Pressing Play

Good morning, church.

I'm really excited to bring the word this morning.

! I'm excited to talk through God's word this morning with you guys.

! I'd like to go ahead and pray for us before we start, though.

So let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for all the people you've given us this weekend

to pour over the scriptures

and consider what it means to press pause,

to prioritize prayer,

to prioritize scripture in our lives.

Lord, as we continue on this morning

and we look how we can press play,

God, I pray that you would hide me behind you,

that you would speak mightily through the word this morning,

and God, I pray that you would just,

I pray that you would continue to move in these students' lives.

We talked about highlights,

but God, I pray that you help us to remember how to carry on,

how to carry on from here with what we've learned,

and God, just help us to remember the things that we've learned this weekend.

Lord, thank you for all you've done.

Thank you for what you're going to do this morning.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Well, if you are planning on following us this morning in the scripture,

Matthew 28 is where we're going to start.

So Matthew 28, if you'll turn there really quick.

I already did this, but I just want to say it again.

Thank you so much to everybody who helped out.

If you prayed, if you brought snacks, if you did all those things.

Man, I'm telling you,

my team was awesome.

The people who were able to be boots on the ground right there,

moving things back and forth.

You guys are lifesavers,

and so I'm just so grateful for all that you all have done.

I also want to let you guys know that this week,

yes, there was a lot of great gospel conversation.

I want you to know that it was definitely a fruitful weekend.

I'm not going to say the name of the student,

but someone has professed and confessed faith in Christ this weekend.

Someone's trusting Jesus this weekend.

So that gives a round of applause right there.

Absolutely.

Praise the Lord for that.

And I had another student talk to me about baptism as well.

So the Lord is definitely moving in this place,

and we do worship Him.

We do worship Him.

One thing we did this weekend,

you may have seen some of the pictures up there on that recap video.

We did a gospel service project, basically.

So what we did was we went out to a couple neighborhoods,

went to the Centennial, went to Country Club,

and we did a canned food drive.

And so some of our students went around,

knocked on doors,

but we had gospel tracts.

If you know what a gospel tract is,

and I have to thank Wade Pierce for helping me out with that,

get some gospel tracts.

Gospel tracts are basically just little ways

that if you don't know how to share the gospel with your words,

you can say,

I wanted to give this gift to you.

And it's a gift of the gospel.

And on that little piece of paper

or whatever form or media it may be,

it is just a gospel laid out for somebody.

So our students went to homes,

knocked on doors,

asked for cans of canned goods.

We're going to take to the mission

or to the outrage here in town.

And then they also said,

well, thank you for that

or thank you for your consideration.

Wanted to leave you with this.

So they got gospel tracts.

So our students got to participate

in sharing the gospel this weekend.

And that's another mighty way that God moved,

that our students got to partake in evangelism.

So that's another major thing in the Christian life

is baptism and evangelism.

Sorry.

The other thing I want to report

is we only had one bloody nose.

And if you guys know me,

if you heard me talk about this,

my students know,

what's my one rule in youth ministry?

No blood.

So we only got it one time.

We did really good.

We did really good.

It's okay.

I won't say who did it.

I won't say how it happened.

But I will say that it did happen

at the last junior high involvement.

So that gives you any indication

of what group this may have happened in.

And it was at Dodgeball.

It was in Dodgeball.

So that was really fun.

I also wanted to let you guys know

that this is really interesting

how God works on things.

I hadn't really planned

and thought through how I wanted to do it,

but the sermon series we've been going through

with the youth on Wednesday nights

has been called Follow.

So we learned what it means

to be disciples of Christ.

And so the first session was going through

that Christ initiates relationships with us.

He initiates it.

We don't go to Him.

He comes to us,

which makes a whole world of a difference

because if I tried to go to Him,

I'm always failing on that.

I'm always failing on going to Christ.

But Christ came and found me

in my spiritual death.

And then we talked about,

the second thing we talked about,

sorry,

the second thing we talked about

was how Jesus does not just make change possible.

It is going to happen.

If you are a disciple of Christ,

your life is changed.

And I give this illustration

to students all the time.

I won't use it

because I don't have a whole lot of time.

But basically the idea is that

if I came before you

and said that I got hit by a bus yesterday

and I stand before you like this,

did I get hit by a bus?

I'm lying to you.

I've not been changed.

And so when we encounter the gospel,

we're changed radically.

And it may not be immediately

that it happens all the time for us.

It may be over time

as we grow in Christ.

Some people's conversions,

when they come to Christ,

like I was a drug addict

and I was an alcoholic

and then Jesus saved me out of this

and that's amazing.

And then there's the really mundane one

where it's like,

well, I was eight years old

and I got saved in church.

No, both those salvations

are incredibly amazing

because the God of the universe

looked down on you and said,

I want that one.

The God of the universe said,

I sent my son for that one,

that sinner.

Everybody's equal in that playing field.

So we talked about that

in Christ,

change is not only possible,

it will happen.

The third thing we talked about

was that a disciple of Christ

is what?

Starts with an O.

Obedient.

Yes.

Disciple of Christ is obedient.

And I used a little phrase,

if you guys remember,

it says discipline produces.

That's true,

but discipline produces delight.

Delight.

Yeah, there we go.

I heard it.

Discipline produces delight.

And so what we talked about

was that in sports

or anything you do,

if you want to really enjoy your game,

the sport you play

or the instrument you play

or whatever,

it's not enjoyable

to play football

and not know how to tackle.

I can say that from experience

because my seventh grade year,

I never played football before.

I was new to the state

and I found out

that football was a religion,

especially in Berkford, Texas.

And I love my little town,

but man,

if you want to be cool,

you play football.

I want to be cool,

so I play football.

And I remember I tried to tackle

and someone told me,

they said,

like, you can't be a spider monkey.

That doesn't work.

Because I jumped on people's backs

and they're like,

and I was like,

well, I want to be like my dad.

I'm going to be a running back.

So I said,

let's give me the ball.

So I got the ball,

but I had the nose

the wrong way

and it hurt really bad

when I got hit by the linebacker.

So what I'm trying to get to,

though,

is that I had no understanding

of the game of football

and how to play it.

And in a similar sense,

if we have no understanding of Christ,

we have no clue how to walk in Christ,

we won't be able to delight in Christ.

So how do we learn

how to grow in Christ?

We go where?

To the Bible,

to the scriptures.

And as we discipline ourselves

in being diligent

in reading and in prayer,

we become,

we get to a place

where we are able to delight

in the Lord all the day long

and delight in the words

and delight in the law.

Just like when I started learning

how to play piano,

it was a grueling task

where I was still under the reign

of a teacher who used the ruler

and smacked my hand

when I did it wrong.

But then I learned

through discipline

and learning it

that I enjoy playing piano

and I can play freely

and I can enjoy it.

So discipline in piano

produced delight

in playing piano.

In a similar sense,

discipline in the Lord

produces delight in the Lord.

So a disciple,

discipline, disciple,

is obedient

and that obedience

produces delight

in the believer.

And the last session

we talked about

was almost over

the exact same thing

that we talked about

for this last session

for us this morning.

following Christ

means a disciple maker

or disciple makes disciples.

We were all disciple makers.

No one in here

is on JV

or varsity Christian.

So who,

who played a varsity sport?

I played a varsity sport.

Oh yeah,

I played soccer

at Burke Burnett.

We did really good.

No we didn't.

You guys can laugh at that.

Burke Burnett's not known

for their soccer.

We were known for basketball

back in the day

when I was there.

But the interesting thing

that we really talked about

was that Christ commands us

to be disciple makers.

If we're following him

we are disciple makers.

And so this weekend

that ties in,

that,

those messages

we've gone through

the past few weeks

with our students

on Wednesday nights

tied in really nicely

with pressing pause.

That was our theme.

If you've seen anybody

with a blue shirt on

you know it says

the pause.

And so

in true youth pastor form

what do you think

I mean by the pause?

What do you think

I mean by pause?

Okay,

yeah?

Pausing on a normal day life

to spend time with Jesus.

I love that.

That's great.

The definition they gave,

I love this definition.

Seeking God in silence

and solitude

through prayer

and Bible study.

When we press play,

so we press pause,

we're saying

I'm going to take time

to go spend time

with the Lord.

Who here,

I asked this this morning

of our students,

who here is involved

in more than three things

in your life?

Yeah.

Who here does work?

It's maybe a husband

or a wife,

has kids,

sports,

UIL stuff.

Name it.

There's probably that

in the church somewhere.

We are so busy today.

We are such a busy people

and we don't know

how to rest in Christ

and slow down.

And at best,

we may say,

I'm going to give you Jesus.

I'm going to give you five minutes

to tell me all you need

to tell me

and we're good.

That's my Jesus for the week.

Five minutes.

But we're really good

at consuming ESPN,

you know,

multiple times a day,

multiple days a week,

and multiple weeks

of the year.

We're really good at,

I'm not going to try

to pick on you guys

too much right here,

but TikTok or YouTube

or whatever else.

We're really good

at consuming that.

And we talked about this morning,

I think it's really important,

we talked about how,

if you saw that silly game

we were doing with the board,

what basically happened was,

I'm an artist,

okay,

artist by nature.

I drew beautiful pictures.

Yeah,

one of them said.

I drew beautiful pictures

of layouts of my home

and if you know

what my home looks like,

imagine that,

but someone who's never done

any kind of architectural stuff

tried to draw it.

It was atrocious.

But I drew my layout

in my home

and the students

had the task

of wearing upside down goggles,

so they saw

everything upside down,

and they had to imitate

my drawing

in 30 seconds.

Where I took like

a minute and a half,

they had to do it

in 30 seconds.

So the point I tried

to make with them

was that

listening to the world,

which is what we take

in most of the time,

listening to the world a lot,

listening to the world

is like listening

to somebody

with upside down goggles

trying to imitate

the perfect drawing

that God has laid out

for us in Scripture.

Upside down goggles

make it so that

when you're walking,

like here's my hand,

it's like this,

but this high up.

And I have to look like this

and around

and try to find the right way.

We don't want to wear

upside down goggles.

And we don't want to imitate

somebody who doesn't even know

what the real drawing looks like.

Because most of the time

when they drew it,

they said,

I'm going to take

a quick look at it,

goggles on,

I'm going full blast,

going right into it.

And so that was the danger

that we have in our lives

is that we don't press pause

to spend time with the Lord

and come and know who He is.

One more illustration

I'll kind of give

and then I'll get into

the text this morning.

I think this one's really powerful.

We,

I picked on Aubrey Pierce

this morning,

but I need a new volunteer,

one new volunteer

to get picked on.

So yeah,

let's use,

I'm going to use,

I'm going to use Caleb Wilson.

I'm going to use Caleb Wilson.

He's on the edge over here.

Okay.

So you guys,

Caleb is one of my favorite people.

He's my,

my best friends.

Okay.

He is a two foot two,

heavens to Betsy.

He's a two foot two.

That's right.

That's right.

He's a two foot two

basketball all-star

who hates wrestling

and can't do it

anywhere near good.

He,

he's really,

really,

really good

at being very

disobedient

and like,

he's like,

he's not good with manners.

So,

you know,

I'm trying to work on him a lot.

Guys,

is that Caleb?

No.

First off,

he's not two foot two.

If he was two foot two,

my son's taller than you,

my man.

Come on.

But,

the point is,

I'm not describing Caleb,

but I'm,

I think Caleb's my best friend.

I don't know the true Caleb.

In a similar way,

if we have a Jesus

that we formulate

or we steal from the world

as our Jesus,

we're not loving truly

who Jesus is.

And so,

that's big for us here.

We don't want to follow

a false Jesus.

There's a lot of religions

in the world

that lead us to false Jesus.

Just to name a few,

not to pick on things,

but the ones I've studied

the most,

like Mormonism

and Islam

and Buddhism

and Hinduism,

they lead you

to the wrong Jesus

every time.

They have their own picture

of him.

Jehovah's Witness,

those who believe

that he is Michael the Archangel,

we need to be careful

of what we're taking in

and consuming.

And then,

we have this danger

of hearing it

from the people

we think are the most influential.

And oftentimes,

they have it the most wrong.

So,

we'll go ahead

and dive into the word here.

This just gives you

a picture of the idea

of why we need to pause.

If we don't pause,

we run the risk

of just running

into whatever the world

says is Jesus.

Let me read the text

for us this morning.

It's Matthew 28,

16 through 20.

Now,

the eleven disciples

went to Galilee

to the mountain

to which Jesus

had directed them.

And when they saw him,

they worshipped him.

But some doubted.

And Jesus came

and said to them,

all authority in heaven

and on earth

has been given to me.

Go therefore

and make disciples

of all nations,

baptizing them

in the name of the Father

and of the Son

and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe

all that I have commanded you.

And behold,

I am with you always

to the end of the age.

So,

I think it's important

why we did that series.

I think God is really,

really amazing

at working things out.

We went through

our follow series

that Jesus initiates

relationships.

He changes us,

calls us to obedience

and he calls us

to make disciples.

And right here,

we see that

in the Great Commission

that we are called

to make disciples.

So,

the first thing

is that Jesus

is speaking from

an authority,

not just like,

oh,

I'm the guy

who's in charge.

He's speaking

as an authority

as I am God.

And you are my creation

but you're also

my followers.

And I love you

but I give you

this command.

And this is not

to try to step

on anybody's toes

but how often

are we making disciples

right now?

In your own personal life.

This is again,

not to step on any toes

because I've not always

been the best

at making disciples

but Jesus tells us

that we are

to make disciples.

Whatever stage

of life you're in.

I don't care

if you are

12 years old

and you've come

to Christ

or you're

112 years old

and you've been

in Christ

for X amount

of years.

You don't retire

as a Christian

here on earth.

You are always

making disciples.

Whether that's

your children

in your home,

whether that's

husbands you're

helping to walk

your wives

through scripture

or wives you're

helping your husbands

understand like,

hey, maybe you're

wrong on this.

My wife's done that

to me a couple times.

But Christ comes

and gives us

authority.

He says that

he has the authority

to do these things

but he says

I'm going to give

you the mission.

Isn't that significant

that Jesus says

I have all authority

on heaven and earth

but I task you

with this mission.

That must mean

that we

have a real mission

to do.

It's not just

a, hey,

here's something

you can do

to be a good Christian.

It's a,

if you are a believer

and you love me,

you will do

as I command.

You will make disciples.

His disciples

devoted themselves

to leading others

to follow Christ

as we go through,

as they go through

in their lives

and as I said,

there are,

I love that phrase,

there's no JV

or varsity Christians.

There are no JV,

what do I mean by that?

What do I mean

that there's no JV

or varsity Christians?

Students can't answer,

but maybe an adult,

what does it mean

there are no JV

or varsity Christians

in the church?

Sorry?

There's no second string people.

You're not a second string person

in the body of Christ,

which means we're

all on the team,

all on the field,

at all times.

Some people play

different roles.

I played soccer

all my life

and the goalie

does not do

what the striker does.

The guy who scores

the goals at the front,

the goalie does not

do the same thing.

And the striker

can't even use his hands.

The goalie can.

We all have

a different purpose

in the body,

but nobody is

a second string Christian,

which means

that you have

the same responsibility

as the professional Christians,

those guys who are

the big speakers

at camps,

those guys that are

the music people

that you see on TV.

You have the same responsibility

to make disciples

as they do.

And they have

the same responsibility

to make disciples

as you do.

Because some of them

don't always live up

to what they preach.

I want to go ahead

and go to Acts 1,

Acts 1:8

verse 8.

You can stay where you are.

I'll go there really quick.

But it says this

in Acts 1, verse 8.

Acts 1:8

It says,

But you will receive power

when the Holy Spirit

has come upon you,

and you will be

my witnesses

in Jerusalem

and all Judea

and Samaria

and to the end

of the earth.

So it's clear

from Matthew

and from here in Acts

that Jesus

has something

very specific in mind

when the church

was founded.

Jesus wanted

his followers

to be in the business

of multiplication.

That's our job.

He wanted his disciples

to be people

who led others

to become disciples

of Christ.

Christ.

And that's what God

wants for you

to do today as well.

So students,

as we've learned

about God's word,

we've taken time

to press pause.

We did two things.

We prioritized prayer

because as Pastor Mikey,

our speaker,

who spoke so well

this weekend,

said to us,

Prayer aligns

our hearts

with God.

Prayer aligns

our hearts

with God.

Which means that

when we come in prayer

and we come to the Lord

in prayer,

we are taking time

to speak to God.

And then Scripture

also does the same thing,

aligns us with God

because we are hearing

from God.

We're coming to know

who God is.

So,

we make time

to seek God

by pressing pause.

And that's how

we lay the foundation

for our life.

We have to be able

to prepare ourselves

to obey the Lord.

So,

anybody ever taken time

to look at last words

of famous people?

Is that a weird thing?

Last words

of famous people?

There's a guy

who,

it was Pope Alexander,

one of the popes,

many different

Alexander popes.

He says,

wait a minute.

That was his last word.

Wait a minute.

Caesar Augustus

has reported to have said,

the play is over.

Applaud.

I think his name

is Max Baer.

He was a boxer.

He said,

here I go.

Here I go.

Winston Churchill said,

I'm so bored with it all.

What a thing to say.

Very callous.

George Harrison,

one of the Beatles,

he said,

love one another.

You know,

like their Beatles voice,

love one another.

I can't do the British

nasal voice very well.

Teddy Roosevelt said,

please put out the light.

And then one of the most

recent ones we had

was Steve Jobs.

You know what he said?

Wow,

wow,

wow.

Why was he amazed?

I have no clue.

But he said,

wow,

wow,

wow.

Whether he was seeing

a glimpse of eternity

before his eyes,

whether he was seeing

the significance

or insignificance

of his life,

either live for Christ

or not live for Christ,

I don't know if he was

a believer or not.

I've not looked into that.

But those words

capture our attention

because they have

this gravitas.

They have this thing

that just kind of

draws us in.

Why would you say

those words?

Why were those

the last words

you said to us?

So we have to ask

that question.

Why were the words

that Jesus said,

why were those

the last words

he said?

Well,

he knew that these

would be his last words,

obviously.

These people did not

really know

or particularly knew that.

But Christ knew

these would be

the last words he said

and he was in full control

of the words he said

to them.

He was not waiting to die.

He knew it was going

to happen

and he was intentional

as he always is intentional.

And so,

just a little aside,

we said something

this morning

and it's just been

hitting my heart

since I heard it.

The same God

that you believe

is slow to answer

your prayers

is also slow

to punish you

in your sin.

The same God

that is slow

to answer your prayers

is slow to punish you

in your sin.

Which leads me

to say that

he is a gracious,

merciful God

and that you

can trust him,

you can love him

because he is intentional

with what happens

to you in your life.

You may believe

on him.

So,

Jesus knew

the exact circumstances

that were happening

around him

and he knew

that they were

going to be recorded

as scripture.

We've seen Jesus

tell the followers here

to be disciples

and to make them

but

we have to ask

the question,

what is a disciple?

We kind of talked

about that with the youth

the other day.

What is a disciple?

A disciple

is one who learns.

The original youth

was just like

one who learns,

a learner.

So,

if you're a disciple

of a rabbi,

you are a learner

of your

rabbi.

If you're a disciple

of Dallas Cowboys,

you are a learner

of the Cowboys.

If you are a disciple

of X, Y, and Z,

you're a learner

of that.

That's kind of

the original use

of the word.

But it means

that learner

is very devoted

though.

Very devoted.

So,

as we go to,

we're in a lot

of scriptures

this morning

so you don't have

to turn around

everything,

but Luke 14,

27,

it says this.

Luke 14,

27.

Let me turn around.

It says,

whoever does not

bear his own cross

and come after me

cannot be my disciple.

So,

a disciple is not

just a learner.

Jesus took the word

disciple and gave it

a whole new meaning

and purpose.

A new power.

Anyone who does not

carry his cross

and follow me

cannot be my disciple.

That doesn't just

mean I learn.

That means I'm

going to be

interacting with

exactly how

what I'm learning

from did.

And also in Luke 14,

33,

he says,

in the same way,

any of you who does

not give up everything

he has cannot be

my disciple.

And then Luke 9,

23 also says,

if anyone would

come after me,

he must deny himself

and take up his cross

daily and follow me.

So,

the idea of being

a disciple is not

just,

as it used to mean,

just a learner.

It's actually that

we are to be

totally sold out

for following Christ.

It's putting our

devotion to Christ

first and everything

else second.

A better way to look

at it is not even that.

A better way to look

at it is like,

someone mentioned

the,

I think,

one of the small group

leaders actually

mentioned this to me

on a car ride.

We shouldn't look at

like Christ as

a slice of the pie

or the biggest slice

of the pie.

We should say that

Christ is the crust,

the foundation of the pie

and everything else

sits on it.

Because,

yeah,

the pie filling

is good and tasty,

but let's be real,

the crust,

crust is kind of

the most important part.

Because without it,

you just get soup.

You just get pudding soup.

And that's,

it's a whole thing.

You don't want that.

But the crust,

the foundation,

is the most important part.

Christ is the foundation,

not the first

or second thing in life,

the foundation

of our lives.

So that means

being a disciple of Christ

is living as God's children,

taking on His ways

and His purpose.

As believers of Christ,

we are called

to make God known.

We're called to lead others

into a saving relationship

with Christ,

which is amazing

that that happened

this weekend.

One of our small group leaders

was able to walk a student

into understanding the gospel.

And this person did this,

not just once,

this person wanted

to be diligent.

Three or four times

they went through things

and I got to go through things

and the answers

were always Christ,

His righteousness,

what He's done,

not me.

We were able to be,

we were able to live out

that calling.

But here's the real thing.

This is where we're going

to kind of land

our big,

big point this morning

is we have this mission,

this daunting task

to be disciple makers,

to be obedient to Christ,

to follow and to be,

to not be hypocrites

before the world.

But how?

But how?

When do we do that?

We have to prepare ourselves

before we go to battle.

Always.

I never realized

how much

the Christian life

is a battle

until I got into

full-time ministry.

And I say that

because I have seen

so many ways

in which

this pulls you this way

and this pulls you that way

and this issue

comes down this way

and you got this

and then,

you know,

the whole kind of

cliche that,

you know,

when you're working hard,

the devil's working harder

to pull you away.

There's just so many things

trying to work

on someone's life

when they want to really

be pursuing Christ

to pull them away.

And so,

I never realized

how important it is

to prepare

for battle,

spiritual battle.

and I learned that

and this weekend

helped me to really

put things more

into perspective.

We have marching orders

but how do we prepare

for that battle?

Do we just charge in

with nothing but gusto?

Okay,

so whoever,

who's ever just like

said,

you know what,

I don't know how it's

going to work out

but I'm going to go do it.

I'm just going to go

head first,

right into it.

How'd that go for you?

Apparently pretty bad

because no one wanted

to say anything about it

but I've tried just saying

like,

you know what,

just give it a shot.

I'm going to go in.

Head first,

no planning,

just went straight in.

Doesn't work out.

It never works out

because you don't think

about all the other parts

of the issue.

Instead of just charging

with all this gusto

to go in,

we need to plan

and prepare

plan and prepare

to take on

the spiritual battle

we have.

One of the ways

I like to look at this

as a military kid

I grew up in a military house

and ranks are really important.

You can't just go

do things

with your soldiers

and say,

just go,

let's go do this,

we're going to go

take care of this.

No,

you go to the general

for the plan

and you execute the plan.

You go to the general,

the commander in chief,

get the plan,

execute the plan.

And so that's how that,

that's how that works there

in the believer's life

is that we go to God

in prayer

and in the word

seeking his guidance,

seeking his wisdom,

seeking to know,

Lord,

how do I do this?

Whatever X, Y, Z may be.

How do I make disciples?

How do,

how do disciples make disciples?

You go to the word

and you go into prayer

and ask God,

send me the one.

And this kind of draws back

into what Pastor Sam

has kind of pushed on us.

Who's your one?

I just want to take a little time

to harp on that.

We did this one time

at another church

I was a part of.

Who's your one?

And we saw the church grow

massively.

This is not a church grow

technique necessarily,

but this is one where

as the body of Christ

here in Henrietta,

this particular body of Christ,

we are to be ones

who are seeking to grow

the community in faith,

lead people to Christ.

But if you don't pray

for that person

and you just start going,

knocking on the door,

at some point,

it might shut you out

because you're trying

physical,

man-made tactics.

You need supernatural power

to move in.

Supernatural power

that is from the Lord.

So I urge you,

if you don't have your one,

choose your one.

Pray for them diligently.

Work on them.

Students,

if you don't have your one,

maybe your one's next to you.

Maybe your one's behind you.

Maybe your one's in front of you.

Really consider who's your one

as you take time to pause

and consider

how to battle for the Lord

for that person's soul.

Because remember,

we're not in a battle

against flesh and blood.

We're in a battle

against the powers

that be around us,

our evil adversary.

An intimate relationship

with God,

His word and His ways

are the groundwork

for living our lives

on God's mission.

And as believers,

we are always on mission.

How you speak,

how you think,

how you act,

that will determine

what people think about Christ.

Oftentimes it does.

If you come in guns blazing

saying,

I'm going to show you

how your religion is wrong,

they oftentimes will be like,

wow,

you're hateful.

Why would I want to know

this God that you know?

But if you come in

with kindness

and the gospel,

if you come in

not a hypocrite

leading a double life,

saying,

I trust in Christ,

but I live my life

a completely opposite way

in the darkness.

Scripture actually has something

to say about that,

being a double-minded man.

He is unstable

in all of his ways.

A double-minded man

is unstable

in all of his ways.

Don't be the double-minded man,

or you will see

all of your ways crumble.

Things will break

in your life.

Because I've seen it

in many of my friends' lives

I have known.

I've known many people

who have fallen

to the double-mindedness.

I want to look back

at Matthew 28 again.

This is

verses 19 through 20.

And it says this.

It says,

Go therefore,

make disciples

of all the nations,

baptizing them

in the name of the Father

and of the Son

and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to deserve

all that I have commanded you.

How can we teach someone

something we don't know?

How can you teach someone

the Scriptures

if you don't know them?

How can we lead someone

to obey the things

that we don't even

obey ourselves?

How effective will we be

at drawing others to Christ

when we ourselves

are distant from Him?

I've told our students

this before.

I'm not scared

to say this thing.

This is what happened to me.

I was,

before I came to Christ,

I was in a relationship

with a young lady

that was very impure

and it was not a good

relationship to be a part of.

And I did the thing,

I call it,

that's a really funny phrase,

I was trying to flirt

to convert.

You ever heard of this?

Flirt to convert?

You ever heard of this?

It's when you are a believer

and you say,

you know what?

That person's not a Christian.

I can make him a Christian.

Watch this.

You get in there

and then you start

just totally like

leaving all things

of Christendom.

You start walking away

from that.

Well,

I was not a believer already.

I was not even a Christian yet.

And I was trying

to get her to believe

the gospel

that I didn't even

fully believe.

How can we teach people

something we don't even know?

How can we teach them

to obey something

we don't obey ourselves?

How effective am I going to be

at drawing that young lady

to Christ

when I myself

am very distant from Him

and not leading her

anywhere near Christ?

So I want to go ahead

and go to,

I'm trying to land this soon.

I've got like six minutes.

Man, I see what your problem is.

Same with the timing, man.

Goodness gracious.

That just flies on by,

doesn't it?

Goodness.

So in Timothy 3, 16-17,

it says this,

All scripture is breathed out

by God and profitable

for teaching,

for reproof,

for correction,

for training in righteousness,

that the man of God,

I'll also say the woman of God,

may be complete,

equipped for every good work.

The words that were really important

that stood out for me

when I read that text

was teaching,

rebuking,

training,

reproof,

some say correcting.

The only way we can do any of that

is if we have a knowledge

of God's word.

See,

we have this issue

where we think we are called

to just be good people sometimes.

Oh, a Christian's just a good person.

A Christian's just a good person.

He follows like Jesus.

But we're more than that.

We're more than people

who follow a bunch of religious rules too.

So if you're in here today

and you think that Christianity

is just a bunch of do's and do nots,

shalls and shall nots,

it's not what it's about.

It's not about me following the rules

to get God's favor.

I can't earn God's favor.

Remember,

Jesus initiates the relationship.

But God calls all of us in here

who are believers this day

to be messengers of his story,

to teach people about Christ.

He calls us to use our knowledge of his word,

which I hope is growing now for you,

to shape other people.

And that's kind of hard for you

to grasp and be like,

oh, that's a big ask.

It should be intimidating.

It should be crushing for you, actually.

It should be something that you're like,

I can't do this.

Do you want to know why?

Because you should be relying

on the Spirit for that.

When we try to make disciples

and do things in our own power,

it always fumbles and crushes and crumbles.

We ought to be relying on the Spirit,

the Holy Spirit,

at all times for all things.

The way to be effective in these things

is very, very clear then.

We have to know God

before we can lead others to him.

And this happens by pressing pause

on our lives

to consider who Christ is.

You know,

all of you students,

I'm quite certain,

were not born before 9-11.

And all of us who know what happened on 9-11

know the tragedy.

But you also remember

that there was this big call,

rebuild those towers.

Rebuild them.

And it wasn't just like saying

that we got to get the commerce back going.

It was that we want to show

that we are strong people.

We will rebuild.

We will stand up against the tyranny.

That's a symbol of hope

is what we were doing.

We wanted to rebuild

a symbol of hope.

But to do such a thing

took a lot of deliberation.

It took a long time.

And I believe,

if I'm correct,

it was not until November 3, 2014,

when the One World Trade Center was opened.

It took a very long time

to get that built.

A lot of planning,

a lot of preparation.

There was a lot to do in that.

The rubble had to be cleaned up,

checked out,

make sure things are good.

They reused some of the material

from the Twin Towers,

the statement of hope.

Anything that important

has to be prepared for

in a very major way.

And we can say the same thing

as our lives

as Christ followers.

Our lives

are ours

to be stewards of.

It's a huge responsibility

to be a believer.

And the preparation

is as big,

if not bigger,

than the actual execution

of the thing.

Because yeah,

you might fumble

with your words,

but your diligence

to the Lord

is more important

than how well you did.

Your diligence

to the Lord

is more important

than how well you did.

So I want to go ahead

and kind of land

the plane for us

this morning.

Jesus tells us

in the very last half

of verse 20

in Matthew 28,

He says,

I am with you always

to the end of the age.

And that is

the hope

that we get to cling to

as believers.

We have daunting tasks

before us.

We have our own sin

to overcome,

our own hypocrisy,

our own hardships

in our lives

to deal with.

But Jesus tells us

that

as you go through

all this stuff,

as you seek

to make disciples,

as you succeed

and fail in it,

behold,

I am with you always

to the end of the age.

I'm going to be with you.

as believers,

we have the Holy Spirit

dwelling with us

permanently.

God's Holy Spirit

dwells in us.

Like we get to walk around

with Jesus

in our hearts

at all times.

Whereas there was a moment

when the disciples

walked with Jesus

and then didn't

and feared.

What's happening next?

Well, you know,

I know what's happening

next for us.

Because we're fighting

a battle he's already won

to draw it back

to the song.

No matter what comes

my way,

I will overcome.

I may not know

what he's doing

in my life,

but I know

what he has done.

I'm fighting this battle

not my own power though.

The power of the spear

is how I fight this battle.

And what battle

am I fighting?

The battle against

evil,

sin.

And so,

I want to leave this

with you guys here.

The call to be a disciple

is not an easy one.

And it should not

be made lightly.

It shouldn't be made lightly

to be a believer in Jesus.

It's not just a good thing we do.

It is a full commitment

of the life.

Giving over of ourselves

to Christ.

It's as if you were

a king of a kingdom

and you said,

I can't take care

of this kingdom anymore.

I can't do it.

I need to give the keys away

to someone who can

take care of this kingdom.

And you give your keys

to your kingdom

that you have inside of you

to Christ

and he comes in

and he just

demolishes the place

but rebuilds it back

so much better.

He's building in you

a kingdom.

He's building this kingdom

here right now.

And so,

know that Christ

is in you

building a kingdom.

A priest of believers

here

to go preach the gospel.

And so,

as we come to the end

of our service,

I'm going to ask

Miss June to come

play for us.

And I want to

invite you guys

into a time of

either invitation

or a time of prayer

and consideration.

I'm going to pray over us.

And if you'd like

to come to the altar

to pray,

take time to pause

this morning

from your busy Sunday,

from your busy life.

I'm not naive.

Eve,

I understand

that we all

have very heavy

responsibilities.

A lot that we're doing.

But consider

in light of eternity

your responsibilities.

Did you buy

that tool today?

Is it going to

affect you tomorrow?

Maybe.

But,

does that tool

lead somebody

to salvation?

Probably not.

Are you actively

pressing pause

in your life

to slow down

and prioritize

being in prayer

with the Lord?

Going to Him

in this secret place

by yourself?

Getting into the Word?

There's a man,

his name is

Leonard Ravenhill.

He's a pastor

of the old days.

I'm reading his book

and one thing he says

in the book

was that

a sermon

concocted in the mind

is only for the mind.

But a sermon

concocted

and written

with this power

of the Spirit

is for the Spirit

of the man.

And so my question

this morning is

in your life right now

are you

filling your mind

with the Bible

and doing your

five minute

real quick studies

just because

it's what you should do

to make sure

you feel right

as a man

or a woman?

Or are you

spending time

in diligent prayer

and diligent reading

of the Word

to really come

and know

who Christ is?

That's all I have

to say there I think.

Consider in your hearts

where are you right now?

Let me pray for us.

Father I thank you

so much for this morning.

Thank you for

all the people

who have

sat through

a message

over many different

parts

of the Christian life.

But

Lord thank you so much

for all you've done

this weekend.

Even just that

one came

to Christ.

God hearing the praises

of your people

singing praises

to you.

A humbling feeling.

Can't even imagine

what heaven's

going to be like.

All of us

singing praises

and hearing the angels

sing holy, holy,

holy is the Lord

God Almighty.

Lord I thank you

for all you've done.

Lord as we

come to a close

I pray that you

would impress upon

the hearts of those

who need to be

impressed upon

to come to Christ.

Lord those who are

who are dealing

with sin issues

in their life.

They would

seek to confess it

and kill it

just take it

out of their lives.

Lord you've been

so good to us.

Lord thank you

for even when

we think you're

slow to answer prayer

you're still slow

to handle us

and our sin

how we deserve

to be.

Lord thank you

for all you've done

in Christ.

In my prayer.