Oh, crossing family. It is so good to be back with
you this weekend. We are in a series called 50 for
50 where we are spending 50 minutes a day for the next 50
days asking God to move us, change us and use us like never
before. And there are two main
scriptures that are kind of guiding us on this journey.
Mark chapter 12. One of the teachers of the law
came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given
them a good answer. He asked him that he's asking
Jesus of all the commandments, which is the most important.
This was Jesus's answer, the most important one answer.
Jesus is this. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God. The Lord is 1.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, and with all your strength.
The 2nd is this. Love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no commandment greater than these.
And then the second big chunk of scripture that we're looking at
is Matthew 28. Then Jesus came to them and said
all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,
and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.
We believe a great commitment to the great commandment and the
Great Commission will make for a great Church and will make for a
great life. I believe that there is nothing
greater that you and I can give our lives to accomplish than
this to love God and to love people.
In fact, our mission here as a church is to help people find an
intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
We desperately want to make this region where we live the hardest
place on planet Earth to get to hell from.
In order to do that, we realized that we need to make some
decisions and more importantly, we needed to make some
commitments. One of the phrases you're going
to hear over and over every single week, if you got one of
the books, you're going to see it.
Inside of the books as you're traveling along is this quote
from Steve Weatherford that had a major impact on me and our
staff. And he said this.
Amateurs make decisions based on their emotions.
Pros make decisions based on their commitments and we believe
that it is time for all of us to GoPro in the things that matter
the most. In loving God, in loving people
and making a difference in this world.
For Jesus, I'm so incredibly thankful.
Last weekend we had over 2655 of you go.
You know what, we're taking this ground.
We're going on this 50 for 50 journey.
I've been getting up early every single week this week, taking
our golden dummy on a walk to get my exercise in reading the
same chunks of scripture that you're reading.
We're almost all the way, depending on where you're at,
you're we're almost all the way through the book of Luke.
We're going to get into the book of Acts.
In fact, by the end of this journey, you'll have read almost
the entire New Testament. This is going to be a great
opportunity for us to grow in our relationship with the Lord.
And let me say this, there's some of you who maybe you didn't
get a book last week or you were thinking about it and you
decided not to. We still have 1300 books left at
our different locations, and I would rather you go on a journey
for 43 days then go on a journey for no days.
Is that a deal? All right.
That being said, I want to welcome all of you join in from
all of our different locations and those of you join in online
and inside. I am so thankful that we get to
be a part of this crossing family and I am thankful for
you. And I want you to know that each
week when I or each morning when I've been going on a walk, I
have been lifting you all up in prayer.
I love being a part of this church.
Give me a second. I'm still recovering and I love
seeing the life change that happens every single week.
Just seeing what God did in Kirkuk this past weekend or
what's happening at the inside and all of our different
locations. God is on the move at this
church, and I want him to be on the move in you.
I love seeing pictures and hearing stories of those of you
coming to the steps and praying and banging on Heaven's door.
And in fact, that's actually what I want to do real quick.
Can I just bang on Heaven's door with you and pray as we got to
start this message? Heavenly Father, you know where
every single person is right now on their spiritual journey.
You know what they're wrestling with.
You know what they're struggling through, and you also know
exactly what they need to get through and God, I pray that you
would use this season of life and ministry in this church to
bring about a significant and lasting change in each and every
single one of us. We want it, God, We want to make
you proud. We want to make you happy.
And you're in my praying. Amen.
In 1992, Gary Chapman released a best seller called The Five Love
Languages and this was the tagline, The Secret to Love that
Lasts. And since everybody when they
get married kind of goes, I would like this thing to go
forever. It became a hit, and in his book
he identifies 5 love languages that all humans have.
Each of us experience love in different ways, but all of us
have a primary and a secondary love language.
The five love languages are words of affirmation, acts of
service, receiving gifts. Valentine's Day, anyone.
Quality time and physical touch. OK for just we'll do this for
just a quick second. For a show of hands, how many of
you would say the primary way that you feel love is when
people give you words of encouragement?
You're so pretty. You're so handsome.
You're so smart. You work so hard.
Raise your hand. OK.
A lot of guys will raise their hand here.
How about this one? You would say acts of service
when you do stuff for. OK, ladies.
We hear you. We hear you.
OK, shush it. All right.
How many of you? It's gift giving.
You're the expensive people among us, OK?
There's way less hands than there should be.
We know you K Black Friday. We we know you.
How many of you would say it's quality time if we could just
sit next? OK.
Yeah. Neither Jennifer and I.
Neither one of us. It's quality time.
It's like, no, that's not us. What am I, physical touch.
Hold my hand. Give me a back rub Other things.
Yeah, you. That's you.
OK, now let me. I kind of went through this and
a lot of you raised your hands. Men.
Did you notice that men or that women kind of have multiple love
languages. They kind of raise their hands
multiple times. And I'll also tell you this,
fellas, if you if you don't like the love language she has,
she'll change it. She'll change it.
In a couple months when she wants something different done
around the house, she'd be like, well, it was, it was words of
affirmation, but now it's home renovation and you'd be like,
well, I looked in the book and home renovation wasn't in there.
Now the reason why this book was so transformative is because you
can love somebody and you're trying to communicate to your
spouse. I love you so much.
And you speak in your primary,
but they only for the most part, receive love in their primary.
So if your primary way of communicating love to your wife
men is words of affirmation, you're saying I love you, I love
you, I love you. You're so beautiful.
You're so great. You're such a good cook.
You're way better than my mom. You're just showering words of
affirmation on her, and her way of receiving love is acts of
service. You know what your wife is
feeling every day? I wish my husband loved me.
And she goes, I just don't feel loved.
And then as the man you're going, I literally just told you
I loved you. I don't know.
I don't feel it. It didn't matter.
I I said it. Yeah, but the house is dirty.
OK? So you go out and you buy your
stuff from Target and you come home.
See. I love you.
But you didn't vacuum. So think about this.
You have two couples that desperately love each other,
that are trying to communicate how much they love each other
and it's not getting through. They don't feel it because they
love us back. And then you have the man going.
I've been trying to spend all my time trying to tell her how much
I love her, and she doesn't feel it.
But you know what? I don't feel like she loves me
either and our spouse is experiencing the exact same
frustration because they are doing work around the house.
They're trying to be helpful and yet we don't see it and we don't
care. You have two people desperately
trying to communicate how much they love each other because of
the love language barrier. They don't feel loved at all.
Some of you guys, you've heard my Que pasta story.
When I was going through high school, I I took three years of
Spanish and I got good grades because I was an athlete and I
really struggled putting together the Spanish language.
And this was at a time when when you talk to people you'd say
what's up my dog, which so kind of tells you late 90s, early
2000s. And I was doing some mission
work down in Tulsa and we would be in a Spanish speaking area of
Tulsa. And I would get out of my car
and gas stations and I would go que pasa MI pero PERO.
And I would get out and I'd see a bunch of Spanish speakers and
I'd be like que Paso, MI pero. And I would, you know, be me.
And then about a year later I was at A at my college and I sat
across the table from Mario and I said que Paso MI pero.
And he goes, what? And I said que Paso MI pero.
What's up my dog? He goes dog is pero.
You'll want to roll the R What you have been saying is what is
up my conjunction word. But so I had been getting out of
the car in downtown Tulsa going what is on my butt?
You a dumbass star. What is on my butt?
I was trying to communicate. I'm really happy to see you.
What I was communicating is I am a scary white man.
OK? That is no bueno.
OK? Not a mucho and no mucho.
OK, there is a big difference. When there is a language issue,
it is really hard to communicate how much you love them.
And Gary Chapman urges his readers to learn to communicate
in the primary love language of their spouse.
So, men, if your wife's love language is acts of service and
you want to show her that you love her, you want your wife to
feel loved. Get a Dyson and get to work
ladies. If your husband's love language
is words of affirmation, get a dictionary and a thesaurus and
get to work. Because if you want to have a
healthy marriage and your kids have a love language and your
boss has a love language and your Co workers have a love
language. And if you want to communicate
that you love people, you need to learn to speak in the
language in the primary and secondary love language of your
spouse, of the people that you care about.
The question for every person who has an intimate, personal
relationship with Jesus Christ should be this.
How do I love God? Back all of us before starting
our relationship with Jesus. Wrestle with How could God love
us? How After we hear the good news
of what Jesus Christ has done on our behalf, we realize that he
loved us when we were messed up and we were broken and something
stirs in our hearts and we desire to love God back.
But the question is how do we love him back?
Does God have a love language? The bottom line is this.
Heaven is not a place for people that God loves.
God loves everybody. God loves all the people in
heaven. God loves all the people in
hell. The difference between those who
are in heaven and those who are in hell is not whether or not
God loves them, it's whether or not they love God.
Because heaven is not a place for people who love God back,
and hell is not a place for those that don't.
Heaven and hell are full of people that God loves.
The difference between those two places is one group of people
chose to love God back and the other didn't.
And did you know God has a love language?
Hear me carefully. God receives love through
obedience. Now before I go too much further
in the sermon, I want to say a couple things.
One, I don't want this to turn into a works based sermon.
And if you're brand new to The Crossing or and you're brand new
to your faith, none of this is going to make sense to you for
like the next, you know, couple minutes.
But for those who've been following Jesus for a long time,
I want to make sure that this doesn't get twisted in your
head. I don't want you to turn this
sermon into a checklist. While James says that faith in
God that is not accompanied by works is dead and a meaningless
faith, we are not saved because of what we have done.
We are saved because of what Jesus Christ has done on the
cross on our behalf and our acceptance and receiving of that
work in our life. Secondly, you can be obedient to
Jesus and you can be obedient to God and still not love God.
Parents, you know this. Can your kids be obedient and
unloving at the exact same time? Go clean your room.
OK? Are they communicating how much
they love you? No, they're communicating how
much They're like their mother, right?
Go. Come on.
OK, just a couple jokes. She's not here.
Your kids can obey you, but their hearts can be far from
you. Jesus, over and over again picks
a theological fight with religious elites because they
were doing the right things with the wrong motives and the wrong
heart. That being said, over and over
and over again in scripture Jesus connects love and
obedience to his message to his followers.
Don't believe me? Let me take you on a little
journey, John 14. If you love me, keep my
commands. Later on in verses 23 and 24 it
says this. Jesus replied, Anyone who loves
me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them and we
will come to them and make our home with them.
Excuse me. Anyone who does not love me will
not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my
own. They belong to the Father who
sent me. So if your life is not being
obedient to God, you are sending a clear message you don't love
Him. Look what it says in First John
chapter 5, verse 3. In fact.
This is love for God. This is how he receives love to
keep his commands. Some of you might be going, I
don't believe you. I need one more verse.
OK, second John chapter one, verse five.
I am not writing you a new command, but one we have had
from the beginning. I ask that we love one another
and this is love. He's going to describe what love
is. Guess what?
It is that we walk in obedience to His commands.
In fact, at the very beginning of the message I read to you
from Matthew chapter 28, when he says we're supposed to go out
and make disciples and check what shows up inside of there.
Look what it says. Verse 19.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Guess what's on the next page And teaching them to obey
everything. I have commended you.
So how do we love God? By being obedient.
Obedient to what? To His commands, His words?
His teachings. Now where do you and I find His
commands, His words, His teachings?
We find it in the Bible. So a person who wants to love
God back will be engaged with the Bible.
The single greatest discipline for spiritual growth is Bible
engagement. Hear me, if you want to grow
spiritually, the number one thing that will help you do it
is regularly engaging in the Bible.
The problem is that study after study shows that people who
identify as Christians are not prioritizing engaging with the
Scriptures. This is what a recent survey
said, that 45% of people who call themselves a Christian
spend time in the Bible once a week.
It gets worse. 12% of people who call themselves Christians
engage in the Bible once or twice a month, 9% of people who
call themselves Christians spend time reading the Bible several
times a year, and 33% of people who call themselves Christians
seldom never engage in the Bible.
If God receives love through obedience, how can a person
possibly be obedient to a thing that they don't know?
This means that a large swath of people who call themselves
Christians are not engaging in scripture and are not loving God
back. And just so you know, by age
demographic, those engaging the most in scripture are those
between the ages of 30 and 49, which makes total sense to me
because they're dealing with teenagers and they're trying to
figure out how to cast out a demon, right.
They're telling we have got to find the demon spells.
OK, now I will tell you this as a word of encouragement. 18 to
29 year olds are at 15% and those who are 65 plus are at
23%. For at least one time a week and
in the category of once or twice a month or several times a year,
the 18 to 29 year olds are beating the 65 plus crowd.
So let me say this. This should give you some hope
for the future, because the younger generation is more
spiritually attuned than the older generation, at least based
on that statistic. So we got to keep prioritizing
those who are younger than us. The crazy thing is, scientific
studies are starting to report that reading the Bible is check
this out. Good for you.
For instance, if you were to list the problems facing the
world today, I wonder what problems you would put on the
list. Would you put loneliness,
bitterness, Anger. Self esteem, Self harm?
There was a massive study done on over 200,000 people between
the ages of eight and 80, and they divided them up and they
started to watch them over a period of time.
After day one and day two, they didn't notice hardly any
difference between the two groups of people.
But on day three something started to change.
They broke people into two separate groups, those who were
Bible engaged and those who were not.
They considered a Bible engaged person, somebody who was
interacting with the Bible, the word of God, at least four times
a week. And here is what they found of
the people who were Bible engaged.
Loneliness dropped 30%, Bitterness dropped 43%, Anger
dropped 32%. Alcoholism dropped 42%.
Porn consumption dropped 60%. Self harm dropped 30%,
Connectedness rose 30%, and self esteem rose 30%.
That when you start to engage in scripture regularly at least
four times a week, it starts to rewire you for the good.
There's an old adage that all of our staff could testify, and
this is it. A Bible that is falling apart
usually belongs to a person whose life isn't.
We could save ourselves a lot of time on the counseling side here
at our church if somebody said, hey, my whole life's falling
apart. If we were to just say, have you
been reading your Bible regularly because the science
will back it up, that the more time you spend in the Bible.
Now I'm not saying listen to me, don't say hey I'm going through
a tough time. I'm not saying pray more, read
more. I'm just saying a lot of us.
It's kind of like man, I'm really hungry.
I just don't feel good. Eat something that a lot of us
were neglecting the very thing that God wanted to use to
empower us and direct us. And when you neglect those two
things, you can expect your life to kind of, you know, fall
apart. If the second greatest
commandment is to love our neighbor, think of how a drop in
bitterness, anger, and an increase in connectedness and
self esteem would help us to accomplish this.
There might be some of you who are reading the Bible, and it's
confusing at times, coming to view.
You've read the Bible and it's confusing.
Just so you know, my hands up. It is even in the stuff we were
reading this week, I was like, man, I got to circle back on
that one. I agree with you completely.
I just want you to know that confusion and difficulty have
never stopped you in the past. And it shouldn't.
It hasn't stopped you before and it shouldn't stop you now.
For instance. Men, just look at me for a
second. Don't look around.
Just look at me. It's safe.
Do you understand everything there is to know about women?
No. Just shake your head like this.
Shake your eyes. Do you understand them?
No. You don't stand a chance.
But are you thankful for them? Are you learning what you can
learn about them so that way you don't do it again.
Yeah. You're married to somebody who's
incredibly confusing and difficult to understand, and you
keep doing it. So just because you bump into
something in the Bible that doesn't make sense to you, just
keep keep your head down and keep moving on.
You want to know why? Because the same thing should be
true when it comes to God. Hear me, the Bible tells us that
God weighs are higher than our ways.
The Bible tells that there's a way that seems right to man, but
in the end it leads to destruction.
It kind of makes sense to me that there are going to be times
when God isn't going to make sense to me.
Does that make sense? Have you ever tried to explain
stuff to your kids and you're just, like, you're just too dumb
to understand what we're talking about?
Like, they ask you questions and you're trying to answer them.
And then you're just like, like my son the other day was like,
so when we come to a stop sign and there's no lights, how does
everybody know when they're supposed to go?
And I go, it's easy. The one on the right goes, He's
like, OK, but what if two cars come and they're facing each
other? I don't know.
He goes, what happens when four cars all get there at the exact
same time? I don't know.
Whoever has the bigger truck, I guess us.
That's who I'm going because I'm impatient, right?
You'll be like, it'll just make sense.
It just doesn't happen. There's someone looking at their
phone, so that's always you just kind of go around them.
Hear me? God is perfect and I'm a Sinner.
He's all knowing. And I forget where I put my
keys. But the other thing I'll tell
you is that time is one of the greatest teachers.
Think about what your first day was like on the new job, and
think about how much you intrinsically understand about
your place of employment. Now think of your hobby.
Do you remember when you first started?
Like, guys? Do you remember their first day
hunting? You're like eating Doritos.
You didn't know what to do, and you're like, trying to figure it
out. And now you have your favorite
brand of deer urine. Like, did you see that coming?
It just took time. Like over time you kind of
developed your rhythm and your routine.
And the same is true with God, that the more time you spend
with him, the more he will begin to make sense to you.
Time is a great teacher. And one of the reasons though,
that we have a hard time with the Bible is because if we were
to be honest with each other and we were to be honest with
ourselves, we haven't put in the time.
I need you to know that God is not purposely difficult.
God is a revealer. He wants to be known by you.
Look what he says in Matthew Chapter 7.
Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find knock and
the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives
and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks.
The door will be opened. If you want to live a
spiritually vibrant life, if you want to live a life that will
help you to make a difference. The Bible is a powerful tool in
the life of a believer. The Bible is one of the most
powerful tools you will have to live and experience the
Christian life. Let me just show you some of the
ways that the Bible is going to be helpful to you.
The Bible is a guide. It's a guide for making
disciples, and it's a guide for training in godly living.
Look what it says in Second Timothy All Scripture Front to
back Genesis to Revelation. Is God breathed?
And is everybody say this word useful?
It's useful for what? For teaching, rebuking,
correcting, and training in righteousness so that the
servant of God may be everybody. Say this word thoroughly
equipped. For every good work.
The Bible makes you ready to do the good work that God has
called you to. Here's another one.
The Bible is a defense against sin.
How many of you have sinned? How many of you would like to
sin less if you didn't raise your hand there?
You sinned. So put your hand back up.
Hear me? The Bible helps you sin less.
Look what it says in Psalm 119. I have hidden your word in my
heart that I might not sin against you.
The Bible helps us to fight back against sin.
The Bible is a light in a Dark World.
Look what it says in Psalm 119 One O 5, Your Word.
This is the Bible is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
It gets better than that. The Bible is a weapon against
the enemy. Satan is going to come to try to
destroy the things that God is trying to build up in your life.
And when Satan comes, there's something that he can't defeat.
Satan cannot defeat the word of God.
It is our weapon against the evil. 1 Ephesians chapter 6
shows us so much. Finally, be strong in the Lord
and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so
that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against
rulers, against authorities, against the powers of The Dark
World, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
realms. Therefore, put on the full armor
of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to
stand your ground. And after you've done everything
to stand, stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around
your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and
with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the
gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up
the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the
flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Jesus is actually a perfect example of this.
Before he started his earthly ministry, Jesus goes off into
the desert and he fasts and he prays for 40 days and Satan is
tempting him. At the end of the 40 days, Satan
comes and he tempts him three more times.
And every time Satan tempt, tempted Jesus.
Do you know what Jesus did? He responded with scripture that
when Satan tempts you, if you have an arsenal, you have hidden
God's word in your heart. It will keep you from sin and it
will defend you against Satan. The Bible is a manual for life.
It covers how to navigate sex, handle money, choose friends,
navigate relational hurt, choose a spouse, raise kids, build and
maintain a good reputation and leave a powerful legacy.
How many of you have ever purchased IKEA furniture?
Yeah, if you haven't, don't. Anybody who's ever purchased
IKEA furniture knows that it takes you as much time to drive
all the way down to Saint Louis to pick it out as it does for
you to put it together in your house.
And the biggest idiots among us try to do it without the
instructions. Am I right?
I need you to hear me say this. You are more complicated than
IKEA furniture, and if you are trying to build your life
without a manual, you are going to build something you don't
want. But the Bible is so much more
than that. The Bible helps us deal with
worry, anxiety, identity, and eternity.
It's a mirror into our deepest pain, a window into our darkest
sins, and a healing balm to our heart dish wounds beyond that.
The Bible is a love letter from God.
It tells us that we have been created by him, that we're not
an accident. It shows us how badly we've
messed up, but it shows us that there is a way out and a way
forward. For instance, can I just show
you some of my favorites? John 316 says for God still
loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life. If you believe in Jesus, there
is the hope of heaven that is available for every single one
of you. One of my all time favorites.
Romans, chapter 5, verse 8. But God demonstrates his own
love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. Some of you, you know, somebody
who's thinking to themself, you know what, I got to get my life
together and then I can get my life with God.
You need to know this verse. They need to know this verse
that before you ever started to turn it around, when you were
still as jacked up as you could ever be, God paid the price on
your behalf for your sin. He loved you when you were at
your worst. When you were at your worst, God
was at his best. The verse that I was using to
talk to Jennifer when she was coming to faith in Jesus Christ
is like easily going to be a tattoo.
First one day. Second Corinthians 517.
The hope of the gospel is this. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone, the new
is here. When you come to faith in Christ
Jesus, he doesn't just make you different.
He makes you new. He gives you a new heart, a new
spirit, new desires and new priorities.
He gets rid of the old self that was covered in sin, and he
brings about something new. How does he do it, You ask?
If you're looking for a reason to fall in love with Jesus, look
what it says later on in verse 21.
God made him. That's Jesus, who had no sin to
be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God. How did he make you new?
He took all of what was messed up in you, and he placed it on
Jesus, and he took all that was right about Jesus and he placed
it on you. Psalm 23 tells us that even when
I walk through the darkest valley, I'm not alone.
He's with me to guide me and comfort me, and that he's
preparing a place for me. Romans 828 tells me that in all
things, God is working for the good of those who love Him,
who've been called according to his purpose.
What he's saying is if you love me, I never stop working for
your good. No matter how much you messed
up, no matter how dark the valley is, no matter how hard
the challenge is, God takes no smoke breaks and working for
your good, He takes no sick days working for your good, no lunch
breaks working for your good, he says.
If you love me, I can't wait to work to redeem all the things
that Satan's tried to take from you and break inside of you so I
can turn any situation around. We need Christians who are
engaged in the scripture so we can live a life in response to
God's love, so we can love God back and we can clearly
articulate the good News to people who desperately need it.
Let this be the end of a lack of Bible engagement in this church.
Let this be the beginning of people who start loving him
back. We're moving to a time of
decision. If you stick around this church
for a long time, you're going to hear me say this like, over and
over and over and over again. But this is like one of the best
chunks of scripture that Jesus ever put together because it's
so stinking clear. This is what he says.
Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into
practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The rain came down streams, rose, winds blew beating into
the house, but it didn't fall because it had its foundation on
the rock. But everyone who hears these
words of mine and doesn't put him into practice, it's like a
foolish man. I didn't call you a fool.
Jesus did build his house on the sand.
The rain came down and the streams rose and the winds blew
and beat against the house and it fell with a great crash.
The difference between Christians and non Christians.
The difference between people who love God and don't love God
is not that one group goes through storms and one group
doesn't. If you get baptized today, it's
still going to rain. We own an umbrella and I'm a
pastor. It rains on me just like it
rains on you. The difference as Christians
know that they're going to be fine on the other side of the
storm. And those who aren't Christians,
those who don't love God back, will get destroyed by the storm.
Hear me. Hear me.
Hear me, all of you. Tonight, you have heard the word
of the Lord, and some of you will go, all right.
It's time for me to start reading my Bible and doing what
it says. And when the storms come, I got
good news for you. You won't be washed away.
You'll still be standing, and some of you have heard the exact
same sermon. You'll lift your hands just as
high in worship. You'll pray just as long at the
steps. But if you go home and we don't
put the word of God into practice, then help.
It's like this. It's like going out and buying
all new workout clothes and putting them in the dresser.
How many of you have ever gotten skinny by buying workout
clothes? Judging by the amount of workout
clothes I see women in all over Quincy, everybody shops in
workout clothes, but obviously, Nah, probably working out,
because if you could shop your waist skinny, we'd all be.
We'll get to that in a couple weeks.
OK? Buying workout clothes doesn't
make you skinny. Watching people work out doesn't
make you skinny. Guess what does.
Work it out. Hey, look, I've got 7 Bibles in
my house and I'm still struggling.
Bible ownership is not faithfulness, but I've been
going to church for 30 years. Hearing my words and doing my
words are two different things. You could have heard the word
for 50 years, but until you put it in your life and put it into
practice, it produces no fruit. If you're here today and you've
never started an intimate, personal relationship with
Jesus, I'm standing in front of you living proof that God's word
is good, it's reliable, it's powerful, it's transformative,
and it will teach you that you're a Sinner but that God is
a good savior. And those are if you don't take
my word for it, take the word of people who are in your row,
Taste and see that the Lord is good and you won't regret it.
And if you want to start that relationship, I would tell you,
don't put it off to the rest of you in this room.
To those of you who are Christians, God is not impressed
with your knowledge, but he is moved by your obedience.
And if you want to love him back.
We need to become obedient people if we want to make a
change in the lives of the people we care about.
If we want to be a light in the darkness so that people can see
Christ, the world doesn't need more people who call themselves
Christians and needs people who are committed to loving God.
Back to reading His word and doing what it says.
What I'm going to encourage you to do is would you spend some
time today? Maybe come up here you didn't
fill out a commitment card last week and you're going, you know
what? There's 43 days left in this
journey. I'm going on this journey.
I'm going to see what God's going to do in my life over the
next 43 days as I commit 50 minutes a day for the next 43
days to allow God to bring about a change in my life.
Man, you need it. I need it.
And the people we love need it from us.
Would you stand with me, Heavenly Father, do a work in
this church all across this region, Bring about a change in
us that can only be brought about and sustained and
empowered by you. God, convict us of the areas
where we've been falling short, where we've been running, making
excuses. Stir in us a passion and a
commitment for you and your ways and your name.
I pray. Amen.