The Church of Eleven22 - Saturated 2022 - Saturday: Dr. Doug Logan

Episode Date: September 17, 2022

I think of all. Man, it's so good to be here. We had masks on the last time. Well, I did. Y'all don't believe in COVID in Florida. But look at here, boy. Look what God can do with a Walmart. I don't know about you, but you need to stand up and give them praise.

I don't know about you, but they thought we wasn't going to make it. They didn't know what God could do with a Walmart. folk getting baptized, folk coming to Jesus. You know what God can do with a Walmart. They used to kill us in arenas. Now look what we do with a Walmart. Amen and amen. They used to send the lions on us.

Now we in the cashier aisle telling people to meet Jesus. Well, I've been tasked today first, man. I love Church of 1122. I love your crazy pastor. Pastor Joby, Pastor Adam, my man. I was on my way here. I was at the airport in Atlanta, flew to Atlanta.

And there was this muscle steroided up dude sitting in the chair, and I kept staring at him. I know he thought I was a stalker. So I finally had to say something to him because he might have hit me. So I said, bro, you go into Jacksonville?

He said, yeah, I'm not Joby Martin. That's what he said. He says, I look like him, don't it? I said, you do. And he says, I go to church of 1122. How crazy is it to run into a great, man, praise God. He was excited about 1122. So, man, I'm happy.

And it's good to see Bishop, he's a muscles dude too, Oone, the one from Matrix in Africa. So, yeah, I've been tasked, man. I am so excited. We were here. So I was told to jump in this word, priest the gospel, seek to charge us. Y'all don't need much charge at this church. And so as I've paid attention to the sermons, I felt pushed and compelled to land in saturated.

I love that title. I wanted to steal it for a conference. I'll steal it and just lie and say I had it first. So I wanted to talk about saturated in the mission of God, saturated in the mission of God. And I want a commercial real quick. A couple years ago, we launched a seminate called Grimki Seminary, and it was just a bunch of Acts 29 cats, my friends, my family, trying to do something.

Well, Church of 1122, and you know what y'all did? y'all got behind us. And by God's grace, we've graduated three classes. About 40 students have graduated since that day. Every one of your dollars mattered. And we just took in 50 new students that will be starting in September. God is doing a crazy, crazy work. So keep praying for us. We need you. It's just been a great time. So in what we do, we teach pastoral ministry, church planting, and you know we're trying to tell people we ain't for managing buildings, we're for reaching lost souls. So my heart is compelled to preach saturated in the mission of God.

I'm going to jump out of First Thessalonians, two. I'll read one through 12. Now, I know you guys use the elect standard version, the ESV. I use the CSB, which is the Camden Street Bible. So you can keep up with me. with the better translation. Let me read, pray, and jump us in. For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters,

that our visit with you was not without results. On the contrary, after we had previously suffered and were treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, we were emboldened by our God to speak the gospel of God to you in spite of great opposition. For our exhortation did not come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive.

Instead, just as we have been approved by God, to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts. For we never use flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives. God is our witness. And we didn't seek glory from people either

from you or from others, although we could have been a burden as Christ's apostles. Instead, we were gentle among you as a nurse nurtures her own children. We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives because you have become dear to us. For you remember our labor and our hardships, brothers and sisters, working night and day so that we would not burden any of you. Forgive me. We preach God's gospel. to you. You are my witness so that God, and so is God of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly

we conducted ourselves with you believers. As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted, and implored each of you to walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. Father be with us. We've been encouraged. We've heard the gospel. We've seen people commit their lives to Christ. And God, help us to keep our foot on the gas because the devil's always got his foot on the gas. And move us to this sacred space of time right now that we would zoom in on your perfect work and that you would meet us in our brokenness. And God, I pray that you would disrupt any person at any campus that doesn't know you.

trouble them. And God, I pray that you would give them Holy Ghost caffeine in their soul that they might come to know you as Savior tonight. So Father, Son, Holy Spirit, meet us in Jesus' name. Amen. To be saturated in the mission of God means to be fully immersed in God's gospel and filled with God's spirit. See, while God's mission is distinct from the gospel, it is not disconnected from it. See, the Gospel of Jesus is the engine that powers the vehicle of God's mission. My bootleg definition, I came up with saturate. It's a combination of a bunch of stuff I Google. Saturation speaks to the total achievement of a system, of a system's capacity or completion of a mission.

Saturation means to be submerged in the mission of God, to be immersed in the mission of God, to be covered and filled with the mission of God. Here's a verse that will help us jump into this. Habakkuk 214 says, for the earth will be filled, saturated with the knowledge of the Lord's glory as the waters cover, saturate like the sea, covers the sea. See, God's word tells us that our world will be saturated and filled with the knowledge of God's glory,

and God has called his people to carry forward. forward his mission and to saturate our country, our counties, and our communities with the love of Jesus. Here's our problem. Amen. We can give him praise. That's what he's called us to do to saturate. However, we have a problem, Houston.

A lot of people in the world don't know Jesus. Our country and our counties and our communities are becoming Christian deserts, church deserts, evangelical deserts, church plant deserts, just dry, absent of the presence of God, absence of the people of God, preaching and declaring the truth of God, absent deserts. Our communities are dry and parched and dehydrated. Our neighborhoods are dry and parched and dehydrated. See, the world is lacking the messianic moisture of the gospel from God's people and from God's mission. See, citywide deserts.

Too many churches are opting out of mission when they should be the oasis for God. Not only are our communities lacking gospel mission, there is an enemy that is opposing God's mission, the devil, in this sin-scorched demonic desert that he tries to ravage the world with. The evil one is known to derail Christians from focusing on God's mission to the least to the last and to the laws. and have us to zoom in on particular sins and miss the enormous reality

of the multi-dimensional rescue mission to the world that God has his church on. Let me be plain. I'm against the sin of racism, abortion, injustice, violence, and false doctrine. Yet often we can get distracted, amen. Often we can get distracted into a spot of God's mission and find that thing to be your particular mission,

your niche. and when you do that you often inadvertently make that good thing you're idle. So you get a Facebook page, you name it, and now that's the thing you do. And I promise you, if we got rid of the sin that you're fighting,

the world won't be fixed. If we get rid of all racism, Pastor Jobi, we still got a problem. We get rid of all abortion, which I'm praying every day, we still got a problem. The devil is cunning and baffling. He specializes in distraction and devastation and division and deception and death.

We have a big gospel because we have a big God. We've got a big gospel because we've got a big God. And we as the church on mission by making disciples of all nations developing, disciplining and devoting our time to the resources to reach the loss and experience the ghost at work transforming people. That's what we need to be about. Let me make it plain. I'm getting old.

So I used to take a lot of different vitamins. If you came to my house, normally on my kitchen counter, it looked like I was either a drug dealer or a GNC rep. I had vitamin C, D, G, E. I don't even know if they make them. Zinc. Ashwaganda, I had everything. Applesite of vinegar pills.

Digestive enzymes. You name it. I got it. On a good day, whatever pain or body problem is hurting me the most, though, that's the vitamin I take the most. Like the rest of y'all, your stomach hurt. You're going to take something for that pain. Or if it's a cold for me, it's vitamin C.

I'm popping vitamin C's like I'm in Breaking Bad. And then you know during that cold time, I don't take the others often. But then my wise wife said, listen, I need this counter for cooking. Mr. G and C pastor. So this is what I did for you, Doug. She says, I got you a multivitamin pill so that it will unclutter your regimen and work out your whole situation.

See, that's gospel saturation is. The gospel is the multivitamin pill for dealing with all sins and all sinners. It is the comprehensive healer of all the aches and pains that sin causes. There is nothing, no sin, no brokenness, no suffering that the gospel cannot address. It transforms the whole person, not just a part of them. One writer says it like this.

We are committed to seeing a day come when every man and woman and child in every corner of the world will have a daily encounter with Jesus in Word and indeed through its people, the church. This is the mission and purpose of every Christian. You bring the multivitamin pill to the multi-ailed world. and it will fix it. We ain't got no bootleg gospel. We got a real gospel. We ain't got no fake

snake oil. We have a gospel that can fix the world. The only thing that can fix the world is what you and I have. There's nothing else. Nobody's coming. Nobody's coming to fix this place.

It's you, church. That's it. There is no Calvary. You are the Calvary. gospel saturation is God's vision for his church. Jesus Christ uses ordinary, regular, everyday people that are saturated with His Word, his spirit, and his love, that we might saturate the mission of God,

the love of God, the peace of God, through a million campuses. I don't care if we have to plant 20 million campuses. See, we ain't worried about no money because when God writer check, the bank will bounce. We know what he can do. So First Thessalonians 2, gives us a window and a clear view of how the Apostle Paul conducted himself in light of a ministry and mission

as he sought to inject the multivitamin pill into this Greco-Roman culture. We know that the Apostle Paul was saturated in the mission of God, and our pastor today gives us major principles that we take in, that we take in so that we can be saturated in God's mission ourselves. Let me show you seven ways the Apostle Paul walked out the gospel by faith as he follows God, in being saturated in mission to the city. I'm going to say them, and then I'm going to run them quicker. The fruit of mission, experience opposition in mission, receiving encouragement in mission, carrying the burden of mission, sharing fellowship in mission,

laboring in mission, and living out the Messiah's mission, not mine. First idea, the fruit of mission. Look what it says. For you yourselves, no, brothers and sisters that our visit with you was not without result. the fruit of mission. See, the visit by the apostles, Paul, to Thessalonica, was not without results. In other words, their visit produced fruit. Every Christian, every person who has personally received the gospel also personally applies the gospel in their everyday life. And therefore, they should smell like the apples, oranges, and cherries of God's grace.

And they should be growing. They should be growing. The Apostle Paul described the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 522. But the fruit of the spirit is love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. See, the true marks of a Christian are recognized by the fruit that is evident by others. If you're not bearing fruit in your lives personally, you might have to ask yourself, are you really a Christian? And I'm not saying that on no hating. I'm saying that on some good gospel self-examination. Sometimes we've adopted Christian culture and not Christ. Sometimes we've adopted an idea of Christianity like redemption, but you haven't adopted the Redeemer.

It's easy to be a preacher. You just need a Facebook page. Zuckerberg is Zuckerberg Baptist Church. You just get a Facebook page and you a preacher with St. Mattress Baptist Church. Don't even leave the house with sister sheets and past the pillow. You can just be a preacher. now. Don't got to go through nothing. I like it. I don't. You got to bear fruit. You got to be a fruit when you're not bearing fruit. Well, then I love this church. Well, the gospel is the miracle grow.

And the pastors here are the gardeners. They're going to sprinkle some stuff on you. And let me tell you when you ain't bearing fruit, sometimes you've got to till the ground. Might have to rough you up a little bit. It's going to be in love. All these muscle pastors, they're going to, they're going to, they're Hang on hurt you. Dieter Bonhoeffer says this. The great German pastor says, The fruit of the spirit is the gift of God and only he can produce it.

They who bear it know as little about it as the tree knows of its fruit. They know only the power of him on whom their life depends. There is no room for boasting here, but only for an evermore. intimate union with him. This is saturated. In mission, you need to bear fruit. Like Paul, fruit is not a result from your own doing. It's the work of God that is working in you. It is the

gift of God that is freely given to you through the gospel, which is received and applied personally. There is nothing for us to boast about besides our own weakness and what God has done through us. Fruit is the result of God's presence and power working in our lives. You have no swag. The only swag you have is the eternal swag that flows from the swagodotious Jesus to Christ. Your swag will burn up. His swag will exist forever. And if you got that in you, you can dance all away into glory because he's established it. He's established it. Through our weakness, through our weakness. Furthermore, the fruit of mission is not produced because of our own faithfulness, but because of God's faithfulness. In our pastoral day, Paul is not talking about personal

fruit, but he's talking about missional fruit. When we are saturated in the mission of God, we are also saturated in the fruit of God, people being transformed. If you're ministry circles are dead and there is no life, it might be time to reevaluate if you're really living out this God's mission. God's mission produces fruit. It does not produce lifelessness and deadness. It doesn't. Your life should produce some folk that may be used to hate you, and they just like you for no good reason because of Jesus. Some folk that used to hate Jesus, and now for some reason they just shouting about Jesus.

Ain't nothing better. I pass it in the hood than a drug dealer coming to know Jesus. It's something better, Jesus, but I'm just saying, can y'all let me have a sanctified moment? To see a joker who used to sell cocaine. To see a joker who used to harm people and families

with his hand up and the police ain't got a gun on them is a blessing from God. It's something about. about the fruit of the craziness of the mission of God on these streets. It's something about a person that didn't love God on his way to hell. And the next thing you know, 112 people walk up here this week. And we're about to dunk them in this water.

And they're about to know the good Savior. And they're going to lead more people to Jesus saturated in the mission of God. It's something about that. I can't get that out of my mind. That's why I'm not a technical real preacher. I'm just a little joker that got saved and like seeing people get saved. And if I got to talk about it in Jacksonville,

I'm going to talk about it in Jacksonville. I got to stay to my point. I got to stay. I'm messing up, Josh. I'm getting my... Etchusketch. The Greek word for results is written within the perfect tense,

which means that it expresses a past event but has present consequences. This means that the fruit of the ministry and the mission of the apostles was ongoing. It didn't stop at their single visit to Desanao Nica. It was the fruit that was constantly reproducing.

The very nature of fruit means that is being enjoyed by others. When you pick that apple off the tree and bite it, the tree produced something that somebody else enjoys. That's the mission. The salvation that's in us that grows out into evangelism.

And when you share the gospel with that lost person, they're eating the fruit that God has borne in your life. So get rid of the technical mumbo-jumbo. Get rid of your introverted fear to be rejected. Get rid of your, I'm too busy to work. And I need you to imagine and feel the urgency of people going to hell. I need you to feel hell burning on them. And then I need you to push past your nervousness. And I need you to be more nervous about them in hell.

than you being rejected. Preach that gospel. Tell them except Christ right now. We got water at 1122. We got anything they need here. We got T-shirts. We'll give them a guitar if they want. We'll do whatever it takes.

We want them to meet Jesus. Second idea. Experience an opposition in mission. So we need fruit. Here's my negative. We're going to experience opposition and mission. If you're saturated in God's mission, you're going to experience opposition.

First, Sue says on the contrary, after we had previously suffered, we were treated outrageously in Philippine. As you know, we were emboldened by our God to speak the gospel of God to you in spite of great opposition. See, the mission of God guarantees suffering, hardship and opposition. Even the apostles experienced opposition

throughout their ministry. This was not just a physical or circumstantial opposition, but it was a soulful one. It was more, it was spiritual. It wasn't just the dude hitting them and running them out of town. See, opposition, conflict, and contention from the enemy will be threatening, physical, mental, emotional, but especially spiritual. But we have to remember that there is nothing that our enemy's opposition can do to take away from the rest we have on our souls as we have experienced salvation in Christ. Nothing, nothing.

And if we are being saturated in God's mission, this means that we are going to do battle. We are going to go to war, and we will face great conflict and opposition while we live out the mission of God. See, the enemy will do everything to stop us from advancing the kingdom and reaching the loss. This should not be a surprise to us. We see this throughout all the scriptures. I think about Psalms 3, when David, a man after God's own heart, he's chased down by his enemies, His own son, Absalom, is running him down.

And in verse 7, David writes, Rise up, Lord, save me, my God. You strike all my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. See, in the beginning of Psalm 3, David's enemies were saying that he had no help from God. But what David was saying by the end of the Psalm was, God punched them in the mouth and hit him where it hurts.

You know how we hit them where it hurts when we're saturated God's mission? we lead them to Christ. We lead them out of bondage. We share the gospel. No opposition doesn't stop us. That opposition, the devil is a toothless tiger. He walks around big, but he can't bite nothing. But you, Christian, you've been given a treasure

for people who have no treasure, that you would give them your treasure, that they would have the treasure of the ages, Jesus the Christ. This is the dilemma of our day. This is the breakdown of everything in our world, everything in our country, everything wrong with the world is fixed in the gospel.

And how will they get to know that? Church, that's our job. We have a better message than Marvel Universe. They got fake kings that get more box time than our Jesus. They got fake worlds. I love Black Panther. Wakanda forever. There's no Wakanda. But there is a kingdom that God has made. There is a real king that don't need no purple juice to take on the sins of the world. Why are they more popular than

our Jesus? Because we play too much. Stop being scared. You got a better God than Chachala. You got a better God than Thor. Preach the gospel. Can I tell you, it's a beautiful gospel. Don't be scared of that thing. That thing's beautiful. You see what it did? You see what it can do? I always remember Pastor Joe he'll be talking about his dad

saying the only place he gave a job was Walmart. Y'all know I ain't lying. And then for him to tell me his father met Jesus. I don't know how y'all know if, but that's called beautiful. Like, why are you scared of that? Why are you scared of that beautiful thing? Like, whip that John out.

You scared of opposition. You have no fear. Even if there are people who are opposing God and the mission of God, they will not defeat God. He is unbeatable. This means that when we are opposed, God is doing something in the believer, reminding him and pulling him into deeper intimacy with the father. See, when I lived on the block and Jokers tried to fight me and my father came out, I always got right up next to him and talked junk. That's what opposition does.

It draws you closer to the father because he is the one who fights. He is the one who's already won. He is the one that gives the victory. So when opposition comes, get up under your daddy and let him fight for you. That's the intimacy. That's where the reality of the fight is. Being saturated in mission of God does not mean that we are finding ways to survive through opposition. No, but we learn to thrive amidst the challenges under the strong arm of our daddy.

because the gospel, because Jesus died in our place and has given us the Holy Spirit, we have the presence of God and the power of God and the perseverance of God. We have the ability to persevere through any and all challenges that we face as we seek to advance God's kingdom, not for our necessary good, but for his glory. And when it's for his glory, it's always good. To be saturating God's mission means that we will experience opposition. with hostility, how can we be encouraged during times of hardship amid opposition? So we receive encouragement and mission.

Verse three, for our exhortation didn't come from error or impurity or intent to deceive, instead just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to people, but rather the God who examines the heart. Receive an encouragement. See, the apostles lived out the mission of God out of a posture of approval from God. They did not speak and live to gain acceptance and approval from others, but they preached and live out truth because they already had approval and acceptance from God and Christ. When we are opposed by others, when we are met with hostility, we should be encouraged because the God of the universe has given us his stamp of approval on our souls. There is no opposition, situation, or circumstance that could take away our status and position.

in God. There is no enemy that can threaten what we have in God. We have security, we have status, we have our position as children of God safe and secure. We have the greatest encouragement in that we live out the mission of God. We do not have to earn the acceptance of others in order to be in position of victory. We have it at the cross. Our position is powered by the victor, Jesus, and because we have God on our side, we are able to speak to truth with great confidence and boldness. See, being saturated in mission means that we are on the winning side of the war. Jesus is our victory.

Jesus is the victory. Jesus was always living out the mission of God in his ministry on earth. And though he was not accepted and welcomed everywhere he went and often faced with deadly force, he was bold and courageous. He did not live out of a posture, of force. fear nor anxiety. Even though he knew that he would face the ultimate suffering on the cross, he still went towards the pain of the cross for you and for me.

We need to take a praise break right quick. Do you see that? In the midst of opposition of death, often we're in the midst of opposition because of anxiety or rejection or fear. God still walked into the fire of the wrath of God on our behalf. I don't know about you, but that's good news. In our church, we used to take a praise break. If I had a P3 up here, the boy would go like this right here and somebody would dance.

Maybe you've been saved long enough, but I still love him. His grace is still amazing. His salvation is beautiful. His love still wakes me up, starts me on my way. I should be in hell, but I'm not. His glory reigns supreme. The Lord is good. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.

Great is our God. How faithful and mighty! I don't know about you, but I shouldn't be saved, but somehow he saved me anyway. Somehow he came down and got me anyway. I don't know about you, but I want to praise him every chance I get. Over our position, he went to the cross and had us on our mind. Man. Old church would say he didn't have to do it, but he did.

And then the lady in the front would pop up job me and say, won't he do it? You got to take a praise break every now and again. I'm not going to get to these seven. That clock is fighting me, carrying the burden of mission. Verse seven, although we could have been a burden. I walk this out simply. Paul is saying, I didn't want to burden you, church, if that's like it. I want it to bear the burden for you.

See, the burden means to be heavily weighed down and carry a heavy weight from one place to another. See, the mission of God is heavy. weighty. Yet it was the apostles who carried the weight for the sake of others. This is the call of every Christian. We're called to carry the heaviness and weightiness of the gospel for the sake of others. We are all burdened with the weight of God's glory. So simply put, Paul said, I could have turned in my time card and got my money for all the work I was doing and serving you. It's only right, I'm not pimping. I'm preaching. I love you. God sent me. Shouldn't you support me? But he said, you know what? Check this out. I'll work at Starbucks and preach. So nothing blocks

you from seeing the goodness of God. He said, I don't have to, but I'll make lattes and flat whites. if it means I'm going to preach and you're going to be saved. Amen. I want you to hear the amazing generosity here. I don't want you to see that as chief ministry or poverty ministry. I want you to see that as some of the most generous thing ever. God, Christ, who deserve no death, receive the death that he didn't deserve, that we deserved.

He bore our burdens on the cross, carried our shame. Surely, surely, this is the Christ. In other words, I could have got paid, but I'd rather just preach. That's what Paul is saying. Jesus is saying. Five, sharing in the fellowship through mission. Verse 8, we care so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives because you.

have become dear to us. I'm going to hold here for a second. The apostles weren't just sharing the message of the gospel, but they were also sharing in the fellowship of the gospel. It was not just the message of the gospel that was being preached. It was the message of the gospel being lived out with one another. Our union with Christ also means that we are in union with one another. Acts 242 and through 47 says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to the fellowship of breaking of bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with all in many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions, their property, distributed to proceeds as to all, as many had need.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple. They were sharing in the fellowship. See, the blood of Christ brings a deeper bond than the blood of our biological families. I want to say that again. The blood of Christ brings a deeper bond than the blood of our biological families. To the whitest white person here, I'm a black, black dude. I am more your brother than your biological brother who doesn't know Jesus. Let that sink in. To the Christians struggling with anything, you don't get to pick your struggle. You struggle with me.

And if I'm your struggle, you still don't get to tap out. I'm your family forever. You're going to love me. You're going to work with me. You're going to stand with me. You don't get off the hook because I'm a job. jerk, you got to pray for me. And so of all the people who I'm not there, brother, you just found out, you owe me Christmas presents, my birthday, December 11th. We are called to a tangible

closeness and a spiritual oneness. We are called to a tangible closeness, meaning we do life together. This ain't no Sunday stand-alone thing. Nah, I got to smell the armpits of your funky life through the week. I got to deal with the good and the bad. I got to deal with you when your marriage is good and it's the model and when it's broken and it's the mess and I got to love you through it and you got to love me back there is no tap outs in this family there is no tap out in this family there is no tap out I don't want to hear about I ain't coming there you better show up I'm your brother forever all the way into glory you can't duck me here and you won't duck me in heaven I'm your brother ain't that crazy ain't that you got to deal with some loud black

brother from Camden, New Jersey. That's awful. It's bad for you. It's all right. It's a good story at the office. The gospel breaks down all barriers and preferences for the sake of mission. The marks of sharing the fellowship through God's mission are hospitality, generosity, encouragement, admonishment, worship, and prayer. I'm going to say what six is, and then I'm going to close with seven. Laboring and mission. For you remember our labors and hardships, brothers and sisters working night and day so that you would not burden any of you. We preached God's gospel to you. Verse 10, you are the witnesses. And so God is how devoutly, righteously, and blameless so we conducted ourselves with you believers. See, the labor and hardship of the

apostles was a response to the grace they received from God. They were not working and living out on a mission in order to be saved, but they were working hard and laboring as a response to all that they had received with a goal and a purpose in mind. For you are saved by grace through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is a gift, not from work, so that no one can boast. So as we labor in mission, if you're saturated in the mission of God, we got to put it into work. It's not going to be osmosis mission.

We've got to actually deal with real people that have real problems that might really hate you, that might really be a threat and a violent issue from drug addiction to prostitution. We don't walk away from none of that. Our gospel is for that. But you got to do the hard work. You got to do the hard work. And yeah, you're going to cry. Yeah, you might be robbed.

Yeah, it's going to be hard. You're going to need counseling. But it's worth it. It's worth it when the saints go marching in. It's worth it. My last point, which is the close. Verse 11, living out the Messiah's mission, not mine.

As you know, like a father and his own children, we encourage, comforted, and implored each of you to walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. So in verse 7, Paul illustrates the nursing gentle mother. And in verse 11 here, he illustrates the tender father who disciplines and directs. When you are saturated a mission, because it is God's mission, you are intimate with God.

He is gentle, he is nurturing, he disciples, and he directs. This is why Paul uses the illustration of the nursing mother and the tender father. Paul himself is demonstrating the father walking with Jesus to save the lost, and Paul is reflecting the very ministry of Jesus by walking with lost people. Being saturated in mission means intimacy with God. You know what that means? It's like go to work with dad every day of your life when you're in Christ. on one hand we're going to work on the other hand we are with our father there is nothing to fear

there is a lot to be excited for paul was not just about living out earthly mission he had an eschatological perspective all that means is an in-time perspective of a telos it's going somewhere and it was the text says his kingdom and glory that was to come i'm a walk with you you're going to walk with others you don't walk them into an institution you walk them into a family Church is a family. They don't come to join some building. They come to join these crazy group of people called their family. Saturation means we walk with people into the eschatological reality of entering God's family. Dr. Tony Evans says this. Lives touching lives is what makes the church. Individuals can't care for thousands of people, but they can care for each other.

My last, on the cross, Jesus, who is the God. knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. He lost his status of being the son so that we can be children, God's children. The son lost intimacy with the father so that we could gain intimacy with the father. Why do we live lives that are worthy of God, the text says, live a life worthy of God? Because King Jesus was made unworthy on the cross. The Apostle Paul closes out our passage by sharing encouragement to the Thessalonian Church about the conduct, how they should walk in mission and going about life to see people know Jesus, walk blameless and devout. And the only way they could do that, because they were

saturated with the power that's far greater than themselves. It was Jesus who was devout, it was Jesus who was righteous, and it was Jesus who was blameless. Jesus was saturated with the wrath of God on the cross so that we could be saturated with the love of God in this life. When we are saturated with the gospel reality, we can be driven to live out the mission. COVID-19, racial tension,

arguments about election has changed all societal norms forever. Church, normal is not coming back, but Jesus is coming back. normally ain't coming back so let's not fight to be like it was before COVID let's fight to be like it's going to be in glory why don't we fight to be like we actually are going to heaven why don't we fight like we want people to see Jesus why don't we fight like that I'm not looking back we are moving forward to the next person would you be saturated in the gospel in the mission of God knowing that you have nothing to fear nothing to be ashamed of

Nothing that can harm you or your soul, nothing that can take God's kingdom and glory from you, and be able to welcome the loss into the family. Will you? I hope you scream gladly, joyfully, effectively, and powerfully that we will. So we're asking God to send the worst of Jacksonville to this church. We'll take them. Other churches don't want them. We'll take them.

We'll love them. We'll train them. We'll get them a suit and a resume. We'll get them a hug and some love and we got plenty of water. We'll dunk them every day if it takes it. That's what we want to be saturated in the mission of God for the glory of God. Amen? Amen.

I walked off the rug, so the other campuses, I was still here. I'm not a ghost. Maybe you're here in your experience life as a desert. Maybe you're like me. You went to church for a long time, but you didn't know Jesus for a woman. real. You knew things about Jesus. You knew about the offering. You knew the benediction because that's when you got to leave. You knew that for me, we wore robes and the choir sing songs, the same verse over and and over again. For me, we had usher's Sunday, children's Sunday. We had everything. But the

problem was many of us just didn't have Jesus. When I went to plant the church in Camden, New Jersey, marriage's most dangerous violent city in 2011 one of my mentors said Doug when you get to Camden I need you to disciple the lost and evangelize the unbelievers and evangelize the believers I said I know you got a doctorate and all but maybe that's wrong why do we disciple unbelievers because often they think they know God already so when we're When we begin to teach the word of God, they find out that they don't. But often they come to meet them after they think they met them and we'll take it. So why do we evangelize believers?

Because sometimes they forgot how dirty they was before the blood of Jesus showed up. Sometimes they forget. I know I do. And we got to splash some messianic moisture on them. We need a cannonball. for somebody to jump in the pool of grace and splash a bunch of dried up people. So we got evangelized believers because they forgot the saving, miraculous, surprising grace of the living God. So maybe you're of one of those categories.

Church of 1122 wants to be your church. We want to be your family. Not just the one that have turkey on Thanksgiving and gifts. We want to be your eternal family. We want to walk you through your nastiest. and we won't tap out. We want to walk you through your worst day, and we won't tap out. We want to love you. Pastor Job, Pastor Adam, all these pastors want to be your pastor. And if you hear and you don't have a church, you need a pastor. And it's a good church.

I ain't saying it's good because they let me preach and they flew me down here. I'm saying it's good because much is made about Jesus. So maybe you're here. Much is made about Jesus. Much is made about Jesus. Much is made about Jesus. So if you're hearing for the first time, now listen, if you've been saved and you raggedy, we're going to call you up to pray in a minute, and we'll take you in the back room and give you the right-hand fellowship again. Beat the sin out of you. That's what we do. But if you're here and you have not met Jesus, but for the first time, you want to walk into arms that you never imagined you'd ever see. I don't care where you're from, what your background is.

you've been to church, I don't worry about your story that you had in the past. I'm more concerned about the story God wants to write on your life right now. Right now. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. Be scared to go to hell. Don't be scared to come up here. Don't be scared to raise your hand. Jesus. Sweeter than the honey in the honeycomb. Jesus. See, when you have communion, I'll say this, and then I want to ask you to slip your hand up. I long for the day when my glass will click Christ's glass in the new kingdom. I can't wait to see who's standing around. When my glass clicks Jesus, then Moses, then Paul's, then my mama's glass. That's what we do this call for, because we want to click your glass in the new kingdom. The gospel is a legacy. Your great,

grand, your great, great grandchildren need Jesus. And maybe you're the first stop on the train. Maybe you are. If that's you for the first time, raise your hand if you want to receive Christ today. If that's you, if that's you, you feel free to raise your hand. We're not going to telemark at you. We're going to love you. We're not going to ask for your Social Security number, yet we're going to love you. Maybe there's one.

Maybe there's one. If you're like me when I was in church and somebody brought me, I was like, man, I ain't about to go up there with them strange folk. That's okay. We do shy here. But there's an army of pastors and leaders. You'll see they have on saturated shirts. And they're often around the front.

You just pull them aside and whisper to them. And that's all the same. Amen? Well, in light of that, can we give the Lord praise? He's worthy. On a bad day, he's worthy. On a good day, he's worthy. Worthy is the lamb who was slain.

Worthy is the lamb who was slain. He's a good God. He sent this good son for some bad us. Worthy is the lamb. If you're here and you want to pray, you're struggling, you're hurting. We got these beautiful episcopal benches. They are nice. Look at them. Joe, we probably cut a tree down in the woods when he was hunting, and that's that wood from, that's some, there was blood on that wood one time.

From a deer. You find your way up front, and we want to pray for you and with you, because the same God you need is the same God every preacher in here needs. So you feel free to come forward that we might pray with you and pray for you. Amen? I think I'm doing that right. Anybody want to come pray? I like it, brother. I like it, brother. Catch that kneel.

We made these for y'all. These for y'all. They don't work when they empty. Maybe you're here. You're struggling. I don't know about you, but I'll be struggling. I want to quit every Monday. I have depression and anxiety.

And I want to take it to the Lord in prayer. At the old church, we would say, it's not my mother, not my father, but it's me, oh Lord. standing in the need of prayer. We want to stand with you. We want to let you know you're not alone. Church of 1122 is here to serve you and show you Jesus every day all day.

That's all we got. We ain't got nothing else but Jesus. All the rest of this stuff is parsley. Jesus is our main course. That's our rabbi. Amen, amen. I like the young boys. Come on up here and call on Jesus.

Come on up here and call on. Am I? Oh, I love the family. Come on up, come on up. Get in here, young boy. Give me some first. Give me some first. Come on, let's go.

Amen. Y'all ain't hype. We're in a Walmart with 3,000 chairs. I don't know if y'all know. Folk in here got the Holy Ghost. Look at them, come on. Come on up and let's pray for you. Let me get me a text.

So I don't play around. I just want to pray Psalm 13 with you. And as you say, as you're here, man, just start talking to God right now and start telling him what you're struggling with. He's a good, good father. That's what he is. That's who he is. And we're loved by him. That's who we are. Confess your worse. You can't scare God. Tell him how awful it is. You can't scare him. Tell him how you've walked away from him. You can't scare him. Tell him about drugs or porn. You can't scare him. He don't run back. He runs forward when you say.

stuff like that. Psalm 13 says this. This is a Psalm of David, and I just want to pray this through for a couple of seconds for those here gathered. As I start, I want to say God hears and God cares. He's as simple as that for raggedy us. He hears and he cares. How long, oh Lord, would you forget me forever? How long would you hide your face from me? God, sometimes we feel like you've like you've abandoned us. Sometimes we feel lonely. Sometimes we feel like that desert that we talked about in the sermon.

But God, we know that you're perfectly present. And the only perfect love will ever receive will be from you. Remind us that we're not alone. Remind us that the cross is your face turned directly at us, loving us, saving us, dying in our place, receiving the wrath. we deserve because of sin.

How long would you store anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day, and how long will my enemy dominate me? Lord, we struggle with anxiety. We struggle with believing you. We struggle with lying to ourselves about who we are.

We have so many masks. Lord, strip us down. That would only be you in your spirit. Remove the agony of the struggle of faking being something and help us to be authentically born again walking in the blood of Jesus. Consider and answer me, Lord, my God, restore brightness to my eyes, otherwise I will sleep in death. And Lord, if you don't do nothing, nothing can be done. So we're calling on you. We're desperate for you. Only you can do it. You're the only one who has the words to eternal life. There's no other name under heaven whereby we must be

saved, but you, God, so we're here, hear us, restore the brightness to our eyes, or our enemies will say they have triumphed. Lord, we know we feel defeated. We feel like the enemy wins on a lot of days, but we know the devil is alive. Your victory is real. The tomb is empty, and you are soon coming back to pick us up from this low land of sorrows. I love the beautiful transition. David, but I have trusted in your faithful love. My heart will rejoice in your deliverance. I will sing to the Lord because he has treated me generously. So Lord, that we pray, sometimes you don't change our situation, God, but you change our posture. Sometimes you don't remove our problem, but you fortify our resolve and our posture in you. So God, make us believers,

make us children that come hell or high water, we're standing on the promises of God. Through death and dying, we're standing on the promises. Through failure and struggles, we're standing on your promises, the blood of Jesus that flows to the lowest valley and reaches to the highest mountain. We take refuge in you. And God, for everyone here, we recommit ourselves to you.

and God, under the sound of my weak voice, I lift up everyone here at this kneeling bench. Meet them in their brokenness. Demonstrate your power through signs and wonders yet again. And God, give them saturation and mission that they walk away from here. Shame-free, guilt-free, ready to fight another day for your glory. Have your way. In Jesus, mighty name, everybody said, amen? Amen.

And amen.