worthy to help me now to
say what You want me to say for
Your own glory.
I pray this in the name of Christ.
Amen.
You know, I heard that song is glorious.
I read that.
I was reading Joy Unspeakable one day.
And I read through that and the Lord,
He just showed me what He was doing.
He was breaking me down.
He was making me nothing.
He was crushing me of all that I
had.
All the idols, all the things that would
try to get inside of my heart.
And it's amazing that I'm actually saved.
It's just incredible.
For three years now, I've been saved.
And the amazing testimony is even after I've
been saved, God's faithfulness to keep a clear
conscience just to show me the idols that
come in.
And that's the thing, you know, pray, search
me, O God.
Know my heart.
Try my ways.
Lord, if there's any way grievous in me,
Lord, lead me in the way everlasting.
I mean, this is the only life I'm
ever going to live.
Think about Luke 17.
It says to remember Lot's wife.
If you seek to save your life in
this world, you'll lose it.
But if you lose your life for the
sake of Christ, for the gospel, you'll find
your life.
And I think of that text, and I
think thousands of years ago, Lot's wife turned
the other way.
And she died.
And she's been in hell for thousands of
years without one second of sleep.
And that could easily be me.
And even to think of that right now,
that she's there as I'm talking under the
wrath of God in this terrifying reality.
I mean, if there's anyone here that doesn't
know the Lord, I tell you, just come
to Christ.
If you're heavy laden, come to Him.
Don't come to religious games.
Don't come to anything but the Lord.
He'll save the wickedest sinner.
I wasn't even seeking to be saved, and
the Lord saved me.
He opened my eyes up and let me
see Christ as precious.
He's the treasure.
He's the greatest thing there is.
I mean, nothing else matters.
Paul said, I count everything as a loss.
The surpassing worth of knowing Christ, Jesus, knowing
Him, intimately knowing the Lord.
You know, when I was lost, I had
a relationship.
I'd talk to someone six hours a day.
I'd do anything it took to be in
communion with them, to talk to this person,
another sinner.
Yet, to think now I'm saved, will I
not do anything to be with the Lord,
to talk to the Lord, to seek the
Lord, to find His presence, to pray like
what Newton said?
Because that's the way it's going to happen.
God has to break and rip us all
out.
I mean, it's so unspeakable.
You can't be filled until you're emptied.
And that's the thing.
Are you seeking to be emptied of yourself?
Are you really seeking that?
Are you really praying, God, search me, Lord,
find any idol, anything, whatever it takes, just
take it out of my life?
You know, some make shipwreck because they don't
have a clear conscience.
And there's times when I've been in the
faith and I didn't have a clear conscience,
and I just thank God that He spared
me, that He kept me going, that He's
given me the endurance, and it's just glorious.
You know, the Lord can do anything.
He really can.
It's amazing.
It really is amazing.
You know, there are people we see every
day we'll never see again until the judgment.
And I'll never see some of you guys
again until I stand before God and you
stand before God.
Just stand there with Christ.
Stand there resting in Him.
Stand there helpless as a child.
You know, every day, and I wish it
was every day, I wake up and I
cling to my Father's leg.
You know, unless you receive the Kingdom as
a child, you won't inherit it at all.
There's no insurance unless you come totally broken
of all self, giving up, just knowing I
can't save myself.
All the works we have are worthless.
The Lord could delete, I'll be honest, could
disappear.
The Grace House could disappear today and I'd
still be fine because I have Christ.
I need to have Him as my treasure
and no idols.
And they creep in.
They come in so slowly.
And oh, we just need the Lord to
keep us clean, to keep us in His
will and to really pray.
And I'd hear a brother from China preach
on Mark 1.35. They talk about Christ
every morning waking up and seeking His Father.
While it was still early, He left to
a desolate place and there He prayed.
And I heard that.
And the preacher said, arguing from the greater
to the lesser, how much more should we
be doing that if the Son of God
would do that?
And even after hearing that, I still didn't
seek the Lord as I ought.
I didn't.
I tell you, how many things have I
heard, even Tim saying the pulpit, and they
hit me right then, but I didn't live
it out.
And the only way we can live it
out is the Lord.
We need Him.
We need to be crying out to the
Lord to help us to live it out.
We can have so many ideas, things to
do.
Me and Bob were walking earlier and I
saw a lady walk by.
And I felt the Lord wanted me to
say something to her and I didn't.
I didn't.
What was it?
Was it fear of man?
Was it approval of man?
Was it awkwardness?
Was it because I'm a shy person?
I don't know what it was, but I'll
probably never see her again until the Judgment
Day.
That's a humbling reality every time I walk
in the store, to know this is it.
This is the one shot I have to
see these people.
I mean, just to think eternally, to have
an eternal mindset, because people are indeed watching
us and they're seeing, is Christ really our
treasure?
They're watching your Facebooks.
They're watching everything.
Is Christ really all satisfying or is it
all about self?
We have to ask ourselves these questions and
lay it all into balance.
The way is narrow.
And, you know, I grew up in the
church 21 years.
I was totally deceived.
Three years before I was even saved, I
put a testimony up on the Internet and
I was lost.
And then three years later, God saved me.
It's just amazing how easy it was.
I could say I hated sin all day,
but Romans 8.13 says, if by the
Spirit you put to death, not if by
the Spirit you hate sin, but if you
put it to death, you'll live.
If you don't, you'll die.
And so, put on Christ.
If you have Him on, there's no provision
for the flesh to gratify its desires, for
walking by the Spirit, for in the light,
for with the Lord.
I remember Bob at the conference talking about
one sin will destroy you.
And that's just so true.
One little idol, one little misplaced affection.
You know, I struggled with self-pity and
depression a lot in the past.
And I'll tell you, it was just plain
idolatry.
It was selfishness in my life.
And God broke me of that.
It's just amazing.
We need to examine our hearts through the
Word of God and just pray and plead
with the Lord.
I don't know what else to say.
Guys, Christ is everything.
There's nothing else worth living for.
Are we beyond reproach?
Am I beyond reproach?
Do I know anything against myself?
If I do, why haven't I taken care
of it?
You know, He's worthy of it.
Every word I just said, I'm going to
be judged.
God's holy.
I need a greater fear of the Lord.
I guess we all do.
It's amazing to be saved.
What's your conscience say?
Do you have peace with the Lord or
do you fear death?
I'll tell you, if I died on the
way home, it would be a gift from
the Lord.
Psalms, it says, Precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of His saints.
And that's the thing.
Can the Lord help me continue to live
with no strings attached to the present world?
To really just die to self daily and
pick up my cross and go after the
Lord?
You know?
Yeah, I'll tell you.
If you're not with the Lord, turn to
Christ.
Lot's wife is there right now.
And for thousands of years, she hasn't had
one second of sleep.
And her smoke has ascended forever.
I'm only 24 years old.
I can't imagine a thousand years, much less
all of an eternity, because I decided to
seek my own life instead of serve the
living Christ who became sent on the cross
and was slaughtered by His own Father that
I could have a perfect righteousness given to
me by faith, that I could be made
right with God.
Nothing's better than that.
Nothing's more important than that.
And that's all that matters in this earth,
in this world.
It's so easy to be distracted by things.
It's so easy to waste time on the
computer.
It's so easy to do so many things,
and we just need to seek the Lord.
I know not what else to say.
I just hope the Lord helps us all
to be children and cling to our Father's
leg.
It's so easy to go in pride and
go away from His leg and go off
somewhere.
I'll tell you, when I was lost, if
I could talk to someone on the phone
six hours a day, how could I not
pray six hours a day?
How could I not seek God if the
Lord leads me to do such?
And just to seek the Lord.
You know?
This is it.
I'm never going to live again.
There's one life I have.
There's billions of people in the world without
Christ.
We've got to do whatever it takes to
get the Gospel out, to preach Christ crucified,
and to die to ourselves that He may
live through us and there may be real
fruit, real lasting fruit.
You know?
So I'm very thankful that God shed His
mercy on me when I wasn't even looking.
And He said, you know, the Lord will
really set you free from your sins.
Don't settle for a half victory.
With me going through all the sexual sin
when I was lost, being saved, you have
to have a determination.
You're not going back to any of those
things.
And something from ten years ago could come
back to bite you in ten minutes.
You never know.
The devil's always looking for an open door.
He's always looking for a crack in the
foundation.
He's always looking for something, some weakness, some
vulnerability.
And we've just got to take every thought
captive and be ready to punish the disobedience
to really put it to death by the
Spirit and be desperate and violent, or we're
not going to enter the Kingdom.
And God supplies the grace.
He gives it all to really seek the
Lord for such.
You know, I don't know what else to
say.
I'm thankful.
You know, I used to seek the Lord.
The first 21 years of my life, I've
probably talked to ten people.
When God saved me, I had something to
say.
It didn't matter if I was the shyest
person in the world.
The bubble popped.
I ran free.
We can't have excuses.
There's no excuse for not talking to that
lady today.
There's no excuses at times.
It's just simply, Father, help me.
I'm weak.
You know, whether it be in the classroom,
whether it be anywhere we go, just Lord,
help us to honor You with everything.
Yeah.
Alrighty.