The Church of Eleven22 - A Disciple Shares Faith with All People - Follow Me - Wk 3

Episode Date: May 11, 2025

Sharing your faith can feel intimidating, but Jesus calls every believer to be a witness. Acts 1:8 and Matthew 4:19 teaches us that the Holy Spirit empowers us to share the Gospel. Take a step today by praying for one person in your life who needs to hear about Jesus. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

All right. All right. Hey, it is so good to be with you guys this morning. For those of you that are brand new to 1122, maybe it's your first Sunday, I am not Pastor Joby Martin, unfortunately. I know we look a lot alike, obviously, but I'm not him. I'm the teaching team here. My name's Matt Carter. It's just an honor to be with you. Happy Mother's Day, by the way. Love Mother. Yeah, we can clap for moms a more time. Moms are cool. My mom is spending Mother's Day with Jesus, and I miss her every single day. And so, mothers, we love you. Thank you for that. I want to invite you to open up your Bible to the book of Acts chapter 1. We're going to look at verse 8 today here in a few minutes. Act chapter 1, verse 8. And we're in the third week of our series that we're calling Follow

me. Looking at what it looks like. like to follow Jesus. We're looking at the journey of discipleship. In other words, if you're a follower of Christ, if you're a Christian, what are going to be the things that show up in your life? And what are the things that we're called to do as a follower of Jesus? And I want to stop right there and just address that right there, this idea of following Jesus. If you're new to church or maybe new to faith, I want to tell you why we called this series. follow me. And it's, it's kind of awesome because at the end of the day, at its most basic fundamental level, what it means to be a Christian, at its most basic fundamental level,

what it means to be a Christian does not mean that you're joining a religion. It doesn't mean that you are following a list of rules or do's and don'ts, but at its most basic fundamental level, what it means to be a Christian is that you are a follower of Jesus, that you follow him. And we see that at the very beginning of his ministry. Jesus is beginning his ministry. He's going to call his very first disciples to himself. He walks up to Peter and Andrew, two of the future leaders of the church. He walks right up to him on the beach. They were fishermen. and he says, boys, I want you to drop your nets. I want you to walk away from your old life, and I want you to follow me.

That was the invitation. He didn't say, Peter and Andrew, let's go start a new religion together. He said, I want you to follow me. And we're looking at what that means. You know, it's interesting. I looked up the word follow, and in the original language in that Hebrew culture, it had a very specific meaning. It was an invitation, and the invitation meant to get so close to somebody that you were just like them in word and deed and even to the soul level. And that's the invitation to you and me today.

Pastor Jobi last week, he gave a quote. It was a quote that described the rabbi or the teacher relationship to disciple in Hebrew culture. And there was a quote that they talked about, and they would say often, they'd say, may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi? You know, in other words, that you would, as you followed him, that you would get so close to him that you would literally get covered in the dust of his sandals. And so that's what today's about, that's what the series is about, is what is it going to look like for us to draw near to Jesus and as we follow him get covered in his dust to the point that we do the things that he does, we say the things that he says.

He says, and we draw near to him at a soul level. Now, we're looking today, third week, we're looking today is, in my opinion, maybe the hardest one to live out. I've been in full-time vocational ministry for 30 years, and I've seen a lot of stuff and talk to thousands of people and preach hundreds of times, and I'm convinced that this might be the most difficult part of being a disciple. And so today, here's what it is. We're looking at a disciple shares their faith with all people. Disciple, and you follow Jesus, one of the things that's going to look like is you're going to be a person that shares your faith with

other people. I would guess a good majority of folks in the room, large majority of Christians, they struggle with this one. As a matter of fact, I'm guessing that I would imagine that a few of you when you saw the title of the sermon today when you came in and saw the title, maybe you got a little bit uncomfortable. You're like, Matt, you know, I love Jesus. I worship Jesus. I'm not ashamed to Jesus, but this whole part of following Jesus where I'm called to share my faith with others as a little intimidating, right?

Some of you might be introverted. Got any introverts in the room? They're like, I'm not even raising my hand. I'm so introverted, right? I'm an introvert. Some of you may not feel equipped. You're like, man, I love Jesus, but people, if I talk to them, they may have questions that I can't explain.

Some of you're afraid of being rejected. Maybe you've tried before, and the person just shut you down. Maybe you're just not great at it. You know, you've done it and you hadn't seen a lot of success. Well, first of all, if that's you, I want you to know you're not alone. And the reason I say that is because just in complete transparency and honesty, I am not good at one-on-one sharing my faith. I'm incredibly introverted.

I struggle with just talking to people in general, much less talking to them about Jesus. You know, I've been rejected more times than I can count when I've tried to share my faith with somebody. I would argue I'm not very good at it. I'm intimidated by it in a lot of levels. And you're like, well, Matt, what do you mean? You're not very good at you're a preacher, right? And that's right.

I'm a preacher. And what you're seeing right now is what's called a spiritual gift. Y'all know what a spiritual gift is? Is that your salvation, when you get saved and you trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're indelelt. Scripture says you're literally indwelt with the Holy Spirit. And we're going to talk about that later. And then when you're indwelt with the Holy Spirit,

there is a very specific way that every believer has that God gives you, it's your spiritual gift and it's the way that the Holy Spirit will manifest himself in power through your life for the glory of God. Mine is preaching. The first time I ever preached, it was fascinating. I actually was so scared to preach that I dropped out of a speech communication in class. I mean, I was so scared of talking that I dropped out of a speech communication. communications class at Texas A&M because we had to on the second day of class stand up in front

of 30 people and give our name, our major, and our hometown. And I was like, I'm not doing it. And I dropped the class. And I called in the, true story, I called in the ministry. I'd heard you had a spiritual gift. I didn't have any idea what mine was. And then the pastor asked me one Sunday to preach. And I was scared to death, had no idea what I was doing.

And I got into the pulpit. And something happened to me that I've never experienced anywhere else in life as I experienced the power of the Holy Spirit through my spiritual gift. But the problem is, is this the only one I got? I mean, I don't experience the supernatural power anywhere else. I don't experience in counseling. I don't experience in leadership. I certainly don't experience in one-on-one evangelism, right? It's just, now, I'm just not good at it, so I hope that makes you feel comforted at some level.

I actually text Pastor Jobi. I honestly don't know where he is. He's probably out, you know, killing small furry animals somewhere or something, but getting a much-needed break. And I text him. It was last week. And I was like, Pastor Obie, I'm working on the sermon for Sunday, and I'm going to share that I'm personally not great at sharing my faith.

And so I was like, Pastor Jobi, I need a redneck saying. because you're more qualified than anybody. What's a good redneck saying? When you look really dumb and incompetent when you're doing something. And he responded in two seconds and he said, you need to say you look like you're swinging left-handed with a football bat. I have no idea what that means, but that's what I look like when I'm trying to share my faith.

Look like I'm swinging left-handed with a football bat, right? Now, what's interesting is that some people, do you have the spiritual gift of evangelism? It's in the scripture. It's on the list of spiritual gifts. In other words, when some people share their faith, that's when they experience the supernatural power of God. I'm going to tell you somebody who's got the spiritual gift of evangelism. It's your pastor, Jobi, Dadgum Martin.

I'm telling you the truth. And I've seen it more than once. Not only can he obviously preach, one of the greatest ever, but he's got that thing where he just says stuff and people give their lives to Jesus. We were deer hunting years ago. I knew Pastor Joe if he was a big deal. And we were in South Texas deer hunting. And I had been in a deer stand all day with my guide who was an atheist. The kid did not believe in God. And so I'm going to deer stand all day with the kids and share my faith with them. And sure enough, I'm talking to this kid about Jesus and just getting shut down. all day long. You know, he's just like, ah, you know, it's not my thing, not into it or whatever. Well, that night, we're sitting around the campfire. All of us, and there's me and Pastor Jobi and the atheist deer hunting god. And I had told Pastor Jobi that, like, I tried talking about Jesus.

He just shut me down. Well, we're just hanging out doing our thing, and there was a pause in the conversation. And Pastor Jobi looked at this kid and goes, hey, man. You know, he says, hey, man. He's like, I think you need to give your life to Christ. The kid goes, okay. And I'm like, what the heck, man? I mean, true story.

He goes, okay. And I was like, see, Pastor Jobi, I'll soften him up for you, right? And like, true story within just like 30 seconds. They're on the ground, on their knees. Kid is giving his life to Jesus, committing to go, like, be a hunt and God in Africa for Jesus. I mean, and like some people have that gift. but the majority of us in the room do not have that gift. And so if you're in that boat today, take a deep breath and with the hope that let's walk out of here,

inspired and equipped to do this thing. But I'm going to give you three quick kind of reasons why all of us should engage in sharing a faith. But let me start off with this. How important is this to Jesus? If you're a believer, how important is it to him? that you be a person that that shares your faith with everyone. I would argue it's pretty important. Why do I say that?

Because it hit me that it literally is the very first thing that Jesus ever talked about to his disciples. He comes walking up to Peter and Andrew, and he looks at him, just told you guys that. He said, follow me. But then what did he say is going to happen And when they follow him, he said, follow me. And I will make you fissures of men.

It was in his elevator pitch to the first disciples. Like, look, boys, follow me. And here's what's going to happen. I'm going to transform you, which we'll talk about that in a second. I'm going to transform you into a person that reaches other people with the gospel. That was a very first thing ever told his disciples. And by the way, it was actually the last thing he ever talked about to his disciples. Jav ever noticed that?

First thing he says to him, literally the last thing he ever says to him. He's risen from the grave. He's conquered sin and death. And he's literally about to ascend in the heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father, which he is still there, praise God. And the last thing he says to him is Acts 1-8. Check it out. And Jesus said,

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And we'll talk about that here in a minute. But Jesus looks at his disciples. He's literally about to send to heaven, and he says, hey, I need you understand something. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, he tells them, I'm going to send a helper.

The Holy Spirit, when that happens, you're going to receive power. Here's what you're going to do with that power. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And he ascends into heaven. Last thing he says, it's going to be witnesses. So he bookends his entire ministry with that one thought. It's like when your kids, I don't know about y'all, but sometimes my kids don't listen to me.

Am I the only parent in here this like that? Anybody's got kids that don't listen to you? And especially boys when they turn about 16. It's all of a sudden dad's an idiot, right? Praise God. They're about 25. You know, they wake up and realize you're not an idiot. But my son is a freshman, my youngest child's freshman at Texan,

A&M, followed in his old man's footsteps and went to A&M. It's very similar to Florida State. Great school. Hard to get into now. But he's a smart kid, got into it. but he didn't get into business school. And so his goal was to try to get as good a grades as he could, his freshman year and then try to apply his,

at the end of his freshman year, he'd get in the sophomore year. And y'all, he kind of shocked me. He crushed it. He made a 3-75 or something, which is unbelievable, because I made a 2-0 my first year at A&M. Can I get an amen? Any 2-0ers in here? That was me.

Thank God. mother gave him better genetics, but he made like a 375, he made, I think, two Bs. And a couple weeks ago, he called me, he's like, Dad, I think I'm going to drop one of my classes that you already paid for. And I'm like, why? And he said, well, he goes, I really think I need to get it up to a 3-8. So I'm just, I have a B. I'm going to make a B, so I'm just going to drop it, and I'll retake it. And I was like, well, hadn't I already paid for this class? He's like, yeah, don't worry about it. I'll repay you.

And I'm like, you're a liar, right? And you're not going to repay me. We got that out on the tail. I didn't say that. That's what I was thinking. And so he's literally going to drop the class, retake it. And I said, son, here's what you need to do. I was like, go talk to an academic advisor.

I was like, have you done that yet? No. Okay, go talk to an academic advisor. Find out if that's really what you need to do. Find out what the GPS they're looking for. You've got a great resume. Go talk to an academic advisor. Two weeks go by.

It's almost to the end of the semester. I said, I better call and see if he's done it. First thing out of my mouth. Sammy. I just let everybody know his name. His name is Sammy. I was like, Sammy, you talk to an academic advisor? No, dad, I haven't.

I'm sorry. And I'm like, did your mother have any children that lived? Like, what is wrong with you? And he's like, dad, I've just been busy, haven't done or whatever. And I just don't even know if I need to, blah, blah, blah. And so anyway, we talked for a minute, and what do you think the last thing I said to him was? Like, go talk to an advisor.

When your kids are knucklehead, you got to book in important stuff, right? That's my point. That's what Jesus did for you and for me. I think he knew. I just think he knew that we were going to get comfy and cozy and attending church and that we lose sight of the absolute critical importance of being people that walk out the doors and share our faith with people that don't know Jesus. And so I would say it's arguably really, really important for him to book it like it is, but here it is, real quick,

with the resume sermon super fast here. We're going to go through three reasons why everybody needs to engage in the fulfilling of the Great Commission. Here's reason number one. Jesus promised us. Now, why did I put that? Jesus promised us this would happen. Would you believe me if I told you that He promised us that we would do this with our lives. He guaranteed it as follows of Christ. Check it out. Look at Acts 1-8 again. Something I just actually saw recently.

Never paid any attention to this. And all of a sudden, it would end me one day. In Acts 1-8, he said, you will receive power. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and then watch this. He said, and you will be my witnesses. You'll be my witnesses. That's not a statement of hope in the original language. That's not him saying, hey, if you get around to it when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,

maybe ought to consider going out there and making sure other people hear about it. It's a declarative statement in the original language. He's literally saying that when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, that the inevitable result is that the power of the Holy Spirit is going to come out of you in being a witness for Jesus Christ. I don't know, y'all, but that's kind of convicting. I'm going to share a quote with you from Pastor Charles Spurgeon. It's one of the greatest preachers that ever lived.

He was a preacher in England in the late 1800s. He was just unbelievable. He was amazing. People ask me all the time, side note here, had nothing to do with the sermon, but people ask me all the time. They're like, hey, you're on staff at 1122? And I'm like, I am.

And they're going, what's Pastor Jobi like? You know, because everybody listens to Pastor Jobi all over the country. And I'm like, what's he like? And I was like, well, he's awesome. And I was like, it's like if Pastor Charles Spurgeon and Jeff Foxworthy had a baby, that's Jobie Martin. And I'm like, oh, man, that's awesome. But anyway, Spurgeon could sling it.

And he was preaching one day about this subject. about Acts 1-8 and talking about how Jesus said that the inevitable result of you being saved is you were going to go do this. And Spurgeon gave one of the most convicting quotes I ever heard him say, here it is. Spurgeon said, a Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. That's so convicting, man. Every time I read it, said, a Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. In other words, his point is that biblically speaking, there is no such thing.

Biblically speaking, there's no such thing as a Christian that doesn't engage in the Great Commission. And y'all, he's right. The Bible never creates a scenario that it's okay for you to get saved, come to church a few times a month, sing some songs, listen to sermons, and then walk out the doors and never get in the fight for the glory of God. And somewhere along the way, in North America over the last, I don't know how long it's been, but in North America, somewhere along the way, we got that message, that it's okay for us to just come to church and spectate instead of viewing.

ourselves the way that Jesus view ourselves, which is to be an active participant in the great commission. Reminds me of that movie, Top Gun. Any old people in here, remember Top Gun? You're not supposed to give. Step 101 in preaching class, they tell you, don't give illustrations over 15 years, and I don't care. It's a good movie.

So I'm going to give this illustration. But you remember at the end of a, we were fighting the Russians, because that's what we did in the 80s. and it was like the culmination of the whole movie. And Maverick, Tom Cruise, the main character. He's lost his buddy goose. And so he's all messed up in the head. And so they're up. They're in a big dog fight.

You have Val Kilmer playing Iceman. God rest his soul, by the way. And you got Val Kilmer is Iceman. And he's just, he's fighting all the Russians in this big dog fight. And Jets all by himself. And Maverick is in the plane up in the air. just chilling because he's all messed up in the head because goose died and he won't engage and y'all remember what ice man started screaming he's like maverick get in the fight get in the fight

maverick for crying out loud getting the fight or whatever and i just wonder if that's what the holy spirit is is thinking and saying when he looks at the north american church and he's just like i have given you so much i have blessed you so much. And so for crying out loud, get in the fight. It says, you will receive power. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you and Jesus said,

you will be my witness. And maybe you're like, Matt, well, listen, here, this is a deal. I love Jesus. But I'm not exactly being a witness. Like I'm kind of one of those people that goes to church. and sings, but not really getting in the fight. You know, what am I missing? Does that mean you're not saved?

No, no, no, no. It doesn't mean you're not saved. Listen, that's not what Spurgeon's saying. Look, if you've trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. There's no condemnation for him. You're saved, you're saved, you're saved, you're saved, you're saved. But there might be a really important step in the discipleship process that maybe you're missing.

if you're not engaging actively in the Great Commission, and you actually see it here in Matthew 418. So let's look at that real quick, 418 and 19. Turn there. Watch this. While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who's called Peter, and Andrew, his brother,

casting a net into the sea, for they were both fishermen. Now watch what Jesus is. It's a little part we often miss. In 419, it says, and Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you a fissure of men. Have you ever stopped and focused on that? Like we focus on the fissure of men part, but we often don't think about the fact that Jesus said, here's your role. Your role, Jesus said, is to follow Jesus. Follow me. And then if you'll follow me,

then I, Jesus said, will transform you into a person that is a fisher of men. For some of you, I hope that's super comforting today, that your role is not to hear a sermon on evangelism or sharing your faith and they're like, all right, and pull up your bootstraps and, all right, I'm going to go, I'm going to discipline myself this time I'm going to do it. No, what the Bible saying and what Jesus is your role is to draw near to Jesus. your jumps to follow him to draw near to him and Jesus said he will make you a fissure of men and I love that you know why because Jesus never commanded performance but he promised transformation he never commanded performance he promised transformation he's not asking you to go make something happen he's inviting you to draw near to him and when you draw near to Jesus something is going to happen. You're going to fall in love with him.

Y'all, the longer I live, and the more I follow Jesus, and the longer I follow Jesus, and the more I read the word of God, the more I am absolutely convinced of two things. Number one, he is more real than my wildest imagination, and two,

he is more beautiful than my wildest imagination. So if you're here, you're like, man, I don't see this in my life. I love Jesus. give my life, your deal is not that you're saved. Your deal is that you need to just stop worrying about all that stuff, and you draw near to him, and he will do the transformation in your life. So that's number one, let's go through the next two quickly. Number one, Jesus promised us.

Number two, the gospel compels us. The reason that everybody that's a believer ought to engage in great commission is there ought to be, when the gospel hits you, it ought to compel you to want to go talk about it. I love what my brother on the video said. I don't know if you caught it. He said, man, I was crazy doing drugs, doing stupid stuff, but Jesus, what do you say, drop me or something, I loved it, put me on the floor, something like that. But he's like, what else am I going to do?

Then talk about it. I love that. Listen, the gospel, what's the gospel? The gospel is the good news that when you were dead and your trespassing and your sins, not mostly dead, not partly dead, you and I were dead in the casket and our trespassing. in our sins, but God put on our flesh, came to this planet, lived a perfect life, and willingly walked to a Roman cross to pay the penalty of our sin by shedding his blood so that when we trust in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are forgiven of our sins, not in part, but the

hole was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. And he cast it from us as far as the east is from the west. And if thou were not enough, he adopts us into the family of God. And if thou or not enough. He gives us a seat in heaven with our name on us. When we die, we spend eternity in the presence of God. Y'all, man, when that sinks into your heart, what else can we do than to respond by telling others about it? And you may be like, well, Matt, I still struggle with this, so how can we practically walk this out? Well, one thing I would tell you is that you probably are more qualified than you, than you know, believer. And I'm going to show you why.

I learned something a few months ago. It was really not that far that really unlocked something in my mind and has really freed me up. Because I was getting real focused on results that if I'd share my faith with somebody and they didn't come to Christ, then it would get me down. But we're going to see that it's not our job to change people's hearts. It's our job to be faithful to this. but I'll just ask you this. Like, I'm going to tell you why you're qualified.

Now, I'm speaking of believers here. Believer, have you experienced the goodness of God in your life? Man, we were singing just a second ago. All my life, you have been faithful. Y'all, it's true. God's been faithful every single day. Even when I was faithless, he was faithful. Even when I let go at him, he never let go of me.

Has he fulfilled the deepest longings of your soul? The answer is yes. Man, there is nothing that compares, nothing in this world that compares to the presence of Almighty God. Nothing. Nothing like, listen, if that's you, if you're like, yep, he's good. He's faithful. He satisfies my soul. You are qualified for this.

You got everything you need to be a witness. Let me show you one more time. Why? In Acts 1-8. Check this out. Hope this frees you up. Jesus said, but you will receive power when the whole. Spirit has come upon you. Everybody read that. Don't read it out loud, but just focus what he said.

And you will be my witness. Now I want you to look at the word witness. That's what he's transforming you into is a witness. He doesn't say, you know, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, receive power and you're going to be my theologian, even though theology is important. It's real important, critically important, but that's not what he's calling you to here. He didn't say, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, receive power, and you're going to be my apologist. Apologetics is important. He said, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witness.

Now, this is what my friend said that just freed me up, because I was talking about it. I was like, man, I'm not very good. I've seen all these people through the years come to Christ through my preaching. I've seen very little come to Christ through my personal evangelism. And I'm intimidated by it. And he said, well, and this is what he said. He said, Matt, that's probably because you think being a witness means you have to be Jesus' defense attorney. And I went, oh, gosh, yeah.

He said, Jesus never asked you to be his defense attorney. He goes, first of all, Jesus doesn't need defending. He said, all he ever asked you to do is, be his witness. He said this. He said, defense attorney argues a case trying to persuade. He said, a witness simply gives an honest account about what they've seen and heard. And you will be my witness to the ends of the earth. Here's the call. The calling of Jesus on your life, believer, is not to go out the doors and argue people into the kingdom. It's not to persuade people, even though we need apologists, we need theologians.

They're crucial. But the call on every believer's life, is simply be willing to share what they've seen and heard and experienced. Thought it would be something that all of us can do without hesitation. Let me give you a quick analogy here, what I'm talking about, how easy it is to talk about something that's changed your life. You know what I'm talking about? Something's changed your life. It's easy to talk about.

For example, I'm going to show you how easy this is. I'm going to talk about the greatest burrito you've never eaten. Cabo Bob's burritos. It's the greatest burritos. And see, I can tell that y'all are from Jacksonville, not where Cabo Bob's Burritos is, because if y'all knew about Cabo Bob, you'd have broken into applause immediately,

but you didn't. So I'm going to tell you about it. A buddy of mine, one of my church in Austin, started this burrito company. And you think, you think, well, why another burrito company? Right? We don't really need more burritos.

We got Chipotle. We got all these different kinds of bretos. Why another burrito? He went on a mission to fundamentally change the burrito making industry and my brother has done it. And I'm going to give you three quick reasons. Number one, the steak and the chicken. Here's a picture off their website. Now you think, no, wait a minute, Matt, everybody's got steak and chicken.

What's the big deal? Well, Chipotle, if you go there for lunch today and hopefully you're not bringing your mom Chipotle, but if you do, I'll probably be there because my wife's not here. But anyway, they just take steak and they put it on like a little, you know, metal thing and like that, but not at Coppell. Bob's burritos. In Cobobob's burritos in the kitchen, right behind the counter, where you're looking at all the ingredients you put on your burrito, they've got three big green eggs. Can I get an amen from the men in the room? If you don't know what a big green egg is, I'll pray for you, all right?

They got three big green eggs in the kitchen, vent the hood above them, the big ones, with mesquite wood, little South Texas life hack. Mesquite with steak tastes like Jesus. And so they're literally, they're cooking on a little skillet thing, man. They're cooking it on a big green egg. But it doesn't stop there. Caso.

Now, I don't have a picture of queso, but let me tell you about the queso. Look, y'all are from Florida, and so I'm from Texas, so I'm an expert on this. Let me just tell you, there's queso and then there's Cabobobs caseo. I mean, it's kind of at another level. It's really just hard to describe why it's better other than when you put it in your mouth. It just, it tastes so obviously like your adopted grandmother from Mexico made it on your birthday. I mean, that's the only way I can tell you.

It's cheesy, melty, delicious, perfect amount of spice, unbelievable. But the thing that separates Cabo bobs from every other burrito maker, in the history of our planet is their flower tortillas. Ooh. Their flower tortillas are homemade. They're homemade. And when I say homemade, I'm not talking about they make them and bring them there. I'm talking about they make them right in front of your face.

When you order a burrito, they take a big lump of their dough. And there's different kinds. That's smoky cheddar, as a matter of fact. And you take a smoky cheddar thing of dough. Bam, they put it on the smashing thing, smash them. You've got a burrito thing about that big. That's not where it ends. They put it on this hot stone, and it cooks it right there in front of you,

and it is the most delicious thing you've ever had in your entire life. I'm not talking about getting a flour tortilla that looks like cardboard out of a little plastic thing that they do at Chipotle. God bless them. I'm talking about making that bad boy in front of your face. And then when you wrap it all together with the mesquite smoke wood and, you know, flavor in the creamy. You grandmother made it a queso and with the fresh, like, chewy, awesome, warm flour tortilla, you take a bite and angels sing. How many y'all would love a Cabo Bob's burrito right now?

Yes. You're like, Matt, shut up. Let's go eat. Well, man, I got, I got, I got bad news and good news. The bad news is there's no Cobobobs in Jacksonville, Florida yet. But the good news is that Jesus is better than Cabo Bob. He is. He is.

That's the calling. That's like the greatest evangelistic presentation I've ever given in my life. That's all you've got to do. Just talk about what you've seen and heard and experienced. Last one. Jesus promised us. He's like, draw near to me. I'm going to transform you.

The gospel compels us. As you draw near to him and it changes your life, just go share with people what you've seen and heard. and the last one is why all of us should engage in this, is the spirit empowers us. This is one we forget, y'all, listen, listen, listen, listen, I'm going to do this, tell a story we're done. Listen, if you're a believer,

you have all the power you need and then some to go live this out. Number one, Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power. If you're saved, you got it. but let's talk about how, real quick. How powerful is this power that's inside of you? Ephesians 3.20. Apostle Paul is speaking to the church.

You're not talking to pastors here. He's talking to us. And he's talking about like how powerful God is. Would y'all agree God's powerful? What Paul's trying to say is he's a lot more powerful than you know. He says, now to him who is able. So he's what God is able to do, able to do far more. abundantly than anything we can ask or think.

He could have easily said, now to him who is able to do more than we ask or think, he doesn't. He could have said, not to him who is able to do far more. Then we can ask or think he doesn't. He said, now to him who's able to do far more abundantly. He makes a word up in the Greek to basically say that however big or powerful you think God is, your view of him and his power is way too small. And then he's literally what he says.

This is not him who is able to do far more abundantly than anything we ask or think. And so right now, I just want you to imagine something. Like if you could ask God to do anything through your life for his glory, to use your life, to bring glory to his name, what would you ask him? What would you imagine he could do through your life? what the Apostle Paul and the Holy Spirit and the Spirit and the Word of God is saying, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than anything you're even imagining. That God could use you in ways that's far bigger than your wildest imagination,

and then he lands the plane and drops a theological nuclear bomb on us. Paul says, now to him who is able to do far. more abundantly than all we can ask or think, according to the power that's at work. Say it with me in us. Let's do it again. According to the power at work in us. Us. He's talking to the church. He didn't say the pastor. He didn't say the full-time evangelist. He said, there's a God and he's powerful. Matter of fact, he's so much more powerful than your wildest imagination. and he can use you in ways that's so much bigger than anything you could ever ask for or think. And oh, by the way, the Holy Spirit inspired word of God says,

that power right now, believer, it's in you right now as you sit there in that chair. What was the last time your feet hit the floor in the morning? And you reminded yourself that the power of the resurrection of Jesus is living inside of you. and that our God wants and is inviting you to be a vessel that that power can pour out of your life. I want to end today. I'm just going to tell you a quick story and then I'm going to pray. And where I've seen this just in a normal person's life, that this one young man, when he was a senior in high school, believe this and just made himself a vessel for the Lord to use him and God used him in ways

that was so much bigger than his wildest imagination. I was a youth pastor for seven years before I became a pastor of a church. And I remember one year when I was a student pastor, we had about 70 kids coming to this church. And this kid named Phil Thomas, it was a summer, a kid named Phil Thomas. It was a summer, a kid named Phil Thomas. He was going into his senior year, came walking into my office one day, and he was a fantastic kid, loved Jesus, walk with Jesus. On the football team.

Big old down lineman. You can see him in your mind. Like, he was a down lineman. Started at a big old Texas 5A high school, and he came walking in. And I love Phil because he just loved Jesus. I was such a great kid. And he seemed sad. And I go, Phil, what's going on, man?

He said, man, I'm just kind of down. I was like, why? He said, because all my believing friends graduated last year. year. He said, I had about five or six guys that were, we were super tight. All of us were believers, walk with the Lord. And he said, man, they all graduated. He goes, I don't have a single Christian friend on the football team, and I don't know what to do. Well, me being, you know, his youth pastor thought I might try to say something, you know, good or whatever. I looked at him, and I was like, well, why don't you just go lead some of your buddies to Christ? Then you'll have

some friends. And he kind of laughed, and we played ping pong, and he went home or whatever. Well, the next morning, I'm in there working on my sermon, and he walks in and he, I can still see, he slaps down a piece of paper on my desk. I'm like, what's that? And he said, well, I did what you told me to do? I was like, what do I tell you to do? He said, I need to lead some friends of Christ. So there's five guys on that list. Guys that I play football with.

And he goes, they're not believers. And he said, Pastor Matt, I'm just going to commit to praying for those guys every single day. And he said, and I'm just going to develop relationships with him. I'm just going to see if I can talk to him about Jesus. And I love that. And so we literally got on the floor on our knees, and we just prayed for those five young men one by one. Number one guy on the list was a kid named Sean Eppers. Sean was not a believer.

Had a rough home life, never really been to church, just kind of a bitter young man. And that was the first guy on the list. And I remember praying for Sean. And we were just like, Lord, would you save Sean? Would you just reach down and, like, capture his heart? We prayed for him. Well, sure enough, about three weeks, about three or four days later, sure enough, Phil came walking in with Sean Eppers into my office. He's like, Pastor Matt, this is Sean.

I told you about him. And Sean looked bitter and mad that he was in church. And we played ping pong or whatever. But here's what Phil did. Phil just prayed for him every day. made friends with him that's it it's easy to do because people like Phil because he walked with integrity and made friends with them and then about a couple weeks later after been praying for two or three weeks and the relationship had been built up and then Phil invited Sean to one of our

church events just let him hear the gospel and then after that they went to dinner and Phil just said Sean you know Pastor Matt talked about how Jesus is the only way to the father and that he died to forgive us for what do you think about that? Long story short, Sean Eppers gave his life to Jesus. And so now they had two of them, and they're like a team. And so they're praying every day for the other four. And y'all, all they did, pray for them every day, go develop a relationship, bring them to an event, ask them questions after it.

Y'all one by one, by one, all five, watched as a youth pastor that had nothing to do with it other than praying, And as I watched five young men on this football team all get radically saved, but it didn't stop there. They would come down on the front row and all five of those people that used to be lost and didn't know Jesus. The song would hit and their hands would go up in the air. Y'all, a revival broke out in our student ministry. It just broke out.

Had nothing to do with me. It just broke out. These guys are like, man, we're going to do this. And next thing you know, they've got the entire stinking. football team coming to church. We grew from like 75 kids to almost 400 kids. It was one of the most amazing thing you'd ever seen. And by the way, Sean Eppers is now a pastor in Houston, Texas. And so here's my point. Here's my point. And I'm done. You can't measure the fruit of that one simple act of OPEA. You can't measure it. Phil, never know until he gets to heaven.

the impact of simply praying for somebody, developing a friendship, inviting them to church, asking about the gospel. Wouldn't it be awesome if we just did that? People all over this church took that one little step of obedience. Y'all got a phone. There's pieces of paper in front of you, a lot of you. man, I wonder if you would just maybe take a moment and write a name or two down. When I was preparing for this, names just started coming to me in my life of people that

so desperately need the Lord. And I've done this. I just wrote some names down. I started praying for them daily. And I'm excited to see what the Lord's going to do because the last time I checked, our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than all we could ask or think. Amen. Let's pray. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for its power and its clarity. And Lord, I pray that many people would come to know you. Father, simply because some believers in this room

take the step to draw near to you and be transformed into what you promised us. We would. And Lord, I pray that they would see the fruit. of their work, the Holy Spirit's work through their life. Lord, with their own eyes. I pray that, Father, I thank you for what you're already doing in this church. But, Lord, I ask you that you would do far more abundantly than what you're already doing. Lord, I pray so many people would get saved and try to come to this church that, God, we can't even build a building fast enough to see the way the kingdom of God is exploding in Jacksonville, Florida.

Lord, I ask you that today, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We all just stand together. We're going to sing. We're about to sing one of my favorite songs. I speak Jesus. We're going to get after it. I know y'all got to go to lunch, but we're going to sing here and worship. Some of y'all may want to just have the witness of getting baptized. If you're ready, by the way, there's no greater witness you'll ever have than public profession of your faith through baptism.

If you've never been baptized and you're ready, next week you want to get baptized at Beach baptism, coolest thing you'd like to be a part of. You can text the word baptism to 44-11-22, and you can just follow the prompts. We have a baptism class immediately following the service. Just take a minute. We'll dunk you in the water next week. You're buried with Christ and rise again to walk in the newness of life,

and we're going to go bananas when you do it. Some of you, if you want to just take a few minutes before you leave, write some names down. Maybe do what feeling I did. Get on her knees. I think there's something powerful. about just surrendering to the Lord. I would invite you to do that now.

Let's worship him.