Mission: The Danger of Mission Drift

This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parquay Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantProquay.org.

People have done this differently than us, and many people have done this better than us.

But yet we get to be a part of this.

And this being the great mission of God.

Not just to get people into heaven when they die, but to get the kingdom here on earth.

And we are the medium through which the kingdom finds expression.

The church is.

We're the people that get to live lives that turn up the volume on what God's really like.

We get to uh uh cause people to unlearn all the untrue things that they've learned.

Not because we're perfect or we got it all figured out, but because we're authentic, we're real, we're honest, and we're urgent, and we're joyful, we're urgent, not desperate.

Our urgency is about our understanding, it's not about our volume.

And so we've come today to kind of bow our hearts before and to get our heads around this thing called mission.

What does it look like to say as a church that one of our core values is mission?

Not missions, but mission.

Missions is an expression of the mission of this intentional life you've called us to live.

So we're gonna open up the Bible and we say, we ask Holy Spirit that you would speak.

Jesus said when you come, that you would lead us into all truth.

And so we confess and profess that you're here.

And so what all that remains to have happen is for you to illuminate the scripture, to turn on the light, the revelation of God.

It causes it to make sense to us.

And we'll we'll take our personality and our gifts and we'll express it here in our city.

For your glory, God, and for our pleasure, we'll do these things.

That's what mission's about.

Glory and pleasure.

Now we give ourselves to that in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.

I'm on page 835.

835.

My name is Neil.

I'm a lead pastor here at Grand Parkway.

If you're a guest, let me say thanks for uh looking into a new church.

Please make yourself at home.

The best part of this place is the people.

The pastor, a little shaky.

The people, great.

Someone stopped me this morning in the lobby because there's a lot of smart elics here and said, Hey, did you just come from a picnic?

And I was like, Yes, thank you for the shirt.

That's right.

Uh, I'm available for a picnic.

And I punched that guy in the neck, and he's out there still readling.

But anyway, uh we we, if you know, you've been here over the course of the summer, uh, we kind of like to visit our core values on occasion just to kind of remind ourselves, these are the things that we value as a church.

And so, starting back in June, we have four core values as a church there gospel, community, mission, and blessing.

And so back in June, we took a kind of an immersive look at the gospel, looked at different things through the lens of the good news.

The gospel is basically the good news of Christianity.

And so we did that in June.

Last month, our spiritual formation pastor, Lance Williams, kind of walked us through a month of just looking at community.

Uh, and it ended last week with a ministry fair where we just kind of said, hey, we don't want to just be together.

We we we want to do this together, we want to do life and we want to volunteer together.

And so today we begin our third core value of mission.

Mission.

And so I want to talk to you this morning about the danger of mission drift.

The danger of mission drift.

You say, What do you mean?

Let me just kind of put it out there.

I haven't preached in a month.

I'm a little bit compressed, and so if you're a guest today, usually I just stand in one place and I talk real soft.

And so I'm listening I'll pull this bus over with all you fools, okay?

Uh and so, no, I've been thinking about this, and here's what I've kind of come to and concluded.

I think it's easy for the church in America to succeed at a lot of things that the Bible never really talks about.

We got churches that got bowling alleys and restaurants and all kinds of stuff in them, but what we don't have in the church is this sense of biblical mission.

And I think we've kind of drifted away.

So I want to begin this month of talking about mission by just kind of just coming back to the place where it all kind of got launched off in the New Testament, and it's in Matthew chapter 28, starting in verse 16, that Jesus has lived a sinless life.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

He performed miracles, he taught in such a way that when people heard him teach, they were just kind of like, Oh man, I want to hear that God again.

And and he lives, he dies, he's buried, he's raised from the dead, just like he says he would.

In verse 16, he appeared to some women and he said, Tell my disciples to meet me here.

And we pick up the story in Matthew 28, verse 16.

Matthew 28:16

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw him, they worshiped 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 of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe, teaching them to observe or obey all that I've commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

There is so much here I can't get to it uh in the next nine minutes of my sermon.

And so I'm just seeing if y'all were listening.

Anyway, uh, there's so much here.

I just want to point out a few things that I won't have time to get to.

Like, like it says, I mean, here's Jesus who's who's I mean done everything that he's ever said he would do.

And the Bible says that he shows up post-resurrection, and it says, and when he appeared, some worshiped him, and then it says this, and some doubted.

Hello, what's left to doubt at this point?

What are you still uncertain about?

I just think we've got to be careful because this is one of my observations.

Doubt has become a fruit of the spirit in the American church.

It's kind of a sign of mature faith that you doubt stuff.

There comes a point where you, and you may be doubting in this room this morning, and I'm mad at you, I'm not calling you out.

I'm just saying, at some point, Jesus has done, proven himself.

He's done everything.

He is raised from the dead.

And some of these people are like, Yeah, I'm not so quite so sure about this.

See, I mean, that's out there like a just a hanging curveball.

And secondly, Jesus says this phrase, and this is all predicated on this, which I won't have time to get into this morning.

He says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

And then the next word, therefore, in light of the fact that I have all authority in any world you could ever fathom, this world or the one to come, I have all authority here, I have all authority there.

And so you will never exist in a place where Jesus says, I don't have all authority.

You got that?

I mean, I got all authority.

Years ago, Senator Bill Bradley, who was a great shooting guard for the New York Knicks back in the 60s.

Anybody remember him?

70s?

Hello?

He became a United States Senator.

Thank you, six of you who have uh C-SPAN at your house.

Uh he became a United States senator.

He tells a great story.

He's at some swanky restaurant, and and and he was, they got seated and they ordered off the wine list and they got bread, and they were sitting there.

And he said to the waiter, excuse me, can I get some butter?

And the guy just walked by and said, Yes, yes, he's like five-star.

I mean, this is nice.

This is not the golden corral, okay?

Where I'm eating lunch today.

But anyway, uh he he he then the guy walks by and he says, it was like two or three minutes, and he was like, Hey, uh, excuse me, the butter?

And the guy said, Oh, yeah, okay.

And Bill Bradley believes what some of us believe that tips means to ensure proper service.

If I don't get proper service, you ain't gonna see a tip.

And now am I not gonna leave a tip, I'm gonna call you over and tell you politely, hey, you're not good at this.

You should think about another career.

There'll be no money on the table when we're done eating.

But but Bill called him over and he, his wife's like, Bill, Bill, and he's like, No, no, no, no, this is ridiculous.

He said 12 minutes had gone by and had no butter.

He called the guy over and he said, Excuse me, do you know who I am?

He said, I just snapped.

And he says, I'm Senator Bill Brad, okay?

I'm on the Nuclear Regulatory Committee, I'm on the Ways and Means Committee, I am the chairman of the committee on the Senate Committee on Committees.

And the waiter didn't bat an eye.

He looked at him and he goes, Do you know who I am?

He goes, No, who are you?

I'm the man in charge of the butter.

Now, in that moment, one of those people has authority and the other one doesn't.

Jesus says, There's never going to be a moment or a world in which you exist where he doesn't have all authority.

Why do I tell you that?

Because we freak out like we're trying to get God interested in acting with power.

He says, I have all authority in heaven and on earth.

It's been given to me.

And the last thing that I don't have time to get to, just for the sheer fact of the matter, is Jesus says this, and lo, I'm with you always.

Behold, I'm with you always.

I'm never gonna give up on you.

I'm never gonna look at you and go, okay, that's it.

I'm done.

I'm breaking up with you.

I'm unfriending you.

Never gonna happen.

Some of you have had the experience of being unfriended on.

By the way, we don't do this well in America.

We love people until they tell us something we don't want to hear, then we unfriend them.

And because you can do it from a distance on your computer, you don't have to look people in the face.

You should spend time with people on a pretty consistent basis that are like holy sandpaper to you.

You should.

It would be a great thing for you.

That's why I go see my in-laws a couple times a year.

It's just a spiritually refining experience.

Just kidding.

They're sweet people.

My wife's not in here, is she?

Anyway.

And so, having said, I don't have time to say that.

What do I want to say?

Three things.

See, the danger of mission drift is that we kind of the church kind of gets away from this real central thing that Jesus says.

He says three things, and I'll just give them to you right here.

He says, Teach.

Secondly, he says, baptize.

And thirdly, he says, teach again.

You say, What do you mean?

We'll start with number one, teach.

It's what he he gets into in the body of it there.

He says in verse 18, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

That phrase, make disciples, is the Greek phrase Matthew 2-0.

Matthew 2-0, and it means to teach.

It means to instruct, to follow his precepts and instructions.

That's where I get the word teach from.

He says, hey, all authority.

So because I have all authority, I want you to go and make disciples of all nations.

Oh, by the way, that's another thing I don't have time to get into, is that when God's talking to us missionally about being missional people, he's talking to us always with the nations in mind.

Have you noticed that?

He says right here in Matthew 28, go and make disciples of all nations.

The nations is not the three-foot circle you stand in.

It's not your kids and their school and their extracurricular activities.

It's what he says to Abram back in Genesis 12 when he says, Hey, I'll bless you and you'll be a blessing, and through you all the nations of the world will be blessed.

Do not miss the fact that God starts this whole thing off by saying, Hey, listen, I'm gonna relate to you with such incredible generosity.

I'm gonna give you an awkward word.

It's called blessing.

When's the last time you asked somebody, hey, what would bless you?

Have you ever been asked that question in your life?

Can you imagine being with your golfing buddies, men, and one of them look at you and going, hey man, what would bless you?

I'll tell you what, I yank a seven eye out here and beat you half to death.

You ask me that again.

It's an off-putting question because you don't know where they're going with it.

But God goes on record early on in the Old Testament and says, Hey, I'm gonna relate to you with so much generosity, your one single life can't contain it all.

Matter of fact, it's gonna overflow from you to the nations.

But he says, Hey, go and make disciples of all nations.

Go and teach.

How do you make disciples?

You teach.

See, what we have in the church, we have what we have in the church because we teach what we teach.

Let me say that again.

We have what we have in the church because we teach what we teach.

And what this has produced is a bunch of people on this personal journey of self-discovery whose goal is self-actualization, better self-image, more self-worth.

And here's the problem: these kinds of people are so self-oriented that they rarely make disciples.

Because really spiritually attuned people look at that and kind of go, I know myself too much, and I don't want just my life to be a big me commercial.

One of the guys on staff was sharing our prayer meeting this morning.

He said, I walked in last night, and my wife, my wife was watching a show on HGTV called Fixer Upper.

Hush, I hate those people.

Okay, don't clap for them.

I don't like them because every time my wife watches it, she just kind of looks at me like, Why don't you know how to fix stuff?

I'm like, I bet he can't preach.

Chip and Joanna, whatever.

I have friends that know them that live in Waco.

I call my friends, I say, Hey, you really know those people?

He's like, Yeah, I said, You tell them I hate them.

Yes, sir.

Pray for me.

All they're doing is showing dissatisfaction into my wife, okay?

So you tell Chip and his cute little wife, Joanna, and their little gap model kids, I can't stand any of them.

So about a week later, my friend calls him back and said, Chip just laughed and said, Hi.

You tell Chip to make a road trip to Richmond and find me some ratty house I can buy for$10,000, he's gonna flip it into some palace, okay?

In the meantime, I don't like him.

And I'm canceling my cable.

It's of the devil.

You just gotta be careful because, hey, it's it's not about Jesus' go and make disciples.

See, what we do is rooted in what we believe.

And see, what we would do, and see, let me say it like this: your methodology is an expression of your theology.

Let me say that again.

Your methodology is an expression of your theology.

Now, how many in this room would be honest enough to know, honest enough to say, I have no idea what that means.

Can I see your hand?

Hello?

Yes, that's okay.

Put your hand up.

Some of you are like, so I love some of you adults, you're nodding like, mm-hmm, well, I'm not gonna raise my hand, but yes.

Yeah, sometimes preachers say things and you're like, ah, does that cat live in the real world?

Your methodology is a reflection of your theology.

What we mean by that is that what you do is a reflection of what you really believe.

Don't tell me what you believe.

Let me watch what you do, and I'll be able to tell you what you believe.

And so, if we were really smart in the church, we'd stop trying to get you to do a bunch of things, and we would spend all of our time trying to inform and shape what you believe.

And perhaps this would help us get a better understanding when it comes to thinking about making disciples.

A man named Wayne Grudum wrote a book about this thick called Systematic Theology.

And in the book, he talks about uh the order of salvation.

I just want to put this up here.

We'll put all of them up there at the same time so you can just kind of see what we're talking about.

When we talk about the order of salvation, the process by which a person comes to Christ.

And they just start at the top is election, God's choice of people to be saved, the gospel call, proclaiming the message of the gospel, regeneration, being born again, conversion, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, death, glorification, all the way from the beginning to when you die, to when you go to be with heaven with God in heaven.

Now, why do I put this up here?

Besides, to tell you that sometime soon on a Wednesday night, we're gonna teach through all of those things.

And each night we'll just go in depth on each one of those biblical doctrines.

Like we'll talk about the doctrine of election or conversion or justification.

And here's what let me just take a little random survey.

How many of you would say, on a Wednesday night, I think I would be interested in understanding some of those things better.

Can I see your hand?

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh uh and why don't I put those up there?

Not don't try to write all that down, don't try to memorize all that.

Here's why.

When you understand how people come to faith, you realize there's no pressure on you.

You realize, what if I say the wrong thing is not true?

You're not gonna screw anything up.

That's why Jesus says, Go and make disciples, go and teach all nations, go and love people enough to tell them the truth.

Because you believe, once you understand biblically how this happens, you realize all I gotta do is testify.

I don't have to try to create, I don't have to close the deal.

I meet with a friend of mine on a consistent basis who's not there yet, who's just not there spiritually.

The first time we met, this person said to me, If I died tonight, I'd think I'd go straight to hell.

I didn't jump around my desk and go, hey, well, let's get that taken care of right now.

I just said, tell me about your life.

We have this ongoing dialogue.

And every time we meet, I just say, Hey, tell me where you and Jesus are.

And my friend says, Well, this is where we are.

Because I'm not selling a 66 Buick of bad breaks.

I'm not trying to close the deal.

I'm here to teach, to demonstrate a biblical theology of salvation, a soterology is the big word that some people use.

Why do I show you this?

My point in showing you this is to ask the question which one of these are you responsible for?

Are you responsible for converting the unbeliever you work with?

Are you responsible for no?

The Bible says in Ephesians 2 that we're dead in our trespasses and sins, but God, who's rich in mercy, God has more mercy than you have determination.

God has more mercy than you have determination.

So it's not about pigeonholing people at work and saying, hey, Bob, we've worked in accounting for the past seven years.

Bob, do you know for sure if you died tonight, you'd go to heaven?

Because Bob is looking at you like, oh, where'd you where'd you go, Bill?

What just happened?

You morphed into some late-night TV preacher.

You know, one of the most evangelistic things I've ever heard anybody say.

I pulled up in front of a man's house, my wife and I to go have dinner, and got out, and I just said, Man, your home and your property is beautiful.

And this man burst into tears and said, God's been so good to us.

And I was like, Wow.

See, it's not hard to testify, it's not hard to teach, it's not hard to kind of point.

You say, What do you mean teach?

I don't know that much.

No, here's just kind of file this away when you think about teaching.

In John's gospel, in John chapter 5, John chapter 7, and John chapter 9, the book of John is all about pointing people to Jesus.

John 5 · chapter mention John 7 · chapter mention John 9 · chapter mention

Jesus says to these religious people called Pharisees in John chapter 5, about verse 39, he says, You search the scriptures because they testify of me, but yet you refuse to come to me.

John 5 · chapter mention

He says in John chapter 7, there's a big religious ceremony going on, and Jesus stands up because he's not as well-mannered as we'd like him to be.

John 7 · chapter mention

He stands up in the middle of this thing.

It'd be like going to a wedding.

Remember in the old school weddings they would say, Can anyone show just cause why this man and woman should not be united in holy matrimony?

Did anybody like me ever pray to God that someone would stand up and go, Yeah, I got a problem with this?

I mean, how did he get hurt?

I mean, but it never happens.

There's that awkward silence, and that's why they don't do it anymore.

Just once you wish, somebody would get up and say, I think this is headed for destruction.

I think this is what happens when people drink vodka, okay?

It would be awkward, but you would be texting your friends, OMG, guess what just happened?

No, it's it, but that's what Jesus does.

He stands up, the Bible says in John chapter 7, on the last and greatest day of the feast.

John 7 · chapter mention

And in a loud voice, he says, If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink, and out of his inmost being will flow rivers of living water.

And by this he meant the Spirit who is yet to be given, who is yet to be given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

He's always kind of pointing people back to himself.

John chapter 9, the disciples are walking along and they see a guy blind, and they're like, Hey Jesus, your friends ever try to ask you religious questions to trip you up?

John 9 · chapter mention

Hey, Jesus, that's that that's been going on forever.

Hey, Jesus, why is this guy blind?

Is it his sin or his parents' sin?

Whose fault is this?

And Jesus says, It's not about fault, it's about glory.

It's not his parents' sin, it's not his sin, but this guy's this way so that the works of God can be manifest in him.

You don't have to be perfect or have it all together for the works of God to be manifest in your life.

You just have to be willing to open up your mouth and say something as simple as through tears, man, God's been really good to us.

You don't have to feel bad about having property.

You don't have to feel bad about getting your house flipped and put on fixer upper.

I'll be bitter and a little bit jealous, but beyond that, it's fine.

Went to a party last night at Dennis Scott's house out in Folshire.

Loved my house.

I went to that house and I was like, he's got a two-sided fireplace.

He doesn't need that.

He should break it off and give it to me.

And a beautiful backyard by the lake.

And they had tiki torches burning out there.

And I wanted to go home and set something on fire.

Just because.

Here's the one thing I want you to take away from this part of the sermon is just one word.

Because when you read, go and make disciples, it's easy just to jump on the fastest horse you can find and go out there just full of ah.

We mean balance.

Three things.

Balance.

I learned this from a man named Mark Dever.

Three things.

Number one is honesty.

It's honesty.

Just telling the truth.

Okay, that's that's a given.

Not in this culture.

We tell people as much as we think they're willing to agree with.

You gotta love people enough to tell them the truth.

What do you mean?

Years ago there was a famous TV preacher.

He said this.

He said, I don't think that anything has ever been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and hence counterproductive to the evangelistic enterprise than the unchristian, uncouth strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.

That's a lie, beloved.

See, the gospel is not about your personality, it's not trying to be destructive to your your your human personality.

But if you don't love people enough to speak up to stand up and speak up and make them aware of their lost and sinful condition, because if I'm not lost and I'm not sinful, then how is the gospel ever good news?

It's just your religious opinion versus mine.

But if I'm lost and I'm sinful, I mean then you got something there.

You got something.

This past week we took a couple days and went up to Richardson to hang out.

Some friends of ours, and and my buddy Rick was like, Hey, have you seen this movie?

There's no dialogue in it.

And I'm like, What is this?

Charlie Chaplin?

What are we doing here?

This is 2014.

Robert Redford made a movie called All Is Lost.

It's a story about a guy on a sailboat.

And seriously, I think there's like eight words in the whole movie.

I was transfixed.

I sat and watched most of the movie.

And the movie ends.

He's trying to, I mean, his boat, sailboat goes down.

Resourceful old guy, very incredible.

Gets in the lifeboat, thing tips over.

He writes it.

He's got his survival kit.

He's got water.

This guy's prepared here.

And he and he gets out into the ship.

He has one of those sextons where he's shooting the stars and he realizes I'm getting into the shipping lane.

He gets in the shipping lane and ships don't see him.

He's got these flares, ships don't see him.

And finally, he's almost through the shipping lane, and one ship comes by and he has a water can, a five-gallon water can, lays it on its side, cuts a hole out, puts paper in it, and sets it on fire.

And by this point, I'm so engrossed in it.

I'm talking to the TV.

A la old man grandpa here.

And I'm saying, set the whole thing on fire.

And that's what he does.

To get the attention of the ship, he sets his raft on fire.

And it is and the ship's just cruising by.

And pretty soon the heat is the flames are so high, he has to jump into the water.

And then in floating in the middle of the ocean, realize the ship is just going by.

He just gives up and just goes under.

And the cinematography is so incredibly powerful.

They shoot it from under the ocean.

And you see this man's body, this burning circle of fire, and he's just sinking in the ocean.

And he's got his eyes closed, and then all of a sudden he's about 50, 60 feet down, and he opens his eyes.

And apparently the boat has seen him because they sent a little dinghy.

And these guys with flashlights are shining in the water.

And I'm on the couch at Rick Brown's house doing this.

Come on, dude.

Swim up.

Swim up.

And all of a sudden he looks up and sees somebody's looking for me.

They saw me.

And he starts swimming to the top.

I'm not breathing.

I'm like, nobody had sex.

Nothing got blown up.

No one shot a gun.

The guy rarely talked.

And the movie ends with his hand coming up out of the water.

And you don't see it's from under the water.

You don't see who it is.

Just his hand reaches down and grabs him.

Movie's over.

How many of y'all in this room got kids?

You know your kids.

I have an 11-year-old that's very, very empathic.

Five minutes after the movie, I look in the down the hallway and my wife is embracing our youngest, who is sobbing.

And I'm like, what is this, bedtime?

Because sometimes bedtime sneaks up on her.

And my wife walks out and she's like, wow.

And I said, what?

And she goes, so we just got overwhelmed.

She just said, Mom, that's what we were like before Jesus found us.

Yes! I'm just like, okay, now I'm overwhelmed.

Remember the old hymn we used to sing when we don't sing anymore?

I was sinking deep in sin, far from a peaceful shore, very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more.

But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry and from the waters lifted me.

Now safe am I?

That's what was going on in my spirit.

I'm watching Robert Redford going, swam, shwam! So when I was studying for today and I read that Robert Schuller, who's a positive power, positive thinking prosperity preacher, says nothing can be proven destructive to the human personality than the unchristian, uncouth strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.

I just thought, man, can we just get honest?

Second thing I want to say to you by way of balance is just urgency.

It's just urgency.

Urgency is not volume, it's understanding.

It's not desperation, it's clarity.

Again, urgency is not being shrill, it's being clear.

It's not raising your voice, it's just understanding what the Bible says.

Let me give you a biblical example.

You don't have to turn, it'll come up on the screen, but if you're taking notes, write down Acts chapter 13, verse 36 to 44.

Acts 13:36–44

Acts chapter 13, verse 36 to 44.

Acts 13:36–44

This is what it says.

And Paul is preaching, he's talking to these people.

And earlier in chapter 13, I mean he starts off in the Garden of Eden and gets them all the way through.

It's kind of like a history of Christianity.

And he drops in and he says, for David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation.

By the way, you want to say that from your deathbed.

You want to look at your great-great-grandkids and go, I've served the purpose of God in my generation.

See ya.

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.

His body decayed.

But he, Jesus, whom God raised up, did not see corruption.

Let it be known to you, therefore, this is urgency, by the way, and urgency begats urgency.

Urgency produces urgency in those who hear and experience our urgency.

Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Did you hear that sentence?

Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

And hear this part.

And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Translation, you get forgiveness, okay?

You can be religious and never know forgiveness.

You can go to church your entire life, you can be raised in the church, you can do a lot of religious rituals, and when you lay in bed at night, you have this gnawing sense that you don't measure up.

What Paul is saying to these people is that, hey, the gospel liberates you from that.

The gospel is full and final forgiveness.

Beware, therefore.

When's the last time you used the word beware in talking to somebody?

Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about.

Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.

God says, hey, for you scoffers, for you doubtful unbelievers, for you irreligious scribblers who have a blog.

I could tell you what I'm doing, but it's so mind-blowing that you wouldn't get it.

And as they went out, hear this.

And as they went out, the people begged that these things might be told to them the next Sabbath.

When's the last time you caught your preacher at the door and said, please tell us more of that next Sunday?

And as they went out, the people begged that these things might be told to them the next Sabbath.

And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

Hear this last sentence.

And the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

I think our culture is waiting for us to be more urgent about the things that we say matter than they are about the things that they say matter.

Again, urgency is not being shrill and panicky.

It's not about volume, it's about understanding.

It's not about desperation.

It's about clarity.

You gotta have this balance of honesty, urgency, and then finally, and I'll I'll quit on this, and we'll just finish this.

Uh we'll just do a two-part here.

We'll finish the second part next time.

Is that fair enough?

Hello.

The third thing is just joy.

Some of you are like, quit.

What?

What?

I beg you, I urge you, don't quit.

Joy.

A balance of honesty and urgency and joy.

What do you mean?

Honesty and urgency without joy only gives us grim determination.

Let me say that again.

Honesty and urgency without joy only gives us this grim determination.

Have you ever been around people that are that are so religious that it's kind of like they believe the Bible and they're mad about it?

They're just, I mean, I've got to get out there and win some souls.

You're like, I'm good.

Thanks.

Anybody want to go to lunch?

I've got some religious literature in my pocket.

No, thanks.

I'll do without.

I'm going to work through lunch.

See, most people don't experience this joy because they labor under the illusion that it all kind of depends on them.

Let me finish with this.

A couple weeks ago, I spoke at a youth camp in Florida.

And uh I and I I get this, and I don't know why this happens, but sometimes people hear me speak and they're kind of like, is this really real?

Is he just like just pulling that out of his head somewhere?

And so we go, we're at the camp, we're at Panama City Beach, and they they did I did this camp last year.

They did that, they got this thing there.

Hey, we want to bless you.

You're blessing us by teaching the Bible.

We want to bless you.

We want to take you over to Seaside.

Anybody know where Seaside is?

Hello?

Yes, I see those hands.

Are there others?

Yeah, I want to take you over to Seaside.

There's a joint over there called the Great Southern Kitchen.

Uh-huh.

Yes, there is.

Are you with me?

Yes.

And so we're going to go over there.

It's our tree.

Get whatever you want.

Key lime pie, grits of yaya, whatever you want, which is cheese grits with a crown of grilled shrimp in it.

Oh, I can just take the bowl and put it on my head.

Crown me! Crown me with mini crown.

Anybody?

Y'all never seen a hymnal in your life, have you?

I don't think you're going to heaven.

See me after the service.

So we walk up there, Howard, to the Great Southern Kitchen, and there's like 12 or 15 people in the parking.

We got the band, all the guys in skinny jeans and faux hogs, middle-aged fat guy walks up, and I say, I got like a party of 13, 14.

And this girl has this real southern drawl.

And I said, You're not from here, are you?

This church is so big, they have two youth pastors, by the way.

They're both standing over there kind of watching, like, what's he gonna do?

And I said, Where are y'all from with that accent?

You're not from Florida.

No, we're from northwest Arkansas.

Awesome.

So you're gonna marry your first cousin, huh?

And they're like, oh, oh.

And I said, What do you do?

It's called a sense of humor.

We'll sell one in the lobby.

You buy two, you get one free.

And so she's like, shut up.

And I said, that's about a two-syllable word, not a four-syllable word.

Shut- uh-uh- uh uh uh.

And she's like, What are you doing?

I said, I'm trying to understand you.

I need 12 to 13.

We got, I said, What are you doing down here?

You're not from me.

She said, Well, I'm working.

I said, just for the summer.

She said, Yeah.

And I said, What are you doing?

She said, Well, we we work, get jobs here at restaurants, and then but in the afternoons, but in the morning we go out on the beach, and I just thought, another dumb idea Christians have come up with.

In the morning, we go on the beach and evangelize.

And I said, Evangelize, what is that?

Well, we'll go out and we memorize this one verse, Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death.

I said, Well, that's positive right there.

I put on suntan lotion and go lay on the beach and take a week of vacation, my wife and kids, and spend a lot of money to have you come and hijack me and a memorized conversation.

Go ahead.

And by this point, the two girls were like, and the whole the other people showed up and they're like, Neil is off the reservation.

And I said, No, go ahead and tell him what you do.

She said, Well, we we share that verse and then we ask him a question, and I thought, No, you don't.

No, you don't.

Let me guess.

Is the question, if you died tonight and you stood before God and God said, Why should I let you?

Yes! That's the question.

And the other girl said, Can I ask you the question?

I said, Make my day.

Because I'm not about religion or religious people.

Matter of fact, if I ask God, we'd hunt y'all.

We'd have doom buggies with guns that shoot nets and we'd capture you.

We wouldn't kill you or anything.

We'd just hang you from a tree like a deer, we're gonna field dress.

She said, Well, can I just ask you?

If you died tonight and you stood before God and God said, Why should I let you into heaven?

What would you tell him?

I said, First of all, I don't believe in a God that doesn't know why I'm not standing there in front of him.

So, you guys preach against works, and then you just made all about works.

You couch the conversation in terms of works, so I'm gonna give you some works-based answer.

I don't think God's gonna ask me that question.

Ask me another question.

And the girl goes, I don't know what to ask you.

I said, Do you enjoy this?

And she goes, Yeah, talking to you is fun.

I said, No, no, no, no, no.

I get talking to me is fun.

Sometimes I wish I could talk to me, okay?

Sometimes my wife says to me, Go in the backyard and talk to yourself.

I don't want to listen to you anymore.

But do you enjoy going out on the beach and walking up to people?

I mean, have you ever witnessed to a man in a speedo?

Well, yeah, a lot of old men wear those here.

Get me a spoon so I can gouge my eyes out.

By this point, people are waiting.

There's like a party of four, party of two.

Some couple from Sugarland, Texas walks up.

Kid you not, and I said, Where are y'all from?

It's a suburb of Houston.

What's the name of it?

Sugarland?

Oh, can you believe they shut down the sugar meal?

That lady's like, oh.

I said, I have no idea where that is.

I just had a word from the Lord.

So two girls behind the counter are kind of like, sir, you've kind of confused us.

You're blaming this on me.

And I said, here's what I'm gonna say, and then I want a free dessert.

And the girl said, Okay.

Where's the joy in this whole thing?

And they both looked at me in stereo and said, What?

And I said, Where's the joy?

Where's the joy where you when you go out and talk to people about Christ or about heaven or you evangelize or you share the gospel?

Where's the joy that communicates, hey, I enjoy God more than anything you enjoy in your life?

So anything you ask me is not gonna throw me off.

I'm not saying I have the answer, I'm saying I have the joy.

One of the busers comes over with his tub and he's just standing there and he's like, I'm just listening.

Like, shouldn't you be like cleaning up some tables so I can sit down and commit heinous gluttony?

Well, just liked what you were saying.

All right, goodbye.

And I'm standing there, and the guys are just by now, they're all kind of like, he really does talk to people this way.

And here's why.

Because I find great joy in just telling loving people enough to tell them the truth.

And that joy is available to every one of you.

The gospel is that God so loved you, and the biggest sinner you know that he sent his one and only son to die on the cross as payment for your sins.

There's nothing not a one of you have done.

God has more mercy than you have sent.

And he gladly would forgive you and accept you into his family.

That's what being a Christian is.

It's not being perfect.

We'll get to the other part and the next time where we talk about baptize and then teach.

Because what he says is, teach, baptize, and then teach them to obey.

Don't just get them in the club and set them down in a big room and say, Do your best.

Teach them to obey.

Show them what this looks like with life wrapped around it.

Which is why we're sitting at our table eating, and my cheese grits and shrimp, and the two hostesses keep driving by, and one of the guys in the backhand said, Hey man, I think your friends are kind of like checking on you.

And I said, Chicks, dig me.

I can't help it.

I usually have to take my wife with me to keep them off of me.

And one look at me and goes, No, seriously, what is it?

By the way, this is true.

Somebody asks us this past week, my wife and I with a straight face, how did y'all get such beautiful children?

Thank you.

Stupid things people say.

I said, my wife had an affair.

Uh if you say something stupid, you deserve to have something stupid said back to you.

And the lady was like, ah stop laughing, you're in church.

Look at me.

I said to the guy, I said, seriously, I think that girl's been kind of just taught, a memorized, programmed, canned evangelic presentation, and her soul longs for more.

Her long her soul longs for the joy because most people you talk about sharing your faith, it scares you to death.

Your energy is tighten up.

It's like oh man, I wish my preacher was here.

I wish you were there.

And I wish you could just know the joy.

It's a balance of it's it's urgency, not desperation, it's it's urgency and honesty and joy.

Let's hit the pause button there, and we'll pick up your next time, okay?

Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Your God so believes in his capacity to change your life, and your ability to live as changed people.

He's entrusted to you the mission.

Go now and make disciples.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything God's taught you.

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

Amen.

Bless you, you dismiss.