June 14, 2026 - The Gospel of Luke - Week 7 - Leave It All

Highland Christian Church - Asheville, NC

Communicator - Rob Dolman

Luke 5:1-11 - "They left everything and followed Jesus." Encountering Jesus means walking way from what once defined you… both the good and the bad.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome in everyone. My name is Jason and I'm one of the pastors of Highland Christian Church. On behalf of our team, I just want to say thanks for taking some time to journey with us through Scripture. Our hope is that these words would cause you to think carefully about this Jesus before claiming that you would choose to trust him in your day-to-day. And as always, if you're in the Asheville area, whether you live here or you're visiting, we'd love for you to come join us at the corner of Livingston and Depot Street in person at the Dr. Wesley Grant Senior Stop Sides Center. Our prayer is that God's words would equip you for every good work that He's prepared for you to do today.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

All right. All right. Well, good morning. My name is Rob. I'm one of the elders here at Highland Christian. And occasionally they let one of us get up here and speak. And last week when I was talking with um, you know, Jason, uh, he was like, the elders always go over time. And I not that he's timing it, Tim, you know, I mean, but I think he is. Uh, and so he was like, they always go longer because they think they need to say more. So we're gonna do stopwatch and we're gonna get it going. So hopefully we can do 25 minutes or less, um, and and we can get out of here. Now, uh, to complete the ultimate um, you know, piano recital vibe, my parents are here uh right there. Yep, yep, that's right. I'm not nervous anymore. This piano recital is gonna go, so let's light this candle. All right. So um, and this is my digital babysitter, so you know this will keep me like you know, somewhat on track. Uh so we are in week seven of a study of the Gospel of Luke uh called Kingdom of Outsiders. Uh and it's been a good one, uh, especially when Tim uh spoke, you know. Uh, but you know, I didn't time it, but I did actually look at the timestamp on yours, and it was longer uh than Jason's. Because what you had, you know, you had more uh to give. We're gonna say. That's amazing. All right. So um let's get right into it. Um and we can go to whichever slide you guys want to in the tech team. It's gonna be amazing today. It's gonna be like all this magic. Uh, my first time using whatever this thing is, Canva. And I tried to put the GIF on there. Let's go next slide. All right. That looks right. Um and so uh this is my first time using one of these things, and I wanted to put the GIF in there of the monkey like throwing the computer across the desk. If any of you know this GIF, has anybody ever seen this GIF? That's me. I wanted to put it up there so you guys could just see like actual footage of me prepping for this uh because I'm not a computer-y type person. All right, so some background info on Luke. He was a medical doctor, a missionary, an evangelist, a historian, a researcher, and writer of the third gospel. His account on Jesus' life and ministry emphasizes that he is the perfect Son of God and the Savior of all mankind. Um Luke wrote the book of Luke and the book of Acts. And right, so um, and let's go next slide. Uh, and because this is what we've learned so far. We're going recap because who doesn't love a good recap? Right, Lori? We're gonna go recap. All right, so uh week one, uh we looked at certainty in an uncertain world. Uh the fact that we can trust Jesus amidst all of the chaos, all of the change, all the wackiness that comes across the Wi-Fi foolishness, which is almost 100% untrue. Um uh we can trust Jesus in this uncertain world. Okay, week two, uh Rising Expectations. Uh and this was an interesting thing. The thing, I I actually listened to all the sermons, Tim. You know, not that I don't listen every Sunday and like take notes, but um I I listened to them and and it's interesting the things that pop out. In week two, uh, in rising expectations, uh, it was interesting to know that that Jade Jason pointed out that we don't make our way to God, he makes his way towards us, which is so comforting, especially if you're the type of person that doesn't want to screw up, wants to do things perfect, uh, or like know like what I have to do, one, two, three, four to do something. It's so awesome that God is actually coming towards us, you know, and He's He's actually, you know, uh making his way towards us. All right, week three, Tim, I realize you're you're really into this. Um, affirmed and tested. Uh that's where God, you know, God confirms that Jesus is the Son and uh the true Messiah. All right, week four, uh right message, wrong response, uh brought by Tim, um which I thought was the best. Um uh Jesus is the universal savior and he brings salvation to all people. All right, week five, silencer, we interfere with the enemy's plans whenever we obey Jesus. So if you're if you're the type of person that likes to kind of mess with people, we want to mess with Satan. That's the type of person we want to mess with, you know, diabolical, you know. So when uh you know we obey Jesus, you know, we interfere with the plans of Satan. All right, week six, uh sent for more. Um uh and this was last week. Uh, and how did we learn how how how do we keep from drifting away? Does anybody remember? You can read it up there if you want. I think. Did they change the slide? I'm nervous. It's like somebody's looking at me from behind. Um the way to the way to avoid drifting uh is uh to focus on Jesus. All right, and that's how we stay on course. Uh and then uh Jason gave descriptors descriptors of God's people, uh calling us salt, light, ambassadors, witnesses, messengers, peacemakers, and reconcilers. I couldn't say that last word for a long time. It was reconciliators, it was it was tough. All right. So let's go. Next next slide. Thank you. See, the tech team is amazing. They never get like, let's buy them some flowers, Tim, or some chocolates or something like that. All right. I'm watching the time here just to make sure. All right, let's read this. Uh if you actually have a Bible, let's open it up. I wanted like some sort of some sort of like um you know, setting on this little iPad comedy thing to where every time I like turned the scriptures, there was like a noise, you know, of pages turning. I don't know if you guys missed those like noises of pages turning. I was wanting that. All right. Well, let's look, let's look at the first uh three chapters or for three verses here of chapter five. All right. One day Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Great crowds pressed in on him uh to listen to the word of God. He noticed the two empty boats at the water's edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push out from the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there. All right, when I first read this, it reminded me of uh, you know, being crowded out by people. Is is anybody here like, you know, doesn't like to be crowded out by people, like your personal space? All right, we got one. All right, thank you. I think he's just being nice to me. Uh, you know, but uh uh hate being crowded out by people. Uh and uh in 1998, I traveled to Brazil for the first time, and we were in a town called Fortaleza. Um it's a beach town, it's near the equator, it's like a warm climate. And um I noticed before too long, the people would come and they would get like right here, like almost like they were gonna hug you, but then they just didn't. You know, like they were getting ready to go, but then they wouldn't. And then they would just stay there, and you're just kind of like, you know, I'm going like Scandinavian here, you know, like can we get like maybe five feet in between us, you know, or something like that. Um but uh, you know, I'm wondering if that's what Jesus was doing. He was like, he was like, I need my space. I'm gonna get in this boat. And they you know, they don't want to get wet, they don't want to get their sandals wet, so that like gave him a nice buffer. All right, let's go next slide, sweet uh tech team. Look at that. See, you guys are on it. They they keep saying, like, hurry it up. Okay. Um, so this is us in Brazil, uh, and this is like a much younger Rob. If if you notice, he's the only one not wearing the uniform, weirdly. Uh I didn't like the uniform. I thought it was weak. But um anyway, I have my skateboard. I have my skateboard, and just so you know, uh, you know, Brazil had like an amazing skateboard scene, and just just to my right here is one of the first uh female skateboarders, uh professional skateboarders, uh, and I was able to skateboard there with her in Brazil. So what we were doing is we were in the public schools, believe it or not, the mayor of Fort Teleza actually brought us down there to share the gospel in the public schools and actually do what is you know traditionally called like a decision time or altar call three times a day, and we had 20 teams. It was awesome. But the really cool part is I didn't have to wear my uniform, you know, and they still let me skateboard. Um, but and as a side note, this is probably gonna make it go over 25 minutes, but if you'll notice the guy on the way over here to the right at the bottom, you know, he's kind of like he's got that cool crouch. I called him the secret weapon. Um for some reason they let him on the dance team, but he did not have dance skills. Okay, I know that Angie can dance, but this guy could not dance. So we called him a secret weapon. I don't know. Anyway, uh let's go next slide. We gotta make up time. All right. Uh let's do Luke 5, 4 through 7. All right, when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Now go out where it is deeper and let down your nets to catch some fish. Master, Simon replied, We worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, I'll let down the nets again. And this time their nets were so full of fish that they began to tear. A shout for help brought their partners uh in the boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish on the verge of sinking. All right. I I definitely like a good joke, as you guys know, and I'm dying to do it, but I'm trying to stay babysit over here. But there's no way that somebody on that shore or one of those fishermen weren't trying to use Jesus as the ultimate fish finder. You know, these like little radar things that you put on a boat to find the fish. I know they were doing it. I know they were doing it, Corey. They wanted to use him as a fish finder. But um to me, this this begs the question. Uh, you know, these guys were tired, they were out all night, they were probably just over it, and they probably wanted to go to sleep. But here comes Jesus, you know, you know, son of God, and says, you know, why don't you go out there and fish again? Uh I don't know if you guys have ever been, you know, long-term, long, long time church goers, long time, you know, people involved in ministry. You guys know usually God wants you or calls you when you're the most tired, right? When you're the most over it, and you just are kind of like, I am completely done. So I definitely relate to Simon. He's just like, dude, we were out fishing all night. What do you, what do you think, you know, we aren't gonna, we're not gonna find some fish. But uh they did it, and he, you know, obviously God delivered in spades. So I've got a question for us, and you know, for myself and for you. Are you making yourself available to be used by God? It's something that I don't that you know, I don't think about on a day-by-day basis. I'm a churchgoer, I'm a taxpayer, you know, I keep my clothes clean, you know, all these sorts of things. You know, the last one, you know, I do my own laundry. You know, I don't it's not that I don't trust other people to do it, but it's kind of that way. But um so are we making ourselves available to be used by God? Like on our day-to-day. I know our schedules are insane, emails are coming in, texts, tick tocks. I know Jeremy, you're on TikTok 24-7. Um I'm still trying to figure out how to download it myself. Uh, I don't really want it. But um, you know, let's be thinking about that. Like, are we are we making ourselves available to be used by God? All right. I need like a tech guru just to click this little thing for me. All right. Let's go to next slide. Look at that. You guys are like, you guys should do this thing. All right. So um here's an example from my own life, you know, where I said yes to God. Uh and trust me, everything in me uh did not want to do it. I was tired, I was blown out from actually a ministry opportunity that I had been doing that was actually coming to a close, and I'll share about that. All right. In 2008, the economy crashed in America, as you know. Uh at that time I was running a skate minute skate park uh with a ministry inside of it, um, and it was not able to continue. It was clear that it was like going, God was blessing it, things were happening, and it was like stopping. Uh, and it was very clear. So uh Sopek and I um uh we met, you know, doing ministry. We'd done ministry our entire married life, so we didn't want to be lost, right? You know, you know how to feel how to feel close as a couple, and so it was natural for us to ask, you know, um, what does God have for us next? Like, where do you want us to go next? Uh for that for us that was like the most natural. Um and uh I did hear from the Lord what we were supposed to do, uh, and I didn't like it. Has anybody ever heard from the Lord and just didn't want it? They were like, no, yes, I hear you. I like I see her shaking her head, yes. Um and so uh the Lord had told me to move to Kansas City and work with uh with GX International, that ministry that I had been traveling with for years, uh, and gave kind of like a a pretty specific layout of what we were supposed to do. And I did not want to do it. I did not want to do it, John. I said, no, Kansas City is in the middle of the country, it's flyover country. I just stop right now before I say anything, you know, you know, on you know, on uh digital tape. Uh I I was not looking forward to it. Um I don't know if you guys have looked around outside. In in 45 minutes, you can be deep in the woods in a swimming hole that is like awesome. All right. And this is where I've I've grown up and always lived, but I, you know, I didn't want to go and uh just wasn't having it. But Sopek and I decided to to do it and we packed up everything except for the cat. Uh we left the cat here. I don't think we had a cat. Somehow there was a cat in the garage, though. Anyway, um we packed up everything uh and moved to Kansas City. Uh and here's the list, or like a short list of the things that happened, just because we said yes. Um GX International gained the leadership that they needed, and I learned how to sit through a meeting. All right, Jeremy, that's a joke. All right. Uh and SOPEC was able uh to help with the administration team uh and was you know mentoring several of the young ladies on the team. And just so you know, uh admin is probably the toughest part of any ministry, keeping everything going, and and they desperately needed that. She was able to plug into that. Um we found a church, we were able to connect quickly, and then they were able to connect us to the community. I don't know which of you in here are churchgoers, but we are churchgoers, and we desperately needed that, and God gave us that very quickly. And we were able to connect there, and they were also able to plug us into doing ministry uh there, which I take that as uh a blessing. I started a paint company with another one of the evangelists on the team, and it grew quickly and is still in business today. Um they'll do a good job at your house, okay? They'll paint it, they'll clean it up, you know. All the all the paint chips. You know, talk to me about 10% off. Anyway, um uh I was able to establish a skate park ministry at a local private skate park, and we saw many people come to Christ. Um, as a side note with that, the ministry that I was doing here, I actually had to take care of all the operating expenses and take care of all the employees, the little babies I was babysitting, um, and do all that stuff just to be able to do ministry. There, the skate park was taken care of by somebody else, and they provided a room for us to do it. It was amazing. All right, you know, so that you know, that was incredible. Um, and this was my favorite one. Uh I had a privilege of leading a Bible study for some of the most influential skateboarders in the Kansas City area. Um and I mean I don't know how much you guys know about the skateboarding scene in in Kansas City. I I'm feeling it out there. There's like a couple of you that are like, yes, Tim says zero. I get it. You know, Tim's he knows about the skateboarders around here, but not in Kansas City. But uh it's it's a it's a it's a subgroup, it's definitely small, um, but they're powerful. They definitely they definitely uh you know control a lot of what goes on in the downtown, the art, and and all these different things that go on. Uh and they I had like a huge group of them like right there, and we were all studying scripture together. It was like such a blessing to myself because I had to go to Kansas City, even though you know they got good food there, right? And maybe the Kansas City Chiefs, I don't know. Do we have any Kansas City Chiefs? Fans here? I know there's at least one, and they'll probably whoop here in a second. Uh I thought that would be fun to do. We'll see, we'll see how long it takes for them to eat. But anyway, Kansas City Chiefs. But right, there we go. Okay, thank you. Right? You let you you you you took the pressure off. All right. All right. Uh uh Sopek and I were able to lead several outreaches uh, you know, all over the place to you know to basically share Christ with people, and we saw tons of people come to Christ. I know that sounds like a quick sentence that I'm saying because I'm trying to get 25 minutes and under, but there were so many good things that God did just in that one line because we said yes. This is all because we said yes. Um and at the bottom, I was able to walk a good friend through one of the hardest times of his life. Um he was experiencing uh his marriage was breaking up, uh, and he had hung with it for like six years, and I was able to actually walk him through it right there. And I didn't even realize it was happening. It was all this stuff was, you know, you know how it is, God's like working this like epic, you know, story in our own lives, but we get so caught up in our day-to-day that we don't realize that God is like, He's blessing us here, he's working a miracle right here, he's changing things so that you can actually share the gospel over here. He's you know helping you get under 25 minutes in a in a in a you know a little thing here. Um but I don't I don't you know the thing I definitely want to stress is is that all of these things happened because we said yes um to what God was asking us to do. And I didn't want to do it, but He blessed us four fourfold of the the ministry that we were doing locally in Haywood County, uh because that's where we live, um, this was four X that four times uh what that was, and took the the overhead of that skate park off of us, which was like $3,200 a month. Are you kidding me? That's insane. I mean it's cheap now. Almost like, you know, I wish I had that, but anyway. All right, so next slide, let's go to the let's go to the pictures. This is the picture reel. Um, this is an actual picture of the Bible study that that I did at that skate park. Um and as another quick side note, I'm such a techie that I actually took a picture of a computer screen here with my phone because I couldn't get that photo to to like go to Canva. And so thank you. See, all the techies are like, this guy just needs to sign in. And I'm like, I ain't doing it, I'm not doing it. So I thought that'd be fun for the tech people. But um, I know you probably can't see it, but it's this guy like right here, uh, was actually a homeless guy that skateboarded and happened to wander in that day, had never heard the gospel in his life. Uh, and uh we were able to share it with him because of that. All right, let's just burn through these pictures here. All right, this is actual footage of me and Ken skateboarding. Uh Ken was receiving no help from me, right? See, this is exactly that's what I was going for. I was gonna put it put a picture of my dog just to make sure I could get people some crowd reaction. Anyway, that's a picture of Ken uh skating at the skate park that I had to shut down. All right, let's let's keep it rolling. We don't need to see that. That guy's he's done. That's me skateboarding. Uh in a on this was on tour. This is when I actually could do things. This no, this is proof that we were happier because we said yes. If you'll notice, Ken is much happier than if we would have said no. All right. Lydia, maybe not so sure. All right. Also, proof that I cannot uh send a photo without it flipping. Which is pretty rad. Like we just sent these, we just sent these today, but uh I guess that's me skating. That's in Brazil on outreach. Do we have any more? Did I send any more? All right. Wow. This is killer. Hopefully we did we cut the feed yet? Or like anyway, uh so w what I wanted to say about this family. Um uh this guy the the the small kid with the helmet on uh was actually he was headed towards the Olympics to be an Olympic skateboarder. Uh and he had uh the dad had a huge family, and I think he had seven kids and his and and uh for some reason him and his wife split up and he was in desperate need for us to minister to him, so we were able to minister to him because we said yes, Jeremy. All right. So even though that photo is like a skew, just know that you know God was not askew. All right, do we have any more photos or sideways? All right, yeah. See, uh, you know, I got lucky. You get a tech you get you get some tech luck occasionally. All right, so the kind of skateboard ministry that we were doing, uh, you want to go where the skateboarders are. This is a local uh skateboard ramp. I think this is in Colorado Springs, actually, Colorado. Uh and the owner right there uh is a Christian. Uh and all these kids just kind of came, they they skated his house like every Tuesday night, I think. Uh, and we were we were able to share the gospel. Um I think there was maybe like seven kids that came to Christ that night or so. Uh and then uh even one of those kids wanted to pray for for the owner who was like deaf in one ear on like one side, uh, and so he accepted Christ, but he was ready to do the miracles right then. Uh and so we were able to pray with him. Did I did I drop any other photos? Once again, uh proof that you're happier uh when you say yes to God. This is actually us on tour uh with GX International. Uh this is I think Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Um and uh yeah, Ken looks very happy there. All right, let's let's move on to the next slide. All right. Um so once again, I know I asked you already, Jeremy. Um are you gonna say yes when God asks you to do something? Um and let's look at 1 Corinthians 2.9. Um about that. I wish you could see what I'm seeing on my screen here. It's like that monkey like throwing the computer. Um when I came out here uh when when Angie was doing the children's moment to like prep, and I like opened the I opened up my lap my laptop or whatever this is, iPad, uh Canva actually shut down. And I had to like reboot it and do all that stuff. So I had all the fun, all the feels back there. I was backstage, like, you know, praying for a miracle, and uh God does provide, but it was just because my Wi-Fi turned off. All right, let's read uh 1 Corinthians 2.9. That is what the scriptures mean when they say, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, uh, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. Um so we go throughout life, we go to, you know, either go to college or go to trade school or go, you know, do whatever we're doing, um, and we start planning for the future. We start filling up our 401ks, we start filling up our you know, no one Ks, you know, if you're just like if you just spend like there's no tomorrow or whatever, Dave Ramsey wouldn't like that. But um the point is we make all these plans about our own lives. And we're just like, okay, you know, tomorrow I'm gonna go here and do this, the next day I'm gonna go here and do that, uh, I'm gonna graduate college and I'm gonna do XYZ. Um, I want a new career, so I'm gonna, you know, choose that and go do this. But the point is, is that you know, that can't even touch if we just ask God, what do you want for me? Because it says right here, and it's a promise, um, that nobody has ever conceived something as good as what God can do in our lives. If we would just give up. That's the thing. All we gotta do is just give up. Like, uh, I give up. I don't want to, I don't want to speak anymore. You know, like we'll let Ben close it out or whatever. You know, I'm not giving up, but um seems fun. But um, you know, so I say to you, are you gonna say yes when God asks you to do something? All right, let's go next slide, fellas. Oh, there's a TV up there. There's no way I can see that. That's like an eye chart that there's just no way. All right. When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, Oh Lord, please leave me. I'm such a sinful man, for he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were with uh the others with him. All right. Umce again, another question. Have you ever experienced the power of God in such a way that you were humbled completely? Has anybody ever experienced the power of God in such a way that you were humbled completely? You had no you had nowhere to go. I'm I'm make I'm like taking a list or whatever. Thank you. I I really appreciate that. All right. Um this is a proper response, but let's look at another uh scripture. Next slide, fellas, um, of somebody who experienced the power of God. It was in the year King Uzziah died that he that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Attending him uh were the mighty seraphim, each having wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. That's pretty insane. Let's just get that out of the way. Um and and they were calling out to each other, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord's heaven's armies. Or wait, holy, holy, holy is the Lord's heaven's armies. The whole earth is filled with this glory. Their voices shook the temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. Then I said, It is all over, I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the king, the Lord of heaven's arm of heaven's armies. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips and said, See, this coal has touched your lips, now your guilt is removed and your sin is forgiven. All right. So when Isaiah experienced the glory of the Lord, he said, It's all over. I am doomed. Like this is the proper response whenever we encounter the Lord. We're like on our face, you know, as low as as low as we can get. Um But what happened with Simon Peter? Like, what did he say? He said, Get away from me, Lord, because I'm a sinner. I have, you know, I've got I'm I'm not worthy basically to be around you. And then once again, here, um gotta be Buck Wilde like what he experienced there. You know, like you know, I mean you see some you see him coming with like the tongs, and you're like, I don't think, I don't think I need to have my mouth. Anyway, you're gonna do it anyway. Um But uh the presence of the presence of God exposes our sin. I mean it's just it's just what happens. Uh and we have to, you know, we're he calls us sheep for a reason because we have to be told. Like, if it's not so obvious in our own lives that we're falling all over it all over the place trying to do it ourselves, um, you know, we have to be told. So when God shows himself, when his presence comes, our our sin is exposed, you know, and um we feel unworthy. Uh and rightly so, because when we're put next to the holiness of God, there's no way. There's no way. There, I mean, it's like it's so it's actually so far apart from us at that point, we can't even we can't even fathom it. Uh it's basically unattainable. Um, but here's the rad part. Here is the cool part. Uh, and and Tim had shared this uh when he spoke about it. Um in week five, I want to say. Um uh if we have trusted in Jesus, if we know who he is, and if we believe uh that he is, you know, and and has done that work for us, he makes us clean. If we have done that, he makes us clean. We have nothing to worry about. He does all the work. Um and that it's so comforting to me because in a world where everything is performance, right? Like you're only as good as your last performance, right? And I hear you. You know, every time they come with those like you know, performance things at work, you're like, no, I don't want to do that. I think I'm sick today, you know. Um but uh this is the killer part. We don't have to do it. All we have to do is believe. And it's taken care of. And this is the mystery of of Christ. Um, but I love it because it doesn't it doesn't fall to me. You know, I don't have to be worried at all. Um and so um another thing uh that that is noteworthy is that Jesus' death and resurrection uh atoned not just for for the sins of good people or for the sins of the people that you know that that earned it. It's for everybody. It's quite literally for everybody. There's nobody left out, you know. I mean, obviously, we live in a world that talks about inclusion. That's not. We know that that's not it. Um, but this actually is. It's literally uh the power of God offered to anyone and everyone. Thank you, Jeremy. You're you're just like my it's just you're right there, dude. I need it. All right. Let's go. Let's go to the next slide. All right, uh, Luke 5, 10 through 11. Jesus replied to Simon, Don't be afraid, from now on you'll be fishing for people. That's weird. Um, and as soon as they landed, they they left everything to follow Jesus. All right. So what is Jesus asking the disciples to do? Um, what the heck does Jesus mean by fishing for people? I mean, sounds sounds gnarly, sounds like some sort of like, you know, horror thing, you know, or whatever. Like, I mean, uh, it could be. Uh, but what you know, what does he mean by that? Uh, you know. Um, and he's talking about the Great Commission, is exactly what he's talking about. And in case we don't know what that is, this next slide will tell us. We need to get a TV on that wall that's like as big as that wall, and then maybe I can use that TV. All right. All right, and then this is Mark 16, 15 through 16. And when he told them, go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, but anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. All right. Several things are clear here uh in this scripture. One thing is clear uh is that we're to go everywhere. We're not to leave anybody out. Everywhere uh is fair game. And we're supposed to go. Um one is to be left out. We're supposed to tell every single person that we encounter uh about Jesus. Um and also importantly, clear, is that if anybody refuses to believe, they will be condemned. It's not all roses, you know. But the cool part is we don't have to do any of the work uh of changing that person. All we have to do is convey the gospel as clearly as we possibly can. And then God does the work. All right. Let's go. Next slide, fellas. Yes. This is working perfectly. Although time is not working perfectly. All right. Jesus replied to Simon, Do not be afraid. From now on you'll be fishing for people. And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus. Was that the next one? We'll just call that a typo. All right, go on to the next next one. All right, and he said to them, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many, many times more uh in this time and into the age or in the age to come eternal life. All right. If we didn't think Jesus was getting insane before, this this sounds just great. I don't know if any of you are awake. I mean, I fall asleep too, you know, uh uh during sermons. Uh not Tim's. Tim is riveting, but anyways, uh um He is, actually. Um uh you should you should look at it. But um when we look at this, I mean Jesus is getting buckwild. I mean, what are the examples that he gives of what we're gonna leave? Or what you know what can be left? You can leave house. I'm not saying you should leave your wife, okay? So if you're thinking of doing that, it's not what Jesus is saying here. That's supposed to be funny and like a, you know, that's a risk. That was the risky one. We'll just let that one, we'll gloss over that one. Um, but uh what is he really saying here? Without getting into the weeds of of what he's what he's saying that that people would leave, what is being said? He's saying that no matter what you leave, you can't leave enough stuff that God won't give you ever more than what you know, and um again, in the example uh that I gave in my own life that I kind of forgot about for a while, he for X'd the time or the actual things that we were accomplishing, that Sopek and I were accomplishing in our lives just because we said yes. So uh I'm standing here to say that it is actually true. So let's for X the amount of people that are gonna be you know handing out the convoy of hope. That was a plug. I don't know where that one came from. Gosh, holy spirit, that had to be. All right, because I never I can't remember anything. I'm still waiting for a shout-out from the Kansas City Chiefs, but we'll we'll we'll we'll wait patiently. All right, so um all right, so basically I'm asking you today, what are you gonna leave behind to follow Jesus? What have you left behind? Um these are these are this is a hard one for me for sure as well. What do you need to leave behind? What are the things that you need to leave behind you know to follow Jesus? To to hear his words and then do it without saying no, hold on, let me just get this like microphone and you know, hold on, let me, you know, bury this microphone or whatever it is, I don't know, I'm like really hacking it right now. Uh what it what is it that you need to leave behind to follow Jesus? And if you're like me, something is coming to mind right now, maybe several things. Um but uh and Ben, you guys can come. I I had that in my notes, and I just glossed right over it. Uh dang it, Jeremy. I'm gonna have to have you like right here now. Just like I won't do the Brazil thing to you, I'll keep like that. You know, I've heard of South Brazil is a little more European, so they give anyway. Yeah, well, I mean, it's fine. This is some travel, trivia. Um, but once again, uh, you know, what is it that you need to leave behind? Um and you know, uh the rad part is that God is gonna, I I can assure you that God is going to meet you and exceed anything that you have planned for your life, or that I have planned for my life. He is gonna meet and exceed that. Um so um we're gonna have uh if if I could have Tim and Angie kind of like uh over here uh to pray with people, and then uh I'm gonna be coming down to pray with people. Uh hopefully Sopek will come and like pray uh with me as well, and then Sherry also, if you could come down. Um if you're ready to leave everything uh behind to follow Jesus or to listen to what he asks you to do. Uh I'm just inviting you to come down and pray. Uh you know, we'll pray with you. Also, I think they're here. Yeah, these little spongy mats right here. See how on the edge I am right now? I mean, that's why I need the babysitter, okay? This is, you know, otherwise I'll get off. But anyway, the mats are there. You can come down if you would like to just pray alone. That's that's uh uh good as well. Um but don't miss the opportunity. If you're thinking, you know, when I asked you the question, what do I need to believe, what do I need to leave behind? If you have something in mind, come forward and let's let us pray with you. Um because you know the thing on the other side that God has for you is epically way more awesome uh than where you're going right now. So um uh as you feel led um and as as the band um plays, just come. Let us pray for you.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

We just wanted to say thank you for listening to the Highland Christian Church podcast today. And if you ever want to connect with us, send prayer requests, ask questions, or for any other reason, you can visit our website, www.highlandchristian.com, or you can send us an email at info at highlandchristian.com. God bless you guys.