If you have a Bible, we're
going to actually look at two passages of scripture. We're going to start in Jonah. So if you have a
copy of the Bible or if you have an app
where you can do that, look to Jonah chapter 1. And then we'll jump into another
part of scripture in the New Testament in just a minute. The title of my message
is In The Same Boat. In The Same Boat, like, right? Like did you do your
homework assignment? Nah. Nah, I'm in the
same boat because I didn't do mine, right? The same boat. Come on. Someone say, in the same boat. In the same boat. We're going to look at two
boat stories in the Bible. The first is from
the Old Testament. The second will be from the new. Here's what Jonah says. And of course, if
you don't know, if you didn't grow
up in Sunday school having this story depicted by
VeggieTales type situations, there is this guy named Jonah
who got asked to preach. Actually, he didn't
really get asked. God doesn't much ask. He sort of just
tells us what to do and just leaves it there, right? And so He says to
Jonah, I want you to go and preach to this people. Now, context wise, it was
a terrible assignment. I've had some rough ministry
assignments in my life where God just really
puts in my heart, like, you need to
go do this thing. Because I'll get asked
to go preach places, asked to do things
and pray through it. And you know, it's like I never
get asked to go preach in Fiji. You know what I'm saying? But if anyone's
out there, right? Like I've had your water. It seems great, right? But and you know, sometimes God
just really puts into my heart, even if it's not
convenient, maybe sometimes especially
when it's not like this is something for you. And I can't do
everything that's asked. And so we have a kind of
filter we run it through. And prayerfully we'll
take assignments were God just really
impresses on our heart, yes. This is something you're
supposed to be doing. It's a good use of the time. And anyhow, there's been
times when I'm like, no. I don't want to do that. And God's like, yes. And it happened recently. I felt God really calling
me to go preach something. I would probably
traditionally say no to this. And when I got there, it was
just like thing after thing after thing that just showed
me, this is why you said yes. This is why. Not even so much the preaching. It was this moment
right here, you see? And anyhow, Jonah
was told, go preach. And he was like, nah, I'm good. Nah. Nah, I'm good. 'Cause he happened
to hate the people he was told to preach to. That's tough, right? It's tough. Sort of the love mercy
thing's kind of important, kind of a big deal,
you know, preaching. And he was like,
nah, I'm straight. And so what he did was
he got into a boat. And he went in the exact
opposite direction. And so now Jonah is in a boat. And the Bible says that as
he sat there-- so I'm just going to sit here in my boat. It says in Jonah
chapter 1 verse 4 as Jonah's in his boat going in
the exact opposite direction, mind you. God was like, I want
you go to Nineveh. He was like, you know
what sounds great? Spain. That's where I want to be. It's nice this time of year. So Jonah's headed to Spain. Verse 4, "But the Lord." Someone say, but the Lord. But the Lord. "Sent out a great
wind on the sea. And there was a mighty
tempest on the sea so that the ship was
about to be broken up." Y'all, I would not want to be
in a storm on the sea in this boat. That would be Bad
News Bears, right? "Then the mariners were afraid. And every man cried
out to his God. And they threw the cargo
that was in the ship into the sea to
lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into
the lowest parts of the ship and had lain down
and was fast asleep. So the captain came to
him and said to him, 'What do you mean, sleeper? Arise. Call on your God.'" Like they're like,
calling all gods. Like, we don't even care. Like, we're not being picky. Like, are you a Buddhist? You a Muslim? Whatever. Get out here and do
something, right? Just we're calling all gods. "'Perhaps your God will consider
us so that we may not perish.' And they said to
one another, 'Come. Let us cast lots that we may
know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.' So they cast lots and
the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to
him, 'Please tell us for whose cause has this
trouble come upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?'" Someone say awkward. Awkward. Because now he has to
say, I'm kind of a pastor and I'm sort of from Israel. And my God is sort
of the one who made the heavens and the earth. Right? It's tough. Verse 9, "So he said to
them, 'I am a Hebrew. I fear the Lord.'"
Yeah, we can see that. You really, obviously
are really great at that. "'The God of heaven who made
the sea and the dry land.' Then the men were exceedingly
afraid and said to him--" look at this-- "'Why have you done this? Why would you not obey God?' For the men knew that he fled
from the presence of the Lord, because he told them." You gotta respect that. Hey, I'm a preacher,
but I won't preach. I ran. I ran. That storm is because of him. "Then they said to him, 'What
shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?' For the sea was growing
even more tempestuous. He said to them, 'Pick me up
and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will
become calm for you, for I know this great
tempest is because of me.'" Translation, I'd rather be
dead than preaching in Nineveh, right? Verse 13, "Nevertheless, the
men rode hard to return to land but they could not." They don't want to have
his blood on their hands. "For the sea continued
to grow even more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to
the Lord and said, 'We pray, O Lord, please do not let us
perish for this man's life and do not charge us
with innocent blood. For you, O Lord, have
done as it pleased you.' So they picked up Jonah and
threw him into the sea." We're in a series of messages
called Mad About the House. And in this collection
of talks, we're examining our care for
what Jesus died for. We're trying to
stir up our passion for the church and all that. And this week, what I really
have on my heart for us to see is, what we do when
we're out of the house reflects on the house. What we do out of the
house-- because we spend our lives coming and
going from the church, right? Like David said, I'm
jealous of the birds. The birds get to live in
the church all the time. But that's not
God's plan for us. God's plan for us is
that we would come and go from the church, come and go. That weekly we
would come and go, coming to gather on the
weekend so we can scatter into our lives and love people. Coming and going,
always seeing ourselves in the regular rhythm. Not missing the
opportunity to gather and always staying in
a scattered formation. For when we're always in
a scattered formation, we can't have the
power and strength that comes from the gathering. But neither are we
supposed to all-- and you can err on
the other side, too. Where everything's just,
all you're ever around is Christians. So what we're trying
to live out is this rhythm of coming and
going, gathering and scattering. Being a part of
the large groups, getting together with each
other in the small groups, all so that we might
be strengthened and equipped to do what God has
called us to do in the world. Because we can't reach
a world we've abandoned. So we come together so we
can go out and scatter. It's this regular rhythm. And whatever we do, someone
say, whatever we do. Whatever we do. We do so seeing it as a
mission for King Jesus. That's our heart, that
whatever my job is, wherever my neighborhood is,
whatever's going on with my kid's
gymnastic thing, I'm seeing it as a
mission for King Jesus that I'm here, a part
of this in this moment. And so what we're
trying to be aware of, because we spent the
first several weeks of this series really talking
about the power of the house and power of what God's doing
through the local church, His bride. And just this idea of the
church as this earthen vessel that's imperfect and marred. And yet full of the
knowledge of the glory of God and the face of Jesus Christ. And if you missed
any of the messages, you can catch up on YouTube. But now I want to talk about
what happens when we scatter. And specifically,
what happens when we're not a good representation
of the house as we go. GK Chesterton once said, "By
far, the most powerful argument against the truth of
Christianity are Christians." And the reality is
that studies have found that for many people, one
of the big barriers to becoming followers of Jesus isn't that
they don't believe in God or what the Bible
says about God. But their big--
for many people-- objection to
Christianity is that they don't believe what the
Bible says about the church. And that they don't believe
in this idea of the church, because they've met people
who call themselves Christians and live like Jonah, whose lives
don't match up to their lips. And we hear it said
as, the church is just full of hypocrites, right? And what we want to try
and face up to this week is the fact that at times,
tragically, for all of us, that's true. That's true that we at
times can be like Jonah, causing collateral damage. That's the first heading
I want you to jot down. When we don't walk
the talk, when we come in here and
worship but then we go and our worship
stopped at the door. Because our mentality
should be that we want to live a
life of worship. Worship is not
less than singing, but it's certainly
more than singing. When we raised our
voices a moment ago and sang out those
beautiful songs and the bands were leading
us, that is worship. But listen to me. As we gave a minute
ago, that was worship. And hopefully, that's
just the beginning. That we're propelled
out of life-- even right now as we receive
the word with eagerness, we can do that as a
spirit of worship. But we should also, as we raise
our kids, see that as worship. As we love our families and take
them on a vacation this summer, see that as an act of worship. As we love our neighbor, seeing
that as an act of worship. As we show up for work,
we can in the parking lot say, reporting for duty. I see that as an act of worship. And when we don't do that,
to the degree that we don't do that, there is
always collateral damage. And the collateral
damage for Jonah was that, here's these
men who were in his boat. And he brought his
disobedience into the boat. But you're never
alone in a boat. There's always other
people in the boat. There's always other
people in the situation. Always other people
in that public space for having your meltdown and
your tantrum and hissy fit. Because, what? You didn't get a table. Because, what? You're not going to get a seat
on the plane or whatever it is. In those moments when we're
not representing what we say, I believe in God,
the God of the Bible. All you fools with
your lame idols. I believe in the real God. Well, why are you not
preaching somewhere? I don't know. I don't do what he says. Right? It's like, wait. Wait a minute. You believe in God? This is the person
with the sticker on their car driving badly. This is the person
who leaves an invite to church in the billfold at the
restaurant with a crappy tip, right? Ouch, right? I'm going to preach it
real up in here, right? This is the person
who says one thing, but then everyone's seeing
you yell at your kids. Everyone's seeing you bad talk
and gossip and do a bad job. What happened? There's collateral damage. And the image of what
it means to follow Jesus suffers because of
tragically, at times, how we live like Jonah, off mission. Listen to me. When we're off mission,
other people suffer. When we're off mission,
other people suffer. Here's all these sailors. Now, they're about to
get killed in this storm. And it's not a storm
of their doing. They were in this storm
because of what he was doing. They just had a great trip on
this boat right across the bay. They'd have had a great
time going to Spain to sail. Now they're throwing
their cargo off. Other people are suffering as
a result of his selfish living. We need to own that. I think we need to
own that a little bit. We need to personalize that. It's easy to go, well, there's
other churches [INAUDIBLE].. How about the hypocrisy
in all of our own lives? Heaven help us to see
and have our eyes open to the ways in which we're not
living what we know is real, right? The world knows
what Jesus preached. He preached love, right? Love God, love your neighbor,
love people, care for the poor. These things, the way
we spend our money. All of these things should
reflect what we say is true. And tragically, at times, it's
not the case for all of us. Let's all own that. Let's all say, hey, God. Show me my heart the way
that I'm not living this out. I want to do-- [APPLAUSE] When David was involved in this
adulterous affair and cover up and this whole
thing, there were lots of consequences, lots
of things he was told, lots of things that happened. And it haunted him
for a long time. I think the most
painful thing that he heard was when the
pastor told him this. In 2 Samuel chapter 12 he said,
"'David, you've given by this deed great occasion to
the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.'" And what a thing to think
and what a thing to carry. Let's live with
that in our hearts. I love to think sometimes when
I'm praying in the morning and having my devotional
life, God, help me not do anything today
that would give people occasion to not believe
the truth of the gospel. Because the problem's
never the gospel. It's never a product problem. It's always a PR problem. And the PR is us, right? And so, heaven help us to
not give anyone a reason to not believe in
what they need, what will ultimately
help them, and that is a relationship with Jesus. [APPLAUSE] Fortunately, though,
it's not just that there can be collateral damage. Here's something positive. What's true for evil can
always be true for good. So when we do walk the talk, OK? Now let's flip it, when
we do walk the talk, there can be blessing by
association, blessing by-- see, you've heard of
guilt by association? Right? You're implicated because
you were in the car. You didn't do anything. But you were just there when
that crime was committed. Guilt by association. Well, how about
blessing by association? How about what happens when
someone is with a pure heart. Not perfectly, that's
never going to happen. I don't want you to have
an unrealistic expectation. You are going to blow it, right? We're all going
to have bad days. The Bible says, if someone
doesn't get caught up in sin, he's perfect. And there is approximately
zero perfect people short of Jesus
Christ Himself, OK? But the goal is that
we're going to follow Christ with a pure heart. We're going to follow Jesus
with everything within us. We're going to seek to live
a life of worship and honor and generosity and kindness. We're going to stir those
things up in our hearts, call those things
out in our lives. And when we do that,
here's what I believe. It's not just going to
bring blessing to us. It's going to bring a
blessing by association. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say, here's
how I wrote it down. When we are on mission now,
because we talked about what happens when we're off mission. What happens? Other people suffer. But when we are on mission,
the favor on our life is infectious. When you live a life on
mission and you show up tomorrow morning at work
and you say, you know what? I'm on mission, King Jesus. Reporting for duty. Here's my assignment. Fill me with Your spirit. Give me that strength. Have something in your heart
that's there for the hard moments, right? Like do you ever get hangry
in the church, right? I mean, I get hangry. So I know that I get hangry. And so I bring in
these little packets. I bring in these
little things of nuts. What am I doing? I'm getting ahead of it. I know I can break
glass and do this. I could break
glass and eat this. I'm thinking through
hydration, right? I get cranky and headache-y
when I'm dehydrated. I get cranky and headache-y when
I don't have enough caffeine. So I've got stashes of caffeine. I think through coffee. I'm like, is there
going to be coffee? I need a coffee on
the way to get coffee. I need a coffee on the way
to get the coffee that's going to be tiding me over
till I get the coffee, right? It's like, you want coffee? Yes. Yes. And like, want to
go to get a coffee? What, you're getting coffee now? Yeah, but I get coffee
on the way to the coffee. I'm just like, this is my
pre-coffee coffee, right? And so I just think about-- I'm getting ahead of it. I'm getting ahead
of the dehydration. And so I wonder if in
your spiritual journey you're aware of the
times when you're susceptible to the
attacks of the enemy. When do you get snippy? When do you get depleted? How can you get ahead of it by
putting a verse in your heart? Don't be rushing off into
your day with Instagram open. Come on. Get a scripture
up in your heart. Open up that little
Bible app on your phone. Come on. Throw that little Beth
Moore devotional on. Put some worship music on. You have that angry co-worker? Well, drive in doing
some inoculation. You got to get your
vaccination on. You've got to throw some Fresh
Life worship up in your spirit. So that into those
moments you're ready. So it's ready to spill out. [APPLAUSE] Imagine yourself honoring Jesus. What does that look like? You think about the time
that you got irritable and you got cranky and
you cut someone down. See yourself doing it. Think about how you didn't like
how that reflected on Jesus. And then instead
of that, visualize what you're going to
do different next time. When they say this, maybe
you're just as simple as, oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. You know, here's the cool
thing about closed mouths, they can gather no feet. And someone said one
time, it's better to keep your mouth
closed and let people think you're stupid
than open your mouth and dispel all doubt, right? So sometimes it's just
nice to say nothing, right? Mama had it. Mama said it best. If you've got nothing nice
to say, say nothing at all. So when you live in that way,
there is a favor on your life. Read the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed, blessed,
blessed, blessed. And when there's blessing
on your life, listen to me, it drips on other people
who get up in your boat. So the people in your boat,
what's that going to look like? Well, let me show
you in Acts 27, OK? Great story. Now here's the exact
opposite scenario. Why was Jonah in a storm? Because he didn't obey God. Paul the Apostle one
day ended up in a storm because he did follow God. God told him to preach. And he got arrested
for preaching. And he ended up in a
bunch of jail cells. And finally he got sick of it. And he said, I appeal to Caesar,
because he was a Roman citizen. So he knew how to
work the system. Listen to me. God wants you to trust
Him for what He can do. But He also wants you to
do what only you can do. And so he said, hey. I know my rights. I appeal to Caesar. And he did what he needed to do. As a church, we value something
called being a snake bird. Because Jesus said be
harmless like a dove, but also be cunning
like a serpent. And so what does that mean? That means that
we're going to trust God but keep our
powder dry, like they said in the Revolutionary War. We're not going to pray
for a job but not apply. We're not going to
ask God for a wife but then not brush our teeth. You see what I'm saying here? [LAUGHING] I'm not going to ask
God to bless my marriage but then not take my
lady out on date nights. You see what I'm saying? I'm going to do what
I can do but trust God for what He can do. Some of you today, you're
praying for something that God has put into
your capacity to control the outcome of the situation. God will never do for you
what you can do for yourself. So you need to be
doing what you can do. Appeal to Caesar, but then trust
God for what only He can do. So Paul ends up in a-- Boat. I'm on a boat, Mom, right? He's headed to Rome on a boat. But now he ends up in a storm,
not because he did something wrong, but because he
did something right and because some other
people did something wrong. OK. We're going to read a bunch of
selected verses from Acts 27 now. This is great. This is the best. This is better
than Indiana Jones. This is better than anything. Paul, I'm telling you. This is Paul of the
Caribbean, y'all. This is Paul. Just, this is great. Paul comes to the captain. Now, he's a prisoner on a
boat because of his obedience to God. And he comes to the
captain, verse 10, saying, "'Men, I perceive that this
voyage will end with disaster and much loss. Not only of the cargo and
ship but also our own lives.'" Imagine that. God spoke to Paul. There's a storm and they
need to listen to him. And so he tells them. The centurion, though,
verse 11, "Was more persuaded by the helmsman
and the owner of the ship than by the things
spoken by Paul." Why? Because Paul was a prisoner. And this guy, the people he
was listening to were experts. So he denied Paul's advice. Said, thanks for-- and I'm
sure Paul respectfully gave it. They said, we're not
listening to you. We're going to press on. Paul was saying,
we need to stop. We need to weather
the storm out. We do not try and
push through it. This sucker is
going to be fierce and it's going to be bad. And the guy turned
to the captain and the owner of the ship. And, what do you guys say? Oh, we can make it through. Oh, yeah. We're great. With this thing? Oh, this old Bessie, Bessie's
going to get us through. This is going to be great. Oh, no. We're fine, right? Not great. Verse 14, "But not long
after, a tempestuous headwind rose called Euroclydon." Y'all, when they give a
name to the storm, not good. Not good deal. They name the thing. That's bad, bad, bad. Verse 18, "And because we were
exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they
lightened the ship." Now they're throwing
stuff overboard. Verse 20, "Now, when neither
sun nor stars appeared for many days," this
is a long ordeal, "And no small
tempest--" don't you love that Luke the doctor
can't just say, a big tempest? He has to say, no
small tempest, right? Leave it to a doctor
writing your biography. That's what's going to happen. "No small tempest beat on us. All hope that we would be
saved was finally given up." Now listen, Paul's story's
being written by Luke. And Luke here says, we gave up. That's a bad deal when
the biographer says, biography's over. It's done, right? This is Acts 27. There's not going to be an Acts
28 is what he's saying here. This is over. We've all given up, right? Paul sees Luke. He's crossing himself,
putting a life jacket on, ready to jump into
the life raft. He's like, where
you going, right? Where's the faith? Verse 21, "But after a
long absence from food--" you can't eat when you're
tossing around in a tempest. They were probably getting
seasick, puking everywhere. It's like one of those
Royal Caribbean, you know, advertisements. They're awful. Paul-- I never got the
appeal of a cruise, man. People like, you want
to go on a cruise? I'm like, no. It seems like prison
but at the ocean. "Then Paul stood in the
midst of them and said, 'Men.'" But it's
all you can eat. That's the problem. I'm already going into
bathing suit season with some all-you-can-eat that I've
helped myself to all winter. "'Men.'" I'm on a boat. "'You should have
listened to me.'" Don't you love that
Paul starts his speech in the middle of the
storm by saying, "Men, you should have listened to me"? Sounds like my wife. All right. "'You should have listened to me
and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this
disaster and loss. But now I urge
you to take heart, for there will be no
loss of life among you, but only of the ship.'" You're like, Paul,
how do you know that? How do you know that? You can't give them
false assurance. You can't give them false hope. Verse 23, he shows his math. Oh, by the way, math. Mad about the house. Paul was mad about the house. Now he's going to show his math. And here's what he says. "'For there stood by me this
night an angel of the God to whom I belong
and whom I serve.'" I know it seems
outrageous, but an angel stood by Paul's head
and whispered things to him while he slept. That's awesome. "'Saying, 'Do not
be afraid, Paul'"-- Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul. Because always reverb
when it's an angel. "'You must be brought
here before Caesar. And indeed, God has granted you
all those who sail with you.'" I'm going to stop right there. You're going to get to Rome. You're not going
to die in the ship. But they're not going to die
because they're with you. Blessing by association. I'm just telling
you, when you're doing what God's called you to
do, your life becomes magnetic. It attracts blessings. Goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house. I'm telling you, when you got
the good math and the good math is mad about the
house, all of a sudden, there's just a
favor on your life. All of a sudden, there's
a blessing on your life. I'm not saying everything
is going to go good. There's still
going to be storms. But in the storms, you
can know that everything's going to be OK, that God's got
this, that He's got a-- man, this is a tempest. I'm riding the waves here. I'm just telling you,
even when there's waves, even when it's bumpy,
even when it's difficult, even when you're
in the hospital, even when someone gets laid
off, even when someone's sick, I'm just telling you, you
can just know God's with me. Come on, He's going to send
his angels to watch over me. He's going to tell me it's
going to be all right. But there's going to
be a blessing that's going to spill on over to
those who I work around. I'm telling you,
when God blesses me, I'm going to bless
those around me. I'm going to show kindness. I dare you to get up in my life. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to encourage you. I'm going to make it my goal
that you feel your worth and you feel your value, that
you sense that God loves you. Just get up around
me when God showed me something in the Word. I'm going to show it to you. I'm going to tell you what
I learned in my quiet time. I'm going to get
excited about a song. I'm going to tell
our worship team, our whole church needs
to sing this song. Why? It lit my heart up. We need to sing this song. Why? There's a blessing
by association. When you're part of
the house, one part suffers, we all feel it. One part's blessed,
we all feel it. I'm just telling you something. Like Paul, you get in a boat
with someone who's blessed, there's a blessing
that touches you. Why? Because a rising tide lifts
all those who are in the ship. And that's the second point. Third thing, jot this down. I'm going to get seasick
preaching this sermon. I'm not done with
that point yet. God loves the people
in your life so much He put you in their path. That's how I want you-- I just want you to have on
the whole new permission. When you show up in
your scrubs, reporting-- I was eating breakfast
the other day. A guy comes in in scrubs. This wire's in my way. Whenever my back gets sweaty,
the wire sticks to it. TMI, I know. When I watched
him eat breakfast, I just thought about-- he had his ear
buds in and he was, you know, eating a
breakfast burrito or a bagel or something. Had his coffee. And I was just looking at his
scrubs just thinking about, he's a doctor or he's a nurse. He's an orderly, whatever. Maybe he's going to wheel
people in to get X-rays all day. I don't know what he's
going to be doing. But I just got to thinking,
here he is in the moment before he reports for duty. And I just wonder, if
that's your perspective, that everybody you're going
to encounter today, everyone you're going to
encounter this week, that there's a divine
assignment on that-- and I don't know what
it's going to be. It's not always
going to be like, that you're going to have the
chance to share scripture. Maybe it's just,
you're going to just be kind and be present and take
a moment and care about them. Just enough time to just
let that be a little bit of sunshine in their life. This world's hard. People are beat down. People are going
through hard stuff. It never ceases to amaze me
how many hardships people are facing and what
they're going through. And we are God's bride. We are His body. Come on, we're His people. Let's live on mission. Let's believe for a
blessing by association. Let's go to scripture, not
just stuff that we need for us. God, here's my needs. Let's say, God, fill me up. Fill me up with enough
for other people. God, would You put some hungry
people in my path today? Put some tired people
in my path today. I'm going to pay for the
person behind me at Starbucks and tell them, that's from
someone at Fresh Life. We'd love to-- I don't know
what it's going to look like. Let's be creative. Let's be inventive. As we give in our
offering, let's not just so to reap
enough for our family. Let's give, believing for
God to bless other people in this church, to expand. Come on, let's pray for margin. I just want to say,
I have a great sense of creativity and passion. Let's believe that we'll be able
to expand the reach of Fresh Life television. It takes resources
to reach people. Let's pray that we'll
be a part of that. Come on, I'm praying
for some people to have a kingdom
mentality as they approach their business maybe
with a mentality to grow it. Now, but you're not like,
well, I'm doing all right now. I've got a vacation thing here. I got this over-- I'm not saying for you. But I'm praying for
some specific people to have a mentality
to create wealth as a heart position
that would say, I want to resource the vision. I'm going to grow this business. I'm going to create this income
over here, not just for me, not just to eat the seed,
but to sow the seed, to plant the seed, that it
might be able to do more. I wonder if there's
someone in our church even now that's got the
wherewithal to apply yourself at business with a mentality
like a king to say, I'm going to
bankroll the kingdom. I'm going to grow
more-- not just for me. I'm going to grow
more for more people to know Jesus like He knows me. It's just a mentality
that says, there can be a blessing
by association. And then thirdly, let's
see this fact is also an awesome privilege. It's an awesome privilege. Because now we've
seen the negative and we've seen the positive. We've seen that people
can get in our boat and suffer because
we're having an off day. And they're around us
and they're like, wow. Great Christian. Wow. Oh, cool. Oh, wow. Oh, OK. Well, oh, I thought
you were a Christian. I thought you loved God. And you're just like, ugh. And then that can
be the opposite, that because of the way we
approach our spirituality and we approach Jesus
and this relation, it just so overflows our cup. And if there's an
overflowing cup, it's going to get on
some other people, right? That's the good and the bad. That power, that's
an awesome privilege. Here's what I want you to
write down under this heading. The brand is in your hand. The brand is in your hand. Now, before you're
like, write me an email about how the
church shouldn't be a brand and we shouldn't have a logo and
we shouldn't be an organization and that's the problem-- it's going to be a great email. I can feel it. Before you tell
me all about that, I looked up the dictionary. And one of the definitions
for brand is just a name. And they use the example of
Jordan, the Jordan brand. And Jordan, Michael Jordan
has his brand on shoes. But they don't just
put those on any shoe. They're shoes that line
up with the Jordan brand. He's one of the greatest
basketball players to ever hold the ball. And so now there's this brand
and it's got his name on it. I think that that's
a really good picture of what we're a part of. Not only as those
who are part of Fresh Life, this particular part
of the worldwide church. But just bigger, just
as Jesus' followers. The brand, listen to me,
the brand is in your hand. Come on. Show someone. Tell them the brand
is in your hand. And when I say the
brand, listen to me, I'm talking about the
name that we carry. The name of Jesus
and specifically, as part of this church,
the name Fresh Life. The brand is in your hand. You're just like,
that's on you, preacher. You better preach
it good next week because I'm bringing
my unsaved friend. Right? OK, no pressure, right? The brand is in all of our hand. Right. All, if we're bricks in this
house, if our absence in faith, if our absence in serving, if
our an absence in intensity and in generosity is
going to cause the church to become Jenga and we're going
to be a brick removed and then all of a sudden it
becomes wobbly-- because if that's
true, listen, the brand is in all of our hands. I was listening to
a business podcast. And it was an
interview with someone who had a relationship with the
former president of Coca-Cola. And his name's Don Keough. And in the podcast
I was listening to, this is great if you run a
company or any kind of team. This is just really
good business stuff. But also, I think it
applies to the church, too, as so many
things do, right? So he said, when he
asked him what were some of the secrets from your time? He's now passed away. But at that time, he
was the president. And he was being
asked, you know, what were some of the secrets
to what you did leading Coke? Imagine being the
CEO of Coca-Cola. It's like, it's a
massive thing, you know? And what he said was crazy. Here's what he said. He said, "I always
want the answer." This is the secret to him
leading Coca-Cola as he did. He said, "I always wanted
the answer to this question to be yes when I'm
driving home each day. Did I polish the Coke brand
just a little bit today?" Did I polish the brand? He said as CEO, the
brand was in my hand. And his goal was to polish
the brand just a little bit every day. And the guy that as
listening to the interview said, what do you mean? And he said, it could
be the smallest thing. And usually was
the littlest thing. If I was driving home and
I could think of something I did to polish the
brand up a little bit. Maybe it was a lunch
with a co-worker. And I spoke the values
and I talked mission. What are we trying to do? Rot everyone's teeth. Joking, joking, joking. Whatever. That's disrespectful. But you see what I'm saying. Like, he was saying, maybe as
a conversation with a co-worker maybe it was a letter I wrote. He said, maybe it
was a meeting I led. My goal was, with
my whole heart, to do just a small little thing
to polish up that Coca-Cola brand a little bit every day. And I just wonder if you're
aware of the fact that one of the synonyms for
being a Jesus follower, because that's what
we're talking about. When we say, I follow Jesus. I'm a part of the church. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christ-follower. I want my life to
be a little Jesus, a little picture of heaven. I want to be a little part
of that, a brick in the wall. What we're saying is, I
want to be an ambassador. In fact, that's how 2
Corinthians 5 puts it. To be a Jesus follower,
let's look at this. "You are His ambassador,
an ambassador for Christ, as though God were
pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's
behalf, be reconciled to God." What does that mean? He's saying, we're God's
royal representatives. And that when we
talk to people, we should picture it
like God's trying to talk to them through us. Wow. So our feeble attempts
to love people well should be with this in mind. God help the
interaction, however that looks in the moment. Maybe it's just me
doing a really great job and so thriving in my
position that I have respect and platform, that
people want to listen to what I have to
say, that people will crave an audience with me. They'll want me to be featured
in their Fast Company article or on their leadership podcast. Because I do so well
at whatever I do. Like, that would be our heart. And I pray that, as a
part of this church, you would just excel at what you
do in whatever that looks like. And that's a wonderful
thing to want to see happen. And yet, you're in your
mind in all of it saying, God, bless me and use me in
such a way that through me, people would be being
communicated to. You can be restored
in your life. You can be restored. You can be reconciled to God. You can have the broken
parts in your heart filled. You can have the hurt
parts in your life healed. Be reconciled to God. I'm just telling
you, there's a lot of people in this
world who are looking to drugs to fill that void. Looking to free sex
to fill that void. Hoping that next
party, that next high-- why do you think people
use words like home to describe heroin? The high from heroin,
many people have said, it's a feeling of home. And that just for a fleeting
second, they feel home. Why? Because we're all
looking for that home. And here's what we have in
Jesus, we have true home. "In my Father's house
are many mansions. I've prepared a place for you. This is my Father's house." That's what Jesus said. So there's this sense
of being reconciled, of having what's empty
filled, of having what's broken healed, of
having what's torn mended, of having the parts of your
life that are full of thorns turn into to vibrant, fresh,
and flourishing, healed, and whole, worthwhile
parts of your-- that's what God's trying
to communicate to us. So we have to see ourselves
as His ambassadors. An ambassador is a
royal representative. An ambassador is
someone sent sovereign into another place to prepare
things for His arrival. That's what we're doing. Heaven's coming to
this world, y'all. There's a date it's coming. Heaven's going to
come down adorned like a bride, covered up in
the righteousness of Jesus. Heaven's not in a cloud forever. It's here on this earth, a
brand new, renewed earth. This is where we're
going to live. This is where we're
going to love. This is where we're
going to serve Him. This is where we're
going to celebrate. This is where the party
is going to last forever and ever and ever. And we're getting things ready. We're trying to help people
be ready for that day, helping people see that
they're wanted on that day, that Jesus died for them,
that He rose for them. We're His representatives. We're on mission. We're here to do that. And that's a privilege. That's a unique and
awesome privilege. And listen, the brand
is in your hand. The brand is in your hand. The brand, the brand
is in your hand. And how we live
causes people to think about Jesus one way or another. William Barclay put
it this way when he said, "Here is the
Christian's proud privilege and almost terrifying
responsibility, the honor of Christ and of the church are
in the hands of each one of us. By every word and
action, we can make others think more or
less of our church and more and less
of our master." It's an awesome privilege. I bought my girls-- my wife bought them. I put it together and
tried to get it to work. And it didn't work-- a toy, and here's
a picture of it. This is a bubble volcano. The promise that was made to
me was up to 100,000 bubbles in a few minutes. Big, massive, enormous,
lots of bubbles. Look at the picture on the top. Look at the wonder
of these kids. Look at the things
they're saying. Amazing, fantastic. That's a lot of promises made. And here's what it
looked like in reality. [LAUGHING] Not pleased. Do you think that when
I see that company logo in other
products they make, my heart's going to leap
to see this for our kids? Womp womp. I don't think so. I don't think I'm going to
be very excited because they didn't live up to their promise. And I hope that, as we represent
Jesus, that's not the reaction the world has to
what Fresh Life is and to what Jesus is because
of their time around us. In Jesus' name,
you receive that? It's a privilege. But it's a terrible
thing in a sense. Now, let's wrap this all up. Because we're, I
said, imperfect, we're earthen vessels
and we have this treasure in earthen vessels. So none of us are going to
get it right all the time. And I know part of the
hearing this is like, gosh, maybe I shouldn't tell anybody
I'm a Christian, right? I just think of all the ways
I haven't lived up to this. I think of all the times
I haven't done well. And I want to end with this. I want to end by charging
you, when you fail, and you will fail
as a ambassador, just make sure it's a
spectacular failure. Just make sure it's a
spectacular failure. And you're like, no, Levi. That's the problem. It was, actually, a
spectacular failure. No, no. I'm saying that the spectacular
part comes after you fail with what you do next. And here's how I wrote it down. I'm just going to say
it like I wrote it. Even our low moments can
be salvaged if we choose humility and vulnerability. Even our low moments as
ambassadors can be salvaged. Look, I'm going to just be real. I feel so often times
like my Christian life is a dumpster fire. And there's just moments
where I come to my senses and just see for a moment
I've just been so selfish. And that's just what it means
to be an earthen vessel. God's chosen to wrap
up the knowledge of the power of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ in frail, dirty packets. And He could've picked angels,
and they're actually confused as to why He didn't. But He picked you
and me, that He might get the glory when He uses us. And so it's not that we're
always going to get it right. It's how we choose to respond
when we blow it in Jesus' name. And what does that mean? Humility and vulnerability. I was at a conference
in Chicago recently and I was listening
to a restaurateur give a talk on how
to lead restaurants. And he said, look, we're
going to get hairs in food and we're going to
mess the orders up. And we're going to blow it
and double book a table. He goes, it's not if, it's when. I run all these restaurants. It's going to happen. So he said, we teach in
our team the five A's of making mistakes well. The five A's of
making mistakes well. And here they are. He said, you number one,
be aware of the mistake. Number two, you acknowledge it. Number three, you
apologize for it. Number four, you act on it. And then number
five, he said, you apply additional generosity. And so I think that could
be in our perspective. We're going to blow it
as Jesus' followers. But come on. Let's fail well. Let's fail spectacularly. Let's make sure that
we-- that was not right. Shouldn't have done that. I blew it. And let's, in Jesus'
name, live a life that anyone up in
our boat is going to receive a blessing because
we're mad about the house. Wait. There it is. There's the madhouse
in Jesus' name. You receive it?
