Engage Part 4 I Pastor Joshua Gay

[SPEAKER_00]: High Praise Podcasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High Praise and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, I said, how many are you excited for the word this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's 10 o'clock.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm only going to go till about 11 30.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry, praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Grab your Bible, go to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a joke.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is calling us to engage this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: How many have you been here for part of this series on engage?

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: How many have you been here for like all of it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where's the, come on, there's the,

[SPEAKER_00]: my peeps.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've talked throughout this about engaging the Lord, about engaging the church, and about engaging our families.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to make this clear that this series really is a call for us to live in a whole life discipleship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you all with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: A whole life discipleship, not just part of our lives, but our entire lives given and dedicated to discipleship.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we began this, this has been a call for us to stop just observing faith and to start embodying it in everyday life.

[SPEAKER_00]: That there is that we are called, not just to talk about our faith, but we are called to live out our faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: that we aren't called it just mentally a scent that Jesus is Lord, but that our lives should be a reflection of the reality that Jesus is actually Lord over every single part of our life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the first week we began by talking about engaging God because intimacy will always precede impact.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will not have impact for the kingdom without first having intimacy with the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: We then talked about engaging the church, rediscovering that the church is not just an event, but it is a spirit-formed people.

[SPEAKER_00]: We also talked about the fact of this that the church is not optional equipment in the life of a believer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dad kind of alluded to it earlier, but we can't take the perspective of it's just Jesus and me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture doesn't testify to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tradition doesn't testify to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit doesn't testify to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You were never intended to just do life alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even when Jesus walked to the earth, the Son of God, the Word made flesh.

[SPEAKER_00]: He did life inside of a community.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were men who walked alongside of him.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's more than just 12 men, because there was also a litany of other people that followed him and did life with him as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've talked about this before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the biggest financial supporters of Jesus ministry were women.

[SPEAKER_00]: at the whole another message, and we'll talk about some other time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he did, he did ministry inside of community.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about it, he was God, he is God, and he still surrounded himself with people, because Jesus was and is the perfect human.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He was the perfect human.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is the perfect will of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is as some minister.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he is perfect theology.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if that is true and Jesus did his life with people who are we to think we can isolate ourselves and not do life inside of community.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't have time, go back and listen to the podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll probably dip our toes back in that at some point today as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, and then two weeks ago, we talked about engaging the family, because grounding faith is the most formative thing that we can do for our families.

[SPEAKER_00]: Living in a grounded faith and engaging our family.

[SPEAKER_00]: But today, we're going to step outward because authentic faith will never terminate on itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't stay within a box or within parameters that we attempt to put on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has called us to not just engage him, not just engage each other, and not just engage our families, but he's also called us to engage the community that we are a part of.

[SPEAKER_00]: that this faith was not intended to just stay in us, but we was intended to go into the highways and the edges, that the church was a point of initiation, but one of our goals is to go and make disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's really interesting, and I don't have too much time to get into this, maybe we'll have some other time.

[SPEAKER_00]: We aren't called to make converts.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are called to make disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: We aren't called to just get somebody to pray, a prayer, and go praise God, they're saved, and they got their fire insurance.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are called to make disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are called to just get people to an altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're called to walk with people over a lifetime and see them grow into the nature and the stature of Christ and to look like him, not just to say a prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere along the line in America, we made the

[SPEAKER_00]: culmination of Christianity coming to an altar and saying a prayer, that is not the culmination, that can be an initiation, but it is not the culmination.

[SPEAKER_00]: The culmination is looking more and more like him every single day, and that doesn't start in end with just saying a prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: That continues by every day that I wake up, I make a choice, I'm going to be like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to love even when it's difficult.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give even when I don't want to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even when it's 20 something degrees outside on Sunday morning, I'm going to go to church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all should have really shouted.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all had an opportunity to really patch yourselves on the back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, engaging God changes us, engaging the church shapes us, engaging our family stabilizes us, and engaging our community sins us.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna say that one more time, so you can really hear that good, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Engaging God changes us, engaging the church will shape us, engaging our family stabilizes us, and then engaging our community sins us.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a year for you to break out of the box.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a year for us to break out of the box, not for growth metrics, but because love refuses confinement.

[SPEAKER_00]: The love of God will not be held back and will not be confined.

[SPEAKER_00]: The real love of God can't be held inside of four walls, even though we believe in coming inside of the four walls, the love of God can't be confined inside of the four walls.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a pastor, he said a long time ago, and it's a quote I've heard, I've heard again and again, a lot of men have said it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it really sticks with me and I believe it's true and it is this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said that the local church is the hope of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And immediately that hits some people and they go, well Jesus is the hope of the world, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the local church are his hands and his feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because whenever Jesus ascended, he sent us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He sent his church and if you go back and listen to our message on engaging the church, you remember this that the local church is the tangible expression.

[SPEAKER_00]: of the supernatural mystery of Jesus and his bride the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: The local small sea church is the physical expression of the corporate big sea church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense to you?

[SPEAKER_00]: We believe there is one church.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is one body.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is one baptism.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then that gets expressed through local churches that are called to be his hands and his feet to their community.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, we are not waiting for culture to come to us because Jesus already sent us to the culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew chapter 5 verse 13, probably familiar for a lot of you says this, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

Matthew 5:13

[SPEAKER_00]: It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are the lie to the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who

[SPEAKER_00]: Get this.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to wreck us for a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: They may see your good works and glorify your father and have him come back to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: They may see your good works and glorify your father and heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to understand Jesus is not just giving a suggestion here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is releasing an identity on the people who are going to become his church.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not just giving a suggestion, hey, maybe you're salt, hey, maybe you're light, hey, maybe you should occasionally do some good things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Brother, what Jesus is doing is he is releasing an identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because before we do anything, Jesus has already told us who we already are.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus gives us this missional identity to influence a broken society.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to understand,

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus does not recoil from brokenness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus does not run away from brokenness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus doesn't run away from problems.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus doesn't run away from issues.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rather what he does is he rushes towards them because he knows that he has the solution and he has the answer for the hills and the brokenness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as the people of God, we should not recoil from brokenness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we should not pull away from brokenness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we should not pull away from people who are jacked up.

[SPEAKER_00]: But rather what we should do is run to be a minister of reconciliation because the spirit of God is on the inside of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: and has an answer to all of society's woes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you have figured this out yet or not, and if you haven't, maybe you will quickly, but I've been alive and on this planet for 40 years, which according to who you talk to, who you see, they're not very long or really long.

[SPEAKER_00]: In my 10s point of my season, I really long, praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, amen, prehistoric.

[SPEAKER_00]: That'll have been repute in my known discipline.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the reality, it's what I'm going at.

[SPEAKER_00]: This where I'm headed is this.

[SPEAKER_00]: The truth is this that government cannot fix our broken society.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you haven't figured that out yet, I don't know what to tell you, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Government can't fix our broken society.

[SPEAKER_00]: The media can't fix our broken society.

[SPEAKER_00]: Money can't fix a broken society.

[SPEAKER_00]: Talking heads can't fix a broken society.

[SPEAKER_00]: Podcasts are certainly can't fix a broken society.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you know who has the power to fix

[SPEAKER_00]: the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, because we are His expression within the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we mean when we say the local Church is the hope of the world, because we are called to be healing agents that are sent to fix a broken culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: The culture isn't just going to fix itself, but we are called, and we are sent to be ministers of healing and of reconciliation.

[SPEAKER_00]: The issue is not whether people in the Church have influence or not.

[SPEAKER_00]: The issue is how we steward it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all have influence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And salt, which we're called to be, it preserves it heels, it flavors.

[SPEAKER_00]: But only when it touches what it's decaying, it is not effective if it stays inside of the salt shaker.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think what we have said is we're salt, but we stayed in the shaker.

[SPEAKER_00]: And salt will only affect that which it touches.

[SPEAKER_00]: Salt will only affect that which it is able to reach out in touch.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, you have the light of God inside of you, have his spirit but it will only affect that which you're able to touch.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are certain things that I can't impact because I don't have any influence on them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's other people who can influence the things that I can't influence because they're able to reach out and touch those areas and those things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we all do our part and we're all willing to get out of the shaker, y'all with me, then we will begin to see healing and then we'll begin to see restoration because salt that is locked away in a container changes nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus warns us that the salt which loses its distinctiveness will become useless.

[SPEAKER_00]: The church will not lose power by engaging culture, but by blending into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are called to proximity without compromise.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to think about this because even some people when they hear this, they meet with your going, oh, but I just want God to judge the society.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want God, I remember there was a Supreme Court decision several years ago, and I saw believers, and there was people who were celebrating, and we believe it was not probably, we believe it was an ungodly decision that was made, and it isn't alignment with Scripture or biblical principles.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what I saw from some Christians online was God, those people outside celebrating right now, you need to rain down a meteor on them, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not kidding, this isn't a joke, I'm dead serious, lords strike them with lightning right now, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Which is really wild because that is kind of incomplete contrast with what Jeremiah said to Israel whenever they were living in exile.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever they were living in Babylonian exile, and by the way, the Babylonians were not good people.

[SPEAKER_00]: who did not serve God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what God told Israel, the Hebrews to do in that moment, and you can go read it later in Jeremiah 29.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says this, to seek the peace of the city, and pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace you will have peace.

[SPEAKER_00]: That even in the midst of brokenness and decay, God still says you pray for the peace of the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: God says in the midst of broken is you still plan for it to use the pray for it to succeed and prosper.

[SPEAKER_00]: That in the midst of things that aren't going the way that they shoot and people who aren't serving God and people who aren't acting right, your job as my people is not to pray for destruction, your job is to pray for peace and reconciliation.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is your job, not to be the judge, jury and executioner and be like Jonah who gets mad whenever God doesn't destroy things the way that you want them to destroy it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God says, pray for the peace of the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what you're called to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: You're called to pray for the peace of Panama City.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're called to pray for the peace of Bay County.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're called to pray for the peace of the state of Florida.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're called to pray for the peace of America.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we are called to do as the people of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's one way that we can impact it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're called to be in the world, but not of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The early church, say why this, the early church did not dominate the culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what they did was they transformed it through faithful presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: That even when everyone was against them, they were still faithful, where they were.

[SPEAKER_00]: That even when they tried to kill them, they were still faithful, where they were.

[SPEAKER_00]: That even when ever things were adversarial, they continued to be faithful and touch and impact what they could touch and what they could impact.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they weren't seeking to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: dominate their enemy, when said what they were seeking to do was see hearts and lives change, and as a result the gospel spread to the ends of the earth because their goal was not domination, their goal was influence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their goal was the heart of man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their goal wasn't to get Paul or Peter elected as the Caesar.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, got real quiet in here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, their goal was not to get Peter or Paul elected as the Caesar, not that you could even do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their goal was this, there are hearts of men that Jesus belongs on the throne of their hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we can get Jesus on the throne of hearts, the throne of Caesar will be overthrown.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I've personally, this is my opinion, a lot of historians who are more Christian historians at theologians would even tell you this, that what ends up happening, one of the things that leads to the fall of Rome is the rise of Christianity and the powers of death are overthrown because life begins to reign in the hearts of people.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have time to go too deep in that either.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're preservers.

[SPEAKER_00]: an early church writer put it this way when talking about our presence in the world he says this with the soul is to the body Christians are to the world the soul holds the body together and Christians in fact hold the world together that we are the glue that holds this whole thing together that if believers were removed from culture and society would all fall apart and crumble

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why our role of being sent to the world is so important.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're called salt.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're also called light.

[SPEAKER_00]: Light is meant to be seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't just call a sight here, let me say it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just call a salt.

[SPEAKER_00]: He also calls us light and trying to talk too fast to get through this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus assumes this, faith will be visible in public life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Light hidden under a basket is a contradiction of its purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you hide the light, it's a contradiction of the purpose of the light to begin with.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where are my Sunday school kids out in there?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me see y'all, where are my Sunday school peeps?

[SPEAKER_00]: Four of you, praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Went to Sunday school growing up, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where's my church kids?

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, y'all know this little light of mine.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not singing right now, I just assume you're not saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: This little light of mine.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got,

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the old church clapping back there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: This little item, mine.

[SPEAKER_00]: There you go, all right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we had the second verse.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hide it under a bushel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Say y'all are doing the hand motion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all are real church kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hide it under a bushel.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna let it shine bright and we say these songs growing up and it was just we thought Flint hand motions and stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a real truth in this.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a light in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what Jesus says.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are the light of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden and the only thing that has the ability to hide the light inside of you is not the devil.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is you.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the light is not shining in your life, it's not because you're under attack.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's because we've made a choice to put the light under a basket and we are not letting it shine.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the day and this is the time where we high praise are called to take it out of the basket that we're called to remove the cover and you're called to be the light that you were always called to be hear me.

[SPEAKER_00]: The church does not exist to be impressive.

[SPEAKER_00]: It exists to be illuminating.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't exist to impress people.

[SPEAKER_00]: It exists to shine a light.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus explicitly connects light with good works.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you go back to Matthew five back up there, if you will for me, let your light shine before then that they may see your good works.

[SPEAKER_00]: and glorify your Father in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: For some reason, at some point, we took this word works, and we made it a bad word in the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it is not a bad word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Works is not a bad word.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a Jesus' word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said it, they may see your good works and then do what, glorify your Father in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, you can talk about Jesus till you're blue in the face and you should.

[SPEAKER_00]: You should, don't misunderstand me, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We should talk about Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our speech should be a reflection of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the day, if you have a bunch of talk, but you don't do anything, your light isn't really shining.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a lot of people that know how to talk the talk,

[SPEAKER_00]: There's some people that grew up in Sunday school, and they know the words to this little light of mind, and they can sing, Zacchaeus was a little man, and we little man was here, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they can sing all the songs, and they know the flannel grass, and they're really familiar with blonde hair, blue eyed white Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that has never been translated into actually living with good works, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You aren't just called to believe you are called to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a matter of fact, I don't, this is, you're gonna get mad and we're gonna say it.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, you can tell me you believe all you want to say you want to believe, but if you don't do anything, you probably don't actually believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because at the end of the day, if I believe something, it compels me to action, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that I love my wife.

[SPEAKER_00]: That compels me to action, of which we won't spell out, but all those actions are this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard my dad said he was sexy last week, so I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was getting text mess, I was out of town.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was getting text messages from the staff.

[SPEAKER_00]: PJ, you got to come back and save us, please.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pastor Casey actually texted me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, Pastor Robert just gave us permission to make faith confession.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, we're sexy, praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it does a good penless to action,

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a bunch of vain words.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a bunch of talking that means nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your light is meant to be seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tertulian, early church father, recorded the world, noticed believers and said, see how they love one another?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was so different from everyone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, generosity preached the gospel long before Pulpids were ever welcomed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because love is the church's loudest witness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus even says that love would be the defining mark of his disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: Presence without love becomes noise.

[SPEAKER_00]: And truth without love becomes harsh, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Just speaking the truth, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying it how it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And half the time we say that, we're not even really saying it how it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're just mad at people and we just want to fire off.

[SPEAKER_00]: Truth without love is harsh.

[SPEAKER_00]: And love is what will give credibility to our witness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said in John chapter 13, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another.

John 13 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: As I have loved you, think about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus saying, hey, the way that I love you,

[SPEAKER_00]: The way that, as I have loved you, that you also love one another, by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't say by this, they'll know that you're my disciples if you pray loud enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Once again, I'm for prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't say by this, they'll know you're my disciples if you shout loud enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we are high praise and we shout.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not what Jesus says is the way that they're gonna know that you are His disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, they'll know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: A gustan said that love has hands to help.

[SPEAKER_00]: Feet to hasten and eyes to see suffering.

[SPEAKER_00]: The love of Christ compels us as what Second Corinthians five says.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you go beyond our comfort zone and lay down our lives for our neighbors, Jesus tells us to love your neighbor as yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: And your neighbor doesn't mean the person that you turn to in church when the pastor says,

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean the person who physically lives next to you, although those people are included.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually the Greek word, Plasyon, and it literally just means anybody you come into contact with.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know who your contact, who your neighbor is?

[SPEAKER_00]: They all ain't gonna like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know who your neighbor is?

[SPEAKER_00]: They got who flipped you off on the road and cut you off.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're called to love that person.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know who your neighbor is?

[SPEAKER_00]: The person who's flying the flag of the political person that you don't like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all were more apt to shout whenever I said the guy who flips you off was your neighbor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I can get on with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Different politics, nope, I'm out.

[SPEAKER_00]: That person's your neighbor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eme G's my neighbor, even though he's a gator fan.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's tough for the null of them, praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone you come into contact with is called, or is called by Jesus as your neighbor, and then Jesus compels you that you're called to love them.

[SPEAKER_00]: The church is called to love enemies, to welcome strangers, to serve the overlooked, and that kind of love cannot remain private.

[SPEAKER_00]: And why are we called to do this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why, what does this mean to our community?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad you asked.

[SPEAKER_00]: The church is not merely saving souls for heaven, but it is announcing heaven's invasion of the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why Jesus told his disciples, pray this way, our Father who art in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all should know this, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Hallelujah, be thy name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thy kingdom come.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thy will be done where on the earth as it is in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't say this, pray this way, our Father who art in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we like to worship you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your will be done even if it's bad and Lord rescue us from this wicked culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is not what he says.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that we are to pray heaven into the earth and by the way praying heaven into the earth, your actions are a form of prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: The way you live is a form of prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just repeating the liturgy of the Lord's prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: I follow the Father, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father,

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I served as a chaplain for years and years for rather football than I remember any time, you know, I'd always pray and then the coach would have all the kids say the Lord's prayer and it sounded something like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll follow it and I hope that then it's coming to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be talking to you tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: because they started rushing to the north, and the church doesn't do much better.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just rush through these things, they become so common to us, and we don't really realize what we're saying or the impact of what we're declaring.

[SPEAKER_00]: But beyond just praying it, you're called to live it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the church is pointing to an age that is here and is coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: because the kingdom is coming to the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to get out of this escapeist mentality.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're just hanging on till the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just hanging on till the Antichrist.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just hanging on till the rapture.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what we're doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus never told the church, hang on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus told the church you pray heaven into the earth and one of the ways that we pray heaven into the earth is by our actions of love toward our community Why because we are releasing a reality that is here and just coming because there is coming a day where Jesus will rule and reign forever And we will live in love in peace and in harmony and until that day physically manifest the church is called to be the manifestation of that age

[SPEAKER_00]: Right here in right now, which means this, if you can't love the person who's sitting next to you in church, how in the world are you gonna love the world and be the manifestation of an age that is coming?

[SPEAKER_00]: If we can't love one another, we got a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying you would always like people.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I am saying you have to love them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am saying you have to bear with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am saying you have to push through personality defects.

[SPEAKER_00]: Understand this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not escaping creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are participating in its renewal.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got a hurry.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're time travelers We're pointing to something that is still yet to come and when the church lives reconciled generous and outward facing it points forward to the coming kingdom We're not escaping creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're participating in its renewal every healed life

[SPEAKER_00]: Every restored family, our transformed neighbors is a signpost of an age to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's his glory released in the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to understand, at the end of the day, we got to break out of the box, though.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm skipping a lot, and I may come back some other time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the box is often the last barrier that keeps us from manifesting the kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus did not wait for people to come to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He went to where they were.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of my favorite stories is Jesus on the mountain when Trenton, the Mount of Transfiguration.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, Peter, James, and John are up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: They see the transfiguration.

[SPEAKER_00]: They see the glory of God Moses and Elijah pop up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they go, Jesus, we're going to build a temple, temples, and we're just going to stay right here.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't need all those people.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got you and you're all we need.

[SPEAKER_00]: Plus, I've heard about most in Elijah,

[SPEAKER_00]: And all this is going on, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus does not allow them to stay, but instead what Jesus does is he goes down from the top of the mountain and he goes into the valley.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there he's met by a man who has a son who often falls into the fire and into the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: and Jesus heals the boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe what we're seeing here, and I actually write about this in one of my books, everywhere which one.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what we're seeing here is what happens in moments of the mountain top.

[SPEAKER_00]: What happens whenever we're together?

[SPEAKER_00]: What happens when the church gathers and we feel the glory of God and we feel the anointing and we're ministered too.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not intended to just stay on the mountain top.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the mountaintop was always intended to compel you to the valley.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is to send you to the broken, it is to send you to the hurting, it is to send you to the ones who are in need and be the answer to their prayer, because you have to understand that this father prayed and prayed and prayed and sought and sought and nothing was fixing his son.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the moment somebody from the mountain visited him in the valley,

[SPEAKER_00]: everything changed and we as the church have been to the mountain now it's time for us to go to the valley that's why we do what we do that's why on Tuesday night we welcome people who are struggling I mean we do it any service obviously but on Tuesday night we specifically have time set aside for people who are struggling with addiction and pain and suffering and we meet and we feed those people.

[SPEAKER_00]: every Tuesday.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we minister to those people every Tuesday.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because what happens on the mountain top was always intended for the valley.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we as a church sponsor.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know a couple hundred kids every year in Caloie Elementary to make sure their needs are met.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because what happens in the mountain top if it stays on the mountain top is an effective.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's always called to be in the valley.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to break

[SPEAKER_00]: out of the box.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why we're always feeding and clothing and supply and making way for people to be ministered to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if what we experience on the mountain top stays on the mountain top, it's not effective.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's intended to flow into the valley and to get out of the box.

[SPEAKER_00]: Most people are going to meet Jesus through his body before they meet him through scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is your life a testimony of Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is the way that you live a testimony of Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: The church is the visible expression of it invisible Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we love, serve, forgive, and show mercy, we're putting flesh on the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have the ability to put flesh on the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have the ability to put flesh on the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Someone's prayer might be answered whenever you step out of your comfort zone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, and if you don't go, they may never know.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't give, they may never receive.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you aren't willing, the door might never be opened.

[SPEAKER_00]: And obedience delayed will always become opportunity denied.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel, the work gospel literally means good news.

[SPEAKER_00]: But good news has to be delivered.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody ever had heard good news before?

[SPEAKER_00]: Someone delivered good news to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: The city is waiting on a church that believes it's calling.

[SPEAKER_00]: This generation is waiting on believers who will be sent.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the year we break out of the box.

[SPEAKER_00]: We break out of comfort.

[SPEAKER_00]: We break out of routine.

[SPEAKER_00]: The box is faith that stays silent, but God is calling us to greater presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is calling us to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, I wanna say this, I'm gonna be done.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing wrong with going to foreign nations.

[SPEAKER_00]: We believe in that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's my fact, Brad and Brandy do this frequently.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've got a ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: They parted with this in Africa and Africa.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they go in ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we say praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what God's called them in doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's amazing and incredible.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we say yes and amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you don't have to travel to Africa or to China.

[SPEAKER_00]: to minister the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's called you do that wonderful, but for most of us, you're not necessarily called to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: What you are called to do is minister to your coworker.

[SPEAKER_00]: What you are called to do is minister to your classmate.

[SPEAKER_00]: What you are called to do is minister to your family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we would just start there, we would be amazed at societal transformation that takes place.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we're not as excited about that because it's not being in flashy.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to minister to presidents and kings and congressmen and rulers and princes.

[SPEAKER_00]: How about your neighbor?

[SPEAKER_00]: How about your coworker who's struggling?

[SPEAKER_00]: What have you just offered to pray for them instead of just keeping it to yourself when they'll figure it out?

[SPEAKER_00]: What if they don't figure it out?

[SPEAKER_00]: What if God has sent you to be somebody who can minister to them and point them to Jesus and point them to the church and see their life transform?

[SPEAKER_00]: We are going to break out of the box.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not somebody else's calling?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's yours.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for downloading this podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We trust that this message has blessed and encouraged and identified you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you subscribe so you never miss a message here from Highbraze.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also, you can follow us on social media, on Facebook and on Instagram, and don't forget to go subscribe to our YouTube channel.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back soon with another incredible message.

[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.