Be Sure, Be Very Very Sure

I want to challenge you to look beyond your own comfort and answer the call God has placed on your life. In this message, I explore what it truly means when the Bible says "be sure your sin will find you out" — and why self-focus is one of the most dangerous places a believer can settle. If you're spiritually hungry, there is more for you in the Father's house.

Show Notes

Introduction: A Nation on the Edge of the Promised Land

The Lord is now leading us into a specific place. That's what this message is all about. It has an unusual title: "Be Sure. Be Very, Very Sure." I believe that God is doing the same thing now that He was doing at the time when the nation of Israel first went into the promised land. Keep in mind, when they went into the promised land, it was after 40 years in the wilderness — 400 years of captivity followed by 40 years in the wilderness because of an evil report brought to them by 10 spies sent in by Moses, who said, "No, we can't do it. There are giants there. There are walled cities. We don't have the weaponry. We just can't do it." Because of that report, an entire generation — literally, except for the children — died in the wilderness. The part of the story I'm going to start in today is at the end of that 40-year period, where they are about to go into the promised land. We are about three to four months from Moses' death and Joshua taking the people of Israel into the promised land. Father, I thank you, Lord, that you're going to give me the ability to convey the thought you put in my heart. We are indeed living in the last days. I ask you, God, that as the last-days church, we would truly bring honor and glory to your name by simply obeying you and doing what you've asked us to do — by being the people you've called us to be. Deliver us, Lord, from self-will. Deliver us, God, from trying to do things our own way. Deliver us, God, from marginalizing our callings, from minimizing your word. Give us an obedient heart, Lord, each one of us today. Give us an obedient heart, for it's in your heart to bless us as your people. It's in your heart to lead us into places where your name is brought to glory because of what you do through our lives. And it's always involving human need. Always, always, always, without fail, it involves your people reaching out to somebody else who has no helper if we don't go. So give us the grace not to succumb to just the desire for comfort. Give us the grace, my God. Give me the ability to speak this. Lord, I'm asking again that you would stretch out your hand in this sanctuary and through the internet and do miracles. Let absolute, undebatable miracles happen — prison doors opening, blind eyes seeing, deaf ears hearing. God Almighty, the prisoners being set free. Lord, the poor having the treasure of heaven open to them. Everything you said you came to do, we simply ask you to do that. We don't have to beg you to do what you came to do. We agree with you. We ask for the glory of your name that you would do something so far beyond us that all we can do is stand back and lift our hands and say, "God, only you could have done this." And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Two Tribes and the Temptation of Comfort

Be sure. Be very, very sure. Numbers 32, beginning at verse 20. Then Moses said to them — now, this is two tribes we're talking about. Two tribes that basically said, "We've been 40 years in the wilderness, Moses." They're in a desert the whole time. And they finally conquered what I call the east side of the Jordan. They're not over the Jordan yet into what was designated to be the promised land. But two of the tribes finally landed in a place where there was grass. Can you imagine? It's like living in New York and finally going to Pennsylvania one day — and there's just suddenly grass. They've got cattle, they want to plant things, grow things, raise their families. It's been 40 years in the desert, 40 years of attending funerals literally every day until a whole generation had died off. And suddenly they just don't want to fight anymore. I get it. You get it. We all understand that. Some of you have come to Christ and you say, "God, I know you have a call on my life — can we just put that on hold for a little while? I just want to enjoy life. I want to build something here. I want to smell the flowers." I get that. God gets that. But God is speaking to these people and saying, "No, there's more for you than this. I have a journey for you, and the journey I have for you involves other people. I came and I died for all of humanity, for whosoever will." The scripture says in Romans, they can't hear without a preacher. And there will be no preacher that goes to them unless they are sent. The Holy Spirit is moving on us as His church in this last hour to go into places we've not gone before and to embrace a calling that we may not have fully embraced. Moses said to them, "If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war, and all your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies from before Him, and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel. And this land shall be your possession before the Lord." In other words: okay, you've asked for permission to stay on this side of the Jordan — the east side. The west side is supposed to be where the promised land is, but you've found what you want. But if you will go over and fight with your brothers and sisters until they have obtained their inheritance — if you will live beyond just living for yourself — if you will give yourself for them so that they can conquer what needs to be conquered and have their inheritance, then you can come back and enjoy this place. "But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out."

What It Really Means: "Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out"

Be sure. Now, when we talk about that verse — "be sure your sin will find you out" — we generally have a connotation that somebody has a hidden sin. Whether you've stolen something from the workplace, you've been in an illicit relationship you shouldn't be in — and when that verse is quoted, we somehow think it means there's going to be an exposure one day. That very well might be the case for some, but that's not the context of this passage. This sin wasn't hidden. If the people didn't go with their brothers and sisters across into the promised land to conquer the giants and the armies occupying it, it would be a known thing — not a hidden thing. So being a known thing, what does it mean that your sin will find you out? Here's the way I see it. This kind of sin — the sin of selfishness, self-focus, the sin of knowing what to do and not doing it — it can be hidden by activity. It can be hidden by even coming to church on a regular basis. It can be hidden by a lot of things. But ultimately, it will find its way out in your character. As a man thinks in his heart, the scripture says, that's what he is. You can hide it for years, but eventually it's going to come out. Galatians 6:7 says, don't be deceived — whatever a man sows, that's what he's going to reap. Whatever seed you put in the ground, if you plant corn, you're not going to grow watermelons. Whatever you sow, you're going to reap. Matthew 7:2 — Jesus said, whatever measure you use, it will be measured back to you. In the measure you give out to others now, in the measure you are yielded for the sake of others, there's a day coming where you're going to need somebody to come to you. And trust me, it's going to happen. You're going to be — as the saying goes down in the South — lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut. You're going to be as low as you can go, and you can say, "God, send somebody to me." But the question is: where were you when somebody was calling that out? When somebody in New York City was saying, "God, send somebody to help me," and you didn't go. You stayed on the east side of Jordan and said, "I'm not interested in going over there. I've lived in a dry place, and I just want to enjoy life." Now, God doesn't resent that. Don't misunderstand. The point is that the calling is farther than that. It's higher — on your life and on my life. I shared this morning that I'm turning 73 this month, and I could easily retire. I mean, I could easily retire and live on what's been done in the past. I tell Pastor Teresa — I tell her every summer when we vacation beside the ocean — "I could manage your life from here. I know how to work a laptop now. I could book all your appointments and speaking engagements, and both of us would be very, very happy. I would be here by the water, and you could travel and preach the gospel." But whatever we choose to embrace, that's what we will become — if we neglect to do what we're called to do. I'm not called to retire. I think one of my own sons said it best. He said, "Dad, how could you even think about retiring? You finally know something. Why do the people who finally get it right retire and leave it for the ones who aren't fully formed in God yet to go out and preach the gospel?"

Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out — A Cautionary Story

God was saying to these two tribes: if you neglect to do what you know to do, your sin will find you out. We cannot selectively choose what we want in the word of God and ignore the rest without consequence. You cannot be in a wrong relationship with somebody and somehow think there will be no consequence. The wages of sin is still death. The wage is still the same. Nothing has changed. There's no exception because you're lonely. The wages of sin is still death. If you are in a relationship with somebody you shouldn't be in, or you're in a relationship with somebody who's not a believer in Jesus Christ, thinking that's going to change one day — not necessarily so. And it often gets a whole lot worse, because people know what the word of God says but choose to be unequally yoked with a nonbeliever. Years ago, I was asked if I could go and try to help a missionary — a famous missionary, a missionary whose name is a household name in his own denomination. A missionary who went overseas and for almost three decades worked in a war-torn country. A missionary who actually took the president out of that nation at a certain time when the nation fell. A missionary who was drawn back when the war was over and given the presidential medal, certificates, accolades, and all kinds of things — who came home from the mission field and wouldn't come out of his basement. He had a finished basement in his home, but he hunkered down there and wouldn't come out, wouldn't go to churches and speak. He had so much to say — he just wouldn't do anything. And I was asked if I could go and try to help him. So I went to see him. Ironically, he was the age I am right now — 72 years old. I went and started talking to him about why he wouldn't go to church, only to find out that he had had a wounding, a church wounding, that happened in his life almost 40 years before — and he had refused to forgive the church and the people involved. He covered up all of this. He knew what to do and wouldn't do it, and he covered it all up with activity. He ended up with certificates on his wall, medals, and accolades — and in his basement, ranting and raving and angry at the thought of forgiving somebody who had hurt him 40 years before. Be sure your sin will find you out. The bitterness that had been in him for 40 years — that he tried to cover up with all that missionary work — finally found him out. It came to the surface and ruined his inheritance. It ruined what should have been wonderful years: the ability to go into churches and talk about the faithfulness of God and what he had seen on the mission field. But he couldn't, because he was so full of bitterness that, in my opinion, he actually hated the church of Jesus Christ — yet had gone to the mission field. I asked him, "Why did you go to the mission field?" He said, "I went there to get away from the church." "Were you called to the mission field?" He said, "I really don't know if I was or wasn't. I just needed to get away." So you end up with certificates and medals and accolades and ceremonies — and locked in your basement when it's all over. He knew to forgive. Isn't it ironic that you're representing a kingdom of forgiveness? You're representing the One who went to a cross so that we could be forgiven. The One who said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" — and yet you won't forgive. It's the ultimate irony, isn't it? If we represent the kingdom of God, isn't forgiveness our message? Aren't we supposed to be messengers of forgiveness? Jesus himself said there was a man who owed a terrific debt, and he went to the master he owed it to and said, "Forgive me, and over time I'll try to pay back everything I owe." The scripture says the master was moved with compassion and forgave him his debt. But the same man went out and took somebody who owed him a comparatively little amount, took him by the throat, and said, "Pay me what you owe me." When the master found out, he was irate and threw him into prison and delivered him to the tormentors. That's what the scripture says. This missionary was tormented. He was delivered to the tormentors. I have no joy in sharing this story. It was tragic. It was sad. I remember leaving there with such a heaviness in my heart, saying, "God, how can a man serve you all these years and end up so tormented — such a mess at the end of his days, and such a horrible testimony to his family?" He had kids and grandkids, but what an awful testimony. Grandpa, the former missionary, won't come out of the basement and just rants and raves against the church of Jesus Christ.

The Sin of Self-Focus

Self-focus is the opposite of taking up one's cross and following Christ. It is. Now, we have a tendency to be focused on ourselves. I get that. I was. You are, or were. We come to Christ and it's all about me — my freedom, my forgiveness, my giftings, my addictions, my everything. Which is great, actually. It's like we're children in the Lord. We're babes in Christ, as the scripture says we are. If you ever get a chance to hang around a toddler, that's all they talk about: "Mine. That's mine. Mine, mine, mine." It's never about anybody else. It doesn't matter what it is — it's mine. Now that's cute until you get to be 28 years old. It's not cute anymore. When you get older, if you're in a family business, you're expected to become more mature. You're expected to look out beyond yourself. You're expected to get out of yourself and into what the family is all about. But what about the kingdom of God? At some point, aren't we expected to escape ourselves and become involved in what the kingdom of God is — and why we are here on the earth as the church of Jesus Christ? The scripture says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach except they be sent? And I'm not allowed to add a verse to scripture, but I can add a thought: how shall they be sent unless they're willing to be sent by God himself? Unless they're willing to actually leave their comfort zone, go across the Jordan, go into that place, and fight for somebody else? It's no longer about me — it's now about you. It's no longer about me; it's about the kids in this generation who are being lied to in their schools and being confused on every conceivable level. It's about the families being broken to pieces. It's about the people who are addicted, depressed, and suicidal in society. At some point, it has to be not about me, but about them.

The Prodigal Son and the Land of Self-Focus

In Luke 15, there was a father's son. One day he thought, "I want to smell the grass on the other side of the valley." Jesus said he went to his father and asked for his inheritance. We are the sons and daughters of God. And we say, "I want the freedom. I want the forgiveness. I want the giftings of the Holy Spirit. I want the good feeling of knowing that my sins are forgiven." The scripture says his father gave it to him. But he took it and went into a faraway place from the heart of his father. And he spent all he had on riotous living. In the original text, "riotous living" means self-focus — spent it on himself, on his own indulgence. He stayed on the wrong side. He wasn't fighting for anybody. He was just looking for comfort. Please don't misunderstand me — I get that. Some of us have been so unhappy for so long that when you finally do get saved, you just want to enjoy life a bit. And God understands that there's a point of healing, a point of learning, a point of growing in grace. But there is also a point of maturity, where we understand: if anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Jesus said, where I am, there will my disciple be also. This young man went into the land of self-focus. Everybody is self-focused there — it's all about me, myself, and I. Maybe he even went to a church like that. Everything is about you: be your best you, have a nicer personality, get that big promotion. Maybe the gospel he was listening to was all just about himself — just reinforcing his error, as I see it. But in the land of selfishness, it gets hungry. You can get hungry there. Because we're meant for so much more, when we focus only on ourselves, we start to starve. And that's what happened with this young man. He got so hungry that he even wanted to eat the pigs' food. He was starving. He started trying to reach out in the land of self-focus, looking for somebody to give him something. But everybody there is just as selfish as him, and nobody will give him anything. And so one day, the scripture says, he came to himself and said, "I don't fully get my father's house, but it's better than here. I'm starving here. In my father's house there is nourishment, and there's plenty of it." And so he got up and headed home. His sin found him out. That's what happened. His sin of neglecting to do what he was called to do found him out — because he became, as a son of his father, he was starving. You might be here today and you might be a child of God, but maybe you're spiritually starving inside. You've come here today saying, "God, what is wrong with me? Why am I so unfulfilled? Why am I spiritually starving all the time? Why am I always just struggling not to eat pig's food? Does this walk just not work for me?" And he got up and said, "I don't fully get my father's house, but I know there's something there for me." And he started heading home down the road, not quite knowing what to expect. "I know that I've failed. I know I've not been the son I'm called to be. I know I've not been about my father's business. Is he going to reject me?" He was so far away. But as he came towards the house, how shocked he must have been to see this old gray-haired father come running down the road towards him. He wasn't sure — "Is he going to put out his hand and say, 'No farther for you. You could have represented my house, but you went off into the land of self-focus and indulged everything on yourself. You deserve everything you got.'" He didn't know what to expect. And how shocked he must have been when his old father put his arms around him and embraced him and kissed him on the neck and hugged him like he'd never been hugged before.

Be Very, Very Sure of This

Be very, very sure of this one thing: if you head up towards God — if you're aware that you've not been what you ought to be, if you have neglected truth in some manner — know this: when you head towards God, be very sure He will get to you before you get to Him. Be very, very sure that He loves you.

What is Carter Conlon | A Call to the Nation?

Carter Conlon presents a weekly 24:55 program, encouraging and equipping a generation willing to pray, willing in God’s power to rise up and plead for mercy on behalf of others. Carter says: “As God’s people we have a responsibility to believe God for the power to find the full purpose that He has for our life!”

Introduction: A Nation on the Edge of the Promised Land

The Lord is now leading us into a specific place. That's what this message is all about. It has an unusual title: "Be Sure. Be Very, Very Sure." I believe that God is doing the same thing now that He was doing at the time when the nation of Israel first went into the promised land.

Keep in mind, when they went into the promised land, it was after 40 years in the wilderness — 400 years of captivity followed by 40 years in the wilderness because of an evil report brought to them by 10 spies sent in by Moses, who said, "No, we can't do it. There are giants there. There are walled cities. We don't have the weaponry. We just can't do it." Because of that report, an entire generation — literally, except for the children — died in the wilderness.

The part of the story I'm going to start in today is at the end of that 40-year period, where they are about to go into the promised land. We are about three to four months from Moses' death and Joshua taking the people of Israel into the promised land.

Father, I thank you, Lord, that you're going to give me the ability to convey the thought you put in my heart. We are indeed living in the last days. I ask you, God, that as the last-days church, we would truly bring honor and glory to your name by simply obeying you and doing what you've asked us to do — by being the people you've called us to be. Deliver us, Lord, from self-will. Deliver us, God, from trying to do things our own way. Deliver us, God, from marginalizing our callings, from minimizing your word. Give us an obedient heart, Lord, each one of us today. Give us an obedient heart, for it's in your heart to bless us as your people. It's in your heart to lead us into places where your name is brought to glory because of what you do through our lives.

And it's always involving human need. Always, always, always, without fail, it involves your people reaching out to somebody else who has no helper if we don't go. So give us the grace not to succumb to just the desire for comfort. Give us the grace, my God. Give me the ability to speak this.

Lord, I'm asking again that you would stretch out your hand in this sanctuary and through the internet and do miracles. Let absolute, undebatable miracles happen — prison doors opening, blind eyes seeing, deaf ears hearing. God Almighty, the prisoners being set free. Lord, the poor having the treasure of heaven open to them. Everything you said you came to do, we simply ask you to do that. We don't have to beg you to do what you came to do. We agree with you. We ask for the glory of your name that you would do something so far beyond us that all we can do is stand back and lift our hands and say, "God, only you could have done this." And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Two Tribes and the Temptation of Comfort

Be sure. Be very, very sure.

Numbers 32, beginning at verse 20. Then Moses said to them — now, this is two tribes we're talking about. Two tribes that basically said, "We've been 40 years in the wilderness, Moses." They're in a desert the whole time. And they finally conquered what I call the east side of the Jordan. They're not over the Jordan yet into what was designated to be the promised land. But two of the tribes finally landed in a place where there was grass. Can you imagine? It's like living in New York and finally going to Pennsylvania one day — and there's just suddenly grass. They've got cattle, they want to plant things, grow things, raise their families. It's been 40 years in the desert, 40 years of attending funerals literally every day until a whole generation had died off. And suddenly they just don't want to fight anymore.

I get it. You get it. We all understand that. Some of you have come to Christ and you say, "God, I know you have a call on my life — can we just put that on hold for a little while? I just want to enjoy life. I want to build something here. I want to smell the flowers." I get that. God gets that. But God is speaking to these people and saying, "No, there's more for you than this. I have a journey for you, and the journey I have for you involves other people. I came and I died for all of humanity, for whosoever will."

The scripture says in Romans, they can't hear without a preacher. And there will be no preacher that goes to them unless they are sent. The Holy Spirit is moving on us as His church in this last hour to go into places we've not gone before and to embrace a calling that we may not have fully embraced.

Moses said to them, "If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war, and all your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies from before Him, and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel. And this land shall be your possession before the Lord."

In other words: okay, you've asked for permission to stay on this side of the Jordan — the east side. The west side is supposed to be where the promised land is, but you've found what you want. But if you will go over and fight with your brothers and sisters until they have obtained their inheritance — if you will live beyond just living for yourself — if you will give yourself for them so that they can conquer what needs to be conquered and have their inheritance, then you can come back and enjoy this place.

"But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out."

What It Really Means: "Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out"

Be sure.

Now, when we talk about that verse — "be sure your sin will find you out" — we generally have a connotation that somebody has a hidden sin. Whether you've stolen something from the workplace, you've been in an illicit relationship you shouldn't be in — and when that verse is quoted, we somehow think it means there's going to be an exposure one day. That very well might be the case for some, but that's not the context of this passage.

This sin wasn't hidden. If the people didn't go with their brothers and sisters across into the promised land to conquer the giants and the armies occupying it, it would be a known thing — not a hidden thing. So being a known thing, what does it mean that your sin will find you out?

Here's the way I see it. This kind of sin — the sin of selfishness, self-focus, the sin of knowing what to do and not doing it — it can be hidden by activity. It can be hidden by even coming to church on a regular basis. It can be hidden by a lot of things. But ultimately, it will find its way out in your character. As a man thinks in his heart, the scripture says, that's what he is. You can hide it for years, but eventually it's going to come out.

Galatians 6:7 says, don't be deceived — whatever a man sows, that's what he's going to reap. Whatever seed you put in the ground, if you plant corn, you're not going to grow watermelons. Whatever you sow, you're going to reap.

Matthew 7:2 — Jesus said, whatever measure you use, it will be measured back to you. In the measure you give out to others now, in the measure you are yielded for the sake of others, there's a day coming where you're going to need somebody to come to you. And trust me, it's going to happen. You're going to be — as the saying goes down in the South — lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut. You're going to be as low as you can go, and you can say, "God, send somebody to me." But the question is: where were you when somebody was calling that out? When somebody in New York City was saying, "God, send somebody to help me," and you didn't go. You stayed on the east side of Jordan and said, "I'm not interested in going over there. I've lived in a dry place, and I just want to enjoy life."

Now, God doesn't resent that. Don't misunderstand. The point is that the calling is farther than that. It's higher — on your life and on my life.

I shared this morning that I'm turning 73 this month, and I could easily retire. I mean, I could easily retire and live on what's been done in the past. I tell Pastor Teresa — I tell her every summer when we vacation beside the ocean — "I could manage your life from here. I know how to work a laptop now. I could book all your appointments and speaking engagements, and both of us would be very, very happy. I would be here by the water, and you could travel and preach the gospel." But whatever we choose to embrace, that's what we will become — if we neglect to do what we're called to do.

I'm not called to retire. I think one of my own sons said it best. He said, "Dad, how could you even think about retiring? You finally know something. Why do the people who finally get it right retire and leave it for the ones who aren't fully formed in God yet to go out and preach the gospel?"

Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out — A Cautionary Story

God was saying to these two tribes: if you neglect to do what you know to do, your sin will find you out. We cannot selectively choose what we want in the word of God and ignore the rest without consequence. You cannot be in a wrong relationship with somebody and somehow think there will be no consequence. The wages of sin is still death. The wage is still the same. Nothing has changed. There's no exception because you're lonely. The wages of sin is still death. If you are in a relationship with somebody you shouldn't be in, or you're in a relationship with somebody who's not a believer in Jesus Christ, thinking that's going to change one day — not necessarily so. And it often gets a whole lot worse, because people know what the word of God says but choose to be unequally yoked with a nonbeliever.

Years ago, I was asked if I could go and try to help a missionary — a famous missionary, a missionary whose name is a household name in his own denomination. A missionary who went overseas and for almost three decades worked in a war-torn country. A missionary who actually took the president out of that nation at a certain time when the nation fell. A missionary who was drawn back when the war was over and given the presidential medal, certificates, accolades, and all kinds of things — who came home from the mission field and wouldn't come out of his basement. He had a finished basement in his home, but he hunkered down there and wouldn't come out, wouldn't go to churches and speak. He had so much to say — he just wouldn't do anything. And I was asked if I could go and try to help him.

So I went to see him. Ironically, he was the age I am right now — 72 years old. I went and started talking to him about why he wouldn't go to church, only to find out that he had had a wounding, a church wounding, that happened in his life almost 40 years before — and he had refused to forgive the church and the people involved. He covered up all of this. He knew what to do and wouldn't do it, and he covered it all up with activity. He ended up with certificates on his wall, medals, and accolades — and in his basement, ranting and raving and angry at the thought of forgiving somebody who had hurt him 40 years before.

Be sure your sin will find you out.

The bitterness that had been in him for 40 years — that he tried to cover up with all that missionary work — finally found him out. It came to the surface and ruined his inheritance. It ruined what should have been wonderful years: the ability to go into churches and talk about the faithfulness of God and what he had seen on the mission field. But he couldn't, because he was so full of bitterness that, in my opinion, he actually hated the church of Jesus Christ — yet had gone to the mission field.

I asked him, "Why did you go to the mission field?" He said, "I went there to get away from the church." "Were you called to the mission field?" He said, "I really don't know if I was or wasn't. I just needed to get away." So you end up with certificates and medals and accolades and ceremonies — and locked in your basement when it's all over.

He knew to forgive. Isn't it ironic that you're representing a kingdom of forgiveness? You're representing the One who went to a cross so that we could be forgiven. The One who said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" — and yet you won't forgive. It's the ultimate irony, isn't it? If we represent the kingdom of God, isn't forgiveness our message? Aren't we supposed to be messengers of forgiveness?

Jesus himself said there was a man who owed a terrific debt, and he went to the master he owed it to and said, "Forgive me, and over time I'll try to pay back everything I owe." The scripture says the master was moved with compassion and forgave him his debt. But the same man went out and took somebody who owed him a comparatively little amount, took him by the throat, and said, "Pay me what you owe me." When the master found out, he was irate and threw him into prison and delivered him to the tormentors. That's what the scripture says.

This missionary was tormented. He was delivered to the tormentors. I have no joy in sharing this story. It was tragic. It was sad. I remember leaving there with such a heaviness in my heart, saying, "God, how can a man serve you all these years and end up so tormented — such a mess at the end of his days, and such a horrible testimony to his family?" He had kids and grandkids, but what an awful testimony. Grandpa, the former missionary, won't come out of the basement and just rants and raves against the church of Jesus Christ.

The Sin of Self-Focus

Self-focus is the opposite of taking up one's cross and following Christ. It is.

Now, we have a tendency to be focused on ourselves. I get that. I was. You are, or were. We come to Christ and it's all about me — my freedom, my forgiveness, my giftings, my addictions, my everything. Which is great, actually. It's like we're children in the Lord. We're babes in Christ, as the scripture says we are. If you ever get a chance to hang around a toddler, that's all they talk about: "Mine. That's mine. Mine, mine, mine." It's never about anybody else. It doesn't matter what it is — it's mine. Now that's cute until you get to be 28 years old. It's not cute anymore.

When you get older, if you're in a family business, you're expected to become more mature. You're expected to look out beyond yourself. You're expected to get out of yourself and into what the family is all about. But what about the kingdom of God? At some point, aren't we expected to escape ourselves and become involved in what the kingdom of God is — and why we are here on the earth as the church of Jesus Christ?

The scripture says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach except they be sent? And I'm not allowed to add a verse to scripture, but I can add a thought: how shall they be sent unless they're willing to be sent by God himself? Unless they're willing to actually leave their comfort zone, go across the Jordan, go into that place, and fight for somebody else?

It's no longer about me — it's now about you. It's no longer about me; it's about the kids in this generation who are being lied to in their schools and being confused on every conceivable level. It's about the families being broken to pieces. It's about the people who are addicted, depressed, and suicidal in society. At some point, it has to be not about me, but about them.

The Prodigal Son and the Land of Self-Focus

In Luke 15, there was a father's son. One day he thought, "I want to smell the grass on the other side of the valley." Jesus said he went to his father and asked for his inheritance. We are the sons and daughters of God. And we say, "I want the freedom. I want the forgiveness. I want the giftings of the Holy Spirit. I want the good feeling of knowing that my sins are forgiven." The scripture says his father gave it to him. But he took it and went into a faraway place from the heart of his father. And he spent all he had on riotous living. In the original text, "riotous living" means self-focus — spent it on himself, on his own indulgence. He stayed on the wrong side. He wasn't fighting for anybody. He was just looking for comfort.

Please don't misunderstand me — I get that. Some of us have been so unhappy for so long that when you finally do get saved, you just want to enjoy life a bit. And God understands that there's a point of healing, a point of learning, a point of growing in grace. But there is also a point of maturity, where we understand: if anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Jesus said, where I am, there will my disciple be also.

This young man went into the land of self-focus. Everybody is self-focused there — it's all about me, myself, and I. Maybe he even went to a church like that. Everything is about you: be your best you, have a nicer personality, get that big promotion. Maybe the gospel he was listening to was all just about himself — just reinforcing his error, as I see it.

But in the land of selfishness, it gets hungry. You can get hungry there. Because we're meant for so much more, when we focus only on ourselves, we start to starve. And that's what happened with this young man. He got so hungry that he even wanted to eat the pigs' food. He was starving. He started trying to reach out in the land of self-focus, looking for somebody to give him something. But everybody there is just as selfish as him, and nobody will give him anything.

And so one day, the scripture says, he came to himself and said, "I don't fully get my father's house, but it's better than here. I'm starving here. In my father's house there is nourishment, and there's plenty of it." And so he got up and headed home.

His sin found him out. That's what happened. His sin of neglecting to do what he was called to do found him out — because he became, as a son of his father, he was starving.

You might be here today and you might be a child of God, but maybe you're spiritually starving inside. You've come here today saying, "God, what is wrong with me? Why am I so unfulfilled? Why am I spiritually starving all the time? Why am I always just struggling not to eat pig's food? Does this walk just not work for me?"

And he got up and said, "I don't fully get my father's house, but I know there's something there for me." And he started heading home down the road, not quite knowing what to expect. "I know that I've failed. I know I've not been the son I'm called to be. I know I've not been about my father's business. Is he going to reject me?"

He was so far away. But as he came towards the house, how shocked he must have been to see this old gray-haired father come running down the road towards him. He wasn't sure — "Is he going to put out his hand and say, 'No farther for you. You could have represented my house, but you went off into the land of self-focus and indulged everything on yourself. You deserve everything you got.'" He didn't know what to expect. And how shocked he must have been when his old father put his arms around him and embraced him and kissed him on the neck and hugged him like he'd never been hugged before.

Be Very, Very Sure of This

Be very, very sure of this one thing: if you head up towards God — if you're aware that you've not been what you ought to be, if you have neglected truth in some manner — know this: when you head towards God, be very sure He will get to you before you get to Him.

Be very, very sure that He loves you.