Distinctions of the Church

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

Lord Jesus, we don't stand here as bad people who are trying to be good.

We stand before you this morning, God, as people who used to be dead, but who've been made alive.

And that's what we mean when we say you raised this life up from the dead.

The Bible says that we were ruined sinners by nature, but you reclaimed us.

Translation, you wanted us when no one else did.

When we had screwed our life up beyond repair, you still said, I want you.

You came like Hosea.

You are Hosea and we are Gomer.

You came and bought us off the slave market after we'd sold out and sold ourselves.

And so, Lord, we ask that you would uh not only are we reclaimed and we're we're but we're also ransomed.

And I pray, God, that the freedom that we live as free men and women, as free students, may the word we hear today just increase our liberation and our understanding and your glory.

And all that we pray, God, and we pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I'd invite you to take it and open up to 1 Corinthians chapter 14.

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 14.

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

And I want to talk to you this morning about on this beginning of the year about the distinctions of the church.

I think there's some things that the church, only the church can do, and therefore the church should do.

And now when I say church, while you're fighting 1 Corinthians 14, don't think building, think people.

And when I say church, don't think just the people in this room, but the people in India and the people in Bangladesh and the people in Sugarland and Richmond and Rosenberg and Pleak and all these places.

The church is bigger than we can imagine.

It's universal and it's spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity.

And there's things that the church, only the church can do.

And I want to use 1 Corinthians 14 as kind of a reference point.

I'll start reading in verse 6.

Paul is writing to the church at Corinth.

They have a controversy about the issue of speaking in tongues.

And some people are using that gift to distinguish themselves.

And Paul says, that's not the deal.

But I think in this, in his response to these people is a message for us today.

1 Corinthians 14, verse 6, he says, Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

1 Corinthians 14:6

If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played?

And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?

So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?

For you will be speaking into the air.

There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning.

But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and a speaker a foreigner to me.

So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

Now I want to just kind of direct your attention back.

Paul says an interesting phrase in verse 7 and verse 8.

He says, If the lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played?

I think sometimes at the church we've become so vague and so watered down that no one can kind of tell what instrument we're playing.

And then he says, more even more succinctly in verse eight, he he simply says, glasses, please.

There he is.

He says, and if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?

My fear is that in this day of age of political correctness and fear and insecurity, that the church is not sounding the trumpet and making a distinct sound.

And so I want to talk to you this morning about the distinctions of the church.

Basically, three notes that we should be hitting in our community, in our culture, in our city, and in our world.

And they are simply this, that we should be God-centered.

Secondly, that we should be gospel-driven, and thirdly, that we should be spirit-led.

Let's take number one, God-centered.

What do I mean when I say God-centered?

I mean this.

It'll come up on the screen.

To be God-centered is to have God at the center of our affections at all times, in every circumstance, and for every result.

To be God-centered is to have God at the center of our affections at all times, in every circumstance, and for every result.

And this moves us from a circumstantial faith, a faith that kind of depends on everything being right and our circumstances being sure and secure.

Like I love Jesus a whole lot and without a whole lot of effort.

And then I'm driving down the road and somebody doesn't use a blinker.

And just a little thing like that just jerks me up, and I start in my mind having a conversation with them that I never have out loud, but I think it in my head.

I'm like, are you kidding?

Me?

Woo, uh, uh.

And pretty soon I'm not loving Jesus.

I'm not hating that person, but I'm just kind of saying, hey, could everybody drive like me?

I know you don't think those things.

And I go further.

I even think, you know, if you people, if you would think and you would have a little forethought, the world would run smoother.

And when my wife's with me, she leans over and pats me and says, Hey, you're not the general manager of the universe.

Just drive.

And I'm like, okay, thank you for that.

See, my faith is not circumstantial.

I don't need everything to go my way.

In other words, for me to be a person who's God centered.

It's consistent.

A consistent faith.

See, to be God-centered moves you from circumstantial faith to consistent faith, which is a consistent faith is one that is defined by God.

If you've got your Bible, I want you to turn to the left, to the 106th Psalm, Psalm 106.

And I want you to see what I'm talking about when I say consistent faith, because God's people, by the way, when people say to you, Well, I don't want to go to church because it's full of hypocrites, don't disagree with that.

God's people have been hypocritical for a long time.

You realize that, right?

I mean, and I'm not saying therefore it's okay, let's all go be hypocrites.

I'm just saying, I would prefer another word, God has been faithful.

His people have been faithless.

Because when I say be God, when I say it's like talk about being God-centered, most people think they should be God-centered because God's man-centered, and we should return the favor.

God's really into me, and so I should show my appreciation, and therefore I should be really into God.

Well, here's the problem: you don't have enough energy to sustain that appreciation.

And God is God-centered, and God's into himself, and he invites you and I to be into what God is into, namely Himself, because that means whenever I'm faithless, God is faithful.

And God's been faithful from the beginning.

I mean, it spend some time before this year gets too far into it and look back on this past year and just see how God was faithful in that situation, in that situation, in that circumstance, and with that person, and with that problem, and begin the new year with this perspective of God is faithful.

And the Bible reminds us in the 106th Psalm.

I'll start reading in verse 6.

Both we and our fathers have sinned.

We have committed iniquity.

We have done wickedness.

Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works.

They did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love.

But they rebelled by the sea at the Red Sea.

And yet he saved them.

Why did he do that?

For his namesake.

He saved them for his namesake, verse 8 says, that he might make known his mighty power.

Translation, God said, Hey, you're supposed to be my people.

I want to defend the honor of my name.

And not only that, but I want to make known my mighty power.

Translation, how will anybody know what I'm like unless I do what only I am capable of doing.

And so he saved them from the hand of the foe and he redeemed them from the power of the enemy.

And the waters covered their adversaries, and not one of them was left.

And then they believed his words and they sang his praise.

Awesome.

Next verse.

But they soon forgot his works.

And they did not wait for his counsel.

And I won't read it for the sake of time, but if you read the rest of the 106th Psalm, it just goes on and on.

And God did this, and they said, Thank you.

Let's sing a new worship song.

And then they went right out and committed heinous sin.

And God said, I have to be faithful.

And unless I do what only I can do, how is everybody gonna know who I really am?

And so skip down, if you would, in the 106th Psalm, down to verse 43.

Many times.

Circle those two words in your Bible, beloved.

Many times.

Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.

Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress when he heard their cry.

For the sake, for their sake, he remembered his covenant and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

He caused them to be pitied by all those who had held them captive.

Nevertheless, God looked upon them, he regarded their helpless estate, and he remembered his covenant.

He said, You know what?

These people don't take my name seriously, but I take my name seriously.

When God looked around and said, There's no one greater than me to swear by, so I'll swear by myself, God was saying, I am I am centered on the most certain thing I know, which is myself.

And he invites you and I to be God-centered once again.

It's I don't want to just say things, I want to put handles on things today so you can leave here and kind of go, I think, I think I got that.

It's just to have God at the center of our affections at all times, in every circumstance, and for every result.

You say, Well, I I don't know what that means.

Well, here's one thing it means.

If a consistent faith is defined by who God is, then it becomes extremely important for you to have not just a right picture in your head, but a right understanding in your heart of who God is, as revealed in the Bible, not just by culture or people or talk show host.

Well, he's like your best friend, he's always there, true, but not sufficient.

And so when I was in college, someone said to me, I think I had a professor that said, Hey, I think you'd enjoy the writings of a man named Jonathan Edwards.

And I was like, Who's that?

And he said, Well, he was a Puritan, he's a pastor, preacher, theologian, probably the greatest mind uh evangelicalism has ever produced.

And so I pick up a book by Jonathan Edwards entitled The End for Which God Created the World.

And it wrecked me.

It had words in there I'd never heard before.

He talked about God, that God was this glorious, effusive, all-sufficient, fountain, bursting forth, demanding response.

All that I've heard people in church say was, stand, and we're gonna sing the first, second, and last verses.

Stand on the chorus.

And this guy, and I'd go to the library and I'd read his books, and so he made this statement I read one night in the library, but as I was just sitting in the library, reading it.

I read this statement, he talked about the glory of water.

And I just thought, who says that?

You need to change the way you talk, mister, if you want me to understand you.

And that little voice of me said, You need to change the way you think.

It's always like the glory years later.

Reading C.S.

Lewis, he talked about the glory of water.

Fast forward years later, I'm reading a man named John Piper.

He talked about the glory of water.

I'm like, what is the glory of water?

I remember Jonathan Edwards said that the glory of water, he said, one thing about water is if you add anything to it, it ceases to be water.

He was, of course, he said it differently in old English, but basically, let's begin with this fact that water is sufficient for being water.

And I was like, you're not very smart, sir.

Who doesn't know that?

Me.

And so I was like, the glory of water is that it's sufficient.

And so I read this, went back and read this this week.

It's a compilation of those three different men that I just referenced.

And together they say this the glory of water is that it quenches thirst.

We do not honor the refreshing, self-replenishing, pure water of a mountain spring by lugging buckets of water up the path to make our contribution from the ponds below.

No, we honor the spring.

We honor the spring by feeling thirsty.

Get in touch with your deepest thirst today, your most intimate, unmet need and your deepest longing.

Like Psalm 63, where the psalmist said, Oh God, I yearn for you.

My body aches for you.

My soul yearns for you in a dry and weary land where there's no water.

The reason most people don't get stuff out of church is you don't come thirsty enough.

You don't come in touch with what's really going on inside of you.

He says, We honor the spring by feeling thirsty and getting down on our knees and drinking with joy.

And then we say, Ah.

Have you said that lately?

You say, What do you what do you mean?

It's like when your kids are running and you say, get a glass of water.

You need to you need to you need to cool off.

And your kids get that glass and they fill it up and they just start gulping it.

Or you've been so thirsty, you should start gulping, and people around you are like, slow down, slow down, slow down.

You're gonna get a brain freeze.

You can't slow down.

Why?

Because you're propelled by your thirst.

You're just like go, go, go, go.

And you drink till you're out of breath.

I don't know if you know that.

That's what you do.

We all do that.

Go, go, go, go, go, and then we'll go.

And all these men come together, these great minds of Christianity, they get together and they say, you know, that we drink with joy, and then we say, ah, and that is worship.

And then we go on our journey in the strength of the fountain.

That is service.

The mountain spring is honored and glorified most when we are most satisfied with its water.

Said differently in 21st century language, to be God-centered is to be most satisfied with God.

It's to go out, you 20-somethings who are single and lonely.

And when you were 15 and you wrote in your diary, Dear Diary, I want to marry Billy Graham's grandson.

I want him to have a passion for missions and love Jesus and be a good, consistent churchman that other people respect.

Now you're right, dear diary, I'm 22.

As long as he's got a pulse and a job, I'm open.

It just happens.

And it shouldn't happen, but it just happens.

Why?

Why does it happen?

Because we seek in other things and other people and other places a satisfaction that can only be found in God.

And to be God-centered is to find your deepest satisfaction with God.

And you never run out of being satisfied.

Tomorrow is my 19th wedding anniversary.

Not a day, not an inkling of a moment, of a second, of a minute.

Have I looked at my life and thought, I wonder what would have happened if I'd married so-and-so.

It's never crossed my mind.

She's never said, Oh, do you wish you would have married so-and-so?

Who's so-and-so?

I forgot.

All the other people.

19 years, dated for a year and a half, so 20 and a half.

Never, why?

Not because I'm moral or disciplined, but because I'm satisfied.

Consistency is the byproduct of satisfaction.

And so to be God-centered, if we're going to sound the trumpet so people can get ready for battle, if you're going to go to work and you care about the people around you, you need to honk it off.

That you live, no, don't say it, just do it.

Just live a God-centered life and they see it, and then you've got to say it.

Second distinction I want our church, and because the church is making it the world over, is to be gospel-driven.

To be gospel-driven.

What does it mean?

And by the way, let me say this.

When I say gospel, I mean the truth of God contained in the word of God as revealed by the Spirit of God.

I don't mean a prayer you pray, as we'll see in just a minute.

I mean just the whole counsel of the juicy goodness of God's word.

To be gospel-driven means this.

It means to subject everything in your life to the gospel.

Just to subject, not hard, just subject everything in your life to the gospel.

Everything.

That means if you're one of those 20-somethings, you're a 28-year-old man, and you're like, I'd like to be married, you don't lower your standards, you subject your desires to the gospel.

Because that keeps you from from from digging for yourself a well that can't hold water.

Because what happens is we subject, we do just the opposite.

We subject the gospel to everything in our lives.

Our preferences, our kids, their schedules, their desires, their feelings, our friends.

You say, I don't subject the gospel to my friends.

Sure you do.

That's why you sit around and have conversations, and then you come and ask one of the pastors or the elders here, hey, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then that's happening, you know, and I don't want to say anything because I didn't want to make anybody uncomfortable.

Well, let them go to hell comfortable.

So that's okay.

So see, when your 25-year-old son comes home and and who was raised in the church and says, I'm not a believer.

I don't believe that.

Church is full of hypocrites.

You can smile and go, Absolutely.

And your mom and dad have been one, and our pastor's been one before, okay?

But let me tell you something.

Even when people are faithless, God is faithful.

You are making segments about people to excuse your relationship with God.

Not okay.

And then he goes on to say, Well, not only that, but me and my girlfriend moved in together.

Mom and dad, you can't just say, well, times are changing, so I guess you know, that's the way kids are.

Times are changing, absolutely.

The Bible is not, it's just not.

Matter of fact, it says of itself that heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of God will stand forever.

And the word of God says that when you join your body with somebody in a sexual relationship outside the context of marriage, that you have subjected your sexual, you've subjected the gospel to your sexual appetite.

And what you have is, and here's the fear, the the reality is that you have a gospel that you can't believe anymore.

Because deep inside your soul is going, you hypocrite.

And so, what do I want to do?

I want to remind you of the gospel.

I had a fit at Fort Bend Christian Academy on Monday.

They had their continuing education there, global worldview conference or something.

Yeah, they said, Can you come and talk for three hours?

Absolutely.

And by the way, y'all are babies, and they told me to tell you.

Because I gave them three hours of true grit.

And I just turned my horse around and come at them again.

Three hours.

They're like, How long did your services go?

75 minutes?

And some of my people whine about that.

Oh, you're telling we did three hours.

So I'm telling you, they did three hours.

We're not doing three hours.

I love Jesus.

I ain't gotta be unhappy to prove it.

But one of the things I talked about, gospel centrality, one of the things I said was 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says in verse 1, I would remind you of the gospel.

That captured my mind.

I was like, why do you have to remind them of the gospel?

They're Christians, because we forget.

We cook supper and go to volleyball practice and go to work and go play golf and go deep sea fishing, and we just forget the gospel.

So we've got to put the gospel before you.

So I want to remind you of the gospel with the gospel.

Don't, there's three verses that are gonna come on the screen.

Don't turn to them.

Maybe make note of them because we'll look at something else in just a minute.

But the first thing I want to remind you of the gospel is Romans 1:16.

Romans 1:16

Paul says, For I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

Why?

Because it's the power of God for salvation.

For is a Greek, is unto.

Here's why you say to your 25-year-old son when he comes on and goes, by the way, me and my girlfriend live together, and there's just nothing wrong with it.

Times are changing.

You just kind of smile and you look at him like rednecks look at bacon because you're fixing to devour his weak logic.

You say to him, matter of fact, mom, be in your 50s and say, you're bringing Kool-Aid to a gin party, okay, boy?

I'm about to lay the wood to you.

Go ahead and tell me your flawed worldview.

Mm-hmm.

Go ahead.

Let me get my diet coke.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You done?

Because you see, when you, unless you subject everything in your life to the gospel, if you subject the gospel to everything else in your life, your appetites, physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, sexual, all that kind of stuff, financial, if you do that, then what you have is a gospel that you've been afraid, that you have to be ashamed of because you can't say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God unto salvation.

Your 25-year-old son is never going to go from where he is unto where God calls him and created him to be.

Why?

Because he's divorced himself from the gospel.

And in the gospel is the power of God made obvious.

And so I would remind you of the gospel.

That in the gospel is the powerful confidence required to carry out the commands of Scripture.

So you say to your son, Hey, you think God didn't want you to have sex?

Are you kidding me?

God created sex.

First two people he made walked around naked.

You two try that.

It's not that you're liberated, postmodern, Gen X, Y, Z, millennials, whatever they're calling you this week.

It's this, Skippy.

You're far too easily satisfied.

Living with her satisfies you, and living with Creator God doesn't.

Are you kidding me?

You take your Kool-Aid and you go back to your apartment and you lay down on and you cry tears of remorse into a pillow of regret.

That is weak cheese, young man.

Don't say, well, you're gonna get an FTD, or what are you gonna do if she gets pregnant?

You're using protection, aren't you?

Really?

Is that the gospel?

No, that's cultural stuff.

It's not the power of the God.

Paul's, I'm not ashamed.

Why?

It's the power of God for, unto salvation, for anyone, to everyone who believes.

To the Jew first, also to the Greek, to the religious person, the Jew, but also to the Greek, the smart person.

No one's smarter and more religious than the gospel.

Second thing I would remind you with is 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 4 and 5.

1 Thessalonians 1:4

You say, Well, he says, For we know, brothers, loved by God, he's chosen you.

And here's how we know.

Because our gospel, there's the gospel again just coming up on us.

How do you know who knows God?

Because the gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.

See, the gospel shapes you and I into men and women and students who don't have to speak for themselves or defend themselves.

Why?

Because the gospel represents God accurately and therefore represents you truly, because you're men and women of the gospel.

He said, We know you don't have to tell people you don't have to go to work and put a put a Christian bumper sticker on your desk or your cubicle.

You don't have to put a fish on the back of your car.

All your neighbors know.

When there's a big long line of traffic and I'm trying to get up there and cut in, I look for the fish.

So I can honk and go, one way Jesus, let me in.

Oh, brother, come on.

Keep putting the fish on your car so I can find you in traffic.

But here's what he's saying.

He says, hey, we know the gospel came to you.

Don't you get tired of trying to convince people that you're gospel, men and women, that you're Christians?

He says, We know.

How do we know?

Because it came to you not just with words, but with power.

With power.

The Holy Spirit and deep, deep conviction or full assurance, one translation says.

Have you ever noticed what most people talk about their experience with the gospel?

It's in the past tense.

One of my privileges is being your pastor.

Don't ever go to a church where they just preach to you and they don't pastor you.

That's not the church.

That's just a slick, slack, creative factory.

One of my privileges is to sit with people and then just say, Hey, I screwed up and sinned, and this is what I did.

Or just say, hey, I let's go to lunch.

I I went to lunch with one guy, and he goes, I uh I don't know what to do.

I've never had lunch with a preacher.

And you know the worst part?

He's an older gentleman.

He's in his 60s.

He's been in church since he was 11.

I was like, Wow, really?

He says, I don't know what the rules are.

We eat and talk about whatever we want to.

And if we want to get dessert and take our shirts off and smear banana pudding all over ourselves, and just like cats, we can do that too.

He looked at me and said, I'm all of a sudden no longer nervous.

But one of the questions I like to ask people is, how is the gospel, how is the gospel affecting your life today?

And they always say the same thing.

Well, when I was 11, I prayed a prayer and you asked Christ in my life.

I walked the aisle and blah, blah, blah.

And here's the thing that I want you to notice when you ask people about their experience with the gospel, they answer in terms of the past, not the present.

Well, you know, I, you know, I yeah, well, Pastor, I'm I'm a Christian, Pastor.

I want you to know that.

I'm not asking if you're a Christian.

I'm asking, how is the gospel rubbing up against you and shaping the way you spend money and love your wife and raise your kids?

Hmm.

I want to remind you that that's the gospel.

Thirdly and finally, I would remind you what Matthew 24 says.

Jesus is talking, so we should lean our lives into his words.

He says in verse 3, he says, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be?

These things being the end of the world.

When's it all going to come down?

And what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?

By the way, it's not the Mayan calendar.

Not going to be December 21st, 2012.

And Jesus answered them, see that no one leads you astray, Mayans.

For many will come in my name, saying, I'm the Christ, and they'll lead many astray.

And you will hear wars and rumors of wars.

Translation, Iran will tell the United States, you better not come in the Strait of Hormuz over here with your ships.

Happened four days ago.

And see that no one you see that you're not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there'll be famines and earthquakes in various places, and all these are but the beginnings of birth pains.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you'll be hated by all nations.

Look at that.

Look at that next phrase.

For my name's sake.

Not only does God rescue you for his name's sake, not only does he forgive you for his namesake, but he allows you to suffer for his namesake and to be hated for his namesake.

So, ladies, when that man looks at you and says, You're not giving me what I want in this relationship.

I got to go find somebody who's going to.

Marriage is great, but this is, you know, 2011 or 12 now.

We ain't got to be married to what we want.

I mean, come on.

You could just say, you know what?

That violates everything I believe.

Not what I've, that doesn't violate what I was raised to believe.

That violates what I know to be satisfying.

And so I'm not going to adapt the gospel to you and your nonsense.

And he may get on Facebook and write about you or text his buddies at work and tell whatever.

And you can just go home and weep.

I'm not saying it doesn't hurt.

I'm not saying it doesn't sting to go, you know what, God, I do this right.

Why is there not any men in the world?

Because you'll realize, ladies, as you get older, that's not that many godly men.

There's a lot of men that go to church.

That doesn't mean they're godly, it means they're looking for a wife.

They want your goodness to offset their badness.

I'm not kidding.

That's why people say all the time to me, single people in this church, well, I'm going to go find a big church that has a big singles department.

I'm going to get married and come back.

Awesome.

Let me point you to one.

I don't dislike big churches.

Some of y'all keep y'all keep showing up like this.

We're going to have to add a third service here.

But my point is this you just consumed the church upon your relationship needs.

My thoughts exactly.

Look at what he says.

And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

And because lawlessness will be increased.

You know that lawlessness is going to increase in our world.

You know that, right?

And because of that, the love of many will grow cold.

And just stop for a minute.

Think about those words.

My kids get weirded out because I hug my wife and kiss my wife.

They're like, ugh.

You kiss your dogs on the mouth.

Okay?

You open your mouth and let your cat lick your lip.

Shut up.

I'm going to kiss my wife again right in front of you.

And they run to their bedrooms and close the doors.

Because they just expect that somehow the love between us is going to grow cold.

No, it's not.

No, it's not.

It'd be like you sitting in a room.

So you used to go, and you say, What do you mean the love of most grow cold?

Go to a restaurant today, look around, find the oldest people in there, and chances are they're not talking, they're just eating and watching people each other chew and going, How are you?

Yours good, good, good.

They talk about the food, but not each other, because they've run out of things to say.

Their love has grown cold.

That's normal.

You just see that and you go, Oh, yeah, they've been married a long time.

You know, that's what happens.

No, no, no, it doesn't.

Can you imagine going to lunch today?

Seeing a couple of their 80s over there sitting on the same side of the booth.

He's got his arm around her.

And they're like, Are y'all expecting somebody else?

No, I just I've been with her 64 years and I can't get enough.

Matter of fact, hang on a second.

He just reaches over and just pushes her wrinkles back and finds her mouth.

And not only does he kiss her, stay with me.

See, because you're used to the love of most growing cold.

That grosses you out because you think you're not supposed to do that anymore.

And not only does he kiss her, but he kisses her so long they're going to change sides a few times.

And in your heart, you're like, oh.

I'm going to gouge my eyes out with an ice cream scoop.

Please tell me that's not happening.

Some of these grandparents are making out.

And when he gets done, he's like, could you top off our coffee?

We're going to linger a while.

See, that's funny because we just expect, like, it's going to grow cold.

The Bible says the love of most, the love of most people for God will grow cold.

But then Jesus goes on and says, But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Why?

And this gospel, there's the gospel again.

This good news, this truth of God contained in the Word of God and revealed by the Spirit of God.

This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations.

And then the end will come.

Somebody said to me, Well, you know, we're going a lot of places in our church.

I mean, people in India right now, what are we doing over there?

We're over there because there's boys and girls in an orphanage called House of Love.

They don't have enough food.

And you put money in these boxes here.

It's not your money, it's God's money.

So don't get narked up and think, yeah, God credit that to my account.

He gave you that paycheck in the first place.

You're not giving it to him.

You're coming back as a thief who doesn't deserve it and saying, hey, this is rightfully yours.

This first fruit is yours.

And we take it and we send it to India and buy goats.

And we send people, like Nicole Prosser, who's like 21 or 22, single gal, photographer, great girl, loves God, and she's going to get to take those beautiful little Indian girls, their face in her hands, and their beautiful, dark, black, rich hair, and cup their face in their hands and say, I'm here because God loves you so much.

He wanted me to come over here and tell you so you wouldn't forget.

Your circumstance don't define you and they don't describe God.

God is faithful.

Don't you ever forget that?

And that little girl who is six is going to grow up and she's going to die when she's 96 in heaven.

She's going to walk up to Nicole Prosser and say, Do you remember me?

Nicole's going to say, I know I don't.

I'm Nicole.

I know who you are.

Never forgot you.

You came to my country from America on an airplane with a big red streak behind you, and you landed, and you took my face in your hands, and it changed my life.

That's why we go to India.

And that's why you put money in the boxes.

Because we're not going to just build buildings and expand our parking lot and this, that, and the other.

All things we need to do.

But we are going to be driven by the gospel.

You say, why?

Because there's a testimony in the gospel.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony, as a reminder of how great God is.

Scott O'Byrne's over there.

You go, who's Scott O'Byrne?

He's the guy with a burr haircut that stands out here.

Gets here every morning before all of you are here, takes his dress shirt off, and rocks his v-neck wife beater and picks up trash on the parking lot.

Yes, sir.

And he's the vice president of an oil company.

He drives a fly.

Sweet McDaddy, Lincoln Continental pickup.

He's like, what is that?

Are you like a pimp or something?

Where'd you get that?

It's got 20-inch wheels on it.

And he took 10 days of vacation to go to India and testify to the greatness of God.

And he gets to come back and sit in a boardroom.

He's part of a company that is blowing up, and every time I see him, he's like, God's so good to me.

I don't know why he's so good to me.

He's just so good to me.

And he almost weeps over it.

What's wrong with you, OB?

You can't cry whenever I ask you that.

I just, man, he's just so good.

Okay.

Absolutely.

I know that feeling.

And he gets to testify and buy goats and build a shed for them and get food.

So when you when you obey God and you give to this the ministry of this church, it doesn't just stay in the ministry of this church, it goes to the mission of the gospel.

You say, Well, I I I I I I think you say, Well, I don't know what you mean.

See, just remember this to be gospel-driven means you subject everything to the gospel.

Just this week, for example, I got a call from my old college roommate's wife.

She said, Have you talked to Joey?

No, I have her.

What's going on?

I could tell by the tone in her voice.

She said, Well, Joey hadn't called you.

No, I didn't think he would.

Uh he's in bad shape.

And I said, What's going on?

She goes, he has kidney cancer.

And I said, What?

Pastors of church, started the church, went to college here in Texas, and looked at all of us and said, I'm getting out of the Bible belt.

I'm gonna go somewhere where it ain't happening, and pray to God that it happens.

And he did, and it has.

He has a great church.

He started from the ground up.

He was a youth minister, and he just started loving these people and finding people who'd wrecked their lives, and they got a church, and it's incredible, and it's he just loves God.

And the doctor said, You have a kid, a tumor on your kidney as big as your kidney.

And there's some spots on your rib.

We don't know if it's spread to your rib, and how if it has, if it's like in the marrow, and it's all through your body.

And so his wife said, Can you call him and encourage him?

Yeah, uh-oh, okay.

So I call him to encourage him, and he laughs.

Because I said, Hey, Charlie, but what are you doing?

Can't you tell me?

Oh man, I'm fine.

Listen, I told my people on Sunday, I made I I this is spread all my body, I'm gonna die, and y'all get a new pastor and move on.

And I thought, I wonder if I did that.

If my people would miss you, would your people miss you or anything?

And he said, the next sentence out of his mouth, he said, So how's Marcy and the girls?

No, no, no.

Let's talk about you and your cancer.

Hey man, I got cancer, but I also got God, okay?

See, he subjects cancer to the gospel.

And the good news, the gospel is not that, oh, Joey had surgery and on Thursday, and he's gonna be healed.

I pray that.

Join me in praying it.

His name's Joey Butler.

Write it down.

He looks like Darth Vader with his helmet off, okay?

No, you shouldn't shave your head.

Grow that back.

And he's like, told his kids, got three kids, told his kids, your dad doesn't want to just live and just eke out anxiety.

I'd rather die and go home and be with Jesus.

Because if I can't live fully like I was created to for the glory of God, I'm praying that God just take me home.

And his kids are like, we don't want you to be just in bed all the time, Dad.

So if you can't be dad, just die and go home and be with Jesus.

Don't you wish your kids believe the gospel that much?

I mean, some of y'all are mad your grandma died.

Hey, memo to you, everybody dies.

You're gonna die.

And you're gonna stand before this God you're so mad at.

So you might want to think about what you want to say.

Not only that, last night I got a phone call from a friend of mine.

I answered the phone, hello.

He just laughed.

I was like, oh man.

This guy, he's a worship pastor at a church.

His wife is not making fun of her at all.

Her mind just doesn't work right.

And she steals stuff.

He got fired from a church because she wouldn't stop shoplifting.

He was there 17 years.

They fired him.

We can't take it anymore.

He had to go to a store and get his six-year-old daughter from a policeman while they let her mom out in handcuffs.

And he just said to her, I love you, and I'm not going anywhere.

We're gonna get to the bottom of this.

And she goes, I don't know why I steal.

I just like stealing.

He has a meeting this week, he's gonna get fired from his church where he's worship pastor right now.

And his wife and his just corrupted his daughter against him, and she's 16 and won't even listen to her dad, and they go out until 3 and 4 and 5 in the morning.

I got like teenagers.

Like you get on her Facebook account, it's all kids.

Like, hey mom, just be mom.

Stop trying to be cool.

If if your best friends, if people think you're cool, are 15, you're not cool, you're a sellout.

And so there they are.

He calls me last night and I said, he said, Well, I'm just, you know, I said, Dave, what's so funny?

He goes, Well, what's funny is that uh my wife left and she said she'd never come back.

And well, she got kicked out of the people she was living with because she wouldn't stop her behavior.

And so she came back home and said, I'm moving in.

And he said, Well, uh, you're welcome to live here.

You and our daughter both, as long as we get counsel and work on our marriage.

I want, I, I, I want this thing fixed.

And she said, Oh, I'm not doing that.

And two days later, she's at work, and a man drives up with a pickup and serves him divorce papers.

She moved into his house just to serve him divorce papers and say, I've got that.

And she came back and he said to the guy that served him, he said, Thank you, sir, have a nice day.

And he goes, Mister, do you know what that is?

He goes, Yeah.

He said, It's divorce papers.

My wife wants to divorce me, but I'm asking God to intercede and have mercy on my wife.

She's sick.

And the guy just looked at him and he's like, turned around, got in his truck, and drove off.

And so I said, What are you gonna do?

And he said, Well, you know, she came back and I said, You can't live here while you're divorcing me.

She goes, Yeah, I can't.

I checked my lawyer, I got legal rights.

And here's the part, right?

She said, and by the way, if you're reading there, I'm asking for the house, and you're gonna pay for it, and you're gonna pay me spousal support, and you're gonna get out.

I don't trust you.

What?

You you you can't stop stealing stuff and you don't trust me?

He didn't say that.

He's a better man than me.

And so he said to me on the phone, through tears, fixing to lose my second job because of my wife's sickness.

I'm gonna lose my house, and I'll have to pay her to raise our daughter in our home in a way that I fundamentally disagree with.

And I couldn't think of what else to say, so I just said, Hey man, how are you getting through this?

And he said something that I'd heard before, and I thought, is that a line from a movie?

And so I had to go do some research.

What he said was, let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still.

His kingdom is forever.

And then I went and I was like, that's not a line from a movie.

That oh, that's a hymn.

And I got this hymnal that my wife stole from her home church.

So I told her last night, you ain't getting no spousal support.

I don't know what you're doing.

You ain't getting jacked from me.

I'll go to jail.

And I started reading because in my mind I just thought, how do you get so violated and so unjustly treated by your wife and probably now by the crooked, perverted courts?

It's not a court of justice, it's a court of law.

Whoever can twist the law to their advantage wins.

And I read in here a mighty fortress is our God, a boar never failing, our helper, he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.

And I started doing research on a mighty fortress is our God, and I realized that Martin Luther, the great reformer, wrote it when he read Psalm 46, 1, that said, our God is a refuge in time of trouble.

And what my friend was saying to me was, I am subjected to my wife's illness and my pending divorce and my loss of job, and I don't have a job.

I subjected all that to the gospel.

Let goods and kindred go.

This mortal life they may kill, but God's kingdom is forever.

And I hung up the phone last night and I wanted to be angry.

Gosh, I wanted to be angry.

The redneck in me was going.

And the spirit in me was going, you just pray for her.

She's broke, Neil, she's broke.

And then I thought, how do you love a woman like that?

And that little voice said, the same way I love you, Gomer.

Oh, oh, okay.

Got it.

See, to be gospel-driven is to subject it all.

And thirdly and finally, and I'll be brief, is I want us to distinctly sound the trumpet so people get ready for the hell that's coming this year by being spirit-led.

Being spirit-led.

Turn your Bibles to John 3 and we'll be done.

But while you're turning, or you can just look on the screen, uh, let me just, what I mean by being spirit-led is simply this.

To be spirit-led is to live a responsive life which tangibly expresses God's desire in all circumstances.

To be spirit-led.

It's not to go around and have these mystical, ethereal experiences, it's to live a responsive life, which tangibly expresses God's desire in all circumstances.

Jesus said it this way in John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Context is he's talking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a leader of the Pharisees.

He was a member of the Sanhedrin.

He'd probably memorized the first five books of the Bible.

Very smart, learned man.

When Jesus got around smart people, he made it real simple.

And it rocked their world.

He says in verse 1, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know you're a teacher, come from God, for no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him.

And Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

And Jesus answered, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

And that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows wherever it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.

Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, and he can tell Nicodemus is not getting it.

He looks around and the wind is probably swaying the trees, and he says, Hey, you see the wind blow.

You don't know, you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going.

And then he says, This is what it means to be led by the Spirit.

It's like the wind.

And Nicodemus is like, You know something I don't.

I got a lot of intellect, but you have a lot of intimacy.

You seem to be close to God.

And Jesus didn't say, That's because I am God.

He just smiled and he just wooed and invited.

He just kind of wooed Nicodemus to think differently about, to step out of the religious holy man club.

You say, Well, did he ever make it?

Yeah, he did.

How do you know?

Because two people came for the body of Jesus and they took him off the cross.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.

One had the head, one had the feet.

Nicodemus looking at Joseph, hey man.

I I know why I'm here.

Why are you here?

And Joe's like, You first, why are you here?

He told me it was like the wind.

Mess me up.

I hated myself after that.

Because I wasn't like the wind.

I was stale like bread that you leave out on the counter.

You say, What do you mean?

Be in spirit, spirit, lay.

See, the issue to be born of the spirit.

See, when you become a Christian, Jesus said, hey, flesh gives birth to flesh.

If this is all your idea, it's just your flesh giving birth to more.

But spirit gives birth to spirit.

In other words, when you're born again, when you really genuinely are converted, God comes to live inside of you by his spirit.

That's why it's responsive.

It's not, I don't initiate, it's I respond to what God is saying.

I respond to what God is doing.

The Spirit of God doesn't give birth to orphans, he comes to live inside of you.

That's why Jesus says, you've heard in John 3, like 11 chapters later in John 14, I'm not gonna leave you as orphans.

I want to come to you.

I gotta go.

So the Holy Spirit could come, and he will be with you forever.

He will be in you and he'll lead you into the truth.

And so the issue is if you're a Christian, it's not, do I have the Holy Spirit?

It's God inside of me, but are you full of the Spirit?

You say, Well, what do you mean?

I don't know about you, but my wife has a vehicle and I don't want to drive it that much.

She drives it, it's great, I don't mind that.

I get in every once in a while and I look around, kind of go, can y'all pick up like that sucker stick that's stuck in the in the in in the car pit and those french fries and the cup holder that have been in there since the Johnson administration?

I don't know how long that's been there, and then there's cubs, oh you did Chick-fil-A and you did McDonald's, oh, there's a subway wrapper, oh what kids have clothes in there?

I'm like, what is this, like a closet or a trash can on wheels or bowl?

How does this work?

She's like, babe, baby, you I don't get in your truck and say anything.

This is fine.

We got this, and but one thing that is constant, it's always out of gas.

And here's the thing she acts like it surprises her.

Every time.

Because I get in and I'm like, really?

And here's how I know it's out of gas.

It even has a little low fuel indicator light on it.

It comes on, and I'll say, hey, you're out of gas.

Yeah, that light came on the other day.

And in my mind, I think, what are you what?

Do you just tell me it's on?

I'm not gonna fill it.

You're not gonna fill it.

I'm not gonna get it.

Because here's the thing.

She got the owner's manual.

And it says I'm looking up fuel indicator light and figured out.

Um, when the fuel indicator light comes on, you still have two to three gallons, 21 miles a gallon, three gallons.

I got six to three miles.

I haven't driven six to three miles.

Let's go.

Listen.

Because we know where I'm taking lady.

You're subtle.

Oh, I'm out of gas.

Can you give me some gas?

Yeah, I got some gas.

Oh, it's kind of dirty.

Could you clean it up?

And there's sucker sticks in the carpet.

Can you get that clean while you're there?

And could you get the front end alone?

And by the way, I think the only speech it makes this noise when I started.

What?

But you don't say any of that, man.

We don't say any of that.

We just go, okay.

Why do I tell you that?

Here's why I tell you that, and I'm done.

Finished.

My fear is that you have a more you have a better frame of reference for what it's like to live on empty than you do to live at a place of fullness, because you got the owner manuals out, and you just kind of picked out three or four verses.

They're your life verses, and they kind of explain how Jesus is merciful and long-suffering and forgiving.

So it's okay that I live on empty because God's faithful.

No, it's not.

God's faithfulness is intended, beloved, to instill and to call out of you and I fullness.

And to live at a place of fullness.

So ask yourself, are you full of the Spirit today?

And be ask yourself, have I ever been born again?

Or am I like Nicodemus?

I'm just religious and I'm lost.

You say, How do you know?

Because there's nothing spiritual about your life.

You're lugging buckets up the hill and dumping them into the pure mountain spring.

And you're like, thank you.

Can I get a record of that contribution?

And God says, that's not a contribution, that's contamination.

You ain't gonna add anything to me.

I'm all sufficient God.

And you were created for fullness.

And so are you full today?

And you roll into this new year.

Are you full?

And if not, why not?

You say, how do you know?

You're at the mercy of whatever you're full of.

Let's be full of the Spirit today.

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Your great and faithful God loved you so much, He made you in such a way that you cannot be satisfied by anything but Him.

And so depart now and find your deepest, richest, fullest, thirst quenching satisfaction in Him.

Do this now in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.