The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 8: Comparison Kills

Episode Date: February 24, 2019

Nothing will kill Gods call on your life like constantly comparing yourself to someone that God didn’t call you to be.

Amen. Amen. Mars and Marsha. If you don't know who the Brady Bunch is, Google it. They were evangelists in the 70s. Traveled around. Hey, if you got your Bibles, I hope you do grab them. Second Timothy, as we're in the next to the last weekend of this series, we've been studying the marks of the faithful. And you know that we're in this one initiative, and a big part of this one initiative, it's all about the glory and the renown of the one true God. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And we are called to be one. church and we're called as a church to reach one more and especially one more generation. So it's why so far this entire year we've been studying Second Timothy because what Second Timothy is fundamentally about, it's about this idea Paul is writing to this up and coming pastor as he, as Paul is on his way out. He's writing it from jail.

He's not going to make it out of this one alive. And these are kind of his final words to young Timothy who has a call on his life to be the pastor of the church at Ephesus, which is kind of. of a big deal. And so Paul wants us to know that faith doesn't merely happen to you, but faith is to happen through you. That if you are a disciple of Jesus, then we are called to make disciples, that make disciples, they make disciples. And if you aren't making a disciple, you should really look at yourself and say, well, then am I really a disciple? And Timothy had a whole lot working against him. He was really young. He grows up without a father. He probably thinks that he's way

in over his head. And so, Paul in chapter one reminds Timothy of that moment, which brought Timothy to tears. That moment in Acts chapter 20, when Paul gathers together the elders of the church at Ephesus and he lays his hand on young Timothy. And again, Timothy knows he's got a whole lot of things to overcome to fulfill the ministry that God has called him to. And Paul says, Timothy, God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control. And so then he begins to instruct Timothy in the rest of the letter.

And look, it's just a letter. It's not a very, we call it a book. It's not really a book. It's a letter. It's just this big. It's these two pages in my Bible. That's it. And he says, and if you're going to pursue this call of ministry that God has on your life,

then Timothy, you've got to get on the right path. You've got to get on a pathway that leads to where God has called you. And you must flee youthful passions, and you must pursue righteousness. You've got to turn from immature, appetites where you just allow the feelings and the hormones of your body to Lord over your life. You've got to run away from that and you've got to pursue righteousness, pursue peace. And we know that righteousness is not right activity, but it's right identity before the Lord. In other words, you run away from the things of this world and you run to Jesus.

But Timothy, in this pursuit of Jesus, you will be swimming upstream. You will be going against the flow because our culture is not neutral. It is a drift towards godlessness. And this started all the way back when Adam and Eve for the very first time reached out for something other than God to pursue their own satisfaction. But Timothy, God has given us a gift. And the gift is the word of God. So Timothy, you hold fast to the word of God like an anchor to your soul in this world that is trying to drag you towards godlessness. this. And Timothy, when you preach, you preach the Word. You preach the gospel. Why? Because all

scripture is theos-nustas, is God breathed. And that leads us to where we are. By the way, that was Timothy in three, second Timothy in three minutes, all right? And you got to get all that. Today, we're just going to do one verse. One verse. So if you knew, you're like, this probably take like 15 minutes. You're totally right. Be out of here before you know it. So he leads us all the way up to this point, and then he's going to look at Timothy, and he's going to give him this word, chapter 4, verse 5, one verse, all we're doing. Now, as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. If you're brave enough to write in your Bible, underline the word your, fulfill your ministry. And I think what he's doing here is there are four imperatives.

And in the verses we studied last week, there were five imperatives. So you got nine commands from Paul to Timothy, but they're all really sandwiched with preach the word and fulfill your ministry. I think the three imperatives that he gives before fulfill your ministry is how to fulfill your ministry. Now my goal at the end of this, I want to be very clear, is I want you, not just today, but for the rest of your days, to fulfill your ministry. Now that means practically in the church, as you've heard, we will be launching our Fleming Island campus in just a couple of months. Praise God. Amen. All right, good. We need about half a mandarin to go there, all right? So you guys can have seats and parking and stuff.

And so every time we launch a campus, we relaunch all the campuses. And so that means that people from all the campuses end up at new ones. And so if you've been real comfortable here, if you drove by one of our campuses, you should probably go to the one. that you drove by, we need your seat. And so we need people to serve. And so on the backside of your worship bulletin is a perforated panel here. And again, perforated is Hebrew for it to tear away. And so in the next 44 minutes and 22 seconds, I'm going to convince you by the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the Word of God that you should serve. But even more than that, it doesn't just mean here at the church. It means that God has given each and every one of you a ministry,

and I want you to fulfill your ministry. Now, I know what some of you are saying. Some of you are saying, well, hold, no, no, no, no, pastor. I don't have a ministry. I work at the bank. Okay, sweet. So at the bank, I want you to fulfill your ministry. That every single believer in Jesus Christ has been called into the ministry.

You see? It's what the reformers called the priesthood. the believer. You see, we're Protestants, all right? So if you grew up Catholic, there's some big differences between the way you grew up and what we do here, a lot. Started on Halloween in the 1500s when Martin Luther

nails the 95 thesis against the church on the door in a church in Germany. And there's a bunch of differences. One, we believe in the authority of the scripture. Okay? We also believe in justification by faith alone, not by works. We believe that Jesus is the only mediator between us and God. He is the

great high priest, and we believe in the priesthood of the believer. That means if you're a believer, you're a priest. Welcome. It's crazy, isn't it? That means that every single one of us have been called into ministry. And again, I know what you're thinking. You're like, no, well, then what do you do? What do you pay you for? We thought we just showed up every week, and then you do ministry. I also have a ministry, but my ministry is to equip you to do your ministry. That is my job. And so if y'all would get it together, I could, you know, have a lot more free time during the week. But whatever.

Ephesians 412, Paul will say it this way. He says, in 411, he says basically to all the church staff, the apostles, the prophets, the teachers, the evangelists, and the shepherds. He goes, so my job is to do 412 to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Okay, Catholics, listen, did you know that if you're in Christ, you're a saint? Can you believe, call your Catholic grandma and tell it. Guess what, Nana? I found out of church today, I'm a saint. No vote required.

We're not going to put your face on a necklace. We ain't praying to you. None of that stuff, okay? People made that stuff up. But in Christ, it's not about, sainthood is not about all the good things you have done. It's what Christ has done for you and you have been imputed with his righteousness. The moment you surrendered your life to him, And that makes you a saint.

And so my job, he says, to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. So look at me, everybody. Everybody's a believer. Okay, look. Welcome to your ordination service. I hereby ordain you into the gospel ministry of Jesus Christ through the Church of 1122. Now, you've got a lot of work to do. Okay?

So here we go. And so I believe that the three imperatives that he gives, helps us understand what our ministry is and how we are to fulfill our ministry. So the first thing he says is this, be sober-minded. Be sober-minded. All this means is that you and I are to think rightly about God and rightly about ourselves. You see, because if you don't think rightly about God, then everything else that you think about will be off. Like if the foundation of the house ain't right, the whole house ain't going to be right.

If your level is off, then everything is going to be out of level. A.W. Tozer says, the most important thing about you is what you think when you think about God. And so Paul says to Timothy, and God is saying to us, so be sober-minded. And what's the opposite of sober? Somebody nailed it quick, okay? Maybe a little too quick. That's all right. We'll get to that some other time.

Yeah, to be drunk. And so to be sober-minded is to think rightly, but a lot of times we can get drunk in our minds by not thinking rightly about who God is and thinking rightly about who we are. See, to think rightly about God is this. He's a good, good father. And we are loved by him. That's what it means. That's right down the middle. But a lot of times we can either get drunk on our own ego or we get drunk in our own insecurities and not think rightly about God.

You see, whatever we do, we should not get drunk on our own ego. Here's what this looks like in the church is when we think that God is really lucky to have us. Now, you would never say it that way, but you begin to do a little ministry, you begin to serve at the church, you begin to do a couple things, and you really begin to think, God, you are perfect in all of your ways. And one of the most perfect things you did is pick me for this, because I'm pretty awesome. And what would this world do without me? Okay? I mean, again, you wouldn't say that at church, but you think it in your family. You think it at work.

And you can begin to see yourself as a much bigger deal than you actually are. Here's the way the Bible says at 1st Corinthians 127. It says, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Do you know what that means? Here, we live in Jacksonville. We understand this. See, God picks different than the way we would pick, all right?

In other words, God drafts like the Jaguars. Right? Every year, every year, you're like, we're drafting who? In the first round? Remember Matt Jones? Remember we got Matt Jones? First round. Quarterback, Arkansas, not even going to play quarterback.

That should work out good. Didn't work out good. year after year after year after year every year on draft day you're like what and see this is what god this is this is why god loves the jaguars i'm telling you and we're going to be first in heaven because the bible says the first shall be last but whatever all right and so i love them you see because if all god picked were the five-star athletes then when they won everybody'd be like well of course because look at all the five stars you have but you see in god's economy god picks the losers of this world to win with. Why? Because when it wins, then everybody would say, well, that must be

God because they're not that good. And listen, you have a living, breathing example of this every single week that you decide to come to church. That's what it means to not get drunk on your own ego. Because listen, do you think God needs us? You think God is just waiting and be like, if they don't sign up to serve, what am I going to do? No way. Listen, the sovereign king of the universe is also a good, good dad. And every good dad loves to invite their kids into their work. This is why we have been invited into co-laboring with God for the gospel. He doesn't need us.

In fact, all we do is typically just kind of screw things up. I've told you this before, but a few years ago for Christmas, man, my in-laws gave us a trampoline because they hate us and they want us to die, I think. comes in 10 million different parts. So a couple days after Christmas, it's time to put it together. And I asked my son, JP, hey, you want to come help me put together with the trampoline? He was like, absolutely. And he goes out there.

Now, listen, parents, how much help was he to me? It was worse. At some point, I was like, whose side are you on here, dude? Okay? And then finally, even though it took longer and it was very aggravating, we got the thing put together. All the parts are accounted for. No body parts are missing.

And then we walk back in the house and Gretchen says, what you guys have been doing? And what is J.P. said? We just put together the trampoline. No scooter. I put together the trampoline and God used you, you know, to disciple me to develop patience. That's what's going on. But when he said we put the trampoline together, do you think his mama believed him? Do you think his mom looked at me and said,

How lucky are you to have this young boy of ours? No, no, no. She's like, you didn't even anything but aggravate. All the glory goes to dad. This is why God chooses losers like us. I'm telling you, ordinary, uneducated men and women who had been with Jesus. He uses us to turn the world upside now. So don't get drunk on your own ego.

But probably worse, don't get drunk on your own insecurity. We talk about this all the time. You see the whispers of the enemy get in your ear, especially after you meet Jesus, after you become a Christian, after you understand the gospel. You can get to this place where you'd be like, all right, eventually I may be able to buy into the idea that Jesus loves me, but they ain't no way he could use me. No, no, no, no. And then the enemy begins to get in your ear and whisper, listen, you know this.

You are unfit for use. And that is a lie and fear is a liar. And he whispers, if those people knew what you did, you can't, you're divorced, you can't do this. You're a recovering addict. God can't use you. You've made promises before and you've never been able to keep them. Don't you understand you are unfit for use?

And that phrase, unfit for use, that's been building terminology. That's called condemned. That the enemy wants you to look at you and slap a big condemned sticker, unfit for use. because you're so jacked up. And I'm not saying you're not jacked up. You're actually more jacked up than you realize. And yet in the gospel, Jesus assesses that same jacked up situation.

And for anybody that would believe in him, he literally, the Spirit of God moves inside of that vessel that the enemy said was condemned. And the gospel says, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So be sober-minded that every single one of us are called, anointed, equipped, and appointed by the Almighty God, not because we're awesome, but because he is. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul addresses ego and insecurity. In verses 8, 9, and 10, he says this, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, no ego. verse 10 for we are his workmanship that word workmanship in Greek means like work of art it means masterpiece that you and I have not been saved because we're awesome we've been saved because he is awesome and God wants to demonstrate his awesomeness to the world by not only redeeming you and saving you but also putting you to work for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You see, in the gospel, there's no room for ego or insecurity. Not only did God save you, but before you were even a twinkle in your daddy's eye,

God had prepared beforehand a work for you to be called into, and he put you together, knit you together in the perfect way that only you could walk in. You see, when you begin to wallow in your own insecurity and say, God could never use me, it's actually an affront against the Almighty God. Because we're saying, God, you didn't do this right. And God knew exactly what he was doing when he created you. He knew exactly what he was doing when he allowed you to walk through whatever you have had to walk through that landed you right here today.

He knew exactly what he was doing. And he called you and he prepared you not just to be saved, but to be saved to a good work. And so Paul tells Timothy, be sober-minded. Think rightly about God. Secondly, endure suffering. Endure suffering. 14 times in this little letter.

14 times Paul is going to tell Timothy to get ready to suffer, to endure suffering. Follow me and I suffered. And this is the opposite of what our culture tells us today in America. I mean, we live in a culture where the highest priority, is our own happiness, which is defined by how comfortable we can make ourselves. And listen, people, businesses, organizations are spending billions of dollars a day to get us to pursue our own comforts. And if you're a Christian, we claim to follow a Savior that says, follow me, and in order to follow me, you must die to yourself daily and take up your cross. Now listen, it's a different kind of suffering than Timothy was facing.

I mean, look, I'm going to preach all day today, and I don't have to fear. The worst thing I have to fear is like a mean tweet. Oh, no, okay? Christians during this time, they're getting their heads eaten off by lions, all right? So the suffering is very, very different. But we have, I think what it would mean today is this. If you're going to follow after Jesus, then we're not following after Jesus. then we're not following after Jesus because we think he makes our life better.

We are following after Jesus because he is better than life. He is. And following after Jesus will cost you something. Okay? He will cost you something. And next week, next week what we're going to talk about is that Paul is going to say to Timothy, I have poured out my life for the sake of the gospel and it's worth it. And you don't want to miss it next week.

Dr. Paul, our eldest elder, is going to have a word for us next week. right now he's in Africa preaching at a church, all right, and he's 84 years old. So what's your excuse again? Oh, what was it? No, no, no, you're like, no, I don't know. I get tired. Shut up. He's 84, and he's in Africa right now.

Texting me how awesome church was this morning, okay? So anyway, don't miss next week. He's going to yell at it. And he's so old, he don't even care what you think. You know what I'm saying? Just get that little wrinkly finger. He's going to get us, all right? That's next week.

He's not here. What's going to say? Okay, so. But if you fulfill your ministry, will cost you something. It will. It will. It will. It will cost you time. It will. It will cost you time. You're going to go to church. You're going to be in disciple groups. You're going to be in disciplesing relationships. In other words, all of your time won't be spent on you anymore. If you fulfill your ministry, hopefully you have like this Copernicus kind of moment in your life where you realize you're not the center of the universe. If you're going to fulfill your ministry, you'll begin to understand that God's purposes are greater than my preferences.

It'll cost you something. It'll cost you money. I mean, if you take your body, seriously, man, it's 10% off the top without even praying about it. People think you're crazy. It'll cost your reputation. Because if you follow Jesus, if you really, if you seek to pursue a godly life, you will be persecuted. People at work will be like, you crazy. And I say, give me crazy. Because in this world, normal is broke and alone and depressed. You can have that. I want crazy, okay? I'm following after Jesus. It will cost you. It will cost you not being the center of your own universe anymore. And yet, and yet, it's kind of a weird. thing when the Bible causes us to suffer that way because if you fulfill your ministry,

though it cost you something, you will never, ever, ever regret it. It's like trading in saltines for a filet mignon cooked medium rare as Jesus would have us eat it. You would never turn back to what this world has to offer. And so he says, be sober-minded, endure suffering. Number three, do the work of an evangelist. I think this is Paul giving more commentary on what he tells Timothy in 4-2. Preach the Word, preach the gospel, do the work of an evangelist. In other words, Timothy, it's not about you.

It is all about the glory of God. It is all about you understanding that when you met Jesus, you could never get over this reality. Who am I that you would take my place? And for the rest of your days, you spend no matter what your industry is, whether you're a teacher, a banker, a construction worker, no matter what you do, you live out the call of God in your life to make disciples and make disciples that make disciples. Jesus says it this way in Matthew chapter 28. It says, and when they saw him, and when they see him here, by the way, just for a little context in Matthew chapter 28,

this is the post-crucrucified, post-res resurrected Jesus Christ. That after he was dead and buried in the tomb, three days later, we'll celebrate this. about nine weeks. He rises up out of the grave alive again in bodily form. He walks around all over Jerusalem, the place where they crucified him, and now he has gathered his disciples, not just like the 12 apostles, but about 120 people up on a hillside just outside of Jerusalem, and people see the resurrected Jesus. And it says, and when they saw the resurrected Jesus, they worshipped him, but some doubted. This is just for me right here, okay? This is just for me right here. This is one of the most encouraging verses in the whole Bible to me as a preacher. Do you know why?

Because there are some Sundays I'm up here just preaching fire, man. I can feel I'm just saying stuff and it's good and the front rows just vigorously taking notes. That's how white people say amen. They're just like, hmm. Okay, a couple of of you are moving just mm-hmm. This group over here is just like tweeting stuff, you know, little hands, hands fire. You're like, okay, whatever. It's going. And there's some people just like, But nothing. And so I'm thinking, so a long time I'd be like, is it me? Well, listen, if the resurrected Jesus is going to give the great commission and then ascend

to the right hand of God, the Father, and some are going to fall on their face and worship him as the sovereign king that he is, and then other people look at it and go, I don't know, man, I don't think so. I don't. Where are you going to go to lunch? All right, so it makes me feel better about me. Anyway, and when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. No matter what you do, Jesus is saying, this is what you do. One of the questions I get more than anything else is this. How do I know God's plan for my life? I just told you. This is it right here.

No matter what, if you're retired, if you own a business, if you stay-at-home mom, whatever your vocation is, there is no sacred and secular vocation. All of us have been called and commissioned to be evangelist, to do the work of an evangelist, to share the gospel, to everybody as you are on the go that God puts in your pathway, that you share with them what Christ has done for you. that is why this church will always be about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will always be about a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. We will always be a rescue vessel and we will not be a cruise liner. And I think what Paul is saying, look, Timothy, you start preaching at the Church of Ephesus, man. Church people like comfort like everybody else does too. and it does not take very long for churches to get really, really settled in, let's take care of me,

you know, kind of us forward and no more. We got plenty at the expense of everybody else. The thing is, Jesus died for everybody else too. And so we will do whatever it takes, whatever it takes, as long as it glorifies God to be a movement for all people, so that people that are far from God will come to know him and they've been disciples in him so that they can make disciples that make disciples. This thing will not turn into a cruise ship, not on my watch. If you go to Long Beach, California, there's a couple cool things there.

Snoop Dog, that's cool. And the Queen Mary, the Queen Mary was a cruise liner that the military commandeered in World War II, and they used it as a troop transporter. They shrunk down all the rooms, they packed as many people in there. Why? Why? Because at that point in the world, all that mattered was not like which fork you use at this part of the dinner. All that mattered there was freedom for this world to stamp out tyranny in this world. And so the Queen Mary would transport thousands and thousands of troops.

When the war was over, they transferred it back to a cruise liner. It would carry about 10% of the amount of people. but those 10% boy they sure were comfortable watch out 1122 the longer you're in church the more you get concerned about your own comfort I'm telling you occasionally people come up and be like hey why don't when are we going to put in a coffee shop

you pass nine coffee shops to get here man how about go into a coffee shop and tell somebody about Jesus why you're into coffee shop and I know you're like I went to a church last week and they had recliners and then you put in your coffee order and caramel macchiato and the and the straw found your mouth. So you didn't, okay.

God bless that church, all right? We would take the recliner latte money, and we would plant churches and plant churches and plant churches because coffee don't save nobody the gospel does. Now coffee does help me preach the gospel this morning, so I'm not anti-calf. So he says, do the work of evangelists, and I think he does all of that just to tell him this.

With those three imperatives in mind, be sober mind to think rightly about God, it will cost you something. Stay focused on the Great Commission. And with that in mind, Timothy, fulfill your ministry. And so I want you, every one of you that believe in Jesus, to fulfill your ministry. So you probably need to know what your ministry is. Well, if you've been around Bible study at all, then you know that anytime somebody talks about fulfilling your ministry or what your place in the body is,

you always go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 Paul is writing to a writing to a church in Corinth and in 12, 13 and 14 he's going to talk about the reality that the body of Christ, the church is made of

a whole bunch of different parts and it would be a really good idea for you to understand what part of the body you are so that you could fulfill the part that God has called you to and in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 he walks through what are known as spiritual gifts now I'm not going to walk through

all the spiritual gifts Part of the reason why is there are four different places in the scripture where the spiritual gifts are talked about. None of the lists are the same. None of them are fully exhaustive. But here's a couple things if you're brand new to Bible study, okay? That the moment that you put your faith in Jesus Christ, the spirit of God dwells on the inside of you. And when the spirit lives in you, there are these things, these spirituals that are manifested through you, not because of you, but because the spirit is. in you. So the thing about a gift is this. You don't earn a gift. You're just giving a gift. You don't

get to sign up for it. This isn't like a wedding shower, you know, where you'd be like, hey, I'd like these three gifts. That's not how it works. That God determines who gets what gift, and every believer has at least one, and no believer has all of them, because we were created to be interdependent to need each other. And so I want to tell you, congratulations, you're gifted. How many of you remember? Middle school, remember in middle school? We're once a week. This teacher from, like, the high school that you didn't really know, she would walk into your class and say, hey, if all the gifted kids would come with me. And then these little nerds would get up, head to the door, and the rest of us would be like, hey, what? So if they're gifted, what are we? Not. What are they doing? What are they doing?

we don't know that you have the capacity to understand the level of education they're about to experience. Here's a coloring book. You remember that? Okay, so, I'm not better or whatever. Well, in the kingdom of God, congratulations. You're gifted. Every single one of us has at least one spiritual gift, and none of us have all of them. And a part of that is because we need each other.

And in fact, most of the time, most of the time, the way that God has discharging. decided to demonstrate his power in taking care of people is through this power source called the church, through this power source called the body. I mean, think about how your body works, okay? If your elbow itches, what happens? So your elbow itches, and your elbow tells your brain, hey, man, I'm itching. And you know what your brain does not do? Your brain does not send some kind of anti-itch thing to your elbow.

No, your brain tells another part of the body. It's doing fine. My fingers ain't itching. And it says, hey, fingers, can you go help Brother Elbow a little bit and swoop, go, go, go, and the whole body benefits. That's how that works. And it's the same thing's true in the church. I can't tell you the amount of people that have decided to disconnect themselves from the body and then ask God to move in a way in their life that he has designated his church to move in. You see, if that happens, man, you're going to itch forever, you dummy.

You've got to get plugged into the body. So it would be important for you to know what part of the body you are. it would be important for you to know what spiritual gift you have. And so I just want to caution you here. There are spiritual gifts test out there ad nauseum. And especially with the Google machine, man, you can find them. So there are somewhere between 22 and 28 spiritual gifts, depending on how charismatic you are. That's just kind of how they are.

Now, I grew up Southern Madness, so we ain't talk about the gifts, all right? Because we were afraid somebody get the tongues, it would lead to dancing, we'd have to shut the whole thing down. Okay, so I didn't know about anything. And then, so I get to college. and I'm a part of this college ministry, and it was way on the charismatic side. And I went to that, it was the most fun. I mean, it was crazy, but I liked it. It was crazy.

It was like a circus. And so we go on this retreat, my freshman year, and the whole retreat is about discovering your spiritual gifts. And so they give us these spiritual gift assessment, and they had added some that Paul was not aware of. You understand? Like tongues of fire. I mean, it was awesome. And so we take this spiritual gifts assessment, and I read it, and my roommate and I are looking at it. I'm like, bro, what did you get?

He was Lutheran. He didn't know about spiritual gift. He had the spiritual gift of, like, light and candles and drinking. That was his spiritual gift, you know? And if you're Lutheran, you're not even offended. He's like, yeah, they're right. Okay, so I'm like, bro, what did you get? He's like, what did you get?

I'm like, I got martyrdom, which is awesome, but you use it once and you're all out. I mean, there's no rinse and repeat here. What is this? I'm like, what did you get? Straight up, he goes, I got celibacy. That's like, I'd rather have martydom. All right. So we have some of those kind of tests online and stuff, but maybe a better way to look at it as this.

It is to look at a confluence of a few things in your life, okay? One would be affinity. What are some desires, passions, loves that God has just put in there? Like what are some things that you are drawn to? Like some of you, you're just kind of wired to serve. Like when a service is over, do you think about cleaning up, not just talking to people? Some of you are wired towards people. Some of you are wired towards, like every time I talk about one more generation,

something in your heart swells up. Some of you are wired towards going to the very ends of the earth. You should pay attention to that because you are God's workmanship and he put those things in you. The next thing you should look at after affinity is you should look at your abilities. What abilities has God given you? Because it's not just about passion. Look, I work with a lot of church planners and they're like, I have the gift of preaching. And then I listen to them and be like, ooh, well, apparently we don't have.

of the gifts of listening because it ain't good, all right? So like some of you, some of you love to sing. I love to sing. But I've heard you sing. You're never going to be a worship leader from up here. We know that God has placed you to lead worship from there, okay? So you've got to pay attention to kind of some abilities, what has God given you. And then it's sort of the confluence of affinity, ability, and then kingdom advancement. As you just look around this world and say, where is God moving and calling me to get involved in. For example, we are launching the Fleming Island campus in just a couple of months. And so we need, if you would open up your worship guide here at Fleming Island and at all of our campuses,

there is kingdom opportunity in all of these areas. And listen, don't believe the lie that you can't be used. I'm telling you, if you're like, oh, I'm not that talented, okay? Can I tell you one of the things that matters a whole bunch around here? It doesn't take an incredible amount of talent to greet people at the door. But as I hear testimony after testimony after testimony of people's lives who were transformed here at 1122, before I ever hear about the music or before I ever hear about a sermon, I will hear people say, I was pretty nervous about going to church,

and I walked up that day and there was a smiling face welcoming me to church. And it calmed everything down. You might have the ministry of a smiling face. Now, see, they would never let me be a greeter because this is my face, you know? People walk up, why is he so mad? That's just his face. All right, so that wouldn't be that part of the body. So be praying over that.

And also notice this. Notice that Paul is telling Timothy, hey, here's the gift I think God has put in you. That's why Christianity is a team sport. This is why you need to be in a disciple group. This is why you need to be with people, with other men and women in the faith, that can oftentimes see things in you that you can never see in yourself. Do you know, that's how I ended up doing this. This was not my idea.

I was cutting grass at a youth camp when Coach Bull Lee, my football coach, and the guy that led me to Jesus said, hey, boy, when the singing's done, you preaching. And I was like, what? I thought, and I told it. Coach, I'm not very comfortable speaking in front of people. They said, comfortable. Boy, did you say comfortable?

Uh-huh. He said, you think Paul and Silas were comfortable in prison? You think Daniel was comfortable into Lions' Den. Boy, you think Jesus Christ were comfortable on the cross? No. Didn't go. I did. Then when I got finished, and dude, I'm sure it was terrible.

I preached on John 315 because that was the only verse I knew that I could find it in my Bible. Okay. And when I got done, little kids got saved. And when I got done, Coach said, hey, boy, when you preach the Bible, I see two things happen. I see you come alive, and I see them come alive. Then he says to me, you should think about going into ministry, work for the church. And I said, coach, mark my words, I will never, ever, ever, ever, work at a church. Ha, ha, ha, okay?

So, you have no idea. But it's just true. And then, in fact, I did student ministry for a long time, loved it, man. and I had no dreams or aspirations or any kind of, you know, God didn't write something in the sky for me to become a lead pastor. Pastor Jerry Swett, my pastor told me I was going to do it. He said, Beach is going to launch a new church, the church of 1122, if that's what you call it, and you were going to be the senior pastor. And then Pastor Jerry goes, and I just have a piece about it.

Huh, I just do it in my mouth. So that's weird how the spirit works differently in different people's life. Now here's the thing. all I can tell you is about what God has called me to do to equip you to do the ministry God has called you to do. But notice that Paul says, Timothy, fulfill your ministry,

not Titus's ministry, not Peter's ministry, not Paul's ministry, but you fulfill your ministry because one of the worst things that you could ever do in regards to the ministry, the equipping, the calling that God has on your life is then to begin to compare it to what God has called other people to do. It's the worst thing you can do.

You see, because when we compare, it's always a lose-lose proposition. When we compare ourselves to one another, it either ends in pride, because you usually are like, well, I'm better than that guy, or condemnation. Well, I can never live up to that. And pride and condemnation, it's not the language of the Father that is the language of the enemies. And the other thing is when we compare, you always compare what you know about yourself to what you don't know about other people. You compare their highlight reel to your B-roll. And it's an affront against God. God, you didn't do this right.

You gave him all that leadership gifting, and it should have been given to me. You gave her the ability to sing, and I want that. Do you know the freedom it is to walk in the ministry that God has called you to fulfill? And let me tell you, man, these little gadgets are killing us. we have this insatiable desire to compare ourselves to everybody else, and yet we have an unlimited supply of false advertising and this fear of missing out. We put a camera and social media platforms in all of our lives, and I'm just telling you, it's not real.

It's not even real. Here's how I know it's not real. We're Disney people at my house. All right, we go to Disney a few times a year. Don't judge me. All right, we're into it. We like it, man. We'll go to a bunch of our friends.

And a couple years ago, we're coming back from Disney, and I'm scrolling through Instagram, and I find this picture. I showed it to you a couple years ago. It's a picture of me and my family at Disney. Okay, there's my son, J.P. Martin, 7757. My favorite thing about it is got two likes. It's me and his mama, all right? So we are there at the hoop-de-do, all right, the hoop-de-do,

and look what J-P says. He's 13 now, so he's like 11 then. It says, coming back from Disney to Disney to, day with the best family ever. All right? I thought at least one mom would all, but that's fine, whatever. Now here's the thing. If you just judge my family based on this picture, I ain't going to lie.

We kind of look like the best family ever, all right? I mean, there's my little beautiful bombshell, Reagan Capri. She's adorable. I love her. She's got me wrapped around her finger. This picture, she was seven, and she said she loved Jesus. We had just yet to see the evidence of that conversion, but it's coming on. And then there's my little boy, JP, with a slick part, man, his glasses, looks all, looks great, with a little smile.

And then there's my wife, Gretchen, she's beautiful. I outkick my coverage, something fierce, but she was young, and it's a covenant. She can't get out. And, you know, and she's got her head just nuzzled there on my well-defined shoulder. Best family ever, man. Now, can I tell you what was happening moments before that professional photo was taken? Have you been to Disney, the happiest place on Earth? Have you seen a happy human there ever?

No, no. So that thing's called the hoop-de-do, okay? I love it. It's like, it's kind of this redneck meets Mickey Mouse, so I fit right in, all right? But the problem is, it's hard to get to get to a bus, you got to get on a bus, get on a bus, to get to the hoopty-do. And while we're on the bus, it starts pouring down rank. So when we get off the bus, I go buy ponchos for $18 per poncho. And you open it up, and it's pretty much just a trash bag with a hole in the head, all right?

which I need the hole in the head for spending $18 a poncho. And apparently they were used from the zombies because that's what it smelled like. It wasn't good. You open them up. So we get them all on. We're waiting in line to get our photo taken. And then J.P. looks at me and says, Dad, my head hurts. It's killing me.

And I'm like, bro, you're killing me. Why would you wait until we're in line? Why would you not tell us when we're in the hotel where we have things like medicines and stuff? And so he says, uh, eh, eh, eh, because he's 11-year-old boy. He doesn't have language yet. What? What? What? That's all he's got. And so I'm like, all right, come with me, and we have to go on a scavenger

hunt at the hoop-de-do to try to find something for his head. And so Gretchen is in charge of all things medical at my house. I'm like, baby, what do we need? She's like, ibuprofen. Heard of it. Let's go. So we find this little thing called the country store, and they don't have ibuprofen. All right? Maybe it said it in the little words, but my eyes don't read the little words anymore. The words I could still see just said, fever reducer. So I look at it, and I look at him. I'm like, he doesn't have a fever, but will this work? So I take a picture of it with my phone, and I send it to Gretchen. Will fever reducer work? No reply. Will fever reduce her work? No reply. Question mark. Question, question, question. Eventually, I text something like, how come when we're together, all you do is look at your phone, but when I'm not with you, you want to answer a text?

Oh, it's a small world after all, is it not? So then I get the fever reducer, I get him by the net, we get back to line, it's our turn to go. I'm here, you've got to take the medicine. I don't have water. Then chew it, all right? And so he's over there crunching through some fever reducer. reducer. Reagan, get over here. Somehow he still has enough energy to poke her, right? And she's like, stop, JP, stop. And he goes, what, what, what, what? I'm like, would you guys just stop, woman, get off your phone and get into the picture.

Three, two, one, snap, best family ever. Here's the point. Nothing will kill God's call in your life, like constantly comparing yourself to someone that God did not call you to be. Church of 1122, each individual at all of our locations fulfill your ministry, your ministry. Not my ministry, not anybody else's ministry, not your mama's ministry, not your daddy's ministry, but fulfill your ministry. And so as we launch Fleming Island, we're going to need it.

There's a whole bunch more opportunities for you to be able to fulfill your ministry. and there's one other thing that you should pay attention to. You should pay attention to affinity and ability and kingdom advancement, and then the last thing to figure out what your ministry is. Pay attention to the pain. Pay attention to the most painful thing in your life. Because what I have found over and over and over is that God never waste the hurt.

And often the very thing that you think would disqualify you from ministry is the very thing God wants to use to be the platform and for your ministry. See, as I was filling this out, man, working on the sermon and thinking about filling this out, there's a part of our congregation, Baker Correctional, and you ain't going to fill out a card and turn it in. And you may be sitting in Baker Correctional facility right now, and this may be the most painful thing you have ever walked through, and I would say to you that the sovereign king of the

universe uses all pain, even self-inflicted pain, for his glory. And so, fellas, you have a ministry too. You have a call in your life. You have a purpose in your life. God is not done with you. Because of the empty tomb and the alarm clock, I know he's not done with you. And so you fulfill your ministry. Do the work of an evangelist.

And so church, just so you know, we're launching Fleming Island in a couple of months. And starting this week, we're going to two services at Baker Correctional. So, men, you've got an opportunity to invite more men to come to that service. And so take this card, pray about it, fill it out. You don't need three or four weeks to meditate on it. This is where some of the gospel advancement is happening through the Church of 1122. And here's what I would say, man. As Paul commands us to endure suffering, to fulfill our ministry, to be evangelist, to be sober-minded,

here's the crazy thing. This is 25 years of being pretty committed to fulfilling my ministry. There's nothing that compares to it. I don't care what kind of deals you close at work, okay? They're awesome, man. I hope you close them all. I don't care how much money you can stack up for yourself at the bank. I don't care how low you can get that handicap in golf.

I don't care how big the wave is you drop in on or how big the buck is that you drop. whatever the thing is that you spend all your time, energy, and effort doing, I'm not even saying don't do those things. I'm just saying when you pour yourself out for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is this constant reminder of God's grace in you. And then you get to be a part of, you get to see him use, just ordinary, uneducated losers like you and I, changing eternities in other people's life. And I promise you, you fulfill your ministry, you will go to bed tired. and you will go to bed without regrets. The reason that we're called to serve is not because of God's need. It's because of God's great desire for you and I to participate in the advancing of His kingdom.

Amen? If you would please stand and pray with me. I'm going to give you permission to pray with your eyes open so you can fill it out this card. And when I get finished praying and we're going to sing together, then you will be able to turn these in, just on your way out. We'll give you instructions before you go. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we thank you that we are your masterpiece, that we are your workmanship.

And that, God, you have called us under yourself, but you have also called us to a specific place in the body. You have given us a ministry to declare and display your glory in whatever arenas of life that you have placed us in. And God, as we are there, by the power of the spirit, would you give us words to constantly do the work of an evangelist? God, I pray for the teachers. I pray for the lawyers. I pray for the lawmakers. God, I pray for the men and women clocking in and clocking out that everywhere we put our feet,

we would understand it is an opportunity for us to advance the great commission. That we would point people to you. And, God, I thank you. I thank you that when we pour ourselves out for you, God, there is no regret. it. That's the Lord, I pray that you would give discernment and wisdom to folks. God, I pray that you would bust down fears. I pray that men and women and students would step into opportunities that they know you have been calling them into for a long, long time. And God, we thank you in advance for all that you will do in us and through us and to us, but it's not for us. It's all for

you. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.