OLD SCHOOL WISDOM | Week 4 | Full Service

Man, I wanna get the opportunity today to continue the conversations through the book of Proverbs in this series called Old School Wisdom. So if you have a Bible with you, go ahead and open it up to the book of Proverbs. It's in the Old Testament and go to chapter 13. Everybody say 13. Alright.

I got 20 of you with me. That's all I need to get started, Yeah, Proverbs 13. You know, the older I get, the more I hear myself sharing what I would say are old school opinions. And my kids would probably certainly validate

that. But what I wanna do today is not to share Scott's old school opinion with you, but we're gonna look at some old school wisdom that comes from the scriptures, that comes from God's word. And if you're unfamiliar with the Bible, you might actually be a little bit surprised today seeing how super hyper practical

some of the scriptures can be. And I think what we talk about today, I hope you and I are both able to apply it immediately. I mean even this afternoon, but definitely tomorrow morning on Monday morning. So if you're in chapter 13,

stay there for a moment. And I wanna invite you to just think with me for a bit. Imagine with me if life was purely a flip of the coin. Now I know that I couldn't control where I was born, the family I was born into. I couldn't control some of the things that I had access to or maybe the lack thereof. But imagine if all of life

were merely a matter of a flip of a coin. Let give you maybe some everyday examples. Let's say you're in school. Anybody in school still? Raise your hand if you're in school still. Alright. Not like today because it's, you know, hopefully summer break.

But you're in school and you're working really hard and you're going for great grades, you're studying, you're putting in the time, but really at the end of the day it doesn't matter because, you know, heads, you get an A, tails, you flunk out.

Now if any of you are like me when I was in high school, you're like, I'll take those odds every day of the week, man. Come on, that's what I needed. But let's say marriage, if you wanna be married someday or maybe you're married and you think back, okay, so there's Jill, and I love Jill. I'm infatuated

with Jill, and Jill actually loves me. I think she's amazing. She thinks I'm awesome, and we would love to spend the rest of our lives together. But then over here is Jane. And Jane can't stand me. Jane doesn't like me. And to be fair, I don't like Jane either. I don't wanna be around her at all.

But life is purely a matter of the flip of the coin. So heads, I get to marry Jill. The love of my life, tails, I get to marry Jane. Sucks to be you on that one. But we know that that's not really how life works, right? I mean Christian, non Christian,

believing in God or maybe you're here and you're like, I'm not sure what I believe about faith and God, but you're just checking this out. Like we all know that we've been given to a degree the opportunity, the ability to choose our own path, to make our own choices. And the beautiful thing about the book of Proverbs

is that it's a genre of literature that's very unique. And God has chosen to put it in holy scripture. And what proverbial, if that's the way to say it, literature or that genre does. It basically says, if I do these things consistently over a period of time, it's very predictable that I will get this particular result.

And so the book of Proverbs, what it does is it contrasts wisdom and foolishness. And as you read through Proverbs, you'll notice that sometimes the very same verse like, hey, do this. This is the path of the wise.

And if you do this and go down that path, here's the God designed results that you could expect. Or if you go down the path of foolishness, here's the results that you can expect in life. And the beautiful thing is, as I mentioned, it's quite predictable.

The unique thing about a proverb though is that even when we apply it, it doesn't mean it's gonna happen overnight. It's not gonna happen tomorrow. Like if I do this godly, god honoring choice as outlined in Proverbs, tomorrow I reap the blessing of it all. It's not what it means. It means over time consistently

this is what we can expect. And so if you are in Proverbs chapter 13,

I want you to look at verse four. Proverbs thirteen:four. They're gonna put it up here on the screen for us. Let me just read it from here. Thirteen:four, this is one translation. It says this. It says, A sluggard's appetite is never filled. Now that's not a baseball term. That would be called a slugger.

That's my best attempt at humor this morning, so thank you for the nod. But a sluggard's appetite is never filled. Now notice, it doesn't say that a sluggard has no appetite. But the sluggard, because of the way we go about life, we're never gonna be filled. We're never gonna be fulfilled

taking that path. I would suggest that's the path of foolishness. But it goes down and says, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. They both have an appetite. They both have desires. But God says in his word that diligence

will bring about a satisfied place in life. Here's another translation. The New Living Translation says it a bit more matter of fact. Lazy people want much but get little. Now don't do this right now. If you know what I'm talking about.

Like if just let me let you in on something. There's not a bible verse that says, hit somebody with your elbow next to you. And if you haven't realized, it never works. It never helps. It only makes things worse. Alright? So just just leaving you with that. But let's look at ourselves. Lazy people want much but get little. We we know that. But those who work hard

will prosper. And so today, what we're gonna do is we're gonna have a short conversation about work. The work that we do. And maybe you're thinking, come on, Scott. I'm in church. This is the weekend. I'm trying to chill out. I don't wanna talk about work. I mean, after all, this is Sunday.

This is the Lord's day. This is the day that I worship and I rest. Satan's day is on Monday when I gotta go back to work and back into the grind. I don't even wanna go there. But I think what's gonna happen hopefully is in this conversation, we're gonna discover how interested God is in our day job. We're gonna discover

that God has a job for you and I to do that will help him get done what he wants to get done this side of eternity.

And so our big idea for today is simply this, that God invites us into a relationship and a partnership. Now if you're a Christian like I am, we major on the relationship part and we should. It's a beautiful thing to have a relationship with God the creator, the heavenly father. It's an amazing transformative

experience to begin to walk with Jesus, the son of God through life. But even in that, we sometimes overlook the reality that God also invites you and I into a partnership. To partner with Him in His purposes for this world, which can

radically change how we approach Monday morning and Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning and whatever morning it might be. He invites us into being a partner with him. So what I wanna do is I wanna back up and give you a little bit of, theological perspective,

if that's okay with you. Anybody here like me, you're like a self proclaimed bible geek, just raise your hand real don't don't be like loud and proud. Two of us, praise God. We're in this together. Yes, you and I. So what I wanna do is I wanna back up and take us back to the account the account of creation in Genesis one. We're not gonna read Genesis one, but check it out sometime if you're not familiar with the Bible. It's the very first book, very first chapter in

the Bible. And what we see here is an amazing thing because we go to the creation account and we see the story of human beginnings. We get a great picture of what it means to be a human being. And in Genesis one,

Moses the writer is writing for these folks that are coming out of Egypt, and they're being freed from bondage and slavery for four hundred years. And they're they're going through the desert and they're literally they're in San Tan Valley and they're going, this is killing me. This is crazy. Moses is trying to encourage him. And he basically God inspires him to write this. And he says, hey, the God that has delivered us,

the God in whom we're following is the one who created this out of nothing. It says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And you're familiar probably with that verse in scripture.

And then it says in this account of creation, it kinda gives a story of how God creates the land and the sea and animals and the sun and all of these things. And after each one, it literally says, God says it was good. Oh, this is good. And then it comes to kind of a crescendo in chapter one

where we see that humanity is kind of the crown of God's creation. And as you read it some other time in verse 26 through 28, literally says, quote, let us make mankind in our image. Did you notice the plural words in there? I'm not an English teacher, but let us make mankind in our image. Like who's us and our?

I think it's the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit interacting. And then it says, God made mankind in His image, male and female, He made them. But then you get down to verse 28 and it says something pretty amazing. It says that God blessed them and he says to them, be fruitful and multiply.

PG 13 Sunday morning, you know what that is. And then he says uniquely, he says, rule.

Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and all this stuff. And so literally, God gives you and I an invitation to partner with him in that moment baked into creation that he's saying, hey, people, I want you to work with me to care for and to cultivate my creation and be a part of this.

And then we see in Genesis chapter two, in fact, let's put the verse up on the screen here in verse 15. Here's what it says. It says, The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work. Everybody say work. To work it and to take care of it. So God takes the first man and puts him in a garden.

Now, I don't know about you but my if you anybody here do a garden? You try to do a garden in backyard? I'm finding like not very many people raise their hand to gardening. It's what's going on in the world? A sad day. My wife tries to garden and

she's not great at it, I'm worse at it. And so she has these garden boxes kinda put around the yard and in the house and she's trying to grow tomato plants. Our neighbors grow a whole bunch of stuff. Most of it's legal. And the other day they brought over some tomatoes. And

I hadn't had a fresh tomato out of someone's garden in a long time. No exaggeration, man. It was amazing. I'm like, well, I love tomatoes again. Because I live in Houston, and when I go to HEB's, our grocery store, I go get a tomato. It's okay. It's good. But man, that tomato was amazing.

I don't think that's the kind of garden that scripture's talking about. I think it was more like a national park. It was like, here Adam, here Eve, welcome to Yosemite. Like, have at it. Make a family,

fill this place and rule over my creation, caring for it and cultivating it. And God says he gave us work to do. And if you think about this, what's the very first thing at least in scripture that we see that God, the way that God invited

Adam to partner with him in his work? Do you remember in Genesis two, what's the work God gave him to do other than tending the garden? Name the animals. See, God creates all these animals. Could you imagine that weekend?

Like, come on over bro, you got a lot of talking to do and you got a lot of naming to do, and he literally, crazy part of the account, names the animals. Like, come on in, we're gonna do this together.

And if you're anything like me and you've had or maybe have a horrible job at some point in your life and you're like, this has gotta be part of God's curse. This cannot be right. And sure, after the fall of man, after sin came into the world, God said, yeah, the ground is now cursed

And you're gonna feel the repercussions of it. It's gonna be harder than it was. But we see that God's invitation to partner with him and to work with him was before the curse. It was part of God's blessing. It's part of God's blessing.

And so I know that we all have to work, but as followers of Jesus, what difference does this make in our everyday lives? I wanna suggest it makes a huge difference. It changes the game on every level.

And I wanna get back to the old school wisdom of Proverbs when it comes to our work. So what do we do with this now? We see that God's inviting us to partner with Him. That my day job is not a curse from God even though sometimes it may feel like it. But how do we as Jesus followers

go into our work? And so if you go back to Proverbs 13 verse four, it talks about those who are diligent. And I wanna encourage you today that if you're a follower of Jesus, the work that you do is to be one where you present yourself as one who's diligent. To be diligent and put in the work. Be diligent. Super practical,

very simple, but also very hard.

Let's be diligent people and put in the work. And I almost feel like I wanna I'm going old school opinion now. Like, I wanna kinda bring back hard work. Like, let's go. Look at Colossians three. Allow me to read this to you, and let's just let this speak to us for a moment. Colossians chapter three verse 23.

It says, Whatever you do, whatever you do, when you love it, when you hate it, when you don't wanna do it, when you're having a great time at it, whatever you do, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. As working for the Lord and not for human masters.

Look at verse 24. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It's tied to the work that we do. It says, It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Now that's a change of mindset. That's a whole new paradigm. Like as a follower of Jesus,

God is inviting me in my partnership with Him, whatever I'm doing to work at it as I'm doing it for Him. All of me, all for Him, wherever I am. And that's just kind of challenging to me to live in that space on a daily basis. I once read this classic

business book. It's like 20 years old. It's called Good to Great. I know several of you have read that. And the author Jim Collins in this, he's talking about organizations that are sustained throughout the cycles of economy and all these kinds of things. And he shows through his research all these factors

that showed what enduring organizations did to endure. And in that, he has this thing that he calls the hedgehog principle. And I think it's very applicable personally as well.

But Jim Collins says, if you're a business, you're an organization, you should ask yourself three critical questions and have really clear answers on these. He says, the first question is, what are you most passionate about? And I want you to think about that just for moment for you and your life.

What are you most passionate about? I know that life can beat us down. I remember as a kid just dreaming about, oh, man, I mean, it's blue ocean. All the world's a stage. It's all mine. And I used to dream I wanted to be a fireman.

Then And I wanted to be a police officer. And then I wanted to funny enough, I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. I remember that sixth grade. Wanna do that thing. And I never dreamed of doing this.

And I just dreamed of all these things. And then you know as life goes on and you kinda you take a little bit of a punch here and there and all of a sudden the passion and the dream starts to wane. And I don't wanna just sound like a preacher talk today and I don't wanna go into platitudes that are unrealistic,

but isn't it okay to say, what am I most passionate about? Could that be what God's inviting me to partner with him in, in this world? What are you most passionate? Maybe you've lost the passion. Maybe you're starting to discover the passion. But I just wanna encourage you today, consider this.

What are you most passionate about? Side note. Nope, I'll get to that side note in a minute because it's coming up on his third point. The second thing that Collins challenged us to do after we asked, what am I most passionate about? He asked a crazy question. It's very audacious.

He says, what can you be the best in the world at? Now that sounds a little arrogant, doesn't it? What can you be the best in the world at? Well, let's ask it. With what you're passionate about, is it possible to approach it in a way that you're like, you know what? I'm gonna be the best in the world.

Now, I would say it's highly unlikely that any of us here today are the best in the world at a particular thing. Though it maybe you're sitting here, but I don't know. But I don't think it's the point. What if we, as followers of Jesus, stepping into this partnership,

as diligent people putting in the work, and we said, man, this is my passion. This is what matters to me. And I'm gonna work at it in such a way to try to be the best in the world. Maybe you're an educator and you're a seventh grade teacher. And you know that you began

in the field of education because you're passionate about education. You're passionate about the opportunity to shape and influence a generation. And you're in a classroom of say 22 students and they're driving you crazy four and a half days out of five. Because they're just human beings and they're seventh graders.

And you have to regularly revisit your passion. Why am I doing this? But yet because you're passionate and you realize that you're leading by example in front of those 22 students every single day, whether or not you realize it. Everything I say, everything I do, the approach is setting an example for these kids.

And what if you were so audacious to say, God, I wanna honor you with this word and I'm gonna try to be the best seventh grade teacher the world has ever seen.

And even if you're not the best seventh grade teacher the world's ever seen, what if you say, well, I'm gonna be the best seventh grade teacher in the East Valley.

Well, if I don't achieve that, I'm gonna be the best seventh grade teacher that this school has ever had. And maybe if you don't achieve that, you could say, I'm gonna be the best seventh grade teacher that these kids could have ever had. And you can make an impact.

If you bring diligence to your work and you go, man, this is unto the Lord.

This is for him. This is for them. I'm going to bring everything to this. Jim Collins, he says, what are you most passionate about? What could you be the best in the world at? And then his third question is, what drives your economic engine? That's a weird question, right? So basically, how do we make enough profit to keep this thing going and to build it?

And I would just say, be careful as followers of Jesus that we don't tie our passion to our paycheck. Because I think when we do, we so limit the scope of what God wants to do through our lives. So just take note on that third question.

Because God can use your passion and maybe you make money somewhere else to put food on the table, but you're living out your passion in a different space. Either way, as followers of Jesus, He's calling us to be diligent

to put in the work. And if you've done that or maybe you're doing that and you realize, okay, living out this diligence and it's gonna get hard, we're gonna eventually have to do the next thing I'm gonna encourage you to consider is to be resilient.

Like when the going gets tough, keep showing up. Anybody ever had to do that? Like you're like, I am in the grind right now. I am not enjoying this, but I gotta get up tomorrow and I gotta get back here. It's not very fun at all, is it?

But if we're going to do something that's gonna really matter, we will go through seasons and times where we've just gotta be resilient in it. I wanna walk you through, Matthew 25, And it's a parable. Jesus is

teaching and he's sharing some stories and parables in a few chapters here. And what he's really doing is he's he's talking about what we might call the consummation of the kingdom.

The return of the Messiah, like the second return and the second coming and kinda when God wraps this thing up and says, alright, party's over. The new party's gonna begin. And he's trying to illustrate this. And in Matthew 25, I'm gonna read through this. This is about 14 or 15 verses of scripture, so hang in with me and we're gonna have it on the screen and I wanna walk you through this. Are you good with that? Everybody okay with that? Okay,

here we go. So Matthew 25 verse 14 through 30. He calls it the bible, the heading says, the parables of the bags of gold. Okay, so here's what he says.

It'll be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. You think about, okay, who's this man he's referring to? I think he's referring to himself.

Verse 15, to one he gave five bags of gold, to to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Now pause there for just a moment. Several most theologians and commentators would say, this isn't just about how much money they had in the bag. This is about God's

gifting in your life. This is about how God has resourced you with unique and particular talents. And then it says, at the end of that verse it says, He gave to each according to his ability. So God entrusts you with something according to the gifting that He's put in you.

You're never called to be the person sitting to your left. You're never called to be the person sitting to your right. You are called to be you. And let's keep going. He says, and he went on his journey. Verse 16, the man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work that.

We're We're We're

do gonna After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five and says, master, he said, you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I've gained five more. Notice how the master replies. He says, well done,

good and faithful servants. Some of us have heard that before, right? He says, you've been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness.

Then it says the man with two bags of gold, he also came. Master, you entrusted me with two bags of gold. See, I've gained two more. Another great return. The master replies, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness.

And then in verse 24, the guy that had one bag, he came and when I read this like when I read the bible, I hear like I speculate what they sounded like, their voice. And so obviously this is just a parable Jesus is teaching. But in my mind, I'm hearing Eeyore.

Remember Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore the little donkey? He's always so downtrodden. And here's how I hear him say this in verse 24. Master,

I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you've not sown and gathering where you've not scattered seed. Notice how he's making character judgments on this guy. In verse 25, he says, so I was afraid, and I went out, and I hid your gold in the ground. See, here's what belongs to you.

And then we get this kinda scary reply in Jesus' story. Verse 26, it says, the master replied, you wicked lazy servant. Ouch.

And it's like he goes along with this guy's judgment or assumption of who he is and he says, so you knew that I harvest where I've not sown and gather where I've not scattered seed. Well then, you should have put your money on deposit with the bankers so that when I returned, I would have received it back with point zero zero zero zero zero five interest.

In verse 28, he says this, So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has 10 bags. Isn't that interesting? In this story, Jesus is saying, You know what? I'm gonna take from him who did nothing with what I gave him, and I'm going to entrust it with him who does something with what I give him.

And then he goes on and he says, forever or for whoever has been given more.

For whoever has, excuse me, will be given more and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And then verse 30 is this crazy statement that probably would be a different conversation at another time. And throw that worthless servant outside

into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's wrong. I don't think what Jesus is saying here, actually I'm quite confident, is talking about a person's salvation. Because your and I standing before God forgiven is based purely and solely on the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Nothing more, nothing less. It's our faith in Him and in that that gives us the opportunity to stand in God's grace forgiven and redeemed. But in this parable,

I think we also see that at some point when we stand in eternity, I'll be judged by salvation based on what Jesus did, but I'm gonna be responsible for how I invested my life on this side of eternity. And there's gonna be some reward that's gonna come with that.

And maybe the opposite will be just some regret. I don't know. We're all gonna find out at some point in time. But to be diligent, we're gonna also have to be resilient. Because the going is gonna get tough, and we've just gotta keep showing up. What's crazy about the guy who buried his one bag?

He had every opportunity to make that bag into two, but he buries it. And in his fear of failure, not wanting to get it wrong, he actually ends up doing nothing right.

Is it possible that you and I as followers of Jesus are being challenged, invited by God to take some risks in our lives? To step out in ways and do some things that's gonna require God to partner with us. It's gonna take some faith. It's gonna take some trust. It's gonna take some diligence. It's gonna take some resilience.

I was on the phone on Wednesday with a pastor, a friend of mine in Houston. And he pastors a church of folks in what I would say is a historically under resourced part of our city. And he and his family have been embedded in that community and just loving on people. He's tried for quite a while to start a church

that looks kinda like this. Now this isn't normal, by the way. And you know, he's

started the church and they're gathering on a Sunday and

then it doesn't work and he's gotta stop and then they just get together for a meal in the house. And he starts the church again. You know, his economic engine is rather difficult because the folks who are part of the church don't have necessarily the means to help with everything financially. So it's a struggle all the time. So he starts, stop, start, stop, start, stop in this fashion.

And we're on the phone talking on Wednesday. And he's like, Scott, guess what bro? Man, this is great. I got three guys. I got three guys I'm pouring into. I'm disciples what he says quote. I'm discipling three men.

I'm showing them what it looks like to follow Jesus, to walk with Jesus, how to engage in God's word. And then I'm pouring myself into these three guys. And I was like, man, dude, that's so cool. Hey, how long have you been there? His name's Carlos. Carlos, how long have you been there? He says, twelve years.

You know, as you and I are diligent and we remain resilient, let's just trust God with the results. Because if we try anything for the glory of God and for the good of others, it's gonna go in a way that we didn't expect or maybe end up how we envisioned it. But he's all excited. Yeah, three

guys, man. Twelve years of pouring into three guys. Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done. I was in Nicaragua a couple of months ago. I've got kind of a cool day job and get to do things like that. We were in an area, a place called Chichigalpa, just north of Managua, And we were

meeting with this organization who's doing some really neat things and just trying to build relationship and learn from one another and see if the Lord's brought us together to partner in ways that we're both gonna benefit from, you know, the kingdom of God. And

we were hanging out with these four pastors, went into their communities and they've got their churches in their communities, and they're just pouring out their life into these folks. Teaching them God's word and helping them follow Jesus and helping them find faith in Christ. And

we got together a couple days after that. We brought them together and we're just hanging out. I literally said, said, hey, man, let's can we do this? Can we just take any conversation about money and just set it aside? I said it very respectfully, I think very gently, like let's just do relationship right now. And

we asked, how can we best serve you? And they literally, their response was the same. Would you please encourage us? Just encourage us because it can get discouraged. Whatever our vocation is, it can get discouraged. Whatever passion we have that we pursue, it gets discouraging at times.

And I see these guys and they're pouring their life into these folks, and I can't help but imagine that if they stay at it and they stay focused on Jesus and they stay humble and they keep sharing God's word, helping people grow in their relationship with Jesus, at some point,

God the Father's gonna look them in the eye and say, Well done. Good and faithful servants. And I couldn't help that when I was with them looking at them in the eye, I saw myself. I remember in doing, you know, my passion, my vocation. This is kinda like my vocation in this is my day job. It's on Sunday and other days. And

I remember like several years ago I was like a little bit arrogant and no, a lot. Let's just be honest. Very arrogant and self centered in my prayer would be, All right, God, here I am. Just like the prophet Isaiah. Here am I, Lord, send me.

God, use me to change the world. God, I wanna change the world in the name of Jesus. It was kind of a cool, you know, audacious type of idea.

God, use me to change the world. But then, you know, after doing this for years and years and kind of getting punched here and there and getting beat down and getting back up and making my own mistakes and getting back up and walking in God's grace and all this. My prayer has changed.

No longer do I honestly pray, God, use me to change the world. I simply pray, God, would you use me to make a difference? And I have found that that prayer is answered almost on a daily basis if I'm willing to walk in it. And I say that because it's the same for every single one of us.

God, would you use me to make a difference? And if we accept his invitation to partner with Him, and we're diligent about it, and we remain resilient with it, and we walk in this as the old school wisdom of Proverbs would say over and over and over and over again,

you will find that God will use you. And you'll realize if you're anything like me, you way overestimate what God wants to do through you in a year, but you underestimate what He can do through you in a lifetime if you stay at it. Let me wrap up with this. The first time I was ever exposed to your church, Rock Point Church,

was back in around 2006 or 2007. Some of you remember that time. Remember like when houses went were like $5,000,000 overnight and then the next week they were $500 Remember that whole deal? Sorry to trigger you on that.

It was back in that time. And my wife and I, our family was living right down off Power Road and Queen Creek Road in that area. And we're like, hey, let's go to this church over at Higley High School. It's called Rock Point Church. And

so Shelley and I go in and I think it was in the auditorium of Higley High School. We're sitting in the back. I'd never met Bill Bush, your pastor. I didn't meet him that day either. We kinda were the slip in, slip out folks that day. And we're sitting in the service and there's maybe a 100 people in there.

And Bill's having kind of a family talk. Like it was almost like he's saying, hey, hey, if this is your first time here at Rock Point, we're so glad you're here, but we're gonna have a family conversation today. And I I really believe that I was one of the first to actually experience before it was trademarked.

I got to experience the Bill Bush throat punch back in that day. And we're sitting in the back of the auditorium and Bill is literally saying, hey guys,

if this church, if Rock Point Church is gonna make a difference in this community and we're gonna survive and we're gonna last, you've got to start serving. You've got to get involved. You've to put some skin. And he's just laying I mean, he's like, douche douche. And I'm sitting in the back going, man, this guy's got some courage.

He's going after it. I didn't realize I didn't have the language of throat punch at that time, but that's what was happening. And then he's like, hey, and if we're gonna do this and we're gonna bring people to faith, we've all got to invest in this. We've to trust God with our giving, and you guys got to start giving. And he just bam, like left hook and right jab. And I'm just like, woah, he goes right for it.

And we left that day and I was thinking like, I wonder what's gonna happen to this church.

Like it wasn't bad in any way. Was great. It was very challenging. But I was thinking, I wonder what I wonder if this church is gonna last. Because the pastor was talking like they're in a tough season and he was very challenging.

Now look at you.

And we don't measure a church's impact by who's sitting in the seats. I was gonna say butts in seats but that might not be appropriate. But

measure a church by its impact in the community, how many people are following Jesus and the difference we're making in the relationships that we have, and you're just one of five weekend services. And I'll say this, you know it if you're part of Rock Point. God gets the glory.

He's the one who's making it happen. But in addition to that, if many of you weren't diligent back in Higley High School, if you didn't put in the work and if you didn't remain resilient and when the going got tough, you kept showing up, I would venture to say you would not ever see this.

Well, Scott, how do you say that if it's all God? Well, he invites us to partner with him. And he expands his kingdom through people, through you. And you get to experience the fruit of it today. And if for a moment, just dream with me for a second. That was what 2006, so what fifteen, sixteen years ago, something like that.

If you stay humble, stay Christ centered, founded on scripture as you are, and you're diligent and you're resilient, what in the world might God want to do in the next sixteen years?

Who knows? It'd be a maybe four thousand people get baptized on one weekend. I don't know, but it would be amazing. But think about your personal life. God's inviting you to participate with him,

not only in the work of how you're involved in this church, but on your day job, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, whatever your work week looks like.

If you're a follower of Jesus, man, lean into it. What's your passion? Try to be great at it for God's glory and the good of your neighbors and be diligent and let's be resilient.

I hope this conversation was somehow encouraging and helpful today. I want to pray for us. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes if you would, please. Maybe just sit in this for a moment.

Father, we're super humbled. We're super humbled that the very breath that we breathe today is because of your choice and your power. And we're humbled today that we can say for many of us that we walk in the forgiveness of our sins and in a relationship with Jesus because of your grace.

And Lord, I pray that today you'd encourage us. You'd even inspire us, God. Get us in touch with the passions You put in us. And may we be people who put in the diligent work and remain resilient. And would You, God, get the glory through it?

We thank you for this, Jesus. Maybe with our heads bowed and our eyes still closed, I wanna just speak to you for just a moment longer, if I may. You know, I shared the big idea, which is really a biblical truth that God invites us into a relationship and a partnership. And I don't want to overlook

that biggest first step, and that's a relationship with Him. And maybe you're here today. Maybe you're at Rock Point Church and you don't really have a relationship with Jesus. Maybe you've never fully placed your trust in him. So glad you're here. And the reality of Jesus is that it's good news.

Scripture says in many ways throughout the book of Romans that we're all the same. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. None of us are without sin. We're all broken at the deepest level. But it goes on to say that God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were still

sinners, Christ died for us.

And that if we were to confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, we'll be saved. Saved from the penalty of our sin, saved from separation from God, brought into relationship

with Him. And I would expect there's many of us here today that have never made that decision. And today you're like, Scott, I wanna begin a relationship with Jesus.

I don't have it all figured out. I've got a lot of questions, but I know I need to take the first step today to put my faith in Christ as my savior. I wanna pray for us, and I wanna include you in that prayer if that's where you are today.

And if you'd say, Scott, that's where I am, man, would you include me in this prayer? I want to begin a relationship with Jesus. If that's you, I just want you to heads bowed, eyes closed, lift your hand real high. Shoot your hand up. I wanna see who I get to pray with and pray for. See a couple of you right down here to my left.

Two more over here in this section. Right? Praise God for you. A couple over here to my left. Got you right here, sir. Who else? Got clue me in that prayer and this prayer. And sir, I got you here in the section to my left. I got three hands right here in this middle to my right. Four hands. Five, six.

Got two up there in the back. This is selfish. I know. I just I just love to see who I get who's gonna in this yeah. I see two of you guys in the back. Three of you.

Get you right there.

I'm gonna begin a relationship with Jesus. Get two over here. Yeah. Back here. Yeah. I'm kind of losing track now, which is a pretty cool thing. Would you look up at me for a moment, please?

You know, this is always, excuse me. It's kind of emotional for me because I remember when I did what you're doing, Changed everything. Changed everything. Was it easy? Heck no. There's actually some more difficulty that comes of following a narrow path. His name's Jesus. But man, God is good.

And I wish so many of you could just come up here with me right now and look out and see all these hands going up.

I want to lead us in a prayer. And what I'm going to do is I want to for those of you who raise your hand, I want you to raise your voice and pray aloud. It's a prayer of surrender. It's a confession of sin. It's a declaration that Jesus is God's son,

inviting him to be the Lord of your life. But we're not gonna leave you in this prayer. I wanna encourage all of us to pray this prayer out loud to show our support

to these folks. So thank you for the opportunity to pray with you in this way. So let's just bow our heads again, if you would, please. And let's all say this, and you guys have lifted your hand. This is your time to let God know you put your faith in Him. He already knows. Wants to hear it. Let's pray. Let's say, Father God,

today I surrender my life to you. Please forgive me of my sin. I believe that Jesus is the son of God,

that you've died for me on the cross. Jesus, I also believe that you've been raised from the dead to prove you're my savior? Would you be the Lord of my life, the leader of my life? All that I am belongs to you. Thank you that you love me, that you forgive me. Help me walk with you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. I don't know, man.

How cool is that? Wow. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.