WILL YOU, PLEASE, JUST GET TO THE POINT?

I really wish you didn’t need this book, but I know you do! This is the book I wish someone had given me years ago.

Every person who prays the sinner’s prayer needs this book.

As soon as someone is baptized and comes up out of the water, they should be handed this book.

This book should also be handed to anyone writing a business plan or incorporating a new organization.

Anyone struggling with any addiction needs to read this book.

If I ever need brain surgery, I really hope the surgeon has read this book!

Before anyone gets married, they should be required to read this book.

Parents should lead their children through the principles in this book. When my own children were seven, four, and two, my wife and I taught them how to get to the point.

Students need teachers who help them get to the point. Congregations need pastors who help them get to the point. Nations need politicians who help them get to the point.

Athletes need coaches who help them get to the point.

Employees need bosses who help them get to the point.

I know from personal experience that what God reveals to you in this book will impact your life more than becoming a Christian. In fact, it will impact your life more than getting married, than having children, or than the birth of your first grandchild.

I’m confident that even selling your business for over ten digits doesn’t come close to the gift this book represents.

TOTALLY MISSING THE POINT

When I was ten years old, I prayed the sinner’s prayer, gave my life to Jesus, and was baptized. I thought I had done everything I needed to do to be a Christian.

Two years later, my parents divorced and our family of six fell apart. So I lived with my dad and older brother for a time. We went to church regularly. And when I’d visit my mom, younger sister, and younger brother, I’d go to church with them, as well.

When I was fourteen, I moved in with my mother, stepfather, sister, and brother. By the time I hit sixteen years old, I started working, and I replaced church with work because I didn’t see the point.

As I started my senior year of high school, I remember feeling so lost. I was a seventeen-year-old Christian, but I was miserable. I had no sense of purpose for my life. I didn’t value education and I struggled to see the meaning of life. I was a Christian—but I was totally missing the point.

Two weeks after my senior year started, a friend invited me to her church. I went and I saw a group of my peers relating to God in a personal way. I heard a clear message of how people needed the Lord. And I sensed that I had been trying to find purpose and meaning for my life in everything other than Jesus. So I recommitted my life to God.

Within four months, I began sensing that God had a plan for my life. I surrendered my life to God and answered His call into Christian ministry.

Four years later, I graduated from college, having married my high school sweetheart, Shelly, while in school. The church where I was serving as a part-time student ministry pastor before graduation hired me full-time. Now I was a husband and a Christian minister, but I was still totally missing the point.

Over the next ten years, Shelly and I had our three children: Zach, Kourtney, and Kali. We moved three times as I served at three different churches. I was a husband, father, and Christian pastor, but I was totally missing the point.

We had moved to Cary, North Carolina, to help start a new church. After our third child, Kali, was born, we realized that every time we moved, we had another baby, so we stopped moving. We’ve now called Cary, North Carolina, our home for thirty years.

For three years we worked to start the new church, and it was challenging and exciting. I was a husband, father, Christian-church- planting pastor, but I was totally missing the point.

I was devastated and crushed when they dismissed me as their pastor in the third year. I had allowed the fear of failure to drive me to be a workaholic for God, and I was working out of control, tirelessly, to do a great thing for God. And while there was substantial growth in the church during my time there, it was never enough for me. I had reached the top of the ladder only to realize it was leaning up against the wrong wall. I was a husband, father, fired Christian pastor, and I was totally missing the point.

Two months later, God flew me over 8,000 miles away to India. This short ten-day mission trip turned out to be a life-changing experience for me. God used India to help get me to the point. For the first time in my life, while in India, I saw the point. It was clear as day!

It still shocks me that it wasn’t until I was thirty years old that I started to get to the point. I had wasted so much time pursuing all kinds of other good things in the name of Jesus, Christian faith, and ministry, instead of getting to the point.

I lacked guidance. I lacked provision. I strived so hard to bear fruit that it nearly killed me. I was a Christian who sincerely loved God, but I lived lost and blind like unbelievers far from God. I wasn’t running from God or rebelling against Him, though. I was serving Him wholeheartedly—but I was totally missing the point.

INFORMATION VERSUS REVELATION

My ability to fully grasp these two concepts is one of the reasons I am so thankful for this book. This book illustrates the difference between information about God and revelation from God. My whole life I have had lots of information about God. I totally respected God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus loved me and I loved Him. I have never once doubted that I was truly, sincerely, and gloriously saved when I was ten years old.

I knew the Gospel. I knew the Good News of the Kingdom. And yet, unfortunately no one had ever laid out God’s whole point in a clear, plain, and simple way. It was simply one of the many mysteries I couldn’t fathom.

Now, it seems so utterly obvious. It’s so simple it begs the question, “How can someone live half their life as a follower of Jesus but totally miss the point?” Unfortunately, I did! And unfortunately I’m not alone. Most people have totally missed the point.

To make matters worse, the Church isn’t doing all it can to help people get to the point. Actually, it’s frustrating to be told we need to go to church, pray, study the Bible, give, serve, and live godly lives without ever understanding God’s whole point and how to get there.

As you’ll see in this book, getting to the point makes all the difference in the world.

When you finish reading this book you will know what the point is, what it is not, and how to get to the point.

PASSIONATE AND DETERMINED

I want you to think of the most passionate and determined person you know. That person who will not take no for an answer. That person who overcomes barrier after barrier and keeps on going until their dreams are realized. They won’t be stopped. You can’t silence them. Their passion increases with every new day. Quitting is not in their vocabulary.

They will endure every pain imaginable. No price is too high. They have to do what they have to do. They ignore every skeptic. They inspire everyone around them. You can either join them or cheer them on, but you don’t dare get in their way.

We’ve all heard heroic stories of passion and determination from immigrants, Olympic athletes, and people fighting for justice. It is unbelievable what an unquenchable fire can accomplish.

God sent me to tell you that these stories are only a glimpse of His passion and determination for you. No one wants you to get to the point more than God. No one.

Your loving, Heavenly Father created you with the point in mind. There is so much love and joy waiting for you as you get to the point. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done, God can’t wait for you to get to the point. He will move heaven and earth to help you get to the point. Getting to the point is that important.

I often wonder, how is it possible that we have focused on everything else in the world but not on getting to the point? Why has it taken so long for us to get to the point? How do some people live their whole lives without ever getting to the point?

I’M TRULY SORRY

Let me apologize in advance that it has taken someone this long to help you understand God’s whole point and how to get to it. I’m truly sorry! I know how shocking it must be to see how the point is being so grossly missed throughout the world.

I truly wish there was no need for this book. I wish that everywhere you turned, people were getting to the point. Jesus is certainly worthy of us getting to the point. And the world is literally dying to get to the point.

Thank God that you’re reading this book! If you are already getting to the point, this book will affirm and energize you. If not, it will help you begin to get to the point. The past doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you now get to the point.

I know firsthand how your life is about to be transformed and empowered as you begin to get to the point. It is with this excitement that I beg you…

Will you, please, just get to the point!