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This podcast is a production of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas, USA. Watermark exists to be and make more fully devoted followers of Christ, looking to God's Word as our only authority, conscience and guide.
What a joy to be here. I want to first thank the worship team. You know, sometimes God speaks in different ways, and I just couldn't stop crying the first two songs we sang with a sense of intimacy with God and the privilege that is. My mind just started rolling back through years and ups and downs and faithfulness. Anyway, thank you.
The eyes of the Lord do, in fact, move to and fro throughout the whole earth. By the way, that includes Watermark and Texas. The Spirit of God is going up rows and down rows and across rows and up, and we have a divine appointment. He's looking for a man, a woman, or a student whose heart would say, "I am yours. I will do whatever you want. I want to learn. I want to grow. I want you to use me." And God says this. When he finds _that_ man or _that_ woman in _that_ position, he will give you whatever you need.
I live in the Silicon Valley. Within my house are 15 of the top 20 tech companies in the world. Some of my closest friends are all venture capitalists. Venture capitalists do one thing: they look for a people, idea, and an opportunity to give hundreds of millions of dollars or more because they believe _this_ person with _this_ idea.
One who is a friend found two guys with a crazy idea who thought they could create information for the whole world called _Google_. Another one had some guy whose whole goal wasn't to get books someplace; it was to get people ordering everything forever from something called _Amazon_. Two other of my venture capitalist friends had some guy who thought he was going to connect people, and it was called _Meta_.
They were looking for someone who was humble, someone who was hungry, and someone with a vision and a desire to go beyond themselves. Those big companies have changed the world. What Jesus wants to do is far more important than anything, any of those companies, and he's looking for hungry, humble people whose hearts are his, because he has a dream. We're starting to see that dream here and around the world. He loves people. His game plan has always been to use people, to love people, and to draw people so that he changes the world through them.
TA did me a big favor. You all got notes, and you might be thinking, "We never get notes." You don't usually give notes, do you? Nah. I mean, old-school guy. "We put them on the screens." Get out a pen. You're going to need these notes, because what I want to do is I want to help you get super, super, super clear on what it looks like to abide with Jesus in order to make disciples.
For whatever reason, I'm an old basketball coach whom God recruited into coaching his church. Literally, in the last three or four years, in live events, I've spent time with about half a million pastors all around the world on every continent, and I've asked pastors all around the world, "Define for me a disciple." Out of 100 pastors you ask, you get about 90 different answers. So, we're going to talk about…_How do you know if you're a mature disciple?_ What is Jesus' dream? I'm going to have you do a little work, and it's just a framework to get you started.
God has a dream for his church. He longs to see high-impact churches. If there's any big thing we learned (and I _hope_ we've learned) coming out of COVID is we asked the wrong question, as pastors, for decades. Consciously or unconsciously, pastors and churches were always asking, "How many people are in our weekend services?" instead of "What kinds of people are _leaving_ our weekend services to be moms and dads and employers and workers and lovers of people who are transformed, who live holy lives?"
I can tell you, with a great band and a motivational speaker, you can get 10,000 people without Jesus. We've had a lot of that going on in the past. Then you shut down the weekend services, and you learn what kinds of Christians you have. Now, I hope Barna and Pew and all the research is wrong, but currently in the US, about 8.5 out of 10 people who say, "I'm born again; I love Jesus…" Their lives and lifestyles are relatively no different whatsoever from the average unbeliever. That breaks Jesus' heart. More than breaking Jesus' heart, I think, is when Christians don't live like Christians, those outside of Christ say, "Why should I believe in your Jesus?"
So, notice three characteristics of high-impact churches. First, _lost people are coming to Christ_. Matthew 28:19. Does that sound familiar? Was anybody here last week? "Go into all the world and make disciples." Jesus' purpose statement: "I came to seek those who are lost" (Luke 19:10). _Found people are growing to maturity_. Jesus' promise was, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can not only ask whatever you wish, but as you abide in the vine, you will become like Jesus." The third is _meeting significant needs in the community_.
Those of you who like to take notes, and others who don't, can think deeply about this. The first characteristic is the _Great Commission_: "Go into all the world and make disciples." The second characteristic of found people coming to Christ is the _Great Commandment_. The real litmus test is loving God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, and your neighbor like yourself.
The third I call the _Great Compassion_. The poor get fed. The naked are clothed. The thirsty are given water. Those in prison get a visit. Matthew 25 says, "Lord, when did we ever see you naked or thirsty? When did we ever see you visit us in prison?" He said, "When you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me."
When we want to help pastors and talk about churches, healthy churches… High-impact churches can be 25 people or they can be 25,000 people, but the quality and the health of a church is not how many services, not how beautiful the buildings. It has nothing to do with the budget. It's a church where, week after week, lost people are coming to know Jesus, found people are growing to maturity, and the church is meeting some of the deepest needs in their community.
I was in Dubai just about three or four months ago. It's obviously illegal to be a Christian and to proselytize, but I spoke in a church that had four services. I mean, it was a big hotel room. I don't know how many thousands of people it fit. They did four services in _this_ hotel and four services in another hotel. I was with the pastor. He said, "You know, here's the exciting thing. For 251 weeks in a row, we've done a baptism or more every single week." They have to do it privately. They go out into the ocean and act like they're just having a party, but lost people are coming to Christ.
We were in France in June. It's a foundation, and they help all religious backgrounds. The two guys who were leading it… We prayed, and they came up. They were crossing themselves, so I knew they were from a Catholic background. They looked at us, and they said, "We had 10,000 young men this Easter in the Catholic church be baptized." There's a movement of God around the world. There's a movement of God stirring. Guess what we need? We need disciples, not decisions. We need men and women who really walk with God. My experience is we often don't know what that really looks like.
So, open your notes, if you will. The reason I wanted to give you notes is I wanted to give you a snapshot. Again, back to my venture capitalists. I was turning something in to them. He wanted to support us. There was another friend in Michigan. He said, "Just write out your strategic plan or so." This was early, early, early on. This was many, many years ago. So, we wrote a 14-page strategic plan, these dreams we had for living on the edge.
One guy was the head of all that Procter & Gamble do internationally. These were guys who knew so much more than me. So, we had this big meeting. I said, "Well, what did you think?" This one guy goes, "I don't know. I didn't read it." I said, "I flew all the way, and you didn't read it?" He goes, "I just looked and saw you had 14 pages, and I realized you had no idea what you really want to do. If you can't tell me on one page what you want to do, how you're going to do it, how you're going to measure it… I realized we weren't even ready to talk."
I believe the apostle Paul gave us the executive summary, sort of the _Reader's Digest_ version, a snapshot, after 11 chapters of grace, of what it looks like to be a mature disciple. I mean, what does it really mean when we say, "Abide in Christ"? If you abide in Christ, what will that look like? So, I want you to see there are five key relationships, five biblical responses, and five questions that every human being asks, if they're a follower of Jesus, that this passage answers.
Is it all there is to being a disciple? No. But it's a snapshot and a picture. So, instead of wondering, "Well, do I read the Bible more? Should I be in _this_ group or _that_ group? They're asking me to do _this_…" This will give you a snapshot of when Jesus says, "Follow me," what it looks like when you follow him. I'd like you to first realize that it's relational. It's not performance. It's not how much you do.
Notice it says _relationship with God_. Circle the word _God_. Skip down. _Relationship with the world_. Circle the word _world_. Skip down one. _Relationship with yourself_. What are you going to circle? Where I come from, there's sort of this interactive moment we have together. I know you're not dead. When I ask a question, it's not rhetorical. Are you ready? Great. _Relationship with believers_. What are you going to circle? _Relationship with nonbelievers_. What are you going to circle?
This is so important. Becoming a mature disciple is not just filling your head with this book, going to places, being nice, and giving money. The Pharisees knew this Bible. They gave money. They fasted twice a week. They did all the religious stuff, and they were whitewashed tombs. The harshest words that ever came out of the Savior's mouth were to religious people. Spiritual maturity is about loving relationship with God against the world system that's energized by the Enemy who wants to steal our love. It's a mistress. It's a seducer. It's loving yourself, it's loving unbelievers, and it's loving believers and knowing what that looks like.
The second thing I want you to understand is that it answers the biggest questions in life. Underneath where it says, "Relationship to God," I want you to write the question…_How do you give God what he wants the most?_ That's how I became a Christian. How do you give God what he wants the most? What does he really want? We're going to look at it in just a minute. Under the next section where it talks about the world…_How do you get the best from God?_ He loves you. Right? You want the best job? You want the best relationship? You want the best joy? You want the best peace? Well, how do you get it? We're going to learn.
Underneath the third, "Relationship to yourself"…_How do you come to grips with the real you?_ It's an identity question. How do you come to grips with _you_? Not posing, not being like other people, but getting to where you say, "This is who I am in Christ. These are my gifts. These are my strengths." How do you get to where you look in the mirror without any false humility and say, "Thank you, God, for making me like this. Thank you that I'm your child. Thank you that I'm precious and loved. Thank you that you gave me _these_ gifts at _this_ time and that I fit into your body."
When you look where it says, "Relationship with believers," the big question is…_How do you experience authentic community?_ We all long to belong. We all long to be loved. But I'm talking about authentic community. I'm talking about where the real you shows up and meets real needs for the right reason in the right way. It's where you really open your heart, where you lay down your lives for one another, where you have the kinds of relationships that, literally, if they have a need, you've got their back.
If they start drifting, you're willing to go to the brink and cost the relationship to sit down with coffee and, with tears streaming from your eyes, say, "You know, I know you love Jesus. With these behaviors and that relationship and the direction you're going, you're going to shipwreck your faith and ruin your life." You have the courage and the love to do that.
The final question is…_How do you respond to the evil aimed at you?_ If you haven't been betrayed yet, especially by another Christian, hang on; it'll happen. If you haven't been persecuted; if people haven't made fun of you; if you haven't found yourself in some really intense ministry, especially in some crazy areas like where I live, and experienced some demonic powers, those days are coming. How do you respond?
Well, let's answer the questions, and let's get a biblical response to each. Context. Chapters 1-3 in the book of Romans: the problem of sin. Chapters 4 and 5 in the book of Romans: God's answer. Salvation by grace through faith. Jesus died on the cross. Chapters 6-8. It's impossible to live this new life. No one can do it. The only one who can do it is Jesus.
So, chapter 6: We died with him. We're raised with him. We have this battle in chapter 7, the flesh against the Spirit. Chapter 8: Thanks be to God! We've been delivered. The Spirit of God in us is going to live it. There's no condemnation. In chapters 9-11, a parenthesis, because if this is all really true, what about all of those promises to Israel, and how does it all work out?
Chapter 12: application. "In light of all God's grace, I urge you, therefore, my brothers and sisters, to offer your bodies…" All that you are, all that you have. "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual service of worship." Put a line under the word _offer_. You can only do this in Dallas because there are so many people who know the Bible here. It's in the aorist tense. That means at a particular time. It's punctiliar. On a certain day at a certain time. This is how you get saved.
How do you give God what he wants the most? You bend the knee, you bend the heart, and you say, "On this day I offer my body." This is a picture of a spiritual Texas hold'em. You push all of the chips of your life into the center…boyfriend, girlfriend, money, dreams, marriage, kids, career. "Lord, it's all in the center of the table. I'm all in." That's when you see the power of God work in your life. That's what God wants. That's what he's looking for.
When his eyes are going to and fro throughout the whole earth, he's looking for a man or a woman who's all in, because that's when he can use you. Surrender to God fully. I would be remiss if I didn't ask. So, how about you? Have you done that? You can do a lot of Christian activity and not be fully surrendered. You can be a nice person. You can be very moral. You can give some money. You can do all kinds of things. But Jesus said, "If you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me."
I'd like you to write the word _power_. Paul said, "I want to know him and the power of his resurrection." If there is no death, there is no power. It's narrow and difficult, and if you don't feel a little bit of fear, like, "What about my career? What if God would ask me to make a big change? What if God would ask me to relocate? What if God taps me on the shoulder? Is it going to take all my money…?"
In my case, I was in college, a couple years a Christian and pretty new. I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I was beginning to grow and get some Bible studies, and I was hearing this stuff about surrender. I was like, "Man, I'm not giving up my girlfriend." I played college basketball and had all of these dreams. "You can have everything, but you can't have basketball, and you can't have my girlfriend."
Of course, why would I think that an all-knowing, omniscient God who loves me, who's all-wise, who's self-existent, who knows the beginning from the end, and wants the very best for me… Why would I think he knows what's better for me than _me_? Right? I mean, come on. So, God, in the kindness of his velvet vice, began to bring, first, a stress fracture in my foot. Then I pulled a quad out from _here_ to _here_ during college when I played baseball. Year after year after year, until I got to my senior year, and I finally cried uncle.
I said, "You know what, Lord? Maybe you have a better choice than me." Then I came across a verse that became my lifetime verse for surrender. I always looked at, you know, "Those are the super-committed people. Those are the martyrs." What I learned is the people who surrender and go all in… I'm going to say this really nicely, and if you're offended, be offended not by me but by the Holy Spirit. Smart people surrender; stupid people don't. Sorry.
Why? Jot down in the corner "Psalm 84:11." "The Lord \[Yahweh, Adonai\]…" "The Lord God is a sun and a shield." A _sun_ is unlimited power and ability. A _shield_ is unlimited protection. "The Lord is a sun and a shield. He gives grace and glory." _Grace_ is he wants to give you what you don't deserve. He wants to glorify. He wants to hold you up. Last line: "No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly."
See, the reason we don't want to surrender is FOMO. "I mean, I've got this girl, and she's sort of a Christian. I mean, she is, you know." When you're dating someone and people ask and you're involved in ministry, you say, "Oh, she believes in God." Instead of, "Oh, this guy or this gal… They're passionate for Christ. They're in God's Word on a regular basis. They love God more than me." See, that's the kind of person you pray for.
Then, once I realized "No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly…" "Lord, you can have basketball. You know what? Her vision is _this_. My vision is _that_. Lord, I want your choice, and I'm willing to wait." I'm so glad I did. After all of the injuries, God said, "I want to bless your life." I missed most of my basketball career through… Literally. You know, the self-effort. I even stayed and took some classes in the summer to play in the league, wear a weighted vest, and gain 15 pounds, because that was my year, baby.
"It's my year. I'm going to be a star. Oh, when I score 25 a game and throw it behind my back and everyone talks about how wonderful, it's Jesus." Baloney! It was Chip. Then I surrendered, and he gave me some windows of time that were little windows of possibility, and then I got a letter when I was done. I told him, "If I never pick up a ball again…" By the way, some of you think, "Well, how…?" My dad was an alcoholic. I played basketball eight or nine hours a day.
Pete Maravich… You can Google him. He was before Steph Curry. I did all of those drills, and I was fancy, and I was just an egomaniac jerk. It was my identity. When I was lonely, and I didn't have any dad around, it was a coach. My whole life was wrapped up in what I could do with that little ball, and at my size, you have to really work hard at it.
I finally gave it over to the Lord, and I got a little card in the mail from people I didn't know asking me if I could join some Christian basketball team. "The other players are from UCLA and USC and Oregon and Erskine, and you're going to play Olympic teams in every country in South America and selection teams." It was like God saying, "Chip, the issue was never basketball."
See, how to give God what he really wants is all of you unconditionally. Scary? Yes. Faith? Yes. It sounds a lot like the early apostles. You will not experience power until you surrender. It's like my grandkids. My kids are twins. Six and a half years later, another son. Six and a half years later, a daughter. So, I have five grandkids in college, and then I have a 7-year-old. My daughter's are 12, 10, 8, and 6.
You know, we have sleepovers, and all that stuff that we grandparents do, and it's a lot of fun. We get hundreds, like, 200 water balloons in the backyard, and it's like, "Okay, baby. Here we go." They love it. Well, I have one really astute grandson. He gets the hose. So, we're throwing and he's spraying. But he has a little, little sister who's pretty smart, so she goes over when he has the hose, and she does…what?
Most Christians, especially in the US, but around the world, have the Spirit of God coming through, and their hose is kinked, and they have a little power coming out the other end. God is saying, "Would you unkink the hose and say, 'Lord, you call the shots'?" If the relationship you're in isn't holy, get out of it. If you're logging on to stuff that's distracting, stop it. Get help. Whatever you need to do, whatever the implications of surrender, that is the beginning of discipleship.
The second part is so positive. Your relationship with the world. Write the word _separate_. The tense of the verb literally is "Stop allowing the world, or the pattern of the world system, to mold you, but…" Strong, strong contrast. "…allow…" Passive voice. "But allow…" "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that how your lifestyle plays out, what you actually test in God's will, is good, acceptable, and perfect." So, it's a command for a _no_ and a command for a _yes_. The _no_ for discipleship is "Stop allowing the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life."
See, 1 John 2:15 says when those three things are dominating your life, it's either the love of those or the love of the Father, but if you have a love of _those_, you don't love your Father. And those are biblical words. Really, it's sex, salary, and status. You know, if you have so much money, then you can have the purse with the logo so everybody knows who you are. You can have a watch, if you're a business guy, and everybody knows… Not just _a_ Rolex but this is the version. You drive _this_ kind of car.
You know what? You get so many surgeries, get in that gym, get some creatine, and then make sure you wear this shirt so the women can see… "I've got the abs, baby." We play all kinds of games…what people think, how much we have, what we drive, where we're at, what we post. Memo: I'm older than most of you. Looking back… Memo: No one cares. You can laugh. No one cares. It's you playing an identity. You've been suckered in. You actually believe…
One of the guys on the team was from USC, and I'll never forget. You know, he was drafted in baseball. He played on the USC basketball team. He's a super-good-looking guy. You know, we're playing, and he was a great player. We roomed together. I'll never forget. He was there, and I said, "Man, what's going on with you?" He goes, "At USC, up until a year and a half ago, I probably slept with three different women every week."
He goes, "I've had so much sex with so many people. I'm so numb. There's no feeling anymore. The thing I thought would bring me…" He goes, "My mind and my emotions and all of the things I've sought that if I could just do this… I let myself live a wild life, and it was completely bankrupt." I mean, do the research. Find people who have won the lottery, and find out what happens to their life five years later.
Ask yourselves why the most beautiful people, whether they're movie stars or athletes making 30, 40, or 50 million a year… How come we keep finding them on the news either in jail, beating up their wife, putting white powder in their nose, or going through partners like we go through underwear? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life bring death. They're the substitutes for genuine security, genuine significance, and genuine love.
So, how do you get the best from God? You say no to the world, but then you say, "Yes." Transformation isn't trying harder ("Oh, I'm going to grind it out"); it's changing how you think. I so struggled with lust I quit the Christian life after about a year and a half. I thought, "I can't do this." God said, "Okay. Well…" I mean, _I_ quit, but he wouldn't. Holy Spirit kept convicting me. I said, "Lord, hey, maybe… Gabriel! Would you get the memo up to the Father? I'm done. I'm not going to be a hypocrite. I quit." It didn't change.
My roommate was going to this summer discipleship program with The Navigators, but you had to memorize these 60 verses called the _Topical Memory System_. He was a heavyweight wrestler. We had great competition and razzed each other up, basketball players versus wrestlers. So, when he left the room, I took his 60 cards. I cut up little 3x5 cards. I wrote all of the cards down. I memorized a verse every single day, reviewed every single one every day, because in ego, God is not even involved.
I was going to, twice as fast as him, maybe three times as fast, have all 60, word perfect, and say, "Hey, Bob, how are you doing? Still struggling with those verses. That's the way wrestlers are." I was going to start with verse 1 and go 60 verses. _Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!_ Except something happened on verse 21. I can still remember jogging to baseball with these verses. Psychology class, perhaps the most boring teacher in the entire world… I put up my book, just keep the verses going.
Verse 21, I meet a very, very beautiful coed who's involved in the ministry. When I lusted for non-Christian girls, I felt guilty. When I lusted for super-spiritual girls, I felt shameful and devastated. We had a conversation. We only met eyes, and she left, and I thought, "I didn't lust." Then I made the connection. "I'm not trying harder; my desires have changed." Then 60 verses, and then I started other verses. Then I went on one of these basketball trips, and I thought, "I wonder what it would be like to memorize the book of Philippians."
Then I went on another trip. "Why don't we memorize the book of James?" Pretty soon, I'm renewing my mind, and my desires are completely changing. As I'm praying, God is speaking through these verses. I find myself, if someone asks me a question, the Holy Spirit takes a verse. You want to be transformed? You want to get the very best from God? Say no to the world and renew your mind. Be in his Word on a regular basis.
But don't read three verses a day to keep the Devil away and check a box. Or "I don't feel like it. I'm not getting anything out of it, but I read through the Bible this year." Good for you. You want to get the Bible _in_ you, not you just get through it. There are times I get into a paragraph, and God starts speaking. I get up the next day. Same paragraph. God is still speaking. I'm not leaving. You know, when the cloud moves, I'm moving. When the fire moves, it moves. If God is speaking to your heart and to your life, listen. Obey.
Thirdly… By the way, next to this one write the word _peace_. Do you know why Christians don't have peace? When you really know the Lord, and you're sort of walking with him, and the world is pulling you _this_ way… You keep logging on to _this_. You keep thinking _that_. Your priorities are out of whack. See, God wants us to have a great supernatural peace. Isaiah 26:3. Are you ready? Some of them I memorized in King James, so forgive me. I'm not going to re-memorize them. "Thou wilt keep him \[or her\] in perfect peace…" Because you trust him and your mind is stayed on him.
The third relationship is your relationship with yourself, and the key phrase there is a _sober self-assessment_. How do you come to grips with the real you? Verse 3 says by the grace of God. It says, "Don't think too high of yourself…" In fact, I would add "Don't think too low of yourself." "…but think as you ought…" Same word. "…because God has given to each one of us a proportion of faith."
He says here, "What I want you to do is have an accurate view of yourself. Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment." The word _think_, the word _ought_, the word _think_, and the word _sober_ you might underline. All four of them have the same root word. The word _sober_ means rather than being drunk. Then, the portion of your faith here… This is objective faith.
So, God is saying, "Do you want to come to grips with the real you? You need to step back and, in your mind's eye, go through the reality of Ephesians, chapter 1." When you see yourself, you need to see yourself as God sees you, as "I chose you, daughter or son. I redeemed you. I adopted you. I sealed you. I put spiritual gifts in you. I've got a purpose for your life. You are precious. You are valued. You are loved, not because you do anything but because of what I have done. I dwell in you, and you are robed in righteousness." A sober self-assessment.
"Then in this life…" Just because we have physical bodies, they don't all have the same function. "I want you to figure out where you fit in my body." If you don't know the answer, verses 6-8 say, "I've given some spiritual gifts. Discover yours and plug it in." Write the word _purpose_ to the side. Surrender leads to power. Separate from the world leads to peace. Having an identity, understanding clearly who you are… Doesn't it make sense? I mean, doesn't it make sense that the gifts he gave you…?
I was doing something for some business guys in Florida. We do a thing called _PrimeMovers_ where we help guys in halftime figure out "What's next? How do I make the biggest impact with my life?" One of the things we talk about is "Well, what are the tools God gave you? What are the passions? What do you love to do, and what are you good at?"
I just gave a little illustration, like, "If you walked into a room, and there was a lathe, a saw, and wood, and there was one of those vices that you put things in… Let's guess." The guy who was a non-Christian goes, "Oh, that'd be either a cabinetmaker or a carpenter." I said, "You're right. You're a genius. How do you know?"
"Well, those are the tools they use."
"Well, guess what? God has given you tools. He has given you natural talents. He has given you spiritual gifts, and you need to understand what they are."
I often ask people on a 3x5 card… On one side, "What are your top three strengths?" On the back, "What are your top three weaknesses or what needs to be developed?" People come up with the weaknesses. They want another card. "What are your top three strengths?" "Oh, I'm not sure." You need to get sober. No false humility.
You know what? What I know is my gifts are teaching, vision casting, and coaching, but my weaknesses are organization, administration, technology, and rolling things out in management. I'm terrible. I tried to do all that. When I couldn't do it early on, I faked it, which was really bad. Instead of seeing "These are my strengths. These are the people I need in my life…" When we put those together, man, it rolls. It really rolls.
We need you. There's no room for any nonparticipants at Watermark or any church. Just because you show up and you're like, "Well, the music is great, and they're taking care of my kids," if you have kids… "Boy, the youth thing… They've got all these great programs." If you're sitting back thinking, "Man, this is great…" This isn't like football. This isn't like the staff and some key leaders are on the field and you get to come like _this_ and watch.
The whole goal is to move from _here_ into some groups of real authentic community and, in that authentic community, begin to discover who you are and begin to love one another, and then begin to ask God, "Where does my heart beat? What dislocates my heart? What makes me mad that it needs to change or so sad it makes me cry?
I'm going to get a group of people together, and whether it's a ministry of the church right now or not, we're going to love those people. We're going to help those girls who are pregnant. We're going to get refugees and the things that are struggling around here. Man, we're going to start some executive Bible studies." That's what God is looking for: someone whose heart is fully his, surrendered; someone who's progressively… It's a journey. Progressively separate from the world's values. You have a sober self-assessment.
Then, in relationship with believers, it's _serving in love_. There are about 13 participles here that all have the force of a command. I think in this translation it says, "Let love be sincere." Literally, it's **"Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence…serving the Lord…"** "Practicing hospitality and devoted to prayer."
It can sound like just a list, but if you break up the triads, it'll say, "Let the real you…" "Take off your mask." That's the word for _hypocrisy_. It was used in the ancient Greek world for actors because all of the actors were male. They learned to throw their voice, and they could play any part, and they'd put on this mask. Paul says, "Take off your mask. Be vulnerable. Let the real you show up." But you can't do that unless you hate evil and deal with the junk in your life.
Then he says, "I want you to be devoted to one another radically." Like a Bible study of a good friend of mine. He had a buddy who needed a kidney and was way down on the list. They prayed in a small group. One week. Two weeks. Three weeks. A guy in the small group said, "I was praying about your friend, and God is leading me to give my kidney." He looked at him and said, "What? You don't even know him." "Well, we've been in this Bible study together, and you're my brother, and you're telling me this is a brother. That means he's in the body."
When it says, "Be devoted to one another," I don't think that means we have little groups and have sandwiches and talk nice to one another and have a little prayer and then watch the Cowboys and hope they win. I think it might be that we make radical financial or personal sacrifice to demonstrate that we love one another at a level that unbelievers would say, "What in the world would possess a man to give his kidney to someone he doesn't even know?" And he did. Only God knows the huge impact that followed.
Put the word _presence_ there. You want to experience God? I do. Like this morning. I experienced God. The Holy Spirit decided to manifest his presence in my heart in _that_ seat because of what the body did up here. It doesn't always happen to me. I don't know whether the problem is up here or… It's probably more me.
But if you're waiting for a phone call… You know, get a red phone. _Ring! Ring! Ring!_ And God says, "It's just me. I just wanted to check in." You're going to wait a long time. Now, he may do something like that. I've seen some pretty amazing things around the world. But do you know how God manifests his love and his presence? If you get a hug, it's going to be from someone in the body of Christ. When you are sacrificially loved and treated in a way you never deserve, it'll be from someone in the body of Christ.
When someone has been through something you've been through and says, "Look. It was 12 years. It was a secret. I broke the porn addiction. I broke the shopping addiction. I broke the eating disorder addiction. I broke the people-pleasing addiction. I broke the codependency addiction. Let's do this together…" That's what God is looking for: regular people, disciples, abiding in Christ and making disciples.
Finally, how do you respond to the evil that's aimed at you? Verses 14-21 are the hardest, most difficult verses, and they're "unfakable." "Bless those who persecute you; bless and curse not. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. Never take your own revenge." What?! Paul is hearing directly from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
The capstone is "Don't be overcome with evil but overcome evil with good." That means what you post. That means the people who are in a different political party than you. You don't talk evil of them. You don't throw grenades; you build bridges. People who have different lifestyles and different sexuality… Instead of throwing grenades… How do you overcome evil? You build a bridge, as far as it depends on you.
You never compromise the truth, but it's "They have dignity. They are made in the image of God. I'm going to treat them with dignity. I'm going to speak with dignity." Paul warns… When you deal with people, do it gently and with humility. You don't back down. You speak the truth. I mean, I live in probably the center of the homosexual community of all of America. That's the San Francisco Bay Area, and then Santa Cruz was sort of like the epicenter. First gay pride parade.
I mean, what everybody thinks woke is now, 30 years ago we were there. Elementary, junior high… Triangle speakers came and told all kids, "This is reality. This is true. This is the way it is. The only way you find out is experimentation." We lived through that. God did a radical move with thousands of people coming to Christ in that little town or area of a couple hundred thousand people. It wasn't because we screamed at them; it's because we drove HIV patients to the doctor. We drove HIV patients to the store.
We had a relationship with the county that "We won't proselytize, but if they ask, we get to tell." We helped with runaway teens. The churches came together and said, "We're one body." You know, when 97 percent of the people don't believe in anything at all religiously, and you're an evangelical pastor, whether you speak in tongues or don't speak in tongues or whether you worship with a guitar, an organ…all that stuff… Who cares?
You just get down to the nitty-gritty, and you pray and say, "Lost people matter to God. Are we in this together? Found people have to grow up and be mature. Let's meet the deepest needs." After 10 or 12 years, a radical thing happened. Transformation occurred. We invited Luis Palau to come. This crazy, non-Christian, woke city heard the gospel like never before, and hundreds trusted Christ.
As you turn the page, the warning is this is not a try-hard, moral model to live up to. Don't turn it into that. I gave you the overview. The question is…_Would you like to receive everything your heavenly Father has planned for you?_ Would you? I mean, really. Do you want all God has for you? His eyes are still moving. He's still looking. Have you personally taken the step to be all in? If not, today is your day.
At the bottom, there's a QR code, because I realize, if you're talking with a friend later, you're going to say, "That guy talks really fast, and he uploaded a ton of information, and my head was kind of spinning." Guilty. But that QR code will have a message on each one of these, a 40-minute message, a 7-minute message. There will be a Q&A. We've done this here and around the world.
Everything in it is free. There's nothing connected to our website so that people start calling you or asking you. This is just how in the world, in a moment of history, can we be Christians who live like Christians who love God, love our neighbor, love lost people, meet the needs of the least of these, and see the Spirit of God work like never before?
Would you bow your head with me? As the team comes, I'd like to ask you… And it's okay to be really fearful. I think that's a good thing, actually, because it means you really understand what the cost may be. But if indeed the Lord God is a sun and a shield, if he longs to give grace and glory, and he will not withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly, would you today say to him, "Lord, I'm all in. Whatever it is, whatever it takes, I'm all in."
Would you commit to verbalize that to someone you know here or one of the pastors, because there's something about thinking it, saying it to the Lord, and verbalizing it that begins the journey. If you happen to be here, and you're thinking, "You know, I just thought being a Christian was a different sort of philosophy of life and trying to get my good deeds to outweigh my bad deeds, and I realize it's grace and I need to receive Christ today…"
Would you just say, "Lord, I know I'm not perfect. I believe you died upon the cross to pay for my sin and rose from the dead, proving that it's true. I don't understand it all, but, Lord Jesus, today, would you forgive me, and would you come into my life? I believe in you. I trust you for eternal life right now." In Christ's name, amen.