In this sermon, the speaker tells a story about a man who found himself in a dangerous situation on a railroad bridge. The man held on tightly as a train passed inches above his fingers, but eventually his grip slipped and he fell six inches onto soft grass. The speaker uses this story to illustrate the foolishness of holding onto things that hinder us from receiving the blessings of God. He also references the story of the rich young ruler and the prodigal son to emphasize the importance of letting go of resistance and finding true purpose in life. The sermon encourages listeners to focus on what will last for eternity and to invite Jesus to be a part of their lives.

It is a blessing to be here. I have prayed and I know that many about this time that and I'm so glad that you've taken the time from your busy schedule to be here. I know every one of you have things to do but you have made this a priority and I believe with all my heart that God blesses those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. I'm praying that he will truly bless you in a big, big way. I want us to have prayer and then we're going to look in the book of James and look at some other scriptures but let's go to the Lord as we begin. Our Father, we come to you today as men of God who love you, who desire to please you and yet Lord, we look at ourselves and we know that when we would do good, evil is present with us. And we do that which we would not and we find then a law that is operating within us, the law of sin. But we know that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world and we pray that this week, this weekend that you would speak to our hearts. I pray God you'd use me as your servant. I'm just an earthen vessel but an earthen vessel can carry the glory of the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ within. I pray you'd be pleased to use me and use me in such a way that you would receive glory and honor. May this message and every message this weekend be bible-based, Christ-centered, spirit-empowered, heart-changing, soul-searching, convicting, life-changing. We know that we can see none of this accomplished apart from your power. So we ask you who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that work within us that you would do something powerful this weekend in every human heart and we'll praise you for it. In Christ's name, amen. Turn your bibles please to the book of James chapter 4 and I want to say to you as we begin that in my counseling and my ministry over the years if there's something that I have seen consistently it is that until and unless a man comes to the place in his life when he confronts his pride he confronts his will and he surrenders to God he will never experience the blessings of God. I've seen men come to me who are pastors and I'm thinking of one not terribly long ago who came to me for counseling angry at his wife and in an entire week of counseling he would not let his anger go. He went home and held on to his anger he made some other decisions but the one decision he needed to make he wouldn't make he went home lost his church lost his wife lost his children and then he called me wanting help. Every man in this room at some time or another in your life is going to come to a place of decision and until you make that decision until you yield at that decision you will never experience the blessings of God. Evidences of a hardened will are very clear in the scripture in fact I think it's very possible that a person can have a hardened will in spite of the best training in the world. He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy. Often reproved you can sit in church Sunday after Sunday under the best preaching in the world you can sit under the best counseling in the world you can listen to the wisest men of God in the world over and over and over and you can go home and you can still have a hardened heart and a hardened will and still be no closer to God than you were 10 years ago. You can have a hardened will and be active in Christian service. Many will say to me on that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then while I say unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity. You see it's possible to witness in Jesus name to do wonders in Jesus name to do works in Jesus name and still resist the spirit of God. It is possible to have a hardened will and not even know it. A man came to me on one occasion who had been involved in adultery and I told I asked him I said let me ask you this question how is it that you can justify adultery and trying to serve God at the same time and I've got to tell you that he didn't blink he didn't blush he didn't hesitate he instantly held up three fingers he said three things number one he said he said God is blessing my ministry. Can I say this to you fellas there's a whole lot of difference between God's blessing and success. If you don't get that right you won't get anything right in the work of God. You can have success without God's blessing you can have God's blessing without success sometimes they stand alone sometimes they stand together but what he's saying is well because God is blessing then I must be have merit with God and therefore I justified my sin. Number two he said when I have my trysts I go into a compartment of sin I open the door I walk in that door I shut the door behind me when it comes time for ministry I leave that compartment shut the door behind me go across the hall to a room called ministry open the door walk in shut the door behind me and I have ministry. I shut out the other this was before Clintonian compartmentalization but the third thing he said and the thing that that got my attention he said brother Benny he said I read the Bible every day and I get a blessing. Now what he's concluding is therefore because God is blessing and because I compartmentalize my sin and because I read my Bible and I have my devotions every day and get a blessing then this really isn't that bad a thing. I said well that's good I said I'm glad you're reading the Bible I want you to read something for me in fact I'd like you to turn to James chapter 1 and here in James chapter 1 the Bible says that a man can have a hardened will and not even know it. The man I'm referring to would give his testimony if he were standing here today he has stood with me and given his testimony a man who lived in adultery for 24 years and yet he had the blessing of God upon his life. Now in James chapter 1 I said please start reading for me in verse 21 and so I said read it out loud and he began to read wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls but be you doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. He hesitated there deceiving your own selves for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was and at that point this man in his 60s dropped his bible put his face in his hands and he began to sob uncontrollably and he began to wail the most pitiful sound I've ever heard in my life he said over and over I have been such a fool I have been such a fool. God brought him to his breaking point. God did it by the power of the word of God. You say that's pretty good counseling brother Bing. I didn't counsel anything that's the word of God which is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword which will pierce to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and of the joints and the marrow and it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. The problem is because we have a hardened will because our lust has misled us our sin has blinded us our pride has fooled us we can open the bible and we can look at it and we can deceive ourselves and not be hearers or doers of the word. Now James chapter 4 there are evidences of a person who has a hardened will who's never yielded who's never let go at some point in their life that point varies from man to man there's no question. Every one of you at some time if you have not if you have not you will have to face a decision of surrender. James chapter 4 from whence come wars and fightings among you whence come they not hence even of your lust that war in your members a person who has a hardened will has unresolved conflicts there's somebody they can't get along with maybe they're angry at their wife maybe they're angry at their preacher maybe they're angry at a brother or sister in Christ but there's an unresolved conflict it may be your father all the way back in your past but you've never resolved it that's an evidence that there is a point of resistance there's a hardened will there secondly verse 2 you lust and have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight and war yet you have not because you ask not a man with a hard will has an unsatisfied craving he can never get all he wants when he gets what he wants his appetite increases he lusts and he lusts and he lusts but he's never satisfied third a person with a hardened will has experiences unanswered prayers verse 3 he asked and received not because you ask him this that you may consume upon your lust you see a man with a hardened will has determined what he wants no matter what God wants and he wants he prays for what he wants just ask yourself and be very honest how many a point to an answered prayer i mean a absolutely verifiable supernatural heaven said God provided answer to prayer in the last year what answer to prayer have you had and then in verse 4 he says you adulterers and adulteresses know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is enemy of with God these are unscriptural alliances he's talking about here it might be with a woman it might be with an unsaved business associate it might be with a person you know that you should not be fellowshipping with but a person who has a hard will will not let go of those relationships he will not surrender because that means more to him than anything in the world and you my friend have become the enemy of God verse 5 do you think the scripture sayeth in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy a person with a hard will has an unholy envy he wants something he lusts for it that he does not have he's not content with the things that he has he's always wanting something more and be very frank with you in my counseling almost consistently now we have had to address immorality when we address immorality we find out that the root one of the roots of immorality is a lack of contentment you see the bible says to be ravished always with the wife of thy youth that does not say thy youthful wife you know it's a strange thing to me that a man will marry a girl for her lovely figure and then she will bear babies for him and lose a little bit of that figure and then the moment that that happens he turns away and he envies somebody else's body that's what pornography is all about pornography is to a man what the home shopping network is to a woman you watch the home shopping network and and what they'll tell you there is you know this is what you need now they'll put it under a light they'll turn it very slowly it has the whistles and bells and you don't have that on your toaster at home your toaster won't iron your clothes and cook your meals so they show this toaster and they turn it very slowly under the light and then they say and it's only 99.95 and and but you got to hurry because down here in the corner of the screen the numbers are ticking off there's 20 million of them but they just sold 5 million while they were talking and you better hurry and get it while you can but the devil's goal listen to me is always to make you discontent with what you have because lust because it begins with discontentment and discontentment dear friend goes directly to the will and and what he's saying here he's making it very clear is that there is a there can be a hardened will but god giveth more grace verse 6 wherefore he said god resisted the proud but give a grace unto the humble there is a unsatisfying enmity with god and it's always there of the person who has a hard will now let me say this i know people who have a hard will and aren't aware of it but i know people have a hard will and proud of it they call evil good and get good evil a man in counseling one time sat next to his wife and he unloaded on her and he's he just started calling her everything he could think of and everything but a criminal i had to stop him he sat back smugly with his arms folded and i said you're feeling pretty good about yourself right now aren't you he said yeah i'm honest i tell it like it is i said well the bible does say a fool speaketh his whole mind there is no merit in calling evil good and congratulating yourself because you've got a hardened will and you're making a matter of merit you're making a matter of pride look i'm an honest person i tell it like it is no that's not honesty that's insensitivity that's a lack of love that's a lack of concern but the man who has a hard will learns to call evil good now let me say that this has something you have to learn paul said i have learned and whatsoever state i am there with the deep content coming to the place of learning how to surrender the will is a thing that you have to learn it's not natural it's not something that has a life of its own it's something that has to be addressed and confronted with the word of god even jesus learned obedience by the things which he suffered that's an amazing stuff that jesus as a man learned obedience by the things which he suffered so many times i find that people feel like they have a right to not suffer so many times when i talk to people that seems like well you know god's being unfair god's god's abandoned me or god's being cruel to me the answer to that is look to jesus christ if jesus had to learn obedience by the things that he suffered maybe the suffering that god has appointed you dear friend is for the express purpose that you come to that point of surrendering you've been kicking at the pricks and you've been mad at god you don't understand and you've been you've been resisting the spirit of god and you've been pushing him off and you've been holding him off and you've been saying in your heart this isn't right this isn't fair i'm trying to live for god i'm trying to do the right thing now god why aren't you blessing me the fact is the greatest blessing you have may be the thing you're going through god knows what he's doing god has a plan god's work in his plan and god will accomplish his plan but it has to be learned i want us to go to matthew chapter 26 which is really what the message is about it's about our precious lord jesus christ he had to come to this point in his life even the lord jesus had to face his will even the lord jesus had to surrender his will that is recorded in one of the most poignant moving narratives ever penned by man found right here in the word of god one of the greatest stories and one of the greatest insights into the heart of our savior is in the garden of gethsemane we begin here in verse 36 then come of jesus with them unto a place called gethsemane and saith unto the disciples sit ye here while i go and pray yonder and he took with him peter and the two sons of zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy now notice it says he began to be sorrowful you know there's a beautiful picture here why did jesus come to the garden and take three of his disciples into the garden well if you look at verse 38 he said watch with me in verse 40 he said could you not watch with me let me tell you why he took those disciples there are other reasons but the reason he needed their prayers this was probably the most crucial hour of his life the hour of his decision but he began now notice he said the scripture says he began to be sorrowful and very heavy and mark says sore amazed he began to be that way then he said unto them following that my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death carry ye here and watch with me and he went a little further and he fell on his face and prayed saying oh my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as i will but as thou wilt and he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep now the bible says in the gospel of luke that they were sleeping for sorrow there's nothing that will make a man any tired or emotionally and any more drained physically than going into excess sorrow and for hours and days prior to this they have been prepared by the lord jesus that he was going to die and they knew in themselves that they were going to take a great loss here but they were asleep and he saith unto peter what could you not watch with me one hour watch and pray that you enter not into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak he went away again the second time and prayed saying oh my father if this cup may not pass away from me except i drink it thy will be done now he's gone from his first prayer if it be possible let this cup pass from me to his second prayer if this cup may not pass from me except i drink it thy will be done and he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were heaven he left them and went away again and prayed the third time saying the same words now at this point luke interjects these words and there appeared at this point an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him and being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and he sweat his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground then cometh he to his disciples and saith unto them sleep on now and take your rest behold the hours at hand and the son of man is betrayed in the hands of sinners rise let us be going behold he that is at hand doth betray us now here's my question to you and this is the focus of the next few minutes what was the cup he said if it be possible let this cup pass from me now our minds are really not expansive enough to grasp the significance of this but i do believe that god can shed a little light on what this means and i do believe that the essence of it was that jesus was struggling with surrendering something very precious to him now some people have suggested well his cup was his fear of physical suffering if it be possible that this cup passed from me and we know that his physical suffering was awesome it was awful it was probably the worst physical suffering that any man had ever gone through the romans had three types of capital punishment one was that if you killed a man one punishment of roman law is that you had to dig a grave your own grave and then it was lined with spears on the bottom pointing upward you were thrown into the grave you were impaled in midair on those spears and as you writhed and screamed in pain you were buried alive the second type of roman punishment was that if you killed a man they took his corpse and they tied it to your body chest to chest hip to hip knee to knee hand to hand face to face without eating without drinking you dragged that corpse around as you inhaled the corruption of that corpse and died an agonizing death looking into the eyes of the man but the worst form of roman execution so bad that even paul in the philippians chapter two says that jesus became obedient unto death even the death of the cross the worst form was the crucifixion we know historians have told us the awful agony that jesus went through he was whipped with a cat of nine tails until his ribs stared at him the crown of thorns was put on his head and beat down with a stick he was beat so badly about the face and his beard was plucked out by so many grasping hands that his visage was more marred than any human he did not look human this cute little picture of jesus hanging on the crucifix somewhere in a catholic church is absolutely wrong he doesn't have a neat little loin cloth he isn't he doesn't have a white skin he doesn't look unblemished he is bleeding and writhing in agony they nail him to a cross they hang and they drop that cross into the grave and all of his bones come out of joint this is pure unmitigated agony this is the worst thing a man could go through but i don't believe that was the cup i don't think his cup was social suffering he did suffer socially in fact one man wrote a book that was quite meaningful to me on this subject he said that our lord suffered socially our starting point here must be the recollection that christ loved his neighbor as himself not coldly and formally but warmly and affectionately and naturally wanted that love reciprocated it was not easy therefore to be isolated to be condemned by the religious establishment to be deemed an embarrassment by his family to have the multitude calling for his blood the treatment he received from his immediate disciples it was even more painful they were chosen precisely to be with him but yet in his humanist he needed their friendship but one betrayed him another denied him and all forsook him he died entirely bereft of support encouragement or appreciation knowing that those who were closest to him thought only that he was letting them down we did esteem him stricken smitten of god and afflicted we despised him he was absolutely isolated but i don't think that was his cup i don't think his cup was physical suffering i don't think it was social suffering i don't think it was emotional suffering in fact if you look at this passage of scripture and you look at the words that that god uses to describe the suffering of christ they're phenomenal the bible says in there in verse 37 he began to be sorrowful and very heavy and sore amazed uh mark tells us now this this word very heavy means that this was a complete consumption of sorrow depression and despair to the exclusion of every relieving thought it's one thing i think to have suffering with the hope that it will end it's one thing to have suffering with the hope it can be relieved it's one thing to have suffering knowing that there's the you know there's an option but there's no option for christ what he's going through here has no relief it is consuming him the word sore amazed means that he was astonished and surprised to the extreme of horror i mean this was something that was absolutely phenomenal in the and the life of the savior is it nothing to you lamentation writes all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger there's no sorrow like unto his sorrow there's no emotional struggling like he had he was exceeding sorrowful even unto death surrounded no loopholes no relief now think about this jesus said my soul is exceeding sorrowful he has come now within an inch of dying that's why an angel was dispatched from heaven to strengthen him and that's why the bible says that he got hurt his tears and his crying his prayer was hurt i believe his prayer was to give him life and give him give him strength to fulfill his will not just to escape the the cup but luke says he was in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground there is one record in history of a man who suffered so severely that sweat all that blood literally came through the pores of his skin but there's no record in history of any man suffering so internally with so tender a conscience and so sensitive a constitution that the struggle that he had inwardly with his surrender would force blood from the pores of his skin not in oozing but in great goblets of blood falling to the ground let me tell you something what jesus is facing is what any man faces who really comes to the wall of surrender the wall of surrender is not something that's made quickly easily logically the wall of surrender is not something that you face simply because you have an emotional stirring in your heart the wall of surrender is something you have to count the cost for the wall of surrender is something you have to experience the pain for but god brings every man to that point and you may have been coming to that wall and my god may be bringing you to this place today so that you can make that choice jesus made that choice but i don't think his emotional suffering was his cup down through history the cup has always meant different things but primarily in the scripture means judgment i'm going to tell you what i think the cup is i'm going to tell you the reasons i believe that is the cup you see in john chapter 17 jesus prayed john 17 is just before jesus goes into the garden that great high priesthood i saw an entire book over on the book table on prayer of christ and john 7 by the way can i say this that's the best book display i have ever seen on the inner man walking with god being filled with the spirit learning to pray on the essential things of the christian life every man in this room should go in that bookstore and get some of those books they will stir your soul they will feed your soul strengthen your spirit and somebody has put a lot of prayer in choosing the books that are over there so i go far and wide looking for books like that i'm just going to get one everything be done with it but the fact is the fact is that the cup that jesus was facing is revealed by what he really valued look at john chapter 17 for a minute and listen to the heart of the lord because here in this passage of scripture if you want to get to know somebody listen to him pray pray with them pray with them at length pray with them at depth and you'll and you'll get to know their hearts now here's what he prayed in verse 11 the last line he says that they may be watch this now as we are now please let that register in your heart god he said i want my disciples to be one with each other in the same way you and i are one with each other then in verse 21 that they all may be one as thou father art in me and i in thee that the world or that they also may be one in us in verse 22 that they may be one even as we are one now let me say to you that the thing that the lord jesus valued above all else was the fellowship with his father in all of history that fellowship has never been broken and in fact when it says in deuteronomy chapter 6 here oh israel the lord our lord is one lord one god that hebrew word means that there is a mystical spiritual meshing and merging of the personalities of father son and holy spirit so much so they are inseparable and where you see one you see the other two this is saying that israel has one god you can't separate the son from the father you can't separate the spirit from the son there is a oneness and interestingly enough husbands that's the same hebrew word used when it says for this call shall a man leave his father mother cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh it's interesting to me that god esteems the marriage relationship and the oneness and the spiritual intermeshings of a husband and wife in the same manner that he sees that bonding of father son and holy spirit it is something that is not to be broken it is something that cannot be broken it is something that must not be broken and yet when jesus comes to the cross this thing he values above all else is being threatened he enjoys he treasures he values the oneness with the father he expressed that value only moments before entering the garden and yet here's what he knows he knows that thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil and at the same time he knows that he god hath made him jesus to become sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made in the righteousness of god in him now look jesus is looking into this cup and when he looks under that cup there is something that horrifies him there is something that he dreads it's not physical suffering it's not emotional suffering it's not social suffering what he dreads the most is the loss of the thing he values the most and what does he value the most fellowship of the father but he knows that in a few minutes he's going to go to a cross and god is going to reach out with one gargantuan arm into history past and with the other arm into eternity future and god is going to take every sin of every sinner of every age and compress it and condense it and he's going to make him to be sin that's one thing to suffer because of sin it's another thing to suffer for sin but to suffer as it's a horrible thought for christ because he knows at that moment the thing he values most will be lost fellowship with his father i remind you if you go to the you know the as the land before her sure is his gun he opened not his mouth you want to know what's important to jesus on the cross listen to what he cries out about when does he cry out does he cry out when they whip him with the cat of nine tails does he say anything when they nail the spikes into his hands and his feet does he say anything when he when he's hanging on the cross and dropped into the earth when does he cry out there comes a moment in time that you know he's drinking the cup it's to his lips he's swallowing it and he says my god my god why is hell forsaken me the first time in history ladies and gentlemen the first time he ever called him anything but father because he can't call him because now he is the representative of sin and thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil and can't not look on iniquity and god turned his back on his son and that was the cup the thing he valued the most he drank for you and me please understand this but he also wants us to drink our cup i contend for every man in this room at some point in your life you're going to come to the wall you're going to look down in the cup and you're going to decide if you're going to drink it or not you're facing a choice and the choice you make this weekend could be a definitive moment of your life this is your hour decision this is your fork in the road this is no like thing i believe that that all the prayer that has gone into this meeting that there's not a single man among you who's here by accident or coincidence i believe god brought you here and god wants you to hear this message and god wants you to god wants to change your life but god knows you've got to yield you got to drink that cup that you have abhorred and been horrified by and rejected for so long how do you identify your cup what are the characteristics of a cup well i believe that a cup is something that if i can put it this way it's a governing value that control now if anything control the lord jesus it was his love for the father if anything control the lord jesus it was his enjoyment of the unity that he had with his father it was a ruling force of his life it was his governing value nothing separated him from the father nothing separated him from that glory i read a book some time ago by hyrum smith who's the founder of the franklin planner organization and he wrote a book called 10 secrets to time management or something like that and he tells a story on one of the seminars he was making a difference a distinction for people for time management and distinguishing between what is a value and what is a governing value this last presidential election we heard a lot about values well there's values and there are governing values and he brought a young lady on the platform a young mother and he had her stand over a few feet and he said now i'm gonna we're gonna pretend and this was before 9-11 you understand i'm going to pretend that i'm going to come to your house with a hundred foot i-beam and i'm going to put that i-beam squarely on the ground in front of your house and you're going to stand on one of the i-beam i'm going to stand on the other end of the i-beam and i'm going to tell you i'll give you 15 if you walk that i-beam will you walk she said sure he said now we're going to go to the world trade centers we're going to vote one end of the i-beam to one tower and bolt the other end to the other tower we're a thousand feet off the ground it's raining it's slippery there's a 40-foot sway factor and there's a strong wind blowing now you stand on that tower i'm standing on this tower and i'll say to you i'll give you 15 if you'll walk that i-beam will you walk she said no he said i'll give you a thousand no way he kept ranching to get up to a million still she wouldn't walk and then he said to her you have a baby don't you i'm standing on this tower and i'm holding your baby by its heels and i'm holding our baby in midair over the edge of this tower and i'm telling you if you don't walk this i-beam i'm going to block your baby will you walk the i-beam that mother broke down in tears and told him afterwards for the first time in my life you identified my governing value i'm not talking about values i'm not talking about things you like talk about things you like so much you desire so deeply you want so badly that it governs your life it might be a love for sports that draws you away from god it might be an addiction to tv that keeps you away from the word it might be some lustful perversion that keeps you from purity and holiness and sanctity it might be your desire for food that keeps you from discipline it could be any number of things but there's something dear friend that governs you and your cup is never drunk empty until you face it what is the governing value that controls you secondly a cup is a point of resistance which hinders you remember the rich young ruler in matthew chapter 19 that came to the lord and said what must i do to be saved to have eternal life and jesus said sell all that you have and to the poor and the bible records that he went away sorrowing because he had great riches in other words what jesus did i watch carefully he put his finger on the point of resistance of the rich young ruler that hindered him he went away sorrowing he didn't heal now in luke chapter 15 in the story of the prodigal son he had money too but he lost all his money then he lost his friends then he lost his wardrobe then he lost his self-respect as a jewish boy slopping hogs and now he comes to the very bottom of himself and the bible says he came to himself what's the difference in the rich young ruler and the prodigal son god put his finger on the point of resistance of both of them but one of them had time to go through deprivation and loss and suffering and sorrow and depression and discouragement and finally he came to himself but the cup is a point of resistance i want to be very careful where i don't want to suggest something that the bible doesn't suggest but jesus is obviously struggling here he's not denying god he's not refusing to yield but but there's a will struggle here and he has to face it and he has to drink it the cup may be a struggle which challenges you a lot of people have struggles i remember reading about at 9 11 about one girl christian girl had it we worked in an office at one of the buildings and every day she would witness to one of her friends in particular named cassie without without failure should witness and cassie's response was always the same i'm not ready to get on that bus yet i'm not ready to get on that bus yet every time she would witness to well 9 11 came to a miraculous series of events and spiritual intervention this girl and cassie got out of the building they lived above the floor where the plane hit but they got out of the building and when they got out of the building and everything fell apart they were absolutely surrounded by dust and smoke and ash and they found an abandoned bus they got on there for protection and while they're there not knowing what's happening thinking maybe the world is coming to an end thinking maybe we're under attack this christian girl says cassie this may be your last chance to be saved are you willing to trust christ and she got saved on the bus now let me tell you something god has a bus for everybody and it could be you keep saying well i'm not ready to get on that bus well maybe god's got the bus parked right outside your room dear buddy and it's time you got on board but it's a point it's a struggle which challenges us it is a struggle let's face it it's a struggle if you really want to be sanctified if you really if you really want to know what it is to to truly welcome the spirit to be filled with the spirit i'm going to tell you something it ain't instantaneous guys there's no pill to pop no button to push no lever to pull you're not going to come down here cry a few tears and walk out of here and every lust evaporated and every habit removed you're going to have to struggle you're going to have to climb you're going to have to conform to the image of christ that is not a quick process i remember reading about a prince in europe many years ago he had a bowed back now it wasn't a hunchback it was a bowed back he had a muscular deformity of some kind and he was really concerned about going into public because he almost had to bend over with his face to the ground everywhere he walked do everybody surprised one day a a wagon pulled up to the courtyard of the palace and deposited this huge block of white marble shortly thereafter a workman came began to chip away at that and before anyone could anyone knew it out of that white marble emerged a image it was the image of a man and as people look closely they realize this is the prince but the difference was it was the prince as he would appear if he were upright with perfect posture after all the dust was cleared the debris removed the prince was seen to come out of his his castle all bent over in his deformity he walked up to this statue of himself and he backed up to it he put his hands on the hips of that statue and then he strained to straighten up until his muscles cramped and perspiration ran down his face and after a few minutes he went back in the castle came out the next day and did the same thing and the next day he did it for days he did it for weeks he did it for months and then one day he backed up to the statue back of the head touched the back of the head shoulder blades touched the shoulder blades what had happened he had been conformed to his own image let me tell you what sanctification is it's walking up to the lovely lord jesus and all of his beauty and his glory and his grandeur and majesty it's taking your deformity up to him and it's by it's by dent of discipline it's by dent of commitment it's by dent of absolute determination that day by day hour by hour you conform every aspect of your life to the holiness of jesus christ that doesn't happen overnight but let me tell you what can happen overnight what can happen overnight is an absolute commitment what can happen overnight is a decision to drink the cup what can happen overnight is a desire to yield everything to god and i want to tell you something when you meet god there he meets you there what is your cup what is it that you're looking at when you're looking at cup what isn't this between you and god it may be a loss that threatens you i can't tell you how many times i have counseled people who struggle with giving up a wrong relationship with another person because it was a threat a cup is a is valuing personal pleasure over providential purpose it's having more desire for the pleasure you can derive than god's holy purpose for the world but let me also say that a cup is a ministry that eludes you you see when jesus was in the garden he had not yet gone to the cross his real ministry had not begun did not begin to the cross if he had not conquered the cup can you imagine the ramifications that have would have rippled down through time and eternity to this day and dear friend we wouldn't be here today we'd have no hope but because he drank of the cup his ministry came i don't know what god has for your life but i know this i meet an awful lot of men who have no purpose they have no calls they have no reason for living i saw a man one day and i asked him i i said what what do you do i'm asking what kind of work it is he told me and and i i i just pondered me and i said why he said to make money i said why uh to pay the bills i said why he said to keep a roof over my head i said why just stay out of the weather i said why he said to stay healthy i said why he said so i go to work and you know what what is your life it's even a vapor isn't it that appeared for a little time and vanished in the way and yet how many men cannot point to any purpose any cause any vision in their life other than going to work to make money to pay the bills to keep a roof over the head to stay healthy enough to go back to work what an empty life what difference is there in your life and an unsaved man living down the street they have the same goal what have you done with your life that'll last for eternity take the lord jesus by the hand say jesus come with me i want to show you i want to point with my finger to what i've done that will last for eternity don't point to your bank account don't point to your sports trophies don't point to your business deals don't point to your home and your car because all that will melt with a permanent heat the only thing hear me well the only thing that will last for eternity the only is a human soul the only labor you will ever give of your strength of your youth is labor that wins a human soul that builds a human soul and it has a part in it you know what you don't have that ministry and if you don't have that ministry it's because you never drunk of the cup because you wanted to avoid the pain you don't want to go to the cross the only way you're going to have a ministry is to drink of that but i want to say lastly that a cup is a surrender of a blessing there is no blessing like the other side of the cross but there's there's no crown before cross first comes the cup then comes the cross then comes the crown but you've got to drink the cup and then my challenge to you is like the lord jesus you won't go through what he went through because you're not capable of it you'll never go to the death you'll never experience the sorrow that he experienced but you can make the decision you made you can make the decision that your savior made and he drank the cup for you and you can drink it for somebody else i want to tell you it was a blessing i read some time back about a bum i'm sorry a homeless man no a bum he was walking down a railroad track happened to be in the state of iowa it was dark it was raining it was foggy walking down this railroad track and after a while he realized that there was nothing between the ties of this railroad he put his foot down this one of this empty air now he didn't know how long he'd been on this bridge he didn't know how high this bridge was he didn't know what was below the bridge whether it was a river a thousand feet down or a sharp jagged box but at that moment he heard something that struck a horror to his heart he heard the sound of the train engine a whistle and through the fog and the darkness ahead a light was diffused and the bridge began quiver now he didn't know how far back it was because he didn't know how long he'd been on that bridge he didn't know how far ahead it was because he hadn't been there yet he did the only thing he could do he dropped down between the railroad ties and he hung on and no sooner had he slipped down between those railroad ties and the train went inches over his fingers clickety clack clickety clack but he held on but it was a long train the bridge was shaking his fingers were getting numb his muscles were getting cramped and finally after a long enough period of time he watched with horror as his fingers slid off that tie and he fell six inches the softest grass the state of iowa has off and i want to tell you something you're just as foolish to hang on and hang on and hang on when underneath every other ice what can be possibly now greater than the blessings of god what is in your heart what do you need to be free what is God's hope for you get out of the bridge holy drives me