How to Be a World Changer

I want to talk to you in this time we have together about how to be a world changer.

How many of you think our world needs some changing right now?

Yeah, I do too.

And I'll tell you what, the only way this world is going to change is one person at a time.

And the only thing that can bring about lasting change is the gospel of Jesus Christ, where people commit their lives to the Lord.

But I want to focus on a person that changed his world and see if we can learn about how we can change ours.

But why don't we start with a word of prayer?

Let's all pray, Father.

Thank you for this time to gather together and worship and open your word.

Lord, our world needs changing.

It's upside down.

And you want to turn it right side up.

And there needs to be radical spiritual transformation.

And we pray that you use us to help others to find it.

But Lord, if we want to change our world, we have to change first.

Help us to be godly men and women.

Help us to understand what that means as we open your word.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Okay, how many of you brought your Bibles to church?

Let me see your Bibles.

That's good.

I like that.

Open that Bible, sir.

Why do you have a Hello Kitty Bible?

I don't understand.

No, I have one too.

I digress.

Uh, turning your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

The title of my message is How to Be a World Changer.

Quick poll.

How many of you like to run?

You like to run?

Raise your hand up.

Okay, this isn't the athletic service, is it?

Um, let me ask another question.

How many of you like to eat?

Raise your hand.

Okay, I gotcha.

All right.

Well, listen, I'm with you guys.

By the way, one of my favorite restaurants on the face of the earth is here in Texas.

I'm talking about babe's fried chicken.

Okay, that love babes.

It's a it's a serious problem.

Uh, last time I did Harvest America here, I literally gained about six pounds of babes.

The chicken, the biscuits, the mashed potatoes.

I'm so hungry right now, aren't you?

Okay, so I don't like to run at all.

I used to be quite a runner when I was a young man, but I've traded running for walking.

So I think walking is better for me.

And sometimes my wife and I will go on a walk and she wants me to be in better shape.

And so she'll say, Let's run to the end of the block.

And I'll say, No, I don't want to.

Just to the end of the block.

And I know it's a trick because I get to the end of the block.

Now she wants to run to another block.

And and I, everything's fine when I'm walking.

It feels good.

The moment I start to run, I go from relative happiness to pure misery, right?

So, and I talk to runners and they get back from a run.

They say, That was a great run.

Really felt the endorphins released.

I've never felt a single endorphin released exercising.

The only endorphin release I know of is when I'm eating, right?

So, well, I bring that up because you know, this is a metaphor that the Bible uses to talk about our relationship with God.

Yes, it talks about running a race, but it also talks about walking a walk.

Sometimes after my walk with my wife, so say, I'm gonna go take a walk with my girlfriends.

And I'll say, Why don't you just call it what it is?

It's a talk.

Because they'll be gone for three hours.

That's not a walk, that's a talk.

And I've discovered girls like to talk more than guys do.

And they talk in a completely different way.

You know, two guys are together, one will say, Hey, how's it going?

The other guy say, Pretty good, how's it going with you?

All right.

Girls, eight of them can be having eight conversations simultaneously, and somehow they understand one another, and guys are mystified, like what's happening right now.

But in a way, the way Kathy takes a walk is really the best description of what it means to walk with God.

Because in that walk with God, it's a talk, it's a communication.

The father speaks to me, I speak to him.

You know, to walk with someone means that we walk through life with them, to know them, understand them.

It's rare to find someone you can walk through life with.

It's even more rare to find someone who actually walks with God.

But here's a man who is singled out as one who walked with God.

His name was Enoch.

A lot of us don't even know anything about him, but he's in the hall of faith.

That's Hebrews 11.

The hall of faith.

It's sort of the great heroes, men and women from the Old Testament that made a mark on their world for God, world changers, if you will.

And among those world changers and the great hall of faith is Enoch.

There's not a lot of verses about him, but the ones that are there are interesting.

Hebrews 11, 5 says, It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying.

He disappeared because God took him.

Before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God, for it's impossible to please God without faith.

Anyone who comes to God must believe that God exists and rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Really important statement there.

It's impossible to please God without faith.

What is faith?

We throw the word around a lot.

I have a lot of faith.

Have more faith.

Just have faith.

Okay, what does that mean?

It's defined right here for us.

Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.

It's the evidence of things we cannot yet see.

Faith sees invisible things.

Oswald Chambers, best known for his devotional My Utmost for His Highest, to find faith as follows quote: Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen, end quote.

Listen, there wouldn't be a gateway church if it wasn't for the faith of Pastor Robert.

They took steps of faith.

You guys know all about that here.

There wouldn't be a harvest America if we didn't take a step of faith.

But faith is not something we should just talk about or keep in a display case and admire.

It's something we need to use.

You know, it's a lot like four-wheel drive trucks.

People are trick them out, spend a lot of money on them.

You'll say, Man, that thing is so cool.

It's all jacked up, big giant wheels.

You have all the accessories.

You must do a lot of four-wheeling.

The guy says, Are you kidding?

I'm not taking that thing out on the dirt.

I just drive from car wash to car wash, right?

Just admire it.

That's how a lot of Christians are with faith.

We talk about it, but do we use it?

Faith is like a muscle.

It gets stronger with use and it atrophies if you don't use it because faith does things.

And listen to this faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening.

Isn't it interesting that verse that says Jesus would do no mighty works in his hometown because of unbelief?

Could Jesus have done a miracle there in Nazareth had he chosen to?

Of course.

But he didn't do it.

Why?

There was no faith.

So this is about the faith of a man.

And how did he demonstrate that faith?

Point number one, if you're taking notes, Enoch walked with God.

It doesn't say Enoch sprinted with God.

That's how some people are.

They have sort of a burst of energy, they're all fired up about following Jesus, but then they fall and they crash and they burn and they get up again a few months later and run a little longer and fall again and get up.

You know, walking speaks of consistency.

It means making progress.

And he walked with God for a long time.

In fact, he walked with God for 300 years.

And you know how that's hard for us as Americans because we like everything fast and convenient.

We don't want to wait for anything.

What's a shortcut on spiritual growth?

I mean, look at the way we processed music.

A long time ago, uh, when we were kids, I'm talking about my generation, we listened to our favorite artist when they brought out their new album.

Right?

It was an album, it was large, right?

And we'd read the lyrics and look at the art and listen to it and play it till we wore the grooves out.

Then new cutting-edge technology came along, something called eight-tracks.

Put the eight-track in.

It was so amazing.

You don't have an album, now you have an eight-track, and then we move from eight-tracks to cassettes.

Even more amazing.

It's a little thing called a cassette.

And then we move from cassettes to CDs.

Now it's all burned into the CD.

And now, well, now we just download it.

But now the funny thing is, what's making it come back?

Vinyl.

People are buying churn tables again, they're buying vinyl records again because there's a certain quality and sound to a vinyl recording you can't get in an MP3 or a download or even a CD.

And that's sort of an insight into the spiritual life.

It takes time.

And some things are best over a period of time.

And I have discovered the secret, if you will, of walking with God and knowing God.

And it basically comes down to this it's being consistent.

Listen, here's a no-brainer thought.

You cannot walk with God if you don't take time every day to read the Word of God.

You cannot walk with God if you don't have a prayer life.

You can't effectively walk with God if you're not a vibrant, active part of your church.

Here's one definition of it: it's long obedience in the same direction.

Don't be looking for that big emotional experience.

Don't be looking for that one sermon that's going to change everything.

Look for that consistency day by day, month by month, year by year.

It says, of the blessed man of someone, he continues in the word of God day and night, and in it he meditates.

Enoch walked with God.

But what does that even mean?

There's a verse that gives us insight.

It's over in Amos chapter 3, verse 3.

Amos 3:3

It says, Can two walk together unless they be agreed?

Can two walk together unless they be agreed?

And that word agreed can be translated multiple ways.

One way you can translate it is, can two walk together unless they are in harmony?

In harmony together.

And so the idea is it's we are trying to stay in sync with God.

By the way, that's a secret to answer prayer.

The objective of prayer is not to get God to do what I want him to do.

The objective of prayer is to find the will of God and walk in it and pray accordingly.

If I'm in my little boat and I go to the dock and I throw my rope, I'm not pulling the dock to the boat, I'm pulling the boat to the dock.

And when I pray, I'm not trying to wrangle God over here, do what I want.

God knows I want to find out what he wants.

And here's what you'll discover after walking with the Lord for a while.

His will is better than your will.

His plans are better than even your plans.

So it's getting in sync with God, getting in harmony with God.

Years ago I went scuba diving.

Do we have any scuba divers here?

Uh well, quite a few.

All right.

So you don't run, you scuba dive, is that it?

All right.

So I was I went down to the lowest depth I'd ever been to, a hundred feet.

It was in Hawaii off of an island called Molokini.

And so our instructor went down with us and he said, now don't use up all your air.

Pace yourself.

And so as we were descending to 100 feet, and by the way, when you're down a hundred feet, you can't just go straight to the top.

You have to go up slowly, right?

You have to be very careful.

And so I got to the bottom, and my friend who was diving with me said, I've never seen so many bubbles come out of a regulator in my life.

I was breathing all my air.

I think I was a little nervous.

By the time I got to the bottom, I looked at my gauge, I was almost completely out of air.

I'm a hundred feet down.

I look over at my instructor, and I gave the universal sign of air is gone.

And he, I think I saw him roll his eyes behind his mask.

It looked like, what an idiot, you know.

And he pointed like this, and he had told us ahead of time if you lose oxygen, you need air, breathe off my octopus.

Not a literal octopus, but an extra regulator on a short hose on the back of his tank.

He had two tanks, actually.

So I oh, I had to swim over and take my regulator out, put this one in.

The problem is that hose was so short, wherever he went, I had to stay very close to him.

So he would go down a few feet and I'm just above, just kind of like this.

It was sort of an exercise exercise of being completely humiliated.

But I'll tell you what, I stayed in sync with my instructor because if I didn't, I would drown.

That's what we are to do when we walk with God.

We stay in sync with God.

It's interesting.

Another way to translate how can two walk together unless they be agreed is to keep your appointment.

To keep your appointment with God.

You know, some people are late for everything.

Are you one of those people?

Here's the problem: the people who are late don't know that the person who's late.

So let me help you out a little bit in case you're wondering if you're one of those late people.

You know you're one of those late people when you text, I'm five minutes away, and you're sitting in your sweats on your sofa.

Right?

You're one of those late people when your friends give you a different time than everyone else.

They say, Oh, you need to be there at eight o'clock, when really the time is 8:30.

You know you're one of those late people.

If you arrive on time, your friends say, What are you doing here?

Listen, God has wants to have an appointment with you each and every day.

And we can start the day by opening his word and waiting upon him.

And I think that's something that we need to remember.

Can two walk together unless they have agreed?

So Enoch walked with God.

Number two, Enoch was a witness for God.

Look at Hebrews 11 5.

Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God.

Did you know that every Christian has a testimony?

It's not a matter if you have one or not, it's a matter of if you have a good one or a poor one.

But you have one.

What is a testimony?

It's your story, it's how people view you, it's what people think about you.

And by the way, your testimony is one of the most effective tools in your evangelistic toolbox.

And by that I mean one of the best ways to get an evangelistic conversation started is to talk about what Christ has done for you.

If you start preaching that a person, many times they'll tune you out.

But if you say, let me tell you a little bit about what happened to me, how I used to think, who I used to be.

And everybody has a testimony.

And when you give your testimony, just remember this the objective is to give glory to God, not to you.

Don't talk about how much you gave up to follow God.

Talk about how much Christ gave up to save you.

Because I've heard some testimonies and they'll say, Oh, I gave up so much.

I I had all this money and this fame and the drugs and the booze and everything.

And then I then all of a sudden they say, and I gave it up to follow Jesus.

All of a sudden they even sound weird, you know.

Now I just carry the old rugged cross.

And I go to church and I sleep and I eat and I go to sleep again.

While your life sounds like a drag, you're not giving your testimony right.

Don't glorify the past, glorify what God has done in your life.

It's not about what you gave up.

You gave up nothing, you gave up garbage to follow Jesus.

You gave up sin.

Frankly, you gave up a future in hell.

You gave up nothing.

But Enoch had a testimony.

You know, it's really important to earn the right to share the gospel by the way that you live.

And one of the greatest compliments a non-believer can pay to a believer is when they come up to you and say, There's something different about you.

What is it?

I just uh did a film called uh Steve McQueen, American Icon.

And I wrote a book called uh Steve McQueen, The Salvation of an American Icon.

And it's a project they did that that's about the conversion of actor Steve McQueen.

Many people don't know the story of McQueen, and that's another story for another time.

But one thing that really fascinated me is McQueen was at the top of his game.

Number one movie star in the world, globally famous, had more money than he could spend in a lifetime, and McQueen literally walked away from Hollywood and disconnected and moved to a little town in California called Santa Paula, and he just sort of wanted to disconnect.

He had had it, he was sick of it all.

And uh one thing he wanted to do was learn how to fly.

So he bought an old stearm biplane, sort of an antique plane, and there was only one guy qualified to teach him how to fly, and that man's name was Sammy Mason.

And Sammy was a former stunt pilot, a real man's man, salt of the earth kind of guy.

And he wasn't impressed with Steve McQueen because he was a famous actor.

So as they spent hours in that cockpit, Steve saw something in Sammy that fascinated him.

It talked a lot about life and the meaning of it.

And one day Steve said to Sammy, what is it that makes you different?

And Sammy said, Steve, it's my relationship with Jesus Christ.

And Steve actually said to Sammy, Can I go to church with you sometime?

Sammy said, Sure.

Next Sunday, Steve McQueen was in church.

A few weeks later, Steve had prayed and accepted Christ, and his life began to radically change.

See, Sammy earned the right to share the gospel.

So having said that, it's not enough to just be a good example.

You need to engage people.

Jesus did not say, go into all the world and be a great example.

Not that we should be a bad one.

But what did he say?

Go into all the world and do what?

You know, preach the gospel.

So there's a place for verbal articulation unless the Bible has changed since I read it last.

And I don't think it has.

The primary way that God reaches non-believers is through verbal communication.

The Bible says, how will they hear unless someone tells them?

So, yes, we earn the right by the way that we live to share our faith, but then when that door opens up, we walk through that door and say, Let me tell you about how you can accept Christ in your life.

Listen to this.

Every Christian should be able to articulate their faith in three minutes or less.

Can you do that?

If you're in a plane, God forbid, that was going down in flames or an engine was gone or something like that.

That's happened recently, of course.

Would you be able in three minutes or less to articulate your faith to people around you?

I hope I say, Well, I don't think I can do it.

Let me help you.

It's real simple.

We're sinners separated from God by our sin.

There's nothing we can do to satisfy God's righteous demands.

We fall short, but God loved us so much 2,000 years ago.

He sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross in our place.

He came to pay a debt he did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay.

Christ rose again from the dead.

If we'll turn from our sin and believe in him, we can be forgiven.

He'll fill that big hole in our heart and give us the absolute assurance that we'll go to heaven when we die.

That's the gospel in a nutshell.

You can do that, I can do that.

And together we must do that.

Enoch was a witness.

So Enoch walked with God.

Enoch was a witness for God.

And finally, Enoch went to be with God.

He went to be with God.

Look at verse 5 of Hebrews 11.

By faith, Enoch was taken away.

So he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him.

Over in Genesis 5.24, it says, Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him.

And that phrase, God took him, could be translated, carried over or carried across.

For most people, we die.

I heard about a person that was in a cemetery and they saw these words on a tombstone.

Pause now, stranger, as you pass by.

As you are now, so once was I.

As you are now, or as I am now, so you will be.

So prepare for death and follow me.

And the person reading it said out loud, To follow you is not my intent until I know which way you went, right?

So the statistics on death are quite impressive.

One out of every one person will die.

But guess who the exception was?

Enoch.

He didn't die.

He went straight to heaven.

The Lord took him.

Amazing thing.

And I think because he walked with God, it wasn't an interruption.

He was walking with God one day and waking with God the next.

And because he had this relationship with the Lord where he was a heavenly minded kind of guy, it was the easiest thing to do.

And you know, one day life for us is going to end and we're gonna go to the other side.

If we have our faith in Christ, we don't have to be afraid of that day.

Doesn't mean we walk around saying, I hope I die today.

What it does mean is if I die today, I know that I'll go to heaven.

And if the Lord comes back for me, I know that I'm ready to go to heaven.

And it really comes down to this: we want to be ready, but we don't want to just think about ourselves.

We want to take as many people with us to heaven as possible.

Don't go to heaven alone.

And we all know people that are not Christians moms and dads, grandparents, sons and daughters, brothers, sisters, other family members, co-workers, neighbors, people that don't know the Lord.

Here's my question: When's the last time you engaged them in an evangelistic conversation where you talked with them and sort of built that bridge?

And that's the thing, when you're sharing your faith, the objective is to build a bridge, not burn a bridge.

It's not to win the argument, it's to win the soul.

I think sometimes Christians go out with their gospel guns loaded, you know.

And they get into a conversation and you win the argument.

I blew him out of the water.

That is not the objective.

Listen to this.

If you want to win some, be win some.

Let me say it another way.

Be a nice person.

Be a friendly person.

Be a caring person.

People can tell.

And then use that opportunity to build that bridge and start that conversation.

Because I have to tell you, folks, one of the greatest joys I know next to being a Christian myself is having some role in somebody else coming to Jesus Christ.

Heaven breaks out in applause every time a non-believer repents of their sin.

Jesus said there's joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance.

Well, I'd like to just say something in closing.

There might be some of you here who have joined us, and most of you have.

Preachers always say that.

Some of you have joined us, of course, I'm here.

I'm listening to you.

I've joined you.

But I wonder if you're sure that Christ is living inside of you.

I've been talking about a man who walked with God.

I'm talking about a man who went to be with God.

And do you have the absolute confidence right now that if this were your last day on planet earth that you would go to heaven?

You say, Well, we can't know these things.

Oh, actually, we can.

In fact, we must.

How do we know it?

Well, we have Christ living inside of us.

The Bible says, For as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons of God.

We already heard that verse today.

But here's the thing you must ask Christ to come into your life.

Do you know he's living inside of you?

Now, some of you might say, Well, I think so.

You know, if someone just moved into your house two days ago, do you think you'd be aware of it?

You know, unwashed dishes, things moved around.

I'm not suggesting Jesus is like that.

I'm just trying to make a point.

If someone moved into your house, you would be aware someone's living in your house.

Even more, if the creator of the universe has taken residence in your heart, I think you'll know it.

And if you don't know it, maybe he hasn't yet.

And maybe you would like him to.

So I'd like to give you an opportunity before this service is over to know that Christ is living in you.

I want to give you an opportunity to know with certainty that your sin is forgiven.

I want to give you an opportunity to know that you will go to heaven when you die.

If you don't have that assurance, if you're not sure if your life is right with God, if you don't know if your sin is forgiven, I'm going to give you an opportunity to make that commitment to Jesus right here, right now.

Let's all bow our heads.

Father, thank you now for everyone that is here.

Everyone that is watching, wherever they may be.

And Lord, we know you love them with an everlasting love.

You sent Jesus to die on the cross for their sin and to rise from the dead.

And now he stands at the door of each heart and he knots and says, If we'll hear your voice and open the door, he'll come in.

And now I pray for those here, those that are watching, wherever whatever campus they're on, if they're watching online, if they don't know you, Lord, help them to come to you right now.

Now, while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, maybe you would say, I want Jesus Christ.

I want to know that my sin is forgiven.

I want to go to heaven when I die.

If you want Christ to come into your life, if you want to be sure your sin is forgiven, if you want to be confident you'll go to heaven when you die, would you just raise your hand up wherever you are?

And let me pray for you.

Just raise your hand up higher where I can see it.

God bless you.

God bless.

I see hands up going up everywhere.

If you're watching the screen, it doesn't matter.

Raise your hand up saying, Yes, I want Jesus too.

Wherever you are, I'm gonna lead you in a prayer.

God bless you.

Raise your hand up higher I can see it.

God bless.

You want us forgiveness.

You want Jesus to come in your life.

You want to know you'll go to heaven when you die.

Raise your hand up if you haven't done it yet.

Let me pray for you.

God bless each one of you.

Now I'm gonna ask if you would please, every one of you that raise your hand, would you stand to your feet?

And I'm gonna lead you in a prayer.

Just stand up wherever you are, even if you did not raise your hand, but you want Christ to come into your life.

You want him to forgive you of your sin.

You want to go to heaven when you die.

Stand to your feet right now.

Stand up.

We're gonna pray together and get this resolved right here, right now.

Trust me, you will not regret doing this, but you will regret not doing it.

Anyone else?

Stand up.

Might be a few more of you.

There might be a few more.

Just stand to your feet and we'll pray together.

I'll wait one more moment.

You want Christ to come in your life?

You want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die.

Stand up, and I'm gonna lead you in this prayer.

God bless all of you standing now.

I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me, right where you stand.

Again, as I pray, pray this prayer out loud, if you would.

Pray this now.

Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, but I know you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead.

Now, Jesus, come into my life.

I choose to follow you from this moment forward as Savior and Lord, as God and friend.

Thank you for calling me, Jesus, and forgiving me.

In Jesus' name I pray.

God bless all of you.

Amen.