Read-along
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Hey. Hey. How's it going? Good morning. Yeah. If you've only been coming for a couple weeks, let me introduce myself. I am Bill Bush, the founding and lead pastor around here. I've just been gone for a few weeks. One of the weeks I was gone, I was
in England. And and what's crazy is while I was gone for three weeks, the last time I preached, I was wearing this shirt because we baptized a couple 100 people. I go in and come back and we're baptizing a couple 100 people again. So whatever y'all did while I was gone, keep it up, man. Good job.
Maybe maybe the maybe I should just leave all the time and come back so we can baptize people. It would be good. No. It's good to be here. But like I said, I was in England for part of it. And if you if you're not familiar, we have a we work in England with a church planting movement called Mission Essex. And it came about that we met this pastor when we were over there. And his church planting movement consisted of a daughter church, first church, but he wanted to do more.
And his church was only about 350 people, which we we would think of as small. It's huge for over there. And he was trying and and we felt led and to maybe help.
And we got along so well when we first met. Goes, hey, come see what we're we're doing right now. Our first job is their first church plant. It's it's it's starting if you don't know what a church plant is, it's they start another church. And and he
started a church out of his church in the city center, and then we walked over to this waterfront area where there was this old used to be a coffee shop restaurant, it was all beat up, and then right behind it was this building that from the outside looked like it would be old little church brick, but it was a coal storage thing back in the day. They even had train tracks going up in the middle of it. And he goes, we're trying to buy this and make it into the building
because what's being built all around is all this high density condos for young families that are moving out. It's like a Queen Creek of London. It's about a thirty minute train drive and people can't afford. They're all moving out there and and this walkway right in front of this place is where you walk to get to the train.
So it it was they were trying to buy it, but financing you don't get financing for churches there. So this little church had to raise £6,000,000
to buy this thing and start rebuilding it. And we got to know and we started working with him in over the last two years, and he's been trying to get this done. And they got towards the end, and when he was here last year, we had him talking they had some needs.
And and I challenged us, okay, we I think we can help him out, guys. I think we can. And y'all gave about a $118,000 that one weekend. And and yeah.
And they got to the end, and they needed chairs and a few other things that they were short on, and they couldn't they they they spent all their they were just done. They were tapped out, and
we paid that money we gave, got them over the finish line. And last like right the weekend after I was there, they opened up. And I have a picture of their first service here. Yeah. That was that old coal house. We helped get that done. And we literally paid for every one of those chairs.
And and I'm glad we bought as many as we did because they only had two empty chairs and they already have to add another service now now that they moved in. So they have they baptized people. They're reaching people for Jesus.
Here's why this is critical. We got to do it. We get to go into the world, but England is a place that expensive and hard to go to to help.
And and the main fact people are, we doing mission trips there? You don't do mission trip. They need pounds and people. That's what they need. And and but what's interesting is in Essex County where they're at, only point 2% of the population goes to a Bible believing Jesus loving church.
That's it. The whole country, The UK, is only about 6% go to church, and only about 2% of that is Bible believing Jesus loving churches. But the last two years is the first time since before World War one, their church attendance in bible believing evangelical churches has started going up. And yeah. And I
don't wanna say it's because we started working there two years ago, but you know mean no. Just kidding.
So I am blessed to be there. But what was interesting when we go there, every time we go there they always take us out and we go on something to do something. And when they have us a day of we're learning something, it's always something cultured and nice. Like this last this year they took us to to Cambridge. So that's why I sound so much smarter than I did before I left.
But I I joke because when when they come here, I like, you wanna go out in the desert and hunt scorpions and shoot guns? You know, I don't wanna
you wanna go do the most cowboy thing ever? I don't know. But but when we went, they took us there because we also met a church planter. One of the churches are starting. We're starting two more churches with him this next year. And
this church planter, he went to Cambridge and that's where he's planting the church, and that is where he used to work as a punter. And he said, hey, we're gonna take you punting. Do you know what punting is? And I go, well, in America, it means giving up. And my my team, unfortunately, this year does a lot of it. And
and usually when it's late in the game and we really need something. But he goes, that's not what it is there. There, it's like the way a punter is the guy that's you're kinda steering and pushing one of those gondola style boats.
And so we went out and he's doing it, and I'm watching because you got professionals you can just get a ride on, and then you can rent these boats. And I'm watching the people that are renting and and they they look like idiots, like like they're almost falling in the water. One guy was just going in a circle for like while I'm waiting and watching, and I thought, man, those people are dumb. And then we get in the boat, this guy was doing it for us. We're cruising along, And about twenty minutes into this pleasant, just flying through this, you know, down the river there in Cambridge and looking all the history. He pulls all the boat over to the side and he goes, Bill, it's your turn. I'm like, what? He goes, you need to punt. And I go, I want American football punt. No. Take the ball back. I don't want it. And and he goes, no. You gotta do it. And then I discovered how hard it is. I almost went in the water just getting up to get to the back of the boat.
And then I realized this is really difficult. It's wobbly. As a matter of fact,
Dave, who took the pictures I'm about to show you, our executive pastor, he got out and started taking pictures. But he really that was just a guy's. He held it like this the whole time. And what he really had is he had his thumb over video button. And he was about to
to to record because he was convinced I was going in the water. I actually thanked him later for thinking that way. He goes, why? I go, because I've realized you know you're old when you fall and no one laughs.
And so the fact that you were waiting to laugh, meaning you think I'm young enough that I could still take it. So thank you.
But it was nuts. I I was trying to do it. I got some pictures. This first one is he didn't worry me about when you go under these old bridges that go back to the fifteen hundreds. Everyone's relaxing,
and you're like this going, how do I get us through the bridge? You're like and you're holding this. In my that pole's really long. I'm not trying to hold that and dragging like an anchor. Then the other thing was steering was so hard in this next picture.
There you go. I steered us right well, they were fine. I steered myself right into tree branches, and it was like, couldn't see nothing. I'm like, I hope I'm not allergic to this tree.
And and and but then after a while, I kinda figured it out, and I have one last picture. There I am. We are flying down. We're we were even with the boat back there, and I just said, see you guys, because I'm competitive that way. That's our other boat. I was like, losers.
And and I went going, but it seems like, wow, he's really figured it out. But I have a close-up of my face in this picture.
That is not the determination to win, and it's not constipation. It's the fact that to keep everything together, it was so hard that even when I was doing it right at first, everything was tight. I was like, my abs and
and most of my muscles and my legs were wanting to cramp later that day because the whole time was just uncomfortable.
And as I did that here, I realized it's it's it's very similar to what we're preaching on in this whole series called basics. We've been walking through the basics of what does it mean to grow as a disciple, to be a follower of Jesus. Like, what do you do after you meet Jesus?
What did what did he die? What did his love die to allow us to do? It's not living the things we do to trust God and follow him is not living for his love, it's how to live from it. How do we live out this incredible life he died to give us? And there's some things we're called to do,
and we've been preaching on those. We've been called to know, to grow, and to go. That's the basics of being a disciple. In the first few weeks, we talked about what does it mean to know Jesus personally.
First, you gotta meet him. You gotta put your faith in him. But after you do that, you gotta continue to get to know him. And historically, biblically, there's two environments
that we commit to that help us do that, And that's to public worship and private practices. What we're doing right now is the public worship to get to know Jesus. And then there's private practice to be in the word. And in that punting vernacular,
that's the the balance part. That was when I got up and you gotta get up and just get standing first. The Bible says to plant ourselves
in the love of Christ and that relationship with him, and and and and public worship and private practice are your two legs and your feet. And you gotta plant them in that. And on the punting, you couldn't just stand like this. You couldn't have only one leg. You You had to be that, and you had to spread them out like this, so you could balance the boat.
And that's knowing Jesus personally. The second thing I had to figure out to make this work is how do you steer the thing?
Because you only have this long pole. And you have to learn that part of the steering is how you lean, but also if you use that pole like a rudder. And that was very uncomfortable and hard too because that's why you end up in a tree. That's why you go in circles. And if I don't steer right, it doesn't matter where I move. I'm just gonna go in circles or run into something.
And that part is the second thing we've been preaching about. You gotta know is planting yourself. Growing in biblical community helps us steer.
It helps us keep up because we need other people in us. We need the ability to have people help us and to support us. We need environments where we are known, accepted, supported, developed. That's what we've been preaching on the last couple weeks.
And and and in that whole thing, it's hard. You feel uncomfortable when you're first doing it. That's what pastor Nolan was saying last week. Biblical community is gonna be uncomfortable sometimes. Because it's sometimes uncomfortable and hard to get steered straight.
But then the final thing is you can have great bounds. I could sit there and go, wow, I can stand here all day. I could sit there and hold the thing. I I'm pretty sure if this thing was moving, I could steer it.
But you gotta do the last piece, and that is you take the pole, the punt part, and you put it in the ground and the of the in the water, and you push it. And the crazy thing is you had to lean into this. I watched the guys. When you get good and start to get the power, it's not just like
that. You gotta pull this thing at the right angle, and then as you push, you you lean back in almost like you're taking your planted feet, and instead of pushing the boat this way, your feet in a puller is like projecting the boat that way.
And and and and these guys, the better they are, the more they lean out, and it's creepy. They gotta lean into this. And that's what it means to go and live intentionally. That's what disciples do. We have to be willing. If we're gonna get anywhere,
we gotta have the balance of knowing Christ. That's what the whole basis is is our relationship with Christ. We need others to help us steer, and then we need to take that power of the Holy Spirit and the love and lean into the things he's called us to go do.
And that's how we move. And it's uncomfortable in the beginning. It's hard. You wanna quit. You get sweaty. But I watch these guys. The better you get at it, the more relaxed you get. You move further, faster, and it's fun. And I think that's what our spiritual growth is supposed to be like.
And today I wanna talk about we're moving into these last few weeks. We're gonna talk about go. How are we supposed to go live intentionally to put the power in our lives to move where we need to go? And today I wanna talk about our stories.
Our stories. In the bible, in the church world, you might heard it called your testimony. And if you've grown up in church, most people think of their testimony is only about that moment they came to know Christ.
But our real testimony is our story of that moment we came to Christ. That's the beginning of it. That's what should be our testimony should be that's what changed everything. Not just gave me a ticket to heaven, and then I went back to my regular life. Our story should say this is where everything changed.
It changed everything. And I think many of us struggle with our testimony, our story. Yeah. I met Jesus, but ever since, I've just been doing American football punting,
not British punting. How do I live my faith in the British style punting and not just constantly, this was hard, this stuff, I'm backed up. I'm just gonna kick the God wants me to do this in my life. I'm just gonna kick it as far away from me as I possibly can and hope it doesn't come to cost me the game later.
But it starts with our story. And here's the big idea we're gonna unpack it for the next few minutes. It's simply this. Your story is a mission, not a memory.
My story, your story, it's supposed to be a mission not a memory. What do I mean by that? We're gonna go to Mark chapter five and and look at a story
that happened.
And and it's it's it's when Jesus took his disciples across the Sea Of Galilee to go to this place called the 10 the Decapolis. It means 10 towns. It was a part of the Sea Of Galilee that was very Greek influenced. It was it was not really Jewish. Lots of Jews lived there, but they didn't live like Jews. That's because they're one of the primary industries of how they made money, especially where Jesus landed the party was at, was was pig herding. Pig farming.
And and the Jews weren't supposed to mess with pigs, but they did. They they made money off of it. And so that's that'll come back in the story. And and so what happens was Jesus takes his disciples across. There's a massive storm on the way,
which most Bible scholars believe as I do was was of a spiritual nature, like an attack, like someone didn't want them going there because the way the disciples acted in the storm. These guys grew up fishing on this lake and they freaked out. That means this storm was something like they had never seen before.
Jesus calms the storm and says, know, just calm yourself. And then they go to the other side, and they immediately get greeted
by a demon possessed man who comes running up to him yelling, I know who you are. And it wasn't the man talking at this point. Jesus basically slaps the demons around and tells him to shut up, and then he throws tosses them. He has them leave the man, and they go into this 2,000
herd pigs of pigs. It's a lot of pigs. It's a lot of money. And they immediately the pigs go insane, run down and jump off of a cliff down into the Sea Of Galilee and drown.
Now I if this really happened, I know where it happened because I wanna show you a picture here from a few years ago. That plaque says this is where that happened, and that is me teaching the the verses I'm about to read
and and in Israel. And the reason we know it's there is if you look, it's getting late. If you look in the background, see kinda that steep hill, then it kinda drops off, and then there's the the water. In this area where we know the 10 towns were,
and in the only place around the whole Sea Of Galilee, that's the only spot that has a hillside like that that this could have happened at.
And they found the town right across the street there. The year after I was there, they unearthed it and they started digging up. So I've been to the actual place where this happened. It's it's they really did. And
what happens I wanna pick up the story is after this guy is now healed and knows Jesus and he's sitting there all calm. What happens? And just know Jesus went there on purpose knowing that it would only be this one guy. He knew the storm would hit, and he knew how everyone was gonna respond, but he did it anyways.
Even him throwing the demons and the pigs, he didn't just randomly do it. There was a reason. So here we go. Verse 14. The herdsmen fled to the nearby town in the surrounding countryside spreading the news as they ran.
People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. He was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid. What?
Says then those who had seen what had happened told the others about the demon possessed man and the pigs. And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone.
Man, so so he comes there and they wanna punt. Jesus, please go back to the other side. Leave us alone. Why? This guy in the story, he didn't used to chain him up because he would get so violent, but he had the supernatural strength to break the chains. Run his family was there. He's lived like this for a long time. And when they all come running and they see he's healed sitting with Jesus,
their first response is please leave us alone. Why? There's one obvious reason why, and it's why Jesus did what he did when he cast out the demons. He sent them into the pigs, and the pigs drown. They are mad and uncomfortable because what Jesus did is he just destroyed their industry. He just attacked their checkbook.
That cost them financially.
And they didn't even give a rip. They didn't even mention. It's great that Phil or whatever his name is over here is healed. Fine. Whatever. They didn't even mention them. They looked right at him and said, get out of here. You know why? Jesus was pointing out something to them, but also something he wanted his disciples to see is first of all, we came over here for this one guy.
Just like the 90, the good shepherd leaves the 99 for the one. And he wanted his disciples to see here's what the problem is with with with a lot of these people here. They care more about their pigs than they do people. And the sad thing is
we don't want to admit it. I don't want to admit it. But there are many times in my life I'm the same way. I care more about my pigs than I do people. That's great if someone gets healed. It's great if someone comes to know Jesus. Just don't make me have to pay anything for it. Don't make me be uncomfortable for it. Don't
affect my life in doing it. And I think that's one of the biggest problems we have with disciples in our culture. Oh, we have no problem wanting people to come to know Jesus. But I don't want it to affect my comfort at all. We have to ask ourselves that question, do you care about people or your pigs more?
Because do you know what Jesus did? He left. He just left. He goes, fine. I'll leave you. Bye. It says as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him.
I get it. Of course, he wanted to go with him because he saved him. He realized he's he's the Lord and savior. I'd rather be with him and in this boat with his disciples. I think he thought it'd be great. We can go be a nice little community group. We can sit around and talk bible stuff. I could learn more about about Jesus. It'll be awesome. And and and I think part of it was too is like, get me away from these people. They came over and got mad and wanted you to leave because they're more worried about their pigs. No one even said good job. We're glad for you. He's like, even my own family. Nobody's saying anything. I want out of here. Get me I think he went, please, can I just come with you to get away from them? It you know what you know what it's like? It's called like Thanksgiving at your house.
The first family member that finally leaves, can I come with you? I don't wanna stay with these people.
So anyways, here's what Jesus says.
He says, no. He basically says, your understanding of what means to know me now is flawed. I do want you to go but on mission with your story. He says, no. Go. Go home to your family and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.
So the man so this guy doubles down. He goes, alright. I'll go home.
But he didn't just go home. He says, so the man started off to visit the 10 towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed at what he told them. We know that this guy alone is what got a Christian movement started in these 10 towns in the Decapolis. One guy.
Jesus said, no don't come here. You know me. Now I want you to go. And I want you to take your story and it's your mission now. And and and think about it.
He didn't have a waiting period. He didn't have to wait and do a class. He didn't wait till he got really smart in the Bible. He didn't wait. He didn't say, hey, I'm a little busy right now. Maybe I'll get this done. Maybe I'll do that. I need to learn some stuff. I need to get this way. How long has he known Jesus at this point?
Ten minutes? An hour tops? I mean, hasn't known him very long. He's been a Christian for like less than an hour, and he's off evangelizing 10 cities. We think that we have to wait. We have to grow. We have to do this. It's like, guys, Jesus wants us to take our best mission,
our best way. We are called to go make disciples. And how do we do that? We point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus.
And here's a guy that just barely met Jesus, and he went and did it. You know why? Because he was really new to it and realized, wow, I know what I was, and I know what just happened. And I know how he transformed me, and I know how he loved me, and he took off. We need that in our hearts.
But we live in a culture that we have a lot of pigs. A lot of pigs. And we get stuck, and we make excuses and we say it's because I don't know this or I don't know that when our story is our mission.
And I think a lot of reason why we don't like to point people to Jesus and lean in is our story is the American football version of punting. It's a memory. It was a moment that happened. If you were here last week, pastor Nolan did a great job of saying, you know your faith is stagnated
when all of your stories of God working in your life and doing anything through you are old. What I mean is our story isn't just about the moment you met Jesus. It should continue to add to the story of how you came to know, grow,
go, and you do it all the way through. And I think that's what holds a lot of us back. I think a lot of us are held back from going on mission with our story because we've punted the ball football style.
So we don't have a story. And you know that you feel like, how am I gonna go reach someone and share my story? Cause a lot of us, our story is similar to like a social media influencer on fitness trying to influence people when the last time they were in shape was twenty years ago.
Could you imagine watching a video they're showing you pictures of them twenty years ago, and they're sitting there eating cheesecake
and and and looking terribly out of shape? They're getting winded just trying to talk. And they're like and you know what they're saying? And guess what? They probably know what they're talking about. You're gonna listen to them? No.
Our story carries power when it's current. And so we need to be like this. We need to share it. It's powerful. It's like I think we're missing out. Guys, especially men.
We're running around thinking, I'm not finding the joy in my job. I know I'm a parent. Know these things are great, but I want a greater purpose. I want to know that there was something great. I want to and we run after all these things. And you know why we have that desire for more?
Because God put it in us. And the more is this, is to be on mission. He built us for that. He died for us to do that. Not so He will love us, but He loved us enough He enabled us to do this. But if we get distracted by the pigs or the fears or whatever, we're gonna miss out. We're gonna miss out on getting to do this.
And so what I wanted to do just kinda explain this about sharing story, is I wanna share my story. I haven't shared my testimony of how I came to Christ and because that moment is why we're having this moment. When I came to know Christ, it changed everything. It changed the entire trajectory of my life radically.
Not all I I mean I didn't get it perfect all at once. I mean I'm perfect now. But back then I had a I mean I think I made a mistake once, but then I realized I was just wrong about that. Think about it. No. It's a journey.
And and if you've come to We Are Rock Point as if this is your church, everyone should. If you've never done that, at least do that. And if you have come, you've heard my story. And if you lead a table, I'm sorry. You're hearing it again because I share it every time. But I haven't shared it in church in a long time.
So let me just tell you mine. First of all, I was born at a young age.
There you go. I was born in Phoenix, raised in the valley here in South Scottsdale. And I I was raised in a family that many probably can be familiar with. My parents went to church when they're younger. My dad was Catholic. My mom was Methodist.
But when they got to about 17, they they walked away from the church. They didn't ever deny that God was real. They didn't stop believing that God was real. They matter of fact, they still believe the Bible was the word of God. They just didn't do anything about it. Like, they punted
and and they they they they pinned the will of God in their life on the front the one yard line. And that's where it stayed. And,
you know, my dad is because he he he kinda walked away because he said the nuns beat him up and he went off to World War two. So never came back. My mom walked away because she just wanted to get out of the town she grew up in. So she married someone really young and just got out of there. And it was because she she wanted to get out of town because she lived in Ajo, Arizona,
which if you don't know where Ajo is, you just go two blocks past hell and it's on the right hand side. Every time I share this, we have a couple people in our church from Ajo, and they always give me a hard time about it. They get mad, and I go, you know why you're mad? It's because you know that's true.
Because I used to spend two weeks every summer down there. Called it purgatory. But
so when we were born, my sister and I, we were raised in this hound that would they would talk about God. My dad would say the good Lord, the good book, the bible. We had a King James version of the bible in the house, but we never read it. We didn't go to church. We talk to God every day, several times a day. You know, we had breakfast and dinner together, and on Sundays off even lunch. But at breakfast and dinner every day, we gathered as a family,
and we prayed before we ate. We never went to church, but we talked to this guy. You know what that did to me as a kid? I all I thought was, God really only cares about food.
Apparently, we're really really lucky that we get food. That's all I knew. But when we were little, I was probably six or seven.
Six, seven. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. It means nothing. I said that last night and some, like, six year old went, yeah. Like that GEICO commercial, the football player? Yeah. And I was like, what in the world is going on with people?
Anyways, that's a whole another sermon. I gotta save that for another day. This is my story, and I'm sticking to it. Our neighbors across the street did exactly what this guy did. They started sharing their story, got to know my parents, invited them to church. My dad said, let's go. So we all went.
He said yes to Jesus, first service I ever went to.
Realized my whole time growing up in church and the guy I I I knew who he was. I knew but no one ever asked that, hey, I just need to put my faith in him and confess I'm a sinner and profess that he is Lord. So we started going. The problem is my mom wasn't really into it, and my sister and I hated it.
Probably because they it cut into my cartoon watching time. Back when I was a kid, you could only watch cartoons Saturday and Sunday morning. So 50% of my cartoon time was cut out. I was mad. They were messing with my pigs.
And and so my mom would find an excuse to stay home, and we would not go. So my dad went by himself for a couple years.
Then he he he punted as well. He says, finally, if you can't beat him, join him. He started staying home. We still kept praying. He would talk about the good Lord, the good book, and all that. Every now and again, my dad would actually pop off a bible verse or something, but we never really did anything about it. And
then you fast forward to my freshman year of high school, 1984. I was 14. And my dad had to have quadruple heart bypass surgery, had a massive heart attack while having surgery, almost died. And it hit me as a 14 year old finally, you don't live forever. I was close to my dad, so it really messed with me.
And then I thought, what happens after you die? Which makes you also think, what's the purpose of why we're alive?
And these things just started hitting me, they wouldn't let go of me. Now I know now the Holy Spirit was starting to move. If you're thinking things like that, that's the Holy Spirit trying to get your attention. And
and and so I kept thinking about I couldn't let it go, couldn't let go. Didn't I wanna go talk to anyone, so what I end up doing was I decided to figure this out. And I was a baseball player. My dad had been a professional athlete too, and I thought like an athlete. So I I figured, you know,
I came to to a conclusion. I said, I believe there's a God too. I mean, I've I and I know he's a God of food, but he is a God. And and
I believe the Bible is the word of God. I heard enough of that that I just kind of assumed that to be true. I just I just took that to agree with it. And I said, but there's gotta be a way to know that you're in the baseball term, to know you're on his team.
How do I know? I don't think life should just be live you're wondering the whole time. That makes no sense. You'd imagine a prep a a professional team always having tryouts but never declaring the roster. You know, that that would be awful.
And so I thought that way. So I said, you know, I I think I got a plan. I think this is how you know you're on God's team. You try to be a good person. And so I said, I'm gonna be good.
And then secondly, he wrote this book. Authors like it when you read their books. So I think if I read his book every day and be a good person, I'll be on the team. And so I got that old King James version of the Bible, and I got it out there. And I I started in in in Genesis. And so I was like right here. And I
just started like any other book. I figured I start on page one. I had no idea. He's like, hey, there's a big number, a bunch of little numbers, another big number. They go in order chapters and verses.
So I said, it looks like me. I'm gonna read one big number a day. I'm gonna before I go to bed, go in my closet. I'm gonna read a chapter of the Bible a day. And that's what I decided to do. In King James, for a guy that's never went to church. And when I did, I didn't listen.
And so I'm sitting there. I'd started off okay. The first phrase in the Bible in the big inning. I said, baseball right there. It's awesome. Say it really slow, you'll figure out what I just said. And and but then it went downhill from there.
I mean, it got bad. I I and I for thirty days in a row I did this. I read all the way to chapter 30, and then I closed my Bible that night. And here's what I thought. I didn't understand a lot of it. And what I did understand says these are supposedly God's people and they're horrible.
So I said, I don't even think I have to try to be good. I'm already gooder than they are. And and reading this doesn't make any sense. I know I'm better than they are. I haven't killed my sister yet, so I think I'm doing alright. And and and and and that's where I was. So I prayed my first prayer,
trying to figure this all out all on my own. I prayed this incredible prayer of faith. I closed my eyes, and I just said this. Dear God, if you're even real, you have to show me the way.
You gotta show me the way to be on your team because this isn't working. And I said, PS, please give Arizona Major League Baseball team. I wish I would have added and a good football team.
Very disappointing to me lately. And I said, Amen. I went to bed.
That same night my best friend since third, fourth grade, known for years. He couldn't sleep and he got out of bed and he prayed. But his prayer was very different. See he had been in his youth group at his church that night. And the youth pastor spoke on the same thing that we're talking about today.
And he realized I've known Jesus since I could talk. But I've never said Jesus to anyone. Nobody knows I know the Lord. Nobody knows I even go to church. My best friend has no clue. No clue. Matter of fact, he was right. I had no idea he went to church.
All I knew was we never would do sleepovers on Saturday night. Someone once asked, why didn't you ask? I go, you don't understand a man at all, do you?
We don't talk. And so I was like and he prayed and he prayed, Lord, I listened to that message and the pastor made it really clear and showed that it's not the pastor's job to tell everyone about Jesus, it's our job as disciples. We go, we lean into that. Our our our story is our mission. It's not just a memory.
And and so he actually repented. He confessed that as sin. And he was accurate.
See a lot of us struggle with the no, grow, go part, especially the go because we think that's optional. And we think, I'm not really sinning. I just probably should get my act together and God's asked me to live this way. But but the reality is the Bible says if you don't do the thing you know you should, meaning the Bible it says to do, we think it's just the to don't list.
But the to do list is more important. Long you've a Christian, real struggle should be are we doing the to do list? Because it says that is sin just like any other sin. You are openly rebelling against the God who died to give you the life that allows you to do this. And so he said he's sorry,
and he says, Lord, I know you're the one that's responsible for the Holy Spirit, and you are the ones that reaches people. But my job is I should tell people. So he made a commitment to get everyone in our freshman class, three hundred and twenty and one of us, to hear the name of Jesus by the end of the year.
Now just a little spoiler alert, by the end of the year, the youth group he went to had like 14 kids in it. By the end, it had a 140 from one guy that he just said, I'm gonna use my story.
And he started with me the next day. He walked up and said, what are you doing on Halloween? That was two days from it. So this happened pretty recently in my life in this time of year. And I I'm gonna do it every year. I'm gonna go and I'm going to get as much candy as I can because like cartoons,
candy was harder to come by back in those days. And we had to walk uphill in the snow both ways in Arizona to get it.
Six seven.
Just making fun of everybody right now. And he told me so he says, well, come with me to my church youth group. We're having a Halloween party. And you know what? There was a lot of weird things I just heard in that statement.
And to be honest, you'd think him saying he went to church was the weirdest. The weirdest to me was Halloween party in church? How does that even work? That makes no sense. I thought that would be stupid. So I just said, no. That sounds lame. I'm not doing it.
I just prayed to God. You need to show me the way I would be on your team. My best friend invites me to a church I didn't know he goes to the next day. And I said, lame. You know why? I was 14 years old. Back then, we went four, five.
That's stupid, even by my standards. And so I I said, no. Well, then Halloween rolls around. He calls me last chance. I want my dad and I to come get you. He said, sure. I'll go. I changed my mind, but not for spiritual reasons, sociological ones. I thought about how dumb would a church's youth group Halloween party be.
That would have to be the stupidest thing you've ever seen. So I wanted to not miss out on that. I wanted to go see just how dumb it was. And I'm just gonna tell you right now, I was not disappointed.
It was dumb. I thought the youth pastor was the weirdest dude I've ever met. And I thought, what kind of an idiot would be a youth pastor? Which God laughed a few years later because that's exactly what I became.
But and it was so dumb. And then we're near the end, they tried to do this thing to make it spiritual and still scary. They showed a movie about the revelation about the end times.
And and and and I didn't know what to do with it because it was moving in one way. It freaked me out because they're talking about the mark of the beast and all these people left behind and how you need to know Jesus. And you need to be on God's team and what's happening. And I'm like, that's what I'm trying to avoid. But at the same time, I didn't know what that was moving me, but I was also getting moved to wanna laugh too because this movie was made in the seventies.
And it was like they're all running around in bell bottoms to the soundtrack from the show Chips. It's a And I'm like, I don't know whether to cry or laugh. I don't know what to do. And and so
but I was mood. I was intrigued by that whole storyline of like, hey, there's there's there's these people aren't on God's team. What do what do you what do you do about that? And then this young guy gets up at the end. He was an intern.
And and he gets up and he says, listen, I some of you that was probably weird, especially if you've never been to church. And you're like, what do I make of this? And he goes, I play on my college baseball team, so I need to explain this like an athlete that I am. Some of you might be wondering,
how do I know if I'm on God's team or not? That's when it got weird. So I'm like now I'm listening. And he opened his bible to John three sixteen where it said, for God so loves the world that no. That he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. The
first thing I thought when I saw where he was at in his bible was like this instead of this. I thought if I read 1,700 more pages by myself, I would have found the answer. No. I would have never gotten past Leviticus. Trust me. And so he explains that. He goes, why are we gonna perish?
We don't have to because God loves us. What does that mean? And he just turned to two more verses. He went in the book of Romans and he read a verse that says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
He explained that's why we perish. All have sinned. Sin is a term that means to miss the mark. It's an archery term. And the mark is God's holiness. That the way you can earn a relationship with God, the way you would earn it to be able to be in the presence of God justified would be you have to be perfect like him.
And nobody is. And you say, well, then why would God punish? He's not punishing. He says, you can't be in his presence because God has these attributes that we share. We share. The image of God means we have a lot of his attributes. And a lot some of his attributes, he's just. He's righteous.
And we feel justice should happen. Right? That things should be the wrong should be dealt with. And and so you have justice and righteousness, and he will he will claim that.
He he will come out. So he says if you miss the mark, you can't be in his presence because he will judge. He's the judge and the author and giver of life. And if you don't, he's going to do something about it.
So we have a problem. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But he says, but if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And then he explained what that means. God is just. He's holy. He's righteous, he's the judge.
But he's also a God of who is love and mercy and grace. And he goes God is the only one that can be all those attributes at the same time, we can't. And he showed them at the cross. When Jesus went to the cross, he was God being all. We can't be merciful and just at the same time, but he did.
Because by God himself going to the cross, God was able to put his righteous wrath in judgment of sin. He was just. He was holy. But since Jesus, God himself took it, he was love, he was grace, he was mercy.
So being a disciple is not trying to live for his love. It's not trying to earn something. It's not trying to to get something. It's realizing that he loved you that much that you confess that you're a sinner. You can't make it work yourself.
You confess that we worry more about the pigs than the purposes that God wants for our life. We get distracted and we try to make it right and we can't. And we confess that. But then we profess that but what Jesus did, he loved me so much he offers this love for free.
And he says that's the gospel. That's that's what it means.
That's where you put your faith. That's why Jesus went to the cross. And when you confess and profess, that's why the bible said what it said. That's how you become a Christian. That's how your story begins. Because he loves you that much.
It doesn't matter how many times you've been to church. Doesn't matter how many times you try to do good things. It doesn't matter how many things you think you know. It starts and ends with that.
And everything else is just learning to take his hand and live. So then when he had us do, he said he said, hey, I just wanna I think some of you here need that. Some of you want that. Some of you know. That's the Holy Spirit talking to you. And what he's trying to push you towards in confession and profession is not out of guilt. It's not out of
anger. He's not threatening you. He's offering it out of absolute love. For God so loved. God loves us more than we can love ourselves. And when we put our faith in that that changes everything. So he said, hey, I'm gonna pray. And he had us close our eyes.
And he had us do the thing I always do because this is what happened with me. He had us raise our hands if we wanted to pray with him. And what he was saying was, hey, as you raise your hand you're handing him your sin. You're confessing. But then you're taking his hand for life.
And he will lead you into new life. Be a disciple. Be a follower. And so that's what I wanna do right now in this moment. Because I think there's some people in here, I don't care how long you've been here, whatever happened, you can follow. We've had several 100 people already again this weekend do this.
I'm gonna invite some of us to put our faith in Christ right now because that is where life is found. So let's close our eyes. And if you're someone that's in here and you've never done that and you're like, hey, I want that. I wanna pray with you. But I wanna hand
Jesus my sin and take his hand for life. If that's you, hold your hand up right now. Stick it up. I see them. Hands going up all over the room. Just hold them up there. Symbolically reaching up to take his hand. With all these hands lifted just pray something like this.
Keep your hands up while we pray. Just reach up to him and just say, Lord, thank you. Thank you that I do confess I'm a sinner. I've missed the mark. I've done things my own way. Even the good things I've tried to do on my own. But I realize that that's not enough. I need you. So now I turn from my sin,
and I thank you for forgiving me. I thank you for dying for me. I thank you for living a life I could could never live. Dying a death I could never come back from. And you rose from the dead to give me life I could never get on my own.
So thank you. Help me in this moment to understand that and go from this moment holding your hand through life, learning more and more what it means to live from this love that you have given me so freely.
I thank you, and I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. There was a ton of hands in this room again.
And here's why. It's because I'm a professional and you're not. No. I told you my story to show how to use it as your mission. I did I do anything that complex? I told you my story. That's it. I used three verses. I only quoted one directly. And the other two I half quoted, paraphrase a little bit, but that's it.
Every one of us can do that. But I think some of us hold back because a, you keep punting football style in your life so you know that there's your story of how you became a Christian is just a memory. It's not a mission anymore. So some of us, we which one are you? Are you like my friend David?
You've known Jesus for a long time, but you're not willing to go and live intentionally? A lot of you were me, and you rose your hand. Welcome to the family. Amen. It says the heavens rejoice when this happened. You now have eternal life, and God loves you so much. But here's the challenge.
Don't wait like so many other Christians. You now have friends and family in your life that don't know the Lord, and you have an opportunity to start sharing your story with them. And if nothing else, do what my friend Dave did. Invite him here. And and and and at least start there. But what are we gonna do with this?
Just like punting. The guy pulled over and said, your turn, Bill. I'm now pulling over and saying, your turn. What would happen in your life if you fully leaned into being a disciple that knows grows goes. And the first thing you did to go was let your story be your mission.
Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you for the time to do this. I thank you that you love us. And I just pray over all of us, including myself, that each and every day we'd get up and learn to live in your love a little bit more, trust you as we know, grow, and go as followers of you. And we do that from your love, not for it. And help open the doors for us to use our story to be a mission, to point people to you by loving them
the way you love. I thank you, and I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Thank you, pastor Bill. Hey. If you just made a decision to follow Jesus, congratulations.
I believe you just made the best decision of your life. The Bible says that when even one sinner repents, that all of heaven rejoices. So there's a party in heaven going on right now. And if that is you, we have a QR code up on the screen and also on the seat backs. We would love to just partner with you, help you walk out what it looks like to be a Christian. Also, if that is you and or if you do know the Lord and haven't been baptized,
we got people in the baptismal ready to go right now. We got clothes for you and towels. So if that's you, there's no time like the present. And also, like Bill said, tell someone about Jesus this week. Invite someone to church. We have a prayer room full of leaders that would love to pray with you if you need it. And with that, we love you. Be blessed. Be safe. And we'll see you next weekend. Thank you.
Thank you so much for joining us online this weekend, and stay connected all week long with us on our app and on social media.