Stewardship Pt. 1 - Steward Your Life

[00:00:00] It's going to be a slightly quieter sermon than we're used to because I have no voice. [00:00:08] Now, I know right now some of you are thinking, now wait a minute, Jim got sick last week and you subbed for him, so why wasn't there reciprocity there? [00:00:20] And that just tells you everything you need to know about the difference between me and Jim. [00:00:28] No, I actually talked to Jim yesterday and he was prepped to step in for me. But as I prayed over it, we've got this very short series we're doing here in January and Jim wouldn't have had time to put together to speak to what we want to speak to this month. And I really do think God has something special for our church this month. So I figured, you know what? I'm good. I can lose my voice and just be totally quiet tomorrow. [00:00:56] That's probably a gift to my family, but this is good for us today. [00:01:02] So you're going to have to just bear with me while I sip on my tea and munch mince this whole time. But I think God has something for us today. We're going to be in Luke chapter 20 if you want to get ahead and turn there. But for the next three weeks we're going to be talking about stewardship. Now I'm just going to be upfront and say stewardship is probably not the most fun word in English, right? It's not the word that we necessarily get a lot of feel goods or excitement about. But for the Christ follower, stewardship is an incredibly important word. It's an incredibly important concept. You see, stewardship refers to the responsibility of taking care of someone or something that is not ultimately yours. [00:01:50] Like think of old monarchies, right? When a new king was too young to effectively rule, they would appoint a steward to rule the king's place until he came of age. You can set up stewarding financial accounts for your kids and manage their money till they grow up, right? Stewardship is about taking responsibility to take care of something not your own. [00:02:16] And guys, that is an incredibly important concept for believers because of a little verse in the 6th chapter of one corinthians that says this. He's actually talking about fighting temptation around sin. But Paul says this. Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. [00:02:45] So glorify God with your body. [00:02:48] Beloved, you don't belong to yourself. [00:02:52] That's a hard truth in our culture that really cares about individual autonomy, personal responsibility. But in Christ, in Christ, beloved, you are a new possession, you are his possession, and you are simply stewarding yourself until he returns and takes you home. [00:03:17] So, beloved, stewardship is vitally important to the Christian. Stewardship is a hallmark of the christian life. [00:03:25] So what does that mean, guys? What that means for us, what that means for what we're going to talk about this month, it means, to use a sports analogy, which you can all look at me and go, yeah, he's full of accurate sports analogies, but it means that in Christ's kingdom there's no bench, there are no bench warmers. You don't get to sit out and let other people do the work of the kingdom. [00:03:53] You don't get to sit to the side in Christ. [00:03:57] You're part of the kingdom. You're stewarding yourself, your life, your person unto him until he returns. None of us get to retire in the kingdom of God. [00:04:10] None of us get to sit out in the action of the advancing kingdom. If you are for Jesus, if you're for him, then you are for him. And guys, that takes all of you. For the last several hundred years, Christians have said it like this kind of slide. For this solidogloria, one of the solas of the reformation means glory to God alone, means this life, we live this life, we steward, we steward under Christ. [00:04:48] The purpose is Christ, the glory belongs to Christ. This is the heart cry of the believer, because Jesus loves us so well and has loved us so consistently that it's a joy. It is a joy and a privilege to form your life around him. So for the next three weeks, I'm going to try and get really practical, challenge you guys to invite one another for all of us, to wrap our lives around Jesus, to conform our lives, our plans, our money, our time, our skills to the kingdom of God and the glory of Christ. [00:05:28] And guys, you got to understand this. The most important aspect of this whole concept, this whole teaching is that I am not referring to some miserable obligation that you must do out of. [00:05:41] Yes, yes. To follow Christ really does, according to Jesus himself, really does take your all for you to give the whole of your life to the kingdom. But you must understand, this is what you were made for. [00:05:57] You were built for this life. You were made for kingdom life. Guys, the greatest joy we can experience, the deepest fulfillment we can experience as human beings is to live our lives as we were designed to live them. And we were designed to live them to the glory of God. Amen. [00:06:19] So that's where we're starting our series we're starting in here. [00:06:25] Your life, beloved, who's made in the image of God, who bears the stamp of the creator. Your life, beloved, is too important to waste it on the fleeting comforts and pleasures of this world. In this life. [00:06:43] Your life is too important for that. It's too precious to waste it on this world. Guys, the best that this life has to offer, the best things on earth. The best. Think of the richest, most successful, most content, most happy, most wealthy person you know. The best this world has to offer is simply too little for a son or daughter of the living God. [00:07:13] It's too little for someone made holy in his image and washed in the blood of his son. You were made for more than the rat race, than a nice car, than a big house, than a perfect family, than a great career, than all the subscription services and the vacations on the beach every spring. Those things are fine. I'm not telling you not to enjoy the life you have. But you must understand, they're cotton candy. [00:07:41] They're cotton candy. And the kids in the room are like, that sounds great. [00:07:47] They're cotton candy. And you were made for the four course dinner. [00:07:52] They're mostly air and all that's left beyond that is Sugar. But you, you were made for the feast. [00:08:01] Nothing wrong with cotton candy. But if you put a steak dinner over here and cotton candy over here, right, like, I think we all know what we're doing in that situation. [00:08:10] Beloved, you were made for the kingdom of God. And nothing less than the kingdom of God will satisfy your soul. [00:08:19] So, beloved, chase after him, chase after Christ with your all. And in that you will find real life life as you were meant to live. So with that, let's get into this text. We're in Luke 20. If you don't have a Bible with you today, we have ones around the room. Just look under the chairs in front of you can grab one. We really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Emmanuel. If you were here today and you don't have a bible, I would encourage you to take one of those. Or we have some, have some nicer ones on the table on the back. You can take one of those. We're in Luke, chapter 20, and we're starting in verse 20 says this. [00:09:04] They watched closely and sent spies who pretended to be righteous so they could catch him in what he said to hand him over to the government's rule and authority. They questioned him. Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly. You don't show partiality, but teach truthfully the way of God. So is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But detecting their craftiness, he said to them, show me a Daenerys. Whose image and inscription does it have? Caesar's. They said, well, then he told them, give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. They were not able to catch him in what he said in public. And being amazed at his answer, they became silent. And this, beloved, is the word of the Lord. [00:09:52] Pray with me, church father, we need you today. [00:09:57] We need you, holy spirit, to be our discipler. [00:10:02] Illuminate your text to us and God, especially for those of us who have been following you a long time, who have calloused our hearts to some of the weight of the call of discipleship. Holy spirit, I ask that you would graciously challenge us afresh. [00:10:19] Don't allow us the comfort of putting this off, of avoiding the invitation, the challenge you give us to live to your glory, convict us afresh. Invite us afresh to join you in your kingdom and join you in your work. We love you, Jesus. We pray these things in your name. Amen. [00:10:42] So what's going on in this text? [00:10:48] We're in what's called the Passion week. This is the last week leading up to Jesus'death. He has arrived in Jerusalem ahead of the annual pilgrimage Passover. Jesus'ministry at this point has grown so significantly, and he's publicly acknowledged his identity as Messiah. He's made a very public trek from Galilee in the north, where he lived, and ministered down to Jerusalem for this festival. And large crowds of common folk have gathered around him. [00:11:19] Now he's spending the week of the Passover festival preaching in the temple courts. Jesus has gathered huge crowds of people and they are exploring his claims as Messiah. But the religious leaders are not happy with this. They're very upset. They're seeking to get rid of Jesus. They're angry at him to the point of murder. They're plotting how they can get rid of Jesus and not just discredit him, but kill him. In the various factions of religious leaders, there were, think almost like the way we think of political parties. There were different parties within the larger jewish community. The pharisaical party, the sagisaical party, the herodian party. These different groups are even now coming together so they can plot against Jesus to get rid of them. They want him dead, but he has so much of a following, they don't feel like they can move against him without inciting a riot. So their strategy becomes these public confrontations where they send people out to where Jesus is teaching. He's gathered in the courts daily. He's preaching in front of the temple. And they have representatives of these various groups ask him these kind of challenging questions, these little theological traps they're setting up to try and get Jesus to show himself as a fraud. And this is where our text picks up. The religious leaders have sent plants into Jesus'audience. Some translations call them spies, but the essence of it is, these guys are pretending to be Jesus'actual audience, the common people who have come, who are exploring Jesus's claims of Messiah. They've planted fake audience members, and then they ask these kind of awkward, tricky questions, right? This is actually one of my favorite scenes in this larger narrative, because what happens is they kind of try and flatter Jesus, right? They start out going, oh, wow, you're so smart. You're so wise. You always know what the Bible says. And we, as the reader, right, like, we know they're being sarcastic. I mean, they believe that Jesus is a fraud and he's dangerous and he needs to die. But we also, as the reader, know the deeper layer to the onion that in what they believe to be this false flattery, they're actually speaking the truth about Jesus. Jesus does judge rightly. He does speak the words of God truthfully, and that's exactly what he does in this text. His response shows the truth of their flattery. They asked Jesus a question about paying taxes. [00:14:07] Now, this is a strange question. [00:14:10] I think we can all see how basically anyone would be curious about taxes, right? Like, no one likes paying taxes, and so. Okay, yeah, I can see how that might be a thorny question, but there's more to it than that in this context. You see, you have to remember, Israel is not free. They're roman subjects, right? They sit under a brutal tax burden. Wealthy areas like Jerusalem, where you have the more educated and those who own businesses and things, they might have sat under, like, a 35% to 40% tax burden. But folk in the poorer regions, like Galilee, where Jesus is from, where the majority of his followers are from, they are known to have been taxed upwards of 90% of everything they produced. So here you have Jesus, whose movement is built on the excitement of the common folk, who came from Galilee with an absolute mass of common folk waiting for him. What they're waiting for is for him to rise up and overthrow Rome, right? And he's teaching to this crowd that follows him in the temple in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the seat of roman power. In the region, with the roman governor on the other side of town and the roman military based house in the city, the place where there are regular crucifixions of political dissidents with this simple question. They actually really do put Jesus in a really hard place. [00:15:42] Will he denounce the unjust taxes and roman persecution and thus guarantee political retribution, but the continued loyalty of his followers? Or will he toe the party line and tell folk to submit to roman authority, avoiding political follow up, but ostracizing his followers? [00:16:05] This is embarrassing, and some of you are going to make fun of me for this, but it's fine. [00:16:12] It's kind of hard for me to not read this narrative like Jesus in the temple before Passover and not just think of these interactions as a rap battle. [00:16:24] This speaks to my own childhood, but I used to sit, unlike VH one, and watch the rap battles. [00:16:33] It's hard for me to not think of this. And so I was studying this text this week. All I could think of was super hot fire. I'm going to put a picture of him on the screen. And now I'm going to say this really quick because I get this critique a lot where some of the folk in the church who are older will go, you put like, memes and jokes up and I don't get them because you're younger than me. And look, I get it. I get it. If that's you in the room, I'm sorry, but can we just. There's fairness here because Jim preaches, and when he makes comments about tv shows and music, I have no idea what he's talking about. [00:17:11] That's two for two today, Jim. I'm really sorry. I got to buy him lunch or something this week. [00:17:17] So I'm thinking of super hot fire in a rap battle while I read this text. And if you don't know the videos of this, he has all his friends gathered around him and he gets in this rap battle, and when he makes his little comments, all his friends will go, oh, and they all go crazy when he says his lines. And that's admittedly some of where I'm at when I read this. But the tension of the setup here, honestly, guys, it makes Jesus'response all the better. [00:17:50] His response is that he asks for a Roman Daenerys. I've got a picture of one of those. This will hopefully make up for super hot fire. There it is, guys. These were silver coins that essentially in first century Rome, they represented a normal laborer's daily wage. One da Narius a day for a laborer. Someone hands one of these to Jesus, and Jesus says, whose image is on the coin? You can see the coin on one side has a picture of Emperor Tiberius. On the other side, it's a picture of his wife, the royal couple, right? [00:18:29] And Jesus gives this brilliantly simple answer. [00:18:35] Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. [00:18:39] It's his coin. It's got his face on it. You're choosing to use his coin. So if he demands it back, give back. [00:18:48] Dang. Now, if you're like me and you're in, like, the super hot fire mode, the pure spectacle of this moment of just, like, it can kind of cloud the amazing teaching. Is he back? Yeah, it can kind of cloud the amazing teaching that Jesus is making here. I mean, this is such a perfect mic drop moment. [00:19:16] The moment is so sweet when Jesus shoves their craftiness back in their face. I can get caught up in that victory and miss the actual teaching. But look what Jesus tags onto the end here, right? Jesus is not standing here in the courts just to push these guys'faces how dumb they are. He's here to teach about the kingdom of God. And so, even in his mic drop moment, he still is teaching the kingdom. Look what he actually says. Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and give to God the things that are God's. [00:19:51] So the coin, according to Christ, belongs to Caesar because it has his image on it. So if Caesar wants it, we should give it back. [00:20:03] But Jesus also says, give to God what belongs to him. [00:20:09] So what belongs to God? I mean, we think about the coin, it bears Caesar's image, so what bears God's image? [00:20:21] Oh, shoot. [00:20:23] That's you and me, right? [00:20:26] That's you and me. That's humanity. We are made uniquely amongst all the creation, with the image of God stamped upon us. We are made for him. We are his. [00:20:40] So, according to Jesus, just like we owe it to Caesar to give him his own coins when he wants them, we owe it to God to give him ourselves when he desires it. [00:20:54] And, beloved, if you're nothing else today, hear this. [00:21:00] God desires you. [00:21:02] He does. He wants you. He wants you to be his own. [00:21:08] Two, Peter three says that God desires for all people to come to him in repentance and experience eternal life with him. [00:21:18] God longs for intimacy and connection with you guys, that's nuts. [00:21:26] He doesn't need us. We don't add to him, we don't meet some need that God is lacking, but rather he is compassionate and loving and desires for his glory to be furthered by his love being spread to more and more of us by us living in our design and finding fulfillment and life with him. Yes, you were made for this. [00:21:52] You were formed and designed by God with a perfect eternity with him in mind. [00:22:01] Beloved, you were made for more than this life. [00:22:04] Think about the best this life has to offer you if you're really lucky. [00:22:11] 80 9100 years full of joys and full of sorrows. And guys, don't hear me belittling that. [00:22:20] I hope your life is long and fulfilling, but put that next to your design. [00:22:26] You weren't designed with 80 or 90 years in mind. [00:22:30] You were designed with countless endless trillions in mind. [00:22:37] You were designed with eternity in mind. [00:22:42] And guys, that's not just your original design. That's not just Genesis one. Although we do see in Genesis one that this was the plan from the beginning. [00:22:52] But we can start with the design and then we can see it even more clearly in Christ himself. You see, your design bent toward God was ruined by sin and the curse. [00:23:07] But Jesus, Jesus restores what our sin and rebellion breaks. Guys, when sin entered the world, God's good and perfect design for your forever was completely ruined. [00:23:19] But God's just not content to give sin the final word in his creation. Enter Jesus. Jesus is fully God and fully man. God enters into his sinful and ruined creation and he lived the perfect, sinless life that we were actually designed to live. But then he still died the sinner's death that we earn with our rebellion. And because of his righteousness, Jesus earned the eternity that we were built for and the power of the Holy Spirit rose him from the dead and he ascended from heaven from which he'll return and restore all things. [00:23:54] By both his perfect life and his completed work, Jesus made a way for us to put our sins on his back and his righteousness on ours. We can exchange our earned sinner's death for his earned, righteous eternity. [00:24:15] Beloved, Jesus'work on your behalf is sufficient. [00:24:22] Amen. [00:24:24] Do we believe that is true? [00:24:28] As Jesus came to earth to save sinners, of which you and I are the foremost? [00:24:34] Beloved, that gospel means something. [00:24:39] It means something that changes things. If that reflects reality and that is important. [00:24:48] You don't get to just enjoy Jesus as savior and enjoy all his good gifts and have nothing else. [00:24:58] You must also submit to him as your lord, as your king. [00:25:03] This is actually a big part of my own testimony. [00:25:06] I grew up. I grew up in church. I grew up in a godly christian home. And one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me is that I literally I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't believe that Jesus was who he said he was, that he was God, that he died for my sins. He was a kid. I didn't want to go to hell. And the gift of Jesus sounded awesome. [00:25:28] But the gospel also requires our submission to the lordship of Christ. [00:25:34] That was hard for me. Hard for me. I knew that in my head. [00:25:39] But it took me a while. Took me a while to move beyond. Wow, Jesus sounds really nice to. Oh, Jesus is my king. [00:25:49] To been my knee to him. [00:25:52] Took me a while to figure that part out. [00:25:55] If you're a kid in this room today, don't miss that invitation. [00:26:01] Don't miss that, guys. [00:26:04] You may know the right words and the right truths. You may know the amazing gospel story. I certainly hope so. I hope you do. Praise the Lord that your families, your parents, I pretty much know all of them. And our wonderful treehouse leaders teach you guys the gospel story all the time. And I bet if we were sitting, hanging out, I could quiz you and you could tell me most of the story. But, kids, don't miss this. Don't miss this. [00:26:28] You have to choose to bow your knee down to king Jesus. [00:26:34] He gets to be your boss and my boss and our boss. And until we believe that in our hearts that Jesus saves us from our sin and we confess with our mouths, he is our king. We don't have the whole gospel. [00:26:51] And by the way, that isn't just for the kids in the room. That's for all of us, right? That's for all of us. Beloved, Jesus loves you more than you can describe with english words. [00:27:03] Our language falls short of the love of Christ, but he is also your king. [00:27:10] He is God. [00:27:12] He is the Lord of reality. He holds the stars in the heavens. He sustains your life. Your heart is beating right now because Jesus said, do that again. [00:27:24] Do that again. [00:27:26] He sustains your life. He's your lord and your king. [00:27:31] So go back. Let's back up to where we started today. One corinthians six. [00:27:38] You are not your own. [00:27:41] You are not your own. You were bought with a price. [00:27:46] Glorify God with your body, beloved, you belong to Christ. [00:27:53] You're not just made in his image, although you are. [00:27:57] If you're a follower of Jesus, that means you were bought with the blood of Jesus. You belong to him. [00:28:05] You know the story, the minor prophet Hosea, the one who married the prostitute? Yeah, I should have had that on tap. [00:28:16] You know the story of the prophet Hosea married a prostitute and she left him and ran away and went back to her prostitution. And she was being sold at auction as a sex slave. And he showed up and bought her back. Now, he didn't have to legally, by the way. I think she was his wife. He had legal rights. But he shows up and he pays the price, and he takes her back and he says, you are mine. You don't get to do this anymore. You're coming home. You're staying with me. You are my love, beloved. You were bought with the blood of Christ. You are not your own. You are not your own. [00:28:57] So what does that mean? [00:29:00] How is this not some weird obligation, guilt centered religiosity that I'm talking to? Well, here's the thing, guys. [00:29:09] This is talking about an obligation. It is. You are obligated to Christ. [00:29:16] Render yourself unto him. [00:29:19] Now, it's not this sorrowful, compulsory, guilt driven kind of obligation, and I promise you it's not. Let me explain it to you. If you're in the room and you're married, a bunch of us are. I've got news for you. Guess what? You're obligated to your spouse, right? [00:29:40] But, man, it's actually a wonderful way to live, isn't it? It's actually a beautiful thing. If you are a parent. If you have kids, guess what? [00:29:50] You are obligated to them. [00:29:53] But it's also a beautiful and fulfilling way to live life. It's worth it. Even though it costs you, even though it bear. It puts burdens in your life. It's wonderful. It's worth it. And those of us who've given ourselves to those kind of greater, larger, beautiful obligations, we go, oh, I wouldn't trade that. Oh, yeah, it's really hard. I wouldn't trade that. It's wonderful. So when I tell you that you're obligated to Christ, this is not some deep burden that forces you to live a life with no fun, right? It's not as if I'm saying, oh, you love Jesus. Well, just have a miserable life, then. Don't do anything you like ever again. That's not what we're talking about. [00:30:35] Quite the opposite. Your obligation to Christ is to live as you were built to live. [00:30:43] It is to bend yourselves toward Christ in his kingdom. It is to put the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom above all else in life, which, by the way, you were made to do. [00:30:59] The kingdom of God is an obligation. But, guys, the obligation we're talking about is simply you living into your actual design. [00:31:08] It's the most fulfilling joyful way you can possibly live. [00:31:13] So as we get ready to land this out today, we ask the question, what does this mean practically? [00:31:19] How does one steward their life toward the kingdom? Practically. And guys, at this point, I'm still speaking pretty broadly, right? So the next two weeks, we're going to try and zone in and get pretty specific. We'll talk about what it looks like to steward your money and your time and your skills. But today, as we start this out, let's ask a broader question. [00:31:45] How do you aim the trajectory of your life, the 70, 80, 9000 years you get? [00:31:53] How do you direct them toward the kingdom? [00:31:57] I'm going to give you four thoughts and then we'll land out. [00:32:02] First one is this, give yourself fully to a local church. [00:32:08] Give yourself over to a local church. Guys, don't. And by the way, doesn't have to be IFC. I hope it is. [00:32:15] Doesn't have to be, but find a local church that faithfully preaches the Bible and preaches the real gospel to the lost and then jump in. [00:32:25] Like, that's one of the most practical ways that you can aim the trajectory of your life toward the kingdom of God is to plug yourself into the family of God. Show up and jump in. Like, one of the most concrete things you can do right now is look at your current relationship with church life and go, am I all in? Do I prioritize this in my life, my schedule and my time? [00:32:50] If not, do that, show up, come hang out, look at what your church is doing to advance the gospel, to encourage one another to grow in faithfulness and holiness and participate in it. Bring your kids to church. Invite your friends and family to come to church with you. Prioritize church life and the means of grace into your schedule. And guys, listen, you got to understand, right? Like, I got four kids. [00:33:18] I understand what I'm saying when I say, like, that means sacrifice. [00:33:23] That means living a life different than this world lives. [00:33:27] It means prioritizing your time in different ways than our culture expects you to prioritize your time. It does. [00:33:37] It means your kids will grow up kind of weird. It's true. Like, church brats in the room, can we affirm that? Grew up in church kind of weird? Yeah, kind of weird. I don't know what you're talking about, but it's one of the most practical ways you can say, I'm about the kingdom, my life's about the kingdom. You can tell when you look at my calendar because I've plugged myself into the kingdom family. I'm giving myself over to what God is doing in my brothers and sisters'lives. [00:34:08] Number two, be a know. Jesus said, peacemakers will be called sons of God. [00:34:16] The reason they get such high praise is because peace is insanely hard. [00:34:21] Being a pacemaker means being the kind of person who is committed to confession, repentance and reconciliation, and doing that on repeat, just ad nauseam. Confess, repent, reconcile. Because we live in a day and a time in a culture that sees essentially all relationships as disposable, even the ones that a generation ago were considered the most intimate and unbreakable and permanent. We live in a day and a time now that says, hey, look, if that person is toxic and they violate your boundaries, get them the heck out of here. Yeah, you don't need that noise in your life. [00:35:04] And so we take family relationships and marriage and church relationships and friendships and we treat them as disposable. But beloved, that is simply not true. [00:35:16] Reject that hellish lie and look at the people around you, especially here, this church, your brothers and sisters in Christ. [00:35:27] How easy is it? How easy is it in the world we live in to get your feelings hurt at church and just go, that's not worth it. I'm leaving. [00:35:37] That's not worth it. I don't like it. That's too awkward. That person hurt me. I'm Gonezo. There's plenty of gospel preaching churches around here. I don't need to deal with this noise in my life. I have unfortunate news for you. If you feel awkward around that person, that brother or sister in Christ who hurt you, who sinned against you, you're going to hang out with them for eternity. [00:35:59] Just because you get mad and leave this church for the next 30 years and go to a different church, man, it's not like you're going to get to heaven and Jesus will go, well, I know you guys have a thing, so I'll put you over here and you over. No, guys, relationships are not disposable. They're precious. They're precious. [00:36:18] What if we actually committed to treat people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, like we were going to spend eternity with them? [00:36:25] What would that push you to? That would push you to go, oh, man, I got to get into the habit of confessing and repenting and reconciling. [00:36:35] Be a peacemaker. Number three, see the world as mission beloved. Don't miss me on this. You are the missionary. [00:36:45] Yesterday, Kim and I were at a birthday party for some of our kids friends and we got to hang out with some retired IMB missionaries and it was such. I had such a cool conversation. These were folk who had given their whole professional life from their 20s into their sixty s in China. And at one point, I just said, hey, thank you so much. Thank you so much for serving such a beautiful calling. And the husband just looks at me and goes, that's not different than your calling. Thank you for serving. And he wasn't referring to me as a pastor. He actually didn't know as a pastor yet. At that point in the conversation, he was just referring to me as a brother in Christ. Beloved, you are the missionary. You are the missionary. If you want the lost people in your life to come to know Jesus, take initiative and talk to them about Jesus. [00:37:31] If you want the lost people in your life to love Jesus like you love him, invite them to talk to them about how much you love Jesus. Can I get really in our kitchens for a second here? Your kids, your in laws, your grandkids, your friends, your co workers, your neighbors, God put you in their life. [00:37:54] The kingdom of God is really the most important thing in your life. You should talk about it. [00:38:01] We talk about stuff we like. [00:38:04] You want to know. That's true. Like, wait till you find a show on Netflix you like, you know that show that just catches you and you binge it with your spouse in, like, three days? What are all your conversations going to be about for the next three weeks? [00:38:16] We talk about what we like. Beloved. [00:38:20] And if the kingdom of God is important to you, not just important, if it's the singular most important thing in your life that you've built your whole life and schedule around, we should talk about it. [00:38:33] And, guys, I'm just here to tell you that just isn't as scary as the world tells you it is. And this is speaking as, like, the introvert who doesn't like to talk on the phone, much less talk to strangers or family and friends about intimate things. Right? Like, it just isn't as scary as you've convinced yourself. It is the people in your life who know you, who love you. I'm here to tell you this. They want to know about you. That's why they're in relationship with you. And if Jesus is the most important thing in your life, that's something they want to know about you. [00:39:09] So talk about it. [00:39:12] Let me get, like, this is probably one of the most practical applications I'll have today, but let me put this out here. If you're in this room and you're a parent or a grandparent, can I just give you a challenge? [00:39:24] Hang out hang out with one of your kids or your grandkids and just tell them your testimony. Grandparents in the room, take your grandkid out for breakfast. I guarantee your kids will be happy you did right. [00:39:41] Grab your grandkid, go buy him some donuts. Go buy him an omelet. Take him to a diner, and just say, if I ever told you my story and tell them your testimony, they're your grandkids, they're eating donuts. They're captive audience. It's easy. [00:39:57] Parents, do your kids know your testimony? I mean, not obviously. They see you living your life, right? But have you ever sat with your kids and just said, have I ever told you my story? Ever told you my deal? [00:40:12] Even if you're parenting adult kids and take your kids out for a drink. [00:40:17] Hey, let me tell you my story. I don't think I've ever shared that with you before. Share your testimony because it's just not as scary as you think it is. And I'm here to tell you, you were the missionary in that person's life. Number four. Last one, guys. If you want to bend your life, if you want to wrap your life around Christ, set a trajectory for your life that points you toward the kingdom. Man. What if you prayed like you actually believed the gospel was true? [00:40:45] And that's, like, a blunt way to say it, but I want to say it that way. Is the gospel real? [00:40:52] Is it true? [00:40:54] Is Christ actually the king of eternity? [00:40:59] Is he actually God? [00:41:01] Well, guess what? [00:41:03] You can talk to him every day about anything you want. [00:41:07] You can talk to the king of reality every day about anything you want. So talk to him. Talk to him like you believe that's actually true. Talk to him often. Ask him to move in your life and move in this world. Join with your church, with your brothers and sisters in praying in faith for the kingdom to advance. [00:41:30] Carol shared this amazing testimony about our brothers and sisters in Colombia and how they pray, walk, and prepare for these trips. They do all this work of spending time praying over their community, asking God to move. And what we do is we get on a plane and we fly down there after three, four, six months of preparatory prayer and petition, and we just get to see the fruit born, and then we come back and we go. And that was amazing. I saw God move in such powerful. [00:41:57] It's just that doesn't really work in our context. People don't like it when you knock on the door in America. And so, man, it's so cool that we got to see God move that way down there. I wish we could see it up here, but we can't. And here's the deal, guys. Yeah, it's a different culture in Colombia, and the hospitality culture is different. But I'm here to tell you something. [00:42:16] If you prayed boldly in faith for six months for God to move in your community alongside the rest of your church, prayer, walking, petitioning the Lord, bringing names and faces and people you love before the Lord, asking for him to move, I'm pretty sure you'd be surprised what you'd see happen in your community. [00:42:34] I'm pretty sure it's not as different from Columbia as you think, which, by the way, we're going to do that. We're going to do some prayer walks this year and begin to pray for God to move in our midst. [00:42:46] Band, if you want to come up, we're going to close out. I've talked too long. [00:42:51] Let me give you guys this thought as we land this out. [00:42:55] Guys, the stakes could not be higher for what we're talking about here. [00:43:01] Wrapping your life around Jesus is a real ask. It's a real ask, and it has real consequences on how you choose to live your life. Guys, there's a reason the Bible tells us the gospel is a stent to those who are perishing. Because the kingdom life is not like a worldly life. It's strange. It is thought foolish. Hear this, church, you will be thought foolish if you pursue the kingdom. [00:43:30] You will be thought to be wasting your life. [00:43:33] Because the financial decisions that kingdom people make are different than the financial decisions the world makes. The relational decisions that kingdom people make are different than the relational decisions the world makes. Career decisions that kingdom people make are different than the world. You go down the list of all these things that are so important in our time, in our day, who you marry, how you spend your time, how you spend your money, how comfortable you are, how much like self care and mental health, you like all those things. And by the way, none of those things are bad. [00:44:08] None of those things are bad. [00:44:11] But when your passion and your priority is let me make my 80 or 90 as good as I can make them, you're going to make those decisions differently. [00:44:23] If your end goal is an 80 or 90 that was as comfortable as possible, you're going to look at those things different than if you're sitting back going, I was made for forever. [00:44:37] I can have the worst life this world has to offer. And it's a light and momentary affliction next to the weight of glory of eternity with my God and my savior. [00:44:46] It's a different kind of life, guys. And it's weird. It's weird, but it matters. [00:44:56] You must decide if you believe the gospel. If you do, then Christ is your king, and his glory and his kingdom are your core priority. It must change your life. And guys, this is not me trying to guilt you or coerce you into some kind of obligation. [00:45:12] This is because if the gospel is true and Jesus is king, then you acknowledge. This is why you are actually made. [00:45:19] Your joy and your purpose are found in the kingdom things. [00:45:23] Hear that, church? Your fulfillment is found in kingdom things, not the things of this world, even the good things of this world. [00:45:33] I'm going to land us with some words from Jesus. He said it very starkly, but I also think deeply. Hopefully. [00:45:41] Mark 80 said, if anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. [00:45:50] For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life because of me and my gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? [00:46:06] What could anyone give in exchange for his life? [00:46:10] Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, son of man, will also be ashamed of him when he comes to the glory of his father with his angels. Beloved, what does this world possibly have to offer you? This is somehow more fulfilling than Christ and the forever that you were made for, the life you were made for, what pleasure, what comfort, what success, what relationship, what career, what dream is somehow worth more than you're forever with Christ, the one he made you for, the one he saved you for. Don't miss him, beloved. [00:46:53] Don't miss him. [00:46:55] Wrap your life around him. Steward your life toward him. You won't regret it. [00:47:02] Take a few minutes to pray. [00:47:04] Come to Christ to consider. Pray. [00:47:07] And then we'll take communion together. Water our time response close.