In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of the young rich ruler from Matthew chapter 19. The young man approaches Jesus and asks what good thing he must do to obtain eternal life. Jesus tells him to obey the commandments, but the young man insists that he has already kept them. Jesus then challenges him to sell his possessions and give to the poor in order to have treasures in heaven. The young man becomes sad because he is unwilling to give up his wealth for eternal life. The preacher emphasizes the importance of surrendering our idols, whether they be money or ambitions, in order to follow Jesus and receive salvation.

This wasn't the message that I was planning to preach here today, but this is what I, it's not what I prepared or what I had prayed for, but I feel that it's what I must speak about right now. I'm going to talk about the young rich ruler, or the young rich man. Go to Matthew, chapter 19, from verse 16. Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? What do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied, there's only one who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. Which ones? the man inquired. Jesus replied, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and your mother, love your neighbor as yourself. All these I have kept, the young man said. What do I, what do I still lack? Jesus answered, if you want to be perfect, go sell your possession and give it to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, with men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Peter answered, we have left everything to follow you. What then will there be for us? Jesus said, I tell you the truth, as a renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left house or brothers or sisters or father and mother or children or field for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first. This is a passage that is not preached about often. When was the last time you heard a sermon about the rich young man? Have you ever heard one? You see, I want us to... One of the sad things that have happened in the church in people reading the Bible and understanding what the gospel means is that they have taken some passages from some of Paul's epistles, taken them out of context and framed from themselves an idea of what the gospel is and of what salvation is, which when you compare it to the teachings of Jesus, just doesn't fit. Pastor Ray and I were talking about this once over the phone and he was asking me now, if we're really to believe in this gospel that says Jesus just comes and he covers our sins and then we're free to go, do what we want, and this whole position of righteousness thing, if we look at it from the teachings of Jesus, it is not there. And then the question is, do we interpret the gospel? Do we interpret the Apostle Paul by the teachings of Jesus or do we interpret Jesus by the teachings of the Apostle Paul? Or do we just conclude that Jesus didn't understand his own gospel? Or like I've heard some people pretend, say that Jesus was still in the Old Testament, so he was preaching Old Testament stuff. That is not true. The Bible says that Jesus said that the law and the prophets lasted until John the Baptist. From then on it is the kingdom of God. Jesus preached the gospel. He did not preach the Old Testament and that is why he did not blame his disciples for not washing their hands when they were eating things in the field. If he was not, if he was living and teaching Old Testament stuff or Old Covenant stuff, he would have blamed his disciples for doing so or he would have been a lawbreaker. Jesus came and said, the Bible says, the law came through Moses by grace came through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the beginning of grace. And it begins with him right then and there. The disciples were saved. They were born again people. They had given their lives to Christ. They were children of God in the New Covenant. Some people say the New Covenant starts when the Holy Spirit comes down. I don't believe that. The Holy Spirit did not come to start the New Covenant. He came to empower the disciples to carry out the ministry of the gospel, to carry out the message of the New Covenant. It was not a matter of giving them spiritual life. It was not a matter of the Holy Spirit coming upon them for spiritual life. It was the Holy Spirit coming upon them for spiritual ministry. Now that's just to clear out those of you who might be theology savvy and like to discuss this kind of thing. Now, I personally don't care what theology says. I care what the Bible says. And I found the two to be very different. There is what theology says. And there is what the Bible says. There is what men's theology teaches. And also there is what the Bible says. And the two are not necessarily the same. I found that many people believe what they believe just because that's what they were told, that that's what Christians should believe. And because they're Christians, that's what they should believe. It's not that they read the Bible and tried to find out what does God really say. And many people, I'm afraid, will find themselves on judgment. They're shocked that they were preached the wrong things and they're going to hell. And they'll say, but Lord, this is what my pastor taught me. Now, it won't matter what your pastor taught you. It won't matter what your mommy and your daddy told you. It won't matter what the Bible said. And I want us to look, why am I saying all this? I want us to look at salvation on Jesus' terms. This young man came to Jesus and he wanted to be saved. I want you to hear what Jesus, the Savior and the Judge in Heaven, says to somebody who wants to be saved. This is not me speaking. This is Jesus speaking. And I will add that if I were to have more time today, I'm not going to preach for long, hopefully, today. I'm going to keep this short. But if you were to look, if I had time, I would show you that on the other side of eternity, after the cross, after the Holy Spirit has come down, in Revelation, when Jesus is preaching and writing to the church, he's teaching the same thing that he told this young man. Well, let's just get to it. The Bible said, Now a man came to Jesus and asked, What good things must I do to get eternal life? Now, in other Gospels, it is recorded as he asked him, What must I do simply to enter eternal life? What must I do to enter eternal life? This young man was young, obviously. If you look at Luke chapter 18, if you flip to Luke chapter 18, a certain ruler asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do to inherit eternal life? So the question was, what does a person do in order to inherit eternal life? How do we get saved? There is something, before I go into it, let me point this out to you, just because lots of people here are young. Being young is not enough. This young person understood that he was young, but he needed something. He needed something that youth could not offer him. I see so many people struggling to get youth. They are trying hard to be young people. They are trying hard to do the things that young people do. To wear the clothes that young people are supposed to wear. To sound like young people are supposed to sound. To get the look and the feel that young young person is supposed to have. They are trying to be the model young person according to the standards of the world. Now you can have all that, but there is still something that you will be missing and that you need. And that is to be saved. This person understood that he needed something that his youth could not give him. I was reading about a woman in Texas. She is 51 years old and she was feeling so old. She was feeling so old that she needed, she wanted to look young. And she was ready to go and pay thousands and thousands of dollars for plastic surgery so she can look younger. But in Texas where she lived and in the rest of the United States, she would not qualify for the surgery because she had diabetes or high blood pressure or something like that. And they may be afraid that her wound will not heal or something. Or ready for a heart condition. I don't remember. But one of those. And in her desperation, she heard that there is some clinic. You just cross the border down in Mexico. And they offer you the same service for much cheaper, but in a very ghetto hospital with ants running around. And there they offered her the surgery. And they had some ketchup bottle. They showed her pictures. A ketchup bottle and an old machine. It looked like a frat kitchen with some thingy there. And they did the surgery there for her. They cut out her arms that she felt were too flabby and took out the fat in her abdomen and things like that. And all sorts of things. They said that in the middle of the surgery, some fly was flying around and the nurse was trying to kill it. That sort of thing. Just so she can look young. How crazy. She came back and her wounds were sore and she got infections and all that sort of thing. You can get the youth. But it is something that you need beyond the looking good. A person who looks good is not complete. It is not enough. There is something else that they need. It is salvation through Jesus Christ. Not only was he young and did he have the life and the physical strength. He was rich. He was rich, the Bible says. Not many people are looking for wealth. Some here are working so hard. People say that in the rest of the world, the God is money. But at MIT, time is the God. That is not true. The reason why people are working so hard and are busy, it is because they hope to make money after. It is also that money is the God and they have understood, or mistakenly, somebody has told them that if you just do well and finish up with MIT, you have money. Well, let me tell you, first of all, that is not true. It is just not true. I know many people who have not had an MIT education and went and made a lot more money. I know people who have graduated from MIT with a degree in my field and had trouble finding a job. It is true. And let me also tell you, just so you know, America is heading towards an economic collapse. Many people don't want to hear it. Many people don't want to face it. But it is going to happen and there comes a day even your degree from MIT is not going to be of much use to you. But even if, that is not even my point, even if you do get the money and you do get the wealth, there is something that you will still need, salvation through Jesus Christ. You will need salvation through Jesus Christ that money cannot offer you. Here was a man, young and rich, running and going to Jesus. He knew that youth could not satisfy. He understood by now that money could not satisfy. Position and wealth and respect from the society could not help him. Now, the Bible says, Jesus told him, What do you ask about what is good? The only one who is good, there is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. Which one, the man inquired, which ones? Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your mother and your father. The first thing that Jesus told this young man, If you want to be saved, get your life right with respect to sin. This is Jesus the Savior speaking. Do you want to be saved? Get your life right with respect to sin. In one of the other gospels, the young man asked him, He asked him, which commandments must I obey? Jesus told him, you know the commandments. This is in Mark 10, 19. You know the commandments. You know the sins in your life. You know the sins that are in your life. The Bible says, get them out. He asked which one, and Jesus was very precise. He said, do not murder, and we know what Jesus says by murder, do not hate people in your heart, do not commit adultery, and that includes lusting, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your mother and your father. He was clear. He was not, this is Jesus speaking, the Savior and the Judge in heaven. Do you want to get saved? Deal with sin. Today, if this young man came running with his money to a church, and he quickly ran forward to the altar, and said, oh, I want to be saved, we would have told him, oh, quick, please pray this prayer with me. Pray, ask Jesus to come into your life, and He will save you and forgive you, and you will have been, quote-unquote, saved. And we would have made him, I don't know, a deacon, or an elder, or the youth minister, who would have gone around telling, bringing him in conferences, and in our Christian event, as a good speaker, saying how this rich and young person came to Christ. And I see that all over the place. They bring in this famous scientist who supposedly have gotten converted. To come and give their testimonies. When you look at it closely, you'll find two things lacking. One, it's not consistent with the Word of God. Two, it doesn't deal with sin. There is no sin in it anywhere. It's just that the person thought, hmm, hmm, maybe this, like, Jesus and gospel thing kind of makes sense, so I'm going to follow it. And the Christians who are around him say, oh, that sounds great. We've been praying for you for so long, now you want to become a Christian? Come quick, pray this prayer. And then they become saved, and they start writing books, and giving talks. But if you're spiritually sensitive, you know something in there is lacking. And what is lacking? It is lacking that they never were brought face to face with their sins. They were not told to repent or to deal with those things. A radical turning away from sin because of this. And this is why you now have, because of this lack of repentance, you now have people who say they're Christian, boys and girls that say they're Christian, they're walking around. And this other one guy, I will not name him, but if I were to name him, most of you know him, came to my prayer meeting that I used to, back in those days when I used to do all sorts of things here on this campus, leading a youth ministry, and he and his girlfriend getting together, she comes over and sleeps in his room. Oh, well, we don't have sex, we just sleep on the same bed. They're now converted and they're now going to heaven. I do not care what theology says. You can tell me that a gallon of Jesus' blood covers them, I do not care. They say, and they will get into the technical terms, and what exactly is fornication. Or they're walking around this girl under this boy's arm, in front of unbelievers with no shame. And then they go to church and they preach, and they're asking people to become Christians. It is because this gospel that Jesus preached has not been preached. Jesus preached that those who follow him should turn away from sin. He told the adulterous woman, go and sin less, amen? Okay. He told her to go and sin no more. He didn't say go and sin just some of the times. He said, go and don't sin most of the days. On the few days that you do sin, I'll understand. And if you read the readings of Paul carefully, you will also see the same. He said, let he who stole, steal less. Let he who stole, steal no more. He didn't say, let he who steals, reduce his stealing from ten times a year to a couple of times a year. Or let he who stole, know that he's going to keep on struggling with stealing until Jesus comes, which is what I hear all the time. The Bible says here, go and deal with sin. Which ones you know the commandments, you know your sin, I don't need to tell you. Sure, people make excuses for them, but they know in their hearts. Now, this young man said, Teacher, he declared, all these I have kept since I was a boy. How impressive. And Jesus did not argue with him. Jesus acknowledged. Now, interestingly, again just to make the point, Jesus obviously knew that this young man had kept these things all his life. Right? Did Jesus know that he had kept all these things all his life? Well, no, Jesus agrees. He had kept these things. He had not committed adultery, murder, committed adultery. He had not stolen. He had not given false testimony. He had not defrauded anyone. He had honored his mother and his father. From the terms of the Old Testament, at least Jesus is speaking to this person from what he knows. He is telling him the sins that you know in your life. And this man, all he knew was you do not commit adultery, you do not steal and all these things. And this man had not done them. He was a religious boy with a decent life that today most believers don't have. And that is proven statistically by research done by the Barna Institute and a whole bunch of others that have done research on Christian lifestyle versus those who don't claim to be believers. Now, Jesus knew that this young man had not committed these sins. Now, why did he ask him the question anyways? He asked him so that you and I will know what are his terms for salvation. He said this so that it will be recorded for you and I to read. Jesus said this so that we would know that this is the answer that he would give to somebody if somebody came to him and said, I want to be saved. He would tell him, you know the commandments. Obey them. Now, this young man said, all this I have kept. He was decently moral. But Jesus told him in Mark 10 verse 21. It's the same story. Jesus looked at him and loved him. Say Amen. Jesus looked at him and he did what? Loved him. Okay. Now, let me ask you this. Did the fact that Jesus loved him made Jesus not require him to repent as a condition for his getting saved? Did he still ask him, if you want to be saved, go get rid of sin? Yes. Did he say that all the while, while loving this young person? Yes. Now, there are some people who hope that the love of Jesus is a shortcut away from sin. That the love of God is somehow, I cannot understand it. I don't know how people read their Bibles and conclude that. They somehow have this idea that speaking against sin and the love of God just don't go together. They have this idea that God judging sin and people not being able to be saved if they refuse to repent of their sin is contradictory to the love of God. This is a loving Jesus telling this boy that you want to be saved? Yeah. Get rid of sin. He loved him. Now, let me tell you Jesus loves you more than you will ever be able to comprehend. And there are many people, we know that Jesus loves everyone. But this is one of the few people in the Bible that is specifically recorded that Jesus loved them. And he told him one thing you like. Go sell everything you have. Give to the poor. And you have treasures in heaven. Then come and follow me. Jesus asked this young man. Now, there are some people who have said that the one thing that this young man lacked was that he did not help the poor. I was sharing this in high school when someone said, no he didn't help the poor. No, there is nothing here that says that this young man didn't help the poor. Jesus wasn't asking him to go help the poor. He was asking him to sell everything and give all that to the poor. Now, there is a big difference between those two. You can help the poor without having to give everything that you have. And be left bankrupt with zero dollars remaining. The problem of this young man was not that he did not help the poor. I'm sure he helped the poor. Jesus was not trying to point out to the fact that he did not help the poor. He was getting at something else. If the problem was that the young man did not help the poor, Jesus would have told him, go and give some of your money to the poor. He would not have told him, go and become bankrupt. If helping the poor means becoming bankrupt and selling everything, Jesus would have required everyone that follows him to do exactly that. To go and sell everything that they have. And they would have no houses left and nothing else left. Now we know that is not the case. Jesus was getting at something else here. He knew that there was an idol in this man's life. And that idol was his money. Jesus knew that there was a place in this guy's heart. A first place, a throne in his heart. And one thing sits on that throne. And for this young man it was his money. It was his riches. He wanted God. He was sincere. He went to the right person, to Jesus. He asked the right question. That there was something in his heart that Jesus knew was competing with God. Jesus looked straight into the future. And he saw that if someday this young man has to choose between obeying God and keeping his money. There will be trouble. It will not be that he would... Jesus knew that he would not readily, immediately and gladly obey God at all cost. Even at the cost of his money. Therefore, Jesus knew that the only way for this young man to follow him. Was that he would get rid of his money. Having separated himself from it. He would have separated his heart from it. And he required this young man to give away everything and follow Jesus. Now, there is something on your heart today. You are rich. Your riches may not be in dollars. You might be rich in ambitions. You might have goals of making money. Let me tell you that you cannot follow Jesus. And keep that thing on your heart at the same time. You will have to surrender that thing to Jesus. So that you can say, you can look at the Lord in the face and say, Lord, if someday you tell me, put this away. Follow me. You will do it gladly. Or at least you will do it. Now, I am not preaching theory. Let me tell you from my own life. I had an idol in my life. My idols was my studies. In 6th grade, I sometime wake up at 5 before class of 4 to study. I read the book ahead of schedule. Do the problems. I was not a lazy student. My mother was a politician back at home and fighting against dictatorship. When we were forced to leave because of security reasons, and some of the friends that she had made here, some in the State Department, helped us get out of Congo and move over to the next city. We did not study for two years. That is why I have kind of been behind in my studies. I skipped 5th grade, so I was one year ahead. So, with two years of not studying, I ended up being one year behind. But during that time, I studied. I taught myself Algebra 1 and Algebra 2. I have never gone to an Algebra 1 or an Algebra 2 class. I learned computer programming and made myself better in it. I went home and for a brief period of time, just before we came around, my uncle had a very good math book published in Belgium. I took that thing and I read and I read and I learned and I learned. I was not a person who was lousy with my schoolwork. When it came to classes, I did the thing and I did them right. When I came here, though I was behind, I started 10th grade, but they put me in the pre-calculus class because I passed the Algebra 1 and 2 placement exam and the Geometry 1. But one thing the Lord had to deal with me was, Freddy, if I ask you to quit school today, will you do it? If I ask you to quit school today, will you do it? And the answer was not readily yes. It took some time, but someday I surrendered it. And now I tell you I don't care anymore. If the Lord said, give it up, go, like I've said before, take the diploma, turn the Charles River, I will. There was another idol in my life. It was my mother. And part of why the thing that made it hard, even to give up that other idol, was that, okay, Lord, if you ask me to quit school, what's my mom going to think and do? And the Lord made sure in my early walk with them that I was tested to see if I have to choose between following the Lord and obeying my mother, which one would I do? And there came a time when I did surrender that also. Let me tell you that I will probably not be here talking to you if those two things were not done. There is something in your life that sits on the throne of your life. It might be a girl. It might be a boy. It might be money. It might be ambition. It might be sexual immorality. It might be a sin. You cannot be saved and keep it. Jesus said, No man can love money and love God. No man can serve God and serve money at the same time. For those of you in Maryland, you remember what it's like saying this. He said, He listened to it today so that you don't say on judgment day that you were not told. You cannot love money and follow God, and you cannot love money and not go to hell. Now, this person had a choice. And the Bible says, At this the young man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. People make serious decisions. The guy looked at it. He said, Okay, eternal life, my money. Eternal life, my money. Eternal life, my money. He was sad. He told himself, I only wish if only I could keep my money and have eternal life at the same time. If only I could. His face fell because Jesus had just made a demand that he knew he was not willing to accept. And he wished deeply that he could keep his money, his idol, and also have eternal life. Now, sadly today a lot of irresponsible preachers have made many faces light up that should have fallen also. The Bible says, At this the young man's face fell. Many irresponsible preachers have told people, Yeah, you can keep your idols and keep Jesus at the same time. It is not possible on Jesus' terms for salvation. Now, am I preaching too hard? Am I preaching too hard? Or am I just retelling you what is written here? Let me ask you, Are you too wealthy to go to heaven? Are you too wealthy to go to heaven? Are you wealthy with what? What are you wealthy for? What are you wealthy with? Is it with money? Is it with ambitions? Is it that your wealth is the love of a particular sin? What is your wealth? See, this is basic Christianity. Listen, read all the old-timers. This will be the day-to-day gospel that they preached. I believe a lot of people will be shocked on Judgment Day, who went to church, thought they were Christians, but they were just living their regular American life, pursuing the American dream like anybody else. Their idols were never put out. Jesus never became Lord of their lives. Now, the Bible says he went away. Did Jesus love him still? Yes. Because he loved him, did he go after him after he started going away? Say, hey, hey, hey, come back here. Let's negotiate. Now, just give half of your money away. Now, will you be willing to follow me? See, this is a terrible thing. Ah, okay. You're going to become a Christian, but you're not going to believe all of the Bible. You're going to believe that there is evolution. Okay, okay, come back. We'll tell you that evolution is okay, so you can believe in Jesus. Lowering the standards so everybody can get in. Because of this, I agree with Pastor Devil, where Christian and others, that more people are going to hell through our churches than through any bars and nightclubs. Because we've deceived millions and millions of people. 80% of Americans believe they're going to heaven by surveys. Now, let me tell you that this message put a trembling in my own heart, because I have to look in my own heart. What is it that I am unwilling to surrender to Jesus? What is it that I am unwilling to surrender to Jesus? Now, in speaking this, Jesus told these people, Children, how hard is it to enter the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And again, your riches cannot just be money. The disciples were even more amazed at it, and said to each other, Who then can be saved? Now listen, even as I'm preaching this, I am asking myself, But who can be saved? Lord, if this is the gospel, who can ever be saved? And Jesus said, With men it is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible. Listen closely. You may look at it and say, Lord, it's impossible. I can't give up this thing. But you can cry out to God, Lord, I want to give up this thing. Because you want to ask, My heart is holding on to it, but I want to give it up. And you can plead with God, and the Holy Spirit will help you lay that thing down. And as I, as a preacher, I'm thinking of this message, saying, Lord, who can ever accept this message? In this age, who can ever accept this? It is impossible for anyone to accept it if we preach it in the power of the flesh. But it is possible, if we pray and preach it in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now I hope that you sense that anointing this afternoon, as I'm speaking this to you. I hope the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, and that this has not just been human words coming to you. The problem is that many Christians now have been trying to do the work of God in the power of the flesh. That's why they can't preach this. They have to lower the thing and say, Ah, you want evolution? Yeah, we'll put it in the Bible for you. You want to commit fornication sometime? Oh yeah, we'll tell you that kissing and touching and doing all these other things is okay. It's just that, you know, don't just do the real thing, and you'll be alright. Oh, you want to keep it? Oh yeah, we'll tell you that Jesus' blood allows you to go happily and not live under condemnation. It's because we have concluded that it's impossible to preach the real Bible and have anyone believe in it. Now let me end by saying this one thing. God is immensely rich. God is immensely rich. There's nothing that you actually give to Him. Let me tell you that you belong to Him. The atoms that make up your body, the electrons that make up your body, belong to Him. Your very body is borrowed from God's wealth. There is nothing that you can give to God. He owns everything, in Heaven and on Earth. He is fabulously rich. He is indescribably rich. He is immeasurably rich. He is indescribably rich. It is only God who can give something to you. You can't give anything to God. You can only say, Lord, here is this thing that you gave to me. Now I surrender it back to you. And I will not claim any ownership over it. And you are free to ask me to use it or not to use it, or to do anything you want with it. Now, as you do that, as you surrender, God will give Himself to you. And when you have God, you have the real riches. Let me give you a simple example. If your sustenance and your life depends on your business, what will you do the way that your business goes out of business? What will you do the day the stock market crashes? Become a beggar? What will you do? If one day God asks you, surrender your job to me, and you did not, what of the day when your job is taken away from you, or you are fired? When the bubble bursted after the IT boom, and lots of people lost their money, my CEO was telling me how many have been working on a software that deals with the stock market, and he was telling me how a lot of companies were kicked out of the stock market and lost their thing there because they just did not have enough of the revenue. What will happen to you? And there are many of them who are mighty alums. But if you surrender your everything to Christ, then it is God who feeds you. There will not be a day when you will fail to feed you. In economic collapse or not, it will not matter. The person who surrenders to God makes the right choice. We don't really give anything to God. We only surrender to Him what He chose to entrust us with. And listen, Jesus loved this young man. It must have been that the best thing that Jesus could have done for this young man out of His love for him was to ask him to get rid of his money. If He had not asked him to do so, it would not have been an act of love towards him. It means that Jesus, who wanted the best for this young man, knew that the best for him was that he gets rid of his money. God always will ask you to do things because it is the best thing for you to do. And down the years, I will not have time to give you again examples from my own life. But every single time that the Lord asked me to do something, that seemed costly. That seemed not to make sense at the time. Now looking back, it was the best thing that I could ever have done. And if I were to go back, I would do it just like that. I would obey the Lord. We will end with that. I said that I would keep this short. Obviously, I don't believe preachers when they say that. Praise the Lord. Let's pray. If you have something that you need to surrender to the Lord, put it down and tell the Lord you are going to surrender it today. Our Father, you own us by creation and by redemption. We are twice owned by you. Father, we pray that we will not withhold anything from you. That sin will be dealt with. That there will be this surrender and then following you. Lord, I pray that all of us will come to salvation on Jesus' terms. Father, do this work that is impossible for human flesh to do. Do that work of bringing us to that point of surrender. Father, I pray that no one of us here would be found to have been too rich to follow you. Father, I pray that no one here would be found to have been too rich to follow you. May we surrender, O Lord, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. Father, I pray, O Lord, that you take away the lie from the enemy. That you do not care for us. Father, I pray that you will expose it as a lie and reveal the truth. That the best for us in time and eternity is found in surrendering to you. That the best for us in time and eternity is found in surrendering to you. We bless your holy name. Amen.