Do It

This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Well, good morning again. Good morning. All right, thank you. It's always good to know there are people out there. Verse 19, we talked about it last week. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. This is part of our visionizing series. Vision, exercising, visionizing. If you've been around me long, you know I like to make up words. And I think that's a good word. Mr. Webster hasn't asked me for permission to use that, but maybe one day. But I want us to be reminded, and we do this every start to every fall that we've been here as a church, to be thinking, what does it mean as we start kind of a new ministry year? Our ministry year kind of tracks with the, since we're in a community, we have so many schools and kids kind of tracks with the school calendar. So we see this as kind of our launch, sort of our kickoff for brand new kind of start to a new year. And as we do that, it's nothing more important, I think, for us to be reminded, to be refocused on what God has specifically called us to as individuals, as the church and specifically at Christ's kingdom church here. If you recall last week, we looked at the first three words of verse 19, become the follow me. And I want to just encourage you, if you haven't had a chance or for whatever reason you missed it last week, or you're working back with the kids last week, I think it is available as a podcast or online. And don't listen to it because it was such a great presentation. Listen to it. If you don't mind just to be captivating, get the full feel and the full thrust and where we feel like God's calling us this year as a church. That came directly from our spring retreat, when we had with our elders and deacons and staff, as we came in with fasting and prayer to really seek the Lord, we felt very strongly, probably one of our best retreats that I've had since we've been here to say, this is where we really believe clearly that God's calling us. And it had very much to do with that idea last year. We looked at the idea we talked about last week. For it looked at the first word, last week, remember, come. Three things that we looked at under that, that by saying, when Jesus says to come, he is always the one that's initiating. Period. It's his idea. It implies intimacy and authority with Jesus. Remember just not anybody can tell you to come. You just gotta be smart that has an intimate relationship with you or somebody who has authority over you, right? Or in this case, both. There's the God who created the universe who has all authority. And Jesus even says, right, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me when he says go and make the disciples. He says, he invites us to come. But it is an intimacy and it is for intimacy. Because you lay down his life for his church. Come also implies that a change must be made. To come means that you're at one spot and you are going to leave that spot to come and go to a different spot. It requires that by definition. And Jesus's call is always to leave somewhere where you're at, to go somewhere different. And that's where the second two words came. To follow me. Two implications. We looked at last week with the follow me. Not clicking again. There we go. Follow me. Two implications. One, there is a different focus. If you are following him than whatever you were following before and you can fill in the blank or the blanks for what that was, you are now following him. It is a different focus we looked at last week. And second, it also means by definition, if you're following him that you aren't leading, that you've given up the right to lead yourself. You're given up the right to set the direction to decide where to turn left when to right. When to slow down. When to speed up. When to hit the brakes. When to hit the accelerator. You're following him. When Jesus says, come, follow me. When we looked at last week, the key point was to be it. And I apologize, but it was hopefully a helpful tool to give you a piece of a bit of honey candy bar because that is his playing nasty. You should not eat that. But I wanted you to be reminded of the idea of Be It. That God's called us first and foremost to be a follower of Him. Above all else, if you were to focus on one thing this year that I know is from the heart of God, it is to fix your eyes on Jesus Christ and to follow Him. That's where it all started with his 12 disciples was with this come. Follow me. And then all the other stories, all the other miracles, all the other amazing things that Jesus did that Jesus said all came from the come and follow me. Exertation and request. It means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It means it's the most important thing that you and I can ever do. And my challenge for you last week was to make it a commitment to be reminded of that. So we're going to look now as I told you last week, this week at the next seven words from verse 19 that follow this, come follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Let's look at those seven words this morning. If you're following along, I'm still not clicking here. Is that you, angels, that me? It's me. Okay. That's random times I'm going to, it's going to work and sometimes it will not. Point number one, you're following along in that little outline that's in your bolt in this morning. If that's helpful for you, is this, I will make you. Let's look at those first four words here. This means that Jesus is doing the work not us and that Jesus gets the glory not us. Those are the two implications of this that I want us to look at this morning. It means first that Jesus is doing the work because He says I will make you and it means secondly at least that He is the one to get the glory. Whoever is the one that is the maker gets the glory for whatever was made. That just makes sense, doesn't it? I remember one time I was with an organization that was just starting off and we were trying to come up, this is like just the organization of pastors. We were trying to come up with a name for the organization. And there's all kinds of brainstorming things and I brainstormed one and through one out there and they ended up picking the name that I picked. And then what happened, we came back to our next meeting. Nobody I can remember who picked the name and I was kind of like I didn't want to go with me. You know, but they thought well I think it was so and so. It also happened to be another guy named Scott. So I can see this confusion on that. And he couldn't remember whether he did or did it. But all of a sudden he got all the credit for it. And I remember sitting out there thinking it's only me that knows the truth. It's my name that we picked. And God and I had to have a talk and you worked in my heart in that situation there. But there was something that felt wrong about somebody else getting the credit for something that by God's grace, He had given me to come up with on that. Right? You would probably feel a similar way maybe in a similar situation. My point is simply this though, the maker gets the glory. The creator is the one deserving of the glory. So first, when Jesus says, I will make you means that Jesus is doing the work. So how? How is Jesus doing the work? That's the kind of question that came to my mind as I was thinking and trying to unpack it set this week. And is he just concerned that you are a card-caring member of the Christian church who faithfully pays, is it her dues for membership? Is that how he's going to make you to be a fisher of men? Does it really just mean that he wants to weigh the character of eternal life in front of people so they will work hard enough? Is that how he's doing his work to make us and the fishers of men? Is he trying to motivate us by guilt? After all, how could you not serve him, someone who gave his life for you? Come on. No, he does his work. Not so you can be a faithful card-caring member, not because he's going to stick a carrot out therefore you not because he wants to motivate you by guilt. But he does his work by his Holy Spirit as you come and follow him. That is how he does it. And that's why Jesus said in John chapter 3, when he was speaking in Nicodemus, he said, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesk is birth of flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. His work is done through the work of his Holy Spirit in our lives. That's why we, as Christians, those in the Christian faith clearly say, look, this is really not a religion that we're talking about here. Now many have made Christianity inter-religion, don't misunderstand me. That has certainly happened and there's different flavors of that. But at its source, it is about a living relationship with the living God inside of you by His Holy Spirit. That was the goal. In manual, God with us was not fulfilled ultimately in Jesus' coming to earth. That was certainly an important phase of it, wasn't it? But it was fulfilled even more with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Let me take some good news. That's not the end of it either. Because one day, we will see Him face-to-face. And one day His presence will outshine the sun and the moon, so they will not even need it, and the glories of the new heaven and the new earth. That is an intimacy that we have still even to look forward to in this fulfillment. Acts 1-8, Jesus said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all you deans, Samaritan to the ends of the earth. And He could say that to be fishers of men, which is the same idea. How is Jesus doing this through His Holy Spirit? Living and working, moving inside of us. So that's the how, why is it important? Why is that so important? Well, because what you generate through self-effort and the flesh are not the work of God. Let me say that again. Let me say it to myself, Scott Puckett. What you generate through self-effort and the flesh are not the work of God. Might they look like it in many cases? Absolutely. Might you convince many other people that it is? Certainly. Is it the work of God by definition it cannot be? Why? Because it doesn't come from Him. Simple as that. Where we might fool other people, we might even self deceive ourselves. Many times I think we can make ourselves think it's from God. God has never fooled. He's never like, oh, is that kind of for me for you? He's not ever confused. He knows. In fact, self-effort and the flesh are in direct opposition to the work of God. His scripture, say Paul, writing in Romans chapter 8 says this. Listen, he says, those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what the nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace. Now listen, the sinful mind is hostile to God. The sinful mind is, doesn't want to have anything to do with God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You have or controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the spirit. If the spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. To remind yourself who's saying this by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul, who knew firsthand as he described himself, a Pharisee of Pharisees. Of those who called themselves religious, who knew the laws, who had studied it, who was living with outside perfection in life, he said, I was the best. Now why would he be so arrogantly competent to make a statement like that? Because he knew, even admitting that, he was saying, I was the worst in understanding that truth. So therefore, he would boast in his weakness to go, look how messed up I was. To think that I could make this outside body and this outside mind, to make people think that I really understood.

And then he met Jesus on his way to persecute and kill more Christians on the road of Damascus. And Jesus said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It was not a rhetorical question. Saul becomes the Apostle Paul. He writes with authority, not just from the Holy Spirit, but by his own life to acknowledge it that this is true. The things that the flesh can reach, the flesh, but only the things that the spirit can reach the spirit. Well, secondly, those four words I will make you, as we already mentioned, means that Jesus will get the glory. And there's the only one that should. Philippians 2, 8-11, the Apostle Paul again, who had come to find the living Christ through Jesus, said, and being found in appearance as a man, he, Jesus, humbled himself, making obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and heaven on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Wherever Jesus is getting the glory is because the Holy Spirit is moving. Period. Wherever Jesus is not getting the glory, self-effort, and flesh of men and women is the only thing moving. Let me say that again. Wherever Jesus is getting the glory, it is because the Holy Spirit is moving. And wherever Jesus is not getting the glory, the self-effort, and the flesh of mankind is the only thing that is moving. How do I know that, Jesus, John, chapter 16, Jesus the night he was going to be betrayed, says this, but when he the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. Jesus is telling you, listen, this is what the Holy Spirit does. This is who he is. He is my Spirit. We are the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and this is what he does by default and by definition. He can do nothing else. So if Jesus is getting the glory, then the Spirit of God is moving and is at work. And if Jesus is not getting the glory, and you can fill in the blank with what that might be, you, me, an organization, a church, a name, a belief, a system, a teaching, whatever I'd only put in that spot, it's not a Spirit of God. So what are some of the important implications of this? If this is true that he is the one, I will make you as Jesus says, if that's really true, then it means dependence on God is as important to the follower of Jesus as pulse is to the human body. It means that being filled with the Holy Spirit is as important to the follower of Jesus as gasoline is to driving a car. It means that prayer is as important to the follower of Jesus as an oxygen tank is to the scuba diver. It means that reading and meditating on God's word is as important to the follower of Jesus as a mother is to a newborn child. And it means that making the glory of God your goal is as important for the follower of Jesus as fidelity is to a wife and husband. It's essential. So my challenge to us as a church this week, and if you're a guest here, you picked a great time to come to hear what this church is all about. I invite you to the challenge by challenging you. If this is your church home, if you're a member here, I challenge you specifically to do it. Trust God to do the work. Do it for His glory. So don't misunderstand. Don't think too much Nike commercial stuff. Okay, which is all about you and these shoes doing it. Okay. My challenge for you to do it is to believe this, to believe that God is the one that does the work. Do that. To believe that it is always and always and only for His glory. Choose to do that. And these are daily choices, by the way. You don't do this once and go, ah, check. Next. Now you wake up and go, oh my gosh, I'm tempted to do just the opposite of this Lord every single day, every moment beginning now. But I choose to believe that you are the one that is at work. You're the one that's building your church. You're the one that is providing my needs this morning, not my confidence in myself. You're the one that will restore a broken, hurting relationship. You're the one that will come and meet my needs today. And you're the one that should receive all the glory. So the next question is, what exactly is Jesus working through us doing? I mean, Romans 8.2 on the Apostle Paul gives us a clue. He says, for those God for new, he also predestined for what? To be conformed to the lightness of his son. What is the sovereign God who for new and predestined all about doing, conforming you to the lightness of his son? He's making us like Jesus. And what was Jesus like as you walked here on earth? He was a fisher of men and a fisher of women. And that leads us to the second three words this morning. I will make you fishers of men. It's the second point this morning. After Jesus calls to the disciples, he will drop the fishing metaphor, but states it clearly that his followers are to be going into the entire world to make disciples, to make other followers of him. That's why he came. That's why if you're following him, you're called and you will do. We are vessels that Jesus will use. When Paul teaches that we are the body of Christ at 1 Corinthians 12, that means that we are to be like Jesus in character for sure, but it also means something else. It also means that we are to be doing what he did, the way he did it, and for the reasons that he did it. When he describes himself as the head, let's be honest, right? Your head doesn't really do a whole lot as far as action during the day. At least not outwardly, right? You're not driving your car with your head, I hope, right? You're not hyping on your computer with your head. That would be painful and look very awkward. Kids that you're in sports, whatever else, you might use your head to hit a soccer ball on occasion. For the most part, you're protecting it. You're keeping it safe. But of course, it's doing, it's initiating, it's deciding, it's making all the choices that the body follows at the impulse and the command of the head. God uses that metaphor for a reason. That his body, his church, those that follow him are doing the will of Jesus, carrying on what Jesus started 2,000 years ago and doing it for his glory and his honor. It also means that we are doing more than a PR job for God. You know, God didn't need more people into the club. God's not looking for supportive fans of a religious sect. God's not looking at his opinion polls as being kind of dropping and lowing and we need to get more people signing up so they'll sing his praises again. Jesus came on a rescue mission to save those who are lost and sinned in death and facing an eternity separated from God in the end, just judgment in hell. Jesus didn't come to rescue people from the kingdom of darkness at a pity but to call them a sons and daughters of the kingdom of light out of love. That's what he's called us to do. That is what it means to carry on what Jesus came to do. He said he came to seek and save that which was lost so he can never be an appendix or supplemental thing for those who are followers of Jesus. If it is, you're not following Jesus or you're certainly not following him very well. Followers of Jesus could never do anything greater than Jesus in terms of quality but God has called us to do that in terms of quantity. Listen to what John 14 Jesus speaking says. He said, I tell you the truth. Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. That's pretty clear, right? Anybody who's a follower of me, anybody who has faith in me will do what I am doing. He will do even greater things than these because I'm going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me anything in my name and I will do it. Followers of Jesus could never do anything greater than Jesus in terms of quality. He's the Son of God. But we do greater things in terms of Jesus in the idea that he has gone back to heaven and his followers are spreading over the earth the message that he came to bring. In the incarnation when God made Jesus man, part of the limitations of that incarnation to come and become man was that he took on personal proximity on earth. He could be in only one place at one time when he was on earth in that way, which was why it was good for him to go back to heaven and sit in the spirit. But the picture is that we're to be a bunch of different little Jesus' running all over the planet following him, being like him, conformed to his image, not by working hard but by trusting and believing in him, resting in his spirit to work in us and carrying on the mission of Jesus. Wherever that takes us. Think about it. The God of the Universe wants to use you, me, back in 2007. It's a true story. I've shared it before. It's worth repeating. Violinous, just typical violinist that seemed appeared in the Washington DC Metro subway station. It was a cold January morning in 2007. People were bundled up and quickly get on their way as they are in the public transit places. This guy was wearing a baseball cap and just had an instrument and pulled it out and started playing the violin. You've probably seen it and I went to New Orleans a few weeks ago. You could find positions on the corner literally at most anytime, anywhere, early in the morning, late at night. Same kind of thing. It's not an uncommon scene, especially in a big city and a metro station. This guy played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. Three minutes into that 45 minutes, a middle-aged man finally stopped for a few seconds. And then hurried off. Four minutes later, a woman without stopping at all came and dropped the first dollar bill into the violin case. About 10 minutes after that, a three-year-old boy stopped several times soliciting the violinist, but his mother kept moving him along to get on with her day. After 45 minutes, only six people had stopped. About 20 gave money as they continued a walk. He had $32.17 in his violin case. Only one man stopped and actually recognized him the entire time. When he finished no one applauded, no one even gave him any special recognition. But his name was Joshua Bell, the American Grammy Award-winning conductor and violinist. One of the greatest musicians alive in the world today, playing some of the most intricate pieces ever written by Bach. Or anybody, playing on a violin that's estimated worth was $3.5 million. Two nights before he had sold out a crowd in the Boston theater where tickets on average were selling for $100 a piece. In these situations, you pass by somebody playing music in the subway station and you assume, like I do, they need something from you. You could have put this with me a month ago walking the streets in New Orleans and I would have done the same thing thinking, oh, it's got four guys. He's out here trying to earn a buck, probably trying to earn a buck for a beer. Those kind of thoughts go through my head. You think if they were really a decent person, they'd probably be playing some respectable concert hall somewhere. You might convince yourself that you are really helping them to get a real job if you just keep walking and don't facilitate them in this situation. But if it's Christmas time, you might even think about what the heck, throw in a couple bucks. You know, it is the season, have a Merry Christmas. You know that they need something from you. But here's the point, only one man and a few small children realized that this violin player had something to offer them of great value. Let me tell you, this pales in comparison to the living God, for you think like me so many times, want something from you. I'm having trouble with my PR and I'm having trouble getting followers. I need you. Please help me. Say something to somebody, invite him to church. Give him a track. We think he needs us. We think maybe we got something to offer him. Or we think often like, hey, well, you know, scratch, you're back, you scratch my mouth. Do some obedient things to you, God, and religious things for you. And let's talk about my personal finances and let's talk about my relationship struggling. Let's talk about the promotion of one. Let's talk about getting that position on that team at school or whatever it might be. Don't let your life be summarized by believing two falsehoods about God. Let me tell you what they are. One, God is here because he needs me, which is the thinking that God needs to use us. He needs that. That's one falsehood. I just want to encourage you because it's deep into our DNA as sinful people to believe that. The second falsehood is this. God is here for me to use for me, thinking that we use God. I saw both of these falsehoods proclaimed recently. And I don't usually honestly like to quote other religious leaders. But here's a direct quote that you probably have already seen it post on the internet. Here's what this religious leader said. I just want to encourage every one of you, every one of us, actually, to realize when we obey God, we're not doing it for God. I mean, that's what made a look at it. We're doing it for ourselves because God takes pleasure when we're happy. That's the thing that gives him the greatest joy. Okay, there's falsehood number one. God needs for us to be happy to be happy. The quote continued. So I want you to know this morning. Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy. That's the falsehood number two. God is here for us to be happy. He's here for us to use. Let me tell you a truth and I apologize you're not hearing it very well from other Christian leaders. God is not here to make you happy. Now, this is not a way to write to build church attendance for me to preach this, but it is the truth. God is not here to make you happy. God is here to make you holy. God is not here to make you happy. He's here to make you holy. Only in the holiness of God do we find the real love hope and joy that we are longing for and that God created which is only found in knowing him through following Jesus. As Jesus describes what that means to follow him. Not what you think. Not what's popular. Not what that book on the shelf says. Not what that personal TV says. Not what the personal Internet says. God is not here to make you happy. He's here to make you holy. And only in the holiness of God do we find real love hope and joy that we long for and God created which is only found in knowing him through following Jesus. So don't use him to make yourself happy or anything else. Live for him to use you. Let me say that again. Don't use him. Live for him to use you. World of difference. And that's why I want to challenge you to do it. To do that. To not use him. To not have this deal with God. And I had it happen to even myself this week. Okay. I did something. I thought let God down here. I was like, I can't believe my failure by sin or whatever else there on that. And I thought, oh, you know, I'm a preacher. I'm thinking, oh, it's going to be a bad day. He's going to let bad things happen to me today. Oh, it's going to be a bad day. I never would have said that. I'm not preaching that. I'm just sharing that. That's how far I still need to grow. That's how much I need to gospel every single day to remind myself, what where is that coming from? Like, I'm got some business transaction going on with God. Like the better I am today, the more you're going to bless me and we can go on here. I'm going to do good things and appear to be good. And you're going to do things for me. Because that's what I'm looking looking here for. That's using him. Rather than living for him to use me, living you, living for him to use you. That's what I mean. That's my challenges point. I say do it. Do that. Jesus said for whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for me will find it. Is that paradoxical? Yeah, sort of. Am I completely sure what that means? Not really. But what I do know and what I want to tell you here, it means to quit living for the things of this earth and what you're seeing on TV. What you're hearing from your peers and what the world values and holds up and the world values and holds it up, be skeptical from the get go. You go, there's got to be something more there because there is Jesus uses us to make disciples. Some might be here this morning saying, are you saying that if we followed Jesus, our primary purpose will be to make disciples the rest of our lives? No, I'm not saying that at all. Jesus is saying that, and I'm simply trying to make sure you understand that is exactly what Jesus is saying, that your primary purpose will be to make disciples the rest of your lives here on earth as far as your mission and what he's called you to do. They don't dissect that from last week's message to be it, to be a follower of him, to be a worshiper of him. One day the job will be done of making disciples. The job will never be done worshipping him. Come follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. That's what Jesus says. So to follow Jesus means to allow him to make you like himself and to continue doing what he did making disciples until he returns. So what does that mean? Practically, it means you are a disciple maker first, a businessman or a business woman next. It means you are a disciple maker first, a friend next. It means you are a disciple maker first, a wife, a husband next, down the list. It means you are a disciple maker first, a father mother next. It means you are a disciple maker first, kids, a student next, or a child of your parents next. This is your vocational call as a follower of Jesus. Now you might get paid money doing other things next, but on the list here on earth. But don't ever misunderstand your primary call as a follower of Jesus is to continue the work of Jesus until he comes back again. The call of our church this year is twofold. It's said it last week to be it, to be making, to be it by being a follower of Jesus and making that your highest priority, to be a follower of Jesus this week to do it. To follow Jesus and doing what he's called you to do, a great illustration of what I think this looks like when done well. It came from a video, the video has been out for several years now, as I saw it several years ago, but I think it's worth showing this morning, a video of comedian and self-proclaimed atheist, Penn Gillette. In an honest video where he actually encountered, not a religious person, but he actually encountered the follower of Jesus. Watch this. I want to talk to you about this. I've been home from the show and at the end of the show, as I've mentioned before, we go out and we talk to folks, you know, sign an occasional autograph and check hands and so on. And there was one guy waiting over to the side, and what I call the hover position, after I was old on big guy, probably about my age. He had been the guy who has fixed the joke during our psychic comedian section of the show. And he walked over to me and he said, I was here last night at the show, and I saw the show and I liked it. I wanted to. He was very complimentary. I thought my use of language and complimentary about honesty and stuff. I said nice stuff. No reason to go into it. He said nice stuff. And then he said, I brought this for you. And he handed me a Gineon Pocket edition. I thought I said it from the New Testament, but also thought it was some of the New Testament Psalms and just part of the New Testament. It'll book about this big. And he said, I wrote in the front of it, and I wanted you to have this. I'm kind of proselytizing. And then he said, I'm a businessman. I'm saying I'm not crazy. And he looked at me right in the eye and did all of this. And it was really wonderful. I believe he knew that I was an atheist, but he was not defensive. And he looked me right in the eyes. And he was truly complimentary. It wasn't in any way it didn't seem like empty flattery. He was really kind and nice and sane and looked me in the eyes and talked to me. And then he gave me this Bible. And I've always said that I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven in hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, well, it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward. And atheists who think that people shouldn't proselytize, just leave me alone, keep your religion to yourself. How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believe we ought to shut up without that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe it, if that truck was barred down on you, there's a certain point where I tackled you. And this is more important than that. And I've always thought that, and I've written about that, and I've thought of it conceptually. This guy was a really good guy. He was polite and honest and sane and he cared enough about me to proselytize and give me a Bible which had written in it a little note to me, not very personal, but just like to show and so on. And then like five phone numbers form and an email address if I wanted to get in touch. Now, I know there's no God and one polite person living his life right doesn't change that. But I'll tell you, he was a very, very, very good man. And that's really important. And with that kind of goodness, it's okay to have that deep of a disagreement. I still think that religion does a lot of bad stuff, but man, that was a good man who gave me that book. That's all I wanted to say. Sorry for the organ music on that. When was the last time you've heard the accusations that the followers of Jesus Christ are kind, nice, sane, looked me in the eyes, while being kind, nice and sane, genuinely complimentary. Sorry spontaneous things are coming to my mind that's dangerous. It's one of the things that I think grieves the heart of God when we slander other leaders in our community that aren't followers of Jesus and we political leaders. Roman's 13 tells you to honor those authority over you because God has established them. That should change the way you speak about your president if you're a citizen of the United States of America. It should change the way you talk and think about your teachers at school, your parents, your employers, police officers. What I love about this video were three things. This guy, I mean, I've seen Penn Jehovah II being asked before, I've never seen him act like that after this encounter. But he didn't, he didn't have a category. What I think grieved me and agreed my heart so much. He imagined what does the heart of God. He didn't have a category for this kind of guy because he was, he kind of was religious but he kind of wasn't. He didn't have a category. That non-category, that is Jesus, I honestly believe, the non-category. You can't put him in this religious camp and that's where the Pharisees and the religious teachers and the laws were and the scribes. Jesus didn't fit there but you can't put them out there with just everybody else. He's out there trying to swindle and make a buck and live for themselves and he'd nistic and living lustfully in sinful lives. Jesus didn't fit there either. Where do you put the guy? He's a category by himself. Where should his church be and a category by itself? Where you make guys like this and have encounters. People should be at night going, you know, I don't know what happened at school today or what happened at work today or when I ran into that person in the grocery store today or on the side of field and soccer or whatever. They were nice. They were kind. They were sane. They looked me in the eyes and they talked about Jesus and hope and life because they cared about me. Oh my gosh, listen folks let me just tell you okay and I'm talking to Christ in church folks if we're not committed to doing this to do it I don't want to be a part of it anymore. I'm done and this is my own personal confession to you as your leader. I'm done if we're not going to be it and do it because it would certainly make life just a lot easier to quit pretending and do something different. So if you're coming with me this year, let's do it. Trusting the He I will make you fishers of men. You know how freeing that is to go. All right God, you do it. Whoo, he's going to make us fishers of men because if you're like me you're thinking I'm not sure where to begin. Problem solved. Trust him. You don't have to know where to begin. I'm thinking as a pastor I don't know how to build a church. I don't know how to start a church. We're nine years old and we're doing something. Jesus says I will build my church in the gates of heaven not prevail. I can relax now. Are we going to be it? Are we going to do it? This guy was a follower of Jesus in this video. Secondly, this guy was a friend and there's no other interpretation that Penn had as the comedian to go. This guy was just a friend, genuine complimenting things. He had a 10 of the guys show. Not pick it at it. He had 10 of it. And fair enough to write a personal note in the Bible and give him one. And thirdly, this guy let God use him. That's it. So the question is will you do it? Will I do it? Will you let God do the work in you to make you a disciple maker helping others become followers of Jesus? Why? Because there's really nothing else when all boils down to it that really matters. And either death is going to remind you of that. On your deathbed or Jesus coming back to remind you of that. You take your pick. It's a big decision. At the comedian table here this morning, you'll find little black bracelets. They're not real fancy. They didn't cost very much money. One side says be it. It reminds you. We're about following Jesus. And the other side says do it. To be committed to what he's called us to do. In his power, in his timing, in his way, dependent on him. So just invite you. As you come, as you come celebrate, confess in. Be reminded of his grace to you. If you're up for the challenge, which is really just saying, all right, God, here I go. Catch me. Let's do this. I need to take a bracelet. We'll just find them at the table up here. It's free. But let me tell you, wearing this and meaning it is not free. So don't misunderstand. Take it. If that can be part of your worship experience this morning, you feel led to do that this morning. Not gilding in. Otherwise, you'll be watching. Otherwise, keep in track. Who's wearing a black bracelet? Who's not afterwards? But if it's a helpful tool to remind you in the course of the days and weeks ahead. I would love to see a year from now. We still wear these things. And they're smelly and nasty. You know, or we have to buy new ones to replace them. It wouldn't be awesome if we're being it, if we're doing it. Next Sunday is impact Sunday. Some of you have no idea what that is. It's going to be big. Why is it going to be big? Because it's going to be the call a very specific way to step out. At least some ways that we know as a church. Some of you are going to have ideas, this course of this fall, in this year of ways, that we haven't even thought about as a church. And I can't wait to discover how God's going to work through this body. Don't want to miss it next week. So as you come at the table, as you come and receive from Him, if it's helpful, if it would guide you and assist you in the process of being reminded, just invite you to take your bracelet, put it on, if that's the case. Or maybe just take one and put in your purse. That's an easier way for you to be reminded by it. But those will be there afterwards. If whatever reason you don't want to come to communion or be part of that after the service, you're welcome to grab one too. If that's more helpful for you on that as well. So anyway, let me pray as we respond this morning. God, I thank you for the work that you're doing in my life, the work that you're doing in my friends, and the other followers of Jesus here. God, I think for the work that you're doing in those that are out here that really haven't even decided that they're going to follow you. But yet they're intrigued. Not because this church is so cool, or I'm so persuasive, they're intrigued because I think they smell you. And they want more of you. And God, that's what we want to. So may the aroma of Christ fill our hearts this morning as we leave here and fill this church as we go through this next year. And God, may the aroma of mercy and grace fill our nostrils as we come to your table this morning. And be reminded that there was one who paid for the guilt of our sin, the one who has set us free from the power of sin. So would you come and minister to us as we draw near to you? And God, would you give us the faith to step out, to be it, to do it this year, for your glory and for your honor? I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.