Guest Speaker, Dr. Jim Tillotson - September 27, 2026. Baptist Bible Church Sparta MI

Well, this morning we have a guest speaker with us, Dr.

Jim Tillotson, president of Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary, my alma mater.

And Dr.

Jim became the president when I was in seminary and just finishing up my schooling.

So we connected but didn't really get to know each other until about three years ago.

Liz and I had the privilege of going to Israel on the Israel trip.

And it was a trip that Dr.

Jim, uh Dr.

Jim led for us, and really got to know Dr.

Jim a lot better on that trip and have a lot of great memories, a lot of fun on that trip.

But I have to say, one of the top memories of that trip, and I'm so glad the first thing Dr.

Jim said to me when we met this weekend was reminded me of this memory, was uh in in Iowa, I never knew how to play the game of rook before until I went to Iowa and quickly became a master of the game.

And had a lot of fun.

I did a lot of studying as well while I was in school, but also a lot of winning of rook.

And for those of you that don't know, the the game of rook is kind of an old-fashioned game.

It used to be back in the day when playing with playing cards was frowned upon because of the association with gambling, rook was the acceptable alternative.

In fact, one might say the holier version of playing with playing cards is to play with rook instead, rook cards.

And so quickly became uh enamored with the game, would play a lot, and of course, any any good rook player knows you never leave the house without a deck of cards with you, because you never know when you might get a chance to play.

And knowing that, I decided to bring a deck of rook cards with me to Iowa, or to not to Iowa, but to Israel on the Israel trip.

And I, at the beginning of the trip, of course, Rook came up and people began to talk about how much they like to play, and then I made the comment early on in the trip.

I said, you know, it's always been my dream to play the holiest of games in the holiest of cities, the city of Jerusalem.

And everybody was like, oh yeah, and Dr.

Jim thought that was hilarious and was like, I'm in, I'm in.

I was like, all right, it's going down.

And so one of my favorite memories from the trip is staying up way too late in the hotel lobby in Jerusalem, playing rook with uh with some good friends now.

And uh Dr.

Jim was here over the weekend for the Men's retreat at Lincoln Lake, and we had an awesome time at Men's retreat.

Really appreciate his ministry and appreciate his graciousness to stay a little bit longer and come this morning and bring the word uh for us here at Baptist Bible Church.

So, brother, thanks for being here this morning.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

It's wonderful to be here.

If you have your Bible this morning, let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

One of the fun parts about being a college president is getting to get out and see our alumni.

And uh I just got to tell you, if we could have more alumni like Pastor Jonathan and Liz, uh faith would be doing incredibly well.

And I travel a lot.

I'm not just saying this because they're sitting here, but uh I walked in the church, it had a new smell, and uh you're doing everything very sharp.

I got to sit in his uh Sunday school lesson.

If you don't come to Sunday school, I'd encourage you.

It's phenomenal.

Uh it was excellent material.

And uh I just gotta say, uh, as I travel, they are an exceptional pastor and pastor's wife.

And so, and I don't know if they remember this, but the I was a new president.

I pastored up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for 18 years.

I did not see this transition coming.

In fact, when I heard about Faith Baptist Bible College, I'd never heard about it in my life before.

I had to get my map out and find out where Des Moines was.

And uh so I think I'd driven through Iowa twice in my entire lifetime.

And so we were just completely overwhelmed when we moved to Iowa.

And uh he was working at a church as a youth pastor.

I don't know if you remember this, and they invited Joan and I to come.

And uh I came and spoke to their youth group, and that was our kind of my first memory of the two of you working together, and what a blessing it is to come and see what God has done here.

And uh, had a great time at the men's retreat this weekend, and uh it's just been a real blessing.

I really do love your pastor, and uh, if you don't travel a lot, sometimes if you don't get out a lot, you think, well, he's just our pastor, uh, and not really appreciate how great he really is.

And so uh, but I know I was talking to one gentleman who said, Hey, I've been, I was looking for a long time.

I've been here 10 months, and man, it's so he was just telling me this morning, what a blessing it's been to be here.

And so uh I always tell if you're guests, I don't know who's a guest or not, never base uh church decision on a visiting speaker, all right?

So come come back in here, Pastor Jonathan, next week, all right.

So uh, but if you're a guest or visitor here today, I don't know who you are.

I'm a guest myself.

This is my first time to be here, but it's really a privilege.

If you're in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning verse 14, the Bible says, uh, if we begin in verse 14, for the love of Christ controls us, because we've concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all that those who live sh might no longer live for themselves, but for him who, for their sake, died and was raised.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old is passed away, behold the new has come.

And this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciled the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Let's open our word of prayer this morning.

Deavenly Father, I pray that you do a work that only your Holy Spirit can do.

God, we've come this morning to hear from you.

And God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts.

And God, if you speak to our hearts, I pray we would not just be hearers of your word.

But God help us to be doers.

God, as you tell us faith without works is worthless.

And God, I pray that you would be pleased with our response to your word this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

John was told a twin-engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.

Arriving at the airport, he spotted a plane warming up outside the hangar.

He jumped in and said, Let's go.

The pilot taxied and took off.

Once in the air, the passenger told the pilot, Hey, I need to fly over the valley and get some pictures of the fire on the hill.

And the pilot said, Well, why?

He said, Well, I'm a photographer for the evening news and I need these shots for the evening news tonight.

The pilot was strangely silent for a moment and then said, So what you're telling me is you're not my flying instructor?

And the tagline was, always ask, never assume.

This guy showed up and saw a plane and thought, this is my plane, so he jumped in.

The pilot thought, no one's jumping in this plane unless he's my flying instructor, so he took off.

And it's not until they're both in the air they realize we got a big problem.

And I want to ask the same question this morning: do you love God?

Always ask, never assume.

You know everyone on the outside thinks just because you showed up at church today, you do love God.

But if you're in our text, going back to verse 14, the love of Christ controls us because we've concluded that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for them who for their sake died and was raised.

Don't raise your hand.

But I travel a lot.

I'm in a lot of churches.

Do you think that everyone in all the churches I go to is on fire for God, if I could use that term?

Or would you say, actually, probably the majority in many churches are living for themselves?

I'm gonna tell you, we have a lot of selfish Christians.

You say, why would you say that?

COVID?

Did COVID reveal how strong and healthy our churches were, or did COVID reveal how weak our churches were?

Sadly, it revealed how weak our churches were.

20% have never come back.

20% said, hey, I kind of like sitting at home in my pajamas and watching church online.

And they never came back to church.

The fights that went on in churches over vax, no vax, distance, no distance.

We lost 20% of pastors during COVID.

The way people treated their pastor, like they stayed up all night thinking, how can I ruin our church?

And pastors are just trying to sort out what government regulations do we follow, which ones do we not follow?

How do we work all this out?

And you know why pastors quit?

Because they were like, I've been their pastor for 10, 15, 20 years, and this is how they treat each other, this is how they treat me.

Pastors felt like failures.

And yet, as we come to our text, the Bible says, if you love God, by the way, we're to love God with how much of our heart?

How much of our soul?

How much of our mind?

How much of our strength?

Don't raise your hand.

But do you think this is what our churches are full of?

And I would just challenge you, I didn't put that in the Bible last night.

And you know what the word all means?

I said this to the guys, you know what the word all means in Greek?

All.

You know what it means in Hebrew?

All.

And God says, if you love me with all, it's gonna look like two things in this text.

Number one, it's gonna lead to Christ's control of your life.

You're gonna be a changing, growing Christian.

And secondly, you're gonna have a concern for lost people.

And you're gonna see that in the text.

And the Bible says, if you're gonna sit here today and say, No, I love God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, all my strength, if that's true, then these two things will be true about you.

It's gonna, as they come back to our text in verse 14, it's gonna be a pressure that produces God's control in your life.

Let's first of all look at point number one, a passion that leads to Christ's control.

Paul never lost his sense of wonder of Christ's love.

Remember, his first name was Saul, right?

And he's on the road to Damascus, he gets saved, he's on his way to persecute Christians, he gets saved, and his life totally changes.

Would you agree?

I mean, everything, he changes his name even.

He goes from Saul to Paul.

I mean, instead of being a persecutor of Christians, he's trying to win people to Christ the whole rest of his life.

He has a radical change.

And if you're a believer this morning, if you can remember back when you got saved, was there a change in your life?

The Bible says if there was no change, there's a problem.

In the text of verse 17, it says, when you get saved, old things pass away, all things became new.

I was a pastor up in Edmonton, Canada, all first generation Christians.

I said, I had the biggest congregation of ex-smokers and ex-drinkers I've ever seen.

I did nine weddings one summer.

They were all living together when we met them.

And as they got saved, they were like, hey, we can't keep living together.

We got to get married.

And man, change was happening.

But you know what happens in a lot of churches over time we plateau.

When's the last time something spiritually changed in your life?

It's different today than it was six months ago.

What are you currently working on right now?

You know, every one of you should be working on something.

There's not one person in this room that if you walked into heaven tomorrow, there wouldn't be a big change.

Would you agree?

I mean, no, I don't care how old you are in this room, you have not achieved such perfection that if you walked into heaven, it'd just be the same.

Like, wow, they were perfect on earth and now they're perfect in heaven.

And God says the love of Christ should compel us, it can should control us, as it says in the text.

It's pressure that produces an action.

I'm gonna make the case that that's true of everything else you love.

It's just the problem is we love God in a different way than we love everything else.

The Greek word here has the it has this idea of pressure that produces an action in verse 14.

The love of Christ controls us.

And uh what that certainly was true of Paul.

And again, we could look at so many verses, but just for sake of time, go to Galatians.

Go to Galate, keep your finger here, we'll be right back.

But go to Galatians chapter 2.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

Galatians chapter 2, verse 20.

Galatians 2:20

Paul writes, I've been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul never got over God's love for him.

We go to Romans 8, verse 28.

Romans 8:28

I mean, that whole passage, you know, what can separate you from the love of God?

And basically says, nothing can separate you from the love of God.

And if you remember this, the night that Christ was crucified, we had the joy of going to Israel.

And when I love taking people to Israel, and we got on the Mount of Olives, and you're on the Mount of Olives, you can look down the valley, you look up, you see the wall of Jerusalem, and you can see the outline of the gate that they came to take Jesus that night.

And it's at that moment you realize they couldn't surprise Jesus.

They brought a thousand soldiers to take him that night.

Why did they bring so many?

He's recently risen Lazarus from the dead.

If you're bringing people back from the dead, you don't try and take that guy with ten guys.

And Jesus knows tonight's the night.

He brings his disciples and he says, Guys, I need you to pray with me.

And he leaves them there and he goes over and prays by himself.

Now, remember when we just go back to Christmas, the angels show up to the shepherds.

Remember what they say?

Glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace, goodwill to man.

Frontier is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

He knows that.

He knows God better than anyone in this room.

He knows God never makes a mistake.

He knows God never changes his mind.

So you'd have to agree with me this morning.

He prays an unusual prayer.

Because he goes off by himself and he prays this, Father, please.

Is there any other way that Jim Tillotson and the people in this room can go to heaven outside of my death on the cross?

And God says, No.

And Jesus says, Then thy will be done.

He comes back, the guys are asleep, he wakes them up.

Guys, really important night tonight.

I need you to pray with me tonight.

Please pray with me.

And he goes back, and I think you'd have to agree with me, he prays an even more unusual prayer, because he prays the same prayer.

Father, please.

Please, Father, is there any other way that Jim Tillotson and the people in this room can go to heaven outside of my death on a cross?

And the answer is no.

And Jesus says, Thy will be done.

He comes back, it's late at night, they've fallen asleep again.

This time he does not wake them up.

By the way, I'm convinced had he woken them up, they wouldn't have been there.

You know that, because when the soldiers do show up, they all run away.

And he comes back, and the Bible says this time he's under incredible stress.

I personally believe he's under incredible stress because they're at the bottom, they're coming up the Mount of Olives.

He's been watching a thousand soldiers come out of Jerusalem.

He's been watching those torches come down the hill.

And now they're at the bottom coming up the Mount of Olives.

And the Bible says, under incredible stress, he has a bloody sweat.

I mean, I've been stressed before.

I've never been this stressed before.

The capillaries near his skin literally burst.

And what's the stress?

Is he going to pay for your sin and my sin?

And he prays another incredible prayer a third time.

Father, please.

Please, Father, is there any other way that Jim Tillots and the people in this room go to heaven outside of my death on a cross?

By the way, that's why you know good works cannot get you into heaven.

If you can be good enough to go to heaven, Jesus didn't have to die on the cross.

If you could be a Baptist and get into heaven, Jesus didn't have to die on the cross.

If baptism could get you into heaven, Jesus didn't have to die on the cross, and that's what Jesus is asking.

Father, is there any other way?

The answer comes back, no.

And every Christian in this room praises God that he said, Thy will be done.

And they take him that night, they beat him, they mock him, they spit on him.

I love that old-fashioned song.

He could have called 10,000 angels, but he died alone for you and me.

One angel in one night in the Old Testament killed 185,000 Assyrians.

Just think about that.

He could have called 10,000 angels, but he died alone.

And after all that abuse, he whipped his back 39 times, one short of legal death.

Make him carry a cross that weighed 120 pounds.

Physically, he can't do it.

Stumbles and falls.

They grab someone from the crowd.

They crucify him on the cross.

All seven sayings from the cross are powerful.

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

But my absolute favorite, the last one.

It is finished.

And if you're a Christian in this room, you will never pay for your sins.

Every single sin you've ever paid for is under the blood of Christ.

You will never go to hell.

And hell is worse than I could ever describe it this morning.

It is a horrible, terrible place of everlasting torment.

And the Bible says if you're a Christian this morning, you will never go there.

Not because you were so good, because of what Jesus did.

And Paul never got over that.

And you come to this text and he says, Because of that, verse 14, the love of Christ controls us because we've concluded this.

One has died for all, therefore all have died.

And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves.

We have got to stop being selfish Christians.

We need to be growing Christians.

What's changing in your life?

What are you working on?

And it should be the love of Christ that compels you.

If you say you love to golf, I said, really, me too.

What clubs do you have?

I don't have any clubs.

Oh, you don't have any clubs?

Have you ever gone golfing?

No, I've ever gone golfing.

Do you watch it on TV?

No, I don't watch it on TV.

You know what I'm gonna tell you?

You don't love to golf.

You say, Man, I love to hunt.

Really, me too.

What gun do you have?

I don't have a gun.

Really, you don't have a gun.

Have you ever gone hunting?

No, I've never gone hunting.

You watch on TV?

No, I don't watch on TV.

You know what I'm gonna tell you?

You don't love to hunt.

If you love to golf, you love it.

There's no golfer that loves it that doesn't want to get better.

If you love to hunt, you shoot one animal, there's no one who loves to hunt and says, that's good, I'm good for life now.

No, if you love to hunt, you want a better one.

There's a uh a football game I hear about yesterday that happened between my state and this state.

And uh which is a big deal, right?

If you love your team, is one championship enough?

No.

No, if you love your team, you want it to do better, you want to win another one, right?

Are you tracking with me this morning?

That's true of everything you love.

Our first two grandkids were born up in Canada.

My oldest daughter married a Canadian.

There, they live two hours north of uh Toronto.

We're dual citizens, but Canada was crazy during COVID, completely locked down.

We could not go visit our kids.

They closed the border.

Finally, the border released, and my kids said, Hey, we're coming home for Christmas.

And my wife came home and said, Well, honey, we got to go get a crib and a high chair.

And I'm like, Why?

We didn't have these kids.

I mean, they're coming for one week.

Every grandparent in this room knows what we did.

We bought a crib and a high chair and toys for the kids for one week.

Why?

The love of our grandkids compelled us.

It was pressure that produced an action.

I love to hunt.

People in my church knew that.

I'd have ladies who'd get up and say, Hey Pastor, I just let you know I'm praying you don't get anything this week.

And then I'd see them on Black Friday outside of Menards at two in the morning.

I love driving down, rolling my window, hey, I hope you don't get anything today.

What would make you get up at two in the morning and stand in line for two hours for the love of shopping?

I'm just telling you, if you love to hike, fish, hunt, family, it's pressure that produces an action.

Folks, I'm telling you this morning, there's nothing you tell me you love.

You you hang out with me very long, you're gonna know what I love.

You're gonna know I love the Minnesota Vikings, you're gonna know I love Ford, you're gonna know I love John Deere, you're gonna know the Edmonton Oilers.

You come to my house, this is a true story.

I have two garage doors, signs on both of them, Ford parking only.

I love it when people drive up and think I'm serious and they park at the end of the driveway.

It just makes you so happy.

And folks, let me tell you, that's true of all your neighbors and all your friends.

They know what you love.

But do they know you love Jesus?

Folks, there's something wrong when everyone knows everything you love.

Oh, I love Michigan.

I love the Detroit Lions, I love Ford, but they don't know where you are this morning.

Do your coworkers know where you are this morning?

Do you go to the restaurant, drop the napkin trick?

You know, dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this food.

Amen.

Phew! Glad nobody saw me pray today.

By the way, I don't know about you, but have you been in a restaurant and see someone pray?

Doesn't that encourage you?

You're like, hey, that that was cool.

But when we start loving God in a different way than we love everything else, that's wrong.

And that's Paul's point here.

The love of Christ should compel you.

If you really believe God paid for every one of your sins, it should produce a love in your heart that says, I want to live for God.

I want to please Him.

I want to do what's right.

I grew up on a farm and my dad planted an acre garden.

I have me and three sisters, and all my dad did was plant it.

We had to take care of it.

I mean, an acre garden, a lot of people call that crops.

My dad called it a garden.

I snap beans for hours.

My dad got chickens, they're great when they're little and yellow.

They are terrible when they grow up.

And it was my job to take care of the chickens and clean the chicken coop.

And we had meat birds and layers, and so I knew one thing when I left the farm.

I am never having chickens, I'm never having a garden.

And then I married a country girl.

This is a Sab, but true story.

Two years into our marriage, I would love my wife.

I'm like, honey, I love you so much.

I said, Is there anything that you would like?

And she looked at me with a straight face and said, Well, there's really only two things I want.

I said, Honey, you name it.

What is it?

She says, Well, I really want chickens and I want a garden.

No, you gotta be kidding me.

But guess what?

I put in a garden and we got chickens.

Thankfully, God gave me a son, so it was his job to take care of that once we got going.

But if I tilled that garden up with a bad attitude, if I put manure, man, I grew up on a farm.

I didn't know they begged that stuff.

I could have been a rich kid if I had understood that.

It irks me to buy manure at a store and put that in our garden and then till it in.

And when I have a bad attitude, you know what my wife says?

I'd rather do it myself.

Do you ever serve the Lord out of duty?

Or do you do it out of love?

When Pastor gets up and says, Hey, we need some help at the church, who signs up first, new Christians or old Christians?

Typically new Christians.

I remember at our church, I was a church planter as well, just like your pastor.

I started with 10 people.

And we had to clean people, we cleaned our church once a month.

And then as our church started growing and people started getting saved, we had to clean our church every week.

And I remember people coming to go, Pastor, isn't this great?

We got to clean the church every week.

This is so awesome.

And then I remember an older couple came and said, Pastor, you're done.

You're done cleaning the church.

I thought because I did a bad job.

So, no, we can clean the church.

You do what God's called you to do.

We're cleaning the church.

You're not on the list anymore.

And do you remember when you used to think this is exciting?

Remember when you couldn't wait to get here?

I mean, just by God's grace, I sat by a gentleman who's 10 months here.

I hate to keep picking on you, brother, but and he was just like, Man, I found this church and it was amazing.

Remember when you walked out 10 years ago?

After the fullers are here?

Wow.

God gave us a pastor.

Man, I got a pastor's wife, man.

What a great family.

And every Sunday you just came, man.

I can't wait to hear him preach.

I can't wait to hear God's word open, but now it's been 10 years.

Oh, it's pastor again.

I've heard that illustration before.

You shouldn't be coming to hear him, by the way.

You should be coming to hear the word.

And he is a great preacher.

He's gonna give you the word.

But did you come this morning excited to meet the Lord?

If you love God with all your heart, you did.

If you love to hunt, man, there's nothing better than opening day, right?

If you love it, man, you can't wait.

You can hardly sleep that night.

You get up crazy early, you sit and freeze for an hour till the sun comes up.

And the whole time, you know what you're sitting there thinking?

This is awesome.

You love to golf.

Man, you can't wait to find someone to golf with.

And you love whatever you love, you love crafting, quilting, hiking.

You can't wait.

And yet somehow Jesus is in a different category.

And I'm just telling you this morning, that's not okay with God.

Because he wants you to love him with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength.

When you love to hike, hunt, shop, golf, snorkel, fish, family, it's a pressure that produces an action.

When we sing, oh, how I love him and ignore him the rest of the week, something's wrong.

Have a hard time believing you love God with all your heart if you haven't been having your devotions every day this week.

Not because you have to, but because you wanted to.

Man, I love my wife.

You don't have to tell me to talk to her every day.

I want to talk to her every day.

I love her.

You don't have to tell me you have to spend time with God.

I want to spend time with God.

I love him.

And I would just encourage you, do you love this book?

Don't tell me you love this book and you never read it.

In fact, in James he says, faith without works is worthless.

And maybe today some of you need to say, you know what?

By the way, remember when you first got saved?

And when you first got saved, you couldn't get enough of this book.

You wanted to read it all the time.

Pastor's showing up to sneeze, you wouldn't miss it, right?

I don't know what's gonna happen.

He's gonna sneeze.

I do not want to miss that.

Now, what do you miss church for?

Do you understand this morning that love should get better?

By the way, I love seeing older couples that are in love.

You walk out behind them, they don't know you're there, they don't know you're watching them, and you see that older couple in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and they're holding hands.

And I every time I see that, I say to my wife, I want to be like that.

New love, I see new love all the time.

I work at a Christian college.

But there's something awesome about old love.

I mean, I've been married 37 years.

You know, my wife and I can look at each other and we we know what we're thinking.

Something can happen, and we could be across the room and both look at each other and start laughing.

You know how much I was in a motorcycle accident up in Canada, and uh they had to take me to the hospital.

My wife was visiting someone else in our church, she was at a different hospital, they couldn't get a hold of her right away, and uh thankfully the only thing I broke was a toe and outside of road rash.

But I'm in the hospital bed, I'm totally fine, and then all of a sudden her little head poked around the corner.

You know what I knew?

I knew as soon as someone gets a hold of her, she's coming.

I didn't have to wonder she's coming to the hospital.

I didn't wonder.

I just knew as soon as she, and as soon as she heard, she immediately said, I'm sorry, I have to go to check on my husband.

And her little head popped around the corner, and all of a sudden I teared up.

Why?

Not because I was hurting anymore.

It's awesome to have someone who loves you like that.

Can I tell you this morning, your heavenly father loves you like that?

John 3, 16, God so loved the world that he what?

And he loves you this much this morning.

And the Bible says, because he loves you this much, you should love him back.

Why do we take communion?

Number one reason we take communion to remember.

Isn't that weird that I have to be reminded of that?

You'd think I'm good, I'll never have to be reminded of that, but we do.

I know Pastor Jonathan's way too busy, but we are good friends.

But could you just pretend with me that he had time?

And just pretend I'm gonna go on a month-long mission trip and I call Jonathan up and say, Hey, Jonathan, is there any way you could come watch my house for me for a month?

He said, Jim, I'd be happy to, no problem.

If Liz, they could come together.

But they said, hey, we'll take care of it.

And I bring him over and I say, now, Jonathan, there's a few things I just got over.

Trash days on Tuesday, make sure you take the trash out on Tuesday.

He said, Jim, I got that.

I said, you know, my wife loves plants, and so don't overwater, don't underwater.

Here's the planning.

If you knew my wife, she'd have this all typed out for him as well.

And so I'd give him that printed copy and he says, Jim, I got that.

And I take him in our basement and say, you know, uh Jonathan, sometimes the toilet runs, and if you start hearing it run, just jiggle the handle, it'll be fine.

But if you don't keep an eye on it, it'll overflow and and then we'll have a mess.

So just keep an eye on.

I says, Jim, I got that.

And and I take him in and I show him where the cat food is in the water.

Said, here's our cat, you got to feed and water the cat.

And he says, Jim, have a great time.

And could you imagine?

I leave for a month, I come back at the end of the month, I walk in the house and there's a stench.

And I go in the kitchen and there's a pile of trash in the kitchen.

And I look around and all the plants are dead.

And I go in the basement and the carpet squishes where I've had a flood.

And I look up back and there's a little mound of the cross where the cat's been buried.

Just to be honest, that one's okay, all right?

But I go, Pastor Jonathan, what happened?

And he goes, Oh, Jim, Jim, I love that part about taking the trash out.

I read that part every night.

Ah, Jim, that part about watering the plants, I highlighted and underlined that part.

I love that part.

Ah, Jim, that part about feeding and watering the cat, I memorized it word for word.

Just quiz me, just quiz me.

Like, but Pastor Jonathan, the cat is dead.

You know what I would think?

He's not my friend.

And when you come to church Sunday after Sunday and you read it and you highlight it, and you underline it, and you memorize it, but you don't do it?

You know what the God of heaven thinks?

You're not my friend.

Because the Bible says in John, if you love me, keep my commandments.

Are you a good husband?

Are you a good wife?

Are you a good mom?

Are you a good dad?

Are you a good employee?

Do you put in eight hours of work for eight hours of pay?

Are you a good boss?

Where have you been online?

Are you watching things that Jesus would never sit down next to you and watch?

If all your texts were revealed this morning, would you be ashamed?

How's your temper?

We gossip this week?

Are you totally honest?

Or did you tell a few white lies?

Like somehow we think that's okay.

I promise you, there's something everyone in this room should be working on.

Because none of you would walk into heaven and have no change.

So what are you working on?

Not because some bald guy from Iowa makes you feel guilty.

Because you love God.

You know what?

I've been married 37 years, and I would never, I absolutely love my wife.

But you know what?

I have room to grow.

I would not stand here this morning and say she has a perfect husband.

She is so lucky to have me.

And you know what I found?

After 37 years, the more I have been married, the longer I've been married, the more I love her, the more I want to be better.

I was an idiot early in our marriage.

And I didn't feel like I do 37 years, 37 years later.

By the way, 37 years later, she doesn't have to tell me I hurt her.

I can just do something and I just I know her.

I go, oh, I'm sorry I hurt you.

I totally missed those signs when I was first married.

And you know what happens when you love someone?

I don't no one's putting a gun to my head saying, Jim, you have to be a better husband.

I want to be a better husband because I love her.

And Pastor is not putting a gun to your head Sunday after Sunday saying, you have to be a better Christian.

You should be coming to church saying, I want to be a better Christian.

Because he paid for every sin I've ever done.

He let people spit on him because of me.

He let people rip his beard out of his face because of me.

He let someone take a whip and whip him 39 times because of me.

I want to sing Oh How I Love Jesus and mean it.

I don't know about your church, but most churches, everyone sits in the same seat they sit in every Sunday.

And so I would sit up as our church got bigger, I'd sit on the platform so I could see who's missing.

And we were singing Amazing Grace.

We had a couple that had gotten saved later in life.

He was about the middle row deep.

And I'm looking across the audience as I always did, and we're singing Amazing Grace, and I get to him and he's just weeping.

I look past, I look back, he's still weeping.

I thought, if I keep looking, we're both gonna be crying, so I just kept moving.

But I thought, I gotta go talk to Dan after the service.

After the service, I went back to Dan and said, Dan, are you okay?

And he says, Yeah, why?

I said, Well, we were singing Amazing Grace, and I just couldn't help but I saw you weeping back there, and immediately he teared up again.

He said, You know, Pastor, Amazing Grace is still amazing to me.

Amen.

Let's have another gentleman.

He grew up in a Baptist home at 18.

He bolted, went off to the oil patch.

There's more oil in northern Alberta, Canada than there is in Saudi Arabia.

And he went to the oil patch, met a wife.

She was went to United Church, begged him to go to church with her.

He said, No, honey, if I ever go to church, I'm only going to a Baptist church because his mom was a Baptist.

Now they're in their late 70s.

They go up to a coffee shop that one of our college girls was working at, and they go up to get coffee, and a college girl from our church says, Hey, I'd like to invite you to our church.

And he said, Well, what church is it?

She said, It's Meadowlands Baptist Church.

And his wife said, You promised.

I said, All right, I'll come.

And they came, and as most visitors, I sat in the very back row.

I don't remember what I preached, but at our church, every every message I finished and said, Hey, if you're here today and you're not sure if you're to die and go to heaven, if you'd like to know that, either raise your hand or look up at me.

And I trained our people.

If I said, I see that hand to leave me alone.

And so I asked that question, up went his hand.

And our church people knew, leave me alone.

So I walked off the platform, I got back near them, and he said, Hey, I put my hand up.

I said, Hey, I saw that.

And his wife was standing right there and she said, Good, he needs it.

And I said, Well, would you like me to come over and show you what the Bible says and how to go to heaven?

He said, Yes, I would.

I said, Well, when'd you like that?

He said, How about on Tuesday?

I said, Okay, Tuesday sounds good.

I took my big Bible over to their home.

I walked in and she said, I've already, I already know this.

She said, but he needs it.

And so I sat down on the couch and she sat in her rocking chair across the living room and I started going through the plan of salvation with him.

I was so focused on him that the next time I looked up, she'd taken her rocker and bring it right in front of us, and she said, I've never heard this either.

And at the end of that, both of them, I think he was 78, in their late 70s, bowed their heads and put their Christ in Jesus, put their faith in Jesus Christ.

And he got saved.

He was a woodworker.

And the love of Christ compelled Ron McMurf.

He came in and said, Hey, can I make offering plates?

Sure, we had a Christian school.

Hey, can I make handrails?

I mean, he was constantly bugging.

What else can I do?

So, man, Jim, I've wasted my whole Christian, my whole life.

I I've just lived for myself, and now that I'm saved, what can I do?

I wasn't making him do that.

It was the love of Christ that compelled him.

And my wife's 40th birthday, I said, Ron, I'd like to make a cedar chest for my wife, but I really like to surprise her.

I don't really know how to do that.

He says, No problem, Pastor.

Tell her we're having marriage trouble.

I said, That's a great idea, Ron.

I came home and said, man, honey, the McMurphys are having marriage trouble.

And she says, Isn't there 70s?

I said, It's a big problem, honey.

It's gonna take a while.

I'd sneak over.

We started from scratch.

No way I could have done this without Ron's help.

We built this cedar chest beautiful, all because of him.

When I presented it to my wife, he was as proud of it as I was.

We confessed that he didn't have marriage trouble.

He was just helping me.

And I had an early morning meeting about a year after that.

My wife called me and said, Jim, where are you?

I said, Well, I'm having a meeting right now.

She said, You need to get to the hospital.

Ron's had a stroke.

And Ron had a stroke.

If you've been in nursing homes, there's good ones and bad ones.

He went in a bad one.

You walk in, had a smell.

And he couldn't speak and he couldn't use the right side of his body, but he was totally alert, totally understand.

He just couldn't talk.

We had no family up in Canada, so we adopted them as grandparents.

My wife would visit him twice a week.

He loved gardening as she did, and so she'd bring in a tomato plant.

If you break the tomato plant, it has a smell, and she would just do those things, and his eyes would light up.

He was just so grateful.

And every so often my wife would say, We're gonna go sing to Ron.

And we had three kids, girl, boy, girl, and so we would bring our whole family and we'd stand at the end of his bed and sing.

And this one day we got to my youngest daughter and said, Honey, what would you like to sing to Ron?

And she said, I want to sing Jesus Loves Me.

Do you know that song?

Jesus Loves Me.

This I know.

We started singing that song, and Ron joined us and sang every word.

When's the last time Ron heard that song?

We didn't sing that in adult church.

The last time he heard that is when his mom took him to Sunday school.

And we finished that song.

Yes, Jesus loves me.

The Bible tells me so.

And he couldn't say another word.

But if you sang Jesus Loves Me, he could sing every word with you.

Do you remember when that meant that much to you?

Do you remember when Jesus loves me?

This I know.

For the Bible tells me so, made you say, I want to live my life for Christ.

I just, what can I do for the Lord?

Or has that been a long time ago?

Do you skip your devotions but daily check ESPN, the stock market, or the news?

If we're gonna be the workers God wants us to be, it must be the love of Christ that compels us or controls us, as it says here in verse 14.

And then down to verse 17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there's a new creation, the old has passed away.

Behold, the new, behold, the new has come.

Christ died so that we would no longer live for ourselves.

I could take you to 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20, it says, You are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are his.

1 Corinthians 6:20

A lot of Christians have a relationship with God like a bad marriage.

You know, in a bad marriage, you share a house, you share a car, you share a bed, but you're not close.

And a lot of churches have people that come to church and sing the songs, but they're not close to God.

And can I challenge you this morning?

You're as close to God as you want to be.

He will always draw near to you.

He always wants a relationship with you.

The issue is, do you want one with him?

And is it changing your life?

What are you working on right now to get better as a Christian?

What command of the Lord's in your marriage, in your workplace, in your personal spirit, what command of God's are you working on to get better?

Remember when you first got saved and you wanted to change everything?

I mean, I worked with tons of people that got saved later in life.

They get saved, they go home at Christmas thinking the whole family's gonna get saved, and they just blast them with the gospel, and the family thinks, what cult did you join?

I had one person who went to his family and said, Hey, you're not my family anymore.

I have a church family.

Like, oh no, that's not the right approach.

But new Christian zeal, by the way, who witnesses more?

New Christians or old Christians?

New Christians, but who should it be?

Go to John 4, the woman at the well.

The disciples have already gone into town.

They come back with no one.

The woman, all she knows is her testimony.

She just gets saved.

Remember what she does when she goes into town?

Come see a man that told me all that ever I did.

Is not this the Christ?

And the Bible says, many got saved because of the saying of the woman.

You'd probably be shocked about how many people would talk about the Lord if you would.

Because point number two, not only a passion for God's control, and we'll wrap this up quickly, a passion for the lost.

Do you have a passion for the lost this morning, or have you lost your passion?

Do you remember when you first got saved and you wanted all your family and all your friends to get saved?

How long has it been since you've done something to bring someone to Christ?

And by the way, we all we all have different gifts.

Some of you are people people.

You're the people that should be at the front door and visitors walk in.

Some of you don't wake up to your eighth cup of coffee, right?

You should be stacking chairs, all right?

Like, but why does the body work together?

We all work together with our gifts.

Some of you are gifted with your hands, some of you should sing, some of you should not sing.

All right?

I'm in the not sing category, all right?

I married a very musical woman.

I can play the radio.

That's what I can play, all right?

So, but it's as we work together.

But are you uh let me just tell you, there's so many ways if you're actively, and new believers are good at this, old believers get away from this.

And yet the Bible says, if you love me, keep my commandments, the Greek commission, go into all the world and preach the gospel to how many creatures?

All guess what that word all means in Greek and Hebrew?

All don't raise your hand, but even in a smaller town like Sparta, do you think half of this town is going to heaven?

I've not been in any town where someone raises their hand and says, I think half of our town is going to heaven.

If you agree with me that half of this town is not going to heaven, then what's their only chance?

Romans says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

If you've done any witnessing this morning, you understand that not everyone you share the gospel with will get saved.

But can I say it this way?

A hundred percent of the people who never hear the gospel will die and go to hell.

A hundred percent of the people who never hear the gospel will die and go to hell.

Are you okay with that?

Don't you think the people of Sparta deserve a chance?

Don't you think at least once in their lifetime someone should give them the gospel and let them decide if they accept it or not?

Are you just glad you're saved?

Hey, really glad me and my family are going to heaven.

I'm good.

Again, first generation Christians, Canadians know where the line on the sidewalk is, where your snow stops and their neighbors begins.

And there's every good Canadian will not shovel a flake of snow that's not theirs.

I had a new believer get go out and buy a snowblower, did the whole cul-de-sac.

Just someday so someone would say, Hey, why did you do that?

Hey, because I'm a Christian.

When's the last time you did a random act of senseless kindness?

Are you known as the nicest person in your neighborhood?

Are you known as the nicest person at your workplace?

If you invited people to come to church, would they want Want to come to church with you because they know you?

Wow, they're so awesome.

We did a Christmas cantata.

I know no one does a choir anymore, but we had a choir, and you only had to, and I said you could only join just for the Christmas cantata so that you could go to work and invite people to come because you're in it.

And our people bought into that.

If you don't know your Celsius and Fahrenheit, minus 40 Celsius and Fahrenheit are equal, and anything past that, it gets a bigger gap.

We were minus 48 Celsius.

That means you're in minus 50 Fahrenheit category.

We did it Saturday night and Sunday night.

And I said to my wife, who's gonna show up at minus 48 Celsius?

The only place on the planet that beat us that night was Siberia by two degrees.

Siberia was minus 50, Edmonton, Alberta, minus 48.

I'm telling you the only reason I showed up because I was the pastor.

I showed up and I've never seen more visitors in my life.

And I'm like, what in the world?

I walked over the first person, like, nice to meet you.

Why are you here?

Well, do you know Frank?

Yeah, I know Frank.

I work with Frank, and man, I didn't even know what a cantata was, but Frank told me he wanted me to come, and I I did not want to see Frank on Monday if I didn't show up out of this.

Oh, that's awesome.

Walk over, ma'am.

So nice to meet you.

Like, why are you here?

Do you know Sally?

Yeah, I know Sally.

I work with Sally.

Can you believe minus 48?

I promised Sally I'd come to this thing.

Who would know it?

Minus 48, but I did not want to see Sally.

You know what I found out?

Unsaved people liked our people.

By the way, did unsaved people like Jesus?

In fact, one of the taglines you often read in the Bible, he was the friend of publicans and sinners.

You know the problem in a lot of our churches?

We haven't talked to a lost person in a long time.

In a lot of our churches, we act like we're in an elevator.

If you don't travel a lot, the unwritten rule in an elevator, you don't talk and you don't make eye contact.

Is that how your witnessing has been?

Hey, and maybe you say, well, I just can't get out.

Can you pray?

I think everyone in this room should be praying for one person by name to get saved.

I can't speak for Pastor Jonathan, but I'm just telling you, this is the difference of a church planter.

What happens when you're planting a church and when it's planted?

And this is where you can fall into a dangerous area when you're planted.

When you're planting, what is the Wednesday night prayer list full of?

We're praying all the time for people to get saved by name.

Majority.

What happens when the church is planted?

It's mostly health issues.

And we get to Wednesday night, and no one's praying for anyone by name to be saved.

That's not okay.

You know, your Wednesday night, and again, I don't know if you do a Wednesday night, and I don't have no, Pastor Jonathan's give me great freedom.

But I'm just telling you, when you start with 10 people and you go, we've got to see people saved, we've got to see this church established.

But I challenge you, that should never end.

And it should be the love of Christ that controls you.

I mean, notice what he says in verse 20.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Do you care where lost people are going?

Could you prove it?

It's one thing to come to church and say, Man, I care about lost people.

Can you prove it?

What are you doing to reach lost people?

Who are you praying for by name to get saved?

You know, the Bible says in James, faith without works is worthless.

In other words, it's worthless for you to tell me you care about lost people and you're not doing anything to reach lost people.

What good is that?

That's what James is saying.

We had a guy get saved and he was so new, he didn't know that we had a track rack.

I don't know if you have a track rack, but we had a track rack, and if you know anything, they're free.

He didn't know that.

So in his mind, he stole one.

He stole the bridge track.

He's a farmer, cared about his neighbor, and he stole a bridge track.

And he booked an appointment to come in and see me.

He comes in to see me, sits on the other side of my desk, brings up the, we call it, um, I forget the name of the track, but it's it's a great track.

And he shows me this track, and he says, I, Pastor, I came here to confess, I stole this.

And I immediately started chuckling because I said, Well, actually, you can't steal it, they're free.

He said, Well, I gotta tell you what happened.

He says, I was caring about my neighbor, and uh I was saying to my wife, how are we gonna reach him with the gospel?

And he was bailing his hay and a storm was coming.

And if you know anything about hay, if it gets wet, it loses some of its value.

Storm's coming in and his tractor broke down.

He came over and he said, Hey, is there any way I could rent your tractor?

I don't want to lose the value of my hay.

I put a lot of effort into this, and he said, This is my chance.

He said, Yes, not only can you borrow my tractor, but I'm gonna I have a second tractor and a baler.

I'm gonna go help you.

And he said, We both got on tractors, we bailed, we got it all bailed, we got it in right when the storm hit.

I mean, just a gully washer, just rain comes pouring down.

He said, We're standing in this open barn, doors are open, rain just pouring down, and this guy says, What can I pay you?

He says, You can't pay me.

He says, if you want to pay me, I want you to read this track.

He says, knock it off.

I mean, I have the money, you save me.

I mean, look at all the money I made by getting this hay in without getting it rain.

I want to pay you.

He says, You can't pay me.

I'm not taking any payment.

If you want to pay me, read this track.

He said, Would you quit it?

Like, stop it.

I want to pay you.

I'm not, you can't pay me.

If you want to pay me, read this track.

Guys like, whatever.

Took the track.

Next week he went for a job, got the job.

On his way home, he was killed in a car accident.

And this guy across my desk thought the only thing I could think of is, did he read that track?

He said, Honey, I gotta go over and check.

He said, I went over and knocked on the door.

His widow came to the door, and as soon as she saw me, she said, wait right here.

She went back and got that track and brought this back and said, Do you remember giving this to my husband last week?

And he said, Yeah.

He said, He came home that night for dinner and he was so moved that you wouldn't accept any money, and all you wanted was for him to read this track.

He said, Honey, I don't know why this is so important to him, but after supper tonight, we're gonna read this.

And she was like, Okay.

And she said, We finished supper that night and we read through that track, and she said, We got to the last part where it told us what to pray.

And she said, We both looked at each other and we both agreed with everything we'd read.

We both said, We agree we're sinners.

We believe Jesus did die on the cross and rose again, and we're ready to give our lives to Christ.

And she looked at this farmer and said, We prayed that prayer just like it told us to at the end of that track, and she then said to him, Does that mean he's in heaven?

And the farmer said, Yes.

Folks, do you think that they'd read the track if he'd just thrown it into the mailbox?

People don't care what you know until they know that you care.

What are you personally doing to see people come to Christ?

And maybe it's freeing up Pastor Jonathan, maybe it's working here in the church, maybe it's taking some cookies over to your neighbor.

By the way, you can't hang it on the doorbell.

No one's gonna eat those, right?

Let them know it's from you.

I'll close with this.

True story, the USS Indianapolis at the end of World War II was tearing parts for the atomic bomb as its top secret mission.

They delivered the parts, they were heading up to the Philippines, they were spotted by two Japanese submarines, and they were torpedoed and sunk.

Even to this day, it's the largest loss of life in the U.S.

Navy in a single incident.

They were sunk on July 30th, 1945.

Of the 1,195 crew members, 300 were killed on impact, but the rest went into the water alive.

They estimate between 800 and 900 men went into the water alive.

Four days later, a random sea patrol plane was flying over because it was top secret, because of poor communication, no one knew the ship was missing.

And as this plane was flying over, it spotted people in the water and immediately landed and immediately radioed for help.

And immediately planes and ships came from everywhere, but they only rescued about 300 men of the eight to nine hundred that went in the water alive.

And they interviewed those men.

They said, What was the worst part of this experience?

They said, Well, day one was terrible.

Shark feeding frenzy.

The shark showed up.

We can still hear the screams of men as sharks drug them under the water.

They said, day three was terrible.

We ran out of drinking water and guys just started swimming off to imaginary islands that didn't exist.

And we tried to stop them, we tried to warn them, but they just swam to their death.

But day four, that was the worst because we all realized we had not heard a plane, we had not heard a ship, and we all realized no one is out looking for us.

And they said, we all realize that if no one is out looking for us, we are all going to die.

And can I kindly say this morning, the only thing worse than being lost in Sparta is to be lost in Sparta, and no one is out looking for you.

And I want to challenge you this morning.

The Bible says if you're if you love God, in verse 20, you're an ambassador, God making his appeal through you.

We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God who made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that way in him we might become the righteousness of God in him.

As I started the message, do you love God?

Always ask, never assume.

And if God spoke to your heart this morning, would you be willing to change?

Would you be willing this morning to say, you know what, God, I don't love you like I used to.

You know what, God, I haven't been having my devotions every day.

You know, God, I haven't witnessed to anyone in a long time.

I haven't been praying for someone to get saved by name for a long time.

But God, you spoke to my heart today.

And with your help and by your grace, I want to change.

If you love me, keep my commandments.

Let me close in prayer now, Pastor Come.

Deavenly Father, thank you for the time.

It could be in your word this morning.

God, I pray that you would do that work that only you can do.

Maybe there's some here this morning that if they were honest, their love for you has been greater than it is this morning.

If they were honest, maybe they came this morning thinking that they loved you, but they realized that they're not loving you like this text tells them to.

However, you spoke to hearts this morning, I pray that we would respond.

Help us to be the Christians that you saved us to be.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.