Christ’s Special Ops: Honor, Love, Fear, Witness

As you look at 2025 ending, this is the last Sunday, three days until 2026. And this is a good time to ask ourselves these questions. Well, how did I do? Where did I go? What is my focus like? How is my commitment today? Each year for the last 37 years, Marilyn and I have written an annual report. We're writing ours right now. Just sort of saying, okay, what have we done? What has God done? Praying to him, saying, what do you want us to do in the days that are coming up ahead? And it's good for us to remember that when we got saved, what did we commit ourselves to when the Lord saved us? [00:34:40] (44 seconds)  #ReflectAndCommit

The world looks at us and they say, aliens, undocumented. They say, you know, strangers, we are weird, pilgrims, all the rest, but God calls us his special ops. We are his army rangers. We are his navy seals behind enemy lines. We are called to rescue hostages, to proclaim freedom to the oppressed and life to those who are dead. [00:44:00] (34 seconds)  #GodsSpecialOps

Let it be a shock to the world to hear those words come out of a Christian's mouth. Let your words be words that honor. You know, your mom told you when you were a little one to have manners. Open the doors. Yes, ma'am. No, sir. You know, all those things. And if you weren't mannerly, you heard about it, at least in my generation. That's how it was. And that's what Peter is saying to us. Be mannerly. [00:52:18] (36 seconds)  #SpeakWithHonor

And the only thing I could think of was, Ray, can I pray for you? And he said, Yeah. So I grabbed his hand and I started praying. And I asked the Lord, I says, Lord, I want you to make him into a man that his wife is proud to call him my husband. And I want Jamie and Joey to be so proud and to look up to their dad and say, I want to be like him. And I want every co-worker and every neighbor in this neighborhood to say, I am so glad that Ray Grigsby is my friend, my neighbor, my co-worker. Lord, I want you to bless this man so he pleases you. [00:59:30] (44 seconds)  #PrayForRestoration

A warrior is a part of a team. And a single warrior all by himself, there's a word for it. It's called casualty. We're to love the brotherhood, not the denominationhood alone. We're to love all that call upon God as Father, Christ as Savior, because they're all sibs. We all share the same discipline. We're heirs of the same blessing. We are traveling on the same road. We don't have to agree with them, but we are to love them. [01:03:37] (34 seconds)  #UnitedInFaith

Because we fight fear with the fear of the Lord. It puts all the other fears in place. Why should we fear God? Well, let me tell you a couple of reasons. Number one, he's God. Amen? He's bigger than the Grand Canyon. He's bigger than the Milky Way. And I want you to think about it, how audacious it is that you say, I know God. But he's so much bigger. That's right. And he knows you. And that's audacious too. God is not one thing among many. He's not a compartment that we do and activity on Sundays. God is the Almighty. [01:08:57] (43 seconds)  #FearGodOverFears

We fear God because we're afraid of losing his well done, his commendation. I want you to think about it. How much did it cost God to save you? How many people did he have to bring into your life for you to hear the gospel? And then you come into his presence at the Bema seat and he says, is there anybody behind you? Anybody following you? [01:09:40] (40 seconds)  #WhoIsFollowingYou

And he said these words. He said, went to church tonight. And I went, yeah. And Pastor Crown preached. Yep. Obvious. He preached the gospel. Yep. He gave an invitation. Yeah, he does that whenever he sees there's somebody that doesn't know Christ in the congregation. I went forward and I asked Jesus to forgive me and I gave my life to Christ. And I just started bawling. [01:15:27] (38 seconds)  #AnsweredTheInvitation