Mission Sent
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Mission Sent
Burning Bright: Faith on Fire
Are you busy, but not actually accomplishing anything? This challenging message dives into Romans 12:11 where Paul instructs believers to "not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord." It's a wake-up call for Christians who've fallen into patterns of spiritual laziness while still expecting spiritual rewards.
Drawing from Proverbs 13:4, we confront our natural tendency to seek maximum benefits for minimum effort. The soul of the sluggard craves but receives nothing, while the diligent are richly supplied. Think about your own spiritual journey—are you merely craving a deeper relationship with God, or actively working toward it? Do you want to hear "well done, good and faithful servant" someday without putting in the effort that statement requires?
Paul contrasts slothfulness with being "fervent in spirit"—a powerful image of molecules in boiling water so excited they create energy that must escape. This represents the Christian whose internal spiritual energy drives them to purposeful action. Too many of us have become what 2 Thessalonians calls "busybodies"—people doing things without accomplishing anything meaningful. We're climbing ladders only to discover they're leaned against the wrong walls.
The message culminates with the call to "serve the Lord" by serving others. As Jesus taught, when we serve "the least of these," we serve Him. This represents the cost of discipleship explained in Luke 9:23. Following Christ means denying yourself, taking up your cross daily, and allowing Christ to live through you. When we embrace this purpose-driven approach to faith, we participate in God's redemptive work, bringing resurrection life to those who need it most.
Ready to shift from spiritual sloth to purposeful service? Join us this Saturday at 8 AM as we serve our community together and put these principles into action.
All right. Well, good morning. I hope everyone's doing well. I'm going to start with a personal confection as we get into this, just because I think it's going to help us to understand what Paul's really driving at in this verse a little more clearly. And, like I've said many times, god allows me sometimes the opportunity to live out what I'm going to preach, especially that week, which is why I can't wait till we get to like more cheerful parts. But here's what it is.
Speaker 1:This week I've been up here at this building every single day. In fact, I've been here for like 13 days straight. Seven days this past week I've been up here and I didn't even write my sermon until yesterday. Like I didn't do the slides, I didn't do the announcements, I didn't do any of that until yesterday. Now, if you would have talked to me before, I would have told you how tired I am and how busy I've been and sitting here going, I'm just like every day been showing up and going to work, but in reality, I was really just busy being busy Like nothing that I was doing were things that had to do with today, like I was rearranging things. I was working in an office that doesn't have air conditioning, because you know I'm going to go sit there in a sauna all week Like I was doing things, but nothing that I was doing actually mattered. But yet I was super tired from it and I just didn't have anything else like left to give and really at the end of the day I was like man but I really didn't even accomplish anything. And that's the framework I want us to think through as we go through what we're doing today. So I'm going to pray and then I'm going to jump into it. Father, I thank you so much for your word and I ask and I pray that, as we go through what we're doing today, so I'm going to pray and then I'm going to jump into it. Father, I thank you so much for your word and I ask and I pray that as we go through this today, father, that they be your words and not mine, that you just supernaturally talk to your people. I ask that we are changed from the inside out, and I pray this in Jesus' name Amen. All right.
Speaker 1:So Romans 12, 11 says this Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. All right, as we dig into this, we have to remember what Paul is driving at here. Right, remember, chapter 12 is when Paul hits this shift in this letter and he's starting to sit here and go. Okay, now that we've covered all the mystery that's not a, I know, mysterious was not the word I wanted to use there, but that's what was coming out Now that we've covered all the mystery of salvation, how it's obtained, how we don't deserve it, the whole faith and grace, and and all of this, now that we've talked about hey, here's how you become in Christ. Now what we're going to do is we're going to shift the tone and go this is what your life should look like, like if you call yourself a Christian. This, right here, is what your life should look like. And so what he's doing is he's sitting here and he starts well, not starts, but in this part we're looking at, he starts with this term don't be slothful in zeal.
Speaker 1:Now, as soon as I heard this word, I was reminded of a verse that I know especially JT is tired of hearing at this point in his life. It's found in Proverbs, chapter 13, verse 4, and it says this the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Jt has had this verse in a homemade like picture frame hanging on his wall since he was like nine years old, because I went hey, you need to get this, you need to understand the value and importance of working hard. See, when we do things, especially things that come easy to us, we have the tendency of what, being lazy, why work harder than I have to? Like? That goes against everything in our understandings. Right, we want the maximum benefit for the minimum amount of work.
Speaker 1:Why do you think, especially with kids, youtube is such an exciting career path for them? Because they're sitting here going? All I got to do is make videos about things that I'm already doing and interested in, and some of them less than 1% of them actually make money doing it. But think about that, right, if you're sitting here watching and some of you may or may not know who he is, may or may not like him but if you're sitting here watching, like, just say, a Mr Beast video, the guy is a multi-multi-millionaire and all he does is really stupid videos Like standing in a circle, last one to leave gets you know a new car or a private plane, like one, I think, if my memory serves me correct, because I didn't watch it, but my kids did. It was like whoever is the last one on this island gets the island or something like that, and he wound up garnering enough views that he just made a lot of money on it.
Speaker 1:And for us, when you see the final product, you're like, oh, all you did was go hang out on an island and videotape it. However, there's an immense amount of work that goes into something like that. Just ask the other 99% of YouTubers who don't get paid for it. Like there's a schedule and there's planning and there's financing and there's production and there's editing and there's all this stuff that you never see. See, and what I wanted our kids to understand from the get-go is the soul of the sluggard craves. Here's what that means. Lazy people want things too. Everybody wants something, but are you willing to work for what you want? Because that is the difference between someone who gets and someone who doesn't have. And when we think about this sluggard or we think about being slothful.
Speaker 1:I know sloths and slugs are different animals, but there are some things they share in common. Number one even if you were the slowest person in this room, you were faster than both of these animals. They do nothing quickly. Like slugs are slow enough that if you have a handful of salt, you can dehydrate them really quick, right? Not that I think any of you have those, like you know, weird tendencies to want to just torture animals, but you could. Another thing what do they do, like? What does a sloth do? All day long, sleeps and just hangs there and is just like eating. All day long. Sleeps and just hangs there and just like eating all day long. Right, like they are designed in such a way that they are made ideal for just hanging in this tree and eating all day. And I go. And what Paul is saying, and the reason he's using that word slothful is because he's sitting here, going, don't be like a sloth. Neither one of them are known for doing things quickly. Neither one of them are known for being efficient workers. Like they literally just sit there all day. See, and like I said, everybody wants something.
Speaker 1:As Christians, we all want to have a deeper, more robust relationship with Jesus. As Christians, we should all want to see the church grow. As Christians, we should all want to see unbelievers come to believe in Jesus and really, at the end of the day, right, every single one of us Christians want to stand in front of Jesus and hear what Well done, good and faithful servant. But as you look at your own life, if you were to stand in front of Jesus, does he have reason to look at you and go well done, good and faithful servant. Or are we one of those Christians that are just really in the back of our minds, hoping that we can just kind of sneak on into this thing and really not even have to see Jesus, like, hey, we got saved, so we're good. And as long as we can kind of like stay towards the back of the line, maybe we can just move in with the big group and not really have to make eye contact, because some of us that's really what our life would boil down to right. So we all want to hear it, but do you want it bad enough to actually do something about it?
Speaker 1:Francis Chan I don't know 10 years ago has a great routine or clip that he did in which he equates the Christian life to gymnast and it's called the balance beam. So if you just if you went home today and you looked up Francis Chan balance beam, you'll be able to see it. But what he's talking about is how, like Christians on a whole, like if you could picture us working on a balance beam and and you know, for those of you that don't follow like gymnastics. It's literally what it says right, it's a what I think a three or a four inch beam that these, these people can get up and they do flips and and they do all of this crazy stuff on, and then they get scored and and when he he's like but most of us christians we don't do that, we just and he gets on this beam and he literally straddles the beam and sits here and holds it because we're afraid to fall off of it and then at the end we want to stand before a judge and get a score. It's the same thing that we're talking about.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day. Do you want to have these things, these spiritual giftings, bad enough to actually work for them, to actually do good, to actually have the evidence, to be able to stand before Jesus so that he can say well done, good and faithful servant. Or is it like most things in your life, you want to do the bare minimum that's required of you to get the maximum benefit at the end? Think about it. I've worked enough jobs in my life and been that guy, there was one job I'm not going to say where, but I aced the employment there. We had a big warehouse with a lot of fertilizer and stuff like that and it was very dark and they kept it climate controlled because this stuff can grow mold and it was nice to be able to walk into a warehouse and take fertilizer and make like beds and chairs out of it and have a place to lay down when you know there's nothing to go on at work.
Speaker 1:I've worked at I don't know many different restaurants that have I don't know if you know this or not but your food is kept in a freezer. That is just like the temperature is amazing, especially if you're in a hot kitchen here in Florida. So every once in a hot kitchen here in Florida, so every once in a while, you may or may not find yourself just sitting in the freezer just enjoying what penguins must feel like every day. See, there's things like I mean we haven't even gotten it in construction, like there is a reason why the city takes so long to do things and it's not because you're out there humping it every day, it's. You know we're sitting here going. Hey, I want to do my minimum. I worked with a guy everything, everything, everything. You told him, well, I only have 10,862 more days. And finally I was like, well, why do you keep saying that? And he's like, oh, that's 30 years, so I'm just going to count down the days until I can just retire. See, think about it.
Speaker 1:Anybody in here ever gone to a ball field like on a Saturday, I mean, there's literally depending on the size of the ball field you're at there can literally be hundreds of young kids sitting there going, hey, I'm going to make it to the pros one day, when, in fact, 99.998% of them won't. They all have that dream too, though why won't they make it there? Because what separates the ones that do make it from the ones that don't make it? And anyone in here who your first thing was like well, natural talent? No, because I'm going to tell you most of them are all about the same talent range. Some may be a little faster, some may have a stronger arm, some may have a little bit better hand-eye coordination, but for the most part, they're all about the same. What separates how hard you're willing to work? Those guys that go get those big seven-figure contracts I can guarantee outworked every single person on that field. That's why they are in the top .002% of people that do that, and if you're at a Pop Warner field, the statistics even lower, because, for the first time, america baseball is not our pastime anymore, and it ain't even close. The NFL crushes it and I go. We got to think about this, though. It's how hard they're willing to work, and that's what Paul is sitting here driving at right
Speaker 1:now. Don't be slothful in zeal. We have the tendency as Christians to be very, very, very lazy, very lazy. James 4.8. Going back to our relationship with God, james 4.8 says this Draw near to God and God will draw near to you. Now, I know all of us in here are not ELA teachers, but what kind of statement is that Begins with a C? Good job, jt, like JT is crushing it this
Speaker 1:morning. It's a conditional statement. In other words, if you want God to draw near to you, what do you have to do? Draw near to God. It's the same thing I tell couples in marriage counseling all the time, because here's what we do we make conditional statements in our relationships. I will change if you change this. It's not a bartering system. That's not how it works. The first question I ask any couple when I sit down in marriage counsel is this if they do not change, will you still stay? Because if your answer to that is no, what's the point of counseling? You've already, in your mind, sat here and went I'm out the door unless I get what I want. It's not a contract negotiation. You're not just walking away from a used car because they won't give you the free undercarriage, wash or whatever it is. See, and this is what Paul is driving at Like, think about it. You sit here week after week after week and you're sitting here and I talk to enough people to go oh, I just want to feel. I just want to feel closer to God. Well, what are you doing to feel that? How's your prayer life? Look, how's your scripture reading. Look, what's your devotional life. Look like Me and Debbie praise God got to celebrate 21 years on
Speaker 1:Thursday. We were talking to girls and you know Kayla had made a comment about something. I'm not even a hundred percent sure what it was, but we were talking about like marriage, right, and we shot out with what every old married couple says right, marriage is hard. Then I stopped and I was like wait, yeah, about 10, 15% of the time we've been together. It was hard, don't get me wrong, but honestly it's not that hard. Like we've gone through some things, don't get me wrong. But I was like 80% of this went pretty easy. All we had to do was what we're supposed to do, like I
Speaker 1:go. But when we celebrated, I racked my brain about what to get her, Cause here's the hard thing right, as you get older, like you young kids in here, you'll you don't understand this yet, cause when you're young, everything is cool, right. So getting a present for a young person is like, super easy. I remember like JT hit maybe like 13. I remember like JT hit maybe like 13. And all of a sudden, his presents went from like $5 action figures to $500, like gaming centers, and it was like, well, look, here's the deal. There's this thing called a budget and if this is the present you're asking for, you're only going to get one present and we're going to combine Christmas and your birthday. We luck out, because there's only a two-week difference between them. So if this is really what you want here, but understand, this is eating up your whole
Speaker 1:budget. Now, when you get older, though, right, you get to a certain point I don't remember what birthday it was where it was like look, honestly, don't bring me anything. Remember what birthday it was where it was like look, honestly, don't bring me anything. Because, honestly, at this point in my life, if I really want something, what am I going to do? Yeah, I don't have to wait for my birthday anymore to go get things. Like some of you young kids in here, that may be the only time during the year you get things is your birthday or Christmas, right, but when you get to be my age and you have your own money, if you really want something like a couple of weeks ago, I really wanted a fishing pole, so guess what, I went and got A new fishing
Speaker 1:pole. So I'm looking at Debbie and I'm like what do I get her In publics, of all places? I'm walking down the aisle and there's this like display I've never seen in the store before and it's full of all of these different devotionals in publics. And in my mind I went this has got to be God like I've never. This isn't a Christian bookstore, this isn't like. I don't even know how they paid to get this and they must not know what they have in here because one of them. It's called morning and night devotionals by charles spurgeon, and I'm sitting here going like are you in publics? So you know what I was like, you know what? Here's what I'm gonna get debbie. I'm gonna get her a devotional and I'm going to tell her you need to use this. It says morning and night. Use it morning and night. And this really came because they had adult coloring books and that was honestly the first gift I was going to get her, cause I was like she needs something to kind of relax and just shut the mind down. But this has word searches in it, so it's kind of the same thing,
Speaker 1:see. But even if it's something simple like that, is that a way of drawing near to God? How many of us, really, you start your day in prayer? How many of us, like you, end your day with prayer? How many of us it's like I may pray before I eat, especially if I have to make the kids say a prayer? Like how many of us it's like I may pray before I eat, especially if I have to make the kids say a prayer? Like how many of us are like you know what I am going to read through the Bible? How many of us are sitting here and going. You know what? I'm going to pick a book of the Bible that I'm not super familiar with. Like anyone in here. Can you quote verses from like Zephaniah? Anyone in here know that that was a book in the Bible. Like how many of us sit here. Quote verses from like Zephaniah? Anyone in here know that that was a book in the Bible? Like how many of us sit here and
Speaker 1:go? You know what I'm going to work at this. I'm not going to be slothful in my walk with Christ, because here's the thing. You're going to have this. Excuse you ready. I don't have the time. You make time for everything else in your life, and here's the deal you will always make time for what is important to
Speaker 1:you. The question is what is important to you? I remember, and I forget which. It may have been Dave Ramsey or something like that, but there's that saying show me what you spend your money on and I'll tell you what's important to you. If you want to know what's important in your life as far as your money goes, just go through your statements and go okay, this is what I spent money on, so this must be what's important to me, like if you were to look at mine, you would
Speaker 1:see. Academy Bass Pro Shops, salt Strong. I know what's important to me as far as my money goes. Yes, we pay our bills too. Important to me as far as my money goes. Yes, we pay our bills too, but this is the stuff that comes off the top, because we could always live if all I had to do was fish. Right, I could feed my family. I will starve, but my family will be fed. Do the same thing when it comes to your time. Start treating your time the same way you treat your money. Because, I will argue, it's actually more important for you Because, understand this, if you spent everything that you have saved, could you always make more
Speaker 1:money? Yep, you waste a second of your life. Can you ever get that second back? Like, a little game I like to play with Debbie is just randomly shoot out, you know, like devastating, life-changing events and hypotheticals to her. Like just at random, though, like it can't be, in the middle of a conversation we were driving the other day and I was like Deb, does it ever blow your mind that, like you only have a set number of heartbeats and you don't even know which heartbeat number you're on. Yet Like we've gotten so deep in this conversation and we've sat down and like mathematically tried to figure out how many heartbeats the average person has a year and then like, okay, this is how many years old we are. I wonder how many we have left. But when you live life with that understanding of going, this isn't a given, tomorrow's not promised. I know all of us know that, but how many of us actually think that Then your time starts becoming a valuable resource and it's a non-renewable one, because when you take your last breath here, regardless of what you believe, you don't get to do this again. There is no reincarnation, you're
Speaker 1:done. And how many of us are spending our time being slothful and doing things that really, at the end of the day, don't matter? This week I wasted a lot of time up here doing things that didn't matter. No one here this morning came in and went hey, can you show me your office? I just kind of want to see where you put everything. None of you are probably sitting here going. I want to go walk into the swamp room next door. We have a dehumidifier in there that fills up like twice a day and it doesn't help the temperature. See, none of you were like, hey, can I see how you organized the sharing center? Storage room over there? None of you. Or storage room over there? None of you. You all showed up to hear this and I didn't even put that much work. Let me rephrase that because I was up here for almost eight hours yesterday, but I didn't give this the devotion that it should have had, and that's how most of us are doing
Speaker 1:this. That's why Paul's next thing, after he says don't be slothful, is be fervent in spirit. Now, that word fervent is probably not a word that most of us in our day-to-day lives use. Here's what it means it means extremely excited or boiling. Now, some of us are probably like how does it mean those two things? Well, not to get too deep into chemistry, but does anybody in here know why water actually boils? It's because the water molecules are becoming so excited that they are literally hitting each other, and that's what causes boiling
Speaker 1:water. Does anybody know why steam comes out of that? Because it's hot. Well, that's close. Why? Okay, those are good guesses, and I know everyone in here is like not chemistry class bud, and I get it. But the reason we get steam is because, as these molecules are hitting each other, they're releasing what Energy that's what makes things hot okay, all heat is just so you guys need to know is wasted energy. So as these molecules are hitting each other, they're creating friction and releasing energy, and what that does is it creates pressure, and when that pressure gets to be too much, it literally has to escape from it or it's going to cause what An explosion. That's what boiling water is. It is an explosion of water. They're just very, very small
Speaker 1:explosions. That is what this word fervent means. Like Paul's sitting here, going. You should be exploding because you just got this inside of you and it can't be contained. Because you just got this inside of you and it can't be contained. How many of us that's our life Like, how many people in your life look at you and go? You know what. They're really explosive. And I don't mean in those like bad times, right, right, you know why I pointed at you Like I don't mean like in the negative connotation, like I don't know if you know this about me, but I have a very, very hard time like sitting still, because even when I'm just sitting still I'm a leg shaker, because there's just like something inside of me that just doesn't like to just
Speaker 1:stop. My mom said she used to cry when I was little because I just wouldn't sleep. I would only sleep like 15 to 20 minutes at a time, and that includes at night. And I go and there's just, I don't know what it is, it just is it's always going. See, this fervent in spirit is literally the opposite of slothfulness. It's sitting here, going. I have something inside of me that I cannot contain, so I have to get out there and do something. See, that's what being fervent in spirit means. It means this working on purpose for a
Speaker 1:purpose. This week I was busy. All week I was busy. Being busy. I wasn't actually accomplishing anything. Anyone else is that like how your life goes? You're always doing something, you're always busy, but every time you look at it you go. I am not actually accomplishing anything, I'm not actually moving to where I'm supposed to be going. I'm just busy for the sake of being busy. And it's funny because the Bible talks about that
Speaker 1:too. In 2 Thessalonians 3, starting in verse 11, it says this for we hear that some among you walk in idleness not busy at work, but busy bodies. Here's what this means Like you're doing things but you're not actually accomplishing anything, and for most of us, that's where we live we're doing things, but we're not really accomplishing anything. There's not a goal we're working towards right, it's we're just working to work. We're busy bodies. That's not what fervent in spirit means, though. Fervent doesn't mean be busy, just to be busy, and a lot of us that's what we like to do, because if we look like we're doing a lot, then people think we're doing a lot and then we'll just accomplish it. Right, think about all any leadership book. If you if you guys read in here at all you read leadership books, right, crushing it Like you just gotta be grinding, just gotta get in it and just gotta do it and do it, and do it and do it until you get your breakthrough. That is the stupidest advice anyone can give you, because you know what it's gonna lead to Not breakthrough, burnout. You're gonna be a car, just sitting there spinning your wheels and not actually going anywhere, and then you're going to get to a point where, all of a sudden, you go I'm tired and I just want to sit. You want to know what that leads to. I just want to go home and go to sleep. I know people in this room that could take like a multi-hour nap wake up, eat dinner and go right back to bed for the
Speaker 1:nighttime. May or may not just happened yesterday. Why? Because you burned yourself out. Did you accomplish your goals? No. Did you get done with everything? No, why not? Because you didn't have a plan. You just went. Ooh, I'm glad I kind of caught myself to the wall. You fill in whatever word you want to right there, but you never had a plan on what you wanted to accomplish. Well, let me ask you this If you left here and just started driving, are you going to get to where you're going? You're going to wind up somewhere, but it may not be where you wanted to go. You know how you're going to get to where you want to go. You started with an idea of where I want to go, but yet so many of us just live life like a leaf in the wind. We just sit here and go. If I just keep pushing at it, if I just keep grinding at it, oh, it's coming, it's almost
Speaker 1:there. If you've ever read the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the habits is this begin with the end in mind, right, and he gives this illustration in the book about how we strive and grind and work so hard to climb the corporate ladder. And he goes and you spend your life grinding and climbing and scratching just to get up one rung and you eventually make it to the top of the ladder and you find out you're on the wrong wall. And that was one of those things seriously I read and it just shook me because up until that point that is how I led my life and I went, uh oh, my ladder is on the wrong wall. So instead of just waiting 30 years to figure that out, let me do something about it now. See Ecclesiastes 9.10 tells us something else Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might. In other words, you should be a hard worker. Understand this, like those of us in here who struggle with
Speaker 1:work. When was work given to adam and eve? Before or after sin entered in creation? Before we were created to work? Not like you know, like you're created just to do mindless labor and that's all you were. I mean, adam's job was literally go make the rest of the world look like the garden, bring God everywhere. That was Adam's job. It's called the creation mandate. It's found in Genesis 1, 26 and 27. Bring God everywhere. That was Adam's job. It's called the creation mandate. It's found in Genesis 1, 26 and 27. Be fruitful, multiply, go and fill the earth and subdue it. But see, that's what we were created to
Speaker 1:do. That's why, honestly, especially like you men in here, if you've ever had to just sit at home, like the first couple of days are great, right, you man, this is, this is what I wanted. You're not a man. You kind of just kick up your feet. You know. You're like this is everything I pictured. But by the second or third week you're like what am I gonna mow the yard again? Like I'm gonna wash the car again again? What's the point of even doing another tune-up? I haven't even driven the car anywhere. Why am I going to do an oil change? There's no way. I hit the 3,000-mile mark yet and you start going stir crazy because you're not meant to just sit there, you're not meant to just do
Speaker 1:nothing. And there are plenty of Bible verses I could point to to show us this, but I will run out of time and I don't want to do that, because I want to end with this Bible verse, not my message, but this section, luke 19.10, says this the Son of man came to seek and save the lost. Do you think Jesus had a purpose statement? Yeah, do you have a purpose statement? I'm going to go with probably not right Kind of just like this is where my life ended up. I'm making the best of a bad situation. I'm just going to kind of just do the thing here. Understand everything Jesus did. He did on purpose, with a purpose. He was fervent in spirit. He was sitting here going. The purpose of this is to seek and save the lost here at Mission Center. I'll tell you right now our purpose is to seek and save the lost, which means, if it's a barbecue, if it's a fishing trip, if it's a weekly service, if it's school, if it's videos, if it's podcast, it doesn't matter what we do. We do what we do on purpose for a
Speaker 1:purpose. Like when I take a new person out fishing, it's not just so like they can catch a fish. Are they going to catch a fish? Absolutely Like. That is one of the purposes of why we're going out. I love when people are like oh, I've never caught a fish At the beach baptism, there was a guy
Speaker 1:right. I pull up onto the beach and, like four different people that I've never met, run up to me and they're like he's never caught a fish, he's bad luck. The first thing out of my mouth was like come on, get in the boat, we're gonna get you on a fish. And it took a minute. It was a little harder, maybe his luck was a little worse, but you know the God I serve, he's a fisherman, so you know what he did. He went, cast on the other side of the boat and we did, and he in one of the smallest snapper I've ever seen in my life. But you know what he did. He pulled in a fish and then you know what we did. We talked about what it means to be a father. We talked about different things that we. I've never met this person before. I don't know anything about their family, but I do know he has a son and his son and JT have a lot of similarities Because we were having conversations that even JT looked at me and went, oh daddy, we've talked about this before, so I
Speaker 1:go. Was God glorified in that? Absolutely. See, it's on purpose for a purpose, and that purpose is to seek and save the lost. Some of us need to stop living our life like a leaf in a wind. Understand, a leaf falls off of a tree and the wind blows. Does that leaf have any choice in where it's going? Nope, some of you, that's how we live our life. Your life looks the way it does because you chose to not have any control or discipline throughout your life. Some of you I get it, we got. You know bad breaks that happen. We live in a sinful world. But I promise you, if you were to stop and go, you know what we need to have a purpose statement for our life. We need to look at our time the same way we look at our money, and we need to budget our time just like we would our money, your life will look different. You just have to do things differently, because if you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always got. At least one of you are paying attention. I thought that one was a softball question. Everything you do shouldn't be done just to do something. It should be done so that one more can be added to the kingdom of God. Now Paul closes this portion, the same way we're going to close
Speaker 1:today. Serve the Lord In the announcements we talked about serve Saturday, I told you, uh-oh, I think that's going to come back up in the message. It will, because as we go out and serve people, because I know and here's the deal no one ever comes and tells me things directly, but someone always comes and tells me something someone else said Right, no one has ever like, came straight to me, like you know how Paul's's like. I saw Peter and I confronted him to his face. Like that doesn't happen. But I have heard whisperings and murmurs and and people going why does he always talk about serving? Really, because even the son of man came not to be served but to serve. A student will never be better than his master. So if Jesus always talked about serving, guess what I'm going to talk about Serving? Why? Because Jesus talked about it. So Paul's sitting here going to serve the
Speaker 1:Lord. When we serve others, it does two things. One, it keeps us from focusing on ourselves, which I love you enough to say this. Every single one of us in this room left unchecked. You are the most selfish person I have ever met. That goes for every single one of us in this room. Now, that being said, you know an easy way to check your selfishness. Serve others, because if I'm serving someone, I'm not worried about me. So it does that. Number two, you know what it does. I'm not serving them to serve them, I'm serving them to serve the Lord.
Speaker 1:Jesus. In Matthew 25, and you're not going to see it on the screen because it just hit me has this long exchange where he's talking to his disciples and he's like when you saw me in prison, you comforted me. When you saw me hungry, you fed me. When you saw me naked, you clothed me. And his disciples turn and they look at Jesus and they're like Jesus, are you crazy? We've never seen you in jail. We've never seen you hungry and we've never seen you in jail. We've never seen you hungry and we've never seen you naked and he
Speaker 1:goes. You missed the point of what I'm telling you. When you did it for the least of these, you did it for me. So when we serve someone else, we're not serving them because they need it, we're serving them because Jesus goes. When you did it for the people that couldn't do it for themselves, you did it for me. So again I ask you want to stand in front of Jesus and you want to hear well done, good and faithful servant, but you won't serve others, you won't give to others, you won't like, like, just stop everything you're doing. Because someone else needs something, then you know who you didn't do it for, because Jesus does continue in that parable and he goes. And you did not do it for me. So understand, when you withhold, you're not withholding from that person, right? Ephesians 6, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. Our battle isn't against people. Our battle is against who? The powers of the present darkness of this present age. So Jesus is sitting here and he's going. Hey, you want to hold on to it for you, cool, but understand, you're keeping it from me and he owns the cattle on a thousand
Speaker 1:hills. If Jesus wanted you to give away all your money, guess what he would do? You would give away all your money. You know how? I know that Because Pharaoh was raised up for this purpose. One of the greatest empires to ever be on earth was raised up for the purpose of this, so that God could show Israel who God is. That was the only purpose they were raised up for. Now, I'm sure if you were an Egyptian at the time, you wouldn't have believed that right, but that is hence why you know who's not a superpower in the world right
Speaker 1:now? Egypt. You go there now to see some dusty tombs. They're not making a comeback and you can't like say stuff under your breath behind me. You know I get distracted very easily. And where did you hear that from? To begin with, the pyramids, because they're power generators and not
Speaker 1:tombs. But see, this is what chaps me so much, with the church always telling people this the free gift of salvation. Now, some of you you're like uh-uh, romans 6, we already went through this. Salvation is a free gift and it is free in the fact that there's nothing you can do to earn it. Hebrews would tell you you were bought and paid for with a price, though, so it wasn't free that way. You want to know another way. It's
Speaker 1:free. We have to stop overemphasizing the free gift of salvation and underemphasizing the cost of following Jesus. If you open up in your Bibles to Luke 9, 23, guess what? That little subheading? I know that was added later. If you were here Wednesday, you remember hearing how chapters and verses and stuff like that were added later. But if you open it up, this has a little subheading right before it and it says the cost of discipleship. See, there is a cost that comes with being a disciple, with being a follower of Jesus. You want to know what it is. Everything, everything. Jesus says this if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow
Speaker 1:me. You ever looked at someone and you had to change a lot in your life and this may or may not be a personal story, but I'm not going to get too in depth with it you ever had to change, like a lot about you. Like a lot about like you had to give up a lot of things. And you look at them and you're like why don't you ever have to give up anything? Oh, I'm the only one? Cool, but see, that's what it
Speaker 1:is. See, like there's a cost to being married, is there not? Like I can't just do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it, regardless of how many times I tell Debbie the Bible says submit to your husband. Like I just can't live whatever life I want to live. I can't just you know what today decide. Hey, you know what I'm out Like, I'm going to go take a three-day vacation. Now, if I went to Debbie and we had that conversation and I was like, hey, I'm going to take JT, we're going to there's a three-day, it's a 96-hour charter fishing trip. They take you out like into the middle of the Gulf you fish for like all these amazing things. They feed you. It's like, yeah, cool, go do it. But you know what I can't do? Just go home, pack my stuff and leave. You know why? Because I have a wife and kids to worry
Speaker 1:about. See, there's a cost to being married. If I do something Debbie doesn't like, do you think there's a cost to that? A little bit right, she's hot-blooded. She lives up to that stereotype, does that Latina? There have been times she's thrown shoes at me. There's a cost to
Speaker 1:it. Sure, we can lie in church now too. Sure, we can lie in church now too. There's a cost of following Jesus. The reason why he says serve the Lord is because the Lord served you. When Jesus says, let him deny himself. Here's what he's saying. Lay down who you are. It's not about you, it's about Jesus. It's not about me, it's about Jesus, it's not about me. This is why I say it week after week after week. This is not the church of
Speaker 1:Josh. I have a role that I play here, but every single one of us are here not for me but for Jesus, because if you're here for me, I'm going to tell you I make a terrible God. I'm extremely selfish. I want everything to flow to me. I am not very fair. I play favorites. I make a terrible God, not Jesus, though. Like seriously like the playing favorites, just because some of y'all were looking at me like kind of weird. Does anybody in here doubt that Debbie is my favorite? Like she's my wife? We are one. So if you were looking at me like what do you mean play favorite? I'm not talking about partiality in the church. I don't even know who gives what, I just know hey, here's what we got. My kids ask me all the time who's your favorite child? I purposely go out of my way to make them mad with that answer and I will never pick the one who's asking, because if you've got to ask, then you obviously are not my favorite, right, like my favorite doesn't have to ask, right,
Speaker 1:gebs? But see what this means is pour your life out for others by serving Jesus, because Jesus' mission is simple Seek and save the lost. Understand it is no longer your life. You come and follow Jesus. Here's what Galatians 2.20 says I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
Speaker 1:me. Adopt that mentality in your life and tell me how your life will change. Start looking at others not as like projects, but as someone who is dead in their trespasses and sin. Like you want to be a hero. You have the power to bring resurrection to their life, redemption and restoration, to take what is dead and make it alive, like that's the God we serve. But how many of us are taking the time to serve him? How many of us are actually doing what the Bible commands to
Speaker 1:do? And yes, if you don't show up on Saturday at 8 am up here, you should feel guilty. You know why Because you have nothing else going on in your life. That is that important that you can't take a couple of hours and go. You know what I'm going to serve someone else Now. If it's a physical impairment, I get it. Understand that there's still something you can
Speaker 1:do. You can sit and talk to someone because you want to know. It's a secret. It's easy for me. I can show up at anyone's house and do any amount of work that they need done. You want drywall, man? We could drywall. You want your windows replaced? We can replace windows. Oh, you want me to dig a pond in the backyard, regrade it and everything. Cool, let's go Throw the sod on the pond, I'm good with it. You want me to sit and talk, and I don't know you. I mean, I'll get through it, but there are people that are way better equipped in this room than me to do that. That's why, if you ever are talking to me and all of a sudden you see Debbie walk over, understand. I gave her the signal. She knew it was time for her to intervene. I'm going to the
Speaker 1:back. But see, we all have that was the whole purpose of the spiritual gifts right, because we all have things that we bring to the table, things that only you bring to the table, things that no one else in here is as good as you with. So, as we close today, let me ask you are you slothful and lazy? Are you fervent in spirit and are you serving God? Because if you are a follower of Jesus, understand Jesus laid down everything he was for those around him. Are you doing the same? If not, why not? If not, you need to do better, not because of guilt, not because of shame, but because that's what you're called to do as a follower of
Speaker 1:Christ. So, jesus, as we close today, I ask and I pray that if there's anyone in here who has hard work that needs to be done, that God, you just do that work. That, god, you do what no one else in this room has the ability to do. You take that scalpel to the heart and, god, you peel back everything and replace it with what you have desired. Father, I ask and I pray that if there's anyone in here who is sitting here right now, god, I ask and I pray that, first and foremost, you let them know that you are with them and then, father, you give them the courage, strength and boldness they need to make whatever changes they need to. Father, we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.