Latest / Ambassador Programs / Ignite with Barry Meguiar - What Do I Have to Give Up?
Transcript
- 0:00And then he says, and the other commandment is just like, and just as important, love your neighbors as yourself.
- 0:06And that's it.
- 0:07Read it to Matthew.
- 0:08And he goes on and he says, and I ask nothing else of you.
- 0:11Love God and love your neighbors.
- 0:15There's nothing else you have to do.
- 0:16I don't have to sell millions of dollars of car wax.
- 0:19I don't have to win the prize.
- 0:21I don't have to win Pebble Beach.
- 0:22I don't have to do anything.
- 0:23All I have to do is love him and love my neighbors as myself.
- 0:27Welcome to the Ignite with Mary Maguire podcast.
- 0:30How would you like to have the time of your life for the rest of your life?
- 0:33How would you like to defeat fear effortlessly, knowing for sure God is hearing and answering your prayers and directing your steps and making everything work for good?
- 0:43This is exciting.
- 0:44Here's the question.
- 0:45How would you like to ignite your life?
- 0:47Stay tuned.
- 0:49Hi, everybody.
- 0:49Welcome back to Ignite.
- 0:51I want to talk today about a subject that I say all the time, particularly those that I'm sharing my faith with on a regular basis.
- 1:04And I would suggest that...
- 1:10there's a high percentage, without putting a number to it, that are just basically saying, I don't want to give up my life to be a Christian.
- 1:18You know, I don't want to, you know, have to, and I've got to give up this, and I've got to be pious, and I've got to be somebody else that I'm not, and, you know, and I don't want to be that person, and so I'm not ready for that.
- 1:36I think if they'd look at me, they would perhaps see that it's not all bad.
- 1:42I don't feel too encumbered, you know what I mean?
- 1:48And really, the short answer to that question is you don't have to give up anything.
- 1:55Did you hear me?
- 1:57You don't have to give up anything.
- 1:59But it's just a little proviso.
- 2:02Your desires for what you do, your desires will change.
- 2:06And you basically lose interest in things that are not honoring God.
- 2:11And it's not something that you have to struggle with.
- 2:14It's something that just happens.
- 2:15It's just automatic.
- 2:17I mean, there's no effort.
- 2:18It's effortless.
- 2:21Your attraction disappears for anything that is not honoring God or getting in the way of God.
- 2:28It may not even be something evil.
- 2:30It may be something good, but it's taking too much of your time and is basically serving as your God.
- 2:39So there's a scripture that I like a lot.
- 2:42It says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he'll be a new creature.
- 2:46Okay?
- 2:48Old things pass away.
- 2:49Behold, all things become new.
- 2:50Obviously, a steeped-in-the-wool sinner will look different than a steeped-in-the-wool Christian.
- 3:04So, yeah, it's interesting.
- 3:07First.
- 3:09All of us have things in our lives that are pleasing to God, like loving people and helping people.
- 3:16Then we have things that are pleasing to ourselves.
- 3:22It could be events or activities, indulgences.
- 3:27This is where spiritual battle comes into because it's really the flesh, what my body wants, and the spirit, what the spirit wants.
- 3:36And then there's the last category, I guess, where we're just doing things that are just pleasing God, and that would be, obviously, language.
- 3:46Some of you have got a real problem with that.
- 3:48And you know that's not pleasing God.
- 3:50You do know that.
- 3:52There are indulgences that you're involved with that perhaps have too much of a control on you.
- 3:58And you know they're not pleasing God without preaching on it.
- 4:01It's not determining whether or not you go to heaven, but you get the idea of what you're focusing on.
- 4:06Okay.
- 4:09You know, I like to back to when you're one of the guys before you got married.
- 4:13Okay.
- 4:14And some of you are not married yet, but you get my point.
- 4:17You're one of the guys or you're one of the gals, you know, and on Friday night, you get together with the guys and you go out to the bar or whatever.
- 4:26But then you start a courtship.
- 4:28You know?
- 4:29And the girlfriend, who is now the apple of your eye, doesn't want to go to the bar on Friday night.
- 4:36She likes to go to a nice dinner or a movie or something.
- 4:39And so, okay, and you want to please her.
- 4:43And then you're married, and you're just committed to making your wife happy, right?
- 4:48It's called growing up.
- 4:51A whole lot of folks, in fact, a whole lot of folks in the church need to grow up.
- 4:59Life is not static.
- 5:00I mean, why is it that we can exceed in all of our knowledge of the world and not in the things of God?
- 5:07I don't understand that.
- 5:13The wonderful pastor, creator of Calvary Chapel, Chuck Smith.
- 5:19one of the most godly men, one of the great impactors of the Christian life, and of course because of him, we have these wonderful Calvary Chapel churches across America that are overachieving.
- 5:34I checked out this story one time, and when I heard I was probably maybe 25, it stuck with me.
- 5:43He said, you know, when my daughter was young, I'll never forget the moment when I looked over her cradle, looked down at her, and she looked up at me, and she smiled, and she said, Dada.
- 5:58He said, just thrilled me.
- 5:59She knew my name.
- 6:01She knew I was Dada.
- 6:03It was so wonderful.
- 6:04I'll never forget that.
- 6:07But that was a while ago, and she's now a young lady,
- 6:14And my point is, if I walked up to her to now when she was asleep and she opened her eyes and looked up to me and smiled and said, Dad, it'd break my heart.
- 6:31It'd break my heart.
- 6:34Do you get my point?
- 6:37We're breaking God's heart when we, we're so wise about the world.
- 6:46and give no attention to him.
- 6:54At the risk of offending some, I have these great car guy friends, and they're great friends, and they're wonderful people, they're the most kind, generous, they're soulmates with me in so many ways, I love them to death.
- 7:10and they know I'm a Christian, and they know I'm speaking all over, and they know the joy of the Lord's in me, and they know me really well.
- 7:17They don't go to church.
- 7:18They're at rallies on Sundays, or their cars.
- 7:22And I sit with them in a group, and they're just in the minutiae of the history of these cars, and I love it.
- 7:29I'm a car guy, I love the legacy of the cars.
- 7:31I don't mean I don't love that stuff, I do.
- 7:33But that's all they talk about.
- 7:34You go through a weekend, that's all they talk about.
- 7:39And everyone wants to think, how does God enter into all this?
- 7:48There's just no joy.
- 7:50The cars become their God.
- 7:55So I want to get back to the point of, what do you have to give up?
- 8:00What do you have to do?
- 8:03And what can't you do to please God?
- 8:05That's the simple question.
- 8:10And quite frankly, the only thing he calls us to do, he says, God, of all the laws, the Ten Commandments, what's the most important?
- 8:17What is it that I have to do?
- 8:19You know what he said?
- 8:21Love me.
- 8:23Just love me.
- 8:24Oh, but love me more than your cars.
- 8:29Love me more than your wife and your kids and your grandkids.
- 8:32Love me more than your job and your boat and your fortune and your name on buildings and whatever things.
- 8:40Love God, all I ask.
- 8:41God's only asking one thing of you.
- 8:44Love him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
- 8:47And then he says, and the other commandment is just like, and just as important, love your neighbors as yourself.
- 8:53And that's it.
- 8:54Read it.
- 8:54It's in Matthew.
- 8:56And he goes on, he says, and I ask nothing else of you.
- 9:00Love God.
- 9:03And love your neighbors.
- 9:05There's nothing else you have to do.
- 9:06I don't have to sell millions of dollars of car wax.
- 9:10I don't have to win the prize.
- 9:11I don't have to win Pebble Beach.
- 9:12I don't have to do anything.
- 9:13I just love him and love my neighbors as myself.
- 9:20And when I do that, you see, that's when everything changes.
- 9:25Because if I love my neighbor as myself, I was concerned for their salvation as I am my own salvation.
- 9:34And so the things I'm doing that don't honor God, that are being a stumbling block and pulling my friends down around me, I don't want to do anymore.
- 9:46But it's not rules.
- 9:47It's not legalism.
- 9:48It's not that I'm being forced into a box.
- 9:50He doesn't do that to us.
- 9:51It's freedom.
- 9:54I still enjoy cars.
- 9:55Nobody enjoys cars more than me.
- 9:56I'm a beach bum.
- 9:58I love boats.
- 9:59I love the water.
- 9:59I love swimming.
- 10:00I love salt air.
- 10:02I love sand on my feet.
- 10:03I love great meals.
- 10:05I'm a real guy.
- 10:06You know, I don't have to give up anything.
- 10:11But I just focus on the things that bring glory to him and lead people to him.
- 10:16I see life on earth as a boot camp, quite frankly.
- 10:20It's just our boot camp.
- 10:21He gives us enough time on earth to figure out who he is that everyone of you have heard who he is.
- 10:25You can't exist in America without hearing the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ died for you.
- 10:30You've heard that message.
- 10:34And the starting line is what the church calls the finish line.
- 10:40The church is trying to get you saved.
- 10:44Like that's the finish line.
- 10:46Get you saved and then they go on to somebody else.
- 10:48They just want those hands raised.
- 10:51No, no, no.
- 10:51Getting you saved is the start line.
- 10:55In racing we call it the start-finish line.
- 10:57It is both.
- 10:59You finish living for yourself and now you're starting to live for God.
- 11:03And then you join his team.
- 11:06You're on his team.
- 11:08And then you're living for his purpose.
- 11:12To see if he can save the lost.
- 11:14Yeah.
- 11:16And I can tell you, I love the joy of seeing several truckloads of car wax going down the road.
- 11:27You know how that makes me feel?
- 11:30First time that started happening, I looked at how many bottles of car wax they rode in those trucks, and they're all going to one customer.
- 11:37They go to a lot of customers, but you've got several going to 13 truckloads.
- 11:42Do you know what that does to me?
- 11:44Man, all that work, and it works, and people love our products.
- 11:49I mean, I go to Pebble Beach, the biggest car show, the most famous car show in the world.
- 11:52I've had a car on the lawn twice.
- 11:54I've never won the trophy.
- 11:57Imagine winning best of show, Pebble Beach.
- 12:03I don't care what the attribute is.
- 12:05Have your name on the trophy, be honored on the Capitol steps, whatever it is.
- 12:12It's gone in 60 seconds.
- 12:14Gone.
- 12:15Forever.
- 12:17Means nothing.
- 12:18The moment you die, it's important that a man wants to die and then the judgment.
- 12:25That is over.
- 12:26You're focusing, folks, on things that are meaningless.
- 12:30I don't mean don't enjoy them.
- 12:32I enjoy them all.
- 12:33But they're temporal.
- 12:35And they're just a tiny little thing.
- 12:37I'm talking about eternity.
- 12:39I'm talking about spending eternity with God and eternity with our friends.
- 12:44The only thing that's eternal is accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord.
- 12:52I say there's two things in our life that are important.
- 12:57One, making that decision.
- 12:58I pray you'll make that decision now before it's too late.
- 13:03We're going to run out of time, folks.
- 13:05There's a clock ticking.
- 13:06We don't know what tomorrow holds.
- 13:08Make that decision today.
- 13:09Go to seekinggod.org.
- 13:11Can I advertise that right quick?
- 13:12If you haven't accepted it yet, go to seekinggod.org.
- 13:17Accept Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior.
- 13:19And the second is likened to it.
- 13:21Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
- 13:23It is love God, receive his gifts of eternal life.
- 13:28Take as many people to heaven as possible with you before we run out of time.
- 13:33If you enjoyed today's podcast, please let us know.
- 13:37Subscribe now to continue receiving my podcast and add your comments to help us attract more viewers.
- 13:43See you next time on the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast.