How To Become A Consequential Person

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

We've come to do just that today, to praise you.

We thank you, Lord, that you saved us from who we were.

But you not only saved us from who we were, you saved us for who we could become.

So we're not here just to feel bad about who we used to be and try not to do those, engage in those behaviors anymore.

We're here to embrace fully uh who we can be in Christ because of Christ.

Because it's not just about looking back, it's about looking forward.

And so, Lord, created us a deep and abiding joy about who we are and who we are going to become because of sanctification today.

Now, Holy Spirit, we need you to lead us into the truth like Jesus said you would.

Jesus, we we thank you that you're interceding at the right hand of the Father on our behalf even now.

And Father, we just thank you that you've orchestrated all of this, that this is part of your plan and purpose that we're saving in this room today.

So we're not gonna waste a moment of this day.

So, Lord, awaken us to the wonder that's in the text.

Reveal things that we read over and we don't see.

God, we don't want to live just in bondage to the visible.

We want to be connected to the invisible.

That's where the kingdom comes and your will gets done.

Let that happen in this room today, God.

We pray.

We pray this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat if you got a Bible.

I invite you to take and open up to Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 9, and I want to talk, I'll start reading in verse 19.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Uh, but I want to talk to you this morning about how to become a consequential person.

How to become a consequential person.

A couple months ago, uh, it was a point in a sermon where I just said, you know, you got to be around consequential people.

And a couple of you walked up to me or emailed me or texted me and said, Hey, uh, how do you become that person?

Uh, because hopefully you're to the point in life to where you realize uh that it's not enough to be popular.

You want to be consequential.

There's way too many people that are popular, but they are of no consequence.

Just get on TikTok this afternoon and it's full of them, okay?

They're called influencers.

Uh, the people wildly popular, you meet them in person and you're like, hmm, why am I walking away mildly depressed?

Uh because you had an expectation that that person couldn't meet because they are weightless.

All they're chasing is clicks and all this kind of stuff.

And so, what does it mean uh uh to say, hey, this is how you become a consequential person?

And so before I start reading in the latter part of verse 19, let me just speak to a technical issue that is in the text, but it's not spoken about in the text.

And it's simply this that when Paul was converted, we'll read this later in Galatians chapter 1.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

When Paul was converted, he said, I did not go to Jerusalem uh and consult with men.

No, I went to Arabia, I went to the desert.

Matter of fact, they went there for three years.

And so you're thinking, why are you telling me this?

Because where we're going to pick up reading this morning, uh, Acts chapter 9, verse 19, B, the second part of verse 19, I believe is what transpires.

Acts 9:19

He just got back from the desert.

He just got back from three years.

Well, why didn't the Bible talk about that there?

It talks about other places, like I said, we'll read it in Galatians 1.

But uh Luke does not include it in Acts because I don't think it's central to what he's doing.

It's not chronological like, hey, hey, and yesterday ended, you know, like where Leo left off last week.

It's like, and then the next day.

No, no, what Luke, the person that records the book of Acts, is doing is he's piecing together some of the bigger events uh about the church and Paul's role in that in a major way.

And so it's historical, it's not necessarily chronological, like day after day after day after day.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

So anybody a little confused, say amen.

There you go.

Let me talk to you people just for a second.

Uh now, uh, if someone asked you, like I asked some of you this weekend, I mean this morning, I said, What'd you do this weekend?

None of you gave me a chronological listing.

None of you said, Well, I got off work at five Friday at 5 o'clock, and at 5.17 I was in the specs parking lot, and then I had dinner that night.

Some of y'all are convicted, aren't you?

Uh and and and then that night we had grilled chicken with vegetables, and then I went for a 2.1 mile walk with my wife, and then I read 38 pages in a in a book that I'm reading, and then I took a shower and I went to bed.

You didn't say any of that.

You said, uh, how was your weekend?

It was good.

Do anything out of the ordinary.

I ask a young man over here, do anything out of the ordinary?

He's like, I said, Did you get a new girlfriend?

And he was like, What?

No.

See, you you don't you don't uh uh give chronological answers to every question you get asked.

But look at me.

Some people that want to disqualify the Bible, you expect it to be chronological when in reality it's historical.

It's saying, here's the major pieces, just big blocks of events that happen to establish the church.

The book of Acts is about the church, it's not about the people and the personalities that God used to form and shape the church.

And so Luke doesn't talk about this, but we'll get to it in a minute.

But I just want you to know that Paul's just come from three years of solitude and silence in the Arabian desert.

And this cat is full.

He there's a thickness to his being, his spirit is overflowing, and he is ready to go.

So uh Acts chapter 9, verse 19, this is how you become a consequential person.

Acts 9:19

It says, for some days he was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God.

And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is this not the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name?

And has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests?

But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him.

But their plot became known to Saul, and they were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him.

But his disciples took him by night and led him down through the opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

And when he came to Jerusalem, he attended, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

Verse 26 says, So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord, and he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists.

These are the people that stoned Stephen, the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.

And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

So the church throughout all of Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Did you see it there in the text?

How to become a consequential person?

You got a life plan, an action plan, you know, five things you're gonna do.

And then no, no, no.

But it's laying right there before you, okay?

Uh it's not motivational, it's it's it's educational.

And when you at when you get educated, when you increase your understanding, this is the place of lasting motivation.

So how do you become a consequential person?

Three things.

Number one, you need a changed and changing life.

You need a changed, that's conversion and changing life.

That's sanctification.

That's verses 20 through 25.

Notice it says there in verse 20, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God.

Uh, and it goes on and it ends down there in verse 22.

It says, by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

Why the urgency?

Why does Paul come back and say immediately, this is true of him?

It's true of all of us, whether you realize it or not.

Let me help you realize it this morning.

The thing that you should be the most passionate about in your Christianity, in your apologetic, in your defense of and representation of the Christian faith, the thing that you should be most passionate about is the thing that you struggle with the most before you came to faith.

For Paul, it was these two things that he he is the son of God and he is the Christ, the Messiah.

These are the two things he that Paul works to establish.

He wants them to know Jesus is the Son of God.

That's in verse 20, and he wants them to know Jesus is the Christ.

He is the Messiah, he is the fulfillment of every promise God ever made.

Now, why is why is there urgency?

Why does the Bible say immediately Paul goes?

I mean, he's been a Christian, but he's not been for at least three years, but he's not been around a bunch of people.

He's been off in the desert.

Now, a lot of people say, why do you go to the desert for three years?

This is opinion.

Uh, let me own this, okay?

I this is my opinion.

How long was Jesus with the disciples?

Say it again.

Three years.

I think Paul understood, hey, listen, I'm not a super, I'm not a super Christian, I'm not above everything.

I got a lot of unlearning to do, and then I got some learning to do.

You should ask yourself today, what do you need what's do you need more right now?

Do you need to unlearn some things?

Like God helps those that help themselves.

That's not in the Bible.

Or do you need to learn some things?

See, I think our life, uh, this sanctification process where we become more and more like Christ, it's a combination of both.

You're unlearning, the Bible is displacing some things that we've just held on to because they're sentimental and they sound good, but they're not biblical.

And you also need to learn some things.

You need to learn some new things.

Paul believe went to the desert for three years because he said, Listen, I don't want to be popular.

I don't want to have a following.

I don't want people to click on me and retweet me and all this kind of stuff.

I want to be the man Christ called me to be.

He told me on the road to Damascus, I'm gonna show you how much you're gonna have to suffer for my name.

This is why when he gets knocked to the ground and blinded for three days, Paul has one question.

And the one question was, Who are you, Lord?

You get a right answer to that question, and the rest of your life will sort itself out.

Now, me, if you hit me today and knock me to the ground and blind me, my question is not gonna be who are you?

My question is gonna be because somebody called Jim Hat Jim, Jim Adler, the Texas Hammer.

Because I'm gonna own your car.

I walked into one of our people's having surgery, Sugarland Methodist, a couple weeks ago, and I walked in to pray with them, and the nurse was standing there, and I said, Hello, ma'am, what kind of vehicle do you drive?

And she said, Well, why is that important?

Because I'm this family's attorney.

If you screw this up, I may be driving your car.

She was like, uh.

And then the guy goes, Actually, that's my pastor.

And she went, No.

Tell me what kind of vehicle you drive, I may drive it anyway.

No, Paul is urgent and passionate, okay, because he has been changed.

And before he was converted, okay, before God revealed himself to him, he had two problems with his whole Jesus.

This is why he persecutes Christians.

I mean, he comes in the beginning of Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

He comes to persecute Christians and he leaves this chapter as a persecuted Christian.

We're talking about a transformation.

But he had a big problem with his whole Jesus.

Is he the Son of God?

Yes.

Is he the Messiah?

The promise?

Is he the Christ, the long-awaited one?

Yes.

If he's not the son of God, you've just got a Jew on a stick having a bad Friday.

That even feels kind of dirty when you hear it, doesn't it?

Some of y'all are like, oh, you're going to hell for that.

No, that's that's what it is.

If he's not the son of God, this is what makes the cross the cross.

And if he's the Messiah, I tried to explain to a guy one time because I just don't believe I'm not Jewish, but I don't believe Jesus was the Messiah.

I mean, what do you say about that?

And by the way, don't get in arguments with people.

Get in their logic and prove it to be insufficient.

So I said, okay, let's just let's just go with you.

If Jesus is not the Messiah, he goes, Yeah, I mean, you you that's your opinion, and it brings you comfort, and that's great.

But I do not agree with that.

It brings me no comfort.

I said, I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation.

He goes, What do you mean?

I said, just suppose you were diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

He's like, Okay.

And and there was no treatment for it anywhere in the United States, anywhere.

And finally you start researching and you find on the internet that there's one guy in Oslo, Norway, who can treat this and can cure this.

He's come up with it with a concoction that will cure this in 90 days.

And so you reach out, you get in touch with him.

He's like, hey, listen, I've got six surgeries, and then I'll fly the United States.

And you said, Money is no object.

And he said, I don't charge.

I want people to be healed, okay?

I don't charge for my understanding.

I believe it's a gift from God.

I'll get there as soon as I can, but I can't tell you when I can get there.

I'll just get on a plane when I finish my last surgeries.

It can be two weeks, it could be four weeks.

You're like, that's okay, just come.

And here's my address.

Come straight to my house.

This guy's smirking, like, okay, I think this is kind of far-fetched.

I said, just stay with me.

Just stay with me because you're the far-fetched one.

He goes, okay.

And so you're going about your life, you're having more and more symptoms.

Two weeks go by, three weeks go by, a month goes by, you kind of forget.

And then two days later, in the middle of the night, someone's knocking on your door.

You wake up in the middle of the night, you think someone's breaking into your house, you grab your pistol out of your nightstand, and you go to the door, and the guy goes to walk in and you shoot the guy dead on your front on your front porch.

He's like, Okay, what's the big deal?

You've killed the only guy who could save you.

If you don't believe Jesus is the Messiah, you have intellectually killed your only hope of salvation.

Now, wait a minute.

Yeah, yeah.

You gotta think about it.

Now, I cannot convince you with an analogy.

I just want you to understand the insufficiency of your logic.

Now, say that again?

I don't think I can remember all that.

And he's like, huh.

So this is why Paul labors for these people to understand.

Jesus is the Son of God and He is the Christ.

By the way, these are the same two truths that Jesus worked to establish in the minds of his disciples.

Don't turn them into Matthew 16.

It's called the Caesarea Philippi incident, because that's the part of the country they were in.

And they're sitting down, snacking on a charcuterie board one day, and Jesus looks at them and says, Hey, who do men say that I am?

They say, Oh, some say that you're uh Moses and Elijah or Jeremiah, one of the prophets.

And then Jesus kind of sharpens the focus on Peter and says, Who do you say that I am?

He says, Well, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Sound familiar?

Now, by the way, after that little perk, if that little section ends, the next section, the first verse says this.

And from that time on, Jesus began to speak to them about his death.

Because now that they understood who he was and as the Son of God and the Christ, the promised Messiah, now they can understand the magnitude of what I'm about to do.

And so he sets his face like flint to go to Jerusalem.

And now he's surrounded by at least 12 people who understand he is the Christ and He is the Son of God.

Do you understand that today?

That Jesus is not just a religious prophet, he's just not a teacher, he's not a good moral example, he is the Son of God, and He is the Messiah.

He is the Christ.

Now, when I say you need a change in changing life, Paul was changed, okay?

And so he he he he he he wasn't enough just to be changed, just to say, Oh, I have a wedding day.

He is changing, he has a married life.

How many in this room have been married more than 20 years?

Say amen.

How many of you would say the fact that I've married the person I married has changed me?

Say amen.

How many of you would say that's for the best?

I'm just kidding.

No, don't answer that.

Yes.

Yes.

Some of you may are like, no, stop.

You need to change and changing life.

You say, see, evidence that you've changed is your future isn't this is practical and hopefully helpful.

Evidence that you've really been changed is that your future is more compelling to you than your past.

And your curiosity is more oriented towards your future than your past.

I meet way too many people who are obsessed with their past.

And occasionally I have to say to people, some form of this, hey, I'm afraid that Christianity, your version of Christianity, is little more than a form of therapy that you try to see if it'll help you feel better about all that you've done in your past, but it is not what you believe, and it sure is not how you live.

Well, what does that mean?

I I don't know that you can be considered a Christian.

I think you're superstitious, I think you're fearful, but you obsess about your past.

You're always back here talking about, oh, you know, and then you keep repeating these behaviors.

At some point, that your evidence that you're changed, you had an actual true conversion, is that you're now oriented more towards your future.

This is dead to me.

It doesn't interest me at all.

Now, does that mean there won't be times where you just put it in a ditch?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A Christian can do that.

But but but your curiosity and and your compelling is towards the future.

Now look at verse 22, because you say he need a change and changing life.

Uh starting in verse 22, it says three things that Paul did.

Uh, three things that Paul did in verse 22.

He says, But Saul uh increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

Yes, amen, baby.

Speak it out.

Uh and so what are the this is the changing part.

You have to have a uh a conversion.

Now, by the way, let me say this.

Uh like some of y'all said before, oh, you talk about how when you came to faith, you talk about how it was July 5th, 1982, 939.

Yes, I remember it distinctly because I was a very not good person.

I was a I was a wicked sinner.

Now, I don't think she would mind me telling you this.

My wife could not tell you today that the moment in time she came to faith.

So I don't want to put you under the law and you think, well, I can't remember like Pastor Neil, so maybe I don't know.

My wife's like, I don't remember the exact time, but if you know my wife, would you say she's a Christian?

I doubt it sometimes, but anyway, I'll go with you.

Yes, yes, yes, one of the most consistent, faithful people I know.

I've never looked at her and thought, you don't remember the day and the time.

Yes.

Well, now was her sin as wicked as mine?

Amen.

Was mine more public?

Absolutely.

When we were dating, we'd be talking, and she'd be like, You did what?

Yeah, we climbed the water tower and scratched our names in it with a box cutter.

Like on the side, no, on the very top where the light is, a hug the light.

And sang the Glenn Campbell song, like a rhinestone cowboy.

And my she's just looking at me like, what an idiot.

And I'm like, I was drunk.

And she's like, You climbed up there when you were.

Yeah, no one does that sober.

If you do that when you're sober, you need help.

You're really a bad person.

No, the Bible says that he increased.

Here's the three three three words I want you to hear.

He increased all the more in strength.

That's the first thing he did.

He increased all the more in strength.

In other words, he didn't arrive.

It was never enough to say, hey, I've kind of learned a lot.

I'm good.

I'm just gonna do this.

Uh, he didn't just immediately, he was, by the way, Paul wasn't immediately this way.

He he he did some things to become spiritually strong.

And this is where Arabia comes in.

He goes to the desert for three years because he doesn't want to just have information, he wants to have intimacy.

One of the questions you should ask yourself is how often do you pursue deliberate silence?

How often do you get away from people and things and your phone and unplug and just kind of say, Lord, I don't want to hear from people.

I want to hear from you.

I'm gonna put myself in some deliberate silence because I want you to reveal some things to me.

The Bible talks about this.

I've been referencing Galatians 1.

Let me just read it to you.

Galatians 1 starts in verse 11.

Paul says, This for I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that we that that was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many uh uh of my own age among my people.

So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my father.

See, he's talking about his past.

Verse 15.

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who had called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and I returned again to Damascus.

This is where we pick up in verse 19, and it says, for some days he was with the disciples at what?

Damascus.

We jump in.

He is hot out of the solitude with God, and so he is full.

There's a thickness to his being that is deeply, deeply consequential.

This is where we get the changed and the changing.

Unless you put yourselves in environments where you can be strengthened spiritually, it's just a matter of time before you just kind of lose interest and just kind of drift off.

You sign up for a class, you go to two or three, and you're like, it's raining.

The devil's trying to attack me.

I'm gonna stay home.

And you've you're you're still the same person at 48 you were when you were 24.

And you because you don't put yourself in spiritually formative environments and stick.

See, the first thing he did, he increased all the more in strength.

It wasn't enough for Paul, for Saul to say, I'm strong.

No, a lot of that was his natural intellect that he got from being a Judaizer, from being a religious zealot.

No, he says, I I I increased all the more in strength.

The second thing the Bible says he did is he confounded the Jews.

This literally means to disturb the mind.

What do you mean?

His words and his logic were an assault on the worldview of those who heard him.

Let me say that again.

I want you to think about how you talk to people.

His words and his logic were an assault on the worldview.

It wasn't just, I'm just talking to impress you.

I am going to, you know, I'm gonna dismantle the way you see the world.

And I'm not gonna tell you I'm doing that.

It's just like yes.

Uh Marcy and I took a friend of ours that's very popular, Christian uh uh uh musician, worship leader, whatever you would consider him.

Uh, we took him to a David Wilcox concert.

Uh and some of you don't know who David Wilcox is, and that's much to your walls.

He's a great, incredible musician, singer, songwriter.

And and we're sitting there with our friend uh and And David is just warming up.

And I look over, and Chris Tomlin has his face in his hands.

And I was like, Chris, are you okay?

And he looked at me and said, I'm going to go home and burn my guitar.

I said, Why?

And he goes, it doesn't sound like that.

And I said, Oh yeah.

I forgot to tell you, he's a guitar aficionado.

And he's like, dude, are you?

In that moment, I just thought, I'm glad I don't play the guitar.

But one thing that happened in that moment is that our friend Chris's view of music and musicians got dismantled.

And he realized, I got a ways to go to be on that guy's level.

He confounded the Jews and then says this, by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

That little word proven means to put together in one's mind.

Hear that again, to put together in one's mind.

Now, what do you mean?

He didn't, that's not talking about Paul's mind.

When Paul talked to people, listen very carefully because you want to get to this place where you can do this.

When Paul talked to people, it's not like he could see it and imagine it in his mind.

They could see it and they could imagine it in their mind.

Do you hear the difference?

You may be talking, and it makes a lot of sense to you, but if it doesn't make sense, if they can't visualize what you're talking about, go back to the guy I'm talking who's like, I don't believe Jesus is the Messiah.

And in the kooky analogy about a uh a medical specialist in Oslo, Norway, he's like, Oh wow.

Yeah.

Oh, I yeah.

See, this is what would happen.

Uh, this is why people that hated Paul also wanted to hear him.

It didn't just make sense to Paul, it made sense to them.

Same thing happened with Jesus, by the way.

People would pick up rocks of stone him, he'd walk right through the crowd, and they were like, ooh.

Later in Acts, you'll see that these people, really smart people, are like, hey, you're bringing some strange ideas to our ears.

We want to hear you some more.

Why?

Because the pictures that he painted in their head, they wanted to see again and again and again.

And so when I talk about becoming a consequential person, what I mean first and foremost is simply this you need a changed and changing life.

So ask yourself today, has your life ever been changed?

Not from bad to good, but from dead to alive.

Second thing you need to become a consequential person is you need people who believe in you.

You need people who believe in you.

Look at verse 26.

And he says in this, and when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple, but Barnabas.

Underline those two first words of verse 27.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

Verse 28, so.

So he, Saul, went in and out among them at Jerusalem.

Why?

How do you go from verse 27 but to verse 28 so?

Because somebody vouches for him.

Somebody says, Hey, I believe in this guy.

I don't care if you guys don't believe that he's an apostle.

Here's a weird question.

I mean, don't believe that he's a Christian.

Here's a weird question, okay?

What verbs best describe the relationship you have with people that believe in you?

You're like, what, what, what, say that again?

What verbs, I know it's weird, just stay with me.

What verbs best describe your relationship with people that believe in you?

And hopefully they're not things like eating, drinking, shopping, talking.

No, the verbs right there.

It says, but Barnabas took him, brought him, and declared to them.

Those are the verbs.

Took him means he put his hands on him, he seized him with his hand, he got him by the collars, and he uh brought him.

In other words, he's dragging him up in front of them.

And basically what he's saying when he stands Saul, who becomes Paul, before them, is he saying, Hey, listen, you're gonna feel about this guy the way you feel about me, because I'm gonna put my reputation on the line.

I believe in this guy so much.

And so he vouches for him, he speaks for him.

So they go from, hey, we're afraid of this guy, we don't even believe he's a disciple, uh, a Christian, to verse 28.

So he, Saul, went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

He spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.

And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

In other words, it wasn't just that Barnabas spoke for this guy, he vouched for him.

All this happened because of that.

But they begin to feel the way he's there sometime.

Again, the Bible doesn't, it's not chronological, it's a historical summary.

Because he was there long enough to get some brothers, to get some people that believed in him.

Now, one of the things, this is a big deal when I say you need people who believe in you.

Look at me.

We as a culture think that we're really connected.

We got a lot of friends.

No, you probably got more associates than you do friends.

Social media has killed friendship in America.

It has killed it.

Your kids are connected, but they don't have friends.

They got it, you know, it's high school's like 2,000 ticks and no dog.

It's just people feeding off each other.

They'll stab you in the back, they'll slander you, they'll try to get with your boyfriend.

There's a phrase for that, by the way.

It's called the homie hopper.

Yeah, that's kids laughing over there, kind of going, how does Pastor Neil know what a homie hopper is?

Here's what a homie hopper is, adults.

It's a student that all she does is date the exes of her friends.

She just hops from homie to homie to homie to homie.

Yes.

Yes.

And you say, How do you know that?

I I can't help but know it, okay?

Uh, because when you got a thousand ticks and no dog, it it all you're gonna do is you're just trying to get your needs met.

Again, you need people who believe in you.

What are the verbs that best that best describe the relationship you have with people that believe in you?

For me, it's things like giving and praying and crying and showing up and being there.

Yeah, do we do we eat and drink on occasion?

Yeah, we get together, have lunch or breakfast or whatever.

But there are deeper verbs that characterize those relationships because those men and women believe in me, and I believe in them.

Here's the last thing you need.

You need a healthy church to belong to.

You need a healthy church to belong to after they send him off to Tarsus.

I mean, Paul's been passed around like a bong at a falcat concert.

I mean, he shows up at Damascus, then he goes to Jerusalem.

Now they send him to Caesarea, they send him off to Tarsus, which is his hometown, by the way.

Here is the most consequential verse in the whole passage, verse 31.

Hear it again.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, all the places that the Holy Spirit scatters these people, had peace and was being built up, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Notice that it multiplied as a byproduct, not the goal.

Hear it again.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

That's the consequence.

We'll get to that in just a minute.

I just want to tick off those four things there.

He says, first of all, it had peace.

It had peace.

That means harmony.

That means there was no drama.

People use drama to sound important in the church, okay?

Now, if you've been here 10 minutes, there's not a lot of drama here.

Uh some people try to create drama.

Well, I heard blah, blah, blah.

It doesn't move the needle for me at all.

People say, Well, you know, I heard the real reason.

I'm like, nope, that's not the real reason, but I appreciate you hearing that.

Well, I mean, aren't you gonna speak to it?

No, you don't know what happened, and you're not gonna know what happened after this conversation because it's none of your business.

Why do you got to be a nosy Nelly?

Well, I mean, I just I mean, because some people are saying, I don't care about some people.

Next thing you're gonna tell me they, you know, they said.

You know what they say?

I don't know they, and I don't care what they say.

This is how we don't have drama.

We don't tolerate drama.

So if you bring drama here, you're gonna experience church discipline.

Yes.

If you like, well, I heard no, no, no, we're myself or Wade Burgess or myself, if you're really screwed up, myself and Wade Burgess are gonna show up together.

You're gonna be like, it's the Sons of Thunder.

No, you your kids look at the people and go, look, the odd couple is here.

Yeah.

This is because peace, peace is a big deal.

So the church throughout all Judea, Samaria had peace.

Secondly, was being built up.

Think of a house.

Think of a house was being built up.

God's been building this place up for a long time.

When we started, we were in that building right there.

That's all we had.

And some asphalt parking lots around it with holes big enough you could sink a VW Beetle.

Yeah.

And God's been building this place up a long time.

You should ask yourself, do I build up the church or do I tear it down?

You don't accomplish anything by tearing stuff down.

Let me give you a real practical thing.

We have a parent rotation where if you have kids in our children's ministry, we ask you to serve on a rotation.

If everyone does their part, you'll serve about twice a year.

And some people ask, like, oh my gosh, are you kidding me?

No, I'm not kidding you.

If all you do is come and resource this church and you don't help volunteer, you're not building this place up, you're trying to tear it down.

So just suck it up, parents.

Your kids get great care every Sunday.

And so two Sundays a year, you can do your part.

Or you can say, I don't want to belong to a church like that.

A man came to me and he goes, We've been coming for six weeks, man.

We love this church, but now we're getting emails about volunteering.

I'm like, I know, right?

How crazy is that that you have to build up your church?

Well, we're just gonna find a church where they pay all our volunteers.

That'd be great.

There are some churches that do that.

But either you're gonna volunteer or you're gonna show up one day with your kids, and we're gonna go.

You can't put your kids in here because you're tearing it down.

So keep your kids because you're selfish.

I bet if you're visiting today, you're very excited right now.

You're like, you're leaning over your wife, going, Hey, take the sticker and go get the kids.

I'll meet you at the Buick.

No, hey, look at me.

It's not about forced labor and we we hear it all.

Are you there?

Yes.

You you you want to be a part of something, then build it up.

The church had peace, it was being built up, and then it says this walking in the fear of the Lord.

This is reverence and respect, not not dysphobia, like, oh my gosh.

And by the way, the longer you walk with the Lord, the longer you you're part of a church that's being built up, you're growing in your faith, your fear should mature and go from a fear, a fear of uh of messing up to a fear of missing out.

Let me say it again.

You should, everybody typically starts off with this a fear of messing up.

Oh, I don't want to screw it up.

No, no.

But as you walk with the Lord, you understand him, you grow in wisdom and favor and stature with him, your fear should go from that to, uh man, I don't want to miss out.

I don't want to miss anything God has for me.

That's why I don't sin.

That's why I don't live in disobedience.

Man, I I'd be afraid of what I'd miss.

I'm not afraid of what happened to me.

I'm forgiven.

Remember, my past doesn't interest me, it's not compelling anymore.

I'm done with that.

It doesn't even interest me.

I don't want to miss out on my future.

So I don't have a fear of messing up.

I got a fear of missing out.

This is what motivates me to obey.

And then he says this, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Don't you want to be a part of a church that's just you just sense the comfort of the Holy Spirit?

A lady said to me one time, she goes, This may be weird, but when I come to church on Sundays, I just feel like I'm just settling down into a hot bath.

I say, Oh, it's not weird at all.

It makes me want to go home and fill my bathtub.

Light me some candles.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Hey, look at me.

The Holy Spirit doesn't always come to convict.

Sometimes he just comes to comfort, just to love on you, and just say, hey, you're doing good.

Let's keep doing good.

Don't you enjoy doing good?

You like this feeling that you have on the inside?

Now, it says all this the church throughout it had peace, was being built up, walking in the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, comma, it multiplied.

It multiplied.

This is the byproduct, not the goal.

It's not my job to grow this church.

It's my responsibility to pray that we have peace, that we're being built up, that we're walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Otherwise, look at me.

And I would say most, not all, but most churches are their whole thing, they're driven to multiply, to grow the church.

When I interviewed here, somebody on the committee said, So if we hire you as our pastor, what would be your plan for growing the church?

And I said, I wouldn't have a plan for growing the church.

I don't think the church needs to be stimulated.

I think she needs to be educated.

I would do two things.

I would preach the gospel and I would pastor people.

And he took his glasses off and he said, So that would be your plan?

And I said, No, that would be my responsibility.

And this is if you've ever seen nine people cry at once, say this.

I said, I don't have a plan.

They were looking at each other like, where did we get this bumpkin?

I don't have a plan.

The problem with the church in America is too many pastors have a plan and no responsibility.

And so they turn people into things and they manipulate you and they take you to lunch and say, hey, we got a building program, and uh, could you pray about this number right here?

Some of you had that conversation.

That's gross to me.

No, the church is not an organization that needs an entrepreneur, it is an organism that needs a pastor.

That's what the church is.

It's an organism, it's a thriving mass of humanity, okay?

And and and and and and most of the time we're doing great, and sometimes, despite the fact that we know better, we put it in the ditch anyway.

And when you do that, look at me.

You can call your pastor.

Okay?

You you can call 24-7.

Most of you know that because you've done it.

Hey, I might be drunk.

What makes you think you're drunk?

I'm laying in the floorboard of my truck.

You're drunk.

Sit up and tell me, can you see any identifying signs around you?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

All right, I know where you are.

Stay there.

Some of y'all are gonna go, is he here right now?

Yeah, yeah.

Hey, by the way, it's not our responsibility, the staff of the elders, to try to multiply you.

Our responsibility is to protect the peace of this place.

Our responsibility is to build this place up.

Our responsibility is to walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Tuesday, if you're visiting today, occasionally we just take a day and just fast together.

All those that can, some can't, schedule, health reasons, whatever, no big deal.

But on Tuesday, some of us are gonna fast.

It means we're gonna abstain from food for the purpose of prayer and spiritual direction.

Uh, these are four things I'd like us to be praying for our church on Tuesday, that we have peace, that we be built up.

Can you imagine the children's ministry saying, ah, we got way too many volunteers, some of y'all got to go to church.

Women that work in the children's ministry are like, yeah, I send emails on Saturdays.

Hey, by the way, when you you let us know Saturday night at 9.30, you're not gonna be here, it's a little inconvenient.

Because then we got to find somebody who can be here on Saturday night at 9.30.

I ain't mad at you.

I'm just saying build this place up.

Because if every environment you go into, you're tearing it down.

People tolerate you, they don't enjoy you.

Yeah.

And it multiplied.

It multiplied.

It multiplied.

Why?

I say this and I'm done.

Look at me.

The church doesn't need a formula, the church doesn't need more guilt or manipulation or shame.

The church needs peace, it needs to be built up.

It needs to know what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord, to have not a fear of messing up, but a fear of missing out.

And the church just needs to learn to enjoy the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

The rest will sort itself out.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.

And so I'll voice a brief prayer and some questions come up on the screen.

Uh, you can take, we talk about these in our community groups, but you can take a picture, talk about them at lunch, or just think about them throughout the week.

Let me pray.

Father, thanks for the word.

Thanks at the parts of the Bible that we read and kind of go, yeah, I got nothing there.

You always have something.

Holy Spirit, you're always illuminating, you're always revealing.

Now, God, I want to just go on record and say, and this church has flourished because these people do build it up.

These people volunteer.

Every once in a while, we got some knuckleheads that want to be selfish.

And we love them.

They've just never had anybody in their lives just say, hey man, it's not all about you.

You don't get to make the rules.

And so, Lord, I pray for people to step in and step up and say, you know what?

I I'm benefiting from this place.

I want to build this place up.

So, Holy Spirit, brood over us today.

Press into us what's necessary and take off of us everything that's unnecessary.

Lord, thank you for the comfort and the consequences ours in Christ because of Christ.

We don't fear failure, we fear missing out.

Because you're a good, good father, and you got a lot in store for us.

Increase our capacity to be trusted and to be entrusted with.

This is our prayer.

We pray in Christ's name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen.

You're gonna miss this, so I want to tell you what's gonna happen in the next service.

We're gonna give, as we always do, new Bibles to our second graders.

Uh it's it's the part on the back that gets me.

Uh, this children's ministry over here that's teeming with volunteers.

Uh every every Sunday they meet, the kids recite this little pledge.

It's on the back of their Bibles again.

It says, This is my Bible.

I believe that it's the I believe that it is the inspired word of God.

I believe that all of God's words are true.

When my thoughts or my attitudes or my actions are different from the Bible, it is not the Bible it needs to change.

It's me.

We'll have some of these available for you to put on the back of your Bible next Sunday.

Woo!

Uh so uh I just want you to know that we take the Bible seriously uh in children's ministry.

We're not babysitting.

They're not babysitting.

Krista, Nancy, and all their team of volunteers are not babysitting.

Uh, it is your first experience with spiritual formation in this church, okay?

Uh uh we got a lot of things going on in the life of our church.

Some of them we want to make you aware of uh this morning by way of video announcement.

There's a number on the screen you can text.

If you're visiting today, just shoot welcome.

Just text welcome to that number, okay?

We're not gonna show up at your house, but just let us know that you're here.

Uh, and we'll just reach out, probably a text or a phone call or maybe an email.

All right.

Uh we want you to find the church that's a good fit for you and your family, all right?

Uh like I said earlier, we got a lot of stuff going on in the life of our church.

Every Sunday we highlight a few of those.

Today, here's the things we're highlighting.

Here's what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

If you're new, text welcome to 281-626-5707.

This way we can know you're here and get you connected with the church.

Did you know that we have a church app?

You can use it to get involved, register for events, listen to sermons, podcasts, and more.

Find it wherever apps are available for your devices.

Hello, my name is Al Williams.

Listen, it is my privilege to invite you to the Mid's Weekend coming up in October.

Uh, it's gonna be a great time.

And let me give you some experiences I've had in the past.

I have loved Mids Weekend.

We worship, we pray, we go to small groups.

Listen, it's it you will not regret it.

It's a booster shock to my soul when I go.

There's gonna be a lot of you guys out there thinking, this is not for me, and I'm gonna say to you, it is for you.

It is for you.

There's gonna be guys gonna be thinking the same thing you're thinking.

I don't know them.

They know everybody else, they know each other, no, they don't.

A lot of people know a lot of people, but nobody knows everybody.

So please make it a priority to come.

This year, the uh topic is gonna be spiritual leadership.

Men, we need to hear this.

We need to lead well in our homes.

We need to lead well in our families, and we need to lead well in our communities so that we have strong families, strong churches.

I urge you to make it a priority to come to the men's weekend coming up in October.

That'll be Friday evening, October 20th, and Saturday morning, October 21st.

Please come.

I promise you, you will be refreshed.

You'll be glad you came.

God bless you.

On November 10th, we'll be heading to Piney Woods Camp for a weekend dedicated to refilling all of our margins.

October Outreach kicks off this Tuesday with National Night Out, followed by Nary's Promise on the 17th, Oyster Creek Elementary on the 27th, and closes with an ESL party on the 31st.

There are QR codes in the mission center to register or to find out more.

You just need to choose one to spread the best news ever.

Finally, we're bringing back Pumpkin Palooza on Friday, October 27th at 6:30 p.m.

Each family will bring their own pumpkin to carve or decorate.

A food truck will be available to purchase dessert, we'll show a movie on the outdoor movie screen and have prizes for our pumpkin contest.

Register before October 23rd to receive a free carving kit for your family.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Many of you have asked, they say, hey, in the announcement, they mission the mission center.

Where exactly is that?

It's right out the door.

It's to the far right of the lobby, right over here.

There's a big flat screen TV.

There's a little uh sign that says October outreach.

So if you have any questions about those four opportunities to get involved, that you just go out to the lobby and hang a right, and you'll see a beautiful blonde standing over there with Tootsie glasses on.

Uh no?

You don't see the movie Tootsie?

Dustin Hoffman.

My glasses, my wife's glasses are so big she can see the future, but I digress.

Uh she looks at a map and there's people waving back at her.

Uh I used to use those glasses when I was a kid to burn bugs.

No.

30 years, she she loves this.

Shh.

She can't hear.

She's not there, she's deaf in one ear.

Don't tell her.

Uh we'd like to conclude our service with a smoking blessing, so stand to your feet.

As you prepare to go to the mission center and find out more information from Tootsie.

Hold your hands out.

He's not watching you to catch you doing wrong.

He's watching you to catch you doing right.

To increase your fear of missing out.

Because you can be done with messing up.

Depart now into these realities.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.