The Church of Eleven22 - 2023 Vision: Life Abundantly

Episode Date: January 8, 2023

Money cannot protect your soul, only direct it. Direct your soul to a deeper trust in your Good Father, the Good Shepherd.

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Doing good? You look good. Some of you look a little sleepy. Hey, I'm a little horse. I was at a little worship event last night with 67,000 of my closest friends, and so I apologize for that.

Hey, it's a great day to be alive, is it not? It is a great day to be alive. It's a great day to be a Georgia Bulldog. It is, you know? Praise God. Even if you're not, you got to, like, love us for just a minute, would you? I hope tomorrow we beat the Christian out of Texas Christian University. the Pharisees, than people thinking.

And it's a great day to be a Jaguar, is it not? Go Jags. I told you, people, the tomb is empty. Anything is possible. Never a doubt, never a doubt. How are you going to roll up in here worshiping your pagan God, Titan? Can't bring that nonsense in here. And it's a great day to be an 1120 tour, is it not?

It is, man. It is a great day to be. and 1122, and if you would, I hope you would grab this vision piece and grab your Bible, the inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God. This is what we stand upon. And this is our vision. This is how we hope to accomplish this as a church. That's how this works, okay? And all we're going to do is just, if you're brand new here, this is going to be like a little infomercial for about 15 minutes before we get to Luke chapter 12, which is where we're going. If this is your first time here, man, what a great Sunday to be here, because you can figure out

you want to be a part of this thing. And this thing is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And the reason that some of us are excited to be a part of this church is because God is doing an amazing thing through us and in us and to us. And we have virtually nothing to do with it.

That God is doing immeasurably more than any of us ever dreamed of or hope for or even had the audacity to act. ask God for, and to him and him alone be the glory. Amen? And we need to celebrate just a little bit before we get going into 23. We need to thank God for 22 in what he has done. You know, there was this little thing in many states, not so much Florida, but there was this little pandemic that shut down the world. It kind of paused us here in Florida for just a minute, didn't it? Praise God. And so, but one of the things that's exciting about 2022 is that we grew last year,

by 3,600 people, where many churches in the country still haven't even reached the kind of attendance they were pre-COVID. We were 3,600 people over our pre-COVID numbers. And here's why I say this, man, well done, 1122, on praying for your one more and sharing your faith with your one more and inviting your one more to come and meet Jesus. Last year, we sent 280 short-term missionaries all over the world on over 20 mission trips, That's pretty awesome. That last year we sent 17 full-time missionaries to the ends of the earth to declare the gospel,

which takes us to a total of we have 50 full-time missionaries that have gone out from 1122 that live somewhere around the world. That last year, you as a church, we planted 81 brand-new, autonomous, local, indigiously led churches for a total of we have planted 483 churches in the past few years. Now let me tell you why that's incredible. Every single weekend, even though we have a whole bunch of people that attend our campuses here, every single weekend, there are more people around the world in attendance of the churches that we have planted than are in attendance right here at 1122. And the reason I want to celebrate that is because we never want to be a cul-de-sac of the goodness

and grace of God. we always want to be a conduit of that grace of God. That last year we baptized 1,083 people. It is the most people that have ever been baptized any year at 1122. And please celebrate this one with me last year. 2,266 people trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior for the very first time. Praise God. Now, one of the most influential voices at our church,

a lady named Deb Peterson, who's married to one of our elders, Lars Peterson, a few years ago, she said this. She said that God didn't start this movement for us to stop it now. That God didn't start this movement, this movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ, that God didn't start this movement in us for us to stop it now. And so while we praise God for all the things that he has done in the past, we know and believe that our best days are still in front of us. And this past fall, we started a brand new two-year discipleship journey called the 10-10 life. It's rooted in this verse, John chapter 10, verse 10, where Jesus, the good shepherd, he looks at his people, he looks at his flock, he looks at us, and he says the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

But he says, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. So if you'll look here on your vision piece, over here on the other side, it says, says life abundantly. That is the focus of 2023 for us, that what God has for you, what God wants for you, what I want for you is not to buy into the lives of this world, but I want to step into the abundant life that Christ has for you. And we have asked this question, and we will continue to ask this question at least for the next two years, is your life to find by an abundance of possessions, or are you pursuing the abundant life Christ has for you? If you want all kinds of information about this abundant life, if you go to our website,

C-O-E-22.com slash 10-10 life, you're going to find all kind of stuff there. I'd love for you to go through that. Now, if you'll grab your vision piece, this is just the directions that God has given us as this local body in regards to what we're focused on and where we're. we are going this year. If you open it up, and by the way, if you've been around here for a minute, okay, or for like 10 years, that's how old we are. And it looks very, very familiar to previous years. It's because we ain't changing, man. The vision doesn't change. God has called us to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen our relationship with Jesus. Sometimes we tend to

highlight or focus in on one area. Like in 2022, we focused in on worship. We said it's the year of worship. And I'm just going to say, it worked. You sound better than you. you did this time last year, okay? You're welcome. And this year is all about life abundantly, and what we do as a church is we are here, objective one, to make disciples, that make disciples, that make disciples, that we are not primarily in the crowd business. I hope you know this. We are in the disciple-making business. If we were in the crowd business, I wouldn't talk so long, and you know what we would do every weekend? Monster trucks. Because it's the largest crowd in Jacksonville. that? The number one crowd event every year in Jacksonville is the monster truck show. Why?

Because you can't hide money. And everybody in Jacksonville shows up to that event, but we're not in the crowd business. We are in the disciple making business and what I want to encourage you to do. If you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ, I want you to take this discipleship journey. And I want you to go to our website and on our website, COE22.com, and we'll be slash connect, and you ask yourself a series of questions. And actually, this is better done if you do this with somebody else. Maybe somebody from your disciple group or somebody that you know that's a little further along in their walk with Jesus. And there's just a few diagnostic questions to ask yourself this, what is my next step of obedience in my walk with Jesus? Because listen, by definition,

If you'll notice, there's no end here. By definition, if you stop taking steps of obedience, then you are by definition no longer following after Jesus. Because none of us have arrived. From this breath till your last breath, Jesus will continuously invite you to follow after him. And that might be a step of obedience in regards to disciple group, or it might be generosity, or it might be serving

after you discover what your gifts are. And for some of you, for many of you, for over 2,000 of you who just put your faith in Jesus over this last year, what the Bible prescribes is the Bible prescribes the first step of obedience after surrendering your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is to declare it to the whole world, to declare that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior

through baptism. And so what we're going to do here today to kick this year off because it's a new year and we want to celebrate new life is we're going to celebrate a baptism. And let me tell you, there's a few things that happen here, that Pastor Chris is going to ask the question, who is Jesus Christ to you?

Then the person getting baptized is going to declare that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior, and then you have a role too. You have a role too. When we see somebody go from death to life, you better lose your mind exponentially more than when Josh Allen picked up that little scoop and score and ran in for the touchdown, right?

Because that was awesome. I ain't gonna lie, it was pretty awesome. I'm a little hoarse because of it. But it is nothing compared to somebody that goes from death to life. Amen? And so as a first step of obedience, that's all this is.

As a first step of obedience in putting your faith in Christ, we're gonna celebrate somebody taking that step in baptism. We want you to hear their story and then we're going to celebrate a baptism. Check out this video. There were a lot of things that I was afraid of

and had anxiety about. And before I knew, who Jesus was, I looked to alcohol to numb that anxiety and to numb that fear. Some things happened, and I realized I needed to choose sobriety, and I also at the same time decided to start coming to church, and there was a service that Jobi was speaking at, where it felt like he was talking directly to me, and I just came to understand that I needed to choose sobriety and surrendering at the same time. I've tried it before and it's been impossible. But when I tried it, once I surrendered, it was easy. For me, baptism is a declaration

that I believe and that I know that Jesus loves me. Baptism to me feels like worshiping. It feels like showing what I believe and showing it to the world. My name is Tori R. and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. Amen, amen. Church family, this is Tori. As Tori said, that baptism is an outward display of an inward working faith. Tori, who is Jesus to you? Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. Amen and amen.

And based upon that declaration, we're going to baptize you our Christian sister, the name of the Father's Son and Holy Spirit. I love it. I love it. Welcome to the family, Tori. That's awesome. We ought to hand out towels like we did last night. You're showing me, that's what we, somebody write that down.

It works for me, write that down. We're going to do the towel thing at our next baptism. Sean, get by some towels. It was always Jesus, that's what it was to say. All right, here we go. All right, we're only an objective one. So what's your next step? All right, some of you need to get baptized after every service is a baptism class,

and for the next three weeks, we're going to celebrate new life by celebrating baptisms. And so many, many, many of you, go to those classes, take about 10 or 15 minutes so you know what you're getting into and get baptized. Turn the page. Next one is 1122 life. This is a big old family. This is what this is. It's a big dysfunctional family.

Can I get a witness? Just look around for a second. But every decent family has family rhythms. You know, maybe for you, it's like a certain night of the week you eat dinner or the way you do Christmas or the way you do family vacation or whatever it is. And so what this 1122 life is, is these are the family events. These are the big bucket family events that you don't want to miss, man.

You don't want to miss these. These are a really big deal. The first one is Easter. And if there is no empty tomb, then we're just wasting our time here. You should get another hobby. It is a big deal. It's April 6, 8th, and 9th. Now, Easter is actually just the 9th, but we have to have multiple services in order to house all the people to hear that if the tomb is empty, anything is possible.

And I need a bunch of you, and I know the remnant is here right now. If you're at the 9 o'clock service post-Jags AFC South Wind, then you're varsity. Okay, welcome. Glad you're here. I need every single one of you to plan on either coming to the sixth or the eighth. This is going to be your missionary moment. So part of your ministry moment this year is going to be provide an empty seat for a Sunday morning service. I'm my kid.

This is no jokes here, all right? Go ahead and plan it accordingly now. And so we want you to be here for that. And by the way, to get ready, my wife Gretchen is writing 40 divos for Lent for us to get ready. Remember she did it for saturated last year? She's doing it again this year. And so our hearts will be ready. Yeah, man, they'll be great.

The second one is beach baptism. If you thought that was awesome, do that 500 more times. On May 21st, we're going to gather at the beach. We're going to break Hannah Park once again. We are going to baptize 500 people or something like that, all right? It's going to be incredible. If you've never been to our beach baptism, you have no idea what you're missing. It's like tailgating for Jesus.

If you're Baptist, it's like dinner on the grounds, but the grounds of the beach. It's incredible. We usually get a flyover from Mayport. That's pretty awesome. If you're a surfer, bring your board. It'll be flat for weeks. And then baptism, it's like, all right, every single time. All right.

So come be a part of that. The next thing is saturated. September 6th, 8th, and 9th. Here's what saturated is. Saturated is our version of a revival. I'm just not presumptuous enough to tell God he's got to revive us, but we want to position ourselves in such a way

that we'll be saturated in the presence of God, saturated in the gospel of the Bible of God that we would just get together and make much of him. I think the problem with adult discipleship is adults quit going to camp. This is our version of camp. I'm going to bring in a bunch of my buddies the best preachers from all over the world, a bunch of worship leaders from all over the place, and we're just going to make much of Jesus.

And then lastly, the big old event is this, Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve this year is on the 24th again, but around here is the 21st, the 23rd, and the 24th. And a part of the reason we do a big Christmas Eve service. is because even your one more's that are the most anti-church people that you're praying for, there's this thing that happens when it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, that people are more apt to show up to a Christmas Eve service. This last year, we had over 26,000 people in attendance,

and over 150 people surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. So, if you'll flip to the very back of this thing, go ahead and write down your one more's name. Like write it down right now. And you're beginning to pray starting today that by the time we do our Easter services,

your one more will put their faith in Jesus Christ. Now listen, man, don't you schedule some kind of dumb vacation over one of these dates. And if you already have taken time off, then call your boss and say, can't do it. The Lord told me I've got to work that week and I've got to take off another week. Because here's the thing, man, Jesus said

that the greatest commandment in all the Bible is this, is to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and your strength. Now here's the thing. I can't make you love God, but we can set up the dates. That's what this is. This is the kind of environment that you do not want to miss as a church and as an individual. So be there for that. Turn the page. The next thing is this. It's the 10-10 life. As I mentioned this past fall, we started a brand new, two-year discipleship initiative rooted in this 10-10 life, and there are three buckets. One is church life that we're going to continue to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's just what we do. And so what we're going to do is we're going to continue to gather together as a big faith family to glorify God in worship and word and song and in scripture. And so we're going to get in here. We're going to sing our faces off. And then I'm going to open up the Bible, me and some other fellas, and we are going to unpack God's word for you. And the banner over which I put together the entire sermon series for this year is abundant life. I want you because God wants you to have life abundantly.

So next week, we begin a three-week series called Life Defined. Like, what is your life defined by? Because the enemy is going to lie to you. The enemy is going to try to bait you and lure you away from the abundant life that Christ has for you, but he's only got three tricks. He's got the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And over the next three weeks, we're going to talk about how you reject those lies and how you pursue the abundant life. And then after that, we're doing a nine-week series on the Book of Philippians. It's only four chapters.

Paul writes it from prison, and it is saturated in joy. The word joy or rejoice shows up more times perverse in the book of Philippians than anywhere else in the Bible. Let me ask you this. Any of you need joy? Any of you need, you obviously do because you just went, so, man, you need a lot of it. I know you're tired, but listen, that's what we're going to talk about. Then, beginning on Easter for nine weeks,

we're going on a series called Anything as Possible. Why? Because if the tomb is empty? That's right, man. And we're going to study the miracles of God and how these nine miracles of God reveals God's heart for His people. And I've got a new book coming out that corresponds with that. and we believe that if the tomb is empty, anything is possible.

Then after that, we're doing a 14-week series in the book of James. James is like the wisdom literature of the New Testament. You see, because a lot of times what we want is knowledge. There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. And James is going to say, if any of you is foolish, ask God for wisdom. Knowledge is what do I do? Wisdom is how do I conduct myself in light of who God is and the circumstances I find myself in.

And if you've never studied the book of James, James was the brother of Jesus. So he don't tell a lot of stories. I think James was frustrated. Can you imagine if your big brother was Jesus? Why don't you clean your room like Jesus does? But he only has to do nothing. He just goes, and it's clean, all right?

And Jesus never answers questions with answers. There's always more questions. Or consider the lilies. He hates to tell stories. James don't tell stories. James says, do this, don't do that. Next, that's how he does, all right? So it's like the Book of Wisdom of the New Testament.

Then we're going to do a four-week series on the Proverbs so that we know how to live this abundant life. Then we're going to do a family series. It's actually in reverse. Family series, then Proverbs. Because how many of you know this, man, you cannot live the abundant life if your family's jacked up. Can I get an amen?

Amen. Don't say it too loud, depending on who you wrote here with. It's like, look, amen. People need to be here for that one, all right? Then we'll do a Proverbs series for five weeks, and then we're going to do a five-week, Christmas series. All right?

So that's what we're doing. We're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. So part of what it means, part of what it means to be in this church life is you need to take the next step. If you're not in a disciple group, you need to get into a disciple group. Listen, man, you need to get into a disciple group because it's not just enough if you show up here once a week and I spoon feed you the Bible. See, one of the things out here all the time is, you know, it's not just enough.

is people that consider themselves mature Christians will say, well, I'm not being fed. You ever heard that before? I'm just not being fed. It sounds spiritual, doesn't it? You know what the baby says about? I mean, you know what the Bible says about you? That if you've been, now, listen, man,

if you're a brand new Christian, the girl just got baptized, no problem, man. You show up here every week, and you're so cute and fat and lovable. Look at you. And I'll spoon feed you, a little applesauce right out of here, you know, no problem. Just open, make the airplane.

Here it comes. Get ready. But if I said turn to Luke 12 and you could find it within four minutes, then it's time for you to grow up. All right. Now, don't get me wrong. Every single week, man, I'm going to be cutting up the steak. I mean, I'm going to teach as hard as I can. I'm going to preach the word.

But it is not just enough for you to come and sit and soak. You've got to get in circles and dig into the word and pray about the word and ask hard questions to one another, all right? Because people show up to church all the time. People have been like professional church people, like, I'm not being fed. You're like a big fat baby. Walks up here, freaking milk juice on your lips and your diaper full of crap, just swinging your umbilical cord going, feed me, feed me, feed me. All right, look here, Jabba.

You got to open up this book here and feed yourself. You understand? That's what we're going to do. Disciple groups, get in one. I told you I was in a good mood. Next. Turn the page. You get to eternal life.

Eternal life is a part of the 10-10 life. And this is what, this means that what we are going to do is we're going to plant churches all over the world. we're going to plant a bunch of other churches to reach 1,000 one day. That's going to be really cool. We're going to put campuses anywhere and everywhere God allows us to. Then we're going to open a campus in the north side. I know we've been working on it for a minute, but we're going to open it this year, praise up by the airport. That's cool.

We're going to begin. We've actually begun this a long time ago, but we're continuing to work on our St. John's permanent campus. So stay tuned to stay tuned, St. John's. We're going to start knocking down trees soon. I'm really excited about this that we're going to move into another prison we're moving into Columbia Correctional Institution

Praise God because we're a movement for all people and all means all. And then there's also stuff that happen in Sarasota and Orlando and Palacca and we're just going to go wherever the Lord tells us to go. And then if you flip the page then you will see this section called

abundant life. Because a part of what the 10-10 life is all about is this is that again, man, we're going to participate in church life, we're going to participate in eternal life, and then we are going to fight for the abundant life of every single image bearer of God. I felt like God began to stoke me to ask this question. Imagine what it would look like for a church, not to just have a political stance of being pro-life,

but what would it look like for a church to be pro-life from womb to tomb, from conception to casket, that we got into the war fighting for the dignity of any, every single human being from the moment that God conceive them to the moment they went to go see him. And so if you go to COE22.com slash 1010 life, there is an opportunity for you to serve. And I need, we need you, and the people of this world need you to serve. We need thousands and thousands and thousands of serve staff. Everything from foster care to First Coast Women's Services to senior adult ministry,

to fighting for our first responders. I mean, there is plenty for all of us to do, and here's a big reason you need to do this. This has been my experience being a pastor for 30 years now, that the best way for you to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ is get over to you and help somebody else discover theirs. And you watch what the Lord does in you and through you and to you when you begin to realize that you are rescued

and you become a part of the rescue team. Now, here is what the Lord is offering to you. There's the, I feel like Morpheus, okay? There's a red pill and there's a blue pill. And you can take the blue pill and you can go back to the way the world has said that you ought to live and you know it doesn't work. There is the abundant life and there's the anxious life. And the choice is yours. In 2023, the choice is yours.

And what's crazy is you have been down that row before and you know. where it goes, and I'm telling you, this world spends billions of dollars a day to get you to buy into the lie to walk down that road. In Luke chapter 12, I see Jesus offering this choice. Do you want the abundant life or you want the anxious life? You want the abundant life or do you want the anxious life? And we're going to pick it up in verse 13, but in order to understand what's happened in 13, you've got to know what the first 12 verses are all about. And what Jesus does for the first 12 verses is he talks all about eternity. He's trying to lift up everybody's eyes off of the temporary and he's trying to get them to see God in light of eternity. That it's not Yolo, you only live

once, you fool. You only live forever. So you should make the most of it. So beware of hypocrisy is what he's talking about. Don't get caught up in the religious fights and battles of this world, but get focused on talking about Jesus and talking about forever. And he's talking about, he's trying to get people to have an eternal perspective, because here's what I've found to be true. The people most focused on eternity seem to get the most out of life right now. But the people that spend all of their time, effort, energy, passion, dollars on this life right now seem to be the most disappointed people on the planet.

So this is a choose for yourself this day, whom you will serve, kind of thing. thing. All right, we've got to go fast. Luke chapter 12, beginning of verse 13. And remember, in the context of Jesus teaching on eternity, verse 13 says this, and someone in the crowd said to him, Jesus, teacher, enough about eternity. Can we talk about now? Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. He totally misses the point. He wants to talk about me, wants to talk about mine, wants to talk about now. Jesus is trying to talk about heaven, trying to talk about God, trying to talk about eternity. This dude wants to talk about me, mine, and now, which, by the way, is the entire vocabulary of the human appetite. But Jesus said to him, man, every time I see this,

you ever watch Sports Center? You ever see the, come on, man, you ever see that segment? That's when somebody in football does something stupid, and the commentator goes, come on, man, I feel like Jesus. See, if you do Bible study enough, you'll even let Sports Center disciple you, you understand? It's when somebody just totally screws up. Jesus is look at him, he's like, come on, man, are you not paying attention? Man, who made me a judge or an arbiter over you?

Arbitrator over you? And he said to them, not just the brother, but his older brother. Why? Because they both have a problem. Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. Take care.

Take care is not the Southern goodbye. Take care. That's not what he's talking about. Some translations translate that, watch out, watch out. Be on your guard. What do you have to be on your guard against? Something that's attacking you. Something is attacking you, and you have to watch out for it

because he's an enemy and he's got schemes and he's tricky and he lies. And the full frontal attack doesn't usually work. But you've got to watch out. You've got to be on your guard. You've got to be ready to fight against this. Against what? Covetousness. Some translations translate that, greed.

because you'll just begin to look at some stuff of this world and then you will think that that kind of stuff is going to bring you abundant life and it will not. You've got to guard against the idol of comparison because it will only lead to pride or condemnation. You've got to be on guard against the idol of comfort, which is the ultimate goal of the environment that we live in. You realize that?

The whole goal is to be comfortable, to live a comfortable life, to have a comfortable retirement. That's the whole goal. You got to be on guard. You've got to be on guard against covetousness. And the reason you've got to be on guard is because it'll sneak up on you. It'll creep up.

You ever walk through the store and you realize, I didn't even know I needed that until I see it. How can I even live my life now? You ever do that? I went to a friend of mine's house. He goes to church here. You know him. He's super famous.

Some of you idolized him. Y'all know who I preached here one time. And I went over to his house. And let me just say, he's got a nice house. And so we walked in and his ceilings were the size of the ceilings here at San Pablo. And I thought, oh my gosh. Do you know I was completely content with my ceilings before I left?

And I went back into my house and we got home. I was like, I don't even feel like I can stand up all the way. How do we be on guard? It's creepy, man. Be on guard against defining your life by what you own, or if you're not careful, it will own you. And listen, while Jesus is primarily going to talk about money a lot here, I am not primarily talking about money. We're talking about time and talent and treasure and passion and energy.

Be on guard. because this world spends billions of dollars a day to warn against what Christ offers you, which is abundant life. To war against what we're going to learn in the book of Philippians is the goal to learn the secret of being content in every situation. And the best thing, the best thing this world can offer you is happy. Now, you're not wrong with happy. It's just rooted in your happenings.

Now, listen, man, you've heard this phrase, right? Money can't buy you happiness, but he can buy you a truck. You can pull a boat, that's a fight. Buy you a jet ski. You ever seen sad people on jet ski? You have if you've been around them long enough. What about when it runs out of gas? What about when it breaks down?

What about when you've got to make that payment again? Yeah, man. All of the temporary things of this world will let you down. It's just what they do. Now, what's crazy about it is when you understand that our good God is a good dad, He loves a good, good gifts, and he's the giver of all good things. Then your worship never terminates on the jet ski, but you can frolic around if you can afford a jet ski and lift up to God. Thank you so much for the jet ski.

It's not about the stuff. It's where are you putting your hope? And then it's as if Jesus was paying attention to our 10-10 life series, and he's a podcaster, and he says this, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Now, everybody believes that cognitively. We've seen enough VH1 behind the musics to realize that more money does not equal more happy and more smarter, does it? No. And I've told you this before, but when I first moved to town, Pastor Stone, Ryan Stone, he made me go to a Greyhound race.

I didn't want to go. He took me, okay? And when you went to, actually, that's not true at all. He was so uncomfortable. I'd never seen one in real life. I moved to Florida. I wanted to go see it. He was so, he was like just.

sweaty palms the whole time because he grew up like super baptist he grew up so Baptist that his mama when I was growing up if they had fountain drinks we'd make a suicide remember that you get a little bit of all the coke products his mama wouldn't let him do that because that was a mixed drink that's the next level of fundamentalism isn't not okay so explains a lot about him St. John's pray for you canvas pastor okay and if you watch the greyhound a greyhound spends its entire life chasing after a thing that's not real and race after race after the race, the guy announces, here's Rusty, and a fake rabbit comes out, and the Greyhounds

chase after the fake rabbit, and you look at the Greyhound, and you think, what a dumb dog. I can't believe you would spend your whole life chasing after a rabbit. It's not even a real rabbit, and every single Monday morning when the alarm clock goes off, it might as well say, here's Rusty, and we're like, here we go again. And I don't know what's more sad, the one that wastes this whole life chasing the thing, it's not real or eventually grabs onto it and realize it's been deceived. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told him a parable.

The land of a rich man. By the way, if you were in that crowd, everybody in that crowd would have put you in the rich category. I know you don't think you're rich because you don't feel rich and rich is not a feeling, okay? But this man was rich. The land of a rich man produced plentifully. Now let me ask you this.

When God blesses you, when it goes good, do you first well up with gratitude to God, or do you first look at yourself? You see, this is the fundamental difference between the anxious life and the abundant life. Look what he first does. His first response to a bountable harvest, verse 17, and he thought to himself, what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops? and he said, I will do this, I will tear down my barns, and we'll build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul. Anybody feel sorry for this guy? Just got too much stuff.

Now, listen, man, you see, these are first world problems right here. These are rich people problems. Do you know you have rich people problems? They're different than regular people problems? And you're like, no, I'm not rich. Let me ask you. You ever run out of hangers? You ever run out of hangers?

I got too many clothes, man. Where do the hangars go? They ain't going anywhere you think they went. They still up there. They got clothes on them. You know, people in the slums of Uganda don't run out of hangers. They run out of clothes. And you look around, why am I put all these guys?

I got too many clothes. You ever do that? You ever run out of space in your garage? Right? Like, you had too much stuff for your house, so you build a house for your cars, and then now your stuff is in their house, so they got to stay out in the driveway, a bunch of home and cars. So then you know what you do?

You go get a storage unit for your stuff. You board it, climate controlled. Never do that. And then have it, seen it since the Trump administration, the stuff you're paying for? That's a rich people problem. You ever run out of room in your fridge to put your food in? You order so much food, you go to, you know,

and you come home with a bag of thing right here, and then you open it up, and you're mad. You're like, what in the heck? I ain't got nowhere to store this stuff. Oh, cupcake. It's so hard being. you, right? That's this guy's problem.

And he's trying to figure out what to do. And 12 times he says this all about me. Me, mine, I will build for myself more barns. And then what's interesting, man, is he starts talking to his soul. See, he thinks there's a connection to when he's stuff in his soul. Here's the lie. Here's the lie. Is that you can begin to believe that your stuff can satisfy or secure your soul, and it never can.

And he says, soul, you have ample. goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink, and be married. That's the American dream written 2,000 years ago, that that is the goal. Here's how I know this is us. That there are 23 million storage units in America, 2.8 billion square feet. Did you know there's enough square footage in storage units for every American to stand in one? All of us could fit in the storage units. That's crazy. It's a 24 billion dollar annual business. Some of you probably buy one right now. God bless you. Okay. It's just stuff, man.

So he's got all this stuff in these storage units in verse 20, but God. Sometimes when you see the words but God, it's good news and ain't good news. But God said to him, fool! It's the only time in the Bible that God directly calls somebody a fool. Fool. You know what the antithesis to foolishness is? Wisdom.

Proverbs is going to teach us that the beginning of wisdom is a fear of the Lord. You know what the beginning of foolishness is? Rejection of God, I got this with my barns and I'm going to say to my soul. But God says to him, fool, listen to me. I don't want God to call you a fool. And some of you're fools.

Because you've spent more time preparing for the last day of work than you've prepared than you've prepared for the last day on this planet. And there will come a day where every single one of us will stand before the Lord, and he will either call you a fool or well done good and faithful servant. Those are your options. And he doesn't call you well done good and faithful servant because you crushed it.

He doesn't say well done good and fruitful servant. He says, well done good and faithful servant. The fool is the one that looks at a loving heavenly father that would send his son Jesus Christ on a rescue mission for us, live a perfect life, go to the cross, die in our place, and then say, whosoever would put their trust in me, give you that abundant life, wipe your sins away, and adopt you into the family of God, and the fool says, forget you, I got this. So which one are you going to hear, man?

Fool or faithful servant? But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you. In other words, bro, your stuff cannot do anything to protect your soul. It can direct it, but it cannot protect it. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? We talk about this all the time, right? Everything that you store up for yourself one day, somebody else is going get. We've talked about this all the time. Like, you're going to tithe or you're going to tithe. Everything you have, we're going to sell it in Hose Clause. You realize that? It's just true. Why? Because the death rate in America hovers around, right around what? 100%. And so there will come a day. Look, you look great. I'm telling you, you look great. But one day, you're going to die.

I mean, it's car wreck or cancer. We're all getting out of this dead. You understand? And they're going to dig a hole, dress you up, throw dirt in your face. We're going to come back here and talk about how great you are at the church. That's what we're going to do. And then everything you have, those golf clubs you had to have, somebody better than you's going to play with them. That's just going to happen, man. I got to tell you a story, you know, I talk about this all the time, right?

Everything you have is either sold in a garage sale or in a state sale. Same thing. State sale is just pimento cheese. That's it. Same thing. So I was preaching in Scotland. Got a friend in Sixth Road back there from Scotland. I was preaching at this church.

in Scotland, this guy that we partner with outside of Edinburgh, and he's listening to me preach a lot. And so as I'm about to get up to preach, he lets me know, he's like, listen, man, these people are going to love you, but they don't laugh. Like, the Scottish, they just stand there where there aren't. Literally when I said that, my Scottish friend just crossed his arms, I just watched him, okay? He's like, that's what they're going to do, all right?

They're going to look at you like a mannequin, but in their heart, they're cheering you on, all right? And I'm like, okay, that's fine, I got this. And so I get up there and I'm preaching, and I think I'm preaching on the parable of the talents. and he says the same kind of thing. And I'm saying everything you have is going to be sold in a garage sale.

And then I'm like, some of you are going to go through your mama's pants. And you go hold up in your mama's pants. You go look at Mama's pants. And when I said pants, they started giggling. And I'm a sucker for response, okay, based pretty much on my own insecurity. So I'm hammered down on pants. And I was like, why is Mama's pants so big?

And I'm just pants, pants, pants, pants, and they are dying. And I told it, in my mind, I thought, what you're talking about? I mean, I got the hand of God on me. I can go anywhere at any time. I preach the word of God. worry about me, son. Okay. I get done preaching. I walk up and this guy from America lives in Scotland, he goes, past a great sermon. Thanks, man. He goes, I just needed you know, in Scotland,

pants means panties. Something like, me on panties. That's what I'm doing for like 20 minutes. Okay, so anyway, same moment. Okay, be on guard, because here's the lie, here's the lie, here's the lie. Here's what our money, here's what our stuff, here's where our houses, our cars, here's what it, it It lies to us. Our money lies to us. And here's the lie. If you love me, I'll love you back. And we believe it. The reason we believe it, and the reason it feels like it is affirmed is because we've associated love with all the feels. And feelings are associated with love, but primarily love in the Bible is described as provision and protecting. See, Jesus on the cross, didn't feel good, but he was loving us. He was protecting us and providing for us. But see, we think, like when our

car says, if you love me, I love you back, We believe it because you buy it and you feel good. And then you sit down in it and hit the seat warmers. You're like, oh, oh, it's loving me right now. But it will always let you down. It can't love you. It just doesn't have the ability to. And so Jesus is saying, so you're a fool if you place all of your hope

and all of your trust and all of your love and the temporary things that cannot do it for you. He says, so is the one who lays up treas. for himself and is not rich towards God. Let me just ask you, church, are you rich towards God? Because here's what is, it's counterintuitive. What's crazy is when you are rich towards God, and I'm not just talking about money, man, time, talent, treasure,

energy, affections, passions. When you are rich towards God, what's crazy is that you live the abundant life now. But when you are greedy towards God and rich towards you, the bad news is all you got is you with some new pants. That's all you have. have, and it will always let you down. And if you've got the kind of Bible that has the little like subject headings over the next paragraph, the next section here is called, do not be anxious.

Why? Because when you are not rich towards God, but you're greedy towards God, and you are rich towards you, then what that leads to is an anxious life. And he said to his disciples, therefore, I tell you, don't be anxious about your life, what you'll eat or about your body, what you'll put on. In other words, what Jesus is saying is you've got one of two options, man. Be rich towards me, an abundant life. Be rich towards you, greedy towards God, an anxious life. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens.

They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn. And yet God feeds them of how much more value are you than birds. Here's what he's saying. To the person that sees money as security, watch out, man. watch out, that a raven has more faith than you. Because, listen, God's not anti-retirement account. He's anti-putting your trust in your savings.

If you log on and a number feels like it will protect your soul, it just can't. He says for life is more than food and the body more than clothing. And if the ravens have figured this out, now don't tell PETA, but you were more valuable than birds. and if God takes care of the birds, when he take care of you, be on guard against that. And which of you, by being anxious,

can add a single hour to a span of life? The answer is nobody. In fact, more anxiety equals less life. That's just how it goes. You see that peace is not found in possessions. Peace is found in a person. The Prince of Peace's name is Jesus. If you were not able to do as small a thing as that,

why are you anxious about all the rest? And then he says, consider the lilies, consider the flowers. Why? Because there's two types of people when it comes to money and possessions and that kind of stuff. There are the savers and the spenders. And some people, when they get some in, they save it. It makes you feel good about saving it. God bless you people. We need you people. I ain't one of you people. Then they're the spenders, right? Amen? Spenders? But our problem is we get a little bit of change and we think if I buy this stuff, it will satisfy me. like some new clothes or a new whatever. And so he says, so look at the flowers. Consider the lilies.

These are the spenders. How they will grow, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Like they don't go to the mall. They don't buy any clothes for themselves. And yet I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so closed the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, oh, you of little faith? Now listen, man, is there anything wrong with saving?

No, anything wrong with spending? No. It's if you think your money, your stuff is going to take care of you. If you think it's going to protect and provide, if you think it's going to bring satisfaction and security, then it will let you down every single time. And do not seek what you were to eat and what you were to drink, nor be worried for all the nation of the world seeks after these things.

In other words, when you put your hope and stuff, You're acting like an atheist. That's what he's saying. You're like, what? But I go to church. And I sing with my hands up. Yeah, cool. You should.

But when you put your faith in stuff, whether it's for your security or your satisfaction, you're acting like the rest of the world that doesn't know Jesus acts. And your father knows that you need them. Verse 31, instead seek his kingdom

and these things will be added unto you. In other words, you got an option. You want the abortion. Abundant life, seek him and his kingdom. There's no special offering today or anything. I'm not even really talking about money, time, talent, treasure, passion, energy, focus. Seek first his kingdom. Or you can seek yourself in your own kingdom.

One leads to anxiety. One leads to an abundance. And then my English teacher told me never mixed metaphors. And Jesus said, forget you, I write how I want to write. He's going to use three metaphors in one sentence to describe God's heart for you and me. fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom fear not little flock why because he's a good shepherd now there's an enemy that only wants to steal kill and destroy there's a stranger that's going to speak lies to you but don't be afraid there's a wolf prowling around

to try to get you but don't be afraid and the reason you don't have to be afraid little flock is because he's a good shepherd. And the sheep hear his voice and they do what he says. But fear not, little flock, because your father's good pleasure. He's a good dad, and he loves his kids. And maybe you don't get everything you want just like any good dad or any good mom here

does not always say yes to their kids because you love them. You care more about them and about how they feel in the moment. He's a good father. That's just who he is. We're loved by him. That's just who we are.

The moment you can get your mind around that, it changes everything about everything about everything. And so he's a good shepherd, and he's a good dad, and he's a good king. And his desire is to give you the kingdom. Give you the kingdom. Man, you want some new clothes? I got really good news.

Do you realize that when we meet him face to face, we will be arrayed in robes of righteousness? That's way better than you, Slick, little pants that you got on. You want a nice house? Jesus said, in my father's house, there are many rooms that I'm preparing one for you. This is where your kitchen never goes out of date.

You realize that? Actually, you don't even need a kitchen in heaven. Why? Because there's a banqueting table prepared for you, and every single one of us through the blood of the cross have been invited as sons and daughters to sit at the table. Your circumstances are shady. Hey, man, guess what?

When you get there, fear not, fear not, little flock. because he's a good dad and his desires to give you the kingdom and he's going to wipe away every single tear. Nobody's going to walk with a swagger and nobody's going to walk with a limp. And I just heard somebody's 10-10 alarm go off. Praise God for that, right?

That right now at 10-10, this is what he wants for you. He wants for you the abundant life. Not a life of anxiety. And so, the choice is yours, man. The choice is yours. Now this is not a magic pill, end all be y'all. This is an invitation to say, I resolve.

I resolve to pursue the abundant life that Christ wants to give to me. About this time of year, people always ask me about New Year's resolutions. What do I think about them? I'm about 50-50. Not on accomplishing them, I'm zero, all right? The good news about the New Year's resolution

is it's evident that you ain't got. this. See last year's resolutions. I mean, look at you, right? I'm sure you're doing great. It's been a whole week. I'll tell you, if we win the natty tomorrow, I'm going to break all my resolutions. Don't worry about me, okay? So there's a difference, even though the words have the same origin, in English, according to the dictionary, they mean something different. Now, it's an okay thing, I think, at this time of year, to do a self-evaluation, run it through the Shama, am I loving the Lord of my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, as I steward the life that God has given me. And for sure, you should probably not watch as much

Netflix and quit yelling at your kids and quit drinking so much and maybe you need to back off the pound cake. Okay, cool. Go wiggle with everybody else at the gym for three weeks. Make yourself feel better. All right, for sure. But the key to understanding the difference between a resolution and resolve is that a resolution is defined as a decision to do something. and not do something. It's rooted in this, I got this. But the dictionary says that resolve is defined as a firm determination to do a thing.

What if we as a church resolved to fear not, little flock? And we resolved to tune our ears to the voice of the good shepherd. And the good shepherd's desire is to draw us away from the enemy who steals and kills and destroys. And his good desire is to give us the kingdom,

to give us abundant life. And that abundant life is found in him. And we resolved. We're not just going to make a mental decision to try to do better this year, but we resolved to fear not little flock, but to know our heavenly father. And we resolved to move towards the abundant life

that he has for us, knowing that his desire is to give him. give it to you to give you the kingdom. That's what we're doing in 2023. Would you please stand and let me pray for you? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. God, we thank you that fear, it's not a feeling.

Fear is not a reaction to a set of circumstances. Fear is a spirit that does not come from you. And God, the reason that we don't have to fear is because you're a good shepherd, you're a good dad, and you're a good king. and you love your kids. And Lord, I pray that even if 23 is a year of trial, that even that is a good gift from you

because what you desire for us is to give us your kingdom, that abundant life. Lord, I thank you, and I praise you, that an abundant life is not defined as an abundance of possessions, but an abundance in a relationship with you. By the Spirit of God, through the blood of Jesus under the banner of the love of the father over his kids,

God, would you give us that resolve this year to pursue that abundant life? We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. So, church, we respond. And listen, we sing and we bring and we pray. It's what we do all the time, right? So we're going to sing. We're going to sing.

We'll join our voices together and declare that what we're saying is true to the one who we need to help us. And we're going to bring our ties and our offerings. And we pray. And if you're honest, man, If you're honest, there actually shouldn't be any people in the seats. Every single one of us that need the Spirit of God to help us resolve to pursue this abundant

life that Christ offers for us. Need to sprint down here and get on our face and go before our almighty God and maker and say, God, I need you, I need you, I need you. So let's sing, let's bring, and won't you come and let's pray. Let's go.