One Thing You Lack | Kylen Perry

What's up, Porch? How are we doing? There is nothing like a Tuesday night. I don't know if this is your first time in the house, but listen. I don't know how you may have arrived, if that's the case…if you wandered in here on your own, if you caught us on social media, if somebody dragged you into this room, or if you're here hoping to meet somebody.

Regardless of what brings you into this space, we're really glad you're here, genuinely. There's never a normal Tuesday, not because we're bringing new songs or teaching new messages but because the Spirit of the living God is in the room, and he has something for you here on Tuesday nights. I believe it especially is true for tonight.

Hey, I want to do a good job of giving a shout-out to some Porch.Live locations tuning in with us from around the nation. Special shout-out to Porch.Live Fresno and Porch.Live Fort Worth. We love you, guys. Thank you so much for being a part of what God is doing. It's amazing to see what he's doing here, and we know he's doing great things out there too.

Well, on February 18, 2017, I stood on the cusp of making the single biggest decision of my life to that point. I decided that the time had arrived. I was going to ask the one and only Brooke Nicole Gajdica if she would, in fact, marry me. I don't know if you've ever been in that situation before, but that's a lot of weight to carry. Okay? I'm just letting you know in advance. That is a weighty moment. It's not as simple as people seem to make it out to be.

It's not just, "Hey, you have to buy a ring and pop a question." Despite what popular media would say, every kiss does not begin with Kay. Every kiss begins with months and months and months of strategic planning, organizing, and sweating out all of the details of this fateful proposal moment, because you don't just get to buy the ring, show up, hit the knee, ask the question, and ride off into the sunset. That's not the way it works, because there's a lot that has to be planned out.

You do need to buy a ring, but you don't just need to buy any kind of ring; you need to buy a ring that qualifies according to the four Cs gemologists have defined as being relevant for your study. That's color, carat, clarity, and cut. And there's a fifth C. Do you know what it is? Cost. Yes. That's imperative. You have to know cost, my guy. Then not only that. You can't just go buy the ring; you also have to plan the proposal, because it's not enough to just show up and pop the question. You have to make sure it is the day she has dreamt of.

So, you need to ask the questions, "Where am I going to propose? Indoors or outdoors? What's the weather going to be like? Hot or cold? If it's going to be hot, what do we need to wear? What is she going to wear? Women like to wear dresses. Does that mean I need to buy a dress? How do I make sure she gets the dress she wants?

Not only that. I need to make sure her nails are done. How do I do that exactly without raising any kind of suspicion, because she's going to want to have photos taken of her wedding ring, and her nails need to look nice? Not only that, but that means there's going to be a photographer on-site, so I guess I've got to plan that out as well. I've got to find the right photographer at the right kind of rate, and I need to define what kinds of photos they need to take, specifically.

And it's not enough to just have a photographer. I also need to plan out what we're going to do before and after the proposal itself. Are we going to show up, sit down, flip through a memory book, and walk down memory lane or are we going to walk through an aisle of roses or are we going to find ourselves, instead, sharing a moment of prayer as we think about the future?

Am I going to wash her feet? That's what every other guy seems to be doing in this season of time, and they're extremely thoughtful. I don't want to be perceived as thoughtless, because this is a moment that matters so much. Yet it's not just this moment that matters, because now I've got to plan an engagement party that's going to happen after the proposal itself.

So, as I think about the engagement party, I need to make sure everyone she loves is in the room, which means her closest friends as well as both our families. That's 20 to 40 people, so that means I've got to coordinate all of their schedules, help them arrive on time, and stay out of sight so we don't spoil the surprise, and then I also need to figure out what's happening at the engagement party.

Are we serving food? Because that's a lame party if we don't. What about décor? I've got to get decorations. I'm a guy. I don't know how to do decorations. Drinks? Maybe. What about music? Otherwise it's going to be awkward. Her parents are going to be there. The music has to be clean. Wait. Have I met her parents? A first impression is really important. Have I even asked their blessing? Wow! Every other to-do in this moment does not matter if I have not done that, because now I'm starting from way behind."

This is what it feels like, guys. This is what's coming for you. I remember, leading up to February 18, I was sweating through all of the to-dos. I was going over and over and over every single detail, trying to make sure this moment was going to be the stuff of legends, that she would remember it fondly for years to come, because it would impact the quality of my marriage.

Yet what I found was that all of my sweating, all of my stressing, all of my worrying about every single to-do was rooted in this desire for Brooke to be mine forever. I was willing to do it all so we could simply be together. Now, if I had to guess, most of you have not lived through the hysteria of planning a proposal process like that, yet what I would say is many of you do live with a similar kind of hysteria where you are thinking through all of the to-dos so you can attain to whatever it is you want most in life.

Your life is filled with this incessant demand to do and to do a lot, and to not only do that but do it as well as possible, because you have great goals. You have aspirations and achievements you want to ascend to. While you haven't scoured the Internet, looking around for the perfect diamond ring, what you have done is you have scoured the earth in search of that thing, whatever that thing is for you that you think will, in fact, satisfy you, make you happy.

You haven't spent hours planning an engagement process, an engagement party, but you have spent hours working to achieve that body, that job, that reputation, that kind of credibility, to be associated with those sorts of people. This is true for us. This is especially true for young adults who have something to prove.

I was looking at the research this week, and what I saw was that one of the defining characteristics of the young adult generation is self-reliance and ambition. We have goals. We have high marks we want to hit. We have places we want to arrive at, and we are willing to do anything in order to get there.

Yet here's the catch. Despite it all, no matter how much we do, no matter how much we endeavor and stress and strive, we find that, oftentimes, we're still left lacking. Why? That's the question Jesus wants to answer for us tonight. He's going to do it through a passage in Mark, chapter 10. So, if you have a Bible, you can grab it.

While you're turning there, I'll just tell you a little bit about what you can expect. Jesus is going to interact with a guy who is the literal personification of success. This guy is what everybody in the world is aspiring to be like. If we could poll this whole room, what we would find is many of us, if not all of us, would love to be in this guy's same stage of life.

If you go and read his story, which is found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, what you'll see is that these gospel writers describe him to us in three ways. Matthew says he's young, Luke says he's rich, and Mark says he's a ruler. This is the guy Jesus finds himself interacting with. He's what everybody wants to be.

He's not only on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list; he is at the top of Forbes' 30 Under 30 list. Scholars say he is in his 20s or 30s. He is farther along than most will ever get, and it's Jesus he comes to, asking the question, "What is it that I lack? I've searched the whole world. What is it you have to tell me that I've yet to find on my own?" This is what it says in Mark 10, picking up in verse 17:

"As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. 'Good teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?' 'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: "You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother."'

'Teacher,' he declared, 'all these I have kept since I was a boy.' Jesus looked at him and loved him. 'One thing you lack,' he said. 'Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.' At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth."

For all intents and purposes, this guy has a really good head on his shoulders. If we go and look through the list of commands he has kept, what we know is he's morally upright. He's charitable to the poor. He's obedient to the law. He's teachable in nature. Jesus goes to the Ten Commandments and pulls the second tablet out, which actually details how we interact with one another. It's the most measurable set of commandments.

Jesus runs through that set list, and as he unpacks them for this guy, this guy says, "Yes! Check. I've done all of those. I've kept every one of those commands. I'm not finding myself lacking in any way." Did he miscalculate his morality? Probably so, yet if he is, in fact, decent like he appears to be, what we know is he has done them as well as possible, which would likely be better than every one of us in this room.

Yet what we know is that he comes to Jesus, and in his best estimation, having kept the law completely, he knows, "Man, there is something I do not have, which is why it begs my question: How do I inherit eternal life?" This is the guy who, ladies, you would want to take home to your parents. He's the one who would come through the door, and your parents would be like, "This guy actually deserves to marry our little girl." He's that great. Your dad can't wait to take him out golfing. Your mom is hoping he comes back for the holidays.

He is a 10 out of 10. He's everything you would want, yet despite the fact that he's totally disciplined… In the face of trial, he does not give way. When temptation comes, he's stalwart and will not move, and he's kind even when it doesn't make sense to people. Despite the fact that this guy is not only rich but decent, we see something creep to the surface, which is an insecurity. "Jesus, how do I inherit eternal life? I want to be righteous. I want to be with God. I want to be in heaven forevermore. What do I need to do?"

"Well, do all of these things."

"Yes, I know that. I've done all of them. I've kept that list perfectly. I've been working at it since I was a boy."

"You've just shown your hand, because though you already knew coming to me you've kept all of these laws, you just revealed the fact that you still find yourself lacking. You still do not have what it takes. You sense deep down in the inner recesses of your being there is still something missing."

That's what this guy knows. That's what this guy fears. He has not been enough. Despite his best effort, despite his most arduous discipline, he knows, "I don't have it." I love what Jesus says to this guy. Jesus looks at him, and he loves him. He acknowledges what this man already knows. "There is one thing you do, in fact, lack." Jesus doesn't get frustrated with him, like, "Oh my gosh! How much more of my time are you going to take?" That's not Jesus' reaction.

He doesn't get annoyed by the fact that this guy has walked in with bravado, chest pumped out, because he has done everything on his own already. He's not annoyed by that. Jesus isn't frustrated by his questions. He loves him. He engages with him right where he is, and he tells him, "Hey, there is a solution. Sell everything you have, give it all away, and come follow me."

"I thought you said there's one thing I lack, Jesus, but you just gave me five things to do. You just told me what I need to do is I need to go, sell, give, come, and follow. That's five things. I thought you said one thing. Like, what's the one thing I lack? What's the one thing I need to do?" Put so simply, what this man lacks is a proper appraisal of Christ's worth.

He's standing right in front of the Son of God, the one who could give him eternal life. Like, "Hey, when you go back, will you take me with you?" That would be the natural conversation, yet instead he's like, "Hey, good teacher…" He insufficiently identifies this guy. He doesn't realize who it is he's speaking to, because he has improperly appraised the worth of Jesus.

Jesus tells him, "There is one thing you lack," and the reason he brings this question to the forefront is he wants this guy to know, "Hey, there's something better than everything else you have in life." That's why he says, "Give it all away." He wants him to take inventory of everything he has in life, and he wants to stack it up as high as possible.

"All of your reputation, your career, the money you've made, the power you have, and the influence you use… I want you to take all of those things into consideration, stack them up as high as they may amount, then bring me into the conversation and compare the two of us and decide which one is better. Which one do you appraise as having the greater value?"

This is the conversation Jesus is driving toward. He wants this guy to know, "If you choose me, you'll be connected to something the likes of which you'll find nowhere else. You will find that there is no greater achievement in life than being near to me. There's no higher good. There's no deeper joy. There's no greater good or gain in life than to be with God, and I'm the way. I'm how you get there." That's the conversation Jesus has.

So, what's this guy's response? Well, as we read, what we see is his face falls, his countenance drops, his eyes dim, his soul sinks, and he goes away sad. He chooses his stuff instead of choosing the one who can give him everything else he'd ever want, who could take him to levels of joy the likes of which he could never ascend on his own. Why does he make this choice? Because you can have everything and nothing at the same time. That's what Jesus is unpacking in verses 23-25.

"Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.'"

That's a crazy possibility, the fact that you can have everything and nothing all at the same time. You can have everything you've ever dreamt of and still be lacking. This is what Jesus means when he says, "It's hard for a rich person to get into the kingdom of heaven." Why does he zero in on the rich? This is not a money talk, yet Jesus points to wealth, because what it does is it unearths what we actually value. He points to what this guy owns, to what this guy values, to what he spends his money on, because in doing so, he exposes what this man truly loves.

Let's talk about it like this. Why do you need money? "To eat." Amen, brother. I feel you on that. What else? Why do you need money? "To buy rings." My guy, I hope you have a girl before you start talking like that. I'll make it simple for you. You need money to provide for yourself, to eat, to have shelter, to make fire. That's what you need money for: the basic necessities of life.

So, let me go a different direction. Why do you want money? Anybody brave enough to speak up to that one? Why do you want it? "To buy a ring." What else? "For your flesh. Status. Comfort. Greed. To provide for yourself and other people." Listen. There's a really subtle difference in that question, why you need money versus why you want money, yet there is a massive difference between why we would need it and why we would want it.

For example, I need money to pay for my insurance. I need money to pay for my utilities. I don't want to spend my money on that stuff. What do I want to spend my money on? Shoes and trips and concerts and nice cars and taking an exotic vacation. I want to have a nice home one day. This is what I want to spend my money on. You see, I need money to provide; I want money to have pleasure. That's what it basically boils down to.

So, Jesus looks at this guy and says, "Hey, this is why it's difficult for a man who is rich to enter into the kingdom of God," because the greater your abundance in life, the weaker your dependence is on God. Now let me be clear. Jesus is not saying wealth or success are intrinsically bad in any way.

He's not saying the overachievers in the room are doomed. Like, "Oh, man! I was going to try to go for it." Rest easy. You're okay. God says there's good cause for aspiration. This is also not a commendation to choose the path of least resistance. There's a lot in the Bible about not doing so. That's not the path of greatest faith.

The Bible is not saying wealth is intrinsically wrong. You can look through the Scriptures and see people who are wealthy, successful, and high achieving yet are also godly men and women. You can see Abraham, Isaac, Lydia, Joseph of Arimathea, and Zacchaeus. You can find them all throughout the Scriptures, yet here's what you need to know about these people.

What we know about their stories is that their stories do not speak of the life they've acquired; they speak of the lives they've surrendered to the glory of God. We don't look at their accounts and see everything they have; we look at their accounts and see the one who has them. This is what we know is the purpose of wealth. This is the purpose of success. This is the purpose of power. It's not to live for stuff; it's to live for him.

Jesus would say it like this in a different passage. Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Why is that? Because money convinces us we do not need God. That's what money does. Money convinces us we do not need God, yet this could not be farther from the truth.

We can't buy our way into heaven. Only one man has done that. Only one man has purchased our salvation by both his body and blood, and that's Jesus. You can't buy your way into heaven. But do you know what money can do? It can keep you from heaven. Why is that the case? What is it about money that can keep me from heaven's gate? Well, it's like a sedative. Why do doctors use sedatives? To numb whatever it is that's broken, yet they do so for the sake of fixing. The Enemy does so for the sake of your forgetting.

That's why he numbs you through things like comfort and materialism and money and control. He wants to deaden your senses and your dependence on God and increase (spike) your independence from him. This is what we know is true of money. It pushes us to a place where the Enemy is able to take us into a place where we're not depending on the Lord; we're depending on ourselves.

That's why Jesus uses this analogy about a camel and a needle, which feels really odd, yet he's strategic in doing so. He's aware of how wealth, success, materialism, and achievement can deaden our dependence on God, so he says it's easier to get a camel, the largest animal in all of Palestine, through the eye of a needle, the smallest orifice in anyone's home, than it is to get a rich person into the kingdom of God.

That feels insane. Like, "Jesus, why are you being so extreme?" Because he wants to make his point abundantly clear. The rich, the wealthy, the high-achieving, successful, and ambitious have everything they could ever want, and because of it, they're unaware of the one thing they actually need. This is so true for young adults. It's especially true for our city.

We find ourselves seated in a room tonight surrounded by peers who have great goals yet, despite the goals ahead of them, have already accomplished great feats behind them, have done tremendous things and have even greater things still ahead. We're a people who want for everything, and we'll do anything to get it, yet along the way, what we find ourselves in danger of is missing the one thing that actually matters, that one thing we actually lack.

Jesus knows this truth is not exclusive to rich people; it's inclusive for all people, which is why the story moves to where it does in verse 26. It says, "The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, 'Who then can be saved?'" "If this guy can't be saved, how then can we be saved?" "Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.' Then Peter spoke up, 'We have left everything to follow you!'"

Why are the disciples so astonished? Well, if you go and look in the ancient Near East and study written record, what you find is that at that time, in their context, the wealth people found themselves living in was considered a blessing from God, given from him because he saw fit to afford them the opportunity to use it for both the purposes of generosity and righteousness.

Why those two things? Because money was good for charity. They could generously give it. They could give alms to the poor. Not only that. They could use it for leisurely study in Torah. They could look at the law of God and spend time dwelling on it, meditating on it. So, whenever you would see somebody who was wealthy, the instinctive reaction was, "They must be generous, and they must be righteous." Like, "That guy or that girl are goals when it comes to godliness."

So, when they see this rich man, abundantly rich, successful, and powerful, incapable of achieving the kingdom of God according to Jesus' standard, they freak out. Like, "If he can't get in, how am I going to get in? He has everything and more that I want. He would be deemed by God, according to our natural, cultural standard, as the person God sees fit to be in his kingdom. If he can't do it, how can I possibly do it?"

That kind of freak-out is exactly Jesus' point, because Jesus wants them to know favor in life does not equal favor from God. Just because someone has every perceivable blessing in the world does not mean God favors them any more than he favors you. Listen to me. Lean in close. Someone can be practically wealthy and have everything and more that they wanted, yet they can still be spiritually bankrupt.

Someone in the room tonight needs to hear and then walk away with this truth this evening. All the favor you see in the lives of other people around you is not indicative that God loves them more than he loves you. Some of you feel so unseen, so unheard because of the hurt you're living in. "Man, that must mean God doesn't love me." Or the illness you're fighting against. "That must mean God doesn't love me." Or the job you're still stuck in. "God, you must not love me. I've been in this thing for so long."

Or the fact that you're still lonely, and you can't seem to find a godly and good relationship. "God, you say he who finds a wife finds a good thing. That's what I'm looking for. Why, God, won't you let me have it? I'm desiring it for good reason. You must not love me." This is so naturally a part of our thinking. Even if we would sit here and say, "I don't think that way," we would find that our actions would speak against it, that we do succumb to this thought of "God, you must love other people more than you love me."

The reason we arrive at that conclusion is because we look at their lives and see they have so much more; God has dealt so much more kindly. But listen to me. There is no question whether or not God loves you. I'm going to read this slowly. I want you to hear every word from the apostle Paul.

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Nothing in life can separate you from God's love. No set of circumstances, no degree of difficulty can separate you from him. That raises the question, then. "Okay. If God loves me, why is life so hard? I get it, but this definitely doesn't feel like a loving sort of circumstance." Like, "God, if you do, why is this my reality?" Because it costs to follow Jesus. This is what Peter speaks to in verse 27. He says, "We left everything, God. We left all of it. We left everything, Jesus, to follow you." That sounds pretty costly.

It's so interesting. When you study this in the original language, the word for everything right here doesn't just emphasize "We left everything all at once, Jesus." Instead, the emphasis is "We left everything, each thing, one at a time. Not all at once. We didn't just pour the bowl out. 'Oh, there it all goes.' We didn't do that. Instead, what we chose to do is we picked out every single piece of surrender to you along the way."

It's not a one-and-done decision; it's a daily devotion to walk with God, because it is, in fact, costly. As you go with him, you're going to find… "God, I'm surrendering my life to you…my situation at work, my time with my friends, my anxiousness about the future, my fear of what people think about me, my struggle to find community, God, the wrestle I have with the sake of my credibility as I speak out in my coworking space."

Whatever it is for you, you have reason to surrender all of these things, not all at once, but as you walk with him, following him where he leads you and daily, dependently, surrendering for the rest of your life. That feels so hard, yet it's so much better. Why? Because over and over and over and over and over again, and over and over and over and over and over and over again, you get to decide that he's better. He's better.

"Jesus, you're better. My job is committed to you. My relationship is committed to you, God. My reputation amongst my peers is committed to you, Lord. My self-hate and negative self-talk… I surrender that over to you, God. My struggle with whatever addiction I find myself facing, God… I surrender that to you, because you are better."

This is why we commit and surrender over and over and over and over again, because along the way, with that kind of frequency, we're able to be reminded that he's better. He's so much better than all of it. This is what he's pointing toward when he says if you leave everything, you find that he's so matchless, so incomparable, so incontestable.

The Scriptures would say he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of God's nature. Jesus is the firstborn of all creation by whom and through whom all things were created. He's the hero of heaven. He's a Savior sent to seek. He's a Prince of Peace for those in the face of chaos. He's a Lord of life, and he's a rescuer for you and me. Is that not better? Is that person not better than whatever thing you're trying to attain or achieve for yourself? That's why we know with God the cost is always worth it. Mark 10:29-31:

"'Truly I tell you,' Jesus replied, 'no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'"

Friends, at the closing of this teaching, Jesus says, "Hey, it does cost to follow me. Make no mistake. I don't want there to be any confusion." In verse 29, he lists off seven different nouns. He says home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, and fields. Seven of them, which in Hebrew is the number for completion. He wants you to know there's not just this potential that you're going to suffer the loss of some things; there's this potential that you're going to suffer the loss of everything. It's complete. That's why he says it this way.

Yet, as we hear him say it, we're dissuaded from following. "You know what? That's not a great marketing campaign. Thank you for trying to sell me on it, but I think I'm going to go over here instead." "Sign up now. You might lose everything." "I think I'm going to avoid this, Jesus, and go my own direction." While it does seem to cost so much, what we need to reckon with tonight is all that it offers if we would simply say "Yes." If you say "Yes," what you find is he's giving so much more.

He's offering us the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, joy like we've never known, hope in the face of hard circumstance, and purpose, not only for today, not only for tomorrow, but for the rest of our lives, and then when our life comes to an end, we get to take up everlasting life alongside him, not just to sing and float about on clouds but to enjoy the goodness and presence of God forever, to step out into the world and to recreate all things up into his glory. This is the purpose he's calling us into, he's bidding us into, he's offering we take him up on.

So, it may cost something today, but it's so worth the cost. We give everything away for the gift of that, for the gift of getting Jesus, because apart from him no man and no woman may come to God. Philippians 3:7-8 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."

"Jesus is supreme and sufficient and all-satisfying. I count everything as loss for the sake of getting him. He's worth it. I'll lay it all aside, because I just want him. I want to lay my hands on him, God." As it continues, it says, "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish [garbage], in order that I may gain Christ…"

Everything is disposable in life if it distracts us from him…everything. It's all disposable. Anything is dispensable if it distances us away from him. There's no thing worthy of holding on to, holding close to our chest, fighting to keep off, if it takes us away from him. Jim Elliot, a famous evangelist, martyr, and missionary, famously said this from his journal: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Friends, there's nothing too great. There's no thing too valuable that we can't part ways with for the sake of the one thing we lack and need most of all, which is him. So, what's the first step? How do you take ground on this? Well, you do what I did. You stop sweating all of the proposal to-dos. You stop stressing about all of the engagement party initiatives.

You just step aside from all of the sweat and the work and the achieving and the striving, and you realize, "All of the stuff I do will not sway the opinion of the one who loves me. They love me not because of what I do for them, not because I've earned, not because I've achieved, not because I've merited their favor. They do not love me for anything I bring to the table. They so very simply love me because of me.

They choose to love me. Their love for me is an unconditional love. It's a love that does not waver according to my failures or my successes. Their love for me is steadfast and covenantal, and on the day when I feel too far to find, it will always find me." This is the love of Jesus. It looks upon you and says, "Stop striving. Stop doing, and start surrendering. Come close to me. Accept the love I have to give, and we will be united forever."

There is one thing all people do lack. It's peace with God. There is no thing we can do to make up the difference, yet he who never lacked anything would give up everything that you might be his forever. Do you find yourself lacking tonight, honestly? Then give it all away and come. Follow him forevermore. Let me pray for us.

God, what a gift that you would call us to follow after you. That Scripture, God, says it's impossible for us to enter into the kingdom of God, but nothing is impossible for you. So, Jesus, I just feel in my own heart, as just a man humble before you, face-to-face with all of these friends, I just receive the invitation again. I will give it all away, God, because you're worthy of following after. I will lay aside all that which I want so I might take up that one thing I need.

Father, I beg you, I pray, I plead with you now. Would you move amongst us here, ministering very individually to every person in the room? I don't know their stories. I don't know what they're coming out of. I don't know what they're going into, God, but you do. They may think they're here tonight by coincidence or on mistake, yet that could not be farther from the truth. They're here because you wanted them to be, because you have something to say, and it's a sweet invitation to taste and see just how good you actually are.

God, all the world would offer cannot compare to you. You are the giver of every good delight. Father, you are the one who gives eternal life, and it comes through the person of the Son, he who would bear all of our sin in his death, being crushed under the iniquity of our worst self, bearing the judgment we were due, that as he absorbs it into himself, he might rise forth from the grave, vindicating the fact that death can't hold him anymore.

He has run out of that dark space and into marvelous light that we might follow him where he is, and that invitation is readily received by any who would place their faith in him. So, God, I pray that right now we would reach out with voices of faith, with cries of response, with hands lifted in exaltation, that you and you alone, God, are all we want. You're all we want, Jesus. We praise you that we were all you ever wanted too. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.