Scott Wiens: This is a story about a man that I worked with probably 20-something years ago.
Scott Wiens: His name is Steve Drew.
Scott Wiens: Steve Drew lives in Texas, where we were living at the time.
Scott Wiens: And we hired Steve Drew at the company that I worked with.
Scott Wiens: And uh Steve was hired as a salesman, and I was a product expert and pseudo salesperson as well.
Scott Wiens: So he and I did a lot of travel together.
Scott Wiens: We had a small company, company about 40 people, and Steve and I spent a lot of time on the road.
Scott Wiens: At that time in my life, I was not following God.
Scott Wiens: I was, I always like to say I had a hold of his pinky finger, and that's about it.
Scott Wiens: But I was not following God.
Scott Wiens: I was telling, I like telling jokes.
Scott Wiens: I told a lot of inappropriate jokes.
Scott Wiens: I drank too much.
Scott Wiens: I was not a what you would call a godly person.
Scott Wiens: Steve was a Christian.
Scott Wiens: And he didn't he didn't mind sharing that he was a Christian.
Scott Wiens: And as we would travel, he would just shine the light of Jesus on me.
Scott Wiens: He would encourage me.
Scott Wiens: He wouldn't preach to me, but he would just encourage me with his life.
Scott Wiens: He would encourage me with our conversations.
Scott Wiens: Our conversations were always edifying.
Scott Wiens: They never went down a wrong path.
Scott Wiens: And after Steve left the company and I moved to Florida and God got a hold of me and changed me, I remember calling Steve up.
Scott Wiens: And I said, Steve, I got to say thanks to you.
Scott Wiens: And he said, Why, man?
Scott Wiens: Why?
Scott Wiens: Because I'd already talked to him before, but he I said, You loved me at my ugliest.
Scott Wiens: And you shone the light of Jesus in my eyes so bright.
Scott Wiens: And you made an impact on me.
Scott Wiens: Well, that's what we're going to talk about today.
Scott Wiens: We're going to talk about the Steve Drews.
Scott Wiens: We're in a two-part series on the book of Ephesians that we've titled In Christ.
Scott Wiens: It's been a great series.
Scott Wiens: Have you guys enjoyed going through Ephesians?
Scott Wiens: I know I sure have.
Scott Wiens: It's been great.
Scott Wiens: Well, in this series, we've been walking through the book of Ephesians and we've been pulling some great truths out of here about what the Apostle Paul talks about being in Christ.
Scott Wiens: And it's been really good.
Scott Wiens: It's been really edifying for me.
Scott Wiens: And today we're picking up in Ephesians chapter 3, the first 13 verses.
Scott Wiens: So let's go ahead and read those together.
Scott Wiens: So in first one of Ephesians 3, of course they'll be up here if you've got your phone or your Bible in your hand, you can follow along.
Scott Wiens: So Paul says, For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I've written briefly.
Scott Wiens: When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
Scott Wiens: This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Scott Wiens: Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.
Scott Wiens: To me, though I am the very least of the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for the angels in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Scott Wiens: This was according to the eternal purpose that was realized, that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
Scott Wiens: So I ask you, do not lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
Scott Wiens: Father, as we go through this passage of Scripture, Father, I pray that you would stir your spirit that is within us.
Scott Wiens: I pray that we would hear these words, that they would cut us to the quick, and that we would respond, Father, to them, not because of my anything I say, but because of what you're going to say and speak to us through your spirit.
Scott Wiens: We thank you, Father, we give this to you and we give this time to you in Jesus' name.
Scott Wiens: Amen.
Scott Wiens: So within this passage in Ephesians, Paul is continuing to emphasize his call to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
Scott Wiens: And he wrote about it in the previous chapters.
Scott Wiens: It's been mentioned in a couple of sermons now.
Scott Wiens: It's been great.
Scott Wiens: But in this passage, we find two very simple yet purposeful steps that God took the apostle Paul through after he brought him to salvation.
Scott Wiens: And these progressive steps were commissioning and empowering.
Scott Wiens: He was commissioned and then he was empowered to carry out that commission.
Scott Wiens: And they were necessary, by the way, to fulfill the ultimate goal that God had for the Apostle Paul in taking this message to the Galatians or to the Gentiles.
Scott Wiens: So today I want to examine these two steps by drawing clear spiritual parallels between how God commissioned and empowered the Apostle Paul and how he does that for all of us today.
Scott Wiens: So let's start.
Scott Wiens: Let's first look at how he commissioned the Apostle Paul.
Scott Wiens: Now, most of you, you know this, you've seen this.
Scott Wiens: I know a lot of us are reading the book of Galatians right now in our Bible reading, and Paul clearly states about his commission to the Gentiles, but let's just do a little rehearsal here.
Scott Wiens: In the first three verses of Ephesians 3, listen to what he says.
Scott Wiens: Let's read it again.
Scott Wiens: For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.
Scott Wiens: So he identifies his commission right up front.
Scott Wiens: He's identifying it.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, sometimes speaking, that commission is a way to just continue to absorb it and realize and take ownership of that.
Scott Wiens: He said, I was a prisoner on behalf of you Gentiles.
Scott Wiens: Now you know that this was a prison epistle, right?
Scott Wiens: He was in prison in Rome during the time that he wrote this.
Scott Wiens: So he's saying, I'm in prison because of you.
Scott Wiens: Now he's not blaming them for it.
Scott Wiens: He's simply identifying that the reason he's there is because he was sharing the gospel to the Gentiles.
Scott Wiens: He even states in verse 2 that he assumes they have heard of his stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, the word stewardship is really interesting.
Scott Wiens: It's basically it's translated a plan that involves a set of arrangements.
Scott Wiens: And I thought that was an interesting way interpretation.
Scott Wiens: It basically says there's a plan.
Scott Wiens: God arranged this.
Scott Wiens: He gave him a commission, and he arranged it from the foundations of the earth that this was what Paul would be commissioned to do for God, of course, for the gospel.
Scott Wiens: And we know, by the way, through the stories that are kept in the book and recorded in the book of Acts, that this is exactly what happened.
Scott Wiens: You know, in Acts 22, Paul recounts this story, and I could just imagine him writing this down, recounting what happened to him.
Scott Wiens: Because as you all know, he was on a horse heading to Damascus, and suddenly the day was not normal anymore.
Scott Wiens: So it's interesting in Acts 22, he recounts this story as he's telling people what happened.
Scott Wiens: And he says in verse 12, starting in verse 12, and one Annaeas, a devout man, excuse me, according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing beside me, said to me, by the way, he was standing beside him.
Scott Wiens: Remember, Paul was blind at this time, right?
Scott Wiens: He was still blind.
Scott Wiens: Brother Saul, receive your sight.
Scott Wiens: In that very hour I received my sight, and I saw him.
Scott Wiens: And he said, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth.
Scott Wiens: For you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
Scott Wiens: And now, why do you wait?
Scott Wiens: What are you waiting for?
Scott Wiens: Get up, rise, be baptized, and wash away the sin, your sins for calling on his name.
Scott Wiens: In that same account, literally down in 20 verse 21, he says this clearly.
Scott Wiens: He's in a trance, by the way, at this time.
Scott Wiens: And God is Jesus is speaking directly to him while he's in this trance, and he hears Jesus say to him, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.
Scott Wiens: This was a clear, clear commission to this man.
Scott Wiens: He had no doubt about it.
Scott Wiens: He didn't need a neon sign.
Scott Wiens: He heard it directly from God.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, in our own text today, in chapter 3 of Ephesians, he kind of confirms that as well.
Scott Wiens: In verse 8, he says, To me, though I am the very least of the saints, by the way, I love his humility.
Scott Wiens: All through his writings you see this.
Scott Wiens: He says, Though I am the very least of the saints, this grace was given to what?
Scott Wiens: To preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for the ages in God who created all things.
Scott Wiens: Now, if you know anything about Paul, you know one thing.
Scott Wiens: He owned this.
Scott Wiens: He accepted this commission and he walked in it in power.
Scott Wiens: He owned it.
Scott Wiens: There was no halfway with him.
Scott Wiens: That was his identity in many ways.
Scott Wiens: In Romans 11, 13, he says, I am the apostle to the Gentiles.
Scott Wiens: He took that.
Scott Wiens: We just read this, by the way, earlier in Galatians, I think, where he talks about confronting Peter, and he was with the rest of the leaders in Jerusalem.
Scott Wiens: And he talks about that again.
Scott Wiens: He says, I have been called to the Gentiles, Peter to the Jews, right?
Scott Wiens: He's identifying this.
Scott Wiens: It was his identity.
Scott Wiens: He owned it.
Scott Wiens: So with that in mind, how about you and I?
Scott Wiens: What commission have you gotten?
Scott Wiens: I want to deal with a little fallacy here, just in case there might be residing somewhere in one of your minds.
Scott Wiens: There's this fallacy that says, you know, there are some people that are commissioned, but if you look at scripture, most of this commissioning was given to a specific person.
Scott Wiens: I mean, like this one here.
Scott Wiens: The Apostle Paul was given to a specific person.
Scott Wiens: And indeed, most of the scriptures, you could kind of make an argument when they talk about an actual commissioning, they focus on a person or a group of people.
Scott Wiens: Matthew 28, the great commission.
Scott Wiens: Who is he speaking to?
Scott Wiens: He's speaking to his disciples just before his ascension, right?
Scott Wiens: Go ye therefore into all the world, preaching the gospel to everyone, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Scott Wiens: Well, that's he's talking to the disciples, Scott.
Scott Wiens: It's not to me.
Scott Wiens: Okay.
Scott Wiens: Remember Paul commissioned Timothy in the book of Timothy?
Scott Wiens: He was literally commissioning him as a shepherd elder and as a leader in the church.
Scott Wiens: If you look at the office gifts in verse in chapter four, which we're going to talk about here in a couple weeks, evangelists, shepherds, teachers, apostles, prophets, all specific individuals.
Scott Wiens: Right?
Scott Wiens: And in our own church, by the way, we commission people.
Scott Wiens: We have people that are commissioned.
Scott Wiens: Mark Medley is a perfect example of that.
Scott Wiens: The church began to see a calling.
Scott Wiens: He began to receive a calling.
Scott Wiens: He began to share that.
Scott Wiens: People began to see that.
Scott Wiens: He was prayed over.
Scott Wiens: He was commissioned, and he is going out to all the different countries and he's sharing the gospel and encouraging leaders.
Scott Wiens: He's called to minister to leaders.
Scott Wiens: Yuri and Olga, same thing.
Scott Wiens: And then you look locally.
Scott Wiens: We've got some of our own people that are being commissioned all the time.
Scott Wiens: I think of people like Rob and Chris Ellis, Ryan McCrillis.
Scott Wiens: These people are called to locally, but they're called to go out and to share the gospel a lot of times through discipling.
Scott Wiens: And Ryan McCrillis does a lot of that.
Scott Wiens: It's wonderful.
Scott Wiens: But what about the average Christian?
Scott Wiens: What's our commission?
Scott Wiens: Do we have a commission?
Scott Wiens: Well, I think scripture does identify there are two types of commissioning.
Scott Wiens: One, like we talked about, to specific people to go out and to share the gospel or do specific things for him.
Scott Wiens: But I also believe there is something that I've termed the commission of grace.
Scott Wiens: A commission of grace that basically is given to everyone that has been saved by grace.
Scott Wiens: Now, I put a definition together of what I call the commission of grace, and I think it'll be up here.
Scott Wiens: It's a mandate given to all Christians to reflect the power of the gospel in their daily lives, serving as a beacon of hope and inspiration to the laws through their actions and words.
Scott Wiens: In other words, Steve Drew.
Scott Wiens: In other words, you.
Scott Wiens: I bet when I told that story about Steve, I bet a lot of you were thinking of your own Steve Drew in your head.
Scott Wiens: Because every one of us, every one of us that has been filled with the Holy Spirit, that has been called, that has repented, and we're walking, there has been a Steve Drew out there that God used through his commission of grace or her commission of grace to influence you.
Scott Wiens: When God brings someone to salvation, the expectation, as we see in Scripture, and we will look at it, is that they will naturally become a beacon and a light to the world through their lives and actions.
Scott Wiens: And it's for all Christians.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, that might be your next door neighbor.
Scott Wiens: Maybe you're called to be a light to your next door neighbor.
Scott Wiens: Maybe you're it's a family member.
Scott Wiens: In fact, I don't have to say maybe it is.
Scott Wiens: It's your neighbor, it's your family member, it's your coworker, it's the person that you run across in Walmart.
Scott Wiens: Or Target.
Scott Wiens: Everyone, you have been called to fill that commission of grace.
Scott Wiens: And Jesus makes the clearest statement about this that I can I could find that I thought was just so perfect.
Scott Wiens: It's in Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount.
Scott Wiens: Who's he talking to the Sermon on the Mount?
Scott Wiens: The multitudes.
Scott Wiens: He's talking to everybody, and look what he has the gall to say.
Scott Wiens: He says, You are the light of the world.
Scott Wiens: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Scott Wiens: Bunch of unsaved people here, Jesus.
Scott Wiens: You are the light of the world.
Scott Wiens: A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Scott Wiens: I think about Derek's house, by the way.
Scott Wiens: It's way up in a hill.
Scott Wiens: Like he turns his Christmas lights on.
Scott Wiens: Everybody's gonna see it.
Scott Wiens: He's way up there.
Scott Wiens: A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
Scott Wiens: Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but they put it on a stand and they give light to all in the house.
Scott Wiens: In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Scott Wiens: That's all of us.
Scott Wiens: That's what I'm talking about when I talk about this commission of grace.
Scott Wiens: Bringing a light means that we need to reflect the gospel.
Scott Wiens: We need to reflect what's been done inside of us to everybody around us.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, that doesn't mean we're called to be eloquent.
Scott Wiens: We're not going to be Billy Graham's.
Scott Wiens: Very few people are called to that type of ministry.
Scott Wiens: Very few people are commissioned to that type of ministry.
Scott Wiens: But we don't have to be eloquent to share Jesus.
Scott Wiens: We'll talk about that a little bit more.
Scott Wiens: We should always be ready.
Scott Wiens: And I, a couple of scriptures, actually, I'm doing my practical apologetics class.
Scott Wiens: In the first class, we covered this one scripture, 1 Peter 3.15.
Scott Wiens: Something a lot of scripture a lot of you have heard before.
Scott Wiens: Peter says, But in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.
Scott Wiens: He's talking specifically to us.
Scott Wiens: Be ready.
Scott Wiens: Well, what's that mean?
Scott Wiens: Does that mean you have to be ready in case you get called up to a pulpit and have to preach?
Scott Wiens: No.
Scott Wiens: He's saying, be ready if you run across somebody that needs to hear the truth.
Scott Wiens: And you're given an opportunity to share that.
Scott Wiens: Be ready for that.
Scott Wiens: Paul also writes in Colossians 4, beginning in verse 5, walk in wisdom towards who?
Scott Wiens: Outsiders.
Scott Wiens: Oh, how do I do that?
Scott Wiens: Making the best youth of your time, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer, how you ought to answer each person.
Scott Wiens: Again, a reference to how we are supposed to approach those that are not of the household of faith.
Scott Wiens: So, how would we fulfill this commission of grace that we've got?
Scott Wiens: How do we go about fulfilling this?
Scott Wiens: Well, it's really simple.
Scott Wiens: There's really three primary ways that we do this.
Scott Wiens: And you could probably add more.
Scott Wiens: Sermon time didn't allow me to do that, but there's plenty.
Scott Wiens: These are kind of the highlight ones.
Scott Wiens: The first one is pretty obvious live holy lives.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, that was talked a lot about here this morning already.
Scott Wiens: Living holy lives.
Scott Wiens: One of the most powerful ways you can fulfill your commission of grace is to live a life that is holy so all around you can seek.
Scott Wiens: And I'm talking about 24-7, y'all.
Scott Wiens: I've known a few Christians that are great on Sunday mornings.
Scott Wiens: But they aren't really very Christian on Monday morning at 8.
Scott Wiens: Me, when it for me, being a Christian means you have to be all in.
Scott Wiens: And I will tell you, when God got a hold of me, I remember that clearly.
Scott Wiens: I remember that moment in time.
Scott Wiens: I was we were living in Florida.
Scott Wiens: I was I had gone for a long walk in the woods, and I was sitting out there, and God just said, Scott, you're either in or out.
Scott Wiens: There's no halfway.
Scott Wiens: You're either in or you either believe this all the time or you don't believe it.
Scott Wiens: What's it gonna be?
Scott Wiens: And I remember just being hit like a ton of bricks by that.
Scott Wiens: You know, Romans 12, 1 and 2, I love what the apostle Paul says here because he couples this with his word, with the word sacrifice.
Scott Wiens: He says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God.
Scott Wiens: What is the mercies of God to you and me?
Scott Wiens: Salvation.
Scott Wiens: In his mercy, he called us and saved us, right?
Scott Wiens: What should that be?
Scott Wiens: To present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Scott Wiens: Present your bodies?
Scott Wiens: Like you're gonna die or get killed?
Scott Wiens: Well, maybe, but I don't think that's what he's talking about specifically.
Scott Wiens: I think he's saying your body, everything that you do, every action you take, should be presented to him as a sacrifice.
Scott Wiens: I just you can't get anything else out of that.
Scott Wiens: It's so clear.
Scott Wiens: Do not be conformed to this world.
Scott Wiens: Okay, now he's expanding on that, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Scott Wiens: Paul's saying, you gotta be all in, y'all.
Scott Wiens: All in.
Scott Wiens: All y'all gotta be all in.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, it's hard to do.
Scott Wiens: You know, many believe in God, many believe that God the Father sent Jesus to die for us.
Scott Wiens: Many people even believe that you gotta accept the sacrifice of Christ in order to be saved.
Scott Wiens: But unfortunately, many stop right there.
Scott Wiens: That's where they stop.
Scott Wiens: They don't make Jesus the Lord of their lives.
Scott Wiens: They give them a portion, they give them Sunday morning, but they don't give them the whole thing.
Scott Wiens: And the challenge, I guess, the question I have to ask for all of us to ask ourselves is have you and I presented all of our lives to Jesus Christ?
Scott Wiens: Because that what that's really what he's asking.
Scott Wiens: That's what he's asking.
Scott Wiens: And I appreciated what Derek had to say.
Scott Wiens: We are pulled all the time.
Scott Wiens: All the time we are pulled away from that, from that goal, from that, from that commitment.
Scott Wiens: We have control over that.
Scott Wiens: He did.
Scott Wiens: And the control was the power of Jesus to break every chain, to break every chain, to break every chain.
Scott Wiens: And he can.
Scott Wiens: Do you believe that?
Scott Wiens: Do you really believe that?
Scott Wiens: He can break the chain that you have right now.
Scott Wiens: Do you believe that?
Scott Wiens: We have to.
Scott Wiens: If you don't, you're gonna walk in defeat.
Scott Wiens: And that's not what he's called us to walk.
Scott Wiens: He's called us to walk in power.
Scott Wiens: You know, do you still tell those little white lies and justify it in your mind?
Scott Wiens: You know, do you you still gossip and trash talk people?
Scott Wiens: You still use your sarcastic humor to cut people down.
Scott Wiens: Man, I hate sarcasm.
Scott Wiens: Do we treat our spouse with disrespect or hold back love from our spouse?
Scott Wiens: You participate in ungodly things in our culture.
Scott Wiens: Everybody does it.
Scott Wiens: Well, he goes to church with me and they watch that show.
Scott Wiens: It's gotta be okay.
Scott Wiens: We ignore God's design for sex and decide, well, we're gonna do it our way.
Scott Wiens: So I'll go right up to that point there, God, but this part I'm not gonna give to you.
Scott Wiens: Do you see where I'm going with this?
Scott Wiens: And I'm not talking about just obeying so you can obey to earn something.
Scott Wiens: You gotta get that clear in your mind.
Scott Wiens: I'm not preaching a how-to sermon here.
Scott Wiens: I'm talking about giving it all over to God because that's what He demands.
Scott Wiens: The reason some of us don't want to be a light to the world is that we haven't given ourselves completely over to the light of this world.
Scott Wiens: And until you do that, you cannot reflect the life of Christ and the love of Christ in the eyes of the people that need to see it.
Scott Wiens: Someone said one time, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day of the week.
Scott Wiens: You know, we get to get up here, we get to preach to you guys and share the gospel.
Scott Wiens: You think, man, that person's got a lot of influence.
Scott Wiens: You know, collectively, your influence is far greater than mine or anybody that stands up here and preaches.
Scott Wiens: Because not only can each one of you influence multiple people, you get to influence the people that would never come into this church.
Scott Wiens: Do you see that?
Scott Wiens: You see that?
Scott Wiens: I got I I've got neighbors, you got neighbors, we got people, we got coworkers of people that we can witness to and share to that somebody up here could never reach.
Scott Wiens: That's the commissioning of grace, and we need to walk in that.
Scott Wiens: So, holy lives.
Scott Wiens: The great evangelist Billy Graham said this, and I thought it was really apropos.
Scott Wiens: The unbelieving world should see our testimony lived out daily because it just may point them to the Savior.
Scott Wiens: Oh, it's so true.
Scott Wiens: Now, the second way you can fulfill the commission of grace is to serve.
Scott Wiens: You want to fulfill the commission of grace, you need to become a servant.
Scott Wiens: Why?
Scott Wiens: Someone tell me why we need to be a servant.
Scott Wiens: Jesus, yeah.
Scott Wiens: Jesus is the right answer in this particular question.
Scott Wiens: He epitomized what a servant was, he modeled it.
Scott Wiens: I still, one of my favorite scenes from The Chosen is when James and John come up to him and they say, Hey, can we be on your right and left side?
Scott Wiens: And I think Jonathan Roomy did a really good job of how he responded to them.
Scott Wiens: But what he said to them, and is recorded in Mark 10, he said, Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
Scott Wiens: Wow.
Scott Wiens: For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Scott Wiens: Wow.
Scott Wiens: Jesus even talks more specifically about this in Matthew 25.
Scott Wiens: And um, in this, he's the context is he's talking about the great day of judgment, right?
Scott Wiens: And he's talking about uh why these people are being welcomed into the kingdom.
Scott Wiens: And he says, for in verse 20 uh 35 of Matthew 25, he says, For I was hungry and you gave me food.
Scott Wiens: I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
Scott Wiens: I was a stranger and you welcomed me in.
Scott Wiens: I was naked, you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.
Scott Wiens: And then the righteous are gonna look at him, and they said, Lord, when do we do any of these things?
Scott Wiens: And they list them all.
Scott Wiens: And he says in verse 40, and the king will answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, as you did it for one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.
Scott Wiens: Oh man.
Scott Wiens: Serve people.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, serving can be opportunistic.
Scott Wiens: You might be driving home today and see an opportunity to serve somebody.
Scott Wiens: Maybe someone's broke down the side of the road.
Scott Wiens: Maybe you have an opportunity to, you're going out to eat and give a and give your server a great tip.
Scott Wiens: You know what really shames me and I hate is that I've heard that when most Christians go out to eat, they don't tip very well.
Scott Wiens: That should not be our reputation.
Scott Wiens: Our reputation would be to make that person get weak in the knees by wow, you bless me this much.
Scott Wiens: You want you want to share the gospel, share it with how you treat people.
Scott Wiens: But you know, serving can also be purposeful.
Scott Wiens: In fact, in our lives, it should be purposeful, meaning we look for places to serve and ways that we can help people.
Scott Wiens: A lot of you that I know closely have a really strong servant's heart.
Scott Wiens: Um, you know, in our church, and you can start here, by the way.
Scott Wiens: We have plenty of opportunities to serve here.
Scott Wiens: You know, whether you want to be an usher, whether you want to be in children's ministry.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, like our media team right now, we're looking for people to train up in our media team.
Scott Wiens: And you might say, Well, I don't know anything about that.
Scott Wiens: Hey, that doesn't matter.
Scott Wiens: Neither did they.
Scott Wiens: In fact, sometimes I wonder if Timothy really knows anything.
Scott Wiens: I'm just kidding, Timothy.
Scott Wiens: Uh-oh, the lights are gonna go down, I'm gonna lose my power.
Scott Wiens: But you might say, Well, I'm not qualified to serve.
Scott Wiens: Of course you're not qualified.
Scott Wiens: None of us are you.
Scott Wiens: That's how you learn, right?
Scott Wiens: So you can serve here in the church, but brethren, there's plenty of places to serve.
Scott Wiens: And they don't always have to be even a Christian ministry.
Scott Wiens: Those are great places to start.
Scott Wiens: You know, we do a lot of that, and we see, and by the way, if you want to serve, just talk to Chris and Rob Ellis.
Scott Wiens: They can teach you how to serve.
Scott Wiens: You don't have to be in these walls to do it.
Scott Wiens: In fact, most of the time you're not in these walls.
Scott Wiens: My daughter Jessica, I'm so proud of her.
Scott Wiens: She's been serving at Love Kitchen.
Scott Wiens: Wave your hand, Jessica.
Scott Wiens: Her and her aide faith have been serving, yeah.
Scott Wiens: She's so cute.
Scott Wiens: She has been serving at Love Kitchen for probably over four years.
Scott Wiens: And this is a picture of her uh serving at Love Kitchen.
Scott Wiens: And Love Kitchen, by the way, is is a ministry that was started by three black women.
Scott Wiens: There were sisters, and they wanted to serve the needs in the in the in the community, giving food to shut-ins, giving food to homeless.
Scott Wiens: And so they started small in their own little kitchen, and God blessed it, and God blessed it.
Scott Wiens: And all these volunteers come in, and Jessica goes there and she she'll wash the dishes, she'll look, you know, she'll scoop out this the make the trays up and she'll do anything that needs to be done there.
Scott Wiens: And she's serving.
Scott Wiens: Just start looking.
Scott Wiens: You want to shine the light of Jesus to people, serve them.
Scott Wiens: It's as simple as that.
Scott Wiens: That.
Scott Wiens: A third way you can fulfill your commission of grace is to share your testimony.
Scott Wiens: Share your testimony.
Scott Wiens: Now, we've already read the scripture in 1 Peter that says, hey, you need to be prepared, right?
Scott Wiens: We understand that.
Scott Wiens: But you have to understand sometimes we think that we have to have the gospel down pat.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, you should understand the core gospel.
Scott Wiens: A lot of us know the Romans road, you know, those key scriptures in Romans that talk about the gospel truths.
Scott Wiens: It's okay to know that.
Scott Wiens: But you know, people can reject the Bible as an authority.
Scott Wiens: And you might share that, you might be sharing these scriptures and they say, Yeah, I don't believe in the Bible.
Scott Wiens: You know something they can't reject?
Scott Wiens: Your testimony.
Scott Wiens: I think of that man that Jesus healed of blindness, and I love what he said to the Pharisees.
Scott Wiens: He said, All I know is that I was blind, and now I see.
Scott Wiens: They're not about building the CMA.
Scott Wiens: They don't care about building the CMA.
Scott Wiens: They care about getting the gospel out to people.
Scott Wiens: And I know this is going to help me.
Scott Wiens: And you know how they do it?
Scott Wiens: They serve.
Scott Wiens: And people love them because they're servants.
Scott Wiens: And by serving, they're given opportunities to share the truth.
Scott Wiens: It's a wonderful thing.
Scott Wiens: So uh share your testimony.
Scott Wiens: Nobody can reject that.
Scott Wiens: You know, um, the apostle Paul writes many things about what our lives were like before and what they are now, being in Christ.
Scott Wiens: And a lot of people, you know, you want, you know, if any man is in Christ as a new creation, you know, first uh 1 Corinthians 5.17, we think about that scripture.
Scott Wiens: But in in chapter 4 of Ephesians, I'm going to steal someone's scripture that's coming up, but this is just so powerful.
Scott Wiens: He says this in verse 20 of Ephesians 4.
Scott Wiens: But that is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and you were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.
Scott Wiens: So put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires.
Scott Wiens: And verse 23, here's the opposite.
Scott Wiens: And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Scott Wiens: The likeness of God?
Scott Wiens: Wow.
Scott Wiens: We're recreated in his image.
Scott Wiens: Do you believe that?
Scott Wiens: Man, that's powerful.
Scott Wiens: Be ready to share your testimony.
Scott Wiens: And I don't care if people look at you and reject you, it doesn't matter.
Scott Wiens: They cannot reject what God did for you.
Scott Wiens: They can't argue against that.
Scott Wiens: All right, let's look at the last part of the service, the message.
Scott Wiens: Let's talk about empowering.
Scott Wiens: Now, the apostle Paul knew that he had been empowered to be able to carry out the commission that he'd been given.
Scott Wiens: In fact, in verse 7 of Ephesians 3, this what he says Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power.
Scott Wiens: Now, Paul was supernaturally, of course, knocked off the horse.
Scott Wiens: I mean, made, he was struck blind.
Scott Wiens: There was a lot of supernatural things that happened to the Apostle Paul.
Scott Wiens: He was supernaturally taught by Christ.
Scott Wiens: I mean, there was a lot of powerful things that happened to him.
Scott Wiens: He knew the power that was behind everything he did.
Scott Wiens: And that was behind and the engine behind him sharing the gospel with everybody.
Scott Wiens: Ezekiel 36, 26 through 27 is a passage of scripture we quote often, but it's I thought it was just so appropriate for this message about being empowered to carry out the commission of grace we're given.
Scott Wiens: Ezekiel says, and this is a prophecy, of course, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.
Scott Wiens: A new spirit.
Scott Wiens: And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put in put my spirit, capital S, by the way, within you, and this is really important, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey all my rules, will cause you.
Scott Wiens: You know, I think sometimes we expect that we're going to be changed immediately, and we are.
Scott Wiens: You say, Well, I still struggle with some sin.
Scott Wiens: Well, guess what?
Scott Wiens: Do you hate the sin?
Scott Wiens: Well, yeah.
Scott Wiens: Well, it's because you've been transformed inside.
Scott Wiens: And the apostle Paul walked in this all the time.
Scott Wiens: The Holy Spirit spoke to him.
Scott Wiens: The Holy Spirit guided him.
Scott Wiens: There's times when he was gonna go here, and the Holy Spirit said, nope, you gotta go over here.
Scott Wiens: It led him, it empowered him to do miracles, to heal people, it protected him physically.
Scott Wiens: Remember, he got bit by that snake, right?
Scott Wiens: He shook it off.
Scott Wiens: Everybody's like, whoa.
Scott Wiens: Supernaturally saved him from death many times.
Scott Wiens: God did not commission Paul without empowering him to fulfill the commission.
Scott Wiens: And he does the same thing with us as believers.
Scott Wiens: He will empower us to do what we're called to do.
Scott Wiens: Romans 8 verse 11, Paul expands on this.
Scott Wiens: He says, If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will do what?
Scott Wiens: Will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
Scott Wiens: Gives life to your mortal bodies.
Scott Wiens: Well, you're already sucking air.
Scott Wiens: You're not dead.
Scott Wiens: It's not, he's not talking about resurrecting you from the dead.
Scott Wiens: The life he's talking about is that new life.
Scott Wiens: The transformation that you go through.
Scott Wiens: And where does that come from?
Scott Wiens: It comes from his spirit dwelling in us, Christ in us.
Scott Wiens: Titus chapter 3, verses 5 through 6 says this.
Scott Wiens: Well, I don't know.
Scott Wiens: Based upon this, he says he's poured out his uh poured out the Holy Spirit on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Scott Wiens: God commissioned Billy Graham to do what he was going to do and many other great people in that serve the Lord.
Scott Wiens: He's giving you that same strength through the Holy Spirit to do what he's called you to do.
Scott Wiens: Don't think that you got short changed.
Scott Wiens: No.
Scott Wiens: You have everything you need.
Scott Wiens: When we walk in the commission of grace, we are empowered to live holy lives through Christ that lives in us.
Scott Wiens: And again, we're not gonna be perfect right out front, but if you submit to that, you know, I appreciated what Derek said when we prayed over him.
Scott Wiens: The thing is, Derek submitted to that.
Scott Wiens: You see the difference?
Scott Wiens: He said, I want freedom from this.
Scott Wiens: God responded, it wasn't me, it was God.
Scott Wiens: God did that.
Scott Wiens: You submit yourself to God and you humble yourself and say, I need prayers.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, for those who raised your hands, that was thank you for doing that.
Scott Wiens: You you are saying, I need prayers, I need freedom.
Scott Wiens: We should all want that.
Scott Wiens: And by the way, I could ask any one of you to come up here and give you a mic and say, tell me how God has empowered you through your hope through the Holy Spirit.
Scott Wiens: And almost every one of you could share a powerful testimony of how he did that.
Scott Wiens: That's the way it should be.
Scott Wiens: I think the problem is sometimes we don't believe it.
Scott Wiens: We don't believe it.
Scott Wiens: Oh, I can't get over this.
Scott Wiens: I talked to a man recently, he said, I've struggled with pornography for years and years and years.
Scott Wiens: And earlier this year, God freed me from it.
Scott Wiens: He freed me from it.
Scott Wiens: I prayed and prayed and then broke.
Scott Wiens: Break every chain.
Scott Wiens: You cannot stop believing.
Scott Wiens: You must always believe.
Scott Wiens: When God commissions, he empowers.
Scott Wiens: So listen, I'm just gonna conclude by quickly saying a few things.
Scott Wiens: The commissioning of God involves sometimes commissioning people, specific people, but it always, always includes commissioning all of us for this commission of grace, every one of us.
Scott Wiens: And just like Paul was commissioned by God to share the gospel, he's commissioned all of us to do that.
Scott Wiens: And we do it by what we say, how we live, and how we serve the people around us.
Scott Wiens: The question I guess we need to all ask ourselves is how are we fulfilling that commission of grace?
Scott Wiens: I heard if you guys probably remember Vody Bacham, he's passed away, powerful, powerful man of God, powerful purveyor of the gospel.
Scott Wiens: He always used to say, if you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch.
Scott Wiens: But I think there's room for improvement in all of our lives.
Scott Wiens: And it really involves a dedication, a rededication.
Scott Wiens: So we need to ask ourselves, how are we fulfilling that?
Scott Wiens: Are we being that light on the hill?
Scott Wiens: Or are we being the candle under the basket?
Scott Wiens: And if we are being that candle under the basket, why?
Scott Wiens: Why are we half in?
Scott Wiens: What are we afraid of giving up?
Scott Wiens: By the way, I know that.
Scott Wiens: Or I don't want to give that up.
Scott Wiens: You know, I'm I'm gonna give him all this, but by golly, I'm gonna do this.
Scott Wiens: That's not the way it works.
Scott Wiens: He wants us to be all in.
Scott Wiens: John says in 1 John 1, verses 5 through 7 this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
Scott Wiens: I'm just gonna stop there.
Scott Wiens: God is light, there's no darkness.
Scott Wiens: You're like, yep, I agree with you, Scott.
Scott Wiens: Okay, well, let's keep reading then.
Scott Wiens: If we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Scott Wiens: We do not practice the truth.
Scott Wiens: One of the things that has happened in the evangelical circles, unfortunately, is this altar calls, which by the way, there's nothing wrong with an altar call.
Scott Wiens: The problem is when that person comes forward and you pray for them, and then you high-five and say, You're saved, and they're like, Oh, good, that was really an emotional sermon.
Scott Wiens: And they walk out and they are the same person they were before the sermon.
Scott Wiens: All they did was have an emotional experience.
Scott Wiens: They come twice the sons of hell, someone said.
Scott Wiens: Because now they think they're saved and they won't receive the truth from somebody.
Scott Wiens: Salvation is not a fake thing, it's not a feeling.
Scott Wiens: It's an act of God that happens inside your heart that is unreparable.
Scott Wiens: It's you cannot change it back.
Scott Wiens: By the way, you wouldn't want to.
Scott Wiens: It can't be changed back, brethren.
Scott Wiens: But if we walk in the light, he goes on to say in verse 7, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and oh, this is beautiful.
Scott Wiens: And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
Scott Wiens: I want to walk in that.
Scott Wiens: There's nothing in this world that I want to hang on to that's better than that.
Scott Wiens: And this world's over like this, by the way.
Scott Wiens: Just like that.
Scott Wiens: There's no halfway, there isn't even a 90%.
Scott Wiens: It's all in.
Scott Wiens: And God will, in his mercy, show you progressively the things that you're holding back.
Scott Wiens: He will.
Scott Wiens: And when he does, you might feel a little tug and like, oh man, do I have to give that up too?
Scott Wiens: I don't want to give that up.
Scott Wiens: It ain't worth it.
Scott Wiens: Drop it.
Scott Wiens: Listen, if you feel convicted this morning, we will have a prayer team up front.
Scott Wiens: And there's something you might say, well, Scott, can I just go home and do do some business with God?
Scott Wiens: Sure, you can.
Scott Wiens: You might have someone in here that you want that you want to share with.
Scott Wiens: Well, let me just tell you this.
Scott Wiens: There's something about coming in front of somebody and confessing, and you don't have to be detailed, but just confess, I need prayer and having people pray over you.
Scott Wiens: That's what the body of Christ does.
Scott Wiens: And confession is powerful.
Scott Wiens: So we're gonna have our prayer team come up here.
Scott Wiens: And I just encourage you, if you need prayer for that, realize that there might be people not coming up, they probably should.
Scott Wiens: We all need prayer for that.
Scott Wiens: I need prayer for that.
Scott Wiens: Please stand to your feet and let's pray.
Scott Wiens: Heavenly Father, we stand before you as Trinity Community Church.
Scott Wiens: This church has been ordained by you.
Scott Wiens: We are here.
Scott Wiens: We we are brothers and sisters in Christ called to serve, called to be lights to the world.
Scott Wiens: And we're called, Father, to be sharing our testimony to all.
Scott Wiens: Father, you've given us all this commission of grace, and it's a beautiful commission, Lord, and and you've given us everything, and all we have to do is share what you've done.
Scott Wiens: Father, I pray for each and every one of us here, including myself, Father.
Scott Wiens: That if there's anything we're holding back, Lord, anything that's holding us back from commissioning and fulfilling this commission of grace, that you just you stir it up, bring it to my to our minds.
Scott Wiens: And do what you do so well, Holy Spirit, that you convict us to the point where we just cannot get away from you.
Scott Wiens: Make us miserable, Father, until we we submit totally to you.
Scott Wiens: Because it's life and death that we're talking about.
Scott Wiens: Father, may we be a church that is known as a church that serves, as a church that lives holy lives, as a church that will share the gospel with everyone, Father.
Scott Wiens: Stir our hearts up, Lord.
Scott Wiens: Help us recommit ourselves to you and to the great commission that you've given us all.
Scott Wiens: That's our prayer this morning.
Scott Wiens: We give it all to you, Lord, in the name of the one through whom we have freedom and the one who powers us to do these things.
Scott Wiens: Jesus Christ our Savior.
Scott Wiens: Amen.