The Church of Eleven22 - Week 12: Don’t Waste Your Life

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

What are you doing with your one and only life? Are you leveraging it for eternity or wasting it on the temporary?

Amen and amen. Church, if you got your Bibles and I hope you do, James chapter 4 is where we're going to be. We're going to pick up in verse 13. We are, like it's been said, we're in the 12th week of this long series in the book of James, and I know the last few weeks have been pretty intense, and this week, hopefully you're just going to be inspired. I'm in a good move, which is really dangerous. This thing can turn into a lock-in in a second, man, we can be here all night, all right? But you ain't got nothing else to do.

You're here. Where were you? Think about this. Where were you on May 20th, 2000? May 20th, 2000. How many of you weren't born yet, May 20th, 2000? Anybody? Oh, that's adorable.

We love you. God bless your vision and flexibility. Enjoy that while at last. Anyway. So May 20th, 2000, I have no idea where I was, but I know where Dr. John Piper was. Dr. John Piper was standing on a stage at this event called One Day in Nowhereville, Midwest, somewhere.

And he was preaching to thousands of college-age kids. And about three months later, I was somewhere in Athens, Georgia, because that's where I was living. I was doing college ministry there with the Baptist Student Union at UGA. and about three months after this, I got a bootleg copy, which was probably illegal,

but it was for the glory of God, but I got a bootleg copy of Dr. John Piper's sermon that day. And it changed something in me. I was sitting there doing Bible study with a bunch of UGA students, a bunch of former, I mean, future national championship people,

back-to-back national champs. They didn't realize it yet, but whatever. We were there together. And he gets up and he doesn't fit in at all. Like passion's running by a guy named Louis Gigler, everybody's cool, everybody's so cool, and here comes Dr. Piper. And he ain't cool, he's awesome, but he's like pleaded khakis

and kind of funny-looking glasses. And he gets up there and he calls a generation to boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ. And he says at his church, which is a church called Bethlehem, he says that they just found out that two of their missionaries had passed away. There was a lady named Ruby Eliasson and Laura Edwards, and they were in their 80s, and they had been serving people at some country I can't remember the name of, and they were taking food to an unreached people group, and their breaks went out, and they go over the cliff and into eternity,

and he asked this question, is that a tragedy? Is that a tragedy? They live 80 years for the glory of God, and in an instant, poof, and they're in heaven. Is that a tragedy, or is that a life well lived? And then he says, I'll tell you what a tragedy is, and he holds up a Reader's Digest. Google Readers Digest. My grandma, my grandma would have them in the bathroom. That's the only reason I know they exist.

And Dr. Piper still read Reader's Judges, and he held up an article from Readers Digest, and he says, let me tell you what a tragedy is. And he reads about a couple named Bob and Penny, who retired early in their 50s, and they've got a motor home, and they're spending the glory days of their life, this season of their life, just riding up and down the eastern seaboard, playing softball because pickleball wasn't invented yet, and they're collecting seashells. And listen, man, the world spends billions of dollars a day to get us to live like Bob. Robin Penny collecting seashells instead of like the missionaries, Ruby and Laura. Then he goes on to write a book called Don't Waste Your Life. There was one little line in his sermon. He said, don't waste your life.

And listen, I'm sitting there with these college kids. And when it got over, they just all ran out to do whatever they were going to do. I think I was 27 years old. And I was like, I got to watch this thing again. Because I want my life to count like this man is talking about. And listen, I was already in ministry. but what he was talking about was something different. He goes on to write a book called Don't Waste Your Life and in it.

He says things like this, I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call Earth home. Before you know it, I'm calling luxury's needs and using my money just the way unbelievers do. And I begin to forget the war. And what he's talking about is the war for souls. He's talking about the fact that we have a thief that comes only to,

steal, kill, and destroy. He's like, I forget about that. And I don't think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached people drop out of my mind. I stopped dreaming about the triumphs of grace. Have you ever dreamed about the triumphs of grace? He says, I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. I sink into a secular mindset that looks first to what man can do, not what God can do.

It is a terrible sickness, and I thank God for those who had forced me again and again towards a wartime mindset. He goes on in the book to say this, life is war. That's not all it is, but it's at least always that. That's a Piper thing to say right there. He says some stuff sometimes, like, I don't know what he's saying, but it's awesome. I'm laying on the beach, listening to Dr. Piper preach, and Gretchen's like, what are you listening to?

It's like, John Piper, what is he talking about? I have no idea, but I'm ready to attack hell with a water gun. He says, life is war. That's not all it is, but it is always that. Our weakness in prayer is owing largely to our neglect of this truth. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to make it to domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den. God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ advances in the world.

Now, don't raise your hand. Is that how you pray? I mean, is that how you pray? Is that how you live your life? Or are you just kind of going with the flow? I mean, are you laser focused on God's plan for your life and your role in God's redemptive purpose for all of mankind? Are you walking in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

And if you're like, Not really. I mean, I'm just kind of going to work and doing my thing and trying to raise some kids and make ends meet and watch a little news and complain about everything. That's what I'm doing. Well, this message is for you.

Yeah, I need it too because we have a tendency to fall asleep at the wheel and what I am praying is that the Spirit of God would move in this place under the authority of the Word of God and we would wake up to what God has called us to. Amen? This is what the 10-10 life is all about. When we talk about this 10-10 life, man,

and this is what we are talking about. Christ has an abundant life for you, and if you are bored in your walk, you ain't doing the Jesus thing right. James 4. The brother of Jesus. Now, again, we covered verse 11 and 12 several weeks ago, so we didn't skip over those.

We covered those in like the angry, the anger sermon. James has been talking about the fact that God opposes the proud and he exalts the humble. James has unpacked the difference between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God. The wisdom of this world says, I got this. The wisdom of God says, I don't got this, I need help.

That's why God exalts the humble. This is why he gives grace to the humble, because the humble are the people that say, I need it. The reason he opposes the proud is because they don't need, they don't even know that they need his grace. And so to that, he says this, come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town

and spend a year there. and trade and make a profit. Seems kind of haphazard, doesn't it? You see, we have this king of glory that's come on a rescue mission for you and me. And yet we live in a world that spends billions of dollars a day to put a little binkie in our mouth and just entertain us until we fall asleep.

And any time the church of God begins to rise up, the enemy's like, well, whoa, whoa, we'll just go back to sleep. Why don't you just think, you know what, tomorrow? We'll go to what you call it place, and we'll do some stuff, and we'll stay a certain amount of time. and I'm sure we'll make pretty good money there. The reality is, this is how most people that claim

that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior. This is how most of us live our lives. Just kind of lackadaisical. And honestly, with an air of pride, like I got this. And I'm telling you, we live in a world that spends billions of dollars a day for you to shut up, get on your seat, on the merry-goat round of normality, and just keep taking lap after lap after lap.

And one day, man, one day it don't joan you. Man, the merry-go-round of normality, ain't that merry. I mean, I feel like I do the same thing every day. I just kind of wake up and I eat something and I drive something and I go to work and I sell something and I only care about the something or the people I'm working with and then I come home and I watch something and I eat something and I do it again.

And I do it again. And I do it again. And the biggest prayer of my life is thank God it's Friday. And then one day you lay your head on the pillow and you go, is this it? And James would say, this ain't it, man. You were created for so much more than this. Do you want more for your life?

He's like, all right, man. So some people are like, you know what, today, tomorrow, we're going to go wherever, we're going to do whatever, we're going to spend a year, maybe we'll make some money. And then in verse 14, he says, yet, you do not know what tomorrow will bring. The first thing that James wants us to know is that life is uncertain. Again, a part of what he's talking to are people that are proud, or people that are arrogant, or people that think they've got it all figured out.

He's like, do you think you got it all figured out? You don't even know what tomorrow will bring. I know you think you know what tomorrow will bring, but what are we going to do tomorrow? If you're honest, you go, I mean, I don't know. Could be good. Could be tragic. Only God knows.

You see, the foolish person thinks I got this. The wise person says, Lord, I need your help. You see, we think we're in charge, yet we don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow. And God has never, ever, ever been surprised even one time. You ever thought about that? You know what's never happened in heaven? You know what's never happened in heaven?

God has never sat up with it. You know what I just thought of? That has never ever happened. Because he knows the beginning from the end. He's the alpha of the omega. He knows all things. And then he asked this question, well, this is a doozy. What is your life?

You can spend a month on this one. I dare you to ask yourself that question. What is your life? I mean, how would you answer that? What is your life? Is it your job? That's what we're taught. I mean, when you ask a little kid,

what are you going to be when you grow up? What do you expect to hear back? A vocation. How sick and sad is that? Is that your life? What you do for a living? Your W-2, is that your life? Is it how much money you make?

Is it how popular you are? I mean, what is your life? life. And then let me ask this, and how's it going? It's to freak out a little bit and think about it. Have you achieved all the hopes and dreams and goals that you thought you would achieve by now? And I don't know what's sadder to spend your whole life chasing after some things that will never fully and finally satisfy, or be one of the lucky people that grab onto it early and they go, oh crap, because that's exactly what it is. It's just scubilon, just a bunch of animals.

dung, because it's never enough. What is your life? Well, I think there's this Scottish proverb that I love. It says for every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch. And when you look at your life, there's two ditches that we can tend to fall into that prevent us from living the abundant life that Christ has for us. The first ditch is you look back in your past and think, because of my past, I'm disqualified for God doing something in my life.

in the future. But because I've done something in the past, and I am disqualified from this abundant life that Christ offers, so there's no way he could use me. This is a lie from the pit of hell. This is called condemnation. To condemn something is a building term. It means unfit for use.

I know this firsthand. I was in college. Man, I was throwing football in the little lawn or whatever at my college, and a fire truck went by, and I wonder what that's for. It was my apartment. it. It got condemned. It did. It caught on fire and they put a condemned sticker on it. I'll never forget, it's it condemned. And then under it said, unfit for use. That's what it says. City of Richmond, Virginia. And I thought, that'll preach. That's what the enemy tries to tell you.

When we get in here talking about abundant life and how can God use you and you think, well, he can't use me because of my past, okay? I am unfit for use. But the Bible says that therefore Now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You see, the enemy is trying to always define us by our scars. But if you're in Christ, you're defined by some scars. It's just the scars of Christ because he bled for you on the cross. Amen? And so your past doesn't get to define your life.

I mean, it doesn't. Now, there are consequences for dumb decisions. But God has always been in the business of taking the dumbest and the least of ease and the worst and the people with the worst reputation. I mean, that God loves. to take the foolish things of this world and use them to confound the wisdom of this world. Exhibit A? I mean, can we talk about this for me?

You want to be laughing a little hard on that one, but... I mean, think about this, okay? Noah was a drunk, Jacob was a thief, Joseph was a convict, Moses was a murderer, Samson was a bully, Gideon was a coward, David was an adulterer, Solomon was a womanizer, Elisha had anger issues, Jonah was a racist, Jeremiah was depressed, Mary was a pregnant teenager, Peter was a hypocrite, James and John were power hungry, Matthew was an extortionist, Thomas was a doubter, Paul was a terrorist, and Tebow was a gator.

So God can use anybody. So when you say, what is your life? Be careful, man. Don't look back and say, well, because of these things, I am disqualified. No, no, no, no, no. The cross of Jesus Christ qualifies you for whatever the Lord has for you, period, end dot.

The other ditch, if one is to look back, the other ditch that you can fall in and not live the abundant life that Christ has for you is, is we fall into this syndrome. I don't have a good word for it, but when you begin to get into the mentality, we think, well, when I just get there, like you don't look back so much,

but you look forward and you think, well, I'm not there yet, okay, I'm here right now and here's not that great, and I don't know what to do here, but man, when I get there, like when I get to that position, when I get that degree, whenever I get married, when I have kids, whatever there is,

then you think then oh then oh man then my life is going to be all that god has for me and we spend so much time looking out there that we forget that god is right here you know what god's name is i am that i am not i was and i will be it's a part of of god being the eternal now the eternal present he was and he will be but he is right now and he is called you right now to live this abundant life and walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ in whatever direction that He's called you to. You see, if you look at like the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25, I don't have time to go through it all, but there were three guys and a master comes up and he gives one guy five talents. It'd be about $5 million, another guy, two million bucks and another guy a million bucks.

And then the master leaves two of the guys, the five talent guy and the two talent guy. they go out and risk it all today because they knew it wasn't theirs, it was the masters, so they just treated it like the masters. And then there's the other guy, this one talent guy. The Bible says he was afraid, so he went and he dug a hole and he hid it. And when the master showed back up

after a long time, the five-talent guy and the two-talent guy were pumped. They go to the master. They're like, look, based on what you gave us, not based on what we did, but based on what you gave us, we invested it all, we doubled your money, here you go. And then the one-talent guy comes, and he's like, uh-oh.

And here's what's crazy, man. Jesus calls the one-talent guy wicked and slothful. And you think slothful? What do you mean slothful? The other two guys just like invested theirs in the stock market and made their money, and they've been in like a Bethmore Bible study for the whole time while they're waiting on you. And this one fellow, he's been working.

his fingers to the bone. You ever dug a hole to hide a talent? Talent is 20 years' wages. Didn't give it to it on a debit card. You know how many trips back and forth to Home Depot he had to make to get the wheelbarrers and the shovels and to dig the hole, cover it up and then hide it with some little shrubbery, and then figure out that the master was coming back,

and then you've got to go back to Home Depot and get the wheelbarrers under shovels and dig it all back up. I mean, he's sweating and sweating and sweating. But oftentimes what people will do out of fear is get real busy with the comfortable so as to avoid what requires faith. Because he's thinking, if I just get there, I'll be okay. So what is your life? Are you living the abundant life that we talk about?

Where Jesus, the good shepherd, says, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. James keeps going. He says, for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. He's like, here's what I want you to know about your life. And you think tomorrow you're going to go to such and such place and make a little money and stay a while. And you think you are in charge of everything. One, life is uncertain, and two, life is brief.

I mean, why should you be humble and arrogant? Because, one, you don't know what tomorrow brings. Think about that. You think you got it all figured out. What's going to happen tomorrow? I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. And not only do you not know what tomorrow brings, too, you can't do much about it anyway. And in three, your life, it's over quick.

This word vapor, it's not like the fog in the morning that hangs out for two or three hours. okay? It's like those of you that vape, you dummies. Gone. And God's like, yep, that's what your life is like. Did you see that? I didn't see it. What happened? Gone. I mean, it's that quick, man. It's like in Florida. Hey, all you Yankees that move down here, if this is your first winter, it's going to be funny, man, you watch the people that grew up in Florida. We're still just enough north in northeast Florida that it will get cold enough that a few mornings, like three mornings this year, you're going to be able to see your breath. We only have two seasons here. We have summer and January. It's all we got. Get used to it, okay? And so, but in January, man, you watch. There'll be

people and they'll be able to see their breath. And they'll go, and the people that grew up in Florida, like, Trey right here, they'll go, and look at it. All right. And it's just gone that quick. And the Bible says that's like your life. It's uncertain and it's brief. I mean, I think is over, man, quick. Like, in the span of eternity. It turns. your life is just gone, like a puff of smoke, gone that quick. In fact, if you really want to get depressed, man, read the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon writes it, it's the wisest man other than Jesus to ever walk to planet. He asked this fundamental question, what is life all about under the sun?

Like if life is just about what we do here on this earth, detached from eternity, what is life worth? and the word, his conclusion is this Hebrew word. He says that life is like a vapor. It goes quick. The Hebrew word is Havel. Havel. It gets translated meaningless or vanity of vanities. He looks at all that you can accomplish under the sun apart from God on this earth.

And he says, life is just like, what the Havel? Like, what is it? Vapor. Meaningless. Worthless. James agrees. Listen, man, I don't care how rich you are, I don't care how many degrees you got right now,

I don't care how good your marriage is, how proud of your kids you are. One little buzz on your phone in your pocket right now could change everything forever before this service is over. And we have no control of it. That's what he's saying. Like not only do we like the knowledge of what comes tomorrow, we also like the power

to do anything about it. This is not a good foundation to stand up and go, I got this. You ain't got this. I don't either. And yet God is all knowing and all powerful, and he's everywhere, all at the same time, and he is inviting us into an abundant life with him

where he does know all things, and he still has the whole world in his hands, and he says, you can trust me because I'm a good dad, and the way that we know that we can trust him is because we can look at the cross. Listen, man, it goes quick, doesn't it? I know you sound old when you talk about how fast life is and how quick your kids grow up.

It's because you're old. I turn 50 in like two weeks. That's half a hundred, Doc. That seems, that's crazy. I got a kid, it's a senior in high school. Seems like a minute ago we were at the hospital walking out the door going, how much do you feed it?

You know what I mean? This goes quick. While I'm ripping off everybody else's sermon, I might as well keep going a bunch of years ago. It's all guy named Francis Chan. I don't know if you've ever seen. seen him. He used this illustration, but I love it. You see this rope? I know some of you, this is how dumb we are. He didn't even know there's a big old 40-foot rope on stage all night

here, but it's here. And he says this rope represents your life. You see, maybe you've heard this dumb phrase, you only live once, yolo. That's dumb, man, you only lives forever. Are you acting like it? And yet the reality is, like, we're born here, and in relationship to all of eternity. I mean, imagine that rope goes all the way backstage to Fleming Island to Orange Park, all the way up to Jessup, wraps around Columbia and comes back here. That's how long this rope is. Forever's a long

time, right? And yet, in this life, we've got this one little, this is it. This is our life. And that's if you do super good and eat kale and do your sit-ups and avoid wheat or, you know, all the things. And you're born here, you're born here, right?

And you bring them home from the hospital and you've got all these hopes and drinks and plans and then we're asking this question a lot. I got a senior in high school and everybody, the questions are always, okay, so what's next? Isn't that the question? All right, you're graduating high school, so then what? So then what, okay, so that's about right here. What do you do? What's next? You go to college. You go to a college and you're going to study and sort of, you're going to, okay, you're going to party and then you're going to realize, uh-oh, and then you'll study for a while, you know, take your six years to get that degree, no problem, do your thing. And then people go, well, then what?

Well, I got a degree that is worthless, so that and a bus ticket will get me a ride on a bus. So I guess I got to get my master's. Okay, cool. So then you work real hard, you get your masters, and then you go, okay, then what? Well, then I'm going to move back home for a little while and stay with my mom and save some money and figure out what I'm going to do for a living. And then, okay, well, now you did it. And then what? Oh, then I got hired.

I got my job and I'm doing my thing, man, and I'm making money. And then I'm going to find her and I found her. And I can finally afford to pay for some stuff. And I'm going to get me a little house and we're going to have some babies and we'll go grow up. up and then what? And then I'm gonna work and work. I'm gonna save and save. And I'm gonna get all my 401k, my 3B,

I'm gonna do the IRA, and I'm gonna take everything I got right here because I'm gonna tell you what, man, you know what's coming? Oh, there's gonna be a day and I'm gonna get to right there. And I'm gonna play so much golf. You ain't ever gonna see, I mean, seashells, man, mama gonna have so many seashells. Doesn't that look ridiculous as compared to eternity? You're like, you're gonna do what?

You realize that everything, you have and everything you do on this side of your life will either bring regret or reward and everything that we do is investing into eternity and God is wired it in such a way that not only are you investing in your own eternity but the eternities of your one more since the people groups have never even heard the name of Jesus yet and God could use you to change forever for all kind of people James says what is your life I mean it's here today and gone today. It says, instead of you being like, I got this, instead, what you ought to say, if the Lord

wills, we will live and do this or that. He's like, you ought to posture and position yourself like Jesus in the Garden of Gassimony, not my will, but thy will be done. Do you know why you exist? You exist for one reason. You exist for the glory of God, period, end God. Now here's the crazy part. You will glorify God.

you will either glorify God by submitting to him or being judged by him. I would go with the submission one. It goes way better for you, I promise, okay? Because here's the reality, man. When he comes back, you're going to bow or are you going to bow? Those are your two options. That is it. And he will be first in your life.

It will either be first as your Savior and king or he will be first as your judge. But the reason that you exist, when you begin to get your mind around, that the reason that you exist is not for you and your own glory. The reason that we exist is for the glory of God. it actually frees you up to live the abundant life that he called you to. And then the next thing, you've got to begin to figure out God has designed this thing in such a way that the way that he will be glorified is through his church

accomplishing what we call the Great Commission. And so the next thing you better figure out is what is my role in God's redemptive plan for this world. Now, that means as a dad, as a real estate agent, as a wife, as a son, as a brother, as a student, in whatever role he has you in, how has he placed you on this planet in such a way that you can share the good news of the gospel

where you live and to the ends of the earth, to the glory of God. And then the moment you figure that out, you better find you a church. Now you've got to start looking around and say, who are some other people that are own mission for Jesus Christ under the glory of God that I could clump up with

because the devil prows around like a roaring lion. He's trying to take everybody out that are not connected to the team, to the family. And so if you join up with this one, then what we're going to do is be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ, and that is under the glory of God. That is what we are all about. In Matthew, the Bible says this, from the days of John the Baptist until today, the kingdom of God has been forcefully advancing and violent men and women take hold of it. if that makes you nervous you ain't going to like this church because we are going to forcefully violently

advance the great commission unto the glory of God ain't no boredom in that ain't no merry-go-round-of-normality in that he goes on to say as it is you boast in your arrogance all such boasting is evil what you're boasting in is when you try to detach yourself from the glory of God and think it's all about your glory. You think it's all about you and it's about accomplishing your bucket list. No, no, no, no, no, man. Three most dangerous words in life and in salvation is for you

to say, I got this. And so here's how he concludes. So, so since life is uncertain, since life is brief, since you only have one life, you better not waste it. So he says, so

whoever knows the right thing to do, but fails to do it. For him, it's a sin. For him, it misses the mark of the glory of God. That's the definition of sin. It means missing the mark of the glory of God. That's how the Bible defines it in Romans chapter 3. So how do you know what he wants you to do?

Don't you realize that a key part of this whole 10-10 life journey is simply that? in John 10, chapter 10, when we talk over and over and over that the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus says, but I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. He says, and I'm the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, so it's rooted in the gospel. Then he goes on over and over to say this, and my sheep know my voice, and they do what I say. And here's what I need you to think about, man. and every single time we take a step of obedience in the direction of the good shepherd, it always leads to abundant life, even if it goes through martyrdom on the way there.

And every single time we ignore that or know the right thing to do or hear what the Bible commands us to do. And we head in the other direction. It always leads to death every single time. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him and his sin. What is that for you? What is that for you? Because God hasn't called us all to do the same thing. We're all a means to the same end, which is the glory of God. But we all have different roles to play.

So do you know what that thing is? Do you know what he's calling you to do? Then you better lean in. You better open up your ears. You better listen because Jesus makes it pretty clear that his sheep hear and recognize this voice. Have you ever heard and recognize his voice? And I know some of you are like, well, what do you mean?

Like audibly? No, I mean way louder than that. I mean, I hear all kind of things with my ears that I don't really hear. You know, I have teenage children. I just hear, bam, man, man, man, man. So audible ain't nearly loud enough. I'm talking about, like,

when your creator speaks to you at the soul level. That's what I'm talking about. For a long time, I had a mentor. You asked me this question. I'll ask you this a bunch of times. This will get you going on what the right thing for you to do, what God's call for you is. Answer this question.

What would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail? What would you do? And here's the key, for the glory of God. Because most of the plans that we make are for the glory of me. I would go on this vacation, I would get this kind of house, I get my kids in this school system,

I get this kind of truck, right? That's not what I'm talking about, man. What would you do? and when you're prayed up and fasted up and you're tuned in to the word of God. Like a good time to ask that is about this point in the service. When you got all your faith juices all going good,

you know what I mean? What would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail? And then the moment you have an inkling of what that might be, you know what the very next question is? So then why are you not doing it? Why are you not doing it?

Let me ask you this. Let's do a little checkup on you. Remember week four? I know you do because you took good notes on it. Week forward was called be doers of the word, and not hearers only, and so deceive yourself. And I put our discipleship journey up here on a TV, all right? Did you take a step of obedience?

If not, why not? I can tell you why not, arrogance, fear. The Bible would say evil. So how do you know? How do you know the will of God? Take a real good head start, start reading this book. He'll tell you. And then you start praying like crazy.

Listen, man, my theology of the sovereignty of God over the call that he has on our life is simply this. You pray, you guess, you go. That's what you do. You pray, you guess, you go. And into guessing, there's a few things you better be doing. You better be in God's word and surrounded by God's people. Because I don't know if you know you, but you can guess some dumb stuff that don't line up with this, and you got some people around you to be like, whoa, nope, nope, no, that's not the Lord.

That was tacos last night and you just had a weird dream, okay? You pray and you guess and you go. You read your Bible, you're around godly people, and you do what he tells you to do. In John chapter 3, the way Jesus describes following the will of God in your life, he's talking to Nicodemus, and he's like, you know what, Nick? It's like the wind, man. It's like the wind.

Following the will of God is like the wind. You don't know where it's coming from and you don't know where it's going and you can't even see it. You know, if you've never seen the wind, you've only seen the effects of the wind. You can feel the world. wind. You can see the wind change things, but you can't actually see the wind. And the other thing, man, is the wind doesn't have its effects until you set sail and get out in it and let it put you around a little bit. So what would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail? And there's only one way to know, man. You got to go. You just got to go. There's this incredible

account in the book of Acts. A couple of the disciples have been arrested and they hear. They healed a guy, but they did it in Jesus' name and the religious people didn't like it. You see, because when the gospel starts changing lives, man, religious people, they get bothered because they don't get their cut. And so they get together and they're like, hey, fellas, listen, here's what we have decided. Y'all got to shut up. You can still heal people. Everybody loves a good healing. You just got to leave the Jesus, you got to rebrand. You can't use Jesus's name. And the boy, Peter steps up and is like, hey, man, you do whatever you think you need to do, but we can't stop talking about what we have seen and heard. For there's one. There's one,

name under heaven whereby we must be safe. They're like, we're about just to ramp this thing up. And the religious people are like, well, we don't know what to do these people. So they said, y'all wait outside. And then there's this Pharisee of Pharisees that taught Paul when he was coming up. His name's Gamaliel. And Gamaliel steps in the room.

He's the wisest guy. He's the old guy. He's like the eldest of elders. And he goes, here's what I think we should do. We should just let them do whatever they're going to do. And the religious guys are like, why? What? And he goes, because there's only one of two things that can happen.

He goes, if what they're doing is not of God, it'll fizzle out, and we won't even be thinking about it three years from now. But if this thing is of God, you can't stop it, and do you want to fight against God? That's some pretty good advice. So when you feel like he has called you to do a thing, I think the only way you know if it's God or not is you've got to go. Of course it's got to line up with his word. Of course it does. You be around some God of God's people so that if you get weird ideas, they'll help you see that. But if you get down to the question of like, well, what if it don't work?

I don't know, man, I don't know. I don't know. But what if it does? Because here's what's crazy. Here's what's crazy. You have no idea what hangs in the balance. You have no idea what hangs in the balance. Listen, here's what I'm trying to get at.

What are you doing with your one and only life? Are you just doing like every other American Christian that just gets up and goes to work and does some stuff and numbs yourself with Netflix? coast to church for an hour about every three weeks or so, hopes for a nice life and some nice kids and a nice job and hopefully you don't go to hell when you die. Is that what you're doing with your one and only life? Or are you leveraging it for eternity? Or you just wasting it on the temporary?

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin. Man, I'm hoping and praying. I'm hoping and praying. you will hear the voice of the good shepherd and that you will do whatever it is that he tells you to do. And here's why. Because you have no idea what hangs in the balance. Trust me. The first time I heard the voice of God in my life. And again, man, not audibly. Okay, so you'd save the emails. Because I get them from both sides. All you recovering in Baptist, like, what do you mean? And all you Pentecostals are like,

finally, you know, so just relax. If you want to hear the voice of God, read your Bible out loud. That's what sounds like, all right, anyway. First time I heard the Lord speak, man, it was back in the 1900s, in the 80s. I'm a teenager, I'm at camp. I grew up in the South, man. I believed in God as much as I did

SEC football and NASCAR. You understand? Like, it was just a category that we all ascribed to. And these counselors reenacted the crucifixion of Christ. I mean, with like togas and torches and southern accents.

But I'm telling you, when this, when this, college kid from Furman, who was playing the part of Jesus, pushed up on his nail pierce feet and said, it is finished. I was, I might as well been at the foot of the cross at Calvary. I was there, man. And I think I know what Lazarus felt like. Because I was dead in my trespasses, and I heard Jesus call my name and say, come out of

the grave. And I got saved that night. I heard him call my name. And so I did what was right. I took a step forward. And I surrendered my life to the Lordship of Christ. Shoot, man, like, within three or four. four years, within three or four years, I'm the camp pastor at this place, all right?

But before that, I was the chief grass cutter. And one day I'm standing in the back of the worship service. And this was camp days, man. Anybody go to camp, anybody could go to good old Baptist camp back in the day, be 150 degrees outside, no air condition, drink water out the hose. Anytime I tell young folks about we drank out the hose, they were like, why don't you drink it out from the inside? We weren't allowed to go inside.

We were feral children. You understand what I'm saying? We're also not allergic to everything under the sun. That's a different sermon, okay? So anyway, some guys were they died at camp. Anyway, so I'm standing in the back, and the dude is up there singing, I am a C. Remember that one? With an overhead projector.

This is before Chris Tomlin invented worship. We were singing, I am a C. In case you don't know that song, it's I am a C, I'm a C, I'm a C-H, I'm a C-R-S-T-I-N. Now here's the thing. Got them. Listen. But here's the thing, man. I'm from Dillon.

I was in the 11th grade. before I realized we were spelling I'm a Christian. I thought we were speaking in tongues. I didn't know. Glory, every Pentecostal around here. I'm into it. Tongues of fire up in here. Deacon's going to be, and we're going to wear us out, okay?

Coach Boy Lee, this is the second time I heard the voice of God. But it sounded exactly like Coach Lee. And he said, boy, when they did this done with to sing and I want you to preach. And I'm like, what? Like in 45 seconds? He said, y' up. And I was like, coach, I've been a Christian maybe two years. three years or something. I was like, Coach, I'm not comfortable speaking in front of people.

He said, boy, do you say comfortable? He only would call me my whole, Jobie Martin or Boy, that's all he ever called me. He said, boy, do you think Daniel was comfortable in lines? Boy, you think Paul and Silas was comfortable in prison? Boy, do you think Jesus Christ was on the cross? I'm like, I don't, I mean, I don't think he was. Straight up, man. And I said, well, coach, what do I talk about? He said, boy, that's easy. You talk about Jesus. You talk about Jesus. You talk about about 30 minutes, go. So I did. Preach the sermon on John 316.

For one reason. It's the only verse I knew I could find in my Bible at that point. I'm not even kidding. I preached on John 316, a bunch of kids got saved. I walked off that little platform kind of thing and Coach Lee put his finger in my chest and he says, boy, when you teach the Bible,

I see two things happen. I see you come alive. I see them come alive. And I heard the voice of God, man. 1994, I'm 19 years old, I'm just, I'm serving at my church, at my local church, Baptist church, I got saved at a Baptist camp, I thought I'll find one of these, I'll go to a Baptist church, it was not the same. And we're at a Sunday night service, and there's this evangelist in town.

And he gives the, he preaches the gospel, it's a teenage event, man, it's a bunch of students there. I'm just serving as like one of the leaders. And he, and he calls people to repentance, he calls people to salvation. and he calls people to rededicate their life. That's a cool Baptist thing. You do that about every week. Do whatever you want, just rededicate every other week. It works out.

If you think I'm serious, listen to the whole series about James because it's anti that. And then he says, and there may be some of you right now and you wanna surrender to a full-time call to vocational ministry. And I'm telling you, it was as real as the night I got saved. See, in that moment for me to do anything other than surrender

to what Jesus was telling me to do, that would have been sin for me. It's not sin for you to go do your job and banking. It just would have been sin for me to not do what he's called me to do. You understand what I'm saying? And so you can't do anything back there at the Baptist Church.

The Spirit lives up here, and so you've got to go tell the preacher of what he's told you. And so you go up there and I told him, I think I'm called in the ministry. And my pastor was awesome, so he let me do an internship. Here's the thing, man.

I just gotten accepted to the Medical College of Virginia, MCV, just got in. Took my MCATs, got in, had a seat for the next year. because I wanted to be a doctor, not because I wanted to help people. I didn't care about that. I just wanted to be rich and respected, and I thought that'll work. My freshman year, I bought a pair of Doc Martins and wore them every day for four years.

I'm not kidding. I was like, that's what I'm going to be. Doc Martin, that's going to be me, all right? Then I had to sit down with my dad who at that point is not a believer and break his heart, man. I said, Daddy, I'm not going to med school. I'm going to seminary. And he said, what's a seminary? Straight up.

We didn't even know what that was. And I go, it's preacher school. You know what he told me? He goes, preacher school. You only work half a day a week, study one book. Why you need a whole school for that? I was like, I don't know. They make you go, though, so I did it.

It's just one little step, man, just one step of obedience in the direction that the good shepherd's calling me. I'm not some kind of hyper-charismatic person, and I definitely don't have it figured out. It's just one little step at a time when you hear him, when you recognize his voice and you can trust him in every step,

in the moment sometimes you feel like you're giving up everything, but what you're gaining is abundant life in Christ. Graduate from seminary, get hired at a church out in Roanoke, Virginia, it's awesome. I see, I meet this girl working out in the gym, chase her around for a little while. This is back in the day, man. We had to actually stalk. You couldn't just, like, look up people online. No, man.

Keep a gym bag in my car, drive out of a gym when I ever saw her little Honda accord. It was time to work out, and I was going there. and eventually I remember I was in church man she was attending the church that I was on staff at and back in the day again it was a Baptist church southern Baptist church and we had thrones on the on y'all still have thrones we got some friends from Dallas first Baptist I bet y'all got huge thrones everything's bigger in Texas so the church we had the senior pastor had this one big old throne and the educational guy had another throne and I had this wee little bitty throne over here and it's terrible I've been chasing gretchen around for a while and I'm sick

in the service, just looking at her, and I already heard the sermon, so I was just looking at her. And my Bible says, he who finds a wife finds what is good, and I went, I found one. The Lord said, marry that girl, and so I did. I did. About three months after I married her,

her grandpa, who was a pastor, a church planner, her pastor, he passed away, and the family asked me to do the graveside service. This man had given his whole life to the glory of God. The biggest church he ever pastor, he ever passed, there's maybe 150 people or something. I show up to his funeral and there's hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the country there. And I'm like, what is going on? I was like, babe, did he have like a radio ministry or something? We don't know. Tate ministry, you know?

Like, nah. But what he did is he and his wife, he and his wife, his grandparents, served his house parents at this boys home called the Patrick Henry Boys Home. Those boys were all in their mid-30s now, they lived all over the country, and they brought all their families there to see Grandpa White, Pastor White, who had led them all to Christ, and I heard the voice of God. I got to see him. I mean, there's the casket. I'm doing the graveside. I'm so nervous. I mean, I just married into this family, you know, and they asked me to do this thing. And I see generations and generations and generations of people. As I'm walking up, I see one of the boys that grew up in the home, and he's standing there with this little kid. This dude, he's probably about 30 years old. He's got like Ronald McDonald's red hair.

I mean, this is like red afro guy from Ohio. And he's standing there with his boys, boys however old this is, and you know it's his boy because he's just got this little mini red fro. Just the same, man. And this dad leans over to this little boy, and he goes, the reason we know Jesus

is because of this man right here. And in that moment, the Lord spoke to me and he gave me a picture of the rest of my life. I just said, I want to do that for the rest of my life. That's what I wanted to do. I want to do that for the rest of my life. I don't care if it's big and all that. That's not even the point.

I just want to be faithful and do that for the rest of my life. See, what's crazy about to call God on your life, though, man, sometimes it can be so clear. I knew it in that moment. Three years later, I'm this close to walking away from ministry. Three years later, you ever have, you feel like you get a vision from God, then it leaks? Well, mine had leaked out. There's this verse in Kings where God tells Elijah to call a drought on the nation of Israel,

and then he tells them to go hang out by this brook, and he's just hanging out there, and then there's one little line in there and it says, and then one day the brook dried up. Sometimes you feel like the brook dried up. And then God calls me, does all this miraculous ministry, all kind of stuff. And God was blessed in the ministry

that I was a part of, but the church I was in, man, they had moved away from the Word of God and I was trying to move away from them. That's basically what was happening. And I thought, well, I guess I'm done. I guess I'm done with this. Elijah goes back to that brook and he lays down.

He's all like depressed and suicidal. I wasn't suicidal or depressed, but I just thought, I had these offers to do just other jobs to make some money. These people offer me six figures. I would have had to work four years to make six figures based on what I was making as a youth pastor, and I thought maybe I should do this.

And so what happened in Elijah's life is God sent him an angel to wake him up and give him some cake. Sometimes it's not a vision problem. Sometimes it's just a blood sugar, you need some cake, okay? And so God sent me an angel. Her name's Cratchin. She talked me into staying in ministry. You get that?

I was this close to sinning according to James, and nobody would have known it because I knew what was right. And that was that God called me in the ministry. And I was going to go to something else to make me some money and take care of mine. You understand? And yet Gretchen said, why don't we give it one more chance?

You know what the one more chance was? Put a resume out there, we got a call from a bunch of places. And we started interviewing all over the place. And we get a call from Beach United Methodist Church. This is in 2003. And I said, we ain't going to know Methodist Church. I've ever been inside of Methodist Church.

And then I started looking at it, and I was like, but it's at the beach. So here's what we're going to do. This is not even a joke. Gretchen was so uncomfortable with this. It would bother you how comfortable I was with this. I said, here's what we're going to do. You ever been one of those timeshares? You go to a couple of meetings, but you get a free vacation.

So that's what we're about to do. We're going to go interview with this church. We ain't going there. But it's at the beach, so probably put us up on the ocean, and that's how youth pastors do vacation, you understand? And so that's what I did. And I'm sitting in a meeting, honestly, a bunch of students that are now on our staff

and Pastor Jerry Sweat, and we asked a few questions, and we got up from that meeting, we took about three steps outside, and Gretchen leans over to me and goes, we're coming to Jacksonville, aren't we? I think we are, and we felt like God called us to move to Jacksonville for the rest of our lives and just made disciples, that's it. Just one little step.

And we had no idea. We had no idea what hung in the balance. Okay? And then, in 2008, this wasn't even like the voice of God. This was a strategic decision from a leadership team at Beach Church. I said, you know what, we should start another service. And so we started it at 1122. And then after a little while, Ben and Carrie Williams came and says,

Job, you need to take over this service. I was like, I ain't taking over nothing. If y'all want me to be in charge, y'all talk about it, talk to Pastor Jerry. and if he wants me to be in charge, I'll be happy to. If not, leave me alone. And then they say, all right, you're in charge. I said, all right.

So I got our little crew together, man, got our friends, Pastor Stone and Ben and Kerry and me and G sitting in my kitchen, and I said, what if, what if we did church the way we've always dreamed that church could be? No pews and rose. We ain't doing a handbell choir. And if you're into that, God bless your handbell choir, man,

you know, no problem. And then I began to share with our crew. I was like, listen, man, And what if every single week at our little service was like the last night of camp? I mean, what if we just sing like the glory of God matters? And I'm going to teach the Bible for an hour. And then I assured him, this is how terrible a leader I am. I was like, and let me tell you, nobody's going to come.

Because I talk too long and I'm too mean and, you know, we sing too intensely. But if like 300 people showed up and we can make 300 disciples, we'd change Jacksonville. That's worth a good. That's worth a life right there, you know? And so we started the service. And then it did what it did. And after a couple years, I heard the voice of God again, and it sounded exactly like Pastor Jerry Sweat.

That's right. And he leaned over to me in a meeting, and he says, I believe God is telling me that Beach should launch a church, 1122, with you as the senior person. pastor. I'm not even comfortable with the phrase senior pastor, okay? I don't own a pair of dockers, so I don't know how to be a senior pastor, all right? You understand? And he says it. He says, I think it's time that we launch a church with you as the lead pastor. And then he says this, he goes, and I have a real

peace about it. And I go, well, that's neat, because I just threw up in my mouth a little. So it's weird how the spirit of God moves in different people. Over 10,000 people have put their faith in Jesus Christ through the ministry of the church of 1122. Okay, listen, man. And I even hesitate to share all that with you. The last four weeks I have put on blast at what a horrible human I am and how much I need the gospel, okay?

That has not changed. But here's the thing. Just one step at a time. Just one step of obedience. Especially when you don't know what tomorrow brings and especially with the understanding of the brevity of your life. You got one and only life, please don't waste your life.

The glory of God. God matters more than anything, man. There's a good shepherd, and he will speak to you, just like he speaks to all of his sheep, and life is brief. You only get one of them. Please, please, please don't waste your life. What is your life? What are you doing with this one and only life that you have?

I can tell you, I can tell you, if you know what is right, and that doesn't just mean right from wrong, man. If you know what the good shepherd has called you to do, and you don't do it, you will not be walking in the abundant life that Christ has for you. You will be walking in sin and it will tear you apart. And you have no idea what hangs in the balance.

You have no idea what the almighty sovereign king of the universe has in store for you when he came up with the idea that is you. You realize you're the only you there is? There used to not be a you. And then God said, all right, it's time. I've had him. I've had her on my mind. for all of eternity.

And now at this time, in this space and this place, now is the time that he or she is going to be born and grow up in this place for such a time as this. And he is going to speak to his sheep. And if you'll just lean in, man, he will lean into you. And if you will just put your trust, not in your circumstances, I don't know how it's going to work out. It don't matter, man.

It doesn't matter. But if you'll trust him, we have no idea what tomorrow brings. Right now, we just see. see through a glass dimly. But you pray and you guess and you go by faith and there will come a day that we'll be standing around the throne of God. And I don't know how it works.

But all the crowns, all the things that we forward to heaven that are the rewards that we are to receive, you know what we're going to do with those things? I think all we're going to do is take those crowns and lay them at the feet of Jesus and look around at each other and be like, who in the world are we that he would use us to populate his glory. To him and him alone be the glory. And then we'll join with the angels and sing,

holy, holy, holy is the Lord of God Almighty who was and is and is to come. So what is your life? If you could do anything for the glory of God and you knew it wouldn't fail, what would it be? The moment you think you might know what that is, do not be merely a hearer of the word and so deceive yourself, but do what it says. Would you please stand? Let me pray for you. Our good and gracious, Heavenly Father,

would you speak to us? Would you speak so clear? Would you speak through your word? Would you speak through our brothers and sisters that we're here in church with? We'd just speak through a sermon. Spirit of God, would you speak to the deep, secret places of the heart?

Jesus, our good shepherd, we are sheep. We're so dumb. We don't pay attention. We're prone to wonder. So Lord, I pray in this moment, in this prayer time, would you speak to your children and would you give us the grace and the faith and the courage to take steps of obedience in the direction that you have called us to? Because that's where we find abundant life. God, what is our life? Hopefully, hopefully, it is a living sacrifice to you.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing. We're going to sing like saved people. We're going to bring our time. in our offerings, our first and our best, because God is doing exceedingly more than any of us could ever dream of.

And we're going to worship him with our finances, with our first and our best, because he's worthy of it and it's an act of worship. And I'd imagine there's a few of us that need to pray. I imagine there's a few hundred of us that need to sprint down here, get it on our face, and say, here I am, Lord, send me. What are you calling me to do?

So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond.