2819 Church - I Didn’t Know Yes Would Hurt This Much | Luke 9:23 | Lonnell Williams

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

In this piercing standalone message, Lonnell Williams pointed us to Luke 9:23 and declared that following Jesus costs us everything. To deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him is not easy but it is the only way to truly live surrendered as disciples of Christ.

Take your seat, take your seat. Listen, we got a word from God. We got a little bit of time and a lot to do. We're going to walk this thing out real quick. But before we begin, I want you to know that we have something called serve M25. Come on, you can do better than that. Serve M25. At this church, we always say that we do three things very well.

Sunday, discipleship, and outreach. We want to be the hands and feet. of Jesus. And so it is so important that we do this event every single year where we literally will shut down all that we are doing and encourage our entire congregation, every disciple in this room, to join us for this event. Now, you can actually scan the QR code later on today. You can sign up on top of that. You can also see the tents outside. And our vision castors are going to share a little bit more later on this afternoon. But serve M25 as happening on the last Sunday of this month. It is so important that you plug in and that you serve God's people. Amen. Amen. All right.

Let's begin with the word for today. I believe God has something to say. I truly do. This is not a a traditional sermon that I would normally preach because it's just not, but I feel convicted by God to stick within the text and to say exactly what he wants me to say. so let's get into it i want you to turn your bibles and draw your attention to the book of luke the book of luke the book of luke we're going to go to the ninth chapter the ninth chapter book of luke ninth chapter we're going to read just one verse only i love the fact that i can hear pages turning that's amazing thing to hear the people still carry their bibles into church not just apps but Bibles. That's amazing to see. Luke chapter 9. We're going to read verse 23, verse 23.

All right. And the Bible says this. It says, and he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow. me. I'm going to read it one more time because it was that good. And he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. If I could pin a title to this text, I would call it, I didn't know yes, would hurt this much. I did. I didn't know yes would hurt this much. When I was 13 years old, I was at the doctor's office, my optometrist, Dr. Edwards in Gardena, California. And as I was receiving my optometrist appointment, and we were going through the protocols of identifying the letters and the numbers. And, you know,

he was putting the machine on my eyes and dilating my eyes. At the end, he stopped me. He said, Lonnell, I've got some good news, and I've got some bad news. He said, the good news is that we've identified a challenge when it comes to your eyes. He said, the bad news is that it is degenerate. And that if you don't address this today, you actually will probably go blind in the future. He said the disease is called carticonis. It is when your cornea, most people's cornea is shaped like an oval. Unfortunately, mine are shaped like the tip of of a football. And so the more and more I get older, eventually my corneas will begin to bend and pop. And so if it is not corrected early, I'll either have to get cornea transplant surgery,

cross-linking surgery, or I'll completely go blind. Well, that time I said I'm 13, you know, it's not that series, all good. Fast forward to last year. I went to the doctors and the doctor said, Lonell, I think it's that time that you need to have that surgery. And so for me, I said, fine. I'll do the surgery. It's not that big of a deal. You know, I'm a man. I can handle this surgery.

So we went into the appointment. My wife is there with me where they're preparing us for this surgery. And I asked the question, I said, listen, you know, on a scale from one to 10, how much is this going to hurt? And the doctor said, well, you know, for some, it's an eight. for others, it's a four. He said, it's all about your pain tolerance. I said, okay, cool.

He said, are you sure you want to go forward with this surgery? I said, yeah, you know, I got this. That I kind of hurt, wait a second. And I sat there, and I said, okay, let's do it. So we went through the surgery, and trust me, I don't have pictures, but it was nasty, okay? They literally took the cornea off my eye, put on a new one, and they gave me some medication, and they sent me home. Now, mind you, when I got home, I was on pain medication. And I felt good.

I felt real good. And the doctor said, now listen, Mr. Williams, you cannot look at TV for a couple of weeks. You will be on your back with glasses on. You have to follow a certain regimen and protocol of eyedrops that you have to go through. And you have to come and see me the next day to ensure that the cornea connected. follow me I said no problem at all so when I woke up from my after-surgery slumber all of a sudden something started to hurt my eyes started to hurt a lot I mean a whole lot I mean to the point where I literally was in the bed screaming because it was so painful

and I went to my wife and literally these are wrong words I said Jess I think they did something wrong I think they messed up I think they messed up because my eyes shouldn't feel like this and she said Lannell they told you it was going to be painful and I said to her these words that I said to you I didn't know yes would hurt this much and many of us have recognized and realized that just as it was with my surgery as it is with you many of us said yes to following God without realizing that that yes carries a cost. Some of our yeses were said because they were trendy. They were comfortable.

We said them because we liked the song. We said them because we liked the church. We said them because we liked the social media posts. And God can handle a convenient yes. He can start with a convenient yes, but he will not settle for a convenient yes. your yes has to be grounded and cemented in him convenience yeses say i like him conviction says i'll follow him and some of us have become so conveniently placed in church that we forgot what it felt like to actually follow him from a place of sincerity

y'all not saying to me nothing up in here okay the only yes that matters is the one that Jesus recognizes. God will not settle for those who only say Lord because it's popular or because it's the thing to do. Okay. The sad part is that some of us will call him Lord and act like he isn't. Some of us will say, Lord, Lord, I love you. Lord, I went outside and I served on M25. Lord, Lord, I was out there with the cards.

I rocked the T-shirts. I was out there making the post and getting the captions. And I was in there trying to get baptized and let people know to come to my church. And he will say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. Is your follow a true follow, or is it a follow out of convenience? and Jesus helps us to understand this truth in the book of Luke chapter 9 verse 23 let me give you some historical context about this Luke who is called by Paul the great physician because he was actually a doctor okay he was a doctor and he actually wrote the book of Luke and he wrote the book

of Acts right and so the reason why we know this is actually he was actually trained on the island of Koss under the tulliage at a school of Tarsis. Now, this is important because the mindset and the theology around the Hippocratic Oath, right, doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, do no evil. It was actually formed at this school, right? So Luke understood the value of the body and the soul, right? The Hippocratic oath, or excuse me, the doctor known as Hippocrates, actually they believed in Greek that it was the gods and the goddesses that were upset at people. And that's a how people got sick. And so Hippocratic says, that's not the case. The body and the soul are connected. So when someone gets sick, it's not because of some false ideology or false

idity. He says it's actually because we as individuals have done things that cause us to be sick. If you eat fried chicken a lot, you don't get high blood pressure, right? Like, it's just that simple, right? You drink a lot of Coca-Cola like me? You probably going to, you know, never mind, let me not say that. Okay, okay. So Luke wrote two books in the Bible. He is the only non-Jewish writer in the New Testament. He is from the place of Antioch, which is actually southern Turkey in modern day age. And in this chapter, we see in chapter 9 that Jesus gives this unique depiction of what the journey of following him looks like. If you look at the top of chapter 9, you'll see that Jesus gives the disciples the instructions.

He says, I want you to go into the town, two by two, go into the home. And he said, and if you are not received, what does he say? He says, I want you to dust the dirt off your feet and depart. All right, I'm not going to mess with this, but the favor of God will always outlast the validation of people. That's another sermon. All right. So then he moves on.

He feeds the 5,000, right? If you keep reading the text, he feeds the 5,000 men, right? Now, mind you, there are two stories, 5,000 and 4,000. All right? So when you read that, go back into it. But he reads the 5,000, right? At that time after that, Paul says that you are the Christ. And then we find ourselves positioned at this text.

And the question he says is that if anyone would come after me, right, ask ourselves, we have to, he says, come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. The question we have to ask ourselves is this. why does he demand more from those who are already following him? Because you can't be near Jesus as miracles. The love that he thinks, love that he does, the things that he does, and you can still not be his disciple. You can be close to a thing and still not follow a thing. Because being in proximity to God does not make me a follower of God.

you know the lingo, you know the phrases, you know the Shabba, but you're not speaking his language. It's like, it's like, if I woke up and said, you know what, from now on, I am going to work out at the gym. From now I'm going to work out at the gym, right? And I go to Dick Sporting Goods. I get the shorts, get the top, you know, I get the little sweatband, I get the water bottle, but the gatorade bottle actually, right? I get the BCA powder, right? I'm good, right? And I go home and I get the brand new workout shoes, right, the medicons. I'm good to go, right? I even go and get the membership. Right? I get the membership to the gym,

right? I drive to the gym early, right? I make my little protein powder shake. I shake it up. I drink my protein powder shake. I walk to the gym. I walk into the gym. I even scan my little QR code to get inside. And I walk all the way up to the workout machine and I stare at it. I even egg people oh yeah you got that you got that you good you need a spot you need a spot I can do all of that and just because I'm in the gym and just because I'm near the equipment does not mean that I worked out and some of us have been so used to being around the move of God not really that you never surrendered to God in the first place All right.

Y'all don't like me up in here. Okay. Your bio can say God first. But your actions say me first. I don't care how much you post about God. If your words and actions don't depict that, it is fruitless. I follow I follow God

you got a cross in your profile but you got hell coming out your mouth what is that about now you quick to repost us but the very same one is you reposting the alcohol you had on Saturday night

All right, never mind. All right, that's all. Some of us treat God like a friend with benefits. I know y'all have been saved our whole life, so some of y'all don't understand what a friend of benefits is. No, you were saved, you were saved for real, so I know. For those of us who weren't saved our whole life, right? For real, saved our whole life.

Right. A friend of benefits is someone that you have a relationship with, but you don't have a title. Right? You can have a relationship, but that's not a title. You was fornicating, but you wasn't having the title. Right? And some of us treat God like that. We get everything we can out of him without actually claiming him as Lord. So we'll pray and say, Lord, give me, give me, but God says, well, what are you going to give me? I want your devotion. I want to be the affection of your heart. But you see me as a slot machine. So you only pray for what you want and not ask me what you need of me. All right. That's fine. Here we go. Here we go. So here we go. Let's look at the text. Let's look at the text. The very first word in the text gives us everything we need.

The very first word. It says, if many of you are probably too young for this. But there was a show back in the day, now I turn 40 next month. I know I don't look like I turned 40, but I'm turning 40 next month. But there was a show back in the early 90s, late 80s called School House Rock. How many people remember School House Rock? Right? I'm a bill. I'm only a bill. I'm sitting on Capitol Hill. You remember that. See, people with gray in their beard. They know what I'm talking about. All right. Or gray in their hair. All right. So, but one of my favorite, favorite, favorite episode, the schoolhouse rock, was this one about conjunctions. Conjunction, junction, what's your function? All right. They're going to take us off of YouTube. Like, nope, that's no,

no, no, not playing. A conjunction is a connecting word. It connects an idea presented with one to another. So the word if is often used to show the effects of one thing in relationship to another. So if this then this so in the greek if anyone introduces a condition everybody say condition right so discipleship is never assumed it's chosen and there's proof if your yes puts you at the center then your yes is not for him you do not define yes god defines it And everyone's yes will cost differently, but the weight is the same. Y'all, that's, all right, I'm going to do one of the passes. All right, here we go.

Everyone's yes will cost differently, but weighs the same. Your yes is not my yes. What I had to give up and what you had to give up are not the same. Right? It weighs differently. But we had to do it together. When you said yes, you walked away from something. When I said yes, I had to walk away from something.

We walked away from two different things, but we're walking on the same path. Your yes is different than my yes, but it weighs the same. So now that we understand that your yes is a choice, and we understand that it is a command and that it's connected to something else, let's look at what the text says when you say specifically what yes requires. The first thing we see is that comes along with the yes is surrender. Surrender. Look at the text.

He says, if anyone would come after me. Another word for that is surrender. It is not assessorizing your life with Jesus. It is not reorienting your entire life around him. When God says, if anyone would. come after me he is inviting you to make him your aim and not your add-on your first pursuit not your backup plan and this is the thing about pursuit Jesus doesn't chase our plans we chase his presence and surrender says I give you my direction my desires my my definition

I now belong to you because just going to church isn't submission and just because you admire God doesn't mean you follow him. Don't confuse walking through the doors of church were being considered a follower of Christ. There were people who will darken the doors of church. church and also darken the doors of hell as well. See, this ain't a traditional sermon. He said, follow me.

And following him is not like following someone on Instagram. It's different. When I'm on Instagram, I can just click the follow up because I like something that I see. And I would like to see it more often on my 4U page. But there's no guarantee based on the algorithm. them, then I'm going to see it again. Depending on how many people you follow, you may not see that person a couple of days, a post for them a couple of weeks, depending on how many people are in your for you page.

So my question to you is, did you like God like your for you page? Do you see him every once in a while when you're scrolling? Do you see him every once in a while when you decide to open the application? When you decide to open the Bible? when you decide to pray today and then you don't pray again for three weeks until trouble hits your home and then all of a sudden Lord God I lay me down please no it is a constant pursuit a constant pursuit you are constantly chasing after him and to do that you must be willing to surrender there's a book it is in our bookstore excuse me it will be in our bookstore

or next week. I don't want y'all to run over there and get it yet. They'll be there next week. The book is called Not a Fan. And this is a quote directly from the book. He says, the biggest threat to church today is fans who call themselves Christians. But are actually interested, who are not actually interested in following Christ. They want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close where it requires anything from them. This is how I translate that. A Jesus you negotiate with is not a Jesus your surrender to.

Okay. Well, Jesus, if you just give me this, I'll give you that. Jesus, if you just give me the man, I'll give you my time. Jesus, if you give me the job, I promise you I'll pray more. Jesus, if you just give us the house, I promise you I'll live a better life. So we bring Jesus to the negotiating table like we got power. You bring him to the table like you've got the bargaining chip. Like there's something that you own that he needs or wants.

He's the creator of the end of the earth. If he needed something from you, he'd get it. But you falsely assume and treat yourself like you're equal with him. I know I'm preaching more than y'all saying amen, but that's okay. Some of us say that we are surrendered to God, but really we aren't. We call it surrender, but it's really control. Control says, I'll follow Jesus as long as I get to drive. control looks like wisdom but functions like unbelief

think about it no no think about it do you delay obedience until you understand everything do you confuse micromanaging with faithfulness is your peace dependent on probability fruit of surrender is what shows up when Jesus is actually at the center Are your non-negotiables, his commands, or your comforts? I say I can't.

But surrender says God can. I say it costs too much. Surrender says he's worth it. I say not now. He says your will and not mine. I say this hurts. But surrender says this will heal. I say I'm afraid.

But surrender says fear not. practicing surrender is something you should do daily. All right, all right, we got to go. Time is planned. Okay, okay, okay. All right. The second thing, the second thing, the second thing, Lord Jesus. All right.

The second thing we see in the text is this. He says, if anyone should come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross. All right. Take up his cross. Another word for that is sacrifice. To take up your cross is to embrace the voluntary loss of something you love for the sake of the one you love more.

they said that the cross weighed 300 pounds so jesus was able to carry 300 pounds on his back and you can't carry five minutes in prayer shata all right here we go sacrifice watch this sacrifice confronts our desire to give god scraps and call a commitment if you only give god what left don't call it sacrifice call it leftovers how many of us got greedy family members come on I know I'm not the only one you did Thanksgiving dinner and they come in they ain't cooked not a nana but they got six Tupperware bags ready to roll out your house like if you didn't put nothing into it don't take nothing I'm house. Anyway, let me not say it if I get in trouble. I love y'all. I love you. But if you're sitting

at the dinner at the Thanksgiving Day table, right? You're sitting there, you're eating, right? What would it be like if God was sitting next to you and everybody got a plate and God is sitting there waiting patiently? You don't scrape the bottom of the mac and cheese. The hard part is at the bottom now. And you give God everything that's left over. Thank you. That's not sacrifice. that's leftovers and this is it the gospel wasn't designed to fit your comfort zone it was designed to kill your comfort and listen to this your yes is not simply proven not only proven in what you wear not only proven in what you post not only proven in what you listen to not only proven in how loud you worship but by what you lay down.

You cannot demand Jesus to carry your sins while you still carry your own desires. Okay. Romans 116. It's in a text. It's in the text. If you read one, listen to it. He says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

what you refuse to sacrifice reveals the real God in your life culture tells you that inclusion at all cost but Jesus says exclusion may be the cost sacrifice has to come with a bold yes you will lose friends when you say yes you will lose followers when you say yes you will not be invited to the party when you say yes you will lose status and an influence when you say yes you will lose certain desires of the flesh when you say yes yes your co-workers will resent you when you say yes yes and you will be labeled as too much when you say yes but here it i feel like it right here this is the baptist in me when people say you're doing too much they they don't understand what you've been through they don't recognize what god

God has brought you from. So when you say, I'm doing too much, that just gives you a peek into my past. Because if you knew what I have experienced, you would know that I would probably be shouting much louder than this. David said, I would dance even more undignified than this. Yeah, I'm a shout because I know where he brought me from. All right, all right, all right, all right, the third thing, who, I got, I got 13 minutes. All right, real quick.

The third thing, the third thing we see, help us, Holy Ghost. In the text, it's sanctification. He says this, if anyone will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily. Hold on now. Sanctification means to be set apart from God. When you put your trust in Jesus, God makes you. His own gives you a new identity and sets you apart for his purpose. Because salvation happens in a moment, but sanctification is a lifetime.

When you are saved, you are saved in that moment. But you are shaped over a lifetime. Okay? Daily is the word that exposes most Christians. sanctification is lifelong spirit-led process of being formed into the image of Christ. Now, here's the thing. Depending on the denomination you grew up in, or depending on what you see on social media, you'll hear the word holiness.

Some denominations promote holiness. You'll hear things like holiness is still right. Now, I am not coming against any denomination, all right? for those that clipped, I'm not coming against any denomination whatsoever. There are traditions like certain holiness traditions that actually are very good for culture. They help us understand how to manage ourselves, right? How to live with purity, right? Here's the problem, though.

Oftentimes, many of us will push holiness and live like hell Monday through Saturday. Right? Some of us will tell young ladies and young men, when you come into the church, you must dress holy, but you act like a whole Monday through Saturday. All right. All right. You preach at convocation that you need to be holy, but you overlook the homosexual who's singing on the praise team. But holiness is still right. It's the truth. I'm just telling you the truth.

And the truth shall set you free. Holiness is not a word. It's a lifestyle. It's not something you do just on Sunday. Something you do every day. If your holiness only work, works on Sunday, it's not holy. Does it matter how many times you say holy, holy, holy?

A Bible in your hand and bitterness in your heart, that's not holy. And I'm going to say this and then I'm going to shut up. If your holiness cannot survive, a locked door and a late night is not holy. Let me look at your search history. If God could look at your search history, would he call you holy? Oh, I'm coming forward today. Yo, X. Yo, O.F.

Right? Right. Shade room, media, take out, world star, hip-hop. I'm calling it. TMZ. Some of us have been so confused and so consumed by the world that we forgot what it meant to be called out. sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. Now clock that tea.

Sanctification is not hype. It is formation. Shows up in your speech. It shows up in your integrity, in your purity, in your love. Sanctification is God pulling out of you. what culture keeps putting in you. And I'm going to say this, because this got me mad this week. Okay, okay, I'm not going to call out, but there was someone on social media who was talking about the church.

Help me, Holy Ghost. She was talking about the church. She had all these negative things to say, and I was, I typed something. I pressed enter. I did. I did. I'm not going to lie, I did. My wife called me. I was walking the dog.

She said, Lionel, delete it now. I actually posted it three times, so I had to go into different parts of the reply. Because I'd be like, don't talk about this church. Listen, we ain't perfect, but listen, we're trying to go for God. I don't understand why they do all. Well, shut up. Come to church. Come to church.

If you don't like it, go look at somebody else. Come to church. We're trying to do God's work up in here. I don't understand why they be facing each other when they worship. Because in Isaiah 6, it talks about that the angels stood before him. in his glory this ain't a show this ain't a concert i'm not trying to sing to get you hype i'm trying to worship the holy of holies holy holy holy holy holy holy holy my job ain't to entertain you worship ain't got nothing to do with you it's about him so sure i'm not going to look at you i'm going to look at you i'm going to

worship the king. All right. All right. All right. All right. What was I saying? What was I saying? What was I saying? Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. The girl. The girl. The girl. The girl. All right. This is what the girl said. She said, I, she said, I'm not going to show the video. She was like, see, this is just who I am. God knows me. God knows it. I don't mean to do all this, but that's how she was acting. God knows who I am, and he understands my personality, and, you know, I'm not about to change because that's just who I am. And I'm like, wait a second, honey. Come on, just wait a second.

Wait a second, right? When you pause sanctification, you can forfeit your retirement. People say, who say they cannot change, that's how I know you don't take sanctification seriously. because if you can't change and you can't be sanctified then you must be done God can call you to glory because sanctification is a lifelong process so if you consider yourself to be sanctified then you must be in glory so what what use does God have of you sanctification is a process everybody say process we will seek self-peace over sanctification we'd rather we would rather feel okay rather than

engaging in sanctification but peace without sanctification is just spiritual sedation. All right, last thing. Submission, submission. We got, I got five minutes. Help me, Father. All right. And he said this, deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. Submission is not admiration, it's alignment. Submission. Under the mission, under the calling, under the assignment, right? The great commission, right? Right? We don't have a mission. The church has a man. God has a mission, right? God has the mission. We are the church. We are under the mission. We are called. to follow out the mission, right?

It is so important that when we do this, yes, I see, when we do this, our eyes has to be fixed on him. Our feet have to be trained in his footsteps. Our heart has to say, yes. This is why sanctification begins in private, but submission is visible. It's not what he says.

He says, whoever is ashamed of thee and my words. A quiet yes may start it, but a bold yes may follow it if Jesus has to explain before you obey he isn't your Lord he's your life coach if Jesus has to tell you before you decide to follow him

has to coach you and to be able to follow him he's not your Lord and some of us believe that Jesus was meant to follow us but disciples follow him we are all disciples of Christ. And if Christ can't correct you, he doesn't lead you. Mahatna Gandhi said something, and this is probably one of the most profound statements that I have ever heard

of someone who is not a believer. He says this. He said, I would be a Christian if it weren't for Christians. I like your Christ, but I don't like your Christians because your Christians look nothing like your Christ. some people don't submit to God's following because they see like how you act when you follow him all right does Christ correct you or can he conform or does he conform you excuse me does Christ correct you or only confirm you many of us will tell the Lord what are you going to do before asking the Lord what would you have me to do do you obey even when you don't agree Do I ask, Lord, what would you have me to do before I tell him what I plan to do?

Submission is where surrender takes the front seat to your own desires and gives direction. Surrender says you lead. Submission says, I'm moving now. Yes. It means loss. You lose people. and these opportunities cultural

acceptance it's not proven in what you post but it's improving in how you live yes kills comfort and control and approval everyone's yes calls differently

but it still weighs the same the same the cross creates a standard an even kill. The reason yes hurts is because it's building you into someone the old you could never be.

Deny take up follow daily. When you want to act out take up. follow deny daily when you want to get back take up follow deny when you want to hurt them because they hurt you take up follow when you won't forgive them because they hurt you take up follow deny daily when you

won't forgive them because you feel like they hurt you too much. Take up. Follow. Deny. Daily. When you feel like your sin is greater than the forgiveness you deserve from Christ, take up, follow, deny, daily. The Bible says this in Romans 8. For the suffering of of this present world will not compare to the glory that will be revealed. Your yes is something that God wants. It was an old song we used to sing back in the day. I used to say that God requires more of you. listen grace will meet you in the pain of your yes strength will meet you in the practice of your yes

and glory will meet you at the end of your yes once more of you and your yes means everything to him not just a flipping yes not just a it's cool i'll do it this is a popular church so sure i'll come and i'll rock the shirt because it's cool but no yes means i'm willing to surrender i'm willing to sacrifice i'm willing to engage in sanctification And I will submit my life to his will and his way. If it means don't take the job, I won't take it. If it means not having the relationship, it means not having it. If it means moving all the way across the country to do something you didn't think you could do, that's what it means.

The yes is yours to have. And as the worship team comes, we're just going to kind of bathe this moment with a yes. we're going to just bathe it with just just 30 seconds of us submitting our lives our wills our emotions our desires our pains our passions with just a yes we'll sing it Yes. Yes, God. One more time, somebody just say yes. All right, listen up. Everybody, don't move, don't move, don't move, don't move, don't move.

This is so important. The most important part. I started this sermon telling you about a conversation I had with my doctor when I was 13. The part that I failed to inform you was this. When he told me I had Cardaconis, he said, Lionel, listen, we can do a very small procedure right now. and if you do the small procedure right now, you won't have to do the procedure in 30 years. He said, if you just say yes to the procedure right now,

it'll only hurt for 10 minutes, rather than to struggle with vision for 30 years and have to get surgery when you turn 40. But because of my own reservations, hesitations, anxiety and fear, I said, no. and I put off the pain that I was going to experience in the future

and just as it is with me as it could be with you Jesus sets you up with a divine appointment today and had you walk into this room and hear this sermon and hear this analogy so that you can say yes today

and not feel the pain of being away from him for eternity and some of you are saying I don't listen I just I came because my friend invited me I came because I'm watching online and it popped up on my YouTube page I'm just here I just want to but what you're talking about is this Jesus who's requiring more of me and I want to give it to him but I don't know what to do I don't know how to how to take that step how to take that leap how to how to follow him I'm telling you one step at a time he said that when you hear my voice hearted not your heart and

other words the beat that's knocking on your heart right now that feeling that you have on the inside that is jesus saying i want to come in if you let me in i can change your life i died for you i was buried for you i resurrected for you and now i have the keys to the kingdom and i'm telling you your life will never be perfect but it will be better when you give your life to christ And you say, I want to follow you. I don't want to follow the world. I don't want to follow society. I want to follow you.

When you do that, yes, your life will be better. So I want all of us heads bowed, eyes closed. If I'm speaking to you in this moment, I just want you to just raise your hand up right now. You're saying, yes, God, I want to, yes, I see it. I see it. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you my brother. I see you my sister. I see you all the way in the back. I see you. I see you on the side. Hallelujah. I see you on the side. Amen. All right. Keep your eyes closed. Hands down. There's another group I want to ask though. The second group I'm going to talk to is a group that was in church. You grew up in church. You know what it is to be a follower of Christ, but you walked away. You decided that you wanted to go through deconstruction you wanted to have a relationship right and not religion and here you are in 2018 today we're listening online and recognizing that man this whole time i had been walking in the opposite direction and god is saying i want you to come back home the prodigal son was one that

walked away from his father realized came to his senses and ran back to jesus right back and God is saying, I want you to come back to me. And when you come back, my arms will be open. My hands will be wide and say, I receive you in my arms because you are my child. If I'm speaking to you, raise your hand. You say, I'm ready to come back home. I've been away from you. I see you.

I've been away for too long. Raise them up higher. I've been out of this place for too long. I haven't had a relationship with you. I haven't been in prayer with you. I feel like I was saying, but I just need confirmation. I see you. I see you.

I see you. I see you. Hallelujah. I see you. Put your hands down. for everyone that raised their hands everyone that that raised their hands both to join back into the fellowship with him or who wants to be saved i want you to know that god sees you god loves you he recognizes your yes and that at this church we believe that everyone is a disciple of christ

that's why we don't have members you're a disciple of his we don't own you god does and so if you want to understand deeper and understand more about what this takes there is a black tent outside. And at that tent, they have a bag that they would give you with information with the Bible and with Panthers so that you can know what it means to be a follower of him. Listen, God is proud of you today. Because your eyes have been open to following him. Because he is God and he is king and he is Lord.

We submit our will to him. Father, we just thank you today. we thank you for the word and we thank you for your people for every hand that was raised god we thank you that they have come into an understanding of who you are that you were born of the virgin mary you lived you died and you were resurrected and you ascended into glory to return again and god we trust with our heart that you are real that you are our savior you are our king that you lead our lives that we take the back seat while you take the driver's seat we give our lives to you in this moment in this hour we thank you and we praise you for all that you have done

words in christ's name we pray amen listen if you believe it puts your hands together and give jesus a hand clap of praise