Healthy Growth

[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. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everybody. Good to see all of you. As you know, we've been in a series since the first of the year called Healthy. And the premise of it, for those of you that haven't been here, it is that we believe healthy things grow, healthy people grow, healthy families and businesses and churches grow. And so we've been talking about different aspects of growth in our personal lives so that this year could be an exceptional year for each one of us where we get healthy. Now, sometimes to get healthy, you have to have a little surgery, and that's possible sometimes for God to get our attention. He has to put us through things that are a little out of the ordinary. And sometimes those things are very necessary. Someone told me in the church one time, he said, bill, I don't think I would have ever looked up had I not hit the bottom. And there's the story of many of you in the room where God sometimes to put us over, he has to put us under. But the thing I want you to know is when it comes to getting healthy, that God is at work in your life. When you see him at work, he's at work. When you don't see him at work, he's at work. When you know what he's up to, he's up to something. And when you don't know what he's up to, he's still up to something. When you can feel him and sense him working in your life, he's doing something. And listen, when you can't feel him or sense him working in his life, he's still doing something. God is at work. He's at work in the lives of his people. He's at work in the life of his church. And so this morning I want to talk to you about the idea that healthy churches grow. I want to talk about healthy growth. It is a reality of a church. A church, as we talked a moment ago, a few days ago, a church is an organization. A church has structure, but a church is an organism. It has life. And both of those things have to be active, and both those things have to be working. You have to have a well Organized church, if you're going to sustain growth and you have to have a church that understands that it is full of life and it has to have energy and vibrancy. It has to have. It is an organism. Organism. It is a living thing. And so when we talk about and we analyze a church, realize as I talked about last weekend, the church was founded by Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, when he was talking to Peter and he established the church and he said, upon this rock, Petra, a stone, a boulder, will I build my church. So the church was founded in Acts, I'm sorry, in Matthew 16. But the church didn't really take shape and the church didn't really take life until you move into Acts chapter two. Because as I said last weekend, the church had not yet been filled with the Holy Spirit. The church was founded, the church was formed, it had structure. But then the church was filled in Acts chapter two with the Holy Spirit. And then you see the church beginning to function. And throughout all the book of Acts, you see the church functioning. Now, one of the words that the Bible uses to describe the church in First Corinthians, chapter 12 is the body of Christ. The church is a body. It has structure and the body has life. Our bodies have structure. Our bodies have life. Well, the local church has structure and the local church has life. And when the Bible speaks of the church uses this word in the New Testament, it uses this word ecclesia. Ecclesia. It is a simple Greek word that means to be called out of something. To be called out of. We'll call out of what? Called out of the world. We've been called out of a system. We've been called out of a secular system to embrace a new system. We're citizens of a new kingdom. We have a new leader, a new Lord in our life. And so we've been called out of that world, out of our old life to embrace a brand new life. So a church is an ecclesia. It is a called out gathering, a called out assembly. Now, when the Bible speaks of the church, there are two types of ideas that are conveyed in scripture. When it talks about the church, there is the church that is universal. The church. I can use this word if I don't confuse you, but it is the word Catholic. It means this idea of a church that is universal. Well, what do I mean by that? I mean that you and I who know Jesus Christ, we are connected with believers all around the world. We may not be a part of the same local church, but we're A part of the same universal church. There is the universal body of Christ, meaning that our brothers and sisters in Uganda, where we support that orphanage and that, and that, that mom's facility there for moms, they are as much our brothers and sisters in Christ as anyone seated in the room or anyone watching online. There is a sense in which when you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, you become a part of a universal church. Ecclesia called out assembly or gathering with other believers anywhere in the world that they may exist. That's why the other word the Bible uses, ascribed church, is family. They are your brother. They are my brother. They are our sister. They are my sister. There is a kindred spirit that we have with people that we've never even met because we are connected universally into the body of Christ. So there is the church universal, but then there is also the church that is local, the church that is local. The church that I'm going to be looking at this morning was the church at Jerusalem. That's in Acts chapter two. The very first church that was established and launched is a church that is local. When you look in the first few chapters of Revelation, he talks about the church at Ephesus, the church at Thyatira, the church at Sardis. He talks about churches that are in locations, locales, they were visible, local assemblies. So there is the church universal that we're all connected to. But then there is a church that is local and that's the church that we're in this morning. And that's the church that everyone who knows Jesus Christ ought to find an affinity with, an affiliation with a local church. In fact, in Hebrews chapter nine, he said, don't forsake the assembling or the gathering of yourselves together as some do. But so much the more, as you see the day approaching, meaning that you and I who are in the body of Christ need to identify with a local church. We need a church that can get eyes on. We need a church that will pray for us and love us and help us and come alongside of us. We need a. We need pastors who can lead us and teach us and counsel us and help us. We all need to have a. A local church that we identify with. And I obviously don't believe everyone belongs to this church or everybody would believe would be here. There are many churches and each church is a representation of the body of Christ. There are all types of churches. There are churches that are much more liturgical, some high church, and some of you came out of that tradition. And there are a lot of People that love that. I have friends who are. Who are into very high church. They love that, you know, kind of worship and, you know, the swinging of the. Of the lanterns and the candles and the robes and all that. Well, whatever melts your spiritual butter. If that's. If that's where you are, that's great. There's nothing wrong with that. If you're into liturgical, go for your liturgical church. That's great. And then there are the churches that are a little more, shall we say, contemporary. They like to try to marry a more contemporary sound with a sacred lyric so it connects more with where people are. That's okay, too. There are different churches with different styles. And as a Christ follower, it's okay if you have a preference one over the other. I'm just saying God has a place for every Christ follower to be, and you ought to be where you just feel led to be. Now, we have a lot of people that attend our church, and they come. They kind of kick the tires, you know, they've had a church experience. I grew up in church. My dad was a pastor. Believe me, if you want to put your story down about a bad experience in church, I'll put mine right down next to yours, and I can tell you, we can share our war stories. We all have reasons never to go to church again. And when I talk about the church that I love and I've committed my life to serving and I talk about a healthy church, I'm not talking about a perfect church. Every church has flaws. Every church has things it does well and things it doesn't do so well because it's led by imperfect people. I'm not making excuses for it. I'm just trying to prepare you for the fact that there's no perfect churches. I would tell you this morning if you're kicking the tires a little bit, looking for a new church home. If you ever find the perfect church, don't join it. Do not join it. You'll mess that thing up. You will mess it up. It was perfect before you got there. Don't do that. What you want to do is find a church where you just have a sense of peace. I'll have people I talk to each week, and they'll say, bill, I'm praying about a church home. I'm not sure where God wants for me. I say, well, you just come and you sit and you be a part of this. This group, and you just wait until you feel God is leading you here or he's leading you somewhere else. What I'll tell you is we're not in competition with any other church. I rejoice in every church and the ministries that they have. I know probably 90% of the pastors in this area. Like I said, I grew up, I'm a Fort Worth kid, and so I've grown up in this area. I know pretty much the history of a lot of these churches that are going and going great guns. And I know their pastors personally. And I'm just saying that we're not in competition with any of them. I want you to be as honest as I can tell you this morning. I obviously would love you to be here, but I want you to be where God wants you to be. And I would say that to anybody that's looking to join a church, be where God wants you to be and be there as long as God wants you to be there. So there is this local church, this gathering, this assembly, this called out group that you and I, who know Jesus, we're called to be a part of. And so it's so important that we find where we fit, that we connect into the life of a local church. Now, last weekend I touched on the idea that in a local church there are two things that really define it and two things that really govern and guide it. There is the Great Commission and there is the Great Commandment. The Great Commission we're going to look at a little this morning, really talks about what fuels the growth of the church. And the Great Commandment talks about the heart of the local church, how that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And then he says concerning that on those two commands and hang all of the law and the prophets, meaning that if we love God as we should, we'd never break a commandment against him. If we loved each other as we should, we'd never break a commandment against one another. So the secret is love. We are to love others as we love God. So that's the Great Commandment. The Great Commission is all that the church is about and all that a church is supposed to do. Sound like Mr. Haney there? So in Matthew 28 for you Green Acres fans, for Matthew 28, look at verse 18. The Bible says, here's the Great Commission. That's the real thing. By the way, kids, you'll have to Google that. That goes back to TV land, but you'll get that. I'm old. The Bible says in verse 18 then Jesus came to them and said, all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore. Now remember, when you see the word therefore, what do you do? You look and see what it's there for. You see that he is about to connect what he's about to say with what he has just said. He said, I have all power. All power. Listen, everything we need to function as a local church, everything we need to be effective as a local church, we already have. You say, man, if we just had this or if we just had that personality or if we just had this amount of resources. No, no, no. Everything the local church needs to do the thing God has called it to do, it already has. It may not have identified those gifts. It may not have identified those individuals. It may not have yet received those resources. But all power, Jesus said, all power under heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, because I have given you this power, go and make disciples of all nations. Can I just say this? Jesus just didn't die for America. He died for the entire world. He said, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and doesn't end there, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded. And he said, surely I'm with you always. To the very end of the age. When I look at a church that was hitting on all eight cylinders, I look at this church at Jerusalem. I look at this church that is the focal point of this filling of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two and this expansion and extension of the impact of that local church. The result of that healthy church in Acts chapter two was that church grew. In fact, when you look at the growth of the church in Acts 1:20, it started with about 120 people, very humble, beginning about 120. It's mentioned in Acts 1:20, when you look at Acts chapter 2, verse 41, in one day the Lord added 3,000 people. That's a pretty good weekend. 3,000 people identified with that local church. Now, by the way, let me stop and parenthetically and say, how did they identify with the local church? They identified with the local church through baptism. Baptism was always an identity. It was always a statement they made by being baptized. It represents the death going down into the water, burial going under the water, resurrection coming up out of the water of Jesus Christ. Baptism is a beautiful representation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And there were 3,000. The Bible says that we're added in one day. So in our day and age, baptism is still an identity with a local church. You'll hear us say from time to time. Baptism is an outward testimony of an inward transaction. Baptism doesn't make me saved any more than this ring made me married to Cindy for 42 years. It is a symbol. Baptism is a symbol of a relationship. Baptism is saying, I'm going public with my faith. I'm going to identify with the gospel of Jesus. I'm identifying with the Lord. And the Bible says on that one day, can you imagine, 3,000 people added to the church were baptized into the life of the church. So you have 120 Acts 2:41 you see, or Acts chapter 2, rather you see 3,000 additions. And then in Acts chapter 2:47 again, you'll see that there were daily additions. And then when you read on in the book of Acts, it stops adding and starts multiplying. It says, the multitudes multiplied. So you started adding and then you started multiplying. And then from there it says multitudes multiplied. G. Campbell Morgan was a great scholar of a yesteryear and he studied this church of Jerusalem that I'm speaking of this morning. And he said by the time that that church at Jerusalem reached its pinnacle, over 250,000 people were a part of that church. That's a big church, 250,000. Now obviously they didn't have an auditorium to house that many people because back in that day, Rome outlawed any corporate gatherings of the church. So the church was forced underground. The church met in homes and the church met in private businesses. And the church was connected through the apostles teaching. There was a network where the apostles gave oversight, episcopos, they gave oversight to that church, to those churches. But the churches were just a network that met all over the city of Jerusalem that grew out to over 250,000. And people were being added to that church each and every day. How in the world was that happening? Well, it was happening because the church had not lost sight of the main function of the church. And that was to share the, the life saving, eternal changing message of Jesus Christ with everyone that they knew. It's what we would call in our vernacular today. They kept the main thing, the main thing. And I can tell you in church world that's the hardest thing to do, is to keep the main thing, the main thing. And the main thing is telling people who do not know Jesus, telling them about Jesus. I read an interesting article. Donald Peterson was the CEO of Ford Motor Company from about 1980 to 1990. And Ford Motor Company was going through a crisis. They were in a financial crisis. Things were going Terribly for them. And Peterson was credited, his leadership was credited with turning Ford Motor Company around. And he wrote a book about his experiences. And you can find it on Amazon. It's called A Better Idea. And in that book he basically summarized the problem at Ford Motor Company that almost led to their demise was simply boiled down to this. They had lost sight of their vision and their mission. And I thought, wow, that's profound. It's simple, but it's profound. They had lost sight of their vision and their mission. And can I tell you, what can happen in a corporation like Ford Motor Company can happen in a family, it can happen in a business, it can happen in a church. When you lose sight of your vision and you lose sight of your mission, then all of a sudden everything begins to unravel and unhealth, unhealthiness begins to become a factor. And so you have to stay anchored and tied to your vision and to your mission. Well, what is that for a local church? Number one, if you're taking notes, I would tell you, is never lose sight, number one of the people around us. The people around us. It's interesting that the Great Command, a great commission that I just read opens with the idea, go. First word of the Great Command, go. In other words, we are to be connected to and we are to be identified with people who do not yet know Jesus. Now I touched on this a little bit last weekend because there is a tendency that we have, those of us who know Jesus, once you've met Jesus and you've turned your life over to him and you've experienced that radical transformation in your life of knowing Jesus, the new life in Christ, the tendency we have is to insulate and isolate ourselves from people who don't know Jesus. In fact, a disturbing statistic I read was that within the first two years, when a person makes a significant commitment to following after Jesus, within the first two years, they have virtually no friendships with anyone who doesn't know Jesus. Meaning we tend to insulate and isolate ourselves from people who do not think like us, people who do not believe like us, people who do not share the same values that we share. We tend to isolate and insulate ourselves from them. And I'm just suggesting you that that is the death knell in the growth of a local church is when that begins to happen. Jesus never insulated, nor did he isolate himself from people who needed the life changing message that he brought. In fact, in Mark, chapter two, there's a great illustration of just what I'm talking about. There was a tax Collector who had received Christ as savior. Now, tax collectors in his day weren't nearly as popular as they are in our day, but that's a different story. And you get that joke a little bit. But tax collectors in that day were very dishonest. To get taxes from the Jewish people, the Roman government hired Jewish people to excise taxes from the Jewish people. So the Jewish people resented their people excising taxes from them. And the Roman government knew that the Jewish people that were excising taxes from their own people were not honest. Many of them were very dishonest. They were known for their dishonesty. Basically, if you had a $10,000 tax bill, that person might come to you and say, hey, look, here's how this will go. You pay me a little something under the table, I'll reduce your tax bill and everybody will be happy. I'll notify the government that you're clear, you're good and clear. And so people resented them. Rome knew they were dishonest, but Rome looked at the job they were doing and said, well, a little bit of something is better than all of nothing. So we'll take what they're doing even though we know they're not honest. The Jewish people resented them because they were, you know, sellouts, and they were basically, you know, crooked. And so I'm saying everybody hated the tax collector. And that's important because you understand the context of math of Mark 2 with what I'm sharing. A tax collector receives Jesus as savior, and the first thing he does is, I got to get out of this line of work. I can't take advantage of my brothers anymore. I can't take advantage of the government anymore. I got to be an older, you know, an honest person if I'm going to represent Jesus. So in Mark 2, they have a going away retirement party for one of the tax collectors. Now, can you imagine what kind of party that would have been? What kind of party would these very dishonest people throw for one of their own guys? It was probably like a gathering of the mob, right? You could see Sopranos. You just get that picture. You see the mob and they're planning this party. And what's astonishing about it, and this is the whole point, point where I'm going with all this story, is Jesus is at the party. He's sitting at the head table with the honoree, with the man who now is retiring. He's sitting at the table with this guy and outside, because they would never identify with these lost people. They would never identify with these Sinners outside were the religious leaders of the day. And they were doing what most religious people do. When you began to identify with someone who doesn't know Jesus, they were criticizing them. Them. And Jesus, being God, knew they were criticizing. He knew the thoughts and he knew the talk. And so he dismisses himself from the table. He goes out and confronts those religious leaders and he says to them, I did not come into this world to call righteous people to repentance. But sinners now understand what he wasn't saying when he said that he wasn't calling them righteous, he was calling them self righteous. Let me explain it a little further. He said, I didn't come into the world to call people who don't think they need a savior to repentance. Cause I'll never reach them. I came to call people to repentance who know they need a savior. In other words, I can do more with these people who know they're lost, who know they're sinful, who know they're messed up than I can from the group outside judging them, looking down their noses at them, thinking they're better than them. I can't do much for those people. You see the difference? And what I'm suggesting you is not that Jesus went and sat at the table and got drunk and cussed with the rest of them. I'm saying he sat at the table and identified with them. I'm suggesting to you that he was as much God as though we were never a man, as much man as though we were never God. He was perfect in every way. He sat at that table. He maintained his integrity while, while he identified and he built a relationship with people who did not know him. And I'll go so far to say is he gained their respect. He gained their respect. And all I'm suggesting to you this morning when I talk about this is when we go as a church and we begin to try to reach people who don't know Jesus. We can't pontificate, look down our nose at we cannot judge people who do not yet know Jesus. We need to instead build a redemptive relationship to people who don't know Jesus. Every one of us in this room have many friends who don't know Jesus. I have several who don't know Jesus. And I'm saying we build redemptive relationships to them. Now, we'll also tell you this. When you go into the deep end of the pool to try to rescue people who can't swim, you need to be a good swimmer too, because they can Pull you under as quickly as you can, pull them out. So the best swimmers have to be people who are. So I'm saying the strongest Christians in the room have to be people who are absolutely committed to reaching people who do not know Jesus. But, folks, don't miss this point if we lose sight of our main mission, and that is to connect with people who do not know Jesus. We've missed sight of. We've missed the point of the reason God left us in this world. Think about this very simply. The. The very first work of God in our lives is to bring us to Jesus. The next work of God in our life is to make us aware of people around us who need Jesus. In fact, in Acts, chapter one, verse eight, he said, you will be my witnesses. Now, I brought this point out to you before, but it's important that I mention this again. He didn't say, you will be my attorneys. And we have several attorneys in our church. I love them. I'm good friends with them. You got to keep one of those boys with you all the time, right? But I've got friends who are attorneys. I love the law. In fact, that's one of the things I thought I might want to be when I was younger, before God led me into ministry. And I'm just saying that we're not called to be a lawyer. Lawyers argue their case. You'll never win somebody to Jesus arguing with them. Here's what I've learned. You may win the argument, but you will lose the person. So don't engage in the argument. Don't even engage with them. There. All witnessing is. Is sharing your experience with someone else. You're just saying to them, look, this is what Jesus did for me. And I'm convinced what he did for me he can do for you. And at some point, that might be valuable to you. I don't know. If you're ever called to testify in trial, they're going to want to know, what did you know? What did you see? What did you hear? What was your experience? You're a witness. When Paul stood before Agrippa In Acts 26, he said, Agrippa, this is what Jesus did for me. And his witness was so powerful that the king said, you've almost persuaded me to become a Christian. So that's what a church is supposed to do. Look, when we break out of this holy huddle, we ought to be thinking about people in our circles who do not yet know Jesus. And one of the best ways to introduce them to Jesus is just invite him to church. With you just say, hey, come sit with me some Sunday. Lord knows you could use church. I didn't need church. Let's go sit together. And you never know. You never know what one service might do in the life of someone you know, who needs Jesus. There's a process. Paul said, I planted and then Apollos watered and then God gave increase. In other words, you never know where they are in that system. A grandmother somewhere in their life, a mom or a dad somewhere in their life might have planted the seed, might have prayed for them, and it might have been years. And they might have walked away from God and walked away from church. And then you come along, you meet them at work, or they're a neighbor, and you go, hey, why don't you come to church with me some weekend? You like our church? It's pretty laid back. Come check it out. And all of a sudden you realize you're watering. You're watering a seed that's been planted. Or you may realize that that friend that you invited, God gave increase. They actually made a decision in that service to receive Jesus as savior, meaning that I'm not responsible for the actual effect of salvation. All God will let me do is plant the seed and carry the water. Does that make sense? So we as a church, we just need to be planting seed and carrying the water. So the very first word in the Great Commission is go. It was interesting. I read a statistic where there's 2.2 million people living in Tarrant county right now. 2.2 million. And right in our area within an 8 to 10 mile radius. Statistics reveal that over a million of those people don't attend anyone's church. No one. They're not in anybody's church. Meaning that you can have some of the largest churches who are reaching thousands of people. And they're not touching the surface of the numbers of people who are here to reach 70%. The statistic is 70% of people, when invited to church, will actually attend 70%. So you've got a million people, let's say, within a five to ten mile radius of our church. And more than 70% of them would respond favorably if invited. So you could see the exponential potential that the church has if we could get focused on reaching people who don't know Jesus. By the way, you notice the new school that's going in somewhere around. I'm disoriented. Maybe over here. Am I pointing in the right direction? Yes. Oh, there. There you go. Brand new school. What's interesting, I read an interesting stat between Northwest ISD, Keller ISD, South Lake ISD. You realize there are nearly 80,000 students within a 70 mile radius of our church. 70,000 kids. That's staggering. That's astonishing. We have some retired educators in our church this morning. We have some who are very active and I don't know if you've been around this area as long as we have. That's astonishing to think of that many kids. What am I saying? I'm seeing potential. That's potential. That's growth. I mean, I'm excited about the opportunity we have to share Jesus with so many people. So the very first thing you have to do to have a healthy church, focus on the people around us. Now let me, let me hurry here. The second thing you have to do is understand the power that is within us. He said, I want you to go, I want you to go to all nations. And we're gonna be talking about that going down the road a little bit. We're gonna talk about missions and reinforcing our missions, outreach and emphasis within our church. But he says with that emphasis, you've got the power. There is a power within us. Can I give you a great principle? Everything you and I need to do what God has called us to do, he will equip us to do it. He will enable us to do it, and he will empower us to do it. God will never call you to do something he doesn't equip you to do, enable you to do, or empower you to do. And that's true of a church. He will equip us, enable us and empower us to reach the people that he has called us to reach. So there is this power that we have, the power of the Holy Spirit living within us, the that will enable us to be effective at reaching people who do not yet know Jesus. Now here's the third thought. I'm hurrying. I told you I was hurrying. Number three. You have a protection that is before us, a protection that is before us. He said, I am with you. Meaning that I am going to protect. Now why is that necessary? Why do we need to. Because Ephesians 6 says that our warfare, our battle is not within with flesh and blood, but it's spiritual. We have spiritual authorities and we have spiritual warfare. Listen, as a church gets closer to the center of God's purpose, his purpose is to reach people who don't know Jesus. As a church gets closer and closer to that purpose, the more attack of the enemy a church can expect. I've had people tell me, Bill, I really didn't feel like I had so much pressure and so much, so many problems until I got in church. I got my family in church. It just seems like all hell has come against me since I tried to do the right thing. Can I tell you that's not by accident? Because before you were really committed to Christ and before you were interested in really serving Christ. Listen, you pose no threat to the enemy. You're no threat to him. Man, if you watch the football games, I'm a big football fan. Nobody tackles the guys on the bench, nobody goes up into the stands and, and attacks those half drunk fans up there. They just don't do it. But they'll sure go after everybody on the field, especially the people carrying the ball. So if you want to get hit, carry the ball. If you want to get, if you want to have the focus of the opposition on you, advance the ball down the field. Now if that's true in sports, and we know it is, that's certainly true in church world. The closer you are to the purpose of God in your life, the more problems you're going to face. Because people and places at the center of Holy Spirit activity will be people and places at the center of unholy spirit activity. Please hear that? Any place God is at work building, the enemy will be at work blasting. But the good news about the bad news is greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Isaiah said no weapon formed against you will prosper. He didn't say there wouldn't be weapons formed against you. He just said they won't prosper. Why? Because I am with God is with us. In fact, when he launched the church in Matthew 16, he said the gates of hell will not prevail against it. When I was a kid, I would get that imagery and I would think, hell is charging me. Well, gates don't charge anything. The gates of hell, meaning that if the church decided to charge hell, the gates of hell could not withstand the church. That's what it means. Meaning we have all the power that we need to charge the gates of hell. We have all the power. We just need to implement the power that we already have. We need to step into that arena and say, God, I want to carry the ball. I want to reach people who don't know you. I want to be effective at making a difference in someone's life. So we have this great commission and we have this great power and we have this incredible protection. God has promised to protect us. And here's the last thought we have this incredible prayer over us. Look at John 17. In John 17 you have this beautiful prayer of Jesus before he ascends. You ought to read the whole chapter. It will really bless you to read it. I've just lifted a portion out of it. Jesus said, I pray for them. Who's he speaking of here? He's praying for us. He's praying for his church. I pray for them. He said, they are still in the world. Protect them. There it is. Protect them how? By the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be as one as we are one. God desires unity within his church. He wants us to be focused. And then he said, as you have sent me down in verse 18, as you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. Meaning I have called them to do what I did. What's the main focus of the church now? We do a lot of other things. A lot of other things are important. But what is the main thing? What is the main focus of the church is to reach people who don't know Jesus. I mean, if your focus is just on discipleship and you're not evangelizing in long, you won't have anybody to disciple. Just by attrition, a church begin to wither and die. You've got to have a huge front door. You got to be constantly reaching people who don't know Jesus because you're going to have a back door. There are going to be people going other places and doing other things. Things. And then you're going to lose people from time to time just of attrition. So for a church to be focused and for a church to truly grow, it has to be preoccupied with people who do not know Jesus. And the Bible says, I love this. He said, again in Luke 19:10, I came to seek and save those who are lost. Let me point out three or four things before I close I of how Jesus related to people who don't know him. Number one, he accepted them. He accepted them. He was able to separate what they were doing from who they were. He accepted them. He realizes that they were sinners in need of a savior. He accepted them. You remember the woman at the well, the story, how he conversed with her. And that was just taboo. You just didn't do that. But he did that. I shared that with you about the man who was the tax collector who had came to faith and was changing his life. And Jesus accepted him. He came to where he was. He accepted them. Number two, he was willing to associate with them, he was willing to. He was willing to be a friend. One of the accusations of Jesus is they called him a friend of sinners. And boy, what a beautiful thing to be said of any of us. We're a friend of people who don't know Jesus. So we accepted them. He associated with them. Let me give you the third idea. He actively pursued them. He actively pursued them. There are 132 contacts that Jesus made in the New Testament that we know of. There are many others that we're not aware of. But 132 connections Jesus made with people that are recorded in the New Testament. Listen to this. Six of those contacts happened in the temple. Four of those contacts happened in the synagogue. And 122 of those contacts happened in the streets and in the businesses where people worked and lived. In other words, Jesus got out of the cocoon. He got out of the little holy huddle, and he went out into the areas where people worked and lived. And he connected with them. He loved them, and he offered redemption to them. You see, we really are a little conclave for the completely convinced. A church is a wonderful thing to be a part of. But one of the things that a church ought to do is equip us when we break these holy huddles on the weekend to be more effective at sharing the message that Jesus loves the world, that Jesus died to save them, that there's no one too hard for him, that he will reach anyone and everyone who are willing to receive him as Savior. Jesus said, those who come to me, I will in no wise, no wise cast out. One of my favorite illustrations. And, gosh, I've used this before, but I just thought about the message this morning. I thought, man, I'll share that with him again. There's a story of the guy walking the beach after the hurricane. He and his friend would meet often and they would take walks down the beach together. And so he got there a little ahead of his friend. And after that storm had passed through, there was so much that had washed up on the beach. And he was noticing a section of the beach where there were tens of thousands of starfish that had watched washed up on the beach. And so all of a sudden he noticed that most of them were still alive. So he started just picking these starfish up and throwing them back out into the surf. His friend finally showed up and he saw him and he walked up to him and he looked at him and he said, man, what are you doing? He goes, I'm saving starfish. He goes, come Help me. And he said, man, you can't save all these starfish. What difference does it make? And he held one up and he said, it'll make a big difference to this one. And they continued to throw starfish into the surf. I think about 2.2 million people in Tarrant county, and we're limited with resources and personnel. You think you can save all of them? I wish we could. I'm sure we probably can't. Well, then what difference does it make? It'll make a difference to those that we can save. I mean, on the 29th, we're gonna be having a big baptismal service, and we're seeing people who are stepping forward who are saying, I'm gonna identify with Jesus. I'm going public with my faith. Wouldn't it be incredible to see that number just go exponentially larger with more and more people saying, jesus has made a difference in my life, and he's made a difference in my life because of the difference of a friend, somebody who loved me, and somebody who shared Jesus with me. What an incredible testimony that would be. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you. That it's true that it always provokes our thinking sometimes, Lord. It even goes against the grain a little bit, and it causes us to stop and reevaluate and reassess. But, Lord, we recognize the fact that it is your will, it is your desire for your church to be more effective at reaching people who do not yet know you. And I think about the hundreds and hundreds of people in this room and those watching online, all of us know, we know at least a dozen people who don't know you. And what a difference it would make in the life of this church if we just began to intentionally purposefully began to share our faith, inviting them to come and be a part of a service and have a redemptive relationship with those precious people that we know that you've sovereignly placed in our life. Give us a heart that you had for people. Give us that heart. And then, Father, for those in the room who may not know you as Savior, I pray this might be the moment where they just humble their heart right where they are and say, lord Jesus, with all that I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. And, Father, I'll thank you because I ask this in your name. Amen. [00:41:16] 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.