Amen. Take your Bibles, if you will,
and turn to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17.
That'll make you want to get up here and preach.
That was going to be a short message, but I don't know if
it's going to be. Now, I don't ever say that.
I, I don't ever say it's going to be a short message because as
soon as I say that it's going to be long and then everybody turns
it off after the short part is over.
And I don't, I don't like to get to that point.
But boy, we had a great Bible conference.
And I know it was a couple weeks ago now I've wanted to preach a
follow up message to that. But last week was our friend day
and next week is Easter. The following week is going to
be our missions emphasis. And so, you know, this is the
only chance I really have to give you a follow up message
that that follows up our conference.
I haven't. I have another message that
God's laid on my heart that I'm working on and developing and I
think. It'll be helpful for us as well.
I'm going to preach that soon, but you have a.
Conference where God speaks to your heart and where you know
you're you, you made some decisions and you you know that
you need to make some changes maybe or, or some of the things
that you're already doing, you need to shore up.
Where do you go from here? How do you take steps forward
after you've made a decision for Christ?
And I think right along with this, this, this passage here in
Acts chapter 17, we're going to get there in just a minute.
And I would, I would recommend maybe putting a ribbon or a
bookmark in there. We're going to come back to it.
We're going to jump around a little bit in the Bible this
morning. But you know, throughout
history, there's, there's been people who who have set out to
change the world. Most people want to make the
world a better place, whatever that means.
You know, that's not always the case, but you know, you have
terrorists, you're trying to rule the world by fear of the
next explosion or the next catastrophe, and they want to
change the world in that way. But you know, some people will
try to change the world by destroying computers and hacking
into systems and doing all those things.
I always. Thought, you know, if those guys
would actually use the knowledge that they have to do that for
something good, they could probably be multi millionaires,
if not billionaires. You know why people want to do
that? I don't have any idea.
But if you were to ask a kid or maybe even a young adult what
they want to do with their life, the answer would always be or
mostly would be that they want to do something that changes the
world. I want to change the world and
you know. Sometimes it could be they want
to come up with the greatest invention or they want to find
the cure for cancer or this or that.
I want to change the world. They want to be the one that
that, you know, drives innovation or, or comes up with
some kind of program computer wise or technology that that
just that just drives the world forward and changes the world.
I mean, you think about, you know, the invention of cars and
how it changed the world, the invention of airplanes and how
it changed the world. And, you know, lots of different
inventions that that people came up with the light bulb that just
that changed the world. And I actually heard, you know,
sometimes it doesn't always go as planned.
That was the case with the founder of of Segway.
Anybody ever ridden a Segway? OK, there's one.
See, I, I have not. But you know, the, the guy that
founded Segway was actually a, a pretty well known inventor.
And I forget some of the things that he had invented, but
they're things that we use a lot of.
And so everybody was excited about this next new invention
that he was working on. He touted this thing, this is
going to be the invention that changes the world.
And for months and months, in fact, maybe even a couple years,
he was, he kind of hid himself away while he was working on
this invention. And he came out with the Segway.
And I suppose it had the potential really to change the
way that people travel around, especially in cities and
everything else. But it just never really took
off. And I think, I think it really
hit a road bump, Jimmy hit Heselton.
He was actually the, he wasn't the inventor, but he was the
owner of the Segway company. And I don't know if you heard
about this because I think it was back in maybe 2010, 2012,
something like that. He lived in England and he was
riding a Segway and he rode right off the edge of a Cliff
and died on his Segway. That was not very good.
Not not very good advertisement for the company, but anyway.
You know, everybody wants to, to change the world.
Everybody wants to make an impact on the world.
And as we, as we read this passage here in Acts chapter 17
this morning, you can see that there's a, there's a totally
different idea about what changing their world meant and
what a lot of people mean when they say that they want to
change the world. There's a difference between
those two things, many people. You know that, you know, say
they mean that they want to make it easier, make it an easier
place to live or develop things that will make everyone's life
easier. Whatever, whatever they say,
when they say they want to change the world, some, some
might even say that they want to make the world a better place,
whatever that means when they say that.
But what most folks mean by changing the world is they want
to have a global impact. They want to do something that's
going to make an impact on the entire world.
Everybody is going to know their name.
Everybody is going to use their invention.
Everybody's going to benefit from what they did and they
changed the world. But how do you make that happen?
Everything you do has a ripple effect, starting with your your,
your own family, your wife, your kids, your friends, your
coworkers, and it and it goes out from there.
And that's that's not simple fantasy.
I believe that we can change the world.
Look what these men did in Thessalonica in Acts chapter 17
and verse #1 now when they had passed through.
And excuse me, Amphibolis, in Apollonia they came to
Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews.
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them.
And three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures,
opening, and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered
and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I
preach unto you, is Christ. Now this is.
This is what's known as Palm Sunday.
This is the day that that they laid the poems down and Jesus
rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and and they were
crying Hosanna in the highest. This is Jesus Christ.
Didn't take long for that to change.
A week later, they crucified him and.
For months and years after that, there was a lot of people who
didn't even believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
In fact, that's that's what I mean.
That's what the Jews still believe today, right?
And that's one of the reasons they crucified him.
But Paul was going into these synagogues and he's saying Jesus
Christ had to suffer and he had to die, but he had to raise
again from the dead. And he was, he was, he was not
arguing with them, but debating with them and discussing these
things with them. Verse #4 the Bible says.
And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas,
and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief
women not a few. But the Jews, which believe not,
moved with envy, took under them certain lewd fellows of the base
resort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an
uproar, and assaulted the House of Jason, and sought to bring
them out to the people. And when they found them not,
they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the
city, crying. These that have turned the world
upside down are come, hit her also, whom Jason hath received.
And these all due contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying
that there is another king, one Jesus.
And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they
heard these things. And when they had taken security
of Jason and of the other, they let them go.
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by
night unto Berea, who coming through there went into the
synagogue of the Jews. Now they were not going to be
stopped, right? They, they go into the
synagogue, they preach and they teach Jesus that they, they turn
the world upside down and they brought these guys out.
They beat them and they said, all right, you guys need to
leave, get out of here in secret before they beat you too.
And they left and they went to another city.
I didn't, they didn't hide their light under the bushel.
They didn't say, wow, that was a little close call and we're
going back home. They went right back into the
synagogue and they started preaching Jesus.
But having a global impact starts with small steps.
You don't say I'm going to change the world or I'm going to
impact the world for Christ and tomorrow it's done.
But I think if I were to ask you to raise your hand, I think
every one of you would raise your hand and you say, I want to
make an impact on this world for Christ.
How does that happen? How do you, how do you start
that process? Because you can't just say I
want to make an impact on the world and tomorrow you've made
an impact on the world. You got this.
You have to start somewhere and I and I think things like our
Bible conference that we just had is a is a great start.
It pushes us in that direction. We start being convicted about
things that we need to change that are going to help us to
reach this world for Christ, that are going to help us make
an impact on this world for Christ.
There's a number of steps that I want to look at this morning
that'll help us to view this idea of changing the world the
right way. We want to impact this world for
Jesus Christ. That's that's the only thing
that's going to matter. One of these days.
We're going to stand before God and he's not going to ask you,
did you cure cancer? Did you come up with the next
greatest invention? Did you did you help the world
become a better place to live? He's going to say, what did you?
Do for me, what did you do that made an impact on the world for
Christ? It's pretty much impossible for
one person to change the world, but every one of us has the
potential to impact our world. We can impact the world that we
live in here. I may never be able to do
anything in Africa. I've never been there.
I may never be able to do anything in in in Mongolia or in
some of the other places around the world.
I've never been there. But I can impact my world.
I can make an impact on the world that God has placed me in.
And maybe there'll be a ripple effect that'll.
Spread out and it'll affect somebody else who will affect
somebody else and we can change
the. World for the cause of Christ.
But I want to look at that thought this morning.
I have 8 things and they're pretty short.
Don't panic. You have lunch right after this,
all right? Lunch is right after this so I
can go till one O clock. And you'll be fine.
That's about the time you'd get home for lunch anyway.
Change your world. That's the that's the thought
that I want to talk about this morning.
How do we make that happen? Let's pray.
We'll look at a few things this morning.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
We thank you for the opportunity we have to be here together this
morning may be a help. Now you give us a greater desire
to impact the world that you've placed us in for the cause of
Jesus Christ. And may this be a help to get us
to that point. Thank you again for all you do
for us in Jesus name, Amen. Number one, I want you to see
this. Examine yourself, examine
yourself. Keep your finger there in Acts
chapter 17, but let's go to Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians, Chapter 3. When I say examine yourself,
what I'm saying is that if you want to change the world, you
have to start with yourself. You have to start with yourself
if you were looking to make an impact for Christ, Number one,
you've got to know Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior.
How are you going to make an impact for Christ?
How are you going to tell somebody else how they can go to
heaven? How are you going to tell
somebody else how they can have their sins forgiven if you don't
even know that your sins are forgiven yourself?
Of course, that's the first place to start, but that starts
also with studying yourself. The devil is going to use your
weaknesses to get you to be ineffective for Jesus Christ.
And I I I. I, I'm not going to say it too
many more times, but I know when you have a Bible conference in
and God points things out to you in your life and you say, wow,
this is a weakness of mine. I need to change this.
This is something that I need to do better or this is something
that I, I really need to get a handle on if I'm going to really
make an impact for Christ. You need to study what your
weaknesses are because I can promise you this, the devil has
already done that and he knows what your weaknesses are and
he's going to attack them and he's going to pound them and
he's going to hammer on them. And if he can get you to fall in
that weak point, then he's made you ineffective for Christ.
The reason he's so effective at that is because many people just
don't realize what their weaknesses are, or they ignore
their. Weaknesses.
They just they know they have a problem with this or that so
they just pretend it doesn't exist or they accept the fact
that that's just the way that it's going to be.
That's who I am and that's how I guess I'm probably always going
to be Philippians chapter 3 and verse #12 Paul says not as
though I had already attained either were already perfect, but
I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I
am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Paul is saying I know that I've
not arrived. I know that I have more to do
and I'm not. I'm not looking at life as if
I've already attained everything that needs to be attained.
I know I'm not perfect. I know I have weaknesses.
I know I have shortcomings and he's willing to work on them.
I'm pressing toward the mark for the prize.
Of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Turn over to Revelation Chapter 3.
See, to to be self critical is absolutely imperative if you
want to influence the world around you.
And I know that goes, that goes totally opposite of what the
world is telling you today. You need to be your own best
friend and you need to love yourself and you need to do all
of these things for yourself. And in some cases, you know,
it's, it's I mean, it's not, it's not that you can't ever do
something that you enjoy doing. I'm not saying that you can't do
that. I'm not saying that, you know,
that you should, you know, go kill yourself or something.
Like, I'm not saying that at all.
But what I'm saying is we need to be critical of ourselves far
too often. We're way too easy on us.
You know, think about how hard you would be on somebody else
and how easy we are on ourselves and how much of A pass we give
ourselves many times. What are your weaknesses?
Work on them. What are your strengths?
Work on those and shore them up right.
Figure it out. You've got to know yourself.
Revelation chapter 3 and verse #2 Be watchful and strengthen
the things which remain that are ready to die.
For I have not found thy works perfect before God.
What stirs you into action? Nobody can be in your head
except you, right? But but many times people are
not going to be as critical as you need to be on yourself.
But you have to be honest with yourself.
Don't give yourself a pass that you wouldn't give somebody else
a pass on. Be your own worst critic.
I don't pray enough. I don't read my Bible enough.
I don't witness enough. I don't give enough when it
comes. I'm my own worst.
Critic, you know, you probably have a long list of things that
you see that are wrong with me that you don't like or, or
different things that you wish I would do differently or whatever
else. I can promise you this, my list
of of the things that I'm working on and the list of the
things that I don't like about where I'm at, it's.
Probably twice as long as yours is.
We ought to be our own worst critic.
We ought to know where our weaknesses are.
And if you don't know what your weaknesses are, you're going to
fall, right? I mean, it's if you if you think
about a a chair that's sitting there and somebody saw it almost
all the way through one of the legs and you look at it and
you're like, yeah, it's it's still there.
It'll be fine. You second, you sit down and
it's probably going to break and it's going to crack and you're
going to fall, right? Because you just ignored the
problem that was there. Everybody else can see it, but
you gave yourself a pass. It'll be all right, right.
And we do that with ourselves so many times, right?
Well, I know that this is a problem.
I know that I've got an issue with those things.
But you know, I'm, I'm, I'm all right compared to that person.
Look at him. Look at them.
Look at that church, right? And we compare ourselves with
ourselves. We should be comparing ourselves
to Christ and, and comparing ourselves to the holiness of
God. And when we look at ourselves in
the light of God's holiness, we fall far short.
The hardest we could be on ourselves would still be far
less than what we should be on ourselves.
You know, the list goes on. Don't beat yourself up, but be
honest. Paul said this.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief Paul. This is the great apostle Paul.
And Paul didn't say. Yeah, I mean, compared to most
everybody else. Look at me.
I mean, I know I'm not, I'm not perfect in everything, but I'm
pretty close to it, right? You read the Apostle Paul's life
and he was very honest with himself.
He was very honest before God. How?
How can you, as the apostle Paul, say I'm the chiefest of
all sinners? How do you say that?
Because you, you see yourself for who you really are in the
light of God's holiness. And the closer you get to God
and the more magnified God becomes in your life, and the
more powerful you see God and the bigger you see God in your
life, the smaller you see yourself and the more sinful you
see yourself. Oh, wretched man, that I am all
right. Was it John Newton that that
wrote the words to the song that that he would come to save?
What's the just I just lost save a Wretch?
Like me? Why did I, why did I forget
that? But that wasn't, that wasn't the
one that I was thinking of, He said to save a Wretch like me.
But he called himself a worm, right?
What's the phrase that I'm trying to think of before I go
crazy? For such a worm as I, right?
How can you say that? Because you know who you are in
the light of God's holiness? And I'm not comparing myself to
somebody else. I'm comparing myself to God.
And if I want to make an impact on this world, I've got to start
with me, and I've got to understand that I've got to
improve the areas that need to be improved.
I've got to fix the things that need to be fixed.
A man that is fully aware of his capabilities can then use those
for God's service. And a man that is fully aware of
his incapabilities can fix those things so that they can be.
Used in God's service to change your world, you must examine
yourself but #2 engage the right people surround yourself with
other people who are going in the same direction that's.
One of the reasons you're here this morning, whatever your
vision, whatever your plan, 2 heads are always better than one
when it comes to those things. And two people get together and
you, you get somebody else to catch a hold of that vision and
you can accomplish a lot together.
When it comes to winning souls and serving God, you're much
more likely to stay on course if you if the others around you are
interested in the same things. If it's just you every Saturday
morning showing up to go out knocking on doors and telling
other people about Christ, you're probably not going to do
it for very long if you're the only one that ever does it.
But if you come out here and there's 1015, twenty, 30-40
other people that are doing that every Saturday with you, you're
much more likely to show up and, and keep going because you get
excited about it, because there's a lot of other people
who are excited about it and they're going in the same
direction. But that's why it's so
imperative that you don't skip church.
That's why it's so imperative that you stay away from the
people, the movies, the television, and other things
that could sway your mind and heart away from serving God.
Whether you think it's so or not, or whether you realize it
or not, your companions are going to influence your
decisions. The things that you watch on
television are going to influence your decisions.
The music that you listen to is going to influence your
decisions. The people you hang out with are
going to influence your decisions.
And you may think, no, I'm stronger than I can handle that,
but I promise you they are making an impact on you.
And when you put yourself around people who are stronger than you
are, and when you put yourself around people who have a great
desire to live for the Lord, it's going to encourage you to
keep doing that same exact thing.
You put yourself around all the people who are weaker than you
are. You put yourself around people
who have no desire to live for the Lord.
It's not going to be long before you are in that exact same boat.
At the very least, you're not going to accomplish what you
could be accomplishing for God. Turn over to Philippians chapter
2. See, what we're doing in this
church is so important. It's so important that we all be
on the same page and have the same desire to win souls and to
serve God. It's so important that we be a
group of like minded individuals.
In fact, it's not just important, it's commanded in the
Bible, Romans chapter 15 and verse #5 Now the God of patience
and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another
according to Christ Jesus. Philippians chapter 2, you're
there. Look at verse #2 fulfill ye my
joy that ye be like minded. Having the same love, being of 1
accord of one mind. You ought to put yourself in a
place where everybody else is of the same mind and going in the
same direction. You want to be encouraged to
keep living for the Lord. Do it with a bunch of other
people. Boy, I, I mean, I mean, I can't
miss church or you'll know that I'm not here.
But you have the choice. The only person that has to be
here is me and my wife and kids. They don't have a choice either.
But you could, you could have chose to be anywhere this
morning, right? You could have chose to go
anywhere this morning. You could have chose to stay
home this morning if you wanted to.
But you made the choice to get up and come because you knew
that there was a lot of other people that are going in the
same direction that you are that are going to be here this
morning that are, that are going to be having a desire to sing
praises to the Lord and that are going to have a desire to
worship him together. And so you came and that's
that's why we do it. I watched the video clip.
It's it's been a couple years ago since I saw it now, but
there's it was some guy and I don't even it was actually, it
wasn't just a video clip of of music playing, but this it was,
it was actually somebody in the background kind of saying, hey,
this is this is look what's happening here.
This guy was there was it was some kind of music festival or
something like that. I don't know.
There's a big stage that was way off in the distance and
everybody was kind of sitting on this like grassy hill.
I guess there was no seats. It was just a grassy hill.
And the music's playing in the background.
And this guy by himself dancing just like, you know, just just
like a nut. I mean, only guy out there.
And and you can hear, you know, people are videoing, you know,
it's, it's just a video camera, I mean, a cell phone camera and
and somebody's video. I mean, you can hear him
laughing in the background. And look at this guy.
I mean, he was making a fool out of himself.
He really was. I mean, he was dancing around
and doing all this stuff. The next thing you know?
Another guy goes running over there and starts doing the exact
same thing and instead of looking at him like he was
crazy, the guy that was dancing there first stuck his hand up
and they high fived each other and they said and they started
dancing together. You know, just doing this.
I mean, just, I say dancing. I mean, I don't know what you
would call it, what whatever they're doing was, but they
were, they were, they were, they were just, you know, going at it
and and next thing you know. Two other people jump up and run
over there and then and then three more people and all the
all the sudden the people who were actually sitting on the
ground laughing at these guys were now the ones that were
getting up and running over there.
And next thing you know, there's a huge crowd of people that
we're all doing the exact same thing as this one individual guy
to the point where eventually the people who are sitting on
the ground that were not taking. Part in it look like the odd
ones out. Right and I and I and I thought
it was I thought it was very interesting this this original
man embraced the first follower. He treated him as an equal.
And before long other people saw that something was happening
that they wanted to be a part of.
And the next thing you know, there's a whole crowd of people
jumping be that that were so large they actually dwarf the
people who were not joined in. Let me tell you and, and
obviously that's just a goofy illustration, but.
That's how you change the world. The leader is important, right?
The, the, the without, without the vision of the leader, The
thing is never going to get off the ground.
But without the first few followers, the guy who is
leading is not a leader, right? He's just a, he's just a nut
that decided to do something that nobody else was doing.
And if nobody ever followed him, that's all he would ever be,
right? But you get people behind them
and get people following them. And that's what's important is
to have followers who show other followers how it's done.
And that's honestly, I think that's what we're doing here in
a lot of ways. I was crazy enough to start a
church or to try to start a church anyway.
And before long we had people willing to join in, willing to
to hitch their wagons to the goal.
We're doing the same thing in Belize, right?
It's, it's my job, but it's my goal to treat everyone as
equals. We are all in this together.
Somebody has to be the one that's in charge.
Somebody has to be the one that leads.
Somebody has to be the one with the vision.
But you could, there would be no church here this morning if it
was just me standing up here by myself, right?
If, if it was just me preaching a message to empty seats, it
wouldn't accomplish very much, right?
You have to have people who are willing to follow.
You have to have people who are going in the same direction
together. And there may be some people who
are sitting down there laughing at what we're trying to
accomplish. And there may be some people who
are saying those people are crazy.
But if we're all crazy together, eventually they're the ones that
look like the crazy ones because they didn't get involved in it.
All right, that's why it's so necessary to find like minded
individuals who can encourage you in the work of the Lord.
And I'll be honest with you, everybody's crazy.
Just a matter of what you're crazy about, all right?
I'd rather be crazy about the things of God and be crazy with
you all together #3 to change your world, you must examine
yourself, engage the right people #3 establish integrity.
Turn over to Ephesians chapter 4.
You must have integrity. If you want to have an impact.
You have to be consistent. You can't be one thing when
you're around the people at church and a completely
different person when you go around your work friends or when
you're alone. That hypocrisy is going to
become apparent very soon and you'll have 0 impact on those
people. The way you're going to win
souls for Christ, the way that you're going to make an impact
for Christ, is when they consistently notice that there's
something different about you. Why would somebody want what I
have if they have exactly what I already have, right?
If I'm living the same way that the world is living and I'm
doing all of the things that the world is doing?
By the way, that's the problem with most of the churches today.
You're playing this contemporary music that sounds no different
than what they could go down and get at in work after hours if
that's what they wanted to. You, you have a set of standards
that is no different than what they have anywhere they go.
You have you have nothing different.
Why would somebody want to come into the church and, and have
their life changed if their life is not changing to anything
else, right? I want to be so different from
the world and I want to be so distinctly Christian that people
say something's different about you.
What is it about you that you have that I don't have because I
want it? That's how we ought to be living
our lives, right? So when we talk about making a
difference, you have to be consistent.
You have to be consistently a Christian all day, every day.
You don't get days off as a Christian, right?
You go to work, you work five days a week, you get 2 days off.
You can take vacations. You don't have to be that worker
every single day. But when it comes to being a
Christian, you don't get days off if you want to make an
impact for Christ. You're a Christian everywhere.
You are, You're a Christian at home, you're a Christian at
church, you're a Christian at work, you're a Christian on
vacation. We're getting, we're coming to
the, to the, to the vacation months, right?
And all the sudden everything goes out the window.
When you go on vacation, you can act how you want, you can dress
how you want. You don't have to go to church.
I'm free, right? You're a Christian everywhere.
Or you're going to lose the opportunity to impact Christ,
Ben Franklin said. Character is what you are when
no one is looking. That's character, right?
It's not character. It's not integrity when you're
doing that only because everybody's watching you, right?
If I'm a Christian when I'm around other Christians.
But I live however I want and do whatever I want when, when
you're not, when the pastor is not sitting there in your home
with you or when other Christians are not over at your
house. And you can do whatever you want
to and act however you want to and live however you want to.
And long as I clean everything up and, and, and, and, and make
it look good by the time I go to church on Sunday, that's not
integrity. It's not character that is doing
whatever you want to in the dark.
Character is, is doing the right thing even when no one would
ever find out. I use the illustration with the
kids, right? There's a candy bar sitting on
that table, and I'm in here and nobody else is in here.
And I could grab that thing and walk out and nobody would have
any idea that it was ever me. And I knew that I could get away
with it. What are you going to do?
That's character. That's integrity.
I could get away with it, but it's not right.
Right. And how many people are
dishonest when you go to the grocery store and they forgot to
scan something and you walked out with it, right?
I can't tell you how many times that's happened.
A. A A case of water that was
underneath the bottom of the cart.
And I walked out and I was like. Oh, stink.
I never, I, I didn't pay for that.
And you go back in the store and you'll see the face of the
cashier. You what?
You want to pay for that. You already got out of the
store. Why would you come back in here
and pay for it, right? But that's what integrity is.
That's what honesty is. I'm either a Christian all the
time or I'm not a Christian at all, right?
I want to be like Christ all the time if I have the opportunity
to do it, and I do. Without character, you or we as
a church will drift with a cultural wind, or we'll join in
whatever is popular with the crowd.
That's why the church has such a low impact on this world today,
because the church is trying so hard to be like the world that
they're not making an impact on the world.
Why don't we go make an impact on the world instead of letting
the world impact the church? Drifters never make an impact.
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse #13 Till we all come in the
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby
they lie in wait to deceive. I don't want to be just.
Well, let me test the wind today and see which way is blowing.
OK, I'll go this way, right? I don't care what culture is
doing. I don't care what they say we
have to be, or what we have to say, or what we have to do.
What does the Bible say? I'm going to do that.
That's going to last a whole lot longer than culture will.
The Bible's been around a long time and it'll be around
forever. That's what the Bible says
forever. O Lord, thy word is settled in
heaven. This is going to be around a
long time after the cultural shifts have changed and things
are different than they are today and things are different
than they used to be back then. The, the, the winds of culture
change all the time. The God's word never changes.
And this is what I want to put my anchor in.
If you want to make an impact for Christ, then you better
establish that integrity. It's exactly why we're seeing
the modern contemporary churches doing what they're doing today.
They may be huge, but they're not making an impact for Christ.
They may, they may be making a dent in, in, you know, getting
out some food to some people that that are homeless or
whatever else, or that are, you know, insecure in their food or
whatever those things. And I'm not saying that those
things are bad, but what impact are you making for Christ?
How are the how are the lives of the people in that church
changed today compared to where they were?
If you're not making an impact for Christ, there's a there's a
reason why because you're just drifting with culture and you're
not standing up for anything. Doesn't mean anything unless you
actually have the integrity to stand up and do what's right,
even if nobody else is ever going to know if you do it, even
if nobody else is doing it. I want to make an impact for
Christ. I want to change the world.
That's how I'm going to have to do it.
Turn over to 1st Corinthians chapter 15.
I want you to see #4 it had changed the world.
We need to extend compassion, need to develop compassion
toward other people. Think about where you were
before you met Jesus Christ. Think about where you were and
where you were headed, what your life would be like without
Christ. It's very difficult for me to
imagine that I've been in church my whole life.
I didn't know Christ as my Savior my entire life.
I accepted him as a as my Savior when I was young, but I don't
know what my life would be like if I didn't know Christ as my
Savior. Some of you have an idea because
you got saved a little bit later in life and you saw Christ
change your life. But I don't know what.
My life would be like if I didn't know Christ as my Savior,
but I know it'd be very different than it is now.
I know it would be a totally different person than I am now.
Allow that to develop a compassion in you for the state
of others who have not found Jesus Christ yet.
First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse #10 But by the grace of
God, I am what I am. And his grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Paul says, by the grace of God, I am what I am.
And there are people out in this world that are doing everything
they can, it seems like to destroy Christianity and
everything they can to, to, to, to get rid of the of, of God's
word and to make it irrelevant and to call it hate speech and
everything else. There's a lot of people that
just seem like they hate God and I think they do, but you just
have to remember that was you. That could be you, but not for
the grace of God. Let's look at them the way that
Christ looked at them. He said when he looked over
Jerusalem, he wept and he was moved with compassion because
they were, they were less sheep without a shepherd.
Once you open up your heart and your mind to the needs of
others, if you understand them, then you can help them and
ultimately you can lead them #5 turn over to Matthew chapter 5.
To change your world, you must examine yourself.
Engage the right people, establish integrity, extend
compassion #5 embrace the mission.
Don't focus on recognition, but focus on moving the mission
forward. And our mission, maybe I should
say our Co mission, is to go out and win souls for Christ.
I believe God could use us so much more if we weren't
concerned about who got the credit for actually getting out
there and doing it. It's one of the reasons why when
we do these cards and we pass all these cards out and we have
a contest between the adults and the kids, we don't write names
down. We just write the numbers to see
who's who's winning and who gave out the most cards.
Because it's not about, oh, I get, I get more recognition
because I gave out this many cards and.
And you get less recognition because you didn't give out as
many. And it all becomes about show.
I'm doing it because I want to be recognized, not because I
want to get the gospel out right.
I believe God could use us so much more if we didn't care if
we got credit for the things that we're doing for God.
But most people, I said, shouldn't say most.
A lot of people will only do it if they can be recognized.
For doing it well, I'll go out and do that for God as long as I
can be out there in front and everybody can see me doing it.
You'll never find me cleaning the auditorium when nobody else
is here. You'll never find me cleaning
the bathroom. When, when, when, when it's late
at night and needs to be done right.
Nobody's going to see me doing that.
I hope that's not your mindset, but if we're going to accomplish
something, then we're going to have to be willing to accomplish
it whether we get credit for it or not.
And this is something that that most people will never be able
to accomplish because it's against our nature and training
to accept zero recognition for our achievements.
And there's the quote is attributed to several people,
but it's so true. It's amazing how much can be
accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.
It's amazing how much can be accomplished if nobody cares who
gets the credit right? Eagle can wreck even the best
plans and intentions, but if you master the ability to sit in the
shadows and just watch the work that you've put into it blossom,
you're going to learn very soon that no, no deed goes
unrewarded, no matter how small it is.
If it's done for God, if it's done for His work, He's the one
that's seeing it, and He's the ultimately the one that that
that matters anyway. Matthew chapter 5 and verse #16
let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
But he says this in Matthew chapter 6 and verse #1 Take heed
that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them.
Otherwise you have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven.
You can do all the right things and if you do it with the wrong
motive, it doesn't count for anything.
If you're only doing it because you want people to recognize
what you're doing, it doesn't count.
He's saying you can give, you can give all of the money in the
world. You can, I mean, and that's what
these Pharisees were doing. They were taking these bags of
gold and making a big show about dropping all of this money in.
To the treasury, right? They were bringing all this
money to the temple to donate it to the work of God, but they
couldn't just donate it. They had to make sure that
everybody saw them donating it, right?
And God says, well, thanks for the donation, but it doesn't
count for anything because you're doing it just to be seen.
And that's the only reason you're doing it.
You're not doing it for me, you're doing it to be seen.
And you have no reward in heaven.
Keep your heart in mind on the end game creating the the type
of change in our world is a serious and it's a tough
responsibility. Those without the power of the
Holy Spirit are not going to last very long.
And if you're doing it to be seen, then it's very obvious
that you're not doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The world is such a tremendous distraction.
Money, popularity, power things, all of those things.
Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse #10 for demons.
Demons hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.
Stay focused on the finish line. Our goal is to serve God until
our life ends. Well, I don't want to.
I don't want to trip 10 feet before the end of the finish
line and fall and not make it there all right.
If we lose sight of that, we're never going to impact the world
for Christ. The way that we could or the way
that God wants us to #6 the way that you make an impact for
Christ is to exit your comfort zone.
Had to start with an E, But you understand what I'm saying is
get out of your comfort zone, right?
That change involves moving out of our comfort zone.
It takes great courage to stand up and stand out.
And to go takes even greater courage to have the conviction
to remain steadfast after you experience some kind of failure.
See, the devil's goal is to get us to quit because we didn't see
the results that we wanted to see.
Oh, we went out and we invited all these people to come out to
church, or I tried to share the gospel and I didn't see anybody
get saved or I didn't see anybody to come to church.
Why am I doing this anyway? This is such a waste of time.
I can't believe that I put all this effort into it and nothing
happened. Well, I can't tell you how many
times we especially at the beginning.
We we would order 5000 Flyers for anniversary Sunday or friend
day or something like that and we'd go out and pass out 5000
Flyers and not one person came from from getting a flyer.
Don't talk about discouraging. We did all this work for
nothing, but it wasn't for nothing.
We had the gospel on it. People read it, I'm sure, and
maybe they didn't come to church, but it counts for
something. We're doing God's work.
And He didn't tell us to go get results.
He told us to go do it. He told us to go tell people
about Christ. He told us to share the message
of the gospel. And if I'm doing what God's
called me to do, then it doesn't matter if I see results or not.
We like it. We like to see something come
from the work that we're putting into it.
But whether we see anything come from it or not, we still have to
do it. And a lot of times it takes us
getting out of our comfort zone. We just finished up with the
Winter Olympics last month. And then, you know, the talent
of those athletes is on full display.
But I can guarantee you that none of them would have been
there without the determination to develop their talents.
There's a lot of talented people in this world who probably could
do a lot of the things that those Olympians did, but they'll
never wear a metal around their neck because they don't have
the, the, the, the desire or the strength or the intestinal
fortitude. If you will to get up off the
couch and go out and make something out of themselves,
right. I know you, you look at the NFL
or the NBA and you think all these guys got all the talent in
the world. They're no wonder they're so
successful. And yes, it it does take talent
to be in these professional leagues, but.
Most of those guys have worked so hard to develop those talents
and those abilities to get to the point that that where they
are. There's a lot of people out
there with talent who never accomplished anything because
they weren't willing to get out of their comfort zone.
And I think the same thing is true in the church as well.
There's a lot of people who have a lot of things that they could
bring to the table when it comes to serving the Lord, but it
takes work. It takes effort.
I'm not I, I, I, I'm not going to get up off the couch and go
do that. Why would I do that?
They don't want to get out of their comfort zone.
It's very uncomfortable to move away from your comfort zone.
That's why it's called the comfort zone.
Remember the story of Peter walking on the water in, in, in
Mark chapter 14, Peter had to step way outside of his comfort
zone. Nobody had ever walked on water
before. And Peter said, can I get out of
the boat and come to you? And Jesus said, sure, get out of
the boat and come right? It was comfortable in the boat.
He knew that it was dry in there.
He knew that he was safe in there.
The second you step over that edge and you're walking on
water, it's exactly what happened with Peter.
He started looking. Around at all the waves and and
he started looking at everything that was happening.
He said this is not normal, this is not natural.
What happens if I start to sink and what did he do?
Took his eyes off of Christ. And he started to sink.
And Jesus had to reach down and grab his hand and save him,
right? How do you think you're going to
accomplish something great for Christ?
Peter would have never walked on water if he wasn't willing to
get out of the boat. You got to be willing to get out
of the boat if you're going to accomplish something for Christ.
It's not easy to get out and knock on doors for the first
time, but it's necessary. Not easy to hand out that track
for the very first time, but it's necessary.
It's not easy to say no to the things that are holding you
back, but it's necessary. You've got to get outside of
your comfort zone. It's not easy to go through your
house and throw away the things that are keeping you from being
what God wants you to be, but it's necessary for you to get
outside of your comfort zone if you're going to change the world
for Christ. Not easy to say no to the crowd
and to serve God, but it's necessary if you're going to
change the world. For Christ to be a world
changer, courage and conviction are of utmost importance.
You've got to be willing. Those are two qualities that so
people, so few people actually have, but you've got to be
willing to step. Outside of that comfort zone, to
accomplish something for Christ, let me give you #7 turn over to
2nd Corinthians chapter 12. If you want to change your
world, you have to exercise generosity.
Give until it hurts. Giving should always be our
primary focus. We should have things that we
want to do in our life, but we can't because we give too much
away. Somebody said if you're giving
does not affect your lifestyle, then you're not giving enough.
Why do you think God gave you all that in the 1st place?
So you could hoard it? So you could die with $1,000,000
in the bank. So I think God gives money to
people so that they can give it back to Him.
The world is full of people who who are going to take take,
take, take, take positive change, changing your world,
take sacrifice and takes a giving heart.
How should you give or you give your money to the things of God?
This this church needs a building at some point.
I don't know when it's going to happen, right?
God does, but we need, we just, we'll need more ways to reach
out that and we need obviously we need money for missions and
for this thing and Belize it all.
It takes money for all of those things to happen.
And I'm not, I'm not standing up here begging for money.
God's going to provide. I'm not worried about that.
But God has promised that he'll give a blessing to all of those
who give with the right heart. By the way, if you're just
giving to be seen, same thing God doesn't, It doesn't reward
you if you're giving only to be seen.
But at the same time, God will provide for his church.
Why not let him use you to do that, right?
He's going to provide. He always has.
We've been in, we've been into
tough situations before and we're not in a tough situation
now, but we've been in tough situations before where we
didn't know exactly how God was going to provide.
Most of you probably don't even know this story, but when we
were, when we first started out, we went, we went out and raised
money to start this church. And you know most places you can
find a little place for 1000 bucks a month, 800 bucks a
month, something like that. We were renting a hotel right up
here, the Wingate Hotel for $3000 a month.
That was a lot of money at the very beginning when you don't
have any people coming. And so we raised a bunch of
money and I, I worked full time as we were on deputation.
And so all of the money that we got is love offerings and
everything else. We just, we put it into a fund
and we saved it because we knew we were going to need it.
So we, we bought everything that we needed for all of the
different, you know, things that we needed in the auditorium and
everything else. And then we started making those
payments, $3000 a month comes very quickly and is a huge bill
when you don't have people coming that are giving $3000 a
month. And I don't know what our
offerings were. They were maybe 12-13, fourteen,
$100 a month when you think about losing $2000 every month
out. Of that fund that you had there
and you see it going quicker and quicker and quicker.
You start to wonder what's going to happen if we don't get some
people in here soon. We're not going to have enough
money to pay the rent. And I told my wife.
I forget, I don't know, it's maybe six or seven months after
we had started and we were looking at the, the budget and
looking at the money in the bank account.
And I said, I, I don't, I don't think that we're going to, as if
this goes on for another month or two like this, we're not
going to have enough money to pay the, the rent.
And we have the, the PO Box down there and I don't check it all
the time. I go every couple weeks and
check the PO Box and I went down there.
I was, I told her that on Monday, I went down on Monday
afternoon. And once, you know, I opened up
the, the PO Box there and somebody just randomly and I
know I knew who it was. It was a guy down at the, at, at
our home church that we came from.
Never asked him for a dime, never knew that.
I mean, he didn't know that we needed anything check for $7000
in the mailbox. And that was enough to help us
keep up until we got enough people coming that we could
actually pay the, the rent on that building.
God provided, right? And God has provided like that
over and over and over and over and over again.
He's going to provide, but he uses his people to do it.
And he promises a blessing to the people who who will, who he
does use to do it right. So why not be the one that God
blesses for giving back to his work?
And by the way, I mean, most of you probably know this anyway,
but I'm not asking you to do something that I'm not doing.
I'm not sitting here. Just take, take, take, take,
take. We give, right?
I give to missions. We, we put our tithes and
offerings in every, every week, right?
I'm not saying that so you pat me on the back.
I'm saying that because I want you to understand.
This is this is something that we all can be a part of and this
is something that God has told us to do and then he says do it.
But if you do it, I'll bless you for doing it.
Seems like a no brainer to me, right?
I'd rather invest in God's bank account.
There's a lot of pretty good returns there, right?
That's never going to go bankrupt.
You never have to call the FDIC and say, hey, the bank failed,
can you give me my money? Right, God's bank.
Never, never, never runs up short.
Second Corinthians chapter 12 and verse #15 Paul says this.
And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.
Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved,
see? Because not only should we give
our money to the things of God, but we ought to be given our
time, our talents, our blessings, the things that we
can do to bless others, especially your love.
Paul said, I'll, I'll gladly spend and be spent for you, even
if you don't love me, even if I don't get anything back for it.
I'll gladly spend and be spent for stingy and hoarding the
things that God's given us to use for His service.
We're never going to be able to change the world for Him.
Let me give you the last one. Turn over to Matthew chapter 17.
Matthew chapter 17, and I'm not going to take a long time on
this because we just talked about it on Wednesday night for
a while. The number 8, if you want to
change your world, exhibit faith.
So you were created for a purpose.
God's put you here for a purpose.
God has you on this earth for a purpose.
It wasn't to make a name for yourself.
Isn't have you on this earth so you can become big and powerful
for the sake of your own legacy and your own name and everything
else. That's not why God has you here,
all right? God has every one of us on the
earth to make an impact for Christ.
And some people have longer than others.
Some people make more of it than others.
But why is God heavy here? It's to make an impact for
Christ. It's to change your world for
Christ. And the way that we do that is
by following the call that God has placed on your heart and
then to just trust him. I know that every, you have to
work, right? You have to work to make a
living. If you just stop working and did
whatever, you're going to die, all right?
You got to have money. You got to, you got to work
right. But what kind of impact are you
making in your workplace? Maybe God has you in that
position at your work so that you can reach the people that
nobody else would have an opportunity to reach, right?
You're a construction worker. Not everybody can just walk up
and talk to the construction worker, right?
You're, you're in a specialized position.
You're in government. Not everybody can just walk in
and talk to whoever, right? God might have you there for a
reason, not might. He does have you there for a
reason so that you can make an impact in that place for Christ,
right? God puts you in the family that
He puts you in so that you can make an impact for Christ.
God puts you in the area that you're in so that you can make
an impact for Christ. He puts you in the neighborhood
that you're in so you can make an impact for Christ.
That's why God has you where you are.
At the end of the day, you were created to love and to serve God
and to love and to serve others. Matthew chapter 17.
It's probably one of the most challenging, but but maybe one
of the saddest verses in all the Bible.
Matthew chapter 17 and verse #20 Jesus said unto them, Because of
your unbelief. For verily I say unto you, if
you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you shall say unto
this mountain, Remove hence to Yonder place, and it shall
remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Nothing will be accomplished without faith to believe that
God can use you. Nothing's going to be
accomplished without faith to believe that God can perform
miracles in your life. Nothing is going to be
accomplished without faith to believe that God can change the
hearts of the people who just don't seem like they want to
change. But you keep praying, you keep
working, you keep trying, you keep, you keep doing what God's
called you to do. And you have faith that he'll do
it, right? He's just called you to do it.
He hasn't. He hasn't called you to, to, to,
to make the change. He's called you to do what he's
called you to do. Let him work in their hearts.
Let him be the one that makes the change, but let him use you
to do it. All right, let's look back in
our text one more time in Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17 and
verse #6 look what? Look what they said these were.
These were just guys that were on the outside looking in.
It was not somebody that was trying to give a compliment to
Jason. In fact, it was guys it was it
was somebody who was trying to make him look as bad as he
possibly could, right? They were trying to get the
people stirred up against them. They're hoping probably that
they would at the very least put him in jail, but maybe even kill
him. We saw that happen.
Paul was stoned and a lot of different things happen, right?
But Acts chapter 17 and verse #6 when they found them not, they
drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the city
crying. These that have turned the world
upside down or come hit her. Also, these guys that have made
an impact on the world are here now.
That's what they're saying. These that have turned the world
upside down are here also, right?
They had made an impact to the point where they knew exactly
who they were and they got there and they started making an
impact. See, these men were able to be
world changers because they believed that what they were
doing was ordained of God. What they were doing was
something God had called them to do.
Whatever happened, they didn't care because God had called them
to do it. We have a tremendous opportunity
to impact this area. We have a tremendous opportunity
to impact our world, right? And God's called us to go to
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth.
And we're trying to do that. We're trying to reach this area
with the gospel. That's why we show up on
Saturdays and, and go out knocking on doors and hold the,
the Bible signs and, and, and have people come in and get
Bible. That's why we're trying to,
we're trying to impact this area.
But there's a Jerusalem, there's a Judea, there's a Samaria.
The farther out you go, there's the uttermost part of the earth.
That's that's why, that's why we're moving forward with this
thing in Belize, right? It's a big step of faith.
It's not easy to try to, to try to start a ministry in another
country when you're not there to, to do it, right?
But we can have an impact everywhere.
God has called us to have an impact.
And if I can change the world here, where God has called me to
to change the world. Then I want to do it if it's an
hour from here and we have an opportunity to help a church get
started. And then then I want to be
involved in and I want to do it. I want to change the world where
God gives us the opportunities to change the world.
If it's in Belize and we have an opportunity to create a missions
hub where where we have a chance to reach an entire country, I
want to do it. I want to change the world where
God has given me an opportunity to change the world.
I, I may not be able to reach everybody, but I can reach
somebody. I may not have an opportunity to
have an impact on everybody, but I can have an impact on
somebody. And I want to do it while I have
the opportunity to do it. And I want him to come back and
I want him to find me faithfully doing what he's called me to do.
I want him to find me faithfully serving and faithfully living
for him. How does that happen?
Examine yourself, engage the right people, establish
integrity, extend compassion, embrace the mission, exit your
comfort zone, exercise generosity, and exhibit faith.
That's how it happens. I know it's a lot of things.
We could probably add another 10 things to that list.
There's a lot of things that we can do, but as as we follow
these principles in the Word of God, you can change your world
and isn't that what you want to be?
You say that as a kid. What do you want to be when you
grow up? I don't know.
I just want to change the world, right?
Maybe you didn't say it exactly that way, but that's what you
thought. I want to be the next, you know,
Elon Musk. I want to be the next Bill
Gates. I want to be somebody that
everybody knows because I changed the world.
I'll tell you how you changed the world.
Just live for Christ. Just be who God has called you
to be. Just do what God has called you
to do. Just faithfully serve.
Just do it whether you get recognized or not, because one
day you'll stand before God and He'll give you all the
recognition that you could ever want if you're doing it for Him.
Don't you want to change the world?
Don't you want to make an impact on the world that God has called
you to? Pick one of these things.
Pick two of them. Pick three of them and focus on
them this week and see if God doesn't help you to make an
impact in the area where He's called you to make an impact and
to allow you to change your world.
What an amazing, amazing thing that would be.
Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness to us. Thank You for the opportunity we
have to be here this morning. And I do thank you for the fact
that You want to use us. May we all be in a position
where you can You help us to love you, to live for you, to
serve You with all of our hearts and all of our souls, all of our
mind and all of our strength until you come back.
Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.
If you'd stand at your seat through the heads bowed and your
eyes closed, we're going to have a short time of invitation.
I just want to give you an opportunity to respond to the
message. If God spoke to your heart this
morning as the piano plays, if God spoke to your heart, you
come.