Good Ground, Good News | Sent To Share - Pastor Britt Silcox

We share a personal story that leads into a bigger truth: mission starts with God, and Jesus sends us with his authority to make disciples as we go. We get practical about what it looks like to share the good news in real conversations with people carrying grief, anxiety, and anger. 

• Why being sent is different than simply going 
• Matthew 28 and the non-optional call to make disciples 
• Trading quick spiritual fixes for slow discipleship and obedience 
• How distraction keeps us from noticing the harvest 
• Redefining “believe” as trusting a person, not knowing facts 
• Two simple practices for evangelism: look up and join God’s conversation 
• Bringing Scripture, prayer, and the presence of Jesus into pain 
• Why a life centred on self feels small and mission restores purpose 

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Intro

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Welcome to the Rock Family Star Met of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv. Now join us for a message from our special guest speaker.

Evangelism Dating Love Story

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I thought while he's here, while we're in a good news series, I was gonna go ahead and just let y'all know a little story that we don't tell very often. Um, really about how Scott and I fell in love. Because it has to do with evangelism. Does anybody else found themselves with like evangelism dating, missionary dating? Are you familiar with this? Like we don't recommend it. We don't recommend it, but it is a little bit of our story of how we got here. I know there's like a there's like a spectrum. Like I feel like I was like a little bit more on the the one that's not too terrible, you know, just just a little bit of like just a little like flirt, flirt to convert, you know, that style. Like definitely was not in the kissing for the kingdom. And I know like all the way over here, it's like the evangelisting. We're not not even talking about that. But I did have a huge heart for people that were far from Jesus. And that was not Scott's story, but there was a new boy in the ninth grade. Actually, I was in the ninth grade, he was in the tenth grade, and he had just moved to our school, and he was very adamant that he wanted nothing to do with God. He let us know all the bad things he had done. Well, and my heart just I needed to, you know, use what I had to be able to connect him to Jesus. And so Pastor Rico promised me you will never do this. But our youth pastor decided to have a co-web lock-in on Halloween night for the youth group at like a facility that was the size of like four YMCAs with maybe five liters, I don't know. We're not doing this, and so I had a great idea. I was gonna invite this new guy to the lock-in, right? Because he definitely was gonna accept my invitation to come to get to spend all of his time together, and that he could meet Jesus. Because, like, I'm sure the youth pastor had a 10-minute sermonette mixed into this terrible idea of Roku ed lock-in. This is where Scott enters the story. So we arrive, it's probably 8 p.m. on a Friday night, and it was just open basketball gyms. Everybody's setting up their stuff, setting up their sleeping bags and pillows, and all the stuff that they brought to do. And so, you know, I meet this person that I've invited, and I set his stuff up, and I say, You, I know you don't know anybody in this youth group, but I'm here. You just sit right here, and I'm gonna go get you some pizza and a Coke, and I'll be right back. That was my intention as I left that basketball court and I crossed over to this basketball court. Somehow, don't really remember the details, I bump into Scott Silcox, who is waiting for a pickup game. He's a year older, I don't know how. We started to talk. I don't remember what happened in the next eight hours. I never, there was pizza and coke involved, but I never remembered to go back to the first court. All we remember is them blowing the siren say, saying you gotta go home. And we were still sitting there at that court. We had talked all night. And it was love ever since. Yeah, don't you love that? Now, the stories that I'm not gonna tell you are all the times that that heart that I had got me in trouble, and Scott would say, Babe, you gotta stop. You keep bringing home crazies. You've moved two people in with us, we're in danger all the time. I'm having to like get ready for a fight just because we go to a movie theater and somebody looks lost, and you gotta go sit by them and you bring them over. So I started to think I must just be weird. There's something in me that's weird. Why am I drawn to the worst person in the room all the time? But what I didn't understand is it wasn't a personality thing, and it wasn't even a churchy thing. This was a God thing. Mission always began with God. From the very beginning of the Bible, God has been on a mission to restore what is broken and bring his blessing to the whole world. Aren't you glad? Amen. But here's where it gets personal for you. God didn't just accomplish it all on the cross and resurrection with nothing left for you to do. He invited you into it. And that's why we're in this series today. And you know, we had a great Sunday with Pastor Matt from Fayetteville

Rally Prayer And Series Recap

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Campus. He spoke on Sent to Pray. Also, side note, pause right there. You saw the commercial for Rally, our big YA event, evangelism event that's gonna be at Stovehouse this coming weekend. In light with what Pastor Matt spoke on Sent to Pray, we're asking you, if you can come here Tuesday night and pray with us, we're gonna devote the entire Tuesday night prayer time to praying over that event, praying over our city, praying for young adults in Huntsville, Alabama. And if you can't make that, if you can stop by Stovehouse anytime this week, if you want to prayer walk it, if you want to go in and just cover that place, pray over the atmosphere, pray that people will be drawn in to meet Jesus. But I have one request. If you are not a young adult, you cannot crash the front of the event. We will ruin the vibe. We get to pray, we don't get to come, all right? We can't ruin their vibe. So Pastor Matt was sent to pray. Um, let's see, who was next? Pastor Tim. We were out of town, Pastor Tim preached on sent and power. Then Pastor Scott last week. Remember, he's sent to bless with the Samaritan. And so today we're talking about scent to share.

The Great Commission And Authority

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And I know there's just always that little part of us, it's like, can I just pray? Can I just bless? Like, do I have to actually say something? Do I actually have to open my mouth? Do I actually have to talk? Um, and y'all out there that feel that way, you love that old quote. Nobody really claims it, although some people think they know who said it, but it's something like, you know, preach the gospel and when necessary, use words. You love that one, right? Like you love, that's right. See, I don't need to use words because just my good heart, it's enough. And God uses all of that, but he does ask us. So let's read what Jesus said and let's look at our teaching text, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the ends of the age. This commission that Jesus gives his disciples actually appears in all four Gospels and in the book of Acts. So it makes it the only command of Jesus recorded in all five accounts, meaning it's not optional. Now, what brings me great comfort is when I read this line of all authority is given to me. The reason why this matters to you is that you're not being sent to share in your own authority. That would be going. We don't have to go, we get to be sent. Now, let me explain to you just in like my family world what that looks like. Now, if if Evie needed to go outside and tell the two big brothers that they gotta stop that basketball game and they gotta come in and do something she wants them to do, do you think she's gonna have any effect on two big brothers looking at a little seven-year-old sister? They're gonna, they probably will ignore her. They probably won't even stop dribbling the basketball to hear what she has to say. But if you could watch her when I say, I need you to go, I want you to go tell your brothers, I've been waiting this time to come eat dinner now. Oh, she's got purpose. The shoulders go back, the walk changes. Oh, Bubbies. Because being sent is different than just going. It comes with authority, it comes with his presence, and we have to remind ourselves. We sang about it. You just sang almost 15 minutes about the name of Jesus. We're good at singing. The name of Jesus is higher than every single name. It's a different rank. How many military people out there do I have? His name sits far above principality and power. So we're coming being sent by him in his authority. I love the part here about go, therefore, and make disciples. The word go actually here it translates to our English, but what it really meant was as you go. It means in your going. Why am I stopping to say this? It means even though we got to go, where's Leah rock star right here? Led our Kingdom Heights team to Honduras. It was the best week. We got on an airplane and we went to another nation. But guess what? This is even talking about as you go. You don't even have to get on an airplane. You don't have to go to an unreached people group. Where are you going today? Where are you going tonight? Where are you going tomorrow? Where are you going after school? As you go, you're gonna make disciples. You know, during Jesus' earthly ministry, the disciples were told, just give freely what I've given you. Right? So Jesus modeled it, so then they would go and they would preach, and then they would lay hands on the sick, and they got to see signs and wonders. And in this passage of scripture, Jesus is expanding their role. They're not just gonna go and proclaim. Now they're gonna go make disciples. This is meaning they're gonna begin to draw people into a close relationship with Jesus. It's not just gonna be information, it's not just gonna be proclaiming the kingdom is at hand. There's gonna be transformation because they're gonna learn how the kingdom operates. They're gonna learn through teaching how Jesus, how he acts, what he values, what's important to him. So it's a little bit deeper responsibility, it's a little bit slower responsibility. You might like slow things, not me. What did we do before COVID? We actually had to walk into stores and buy stuff. Now all you do is just buy it on your app and you pull up and she comes out and puts it in your window. We like things fast. That's not what this is. We're gonna be used by God to transform people, to be a community that practices his teaching. Teaching to obey. Now, the other day, I don't even know where this came up, but my kids were, I think Scott was actually prompting them, like, to show mommy love. You know, sometimes the daddy has to be like, Mama needs some love. And I remember like these little pitiful things they were bringing to me. And I was like, you know what? You know what mama wants? Mama just wants you to obey. That's when mommy feels loved, when you actually obey what I'm saying. Any moms can relate? So teaching people to obey the Lord, I am so sorry to tell you this. I have a little bit of bad news in our good news series. It's not gonna be a track. Nothing wrong with a track, nothing untrue on that track, just ineffective in teaching people to obey and walk with Jesus. It's gonna be more than a repeat after me, a sinner's prayer. Because we've got to go deeper and walk with people. But the best part of that scripture is lo, I am with you. Oh, that everything that we do and get to do, we do with him. Apart from him, we can't do anything. But he says, when you go, and in your going, you're teaching people and walking with people, drawing them into relationship with me, modeling what it looks like, I'm with you. Even to the ends of the age. Isn't that beautiful? So my question today is who is becoming more like Jesus because of your life? Look inside for just a quick second. Who in your life is becoming more like Jesus because they're watching, they're following, and they're listening to you? See, we never mean to reject this mission God has sent us on. We just get distracted, right? Has anybody got a young person in their family that no matter what the family's doing, they've got the big noise-canceling headphones on? It's like, oh, like there's a whole conversation going on here. Like we're eating a meal and you've got your music on. No?

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No?

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Okay, you haven't seen that around? Okay. Well, it's a thing. And what that looks like is a lot of times we're so stuck in the background track, in the soundtrack to our own life, that a whole world is going on around us, and we've got these headphones on. We don't have a mission problem, we have an attention problem. And I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes my prayers do sound like this. God, I just want a move of your spirit. I just want revival. I just want your presence. What I'm actually saying is, God, I just want you to drop down and make all these people right. It's a good prayer, but it has to be partnered with what he asked us to do. Right? So if you have been contending for signs, wonders, and miracles, those big explosive moves of the Lord that get people's attention and draw them in, don't get discouraged. Keep praying, keep seeking,

Discipleship Takes Time

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but as you go, don't rely just on that. We gotta obey what he's asking us to do. Are you living like someone who is sent? Sent by God. All right, we're gonna pull up our dashboard, right? Because we've been keeping up. Let's see, Robbie. Thank you, Robbie. I just want to say thank you to the production team. They make Sundays happen and you never even see them back there. Alright, so here's our impact tracker, our good news impact tracker across all the campuses the last couple of weeks. 337 people have gathered to pray for the loss, 445 people have prayed for healing, 623 words of encouragement, 346 gospel conversations. That excites me. 276 acts of service. Somebody just did an act right here. You saw that number change? Right as I was talking. 134 prayed for salvation and 222 sewed financially in demissions. These people took off the headphones. You know, if you feel like, like, yes, Spirit, yes, but I sometimes I just feel like I was my passion isn't there like I want it to be. Um let's talk about that.

What Belief Really Means

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So I want to compare two scriptures. I think part of it is we have gotten um very, very um just tightly knit to John 3. John 3.16. For God so loved the world. We're so we have memorized that as kids, like we know it. But the John 3.18, we don't actually have memorized. I really think it's true. Like we've memorized 16, but we haven't memorized 18. So 16 says, for God so loved the world, he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him wouldn't perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world would be saved through him. That's the good news. And then verse 18 says, But whoever believes in him is not condemned, and whoever does not believe is condemned already. Jesus didn't come to condemn the world. If you don't believe in Jesus, if you don't have relationship with Jesus, if you haven't been born again, your spirit made alive, darkness and the evil of sin taken away from you, and you're being made into a new creature, you're already condemned. That's why Jesus had to come. He didn't come to do it, he came to save, he came to rescue. But if you don't believe, you are condemned already. Because you've not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light came, but men loved the darkness more than the light because their deeds were evil. So step one is making sure you know the whole passage. Step two is making sure you have the right definition to the word believe. Pastor Sheree did an awesome job in our Romans series on Wednesday night. Short plug, ladies, if you don't have a Wednesday night group, come join us in the comments. So we study Romans. But we talked about this. When we have a bad definition of belief, we think, oh, yeah, like the people that God has put into my path, the people He's sending me to, like, I feel like everybody's good. I mean, I'm pretty sure, like, you know, they've got like an Easter sign in their yard, and um they've got a Hobby Lobby sign, and um, like I remember my coworkers saying, like, they grew up in church or their their family went to church or something like that. So like they they know the story. They they know the thing. We get confused by this, and it slows us down. We think that believe means you just have to think the right things about God. Yeah, there's a God out there. Yeah, He created the world. Yeah, I believe. It's more than a repeat after me. The word believe actually means trust in a person. It's not intellectual facts. It's when you actually transfer trust of your life out of yourself and into Jesus. Do you see the difference there? It's a complete self-surrender. And it's an ongoing posture. It's a day-by-day thing. See, maybe you had an experience at a youth camp and you came down to an altar and God wrecked your life and you made a commitment. But now you're 34. If this is Jesus, if this is his word, you're over here. You're not even facing him. You're not even in proximity to him. Or maybe you're in the church and you're up here, young people, and here is Jesus. You couldn't be any closer to him. You're not looking at him. You're not facing him, you're not trusting in him. This is a daily thing. This word believe is an ongoing posture. It's a daily relationship of faith, not of works, not doing good things, not getting everything right, not performing, not being religious, of trust. Trust. So, in that context, the list of people that God is sending you to just got a lot longer. Amen? Jesus said, Do you not say there are yet four months? Then comes the harvest. Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes. See the fields are white for harvest. This is my tip number one for you.

Two Tips For Sharing Faith

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God does the sending, we do the sharing. And tip number one is look. Just look. Look up. That's what Jesus said. Hey, look up, look at the harvest. Look at the people God is highlighting to you and listen to their story. Oh, wait a minute, I have to have a relationship. Yeah, this is gonna work a lot better if you have a relationship. You're gonna have to have a conversation. And conversations usually have walls until trust is built. So if you're gonna be able to have a real conversation, not get the surface level stuff, you're gonna have to have a relationship. God does the sending, we do the sharing. Tip number two God is already in conversation with every single person on the planet. He's already in conversation with them, they might just not know it. So your part is being ready to jump in where he's already talking. Doesn't that sound A lot easier than having to memorize a script. Or I've seen videos where you've got to draw the bridge and you've got to draw the chasm, and you're over here, and they're over here. All true. But very hard to do at a soccer field. Right? God does the sending. We do the sharing. You know, lately some of the people that he's been sending to me look like

Sharing Jesus In Grief

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this. It looks like grief. It looks like disappointment. It looks like a sense of loss. Because this isn't how things were supposed to turn out. This isn't what I was expecting. I've tried to do everything right and then look at what I'm facing. Does anybody have somebody God has brought in your past that sounds like that? Whether it's the divorce, whether it's the betrayal, whether it's the bankruptcy, I don't know what it is for the one he's sending you, whether it's the doctor's report, or whether it's that secret sin that's been uncovered and it's affected their home, it's affected their kids, and it's heartbreaking. Anyone coming to mind? The question that they're asking deep inside is why is this happening? Why is this happening? And this is your moment. This is your moment to enter the conversation that Jesus is having with them. Jesus is so fascinating. When I'm sitting and talking to somebody who's going through pain, who's going through heartbreak, who feels like they've been crushed, who feels like their family has been defiled by the enemy, who feels like darkness and sin has come in and twisted everything up. Perversion has come, things that they thought were never gonna happen in their family are at their doorstep. And I can talk about a Jesus who is fascinating. He's so pure, he's so good, he's so true, he's so clean. He burns away sin, he makes things that are nasty, white as snow. There's nothing too hard for him, nothing too big for him, no one too dirty, no one so defiled, nothing so icky that his eyes of fire, when we look into them, can't make clean. Do you know this, Jesus? Can you share this, Jesus? The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? We're inviting people into Scripture. We're inviting them into the verses that if they just knew how to find it would bring them comfort. But guess who knows how to find it? You do. Without a vision of Jesus entering their story, they're doomed to depression, isolation, suicidal thoughts. But Jesus is calling to them. We're able to say, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. This world is full of messes that seem irreparable. And that is why I'm so in love with Jesus. Jesus is holy. He's not like us. He's not like the people you're describing. He's different. He's so different. He's the only one who can step into pain and bring purpose out of it, healing through it, and hope on the other side. So maybe the question isn't why is this happening? But will you just trust God in the middle of it? Back to believing. Trusting God in the middle of it. That's making a disciple. Right there, you just did it. Right there, you entered that point of pain and showed them and modeled them how to trust Jesus.

Sharing Jesus In Anxiety

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As I've been going, another type of person that's been coming my way is bodies and minds being tormented. It looks like chronic pain. It looks like chronic anxiety, panic, intrusive thoughts, emotional pain, emotional trauma that they think is normal. Sometimes you'll hear them talking about ways they're gonna go out and get their own relief. It can lead you down a dark road. It can lead you to crystals, manifesting energy work, rituals that usually bring more oppression than when you started. The question they're asking is, how do I find peace? Got anybody in your life? But that's why we're so fascinated with Jesus. Jesus has all authority. In the middle of the storm, Jesus spoke to the wind and the waves, and they obeyed him. Jesus said, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Jesus has authority over darkness. He has authority over torment. Colossians 2, one of my favorite ones. At the cross, he disarmed principalities and powers. He took their weapons, he made a spectacle of them. And that's the God in you. That's the Jesus you're connected to. That's the Jesus who's sending you into this conversation. And you get to invite them. What if peace isn't this temporary thing that you keep trying to search for on your own and it works for a day and then it doesn't? What if peace is only received with the person who has authority over all this to start with? You're inviting them in to freedom. They don't need information. And they don't need a, I'm so sorry. They need an encounter with Jesus. This is the people that you get to pray with. This is the people you say, Can I pray with you right now? And you begin to bring Jesus into their atmosphere. His love, his perfect love that cast out fear. As I've been going,

Sharing Jesus In Anger

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a third group has looked like people that are angry, they're offended, they're on the brink of being hardened, they're stuck in a cycle of unhealed rejection. Their heart has been poisoned with distrust and division. They've lost their vision for unity. Disillusioned by media, frustrated with politics. The question they're asking is who can I trust? And who will make this right? Has he been sending you any? This is where you partner with Jesus in this conversation and you say that anger you feel, God feels that too. God hates injustice more than you do. The Bible says, all creatures stand naked and exposed before God's eyes to whom we must give an account. So you think God doesn't see. They believe God doesn't see. They wonder, they question God. Do you even see what's going on down here? He sees it all. He sees every living thing. And he says that he will bring every deed into judgment, every secret thing, whether good or evil, because he hates oppression. He hates evil. It's actually one of the most common themes in Scripture. He hates every form of injustice. He hates financial injustice, judicial, systemic, relational. He hates taking innocent life. And it says that his wrath will come on people who exploit the poor and the weak. Nothing is hidden from his sight. The enemy wants you to think you're alone. But Psalm 139, this is where you enter that conversation. Oh, God knows when you sit, he knows when you stand, he knows you're rising up. He discerns your thoughts. He's acquainted with all your ways. God loves you. And if we're honest, the same brokenness that we get so angry at is in us. Which is why God had to send Jesus to come and rescue the world. No one's good except God. No one. That's why he had to send his good news. The good news is when we follow Jesus' way and we live in his kingdom and his authority, racial injustice is dismantled. It doesn't even have a foundation in his kingdom. The deepest human problem is not borders, it's not your politics. The human problem that we face is sin, and Jesus alone has the power to forgive and make us new. He frees us from the power of revenge. You know, when Peter asks Jesus, so Jesus, how many times do I have to forgive? Because these people are just dumb. How many times do I have to forgive? Jesus doesn't give a number, because that's what he does. He responds with a story. He said, You know that reminds me of a story. A man owed a king an insurmountable debt. Millions, lifetime of wages. But the king forgave it all. And that very same man walks out the door and finds another man who owes him a few dollars. And he throws him in prison. And Jesus says, that is exactly what it is like. When you receive mercy, but you refuse to give it. So here's the point. When you realize how much you have been forgiven by the King of Kings, you don't have a choice to forgive. It's not optional. This is the story that we live in. Romans 12, do not take revenge. I love this verse. This is actually what frees me to show mercy. After I've showing forgiveness, Jesus said, Vengeance is mine. Let me repay. If the all-seeing God sees right from wrong, knows good from evil, and he says, Let me take care of it, I would much rather him take care of it than me. What am I really gonna do? Right? It just, I don't know, that just gives me that little extra push-through.

Mission Gives Life Purpose

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Alright, um, Johnny, would you come and play the keys for me as we're kind of moving into a close here? Every one of those core questions that people are going to have as they come along your path, every one of them is actually an invitation. Could you hear it? Could you hear the invitation? Not for them to try harder, not for them to be better, not for you to preach at them, and not for you to invite them to church. Did you hear me? Or do I need to say that one again? Every single one of those questions, as people begin to unpack their story, unpack their pain to you is an invitation to come to who? To Jesus. To Jesus. Are you fascinated with Jesus? Or has he become mundane to you? Have you had all of the goodness and the mercy and the forgiveness and the freedom and the hope that you can store up and you've just gotten complacent with that? What about the people around you who need to know? You know, every single one of those was an opportunity to believe. And I don't know if you're in this room, you say, yeah, maybe God's sending me to those people, but honestly, that stuff's in me too. I want to invite you today. Today is an opportunity to believe that you can trust him with your disappointment, that you can trust him with what seems irreparable, that you can trust him, you can believe today to trust him for the peace you need. That you can trust Jesus to forgive and to help you forgive. Following Jesus doesn't just look like a decision that you make at an altar. It starts there, but it always leads to a direction. And that direction was our teaching text of making disciples. You know, you may be in this room, and let's be honest, you've got the job, you've got the car, you've got the relationship, you've got family, you get to travel sometimes, you get to do cool stuff. But if you're honest, you're like, honestly, I'm still searching. Like there's still something that's missing. That's what we're talking about today. Who is becoming more like Jesus because of your life? What you're missing is that mission, that thing he wired you for. A life centered on you will always feel small. Because you were made for something bigger. You know, the evidence in your life, the evidence that you are a true disciple isn't that you come to church. The evidence that you are a disciple is that you are making disciples. That let's just let that sit for a minute. And it's it's your joy, what you're gonna step into as you just begin to take up this assignment. You're gonna step into purpose, you're gonna step into greater dependency on the Lord. See, apart from Him, you can't do it. You're gonna see somebody, you're gonna have an opportunity, and in that moment, you might just feel like you fell on your face. Like they shared something, and you just froze. Nothing good came out. You didn't connect them to Jesus that day. Maybe you even added to it, not meaning to. And then you're gonna have that wake-up call of, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You said, Lo, I am with you. You're gonna do this with me. Okay, Lord, I pray that you give me another opportunity. I pray that you'd give me another chance. Lord, I want to be on the ready. God, you know what this morning, all the way in, I'm just gonna think about how amazing you are. I'm gonna go back and revisit all the times that you met me. And then you know what? That's just gonna be already at the surface. Already at the surface, Lord, I just pray that even as I read my Bible this week, Lord, and as verses kind of stand out to me, maybe they're for me, but maybe they're not. Maybe they're just things you want me to have on the ready so that when I'm in those moments, the Lord has already provided. Already provided what I'm supposed to share. Don't memorize a script, don't memorize my slides. Walk with Jesus. If he asks you to do something, is he gonna send you to do something you can't do? But does he want to do it with you? And I don't know about your kids. My kids like to think they can do everything without me. And sometimes they don't realize that they need me until they fall flat on their face. And my mom was here the whole time. I really wanted to help you with that project. You thought you could do it by yourself. I really could have just spent like 10 minutes with you, and then you would have just been off to the races. We're so independent. Why? Why? We need him, we want him. It's time. So if you're saying yes to this, like I'm ready to step into this assignment of the Lord, I just want you to begin, as you leave this place, to start praying.

Practical Steps To Start Conversations

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Just begin to start praying, Lord, fix these eyes. Let me look up and notice. Even when people don't say anything, a lot of times you will just feel drawn to somebody. What the Lord will do with me is they will look familiar to me. I'll be like, I know that person. They look so familiar to me. What after about the fifth time of looking dumb when I was like, do you do this? Do you go to school here? Do you go to church here? No, I know you. After about the fifth time, I was like, oh, I get it, Jesus. Okay, that's gonna be like you and me. You're gonna let me think that I know them so that it'll get my attention, so that I'll start a conversation. The hardest part is just stepping over that one awkward line. Right? So you're gonna ask the Lord, fix my eyes. And then you're gonna take off those noise-canceling headphones, the soundtrack to your life, whether pitiful or whether they're so exciting. And you're gonna set them down because you're gonna answer the Great Commission. You're gonna talk with people, you're gonna listen to the story they're telling. You're gonna say, Jesus, I want to meet them where you're talking to them. Not your own preaching, not your own soapbox. Please save that. Nobody wants that. Jesus, what are you saying? I want to enter in that door. You've already prepared the heart at that door. Use me. Would anybody say, use me, God? Use me, Lord. You're gonna read scripture with them. Sometimes that looks like texting a scripture. Sometimes that looks like texting a piece, a very short piece of a scripture. They're not ready to digest a chapter. Go to the King James Version, and they're like, no. The meat of it, you're connecting them to Jesus. And then you're gonna model something. You're gonna model what a disciple looks like. That's right, people are watching, and you're not gonna be perfect. But you're gonna say, Lord, send me. Send me. Alright, let's put that dashboard up one more time. Imagine a church. Imagine. Imagine with me this church. Where people don't just respond to an altar call, but they actually become like Jesus. Do you know what this would look like? Incredible. Incredible. Let's not be satisfied with a full room, okay? Yeah? Alright, let's pray.

Prayer And Sending Charge

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Lord Jesus, we love you today. We love you so much. Lord, I just pray over your people today. Because I know that every time we hear truth, it requires a response. We don't just get to walk out of here and pretend like we didn't hear, we didn't know. Lord, we have heard you. And Lord, I just thank you, Father, that every person under the sound of my voice would search their own heart. Lord, that they would return to you. God, any area, Lord, where they've become complacent, Lord, where they've just lived off of yesterday's experience with you, and they say, today, I'm ready to make a fresh commitment of trust. I'm ready to believe again and again and again, trusting you with every single thing that comes my way, no matter how great or no matter how hard. And Lord, I pray for an awakening over this body. God, I pray that you would awaken us, Lord, to be sent by you, sent in power, sent to pray, sent to bless, and sent to share. God, that we would share the good news of Jesus. That we would take the time to make disciples, to teach people, to help them to hear your beautiful voice. Lord, we love you today. We praise you today. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Service Outro And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 43:24

We hope and pray. This message was encouraging and impact. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at the Rock Family. Have a Jesus filled week.