The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Here I Am, Send Me

Episode Date: January 5, 2020

When we “see” the ONE true God… 1. We confess our sins 2. We surrender our lives and are saved 3. We are sent

Amen and amen. How we doing, church? Everybody good? Happy New Year to you. You're going to need a lot. You're going to need your Bible. I hope you have that. Isaiah chapter 6 is where we will be this morning. You also need this vision guide or pamphlet. We're going to walk through that a little bit. And there's some teaching notes in case you want to write something down. And I hope that you will. And I want to say, happy new year. You look great. Congratulations. You are batting a thousand on church attendance so far this year. All right. We'll check it out next week and see where you're at.

But hey, you already look skinnier, too. So way to go. Whatever you're committed to, I'm sure it's going great. So this is a very important weekend in the life of our church. This is the way we kick off every year. We kick it off by celebrating new life with baptisms. Wasn't that incredible? Praise God.

And then also we just lay out the vision of where we feel like God is leading us as a church. So this year for 2020. And our vision is that we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. But the reason we're going to dive into Isaiah chapter 6 is this, is that the ultimate vision that God has for us is not about the activities that we are going to be participating in this year. The ultimate vision that God has for us is a vision of him and his glory. And all of the activities that we put on here at 1122 are simply a means to that end, the end being a vision of him and his glory. Let me read this from Isaiah chapter 6, and then we'll go through the vision pamphlet, and then we'll come back to it. But Isaiah chapter 6 says this, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and above him stood the seraphim, and each had six wings, and with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and one called to another and said,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. You see, though we are going to go through the things that we believe God has called us to do as a church in 2020, I just don't want you to miss the point. The point, the real vision is not that we have this grand idea of all the great things that 1122 is going to do. That is not the point. What we are actually talking about is that maybe all of these things that we're going to do as a church would open our eyes to see God for who he really is, and the vision that we would get

would be the vision of God and his glory in all of the earth. And in our question just simply is this, and God, so what is our part in your glory filling all of the earth? And I'm going to tell you this. God has already done through this movement called 1122 exceedingly more than you could ever hope or imagine. that God has brought a whole lot of glory to himself in all of these things. To the point, I almost changed the name of this from, instead of calling it vision, calling it direction. Because this is just the direction we're going, but it sounded kind of goofy to have like a direction Sunday, so I'm sticking with vision. Everybody following here?

But just don't miss the big picture here. The big picture is not what our church is doing. The big picture is what God is doing to fill this earth with his glory. And the question is, how do we play a role in it? Now, if you'll open up to the front page here, one of the things we need to do before we look forward to where we're going is we've got to hit pause and look over our shoulder to see where we've been. And we're not very good at this as Americans. I'm just going to be honest, okay? But oftentimes in the scriptures what God would call people to do when the nation of Israel would experience God in a unique and holy way, like when they crossed over the Jordan or they crossed through the Red Sea or when Jacob wrestled with God, then God would instruct his people, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you need to stop and build an altar here.

And the reason that you need to build an altar here is because there's an upcoming generation. And when your son and when your daughter sees this altar and says, Mom, Dad, what is this altar here for? Then you will be able to look over your shoulder and see God's faithfulness in the past. And by looking at God's faithfulness in the past, it will stir and build up your faith to trust God for his faithfulness in the future. Now listen, man, your windshield always needs to be bigger than your rearview mirror, but you need both. And a lot of times churches where they get stuck as their rearview mirror gets bigger than their windshield. Does that make sense? But if you don't have a rearview mirror to just see God's faithfulness in the past, then sometimes it can be hard to trust them in the future.

And all this page is to simply glorify God for his faithfulness over this past year. by God's sovereignty, we are in the midpoint of this one initiative, this two-year discipleship journey where we're asking the fundamental question, is he the one thing that drives everything? We were believing God for $52 million in resources over two years to accomplish everything that we believe God has called us to accomplish, and God exceeded our hopes and dreams there, and through our generosity, it looks like we're going to take in over $60 million. in resources over the two years to accomplish all that God has called us to accomplish. Amen?

And to sort of commemorate that, every life needs a soundtrack. And so we recorded an album, and that album released on Thursday night at midnight. And if you have not downloaded it yet, you could go to iTunes right now. Like, while I'm preaching, you should download the album while I'm preaching. Do you understand? Because at one point, we were like in the top ten, we were like number nine. and I want to beat all my friends' churches who are also on the top ten.

You understand? So it's not a competition as long as we win it. You understand? So download it right now. And it really is an incredible album. And last year, this is crazy, 704 people proclaimed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and took a step of obedience to be baptized as a believer.

Praise God. Now, again, I'm not trying to compare, but just to sort of contextualize, the average denominational church in America has one baptism a year. And in our church last year, 704 people. And in 2019, we had 1,927 people signify a first-time decision to follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 1,927. This is how amazing this is. You should probably clap more than you just did for 1,900 people getting saved.

Do you understand? When we went to print, we have to go to print in November, and it was 1652, and from the weeks that we had to turn in the numbers to print these things, to the point where we got to the end of the year after three more weekends of services and inviting people to surrender to Jesus, another 250 people surrender to Jesus. I'm just telling you, you can't make this stuff up that God is doing a thing. In 2019, we launched our Fleming Island campus. And I was with Fleming Island last weekend, and I'm telling you, the spirit is alive and well in Fleming Island.

Praise God. That place is packed out to the point where we had to start 722 services at Fleming Island. So all you Sunday morning Fleming Island people, look around. It's jammed, right? We need you to move to 722. It's going good, though. It's going good. We also launched our second prison campus at Union Correctional, praise God.

It's averaging about 80 men. And in 2019, at our Baker campus, we had to go to a second service. So we outgrew the chapel for one service. So now we were in multiple services at Baker Correctional. And last year we baptized 67 men at our Baker Correctional service. At our Bay Meadows campuses, we've had a campus. We've had to go to three Sunday. morning services, so they're in a brand new schedule there, which is pretty awesome.

And then this last year, we planted 58 churches around the world on the way to plant 150 over this one initiative. Praise God. That we've opened up services for our middle schoolers at all of our locations to reach one more generation and in regards to reaching one more generation in 2019 about a month or so ago. you sponsored another 2,108 compassion kids for a total of 7,099 compassion kids that are sponsored by the Church of 1122,

which moves us into first place. And it matters to me. When I go speak a conference, and J.D. there, he's there, and David Platt and all these famous guys, I'm like, listen, according to God's scorecard, we're in first, you understand? So keep writing your books.

All right, so we'll just keep sponsoring the least of these. So God is doing, and man, people ask me, I don't know, make much of Jesus, he draws men and women unto himself. So please don't miss that. The vision for 2020 is not about what 1122 is going to do. The vision is all about we as a movement are a means to his end. That's it. And in 2020, we're just going to keep all being a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm not going to walk through this whole thing.

It is a mini book. Women, I know you are going to go home and you're going to pray for me and our elders and our other pastors. And deacons, I know you will because of your faithfulness from the empty tomb until today. Man, it's been the women of the church that have been the prayer warriors. Praise God. Now, men, put this by the toilet so you'll read it too, okay? I ain't even kidding.

It's a good read. Then you'll be there. Put it in there so you can read through the details. Because I got to get to Isaiah 6. I'm not going to walk through all the details of this, but just a couple of highlights. That in the One Initiative, we are one church in a whole bunch of different locations,

and we are committed to reach one more. So in 2020, we are going to open up the newly redesigned San Pablo campus. So all of you that drive by here are at our San Pablo campus, every day you drive by it gets bigger and bigger. It's like a Lego set over there. And so everybody in town is asking me, man, what are you building? And here's what I say.

I'm just building a seat for you. That's it. We're just building a seat for you, man. Why? Because, I mean, look around. We're jammed out. We're jammed out. We can't fit any more people in here.

And all of us are going over there so all the space that we're in can go to that one more generation that really, really needs them. Amen? And so we'll open our San Pablo campus. We're going to launch a new campus in North Jacks, kind of up by the airport area, on our way to at least 10 campuses over the next several years. We're hard at work right now at looking and opening a campus in St. Augustine, so pray about that. That's people driving an hour right there. We're working very hard on securing some land in order to put a campus in St. John's County, but like I've told you, you St. John's people are proud of your dirt, so you need to pray about that.

God is doing a work in other places like Jessup, Georgia. You've never even heard. Well, maybe you have heard of it, okay? We did a Christmas in a box. at Jessup in a drive-in theater and 171 people showed up for that thing. Okay, you can't make this up. God's just doing some stuff. And then we're also looking at opening our next prison campus. Be praying for us as we figure out what that means. The first weekend of December, I went to our Baker campus to preach live and all the head honchos from Florida Correctional. Everybody's in

charge of all the prisons were there, all of them. There's a bunch of them. And, man, by God's grace, the guy that's in charge of all of it, is a graduate of Wheaton and a believer in Jesus, and he sat through one of our services and just came up to me at the end and said, you have keys to every prison in Florida, do whatever you want to do. Praise God, okay? So help us figure that out. Now, if you'll turn to page 8, I want you to see this, because this matters, because I need you to, you should take a picture of this and make it your screensaver on your phone, okay? Forget your kids this year. This is it.

These are 1122 life. These events matter. You were not saved by a church, but you were saved into the church. I hope you know what that means. You're not saved by your church attendance, but once you become a Christian, you become a part of the body of Christ, and this is a part of his local expression of his body,

and these are like our family events. In every family, hopefully you have rhythms. You do have rhythms. intentional or unintentional. And the more intentional you are about your family rhythms, the healthier your family will be. That'll preach, thanks. That deserves an amen. It's not even in the sermon, but it's just true. Well, in the same way, in our church family, we have these intentional rhythms. We have these big rock events that I need you to schedule your life around because they matter like crazy. That next year, in 2020, we will have Christmas Eve services at our campuses in 20.

Just the way the calendar works out. And again, those of us here, we'll be at our new San Pablo thing over there. And so we'll fill that puppy up. And what we do for Christmas Eve is we just celebrate God with us. And then Easter this year is on April the 12th. Listen, Pastor Stone told me if we ever elect him like King of America, he's just going to pick the date for Easter and it's going to be stuck there. And it has to do also with the players.

I can't remember exactly his voodoo math to get there. But until then, it changes every year. in April the 12th, we'll do resurrection services, starting on Thursday, we'll do Friday, we'll do Friday, we'll do Thursday, we'll do Saturday, we'll do Sunday, it'll be all that whole weekend, that's April the 12th. And what we do is on Easter, we celebrate God for us. And then on May 17th, we will celebrate Beach Baptism, where thousands of us gather together at the beach and watch hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people declare that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior. And at Beach baptism, we're together at Beach Baptism, we'll gather. And watch hundreds and hundreds of people declare that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior. And at Beach baptism, we celebrate God in us. And then this fall, September 9th through the 13th, we will have saturated. It's our fall revival. And what we do in saturated is we just try to turn down the noise of this world so that we can turn up our ears to hear God's voice in our life. And our hope and prayer is that we would be saturated in the presence of God so that when we go out from this place, we could pour ourselves out. But the self that we're pouring out is not ourself, but we're pouring out Jesus because we can

as saturated in his word. And so my friend J.D. Greer is going to be here. Matt Carter's going to be here. And there'll be some other folks, too. But we need to be here for that. And what we celebrate at saturated is God through us. So at Christmas Eve, we celebrate God with us. And Easter, it's God for us.

And Beach Baptism, it's God in us. And saturated, it's God through us. And then you see Family Camp. And Family Camp is God help us. Now, you can sign up for Family Camp right now, and I need you to go ahead and make one little alteration to family camp. The dates have changed June 18 to 21st to what they are, June 18 to 21st. And if you go to that website, you can sign up right now.

And listen, it is aimed at reaching one more generation, but everybody that is a part of the family needs to be there. We need college kids and single folks and grandparents and aunts and uncles. We need all the family of 1122 to be at family camp. don't you plan a vacation during these times unless your vacation is family can persaturated or something like this. All right? Again, take a picture of it, put it on your phone. You have a family event on those dates, so please don't miss them.

Now, I'm going to say this again. These events that we're having at the church are not the point. The point of the church is not to have a bunch of events where a bunch of people gather together and in joy than them go home. Man, the point of the church is that we would make disciples that make disciples for the glory of God. That's what we exist to do. That we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. That we want to make disciples that make disciples to the glory of God. And I'll tell you the thing that keeps me up at night. I'll tell you the thing that when I wake up in the morning, kind of freaks me out a little bit.

It's not preaching sermons. It's not. I mean, I take it very seriously, but I'm not. I take it very seriously, but you're the best group of people on the planet to preach to because I tell you every week it's moderately delivered exceptionally received. So expect more of that. It's not the leadership decisions that I have to make, all right, though I take my role very, very seriously. I am surrounded by this unbelievable board of elders, and I have some of the most talented, godly men and women serving on staff alongside of me. So I don't think I could screw this thing up too bad by making a bad decision. I think they would save me from myself. The thing that keeps me up at night is this, is my responsibility to make disciples to make disciples for the glory of God.

The book of Hebrew says one day I will stand before God and give an account for the discipleship of about 12,000 people right now. How in the world do I do that? I can barely disciple the two little humans that share my last name and half my chromosomes at my own house. How in the world am I going to get, you know, all these people. Some of you, I've never even met in three dimensions. How in the world do you do this? Well, everything that we do at 1122 is to that end. So towards the beginning of this on page 5, I want you to see this.

Hopefully you have seen this little icon before. We call it a discipleship journey. everybody we hire all of our staff and pastors and even the people we don't hire but we just employ them for free like elders and deacons are all to this end that if we call ourselves a follower of Jesus then we are on a journey whereby we follow after Jesus and if you ever stop taking steps in your discipleship then by definitions you are no longer following after Jesus This is why we are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so, I would love for you to go on your app, if you haven't downloaded it, you should, after you buy the album. And at the bottom of the app, the thing says discipleship tools.

And if you click on that, this little page will come up. I know you can't see my phone, but this page will come up. And you can see a 10-minute explanation from me on the... what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And then you can hit the download the tool button, and this tool comes up. And it is diagnostic questions in and around our vision at 1122. In regards to what does it look like for a disciple to love all people? Are you serving and are you sharing?

What does it look like for you to discover your identity in Jesus Christ? And it talks about stewardship and salvation. And it asks questions about what does it look like to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ. Because the disciple that's deepening their walk with Jesus is deepening their faith in God and their deepening in the faith family. And then the key question is this. And what step do you need to take? What step? Please don't try to do six steps at one time. Some of you are going to do this in the gym this week. Okay? You hadn't worked out since the Bush administration and now you're like, no, I'm in. And you're going to go to the gym tomorrow. You didn't go

yet. I know New Year's has already happened, but you're like, nah, but I'm still off. So you're going to go tomorrow, and all you need to do, you need to just do a little bit. Like, just go to the parking lot, walk in and walk out, might be the first step for you. Because some of you're going to get in there, and you're going to do it all in all kind of different directions, and the next day, you can't sit on the toilet, and you're like, I can't move. All right, sometimes you try to do that in your own discipleship journey, and you go from zero to everything in one minute, and then you flame out. The key thing with the discipleship journey is simply this. It's what is one step that God is calling me to take.

In 2020, the step that I want every single one of us to consider is this. We understand that we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ, and a disciple of Jesus loves all people, discovers their identity in Christ, and deepens their faith walk with God. And every single believer is sent into this world, the gospel of Jesus. And my hope and my goal for this year for 2020 is that we would move the needle in our church, not just in increasing our seating capacity, which we have done exponentially over the years. In 2019, we grew by over 2,500 people. That's unbelievable, okay? And I believe God has called us

and equipped us to be a five-talent church, but in 2020, we are not just going to increase, increase our seating capacity, but we are going to increase our sending capacity. I mean, Church of 1122, every single one of us are sent into your neighborhoods and into the four corners of the earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I need every single one of us to ask that question. God, where are you sending me? Where are you sending me? And I need every single one of us to not pre-decide the answer of, well, I can only go here,

but to just say, I'm going to put my yes on the table and, God, I want to watch you put it on the map, wherever that may be. And again, for some of you, it will be the Congo. And I mean literally the Congo with our friends leaving Tyler. And for some of you, it'll be to carpool line in PTA. And they're both very dangerous. PTA, honestly, way more dangerous for your soul than the same. the Congo. I mean, you get to heaven both ways. Congo probably a lot quicker than PTA,

but our culture is damning to the soul. It just is. But the key question is, God, where are you sending me? Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. What we're going to discover here is, what do you do when you see God for who he really is? Isaiah chapter 6. I already read this. We're going to read it again. It says in the year that King Uzziah died, the reason that Isaiah puts this here is because Uzziah was a real guy. This is a real time and place. This is not a made-up story. Uzziah had been the king for about 52 years. This is 740 BC or so. And I think a part of what's going on here is Isaiah is just going to temple, just going to worship one day. And he's seeing the transfer of power for this king, who's a pretty good king most of his life, got a little

wonky there at the end. And Isaiah wants us to do. know that in this vision that he sees of God is though though kings and leaders and prime ministers and presidents change and change, the king of kings never changes. The king of king never changes. And in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple and above him stood the seraphim.

Now, these are, this is the only place this angelic being is mentioned, but please, I mean, Hallmark has crushed our understanding of what the angels are. Don't think a little chubby kid with some loose diapers and a bow whispering in God's ears with little baby angels. Seraphim literally just means burning ones. So these are these on fire things, and we're going to find out in a little while that when they talk, the foundations of the temple shake. I can think about is, you know, especially if us live out here towards the beach, you know how like, you know the blue angels are coming, but you're, you know, the blue angels are coming, but you don't keep a record of like, I think it's in two days. You're like, are they here

this year? And then one day you wake up and it's, and you're like, oh, they're here. We live about, I think, seven miles off the ocean, and I think they turn around at my house. And when you see these things, they're flaming and then they just, the windows are shaking, and then they just change direction and take off. They're at least like that. These on fire, loud, things in the sky, that's what the seraphim are. and above him stood the seraphim like blue angels each had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew now these are sinless beings they are not part of fallen man or fallen angels and yet even in their sinlessness they cannot look on the perfect face of

god and one called to another and said holy holy holy is the lord of host the whole earth is full of His glory. What do you do when you see God for who he really is? The first thing you do is you worship. The first thing you do is you worship. And they worship God by singing holy, holy, holy. Now when the Bible repeats itself, it's the Bible's version of saying like very, very holy.

Like in the book of Genesis, when Joseph is thrown into a pit, the English translation says he is thrown into a very large pit. In the Hebrew, it doesn't say a very large pit. It says he was thrown into a pit pit pit. It's a way of saying it's a real big pit. Or in I think it's Second Kings, the Bible is talking about pure gold. In the English translation says pure gold. But in the Hebrew, it just says gold, gold, gold.

It was goldly gold. And so here, the seraphim say, holy, holy, holy. They're trying to expand our understanding of the holiness of God. It's not like all the other words holy in the Bible, where it says like holy ground or holy man or holy covenant because that's just one holy. But this is, the holiness of God is holy, holy. Holiness means like set apart. It actually means cut.

But God's holiness is not just set apart. The holiness of God means he is one of a kind. There is no one like him. And they sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his. glory. You see, when you see God for who he is in his glory, it changes everything about everything about everything. And this word glory, man, again, it's a hard one to translate. It literally means heavy or weighty. That's what it means. And what it simply means is this, is that God is the most

real reality in all of your reality. It's like if you were to take a heavy object and drop it into a pool of water, the heaviness of that object, when it hits the water, it displaces all of the water and it sinks straight to the bottom. It causes like a water quake. Or if you had a sheet of ice and you took this heavy object, this glorious object, and you dropped it on the ice, it would break through the ice and it would displace the ice. It would move the ice out of the way. Or if a meteor hits the earth and it's heavier than the earth, then it causes the earth to quake and it displaces everything because of its weightiness. This is the glory of God.

For all you, like, 70s hippies. Remember when somebody would say something, and you would be like, whoa, that's heavy. That's what you were saying. Our current, probably medically induced conversation, it was a little surfacy, but what you said is heavier, and it displaced everything else that we're talking to.

And the angels say, when you behold the glory of God, God's glory lands on you in such a way that it displaces or quakes all the rest of your life, and you can't be the same anymore. Then they go on to say this, and the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. Church, let me ask you, when's the last time the foundations of your life has been shaken because you beheld the glory of God? there's a big old difference between God as a concept and God as the most real reality in all of your reality. There's a big old difference between I believe that God exists and discovering and deepening a relationship with Jesus Christ, his son. These are two completely different things. You see, one is an experience of the glory of God that shakes you in such a way that it displaces the whole rest of your life and you will be undone and you'll never be the same.

The other is when you have just this concept of God as a theological reality, and in that scenario, you are the most glorious one, you are the heaviest one, you are the weightiest one, because you can hold a concept of God in your hand, and you can decide by which rules your God has to obey or not. You could just take the parts of his book and say, I like this, I don't like that. I do what I want. By the way, this is Southern Christianity. show up to church once a week, not once a week, you don't go once a week,

once every few weeks or so, depending on the football schedule and what other options you have, that you say, I don't know, I believe that there's a God because hell is hot, forever's a long time, who wants that, I need my ticket out of here, but from here to there,

I'm going to do what I want with who I want, when I want, but I believe that there's a God. That's fine. You'll go to hell, but it's whatever. That is cultural Christianity. I can believe all the right things about it, him and you've never been quaked by him. All I want for you is to meet God.

That's all I want for you. I want for you to meet him, encounter him in such a way. Look, man, Isaiah's going to the temple. Last thing he expected to meet at the temple was God. That's how a bunch of people go to church. I expect to meet your friends, hope and pray this, play at least one of my favorite songs, hope to see, feel better about myself, or if you come here, feel worse about yourself, but at least you feel good about yourself for going to get beaten up on for an hour.

and then just go to my car and have lunch. Please, please, please don't show up in the presence of God and not be quaked by His presence. I hope you see the difference. When is the last time you were quaked at the soul level? You see, every believer, whether you can remember the moment or not, every believer in Jesus went at some point from this place where God was just a concept that they agreed with cognitively

to God was their father. They met through the blood of Jesus, and it shook us at the soul. soul level. Anybody with me here? That's the vision for the church. Everything else is just a means to that end. And I said, look what he says. He sees God for who he is. And I said, woe is me. Not wow, look at that. But when he sees God for who he really is, he says, whoa is me. For I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of clean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of host. The second thing you do when you see God,

the first thing you do is worship. The second thing you do is you repent. You repent that when we see God for who He really is and who He really is, let me tell you God who He really is Jesus. That when you see God for who he really is, then you begin to understand this holy, just and perfect God would love you enough because He is love, not because you're so lovable, because he is love, that he would send his only begotten son to do for you what you could not do for yourself. And God made him who was without sin to be sin for us, and we would be made as righteousness. That when you see God for who he really is, that you would understand that God demonstrated his love for us and this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And when you see that, you don't go, wow, look at that.

You go, woe is me. When you find yourself in the presence of a holy and perfect God, you don't think more of yourself. you begin to see how utterly wicked, crooked, sinful, and depraved that we are. Sometimes I get a little feedback when I call us all wretched black-hearted sinners. Pastor, I don't like when you call us wretched. You know why? Because you're a prideful, wretched idolater. You are.

And you nana and your baby. Everybody. And I'm the worst in the room. I'm the worst in the room. When I was 16 years old and I got saved and somebody that said, what do you think your life would be like when you're 46 walking with Jesus

and they would have given me the information to get them married. That girl, these are your kids, you're a pastor of a church, yada, yada, yada, yada. I would have thought, sin. What sin? I'd be crushing it. My experience, though, is the deeper and deeper

my understanding of the gospel is the deeper and deeper my understanding of my own depravity is. Woe is me. Woe is me. And simultaneous to that, the more I deepen my walk with Jesus by abiding in His Word, my understanding of His majesty and His glory and His holiness is ever increasing. And so the gap between my depravity and His holiness is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger in my life.

And so what do you do, praise God, when that happens if you are in Christ, the only thing that can bridge that chasm is the ever-increasing cross in the life of the believer. This is why we run back to the gospel over and over and over and over. What do you do when you see God for who he is? You worship and you repent. Martin Luther said, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance. I'm not talking about resolutions. I'm not anti-res.

You should make some resolutions. We could all stand to lose a few, okay? So quit drinking so much and quit eating out of, you know, from clowns and go to bed early. and quit watching so much Netflix, all the things you want to do. No problem, all right? Quit vaping, whatever stupid things you're doing. Stop. I got a few.

I'll stop for a minute. Because resolution is about me and my resolve. Repentance is simply running back to the cross because I need help. That's what repentance is. So let me ask you, where do you need to repent? Where do you need to repent? And the place, here's somewhere to pay attention. to the place that you were most defensive that's probably the place that you need to repent and then

one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar now in this moment what do you think Isaiah think is coming his way I just saw the holiness of God I just confess woe to me I'm a liar amongst a bunch of liars and then here comes the blue angel with the foundation shaking. And he's not thinking, oh, this is probably going to go well. No, man, it's a burning coal. He can't even hold with his hands, so he's got some tongs, and he's coming at Isaiah's face. He's got to be thinking, I'm a dead man.

But instead, he receives the mercy of God, and he touched to my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sins atoned for. Now, a question, how in the heck does a burning coal atone for sin? Hey, Baptist, help me out here. What can wash away my sin? That's about half here. I bet Fleming crushed that thing. Okay.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus can atone for sin. And the next part of that is what can make me whole again. Same thing. Ain't no burning coal is making you hold. Well, here's the deal. Notice where it comes from. He takes it from the altar in the temple that we do a burnt offering in place of us. What Isaiah is pointing to here is the substitutionary atoning sacrifice of Jesus at the cross. And this coal is representative. of what Christ did at the cross. He didn't just die for us. He died instead of us. And for anybody that would believe that when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me.

Two things happened. Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. For anyone who would believe that when Christ died on the cross, that counted for me. Everything that you have done in your past has been taken away

and anything that you would do in your future has been taken away, not covered. taken away and atone for. Atone means payment. That's what it means. Paid for. It also means like at one. Because of what Christ did on the cross,

then you and I, for anyone who would believe that you and I could be at one with this holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts. You see, when this happened, the temple shook. The temple shook. 2,700 years later, this temple would shake again. But this time when this temple shook, it was because Jesus was crucified on Galgotha, right outside of the city. And he pushes up on his nail-pierced feet, and he says,

Teletalistai, it is finished. In other words, your guilt has been taken away and your sins have been atoned for. And just like here, the temple shook in a different way, the temple shakes. But this time when the temple shakes, the curtain that separated, to the presence of God from the unholy people of God, that curtain was torn from the top to the bottom, not bottom to top to top because of what man did, but top to bottom because it is finished to tell us die.

And you and I, whoever is in Christ, whoever believes that when Jesus says it's paid for, that counted for our guilt and that counted for our sin. And whoever would believe in him, then we could be face to face with our everlasting God. So what do you do when you see God for who he is? You worship and you repent and you surrender. you surrender

because your sin will be atoned for you got two options self-atonement is an option you can pay for your sin when we sin against an everlasting God it will require an everlasting punishment and you can take the self-atonement which is an everlasting torment

and punishment in a literal and forever place called hell and for all of the rest of your existence you will be dying and never dead and that will atone. Or you could take the substitutionary atonement, which is what Christ did for me on the cross by faith counts for anyone,

anyone who would believe. There is no list of sin or sinners that does not count in the everyone category. So what do you do when you see God for who he is? You worship, you repent, you repent, you see. surrender and then lastly and I heard the voice of the Lord saying who shall I sin and who will go for us and then I said here I am send me and he said go so what do you do when you are quaked by the presence of God you worship and you repent and you surrender your life to him and forth you are sent that when you are saved that when you are saved

you were sent. And the primary reason that we are sent to take the gospel to the ends of the earth is not primarily because of the needs all over the planet. It's not. Though the needs are great. As we speak right now, there are two billion people in our world that don't even have access to the gospel of Jesus. These are called unreached people.

And I know some people are like, aren't there unreached people in Jacksonville? No. Everybody in Jacksonville could come to 1122 today. They have access. Are there unsaved people? For sure. Thousands and thousands right here in and around Jacksonville. But that's different than unreached.

But the primary reason that we go is not because of the incredible need of the people, but the primary reason that we are sent is because of the glory of God. The glory of God demands and deserves that all of the cosmos worship him. And the reason that we are sent is because the entire world isn't working. worshiping him. And our sovereign Savior does not send us because he needs us. He sends us because he loves us. And he has called us to partner with him and him redeeming the entire world. So what's the point? When we see the one true God, we confess our sins, we surrender our lives and are saved, and we are sent. Or you worship, you repent, you surrender, and you are sent. Now the question is,

sent where. We're going to spend the majority of the time next week talking about that, okay? But we're all sent. If you're saved, you're sent. And again, some of us will be to the Congo and some of us will be to your school boards and some of us will be to work. But every single one of us are sent. Charles Furgeon says that you are either, he said, every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. You see, Acts 1-8 says this, but you will be able to be. You know, receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Now the question is, have you received power when has the Holy Spirit come upon you? And the answer is, if you were in Christ, yes. For every person that put their faith in Jesus, the Spirit of God dwells in you and you have the power

of the resurrection, the power of Pentecost. You have that power living in you. You don't have to wait for the blue angels to show up in your bedroom one night and zoom around and hit your mouth with a cold. It happened the moment you surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And so when that happens, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses. In Jerusalem, that's right here. Like, I need you to start thinking about what does it look like for me to be a witness in my office? Do the people in your office need Jesus? The people you work with need Jesus? Come on, anybody? Most of the people I do work with, sometimes I feel that way. Lord, y'all need Jesus, people, okay?

Jerusalem, Judea, we need to think like this part of our world. In Samaria, you know what Samaria is? Samaria for you is those people. Whatever that means to you. Could be different political affiliation. Could be the neighbor across the street that you can't stand. Could be your in-laws, whatever it is. And then the next word may be the most important word in that.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, what's the next word? Everybody wants to say or Or the ends of the earth So I'll do this instead of that Well God is not imprisoned by the tyranny of the or He lives in the genius of the ant That every single one of us are called here

And over there and to those people And to the very ends of the earth And so We've been talking about this a little bit But in 2020 we're going to turn up the dial over the next few years we want to send 100 long-term missionaries to the ends of the earth a hundred long-term missionaries i need you to start asking this question right now is that me is that me and i know some of you're like well in my stage of life that can't be me no no no that's different

that you have a concept of god and you are weightier than him and your glory is preceding his when you are quaked by the one true god this goes the other way and you simply ask this question God, here I am, send me. And trust that he will send you wherever he desires for his glory and your joy. And what I need us to understand, Church of 1122, we are responsible for all of those hundred missionaries. Some of you will go. All of us will pay for it, and all of us will pray about it. You see, I'm a recovering Baptist, and the Baptists are crushing it and getting the gospel to the ends of the earth.

And I am talking right now with J.D. Greer, the president of the SBC, about how we can partner with that. And if we can partner without being one, that's just what I'm trying to do, okay? My card's on the table. I just don't want to be one. I'll go with, just don't make me one of you, okay? So, but hey, if the tomb is empty, anything's possible, so we'll see. But 1122, what we're saying is we're all sent. You can't think like, listen, man, in my Baptist upbringing, nobody said this explicitly,

but this is how it came across. The missionaries were those people. And then you're just like, please don't make it me, please don't make it me, please don't make it. And if you didn't make it you, then you gave a guilt offering to pay for it. It's not me. Here, take that to Africa. It's peace. Okay? No, no, no. That's not how this goes. Every single one of us say, here I am. Send me. In fact, we just started a ministry at 1122 called 18, 25. This is for anybody that's 18 to 25. We don't call it young adults because every church with the young adults, ain't that young and don't act like adults.

Okay, so, I probably shouldn't say that, but it's just true. You can say ultra amen. It's just true. And let me tell you the point of this group. The point of this group, is not youth group 2.0. The point of this group is not to delay adolescence. I actually think the 18 to 25 year olds will grow up faster than the rest of us because you'll understand the glory of God more than your comfort. And at a time when you have less responsibility than you'll ever have in your life, maybe that's the time for two years you go and partner with one of our church plants around the world.

And listen to me, and the rest of us are going to pay for it and pray for it. You understand? This is all of our responsibility. So 100 missionaries. Next, we're going to continue to plant churches. All over the world. One of the things that I love about what we're doing is this weekend at all of our locations we'll have, I don't know, 12,000 people or so.

Although it's New Year's it might be 15. You never know. It's Jacksonville. 3,000 people will take church off one day. Don't worry about that. We do. All right. At our global church plants, the attendance at those churches and the attendance at 1122

are virtually the same. Praise God. Praise God. And we are planting churches in places that are strategic so that they can be launched pads into unreached people groups, like places in East Africa, places in the Middle East, places in the Amazon in Brazil. We will continue to do that. And then lastly, I need you to go on a short-term mission experience.

Maybe you've heard the rumor that you've got three years to go on a mission trip or you've got to get out. Let me explain it. It's absolutely true. Okay? It just is. Now, it doesn't mean you have to be. to go every three years, it's just simply this. And I know that there are some exceptions, no problem.

But your comfort is not an exception. It being inconvenient to you is not an exception. If that is your excuse, I mean, just pay attention to what you're trying to defend. If the glory of God has quaked and displaced your life, your answer will be, here I am, send me. And the reason that we go on a short-term mission experience is not because they need us. it's because you need this maybe more than anything else in your life look man gretchen and i led a family trip this last year to jamaica jamaica's a great starter trip you want to go on a starter trip

go to jamaica all right speak english drink the water jerk chicken's great even the music's good you understand no problem get down there where we stay is fine it's right on the water it's a great place to take your kids right next to it is this place called the infirmary Jamaica has this attitude of don't worry be happy. They don't want to see the sick. And so they take their sick and least of these people,

and they put them on the other side of this wall. It's like a pound for people. And every day, us and our kids walk into that place, and every single one of those people that have been left for dead in this place, every single one of them are image bearers of God who Jesus died for, and we simply go in there and treat them that way. Now, let me tell you why you need it more than they need. it. So we take our two little kids in there, little antibacterial, clean, won't eat off a fork that's

got a water spot on it, spoiled, ain't said thank you since they've been born. Y'all got any like that? Or is it just me? I know somebody would be like, Pastor, you need to lead your family. You need to quit lying to yourself, all right, because yours are little kids are spoiled too. All they do is breathe, air-conditioned air in most of their life, these little humans, we take them in and honestly, Gretchen, I'm like, wonder how this is going to go. And in one second, both of them, very different. We have two very different little humans at our house. And they are sitting in the bed, these really gross beds with these really beautiful people, missing limbs, special needs.

Just reading the Bible, praying with them, hanging out with them. In fact, we stuck around after the mission trip to spend the week together as our family. And on the first day on our family vacation, when I say to our kids, what you want to do today? and we were at a place that had many activities to choose from arcades and jet skis and all those kind of things and the thing that they wanted to do they said can we go back to the infirmary and I'm like you don't want to swim with the dolphins we can swim with the dolphins nah so we get back in the van and we drive back to the infirmary and we go sit in the beds

you see when you see the glory of God and I hope and I pray at all of our services man that you encounter the glory of God and you are quaked. But if you want to up the potential of you being quaked, you get on a short-term mission trip with one of us. And you go. You go somewhere, because I think Acts 1-8 is just as much about difference as it is distance. You get around an environment that's different than you're used to

in order that you must trust God to do what you can't do, and you watch what he will do. 1122. Jesus gathered together 72 of His, His disciples. And he says, I'm going to send you out. And I'm going to send you out with power. And you don't worry about what you're going to eat.

You don't even have to take a change of clothes. Don't have to take a backpack. You don't have to make a reservation. Don't worry about where you're going to stay. Don't worry about all this stuff. But you are going to walk in the power of the glory of God. And you are going to have the power to trample over serpets. And you are going to have the power in my name to cast out demons.

And you are going to have the power to set captives free. and you are going to have the power to give sight to the blind and the lame will walk. And you are going to have the power to walk into the darkest places of humanity and by the power of God to push back that darkness. And you were going to go and you're going to preach the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 1122, my hope and my prayer for 2020 is just like the disciples were sent out that way, not worrying about the things of this world, but consumed with the glory of God that you too would be sent.

And it starts with this, man, when you see him for who he really is, when you see him through the lenses of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you worship, you repent, you surrender, and 1122, you are sent. Would you please stand and pray with me?

Our good and gracious Heavenly Father God, we thank you and we praise you that our lives do not revolve around us. God, would you rest, you us from us. God, to the men and women right now that are giving you excuses of why they can't, would you remind them that if the tomb is empty, anything is possible? And God, because the tomb is empty, the possibilities are not all about the things that we

want, but because the tomb is empty, the possibilities are all about displaying your glory to the very ends of the earth. God, I pray for the men and women right now, God, the students, 18 to 25 year olds right now, that you will call into full-time vocational missions to the hardest, most dangerous places in the world. And God, I pray for the men and women that you call back into the workplaces that they have been in for a long time,

but now they go back differently, and God, I pray that they would understand how dangerous those places are to our soul. God comfort is a damning and dangerous environment for the soul of the Christian. And Lord, I pray this year in 2020, and you would give us eyes to see and you would wake us up that every single one of us are sent as missionaries or we've never been quaked by your gospel. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, we respond to the gospel.

We've got a lot to pray about. So come pray. We're going to join our voices together as like one big corporate prayer and sing. So when it's time to sing, join your voices together and let's make much of him. and then if we're going to send out 100, it requires all of us to fund it. And so we bring to God as an act of worship that your glory is more important than my comfort, God, here's my first and best because of you sent your first and best in Jesus Christ. So let us pray and let us sing, let us bring. Let us respond.