Full Throttle Part 2 - Where We Get Stuck

Click here to support Talk About It!

For more information or booking details, visit www.donmsmith.com

Buy us a Sweet Tea and a Little Debbie Snack Cake

We continue our Full Throttle series by tackling the uncomfortable place where so many of us get stuck: spiritual no‑man’s land.

You know the feeling. You're too Christian to enjoy sin—it just doesn't feel fun anymore—but you're too sinful to fully enjoy Christ. You've got just enough Jesus to be informed, but not enough to be transformed. You want everything God has to offer without giving up anything. You want to buy in without selling out.

Here's what we've done: we stopped calling sin "sin" and started calling it "our weakness." But sin is denouncing God and choosing the world over Christ. Repentance means turning from your old ways and bowing to Jesus as Lord. And the fear underneath? "If I sell out for God, I'll miss something good." But Psalm 84:11 says, "No good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless." If you hold out on God, you'll miss everything He wants you to have, do, and become.

Full Throttle demands absolute consecration. Consecration means setting yourself apart, dethroning yourself, and enthroning Jesus. It's surrendering all of you to all of Him.

We see this in the story of the rich young ruler (Mark 10). He kept all the commandments, but Jesus looked at him and said, "One thing you lack. Sell everything, give to the poor, then come follow me." The man walked away sad because his money was his real lord. Jesus wasn't against wealth—He was against anything that sits on the throne of your heart instead of Him.

How do we break the power of sin? Not by screaming "Stop it!" but by crying out "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" When you make Him Lord, He governs, controls, and steers your life into safe places.

It's time to stop playing church and be His church. Stop pretending and start practicing. Stop playing it safe and play to win. Stop being logical and get a little radical.

We close with the story of A.W. Milne, a "One Way Missionary" who sailed to the headhunters of New Hebrides—where every previous missionary had been killed. He said, "I don't fear because I've already died to myself. You can't kill a dead man." He spent 35 years there, and when he died, they buried him in the center of their village with this epitaph: "When he came there was no light; when he left, there was no darkness."

Jesus didn't die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous. In your sphere of influence, are you letting your light shine?

Key Scriptures: Mark 10:17-31; Psalm 84:11

Transcript

Season Theme And Where We’re Going

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hi everyone, Pastor Don Smith here. Welcome to the Talk About It Podcast, where we take relevant topics with a biblical point of view and we talk about it. You know you want to, so do I. Let's talk about it. Welcome back, everyone, to season 10, episode 2 of the Talk About It Podcast. My name is Don, and I am your host for the Talk About It Podcast. You know that if you are a longtime listener, if you're a first-time listener, we're so glad you're here. Do us a favor, though, first-time listeners. Just push pause right here. Go back to the beginning. It was just last week's episode of Talk About It, uh, uh season 10, episode one, and uh start from there, catch back up to where we're at today. We'll be here waiting for you, we promise you, where we are talking about what it looks like to live out loud for Jesus. Amen. So we've we've titled this season, Full Throttle: Living Out Loud for Jesus, Wide Open for the Lord, and I'm excited about it. And last week we ended talking about how, you know, the gospel costs us nothing. It's free, but it demands everything. And as we continue to move in the podcast today, uh, here on season 10, episode two, uh, I just want to talk, I want to follow up last week's conversation a little bit with Ba, like

When Your Faith Feels Stuck

SPEAKER_00 1:25

how I'm gonna talk about what causes us and how it is that we get stuck. You ever feel stuck? You ever felt stuck in your your like your Christian walk, your life, uh just trying to walk with Jesus? Like you ever just felt stuck? Like I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. Well, the problem is sometimes that we wind up in what I like to call a spiritual no man's land. Hello, somebody. Uh, I mean, like, what do you mean by that, Pastor Donald? I'm glad you asked because here we go, right at the beginning of today's episode. Uh sometimes I just feel like we're too Christian to enjoy sin, yet we're too sinful to enjoy Christ. Oh boy. I'm gonna have to let you let that soak in for just a minute there, right? Have you ever been there? Have you ever done that? Uh do you have the t-shirt? Come on, somebody. I mean, it used to be fun. Uh, I don't, I don't know what happened. It just doesn't feel as fun as it used to be. Because you know why that's happening? Because the Spirit of God is moving inside of your life now. And the Spirit of God is saying to you, no, no, no, come back here, come back here, right? But then what we do is we go over to the presence of God and we're all like, I want to embrace God. I really do want to walk with Jesus. I want to embrace the fullness of everything that God has for me. But then there's this sin, that mess in the old life that pulls us back from, you know, becoming more like Christ and having a walk with him. Now, the truth of the matter is we got just enough of Jesus to be informed, but maybe not enough to be transformed. That's what that's it's I'm I'm talking about what happens when we're when we're stuck, okay? We got just enough of Jesus to be informed, but not enough to be transformed. We know about him, but we haven't really let him transform us. We want everything God has to offer without giving up anything that God requires. Oh, I'm touching on some stuff right away today. We're only three minutes into the podcast. See, I want everything God has for me. But oh, I'm I'm not sacrificing anything. I'm not gonna give up anything. You see, what happens is we want to buy in without selling out. Amen. Or oh, me talk about it. And then and then we've lessened it. Like going back to the sport example that I used last week, like we're we're not gonna keep score, okay? We're just going to we're just not gonna worry about it because it's it's no big deal,

Calling Sin What It Is

SPEAKER_00 3:55

right? So here's what we've done. We've stopped calling things sin, and we've start we've started calling those things my weakness. It's just where I'm weak. It's just the way the Lord made me, and it's just something in me that I gotta process through, and and and I just and I just no. Let's call it what it is. Talk about it. Let's call it what it is. It's sin. Sin is actually this thing. Let me give you uh PD's definition of sin, okay? It's actually denouncing God and choosing to follow the world versus following Christ. Denouncing God and choosing to follow the world versus following Christ. You see, to repent from sin means to turn away from my ways and say, I'm turning from sin and I'm bowing towards Jesus. And I'm saying, Lord, I make you my life. I bow and I dedicate my life to you. And then there's this fear that says, Oh, well, if I do that, I'm gonna miss out on something. If I sell out for God, I'm gonna miss out on something good. Let me tell you what the word of God says. Right here at the beginning of the podcast this week, talk about it. Psalms 84, verse 11 says, No good thing does he withhold from those who walk and is blameless. No good thing. Hear me. Come on, talk about it, hear me. If we hold out on God, we're going to miss everything that God wants us to do. If we hold out on God, we're gonna miss out on everything that God wants us to have. If we hold out on God, we're gonna miss out on everything that God wants us to become. So here we are, we're talking about what it means to live out loud, to live full throttle, okay, for Jesus. Now, I gave you uh last week, I gave you uh two things that we started with, right? We talked about it's about finishing uh and winning the race. And then it number two, it's it's it's an it's an all or nothing proposition. Okay, so this week, let me just concentrate on one issue, all right? It's

Absolute Consecration And Surrender

SPEAKER_00 6:08

about absolute consecration. Now, consecration, not a word that maybe we use a lot in our culture today, um, but it's a word that I think would define Jesus on the night that he was going to be betrayed and going to go to trial and ultimately give his life. What he did is he prayed and he said, Father, not my will but be done, but yours be done. You see, talk about it. The the definition of consecration here, okay, is this consecration to set yourself apart. Uh it demands full devotion. It's dethroning yourself and enthroning Jesus Christ. It's saying, I'm no longer in charge. I'm I'm no longer Lord of my life, but Jesus Christ is Lord of my life. It's it's a surrendering all of you to all of him. Can I use a story in the Bible? Now, maybe you can, if I don't know where you're at today listening to the podcast, if you're on a treadmill, if you're driving, you're on your lunch break or whatever. But, you know, if you can, you can turn there now. It's Mark chapter 10, uh, starting around the, I think around verse 17. If not, you can go there later. But you know the story. Once I start explaining it, you're gonna, oh yeah, Pastor Don, I

The Rich Young Ruler Test

SPEAKER_00 7:30

know that story. See, there's a young man that comes to Jesus and he says, Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Let me, let me just, verse 17. Jesus started on his way, and a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. He said, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. You should not murder, you should not commit adultery, you should not steal, you should not give false testimony, you should not defraud, you should honor your father and your mother. And he says, Teacher, teacher, teacher. I I do all that stuff. I don't mess up, I follow the law to the T. Come on, Jesus, give me a high five. And Jesus is like, um, what? What more do you want from me? That's what the young rich ruler is saying to Jesus. I do all this stuff. Jesus is like, What? And then he says, like, what more do you want from me? I do all this stuff. And I love in verse 21, Jesus looks right at him and he says, One thing you lack. Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you'll have treasures in heaven. Then come and follow me. Now, at this time, the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, Now, very interesting, the disciples are there listening and paying attention to this conversation. So he stops speaking to the young rich ruler, and he looks right at his disciples. And the young rich ruler is probably not far enough away yet that he can't hear what Jesus is saying. Because it's like an immediate action. He looks at his disciples and he says, How hard is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of God? And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, children, how hard is it to enter the kingdom of God? It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples were even more amazed and said to each other, Who then can be saved? The disciples were amazed. Their question was this who can be saved? If I'm poor and Jesus says, I'm like, what? That's right, rich people. Come on. You're gonna have a tough time. Us poor people, we're good though, right, Jesus? Where I'm concerned is if I'm rich, and I'm all like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what happens here? Verse 27, Jesus looked at them and said, With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Then Peter spoke up and said, We've left everything to follow you. So Peter speaks up and he says, Hey, we've left everything, Jesus, to follow you. What about us? We laid it all down for you. Watch in verse 29. Jesus says, Truly I tell you, no one who has left home or brother or sister, or mother, or father, children, or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much as in this present age. Homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, along with persecutions. Uh oh. I'd rather not receive that one, Jesus. And he he continues, he says, In the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. All right, now what's Jesus saying here? He's looking at this young man and he's saying, I know you're doing all the right outward things, but what I really want is your heart. See, money dominates you, it controls you, it rules you, it governs your life. And until you let go of that as the Lord of your life, I can never have any influence over your life. That's what he's saying to the rich young ruler. He's saying, until you let go of that thing that dominates your life, I can never have control. I can never have influence. You see, too many times we come to Jesus and we say, Lord, help me get rid of this problem. I want to stop sinning. I don't want to do this anymore, Lord. I'm not gonna do this ever again. I'm not gonna do it again, Jesus. I'm I'm just not gonna do it. I promise I'll never do it again. Has anybody ever prayed that prayer? Come on, talk about it. How about this prayer? You ever prayed this prayer? Lord, if you forgive me this one time, I'll never do it again. Now watch

Breaking Sin’s Power By Lordship

SPEAKER_00 12:20

this. I can see this scenario in the Garden of Eden. On the left hand side, we've got the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and on the right hand side, we've got the tree of life. All Adam and Eve had to do, okay, was hang on to the tree of life. But they chose to embrace the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Temptation was at the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Where Satan tempted them and said, God's holding out on you. He just doesn't want you to become like him. God's actually shortchanging you. That's where temptation comes, talk about it. When we begin to believe the lie of the enemy that God is shortchanging us by asking us to embrace one thing and not embrace another thing. So, Pastor Don, how do we break the power of sin over our life? Well, it's not just stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it. Okay. It's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Be my Lord, be my Lord, be my Lord. Because when you make Jesus the Lord of your life, now he governs, now he controls, now he steers your life, and he'll lead you and guide you into safe places. See, it's time we stop playing church and it's time we start being church. Somebody say amen. Help me out, talk about it. It's time we stop saying that we're Christians and we start really living and following Jesus and live like him. It's time that we stop pretending and start practicing. It's time we stop playing it safe and we play to win. It's time we stop being logical and we get a little radical. I'm talking about living out loud, full throttle, wide open for Jesus. That's why we're doing this podcast. That's why we're really pressing into this season. Because I was really conflicted about what I wanted to do this season, but I really felt a push to just talk about what it means to live out loud, to live wide open for Jesus. I

One Way Missionaries And Coffins

SPEAKER_00 14:27

want to share a story with you about a group of missionaries who went out uh back in the turn of the century, a group uh they were called one-way missionaries. Okay. And this was their gig. They would purchase a ticket to the mission field without a return ticket. And instead of packing suitcases and all their belongings in suitcases, they packed everything in coffins. And those coffins would go with them to their location. They'd say goodbye to their family, they say goodbye to their friends. Typically, their immediate family would probably go with them, but everyone in their in their social circle, they would say goodbye to. It was a one-way, and they knew they would never return. I'm going to this nation, I'm going to this people, and I'm going to give my all to share the light of Jesus Christ. Now, A.W. Malign, he he was one of those guys, okay? And so he set sail for new uh uh Hebrides, okay, in the South Pacific. I think that's how you say it, Hebrides. And this island was known for its headhunters, okay? And they had uh martyred and killed every missionary before AW had ever showed up, and now that's his mission field. And when he was asked about the concern for his life, he this was his answer. He said, I don't fear because I've already died to myself. I'm I'm already dead. You can't kill a dead man. So he goes and he's not martyred. Hello, somebody. He's not, he's the first missionary to go to this place and that's not martyred. He spends the next 35 years sharing God's love and God's word. And when he died, he had made such a difference in the tribes of that island. When he died, they buried him in the center of their village. And on his tombstone, they wrote these words. When he came, there was no light. When he left, there was no darkness. Come on. Hello, somebody. That was their testimony of him, because a man decided to live full throttle, out loud, wide open for Jesus.

Jesus Makes You Dangerous

SPEAKER_00 16:38

In your island of life, talk about it, in your sphere, in your circle of influence. Are you letting your light shine? Because, see, what I want us to understand today is Jesus didn't die to keep you safe, he died to make you dangerous. Come on, talk about it. Somebody needs to hear this word today because you've been struggling about what it looks like to just live out loud for Jesus, to live in full faith and full throttle for Jesus. And I just believe that God is saying to us, let's let our light shine. Let's make a difference in our cities, right where we're planted. Amen. Come on, let's stand and let's do something for Jesus. Let's live out loud for him. Let's not be camouflage Christians. Let's not be incognito for Jesus. Let's be full throttle, out loud, wide open for him. What a difference that would make in our culture. I mean, I just want to I just want to ask us today, what does full throttle look like to you? What does it look like? In other words, where do you need to push a little more? What things do you need to let go of so you can be more focused on God's focus and direction? It's a great question. And it's a question I think we all have to wrestle with as we look at what it means here in season 10. Okay. To live out loud for Jesus. Let me let me just tell you, there is a there's a world that's lost and dying without Jesus that needs Christians to stop living in the shadows. Oh, help me. Let's go. That needs Christians to live out loud, out in the light, out in the public. Everybody else is coming out of the closet. Everybody else is living out in the in the public. Why are uh why are we as Christians living in the shadows? Why do we feel like we are less than or that we have to, you know, uh be quiet about what we believe and who we are and how we should live? Everyone else doesn't seem to have any problems with thinking that they need to apologize for the way they live. Yet Christians are the ones I see all the time that say, well, I'm sorry, I believe, or I'm sorry I can't do this, or I'm sorry, I'm gonna live this way. No, I'm not apologizing for it. Talk about it. I'm not apologize, I'm not saying I'm sorry for the way I want to live my life out loud for Jesus. He lived his life out loud for me. And it's an incredible concept to think about what it means to live out loud for Jesus, to live full throttle, wide open for him. And I hope that today's uh episode has just really encouraged you to just press in a little bit. Go back to Mark chapter 10, read it uh starting at verse 17, read the story again and just think about this conversation a little bit more because I promise you God's got something to say to us. Amen. It's so good and so powerful to be able to live in the presence of God this way, to live in a world that needs Jesus so much and know that I have the light to shine into the darkness. My faith alone, amen, gives me the ability to do that in Christ. And I hope that you've enjoyed this conversation

Closing Encouragement And Listener Support

SPEAKER_00 20:10

today. Man, I'm so grateful for all of you guys. I really am. Thank you for supporting the podcast each and every week. It means so much to us. Uh, we thank you that you return and you and you listen each and every week. Can I get you to do me a favor? Whoever platform you listen to the podcast on, can you go down to in and find the ratings section and give us a rating? Well, whatever rating you want, uh, you know, we need to we need to get a thousand people to give us a uh a rating. Now, a five-star rating would be great. It would really help the algorithm. That's all you have to do. But if you can also share the podcast on your social media, right? If you can uh pray for us each and every week, that God will continue to give us the influence that He's He's given us. If you can think about being a monthly supporter, that would be super great. All of that info is in your show notes. I'm so excited to come here each and every week and talk with you and share uh uh what it means, I mean, to just take a relevant topic with a biblical perspective and talk about it. And what could be more relevant in the culture and society that we live in in this modern day world than talking about how faith impacts the way we live our life? It's true. It's true. And I I want to encourage each and every one of the listeners to talk about it podcast, to live out loud, to live full throttle, to live wide open for Jesus. You guys mean the world to us. You you make it so that it's easy to come back each and every week. And we're gonna be back next week. And we've got a uh a new episode here in season 10. We're gonna be there at episode three. You're not gonna want to miss it as we continue to press in what it looks like to live out for Jesus, full throttle for him. I'm excited each and every week to come back here. I'm excited that you're back. It means the world to us.