 When I was 13 years old I first heard this sermon by John Piper, but one of the really sad things about this moment right now is that there are hundreds of you in this crowd who do not want your life to make a difference. All you want is to be liked. Maybe finish school, get a good job, find a husband or a wife, a nice house, a nice car, good vacations, grow old, healthy, have a fun retirement, die easy, no hail. And that's all you want. It changed my life. As a young Christian I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to do as a Christian. How was I supposed to live my life? How do I not waste my life? Because at the same time I was seeing people that went to church on Sunday but lived like the world the rest of the week. At the same time I was seeing committed Christians that were more committed to comfort and security than stepping out into the unknown in faith. Will the peak of my life really be my retirement? Will the peak of my life be when I don't have to worry about finances? So many of us are living our life on the defense. We're trying not to lose. We gather as much money, power, security, friendship, control, stuff, tiptoeing our way through our lives as to not knock down this tower of idols. We live life not to lose. We take as few risks as we can and we actually equate that with being a good Christian. When in actuality we're letting fear rule us and in turn our deep desire for comfort becomes the controlling center of our lives. Is this what God would really have for us? I think God is calling you into something so much more meaningful than the so-called American dream. Think about it. What is controlling your decisions? Is it God? Is it where God wants you to be? Is it discerning where you might be called in terms of ministry even in your job or even in just your with your church or within your family? Or is it really controlled by your desire for comfort or your fear of discomfort? Because if I'm honest, I make a lot of decisions based on my desire to avoid uncomfortable situations. I make a lot of decisions to avoid fearful situations, situations that I'm going to be scared that I don't want to take part in even though that is where God may be calling me. And this is something I've wrestled with my whole life. I think back to high school in trying to figure out what I was going to do as my career. I'm still figuring that out. But I was trying to figure out, look, where as a Christian, how can I live my life in a way that glorifies God? Obviously, you know, you can glorify God in any career. You know, you can glorify him in whatever it is plumbing or being, you know, a doctor or whatever. But it's like, where would God have me? So this discernment, you know, process of trying to figure that out. And what I came up against was every time I was being pulled in one direction, I believe by the Holy Spirit, I kept pushing back because that direction was more scary or uncomfortable or honestly more risky than I was accustomed to. As if, as if going into something more risky that God was calling me into would make me a bad Christian because I wasn't taking on this, this, this comfortable life, this stable life, this normal life. When I think about starting this ministry and doing this, it's actually coming up on my two year anniversary of posting videos every single week to help you follow Jesus daily. And this has been an unbelievable journey. I think back to when I was in university trying to figure out if I was going to move on from university, the big things that we're getting in the way was fear was also my pride. What will people think of me? If I follow God in this way, according to what he has called me personally to, what will people think of me? And that gets so much in your life too. I imagine that, that your perspective of other people's opinions of you or how they perceive you stops you from really stepping into what God has called you into because we don't want to seem like irresponsible or we don't want to seem crazy. We want to just seem normal and nice and very, you know, just a sweet kind of person, just a nice kind of person. But ultimately, what God is calling us to is something more meaningful than that. We're so scared of all this stuff and it's clouding our judgment. And we're not seeing the main point, which is the main point is ultimately as Christians, our calling is to follow Jesus daily, follow Jesus daily. And if we are letting fear or our desire for comfort control where we choose to go in our lives, then we are stifling that growth that God is designed to take place in us. We're stifling that we're stopping that because we're choosing our comfort or our pride or people thinking nice things about us over where God would want us. You don't give a rip whether your life counts on this earth for eternity. That's a tragedy in the making. That is a tragedy in the making. About three weeks ago, we got news at our church that Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon. Ruby Eliason, over 80, single all her life, a nurse poured her life out for one thing, to make Jesus Christ known among the sick and the poor in the hardest and most unreached places. Is this a tragedy? I asked. It is not a tragedy. I'll read you what a tragedy is. I've got a little article here from Readers Digest. You don't read Readers Digest, I know that. But there is a generation who does. This is a tragedy. Title of the article, Start Now, Retire Early, February 1998. Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball, and collect shells. That's a tragedy. That's a tragedy. And there are people in this country that are spending billions of dollars to get you to buy it. And I get 40 minutes to plead with you, don't buy it. With all my heart, I plead with you, don't buy that dream. The American dream. A nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells. As the last chapter, before you stand before the creator of the universe to give an account with what you did, here it is, Lord, my shell collection. Look, Lord, my shell collection. And I've got a good swing. And look at my boat. God, look at my boat, God. When John Piper talks about the seashells, the seashells, the famous seashell story of people picking up seashells in their retirement and showing them to God and saying, look at my seashells, God, aren't you proud of me? And that made a huge impact in my life. And maybe this is the first time that you're seeing it, too. But I think it's this idea that, look, man, this life is a moment. It is a moment. And if you spend this, this short period that you have, just only following what your parents want you to do, or only following maybe what your extended family members want you to do, or maybe only following what maybe your community sees as something nice and something stable or whatever. And I'm talking to people that, whether you're going into it for your career, whatever it is, or whether you're just looking to do something extracurricular, like with your church, or just in your daily life, this is crazy stuff. If you invite somebody in your home that you don't know, that is all of a sudden you're not living a comfortable life. But you're living a meaningful life. You're living a life that is fueled and controlled not by your fear, but rather on your faith. And that's what I want to hone into. And that's what I've been learning in this two-year process of really starting this ministry is understanding that my fear will be there. I will be scared. Like I will be frightened. I will be, you know, anxious a lot of the time. But where, what controls me? What is going to, what am I going to let control me? Am I going to let my anxiety control me? Am I going to let my fear make my decisions? And where I'm going to go? No, I'm going to let God do that. And my faith in him lead me into the next thing. And that's why I keep going. It's not because I don't have fear. That's not because I don't feel anxious. It doesn't, it doesn't mean that I don't feel out of control or uncertain about the future. But it means that what's controlling me is, is something greater than just this pit in my stomach. It's something greater than just, just my sense of, of wanting to sit down and watch TV. It's bigger and greater than that. And when you have God in that center of your life, right, and you're just ready to give it over to him, like, like, like in a way that seems crazy, like, I'm willing to give over my finances to God, I'm willing to give over my time to God, I'm willing to give over my, my social life to God, I'm willing to give over my, my energy to God when those things are in place. And you are in this realm of submission saying, God, I want you to take this stuff. That's when you get to the point of not wasting your life. A wasted life is a life that is spent on me, that is spent on gathering and collecting as much stuff for myself in order not to step on any toes or in order to have a nice comfortable retirement or in order to have a nice, you know, sweet family that is all, you know, whatever. We got to give all those things to God, give them to God. Is at the end of the day, what, what do you have to gain from all that extra stuff? If you're not living for God, honestly, ask yourself this. My question is, is that, was that extra stuff at the end of the, at the end of your life when you realized like the money that you didn't give away or, or the time that you didn't spend doing that thing or that, that dream or passion that God had led you into that you decided to put in the closet because you preferred something that maybe people wouldn't judge you over or people would think of you as, as you know, responsible and have a nice, stable and comfortable life. Are you going to just, at the end of your life, congratulate yourself for making those decisions based on fear, anxiety, pride, or are you going to have regrets about that? And my fear is, is that if you continue on the path of always saying, you know, maybe we'll just avoid that, or maybe I'll just, you know, we'll just go for the safer route. I don't think you're fully stepping into what God would have for you. I'm not saying you got to do something crazy right now. But what I'm saying is leave the door open, begin to crack that door open and just begin to say to God, I don't know what you'd have for me, but I'm open to it and I want to submit to you. So can you begin to show me what that may be, whether that is something within your career or something within your church or just something within your family or friend group, whatever it is, if we're in submission to God, that's where we got to be. And as I've been just on this path of making videos and just trusting God and making content and God has brought 23 amazing people to help support me on the Daily Disciple Club. Like to me, that's a huge thing from God where he's just like, I want you to continue to do this. I want you to continue to make this stuff. And and that doesn't mean that I still don't fear. I don't experience anxiety, but it's that grounding force. Like what is that grounding, controlling force in your life? And it has to be God. It has to be your confidence in him. Because if it's not, you'll waste your life. You will waste your life. You'll waste your life on things that won't matter on spending all your time consuming entertainment on just leaving it, living a hedonistic lifestyle of eat, drink for tomorrow. We die with a Christian Bible verse at the end. You'll live your life and you have gathered a lot of seashells that you'll be able to show to God. But what was your eternal impact? What was what was your legacy? And that that's so much more meaningful than just than just living your life for you. So my challenge to you is this, my challenge to you is this, if you can block out all the voices, the outside voices, your friends, your family, all those things for now, for just a second, and think about what God truly has laid on your heart, what what what your your thing is, whatever that is, you know, maybe you're an artist and you are just, you know, hey, maybe I'm not going to do that. That's a little bit crazy or whatever. Like I want you to hone in on that. Obviously you need people in your life that are wise that can help you discern these things, right? But sometimes we let those voices over overcrowd God's God's voice in this God's perspective in this. And and we let that build into our fear and anxiety and how we're seeing our lives. And I just want to say, like, don't listen to that. If there are people in your life that are that are dampening your desire to follow God more deeply or more radically, that's not that's not something that you want to continually be taken in, right? Larry Krav once said this, he said, every conversation either stimulates or dampens your desire to follow Jesus. How amazing is that? Like, think about that, what kind of conversations are you in? Because you want to be in places that you are moved and challenged to live more radically for Jesus, not less, to give more and not less, to serve more and not less, to to to rest in his grace more and not and not less. Are we are we being pulled in this direction of just comfortable security? Or are we moving in a direction of just complete submission to Jesus? That's where we need to be. Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope this encouraged you. This was just on my heart that I wanted to share with you. Once again, I just thank you so much, you guys, for those of you who are over at the Daily Disciple Club. It's a two year anniversary. I'm so excited. This has just been a fantastic journey of you guys supporting what I'm doing and helping to get out the Gospel and helping to people follow Jesus daily. It's been the passion of my life, honestly, and I'm just going to keep going forever. I'm never going to stop. And so, thank you for supporting me in that. If you want to help support this ministry, head on over to dailydisciple.ca slash club or patreon.com slash daily underscore disciple. Both those places, link in bio, and you can join the Daily Disciple Club and become a partnering member with us and help me put out this content. Thank you so much for watching, guys. Subscribe down below and I will see you next time. God bless.