The Four Great Invitations: Go for Me | Part 4

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Great to be with you again this morning.

And as we wrap up this series on the four great invitations from Jesus, I got thinking this morning, and I thought of who invites us really determines how we respond.

A lot of times.

Like this morning, I got an invitation from Macy's.

40% off only today.

I get that about three or four times a week.

I don't know, maybe I got something for Teresa ages ago.

Or not yet today, but I'm sure I'll get a phone call and it'll have a number I don't recognize.

And if I ever do answer it, it's going to tell me on a tape recording of some great opportunity if I would visit some place and listen to some, right?

And I just delete it.

And I thought to myself, as we get ready to wrap this up, maybe we should take just a moment and remember who's making these four great invitations.

Lean back, if you will.

In fact, stand up, just for a sense of uh sobriety.

As we uh sort of summarize and talk about the last invitations.

Speaking of the Father, it says He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption for the forgiveness of sins.

And then it describes who has given us the invitation to come, to follow, and to abide.

You know, we have these pictures in our mind of Jesus and childhood and this is who is making the invitation to each one of us this morning.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation.

For by him all things were created, whether in the heavens or on earth, visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.

He is also the head of the body, the church.

He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might have first place in everything.

For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness, the fullness of deity, to dwell in him.

And through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether things on earth or heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

You can sit down.

And what I got thinking was, boy, that brings a sobriety to these invitations.

You know, when we started off, we talked about, right?

Jesus said, Come, I'll give you rest, take my yoke, learn from me.

And this great promise of peace in our life.

Then he said, Follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men.

There's there's purpose, there's a direction.

You start to line up with what God wanted you to do and what he made you for.

And then we remember we said it's impossible to live the Christian life, it's not just hard.

And he says, Abide in me.

There's power.

As the Spirit of God takes the word of God in the context of community, and he gives us what we don't have to become like him and to do what he's called us to do.

And this week, the final invitation is to come and go and make disciples.

I uh put it this way: it's an unspeakable privilege to join Jesus in his rescue mission to bring life and light and love to a broken world.

Now that's one of those sentences, right?

Pause.

Think about how messed up our world is.

Think about real needs.

I mean, people that you know.

I mean, just think of the Silicon Valley, think of neighbors, think of what's happened in the last couple of years, think of the culture.

And Jesus is inviting you to join him on the unspeakable privilege to rescue people, to bring them where they would have life, that they would see the light, that they would experience love.

And so this is an amazing invitation, and that's what we're gonna talk about uh right after the uh resurrection.

I love this line.

He said to his disciples, even before you know the ascension and all the rest, he says, as the Father has sent me, I'm sending you.

Think of that.

When the triune God saw all the world and all the needs in his heart of love, he sent Jesus.

And now Jesus says to us, just as the Father sent me to bring light and love and to care and to rescue, I'm sending you.

And then we get the formal invitation in uh Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 to 20.

Matthew 28:18–20

The context here is that he's already appeared to 500 eyewitnesses.

And in verse 18, he says, All power or an authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth.

In your notes, just write the word power.

When we say we're gonna go make disciples, everything you need, all the resources, that word for power or authority, circle it.

We get our word dynamite.

Everything you need to be and to do, all He wants you to do is available.

And then here's the invitation: actually a command.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

How?

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in order that they could watch online, in order that they could agree with what Jesus.

Wait a second, I think I read that wrong.

Teaching them to observe, to live out everything that I taught you.

And then it's sandwiched in this next promise.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

You'll never face anything as you say, I've come to Jesus.

I really am following him.

I'm learning and abiding.

Okay, I want to be a part of the team that does for others what you did for me.

I've got all the power I need, and I'll never do this alone.

In the next little section, I actually uh it comes out of Luke chapter 6, verses 39, because it raises the question, like, how do you do that, right?

Luke 6:39

I mean, how do you make disciples and what are we supposed to do?

And what's it look like?

And how do you know if you're successful?

And after Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount what it meant to be a genuine follower and how different it was from how people were thinking, in verse 39, he says, and Jesus gave this parable.

He said, if a blind man is leading a blind man, they'll both fall into the ditch.

And then he went on to say, if a verse 40, if a if a student when he's fully grown, or a disciple when you're fully trained, you become just like your teacher.

And then the last part was, you hypocrites, why are you seeing the speck in other people's eyes?

Stop it.

Quit judging other people, take the plank out of your eye, and then we often forget, then go back and take the speck out of theirs.

And as I thought about that passage, I've thought about probably what I've learned the most over the years in terms of go and make disciples, is you can't impart what you don't possess.

That's the picture.

If you're blind, if you don't know what a disciple is, if you're not on that path, you can't take anyone with you.

And then I love the second line.

Uh more is caught than taught.

You know, if you're a parent, by the way, this is a big memo.

If you have small kids, listen really carefully.

If you have older ones, pray hard and do as much repair as you can.

Your kids are never going to do what you say.

They're going to catch who you really are.

Your values are not what you profess, your values are not, you know, what you intellectually believe, your values aren't even your very best intentions.

Your kids are going to catch what really matters to you.

How you think about time, how you think about money, how you think about different people, how you think about different races, how you think about all the issues of life.

They just catch it.

And so when you want to go on discipleship, we have to, the last one, we have to be what we want those that we're leading to become.

And so that's always the first step.

And where I would get stuck on this, I was probably, I don't know how many years.

I was a pastor way over 10 years.

Um, boy, maybe, maybe closer to 15 or 20.

And I would meet with other pastors and I would say, you know, I'm trying to learn and grow.

And Jesus said, Go make disciples.

What?

So how do you define a disciple?

And we get a bunch of pastors around.

We say, well, you know, in some circles, well, they come to a morning service, an evening service, they give 10%, and they kind of help out at the church.

Okay.

Other people as well, well, they've had this experience or that experience, and okay.

And what I realized was um I literally had the chance in one of my former lives to go all around the world and meet pastors all around the world.

And I said, just tell me, if someone walked up to you and said, I prayed Jesus lives in me now, I've got the next three to five years marked off, I will do whatever you want me to do.

I'll come to whatever meetings, I'll learn whatever.

Would you give me the clear pathway?

And could you tell me what it is and when I'm a mature disciple of Christ?

I really want to do.

And I'd like to say that they just would pull out, you know, like their phone or something and say, Oh yeah, this is our plan.

About 98 out of 100 pastors said, Well, we invite them to church, we got some programs, and we tell them here's some next steps.

I said, Well, how do you know when they're mature?

And so it was about um, I don't know, a little over 15 years ago, I was in another life and I was training pastors in Nigeria, of all places.

It was really hard because they speak English, but not my English.

Well, I wouldn't, when Naissem was giving the announcements, I thought to myself, someone finally speaks almost as fast as me.

You know, and I thought, I love this, you know.

And they said, No, this is not Nigeria, you need to speak very slowly.

And so I tried to speak very slowly, and I had 12 sessions on how to grow a high-impact church, and I'm in session number one, and it's a really mixed group.

So on the front row, there's a guy with an iPad, and on the front row a guy who's barefooted.

And they've come from all over, lots of them.

And the first one was on the purpose of the church is to make disciples.

And so I went for this definition, and it was like, you've all had a conversation with either a small group or another person or maybe a bit larger group, and you're thinking, they don't get it.

I'm not getting through.

And I thought, oh, I'm speaking slow, which is killing me, and I'm gonna have to do this 11 more times.

If we don't get on the same page, I'm gonna go nuts, and this is worthless.

And I thought, oh, what am I gonna do?

And so I said, Stop.

This is one of maybe the second or third most mystic experience I've ever had with Jesus.

I said, Do you see that brother right there on the front row?

Because I've tried three or four times to describe a disciple.

I said, if he went online and there was a server in heaven and he went heaven.com slash disciple, do you know what would come right on his computer so we would know?

And like 3,000 pastors go.

And I'm thinking, I wonder what I'm gonna say next, because none of this is in my notes.

And I heard out of my mouth say, Becoming a Romans 12 Christian.

Now, now to be fair, the Holy Spirit, you know, had memorized that chapter, I'd actually taught it before, but never I said, well, forget those notes I gave you, open your Bible, and so I will say to you, open your notes in the middle.

And all of Romans 12 is right there.

And they're gonna tell you why I want to share it with you.

Because what I realized was a disciple is not someone who does spiritual activities.

I mean, the people that fasted, prayed, right?

Down to the, you know, herbs and spices that gave, they were super religious, the harshest words that ever came out of Jesus' mouth was to religious people.

And we're no different.

So how do you actually measure what it means to be a disciple?

And I'm gonna walk out of the light for just a second because there's 12 chapters in Romans, and I've got to go to chapter one.

Chapter one is here, right?

One through three, the problem of man.

We've all sinned and fall short of God's glory.

Chapter four and five, the the solution.

Christ died in our place and we receive him by faith.

Chapter six through eight, how do you live this life?

It's the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

Chapters nine through eleven, uh, sort of a little parenthesis says, if you're a Jew that's believed in Jesus, I just want you to know that, you know, as a nation, God took you out of the game because you fumbled the ball.

I'm over-spiritualizing a bit here, and he's got a plan for you to get back in the game later, but I want you to understand what's happening.

He's a sovereign God, his purposes will be fulfilled for the land and all the promises he made to David.

And now we're at chapter 12, therefore.

And in chapter 12, what he does, he gives an executive summary of what a disciple is.

Uh, Will Durant describes the Apostle Paul as the most brilliant mind in the first century.

And we know he had some special relationship with Jesus after he came to Christ.

We know he had an intellect that was unbelievable.

And I believe chapter 12, he took the Sermon on the Mount and all he learned and all this, and for a sort of Greek mindset like us, he said, okay, let me give you the profile of a disciple.

So are you ready?

11 chapters are all about what?

Grace?

It's the gospel.

Based on grace, totally what God does.

And then you'll notice, look, look in your notes.

Chapter five, there's five relationships.

Discipleship is always relational.

It's not about performance.

It's a relationship that grows out and changes every relationship.

So, first relationship, there's five.

Go down through, circle the word God, right?

In your notes.

Go down, circle the word world.

Go down one more time, circle the world yourself, then circle believers, then circle nonbelievers.

All I want you to know is it's it's about graces and about relationships.

And what he's gonna do, he's gonna give us just a snapshot.

I'm only gonna give you the postcard.

I can't go through it all.

But what I want to do is just give you a quick postcard that you could say, okay, I've come, I'm following Jesus, I'm abiding and learning, and he says, go make disciples.

I want you to say, Oh, this is what a disciple is.

And this disciple is based on my relationship by grace of trusting Him.

So, what's the normal disciple look like in their relationship to God?

Remember, you came to know Jesus in chapters four and five.

Notice what it says.

Relationship with God is surrender to God.

Therefore, I urge you, my brothers and sisters, in view of God's great mercy, those 11 chapters, the work of Christ, the resurrection, offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him.

This is your spiritual service of worship.

And so what he's saying is, for normal followers making disciples, you have to be one before you can help others, is that a the word offer, put a little box around offer in your notes.

It's in a tense in the Greek that is, it's punctilliar.

It happens in a point of time.

You've already come to know Christ, and a certain day at a certain time, you say, Lord, I surrender all that I am and all that I have.

My family, my money, my career, my location, my future.

You fill in the top of the purchase order and you say, This is what I want you to do.

I've already signed my name at the bottom.

I may struggle with that, it may be difficult for me, but I want you to know I'm fully surrendered to you.

And here's the question that it answers How do you give God what he wants the most?

Do you remember who he is?

All the fullness of deity dwells.

God is inviting you, and he says, This is what I want.

More than your religiosity, way more than your money, more than this, more than that.

He wants you, all of you.

That's your spiritual service of worship.

But your spiritual service of worship of mine has some big competition.

And so the next he says, What's a disciple look like in relationship to the world?

And this isn't the physical world, this is that the world system.

That you, just a regular ordinary person, you, me, you could test, approve, experience, demonstrate what God's will looks like in a normal human being, in our case, right here in the Silicon Valley.

His will is good, acceptable, and perfect.

And so the fact of the matter is, remember we talked about those things that are barriers to abiding, distractions, disoriented desires, all those kind of things?

Do you remember when Jesus was tempted by the enemy and he quoted God's word?

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, or in our language, sex, status, salary, or pleasure, power, possessions.

There's a world system that pops up on my phone, every commercial, most every movie, and it says significance and meaning is when I get enough money, or when I'm prettier or more handsome, or I run this company, or I go public, or when finally we own my own home.

You fill it in, but it promises that.

And the world system is a mistress seeking to seduce you away from the love of God.

First John would take this and say, if any man loves the world, any woman loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

And all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.

So we're in a battle that's always tugging.

And he says, you know, you're separate.

By the way, progressively, three steps forward, two steps backwards, but progressively you are doing two things.

You're saying no to that value system, and yes to your mind gets renewed.

Remember of abiding?

And you start to renew your mind.

And instead of your life being conformed to what this is, your life little by little gets conformed to what God says.

The third relationship is our relationship with ourself.

And here, a disciple isn't just surrendered to God or progressively separate from the world's values.

You have a sober self-assessment.

He says, For by the grace of God I say to every one of you, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but rather think of yourself with a sober.

I mean, literally, it means to not be drunk.

Have an accurate perception of yourself.

How?

According to the measure of your faith.

It's it's that word in this particular case is the measure, what God says about you.

Do you do you grasp the identity issues that people struggle with today?

And it's not people out there, I mean it's us.

I mean, do you do you know what your strengths are?

Do you know what your weaknesses are?

Are you are you comfortable realizing that you don't have it all together, that I'm insecure, you're insecure, everyone struggles?

The apostle Paul is saying, here's the deal.

Most all of us in many opportunities will pose.

And we'll either try to be someone else or we'll try to reflect that we know more or act more, and we do it because we're insecure.

And he says, a disciple gets it.

You understand, you know, these are the strengths that I gave you.

And then you don't have to be embarrassed.

These are weaknesses that you have.

And then he goes on to say that, you know, just as we have many members in a physical body, so we are one body in Christ.

We're individually members of one another.

And he says, I want you to just have an accurate view of yourself.

Here's the measure of my faith.

On this day, at this moment, I'm deeply loved by God.

I've been sealed by the Spirit.

He's deposited gifts in me.

My eternity is absolutely sealed.

I know where I'm going and I know why, based on what Christ did, and I've received that by faith.

God has a tremendous plan for my life, and he knows that I will struggle, and he's patient, and he's loving.

But here he says, you need to know what your strengths and gifts are because there's other people, their strengths interdependently connect with yours.

And there's this amazing joy that comes when you belong and where you fit.

If verse one tells us how in the world do we give God what he wants the most, verse two tells us, how do we get the very best from God?

And verses three through eight answers this question: how do you ever come to grips with the real you?

How do you get where instead of, if I was only taller, if I was only prettier, if I was only more this, if I was only smarter, if I if I people spend their life chasing phantoms.

I'm telling you, one of the most liberating things that ever happens in your life.

And you know, when you start sharing, these are my strengths, but these are my weaknesses, it doesn't repel people.

Most of us live with what I call a hologram mentality.

And but by the way, I've I've I've done this in spades.

You know, especially if you come from an alcoholic family, you kind of learn where the pressures are and you learn how to please people.

And so you learn to act different ways and say different things because this group or that group are at work or over here.

And then what you do is you present this.

Persona.

I call it a hologram.

And if you're really, really good at it, here's the tragedy.

People start loving the persona.

And what you realize, they don't really know you.

The most human experience of the greatest power I've ever experienced in my life is to sit across the table, first and foremost, with my wife, and then with some very, very close friends.

Where they have seen the good, the bad, and some really, really ugly.

And accept and love me just for who I am.

That's what that's that's being a follower.

It just frees you.

You'll know the truth, and the truth will.

Yeah.

And so the Apostle Paul wants these disciples to understand that this is normative.

This is what a disciple looks like.

Heaven.com slash disciple.

You're surrendered to God, you're separate from the world's values.

And by the way, that's three steps forward again, and a couple backwards, sometimes four backwards, like we all mess up.

And then you get this sober self-assessment, and then you say, well, where do I fit in the body?

He goes, Well, he lists seven specific gifts.

And he says, these are your core motivations.

We're all told to obey all those things in verses six through eight.

But he says, if it's if it's teaching, man, focus on that.

If it's exhortation, man, do that counseling, encouragement.

If it's leader, be diligent.

If it's giving, be generous.

If it's merciful, do it with compassion.

If it's proclaiming God's word, hey, go for it.

You know what it's like to be?

Some of you do, to be in a church, to be in a small group, to feel like I'm accepted for me.

I belong.

And as you bring what you bring and others bring what they bring, God does something really beautiful through us.

We've seen it happen here so much.

The fourth relationship is with fellow believers.

What's it look like?

What's an authentic follower, a disciple look like?

They're serving in love.

He says, love must be sincere.

You might put an underline under that.

Literally, it's without hypocrisy.

In the Greek culture, all the drama was done by men, and so they would wear one of those masks and learn how to throw their voice.

He says, You want to have great relationships with other believers?

Take off your mask.

Hate what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in brotherly love.

And then I don't have time to develop it, but there's about 13 participles that all have the force of a command of honoring one another, caring for one another, praying for one another, financially helping one another.

This isn't like I'm in a small group and we sit around in a circle.

How did your week go?

My week go okay.

Is your week okay?

Uh, what did you have for question number four?

I had uh God.

Cool, great answer.

How about you?

For question five, what did you have?

I had Jesus.

Oh, that's really great.

Okay, now how are the 49ers doing?

Have you heard about the draft?

Or, you know, what's on sale?

Now, these are the kind of relationships where the real you shows up and you meet real needs that are sacrificial and they're not convenient.

And you say to another group of people in the body of Christ, My time is your time, my money when needed is your money, my heart is your heart whenever you need it.

I will lay down my life for you the way Jesus laid down his life for me.

And when you ever get to experience that, I'll tell you, unbelievers will look at it like, what in the world is going on here?

You're not those little religious people.

It's serving in love.

The real you meets real needs for the right reason in the right way.

And not only is it so attractive, but you know, it answers that deep question that we have.

How do you experience authentic community?

Right?

I mean, the experts, at least in America, probably beyond, all the experts say the number one relational issue in America today is loneliness.

We've never been more connected to information and less connected to one another.

Suicides are up, anxiety is up, struggles are up.

What we all long for, I mean, it's an amazing gift.

If you just get like even two or three people in your life that love you for you and that would do whatever for you, it changes everything.

And see, that's what a disciple is.

It's not about, you know, how many times, okay, gosh, I only read two chapters.

Oh, gosh, what shall I do?

I'm supposed to read three chapters a morning, and someone said a proverb, I didn't try the Psalms, I did this, and gosh, I can only give 9.5%, or I gave 11%.

I guess God loves me more.

You know, it's we get all this junk, we get all the same junk that people did.

Being a follower of Jesus is you've come and found rest.

You're following him and you abide.

And the Spirit of God begins to enlighten the Word of God, and you talk honestly from your heart.

And when you mess up, you just own it, and He forgives and cleanses.

And then you get in a group and community like this, so important around here, and you you receive it with someone who actually gives you a hug and eye contact that you realize this invisible God shows up how?

Through his body.

You know, we we sing things like he's our hands and he's our feet.

But it's for each other, it's real.

You know, it's not it's not just helping the teachers, it's not just helping all the people in need and and giving away food.

Those things are awesome.

Can you can you can you can you fathom what would happen if God would awaken a new generation to the reality of Jesus?

I've heard that somewhere.

Does anyone know where that came from?

It's the mission of this church.

Well, how do you do that?

You come, you follow, you abide, and then we make disciples.

Finally, um he talks to us about our relationship with unbelievers and in a fallen world especially, and we supernaturally respond to evil with good.

Um some of you are actually all of you are way younger than me.

And if you have not yet been betrayed in a really big way, don't hold your breath.

It's coming.

And and it happens inside or outside the church.

If you haven't experienced some deep injustice or someone you love, it's coming.

It's a fallen world.

So, how do Christians, how do genuine followers respond to the evil that's aimed at us?

And the heat is going up in this culture, especially.

Well, here's what a disciple does: bless those who persecute you, bless and curse not, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.

Live in harmony with one another.

Don't be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position.

Don't be conceited, do not pay or repay evil for evil.

Be careful.

Literally, it means take thought, try to really understand what's right in the sight of other people, even who disagree with you on morality, on politics, on God, on everything.

Try to pause and empathize and recognize these are their presuppositions.

They actually really, really believe this.

And this is what they're doing, and here's how they're attacking me.

But I got to get under their skin and grasp this is what's happening inside their heart.

Because if you don't, you'll just blame or you repay evil for evil.

Doesn't mean you compromise.

And then notice if they're hungry, I mean, I mean, this is the people that have posted stuff about you.

This is the ex that walked out on you.

This is the supervisor that almost ruined your career.

If they're hungry, what do you do?

You feed them.

If they're thirsty, what do you do?

In our culture, you're gonna you're gonna give them a drink.

In doing so, you'll heap burning coals on their head.

You go, wow, that sounds really good.

My boss could really use that.

This is a this is a picture in the ancient Near East when someone has repented and it was in a village, and if if they repented and realized, man, I totally messed up, I was totally wrong.

My thoughts and my behavior were over here, and I need to go over here.

They would build a little fire, put coals in it, put it in a pan, put it in a towel, and they would put it on their head and they would walk through the village and publicly say, My thinking, it's a picture of repentance.

I don't care what people say about you, I'll tell you what.

Your ex-mate, when they get cancer, when you show up to pray.

I I've got a good friend who was so abused by an ex-mate.

I mean, love, love, love.

Actually, she blew through all the money, did horrendous things, and made him the evil person.

Twenty-some years later, he he bought her a home.

Because her life was so messed up.

He just kept loving.

Do you remember what Jesus said when he was hanging on the cross?

Anybody remember?

Father, uh forgive them, they know not what they do.

Remember Stephen?

Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

When they walked into the Colosseum, arm in arm, singing, praying, that they weren't superstars.

They knew all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Jesus, and Jesus lived in them, and he would be with them, and they really had this picture of life, really isn't just about right now, and what you can get and who you can impress, and how much you can own, and what you drive, what you wear, and where you live.

There is a real heaven that's a real heaven.

There's an eternity that's a real eternity.

This matters.

A disciple is surrendered to God, separate progressively from the world's values, has a sober self-assessment, is actively serving in love, and is supernaturally responding with evil, with good.

Now, I I ran through that.

And so at the very bottom, this happened, I I think this was about 12 years ago.

After Nigeria, I came back and I thought, literally, that outline, I was on my way to another event, and I had that God moment.

I thought, you know, I I think um I've never seen that in the scriptures ever.

So I on the back of an envelope, I wrote those five relationships and those biblical responses, and then I thought, you know, I think I'm gonna try this out.

So I spoke another message with a little more intentionality, and it was to a very multicultural group in California.

Um and then little by little I developed a series, and then what I realized was, what if my fellow pastors who I've been asking for 10 years, and none of us could come up with a good definition?

I mean, you know, maybe the Baptists have theirs and the Methodists have theirs and the Pentecostals have theirs and the Reformed theology has theirs and dispensationalists have theirs, but I'm thinking, like, don't they all believe in Paul?

What if he actually gave us five relationships based on grace with a biblical response that you could actually measure?

And so uh at the very bottom, there's a uh thing that says true spirituality online.

We we created an e-learning system about 10 years ago.

And like there's messages on each one of those areas, and if and you can do like a six or seven minute video.

It's like, you know, I just want R12 light.

Uh, there's a like a 40, 43-minute video.

Uh, there's just the audio, there's the notes for each one.

Um, there's a small group there if you say, you know what?

I want I want to become a real disciple and I want to make disciples.

Uh uh, I'm gonna jump in and you can do that.

It's all without charge.

In fact, one of the things I I did, and I'm so grateful to um Ryan, he's really gracious.

And uh, in some settings, you know, I'm I'm his dad, I'm always his dad, but when I'm here, he's the pastor, and I gotta ask permission to what can I do?

And it was very gracious.

You'll you'll notice in your bulletin it says uh the four great invitations of personal assessment.

Here's what I'd like you to do.

Not not right now, but in a in a private moment.

Maybe stick this in your Bible and say, um, well, here's the illustration.

Imagine yourself blindfolded, uh taken in a car, and then you can tell they put you on a plane, and then you land somewhere, and it's in a dark room, and then the lights are turned on, they take off the blindfold, and they say you've got two days to get to Chicago.

What's the very first thing you gotta do?

Come on, you're smart.

You're one of the smartest people in the world.

What do you gotta do?

You gotta find out where you're at.

You gotta find out where am I at right now?

Here's my question: Where are you at right now in making disciples?

You can't impart what you don't possess.

You gotta be what you want others to become.

If you don't know where you're at, it's just, you know, like a shotgun, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and by God's grace, he does use that.

So I would just encourage you, you know, not here, but get a quiet place and just do that little assessment.

And it's not in any way to go, oh wow, I sure am not this hyper.

I wish I was.

No, it's just to say, I thought I was here, and oh, in this one area, I'm over here.

Or some of you have this strict conscience, and I thought I was here, and you're gonna go, oh, I'm here.

I'm making progress with uh groups and staff and elders, because I wanted to put this into practice.

Uh, one of the things Theresa and I did when I was a senior pastor is we'd have the elders over to our home once a month.

We'd all eat together and just hang, you know, and hear about kids and life and all the rest.

And then Ther went with the women in one room and I went over.

I'm not sure what they did, but they loved it.

And then I got with the guys, and no business.

And so literally, I would, I mean methodically, I would say, hey guys, great to be with you.

We're just brothers here tonight, not trying to run anything in the church.

On a scale of one to five, where are you at in surrender?

Now, obviously, we we know at a point in time we all said yes to the Lordship of Christ, but a one is God's really speaking to me about letting go, surrendering something, and you haven't.

A five is God really spoke to me and you let go of something, you really surrendered.

No one can say a three because that's a cop out.

Go.

And so I'll never forget one guy said, I'm I'm at a one right now.

Very godly man.

I said, Why?

Because my daughter wants to be a missionary in Afghanistan.

And I just, I don't want her to go, she's gonna get killed.

Or I think she's gonna get killed.

But children are a gift from the Lord.

I know the right answer.

I don't want to give the right answer.

Thanks, man.

We're gonna be on that.

Over here, a five.

What's a five about?

Um, I got an amazing job.

I made a ton of money.

And yes, of course, I tithe and I give over above my tithing and and blah, blah, blah.

But I I realized, man, I could do a ton of good.

And I God's just speaking to me about what why don't you why don't you give out of your comfort zone instead of in your comfort zone?

Everyone thinks I'm really generous because, well, if you had, if most people had as much as me, you know, they get really big checks.

They just don't know.

That's not much of what I got.

And I'm really excited.

God spoke to me and I released that.

I'm doing some actually a few crazy things right now.

And God's showing up.

But but you understand is that, you know, you know, the next time it might be separate from the world's values, and I might say, hey, where are you really struggling with the world squeezing you in?

And, you know, you can't be with a group of men and not know at least some of the guys that struggle with pornography, or over here it might be shopping, over here it's pleasing people.

And all I'm saying is there's a way to measure in an informal, loving way that's grace-based and relational, where we can say, How am I doing?

And now I want to help those Jesus has rescued like me to learn to be surrendered, because surrender is the channel through which God's biggest and best blessings flow.

Because separate from the world's values is how you get the very best from God and experience his will.

Because being a sober self-assessment is how you finally discover who you are and quit pretending.

And because serving in love is how you really experience authentic community and you experience God's presence through other people.

And because supernaturally responding to love gives you an actual game plan that's not blaming or anger or ungodliness to respond to the evil that is aimed at you because it all comes.

Does that make sense?

That's the postcard.

Now, here's here's here's something.

I have a really wonderful wife.

I called her this morning after I got here.

This is the the card, uh, your connection card.

So I called her this morning.

I said, honey, um what would you think if we invited, just I looked at my calendar, this coming Sunday, for three Sundays in a row, people that said, Hey, I'll I'm I went to that, you know, that true spirituality online, and I looked at at least the first short video or long video, and I did a little assessment.

What if we invited them over to our house?

Our backyard's pretty big.

We could probably get, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 people, I don't know.

And I we just invite them to our house.

And and maybe they're like, you know, we just started coming here a couple years ago.

Maybe they don't feel quite connected or they want to take a first step.

Would you, what do you think?

Yeah, honey.

That'd be at first I said, could we feed everyone?

She goes, No, we're not going there, you know.

And so I want to invite you.

So if you just put your name and your email legibly, uh they'll send you my address, and next Sunday night, um, you bring, bring your little evaluation and do at least one, and we'll sit around together and have some drinks.

I say, hey, you know, what's like how you doing?

Here's what I know, and I hate this about my job.

By Tuesday, 90% of everything I've said, you won't remember any of it.

That's very discouraging.

But what I've learned is those people who take a baby step and respond to the light, wow! Then they take another baby step and another and they get connected.

And then here's what you'll learn.

Here, oh, I shouldn't give this away.

It's a spoiler.

When we sit around next Sunday night outside at my house, you'll go privately, you'll never say this.

These people are as messed up as I am.

There's as many posers in here as me.

I thought everyone's doing great, I'm doing terrible.

And you know what'll happen?

God'll show up.

As you turn to uh the back page, I want to do give you just a heads up on uh I would say maybe the biggest breakthrough I had in terms of how do you go about this?

Write the words at the top.

It's a journey, it's a process.

It takes time, intentionality.

You don't have to, you know, you could just use one word.

Some of you are going, I can't write that fast.

Journey, process, time, intentionality, perseverance.

I mean, this whole thing was, you know, I've been a Christian 50 years this month.

I don't have enough hands and toes to tell you how many times I wanted to quit.

I'm so glad I didn't.

And the breakthrough, my biggest breakthrough came.

I was 30 years old, and I was um uh in seminary.

I took a little church, about 35 people, so I'm working, and we had three children at the time, and I was completely overwhelmed, trying to do everything, working out all my issues.

And there was a mentor that we kept bugging for about three years, and we had a brown bag lunch with a guy named Howard Hendricks, and we called him prof.

And he just walked in and we'd done a couple brown bags, and he goes, Gentlemen, that's how he talked.

You know what's wrong with you?

We didn't.

That's why we ask you to be with us.

He says, You're all a bunch of overachievers, and you're so performance-oriented.

And then he said, Write this down.

You will never be more loved than you are right at this second.

There's nothing you can do to get God to love you more.

There's nothing you can do to get him to love you less.

Therefore, life really is about how are you going to say thank you.

And then he would write in these big block letters, and he wrote the word objective, and he said, Who do you want to be?

You guys are so into do, do, do, accomplish, accomplish, accomplish.

Of course you do, but it has to flow from your who do you really want to be?

And then he wrote the word priority.

He said, How badly do you want to be that person?

There's a lot of distractions, there's lots of hobbies, there's lots of people, there's lots of pressures.

How badly are you willing to say no?

This is who I want to be.

And then he wrote the word schedule.

And he said, I've been in groups like this all the time, and you have good intentions and you have a desire, and you can say, I want to be a man of God, or I want to be a great husband, or I whatever.

And he says, What I know is if it doesn't show up, the third word was schedule.

Show me in your schedule, each week, where and how is it planned into your schedule for you to become that kind of person.

And then he wrote the last word, it was discipline, and he said, The difference between it was an old day, men and boys, all men in the room, is those who are willing to pay the price and do what's on their schedule when they don't feel like it.

And I remember uh, you know, I've been to a lot of brown bags, I've heard a lot of messages.

I don't Understand how the Holy Spirit works, but I was overwhelmed.

And I remember driving, it's 32 miles, was from where I went to school, out to this little community called Kaufman.

And about seven or eight miles before you got there is Crandall, a dinky town back then, and had a Dairy Queen.

And I pulled off and went into the Dairy Queen.

I can't remember what I ordered, and sat in one of those very hard booths.

And I just felt like I was at one of those moments in my life.

And I took a napkin out, which is my habit when I'm going to really write something important.

And I wrote, I want to be a man of God.

I want to be a great husband.

I want to be a great father.

I want to be a great pastor.

I want to be a great friend.

And I don't know why.

Maybe it was my background and some negative experiences.

I want to stay in shape all the days of my life.

Go figure.

And then I got my calendar out.

And I blocked off mornings and family times and a date with my wife and meeting with my kids and more protracted time for sermons.

Because I had enough ability once I did all my study to do a pretty good sermon with all the other demands without that last 10 or 15%.

And I put it all on my schedule and then I had a crisis because I looked at my schedule and it's like 65 or 70% full, and I haven't done my to-do list.

I said, Lord, this is not going to work because I can't get my to-do list done when only some of these are in there now.

And this is really scheduled.

And I heard the Holy Spirit say, so are you getting your to-do list done now?

No.

Okay, well, here's the issue, Chip.

Who you become will be 100x more important than anything you ever accomplish.

And as Dallas Willard said, who you become is the greatest gift that you will ever give to others into our world.

And so I went on that journey.

I did it very imperfectly, but I blocked off those times.

I put it in my calendar, found two or three guys that I could work out with two or three times that I could be very open with, shared it with them.

And here's what happened.

I said, Will you show me how I can get some time?

And we're all a product some way of our family of origin.

And so I uh I didn't know why, but my parents would watch the 11 o'clock news, and then this will date most all of you, and then they watch Johnny Carson, or you can think Letterman or Jimmy Fallon, whatever.

But that's what you just did when you were an adult.

You watch 11 o'clock news, so you know all the different things, so you're up on life, and then you watch the monologue, then you go to bed.

And for some reason with our kids, we decided we're not gonna experiment for two weeks, you know, we're not gonna watch TV during school nights.

And um I thought, gosh, if they're doing it, I probably should do it.

So, you know, the you know, the kids play games, they start playing the guitar, we lifted weights, and and so I mean, they're little kids, so they're they're in bed like 8, 8:30.

It's like nine o'clock.

I'm going.

I can't watch the news.

Can't watch Letterman.

It's 9.15, and it's like, man, I am bored.

I think I'll go to bed.

I woke up at 5 with more sleep, more energy than I ever had in my life.

Stop watching the news.

I realized it's just different names and different tragedies that they give me every week.

And I found out I could go to the you know, the newsstand and read the top line, and I knew what happened in the world.

And if I needed to know more, I could read an article or ask someone, or in our day, go online.

Pretty soon I just said, Lord, I'm not doing that.

I changed one thing in my life.

I got an hour and a half, almost two hours back.

And all I can tell you was I didn't see any big, rapid, amazing change.

But three years in, the guy that met with his wife and the guy that was the pastor was different than the guy three years earlier.

Ten years later, the capacity grew.

Twenty years later, the capacity grew.

Thirty years later, the capacity grew.

And I remember thinking, I had all these demands in my life, and if if all the demands were a big pile of dirt, it was a little wheelbarrow, wheelbarrow.

And then after two or three years, it was, oh, the wheelbarrow's bigger.

And after 10 years, it was a pickup truck.

And after 20 years, it was this, you know, this U-Haul thing filled.

And the person who showed up to prepare for a message had been in God's word for 20 years and had a relationship with friends very imperfectly and with very ups and downs and struggles.

God wants you to be a disciple.

You need a Paul, you need a Timothy, and you need a Barnabas or Barnabette that you can say, I'm not sure why God brought me to church this weekend, but I think I need to do what that guy was talking about, and I can't do it alone.

I need someone to help me.

I need someone that I need to get off my rear end and help someone else.

And then I gotta have someone that'll go through life with me because it's hard.

If no one has ever done that for you, um, we did a little experiment and there's a QR code, I Will DoIT With You.

And um I'll walk you through how God taught me to study the Bible and how to pray and how to process life.

And I'll never talk more than 10 minutes on those little things, and I'll ask you to give me 10 minutes.

And we did that during COVID, and we had just tens of thousands of people who developed the habit of meeting with God.

I said, give me, give me 20 days and 20 minutes of your time.

And what I will tell you is you will abide and follow and come.

And God works.

Here's my question.

You don't need to do any or all this.

As I've been talking and the Spirit of God in this room has been moving, what is the one thing that keeps coming to your mind?

What's the baby step?

What's what one thing do you say?

That's what I need to do.

Because here's the good news.

If you respond to the light that God gives you, guess what?

More's coming.

Respond to that, more's coming.

And little by little, over time, he's gonna change you.

He's gonna change me.

And and he this isn't a pipe dream.

He can and will introduce and awaken the next generation to the reality of Jesus.

And isn't that what we all signed up for why we came here?

Would you bow your head?

Would you ask the Holy Spirit to reveal what is that one thing that He wants you to do?

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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