Famous Last Words: Evanglism is for Everyone

[00:00:00] Hey everyone welcome back to The GoodLion Podcast. I am Aaron Salvato your host and

[00:00:06] Yeah, I know it's been a while. It has certainly been a moment

[00:00:11] There have been a lot of things going on in my life a lot of crazy things a lot of unexpected things more on that later

[00:00:20] There's certainly a lot I want to share with you guys on upcoming episodes

[00:00:25] But for right now I have something that I believe is really special lined up for you today

[00:00:32] I am reaching back into the archives to a sermon that I preached in

[00:00:39] 2016 at a summer camp up in Green Valley Lake up in the mountains in California

[00:00:45] This is back when I was a youth pastor. So be prepared for my youth pastor voice

[00:00:51] It's a little

[00:00:57] I was definitely a bit of a spaz when I was a youth pastor, but

[00:01:01] Really, I mean you kind of have to be in youth ministry

[00:01:05] So as you're listening I would say cut me some slack

[00:01:09] But this was a time in my life as a youth pastor when I

[00:01:13] Was really stirred up and passionate about the topic of evangelism

[00:01:19] And actually this month at the Good Lion School of Discipleship out here in Yukon, Oklahoma

[00:01:23] We are taking a deep dive into the topic of evangelism studying the theology behind it and the reason for it

[00:01:30] And this upcoming Sunday. We are actually taking a bunch of students out to do some street witnessing

[00:01:37] Something many of them have never done before so please keep them in your prayers

[00:01:41] But as I was thinking through

[00:01:44] Evangelism it got me thinking about this old message and it's a message I've preached many times and in many different places

[00:01:51] It's a deeply

[00:01:53] personal sermon

[00:01:54] where I share

[00:01:56] my heart and my thoughts but also my

[00:02:00] Experiences the things that God taught me specifically

[00:02:04] About evangelism and the journey he took me on as a young pastor who was honestly

[00:02:10] Terrified like just terrified at the idea of sharing my faith with others

[00:02:14] God woke me up to the reality that every Christian is called to live out the Great Commission

[00:02:22] And so in this message we take a look at what the Great Commission is what Jesus told us to do and how we can live

[00:02:29] Out that calling not through our own strength not through our own ability but through the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit

[00:02:37] So I'm inviting you to listen to this message. I hope it inspires you

[00:02:42] I hope it challenges you and maybe even I hope it changes the way that you view

[00:02:48] Evangelism, and I hope it empowers you and fills you with courage and

[00:02:53] Hope that you too are able to share your faith with others because you have Jesus right there beside you

[00:03:00] Leading and guiding the way. Thanks for listening

[00:03:03] I hope to have some new content for you guys soon. So stay tuned, but for now. I hope you enjoy this sermon

[00:03:23] I want to talk to you guys tonight

[00:03:26] about the idea of

[00:03:28] Last words I feel like last words tend to be very important. I feel like a lot of times when somebody is

[00:03:38] Dying and they have their last words. They use it to make some sort of request now

[00:03:45] You know when I was at camp

[00:03:46] I never thought I would die

[00:03:48] But there was always in the back of my mind like maybe bears like maybe at some point bears will attack

[00:03:53] Let's run in and grab me. So I was thinking about it

[00:03:56] And you know if I'm on the ground I've been mauled by a bear and I'm bleeding out my friends are looking at me

[00:04:02] And they're like Aaron bro

[00:04:04] What can we do for you?

[00:04:06] Like can we do anything man anything, you know, if it's my last words?

[00:04:09] I could probably mess with them a little bit, right?

[00:04:13] Because let's do whatever I want so I look at him and I look at my friends. I look at Steve

[00:04:17] I'd be like Steve. Oh

[00:04:19] Dear Steve

[00:04:21] You've always been such a good friend to me

[00:04:24] But I want you to do and he's like yeah man anything. I want you to

[00:04:29] paint your entire body blue

[00:04:31] And run down the street and scream. I'm a blueberry and you'd be like what we're talking about and I should be like

[00:04:37] Oh, yeah, I do it and then I'd die

[00:04:39] Or look at Rick. I'd be like oh dear sweet Rick

[00:04:44] sweet sweet Rickless

[00:04:47] Here's what I want you to do man. I want you to open up

[00:04:51] You've always been you've always been so giving Rick

[00:04:54] I heard that I want you to open up an orphanage for baby turtles

[00:04:59] Because without fathers how will they ever come out of their shells?

[00:05:06] Okay, yeah, thanks. Yeah, whatever

[00:05:09] Last words though, they really are serious business because someone who is important to you when they pass

[00:05:17] You want to be there for those words?

[00:05:18] You want to hear what they're saying because you love that person and you want to be able to carry out their wishes

[00:05:26] Now I wonder how many of you know Jesus's last words anybody? Anybody want to try?

[00:05:32] Jesus last words

[00:05:34] What?

[00:05:35] It is finished so Jesus hangs on the cross before he gives his last breath. He utters the words it is

[00:05:43] finished but

[00:05:45] Jesus

[00:05:46] Got a do-over because remember he comes back from the dead so he gets another set of last words

[00:05:54] What he says is what we call the Great Commission as Jesus is with his disciples

[00:05:59] He's risen from the dead he gathers them together and he's ascending to heaven and he says guys

[00:06:04] I've got some words for you. So that's in Matthew 28

[00:06:09] Look at verse 16

[00:06:11] Says then the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go and when they saw him

[00:06:19] They worship but some doubted Thomas

[00:06:22] Absolutely Thomas

[00:06:24] Then Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me

[00:06:29] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations

[00:06:33] Baptizing you know what let's start over. Let's read it together

[00:06:36] We'll start at verse 19. I'll cue you in then Jesus came to them and said

[00:06:43] Started with me all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me verse 19 read it with me

[00:06:49] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations

[00:06:54] baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and

[00:06:59] Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age

[00:07:06] Will you pray with me?

[00:07:07] Dear Lord

[00:07:09] As we come tonight to study your gospel your good news and what it means for our lives

[00:07:15] And what it means for your kingdom and how we fit into that story

[00:07:18] I pray tonight that you would bless these words that you would speak

[00:07:22] Midely and that you would cut us deep to the heart and show us things that we long to see your plan your

[00:07:30] Purpose your vision for us as your followers as your disciples, please Lord bless this night in your name. Amen

[00:07:37] So this is amazing these words that we read this is amazing

[00:07:40] Jesus is saying to the disciples his last words and for the disciples

[00:07:44] This is serious business and so for us it should be serious business as followers of Jesus

[00:07:51] So let's break it down. We're gonna unpack these verses. We're gonna find out what they mean. Are you with me?

[00:07:56] all right

[00:07:58] Verse 19 says therefore go and make disciples of all the nations

[00:08:04] Now Trevor talked a little bit about what it means to be a disciple

[00:08:08] And I love just the imagery of a follower not a fan a follower back in the day the Jewish rabbis had

[00:08:16] Fan or not fans they had followers they had disciples and so these guys like to kind of put it in perspective

[00:08:22] Like they had a guy they looked up to the rabbi their teacher and they said whatever you say like man

[00:08:28] I'm writing it down. I'm gonna like go home and memorize it like I'm gonna do it

[00:08:32] I'm gonna apply it be like if you like were anyone here like math any math fans

[00:08:37] nerds I

[00:08:39] Hate math. I just I stink at it, so I hate on you. I'm sorry

[00:08:44] But imagine if you loved your math teacher so much you were like Mr. Fenderson

[00:08:50] All the equations that you spout out you're just dropping these

[00:08:54] Equational truth bombs like I need that I'm writing it down

[00:08:57] I'm gonna go home and just look at it and steady it like wherever you go. I'm gonna go with you

[00:09:01] I'm gonna follow you to the drugstore. He's like no, please leave me alone

[00:09:04] Like I already put in my time at school like we don't know

[00:09:08] These ancient rabbis had these disciples and they were their followers

[00:09:12] They were the followers and they said we will do whatever you say we will learn

[00:09:16] We will love we will listen and listen you are the next generation of

[00:09:21] Disciples it wasn't just about the 12

[00:09:24] It's about the 12 plus the 350 in here plus all the other disciples out there

[00:09:29] You are the next generation of

[00:09:31] Disciples

[00:09:32] It's not about being a fan of Jesus where you're just liking the things he says and

[00:09:38] Scrolling on like you do all of the nice inspirational Bible verse quotes people post on Instagram. Oh, that's nice

[00:09:44] Oh, that's nice. Thank you for that Jesus. No, it's these are the words of life

[00:09:49] This is what I live for this is what I die by this is my gospel. This is my truth

[00:09:53] It is your words your words are the words of life

[00:09:57] You know the world can be a little bit confused about the word Christian means

[00:10:01] They do interviews sometimes street interviews and they ask when you think of Christian

[00:10:05] What do you think and you know what people say number one Christians are judgmental?

[00:10:08] They're hateful. They just sit around they hate on us sinners

[00:10:11] They just man that all they do is they just condemn us condemn us condemn us

[00:10:16] People are a little mixed up and there's other people who believe that to be a Christian what it really means is just oh

[00:10:21] I go to church. Yeah, I go to church, you know Christmas and Easter. I'm a Christian

[00:10:24] I believe yeah sure Jesus died for me

[00:10:27] Thanks for the get out of hell car or thanks for the get out of hell free card. Thanks for that Jesus

[00:10:34] But Jesus calls us to be something more, you know back in Jesus's day after he had died

[00:10:40] The word Christian the way it came to be was it was ancient trash talk

[00:10:45] It was the Romans looking at these Jews who followed Jesus and they said these guys are like little Jesus's little mini

[00:10:51] Me Jesus is the little Christians

[00:10:52] That's where the word came from because they acted and they talked and they looked and everything they did was

[00:10:59] Christ-like

[00:11:01] This is what we are called to are you with me? Yeah

[00:11:06] so

[00:11:08] What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

[00:11:11] What were the disciples all about?

[00:11:13] You know when they first started their careers disciples. They were fishermen. They were casting their nets

[00:11:17] They were down catching fish. These are just hard-working Jewish guys trying to make a living and Jesus comes in he says hey

[00:11:25] He can he probably sounded kind of crazy. Can you imagine you're trying to catch fish this guy walks up?

[00:11:29] And he's like hey, uh, hey, I know you're trying to catch fish, but what if we caught men, huh?

[00:11:35] Yeah, let's get some nets. Let's get these guys. Well, yeah, let's get all the men like you're like what I don't want to

[00:11:41] Catch people that's weird like no

[00:11:44] But they followed him there was something about him that was so captivating he says let's go make disciples

[00:11:50] Let's be fishers of men, you know to be a Christian. How many guys are church kids any church kids here?

[00:11:55] You grew up in the church. Okay. Yeah me too

[00:11:58] My dad was a pastor my mom ran children's ministry like I knew

[00:12:02] Every Bible story every time someone got up to preach. I was like you can't teach me anything

[00:12:06] I already know the application. What do you teach it on David and Goliath?

[00:12:09] Is it's gonna be another one about how we're God wants us to face our giants like oh so great

[00:12:14] Like I thought I knew what every steady was gonna be about maybe that's you're here tonight

[00:12:17] You're like, oh, you can't tell me anything listen. God has a word for you tonight

[00:12:22] To be a Christian to be a church kid a lot of times when you're born into the faith

[00:12:26] You're like a soldier with amnesia

[00:12:29] You wake up on the battlefield and there's bombs going off and grenades flying and and you're you're like

[00:12:34] You've got a gun in your hand and you know that you're supposed to fight

[00:12:37] You're like, I don't know why I'm here. I don't know what this is about

[00:12:41] Someone just handed me a gun like what is going on and sometimes when we're born into the church

[00:12:45] This is how it is our parents are just like here's your Bible go to church be a good Christian

[00:12:50] You're like, I don't even know like what this is all about like maybe that's you like maybe you're like a senior in high school

[00:12:55] Right now, but you've just been faking your entire walk because you just you still don't get it

[00:12:59] You know, it's so much better to know what you're fighting for it's so much better to say

[00:13:03] I know who I am and what I stand for. I know I know what I am fighting for and

[00:13:10] Jesus says what we are fighting for is souls

[00:13:13] We are fighting for the lost

[00:13:16] We are fighting for the people in our world who are separated from God and need a savior. We are fighting

[00:13:23] To reconcile them to God through the work of Jesus Christ

[00:13:28] Is that your mission? That's what I would ask you

[00:13:30] Is that your mission and maybe to ask do you have a mission at all?

[00:13:34] When you examine your life is is is there a mission at all? You know, Jesus really really loves you

[00:13:41] You know, he really does and he didn't make you to be his slave or his errand boy or

[00:13:49] Servant girl. He made you to be a son and daughter

[00:13:53] There's a huge difference between a son and daughter and a servant

[00:13:56] You know what I mean like what does a servant do like a

[00:13:59] Servant in a house of rich man a servant

[00:14:02] Comes down and you know has the food and serves it, you know

[00:14:05] The servant like brings in the mail and says here you go

[00:14:09] What is a son or daughter do the son and daughter sits at the table and eats the food

[00:14:13] The son or daughter grabs the mail and opens up and says oh, yes, it's for me

[00:14:18] God has called you to be with him. We are for him, but first we are with him

[00:14:25] Absolutely and so

[00:14:28] We are called to advance the kingdom

[00:14:31] Now this term advanced the kingdom what that means

[00:14:34] It's kind of like you can think of it as a military term almost when there was an ancient kingdom

[00:14:39] You all have crowns on your shirts right now when you had a king and he had a kingdom to advance that kingdom

[00:14:45] He had to do it few through a few ways one was through conquest to go and violently gather an army

[00:14:51] And say we're gonna get these nights. We're gonna go together

[00:14:53] We're gonna advance the kingdom we're gonna slay the enemy. We're gonna take their land

[00:14:56] We're gonna take their possessions. We're advancing our kingdom

[00:14:58] We're building our kingdom up more and yet Jesus does not call us to advance the kingdom of God through violence

[00:15:05] He calls us to advance the kingdom of God through love

[00:15:08] Our world is corrupted with sin and violence and hatred and racism and just all these terrible things

[00:15:14] We see in the news every day when we turn on the TV and Jesus says no no no

[00:15:18] We got to take background. We got to work together for the kingdom

[00:15:22] There's people out there who are dying who need to hear the gospel and we are called

[00:15:26] And for some of you guys again if you've been born into the church, it's tough

[00:15:31] It really is you know if you've got two different people

[00:15:34] Let's go medieval again, and we've got on one side

[00:15:38] You've got a guy who was born and his dad was a soldier and so at a very young age

[00:15:43] The dad says here's your sword son. Here's your shield. We're gonna train you up

[00:15:46] We're gonna fight you're gonna be in this war and and you're just like like

[00:15:50] Like I don't even know like who the enemy is what we're fighting that what is this?

[00:15:53] Like I guess I'll just do it because my dad wants me to and then the other side

[00:15:57] You've got a guy

[00:15:58] Who's walking through a field and he gets attacked by the enemy and the enemy comes upon him

[00:16:03] And the enemy comes to slay him and then the king rides up on a white horse

[00:16:07] And the king goes in front of the sword and the king takes a stab wound for that guy

[00:16:12] Rips out the sword and then defeats the enemy and then turns to that guy says hey you follow me

[00:16:18] Like what situation makes you want to follow the king more the first one or the second one

[00:16:23] The second one absolutely and if you if you're here, and you've been born into the church

[00:16:28] That doesn't change the fact that Jesus took that stoop stab wound for you

[00:16:32] That doesn't change the fact just because you didn't have a story. We were like oh, yeah

[00:16:37] I was like I was a prostitute. I was a drug dealer. I was doing all this stuff

[00:16:41] Like sometimes you go to camp and we hear someone give a message some testimony where they're just like

[00:16:44] Oh, I had this gnarliest story. I was always the kid who was like yeah, I

[00:16:48] I lied a couple times when I was like in fifth grade like

[00:16:53] Such a gnarly testimony and I was just you know what I mean

[00:16:56] But it doesn't change the fact that without Jesus I was doomed

[00:17:00] I was destined for hell. It doesn't matter that my dad was a pastor without Jesus

[00:17:04] And Jesus was never in the picture. I have no hope

[00:17:07] And so it doesn't change the fact

[00:17:10] That Jesus took the wound for us and he turns to you and he says hey follow me

[00:17:16] He's worth following

[00:17:18] You know

[00:17:20] For me a lot of times I used to wonder like what's my purpose in life, you know

[00:17:24] Like seriously like I was a weird kid like if you know anybody like who knew me back in the day

[00:17:29] Like Trevor anyone else like ask me like they'll tell you like yeah, he was weird. I was the weird counselor

[00:17:34] I don't know if any of you guys brought up like the guy who's like he's the

[00:17:37] He's with those kids, you know, I was that guy

[00:17:39] You know like crazy long hair and just you know war weird clothes and like to talk about Pokemon and video games

[00:17:46] And I was that guy, you know, I just wonder like what's my purpose growing up?

[00:17:51] You know, I didn't have good luck with girls didn't really have a lot of friends like really struggled with like

[00:17:57] Kind of just image and self and like who am I and am I worth anything like just all this stuff?

[00:18:03] You know, you know what did it for me is

[00:18:07] You know when I was 15 years old, I came up to this camp

[00:18:10] Not actually to be a counselor or to serve the Lord. I came up for money. I

[00:18:16] Got hired to film a video

[00:18:19] Trevor paid me to come up here when I was 15 to shoot a winter camp video and I did not want to serve anybody

[00:18:25] I did not want to

[00:18:27] Love on anybody. I just was like sweet like I can make money by holding a camera awesome

[00:18:32] But as I was up here the Lord spoke to me and as I was dealing with all these anxieties and worries and cares and then

[00:18:39] Talking to like sixth grade boys who are dealing with the exact same thing as me

[00:18:43] The Lord was like this is what life is about. It's not reaching people

[00:18:47] It's about loving people and the Lord was like, hey Aaron stop caring so much about yourself

[00:18:52] Stop obsessing over yourself. And what am I worth? Who will love me? Who will I day?

[00:18:57] Who I marry like what's my career gonna be? What's my future and the Lord was like care about others

[00:19:03] Have compassion love on people and that camp changed my life

[00:19:08] And I've been serving in youth ministry ever since and and I look and and I can say now

[00:19:15] Looking at my life that I understand purpose

[00:19:19] Because I understand what calling means calling means you know who the king is and you know what he wants you to do

[00:19:27] That doesn't mean growing up to be a pastor or a pastor's wife or a children's ministry worker

[00:19:33] It's not limited that we need people

[00:19:36] Sorry a fly just flew into my ear. So if I look like I spaz down for a second. I'm not having a seizure up here, okay?

[00:19:44] But we need people

[00:19:46] We need CEOs of big companies who follow Jesus

[00:19:49] We need McDonald's workers who follow Jesus we need janitors and car salesmen and

[00:19:56] like IRS agents and like

[00:19:59] magazine employees and beauty school

[00:20:03] Workers and people who cut hair and feel like I'm just rambling off random jobs

[00:20:07] We just need we need people who love Jesus out there in the world

[00:20:10] We need people preaching the gospel through their actions and God looks at you a generation of young people

[00:20:16] And and if you're here and you're just like I want to serve Jesus

[00:20:19] But I don't really like want to go into like the ministry listen every single Christian is called into the ministry of

[00:20:25] Ministering to people it doesn't matter what your job is that's called vocation

[00:20:29] Your calling is you serve Jesus Christ with your actions with your words with your life

[00:20:34] And he has so much in store for you, but you might be here and you're like you know what?

[00:20:38] I'm just a high school kid like how can I do that?

[00:20:41] How can I honor God that way?

[00:20:42] How can I measure up a lot of times we feel like we can't measure up because we have too much sin in our life

[00:20:48] Or we're too inadequate

[00:20:49] Maybe you were like me and you looked in the mirror almost every day as a young person

[00:20:53] And you just saw someone who was worthless that was me. I looked in the mirror. I didn't like how it looked

[00:20:58] I didn't like how I sound I didn't like anything about me and I put on a front

[00:21:03] You know and acted like everything was okay, but I was just like man. What's my purpose?

[00:21:06] What am I all about like I just I can't do anything God looks at you and he says you're my beloved child

[00:21:14] Come with me. Let's do something great

[00:21:19] But a lot of times you can't you think you can't you say you know what?

[00:21:22] I can't serve God because I am a sinner and so many times sin pushes us away from God

[00:21:28] Our sin makes us fall away from him

[00:21:30] We think I can't get close to him because his holiness is too great

[00:21:33] And I'm too much of a sinner but listen your sin should never push you away from God

[00:21:37] Your sin should push you to him your sin should push you to the one who can forgive it

[00:21:42] Your sickness should push you to the doctor not away

[00:21:46] He loves you and

[00:21:48] So many of you here. There's there's those of you here and you know

[00:21:51] You know, you know, you're called to follow Jesus

[00:21:54] You know you're called to discipleship

[00:21:56] You know you're called to do great things, but you know what you're saying right now

[00:21:59] You're lying to yourself. This is what you're saying. I'm gonna tell you exactly what's going on. You're saying

[00:22:05] Yeah, I mean I want to follow Jesus, but there's just too much messed up about my life right now

[00:22:10] There's too many issues. I just I can't I've got to deal with me

[00:22:13] I've got it just like hunker down and fix all my problems and then I can follow Jesus

[00:22:19] read the Gospels

[00:22:20] The 12 disciples were a mess a collective giant mess

[00:22:26] Those guys were gnarly they were always fighting it one another and Peter was always saying the dumbest things like it was just

[00:22:32] It was gnarly Jesus didn't look at them and say hey you guys get your life together and then follow me

[00:22:37] No, he said follow me and watch as I revolutionize your existence and your life

[00:22:43] Jesus is calling you tonight to follow him no matter what you're dealing with

[00:22:47] Follow now in 1st Peter 2

[00:22:51] Verse 9 it says you are a chosen generation a

[00:22:54] Royal priesthood a holy nation his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness

[00:23:02] Into his marvelous light

[00:23:05] And you might hear that and you might say you know what man? I'm not holy. I'm not holy

[00:23:10] No way like my pastor. Yeah, he's holy but me no I'm not and you know what we think of holiness as

[00:23:18] Perfection we think of holiness is like you know we have you ever read that verse in the Bible where God is like be

[00:23:25] Holy as I am

[00:23:28] Holy I feel like I just channeled like either Mufasa or Darth Vader

[00:23:32] Jesus I am your father

[00:23:36] That was weak

[00:23:37] You know what I mean

[00:23:39] We get that thing where we're like God's like be holy like me and you're like I can't

[00:23:45] You're just your perfection. I'm a teenager. I am just I sin every two seconds come on

[00:23:51] I

[00:23:52] Can't be holy and so we give up because we think it's unattainable holiness is like this this far-off thing where it's like

[00:23:57] I can't be that so I just won't try

[00:23:59] guys guys

[00:24:01] holiness

[00:24:03] When the Bible calls you to be holy, it's not talking about you like it's not saying be perfect

[00:24:09] Because you can't

[00:24:11] You can't

[00:24:14] You can't I'm sorry, but you can raise your hand if you've ever been perfect

[00:24:19] Yeah, you haven't liar

[00:24:22] You're already not you're already lying not perfect guys

[00:24:26] Listen when the Bible talks about holiness when it says you be holy. It's not saying you be perfect

[00:24:32] Holiness is defined as

[00:24:35] Set apart for a purpose

[00:24:38] When you look at God, I think we saw it in one of the videos

[00:24:42] But God

[00:24:43] He's kind of like the Sun in the sense of the Sun is this object that is different

[00:24:49] It is unique than anything else in our solar system. It is bright. It is hot

[00:24:54] It has just this energy emitting out of it if you get too close to the Sun what happens

[00:24:59] You burn up and die and just like God he is unique. He is powerful

[00:25:03] He's the most amazing wonderful majestic just thing in the universe

[00:25:07] He's the greatest person of all time and yet his holiness is so great that for us sinners to get close to it

[00:25:11] We'd burn up like if we tried to go travel to the Sun right now. God is set apart for a purpose

[00:25:17] He is perfect and holy that's part of it. He's perfect

[00:25:21] But he's holy. He's set apart, you know, I

[00:25:25] Have a tea kettle

[00:25:27] I like tea I keep a tea kettle in my office because I like tea

[00:25:31] And that tea kettle is holy. It is set apart for the purpose of tea. I don't make coffee in it

[00:25:37] I make tea

[00:25:39] so

[00:25:42] That holiness was defiled

[00:25:44] By a student or two or three. I'm still waiting to find out who but it was defiled

[00:25:51] someone snuck into my office

[00:25:53] Took the light bulbs out of all my lamps

[00:25:56] Put them in my tea kettle and then filled it with diet coke

[00:26:01] Now in the summer, I don't make much tea because it's hot

[00:26:04] So like three months go by I haven't made any tea starts getting colder. I'm like time for some tea

[00:26:10] I go to my tea kettle open it up and there's light bulbs and diet coke

[00:26:14] I was like this is wrong

[00:26:17] This is unholy

[00:26:20] Guys we are called to be set apart for a purpose

[00:26:24] To serve the Lord not just for him but with him and as you as a believer set yourself

[00:26:32] Apart for that purpose

[00:26:34] You find yourself walking with Jesus and his perfection rubs off on you

[00:26:39] And you find yourself starting to resist sin you find yourself starting to not give into those temptations

[00:26:45] You find yourself starting to love others and so when God says be ye holy as I am holy

[00:26:50] He's not saying hey you you better get it together

[00:26:52] You better be perfect. I've got a list of ten commandments and like a 500 more you don't even know about you better be good

[00:26:58] He's saying hey walk with me set yourself apart for my purposes and watch what I do

[00:27:06] You know

[00:27:08] This can sound like a lot of responsibility does anyone here have a hard time with responsibility

[00:27:13] raising if you like you if you just straight up don't like responsibility raise your hand anybody like you would just love a life

[00:27:19] With no responsibilities Hakuna Matata. Just yes, just a hammock and like eating worms all I guess I don't know

[00:27:27] You know for me I had an interesting experience. There's a field trip that my school takes

[00:27:33] Well, I'm not in school

[00:27:35] I'm like in fifth grade and then the time of the story fourth fourth grade fifth grade

[00:27:39] Our school went to the star of India. Anyone ever go on that? Yeah

[00:27:43] Remember that that boat the majestic star of India come and stay on the star of India

[00:27:49] So majestic so I go to the star of India as a fifth grader

[00:27:52] And we stay overnight and I'm with my class and it's this total reenactment of like what life on a ship was like and

[00:27:59] So we've got this crazy old lady who's like the captain of the ship, you know

[00:28:04] She's got like one eye or she just squinted all the time. I don't know but she looks at me

[00:28:09] For some reason she liked something about me. I was a short little kid with you know, a little frumpy curly head

[00:28:14] They called me acorn head that was my nickname. Yeah

[00:28:17] And they looked at me and they're like and the lady she goes. Oh, you got a spark in your eye

[00:28:23] I'm gonna give you some responsibility

[00:28:26] But first I'm gonna give you the hammer and she pulls out this gavel

[00:28:30] Which I don't know what has to do with being a sea captain

[00:28:32] but she pulls out a gavel and she gives it like this is the hammer and then she starts listing these responsibilities, but I was just

[00:28:38] So enamored that I had gotten the sweet hammer. I was like, I totally missed everything. She told me to do

[00:28:46] You know

[00:28:47] So a day goes by and I had some responsibilities. I don't know what they were I didn't do them

[00:28:53] So the next day she calls me in front of all my classmates and goes all

[00:28:58] You failed this ship you failed this crew and you failed me

[00:29:03] Give me the hammer

[00:29:05] She takes the hammer from me

[00:29:08] Then she gives it to this kid named Michael who was like my worst enemy back then I

[00:29:13] Was like Satan is real

[00:29:17] Kid you know, I'm not I promise you I am not embellishing this story. I would not lie to you. This is real

[00:29:24] No, it gets worse. I

[00:29:27] Turn around to face my classmates. I start walking towards them just with this look of utter shame on my face a

[00:29:34] sequel flies yonder overhead

[00:29:39] Right on my acorn head I

[00:29:43] Was so bummed

[00:29:46] Listen

[00:29:47] We don't like responsibility because often it leads to embarrassing failures, right? Are you with me?

[00:29:52] It leads to like letting people down. Oh my gosh. I hate letting people down

[00:29:56] I used to say yes to everyone who asked me to do anything because I was just so just afraid of letting anyone down

[00:30:02] I was a total yes, man

[00:30:03] and then I would constantly let people down and I just I felt a failure all the time in my life and

[00:30:08] A lot of times when someone comes to you as a young Christian and says hey listen

[00:30:14] Follow Jesus be holy be set apart just be pure be awesome do all this stuff a lot of times what we think

[00:30:21] We think of this responsibility as like this thing that crushes us

[00:30:25] We think of that responsibility to be a Christian is just this giant boulder

[00:30:31] You know if you're a few of Jesus is Jesus is standing there in front of this giant boulder called responsibility and he says hey you

[00:30:38] Pick that up or you can't you wimp. I'm gonna go find someone better

[00:30:42] Get out of my sight if that's your view of Jesus listen, I want to encourage you

[00:30:50] Being a follower of Jesus is not so much about your responsibility

[00:30:54] But it's about your response to his ability

[00:30:58] Because he's the one who does the work you just step into it

[00:31:02] So think of that boulder God's not like hey pick that up God's like a look what I can do

[00:31:08] Yeah, and then he says hey

[00:31:11] Why don't you come over here and put your hand right there underneath mine? Yeah, I got this we got this with the king

[00:31:19] Right

[00:31:21] Yeah, that was like kind of like a little half-chair from like one side of the room. That was really cool

[00:31:25] with the king

[00:31:28] I'm excited about it

[00:31:31] If you're here today, and you're burdened down with responsibility

[00:31:33] Know that Jesus is calling you to step into the work. He is already doing he's not saying you go do it

[00:31:39] He's like hey, I'm doing it. Why not do it with me like hey? I'm loving your parents. Why not love them with me?

[00:31:45] Hey, I'm just being responsible in the world and doing great things. Why not do them with me?

[00:31:49] Why not love your neighbor with me? Why not do your homework on time with me?

[00:31:54] Why not be like the best most pure respectful boyfriend of all time with me and treat that girl like she's a precious daughter

[00:32:03] Why not do that?

[00:32:06] I mean why not what do you have to lose?

[00:32:12] God has set you apart for his purpose so many times we want to be set apart for our own purposes

[00:32:19] Isn't that the truth? So maybe we want to be set apart for our own

[00:32:22] Purposes guys, you know what I've noticed this generation is about even more than mine was and mine was about it, too

[00:32:29] It's all about

[00:32:31] Animity it's all about being anonymous

[00:32:35] No one to tell me what to do no adults to know what's really going on in my life

[00:32:41] My own little world set apart where everything is secret and I know what's going on in my best friends

[00:32:48] The ones who have access they know what's going on, but no one else really does

[00:32:52] We're the snapchat generation

[00:32:54] Where you know hey go for it because it'll be gone without a trace

[00:32:59] I'm just saying a lot of times we

[00:33:04] Sacrifice what God is trying to do in our own life because we have our own God and it's the God of privacy and freedom

[00:33:10] The freedom to do whatever I want no rules no boundaries no accountability

[00:33:14] No adult to lovingly step in my life and say hey

[00:33:17] I love you, but I see these things in your life that are not good

[00:33:20] And so I ask you to follow Jesus

[00:33:22] Some of us we just we don't want that we want the freedom

[00:33:27] And a God we learned this morning God calls us to community

[00:33:31] To be in communion with him and one another the Trinity is the father the son and the Holy Spirit

[00:33:37] And I'm so blessed that they asked us to join into who they are to be a part of who they are to be in their family

[00:33:44] Not just to be separated. I'm God. I'm amazing. No it's a bit to say

[00:33:47] Hey, I love you why not join into this want to be a part of this holy

[00:33:51] family of God

[00:33:53] And we are called to this but we have a desire to be free

[00:33:58] To be our own person to have our own rules and really

[00:34:02] Our desire to be anonymous is the gateway to letting the power of hell into our life

[00:34:09] Think about it. If you don't believe me go back to page one two and three of the bible

[00:34:14] Adam and Eve they're in a garden. Who are they with?

[00:34:19] Yahweh

[00:34:21] God

[00:34:22] They're um their creator their friend the one that loves them. He's with them

[00:34:28] And he knows them and they know them. They are deeply known and loved

[00:34:33] There are no secrets between them everything is out in the open and it's beautiful and it's amazing

[00:34:40] But what is the certain? What does the serpent offer them?

[00:34:44] What does he offer him?

[00:34:47] fruit

[00:34:48] Yeah, but not just fruit independence

[00:34:51] animosity

[00:34:52] He says to them

[00:34:54] Listen

[00:34:55] Take this fruit. You know what it'll give you you won't need God

[00:34:59] I mean sure you can still be friends with him, but you don't need him

[00:35:02] Take this fruit and you will become like him. You will know the things that he knows

[00:35:07] You'll be able to do the things that he does you you like he's got you on a chain

[00:35:11] He's got you naming the animals and taking care of the garden. No, you've got more in store

[00:35:15] You've got you've got better things on your plate. Don't do what God wants you to do

[00:35:18] Do what you want to do do what I want you to do

[00:35:22] And he offers them the fruit and that simple act of defiance that simple act of saying yes

[00:35:28] I want to be anonymous. Yes. I want to enter into my own story and not necessarily have it be about God's story

[00:35:34] But what's my story like?

[00:35:35] And now we know what their story is like. It's our story

[00:35:38] It's the story of a corrupted broken world where brother kills brother on a daily basis

[00:35:46] Our world is rocked by the power of sin and our lives are rocked by the power of sin

[00:35:53] I don't know about you, but I know that I'm corrupted by sin

[00:35:55] I know that I have issues and problems. I see it every day. My wife sees it every day my friends see it every day

[00:36:03] And yet

[00:36:06] God invites me into his story. He says I know you're broken

[00:36:09] But I want to invite you onto a journey where I am fixing you on a daily basis

[00:36:15] I'm inviting you to take part in my great story from my glory and you join in and now you take a part in the glory

[00:36:22] You share in the joy

[00:36:24] It's like i'm gonna give you guys a really stupid analogy if that's okay

[00:36:27] It's a total like junior high analogy, but just to break it down

[00:36:31] It's like if your dad owned an ice cream shop

[00:36:35] And invited you to work in it

[00:36:37] So you're distributing like frozen liquid joy

[00:36:41] To people with like cookie dough on it. Oh, this sounds so good right now

[00:36:45] Oh

[00:36:47] But not only that your dad says hey check it out. I don't want you just to serve this ice cream

[00:36:52] You get to eat it for free. Yeah for realsies

[00:36:55] totally

[00:36:57] Yes

[00:36:58] I'm excited about that

[00:37:00] God has invited me not just to serve others

[00:37:03] But as i'm serving others

[00:37:05] I am taking part in the joy and the friendship and the community some of you guys hear

[00:37:09] I hope you're hearing this if you don't have this

[00:37:11] I hope there's an aching longing in your heart for the freedom that comes in knowing god

[00:37:16] In the freedom that comes from not just being this lone ranger on your own

[00:37:20] But inviting god into your story and accepting his invitation into his

[00:37:24] God is calling us

[00:37:27] He invites us into his story not as supporting background roles

[00:37:30] But his main characters as beloved children of the king his sons and daughters

[00:37:37] Jesus invites you to be with him. Are you with me?

[00:37:41] Are you with him?

[00:37:43] Yes

[00:37:44] So

[00:37:45] He invites us to do a couple things. He invites us to worship

[00:37:49] with him

[00:37:51] Did you know jesus worshiped god?

[00:37:53] I'm incredible. He is god and yet he prays to god and he gives praise to the father

[00:37:56] Jesus invites us to join him in worshiping the father

[00:38:00] Jesus invites us not just to love him but to love with him

[00:38:04] Jesus invites us not just to serve him but to serve with him

[00:38:08] He invites us to walk with him and he invites us to reach the lost for him

[00:38:14] And that's what we're talking about tonight the great commission

[00:38:18] now

[00:38:19] Some of us might say

[00:38:22] That's a tall order

[00:38:25] That's kind of scary like to be involved in the redemption of humankind to be involved in rescuing the lost

[00:38:32] Is anyone here freaked out by that?

[00:38:34] Anybody I kind of am

[00:38:36] I'll admit it to be like

[00:38:39] Like assigned like hey, there's a world dying out there go

[00:38:44] That's that's a tall order

[00:38:46] And for some of us we might say that's too scary

[00:38:49] We might say someone else should do it. You know billy graham. I think he's got it covered

[00:38:53] Or maybe greg lorry that guy knows what he's doing or Levi lascaux that guy can preach the gospel

[00:39:00] Guys if that's what you're thinking

[00:39:02] If it's just someone else will do it you're being robbed

[00:39:06] You're being robbed of the joy that comes in fulfilling the good news commission

[00:39:13] To preach the gospel to all nations and make disciples of all

[00:39:17] You're being robbed

[00:39:19] I want you guys to picture something

[00:39:22] I want you guys to picture this

[00:39:25] So we're in this building right now

[00:39:27] Let's just imagine we're in this chapel and all of a sudden this white

[00:39:31] Just light comes and just fills the whole room and it's glowing and it feels so warm

[00:39:37] And it's just like oh, this is awesome. It's the presence of god like this light. It's so beautiful

[00:39:43] And then maybe someone in the back is like

[00:39:48] We should probably open the door so that this light can like go out and like other people can see it

[00:39:54] Because you're looking around and you're looking you're like

[00:39:57] Man, that's weird. All the doors and all of the windows are boarded up

[00:40:01] That's very strange. It's a big light room. All the doors and windows are boarded up

[00:40:05] So your friend goes to the back and tries to open the door and says, hey

[00:40:08] Let's let other people see the light and someone in the room screams. Don't open that door

[00:40:13] Don't let the darkness in close that door. Keep it all in

[00:40:18] So many times

[00:40:20] So many times we the church

[00:40:22] Are this way

[00:40:24] We think church is just about us

[00:40:27] It's just about man. I really want some of that light, but don't let the darkness in

[00:40:32] Don't let anyone in who could

[00:40:35] Mess with the system. Don't let anyone in who's an outcast

[00:40:38] Don't let the sinner in because their sin is nasty and we don't want to deal with that

[00:40:44] And we do this guys when is darkness ever defeated light?

[00:40:50] Never it's like science

[00:40:52] like can you

[00:40:55] Have like, you know how you have flashlights. Can you have a dark light?

[00:40:58] Can you like turn it on and like cut through light and create darkness? No

[00:41:03] Light can never be defeated by darkness

[00:41:06] Light always wins and we are called to be the light

[00:41:12] But we do this all the time, you know, I was talking to a mom

[00:41:18] And she was this is years ago. She was talking to me and she was like pastor erin

[00:41:23] I just want to tell you

[00:41:26] I'm so glad that my kids go to your youth group

[00:41:30] Because everyone there is so holy

[00:41:33] You know, my daughter she went to the youth group down the street and you know what she told me

[00:41:37] There were kids there who were swearing

[00:41:41] They were saying naughty words

[00:41:43] And that's bad

[00:41:46] So i'm glad they're with you

[00:41:49] You know what I said to her I said

[00:41:52] I want those kids who are swearing in my youth group

[00:41:55] Straight up like I want some rough around the edge kids who don't know the lord to come and hear the gospel and get saved

[00:42:01] Like I don't know about you guys how your groups are but my group. I love you guys

[00:42:05] But hey vista kids like let's let's admit

[00:42:07] We're the same group of kids who have been coming to this church for years

[00:42:10] Like those of you guys are in the high school group

[00:42:12] You're the brothers and sisters of the kids who used to be in the high school group

[00:42:15] You know what I'm praying for I love you guys

[00:42:17] But I'm you guys have been trained for years by me and by the counselors and by the other pastors

[00:42:23] I'm praying that the lord sends us some people who don't know jesus at all and they come in and they're

[00:42:27] They're just foul mouth and they're crazy and they're just i'm praying that they come so that you guys can show them

[00:42:32] Who jesus is and what love really looks like that's what i'm praying for for you guys

[00:42:43] You know

[00:42:45] My uh

[00:42:48] My church has a vision you know that comes from the senior pastor who's my dad

[00:42:53] He says our church vision is upreach in reach and outreach

[00:42:56] Upreach is worship to god and reaches like fellowship, you know home fellowships and potlucks and men's breakfast

[00:43:02] You know all that good stuff

[00:43:05] Outreach is reaching the lost world

[00:43:08] And you know in my first year of being

[00:43:12] A youth pastor

[00:43:14] What I realized was like the way I was doing things in my youth group as a junior high pastor is

[00:43:19] I did a lot of outreach. We did worship and bible studies. I did a lot of in-reach. We did home fellowships

[00:43:23] but I was like man

[00:43:26] Like we don't really share the gospel

[00:43:28] Like I don't I don't know if my kids are I tell them to but I don't know if they are

[00:43:33] And many churches a lot of times we lack outreach because our focus is about comfort fun and entertainment for our members

[00:43:40] And not rescue mission for the people outside the doors and I am guilty of doing that

[00:43:47] Sometimes

[00:43:50] This is kind of who we are

[00:43:53] Imagine this imagine you're

[00:43:55] In an ocean and you're drowning and there's people all around you drowning

[00:43:59] And jesus comes up on the shore and he throws you a life preserver and you grab onto it

[00:44:04] You're like oh, jesus. Thank you and he pulls you up and you're like, thank you for saving me

[00:44:08] This is awesome and you start drying off and then jesus says okay, but look there's more people like here

[00:44:13] Here's another life preserver. Let's keep rescuing people. Let's keep going and you're like no. No. No. No. I'm good

[00:44:18] Like i'm okay. Like i'm i'm saved now

[00:44:21] I'm gonna go on the island and like build a hut and like you know

[00:44:24] It's gonna be super sweet and like i'll have a little section of the hut that's like dedicated to you

[00:44:27] Because you totally saved my life bro. Thanks so much

[00:44:29] I'm gonna like slap a jesus fish sticker on my little hut. It's gonna be so rad jesus

[00:44:35] And jesus is just like what are you doing? Like there's people there's people

[00:44:40] I heard a youth pastor once who was up on the stage and he's teaching a group like this and he had a bunch of goldfish on the stage

[00:44:47] And um, he's talking about just like guys. We need to have a heart to like reach people for the gospel

[00:44:53] Just we need to do it and then out of nowhere

[00:44:57] He like reaches into the goldfish bowl and just chucks them into the audience and all the kids are like

[00:45:04] What is going on and the guy says you got to rescue the goldfish. They're gonna drown

[00:45:09] They're out of the water. They need the water you got to get them back in and the kids start going crazy

[00:45:13] Everyone's running around like we gotta save the goldfish and I think one of the kids like stepped on one of them

[00:45:16] But you know the rest were okay, and they grabbed him and they got him in the bowl

[00:45:19] And everyone cheered and clapped and and then the pastor was like

[00:45:23] What was the last time you cared as much about someone's soul as you did about those goldfish right now

[00:45:29] And I was just like

[00:45:34] I need to go pray

[00:45:36] for like

[00:45:37] weak

[00:45:39] Oh my

[00:45:41] Conviction

[00:45:45] We live in a consumer church culture where our focus is only how can I be blessed?

[00:45:49] How can I come to church? Man, I hope the pastor is funny. I hope the message is funny

[00:45:54] Like i'm not gonna stay awake during camp during this message unless it's funny unless he makes me laugh

[00:45:58] If not, you know, it's on him and i'm just gonna sleep

[00:46:00] Anybody? Yeah, maybe right now wake up. Okay

[00:46:07] Maybe

[00:46:08] Our focus is just we sit and we're like man

[00:46:11] I'm showing up to church today because I need a blessing

[00:46:14] I need a blessing just man

[00:46:17] Lord bless me through this message because i'm just tired and weary and I need a blessing

[00:46:21] Yes, blessings rain down

[00:46:24] And we just and it's like there's people

[00:46:27] Who need the blessings

[00:46:30] We have so many blessings. Don't we like we just we we're like at the christian buffet right now

[00:46:36] We're just filling up every day. It's like non-stop eating work guys. We're getting fat up here at camp

[00:46:42] We're turning in just a big old christians

[00:46:46] And we are called to go and exercise our faith

[00:46:49] And preach the gospel

[00:46:51] When our focus is only how can I be blessed by church? Something is fundamentally wrong

[00:46:56] Keith green one of my legendary heroes anybody Keith green fan

[00:47:00] Yeah, yes, so Keith green has this song called asleep in the light

[00:47:05] Every time I hear it. I am just like

[00:47:08] Oh lord why why did I have to hear this song?

[00:47:11] This is what he says i'm gonna quote the lyrics

[00:47:14] Keith green musician in the 70s died at the age of 28 in a plane crash lived his life like crazy for jesus

[00:47:21] Got rescued from drug addiction and just got on fire and just burned out in a fiery plane crash

[00:47:27] Just this guy just this is what he says asleep in the light

[00:47:33] Do you see do you see all the people sinking down? Don't you care?

[00:47:38] Don't you care? Are you gonna let them drown? How can we be so numb not to care if they come?

[00:47:43] We close our eyes and pretend the job's done

[00:47:46] Bless me lord bless me lord. You know, that's all I ever hear no one aches

[00:47:49] No one hurts no one even sheds one tear

[00:47:51] But he cries he weeps he bleeds and he cares for your needs

[00:47:55] And you just lay back and keep soaking it in can't you see it's such sin?

[00:47:59] And then he says this amazing line the world is sleeping in the dark that the church just can't fight because it's asleep in the light

[00:48:10] How can we be so dead when we've been so well fed?

[00:48:14] Oh gosh

[00:48:16] Come on

[00:48:19] I'm convicted right now

[00:48:22] That's good because we've been called for something more than just filling pews and chairs every week

[00:48:28] You guys are called for a purpose

[00:48:31] You guys are chosen

[00:48:33] You know why we like movies? We're like have you noticed like in every Disney movie and like the matrix in Star Wars?

[00:48:39] It's always like the universe is crumbling. There's no hope. Oh, you're only hope. You're the one you're divergent

[00:48:46] It's time for you to enter into the hunger maze virgin games

[00:48:56] Yeah

[00:49:01] We're called to something greater we like those stories where it's like you're the one you're the one we need

[00:49:06] Because that's who you were made to be

[00:49:08] You were made to be the one god's calling and you're the one but like jona. We run

[00:49:13] We do I do

[00:49:17] You know we think of church as a fortress to keep us safe, but really the bible says a mighty fortress is our god

[00:49:22] It's not the church that's to be our fortress. It's our god

[00:49:25] And so for us the church is not a place of protection from the yad are the bad yucky outside world

[00:49:33] The church is a training ground where we come in we get filled up and we go out and we change the world

[00:49:39] Now anyone here a sports person?

[00:49:43] Sports person I think the term is athlete

[00:49:46] That just shows you that I'm not

[00:49:49] I get asked to speak at fca's all the time and I'm like really?

[00:49:53] Like look at me

[00:49:55] Come on

[00:49:57] Um, I I played basketball for like a year. I like stood at the top of the key

[00:50:02] And waited for the ball to come to me but Russell Frazier was like

[00:50:05] Seven feet tall and like the seventh grade so he got the ball every time so that didn't work

[00:50:11] Um football showed up for the first day of football practice. Evan Wickham my football coach 100

[00:50:17] Different place different time different hairstyle just it's crazy

[00:50:21] Um, I show up to football practice and Evan says all right run and I say all right no and I left

[00:50:27] And I never came back

[00:50:30] So I'm not

[00:50:33] So I'm not

[00:50:35] I'm not a sports guy, but I will I will tell you a sports analogy. Are you with me?

[00:50:40] Okay, a sports analogy so Christianity we think of it

[00:50:44] We think of sunday as game day

[00:50:47] Oh, man, gotta put on my sunday best when I actually pick that shirt that doesn't have wrinkles

[00:50:52] I'm gonna actually do my hair. I'm gonna look good for jesus because he totally cares about my shirt

[00:50:56] You know, it's in the bible somewhere like in leviticus. I don't even know

[00:51:00] But I'm gonna be holy for god wear my best pants my best shoes

[00:51:04] Totally not because that cute girl is going to be a church, but it's all for the lord

[00:51:08] We show up and we're like it's game day. It's sunday

[00:51:11] I'm gonna actually like listen to something like and pay attention for like maybe 15 minutes and then pretend

[00:51:17] I'm on the bible app, but really I'm on instagram

[00:51:21] We think of it as game day though like this is the day I have to be spiritual

[00:51:25] This is the day I have to follow god. It's sunday guys sunday is not game day. It's the locker room speech

[00:51:31] The rest of the week is your game day

[00:51:35] So you show up on sunday you're in the locker room

[00:51:38] Your assistant coach your youth pastor has been talking to the head coach and he's got the playbook

[00:51:43] Bible, you know if you're not tracking with me

[00:51:46] He's like hey, I've been reading this playbook and I really think we should run these plays and you steady them

[00:51:50] And you're like okay everyone got it. All right. All right. Go run the plays and then you enter into your week

[00:51:54] And hey, what'd you learn church today?

[00:51:57] um

[00:51:57] Jesus

[00:52:00] Take notes like your life depended on it

[00:52:02] Seriously write down the things that god is saying and apply them to your life

[00:52:08] It's not the game day. It's the locker room speech this right now

[00:52:11] This is the locker room speech you got a whole year of game day when you go back down there

[00:52:16] So let's talk about witnessing

[00:52:19] It's super scary when I was a kid. I told everyone about jesus

[00:52:22] I was like, hey, do you know jesus? Do you know jesus? Hey, I think you need to know jesus

[00:52:26] That was me as a young kid, but then I became a teenager and things got awkward

[00:52:30] I'm like, I didn't want to talk to anyone about anything

[00:52:33] You know what when I was or I am now

[00:52:37] I'm a youth pastor. Hi. My name is Aaron. How are you?

[00:52:41] So

[00:52:43] I started years a couple of years ago five years ago

[00:52:46] I don't know I can't remember I'm bad with numbers, but I started

[00:52:50] As a junior high pastor Calvary Vista when my good friend Trevor went to marinata

[00:52:55] Left me the keys had no idea what I was doing

[00:52:58] and um

[00:52:59] I'm doing youth group and I start

[00:53:01] Steadying the book of acts. I went through the gospel of john. It was great. It was all about jesus

[00:53:05] Then we got to acts acts is the best sequel of all time

[00:53:07] It's like jesus died he rose from the dead and everyone's like now what an axis like now this go and bring down

[00:53:14] fire of the gospel to the world and shape the world and

[00:53:17] They say of the men in the book of acts. These are the men who turned the world upside down

[00:53:22] It's awesome

[00:53:23] and I was reading it and I was studying it and

[00:53:25] In the acts it's like hey you need to go and reach the world with the gospel

[00:53:29] So I'm standing in front of junior high kids. I'm like hey sixth graders

[00:53:31] Hey seventh graders. Hey eighth graders you go into your schools and you share the gospel

[00:53:36] And then the lord hit me with like this truth conviction bomb

[00:53:38] I was sitting in my office looking at acts and god's like hey, erin

[00:53:43] You know how you're telling the kids to share the gospel

[00:53:46] Do you?

[00:53:48] And I was like

[00:53:49] I'm a youth pastor

[00:53:51] I do every sunday and like wednesday and like sometimes other times, you know

[00:53:56] I do it and the lord was like

[00:54:00] He showed me I was living in a christian bubble pastors kid. I was around christians 24 7

[00:54:05] I went to calvary christian school has christian in the name. I was around christians 24 7

[00:54:10] I worked in the secular world for like

[00:54:13] a

[00:54:15] Month in a factory pulling a lever and watching packing peanuts fall into a cardboard box

[00:54:19] And then I went right back to the church. I was a janitor. I was a graphics designer

[00:54:22] I was a youth pastor and I just realized like all my entire life

[00:54:25] I talked to christians about christianity and I never talked to anyone outside that bubble

[00:54:30] Anyone here with me? Is that you anybody? Yeah, that that was me

[00:54:35] That was me and the lord spoke to me and he's like you can't

[00:54:39] Preach this unless you do it too

[00:54:41] I was like, oh no

[00:54:43] Now I gotta like exercise my faith and practice what I preach

[00:54:48] shoot

[00:54:49] That's hard

[00:54:51] And it was so this was my journey

[00:54:54] And I'll just try to go through it briefly. I'm gonna tell you guys some stories

[00:54:58] So I steadied on the weekends

[00:55:01] On saturday, I would usually just hang out at home and steady or in my office

[00:55:05] The lord said go go out get out go somewhere

[00:55:08] So I started hitting up different towns different beach towns around my area

[00:55:11] And it all started in oceanside downtown oceanside. I see this guy at a stoplight

[00:55:16] And the lord says in my heart, that's the guy. I'm like, oh, okay

[00:55:21] So I walk up to him

[00:55:23] And he's like, hey man, can you buy me a beer?

[00:55:27] I'm like, oh no

[00:55:31] This is not a good start to this evangelism thing

[00:55:34] So I'm irresponsible those of you guys who know me well. I'm getting better

[00:55:38] But I am I didn't have my wallet with me. So I use that as my excuse. I can't because I don't have my wallet

[00:55:45] He's like whatever man, he walks away

[00:55:47] So he walks this way. I start walking this way and I'm walking and the lord starts speaking to me and the lord's like

[00:55:53] Hey, man

[00:55:54] Go talk to him and I'm like no no no lord

[00:55:56] You don't understand because he started walking that way. He saw me go this way

[00:56:00] So if all of a sudden I'm going this way and I'm like, that's that's weird. That's awkward. That's socially awkward

[00:56:07] And the lord was like do it

[00:56:11] I was like, okay

[00:56:11] So I start walking towards him. He looks sees me falling and he starts booking it. He's like

[00:56:16] He starts going fast. I catch up to him. I put my hand on his shoulder. I'm like, hey man

[00:56:20] I don't know you but listen god loves you. He's got a plan for your life

[00:56:23] And he just oh he loves you so much and jesus died for you and the guy looks at me and he's like

[00:56:27] I think man. I think I needed to hear that and he totally walked away with like this look in his face

[00:56:33] Like I gotta think about some things

[00:56:35] And I was just like

[00:56:39] Thank you

[00:56:42] So then it continued

[00:56:44] Um a couple weeks later. I'm down in ocean side again. I'm down by the pier

[00:56:48] And there's this little area where skaters hang out this word. There's these little bleachers

[00:56:52] I see these kids on roller skates and he's just going for it all these skaters and he's just like he's like the one kid on roller blades

[00:56:58] He's just like yeah

[00:56:59] He's like it's like 1987. He's just going for it

[00:57:03] and the lord's like

[00:57:05] Him

[00:57:07] I'm like, okay

[00:57:09] So pretend the mic stands him so he's like buckling up his you know skates

[00:57:13] I'm walking towards him and I do this I'm like

[00:57:16] Like

[00:57:19] Like totally just dodged the guy and he skates off into the sunset. I'm like, uh, I missed my opportunity. I missed my window

[00:57:27] Have you ever been there?

[00:57:28] Have you ever missed that opportunity the lord put something in your heart and you blew it and you dodged it

[00:57:31] And then you feel like a failure and I sit down. I'm like lord like I'm not good at this

[00:57:36] I hate this like it's so like lord, you know what like just give me another chance lord

[00:57:40] Give me another chance and at the time I prayed that I didn't know what that meant

[00:57:42] I thought bring me someone else so I'm praying lord. Give me another chance. Give me another chance

[00:57:45] The kid skates up next to me sits down next to me and he starts talking to me

[00:57:52] I'm just like

[00:57:55] You're real

[00:57:57] I didn't know

[00:57:59] I always I always suspected

[00:58:02] But now I know

[00:58:03] I was like, this is crazy. So um

[00:58:07] so uh

[00:58:09] This is going on and and it's like week after week this kind of stuff is happening like saturday is just this day where I'm just

[00:58:14] Every day I'm talking to at least one person

[00:58:16] And it's it's crazy and every time I don't want to do it. I'm jone

[00:58:20] I'm running away and the lord just keeps bringing me to it. There's this time. I don't get mad and you guys get mad

[00:58:26] Yeah, I don't get mad some of my students can tell you like there was one time a few of them like literally almost

[00:58:32] destroyed my office and like like knocked something over and almost broke everything and everyone like kind of frozen and looked at me and I was just like

[00:58:39] I think everyone should

[00:58:41] leave

[00:58:43] So I can fix this

[00:58:46] Love you guys, you know, but I don't get mad

[00:58:49] Anyone get road rage?

[00:58:51] Oh man, I'm so weird

[00:58:53] I'm so weird like

[00:58:56] My wife gets road rage. I love her. She she she road rages like when someone cuts her off. She's like i'm gonna track him down

[00:59:01] I'm like Liam Neeson like I have a particular set of skills. I will find you and cut off everyone you know

[00:59:07] But like when someone cuts me off, I'm just like

[00:59:11] Will they obviously have some place to be?

[00:59:14] Godspeed good sir

[00:59:17] You know

[00:59:19] I don't get mad at people. I get mad at machines when a computer breaks. That's when I turn into satan. I don't know why but um

[00:59:26] So anyway, I'm having a bad day though and I'm actually mad. It was like the first time in ages

[00:59:30] I'm angry like like visibly angry. I'm at albert sins the best place to be angry

[00:59:38] I am running late for a junior high home fellowship

[00:59:42] Buying supplies and my dad calls me see earlier. I had um a couple months ago. I had ran a red light

[00:59:51] Not like run it. I I like crawled through it

[00:59:54] Like right turn just so slow. There was no pedestrians in sight. It was like the rapture

[00:59:59] It happened on that street corner. It was crazy. And so I um I turned through the camera got me

[01:00:04] There's this guy in my church who's like he sounds like kronk and he's like a uh

[01:00:09] I uh check this out. Um

[01:00:11] Here's the deal. I know this jewish lawyer and they missed her ticket

[01:00:15] They pay that guy 50 bucks. You'll never hear of this again

[01:00:18] So i'm just like sweet

[01:00:20] Thank you. I pay the 50 bucks. Hey, guess what? I heard about it again at albert sins while i'm late

[01:00:25] My dad calls me and says you just got this letter that you haven't paid this ticket

[01:00:28] Like if you don't pay this in the next week, they're gonna find you like an extra 500 bucks

[01:00:35] I am angry

[01:00:37] I'm walking through the aisles. Jesus nabisco orials soda

[01:00:45] I was so mad

[01:00:47] I was like lord

[01:00:48] The the thing that kills me is when I was driving and I ran the light

[01:00:51] I was like on my way to go preach at a school and I was like lord like you're supposed to let us off for stuff like that

[01:00:56] We're pastors. Come on. We're exempt

[01:01:00] I'm serving you. I should be able to do whatever I want and break all the laws

[01:01:06] So i'm angry

[01:01:08] And I go outside the store and there's this girl who works at albert sins and she's sitting on the corner

[01:01:12] And she's crying

[01:01:14] She's got her apron on miss garras running down her face

[01:01:17] And god says

[01:01:19] her

[01:01:20] And I'm like no

[01:01:23] Absolutely not

[01:01:25] Send someone else you have so many people

[01:01:29] Not now

[01:01:31] Not now

[01:01:33] This is my time

[01:01:35] This is my moment

[01:01:36] But the lord says no her

[01:01:38] I was so upset and I just I turned to her and I was like

[01:01:42] I was like hey, she looks up. She's like what?

[01:01:46] And I go listen you're having a bad day. Hey me too

[01:01:49] No

[01:01:52] Who are you and I'm like hey listen, I just want you to know something god loves you

[01:01:56] You're his daughter. You're precious to him. He's got a plan for you

[01:01:59] This is gonna be okay because jesus is with you

[01:02:02] And she stands up she starts bawling she gives me a hug and she says i'm a christian

[01:02:07] I haven't been to church in six months. I haven't talked to any other christians

[01:02:10] I've been praying for the lord to send me someone

[01:02:14] I was just like gosh

[01:02:17] Lord

[01:02:18] I didn't deserve that moment

[01:02:20] At all. I don't deserve any of the moments

[01:02:23] We don't

[01:02:24] But he gives him to us. They're there

[01:02:28] The bible actually says that god has gone before you

[01:02:32] In Ephesians, I think the lord says he has gone before you to prepare good works for you

[01:02:39] Did you know that every day there are amazing divine appointments all around you just waiting for you to step into

[01:02:45] And you're just sitting there like I am all the time like not me. I'm not the one

[01:02:50] And we miss out on the rewards. We've been this out on the joy. We miss out on blessing people

[01:02:55] Because we're afraid don't be afraid

[01:02:58] Let me share with you this

[01:03:00] So

[01:03:01] I'm starting to get a little confident

[01:03:03] Which is never a good thing

[01:03:07] Because I had been sharing the gospel with people I felt pretty good about it. I was like, hey, you know

[01:03:12] I'm getting pretty good at this. I'm totally an evangelist. This is great. I can do this. I can do this

[01:03:18] So i'm praying and i'm listening to a bible study

[01:03:20] And it's all about evangelism. I'm getting pumped. I'm walking through like a woodsy area

[01:03:25] And i'm like praying. I'm like, you know what lord if you send me

[01:03:29] Someone today

[01:03:31] I will so preach to them

[01:03:33] They will be preached to so

[01:03:36] That you will not believe the amount they will be preached to

[01:03:39] It's gonna be awesome. I would totally do that for you lord

[01:03:42] A kid you're not

[01:03:44] A kid you're not like five minutes later this guy like comes out of the trees

[01:03:48] total

[01:03:50] Straight up gangster

[01:03:52] And he goes, he's all what's up s a

[01:03:55] i'm like

[01:03:56] oh

[01:03:57] Hi

[01:03:58] And he goes say give me your phone and i'm like, okay

[01:04:02] And he goes i gotta call my friends and he starts calling his friends and he's like, can you guys pick me up?

[01:04:06] No

[01:04:07] Like i'm just like i'm like terrified i'm terrified

[01:04:11] He turns to me and he goes you i'm like, yeah

[01:04:14] Can you give me a ride to the beach homie?

[01:04:18] I had a bad moment. I lied

[01:04:23] And it was the worst lie

[01:04:25] This is what i said no joke

[01:04:28] This is like in the moment what my brain came up with i was like dude. I'm so sorry

[01:04:32] I would totally drive you but my wife just texted me and we're out of grapes and i gotta go pick up some grapes

[01:04:39] He was just like whatever he takes off

[01:04:43] And the lord's like

[01:04:45] That was your guy

[01:04:46] You asked for it. So i gave it to you. That was your guy. Come on man. You can do this. I'm with you

[01:04:51] You're not alone. We can do this together

[01:04:55] And i was like, okay

[01:04:57] And then i lied again

[01:04:59] This is what i said to the guy i was like, oh, hey

[01:05:02] I just got a text she found some grapes in the back of the fridge. We're all good. I can drive you

[01:05:10] We get in the car

[01:05:12] And i'm talking to this guy

[01:05:14] I'm just like so what's your story man? He's like man, I just got out of prison

[01:05:21] And he says

[01:05:22] You know what man

[01:05:24] Straight up if it weren't for graffiti, I would have been a mass murderer

[01:05:28] And i'm like

[01:05:31] Why are you telling this to the stranger driving you to the beach?

[01:05:35] This is not what I want to hear right now

[01:05:38] I'm just like lord help me lord

[01:05:42] Oh

[01:05:43] It crazy crazy

[01:05:44] I start talking to him out of nowhere. The guy starts opening up and he's like man

[01:05:49] He's like, I could never measure up to my mom's expectations, man

[01:05:53] Like she just set the bar so high. I tried to meet it. I failed every time man

[01:05:57] It's just crazy. I just I can't be who she wants me to be

[01:06:00] I can't be that guy. I want to be that guy so much, but I can't be that guy

[01:06:05] And I I was the lord was like there you go

[01:06:08] That's it. That's your window

[01:06:11] And I was like lord. I don't have the words

[01:06:13] Can you give them to me?

[01:06:15] So I start talking to the guy

[01:06:18] And i'm like man, you know what? I'm a pastor to lay all my cards on the table

[01:06:23] But I can't measure up to the standard

[01:06:27] I fail every day. I'm imperfect. I'm flawed

[01:06:30] And I know it. I know when I mess up like I feel you but you know what man

[01:06:36] God

[01:06:37] He's got a pretty high standard and he knows that we can't meet it you and me he knows

[01:06:42] So he sent his son Jesus to meet that standard to be perfect and then he died for us

[01:06:49] And if we follow him god sees us and he's like man, you met the standard

[01:06:54] Not because anything you did because everything Jesus did

[01:06:57] And the guy looks at me and he goes when I was in prison

[01:07:02] I prayed and I said god, I want to know you. I don't know how

[01:07:06] Send somebody to tell me what this means and he looks at me and he goes you're that guy

[01:07:11] I was like

[01:07:14] Yeah

[01:07:17] I

[01:07:22] Didn't want to be that guy. That's why I lied about the grapes

[01:07:25] But in god's mercy, he let me be that guy which

[01:07:29] God is so good

[01:07:31] And I prayed with that guy to receive Jesus christ that day

[01:07:34] It's such a blessing

[01:07:37] listen

[01:07:39] You can do this

[01:07:42] I didn't think I could and i'm a pastor

[01:07:46] But I learned that Jesus is with me

[01:07:50] So I can do it because he's doing it and he's just asking me to do it with him

[01:07:54] He's just asking me to join alongside him

[01:07:58] You can do this because god is with you

[01:08:01] You can reach people and i'm not just talking about talking to strangers on the street

[01:08:05] I'm talking about the people in your schools

[01:08:08] I'm talking about the friends that you have in your close friend group who don't know jesus

[01:08:12] I'm talking about the relatives who don't know him. I'm talking about everybody

[01:08:17] This is our purpose. This is what we're called to

[01:08:20] To not just be the people who go to church and fill up we fill up so we can pour out

[01:08:25] And there's a dying world that needs him

[01:08:28] I heard a tragic story

[01:08:31] of a kid who

[01:08:33] had a father

[01:08:35] Who was just a business guy

[01:08:37] Really absorbed in his work didn't really spend time with his kids

[01:08:42] And that father would come home from work every day walk straight past his kids walk upstairs into the upstairs room

[01:08:49] Unlock the door and just keep working

[01:08:52] And his kids

[01:08:54] Would write notes to him and pass it underneath the door and say dad. We love you

[01:09:00] Like dad, please come out. Please spend time with us

[01:09:03] But they never heard back

[01:09:05] That's heartbreaking

[01:09:07] But god is different

[01:09:09] Every time you reach out every time you call out he responds

[01:09:13] He says I love you

[01:09:15] He never closes that door

[01:09:17] The door was closed sin closed it but he

[01:09:21] Opened it for you. He saw that door and he said i'm going to break that door

[01:09:26] I'm not just gonna open it. I'm gonna destroy it

[01:09:29] My death on the cross will completely eradicate that door

[01:09:33] And so nothing keeps you from the father except standing on the other side of the door

[01:09:38] You just have to walk through it

[01:09:40] The people in the world just have to walk through it. They need this message

[01:09:44] They need to know the gospel

[01:09:52] I don't know why that was funny

[01:09:55] But i'll allow it

[01:09:58] He loves you and he's with you

[01:10:01] Now some of you guys here

[01:10:03] If the band wants to come up we're gonna wrap up

[01:10:06] Finally right?

[01:10:08] I'm sorry

[01:10:10] but listen

[01:10:15] A lot of times we think of pastors

[01:10:18] As like the people on the front lines of the spiritual battle

[01:10:22] And we look at our pastors and we're like i gotta be like him because he's really spiritual

[01:10:25] Let me tell you a secret. We're not we're just like you

[01:10:30] We are

[01:10:31] We're people we're humans

[01:10:33] We're sinners

[01:10:35] So you think of a pastor as the person on the front lines of the battle, you know what biblically a pastor is supposed to do?

[01:10:41] They're not the one on the front line

[01:10:42] They're the guy who stands by the door and hands out the sword and the shield and the bow

[01:10:47] We're the equipers

[01:10:48] And the Lord is calling you to be equipped now

[01:10:51] To take the sword to take the shield and to equip yourself to go out and share with people

[01:10:57] It's not about

[01:11:00] Our responsibility. It's about our response to his ability

[01:11:05] And we fear

[01:11:07] failure

[01:11:08] We really do

[01:11:10] A lot of times this is what keeps us from sharing the gospel

[01:11:13] We're afraid

[01:11:16] Of failing

[01:11:17] We're afraid of being rejected

[01:11:19] I'll tell you one last story and then i'll walk off the stage

[01:11:23] So I got together with my youth group a couple years ago when some of these awesome high school kids were still in middle school

[01:11:28] I almost thought about showing the video, but they would be so embarrassed and they would hate me and it wouldn't be worth it

[01:11:33] You can find it on our youtube

[01:11:35] but

[01:11:38] We made a video with my kids and it was just them explaining the gospel

[01:11:41] It was just them saying do you know what the gospel is? Do you know what the gospel means?

[01:11:46] And they just broke it down. It was a great video. The kids nailed it

[01:11:51] But we put them on dvds. We burned them onto dvds

[01:11:55] And then we decided on the last day of the public school system

[01:11:58] We would take them to a school called mlk middle school

[01:12:03] And we stood on the sidewalk

[01:12:05] And we passed out the dvds and we just said hey watch this

[01:12:09] You know what happened? It's very interesting

[01:12:12] We got like small time persecuted

[01:12:16] People cussed us out

[01:12:18] People broke our cds in half our dvds. They threw them at us one kid got cut in the neck by a flying dvd

[01:12:25] Yeah, they were like yelling at us cussing us out

[01:12:29] And like we were passing out and like my kids came to me afterwards and they're like we failed

[01:12:33] Like no one got saved

[01:12:36] No, like we failed like they rejected us

[01:12:40] And they looked at me and they're like we did it wrong

[01:12:43] And the lord just gave me the words and he's like no guys. We did it right because jesus said this would happen

[01:12:47] If we're not being persecuted, we're not we're not doing it right because we're not doing anything

[01:12:51] If we're not being rejected, we're not standing up for anything

[01:12:54] And I was like guys

[01:12:57] You know what I saw?

[01:12:59] Here's the crazy thing. I went down to the skate park

[01:13:02] After we passed out those dvds. I saw skaters doing tricks with those dvds still in their hand

[01:13:07] If they weren't gonna watch them, they would have thrown them away a long time ago

[01:13:10] And then I heard back later

[01:13:13] That somehow that video ended up in the hands of some people in australia

[01:13:18] And like three girls came to christ through it

[01:13:21] It was so cool to tell my kids

[01:13:24] Listen guys

[01:13:26] We put it out there, but god does the work. Here's what you need to know. You're not responsible to save anybody

[01:13:32] You're just responsible for delivering the message and then putting it in god's hands. That takes the weight off

[01:13:38] It's not your responsibility. It's your response to his ability

[01:13:43] He can do it

[01:13:44] We can do it with him and you need to know that that person you might show the gospel with

[01:13:48] Yeah, they might they might blow you off. Yeah, they might reject you

[01:13:51] They might tell you to get out of their face

[01:13:53] But you have planted a seed in their heart that god is gonna grow and you don't know but i've heard too many times

[01:14:00] Of a young person who when they're in sixth grade someone shared the gospel with them

[01:14:04] They rejected it and now they're a senior

[01:14:07] And they told me erin I was drunk out of my mind

[01:14:11] I was high. I was selling drugs

[01:14:15] I was cutting. I was lost. I was lonely. I was suicidal and I was sitting in my room with no hope

[01:14:20] And I remembered what someone else told me in sixth grade and it came back to me and the light turned on and now I want to serve

[01:14:28] Jesus

[01:14:30] That's what god wants to do with you guys

[01:14:33] So get out there and scatter some seeds. Don't hold back

[01:14:38] Let him use you

[01:14:44] I

[01:14:48] Preach the gospel not for jesus, but with jesus. Are you with me? Amen. Let's worship