Get Up

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:25] Speaker B: Good morning, Met Church. How are you doing this morning? I've heard better, but we're gonna make it. We're gonna make it. It's a special day today because it is Mother's Day. Can we give it up for our moms today? I wanted to give a shout out to my mom because I literally wouldn't be here without her, right? So happy Mother's Day to Debbie Bomer. And you know she did a good job, right, just by looking. Happy Mother's Day to my mother in law, Janet. Cause I want to be on her good side. So I want to say that this morning. And then happy Mother's Day to my wife Amanda, who is not only an amazing wife, but she is killing it at being a mom. And we're just figuring this out as we go, but she's doing an awesome job. Moms, you want to know what the difference between a good mom and. And a great mom is? That's right. Okay. Okay. Just making sure. A good mom will let you lick the mixer after baking. A great mom will actually turn it off first. And moms, if you are not getting enough attention from your kids today, which I know that's all you want, this is what you do. You go to when nobody's in the living room, it's quiet. You take a blanket, you take a snack. You get on the couch, you get comfy, turn the TV on and watch whatever it is you want to watch. And within 10 seconds, everybody in the house will be there with you. I promise. What are you eating? What are you watching? What are you looking at on your phone? Moms, do you feel that? It happens all the time today. I thought we could start with just a little prayer. I'd like to pray a blessing over mom. So if you're sitting by your mom or if you're close, grab her hand, put your hand on her back. Don't take anything out of her wallet while she's praying. But let me pray this morning. Almighty God, we are asking this morning for special blessing on each mother. Fill their hearts with laughter and joy. Surround them with love from family and friends. Grant them Health, peace and fulfillment. God, we also lift up those who have heavy hearts on a day like today. Whether it's from the loss of a moment, a loss of a child, or even the struggle to have children. God, we pray that all may know their value and worth in your eyes and in ours. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. We are continuing on in our Healthy series. And if you were here last week, you saw where we are talking about healthy church. Pastor Bill says all the time that, that healthy things grow and a healthy church grows. So what do we need to do? What are some keys to have a healthy church? And today I wanna continue on kind of a flow of what Pastor Mary talked about last week. She started by talking about the key. One of the keys is to be a part of a community. I know over the years when I've asked people to come to church and I tell em about our church and one of the questions is is it a big church or is it a small church? And I say, well I guess that depends on what you think is big and what you think is small. And when I tell them the size of our church, I can see it in their eyes and they get a little nervous and like that just sounds like it's too big for me. And I always say this, I always say do you wanna know what makes a big church seem small? It's when you get connected in community, whether it's serving, whether it's life groups, whatever it looks like. Maybe it's just finding a group of that you have things in common with at the church where people can not only you know their name, but even more important they know your name and you begin to live life together. And today I want to point out another key, not just for a healthy church, but also to be a healthy follower of Christ. We are going to look at some very important words that Jesus gives us. Not only does he give us these words, these are actually the last words that he speaks to his disciples before he ascends into heaven after the resurrection. So think about how important these words are going to be that he says to his disciples. And it got me thinking a lot about last words. There are some people that when the end of their time comes, they know it's coming. And so they want to say something very important, something that's going to really change the people that they're telling this to. So I looked up some famous last words that I thought I would share with you this morning, Groucho Marx. His last words were this is no Way to live. And he was right. Author H.G. wells. His last words were, go away. I'm fine. And he was wrong. Multimillionaire Richard Mellon, while on his deathbed, calls his brother over. His brother leans over to hear what he has to say. He reaches up and he touches his brother's arms. And his last words were, last tag. Got him. I mean, what are you gonna do? You can't tag him back. It's just. Yeah. Nostradamus, which was known for making predictions. He predicted, tomorrow at sunrise, I shall no longer be here. And he finally got one right. Cause he wasn't. I wonder if he said that every night just to see if it ever happens. I don't know. Charles Gusman, he was a writer and a TV announcer. He actually wrote the pilot for Days of Our Lives, which was a long time ago. And as he became ill, he wanted to have his last words be something that was a memory. So when his daughter reminded him of this, he gently removed his oxygen mask and he whispered. And now for a final word from our sponsor. What would your final words be? Better yet, what would you want your final words to do? Would you want it to be inspiring? Would you want it to motivate? Would you want it to move people into action? I think about what mine would be, and to be honest, I have no idea, but I would want that to be that. So as I think about what my final words, I think about how much better would the final words be from the God of all creation? And that's what we're going to look at this morning. What was Jesus trying to do? What kind of movement was he trying to get from his disciples? So if you have your Bible, awesome. If it's on your phone, awesome. Get that out, get ready. If not, we're gonna have it on the screen, and we're gonna look at the Book of Acts, starting in chapter one, and we're gonna be in verse eight and the book of Acts. Have you ever seen a movie? I just try to think of, like, Lord of the Rings or so, you know, it's like one long book. And then you're watching the movie, and then all of a sudden, right in the middle, it just says, to be continued. And you have to wait like, another year before you come back and watch the next part. That's what Acts is. So you have in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which are known as the Gospels. And the Gospels tell us about the birth, the life, the ministry, the death, the resurrection of Jesus. And then it kinda you stopped and you're kinda like, okay. To be continued. And the book of Acts is actually a continuation of the book of Luke. Cause Luke is the author, Luke is the physician, and he continues to talk about the Acts, meaning the Acts of the Apostles, what happened after Jesus, what happened after he died and was resurrected, what happened when the church started. And that's all in the book of Acts. So go with me to Acts, chapter one, verse eight. It says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. The Bible, the word of God is living and active in Scripture. It says it's like a double edged sword that cuts deep to the bone and the marrow. That's as deep as you can go. But why would God's word need to be something that cuts us so sharp, so deep? Because God's word is supposed to be something that cuts us so deep that we change, we change who we are to become more like Jesus. But it's one thing to hear the word of God. It's one thing to even read the Word of God, to come to church on Sunday and hear somebody preach the word of God. James 1:22 says this. We are to be doers of the Word, not hearers. Only when Jesus spoke, it wasn't to entertain us. It was to move us into action. It was to change who we were, who we are, and who we're gonna be. So as we look at this verse this morning, that is my prayer for us, that this is not something that we just hear. And we. Oh man, that's so good. That's so great. But it's something that we take away and we actually apply to our lives. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take this verse, we're gonna break it down into three parts. So if you're a note taker and you're ready to take some notes, let's do that. How many of you got the books out there, the little notebooks where you can take the Met? All right. That's a good Mother's Day gift if you haven't everybody. That's a good one. All right, so if you're taking notes, write this down. The first point is this. The power. The power, the verse says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And we see this power whether we notice it or not. All throughout the Old Testament, from Moses to Daniel to David to Samson, we see These moments of. Of great power. I mean, you think Moses came to the Red Sea and he did all that on his own. That was the power of God. That was the Holy Spirit that came upon him. But what we notice in the Old Testament is when these great sources of power came to these people, it wasn't something that stuck around. It wasn't something that they had the whole time it came and it left. Why? Well, because God was there, because Jesus was there. But now we see a time where Jesus is saying, I'm leaving and I have to leave so you can have this next thing coming, which is the Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit of God. And so he says, you will have power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And if you go a little bit further in Acts 2, we actually see this moment happen. We see that they are in Jerusalem. The disciples are there. There are many gathered from for a feast. And the disciples were there. There were thousands of people around. They were in a room. And all of a sudden the wind picked up. And I'm not talking about a breeze like we have out here sometimes. I'm talking about a hurricane. A rushing, mighty wind came blowing through the room. And then all of a sudden, not to scare him enough, a fire came down. And a fire from heaven came down and filled the room. So you got wind, you got fire, you got disciples looking at each other like, what is happening? And then all of a sudden, the fire fell upon the disciples. And then it was gone. The Holy Spirit had entered the room and entered the disciples to be something that doesn't go away, but to last, to stay with them to the rest of their days. And then the disciples, after all this happened, they start talking and speaking in tongues. Now, I know that can be confusing. I know there's different churches that believe different things about the gift of tongues. So what was it? They were able to speak different languages. That's what it was. They were able to speak different languages where other people understood what they were saying. Something that would have taken months, if not years to learn. They had that gift within an instance. Now why. Why would they need to be able to speak different languages in that moment? Remember, thousands of people were gathered in Jerusalem. They were there for the feast. The feast where they celebrated the time that God gave the Jewish people the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. And they were there and they were celebrating thousands of people from all different nations that happened to speak different languages. And in that moment, God equipped his disciples with this gift, with this ability to be Able to speak to all the people that would have been there in that moment. And what did they talk about? They talked about Jesus. They went out into Jerusalem and began to speak these different languages that they all of a sudden have the ability to do. And they used it to talk about Jesus. The Bible says that in that day, 3,000 people came to a faith in Jesus Christ because of what the disciples told them. Not from their own source, not from self source, but from the Holy Spirit. This was a divine embodiment that wasn't going away, that they would have the rest of their ministry. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now was inside and with them. Can I tell you something this morning? Isn't that awesome? I mean, doesn't that man, it's not a good for them, it's also a good for us. The message and what Jesus was talking to his disciples is for his disciples today as well. The empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the power of God is not just for his disciples then it's for us today. You and I, if you are a follower of Christ, have the power of God within you, which means this. Nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible. And it's not reliant on you. It's relying on you to tap into the power that you've been given. Zachariah 4. 6 says this. Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord armies. So we have been given this great, great power. And now we need to ask ourselves, what for? Why do I have access to the power of God? The second thing that we're going to look at in this verse is the purpose, the purpose of the power. The verse goes on and says, you shall be my witnesses. The disciples used their new skill of language to tell others about Jesus. And you and I are called to do the same thing. And I know, as I say that you may be saying, well, you're. You're a preacher, you're a pastor. It's easy for you. And it's just as hard for me as it is for you. Let me just be honest. I still have things in my head when I go talk to people, like, oh gosh, are they gonna think I'm an idiot? Are they gonna think I'm dumb? Are they gonna, you know, are they gonna. Are they gonna question a pastor? And I won't have the answer. Trust me, that happens a lot. Just so you know. But it's intimidating. So how do we do it? How does God want us to do this? And I think there's three things that you have to think about when it comes to the purpose and the method, the message and the motivation about why we do what we do. In the method. You have your way and your words, your way. Live in a way that reflects Jesus. Live in a way when people just without even your words come. When they see the way you act, when they see the way you respond, when they see the way you handle situations, do they see Christ in you? None of us are perfect. We all have different personalities. Some of you know some of our fuses are shorter than others. I get all that. But when someone sees the way you act and the way you hold and carry yourself, are there glimpses of Jesus? Because that is so important. Matthew 5:16 says this in the same way, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Our actions matter. Kindness matters. Love matters. Grace matters. Mercy matters. Because these are things that can build bridges with people in a relationship that maybe you didn't have that relationship before. When you reflect Christ, that is the light of the world. People want to be close to the light because it helps them see through the darkness. And if you reflect that, they're going to want to be friends with you. They're going to want to know what's different about you. Why are you the way you are in a good way? Right? Because I've had that. Why are you the way I've had that before, too. It matters. Your actions matter. Your way. The second thing is this. Your words. Now, I'm not talking about somebody cuts you off and some words fly out, which, yes, I think that's important too. But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about when you have that relationship with people, how do you share your faith with them? What are you telling them about what God is doing in your life? In a courtroom, a witness is not responsible for winning the case. They're there to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them God. They're there to tell the facts, state the facts, talk about what they've seen and what they've experienced. They need to talk about those things and it's all truth to them. The same way, when it comes to our faith and telling others about Jesus, we need to share what Jesus has done in our lives, what we've seen and what we've experienced. Cause I'm telling you, if you've experienced this in your life with Christ, nobody can debate that, nobody can question that, because it's things that you've seen and experienced in your faith. All you're doing is stating the truth. And then we need to speak the truth about the gospel, which is the good news of Jesus. And I'm gonna give you three verses, three verses that I think could be helpful when you're talking to somebody and they say, well, where is that in the Bible? I'm gonna give you three verses, okay? The first one is this. Romans 3:23. It says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means that you and I, all of us, we're in the same boat. We are sinners that fall short of God's glory. And because of that sin, we are separated from God. We don't have a relationship with God because that sin's in the way. That's the boat that we all start in, and then it moves on. And it tells us what we deserve because of our sin. In Romans 6:23, it says, for the wages, the cost of sin is death. So you and I, because of the sin that we have that we've committed against God, we deserve to die. But that verse is not over because it goes into. It says, but I love that. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we have this boat. Sinners, all of us, falling short of the glory of God, separated from God. That's where we all start. And then we have this boat. It's salvation. It's eternal life through Jesus Christ. And it says. It's what? It's a gift. Okay, so how do we go from this boat to this boat when some of us may not be good swimmers? How do we get over there? Well, it's the gift. Now, I don't know how many gifts you've received. Hopefully, mothers, you received some gifts today, if not already. But I remember birthdays when I was little, and they would bring presents, and they would say, I got you a gift, and they put it in front of me. And I can guarantee I never once said, that's awesome. I'm gonna go over here, right? What'd I do? I took the gift, I brought it in close, opened it up, and. And I used it. So the first thing I had to do to take the gift was to receive it. So in order to go from this boat to this boat, death, eternal life, no relationship with God. Relationship with God, sinner saved by grace, sins forgiven. Is. I had to receive the gift that was given to me through Jesus Christ. Let me give you the last verse. How do you do this? Romans 10, 9. It says this. Confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. It's believing. It's confessing. You gotta have a moment in your life where, where you say, I believe Jesus, you are my Lord. Not only are you my Lord, I believe everything you did for me when you went to the cross paid the price that I deserve to pay for my sins. You took it all. You took it all. I believe you did that. And I confess that you are my Lord and you are my Savior. That's it. That's how you receive that gift from God, through Jesus. Paul says it this way in First Corinthians 15. He says, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance to the scriptures. This is the good news of Jesus. And when you have good news, what do you want to do? You want to share it? I remember, like it was yesterday, even though it was over 18 years ago. I remember the day I proposed. I remember we were going on a trip and I'd taken her to different places. We were going to stay with my aunt and uncle in San Antonio. So we stopped, went to, like, a butterfly garden. You know, you have to hit all the spiritual spots. So I went to Luckenbach, and we did all these things. And then we went and we stayed at this. It was a Christian camp. And the reason we stayed there is because they gave discounts to pastors and I was poor. And so I got two rooms, guys, okay? Two separate rooms. And we were sitting out on the porch and they had a swing and we were sitting there. I knew I was about to do it. I had. I'm pretty good at. So she was. I asked her, I was like, hey, if we ever get married. We had only been dating for eight weeks, by the way. I said, if we ever get married. Like, I know it's kind of old fashioned, but do I need to ask your dad for permission? And she was like, oh, well, yeah, that'd probably be nice. I'd already done it earlier that day. Okay? I'd already met with her dad for lunch. I already laid it all out. And so I'm sitting there, so she doesn't think anything's happening. We're sitting on the porch swing, and I had a Bible, and then I had these little envelopes, and there was a string on each envelope. And so I Just told her. I was like, hey, so grateful for you. I'd never told her I loved her, by the way. So grateful for you. And I just. You know, there were some scriptures that I found that when I read them, I thought of you. And so I just thought you could read them. And so she would pull out and there'd be a scripture tied onto the string, and she would read it. And then the last one was the ring. My heart. She even asked me. She was like, are you okay? Cause we're sitting on this, you know, this porch swing. And it was like. Cause my heart was beating so fast, and I'm trying to play it off. Luckily, it was kind of dark, so I'm probably sweating. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. And then when she pulled it out and she saw the ring, I told her, I said, I love you. And I've never told her that before. And I told her some other things, and then I said, will you marry me? She said, yes. But I remember after that, this was a huge moment in our lives. And so did we not tell anybody the rest of the weekend? No. We went straight down to the rooms, and we were texting, and she was calling. We were calling family and friends. And, you know, we were so excited to share the good news. How much more exciting is it to tell people something that just doesn't change their life, but changes their eternity? It should be the most important thing that we are willing to tell people around us, not just family. Even though, yes, we need to tell family, not just friends, but yes, we need to tell friends, but anyone that God places in our path, we need to be willing to share the good news that has changed our lives forever. Amen. So it's the purpose of. It's the method, it's the message, and then it's the motivation. What is our motivation? The Pharisees in Matthew, in the book of Matthew, they're trying to trick Jesus, and they ask him, what is the greatest commandment? And if you don't know, there is 613 commandments from the Old Testament that are carried over till then. So there's a lot of them, and they're like, let's see if we can trick him. What is he gonna say? There's so many of them, he can't just pick one. And he says this. He replies, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally Important. Love your neighbors as yourself, love God with all that you are, and love others. I heard a podcast this week, and his name was Dr. Arthur Brooks, and he's a professor of practice of public leadership at Harvard, a school I could never get into. And he's talking to a pastor. And the pastor, you know, he's brilliant. This guy's brilliant. And the pastor asked him. He's like, Dr. Brooks, your class, they say, is the hardest to get into. Every semester, it's the first one that fills up, and it's got a waiting list. And every semester, and we know that not everybody needs your class. Why is this the case? And he kind of talks. And then finally the pastor that's interviewing says, all right, I need you to throw humility out the window. I want you to be honest why you truly believe these students want to be in your class so bad. And he said this. He said, well, I think it comes down to two things. He said, first of all, I love what I teach. I love everything about what I'm teaching these students. And he said, secondly, I love my students. I love them, like, I want them to hear this and absorb this. I want it to be impacting. He goes, I love them. He goes. And then he switches it over, and he says, it's kind of like you talking to the pastor. He goes, why you do what you do is because you love what you're talking about. You love God with all that you are, and you care so much about the people that you can't wait to tell them about the good news of Jesus. And that's the same for us. Why should we tell people about Jesus? Because we love the subject of our conversation with all that we are, and we love the ones we get to speak with. It's life or death, and it matters more than anything else in this world. Number three, the plan. So not only did God give us his power, give us his purpose, he lastly laid out the blueprint for how we're supposed to do this. He says, in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. This is our geographical and spiritual guidance and progression of evangelism, which is sharing your faith. And it starts in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is considered home. It's considered our family, our neighborhood, our local community, us as a church. That's why we started the Cindy Ramsey center, because we want to make sure that we can impact our community at home for Jesus. Next is Judea. This is our region. It's our state. Think of it this way. It's like A circle, Jerusalem. And then it kind of spreads further and further. Samaria. This is cross cultural or marginalized groups. You could even think of it as surrounding states or even for us, the United States. And then you have the end of the earth, which is global. It's global missions. It's what we do in Africa and Belize and the Philippines. And it's what I'm very excited about. 2026. We're going to go back to some of these places. And we're also praying through new partners and new ministries throughout our world that we can impact for the gospel. So start where you are, then go outward. Matthew 28:19 says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. The call is for everyone who is a follower of Christ to reach everyone who doesn't know Christ. I was watching NBA playoffs. I don't know if y' all like sports. NBA playoffs. And you had the Celtics vs. The Orlando Magic in the first round. And I'm watching, and there's eight and a half minutes left. Jayson Tatum, best player on the Celtics and Duke. Blue Devil, go Duke. And he attacks the goal, and he's going up and he's going to try to dunk. And when he goes up, two guys from the Orlando Magic just clobber him and he goes flying under the goal. He lands awkwardly, puts his hands out. As soon as he lands, he rolls over on his back and he begins to hold his wrist. So they're at the far end. The Celtics bench is on the other end. The coach, head coach Joe Missoula, he. He gets up and he comes and stands, and he's just watching, not saying anything. He's not running. He just kind of at the bench, just watching him. All of a sudden, the trainer comes out and is about to go down. Best player hurt, clearly not getting up. He's gonna run and go check on him. And Joe Missoula stops him. He says, no, no, no, stay here. Just so you know, if you get hurt and a trainer comes out, you get pulled. You have to come out of the game. You're not shooting. The free throws. Your best player, you want that player to shoot. So he tells them to wait. And they're just sitting there, and he's kind of watching Jayson Tatum kind of roll in pain. And then finally he yells down. Remember, he's on the other end, so he has to be pretty loud. And he yells two words that I thought was very interesting. He says, get up. Best player hurt, in pain. And he yells at him to get up. Why would he do that because as the coach, he knew that the game wasn't over and there was still work to be done. I wonder if we can hear that call this morning from God for some of us who may be taking things slow, who maybe aren't getting as connected or as involved or getting involved in ministry or. I pray that you hear that this morning because I know I need it from time to time. I need to hear those words of God telling me, get up, the game's not over. You have breath in your lungs. I have a mission for you to do. And I've even equipped you with the power of do it. And I want to end this morning with this last verse. It continues on later. And this is Luke, Acts 20, verse 24. It says this, but my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus, the work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God. It's time to get up. Church. It's time to do what we have been called to do, and that is to anybody, any place, anywhere where there are people. We are supposed to be the light of the world. And we are supposed to go tell them about the thing that has saved us from death, that has saved us from eternal damnation, which is given to us through Jesus Christ that allows us to have a relationship with God and one day spend eternity with him. But until that day comes, we are called to get up. Let's pray. God, thank you for today. Thank you for your word, God, thank you for your reminder of what we have been called to do as witnesses of yours, God. I pray that we see the opportunities that you have placed before us, whether it's in our family, whether it's in our job, whether it's in our community, whether it's in our world, God, where we can go make an impact for the King Kingdom of God. Something that changes eternity. God, we love you. Thank you for your reminders to get up and to be your witnesses. God, we thank you again for all of our moms. We love you so much. It's in your name we pray. Amen. [00:38:52] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.