Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Well, good morning. Good morning. Glad to be here with you this morning, as we open up God's word, together. We begin with a a scripture reading from Matthew chapter nine and verse 35, And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
John Gunter:Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. He finishes in verse 38, therefore, pray earnestly to the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. What do you think about when you see this picture? Probably the word, the two letters in huge font, go. How many of you have yelled that at someone this this week while sitting at a red light?
John Gunter:Because as soon as it turns green, you need to go. Right? That is what we get in these verses. Right? Jesus is looking at all his disciples.
John Gunter:He's looking at all the people around. It says, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, and he felt some of the the word used there, that compassion word, is a word where he's deeply moved. He was deeply moved to see the people in their condition, and it was because of their leaders. It was because of the issues that the leadership of Israel had that they weren't actually shepherding the people of God, they were leading them astray. And he looks at his disciples and he said, The harvest is plentiful.
John Gunter:There is plenty to do. Now, most of the time in in scripture, especially in the Old Testament, that word for harvest was used for judgment. Okay? But here, Matthew, telling the words of Jesus, uses it in a positive way, workshop coming up. And that's what we're talking about for the next two weeks.
John Gunter:We're going to go out of our study of Mark, and we're gonna talk about evangelism and exactly what Jesus is talking about. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, and again, therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Now, sometimes, I think we can be a little disassociated from this. When Jesus says, Hey, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest, send out laborers into the harvest, you think, I'm going to pray for other people to go. Right?
John Gunter:I'm comfortable with that. I'm happy to do it, Lord. God, would you send John to go do that? Right? And and so we won't we don't say that, but a lot of times we operate as a church, Hey, we're paying a guy, so that means he must be the one to go.
John Gunter:Now, how many people do you think one person can ultimately reach? Versus, look around this morning, a room full of people who go to a variety of places that I'll never see, right? And the example that you can be there, and so when Jesus says to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few, I think Jesus has in mind that there are a lot of people that are gonna say, not me. But Jesus says, go. As you're going in your life, there are people you're going to come into contact with who need Jesus.
John Gunter:Amen? And for a lot of those people, the only example of Jesus that they're going to see in the week may be you, and you ought to take that seriously. We've talked a lot as, as we've gone on through the last year. We mentioned several times compartmentalization, the idea where I've got my weekend self, I've got my church self in this box, and I've got myself who's the rest of the week. Right?
John Gunter:I'll act right at church, but once I get to work, it's a different thing. What Jesus is calling us to is something greater, To be his witness wherever we go. The harvest is plentiful. And how many of us, if we said here right now, we're thinking, well, I just don't know anybody. Right?
John Gunter:So pray to the lord of the harvest to send out workers, and I think part of that is praying for eyes to see, for opportunities to be had. What John I I've I started some of John Rowe's stuff, so I wanted to kinda familiarize myself. And what John is gonna teach you is really just about how to have conversations with people. It's not a a sales pitch where you're gonna force something on somebody like a used car salesman. You're not gonna do that.
John Gunter:But it's a conversation to see if people are open. Hey, tell me about your life. Tell me about your spiritual life. Right? Tell me about Jesus.
John Gunter:If they have no desire, that's fine. We're gonna walk away as friends. Right? We're gonna be okay. We're not gonna say, keep pushing and keep pushing until you've got an enemy at work that you gotta dread next Monday.
John Gunter:Right? That's not what's gonna happen, and Jesus doesn't ask you to do that. What he's saying is, is there are people out there, and plenty of people, that are ready to be harvested in a way that their souls are ready, they just need someone to go to them. Pray that that happens. Not that I'm praying a prayer that, man, I hope Lucille does that this week, but let me see the opportunities in my life to be able to do this.
John Gunter:Let me live in a way, let me be an example in a way, let me shine my light in a way that I am setting that up to be a good conversation, right? And we're praying to God, this is not a pull up your pants and and work for it. This is praying to God that God will empower us to do the things needed, right? It's not all on us. I don't want you to walk away thinking, oh, I can't do it.
John Gunter:No, Jesus asked us to do this. What Jesus says there about, sheep without a shepherd, we see in Matthew, chapter two. It's an interesting thing because if you're a scholar of the Bible, you start tying things together like, oh, he said this or they said that. Notice this, when he said they are like sheep without a shepherd, what what's gonna happen here? In Matthew two, when Herod the king heard this about Jesus' birth, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
John Gunter:They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, and you, oh Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people.' He's quoting from the prophet Micah, in chapter five there. And so, what he's saying there is, there's going to be a ruler that is going to come and shepherd, and Jesus is living this out in front of us. He sees people who are harassed, who look like sheep without a shepherd, and He is here. He is moved by compassion not to say, Oh, look, there they are, but to do something about it. To send people, workers, out into the harvest right after, what we read in Matthew nine.
John Gunter:Matthew 10 verse one, he said, and he called to him, his 12 disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction. And so Jesus, again, doesn't look and say, oh, this is just an observation that these people are like sheep without a shepherd. This is an observation that these people need help, and we're gonna do something about it. And so as a church, do we have that same mindset that we see people and we think, okay, there is something I can do, there's something they need. Again, the harvest is plentiful, they need God.
John Gunter:Will I do anything about it? Now Jesus, as he's instructing his, disciples here is actually telling them to go to Israelites only. Now that doesn't apply to us. There's a reason Jesus says, hey, you go to the house of Israel First. That that's all over scripture.
John Gunter:Right? They were entrusted with the words of god. They should know better. And what are we going to go to them and say? Verse seven tells you, and proclaim as you go, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
John Gunter:Now, this is also a fulfillment of what Jesus would say, earlier in Matthew four. He said and he said to them, this is, Peter and Andrew as they are fishing. He said he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. There was a design and a desire from the beginning that what we're doing is not walking the Earth and getting some kind of loud acclaim. We are walking the earth to help the people, to shepherd them back to God.
John Gunter:Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And we shouldn't sit read a verse like that and think, man, I hope so and so does it. Two verses earlier, Jesus began to preach saying, guess what? That sounds familiar. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
John Gunter:Jesus came to preach, God is doing something. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. You've been waiting for God to do something, God is now doing something, and that's what he is going about in his ministry, and that's what he tells his disciples to preach. That God is doing something, and I think what we can do is we can help people understand our testimony. What has God done in your life?
John Gunter:Has God done anything in your life, church? Yeah. Sometimes we think we don't have a story to share. You're a living story to share. You can go around saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
John Gunter:Now, you're not gonna be a perfect example of that. I'm not gonna be a perfect example of that, and we can own that. Right? Listen, I'm not perfect. I haven't lived a perfect life, but this is how God has helped me through it.
John Gunter:You wanna know how powerful that is? People listen to things like that. Because we all know those failings we have, we all know those issues we have deep down, and and we're anxious about them, and we're thinking, Oh, if brother so and so knew that, boy, they wouldn't accept me anymore. And, unfortunately, that may be true sometimes, because we're so shallow. Brother so and so is so shallow that he's decided he's perfect and everybody else ought to be like him, perfect.
John Gunter:Right? And that's not the case. We know that. But we go out and we preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and we've got a story to share, don't we? Not only our own story, but but what god has done for us.
John Gunter:Right? In in the sending of Jesus, Romans six twenty three, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of god is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord. Oh, we got a church that didn't say amen to that. Did I read that wrong? Let me read it one more time so you can hear it.
John Gunter:Maybe you can tweet it. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of god is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord. Are you happy about that this morning, church? The free gift of god is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord. You got something to share.
John Gunter:If you got your Bible open this morning, you got a pen with you or a highlighter, this is one of those y'all that just mark. Right? In in the Bible that we put out last week, this is the verse I wrote down. Okay? Because I think you ought to have this verse with you.
John Gunter:But god shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Now, the issue as we as we talked about that that the baptism took so long was I wanna get right before coming to god, right? And and and I'm not picking on y'all. A lot of people think the same exact way. Now, what I'll do is I'll get my life right and then come to God.
John Gunter:Well, good luck with that. It doesn't happen. That's right. But because when you come to God, you are gifted with the gift of the Holy Spirit that allows you to live a life that is is much better, that convicts you of things when you've strayed from the path. Are you gonna be perfect in that?
John Gunter:Guess what? No. Are your elders gonna be perfect? No. Bible teachers?
John Gunter:No. John? Yeah. No. Of course not.
John Gunter:But God shows his love for us while we were still sinners. You can't it's a free gift because you didn't have anything to bring. You you didn't have anything to bring. He's already given it to you while you were a sinner. He did that so you couldn't say, hey, look how good I am.
John Gunter:John being perfect. Right? Look how good I am. I'm bringing this to you, God. No.
John Gunter:While we were still sinners, you had nothing. You were living in sin, and God said, here's this free gift. And we ought to tell people about it. Can you imagine living a life knowing that I could give you a very valuable gift, and you probably love it? But I'm not gonna tell you about it.
John Gunter:What if you found out later that that person did that to you? Are y'all good on speaking terms after that? You've lived all your life with this gift? I saw a meme this week that said, I'm still praying that one of my friends is a secret billionaire, and they've just kind of been testing me to see, you know, if I'll be faithful to them, you know, before they give me all this money, right? Sometimes it feels like, I've got this thing, I want to give, but I'm not going to give it.
John Gunter:And that's how we act, right? The harvest is plentiful, but there are few who will go out into the harvest. And that doesn't necessarily mean you need to pick up and go to another country or go to another state. But where you are in life, where you find yourself at the grocery store yelling go in the in the car, right, you are a model of Jesus, you are trying to live a life that shows other people cry and when those opportunities arise and you've been praying for those opportunities, you're able to speak about your experience and what God has done, for you. Matthew 28, verses eight, starting in verse 18, is known as the Great Commission, the Great Sending.
John Gunter:Here's here's your job. Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. What's that first word, church? Go. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
John Gunter:And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now we love, as Church of Christ, folks, we love. Baptize them. We're all good with that. With that first word 19, we don't like as much.
John Gunter:Go. Right? We'll all come and we'll cheer. I think we can cheer here. I grew up in a church.
John Gunter:You you had to act sad when somebody was baptized, I think. With no clapping, we sang, Oh, Happy Day. And I've sang it for you before. It's, Oh, happy days. They ran over my dog.
John Gunter:It sounded like that. But but we are told to go, we're supposed to go and baptize them. That means where you go, you're an example again. You are trying to be a part of this harvest, right? It starts with you.
John Gunter:It starts with you coming to Christ, you pledging allegiance, being baptized to Him, being filled with the Holy Spirit, being given this gift of God, so that you can go but we don't do all of that and sit and say, boy, I hope Robert goes. When I read this, I hope Robert baptizes. Paul will say later about a group of folks, I'm glad I didn't baptize a bunch of you. Right? We put our all of our emphasis on the baptism, but guess what?
John Gunter:We'd have more baptisms if more people went. Wouldn't we? If more people go, more people come to Christ. Right? Growing people grow churches.
John Gunter:Do you understand that? Often, what we see, and we're going to talk about growth barriers in just a minute, but, often what we see in church is we accept these things intellectually. Like, coming to church this morning is an intellectual thing that I just hope John teaches me something. But what we need is to grow, both spiritually, right? We need to grow closer to God.
John Gunter:We pray often, we grow closer to God, grow closer to each other. But often what we do is we're just checking a box. We come to a place and we leave and we're satisfied. I've checked my box. I feel good about myself.
John Gunter:See you next Sunday. I'm gonna forget all about this. Right? He said that John said he's perfect, and I'm gonna spread that around. Yeah?
John Gunter:But what we need is people dedicated to growing in Christ, both intellectually as we learn about God's Word. God has given you this. I don't think we understand how blessed we are to have the Word of God. Forever in church history, you had to hear it orally, didn't you? You had to hear it read aloud because you didn't have a copy.
John Gunter:How many copies you got right now? Count the ones on your phone. You don't even know, do you? You haven't even checked it out. Some of them you're not even aware of.
John Gunter:But we have God's word available at the tip of our fingers twenty four seven, and we're sitting back just okay with showing up at a place and feeling good about ourselves. Not growing roots and growing in spiritual maturity. That's what I see over and over again. Most of the arguments that come out of our churches are are just about spiritual immaturity. Because I I I don't know what I don't know.
John Gunter:I haven't actually studied. I haven't actually read. I I just know that what you said wasn't what I I normally hear, or what what you said was different. It's because of lack of depth that I haven't actually studied. Because I I'll tell you, as someone with a master's degree, what you learn as you study and study deeply, is that you learn there's a lot you don't know, and there's a lot you'll never know.
John Gunter:But we strive to learn more about God. We strive and we are fed by his word to to interact with it, to understand that that god's word is like a sword piercing ourselves. It's able to do so many things, perform a surgery upon us. That those issues you think you had, you have no more because god's word has spoken life into you. And what we need in church is people who groan, not people who are just apathetic or happy that we came and we sang a few times this week.
John Gunter:In Hebrews five, the writer of Hebrews, and we think Hebrews is a sermon. And so, if you read it or think this is long today, go read Hebrews all the way through and just time that. I'm not sure how that'll stack up. Maybe we'll you could say, well, there's biblical precedent for John. You need to be at eighteen minutes.
John Gunter:I don't know. But the writer of Hebrews says this, about this, we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. You've decided you're not interested in hearing or learning. That's what he's saying here. You'll see that different translations.
John Gunter:For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of god. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. That sounds harsh, doesn't it? I'm just putting it out there.
John Gunter:But let's step on toes this morning. Sometimes that's us. Right? Sometimes we're not in the word. We feel it.
John Gunter:Sometimes you feel it. What I'm worried about is when you don't. What I'm worried about is when you you you're apathetic. You you don't care anymore. I'm I'm not concerned that I haven't been in god's word in a long time.
John Gunter:I'm I'm not concerned. I'm not worried because not only is that saying something about who you are personally and your personal life, but you're saying you also don't care about others. Pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he will send out workers, and you say, I'm good. The writer of Hebrews looks out at a group of people saying, you ought to be teachers. You ought to be skilled in this stuff, but you need to be taught again.
John Gunter:You're still on milk and not on meat. There are things in this church that we can't talk about because people will get mad and leave. You know that? I don't think that ought to be the case. I think a group of Christians ought to be able to come together, open God's word, and if you have differences of opinion or if you have questions about things, we ought to be able to talk about those things.
John Gunter:We ought to be able to read from God's Word. We ought to be able to discuss differences of opinions and still walk away as friends, knowing that we're not united by that discussion we just had. We're united by Christ. You know that church. Because often we live like we're united around that issue, and if you differ from me in that issue, we can't be friends.
John Gunter:That's ridiculous. That's spiritual immaturity. That's exactly what that is. He finishes off here, the writer does, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have had their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. So what does being in the word help you do?
John Gunter:You're being trained. Right? You're you're seeing good from evil. And again, what you see with spiritual immature people is because I differ from that person on that discussion, they're evil and I'm good. I'm never the evil one.
John Gunter:You know that, right? You're never the evil one when it's your discussion. They're evil. I'm good. And that's just spiritual immaturity, right?
John Gunter:Now, it it can be an actual question about good and evil. Right? Paul will have that discussion about meat sacrificed to idols. He doesn't have all of the kind of surface level, discussions and fights that we have. Now, what's different about meat sacrificed to idols?
John Gunter:Well, it looked like the person who was eating that, consuming that, is actually giving themselves not to god, but to some other gods. That's a bigger issue than that thing you were fighting with sister so and so about. I'm guessing. Well, they've strayed from the Word. They've strayed from the church.
John Gunter:They've strayed from God because of differences of opinion that has nothing to do with actually leading them away from God. I hear people say they left the church. And what they mean by that is they went to the other congregation down the street. What it sounds like is they walked away from God. Notice this in Philippians four, Paul is dealing with an issue among sisters.
John Gunter:Now, I know this is new to y'all and sisters never fight, but just bear with me here. I I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the lord. You got that? Highlight that in your book. Highlight that in your Bible.
John Gunter:Agree in the Lord. Yes. I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.
John Gunter:Listen to this. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Now notice what Paul does not do. He does not weigh in at all on whatever the issue was, on whatever the sisters were upset about. He doesn't step in and say, hey, you're right.
John Gunter:You're wrong. He says, what's highlighted up there, agree in the Lord. Last week, we talked about, what are your things that you draw the line on? Right? You're nonnegotiable.
John Gunter:And and and I talked briefly about that, and and this is kind of what I mean by that, That the nonnegotiables can't be all these little things. Well, I think that, he thinks that. By the way, it doesn't matter to anything about what we do. Right? And we divide over that.
John Gunter:No. Paul is saying agree in the Lord. The non negotiable needs to be Jesus is Lord. That God has given you this free gift of grace, you agree in the Lord, okay, we can get by, with our differences, right? We can live side by side knowing we have differences of opinion.
John Gunter:And he says there in verse five, Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. That's a good highlightable one. Because often, when you disagree with somebody, is it your reasonableness that comes out? Man, I showed him with my reasonableness. Uh-huh.
John Gunter:No, I'm not thinking about that. I'm thinking I need to win the argument there. I'm right, they're wrong, good and evil. It's not about letting my reasonableness be known, but that's the way it should be with brothers and sisters. Let me clarify, with you and everybody.
John Gunter:Because that is your example, that is your witness, that you are a reasonable person. But often, is that what we get? I'm right, you're wrong, one of us has to leave. I get that as a minister. I hope and pray, and my desire is, I hope this is okay, I think this is the case for most of you, that I am family here.
John Gunter:That my family is a part of your family now. We don't have other family here. That's not an option for you. You've you've adopted us. I don't know if you know that or not.
John Gunter:But often, whether it's me or another minister, the minister is seen as an outsider, a paid person, and instead of reasonableness, instead of love, instead of encouragement, what we see is if they differ from anything I see in this way, they gotta go. Now you wouldn't treat family like that. That's why we feel like outsiders. Do you know a lot of ministers don't have friends? Yeah.
John Gunter:Because who wants to hang out with a minister? What a buzzkill. Right? What a buzzkill. Here he is.
John Gunter:I gotta I gotta change my language again because I'm using I'm using wheat John and not Sunday John. And that's why a lot of ministers feel like an outsider, because we treat them like outsiders. And if they differ from me, well, they're just a hired person I have no connection to, we haven't actually grown any deep roots of relationship, you gotta go. And that's the example, that's the Christian witness we're going to show other people. Does that sound like showing your reasonableness to everyone?
John Gunter:Look as as Paul continues here. He says, the Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
John Gunter:Pray. He's just finished this. Agree on the Lord. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Pray.
John Gunter:Okay? How many times do you forget to do that? Pray to God. Look how he he finishes this. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
John Gunter:What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. What does he say there? Focus on the positive. Think about all the things you have going right in your life. Think about all the blessings that you have been given.
John Gunter:But guess what? We love drama. Don't we? The news loves drama. If the news was all positive, we wouldn't watch it.
John Gunter:Because we like to be scared. We like to have something to worry about. My dad has a news channel on every time we go to his house, and it's just scare tactics all the time, and I ask him repeatedly, Has this changed your life in any way? Has being in front of this affected you? Have you affected change by sitting here and listening to it?
John Gunter:Because all that does is get into us and we're negative. We're scared, we're worried, we're anxious, and that does not produce a good person, does it? Kind of like being hungry, right? We've come up with a term for it. I'm hangry.
John Gunter:Because that that hunger I have is not producing the righteousness I want. I'm hangry. So anxiety and fear and all this thing, all these things that are very scary produces someone very negative. And Paul says, let me read it one more time, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Think about those.
John Gunter:And often what we have is we come together and, oh, the preacher said this this morning, I gotta share it. Not in a not in a positive light. Or did you hear sister so and so and what she's doing? I don't even have to tell you what it is. Now you wanna know, don't you?
John Gunter:You know it's a made up scenario, and you kinda like to know what you did. Because the negativity just kinda you feel it. Like, I I gotta know now. Some of you are gonna come up afterwards, like, what what is it? I'm I'm not gonna tell anybody.
John Gunter:If you'll just tell me what she did. Listen to this. In John thirteen thirty five, by this, all people will know that you are my disciples. This is the way that people will know that you love Jesus, that you have chosen to be a disciple, to be a follower of him, to claim him as your teacher. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if what?
John Gunter:If you love one another, love god, love each other, and we still come together and we act like the way I show my love is a storm out, to be upset all the time, to be negative, and to point out every flaw everybody has. Does that sound like love to you? That sound like family to you? Now, some of your families are a little broken. Everybody's family is a little broken, so you can get over that.
John Gunter:But think about a perfect family. Think about those people you have a close relationship. Does it look like storming out and cutting them off and doing all of these things? No. We have our issue.
John Gunter:We have our disagreement. But guess what? Next Sunday at mama's, we're coming together, we're gonna eat a meal together. Right? Because we are unified over something much more important than that disagreement we had or that issue.
John Gunter:We are unified around love and family. That's what we should be. By this all people will know that you're my disciples, not if you land here on this issue or there on that other issue. He could have said anything, but he said, if you have love for one another. Can you do that, church?
John Gunter:Can you be that kind of person? I said earlier we're going to mention, growth barriers. One thing I want you to just be aware of because of where we are as a suburb, a growing suburb of of Houston. I I mentioned in class today, some of you, some of the people in class or people that, I don't know, a year ago, nine months ago, we didn't know. And we've been praying for you.
John Gunter:We've been praying, publicly. I used to open and close every service. Thankfully, the elders have taken that all now. But I pray often for people we don't know that are coming to this place because we want to be harvesters. We want to be open.
John Gunter:We want people to find a a church that is loving, that is, that are disciples of Jesus, right, in the way we love, that our reasonableness is shown. But one of the things you ought to know is this is a very, studied topic, and one of the growth barriers that churches have, especially small churches, kind of known as family churches, they are family because you have big families in them. And one of the issues to growth that you have, and this is not going to surprise you, but as the church gets bigger, the people who felt like they've made decisions for a long time feel like they no longer have the power to make decisions. Okay, so you have an issue, you know, things are changing and I don't like it. Everybody anybody like change all the time?
John Gunter:No. We understand that. Right? Not everybody likes change. We like our our certain seat.
John Gunter:I know you're gonna be sitting there, I know you're gonna be sitting over there, right? We we have our theme. But one of the things in church is, alright, well, things are changing and I don't want them to, and so I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because people will say stuff like, well, the church is not gonna grow because and I'm leaving. Well, the church is not gonna grow because you left.
John Gunter:Okay? Less people. But that's one of the things you ought to know is that as we grow, things change, you have people come in with different experiences, different, life events, different understandings of things, and so all of a sudden, you have folks come in and like, Oh, I'd never thought about it like that. That. Or now they're here.
John Gunter:Now I'm outnumbered. And so we've got to figure out what to do with these things. And so what we can decide to do is to welcome them in and to show love to people. And what you will see is the church really grow. You will see numbers come up and go.
John Gunter:And if you don't, you'll see nothing happens. I don't know if you know this, we've been growing. It's been a a sense of, well, some people have left or or whatever's happened, but our numbers keep going up. It's because what people are finding here when they come is love and acceptance. And guess what?
John Gunter:We don't have to agree on everything. There are some things that we need to agree on. We're going to say that, right? But there are other things. Alright.
John Gunter:I don't see it that way. Let's go eat. I'm hungry. Right? Growth period.
John Gunter:That's right. Paul says it this way. He says in first Corinthians nine you've been hungry all morning, Brian. El Toro, right? Yeah.
John Gunter:El Toro. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant that to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law.
John Gunter:To the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by all means, I might save some. Amen? Yeah. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them and its blessing.
John Gunter:I love that verse 23. Because I think, in my experiences, I think when we read that, we we hear is Paul is real wishy washy. They can't pin him down. And we really like to pin folks down and say, here's what they think, how they are, and all these things. Right?
John Gunter:Here's what they are. He says, I become all things to all people. He empathizes with people. You hear empathy in that? That I'm going to become like these people.
John Gunter:I'm gonna, alright, be around them. I'm gonna understand them so that I might win some. Right? If all we do and we talked about social media in class. Sometimes social media is the worst of this.
John Gunter:If all we do is tell somebody how stupid they are for thinking x y z, you're not gonna win, Minnie. Any of you ever been converted by somebody telling you how dumb you were? Man, you are an idiot. I'd like to talk more about that. That is fascinating.
John Gunter:I'd like to dive into that. We'll get we'll get into we'll get a session in. No. You don't do that. Paul says, so that I might win, so that I might share with them and its blessings.
John Gunter:You hear that in empathy and I care about other people. Often in church, what you get is blame. They did this or they didn't do that. And all it is is blame and negativity and all of this. It it's a lack of that I I love them.
John Gunter:I wanna show that I'm a disciple. It's a lack of that I wanna show everyone my reasonableness. It's a lack of I wanna share with them the gospel and his blessing. Often, it's, I wanna be right about this, and they don't agree with me, so I'm gone. And it's ridiculous.
John Gunter:Because the harvest is plentiful, and here we sit. In verse 24, do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Go. Run that you may obtain it.
John Gunter:Every athlete exercises self control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath. Or those of us who grew up like me in the nineties, a little white, red, or blue ribbon. Right? Very valuable thing in our time.
John Gunter:But they would get a wreath. Right? Kind of the same thing. Right? They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable, something that will never go away.
John Gunter:So I do not run aimlessly, but, I do not box as one beating the air. I'm not just doing it to do it, but I discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. Because what we see all the time is blame, blame, blame, blame, blame. No self reflection. No.
John Gunter:Here's what I did. Well, they didn't talk to me. Did you talk to them? No. They should have talked to me.
John Gunter:Right? Do you hear that? It's never, Well, I did. No. 98% of the time, it's I've lived.
John Gunter:You have people sometimes getting upset because they left mad and nobody called them. I had someone growing up that they it was a family thing, and they went to another church, and they were upset that even even their family didn't call them. Well, the family knew you're mad, went to another church. We're we're worried about you, But you left mad. But then, you threw another excuse in there, Well, they didn't call me.
John Gunter:Did you call them? Of course not. No. But you live your life disciplining yourself. I don't run aimlessly, I don't box just a box.
John Gunter:I discipline my body, keep it under control as to after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. I've got to keep this in line. Right? And that comes through prayer, that comes through the work of God. Because if it's just me, I'm lost.
John Gunter:I'm not gonna do it. And if what the church expects is for the eldership to be perfect or the minister to be perfect, you got the wrong people. The guy you want lived about two thousand years ago. Often what we want as a church, what we think we want, is a young man with a family that helps grow the church just because he showed up with five kids. And then we're upset that he doesn't have twenty four hours a day to devote to me, because he has five kids.
John Gunter:Right? It's all about self and what I want and and and not how much I care about you and your value, before god. I'm almost done here. I'm sorry. In Acts one, verses, starting in verse six, So when they had come together, they asked Him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
John Gunter:He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And that sounds scary sometimes. But notice, as you're being a witness, God says, you're going to receive the Spirit, the Holy Spirit to come upon you. When do we receive the Spirit Church?
John Gunter:At baptism. That you are given this gift. And we see this in in Acts two verse 37. Now when they'd heard this, all the people that Peter and the disciples were talking to, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles' brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent, be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. This is a promise to you and to everyone else. And we have a gift that we haven't told them about. I'm sorry to run long this morning, but you can see I'm fired up. I love it.
John Gunter:I love people. I love caring for people. And it breaks my heart when it seems like we're just all surface level all the time. That it feels at moments like we're family, and in the next moment it feels like that little thing cut the relationship. We weren't as tight as I thought we were.
John Gunter:And what I want people to see as they move into this community is a church that has deep roots, and we're not closed off. That we're ready to add more people to our family. That we're praying for those people. And God is blessing us with those people. Y'all need to look around every Sunday.
John Gunter:But we have grown deep roots, and we love others, and we're showing people we are discipling. Do you want that, church? It starts with you. It starts with your attitude, and we all have to work on that. We all have our moments.
John Gunter:But we what we should all want, what we should all strive for is is when we have those bad moments where it's not coming together right. We care deeply enough about others, and we come together, and we work it out. That we're not united or disunited, I don't know if that's a word, by that disagreement, but we are united by our love of Christ. And so this morning, if if there are any needs that you have, if you'd like to get right, on the right path and need the prayers of the church, we'd love to pray with you. Do you you'd love to be baptized into, the body of Christ proclaiming that I'm gonna pledge my allegiance to him.
John Gunter:We'd love to see that. And the parties have a fantastic hot tub that we can make that happen in. I'll tell you. But don't leave here just saying, okay. I've checked my box this week.
John Gunter:Leave here moved by the word of God and all that you've encountered this morning. Amen?