Investing in People: The Heart of Ministry

1. "He went from somebody who was kind of a nominal Christian to someone who's now leading his family in devotions. It's amazing. And that's just one story of so many people that's been reached and their lives have been transformed through the ministry of this church. And I'm so encouraged that in our youth even, we have youth that are saying, I'm going to take the call of God, and I'm going to go into my schools. We have several students that have started Bible school, Bible class, not Bible, Bible, Jesus, what? Jesus Club. I had a first service. Jesus Club. They're going to start a Jesus Club in their school. And they had the courage and the boldness to go to every student and give them an invitation to come to Jesus Club. Even though some of them were rejected. But they said, I want to give my school Jesus because they need Jesus. And so they have the boldness to go and to start clubs in their schools. It's about what happens in here. That's what matters. It's not about how big the building is or any of that stuff." [29:15] (75 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "It's what God does in a people. And so today, I'm not asking you to invest in a building or invest in a parking lot or new chairs, which plays God, we need new chairs. But I'm asking you to invest in people. Invest in what God's going to do. After us. Because when we're gone, what will remain? It's what God did through a people. So I'm asking you to invest in people. So if you have your envelopes, you should be sitting on one. If you, if you brought an offering, brought check or cash, you can put it in there. Many of us do not carry that anymore. And you can give online. There's a QR code up there that you can scan or on your, in front of you. And there's a chair that has a QR code in it. Just scan that." [30:30] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "And you can give towards. Lord, bridge the gap, because here's the thing. We're bridging the gap between people and God. We're bridging the gap between people and God. Our community is better because we're here. I'm thankful that whenever I go to town and I see somebody and they say, aren't you the pastor of Waterhouse? And this is what they say almost every time I hear good things about your church. This is that speaks more volume than anything, because for them to say, oh, that church, that's what I never want to hear. But what can God do through a people, man, whatever we let them." [31:19] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "People are what matter. Amen. So can I pray over the offering and we'll take the offering up. Father God, I thank you for this offering that's coming in today. God, Lord, I thank you that you've blessed us to where when things happen, we don't have to panic. But God, you've been so faithful. You've been so good. And God, I know we're going to see this project done. And Lord, even as we build it, we're not going to get distracted by it, but we're going to keep on mission, changing people's lives. We're going to keep on living our lives through the gospel and God, we thank you that you always have what we need and even more than enough in these uncertain times, God, you can be certain and father, we thank you for that. Lord, I pray you bless the giver. You bless the gift and multiply it, God, as you deal with the fish and the loaves, that we can get all these things done and Lord, take care of what we need to take care of so we can stay on mission so that Parker County and the world is changed through the ministry of us and this church. And Jesus mighty name, amen." [34:26] (62 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Who are you hanging out with? Who's influencing your life? It kind of feels like the dad talk when your kids start making friends. Right? And the parents are like, hey, we need to come sit down. We need to talk about your friends. And today we need to talk about your friends. Who are you hanging out with? Who's influencing you? Who's making a difference in your life? It's important because here's one thing I know, that it's been people in my life that have brought me closer to God or brought me farther away from God. It's people in my life that added value to my life. Right? Or they've taken from my life. People in your life can add or they can take, they can multiply or they can divide your life. It's the people in your life that matters the most. This is why God has told us many times to make sure we have the right people in our life. Because people can be a huge blessing or they can be a curse. They can take you to a higher place or a lower place." [52:17] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "You cannot soar with eagles if you're running with turkeys. Too many people are running around with turkeys when God's called us to soar. Aristotle said this, in the end, we are our relationships. Take a look at your life right now. I guarantee you, you are where you are because of the relationships in your life. Either past, present, or even your future relationships that you're going to have. You are where you are because of the people in your life, the relationships in your life. So relationships matter. People matter. You got to be hanging out with the right people. You got to let the right people into your life and keep the wrong people out of your life because like I said, it's people can pick you up or drag you down. People are like elevators. They can either take you to a higher place or they can take you very, very far down. We got to make sure that we have the right people in our life. If not, we could be in a bad, bad place." [56:07] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "You can't be in the will of God around the wrong people. They will always take you down. God has called his people to be different. God has called his people to be higher and to go further. In fact, there's a story in the Bible of a king. His name was King Rehoboam. He was Solomon's son. David was his grandfather. King Rehoboam, King Rehoboam had good intentions, but he hung around with the wrong people. His hanging around with turkeys cost him the kingdom. So the story goes like this. So King Rehoboam is coming into kingship and the people gather around him. Rehoboam, your father was so hard to us. He gave us a yoke that was so heavy. He made us work so hard. And they came to him and said, I'll tell you what, if you lighten our load, the people will love you and they will follow you and they'll do whatever you ask. And Rehoboam looked at the elders who gave him that suggestion and said, I don't know about that. We'll come back. And then he gets his friends. He gets his young friends around him and he asked their opinion. Well, guys, what do you think? And they didn't give him good advice. They said, you know what I think? I think if you go light on them, they're going to think you're weak. They're going to think that you don't have what it takes. And they said, you know what you need to do? You need to double what your father did. Like you need to come down hard on these people. And instead of listening to wisdom and righteous people, he listened to foolish people. Instead of flying with eagles, he walked with turkeys." [01:01:03] (108 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "You cannot ascend the hill of the Lord if you're dragging somebody else with you. Here's the truth. We have people in our life that we're trying to drag up to heaven with us. They don't want to go. They decide to live their impure life. They decide to live in the mess that they've made and they don't want to move. No matter what you've told them, no matter what you're doing, and you're trying to drag them with you. The problem with that is, is you're not moving either. You're unequally yoked. You're tired, you're worn out, and it's affecting you, it's defiling you. You cannot climb the hill trying to drag somebody else. You have to come to some point in your life where you say, I'm going to break away from that, I'm going to separate myself from that so I can go and meet with the Lord. And it's sad. But you have to get to that point where you're good at letting go. Because here's the truth. In truth, you're not Jesus. You're not their Savior. That's a hard reality. Because I want to be their Savior. I want to be my kids' Savior. I want to be my wife's Savior. I want to be my family's Savior. I want to be everybody's Savior, right? We all do. We all want to help people. But God, it's His job. It's His job. We're supposed to pray. We're supposed to model. We're supposed to ask. But too many of us are trying to drag people into the mess. They're trying to do the kingdom. And they're keeping you back. You have to let go. You have to let go. You can't have clean hands holding on to dirty things. You cannot have pure hearts when you're tethered to somebody else. These are soul ties. My soul is tied to somebody else when that is the affection that is in my heart. My affection is only toward the Lord. And out of that, I can have affection for people. But if I'm not tethered to the Lord and tied to Him, then none of that matters." [01:10:50] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "If you're dating someone who does not know the Lord, you need to stop dating them. You know what you need to do? You need to take them to church. You need to take them to small group, men's group, ladies group, youth group, wherever. Let them get saved first, and then you can date them. Right? Because here's the truth. Until they know Jesus, until they know the love of God, until they experience His goodness and His mercy in their life, until they know that God is there, until they are made whole, they will not be able to give to you the way that the Lord wants them to give to you. Because here's the truth. Two broken people do not make a whole person. Come on. This is all of my marriage counseling. Because here's the problem. Two broken people come together. We're going to get married. It's going to fix everything. No, it just makes it worse. The problem is you multiply and you have broken kids because you're not whole. Come to Jesus. Let Him make you whole. Then when you get married, and you get yoked, you're not unequal. And you will have the same goal. You will have the same purpose. And you will all be ascending the hill together." [01:13:29] (74 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "Here's the greatest person you can add to your life. And that's Jesus. Because if I can tell you your future by your friends, if you have a friend in Jesus, your future's pretty good. Because at the end of the day, we are the people we hang out with. And we are our relationships. Jesus has just simply asked you to have a relationship with him. This is why he died for you. Your sins are forgiven, yes. He's given you new life. But here's the thing I know about God. He's called the Father because he wants a family. He wants a family. You are sons and daughters. And Jesus made a way that we could be family, that we could be sons and daughters of God. He is our friend. He is our Savior. He is our King. The greatest relationship you can ever have and the only relationship that's going to change your life forever is the relationship with Jesus." [01:23:02] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)