Transcription
[music] Thanks for joining the Abide YouTube channel. For more information about Abide, go [music] to abideurchfl.com and enjoy today's message.
I want to jump right into the word. If you want to open up your Bibles to Matthew 28, we want to jump in this morning. We've been in this conversation around the end times and what God has been doing on the earth and our participation in that.
Before that, I want to show you guys a picture. I want to show you this little guy. >> This is Enoch Priest. Hey, [cheering] he's here. That's our That's our little guy, Enoch Priest. He came last Sunday morning. And so thankful for all you guys have prayed. He's doing well. Mom's recovering. And we do make cute freaking babies. It's awesome. So, he is our last baby, though. Praise God. [laughter]
All right. Are you ready? Matthew 28. We want to jump in this morning. Um, I feel like God is inviting us, and when I say us, I don't want you to exclude yourself. When I say us, I mean us, to participate in his story on the earth. Now, I know a lot of times when we're in church, a lot of us, we view ourselves as like background actors, right? You know, like extras in a movie, like there are those that have main character energy and then there's us who just kind of show up. I'm inviting you to have main character energy this morning. >> Not just Reagan and Rachel. >> All of us. Praise God. You feel that? I'm just calling you guys out. I'm inviting all of us this morning to see yourselves as an active participant in God's mission and God has a mission and the full gospel is not listen many of us we were invited into church and this was the message we said yes to God loves you and he has a plan for your life right God God died for you and he loves you so say yes to him but that yes you give him isn't just to get you out of hell it's not just it's not just like a get me out of hell free card it's an invitation to co-lababor with him in his mission. And it is the most amazing, the most spectacular, the most beautiful invitation we could ever receive. And the beautiful thing is no one is excluded. If broken drug addict Gio who came from all of the wrong circumstances can be used by God, so can you. >> There's nothing in your life you could have done to exclude yourself by the grace of God to be a part of his story. So, if you're in the room this morning, you feel disqualified, join the club. >> BUT, BUT DON'T LET IT STOP you from God's invitation. >>
Now, in in Matthew 28, God's inviting us, and I want to invite us to stretch our vision beyond the American dream. >> I feel like the the closer we get to Jesus's return, the more we have to actively resist this idea of the American dream and American Christianity and this westernized thing. Yes, >> we have to actually bring clarity to the gospel >> and give ourselves fully to this man called Jesus >> who we pledge our allegiance to. It's not just, oh, I go to church on Sunday and I'm going to God's going to do a little behavioral modification. No, he's called us out of a kingdom into a new one. >> And that kingdom comes with an assignment and a mission that we WE DON'T HAVE TO. We get to be a part of >> the Celsius is flowing. >> [laughter] >>
So, I want to remind you that you were saved for more than comfort. >> As we're talking about Thanksgiving and all of the things we're thankful for, I was sharing in the brief this morning. I'm thankful that I don't have to come to a a group of believers meeting in secret. >> That I can freely show up on a Sunday morning and the only resistance I have is my own. It's my own inconvenience and the stuff that I have. There's no resistance. Nobody is stopping you from sitting in this chair and worshiping Jesus with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. >> I'm thankful for that. But that that sense of freedom also comes with a responsibility. >> And so, you're not just saved for comfort, but most believers I I feel this. We we love Jesus, but we don't actually live on mission. >> And it's not over rebellion. It's not it's it's we're we're being discipled more by culture than by Bible. >> We're being discipled by YouTube and all kinds of nonsense. And like what we want to do is we want to get to the scripture and ask Jesus, "What are you requiring of us?" Because here's the issue. The American dream, it disciples you to protect your life. >> That American dream, westernized Christianity, all it's trying to get you to do IS TO BUILD MORE FOR YOU. WOW. >> And it's subtle. It's it's it's subtle. It goes undercover. But when you actually open up the Bible, Jesus starts saying things like, "Hey, the one who finds his life has to lose it." >> And the one who loses his life finds it. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? >> That's us. That's our invitation to actually find soulless and comfort. not in gaining our lives but losing it for this man Jesus who we just spent 45 minutes singing about. So Jesus instead of forming us for self-comfort and preservation, he forms us into a kind of people that we pour our lives out. Paul would say it like this, I've I've ran the good race. He would say, I poured my life out as a drink offering. There was something about his life where he didn't view it as preserving or protecting, but he was he was he was poured out. And we cannot fulfill the great commission with Americanized mindset. >> We'll never cross the finish line >> with this mindset that has to do with we'll give Jesus whatever's left over. >> Whatever margin I may have, >> that's what I'll offer him. But if we can reorient our lives around Matthew 28, >> then I believe God will give grace to us to become like a few weeks ago I talked about becoming a pipeline for the great commission. >> Not just with your money, yes, your money, but with your mind, soul, strength, your time, talent, and treasure.
So, Matthew 28, Jesus is speaking and he it's the last thing he says in the book of Matthew to his disciples. And I want to go Matthew 28:18. Do you have it? Say, "I have it." >> I have it. >> Matthew 28:18. I want you to put eyes. Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, "All." Say, "All." >> All. God. >> I'm thankful that all authority has been given to him. >> That I'm not my my faith and my assurance isn't contingent on political figures or what's going on on the earth and the wars and the rumors. All authority has been given to Jesus. All authority has been in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go. Say go. >> Go. >> Say it again. Go. >> Go. >> Go. Therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow. Your translation may say to obey all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. >>
This is our mission as believers. It's not the church's mission to make disciples if you view the church as a building with a few staff members. But the church, the Acts 2 church, a company of people, a family, it is our mission to be about the father's business in making disciples of all nations and teaching them to obey. Not just to abstain from sin, but to actually give themselves to a certain way of life, a certain value system, a certain set of standards that actually brings freedom. So so many people come into church and like it just feels hard. It feels narrow and like so many rules. And when you find when you actually walk this road is this narrow road actually leads to broadness of life. >> Even though the road feels narrow like there may be things that God doesn't allow you to do that can feel restrictive for you. Like how can everybody else live that certain way and God has you on this narrow road and years down the road you find life and life in abundance. John 10 overflow life that has been produced through a life of simple obedience and following the lamb. >> Right? So we say things like this. May the lamb receive the reward for his suffering. What is that reward? Got to define the reward of the lamb. And it has to be something bigger than just like let's say God one day grows abide to like three or four campuses in Tampa. THAT IS A VERY VERY VERY very very small reward >> for the price that was paid for the lamb. >> Because at the very end of the story, what we see is going to happen is there will be a witness from every tribe, nation, and tongue who sing the lamb a song. >> So what I want us to do is to get our eyes up and to have a bigger vision >> than just giving God a certain portion of our life. >> Right?
When Jesus leaves, he tells the disciples, "Go and wait and pray and I'm going to send one." Right? Wild words. "It's better for you that I leave." I'm like, "I don't know, bro. You walk on water. People with leprosy get healed. Dead people come to life." And you're like, "Better?" He's like, "No, it's better because I'm going to send one." Being the Holy Spirit that if you're a believer lives inside of you, that same power that raised Christ from the dead is living in you right now. >> WHETHER YOU FEEL IT OR NOT, IT'S THE PROMISE of God. He says, "Wait because I'm going to send one." And in Acts 18, he says this. I want you to look at Acts. Acts 1 verse 8. He says, "But you will receive power." Say, "Power." >> Power. >> You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and as far as the remotest parts of the earth. So the Holy Spirit isn't given to us just so we can feel better about us, right? Yes, the Holy Spirit produces fruit, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, all of those things. But it it is so that you can become a certain kind of person, >> a certain kind of light in darkness, a certain kind of salt, right? that you amidst a perverse, dark, confused, lost world and generation, you can live your life with clarity. >> Are you alive? >> With assurance, >> with joy, >> with peace, not just because all of the circumstances in your life are going right. How many of you know, right? It takes 42 hours for sometimes things to go upside down. And sometimes the more you pray, the worse it gets. You're like, "This is confusing, right? You ever like sit you're like, "Okay, I'm going to pray." It's like the more you pray, the worse it gets. Like, this is confusing, God. And Holy Spirit comes upon us to become a witness. Now, I don't want you to just view witness as somebody who goes on a street corner with a microphone and preaches Turn or Burn. >> I I want us I hope you never do that, by the way. But that we can become a certain kind of people >> in a certain kind of culture again where everyone's living their life for them for their for their comfort for their social status for their xyz etc. And you say no my life is not my own. I've actually lost my life and in losing it I have gained it. And there's something about this exchange that I think Jesus is inviting us into in the text to realize we have been born to be a witness. That witness goes from your neighbor to your city to the marginalized to the nations. And every one of us will participate in that mission in a different way. Right? Everybody has a unique calling. And it's really what I want you to understand. You whether you know it or not, you have a missionary assignment on your life. You view a missionary as someone who sells everything and goes across the Sea of China. Amen. We need that. And there are some of you that you can't picture your life any other way than living here that I think you should allow at least the question to rise up in your heart. God, would you call me to go? Cuz there's only really three kind of people, right? It was originated with John Piper. You are either a goer, you're a sender, or you're disobedient. THOSE ARE THE THREE KIND OF PEOPLE IN the soil. There's no other because we're all given the mandate to participate. Either we are going and participating on the field. Now, I think that's for everyone. I think you're a goer to your workplace. I think you're a go to Walmart. How many of you know Walmart needs like? Praise God. The people of Walmart need us. So it's not just again being a goer is not just going to a third world country or going to an unreached people group. But I want to say to you maybe it is it gets quiet like maybe God is inviting you into a radical storyline that you never thought God could do with your life. And our vision has shrunken. And we've made ministry about going to a four-year school, getting a degree, and being in this environment >> and evangelizing people who've been evangelized again and again and again. >> And it's like we're all fishing in the same pond, >> right? And there are ponds on the earth that have not been fished in ever >> that have no access. So like in America if somebody woke up or like let's say they were they were struggling with anxiety or something depression and they walked outside and this thought hit them something created this there's something bigger going on. If they really wanted to unpack and follow that thread they can go to a church a 100 churches within a 10 milei radius and get an answer to their questions. >> There are nations on the earth where that is impossible. And to disconnect ourselves from that and say somebody should do something about that. I think for us Gio included is irresponsible. >> But the invitation to see ourselves as a part of that solution is the gospel invitation. And the gospel is our motivation. Right? We've we've unpacked these. We have three wives as a community. Number one, Jesus is worthy. >> Jesus is worthy. He's worthy of our song. He's worthy of our lives. But the second one is this. The gospel is powerful. >> And the gospel is most powerful when people are activated to live this thing out. >> And so we need to be about the father's business because number three is the time is urgent. >> The time is urgent. Whether we know it or not, things are shifting. Things are changing. And just because you're not just because you're not aware of it doesn't mean it's not happening. >> Just because we choose to disconnect and not feel the weight of that doesn't mean that the earth isn't shifting. And there aren't shakings that are happening. And amidst the shaking, remember I said it, there's great shaking, but there's also great glory. And amidst of that shaking, God raises up a faithful witness, a people, young and old. Listen, if you're like 50, 60, 70, this isn't like, I hope the 20-year-olds get it. >> This is full participation in God's mission as a family. If there's breath in your lungs, there's an assignment on your life. That assignment could look like getting under a 20-year-old and supporting them and but but I'm going to say to you, it has to look like something. >> And here's what the answer isn't. The answer is not shame. The answer is not guilt. >> Bro, I'm not here at, you know, 11:24 to be like, do better. You suck. >> I've been in those environments where it's like, man, I want to give you stats and make you feel as bad as possible to be motivated. That's a terrible motivation. Yeah. >> The beauty of the gospel is we give our lives because he gave his life first. >> He poured himself out first. He crossed the greatest distance. He left the greatest comfort and he entered our world. Took on our sin and he gave his life. So we go because he came. >> It's got to start with that. You remembering that there was a man that liberated you from your sin and he gave his life. And so because he loved us first, we love him. And love looks like obedience. >> Jesus would say like this, "If you love me, you will >> obey me." >> So it's impossible to love Jesus only in word. >> It's impossible to love Jesus only in song. >> At some point, the maturation of that declaration is your feet have to take steps in a certain direction. >> Now I can't give you that direction. And Holy Spirit does that and he gives you the direction and then he EMPOWERS YOU TO DO IT. How many of you are thankful >> THAT IT'S NOT LIKE AH WHEN YOU GO HE SAYS WHEN you go I'll be with you always until the end of the age. So that gives us a certain kind of confidence and it removes the burden. Like I'm going to give you some statistics but not to burden us just to to make us aware of the current situation we're in. just to make us aware of the current state of the world and and even our city. The the the very real challenges that we have to step into because we can't allow the government to be the solution for for communal change, >> right? You can't legislate freedom. THE SPIRIT OF GOD GIVES FREEDOM. And any place where we subvert that authority, we lose our gospel witness. >> Okay? So, I just want to say there are some real challenges and barriers and I just want to acknowledge them that like there's there's like when we talk about evangelizing or sharing the gospel, when you step out and have that conversation, the same way your heart pounds at 194 beats per minute, so does geos. >> Okay? Oh yeah. >> Like this this evangelistic lifestyle, living it out, it's not easy and it's challenging and our flesh hates it. >> Okay, we're just going to say that. So you're like, I'm just an introvert. Being an introvert is not an an excuse for not participating in the great commission. >> It's not like, well, the extroverts can have that. We all become participants. But there's real fear and and you will be rejected. >> Jesus said, "If they rejected me, they're going to reject you." >> So, can we just say when it's it's going to be awkward and you're going to get rejected and there's going to be challenge and you're going to feel like you don't know enough. And again, it's like join the club. >> Holy Spirit fills you and he WILL GIVE YOU POWER. HE goes to such extent to say when you don't know what to say, trust me, I will give you the words to say. which alleviates us from the weight of like I don't have the right words and I haven't gone to school. There is nowhere in the Bible that says you have to have a degree to live out the gospel. >> Now I have a degree. It's not like well but I'm just saying all of the barriers we create for somebody to be an Acts 1A witness is how we got to where we are today. >> Cuz disciples are not formed in universities. Disciples are formed around living rooms and tables. >> Disciples are not formed on Sunday mornings. >> You think that you're going to receive disciplehip spending two hours out of 168? >> You I I know I got 45 minutes with you, right? 45 minutes. And then you're like, I'm hungry. Let me go. >> Now, many of us, we've 10xed that just on YouTube or Netflix. And so the challenge is how can I compete when our affections because you always will build your life around that which you find most beautiful. >> ALWAYS. YOU'RE ALWAYS GOING TO BUILD YOUR LIFE around that that fascinates you. You wouldn't say you're fascinated by Netflix or social media, but like the amount of time that you give it means there's something in you that's drawn to it. And that like Justin said, what you become, you behold. If God's vehicle of transformation is we with unbuilt faces, we we look as in a mirror beholding the Lord being transformed from one degree of glory. What is Paul saying? As you stare at Jesus, as you make space and margin and and you give him time and energy, you become more like him. >> Now to think that you can stare at other things and not become like it is foolish. To think that we can give so much time and energy and focus and attention and not think that in some way or form it's it's transforming us into its image is it's a challenge. And so we have we have fear, we have this this issue of where our gaze, but we also have comfort. And I think this may be the biggest one. And it's like when I talk about this, you come down everybody's aisle because one of the biggest challenges we have to fulfilling the great commission, which we're all called to, can we agree? >> Is convenience. We don't like to be inconvenienced. I mean, even in our first world country when we talk about hungering for Jesus, we don't like, you understand, in other countries we've lived in, they view hunger differently. Because if I'm ever hungry in America, it's just cuz I haven't stopped at Chick-fil-A. It's not because I don't have access. Which means, you know what you lose with that? You lose desperation. >> Hunger doesn't become about desperation. It becomes about inconvenience. And that subtle thread gets in there when we talk about hungering and thirsting after God. You're like, I don't want to be inconvenienced. And so comfort continues to ask us, how do I protect my life? And Jesus is like, hey man, I'm calling you to give it. Are you with me? >> Comfort.
I was thinking about this too, how sometimes we have a shrunken vision like your worldview of the gospel going forward doesn't stretch beyond California and the East Coast. And so we're governed by that. Realizing that actually the end of this book plays out on the other side of the world. >> Like Jesus doesn't land in North Carolina. He's like, I'm here. We all like Gatlinburg. Praise God. But like he he will step in the Middle East and he's going to rule and reign from Jerusalem. >> And it's not a it's not a fantasy story. It's not Disney World. >> This is really going to happen. He's going to split the sky and he will execute judgment >> on the nations. >> And so like I don't want to hear that. That's that's just Bible. >> That he's going to come and split the sky open and it will be too late to take back any sense of oh I lived my life for me. Like can we just feel the weight of that for a moment? Like when that happens there's no reversing it. we would have lived our life a certain way. And this is why we want we have to have the conversation around how we're orienting our family, our calendar, our money, our resources because YOU'RE NOT GIVING ACCOUNT TO GIO. We give account to God. >> So again, I'm not here to legislate how you do it, but you need clarity around who you are. >> AGAIN, YOU'RE NOT SOME BACKGROUND EXTRA in a movie. According to the Bible, just a few scriptures. 2 Corinthians 5 says you are an ambassador. You understand what that means? You represent another kingdom, right? The term ambassador didn't originate with the Bible. It was a Roman term where they would send people into certain cities and the job of the ambassador was to make whatever city they they were in like Rome. Meaning your job wherever God plants you is to cultivate a heart, an environment, an atmosphere wherever you go, the kingdom of God is going out. There's peace, there's joy, there's kindness. Meaning, there are no undercover Christians. >> I have people say to me, "Man, I people on my job don't even know I'm a Christian." I'm like, "Bro, I would not say that to anyone ever again." [laughter] Like, I hear what you're saying, but like don't say it. Just keep it on the inside. because it's it's the opposite of what God has called us to be. Acts 18, we're a witness. John 20, you are sent. As the father has sent me, so I am sending you. Right? The same kind of sending, the abalo that God gave Jesus is given to us. Matthew 5, you are the light of the world. There's just something about you. There should be something about you that when you walk in certain environments, they don't affect you, you affect it. >> Now, that could take time. Now, I'm not saying that's easy. And that comes with challenges. Like I said, it's awkward. There's rejection. There's challenge. But there has to be something about God's people, right? Because if your life makes sense to an unbeliever, it doesn't make sense. I said it two weeks ago, but I hope you get that. If if an unbeliever is looking at your life and the way you live and orient your life and YOUR VALUE SYSTEM MAKES PERFECT sense to them, it doesn't make sense >> because the very essence of a witness is there's something different about them. >> It's not the being the weird the weird, you know what I mean? Like let's let the reader understand. It's not about being weird, but it's about having stability, confidence, >> about about having something about you that actually permeates. It changes the atmosphere. >> And so, we've got to overcome and understand who we are. And we have to fight against spiritual apathy. >> We have to actually actively combat it. This is dullness, disinterest. We're in responsive. We are indifferent. meaning we don't care which way things go. And Holy Spirit wants to come into us and he wants to help us live because what spiritual apathy does is it weakens desire. It dulls our sensitivity and our urgency is gone. >> So we go week after week after week hoping that someday the speaker will say something to make our hearts come alive again. That's not the way this works. Your heart comes most alive when you join him in his mission. >> Even if you're in the room today, you're like, "Bro, my life is busted and disgusted." The best thing you can do is give him your yes and watch how he begins to realign. Cuz what I know is Gio did God did not ask Gio at 18 to clean up his life before he came. He saw a weak, broken, angry, disturbed kid. And he said, "I'm calling you into my story." >> And as I went, I found he was with me. And as he was with me, my life began to transform. And that transformation doesn't stop. >> We don't graduate from disciplehip. Amen. Amen. >> So, we allow God to to remove all of the apathy and we recognize that there's real spiritual warfare. >> The enemy does not want you to live your life on mission. >> I promise you. It's why every time like let's take two weeks for example ago where like become a pipeline. You become a pipeline and you sew. I don't know if you did or you didn't. Your tires go flat. your transmission goes out, your refrigerator breaks. I'm not saying the enemy does all of those things, but it's like everything tries to stop you from stepping in and giving your whole heart to Jesus. All of the resistance begins to come. And actually, if we navigate those situations properly, we learn to build something that I think actually may be missing in our culture today. grit, perseverance, the ability to not give up when things get hard, to understand that the gospel isn't always going to be easy. But if we push through, we find realms of of glory, realms of God entrusting us with more, but only if we persevere, only if we push through. So there's real opposition, and the enemy wants to silence you. >> You hear me? >> Am I speaking? Am I at abide? >> Am I in a dream? >> The enemy wants to silence you. >> He wants you to lose your witness. He wants you to It's It's not just like, "Oh, I want him to go into gross, dark sin." It's this quiet, timid. You lose courage. He whispers lies and he he fills you with fear. So So again, this idea of like I'm an undercover Christian. No, I don't cuss. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't but like I'm never going to share my my my life with anyone else is only part of the gospel. He liberated you so that you can become a witness from neighbor to nations. Right? Jerusalem's your neighbor. Judea is your city. Samaria it's people unlike you. Right? It's it's like reaching out to people that are not in your same sphere and to the ends of the earth. It's it's the unreached people. And so I share with you just a few statistics, right? And I actually as I did study for this, I was encouraged. There's there's around 17,400 people groups in the world. And actually 5 years ago, I was listening to a message around 50% of of the world was unreached, unengaged. Meaning there's no witness, there's no gospel, there's no Bible translation. It's it's it's challenging. Five years later, we're at 40%. Which means we're pushing we're pushing the ball, right? It may be uphill, but we're pushing it, right? But but the reality is 40% of groups on the earth have no access to the gospel. And so the statistics go like this. There's there's somewhere around 700 there. There's a lot of people groups that are completely unengaged. For every one people group, for every one unengaged people group, there are 900 evangelical churches on the earth right now. >> For every one, right? Like if if five out of the 900 said, "We're going to fix our eyes on that. >> We're going to pray for that. We're going to send money. We can accomplish the goal." But the issue is we sit in rooms like this and we hear these things and we're like, "Somebody should do something about that." And what I'm advocating is you're somebody >> and you can do something. >> We like we can't just push it off to a few anointed people because we've all been anointed. How many of you agree? >> And so if we want like how many of you want to see Jesus return soon? >> Okay, just Curtis. Praise God. Eric, too. About to have a baby, bro. Wow. Baby's on the way. If we really want to see Jesus return soon, we understand he will not return until there is a gospel witness >> in every tribe, nation, and tongue. >> It's impossible to fulfill Revelation 7 if there's not a witness to every tribe, nation, and tongue. >> And for us to disconnect ourselves, it's like, man, the statistics of people that I hear saying, "Well, I'm called to America." It's wild, right? like that God would take all of us and he would plant us on the earth only for us and that there would be people all over the earth that die, go to hell and spend eternity far from God forever and we wouldn't even consider being a little disrupted I think is a challenge. It's a challenge for me to to the point where I'm like, God, I need you to unsettle certain aspects of my life because I don't want to stand before you disconnected from your eternal storyline. >> Did you hear what I just said? >> I I don't want like here's the challenge. If you found yourself at Abide November 30th, you're in trouble because now you know. >> You're like, I just wanted to eat turkey. Still sweating. Still have the sweats. Now you know that there are people on the earth that have no access to any Bible or any gospel way. There's no person to disciple them to walk with them and even give them an opportunity to to respond to the gospel. And so like that may seem extreme to us and it seems impossible but again it's because some of us we have we have built our lives in such a way that we couldn't say yes to Jesus even if he asked us to like well Jesus would never ask me that well number one you've never given him permission to ask you that kind of question but number two if you build your life in such a way that you're you're you're a slave to debt and your comfort takes precedence and lordship over Jesus, you would never consider Jesus having you be one of the solution to the 7,000 people groups, the 40% of the earth. And I'm convinced I know that God wants us as a community to send more people and money and resources to unreached people groups than ever before. Now, some of you are like, I'm never going to Pakistan ever. Okay, you may not go to Pakistan, but like will you go down to Tampa? Like would you would you at some point ask yourself how am I participating in the great commission? Like there are people all over this room right now like we were last Thursday with Dolly and Juan. I always call them Don and Wall-E to spirit. And last Thursday we went we went to shower up Thursday before last and we just we just we just were there among the least of these giving showers, right? Like uh I don't remember her name. A lady walks up to us on her phone in a full work outfit and she shows us a picture of like I don't know how long ago, maybe a year where she was on the street on drugs and now she's she's vibrant. She's she's alive. She's working at Jimmy John's. Some like I would never work at Jimmy John's, right? Like because we view ourselves in that way. But like there's there's real life transformation on the other side of your discomfort >> of our inconvenience. That doesn't have to look like spending $3,000 and going across the sea, but just simply looks like I've got to create margin because if I have no margin for the gospel, we have to just stop and ask, what are we what are we actually doing? Like if I'm too busy to be about Jesus's work, can we just agree we may be too busy? >> Okay, just me and Reagan. I'm going to say it again. If we're too busy for the work of Jesus, we're simply too busy. >> We simply have to find a way, right? There are people, Jen, VJ, they work with the foster care system, Door of Hope, and Manup. There are so many opportunities to become real solutions to real problems in our region right now. And if we're looking at our calendar like, well, bro, I can serve. It's going to be like March of 2026, though. It's quiet, then I would say Holy Spirit's inviting us to do a little reorienting to simply maybe sit with a dad who feels hopeless in his process to like, hey, give like Katie was like, will you give 10 bucks? You can't buy a coffee with 10 bucks, fam. But to actually look at and say, "How can we serve the widows and the orphans and the least of these?" I know it's not a sexy message and it's like we want revival, but it's like, "What are we doing?" >> Even within the context of our message, when we orient all of our lives around how we feel and how hungry we are and all of the things that we want, God's like, "But there are real people that are really hurting." and to disconnect ourselves from that burden. It's like, man, you can live a life poured out. >> You can for your neighbor. >> You can just become a table that's safe for them to sit at. It's it's one conversation, one act of hospitality, one invitation, one prayer. Like, how radically different would your life be if you just took one person on the harvest wall and you prayed for them until they came into the kingdom? And there were aspects of your life that simply were not about you that you actually you took your city as a responsibility, right? Like the sex trafficking, you know, like we're one of the top three in sex trafficking in the world. >> That's here. >> Like right down the road from where we watch ice hockey. >> And that's not again to put some burden on us. It's just family. It's just where we're at. It's just like the most loving thing you can do to someone when they're sick is say, "Hey, you're sick. You need help." >> And I'm saying to us, we need help. >> Like God's inviting us wherever you are to take responsibility for your city, to be a weak, a witness at work, to love the hurting, to serve the overlooked. I want to challenge us as a community. There's no reason why a ministry like Shower Up shouldn't have full signups. like we're we're going we're like we but it's not just shower up. Shower up is a great example of a practical way. You don't have to preach a message. You can clean a shower and hand a towel. And Jesus says when you do it to them, you're doing it to me. >> Like I want to see Jesus. Go serve the lost. >> He's always there. >> Every time you go, you'll find him there. He says when you give a cold cup of water, you're doing it unto me. Like I haven't felt Jesus in a while. go down the street >> on a Thursday morning, you'll find him there because he's always there. >> Right? The the Jesus that we've created in America is so different than the Jesus of the Bible. He was consistently with the lost and the broken and the hurting. >> He he was to the point where the religious were offended. >> So if Jesus was here today, I think he'd be like, "You may be spending too much time in the walls." Now, we love this. Something holy happens when we gather together. The Bible says as the day approaches, all the more gather together. >> But if the in gathering doesn't have an outflow, we're in trouble. >> If there's not something that's motivating us to say, "Oh my gosh, I forgot. I'm not just here for me." If my prayer list only has to do with the things that Gio wants or that Gio needs and there's no sense of God, I want to join you in your mission. I I would say we're in we're in trouble. >> And for me, like man, like every we have four kids now. They're it's official. Family of six. I'm like, we got to stop cuz we're at that place. We're going to have to get one of those weird minivans if we don't stop. I'm not doing not doing that. If you're here, we forgive you. >> [laughter] >> But but I just think about like what is what is the church? I'm not just talking about the world because we understand according to Matthew 24 where things are going. We understand that they're going to be challenging. But but what what will the church look like when Enoch is 18 years old? If we don't stop talking about us and start talking about him, what is it going to look like? And we have all these false measures of success in the church and we we put them up on screens and we plast them on social media that actually have very little to do with the great commission. They have very little to do with what's happening in Iraq and Ukraine or what's happening down the road. And when when we continue to celebrate like we're winning, like man, if you're in this room, we're so thankful you're in the room. Let's not minimize that Holy Spirit brought you and he called you and he anointed you. But you need to understand what he anointed you for. And it wasn't just to jump, sing, speak in tongues, and shout. It was so that wherever he plants you, you would be rooted and grounded in his love, and you would bear much fruit. and where everything else is going in a certain direction, you're actually going against the current. You understand that concept of going against the current? Like if you're living your life and you and everyone else is going in the same direction, you may be going in the wrong direction. And when you lower the standard of I love you, no, I love you. When you lower the bar, the standard of Christianity to love God, say six words, and now you're saved. And we don't couple with that obedience. What it what it produces is many at the judgment scene hearing the words from Jesus, I I never knew you. And like I don't want that for any of us. It's why it's why I'm advocating like he'll be with us when we go. >> And I want to move you from us us I want to move us from disobedience into active part to being a goer. going can look uh we said in a variety of ways but will you go to being a sender to to like I want us to think a little bit different around okay we've paid our bills we've we've we've given and okay so we have like this 5% how do we want to be generous to actually thinking okay how is God asking me to participate and how do we need to reorient our lives in light of what he's asking of us You see how that's different? And I'm I'm worried about us because we've we've accepted as a family, as a church, as a people consistently offering God our leftovers. We've just accepted that. And I don't know about you, man, but like I I watch reactions all the time, right? Like when a sports figure walks into a room or the president, the kind of response it elicits from the people. And I imagine sometimes Jesus walking into a room and we're like ah a little busy. We would ne like none of us would say that and I get that but but our lives how many of you know your life speaks. >> Paul would say we're living epistles. Our lives have become God's story. Our lives are communicating a message. And like what I want for us, what I want for me, for my family, for our spiritual family is that when people look at our lives, they would actually be evidence that your life belongs to another. I'm not saying evidence like you church attendance that's good or not just in word, but like man, if somebody were to like if you were in another country and it was illegal in America, would there be enough evidence to convict you of actually being a follower of Jesus? And holy like I want to say this. Holy Spirit has to help us here. You can't you didn't save you right? How many of you saved yourself? Okay, good. We're we're agreeing there. >> So if we couldn't do that part on our own, we can't do this part on our own. >> So you're here like this is impossible. Like I I understand it's as impossible as some of you like going to the moon, right? Some of you believe we never went to the moon. Praise God for some of our staff. there. Too much YouTube videos. You know who you are. But as impossible as it seemed in 1969 to go to the moon, the great commission seems impossible. Yet, it's going to happen. Like God is going to find a people that actually find him worthy >> of all of their life. He's going to find them >> and they're going to believe in the power of the gospel, not in their strength or their resource. They're going to believe that actually this story is alive and that when we be we we become faithful to the story and we become empowered with the spirit, the world gets turned. That's the book of acts. >> The book of acts wasn't a church multiplication network. It was a living active organism where the more it got attacked, the more it spread. >> It went it went viral. I mean, the more pressure you put on it, the more it expanded >> because they understood like if you really pay attention, they lived with urgency. >> They lived every day >> like it could be my last day and I could be standing before him. And there's just there's just, can we just be honest? There's just kind of something in the air here where we feel little glimpses of urgency. Is it just me? It's like little glimpses. It's like and then all of a sudden we can go weeks, months on autopilot, right? The pressures and the worries of life and all and like man when you've got kids you wake up in the morning it's like what what just happened to my day, right? Like you're living on the Truman Show and and like there's no shame in that, man. Like I think Jesus has grace on us in our seasons and so we understand. But will you can you would you at least sit before the Lord and ask how in this season can I become an active participant in your mission? Everybody understands.
I mean, the statistics are crazy. Do you know that they did a poll of the church and it was like over 60% of the church didn't even understand what the great commission was? They can tell you the gospel, right? Accept, believe, confess. The way that they see that you can't accept, believe, and confess without obeying.
But they didn't understand. They don't know what the great commission is. And they don't understand that there is a part of the world right now that has over 1.4 billion people, right? Right? We would call it the 1040 window. 1.4 billion with a B people that right now have no access to the gospel. And if we can't at a minimum pray towards that, ask the Lord how to participate, I I think we're selling ourselves short of the assignment God has given us. Can we agree? Right. We're actively now, right now, planting bases in nations in the 1040 window where they're praying, preaching, and singing and discipling believers from other backgrounds. So, we're actively as a family. If you sew into our family, you're sewing into that.
There are Muslim background, MBBS, Muslim background believers right now being discipled to carry the gospel in challenging places. You we're part of that now. But I want to say to us, there's more. Yeah.
Like I I want to say by faith there are some of you you're going to find your feet in soil you never would have thought and it could be for a week or it could be for months. But I want to ask you don't exclude yourself from that kind of activity. Now there there's probably another group in the room that like me you were in church and you walked in. You're like, "Bro, you don't understand my life. You don't know what I've been through." And like, "God could never use me." I would propose to you that that that kind of feeling is prime soil for some of God's greatest work.
The beauty of the gospel is God doesn't call the elite. He calls the least, most broken, qualified. And the same invitation he gave the disciples, he walks up to you today and he says, will you follow me? It's not, "Will you go to church? Will you join our membership?" The invitation has always been and will always be, "Will you follow me?" And people dropped nets and they left tax collector booths and they left vocations and they attached themselves to this man. And that is the same invitation today. Bro, if you work a job, you work at T-Mobile, do you. Whatever God has called you to do. Plant yourself, flourish, and let God favor you and bless you. But in the midst of that, let's understand God's not doing that for us. He's doing it so that we can be active participants in his story. And I don't know about you, but that excites me. It's It's exciting to me that we get invited into that. So, there's a few things I want to I want to kind of land. And if I can get CV, I don't know if CV's There you are. Praise God. Some some moon music. Make it powerful though, Cub. [laughter] Me and Cubby have been together for 17 years. Yeah.
I want to read uh I want to read Mark 16 as we kind of land. You want to open up there? We we'll end like this. Mark 16. Verse [sighs] 24. The subheading in my Bible, which the original Bible didn't have subheadings. How many of you know that? There were no chapters and sub, but I mean, I think it's good. Mine says, "Disciplehip is costly. It's going to cost you something." In verse 24, Jesus says this. If anyone wants to come after me, he must say must.
>> Golly, that was depressing. >> Okay. Thank you, Peter. Matthew 16 verse 24. >> I lied to you, didn't I? I said Mark. Thought you knew. Sorry, guys. Matthew 16. Let's read it together because this is Bible, man. Like, if we can grab a hold of this, it'll transform us. If anyone wants to come after me, he must, let's say it again, must. >> It's not optional, deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life, not just to lose it, for my sake, for the sake of his mission, will find it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits its soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul? Verse 27 is what we always leave out. It's part of the gospel problem we have right now. For the son of man is going to come.
>> This is what we leave out in America. It's not it's not conditional. for he will come in glory of his father with his angels and he will then repay every p person according to his deeds which means this he's inviting us to lose our life and in losing it we'll gain it and in that process there will be an evaluation of our lives our lives are going to be evaluated and thank God for the blood thank God for grace thank God for mercy, right? Oh, thank God. Because we all fall short and we have our challenges. But man, I want us as a family to understand this morning like big idea. You are sent, you are empowered, and you are commissioned to lose your life.
I'm not saying you've got to be a martyr, bro. Like I I'm just saying, will you accept God's invitation to lose your life so that you could actually gain it? For those of you in the room that like we you've never actually made this kind of decision, I would just ask like, "Bro, fam, like, isn't it exhausting to live life for you trying to fix you?" I I just I was journaling gratitude and just remembering like ah I was I was so angry and depressed and lost and bound and frustrated and then God came and you know how God came through a person who was empowered as a witness to share God's love and gospel with me. And I don't know about you, man. Like, I I can't be in this room week after week staring at that wall full of names and just ignore it. Like, if you're in this room, we have a harvest wall. [music] And God promised us that as we set our face to pray for the harvest wall that he was going to save and deliver and heal and restore. That's our assignment here. But there are going to be people on that day that you never met. But because you prayed, because you gave, [music] because you served, will be standing before heaven. Oh, I got to read it to you. I want to read to you what it says. I'm going to let you go. I'm sorry. I missed you. Revelation 7. After these things, behold, a great multitude with which no one could count. Come on.
>> That's bigger than any stadium gathering that's ever happened. >> I love Reinhardt Bonkey, but it's bigger than that. >> A great multitude which no one can count from every say every >> nation, tribe, tongue, language, standing before the throne and the lamb clothed in white. >> Come on. Clothed in righteousness. And they cried with a loud voice singing, "Salvation belongs to God who sits on [music] the throne and to the Lamb." And all the angels around the throne and the elders of all living creatures. They fell on their face and they worshiped God saying this. Amen. Blessing, glory, [music] wisdom, thanksgiving, honor. I mean, they're just like, "Everything belongs to you. It's all yours." And this is the end of the story >> that we get to stand in revelation 7 with people from tribe n from all these countries and we can with assurance say we were a [music] part of that. We didn't live our lives for us but we participated in God's story. So let's stand. You did a good job bro. Good choice. [music] 2011, I was landing a sermon in Jacksonville, Florida, and I was like, "Cub, will you come up?" And he was playing Hercules, I will go the distance. I was like, "I can't I can't can't do it to that, bro. [music] I just want to actually end today with just posting our hearts before the Lord and just inviting him to speak to us. We're not going to prescribe to you how to be part of the great commission. It's I don't think it's our job, but we simply want to invite you to allow Holy Spirit to speak to you and to actually break off any shame. The Lord redeems time. You may be in this room like I I wasted so much time. Nothing is wasted with the Lord. He redeems the time. So like we could just be delivered from that. But we can today on this day be like, God, I I'm still full of turkey, but help me, right? Like and so [music] can we just open up our hands? Lord, we we come to you [music] as children dependent and needy, understanding that we can't [music] actually do what you've called us to do. But God, you've given us Holy Spirit that [music] empowers us. So, we're asking you this morning to fill us aresh. Holy Spirit, baptize us this morning [music] even as you as you poured out your spirit in Acts 18. God, would you pour out your [music] spirit on the Abide family? And would you make us bold, courageous witnesses, [music] God, in places where we've lived and oriented our lives to hold on, God, we let go. [music] There's grace this morning to let go and to lose your life. There's [music] grace this morning to be realigned with the great commission. And God, I'm asking you right now to speak to us [music] people, individuals. Man, would you let Holy Spirit speak to you? Maybe there's two or three people that come to your mind right now that are far from Jesus.
>> [music] >> Maybe there's a nation, a people group right now that comes to your mind. God, we want to partner with you, co- lababor with you, cooperate with you. [music] We ask you to speak to us. We make ourselves available. [music] Just a few minutes to respond. Try not [music] to be distracted. We We yield to you. [music] Maybe you're in the room and you're like, "Man, I feel I feel far [music] from God. I'm not even I need to get right with the Lord. I'm not participating. [music] I haven't even stepped in. My life's in disarray." But you're like, "Man, I I want to I want to actually give my life, surrender, and be a part of [music] that." Desessie, would you just raise up a hand? We would love to pray with you in the room. Anyone else?
>> [music] >> You're like, "Man, I have some stuff I need to get right." Just lift it high so we can pray [music] right right here in the back. Can I get a couple of my house church leaders to just move around just right here? Can we just pray for these? [music] Father, this morning we we pray for these individuals that God, they they feel distant. They feel far. [music] God, we thank you for grace. We thank you that love covers a multitude of sins. And God, you've you've purchased us by the power of your blood. We speak life. We speak [music] faith, God. We speak, God, that everything, God, that is hindering them would be removed. We thank you, God, that you made way for us to be made right with God. And so God, we confess we're sinners and we need help and we God ask you to fill us to live in light of what you've called us into. We give you our lives. [music] Bless them, God. There's another group I wanted to pray [music] for, and it was this. If you're in the room and you feel spiritual apathy, dullness, disinterest, unresponsive, indifference, your your desires weakened, your sensitivities [music] decreased, would you just lift up your hands? I want to ask Holy Spirit, I know it takes courage to do that, but man, I found seasons where I just needed that to just actually acknowledge it and to let Holy Spirit. So, if that's you, just lift up your hands. We're going to ask the Lord to lift apathy off of us. [music] Anyone else? Father, in the name of Jesus, [music] Holy Spirit, we ask you now to take off every bit of apathy, [music] complacency, remove dullness and disinterest and going through the motions, God, and make us responsive. [music] I thank you that your word says you would remove from us a heart of stone, and you would make us tender and responsive. So father I ask you to awaken desire to [music] increase sensitivity to the spirit and give us courage and [music] grace to obey. Give us urgency. Give us grace. Father we bless the work of the Holy Spirit.
>> [music] >> We thank you, Father, for things that you've spoken. And God, we ask you to breathe fresh life on them. Places where we [music] feel discouraged because they haven't happened yet. We trust that your promises over us are yes and amen. So, we speak [music] faith, encouragement in life. And we present ourselves this morning to being active participants in the great commission [music] in the beautiful holy name of Jesus. Everyone will said amen. And amen. Hey, listen. [music] If you need prayer for any sickness in your body or anything that's going on, challenging times, there's going to be some house church shepherds up here. Staff and shepherds will be up here. Don't leave without prayer. We would love to pray and partner with you. If you're new, we'd love to meet you in the tent. If not, have an amazing Sunday morning. We'll see you at School of Prayer or next Sunday morning. We love you.