Okay, well hey, before we had our technical problems, um, I showed these three words. I hope they're in the right order. Yeah, drop your nets. That's the message this morning. Drop your nets. But but first I want to talk about some famous some famous almosts. Because we're gonna look at a famous almost in in the Bible that goes along with this story. Um before I had children, I have four of them. I used to I used to watch movies, and by movies I mean not animated movies. Now that's all I get to watch. Uh but but before kids, I actually was was fairly up to snuff with with modern films. Not so much anymore. I used to actually consider myself somewhat of a film buff, and if you love movies, one of the things you might be aware of is that some of the most iconic roles that have ever been played were almost played by other actors. And had they been, it would have been a wildly, wildly different thing. So, some famous almost. For example, let's let's start here. All right, Sean Connery, classic, iconic, the first James Bond. You may not know this, but if you're a Lord of the Rings fan, the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies was first offered to Sean Connery. They really wanted him, they wanted him really bad, but Sean Connery said no. He didn't think it was going to be successful. Specifically, he said he did not understand the script, and so Gandalf, almost Sean Connery. I think it could have worked, but uh it definitely would have been different. Um let's go to this one. Okay. Al Pacino was originally offered the role of Han Solo in Star Wars. Think about that for a second. Think about think about like The Godfather, Scarface, Han Solo. It would have definitely been a very, very different take on the character. And so if you're a Star Wars fan, you can't imagine anyone other than Harrison Ford being Han Solo, but Al Pacino was almost Han Solo. Okay? Another one. Julia Roberts was almost the lead in the romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle. And uh, ladies, if you're a fan of 90s romantic comedies, then you probably love the movie Sleepless in Seattle. My mom used to watch it all the time. My wife loves that movie. And it's hard to imagine anyone other than Meg Ryan as that role. However, I will say that if you remember the 90s, uh, pretty much every other movie was a romantic comedy starring either Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts, and so probably wouldn't have been that different, but almost Julia Roberts. These last two are my favorites, okay? Will Smith. I mean, it's Will Smith. Will Smith was originally offered the role of Neo in The Matrix. So, so Keanu Reeves, Neo, sunglasses, barely says a word, you know, whoa. Like that's basically his lines in The Matrix. Almost Will Smith. Will Smith was almost Neo in the Matrix, and there's no question that would have made that a very, very different movie. Uh, last one, and this one is this is like, maybe this is just me, but this one I think it's it takes the cake. All right, John Travolta was almost Forrest Gump. Like, legit. Think Forrest Gump. You cannot picture anyone other than Tom Hanks being Forrest Gump. But the role of Forrest Gump Gump was actually written for and offered to John Travolta, and John Travolta said no, and it went to Tom Hanks, and history is made. So this guy was almost Forrest Gump, and I'm just gonna go on a limb and say it would have absolutely ruined the movie, and I'm glad that never happened. Okay, so those are some famous, some famous almost. And today we're gonna look at a famous almost in the story of Jesus, and we're gonna be in Mark chapter 10. We're also gonna look at Mark chapter 1. We're kind of gonna flip-flop between those. If you have a Bible, you can turn there. If you have our mobile app, the His Hands Mobile app, that's what I'm actually gonna be reading everything from. And so let's just dive in. Mark chapter 10. I'm gonna be in verses 17 through 22. Here we go. It says, as Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus asked. Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments. You must not murder, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not testify falsely, you must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother. Teacher, the man replied, I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young. Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. There's still one thing you haven't done, he told him. Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And then come follow me. At this the man's face fell, and he went away very sad, for he had many possessions. Okay, this is a really interesting story, and it's one that we could unpack for a really long time. There's a lot of stuff going on here. But I want us to understand at the very basic level what's happening here, the opportunity that's being presented to this man. He has the opportunity to become a disciple of Jesus. That is absolutely what's happening here. Jesus is offering this man the chance to be one of his disciples. And we know that because the conversation that Jesus has with him, it follows the exact same structure, even uses the same words as some of the conversations Jesus has with the disciples that actually do end up following him. For example, turn to Mark chapter 1. Mark 1 says this, verses 16 through 18. One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water. For they had fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, Come follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people. And they left their nets at once and they followed him. Okay, so very similar structure to what happens with this rich young man. Alright, let's look at it from a few different angles. Number one, in both conversations, Jesus identifies their their earthly occupation. He identifies the thing that they're known for on the earth. For the rich man, it's his wealth. For for Andrew, for Simon Peter, it's the fact that they're fishermen. And so he uses that language, but then he puts an eternal spin on it. So he says to the rich man, hey, you could have treasure in heaven. And he says to Andrew and to Peter, he says, Hey, you guys could become fishers of men, literally fish for souls and help bring people into the kingdom of God. He takes their earthly occupation, but he gives it a whole different spin, and he gives them a picture of what they really could be if they surrender their life to him. And then in both conversations, he uses the exact same words. He says, Now come, follow me. So Andrew and Simon Peter, they're fishing. Jesus says, Hey, I can make you fishers of men. Now come follow me. They drop their nets, they follow Jesus, their whole lives change, history changes as a result of that. Now we know we know who they are, we we know of the things that they did. They're two of the most famous people that have ever lived. We still talk to this day about their exploits. When it comes to Peter, we have his writings in Scripture. And so a lot of the things that we know about Jesus, that we know about God, come from him because of the time that he spent following Jesus. Had he not dropped his nets and followed Jesus, that never would have happened. Right? He says, Hey, drop your nets, follow me. They do that, the rich man. He says, Hey, you could have treasure in heaven. Sell your stuff, right? Drop your nets and follow me, but this rich man, he couldn't do it. He held on to what he had, and he couldn't even, he couldn't even grasp the concept of letting everything go in order to follow Jesus. And I mean, really, really think about this for a second, how different this man's life would be. I mean, we don't know his name. We just know him as the rich young kid who walked away from Jesus. But had he said yes, had he actually done what Jesus asked, had he had he dropped everything and followed Jesus, we would not only know his name, we would probably have stories, uh, maybe miraculous stories that he was part of. It's very, very possible that we would be able to read things that he wrote about Jesus. Maybe we would have his account of Jesus' life. Because this man being wealthy would have likely been educated. He would have likely been able to write. And so he may have been the perfect candidate to actually write some of the stories in the accounts of Jesus. And to this day, 2,000 plus years later, we could be reading his account of Jesus. We would know his name, we would know stories about him. He would have echoed on as one of the most influential people in human history, but he's not. He's not a disciple of Jesus. He's an almost disciple. He's an almost disciple. He got so close, he had this incredible opportunity to grab a hold of a life that Jesus had for him. And remember, Jesus loved him. It says Jesus felt genuine love for him. Jesus is offering him something amazing, but in order for this young man to grab a hold of what Jesus has for him, he's gonna have to let go of something else. But he refuses to let go. Andrew and Simon Peter, they're the opposite. They dropped their nets. Now, in all fairness, maybe it's easier to drop fishing nets than it is to drop wealth. But understand this that fishing was all that Simon and Andrew had ever known. That's all they ever knew. Dropping those nets was them dropping their entire livelihood. It was them dropping everything that they had ever known, everything that they could ever envision about their future. And they weren't just guys who fished for fun. This was their living, this was their livelihood for their families. I mean, it was just it was the same as the rich young ruler. They had to drop everything in order to follow Jesus, but because they did, they experienced something far greater than what they let go of. If we want to grab a hold of what God has for us, we've got to be able to drop our nets. We've got to be able to let go. And might I suggest that a lot of the times when we're really struggling to experience the life that Jesus promised us, maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're trying to follow Jesus while dragging our nets behind us. And it just doesn't work like that. If you think about some of the things that Jesus has actually promised you, it's pretty amazing. Jesus said that he came to give us an abundant life. It says that he comes to give us a rich and satisfying life. That life, by the way, is defined by things like Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Those are the things that are meant to define our lives as Jesus followers. But so often, and this is something that I've experienced personally, it's something that I know many people experience, so often we're not experiencing that. We can't look at our lives and say, yeah, I've got an abundance of joy. I've got an abundance of peace. I've got an abundance of wisdom. I've got an abundance of power. I've got an abundance of all the things that Jesus promises me. I'm living that abundant life that Jesus offers to me. We can't say with confidence that we're living that, and maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're not grabbing a hold of what Jesus has for us because we're struggling to let go of something else that we're carrying. Maybe we haven't fully dropped our nets. Letting go is a hard thing to do. I've got four young kids at home and and they're all really good at holding on to stuff. In fact, some of the funniest, and it's it's funny from a distance, but in the moment it can be kind of sad, but some of the funniest uh experiences I have are watching my kids fight over things. And sometimes my my four-year-old and my two-year-old will literally just have a tug-of-war contest over some toy that costs like like three dollars. But both of them want it, and neither of them will let go. We have a difficult time letting go. And maybe, maybe we're missing some of the things that Jesus has for us. Maybe we're missing that full experience that Jesus has promised us because unlike Peter, unlike Andrew, we haven't we haven't dropped our nets. Maybe we're a little bit more like that rich young ruler, and we're really trying to figure out how we can simultaneously follow Jesus, but also hold on to everything else that makes us comfortable. It doesn't work that way. You've got to let go in order to grab a hold of what of what Jesus has for you. Now, our nets can come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, can be a lot of different things. You know, number one, it could be things like anger, it could be things like resentment, it could be mentalities that we've just gotten really used to having in life. For example, for a long time, I really struggled with what I call now a victim thinking. Victim thinking. And so what it what it was for me is from a young age, I always felt like I was the responsible one. Like other people in my life, even people who were authorities in my life, uh, would have like these little life crises. And when they would be in the midst of a life crisis, it was like they're kind of they're kind of spinning out of control, and I felt like I was the one looked to to be the responsible one to kind of hold things together in the midst of that. That happened when I was really young, and then even when I became uh someone in ministry working at a church, I had situations where people that were that were above me were going through some really difficult situations, and the things they were going through weren't necessarily their fault. But I had developed this way of thinking, this victim thinking that said, oh, okay, uh, everybody else gets to have a crisis, everybody else gets to pause everything and deal with all their stuff in life, and in the meantime, Justin is the one that just does everything. Justin's the one that just holds it all together. I started taking counseling not that long, not that long ago, I guess it was like five or six years ago, so yeah, a long time ago. Uh but as I was going through counseling, something that my counselor really helped me understand is the way that we think. Uh it tends to go like this: you have thoughts, right? We all have thoughts, hopefully. And if you think something for long enough, it becomes a belief. And if you believe something long enough, it becomes a truth. And once it's become a truth, now you start looking for evidence to back that up. Now you start going and looking for examples to make you feel confident in the truth that you believe is so true. And so for me, that victim thinking, that whole, oh, I'm the one that has to do everything, that had crystallized to the point where I believed it was true. And I started looking for evidence to back it up. So all of a sudden, I'd see a situation where someone was maybe having a hard day, someone's going through something, and they didn't ask me to help, they didn't ask me to get involved, but I just took that on myself. I'm like, oh, okay, someone's got to do it. Probably gonna have to be me. And I would rush in and I would fix the situation or try to, the whole time being resentful that I had to. But it wasn't because they asked me, it's because that's the way I thought. I had this victim thinking. And for years that followed me everywhere I went. I had this resentment for the fact that I guess I'm the one that has to do everything. And there's no way for me to let Jesus be my savior and at the same time believe that I'm the one that has to save everybody else. Those two things, they're mutually exclusive. And so I dealt with a lot of frustration, I dealt with a lot of anger, and I realized through counseling that the only way for me to really embrace Jesus as the one who does have it all under control, like Jesus is the one who holds it all together, not Justin, Jesus. The only way for me to really grab a hold of Jesus as my Savior was for me to let go of that savior mentality that I had developed, that victim thinking, that kind of martyrdom of, oh, I'm the one that's got to do it. I had to let go of that. I had to drop that net in order to really grab a hold of Jesus, but that was difficult because that net was comfortable to me. Right? It might be a mentality that you have, something that you've held on to for a really long time. It might actually be something as simple as a sin.

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Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1 says that we should strip off every single weight, every single weight that actually keeps us from following Jesus with all that we can. Strip it off. It says, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. It says that we would we would run with endurance the race that God has set before us if we could just get rid of that stuff. You know, you think about a race. When it comes to the sin in our lives, those issues, those struggles that we all know that we have, those trip us up all the time. It's like our shoes are tied together. And we want to run after Jesus, and we we we want to go after whatever God has has put before us in life, but every single time we start to get some speed, we trip. And then we have to stop and we have to pick ourselves back up, and then we have to go again, and we trip and we fall, and it's like a cycle. I lived that cycle for a long time as someone who battled addiction. It felt like every single time I would start moving somewhere, start going somewhere, I'd trip up and I'd be right back where I started. And for years, the way that I tried to go about fixing the addiction was I would just power through, I would just work on it. That I would I would really commit and I would dig down deep and I would find some strategy, I'd find some new way to approach it, and I would be the one that would somehow overcome the addiction. That's what I thought. But it never worked. What did work eventually was me letting go and surrendering that addiction to Jesus. There's a big difference between you trying to power through something and you surrendering and saying, you know what, Jesus, I can't. I can't. I'm done fighting this thing. It wins every single time I fight it. I'm just laying it at your feet and I'm saying, Jesus, I need you to deal with this. Jesus, I need you to take this from me. Will you take this from me? If you're battling an addiction or any type of issue, have you actually asked Jesus to take it? Have you asked Jesus? Have you offered that addiction to him, that struggle, that sin to him, and said, Hey, will you just take this? Because I can't handle it anymore. I'm telling you, when you surrender to Jesus and you fully let go, that's when you're able to grab a hold of what he has for you. But you can't do that if you're still holding on to your net. And look, look, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. I mean, so far I've mentioned two pretty negative things, like really bad thinking and sin issues. But but there was nothing wrong with Peter and Andrew being fishermen. And there was nothing wrong, by the way, with that rich young man being wealthy. Sometimes people like to take the story of this rich young ruler and they twist it to say that Jesus is somehow anti-wealth. And if you're someone who's wealthy, he would want you to sell everything you have. If he tells you to sell everything you have, then you should do that. But that's absolutely not true. There are lots of people who follow Jesus who are wealthy. There were people who funded his ministry. There's a really wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea, who was kind of like a secret follower of Jesus, but he ends up purchasing the tomb that Jesus was buried in. He pays for all the funeral expenses for Jesus. Jesus was absolutely okay with people having wealth. But even the good things that we have in this life, they're not meant to define us. They're not meant to be our identity. But sometimes we cling so tightly, we hold so tightly to those good identities that we've gotten used to that they actually define us more than our faith in Jesus. And so, for example, I don't know, maybe Andrew and Simon Peter, maybe they were amazing fishermen. Maybe they were the best fishermen. Maybe everyone on the Sea of Galilee knew that no one can fish the Sea of Galilee like those two guys. And for them to let go of the whole fisherman title meant to let go of everything that had ever been celebrated about them. Who knows? For some of us, it might be success. Maybe you're a really successful business person. And that's great, by the way, keep it up. But if your success in business defines you more than the fact that you're a son of God, you're a daughter of God, you're a follower of Jesus, then you're settling for something far less than you're meant to have. You're not grabbing a hold of your true identity as a Jesus follower, as a disciple of Jesus, as a child of God, you're settling for something that's very temporary. You know, this this rich young ruler, he had success. But but that's what defined him. And Jesus elsewhere says that we should never worship money because money fades. Right? He says, instead, look for treasure in heaven. Look for things of eternal value. Who you are in Jesus, that's your eternal value. So if you're holding on to an identity, even if it's good, but it's rooted in this world, it's rooted in something temporary, you've got to drop that net and grab a hold of the person that Jesus says that you are. It might be something that you're really good at right now, but it's still temporary. Maybe for you it's it's being a parent. I talk about my kids a lot. It's a big part of my life. And I'm always gonna be their father, but my role as their parent, my role as the one who's making decisions for their life, that's temporary. So my oldest son is 10 almost, and I've only got about eight more years where I'm the one making key decisions for his life. And when that day comes when he's an adult and it's time for him to make those decisions, if I if I can't let go of my role as parent, if I can't let that go and let him go, then I'm gonna be like the rich young ruler. I'm gonna be trying to keep hold of something that was never meant to truly define me. I'm gonna miss out on what Jesus has for me. The reality is, God wants you to grab a hold of what he's promised for you. He's made big promises to you. He loves you. You're no different than Simon, Peter, and Andrew. You're no different than the rich young ruler. He genuinely loves you and he has a life for you, and he wants you to grab a hold of it, but you cannot grab a hold of it if you're simultaneously hanging on to your net, to your baggage, to your past, to your struggles, to your to your sins, or even to those those good things that that have come to define you up to this point, they're not meant to define you fully. They're not meant to replace the identity that Jesus would have for you as his child, as his son, his daughter, as a follower of Jesus. So if you want to grab a hold of everything God has for you, you gotta drop your nets. And I think that that really happens in in prayer. It's a it's a it's a posture in our spirit. That'd be a really maybe churchy way to say it, I guess, but but it's true. It's a posture. When you pray, when you when you spend time with God, do you have a posture of surrender? And surrender is not the same thing as defeat, right? Like there is there is a kind of surrender that's that's just utter defeat and you're just useless. And look, there's times where where in my relationship with God, I've had to just kind of claim defeat and say, you know what, God, I I give up, I quit, and it's it's because I've I've been fighting God and I've just got to admit defeat. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a really beautiful kind of surrender. Where when you go before the Lord, when you pray, you're able to truly lay yourself at his feet and say, I'm yours. I'll let go of anything that would keep me from what you have for me. So, Lord, what is it? What is it that you would like for me to grab a hold of? What is it that you want for me? And what do I have to let go of in order to grab a hold of that? Whatever it is, Lord, I surrender to you. My whole life, it's yours. I give it to you. You can trust God with that. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30, he says, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Right? He goes on to say that he won't lay anything ill-fitting on us, that'll teach us how to live freely and lightly. In some translations, that's what it says. But Jesus is saying, Hey, why don't you surrender your burdens to me? In other words, drop your nets, whatever you're holding on to, whatever fears, whatever struggles, whatever anxieties, whatever identities that you've taken upon yourself that are less than the identity I would give you, whatever it is, drop your nets, let it go and grab a hold of what I have for you. You cannot grab a hold of what Jesus has for you if you're holding on to something else. So you just surrender. You just go to him in prayer and say, Lord, I'm I'm yours. Here, my hands are open. Meaning I'm letting go of whatever I'm carrying, and my hands are open to receive whatever you have for me. If that's the posture of your prayer, if that's the posture of your spirit, God is gonna give you everything you need and then some. So drop your nets. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for uh an opportunity to talk about you. And Lord, I want to thank you for everyone that's tuning in, that's watching this live, for everyone that ends up watching this later on. Um, God, I you know my heart. There's definitely nets that I've held on to that I need to drop. And so, Lord, I pray that you give me the strength to do that. Give me the courage to do that, give me the wisdom to just surrender to you fully. Lord, we want to pray for all of our families here at the church. And Lord, we we also want to lift up the families that have had to self-quarantine because of the coronavirus, and we pray that you just protect our whole community. God, protect uh our church, protect every church, protect every school. God, protect Cherokee County and Cobb County and the entire Atlanta area, Lord. We pray that you would absolutely and totally cover this entire situation, take away any fear, take away any panic. Uh and Lord, we look forward to getting together next Sunday to meet and to worship you together. We love you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Well, hey guys, thanks for tuning in. Uh, remember, we'll be back together next Sunday because we'll have lots of time to clean the building by then. And uh I can't wait for that. Sometimes having a week where you can't meet together, it's kind of like a reminder not to take for granted the fact that we get to. And so I've I've actually been, I've been kind of dreading this all week long because uh because I so love meeting with everybody here next week. I'm telling you, if you're like, we need to be here next week. We all need to be together next week and really worship together, really come together and never take for granted the ch the fact that we have a chance to do that every Sunday. Love you guys. Thanks for watching, and we will see you later.