It's been a very, the minute has been very trying. The minute has been filled with a lot of trials and tribulations, a lot of difficulties, a lot of hardships. But in the midst of it all, God is maturing me, as I'm sure he's doing with all of us. He's giving us a different perspective. He's teaching us how to put away childish things, childish reasoning, childish understanding, childish conversation. And so he's trying to make us grow up. to man up or woman up to be all that we need to be in this day and time, because there's a lot going on, and there's a lot going on that is reflective of the fact that the world is becoming more and more, and this nation is becoming more and more hostile toward the values, the beliefs, the principles, the teachings of God. It's becoming more and more anti-Christ. It's always been anti-Christ. The world has always been in hostile opposition. But there was at least the allowance of the culture to be reflected of the biblical values at one point. But now it's being cast aside. So we're seeing the byproduct of that. I'm going to be starting today. The title of this message was Dying to Live. And then there was a part that I wanted to throw in there. dying to live the best life ever. Not your best life ever, the best life ever. And I'll make that clear. Okay, so we're going to go first to John 12, verses 23 through 26. And I'm going to go ahead and read. And Jesus answered them, says, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whosoever loves his life loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." And this is actually going to be a good message for communion service. I hope to be brief and concise. So just pray that it flow and that it be expedient. So this was prior to Jesus' death. He was telling his disciples that his death was necessary. It was necessary to provide new life to all that would turn to him. So this is a precursor to his crucifixion. But he was also talking to his would-be disciples. He's talking to his disciples then, but he's talking to his would-be disciples that it was a high cost to all who would follow him. This is not an easy road, it's not an easy commitment. It costs you everything and all to follow Christ. In the book of Matthews, it says, if anyone want to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow after me. It would cost them everything. He was talking to his disciples and it did cost them everything. And in the same vein, just as he was talking to his apostles, he's talking to us. We must be willing to endure martyrdom if he wills. The apostles paid that price of their lives. We have to be willing to renounce our autonomy, our independence, our self-lordship, our worldliness, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. That means we're not driven by our cravings. Where we were in the world and now we come under his jurisdiction, now we come under his lordship, his perspective, his values, his beliefs. We have to be willing to pay the price for our reputation. We have to be able to pay the price of relationships. If relationships get in the way of our surrendering to him, we got to let some people go. We can love him from a distance. We can intercede for him. I said that before. We can stand in the gap. And then we also have to pay the price of material gain. A lot of people, especially in their early church, it cost them everything to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So he was calling them to pay a tall cost. It was a new king with a new kingdom and a new agenda, new values, attitudes, perspectives, but, but, and the key word is but, because that sounds like a whole lot, well, dang, why would I want to follow that, right? There's a whole lot of giving up. Why would I want to follow that? And I'm going to explain to you why. And how could this possibly be the best life ever, right? Because it was for greater gain. It was for eternal life. And let me break that down for you, that Zoe life. Bishop used to teach us about that, the Zoe life of God. It's not just a quality of life in eternity, it's the quality of life now. It's the Zoe life of God, his new life. It's a new nature, and now inhabited by the Holy Spirit. I want you guys to get this. I'm hoping that I can do it justice the way it came to be. The Holy Spirit, the one who consoles, the one who comes besides and strengthens and empowers and enlivens us, the one who brings the kingdom of God experientially. The kingdom of God is neither meat nor drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. You don't get this life without dying to yourself and surrendering to him. You don't get this life without first Because a lot of times right now people just say, just believe these facts and then that's it. No, he's really asking for a commitment. And a lot of times when I'm hearing the altar call for people to give their lives to Christ, it's almost like a marriage commitment in the traditional sense of marriage. Because now people get married and they're in it for the minute, not in it to win it. But you know what I'm saying? But the fact of the matter is we're talking about a commitment till death do us part, in sicker and poorer, for richer, you know, for... I mean, think about it. That's what God wants from you. I want you to be in it to win it with me. With me, we're going to go through it all. It's going to be through the hard times, through the good times, through the up times, through the down times. If I allow you to have little or I have you to have much, I'm going to be your all in all. And that's what He wants. He wants a commitment, not this superficial, I'll add Jesus to my life, a little Jesus. And instead of wanting His life, we want to just add Him to help us with our life. It's a whole different narrative. It's a whole different narrative. It's a counterfeit from the enemy's camp to try to hijack God's intention for us. He wants us to have a quality of life in Him that only comes when you really surrender yourself to Him. Okay? Now, I still want you guys to get, this is the Spirit of the Lord, of wisdom, of knowledge, of understanding, of might, of counsel, of fear of the Lord. Isaiah 11, 1, 12. He's the Spirit of grace. Thomas talked to us about grace last year. Goodwill, loving kindness, favor, merciful kindness exerts its holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues. So all of this comes with this Zoe life. You now have the life of God in you when you turn to Him. Now, am I saying that you have to earn it? Is it meritorious? No. But he does want you committed. He wants you to turn your life to him. And you're not worthy, none of us are, and you will not be able to make yourself worthy. Until you make that commitment and you receive what he has, then your life changes because he gives you a new life to be able to live the life that he called you to. But he is calling to a commitment. There was a realization, I don't know, when I came to the church back in the 90s, there was a realization that God wanted a commitment from you and people took it very seriously. Nowadays, people are more or less like, I have my life and I want God to bless my life to fulfill whatever their desires are. which is totally against what he's teaching. He's asking you, he says, if you want life, you gotta die. If you want to live, you have to die. Now, we have to also ask ourselves, who's the one that's asking us to die? And we must never lose sight. In the book of Luke, I'm just gonna go over it real quick. In the second chapter, eight through 13, the angels, appeared to shepherds and told them, they came bringing good news of great joy for all people. The angels praised the Lord at His birth, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom He is well pleased. So you have to imagine that when Christ came on the scene, it had been 400 years of no word from the Lord. From the time of the book of Malachi up until the angelic visitation, there was no word from the Lord. And then all of a sudden now, heaven is stirred up. And you get this heavenly host that's coming in, and they're making this declaration. Glory to God in the highest and on earth among those with whom He is well pleased. And the angel announced good news of great joy for all people. Amen? This is also the same One who's asking you to give your life to Him wholeheartedly. In Colossians it says, By Him were all things created that are in the heaven and that are in the earth, visible and invisible. He is before all things and by Him all things consist. He's the head of the body, the church, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. That's the One who's asking you, give me your whole heart. Give me your whole life. He wants you to actualize the first and greatest commandment. Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. He doesn't want half-hearted. You can read the Scriptures. He doesn't like lukewarm, and he doesn't like half-hearted commitment. Do not be double-minded. There are warnings against it. It doesn't mean, and like I said, salvation is a free gift from God. But what he does is he gives it to those who turn to him wholeheartedly. And that's why he draws near to them that are of a broken heart and say to such as be of a contrite spirit. Most of us got to get sick and tired of being sick and tired of ourselves till we throw ourselves at the altar of surrender and say, OK, Lord, take this life. Do with it whatever you can because I'm sick of what I'm doing with it. So he has to bring us to a place of brokenness, so we'll finally say, not my will, but thy will be done. We don't know people. We see a snapshot in time, and we say, they ain't saved. And you can't do that, because you would have marked Paul damned for eternity if you would have caught him at a certain snapshot in time, right? Because he was out persecuting the Christians. He was killing people, taking them off into prison. He was hunting them down. And you would have said, OK, he on his way to hell. Better enjoy it because you're going to be burning. You know what I'm saying? We would have been, we would have get that attitude, but we didn't know that he was going to be blinded by the light. He was about to be struck down. God was going to convert his soul. And in the same sense, when we see people, this is not to make us high minded. Oh, I qualify. No, this is to make us realize that he is the one who draws all people to himself. I hope I made that point clear. So. Here's another thing. The same one that's asking you to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow after him was a leader who was not only the king of kings and the creator of all earth, but he led by example. He could have said, y'all go do that. I ain't doing it. I'm in glory. I got angels bound before me. I ain't doing all that, right? You know what I'm saying? This is what you got to do. That's for y'all. That ain't for me. You see what I'm saying? He could have easily done that. But what did he do? He took on the likeness of sinful flesh. He took on the role of a servant. Even before he died, what did he do? He washed the disciples' feet. He set the example. He said, now I'm going to tell you what to do. I'm going to show you what to do. I'm going to live what you should be living. I'm going to be the example that you need to live. And he went and he died. He paid the price for it. He didn't only live by example, but then he poured his life into us. Because even if he showed his example, if he didn't change our nature, if he didn't put his life in us, then we would have just had a good example, but we would have had our shoddy ways to try to make it happen. And without the Lord, I'm telling you, I ain't going to do too well, you know what I'm saying, trying to live up and trying to live up to a divine standard. So it is a high standard. So He took the likeness of sinful flesh for us. He came to obey the Fathers perfectly. He came to serve. He was the Lord of glory. He took up His cross first. He came to serve. He obeyed the Father first to the point of taking on the wrath due us. We must do likewise for God's glory and purposes. He gave us the exchange life. He gave us His life for ours. Now we must daily surrender our life for His, to win others to Him. The reason why he wants us to die to ourselves is because when we're born again, we still have that old nature. We still have that old Adamic nature. And if you don't know that you've got to take a cross to it, let yourself go on autopilot for a good long while. Let yourself get around the wrong people, and you'll start to see that old nature creep up. So you have to be intentional. You have to see that you still have that old nature, and you have to crucify it. This is not going to be a long message. It's probably not going to be a flowery message, but it's going to do what it needs to do. So let's go to 2 Corinthians 4, 7 through 12. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed. Perplexed but not driven to despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to the death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. So Paul is talking about what is the treasure? The treasure is the message of God that is in us. The reality of this life in God and following Christ faithfully as a herald of the good news. The good news of the resurrected Savior, we're not talking about someone who died, we're talking about someone who lives. He lives, saves, he gives us a ministry charge, a call to serve the Great Commission. It's a powerful message. It's power packed, it's power backed, it's power filled, and it's power full. from the all-powerful One. So this message, he chose to use us as co-laborers, to work alongside one, and he wants us to proclaim the gospel. And that message is backed by all heaven. That message, even despite its power, people will reject, but we still need to communicate the message. Now, one of the things about this particular thing is that the treasure is hidden in earthen vessels. Everyday, ordinary vessels. Nothing special. Nothing special about it. So you ain't got to be special to deliver this treasure, to contain this treasure. It ain't about how great you are. It ain't about a great orator you are. You don't have to have a special skill set. You're just everyday ordinary vessels that contain this power-filled, powerful, power-backed, power-packed message that comes from the all-powerful One. Bless the Lord. And just to give you an example, that even in the desire to surrender to Him, you will make mistakes. And this just goes to show it's an ordinary vessel. Peter, one of the disciples, and I love the fact that Jesus called Peter. I love the fact that He called Paul, but I'm glad He called Peter. Because Peter, Peter was a hothead. And Peter, he kind of felt his own ability a lot. Nuh-uh, I won't deny you. Three times he denied him. And then the last message, one of the last messages I preached to you guys about, in the book of Galatians, after all that he'd seen, he saw Jesus rose from the dead, he had all these, walked on water, did all these things, and yet and still, he played the fence. So much that the newbie, the new guy on the block, Paul, had to check him. So Peter, with all his experience, and it teaches us to be humble. What that teaches you, if Peter can fall, so can I. So I can't smell myself. All my growth, all my maturity makes me realize I still got to lean on the Lord. If Peter can fall, I can fall. So that just keeps me humble, and it keeps me teachable, and it keeps me yielded. It keeps me looking to the Lord. Look, I can get tricked. I can get tricked. But the fact of the matter is that same Peter ultimately laid down his life for the Lord. So while we know, and I said it's going to cost you everything, it could cost you your life. This message might cost you your life. But the fact of the matter is that you don't necessarily go from zero to 100. So sometimes you just learn how to lose your life today. Learn how to die daily. If he's going to call you to martyrdom, if you can't die daily, you ain't going to die. You know what I'm saying? If you can't learn how to surrender your temper in order to reflect his character, then You know, if you can't remember to surrender your lust, and instead of trying to have everybody, then you learn how to die daily. And I'm speaking to myself. I'm not trying to act like someone who's arrived. The more you grow closer to God, the more you realize, okay, yeah, I've made progress, I've made strides, I've gotten better. But every now and then, let the right situation happen, and that old wreck will show up, and then I have to repent, and then I gotta remember, crucify him, don't justify it, Don't make him comfortable. Don't make the old Rick... Don't let him have a seat. Don't let him make... No, you got to die. You got to die because the life of God has to be reflected in me. It's dying to yourself so that the life of God can show up in you. You really do have the Spirit of God living in you. And the Spirit of God wants to live the life of Christ through you. What does it look like? It looks like love, peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faith, temperance, meekness. It's not religious. You see what I'm saying? You know how to act right on Sunday, but don't let you get triggered on Monday or Tuesday, and everybody sees Satan. You know what I'm saying? Satan incarnate. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, yeah, and we can get pushed like that. I'm not gonna lie. Every now and then I'm like, Lord, forgive me, forgive me. But then I'm learning that the more I surrender to him, the more I can grow mature. That's what dying daily means. I'm gonna yield to you. And it's those daily choices to yield to him. But once you make it all right, well, they shouldn't have came at me like that. Nah, you don't cut me off like that. Uh-uh, you're going to get more than a couple of words. You know what I'm saying? Once you make it right, you ain't asking Him to come in and shine His light through. He can't work with you in that area. I'm not saying anything. God knows how to chastise His children to bring us to the place where we can be yielded to Him because He wants us to shine forth His light. You see what I'm saying? Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which are heaven. So if you're double-minded, He's going to break you. If you're lukewarm, He's going to chastise you. If you're His, And if he has an intention of ultimately taking you to a martyr's death, he knows how to take you step by step by step and bring you to the place of surrender. There are many times when I went off on one. I would love to say when I made that commitment to Christ, I was faithful 100%. I didn't waver. I was sold out, and I sold out, and no sin have I done. I would love to tell you that, but that wasn't the truth. A lot of times I went off on my own, I got distracted, I got detoured, I got hijacked, I got sides, you know, and sometimes I just went off on my own. Let me go see what they talk about. And the Lord knew how to bring me to the end of myself. Bless God. So He's teaching us through it in the same way we're nothing impressive, but we have a treasure in us. And He wants to break us because that treasure needs to come out. Because that treasure is not for you, it's for the harvest. There's a harvest of souls he wants to come in. And so if he can bring us as a people to a place where we surrender to him and let the light of his glory shine through us, then we can potentially win other people. Now, of course, some people will not come, but some people will come in due time. You just don't know. It doesn't mean that when you speak to someone that they're going to receive it. There were many people that tried to reach me before I eventually turned to the Lord. You know, they would talk to me about Jesus. I get it. I get it. You know what I'm saying? I'm sorry, but I'm not ready. I ain't trying to hear that. But God, thank God, he knew how to get me ready. Okay, the whole idea, the treasuring jars of clay kind of speaks back to Gideon's lamp when they were in battle. They broke the lamp so the light would shine forth. They blew the trumpets that would thwart the enemy's camp. In the same way, we are being broken so that the light of God's glory and the power of God will pour through us to potentially win other people to Him. That's the kingdom of God, His advancement in the earth. Amen. So some of the things it says, we're troubled on every side. We sometimes get pressure from all ends. I don't know if you guys have ever experienced it, but you know that the trial is so intense, it doesn't just come one, it comes on all sides. And you feel overwhelmed. But he says, but we're not distressed. We get troubled on every side, but there's always a way of escape. We may be persecuted for him, not for our choices when we're serving him, but we're not forsaken. He doesn't leave us. So even under persecution, he never abandons us in it. We may get perplexed. I've been in trials and tribulations this week where I was like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. It's too much coming too fast. My emotions are on 100. My mind is all the way dialed up. I don't know what to do, but I know who to turn to. And so if you get in those places, we get perplexed, but we're not in despair. We're not without hope. And that is a blessing. If you don't take away nothing from this, we get to the places where sometimes we're confused, but we're never without hope. We may feel pressure on our wrists, but we're never without hope. And that's a blessing. Why? Because we know the God of hope. And we know, well, there's a lot of people that don't know that. There are a lot of people that don't know that, and that's why suicide rates are on the all-time high, depression rates are on the all-time high, anxiety, because what do they have? The only thing they have to look forward to is their own resources. I'm stuck, and I don't see a way out. And the only way out is for me to check out. But as believers, we're never in that place. Because when we're stuck and we're overwhelmed, we know how to turn who I turn to. Lead me in the way. Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not to... I don't know what to do. But in all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He'll direct that path. I'm so grateful. I mean, you guys don't understand. I've been... The next one, cast down but not destroyed. I've been knocked down, the wind knocked out of me, but we get knocked down, but we don't get knocked out. I mean, some of you guys know what I'm talking about. You know when you've been knocked down. I mean, I know if you just let your sanctifying imagination go just for a few minutes, I'm sure you can think of one or two times where you're like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know. I'm stuck. I'm overwhelmed. My emotions are on 100. Everything around me is closing in. I don't know what to do. But I know how to call on Jesus. And you're here today, so I'm sure you got out. We get knocked down, but we don't get knocked out. We get cast down, but not destroyed. We die daily. And Paul suffered physical as well as mental and emotional harm. He was always bearing about in the body the death. Now, that meant physical death, but also, too... Now, here's the key, and I want you to get the key, because sometimes we get honed in on the troubles. But what I'm trying to get you to see is the blessing in the trouble. Because he said, we have the death of Jesus, but we also have the life of Christ manifested in our bodies. And that's the emphasis. When we get, and some of you know that you've gotten to this place, the maturity that you've experienced has come through a lot of brokenness. If you think about it, it was the hard times, the discipline, the chastisement, the correction, that all of a sudden you yield to the Spirit of God, and now all of a sudden you're experiencing more of His wisdom, His knowledge, His insight, His understanding. You had to come to the altar of surrender, and in that surrender, He allowed His life to pour through you. That's why you can get excited. Some of the songs that we sing, some of the songs, to a natural person, they'd be like, why are they happy? You know what I'm saying? But it's something that you can't get unless you get it. Unless He's given it to you. Bless the Lord. So we're blessed, broken, and given. We allow the light and power of Christ to be poured through us vessels. We are broken. It's the life of daily choices for Him, a choice to crucify ourselves to follow Him. We dethrone ourselves and enthrone Him. We make Him priority in our daily pursuit. We ask, we seek, we knock, we pursue Him with our whole heart. And the one thing if you want to know what the Lord is pleased with, He said, without faith it is impossible to please Him. For we must first believe that He is and that He's a reward of them that diligently seek Him. He wants someone to seek Him with all their heart, with all their mind, and with all their strength. What did he say? Don't pursue things. He said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness. And all these things will... Seek me. Seek my lordship. Seek my rule and reign in your heart. Everything you need, I'm going to take care of it. It's a life of peril, but also a life of God's power and promises actualized. Most of us know we read this text, but we know we experience this text. You can't get happy about some of these things that we read. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. You know that you've been without, and you know that he provided at times when you were like, I don't know where this is coming from. So when you hear that scripture, you go up. You go crazy. You know what I'm saying? You know these things because it's not text on a page. It's a life lived. The God-breathed text is living in the God-indwelt individual. I mean, human is indwelt by God. I hope I'm saying this right. But the fact of the matter is Him in us bears witness to the fact that He does all the things that He does for us. Okay, let's go to the next scripture. And this is the last scripture. Paul says, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For this sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this, or am already made perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own." This was his assessment. After 2 Corinthians was written, he was talking about how he was beat down, he was abandoned, he was left for dead. He went through all these really hard, torturous kind of things, yet this was his assessment. I think this was during his first imprisonment. So he did what we do on our job, cost-benefit analysis or risk-reward analysis. He counted up the cost and he saw the benefit. He said, it costed me something. but it was worth it. He's saying everything that I went through, everything that I've been through, even all my accomplishments, I counted but done. I counted but human excrement, if you want to call it that, right? It wasn't nothing. It wasn't nothing. Everything that I could try to stand on, I don't stand on. I stand on the fact that I know Jesus. I stand on the fact that I know Him and that I have the righteousness to come by. I don't have to stand before a holy God. So I hope this doesn't come off as the fact that I'm trying to say you can earn your way into eternal life. I'm saying that once you get eternal life, He wants all of you. He wants all of you. But it's worth it. All the struggle, all the hardship was worth it. The intimate knowledge, the experience was worth it. And some of you know what I'm talking about, if not all of you know, that when you've been in the struggle and you know, you're with me, I know you're with me. I know you're Abba Father. These words, these names that they give him, the bread of life, the wellspring of water, you know you've been in a dry place and all of a sudden you felt him, that living water bubbling up in you and you get excited. the power of His resurrection, indwelling spirit, the same spirit that hovered over the face of waters and creation and brought order out of chaos, that same spirit now abides in you when you choose to surrender to Him. And most of us know what it was to live a life of chaos, and all of a sudden, God bringing order to the chaos. And you know it, nothing but you, because you stayed on dumb, stuck on dumb, All of us know that. We lived that life. We thought it was right. It seemed right unto a man, but then we lived the dumb life. And God intervened, and all of a sudden, he starts showing you, hey, look, do you see the death in it? That the thing that you once celebrated? Now, I'm not saying that sometimes it's not a struggle, because there's a war going on, but there used to be no war going on. Before, you just did what you did and didn't care. But now you have a new nature, and you have to choose to crucify that old way when it comes up, because it come up. We're not going to be glorified until He comes back. So in the meantime, in between time, He's saying, crucify it. When you get hot and heated, you want to let people have it, take baby steps. Okay, I'm not going to say nothing. You could probably read it on my face, but I'm not going to say nothing. Okay, now, Lord, help to fix my face. Because though I'm not saying nothing, everything about me says what I'm not saying. Right? Help me, Jesus. Because I don't want to misrepresent you. Because the people are coming for me, and they come, and they come, and they come. People are repeat offenders. They don't just come once. They come twice. They come three times. They're going to make sure they get you. but hopefully they don't get you on the first, second, maybe, but hopefully you can get to the point where you mature and you respond properly. I'm even at the point where he convicts me about what I say and think when I'm not around people. You know what I'm saying? When sometimes when you ain't around people and every now and then you get frustrated and something comes out that shouldn't come out, You know what I'm saying? Or at least you think it, and it's like a bose speaker in your ear. And you'd be like, oh, Lord, help, you know, forgive. So that same spirit that hovered over the waters in creation, that breathed out scriptures, he's the one that breathed out scripture. He illumines the understanding. He raised Jesus from the dead, and now he empowers us to overcome. I'm just going to go jump down. It costs us everything, but it's worth it. He's the pearl of get great price. A lot of the parables he talks about, he wants you to count up the cost. Count up the cost for commitment to me. It's going to cost you everything, but it's worth it. He always emphasizes the fact that You know, you find something, it's a treasure, but it's worth it. Everything you will go through in life, hardships, difficulties, struggles and trials because of him. I'm not talking about the choices we make that are not outside of him. He's worth it. What is it? It's a quality of life that begins as soon as we turn to him and continues into eternity. We have to learn how to surrender despite the opposition to us we know against the potential of hazards, hostile opposition, and life-threatening hardships. We continue to surrender to him despite what the enemy of our soul brings up against us. Dave reminded us of that with the believer's mindset. We gotta armor up. We fix our minds on him. We have to fix our eye on him. We have to feast on his word which reveals him. His character, his word reveals him, his character, his attributes, his promises, what pleases him, what displeases him, what's his will. We have to commune with him in prayer, individual and collective. We do that all the time. Pray for me, you know. Cease every opportunity to come into the throne room of grace. We fellowship with like-minded believers. We learn how to guard our association. The people that we used to kick it with, that trying to take you away from Jesus. Oh, come on, you know, I know you. I know the real you. Come on, let's do what we know how to do. Let's go back to what we used to know how to do. But now you learn how to yoke up with like-minded believers that will consecrate, separate, people, places, and things that would distract, detract, distract, deter you from Him, you let it go. And then the last scripture is, Galatians 2.20.21 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives me, and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. And I want to make this clear that it's a paradox. That's the hard part, how to communicate it. It's a free gift, but it's going to cost you everything. It's a free gift. You can enter into the marriage, but it's a commitment of everything. I take all to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give. He wants your whole life. He wants to lord over your life. He wants to conform you into the image of His Son. He wants to help you to align with His agenda. His kingdom on the earth. Too much of what's being taught right now is He is added to your agenda. He is added to your direction in life. And this is a big narrative in the world today. You know, it's all about living the dream. Whose dream? Your dream. Right? Living your best life ever. No, he wants you to live the life that he intends for you. That by the time you check out of here, the life that he intended for you to live, you lived that life. Amen? Crucified with Christ. It's a daily struggle, but there is rewards in it. And I want to emphasize this, because there have been times when I was like, I didn't do what my flesh wanted to do when I crucified it. And you start to see your attitude start to change, your mind starts to renew. You don't think like the way you used to think. There was a time when I used to get up and just go. And so then you start to see the change come over your life. And then you experience the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, the joy of the Lord. You start to have an excitement that comes from the things of God and focusing in on God. Amen? So let me pray. Hopefully, this was a blessing. Amen. Let's stop. Let's stop. So we're going to go ahead and go into communion, and then I'm going to close this out in prayer. Amen? Season of