The Church of Eleven22 - Wisdom for the Abundant Life - Live Abundantly: Wk. 1

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

“Wisdom in this life is doing what the Good Shepherd tells us to do.”

Amen and amen. Church, would you please stand to your feet out of reverence for God's word? Dr. Paul, our eldest elder, is going to read from Proverbs chapter 1. The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing and righteousness, justice, and equity. To give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear and increase in learning and the one who understands obtain guidance.

To understand proverb and a saying the word of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. fools despise wisdom and instruction. Amen. May God have blessing to the reading and hearing of his word, and let's get it up for Dr. Paul. Thanks, buddy. You may be seated. I know you were just standing and seating and the standing. We're trying to make you Catholics feel black at home, all right? Welcome. Glad you're here.

Sermon is going to be way longer and you're used to. Hey, Proverbs chapter one is where we're going to be, but then you also need this. Hopefully you got this when you came in. This is our 10-10 life discipleship guide that you need for the next. five weeks, hold it in your hand, everybody get it out, it's pretty hardy, pretty healthy, okay? Kind of reminds me of a Sears Catalog. Who remembers Sears Catalog? Right?

Google it. It's like Amazon used to come in a magazine. It was crazy, all the things that you want. And so I definitely don't have time to go through all this, but this is everything that we're doing as a church over the next year and beyond, really. And so if this is your first time here or your first time back, you picked a great Sunday to be here because we're going to talk about everything that God is calling us to do as a church in this 10-10 life. And just in case you're new, which a bunch of people are, about a year

ago, we started this two-year discipleship journeys. So we're almost halfway through. And it's rooted in John chapter 10, verse 10, called the 10-10 life. And the first time this idea began to float around in my mind was way back in like 2019. Remember COVID? Remember? I know we didn't really do it in Florida, but you remember then? One of the overwhelming thoughts that I had when the whole world was shut down is our people need a shepherd. Our people need a shepherd. So if you were around back then, I did a bunch of devotionals online and that kind of stuff. And it led me to John chapter 10.

It's the preeminent text on Jesus being the good shepherd. And I don't know if this has ever happened to you. Have you ever read a verse that you're pretty familiar with? So John Tintan, I'm pretty familiar with it. I've been a professional Christian now for 30 years. But as I would come to that text, there was like a new word that I have never seen before in that. I don't know if that ever happens to you when you read the Bible. But I'd never seen the word only.

John 1010 says, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. And every night I would turn on the news, and the only thing that I would see on the news was stealing and killing and destroying. And then Jesus comes along and says, but I'm the good shepherd, and I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. And so a year ago, we began to ask this question, what is that abundant life? And we know what the abundant life is, because right after he says that I have come that you may have life and have it. it abundantly. He says, and I am the good shepherd. So to know abundant life is to know the good shepherd. And then he says, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep so that the abundant life is rooted in the gospel, which led us to a year ago launching this 10-10 life

journey. And we have a goal. We have a primary goal. Our primary goal in this 10-10 life journey is that every single person that considers themselves a part of 1122 would live the abundant life that's only found in Jesus Christ, that every single person that's part of 1122. Part of the reason that we're re-upping this year, this is kind of like 10-10 2.0, is because, this is crazy, from the time that we launched the 10-10 life journey a year ago, almost a year ago, until now, our regular in-person attendance has increased by about 7,000 people. Isn't that amazing? It's amazing.

And you know what the big flashy thing was that we went to get everybody with? James. We just beat people up with the Bible for about 14 weeks, and you brought all your one mores, and we have grown by about 7,000 people, not to mention, we have about 40,000 people worship with us online, literally all over the world. And so the world has completely changed, and we have just made a fundamental decision. We don't care where you live. If you can get the internet cord all the way to your laptop, if you raise your hand and ask the question, will 1122 disciple me, our answer to you is yes. And so we've got a whole bunch of people, and this whole 10-10 life thing is brand new. It's a new update. And so we want to give every single person an opportunity to hop on this

freight train of God's movement that we call 1122. And so our number one goal is that every single person that considers 1122 their church, that we would all experience this abundant life in Christ, that we would ask this fundamental question, am I chasing after the abundant life in Christ, am I chasing after an abundance of stuff that will never fully and finally satisfy? So my question is, are you, are you living the abundant life that Christ has for you? This is what the 10-10 life is all about. It breaks down into three categories. We talked about it on the video.

The first one is church life. So here's what this means. We're going to continue to be the church that we have been. We're going to stay focused on our vision. That nothing's changed. We're going to continue to be a movement for all people to discover and, in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And just so you know, from all the things that you can measure as a pastor of a church,

all of the things that you can measure here at 1122 are going really, really good. Like I said, our intendants, we're reaching more people than we've ever reached. More people are getting saved than we ever imagined. More people are getting baptized than we ever even prayed for. More people are joining disciple groups. More babies are being saved. More marriages are being restored. stored. When the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 3 that God does exceedingly more than any of us ever

hoped or imagined in the church, that is the season that we are in right now here at the church of 1122, and we're just going to keep doing what we've always been doing, which is make disciples and make disciples and make disciples. And then in this 1010 life, there's another section that we call eternal life. And what we have been called to do by Jesus, the good shepherd, is share the good news of eternal life with everybody. And so part of what this means is that we're launching new campuses, new 1122 campuses. We're also going to continue to plant churches, and we're going to also continue to send missionaries. And so we are planting a bunch of new campuses everywhere God gives us the opportunity.

And one of the things that we do here, part of the way I decided to lead this thing as the lead pastor, is I'm never smart enough to remember what I'm supposed to know depending on the crowd I'm in front of. You know what I mean? So we don't really have these like PR campaigns where we get it all figured out before we tell you. We just leak true rumors as they come up. And so as far as we know right now, the next campus that will be launched is we are going to launch in January in Pontevedra High School. Amen? That's right.

That's right. How many of you live near Pontevira High School? Anybody's sweet? You better go there. Everybody with their hands up. We got your own film. Thank you for testifying. You are part of our setup and tear down crew.

all right and in fact if you want god to bless your diet and lose a little weight you should be up on our set up tear down crew all right or st john's people can attest you get to go to church and your workout clothes because you got to set everything up and tear it all down that's going to start in january we have thousands of families that already attend uh in the knockity area and so we look forward to not seeing you at pablo and start to see you there that starts in january if you're one of those folks if you're interested text the letters pv the 44 1122 in addition to this we're going to Yuley, we're going to St. Augustine, we're looking at Sarasota, we're looking at Orlando, all kinds of places, all right? So pray like crazy. In addition to campuses of 1122,

we're going to continue to plant churches all over the world. You have planted 535 churches around the world since we started this church. Isn't that great? Those aren't 1122 campuses. Those are local, autonomous, indigenously led. It's not a bunch of people from Jacksonville in Uganda trying to tell them how to do church. That we start all these Bible schools and raise up pastors and they plant churches. And here's my favorite thing about that. Every single weekend around the world

in the 535 churches that you have planted, there are more people attending and hearing the gospel in those churches than here and attend here at 1122. Because we have never wanted to be a cul-de-sac of God's blessing, but a conduit. In addition to campuses and planting churches, we're going to continue to send missionaries.

That's full-time. For some of you, that's going to be you. And you think, who would do that? You're going to. God's going to tell you to sell it all and go, okay? And we're going to help you go. And then for all of us, who can go, we want to go on short-term trips so that you can take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

So there's church life, there's eternal life, and then there's also what we call abundant life. And again, the idea here, I began, God just kind of downloaded to me. I don't know how to explain it, is I began to just wrestle with this. What would it look like for a church? to just be pro-life as a political stance up to the point of birth, but what would it look like for a church to be pro-life from womb to tomb? What would it look like for a church?

For us to leverage all of our energy and all of our influence and a bunch of our resources to fight for every single image-bearer of God from the moment of conception to the casket. And so we're getting into fight. It's called abundant life. And so we are. We're fighting for the right to life all the way. We're fighting for a generation of people that ought to be honored. but oftentimes they get ignored, from womb to tomb.

This thing is full of information on all of these things. So, again, I don't have time to go through all of it. There's celebrations in here of what God is doing. There's opportunities of way we can get informed and involved. Ladies put this in a very sacred place. Put this like by your Bible and every morning when you get up. You can leave through it. Your disciple group material is in the back, fellas.

Maybe you'll launch this thing in the Holy of Holies. And when you have some time to yourself there, you can just read through and get caught up on what God is doing. because the question is, what is he asking you to do in regards to what our church is doing in the 10-10 life? So our primary goal, our primary goal is that every single person would ask,

am I living the abundant life found only in Christ? Or have I been duped by the world and I'm chasing after an abundance of stuff that will never fully and finally satisfy? The secondary goal, this definitely has a generosity. component to it. And if you'll open up this booklet to the very back and pull out this card, everybody play along. Everybody, daddy, come on, pull it out, do what I say. You're at my church,

all right? My dad's right here in the front row. It's the only time my life get to tell them what to do. All right, everybody, grab this. Four weeks from now, four weeks from now, we're going to come back to this card. So get it out, smell it. Smells like freedom, doesn't it, all right? Open it up, love it, get into it, read it, get into this. This is a tangible expression, of an obedient step for you and me. Because all we're trying to figure out is what is the good shepherd calling us to do and that he would give us the courage and the obedience to do what he's calling us to do. And so we're not ready yet.

You're not ready yet. You've got to get preached that for about four more weeks to be ready for this moment. But what we're going to do in five weeks, we're going to come back and we're going to make a financial commitment. We're going to bring our first and our best. And we had to update it. This is our secondary goal. So when we first launched this last year, we had a financial goal that we were believing

God for $110 million in resources to accomplish all that he's called us to accomplish. And you guys, our church is so generous that you've already blown that goal away. So we have to adjust that goal for this year. And we're believing God for $136 million over the life of this 10-10 life in order to accomplish all that God has called us to accomplish. And you're like, well, you're going to do it all that money. Everything in your catalog. That's what we're talking about.

And so all that means is God had bigger plans than we've planned. had. Here's what it means. More campuses faster. More one more more is get reached. More people get saved. More missionaries sent. More lives change. More marriages saved. More babies rescued. That's what it means. Amen? Now here's the thing. We have a very, very generous church. You get no credit for attending a generous church. Every single day, every single one of us at some point will stand before God, give an account for our life. And when it comes to the stewardship of our resources, it's not like, oh yeah, but my church was generous. We're going to come back in five weeks and you're going to have the opportunity to make a commitment financially, to just bring

your first and your best. So I need you to start praying about it right now. I need you to start listening to what God has for you. And I need you to just do whatever it is that he tells you to do. And some of you, now listen, let me be very clear. That is our secondary goal. It's our secondary goal. And if one of you heard that one, oh, 136 million, oh, that's cool. Well, I'll write a check for that. Well, praise God for your ministry. We love it. And would we receive your check?

Absolutely. I don't know if you can write a $136 million check. That's not the tax bracket I run in. I don't know if it's like one of those big Dr. Pepper halftime Super Bowl checks. I don't know. But even if you brought it, you probably could. If you brought it, here it is, $136 million. We would gladly receive it if that's what God told you do.

Put it in the bank. And then you know what we do for the next year? We would continue on the 10-10 life journey. because the point is not about the resources we need to accomplish God's call in our life. The point is that every single one of us would ask this fundamental question, am I living the abundant life that Christ has for me? That's what we want for you, which leads us to Proverbs. For the next five weeks, we're going to be studying the book of Proverbs.

The Book of Proverbs is all about wisdom. The Book of Proverbs is all about wisdom. wisdom, a great definition of wisdom, is this, living in God's world, God's way. Living in God's world, God's way. It starts out this way in Proverbs 1-1. It says, the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. Solomon was the wisest man to ever live until Jesus comes along. God actually kind of played the genie in the bottle game with Solomon and said, I'll answer any prayer that you want me to answer, but you get one. Think about that. You know what Solomon prayed for?

Solomon prayed for wisdom. What would you ask for? And you can't ask for more prayers. Everybody knows that's the rule. It's just in the rule book. What would you pray for? More money? Be better looking.

A jagged Super Bowl. What would you pray for? Solomon, in his humility, prayed. He knew the best thing for the nation of Israel would be that they would be led by a wise king. So he prayed for wisdom. And a part of what God gifted us, with was the book of Proverbs. It's a book on wisdom.

And again, wisdom is living in God's world, God's way. And these Proverbs, they're all kind of memorable. There's 31 chapters. There's a bunch of little sayings, but they're not just little kitsy, tweetable sayings that sound cool. They're not just kind of some like earthly wisdom. The Proverbs are God's word based on the character and nature of God, and the better we can understand the way God thinks, the more likely we are to do what God says.

You see, like I mentioned, my dad's here, and he's got all these little proverbs. I, me and my brother joke that he ought to write the 32nd chapter of proverbs. His are more just like little, I mean, he would always tell me stuff like, boy, if you're going to be dumb, you better be tough. And he told me that a lot, so I don't know what that meant, but where I'd be getting ready. He said, come on, get in the truck. And he'd say things like, so the only thing you can do flip-flops is get your butt kicked. Like, all right, it's true. You're right?

Or to be fishing with him. He'd catch one. be like, where did you catch that one? In the mouth. See, these things are true. I don't know that necessarily based on the wisdom of God. The proverbs from the Bible

are about the character and nature of God, and wisdom is living in God's world, God's way. It's very popular these days for people to say this. Well, all you need is Jesus. All you need is Jesus. That sounds like something you want to amen. But in regards to your salvation

or your justification of our holy God, that is true. In regards to your salvation, Jesus plus nothing equals everything. However, in regards to living life, Jesus would say, you need more than just a belief in me. He would say, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. He would say that you want to, this is John chapter 15. He would say, abide in me and I will abide in you. And they were like, how do we get close to you? And he would say, abide in my word and I will abide in you. Even in the Great Commission, he doesn't just say go and get them to believe and

baptize them. He says, go therefore into all the earth. make disciples teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. How many of you know that there's some church folks that love Jesus with their heart, but make terrible decisions with the rest of their life, and their life's a dumpster fire? Don't point or say amen to the person you came with, but you know what I'm talking about? People come and have great belief and great faith and great emotions towards the Lord. And they show up, they come to multiple services, they're in like three disciple groups, they know what part of the song to put their hand up,

They know when to moo with the good part of the sermon and, you know, all the things, man. But yet, even though they love Jesus with their heart, they don't follow in accordance with God's word. And if you don't live, if you live in God's world, your own way, it just don't go good. What wisdom is, what God has for us is wisdom living in God's world, God's way. And here's just the truth. Regardless of what you believe, it is God's world. whether you believe in God or not. He is the author of life, and he knows how best to live it.

And when you live your own way long enough, you don't just break God's law. You actually break yourself against it. I mean, see the Ten Commandments. It reminds me of what C.S. Lewis said. He said, a man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word darkness on the walls of his cell. and we live in a world full of lunatics right now trying to say there is no God, and that's why our world is a dumpster fire, right? You see, we can wreck our lives when we live in God's world, but we don't do it his way.

That for every job there's a specific tool. And when you begin to go, nah, nah, nah, no, no, no, my way is better than your way. Like if you had to hammer a railroad spike, you would use a sledgehammer because that's the tool for that job. And you might think, no, no, no, no, no, I'm smarter than you. I'll use my vacuum cleaner. Will it work? Not really. And guess what?

At the end of it, you don't have a vacuum cleaner. The moment we look at God and go, no, no, no, no, no, no, my way is better. Again, you don't simply break his law. You break yourself against it. He's given us the gift of his word, in general, proverbs in particular, to teach us how to take steps of obedience that lead to an abundant life. How to live in God's world, God's way. How to live with wisdom.

And so he goes on to say this. To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight. This is why he's writing it. To receive instruction and wise dealing and righteousness, justice, and equity. To give purpose to the simple. The simple in the book of Proverbs is just people that don't know any better yet. The fool is the person that just knows better and does it. And the scoffer is the person that hates God and tries to drag people to hell with them.

To give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth. let the wise hear an increase in learning. So whether you consider yourself simple or wise, he's saying there is wisdom in this book of Proverbs for you. And the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. And then this next verse is the foundation

for all of the book of Proverbs. Verse 7, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 9, 10 says it this way. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The way I would say it is this way. When we begin to see as God sees, then we'll be able to do what God says. The fear of the Lord is not being afraid of like, yeah, he might kill me. He can, but he's not going to because he's a good

dad. The fear of the Lord means like a holy reverence for the sovereign king of the universe who Jesus invites us to call him heavenly father. Listen, I get it, I get it. I still kind of have a fear of my dad. I mean, sitting here he's 75 years old. I think I can beat him up. However, there's still this thing in me when he's like, I'm just sort of still, like, he's still one step away from the belt.

You know what I mean? But what you understand is that he doesn't leverage his fatherhood over me to press me down. He leverages the authority that God has given him for my kind of flourishing because he's a good dad and he loves his kids. I'm talking about my dad and our heavenly father. He loves you. And he's for you, and he demonstrated his love for you at the cross in Jesus Christ. And the more we begin to understand that he's a good dad, and he did not give us a bunch of rules to keep us from fun, he gave us some instruction on how to live life that we might live life and live it to abundance.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, is the beginning of knowing how to live in God's world, God's way. Every time I read this, it reminds me of that scene in the life. the lion, the witch in the wardrobe. When Lucy, one of the little girls, is talking to Mr. Beaver, and Mr. Beaver begins to lay out what's happening, and that Asland is on the move. Aslan is the Christ character. And he's describing to Lucy, this little girl, that he's a lion. She starts to get nervous.

And he says, don't you want to meet him? She goes, we'll meet him. I'll be quite nervous. I mean, he's a lion. Is he safe? Is he safe? It sounds dangerous. Is he safe?

And Mr. Beaver says, Lord, no girl. Who said anything about being safe? He's not safe, but he's good. That's what the fear of the Lord is. Could he wipe you out right now? Yeah. If he wanted your stuff, he could just make you a little greasy spot, and you're leaving it all here.

I hope you understand that. That's not what he wants for you. What he wants for you is that you would know him as Father, then you would be able to trust that everything he has for us is good. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom. and instruction. You know what a fool is?

A fool is somebody that knows better and does it anyway. This is going to get me in trouble, but don't worry about it. Just shoot me an email at Jimmy Cratscorn at I Don't Care.com, and I'll be happy to delete it. So every time I see the word fool, here's what it reminds me of, cigarette smokers. If you're a 21st century cigarette smoker, listen, man, I love you. I'm not here to beat up on you. You're a fool. You're a fool.

Because you know better. If you're about to go fighting World War II and they gave you some smokes, you just didn't know. You're like, this is probably going to work out good. It ain't going to work out good. It says it on the box. Your lips going to fall off and you're going to die and look funny, okay? I'm telling you, it's killing you.

And you do it anyway. And I know you think, well, you know, I mean, listen, I'm telling you, you got burn holes on you, your fingernails turn yellow, your teeth turn yellow, and you think we can't smell you because you held it out the car on the way here. We can smell you when you got in the parking lot, okay? You're a fool. And every time I bring it up, somebody's like, well, Pastor Joe, but we heard you smoke cigars. But that's cool, man.

That's different. That's cool. All right. If you can't pick up on the sarcasm area, you're going to not fit in here. All right, so the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom and destruction. Then this next part. This is important to understand the second half of Proverbs 1.

Remember, we don't live in a neutral culture. We don't. We have a thief. The only thing he wants to do is steal, kill, and destroy. That we live in a world that spends billions of dollars every single day to bait you down a path that leads to your own death and then laughs at you when you walk down it. It's a trick. It's a lure. And what the Proverbs are going to do is they're going to say, hey, pay attention.

On this pathway, there's some landmines. I want to point out where the landmines are. The Apostle Peter in one of his epistles, he says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He's seeking you to devour. Solomon says, hey, I want to tell you where the lions live. I want you to pay attention and watch out for the lions. Just think about this, man. If a lion was coming after you, like, yeah, 4.0.

over you with the hoodie on, you right there. Like if the zoo called me and said, hey, there's a girl in the front row and heads up, we got a lion trying to eat her. And I was like, hey girl, when the service is over, watch out of a lion's, you would go home differently, would you not? If a lion was trying to eat you, when you got done,

you wouldn't just beep up to your car. I don't know if that's how you walk, but in my mind that's how you walk. You wouldn't, no. When the service is over, you would like hang out, you'd be the last one to go, you'd go to the ushers, like, hey man, what a service, wow. So good, sermon, so good.

Praise hands. Then, then, You would be like, have anybody seen a lion in the parking lot? Okay. Don't be a fool, man. There's a lion in the parking lot. And he's seeking to only kill, steal, and destroy you. Over the next five weeks, Solomon's going to point out, we're going to talk about four particular areas,

30 years of ministry that I've been doing, where I have seen some of the landmines that I want to warn us about. Listen to this. He says, hear my son, your father's instruction. forsake not your mother's teaching. My daughter Reagan was on the first row at the 9 o'clock service, and I was like, if we would just do that, everything would be perfect. Amen. If you just listen and do what your mom and daddy said, you'd miss a lot of pain.

Amen. Hear my son, your father's instructions. I imagine how that sounds my father right now. Isn't that hilarious? Here, my son, your father's instruction and forsake not your mother's teaching. For they are a graceful garland to your head and pendants for your neck. Here's what he's saying. He's like, Solomon's like, I'm like a dad.

the kids, I'm trying to share instruction with you so that you may live the abundant life. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie and wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like she-old, let us swallow them alive and whole, like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our house with plunder. Throw in your lot among us, and we all have one.

one purse. Here's what he's saying. The way my football coach, Coach Lee used to say it all the time is this. He'd say, show me your friends. I'll show you your future. It's a part of what he's saying. Who you're running with matters. Later, Solomon's going to say, he who walks with the wise grows wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm. Who are you hanging out with? In fact, Coach Lee one time told us he's like, if you keep hanging out with idiots, you're going to be an idiot. And the idiot he was talking about was standing right next to me. He didn't care. You see, he says, pay attention to a group that says, see, what they're trying to do is they're saying, God's way doesn't work. We can't trust God for a good life.

We got to go and take it ourselves. That's what they're saying. And he says, you better watch out for that. You better watch out for that. It leads somewhere. And here's what it leads. My son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their paths.

Verse 15. This is very important. You see, your life is not a snapshot. your life is a journey and everybody's life ends up somewhere and the decisions that you are making right now will determine where our lives are going let me say it this way direction not intention determines your destination direction the decisions that you make the steps that you take that that direction determines your destination not your intention like let's see Listen, if you have planned a vacation to Miami

to go down there and console those poor people that don't know how to kneel when there's only 30 seconds to go, anybody stayed up and watch the game, okay? If you think, you know what, we're going to go down to Miami and we're going on a vacation, and you pray about it, and you plan for it, and you send your money ahead and book the hotel, and you pack for it, and then you get into car, and you get to I-95.

If you turn north, guess what I know? You ain't going to Miami. And if you're like, well, no, but we prayed about it. Cute. I'm glad you prayed about it. But it is your direction, not your prayer life. It is your direction, not your intention. It is your direction, not what you feel in your heart that determines your destination.

I don't care how much you prayed about it. I don't care if your disciple group got together and prayed traveling mercies. I don't care if you listen to Christian music all the way. None of that is going to change where you end up because it is your direction. do not walk in the way with them or hold back your foot from their paths. So let me ask you this question. What direction is your life heading?

Is your life heading to abundant life or is it death, destruction, and lack? Because the reality is every single one of us, even on our best days, are prone to wander, Lord, I feel it prone to lead to God I love. And we don't live in a neutral society. I mean, especially when it comes to the big three,

like power, sex, and money, we live in a world that spends billions of dollars a day to say, forget you, God, I know better than you. I got this. And wisdom would say, wisdom does not begin with, I got this. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. God, I need your help because I don't got this. So for the next four weeks, we are going to study God's word,

as Solomon points out where some landmines are on the path that the enemy has used to blow up some people's lives. Next week we're talking about sex and sexuality. You watch. It'll be high attendance Sunday. Okay? Right now everybody's watching the Jags game. Next week, everybody, every pervert in Northeast Florida is going to be here.

What's it going to say? Go ahead and spoil it for you. I'm going to say this. That's it, man. I'm the mailman. I don't get to write it or rewrite it. And I'm telling you, man, I'm telling you, you watch the number of people that claim Jesus Christ as their Lord,

but when it comes to sex and sexuality, you know, no, I know better than you, God. I get to do it in my way. And let me warn you about something, man. If you want to find somebody to justify whatever you want to do, the enemy is happy to send you a false profit and tell you what you want to hear. It's what fuels the Internet. But what we want to do is say that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Not I got this. That's the beginning of foolishness.

So we're going to spend a week on sex and sexuality. The next week we're going to talk about friendships and isolation because we live in a culture right now that is more connected and more isolated. than ever, and it's probably why we're getting it handed to us. The next week we're going to talk about work. What the Bible says about work, one of my dad's proverbs was always, boy, you get up and go to work, you don't get up and go to fun, right? That's part of it. And then the last week we're going to talk about finance,

is going to talk about money. Because Jesus said nobody can serve two masters. And of all the choices, he says nobody can serve both God and money. Because the world spends billions of dollars a day, particularly in those four areas, to say, you got this. God doesn't know what he's doing. It's the same lie that the enemy gave to Adam and Eve in the garden. That God is trying to keep something from you.

What I'm here to tell you is that we have a good shepherd, and what he has for you is life and life abundantly. So how do you avoid the landmines and stay on the path to abundant life? I got really good news for you. One, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The more you know him, the more you'll be able to. be able to do what he says. You know what the best, one of the best things that you could do for your abundant life, one of the best things that you could do to live in God's world, God's way,

is October 13th at Friday night. In here, we're going to have a worship night with Shane and Shane. And we're not going to talk about instructions on how you live life, but you know what we're going to do? We're going to make much of Jesus, and as you draw close to him, he will draw close to you. And the better you know him, the more you trust him when he tells you to do something, even if you don't know how it's going to go. So the good news is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the even better news is this, is that wisdom came and dwelt among us. Like you don't have to guess.

That wisdom is a person, not just an ideology, that the second person of the Trinity sat up from his throne, took off his crown, laid down his diadem, dressed himself in humanity, and he became one of us. and even better than that, this is crazy, man. We have an advantage over King Solomon, even though he's smarter than me and you. And then when Jesus was going to leave after his life, death, and resurrection, he said, I'm leaving, but it is to your advantage because I'm going to send you a helper, the paraclete, a helper. He's going to help guide you and direct you and empower you to live this abundant life.

Here's the way John says it in John 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. that word word in Greek is logos or lagas you probably know that Lagos is where we get the word like logical or logic from there was this Greek understanding every poet and philosopher believed in this thing called Lagos Lagos was this animating force of wisdom and knowledge behind everything that we see and do and the Apostle John carried along by the Spirit says you know what there is this invisible force behind all that we see and do that is the source that is the source

of wisdom, and he has a name. And his name is Jesus. It says, in the beginning was the Lagos, and the Lagos was with God, and the Lagos was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. And him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And then he gets to verse 14, and he says this, and the word became flesh and dwelt

among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the. the Father full of grace and full of truth. That wisdom became a man. The second person of the Trinity walks onto the scene of humanity. And he primarily came to pay the price for our sins. But he also came that we would know who God is and we would know how to live rightly in God's world. I mean, he taught this crazy ideology in the first century that when we come to God in prayer, We don't start out with sovereign, judge, and king of the universe, which he is, but we start out this way, our father.

And then he lived a perfect life. And he gave us instruction in everything he told us to do, teaches us how to live in God's world with God and to do it God's way. In fact, Paul would say it this way in 1 Corinthians 120. He says, where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this? this world. Like you buy into the wisdom of this world and you do it long enough and you will be a fool.

Like the wisdom of this world is things like, yeah, we act like we're going to live here forever. You're foolish if you act that way. The wisdom of this world is, I got this. You're foolish if you act that way. The wisdom of this world is my emotions and my appetite rule me. You're foolish if you live that way. The wisdom of this world is things like he who does. dies with the most toys win. You're foolish if you live this way. I mean, come on, man, if it was cash and prizes that brought satisfaction, then wouldn't Hollywood be the most peaceful, joyful place on the planet?

Their entire television stations dedicated to the misery of the best-looking, richest, dumbest people on the planet. It's just true. But there's an alternative. Verse 21, for sense in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God. the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. You know what the folly of the gospel is?

Things like this. To find your life, you must lose it. The world's like, that's crazy. The folly that we preach is you want freedom, then surrender. For Jews demanded signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. But to those who were called, both Jews and Greeks, in other words, a movement for all people.

Here it is. Christ, the power of God, and Christ is the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. You want to be wise? I got good news. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I got even better news.

Wisdom has a name, and Christ is the wisdom of God, which leads us all the way back. to John 1010. That it's not like God looked at us and said, good luck, hope you can figure this out on your own. No, no, no, no, no. The God looked on us, loved us enough to send his only-begotten son, Jesus Christ.

And he did not leave us as helpless children. He came as a shepherd to give us instruction. John 10-10, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came, that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. That the abundant life is found in the good news. of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And right before he sums that up, right before it, here's what he says. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens, and then listen to this. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. when's the last time you heard the voice of the good shepherd? And if you're like, well, I don't know if I've heard the voice of the good shepherd.

Jesus says that he speaks to his sheep. Do you think it's because the good shepherd's not speaking? Or do you think that his voice is getting drowned out by all the noise in this world? A big part of what the 10-10 life is is that we would turn down the noise of this world so that we could tune our ears into the good shepherd. Then he says, a stranger they will not follow. are you following the voice of this world? There are so many people that claim to be Jesus followers,

but live a life that is indistinguishable from this world that will always lead to death and destruction and lack every single time. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. What voice are you listening to? You see, listen to me, this is very important. This is for you, not for me. I mean, I need to receive it, but we don't, as a church, want anything from you.

We want the abundant life for you. And you do have competing voices in your life. You have the good shepherd's voice and you've got the stranger, the enemy's voice. And he's tricky, man. He is so tricky. And whose voice are you listening to? Because here's the thing. This is way beyond right and wrong.

We're not talking about right and wrong. Right and wrong will never sustain you. Okay? The little angel and the little devil talking to each other in your head like a cartoon will never. sustain you. We're talking about life and death. And here's the thing, when the good shepherd calls out to you, every single time you take a step of obedience in the direction of the good shepherd, you're always moving towards abundant life. And every single time we reject the voice of the good shepherd and say, I got this. I'm going to do this my way or I'm going to do this the world's way.

Your ways are outdated. My, I know me. And you begin to be disobedient. It always leads to death and destruction. I mean, take power, sex, and money. This world says, make much of me. I mean, our generation created the selfie. How pitiful is that? Things getting better? Doesn't seem so. Even though your pictures look great.

And yet, the Bible says, no, no, no, humble yourself and treat others as more important than you. These are different things. Sex, I'm going to talk about it for an hour next week. and you watch the number of people that, listen, if you're not a Christian, do whatever you want to do. You are the Lord of your life, by definition. I ain't here to judge you or tell you what to do. I'm here to invite you to the abundant life that Christ invites you into through his life, death, and resurrection.

I'm talking about people that claim to be Christians that on the one hand say, Jesus is the Lord of my life, but not in this area. I do what I want to do with who I want when I want. I'm telling you, there is death and destruction there. and the amount of self-justification that happens means that we're listening to the voice of this world. When it comes to money, this world says, hey, man, that's all mine. The good news of the shepherd is like, it's all gods and we are a steward.

And every time we hear the voice of the good shepherd and move in obedience towards what he is calling us to do, the end of that path is abundant life. So you may say, well, how do I recognize the good shepherd's voice? Okay, I'm new to this. I got good news. One, is his word. You want to hear the voice of the good shepherd?

Open your Bible, read it out loud. He is not trying to trick us. He loves us. He would give us this kind of instruction on how to live in God's world, God's way. Another way is God's people. You get around God's people. Because I don't know if you know this,

but sometimes if you just read the Bible all by yourself, it can say exactly what you wanted it to say. This is why the Bible calls us sheep. Because we're dumb. That's why we need a sheep. shepherd. So part of the reason you and I need to be in disciple groups is so that we have some other people around us to be like, nope, that's not what that means. I know that's what you want it to mean. Or have you looked at this part of God's word? You need to be around God's people. So he speaks to

his word, and he's never going to tell you something individually and privately that contradicts what he's told all of us publicly and corporately. Because God's not a liar. This is his word. And then even with that, even with that, there's still, there's still, there's something. an intimacy that has to be there. There's still that still small voice because the Spirit of God, if you're a believer in Jesus, the Spirit of God lives inside of you. And you can look through all the verses and it's not going to tell you specifically what zip code you should live in.

And it's not going to tell you specifically if you should take that job or not. It's not. So you've got to know him. You've got to abide in him. You've got to lean in and he will lean into you. So here's what the 10-10 life is all about. It's this simple. And what is he telling you to do?

What I'm dedicating my life to is try to be a communicator of his word that he might use me and this church as a conduit for the good shepherd to speak to his sheep. And here's the most important thing. I need you to hear his voice and do what he tells you to do. You know who the real preacher is at 1122?

The Spirit of God, not me. You guys are so gracious to me and so honoring to me, and I appreciate it. It's better in criticism. them. But I've never taught you anything. I can expose you to the Bible. Like I can tell you who wrote it and what the Greek word means and that kind of stuff. Only the spirit of God can expose his word to you. See the difference? So I need you to lean in like crazy and be like, all right. I'm saying sounds kind of charismatic. I grew up Baptist, so I don't know what to do right now, okay?

Here's what you do, man. You draw near to him, he'll draw near to you. You stay in his word, you get around his people. And your question is this, Lord, what is it that you're calling me to do? Like in this 10-10 life journey, maybe it's take a step of obedience, maybe it's join a disciple group, or go on a mission trip, or maybe it's a sell it all, be a full-time missionary, maybe it's help us and launch one of our next campuses. I don't know. Maybe there's a part of the abundant life from womb to tomb, and you've got to get involved, you've got to volunteer, whether it's coming alongside our first responders or fighting for

the right to life or serving our elderly and our senior adult living facilities, or maybe you're right at that retirement age, and you thought. you were going to spend the rest of your life like playing golf and collecting seashells. And you can collect a couple shells and play a little bit of golf, but you're going to leverage all that you have for the sake of the kingdom. I don't get to tell you that. What this journey is about is about you leaning in and doing whatever it is that he has called you to do. And then the scary one for so many people, it's not scary for generous people, is in five weeks,

we're going to come back to this card right here. And this is a tangible expression. and in regards to our resources of what we're going to do. And I don't want a thing from you. I want you to hear the voice of the good shepherd and do what he tells you to do. There's kind of three categories of people when it comes to this card. Some of you are new. You didn't get an opportunity to hop on this 10-10 journey with us last year and you're new.

So welcome. You'll make a one-year commitment. Some of you made a commitment last year, and you kind of took your eye off the prize, and so you're going to need to pray to finish. strong. And then some folks, this is where Gretchen and I are. We made a commitment stretch like crazy. And yet we believe this year God is calling us to increase our commitment. Again, I need you to just do whatever it is that he tells you to do. You see, there's two ways to come up with what you're going to write down on this card five weeks from now. One is reason.

There's nothing wrong with reason. Get your spreadsheet, get your short pencil, good calculator, get that little app, shows you some of you've been paying for Netflix three times a month, cut out some of that stuff, move a little over here, and very reasonably you can come up with a number. That's fine. There's another way, and it's revelation, where you just say, all right, God, my yes is on the table. What are you calling me to do? In time, talent, treasure, all of these things, what are you calling me to do? Because the abundant life is found in our steps of obedience, in the direction that the good shepherd's calling us.

One of my favorite lines in all of the Bible, John 2.5, I talk about it all the time. In John 2.5, in case you knew the Bible study, Jesus and his mom and the disciples are at a wedding. In Cana, they run out of wine. It was a big deal. Mary goes to Jesus, son, they've run out of wine. He's like, it's not my time yet. And then she gives the best advice in the world. She gathers the servants together. Not only is the best advice in the world, it's the best definition of what a disciple is. gets the servants together, she points at her son Jesus, and she tells the servants, do whatever he tells you to do. That's the 10-10 life right there. I want you to do whatever it is that

he tells you to do. And here's what, in case you do to Bible study, the next few things he told them to do, they didn't make any sense in the natural. He's like, all right, boys, go get the stone jars. What? They're heavy. Go get them. So you go get them, roll them over here. Fill them up with water. They look in. They're like, man, there's already water in there. People have been washing their hands in there for four days. You ever watch the chosen? People are nasty. He didn't take showers two times a day. There's stuff floating in there. He's like, I get it. Just pour some water in it. If they fill them up with water? Go get a ladle. Who's got a ladle? They've got to track down a ladle. Dip some out. They're like, there's something floating in there.

Okay. Now take it and give it to the master of ceremonies. In case you knew the Bible study, you even know this miracle. This is where Jesus turns water to wine. Everything he told him to do sounded crazy in the moment. And little did they know there's a miracle on the other side of about five steps of obedience that didn't make any sense in it. Here's why I bring it up. Do you know what hangs on the balance for you? Do you have any idea what hangs on the balance if you will just take that step of obedience?

I mean, this church has been built on the shoulders of 10,000 steps of obedience by generations that have gone before us. And you have no idea what hangs in the balance. You know how I know? back in the 80s there was a JV football coach in Dillon, South Carolina. He ended up leading me to Christ at this camp. One time I asked him, Coach Lee, how'd you get to be in charge of Camp Pine Hill?

And he said, son, I got up at a deacon's meeting. And I went to the bathroom when I come up, I was back, I was a pastor of Camp Pine Hill. He said, don't lead a meeting when they're voting on stuff, right? And he's a football coach. I don't know if you know about high school football. Summer's kind of busy. A lot of two of days. Back before everybody got wimpy, we used to have two a days, all right?

He had 100 reasons to say no, but he thought God was telling him to say yes. For the next 18 years, he dedicated his summers to this little cruddy camp. If you saw that little cruddy camp, you would think, what, that can't make a difference? A bunch of little rednecks from Dylan and Benisville and Marion. Anything good came out of there? And he dedicated his life to it for one reason, because that's what he thought Jesus told him to do. You realize everything that we celebrated so far in this 10-10 life? All those prisoners getting baptized, all those prisoners getting saved,

all those thousands of people that get baptized, all your one-mores that have come to Christ, the marriage is saved, the little babies that have been rescued around the world, the babies that have been given an opportunity to be born, all of that. You could trace it all the way back to like 1981 when a JV football coach takes one step of obedience in the direction of the good shepherd and say,

I'll take that meaningless role. And every single one of us are here because of that. So for the next five weeks. And hopefully it becomes a pattern for the rest of our lives. That we will do whatever it is the good shepherd tells us to do. Would you please stand? Let me pray for you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father,

God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. And God, we thank you that you came on a rescue mission. You did not just send us a set of instructions. You sent us a Savior and a shepherd. Lord, would you give us the supernatural ability to hear his voice, whether it's through your word, whether it's through a sermon, whether it's through our disciple group, whether you speak directly to our hearts in that still small voice?

And then by the power of the Spirit, would you give us the courage to do whatever it is that you tell us to do, especially when we don't understand it, knowing that that is abundant life. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So church, we're going to sing. At all of our locations,

we sing the same songs to the same God at the same time. It's one big corporate prayer, God, I look to you. That's what we're praying. And we're going to bring our ties and our offerings, and we're going to pray. And I don't know about you, but I need to pray. I need to continuously come before God and say, what is it that you are calling me to do?

So we would invite you to do that, to sing, to bring, to pray. Let's respond.