Am I a Disciple? | Who Am I

I want to tell you about a debate that's raging in Alaska right now. Can I tell you about a big debate in Alaska? For those of you that don't know, I was born in Alaska. By the way, I was born in a little town called Homer, Alaska, that is so small there were two beds in the hospital, guys. It's awesome. and one cold morning i took one bed with mom me and mom were there and she had me and after two months i said folks we got to get out of here and we moved to anchorage i didn't tell them that at two months stay with me here guys all right we moved to anchorage and uh so i was raised in alaska for those of you that don't know i ran the aditarod trail sled dog race when i was 18 years old as a matter of fact this last week I haven't done this in years, but somebody in the Northwest campus said, we've got a bunch of fourth graders at this elementary school, and they're following the Iditarod, and they know everything about it, and they're tracking it on these huge boards and where their mushers are and everything. Could you please come by? And I'm like, oh. Oh. okay so I said yes and I'm so glad I did so I had a bunch of fourth graders in front of me out in Arlington Heights and it was awesome these kids knew so much about the race I brought my six month old pup blaze that I got from Alaska here about five months ago four months ago I flew up and got him And so I've been following the race. I've got an app that I paid $59 for to watch this race with GPS and everything, track all the mushers along the way. Jesse Holmes won it. But my pups... Parents were in the Iditarod, guys. Come on. So my pup Blaze's dad was in lead, lead dog on the fifth place team. And then my pup's mama, Fendi, gave birth to him, him and a sister and five other boys. Isn't that a trip? So big old litter. And And she got healed up enough where she actually ran in lead, leading what's called a puppy team or one or two-year-olds. So they go a little slower. And it was a young lady who I met while I was up there in Alaska who actually was competing in that class with that team of dogs. But here's something crazy that was going on. in this race this year they had for the first time what they called the expedition track for the editarod and the expedition track is people that come to run they aren't pre-qualified they've never run any kind of dog sled races before at all but they have the money and they charge them like three hundred thousand dollars to get into the race And then what they do is they allow them to have people, they have to have some other musher with the dog team or a snow machine rider. So this one guy shows up. He's one of the richest Norwegians going. He dropped out of high school, joined commercial fishery, and he started compete, just being an adventure guy. So he's worth $7 billion, all right? So he's worth $7 billion. So what's 300K? It's nothing. So he dropped 300K for the race, and then he decided, I'm going to drop $20,000 into every one of these villages along the Iditarod. So he gave them all 20 grand, and then he had with him an entourage. He had veterinarians. He had cooks. So they were riding on snow machines. He had a medic with him on this race. This is all what I'm hearing via the grapevine. And he did really well. He made it to Nome, Alaska. The dude's 68 years old. So fire in my belly that maybe I still got one more Iditarod left in me. Some of you are like, you've got to be kidding me. No, I'm crazy enough. Your pastor is. He's crazy enough. I'd be willing to do that if God led me to do it. So the debate online, and it was raging, is, is this guy a dog musher? Is this guy a dog musher? Well, in one sense, he mushed a team 1,100 miles, about 1,000 miles. It's on a little bit shorter route than the southern route. So he made it across Alaska for sure. And he did a good job. Just to hang on to a dog team for a couple of blocks is a big deal, let alone go 1,000 miles. So kudos to him, man. This dude's tougher than nails. But is he a dog musher? And the dog mushers are going, he's no dog musher. He ran a dog team to know him, but he ain't no dog musher. Because dog mushing includes like a large kennel. The smallest kennels in Alaska that run the Iditarod trail sled dog race are like 50. And there's kennels of 300 huskies. And these dogs are fed so well, man. What I fed my dogs was like salmon heads. I'd boil those things with rice and horse meat. and and chicken and and just large chunks i'd give them and i'd give them half cubes of butter for snacks as we're going down the trail i mean these guys ate like you can't believe i pour vitamin supplement all kinds of b12 additives into the food you name it man these guys sled dogs eat like kings man because they're they're trained to go these great distances so you got kennel you got feeding and when I was committing my two and a half years to training for the Iditarod it was morning noon and night so I kind of know why that debate rages on but it leads to a really good point Because there's a lot of people in the church today that are totally Christian in name only. In fact, R.C. Sproul says it this way, there are many that profess Christ who don't possess Christ. Just think about that. R.C. Sproul went on his reward here recently, but he's a great teacher, great man of God. And I heard that on a YouTube short here just here recently, and I thought, wow, that's a profound way to put that. So there are many today in our culture who profess Christ but don't possess Christ. And we know that's true because I've given you some stats as of late that are pretty staggering. So the amount of people, according to recent research, is that there are now 71% of Americans claim to be Christian. Now, if you reduce that down to people who go to churches on a fairly consistent basis, and that can mean Christmas and Easter and a couple other times, that open up, and by the way, if there are Christers here, hey, at least we get an opportunity to share the gospel with them a couple of times a year. So I don't knock anyone for that, man. I'm humbled by that. But those that are actually going to a church that's preaching from this, without either a social gospel or something added to it goes down to like 24 percent of the of the american populace but then if you take and these are stats guys no joking from barna research is one of the greatest researchers out there and pew which does great research the amount of people that have a christian worldview Meaning that they believe in the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. They believe in the birth, teaching, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That they believe in the communion of the saints. And by the way, anyone who's born of God is a saint. That might mean news to you, but that's biblical. The amount of people that hold to a Christian worldview... Attempt to order their private and public lives around the teaching of this book you ready for the number four percent four percent So some of you might say Wow we got a problem I look at it is we've got opportunity and I want to talk with you about that today and Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? That's the title of my message today. Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? I want to stop here for a moment and say something very important. There's a lot going on in our world today, right guys? I want to warn us of something, and I have to be vigilant on this, and I'm going to challenge you to be as well. It is super easy to look at what's going on in our world and to get so twisted around the axle of social issues, political issues, geopolitical issues. Let me tell you why this is so important. First, God is sovereign. Do you know what that means? God is ultimately over everything that's going on in this world. Do you know that God raises up kings, leaders, and he takes them down? He does it all. He does it all. This is very important. I want to take one issue here, for instance. I have the privilege of having been a vantage point into things that you will never hear anywhere in the news today. So I get to find out things about what's the fastest growing church in the world right now. I get to find out what's happening in northern Nigeria where Christians are being slaughtered. What's really going on there? And I'm so appreciative that some of the mainstream media has picked up that story as of late because it's horrific what our brothers and sisters are paying for for the price of following Christ. But I want to let you know I've had on my show recently Hormoz Shariat. And Lana Silk. These are two Iranian kind of expats. They moved when the Shah was deposed as little kids. They've been here in America. They can't go back. They'd be killed immediately. They'd be absolutely murdered like this quick by the regime. and i i just need to give you a vantage point that will help you understand why we can't put a stake in the ground on political social and all that junk why we need to keep our feet on the rock everyone hearing me right now and here's why do you know that the fastest growing church in the world in the last decade has been in iran Hermos Shariat, my new friend, get this now. Hermos Shariat is pumping the gospel every day of the week via satellite, going in through the regime's kind of buster of internet access. They are pumping satellite messages of the gospel and teachings from the Word of God to, you know how big his audience is? You'll never hear this anywhere else but here. Seven million people. Seven million people in Iran are tuned and glued to this. And you need to know something. No matter what our vantage point is, we've got brothers and sisters. I'm going to give you a few more details that are horrific. But do you remember hearing about this? And this is universally understood that when there were protests in the streets of Iran here just about two months ago, remember that? The regime went in and killed 30,000 to 50,000 protesters. In fact, they hung an Olympic wrestler three days ago because he dared to say, we want freedom in our country. And they tortured him in public for the express purpose of getting the resistance to shut up. Do you know that when those 30 to 50,000 people were summarily killed in the streets of Iran for daring to say, we want freedom, for women saying, we don't want to wear full burqas anymore, we'd like to have our hair shown, that they went and they killed people, point-blank range, like executed them, and then they were this horrific. They went to hospitals, they found wounded people, that had been wounded in the protests, they drug them out of the hospitals. On one case, this is documented from sources you will never hear, in one case, three doctors resisted and they shot them in the head, point blank, drug the wounded people into the streets and either hung them or incarcerated them. I want us to be careful because God is sovereign. We are not the architects of what's going on in this world, but we serve the one who is. And I need you to know that some people's fury is another person's victory. We got to be wise here, guys. We've got to be very careful. And this is why I have resigned myself, that I'll let the whole world do that. I'll see what's going on in this world, knowing that the backdrop behind all of this madness, there is a God who loves us still. And he is still saying, whosoever will may come. So my encouragement to you is to adopt a posture that I've had to adopt, and that is my first and foremost calling. The thing that's going to break my heart and get me table-pounding passionate is that we've got 96% of this country, many of whom have never had a fair shot at knowing who Jesus Christ is. We've got a mission field at our door. Are you aware of that? Are you aware of that? I'd plan on sharing it later here, but I'm going to share it now. The best statistics that we have, and I've gone off mic when I interviewed these great minds, somewhere between 50% and 70% of our nation, they might wear a cross off of an ear. They might wear a cross right here. They might know the name jesus, but they don't know that he came to this earth as a gift of god Offering salvation for anyone who would repent of their sin knowing that we're all born with our backs to god And that he's urging us whosoever will may come And that he offers life to those that are burdened and heavy laden and he says come to me. I'll give you rest And when we understand that we've got 50 to 70% of our nation that has never heard that part of Jesus, that Jesus wants to set people free from addictions, from shame, from years of sexual abuse, that God wants to fill the void in our heart that Pascal speaks of. Listen to me. You want to get passionate about something? Let's go reach this mission field that lives beside us. The people that walk among us and some of whom are just hearing the full gospel this morning right here for the first time. I'm appealing to you Rise above the noise of the world. Rise above it. I'm done now. You know I love you guys, right? You know I have the same battles you have, right? All right. So before I go any further, let me pray for us and then we'll bust into the word. Father, thank you. Thank you for our brothers and sisters right now that, look at the clock. That's about 6 p.m. In places in this world that people are paying the ultimate price for following Jesus with their life. But Lord, you've given them life eternal. Lord, I pray that we wouldn't squander the freedoms that we still have in our nation today. But that we would utilize them. Make us disciples of Jesus Christ, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. So the question I have for you today is, are you a disciple of Christ? Now, before I go any further, I want to tell you that I think oftentimes if I were to ask you, and we were sitting down to have a cup of coffee, and I'd say, well, what is a disciple of Christ? I think you would have a good answer, and that is someone who reads the Word, right? And attempts to apply it, because Jesus said, if you want a house, a life that's built like a house on a rock... You not just read the word, but you apply the word to your life. You make it part of you, right? You would say that a disciple of Christ is someone who fellowships with other brothers and sisters. Fair enough? You would say that a disciple of Christ is someone who gives some money, right? And by the way, can I take the sting out of this? God doesn't want your wallet. He wants your heart. And when he has your heart, he's got your billfold. And that's really true. I mean, the truth is, if God doesn't have your heart, we don't want your money. Because God can do more with a sanctified 20 spot than he can with a begrudging $100 bill. A disciple of Christ can get characterized in all these things, and then you get into some of those spiritual disciplines, like, oh, we get up in the morning, we pray, we talk with God, and some of those, and some of you are like, oh, just that list that you gave, I'm a little bit weak on. And here's what's really cool. God is patient. And if you say this morning, oh, I'm a little bit weak, even on those things that you mentioned, Carl, that shows that the Spirit of God indwells you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be tweaked by those questions at all. You'd be ticked off and go, can't wait till this guy shuts up because I'm out of here, man. So we got to ask a question, though. What is a disciple of Christ when we look at the Word of God? And there we get a different picture. I'm trying to capture it with this. What passes for, you can put up this next slide, guys. What passes for discipleship today is often individual growth. And it's really about us, right? Guys, there's a comment there, so let me stand there. This is, generally speaking, how we get it framed out. And it's vital, right? But biblical discipleship is a radical partnership with God to step into a movement only he, God, can pull off. So I want to ask you a question. Are you a disciple of Christ? Now, there's no condemnation in this message, but man, I got a rallying cry for us right now. I think one of the things that we've lacked is a vision for what could be. And when we begin to get a biblical vision for what could be, I think it'll fuel that individual discipleship with Jesus. And I go back to this illustration all the time only because I've been there and I've floated in it multiple times. The Dead Sea is so full of salt that even Carl with my red hair, I look like a red bobber out there on the Red Sea. You know, I look like someone's fishing with a human bobber out there. It's so, I mean, it's so crazy. The saline content's so high that you truly get out in the Dead Sea and you lay back and you're like, this is weird. I mean, those of you that can't swim, this is a great place to go. You can't sink in the Dead Sea. You cannot drown there unless you go face first into this thing. It's amazing. But you know why the Dead Sea's dead with so much saline? There's no outlet in it. And a lot of us as Christ followers find ourselves feeling a certain deadness in us because we're missing out on the aspect of discipleship that allows our life to be a conduit of God. Instead, what we become is little cul-de-sacs. So we live at the end of the cul-de-sac and we're just hoping God keeps rolling balls down our way, you know? And God's saying, no, I've got way more than that for you. I want your life to be a conduit of me. I want you to be a pass-through of everything that I've poured into you. And when we begin to live like that, here's what happens. When we begin to see our life as something that's poured out for the sake of others, we now join God where he's working. And let me tell you what it does. It makes Bible reading come alive. It makes prayer have purpose. It makes giving less begrudging. Yeah, it does all those things and more. And we begin to order our lives in a private way and a public way that sees ourself as a conduit. And the joy in that is enormous, guys. So I want to give you a couple of words here, two words, and I want to explain this. Fair shot. You ever heard this term? Yeah, what's it mean? What's fair shot mean? It basically means give him a chance. Somebody, come on, give him a window of opportunity. You've heard the term. Oh, all he needs is a fair shot. You heard it in employment. I've heard this before many times. Manager's going to hire someone and somebody asks him, well, is that the one you really ought to be hiring? And somewhere along the line, of course, the discussion can be, they deserve a shot at this. They deserve a fair shot. How many of you are glad that God gave you a fair shot at the gospel? How many of you are glad that someone loved God enough to be a conduit to share the love of Jesus with you? If that doesn't fire you up, you got wet wood. Because here's the deal, guys. The beautiful thing about the gospel is that God has called us, ready for this, to the 96% of the people that we work with, walk with, shop with. many of whom have never had a fair shot at the gospel of christ and when we become a people you might be getting the hint now we're going to take discipleship to a whole new place here we're going to take it to the place that god intended it to be and i'm going to show you in the word today how this works but when we begin to join god where he is working Can I tell you, this is so personal and I hadn't planned on sharing this, but I got to do it. You hear the Holy Spirit out there blowing, right? I want you to know this. One of the greatest joys that my bride and I have, let me tell you something really funny. This is going to be super vulnerable. When my bride and I got married, we had so little in common, it's almost scary. But I will say this, couples that want to have everything in common, like we mountain bike together, we listen to the same music together, all that, that doesn't add up to a hill of beans compared to one thing. My bride and I had one thing that unified us that was in common, and this is the only thing in a rough patch, like the first 10 days of marriage, that kept us from splitting the sheets. And it was a love for Jesus Christ and the desire for other people to know what he wants to do in them. That has been the glue that sticks us together. My bride and I are so different. The mattress I sleep on happens to be a reflection of the hardness that she likes in a mattress. which my bride likes apparently to sleep on bricks. No joking. We got one of these extra ultra firm things. I laid down it on the first night. I go, we got wood floors. Why didn't we just sleep on that? I'm not joking you right now. So we've got, I literally ordered a solution this week. I've got some extra super spongy stuff that I'm going to cut down the middle. And so on my side of the queen bed, I'm going to have a whole other layer up here. But that's a funny way of saying she's had to put up with things about me that aren't anything that she is. But the glue that stuck us together and gets us up in the morning, high-fiving each other, slapping each other on the keister going let's go is a love for jesus that says we're in a mission and we're together in this thing i love my bride i love her love for god i love that she's different than me in so many ways except the bed thing But I love most that my bride, we are locked at the hip with regard to taking what God has done in us and sharing it with as many people as possible. That's what unifies us. So what is fair shot and I want you to think about these two words because we're going to come back to him in weeks To come and really unpack it It's turning genuine believers into partners of god's extraordinary mission So it's moving you from a believer a cul-de-sac person into a conduit person And we're not there yet, but we're on the road to it And I know the evidence of this is, can I tell you the great head start we have? If you're a guest here today, I need you to know this is no joking. I have had people that have guest taught here, Erwin Lutzer and others in the past. I had Matt Forte, who was running back for the Bears, who came and shared here a number of years ago now. I mean, I've heard it from person after person. that they say this this church is so loving it's the most incredible thing going and it is and you guys are beautiful man so we got the first piece in place now the question is where do we go from there so we got to become partners in god's extraordinary mission because we don't want to be cul-de-sac christians we want to be conduit followers of christ that really have something to give to the world around us And I have a quick prompting here from the Holy Spirit that I want to give you. For some of you, you are just one kicking the end out of your cul-de-sac, becoming a conduit to finally getting free from an addiction that has haunted you for 15, 20 years. Now it's quiet in here. Going, Pastor Carl, you're telling me that the quality of my marriage can change if I start thinking for other people around me? Yeah. You mean to tell me that slavery to certain issues of sin or missing the mark in my life can get victory? Yeah. You mean to tell me, Pastor Carl, shame can have no hold on me when I become a conduit Christ follower versus a cul-de-sac Christ follower? Yeah. You might be just one step away from joining this extraordinary mission that is led by God to change you. And there's some of you here, I'm looking at couples out here right now that are on the cusp of retirement. Can I just tell you this? Don't retire. Yes, you may leave your place of employment, but never retire again. retirement will kill you the statistics don't lie people retire and they die don't die we're being really practical here today so i want to answer the question why fair shot And I want to unpack three central passages, and I want to do it this way. I'm going to give you three reasons why a fair shot. Why conduit church versus cul-de-sac church? First, because everyone deserves to hear the good news. Someone give me an amen on this thing. Does everyone deserve it? How do we know it? Look at Romans 10, 9 and 10, verses 14 and 15. The Apostle Paul's writing to the Romans, and he says, "'How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?' And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Wow. You know what Paul's saying here? Everyone deserves a fair shot, but... How in the world are they going to know about this if we don't have a mindset that has a conduit mindset? We've got to send people. We've got to equip people. We've got to help people. We've got to train people. Because here's the point. Because everyone deserves to hear the good news. Everyone. Everyone. Second thing I want to give you, another reason why fair shot. Because we are called to reach people where they are, let me add, dot, dot, dot, as they are. Now, before I go to this next verse, let me give you this. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians is laying out his rights as an apostle. And he's saying he has certain freedoms that he finds in his relationship with God. And he's laying out all these rights. And then he says, even though I have all these freedoms, to the weak I became weak, to win the weak. To that without the law, I became a person without the law, meaning I'm going to go reach Gentiles. To that with the law, meaning I'm going to still reach some of my Jewish countrymen, I became as a person with the law. I became all things to all people, and here it is, that by all means I might save some. This is huge. Let me tell you what this means. It means that when we become a fair shot people, that everybody deserves a fair shot. Here's what this means. We no longer have the old Christian mindset because it ain't going to work anymore. We can't do church how we used to do it. That's done. Put that to sleep. The way we used to do church has to die. Here's why. We can no longer have this weird American mindset. We build a church, we open the doors, and they'll come. They ain't coming. We gotta get going. They ain't coming. Your wayward kids ain't coming. They ain't coming. Kids raised in church, heard the gospel so much. It's not another grandiose Easter service. I'm pumped. I'm with Stephen. Invite people to Easter. But I'm telling you right now, the vast majority of people that deserve a fair shot at God, they ain't coming here for Easter, man. They got pickup games. They got stuff going on. They got buffets that they've already got reservations to. They ain't coming. They ain't coming. We ain't that cool. We can't out-hip the world. Can't. I tried. I can't dance enough. But we can, I don't know what Cleo said, but I'm not gonna ask her to repeat it. And Cleo, no more from you today. I love you so much, sister. Hopefully it was a word of affirmation, but I ain't even going to risk it. No, here's the deal. Here's the deal, guys. Here's the deal. The second point is because we are called to reach people where they are. Paul said, I became all things to all people so that by any possible means I might save some. A point of clarity. Does Paul think that he's doing the saving? No. He's just saying, I'm in it. God's using me as a mouthpiece. That's all. And don't you want some of that? Some of you in this next year are going to be able to share your story and point people to Jesus that you never imagined in a million years you'd be trained and equipped to do something like that, but we're going to help you do it. It's going to be work, but we're going to get there. We're going to get there. Do I think everyone here wants to be a conduit person? No. I'll tell you what, some of you feel that. No, man, Carl, if you saw my cul-de-sac, if you saw the cul-de-sac of my soul, you'd go, I am not fit to be out there. I'm telling you, the awareness of the mess in the cul-de-sac of your soul, just the awareness alone makes you qualified to become a conduit of God's bounty. Just the awareness of it. Third point, why fair shot? Because many are prepared to receive Jesus as Lord and we don't even know it. No, I need to get this to you. This is super important. Look at what we find then in Matthew 9, verse 37 and 38. Jesus is looking at Jerusalem, and he said to his disciples. He's got his disciples there. They're overlooking Jerusalem. He says, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send up conduits, laborers, into his harvest. That's what God wants for us. and it's power I want you to know something very important wanna give you a term right now that is something really cool and I want you to listen closely Martin Luther coined the phrase provenient grace now that's a big theological term and all it means is that God's grace a common grace of awareness of their need for god has been deposited on certain people now do we know from scripture and from life in general that there are plenty of people who are just shaking a fist at god and they're to hell with you i don't need you sure they're there can god reach them still yeah there's some of you are sitting here yes god can reach those but here's the point God, in his power and sovereignty, has proveniently prepared hearts of some people. So this is how the church that wants to give a fair shot to the world, a conduit church, not a cul-de-sac church, this is how we need to look at the mission field of our world, through the eyes of provenient grace. You go, Carl, I'm lost. I'm going to clarify. Look at this passage here in Mark 6, verse 7 through 11. And he called the 12, this is the first gospel written, by the way, and he called the 12 and began to send them out two by two. By the way, can I tell you this? A lot of you get freaked out about going out alone, and I'm not talking about going door knocking. That's weird, okay? Don't do that. I catch you doing that, you're in trouble, all right? All right. That's just straight up weird. You want to knock on doors where there's been a bit of a relationship built because it's out of that relationship that that weirdness dissipates, okay? But this is what he said. Go out two by two, and this is better because if you feel like you're on this... singular mission going out. Isn't this cool that Jesus sent people out two by two? Because when you go out alone, have you ever noticed that Satan seems to be innately able to kick you in the teeth, bloody you up, and send you home like you got your booty kicked? in anything in life even if you live in the cul-de-sac of your pain if you're trying to deal with that alone it is so frustrating and it's hopeless so the two by two thing is awesome because now I'm going to go back to Cleo I would love to sit down at coffee with Cleo, with a friend of hers or a friend of mine, because I know that I've got a radiant woman of God who's going to love these people undeniably, and she's going to help fill in the gaps of some things that I'm missing and sharing. See what I'm saying? So this two-by-two thing, I got chills right now, so now I am Team Cleo again. All right. But here's the deal. We've got to look at this rightly so he goes on but look at here's the point that I'm gonna get to and he gave them Authority over unclean spirits. There's a whole message in that so I'm gonna keep moving He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff No bread no bag. No money in their belts. These guys went out by faith that God was gonna provide for them but to wear sandals And to not put on two tunics. Two tunics would have been like, you know, preacher man with all kinds of really hip clothes. It's like, no, let's not make it look like we're gaining big money off of this mission. We're here to reach people's souls. Don't confuse it. So he said, only one tunic. And then he said to them, and here we get into the meat of it. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you when you leave. And the language here in the original language is leave. And kick the dust off your feet now what's going on here? Let me explain in jewish tradition It meant something that when you stepped out of a home and you didn't have a welcome reception And what it was, it wasn't for the people that just didn't welcome you to put it in their face. It was a resolve between you and God, this is not a place where I need to be hanging out because they ain't ready yet. So it was just a symbol of, all right, kick the dust off. A lot of us look at people who will not hear the gospel and will say in our mind, and sometimes it comes out in the way we act. Well, then you kiss my grits then, man. You don't like my Jesus? Kiss off. And can I tell you, that's called angry evangelicalism or angry Christians. And I've never met one angry Christian that's ever led one soul to Jesus Christ. We don't walk through this world like we're ticked off. Oh, they didn't want to receive the gospel either. Well, they're on a highway to hell. Well, you were too, my friend. Amen. This is super important to get, man. So what is going on? What's going on in this passage is pervenient grace. So this is what I want you to get. I want you to think that when we're a church that wants to give a fair shot to everyone, we are not just waiting for them to come. We're out there in the marketplace, and we're not going alone. We're pairing up in teams of two, and Stephen and Summer and the team down here, and even Jerry and Ted Ken, our elders and others that are here. They're going to be able to help you with this, Mark and Fran. Mark's a new elder now, by the way. Can we give him applause for that one? Right on. Okay. So here's what I want to tell you. We're going to begin to learn that ministry best happens out there. And I'm telling you, you'd be amazed. You know that I get to share the gospel like all the time. You know how I'm just friendly to people at the dry cleaner and check out clerks. And if I got a window where there's nobody behind me, I'll throw a question out. I'm like, how you doing, bro? And I am unafraid because of this reality. I know that there's some people, by prevenient grace, God has prepared their hearts. They just need someone to tell them. And you might say, well, Carl, can you give me an example of that? I'll give you two. In Acts chapter 10, Cornelius was a Greek, and he was a committed, God-fearing man. He had just never heard about Jesus before. And so when Cornelius heard about Jesus, he surrendered his life to Jesus because he was a God-fearing man. The provenient grace of God was already working in them. And go to Acts 16, my favorite lady in the book of Acts. Her name's Lydia. She's the seller of purple. And so she winds up in Philippi, and Paul goes out to share at the synagogue with some of his guys because he traveled two by two as well, by the way. And he went out to share in a synagogue, which, by the way, was an open air situation. And he goes out to share with this group. And Lydia, this seller of purple, this super entrepreneur woman, who was a, what does it say in Acts 16? A God-fearing woman, heard about Jesus, repented and surrendered and gave her life to Jesus. See, here's what I'm convinced of. We need to pick, not only get out of here, we need to pick up the pace. Don't waste time with people that aren't ready. Kick the dust off your feet. Don't be ticked off because they didn't repent. Don't be ticked off. But just keep moving and know that I might get nine rejections, but... There's a Cornelius or there's a Liddy out there somewhere. And I believe in our post-Christian nation, America, with 4% that have a Christian worldview, that ask this to direct their private and public lives. I believe that there are untold hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. And I mean there are thousands of people with any vision. One mile radius of where we sit today that have never had a fair shot at Jesus Christ. And their lives are screwed up, but they fear God. And if we just went and told them about Jesus, some of them would just weep and turn around and surrender their life to Jesus. Don't be a cul-de-sac. Be the conduit of Jesus. You want to see your wayward kids come home to God? Let them see you so full of God, overflowing, that your joy can't be stolen and your children look at you and go, maybe they were right. But if they're going to see cul-de-sac Christianity and we're just kind of got a retirement plan and we're just kind of riding this sucker out until the end. Man we're leaving some chips on the table baby. And I'm not endorsing gambling there for some of you that might want to take that. Because many are prepared to receive Jesus as Lord. Isn't that a trip right now? I want you to think about this. Right now driving out here to this grocery store. What is that? Mariano's, yeah. Shows you how much I know our neighborhood. And Starbucks up the street, everything in between, there's a high-rise right about here, right here, right here, chock-filled with people. I don't know who they are, but I know right now, based on sheer odds, that there are people under the God-fearingness of prevenient grace that if we shared the gospel with them, I don't know who that person is. God, would you reveal it to us soon? I don't know if there's 40 people in that high rise right now. Some of you are looking at me. I'm looking through the wall, by the way. But there's 40 people maybe in that high rise that are God-fearing enough that if they got a fair shot at Jesus, they would repent, surrender, and their life would be changed forever. Don't be a cul-de-sac. Be a conduit. So I want to explain to you what fair shot looks like. And I want to do this quickly. I want to talk first about the Great Collaboration. It's often called the Great Commission, but there's nothing sanctified about the title that it was given. But it's found in Matthew 28, verse 18 through 20, and here it is. And Jesus came and said to them, "'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, speaking to his disciples. Go, therefore, and make disciples, just like you, of all nations, baptizing them.'" And we're going to do this today. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of 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. Do you know what? Oftentimes we look at the Great Commission, and this is why I want to call it the Great Collaboration going forward. And you can put up Great Collaboration. This is why I want to do this. This is very important. Listen to me. This is not about us going out on some mission. This is about us joining God in a mission. And he said, I am with you to the end of the age. How great is that? It's not like, you know, a coach giving us a pep talk in a room and now we're out on the court. The coach is with us on the court. We're co-laboring with him. Changes everything. Another thing of what fair shot looks like, there is a great motivation, and I want to give this to you. Before I go to this scripture, I got to tell you, I was with David Nelms when I was in Kenya recently with my bride. We had a great trip. And David Nelms is a great man of God. He was a megachurch pastor in Florida, and then he got convicted that I got to take this message to the world, and we got to go make disciples. And his famous thing that he said to me on air that was up was he said, God never called us to plant churches. He called us to make disciples who will then form churches. We are not called to be church planters. We are called to be disciple makers. Come on, come on, somebody. Come on, Cleo, lead the charge here. Come on. God visit the spirit of Cleo on everyone in this room. That's my prayer today. So here's, this is really important. So I get a hold of Nelms. I call him on two occasions. One, he was in Western Africa, I could tell, because when I called, it would go beep, beep, beep. It's not a busy tone. It means it's ringing, only in another country. I said, oh, dude, he picked up. I said, I'm so sorry to bother you. He says, no problem at all. I said on that day, I said, what sets disciples of Christ apart from American disciples in Kenya or in Afghanistan where he works all over the world? He said, oh, that's easy. One word. Ready for it? This is one word. He said obedience. He said most American Christians love to learn the word, but they don't really apply the word. Oops. Big miss. According to Jesus, that's building a house on the sand. When the storms come, your booty's going to get kicked. So we got to fix that. But then I called him. No, I take that back. We were in person in Kenya. My bride and I were sitting down. I think it was breakfast. And I said to him, okay, here's where we're at as a church. And I was describing you guys. And I said, we've got so many good things going for us right now. But We are still just infants at becoming disciples and disciple makers. Disciples making disciples, which is what we find in Paul's challenge to Timothy. So I'm like, what do we do? I said, if you were me, what would you do? You ready for his answer? He talked about the great motivation. I'll give you the verse here in a second. He said, I would give... The verses you're about to see, I would preach those verses seven Sundays in a row. Same verses. Forward and backward, pull it apart, empty it out, pour it out again. He said, I would preach that because, he said, this is the only motivation to this holy collaboration. And here's the words that he said. He said, this is it. It's the great commandment. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. He said the second commandment is like this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There's no other commandment greater than these. And he said this. David Noam said this to me. He said, the gap between a passion for great commission, or what I'm calling the great collaboration, the gap is only filled by a growing personal love for God. Mind, soul, spirit, and strength. If I go train you up in how to go out two by two, and how to share your story and all this, and you don't have a boiling love for God, let me tell you something, you will be impotent. But if you have just a little bit of a cultivation of, God, I love you. I sure suck it up in a lot of ways. But I genuinely love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Oh, God could do something with you, my friend. God can use you, my friend. You'll be a conduit person, not a cul-de-sac person, my friend. That's the great motivation. So I want to talk about the great multiplication. I alluded to it. It's in 2 Timothy 2, 1 through 2. I'm going to read it to you. Do you then, my child? Paul's writing to Timothy. Paul's writing to Timothy. Isn't this cool? You then, my child. Be strengthened by the grace, God's favor and power, unlimited by the way, that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will, and by the way, that word men is men or women. In the original language, it just means men or women. Entrust to faithful men and women who will be able to teach others also. You ready for this here? This is the great multiplication. Here's what we, go ahead, next slide. Here's what it is. Paul's writing Timothy. He says, Timothy, my child, everything that you've heard from me, so Paul to Timothy, entrust to faithful people three generations, who will then give it to others four generations. Four generations of Christ followers. Some of you find that so far off. It's like, Carl, I've never shared my faith with anyone. It's okay. You get a fuel in your belly of a love for God that's real and genuine, not fake. But I mean, you really get up against it with regard to your lack of finances and your lack of parenting skills and your lack of making friends, your lack of, I mean, you look at all your lack. You know what God does with lack? He forces you to the foot of the cross. You get in touch with your lack and God will pour in more. And he will use you mightily, my friends. I have a bracelet on here from Kenya, and I'm not taking it off until we have our first, second, just second generation of disciples here. Not transfer growth. I'm not taking this off. I shower with it on. I sleep on a very hard bed with it on. And I'm not taking this off until we have our first, second generation. I'm all in. I ain't doing church as usual. I used to pastor a church of 5,000 people with 72 staff. I'd done that dog and pony show. And by the way, it's not bad. I hope one day we've got thousands of people, but they're disciples, not spectators. Don't you want that? Okay, I want to make the fair shot really practical and then I'm going to wrap this today. There is something called the three-legged stool. That is one of the most simple and profound things ever and this is, I'm stealing from the Timothy Initiative TTI. I'm stealing it from them. I want to give credit where credit's due. Don't you hate when preachers think they came up with something but they didn't but they never give attribution to where it came from? Yeah, I don't want to be that guy. I want to be the guy that says, I learned it from someone else, and this is who gave it to me. So I learned this from David Nelms, and he learned it from someone too, you know. Nothing new under the sun. So here are the three legs of a stool that will stand tall and won't fall. First is this. We've got to learn. That's all about knowing God first. It's all about cultivating this love relationship with God. Remember two weeks ago, I shared with you for the first time ever how I bonded with my husky pup. For those of you that weren't here, I want to tell this to you quickly again. We're going to do this really quickly. So my little pup and he's he and I are bonded really tight right now. And it's so cool. And I love this guy so much. And this morning, he's got loose bowels, so I hope he's okay at home. But they eat anything at this age, man. And who knows what he's eating out on walks, man. I just see him swallowing stuff and I'm like, oh no, dear God, please. So I love this guy. And one day we came around the corner and we're just walking quietly and all this. And this is about a month and a half ago. And We come around this corner. It's quiet. Birds are out. And all of a sudden, wham! And I look up, and I'm like, holy cat hair. It's a Rottweiler doing a body slamming, a bay window of a home, wanting to come through that window and eat my dog. Now, my dog, Blaze, didn't go to the end of his leash and try to run away. He did something very different. He came back to me, circled around, and got right here, and he put me between him and that Rottweiler. And he looked up at me like, do you know what's going on here? This guy wants to eat me. And I look at him. I said, I got you, buddy. I said, we got you. Now, I want to tell you quickly where that friendship was forged with Blaze. He had been in my home a few weeks, and he was learning to get potty trained. This is kind of rough, but I'm going to tell you anyway. And I was sleeping in the basement on a softer bed, by the way. Just talking to me. Boy, that bed's great. And I would get up whenever I heard him stir because I knew that meant I got to go pee, I got to go poop, got to do something. So he'd stir. I'd wake up, throw on my jeans, get him out. I got to get up in two hours. And we did that two or three times a night. Crazy. It's like I got a newborn baby at home again. And one morning, I didn't hear him stirring. I smelled something horrible. And I'm like, oh, no. And I peel him back, put on my jeans, T-shirt, and I look in the dim light that's just barely there, and I see him, and he's got his head down, and there is crap everywhere. And he had pooped, and he walked in it, and he laid in it, and he rolled in it. And he thought, well, all bets are off. I already pooped in here. So he peed in there. And it was all mixed in together. And everything inside me, my initial response is, why? I'll tell you why. He's young. He can't hold it. And the Lord had me, and I do believe this because I wouldn't have done it. I sat down in front of a kennel. I sat cross-legged, and I opened the kennel door, and I said, come here, buddy. And he's laying there, and he looks up at me, and he goes, I said, come here, buddy. Come here. And he walks out. He steps into my lap. And I look at my jeans and I'm like, those are beyond repair right now, man. And then he gets up in my lap and he's still kind of ashamed. And then he leans on me with all that stuff. And I'm all in now, so I just put my arm around him. And I hugged him, and I said, Blaise, it's his name, the name of Dr. Blaise Pascal. I said, Blaise, I love you, buddy. And he looked at me like, you do? And on that day, about 3.30 in the morning, I bonded with my puppy. Some of you have never fully bonded with your Heavenly Father. And He wants to meet you in your crowd. And He wants to hug you before you are cleaned up. And even if you've been born again for years, some of you have thought he must be ticked now. Our God is waiting cross-legged in front of the kennel, waiting for you to get up, quit hanging your head in shame, and experience his love again. So you've got to know God. Secondly, you've got to apply the word. Obeying the Word of God is the second leg of this three-legged stool. You can't be people that just hear the Word, walk away, go, wow, I learned something really cool. We've got to start asking the question, what in the world are you applying to your life today? Can I tell you something secret here, ready for this? I don't have one day of my life that I'm not asked by God to apply something to my life from His Word. I never miss one day. No, excuse me. He never misses one day showing me something. I sometimes miss a day of planning. Third, share. Passing the hope that is found in God onto others. See, that's when we move from cul-de-sac Christian to conduit disciples of Christ. So I got to wind the road for you today, and it's really simple, and I'm going to have the team come up because we're going to do something really special here in just a moment. I'm going to literally we're going to stay live online for all of you in Africa and Denver and around the world that are online. We're going to have you hang right here because we're going to do some baptisms today and it's going to go really quick. And we got a pool filled with ice cold water right there, which is going to be a great joy. But I got to wind the road for you today, and it's just simply this. Not are you equipped, but here's my question. Are you willing to join God in his extraordinary mission? All he needs is you to be willing. Just a willingness. You say, Carl, I'm afraid. I don't care if you're afraid. I get scared too, but are you willing? So here's the option, really. We can live cul-de-sac Christianity, have what I love to call bikini-string salvation. That's what Paul says, saved as by fire. It means that you're saved, but you're just saved, that's it. But don't you want to join the broader mission of God? Don't you want that? And all God wants is a willing heart. I want to pray a blessing over you right now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or even imagine. God, would you take this willingness right now and supercharge it? Take this willingness right now and supercharge it. To you be glory, in Jesus' name, amen.