SPEAKER_00: This is the power of a good biblical theology when it comes to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Not because of our works.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question isn't what did I do, but what is God doing?
SPEAKER_00: How is God calling me?
SPEAKER_01: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandParkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we wait for you, not because uh we don't have anything else to do, but because we wait for you because we don't trust anybody or anything as much as we trust you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Bible tells us that those who wait for the Lord will mount up with wings as eagles.
SPEAKER_00: They'll run and not be weary, and they'll walk and not faint.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we wait for you.
SPEAKER_00: We also wait for you because we believe you're true.
SPEAKER_00: You're real, you're valid, you're everything the Bible says you you are.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we come to experience that.
SPEAKER_00: And so I pray for anybody today that's never experienced that, God, that they would be reminded that you would call, let them hear your voice calling them, God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Holy Spirit, illuminate the scriptures today.
SPEAKER_00: And we open it up, give us understanding, inspiration, uh, and a sense of compression in our spirit as a byproduct of what we understand today.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, lead us into the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
SPEAKER_00: So help us, God.
SPEAKER_00: This is our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We ask it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seed.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to 2 Timothy chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk to you this morning about what the gospel does.
SPEAKER_00: What the gospel does.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest, let me just say we're typically preaching through a book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We spend about two and a half years going through the book of John.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd like to give my people a little bit of a break.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the next book we're going to preach through is the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: We do New Testament, Old Testament, New Testament, Old Testament, but we're not going to get to Daniel until later in the year.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to spend most of the spring just talking about different things we want you to further understand.
SPEAKER_00: But every time we preach, it's going to come from the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's not our ideas, it's God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And so, 2 Timothy chapter 1, I'll start reading in verse 1, and I'll read to verse 14 uh what the gospel does.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly, my prayers, night and day, as I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy.
SPEAKER_00: I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
SPEAKER_00: For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: For which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.
SPEAKER_00: But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.
SPEAKER_00: Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: By the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I read the whole, starting in verse one, because I want you to give the context, but really I want to focus in on verses eight to fourteen.
SPEAKER_00: But before I get to verses eight and fourteen, there's two things that bear noting on our way to the passage of our focus this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and the first one is simply this, and they're both in verse one, where he says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me just say this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, by the will of God, the call to ministry is God's idea, not your idea.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, hey, why do we say that, dude?
SPEAKER_00: That's your thing.
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to be a church that's always putting before people, not just students, but adults, the reality that God calls people to ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just, hey, I didn't know what I was gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: I graduated college, I thought I'll just go work for the church.
SPEAKER_00: My grandma said it was a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: No, the call to ministry is by the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the second thing I want to point to.
SPEAKER_00: He says, he says that I'm an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and then hear this phrase according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: According to the promise, it doesn't say, uh of a life, he says the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's referring to a specific way of being.
SPEAKER_00: If you were with us in the Gospel of John, you heard me talk a lot about Zoe versus Bios.
SPEAKER_00: Two Greek words for life.
SPEAKER_00: Bios is biological existence.
SPEAKER_00: I eat, I sleep, I go to work, I pay bills, I fight with my wife, we make up, we raise our kids, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: I said in traffic.
SPEAKER_00: That's biological existence.
SPEAKER_00: When the Bible talks about life in relation to Jesus or salvation or what it means to be a Christian, it's the word Zoe.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put the definition up here.
SPEAKER_00: It'll sound familiar to you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but if you're visiting today, I want you to understand this, and I'll tell you why in just a second.
SPEAKER_00: Zoe life is real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed in the portion, even in this world, of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new ascensions, among them a more perfect body and to last forever.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, the Bible says, if if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we're to be pitied above all men.
SPEAKER_00: So this Zoe life that is only available in Christ and by a relationship with Him, it's a little foretaste of glory divine.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says that my ministry is according to the promise of the life that is in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you're thinking you're processing a call to ministry, or you're or you're watching this on the internet and you're processing a call to ministry, unless you're demonstrating Zoe life, please do not go into ministry.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need more lifeless people who buy the sermon kit from some marketing company and get up and just spew out religious nonsense.
SPEAKER_00: No one is helped by that.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, in my life, the little and the Greek is down from.
SPEAKER_00: This ministry will be out of a representation and reminder of this life that is found only in a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's why I tell you that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Too often we talk about Christianity in terms of heaven and hell.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people get turned off.
SPEAKER_00: You try to share the gospel, they say, hey, I respect that, but I'm not interested.
SPEAKER_00: And your response is something along the lines of, well, then you're going to hell.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for telling me that.
SPEAKER_00: I got up today and wish someone would tell me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me be clear.
SPEAKER_00: We believe those are real and literal, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But we also believe maybe that's not the best place to start the conversation.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're in the room right now and you could you you you think you would say, hey, I'm not a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I do not believe the claims of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the way I want you to think about Christianity today.
SPEAKER_00: In terms of this life that's real and genuine, that's not phony and religious, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is the life that Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's why John 1 opens up and says, In him was life.
SPEAKER_00: And this life was the light of all men.
SPEAKER_00: This is the radiating reality that people cannot get away from, and they're just drawn to, okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is what Christianity is.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just want to point to those two things on the way to verse 8, because I read all that so you get the context.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's talk about what the gospel does, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What does the gospel do?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I want to talk to you about this today.
SPEAKER_00: So that you'll hear some things that are spiritual or spirituality or self-help, but they're not the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Because only the gospel has the capacity.
SPEAKER_00: When I say gospel, the good news of Christianity has the capacity to do these things.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is simply this: the gospel empowers us to suffer well.
SPEAKER_00: It's verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel empowers us to suffer well.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you have to understand the context of what is happening.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Paul say this to Timothy?
SPEAKER_00: Paul is an older, more mature believer.
SPEAKER_00: He's writing to a young man in ministry, and he says these things to him.
SPEAKER_00: And what he's saying is the gospel empowers us to suffer well.
SPEAKER_00: What was going on?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, the message of the cross was scandalous.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was like crazy talk to people of that day.
SPEAKER_00: Jews, religious people, and Gentiles, people that weren't religious, but they trusted in themselves and their good deeds and their good works.
SPEAKER_00: They would say, I mean, no one would say this.
SPEAKER_00: They would say, My good is more than my bad, so I'm gonna get in.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody would say that, right?
SPEAKER_00: Happens all the time right here in Fort Bend County.
SPEAKER_00: And so the message of the cross that Paul was preaching, saying, hey, Christ died in your place, and apart from him, you have no hope of forgiveness, heaven, or this life that he brings to bear on our culture.
SPEAKER_00: And they were like, What?
SPEAKER_00: You're just being hateful and judgmental.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing that was going on, Paul's message was out of style.
SPEAKER_00: His message was out of style.
SPEAKER_00: Something I relate to very well because my kids said to me over the Christmas break, they always buy me clothes at Christmas because they say, hey, all your clothes are dad clothes.
SPEAKER_00: You wear dad shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what do you think I am, losers?
SPEAKER_00: I'm your dad.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh dad, well, what's in fashion now?
SPEAKER_00: Is everybody wearing like stretched denim with this gathered elastic at the ankle?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, if you buy me anything like that, I'll take you out in the country and just drop you off.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, oh, Dad, you wouldn't wear that?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: I'm 55 years old.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not wearing stretched denim, anything.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, even if we bought it for you, you'd be wasting your money.
SPEAKER_00: I would take it back and get my get that money and just put it in my pocket.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was like that because Paul's message was out of style.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't as popular as the more spiritual gospel that was preached by these false teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a third thing going on that would make him say to Timothy, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the testimony, just preaching the gospel, not spirituality, saying, People, your only hope is in a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the life you were created for.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't sexy back then, and it's not gotten more sexy now.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a third thing that's going on.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's circumstances kind of cast a shadow of doubt on his message.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean by circumstances?
SPEAKER_00: He's in prison.
SPEAKER_00: And people were looking at him and Timothy kind of going, hey, you guys believe all this?
SPEAKER_00: If this is so great and your God so good and so powerful, why are you in prison?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it sounds like nowadays.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you guys go to church every Sunday, but your kids are still a hot mess.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on there?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's the way people come at us.
SPEAKER_00: Like one of our neighbors found out that my oldest daughter got a tattoo, and he's like, Hey, are you gonna get in trouble?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, What?
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, my kid has a tattoo.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, it's a little Celtic cross on her wrist.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Oh, so it's a religious tattoo.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, because tattoos that are not religious, they send you to hell.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I said, No, no, that's not true.
SPEAKER_00: Getting a tattoo doesn't make you a bad person.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, he said, Well, I mean, I mean you're like a preacher and everything.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna get because he grew up in a very legalistic, fundamentalist, mean spirited church where they believe the Bible and they're mad about it.
SPEAKER_00: He said, if you did something wrong and the church found out, you had to go, you had to appear before the council.
SPEAKER_00: I went, the council?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Do you have a council?
SPEAKER_00: No, we got some elders and we laugh and cry and pray in our elder meetings and have a good time, but we don't bring people in.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Yeah, man, if you went to the council, that was bad news.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, can I tell you something else?
SPEAKER_00: My kid went to Chicago to see her old roommate from Baylor, and they both got the tattoos on their ribcage.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, She's got two tattoos?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I said, it's the Hebrew word for daughter.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was for me, but no, it was for God.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh, baby, I appreciate you doing that.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Dad, now this is about my relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Lift your shirt up, I want to see your tattoo.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Dad, I said, it's your ribcage.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: And so she lifts her shirt up and showed me.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Thanks.
SPEAKER_00: My friends were kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, hey, is your dad gonna get mad?
SPEAKER_00: Now, boys and girls, I'm not advocating getting a tattoo.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave here and go, oh, Pastor Neil's kid got a tattoo.
SPEAKER_00: She's 22.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have tattoos.
SPEAKER_00: Tattoos don't go on this body.
SPEAKER_00: Because if I got a tattoo when I was 22, right here, right now it'd be about right here on my back.
SPEAKER_00: That thing is migrated, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: So, hey, here's the thing: it's not about tattoo, not tattoo.
SPEAKER_00: Is that people are gonna come at us and say, hey, you go to church, but yet you and your wife kind of get sideways every once in a while.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, your kids are not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me something I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And so people are coming to him and saying, hey, this gospel thing you're so passionate about, if your God's so big and he's powerful, why are you in prison?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because the power of God is what allows us to experience suffering, not be crushed by it, have our minds changed by it, or our testimony altered because of it.
SPEAKER_00: The power that is within us is greater than the power that comes against us.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul can be in prison and say to Timothy, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me his prisoner.
SPEAKER_00: Because the hipsters were coming along and saying to Timothy, you better get away from Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He ain't very cool right now.
SPEAKER_00: He is trending down on social media.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, Hey, don't be don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me his prisoner.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the gospel prepares us to suffer well.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want you to notice two prepositional phrases.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: For the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We suffer for the gospel, not because of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, What's the big deal?
SPEAKER_00: One of them is about punishment.
SPEAKER_00: If you think, oh, if you become a Christian, you're just gonna suffer the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you Christians, you poor, ignorant religious people, you just don't know any better than just to punish yourself for whatever reason, but go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Not true.
SPEAKER_00: No, we suffer for the gospel, not because of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: One of those suffering because of the gospel is punishment.
SPEAKER_00: Not true.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering for the gospel, look at me, is value.
SPEAKER_00: Is it we we we believe the god the gospel has ultimate value, and so we don't compromise.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we don't back up and kind of go, well, uh, okay, I'm 26 and I hadn't met anybody, and I want to marry a godly man, and you're you're just a dude, and I'm lonely, so I guess no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: I suffer for the gospel because I don't want to compromise because then I got to live with the compromise and the consequence of the compromise for years to come.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we suffer for the gospel, not because we're obnoxious.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is in prison for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the second prepositional phrase by the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: We suffer for the gospel and by the power of God, which means my capacity is greater than my natural ability.
SPEAKER_00: The manner in which we respond to suffering expresses to everyone around us the beautiful sufficiency of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so the gospel empowers us to suffer well.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the gospel magnifies what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel magnifies what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: It's just one verse in the Bible, it's verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read it.
SPEAKER_00: He's just simply after verse 8, he picks up in verse 9 and he says, This he says, for uh uh who God for the gospel by the power of God who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
SPEAKER_00: Now stop there.
SPEAKER_00: I've told you before, but let me say it again.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible speaks with such uh amazing peace and loud authority.
SPEAKER_00: It says more in one sentence than we could say in a month.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those situations.
SPEAKER_00: You say, what do you mean when you say the gospel magnifies what God has done?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9 points out five things that God has done.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just list them for you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, first of all, that he saved us.
SPEAKER_00: He saved us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, he did this before he ever consulted you.
SPEAKER_00: You say, how do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Look at the next phrase.
SPEAKER_00: He said, He saved us and then he called us.
SPEAKER_00: He saved us and he called us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, hey, by the way, I established a relationship with you a long time ago before the ages began.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I say he called us, let me give you two theological words.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is regeneration, the second one is repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Regeneration is what happens first, which allows us to repent.
SPEAKER_00: Regeneration means that something dead has been made alive again.
SPEAKER_00: So Christianity is not going from bad to good, it's going from being dead to being alive.
SPEAKER_00: You're regenerated.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what allows you and empowers you and I to repent.
SPEAKER_00: He says he saved us and he called us.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, he does this in a myriad of ways.
SPEAKER_00: Uh He calls us, he uses creation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I was speaking at a youth camp in Alabama out by the water, and I told him one night in the service, I said, I want y'all to just go somewhere outside and sit alone for 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: And one teenage boy, 16, went and sat on the beach and just stared out there.
SPEAKER_00: And he came back and he said, I want to know the God that created all that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how it came to faith.
SPEAKER_00: And someone said to me, Good job.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Good job.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: They said, Oh, that you just knew to shut up and told him to go out there.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll shut up more.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but God uses creation uh to call us, he uses preaching to call us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another thing he uses, he uses your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Uh when you were your kids were little and they got sick and you got down your knees and you said, God, please give me whatever they've got.
SPEAKER_00: I'll take it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want my kid to suffer like that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care if it was everything from a cold to cancer, you would beg God to give it to you and take it from your kids, would you not?
SPEAKER_00: Of course you would.
SPEAKER_00: And you make these little deals with God.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be careful because when I was 18, because of some destructive choices that I was making in my life, I wound up on the bathroom floor at my mom's house, and I said to God, because I thought, I'm dying here.
SPEAKER_00: This is there's too much in my system.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna get me.
SPEAKER_00: And in a moment of sheer panic, I said to God, if you'll get me out of this, I'll do anything.
SPEAKER_00: I'll even become a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me say this.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say, I'm not here because I almost killed myself with destructive, sinful choices.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here by the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just saying, in that moment, you'll do anything.
SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of, but a couple days later, I was like, that was weird.
SPEAKER_00: I was saying things I didn't even mean.
SPEAKER_00: And a week later I came to faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say to you that God said all that emotion just to wean me off of myself.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he used to call me to himself.
SPEAKER_00: And so he saved us, he called us, and then the third phrase is this not because of our works, not because of our works.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a lot of ways you could go with that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go this way this morning, and let me just say it like this.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't leave it up to us because if he did, we would be plagued by uncertainty the rest of our lives as to whether or not we did what we were supposed to do in order for it to stick.
SPEAKER_00: Did I say the right thing?
SPEAKER_00: Was I earnest?
SPEAKER_00: Was I sincere?
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He I've met so many people who are like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I became a Christian when I was 10, but I barely remember, and I don't know if I did it right because it hadn't been working.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the problems is that the church in America takes on ourselves to make converts when we really should be making disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And when we take on our desire to make converts, what we end up doing is confusing people.
SPEAKER_00: It's why Jesus said if you don't trust the efficacy of the Holy Spirit that God saved you and he called you, and it's not because of our works, if you don't trust that, you'll be like the Pharisees who are very zealous and very eager.
SPEAKER_00: And we would say today they're very evangelistic.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to these evangelistic people, he said, Hey, you guys travel across land and sea to make one convert.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do, you make him twice a son of hell as you are.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you prey on people's fear about heaven and hell, and you get them to say some magic phrases, and they walk away as unconverted as when they walk to you.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is why he says he saved us, he's called us.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of a good biblical theology when it comes to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Not because of our works.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question isn't what did I do, but what is God doing?
SPEAKER_00: How is God calling me?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the fourth thing he says, because of his own purpose and grace.
SPEAKER_00: Because of his own purpose and grace, you were purposed into existence so God could show you grace.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: You were purposed into existence.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in this room this morning and you're like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in God, I'm mad at God.
SPEAKER_00: This happened, I lost this person, I lost that person.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm just done.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to say God purposed you into existence, not just to rub your nose in it, not just to punish you your whole life, but so he could show grace to you.
SPEAKER_00: The last thing is he says, in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Jesus we see the greatest expression of God's grace we can ever know.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why the next thing the gospel does, the third thing the gospel does is it illuminates what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_00: He's the greatest expression of God's grace we can ever know.
SPEAKER_00: And so the gospel illuminates what he has done.
SPEAKER_00: Now ask yourself, look at verse 10, the very next verse.
SPEAKER_00: We're just going verse by verse.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10 it says, and which now, after he says, Hey, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, verse 10, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: To light through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself Do you bring more light or heat to conversations, circumstances, and situations you're involved in?
SPEAKER_00: Do you bring more Light or heat.
SPEAKER_00: Hey dad, if you always get mad, if you're if your wife kind of parents the kids until it boils over and you go stomping upstairs, slamming doors, hey, get in here, and you're always yelling, you're always bringing heat.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Your kids are fireproof.
SPEAKER_00: After a while, it doesn't scare them as much as it used to.
SPEAKER_00: When they were five, they're like, ugh.
SPEAKER_00: When they're 15, they're like, what do you want, loser?
SPEAKER_00: Which is, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: The hardest but most necessary thing for you to do is to not always bring heat, bring light.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brings light.
SPEAKER_00: He says these things are brought to light through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So what is it?
SPEAKER_00: The gospel illuminates what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what has he done?
SPEAKER_00: Three things.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, he abolished death.
SPEAKER_00: He abolished death.
SPEAKER_00: He does this by his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: His life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, oh death, it says death is swallowed up in victory.
SPEAKER_00: Oh death, where's your sting?
SPEAKER_00: Oh death, where where's your victory?
SPEAKER_00: I was in Louisiana for a funeral.
SPEAKER_00: Drove over Friday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: The funeral was yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: Drove back.
SPEAKER_00: So I stayed at the hotel.
SPEAKER_00: I stayed at the Holiday and Express because they had these delicious little cinnamon rolls on the breakfast buffet.
SPEAKER_00: That's how vain I am, okay?
SPEAKER_00: They said you got three hotel options.
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, they have cinnamon rolls here.
SPEAKER_00: So I go there.
SPEAKER_00: Get up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm old, so I get up early.
SPEAKER_00: I go down there.
SPEAKER_00: It's just me and a bunch of old people eating breakfast at like 7 or 6.07 when it first opens.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, oh, are you in town?
SPEAKER_00: I'm here for a funeral.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we're sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, no, don't be sorry.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very joyful occasion.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, okay, you're kind of morbid.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, this woman lived to be like 85 years old.
SPEAKER_00: She was married for 65 years, tried for 18 years to have a baby, and had multiple miscarriages, and finally had a son.
SPEAKER_00: And she loved him and he loved her.
SPEAKER_00: And so today's a home going, so it's a very joyful occasion while I'm scooping up my oatmeal.
SPEAKER_00: And people are just like, What kind of a sicko are you, dude?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, as a Christian, for the Christian, death has lost its sting.
SPEAKER_00: We don't live in fear or uncertainty about what happens when we die.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get close to death and kind of go, oh, well, uh, I hope I've done enough.
SPEAKER_00: Because it doesn't depend on us.
SPEAKER_00: And these people, I didn't, and you know you don't know who's listening.
SPEAKER_00: So I go back upstairs, I read a little bit, study for this morning some, I go to the funeral, I go back by the hotel to change out of my suit into my traveling clothes, which are these sweatpants with elastic waists around.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: And so I go in and change and I said, Hey, you guys have a bathroom?
SPEAKER_00: And the lady just smiles.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, I remember you.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that's not personality, that's Zoe.
SPEAKER_00: She's just like, Yeah, yeah, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Did y'all talk about me when I left this morning?
SPEAKER_00: We sure enough did.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Was it good?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Mm-hmm, it was good.
SPEAKER_00: You blessed.
SPEAKER_00: I said, and highly favored.
SPEAKER_00: Spear fingers.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, the bathrooms around the hall, past the water fountain on the left.
SPEAKER_00: I changed in my clothes, came back out.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Have a blessed day.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I already have.
SPEAKER_00: But thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: At a funeral?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus has abolished death.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, death, where's your sting?
SPEAKER_00: And there's a man riding down the road with his daughter, who's deathly allergic to bees.
SPEAKER_00: She looks up and sees the bee on the dashboard of the car and freaks out because she forgot her epi pen at home.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, babe, calm down.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden the bee starts flying around.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, dad, dad, dad! She's back up against the door.
SPEAKER_00: The dude's driving in four lanes of traffic.
SPEAKER_00: The bee lands on the window and he's driving.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Babe, calm down.
SPEAKER_00: Reaches over.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't like smash the bee.
SPEAKER_00: He just puts his hand over it.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I got it, I got it relaxed.
SPEAKER_00: Roll your way to down.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Well, I got the bee in one hand, the steering wheel in the other.
SPEAKER_00: Come out of hands, honey.
SPEAKER_00: And after a couple minutes, he just said, See, babe, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Your father took the sting.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the stinger.
SPEAKER_00: The bee can't get you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: On the cross, your father took the sting out of death.
SPEAKER_00: He abolished it.
SPEAKER_00: He rendered it pointless for the believer.
SPEAKER_00: So the gospel illuminates what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_00: He abolishes death.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he brought life.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Zoe.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brings a whole new way of doing life that never existed before.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way you should think about Christianity, not in terms of heaven and hell.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can say, well, I don't know if I even believe in that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you ever get around somebody who lives this Zoe life, it will make you hate yours.
SPEAKER_00: You will be like, I want to more understand the gospel because I'm just slogging it out here and I'm self-medicating about every third day because I don't find this to be very enjoyable because you were created for more.
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
SPEAKER_00: And so I remember the first time I heard the hymn, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
SPEAKER_00: I've been a Christian like two months, maybe, but I remember looking around and I was like, we had these little books in the back of the pews and called hymnals.
SPEAKER_00: That's not sexy anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember that, oh, what a foretaste of glory.
SPEAKER_00: And so this older man, when I became a believer, everybody in my town was like, oh my gosh, he's gonna rob us.
SPEAKER_00: He's such a little thug.
SPEAKER_00: This older man said, son, if you have any questions, just come to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'd make a beeline to this old man all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Wait, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, a foretaste of glory divine.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You just get a little foretaste.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but when you get to heaven, see, the Christianity needle, you just get a little mouthful of it.
SPEAKER_00: But when you get to heaven, you get it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, she says, Damn.
SPEAKER_00: So, and he goes, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And he winked at me.
SPEAKER_00: I like old men that wink at me.
SPEAKER_00: He winked at me and he said, Now, son, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, It's it's gooder than you can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: But let's enjoy some of it here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes preachers can make you feel guilty if you love life on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want to go to heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, I want to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But this afternoon, I want to watch football.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: What a secular pagan I am, huh?
SPEAKER_00: I want to see my daughters get married.
SPEAKER_00: I want to get grandkids and get them liquored up on Mountain Dew and send them home to my kids.
SPEAKER_00: Three in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why he's not sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: I know what the deal is.
SPEAKER_00: Dad, what'd you give him?
SPEAKER_00: Mountain Dew code red?
SPEAKER_00: Remember high school?
SPEAKER_00: Scoreboard! Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, just a foretaste.
SPEAKER_00: Just a foretaste.
SPEAKER_00: There's there there that's all you can handle in this life.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: But in in the next life, in heaven, you get the fullness.
SPEAKER_00: Little foretaste, a little fullness.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I wasn't sad at Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Burgess's funeral yesterday, because she's getting the fullness.
SPEAKER_00: And I had to drive back in the rain on Louisiana Highways.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't bitter or anything, but I was like, this place could use revival.
SPEAKER_00: He abolished his death.
SPEAKER_00: He brought life.
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, immortality.
SPEAKER_00: He brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so again, I know some of you may be thinking, or you may know people like, I don't believe any of that.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the consequence.
SPEAKER_00: There's always the consequence.
SPEAKER_00: If you do away, because he says these things came to light, Jesus brought them to light through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So for me, both Jesus and the gospel are necessary.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're a person sitting here and you're kind of like, man, I don't care about any of that.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's just crazy talk.
SPEAKER_00: Then here's your problem.
SPEAKER_00: If you do away with Jesus and the gospel, where are you going to get these things?
SPEAKER_00: But then you're still left with some really heavy existential questions like, what happens when you die?
SPEAKER_00: I know you can kill Jesus in this life because you're like, hey, it just makes my girlfriend feel sad about what we do.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to feel sad.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe repent and do things differently.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe get married, raise godly kids.
SPEAKER_00: Like, do you see Kip and Helen?
SPEAKER_00: They're like cranking out them kids.
SPEAKER_00: I was doing the math.
SPEAKER_00: I like little Micah and those two.
SPEAKER_00: I was just like, whoo.
SPEAKER_00: I almost said to them, How tired are y'all?
SPEAKER_00: But that would have been bad.
SPEAKER_00: People that got little kids are like, amen, we're very tired.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think we come to church?
SPEAKER_00: We put them in the nursery and we go lay down somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Jesus, let's think for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: You're smart people.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Jesus brought these things to light through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't believe in Jesus and you don't believe the gospel, you still got some really heavy questions like what happens when you die?
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do I get forgiveness for all the wrong I've done in this life?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you believe in right and wrong?
SPEAKER_00: And if you believe in right and wrong out there in the world, like stop at a stop sign, don't run people over, then you have to apply right and wrong to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And when you apply right and wrong to yourself, how does that make you feel?
SPEAKER_00: Here's another question you got to ask yourself is how is it possible for humans to experience immortality?
SPEAKER_00: Can they live forever?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have to give six million dollars to the med center so they put your name on the lobby?
SPEAKER_00: Is that immortality?
SPEAKER_00: I would suggest to you that's insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be remembered because I don't think I'm gonna live forever.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe you're gonna live forever, you you're real comfortable being forgotten.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why the Bible says of Jesus that he made himself of no reputation.
SPEAKER_00: He comes riding into town on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have a posse or a parade or any of that.
SPEAKER_00: Clyde and some of the guys that came to the funeral, they drove all they drove yesterday morning and drove back.
SPEAKER_00: They stopped in Baton Rouge to get lunch, and there was a parade for LSU going on.
SPEAKER_00: Three hours later.
SPEAKER_00: I was so full of mercy, I laughed out loud on the phone.
SPEAKER_00: I called and said, I thought they were gonna be halfway home.
SPEAKER_00: They go, dude, we're stuck in Baton Rouge.
SPEAKER_00: Too bad, so sad.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the last thing the gospel does.
SPEAKER_00: They go, I'm full of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: You know that when men are in two different vehicles, it's a race, right?
SPEAKER_00: Every man here knows what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Because they left before I did.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still back at the grayside.
SPEAKER_00: Them cats come, look at their gone, like, ooh, they're gonna beat me.
SPEAKER_00: So I went and changed and I prayed, Lord, if it's your will.
SPEAKER_00: Let them get ensnared in traffic in Baton Rouge.
SPEAKER_00: I shot out of it like I was out of a cannon.
SPEAKER_00: Beat them home by an hour, just in case.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the last thing the gospel does.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel involves certainty and responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: It involves certainty and responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me be let me be real clear here, okay?
SPEAKER_00: The more certainty we have, the more responsible we will be.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want certainty so we can win arguments.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what Jesus called us to.
SPEAKER_00: The more certainty we have, the more responsible we will be.
SPEAKER_00: Our certainty is toward God.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Our certainty is toward God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read it to you right here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, which is why I suffer as I do.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I believe.
SPEAKER_00: There's certainty, and I am convinced, certainty, that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, our responsibility is to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
SPEAKER_00: Guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
SPEAKER_00: Follow and guard.
SPEAKER_00: See, the more certainty we have, the more responsible we will be.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the gospel does.
SPEAKER_00: It involves certainty and responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: It illuminates what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_00: It magnifies what God has done, and it empowers us to suffer well.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a moment to think about that before we dismiss this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest today, just relax and we like to teach the Bible and give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'll offer up a brief prayer and then our worship pastor Clyde will come and just maybe sing something over us.
SPEAKER_00: Some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Those are for you to kind of frame your thoughts around the biblical text this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You're not to try to write them down.
SPEAKER_00: You can just take a picture of your phone.
SPEAKER_00: We have communion groups that meet all over our city and they meet tonight, and what they do is they get together, they'll have like a snack or coffee or whatever, and they'll talk about these things and help each other better understand these things.
SPEAKER_00: The church exists not to condemn you, but to help you better understand the life you were created to experience.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_00: God thanks for this Zoe life that we were created by you to experience.
SPEAKER_00: Our confession and our understanding today is that this life is only found in you and it's only available from you.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray for anyone in this room that doesn't have a relationship with you, that manifests itself in this Zoe life, this real and genuine life that affects us in this world and in the one to come.
SPEAKER_00: That God, you just let them, even now, God, let them hear your voice calling them.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Holy Spirit, we just want to think, we want to use our mind to worship God just for a few minutes before we're dismissed.
SPEAKER_02: Born of his speech, washed in his blood.
SPEAKER_02: This is my story.
SPEAKER_02: All the day of his done, all this at rest.
SPEAKER_02: I in my stake am happy and blessed.
SPEAKER_02: Watch it with his good taste.
SPEAKER_02: Praising my savior all the day long.
SPEAKER_02: This is my story.
SPEAKER_02: This is my song.
SPEAKER_02: Praising my savior all the day long.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, this is our story because it's the same story you've been telling since before the ages.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the gospel story.
SPEAKER_00: And it's about more than heaven and hell.
SPEAKER_00: It's about life.
SPEAKER_00: Real and genuine.
SPEAKER_00: Abundant and abounding in this life and in the one to come.
SPEAKER_00: So we get a little foretaste now.
SPEAKER_00: And we get the fullness then.
SPEAKER_00: And in the meantime, we get to introduce everybody around us to the fullness of life in Christ that is Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, Lord, we're humbled by that.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that the gospel does what we can never do.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're not ashamed of it, and we're not ashamed of uh of the prisoners of it.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, we just say thanks for illuminating the text today.
SPEAKER_00: We're better for it.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're humbled.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest today, you're always welcome here.
SPEAKER_00: Hope you've had a chance to, in the seatback pocket in your row, pull those guest cards and fill it out in just a moment when you're dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: If you're just drop on those wooden boxes by the doors on your way out, uh, we would love to have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_00: And today, if today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, uh, that's where you take care of that as well.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have friends, uh, usually we have an announcement video, we're not gonna have that today, uh, because we've been here long enough.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Don't say it so enthusiastically, lady.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the front row, looks bad.
SPEAKER_00: Uh no, I I have a friend, he's like, I got your little spilt in memorized.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, spill?
SPEAKER_00: I did.
SPEAKER_00: And then I have another friend that visits from out of town, and he's like, I love coming to your church.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Why don't you make a bigger deal out of the offering?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, We don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Our people understand that stewardship is just a part of the Christian life, and they're faithful to that.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and he's like, Oh man, our church, they do a big thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, ah the Christianity, here this is not about guilt and pressure and manipulation to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not.
SPEAKER_00: Because if if people have to guilt you into it, it's not in you.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's external, not internal.
SPEAKER_00: That makes sense?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so let me demonstrate the power of your faithfulness, your obedience, and your generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when we took out the note, uh it'll come on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: This was the note we took out April 1st, 2015.
SPEAKER_00: We rolled some debt from the warehouse in on the children's building.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and so that was the note, it's$4,085,739.
SPEAKER_00: That was April 2015, which is almost what, five years ago?
SPEAKER_00: Uh a little less than five years.
SPEAKER_00: And today, this is how much we owe on that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so that's$705 million.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's$705,000.
SPEAKER_00: Interest uh$705,000,$129.83.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to give you two words to think about because we have a construction meeting this week with a construction company on the new sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it has been the vision of our elders uh uh ever since like 2009, uh, that we're gonna build out our campus, which is a little over 15 acres uh here.
SPEAKER_00: And the new sanctuary is the last part of that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look at that, and I want you to think too, because somebody said, Man, would you like to have that paid down by the time we start on our building?
SPEAKER_00: Which it'll take 20 months, six months to build, I mean six months to do technical drawings, and then 14 months to build.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, No, I don't want to just pay that down.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to have money in the bank that we can just pay cash for stuff before we start drawing.
SPEAKER_00: Now, on the loan, our bankers like, hey, you can start drawing.
SPEAKER_00: Hush, I don't want to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so here's two words.
SPEAKER_00: Two words as it relates to that figure right there.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, capacity.
SPEAKER_00: What are you capable of doing?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Stop poor mouthing your life.
SPEAKER_00: You make God look like He's not generous to you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh no one's gonna ask you for anything.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, no one's gonna hit you up for a donation.
SPEAKER_00: Just, hey, what am I capable of doing as it relates to that?
SPEAKER_00: And then secondly, what am I willing to do?
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: So if I ask you to lunch, this will not come up.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a person in the church that can ever say, He's asked me for a donation.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible, and you say, why?
SPEAKER_00: Not because of the Neil, because of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, let each man give, let each woman give, and she's purposing her heart to give.
SPEAKER_00: What you purpose in your heart is none of my business.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: So just two words capacity and willingness.
SPEAKER_00: Fair enough?
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: This has been true since before the ages, and it's true today.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is about being filled with his goodness and lost in his love.
SPEAKER_00: So depart now and just demonstrate those two realities.
SPEAKER_00: Be filled with his goodness and get yourself lost in his love.
SPEAKER_00: People will ask you why.
SPEAKER_00: You won't have to tell.
SPEAKER_00: So depart now and answer the questions in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.