Change Your World

Amen. Take your Bibles, if you will,

and turn to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention Acts 17 · chapter mention

That'll make you want to get up here and preach.

That was going to be a short message, but I don't know if

it's going to be. Now, I don't ever say that.

I, I don't ever say it's going to be a short message because as

soon as I say that it's going to be long and then everybody turns

it off after the short part is over.

And I don't, I don't like to get to that point.

But boy, we had a great Bible conference.

And I know it was a couple weeks ago now I've wanted to preach a

follow up message to that. But last week was our friend day

and next week is Easter. The following week is going to

be our missions emphasis. And so, you know, this is the

only chance I really have to give you a follow up message

that that follows up our conference.

I haven't. I have another message that

God's laid on my heart that I'm working on and developing and I

think. It'll be helpful for us as well.

I'm going to preach that soon, but you have a.

Conference where God speaks to your heart and where you know

you're you, you made some decisions and you you know that

you need to make some changes maybe or, or some of the things

that you're already doing, you need to shore up.

Where do you go from here? How do you take steps forward

after you've made a decision for Christ?

And I think right along with this, this, this passage here in

Acts chapter 17, we're going to get there in just a minute.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

And I would, I would recommend maybe putting a ribbon or a

bookmark in there. We're going to come back to it.

We're going to jump around a little bit in the Bible this

morning. But you know, throughout

history, there's, there's been people who who have set out to

change the world. Most people want to make the

world a better place, whatever that means.

You know, that's not always the case, but you know, you have

terrorists, you're trying to rule the world by fear of the

next explosion or the next catastrophe, and they want to

change the world in that way. But you know, some people will

try to change the world by destroying computers and hacking

into systems and doing all those things.

I always. Thought, you know, if those guys

would actually use the knowledge that they have to do that for

something good, they could probably be multi millionaires,

if not billionaires. You know why people want to do

that? I don't have any idea.

But if you were to ask a kid or maybe even a young adult what

they want to do with their life, the answer would always be or

mostly would be that they want to do something that changes the

world. I want to change the world and

you know. Sometimes it could be they want

to come up with the greatest invention or they want to find

the cure for cancer or this or that.

I want to change the world. They want to be the one that

that, you know, drives innovation or, or comes up with

some kind of program computer wise or technology that that

just that just drives the world forward and changes the world.

I mean, you think about, you know, the invention of cars and

how it changed the world, the invention of airplanes and how

it changed the world. And, you know, lots of different

inventions that that people came up with the light bulb that just

that changed the world. And I actually heard, you know,

sometimes it doesn't always go as planned.

That was the case with the founder of of Segway.

Anybody ever ridden a Segway? OK, there's one.

See, I, I have not. But you know, the, the guy that

founded Segway was actually a, a pretty well known inventor.

And I forget some of the things that he had invented, but

they're things that we use a lot of.

And so everybody was excited about this next new invention

that he was working on. He touted this thing, this is

going to be the invention that changes the world.

And for months and months, in fact, maybe even a couple years,

he was, he kind of hid himself away while he was working on

this invention. And he came out with the Segway.

And I suppose it had the potential really to change the

way that people travel around, especially in cities and

everything else. But it just never really took

off. And I think, I think it really

hit a road bump, Jimmy hit Heselton.

He was actually the, he wasn't the inventor, but he was the

owner of the Segway company. And I don't know if you heard

about this because I think it was back in maybe 2010, 2012,

something like that. He lived in England and he was

riding a Segway and he rode right off the edge of a Cliff

and died on his Segway. That was not very good.

Not not very good advertisement for the company, but anyway.

You know, everybody wants to, to change the world.

Everybody wants to make an impact on the world.

And as we, as we read this passage here in Acts chapter 17

Acts 17 · chapter mention

this morning, you can see that there's a, there's a totally

different idea about what changing their world meant and

what a lot of people mean when they say that they want to

change the world. There's a difference between

those two things, many people. You know that, you know, say

they mean that they want to make it easier, make it an easier

place to live or develop things that will make everyone's life

easier. Whatever, whatever they say,

when they say they want to change the world, some, some

might even say that they want to make the world a better place,

whatever that means when they say that.

But what most folks mean by changing the world is they want

to have a global impact. They want to do something that's

going to make an impact on the entire world.

Everybody is going to know their name.

Everybody is going to use their invention.

Everybody's going to benefit from what they did and they

changed the world. But how do you make that happen?

Everything you do has a ripple effect, starting with your your,

your own family, your wife, your kids, your friends, your

coworkers, and it and it goes out from there.

And that's that's not simple fantasy.

I believe that we can change the world.

Look what these men did in Thessalonica in Acts chapter 17

Acts 17 · chapter mention

and verse #1 now when they had passed through.

And excuse me, Amphibolis, in Apollonia they came to

Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews.

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them.

And three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures,

opening, and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered

and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I

preach unto you, is Christ. Now this is.

This is what's known as Palm Sunday.

This is the day that that they laid the poems down and Jesus

rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and and they were

crying Hosanna in the highest. This is Jesus Christ.

Didn't take long for that to change.

A week later, they crucified him and.

For months and years after that, there was a lot of people who

didn't even believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

In fact, that's that's what I mean.

That's what the Jews still believe today, right?

And that's one of the reasons they crucified him.

But Paul was going into these synagogues and he's saying Jesus

Christ had to suffer and he had to die, but he had to raise

again from the dead. And he was, he was, he was not

arguing with them, but debating with them and discussing these

things with them. Verse #4 the Bible says.

And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas,

and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief

women not a few. But the Jews, which believe not,

moved with envy, took under them certain lewd fellows of the base

resort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an

uproar, and assaulted the House of Jason, and sought to bring

them out to the people. And when they found them not,

they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the

city, crying. These that have turned the world

upside down are come, hit her also, whom Jason hath received.

And these all due contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying

that there is another king, one Jesus.

And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they

heard these things. And when they had taken security

of Jason and of the other, they let them go.

And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by

night unto Berea, who coming through there went into the

synagogue of the Jews. Now they were not going to be

stopped, right? They, they go into the

synagogue, they preach and they teach Jesus that they, they turn

the world upside down and they brought these guys out.

They beat them and they said, all right, you guys need to

leave, get out of here in secret before they beat you too.

And they left and they went to another city.

I didn't, they didn't hide their light under the bushel.

They didn't say, wow, that was a little close call and we're

going back home. They went right back into the

synagogue and they started preaching Jesus.

But having a global impact starts with small steps.

You don't say I'm going to change the world or I'm going to

impact the world for Christ and tomorrow it's done.

But I think if I were to ask you to raise your hand, I think

every one of you would raise your hand and you say, I want to

make an impact on this world for Christ.

How does that happen? How do you, how do you start

that process? Because you can't just say I

want to make an impact on the world and tomorrow you've made

an impact on the world. You got this.

You have to start somewhere and I and I think things like our

Bible conference that we just had is a is a great start.

It pushes us in that direction. We start being convicted about

things that we need to change that are going to help us to

reach this world for Christ, that are going to help us make

an impact on this world for Christ.

There's a number of steps that I want to look at this morning

that'll help us to view this idea of changing the world the

right way. We want to impact this world for

Jesus Christ. That's that's the only thing

that's going to matter. One of these days.

We're going to stand before God and he's not going to ask you,

did you cure cancer? Did you come up with the next

greatest invention? Did you did you help the world

become a better place to live? He's going to say, what did you?

Do for me, what did you do that made an impact on the world for

Christ? It's pretty much impossible for

one person to change the world, but every one of us has the

potential to impact our world. We can impact the world that we

live in here. I may never be able to do

anything in Africa. I've never been there.

I may never be able to do anything in in in Mongolia or in

some of the other places around the world.

I've never been there. But I can impact my world.

I can make an impact on the world that God has placed me in.

And maybe there'll be a ripple effect that'll.

Spread out and it'll affect somebody else who will affect

somebody else who will affect somebody else and we can change

the. World for the cause of Christ.

But I want to look at that thought this morning.

I have 8 things and they're pretty short.

Don't panic. You have lunch right after this,

all right? Lunch is right after this so I

can go till one O clock. And you'll be fine.

That's about the time you'd get home for lunch anyway.

Change your world. That's the that's the thought

that I want to talk about this morning.

How do we make that happen? Let's pray.

We'll look at a few things this morning.

Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.

We thank you for the opportunity we have to be here together this

morning may be a help. Now you give us a greater desire

to impact the world that you've placed us in for the cause of

Jesus Christ. And may this be a help to get us

to that point. Thank you again for all you do

for us in Jesus name, Amen. Number one, I want you to see

this. Examine yourself, examine

yourself. Keep your finger there in Acts

Acts 17 · chapter mention

chapter 17, but let's go to Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Philippians, Chapter 3. When I say examine yourself,

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

what I'm saying is that if you want to change the world, you

have to start with yourself. You have to start with yourself

if you were looking to make an impact for Christ, Number one,

you've got to know Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior.

How are you going to make an impact for Christ?

How are you going to tell somebody else how they can go to

heaven? How are you going to tell

somebody else how they can have their sins forgiven if you don't

even know that your sins are forgiven yourself?

Of course, that's the first place to start, but that starts

also with studying yourself. The devil is going to use your

weaknesses to get you to be ineffective for Jesus Christ.

And I I I. I, I'm not going to say it too

many more times, but I know when you have a Bible conference in

and God points things out to you in your life and you say, wow,

this is a weakness of mine. I need to change this.

This is something that I need to do better or this is something

that I, I really need to get a handle on if I'm going to really

make an impact for Christ. You need to study what your

weaknesses are because I can promise you this, the devil has

already done that and he knows what your weaknesses are and

he's going to attack them and he's going to pound them and

he's going to hammer on them. And if he can get you to fall in

that weak point, then he's made you ineffective for Christ.

The reason he's so effective at that is because many people just

don't realize what their weaknesses are, or they ignore

their. Weaknesses.

They just they know they have a problem with this or that so

they just pretend it doesn't exist or they accept the fact

that that's just the way that it's going to be.

That's who I am and that's how I guess I'm probably always going

to be Philippians chapter 3 and verse #12 Paul says not as

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

though I had already attained either were already perfect, but

I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I

am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Paul is saying I know that I've

not arrived. I know that I have more to do

and I'm not. I'm not looking at life as if

I've already attained everything that needs to be attained.

I know I'm not perfect. I know I have weaknesses.

I know I have shortcomings and he's willing to work on them.

I'm pressing toward the mark for the prize.

Of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Turn over to Revelation Chapter 3.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

See, to to be self critical is absolutely imperative if you

want to influence the world around you.

And I know that goes, that goes totally opposite of what the

world is telling you today. You need to be your own best

friend and you need to love yourself and you need to do all

of these things for yourself. And in some cases, you know,

it's, it's I mean, it's not, it's not that you can't ever do

something that you enjoy doing. I'm not saying that you can't do

that. I'm not saying that, you know,

that you should, you know, go kill yourself or something.

Like, I'm not saying that at all.

But what I'm saying is we need to be critical of ourselves far

too often. We're way too easy on us.

You know, think about how hard you would be on somebody else

and how easy we are on ourselves and how much of A pass we give

ourselves many times. What are your weaknesses?

Work on them. What are your strengths?

Work on those and shore them up right.

Figure it out. You've got to know yourself.

Revelation chapter 3 and verse #2 Be watchful and strengthen

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

the things which remain that are ready to die.

For I have not found thy works perfect before God.

What stirs you into action? Nobody can be in your head

except you, right? But but many times people are

not going to be as critical as you need to be on yourself.

But you have to be honest with yourself.

Don't give yourself a pass that you wouldn't give somebody else

a pass on. Be your own worst critic.

I don't pray enough. I don't read my Bible enough.

I don't witness enough. I don't give enough when it

comes. I'm my own worst.

Critic, you know, you probably have a long list of things that

you see that are wrong with me that you don't like or, or

different things that you wish I would do differently or whatever

else. I can promise you this, my list

of of the things that I'm working on and the list of the

things that I don't like about where I'm at, it's.

Probably twice as long as yours is.

We ought to be our own worst critic.

We ought to know where our weaknesses are.

And if you don't know what your weaknesses are, you're going to

fall, right? I mean, it's if you if you think

about a a chair that's sitting there and somebody saw it almost

all the way through one of the legs and you look at it and

you're like, yeah, it's it's still there.

It'll be fine. You second, you sit down and

it's probably going to break and it's going to crack and you're

going to fall, right? Because you just ignored the

problem that was there. Everybody else can see it, but

you gave yourself a pass. It'll be all right, right.

And we do that with ourselves so many times, right?

Well, I know that this is a problem.

I know that I've got an issue with those things.

But you know, I'm, I'm, I'm all right compared to that person.

Look at him. Look at them.

Look at that church, right? And we compare ourselves with

ourselves. We should be comparing ourselves

to Christ and, and comparing ourselves to the holiness of

God. And when we look at ourselves in

the light of God's holiness, we fall far short.

The hardest we could be on ourselves would still be far

less than what we should be on ourselves.

You know, the list goes on. Don't beat yourself up, but be

honest. Paul said this.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am

chief Paul. This is the great apostle Paul.

And Paul didn't say. Yeah, I mean, compared to most

everybody else. Look at me.

I mean, I know I'm not, I'm not perfect in everything, but I'm

pretty close to it, right? You read the Apostle Paul's life

and he was very honest with himself.

He was very honest before God. How?

How can you, as the apostle Paul, say I'm the chiefest of

all sinners? How do you say that?

Because you, you see yourself for who you really are in the

light of God's holiness. And the closer you get to God

and the more magnified God becomes in your life, and the

more powerful you see God and the bigger you see God in your

life, the smaller you see yourself and the more sinful you

see yourself. Oh, wretched man, that I am all

right. Was it John Newton that that

wrote the words to the song that that he would come to save?

What's the just I just lost save a Wretch?

Like me? Why did I, why did I forget

that? But that wasn't, that wasn't the

one that I was thinking of, He said to save a Wretch like me.

But he called himself a worm, right?

What's the phrase that I'm trying to think of before I go

crazy? For such a worm as I, right?

How can you say that? Because you know who you are in

the light of God's holiness? And I'm not comparing myself to

somebody else. I'm comparing myself to God.

And if I want to make an impact on this world, I've got to start

with me, and I've got to understand that I've got to

improve the areas that need to be improved.

I've got to fix the things that need to be fixed.

A man that is fully aware of his capabilities can then use those

for God's service. And a man that is fully aware of

his incapabilities can fix those things so that they can be.

Used in God's service to change your world, you must examine

yourself but #2 engage the right people surround yourself with

other people who are going in the same direction that's.

One of the reasons you're here this morning, whatever your

vision, whatever your plan, 2 heads are always better than one

when it comes to those things. And two people get together and

you, you get somebody else to catch a hold of that vision and

you can accomplish a lot together.

When it comes to winning souls and serving God, you're much

more likely to stay on course if you if the others around you are

interested in the same things. If it's just you every Saturday

morning showing up to go out knocking on doors and telling

other people about Christ, you're probably not going to do

it for very long if you're the only one that ever does it.

But if you come out here and there's 1015, twenty, 30-40

other people that are doing that every Saturday with you, you're

much more likely to show up and, and keep going because you get

excited about it, because there's a lot of other people

who are excited about it and they're going in the same

direction. But that's why it's so

imperative that you don't skip church.

That's why it's so imperative that you stay away from the

people, the movies, the television, and other things

that could sway your mind and heart away from serving God.

Whether you think it's so or not, or whether you realize it

or not, your companions are going to influence your

decisions. The things that you watch on

television are going to influence your decisions.

The music that you listen to is going to influence your

decisions. The people you hang out with are

going to influence your decisions.

And you may think, no, I'm stronger than I can handle that,

but I promise you they are making an impact on you.

And when you put yourself around people who are stronger than you

are, and when you put yourself around people who have a great

desire to live for the Lord, it's going to encourage you to

keep doing that same exact thing.

You put yourself around all the people who are weaker than you

are. You put yourself around people

who have no desire to live for the Lord.

It's not going to be long before you are in that exact same boat.

At the very least, you're not going to accomplish what you

could be accomplishing for God. Turn over to Philippians chapter

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

2. See, what we're doing in this

church is so important. It's so important that we all be

on the same page and have the same desire to win souls and to

serve God. It's so important that we be a

group of like minded individuals.

In fact, it's not just important, it's commanded in the

Bible, Romans chapter 15 and verse #5 Now the God of patience

Romans 15 · chapter mention

and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another

according to Christ Jesus. Philippians chapter 2, you're

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

there. Look at verse #2 fulfill ye my

joy that ye be like minded. Having the same love, being of 1

accord of one mind. You ought to put yourself in a

place where everybody else is of the same mind and going in the

same direction. You want to be encouraged to

keep living for the Lord. Do it with a bunch of other

people. Boy, I, I mean, I mean, I can't

miss church or you'll know that I'm not here.

But you have the choice. The only person that has to be

here is me and my wife and kids. They don't have a choice either.

But you could, you could have chose to be anywhere this

morning, right? You could have chose to go

anywhere this morning. You could have chose to stay

home this morning if you wanted to.

But you made the choice to get up and come because you knew

that there was a lot of other people that are going in the

same direction that you are that are going to be here this

morning that are, that are going to be having a desire to sing

praises to the Lord and that are going to have a desire to

worship him together. And so you came and that's

that's why we do it. I watched the video clip.

It's it's been a couple years ago since I saw it now, but

there's it was some guy and I don't even it was actually, it

wasn't just a video clip of of music playing, but this it was,

it was actually somebody in the background kind of saying, hey,

this is this is look what's happening here.

This guy was there was it was some kind of music festival or

something like that. I don't know.

There's a big stage that was way off in the distance and

everybody was kind of sitting on this like grassy hill.

I guess there was no seats. It was just a grassy hill.

And the music's playing in the background.

And this guy by himself dancing just like, you know, just just

like a nut. I mean, only guy out there.

And and you can hear, you know, people are videoing, you know,

it's, it's just a video camera, I mean, a cell phone camera and

and somebody's video. I mean, you can hear him

laughing in the background. And look at this guy.

I mean, he was making a fool out of himself.

He really was. I mean, he was dancing around

and doing all this stuff. The next thing you know?

Another guy goes running over there and starts doing the exact

same thing and instead of looking at him like he was

crazy, the guy that was dancing there first stuck his hand up

and they high fived each other and they said and they started

dancing together. You know, just doing this.

I mean, just, I say dancing. I mean, I don't know what you

would call it, what whatever they're doing was, but they

were, they were, they were, they were just, you know, going at it

and and next thing you know. Two other people jump up and run

over there and then and then three more people and all the

all the sudden the people who were actually sitting on the

ground laughing at these guys were now the ones that were

getting up and running over there.

And next thing you know, there's a huge crowd of people that

we're all doing the exact same thing as this one individual guy

to the point where eventually the people who are sitting on

the ground that were not taking. Part in it look like the odd

ones out. Right and I and I and I thought

it was I thought it was very interesting this this original

man embraced the first follower. He treated him as an equal.

And before long other people saw that something was happening

that they wanted to be a part of.

And the next thing you know, there's a whole crowd of people

jumping be that that were so large they actually dwarf the

people who were not joined in. Let me tell you and, and

obviously that's just a goofy illustration, but.

That's how you change the world. The leader is important, right?

The, the, the without, without the vision of the leader, The

thing is never going to get off the ground.

But without the first few followers, the guy who is

leading is not a leader, right? He's just a, he's just a nut

that decided to do something that nobody else was doing.

And if nobody ever followed him, that's all he would ever be,

right? But you get people behind them

and get people following them. And that's what's important is

to have followers who show other followers how it's done.

And that's honestly, I think that's what we're doing here in

a lot of ways. I was crazy enough to start a

church or to try to start a church anyway.

And before long we had people willing to join in, willing to

to hitch their wagons to the goal.

We're doing the same thing in Belize, right?

It's, it's my job, but it's my goal to treat everyone as

equals. We are all in this together.

Somebody has to be the one that's in charge.

Somebody has to be the one that leads.

Somebody has to be the one with the vision.

But you could, there would be no church here this morning if it

was just me standing up here by myself, right?

If, if it was just me preaching a message to empty seats, it

wouldn't accomplish very much, right?

You have to have people who are willing to follow.

You have to have people who are going in the same direction

together. And there may be some people who

are sitting down there laughing at what we're trying to

accomplish. And there may be some people who

are saying those people are crazy.

But if we're all crazy together, eventually they're the ones that

look like the crazy ones because they didn't get involved in it.

All right, that's why it's so necessary to find like minded

individuals who can encourage you in the work of the Lord.

And I'll be honest with you, everybody's crazy.

Just a matter of what you're crazy about, all right?

I'd rather be crazy about the things of God and be crazy with

you all together #3 to change your world, you must examine

yourself, engage the right people #3 establish integrity.

Turn over to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

You must have integrity. If you want to have an impact.

You have to be consistent. You can't be one thing when

you're around the people at church and a completely

different person when you go around your work friends or when

you're alone. That hypocrisy is going to

become apparent very soon and you'll have 0 impact on those

people. The way you're going to win

souls for Christ, the way that you're going to make an impact

for Christ, is when they consistently notice that there's

something different about you. Why would somebody want what I

have if they have exactly what I already have, right?

If I'm living the same way that the world is living and I'm

doing all of the things that the world is doing?

By the way, that's the problem with most of the churches today.

You're playing this contemporary music that sounds no different

than what they could go down and get at in work after hours if

that's what they wanted to. You, you have a set of standards

that is no different than what they have anywhere they go.

You have you have nothing different.

Why would somebody want to come into the church and, and have

their life changed if their life is not changing to anything

else, right? I want to be so different from

the world and I want to be so distinctly Christian that people

say something's different about you.

What is it about you that you have that I don't have because I

want it? That's how we ought to be living

our lives, right? So when we talk about making a

difference, you have to be consistent.

You have to be consistently a Christian all day, every day.

You don't get days off as a Christian, right?

You go to work, you work five days a week, you get 2 days off.

You can take vacations. You don't have to be that worker

every single day. But when it comes to being a

Christian, you don't get days off if you want to make an

impact for Christ. You're a Christian everywhere.

You are, You're a Christian at home, you're a Christian at

church, you're a Christian at work, you're a Christian on

vacation. We're getting, we're coming to

the, to the, to the vacation months, right?

And all the sudden everything goes out the window.

When you go on vacation, you can act how you want, you can dress

how you want. You don't have to go to church.

I'm free, right? You're a Christian everywhere.

Or you're going to lose the opportunity to impact Christ,

Ben Franklin said. Character is what you are when

no one is looking. That's character, right?

It's not character. It's not integrity when you're

doing that only because everybody's watching you, right?

If I'm a Christian when I'm around other Christians.

But I live however I want and do whatever I want when, when

you're not, when the pastor is not sitting there in your home

with you or when other Christians are not over at your

house. And you can do whatever you want

to and act however you want to and live however you want to.

And long as I clean everything up and, and, and, and, and make

it look good by the time I go to church on Sunday, that's not

integrity. It's not character that is doing

whatever you want to in the dark.

Character is, is doing the right thing even when no one would

ever find out. I use the illustration with the

kids, right? There's a candy bar sitting on

that table, and I'm in here and nobody else is in here.

And I could grab that thing and walk out and nobody would have

any idea that it was ever me. And I knew that I could get away

with it. What are you going to do?

That's character. That's integrity.

I could get away with it, but it's not right.

Right. And how many people are

dishonest when you go to the grocery store and they forgot to

scan something and you walked out with it, right?

I can't tell you how many times that's happened.

A. A A case of water that was

underneath the bottom of the cart.

And I walked out and I was like. Oh, stink.

I never, I, I didn't pay for that.

And you go back in the store and you'll see the face of the

cashier. You what?

You want to pay for that. You already got out of the

store. Why would you come back in here

and pay for it, right? But that's what integrity is.

That's what honesty is. I'm either a Christian all the

time or I'm not a Christian at all, right?

I want to be like Christ all the time if I have the opportunity

to do it, and I do. Without character, you or we as

a church will drift with a cultural wind, or we'll join in

whatever is popular with the crowd.

That's why the church has such a low impact on this world today,

because the church is trying so hard to be like the world that

they're not making an impact on the world.

Why don't we go make an impact on the world instead of letting

the world impact the church? Drifters never make an impact.

Ephesians chapter 4 and verse #13 Till we all come in the

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,

unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the

fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children

tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of

doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby

they lie in wait to deceive. I don't want to be just.

Well, let me test the wind today and see which way is blowing.

OK, I'll go this way, right? I don't care what culture is

doing. I don't care what they say we

have to be, or what we have to say, or what we have to do.

What does the Bible say? I'm going to do that.

That's going to last a whole lot longer than culture will.

The Bible's been around a long time and it'll be around

forever. That's what the Bible says

forever. O Lord, thy word is settled in

heaven. This is going to be around a

long time after the cultural shifts have changed and things

are different than they are today and things are different

than they used to be back then. The, the, the winds of culture

change all the time. The God's word never changes.

And this is what I want to put my anchor in.

If you want to make an impact for Christ, then you better

establish that integrity. It's exactly why we're seeing

the modern contemporary churches doing what they're doing today.

They may be huge, but they're not making an impact for Christ.

They may, they may be making a dent in, in, you know, getting

out some food to some people that that are homeless or

whatever else, or that are, you know, insecure in their food or

whatever those things. And I'm not saying that those

things are bad, but what impact are you making for Christ?

How are the how are the lives of the people in that church

changed today compared to where they were?

If you're not making an impact for Christ, there's a there's a

reason why because you're just drifting with culture and you're

not standing up for anything. Doesn't mean anything unless you

actually have the integrity to stand up and do what's right,

even if nobody else is ever going to know if you do it, even

if nobody else is doing it. I want to make an impact for

Christ. I want to change the world.

That's how I'm going to have to do it.

Turn over to 1st Corinthians chapter 15.

I want you to see #4 it had changed the world.

We need to extend compassion, need to develop compassion

toward other people. Think about where you were

before you met Jesus Christ. Think about where you were and

where you were headed, what your life would be like without

Christ. It's very difficult for me to

imagine that I've been in church my whole life.

I didn't know Christ as my Savior my entire life.

I accepted him as a as my Savior when I was young, but I don't

know what my life would be like if I didn't know Christ as my

Savior. Some of you have an idea because

you got saved a little bit later in life and you saw Christ

change your life. But I don't know what.

My life would be like if I didn't know Christ as my Savior,

but I know it'd be very different than it is now.

I know it would be a totally different person than I am now.

Allow that to develop a compassion in you for the state

of others who have not found Jesus Christ yet.

First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse #10 But by the grace of

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

God, I am what I am. And his grace which was bestowed

upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than

they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Paul says, by the grace of God, I am what I am.

And there are people out in this world that are doing everything

they can, it seems like to destroy Christianity and

everything they can to, to, to, to get rid of the of, of God's

word and to make it irrelevant and to call it hate speech and

everything else. There's a lot of people that

just seem like they hate God and I think they do, but you just

have to remember that was you. That could be you, but not for

the grace of God. Let's look at them the way that

Christ looked at them. He said when he looked over

Jerusalem, he wept and he was moved with compassion because

they were, they were less sheep without a shepherd.

Once you open up your heart and your mind to the needs of

others, if you understand them, then you can help them and

ultimately you can lead them #5 turn over to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

To change your world, you must examine yourself.

Engage the right people, establish integrity, extend

compassion #5 embrace the mission.

Don't focus on recognition, but focus on moving the mission

forward. And our mission, maybe I should

say our Co mission, is to go out and win souls for Christ.

I believe God could use us so much more if we weren't

concerned about who got the credit for actually getting out

there and doing it. It's one of the reasons why when

we do these cards and we pass all these cards out and we have

a contest between the adults and the kids, we don't write names

down. We just write the numbers to see

who's who's winning and who gave out the most cards.

Because it's not about, oh, I get, I get more recognition

because I gave out this many cards and.

And you get less recognition because you didn't give out as

many. And it all becomes about show.

I'm doing it because I want to be recognized, not because I

want to get the gospel out right.

I believe God could use us so much more if we didn't care if

we got credit for the things that we're doing for God.

But most people, I said, shouldn't say most.

A lot of people will only do it if they can be recognized.

For doing it well, I'll go out and do that for God as long as I

can be out there in front and everybody can see me doing it.

You'll never find me cleaning the auditorium when nobody else

is here. You'll never find me cleaning

the bathroom. When, when, when, when it's late

at night and needs to be done right.

Nobody's going to see me doing that.

I hope that's not your mindset, but if we're going to accomplish

something, then we're going to have to be willing to accomplish

it whether we get credit for it or not.

And this is something that that most people will never be able

to accomplish because it's against our nature and training

to accept zero recognition for our achievements.

And there's the quote is attributed to several people,

but it's so true. It's amazing how much can be

accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.

It's amazing how much can be accomplished if nobody cares who

gets the credit right? Eagle can wreck even the best

plans and intentions, but if you master the ability to sit in the

shadows and just watch the work that you've put into it blossom,

you're going to learn very soon that no, no deed goes

unrewarded, no matter how small it is.

If it's done for God, if it's done for His work, He's the one

that's seeing it, and He's the ultimately the one that that

that matters anyway. Matthew chapter 5 and verse #16

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

let your light so shine before men that they may see your good

works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.

But he says this in Matthew chapter 6 and verse #1 Take heed

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them.

Otherwise you have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven.

You can do all the right things and if you do it with the wrong

motive, it doesn't count for anything.

If you're only doing it because you want people to recognize

what you're doing, it doesn't count.

He's saying you can give, you can give all of the money in the

world. You can, I mean, and that's what

these Pharisees were doing. They were taking these bags of

gold and making a big show about dropping all of this money in.

To the treasury, right? They were bringing all this

money to the temple to donate it to the work of God, but they

couldn't just donate it. They had to make sure that

everybody saw them donating it, right?

And God says, well, thanks for the donation, but it doesn't

count for anything because you're doing it just to be seen.

And that's the only reason you're doing it.

You're not doing it for me, you're doing it to be seen.

And you have no reward in heaven.

Keep your heart in mind on the end game creating the the type

of change in our world is a serious and it's a tough

responsibility. Those without the power of the

Holy Spirit are not going to last very long.

And if you're doing it to be seen, then it's very obvious

that you're not doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The world is such a tremendous distraction.

Money, popularity, power things, all of those things.

Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse #10 for demons.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Demons hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.

Stay focused on the finish line. Our goal is to serve God until

our life ends. Well, I don't want to.

I don't want to trip 10 feet before the end of the finish

line and fall and not make it there all right.

If we lose sight of that, we're never going to impact the world

for Christ. The way that we could or the way

that God wants us to #6 the way that you make an impact for

Christ is to exit your comfort zone.

Had to start with an E, But you understand what I'm saying is

get out of your comfort zone, right?

That change involves moving out of our comfort zone.

It takes great courage to stand up and stand out.

And to go takes even greater courage to have the conviction

to remain steadfast after you experience some kind of failure.

See, the devil's goal is to get us to quit because we didn't see

the results that we wanted to see.

Oh, we went out and we invited all these people to come out to

church, or I tried to share the gospel and I didn't see anybody

get saved or I didn't see anybody to come to church.

Why am I doing this anyway? This is such a waste of time.

I can't believe that I put all this effort into it and nothing

happened. Well, I can't tell you how many

times we especially at the beginning.

We we would order 5000 Flyers for anniversary Sunday or friend

day or something like that and we'd go out and pass out 5000

Flyers and not one person came from from getting a flyer.

Don't talk about discouraging. We did all this work for

nothing, but it wasn't for nothing.

We had the gospel on it. People read it, I'm sure, and

maybe they didn't come to church, but it counts for

something. We're doing God's work.

And He didn't tell us to go get results.

He told us to go do it. He told us to go tell people

about Christ. He told us to share the message

of the gospel. And if I'm doing what God's

called me to do, then it doesn't matter if I see results or not.

We like it. We like to see something come

from the work that we're putting into it.

But whether we see anything come from it or not, we still have to

do it. And a lot of times it takes us

getting out of our comfort zone. We just finished up with the

Winter Olympics last month. And then, you know, the talent

of those athletes is on full display.

But I can guarantee you that none of them would have been

there without the determination to develop their talents.

There's a lot of talented people in this world who probably could

do a lot of the things that those Olympians did, but they'll

never wear a metal around their neck because they don't have

the, the, the, the desire or the strength or the intestinal

fortitude. If you will to get up off the

couch and go out and make something out of themselves,

right. I know you, you look at the NFL

or the NBA and you think all these guys got all the talent in

the world. They're no wonder they're so

successful. And yes, it it does take talent

to be in these professional leagues, but.

Most of those guys have worked so hard to develop those talents

and those abilities to get to the point that that where they

are. There's a lot of people out

there with talent who never accomplished anything because

they weren't willing to get out of their comfort zone.

And I think the same thing is true in the church as well.

There's a lot of people who have a lot of things that they could

bring to the table when it comes to serving the Lord, but it

takes work. It takes effort.

I'm not I, I, I, I'm not going to get up off the couch and go

do that. Why would I do that?

They don't want to get out of their comfort zone.

It's very uncomfortable to move away from your comfort zone.

That's why it's called the comfort zone.

Remember the story of Peter walking on the water in, in, in

Mark chapter 14, Peter had to step way outside of his comfort

Mark 14 · chapter mention

zone. Nobody had ever walked on water

before. And Peter said, can I get out of

the boat and come to you? And Jesus said, sure, get out of

the boat and come right? It was comfortable in the boat.

He knew that it was dry in there.

He knew that he was safe in there.

The second you step over that edge and you're walking on

water, it's exactly what happened with Peter.

He started looking. Around at all the waves and and

he started looking at everything that was happening.

He said this is not normal, this is not natural.

What happens if I start to sink and what did he do?

Took his eyes off of Christ. And he started to sink.

And Jesus had to reach down and grab his hand and save him,

right? How do you think you're going to

accomplish something great for Christ?

Peter would have never walked on water if he wasn't willing to

get out of the boat. You got to be willing to get out

of the boat if you're going to accomplish something for Christ.

It's not easy to get out and knock on doors for the first

time, but it's necessary. Not easy to hand out that track

for the very first time, but it's necessary.

It's not easy to say no to the things that are holding you

back, but it's necessary. You've got to get outside of

your comfort zone. It's not easy to go through your

house and throw away the things that are keeping you from being

what God wants you to be, but it's necessary for you to get

outside of your comfort zone if you're going to change the world

for Christ. Not easy to say no to the crowd

and to serve God, but it's necessary if you're going to

change the world. For Christ to be a world

changer, courage and conviction are of utmost importance.

You've got to be willing. Those are two qualities that so

people, so few people actually have, but you've got to be

willing to step. Outside of that comfort zone, to

accomplish something for Christ, let me give you #7 turn over to

2nd Corinthians chapter 12. If you want to change your

world, you have to exercise generosity.

Give until it hurts. Giving should always be our

primary focus. We should have things that we

want to do in our life, but we can't because we give too much

away. Somebody said if you're giving

does not affect your lifestyle, then you're not giving enough.

Why do you think God gave you all that in the 1st place?

So you could hoard it? So you could die with $1,000,000

in the bank. So I think God gives money to

people so that they can give it back to Him.

The world is full of people who who are going to take take,

take, take, take positive change, changing your world,

take sacrifice and takes a giving heart.

How should you give or you give your money to the things of God?

This this church needs a building at some point.

I don't know when it's going to happen, right?

God does, but we need, we just, we'll need more ways to reach

out that and we need obviously we need money for missions and

for this thing and Belize it all.

It takes money for all of those things to happen.

And I'm not, I'm not standing up here begging for money.

God's going to provide. I'm not worried about that.

But God has promised that he'll give a blessing to all of those

who give with the right heart. By the way, if you're just

giving to be seen, same thing God doesn't, It doesn't reward

you if you're giving only to be seen.

But at the same time, God will provide for his church.

Why not let him use you to do that, right?

He's going to provide. He always has.

He always has. We've been in, we've been into

tough situations before and we're not in a tough situation

now, but we've been in tough situations before where we

didn't know exactly how God was going to provide.

Most of you probably don't even know this story, but when we

were, when we first started out, we went, we went out and raised

money to start this church. And you know most places you can

find a little place for 1000 bucks a month, 800 bucks a

month, something like that. We were renting a hotel right up

here, the Wingate Hotel for $3000 a month.

That was a lot of money at the very beginning when you don't

have any people coming. And so we raised a bunch of

money and I, I worked full time as we were on deputation.

And so all of the money that we got is love offerings and

everything else. We just, we put it into a fund

and we saved it because we knew we were going to need it.

So we, we bought everything that we needed for all of the

different, you know, things that we needed in the auditorium and

everything else. And then we started making those

payments, $3000 a month comes very quickly and is a huge bill

when you don't have people coming that are giving $3000 a

month. And I don't know what our

offerings were. They were maybe 12-13, fourteen,

$100 a month when you think about losing $2000 every month

out. Of that fund that you had there

and you see it going quicker and quicker and quicker.

You start to wonder what's going to happen if we don't get some

people in here soon. We're not going to have enough

money to pay the rent. And I told my wife.

I forget, I don't know, it's maybe six or seven months after

we had started and we were looking at the, the budget and

looking at the money in the bank account.

And I said, I, I don't, I don't think that we're going to, as if

this goes on for another month or two like this, we're not

going to have enough money to pay the, the rent.

And we have the, the PO Box down there and I don't check it all

the time. I go every couple weeks and

check the PO Box and I went down there.

I was, I told her that on Monday, I went down on Monday

afternoon. And once, you know, I opened up

the, the PO Box there and somebody just randomly and I

know I knew who it was. It was a guy down at the, at, at

our home church that we came from.

Never asked him for a dime, never knew that.

I mean, he didn't know that we needed anything check for $7000

in the mailbox. And that was enough to help us

keep up until we got enough people coming that we could

actually pay the, the rent on that building.

God provided, right? And God has provided like that

over and over and over and over and over again.

He's going to provide, but he uses his people to do it.

And he promises a blessing to the people who who will, who he

does use to do it right. So why not be the one that God

blesses for giving back to his work?

And by the way, I mean, most of you probably know this anyway,

but I'm not asking you to do something that I'm not doing.

I'm not sitting here. Just take, take, take, take,

take. We give, right?

I give to missions. We, we put our tithes and

offerings in every, every week, right?

I'm not saying that so you pat me on the back.

I'm saying that because I want you to understand.

This is this is something that we all can be a part of and this

is something that God has told us to do and then he says do it.

But if you do it, I'll bless you for doing it.

Seems like a no brainer to me, right?

I'd rather invest in God's bank account.

There's a lot of pretty good returns there, right?

That's never going to go bankrupt.

You never have to call the FDIC and say, hey, the bank failed,

can you give me my money? Right, God's bank.

Never, never, never runs up short.

Second Corinthians chapter 12 and verse #15 Paul says this.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.

Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved,

see? Because not only should we give

our money to the things of God, but we ought to be given our

time, our talents, our blessings, the things that we

can do to bless others, especially your love.

Paul said, I'll, I'll gladly spend and be spent for you, even

if you don't love me, even if I don't get anything back for it.

I'll gladly spend and be spent for stingy and hoarding the

things that God's given us to use for His service.

We're never going to be able to change the world for Him.

Let me give you the last one. Turn over to Matthew chapter 17.

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 17, and I'm not going to take a long time on

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

this because we just talked about it on Wednesday night for

a while. The number 8, if you want to

change your world, exhibit faith.

So you were created for a purpose.

God's put you here for a purpose.

God has you on this earth for a purpose.

It wasn't to make a name for yourself.

Isn't have you on this earth so you can become big and powerful

for the sake of your own legacy and your own name and everything

else. That's not why God has you here,

all right? God has every one of us on the

earth to make an impact for Christ.

And some people have longer than others.

Some people make more of it than others.

But why is God heavy here? It's to make an impact for

Christ. It's to change your world for

Christ. And the way that we do that is

by following the call that God has placed on your heart and

then to just trust him. I know that every, you have to

work, right? You have to work to make a

living. If you just stop working and did

whatever, you're going to die, all right?

You got to have money. You got to, you got to work

right. But what kind of impact are you

making in your workplace? Maybe God has you in that

position at your work so that you can reach the people that

nobody else would have an opportunity to reach, right?

You're a construction worker. Not everybody can just walk up

and talk to the construction worker, right?

You're, you're in a specialized position.

You're in government. Not everybody can just walk in

and talk to whoever, right? God might have you there for a

reason, not might. He does have you there for a

reason so that you can make an impact in that place for Christ,

right? God puts you in the family that

He puts you in so that you can make an impact for Christ.

God puts you in the area that you're in so that you can make

an impact for Christ. He puts you in the neighborhood

that you're in so you can make an impact for Christ.

That's why God has you where you are.

At the end of the day, you were created to love and to serve God

and to love and to serve others. Matthew chapter 17.

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

It's probably one of the most challenging, but but maybe one

of the saddest verses in all the Bible.

Matthew chapter 17 and verse #20 Jesus said unto them, Because of

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

your unbelief. For verily I say unto you, if

you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you shall say unto

this mountain, Remove hence to Yonder place, and it shall

remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Nothing will be accomplished without faith to believe that

God can use you. Nothing's going to be

accomplished without faith to believe that God can perform

miracles in your life. Nothing is going to be

accomplished without faith to believe that God can change the

hearts of the people who just don't seem like they want to

change. But you keep praying, you keep

working, you keep trying, you keep, you keep doing what God's

called you to do. And you have faith that he'll do

it, right? He's just called you to do it.

He hasn't. He hasn't called you to, to, to,

to make the change. He's called you to do what he's

called you to do. Let him work in their hearts.

Let him be the one that makes the change, but let him use you

to do it. All right, let's look back in

our text one more time in Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17 and

Acts 17 · chapter mention Acts 17 · chapter mention

verse #6 look what? Look what they said these were.

These were just guys that were on the outside looking in.

It was not somebody that was trying to give a compliment to

Jason. In fact, it was guys it was it

was somebody who was trying to make him look as bad as he

possibly could, right? They were trying to get the

people stirred up against them. They're hoping probably that

they would at the very least put him in jail, but maybe even kill

him. We saw that happen.

Paul was stoned and a lot of different things happen, right?

But Acts chapter 17 and verse #6 when they found them not, they

Acts 17 · chapter mention

drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the city

crying. These that have turned the world

upside down or come hit her. Also, these guys that have made

an impact on the world are here now.

That's what they're saying. These that have turned the world

upside down are here also, right?

They had made an impact to the point where they knew exactly

who they were and they got there and they started making an

impact. See, these men were able to be

world changers because they believed that what they were

doing was ordained of God. What they were doing was

something God had called them to do.

Whatever happened, they didn't care because God had called them

to do it. We have a tremendous opportunity

to impact this area. We have a tremendous opportunity

to impact our world, right? And God's called us to go to

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth.

And we're trying to do that. We're trying to reach this area

with the gospel. That's why we show up on

Saturdays and, and go out knocking on doors and hold the,

the Bible signs and, and, and have people come in and get

Bible. That's why we're trying to,

we're trying to impact this area.

But there's a Jerusalem, there's a Judea, there's a Samaria.

The farther out you go, there's the uttermost part of the earth.

That's that's why, that's why we're moving forward with this

thing in Belize, right? It's a big step of faith.

It's not easy to try to, to try to start a ministry in another

country when you're not there to, to do it, right?

But we can have an impact everywhere.

God has called us to have an impact.

And if I can change the world here, where God has called me to

to change the world. Then I want to do it if it's an

hour from here and we have an opportunity to help a church get

started. And then then I want to be

involved in and I want to do it. I want to change the world where

God gives us the opportunities to change the world.

If it's in Belize and we have an opportunity to create a missions

hub where where we have a chance to reach an entire country, I

want to do it. I want to change the world where

God has given me an opportunity to change the world.

I, I may not be able to reach everybody, but I can reach

somebody. I may not have an opportunity to

have an impact on everybody, but I can have an impact on

somebody. And I want to do it while I have

the opportunity to do it. And I want him to come back and

I want him to find me faithfully doing what he's called me to do.

I want him to find me faithfully serving and faithfully living

for him. How does that happen?

Examine yourself, engage the right people, establish

integrity, extend compassion, embrace the mission, exit your

comfort zone, exercise generosity, and exhibit faith.

That's how it happens. I know it's a lot of things.

We could probably add another 10 things to that list.

There's a lot of things that we can do, but as as we follow

these principles in the Word of God, you can change your world

and isn't that what you want to be?

You say that as a kid. What do you want to be when you

grow up? I don't know.

I just want to change the world, right?

Maybe you didn't say it exactly that way, but that's what you

thought. I want to be the next, you know,

Elon Musk. I want to be the next Bill

Gates. I want to be somebody that

everybody knows because I changed the world.

I'll tell you how you changed the world.

Just live for Christ. Just be who God has called you

to be. Just do what God has called you

to do. Just faithfully serve.

Just do it whether you get recognized or not, because one

day you'll stand before God and He'll give you all the

recognition that you could ever want if you're doing it for Him.

Don't you want to change the world?

Don't you want to make an impact on the world that God has called

you to? Pick one of these things.

Pick two of them. Pick three of them and focus on

them this week and see if God doesn't help you to make an

impact in the area where He's called you to make an impact and

to allow you to change your world.

What an amazing, amazing thing that would be.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. Thank You for the opportunity we

have to be here this morning. And I do thank you for the fact

that You want to use us. May we all be in a position

where you can You help us to love you, to live for you, to

serve You with all of our hearts and all of our souls, all of our

mind and all of our strength until you come back.

Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.

If you'd stand at your seat through the heads bowed and your

eyes closed, we're going to have a short time of invitation.

I just want to give you an opportunity to respond to the

message. If God spoke to your heart this

morning as the piano plays, if God spoke to your heart, you

come.