 Amen. All right. We're there in Acts chapter number one. We'll go ahead and look at verse 15 here. We're not going to look at the entire story. We're just going to look at something we see here in this story. Acts chapter one in verse number 15, there the Bible says this, and in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said the number of the names together were about 120. Men and brethren in this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us and it obtained part of this ministry. So of course what is going on here in Acts one is the Lord Jesus Christ is just ascended back into heaven and he has commissioned his disciples with preaching the gospel to all the world, to their local area and all the world. And here this is kind of the first time to all the disciples of Jesus. Because of course there was more than just the twelve apostles, there was others. They kind of all gathered together and they're all having this meeting. And Peter in this meeting here, he mentions Judas for a little bit. Because of course the point of this meeting here was where they had to replace Judas and they cast lots and everything like that. But what's going on here is he's mentioning Judas and you've got to imagine just like if you've ever had something like this happen in your life, this is probably a sort of topic to bring up. The topic of Judas that was something that I'm sure was that hurt people. I'm sure that was something that was very difficult for people. I mean think about this Judas, this man that had been with them, he had been soul-winding with them, he had been preaching with them every trial that they went through, he was with them as well and they trusted Judas. You can even see this where they trusted him so much that even at the last supper when Jesus basically said whoever I give this bread to is going to betray me and he go and he gives it to Judas and he says that that thou doest doest quickly, even then, even the other apostles listening to this and watching this, even then when Judas gets up and leaves they think surely Jesus is just going to have him buy something for the feast or maybe Jesus wants him to give something to the poor. They couldn't believe it. They could not believe it. I'm sure this is something that was shocking to them. I mean here one of their own went and betrayed their Christ. Their savior and I'm sure it was a very terrible time for them. But Peter, notice when he's talking about this, he doesn't say, you know, I wish this never happened. He doesn't say this was just some, it was a pointless, terrible time. Notice what Peter says in verse 16. He says this scripture, again talking about this event with Judas, he says this scripture must needs have been fulfilled. What he's saying is he's saying it had to happen. And what we're going to look at this evening is I'd like to look and kind of explore a certain theme that we see in the Bible, that we see in life. And this theme I believe is something that, it doesn't come naturally to us. I believe it's something that we either have to learn the hard way in our lives or it has to be taught to us. But we're going to look at this theme in the Bible on how certain things, certain things, certain bad things, they have to happen. You don't have to turn there, but this is a theme that we see a lot in the Bible, Acts 17.3. And again, we're talking about this theme where you have something that's bad, something that's bad that either had, that already happened or is going to happen, and this theme of well it has to be that way. Acts 17.3 says, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach in you is Christ. Here we're talking about the fact that the suffering of Christ, the horrible things that Christ went through, it had to happen. We would not be saved if it didn't happen. It had to be that way. The scriptures had to be fulfilled. Mark 13.7 says, and when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, be not troubled for such things must needs be. And the end shall not be yet. Talking about the end times and the horrible tribulation that's going to happen at the end of the world, it must needs be. It has to be like that. It must happen. Matthew 18.7 or one more. Jesus says it must needs be that offenses come. Here he's just talking about the world in general. It must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. So again, Jesus is just saying, offenses, troubles, tribulations, they have to happen. And you say, why do they have to happen? What's the point? What are we getting at this evening? To kind of set this in stone or kind of explain this a little more, I'd like to read you kind of a quote that I'd like to kind of, aside from this, we see that this theme is in the Bible but I'd like to kind of codify this with a quote. It's one of my favorite quotes that I've heard. It's from, this is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt and this is something he wrote in a book of his called American Ideals and Other Essays, Social and Political. It's a quote from Theodore Roosevelt where he says this. He says, nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty. No kind of life is worth leading if it is always an easy life. I know that your life is hard, I know that your work is hard and hardest of all of you who have the heart and brain concept, therefore feel always how much you ought to do. I know your work is hard and that is why I congratulate you with all my heart. I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well. So what he's getting at here is then again we see that any good idea that any human comes up with is something that we can find in the Bible first. But he's explaining in very good plain words this concept that we're gonna look at this evening that I think, like I said, does not come to us naturally. I feel like we have to learn this the hard way or it has to be taught to us. But this idea that if you are going to live a life because everybody wants this a worthwhile life, really not everybody, whether they're saved or not, no matter what people believe, everyone wants to live a worthwhile life, whatever that means to them. Everyone wants to, people may not know what that means or what that is or what that looks like, but everyone wants a worthwhile life. No one wants to get to the end of their life and see that they wasted it and people want a worthwhile life. But as people, we tend to, we always tend to, if we're driving somewhere and the road's blocked, you're gonna find another way. That's just what we do, but in all areas of our life. We tend to try to find the easiest way. We try to avoid trouble and difficulty and pain as much as we can, which in some areas, that makes sense. But however, when it comes to our life in general, we see this idea that if you are going to live a worthwhile life, it is. It's not, it might, it will for sure require efforts, pain, and difficulty. If someone who leaves, leaves, ah, excuse me, someone who leads a life of complete pleasure and complete ease, I can guarantee you lived a worthless life. For sure, guaranteed. Someone who had no difficulty and no trouble and just went through life with nothing ever going wrong, never having to fight any battles, that person lived a worthless life. So the idea here that we're gonna look at this evening is that if you want to live a worthwhile life, like everyone else does, you're going to have to understand that you're gonna have to do something that the majority of people won't. You're gonna have to go through things, you're gonna have to suffer certain things, you're gonna have to deal with certain things that the majority of people won't, because while everybody wants the life worth living, most people will never achieve it. Most people will not even get saved, but even among saved believers, even if we just look at that part of the population, most saved believers, if we apply it to a spiritual aspect, will not obtain a worthwhile life. People will say believers will get to heaven and they'll be saved because their sins are washed away by the blood of Christ, but Jesus is gonna look at them and say, what were you doing the whole time? What were you doing? You didn't do anything I told you to do, you didn't do anything with lasting eternal consequences. So if we wanna be in this portion of people that live the worthwhile life, we're gonna have to understand. Again, I'll read it one more time, nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing, bless it means effort, pain, difficulty. So the analogy I like to kind of set up this evening is let's say we're in a store and we're looking at, say we're in the store of life and we're looking at the items are different types of lives. You have the worthless lives, you have the wasted lives, you have the higher quality lives and here in the corner of the store you have, in the display case, you have the prized expensive worthwhile life. Everybody looks at it through the window and everybody wants it but very few people see the price tag or they take it to the counter and then they're told the price and most people, oh never mind, I don't want that. So if we want this life worth living, let's look at some price tags this evening. What's it gonna cost you? What are you gonna have to go through? What are you gonna have to deal with? Turn to Luke 14, Luke chapter 14. Even Jesus said when it comes to the worthwhile life, when it comes to serving God, even Jesus warned us that we need to count the cost, we need to know and we need to be ready for what it's going to cost us before we do it. Are you there in Luke 14? Look at verse 25, Luke 14 verse 25. It says in there went great multitudes with him, of course Jesus, and he turned and said unto them, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brother and ancestors, yea and his own life also, notice this, he cannot be my disciple and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Verse 28, for which of you intending to build a tower, siteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? Lest happily after he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it began to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. So he's given an example here of how ridiculous it would be if someone said, you know what, I need to build a tower and a tower may be a great thing to build. It's not that there's anything wrong with building a tower, but say someone said, you know, I wanna build a building, I need to build this tower, it'll help my business and I have some money saved up and I'm gonna build this tower and so they go and they pay the general contractor and they pay all the subcontractors and they start building it and they get halfway through and they're out of money. So the contractor pulls off and they, that's it. They're sitting here with this half finished building and he's saying anyone who walks by would laugh. Everyone would say, wow, this guy wasted even the money he put into it, he wasted it. Why, what a foolish person. So even when it comes to the decision to follow Christ and live this worthwhile life, which again, God commands us to do, even then Jesus warns us we need to count the cost. Before we get involved, we need to say, okay, I need to prepare myself, I need to save up on these certain things that's gonna cost me before we go into it because that's extremely important because when people just jump into the Christian life with not willing to pay the price, not really knowing what it's gonna cost them and not knowing what to expect and that's what the bottle rocket Christian is, right? That's what the shooting star Christian is. They're on fire for a little bit and then they weren't prepared for what it cost them when things get hard and they're gone as soon as they came. So this evening, let's look at some price tags. If we're going to live a worthwhile life, let's see what it's gonna cost us. The title of the sermon this evening is the cost of a life worth living, the cost of a life worth living. Turn to Nehemiah chapter one. Nehemiah chapter one. I'm sorry, turn to Job one. I'm sorry, my bad, Job chapter one. So the first thing, the first thing it's gonna cost you, if you wanna live a life worth living, here's what it's gonna cost you. It's gonna cost you some time. That's one thing it will cost you. It'll cost you some time. You should be turning to Job one. I'll read to you Nehemiah chapter one that says this, let now thy near be a tenant. This is Nehemiah praying to God. Nehemiah says to God, let now thy near be a tenant and thine eyes open, that thou mightst hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day, and night, for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house have sinned. So this life worth living, this Christian life or this life that we can get to the end and say, you know what, that was worth it, that was great, that was worth every amount of effort I put in. It's gonna cost you some time. Because this life, it's not a monthly thing. It's not a annual thing. It's not a once a week thing. It's not even a three times a week thing. It's a day and night thing. Something that if you're gonna live the Christian life, obviously you should come to church, be free to thrive. However, it's gonna take more than that. It's gonna take praying to God, reading your Bible, walking with God, not just a few times a week, but every single day. That's imperative. You need my saying, God, I'm praying this to you and I'm praying day and night. That's a lot of time, is it not? That's a lot of time. That's 24 seven, that's a lot of time. You have to realize that if you're going to jump into this Christian life and you're going to serve God like you should, it's going to take some time. You're gonna have to put it into it. You're there in Job one, I'll read you the first Chronicles 1611 that says, seek the Lord in his strength, seek his face continually. Continually, if you do anything continually, you're talking about something that's gonna take you a lot of time. And of course the world, even if you've ever talked to someone you work with maybe or your family and it comes up that you go to church three times a week, most of the time people are shocked by that. Why are they shocked? Because they think to themselves. And it's ironic is they're wasting their life. They spend their time watching football and wasting their time doing worthless things, going to bars and going to movies and wasting their life doing things that mean absolutely nothing for anybody. But they'll look at us and they'll think it's ridiculous. It's like we're wasting our time. But they do realize that we're spending a lot of time doing it and that's the point. Even the unsafe world realizes that they may not understand why we do what we do. They may not agree with what we do. Here in our Christian lives, but they do understand if we're doing it right they will understand that we're putting a lot of time into it. And we read this verse here where it says seek his face continually. That's very interesting, the word continually, you're talking about something that is 24-7, 365. And the word continually, it's interesting is if you just look at just alone, aside from the rest of the Bible, if you just look at the Levitical law, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, not even throughout the rest of the Bible, just those books where God is describing how he wants the offerings to be and the sacrifices to be and how he wants the Levitical priesthood to go, the word continually appears 25 times. Just those books alone. The continual of the word offering, the continual. And you say, God, why do you keep repeating that? Obviously, we would understand, right? No, we wouldn't. Just look, we're so foolish as humans that God can't just tell us, hey, I want you to do it this, I want you to do this, this way, in this manner and God is not able to do that and walk away and just expect us to do it. Because you know what we'll do? We'll do it once, we'll do it twice, we'll do it until we get bored and we'll say, okay, I guess it's fine if I quit. God has to say continually, God has to say, by the way, just in case you didn't get the hint, for the 25th time, in case, just to be clear here, you're gonna, this must be continual. I want you to do this continual. I want you to keep this up continually. And even if you look at just the history, they failed at this, the history of the tribe of Israel, they didn't do the year of Jubilee continually, they didn't do all the feasts continually, they didn't do everything continually, even when God told them to. But the point being, you say, why wouldn't they, why wouldn't they spend continual time doing it? Because doing something continually takes, among other things, a lot of time. Takes a lot of time and time is something that many people are not willing to give up. People have their time, most people realize that their time is fleeting, that they don't have a lot of time, but they rather spend that doing things for themselves. Doing things for, and obviously, there's nothing wrong with having time yourself, that's not the point here. But you have to realize that when you decide to go live the life worth living, you're gonna have to understand, you're gonna have to count the cost, when you're budgeting and you're writing down everything that's gonna cost you, you're gonna have to just realize, you know what, I'm going to have to be willing to put the time in. Is not a one time deal. So, you're there in Job chapter one, we'll just look at one more verse example of this. The Bible, here's talking about Job and how righteous of a man Job was. This is before God tried him. Verse four, And his sons went out and feasted in their houses. Everyone in his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. And it ends here, but it throws this one little phrase kind of on the end here just to make sure we understand how serious he is here. This, thus did Job, Yeah, Job did this and this was great and he was the righteous man. But just to be clear, he did this continually. He always did this. He spent a lot of time doing this. He spent a lot of efforts and he put the hours in into doing this. Psalm 115, 18, you don't have the turn there says, But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. I don't care what point in time you're standing. I don't care how old you are or what point you're standing in time. If you say from this time forth and evermore, that's a lot of time. That's a lot of time. And that's the exact point. God wants us to put the time in. Turn to Psalm 188. Psalm chapter 188. And this is something that people just struggle with in general, even aside from the Christian life. People I think especially, we talked about distractions. I think especially in America, it's things that there are more and more distractions and the people struggle with. It's very difficult. It is increasingly difficult for someone to actually spend a lot of time just getting something done. People can't keep a job for a long amount of time. People can't maintain any routine of life for a long time. People can't come to church for a long time. It's just people, it's something that we have to fight and realize that it's something we're going to have to pay to have this worthwhile life. So we talked about time. What else? What else are the costs of a life worth living? Here's another one, expectations. Expectations. You're there in Psalm 118. Let's look at verse eight and nine. The Bible says it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. So what are we talking about with expectations? Well, let's think about what and who do we set expectations for in our life? It's really everything. Everything in our life, we learn how things go and we expect things to go a certain way. We expect people to act a certain way. We have expectations for our family, for our friends, for our church, for our nation, for our current situation. And we're not even here talking about the whole idea of setting expectations that are too high for people. That's a whole nother sermon on its own. That's not even what we're talking about. We're just talking about when we set expectations for things, for people. Expectations are not inherently wrong. When you expect things to go a certain way, you plan things out, there's nothing wrong with that inherently. But the problem is, and again, we're not talking about setting expectations too high or too low for different areas of our life. That's a whole nother sermon. But the problem is that when it comes to expectations, most people, when those expectations are not met to a T, they fall apart. They get back to it. They get out of church. They expect their church to act a certain way and they set standards for how they want their friends to be and how they want everything in their life to be. And when those things don't match up exactly how they want, they get out of church. Happens all the time. It's, you wouldn't think it's a huge deal, but it happens more than you would think. All because people, they're so stable that their entire spiritual life is entirely dependent on how they hope someone will act or how they think their life situation will go. We can't be like that. Because here's the thing. As even if all your expectations are reasonable for every area of your life and every one you know in your life, even if all your expectations are reasonable, you have to realize that we live in a fallen world and our expectations are always gonna be falling apart. Always. People aren't perfect. People aren't gonna meet what we expect of them. Our friends are not gonna always meet our expectations of what they're going to be. So if our Christian life is leaning on those things, if our Christian life is being held up by those expectations, then they are eventually going to fall over and we're going to go with it. So you say, what do I do? Well, Proverbs 3.25 says this, be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh, for the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken. Say, what do I do when my expectations fail? Well, first of all, your trust should be in the Lord and you should keep going. You should keep going. But you see, if your confidence is not in God, if all your confidence is all bet on the sand of men and the sand of people and the sand of your situation in life, then when that sand moves, you're gonna go with it. You need to be held upon the rock of Jesus Christ in your life. Because again, your expectations, aside from whether they're reasonable or not, no expectation will stand forever. This is not how it goes. Turn to Luke 18. Luke chapter number 18. In Luke 18, look at verse 29. Here Jesus said this. And he said unto them, verily I say unto you that there is no man that hath left house or parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting. One thing that some people, not everybody, but some people may have to pay to continue that life worth living in their life are relationships. Whether, and this can be anything, this can be a friendship, this can be family, but are you willing to pay that? There's a lot of people arts. There's a lot of people who, obviously we're not saying that any family member in your life or any friend in your life that is not completely perfect, you have to just separate from, that's not what we're talking about. But we're talking about if you have the, if you're to a point in your life where there are people who are dragging you back, they are keeping you from moving forward. They're slowing you down. They are vexing you to the point, troubling you to the point where it is affecting your spiritual walk forward. You need to get to the point where you are okay with saying, you know what, I love this cause more. The cause that I'm living for, the cause of serving God, the cause, the pursuit of this life worth living, this means more to me than this. You have to be willing to do that. We'll see a lot of these things, they're not things that are inherently bad, but they're things that we have to be willing to let go of, if it gets to that point. And here we see a promise where Jesus is saying, you know, if you do have to give these things up, if you do choose me over these people, I promise you, you will receive manifold more in the life to come. We have to believe that, we have to trust that, because that's, it's a hard thing for a lot of people. Most people are living a less and worthwhile life because they just weren't willing to pay this. They weren't willing to separate from certain people. They weren't willing to separate from certain friends. It's a very hard thing. I mean, I think a lot of people, maybe perhaps the biggest thing in people's lives that keeps people, when someone gets saved at the door and someone believes on Christ, I think perhaps the hardest thing that is holding people back from just jumping into the Christian life and serving God is friends they have. Friends they have and friends who, they don't want their friends, they're embarrassed what their friends will think or their friends are holding them back from this spiritual life. You have to be willing to say, you know what, this life worth living, I'm willing to pay this. I'm willing to pay this price if that is what it takes. Turn to 1 Timothy 6. So what else? We're talking about the cost of a life worth living, things that we may have to pay, things that we have to be willing to pay and sacrifice for the cause of Christ. For the cause of living the worthwhile life that God wants us to live. We looked at time, we looked at expectations, we looked at relationships. Here's the fourth thing, money. Money's a big one. Then 1 Timothy 6, look at verse 6, 1 Timothy 6.6. Now the Bible says this, but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. In having food and raiments, let us be there with content. But they that will be rich. Here again, will be rich. It's not saying anyone who ends up being rich. It's saying people who have the will to be rich. They have the desire to be rich. They're specifically seeking out for that in their life. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. And they do many foolish and hurtful us, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money, and again not money, the love of money is the root of all evil. Which while some coveted after, don't miss this, they have aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man, and God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, where unto thou art also called, and thus professed a good profession before many witnesses. Here, Paul is making it clear that the love of money and the pursuit of money, there are a great many people he says that have aired from the faith because of it. And it's interesting too, just as a side note, where he talks about airing from the faith, and I think of airing from the faith, I think of someone who they get back to the church, they air from the work they're supposed to be doing. But it's funny because it's so true how it's phrased here because in reality, people don't just air from the faith. People don't just get back to the church and then that's it. No, no, no. When that happens to somebody, there's another chapter to their story. Keep reading. And they don't just air from the faith, they don't just get back to the church, it doesn't end there for them and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. Someone who airs from the faith, if we let this happen to us, we'll also end up piercing ourselves through with many sorrows in our life. We're gonna live a miserable life. We're gonna live a worthless miserable life. That's sorrowful, that's what we're trying to avoid. And again, nothing wrong with money, but just like all these other things, you have to be willing to give up every last cent if need be. Another thing when it comes to money in particular, the way it kind of plays out with people is it's not necessarily a problem of people giving money up. It's usually a problem with people not willing to turn money down. Usually it's a job that comes up or it's an opportunity to make more money and that's usually where people make the mistake. That's where people air from the faith. That's usually what derails people from living. Their life worth living is not turning money down. It's a temptation for a lot of people. And this one's kind of interesting because there's many things that can destroy a Christian life but this one will finish it off pretty quickly. This, I mean, with money, this can just be one decision you make. One, it's something that comes up, you're offered something, you're given a chance to make the wrong decision and you make it when people are gone. And it can happen very quickly in someone's life so we need to watch for it. We need to, we need to, this one will ambush us in our life. This one will come up very quickly and drag us away before we even know what happened. So we need to be vigilant for this and we need to watch out for it. We need to be willing to pay this cost if it's what stands in the way of our life worth living. So what else? What else are the costs of a life worth living? Here's another one, bitterness. Turn to Ephesians 4. Ephesians chapter number 4. Bitterness is a big one. And it's interesting because we just talked about money which is something that will destroy your Christian life very quickly. Bitterness is almost worse because at least with money, at least other people, if you're in a good church, other people will notice it. You may not, but at least other people will notice it and be there to counsel you and say, hey brother, I don't think this is the best decision, I don't think you should do this. You know, you should think about this twice. But with bitterness, this one is much more dangerous because no one else sees it until it's too late, including the person it's affecting. You're there in Ephesians 4, the Bible says this, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Money, again, something that can happen very quickly, destroy your life very quickly, but this one, bitterness, this one can take years. This one can take years because it starts small. You see, here's how bitterness works. Someone annoys you. Someone kind of gets on your nerves, which that's just how it goes. We're just not gonna get along super well with everybody. Obviously we're supposed to love our brothers, sisters and Christ and get along with people, but some people just rub you the wrong way and some people just, you just don't click with. That's just how things go, but you have to be very careful because what'll happen is, and this can be your friends, this can be your brothers and sisters and Christ, this can be a spiritual leader in your life. If you let yourself get bitter, someone does something to annoy you and they just get on your nerves, if you let that go untended, it will build up inside of you over a long period of time and you won't even realize it. Pretty soon, you'll find yourself, say it's a friend of yours or just someone you know, you'll find yourself hating this person. You'll find yourself, every time that person slips up, you just look for things, you look for them to follow, you look for them to make mistakes just because of how bitter you are and anger you are over something that if you just kind of stepped outside the box and looked at it, you'd say, this is ridiculous, this is absurd. I can't believe I'm so, I feel this way towards this person because of bitterness. Goes on to say and be kind one to another, tenderhearted for giving one another and it's interesting that a couple things there, notice how bitterness, look what it couples it with. I call bitterness, I almost consider it, I call it the anger family. It puts in this big family of attributes, this big group of attributes, it's not just bitterness, look what it couples it with. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, the irony is that if you went up to someone who was bitter and was struggling with bitterness and you said, hey, do you think wrath is right, wrath towards your brother, sister, and Christ, do you think that's right, they'd say no. If you said, how about anger, is anger right, they'd say no. If you said, what about clamor, evil speaking, gossip, they'd say no, no, no, that's all terrible, that's all bad. But they wouldn't, even though they were struggling with bitterness, they wouldn't even realize it. They wouldn't even, it's in the same group. All these things, they all fall under bitterness. And here's the other thing about bitterness too, it's never justified. It's never justified because here's the thing, even if someone has legitimately done you wrong, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Say someone legitimately offended you or did you wrong, your bitterness is still never justified because it's your responsibility to either deal with that with that person or just to forgive them. And ultimately forgive them either way. That's why it says in the next verse, that's why the next thing that it's mentioned is, yeah, and by the way, forgiving one another. Because it's kind of similar in a way, it's kind of similar to the expectations because you have to realize that if you're going to live in this fallen world and try to pursue this life worth living, you're gonna have to understand that people are always gonna be offending you. People are always gonna be doing you wrong. People are gonna be always hurting you and whether they mean to or not, it's just always going to happen. So if you store that inside of you, every time someone does something to you and you store it inside of you, you store it inside of you, every time someone hurts you, you store it inside of you, you store it inside of you, it will destroy you eventually. What you have to do is as people offend you and as people do you wrong, you have to deal with it right then and there. You either have to deal with it, you either have to go up to that person and say, you know, I didn't, brother, you offended me when you said that or I didn't like how you did that or I think you did me wrong here. You either have to deal with it or you have to suffer yourself to be defrauded. Because you know what, if anything, for your own sake. Because this is something that destroys people's Christian life. This is something someone will be on track and they're living a life, the life worth living and they're living this valuable Christian life and they're serving God and this will just, when it builds up and when it manifolds itself forth, it'll derail their Christian life permanently. It's a terrible thing. Hebrews 12, 15, I'll just read it, says this, looking diligently. So he's about to, he's about to mention something. He's saying, you need to be looking for this. Be diligent, watching for this. Looking diligently, lest any man filled by the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby, because of this, by bitterness, thereby many be defiled. See, bitterness, it may start as just a small root in you. It may be just some small seed that was planted that you let grow, that you let get bigger and bigger and bigger, but by the time it pops up out of the ground, those roots are so deep that they have destroyed many people. They have destroyed many people. If you have a tree that's planted next to a sidewalk and the sidewalk cracks, it's too late by that point. By that point, those roots are too deep or too deep in the ground to do anything about. You can't pull that tree out anymore. You can't pull that plant out anymore. It's too late. Something we need to watch for because it is something that the devil is very successful at using against people and it gets, it hurts a lot of people because of it. So, you'll never have to look far to find things to be better about. I mean, let's just be honest. No one's perfect. If you want to go around looking for things to get mad about, you'll probably find some pretty quickly, but it's your job as a Christian. If you're gonna be a cut above and if you're gonna say, you know what? I'm gonna do something most people aren't. I'm gonna serve God with my life. I'm gonna spend my whole life pushing towards this cause of following Jesus Christ, no matter what. If you're going to make that decision, you're going to have to be the bigger person sometimes. You're gonna have to take the high road sometimes. You're gonna have to learn just to let things go completely sometimes. You're gonna have to be more mature than that than to just let every little thing someone does get stored in the bank of your bitterness until it just all comes out and destroys you. Start small and it turns into an unstoppable monster over time. So, here's the next thing. Here's the next cost of a life worth living is this. This one's a little longer, but this is what I call the unbridled pursuit of pleasure. Turn to Clasiasis too. The unbridled pursuit of pleasure. We're gonna look at a good example here. We're gonna look at a bad example. You're gonna Clasias too. This is Solomon. If you're familiar with Clasiasis, you know. It's a really depressing book. It's basically Clasiasis. If you summed it up, it's basically a regret of a person who got to the end of his life and realized he lived a largely worthless life. Or that's what he believed by the time he got to that point. It's a book written by someone with a lot of regrets who's trying to warn us not to have the same. Here's Clasiasis too. Here's Solomon's describing how great his life was. He was how wealthy he was. He was the wisest man that ever lived. And he's just describing how well things were for him. He says in verse four of Clasiasis too, I made me great works. I builded me houses. I planted me vineyards. I made me gardens and orchards. And I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits. I made me pools of water to water there with the wood that bring forth trees. I got me servants and maidens. I had servants born in my house. Also I had great possessions and both great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me. Even by today's standards, this guy would be rich. This guy would be extremely wealthy, even by today's standards. I gathered me also silver and gold in the peculiar treasure of kings and the provinces. I got me men's singers and women's singers and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments and that of all sorts. And in verse three he says in verse nine, and this is, I don't think he's being arrogant as he's writing this. I believe he's just being honest. He's describing how he was at this point in his life. He says, so I was great. I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And notice verse 10 here, because this is what we're trying to avoid here. He's saying in verse 10, and whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy from my heart rejoiced in all my labor. And this was the portion of all my labor. So he says, you know, I was great. I had everything I ever wanted and I just gave myself anything I ever wanted. If I wanted something, I went and I got it, because I could and I was great and I was awesome. So this is how he's living. And so I said, how to work for him? Let's look at verse 11. Verse 11, you can almost see as he's writing this, you could almost see the moment in his life when a certain realization kind of punched him in the face. We kind of realized something in the midst of all this joy in him just enjoying all this. You can kind of see a moment where he stopped literally in his tracks and he kind of realized something. Verse 11, then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labor that I had labor to do. He says, there's a point when I was standing and I was looking at my, I was thinking about and I was looking at all my works. I was looking at the vineyards and I was looking at the orchards. I was looking at all the cattle and the houses and the palaces. I was looking at all of this. And behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit. And there was no prophet under the sun. You can almost see this point where he sees all this and he kind of realizes this is worthless. This has no lasting value. So a man who lived and pursued unbridled pleasure. How did it turn out for him? Look at verse 17 of the same chapter. Verse 17 of the same chapter. Therefore, because of this, I hated life. Because the work that has rotted under the sun is grievous unto me. For all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Look, if you're going to live a life that you can look back on and not hate, a life that you can look back on and be glad you lived and not have these extreme regrets, you're going to have to, you have to realize that you will not be able to live this life of just unbridled pleasure. You're just pursuing the most money you can. You're just trying to get as much pleasure in anything that you, any mammon or anything you can possibly pursue after, you're just trying to gain that for yourself. You may end up being very successful in the world's eyes, but if you're looking for something greater than that, you're going to have to put this aside. Turn to first Corinthians nine. First Corinthians nine. It's gonna take self-control. It's gonna take self-denial. This is the major reason that most people, they can't live this because they don't want that. They're not willing to exercise self-control. They're not willing to deny themselves anything. They just want whatever they can get. First Corinthians nine. This is the apostle Paul. He's talking about living the victorious Christian life, essentially talking about this life worth living. He's talking about succeeding at it and how he's trying to go for this prize. He's trying to win something. He's trying to win this valuable Christian life. He says in verse 26, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beat at the air. He's saying if this is a race, I know where I'm going and I'm running as fast as I can, straight in that direction. I'm not taking detours. I'm not taking breaks. I'm not stopping and stretching. He said, I'm running certainly. I know exactly where I'm going and I'm pushing hard in that direction. He said, if this is a fight, I'm not fighting, I'm not just punching the air here. If I'm gonna go through the effort to punch, I'm gonna hit something. I'm not just wander around, kind of swinging, whatever I can get. He says, I'm after something. I'm after a certain goal. He said, how do you do it, Paul? Verse 27, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. That's that by any means what I have preached to others by myself should be a cast away. He's saying, here's how I did it. I'm bringing my flesh into subjection. I have self-control. I have purpose. I have purpose. I have a direction I'm moving in. I know what I'm going for. I know what I'm swinging at. I'm not, there's no inefficiency in Paul's life here. There's no, he's not wasting any time. He's not wasting energy in the wrong direction. He's not living this life of just unbridled pleasure of anything he wants or anything he can think of. He just goes and gets for himself. No, he has a direction he's going in. There's no detours for Paul. There's no wasted punches for Paul. So you want to hit something in your life? It's going to take discipline. It's going to take discipline. You say, I can't do that. Well, that's what most people, that's most people. Most people can't. I mean, let's be honest. Most people can't. That's why they're living a worthwhile, worthless life. Sorry. So we're going to have to exercise some self-denial if we want that. It's going to cost the unbridled pursuit of pleasure. That's one thing that we may have to give up. So last this evening, turn to Philippians 3. Well, and here, here's the last thing. The cost of a life worth living. No kind of life is, quote, no kind of life is worth leading if it is always an easy life. What's the last thing you may have to give up? It's this. Everything. Say everything. Say, I can do the money and I can do the expectations and I can do the bitterness, but everything. Well, here's the point. Here's what we're kind of getting at. You may have noticed the theme with all these things we talked about. They're all kind of things except for bitterness. Bitterness is the exception. They're all kind of things that, they're not bad in themselves. It's not bad to have money. It's not bad to have pleasure and enjoy the fruits of your labor. It's not bad to have relationships. It's not bad to have time to yourself. That's not the point. So don't take this the wrong way. But the point is if you are going to attain this, if you're going to go purchase this life that most people cannot afford it. But if no one wants to pay the price, if you want that, you're going to have to be willing to give these things up. And we talked about things that are common. Things that are common that people struggle with that they won't give up. But it's not an all-inclusive list. It may come down to giving up everything for Christ. If you really want this bad enough, I remember years and years ago, my brother, Stucky, I think it was for, he preached at the Red Hat preaching conference. He was like the sermon before soul winning. And he preached the sermon, I believe it was called, How Bad Do You Want It? And he talked about the Christian life and how everybody wants, or most people want to, I mean, most people want a successful Christian life. Most people, you know, sit from afar and would love to go to a good church. They would love to have all these things. But the problem isn't that people don't want it. It's that people don't want it bad enough. Because if people wanted it bad enough, they would do anything to get it. Instead, they're putting other things in front of it and they're putting it on the shelf. They're saying they want it to come to them. They want everything just to fall in place. But if you really want that, you're gonna have to realize it may cost you up to everything. It may cost you up to everything. It's like an advertisement saying up to 50% off. Well, this is up to your life. This is up to everything that it may cost you. They're in Philippians three. Again, this is Paul talking. Look at verse seven. But what things were counted gain to me? Those that counted loss for Christ. Yay, doubtless. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And do count them but done that I may win Christ. He says, you know, everything I have, you know, Paul talks about in other places, you know, I can be a base and I can abound. Paul's saying, I can be blessed. I can do that. I can appreciate the blessings that God's given me and I can live a blessed life where God's giving me everything. And he said, I can do that. But here's the difference with Paul. Paul says all those things though, even when times are good, even when I have everything I want. He says, even in those times, I count all those things lost already. They're already lost to me. That way when they're lost, it's not a big shock. Look, in your Christian life, appreciate the things that God's given you. Appreciate your relationships. Don't take them for granted. Appreciate the money God blesses you with and the different things he gives you in your life. But you have to realize that if you want this priceless Christian life, you're gonna have to go up to everything in this life and just stamp it. Lost, lost, lost. It's already sold. Just go everything, consider everything sold in your life. Everything you have, it's already sold. Just get that mindset. It's all sold. You're just waiting for someone to come pick it up. You're just waiting for it to be lost for Christ. Appreciate it while you have it, but you have to be willing to let go of anything up to all things. And look, this is hard. This is a hard thing. And this is why most people don't have it. This is why most people, most Christians, most Christians will get to the end of their life and they'll be like, man, I wasted it all. I wasted all those years. I wasted all that time I had in all for nothing. You know, I think many times of, you know, the person who gets saved at the door and you never hear from again or maybe comes to church once or twice and kind of just you never hear from again. I think about these people, how they're gonna get to heaven and they're gonna see this, this ginormous spiritual battle that was waging around them the entire time and they totally missed it. They totally missed it. How bad they're gonna wanna wish that they were part of that and how bad they're gonna wanna wish that they also were the one gave something up for Christ and they also sacrificed. Look, these things are hard, but if you want that worthwhile life, if you really want that, you're gonna have to realize, you know what, it may not cost me everything, but I'm willing to go through the effort, the pain, the difficulty because no kind of life worth leading is going to be without these things. So, in conclusion this evening, again, you may not have to suffer the loss of all things in your life, but you have to be willing to. And this life, it's not, it's expensive. You know, if you wanna think about it like that, this worthwhile Christian life, it's expensive, but look, it is within reach. God can use you and God can strengthen you. You can achieve it. It's not out of your reach. It's like, and I believe it's Deuteronomy, where God's telling his people. He says, these words I'm telling you, it's not like they're far away. It's not like you can't reach them. It's like you can't attain to them. He's like, they're right there for you. This word is nigh unto you. I'm right there with you. God is right there with you and this life is within your grasp, but all you gotta do is you just have to pay for it. You have to be willing to pay the cost for it and you will have it and you will achieve it, but you're gonna have to be willing to count and pay the cost if needed. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.