The Blueprint for a Consequential Life

For more information about Grand Parkway, can visit GrandParkway.org.

Let's pray again.

Father, as you're alive and awake, quickened people, changed, resurrected, adopted, and accepted sons and daughters.

We come before you this morning.

And Lord, we want to live fully alive and alert to all the realities that are exploding all around us.

So Lord, we open up your word because it clarifies what's fuzzy and it makes obvious what's not clear.

And so, Holy Spirit, we ask you to illuminate what the word says today and apply it to our lives.

And so, Lord, we yield our intellect and our affections to the truth of your word now.

And we say, Come, Lord Jesus, Lord, speak.

Your servants are listening.

The people that you redeemed are listening.

We want to understand your truth because we want to live in the broad freedom that comes from the truth.

We ask for this now in Jesus' name.

And all God's people said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it up.

Take it and open it up to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

John chapter 3, the Gospel of John, which is about halfway, if you crack your Bible right in half and go to the right, we're running to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the very beginning of the New Testament.

John 3 · chapter mention

We're in the book of John.

And we're preaching through the book of John.

We took a break for Advent, but we're back in the book of John.

And I want to talk to you this morning about the blueprint for a consequential life.

The blueprint for a consequential life.

And let me be clear in case you're visiting for the first time.

This is not about a successful life or a prosperous life or even a fun life.

And here's why, or even your best life now or ever.

Because the Bible doesn't really obsess over what's best for us.

The Bible obsesses over what's best for God and what is the truth as it relates to what's best for God.

And so I want to talk to you about a blueprint for a consequential life.

And because we're going to look at the life, a little snapshot of the life of a man named John the Baptist.

Jesus said of him, He's the greatest man ever born of a woman.

That's quite a compliment there.

But also, here's why I talk to you about this, because this is not, you know, four ways for you to be awesome.

That's not what the Bible obsesses about.

Here's why I want to talk to you about this.

Look at me.

Because every one of you in this room is going to die.

You're like, thanks for that.

That's depressing.

No, you're going to die.

And on your deathbed, none of you are going to ask, hey, was I popular enough?

Hey, are people live streaming this on Facebook?

Was I successful?

Here's what you're going to ask.

Here's what's going to gnaw at you, not just on your deathbed, but as you get closer, that last five years of your life, here's the question that gnaws at people.

Did it matter?

Did my life matter?

Did my life count for something that was that was worth it?

I would say, was it consequential?

And you say, well, how do you know that about John the Baptist?

Because we're in John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Don't turn there.

But in Matthew chapter 11, we'll read this section and it refers to John being put in prison.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

John got put in prison for preaching the truth, and he got his he was beheaded.

His head was cut off because he stood up to a man that had the power to kill him.

And instead of lying, he stood on the truth and he lost his life.

But while he's in prison, he sends his disciples.

The Bible talks about this in Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

He sends his disciples to ask Jesus, are you the one to come or should we expect someone else?

Translation, are you the real deal?

Are you really the Messiah?

Or have I built and banked my whole life on a fraud?

And Jesus says to John's disciples, You tell John what you hear and see.

The blind receive sight, the lame can walk, the deaf can hear, and the good news is preached to the poor.

In other words, what John is asking is, Did my life matter?

Was it consequential?

And he gets that answer back and he's like, Awesome, I can die, I can die now in peace, and he does.

And so that's why I want to talk to you this morning about the blueprint for a sec for a consequential life.

John chapter 3, start reading verse 22.

John 3 · chapter mention

After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them, was baptizing.

John also was baptizing at Anon near Salem because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized.

For John had not yet been put in prison.

Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification.

And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who is with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he's baptizing, and all are going to him.

And John answered, A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.

And you yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.

The one who is the bride is the bridegroom.

The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

He comes he who comes from above is above all.

He he who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.

He who comes from heaven is above all.

He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.

Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this that God is true.

For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

What do you mean when I say the blueprint for a consequential life?

There's three things in the text I want to point to this morning.

The first one is simply this identify yourself with Jesus.

Identify yourself with Jesus.

It's verses 22, 23, and 24.

And the most tangible, simple, immediate way we do that as Christians is to be baptized.

It opens up and it says basically the Bible tells us that Jesus and John the Baptist were out in this Judean countryside near a little community called Salem, and they were baptizing because water was plenteous there.

There were seven natural springs in that area of the country, and people were streaming out and coming out there to be baptized.

Now, you got to be careful because anytime something becomes really popular, a lot of people start doing it, it has a tendency to lose its substance, which is why you will read in Matthew chapter 3 that people were coming out, even religious leaders, they're like, hey man, everyone's being baptized.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

Let's go be baptized.

And John the Baptist saw them because baptism is not just a ritual that uh makes you right with God.

It doesn't do that at all.

Matter of fact, it's identifying yourself as having died, been buried, and raised up to be a different person.

You've been changed by the power of God.

So one day they're baptizing people.

Scads of people are coming.

And the religious leaders kind of say, We want to undergo this process too.

And John the Baptist said to them, Hey, go and bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance, and then we'll baptize you.

Translation, I don't see anything on the outside of you that that testifies to the fact that you've been changed by God.

And they were like, What?

How dare you?

We're we're and he's like, No, you guys are religious, but you don't have a relationship with God.

And so when I say identify yourself with Jesus, baptism is when a person comes to Christ, that's the first act of obedience, and it is the most tangible act of identification.

But hear this after that, it is an ongoing life of identification.

One of the questions you should ask yourself today is currently, right now, as I live, my age, if if you're a believer, if you're a Christian, ask yourself this what am I doing to identify myself as a Christian?

And putting a fish on the back of your car doesn't count.

All that tells me is who I want to cut in on on the line in traffic.

I pull out and I just look for the fish and I honk and kind of give the way.

Let me get in there.

You're Christian too, aren't you?

No, no.

You got to identify.

You say, What do you mean?

This happened to me when I was a freshman in college.

Freshman in college, I went to Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas, which is home of the fighting Apaches, okay?

And the students in there is called the TP.

I'm sitting in the TP, uh, I'm I'm reading my Bible.

It's about five, six weeks into school.

Now, I met a guy in my Bhaji class the first week of school, and we hit it off, we struck it up, started hanging out, played basketball together.

Great guy.

Thought, man, this is gonna be a good friend.

We're rocking along there.

I'm in the TP reading my Bible.

He walks up and he goes, What are you doing?

And I said, Oh, I was just reading.

I don't have a class this hour.

And he goes, No, but why are you reading that?

And I was like, Well, because I'm a Christian.

He went, What?

You actually believe all that?

Now, by the way, I wasn't mad at him for that.

I was searching myself to kind of go, have I not demonstrated to this guy that I'm a Christian?

That's a statement about me.

And so, and he's backing up.

He's repulsed.

He's like, I said, dude, what's your problem?

He goes, I don't want to have anything to do with that.

I did not know you were into that at all when I first met you.

I don't know if we'd have been friends.

And I said, Hey man, this is just who I am.

I'm not gonna apologize for this.

And he's like, Yeah, I uh uh uh I want nothing to do with that.

Walked off and never spoke to me the rest of the semester.

I would see him on campus and I would say, Hey man, what's up?

And he just, hey.

And that was it.

Why do I tell you that?

Because in that moment, I had to choose to identify myself with Christ.

There's gonna be moments in your life where you have to identify.

For example, if you're a young lady in this room right now, when you were 15, you made a list of all the things you wanted in the husband.

There were 27 things on that list.

You get to be 24 and you're not married, there's one thing on that list.

Does he have a pulse?

Period.

Yes.

But here's the thing: this is free, okay?

The most necessary thing to do is to identify yourself with Christ, you identify yourself with Christ in the areas of your greatest appetite.

Let me say that again.

The hardest, the most necessary thing to do is to identify with Christ in the areas of your greatest appetite.

In other words, where where's my biggest desire at work in me right now?

And how do I identify myself with Christ in that area?

So that's the first thing.

The second thing I would say, we'll dig a little deeper, is secondly, just know yourself.

Know yourself.

You say, Well, really?

That's paging Dr.

Freud.

That's not what I mean at all.

Uh look at verse 25.

Let me just read this section, verse 25 to 30.

Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification.

The discussion was because men back then would go sit in pools of cold water for hours at a time to purify themselves.

And Jesus and John the Baptist come along and say, hey guys, you're just trying to be your functioning savior and save yourself from your sins.

Sitting in cold water will not change the fact that you guys are sinners.

You need the gospel.

You don't need to punish yourself.

You need to accept that Christ is going to be punished for you.

And they didn't like that.

And so that's what this is about.

They had they come with a conversation, and verse 26 says, And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he's baptizing, and all are going to him.

And John answered, A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.

You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom.

The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

When I say know yourself, knowing yourself like a like this kind of consequential thing when I say know yourself involves three things.

Number one, it involves this.

It involves know your smallness.

Know your smallness.

You say, what do you mean?

People and sin will appeal to your smallness.

And so you have to know the smallness that's in you.

When I say the smallness in you, I'm not making fun of you.

I'm not making light.

I believe this.

Every one of us in this room has an area or two or six in our life where when life touches that part of us, our response is not as big as God in the gospel.

It does not reflect the worth of the gospel.

Matter of fact, we get put, you don't get defensive, you get mean.

That's how you know you got smallness in you, okay?

And so, lest you think I'm making fun of you, let me just confess one of my areas of smallness is injustice.

When I feel like people are trying to take advantage of me, it ain't good because I just, I, I, like this happened a couple days ago in our house.

I heard my wife cackling, laughing out loud, and sitting right across the room from I said, What are you doing?

She goes, I'm reading this email that you wrote this because I ordered a microwave oven over for over the range microwave oven.

Ours is on its last leg on December the 11th.

It's supposed to be here no later than the 20th.

I called on the 22nd, I called on the 24th, I called on the 27th, I called on January the 2nd, and every time they say the same thing, we're sorry, we don't know where it is.

And so I had told them in a phone conversation, I said, hey, I keep calling y'all.

They go, we don't know where it is.

I said, you know what?

I don't know where it is either, but I I know where it's supposed to be, is over my stove, and that's not where it is.

So I'm gonna cancel this order wherever it is, when you find that you take it back.

Well, sir, it may be too late.

You may not get your money back.

Oh, smallness swole up in me.

I was like, oh, you ain't stealing from me.

Let me tell you something.

So I wrote them an email to reinforce my point.

And in the email, I said, You do not want to deal with this on the levels that I'll take this to.

My wife read that and laughed out loud in my face.

Because she's disrespectful, that's why.

And she's like, Oh my gosh, you're like, and I and I didn't say anything, I just laughed.

I was like, oh yeah, my smallness got the better of me there.

Because if I feel like you're stealing money from me, because I don't have a whole lot of it, we're gonna have to go outside and get this squared up.

And so I called Amazon, I called the third-party seller, I called the Frank Company, I told every one of them, take it back.

And the guy said, sir, I don't even know if I have it, how can I take it back?

Well, when you find it, take it back.

Now, why am I telling you that?

Because I have to be careful.

Because I don't, I'm not gonna use profanity, I'm not gonna call them names.

I will say things like, Hey, I need you to stop apologizing and change the behavior for what you're apologizing.

Well, sir, I'm sorry.

See, you did it again.

I'm sorry is not changing the situation, sir.

You don't have to be frustrated.

You know what?

You know what would keep me from being frustrated?

If you kept your word.

If I had a microwave on December the 20th, but since it's January 2nd, you can't tell me not to be frustrated.

Well, sir, I just appreciate if you wouldn't be frustrated.

Too late.

Woo woo! Frustration has left the station already.

Well, I gotta give you this.

You are funny.

Yeah, I'm gonna crawl through this phone line, I ain't gonna be funny no more.

That's my smallness.

Everybody in this room, you have smallness in you.

Now, what you say, where do you get that from the Bible?

John the Baptist's disciples come to him and they egg him on and they say, It's right there in verse 26.

They came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he's baptizing, and all are going to him.

They appeal to his smallness, but John didn't have any in him.

He's like, Hey, oh, people are leaving me and going to Jesus?

That's great.

His disciples are incensed.

People in sin will always appeal to your smallness.

So when I say know yourself, I mean first of all, know your smallness.

Secondly, know your role.

Know your role.

What is my role in life?

What am I supposed to be doing?

It's what John is talking about when he keeps going there.

And he says in verse uh 28, or excuse me, verse 29, he says, the one who has the bride is the bridegroom, the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears his voice uh rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

What do you mean he said, know your role?

John the Baptist says, Hey, I'm not the bridegroom.

The bride belongs.

The people that are following God, the church, the bride, they belong to the bridegroom.

He's the bridegroom.

They're supposed to leave me and go to him.

That's why John says, He must increase and I must decrease.

Hey, in a self-promoting social media, media saturated age such as ours, this is foreign language, beloved.

No one goes on social media to get smaller.

John says he must increase.

Why?

Because he's the bridegroom and the bride belongs to him.

I'm just a friend.

He he knows his role.

I am just a friend of the bridegroom.

This is my lane.

I'm gonna stay in my lane.

I know people who were passed over for promotions and never got over it.

I know a man who did not get a promotion, and it he works at Dell and Austin.

He didn't get a promotion, and they gave it to a woman.

And if he if you met him today at lunch for the first time, he would tell you this injustice within five minutes.

I mean, he wears it on his sleeve like a badge of honor.

And I'm like, dude, do you ever wonder if you got passed over?

Because you're just when you don't get your way, you just go crazy.

Oh, shut up.

Don't play the God card on me, McClendon.

Okay, is that what we're doing?

Playing the God card, just kind of saying, hey, maybe she didn't get it.

He goes, Oh, it's just affirmative action, that's why they gave it to a woman.

And I'm like, Really?

Maybe you just weren't qualified.

Oh, I said, sometimes in the kingdom, God tells you no, so he can give you a bigger yes.

I don't want to hear that.

Okay, never mind.

I'm all out, it's all you.

Hey, by the way, he asked him last time we talked about it.

I said, When's the last time you got a promotion?

Six years ago.

I said, She've been, he goes, Yeah, and I'm I'm the most experienced person in my my work group.

And so he's been going at this for a while and no promotion.

He doesn't because he doesn't understand his role.

See, knowing yourself means you know your smallness and you understand your role.

This is what I'm supposed to do in life.

If you here's the most tangible reminder of knowing your role.

A long time ago, boys and girls, there was a basketball player named Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan was magic.

I mean Mike was the man.

You couldn't guard Mike.

And Mike would tell you coming down the court while he's dribbling what he's gonna do.

He would say, I'm gonna hook him, push off, and I'm gonna pull up, and I'm gonna put this in your eye, and he would do it.

The only person that talked more smack on a basketball court than Michael Jordan was Larry Bird, the pasty gangster.

And they would go back and forth at each other.

And someone said to me, You hadn't lived till you've seen those two talk, and they didn't take it personal.

It was just, hey man, we're giving each other the business.

Michael Jordan, greatest basketball player in the world.

And then he got bored and forgot his role.

And then he thought, I'm gonna go play baseball.

Does anybody remember that?

Cuz nine.

That brother couldn't hit a curveball, and he was like, I was like, man, don't y'all no, no.

He tried and tried and tried.

And finally he just said, you know what?

I am a fish out of water here.

And he went back to basketball and he dominated some more.

Some of you look at me.

You're Michael Jordan playing baseball.

That's not your role.

Not your role.

John the Baptist knew his role.

Third part of knowing yourself is to know your joy.

He gets down to the bottom there, verse 29.

He says, his, he says, Hey, the friend of the bridegroom, that's me.

I'm not the bridegroom.

I'm just the friend, I'm the best man.

I stand and I hear his voice and I rejoice greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete.

He so understands his role that when people leave him and go to Jesus, he's like, This is what I came for.

My joy is now complete.

Therefore, he says, He must increase, but I must decrease.

The response of John the Baptist makes no sense to these people because they don't share his joy.

Their joy is in their team winning.

John's joy is in Jesus winning.

My wife and I, our 25th wedding anniversary is this coming Tuesday.

I think my children are concerned because I'm not whisking my wife off to Aruba on Tuesday and leaving our kid home with a five-gallon bucket of cheese balls to figure out how to do life.

And so they talk behind my back and they're kind of like, hey, is dad doing anything for mom for our 25th anniversary?

And I said, hey, it's a big number, it's 25, it's not like 24.

So instead of Waffle House, we'll go to Panera bread.

Big spinder here.

And here's the scary thing.

Look at me, every one of you, we probably will.

Now, I'm not gonna work on that day.

I love you.

We've got other pastors, leave me alone on that day.

Uh, but we'll probably go to breakfast.

We don't know what we want to do.

We'll do something.

I think my kids are kind of like, please, Lord, don't let me marry an unprepared man like my father who doesn't make a big deal out of things.

No, it's just this.

That's not the joy my wife and I have.

We enjoy doing things, but we're not, oh, we got a tick off on this thing.

So I'm gonna let my oldest is gonna leave, go back to college after lunch today.

She'll be like, Lord, let my dad do something for my mom.

It's a big day.

And I'm like, got it, got it, got it.

Same thing happens on Christmas morning.

They get gifts.

My wife and I don't get it.

For Christmas this year, my wife got me a sack of beef jerky.

And I got her a toilet.

I think she got the better end of the deal.

Now, why do I tell you that?

That makes no sense.

I've had some of you come up to me and say, hey, you joked about that.

I wasn't joking.

I wasn't joking.

And and and I didn't do it to be funny, I just know this.

I know the joy that we have in each other, and it doesn't require a whole lot beyond that.

John the Baptist is this way.

That's why when he says to his disciples, and by the way, they call him Rabbi, which means we've attached ourselves to you.

We think you're awesome.

And John the Baptist says, you know what?

I think God's awesome.

And and all of you should go over there.

Because this completes my joy when I fulfilled my role here on this earth.

Third thing about this blueprint for a consequential life is just believe things that are consequential.

Believe things that are consequential.

Just one verse I want to just unpack for a little bit and we'll get out of here.

You still with me?

Look at verse 36.

He said, Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

Whoever does not obey, because believing is equal to obeying.

Last week I told you that the Bible speaks with the same authority that God does.

This week I want to say to you that to believe in the Bible, that to believe is to obey.

If you do not obey, the Bible says you don't believe.

Now that sounds harsh.

It's like, whoa.

Let me just say this there's two implications here for the believer, and there's two implications here for the unbeliever, because there's a good chance by the sheer number of people in this room that some of you are like, well, I'm I'm not a Christian.

I don't believe all that.

That doesn't apply to me.

It has consequences for you as well, because we live in a culture that believing and not believing the gospel has about the same consequence.

And I just want to say that is not true.

Both Of them have dire consequences.

You say, What do you mean?

Two things for the believer.

Number one, as far as consequence, the believer has a life that is ruled by eternity.

It's that part in verse 36 when it says, Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life.

Now look at me.

I'm going to say something, and I'm not making fun of church history or the way we've languaged things for a long time.

But we say, Whoever believes has eternal life, look at me.

That is not living your life forever.

I had a great thing said to me by a guy at a bar in the Atlanta airport.

I'm standing there, watch, because that's where the TVs are, so I would catch in a flight when I used to travel.

I'm standing there, and the guy says, So you're on business or pleasure or whatever you're doing?

I'm like, well, my pleasure is my business.

And he's like, now I'm curious.

And I said, well, actually, I said, I preach.

I go around the country and preach.

He goes, Oh man.

I said, relax, you're not stuck.

I'm not going to like throw stuff on you.

And we got to talking.

He's like, you seem like a pretty normal person.

I said, I am.

And we just, and he said, you know what?

Here's my thing about that.

I said, what's your beef of Christianity?

He goes, well, that whole eternal life, and who wants to do this forever?

That's a great question.

Because you're going to have some, you may have a day this week that you just think, oh, I don't want to do this forever.

When the Bible says whoever believes has eternal life, that's not this existence just forever.

No.

It's a life that's affected by eternity.

I told you about it a couple months ago.

It's Zoe, not BIOS.

It's a supernatural.

It's a life that's just infected with and altered by the reality of eternity.

It's not just human existence forever.

Because that's why a lot of people, they do the math.

They go, I don't want to do this.

I don't want to have these parents and these siblings forever.

Phew, I'm not going to believe that.

And they think that has about as much consequence as whatever.

So when I say it has two things for the believer, it means that you have a life that's ruled by eternity.

Secondly, and just let me back up just for a second, just to put a pin in that.

Someone asked me one time, he said, Do you think you're better than me?

And I said, No, I don't think I'm better than you, but I think there's a different quality to my life than there is to yours.

And that's not a statement about me, that's a statement about God and the gospel.

Because if there's not a different quality to the way I do life, then why should you believe?

Because for me to believe one thing, that you need the gospel, that you need to hear the gospel because you need a relationship with God, by inference, it infers that I believe that there's a quality to my life, to the Christian life, that you don't have.

And he's like, I gotta hand it to you.

That's well said.

I said, I'm not trying to be pithy, I'm just, I'm not hating and judging, but I'm not gonna apologize for what the Bible says.

It's what Jesus says in John 10, 10.

I have come so that you may have life and have it to the full.

If he doesn't bring something that does not exist before he came, then why should he come at all?

So for the believer, it has implications.

The first one is a life ruled by eternity.

The second one is this belief manifests itself in obedience.

Again, the Bible says to believe is to obey.

That doesn't mean perfection, it just means a life of obedience even when you sin.

You say, well, that sounds kind of harsh.

Let me just reference Jesus here.

This is John 14, verse 23.

John 14:23

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.

1 John 2, 3, by this we know we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

1 John 5, 3, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

Ask yourself this morning, does what the Bible says to you, is that burdensome?

You think that keeps you from experiencing living the life you really want to live?

Because when you become a Christian, guess what?

Not only does your heart change, but your mind changes.

You don't think the same way about the Bible.

It's not like, oh, this is killing me.

I want to get my party on.

No.

No, this this kind of this is my identity, this is who I am.

Also means two things for the unbeliever.

It means, first of all, you'll never know life as it could be.

You'll never know life as it could be.

And I'll just give you a picture.

I think it's Matthew 9.

Jesus looks out over Jerusalem and he laments.

He says, Oh, Jerusalem, would that you, even you knew for the things that made for peace.

But now it's too late.

And judgment is coming upon this city.

So when I say that to the unbeliever in the room, you'll never know life as it could be.

I'm not being haughty.

I'm saddened by that.

Second thing it means is that the wrath of God is still on you.

That's the latter part of verse 36.

Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life also, but the wrath of God remains on him.

You know what do you mean?

The wrath of God.

The wrath of God is a reference to the settled and active opposition of God's holy nature to everything that is evil.

Let me say that again.

The wrath of God is a reference to the settled and active opposition of God's holy nature to everything that is evil.

You see, unless we are saved from real peril, there's no need for salvation.

Hence, we use the word saved to describe the process of becoming a Christian.

One of the reasons we Christians are not more verbal with the gospel is we don't believe this.

Just think just for a moment and we'll be done this morning.

See, every weekend there's a conference somewhere about evangelism and how to share your faith and how to reach the culture and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And here's what I would say to all of us this morning is we need to stop thinking about all that kind of stuff and maybe embrace this reality.

One of the reasons that we do not share our faith is because we stop believing things that are consequential.

Let me say that again.

One of the reasons we are not intentional in the way we live, we don't share our faith, we're not obedient with our money, we're not obedient with our with our volunteer servers, we're not, it's because we just don't believe consequential things.

We believe so many things that are of zero consequence in this life and nothing in the next.

And your head and your heart gets all filled up with that.

Ask yourself, hey, what are the what are the three things that I I believe most deeply, and what consequence do they have on my life?

And if the answer is not much, you should stop believing those.

You should.

You should just, you know what?

Clearly, this isn't making a difference.

For John the Baptist, let me say it like this, and we'll be done.

The life of John the Baptist, ask your, especially if you've got little kids, ask them about John the Baptist.

They'll tell you he wore like a hairy vest made of animal hair, and he ate locusts and honey and lived in the wilderness.

And he went around telling people, repent, for the kingdom of God's at hand.

And he told the man, hey, you can't take your sister, your brother's wife, just because you want her and you're like the king.

And he said, Oh, really?

And he put him in prison and cut his head off for that.

And John would rather die for the truth than live with a lie.

And here's what I'm saying: look at me.

We look at that and we aspire to that.

And I'm saying, don't aspire to that.

Aspire to believe things that are consequential.

Because believing consequential things produces a consequential life.

So I don't know what you mean.

Let me let's think about it this way.

You ever see somebody on the news that does something like they see, like happened the other day, there was uh the cops were chasing this car full of three teenagers that were involved in in a crime.

The kids sped off, and there was a car chase.

They took a corner too fast.

The car rolled over and then it caught on fire.

And the cops get out with their batons and they beat the window out and drag these kids out and save their life from a burning car.

And then they arrest them, which was great.

Because the news was kind of like it, they're gonna let them go.

No, they broke the law.

But here's the thing: I mean, at great risk to their own life.

They get in this burning vehicle and they pull these kids out and they drag them over to the side, and the car is going more and being more and more engulfed in flames, and they stick the microphone in their face and they say, you know, some people are saying you're a hero.

You know what they said?

They all said the same thing.

We're not heroes, we're just doing our job.

That's evidence of what I mean by consequential belief.

They believe that it's their job to protect and serve the city that they work for.

And so when the opportunity presents itself, they seize upon it.

They don't think like, oh man, I'm awesome.

And then I pulled this kid out of this burning car.

You're supposed to do that.

But we live in a culture that's so void of real consequential belief, that's why we celebrate almost anybody and anything.

Instead of just saying, hey, this is what I believe.

And what I believe produces the life that I live.

And that's the question I want to leave you with this morning.

Is what is producing the life that you live?

Is it what you believe?

Is it what you fear?

Or is it what you want?

What is producing the life I actually live?

Is it what I believe?

Is it what I fear?

Or is it what I want?

Let's pray together.

Take a moment if you would.

If you're our guest, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible.

We think the Bible is very thought-provoking.

And so we like to teach the Bible and give you some space to think about it.

What does it say?

What does it mean?

What did it stir up in you this morning?

And so today we talked about the blueprint for a consequential life.

And that is not a three steps to be an awesome sermon.

The Bible doesn't preach those sermons.

The Bible invites us to play the long game this morning, beloved, and say, hey, on your deathbed, you are gonna want your life to be to have been consequential.

And so, because that's what we're all gonna want, let's think about now.

What does a consequential life look like?

It means you identify yourself with Jesus.

It means you know yourself, you know your smallness, it doesn't catch you off guard that you overreact.

But you also you know your role.

You know your role.

You're not trying to be somebody you weren't created to be, and you know your joy, you know what brings you deep, deep joy, and you don't waste your energy explaining your life to anybody else.

You don't have to.

And finally, you believe consequential things.

The life that you live right now, is it produced by what you believe, by what you fear, or what you desire?

Let's think about that for a minute.

Father, our confession this morning is that we're tired of living out of our appetites.

We want to live out of our understanding.

Because our appetites drive us, our understanding calls us, our understanding leads us to something that you've created for us to enjoy.

Our appetites mean we try to make it up as we go along.

And we're just running out of the emotional energy for that.

So, Holy Spirit, just kind of brood over your people this morning.

Press into us all that's necessary and let everything else just be left here on the floor.

We want to know ourselves, God.

Not in some navel gazing granola eating, kind of, oh, I'm smoking weed to get in touch with my consciousness.

Yeah, whatever.

Grow up.

God, we want to know ourselves.

We want to know where smallness can get the better of us.

And we want to be able to not beat ourselves up about that, we want to be able to laugh at ourselves and kind of go, man, I need to grow up in that area.

We want to understand what you created us for.

And stop feeling guilty for functioning the way you create us to function.

And God, we want to know this joy.

This this joy that brings our life to completion.

God, that's our prayer.

We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for your presence today.

Uh, if you're our guest, hopefully you had a chance to pull out a card from the row, you're saying on and fill it out.

Uh, and as you leave here in just a minute, we would drop it in one of these offering boxes, these wooden boxes by the doors, uh, so we can have a record of your visit.

That's also, if today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, that's where you do that as well.

Uh, let me make you aware of a few things we've got going on here at the church by way of announcement.

First of all, Bart and Heather Cardi are our missionaries in Costa Rica.

I think they're in our service.

If you are, would you stand up?

There you are, right over here.

Bart and Heather stand up.

And Eden, their daughters with them.

Eden, you stand up too.

Uh they have been in Costa Rica.

Yes, you can clap for them.

Uh they're home on what's called furlough and missionary parlance, which means kind of a break uh from the grind of the mission field.

And so we're gonna be loving on them this week, taking them out to eat, just spending time with them.

But next Sunday after the service at 1245, there's a luncheon with them back out in the warehouse where you can hear more about the work they do in Costa Rica.

Also, this next year is their last year, correct?

And they're preparing to transition back stateside.

So you may have questions about that.

You may say, hey, I'd love to help you guys transition back.

But tickets are available to the luncheon in the lobby, or you can get them on our website.

Um, the second thing I want to make you aware of this morning is that uh next Sunday, we have uh community group leaders up here, uh, Johnny and those folks and Pete.

Uh next Sunday we're having a thing called Group Connect.

It's gonna take place before and after the 10 o'clock service in the fellowship hall.

And what it'll be is there'll be tables along the walls, and all of our community group leaders will be there.

And you can just kind of file through and ask questions about their group because we'd love you to have kind of make an informed decision about a group you want to get connected with and kind of begin to process life with, okay?

That's next Sunday before and after the 10 o'clock service.

Uh, last thing by way of reminder, uh, our new Bible study started this morning, but it's not too late.

They meet at 10 o'clock upstairs, and it's not too late to get involved in those if you'd like to.

Uh, there's a full list of them on all over the building, but also on our website.

And then lastly, our midweek classes start this week on Wednesday.

They start at 6:30 and they end a little bit before 8 to give you time to get your kids and get home and time to get homework, all that stuff done.

We'd love you to be a part of that.

There's a variety of things that we have, they're all over the board.

One of them is I won't tell you what it is.

I'll just show you a short video to kind of explain what the class is about.

So let's give our attention to this.

That is a class entitled 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, and all your kids can be signed up this afternoon on the website.

Uh just kidding.

Uh no, so there's a variety of stuff.

We have a men-only study, a women-only study.

We have that.

We have some other stuff.

Don't lead in the class.

Lord, change my attitude.

Uh anyway, my point is, and that's on top of all our preschool children and youth activities that take place on Wednesday nights.

We would love for you to find a uh a class to get involved with and say, hey, I want to kind of grow in this area.

If you have any questions, stop any one of us.

We'd love to answer, okay?

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

When Jesus says, Come to me, all you that labor, and you'll find rest.

He goes on to say, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Depart now with this easy yoke and this light burden, and live out of this consequential reality.

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

Amen.

Bless you dismiss.