INTO THE DEEP Series - The Cost - Week 1

What if the missing piece in your spiritual life isn’t a new song or a bigger stage, but a truer surrender? We open Scripture with a clear-eyed look at what Jesus actually asked of His disciples: count the cost, carry the cross, and follow without conditions. That call takes us past the optics of church culture and into the deep, where personal sacrifice, holy obedience, and humble repentance become the daily rhythm of worship.

Drawing from Luke 14, Malachi, Romans 12, 1 Samuel 15, and Amos 5, we confront comfortable religion head-on. We talk about why God rejected blemished offerings then and still rejects half-hearted devotion now. We explore how living sacrifices look on ordinary days—when you dislike your job, when you change diapers, when you choose integrity in quiet moments with no audience. Obedience over performance becomes a filter: are we putting on a church face, or are we offering our best to the One who gave His all?

This conversation also faces the hard truth that the narrow way divides. When you truly say yes to Jesus, comfort, optics, and even some relationships will be tested. Yet that costly path is also the road to power, to revival, and to a life that carries God’s presence beyond Sunday. If you’ve felt the hollowness of spiritual noise without spiritual fire, this is your invitation to step off the shallow shore, surrender control, and become a living altar. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s hungry for more, and leave a review telling us the one area you’re ready to place on the altar next.

Ending

Transcript

Counting The Cost Of Discipleship

SPEAKER_01 0:01

When you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it should come at a cost. Luke chapter 14, verse 25, it says a large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, if you want to be my disciple, you must by comparison hate everyone else. Your father, your mother, your wife, your children. If you otherwise you could not be my disciple, verse 27. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. Verse 28. But don't begin until you count the cost.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Did I have that up there?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I did. Good. Wasn't sure if I did. Matter of fact, this morning, I wasn't gonna bring any notes. I wasn't gonna have anything on the screen because you should be looking it up yourself. Malnourished church people that have no context of scripture. They have no backbone in society because we can't back up what the word says because we are empty of the word. Let's read 28 again. But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there was enough money to finish it? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your mercy and your grace. Thank you, Lord, for your presence here today. I pray, God, that your Holy Spirit let this word come alive as it has come alive to me, to the people today. In your name we pray. Amen. So we're gonna start a new series this Sunday. And it's into the deep, into the deeper waters, getting closer to God. It is enough of the shallow Christianity that is covered the Bible belt. It is enough of good, faithful, tithe-paying people that come to a church but have no church in them. If we want to change and see revival like we say we do, we must fall in love with God again. If we want to see revival fill the streets of Longview, it will not come from the sinners, it must come from the saints. If we're gonna watch the Holy Spirit and fire pour out in our services, we've got to know what we are allowed to do, what we should be expecting, and get right with the word. The Bible says, if my people, it's not the sinner, if my people that are called by my name will humble themselves. We got a good self-righteous church going here. Everybody's got the right answer. We wear

Into The Deep: Beyond Shallow Faith

SPEAKER_01 3:30

the right clothes, we got the right study, Bible, we drive the right cars, our kids go to the right schools. Who are we fooling? You can't take it to heaven. Week one is gonna be look at your neighbor and say, I want it, I want it. Remember you said that because when you go deeper with God, there is a cost. When you get closer to God, our emptiness becomes more evident, our self-righteousness that is like filthy racks next to God's righteousness, becomes more evident. There is nothing that speaks more volumes than comparison. If you have a, if you I got a white car, I don't realize it's dirty till I go next to a clean car. It will fool the optics. How many of us are in the church today and we got everybody's optics fooled that we're going to heaven, but yet there is no substance to our claims? If we are saved, should not something be birthed out of us that creates a hunger and creates a thirst for who God is? More of you, Lord, and less of me? Should that not be the church cry today? But yet we got, we build, we build stages instead of altars. You said, remember, you said, I want to, I want it. I want to go deeper, Lord. But there's a cost to waiting out in the deeper waters. There is a level, there's a reason why I don't get in the ocean anymore. I can't see what's down there. There's too many uncharted things, and nobody has a clue what it is, and it'll just pop up. And I'm like, You telling me out of all the technology you didn't know that was down there. Don't ask the Lord, Lord, take me deeper. Get me closer to you if you're still holding on to shallow shores. Don't say you want revival if you're not willing to sacrifice everything. God is not playing games, and neither is the enemy. So here's the problem with the modern church. We have created churches full of people who want the promise, but they refuse to partake of the process. We preach blessing, but we don't preach brokenness. We preach favor, but we have lost the fire. We preach destiny, but we don't say death to myself. Because here is the biblical truth that every person who claims to be a believer should hold on to, and that is number one, God always requires a sacrifice. He always requires a sacrifice. Look at Malachi. So what spurred this whole thing was I was studying Malachi. Now, I don't know if you studied the word. I hope that you do. I know some of us, where's Abby at? She's wearing a shirt that she got. Uh, all the leaders of volunteers got one this weekend, and we we showed them we loved them. We gave them a shirt, it's the five, five, and five on there, and it tells you what it means in the back. And so we pampered them a little bit, we let them know wear this and be able to answer for the hope that is within you. And some of us are still stuck. 10, 15, 20-year church pew veterans that can't quote scripture if our life depended on it. So I was reading in Malachi, I was studying. I got a new study Bible. You could tell by my setup is slightly a little bit different. I got all kinds of things in here, y'all gonna eat today. So when I was reading Malachi, I started off studying, and what I did first was in the study Bible, this is my new one. Remember, I told you a few weeks ago, if I ever got in a fight and I needed a weapon, that thing had knocked somebody out. That thing right there could probably take Rusty Dyer. Maybe, maybe. We'll see. But I was reading in Malachi and I read all the the dates and the the reason of the author and the prophets and the order. And so what had happened was the temple had been built, but then over time, listen to me, in 2019, the temple was built. You're in it, and over time, the priests, the ones who worshiped, the ones who sacrificed, the ones who had direct mandate from God of what is right and what is wrong to come in and sacrifice and give the best of everything that is available from the people to God. The sacrifice matters, and so over time, Malachi comes in because he comes and he says, God shows him that they are they are giving up blind doves, they're giving crippled animals, and all of a sudden God says, What are you doing? What used to be your best is now second rate. Even the pagans give better offerings than you do. What a message for the modern church today. How many of us in the church right now we love coming to church to get something, but we don't bring nothing to the church? Malachi chapter 1, verse 6, it says, The Lord of heaven's armies says to the priest, a son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and I am your master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You had shown contempt

Process Over Promise: Sacrifice First

SPEAKER_01 9:10

for my name, but you ask, How have we ever shown contempt for your name? And this is this is the Stephen translation. I'm glad you asked. Then you ask, How have you defiled how have we defiled the sacrifices? And he answers. And the Lord says, You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn't that wrong? And isn't it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and full of disease? Try giving gifts like that to your governor and see how pleased he is, says the Lord of Heaven's armies. Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you. But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all? Ask the Lord of Heaven's armies. We will get in the altars and boo-hoo and cry for our families and for our sickness and for our disease, but every other time we bring him a half-hearted offering of sacrifice, and we just come and we want to take and we want to take and we want to take. Worship is a lifestyle of sacrifice, it is not songs sung on a stage. Romans chapter 12. Y'all y'all flip with me here. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you, give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let him let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind that he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Do not copy the behaviors and the customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the very way that you think. Your mind won't even go to the places it used to go. Your thought patterns won't even remain the same. When you give it to God, he will change you. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Good and pleasing and perfect. Worship is can be a moment in song, but it is not what true worship is. We just read in Romans chapter 12 that worship is a lifestyle, it is not a specific moment. When I wake up on a Monday and I hate the job I'm going to, I still need to be worshiping. When I'm changing my little girl's diaper, worship should be in my heart. It's not what I'm doing, but it is who I have become. When worship, what does the Bible say God does? He inhabits the praises of his people. So think about this. If you're constantly praising, the presence is going with you wherever you go. Y'all ain't feeling it like I'm feeling. That's all right. I'm gonna preach myself into salvation. Worship is a life that burns

Malachi’s Rebuke: God Wants Our Best

SPEAKER_01 13:20

on the altar. This is why some people never experience a breakthrough. They want the breakthrough without the brokenness. Because they can sing, they think.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Sometimes we think we can sing our way into freedom.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

We can sing the best worship songs that are out there that speak volumes to your heart. And thank God for music. Obviously, I love it. But a song is not where your strength comes from. Are you hearing me? A song well played, even though it touches us, should not be where we draw from. Because what happens when you can't reach that song? You become empty. Because the source from which you draw from is not the source that you should be drawing from. We can worship, we can lift our hands, but we can still go home living in compromise. God is looking for living sacrifices. People who wake up every day and say, Not my will, but yours be done.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

This means that we have to give up control.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

If we want God to do what God can do and only what God can do, we have to take our hands off of it. Because I guarantee you, then it will be done right. I did not just say that it will be done quick. How many of you are so thankful for a microwave? Woo! Boy. Helps me feed myself and helps me feed others. But we have conditioned ourselves that we are Christians that want to pop God into the microwave like he's a hot pocket. Look over in 1 Samuel. Look over in 1 Samuel. Obedience, God desires obedience over performance. Let me tell you something, church. You can look like you're good and saved. Looking like you belong in a church don't make you be the church. Just like because I can tell time doesn't mean I'm a watch. I may go into McDonald's, but I'm not a happy meal. Just because you walk inside of a church does not mean you serve God. Matter of fact, praying a prayer doesn't mean that you serve God. Living a lifestyle of sacrifice and obedience is the evidence and the fruit that your roots are where they belong. Obedience over performance. God doesn't want your church face. Yeah, y'all got church faces. You could try to. No, I don't have a church. You got a church face. God wants your obedience. Look at 1 Samuel 15, starting at verse 22. But Samuel replied, What is more pleasing to the Lord? Your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice. Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice. Have you heard that before? And submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft and stubbornness, whereas my stubborn church people is as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king. Saul got an earful, and we should take heed because Saul became very proudful and confident in his own ways. Even though he was anointed, even though he was called to be the king, he started being arrogant and sought other means to hear from God. YouTube should not be pouring into you the word should. Uh-oh. The podcast should not be your main source of information or scripture. It should be the word of God. How can it be alive to you if you're trying to feed off of somebody else's life? Woo! God doesn't want our leftovers, He wants our best. Thank God. I don't know if you ever read the Old Testament or not, but thank God we did not have to do what they used to do before Jesus came. I would not make it to heaven because I wouldn't be able to follow it. Complicated. But it's because there was intention and what he was trying to do. If you study the old way of sacrificing, he was God was trying to buff out old pagan ways that they had established in their lives. So he had to go extreme. He had to go way off in something that was crazy and sounded ridiculous because he had to buff out the idol worship and the pagan way of doing things.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Leviticus 1, 3.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Y'all gonna get this.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Bring it into the entrance of the tabernacle, so you may be accepted by the Lord. A little small glimpse of what the sacrifice should be and how you had to do it. Very, very small glimpse. Study it yourself. But I want to read the study parts of this at the bottom. What did sacrifices teach people in the Old Testament? By requiring perfect animals and the holy priest, they were taught reverence before God. By demanding exact obedience, they taught total submission to God's laws. By requiring an animal of great value, they showed the high cost of sin, and it demonstrated the sincerity of the people's commitment to God. Your level of sacrifice when you bring it on the altar is your level of commitment to God.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

I'm gonna let it marinate for a second.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

What are we leaving in our back pockets that we're not allowing God to touch? Remember, I used this illustration a few weeks ago. If you have a house and you take the deed to the house and you sign it over to God, you say, Jesus, here you go. I signed, it's all yours. Every you can touch everything, you can rearrange, you can knock out walls, you can move whatever you want, but this back room still belongs to me. Does the house fully belong to God? The answer is no. We

Worship As A Life, Not A Song

SPEAKER_01 20:30

do this in our Christian walk. We say, Lord, your life is mine, but this part it belongs to me. And so your level of sacrifice demonstrates your level of reverence, honor, and obedience to the Lord. You can show up to church, you can shout, Amen. And we're Pentecostal, we like doing that. We like getting loud. We love it. Matter of fact, some of y'all probably need to never mind, never mind.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

If you showed the love to Jesus that you do your favorite sports team.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

I know if you if you knew how fun it was, you would have had them first. Your prize possession, it may be a vehicle, it may be a house, it may be you love your job. Like that's what defines you. But if you strip it all away, what do you have? What legacy are you leaving behind? My father didn't leave me a dime. But he taught me how to pray. He taught me how to read. That integrity matters when nobody else is around. You always be who you say you are. He taught me that your word should be binding as a contract. That what you say come out, what comes out of your mouth should be the law to you, and you are gonna stick with it no matter what. You can show up to church, you can shout, amen, you can raise your hands, and you can still walk out and be disobedient.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

He doesn't care about your church routine, he cares about your obedience, he wants full submission, he wants your yes in the secret.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Do you understand what I'm saying? He don't want you to be bold and stand up in front of other people like Peter did before he denied him. Oh God, I would never do that. That's that's probably Thomas.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

He don't believe anything. I would never doubt you. And then he stuck his foot in his mouth because he talked a big game, but he didn't know how to walk it yet. He wants your obedience in the dark times. He doesn't want a church just to look holy, he wants a church to be holy. Number four, God hates. God hates the show.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

You can boo-hoo and cry and scream in these altars and do the whole whatever you want to do. And you can go home and live exactly the same in a sinful way. God wants your heart. He doesn't want the show, he wants surrender. Look over in Amos, Amos chapter 5, 21 through 24. Amos chapter 6, 21 through 24. I hate all your show and pretense. That's pretty bold, pretty point blank. The hypocrisy of your religious festivals and your solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even notice all your choice peace offerings away with your noisy hymns of praise. I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. He's saying, I don't want you to sing your songs and then go home and feel like you've done it. He wants your life. God hates false worship by people who go through the motions out of pretense or show. If we are living sinful lives and using religious activities and traditions to make ourselves look good, God will despise our worship and will not accept what we offer. I don't know if you know this or not, but the same God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. What you bring to the table matters. What we lift up to Him matters because God wants sincere hearts. He doesn't care about your song, he wants your life. He requires righteousness, he requires justice. Where all people are treated fairly and loved. As Jesus said before he left planet earth. He said, Listen, they're gonna know God's love by the way you love each other. We can have lights, we can have cameras, we can have a full, perfect sounding band for your little ears to be tickled and enjoy. We could sing every right note, we can play every right note, every chord is perfect.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

But if we don't have righteousness, we will not see revival.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Doesn't matter how good we are, who are we doing it for? When you lift your hands on a Sunday morning, when you pray, when you come to an altar and ask God for something, you petition the Lord, all these things are good, and the Lord welcomes this. But what are you doing it for? You lifting your hands because you think you're supposed to, or are you lifting your hands and surrender? There is a massive difference, same movement, different heart posture. Why do we do the things we do? If we do the same thing over and over again, we have ritual. But God is not impressed by noise, He is drawn to brokenness, He is attracted to holiness. We've built church stages instead of building altars, and that's why we have the crowds, but we have no fire. Services,

Obedience Over Performance

SPEAKER_01 27:00

but no surrender, noise, but no power. Number five.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

The path will cost you everything. The cost will divide. Look over at Luke again, chapter twelve. Luke chapter twelve.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

When I read this, to me, it was the first time I may have read it before, but it seemed like it just leaped out. I had to share it with some people. Listen to what Jesus says here. Chapter 12, verse 49. I have come to set the world on fire. Woo! I don't know about you. But I was like, that's a little bit different than that manger Jesus I've been hearing about. He's come to set the world on fire. And he said, I wish it were already burning. I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. Do you think I have come to bring peace to this earth?

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Goodwill and peace towards men. But then Jesus grew up and he got serious.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Do you think I have come to bring peace to this earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other. From now on, families will be split apart, three in favor of me and two against, or two in favor and three against. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. You thought it was just because you didn't like her, but it's scripture. Some of y'all get that a little too close to home. When you say yes to Jesus and you really say yes, it's all in and nothing else should matter. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, it will divide us from those who do not serve Him. Excuse me, let me back up. It should divide us. Now, I'm not talking about sinner from saint. We are called to witness to them. I'm talking about those pretending. Those who come and sit in the chair and act like they got it all together. When we really step in it and we really serve God and we're being poured out on, and we are being just God has wrecked our whole world. He has transformed our mind. He has renewed our hearts. A heart of stone has become a heart of flesh again, beating the blood of Jesus through our veins. It should separate those who are fake and those who truly serve Him. It will cost you friends, it will cost you family, it will cost you comfort. And sometimes, as we read for the disciples, even your safety. And I don't know if you've been paying attention or not, but we're getting there, friends. My dad sent me something the other day. I think it's in the UK. So dumb. They're saying it is illegal to think prayers. I don't know how they know. I'm not trying to get all political, but I do believe now we are closer than ever before, and COVID was just a trial run. When I was growing up as a kid, the stuff that my dad would talk about, that the word talks about, you couldn't wrap your mind around how it would happen. And now you see these things popping up in different locations, different types of technology, different AI stuff, and you're like, man, this could this could happen. I'm seeing it unfold before my very eyes. And so this should not scare us and let us live in fear, but this should spur us to share the gospel with more people than ever before. We are not dead and we are not done. We should be preaching the gospel to the lost. Because if we don't, who will? But the path we travel, if you are really saved, the path we travel is not a wide one, but it is a narrow path. This road of fire, the road of pressure, the road of testing, and the road of obedience, the road of sacrifice. But hear me. This also is the path to power, to revival, to glory. And as we close, if you remember in the very beginning, you said that you were ready, that you wanted to go deeper. This is the cost of following Christ. We have to lay down our comfort. We have to lay down our reputation. And most of all, we have to lay down our control. Because the deep is not for the casual, it's for the committed. It's for those who carry our cross daily for those who burn for the Lord. He is returning for the church that stays in the altars.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

He's returning for a church that will sacrifice for his name's sake.