The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: Prayers of a Pastor

Episode Date: January 21, 2018

I am praying that this year you and I DEEPEN our relationship with Jesus Christ. 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family[c] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

How are you doing, church? Doing all right? If you would, please stand for the reading of God's Word. We are in week two of our study in the book of Romans. I will read chapter one beginning of verse 8 through 15. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your fate is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son

that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented. in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you, also who are in Rome.

May God add blessing to the reading and hearing of His word. Amen, and you may be seated. If you got your Bible, that's where we're going to be Romans. We're in week two of Romans. And in addition to your Bible, I'd love for you to grab your Romans God. Do you have it? Did you bring your study guy? Everybody hold it up.

If you brought yours, hold it out. Look at you. Look at you. If you brought it, man, there's a special crown or a jewel in your crown in heaven, all right? Praise God. If you haven't got one yet, we have one for you. Just at the end of the service at all of our locations, if you didn't get yours yet, then go to the Connect Center and we'd be happy to put one of these in your hand. You get one, though, okay?

And so just write your name on the inside. There's a place for that and your phone number. And each week, the text that I am teaching, that's how the journal. is broken up. So there's places to take notes around that. It's got some callouts. It's got some definitions, all of it. And in addition to that, you need your worship guide because the point will be on it each week. The reason we did it separately is so the Romans guide could just live by itself forever and ever. So if you want to go back to study Romans, you'll have that. So you kind of need both of those. Now, this week, like I just read, we're going to be in Romans chapter one

beginning in verse 8. But this week's a little bit different. Typically when I preach, I do what is called exegetical expository preaching. That's just seminary words that they may have to say, I read from the book, tell you what it means. That's all I do, all right? Kind of verse by verse. And we are going to go verse by verse through the text today. But this week is a little bit different because this week's going to be a little more

personal. Because what Paul does in this text is he says to the Romans, hey, I never stop praying for you. And so today's sermon title is prayers of a pastor. And what I want to share with you are some of the things that I pray for you. And again, it's a little more personal than normal, but I think I have license to do that because of how Paul sets this up. So let's walk through these verses chapter 8, I mean verse 8 through 15, and then we'll get into some of the things that I'm praying for us as a church. Starts out this way first.

First, I want to be the kind of church that prays first and decides and does second. Now, that is not my natural inclination. I'm a doer. I'm a leader. I typically do and then ask God to come bless. And what I want to do is pray first and then decide and do second. And so a big part of the reason I go on Monday mornings into a tree sand. It's not just to write my sermons, but it's also, I start out every Monday morning praying for you.

And I start this way, Lord, you are the chief shepherd. They're your sheep. They're not my sheep. I work for you. I'm an under shepherd for a little while. Then I'll be done. Some other guy will be in here. That's awesome.

They're your sheep. They're not my sheep. What do you want to say to them? And I began to realize as the responsibility of ministry God gave me was growing in an exponential rate, my own prayer life was not keeping up with that responsibility. And as I read biographies of men like Calvin and Edwards and those kind of people, Spurgeon, they were prayer warriors and I was a prayer wimp. And so every Monday I go get in the woods and pray for you, not just about you, but pray for you.

And he says, first, I thank my God. through Jesus Christ for all of you. We're going to wrap up the sermon today in a little while with some things I'm thankful for you, but we'll come back to that. And he says this, because your fate is proclaimed in all the world. That's what he's thankful for. He's thankful that the faith that the Roman Christians have is proclaimed all over the world, which, if you back up in your journal to last week's page, page two, you'll see in

verse 5 that Paul says, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations. And so what Paul is saying is, one of the things that I'm thankful about is that that is actually happening. That your faith is being talked about everywhere. In other words, that you don't just say you believe in Jesus, you act like it, and it is changing the world. In fact, the fact that Christianity rose at all in the Roman Empire is a miracle in and of itself. You realize this, that the Roman Empire, the most powerful empire in the history of humanity, was trying to squish this little uprising of one carpenter's son and 12 dudes on a camping trip.

You realize that's how this thing started. And they couldn't stop it. I mean, they put the Roman army against it, and they couldn't stop it. They tried by crucifying the leader. They said, that'll stop it. It didn't stop it. They buried him in a sealed tomb and put Roman soldiers at the tomb. To keep them in there, they couldn't keep them in there.

Then they began to gather up Christians, followers of Jesus, under people like Domitian and Nero, and they would execute them to try to get everybody to stop with this whole Jesus thing. They crucified followers of Jesus, not because Jesus was crucified, but because it was so excruciating, that's where that word comes from, that everybody would stop if they knew that they might die for this thing they say they believe in. In fact, they would line them up on crosses from one city to the next and catch Christians on fire to light the way so that everybody would stop. And yet, in the first century, the second century, the third century,

the message of the gospel continued to grow to the point when Constantine was the emperor of Rome in like the 300s that there were about 60% of the Roman Empire claimed Jesus Christ as a Lord and Savior. Why? Because Jesus said, upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And they could not stop the spread of this gospel. It's a miracle. It is a miracle. The power of Rome could not stop what was happening. It goes all the way back to this letter when Paul writes to the Christians in Rome and he's saying that the obedience of faith that you are putting on display for the nations for the glory of God is spreading like crazy. How? How? How did that happen? Well, it's because the Holy Spirit drew people into himself. But from a human perspective, one of the things that some non-biblical historians like Tacitus and Josephus, Cephas, maybe you remember those names from like 11th grade world history class. What they said is in Rome, the people that followed after Jesus, when everybody else ran away

from pain, then the Christians in Rome, they ran towards it, primarily to the sick, to the needy, to the elderly. And it was a common practice in Rome in the first three centuries that if you didn't want your baby, whether, for whatever reason, okay, because you wanted a boy, but you had a girl, or because there was any kind of health issue or whatever. It was very common that you would take your baby, you would just go lay it on the cliff so they would die of exposure. And guess who raised those babies?

It was the Christians. That they ran towards the pain, not away from it. And so what Paul is saying is, hey, Romans, your faith is proclaimed all over the world. And then, verse 9, he says, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers. I hope you can kind of, you see the emotion Paul has here? This isn't something like he's not just saying his prayers and checking them off.

He's saying, always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. That Paul is praying for a group of people that he's never even met before. Paul never makes it to Rome. He makes it to a Roman jail, never to a Roman church. And yet, he says, but I've got this thing in my heart towards you because somehow God has connected us together as family. And listen, I know from a firsthand experience what Paul is talking about here. Because I'm going to tell you that I deeply care for and pray for you. I do, man.

If you're part of 1122, I pray for you. And some of you say, like, man, you don't even know me. Look, bro, I pray for you and your crappy attitude. I'm praying for that too. But whether we've ever met before or not or, you know, what campus you go to, it doesn't matter, man, because this thing is a family. And the closest thing that I can link it to, is like how my heart changed when I had kids.

I mean, before kids, man, life was just totally different. It was awesome. It was a different kind of awesome. And then when we found out we were having children, and I remember, man, one of the happiest days of my life, no joke, is we went to that doctor's appointment where you go to the sonogram thing, you know, and you're finding out the sexy of your kid. And you're walking in that room, man, I'm pretty nervous.

I was always nervous of that stuff. But I went to every one of them, and you show up, and that little lady, she's about this tall. She goes, and puts that stuff on your wife's belly and gets that thing. and you're looking, you're like, oh, my baby looks kind of like an alien, but that's all right, you know. And she looks at me, she goes, congratulations to Mr. Martin, it's a boy. And I was overwhelmed with joy. I mean, I just, I literally, I scooped her up.

Gretchen was like, you want to put her down? So I put her down, man. I mean, I was, it was awesome, right? I called my daddy. I said, Daddy, I made a boy. That's what I told him. He says, son, I knew you had it in you. I'm telling you, it was, it was.

And then one of the most fearful moments of my life is four years later. We're back in the room, same ladies. She was like, congratulations. Mr. Martin, it's a girl. I was like, all right, here we go. Gretchen said, are you okay? I was like, I'm going to be, but there's like a different level of emotional training and physical training you got to go through if you're going to raise a girl in this world.

And so a little Reagan Caprito's just steal your heart. And so it's just different. And then everything, my priorities changed, man. I know you can't tell this anymore. I used to be a workout guy. Yeah, I mean, I was really into it. I had muscles and abs that I haven't seen them, you know, since the turn of the century. But whatever, I did.

I got pictures, and so I was into it. Then we had kids. Man, I'm not going to be that dad that's in the gym at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and not coaching my son's team and being at gymnastics watching Reagan frolic around in her bathing suit. You don't understand? Why? Because they're more important than my stuff, man. It changed everything.

And it changed the way you pray. It changed the way you pray. You don't pray about your kids. You pray for your children. Man, you talk to the people that knew me before we launched this thing, but something happened. something happened when we planted the church of 1122 and I became a lead pastor. It's just different. I think ministry is something I used to do at people.

But man, my heart breaks for you. It really does. We pray over the prayer cards. I want for you to know Christ the way that he has created you to know Him. I do, man. And I labor in prayer for you. I mean, even this last week, I was at Mayo. having an executive physical, all right?

I don't know if you've ever done that. I would highly suggest don't. It's not awesome. It is not. It was not my idea. The elders made me do it, so I had to go. And, dude, I was poked and prodded and, you know, ran on a treadmill with stuff hooked to me. And there was lots of situations going on there all day.

And so, but while I was there doing that, oh, by the way, it came back. I'm in good health. So I got a clean bill of health. Yeah. All right. Yeah, I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, but whatever. Okay. God numbers your day.

And man, I'm telling you, I met some 22ers at Mayo. If you are at Mayo, way to go with the one more thing. Every other person that works at Mayo, they go to 1122, all right? Which is a little bit awkward sometimes when they're your nurse. You're like, hey, okay, all right, we're going here. Let's do this. Or when you're delivering, here you go. All right, let's not talk about that at church.

All right, I see you later. Straight up. So, and it was great. Everywhere you check into, hey, Pastor Dobie, all right. And so here we are. But then as I'm all wrapped up and done and about to head out in my car, and this lady comes up to me and says, hey, we go to church together, which means she's paying attention. Because remember, it ain't my church.

Don't come up to me and go, I go to your church. It's not my church. It's Jesus is church. If we're here together and you're here and I'm here, we're here, it's our church, all right? So we go to church together. Or if some people come in me and go, I go to 1122, I go, me too. That's right. That's what we do.

This lady comes up, hey, we go to church together, and her daughter was there. her adult daughter, so I go over, and they go to Mandarin, never seen them face to face. And then the daughter says, hey, can you just pray for my mom? She's got pancreatic cancer. That's why we're here. Because you don't ask people at Mayo, what are you doing here? You just kind of, you don't do that.

She goes, can you pray for my mom? And the mom immediately is like, no, no, no, no, I'm sure you're busy. Maybe you pray to service. And I'm like, no, man, we just pray right here. Because I've just decided if people ask me to pray for them, I just do it right then. Because then I don't have to remember. I can't remember stuff anymore. I'm getting old.

So I just do it now. So I'm telling you, if we're out to eat and you say, well, you pray for me, we're just doing it right there. So if you don't want that, you better hush, all right, because we pray it. Because I ain't scared. I'm just doing it. And so straight up, man, me and mom and daughter, we just kind of little prayer huddle right there in Mayo. Man, just started praying for her. All you people in health care praying for you.

The Bible says every good and perfect gift is from above. If you're a doctor or nurse, if you're any kind of health care professional, do you realize you are literally an answer to prayer? that some family cries out, Dear God, please help, and then Dr. You comes in. And every good and perfect gift is from above. Every medical breakthrough at that med school, all that you had to labor through, technology. I mean, if you're going to be sick, today's the day to do it, all right,

to have something wrong with you because God's grace is upon us. And so I'm praying that God heals her, whether it's through the doctors or just supernaturally right there, whatever. We say amen, man, mama's crying, daughter's crying, I'm crying. Why? I've never met these people before. I thought, man, somebody's probably driving by going, oh, Pastor Joe was dying. Look at him crying outside of Mayo. That ain't good.

Why? Because, man, it's family. This thing's a family. So don't you ever apologize for saying, hey, to me somewhere, okay? I can't wait for us to get to meet each other. And all I know, the only thing I can tell you is that the Lord does that together, all right? The Lord does that. Man, when you're driving around all over the city and you see our stickers, you should pray for the people in those cars. Sometimes you just need to pray to calm down and drive like, you know, good citizens, but that's a different story, all right?

But Paul is saying this. Paul never makes it to Rome. And yet he never stops praying for the church in Rome. Verse 11, for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. I'm glad he doesn't specify what that is, because everybody gets hung up on what that was, but he doesn't specify. That is that we, don't you love this, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's

faith, both yours and mine. In other words, if we do this thing right, everybody should benefit. Which, I need you to know this, man. Part of the reason I say this is not my church, Jeremiah 315, God says this through the prophet Jeremiah, and I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. The word in the Bible, shepherd and pastors, is the same thing. So here's what you need to do.

God does not give churches to pastors. He gives pastors to churches. So every shepherd on this staff, all of our jobs, is to serve. you shepherding is primarily about serving. The deal here is not like everybody gathers up to do what I say. That is not how this thing works. And this thing, we should mutually benefit from it. And primarily at this point in my life and ministry, my job is to feed you with knowledge and understanding of this. And so one day I'll be gone. There'll be somebody else here. Praise God. But you're not here for me. I am here for you. And I think Paul understands this as he's praying

and longing for the church in Rome. Verse 13, he says, I don't want you to be unaware, brothers, that I've often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented in order that I may reap some harvest among you. In other words, Paul would have to just go join in the ministry that was already going on there, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation, both to Greek and to the barbarians. Here's what he's saying here, because grace has been freely given to me.

I owe it to people that don't know grace yet to freely share it with them. He says, both to the wise and to the foolish. words, I want to show up in Rome so some lost people can get saved. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. And I want to show up in Rome so that some saved people can be encouraged. Because it's a movement for all people and the gospel is not just for the loss. The gospel is for everybody. Now, Paul writes 13 epistles in the New Testament. In 12 of the 13 epistles, he's saying, I pray for you. And in a bunch of places, he lists out big, long prayers of what he's praying. Again, in Romans, he doesn't get very specific. He says that he would impart some spiritual

gift for their encouragement and that we would be mutually encouraged. The only letter that he doesn't write out a prayer or give a good greeting is Galatians because he was ticked at him. So he just said, you fools, and then he just starts getting after him, all right? But that's not what I typically do with you. So what I want to do over the next half hour or so is this. I want to share some things that I pray for you.

And I want you to write these down. We're going to put them on the screen, leave them up there long enough so that you can write these down. Number one, I don't know if they're in order. four of them and then we'll be out of time. Number one, I pray that you would know that your identity in Christ precedes your activity for Christ. I pray that you would know that your identity in Christ precedes your activity for Christ. This is a really, really big deal. And part of the reason I pray this and leave it up there so we got enough time for even the men to write it down, all right,

because you're not going to start for about three minutes. All right, I'm talking to you. Write it down. The reason I want you to know this is because I don't think, I don't know that the preachers that I grew up kind of listened to intended to do this, but what was implied is that activity determined identity. Like, like, if you did the good stuff, this is what good Christians do. That's literally what they would say. Do you realize in the gospel, there is no good Christian? There's just dead and alive. Now, a life is gooder than dead, but there's not like, the gospel is not helping bad people, not be so bad. The gospel is not. God is good and you're bad. Try harder. See you next week. It's not, man. That's exhausting. It has nothing to do with the gospel. The gospel is about our

identity in Christ that salvation is union with Christ. Salvation is union with Christ. In fact, most evangelicals believe half the gospel. I'm talking about save people that are going to heaven. Believe half the gospel. They believe a truncated view of the gospel. If you, When we were growing up, we were always told to ask this question. You go out to somebody and you go, if you were to die tonight, which I would say, you shouldn't ever ask that question to a person you don't know very well. That's a crazy thing to talk, hey, stranger, if you were to die tonight, I think they're going, what's happening tonight?

Who are you? Are you killing me? Stop. Don't say that. Especially on airplanes, the strangers, don't ask that question, all right? But they would say, if you were to die tonight and you're standing before God and he say, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say?

And the answer is, people will say, because Jesus died for my sin. That is true, but it's only half of the end. answer. And he credited to me his righteousness is the full gospel. That God made him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God. Because if you are just forgiven, then guess what that leads you to? That leads to, okay, God took your slate that was full of sin and he wiped it clean. Then what do you have to do for the rest of your life? Fill in the slate with your own righteousness. That is not the gospel. The gospel is that Christ is that Christ lived the perfect righteous life on our behalf, and we get credit for what he did, that he sees us as righteous.

It would be like if you were a trillion dollars in debt and you went to the bank and you said, I can never pay this back. And they say, we know we forgive you of your debt. Then what? You walk out of the bank broke. And what do you got to do? You got to earn a living. That is not the gospel. The gospel is, you go to the bank, trillion dollars in debt.

they say, not only is your debt forgiven, but I'm going to adopt you as the son of the president of the bank and all that the president has. Here, you get the bank's credit cards. It is all yours. That's the full gospel. And when you understand union with Christ, it'll change the way you live. But you don't change the way you live in order to be unified with Christ. Jesus illustrates this in one of the most famous parables ever. You've heard of it, even if you're brand new. It's in Luke chapter 15. It's called the parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal son, prodigal means lavish, and it means that this son came to his dad and said, Dad, give me my inheritance now, and he takes the inheritance from his dad, and in rebellion, he squanders it on wild living is what the Bible says. And one day, he's in a pig style. Now, if you were an Orthodox Jewish kid, it'd be the worst job ever, you understand? It'd be like me being the water boy for the gators. You'd be like, oh, no. This year would be all right, but whatever.

Okay, so. And then he comes to his senses, and here's what he decides. He says, look, I'm going to go back to my dad's house and I'm going to be one of his servants. And I'm going to earn my way back in. And so he's rehearsing his apology. He's on the road and his dad sees him from a long way off and he comes running to his son. And he bows down. And the Bible says he wraps his arms around his boy.

You know why? You know what everybody in the first century would do to a son that took the dad's inheritance and ran off with it and then decided to come back because he was broke? They would stone him for dishonoring his dad. And so the dad wraps his arms around the boy. so that you can't tell where the dad stops and the sun begins. So if you throw rocks, you hit dad, not the boy. And then he takes shoes and he puts him on his feet. This means he's a son, not a servant.

He puts a ring on his finger. That means you got my name, boy. And then he says, go get a robe. Now what robe would they get? They would get the dad's robe. The boy is covered in pig slop. He's nasty. And the dad says, no, no, no, you take my perfect spotless robe

and you wrap it around the boy. So no one will see the dirt down there. that you will see the perfect, righteous robe of the Father. It is union. And then he throws a party. That's what union in Christ is. Isn't that way different than quit trying to do bad stuff so much? So that God will be into you?

Man, it's a union. Which means this. Only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. Only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. You were not your sin. You were not the sin that has been done against you. You were not your divorce. You're not your marital status.

You're not your sexual status. your gender, you're not your past, you're not your addiction, you're not your emotional state, you are not your abortion, you were not a victim, you were not a reject, you were not a loser, you were not a disappointment, you are not your biggest failure. And you say, well, it's the biggest thing that's ever happened to me. No, it's not, not if you're in Christ. Christ saying, it is finished and adopting you into his family. That's the biggest thing that's ever happened to you, and only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. God's not disappointed in you. If Jesus is the propitiation for our sin, it means a payment that's satisfied.

that he cannot be dissatisfied in you, which means this, that if some church told you, you are your past, they lied to you. They lied to you. And I, on their behalf, on Christ's behalf, I am so sorry.

If you have been spiritually abused at a church because of the sin that Christ died for, I am so sorry. And what kills me, man, is I hear it every week. And I think most of the people that end up here, because 1122 is kind of, island of the misfit toys for churches. It is, man. Most of you've been to some of the church and got run out of there and you find yourself at home here. I met a girl last week at the end

of one of our services. We baptized her a couple weeks before that. She's in the military. She's on deployment. She gets back from the Middle East to find out our husband's been cheating on her. She tries to reconcile it. It doesn't work. She gets plugged into this church in the meantime. She says, I want to be baptized. And they tell her, you haven't repented enough because you're going through a divorce, no. I put her in a tailspin for years, man. That is not the gospel. And if that's happened to you, I'm not the Pope of the evangelicalism, can apologize for all of us, but I am sorry. You have been lied to. Jesus went to Zacchaeus, you know the wee little man? He said, I'm coming to your house. Today's salvation's in your house.

He was funding terrorism. That's what's going on. But Jesus gets to tell him who he is, not his past. And so only, because of our union in Christ, only Jesus gets to tell us who we are. You see, because here's what Jesus says. He says it through Corinthians, he says, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come. You see, in Christ you are forgiven. You are righteous. You are a son or a daughter of the most high God that you are more than a conqueror.

And listen, that's not an excuse for bad behavior. it's not like well hey i got grace i do what i want if that's what you think you've never experienced the grace of jesus because when he when you experience man when the grace train runs you over it changes everything from the inside out when you get to the place where you're like who are you who am i that you would save a wretch like me what king leaves his throne to save somebody like me it changes everything and you don't have to do the stuff you used to do because you're not the person you used to be you see it's a change from the inside of out. It's like when Jesus shows up at the pool of Betheson, there's a cripple man there for 30-something

years. And he says, take up your mat and walk. Here's what's implied. The guy gets up and he starts walking with his cripple mat. If you saw the dude three weeks later and he's laying in his mat, you'd be like, bro, get up. It's nasty on that mat. You've been laying on it for 38 years, never dry cleaned it. Get up. It's nasty. People that can walk, don't lay down on a cripple man's mat. And when we lay back down in our sin, it's like, what are you doing, man? Get up out of that. God has given you the power to get up and walk, so quit laying back down there. Or in John chapter 11, Lazarus dies, good buddy of Jesus. Jesus shows up four days after the funeral.

He walks up to the tomb that Lazarus is buried in, and Lazarus sisters realize what's about to happen, because he's dead. I mean, he's been dead four days. They say, in the King James, but Lord, he's stinketh. That means he's like, he's done and dead, you know what I'm saying? And he goes, Lazarus come out. And Lazarus hops out of the tomb. And the reason he has the hops because he's covered in burial cloth.

And Jesus' first command is take off the grave clothes. Why? Because you're alive. Living men don't wear dead man clothes. And when we fall back into our sin, bro, we're putting on our dead man clothes. And so don't wear that, man. You're going to stink again. And you've been called to life.

You see how that is different? That is a fate that leads to an obedience, not the other way around. That you don't have to do the things that used to do because you're not the person that you used to be. This is what Paul means in verse five when he says that we've received grace to bring about an obedience of faith, not an obedience for faith. So I pray. I pray really hard that you would know that your identity in Christ precedes, not precludes, precedes your activity for Christ. The second thing I pray, write this down. I pray that you would know and live the reality in all areas of your life that Jesus is before all things.

that you would know and live the reality in all areas of your life that Jesus is before all things. I know we did a two year before all things, discipleship journey, but that was not just this thing that we're going to be done with and not talk about it anymore. It is the reality of the gospel that Jesus is preeminent that he is before all things. And what I want to warn you of, honestly, especially if you're like, if you're old school, and I mean older. And if you're like, am I older? You've been older longer than you think, okay? Honestly, if you grew up in church, man, and you're older than me, 44 and up, you're kind of taught this like you've got to prioritize your life.

It's like God first, family, second, work third, country, whatever, okay? That is not a biblical view of what it means to be a Jesus follower. Jesus is not just number one on the list. Jesus is the paper on which you write the list. Because when you do this, what happens when you get past one? Then you're like, I'm done with the God stuff. Now I'm on to the work stuff. Wrong.

That God gave you your work in order to glorify him. When Jesus was asked, what's the great commandment? He said, to love the Lord of your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. There is nothing else. That means all of you for all of him. Did you know in Hebrew, there's no word for spiritual? If you were to ask Jesus in the first century, so how's your spiritual life? He'd be like, you got it wrong.

My whole life is for the Father. Not just like the weekend church part of it. Not just the Bible study part of it. But my whole life, the way I interact with my friends and eat and walk and work and all of that, is to declare that Jesus is before all things. I pray, man, as a part of this, it's like a, to explain this, I pray that we would see and know Jesus as a treasure to be adored, not merely a truth to be agreed with.

I pray that we would see Jesus as a treasure to be adored. You see, because if you grew up in church, I'm telling you, you begin to see the gospel is just practical. Like, oh, that's a good way to get my sins forgiven, and I don't have to go to hell. And hell is hot and forever's a long time, so that seems like a good deal. No, man, Jesus is a treasure to be adored. That changes everything, and it will change you from the inside out, not the outside

end. Being a Christian is not sin management. It's not just grabbing your sin and trying to hold it down. It's turning your eyes upon Jesus. Look long in his wonderful face, and the things of this world grow strangely dimmed, the light of its glory and grace. That's what it is. It's when we fix our eyes on Jesus, and our appetite for him gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger

because he is the only one that sustains and satisfies. It'd be like, I'd tell you this all the time, but I don't eat much today, okay? I just don't, because I got a lot to do, and I yell for like three hours, and it's not good. If I eat, then egg biscuit would be on the front row. It wouldn't be awesome, right? Everybody would be at campus. And so when I get home, I'm starving. And if I were walking in starving, walking into my house, and they're sitting on our counter is a piece of beef jerky,

dude, I'm crushing the beef jerky, right? Because I'm like, ooh, beef jerky is great. What's not the like? Unless on the other side of the beef jerky is a bone-in filet cooked medium rare the way Jesus would have us eat it. Then what are you doing? You go past the beef jerky, why? Because the flay's better. Jesus is better.

Jesus is better. Now listen, if you're like a vegan, I know this doesn't work for you. Okay, so imagine you go in and there's a lettuce and then here's the problem. I don't know what you upgrade to. A mushroom? Like all of yours is the same, so that's your problem. but when we began to see Jesus as a treasure to be adored honest to goodness it changes us from the inside out i pray that he would bless you or break you whatever it takes to draw you unto himself because you would know that

he is more than enough i pray that you would know the sovereign savior way over your circumstances there's a girl on our staff man she's she worked closely with me now went through a nightmare of a marriage and a brutal divorce that seeming me it was all of him. There was drug abuse and that means just wasn't good. And yet, that pain landed her in the lap of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And she would say, though I would wish it on no one, it was worth it. It was worth it that I would know him.

I pray that you would see Jesus as the most valuable treasure in all of the cosmos. And I pray, as a part of understanding that Jesus is before all things, I pray that you would know the joy and freedom of first fruit generosity in response to God being first, to God loving first, and God going first. Because I'm telling you, one of the number one competitors for your heart will be stuff. It'll be money. Jesus said, nobody can serve both God and money. And I pray that you would know the joy and freedom of seeing everything that you have as a bloodbought gift by God to you. And that you would willfully and willingly understand that would, would Jesus,

that said is true, it's more blessed to give than to receive. I said this last week. It's kind of messing people up, so I'm going to say it again. Some of you are afraid that you'll miss out on some happy this year if you're obedient to God. And I pray that you would understand that the treasure is in your relationship with him, not the things and the treasures of this world. Jay I. Packer says it this way. And still, he seeks the fellowship of his people, and he sends them both sorrows and joy in order to detach their love from other things and attach it to himself. I hope that you know that you don't follow Jesus

because he can fix all your problems. You follow Jesus because he is the fix of life's ultimate problem. The third one, write this one down, it's short. I pray that you wouldn't waste your life. I pray that you wouldn't waste your life. And I know this is a little presumptuous, more than half of you are wasting your life.

because everything you have is a blood-bought grace gift by Jesus to you for His glory, but you thought it's for you. And you're spending all kind of money and all kind of time and all kind of relationships with you in the middle of it. And what a waste of life. How many of you of us parents get aggravated when your kids come to you, especially if you have, you know, like elementary A, whatever, you've got kids, and they come to you in 2018 and they say, I'm bored. What?

Bored? Today? You got 7,000 channels. You don't even have to look. You could just get, hey, put it on my channel, and it'll just come up. You don't have to wait until the show comes on. It's just always available. You could swim in the pool while you're playing your iPod, while you're listening.

I mean, are you kidding me? How in the world can you be, just basically want to, like, throw them into the 1800s, does it not? Bored. I always tell my kids, you always read your Bible and do push-ups. Do it at the same time. All right, it'd be awesome. It drives me crazy. I think sometimes when we think, I'm bored, I think heaven is like, what?

Do you know where you were saved to be sent? Do you know when you were converted to be commissioned? You know there's like 4 billion people that don't know Jesus on the world right now, right? And you know, you know some of them? That God has placed you on purpose in your neighborhood, at your job, at your school, in your carpool line, for the sake of his name, and to draw men and women unto himself? What are you doing? What a waste of a life?

If you think everything that you have is for you, man, what a waste of a life. Matthew chapter 25, Jesus shares this parable called the Parable of the Talents. It's in answer to how do you get ready for the end of the world? And Jesus goes, all right, the end of the world is going to be like this. It's like a boss who gets three of his employees together. And he gives one five talents, one, two, and one-one. A talent in our current economy would be like a million bucks. And he says this.

But when you think talent, you think everything you have is from God. Every relationship, your education, your opportunities, your money, your house, your car. Everything you have is given to you by God. Two of the brothers, they go and they risk it all for the sake of the manager. They say, we know who you are and what you're about. So we did with it what we think you would do with it. One brother, a guy with the one talent, he goes and he hides it. He digs a hole and he covers it up.

And he says because he was afraid. And he wasted it. And he wasted his life. And the manager comes back. He high fives those two and to the one that hit it because he was afraid. He says, you wicked and slothful servant. And yet, on the service. the guy with the one talent was the busiest.

I mean, he had to go to Home Depot where you can never go once. He had to go back and forth and get willbarrels and dig a hole. I mean, Jesus didn't give it to him on a debit card. It's like shekels or shillings or something, okay? This is big old bunches of money and he goes and he hides it and he covers it up and then when the manager comes back he's got to dig it all back and bring it to him. And he waste his life. Church, don't waste your life. What are you doing for the glory of God with your

life. You should spend it all on him. Now, I'll explain it in ways like get off the merry-go-round round of normality. You know what that is, because you feel it. The merry-go-round of normality is when you, you know, you wake up every morning and you eat something and you drive something, you go to work, you sell something, you come home, watch something, eat something, go to sleep and do it again. And the biggest prayer of your week is, thank God it's Friday. If you say you know Jesus, and that's your biggest prayer, thank God it's Friday, you're not doing this thing right. you were not doing this thing right that you were made for a mission

and the mission is the glory of God among the nations you get this and I'll implore you to get out of the cul-de-sac of stupidity the cul-de-sac of stupidity is when you expect new things to do for you what the same old things failed to do for you that's stupid I'm not saying you're stupid but by the third lap

you're kind of stupid okay I'm just telling you man Like, it just can't, you know, that house didn't do it, but man, that house, oh, oh, if I could just get a new, an extra bedroom in a half bath, then I'll be fully and finally satisfied. Are you kidding me? When's the last time you laid up on your granite countertops? You're like, oh, gosh, I'm saying. No. You're into them at first, and then that's just where you cut you bologna. Although you've got granny, you're probably eating bologna, but you know what I'm saying? It's just stuff. And there's nothing wrong with stuff. There's nothing wrong with stuff. The Bible says that God has given us stuff to enjoy. And so a part of what it means to not waste your life is you don't let your worship terminate on the stuff, but you worship the one that gave you the stuff. In other words, don't love your house.

Love God with your house. Worship him with your house. Yes, that means host disciple group in there or host a whatever in there. Bring friends that don't know Jesus in there to just be hospitable to your neighbors for sure but it also means that when you walk in that place you don't think well i've arrived you say who am i god thank you for every gift that you have given us raise a family that loves jesus in the house that he has blessed you with you get this because one day man one day you realize our kids are going to come into our kitchens and be like what is this stainless steel junk get that out of there i need a mustard

puke yellow refrigerator in here because those are cool i'm telling you and listen we live in a world is spending billions of dollars a week to make sure we waste our life on things that don't matter. And so don't waste your life. That's what I pray. You say, Jesus said, don't store it for yourself treasures on earth

where moth and rust will take them out, but store it for yourself treasures in heaven. Pop quiz. What can you take to heaven? People. That's it. You ain't taking your stuff? Everything you have.

We're selling in Hope's closet one day, all right, for the glory of God. Everything you have stays here except people. So I promise you, I ain't going to waste my life. I am not wasting my life. I'm going to spend every day of my life, every breath that God gives me, to try to tell people about him, to declare it and demonstrate it, because it ain't about me. You see, the guy that led me to Jesus, coach bully, he didn't waste his life. I don't think he wasted a breath.

He lived his whole life for the glory of God and to bring as many people to Him to God as would come. And that's who led me to Jesus, to the point where they buried him, they put him in the ground, they read this verse over him, Acts 1124. And he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Let me tell you what a great number is. It's not 10,000 on the weekend. A great number is that one person in your life that God has placed for you to draw into him. that you could use your life wherever you work wherever you're you mean the places that god has put you

not only did he prepare you for them he prepared them for you quit wasting your life and share the good news or share an invitation with them man part of the way i wanted to redeem mayo this week i knew i was going to be there all day and i didn't want to go so i just decided it was great god gave me this idea i said okay when i walk into mayo today everybody i get around i'm just going to share the gospel with so if you got me the other day and you're in the number of nurse, then you got either an invitation to church or just the full-on gospel. And so, like I said, every place I checked in, you know, all these little desk and you check in, I'd be like, oh, Pastor Jobie, and then I'd go in with my nurse and we'd start talking and I'd do this. Where you from? Nobody's,

nobody works in Mayo is from here. They're all from all over the world, all right? And then I go, oh, you live in the South now. You've got to have a church. You've lived in Jacksonville. You've got to go church. And they'd be like, I've been looking for a church. I'm like, cool, come with me. I'd walk back out to the desk and be like, this is Sarah. She already goes to 1122. This is Tina, she needs the church. All right, y'all meet. Boom, see you there. Where's my next appointment?

All right, that's what I did all day. Now, I don't know what that looks like for you, but figure it out and get after it. You see, C.S. Lewis says it this way. It would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he can't imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea, we are far too easily pleased. If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, then the most probable

explanation is that we were made for another world. I dare you to say, God, here I am, use me as a blank check to lead as many people to you as you would have me do. I dare you. I promise this, you won't waste your life and you'll never be bored. Every day will have a purpose. I want you to experience this, okay? I want you to see what it's like. And so we're going to do like a half-day mission trip right here in Jacksonville that I need you to be a part of. On February the 9th, our church with like 12 other churches around town are partnering with the Tim Tebow Foundation to put on, once again, Night to Shine. Night to shine is a prom for people with special needs, to make much of them. Just say, God loves you, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, you're an image bearer of God.

And we need 3,000 volunteers. And the reason I want you to go on night to shine jacks.com, I want you to sign a lot of you. not to be a volunteer because I'm telling you you you get face to face with these kids that have been neglected that have been overlooked for years and I'm telling you it smells like heaven and I want you to see what it's like for a day to just live your life on mission without you in the middle I want you to go to that because what'll happen man is it'll change everything about everything about you and so go on here and sign up night to shine jacks when he 3,000 volunteers I think it would be great if the other 12 churches didn't even need to sign up because we took all the spots but that's just me

It's not a competition, but let's win. All right, so. And in conjunction with that, which kind of leads into our next one, on January of the 26th, there's a faith and family night at Jacksonville Icemen hockey games. He'll say how this works. All of us are going to go on their website, jacksonville, icemen.com, and buy tickets to the hockey thing. I don't know if it's a game or a match. I'm from South Carolina.

Whatever. We didn't have hockey. All right. And so go, and it's a faith and family night. There's a Christian concert after the thing. And listen, man, you can go watch grown men punch each other in the facts. for the glory of God. It's a great thing. And all the elders and our wives are going and we want all of you to go. And when you buy tickets, like you go on the website and you buy the tickets,

they donate a big old bunch of money to us for us to pull off the night to shine things. See how this all works? And so do it. I want you to go to this and then I want you sign it to be a volunteer for that so that you will understand what it looks like to not waste your life. The fourth thing I pray, I got to go fast as this. I pray when you think church, you think family, not facilities. I pray when you think church you think family not facilities you see we were wired for relationships the Bible says the Bible says blessed is he who walks in the way of the wise but the companion of fools suffers harm because Lee you say this way show me your friends I'll show you your future so look around if all your friends are idiots newsflash if you're not already you're going to be an idiot and if you're serious about deepening your

relationship with Jesus you need to be surrounded with some Jesus people you need deep abiding biblical fellowship. And listen, if you wait until you need it, it's like a retirement account. If you wait until you need it to build it, it's too late, it's over. So my question would be, so who's praying for you other than your mama? And you're not even being honest with her. Who are you transparent with? Who do you know that when you're in trouble, you can call them up and say, I need help?

And so I need you to get plugged in. I need you to get plugged in. Because I can promise you this. if you get serious this year about deepening your relationship with Jesus, as your relationship with Jesus grows, the target on your back gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And we have an enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

The lion always devours that one that is outside of the community, out on the edge. You need to get in the middle of the herd. And if some of you're like, well, I don't need help. Okay, first of all, humble yourself. And then we need you to create the kind of protection where we have a band of brothers or sisters that are in this fight together.

that I hope and pray that when you think church, you think family, not just facilities. And listen, there's a whole bunch of ways to do this. One is you get involved in a disciple group. Another thing you can do is go to our website, C-O-E-22.com slash deepen. And on that page is a whole bunch of opportunities for you to step into community. Some of them are a big step, like you show up to somebody's house that you never met, to open the Bible with, and do Bible study. You should do that.

There's some other that are kind of shorter steps. We have these encounter trips. We have all different kind of encounter trips. Pastor Stone is leading a fitness one. If you want to go work out with Stone for Jesus, do it, man, all right? I lead one every year where we go hunting. Two weeks ago, we baptized a guy that got saved in the tree stand. No gospel presentation.

He just opened his Bible sitting in the tree stand, couldn't start crying, comes out and says, all right, I love Jesus now. We baptized him two weeks ago. Listen, I can hunt without you. The reason that we do this thing, and his wife just signed him up, made him go. He didn't even want to. And now, man, we've got some brothers that have lifelong friendships because not only do they encounter the Lord, but they encounter one another.

We've got some built around surfing and we've got a women's trip. We've got all kind of stuff. I dare you to go on and sign in for that because, listen, whether you do it officially through one of our opportunities or you just get to know some people here, I pray, I pray that when you think church, you don't think about me, you don't think about any of our facilities. You think family. So ultimately, all of those four things can basically be summed up this way. I am praying this year that you and I deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ.

And in your worship, God, I want you to take that home, and I want you to look at the passage from Ephesians that I put in there, because here is a passage that Paul particularly prayed for the church in Ephesus. But for the sake of time, I want to close what I said I was going to close with. Paul said this. Paul said first, I'm thankful to God for you. And so church of 1122, I am so thankful to God for you. I mean, I really am.

In that passage from Ephesians 3, Paul says, now to him who was able to do far more exceedingly than we ever hoped or imagined in the church, can I just tell you, when we first began to talk about the idea of planting the church, called 1122, what God has been doing in us and through us and to us, man, it exceeds anything I ever hoped and dreamed of. And I am so grateful, I am so thankful for you. I am thankful, first of all, for your grace to allow me to be your pastor. Honestly, I don't know why you put up with me

and some of our shenanigans sometimes, all right? I really don't. But I am so thankful for your grace towards me. In fact, when I say, when you think church, I want you to think family, Listen, who's going to let you down more than your family? Don't say amen and be like, yep, this guy. No, but it's true, isn't it? And so I know that I will and have and will again let you down and yet your grace towards me to be the pastor of this thing. I will be forever grateful.

And I am grateful. I am grateful for the good soil that you bring to the gathering every single weekend. And what I mean by this is Jesus shares this parable about the kingdom of God as like a farmer casting seed, and that lands on good soil produces a crop. And I'm telling you that you guys come in here with your hearts of good soil. I mean, I come after you with the gospel. I come after you with some really, would seemingly be mean diagnosis, you wretched blackhearted sinners. And yet you receive it with a smile, and you lean in and take notes and come to the altar.

And I thank you so much for the encouraging words that you share with me by what God has done through you. And I get it every single week. I say the sermon is moderately. delivered but exceptionally received. And so I thank you for your legit yearning to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And church, I thank you for your grace-saturated environment by which you welcome people. I mean, I thank you that, because I'm going to tell you what, it is almost impossible to hear

and believe that God's not in love with some future version of you if God's people are judging you every time you walk in the place. And so I thank you that this will always be a hospital for the sin. not a country club for the spiritually elite, which, by the way, the people that think they're spiritually elite are the sickest among us. And so I thank you, I thank you, that we together can create the kind of environment

where grace abounds. And I am so grateful to God, and I thank you for your willingness to risk big for God's glory. I mean, from the outset, what God has called us to do at 1122 is big, and they're a huge risk. I mean, honestly, The biggest one is me being the pastor when the thing started.

You get it? And then we moved into this place. And since then, we've rolled out three more campuses. We're at four campuses now. And they're huge risk every time. I mean, think about it. We raised money. We spent $5 million to do a building or whatever.

We don't even know if a human is going to show up. And then we open the doors and God draws people unto himself. So for all of you that were here during upon this rock and then before all things, way to risk big. And don't ever stop risking big for the glory of God. God because when you risk big for the glory of God, it requires the dependence on God to do something and nothing will deepen your faith in Him like an utter dependence on Him. So whatever you do, don't play a safe.

And then lastly, and honestly, this is the biggest one personally. Gretchen and I thank you for being the family that we get to raise our kids in the gospel together. You guys were here last week, but those of you at our campuses, you may not know. last week I got to baptize Reagan Capri, my eight-year-old daughter. Amen? That was awesome. And we couldn't do it without you, okay? I mean, look at that.

Look at her face. All right? And then look at JPs. I think he's thinking, I hope this takes, because there's some life transformation that needs to happen in the house. But anyway, and listen, man, you've heard it said before that it takes a village to raise a child. Man, not today. You don't want the village to raise your kid.

Do you have a village idiot? You need the church. And so to the families that we kind of do life with together, thank you, but to the greater faith family, particularly those of you at all of our locations that volunteer in the new gen ministry, don't we all them all of thanks for helping us raise our kids in the gospel of Jesus Christ? And so, church, I am and will be forever grateful for you. And the number one catalyst for my own growth, the number one catalyst for me, discovering and deepening my relationship. relationship with Jesus has been getting to be a part of this thing. And so I thank you so much for it. And believe, as God as my witness, I will never, ever, ever stop praying for you. So would you please stand and let us pray together? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you because you love us

first. God, we thank you for the gospel. God, we thank you for the testimony of this church. Lord, we pray that may it be said of 1122 what was said of the Christians in Rome, that people have been talking about our faith, not because of us, but because it was an obedience of faith, not an obedience for faith, but you would transform us from the inside out to the point where it changes everything about everything,

about everything in our lives. And God, I pray, I continue to pray that this year would be a year of deepening, that you would deepen us in our faith, in our dependence, and our reliance on you and simultaneously you would deepen our connection, our relationship with the faith family. And God, we thank you.

We thank you. And Lord, we don't want to waste your time. We thank you that you would call us, that you would use us, that you would annoy us, that you would appoint us. For the glory of your name among the nations. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen.

So, church, we respond. We respond by bringing our ties and offerings, our first and our best. We respond by singing. We're going to sing together the Lord's Prayer And we respond by praying. Just like I pray for you week after week after week, this is a great time for you to come down, kneel before your Lord and Maker, and pray for you, pray for me, pray for our church.

So let us pray and let us sing and let us bring. Let us respond.