Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
lord of idolatry means of selfish desires and selfish plans or chains of lust chains chains of wickedness lord they're gonna drag it's going to drag us down lord you said that we were to lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beside us lord this is a day for that to be done lord let us all in here believe that there is power in the name of jesus that there is power to not only be forgiven of sin but to break the habits to change to repent to really follow [Music] to really follow you lord it's in jesus name let me pray i want everyone to turn to luke chapter 19 this morning i'm just completely going with what god is laying on my heart because um i have an extremely heavy heart this morning and i didn't know why and as we were worshiping there and praying there um i believe the lord showed me why so i want everyone to pay attention this morning if you need a bible there's some extra bibles up there on the shelf right there but i want you to see it my heart's heavy this morning for several reasons but i want to read this first in luke chapter 19. now this is when jesus was riding into jerusalem on the on the donkey and everyone was praising him and a week later of course he would be crucified and many of the same people who said blessed is he is comes in the name of the lord hosanna many of the same people who were praising him and worshipping him the week that week the very next week were crying out crucify him you know the mob is fickle it's one of my favorite lines from the gladiator movie when she says lucilla to her brother the emperor the mob is fickle brother and boy i'm i'm heavy in my heart because you know what i'm tired of seeing christians fickle i'm tired of seeing christians one minute say they love jesus and the next minute they're playing games with god and this is a grieve it just grieves my heart because i'm
just going to say this very plainly there are some of you sitting in this room if you were to die today you are not ready you are not on your way to heaven and that grieves a pastor's heart when he knows that to be true and most of the time even though i know it i don't say anything about it because i figure the way i preach something ought to get through but the fact of the matter is and steve hill used to say this all the time at the brownsville revival he said you can go to hell with a choir robot you can go to hell with a baptismal certificate hanging on the wall you can go to hell as a deacon as an elder as a pastor you can go to hell going to church every sunday giving your tithes and helping in the church and you can still be lost you can still be a person who's never really denied self taking up the cross and said i'm gonna follow jesus no matter what that means for me whatever i have to lay down whatever i have to do whatever sin i have to quit whatever thing god says for me is not his will i won't do it and what he shows me is his will i will do it you know this week i was thinking about this message and the thought or the title kind of came in my mind are we disciples are we just loiterers are we just hanging around the cross or have we actually taken up the cross and really started following jesus so many people think that they are saved and ready to die simply because they hang around the cross they hang around christianity they go to church they sing songs they might pray a little bit in their car on the way to work they might read a scripture here or there or better yet not really read any but just might post one or two on facebook but they've never really understood that jesus said if you don't deny yourself and take up the cross and follow him dying to your will dying to your plans dying to your dreams and desires dying to what your flesh wants dying christianity is about three crosses and i'm going to cover those in a minute there are about three crosses last week i talked about jesus's cross but then there's our cross that we each must take up our own cross and what that means is what is god's will for us god's will for me now i'm not talking about what's written what's written in here is god's will for everybody
we're all required to do what this book says but then there are things that we are specifically individually called to do trey you're not called to do the same thing i'm called to do paul you're not called to do the same thing i'm called god has a plan for you he has a plan for each of you and the question on judgment day will not be did you hang around the cross it will not be did you go to church it will not be did you sing in the choir it will not be were you did you think you were a good person the issue will be did you take up your cross and do the will of god for your life did you walk with him did you know him did you obey him did you love him more than anything in this world and that means any person that means any desire any dream any sin any lust any money any job did you love jesus christ supremely and were you willing at any moment any time to take up your cross and do anything that he asked you to do no matter what it cost you if it cost you getting fired from a job if it cost you losing someone in your life that was close to you if it cost you losing friends or family members getting mad at you were you willing to take a stand for what was right for what was written in this book and then to go and do what god tells you to do listen to me most of the time what god tells you to do is not going to be popular with people around you if it is it's probably not god and this is a burden on my heart so many people hang around christianity they hang around the cross but they never get on the cross and and let let god crucify them they never take up that cross and follow him you know that's what leonard ravenhill used to say there was one thing you knew about a man who was carrying a cross is he wasn't coming back he wasn't going back to the world he wasn't ever going to be the same again he was going to be nailed to that thing and he was going to die too many of us put our hands to the plow and we look back you know there's one short verse it's the second shortest verse in the bible the first one is jesus wept you want the second shortest verse in the bible remember lot's wife you know what her problem was here she was living in the most wicked city in the world full of sexual lust full of lusting after money full of all of the fine things that this world has to offer and god tells them i'm destroying this place for its wickedness and when i get you out of here don't even look behind
you and an angel not even a human being an angel has them by the hand and is dragging them out of sodom and she looks back why did god turn her into a pillar of salt destroy her right then not just because he told her not to look back he was trying to save her from what was in sodom and even in the midst of him trying to save her she in her heart was longing to be back well how many christians christians say they want jesus [Music] they say they want jesus but they're still longing for sodom they're still longing for their own ways their own lust their own desires their own dreams they don't take up the cross and follow him so they're not disciples and you know as we were my heart was heavy and as we were singing i just the tears started rolling down my face because i'm realizing how many people even though they have the same bible i have people don't understand these verses now i know i said turn to luke 19. i want you to mark that spot because we're going to come back to in just a second but i want you to back up to luke 14. i want you to see what jesus said about taking up the cross it's not just about believing jesus or the apostle james said the devils believe and tremble it didn't make them saved amen are you in luke 14. i'm going to go down to this in verse 25 and there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said to them if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters and yea his own life also he cannot be my disciple let me stop there for a second now god's not talking about hating your family but what he's talking about there is in comparison to how much you should love the lord and be willing to lay down even those relationships at times to do his will there's a lot of things that you're
going to have to put on the altar if you're ever going to do the will of god and some of them god will kill and you won't ever get and some of them you will lay them down and when when you when god is really satisfied that you have truly died to that thing he might let you have it back that's the way he works ask abraham abraham was willing to go sacrifice his only son i can't even imagine being asked to do something like that but yet god said you know what as he was about to to bring the knife down upon isaac in obedience to god god stopped him and god said now i know that god knew all along but you know who knew now abraham knew abraham knew he was a disciple now abraham knew he was willing to lay down everything abraham passed the test of laying down what he loved most we can't even get to that part because we can't even lay down sin that we know god hates there's a whole lot of other stuff god wants to crucify let's read this again in front of multitudes jesus said to them if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and brethren and sisters and yea his own life also he cannot be my disciple and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple look at verse 33 so likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he has he cannot be my disciple now is is that in your bible is that jesus talking then it's not pastor dean making this up are you a disciple of jesus or are you a loiterer do you have the cross on your shoulder and are you willing to carry it to the death of everything you desire you gotta ask yourself that question see this is what a lot of people don't see a lot of times there are christians who have died to things and they're christians who are not sometimes you can't always see it it's not always plain
but i remember when i came to the lord when i came to this place where i decided to take up the cross and really follow jesus i already believed in jesus and i'd already been born again i'd already been saved when i was 11 years old in a baptist church it was a powerful encounter with god it was real but in my teenage years i backslid and my parents divorced and all kind of things went wrong and i we quit going to church and i got into all the sin and all the lust and all the the drinking and partying and alcoholism and all these things that the world has to offer but i believed in jesus so see what i was then i was a loiterer i was just hanging around with some distant faith that jesus was there and you know what was even more ludicrous was that in my teenage years i kind of if it ever came to my mind i kind of thought well i'm okay i got saved when i was 11. you know jesus i believe in jesus so i'll go to heaven when i die i mean that's the delusion that's the deception that the devil brings on people even whether they've been taught once saved always saved or not that's the deception that comes you're okay all right so i'm in those teenage years and god begins to deal with me and showed me and you know that's when the the the modeling career began to take off and the screen test for all my children and one life to live and and the movie offer and all the things begin to work out but you know what what what deep down within me the more things in the world started working out for me because i was about to be rich and famous but i was also bound by lust and drugs and alcohol and i was killing myself slowly and also you know i was in college at the time i wanted to finish college i wanted to be a doctor my major was pre-med i wanted to be a doctor nothing wrong with that desire but when i came to the cross of jesus when i came to that place i knew it wasn't just about i knew because god convicted me of the sin i knew i had to turn from the the drinking and from the drugs and from the sexual sin and all the stuff i was into and the fighting and all that i knew i had to give that up that's obvious every christian ought to know god means if you come to him you have to confess your sin and forsake them leave those things some things have to change it's repentance but then all the questions do i go back to school see i was taking a break for the summer when i came back to the lord at 19. do i go back to troy state do i go back to sigma chi fraternity house
do i continue trying to be a doctor none of those things wrong per se in themselves but do do i go back to that or does god have another plan for me and i mean i prayed for months and i fasted and i sought god and god began to speak to me and you know what the first thing became evidently clear i was i you know what i didn't even call my agent back the last phone call we had was we got you a part in the die hard one the first one it's the last phone call i i spoke i didn't even call them back i said that's over i said in my heart i knew there's no way that i can be a christian and go portray and compromise in hollywood with the adultery and the fornication and the violence and the i there's no way i can go into that world so that died then i said lord do you want me to go back to school you know i was going back to troy for my sophomore year do you want me to go back i wanted to play football at troy i'd had knee surgery and i was going to i was working out i was back in shape i was throwing the football better never i was going to walk on it troy it's going to follow my dream play college football become a doctor and the lord made it very clear you're not going back to troy state it's not my plan for you laid it down lord i don't want you to be a doctor lay it down okay lord what do you want me to do i've called you dean to be a minister i've called you to be a prophet you will be a minister of the gospel then guess what dean got it in his head that to do that you had to go to bible school then i started visiting bible schools all over the country and trying to go to bible school and every time i try to go into bible school what would god say no the lord i want to i want to study i want to learn he's like i'll teach you my way i said well lord you know it's going to be harder he's like yep but that you see what i'm getting at a constant dying to think do you know that that after i came back to the lord something god wanted me to die to because i had a problem with with lust and girlfriends so you know what
i knew god just wanted me to just cut off dating so i quit dating at all and didn't go on a date didn't hold a hand for five years didn't kiss a woman didn't put myself in a position that was compromised where i could be tempted to fall five years so don't tell me you can't do it i did it you can live a holy life if you want to you can live an obedient life and god took those years of me staying faithful to him and you want to know that's why i know the bible so well that's why i know god's voice so well that's why i saw people get saved all over the place and that are still saved today that's why i saw miracles and god healing people and delivering people that's why god taught me things that other ministers don't even know about yet because i stayed with him and i kept dying now was i perfect in the years that followed no i wasn't perfect but i find this one thing out over and over and over again is god will constantly bring things before you that you must crucify and walk away from to do his will remember me saying there's three crosses i want to show you something remember three crosses are on that hill right turn to luke 19. i'm sorry not luke 19. we'll get there in a second luke 23. and they led when this is when they led jesus away to be crucified verse 32 and there were also two other male factors or criminals that were led with him to be put to death and when they were come to the place which is called calvary there they crucified him and the criminals are male factors one on the right hand and the other on the left and then said jesus father forgive them for they know not what they do and they parted his clothing and cast lots and people stood beholding remember loiterers hanging around the cross people stood beholding and the rulers also with him derided him saying he
saved others let him save himself if he be christ the chosen of god and the soldiers also mocked him coming to him and offering him vinegar and saying if you be the king of the jew save yourself and the superscription also was written over him in letters of greek in latin and hebrew this is the king of the jews and one of the male factors or one of the criminals which were hanged with him there railed on him saying if you be christ save yourself and us and the other answering rebuked him saying dost not thou fear god seeing that thou art in the same condemnation and we indeed justly for we receive the due reward of our deeds but this man has done nothing amiss and he said unto jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom and jesus said and verily i say unto you today shalt you be with me in paradise there's three crosses there turn to matthew 16. just one of you see how it's written here matthew 16. and you know if you think i preach hard to you guys let's listen for a second to what jesus said to peter all right this is one of his most devoted followers and listen to what he said right here this is matthew 16. it says and from that time verse 21 i'm sorry verse matthew 16 verse 21 from that time forth began jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go to jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day then peter took him and began to rebuke him saying be it far from thee lord this shall not be unto thee so peter's correcting the lord what does the lord say to him but jesus turned and said unto peter get thee behind me satan thou art an offense unto me for thou savers not the things that be of god but those that be of men what was jesus exposing in peter peter you want an earthly kingdom but i'm supposed to go die you want an earthly kingdom now peter had it in his head how things were supposed to work jesus is not going to work that way when you want the things that be of man more than you want the things that be of god jesus himself calls that satan now let's keep reading then said jesus to his disciples if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it
for what is it profited a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul what is he talking about here does it just mean to die physically if a man loses his life for my sake it's not what he's talking about i had my life planned out modeling movies football the medical field college i had my life planned i lost that life on purpose to do his will now let me show you how this works the three crosses the first cross is the cross jesus hung on to shed his blood for the sins of each one of us but just because he shed his blood for each of our sins does not mean one of our sins will be forgiven unless we confess those sins and forsake them and hate them and not want them anymore it's not a get out of jail free card so the first cross we must deal with is the cross of jesus and we must have faith in it and believe in it and and change and accept it the second cross you've got the two guys on each side now listen to this both of them were nailed to crosses realizing the penalty of death for sin one thief realized you know what i deserve what i'm getting this man jesus has done nothing and he believed in who he was and he cried out to him and he even rebuked the other man who just railed on jesus see here's the here's the three crosses for us the cross of jesus that we have to deal with to be saved that we have to accept and embrace his cross the second cross is your cross jesus said unless a man takes up his cross and follows him your cross and the third cross we got to deal with is to try to convince others to deny themselves and take up the cross just like the man on the cross rebuked the other man on the cross do you see how perfect a picture it is jesus on one a man on the other who humbles himself and realizes that he is deserving his punishment but cries out for mercy
and tries to convince the other angry bitter man and that's what we're about but can i say this if you don't preach the gospel to people in a way that that tells them they must deny themselves and take up their cross they must become disciples of jesus and not just not just hang around then you're not really preaching the gospel the gospel says we forsake it all and follow him to be his disciples amen now i want to share this last thing with you i promised you i'd get to luke 19 and we're going to get to it luke 19. y'all better if you hadn't heard a thing i've said this morning you need to hear this loud and clear i asked the lord why my heart was so heavy and sorrowful listen to me and i'm going to read this before i explain it go over to chapter 19. jesus is coming into the city so y'all thought i forgot but i didn't verse 38 saying blessed be the king the people were saying blessed be the king that comes in the name of the lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest and some of the pharisees from among the multitudes said unto him master rebuke your disciples and he answered and said to them i tell you that if these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out and when he was come near he beheld the city and wept over it jesus came to jerusalem as he neared the city and he looked over the city jesus began to weep over jerusalem and this is why he says he wept over it saying this if you had known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes for the days shall come upon you that your enemies will cast a trench about you and compass you round about and keep you in and thus shall lay you to the ground and your children within thee and they shall not leave in the one stone upon another because you knew it's not the time of your visitation now what jesus was talking about here he was warning the jews he was warning jerusalem he had a sense of the impending judgment that would come upon jerusalem just less than 40 years in the future this was about 32 a.d in 70 a.d titus came in the romans came in
surrounded the city besieged it then took jerusalem burned it to the ground tore down the temple and it was said that a million at least a million jews lost their lives men women and children it was a horrible horrible time and the jews were scattered all over the world and did not have a homeland for 1878 years now here's my point jesus was riding into jerusalem people were worshiping him people were praising him it all sounded like a wonderful party and all that's good right but jesus starts weeping why because he knew he realized some of them were going to die some of them were going to die maybe not maybe before 70 a.d he knew people were going to die and they weren't going to be ready he knew judgment was going to come and people would not be ready and he just begins to weep over this now you better listen to me right here because this is a prophetic word from god that god spoke to me while i'm sitting over there and i hate to say this i hate to say things like this but i have to i sense that some of you in here are in a dangerous place and that death is looming over your head and if you are not truly truly where you need to be with jesus you better get there and you better get there quick the second thing i realized and i felt that i felt death looming and i think some of you in here may even very soon lose i don't know who it is and i'm not saying this to scare you maybe it will motivate you to pray for people around you but i felt more than anything that someone or more than one i don't know [Music] you're going to lose somebody close to you and the lord was saying to me you tell them that they better be close to jesus and not get angry at god but they better get close because that's the only way they're going to make it through that now does that mean it has to be that way not necessarily because god can intervene you can pray and god can intervene them for people i've seen people
that were at death's door and people started interceding for them and god gave them more time and there's a scripture in isaiah and i'm not going to turn to it but i think something is happening in the world right now i think it's isaiah 57 bill you might know where it is but it says this that even right now i think even some righteous people are being taken away before things get bad and i just won't get into that any further but i i some things are happening and think some things are going to speed up and begin to happen but we have got to quit being loiterers and be disciples amen 57 1 isaiah 57 1 i thought it was 57 you can read that later see what jesus said here in luke in luke 19 he said why was he weeping he said because they didn't realize the time of their visitation didn't realize that god was visiting them with a special revival with jesus being there and healing the people and giving the message of salvation and bringing the new testament in and god's bringing all this in and there were people oblivious they were still committing adultery they were still living in sin they were still doing their own thing they were in religion like the pharisees and in the right religion but so full of pride that they were blind to the very messiah they were looking for and jesus said so many of you don't even realize what's happening the messiah is here he's showing you the way of salvation and you're closing your eyes and you're you're you're going to do your own thing and live your sin and you're just blind to it man we can you can go to church your whole life and be blind don't be blind ask yourself today this question am i a true disciple of jesus who is taking up the cross willing to die to anything that he says i must die to willing to follow him with all my heart soul mind and strength loving him and esteeming his cross and his blood as the highest treasure more than anything in this world or
are there things in this world that i love that i'm trying to cling to is there some sin that i'm i've made peace with and i'm all nestled up to you're either a disciple of jesus christ or you're just a loiterer and guess what there's a sign up it says no loitering jesus said you either take up my cross and follow me or you are not my disciple no matter what you call yourself no matter what you say no matter how many sweet christian songs you sing are you following him or are you just hanging around christianity let's pray father in heaven i come to you today and i just pray i pray with all of my heart lord my heart is is heavy today for people lord for your people and lord not just people here god but many people will hear this message on cd on itunes there's so many people god that think they are ready to die or ready for jesus to come back and they're not ready they're not disciples they're just hanging around [Music] they're hanging around the cross they're talking christianese they're putting out christian cliches a scripture here or there but they've never truly taken up the cross denied themselves and died to their sin and died to their own dreams and their own plans god help us become disciples and not just worldly carnal christians one way is life and the other is death i want everybody to stand this morning uh gee break every chain before we leave this morning if you know you've examined yourself or this message has exposed you which is what true preaching is supposed to do listen true preaching is supposed to make you uncomfortable matter of fact john kilpatrick the pastor of the brownsville revival was living holy living right for god but he said steve hill's messages during the brownsville revival used to make him unheard and want him want to get up and go down to the altar here's the thing true preaching on the cross is supposed to make you uncomfortable is supposed to make
you think am i am i ready am i right am i with him you know if this is you this morning now if it's if you need to quit being a loiterer and start being a disciple i don't care if you say you've been a christian a long time if you're not being a disciple i want you to come forward this morning i want you to make a decision to do it it's not so much coming forward it's going to do anything as much as it's saying that today it's a it's a marking point today i'm going to be a disciple and you're confessing it in front of others today i'm going to be a disciple and i'm going to pray for you so if you know that's you this morning as we start this song and as the rest of us if you're okay that's fine i'm praise god you are but if that's you this morning and you need to repent and become a true disciple and take up your cross and we're going to play this song and i want you to come up here and then we're going to pray for you father i pray in jesus name i pray in jesus name that you will just bring