Pastor to Pastor
This podcast is dedicated to iron sharpening iron, current events, and culture trends. You will hear pastors perspectives on a variety of topics including leadership development, evangelism, outreach and so much more.
Pastor to Pastor
All For The ONE: Following Christ's Call & Committing to a Life of Service
Ever wondered how to ignite passion and energy in your sermons while fostering a truly supportive congregation? This episode promises to equip you with the essential tools for evangelism, as we introduce our new sermon series tailored to obliterate excuses for not sharing the gospel. Join us on a transformative journey of following Christ, where we emphasize the necessity of self-denial and a steadfast commitment to discipleship. By exploring what it means to be "fishers of men," we align with our mission to create genuine followers who work for the kingdom, not personal gain.
We also delve into the compelling power of personal testimonies. Through the stories of Zacchaeus and the woman with the issue of blood, we illustrate how Jesus's actions, both then and now, offer redemption and inspire others to seek Him. These narratives remind us that everyone, irrespective of their past, holds immense value in God's eyes. As we challenge you to reflect on using your God-given gifts, we underscore the importance of fully committing to faith and serving a greater purpose. Tune in as we wrap up with a blessing and share our excitement for future episodes, potentially featuring insights from a brother in India.
you know what time it is. It's time for another episode of pastor to pastor. I'm the host with the most.
Speaker 2:Hey, it's uh, pastor jason doing the most.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is pastor jason. Pastor, the pastor with me, the co-host with the most Seth. Hold on.
Speaker 2:How you doing, sir. I'm doing all right. I need some coffee energy drink. Two shots of a five-hour energy.
Speaker 1:I need something. We're going by Starbucks when we leave here we're going to do the Cortana.
Speaker 2:For people that don't know we record on Sundays and preaching. Jason didn't preach today. I don't know why he tired Preaching but Jason didn't preach today. I don't know why he tired. He didn't do nothing.
Speaker 1:But when you do preach man.
Speaker 2:I mean, it really does take a lot out of you. I'm giving you all I got, that's right, yeah. Especially when they back you up, you preach even harder.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, hey, there's just something about when they back you up that just makes you go. I mean they get fired up.
Speaker 2:You was preaching today and one of our elderly women had made a statement. Let me move on. She said I ain't got nothing but time Pastor.
Speaker 1:You go ahead, go ahead and preach it.
Speaker 2:Take your time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it, man. I know I was thinking about this pastor one time and he said he was just an old country boy. He says I was preaching, I was going in, and he said this one guy on the front row is like pray chat, pray chat.
Speaker 2:He's like, I'm giving you all.
Speaker 1:I got man. I love it, dude.
Speaker 2:There's some that I say take your time, and there's other ones just watching the time.
Speaker 1:All right, pastor, oh, come on, wrap it up Now. Don't encourage him, let him finish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, I got lunch man.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, anyways, let's talk about it, man. Let's talk about what you, what you, preached on this Sunday. I think you guys started a new.
Speaker 2:We did a new series, we just came out of divided loyalty, really like accountability series. Get us where we are really fully committed to Christ and what it looks like to be a really genuine Christian. Yeah, and we're coming into really it's going to be a vision series for where we feel like the Lord's leading us to really focus all for the one, doing whatever it takes to win the loss. I was reading, and there's a statistic, that out of all the churches in America that registered their growth, 20% of churches registered growth and out of that 20%, only 1% of those recorded it being growth from salvations new believers. So what we found out, pastor Jay, is that we're doing nothing but just shifting believers everywhere.
Speaker 1:Moving fruit from one basket to another.
Speaker 2:Yep, and so we're kicking off a series of try to equip and we're taking away the excuse of I don't know how to share the gospel, I don't know how to witness, I don't know. It's my personality that doesn't let me do it, and yeah, that's just an excuse, every excuse we can find Go ahead.
Speaker 2:So scripture says even Jesus was telling the disciples that now that you know, you have no excuse. You've been taught, so you can't have an excuse. And I told our church today I'm getting rid of all your excuses. We're going to do evangelistic intensitives where they learn how to share the gospel, how to do it in the workplace, that kind of stuff. So we're excited about that. So we kicked off this series to really catch the vision and get the heart of the people to want to share the gospel. Man, win the lost souls.
Speaker 1:Sounds like you guys are right in the middle of what we're doing. I mean, it was interesting, as I think most people tapped in do the same. It might be called something different. It might sound like something different. Different series title it might sound like something different different series title, but ultimately, it's the same thing we're focused on creating disciples. Scripture didn't tell us to go save people. It said go create disciples. And so, anyway, I'm on your floor here, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Well, for people that don't know that, listen to this I'm Jason's ghost writer for his sermon and AI writes your sermons, don't it hey?
Speaker 1:never, never, never, Never, never, never.
Speaker 2:I do ask AI for some statistics and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It has its place, but only in that place. Only in that place, but anyway, man, let's jump into the sermon. What we preached today, and it's all for the one, but we really focused on how to catch some fish, Right? You know? In Matthew 4, Jesus goes and he finds Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother. Is it his brother? I can't even remember.
Speaker 1:Yeah his brother, yeah his brother.
Speaker 2:And he calls him. He says come and follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. And then he goes and the father's deputy, his two sons, they leave him while they're repairing nets and stuff, and they follow him as well. And you know the most known scripture of that passage of that scripture is that I will teach you to become fishers of men. And that word become really stuck out to me in my study.
Speaker 2:Because, you know, a lot of times we get Christianity and get Christ in us. We think that we're going to become popular and become rich and become highly blessed and favored and all these things. But he says no, no, you're going to become someone who works for the kingdom. It's not about you. The moment you follow Christ, you're no longer making your life about you. And so we talked about like when you give your life to Christ and you start following him, you know you pick up your cross, you know you lay it aside, your your uh, your will, your desires, and you follow them. And you know they the Bible says they dropped it immediately. They dropped their nets, they dropped their, and I love that they didn't say just wait a minute, let me get my fishing rod and stuff, let me get all this stuff packed up.
Speaker 2:Let me get it organized. Let me almost as if they, some of us like to make sure we have a backup plan prepared, just in case following jesus doesn't turn out to be like you want it to be right and you know, because following jesus, pastor j, is not for people who have no faith. It's not for people who think that they can live for christ but still live for themselves it's for the selfless people, not the selfish people it's.
Speaker 2:It's for the people who are truly surrendering to Christ, not the people that want some Jesus and some of their flesh. You can't follow Jesus and say, I want you, but I still want to have some hate in my heart and all this type of stuff. So, just like those, ended up being disciples, what they did is they surrendered it all. They immediately dropped everything and started following Christ. No backup plan.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of people who know Jesus as Savior, but they don't know him as Lord.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that's what we've created in this culture of, and just in humanity in itself.
Speaker 1:Like we love the idea of someone saving us when we're in need, but we don't love the idea of lordship and master over us, telling us what to do, when to do it. But when we take up salvation, when we take up being purchased by Christ, paul says I'm a bond servant, meaning I am a slave to Christ. We have to have that same mentality, that, lord, I don't know what I'm going to say when I get there, but I'm going to go because you sent me. I don't pray out loud, I don't know what this is going to sound like, but that's why Scripture says don't worry about what you're going to say. You'll put it in your mouth when you get there. Everything you need you're going to find in Christ if you obey. And I'm convinced that we don't see the things that god promised, that the power, the dunamis, power of the holy spirit, because we become so focused on doing what we want to do with a little bit of god, instead of doing what god wants us to do.
Speaker 2:Right, but yeah yeah, for sure, man. So we we started, uh, focusing on how to become fishers of men how do?
Speaker 2:we catch fish. What does that look like? And you really got to understand the difference between an unbeliever and a believer, that those require two different tactics. You know one is sheep, one is fish. Those that are following christ are in scripture labeled as sheep sheep for the shepherd. Uh, usually when you're talking about evangelism they're labeled the unbelievers as fish. You're trying to catch them. You know you don't have to convince sheep to come to church, to pray, to read their Bible, to forgive, to apologize all the list of things that a good Christian should do. So our tactic and our approach are completely different. Like you can't go to a sinner and say what's the Lord been speaking of you?
Speaker 2:in the Bible you know it's going to be foreign to them because that's not their life, and so we look at that concept, knowing that our tactics are differently. Now, I know the people that know me. I'm not much of an outdoorsman, okay. There's not one piece of Carhartt in my closet, okay, all right.
Speaker 1:If you've listened to this podcast any length of time, you know Seth's not an outdoorsman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like the fish.
Speaker 1:He likes the tent. He's jacob. Yeah, I want, I want to glam. I don't want to camp.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying I don't want to go out there in a tent actually give me an rv, okay, right some air conditioning in a bathroom amen yeah so, but I do know two things about fishing. One you gotta have bait and you don't clean them before you catch them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we talked about the three different types of bait that we use to win the loss, to share the gospel, to catch them.
Speaker 2:The first one is the good news. The good news is our first thing. I don't know about you, but there have been times where all I needed was a word. I didn't have the answers, I didn't know which way to turn, but God showed up with a word, word for me, word for my situation. That same concept works for the unbeliever that needs an encouragement and needs to know what the word says. Nothing will make more of an impact than somebody reading the words of somebody about the love that God has for them. So knowing the word is really the basis of our bait, because you don't want to get trying to catch somebody with the gospel but don't even know it Right. So being a reader of the word, knowing that having it in your arsenal, will help you be able to show up with someone who's got a burden or a problem and actually having a word for them that's from the Lord.
Speaker 2:Not from just us, not from you, but from the Lord, directly out of his word about his people and those that he's longing for. Then the second debate that we had was a testimony. I got a little fired up today. If I'm going to be honest, Got a little fired up my old school Pentecostal self, I know.
Speaker 1:When you got here earlier, uh, I could tell your voice was a little raspy. Yeah, bro, I said you preach today, or what?
Speaker 2:yeah, I was, as they say, I shook the cord I put the jelly in the donut.
Speaker 1:You know all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:and so we talked about the testimony, um, and you know, throughout scripture, you see where people, uh, god, they encountered jesus christ and he healed them. And you'd hear, you see where jesus said, said don't, don't go tell nobody, right, cause he he was not trying to rush his process. And, uh, the crowds were already getting too big, the crowds are doing these things, and um, so I started talking about how the, the testimony of Jesus and what he'd done, it spread. The crowds just kept getting bigger and bigger and the followers, the enticement, the, uh, curiosity began to grow everywhere jesus went, because people were sharing about what they've heard or what they've seen or what they've experienced christ do. And I compared that to our, our testimonies versus and the testimonies in scripture. I mean, you think about the guy who was blind, and jesus spit in the dirt and and put it on. I don't know why he would do that. I would throw up, okay.
Speaker 1:Just be, I would throw it. Yeah, I don't do. Well, man, listen. Uh, here's the thing, though. It's a matter of listening to God and doing what God tells you to do. We were reading this scripture Saturday, that where this prophet stretched himself over this child, like he laid on top of this this child. He was face to face, eye to eye, nose to nose, lip to lip, and and the guy stopped and was like now, this is not. This is not a blueprint for children's ministry.
Speaker 1:But the little boy came the little boy came back to life, you know with, through the work of the prophet Elisha. So sometimes what God calls you to do may not look like what you're used to.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:In fact, rarely does it look like what you're used to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be a—let me see him off. So you know. You imagine he was one of the people that Jesus said don't go tell. But he went and told.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, he went and told Like man, this man, like I, was blind. He did something with the dirt, dirt and he put it on me. And all of a sudden I'm here, jesus can do the same thing for you. And then you think about the adulterous woman, who, who can't go out with people anywhere because not the adulterous woman, but the um, um, the issue of blood lady with the issue of blood and she was considered unclean. You know, when women back in the day, when they went through a cycle, they were considered unclean.
Speaker 2:They couldn couldn't be around. Well, it was 12 years. She had to be isolated to herself, but she kept hearing, as they'd walk by with the crowds of Jesus, about this man and it inspired her. The testimony is the words, as you heard, that if I could just touch the hem of his garment, I shall be healed. Something will change.
Speaker 2:And then, just like the adulterous woman man, I love that story because all these people are throwing accusations at her, ready to throw stones. You know when you study that when Jesus starts writing in the sand, it's said to be that even the people that had stones in their hand took part in her services. She was a prostitute and he said he, without sin, cast the first stone, which is a testimony that even when everybody else is against you, as long as God is for you, you're going to be all right. So as you share those testimonies, those words, people are enticed. Okay, I got to hear about this man named Jesus. He might be the person that I need in my life.
Speaker 2:Testimonies are some of the greatest baits that you can use lures you could use to win the loss, telling a story of what Jesus has done for you that impacted your life tremendously. I love the story of Zacchaeus man. You know he was, you know I like to change that tune. It says Zacchaeus was a wee little man. A wee little man was he. I like to say Zacchaeus was a terrible little man, a terrible little man, was he Like a little leprechaun I?
Speaker 2:mean he was like a mobster. I mean mobster, I mean he robbed from the poor. I mean he, he, he was, uh, overtaxing people, beating his palm. He was rich, loaded, he was. Nobody liked him right. I mean, if you know that story, it was like as if the roman empire came to you and said, hey, would you work, would you work for me? And now you start distorting your, your neighbors, taking their money, messing with their wives and their kids, and all kind of that was him. Him, he was bad. He was a wee little man, but he was bad. But you know, nobody, just like the church people, they blocked him from seeing Jesus.
Speaker 2:That crowd represents the body of Christ. How we felt like he didn't deserve. If anybody deserved Christ, it wasn't him. If anybody deserved time with him, it wasn't him. But Jesus pushed through the crowd and went straight to Zacchaeus. You know I use that as a testimony that even when nobody thinks you're worthless, that you're worthy of his presence, of his time. Jesus says this to Zacchaeus not only do I eat with you, but I came to seek and save the lost. I came seeking after you when everybody's pushed you to the side. I'm seeking after you. And so you never know the testimony that it can do for people and the impact it makes for them that we are drawn to Christ Because we know this, we've heard it all our life.
Speaker 1:If he did it for you he can do it for me and if he did it for me, he can do it for you.
Speaker 2:Your testimony is one of the greatest opportunities you can share the gospel and get somebody hooked on Jesus, amen, yeah, amen. Hooked on Amen to God. And then the third one was signs and wonders. Signs and wonders we see in Acts, chapter 8, verses 4 through 12. Saul has already he's persecuted the church and now they've fled, they've scattered everywhere. And the bad thing is, saul thought that he was hindering the church, but he made the church blow up Because you know the story, there was a racial divide between the Jews and the Samaritans, because the Samaritans were half-breeds, so none of the disciples really wanted to go to Judea, samaria and all these places because of the racial divide. You think we have racial divide now. Jesus dealt with it many, many, many years ago and we're still dealing with it. And he says okay, well, I'm going to use an attack from the enemy, I'm going to force you to go, so, which is what I love.
Speaker 2:The Bible says that when Peter started preaching the Samaritans, people of Samaria were eagerly and earnestly listening to what he was going to say. It's amazing how the people that you think want nothing to do with you God softens their heart towards you so they can get what God has put in you to give them. And so Peter begins to preach and he shares the gospel. The Bible says that people that were lame were healed, people that were paralyzed were healed. The Bible says that people that were carrying evil spirits were set free. And as they were set free, the evil spirits ran off screaming and the victims were restored.
Speaker 2:The Bible says that there was a sorcerer there who had been doing magic and he had been doing great things. They were calling him the Great One, the power, power of God. And the difference between Peter and this sorcerer was that the people had saw power already, but they didn't hear the gospel With him. It was just power, it was nothing. But Peter preached the gospel and then showed signs and wonders that what he's preaching is true.
Speaker 2:So when I call on God and I tell you that God's a healer who needs healing, watch it happen. If God's going to set you free and deliver you, who is bound by evil spirits today, god's going to set you free. I'm going to prove that what I preach is truth. It's not make-believe, it's not magic. There is power with my words and what we carry. And so, because Peter was sharing the gospel if he didn't have been able to truly compete with what they were already experiencing from this source where this guy running magic, the bible, says that so many people are saved that begin getting baptized, and so we use this to talk about signs and wonders and the reality that we we don't need gimmicks to get people to church. We don't need to pay people to bring people new giveaways and big events and all this money yeah, all these things just to get people.
Speaker 2:What people need is Jesus. Give them Jesus and let the power and the Holy Spirit begin to do the work. It's not about entertainment, it's not about being trendy, it's not about being relevant. It's about giving people Jesus. Because we know this to be true. If it takes money and giveaways and free stuff and these big events and lights and stage all this stuff to get people at your church, the moment you take those things away, they leave.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it takes that same thing to keep them.
Speaker 2:Yep, you got to stay consistent in that thing, so why not just keep it simple, like Jesus wants it to be, and give people Jesus.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing Jesus is enough.
Speaker 2:He is. This is what I told him, pastor Jay. I said if Jesus is not enough for you, nothing will ever be enough for you. Yeah, you, yeah nothing. So why don't we just give people jesus? Yeah that the. You know we, god, gave us gifts, signs and wonders. Right, god? God has given us gifts not to prostitute for the world.
Speaker 2:He gave us gifts to use to save the world yeah and so you may be gifted and create and create, being a creator, and all these things, the creatives, and all these things. What are you doing with the gifts that God has given you? And that's what I love about Jesus. When he approached these fishermen, he didn't try to take a three to six week training process. He said I'm going to take what you already are good at.
Speaker 1:You're good at fishing.
Speaker 2:I'm going to change your bait and I'm going to change your target. I'm going to take what I've already put in you. That's good, but the problem is you're using it for the wrong thing, right? And how many times we do that, bro? All the time. How many times we create platforms for ourself because we think they're our gifts, but they're not?
Speaker 2:that's right they're not our gifts. They belong to the father. He's the one that gave it to us, and so he'll take what's already inside of us, put a brand new purpose in it. That's new to us, but he has already written our. He's the author and the finisher of our faith. He's written our story out. He's ordered our steps. He's taking what we already have and using it to expand the gospel. My question for many people maybe listening today is what has God put in you that you're wasting? Yeah, for yourself, for your own will, for your own desire. So we talked about. I use my son, levi, as an example. Levi was born premature, spent 100 days in an NICU one pound nine ounces, 12 inches long, and Levi was in an incubator. He was just chilling. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:He was cooking and there was a season of that time where we couldn't. We just had to stick our hand in a hole and just touch. I mean there's nothing we could do. But there was also a time where Levi began to grow and develop and the incubator was no longer needed because it was holding him back from growing. It needed him to fight for life and fight to grow and fight to develop and put some effort. My daddy would say, seth, are you ever going to take initiative? This is what it is. Levi had to take his body to take initiative to do the things that need to do to grow.
Speaker 2:If levi would have been half in and half out of the incubator would have never helped. You know, you can't be half in and half. You can't follow jesus, but not follow. You can't follow jesus say I want a little bit of my sin, I want a little bit of hate, I want a little bit of this. You got to be fully committed to that, and so what we did is we talked about incubator, people in an incubator season, waiting on god to tell you what to do when he's already told us he's already told you, he's already given you a whole a whole book and, and on top of that, he's already giving you the gifts.
Speaker 1:He's giving you things. I'm trying to remember exactly what the guy said from the the conference we went to yesterday, but he said if he put it in you, that's probably what he wants out of you.
Speaker 2:Yeah Amen, that's good.
Speaker 1:Got some good stuff out of that thing. That's good. I'm telling you, man, it was amazing. It was amazing.
Speaker 2:And really I talked about how, when we cast the nets out, whatever we catch, it's not our job to separate wheat from tare. It's not our job to pick and choose who deserves the man you're going to get in that net. You're going to get black people, white people, hispanics, asians. You're going to get the adulterer. You're going to get the addicted. You're going to get the ignorant, the illiterate, the educated.
Speaker 1:Well, in the end, when they were fishing, they said cast your net on the right side. They cast it out.
Speaker 2:So they caught 153 fish. Yeah, I used that story.
Speaker 1:And it didn't break the net.
Speaker 2:I used that story 153 fish. You know why they used the number there is because for every fish they brought to shore they had to pay for. So they were known for picking and choosing which fish were worth paying for, which was worth the effort. No-transcript that with this word I'm going to wrap this thing up. Jesus says follow me and you will be fishers of men. If you say that you're following Jesus but not fishing, are you truly following him?
Speaker 1:That's a great question and that's the question we leave with you listeners. Yep, are you producing fruit? Are you? Do you have fish in your bucket? And if your answer is no, then who are you following? It's probably yourself, that's right. Or someone or something else. It's not Jesus yourself, that's right, or someone or something else. It's not Jesus. Nope, let's bless you. Hey, from the book of Numbers, it's called the priestly blessing, amen. It says the Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you. Thank you so much for listening to Pastor, to pastor, we look forward to releasing another woman this week, hopefully with our brother here from india brother pakash, we're going to try to get him over here, try to get him on on air so we could talk about what india looks like.
Speaker 1:Amen, but either way, we look forward to seeing you next time. Be on the lookout, make sure you like, share, subscribe, do all those different things so that we can, uh, keep you up to date on where we are, what we're doing and what's being preached Sounds good, see you next time. God bless you.
