Living a Life of Impact: Expanding Our Ministry and Understanding Christian Faith

All right, all right, hey kids, why don't y'all go ahead and head down the hall to kids men?

Let's give it up for our kids.

Let's stay head out.

Today I'm super grateful for our kids ministry here.

You can't put into words the impact that they have on the hearts and lives of our kids.

My oldest gave his life to Christ, in large part because of the influence of the kids men team on him.

I'm just so grateful.

So my name is James.

If we haven't had the chance to meet, I get the privilege of serving as campus pastor here at this location and you know, today is largely really from start to finish, today's about vision.

It's about what is not yet, but what we believe by faith God is leading us towards, and I love that today we get to celebrate five year olds as they come into big church for the first time and go out to kids worship for the first time, praying over their futures.

I love that we get to give first graders a Bible right, believing that the word of God doesn't return void but that it will accomplish the purposes in the earth for which God puts it forth, and we're believing that's going to be true in the hearts and lives of our first graders as they get a copy of God's word and begin to read it and learn it and internalize it, understand it.

But even in the songs that we've been singing today, all things rise and bless your name, heaven and earth forever one those are, those are vision songs.

We don't see that in our world yet, but we believe by faith that we will.

But there is coming a day when heaven and earth will be forever one, when every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord.

It's vision, it's what's not yet reality, but we're believing by faith that it will be.

And I love the statement that's made about Abraham and the scripture that Romans, romans.

That says that Abraham, by faith, he believed the things that were not as if they already were.

And that's that's vision, that's what God, I believe, is calling us to in their moments where where God kind of peels back the curtain a little bit, if you will, and gives us a glimpse of what's possible, gives us a glimpse of the potential, gives us a sense of maybe even what's coming, and in some ways I think today is a little bit of that for us and there's a part for all of us in this vision.

I want to be clear on that.

And really I've got some vision news for us today.

Next Sunday, August 13th, we're actually going to make the jump from this side of campus to the other side of campus.

So when you come to church next Sunday, we're going to be worshiping in the gym on the front side of campus.

We're going to have kids ministry in the university wing on the far end of campus.

And I love this for a few reasons.

One it allows us to greatly expand our kids space.

I don't know if you've made a trip down the kids hall recently, but it seems like we've got more and more kids every single Sunday filling that hall and that's amazing.

And whether we're on this hall or in the wing we're currently using due to renovations there, there's only so far that we can expand.

Well, university Wing gives us like nine or 10 classrooms that long term we could expand into.

There's more space for check-in, just a bit more open.

It's going to be phenomenal for kids ministry.

And then, on the worship side of things you know about, six months ago we multiplied this service and added the nine o'clock and when that happened we figured we were hoping, praying, that some people from 1030 would migrate to nine, and that happened.

But what also happened was that the 1030 service didn't decrease dramatically in attendance.

It actually increased, and the nine o'clock began to increase and overall, since we added the nine o'clock service, we've seen a 20 to 25% increase in weekly worship attendance, which is phenomenal, and I love that.

You're inviting people and people are coming and they're hearing about what God is doing.

That's amazing.

It's not about just getting people in the room, it's about people encountering Jesus, and we're committed as a church to making space for people to continue to encounter Jesus.

And so when we move to the gym, what that does?

It allows us to continue to expand seating capacity as we move into the fall.

We know, you know, fall is the time when churches are supposed to grow and people are supposed to come, but we've actually seen that over the summer too, which is amazing.

We're just trying to make space for God to do what only God can do, and continue to reach people with the good news of Jesus, knowing that he is the only one who's able to bring life out of death.

So what an amazing opportunity that we get every single week, every single day, to tell the story of life from death, and as a church, that's the story that we're committed to telling.

And kids, men in worship.

And, by the way, the good news, the gym university wing that will be able to continue.

We can mold that space for as long as we are on campus at Pinewood.

So that's phenomenal, so I'm really excited about that.

As we begin our teaching time today, I just want us to pause and pray that God would allow us to do everything that he has called us to do, that we wouldn't miss a thing that God has in store for us, that our hearts would be in line with his heart and that our hearts collectively would be united together in the mission God has called us to.

So let's just bow for a moment and pray that God would bless our efforts over the weeks and months ahead for his glory.

Father, you're so good and you're faithful.

Father, we believe today that you are the God of immeasurably more.

Your vision for us, for our lives personally, for us as a church collectively, your vision for what you want to do in the earth, father, it is far greater than anything that we could put into words, and so today we're grateful just to play a part in your story.

But, father, we also want to say to you that we are available for whatever you have in store for us.

We don't want to waste a moment of the opportunity that you've given us.

So, god's strength in us, unite us, bind us together, keep us focused and fixed on the cross of Jesus and Father, may this be a place for years into the future where people can come and hear your story, hear your grace, hear the story of your mercy be transformed and then, father, be sent out on mission into the earth.

God, we love you, we thank you.

We pray that by the power of your word, through your spirit, this morning, god, you would be at work in Jesus' name, amen.

So we're going to be in Colossians, chapter four.

Today we're continuing a series that we've called the Path.

I'm super grateful for Taylor for speaking last week Did a phenomenal job of reminding us that, because of what Jesus is and because of what Jesus has done, we're made different.

And today we're going to see some really practical encouragement from Paul, some further instruction, if you will, for what this different kind of life looks like, lived out as we go about our daily lives, and then in a moment, at the end of our time together, we're going to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus, remember his death in our place and take the Lord's supper together.

But before we get there, I want to talk for a moment about the idea of impact.

When you think about impact, what is it that comes to mind?

Maybe it's the line in every good movie there's 10 seconds to impact.

It's in every good movie, every good movie, at least in my thought process 10 seconds to impact, or I don't know.

There's levels to impact.

When you talk about things that impact your life, there's levels to that.

This past week, for the first time, I had something called Ollipop.

I know what Ollipop is.

Nobody people.

Oh, there we go, we got a couple.

Fantastic Ollipop is like soda.

That's not soda.

So if soda makes you too crazy, you need some Ollipop.

It's made from plants, it's vegan, it's all natural, it's low sugar.

But they have a root beer version Ollipop and I love root beer, but Tara doesn't let me drink it, but she lets me have Ollipop and I love Ollipop.

It has impacted.

Y'all don't even care, y'all don't see it.

That's the point.

Right, there's levels to impact.

Right, ollipop has impacted my life, but ain't many of y'all gonna walk out of here today and go.

I need that vegan soda he was talking about today.

You know what I'm saying.

That's just not a massive impact, but it was to me because I like root beer.

On the other hand, there's impact, like Steph Curry in the NBA.

He has changed the game of basketball.

Every eight-year-old basketball superstar in the making wants to pull up and shoot threes in transition.

I would have gotten benched in high school for doing the same thing, and now that's what everybody does because Steph Curry changed the game of basketball.

If you don't know basketball, you don't care about that.

All right, let's try something else.

Steve Jobs Think about Steve Jobs, talk about impact, steve Jobs.

He and was in the garage, made the Mac and then one of them left and Jobs hung around and what did he do?

He made the iPhone.

And think about the impact that the iPhone has had on the world.

How much of what we do on a daily basis would not exist without Steve Jobs and the iPhone.

I'm not saying if it's good or bad, I'm just saying it is.

But here's the thing there's going to come a day when someone is going to make something that makes us all put aside the iPhone and eventually the iPhone will be the thing in the glass case, the museum, and we'll talk about it and we'll say, hey, remember when that was the pinnacle and the paragon of technology, and look how far we've come, right, like there's going to be a greater technological impacts in the future.

But then there are some moments and people and times and places that impact not just one time, but all times.

I was reading on Google this week a Googled list of most impactful people in history, and I came to some like CEO focus website or something like that, and had a list of the top 100 people who have impacted not just their time but all time.

And I've got great news for you today.

Jesus was on the list.

He was number three and number one was Plato, number two was Aristotle and then it was Jesus of Nazareth and I was, like you know, maybe a little out of order there, I just just not my opinion, but but he made the list, he made the list and and that's the reality of it all Like their levels to impact, like think about Jesus for a moment Like there's not.

Regardless of what CEO focuscom says, there is no one who has impacted time and history and eternity more than the person of Jesus Christ.

And what's beautiful is that Jesus invites us to live lives of impact as well, and the impact that he calls us to have is less ollie pop in your refrigerator and it's much more transcending time and space and eternity, like you're invited to have an impact that can last forever.

That's vision, that's God wants us to see what's possible and believe by faith that, even when we can't see it, that that's what's coming and that that's what's happening, there's impact beyond what we can see.

So today we're not talking about 10 seconds to impact, this is three words to impact.

How do we live a life of impact?

Three words to impact.

We're gonna read Colossians three, two through six.

This is what Paul says.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it, with thanksgiving At the same time.

Pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with sauce that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Three words to impact.

Now the assumption of Paul in Colossians four is that we've been tracing and following his argument up to this point, and so I just wanna remind you really quickly what he's told us already is that Jesus is the central figure of history.

It's all about him.

Whether we know it or agree with it or not, it is all about Jesus, and one day everybody and everyone will know that and see that, and we're invited to get on board with that now and to place faith in Jesus to find our position in Christ.

Paul says when that happens, not only are you now in Christ, you're also in a new type of community.

You've been given a new family, and Taylor last week told us what that family is to look like.

It's to be a family of God's chosen ones holy, beloved, compassionate, kind, humble, meek and patient.

So watch this now.

Because of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, we belong to him, and collectively we are in a new type of community that begins to take on and embody the characteristics of Jesus to the world Translation.

We're united together by the person and work of Jesus.

We stand back to back, shoulder to shoulder, united in a common purpose in the earth, and so that's the backdrop to what Paul says here as he begins to talk about the impact that's possible.

For us, the assumption is hey, the body of Christ is gonna be unified in this mission and calling to the glory of God.

And so what are the three words to impact?

Well, the first word to impact is pray.

If we wanna live a life of impact, we, as the people of God, we've got to pray.

Well, james, how do we pray?

Well, paul says we pray consistently, continue steadfastly in prayer.

The word picture of steadfastness here it's like a cliff that stands tall above the waves of the storm, and you just picture the waves battering the cliff and the storms beating on the cliff.

And yet, through it all, the cliff stands tall, anchored, firm, steadfast.

Paul says that's how we pray.

We continue consistently, steadfastly, anchoring our lives in prayer.

And we also, we wanna pray with our eyes wide open.

Right, some of y'all need to pray with your eyes open when you're driving down 26.

Cause it's like sometimes people are praying with their eyes shut driving down 26.

We gotta pray with our eyes open.

Paul says be alert, be watchful in prayer.

And there's two ways that he's using the idea of watchfulness.

One is to say, hey, jesus is coming back, and so we keep our eyes fixed on that moment in time when Jesus will return.

Like we know this is going somewhere right, like this life is not all there is, and so we're not gonna let the mundane routine suck us into the trap of just existing on this planet, because we know that Jesus is coming.

So we're gonna be watchful in our prayers, focused on eternity, even in the midst of the temporary.

But the second way that Paul uses this word watchful is it's actually a reference back to the night before Jesus is crucifixion.

Go with me for a moment to just think back to that scene.

Upper room they leave the upper room, they travel to the Garden of Gethsemane.

When they get there, jesus takes three Peter, james and John and goes into the garden and he tells the three.

He says hey, y'all.

He probably didn't say y'all, but he would have said hey guys, there's something to that effect.

He's like hey, I want y'all to be here and keep watch while I go ahead.

Y'all stay here, keep watching, pray, I'm gonna go ahead and talk to God, right?

And so the disciples, the three.

They sit down and what do they do?

Well, they've just had a meal and it's dark outside.

So they do what we all would have done.

When it's dark and we've just eaten, they go to sleep, and by the time they wake up, the crowd the group has come into the garden to take Jesus away to be crucified, and Peter's grabbing for a sword.

They've been the opposite of watchful and alert.

Life has happened to them and it has passed them by while they slept.

And so what Paul is saying here is that in our prayers, we want to be aware of the world around us.

We want to know the times in which we live.

We want to know the circumstances and the people that surround us.

We wanna know the situations that people are walking through.

We wanna know what's going on in our heart so that we can pray specifically with regards to what's happening around us.

We wanna know how to pray for the world in which we live.

It's watchfulness in prayer.

But then there's a third way that we pray.

Paul says we also want to pray with thanksgiving, with gratitude in our heart, and the root word of thanksgiving in the original language is actually grace.

So we pray consistently within awareness of what God is doing and also the constant reminder in our hearts that we have received God's grace and it's an invitation into a new way of life because of what Jesus has done.

So that's how we pray.

But what do we pray for?

Paul says, at the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on which I am in prison, on the count of which I am in prison.

So Paul says this is how you pray consistently, watchfully, with eyes wide open, with gratitude in your heart.

And what you're praying for, as the body of Christ, is opportunity for the word of God to echo from your lives.

Again, we're united together.

We're on the same team, we're on the same mission, and the mission is that the Word of God has to echo out from who we are and what we do.

Paul says pray for opportunity for the door to open, for the Word of God to ring out from our lives.

I love that, like the world should hear of Jesus when the church goes outside the walls, and I love what Paul says.

He says I'm in prison for doing exactly what I'm inviting you to do Now.

Another flashback real fast, real fast.

Jesus tells his disciples to pray one time, more than one time, I'm sure, but one time in particular he says hey guys, I want y'all to know that the fields are white for harvest, and so what you need to pray is you need to pray earnestly, like, if you want to pray with intensity about something, pray about this, pray earnestly that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers into the field.

And so I can imagine, like Peter probably like grabbed the rest of the disciples.

He's like hey guys, join hands, we've got to pray right now that God would send laborers into the field.

And they huddle up and they're praying earnestly that God would send people to harvest the ready recipients of the Word of God.

Right, just imagine.

And then the chapter ends and the next chapter begins.

But here's what's interesting when the Bible was written down originally, there were not chapters and verses, so it was just one story.

And the next chapter begins with Jesus looking at his disciples and saying all right, guys, y'all are going out to be the laborers of the harvest, so watch this.

He tells the disciples I want you to pray earnestly that God would send people out.

And the disciples like okay, we can do that.

And then, as soon as they pray, they say amen.

And Jesus is like all right that prayer.

Y'all just prayed for God to send laborers into the harvest.

Y'all are the laborers.

And then he sends them out to reach people with the good news of Jesus.

Which leads us to our second word.

Our second word is walk.

We want to pray for opportunities, for impact.

We want to pray that God would send laborers into the harvest.

But then we have to understand the second.

We walk out the doors.

We are the laborers that God is sending into the world.

Paul says walk in wisdom toward outsiders.

So be aware that here on the inside we're united together in the family of God.

We come together to worship God and to be encouraged and equipped so that when we walk out the doors, we walk out with a shared mission, a shared calling, a shared purpose, a shared sense of.

I'm called to this community to make an impact for the glory of God and we know that every single day we're going to encounter people who are outside of the faith.

And Paul says when you walk, walk in wisdom, making the best use of the time.

We're not just here to work a nine to five until we get enough in the bank to retire and cruise on into the end.

We're here every single day to make the best use of the time, to walk in wisdom, aware that there is a world outside these walls, that every single time we step into the world we encounter people who need to hear that there is a God in heaven who loves them.

There is a chance for them to move from death to life.

In the name of Jesus, we walk in wisdom.

I love that, but it doesn't stop there either, because the third word is speak.

We want to pray, we want to walk, we want to speak.

And this is really the word that freaks a lot of people out, because it's like I'd rather just walk and not talk.

You know I have trouble doing two things at once.

Right, can I just walk?

And then maybe people will notice.

Paul says no, at some point in time you got to speak.

At some point in time we've all got to open our mouths and speak.

How?

How do we speak?

Well, we speak with graciousness.

Paul says or kindness, compassion, mercy.

My mom used to always say it like this we can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

This is what Paul says.

He wants us to speak, not from the old self, but to speak from the new self, to let the work and person of Jesus change the words that we say, so that our speech becomes gracious.

And then Paul says how do we speak?

We speak in a way that's seasoned with salt.

What does that mean?

All right.

So, tara, when she was growing up, her family loved salt.

And I say like love salt, like to the point they all had individual salt shakers at their places at the table, like they love.

That's true story.

They love salt.

And so when we got married, tara would just salt everything, Like it didn't matter what it was, how salty it already was, it ain't got enough salt, let's just salt it some more.

So we had to have some conversations about this in our marriage, because I would grill a steak right, and I think, come off the grill, put it on Tara's plate, reach for the salt and the little bit of chef heart I have inside of me would die on the inside.

You don't need that.

I already seasoned it, you know.

But it was the thing like everything had to be salted and y'all that's what Paul's saying Put some salt in every single sentence.

What does salt do In Paul's day?

Salt preserves, salt purifies.

Salt was used medicinally for healing purposes, to help heal wounds.

Salt adds flavor, and what Paul is telling us here is that when we speak with kindness and compassion and grace, when we allow the truth of who God is and what God has done to come through in the words that we say, it's like salt in a world devoid of taste.

Our speech has a way of pointing people towards hope.

Our speech is supposed to have a way of bringing kindness in the midst of anger.

Paul says speak in such a way so that you get the chance to bring peace in the midst of chaos and conflict.

Get the truth of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done Be present and evident in every conversation.

To put it really simply, we want to be quick and be confident to speak the name of Jesus.

Now, james, you don't know where I work.

James, you don't know what the life I live is like on a daily, weekly basis.

I don't know.

We want to be quick and be confident in every circumstance, in every place, around every group of people, to say the name of Jesus, and not just say the name of Jesus, but to tell the story of what he's done in our hearts.

Let your speech be seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person, y'all.

I'll be honest.

I'm praying that God would give you personally you a chance to talk about Jesus this week and some of you right now.

You know the conversation in which you need to talk about Jesus.

You're like I know I got their face in my mind right now.

When I talk to that person on Tuesday afternoon, jesus needs to come up.

Yes, he does Pray, walk and, when the moment comes, speak the name of Jesus.

Three words to impact, it's like, but I thought I thought impact meant that I had to be at like, the top of my field, and that's how we think about impact.

A lot right, like whatever career field we're in, and you know it's like whoever's at the top, like those are the impactful people.

Now, impact comes as we consistently live our faith day in and day out, pray, walking, speaking, because the greatest moment of impact in the history of the world has already happened and our three words of impact are possible because of three words spoken by Jesus.

As you see, the day that Jesus hung on the cross and was crucified, his blood was pouring out.

As he knew that his body was close to giving out, he looked out at the very people who hung him on the cross, and he spoke three words, and his three words in that moment were it is finished.

It is finished.

And because of those three words, we have confidence today in Jesus Christ, knowing that our sin that separates us from God it's finished.

Shame is finished, guilt is finished, lack of purpose is finished, the plans of the enemy, ultimately they are finished.

Jesus has won, he has done the work, guilt is finished, and that is our foundation.

We stand today on the finished work of Jesus Christ and we pray to the Lord of heaven and earth and we walk every single day in the name of Jesus Christ, knowing that everything that we need to be right with God was accomplished for us on the cross.

And we speak the name of Jesus with confidence.

Because it is finished Didn't mean Jesus was finished.

Three days later he walked out of a tomb and death was finished.

Talk about vision.

Y'all we know where this story is going and it ends at the resurrected son of God.

It's finished.

And so today, as we enter into a time of remembering the sacrifice of Jesus in our place, those three words need to be the echo in our hearts it is finished, everything that separates us from God is finished, the curtain and the temple it tore into from top to bottom, barriers removed.

Access to the presence of God is available to every single one of us through the body and the blood of Jesus Christ.

So right now, in this moment, if you don't know Jesus as Savior, I want to invite you to place your faith in the finished work of Jesus and to write where you are today say Jesus, I turn for my sin and I give you my life.

That'll be the start of a conversation that lasts the rest of your days.

But I wanted to make sure we said that now, because we're about to take the Lord's Supper together, and this is symbolic the body and the blood.

It's symbolic of Jesus' death in our place.

It's a reminder that because of his sacrifice, we have life, and it's a focus fixer, if you will, on the coming back of Jesus to this earth.

And so if you're a follower of Jesus, whether you've been following him for 50 years or whether you just prayed to give your life to Jesus, you're invited to share in the Lord's Supper with us.

We've got some men that are going to come forward, our deacons and help us serve, but as they come.

I just want, I want us to take a moment and I want us to pray Paul in Corinthians.

He reminds us that before we take the Lord's Supper together, we've got to do some reflection on the inside.

Jesus has done the work.

The barriers are removed, but sometimes we build back what Jesus tore down.

We put our own barriers up between us and God.

So I just want us to take a moment now and examine our own hearts.

There's anything we need to lay before the feet of Jesus, repent of in this moment.

This is a moment for us to say to God.

God, purify our hearts.

God, help us to remember again the finished work of Jesus.

Help us to unite our hearts together with yours and with one another as your body.

So right now we are, let's just pause and pray.

Father, we're not perfect people.

We fall short every single day.

We say things we shouldn't say.

We do things we shouldn't do.

We think thoughts we shouldn't think.

We confess that in this moment.

Father, we're so grateful today that the declaration over our sin is.

It is finished.

So, father, today we pray that you would bring our hearts in alignment with your heart, our lives in alignment with your purpose for us Father.

As we pause for the Lord's supper together, may we remember Jesus.

We love you.

We thank you in Jesus' name Amen.

Amen.

You have a way of making my past make sense.

You have a way of redeeming all that is broken.

You have a way of making me whole again.

It's just steadfast love, it's your faithfulness.

You made a way to save this hell bound world.

You made a way to purify our sinfulness.

You made a way to reconcile the lost.

Through your steadfast love, through your faithfulness, to the ends of year I will carry your name.

I've been my will to be about.

Down at your feet, to the ends of the earth I will shout out your name Jesus, jesus, you are the Lord.

Jesus, jesus, you are the Lord.

Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus you are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

you are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord Jesus Jesus.

You are the Lord.

Jesus, jesus, you are the Lord.

You're the truth and the life.

You are seated at the right end of the Father, you are the Word and you are there from the start In your glory, lord, full of grace and truth.

You took on flesh and you taught us your ways.

You grew in wisdom and in stature For the glory of God.

You took the nails and you conquered the grave.

All the glory, lord, is forever Yours.

To the ends of the earth, I will carry your name.

I bend my will to Thee, I bow down at your feet.

To the ends of the earth, I will shout out your name Jesus, jesus, you are the Lord.

Oh, jesus, jesus, you are the Lord.

You are the Lord.

You're seated on high.

You have the highest name.

Yes, you do.

There's no other name like Yours Jesus.

There's no other God like you.

You give your highest praise.

In your highly.

Hallelujah, sing in alle Hallelujah, sing in alle Hallelujah.

We need you for.

You, we need you, for you Amen.

He took the cup and he said this cup represents the new covenant Inaugurated in my blood.

Jesus said Every time you drink of this cup, remember my blood poured out For the forgiveness of your sins and the remembrance of me.

So as we close our time together this morning, we're going to sing the chorus of this new song as a response to what God has done To the ends of the earth.

God, we will carry your name.

We're going to bend our wills to your will.

It's what you want because you are the Lord.

It's all about you.

So, as we stand and sing this morning, this is a moment for you to respond.

The altar is open if you want to join the church.

If you say it.

Today I gave my life to Jesus For the first time.

Let's stand and sing and respond together.