SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Well, my name is Don Minton, and I'm the Spiritual Formation and Missions Pastor here at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: And I will simply say to you, I've been on staff for three years, and I've avoided this for three solid years.
SPEAKER_01: But McClendon is persistent.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, You've got to preach.
SPEAKER_01: So here I am.
SPEAKER_01: I will say that uh after speaking in the first service and thinking, okay, I have another one still to go after this one, I have a new appreciation for him.
SPEAKER_01: And watching that clock is even more of a challenge.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but it's better.
SPEAKER_01: There was a baptism in the first service that wiped me out.
SPEAKER_01: So I started out an emotional wreck.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe I will be a little stronger today in that aspect of it.
SPEAKER_01: Neil did ask me to tell me, he really didn't ask me, he told me I had to preach a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: And um one of the things he suggested as a topic was that I might preach on what I've learned in 41 years of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I thought at first, I thought, well, that's kind of an odd topic, but um it's really interesting that the Lord has very much confirmed that in me, uh, what I would say today.
SPEAKER_01: And so um uh I'll just start by saying June the 1st of 1977, uh I started serving full-time for the first time in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so for 41 years I've been doing this, and um, I will say to you what a blessing God has been to me in allowing me to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's just been a uh just God has just been good.
SPEAKER_01: And I've never been in a church that I thought, what in the world are you doing and why am I here?
SPEAKER_01: Um God has just blessed that whole process.
SPEAKER_01: And I did want to start out by asking one question.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to know how many people are here today that are 41 years or younger.
SPEAKER_01: If you put your hand up, 41 years or younger.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Well over half of you have been born since I started this.
SPEAKER_01: So um I think the the things that that I came up with to share with you today, um, I don't think I think most of them are very obvious.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think you're gonna hear anything today that you think, oh, never heard that before.
SPEAKER_01: Um but I also tried to make it something that I didn't think, oh, you're a pastor, so that would apply just for you.
SPEAKER_01: I tried to put down things that I thought uh these this makes sense to everyone, I think.
SPEAKER_01: Um and a part of the, especially the first part of it will be a kind of reflection on who I am and how I do ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first part of it, and a lot of it, probably you'll think throughout it, deals with relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Um we all have different gifts, we have different abilities, and I'll talk about that a little bit later.
SPEAKER_01: But um it's interesting that God very clearly gave me a scripture within two days of when Neil said, Um, I really want you to preach.
SPEAKER_01: And so there was no doubt that the, and it's been confirmed to me over and over.
SPEAKER_01: And then the second thing that I jotted down as I prepared is my wife came up to me and said, Obviously, you're gonna be talking about relationships when you do that, aren't you?
SPEAKER_01: Um, because that's how you do ministry.
SPEAKER_01: So the great thing about all of that is to have a definite affirmation in, okay, here's what God wants me to talk about, and here's how God wants me to relate that to the church.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to start by reading Mark 12, 28 through 31.
SPEAKER_01: One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.
SPEAKER_01: Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important?
SPEAKER_01: The most important one, answered Jesus, is this.
SPEAKER_01: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
SPEAKER_01: The second is this love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: There is no commandment greater than these.
SPEAKER_01: Uh our upset our society is kind of obsessed with who's the greatest.
SPEAKER_01: Um if you're a if you're a baseball fan right now, you would say the Astros are the greatest.
SPEAKER_01: Um if you're a football fan, I'm sure you would say, many of us would say, or I wouldn't say it, but many would, the New England Patriots are the greatest football team ever.
SPEAKER_01: Um we look at who's the greatest basketball player.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and everybody debates, is it Michael Jordan or LeBron?
SPEAKER_01: Um so we're always in our society, who is the greatest?
SPEAKER_01: What's the greatest country?
SPEAKER_01: Who's our who's the greatest president we've ever had?
SPEAKER_01: Um and if you asked me what the greatest college was, I'd say Auburn University.
SPEAKER_01: Um we all have our opinions.
SPEAKER_01: But we think about that and we think, well, why would somebody ask Jesus what the greatest commandment was?
SPEAKER_01: And uh it that kind of sounds like a simple question until you realize that rabbinic tradition back in that day had 613 commands in the first five books of the Bible that they said they had found.
SPEAKER_01: 365 were negative, and 248 were positive.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not surprising that that man came up to Jesus and said, Well, what is the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus didn't just give him one, he gave him two.
SPEAKER_01: And if you look back in the Old Testament, it comes from Meshima, which is in Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with your soul, and your strength.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a pretty powerful statement when we start looking at that, because it says, what that really means in there is our God is God alone.
SPEAKER_01: There are no other gods.
SPEAKER_01: And we are meant to worship and love him.
SPEAKER_01: Our devotion is meant to be to God.
SPEAKER_01: And if you look at that, it says, first of all, he is our God, our only God.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says he moved right on to say uh four times in uh Mark 12, 30, he says, you're to love God with your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength.
SPEAKER_01: And he just doesn't say you're to love him with those, but all of those things, all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength, um, all of your mind.
SPEAKER_01: So you're to love God completely.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Sinclair Ferguson, who is a writer, said, God is never satisfied with anything less than the devotion of our whole life for the duration of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So both of those commandments are based on love.
SPEAKER_01: You're to love God, you're to love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: And um taking that first thought, then, um, I have a number of points for you today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to tell you a number, you'll get blown away.
SPEAKER_01: Um so we'll just start with the first one.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what I've learned in 41 years of ministry, and the first one to me is the most important one.
SPEAKER_01: It says you are to love God completely.
SPEAKER_01: Um, just to remember, and I'll say this one more time, you are to love God only.
SPEAKER_01: And you need to remember that He's our Father, He's our Son, He's the Holy Spirit, He's the only Savior, He is good, He is faithful, He is just, He is all powerful, He's all-knowing, He is ever-present, He is kind, and each one of you, if I ask, would share a word that He specifically maybe means something to you that way.
SPEAKER_01: But He's everything.
SPEAKER_01: And as I've also mentioned that, um, it talks about Him and not only loving Him completely, but loving your neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But as you think about loving God, I jotted out some ideas about uh how you would do that.
SPEAKER_01: You need to read your Bible, and maybe that sounds a little flippant, something you've heard, but I mean really read your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Take time to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Meditate on what it has to say.
SPEAKER_01: You need to pray.
SPEAKER_01: You need to listen, you need to be in constant communication.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's the key to your relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I learned a long time ago how important it was that I would sit down and take time with God.
SPEAKER_01: And and I also learned if I don't do that at a certain time in a certain place every day, it's pretty easy to skip over that.
SPEAKER_01: So I would say to you, set a time to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Another thing I put down is you need to learn to be obedient to God and to follow Him faithfully.
SPEAKER_01: You can't set boundaries about what you will do.
SPEAKER_01: Um I want to give you two biblical examples and then a couple of personal examples.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Genesis 12 1 talks about Abraham, and it says, The Lord had said to Abram, Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jonah 1 verses 1 through 3 says, The Lord gave this message to Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Announce my judgment against it, because I have seen how wicked its people are.
SPEAKER_01: But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshus.
SPEAKER_01: He brought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshus.
SPEAKER_01: Obedience is an interesting thing in our society these days.
SPEAKER_01: Um I can say that personally because um I shared with you a story, and Abraham is probably my favorite person in the Bible when I really study and read about his life.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and he was faithful time after time after time when God said, I want you to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you read about the story of Isaac, he was quick to say, I want you to go and sacrifice your son.
SPEAKER_01: And the next day it says, Abraham got up and left.
SPEAKER_01: And so when God told him to do things, he did them.
SPEAKER_01: And then we have a story like Jonah, where it says, He says, I want you to do this, and Jonah went the other way.
SPEAKER_01: So the first thing to think about is what do you do when God tells you to do things?
SPEAKER_01: Um a couple of personal illustrations from guys who I know.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I served on a staff with a guy a few years ago, and it's been interesting that I talked to him pretty often, and he said, I really think God needs to call me on the I-65 corridor between Pensacola and Nashville.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, now that's really interesting that you're getting to tell God where he needs to call you.
SPEAKER_01: And then I had another friend that said, Well, certainly God would call me to Houston.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, again, am I getting to tell God where he calls me?
SPEAKER_01: Or am I just getting to be faithful?
SPEAKER_01: Because uh I believe it says we're to be obedient to his call.
SPEAKER_01: Um when we came here, um many, maybe you don't know my story.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Neil talked to me a few years ago, and we have been friends a long, long time, and uh he mentioned to me that there was a staff opening and would Debbie and I pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: And my first thought was, hey Neil, I'm 62 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I live in Pensacola, Florida.
SPEAKER_01: My mom lives there, my wife's mom lives there, my daughter lives a couple hours away.
SPEAKER_01: It's not really a thing that I want to think about.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I thought, you need to pray about that because he asked you.
SPEAKER_01: And not soon after that, Debbie and I felt pretty strongly this is the place we were supposed to be.
SPEAKER_01: And it was really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: I remember going in to both of our parents, and they weren't really shocked.
SPEAKER_01: My mom, I will remember her saying, So where are you going?
SPEAKER_01: when I started.
SPEAKER_01: The other example I want to give you, and maybe this one is the most personal and hits home the best.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, my oldest daughter is named Melissa.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when she graduated from college, uh, she felt called into missions.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, she was gonna do a journeyman program with the International Mission Board.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't know what that is, it's a two-year thing where you go wherever you they put you, and you serve for two years as a young kid that's just graduated from college.
SPEAKER_01: Well, when she did that process, she called us and said, the Lord's leading us to go to Kenya or meet a Kenya.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you don't know geography really well, I lived in Birmingham, Alabama at that point.
SPEAKER_01: If you go about halfway around the world, that's where Kenya is.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a little different part of the world.
SPEAKER_01: But I had the most people say to me, How do you feel about your daughter going to Kenya?
SPEAKER_01: And why?
SPEAKER_01: I had one lady say to me, How would you even let her do that?
SPEAKER_01: And it was really interesting because, not that I'm super spiritual, please don't hear that.
SPEAKER_01: But I just had this, when she said this, this calmness in my heart that said, Is God not, is my daughter not much safer in Kenya where he wants her, than she is in Birmingham, Alabama, where I am?
SPEAKER_01: Which place would you like to be?
SPEAKER_01: Where he wants you or where I would want you?
SPEAKER_01: So a question, the last question there is, how obedient are you to Christ?
SPEAKER_01: And questions, and I stole these from a guy named Daniel Aiken, is the Lord the all-consuming passion of my life?
SPEAKER_01: Do I have a deep, intense, and abiding affection for the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Am I striving to become like him?
SPEAKER_01: Do you love him?
SPEAKER_01: Do you love anything more than you love Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Do I enjoy spending time with the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Do I tell the Lord that I love him?
SPEAKER_01: Do I talk with the Lord as much as I can?
SPEAKER_01: I thought those were fairly reflective questions about my relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that uh these are not things I do to get God to love me.
SPEAKER_01: They are things I do because he already loves me.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John 4 10 says, This is real love.
SPEAKER_01: Not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
SPEAKER_01: And in Psalms 139, 23 and 24 it says, Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me to along the path of everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: And so I would simply go back to say, Do you love God completely?
SPEAKER_01: Nothing I say following is going to be important, I don't think, if you hadn't got that one down.
SPEAKER_01: The second point, you need to love others genuinely.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 31 says, uh Verse 31 says the word neighbor is not limited just to the people who live next to us, but to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John 4 20 says, If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.
SPEAKER_01: For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we talk about a neighbor, Jesus makes it even clearer in the story of the Good Samaritan when somebody says, Who is your neighbor?
SPEAKER_01: And he pretty much says, You know those people you hate?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, they're your neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: They're all your neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to talk about neighbors a little bit because I personally can say, uh, I remember so many days uh living in that house with a garage, getting home from work at 5:30 or 6, the garage door goes up, I pull my car in, the garage doors goes down, and I walk in my house.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not so concerned about my neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: And so I would simply ask you, how concerned are you about your neighbors?
SPEAKER_01: Are you really worried about building a relationship?
SPEAKER_01: And keep in mind, I'm not just talking about the people who live next door to you.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll talk give you some more examples about that in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But I just want to say to you, do you take time to get to know people?
SPEAKER_01: And especially do we take some time to get to know people sometimes that are a little different than you are?
SPEAKER_01: Or do we want to just know those that are like us?
SPEAKER_01: Um I think I know the answer to that most of the time.
SPEAKER_01: Um I had the privilege in Pensacola of living to the same people next door to the same people for 10 years.
SPEAKER_01: Um it was a couple that I'm guessing they were about 25 years older than I was.
SPEAKER_01: Um They were great people.
SPEAKER_01: Debbie and I loved them.
SPEAKER_01: We spent a lot of time with them.
SPEAKER_01: Um and um the hard thing about the story is that even in living that 10 years next door to them, um, I was going to, I was actually driving from Pensacola to Montgomery to get my daughter the other day, and uh I ran by the street.
SPEAKER_01: I just called their house to see how they were doing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, didn't get a call back, and about two weeks later I got a call back, and I found out the man's name was Bob had died.
SPEAKER_01: And I think he was 91 or 92.
SPEAKER_01: Uh his wife had been in rehab and she said, I'm so sorry I hadn't called you to tell you about it.
SPEAKER_01: Um the key thing I want to say to you about that though, I lived there 10 years.
SPEAKER_01: I talked to Bob a lot about what I do, how I live.
SPEAKER_01: He was one of my most faithful people to ask me, How was your mission trip?
SPEAKER_01: And I was on mission trips a pretty good bit.
SPEAKER_01: He always wanted to know how they were.
SPEAKER_01: But the sad thing is that Bob never accepted Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the thing I can look at that and say is I think we were faithful to live out a life.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about God to him.
SPEAKER_01: Um and and he knew where we stood because I'm telling you, he asked me more about my mission trips than anybody I knew.
SPEAKER_01: But the thing I would say to all of us is how many of us have neighbors or know people that we would call that are friends that don't know Christ, and we've never taken a minute to say it.
SPEAKER_01: Questions for you to ask Are you seeking to get to know people?
SPEAKER_01: Just flat, are you seeking to know them?
SPEAKER_01: Do you really care about them?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have interest in them?
SPEAKER_01: Are you learning their names?
SPEAKER_01: Are you learning their children's names?
SPEAKER_01: Are you building relationships?
SPEAKER_01: And the thing I would say to you, I don't want you to look at that as it's a to-do list.
SPEAKER_01: I need to do this.
SPEAKER_01: It's because you love them and care about them that you would do it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh in ministry, personally, I've always said that 85 to 90% of what I do is working with people.
SPEAKER_01: And if I don't know something, I can probably go find it in a book.
SPEAKER_01: But I've also said, no matter how much I know, if I can't work with people, I'm gonna be ineffective.
SPEAKER_01: It's about peaceful and relationships.
SPEAKER_01: There's a quote from Warren Wearsby that says, we have to live not by rules, but by relationships.
SPEAKER_01: And here's some ideas of how to get to know people.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you struggle with that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and these will be one, a couple of them are real practical to me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh join a local gym.
SPEAKER_01: Uh maybe some of you are looking at me saying, I don't look like I've joined the gym, but I have.
SPEAKER_01: Um being a part of a gym, I what I learned pretty early on in ministry was that if I didn't re be really careful, I would not ever be around people who weren't Christians.
SPEAKER_01: So I thought, okay, how can I do this?
SPEAKER_01: So I started to go into gyms.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm I have some very, very good friends that I've made in gyms along the way.
SPEAKER_01: One young man that I could tell you about, that I get prayer requests from him.
SPEAKER_01: He's probably 32 now.
SPEAKER_01: I met him at a gym, strong Christian young man.
SPEAKER_01: We talked probably two out of every three days.
SPEAKER_01: And anytime anything is going on in his life, I'll get a prayer request from him.
SPEAKER_01: And he's a guy that I would have never met.
SPEAKER_01: But also I met a guy who was the head of the English department at the University of West Florida who was not a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And we talked regularly about the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And he invited me to show up in his classes.
SPEAKER_01: He even let me talk in one of his classes.
SPEAKER_01: Now he never accepted Christ, but I had a great relationship, and I would have never had an opportunity to talk to him about that if I hadn't been there.
SPEAKER_01: Join civic organizations, coach a sports team, and I'm not talking about a Christian sports team.
SPEAKER_01: Um one of the things that that I did, uh, and let me just say, I'm gonna give you some personal illustrations.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hear me saying I'm a perfect guy.
SPEAKER_01: You'll hear more about that later, but um, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: Um but I just have committed to a few things in my life along the way that I've learned.
SPEAKER_01: And um one of the things I did, my daughter, youngest daughter, is a gymnast, or was a gymnast all from fourth, four-year-old to twelfth grade.
SPEAKER_01: Um so we moved to Birmingham from Tampa.
SPEAKER_01: I went to the guy in the gym and said, Hey, I'll do one thing in your gym.
SPEAKER_01: I'll volunteer.
SPEAKER_01: It needs to be one, don't give me a list.
SPEAKER_01: You decide how I could be most helpful, and I'll do that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, not long after that, he said, it would be really great if you'd be president of the Parents Club.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't looking for quite that big a job, but for the next three and a half years, except for one six meet six-month time, I served as the president of the Parents Club.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it was a unique experience uh because I was running a club uh in a community that was very different uh religiously from what I had been a part of, but it gave me a great opportunity to just lead a life so that people could see that you can do these things as a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And the one thing that happened, and the reason that this one was so meaningful to me is after about a year and a half of doing that, that man who told me this is what I could do came to me and said, Why are you different than I am?
SPEAKER_01: And it gave me a great chance to sit down and say, I have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that just makes you live differently.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to say, where is it that I could maybe step in and serve?
SPEAKER_01: And having children gives you an excellent chance to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Invest in your kids or grandkids' school.
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you get to know your unchurch neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: I know people who go to study or work at, try to work out of coffee shops, do prayer walks in your neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: And the last one I put, maybe you haven't thought about this one, because I was a student minister for a long time, you can go to local universities, and there are so many guys running Christian ministries.
SPEAKER_01: They're working with international students, and international students over holidays and summers a lot of time can't go home.
SPEAKER_01: And they need some people just to talk to them and give them a free meal and a place to stay.
SPEAKER_01: Number three on the list your family must be your priority.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 5.25 says this to husbands.
SPEAKER_01: Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
SPEAKER_01: You need to love your wife.
SPEAKER_01: Debbie and I have been married 44 years, and I'll give her a lot of the credit for that marriage working well.
SPEAKER_01: She's been an incredible partner.
SPEAKER_01: Here's some of the things that I wrote down.
SPEAKER_01: You need to make sure you don't get sidetracked with someone else or something else.
SPEAKER_01: You need to treat your mate with love and respect.
SPEAKER_01: You need to learn to listen.
SPEAKER_01: You need to agree on major decisions in life.
SPEAKER_01: You need to talk about parenting and your parents.
SPEAKER_01: Spend time with each other.
SPEAKER_01: Do special things together.
SPEAKER_01: Have date nights, do trips.
SPEAKER_01: You need to find things you enjoy doing together as a couple.
SPEAKER_01: Keep working on communication.
SPEAKER_01: That's the one my wife says I need to work on.
SPEAKER_01: The thing I have in bull print, marriage is a work in progress.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: And then I put down your the second part is your children.
SPEAKER_01: 3 John says in verse 4, I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.
SPEAKER_01: You have to spend time with your children.
SPEAKER_01: I mentioned both my girls.
SPEAKER_01: My oldest girl is pretty verbal.
SPEAKER_01: My youngest daughter is not.
SPEAKER_01: When she was in high school, especially, we were in a carpool for gymnastics that was an hour each way every day.
SPEAKER_01: Some days the carpool would disintegrate, and my wife would be driving my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: And I just said, hey, on those days, call me and I'll see if I can leave work a little early and I'll drive her.
SPEAKER_01: I did that simply because I said she's not verbal.
SPEAKER_01: Usually in either the hour going or the hour coming home, she would talk.
SPEAKER_01: And so it gave me a great chance just to spend time with her.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say to you, remember that each one of your child are special, but they're each unique.
SPEAKER_01: So you need to find out how to work with each one of them.
SPEAKER_01: You need to discipline your children.
SPEAKER_01: Set expectations of your children.
SPEAKER_01: Attends the stuff they do.
SPEAKER_01: Laugh together, play games, make memories.
SPEAKER_01: And the thing I put down in the making memories is I was very, very fortunate.
SPEAKER_01: We lived in Tampa, Florida.
SPEAKER_01: My girls, my youngest was in preschool, my oldest was in elementary school.
SPEAKER_01: And my next door neighbor, after about a year, said, Hey, I have a cabin in North Carolina.
SPEAKER_01: And if you'd like to go up there with your family anytime, let me know, and you can go spend time up there.
SPEAKER_01: A little thing, my girls loved it.
SPEAKER_01: This past Thanksgiving, we spent uh we spent Thanksgiving in North Carolina.
SPEAKER_01: They're 40 and 35.
SPEAKER_01: So you can make memories with your children.
SPEAKER_01: Number four, and this one's been hit on already pretty hard today, but I have to mention it.
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to get involved in missions.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 28, 18 through 20 says, Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: In Acts 1.8 says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: We're very good in our society of focusing on ourselves and looking after our own.
SPEAKER_01: And I've talked about getting to know your neighbors already and how important that is.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to give you really opportunities that you'll have at Grand Parkway as much as anything else.
SPEAKER_01: We have the first of all, we have a group of men called the Romeos, if you don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Um Retired Old Men Eating Out is how that came about.
SPEAKER_01: But the really great thing about that group is after they did that a couple of times, they decided if we're just gonna go eat out, we need to do more than that.
SPEAKER_01: We need to find some projects and do some things.
SPEAKER_01: And they are so faithful.
SPEAKER_01: They do stuff around the church, they work in people's houses, uh, they do all kinds of projects.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm gonna give you some other things locally that you can do though.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we have a partnership with an organization called the Landing, which works with uh uh young ladies who have in a few young men who are caught in sex trafficking.
SPEAKER_01: Um that's a great opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: This coming Saturday, they're having an open house at the landing, and you should have gotten an email from me about that.
SPEAKER_01: It would be a great thing to go and see is this a place I could serve?
SPEAKER_01: There's an organization called Life House who works with pregnant ladies that we're partnered with.
SPEAKER_01: And one that's really close to my heart always is local schools.
SPEAKER_01: Um three miles down 1464.
SPEAKER_01: The counselor at Mission West told me as many mentors as your church could furnish, we can use at Mission West.
SPEAKER_01: And then we also have an ESL that meets every Monday night at our church where people are learning English.
SPEAKER_01: And uh Aaron is always needing volunteers for people to participate in ESL.
SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow night, if you're interested, there is a meeting uh at 7 o'clock, 7 to 7.30, just to let you know about working in ESL.
SPEAKER_01: And I will simply say, if you go back and look at that scripture in Acts 1.8, it didn't say, if you want to go, it says you go.
SPEAKER_01: So find your place.
SPEAKER_01: Second place, New York.
SPEAKER_01: Next week you'll see a video about New York.
SPEAKER_01: We just were in New York about three weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're partnering with a church in New York.
SPEAKER_01: A guy went there, they were running nine in a church that's bigger than this one.
SPEAKER_01: They're now running in the 60s and 70s, and we've partnered with them uh just to help them do church and work on their facilities and meet people there.
SPEAKER_01: And then internationally, uh, you saw a video about Romania already, and then next week on Saturday, a group goes to Costa Rica, and we're always looking for new partnerships.
SPEAKER_01: Um, missions is just a huge thing to me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh obviously I work in that in the at the church, but uh I started taking kids when I was a youth minister in the late 70s on mission trips.
SPEAKER_01: In the right around the year 99 or 2000, I was in Kenya with a group of kids.
SPEAKER_01: Um It was when my daughter was a journeyman there.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I had an experience though.
SPEAKER_01: We were working in a slum in Kenya.
SPEAKER_01: Uh that slum in Kenya is one of the largest slums in the world and one of the poorest.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it is across the a little creek, basically, from the large one of the largest uh garbage dumps in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And I was sitting up on a roof of a building putting down tin, and I just looked, and this was a like probably a weak moment in faith because I thought, Lord, this is not right.
SPEAKER_01: Why are these people living like this?
SPEAKER_01: And not long after that I found this quote.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Sometimes I want to ask God why he allows poverty, famine, and injustice when he could do something about it.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm afraid he might ask me the same question, why don't you do something about it?
SPEAKER_01: And I would simply say to you, are you doing anything about children at Mission West who really don't have good parents or need help and need a mentor?
SPEAKER_01: Or going to an ESL meeting and saying, hey, I can help, or going to the landing.
SPEAKER_01: Great opportunities all around us.
SPEAKER_01: We are great in our society at coming to a worship service, going to one more Bible study, being a part of community groups, and please don't hear me say you don't need to do that.
SPEAKER_01: But we need to be out sharing what we're hearing.
SPEAKER_01: And he expects that.
SPEAKER_01: We can't stay in the four walls of Grand Parkway Baptist Church and consider we've done what we're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_01: My question I always ask in ministry if my church was not here tomorrow, would anyone in our community notice we were gone?
SPEAKER_01: They're only gonna notice if we're going if we're out in a community, not because we're sitting in here.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, um I'm gonna get faster because I'm running out of time.
SPEAKER_01: Um, life is not always going to be easy.
SPEAKER_01: James 1, 2 through 4 says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces for perseverance.
SPEAKER_01: Um life is simply not gonna always be easy.
SPEAKER_01: All of you have been through difficult times.
SPEAKER_01: My father died when I was 19 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Um 10 o'clock one night, 10:30 one night, I heard something fall on the floor.
SPEAKER_01: It was my father had died of a heart attack.
SPEAKER_01: I will tell you that that was not an easy thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't handle it well, I will even say that.
SPEAKER_01: But God didn't promise me it's always gonna be easy.
SPEAKER_01: And then a year and a half ago, my oldest daughter went through a divorce.
SPEAKER_01: Um, that might have been just as difficult to see that happen.
SPEAKER_01: And I will simply say again, he doesn't tell me it's gonna be easy, he simply says he'll get me through it.
SPEAKER_01: And number six, and this was a hard one to follow that with, our lives need to exhibit joy.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I get told to me often is you smile a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Um, my response to that is, how can I not smile when what God has done for me?
SPEAKER_01: He has been so good.
SPEAKER_01: He saved me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh he's allowed me to serve him.
SPEAKER_01: I can look at I have a wonderful wife, wonderful children.
SPEAKER_01: I've been allowed to serve in great places.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, how as Christians can we not be joyful if we look at how God has blessed us?
SPEAKER_01: Philippians 4, 4 and 5 says, Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_01: I will say it again, rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Let your gentleness be evident to all.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is near.
SPEAKER_01: And Abakuch 3, 17 and 18 say, even though the fig trees have no blossoms and there are no grapes on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields lie empty and barren, even though the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I will be joyful in the Lord of all my salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be joyful.
SPEAKER_01: We need to give and be generous.
SPEAKER_01: Louisa May Alcott captures this the dangers of greed well, writing.
SPEAKER_01: If we have money, we want more.
SPEAKER_01: If we have authority at work, we want more of it.
SPEAKER_01: If we've been to ten countries, we want to visit twenty.
SPEAKER_01: To weather the storm, we must open our hands and move to a posture of giving.
SPEAKER_01: We must remember that we are only stewards of our possessions, and we must release what we own and want and have.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of clutching more tightly to the stuff that is is or could be ours, we must choose to do the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: In one word, we need to give.
SPEAKER_01: Where can you give this week?
SPEAKER_01: And what will you give away?
SPEAKER_01: Patrick Johnson said, when people's primary motivation for generosity flows from their relationship with God, there is no limit to what God through the Holy Spirit can do in and through Him.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that the Bible teaches us to tithe to the church, and hear that carefully, and give offerings above your tithe.
SPEAKER_01: In the U.S., we're in the top two wealthiest people in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Yet most of the people in the U.S.
SPEAKER_01: live on more money than they make.
SPEAKER_01: And how are they going to tithe and give offerings when you do that?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to encourage each of you to think about what you tithe to the church and what you give in offerings.
SPEAKER_01: I will simply quickly say, the Lord has blessed Debbie and I from the time we got married, we've tithed.
SPEAKER_01: Our parents both taught us to do that.
SPEAKER_01: There is no greater blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And I will tell you, no matter how many was in our family, God has always taken care of us.
SPEAKER_01: I never had to worry about it.
SPEAKER_01: And not only has he done that, he has given me the chance to give offerings.
SPEAKER_01: And please hear the difference.
SPEAKER_01: I want to say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Tithes go to the church.
SPEAKER_01: Offerings go to wherever you want them to go.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a different thing.
SPEAKER_01: First Timothy 6.18 says, Tell them to use their money to the good.
SPEAKER_01: They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.
SPEAKER_01: Malachi 3 10 says, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so there will be enough food in my temple.
SPEAKER_01: If you do, says the Lord of heaven's armies, I will open the windows of heaven for you.
SPEAKER_01: I will pour out a blessing so great that you won't have enough room to take it in.
SPEAKER_01: Try it.
SPEAKER_01: Put me to the test.
SPEAKER_01: I would simply say to you, give tithes to the church and be willing to give offerings to people who need things and you're able to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Number eight, get involved with small groups.
SPEAKER_01: I would simply say Friday night, uh, I was with a group of ladies and men because my wife's been in a Bible study, and we were together and we enjoyed that time of fellowship and laughing, and those ladies have enjoyed that time of doing Bible study together.
SPEAKER_01: Um you need to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_01: You need to learn to mentor, and I've mentioned that as far as the elementary schools.
SPEAKER_01: Um I have nine young men that are in their most of them are in their 30s, uh, that I keep up with regularly, and I consider myself their mentor.
SPEAKER_01: Seven of them are in ministry, uh, two of them are just really close friends through the years.
SPEAKER_01: And I would simply say, you need a couple persons, if you're older, that you're investing in.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you're older, you need somebody, somebody older than you, to invest in you that way too.
SPEAKER_01: I have a couple men that when things are happening in my life, I can call and talk to and I can trust them and hear their advice.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus mentored 12 disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Eleven of them, we all know about those 11 guys.
SPEAKER_01: Um if he's doing it, I think we probably should follow that example.
SPEAKER_01: Number nine, always do your best.
SPEAKER_01: What you are doing is an offering to God.
SPEAKER_01: When I was a student minister, we used to go work on houses and uh in the summer with my students.
SPEAKER_01: My deal to them, a lot of summers, I will tell you, we took roofs off of houses and put new ones on in the middle of summer.
SPEAKER_01: And my thing was to them, always do your best.
SPEAKER_01: This is a help for the people who are living there, but it's an offering to God how you do your work.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 3 17 says, and whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Number 10, love what you do.
SPEAKER_01: It is absolutely critical to love whatever you do.
SPEAKER_01: Have a passion for what makes your life happy.
SPEAKER_01: Find that pursuit and pursue it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid of small paychecks, adversity, challenges, or moving far away if it means you get to do what you love.
SPEAKER_01: Take a leap of faith and let it change your life.
SPEAKER_01: Steve Jobs said, not a Christian, by the way, the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.
SPEAKER_01: Don't settle as with all matters of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: You'll know when you find it.
SPEAKER_01: Find out what your passion is.
SPEAKER_01: God has blessed me.
SPEAKER_01: For 20-something years I work with students, and I loved every day of that.
SPEAKER_01: For the last 13 years, I've had missions, and I love that work.
SPEAKER_01: Um, find what you do, because then when things are not so going so well, you still love it, and you can get through it.
SPEAKER_01: Number 11, our example is as important as our teaching.
SPEAKER_01: How we should live should match what we say.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians 3 7 says, Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: And just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
SPEAKER_01: And 1 Corinthians 11 1 says, Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of example are you?
SPEAKER_01: Um I'll tell you a really quick story.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, one of uh our best friends in Pensacola, her son, goes to church in Birmingham.
SPEAKER_01: Um they were considering him to be an elder at this church in Birmingham.
SPEAKER_01: This church put an ad out in the paper in Birmingham saying, we're considering these men as elders.
SPEAKER_01: Is there a reason they shouldn't be elders at our church?
SPEAKER_01: I would simply say to you, you shouldn't have to be an elder for people to say your example ought to be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And if I asked people who you work with, who you hung around with, and I said, What's their example?
SPEAKER_01: What would they say?
SPEAKER_01: Be yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Neil mentioned this last week, and I would simply say, you need to be the person that God created you to be, not anybody else.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need to be like Neil McClendon.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't need to be like me.
SPEAKER_01: We simply need to be the people God created us to be.
SPEAKER_01: First Samuel, Samuel was looking for the new king, and he was looking in a man, and here's what the Lord said, here's what uh uh Jesus the Lord said to him, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord does not look at the things people look at.
SPEAKER_01: People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
SPEAKER_01: God created you to be who you are, he has a purpose for you.
SPEAKER_01: Be yourself.
SPEAKER_01: The last one.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you glad?
SPEAKER_01: Number 13.
SPEAKER_01: You've never heard a sermon with that many points, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01: God is always working in me.
SPEAKER_01: And that would mean he's working in you.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians 1 6 says, and I am sure of this, he who began the good work within you will bring it to conclusion at the day of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Um the thing I'd like to say to you is um personally I can look at that and say, God is always working.
SPEAKER_01: He has been so faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Um no matter the situations I've been in, no matter what's happened, he has been there.
SPEAKER_01: And he continues to grow us and keep us doing those things he wants to do.
SPEAKER_01: And he will keep doing that.
SPEAKER_01: And that's an exciting thing to know, that he's not finished.
SPEAKER_01: Um the day I die, it says, then I'll be there with him.
SPEAKER_01: I've given you a lot of points today.
SPEAKER_01: Um the thing we do here, the and the thing I've tried to do, uh, is I did have a lot of points.
SPEAKER_01: Um the thing I want to say to you first of all, um, is that the most important point is you need to love God completely.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't, if you if you're not in that place, um I would simply challenge you to say, God, what is it?
SPEAKER_01: Um the second thing I want that we do at Grand Parkway, and I tried to do today, um, is I came up with those points.
SPEAKER_01: There were more.
SPEAKER_01: I whittled it down.
SPEAKER_01: Um but when I did those points, I tried to find scripture to back up what I was saying.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't want it just to be, here's what Don Minton thinks is important.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to say, here's what the Bible says is important.
SPEAKER_01: Because of how we do church here, we're gonna give you a few minutes now to say, hopefully something I said kind of hit home today.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'd like for you to just take just a minute and pray and say, God, what is it that Don said today that you want to speak to me through?
SPEAKER_01: So if you do that.
SPEAKER_01: And God, what an incredible world we live in.
SPEAKER_01: And then, Lord, we stray and we mess up and we continue to do that over and over.
SPEAKER_01: And yet you provided your son to die on a cross and take away our sins.
SPEAKER_01: And you come to live in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And God, there are a lot of things that you teach us along the way, and you speak to us constantly.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, I pray that today you've taken something I've said and that your spirit will use that to speak to hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, they're not my words, they're your words.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, I can only count on you to do what you say you'll do.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I thank you for these people.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you that they love you and they care for you.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray your blessings on them.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, I ask these things in your name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Just let me share a couple of announcements to you with you today.
SPEAKER_01: You're getting to see me more today than you've seen me in a year.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, the ladies, there's a women's backyard barbecue.
SPEAKER_01: July the 29th.
SPEAKER_01: There will be people outside in the atrium signing people up for that.
SPEAKER_01: It's July the 29th, beginning at 5.30 in the warehouse.
SPEAKER_01: Men's bowling this Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_01: If you've not signed up for that, you need to do it by Monday.
SPEAKER_01: And you can sign up by going to Wade at grandparkway.org Wednesday night, 7 to 9.
SPEAKER_01: And it's at the Regal Theater.
SPEAKER_01: ESL, I mentioned already, a volunteer meeting tomorrow night at 7 o'clock in the warehouse.
SPEAKER_01: It will not be past 7.30.
SPEAKER_01: And it'll just be, hey, I'm interested in this.
SPEAKER_01: This is what that means.
SPEAKER_01: You're not signing up.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that.
SPEAKER_01: And then on the on the uh stage, I think Neil already mentioned this, are the prayer cards for Costa Rica.
SPEAKER_01: They do leave on Saturday.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, we put these out, and I know just personally, I put them in my journal, and every morning when I do my quiet time, I pray for the teams that are going.
SPEAKER_01: And I know they would cover your prayers if you would take a card and just put it there and pray for them every morning starting tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Then one last thing.
SPEAKER_01: July the 1st, 2015.
SPEAKER_01: I'm really bad at these things.
SPEAKER_01: I came to serve as the spiritual formation pastor at Grand Park Way.
SPEAKER_01: It's been a great time for Debbie and I.
SPEAKER_01: The word I put down actually is an incredible time.
SPEAKER_01: From the beginning, we have felt like you are a very friendly, welcoming, and generous people who have a heart for serving.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna parentheses that and say Debbie and I have served at seven churches.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are the most friendly, kindest, gentle, most generous people we have ever worked with.
SPEAKER_01: And what a great thing I think I can say about you.
SPEAKER_01: And and I will say, uh, I mentioned to you, I came here when I was 62.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I will be 66 very soon.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but we said if there was a place we were ever gonna stay, uh, this would be the place.
SPEAKER_01: We love how we do church here, and we love the people here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but we have decided it's a time to do something else.
SPEAKER_01: And that really is just to retire uh from working.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh that doesn't mean we'll quit working, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but that it will be the last, our last Sunday here will be September the 9th.
SPEAKER_01: Uh just so you'll know, I've had some people ask me, are you staying here?
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm moving to Auburn, Alabama.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you don't know this, I'm a slight Auburn, Alabama fan.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I love that I went to that university and I love it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've always said we would love to retire there, and God has made that possible.
SPEAKER_01: So we will be leaving September the 11th or so uh to move there.
SPEAKER_01: Um I would simply say to all of you, what a great church this is.
SPEAKER_01: Uh don't ever take that for granted.
SPEAKER_01: Um and the last thing is I would just simply say thank you for your support, uh, the encouragement you've always given, uh, the faithfulness you have to serve.
SPEAKER_01: Um it's exciting to me to know that um from the mission standpoint, that just in the last few months we've had 16 people in New York, we had 12 people in Romania, and we have 16 people going to Costa Rica.
SPEAKER_01: Um that's what church is all about in my mind.
SPEAKER_01: It's growing and going.
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for allowing me to be a part of what we do here.
SPEAKER_01: And if you would raise your hands, and I'd like to share this blessing with you from what I said today, I hope.
SPEAKER_01: God created each of you unique and special.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure he has great things ahead for each of you.
SPEAKER_01: Follow him faithfully.
SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.