Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, so let's stand as we go to the Lord in prayer. And Darren, can I ask you to just bring me a water bottle? Yeah, that's great. Thank you.
[00:00:08] You know, it's so dry in Alberta. How many catch that. And when you're talking, it gets right into your throat.
[00:00:17] Thank you.
[00:00:19] How many here we want. We're just going to lift our hands. You know, I actually believe that as we lift our hands, we're going to try to do something here. This is nothing zany, but it's just basically when we come to church, a lot of times our minds are on all of our problems. We got a lot of things to solve. Okay, I want to give you permission to just put aside all your problems now for the next 45 minutes or so. Okay? Can we do that? We're just gonna. We're just gonna give them to God.
[00:00:45] And I'm hoping that after 45 minutes, you're gonna leave them with God.
[00:00:49] How's that? How many think that's a good idea? Because, you know, a lot of times we're like Andrea said it, we're carrying stuff we shouldn't be carrying and it's just drowning us.
[00:00:58] So, Father, we just lift our burdens to you because we know that you care for us and we know that there are certain things that are on our hearts that we are unable to change. We can't change these things.
[00:01:09] Only you can. And so, Father, as we lift these concerns of yours to you, Lord, I just pray right now that all anxiety would flee, that you would give us a supernatural peace right now, that our minds now would be focused on you. Your word says that if you. If you will keep us in perfect peace, if our minds are fixed on you, stayed on you. I pray right now that our minds would be fixed on you. We'd be listening because I believe you're going to say something this morning. And for some people specifically, this is going to be a definitive word in their life. It's going to change the course of the direction of their life. I believe that. And so, Father, I pray right now that we'll have ear to hear what your word is saying, not just to us collectively, but to each of us individually. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name and God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:02:00] You know, I'm going to share. I've had so many amazing privileges in life. And I was in seminary. This was when I was working on my doctorate and I had an instructor by the name of Dr. George Sweeting.
[00:02:12] George Sweeting actually was a chancellor of Moody Memorial. I think he even pastored the church for a while when I had him as a professor. I mean, he was probably like 79, 80 years old. I just looked him up just to see where he was at. He was born in 1924 and died in 2024. He died at 100 years old.
[00:02:30] And I'm gonna tell you, when I first got to meet him, you know, cause our classes weren't huge and I felt something about this person.
[00:02:38] You ever have somebody walk in and immediately you felt the presence of God. And the thing that struck me about George was I just not only felt the presence of God, I felt the love of God. This guy just exuded the love of God.
[00:02:52] And so he began to share a little bit about his life and even, you know, he's published a number of books and one of them is on sharing your faith. And he was talking to us about that as pastors as a child. He said he made a profession of faith in Christ. But like so many other people as children, he said I was really self centered, often insensitive to the teaching of scripture. He said ego still ruled my life. I had my own plans and I was committed to it accomplishing them. And then there came a time of special meetings in our church and I made a commitment at that meeting to seek first the kingdom of God. Wow. If you do that, I'm going to tell you right now, it's going to change everything. I clearly recall that I had a strong desire to be alone where I could listen to God and set whatever guidance he might have for my life. He said to get home meant riding a bus for 10 miles, then an additional three mile walk.
[00:03:44] The ride and walk were different that night. I felt carried along by the excitement of this sense that there was a new purpose, a new calling in my life.
[00:03:55] It gave me that time alone with God. My mother was the kind of special parent who never went to bed until her six children were home and settled. That night she seemed intuitively to sense that something life changing had happened in my life.
[00:04:07] And she shared warmly about about spiritual matters. And then we knelt by her special chair to pray. And as she asked God for unique guidance in my life, I went up to my room, small little room up in the attic, 10 by 10.
[00:04:21] And that night alone in my room, I knelt to pray.
[00:04:24] I wrote down my first goals.
[00:04:26] He said these four goals have intensified over the years.
[00:04:30] First of all, seek to bring glory to God.
[00:04:37] Number two, cultivate the inner life. Number three, disciple as many people as humanly possible.
[00:04:43] Number four, win as many people the faith in Christ as possible.
[00:04:48] As I knelt aglowed with a sense of God's love, I promised to become a faithful follower and witness. And my commitment was as serious and as total as I knew how to make it at that stage. The very next day, I began to share my faith. At my high school in Patterson, New Jersey. Most of my schoolmates were like Paul, who sat next to me in mechanical drawing class and were not Christians.
[00:05:12] He was a likable friend, and I was concerned about his spiritual future. But where would I start? And how would I begin a meaningful conversation?
[00:05:21] And what would I say if he just happened to show interest? Those were just a few of the questions racing through my mind. I went off to school seeking divine guidance. I'll never forget my very first try to share my faith. Paul, I said, here's a booklet that means a lot to me. Please read it and tell me what you think of it. Without hesitation, he took the booklet. He promised to read it. In fact, he was flattered that I was even interested in his life. It was a weak start, but it was a start. The booklet I gave him began. You're traveling from time into eternity, and who knows how near you are this moment to the final terminal.
[00:05:59] Let me ask you then, what class are you traveling in? There are just three classes. First class are those who are saved from sin and they know it. Second class are those who are not sure of their salvation from sin, but they're anxious to be sure.
[00:06:12] Third class are those who are not only not saved, but who are totally indifferent to it.
[00:06:18] The next day, Paul told me that he was in second class, not sure of his salvation, but anxious to really know if he could know God.
[00:06:27] Because I was shy and fearful of what others might say, I invited Paul to my home after school, where at least I could attempt to answer his questions.
[00:06:36] Fear is normal and universal. As a matter of fact, we're all fearful. I was fearful for at least three reasons. First of all, I was afraid of being personally rejected and maybe even mocked. Secondly, I was afraid that Jesus might be rejected because of my limitations. And third, I feared that Paul might be unimpressed and consider neither of us worth accepting or rejecting, witnessing or sharing. Our faith includes indefinitely more than just rattling off verses of Scripture.
[00:07:05] It includes, first of all, what I am, as well as what I do and what I say.
[00:07:11] Some Christians tend to be all life and no lip, while others are all lip and no life.
[00:07:16] A powerful combination Is living and living the good news.
[00:07:22] That's really great. I agree with him. There has to be a balance.
[00:07:26] The reading of Scripture and the Holy Spirit did their work. Paul was ready to commit his life to Christ. He welcomed Jesus into his life and by faith became a child of God. I'll never forget that happy day. Over the years, he said, I've seen Paul as he's grown spiritually strong. In spite of my fears and inexperience, God used that faithful witness. And Paul was the first of more than a dozen classmates that I had the thrill of introducing to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:07:54] You know, Elton Trueblood wrote in his powerful little book, the Incendiary Fellowship, he says, evangelism occurs when people are so enkindled by contact with the central fire of Christ that they in turn set others on fire. What a powerful statement, isn't it? He said, the only adequate evidence from anything that that is on fire is that the evidence is that fires are started by a fire that does not spread must eventually go out.
[00:08:26] This is the point of Emil Bruner's comment that the church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.
[00:08:33] A person who claims to have a religious experience, yet makes no effort to share or to extend it, has not really entered into Christ's company at all. That's a pretty powerful statement.
[00:08:45] In other words, he's saying, if we're not concerned about other people besides ourselves, there's something intrinsically wrong with us that needs to probably experience a change.
[00:08:56] In short, an unevangelistic or unmissionary Christianity is a contradiction in terms. The obsolete man is the alleged Christian who so proudly says, I keep my faith to myself.
[00:09:07] Well, the late Samuel Shoemaker spoke for an entire generation when he said, as a reflection of his own experience, there's. There is no church where evangelism is not living and current.
[00:09:18] As Jesus was about to enter into heaven after his resurrection, he turned to his early followers that they were to wait in Jerusalem until they were literally endued. Or, you know, the Greek there means empowered or clothed upon with power from on high.
[00:09:35] You know, that happened on the day of Pentecost when God's spirit came upon him. It states in Acts 2, it rested on them and as tongues of fire.
[00:09:43] What an interesting description. Of all the members of our body, the tongue is the one that gets us into the most trouble. How many can say that's true? Got my hand up. Anybody else? A few of us. Okay. It's the one that communicates to the outside world who we are for us. To be effective communicators of the life of Christ within us, it must be our lives must be first cleansed and then empowered. How many? Well, that's probably true, you know, if we're going to have an impact, if we're going to influence people, because we're going to talk today about how does a transformed life influence people? Well, I think you have to have this experience.
[00:10:20] You have to be cleansed and be empowered by God. You know, years ago when I came back to our church after being in the States for a number of years, we actually worked on a number of biblical texts to discern what God wanted us to do as a church family.
[00:10:35] All I did was take bunch of New Testament verses dealing with the church.
[00:10:41] We looked at these passages and what we've discovered was the New Testament is all about the Great Commandment, which is love God and love people, and the Great Commission, which is reaching people with the good news about Jesus, which I think is an expression of love. By the way, we distill the New Testament passage into 6. Passion for God, compassion for people.
[00:11:03] And when you distill it all down, that's what the whole New Testament is about. Isn't that simple?
[00:11:09] You know what, if you and I have a passion for God, you'll have compassion for people.
[00:11:15] Just that simple. It's always, that's the right priority, being a Christian.
[00:11:22] The greatest need of our nation, let me say, is this probably for our province, our city, our workplace, our schools, our neighborhoods, is that people come to know the Lord. That's the greatest need of this country. You may say, well, there's this problem here and this problem there. No, the greatest need.
[00:11:39] This is the eternal need. This is what's going to turn a nation around. Guys, you know, some people think, well, I just got to elect the right party.
[00:11:49] You know, we've had all kinds of governments over the years. It hasn't changed anything.
[00:11:53] We need to have a transformation and it starts in us.
[00:11:57] You know, God entrusts us to be his witnesses. Listen to this. To be his ambassadors to the people in our world. Isn't that amazing how many know what an ambassador is? An ambassador is someone that a country sends to another country to represent that country.
[00:12:12] I want you to know you and I are children of another world. You and I are children of heaven. We've been sent to Earth as ambassadors to bring the message of Jesus Christ to a world that's totally confused and lost. We are God's ambassadors to our world. Isn't that an amazing thought?
[00:12:29] I think that's pretty rich. We're going to get to those texts in a moment that even states it very clearly for us.
[00:12:36] So how do we live a transformed and influential life? That's the question today. How can we live this life? Well, we're going to begin looking at four ingredients of that kind of a life. These ingredients are actually found in Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 11 through 14. And Paul's reason why he was willing to risk it all, even his life, even for total strangers, was these ingredients. And we're going to look at what it is. So he's making a defense. We've already talked about this in Second Corinthians, but let's take a look right now. First, ingredients of a transformed life is the influence that comes from an encounter with Christ.
[00:13:15] The most important thing in your life and mine is to encounter Christ. That's number one. There's nothing greater than that.
[00:13:24] It's the number one thing that's going to change your life dramatically.
[00:13:28] This is better than anything that you can ever imagine or think. And many of us in this room, we've had that. We've had an encounter with Christ. Okay? Now this knowledge is not just informational, rather it's an understanding based on, on a life transforming experience.
[00:13:44] So it's an experience too. It's not just an intellectual ascent. I've had an encounter with Jesus. It's impacted me. There was something that happened in my life. I repented, I turned from where I was going.
[00:13:57] I turned from, really from the idol of sin and self.
[00:14:02] And now I'm turning fully to God. That's what brings about real change in our lives. I don't think we can read the Book of Acts and not understand that transform lives in impact other people.
[00:14:14] So maybe we have to ask ourselves the question, am I transformed by God's power and grace?
[00:14:20] Question number one. I have to ask myself that question. Because the fruit of this transformed life is going to impact the lives of other people. And as you read through the Book of Acts, you see it over and over again. The church was impacted by God's power and it impacted the lives of other people.
[00:14:35] So then we must include that if we're not impacting the lives of other people, it's either one of two reasons. Number one, we have never been impacted right?
[00:14:47] Now think about it. If I've never been impacted, how am I going to impact other people? So number one, I've never been impacted or I've allowed the deceptive nature of this life to choke out the Vitality that living in daily communion with Christ brings.
[00:15:02] I've allowed the things of this world to suck the life right out of me, the life of Christ right out of me. I get consumed with the pressures, the distractions, the challenges, the pleasures, all the things that this life has to offer. But let me just remind as this life is fleeting and it's going to slip by before you know it.
[00:15:20] So what are you living for? I'll get to that in a moment.
[00:15:24] All right. When the Holy Spirit came on them on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 were added to the church.
[00:15:31] I mean, that's amazing work of God, you know. And then we read this, and then they began praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. In other words, I'm going to just say this, you know, a lot of times we focus on, you know, I'd love to see this miracle here, this miracle there. All of the miracles that usually we pray for and a lot of people we have. You should see the sheet of miracles we're asking for healing. That's a big list, I can tell you right now. Financial miracles, relational miracles, those are all temporal.
[00:16:06] The greatest miracle that happens is when a person gives their life to Christ.
[00:16:11] That's an eternal miracle and that's a transformational miracle. That is the most profound miracle. And that's what was happening. This was a state and the church was in. Then the Bible says a little later on, the book of Acts. And so the word of God spread, which is suggesting to me that people were communicating it. How does the word of God spread?
[00:16:30] Well, by people talking about it. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. So all of a sudden, man, there's things happening all around. I could probably sit down and cite verse after verse showing you this pattern, but let me move to our text. In Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 11, we must have missed.
[00:16:57] Oh, there it is. Since then we know what it is to fear the Lord. We try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God. And I hope it will also be plain to your conscience. Since we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. Interesting. You know, we can only share with great conviction what we have experienced. How many know that's probably true?
[00:17:17] Our life changing understanding really can light a fire in us. You know, I was praying this morning, God, you got to light a fire in us.
[00:17:24] You know, how many Want to have a fire lit in you, spiritual fire, you know, just coming alive inside of you. It changes you, I can tell you that. You know, then, then we say, well, Paul understood that one day we would all stand before Christ. And I know I mentioned this last week in the message, he says, you know, he's talking to Christians here. We're going to all stand before the judgment seat of Christ that every one of us may receive what is due him or her for the things done in the body, whether good or bad. And that could be translated worthless without value or not effective.
[00:17:57] So you want to say to yourself, I don't know about you, but I don't want my life to be, you know, valueless.
[00:18:04] I want my life to have impact, effect, be fruitful. Right, right. You want to live with purpose. I'm going to tell you something. You want to live a long life, you got to have purpose.
[00:18:18] You know, a lot of people die prematurely, I think, because they just don't have any purpose. They lose meaning.
[00:18:23] Those are powerful things. We have to understand the way we're wired as human beings. Paul knew that he'd have to give an account of his life to Christ.
[00:18:31] Whether he was effective or ineffective, it was motivating him. Holland Crews writes, paul is not afraid of the Lord, he says, the fear of the Lord, but he does have a reverential awe of him and recognizes that his whole life and ministry will come under God's scrutiny.
[00:18:49] It is with this awareness that he persuades people. There are two possible ways to understand reference to persuading people.
[00:18:57] First, his awareness of his accountability to God motivates him to be diligent in his efforts to persuade people. Isn't that great? He's motivated. Number two, he sought to remove intellectual barriers to overcome prejudice and ignorance by convincing, arguing and testifying and by the straight word proclamation of the gospel. You know, I know in Canada we like to be polite, but I have to confess to you, I've been to other countries and I've discovered something. These cultures are not quite as polite as Canadians. They like arguing about religious things. They get into it, you know, they say, well, why is that so good? We think, well, I'm not going to persuade this person. You know, sometimes you got to give people something to chew on.
[00:19:40] You got to give them a seed.
[00:19:42] You got to put something in their head. You know, I'll give you an example. You know, so here I am, I'm a brand new Christian, right? And I'm working in a restaurant, I'm cooking. There's a dishwasher. He's just a few years younger than me. And I walk over to him. We've been. I've been sharing the gospel with him. And so finally, you know, he's just acting like, cool, you know, I'm not interested. This is not, you know, I said, you know, the only. So you know what I say to him, I want to rattle his cage a little bit. I said, you know, you're really in a dangerous place. He goes, well, why is that? I don't believe in God. I said, yeah, but the Bible says you're without excuse. What do you mean I'm without excuse? So then I start laying out Romans to him, you know, saying, you know, God is. God is in existence because the whole created world is declaring his presence. You know, so then I go back to cooking.
[00:20:26] He comes into my area and he goes, I've got all kinds of excuses, you know, you see, I put that little thought in his head, you know, it's not that, you know, you're going to win them all, but you're putting thoughts in people's minds. That seed starts to grow. God's spirit starts to work on people.
[00:20:45] You know, our job isn't to, you know, how would I say this? We can't convert one single person. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
[00:20:55] But, boy, God needs us to communicate the message. That's what I'm trying to get across. And are we faithful to do that?
[00:21:04] You know, this really tells me that it suggests to me that I have to learn as much as possible about my faith. It speaks of diligence, effort and study on part to understand and be able to intelligently present this message. However, even the most new believer can. You know, even though they don't understand a lot of it, they can still share their own story, their own testimony. You know, like the blind man, you know, he got healed. He goes, I don't know.
[00:21:30] I don't know if he's a sinner or not, he says, but one thing I do know, once I was blind, but now I see. You know, I don't know about all the nuances of the Christian faith, but I know one thing. Once I was lost and I was, you know, my whole life was in dismay and I came to Jesus and all of a sudden, you know, a light dawned and it's a whole new way of life.
[00:21:53] This is my experience. We can share our story with people.
[00:21:57] You know, probably the best explanation of this text is Paul is about to explain his motive for ministry. He wanted These believers to know that his passion to communicate the gospel came out of a heart full of gratitude towards God. He was doing this out of a pure heart, a heart of integrity. He was not doing this for what he could receive from it. It's not like what he was going to benefit from it. He's already benefited from it. We've experienced God's forgiveness, we've experienced eternal life. We've experienced God's love, his mercy, his kindness.
[00:22:26] Wow. What more can you ask for? It's out of this joy that we're sharing. You know, the fear of the Lord is described in Scripture both positively and negatively. The passage is not talking about fear that causes us to hide from God like Adam in the garden.
[00:22:40] This is the positive reverential fear of being in awe of God's majesty and of his glory. Listen. When Isaiah the prophet had an encounter with God In Isaiah 6:1:9, we are struck with Isaiah's response. Woe is me. I cried. I'm ruined. You know, he saw his sinfulness in light of God sinlessness. And God sent his angel to cleanse the prophet's lips. And then Isaiah hears the commission, whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And he said, lord, here am I.
[00:23:12] You know, Send me. Isn't that great?
[00:23:15] Hear, my Lord, send me. Listen, when you and I finally experience God in his glory, God's going to. He's going to motivate you. He's going to inspire you. He's going to send you. God sends people. We are sent people, he says, and when we have that revelation, all the forces of hell can't keep us from going and telling others.
[00:23:36] Then you see Paul's motives in sharing the gospel. In verse 12 he says, we're not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us so that you can answer those who take pride in what is said, seen, rather than what is in the heart. See, Oswald Chambers says Paul's very sensitive about self commendation.
[00:23:57] And it's quite likely that some of the criticism directed against him was related to this. So he denies that in defending the straightforward character of the persuasion he practices, he's indulging in self commendation.
[00:24:11] Paul realizes that there are those present in Corinth who are critical of his motives and methods. And he makes this defense of his ministry so that these converts may be able to deal with the criticisms of men. He wants his readers to be able to feel justly proud of the way in which their spiritual Father conducts himself. And so be able to answer his detractors and the detractors who lurk behind the scenes. In the Corinthian correspondence, Paul are described as those who pride themselves in their position, but it's not on their hearts.
[00:24:46] We can see the sort of outward matters which these men prided themselves in. They include the letters or recommendations they carried. We already talked about that. Their Jewish ancestry, their ecstatic visionary experiences. You know, how many times people are telling you all the stuff that they're seeing, thinking, and all the rest of it, and the apostolic signs they perform. Paul implies for them such outward matters were more important than the condition of a heart, which is what God sees.
[00:25:12] I'm just going to say this. You know, human beings, we look on the outside, God looks on the inside.
[00:25:19] What's going on on the inside?
[00:25:21] You know what? I'm going to tell you something. If your heart is clean, you have a pure heart, good things are going to come out.
[00:25:28] If your heart is corrupt, eventually you won't be able to shield all that stuff. Eventually that stuff comes out. Jesus says, it's not the stuff that goes in you that defiles you, it's the stuff from you, within you that defiles you.
[00:25:39] You know, evil thoughts. And all these things are coming from with heart.
[00:25:42] The big issue today, and I love David's prayer in the Psalms. He says, create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit in me. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Listen, he didn't want God to withdraw his presence from him because he was defiling himself by sinning against Almighty God.
[00:26:00] So Paul is saying, and I think, like Paul's ministry, our ministry must come from a full heart, concerned about what God thinks, not about impressive outward aspects. What we have learned about God ought to motivate us.
[00:26:16] When we really understand that Christianity is about the inner life, the heart condition, and the ultimate future of each person, we will become more and more effective in word and deed.
[00:26:27] So I'm just giving it to you. You say, what should I be focusing in on, Pastor?
[00:26:31] Renew in me a right spirit. Give me a clean heart, O God, and help me to. Help me to see people the way you do. Help me to have a compassion and a concern for others. Let me move on to the second ingredient. Is that what comes from a different lifestyle? Our lifestyles are shaped by a number of factors. How many know this, how we were raised, the culture in which we're surrounded by, our experiences in life or lack of experiences. What we have, what we have been taught, have been taught or have not been taught. These all shape our belief systems and our beliefs shape how we're going to end up behaving. Listen, if we're out of our mind, he says, it's for the sake of God, and if we're in our right mind, it's for you. Now, interesting statement.
[00:27:13] You know, Linda Belville explains that term out of mind. She says the verb is an intransitive, which literally means they're putting these words together, ek and hestemi, which means away and stand, and was really used to speak of losing your mind. Okay?
[00:27:35] Part of the difficulty is that Paul has employed this verb nowhere else. Mark, however, uses it of Jesus family who thought him mad. Remember that statement? They go, he's out of his mind. They were trying to take him out of the house.
[00:27:49] In what sense was Paul mad? On the face of the common, it's obscure. It says, this may well have been a charge leveled by his opponents that Paul would consider persecution and adversity something to be proud of. Might well appear mad to people, to those who judge by the world's standards. Yet whatever Paul does, he does not out of self interest, but for God and the Corinthians. Now, I'm going to just say this. You know, the world will never criticize you for helping poor people. How many know it's true?
[00:28:16] But I'll tell you one thing, the world will criticize you if you start sharing the gospel immediately.
[00:28:22] Isn't that interesting?
[00:28:24] I think we need to understand something.
[00:28:27] God is concerned about the ultimate salvation of people. You know, you and I can feed people and clothe people, and I'm not against that. I think we ought to do that. That's part of the gospel. Okay, that's not what I'm saying.
[00:28:37] But I'm saying if that's all we do for people, we really haven't helped them that much because we haven't helped them with their soul for all of eternity. I think we've lost sight of that somehow in a materialistic culture.
[00:28:50] Listen to Paul. He's preaching to Agrippa and Festus, the Roman governor.
[00:28:58] And Festus at this point, interrupts Paul. He's whoa, Paul, you know, whoa.
[00:29:04] He says to him, you're out of your mind.
[00:29:08] He shouts to Paul, your great learning is driving you insane.
[00:29:13] Paul says, I'm not insane. Most excellent, Festus. What I'm saying is true and reasonable. Wow. Interesting.
[00:29:22] Maybe you've never had people accuse you of things. I've been accused of all kinds of crazy stuff.
[00:29:27] Yeah, we won't go down those tracks he goes. Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
[00:29:45] How we live impacts other people. How many say that's true? People are watching you, you know, and I remember this years ago. The only Bible some people know or see is the one I'm looking at right now. You, you're their Bible. They're picking up their cues from you.
[00:30:06] And if you don't think our lives influence and impact people, you know, just think of King David. I just used the story, Remember, he runs away from King Saul and he ends up joining up with Samuel. And they go off and Saul is upset and he's after these guys and he's sending people to them.
[00:30:25] And every time the group goes, they finally catch up to Samuel. They start prophesying. It's really an amazing story. When Saul was told about it, he sent more men and they prophesied, too. So Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. And then Saul was told about it, and he sent more men and they prophesied. So Saul sent the men a third time, and they also prophesied. Finally, he left for Ramah and went to the great cistern of Sikhu, and he asked, where are Samuel and David? And they told him, over at Naioth at Ramah. And they said, so Saul went to Ramah, Naioth at Ramah, but the Spirit of God came upon him, and he walked along prophesying until they came to Naioth and he stripped off his robes and prophesied in Samuel's presence. How many say, when you're in the presence of God, which Samuel represented here, it affects your behavior. It just really does when you are impacted at that level. Let me move on to the third ingredient. It's our love for God and others.
[00:31:23] Apart from love for God.
[00:31:26] I'm going to call it a transcending motivation.
[00:31:29] We're going to quit serving. I'm going to tell you why.
[00:31:33] Have you figured this out yet? People aren't always nice.
[00:31:37] Anybody had that experience yet.
[00:31:40] People are not always nice to you.
[00:31:43] And sometimes when you're doing your very best to help somebody, they can turn against you. I'm just telling you the way it is so, you know, you can be in the ministry for a while. But I notice a lot of pastors, they don't survive, they just quit.
[00:31:58] See, when you're like me, I've been around for a little while. This is now year number 44, I've got scars.
[00:32:06] You say, well, how do you survive all this stuff?
[00:32:09] It's real simple.
[00:32:11] You have to make up your mind. I'm going to be like Jesus. So this is what I say to myself. I'm just going to love everybody and I'm going to forgive everybody. And once you get that mindset, you're fine, you're ready to go.
[00:32:23] How many know that's what you got to do.
[00:32:26] Otherwise you're going to pack it in, you're going to go this is way, you know? So if you think you're going to be in ministry and think that this is a position that everyone's going to be happy about, forget it. I can tell you that right now. You see, when I talk to these guys studying for ministry, I just go get ready for it. It's going to happen.
[00:32:42] You got to determine in your mind. Listen to what Paul says. For Christ's love compels us. See, it's a transcendent love because we're convinced that one died for all, therefore all die. Paul says, I'm ready to give my life for this because I'm convinced the love of Christ is inside of Paul, driving him to do these things. You know, Billy Graham once said, when we preach atonement, atonement means being at one with God, which obviously that we're going to now be reconciled to God. It is atonement planned by love, provided by love, given by love, finished by love. And when we preach the resurrection, we are preaching the miracle of love. And when we preach the return of Christ, we're preaching the fulfillment of love.
[00:33:22] Isn't that beautiful? That's the gospel, folks.
[00:33:26] Okay, I'm going to move on here because I'm running out of time.
[00:33:31] Let's go to the fourth point. This is the last one. How it influences what we're living for.
[00:33:37] You know, Have you ever asked yourself, what or whom am I living for?
[00:33:48] Are you living for your family? That's a good thing. Your spouse. That's a good thing. A child, a parent, a lover, yourself. But I'm going to say this. Anything less than Christ will prove disastrous.
[00:34:02] Here's what I'm going to say to you. You know, Jesus said, if you don't love me, you don't love God above your spouse, your family. And he lists a whole bunch of things. You're not worthy of God. Now, I'm going To say this, when he's using that love less, you must hate these people.
[00:34:22] That's a colloquialism. That's a form of expression. What he's saying is, my love for God must be greater by far, must supersede my love for everybody else on the planet.
[00:34:33] When I have that kind of love, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen.
[00:34:36] You're going to love everybody better.
[00:34:39] You're going to be a better husband. You're going to be a better father. You got to put God first. You got to love God above everything. And when you do that, it changes something inside of you. Oswald Chambers says, we are always to put our trust in God first. Our Lord. He's the example of the perfect life.
[00:34:57] Never put his trust in any person, yet he was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone because he put his trust in God the Father first. Isn't that beautiful?
[00:35:07] So you know what? People go. You ever get disappointed with people? I go, no. I'm just, you know, once in a while I'm surprised, but I'm not shocked. Maybe I've done this too long. I just go, you know, And I'll tell you why. Because I know that even in myself, I disappoint myself. I don't know if anybody else has ever disappointed yourself. Anybody here ever disappoint yourself? Okay, you're being honest. That's great, you know, so here's what you need to understand.
[00:35:32] Why are we disappointed with other people?
[00:35:35] Right? Doesn't that make sense? Think about it. And you know what I always have to tell people? When you fail, not only should you go to God and ask for forgiveness, which is really critical, the next person you need to forgive is whom?
[00:35:52] When you fail, you've already asked God to forgive you. Who's the next person you need to forgive?
[00:35:57] Yourself.
[00:35:59] And the reason why we struggle with forgiving ourselves is we think too highly of ourselves.
[00:36:03] We got to lower that. We got to say, you know what? I'm a sinner and everyone in this room is a sinner. But we all experience grace. We can come to God for grace any day of the week. We're all going to fail at some point.
[00:36:15] The big problem is when people fail, they just never get back up again. No, we need to learn how to get up from our failures and ask God to forgive us and move us forward again.
[00:36:25] It says he trusted absolutely in God's grace. What could do for others. Now, if I put my trust in human beings first, the result will Be my despair and hopelessness towards everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people ought to be what they could know what we want them to be, when in reality, no person can be that way. There is no perfect person.
[00:36:50] I think we've got to get a hold of this. There's just no perfect person except for Christ.
[00:36:54] He's the only sinless person. And Paul states it over again. The reason for living. He says, and he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him, who died for him and died for them and was raised again.
[00:37:09] That certainly was true of Paul's life. He said, for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
[00:37:16] Well, I'm going to close with just this last quote from John Maxwell. He said, according to sociologists, even the most isolated individual will influence 10,000 people, 10,000 other people during his or her lifetime. That's a very shocking statement.
[00:37:31] But I can understand why that happens. Because even if you touch one person, sometimes that one person touches thousands of people. You have no idea who you're touching in life.
[00:37:40] So I'm going to have his 10 as we close right now.
[00:37:43] And I just want to go over and just in our mind, okay, so what have I really said today?
[00:37:51] Go back here. Just refresh our memory.
[00:37:53] Four ingredients.
[00:37:55] Number one, I need an encounter with God.
[00:37:59] And if I have an encounter with God, it's going to do what? It's going to impact me and transform me.
[00:38:06] So the question is, have I had that encounter with God?
[00:38:11] Or if I've had that encounter with God, why is my life now in a state of stagnation?
[00:38:17] And I'm going to just challenge you. I'm going to say, take a look at where your priorities are.
[00:38:22] If you are putting Christ first, if you're making him the priority, you say, well, how do you know when you're making him the priority? I'll tell you how you know you're spending time with them.
[00:38:31] You can't tell me that you love God. And then the only time you spend with God is you come to church maybe once in a blue moon, or once a year, or once every three months, or once a month. I mean, hey, if I really want to get to know somebody, I got to spend time with them.
[00:38:47] And so the person that's the most important person in my life is God. And the first thing I do when I get up every single morning is spend time with Him. That's the first thing on my agenda. I just spend time with Him. I want to Hear from him. I want to be in the scriptures. I want to be praying. I want to spend time with God.
[00:39:03] That changes you, by the way.
[00:39:06] You can tell me your priorities, but I can tell you.
[00:39:09] I can really tell you what your real priorities are on how you spend your time and how you spend the resources God blesses you with. That tells me your priorities.
[00:39:19] You can tell me all kinds of other things, but that's reality number two.
[00:39:24] How do we live a life?
[00:39:26] You know, are we living a life set apart for God? That's what it means to live a holy life. My life is dedicated to God.
[00:39:34] Holy life. You know, the Bible calls Christians saints. Saints means to be set apart for God's use.
[00:39:39] Let me ask you a question. Is your life set apart for God's use?
[00:39:44] God says, hey, I need you over here. Yeah, but I'm busy, God. Oh, wait a minute. Am I set apart for God's use or not? Am I not? Okay, number three, I'm motivated to serve people. Not because I get something of it. A lot of people serve.
[00:40:03] It's not altruistic. You know what they're serving because they feel ego. It's feeding my ego. I'm serving to get something in return. I'm going to tell you, you're going to quit serving because people are going to get mean to you once in a while.
[00:40:15] So you got to get past all that. You have to have a transcendent motivation.
[00:40:19] I'm serving you today because I love Christ.
[00:40:23] But I'm going to tell you a little secret. Over the years, I've discovered something. I'm loving people more and more.
[00:40:29] And that's true. I am loving people more than I ever have before because something's happening inside of my heart. But I'm not doing it for you to love me back.
[00:40:39] I'm doing it because I love Christ.
[00:40:42] Because if you're waiting for, you know, people are always going, I'm going to do this. But I'm looking for the, you know, what am I getting out of this?
[00:40:48] You know what I told our board one time when they said, we're going to. We're going to do something. And they said, well, what are we going to get out of this? I said, the opportunity to serve people. You know what the comeback was? 0.
[00:40:59] Because that's the right Christian message. When you do things to get something back, that's not altruistic. You're not doing it for Christ. You're doing it for yourself. I'm challenging you today.
[00:41:10] Do it for him and you won't you know, even if some. Even if they don't even thank you, you're going, I know Jesus will thank me. That's all that matters to me. I'm doing it for you, Lord. And finally living to please God.
[00:41:29] That's powerful.
[00:41:32] What are you living for? If you ask me, I'm going please him.
[00:41:36] My goal is to please him.
[00:41:39] My goal is to honor him with every head bowed this morning, I believe today, God this could be. I'm believing in God today to make this a defining moment in your life. Some of you are saying, wow, this is challenging me.
[00:41:55] How concerned are you about the people around you?
[00:42:00] How concerned are you about the eternal welfare of the people around you? Do you pray for them? Do you build relationship with them? Are you concerned about them?
[00:42:10] You know, we get caught up with this temporal life, and the next thing you know, it goes by so fast.
[00:42:17] And everybody you see one day will be an eternity.
[00:42:21] That's all that matters when you really get down to it. And I don't know about you, but as I get a little older, I get a deeper sense of urgency.
[00:42:28] There's a deeper sense of urgency. I only got so much time left.
[00:42:33] I want to bring as many people with me into God's presence as I possibly can do. That's where my heart is at God. I want to drag them kicking and screaming, whatever you want, I'm just going to bring them with me right to you. That's my goal.
[00:42:47] How many here say, you know, Pastor, today I want to have an encounter with God. Just raise your hand. I want a renewed encounter with God. You're a Christian, maybe I want a renewed encounter with God today. I want God to send fire into my soul. I want God's fire to burn inside of me. I want a passion for God to such a degree that now I have compassion for other people. My goal in life is to please God. My goal in life is to. Is to bring people into God's kingdom. My goal in life is to make disciples.
[00:43:19] That's my goal. I'm hearing the call of Christ. When you experience Christ, there's going to be a commission to you. The moment you experience the power of God, you're going to be commissioned to go listen to Isaiah.
[00:43:32] God says he cleansed them. And immediately God said, who will go for us? And Isaiah said, here, my Lord sent me.
[00:43:40] Or maybe you're here today and you're saying, you know, Pastor, I have never encountered Jesus.
[00:43:45] But, boy, when you talk about a transformed life, I'm interested.
[00:43:48] It'll Change everything. I didn't read. I didn't finish the sermon. But let me tell you something. If you come to Christ, the old is gone, the new comes.
[00:43:57] God is going to revamp your life in such a marvelous way. He's going to transform your heart.
[00:44:03] He's going to create within you a clean heart. Isn't that beautiful? And God himself will come and live inside of you.
[00:44:10] By his Spirit, you'll have the living God living inside of you. And you'll never be alone again.
[00:44:17] He's always with you. He'll never leave you.
[00:44:20] How powerful is that?
[00:44:23] So, Lord, I pray today.
[00:44:25] I pray today that people right now will respond to you.
[00:44:29] I pray today that they'll make decisions in their heart saying, you know what? I'm going for it. I'm going to give my heart to Christ today.
[00:44:35] Maybe some are in this room right now. They're saying, I'm going to give my life to Christ. I want to experience that transforming fire that will change me forever. Maybe there's someone here today. Maybe it could be young people, older people. They're saying, you know what? I'm wasting my time.
[00:44:50] I'm living a life that's got not a lot of value to it. But from this point on, God, I'm just giving you everything about my life. I want to be so effective, so fruitful, so important, empowered and so impassioned for others. Lord, I want you to do that work in me today.
[00:45:06] And I thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave.
