A Great House - Week 6

Amen. Seco Timothy Seca Timothy chapter two. Sego Timothy, chapter two.

We're gonna start reading in verse twenty. Again, my wife

is shaking her head at me. Sego Timothy, chapter two,

verse twenty. We're continuing our series the Great House. So

let's read starting in verse twenty. If you're there, say amen.

If you're not, say oh my, all the old mins

read along. But in a great house they're not only

vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay,

some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone

cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel

for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master. Everybody say useful,

prepared for every good work. Flee also youthful LUs but

pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call, with

those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but

be gentle to all, able to teach, patient inhumility, correcting

those who are in opposition. If God perhaps will grant

them repentance, so that they may know the truth and

when they and that they may come to their senses

and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken

captive by him to do his will. Let's pray, Father,

we thank you for your word. It's the only change

agent that we have on the face of this planet.

And I pray today, Lord, at the very fabric of

our being, I pray that this takes root and grows

into a harvest of life today, impart to us your

wisdom that we would do your work better in Jesus' name. Amen,

I want to talk. I want to talk about hospitality.

You know, if we're gonna build a great house, there

has to be some some hospitality there. In other words, Uh,

if you're building a great house, it's a house for

people to come and enjoy and see the blessings of

God in your life. And uh, nobody wants to show

up to your door. And uh, you're just a mean

old cuss Amen. That's that. That's people don't like that.

As a matter of fact. Uh, probably why people don't

come to my house. Do I'm just kidding. Uh, But uh,

but when we talk about hospitality, hospitality looks different in

different contexts. And the one we want to just really

look at today is how we deal with people uh

that are outside the faith, people that have not yet

trusted Jesus as their Lord and savior. Because I think

a lot of times we we have we we want

the outcome, but we have wrong intentions. And in the

Kingdom of God, intentions are everything. The motives of our

heart are everything. I know a lot of Christians who

just carry themselves in such a tense way that it's

just like they're just ready, they're set on on all

the time, ready to jump and ready to confront, and

ready just to tell people the way it should be

and the way it ought to be and the way

that it is. And you know, that's not the way

Christ carried himself. As a matter of fact, when we

really look at the ministry of Jesus, the people that

Jesus was the well he was the most critical of

were not people that were on the other side of faith.

He was critical of the religious order. He was critical

of those that had a face of religiosity but didn't

really have the heart of the Kingdom. And when we

talk about that and we think about that, let's read

verse twenty three. Again it says, but avoid foolish and

ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant

of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all,

able to teach patient in humility, correcting those who are

in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so

that they may know the truth. See, we have to

understand that when we are talking about the faith, it's

not an argument to win. It's a soul to save.

Let me say that again, it's not an argument to win,

it's a soul to save. As a matter of fact,

you've done your job if you lose the argument, But

the seed is planned. Come on, somebody, when we talk

about and we understand this whole issue of sharing our

faith and living the Christian life, living a spirit filled life,

looks a lot different than we think it does. As

a matter of fact, the context that I want you

to keep in mind when we talk about sharing our faith,

most of us see that as some kind of debate

that happens. But I want you to refocus that. You

see it as correcting in the standpoint of somebody's wrong

and they need to start doing right. But I want

you to frame it a little bit. I want you

to imagine. Sorry, Glenn, this is just a visual illustration.

I'm not going to stand on the edge all day, Okay,

Glenn gets nervous when I get on the edge of

the stage. I want you to envision the image of

a person standing on a ledge, not a child that's

being disobedient. But when you begin to enter into a

conversation with someone about their faith, the image should be

that person on a ledge that they're in serious jeopardy

and danger. When we begin to talk about the Kingdom

of God, we have to understand that it's not just

about flesh, but it's about eternity. It's about the soul.

That literally, our bodies don't matter, because for us to

be absent from the body is to be resent with

the Lord. It's a strange concept because everything in the

Kingdom is inverted. But the actual goal of our faith

is actually to get to the end of our lives

and pass on so that we can go and be

with Jesus. Come on, somebody. But when we begin to

think about that person that we're wrestling with at work

or wherever, it is that person that is always challenging

us on some area of faith that we turn red

face and a little spit jumps out of our mouth

every time we start having the conversation you know what

I'm talking about that person that when you walk up

to them and they say, hey, what about your blood

pressure rises? You get tense. But instead of looking at

them like a child that you're trying to correct, look

at them like a person on a ledge. You're trying

to talk down that the wrong step could mean that

they plunge into eternity without Jesus as their savior. And

there's nothing we can do once that decision has been made.

That when we reframe our perspective, it creates a different

motive in our heart that we're willing to We're willing

to give ourselves in order to keep that person safe.

In First Corinthians, Chapter two, verse six, it says, however

we speak wisdom. However we speak wisdom among those who

are mature, yet, not the wisdom of this age, nor

of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.

The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the age, is

for our glory, which none of the rulers of this

age knew, for had they known, they would not have

crucified the Lord of Glory. When we begin these dialogues,

in these conversations and listen, the number one thing that

I get asked on a Sunday morning or when you're

talking to me, is, Hey, how do I convince somebody that?

How do I convince somebody that believes convinced somebody that says? How?

What should I do? How should I respond when somebody?

And it's all about positioning ourselves to enter into some

kind of debate or fight that we need to win.

But the Bible says that if they knew what we knew,

they would not have crucified Jesus. That if the world

understood what we understand, that they wouldn't have done the

things they did. And we're trying to fight a battle

expecting people to have the same perspective and the same

outlook and the same knowledge that we have. But the

knowledge that we have is supernatural, and we have the

knowledge we have because we at some point experience faith

and invited Jesus into our life. See, it's that faith

component that the world doesn't yet have. So they can't

understand the way we understand. They can't see what we

can see, they can't feel what we can feel. And

it says that we speak this wisdom of God in

a supernatural way. That literally, God is giving us the

answer to everything we need. But we have to carry

ourselves with the intention, with the intention not to win

a fight, but to save a soul, that we show

hospitality in everything that we do. That in the midst

of that argument, it's not an argument, but it's a

hospitable conversation and us giving ourselves in order for that

person to come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as

our Lord and Savior. Now, I will tell you that

there have been times in my life where I have

crossed over and I have entered into spiritual fights. Okay,

it was a spiritual at all. It was flesh. Okay,

I got into flesh and I tried to win the

argument I just because somebody made me mad. Amen. And

each one of those times I was never successful in

trying to to bring somebody into the Kingdom of God.

Every time Steve has ever gotten in the way and

hidding Jesus behind him, I have left feeling guilty and

I lost the fight, and I lost the war because

the war is over those souls. The war is over eternity.

And it is possible for that person that we're talking

to to understand everything we say logically. I mean, let's

face it, here's the logical argument for coming into the

Kingdom of God. Let's say that I that I had

a deck of cards, and Randy, I told you. I said, Okay,

here's a deck of cards, and we're gonna we're gonna

cut high card. Whoever pulls the highest card out of

this pile is gonna win. And uh, here's the argument

of salvation. It's that if you win, I'm going to

give you one thousand dollars. If you win, you get

a thousand dollars. If I win, you don't owe me anything.

If you win, you get a thousand. If you lose,

you don't owe me anything. Logically, it makes sense to

do that as long as I will stand there and

do it right. And that is the argument of the

kingdom that Hey, if you trust Jesus as your savior,

eternity is yours. If you trust Jesus as your savior,

he will bless you every day of your life. If

you trust Jesus as your savior. He'll let you operate

in peace and give you hope and all of those things.

But if you get to the end of your life

and he's not real and what I told you was

not actual fact, you haven't lost anything. From a logical perspective,

it's easy to reason and say, hey, yeah, that's probably

something I need to jump on board. But it's easy.

It's possible to believe something logically but not be able

to find truth in it emotionally. That we can understand

something with our mind but not grasp it with our heart,

that something deep down on the inside of us just

won't grab it. And here's the reality for believers. Our

heart has been shifted, our heart has been shifted to

embrace the things of God. But to the world it

seems like a fairy tale and too good to be true.

And if anything is too good to be true, it's

probably too good to be true. And that's the way

the world sees our argument of Christ, that it's just

simply too good to be true. So therefore we have

to go beyond just words. We have to go beyond

just the fight and just the conversation. So let's jump

back up in First Corinthians, chapter two above, where we

just read. In First Corinthians chapter two, verse four, it says,

this is Paul speaking. He says, and my speech and

my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom.

Paul says, Listen, when I was preaching, I wasn't trying

to I wasn't trying to talk all fancy. I wasn't

trying to convince anybody. I wasn't trying to persuade anybody.

Because if anybody can talk you into the kingdom, the

devil can certainly talk you out. He's better at what

he does than I am at what I do. I mean,

he's been doing it for thousands of years, and I'm

just a spring chicken. I'm just a young fella, and

he's been doing it for a long time. And if

I can talk you in, he'll certainly talk you out.

He says. It wasn't with persuasive words. I wasn't trying

to win an argument. I wasn't trying to win a fight.

Postle Paul says, each and my preaching we're not of

persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the

spirit and of power that your faith should not be

in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

He said, here's the key. It's not in what you

know about God that's going to convince somebody to be saved.

It's in who God is that will cause people to

be saved. And anybody can say anything. We live in

a world of social media, and there are keyboard jockeys

all over the world that have truth about everything that

will tell you how wrong you are and how right

they are. Somebody can say anything, but the reality is

our actions prove our motives, our intentions that are in

our heart will be borne out and proven by not

what we say, but by who we are. The Apostle

Paul says, Listen, it was a demonstration of the spirit

and of power that causes people to come into the kingdom.

And now we think immediately when we start talking about

those things, especially in a Pentecostal church, that we're talking

about those flamboyant displays of the spirit, those Pentecostal TBN

things right like people falling out and people being healed,

And listen, those are all valid things. I'm not diminishing

those things. Those things are very Really, I love a

good Pentecostal altar service as good as anybody. As a

matter of fact, we used to have a metric early

in my ministry that it was how many people hit

the floor during the altar service. That's how we knew

if we had a good church service or not, how

many people fell down. We don't count that anymore, by

the way, and it's not because y'all quit falling down.

We just realized that a lot of people were falling

down and getting back up the same way. I don't

care if you fall down. If you leave changed, you

can stand up and leave change, and I'm okay with that.

You cannot cry and leave change, and I'm okay with that.

You cannot come to the altar leave change, and I'm

completely good with that, because it's all about transformation and

life change. And when we read those things, we think

of these magnanimous displays of power. But there are more subtle,

every day displays of power and moves of the spirit

that are much more impressive to humanity and the world

than those things that we have confined to an altar

in our church services on Sundays. In Galatians chapter five,

verse twenty two, it says, but the fruit of the Spirit. Now,

let me just let me just tell you something. The

enemy can copy every thing else. The enemy can copy

everything else that we in the church see as signs

and wonders. He can knock people down, he can make

people cry, he can make come on now. But the

fruit of the spirit, the enemy cannot copy because it's

contrary to the kingdom of darkness. Operating in the fruit

of the spirit is contrary to everything the enemy stands for,

and he will not copy. A spirit filled life that

produces the fruit of the spirit, and the fruit of

the spirit are the tools that bring validity to the

words and the lifestyle we live, because when we operate

in the fruit of the spirit, people are drawn to it.

Let's read about it. But the fruit of the spirit

is love, huh, joy, peace, long sun going, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self control. Against such there is no law. And those

who are christ have crucified the flesh with its passions

and desires. If we live in the spirit, let us

also walk in the spirit. Let us not become conceited

provoking one another or envying one another. He says, listen,

don't provoke one another. Don't back to our original text.

Don't get in arguments that just cause strife. You're arguing

people further away from the Kingdom. But in our homes,

we invite people in and we ask them to sit down,

and they look around our house and they see how

we live. They see our ordinary, everyday environment, and they

experien sperience that ordinary everyday environment. And that's how we

win people to Christ is we allow them to experience

the fruit of the Spirit spilling out of our lives,

pouring out of our lives and being manifest in us

and through us. And we do that by building our

relationship with Jesus every single day. The best thing you

can do to win the argument with your coworker that's

always provoking you is get a little closer to Jesus

and let that person see a little more love, a

little more kindness, a little more joy, a little more

a little more long suffering. We are the least long

suffering society on the planet. Amen. I was going through

a drive through the other day and it just seemed

like it was taking a long time, So I know

what time. I pulled up and for four minutes later,

they handed me the food out of the window, and

I was steaming mad. As a matter of fact, I

thought to my I said, if I can't even believe

they called this fast food four minutes and don't act

like y'all are not the same way. You expect them

to know what you're ordering when you pull in the

parking lot and have it hot and ready. That's what

we expect. But we've been programmed in conditions that everything

should be now, now, now, now, now, quick, quick, quick quick.

You know, when I go home, I don't want to

just I don't want to just go home quick, quick, quick,

quick quick. I want to go home in my great

house and just relax. I just I go home. And

it's one of the few places in the world. Now

listen to I'm being transparent here. I'm just kind of

opening my life to you. It's one place in the

world where I can go and I just don't have

to be pastor Steve there. I'm just that had to

be a pastor that just said that. It's a place

where where I can just go and relax and just

be me. Now, there's not a whole lot of difference

between the Steve here and the Steve there. I mean,

I don't do anything there that I don't do here.

I mean, I even scratch when it is just here,

so you know, I mean. But but the reality is

is that there is no pressure. Look at me, there's

no pressure. When you're building a great house, there's no pressure.

It's your environment where you construct it, and it feels

like you, and it looks like you, and it smells

like you, and it's got your markings on it. And

that's the way your faith should walk out. It's a

place that looks like you and smells like you, and

the aroma of the things that you eat and the

things that you are in the air, and it should

be a manifestation of your true character. Most people, I'm

gonna gohead and say it, most people don't receive what

you're selling because they don't believe you because it looks fake.

Because leading up to the moment where you start talking

about Jesus, you didn't look very much like Jesus. Leading

up to the moment where you start talking about the

love of Christ, you weren't showing much love. When you

start talking about the way Jesus gave his life through

an act of kindness, you weren't being very kind. But

when we focus our lives on doing the fundamental things.

A spirit filled life has this manifestation love joy peep.

Let me hit that one for just a second. This

is free. This is what in my notes peace. If

you're walking around like this all the time, you're just

worried something's gonna happen, and you just worrying and freatening,

and it's just like by breakfast, you're exhausted because you're

a thing about everything that could happen. You don't have

that fruit growing on your tree yet. And the way

we get fruit to grow is we drive our roots

down deeper, step out in some areas that cause you

to trust them a little deeper. Have some hard conversations

with Jesus, have some hard conversation. He knows everything in

your heart, So go ahead and have that conversation where

you look at him and you say, Jesus, I don't

they think it's fair that Pastor Clay can sing and preach.

I don't think it's fair that he has hair that

just is not turning any different colors. He hadn't swelled

up like I swelled up. God is not fair. And

then we allow the Holy Spirit to speak back to

us and say, oh yeah, he sings and preaches, but

he's not nearly as good at the preaching part as

you are. And even though he's skinny, he's not as pretty.

And could you imagine having to wash that hair every day?

Seeing it's in the midst of these conversations driving our

roots down deeper where we begin to experience new levels

of the nature of Christ, and the fruit of the

Spirit begins to grow in our branches, and we begin

to see the beauty of all that God is doing,

not in somebody else, but in us. We look at

everybody else and we compare ourselves to everybody else, and

why why? But we need to step back and see

the beauty in what God is doing in us. Because

the beauty that God is doing in us is the

thing that will impact other people's lives. So stop starting

arguments trying to stick up for Jesus. He doesn't need

you to defend him. He just needs you to live

for Him and be in relationship with Him and allow

the fruit of the Spirit to be manifest in your life. Clay,

you guys can come and get ready. So when we're

thinking about the kingdom and winning people to the kingdom,

and we have that vision of that person on a ledge.

Instead of telling them how dumb they are and how

wrong they are to be on the ledge, we start

showing them all the reasons that life off the ledge

looks so much better. That conversation is not I can't

believe you're on my ledge. I'm going to I'm going

to have you arrested for trespassing for being on my ledge.

But rather it may look more like this, Hey, why

don't you come off the ledge. I'm about to cook

some dinner. What's your favorite thing? What can I cook

for you? I just want to bless you. And you

know what, we'll just come on down from the ledge

and come and sit and we'll lead a steak together

and we'll enjoy our time together. And I've got listen,

I got this story about when I found myself on

a ledge one time, and I love to have that

conversation with you. But I can't have that conversation while

you're on the ledge because, after all, I mean, you know,

that ledge kind of scares me. So come on down

and I'll tell you what if you'll come down and

have dinner and we can just kind of talk, and

you still are convinced you need to be on the ledge.

I'll walk back up on the ledge with you, and

I'll hold your hand while you make your decision about

the ledge, and I'll be there every step of the

way with you. But I just need you to come

down so that we can have those conversations first. What

if that's the way we approach to people that are

outside the kingdom, instead of telling them how wrong they are,

begin to show them how right Jesus is. Not in

contradiction to the things they're doing wrong, because most people

know they're already doing wrong, but in a taste and

see that the Lord is good. Kind of way that

brings credibility to the words coming out of our mouth.

It empowers our witness because we look like the Jesus

we're talking about. Wow, you know what if you don't

know that Jesus we're talking about. Maybe you're here and

you don't you've never had an encounter with Christ before.

Maybe that happened a while back, and you know you've

just the world has gotten in the way and you

don't really experience Jesus the way you used to. You know,

the reality is is that he didn't just go stand

on the ledge for you. He went over. He picked

up the old rugged cross and he carried it through

those dusty streets of Jerusalem up Calvary's Hill, and he

laid his life down. Here's the crazy thing that before

they drove the nails through his hands and feet, he

looked into the future and he saw your life. He

saw all the hurt that you've caused, all the failures.

He saw all of the times you missed the mark

and you did what you didn't want to do, those

bad decisions. He saw all of that. You know, he

looked at my life and he saw even worse things

than that in my life. But he still laid down

and gave his life on cal and as they nailed

him to the cross and they swung him suspended between

earth and Heaven, he wasn't just looking at the people

around the cross that day. He was looking into the

future into this room, and he saw you, and he said,

Father God, forgive them because they don't know what they do.

What an act of love and kindness. And he did

that for you. Every eye closed, every head and bowed

for just a moment. If you're here and you want

to trust Jesus as your savior, you want to invite

him into your life for the very first time to

forgive you of your sins. Or maybe you want to

invite him back into your life after you've lived away

from him for a long time. M hm hm. If

either one of those things is you, I just want

you to slip your hand up, say that's me, Pastor.

I want to give my life to Jesus. I want

to give my life to him. I want to come

back to him. Amen. I see that hand, See that hand.

I'm gonna wait. Just maybe there's maybe there's maybe just

a couple of more people that right now, you're just

kind of kind of battling on whether to raise your

hand or not. It's okay. Just slip your hand up, Amen,

I see that hand. Is there one more if it

would say I want to I want to give my

life back to him. I want to trust him. Just

slip it up and put it right back down. We

got time, hm. Amen. Amen. Amen, every eye open, every

head looking around. Let's pray together. Father, I ask you

to work and move in the lives of every person

that raised their hand. Father, I pray that you draw

their hearts close to you. Lord.

I love you, and I thank you and Jesus' mighty

mighty name. Amen, Amen, and amen. I need three of my.

Altered team just to go stand right back there in

the corner where Bonnie is. I'm going to invite everybody

to raise their hand, to come back there and have

a conversation with you guys, so I could get three out.

You just to go back and listen. The band's gonna

sing a song in just a moment. I don't want

everybody to stand up and worship with us, not now,

but when they start singing. Or you can stand up

now if you want to, James, that's okay. But when

Pastor Clay dismisses, if you're one of those that raise

your hand, either find myself or one of these prayer

partners in the back, go to them and let them

know that you want to give your life to Christ.

And they're gonna pray a prayer with you. They're gonna

share some wisdom with you. They're gonna get you a Bible,

they're gonna do some things for you to get you

started on the right journey. But don't leave here without

stopping back there and seeing these anointing men and women.

I'm allowing them to have this the most important conversation

you'll ever have with anybody. Father, have you weigh in

these next few moments Do miracles at this place in

Jesus' name. Pastor Clayon