Standing and Sending: Feet Committed to the Gospel

Way different than some of the thinking of the modern church, which is if we put out enough marketing, hang enough banners, put out the word, the world will come. Hadn't worked yet. Jesus has been gone almost two thousand years. Nope. I'm gonna give you a little clue. This is why hope is on the beach because we wanna be where you are. I can't tell you through the years how many people have pulled up a chair while just walking the beach. Wow. Look at that. A church service and they just plug in. We wanna be where you are. They multiply that by all the places where you go. And as you go, make disciples. [00:40:30] (74 seconds)  #MeetPeopleWhereTheyAre

It's okay to say, you know, I don't know the answer to that, but I'll find it. We're to proclaim. Listen to Romans 10. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him on whom they've never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they're sent? As it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. You wanna have beautiful feet? Share the good news. God is saying it's beautiful to see his disciples carrying the good news. Sharing it. Calling others to it. We are to proclaim the good news. [00:46:55] (72 seconds)  #ShareTheGoodNews

It's our job alone. Our job alone. So if you're not carrying the good news, then there's a good chance somebody's not hearing it. Somebody's missing it because you were their connection to it. Letter a says, our call is to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We're to proclaim it. I've said it for several years now. I've said it during my tenure here. We need to look for an excuse to get Jesus on the table. Get him introduced into the discussion. Just get him on the table. He'll take it from there. We don't have to be theologians. We don't have to know everything. [00:45:45] (70 seconds)  #BringJesusToTheTable

If you are in God's family, you are part of God's church and God's church is the only institution he ordained to carry the gospel. If the world's gonna be changed beloved, it's gonna be changed by us. We're gonna have to do it. We're the only ones who carry God's gospel. We're in. There's lots of wonderful organizations in our day and time. Many of you probably support more than one financially or with your presence. There's lots of good things happening. Lots of good people receiving help from good people. But the truth about God's gospel is we, the church, are the only ones ordained to share it. [00:44:27] (78 seconds)  #ChurchCarriesTheGospel

You know that part where the boxes are everywhere. Half closed, half opened. Don't remember where we put that. That kind of a deal. And Judy again reminded me last night as I was getting ready to go to bed, Judy said, don't forget. Don't walk through here in the dark. Okey dokey. That's how the world is and the church should be saying out loud to the world, don't walk through here in the dark. You're gonna hit something, you're gonna bump into something, you're gonna possibly get hurt. We need the light of God's word. His light sheds light on where we're going, lights up our path, shows us the right decisions to make. [00:32:06] (77 seconds)  #GodsWordLightsThePath

But for too long as believers in Christ, we have all allowed ourselves to almost become apologetic for being a believer. And I want to say to you as a committed disciple, as a disciple by design, we do not apologize. We are right. See, man, I don't know, Steve. That's pretty bold statement to think that we're right. I know. But it's not you and me that's right. It's not the way we were brought up that's right. It's not our education no matter how far we went that's right. [00:26:40] (56 seconds)  #NoApologiesForFaith

When we look at the fact that as believers, we stand in truth, then there's only one conclusion. The world outside of Christ is wrong. Talk amongst yourselves. The world is wrong. The way the world operates, the habits, the lifestyles, the opinions, the thinking, all wrong. All wrong. See now, the world would tell the non believing world would say to us believers, we're wrong. They have names for us. They kick us around in their little magazines, in their little talk shows. They draw a lot of conclusions because we claim the name of Christ. [00:25:31] (68 seconds)  #StandFirmInTruth

It's not the corporate rules we play by that are right. What's right is the truth of Christ. That's what's right. Him, not us. And so standing, that's where we start. Standing in truth. Then the rest of what I wanna share with you is true. Number one, God secures our feet in his word. In his word, we are secure as a disciple in God's word. That's where the truth is. That's where I stand. So when someone gets in a big deep discussion with you and wants to know your opinion, I have begun to answer those kinds of things by saying, well, I don't think my opinion matters. But I can tell you what God's word says. [00:27:35] (80 seconds)  #GroundedInScripture

Folks need to know there's a spiritual side to their life and we're the ones that are to tell them that. So we have a couple of responsibilities. One is to go and make disciples. The other is we're to teach obedience. Teach them to observe all that I've commanded. So go make disciples, teach obedience. You see, we're to point people to Christ. We're to direct them to what Jesus has for them. And we can do it easily by just sharing what Christ has done for us, what our own experience has been. We just share it. We're in a conversation and we can just say, you know, I've I experienced what you experienced once. I felt that. That happened to me. [00:41:58] (74 seconds)  #DiscipleByExample

Now humbly is interesting because a lot of people would interpret humbly to mean to kind of be a pushover, kind of be noncommittal. But the truth is, if I walk humbly, the very word humble means I have a right to walk otherwise. I can walk far different than humbly. Humble is a strength, not a weakness. It's a strong heart, not a weak heart. Micah says, he's told you o man what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? [00:36:11] (67 seconds)  #HumbleStrength

Phone usually rings and it's never just thinking about you, old man. Thought I'd say, hey. It's, hey. This broke. Yeah. You live in Arizona. What do you want me to do about it? You know how to fix it? Yeah. But you live in Arizona. There's always a need. Is there a couple of bucks? Is there do you know this? You know anybody that this don't think you're ever gonna get away from being a parent. You're not. Everybody's got an idea of what we should do. But the answer is our feet are sent to follow God's call. God's call. And his call is very plain in Matthew 28. [00:38:37] (68 seconds)  #FollowGodsCall

We need to show God's love. We need to react in God's love. Remember little bracelets? You can still find them. WWJD. Remember those? What would Joe do? Just checking to see if you're with me. What would Jesus do? We need to think about that. How would Jesus react in love? How would he show love? How can I help someone else feel God's love through me? How can I introduce them to God's love? How do we do that? As a disciple by design, secured in God's word, We should walk in light, walk in love. And thirdly, God empowers us to walk humbly. We should walk humbly. [00:35:00] (71 seconds)  #LoveLikeJesus

Those of us in God's light are in it together. Look at letter b. We walk in his love. So as we're grounded in his truth, we walk in his light and we walk in his love. Listen to second John. This is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment just if you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it. Love. It's the commandment that we're to walk in. We're to walk in his love. Could the world use more of that? What a dumb question. Of course, the world could. There is a need for us to walk in love. [00:33:50] (70 seconds)  #TogetherInHisLight

What's the bible say about whatever? And you can find scripture that will speak to that. And you will find truth. Not opinions, not hopes, not I wish it was like this. No. You will find truth. That's God's word. That's what we are secure in. So we start there. And being secure in God's word means a couple of things. Number letter a, we walk in the light of God's word. Psalm one nineteen, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. You see the world without Christ lives in darkness. They don't have an understanding. They're feeling their way. That's why trends change so quickly. [00:30:03] (68 seconds)  #WordIsOurLamp

And I can just tell you Jesus made a big difference. And you share what Christ did for you. So as a committed disciple with committed feet, I stand and walk in the word and I follow God's call. And number three, our feet carry the good news. We carry the good news. We've got the good news. Now I'd like to just take a minute. I'm a short timer, so I get some liberties. And so one of those this morning is I wanna go a little bit from preaching to Medlin. Can I do that? What are you gonna do? But I want you to see that we are to carry the good news. [00:43:12] (70 seconds)  #FeetCarryTheGoodNews

I can tell you what the word says. Now some of you, if you begin wanna challenge you for a minute. Man, I'm on a roll. Giving you challenges, things to talk about. But I do wanna challenge you to begin to read the bible. Just read it. Open it. Read it. It will, some of you, it will alarm what's in the bible. How many modern day issues are talked about in the bible? They're explained in the bible, but we have to open it. We gotta search them. So if you get in a discussion, you hear a topic brought up at work, when you can get away from that situation, get your bible. You can Google it. [00:28:56] (67 seconds)  #OpenYourBible

Opinions change so quickly because the world's trying to find its own way and they're in the dark. The truth is in God's word and the light of that word shows us where to go, shows us how to walk, keeps us from walking into things. My wife and I by now, you probably know we're moving to Texas. Oh, yeehaw. I'm leaving this for Texas. So we leave in a week. Next Sunday would be my last Sunday with you. And we're headed off, so we're in the middle of the packing. [00:31:10] (56 seconds)  #LetGodsWordGuideYou

So we have this these characteristics of a life planted in God's word. Committed feet walk in the light of God's word, in God's love, and in the humility that he gives us. That's what our lifestyle looks like. So then number two tells us what our feet do. Says our feet are sent to follow God's That's a big deal because there's a lot of folks calling on your life, aren't there? Everybody's got an idea of who you ought to be and what you ought to do. Everybody's got an idea of what you should do for them. It's always about them. You got kids? Yeah. And it doesn't seem how old they get. I keep hoping. No. [00:37:17] (80 seconds)  #CommittedFeetFollowGod