Obey - Matthew 28:16-20 - Sunday Sermon

launch right in today. So, heavenly

father, thank you for this opportunity

to look again at your word and your

mission in particular. Last week, we

spent time looking at having your word

as our exclusive uh authority and not

having any other authorities mixed in.

And when that's uh the case, then we can

have the right relationships uh with

other authorities that you have

established and that you teach about and

how we should relate to. And today,

Lord, we'll be talking about um how to

actually personally obey. It doesn't

really mean anything if we stand on your

authority, but don't grow in personal

obedience. And I pray that you would um

use your word today to help people uh

make progress in personal obedience. And

I pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

For those of you that are super detail-

oriented, and I'm not going to make it

obvious, there's one thing different

about me today visually.

Can anyone guess what it is? It the

watch. Yes, I found it. It doesn't work.

And I walked.

I'm not going to fix it either, but I I

walked into the church like this and

like yesterday there were football games

and I forgot my sunglasses and it was so

bright at Pioneer Stadium. And then

Elijah goes, "Dad, it's not even bright

outside." And I was like, "It's an

accessory, Elijah." And he's our most

accessorizing child, too. So, this is

purely ornamental. I do like it, though.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with

anything. Um,

truly, it's not like I'm not going to I

couldn't find any way to mix it into the

introduction. But, um, today is going to

be different than just about any sermon

uh that I usually do. What our u bread

and butter is is we choose a book and we

walk through that book piece by piece,

verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Um

it's uh based on conviction that we

believe that's the way the Bible really

is intended to go through that you're

following the inspired teachings of

these authors and it's inspired by God

and not just teaching the truth therein

but also teaching according to how they

composed it. Uh but there's authority in

both. It's written not just for the

meaning of the verses but also the order

of how it's written. And I think that's

a really powerful thing. I know that

you've come to love that. And that

starts next week again in acts. Uh what

we do like to do at Boon's Ferry um at

the beginning of September is do some uh

missional updates or missional

reorientation

or missional explanation like what is

our mission? How are we doing at it? Uh

and how are we accomplishing it

organizationally? And so that's the

first part of what we're going to be

talking about today is how is Boon Ferry

organized to carry out this mission. We

talked about the mission last week from

authority standpoint. God Jesus has been

given all authority and that authority

is in his word and we're uh to as to be

and make disciples uh both baptizing

them in the father and the son and the

holy spirit which would be like the

evangelistic portion of it but that

disciplehip should continue in teaching

everyone to observe everything Jesus has

commanded and he promises that he'll be

with us and with us in his authority to

accomplish that mission and that is the

mission of the church that's what Jesus

said the church to be about um but how

are we organized to carry out that

mission which starts with evangelism.

It's not just mentorship and it's not

just evangelism but starts with

evangelism then continues in teaching

people to observe everything uh that he

commanded. And we laid the foundation

last week which God already laid uh

through his apostles that God's word is

the authority that we are submitted to

and to the exclusion of all others in

the sense as the foundation. Um, and I

talked about how when you pour Coca-Cola

in or any sugar into concrete, it

doesn't let the concrete set. And when

you're wanting the concrete to set and

it doesn't, it turns into some kind of

quicksand slush and you can't stand on

that. And you might felt like, well,

absolutely, I agree. And it's it's total

review for me, the idea that we're

standing on the authority of God's word

alone. And that is Christian 101's. But

the thought that maybe other authorities

have begun to influence the way that you

look at the word. Maybe uh other

authorities are mixed in where they're

competing with well you know this

authority says this uh social authority,

scientific authority, governmental

authority, psychological authority,

whatever their these authorities are and

then it starts affecting the way you

look at scripture rather than just

looking at what God says and trusting it

um and and letting that stand. It's

eternal. Everything else passes away,

but his word does not. Um, so, uh,

everything on earth passes away. But

now that, and I know you agree with

this. So, now that we're standing on the

authority of his word and and have that

piece completed, what does it actually

look out look like to personally obey in

carrying out that mission? And how could

you be involved in at Boon's Ferry? you

know, churches will organize differently

around this mission and um but as as

long as they recognize that this is the

mission, uh there's some freedom in

exactly how you organize around that.

And I want to show you why we're

organized the way we are. And it comes

directly from Acts chapter 2. Uh it's

Acts 2 · chapter mention

one of my favorite teachings about the

church. It's about the early church. And

I think it is for you as well. Whenever

Christians read what was going on in the

early church and what they devoted

themselves and how they were organized,

everyone that I've talked to is just

like, I want to be a part of a church

that's like that and experiencing that.

I will say as a disclaimer, I do not

believe that these words are um

prescriptive as in you have to do all of

these things. I think each one of them

them is commanded in other places but

it's not as though it's like okay well

this is a command for exactly how the

church has to organize. It's

descriptive. This is how the early

church organized and and I recognize

that. But I still think well why not

just copy what they did? Why not just

copy exactly what they did? And if we

copy what they did in the power of the

spirit, not by human means, then it

stands to reason that we would

experience similar power and enthusiasm,

excitement around the mission. So here

is Acts 2 verse 42-47.

Acts 2:42–47

And this will be the scripture for the

first part of the uh sermon today, which

is uh basically an explanation of how

we're organized around our mission. The

second part of the sermon would be how

do you personally obey um along the

lines of that emission of that mission.

Okay? So they're connected, but they

aren't they're really two relatively

separate ideas. Um normally I just

preach on one idea and try to drive that

home. But if you're wondering what's

going on here, how is this all

connected? I'm not even necessarily

saying the two halves are connected, but

let's let's read 42 in chapter 2 of

Acts. And they devoted themselves to the

apostles teaching and the fellowship to

the breaking of bread and prayers. And

awe came upon every soul. And many

wonders and signs were being done

through the apostles. And all who

believed were together and had all

things in common. And they were selling

their possessions and belonging

belongings and distributing the proceeds

to all as any had need. And day by day,

attending the temple together, and

breaking bread in their homes, they

received their food with glad and

generous hearts, praising God, and

having favor with all the people. And

the Lord added to their number day by

day those who are being saved.

And so I actually want to show you if

you've, you know, if you're new to the

church and you're like, "What's this

church about? What's their mission?

What's their faith statement?" Our

mission is right online. and actually

had um our our team take a screen

capture. You may not be able to see

that. I can't actually even see it on

the screen on the confidence monitor,

but I'll just read it from right here.

And this comes directly from Acts uh 42

uh through Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42–47

as well as um um uh Matthew 28 and uh

you could also mix Luke 10 in there

about um what are the two greatest

commands? And so Boon's mission is to be

and make disciples of Jesus who love God

and others for his glory. I want to

explain that mission for a second.

Clearly our mission is to be and make

disciples. But if we're teaching them to

observe everything Jesus commanded, his

commands and all of in all of scripture

can be um summarized in in the two great

commands. And that summarizes all of

scripture perfectly. Um and it's about

learning and growing in loving God and

loving others. And those are necessarily

linked and there's really nothing more

to it. Uh in all of the Bible that that

is the ultimate end goal of our growth

leading to God's glory. What glorifies

God is when we are growing in learning

to love him and others the way he

teaches us to in his word and the way he

empowers us to by his holy spirit. Okay?

If if the Holy Spirit was not indwelling

us, the word would not actually empower

us to carry out this mission. But

because of the operation of the Holy

Spirit and the power of God's word in

our hearts, we can carry out this

mission. Okay? And we're organized

around four summary areas. Uh our

missional efforts focus on four main

areas. Wor and they're not necessarily

uh in order of importance. Although if I

were to put one as most important, I

would put worship, which is why we did

put that at the top. Um but these are

all connected to those first and second

greatest commands. And if you take one

out, something's incomplete. worship,

loving God, being and making disciples

of Jesus who worship God in every area

of their lives. So in this case, we're

not just talking about our song and

praise worship. We're talking about

continued growth in loving God. That's a

good definition of worship. If you are

uh growing in doing that, and you can

see verse 47 that they were doing that,

praising God and having favor with all

people. So worship was a critically

important part of uh what the early

church devoted it itself to uh

evangelism, loving the lost, being and

making disciples who witness to others

who Jesus is and what he has done. It

does say go and make disciples. Uh and

that is evangelism. And then they're to

be baptized in the name of the father,

son, and holy spirit. And they they were

doing that. there were daily people

added to their number. And we know from

just earlier in this very same passage

that when people were cut to the heart

and said something like, "What should we

do?" Uh Peter would say, "Repent and be

baptized in the name of the Lord." And

so they were carrying out that aspect.

Um and I'm not going I've I've done this

in past sermons. I think it's under a

playlist on um on YouTube called our

mission. And so you can look uh at at

past sermons about the mission if you

wanted to get to know more. This is just

a summary of how we're organized.

Fellowship, loving each other, being

making disciples of Jesus whose

relationships are marked by love uh of

each other. Okay? Uh that one might be

one of the most self-explanatory ones.

Uh but I'm going to go into it more

deeply when I talk about more

specifically how we're organized. This

is just the summary of what we're

intending to organize around. And then

service. And we do not mean service just

to the least of these. Um but service to

one another uh could also be considered

um fellowship where it's just like

you're serving someone that isn't

necessarily in great need. There's a

category of people that over and over

and over again all throughout scripture

God shows his heart for. And uh the

least of these is a is a summary term of

those kinds of people. people that are

uh

that are in a low place in their life,

people that do not have enough money to

uh take care of themselves, people that

lack the power to defend themselves. Um,

and there are other ways to define that

as well, but I think you know who the

least of these are. And there are many

different demographic and kinds of

people. Maybe another one would be

people who are um deeply wounded or even

uh mentally damaged in some way or uh

whether whether physically or

emotionally all fit into this category.

And Jesus showed his great love for that

kind of demographic of people over and

over and over again being and making

disciples of Jesus who serve the poor by

caring for their material and spiritual

needs. And that last part's really

important. were not looking to just hand

out bread alone. Jesus rejected people

following him just for them to to have

their physical needs met. There is

actually a need that is more important

than their physical needs and is their

spiritual needs. Needs for forgiveness,

for repentance, for forgiveness, for

healing, for being saved, for their

souls to be saved. And it's not a false

dichotomy to say souls are more

important than your body. Uh that is

something that is actually taught in

scripture. It's not worth gaining the

whole world. If you gained the whole

world, you would also gain the all the

bread in the world, you know, and all

the gluten-free bread in the world if

you're gluten-free. So, you would gain

all the means by which to always take

care of yourself, but you could still

lose your soul, right? So, you have to

consider that we we do believe that

scripture teaches that our souls are

ultimately eternally important. Now,

James also says that if you say uh that

you love somebody and you see that

they're cold and you say, "Be warm, but

don't give them a blanket." That's

really not love at all. And so, you

cannot simply say, "Well, we're only

going to care for people's spiritual

needs." Loving them care means caring

for their needs. Um, but we're going to

do both. Caring for their material and

spiritual needs. And I am completely

convinced and I think that you should be

too that there are no other categories

of areas that we need to focus on other

than these according to New Testament

scripture of of what the uh church

should uh be doing missionally that this

summarizes it. Um that this is a is a

good definition of all that disciplehip

should entail. People should be

discipled along the lines of worship and

loving God. discipled along the lines of

evangelism, loving the lost, discipled

along the lines of how growing to love

one another, fellowship, and discipled

in serving uh the poor. Um so in serving

the least of these, both in their

material and spiritual needs. Now

another way that we are copying

organizationally to actually carry out

these missional areas is by meeting in

small groups. This is a pattern that

Jesus discip uh that Jesus uh carried

out in his mission and he had 12

disciples and he spent so much time with

them and they were not the only people

he discipled. They were not the only

people he taught. He would t teach large

groups as well. Uh I think it's good and

right and biblically commanded that

there would be preaching to large

groups. I also believe that it's good

and right to follow Jesus example to

organize around small groups in this

way. And we call those our disciplehip

communities. Um sometimes they're

they're you could think of them as Bible

studies, but they're more than Bible

studies. They're just another meeting

that is basically copying and following

what the early church devoted itself to.

And so we come together and we eat

together. And we call that table

fellowship as just a summary. But we're

intending to meet with one another in

each other's homes, which is exactly

what they were doing. And there is

warmth and encouragement. And it's a

great context to develop relationships.

And Jesus did that a lot with his

disciples. You notice that both before

his resurrection and after his

resurrection, he ate with his disciples.

He spent real time in relationship to

them because fellowship is is so

important. Our relationships are part of

the second greatest command to learn to

love one another. And then we study

God's word together. Um, and then we

pray together, which is all things you

just heard about them devoting

themselves to. Uh, I've got an example

you just see from a distance. Although

there are copies of this on the

connection table. Here is an example.

I don't actually know if you can zoom on

this in on this for people online, but

it's not necessary. But an example of

five questions that are written in

advance and then these are already

posted online uh for our discussion. And

these are guiding questions. Uh I'd say

that if you can devote even just half an

hour, you should be able to get through

most of these questions. Sometimes the

the biblical verses are complicated and

it might take more like 45 minutes to an

hour to get through them. Um and then

you bring your answers, your homework to

the discussion group to the disciplehip

communities. And after eating together

the um discip we call them DCs for short

for short because disciplehip

communities is a mouthful. We understand

that. Um but so when you hear like, "Oh,

you're going to DC tonight." That's what

they're talking about, our Bible

studies. And um the the DC leaders will

just be facilitating. They're not

teaching directly like I teach up front

because the group is meant for your

discussion and verbally processing and

what you have learned. Um and we go

through these these five or six

questions. Um sometimes questions are

double and you might think, "Oh, they're

trying to practice as many questions in

there as we can." We have now found a

better way to ask both content and

applicational questions than like, hey,

what's this passage saying? Basically,

how does it apply to your life? So,

you'll see these onetwo punch questions

as well. But I do not think this takes

an excessively long time. Like, we're

not expecting that you spend 4 hours on

this homework every single week. I spend

about an hour answering these questions

myself and uh so do my kids that are

coming and uh and my wife as well. Um,

and sometimes I spend less less.

Sometimes it's more like, well, I've got

half an hour now. I didn't plan well

this week. I'm going to uh I'm going to

spend time right now on it. And what

that does is it creates an opportunity

for us focusing on the very same

scripture and then actually teaching one

another in our discussions, which by the

way is also biblically commanded. I'll

be showing you a verse about that uh in

a while. And then this this is Acts 1

1-5 that will be studied in our

disciplehip community on Wednesday

night. They start at 6:00 p.m. Uh right.

If you're brand new and you're wanting

to come, don't worry about bringing

food. Um let the leader know that you're

coming. Uh information about our current

three disciplehip communities is online

um under the disciplehip tab up there.

And uh I think this is just a screenshot

so it's not like we're live on our on

our website but go there and you can see

where they are and you could maybe

choose partly related to which one is

geographically close to you. You could

choose because you were hey I got

invited by this person. I already have a

relational connection. I could come to

that one. Um you just let God lead you

where you want to come. And it is

perfectly fine to check out more than

one disciplehip community. We do ask

that at some point you make a commitment

to that group. Um, it's not like we're

even going to ask you, hey, have you

made a commitment to this group and for

how long? That it's more organic than

that, but we're asking that you would

commit to being part of that group. Um,

and and decide to work through conflict

in that group with one another. That's

all part of the plan. Remember how the

disciples would you compete with one

another and get frustrated with one

another? Um, God intends for us to so to

speak, uh, chip each other's edges off

and sometimes be a little bit of

sandpaper. And it's always an amazing

opportunity. If you're never in

relationship to other Christians, you're

never going to have to forgive them

because they never sin against you since

you're not really in relationship to

them. And so, you don't really have to

practice uh, the version of fellowship

that requires the Holy Spirit. Uh, one

thing I can guarantee you at Boon's

Ferryy is that people at Boon Ferry will

sin against you if you get into close

relationship to them. We're all sinners

here and that will happen. But then you

have this amazing opportunity to

actually surrender to the power of the

Holy Spirit. And something happens that

you cannot gain in relationship to other

people any other way. You know, people

unfriend each other so quickly these

days. They just hit the the unfriend

button and it's done. and and all of a

sudden you're estranged for them for

years and it's so unfortunate and

painful but it's also very much

unnecessary and not not to happen among

Christians. Uh what happens though when

you actually forgive someone when you

actually go and talk to them about how

they hurt you or they come and talk to

you about how they uh were hurt by you

and you say I'm so sorry will you please

forgive me and which is not always the

usual experience and then you do you've

established a precedent in your

relationship that you can actually wrong

each other and the relationship will

survive and then it goes even deeper

because I know from talking to you guys

that sometimes when there's never had

anything happen wrong and you wonder,

uhoh, I did something wrong. Is this the

end of the relationship? With

Christians, it ought never to be even

close. And so, I believe one of the

reasons why God uh why Jesus brought the

disciples together in that way is that

he was actually teaching them to love

one another. You know, Simon the zealot

with Levi or Matthew the tax collector.

You know who zealots hate the most? Tax

collectors, right? So, they had to learn

to love one another. Uh, and uh, that's

um, that's a powerful way to do it. Uh,

just one more little plug for the

disciplehip communities. If you're

thinking about, you know what, I really

have not made God's word primary in my

life. I know it should be the foundation

of my life, but I rarely read it. You

know, I'm not spending that much time in

it. It's not a pattern of uh, regular

engagement with God's word, and I really

ought to get in into it. Uh, I don't

think you're alone uh in that. I I don't

even think that's all that common for

Christians to experience that. Knowing

the right thing to do and how to relate

to scripture, but not having

accomplished it yet. If you just decide

to commit to one of these disciplehip

committees and do the homework, you're

going to be spending half an hour to 45

minutes going through Acts 1 1-5. Then

you're going to come and spend about 45

minutes to an hour discussing Acts 1

1-5. And then you're going to hear a

sermon on Acts 1 1-5. That's three times

that you're studying God's word,

potentially more than you already are,

in a organized and systematic way. And

the people that have been doing it have

experienced growth in understanding,

growth in personal obedience, just

growth in all kinds of spiritual ways,

and I think really have just fallen in

love. And one thing that's really fun

for me is that as you guys are studying

this, you start looking forward to the

sermon because you're wanting even more

growth. So I think it's a great way to

be organized and I think it's a biblical

way to be organized and that's that. You

might think, well, how much time should

we spend in God's word? Do we just need

to spend all day every day uh reading

God's word? Actually, no. Because there

are other commands such as work hardily

as unto the Lord and not to men. So,

he's given you vocations and

assignments, and some of those

assignments do not allow you to

simultaneously be reading God's word um

and doing your assignments. Think of an

air traffic controller when he's

directing several different planes

coming in potentially at different

angles on different uh runways. Can he

be simultaneously memorizing a psalm

while doing that? No. It would be

nonsense to do that. Um, so letting

Christ's word dwell in you richly does

not require that you would just read

scripture all day or for hours and hours

every day. Uh, I do believe that it

requires you to be in his word at least

in some way every day. Um, that's the

deposit. That time spent in the word

deposits his word in your heart and then

it it goes to work. So, you go to work

as an air traffic controller and and you

just read Psalms, you know, about how

you need to uh be willing to cast your

anxiety on him. Well, these days, if

you're an air traffic controller with

the seemingly, I don't know if

statistically, but seemingly increased

accidents are being happened, would that

be a temptation to anxiety and trying to

do it in your own control? Yeah. And it

would be a huge blessing to just ask God

to help you to be confident and focused,

competent, and focused and not make any

mistakes and just cast your anxiety on

him. The reality is that anxiety might

be the thing that causes you to make a

mistake. So if you're a Christian air

traffic controller, God's word deposited

in your heart may be the very thing that

helps you experience peace even while

doing that work. And that's just one

job. You there's so many jobs. Stay at

home mothers is the very same thing. you

need strength from his word. And because

of that, not just the idea that

organizing around the way the Acts uh

the early church in um Acts did,

we have a Bible reading program for that

kind of daily reading. It's called Word

Like Fire. And this actually is the um I

would say last year's, but it's about a

year and a half or so that we spend.

It's a nice slow Bible reading plan, not

one where it's like, you know, 15

chapters a day or something like this.

And it's called Word Like Fire. We're

going to have all of these printed out

for uh probably like 100 to 150 copies

so that anyone in the church that wants

to join us in this Bible uh reading uh

plan can do that. And actually, there

are two days to do each scripture

reading. So the very first reading on

last year's plan and I believe this

year's plan will be identical is Psalm

119 and that's one of the longest

chapters but you have two full days to

read it. So it's not more faster. It's

well done in God's timing. And then we

move on to Genesis 1-3 and John 1-3. It

is not just a linear straight read

through. It is a designed plan. We

didn't design it ourselves. Um it's

based on two uh the 2020 to the word

which is someone else's Bible reading

plan that they developed and it um it

intends to match Old Testament books

with ones that are new that that uh uh

the New Testament uh writings are

relevant to and so they talk about

things. I mean, if you think about John

and uh uh Genesis, they both begin in

the same way, in the beginning, you

know. So, it's really cool to be making

those connections and you're not

spending all this time reading the Old

Testament with not being in the New

Testament. Uh I've heard it said that

the Old Testament is Christ concealed

and the New Testament is Christ

revealed. And I kind of like that little

moniker. And so really all the New

Testament is other than brand new

prophecy at times. Even that is linked

to the Old Testament um is a revelation

of Christ in greater high definition of

what the Old Testament was actually

talking about. So they're necessarily

linked. I think it's a great Bible

reading program. And here's just one

more plug for it. My vision and the

elders's vision for this is uh simply

defined as all being on the same page

quite literally. So, here's this may

excite you. It really excites me. Um, I

want to challenge this year and a half

for everyone in the congregation to do

it. It's not a legalistic challenge. If

you are already succeeding in a Bible

reading program and you're wondering, do

they want me to quit that and do this

one anyway? If God leads you to for the

arguments that I'm about to make, uh,

and that gets exciting to you, yes. But

I would be concerned if you got a thing

going, don't necessarily interrupt it.

Right? The goal ultimately is to be in

the word every day and to let Christ

dwell in us richly. But there's another

goal of being on the same page. I want

you to imagine a scenario. Our church is

very relational. People start asking

you, "Hey, you want to go get coffee

together? Want to hang out? Uh, want to

go to the park?" As the weather turns,

it'll probably more be more indoor. And

let's just say you join this um which by

the way, before I forget, it will start

on the 21st. So, I'm I I wanted to have

you guys have some time to consider if I

was going to join and do this to have

some strategic planning. Uh what are the

when what time would I start reading it?

If your children, you know, have school

really early, am I going to do it as a

bedtime routine? Um if I'm really making

this commitment, I want to keep it. So,

I want to make sure to reorient my life

to make space for the reading of God's

word. So, again, that will be on the

21st. And these will be handed out in

person on the 20th, but it will also be

online. So, you don't just need a hard

copy. But back to the point that I was

making. Let's say you get invited to go

to coffee. You come to coffee and both

of you have done your reading for the

week in Genesis 1 through3 and John 1-3.

It creates a rapport of something to

talk about other than Monday Night

Football, other than things that are fun

to talk about but are not necessarily

eternally valuable. And all of a sudden,

I was like, "Oh, yeah. I was reading

that in Genesis 1. And I saw the

connection with with John as well. You

have this rapport together as a church.

I like to think of it as like a tuning

fork for for unity in our church. We're

all being tuned to the very same

frequency. And and uh it allows us to

let the word dwell in us richly, not

just as individuals, but

congregationally. So that's my plug. If

you're considering doing it, it's not

like you have to let us know. I'm going

to be doing it. you're going to be

hearing a lot more uh times where I'm

bringing the reading from word like fire

into the sermons and it's just another

way for us to be focused on the

authority of God's word and personal

obedience. Uh last thing about a

missional explanation is the very next

thing that we are working on is uh what

I call mentor style disciplehip. So this

is disciplehip. you listening to

teaching from God's word, just reading

God's word by yourself, that is a part

of disciplehip. But there's another way

Jesus modeled disciplehip, which is I

would call like one- on-one or one-on-

two. And you can get into real the real

deep areas in that way. And I think you

know what like apprenticing or mentoring

is. It's when a um not necessarily older

but usually older and uh more mature

Christian in takes a spiritual intention

to help develop another disciple for

some period of time. Uh that's actually

a very careful uh definition on my part

because it's not a lifelong commitment

necessarily. Uh it's uh only some

responsibility of the disciplehip.

you're not taking all the responsibility

of disciplehip and um but it is

intentional. So you're having some

intent in helping somebody grow as a

mentor and we have been for a while

while um developing mentors and uh we'll

be installing those. I'm hoping uh

before the end of the fall asking

people, hey uh we feel like you are

someone that got us highlighted as

mature and someone that we would like to

be an official Boon Fairy mentor and

then we're going to announce those

mentors and uh find a way to make sure

people know uh that they're available.

They might not be available more than

maybe two mentees uh but it's another

way to copy what Jesus did. He discipled

them in in large groups. He discipled

them in small groups. And he also uh

talked to them about really deep things

one-on-one. Remember Peter having to be

restored. Maybe some of you need to be

restored in some way and encouraged and

maybe it's in such a deep and private

area that really doing it with someone

trustworthy that you can trust doctrally

that you can trust in terms of keeping

confidentiality and who you have a trust

in guiding you towards God's word and

not towards some other authority. Uh

that can be a really powerful thing. I

know some of you have longed for a very

long time to have mentors and that's the

very next thing we're um intending to

install to keep accomplishing our

mission. So um that's the progress that

we've made so far. You can look forward

into the future, although I can't

predict when us putting in um more

organizational effort for evangelism. In

the meantime, I'm already

I don't want to be patronizing, but I

feel proud uh to be part of this

congregation. I constantly hear about

people talking about, you know, I shared

my faith today um with my grandson. I

shared my faith today with a young lady.

I shared my faith like witnessing to

people in that way. So, evangelism is

already happening. We also intend to

have a more structured and organized

approach towards caring for the poor at

our church. And those are not yet built

out. if you're wondering why don't we do

that yet. We're taking a very systematic

uh approach of building these things to

last long term. Um so that's what we're

about and that's what we're intending to

uh organize our lives around as a

church. I think it's exciting. I I I

organize my family around it. I organize

uh around this so deeply that even

things that I absolutely love like

sports for my kids that um we're having

to make some tough decisions about

whether certain sports leagues are

really going to work cuz they're in

competition with our Sunday service. And

currently we only have one and I don't

know how you personally feel in terms of

conviction about Sunday but again not in

a legalistic way. Um, for example, if we

had multiple services and your son was

playing on a Sunday, but you were able

to come to the Saturday service, I

wouldn't have any uh explicit biblical

reason to find a problem with that. I

personally just like to, it's actually

called the Lord's Day uh in scripture.

And so, I like to hold that open. And

so, um, it's been difficult being part

of a sports league that has them on both

days. And I've been talking to my boys

about like at maximum if it's a

championship, that's my rule. if it's a

championship and you're missing one

Sunday, that would be that would be one

thing because we miss Sundays for for

like vacation and things like that. Um,

but I'll tell you this is, you might

laugh at this because you might not care

about hunting, but I have fallen in love

with hunting. I have a friend who I

played, I was a dtack, as a defensive

end, and he got an elk and now he said,

"Well, I guess I'll just be guiding

you." So, I all of a sudden have a

guide, which was probably something

like5 to $10,000. I told him I told him,

"I can't tell you how thankful I am that

you're just going to guide me." And

ideally, we'd be going for from Monday

to Friday, 7 days. That would increase

the chances. It's archery, right? I'm

brand new to it and I am so nervous that

I'm going to miss. I've been practicing

every day. Um, and so, man, when you see

an animal like that and you're trying to

take the shot, adrenaline, hands are

shaking, you're breathing hard. It's

intense. And so, I thought about it. you

know, it wouldn't be the end of the

world to miss one disciplehip community.

Um, and uh, we miss all the time and

this is really a special thing. But I

thought, you know what? I'm asking God

to help me get a bull elk. I'm asking

him to to help us do that. It's it's

total bucket list for me. And you know

what? I'm going to put him first even

though it wouldn't be absolutely

necessary. I am not going to go hunting

on Wednesday. And it was a sacrifice for

me. Maybe not that big of a one, but it

was a sacrifice. So, um, one thing I

want to ask you before we even get into

the meat of the word and get away from

this explanation, which I think is good,

but I think we need to focus on the word

now. Um, is are you living your life

according to God's agenda? Is this the

mission of your life? If you're a

Christian and indwwellled by the spirit,

did you know that you've been given at

least one gift or more that is meant to

help accomplish this mission on earth?

Do you know that you're a spiritual

building block that is part of God's

blueprint for the church to be built

alongside others?

Did you know that even the idea of

gathering together, we're going to go

over Hebrews uh 10, that we're not to

forsake the gathering and make that a

habit, uh but rather we're to encourage

one another. So when you're missing from

church, when you're missing from these

groups, when you're just missing in

fellowship opportunities like that, the

encouragement that God intends to bring

other people through you is as well. And

so that's a place where the mission is

not being accomplished. And so it's not

just because I get paid to do this that

I've devoted my life to this. Um I

watched my dad and my mom devote their

lives to this. I devoted my life to

everything but this mission for the

early part of my life living like a

prodigal and then God brought me to

repentance, captured my heart, forgave

me of all of my sin. I knew that he

loved me for sure. And this is what I

want my family to about. And this is

what I want our church to be about. by

conviction and to the exclusion of other

good things when necessary. So I believe

that's what you're called to. And so you

might consider in terms of personal

obedience, have you made that the agenda

of your life? Because that's the Lord's

agenda for us. And I'm not saying that

doesn't mean you continue to work

hardily as unto the Lord in your

vocation. It's just would you consider

your vocation as built around that

mission or the other way around. I do

not believe we should make I found a way

the church an accessory.

It just came to me. All right. So, let's

get into the idea of actually being

personally obedient. It does flow. How

can we be personally obedient in this

mission? Let's go back to Matthew 12

or excuse me, Matthew 28

and let's read what Jesus said. This is

Matthew 28:16.

Matthew 28:16

Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to

the mountain to which Jesus had directed

them and they saw him and worshiped him.

But some doubted

who are who are the some we don't know

who's the group that's being talked

about. The 11 disciples.

We're going to watch them become the

apostles here in Acts. And we're going

to see them overcome that doubt and obey

God and make his agenda the agenda of

their life even on pain of death for

some of them.

But they did doubt and this is

postresurrection. Have you ever seen

that? Now the 11 disciples went to

Galilee and then just skip down. Some

doubted. Okay, even among the disciples

who were eyewitnesses

of the resurrection and eyewitnesses of

the ascension. Okay, those things just

didn't happen back then either. When

people died, they stayed dead and no one

knew how to fly,

right? So, these are shockingly,

unexplainably supernatural things. And

some of them still doubted. I mentioned

that because when we look to personally

over obey, doubt is one of the biggest

battlefields for growth in obedience.

I'll say that again. Doubt is one of the

biggest battlefields for growth in

personal obedience. Verse 18. And Jesus

came and said to them, "All authority in

heaven and on earth has been given to

me. Go therefore and make disciples of

all nations, baptizing them in the name

of the Father and in the Son and of the

Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe

all that I have commanded you. And

behold, I will be with you always to the

end of the age. You've heard how we're

organized around this mission. And

ultimately, the teaching them to observe

all that I've commanded you is summed up

in loving God more passionately and

loving others more compassionately.

That's the summary of all that would uh

be commanded in all of scripture. That's

the end goal and that's what glorifies

God. That's what makes him look as good

as he actually is in our personal lives.

So, I hope you're convinced that the way

that we have committed to the mission,

the way that we're defining it really is

biblical. But what about personal

obedience? Let's say you u I'm going to

stand up for a second here. I do this so

rarely, but you're standing on the

foundation, right? And your feet are

solid and you haven't allowed coke to

pour into there. So that one place is

kind of soft and it's like that's a part

that you're not even obeying

hypothetically. What does that mean?

You're you're saying, "Well, I don't I

disagree with that part of the word and

I'm not even agree with it." That's

being pretty far off, right? Because

where can conviction even come in if you

just say, "I don't even agree with that

word." You have to first agree with the

word to experience any kind of

conviction that there's an area that you

haven't obeyed yet. And so let's just

say that you even just as a result of

hearing the sermon and what the Holy

Spirit's been doing in your life, you

don't have that quicksand. If you do,

you got to go back and get rid of it in

the first place because then otherwise,

you never know if you can trust your

your foundation. Um, so if you're

thinking about that and if you haven't

heard that sermon, I think I don't point

back to sermons that much, but that

one's I think a pretty important one.

foundationally for a church and for you.

But let's say all of your foundation is

is solid and you can stand on it, right?

Does that mean that you're just always

obeying the go God's word? I don't

always do a show of hands, but if uh you

would do a show of hands, and this is

not a trick question. The right answer

is not to raise your hands, and you all

know it. Okay. How many of you would

claim right now that you already observe

all of Jesus commands perfectly?

I want you to look around for a second

because that means that everybody here

thinks they need to grow.

Unless you were afraid to say it because

of social pressure, which I hope wasn't

the real thing. Like I I mean in your

heart actually deep down, do you believe

that you observe Jesus commands already

perfectly?

No. So when you're standing on the

foundation, that just means you agree

God's word is always authoritative,

always right. Yes, it has to be rightly

understood. But when it says do not get

drunk on wine but be filled with the

spirit, if you have been getting drunk,

you need correction, right? You need

God's word to help redirect you. Okay?

So that just establishes the idea that

everyone in this church um unless people

are hiding something in their heart

recognizes they need growth in

obedience. Okay. What's the opposite of

obedience?

Sin. Okay. That also just means kids, I

want you to hear that. Everyone in here,

at least at an outward level, just admit

admitted they're a sinner.

And that was still not a trick question.

I already know that you guys believe

that. I believe that about myself. Okay?

I'm still a sinner. I'm still in need of

the cross. And unless I somehow uh

become a false teacher, I will never

claim this side of the grave not to be a

sinner. Honestly, the trajectory of my

life has been growing in understanding

of just how much worse of a sinner I am

than I thought,

right? Which is strangely encouraging

because God just keeps applying more

grace,

but hopefully not wash, rinse, and

repeat, right? Hopefully that grace is

actually transforming us, right? Meaning

we're becoming more forgiving, quicker

to forgive. We're becoming people who

are more quick to admit their sin. We're

becoming people who do not look at

correction as something dangerous, but

people who realize actually correction

is the only way you grow in obedience.

Okay, I want to give you my main point

for what really is the sermon today and

no longer just an explanation of how

we're organized. Learning to obey Jesus

requires correction, conviction,

confession, and encouragement.

Learning to obey Jesus requires

conviction, conf uh con correction,

conviction, confession, and

encouragement.

Okay? But it has to start with

correction. If you have not been obeying

in an area, then that needs to be

corrected. And you may already know that

it needs to be corrected. But sometimes

these areas are related to pride and

pride tends to blind us. Uh you do not

need to raise your hands on that. But

how many of you on this question, but

how many of you have thought you were

being obedient and were blind to an area

that you weren't obeying in and then you

experienced correction in some way and

ended up having to agree, wow, I was

totally blind to that. That's happened

to me more than I like to admit.

I like to think, man, if I could just

take the growth now

um and go back 10 years,

that decade would have been so much

better in terms of obedience. Okay,

which also leads me to um think about

how okay when people that are 10 years

older than me and 10 years farther along

in terms of the length of the time that

they have been uh walking with the Lord

tell me something that's painful to hear

and I don't really want to agree with

what if that's the thing that allows me

to have that time capsule early and live

that decade differently be you know so

so correction is is unbelievably good

and to those who are humble and wise

they know that they know that correction

is good. So, I want to go to uh a couple

verses about correction.

Okay. Um let's go to um uh Romans 8:28.

Romans 8:28

And you might think, how is this about

correction? Well, I'll talk to you about

how it's correction. Okay. We talked

about how doubt is uh one of the primary

battlefields um for

uh growth in personal obedience. And I

think you all agree with that. Doubt is

one of one of the um is one of the

primary battlefields for growth in

personal obedience. Why is that? So let

me give you uh an uh the idea and then

an example of that in my personal life.

Maybe I'll give you two. Okay. So how

many times has God been faithful to you

um in a time of crisis but allowed the

crisis to continue without an answer to

prayer or solution for a time? and

sometimes for a long time. But then now

as you're looking back, you realize,

wow, he worked that all together for my

good. And you actually become glad for

the crisis. Okay.

How many times did you know the word

said that he was going to work that for

your good, but didn't trust in advance

of the answer or the solution? Okay. I

want to give you one time where I had a

huge victory and I'll never forget it. I

still attribute that victory to the Holy

Spirit, not myself. And another time

where I failed at first and then God

redirected me and it still ended up

being a ve v victory, but I actually

failed. The first one was I went to

marriage counseling with my wife before

we ever even got married. And uh I asked

the counselor said, "Do you think it's

okay for me to go to seminary full-time

without having a job and have Christine

as a nurse put me through seminary or is

that really not a biblical idea?" And

cuz I was thinking about it, I I I

believe that the uh according to

scripture, the husband should take on

the responsibility and weight of uh

providing for the family financially and

not the other way around. It does not

mean women can't work. We've talked

about that before. Um nothing even close

to that. But the primary responsibility,

and I knew this pastor agreed with that.

He goes, "No, I don't think it's

unbiblical for you to do it, but I'd

like you to make a promise to Christine

if she's ever feeling overly burdened in

this time of putting you through

seminary for I think it was about 3

years or maybe I was already part of the

way in, but it's around there, right?

About the fastest you can accomplish

seminary is about 3 years." And I

thought, I want to just go hard for

three years. And and uh she was willing,

but I wasn't sure that it was God's

plan. Um Christine's very

servant-hearted. So he said, "Yes, but I

want you to make her promise that if she

even so much as hints at it's becoming a

burden, that you will quit seminary and

go to work and trust God that he'll help

you finish it later. That you will take

on the burden." And I made that promise

to Christine. I'm in my last semester.

Okay.

Um Christine loses her job, which means

she doesn't even have to explain that

it's become a burden, right?

uh she was working at a skilled nurse

facility and I'm in my last semester and

right before she calls me and tells me

this the day before I heard a sermon

where the main point was your crisis is

a gift from Isaiah. It's the portion of

the story where the Assyrians are

knocking on the door of Jerusalem

threatening them with siege warfare

which is terrifying to be starved to

death behind walls. The things that

happen in that kind of siege where are

hideously grotesque, right? It's

terrifying to be threatened with siege

warfare. 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. And

Isaiah prophesies and tells Hezekiah,

"Do not give into their demands. Trust

the Lord." Okay? And he has to trust him

in advance. And the angel of the Lord or

the destroying angel, I'm not sure when

it says, but an angel of the Lord comes

and Hezekiah trusts and Isaiah trusts

and he puts to death 185,000 soldiers

supernaturally and stops Assyria from

destroying Jerusalem or effectively

destroying them through siege warfare.

Okay, so that was the story. Your crisis

is a gift. Your crisis is a gift to

watch God's faithfulness. So, I just

heard that and he said,"I want you the

very next time you have a crisis to

trust God in advance. Commit right now."

He said like that with passion. I'm

like, "I'm going to do it. It's been one

of the huge problems in my life that I

do not trust God in advance. I'm going

to do it." And I was so close to

finishing seminary and now I'm like,

"She lost her job. I have to keep my

promise. I'm going to have to go right

back to work." And then even though it's

only A SEMINARY AWAY, WHO knows when

it'll be finished? And then I remembered

your crisis is a gift, right? So I said,

"This is a gift, honey." Probably the

wrong thing to say,

especially without any context, but I

we're going to be fine, okay? And I will

immediately go I I was a personal

trainer at the time, and I I'll

immediately go back and get a job at at

personal training. And you just relax.

You've done such a great job. which that

response is a big deal for me, right?

That's a big change from how I used to

live. Okay. Then the very next day, I'll

say his name out loud uh because I want

to praise him for what he did, but he

would praise God for it. And so I'm also

praising God. Um Chris Berg, a good

friend of mine who played in the Arena

Football League. and one of the teams uh

refused to do a surgery even though

contractually they were obligated, calls

me and says, "Hey, I just got a legal

settlement for $75,000 and God told me

to give you 10% of it."

And I just started laughing cuz my

crisis was literally a gift. I showed it

to Christine. It was the exact amount of

money we needed for those three months

to get through seminary, finish

seminary. I was able to keep my

commitment and didn't have to break my

promise and God helped me finish

seminary anyway. And I trusted him in

advance. I trusted in advance. I was,

you know, colloally speaking, I was so

proud of myself, but really ultimately I

was proud of God. I was so thankful that

he helped me do that. Let me give you

another time. Right at the beginning of

the marriage, we go on a honeymoon to

Maui, right? And Christine at the end of

the first day during the middle of the

night into the second day gets emergency

room sick.

And I blame God for it. I thought of all

times for my wife to get so sick. We

have so many things fun planned

together, all these things. And now

she's so sick she really shouldn't even

get out of bed. Why would you have it

happen now, God? Right? And in the back

of my mind, I knew I knew and wasn't

denying it. I don't deserve a wife like

this. I don't deserve a honeymoon like

this. But there was just this hook in my

heart. I was upset with the Lord. Okay.

And then uh because I didn't really want

to leave her alone. She was really sick.

Uh I decided, you know what? And there

was no kitchenet or anything like this,

but there was this coffee pot, and she

loves ramen noodles. So, I cooked her

ramen noodles in a coffee pot. And while

I was doing that, not in an audible way,

but in the way the spirit uh sometimes

speak to us, he dropped the thought into

my heart that you will know is not a

thought that comes from my flesh. And

what I heard basically paraphrased, what

I felt like the Holy Spirit was

directing me to also through his word

was, "What if I want you to learn how to

serve your wife, not just have fun with

her all the time?" And I laughed out

loud cuz I knew that was God's voice to

me. I knew that's the kind of thing that

he would want to found my marriage on.

And I found myself willing. Yes. And

almost even happy. I can do that

mission. I can take care of her.

And then I I I because it blaming God

for stuff was like the sin of my whole

life. And I I just I can't say I

couldn't not. I have no excuse. But I

was just so upset. I was so upset. And

then he basically reminded me of

commands in the scripture to serve my

wife. And I found my heart willing and I

did it. And then there was these windows

of time that she just didn't feel sick.

And it was usually early morning she

felt sick and then she didn't. And then

at night she felt sick again. And we

still bamboo forest. It's like bamboo

that big clack. We still got to do those

things and it was it was amazing. Okay.

So, regarding doubt, what I'm trying to

tell you, what if that's an area that's

for you also somewhat of a besetting sin

and you're realizing, you know what, I

need to trust in him advance. I want to

be as encouraging as that pastor was

that I heard the sermon from. How about

I just say the same thing? Your next

crisis is a gift. Your next big problem

is a gift. It's a gift a in the

opportunity to trust in him advance and

then have a victory where it's not just

like oh God sorry I didn't believe you

and you were faithful as you always are

but God I believed you in advance

there's a huge blessing in that and it

also guess what makes God look as good

as he actually is to other people to

have that kind of faith so if doubt is

an area where you have been struggling

to obey the Lord in you know um if it's

not of faith it's sins doubt is sin God

is not worthy worthy of your doubt. He's

worthy of your complete trust.

So, can you have a victory in advance? I

believe you can. I believe you can. And

if you can overcome that doubt that

continues to derail you, uh there's more

in terms of personal obedience. I want

to talk about correction for a little

bit, we'll move on to conviction, then

we'll move on to um confession and

encouragement and be done. Okay? It is

my experience. This is anecdotal uh in

the sense that it's not like there's

been some there probably has been a

statistical study, but it's also

something that many pastors I've talked

to have agreed with. Uh we seem to be in

a generation or generations uh where

people are far more reactionary to

correction um than they were maybe a

couple decades past. It's I think

there's nothing new under the sun.

There's always going to be the flesh

reacting to correction. But it's also

true in my experience that I actually

experience a certain amount of anxiety

when going in to talk to somebody. Uh

either if it's admonishing, correcting,

but especially if it's like rebuke

level, if like the sin is really serious

and they need to be uh pretty heavily

redirected away from it, uh that I'll

just get unfriended. Uh that it'll cause

some kind of big schism in the church.

Um and why? because that kind of thing

has happened and way too regularly even

at this church. And so, um, if that's

true and and maybe just evaluate it for

yourself personally, not for other

people, but are you correctable? Do you

have the kind of humility? You guys all

just admitted that there needs to be

growth in areas of personal obedience

and that you haven't yet accomplished

it. And let's let's go to Hebrews 4:12.

Hebrews 4:12

I know AV team, I'm skipping forward

here, but let's go to Hebrews 4:12. For

Hebrews 4:12

the word of God is living and active,

sharper than any two-edged sword,

piercing to the division of soul and of

spirit, of joints and of marrow, and

discerning the thoughts and intentions

of the heart. You cannot hide any

disobedience from God's word. You cannot

do it. It's not possible. And I believe

you know that. But can you hide it from

other people? Yeah, you can. So, if

someone who loves you enough to speak

the truth into an area of your life

where it is not aligned with scripture,

maybe it's just an admonishing word,

maybe it's just an admonishing word.

Let's go to um Colossians 3:16 real

Colossians 3:16

quick as well. Skipping ahead again,

Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of

Colossians 3:16

Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and

admonishing one another in all wisdom,

singing psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs with thankfulness in your hearts

to God. admonishment and teaching of one

another is part even of what we're doing

in the service. It's more pronounced in

our disciplehip communities because

people are actually sharing in a way

that helps other people learn. Um, but

that admonishing portion, it's it's

everyone in the church. Let's go to

Titus 2:12 or 2:15, sorry. Titus 2:15.

Titus 2:12 Titus 2:15

Declare these things, exhort and rebuke

with all authority. Let no one disregard

you. And in context, what's being spoken

about is the gospel and its attendant

applications. Okay? And you might think,

well, yeah, that's what elders and

teachers should do. But it's written as

scripture to everyone. Declare these

things, exhort and rebuke. Probably the

most forceful type of correction is

rebuke with all authority. Let no one

disregard you. Okay. What does that mean

in terms of don't let someone disregard

you? Well, let's go to Proverbs 29:15.

Proverbs 29:15

This is about children uh but it's

similar. The rod of reproof give wis the

rod and reproof give wisdom but a child

left to himself brings shame to his

mother. You probably haven't some of

these kids probably haven't read Lord of

the Flies and I don't necessarily uh

expect you to or even say you should.

But when I say Lord of the Flies when

children are without any kind of

discipline and protection of authority

it evolves fast in the worst kinds of

things. Okay? You do not want to bring

shame to your mother. That's why you do

need discipline and reproof. The rod is

standing in for I I believe actual

corporal discipline, but I think there

are other ways to discipline children as

well. And reproof uh give wisdom. Okay.

So,

I'm going to back up just for a second

from this verse two. If you were to ask

me or the elders, why is it uh I agree

with you if you do that people are less

and less corrective and correctable and

and and less and less uh and more and

more reactive. Uh there's less peace in

their hearts because by the way, if

someone tells you something corrective,

you can say, you know, I will pray about

that. I don't I don't really agree. Um

but I'll take that into prayer and

consider it. That'd be a mature way to

respond. Then you can even come back.

It's like, I'm just not experiencing

conviction around that issue. You can do

that or you can just atomic bomb the

whole thing and just blow up the

relationship and walk. Oh, how dare you

correct me, you know, unnecessary.

Sometimes correction that goes really

deep and you can see why your heart's

reacting so much. Um but I think what's

been happening is that um for several

generations now on mass, not every uh in

general, not every parent, I think there

are parents in our congregation that

that do a fantastic job and parents that

are growing and learning. Um but I

believe parents have stopped correcting

their children and stopped disciplining

them and that basically generations of

children that uh have not been trained

to have that kind of wisdom are not used

to correction have started to grow up um

in probably every generation it seems

especially true in the millennial

generation I'm in the millennial

generation um and so it's shocking to be

corrected you know what do you think

you're doing uh their concrete is

settled in terms of their character but

while it was runny where there was an

opportunity for them to learn how to be

corrected and see the value of it never

happened. So the concrete settled and

became hardened and boom now everything

feels like a jackhammer to them. You're

contradicting my identity. It feels like

right. I think that may be a part of of

how things devolve to the point they

were. But could we all agree that if

you're not obeying in an area and

especially if you're blind to it, you're

going to need correction? That God's

God's word is the power to do so. But

that since he generally and in my

experience almost never I say almost

never, I've never heard him speak out

loud. He speaks through his word

and he uses other disciples and also

authorities within the church to correct

people. He uses parents to correct

children. So correction is necessary in

God's general plan of how to do that is

to use other people in your life who can

see from the outside. Can they see your

thoughts or intentions though of the

heart? No, they cannot. Can they see the

symptoms of what looks like sin?

disorder in your thought and disorder in

your actions. Some kind of sinful thing

where it's just not obedient. Something

seems wrong. No. But can you hide the

thoughts and intents? No. That's not

what I was intending. Even though you

know in your heart you were. Okay.

You're still not free just because you

fooled the person because the Holy

Spirit will lay on that piercing

conviction, that scalpel sharp

conviction. But if you continue

resisting that, you know what happens?

Your conscience starts becoming seared.

seared like the nerve endings of your

spirit become dull to his conviction and

now you will definitely become more and

more blind to the severity of that and

that is at least in my experience

biblically and in my own life when God

starts bringing the hard knock kind of

correction that you can't get out of

that it's not even someone else bringing

or maybe some authority is but that just

some bad things happen because he's

bringing you you to an end of himself.

So if you actually want to grow, let's

let's actually do another show of hands.

Cuz in this case, the right answer is

everyone raised their hands. Who wants

to grow in obedience? And then look

around. Who wants to grow in obedience?

Everyone wants to grow in obedience.

Well, you're not going to be able to

escape correction.

if you want to grow in obedience. So,

wouldn't it be amazing if as a

congregation we broke that at least

observational generational trend of

reacting so strongly to correction and

actually sought it and then just by the

way if the Holy Spirit doesn't convict

you and you're not experiencing that

even that you can fool yourself on. But

it's not human beings that transform

you. They don't correct you effectively.

The Holy Spirit corrects you

effectively. So you can say no, I don't

think that's an issue. I think I'm being

misunderstood here. But if you know in

their heart they're right, then it's

just going to lead to more obedience.

You don't have to deny it. You don't

have to hide it. And what it should lead

to, let's put the main point up, is

confession, it should lead to

confession. Let's read James 5:16. We're

James 5:16

almost done here. James 5:16. Uh that

James 5:16

was the third to last on the Yeah.

Therefore, confess your sins to one

another and pray for one another that

you may be healed. The prayer of a

righteous person has great power as it

is working. Please no show of hands

here. You'll understand why. When's the

last time you confessed your sin to

another person. If you're saying you

really want to learn to obey and if you

have agreed biblically that God's word

will correct the very most inner parts

in our lives. And if you agree that

because of the command to disciple,

teaching them to observe everything com

I've commanded you, he's intentionally

using other people to do that in your

life. Even people that aren't your

official mentor or aren't an elder

admonishing you on it. You ought to

expect that to happen in a healthy

church. That ought to happen. Okay?

Then you would be confessing your sin

from time to time, right? So, if that

hasn't been happening, and I don't know

that it hasn't been happening, and I'm

not trying to give you a guilt trip, but

if it hasn't been happening, maybe it's

because you're stalled out on growing in

obedience. So, maybe that's something

you could examine before we go to the

Lord's Supper. Today,

let's go to Hebrews 10:24-2.

I told you I talk about the agenda and

how it needs to be pearl of great price

agenda, right? You sell everything by

the field just for the pearl. You sell

everything by the field just for the

pearl. and the pearl is Jesus Christ and

his gospel. Okay? Have you sold

everything? I'm not talking even about

like the early church did. I'm not

talking go sell your house and do all

these things. If God tells you to do it,

go ahead. But he's you're never going to

outgive him. You're never going to

outgive him. He says test me in this.

You can't. But it may not be the wise

time to just go and sell everything.

There's wisdom in figuring that out. But

have you at least metaphorically

speaking sold out? You sold out. Well,

if you sold out, then

before I was a pastor, before I was

paid, I realized my life has to revolve

around building up the church.

And my dad modeled that to me so

amazingly. But I thought, you know what?

I thought I couldn't work in the church

because of my past. I had a a

misunderstanding of what truly

disqualifies you. But I thought for sure

I couldn't be a pastor. But uh God

changed my mind through correcting me

from other people to my great excitement

because all I want to do I thought,

well, I could be a janitor in a church.

I thought, you know, I'd rather do that

than be a personal trainer for NFL, NHL,

and MLB players. I'd rather be a

janitor. And then then at the time, my

sister told me, you know, that's

actually a Bible verse. better one day

in your house.

>> That's one kind of calling. But I

thought since I can't do it, well, I

should probably get a job um that allows

me to at least spend a lot of time

helping build up build up the church and

maybe also a good paying one with

reason. I had to reject the idea of

trying to become rich. That was one of

my original goals, but maybe one that

that allows me to give generously, too.

Cuz God had captured my heart for

building up the church, right? That's

what I want my life to be about, my

family's life about, and the church

about. Is that what your life is about?

Is that what you're all about?

That's God's plan. You know, that's what

Jesus died for.

To establish a church, an assembly of

people organized the way he wants them

to be organized. They have more than one

thing in common, but they are forgiven

of their sin and they're saved and

they'll spend eternity with one another,

right?

What did uh Maximus say? What we do in

life echoes in eternity, right? It's not

a Bible verse, but there's some truth in

that biblically. What you do on this

earth to build up the church has eternal

value.

So, I'm going to offer you a correction.

It's very general. It's not aimed at a

single person. It's true, I think, for

Americans in general, but it's also true

for Christians in general. We're way too

busy all the time. Can we agree on that?

way too busy all the time. Way too busy

all the time. And I think sometimes have

not looked at our lives and thought to

ourselves, are the things I'm busy with

actually the things that God wants me to

be busy with? And I'm not even saying

you're busy with bad things.

I think a lot of us are busy with lots

of good things and just too many of

them. Would you be willing to consider

and pray about God, what of the things

that I'm busy with do you actually want

me to do? And if I'm feeling like I do

not have t enough time to be in your

word, I do not have time to pray, I do

not have enough time to serve in your

church, I do not have enough time to

commit to your church in deep ways,

consider am

consider sacrificing some of those

things.

Consider sacrificing some of those

things.

And you know what? If you want to talk

about that, if you want to help, you

can. What I do is I write down the

things that I'm committed to. I write

them down and then I ask God, which one

of those things do you want me to

actually be committed to?

I would like my children to every one of

them wants to be three sport athletes.

Not going to happen. It's too much. It

makes the whole family about sports all

the time. All the time. I do not have

the time to keep my commitments to the

Lord and do that. Right?

So there are sacrifice. If there are no

sacrifices, it's not pearl of great

price. It can't be. Okay. So I'll I'll

I'll just say that consider praying

about that and look at your life. Am I

devoted the way I'm supposed to be? And

you know what? I can guarantee you if

you devote yourself the way that that if

everyone in this room devotes themselves

the way it ought to, we will certainly

experience the power of the Holy Spirit

like the early church did. It can't not

happen. He works so powerfully to fully

devoted people. Okay?

So, you may need to confess, Lord, I've

been practicing too much of my own

agenda. Now, let me encourage you

because encouragement is like the

nitrogen. I know that correction is like

a weed killer and some weeds need to be

killed. You just constantly spray weed

killer, you kill all the grass. Nitrogen

helps us grow. Encouragement helps us

grow. You know what Jesus did to

constantly help you to redirect towards

obedience? He died for you. He died for

you. He didn't deserve to die. He's the

only son that always obeyed, who did not

need to. He did learn how to obey

through suffering and he did even grow

in obedience, but not because he ever

sinned, right? The only truly pleasing

son of God is Jesus Christ. And he has

to die for you.

No one's ever going to sell out more for

you than God. So, he is worthy of you

selling out for him. And the Holy Spirit

will confirm that in your heart. So

let's go to the place where especially

in a service you can examine your heart,

ask for forgiveness. If you truly feel

corrected, right? Human being

correction, the Holy Spirit will use it

if he's in agreement with it. If he's

not, because I don't think every single

person in the church is necessarily too

too busy. You need to let the Holy

Spirit apply that or not apply that to

you by conviction individually. That's

really important. But 1 Corinthians 11

says that we are to examine ourselves

before the we go to the table. 1

1 Corinthians 11:28

Corinthians 11:28. Let me read it to

you.

I'm in the wrong chapter. 11:28. Let a

person examine himself then and so eat

of the bread and drink of the cup.

Wives need to be cherished. Maybe you

haven't cherished your wife. Husbands

need to be honored. Maybe you haven't

really been honoring your husband.

Children need to obey their parents.

Maybe you have not been obeying and

you're making it hard for them, you

know. So, whatever it is that the Holy

Spirit's laid on your heart, I'm going

to take a full 2 minutes before

communion. Um, I'll have Emily, if

you're willing, come up and maybe she

can play some guitar music and and we

can really, but a real two minutes of

examining oursel and thinking, how does

the Holy Spirit want to correct me? I

want to grow in obedience. And you have

all the grace you need, you could ever

possibly need, inexhaustible at that

table. Because what that table

represents in a real spiritual way is

the death and resurrection of Jesus

Christ. It represents his body broken

and his blood shed.

And so, like a favorite teacher of mine

often said, don't leave any grace on the

table. Learning to obey Jesus requires

correction, conviction, confession, and

encouragement. Amen. Heavenly Father, I

pray that as we examine ourselves

for the next two minutes, that your Holy

Spirit would speak to us clearly. We

know he will not condemn us. That he

would speak to us specifically. That we

would know to reject the voice of the

enemy in accusations and condemnation.

But that we would know the voice of our

loving father,

the voice of our savior

and how we need to be directed and

redirected to obedience before we come

for the forgiveness and for the power we

need to obey your command to go and make

disciples. I pray these things in Jesus

name. Amen.