Follow Me - Week 1, Pastor John Mozingo

Follow Me is a sermon series from Family Church that walks through the life of Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples. His bold steps, honest struggles, and growing faith show what it means to follow Jesus with a willing heart. Each episode highlights key moments from Peter’s journey and invites us to learn how Jesus shapes ordinary people into faithful followers. Join us as we discover how Peter’s story challenges and inspires us to follow Christ every day.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Family Church's Sermon of the Week. We're so glad you're here. Each week we share a message from God's Word to encourage your heart, strengthen your faith, and help you grow in your walk with Jesus. We hope this time blesses you and draws you closer to the heart of God.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

So when I was a kid, every summer kind of looked the same. Every morning, I would wake up. My brother and I, we'd both wake up, we would uh go in, get grab Pop-Tarts or something for breakfast, then we'd go out to the mulch pile and we would dig up a handful of worms, we'd grab our fish and pole and our tackle box, and we would walk about a half a mile to Mays Pond. All right, and Mays Pond was way back in the woods. It was a cool walk because you walk through an old barn and there were old cars that were parked back there that were just falling apart and rusty, you know. It just looked like something out of a out of a movie or something. It was so cool. So we'd go back there and we'd fish. And the cool thing about fishing in Mays Pond is that every time we fished, we caught something. Every single time. You know, but then towards you know, a little later in the summer, like we would fish it out. There, you know, the fish would stop biting. They'd be on to us and say, look, our buddies aren't coming back when they take that bait. So they'd stop biting. So then we'd we'd walk a mile down to the road, down the road to difficult run, just a little stream about this wide, but there were always there were always fish in there. Bluegill, you know, there was always something in there. We'd fish that for a week, then then we'd fish that out. Then we would go to Taylor's Pond, which was behind the maze pond and down the hill. And the what made the the Taylor's pond so cool is that there were bass in Taylor's Pond. You could pull out a good size largemouth or small bass, smallmouth bass. But the really cool thing is you weren't allowed to fish there. So it was really adventurous. So you'd have to be fishing and you'd have to be looking over your shoulder to see if old man Taylor would come out to chase you away. And we say old man Taylor, he was probably 40, you know, at the most. But you know, to us that just sounded cooler. Old man Taylor's coming. So if he walked out, you know, we heard that screen door slam shut. We knew it was time to hightail it out of there. And and the cool thing about fishing those spots is we always caught fish, bluegill, catfish, bass at Taylor's pond. It was just, it was awesome. It was a great, great time to be a kid in that neighborhood. You know. So when I when I got older, you know, I thought, you know, every time I went fishing, I'd catch something, I thought I was an expert fisherman. So when I got older and I moved to Florida, and it was time to teach my boys how to fish, you know, we'd I'd do the same thing I did when I was a kid. You know, we'd get everything ready, we'd pack something for lunch, and and then we'd stop by the bait store and we'd get a handful of nightcrawlers, handful of worms, and we would go fishing in the Loxahatchie River in Florida, you know, just like half a mile from the coast. So, so we'd, you know, throw our line in the water and we wouldn't catch a thing. We wouldn't catch a thing. And it's because in Florida, you need different bait, and there are different fish. You know, so the fish would swim up to our worms and go, what is that? You know, I'm not eating that. I've never seen that before. You know, they're used to eating smaller fish and and shrimp and all this stuff, you know. They had a different diet, so they looked at that and they they didn't care. They didn't want that. It was the wrong bait. It was the wrong bait. You have to know the right bait if you were gonna fish. Now, over the next few weeks, we're going to uh talk about the apostle Peter. We're gonna talk about the Apostle Peter. And so Peter was a fisherman, and so when Jesus called his first disciples, he went to fishermen. And I think that's pretty cool. You know, I think one reason it's cool is because every kid that spent his summers fishing, you know, can identify with Peter. So listen to this verse Matthew 4, 18 through 19. One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew, throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, Come follow me, and I will teach you how to fish for people. So we're gonna walk we're gonna look at the life of Peter over the next few few weeks. And and and Jesus called the man who would one day be the leader of the church. And when he called him and said, Come with me and I'll teach you how to fish for people, he wasn't just calling him, he was also telling him, This is your purpose for the rest of your life. You are gonna fish for people. And and if fishing for people is the mission of the leader, of the man who would become the leader of the church, it's a safe assumption that fishing for people is the mission of the church. So when God called Peter and said, Come with me and I will make you uh I will teach you how to fish for people, he was telling us that's your job as a church, to fish for people. And if if and and you know, to fish for people, you also have to have the right bait. If you're gonna fish for people, you have to have the right bait. And we're gonna talk about that. But but making that commitment to follow Jesus came with a cost. It came with a cost. Look at Matthew 5, 20 through 22. It says, and they left their nets and at once, uh they left their nets at once and followed him a little further up the road. Uh he saw two two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets, and he called called to them, uh he called to called them to come too. They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind. Peter and Andrew immediately left their nets. They immediately left their nets. Let me make a few statements about what's going on here that each one is a little harder to accept as a believer. Each statement is a little harder to accept. Here's the first statement. Peter and Andrew had to leave their nets. The mission of the church is more important than what you're doing right now. The mission of the church is more important than what you're doing right now. You know, whatever you're involved in, you know, you you you you're you you go to your kids' soccer games, you you go to PTO meetings, you visit the grandkids, grandparents, you hang out with your friends, whatever. The mission of the church is more important than all of that. Okay? Here's another statement. This is a little harder. Okay, John, John and James and John says they left their boat. Their boat was their livelihood. It's hard to be a commercial fisherman with no boat. It's a tough job to do. It's tough enough with a boat, but it's even harder to do without a boat. So the mission of the church is more important than your jobs and your possessions. Then it says James and John left their father behind. Here's the hardest statement to accept. The mission of the church is more important than your relationships. That's a hard one. Because I just said it's more important than your kids. It's more important than your parents, than your brothers, your sisters, it's more important than your friends. All right? Now, I'm not asking you, I'm not, I'm not suggesting that you abandon all those to go on some mission for God. That's not what I'm suggesting. I'm not I'm not suggesting you abandon what you're doing right now, what you're involved in. I'm not suggesting you abandon your jobs and your possessions. Don't abandon your family. What I'm telling you is that all of those things is where the fish are. Every one of those things, what you're doing right now, jobs, possession, your relationships, that's the pond that you are fishing in. That's the pond that you're fishing in. Now, I plan to preach this message, I planned this series and this message like October, November last year. I I I've known I was gonna preach on this passage that long. So I don't look at it as a coincidence that that God has something else that this church needs to think about and talk about. All right. Um, so so I want to take a few minutes this morning to give you an update on the ministry of family church. So we'll get back to fishing in a minute. We'll get back to fishing in a minute. I want to give you this update. So we started this church as a campus of Park Valley Church three years ago, November uh 20th of 2022. We started as a campus of Park Valley Church. Um and since that time, since that time, the the vision of Park Valley Church as far as their campuses have changed. We we talked about this last August. And now the vision for these campuses are to become independent, autonomous churches. Okay? So we we made that commitment uh back in August that we would do that. We launched again on November 16th of last year as family church. We function as an independent church, though we are still dependent uh financially and administratively on Park Valley Church. When we did that, when we made that commitment, we kind of just kind of looked at here's here's how things are going right now. Here is how, you know, it based on our current growth, our current rate of growth, how long it would take to be able to become uh an independent church. We also looked at our our other campus, our Warrington campus, which is now the Rock Community Church. Um we looked at you know what what they have done, because they started on this process before we did. Look at what have they done, how what has their progress been like? Um their goal now is to become completely independent, I think, by June of this year. So we looked at that. So just just based on that, we we kind of figured, okay, it's gonna probably take at our current rate of growth about three years. So we set a goal at the time of November of 2028. We would we would be, if not before then, we would be fully uh autonomous. You know, if God provided and we could do it sooner, we would do it. You know, not a problem. We'll do it sooner if we need to. Now, we are still under the authority of Park Valley Church. That means their uh trustees and elders are our trustees. Okay, so we we answer to them. After much prayer on their part, they have asked us to set a new goal of being completely independent and autonomous by Easter of next year. So that's our new goal. Easter of next year. Now, now, let me just say, there is nothing, it's not because we did something wrong. It's not because they're trying to push us out. They're trying to push us forward, absolutely, but they're not trying to push us out. This is, you know, there's no animosity, nothing happened. You know, when we talked about this before, when we talked about it back in August, I cannot tell you how many people came to me saying, tell me what really happened, you know, because it feels like a church split. Tell me what really happened. I'm telling you right now, this is what really happened. There is nothing else to say. You know, but if you if you have questions, if you have questions about this, honestly, I want you to talk to me, and I'm so serious about that. I think my phone number and and email, there they are. Okay? Come to me, uh uh, and we'll talk about it. If you have questions or anything, the last thing I want is for rumors to start, because honestly, when something like this happens, Satan wants there to be division among us. He wants to divide the church, he wants disunity in the church, so he's gonna go after, you know, he always goes after the weaker people. And so if somebody's got a got a spiritual issue or whatever, they're spiritually weak, he's gonna go after them and he's gonna start start rumors and that kind of thing, and it's gonna end up hurting this church. So ask me, you know, you know, but I I there there's really nothing else to tell, honestly. I've just told you everything about it. Um so so if we're gonna become autonomous in in about a year, you know, some some things are gonna have to take place that are significant changes. Now, now there's not gonna be some things are not gonna change. We're not, you know, we're not gonna change the name from family church, we're not gonna go meet somewhere else. Our mission is not gonna change. We are still gonna build the family of God through hope and truth. I'm still gonna be your pastor. None of that changes. All right? You won't see anything different on Sunday mornings except hopefully that there will be more people joining us along the way. Um and then we will continue the process of becoming legally independent. That's a long process. You know, we we have to we have to do paperwork kind of thing, and this is this is not my gift. Um, but we have to establish a we have to establish ourselves as a corporation of Virginia. We have to get an employee ID number, we have to register as a b business with Prince William County, establish our own checking accounts, and apply for nonprofit status. That's all long process. That's a month, month-long process. If you've ever done anything like that before, you understand that. Um in conjunction with all of that, we also have to establish our own leadership in the church. That means when when we are independent, we have to have our own trustees, like like we answer to the trustees of Park Valley right now. We have to have our own trustees, we have to have an elder board, we have to have deacons, you know, we have to set all of that up during that time. And and um, so we'll continue that process, we'll do all those things. Um, and and we'll also look towards financial independence. Okay. Right now, our annual budget is about a half a million dollars, and we depend on Park Valley Church for$50,000 of that. That's that's the way we went into this year. They would they would contribute$50,000 into this ministry. Um now, because we need to establish financial independence sooner, what I would like to do is close that gap. So some changes that have already happened help us to close that gap by about$30,000. I'm not gonna get into what the changes were. They're not that they're nothing major, you know, but they close that gap by about$30,000. And and so with with some other small adjustments we can make along the way, we can close that gap. Um we can close it sooner. And uh, you know, we also need we we're also dependent on Park Valley Church for certain services, human resources, you know, all our insurance and and and all the stuff that protects us, we're dependent on them. Communications, it's like they they they help us with our graphics and and you know, all the signs out front, all that stuff. You know, they they help us with all those things. Um even like copy machines, we still got to use their copy machines. Um and we still depend on them for facilities. I still have an office at Park Valley Church. Our team meets every Tuesday in the conference room at Park Valley Church. Um, in becoming independent, we will need we will need to be able to handle those things on our own, human resources, communications, and facilities. So if we're gonna do facilities, that means we need a place to to do church. Now, we can still rent on Sundays, rent this place, and I and I love this place. I think it's it gives us great room to grow, and I think it's beautiful. Man, when you walk in out front, it is it's a beautiful place. I love being here. And and it's gonna be a long time for different reasons before we can have our own facilities and land and all of that. Um we'll talk about that another time. Um but we can still meet here on Sundays, but we need a place to, you know, for our offices. It would be nice to have a larger space where we can do Bible studies and meetings and things like that. Um we also need storage. We have a good sized storage spot at Park Valley. Uh we need a place to put all of that. So all of that comes with a cost, you know, so human resources, um uh communication facilities, you know, so all of that comes with a cost. Now, as far as facilities go, we could do that a couple of ways. You know, the the most obvious being that we rent space. We rent a space somewhere. That's the hardest, you know, that because that's that's a like there's places I've looked at are right around something that would be maybe not even quite adequate, but but you know, something that we could use are about$4,500 a month. That's that's not a small ticket right now. Um it's not in our budget. Uh we would have to kind of re-reevaluate our budget to be able to do that. You know, the other option is that somebody would allow us to use space in their offices. When when Park Valley started 23 years ago, they did all of their offices, they even did church on Sunday mornings in the offices at Superior Paving Company over in Gainesville. You know, they let them use that. When we started a campus several years ago in Ashburn, when it became an independent church, uh a company called First Column that does all of the the uh um online stuff and and uh all of our tech stuff for uh Park Valley, they let the uh pastors of um the Journey Church, they called it in there in Ashburn, they let them use their offices. So a situation like that would be amazing. If somebody has a business and say, hey, I'll we'll just let you use that space or we'll rent it to you at a very reduced cost. That would be amazing. But those are all things human resources, communications, facilities, they're currently not part of our budget. So adding those would be a significant expense as far as budget and our biggest challenge moving forward. That would be our biggest challenge. Now, let me tell you why. I'm not worried. I'm not worried. When when I first found out that we that we won that uh we were gonna set a new goal of a year, I was worried. I was worried, and I was mostly worried about money. So, you know, you you you worry about something like that, you know, and any, you know, your first reaction is talk to God about it. You know, so I I prayed, I got other people praying with me, and and you know, and this this shows a lack of faith on my part, but I I told God and prayed and said, I need something, man. Just just show me that you're in this. Show me, give me a little something so that I I have I'm comfortable moving forward. Let me tell you what he did. Two people came to me, two families came to me and made sizable donations for specific equipment for this ministry, that equipment that we will need to move forward. And and we'll talk about what it was later. But that was amazing. Somebody else came and said, we're gonna put uh family church in our will. You know, and that's a big deal. That says we trust you that much. You know? And then our offerings average, our weekly average for offerings is about nine thousand dollars. That's good. That's good. To meet budget, we need twelve thousand dollars, honestly. That's that's what Park Valley was making up for us. Um so about nine thousand dollars. It varies week to week. One week it'll be twelve thousand, next week it'll be six thousand, you know, but it but it uh uh it averages about nine thousand. Last two weeks, our offerings were seventeen thousand and then nineteen thousand dollars. Now, I'm I I don't know if that's gonna be the new trend. I you know, boy, that would be awesome if it was. I don't know if that's gonna be the new trend. But to me, that was God just saying, look, John, I got this. You know, you don't have to worry. So, so you know, whatever challenge we face, I know we serve a God that is bigger than all of those challenges. So I'm gonna choose not to worry about the finances going forward. I'm gonna I'm just not gonna worry about it. So, so we're gonna trust God for that. You know, there's no challenge that that we're gonna face that he can't handle. Um, and you know, so could God could could God handle that by just giving us a wind, a financial windfall, you know, with just a big lump sum of money? Absolutely, he could do that. You know what? We're gonna ask God for that because he can do it. He's he gave us permission. Ask me for the big things. Go ahead and ask me. So we're gonna ask him. You know, and and could God meet those needs by just the people in this room increasing their giving? Absolutely. You know, that's God's plan that that God's people through their generosity fund God's mission. That's God's plan. Through our generosity, we fund God's mission. So, yes, that could happen. But let me tell you what needs to happen. You know, if if God's plan is accomplished through the generosity of God's people, what I see is we need more people. We need more people. And if we take seriously the fact that our mission is to fish for people, and we do that as a church, God's gonna take care of the rest. You know? God's gonna take care of that if we're doing his mission, if we're accomplishing his mission, and his mission is to fish for people. So, if that's the mission, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna see a few immediate changes that that I want I want uh to talk about and just know that this is going to happen. First, you know, we're gonna we're going we need immediate changes to our ministry, we need to increase increase our outreach. And you know, we're gonna do that all all the all the uh usual ways social uh social media, mailers, signs, all that stuff, you know, we're gonna we're gonna step that up a little bit. Um but one big thing, we're gonna create an outreach team. Okay? And here's my desire for that is if you're not serving right now and you've got a heart for this ministry, that you say, I'm in, I'll be part of that outreach team. And here's what I need for that team. I need somebody that will lead that team, somebody who has gifts in administration and leading and leading people. I need somebody that'll step up and say, I will lead that team. I need people with strong backs that will just say, I'll I'll be there, you know, whatever we need to set up, whatever, whatever that takes, I'll be there. I need people on that team that have big smiles and love talking to strangers. You know, because that's what it looks like. What this team will primarily do is go to community functions and establish a presence of family church at those places. And when we do that, the goal is for people to come in contact with family church and say, wow, that feels like an amazing place. Just by meeting people. So there are lots of events uh locally that do that. The first one is May 16th, it's called Noakesville Day, just right down the road here. Uh we set up there a few, a few a couple years ago, set set up a tent, and we just gave out bottled water. It was a hot day. We gave out bottled water, we had you know fun stuff for the kids, gave out information about the church, and and we got to know people in the community that day, and people came and visited us as a result. You know, so we got that opportunity. There is uh there's there's Noakesville Day, Haymarket Day, Manassas Day, everybody's got a day. You know, we can be at all of those. Um at Christmas time, there are lots of opportunities like that. Last year, uh at a lot of the communities do things. So last this past Christmas, Melin and I went over to Victory Lakes. They do a big thing for their community. Community, they let us set up, well, we had to pay, but but they let us set up a photo booth. So so and we set it up, and they let us set it up in the busiest spot in the whole thing. And so people would walk by and we'd say, Hey, you know, want us to take your picture? So they would sit down, we'd take their phone, take their picture, had a beautiful backdrop. You know, same one we used here uh Christmas Eve. So, you know, you you do that. You just get to talk to a lot of people. And so we get to talk about family church to lots of people. We had hot cider and candy canes for the kids. You know, it was it was an awesome, awesome opportunity to just meet people in the community. Guess what happened? Christmas Eve, some of those people showed up. So we want to do we want that to start right now. So today when you walk out, there is a ministry fair, and all of our all of our uh ministries have tables out there, and you can talk if there's a ministry you want to be involved in, whether it's just for Easter or if it's if it's permanently, you can stop and talk to those people, find out what they're what it takes to be a part of that ministry. But there is a table out there that says outreach. And if you want to be part of that team, you stop at that table and you let us know, yes, I want to be part of that team. Here's here's what I bring to the table. I can lead this team. I I I've got a truck, I can haul the stuff, I I can I can help with setup. I I I I love talking to people, so I can be there for that. But you let us know what you want to do, because that's that's an important part of this. You know? Now the third thing that we need, if we're gonna move forward with this, and to me this is the most important. We need a congregation that is committed to inviting people to church. You're committed to inviting people to church. And and it's not as hard as you think it is. I just told you, you know, you you where you work, where you where you you know hang out with people, you go to your kids' soccer games, and you stand on the sidelines with the same people every week. You know, that those are your opportunities to invite people. And so I've got two things for you. First, there are invites to our Easter service. These invites are important. Um statistically, the the Barner Research Group polled people that don't go to church and asked them this question if somebody invited you to church, would you go? 80% said yes. 80% said yeah, if somebody would invite me, I would go to church. Lifeway did research. And they said that for every five people that you invite to church, one of them will come. So it's about 20%. So this morning, when you walk out, our ushers are gonna hand you a stack of five of these. And I want you to invite five people. Now, if you the closer you are to those people, the more likely they are to come. If you leave one with your waitress at at uh uh wherever you go to lunch today, if you leave one with the waitress, she might come. If you if you give one to somebody that you see every day, somebody that you're a friend with or a relative or whatever, somebody that you're close to, they are far more likely to come. You know? And this isn't just about having money and getting new people giving and stuff. This is about reaching the people for the kingdom. This is about about meeting people and and and showing concern for them. This is more about where they're gonna spend eternity. And this is why God looked at Peter and said, You follow me, and I'm gonna teach you to fish for people. So that's what we're asking you to do. There are also a sign out there with three different cards. One of them, this one says, You're invited, uh, you you're invited to family church. I have to change that because this is you are invited to at family church. So we're gonna switch that. Um but there are others, there's three different options there. Um so so uh you can take those, and and if you just have these with you, you know, and and you have conversations with people, then then you have an opportunity to invite them to church. You've got a tool to do that. And it's got our times, location, everything. It's got a QR code, it takes them directly to the website, they can find out more about the church. So here's how this works. You know, you take you take this Easter card, you go to work, you know, it's lunchtime, you sit down next to somebody, and uh and you look at them, and and here's how easy it is. Y'all got plans for spring break? That person goes, yeah, we're gonna go down to Outer Banks and hang out there for a week. Oh, great, have a have a great time. Or if you say, Y'all got plans for spring break? Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna hang out at home and you know, maybe do some yard work and you know spend some family time together. You going to church on Easter? Yeah, we always go to church on Easter. Where do you go? Well, we're kind of new to the area. We don't know where we're going. All right, I mean that's like your gunslinger moment, you know? You they open that door, that's your cue to invite them. And it should be like that all the time. So if it's not this one, it's this one. And this one, when you talk to people that are hurting, when you talk to somebody at work and they say, Man, my marriage is falling apart. Man, my kids are going nuts. I don't know what to do with my kids. Man, my finances are a mess. I'm depressed, I'm lonely. All those things that come up in conversation with the people that you're close to, you tell them I got satisfaction in Christ, in Jesus for all of those things. I'm not lonely anymore because I got a family at family church. I'm getting my finances under control because the church offers help with that. I got help with my marriage, I got help with my kids because I went to family church. That's how you do that. This isn't this isn't about walking up to strangers and going, Well, did you go to church? You know, this is about this is about fishing in your pond. And if the church is gonna grow, that has to happen. The best way, I quoted some statistics a minute ago. Every every group that has done statistics on this says that the best way to grow a church is personal invitation. Websites are awesome, signs are awesome, mailers are awesome. Number one, best way to grow a church is personal invitation. So I could stand up here and tell you we need money to do this, and I can say, let's take a special offering, open your wallets, do this, do that. We don't need to do that if we're taking seriously the mission of God's church and we're fishing in our pond. That's what needs to happen. So let's talk, let's talk more about fishing. You know, when I moved to Florida, I was I was terrible at fishing. I mean, I could not figure it out. I, you know, Taylor's Pond, May's Pond, difficult run. I was the king, man. I knew how to fish those places. When I moved to Florida, I didn't know. We fished in the Loxtachee River. I took nightcrawlers, put them on the hook, threw them in there, no bites at all. Fish would swim up and look at it and leave. No bites, no nibbles, nothing. A few minutes later, I'd pull the worm out and it would be limp l l limp and lifeless and unappetizing. And that's because the Loxhatchie River, half a mile from the Atlantic Ocean, is salt. And worms don't live in salt. Okay? So you have to learn what kind of bait to use. You you have to fish with the small fish in that pond or in that in that river. You have to fish with shrimp and tiny little little mullet thing. You know, there's just different things that you fish with in different water, you know? And and it got I was so bad at it. When my kids got older and go fishing on their own, they'd be like, Dad, we don't want you to go. To this day, they still say, No, Dad, you're not going fishing with us. I was just, I was a curse, man. If they went fishing, they'd catch stuff. They knew the right bait. When I'd go, they wouldn't catch anything. So they started telling me, no, Dad, you stay home. We'll we'll bring you fish, we'll even cook it for you. All right. But but having the right bait is important. So we're gonna study the life of Peter. And if you if you study his life in the gospels, you're gonna see a man who did not know the right bait to fish for people. He was constantly making mistakes, put his foot in his mouth, got angry, got got violent and vengeful. He overreacted to stuff, and and when it came to the moment where somebody said, Aren't you with Jesus? He got angry, swore at them, and denied that he even knew Jesus. He didn't know the right bait, even though he had spent three years with the Savior. He didn't know the right bait. But when you read his two letters at the end of the New Testament, you you you get into the mind of a man who figured out, you know, a a a mature man of God who figured out, here's how you fish for people. This is the right bait. So look with me at 1 Peter 2 9. This is Peter's words. He says this, but you are not like that. You're not like you're not like the the world. You're different. You are a chosen people, you are a royal peace priesthood, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others good the goodness of God, for he called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Okay? So here's the bait. Live a noticeably different life. If your life is like everyone else's, you have nothing to offer. But because you are a chosen one of God, you are part of God's chosen people, that makes you qualified to be a witness for Him. But that's only if your life is different. And it's different in your conduct and your conversation. Those are the noticeable differences. So you have to live a life that says, I'm I'm I'm different, you know, I react different, I speak different, I act differently than other people. And the problem is we get so focused on ourselves. We get so hung up on our own problems and our past and and our own sin. You know, God, God knows that you are all that, and He's still called you, He's still made you one of His chosen people and said, You're gonna fish for people in spite of all that. So if we stop focusing on ourselves and we focus on Him, that's gonna free you to be different. And instead of instead of saying, you know, who am I to do this, you say, I'm chosen by God. That's who I am. I'm chosen by God. Instead of saying, Am I qualified for this? You say, I'm part of a royal priesthood. I'm part of a royal priesthood. That makes me qualified. Instead of saying, no, I'm too sinful, I can't do this, say, I'm part of a holy nation that qualifies me to do this in spite of my sinfulness. And instead of saying, I'm nobody, you can say, I am God's possession. We have to focus outward, we have to focus on him, and we have to focus on our pond and stop focusing on ourselves. If we do that, we're gonna live a life that is different, and people are gonna look at us and they're gonna see the goodness of God and in a world that is lacking in all things good right now. To look at us and see the goodness of God, that's that's good bait. That's good bait. To see that we're different because Jesus is in our life. Look at 1 Peter 2.12. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors, then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior and they will give honor to God when He judges the world. So here's good bait. React to difficult situations and difficult people with kindness. React with kindness. Now, when we first moved up here to Virginia, um we we decided uh that we were gonna raise chickens. So I started watching on Facebook Marketplace, and uh um I I saw somebody that was giving away just this primo chicken, chicken coop and this enclosed chicken run and five chickens. So I jumped on it. We went, we got all that, we brought it back to the house. This is awesome, you know, did that for a few weeks. I said, All right, let's get more chickens. So we got we got a few more chickens, we had 12 chickens all together, and so we just loved loved doing loved raising chickens, loved getting my own eggs every morning. You know, it was just really cool. So one day I went out, one of my chickens was gone. There were only 11 out there, and and I'm like, well, what how'd that happen? I look around and there's just feathers everywhere. So I'm like, well, that chicken's not coming back, you know. And uh a few days later it happened again, and then a third time, and the third time I I just I like I'm gonna I'm gonna be like Mr. Chicken Investigator here, and I follow the trail of feathers and I followed it into my neighbor's yard. My neighbor has four dogs or had four dogs. And so I thought that's what it is. And and uh so then it happened a few days again after that, and I caught the dog red-handed. Caught that dog. So I went over, talked to my neighbor, I said, you know, here's what's going on. I'm not upset, you know, dogs are gonna be dogs. I said, but let's see if we can stop that from happening. Again, we walked around her backyard and looked at her fence, we found where the dog was taking care of that. Okay, can I can I help you do that? And she's like, No, no, no, we got it, we got it. And so everything is cool, a couple weeks, and uh then I'm missing two more chickens. And I'm like, okay, this ain't right. So so I followed the trail of feathers, went over into her yard, I turned the corner around her house, and she was there with a black trash bag trying to hide the evidence. Her dog had gotten two more chickens, and I was so mad. You know, because it was bad enough. You know, a dog's gonna be a dog, but man, she didn't do what she said she was gonna do. She's hiding the evidence, so it doesn't look like she like anything happened. And I was standing behind her and I was so mad, and I'm just and and I I raised my hand and was gonna point my finger at her, and I knew exactly what I was gonna say, and I thought, I'm a pastor. And in that moment, God reminded me there are more important things in my life than chickens. And here's a lady who doesn't know Jesus. And if I get all bent out of shape, because her dog ate some of my chickens, you know, that's pretty selfish of me. So in that moment, you know, as carnal as I was feeling at the moment, God said, You know what? You need to react in kindness to this lady, and I did. And we were able to invite her and her family to a Christmas Eve service over at Park Valley. They didn't go, but we had the doors open, we could invite them. They came into our home. We had a Christmas, just had some neighbors, but she came into our home. You know, we opened that door to be able to invite her to church and to show her the love of Christ. So great bait is to respond to difficult situations and difficult people with kindness. And I know we're getting getting we're way over time here. Let me give you one more. 1 Peter 3 15 says, instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life, and if someone asks you about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. Okay? Here's good bait. Make it obvious that Jesus is the most important thing in your life. Make it obvious. Because somebody who's hurting, somebody who is is just confused about life, and somebody who just is is whatever's going on in their life, they just can't figure it out, and they look at you and you respond to challenges, you respond to difficult situations with with grace and kindness, and and you act differently and you talk differently, you know, and you know, you know your life might be spiraling out of control, but just because you're gonna be obedient and act a certain way, that person's gonna look at you and go, I want what they have. I want what they have. And the scripture says they're gonna ask because it says, if someone asks you about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. When somebody walks up to you and says, Man, I'm just I'm hurting so much. You know, I just can't, I can't get control of my life, my kids, my wife, my money, whatever. How do you do it? You can say, I don't, but I serve a God that can. And because I accepted Christ, I can deal with these things. You know, and and are they gonna go, oh please tell me about Jesus? I don't know, but you know, you just told them, here's why I have hope, and that's gonna lead to another conversation. That's gonna lead to another conversation, and before you know it, you're real and a man, man. You know, that's good bait. That Pete, you're so different and you're so committed, and and you you act differently even in the toughest of circumstances, that people look at you and go, How do you do that? Then you can say, It's Jesus in me. So, church, let's go fishing. Okay? Let's go fishing. I I I don't I I honestly I want to stand up next Easter and say we're independent, but I I don't want to just go, Whew! That was a lot of hard work. Glad that's over. I want to stand up Easter Sunday and say, look what God did. You know, I met with our leadership the other night, and one of them, who's very smart, said, That's not enough turnaround time. We can't do that. And I'm like, You're right, we can't. That's why we have to see God step up and work. And he promised that he would. And he's proven it to us. So next Easter, I want to stand right here and I want to say, we serve an amazing God, and he did something amazing through an amazing church. That's what I want to see. That's what I want to do. And I can't do it without you. I can't do it without everyone in this room. So, on your way out, I want you to stop at one of our tables, sign up to do something. I want you to take five Easter cards, and I want you to invite five people so that one of them will come. We have to do this together. So let's go fishing. Let me have every head bowed and every eye closed. God, thank you so much for your love for us, for your love for this church. And God, our mission is to fish for people. You've made that abundantly clear. So, God, make us a church that is committed to fishing for people. Make us a church that is committed to fulfilling your mission in our life, no matter what the cost. Help us to fish in the pond you've put us in. Give us boldness, give us courage, give us the words to say at the right moment. God, you can do all of that through people that are willing. And that's what we ask today. Still with heads bowed and eyes closed, if you're here today and you've never started a relationship with Jesus, you've never accepted him as your Savior, let me tell you something. Today's the day. Scripture even says that. Behold, today is the day of salvation. If you're here today, you've heard, you've heard the truth, you've heard about who God is, you've heard about what Jesus has done, and that He He was crucified, buried, but He didn't stay there. He conquered death and He rose again. We'll celebrate that Easter Sunday, but that's what it's all about. Because there is no way that anybody in this room will ever earn the right to spend eternity in heaven. Who is that good? Nobody except Jesus. So the one who deserved it hung on a cross to take your place so that you would have eternal life. And it's just a matter of accepting him as your savior. He did the heavy lifting, he did the hard part, and he did it for you. So if you're here today, you've never accepted Christ as your savior. It's just a matter of saying, saying, God, I surrender. I accept Christ as my Savior. I I trust in the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of my sin. I trust in the death, burial, and resurrection for my salvation. And you can say that to him any way that you want. If you're struggling to put what's going on in your mind and in your heart into words, you can pray something like this. It's not about repeating a prayer, it's about meaning the words that you're going to say. So you can say, Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus. Because without him, I could never have eternal life. I can only have it because he shed his blood on the cross and was buried and rose again on the third day. So today, I accept that gift of forgiveness. And I accept that gift of salvation. I ask forgiveness of my sin and know that they're forgiven because of Jesus shed. And I accept Christ as my Savior, still with heads bowed and eyes closed. If you prayed that today, I want you to do a brave thing. I just want you to lift your hand and let me know. Yeah, John, I prayed that. I prayed that prayer. Okay, let's pray. God, thanks so much for this this work that you've done through your son on the cross. And God, for those that that accepted Christ this morning, I pray that you would just become very real to them. Lord, if if somebody is is just still sitting on the fence and and has questions and and and is just doesn't just needs to talk about it. Lord, give them courage to talk about it. To somebody. Lord, give them what they need. Work in their heart, give them that assurance and confidence that you are who you say you are, and your son did what the word says he did, and that he conquered death so that we can have eternal life. God, I pray for this church as we go forward. Lord, I pray that we would just completely trust you, not trusting in our own efforts. Lord, we're gonna we're gonna put in, we're gonna roll up our sleeves and we're gonna work to grow this church. But God, this is all about what you do through us. Help us not to trust in our own efforts. Help us to trust in what you'll do through us. And Lord, we we we're gonna see big, amazing things that you're gonna do through this church. Lord, help us to look to you for that and nothing else. So, God, I pray that that you would you would give everyone in this room boldness. I pray that we would be a church that fishes for people. And Lord, we ask all of this in Jesus' name.

unknown 43:48

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Thanks for listening to Family Churches Sermon of the Week. We pray this message encouraged you and helped you grow in your faith. If it blessed you, share it with a friend and follow so you never. Miss a new episode. You can learn more about Family Church at myfamilychurch.com. If you are in the area, join us on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. We meet at Patriot High School 10504 Kettle Run Drive.