Save Your Seat (July 5, 2026)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Moving. How many of you got nervous when I said this might be one of the hardest messages that I've ever had to preach? Well, I'll tell you, when the Lord gave it to me, it was scary for me because I've said it to you before, but I've never said it to you quite so directly, but we're gonna say it very directly this morning, okay? I want to start by saying this. The kingdom of God was never designed to be filled with spectators. Can we agree on that? Because when Jesus' disciples were ready, he told them to go out and preach the gospel. Amen? It is the desire of the church to send people out to preach the gospel. That's not to say that we don't want you here, but it's to say our responsibility is to preach the gospel to every corner of the earth. Now, if you were to come to me and say, Pastor Michael, I'm gonna go to Cambodia and I'm gonna preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm gonna ask you a lot of questions, right? Are you sure that that's what you're called to do? Because I've talked to people who think that they can preach the gospel, that it would take a whole lot for them to even be able to recite a simple passage of scripture, right? It is a requirement before preaching to understand and have a relationship with the word, right? Not everybody is designed to go out and preach. We should be showing Jesus through our life actions. That should be our number one desire. But the kingdom was never meant to be filled with spectators. Jesus didn't save us so that we could occupy seats in a building, right? We were never designed for that. And here's what is more often thought of. It's not said out loud very often, but oftentimes it is thought, it is felt inside of our bodies, and it is felt by people who don't necessarily have relationship with Jesus. And here is the question: What can the church do for me? Right? So we have a cupboard of hope. We serve a lot of people. Beth, how many did we serve last month? 30 plus? 35 people last month in the cupboard of hope. Okay? Now, I want to remind you the month before it was only like five or seven. It was a very small number. But last month it was 30 plus people that we fed. Now, there are some people that look at the cupboard of hope as what can the church do for me? I don't care because that's what we want it to be there for, right? But there are others who look at that, and the problem is oftentimes people are thinking or asking, what can the church do for me? But Jesus asks us one thing, very, very simple, what will you do for my kingdom? I don't mean for this church, I don't mean for this ministry. What will you do for the kingdom of God? Now, are any of us sitting here going, I know what God has called me to do, and I know that I am walking in it right now. Not a lot of us. As a matter of fact, there were exactly zero hands. And that's okay. It's not an expectation to know at every step of the way, but the expectation is that we are seeking God's face and his hand in our life so that we will understand what God wants us to do, right? Here's what I've learned. Sometimes to the kingdom is not fun. Right? Emmett, did you have fun mowing grass this week? It was 91 degrees, and he's push-mowing the front yard of the church. Listen, sometimes service is not fun. Service is not always being in a pulpit or being in leadership. Sometimes service is showing up and completing a task that God has called you to. Right? Here's something that I get a lot. Um, I get a lot of um a lot of frustration from people who say, Well, you never tell us what needs to be done. The problem is, is I do. And when I say it, people read it and they go, that's not for me. And then they don't show up to do it. And then they complain that they're disconnected from the body of Christ. Well, you're disconnected by choice, not by force. When you choose to separate yourself from the body of Christ, that is a choice. Listen, Jesus didn't go anywhere. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, right? And I promise you this: the same God that we serve, listen, the church has changed since the 1980s. Can we agree on that? Listen, I remember Florence telling me a story. For those of you who'd never met that lady, you've missed out. She told me after she got saved, and Alona, I think you were witness to this. I could be wrong, but if I recall, you guys were at a camp meeting of some sort, and she was praying, and the devil picked her up and threw her against a tree. Now that story to some of us young folks sounds crazy. Right? Were you was that true? Okay. Okay, you weren't there, but you remember the story. So she told that story to me one time, and I thought she's losing her mind, right? But here's what I I look back at the things that happened in the 80s in the church, and this was the rise of Pentecost. This was the revival of Pentecost in the church, and and we're we're casting out demons, and we're we're we're doing things that the church today has no idea. But the church today has become soft, and we've become afraid of calling things what they are, right? And what we get really afraid of is making other people uncomfortable, right? So, one of the things that I've always done when there's a message in tongues and interpretation, usually I step into the pulpit and I explain it because people become uncomfortable, right? Now, a Pentecostal church is not for everybody in every season of their life. Sometimes you need to go to a church where they don't do that kind of stuff. Right? So you can get your heart right with Jesus and you can figure out, okay, I need more in my life. I need more Jesus, I need, I need more of the Holy Spirit. And then you show up in a church like this and it gets a little wild sometimes and you don't know what to do with yourself, but you start to embrace the word of God and know that what God is calling us to is biblical. That's the most important part for me. We're not doing it because we want to show off. Listen, we there are there's a difference between being Pentecostal and being charismatic, right? No, I think we're a fine mix of both. Now, Pentecostals, have you ever seen a Pentecostal, a real Pentecostal church? Worship goes on for like two and a half hours, people all over the floor just falling out of their chairs. Like that's we're not seeing that today, right? We consider ourselves more dignified. You folks seen each other? You're probably sitting next to somebody that you can smell, right? I'm just saying that it is different now than it used to be because the church becomes afraid of showing what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives. And what's happening is the church is becoming weak because we are wondering what God will do for us and not what we can do for the kingdom of God. And so we need to shift that mindset today. And so I'm gonna read a passage of scripture and then I'm gonna tell you a story. And the story is a little harsh, so I just need you to be ready for it. We're gonna go to Matthew chapter 9, verses 37 and 38. And this is a passage of scripture that we all know. I say it all the time. He said to his disciples, the harvest is great and the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest and ask him to send more workers into the field. Go back to the beginning of that one for me, please, for just a second. It says, He said to his disciples, the harvest is great, but the workers are few. Now, I want you to notice something here. It doesn't say anything about there being a shortage of people. It says there is a shortage of workers. Every time I preach a message like this, everybody gets all like, oh, he just wants more volunteers. Listen, we'll continue to do it just like we're doing it till Jesus returns. I promise you that. We will automate and we will make things easy on everybody, but Jesus is looking for people to serve the other people who have not yet found or seen or know his name. That's what he's calling us to, but we are sitting idly by, lazily by, waiting for somebody else to do the work that Jesus has called us to. We don't have an attendance problem. Well, today we do. We don't have an attendance problem in the church. It's not about attendance. We have a labor problem in the church. Because nobody wants to give time to the Lord. Listen, I don't give Emmett a choice in mowing the grass. Right? I'm too old and overweight to be push mowing that front yard. If you don't believe that, just ask my wife, she'll tell you. Listen. Doesn't mean I'm not old and overweight. My point is that Emmett is learning to serve in a way that gains him nothing. He gets nothing from it. He is serving the kingdom of God. Listen, that's important today. Because what's the problem with the workforce today? Nobody wants to work. They don't want to work when they get paid for it, let alone work when they don't get paid for it, right? Listen, I work at a place where you watch people call off for no good reason. I just I just need to take the day. I just need to, okay, that's fine. But the problem is that somebody else is picking up your workload for the day. Let me tell you something. It's the same thing when you're doing spiritual labor. When you choose not to pick up what God has handed to you, somebody else is picking it up and doing that work. Now, here's my story. And I I listened to this story, and it was painful for me for several reasons, and we'll talk about it. But here's what happened: there was a church in a town, and the church had gotten so big that they physically didn't have any room for more people. The two pastors who were pastoring the church together, they talked about it. And rather than planting another campus, they chose to just one pastor was gonna move out, open a new church, but the other church was going to support it. Essentially a church plant, but different name. Okay? The new pastor, they get the church up and running. The first Sunday, he shows up, he walks into the pulpit to preach, and he looks out at the congregation and he realizes his building is almost completely full. All the while, the pastor in the old church is standing in the pulpit looking at the congregation, and it is almost completely empty. And so when the pastor got up, the new pastor at the new church, he got up, he walked into the pulpit, and he said, Hey, listen, some of you came here because you wanted to see what was new. Some of you came here because you like the way I preach. Some of you showed up because you just want to know what's going on. And I only ask one thing of you next week. Don't come back. Save your seat for somebody who's looking for Jesus. That's hard to hear. Because I look around the room and I ask myself, how many of us show up every week because it's the right thing to do? Because we know that we are supposed to be at church on Sunday morning. How many of us show up because we like, listen, I we went through this phase after Good Friday where we had some visitors from other churches start showing up in our church. Never gonna condemn anybody for that. I'm excited when they come. But oftentimes the reason that they came was we heard him preach on Good Friday. I don't want you here for me. If you are here to serve me, you are here for the wrong reason. I want you here because you are seeking Jesus. I want you here because the gospel is more important than anything else in your life today. Amen? That's what I'm looking for. So the pastor said that. And oftentimes I think we find that people church hop. They want the newest church, they want the freshest church, they want the youngest pastor, they want the best worship. They are not going seeking Jesus, they're going seeking some form of entertainment for themselves. That's not why we're here today. We are not here to enjoy a couple of songs on the screen. We're not here because our pastor can preach. We are not here because the seats are more comfortable. We are here because we are seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ. I feel like that pastor was reminding people that the church is not about personalities, it's all about Jesus. It's not about who we like and where our friends go to church, it's about where God has called us and the moment where we meet Jesus. So I'm gonna ask a hard question. If Jesus disappeared from our churches tomorrow, would people still show up because they like the music? They like the program, they like the preacher, would they even realize that Jesus wasn't there? Because their focus is on the other thing. Their focus becomes the entertainment value. Now listen, I understand that in the world that we are in, sometimes we have to be willing to entertain people. Right? Because the younger generation, the children that we are raising now, are so used to being entertained all day long that it is our only hope for keeping that generation in the church. Now that doesn't mean that on Sunday mornings we have to have. Listen, I saw a video of a pastor who wrote a roller coaster onto the stage. I've been trying to get them to let me zip line from back there up to here, but they feel like it's not enough of an angle and I'll probably get hurt. I tried to get them to put a trap door in the stage so I could pop up out of the floor. They felt like that was excessive. Right? Listen, sometimes the church gets so wrapped up in entertaining people they forget to tell them about Jesus. There are churches that you'll walk into and never see a cross in the building. There are churches that you'll walk into and you'll never hear the name of Jesus. They might preach the gospel, they'll tell you a story. The other thing that I really can't stand about the new church, the modern church, is they don't like to call the devil the devil. They always refer to him as the enemy. Listen, I know he's the enemy, but I'm willing to call him what he is. This isn't, this isn't like Harry Potter, and we're not saying he who what is it, he who I don't, I'm sorry. Anyhow, my point is I'm not afraid to say his name because he has no power in my life. Right? I'm gonna call him what he is and we're gonna stomp him into the ground. Listen, I know that a lot of us are afraid of a Pentecostal church. And there are people sitting here who have been raised in Pentecostal churches that are still afraid of a Pentecostal movement, right? You see people going on the floor, and you're like, all right, I'm gonna go out here in the hallway until somebody like gets up. Right? I get it, but we cannot be afraid of what God has called us to be. We can't run from it. So, all right, I gotta, I gotta stop. We're already off topic and I haven't even made it to point one yet. All right. True laborers, people who are truly laboring for the kingdom, are not, they're not out looking for what's new. They aren't chasing the newest church, the newest worship, the newest pastor, the newest experience. They aren't chasing new, they are chasing eternity. They are looking for something that is truly eternal in their lives. Paul wrote, I planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase. The kingdom has never been about who plants and who waters. It's about the one who gives life. So I say it all the time. I'll plant seeds all day long. I never expect to see those seeds come to harvest. It is my hope that Jesus brings life to those seeds and that they are harvested. But if I never see it, it doesn't mean I haven't done my work. It doesn't mean that God hasn't called us to that place in that time. The biggest thing that a laborer, a good laborer, will do is they will always make room for someone else. They will always make room for someone else. The pastor said, save your seat, and that was truly kingdom thinking, right? He wasn't worried about your feelings, and I tell you all the time, I can't pastor to your emotion. Because salvation isn't just emotional, it is logical, right? Now, that's not the case for everybody because some people can't understand the logic of relationship with Christ. They can only feel the emotional side of that. But here's what I've learned: the logical part of my brain says, if I'm in relationship with Christ, eternal life is easy. The hard part is continuing to live that, show that, and give that to the people around me. Instead of asking, is there a seat for me? They're saying, Who can I make room for? I was talking to somebody who said they go to a larger church and every Sunday they are required, young, there's a young adult uh group who is required to greet every person that walks through the door, whether they know them or they don't know them. And if they are new, they greet them and they offer to sit with them. And I think that's a genius idea, right? If you show up to church by yourself for the first time and somebody says, Hey, can I sit with you? Or hey, do you want to sit with me? That will make you feel pretty good, right? Here's the problem that they're experiencing already. This program is very new. And those volunteers are already finding themselves frustrated because they aren't with their own families. Worship is about the people in our lives, right? Do you ever want to worship with your family? That's the desire, right? Because these are the people that I fellowship with daily. I want to make sure that they are saved. So the challenge is this the idea is great, the program is great, but is the heart behind it really kingdom-minded? Or is it built to grow a congregation? Because if it's built to grow a congregation, it will not survive. We've seen it, we've done it. Not that exact thing, but when you start talking about how can we get more people through the door, it's not about more people through the door. It's about more people into heaven. There may be people sitting in this room yet that aren't sure if they're going to heaven. They don't know if they have an actual relationship with Christ or if they've just been doing this on autopilot. Because it's what they've been told to do, it's what they've been taught to do. Philippians tells us to give value to others above ourselves. And I got a question, what does that mean to you? So when I look out at the world, I see a lot of people who I don't agree with. But I can't devalue who they are in the kingdom because if God has called those people to earth and we believe that, then there is value in their lives, there is value in their relationship with us. It doesn't mean that I have to have dinner at your house, it doesn't mean we have to be best friends. But if I value your life, if I value you as a child of God, I will continue to grow the kingdom through simple love and grace. Now, the church cannot survive on grace alone. The gospel of Jesus Christ is what keeps us moving forward. And there are things that we know about people in our lives that when we look at it, the gospel is contrary to their life. It is not our responsibility to make that person comfortable. It is our responsibility to tell them the truth in love. It is our responsibility to give them grace. I promise you, if you are approaching somebody with a problem in their life and you are having a conversation with them about it, there is a nine out of ten chance that they know something about you that is not gospel centered. Now it becomes an argument over well, you do this and I do this, you mind your business, I'll mind my business. I mind kingdom business. Right? Thank you for pointing that out. It's something that I know I struggle with, and I'm working on it. I'm dealing with that right now in my life, right? And I'm not trying to insult you, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but this is something that I notice, and I am praying that God will continue to lead you, guide you, and direct you. That's a big deal. That's how you know somebody loves you. Jesus never called us to simply fill our seats, he called us to fill heaven, right? The goal is to preach the gospel to every corner of the earth until Jesus returns. Right? That's filling heaven. That is not filling seats. Because if we go and we tell somebody in Walmart about Jesus and they decide to go to another church, good for them. That's good for the kingdom. It doesn't matter to us, it's good for the kingdom. I want them to be in relationship and in the presence of Christ. See, it's one of the struggles that I have with the four-square denomination. And it's any, this is any denomination, just so we're clear. One of the things that they require us to count is attendance. They want to know how many people are here every week. Because they want to see if a church is growing, if a church is stagnant, if a church is dying. And they look at those numbers on paper and they make decisions based on those numbers. But they don't know the heart of the body. Because I'll tell you, if this building were only 10 people, but it was 10 people who were so on fire for Jesus, I wouldn't care. Because the point is that those people are doing kingdom-minded work, not just serving themselves or serving people who aren't interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. Heaven doesn't celebrate attendance, heaven celebrates repentance. And the church misses that week after week after week. Because what happens, we get a hundred people in the building. We're excited about that number because we get to write it on a piece of paper and report it at the end of the month, but there are five people who gave their lives to the Lord and we don't even recognize it. We don't even realize it. We don't see it happen. And then what happens to those people? They're on fire for a week, and then they realize that nobody cares. Nobody's even worried about it. We get those little cards on the backs of the chairs, and they can fill it out and they can put that information on there. And I know that seems sterile, but not everybody's comfortable having a conversation with somebody. And it's amazing when I pull those out and I read them, and I rededicated my life to the Lord today, and it's somebody that's been a legacy member here forever. That's a good feeling because it means that God is still working in this place. Amen. And I think that oftentimes we we overlook that and we are we're always thinking about the number of people or how does this affect this program. It is always people over program. It is always kingdom over people, right? It's not attendance, it's people who are kingdom bound. Every empty chair in this building should remind us of something today. It should remind us that there is somebody who isn't saved out in the world. It should remind us that there are still people addicted to drugs and alcohol in the world. It should remind us that there are people who are struggling with broken marriages. It should remind us that there are people wondering whether their life is worth living. Every empty seat in this building today should, in our minds, represent somebody who needs Jesus in their life. It's not that I want them in that seat, it's I want them in a seat. I want them ready to go to heaven. I want them to have such a love of Jesus and a relationship with Christ that there is no doubt in their mind that they are going to heaven. Listen, last week, I really sometimes I have to ask myself whether or not I should share these stories. I've had this season in my life, and this is a recent season, where I'm like, I don't like being a pastor. I don't. It's not fun. This is, it's hard work. And everything that I do feels like I'm laboring and I'm laboring and nothing is happening. That I'm constantly working and doing and thinking and trying, and nothing ever changes. And I realized that oftentimes that labor was to complete a task. Right? And so last Sunday after church, my family had left to go to camp, and I was sitting in my office and I was working on some church work, and I just started running through my phone and calling people. There were some people I was on the phone with for an hour, some people I was on the phone with for 10 minutes, but it relit that love of being a pastor. Because I'm on the phone with people and they're asking me questions like I or saying things to me like, I just don't feel like the Lord is using me anymore. As a pastor, not being there in those moments is hard, right? Having to seek that out. But listen, it's life-giving to tell people how much Jesus loves them. It is life-giving to look at somebody and say, God is on your side. Your life is 100% worth living because Jesus has called you to greater. You might not see it today, but please trust me when I say Jesus loves you more than anybody in this world, Jesus loves you. For men, that's hard to hear. Because we don't understand unconditional love. We feel like love is based on whether or not we produce for our families or for the world around us, right? If I fail, will they still love me? Yeah, Jesus will. Yep. Jesus will. It's not about whether or not I am getting something out of this life, it is whether or not I am giving something to the people who feel lifeless. Through the love and grace of Jesus. An empty seat should remind us of somebody who Jesus has died for. Now, this is the part that I feel like I have to give a little bit of grace. So we're gonna, umbrella of grace right now. Our laborers tend to be more mature than those who don't labor. Is that a fair statement? Because what happens is those who are immature, whether spiritually, emotionally, mentally, whatever the case may be, those who are immature in those areas do not understand the importance of laboring for Jesus. They don't even understand the importance of laboring for themselves, right? Now, here's the example that I want to use. Now, I'm guilty of this. So, umbrella of grace, right? How many of us know people that just eat out all the time? Never cook at home? I'm guilty of it. Listen, the other night my wife, we were talking about, we were at the fireworks festival, we were talking about dinner, I was starving. We went home, and I'm like, we're gonna DoorDash tonight. I know it. Like, I'm getting a McDonald's Coke, I'm gonna get a 10-piece nugget, a McDouble. Let's go, baby, right? And my wife leaves the bedroom, she goes to the kitchen, and she's I I hear her cooking, and I am like, I am not happy right now. Like, I was counting on McDonald's for dinner. And it wasn't the food, it was the Coke, right? It was the mmm, mmm. That stuff should be illegal. That's all I'm saying. It is so good, and it was all I could think about, it was all I wanted. And she's cooking, and I realized something that she is being responsible. Do you know how much a DoorDash would have cost for my family? Probably $50 or $60. That's a lot of money. Have you ever eaten McDonald's? That's a lot of money for McDonald's, right? And so I knew that she was being responsible, but my childish self was becoming angry because I wasn't gonna get a McDonald's coat. I'm not lying. It's true. But sometimes we have those little moments, right? The problem is if we live in that all the time. There are people, and I said this earlier, there are people who will complain about being disconnected from the body of Christ, but they are not disconnected from the body is not disconnected from them, they have disconnected from the body. Because I don't know if they know this. Some people, maybe they don't. We meet here every Sunday at 10 o'clock. That doesn't change. Right? And so if you feel disconnected from the body, why aren't you here on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock? Because I promise you, you will feel far more connected in that moment. Just showing up, being in the presence of like-minded people. And oftentimes we lie to ourselves and say nobody even notices when I'm not there. I notice each and every week who isn't here. Do I call you every week? Nope. Do I chase you? Nope. Because I believe that God is working in your life, He is calling you to greater, and whether or not you want to obey and absorb and take that in and do what God is calling you to is entirely up to you. Your relationship with Christ is yours and yours alone. It is not mine. I can't make it, I can't create it, I can't cultivate it. All I can do is tell you the word of God. All I can do is preach what God is doing for us. So the mature become the leaders. And this is the point where Christians stop asking this question, what am I getting? And they begin to ask themselves this question, who am I reaching? Right? Children's ministry is a thankless place to be. Right? For those who have served in children's ministry, we should have a national holiday for people who serve in children's ministry. And they should be allowed to do whatever they want that day for absolutely free. Because it is a truly thankless job. But the point is, is typically the mature people who serve in children's ministry aren't asking, what do I get from my service, but whose mind am I molding? Who am I helping to shape? Who am I giving the love of Jesus to? The healthiest churches aren't the ones with the biggest crowds. So I want to tell you this, and I want to be very serious with you, and I hope that you receive this and you believe this. You were called into the house of the Lord today for this word. For this moment. I'm praying that God is speaking to you, not telling you that you need to serve more, but that he's speaking to your heart and telling you that I have called you to be a mature laborer, that I have called you to serve, that this is not about you, it is about the kingdom. In my opinion, the healthiest churches are the ones who are producing the most workers. And I don't mean that here. How many of us are part of nonprofit organizations in our community and we're out just showing the love of Jesus through volunteer hours? That's a big zero. What's our reason? Well, I'm sorry, Pastor Roger did raise his hand, but I already knew his answer. What's our reason? What was it? I'm busy. I'm so busy. Yesterday, I hosted karaoke. How fun is that? For the fireworks festival. I asked for nothing in return. Because for me, serving the community that I live in is an incredibly important part of just being a mature person. Pouring out the love of Christ. Listen, talking to people all day long just about their lives and what their experiences are, that is what we should be doing. It doesn't always have to be a random strange where you walk up and say, Did you know Jesus loves you? Because that's weird, right? But if you're having a conversation with somebody and they're like, Yeah, I just am really struggling with all the things. My daughter's sick and my dog died, and my pickup truck broke down. And you say, you know what? I know that's hard. And I can't even imagine. Because even if I've experienced that, I'm not experiencing what you're experiencing today. Can I pray for you? Can I tell you that I know one very important thing? It's that whatever is going on in your life, it is small compared to the bigness. The bigness? The goodness of God. Hallelujah. Do you see how easy that is to have a conversation with somebody? But I can promise you this, it's not what the church is doing. The church is going, oh, that's, I'm really sorry to hear that. That's the end of the conversation. That's the end of the conversation. We never go deeper, we never seek more. Because in our minds, it's not our responsibility to pray for other people. In our minds, their problem is theirs, but we can't live that way. We have to chase people, we have to, I shouldn't say chase, we have to pursue the love of Christ in the public by praying and telling people about how good God truly is. If we are producing workers that are going out to other places and showing the love of Christ, then we are a healthy, viable, kingdom-minded church. Jesus never called us to admire the harvest, right? We don't sit back and go, yep, that was a good season. Got a lot of people through the door that season. Yeah, that was. Do you remember that time when we he's never called us to admire? He calls us to enter into the harvest. We should be walking into the fields daily looking for what can be harvested, bringing people to Jesus Christ. Consumers will continue to fill chairs, but laborers will fill altars. How often is our altar full? It's rare. Now I know that all of you guys have been saved since Jesus ascended into heaven. But I promise you this, we all have to renew our relationship with Christ regularly. I know that I have to do it all the time. This is one of my favorite things about getting here before everybody else is that I get time with Jesus without you. Right? I have a handful of pastors that I listen to that I love dearly, and they help to shape who I am and how I grow. But I need time at the altar just like you guys do. Now, people will say that if you see a pastor at the altar during a service, that's a sign of weakness. That pastor is weak. No, I want to promise you something. That's a real pastor. That's a pastor who is willing to put Jesus above even his own self-image. Right? Listen, pastors shouldn't be afraid of being in relationship with Jesus and that other people know it and see it. Right? There's another pastor who I knew, he had a he had a surgery, and I don't know if it was a neck surgery or a back surgery, but I had heard through the grapevine that he was having this surgery. This is a pastor that I do not know. Only ever met him once. Don't really know them. I hunted him down. And I said, Hey, I just want you to know that I'm praying for you as you recover. And I really, really believe that God is gonna do something great. I happened to bump into him several weeks later, and he's got the neck brace that runs down his back. He's got it off. And I said to him, I said, You told me you were gonna be like another 12 weeks. He's like, God is good. I'm not saying that my prayers did that, but I'm saying people lifting him up and praying that God's will be done in his life, that's what's happening, right? But the church has stepped away from that because the church is afraid of a move of the spirit. The kingdom doesn't need bigger audiences, it doesn't need more people showing up and sitting in seats. It needs bigger obedience, it needs more people saying, Here I am, Lord, use me. And if you're sitting in your seat saying, there is no way that God can still use me, I promise you, if he's using me, he can definitely use you. Broken, a mess, struggling, and yet every week, week after week, he continues to use me. The greatest compliment that we get is not that we have been faithful to our church or faithful to our pastor. The greatest compliment that we will get is well done, my good and faithful servant. Laboring in the fields for the kingdom of God. Now I want to, as we're gonna start to button up, and as we're as we're landing the plane here, I want to ask a couple of questions. And this is an important one for me. What if all of us next Sunday came with only one goal? And that was not to receive anything, but it was to bring somebody else to Jesus. What if that was our only goal next week? Now there are churches that do these things called seeker services. Have you ever heard of those? The service is designed for people who don't know Jesus, right? It's for us to reach people in the community who are not yet saved, who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. And here's what tends to happen at those seeker services. I got to experience one, I didn't go, but I got to watch it on live stream. It was a friend of mine who was pastoring the church. Okay? This is not a joke, and I need you to not laugh. Okay? So this building, they run 300 plus on a Sunday morning every Sunday. Okay? They have a big building. I'm talking big, big. And the service starts with the lights and the fog machines, and the very first thing that they start to play is highway to hell. Okay, now listen, it gets better. They have a guy ride through the sanctuary on his motorcycle, wheelie in front, all the way to the other side of the sanctuary. This whole service, the whole premise of this service, is that you can live your life in this dangerous way, doing these crazy, obscene things, and never know Jesus, or you can humble yourself at the throne at the foot of Jesus, build relationship, and guarantee yourself everlasting life. To us, that sounds wild, right? How would you guys feel if they started playing Highway to Hell right now? It'd make you uncomfortable, right? If I took the Lord's name in vain from the pulpit, it would make you uncomfortable. Or at least I hope that it would make you uncomfortable. Those services are designed for people who have never experienced Jesus. So my question is, what if we just brought somebody who needed to know Jesus? What if every empty seat in this room became represented by somebody who has never known the love of Christ? Or even somebody who has known the love of Christ and chosen not to walk in it any longer. That's a wild idea. And it's something that I'm going to admit to you I know will never happen. Because so many of us are afraid to tell people about Jesus. So many of us are afraid to say, hey, come to church with me this week. So many of us are afraid to say, I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and it's the reason that I don't do those things. This isn't a challenge. I'm not trying to get you to bring more people next week. The idea is I want to stop measuring the church based on the number of people. I want to stop measuring the church based on the offering. I want to stop measuring the church based on whether or not we know how to behave when we're in church. I want to start basing our decisions and our governance of the church on the number of people that enter into the kingdom of heaven, the number of people that enter into salvation in Jesus Christ. Because when we can start focusing on that instead of the other numbers, I promise you we will find this healthier growth, stronger members, right? Membership isn't, it isn't about being part of this body. Membership is saying we agree on the accord of the church. We agree on the direction. We agree on the mission. Our mission is simple to reach. More people for the kingdom of God than we have ever reached before. That's our mission every day. I uh got to have a quick conversation with an administrator for a school, and while I was talking to him, if you've listened to the podcast, you've already heard this, and it was uh that was a fantastic podcast episode. I re-listened to it, absolutely love that whole conversation. But anyway, um, as I was as I was talking to this guy, he and I realized very quickly that we share very strong similarities in the style of life that we have. Now he's a school administrator, and he and his wife choose to homeschool their children. Not because they don't trust the school system that he works for, but because they are kingdom-minded people and they want to instill that in their children while they're homeschooling. I think that's a great idea, right? That's what my wife has done. We've been blessed because of it. But he said to me something that really made me think. I think I've got it together most of the time, right? Is that fair? Like most of the time I've got it together. And he said, when they decided to homeschool their children, they made a family blueprint. Now, what does that mean? I don't know. Sounded crazy to me, right? He said, and at the end of the day, the motto that our family came up with is hearts over things. We will always do what is best for our hearts, the hearts of the people around you, and even if that is at the cost of the things that we want. That should be the church's motto. Hearts over things. If we can focus ourselves on the hearts of the people, unless on the things or the programs or the ideals that we want to have and focus on the hearts of the people, we will continue to grow a kingdom much stronger than we've ever seen before. We will see a revival like we have never seen before. Revival cannot be started in the flesh. Revival will only ever be started in the Spirit. And the Spirit has to be strong and willing, ready to obey the call of God. Let's pray together and then we'll do communion. Father, I thank you and I praise you for your move in the house today, Lord, for the message that was delivered. Father, I know that when we say, save your seat for somebody who is seeking Jesus, that that might seem harsh. This isn't because we don't love the people who are here, but Father, it is because we want to love people who have never experienced your love. Lord, I believe that when we create strong and faithful servants, kingdom-minded believers, that Lord, it becomes simple for us to go out and harvest the field. To go and plant seeds. Father, I thank you for that. Every person in here, Lord, I pray that you make them kingdom-minded, that you give them a desire to be in relationship with you, that you give them a desire to pursue your love and your presence when they're in the world. That they can tell people all about Jesus Christ and the grace and the mercy that you have bestowed upon us, and that if you will do it for us, you will surely do it for them. Father, I thank you for that move. I thank you for obedient hearts today. Lord, I pray that as we leave this place, you give us traveling mercy. Bring us back at your next appointed time. And Lord, I just I lift you up, I give you honor and glory this day. Lord, I pray. I pray, Lord, that your grace and mercy flow through the house, through the community. We give you praise, honor, and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen.