← ArchiveLife-Money-JoySunday, September 11, 2016DateSeptember 11, 2016Speaker—Text—Passages in this sermonLuke 14:55John 817:24TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Good morning. It's good to be here at Bethel. I've known Brad for just a few months. I guess we met April sometime at the student pastor advisor team with Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association where I get to serve now. And it's an honor to stand in front of a bunch of people that I've never met before. Some of the students I've seen before met. But just real quick, who is TJ? Let me just tell you very quickly a story that I tell everywhere I go. It doesn't matter if I've preached there once or 15 times. I tell this story every0:29single time because A, it gives us some common ground, and B, I just feel like it's important to see where I'm coming from so that we can connect on a more personal level. April of 1987 was the Vietnam Memorial Dedication in Little Rock, Arkansas. And my dad was in the military. He was a master sergeant, and he commanded some guys. And his job after the dedication was over, which was late at night. I'm not real sure what time it was, but it was dark. And as a six-year-old0:57kid at that point, for me, it could have been two o'clock in the morning when it was seven. I'm not real sure, to be honest. But my dad offered for me to ride in the truck with him. Well, I wasn't supposed to, but I was like, my dad's Rambo. He's in the military. Let me get in the truck with him. It's an 18-wheeler called a low boy. It was the largest 18-wheeler that the military had at that point. This thing was massive. But you get up in the cab of the truck, there are no lights, there are no seatbelts, there's no radio, the windows rolled down, but they really don't roll1:27up too well. And it was loud. I mean, loud. So if we wanted to talk, it was pretty much impossible. I remember, because while we were going down Interstate 630 in Little Rock, Arkansas to head back to Jacksonville, my door flew open, and I flew out at 55 miles an hour. And my dad, because the truck was so loud, had no idea that I was out of the truck. I landed on the shoulder. I'm not real sure if it was the pavement or the grass. All I know is I ended up on the side1:56of the road in the grass with a barely a scraped elbow and barely a scraped knee. And I remember standing up going, uh, dad? Because he's going down the road. He has no idea. Probably about a mile down the road, my dad reached over. He's like, hey, T-L-K. In the country, we say, he gone. All right. And I was out. And so my dad, he pulls over. It's flat on this road. And I remember seeing brake2:22lights of kind of the convoy. It was about five or six 18-wheelers. And I remember seeing all the brake lights, and they all pull over. And my dad come running back to him. And my dad's a big old boy. And he's called the Hulk in the military when he was still in. And he was a big, big guy. I remember just seeing him running back to him. And we hugged. And, you know, we hugged it out. And needless to say, when I got back in the truck, I kind of sat in the middle of the truck next to my dad, attached to his arm. There was no way I was going to fly out of that truck anymore. And we made two or2:50three trips back and forth to get all the bleachers back. And then my dad, when we got home, my dad said, hey, Charlotte, that's my mom. He said, Charlotte, you might want to hug TJ just a little bit tighter tonight. She's like, why? What happened? I know something was happening. We're like, what? You know, did somebody call? That was before really cell phones, even the back phone was around. And she said, well, what's funny is, before you tell me, I've already called the cops. They've been looking for you guys because I just felt like something was happening. So moms, you are amazing.3:17And I don't know how you do that. You know, how you know. So students, parents know everything. So just be honest about it. Okay. And so my dad said, well, TJ and I, we were riding down the road and you know, nothing really big. He just fell out of a trailer truck. He's like, all right, let's go to bed. She's like, what? You know, it was this whole thing. And I tell you that because I do want to tell you that, Pastor Josh, I don't take what I do and standing here. I know this is not your pulpit and3:41your platform. This is God's platform, but I don't take it lightly. I believe God rescued me that day to tell you something today. I believe that to the core of my being. And so just know that I don't, I don't stand here and say, TJ is going to fix it all because I can't fix anything, man. I can't straighten us out. I can't make us right. I can't make us holy. I can't do anything. I'm just another person. And for some reason, God allows me to stand and open up his scripture. I still4:09hadn't figured that out. But we're going to open up to the book of Luke this morning. We're going to look at a couple of verses in Luke, and then we're going to camp for a while in John, and I'll get you to turn there a little later. Let's go to Luke, the very first chapter.4:40It's one of my very favorite verses or four verses to speak on. Because if we can get the first four verses, our lives will be completely different. Completely different. I believe that. And I'm still learning the four verses, but I want to challenge us together. So let's go. Luke chapter one, beginning verse one. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses5:07and servants of the Lord. With this in mind, remember, Luke is a doctor, so I'm glad that he writes a detailed account. Since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. So let's camp here for just a second. Some believe Theophilus is a Roman official. Some believe5:35that he was potentially one of the spiritual advisors in the Roman guard, in the Roman place. But all we know is this, there's somebody named Theophilus. And some people believe this could just be a generality to people who love God. But the reality is this, he was someone. And Luke felt for certain that he needed to write an orderly account for Theophilus, because if Luke could invest in and help Theophilus understand the gospel more clearly, then obviously something6:05big can happen, to the point where he wrote the book of Acts, and he also addressed Theophilus in the first few verses. So obviously, Theophilus is somebody that we need to pay attention to. Theophilus was a lot like a lot of us. He was well-known. People knew about him. He had a job. People asked him for advice. He had a little money in his account. He was known. He was somebody. I know our culture says that we're nobodies. And to some people, Theophilus was a nobody. But I can6:32tell you, to the Lord, he was somebody because he sent Luke to speak to him, to speak into him. It's important for us to understand that Theophilus is not just another name in Scripture, but it's somebody we have to hone in on. And something that Luke wants to get across, that you may know the certainty of the things you've been taught. Man, we live in the South. I just moved to Birmingham. Oh, actually, I live in Pelham. But Birmingham area, so general area, it's about as far from Pelham to my office as it is from here to my office. And so, I get it, man. I see churches on every single corner of every single street, and I think of cultural Christianity,7:01and it scares me because do we know for certainty what we believe, why we believe, and how do we go about actually living that out? If you drive 291 miles—if you take the right road, gentlemen—if you drive 291 miles straight south, where do you end up? The ocean, Gulf Shores, Alabama. Many of you knew exactly what I was saying. You knew that it was like, oh, it's the ocean. If you look directly south, once you get to Gulf Shores, and you get on Gulf Shores Beach,7:29and you look south, what do you see? The water. Now, you can't see it from here. How do you know that that water's there? Because it can't be moved. The water moves, but you know the ocean's there. You know that it's there. The clouds that were above us, when you walked in not 30, 30 minutes ago. If you—when you walked in here, the same clouds that were above you are not there now.7:57You understand how a lot of us treat our faith the same way. Oh, whatever cloud comes by our way, that's what we're going to believe in. We're going to believe in that achievement. We're going to believe in the next job. We're going to believe in our grandkids doing something, and that's going to give us great faith. No, the Lord says you put your faith in Him, not in the things of this world, because those things will be fading, man, and they will not be certain. They will be like a cloud. We cannot treat our faith as something that is just a cloud, something we believe in this part,8:21and that part, and this part, because the clouds are never fully connected. And what's crazy is we take them, and we say, all right, I want this cloud, this cloud, this cloud. And I love—I'm a cloud watcher. I love to look at clouds and say, what did that make? You know, and I'm that guy. And you know, like, well, I want to form that cloud, and in my mind, I want it to fit this so we manipulate our lives to fit what we think is faith instead of knowing for certain what the faith of Christ is. You can't manipulate the gospel. And the gospel is not one that manipulates you. The gospel sets you free.8:48It sets you free. In our culture of Christianity, there are a lot of people, and maybe some of us even in here, we've gone to church our entire lives. Man, I went to church my entire life at Christie Hill Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, a little country church. Had about 200 people, and I grew up in that church. I preached there last Sunday night. I got to go home over Labor Day weekend. And I preached there last Sunday night, and it just reminded me how sometimes we can sit in a pew, and we can go to church and put on the mask. And I was baptized at the age of seven. I had no idea.9:17I was just jumping in the water. I was like, I love swimming, so let's do that. I sat in church. I led my whole youth group, went through, and when my life went a little crazy in college, I got hurt playing college football, and I couldn't—the doctor told me I couldn't play anymore. So I ran away from God. I had no roots. I had no idea about the relationship that Jesus truly wanted me. I just wanted to have safety when I was a kid.9:45I remember there's a sign on Interstate 40. If you're driving, if you get on I-40, and you cut across Arkansas, and the roads in Arkansas are not very good. They're really bumpy. But if you get through there, and it cuts through a place, a little town, a little city called Conway, Arkansas, and you get through there, and you go up through Conway, and there's a sign just on the north side of Conway, it says Russellville, 43 miles. If you ever drive through there, understand that's where I met10:12God. I'll never forget it because I knew God was real. It wasn't about going to church, although we want you here. It wasn't about how many good things I could do, which is what I grew up under. It was about the total power and love of God. It became a mountain.10:44You know, there was a place that we know about, we hear about it every Easter for sure, called the Skull, Golgotha, where Christ was crucified. Man, we know the story, but I just want to read you just a snippet of it, because I want you to understand something really big. And when they came to the place that is called the Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right, one on his left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Father, forgive them. And listen to this. The same people, as they were killing Jesus, as they were,11:14as Jesus, it wasn't that they were killing him, he was allowing them to kill him for a sacrifice. And as that was happening, he was forgiving them as they were doing it. If you think you can't be forgiven, you need to read that again. There is nothing, there is no sin bigger and more powerful than the power of the cross. And for sure, no more powerful than the empty tomb. There's nothing that can make us whole like that. Nothing. You know, you could sit in here every sermon, and I'm sure11:42Pastor Josh does an incredible job. Seems like a great guy. We met just a minute ago. I'm sure he does a great job. I hear a lot of good things about him from Brad. Brad, I'm still a little suspect on him. He told me to wear a clown suit, whatever that means for this morning. I said, Brad, what do you wear? He said, a clown suit. I wish I had one. I would have worn it, but I'm scared of clowns, so scratch that idea. But here's the thing. You could sit in here every Sunday morning, and you could hear12:09about it. But here's my challenge to you, is you need to get connected to a small group, because then you're going to dissect it and figure out what in the world does that even mean in my life? You're going to get to rub shoulders and elbows with other believers who are in the same faith struggle as you are, and in the same stage of life as you are. And I promise you, you'll be bitten. They didn't even tell me to say this. I'm just telling you, I'm a believer in small groups. It will make you sharper. It will make you deeper. It will make you more holy, because God will take your group and say, let me pour into this group, because you're seeking Christ together. I want to challenge you12:38with that. You know, we have culture Christianity. We have the mantle of Jesus, where we put him up and we pull him down. It's like, oh, look at Jesus. He's good. And you put it back up there. You put things on the mantle for people to admire, not to live with. You've got the plastic Jesus. You want to mold him like a cloud. You want to mold him, making the way you want him. You got idolatry Jesus. You love the things of Jesus. You love the church, but you don't really love Jesus. Like you have that idolatry Jesus. You have the not yets. I'm not ready yet. Or I'm the good. I'm the good guy. You know, I do a lot13:06of good things. That was my dad. For 65 years, my dad was a good guy. My uncle died of a heart attack working in the farm with my dad. We have a cattle farm. They have a cattle farm. Two and a half years ago, my uncle died of a heart attack. And my dad, through that tragedy, became a Christian. That was something I prayed for for over a decade. I can tell you that. Every single day. Man, my dad's my very best friend. My dad's my best friend. And he would always tell you when I try to, by the way,13:35the hardest conversation, dads, if your kids want to talk to you about your faith, about your faith, let them. That's the hardest conversation I've ever had was trying to share my faith and share Jesus with my dad. Let me tell you something. When I saw my dad get broken, God said, it's time. God rescued my dad. It's odd because now for two and a half years, I've been discipling my dad. That's an odd situation. And I love it. But it doesn't matter. My dad would tell you, man, I thought I was a good guy. You know, I thought I could earn that because, man, I treated my family. I did this. No, listen, that's not how you14:04find Christ. There are a lot of people on this planet that are good people. There are a lot of you. Hopefully, all of you are good people in here. But the reality is this. We're actually pretty bad people because we have sin in our lives. It doesn't matter how good you are. Jesus is the only one. The empty tomb is the only one that can actually rescue you. That's it. What about today? I remember walking out of my world civ class with Dr. Krieger at Arkansas Tech University and my girlfriend at that point, my wife14:31now, standing right outside, leaning up against the wall, and I was confused because I had no idea why she was standing there. It wasn't her building. I was in the business building. She was supposed to be in the education building. I didn't know what was going on. And she said, do you know what happened? I have no idea. She said, a plane flew into a building, flew into one of the twin towers. I was like, what? I went into, and I told Dr. Krieger, and he said, hang on. He turned on the TV, and I watched a man weep.15:01A professor. I couldn't understand what was going on. I had no clue what was going on. But I knew it wasn't good. Terrorism wasn't really a big thing then. We knew of terrorists, but I mean, it was small things. We're like, man, was that an accident? So I got home. I got in my car, and I went back to my apartment at that point, and I sat down in my recliner, and I just turned on the TV, and I started watching because my dad was in the military. I was afraid. Was my dad going to have to go to New15:29York? What's the deal? And I got home just in time to watch the second plane fly into the other World Trade Center. I'll never forget that day. Students, if you know anybody aged 30 or over, you should go ask them about the day that our country, our freedom came under attack. I promise you they can remember where they were. The exact moment they can tell you exactly where they were standing, where they were15:59driving. They remember it. A lot of people, a lot of good people have sacrificed their lives for our freedom here on this country. A lot of people. It takes sacrifice for freedom. We get to experience some great things in our nation. The fact that we can sit in this building16:30and talk about Jesus on this planet is actually pretty close to a miracle. We just had a girl in from Egypt, and she's told us her families, they've been jailed for even speaking the name Jesus. You can't even mention the name Jesus, not even a coffee shop. You can't mention him. You can't say it. I've got friends down in Haiti. I've got an orphanage down there. I've got16:54friends down there that there's so many witch doctors. If you say the name Jesus, it gets pretty ugly. And we get to sit in here in our comfortable pews and think about the sacrifice. I want to read a verse to you that is rocking my world. John 8, 34 through 36.17:24John 8, 34 through 36.17:33Jesus answered them. They were trying to trick him. People were trying to trick him. Jesus said this truly, truly. In other words, this is really important. You might want to listen up. And if it's important in that day, I promise you it's important in this day. I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does. So if, two little letters, really big word. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.18:01You hear that? If the son sets you free. We try to set ourselves free all the time. Last year, slight brag, but it fits. Last year, I lost over 100 pounds. I made every excuse in the world, and I was locked in a cage of TGA depression.18:32The Lord convicted me. And so I really want to give the honor to the Lord. He convicted me with a verse, convicted me in my life. I couldn't pastor. I couldn't minister. I couldn't play with my kids. I couldn't even, I couldn't even climb up the stair or follow my kids upstairs. I'm so out of breath. The Lord convicted me. He said, TJ, I can set you free from this if you'll just follow me. I said, okay, let's try. I've had other times in my life where it was18:56all about pride and ego. And man, I hear stories all the time of people who have dealt with pornography and they've dealt with extramarital affairs. They've dealt with just depression and anxiety. They've dealt, man, we could list and list and list. And we all got these self-help books that, you know, have your best life today, get free of this debt today. Here's this. Here's the reality. If the gospel is not the center and the focus of who you are, you are not free.19:22You are chained. You are shackled to a wall. A shackle and a chain. And the keys, you can't find them because there's only one person that holds the key to set you free. That's King Jesus. If the son sets you free, you are free indeed. We just sang about it. Man, that song, we didn't coordinate that song, at least not to my knowledge, the song that fits that we were talking about redeemed. Oh my goodness. Listen, Jesus has come. He's opened the gate of your jail cell and he's19:51unlocked the shackles that were holding you to the wall of sin and shame. By the way, Jesus says, or God says through Paul, he says, I will not put you to shame. For those who, if you confess your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe your heart that you are saved, he says, I will never put you to shame. Our world is about shaming you. Jesus is about releasing you and setting you free. He won't shame you. Here's the reality. Jesus comes in. He unlocks the shackles. And what do we do? We get up and get out. No, most of the time we don't. We sit in the cell because those shackles are comfortable.20:21They're comfortable. I'm going to pick them up and see if they still fit. Okay, no, don't put that away. I'm not going to get out of the cell because if I get out of the cell, that means I have to invite the 13 neighbors that I saw while I was driving in that were sitting on the porch. I counted them. How many people did I see outside?20:48Guys, Jesus set your shackles free. And I hear it all the time. And I'm guilty on some accounts. So I'm not telling you, I'm not preaching at you. I'm preaching for us through Christ. I believe sometimes the Christians, we just sat in our cell because that's where we're comfortable. That's where we want to be. We sit there and we just think, man, if I get out of the cell, I got to be different. Christian, do you remember when the trade centers were hit, you're ready to get up and sacrifice your all for our country? I remember asking Melanie and my dad saying, can I go, should I go join the21:17military? Should I go help? I remember it, man. It was a passion. I wanted to just go do something. We got to have the same passion that we had 15 years ago for our country. We got to have that same passion and more for our country today through the power of Christ because he set us free. And now he's handed you some keys and said, you have neighbors, you have coworkers, you have friends, you have people at the gas station, you have people at McDonald's that you're going to drive through.21:45You have people at Bojangles, whatever that is, and Milo's. You got all those places. I don't know what any of that is, but I know this. There are people who need to be set free, just like some of you potentially in here today. Oh, y'all, you can't set yourself free. I tried. When I got hurt for about 18 months, I ran away from God. I hated him. I hated him. I blamed my22:10football injury on him. I said, I don't want any more to do with you. I tried to set myself free, set myself free, do this, do that. I'm helping some people right now with different issues. They're just trying to do it on their own. Listen, you can't. What are you battling with today? What are you struggling with today? You can't set yourself free. You can go to some great counselors. I love counselors. They're so helpful. But if the gospel isn't the center of where you're going,22:39you can't set yourself free. It's a vicious cycle. Jesus says, if I set you free, you'll be free indeed. So why do I tell you all this? Because I want you to know with certainty. Do you know him?23:13Do you know him?23:22My best friend, high school, his name is Stephen Rogers. Good, good buddy. Still good friends. We went to the same church. We played football together. He was my best friend. He still lives them. Little Rock. And we still call the Hogs, especially in victory last night. And probably in October when we beat the Tide, not a chance we're going to lose. But anyways, I mean, even if I really thought we were going to win, there's no way I'd say that in here amongst a bunch of23:49Alabama people, you know. There's more Alabama shirts than other shirts, so I'm out, you know. I would say Roll Tide Roll, but if my son got a hold of that, he would not talk to me for a month. Stephen and I, we played a lot together. Every Sunday night, we played basketball. Every Wednesday night, we played basketball at church. We'd hang out with our youth pastor. He was our spiritual dad, because neither one of our dads were really strong. My dad wasn't a Christian at that point. We did everything, and I was talking just some memories with my pastor, and24:15the youth pastor was my pastor's son, okay? And we went to camp one time. I'll just tell you a few little stories, and I'll bring it around. Just go with me. And I remember we were at a camp called Saligahatchee. It sounds like a Mississippi name, I know. And—oh, sorry, pastor. Okay. So anyways, and we—it was up on this mountain in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, a beautiful place, and we're going up there, and the pastor had just come on staff. He just kind of started, and I was24:45kind of the ringleader of the youth group, right? We've all got stories like this, maybe, and we were kind of—we were wrestling the pastor, you know? And I understand now there's no way, if the students are going to wrestle me, as when I was a student pastor, if the students were going to wrestle me, there was no way I was going to let them win. You know, if they were one of your kids, sorry, they're not going to win. Like, and I'm not giving them a trophy for participating. You know, we're going to—we're going to man up on this. And I remember all the guys in the pastor, we've been—man, we've been going for about 10 minutes. That's what he said last time. It was probably more like25:14three minutes, but he—I backed up from it, and I put my fist up like this, like I was going to box him, and he popped me right on the mouth. Bam! And all my friends went, poof! I was like, what in the world, you know? And my pastor, he said that was actually the Lord's deliverance. It was a—it was an illustration of deliverance, because he was getting tired, and the Lord delivered him. And fast forward a couple years, we go to this place called Lonsdale. I'm trying to decide if I should tell you the whole story, but I'll tell you 90 percent of it. I'll just tell you that we went down a water slide, me and about25:43five other guys, my cousin, Steven, potentially my youth pastor, maybe not. Yep. And we went down this water slide, that big water slide, at 3 a.m. You're supposed to be asleep. So, we'd snuck out. My youth pastor's idea. Thanks, Tim. And so, we're going down the water slide, and I go down the slide, and I come to kind of a stop going down the slide, because I got ahead of the water. And I thought there was a stick in the middle of the slide. That stick26:11started moving. I was gone. Like, I was like, I'm out of here! All right. And Tim came down, and he crushed the head of it in the slide, and it scratched the slide. So, they knew we were there, the people, the cops, the camp sheriffs on their golf carts. It was awesome. So, then we go to the swimming pool. We dive in. We're hiding. They're coming around flashing lights.26:39I can't see us. We get out. And we go running back to camp. We go running back to our dorm. We're running in. We're soaking wet. We're taking our clothes off and throwing them in other kids' rooms. That way, if they find wet clothes, it's not us, right? And as we're being—as we're running, as we're running back to our room, we're calling off names from other camps that we know that we've met. You know, oh, Jimmy from—you know, that way, if they're looking, they're hearing names, they think it's somebody else. Next morning, chapel, we get—we start off the morning. It's Friday morning. It's the last day of camp. You know,27:06we're having a little last night fun, and I know none of your students ever do that, Brad. You know, kind of mess around. And they said, now, we know who you are. Just hang after the chapel, and we'll talk this out, and we'll move on. We're like, they don't know. They don't have a clue. They don't call us out. Nothing. We get back home. The next week, we get a letter. My pastor gets a letter from27:28Lonsdale Church Camp, associated with Lonsdale Baptist Association. And it says, due to TJ Gillum, Stephen Rogers, named them off and said, and your youth pastor, comma, your son, you're no longer welcome at Lonsdale summer camp. They kicked us out. We still laugh about it. You27:57know, we were talking Saturday, Sunday, last Sunday, and said, wouldn't it be interesting if a group called me to come speak, and it was there, and I showed up, and they're like, nope, that's his name on the wall. He can't—he can't speak here. That'd be—I still think that'd be funny. I tell you this. You're going to fight a lot in your life. You're going to28:22fight a lot. And I know that sounds like a funny illustration for deliverance, but at some point, you got to let the Lord deliver you. You got to—you know, here's the thing. You're going to back up, and you're going to put your fist up, and the reality is you're going to get popped in the mouth if you try to do it by yourself. The enemy knows how to steal, kill, and destroy your life, and Jesus says he comes to give you life and to give it abundant. Even in the midst of chaos, wrestling with the enemy, wrestling at your work, wrestling28:51with do you matter, do you have purpose, wrestling with the inner thoughts that you have of trying to angle your way to get known by somebody. You're trying to angle certain things that the lies you tell to try to move forward. I mean, here's the whole thing. We have all these things circled around us, and sometimes we just need to back up and say, Lord, deliver me. Set me free, Jesus, because I'm so tired. I'm tired. I need you to deliver me. Push the29:16enemy back. Set me free. I want to get out of the cell, but I'm scared. But oftentimes we've run, and we start naming other people's names about how much worse they are than us, about how they're the ones. Why them, Lord? You know, why are you advancing them? You're not advancing me. We're trying to blame this. Lord, look at the sin that person has. I'm pretty good. I mean, check me out. I'm good, Lord. And you go in, and the Lord29:44sees—he sees the dirty, the wet laundry that you've thrown other places to make it feel like it's somebody else's. He knows it's yours. You're not fooling him. You're not fooling him. And he says, come to me. I'll give you rest. If I set you free, Jesus says, you are30:01free. You see, this whole journey is a process. We live in the generation of instant. In this instant journey, most of you, even my mom, who's 71, like some of you, have your iPhone30:26or your Droid. Don't let the battery burn up in your hand. You know, you got all these different—we got all these gadgets and gizmos. And, man, my 11-year-old son, if my iPhone or iPad or something breaks, he's like, hang on, Dad, I'll fix it. Here. I'm like, what? You're 11. I'm still working on a little two-button Nintendo, right, trying to figure that out. And he just does all this stuff. And it's amazing. We live in this generation. My mom,30:54even, she'll point, click, upload it to Facebook, and all the world can see it in a matter of seconds. And so when life hits us, we don't understand the process of what the Lord is going through with us and for us. We don't understand that. We think, man, I should be good. Like, I'm a Christian, right? I'm good. Or, hey, man, I'm a good guy. You know, everything—why is everything messed up? Because there's always a process. Oftentimes, we only see the tree. We31:22don't see the whole forest. You got to take that approach where you see the forest, not just the tree, because I promise you, if you see the forest, you're going to see the bigger plan of God, and you won't get so caught up in the things that really don't matter. What matters over your job, over your relationships, over everything, what matters is the gospel. That's what matters. Because I promise you, if you focus in on the gospel, if you see how beautiful and powerful the gospel is of Jesus Christ dying and resurrecting for us, for God's glory, for your hope,31:48if you see that and you live that with certainty, you won't worry about that next promotion because the Lord's already got it in mind. Whether that be promotion in financial status, which I don't, you know, whatever. Some of you need that. I get that. And the Lord sees that need. And this is not a spirit of gospel. This is reality. God sees your need even before you do. And he's already lined it up. If he sees you in depression, believe me, he wants to release you from that depression. But you can't32:15let the world and what's going on and swirling around you identify. You identify, you have to identify who Christ is and that his freedom can do that. It's all about him. The whole process of the foundation of the world has all been about the glory and the sun being elevated. That's our role. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. It's all for the glory. Let me finish by saying this. I'm terrified of the dark. Don't get any ideas up there,32:39like guys. I'm like, it came from a church lock-in. They're made of Satan. Brad, don't do them. If you do, let me come play this joke. All right. So the church lock-in, a guy, I'm not going to tell the whole story. I'll tell the most of it. The guys, you know, the seniors were initiating, the seventh graders. So they told us to go in the bathroom. They turned the lights off, shut the door. You know, they were seeing if we were scared. I wasn't scared at that point. I mean, I grew up on33:08a farm. It's dark, you know, whatever, big deal. Needless did I, or not that I knew, there was a guy up in the ceiling, in a suspended tile ceiling. They removed the ceiling, and he was up in there in an outfit that resembled the scream outfit, and he jumps down and yells at us, and I flip out. Like, I just, I don't, like, I wouldn't punch him, you know, that you would think, oh, that's what TJ,33:40but no, I fell on the floor, curled up in the fetal position, and just cried, and my buddies are with me. You think, I'm learning a lot about my friends this morning. You think they'd be there ready for me, or fall on the ground with me? No, they took off. They were gone. I was sitting there by myself. They had to call my mom and dad to come get me, and my dad basically carried me out, put me in the car, in the fetal position. I was terrified. Still to this day, I'm terrified of what's lurking around the dark, right? So, my dad had a shop that was about from here, about 75 yards away, and every night,34:06he would tell me, TJ, go lock up the shop. Go lock up the shop. It's dark, y'all. I mean, all there was was a little back porch light, and I, you know, my dad, I think, because he was a jokester, he put like a 40-watt bulb in it, and then he put the yellow globe, if you know what I'm talking about, put the, because it gets rid of mosquitoes, and also makes a 40-watt bulb more like 10 watts, or five and a34:32half. He put it on there, and he screwed it on. He goes, all right, put a new light bulb in for him. I'm like, thanks. It lights up the six steps, you know, the two steps and the one step down. Not that I counted them, but every night, I'd say, go lock up the shop, TJ. That's where we kept all of our tractors and farm trucks. There were several doors, and it was far enough to where you got really away from the light. I mean, I'd get out there, and I'm convinced this is why I was fast in sports. I'd get to the back step, and I'd open up the back door to the house, and make sure the light was on,35:02flip, and I'd look at the steps. All right, I could see all those. I can't see anything moving. If my family dog would have gotten me while I was running, he would not be our family dog any longer, and I located the back of the shop, because you could see the lights inside the building. Every night, he'd always wait until dark, you know. I should have been smarter and said, hey, I'll go at five, but he was still working. I said, all right, one, two, two and a quarter,35:27counting to three. When I hit three, I'm telling you, every night, I sprinted as fast as I could down the six steps, two step, one step. I'd run. It sounds like a dance move, but I ran through there, and I ran as fast as I could to the back of the shop, up a little hill, a rock platform step onto the lip of the shop, and I knew I was safe, because I could see inside the building. If somebody was in there, game on. Let's go, right? So, I get around. I shut the shop up. I turn off the lights, except for35:57the last one by the door, and I hold the hand, and I hold the knob, and I get ready to put my hand on the light switch, and I locate the back porch. Really, the bulb wasn't bright enough to see everything, but I know if I could get to the light, I'm good, right? Because that's where home was. I knew I was safe if I got there, and so I grabbed on, one, two, flip the light, shut the door, located the light. When I look back, I ran as fast as I could to the light. I'm telling you, as fast as I could, and my36:24dad was always laughing at me, not every night, but a lot of times because he could see the light reflecting off my face, and he was like, I ain't scared, you know? Here's the reality. Some of us in this room, we need to run to the light, because that's where home is. You've ran away from home, you're sitting in the shop, and you're trying to locate the light. Open your eyes. The light is bright, and all men can see it. If you just look, because I can promise you he's calling you.36:49Man, that light is so bright, and the beautiful thing is whenever you locate it and you run to it, the light is hitting your face. You can only see it if it's reflecting off you. When it's hitting your face, you know that's the Lord shining on you. Man, when you're running home, when that light's reflecting off, and my dad can see the light. Here's the reality. When the sun hits your face, people see your face because they see the sun shining off of you. Man, it's a beautiful thing whenever you come home. It's a beautiful thing when you come home. It's powerful. It illuminates37:16your life. It makes you somebody new. It gives you a new name. It sets you on a new foothold. It makes you somebody that you never were before. You know what? That's a good thing, because it's a holy thing, because it's a forgiveness thing. It's mercy. It's grace. It's peace, hope, love, gentleness, kindness, patience, and self-control. It gives you all those things, because it gives you Jesus when you come home. You don't have to pay for it. You don't have to be good enough for it, because you're not. You don't37:43have enough money. You can't sacrifice enough. The reality is the sacrifice is already done. Just like all these military people have sacrificed for our freedom here, the freedom we have and enjoy is great, but the freedom that we need is the freedom that Jesus gives us. The sacrifice is done. The question is, how will you respond to that? Will you come home? Will you come home? Some of us in this room, man, we've been Christians for a long time, but the light,38:11we see it, but we're not reflecting it very well. We're kind of keeping our head down like this. I'm telling you, we're in a time and a day, and I'm young, man. I'm 30. I want to say I'm young. I'm 35. I've seen a lot change as a kind of a student in the world and seeing what's happened and to see what's happened from whenever I could lead as many Bible studies as I wanted to. Now, I got to ask permission every single time I go somewhere. I got to have like 17 permissions. The world is different. The question is, will you reflect Jesus everywhere you go? If you will, you got to point towards home.38:37Last verse, and we're done. He says, again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Listen, you can't even make the light because the light's already there. That's the cool thing. You get to join in. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. For somebody that's terrified of the dark, I'm thankful for that verse. That I won't have to walk in darkness.39:07You see the forest. You know the ocean is there. It's with certainty. You won't walk in darkness and you will have, but will have the light of life. Christian, don't hide your light under a bushel like the old song goes. And for sure, don't put it out with a shackle. Be free.39:37Be free. Live free. Are you free? From the youngest student in here to the oldest adult in here. I'm not talking about, do you know about Jesus? I'm asking, do you know him? Like, do you know him, man? Two weeks ago, I was in a place called Von Orr, Tennessee.40:08Backwoods. Met a guy named BJ from Sweden. BJ told me this. He said, I've spent my whole life going to a church in Sweden. Never heard about Jesus. Came to Von Orr, moved to Von Orr. He restores antique furniture and builds custom furniture. My kind of man. I like that guy. He said, TJ, the first time I sat down and I heard the gospel. He said, first time I heard about Jesus and what he did.40:36He said, all I could do was cry. He said, I didn't know what to do. He said, it scared me. So I didn't do anything. He said, six weeks went by. He said, man, I'd just start, I'd be at work. He said, TJ, I'd be turning a piece of wood and making it into something beautiful. He said, that all of a sudden I'd hear Jesus or somebody or something, is what he said, say, you're beautiful to me too. He's like, I don't get that, TJ. He said, I'd have a clue. He said, I'd go to church and I'd cry and I'd be working in wood and I'd be crying. And he said, six weeks in, he said, next thing I know, I just ended up at the altar because I knew I had to have this one that loved me so, so much.41:06And he said it. He said, TJ, I've been so free since that day seven years ago. Are you free? Can we pray together? Can we pray together?41:36Thank you.← Previous in Life-Money-JoySunday, September 4, 2016Next in Life-Money-Joy →Sunday, September 18, 2016
