Francis Chan: The Mission of the Church

I'd like to start my message off tonight talking about the Lakers. Um, it was just, uh, yeah, it was a good game today. It was it was a real good game. And what I liked about it was I think they had like 34 assists. I mean, they just really played as a team. And um, I I just I'd like to pray for them in the rest of the playoffs. I'm kidding. Um, no, but I I I want you to think about this because we've been talking about unity for the last couple of weeks. And and I'm thinking, man, can you believe the Lakers are unified right now? They're playing like a team. I mean, from the beginning of the year to, I mean, over the last few seasons, we haven't seen this. And so why do you think the Lakers now are unified? Why is there unity on the Lakers? Do you think they went on a retreat and held hands and shared their feelings? Kobe, how do you feel about what Phil wrote? You know, I I mean, what what do you think? See, I don't think that happened. So why do they have unity? It's not because they had a prayer meeting. It's not because they got together and went on a retreat. It's because they have a common goal right now. Right? Right now it seems like they're all focused on this championship, and they have to play as a team. We've got to figure this thing out because there's a goal. And and my point is, we've been talking about unity, but you don't develop unity by trying to develop unity. You develop unity by having a common goal. And when you have a common goal and that goal is the obsession of your life, then unity is just going to happen naturally.

You see a lot of times we we want to say as a church, hey, let's get together, let's love each other, let's be unified. But that never works because unity just for unity's sake isn't going to work. There it's it's about this goal, you see. And when we have a goal, when we all collectively say, you know what, this is the most important thing in my life, this goal of ours, this purpose of ours, then you know what, we'll naturally be unified because we'll need each other to accomplish this. I want to talk about the mission of the church this week, and there's this passage um in John 17 where Jesus teaches a very, very what I call strange truth. He says in John 17:20, Jesus is praying for them, praying for his disciples. This is when he's going to leave the Earth, he's going to die on the cross, he's going to rise again, but he prays this prayer over his disciples, and he says, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." I say that's a weird truth or a weird statement because because of what he says at the end. He goes, you know, I want this unity, he says, "because so that the world may believe that you sent me." Isn't that a strange truth that the world will believe that Jesus was sent from the Father if the church is united? You never thought that.

See, because when you think, okay, people don't believe in Jesus, they don't believe Jesus was really the Son of God, that he was he was God become flesh, you know, come down onto the Earth, die on a cross, they don't believe that. So what will make them believe? In our minds, we think, well, let's go to the Bible, which isn't a bad thing, I'm not saying that, but we think to ourselves, maybe if I show them prophecy. I've done this. Let's go through prophecy. You can't deny prophecy. How could this guy have written this 500 years before it happened, and he nailed it to the day, everything about Christ? There's over 300 prophecies that are written about him, and all of them were fulfilled. And to lay it out, man, that's what will make people believe. Maybe if we know our apologetics well enough, maybe if we know our facts well enough, then we can go and prove Christianity to them. See, we think that in our minds. We also think some churches think, miracles, man, if we could perform miracles today, I mean, let's say someone came in and and had one leg and and and you know, and and then they they came up on stage and I just went, you know, and and the leg just started growing. I mean, just think about that. You'd be thinking yourself, why didn't I invite my neighbors this weekend? You know, it would be, man, cuz that would have proved it. Then they would have believed. You know, and and we think about these things, well, maybe it's a great sermon, maybe it's this, maybe it's that. And yet Jesus says, you want people to believe in me, be unified. That's Jesus' prayer. Jesus' prayer was not, hey, have them do all these. And and miracles are great, man. The scriptures are great, of course, the prophecy is great, and arguing for for the sake of the Gospel, of course, it's wonderful stuff. But Jesus's prayer, he says, "Lord, may they be in us, may they be one, so you so that they'll believe." So people will believe. See, that's the goal. The goal is that people will believe. Later in verse 23, in verse 23, he says this, he goes, "I in them and you in me, may they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." What's his prayer again? He goes, "Father, I want them to be brought to complete, complete unity." Okay, Jesus says, if there was complete unity, why, why to let the world know that you've sent me and that you love them? Jesus says, I I I want I want unity, why? Because then the world will know that you sent me. Isn't that weird that somehow our unity, I'm saying some of this is a step of faith because it's strange to us to hear a prayer like this because we're going, okay, what in the world does our unity and our love for each other have to do with the world believing that you love them? What does our unity have anything to do with God's, you know, proof to the world that God loves them and that God sent Jesus on this Earth? It seems like two totally different issues, and yet Jesus says this is what I'm praying for. Somehow God says, when we're unified, just like that verse we looked at two weeks ago, 1 John 4 verse 12, he says, "No one, no one has seen God, but if you love one another..." See, this whole thing about, hey, we've got to be unified, we've got to be unified, is not just so that we would be unified. It's not for unity's sake. It's because we love the people outside of this room, and we want them to believe in Jesus Christ. Man, I don't know about you, but this is huge to me. My friends, my friends falling in love with Jesus Christ, my neighbors who deny Jesus Christ, loving him, falling in love with him. See, is that the goal of your life? Is that the purpose of your life? Because to me, I go, is there anything more important? I have to do this week than to somehow help those people I love who don't believe in Jesus that won't spend eternity with me. Man, is there something more important that I have to do than to somehow bring them along? And you see, if that's the obsession of our lives, then we'll pursue unity, then unity will happen because suddenly we're all, suddenly we're not caring about our own needs. We're thinking about our friends. We're thinking about the people that we love out there and saying, man, they they got to know this Jesus. They got to understand forgiveness. I want them to be in heaven with me. You know, that's I'm obsessed with this. That's what I care about. This is what I love. This is my concern. And I got to ask, is that the desire of your life? I I don't mean that you sit back and go, yeah, that'd be nice, that'd be cool if uh my friend, you know, was going to go to heaven rather than hell. You know, that that'd be that'd be nice if if if everyone I knew and in my community and in my neighborhood that I love, it'd be great if they didn't go to hell. Yeah, that that'd be kind of nice. I'm not talking about do you agree in that sense. I'm saying, are you obsessed with this where you go, what what else am I going to do with my life? What is more important than that? I know that personally, if I could give my life for some of these people who whom I love, if if you told me, hey, Francis, you know what, if if if you go home today, you just head to heaven right now, and this person, this person, this person would come to know the Lord, say, great, you know, if that's a trade-off, I I don't lose anything. I go to heaven, you know, but but it's just this whole point of, are we consumed with this? Are we obsessed with this? Have we lost the mission here? Because when this becomes the most important thing in our lives, of people we love and their relationship with God and they knowing God, then suddenly there will be a unity here. But but I I believe that a lot of times there's just not um there's not the unity, and I believe there's division because most Christians don't wake up in the morning thinking to themselves that God actually has something for them to do that day. But instead, most Christians wake up and think to themselves, I have some things I would like to do today, and I'm going to pray that God helps me. And so suddenly God becomes the means rather than the end. In fact, that's why a lot of people come to church. They go, well, I would love to have a happy family, and I think church would help me do that, and God would help me get there. I would like my friend to be healthy, so I will go to church and God will help me, maybe help that person get better. I would like this, and God may. So suddenly he's no longer the ends of wow, no way we can have God, but it's no, no way I can have this family, and God will kind of help me achieve and get this family. You understand that? And and I know this because sometimes people go, man, I don't get it. I've served God, man. I teach kids in the Sunday school that I don't even like. I um, man, I do this, I tithe, I serve people in my neighborhood, I don't swear, I've kept myself pure, and then this happens to me. And we're frustrated because we're going, man, if I did this, this, and this, man, if I serve God, he should reward me this way on Earth, rather than realizing that the reward for serving God is serving God. God, man, like does it does it even freak you out or just cause just the tiniest bit of rush in you to think that God, God, holy God, him on his throne, actually has something he wants you as a human being to do for him? Like isn't that an honor to think, are you kidding me? I mean, think about this, think about when God said to Abraham, Abram, I've got something for you to do. Me, a human being, God is God has an assignment for me. See, that's the reward. That should be the honor right there. I get to be used by God. Man, I hope this thing God isn't this burden to you, but you think, why in the world would God choose this filthy human being, and he knows the things I've done, he knows the failures of my life, he knows better than anyone in this room, anyone on this Earth, he knows what I've done, and yet he's going to ask, ask me to do something for him. Man, is there any sense of honor in that, that that's reward in of itself? See, do you wake up in the morning thinking, wow, there's something for me to do, and is that an honor to you, just like it was for Moses? You know, to think, hey, you know, you look at Moses, you go, wow, I would have been freaking out if I were Moses. God would choose me out of all those people. I I would have gone crazy if I were, no, I'm that one guy. For all that God had something for them to do. Oh yeah, and Jesus, remember him, that there was a mission for him here on this Earth. There were things he was supposed to do while he was on this planet. And now suddenly I'm in that same line of people going, wow, and he's got some things for me to do while I'm on this planet. And what I want to do is someday, I would love to be able to say what Jesus said in that same prayer in John 17, and verse 4, Jesus says this to to the Father, he says, "I've brought you glory on Earth by completing the work you gave me to do, and now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." Don't you want to say that at some point in your life? Would that not be the coolest moment of your life when you just feel like, you know what, I know that I was made for a purpose, I know there was something I was supposed to do on that Earth, and I did it, and it brought glory to God, and to say to God, I think I'm done now, take me home. I mean, just for Jes, I love those words. I I brought you glory on Earth by finishing that work, and so, Father, I'm ready to go. Oh, man, I want to say that at some point in my life. It's not just Jesus who said it. Look, look at what Paul says in Second Timothy. Paul says in Second Timothy, I love this phrase, "The time has come for my departure." Paul just knew when he wrote Timothy, goes, you know what, time's up, it's time for me to depart. And look what he says, "I have fought the good fight, I finished the race, I've kept the faith, and now there's in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day." Isn't that great? He just goes, Timothy, you know what, I'm done, I'm going to go. And it's somehow like he knew, which is kind of weird to me, but he just knew. He goes, you know what, I I I just I'm sensing it, my life is coming to an end, it's time for my departure, but it's okay, it's a good thing because you know what, I fought the good fight. When those few years on the earth, man, what I was doing, man, I did it. I fought the good fight. And he says, and I finished, I finished the race. I mean, because I hear of people who say, I would love for God to just take me home right now, why? Because they're tired of fighting, and they're tired of the battles, they don't want to do it anymore, they just want to give up, they just want to quit, and they even consider taking their own lives because they're like, man, I just don't want to run this race anymore. I just want to go home. I think this would be better. And you'll never be able to say these words that that Paul said. See, Paul says, I finished, I finished the race. I didn't run this marathon 15, 16, 17, 20 miles and go, man, I'm just done, I'm just quit, I I just hit a wall. You know what, I I'm done. No, he he kept running, kept running, kept running. He crosses the finish line. He goes, you know what, I'm done now. I just finished. It's time for me to depart, and I did the whole thing. I love that. Don't you want to be able to say this at the end of your life, to go, man, there was temptation everywhere, man, everyone was coming at me, everyone was trying to distract me, everyone was trying to get me to run a different race, but I kept running the race, and I stayed faithful. Oh, I thought about quitting so many times, but I didn't. I finished it. And just to be able to say like him with that type of confidence, to say, you know what, I kept the faith, I kept the faith. And you know what, now, you know what I get now? Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness. What a great moment, what a great moment in life when you just feel like Jesus, you feel like Paul, and you go, you know what, Lord, I know I was created for a purpose, and I think I pulled it off, I think I did it, I think I finished the work, and now I'm going to head to heaven, and in heaven there's this crown of righteousness awaiting me, you know, which the righteous judge is going to award me. Man, I am through with that life on Earth, and I'm just ready to come up and get my reward now. What an amazing, amazing thought. And I I say that, and yet I want you to think, man, when's the last time you even thought about what you were supposed to do on the earth? Like, when's the last time you even took a couple of minutes to pray and think and go, Lord, why do you have me on the earth? What are the good works that you wanted me to accomplish before my life was over? See, I'm willing to bet many of you have gone weeks, months, years without even thinking about why you were created, and you just got caught up in living a life, paying a mortgage, keeping a job, keeping the kids fed and clothed, and just trying to keep your family together, maybe moving up some corporate ladder, and you never stopped and thought, God, what did you make me to do? Am I supposed to be just like everyone else, and and and just live life, or is there something specific for me to do? And and I'm not um I'm not I'm not necessarily even saying because we've talked about this before where sometimes we as Christians want to go, God, what is the W, what is your will for my life? You know, rather saying, God, what is is your will for this afternoon? What is your will for this week? And to to go, Lord, I want to keep in step with the spirit this week. But when's the last time you had some quiet time just to think and say, Lord, what do you want me to do? What are the good works that I've been called to do? Do you believe that you, like the Apostle Paul, have a race to run and things to do before your life is over? Do you, like Jesus, believe that you you this this Earth is not your home and you're just on a mission and you want to complete those works and then go, go to your real home and receive that crown, whatever that's like, you know, that Paul was talking about? I want us to do something right now. I want us to assume, I know that's dangerous, but let's just do it. Let's assume that God wants everyone in this room alive through this whole next week, okay? Because you can't just assume, oh, yeah, yeah, you want everyone alive for another, you don't know, we don't know when God, but let's just say he wants you here for another week at least. The question is why. I want you to think about why would he, we want you on the earth for another week. I'm going to have Diana come up and just kind of play softly and give you some time to just pray, and and she's just playing so that we can drown out all the rustling and and coffee and those types of things, and so there's just kind of a mellow time where I want you to pray to God right now, to pray. Think it's kind of I I kind of do both at the same time. I'll pray, you know, God, you know, help me to understand this, and I'll think, cuz maybe he's going to enlighten me with something, and I'll I'll pray some more, and I'll think some more. I'll pray, pray, I'll think, pray, think. That's what I want you to do is just kind of be half in prayer mode, half in thinking biblically with wisdom mode and led by the spirit mode, and go, okay, God, what do you want me to do this week? Because let's just assume you're going to let you're going to have me live at least another week. Why would you want me on the earth? What is it that you would want me to do? And so right now, if you would just bow your heads, if you just bow your heads and just just pray to God and ask him what what it is that he wants you to do this week. [Music] [Music] [Music] Just remain in that same Spirit of prayer, and now start thinking bigger. If just if God would have you on the earth for the rest of [Music] 2008, he has you in a specific place with specific people, but why? Just start praying, God, what is it that you would want me to do this year? [Music] [Music] Thanks, Diana. You know, in um in that short time, I don't I don't know what it was like for you, but it's nothing throughout the day. People just felt like God was directing them, and people told me it was just so good to be quiet for a moment and actually think about why God made me. And and I I didn't expect everyone to know their whole life calling in in two minutes, but hopefully it's a start for you, and hopefully it makes you want to go home tonight and spend some more time alone with God and take more breaks in life so that you're not just heading in the same direction forever and then find out the end it was a wrong direction. You know, but we get set on these courses, and we get so dug in, it's like all we know, so we just keep going down these paths, never really asking, Holy Spirit, do you want me to turn? Do you want me to deviate? You see, in Acts chapter 17, we talked about this on on Easter, how how God didn't just randomly set us in a certain time period and a certain location, but that he somehow ordained when you would be born, who you'd run into, where you would live, and all of this was for a purpose. And so I want us to think through, okay, God, why did you put me? I think about this stuff. I go, okay, God, why would you put me in Silicon Valley at this time with these people around me in this neighborhood with that neighbor, that neighbor, and that neighbor over there? Like, why are these people in my life? And try to think through, okay, God, there's work, there's work, there's somehow I want to be a part of helping these people come to know you. And it starts with unity here, and it starts with me loving my neighbor as myself and giving people a visible picture of Jesus. See, in John 17:14, Jesus says this, he he's continuing in this prayer, and he says, "I've given them your word, and the world hates them." Okay, he's talking about his disciples, and and he said earlier in John 15, he warned his disciples in verse 18, he says, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." And then later in verses 20 and 21, he says, "No servant's greater than than his master. If they hated me, they're going to hate you too. If they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you also." And he goes, so understand, if you're going to follow me, you're going to be hated. And he goes, "I've given them your word, and the world hates them, for they are not of the world anymore than I am of the world." But then look at his prayer, verse 15, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one." See, a lot of us, when we get into through these hard times and trials, we just go, God, just take me home. And yet Jesus' prayer was not, get the Christians out of this trouble that they're in, get the Christians away from all this persecution. No, he says, I don't want them to leave the Earth. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world. Isn't that interesting? Jesus says, I don't want the believers out of the world. I want them there, but I want you to protect them from the evil one, because Satan's going to be alive and well, and he's going to try to...

Distract all of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ. He's going to try to get us to go down different paths. And, and Jesus' prayer for us is, "God, protect them." Someone mentioned to me this morning, "You know, the interesting thing about this passage is that this is Jesus praying. So don't you have confidence that when Jesus prays, it's actually going to happen? Because His will is probably in line with the Father's." You know how sometimes we pray, but we don't know if we're in tune with God? But Jesus prays this prayer for unity. Now that is so cool. I thought, "This is going to happen, and there is going to be this protection of those of us who truly believe." He's going to protect us from the evil one. This is Jesus' prayer for us. I love that.

And then, in verse 16, he says this: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." So he's telling Him, "Purify them by the truth." See, he's praying, "You know what I want the Believers to be purified," but then he explains how they're purified. He says, "Your word is truth." So that's why every weekend we come up after hearing all of these philosophies and thoughts that Satan's going to throw at us throughout the week, and we open up the word of God and say, "Let's purge, let's cleanse all of this stuff; let's get it out of there."

But I want you to pay attention to verse 18. He says, "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." So just as Jesus was sent on this mission to have this time on the earth to have something done there on the planet, and he's saying, "You know what, God, I finished it; I completed the work He gave me to do," and now he says, "Now I'm sending them." I'm sending these followers of mine. And remember, he says, "I'm not just praying for these 12; I'm praying for those who are going to believe in me through their message." He's sending us. Jesus says, "Look, I'm sending you on this Earth with a mission, every bit as real as my mission." And my desire is, and hopefully your desire is, that at the end of my life I can say, "I did it." At the end of my life, I don't want to say, "Oh man, I was going to do it, and I got sidetracked by this, this, this," and have this list of excuses. But rather, in my prayer time, man, I prayed; I came before God, and I really believe that he wanted me to accomplish these things on the earth, so I went after it, and nothing would stop me. And I just want to come to the end of my life and go, "Man, I'm done; it's time for my departure." I'd love to look at some of you, you know, if we're still around, we're old and gray, or whenever it happens, just to look at some of you and go, "I think I'm done. I think I'm done," however many years it was there at Cornerstone or wherever I end up, and just go, "You know what? I think I'm done, and I think I'm going home now, and I think I'm going to go receive my reward." I know I'm going to receive my reward because I fought the good fight; I kept the faith, man. You know how many times I was tempted to go another direction, and the evil one, man, he just kept sending me temptation after temptation, but I pulled it off. I fought the good fight; I'm done now. God, take me home. What a great moment. Wouldn't you love to say that? To me, if I came and visited you in the hospital, you know, and you just know it's winding down, you can look me in the eye and go, "You know what? It's time. Time. It's time for me to go home, and no regrets. I fought the fight; I finished the race, man. It was tough; I wanted to quit so many times, but I made it through, and now I'm going to go receive my reward. See you." You know what a great, great moment.

Here's my concern: I think that we're mostly on board here as a church the last three weeks as we've been talking about unity, and we're talking, and we're explaining, "Look, there's no other way to display Jesus Christ." We can talk about him, but to actually put him on display, I don't know if there's any other way. And I think we're on board, and this is what I love about the church. I love the fact that you know we've said some difficult things throughout the years in this book, and you're still here, and you're going, "No, that is what it says; that is what it says." I may have to make a change, and it's cool because you've stuck it out, and you agree. But here's where we sometimes get stuck: We're all in agreement in our minds, but what do we actually do with it? Like, I think over the last couple of weeks, many of you have been convinced; you've even told me, "You know what? I didn't buy into the community thing; I didn't buy into this, 'Hey, let's love one another' thing," but now I see in scripture there's no other option. And that's great, but what have you done since then? Okay, have you actually gone out and loved your neighbor? Have you actually done anything for your neighbor because of your conviction from the word of God? Have you actually pursued this unity that's going to draw people to Jesus Christ?

So here's what we're going to do. We're not going to close with music today. We're not going to close with, you know, kind of singing prayer time. This is what I'm going to have you do: I'm going to throw a question up on the board, or on the screen. I want you to think, "What are three things that keep you from taking time to love your neighbor?" Hopefully, by now you're convinced, "You know what? Jesus, this is what he prayed for—this loving unity in the body that would cause people to believe." That's what John says. "You know what? No one's ever seen him, but if we pull this thing off and we realize, you know, we've been called out as this holy nation, this royal priesthood, that we're on this team here—we all agree on that—so then what keeps us from actually taking a step and loving someone and actually saying, 'You know what?'" Because I think if we kept in step with the Spirit, I think the Spirit would be saying, "You know what? Go love on this person; go love on that person; go love on that group of people; go love them; go love them; go love them," in the name of Jesus. I really think that would be the direction. So what keeps us from obeying and actually going and loving the people in our community? Because I think many of you would agree that it's not right. Like, there's something wrong with the fact that you live on a street where you know there are other believers and other Christians within a couple of blocks of you, and you don't even know their name. You know, we're supposed to be like the tightest people in the world; we're supposed to be family, and yet you've never done anything for them; they've never done—and you know that's not right. Okay, great, we agree on that. Now what have we done? And so this question—here's what you're going to do with it: Three things that keep you from taking time to love your neighbor. I'm going to give you two minutes. Okay, two minutes. You're going to be in a group of six; you're just going to find five other people right now and answer this in the next two minutes. Go. Stop. Stop if you're talking right now; you're cheating. So just stop. Just stop; you're cheating in church. Okay. Okay, who's—who's got—what—what group has three things? Yeah, right over there. Being rejected, absolutely. Yeah, it's weird that you've known him for so long; now suddenly you're going to love him. It's like you've been here 10 years; now you're going to love me. It's just weird. Okay. Yeah, what else? And then fear. Yeah, you're just scared to do—scared to just reach out and love somebody. Yeah, stumbling over our—yeah, stumbling over our words. Like, you want to say something to them, but you don't quite know how to say it. Yeah, selfishness. You'd rather spend time with your family because that's in your comfort zone, right? You know, you come home; it's, you know, you can close the garage and just have family time every night, and everything is cool, or most of the time it's school, you know, and you have this time, but the thought of letting someone else into your family, into your home—yeah, it's just—it's just like—and what did you say? Standard parenting demands. Yeah, you know, sometimes we're scared that, you know, we think, "Well, I need my family together with just us, you know, in order to raise them in a Christian home," but really, to raise them in a Christian home, you'd be hospitable, which the Bible says, "You know what? You should have a hospitable home; you should let strangers into your home." You want to show them Christianity; you want to raise them in a Christian home; that home ought to be open, you know, but sometimes we think with a different mentality—no, the best thing to do for my kids is isolate them from all these bad kids, you know, and everyone else. No, the best thing is to show them, "You know what? Our home doesn't belong to us; it's God's house," and so—yeah, pride. Pride. Yeah, our own pride that keeps us from wanting to—yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, yeah, that's good. She says there's an accountability that's different once they know you're a Christian, and seriously, 'cause now suddenly it's like, "Wow, you're held accountable for everything you do; they're going to be watching your life," but not only that, but as we talk about loving our neighbor, even within the church, you know, as we start these relationships with other believers, we're kind of opening ourselves up and saying, "Yeah, you can knock on my door if you need help." We're kind of saying, "This house belongs to God and not to me," and there is an accountability to that that's scary. Yeah, what else? Yeah, right in the front. It just seems like, I guess, just inconvenient. Inconvenient. Yeahs. Yeah, exactly, because there's things, like I said, we wake up and we want to do today, and so God's will—I know he has things for me to do—but he's kind of inconvenient. Haven't you noticed that about God? Like, he just gets in the way of everything that you want to do, and he just wants to take over. Yeah. Yeah, what else? You couldn't even come up with it; you couldn't even come up with a good reason. Yeah, that's good; that's good. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of times it's just like not even knowing what that's like, you know. Yeah, that's good. Is—okay, good, good. Wait, we're going to hold that thought right here. Okay, that I got to end on that one because he says, "Well, sometimes it's like I don't even know what that looks like," hence the second question. Okay, the question is this: What are three practical things that people can do this week to show love to their neighbor? You got two minutes. Go. Get in your groups. Okay, enough. Okay, who has—who—who will let the first group—that little girl's had her hand up for a while. Yeah. Yeah, what—what—what—what can you practically do to love your neighbor? Wow, you can—wait, wait, the first one is you can mow their lawn. You can do—what's the second one? I missed the second one. You can make them a meal. You can—okay, so you can mow their lawn, make them a meal, and then wash their car. Okay. Now—now—yeah, that's good; that's good. Now, now here's the thing is, why wouldn't—why wouldn't some of you do that this week? To think, "You know what? I'm just going to go mow their lawn," you know, or "Just going to surprise them and wash their car," and make sure you don't screw it up and get sued, you know. It's just—there's that fear, but forget the fear. Okay, but to think through—but but to make a meal—to say, "You know what? Let me make a meal," or or be safe, go to Red's and order, you know what, whatever—just deliver a pizza; do something. Okay, good, good. What—what else could you do? Yeah, invite him to my church. What's that? Invite him to—invite him to church. Good, good. Yeah, talking about asking them how they're doing, and they tell us things aren't right, just tell them, "We're praying for you; I'll pray for you." Yeah, that always makes them—yeah, yeah, yeah. He said, "You know, just asking them literally how are you doing, and actually caring enough to find out, and then to let them know that you literally will pray for them." Because even people who don't believe in Jesus, who don't call themselves Christians, you know, there's this weird, like, spiritual coolness to it all—that dude prayed for me, you know. It's just this whole like—they still believe that they—they know there's a God; they know there is, and there's something about someone saying, "No, I literally took five minutes out of my day, 10 minutes out of my day, got on my knees, and specifically prayed for that." It doesn't mean you have to preach the whole gospel to them right then or anything like that; it's just saying, "You know what? I care about you, and so I prayed for those needs of yours." Good, good. What—what else can you do practically? Yeah, smile at them. Good. There's the start. Yeah, instead of just like being that neighbor that just—that's good. Yeah, why don't you just bake cookies for someone? You know, I mean, even—even just—you see, that's the thing is, is you might not—you might not even have to talk to them if you do this right. Okay. No, I—am I saying that because some of you are thinking, "Man, I'm scared to start a conversation," but—but why not, if you're scared and you're just like—and I can't bring myself to start a conversation, why not just write a little note, bake some cookies, and just put it at their doorstep and just say, "You know, for no particular reason, just wanted to give you something." Okay. Okay, what—what else? What else will take—yeah, the little girl over there. Show them a good example. Good, good, excellent. Thanks. Yeah, we might have to do something different in our routine. Yeah, you'd have to do something different in your own routine in order to help them. Exactly. Right on. Okay. You—you're really anxious back there; you're standing up. Yeah, that's good. He's saying, "You know, if someone can't drive, to actually go and take care of their needs. I mean, sometimes we don't have our eyes open for the people who are really in need, too, you know, to go, 'Gosh, you know what? That person down the street—' I mean, we have people with different disabilities, and just to say, 'You know what? How come I haven't been a better neighbor to that person? I could do this; I could do that to help them.'" Yeah, we're talking about things we can do, but you first have to actually talk to your neighbor, say hi to your neighbor, get—you know, your neighbor—for the things that they might need. Yeah, you know, they can't drive—this—say hi; maybe knock on the door. Got to get to know them first. Yeah, somehow getting to know your neighbors is good. Yeah, learn their names. Yeah, that—that's always—that's always helpful. Yeah, Billy, Jim, Tom, Scott. I know I was kidding. Um, getting to know them—what he's saying is really valuable, but that means you have to listen to them and care about what they think, yeah, more so than what you want to share with them. Totally. We all want to talk. Yeah, we have two ears and one mouth; we could listen twice as—yeah, this whole thing of listening—do you realize how badly people want to talk? I mean, look at you guys, like, you know, I mean, even here it's like you're standing up, you're jumping, you know, you're pointing at your friend. Why? 'Cause we want to talk. I mean, do you know how valuable it is just to go to someone's house and listen to what they have to say? I mean, just—just to let them talk and to listen about their lives. So often as Christians, we're like, "I'm on a mission; I have a message, and I'm going to get it across to them," you know, and it's—it's like they—that's what they expect from you; that's what they expect from Christians. They've got their agenda; they're trying to convert me; they're trying to do this, and it kind of blows their mind that you would actually care about their needs, you know, aside from just sharing your faith with them, but you actually love people and want to serve them is pretty amazing. Yeah, little—little boy, invite them to spend the day with you on the beach. Good. Okay. Um, yeah, do that. It's just this whole—this whole thing of just—man, it's practical, though. It's—what will you do, you guys? We—we're talking about how the Bible says that this is the only way we can display Jesus is when we see—it's one thing for me to tell you—tell people about Jesus, but it's completely different if I'm acting him out. You know, I can say, "Hey, there was this man who lived who was a Son of God that went around serving people, and he didn't care about his possessions, and he just gave and gave and gave," but it's a completely different thing if they just see a person who doesn't talk that much that just goes around looking for needs like Jesus did, who just walked around—I mean, for you to walk around your neighborhood and just make some space and walk around and look at people and see what they're doing and and maybe help them out, ask if you can help in any way—for you to not care about your possessions and just start giving things away and go, "Oh, you need one of—you know what? Take mine." "Well, you don't need one." "Well, I kind of do, but it doesn't matter; I'd rather you have—" I mean, just to kind of live that way—I mean, don't you understand that our marriages and everything are supposed to work that way? That—that God didn't want us to be happily married just to be happily married. You know, we teach that Ephesians 5 passage, thinking that that's all about marriage, but no, Ephesians 5 is all about this mystery of Christ and his love for the church and his union for the church, and we can somehow bring that to life through our marriages—that somehow that—that me as the leader of the home, I can somehow show a great picture of Jesus to the world if I, as the leader, would serve my wife and—and—and go, "You know what? Here I am; I'm supposed to lead the home, but I'm actually going to be her servant because that's what Jesus did for me." And for the neighbors to see that, and for a wife to just lovingly support and come under the leadership of her husband—it's just—it—it's not for us—it's not—"Well, you know what? This is the best way for marriages to work." I mean, you try to outgive each other, outserve each other; very few marriages fail because of that. You know, I've never div—you know, it's a couple comes in, "Go, she just keeps trying to serve me; it's driving me crazy," you know. It just—it doesn't happen. But at the same time, we got to understand, but that's not really the point of the passage. The point of the passage is, "I've got to put Christ on display; I've got to stop just talking about him; I've got to show him." And so somehow as Believers, the Bible says in the church, Jesus prays, "I want these guys to be unified together." I mean, how hard, how difficult is it really to just take a step and actually do something this week where you just practically go to a couple of Christians that you know—just for starters, let's start with the family—you know, and—and say, "You know, you want to come over for dinner? Or can I do something for you? Can I pray?" You know, but it's—God has you on this Earth for another week, probably, and it's not just so you could take up space; it's not just so you can live life like everyone else does, but it's because he has some work for you to do. And—and I think that's a pretty cool thing to think that God in heaven actually has a mission for me. That's exciting to me; it's not a bummer; it's not, "Oh, you're ruining my plans," but it's like, "Wow, I was called by God to do something, and I want to pull this off before my life is over and then head home." Good. Thank you. Now here's what we're going to do, 'cause we're—we're—we're leaving now, but—but I—I—I just want to—I know a lot of times when we ask people, you know, if you want to pray or even make a decision to follow Jesus, you know, that we have some counselors and prayer—you know, time with you, and—and that's good, and I want to do that, but—um—this time I'm just going to ask, maybe there's some of you in this room right now who say, "You know what? I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me, and he paid for my sins, and I believe he was the Son of God, and I believe he rose from the grave, and—and—and you say, 'You know what?' And I want to be a part of this body that—that wants to love each other, care for each other." If that's you, you can get baptized right now, and the Bible says it's—it's almost like the—you know, the—the ceremony or the ritual that says, "You know what? I'm joining myself with Christ; I'm dying to my old self, and I want Jesus to come into me and change my life." It's also a time when you join this church body and you say, "You know what? I want to be a part of this body of Believers, this—this priesthood, this group that you talk about, this team that you talk about. I want to be a part of this mission of showing Jesus to the world."