Lay it Down

Now, this is going to relate to this season, especially a New Year's message that we're going to have for you guys. Very important. But here's what happened. I put out a social media post, and I'm not a big influencer at all. I'm not an influencer. But I put out a post that was here's how i started it i've come to the sobering realization after 40 years of ministry that you can't disciple lost people that's what i wrote and then i went into explaining How dangerous it is to have a cultural Christianity and we in the church have tried to help people walk with Jesus who are not in Christ. They're in church, but they don't have the power of Jesus in them. And I put that out there and I was freaking out because I'm like, I don't know if you guys have ever had anything go viral, but it is a freaky moment. I've had posts go to like 16, 20,000 people, maybe 30,000 views, but it starts going bang, bang, bang. And I get ahold of my wife and I go, babe, we got a problem. This thing's up over 100,000, and now my heart's beating. And then it gets to 200,000 and 300,000 and 800,000, and it's finally slowed down at 1.1 million views. Oh, hear me now. This was like the Holy Spirit telling me this message. The responses to it were like, holy cow, we've got to hear this more often. This is what's going on in the church in the West is that we're trying to disciple lost people. You with me on this thing, guys? It's impossible. It's impossible to do. So I want to quickly give you a couple of things here. I wanna talk with you about first principles. This is a pretty hip way of talking about fundamentals. First principles is a term that's used in a lot of startups. You gotta have the first principles, and it's based on this, this definition. The fundamental truths you start with before you build anything else. There's a lot of people, so my son and daughter are both in tech world industry, and they know big shakers and movers that are tech startup guys. And here's, inevitably, this is what a lot of failed tech companies come back to, is they miss some of those first principle things, and they're already way down the road, and then they gotta come back and rebuild the engine of the company. Well, in the spiritual life, there's a lot of us that are just la-di-da, heading down this road, man, and it's like, yeah, I go to church, I do all this. And we wonder why Christianity doesn't work. And it's because, by and large, in the West, we have sold people a bill of goods. We have turned people on to a cultural Christianity that is dangerous. And it's intoxicating because you can hang out with people and form almost a little bit of a club, almost like a bowling small group. Let's go bowling. We sing worship songs, and every now and then I get enough goosebumps where I maybe lift a hand this high. So you've got to ask a question, what in the world are first principles? Well, let me give you one. In Matthew 6.33, this is what we find. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. You know what the context of this passage is? Food, shelter, provision, ultimately of any kind. But there's a lot of us that are in a mad scramble or anesthetizing our soul emptiness with the pursuit of all the stuff, the essentials that we need. But I know that in a room this size here this morning and watching online, wherever you are, there are people that are cultural Christians but have never been found in Jesus Christ. On our two church campuses, just in 180 Chicago, we have 43 names on a prayer list on our refrigerator at home. We pray for these kids. They were raised in imperfect but good homes. You know what I'm talking about, guys? Not perfect, because were you raised in a perfect home? No, you're a preacher's kid to boot. Not a perfect home. I met your parents this morning. I know you weren't raised, I'm kidding, parents. They're awesome parents, right? But they aren't perfect. So here's the deal. We have created a subculture that sometimes lacks power because one of two things happens. Either I have people that have been grafted into a culture of Christianity while not being born again, or those that are born again that have suffered what we see in the church of Laodicea, we find in Revelation. And Jesus, you know what he said to the church of Laodicea? He said, you think you're rich. You think you have need of nothing, but you're poor, pitiable, blind, and buck naked. Jesus said it. Take it up with him. And then you know what Jesus said? Behold, I stand at the door. knock by the way that passage has nothing to do with salvation it has everything to do with derailed disciples who were already saved who pushed Jesus out of their life because materialism and the worries of this world and climbing picking corporate ladders or whatever they were doing in Laodicea pushed Jesus out so I love you enough to tell you the truth We got two problems in the church today. There are people here right now who are cultural Christians. How do I know that? Because Jesus said, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, and what they're going to say is, I went to church. I was in a small group. You know what they say in Matthew 7? We preach in Jesus' names, cast out demons in Jesus' name, and we did mighty works in Jesus' name. And he's going to say, I never knew you. I was reading a commentary early this morning, and the incredible thing about it is it's actually Warren Wiersbe who said these words about Matthew 7 because I sometimes wrestle with I don't want to freak people out, right? Can you imagine where I'm at? Because sometimes when I say those kind of words that are just Jesus' words, it can freak people out. And Warren Wiersbe said something to the effect of, it is far better to cause people who are not authentically born again to question where they're really at with God than to have any fear of asking people to examine their heart. You know, Jesus never tried to talk anyone into it like we do sometimes in Sunday school and church. Oh, no. Jesus never said, oh, no, you walk down an aisle and you put your hand in the air. He says, there's ten bridesmaids. And a day of judgment's coming. And they're all dressed up. Matthew 25. And some will be ready, five of them. They all look the same. They're all saying we're in the same club. And when the Lord comes, five will have had their lamps filled with oil and five will not. And the five that didn't were scrambling. They're going, hey, do you have any extra oil? This is the story Jesus tells. And they say, we don't have time. The jig is up. So I feel this weird holy responsibility to be so clear with the gospel. And I hadn't planned on saying this, but I need you to hear me. In Galatians 1, the Apostle Paul says, There are people that have deserted God who are preaching the gospel or sharing the gospel at Starbucks over coffee or different things like this. They've deserted God. Why? Because they are preaching, according to Paul, another gospel. Air quotes right there. He says, as if there is another gospel, meaning there's one gospel. But he said to the man who preaches and is not clear about the gospel, you know what he says about him twice in Galatians 1? Let him be accursed. I don't want that. I don't want that. So here's the first principle of kingdom living. you can't follow jesus until you lay something down or said this way forever yes there must be an equal or greater no you can't you can't be born again without laying something down let's make christmas christmas let's Let's honor the Savior of the world and tell the world what Jesus came to do. But this is a principle that's repeated over and over and over in Scripture. In fact, let me talk about some biblical examples of God chasers. Let me go through this with you. Check this out. Think about Abraham. Anyone remember what he had to lay down? He laid down country. He laid down family. He laid down inheritance. And he headed off. Think about Moses. What did Moses lay down? Moses laid down palace living. Cupbearers. Palm branches, grapes being dropped in his mouth. I'm not kidding you, guys. He laid everything down for the sake of following God. Oh, go through scripture. My favorite king, King Josiah. He laid down the gods of Ammon and Manasseh, his dad and granddad, that all it produced was a bunch of chaos. He laid it down. I'm going to tell you something today. You cannot find one example in scripture of a God chaser, a man or woman of God who added Jesus to their life or added God to their life. They laid down their life, took up a cross and followed him or they were not fit for the kingdom of God. It's not about going to church. And if there's someone here, I love you, and I love you enough to tell you the truth, and I don't want to hear, you're accursed, Clausen. I love you enough to tell you the truth. There is a epidemic of deception of salvation in American Christianity. It is an epidemic. You say, Carl, I'm freaking out. Rather you freak out than miss out. And by the way, can I just add something there? Because that could sound cold. The Holy Spirit that indwells genuine followers of Jesus, you'll know if you're born again. You know why? You'll have the Spirit of God begin to convict of things that you got away with before you surrendered to Christ at all? Oh, what about the disciples? Oh yeah, James and John, you go to the Gospel of Mark, what'd they do? They laid down their nets, and they had been mending fishing gear on the Sea of Galilee, and they said to their dad, Zebedee, they said, Dad, we gotta go follow Jesus. Glad you got some servants here. They laid down a family business, and everything they knew and they followed jesus the woman at the well she laid down shame she had been married five times she's currently shacked up she laid down shame and she walked after she heard about this well that springs up to eternal life she walked to all the townspeople and go hold on all that you've been gossiping about behind behind my back because i know you've been This guy told me the whole thing, and he doesn't know me, and he's the Messiah that we've been looking for. And Jesus stayed on in Samaria to reach people with the real gospel. Paul He laid down pedigree, all the law that he abided by, born in tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the eighth day. He laid it all down. I could not find one man or woman of God in the Bible or today that didn't lay down something to take hold of Jesus Christ. Not one. And then you know what's going on here? The need to lay down keeps going on. And so here's what I want to say. Merry Christmas. Let's follow Jesus. Or are we just going to go, oh, come let us adore the precious little ancient baby from 2,000 years ago. Is he your Savior? Is he your Savior? Have you repented of your sins? Not all of them, someone said. So keep it fresh. There are two groups of people here this morning. Some of you have what I call a hallucination of salvation. It's biblical. It's Matthew 7. It's Mark 13. It's Matthew 25. It's 2 Corinthians, where Paul urges people, let everyone examine themselves. And here's what I need you to know, man. Don't get through Christmas alone. without letting Jesus be your Messiah, your deliverer. He's got to deliver you from something. Lay it down. That's one group. And the other group here is, you know what we do? It's Laodicea or Church of Ephesus. Church of Ephesus, they lost their first love. They were once fired up for Jesus. And we live in a time in our world today when Christ followers, it ain't chic no more to be a Jesus follower in America. Not a real Jesus follower. Ain't chic no more. Things are drifting away. We can't even see how quickly they're drifting away. It wasn't too many years ago when Lovie Smith was the head coach of the Bears that I went and did a chapel on Monday Night Football before they beat Detroit. Thank you very much. And there ain't no chaplains on the Bears anymore. And there's... And to be fair, there's a lot of more dominant, you know, we're in a post-Christian society today. Are we with us here, guys? Come on. And by the way, the goal isn't to get American Christianized. The goal of God is to get Christ dwelling in you. Dwelling, living, breathing. If you're put more confidence in a politician or a party, you are Looney Tunes, man. Most people self-sabotage their relationship with Christ. Go ahead and put this up, guys. by trying to add Jesus to the life they're already building without laying anything down. It's true. It's absolutely true, man. This is why Louis Giglio and John Piper stood in front of about 40,000 students in Atlanta, and I couldn't agree more. I actually had a brief comment with Louie myself about this, and I'm like, thank you, man, for being bold about this. And he stood up there, and he and John Piper stood shoulder to shoulder and said, we live in a country now with millions and millions, these are their words, of people that go to Bible-preaching churches every weekend who are lost, and their hearts are far from God, but they think they have something. I mentioned hallucination of salvation. I'm going to take you to... The Adidarod Trail Race. It's this brutal. Some of you know the story, most of you don't. I'm leaving Chaktulik. I'm 750 miles into an 1100 mile dog sled race. I'm leaving Chaktulik and the native Alaskan elder of the village told me, don't go. But before he told me don't go, I already knew that he had some wisdom Because he had already just explained to me in a village cabin what had just happened to me about an hour before. And what had happened an hour before was, as I was coming into Shaktoolik, I was freezing cold. I was hungry. I was sleep deprived. And I saw Shaktoolik. I saw it. I saw the street. I saw the cabins. I saw the smoke coming out the chimney. I saw everything. And I was mushing my team along. I think I had eight dogs in my team. And I go, whoa. I had my two girls up in front, white eyes. I said, whoa, white eyes. And I put my emergency brake down, my snow hook, stomped it into the sea ice. And I walked. huddled up all my gear on, man, fox mittens, wolf hat, wolf ruff, beaver hat, every bit of gear. I mean, I looked like a Michelin man walking across. The only time I ever looked muscled up in my life was there. And so I'm walking across, and crazy thing, I'm walking right toward the village homes, and in an instant, poof, disappeared. The village elder told me, Oh, you have sleep deprivation, hallucination. In the cold, it happens that way. You see something that isn't there. And there's some of you that have spiritual hallucination. You see something in yourself that isn't there. I hadn't planned on saying this, but this is what I want you to know. We have asked people to accept Jesus in our culture today. You know what the problem with that term is? It's nowhere found in the Scripture. You don't accept Jesus. You receive Him. And you receive Him because you need Him. Because you know, truly a born-again person knows, My heart was filled with sin until the Savior came in. Listen to me. We've been telling people, except Jesus, put a hand in the air. I see that hand. This is not about responsism. And on the outside, do I believe you can raise a hand and be born again? Yeah. Do I believe you can accept Jesus at a service and maybe even walk an aisle and be born again? Yeah. Do I believe that more people are getting fed a deep deception about what's really going on, about their spiritual condition? Yeah, I do. So let me give you the gospel straight up. The gospel without repentance is not good news at all. It's not about you accepting Jesus and adding him and bringing him along the way, building your own life, laying nothing down. It's like, just come on, Jesus. Yeah, here we go. Oh, and you can have brokenness and there can be some tears. But tears without repentance change nothing. I tried it. For four years running like hell away from God, I tried it. Repentance is knowing that I'm born on this path that leads to destruction and saying, Jesus saved me and he turns you around. And you step onto a narrow path. And it's not by your enablement. It's the power of God. Who changes you. So I'm going to give you one more slide here. It is impossible to follow Jesus while holding on to something that impedes your forward movement. Impossible. That works for new birth in Christ. And for anyone who wants to grow up in him, so you might ask a question, is it one and done, Pastor Carl? Do I have to lay down something one time? Are you kidding me? This morning, I probably had to lay down something three, four times. You guys know what I'm saying. You get this. Every day. I'll be on air doing a radio show, and I'll have to set down something. No joking, man. But here's the first principle promise of kingdom living. When you lay something down, you always take hold of more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So here's the question. Jesus had asked it. What does it profit a man or a woman to gain the whole world and lose their soul? You know what the answer is? Picking nothing. So two groups of people in here. Two. That's it. Those of you that have a great hallucination of salvation. And we're not doing an altar call. Not doing it. But here's what I want you to know. If you think, I'm one of those that would have said, Lord, Lord, and he's going to say, I never knew you. Here's what I want to tell you. Merry Christmas. Repent of your sins. If the Spirit of God is showing you, you're the problem. It's not your boss. It's not your spouse. It's not the ex-girlfriend. You're the problem. Repent of your sins. and step into freedom today. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas! And if you're born again, but you hear Jesus knocking at the heart's door, do you know how easy it is in American Christianity to become like Laodicea? Come on. We are the richest nation in the history of the planet. If anyone is gonna let materialism stuff, promotions, acclaim, status, and all that felbricarb get in the way of our relationship with God. Guys, I gotta be honest with you. Let's be honest with each other. It's us. It's us. And I love you enough to tell you this. And some of you might walk out of here going, that guy's crazy. I'd rather be called crazy than accursed. So here's what I'd say to the church that has ears to hear. Let them hear what the Spirit of God is saying to the churches. And church, here's what I'm telling you. Jesus, I know this, is knocked in at our collective heart door, and I'm asking you, quit building a life for yourself trying to add Jesus to it. Build a life with God by laying down everything and watch what he will add to you. So I got one question for you today. So turning point, what do you need to lay down today? What do you need to lay down? Come on. And these are in big bucket categories. It's security found in earthly things. It's status found in earthly things. It's satisfaction found in earthly things. I think it revolves around those three buckets. And some of you might be getting so honest with God this morning, you're going, I got all three. For some of you, you're coming to Jesus for the first time, repent. For some of you, you're on that narrow path, but you're repenting again because you've been pushing Jesus out of your life. Let him in, friend. He wants all of you. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all the stuff that you pursue will be added unto you. I don't know what you feel prompted with, but we'll go for it right here. Stand to our feet. Here we go. Let's sing this again. Here is where I lay it down. Every burden, every crime. This is my surrender. This is my surrender. Here is where I lay it down. Every lie and every doubt. This is my surrender. I will make them free. For you To do whatever you want to To do whatever you want to To do whatever you want to I will make room for you And I will make room For you To do whatever you want to To do whatever you want to To do whatever you want to Here is where I lay it down Every burden, every crown This is my surrender This is my surrender Here is where I lay it down Every lie and every doubt This is my surrender And I will make room for you To do whatever you want to. To do whatever you want to. I will make room for you. And I will make room for you. To do whatever you want. Do whatever you want to. To do whatever you want to. So shake up the ground of all my tradition. Break down the walls of all my religion. Cause your way is better. Your way is better. Shake up the ground of all my traditions Come and break down these walls of all my religion Your way is better Your way is better And I will make room for you To do whatever you want to To do whatever you want to, Jesus, I will make room for you. To do whatever you want to, come do whatever you want to. Amen. Whatever you want to. And here is where I lay it down. God, you are all I'm chasing now. This is my surrender. This is my surrender. Here is where I lay it down. You are all I'm chasing now. This is my surrender. Father, I want to thank you for your love for us. You loved us so much that you sent your son Jesus into this world. And so we can say today, it's a Merry Christmas. It's a Merry Christmas. Because without him, we are nothing. But with him, we have everything. And we give you thanks today. Oh, Father, as we celebrate over food, oh, Lord, keep knocking at our heart's door. You guys with me on that one? Keep knocking at our heart's door. Don't let us grow cold to the things of God. Help us to be rich in the things of the Lord. We thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.