All In – Shorten the Line

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Let's get to work today.

Let's get to work today, starting or concluding actually a series called All In.

And I love this series.

Here's what we're asking in this series.

What would happen if I gave God one year?

What if for one year I was all in?

No games.

God chips are to the center of the table.

Whatever you ask of me, I'm stepping over the line of faith.

I'm all in with whatever you have for me.

Week one, we said this that we are people who are marked by the presence of God.

And what that means is because we've encountered God, now we really get to experience the blessing of living in relationship with Him.

Remember this: the relationship is what should always precede rules.

So many of us, we get it backwards, and we've tried to have seasons in our life where we followed all the rules, but without a relationship.

Rules without relationship leads to rebellion.

God wants us to have a profound relationship with him, and as a result, he changes our hearts.

The next three weeks we talked about issues like giving, issues like being an intentional community and sharing our lives with other peoples.

And then last week we talked about serving.

In all three weeks, let me say this to you.

I am so proud of you.

You have so many of you have courageously stepped over the line of faith and said, I'm all in on the giving.

I'm all in and using my life to reach people through relationships, and I'm all in and serving.

Last week we got hundreds of cards from people who have said, I'm ready to get out of the stands, and I'm ready to get into the game, and I love it so much.

It's so fun.

Today, I've got a message that, in my opinion, is really it's kind of the pinnacle of the series.

This is the one that if we get this, we get the heart of God, and if we get the heart of God, it changes everything for us.

Last night, about eight o'clock, the sun was starting to go down.

I took my dogs out, and I noticed in the bushes there was this weed that was growing up through my bushes, and I noticed it was big, like the bushes are about this tall, and somehow it was growing up through it.

In fact, um, do we have it here?

I pulled it out last night because I'm a bit of an outdoorsman myself.

You know, I'm a real handy green thumb.

It's my weed dealer here, everybody.

And how many pastors call their worship pastor a weed dealer?

Welcome to Access, everybody.

I love that joke all day.

And um, it was so funny because this this weed, it's multiplying.

Um, this this weed was sticking up out of the bushes, and I noticed it, so I just kind of reached in and I thought I would have to pull it hard, but I barely pulled it, and the thing ripped out of the ground.

And I saw this thing, and this this weed is over three feet long, but the roots are no more than an inch or two in depth.

And I thought to myself last night when I yanked this thing out, I wonder how many of us this feels like our relationship with God.

1 Samuel chapter 16, God speaks to Samuel and he says to him, like, just be be careful that you don't get enamored with the outward appearance of a person because man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

I wonder how many Christians, and this is certainly not you, but but I wonder how many Christians, there's a lot of show to their relationship with God.

They come in, they lift their hands, they sing, they they do all the Christian stuff, but there's no maturity to their relationship with God.

It's like a strong wind or a gentle pull seems to pull them out of their relationship with God.

Conversely, I wonder how many churches this feels like the relationship with God.

Lots of show, lots of pomp, lots of circumstance, but no real depth and no real maturity.

How do we move from this to a deep, profound, meaningful kind of relationship with God?

I'd like to submit to you, it's simply this.

It is that we have to learn to care about what God cares about.

Like we have to allow what breaks the heart of God to break our heart.

Can I show you what it is?

It's really simple.

In the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and again in the book of Acts, all five books which really talk about the life, ministry, and teaching of Jesus, we have recorded a version of what is called the Great Commission.

It is God, sorry, it is Jesus saying, go and make a difference with your life.

In fact, look at it here.

We'll read all of them.

Matthew chapter 28, Jesus says, Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

And surely I am with you always till the very end of the age.

That's Matthew.

Here's Mark's recount.

Mark 16, 15.

He said to them, Go, there it is, into all the world and preach the good news.

That's the gospel message of Jesus to all creation.

In Luke, Jesus says, With my authority, take this message.

Like, don't hold this message, but take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.

That's Luke.

In the book of John, John records it like this: As the Father has sent me, I am telling you to stay put.

No, I am sending you.

Like this isn't just for you to keep, and it's not just to keep you happy, but it is to be used, to be sent out.

In the book of Acts, Jesus says, I'm leaving you, but I'm not leaving you alone.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and here's the result of the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

You will be my witnesses.

What is a witness?

It's just someone who shares an account of what they've seen or experienced.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, that's their city, in all of Judea and Samaria, their nation, and to the ends of the earth, that is the world.

Jesus says that it is our responsibility to take the message of Jesus, the message of hope, to our city, to our nation, and to the ends of the world.

And this is a big deal for us.

The problem is, for a lot of Christians, we're way more happy with making church just about us, making church about me and my needs and keeping me happy instead of caring about the world out there that I believe breaks the heart of God.

Like, like imagine God looking over the precipice of heaven and seeing so many of his children who are far from him.

It has to break his heart.

And I need you to understand church is something different.

Church is for more than our weekly gathering.

It's for our weekly going.

It's not just to gather to keep Christians happy, and it's not just to gather to sing three or four good songs and to hear an inspirational message and then go out.

No, no.

It's not for our gathering.

This is halftime.

This is coach gathering the players and saying, guys, here's what we have to continue to do because there is a world who desperately needs the love and the hope of Jesus.

So it's not for gathering, but it's for our going.

We don't gather just to get it filled up.

We gather to scatter to make a difference in the world.

And I just want to say this to you as bluntly as I possibly can.

I'm going to step all up on your toes today, and I want you to hear this from your pastor.

I am not content to just pastor a church that's a country club church with good music and good preaching.

If all we do, if all we do is come together and sing songs and hear a message and go home and act like none of it mattered, I'm done.

But I will give the rest of my life to pastoring a church full of people who are on mission with Jesus.

So let me tell you what today's about in one sentence.

We cannot reach what we cannot see.

We cannot reach what we cannot see, and I want you to hear this from me.

I preach this sermon about once a year.

It's almost the same sermon every single time.

Last year I preached it and someone said to me, Jason, like I've heard that one before.

You got something new.

And I said, How are you doing at it?

He goes, What?

I said, How's it working for you?

Like, like I'm gonna keep preaching this once a year, and I want you to hear this from me.

I love preaching about things like your relationships and your marriage and your emotional needs.

I love that.

It blesses me, but I'm so appreciative to Pastor of Church that at least once a year I gather us together.

I'm like, guys, come on, we can do the thing that matters to God.

In the book of John, there's this interesting moment.

Jesus and his disciples were traveling somewhere, and the disciples decided to venture off and to go run an errand together.

So Jesus is now by himself and he comes upon a well.

The wells were a big deal because it's where people drew water.

And it's the middle of the day, and there's a woman sitting there by herself, and she's a Samaritan.

You need to understand this.

Jesus was Jewish, she was Samaritan.

Two massive cultural issues just happened in this moment.

The first is Jesus is Jewish, she's Samaritan, and Jews and Samaritans hated each other.

We live in a world where racism still exists.

It was never more palatable than it was in those days.

They were vocal about how they hated each other.

Beyond that, a man would never go to a woman and have a conversation with her because men thought they were superior to women.

So Jesus smashes through the racial barrier and he smashes through the misogynistic gender barriers and he sits down and he talks to this woman and they have this fascinating conversation.

He says to the woman, Will you get me something to drink?

She's like, Why are you talking to me?

She knew that this was an awkward conversation.

And she says, You don't even know me.

And Jesus is like, I do.

I know everything there is to know about you.

I know you've been married five times, and I know that you're living with someone, you're shacking up with someone who's not your husband now.

She's like, Sir, I think you might be a prophet.

Like, who who are you?

And Jesus says, I just want something to drink, but I can give you something that will really satisfy your soul for all of eternity.

They have this really interesting dynamic and this interesting moment.

This is where the story picks up.

John chapter 4, verse 27.

John 4:27

Just then, his disciples were, they returned and they were surprised to find him talking with a woman for those reasons I just told you.

And I want you to notice, it says, but no one asked.

And I want you to think about this.

In good writing, the literary devices don't allow for you to say what didn't happen.

You don't say what didn't happen in a story, you say what did happen.

But John goes on to point out that no one asked two questions.

No one asked, what do you want, or why are you talking with her?

Why does this matter?

Why did the Holy Spirit want us to record this and remember this moment?

I think it's simply because they probably regretted not asking.

This is Jesus.

They're serving him.

They're the students, he's the teacher.

And they don't ask him, What do you want, or why are you talking with her?

And then it says, then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, I want you to come see, I want you to come experience a man who told me everything I ever did.

I want you to see how easy it was for her to invite people to Jesus.

She just said, Come and see.

Two words, just come see.

Come see someone who told me everything I ever did.

Is it possible?

Could this be the Christ?

And these people came out of the town.

Next verse.

They came out of the town and they made their way towards him.

Meanwhile, there's his disciples, and they urged him, Rabbi, eat something.

Like you've been, we were, we were running errands, we should get you, we should have brought you something.

We picked up Cheesecake Factory, we should have brought you a slice of cheesecake or something.

Like, eat something.

And Jesus said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about.

Then his disciples said to each other, like, did someone slip him a granola bar or something?

Like, did we miss something?

Could someone have brought him some food?

And Jesus responded in Jesus' way.

He said, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Do you not say four more months and then the harvest?

Like, you need to understand this was like a farming colloquialism that means I'll just do it some other day.

Jesus said, I tell you, and I want you to see these three words.

I want these three words to be emblazed on your heart.

He said, Open your eyes.

Like I want you to see a little differently.

Open your eyes and look at the fields.

They are ripe for harvest.

Jesus says, like, you care about your bellies.

I care about the town.

You're thinking about food.

I'm thinking about this woman and all of her family and all of her friends.

You care about something that's immediate that will leave.

I care about something that will last for eternity.

I'm playing for keeps.

This really matters.

Remember, we said we can't reach what we cannot see.

There's these disciples, and they can't see the woman who's right in front of them.

They can't see the town of people Jesus wants to reach.

And if we cannot reach what we cannot see, we need to understand that it is our responsibility when we see something to do something.

This is the reason that every time we take a team of people on a missions trip around the world, people that see the needs in the world and they see the brokenness in the world and they see the living conditions of people in the world, inevitably it happens that almost every single person becomes instantly more generous.

And they give ferociously to help the needs because when you see something, you have to do something about it.

A couple weeks ago, I was on South Florida Avenue, and if you head north of here on South Florida, there's that part of town called Dixieland where they've done the road diet.

Have you seen this before?

It went from four lanes to three.

I have no idea whose idea that was.

But I was there and I was at uh Subs and Such.

Have you ever gotten a sandwich from there?

It's amazing.

The bread is so fresh, they put so much meat on the sandwich.

It is great.

Now it looks like you're gonna leave with some sort of communicable disease when you go in there, but it's still delicious.

That's my favorite kind of restaurant, everybody.

Like a little danger, good food.

That's what I'm all about.

So I go there and I'm trying to leave from Subs and Such, and I wanted to head south.

But to head south, I would have to cross over traffic, and traffic was backed up for what felt like miles because of this road diet.

So I'm sitting there and I just I just watch his cars just go by and nobody will look, they won't even look at me.

I'm just waiting.

So I start doing that thing where you edge your car up a couple inches at a time, and and like nobody will let me in, and nobody will let me through, so I'm getting frustrated, and eventually all the traffic comes to a stop, and I'm sitting there and I've edged out as far as I can possibly go, and there was a woman and I guess her daughter in the car, and the woman is sitting looking straightforward, but she won't look at me.

But I caught eyes with the daughter, everybody.

And she reached over, and I'm assuming she said, Mom, we gotta let him in.

And then the mom looked at me, and I moved from being just a car to being a person, and she went.

She let me in.

For a moment I was nothing but a nuisance, a distraction stopping her from getting to where she wants to get faster.

But when I became a person, she had to do something about it.

You cannot reach what you cannot see, and I wonder how many of us we can't see the people around us.

There's a term for this.

We call it spiritual nearsightedness.

Nearsightedness is such a funny word to me because many years ago I had major eye problems.

So I went from my first time ever to an optometrist.

They did all the weird tests and they said, Well, you're you're nearsighted.

I said, That's dumb.

I I can see near, I can't see far.

He goes, Yeah, that's what we call it.

And I was like, that's backwards.

Like, what other medical diagnosis do you get where they tell you what's working instead of what isn't working?

It's like going with a broken arm and the doctor's like, hey, your leg works great.

There's your diagnosis.

Makes no sense to me at all, right?

He goes, You're nearsighted.

You can see near, you can't see far.

I wonder how many of us that is how our spiritual life is.

As long as me and my life and my money and my kids and my spouse and my job, and as long as all of my stuff is good, I'm good.

And we don't want to see far.

We don't want to see people outside of our nearsighted reach because if we saw something, we'd be responsible for it.

How can you know if you're spiritually nearsighted?

Ready for this?

Here's the test.

If God answered all of my prayers, would it change the world or would it just change me?

I want you to think about this.

If God answered all of your prayers, would it make a difference in the world or would it just change me?

Let me kind of let some of you off the hook.

God loves you.

He cares about you, he cares about the things you care about.

So pray about your needs because God loves you.

But if all you pray about is you, you might struggle with spiritual nearsightedness.

My hope today is to say to you what Jesus said to his disciples.

Open your eyes.

I want you to see a little differently today as a result of God's word today, because there are people in our lives who are far from God who matter to God.

Let me help you open your eyes a little bit.

September 11th, 2001, the planes flew into the World Trade Center.

You remember this?

And on that day, in a matter of moments, 2,996 people tragically lost their lives.

I want you to see this.

If we were to start a line here on the stage, and we started right here, and we asked people to line up toe to heel, heel to toe, every person would take up about one foot.

2,996 feet from here in a single file line would go out the stage, out these doors, out the parking lot.

You would turn right to go south on South Florida Avenue, and it would end in line at Chick-fil-A, 0.6 miles from here.

It's a lot of people.

But I want you to think about the world.

Okay, imagine this.

Um, there's roughly 8 billion people alive on the earth right now.

Statistically, about 2.5 billion would call themselves a Christian.

Let's just say that all of them are, exactly 2.5 billion.

That leaves 5.5 billion people who have no relationship with God whatsoever.

I want you to try to see this, and I want you to understand why it breaks the heart of God.

If we were to start here on stage, and we were to line up people in a single file line, each person taking 12 linear inches, toe to heel, heel to toe.

The line would come out the church and go into the parking lot, it would get on South Florida Avenue and it would go north.

It would get on the pulpit parkway and it would get on I-4, and the line would keep going.

It would go down I-4 all the way to Daytona.

Eventually it would get to the beach and we'd have to build a bridge.

And the bridge would go across the Atlantic Ocean, through Portugal, Spain, across the Adriatic and the Aegean Seas.

It would cross over Italy, it would cross over Greece, and it would keep going.

It would make its way through Eastern Asia, make its way, it would continue to go.

It would cross through China and India and Bangladesh.

Eventually it would cross the Little Sea and it would make its way to Japan.

Then we'd have to build a bridge.

And the bridge would go from Japan all the way across to California.

Eventually it would cross New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and it would slowly make its way back, and the line would meet itself here.

I want you to get this.

At the widest part of the earth, it is 24,901 miles in circumference.

A mile is 5,280 feet.

The line would meet here, but it wouldn't stop here.

I want you to imagine this.

Imagine you left church today, you got in your car, and you drove as far as you could possibly drive, and as you drove, you saw people standing in line, toe to heel, heel to toe, lined up for miles.

The line would circle the earth once and then it would meet again, and then it would go again.

All the way around.

And then it would go again, and then it would go again, and then it would go again.

And it would go five times and ten times, twenty times, thirty times, forty times, forty-one, and eventually the line would stop at 42 circles around the world.

I want you to imagine this.

In this line are family and friends of yours, people you love and people you're close to, all standing in line.

And the truth is that that 5.5 billion number feels too big, and that 42 lines around the earth feels too big.

Let me make it more personal to you.

According to the latest research I could find, the city of Lakeland, the greater city of Lakeland, this is people that have 338 something something as their zip code, is 358,000 people.

The most recent stats that I could find say 19.1% of them go to church in some way.

That leaves 289,980 who don't go to church.

And so let's just let's just assume some stuff, okay?

Let's assume that this is right.

Let's assume that almost 290,000 people, our friends, our neighbors, that gym buddy of yours, that barista who knows your order, your kid's soccer coach, let's assume that all of these people have no connection with God whatsoever.

What would that line look like?

And I want you to open your eyes.

Starting right here on the stage.

Imagine it's your friends in line, and you leave church and you start driving slowly, and as you drive, you catch eyes with every single one of them.

How long would a line for 289,000 people be?

It would start here, it would go up the Polk Parkway, it would turn on to I-4, and it would go all the way into Orlando.

It would actually go even farther than this because this line would be 55.1 miles long.

It would literally take you from here to the parking lot at Universal Studios.

And that's your friends.

And it's your family members, and it's that co-worker.

And I want you to get this.

Every single one of these people matter to God.

And I want you to get how uncomfortable this is.

In both the first service and now.

When we sit in that uncomfortable feeling, people always start to cough.

The reason is it feels awkward.

It feels hard, it feels heavy.

And the reason it feels awkward and difficult and heavy is because we're responsible when we see it.

You cannot reach what you cannot see, but the moment you see it, you carry a new responsibility.

And as your pastor, I want you to feel this.

They matter to God.

So they better matter to us.

Give your message, notes, pull them out.

Let me give you three challenges today.

I want you to pray, God, open my eyes to where they are.

Where are these people who are in line?

Let me show this to you.

This is very important.

They're all around us.

They're literally people in your life.

Let me say this to you your relationship with God is profoundly personal, but it was never intended to stay personal.

It is the greatest gift in the world, and we were created to share it with other people.

Funny, many of us have no idea the spiritual status of many of our friends.

We have no idea whatsoever.

So here's a prayer to pray.

God, open my eyes.

Help me to see people through your eyes.

Let me give you this challenging principle.

If you will pray that simple prayer, God will give you moments of opportunity.

Divine appointments is what I call them.

These are the moments when people open up to you and they share things like, Yeah, my family's really struggling, or my my parents are going through a difficult time, or I'm walking through this challenge with my husband or my wife.

Those moments are moments of opportunity for you to step in and ask, Well, what is have you turned to God for this?

Like it's it's these powerful moments.

The book of Psalm, David says it like this.

He says, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

Like God is providing these moments for us.

In the book of, in the book, next verse, in the book of Proverbs, 16, verse 9, says, In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his step.

Proverbs 16:9

Man sets his calendar, God's the one who sets his appointments.

And God has moments of divine opportunity for us.

We just have to care.

So let me give you a simple principle.

Ready?

To change the world, we need to connect before we correct.

Let me say this to you.

If you want influence in someone's life, you have to connect with them relationally.

I don't know if I've ever seen a person or met a person who's made a decision to follow Jesus because someone screamed at them with a megaphone.

But I've met lots of people who are in relationship with Jesus, many in this room, because someone loved them enough to care for them.

People don't care what you know until they know you care for them.

So we have to connect first.

The second thing we need to understand is this we need to pray, God, open our eyes to who they are.

What does this mean?

We live in the most divided world ever.

It's divided.

You've got the right that hates the left and the left hates the right.

You've got Democrats that hate Republicans and Republicans who hate Democrats.

You have Cowboys fans who hates Eagles fans and Eagles fans who are wrong, right?

We got like we live in a divided world.

Can I tell you what a divided world means?

A unified church.

I want you to see this.

When Jesus saw people, he didn't see right versus left, right and wrong.

I want you to see this in the book of Matthew.

It says this when he saw the crowds, groups of people, he had compassion on them.

Because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

But we do have to like them.

This is the problem a lot of Christians have.

They think, well, if I if I like somebody who's far from God, if I'm friends with someone whose lifestyle disagrees with the commands and teachings of God, if I like somebody, that means I'm affirming what they do.

No, it doesn't.

It means you're creating a relationship with them.

I actually think that our culture needs to understand that you can disagree with someone without dishonoring someone.

You can love someone and you can understand that maybe we disagree on some things, but I choose to love you, and my love should actually call for there to be action.

I'll talk about that in just a moment.

You don't have to, you don't have to be like everybody in the world.

But if you're going to be like Jesus, you've got to choose to like them.

You've got to see past their sin and love who they are.

Third thought is this: we need to pray, God, open my eyes to what they need.

And this is a big deal.

Because what does the world need right now?

Well, I'm starting a new series next Sunday called Influencer.

And in a world that wants to pressure you to bow at every different idol, God's looking for followers who will stand up and say, No, I'm standing for what is true.

What does the world need?

I want you to see this.

In Jesus' life, John chapter 1 records it like this.

John 1 · chapter mention

It says the word, it's referring to Jesus, became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father full of grace and truth.

The problem is the church is divided on this.

You've got one camp of Christians who are truth people.

Truth, truth, truth, true, truth.

You're wrong, you're a sinner, you're going to hell, turn or burn.

Truth, truth, truth, true, truth.

And here's the thing they might be right.

And I agree with them for the most part.

But I don't agree with their approach.

Let me say this to you.

God wants us to be right, but he also wants us to be effective.

There's the truth crowd.

There's also the grace crowd.

The grace crowd is the other extreme of the pendulum swing.

The grace crowd says, oh, it doesn't matter what you've done.

It doesn't matter what you believe.

Doesn't matter what you think about moral issues.

It doesn't matter, like you be you, you live your truth, God's grace covers all of it.

Here's the funny thing.

They're also kind of right.

They're right that the grace of God that was poured out for us on the cross when Jesus died does cover all of our sins, but both extremes are wrong.

They're both wrong.

We have to be full of grace and truth, just like Jesus.

And I want you to notice this.

It says about Jesus that he was full of both, but he always leads with grace.

So I could say it like this: if we're going to change the world, we need to show people the same kind of love that God showed us, which is unconditional love.

Here's the problem: we misunderstand what love is.

What do you mean?

We live in a culture that wants to say love equals affirmation.

That love means I have to celebrate whatever you do, even if it's wrong.

I heard John Bevere years ago give a brilliant illustration.

He said, Imagine your friend put a blindfold on, got up on a cliff, spun around in a circle, and took off running.

And as he's running towards the edge of the cliff, he's laughing.

Oh, this is so funny, this is so funny.

And you're standing off to the side and you're caught in this moment of like, what do I do?

Like, he's having such a good time.

He's laughing.

This is wonderful, but I'm not gonna say anything because I love him too much.

Is that love?

No, no, that lack of love will cause your friend to fall to their peril.

Love says, I love you, care about you.

I love you more than the differences I see in our opinions.

But let me say this to you: but because I love you, here's the truth.

What is that?

It's being like Jesus, unconditional love, full of grace and truth.

How incredible would it be if our church was known as a grace and truth kind of church?

When I was in college, I had a professor say one thing, and here I am 20-ish years later, and it's maybe the only thing I remember from college.

But he said, if you'll find what breaks the heart of God and give your life to meeting that need, God will pour out his blessings in ways you can't even get your mind around.

What is it that you think breaks the heart of God?

When he looks down from heaven and he sees his children who are far from him?

Like parents, imagine you lost one of your kids.

You couldn't find them, and so you called up all of your family and friends.

You said, guys, come over.

Everybody comes over and you're like, let's search.

I can't find my son, he's missing.

Help me, help me, help me.

And you take off running and you search for an hour or two and you come back to your meeting place, and everyone is still standing there.

How would you feel?

Hurt, angry, betrayed.

Imagine the same scenario.

You lose your kid, you say to all your friends, help me, help me, help me.

And before you can even get back out the door to search again, all of your friends have broken up into teams and they're all out searching.

What would the posture of your heart be towards them?

You can have anything I want.

Anything I have, you can have any of it.

Why?

Because nothing in this moment matters to me than my child who's missing.

Okay.

Why do you think God seems to bless some churches and not others?

It's a tough conversation.

Why do you think it happens?

I think when God looks down from heaven, there's some churches who know how to show all the right stuff, full of wonderful worship, wonderful people.

They fill their church calendars with lots of stuff to keep Christians happy, but outside of the world.

They're no different than a weed with no depth to its roots.

Why do you think God chooses to bless some churches?

Because when he looks down, he sees that they care about what he cares about.

And they've made the decision to not settle into consumer Christianity or country club Christianity.

They're the kind of churches who say, God, if you're on the hunt, like Jesus said in the book of Luke, for he said, For I, the Son of Man, came to seek and save the lost.

Jesus, if you're seeking to find the lost, then count us in.

We're with you.

Like we are gonna do whatever it takes to reach people for him.

Some people are like, Jason, why are we doing a North Lakeland location?

Why are we doing this?

Because we refuse to be like this.

We we refuse to settle in when there is a mission in front of us.

We're gonna do everything we can to reach people for him.

So here's my question to you: Who has God placed in your life?

That if we were to start a line that started on the stage and went out the door, they would be in the line.

Who are the relationships in your life that you've you've allowed your misdefinition of love to stop you from sharing your faith to them?

Who are the people in your life who, if they died now, would spend eternity away from God?

Let me say this to you.

When you open your eyes and you see them, you're responsible.

Here's my challenge.

Challenge every person in this room to pray, God, break my heart for what breaks yours.

God, open my eyes to see the people around me who are far from you.

And God, give me moments of divine appointments that I can step into and make a difference.

I challenge some of you to share your faith.

I challenge some of you to be a bringer to church.

I challenge some of you to do whatever it takes to make that line a little shorter.

Our responsibility as followers of Jesus is to make heaven a little more crowded and to plunder the gates of hell.

Can I get a good amen from anybody who's on mission with Jesus?

All across this room, will you bow your head and close your eyes right now?

So, God, give us courage to step into moments of divine appointment.

God, we ask you to break our heart for what breaks yours.

Help us to see people in our lives the way you see them, to have compassion like Jesus did.

And God, I pray this week that you'll open doors that no man can open.

God, I pray this week will be a time where we share our faith, a time where we invite people to experience you through a local church.

God, my prayer is that so many lives will be changed because you have done for us what you did for your disciples that day.

You've told us to open our eyes.

We thank you for it, God.