Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.
You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.
We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the
cross. Now let's join the service.
It's funny, I preach Wednesday night and I just realized this
and I preached on discovering what what I preach on
discovering what they it in your life.
Jesus said give y'all help me, y'all ain't leaving this all on
me this morning. Give and it.
We'll be given good measure, pressed down, shaken together
and running over and a priest on how the church has messed the IT
up. A man.
It ain't always money. What's your it?
And then I titled this message and didn't even realize it till
now. But sometimes it's not what you
gain, but it's what you lose. Can I say that again?
We need to get that sometimes. We gained a whole lot when we
started serving Jesus Christ. I mean, we know the things that
we've gained a home in heaven and but yet I feel a lot of
things that we've gained, we're not using.
We just let it set idle. It's not always.
Sometimes it's not what you gain, but it's what you lose.
Matthew chapter 16, this passage of Scripture, it finds the
Sadducees and the Pharisees seeking a sign, the same thing
the most Christians and most churches are doing today.
They're looking for help me, a sign.
If God can present a sign, something they can see, taste,
touch, or feel, then they're on board.
They're seeking a sign. The Sadducees and Pharisees were
seeking a sign. What was Peter doing in this
particular passage of Scripture this chapter?
He was confessing that Jesus is the Son of the living God.
There was a lot of stuff going on in Matthew chapter 16, but
Jesus was warning them about the place they were about to go.
He warns them to be aware of what Lavin, When you hear Lavin
mentioned in the Scriptures, it's, it's a substance that
causes something, rise up, firm, ferminate.
We know that, but exclusively it represents sin.
When you hear it in Scripture, it represents corruption most of
the time because he talks about it that way.
But he was talking about the labour of the Pharisees or the
doctrine that they were presenting on this day, right?
They, they, he was talking about the attitude and the atmosphere
of the place they were about to enter.
So we're going into a place, boys, but beware of what you're
going to hear. Hey, man, what would life be
like today if we did that? Because there's places you go
that your eyes and your spiritual ears don't need to
hear or see because see, there's something.
Write this down. The Lord give me this.
Because the atmosphere around you will affect your attitude.
The atmosphere around you, what you surround yourself with will
affect your attitude. And your attitude affects your
situation, right? The situation don't really have
to affect you, but when it affects your attitude, it's
fixing to affect you. Your situation affects your
faith and your faith affects your life because it's the
substance of what you're hoping for.
It's the evidence of what you cannot see.
So I want to read some scripture.
In Matthew chapter 2316 and 23, Jesus had predicted his death.
He was saying He was saying some things that was going to happen
here in verse 21. I'm going to back up and read 21
from the time that Jesus began Matthew 16 and 21 to show to his
disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and He must suffer
many things from the elders and the chief priest and the scribe
tribes and ultimately what be killed and raised from the dead.
Peter took him aside and begin to rebuke him.
He was telling Jesus this far be it from you, this is not going
to happen to you. But Jesus knew that Peter was
interfering with the plan of God and he looked at him and he said
get thee behind me Satan, you're an offense to me, Get thee
behind me. God's got a plan on my life and
I'm going through with it, but it got me what he said right
here to Peter. He said you're not mindful of
the things of God, but of men. That hit home many times.
We're mindful of the things of men, but we're not even mindful
of the things of God many times in our life.
And then Jesus said this in verse 24.
I believe this is a blueprint for living the Christian life
today. If you want to be successful,
come on, I'm going to take you on a ride this morning.
I'm going to take you on a trip in the Word.
I'll never forget the time I took a trip and I ain't never
come back. Hey man, I took a trip and I got
a hold of some things in this word and I'm not coming back.
And Jesus said this to his disciples.
We all desire, we think we desire to come after Christ
because we pray to sinner's prayer and we we got a few
things out of our life that's not there anymore, but Jesus
brought it on home. He said if anyone desires in
verse 24 to come after me, I like that not just know about
me, but come after me. Part of this thing that I'm
about called eternal life. If anyone desires to come after
after me #1 you got to deny yourself.
And then you got to take up your cross, the things that you're
planted in the end in your life, and you got to take that cross
up and you got to follow me. A lot of people desire Christ,
but they don't follow Christ. Come on now.
A lot of people want to know about Christ, but they don't
want to be a partaker in the sufferings of Christ.
And he said whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Man isn't that powerful. But you're not mindful of the
things of God. I'm going to read on it a little
bit. See, Jesus gives one, if not the
greatest lessons for following him today.
A lot of people walking around, how do I follow Christ?
What do I do? Take up your cross, deny
yourself and follow Him and still many of God's children
still haven't got this. Hello.
We talked about the cross. We talked about it, but it's a
life lesson, a heart change, a warning that many still have not
got take up or given of yourself.
How do we do that you what you thought your life would be like.
I heard someone saying one time I thought my life would be this.
I never thought me one of them. I never thought I would be see
you up here today. I never thought I would be this.
I thought my life would be this. I never imagined that.
And many pray get this, come on, stay with me.
And many thought that their life and what they what it should
have been. They spend a lot of their life
praying that God would make it that way, right?
God's got this for me, but this ain't what I pictured.
So I'm going to pray for this life over here and I'm going to
pray for all these things over here.
That puts you in a position of praying out of the will of God
because it's not what God had for you.
And the reason we can't find what God has for us is because
we're not willing to take up our cross daily and follow him.
We never deny self. Many never exalt Christ being
taught on every hand that this living for Jesus deal is about
what all he can give me. That's basically what the church
teaches today. If we can convince somebody that
Jesus is going to give them enough, we can get them in the
church and get them to be an active part of maybe what's
going on in the social era of it.
But yet they've never took up a cross.
They've never denied self, much less stepped out and followed
Jesus Christ. I'm going to preach it anyway.
It's all about what He can give us.
But see, the problem is in verse 23, Jesus said you're mindful
and you're praying for the things of men or you could say
the things of the world, right? And then God doesn't deliver.
It's true. People in the church today
praying for prayers because they're praying out of the will
of God and God has not delivered.
It's a whole lot easy if you just take up your cross and deny
stealth and begin to walk in the blessings that God has for you
and quit worrying about what God has for your neighbor.
But when God doesn't deliver that you ready for this When God
doesn't deliver that which he knows will hurt you as his
child, he knows that you ain't ready for it.
Hey man, I found just go ahead and make the ground ready and
he'll pour out blessings that you can't contain, but not when
you ain't ready for it, not when it's going to get between you
and God. He's not going to he's not going
to contribute to that. But when God doesn't deliver
that which he knows will deter us as his children or destroy
us, we begin to many begin to blame God.
Well, I did this and God didn't do that.
We get in the thinking and praying of the mindful things of
men, right? We're not praying about the the
things of God, but God will give you things when he knows you can
handle them. Hello and they won't destroy
you. So why don't we ever just look
at what God has done in our life already instead of looking at
what we don't have or looking at what we aren't?
I heard a story of a young man one time and he was he was
talking to an older man and he had knew him for quite a few
years and he was a middle-aged guy.
This, this younger man I'm talking about, you know,
middle-aged younger to me now somewhat, but I can picture, you
got to get the picture of this, this this young man, he was, he
was struggling with life, probably frustrated with his
prayer life. Anybody ever been there?
Because when you pray out of the will of God, you will be
frustrated with your power life. When you have aught against your
brother, you will be frustrated in your prayer life because you
got to forgive. I had to happen this week.
Somebody said, why are you doing that for that?
I said because I got to love them.
It don't matter what they've done to me.
I got to command from God. Then I got to love them as
myself. It doesn't matter what they do.
It does not matter. Amen.
I've, I've learned to live like that.
I thank God because that that opens me up to the windows of
heaven to receive and that which God has for me, not money, but
that which money cannot buy. Amen.
Peace and love and long-suffering and joy and the
peace that surpasses understanding.
But this young man, he was sitting there and this old man,
I can picture him probably whittling on the porch as the
story goes, you know, we used to sit on the porch, but that life
has just passed this, this generation by why, you know, I
used to get a lot of wisdom from the front porch.
There was some front, you know, that old song said a lot of
front porch sitting, whatever it was.
We don't do that anymore. We can't sit on the front porch.
Can I just preach this? We can't sit on the front porch
and enjoy what we have because we want something else.
It was way better back then. They knew they couldn't have it,
so they didn't want it. So they just bask in what they
had and enjoyed what they had and would maybe take a little
bit of what they learned in this life and give it to somebody
else that maybe they could get through the struggles and trials
of this life. But many of us, if they come and
sit on your front porch, they're going to leave all stressed out.
They're going to leave all stressed out and wonder what?
But this old man is sitting there.
I can picture the young man struggling with his prayer life,
probably frustrated in church, probably seen people in church
not living what they were professing and Christians in
general. And he asked this man, boy, this
hit hard. He said, I can see this old man
sitting on the porch. He wasn't wealthy at all.
And this young man is throwing his his walk with Christ up to
him. You know, people love to do
that. When they see you struggling,
the first thing they attack is your spiritual life because they
don't have one. And a young man, he says, I want
to ask you something. The old man says, shoot.
He says, I've, I've seen you fast for days.
I've seen you pray. And he said, he said, when I
look around here, he said, he said, why do you, why do you do
all that pray? And he says, what has it got
you? He said, man, I've seen you just
struggling in prayer, just I think some of them Gray hairs
you got her from praying all the time and waiting on waiting on
God to do something. He said.
He said, what has it? What has it got you?
What did it gain you? All those years of praying to
God? I don't see a lot sitting around
here. What did you gain?
And the old man looks up and he says nothing powerful.
He said nothing, but he said, let me tell you something, he
sure took a lot of things away. He said he took away my pride,
He took away my ego. He took away the lust of the
flesh. He took away, oh boy, y'all
ought to be shouting right now. He took away all that stuff, the
depression. He gave me peace that surpasses
understanding in my life. He took away anger.
He took away depression. He took away greed.
See, sometimes, kid, the answer, it's not what you're gaining,
but it's what you're losing. I thank him this morning that he
took a whole lot of things away when I took up my cross, and I
begin to follow him, give him praise in the house.
Take up your cross. Take up your cross this morning.
I may not gain anything else, but I got a lot of peace.
Say, man, I got peace that surpasses understanding.
I may not have a lot of money, but I know how to be happy with
that which God has given me. And I know that my God's working
all things out to my good according to His riches and
glory. I've got the blood of Jesus that
I can plead over my body. It's by His stripes that I can
be healed. No weapon formed against me
shall prosper, but His Word will go forth and it'll accomplish
that which it was set forth to do.
You need some more devil. He told his show.
Took a lot of things away. Man, I couldn't live with what I
had. Come on, think about how messed
up you were. You couldn't live with what you
had. You was headed for destruction.
But if he never give you anything else, thank God he took
it all away. Took it all away in verse 26.
Why is it important to let him take it away?
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it.
And then a verse 26, I remember my grandmother read me this at
5-6 years of age. I've never forgot it.
It says what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world?
Have you ever answered that question?
And your busy rat race? What is it going to profit me if
I gain the whole world? I told you I took a ride and I
never come back. Blame God, don't blame me.
And he loses his own soul. What is it profit if you gain
the whole world and lose your own soul?
Here's a very powerful passage right here.
Or what will a man give in exchange for a soul?
What's the IT? What do you give in exchange?
I don't, you know, I don't think we would really just
deliberately outright just give something to the devil.
So I'm going to exchange this for my soul.
That's powerful. In the mid 1930s, there was a
there's a place in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
It's South of Memphis. It's a place called the
Crossroads. There's 3 blue guitars there.
It's called the Crossroads. It's in Clarksdale, Mississippi,
about 75 miles South of Memphis, at the intersection of Hwy. 61
and Hwy. 49. And there was a black man that
played Blues music. He wanted to be a Blues player
so bad. His name was Robert Johnson.
And in the 1930s, they say it was the birth of the Blues
place. And some say it's a myth.
Some say it really happened. There was a man on this stage
when it was over there that played Blues music.
And he's been to that crossroads.
And he said there's actually been people that have a throw
quarters down. If they flip a certain way and
land a certain way, then then the exchange was made.
You sort traded your soul for the same for for you gave your
soul and sold your soul to Satan.
But nevertheless, whether it was myth or not, this young man went
on to be very successful in the Blues.
They later called it a song called the Crossroads that he
wrote that Eric Clapton recorded.
I'm not into Eric Clapton. I really don't know who he is.
But if you listen to him repent, he was singing a song about the
crossroads, right? But the devil makes deals this
frustrating guitarist he went on to play become famous, but yet
the myth that the story tells he sold his soul to Satan.
In Matthew chapter 4, we read of Satan trying to do the same
thing with Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 4.
We're going to he took him to he took Jesus on a ride and he
tried to get him after after Jesus was led up into the
wilderness and he'd been tempted by the devil.
It says, but I like what that says there, that the Spirit, the
spirit LED Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted.
The psalmist said lead be not into temptation, but deliver me
from evil, but yet here the Spirit of the Lord after Jesus
was weak and fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He led him to a place
to be tempted. Why was Jesus led to this place?
I've often thought about the Holy Spirit says so he could
pass the test. We're not to fail the
temptation. Jesus wanted to pass the test,
he was going to pass the test and now when the tempter came to
him and he said if you're the son of God to command these
stones to be turned into the bread and he said man shall not
what live by bread alone three times Satan come to him and
tempt him down to verse 7. He said it's written again, you
shall not tempt the Lord your God.
And if verse 8 he comes again, the devil took him on a high
exceedingly mountain. Get this, he tried to make a
deal with Jesus and he showed him all the kingdoms and he said
all these things I will give you if you'll just fall down and
worship me. Thinks he's clever.
What would you do? What would you do if he said But
you know, yet sometimes I think we do it unconsciously because
he's the author of confusion. Hello.
He comes in, he gets you confused about career.
You know, really all he's got to do is get you busy, because when
you get busy, you ain't gonna hear from God.
How you know, I've been busy in my life.
I didn't hear from God. And he's the author of
confusion. He's the author of coming into
your mind and confusing you. That's what he does.
But what would you say? Jesus said away Satan, Jesus
went back of one of the things that many people think aren't
important anymore. Think about what he went way
back there to what God give Moses on the mountain.
But, you know, today it's hard to find somebody.
My God, it's hard to find somebody that's just sitting
there reading their Bible. You know your God's able to
speak to you without Google. He's able to speak to you
without an iPhone. He can better speak to you
without it. But it's hard to find someone
today without a best seller over here reading it or reading your
reading your what? What's wrong with just reading
the Bible? It was good enough for Jesus.
Quit looking for the educated mind that hasn't lived it.
Find somebody that's lived it. Amen And and get and let them
witness to you. But he said away Satan.
But look what Jesus did the written word was good enough in
Jesus day to defeat Satan. An age-old truth that we all
know you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you
serve. That's what Jesus told Satan.
But yeah, we look for something that somebody else has come up
with to defeat him. Can I tell you the written word
of God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
It was good enough in Jesus day. It was good enough for Jesus.
He defeated him three times with it is written Amen.
So if you'll read what it is written, that tells me that you
can defeat any demon in hell. There's nothing that can rise
against you and he has to flee. What happened when he said I'm
serving my God? It says the devil left him.
He left him and then something happened.
Angels came and ministered to him.
Sometimes you just got to tell the enemy.
It's written. It's written.
Satan can't stand it away with you.
He said the devil left him. It was good enough for Jesus.
Why doesn't why won't it work for you and I?
Because many times we don't think it's an option.
We look everywhere, boy, I'm going through this and I'm
going, what did they do? What did they?
I don't care what they did. They're way different than me,
Amen. They're not going to look at
things like I look. They're not going to live life
like I look. I got to find what works for me.
And it's the written word of God, Amen.
It's not everything else. Well, pastor, why don't you
preach? Because God ain't told me to.
I'm going to preach what He tells me, and most time it's
going to knock you on the toes in the head.
It ain't my choice, it's His. But I begin to think what all so
many unconsciously are giving in exchange for their soul, maybe
not to where it's really evident Satan don't want it evident.
He don't want you to know what it what you're giving him.
He wants to sneak in and make you think it's done with joy and
peace and a preacher wrapped in a pretty suit and and telling
you how he wants to wrap it up to where you really swallow it.
But you want to strain out. As I said Wednesday night, we
want to we want to strain out the net and swallow the camel.
I had some folk do that here Wednesday night.
They strained out this little old bitty word that I pronounced
wrong. I called them out back there and
I pray they didn't miss the whole message because this is a
good I said let me tell you all something.
I don't claim to know how to pronounce all them more.
Well you got something all messed up.
I don't claim. But see, the things I was
talking about was was some kind of herbs.
It wasn't a niece. We learned that it wasn't a
nephew, was it Jared? It was a niece.
It was a substance. And they'd give it.
And Jesus called them a hypocrite.
I told them I said I ain't worried about that word.
Jesus called them hypocrites for giving it.
But what do we give in exchange? So he wants to wrap it up.
Maybe the words not really evident.
I spend more of my time trying to uncover things that ain't
evident in my life and something that that comes into my life
that that sneaks in. How about you?
But he's the author of confusion.
Tell the enemy I won't be confused by you, because Psalms
119 and 11 says that I have hidden my thy word in my heart,
lest I what sin against you. But many exchange the truth for
a lie. Many call evil good and they are
profiting, gaining things of the world while losing their own
soul. I'm thankful that I know the
truth today and I'm thankful that the truth has set me free.
And whom the sunsets free is free indeed.
Because you see church, here's the deal, Ready or not.
You ever remember playing hide and seek?
I, I get, I get back to that a lot with Swayze.
Ready or not, here I come. Ready or not, Jesus is coming.
Ready or not, He's on his way. Let's read the rest of this.
Why do we take up our cross? He says here, what does it
profit? As if we gain the whole world
lose their own soul. What shall a man give in
exchange for his soul? And in verse 27, here's the
kicker, it says for the Son of man ready or not will come in
glory of his Father with his angels and he will reward each
one boy. This throws out though dead dry
faith that we ain't got to do nothing.
It's not by my works. You just said he going to reward
you according to your works. I'll never forget the day I read
that. But it surely I say to you,
there are some standing here how who shall not taste death until
they see the Son of man coming in the Kingdom.
I've done teaching on that one time.
What does that mean? You know everybody that set the
everybody that was with Jesus on that day, they tasted death,
right? Wait a minute.
They didn't all not till they seen Jesus.
Who was it? Steven was there.
He didn't taste death till he seen Jesus coming in the clad
and taking him up to heaven. And John the Revelator didn't
taste death until he seen Jesus on the Isle of Patmos.
So see, you can't try hard to. I heard a preacher, A dignified
preacher preaching. Well, he didn't really mean hey,
I did. He said y'all ain't going to die
because I'm going to show myself the two of you before you die.
He don't miss nothing. He don't miss nothing, but He's
coming back in Luke chapter 12. Jesus is teaching some very deep
things here. Are you ready for this Luke
chapter 12? Let's get there.
And I'm going to wind this down once again as I always do, and
I'm aware of backup. Let's go to 8.
I got to get 8 Luke 12 and 8 also.
I say to you, whoever confesses me before men, him the Son of
Man also will confess before the angels of God, but he who denies
me before men will be denied before the angels and anyone who
speaks the word. I want you to get the deepness
of this teaching. That's what I'm trying to get,
the deepness of what Jesus is teaching right here.
He had already told them to beware of the hypocrisy and and
beware of the Laven, but he said anyone who speaks a word against
the Son of Man, it, it can be forgiven him.
Taking the Lord's name can be forgiven you is what he's saying
here. But to him who blasphemies
against the third member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, which
he sent back to this earth when he ascended and sat down at the
right hand of the Father. That's what the Holy Ghost is.
He said it will not be forgiven you.
Be careful. But yet today we have so many
preachers and I fear this form. They try, they try to guide the
Spirit. They try to teach the Holy
Spirit. You cannot teach the Holy Spirit
because He's something that was loosed up on this earth.
You can't guide it, you can't teach it.
All you can do is receive it and follow it.
Heavy Revi. But Jesus is teaching some very
deep things. He's teaching on what he was
about to leave on this earth because the salvation that they
was going to to receive when he left and when he died on the
cross, he told his disciples, he said this is going to forgive
you, but it's not going to sustain you to live a victorious
life. But he said when I sat down at
the right hand of the Father, I send the comforter of the Holy
Spirit back to this earth. He's going to bring you all
knowledge, all power. He's going to teach you of
things to come. Thank God.
So why don't we try to teach the Holy Spirit?
Just let it be loosed. But many scholars today try to
teach the Holy Spirit. No, it teaches and it guides us
but get the depth of what Jesus was teaching.
They had never heard of what He was saying.
Right here in verse 11, it says when they bring you to the
synagogues and the magistrates and the authorities, do not
worry about how or what you should answer or what you should
say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what
you ought to say. Who?
I can preach without notes. I promise the notes are for you.
I know it's going to keep me kind of where I can be guided a
little bit because when I get out of the anointing, I'm not
y'all may not can handle it, but think of the deepness of this.
Jesus was telling there's an hour coming you ain't going to
worry about. I never seen so many preachers
today where I said just get up and preach it.
If you run them off, God will send more.
Just I can't really preach. I hear this stuff.
I can't really preach what God has laid on my heart.
Well, then you ain't preaching, but get this.
Do you realize the importance of what Jesus said right here?
The Holy Spirit's coming and look at this.
This is so much like today. It's called the parable of the
rich young fool in your Bible in 12 and 13, it says then one from
the crowd, Jesus is teaching on the Holy Ghost, and it's no
different in the churches today. The Holy Ghost begin to move and
some people ain't got a clue. He can he I can just see him
rising up. Jesus is teaching on the Holy
Ghost. Y'all get that teacher?
Tell my brother to divide my inheritance.
What a stupid what a stupid question.
And Jesus said man who made me judge your arbitrator over you.
Jesus knew that he couldn't do nothing to this man right now.
Jesus, he, he could judge, he could be the arbitrator or he
could snap his fingers and all of his problems could be gone.
But he said he ain't denied himself.
He ain't took up his cross, but think of that, what he missed.
And he said to him, take heed, beware of covenants, for one's
life does not consist in the abundant talk, a preach right
there of the things he possesses that you can see.
But yet we drive ourselves crazy.
We drive ourselves. Can you believe that?
Such a spiritual boy, does that do something to y'all?
Such a spiritual something, a moment that was happening and
this guy's longing for the things of the world.
We're in the last hour, church, We're in the last hour.
I know you got to work. I know we got to do these
things. I do too.
But I don't have to let them have dominion over me, right?
This guy was longing for things of the world.
It had got a hold of his spirit. He didn't realize seeing we
don't either. He didn't realize that the the
Holy Spirit was right there. And if he would have grasped
what Jesus had at that moment in his life right there, you know
what? He would have never needed
inheritance. He would have never had to worry
about things because he would have had an Almighty God that
would have taken care of him, right?
But yet his eyes were on the wrong things.
He hadn't taken up his cross. You know that'd be people today
if Jesus walked out. Oh, could you pay this off?
Could you do that? Could you do that instead of
receiving the thing that makes all those other things not
matter? I told you I took a trip and I
ain't coming back. Take up your cross daily.
Well, what if it don't work?
Don't work. God go work it out somehow, some
way, when you begin to trust Him in the little things, he gonna
get control the big things. And when he gets control the big
things, get ready. Things can happen.
Could have took all this other stuff away.
He could have had him some grace that day.
He could have had him some peace that day.
He could have had him some truth that day.
But instead he walked away and probably didn't get the
inheritance. Probably not in a big old
argument with his brother, probably ended up in a lawsuit
if they had them. See, it's not always what's
given, but it's what's taken away.
It's not what given, but it's what's taken away.
But I tell you today, we need to be thankful for what's been
taken away, but it can't be taken away when we bind it.
Matthew 18 and 18 says whatever you bind on earth will be bound
in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will
be loosed in heaven. I want to read the rest of this
right here. Let's get no, let's back up.
Let's go to let's go to 1st. Let's go to Timothy.
Let's go to first Timothy chapter 6.
I am going to close. I know it's a pretty day.
He said it in Matthew. I mean the first Timothy chapter
6. I didn't give you a verse 10.
It says don't say money. It takes money, right?
Takes money, but the love of money is the root of all kinds
of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their
greediness and Pierce themselves.
Boy, this hit me right here. Pierce themselves with many
sorrows. With many sorrows.
Let's go on to that. 12 But he says, fight the good fight of
faith, lay hold of eternal life, to which you were also called,
and have confessed the good confession in the presence of
many witnesses. Let's just read a little more.
13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things
and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession,
14 that you keep this commandment without spot
blameless until the Lord Jesus Christ appearing.
I challenge you, look at what's been taken and look at what he's
added. Sometimes he adds, but sometimes
we need to be thankful for that which he's taken away.
And in verse 16 of Luke chapter 12 it it says the ground of a
certain rich man yielded plentiful.
And he thought within himself saying, what shall I do since I
have no room to store my crops? So he said, I will do this and I
will pull down my barns and I will build and I will gather and
I will store all my crops and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, you ever talk to your soul?
So you have many goods laid up for many years.
Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of
you. Then those then whose will those
things be which you have provided?
So it is he who lays up treasures for himself and is not
rich toward God. Can we read the rest of this?
Somebody needs this right here. Therefore I say to you, do not
worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body.
What would you put on it? Life is more than food, not for
some people. The body is more than clothing,
not for some people. Consider the Ravens, for they
neither sow nor reap as you stand to your feet, which have
neither storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them of how much more
valuable are you than birds? And I ask you this question,
which of you by wearing, which of you by wearing can add 1
cubic to his stature? I think about the old man and
the young boy, the story I shared with you often because
the old man didn't have a care in the world.
He knew that his God would sustain him, and he knew that
what he had lost by giving his life to Christ that he had began
to replace. I'll never forget when I said I
was going to strike out and preach the gospel and sell my
business. And it's like every month I look
out there something else. I had to be gone.
I had to get rid of it, but I was giving it up for God.
And I look back down second after the other day and I was
looking, I was like, you know what?
God just somehow replaced all that stuff and I didn't know he
was doing it because I took my eyes off the stuff and I placed
them on God. This is real, y'all.
What will a man give in exchange for a soul?
Sometimes it's not what you gain, but it's what you lose.
I come by to tell you if your God's for you, why do you worry?
How many worry? Y'all make me lie up here by
myself? How many worry?
It's like I heard old preacher say, when worry starts, faith
stops. And you know when you don't
worry it really aggravates some people.
When something bagging when something happens there's oh, I
I don't know, my wife puts me in some situations sometime.
My son-in-law, he's only been married two years.
I've been married 36. He gets all uptight about a
little old dust son, you might just let it go.
I said you finna learn a lot more than that.
Why? Because I've learned somehow God
going to take care of it. And if he don't it don't, don't
when let me stop. When a woman gets it on her
mind, just don't worry about it. Hey, man, pray God going to take
care of her God give her wisdom. Let's see, we worry about so
many things. Let go and let God.
Because if my God is for you, can you say that this morning?
Is he your God? If you're not serving him, guess
what? Is it your God?
Thanks for listening to the Cross Power Church podcast.
May you know that true hope, peace, and salvation can only be
found in Jesus. If you're near Campbell, TX, we
would love for you to join us in person.
You can find service times at crosspowerchurch.com.