In this sermon, the preacher begins by praying for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of the listeners and help them understand the truth. He emphasizes the importance of studying the Word of God for oneself and not blindly accepting what others preach or teach. The preacher highlights the contrast between the luxury and materialism of modern society and the commitment to the Lord that characterized the early church. He then discusses four passages in the Bible where Jesus addresses those who call him "Lord, Lord" but do not do his will. The sermon concludes with a powerful story of a Chinese woman who was persecuted and ultimately killed for her faith in Jesus.

I want you to pray with me, first of all, that the Lord will help me. This is a big, big subject. It's not a new subject, but the Lord has given me a new emphasis and a new revelation on an old subject. And I want you to pray that God will help me because this has excited me so much spiritually. Our spiritual decisions are the most important decisions we ever make. It's not where we work. It's not what house we live in. It's not where we'll put our mutual funds. But it's our spiritual decisions of the things to do with God that are the most important decisions we make. This next year, we have a clean slate. This year has never happened before. And we're believing God that it will be spiritually a good year. Did you know it doesn't matter what happens in the natural realm as long as you're okay with God? If you're walking close to God, there's a divine principle that I have found true, and I know you have found true in your life. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. That's a promise. This subject is, I guess, could be controversial. It shouldn't be. But it's only controversial, I think, to people who aren't really willing to sell out to God. I was discipled by a street preacher in Louisville, Kentucky, and you've heard about him many, many times. He had the whole Bible memorized. He was the greatest soul winner I've ever known in my life. Never met anybody that won souls like he did. He lived, breathed, ate, slept, drank souls. And he used to tell me all the time, Randy, if there's anything to this, living for God, it's everything. Think about that. If there's anything to being a Christian, it's everything. If any of it's true, it's all true, right? If any of it's true, it's all true. When we say we're Christians in our generation, that doesn't mean what it used to mean. I was reading in this morning's paper, a certain new elected official is a homosexual. And she said, she found out you could be spiritual and a Christian and be a homosexual. And I'm sure she's very sincere. I'm sure she's as sincere as you can possibly humanly be. There's only one problem with that. It goes against God's word. Even if every state and every law is changed to allow homosexual marriages, it still will be against God's law. And see, the real problem is that it is against God's law. And my point is that God's law is the ultimate law. God's word is the ultimate source. If it doesn't come from God's word, it's not something to build your life on. And I want you to pray with me that the Lord will help me to make this clear as he has to me. Father, we come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I ask you, Lord, that you would open up the eyes of our understanding. Cover us with the blood of Jesus in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, have your way. Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would open up the bread of life to us, the perfect law of liberty. And let us see clearly, Holy Spirit, anoint our eyes, take the scales off our eyes, anoint our eyes with eye salve, so we could see the truth and believe the truth. In Jesus' name, everyone said, Amen. I want to go through. I have a bunch of slides today, and I want to go through these very quickly and go through several scriptures. If you will go with me through these, and you don't have to worry about writing all these down. I have a handout in the foyer, two handouts after church that I believe I have enough for every adult that you can take with you and study this on your own. I do challenge you to study this for yourself. Anything, anybody preaches or teaches, you should search the Word of God out. Do you believe that? The reason is that if you don't, people could just make stuff up. I could quote my favorite verse, every tub shall sit on its own bottom. That's not in the Bible. Cleanliness is next to godliness. One time I was visiting a lady in the hospital years ago, and I said, How you doing? And she said, Brother Randy, I'm just standing on my favorite scripture. God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her favorite verse wasn't in the Bible. And when it comes to the Word of God, the Bible said, Paul said, these Christians at Berea were more noble than those at Thessalonica, because they search the scriptures daily, seeing whether these things are so or not. You know, what's dangerous spiritually is, I think so. That sent a lot of people to hell. Number two is Dr. So-and-so said so. That sent a lot of people to hell. You better find out what did God say about it. And that's what the Word of God is. And you don't have to make some esoterotic or some twisted or some weird, mysterious. Interpretation, it usually means what it says. Mark Twain said, It's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that bother me. It's the parts I do understand. And when we get to the subject of Jesus Christ, he's one person we can't be mistaken about. If we make a mistake about who he is, we're in big trouble. A lot of people say he was a prophet. He's a good man, a great teacher. The New Age teaches he was one of the Christ. But the Bible said that he's the only way to the Father. Nobody can get saved. No man, no woman can go to heaven except through Jesus Christ. And if we make a mistake about who he is, we've made a mistake about the most important person that ever walked the face of this earth, the son of the living God. The first line I want to show you is a very, very well-known scripture. Romans 10, 9. I'm going to go through these very quick. You don't have to worry about writing them all down. I'm giving them to you and more. But I want you to stay with me through the word of God. The reason I'm saying all this is I want you to take God's word for this. Because this is one of the most important foundational subjects you will ever face in your life. The conflict in this universe is not over denominations. It's not over God. It's not over prayer. It's not over Christian schools. It's not even over the Bible. It's over who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And the conflict has been going on since he walked this earth. And it's still going on. It's Jesus Christ, Lord or not. That's what the battle is over. You can even say he's a good man. You can tack him onto your life as a helper. He'll make you a better homosexual. He'll make you a better businessman. He'll make you a better alcoholic. He'll make you a better drug addict. You can tack him on. But that's not who he is. And the Bible teaches that he's not just a man, but he is the son of the living God. And we have him on our hands. Brother Bader, you say this all the time. We have him on our hands. What are we going to do with him? And I want to challenge you in these next few minutes to open up your mind a little bit. Because as I have studied this, and the Lord showed me about three weeks ago, one fundamental thing. And I mentioned it last week. Here it is. The early church were the kind of Christians they were because of one thing. And that one thing is that they preached Jesus as Lord first. They didn't preach him as Savior first. They didn't go, OK, behind door number one is the Savior. Behind door number two is Dr. Jesus, the healer. Behind door number three is the helper who will help you. Behind door number four is the one who will help you with your loneliness. He'll be your companion. No, what they preached was behind every door was the Lord of glory, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, what difference does that make? It made all the difference in the world. The reason they were the kind of Christians they were. And the reason they had such fullness. And the reason they had such power. And this is what the Lord showed me and I'm going to try to show you in the Word of God. The secret of their power and their anointing wasn't their holiness. It wasn't their teaching on this or that doctrine or this or that thing. It was their commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. All of their power, all of their fullness, all of their strength came from their submission, surrender, subjection, and belief that Jesus Christ truly was Lord of all. And they preached in that way. Listen, today, I didn't hear this when I was growing up. I didn't hear this when I got saved. And if only somebody had told me how to start off right, what foundation to build everything in my Christian life on, I would have saved years and years of trouble and time. What they preached was that Jesus Christ is Lord. You either take Him as Lord or you don't take Him at all. We have preached in the last few decades, yes, you can come and make Him your Savior. I was down in Deep Ellum a while back witnessing, and I found out there's a church and a group of people down there teaching pre-discipleship. You don't tell them about Jesus at first. You just treat them nice. And you pre-disciple them. Because if you just started discipling them, that would offend them, and they would, if you mentioned sin at all, they would just get blown away and not ever get saved. Can you see Peter on the day of Pentecost, getting up on the steps of the temple, filled with the Holy Ghost, the Bible says. A few days ago, he had denied the Lord, cursed and swore that he didn't know Him. And then he had been filled with the Holy Spirit after he repented and was restored. Can you see him getting up on the steps and go, well, I don't want to offend anybody, but there's a certain person who was here in Jerusalem and he got crucified. And I won't mention his name because it might offend you. And I'm not going to tell you that you crucified him because that might hurt your feelings. He said, you with your wicked hands, you took and crucified the Lord of glory. You crucified. And then he said this powerful, powerful verse. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that this same Jesus whom you have crucified has been made Lord and Christ. And the Bible said they were cut to the heart and cried out, men and brethren, what shall we do? Repent, he said, and be baptized every one of you and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I want you to know that they didn't hear a watered down message. They didn't hear Christianity light. They didn't hear a sinner sensitive message. He got up and he said, look, you've killed the son of the living God. But there is hope because he's been made Lord and Christ. And they said, what shall we do? And he told them what to do. First thing, repent. I preached on that last Sunday night. Jesus' first words were repent. Peter's first words on the day of Pentecost, repent, tell God you're sorry, get down and let your heart get broken. Look what happened. Three thousand of them got saved. I want to tell you that those three thousand are worth the 50, 60 million Americans that say they're born again, that barely go to church, that never witnessed for Jesus Christ, that don't confess him as Lord in the public arena. Listen, our Plano School District passed an edict or made a law that you couldn't call it a Christmas party. It had to be a winter party. And did you know the federal attorney general sued, our own government sued the school district and said, listen, you can call it a Christmas party. And if you don't let the kids do it, you're in big trouble. Our own government did that. You see, I could go through town and state and town and state because they're after Jesus Christ. They're not going to try to outlaw anything but him because he is what the conflict is over. And not just that he came and lived in this world, not just that he was a good man, a good teacher and a prophet, but that he truly is Lord of everything in this universe. And they preached it. Look, that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. I found over 12 translations that said this one. I was reading Tyndale's translation last night. I like his, I don't know if you know this, but the King James is 90%, almost word for word, Tyndale. He was one of the greatest Greek geniuses that ever lived at translating from the Greeks. His translation, it's old English, but it's powerful. He put it like this, that if you confess with your mouth, or he put knowledge, if you knowledge with your mouth, that means acknowledge with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord. You shall be saved. Now we preach delayed discipleship. You let him come in as savior and sooner or later, maybe when you feel like it, he can be Lord. That's called delayed discipleship. I want you to know they never, do you understand what I'm saying? This is their big secret. This is why they were so powerful. They didn't preach them as savior first. Yes, they preached them as savior. Yes, they preached them as deliverer. But first you had something else to decide. Who will your Lord be? You will have a Lord. It'll either be you, the devil, somebody else or Jesus Christ. Did you know the Bible says three times? I didn't know it. I thought it just said once three times that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, not just a Lord, Lord of Lords, not just a King, but King of Kings. And Paul is saying, listen, you've got to acknowledge that you've got to acknowledge with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in your heart that God is raising from the dead and you will be saved. I'm going to go through these real fast. Look at the next one. Jesus said, this is in the bulletin, all authority. Anybody understand the word all? What does that mean? All. Say, you don't understand what, when I saw this, it really, you know what that means? Nobody else has any authority. Or he couldn't have it all right. Satan has no authority. We have no authority except through him. And he said all, King James says all power, but the word is authority. All, and it meant the power to do is what it meant. All authority is given to me in earth and nowhere else, in heaven and in earth. Then he said, because of this, therefore, go ye and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to do some of the things I've commanded you to do. Right? All. No, in our sophisticated age, we couldn't teach everything Jesus said. People won't like that. Right? It'll offend them. We're going to look at some of those things. Let's go to the next one. Because of this. Because of his humility and going to the cross. God has given him a name. That's about every name. That is the name of Jesus. Every tongue should confess. What? Jesus Christ is Lord. What's the battle over? The Lordship of Jesus Christ. What did they preach that made them so powerful? The Lordship of Jesus Christ. What did they preach that made the devil hate them so much? The Lordship of Jesus Christ. When the Christians would walk down the street, the Romans would say, Caesar is Lord. And the Christians would say, no, Jesus Christ is Lord. Knowing they were probably going to be killed for saying it. But they knew they could not back down from the fact that he was their Lord. And they had submitted. See, listen, you only get power from God to the degree that you submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. As you surrender, the bigger the surrender, the more strength you get. The bigger the submission, the more power you get. Because all authority is at the right hand of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Paul said, listen, there's people that don't agree with us. There's people that don't like it. Satan hates it. But you know what he said? God's given him a name that's above every name. That's the name of Jesus. Not just the Lord Jesus Christ. But that man that laid his will down also. That man that died a physical death. God can't die. But that man, Jesus, died physically. That man, that name Jesus, been given a name above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. That's Satan himself. Bill Clinton, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler. Every human being and every angelic being in this universe. They're going to bow their knee and they're going to scream out, Jesus Christ is Lord. Why? Because he is Lord. Let's go quickly. I've got to hurry. Thieler said, this is in the bulletin. I want you to know he's been made Lord and Christ. I want to share just something quickly here. The word Kyrios, that's used for Lord, is used 751 times in the New Testament. Most of those, probably, I guess, 98, 95% are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. That word doesn't mean just a savior or a helper or someone you add. It's not an add-on module or a plug-in. It means the supreme in authority or supremacy. It literally means controller. Go to the next one. This is Thayer's. He to whom a person or thing belongs about which he has the power of deciding, master or Lord. Used universally of the possessor and disposer of a thing, the owner. When the early church called him Kyrios, Lord. You know why even the Jews hated that so much? You're going to see in just a second. Because that is the word for God. Used in the Greek Septuagint. Every time it's used God in the Greek Septuagint, that's the Greek translation of the Old Testament. They use the word Kyrios. So when the early Christians were saying Jesus is Kyrios, they were saying that he's God, that he's Lord, that he is who he said he is. And they acknowledged that. You know what they were saying? He owns us. Does the Bible say you've been bought with a price? You're not your own. What was that price? The blood of Jesus Christ, his suffering, his agony. Listen, folks, you think you own yourself or maybe Jesus is in there somewhere. He owns you, lock, stock and barrel. He owns you. He owns your kids. He owns everything you own. It's all his to do with as he decides because he is the controller. He is the supreme and authority. And he's the one that makes the decisions, not you. You can't see the whole slide. I'm going to just tell you what. This is from Robertson's Word Pictures. I went back and found ancient authorities, dozens of them, on Romans 10, 9 and 10. Do you know how the Bible says, I don't know if you're familiar with that passage, but it's a famous soul-winning passage. But Paul said, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth. The word which we preach, and in thy heart. The word which we preach. What word? The word of faith, which we preach. What word of faith? Jesus is Lord. That's the context of this passage. Paul sets it up. He's saying, listen, the word is nigh you, even in your mouth and in your heart. What word? The word of faith, which we preach. Then he says, the word that is in thy mouth, Jesus is Lord. That's what the ancient commentators were bringing out. Listen, what is the word of faith? I've never heard this in my life until I studied it this week. The word of faith. We hear so much about the word of faith. What did Paul, what does the Bible say? The word of faith is, Jesus is Lord. What brings true faith? What brings the true presence of the Holy Spirit? It's the word of faith, which Paul preached, that Jesus is Lord. And when you believe that and you confess it, he goes on to say the Jews wouldn't say it because of the way it was used in the Septuagint about God. The Gentiles wouldn't say it because they applied it to the emperor. I told you Domatian called himself our Lord and God. Caligula had an image of himself erected in the holy of holies in Jerusalem, and made everybody worship him. The emperors called themselves God. The word kurios, it's 2962 in Strong's Incordance, was and is the touchstone of faith. What are these guys saying? What did the early church, what were they preaching? Listen, you don't have an option. Jesus Christ is not Luby's cafeteria, where you go through and pick out what you like and what you don't like. What you have on your hands here, Peter, was saying, and all these guys said, is you have the Lord of all glory. And the only decision you have, will you submit to that Lordship or not? If you won't now, you will later. But if you'll do it now, all authority can flow through you in heaven and in earth, because it's Jesus Christ that has all authority. That's not Washington, D.C., or the Supreme Court. Okay, I just want to mention these. They're in the handout. Jesus had four passages. I call them Lord, Lord scriptures. There were people, he said, he said to me, Lord, Lord. One passage, he said, why do you call me Lord, Lord and don't do the things that I say? They came to him and said, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We work powerful miracles in your name. He's going to say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you, because you didn't do the will of my Father. And then there's four of them. Go on, let's just go through these real quick. The virgins, five virgins that came back and the door was shut. The bridegroom had come, they beat on the door and they said, Lord, open to us. Lord, Lord, open to us. He said, I don't know you. I don't know who you are. I want to run through this real quick. I'm getting to one big point right at the end. These are just setting all this up. Okay, what was Paul, Timothy, Peter, John, James, and Jude's view of their relationship to Jesus Christ? This is a literal translation I have. It's called the literal translation. We see servant in King James. The word is not servant. It's the bond slave or a slave, literally a slave. Paul started off Romans, he said, Paul, a powerful anointed man of God. A slave of Jesus Christ. Listen, there has to be a master and that master has slaves. There's a Lord and that Lord has slaves. You know what Paul said? I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. I'm not half, I'm not getting into this halfway. I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. Look what Paul said in Philippians 1.1. Paul and Timothy, what? Slaves of Jesus Christ. Do you think maybe their theology was a little deeper than ours? Go to the next one. Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus. Go to the next one. James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's Jesus' brother, by the way. Next, Simon Peter, excuse me, go back one. Simon Peter, a slave, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Go to the next one. Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, a brother of James. Another one of Jesus' brothers. Go to the next one. A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him. This is John, to show to his slaves things which must occur quickly. He signifies, to show to who? His slaves. Guess who gets to see the revelation of Jesus Christ? His slaves. Guess who doesn't get to see the revelation of Jesus Christ? The ones who aren't slaves. And then he says that he signified by sending through his angel to his, what? Slave, John. Go to the next one. Toulos is the Greek word. It means a slave, bondman, man of servile condition. One who gives himself up wholly to another's will. Devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests. That's the word they're using for themselves in their ministry. We're slaves of Jesus Christ. You say, well, that's terrible. I don't want to be a slave of anybody. The greatest freedom you'll ever have in your life is to be a slave of Jesus Christ. These guys turned the world upside down. They're shadow-heeled people. They were so powerful, not because of their doctrine about this or that or their tensely held beliefs and fairy tales. They submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ and they had power with God. That's why they were so powerful. Go to the next one. Oh, that's scriptures and acts. They called themselves slaves. Go to the next one. Okay, I'm going to slow down real quick. Remember, that was a joke. Now, I know in our day and age, with our education, our sophistication, our money, our possessions, we can't be expected to obey this. It was just for them back there. Because in our day and age, this is impossible, right? Huh? You mean we could actually be submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and be his slaves and his disciples? Look at the terms. Number one, a supreme love for Jesus Christ. And you could preach a whole sermon, any of us could on this one point. Jesus told the church, you toiled, you worked hard, but I have one thing against you. You left your first love. Repent from where you've fallen and redo the works. Now, great multitudes were going with him. He turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and doesn't hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life also, he can't be my disciple. Wait a minute. That's too extreme. He's not saying bear ill will to your loved ones. He is saying that the love for him has to be so great that everything else looks like hatred compared to it. That he is number one across the board. If your wife or husband says, I don't want to go to church and I don't want you to go. Well, I love you. See you later. I have a Lord that I have to obey. I don't want you praying. You're wrinkling your trousers. I have a Lord that I have to obey. But the last part is the worst part. Your own life. Also, that's the hardest one to love Jesus Christ more than your own life. If you don't do this and listen to me close by preaching this message, I'm condemning myself as an unprofitable servant. But it's still the word of God. And listen to this close. When you get saved. And from now on, every day I pray, I'm going to pray different. Every altar call is going to be different. Every sermon is going to be different. Because you're not coming up front to give Jesus a try. We're not living for the Lord to let him see what he can do. Or what we can get out of him. He's not a slot machine. He's not Santa Claus. He never does anything else for us. If we live as paupers, in rags, in a hole in the ground. He's still Lord of all creation. And our job is to find out what he wants us to do. And what his will is. And nothing more than that. Your own life also. This is the number one condition. A supreme love for him. What's our motive as Christians? We love Jesus Christ so much. I don't go out and win souls because I love souls. I go out and win souls because I love Jesus Christ so much. And when you come to the altar, you're not giving him a try. You're not just saying, I want to tack him on. You're submitting to the Lord of all glory. And you're submitting to his headship and his lordship. And then we grow in that. You understand what I'm saying? We didn't do it perfectly at first. We can't surrender all at once. But we grow in that surrender. We make, Joshua said, how long will you halt between two opinions? Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house. Listen, listen. When I was studying that this week, it hit me. He didn't just say for you. He said for me and my house. That's a promise from the word of God. That's a covenant promise in the Old Testament. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You can make that decision that I am making that decision. We will serve the Lord. We'll be his slaves. Next, number two, denial of self. Let me tell you, this doesn't mean self-denial. It doesn't mean going without food or pleasure. Or possessions. We're supposed to do that from time to time. To show the Lord how serious we are. But what it does mean is to renounce the Greek. Renounce yourself. You know what that means? Self has to abdicate the throne. And it means total commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone. Now that wouldn't mean us, would it? If anyone desires to come after me. Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Next one. A deliberate choosing of the cross. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. The cross is not your mother-in-law. The cross is not a physical infirmity. I've heard that all my life. It's not. Sinners can have physical infirmities. It's not mental anguish. Sinners can have mental anguish. I wrote this down. The cross is a path that is deliberately chosen. It is a path that, as far as the world is concerned, is a path of dishonor and reproach. The cross symbolizes the shame, the persecution, and the abuse which the world heaps upon the Son of God. To avoid the cross, conform to the world. Now, let's go to the next one. I gotta hurry and get done. A life spent following Jesus. What's the last one? And follow me. What kind of life did Jesus live? A life of self-denial. What's the big, big word in Jesus' life? Obedience. Obedience. Though he were a son, yet he learned obedience to the things that he suffered. Do you know what the bottom line is of Christianity? Is obedience. Are you obeying the Word of God? You say, well, I can't do it. I, I, I got problems. My flesh is, you know, I, I just. He commands obedience. And he gives you the strength to obey him. And as you follow him, what, where did he lead? At Calvary Road. What were the emblems of his life? A lamb and a dove. As you follow in his footsteps of surrender, submission, of Calvary, of obedience, of the fruit of the Spirit, suffering. His footsteps led to Calvary's cross. And we want to draw back if there's any suffering. That's why there's so much divorce nowadays. If it gets tough, I'll just bail out. You say, well, you know, I'm serving the Lord and I've lost everything I have. And I, I had a car wreck or this happened and I lost my job. I want you to know, Paul said, none of these things matter to me. None of these things matter to me. It's not who you have and who you don't have and what you have and what you don't have. If you, as long as you've got the Lord Jesus Christ in your life, you have everything. And he said to follow me. And you say, oh, that's terrible. I don't want a life of following him. That's the life of the greatest joy that you can ever know in this world. Because when you submit to his Lordship, you give up your dreams, your life, your plans, your ambitions. You have no will of your own anymore. Dead men can't vote. Dead men can't go anywhere. You're not your own anymore. You've been bought with a price and you've laid it all down for him. But now he has to take care of you. You're on his hands. You're his slave. And he's your Lord. And so from now on, he's going to tell you what to do and where he leads you. His almighty power will keep you. And wherever you go in his name, he'll be there right with you. I'll never leave you or forsake you, he said. Go to the next one. Affirm and love for all who belong to Christ. By this shall everyone know that you're my disciples. If you agree about the rapture. If you agree about the mark of the beast. Huh? If you love one another. What's this condition? I can follow Jesus, but I don't want to love everybody. Because some people aren't lovable. I am though. All my motives are pure and good. I never do anything wrong. Right? No, we got to love one another. If there's conflict. If I get into it with Rosa. We get in a big argument. Do we have to make it right? I better. I don't have to, but I better. Why? I can't be a Christian anymore. Because I have to love Rosa. I have to love Steve. I have to love everybody. I have to love Ryan. I have to love everybody. Right? Huh? Except one guy over there. Listen, Jesus said, it is by this that everyone will know that you're my disciples. Not Gandhi's disciples. Not Buddha's disciples. They'll know you're my disciples. If you love one another. And they wrote about the early church in history books. Boy, they're crazy. They're fanatics. But my how they love one another. That's a fact in history. That stood out to the secular world. Next. Faithful continuance or obedience in his word. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him. If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples. If you do what? You pick out the parts you like. Right? You pick out your favorite verse and your favorite promise. Jesus said, keep all of my commandments. This is this is a big one. Going to the next one. This is the most unpopular verse in the Bible. So likewise, whoever he be of you that forsakes not all that he has. He cannot be my disciple. If you hang on to anything. You can't be his disciple. You know, the most repeated phrase, as far as I can find the most repeated phrase by Jesus. If you try to hang on to your life, you'll lose. But if you let go of your life, you'll keep. As far as I can find out, he said that more than anything else that he said. It must have been important. He said it right after this first. I believe it is. You got to give up everything. Listen to me close. Not something. Everything. Your body, your soul, your mind, your money, your possessions, everything, everything. You have to forsake it all and follow him or you cannot be his disciple. You say, well, that's ridiculous. That's unreasonable. Not if he's Lord. Right. If he's who he said he was, that's not unreasonable because he really is Lord. Now let's look at the next one. This is my big point. This is what changed my life. This is what the Lord spoke to me three weeks ago. True Christianity is all out, 100% total commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Nothing less is true Christianity. Unconditional surrender, subjection, submission and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ is true Christianity. Now, we don't think it's strange that a soldier will give their lives for their country. We don't think it's strange that the Muslims, well, maybe you do, but they do it a lot, will blow themselves up to kill their enemy. But to expect Christians to have that kind of dedication, that kind of commitment is ridiculous, right? We ought to have 10 times the commitment they had. Why? Because we really do have the answer. We really do have the secret. We really do know who is who and what is what. And the answer is seated at the right hand of God in heavenly places. And as real Christians, this is what the Lord just spoke to me. And I want you to know my heart left within me. It excited me so much. I knew it was the Holy Spirit dealing with me. That due to the degree that I'm not committed, that's the degree that it brings misery in my life. If you want to be halfway, double-minded, half-hearted, you will be a miserable Christian. You'll drag through life. You'll go through the motions. You'll drag in the door to church. You'll drag out the door because there's one thing that Jesus is asking of you that you haven't given him yet. And that's everything you have and everything you are. And to the degree that you give it all up and commit to him, that's the degree of joy that you will have because that excitement that was in the early church will grip you in the bottom of your soul. And you'll walk out. You don't care if they kill you, throw you to the lions. You know something bigger than death. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of all glory. Listen, do you understand what I'm saying? This is the secret of excitement. The early church, what would... I would say one thing that characterized them that we're missing today. I don't mean this church, I mean America. We have such luxury living. We have to have a swimming pool, a second swimming pool, a fur sink, gasoline-powered turtleneck sweater, electric socks. If we don't have them, we'll just die. HDTV. It's no wonder we're not happy because possessions will never make you happy. They just hold you back. But if you realize to the degree that I'm committed to the Lord, that's the degree of my joy in life. You understand what I'm saying? That I don't worry about it anymore. I put it all in his hands and he's got to take care of me. I'm on his hands. Show the next slide. I got an email two weeks ago. And I have this as a handout you can take with you. 34-year-old mother of a little four-year-old boy in China. Her first name is Yang. Her and her mother had a prayer meeting one day. They decided to go downtown and pass out Bibles and gospel tracts. They were moved for the Lord's sake. As they were doing it, they got arrested and sentenced to 15 days in jail. They interrogated her all afternoon and all night. The next day, they told her family that she had died of natural causes at two o'clock in the afternoon. But when they got her body, I have more pictures. I can't show you. But when they got her body, she had been beaten from head to toe. And they heard the report that she was beaten all night long. And it's not in this report. I have several reports. She was also repeatedly raped. They beat her all night to try to get her to deny Jesus Christ and renounce Him. And she wouldn't do it. And they beat her to death. This happened in July or June of this year. And I was studying this and thinking, you know, we can't be expected to live like these disciples did. I know they turned the world upside down. But in our sophisticated modern age, we're just too busy to do this. Guess what, folks? There's true Christianity in America, but not enough of it. But in other countries, they don't even know our watered-down American gospel that preaches money instead of the lordship of Jesus Christ. This little girl loved Jesus more than she loved her own life. Do you understand that? She loved Jesus more than she loved her own life. She's gone to be with the Lord, left a little four-year-old boy. Her husband behind. But right now, she's in the presence of Jesus Christ. And she is with her Lord. But we live in America where we're not even sure if we're going to go to church on Sunday morning. If we're not tired, the late show didn't go too long, we'll get up and go. I want you to know, folks, there's still Christians in the world that Jesus is their Lord. He means more to them than their own lives. Paul said, these have hazarded their lives for the sake of the gospel. Paul had his head cut off. Peter was crucified upside down. All these guys except one died martyr's death. They all died on foreign soil. They all died without a penny to their name. And my point is, it was their commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Not their money. Not their education. Not their anointing that we call our anointing and our power. I heard a guy get on TV and say, just a minute, Lord. I'll be with you in a minute. I'm busy right now. No, it's not that kind of anointing that these guys died for. It was for the man at the right hand of God, the God man, the man in glory at the right hand of God with all authority and all power in heaven and earth. That's why Stephen looked up as he was being stoned and said, Lord Jesus, I receive, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Go through the book of Acts. They talked about the Lord and the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus Christ all the way through that book. They never knew the gospel that we preached. That he's just a savior or he's just this or he's just that. They preached him as Lord. And do you understand the kind of joy they had? This is my proof. They got beaten, as I said, I think Wednesday night. They got beaten for preaching Jesus. And they left there all downcast going, oh, it's just too hard, right? They walked out shouting, praise Jesus. Hallelujah. They were rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. It's the gospel that we preach that has messed us up. That Jesus is just one little thing that we need. He is everything and everything in this world to us. And he was to them. He is Lord of lords and king of kings. And as we commit to his lordship, he commits to us to that degree. Bow your heads with me, let's pray. As I was praying for this service, the Lord spoke to my heart. He's going to call some of you to a new surrender. It's not just salvation. It's obedience. It's commitment, consecration, dedication to who he really is. Lord of lords and king of kings. And it, the Holy Spirit calls us to submit to him with all our being. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, come on, pray with me. I know there's some people here that enemy has harassed. They have no joy. They're troubled constantly. Because they have not made up their mind once and for all to submit to your lordship. Lord, and I pray, Holy Spirit, you reveal to their hearts right now. Reveal to their hearts this life of joy, this life of excitement, this grand purpose in life, this meaning of life, this call to come follow you every footstep all the way. Father, would you reach out right now through the Holy Spirit and touch hearts, touch lives in the name of Jesus. Grip their heart with the reality of the truth, with the reality of the truth in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, amen and amen and amen. Would you stand with me? I want you Christians to be in prayer with me for the next few minutes. If you have to leave, if you have plans, God bless you. Step out quietly. If you can stay, please stay. Get moved by your Holy Spirit. The Lord is speaking to some hearts right now. I feel it. He's calling you to draw near to him so he can draw near to you. This is the word of God. I didn't make this up. God means what he says. This is the true path to joy, this excitement that you've been longing for. The thrill that you've been longing for is in Jesus Christ. But you cannot have it on your terms. You can only have it on his terms. And I urge you today. I've seen this for the last two and a half years in bits and pieces. And the Lord showed me the big picture. This is the foundation of Christianity, is who Jesus really is. You can't pick and choose. You have to accept him on his terms. And that's why they had so much power, such fullness, such life. This is why they had so much life, because Jesus was their Lord. That's why they could go in front of the lions. They could go to the arenas. They could go to the Roman amphitheaters and die because Jesus was their Lord. We don't have to do that today. But we have to follow him, like he said. I know not everybody's going to do it. But man, if we had 300 people submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we could turn the world upside down. If the Lord speak in your heart today, would you come up front and stand with me? Come now. Come on now. Don't wait. The Lord's dealing with your heart about this matter of Lordship. Come on up and stand with me. Don't wait. Step out by faith. Step out by faith. You say, why do I need to come up front? It's a step of faith. This altar is the place to surrender, sacrifice, dedication. It represents the cross. That's it. God bless you. Come on. I'm going to wait a moment. Come on up. You may say, I've been trying to be a Christian. It's just not working. This is the secret. This is the key. It's acknowledging and submitting to his Lordship. The touchstone of faith is the word in our mouth is Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the Lord. That's it, Saint. Wait on the Lord. Just wait on the Lord. He loves you so much. And he is your Lord. He'll take care of you. He'll fight the enemy for you. He'll push back the powers of darkness for you. He defeated hell for you. All he asks is everything. But it's a wonderful life, a life of joy, a thrill of excitement. Your heart will leap within you as he is your Lord. All pressure and worry ceases. Pressure vanishes. The load is lifted. You don't have to carry it anymore. He's your Lord. You're his slave. His right. Father, touch every heart and life. That's it. Reach out to him by faith. Reach out by faith. Say, Lord, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. I surrender to you. I submit to you. I give up my plans. I give up my dreams. I give up all my ambitions, my future. I put them in your hands, Lord of glory. Lord Jesus Christ. I give you my life, my all. I give you everything I am, everything I have. I handed it to you today. I surrender. I submit. I confess your Lordship. You are Lord of lords and king of kings. Lord, touch your people right now. Jesus. Lord Jesus, reach in their heart. Reach in their heart. Touch their will. Touch their will. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Touch their will. Melt their will. Conform it to your will.