It's good to see you this morning.
I'm glad you're here.
I want to just add a footnote to the announcements
regarding the seven Primal Questions resource.
That is a phenomenal resource.
If any of you have a relationship in your life
you care about.
The truth is that
every one of us has a primal question.
A core question that we need to get answered
with a yes from those that are supposed to love us the most.
And when we don't get a yes from them,
it sends us into a tailspin,
and we try to get a yes from somebody.
If we know what our primal question is and the ones that love us best
know what it is, then we can answer each other's question with a yes.
And it's really, really good and healthy.
If we don't know what that is
and they don't know what ours is,
and they never answer it with a yes,
it gets very destructive.
And so if you have a relationship
with someone you care about, which I hope is all of us,
that resource will be very beneficial,
especially for married couples, especially
so that you can start answering each other's question with a resounding yes!
So I invite you to please take advantage of that.
I can't say enough good things about it.
Today we just,
in the conclusion of our Ruth series,
I want to dive in today
with,
what our values are
the values of our church
as we look forward to next Sunday
celebrating 20 years of what God has done.
I want to make sure that you come back next
Sunday for that celebration together.
But in setting that up,
I want us to look together at our values.
Before I get to that message,
I want to share with you something that will set up this message
from my journal that I just wrote.
It came to me last night,
and I want to share with you
my journal.
The focus of this is on the word do loss.
It's a Greek word d o u l s is how we would spell it in English.
Do loss.
And that word literally means slave.
I am the do loss of Jesus.
That's how the Bible talks about Jesus followers as they do loss.
Literally, I am the slave of Christ.
I am not my own.
I am not allowed my own agenda.
I serve a master who owns my life
with unquestioned obedience and allegiance.
He is the master.
I am his slave
everywhere in
the New Testament where it translates do loss.
It uses the word servant, but the word is literally slave.
In the 1500s, translators chained slave to servant
because they thought slave sounded too harsh.
A servant implies serves a boss,
but that implies one can be lazy or neglectful without great consequence.
To serve implies it is optional.
Slaves, on the other hand, have no recourse
but to only obey.
If I understand slave master relationship,
everything in the Bible makes sense.
Slaves are used at the discretion of their master.
Slaves rely upon the grace of their master for anything good in their life.
Slaves are disciplined by their master for disobedience.
Slaves aren't allowed to live by their own agendas or rules.
Slaves are protected by their master.
Slaves can only be the slave of one master.
Every provision and the life of a slave comes from their master.
But also
my master no longer
calls me only his slave, but also his friend.
To be the friend of my master
means my master is not abusive towards me.
And though a slave, I'm adopted
and a co-chair with my master.
So all the rights of the Kingdom of my master are mine.
What a blessing to be the slave of Jesus.
My life is the life of a slave to my master,
on whom I rely on his grace, provision,
goodness, kindness, mercy, and to whom
I owe my full, unquestioned allegiance without debate.
This slave's agenda
and dreams are not fulfilled by my master.
This this slave fulfills the master's commands.
It is his kingdom.
This slave serves.
He does not serve this slave's kingdom
as the slave of Jesus.
My values must only be what he values.
My prayer was this Jesus, I am your slave,
father.
I am your slave.
I trust you as my master.
Everywhere in the Bible,
the New Testament, when Scripture talks about the servant
or the bond servant, which is a made up word in English, it's not in a Greek.
The literal word is slave.
And what we are commanded into
is a master slave relationship,
where Jesus is the master.
We are his slave.
Translators have done a disservice
to the kingdom of God and to our churches.
When they made that translation.
Because when we talk about serving Jesus,
it's almost as if we do him a service by our service,
and we may serve sometimes and not other times,
and we may serve well or not well, and we may choose to do this or that
as a servant.
But as a slave.
We have no option.
There's no debate here.
The commands of the master must be followed.
And that's biblical.
So here's my fear this morning.
I'm going to teach and preach
a very deep and theological biblical message
that will feel like it will fly in the face
of Christianity, of the Bible and of the church.
And it will feel very harsh,
and it will feel like it's leaving a lot of things out.
And the danger that I face in preaching this message today
is that I will preach some of you out of this church.
I hope I don't.
But I want us to understand
what it is to be called Christian,
and what God's expectation of his church is
of us,
not as servant, not as follower,
but biblically as slave.
To understand, understand.
As a slave to
I am not allowed my own values
as a slave.
I must adhere to and accept
and perpetuate the values of my master.
Every one of us lives by a set of values.
Most of us have not given much thought to what
those values are, and most of us
have never given much attention nor stated them clearly for our lives.
And most of us don't evaluate our life
currently by our values.
More of us go through life simply responding to
stimuli upon our life.
Values are very easy to identify,
even if you've never stated them, and if you have stated them is.
They're very easy to identify.
If we live by them, all one must do is
look at where we spend our time and how we spend our money,
where we spend our time and how we spend our money will
clearly expose what we value.
We can say what we value,
but unless we evaluate our time, our energy,
and our finances based on what we say we value,
we will never really know if what we say we value are really values.
Perhaps many of us have goals in life,
but unless those goals are based
on very specific chosen values,
at best those goals are selfish
or haphazard.
And so I want to be very clear.
The values of this church are, and by extension,
with the values of the slaves of
Jesus are to be.
Our church flipside
comes from a passage in acts
chapter 17, verse six, which says this.
Go to their.
When they could not,
the Jewish leaders could not find the disciples.
They dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city
authority, shouting, these men who have turned
the world upside down have come here also.
They have lived.
The flip side,
our goal as a church, as slaves of Jesus,
is to live the flip side
and turn the world upside down.
Values are important
because values set agendas, values drive
goals, values determined strategy and values.
Direct spending.
This is as true for the church as it is for the individual.
It's as true for the individual as it is the church.
And so today I want to be very clear with the values.
The flip side
and the values of slaves of Christ.
This will be challenging.
I pray it's convicting.
And I pray that the Holy Spirit
does in his slaves
what the master desires of his slaves.
Are you ready?
These values are on these shirts.
I want us to understand them and live them.
That's why we made of available and a welcome center for you to pick up.
You can buy your own shirt.
This is important.
The first value.
Irrefutable love.
Love that cannot be refuted.
It is so clear and so apparent it cannot be refuted.
Romans five eight For God
shows his love for us in this,
that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
When we had nothing to offer God,
we could add no value to God, nor God's existence.
There is nothing in us
that makes God's world better.
Jesus died for us
while still in rebellion to him,
in disobedience to him.
He died for us.
The Bible says, rarely will one man die for a good man,
but never will one die for a bad man.
Jesus died for us.
Irrefutable love asks
nothing of us on the front end.
Just simply said, I'm willing to die for you.
As an
expression of the father's love,
it is irrefutable.
And therefore Jesus then says, by this
all people will know that you are my disciples.
If you want to
have love for one another.
The first value is irrefutable love.
Love is not optional.
Love is evidence.
Love is not a theory.
Love is a testimony.
See, the world can argue with theology.
The world cannot argue with Jesus.
Is love.
It's the story of the Good Samaritan.
In Luke chapter ten.
When a man was left
beaten for dead on the side of the road.
And it's the story of how love crossed the road
when religion walked past
irrefutable love.
See, we have to understand something.
That love is the proof. Love is not the perk.
That we choose to love.
Those who have wronged us.
We choose to love. Those who may hate us.
We choose to show love to those who have done us wrong, who have done us dirty,
who have abandoned us, who have left us, who have talked ill about us.
We choose to show love.
Because by that
all men will know
that we are the slaves of Christ.
It is how we've been loved.
It is how we love.
And so, as the slave of Jesus,
that person, those people in your life
that are hard to love.
Who have done you wrong?
Who've left you and abandoned you.
Who should have loved you and denied you.
Those who hurt your family.
The slave of Christ has no option.
But to love irrefutably.
See, the follower
of Jesus, the servant of Jesus can say, you know I'm I.
I follow him as well.
Like, not very well with that regard.
The slave has no excuse and no option.
Do you understand? Yes.
You okay?
Yes. Okay. Good.
Because we got six more.
Irrefutable love
and the irresistible grace.
Irresistible grace.
Ephesians two eight says, for by what
grace you've been saved through faith in this not of your own
doing, is the gift of God.
Irresistible grace.
Grace is so beautiful that when you see it
and experience it, it is irresistible.
See, one of the things we have to realize that Christians, in other words,
slaves, are most attractive when grace is most apparent.
The slave lives with irrefutable love to those
who don't seem as though they deserve it.
And the slave of Jesus gives grace that becomes irresistible
to those who don't deserve our grace.
Grace
is not just for the grace doesn't just forgive.
Grace attracts.
And in Romans two, for
we read.
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience,
not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
God's grace, his kindness is intended to draw us to him
because it is so irresistible.
See, grace is the magnet
that pulls hearts to Jesus.
This slave
was drawn to my master because of his grace.
And others are to be drawn to my master
because of the grace they see in this slave.
I will not ask
for a show of hands, but do you have someone in your life
that doesn't deserve your favor?
That doesn't deserve your blessing?
That doesn't deserve your graciousness?
The slave
gives grace to them that is irresistible
to draw them to their master.
It's not optional.
It's not a suggestion.
It's not an invitation.
It's the command of the master
to the master's slave.
To give irresistible grace
to those in our lives
that don't deserve it. Why?
Because that's what we've been given.
By the master.
To follow for.
See, people who were nothing
like Jesus liked Jesus because he radiated grace.
And he preached truth.
Both things together.
It's reflected in the woman caught in adultery.
In John chapter eight,
when the religious leaders were brought, this woman caught in
the act of adultery was stones in their hands,
ready to stone her to death, as the law prescribed.
And those stones in the hand had dropped to the ground
at the feet of Jesus, because Grace stepped in.
Did she deserve grace? No.
Did she receive grace? Yes.
And so, for that person in your world
that doesn't deserve grace.
The slave responds to the master
and says, yes, master.
I will give grace
because you first gave it to me.
You okay?
Yes. Yeah. Good.
Because we have five more.
And as slaves
these are not negotiable.
Strict and unquestioned obedience.
We value irrefutable love.
Irresistible grace and illogical faith.
Faith.
That doesn't make sense.
Because that's what faith is.
Hebrews 11 six.
And without what?
Faith?
It's impossible to make God smile.
It's impossible to please him.
For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists,
and that he rewards those who seek him.
Faith doesn't always make sense,
but it does always make history.
Noah by faith
built a boat in the desert.
By faith built a boat that took him 120 years to build by faith.
Built a boat
in an area that had no large body of water
for 210 miles.
Faith, illogical faith
made Abraham leave his land, his family, his possessions,
and go to a place he knew not where
illogical faith made Abraham walk
by faith, not by sight.
It was the illogical faith of Peter
who was safe in a boat in a storm.
Get out of a boat onto the water.
It's illogical.
Faith.
That is the faith of the slave.
It's the illogical faith of David
that ran towards the giant.
A child unarmed, with no battle armor
on the front lines of a warzone running towards the army.
The army? The enemy.
It was the illogical faith
that made the giant fall.
See, faith oftentimes looks crazy
until the master comes through.
And slaves
don't get to know the map ahead of time.
Slaves aren't allowed to know the direction ahead of time.
Slaves are not given the guarantee of success ahead of time.
A slave simply says, master, where would you have me?
What would you have me do?
And then the slave obeys.
Right, right, right.
And what?
We've been sold in the church
is. Father, tell me where to go.
And as your servant, I will serve you.
That's not the life of a slave.
The slave says you don't have to tell me where to end up.
At your command.
I will move.
No direction,
no guarantee. Why?
Because the slave is used at the discretion of his master.
Of her master.
And so the slave walks
by illogical faith.
Understanding that the master doesn't owe the slave
any explanation, nor guarantee.
And so,
dear slaves of Christ.
Take a bold step
that scares you, but honors your master.
For you have no other responsibility
as a slave than that.
Irrefutable love.
Irresistible grace.
Illogical faith.
Oh, dear.
Slave! Are you okay?
Yes. Good.
Because we have four more.
We value the invisible kingdom.
We don't just believe in an invisible kingdom.
We value the invisible kingdom.
And I want to spend some time here because we have to understand
that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
There is an invisible kingdom that is more real than this world, in which we see.
And it is more active
and more powerful than anything
you and I see with our natural eyes.
Jesus said, I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
There is an invisible kingdom.
And we are a part of it.
And right now
there is kingdom or heavenly
beings at play.
When you look not to
the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen.
The kingdom,
its eternal.
It's this kingdom
that is ruled by the master of whom we are
his slaves.
And we value his kingdom over ours.
For Jesus said, seek first that kingdom,
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things
take care of themselves
as slaves of Jesus,
not as servants, not as followers.
The biblical word is slave as slaves of Jesus.
The kingdom of God is not a flag we wave.
It is the reality we live.
This kingdom, the kingdom of my master.
Though you can't always see his kingdom,
you cannot deny its power.
In Mark chapter four,
when Jesus was in a boat with his disciples
sleeping,
the storm raged.
The disciples were afraid.
They woke Jesus and Jesus commanded the storm.
The waves and the wind be quiet and be still.
And nature obeyed the command of its creator.
And the response of the disciples was that they were afraid.
And they asked, who is this, that even the wind
and the waves obey him, because they realized that this master
was the master of the invisible kingdom.
And they were faced with the reality of the invisible
kingdom breaking through into their reality.
And they realized
that the unseen world,
the invisible kingdom,
is more real than the seen one.
And you and I, as slaves of the master, serve as slaves.
The master who rules over the invisible
kingdom.
As I was driving
to our football game in Dos Palos on Friday afternoon,
I was going through some of this in my mind,
and God spoke to me this, and I spoke it into my phone.
And I want to read to you
what God downloaded to me
about this life and the invisible kingdom.
Life right now
was never intended to be my best life.
Now the older I get, the more I realize,
the greater accumulation of disappointments that I've experienced.
My best life is not this life.
My best life is the life to come.
My best life is in the Turtle Kingdom, not this temporal kingdom.
It's okay when things don't go well in this life.
I don't expect them to.
Because I don't expect this life to be my best life.
I have hope for eternity and that eternity will be my best life
because of what Jesus did on the cross.
I understand that I am totally depraved,
sinful, even in my best religious work.
I am utterly sinful and unable to affect my own salvation.
It is only by the atoning work of Jesus on the cross
that my best life is to come.
It has nothing to do with my work here.
It has everything to do with the work of Jesus.
And so I can go
through my worst life here, because I know that
my best life is secured and coming
as good as things might be here.
This is my worst life.
As bad as things might be here.
This is my worst life.
My best life is to come.
And that is the hope of salvation.
That is the joy of salvation.
That is the eternal kingdom that I already belong to.
Paul's prayer is that the eyes of our heart
would be enlightened,
that we know the hope to which we have been called, the glorious inheritance
that is ours, and the power that raised Jesus from the dead.
In other words, my hope is that my best life is yet to come.
My hope is not in a better life now.
My hope is in the Kingdom.
Amen.
That is what
a slave values.
Okay.
Yes. Good.
Because we have three more.
We value the infallible scriptures.
The word of God.
Isaiah 40, verse eight.
The grass withers, the flower fades.
But the word of our God
stands forever.
It is true.
It's infallible.
And it remains.
Proverbs 30, verse five and six.
Every word of God proves true.
He's a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you,
and you be found a liar.
His word is infallible and true.
We value his words over our words.
We value his words over our opinion.
Second Timothy 316.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man, that the woman of God may be completely quit for every good work.
The Word of God is the breath of God breathes it into us
through His Word.
Opinions shift, culture drifts.
The God's Word remains forever.
It doesn't change.
It never has, and it never will.
And those who change it
stand condemned.
It's Jesus in the wilderness.
And Matthew chapter four.
When the devil came and tempted him, and by the way,
tempting him with every desire that a human would want.
And Jesus, the book of Philippians
says that he came as a slave.
Same word.
And as a slave
tempted with his own, a human's agenda
responded not with his feelings, but responded with Scripture.
Because it is the truth.
It's unchanging.
It is infallible.
God's word never expires.
It empowers.
And we have to understand what Romans
1017 says that faith comes by what?
Hearing and hearing what?
The Word of Christ.
Our faith grows
by hearing the commands of the master
and by obeying as a slave those commands.
How can a slave do what the master commands?
If the slave doesn't know what the master has commanded?
That's a derelict slave.
That's a disobedient slave.
How does a slave know what the master has commanded?
By knowing the master's words.
Do you understand
this, dear slave?
It's the slaves job
and responsibilities to listen to and obey and learn
what the master's words are.
So that the slave can obey.
That's how faith is grown.
That enables the slave
to live with irrational faith.
That's why we tell you all the time.
Read your Bible and journal.
Oh, slave.
Read the words of your master
and journal what the master commands you.
Are you okay?
Good.
Because we have two more.
We value irrational generosity.
How does the slave value irrational generosity?
Because the slave knows the slave owns nothing.
Whatever the slave has is given them by the master.
So the master has discretion over what the slave possesses.
Because what the slave possesses is not the slaves possession.
And so when the master says, oh, dear slave,
this is what I want you to do with my possessions.
The only response of the slave is to obey,
because the possessions of the slave are not the slaves.
The possessions of the slave that the slave is enjoying are the masters.
See, this is different than the servant
or the follower, because one can say, as a servant,
well, I serve the master this way, but not that way.
And I'm doing well following in this area.
Not as well of that area.
But that's okay, because of these things called mercy and grace.
But once you put it in the context that the Bible talks about it
as slave and master.
Now I understand
that these things I enjoy are not my possession.
They're not the possession of the slave.
They're the possession of the master.
And the master has complete authority and discretion over the master's
possessions, and complete authority and discretion over the slave.
And how the slave manages the master's possessions.
And my only response to my master is to be either,
irrationally generous with the master's
possessions or.
Do you understand?
If all I see myself is as a servant
or a follower, that means I can serve God with my possessions
and I can follow God with my possessions.
That's erroneous.
If I understand biblically that I am a slave now,
I no longer have discretion over what I would have otherwise
called my possessions because as a slave, they're not mine.
And that's why this makes sense.
Give.
Because it's not yours anyway.
And when you give, it will be given to you.
Because I know I can trust you.
Good measure.
Pressed down, shaken together. Running over.
Will be put into your lap by your master.
So I can direct. Why?
Where my stuff goes.
For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you,
says the master.
So generosity doesn't add up.
It multiplies the kingdom.
This little boy.
I don't know if you heard the story.
He had five loaves and two fish.
And he gave it.
And it didn't make sense,
but it fed thousands
because it was the masters.
See, here's what the truth is.
Generosity breaks calculators and multiplies the kingdom.
And slaves live with open hands
because it's not their own.
And so the slave learns to give
until it feels sacrificial, not safe.
Because though the master is a good master.
It's not always
feels like safe.
You're okay.
Is good
because we have one more.
Incessant reproduction.
The slave incessantly reproduces
the master's kingdom.
The slave incessantly reproduces.
Matthew 2819.
Go. Therefore,
all you slaves,
and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them,
teaching them.
To be my slaves.
I've commanded you.
Do this because I, your master, am with you
to the very end of the age.
A healthy tree reproduces
healthy fruit, and again, healthy disciples reproduce.
Healthy disciples.
Healthy churches reproduce
healthy churches.
We are committed to incessant reproduction.
Of slaves of Christ
and God's Church.
Expanding his kingdom, not our own.
Because reproduction isn't a strategy,
it's God's purpose for his kingdom
and for his slaves.
See, the truth is that disciples don't just grow,
they go.
And so we will and have always been, and will continue
to be incessantly focused on reproducing the kingdom of God.
Because after all, all we are, all I am is a slave of Christ, to be used
at his discretion, to use his resources to build his Kingdom,
not our own.
That is why,
dear friends, we invest so heavily in church planting.
Just since 2016,
we have been the major contributor, worker,
funder or trainer of over 500 churches
around the world.
Even more since we started in 2005.
That's just the number since 2016.
In the last ten years.
Why? Because we value the invisible kingdom.
We live with irrational generosity.
We live by illogical faith,
and we are incessantly obsessed with reproducing the kingdom of God.
Because after all, we are his slaves.
Let me just tell you this.
As his slave, we have the opportunity
to go to Ukraine
and start 200 churches.
Right now.
And so on September 24th through October 7th,
I will fly into Poland
and take a train into Ukraine.
And we will do what we do in doing church planting
training for multiple, multiple pastors
so we can start another 200 churches within a year in Ukraine.
What it is exploding in Ukraine.
And the reason exploding in Ukraine
is because when people draw near to their own mortality,
they start to ask spiritual, eternal questions.
And in Ukraine,
people are very near their own mortality.
We have the opportunity
to start in Ukraine, a church planting movement.
And so as I go to Ukraine,
I'll be all around that country, and I will go to the border
of Ukraine and Russia on the front lines and preach in churches
there and lead church planting work there.
And we will start planting Kingdom
churches for the expansion of the Kingdom of God,
the invisible kingdom, because we live with irrational faith.
And the master has told this slave
that he wants this slave to go to Ukraine,
to the front line, to do kingdom work.
And so this slave will obey him.
And you, as the slaves of Christ,
will join me in that in prayer that the kingdom advances
by any means the master chooses to advance it
at the complete discretion of the master.
And we together, as the slaves of Christ, will pay for it all.
We will pay for the opportunity
to go to the frontlines.
Do you understand?
Understand?
Because we are no more
than slaves of Christ.
We don't get to have an opinion
about what the master's desire is.
We don't get to have an opinion
about how the master chooses
to use his slaves for his purposes.
We simply have the responsibility to obey.
And so,
living a value driven life.
We will love people
in ways that love can't be denied.
And we will extend grace that people can't resist.
And we will walk in faith in a way that doesn't make sense.
And we will live for the kingdom
that we cannot see, but cannot ignore.
And we
will stand on the word that does not fail.
And we will give in ways that make calculators cry.
And we will reproduce disciples in churches
until the world is reached and flipped upside down.
Because we are the slaves of Christ.
Your values determine your destiny.
Change your values.
You change your future.
And so, dear friends,
don't don't just admire these values.
Adopt them.
And don't just agree with them.
Apply them.
This is what slaves of Christ do.
Do you understand?
Yeah.
You okay?
Yeah.
That's.
What?
Make sure you come back next week.
Because we're going to.
We're going to celebrate
what God has done through his slaves
over the last 20 years.
Together.
He's a good master.
Yeah.
And we will say yes.
Father.
Thank you.
You are a good master.
And we are your slaves.
Friends,
I want to invite you in this moment.
To adhere to the command of the master.
That says you are my slave.
And I want to encourage you
in a simple act of faith
that will cost you your life
and cost you your goals,
and cost you your hopes and cost you your agendas.
And it will all be worth it
to in this moment.
Say, Jesus, I am your slave.
Father, I am your slave.
You are my Lord,
and I am your slave.
You are my Lord.
And I am your slave.
Do with me here
what you will here.
My life.
And all that you've given me.
Is at your discretion.
For your kingdom sake. Your
direct.
This slave.
Father, I thank you that you love us.
I thank you for your mercy.
Your Grace. I think if that we can trust you
as our master. You.
May your kingdom come.
May your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.
This battle that we're in is not against flesh and blood,
but against rulers and authorities of powers in the unseen world
over which you've already gained the victory.
It's your battle.
Yes. We're your slaves.
Have your way.
Amen.