Leading for Change - Johnny Hunt (Session 1)

well good morning let's see if I did I did do the my cried it had one switch but I forgot whether I turned it on or I'd not so if it's more than that I have a hard time doing it hey let me begin by simply saying thank you for being here grateful to God that you've come I don't know about you but I feel this way at church sometimes it shocks me that anybody shows up alright so and especially when there's nothing you can do if they don't it's kind of you ever have you ever wondered if they didn't give on a particular Sunday what would you do call them and say where's your offering but you just are grateful for their faithfulness of them coming how many of you were here the last revitalisation eyelid I'm just curious all right good night so everybody likes to vote how many of you are not here in the last robotization I left see look at error so most of you in the room today are our new so we're really really really glad that you're here a better most of you would say this is true so it's not just true about me but basically about every church or every church I have served of I'm in my 4th church and I think that's the last one I'm gonna pastor but all of them have been revitalizations served in a rural Church in really North Carolina but it was on Route three Gaffney South Carolina I'd been converted three years so I was a new believer and I've not been raised in the church so I'd only had a Bible in my hand three years when I started pastoring getting that scary I mean the bottom line is I don't know that I know how to fill in the blank on this but I do believe sometimes we wait too long before we let people have significant pieces of ministry in the church and I say that in the context that if God called me to preach and I'm pastor my first church at 3 years you might would struggle sometimes think about having a deacon there's only been converted that long and and then to think back that I was the pastor after three years I'm not sure I'd want to be a member of that church under that pastor bit anyway so I was there and I was there three years three months and three weeks so we were in a rural community it's called Moore's burl North Carolina now and and God really blessed I mean the church we had 35 have stayed there three years three months three weeks so for those of you that heard this before just act like it's new and in the church got to where it was running about a hundred and fifteen so so god blessed and you know it was one of those you didn't go out walking to go visiting cuz the houses were a mile apart and so you shared the gospel but I remember when they called me to be their pastor if I had had an opportunity to preach three months out it took three months to prepare two sermon so now I'm gonna be preaching and I need three sermons in one week and I thought God feeds based on demand and so I served there but the church grew so we won people to Jesus and I remember telling them this and this is maybe where we've gotten away from the way we used to do it I said I've not preached very much but I love to share my faith I love to make the gospel known to people and so I'm an intentional witness for Jesus and so sure enough I had the opportunity of leading people to Christ and we're grateful then I really would like have stayed longer but the door opened in a church that was I think the closest Church west of the seminary then and they were in another one no situation it was down to 37 and been a difficult time over in that southeastern community back in those days and so I went there and I spent 20 months there and the church became the fastest growing Sunday School in the state of North Carolina some of you would probably say 20 months you were not there very long you were not there okay so just depends but uh but God taught me a lot a lot there and there were some real struggles someone said my first Church God taught me to be a pastor my second Church God taught me to be a prophet and we'll talk about that offline if you want to know what that means and then I went back and served the church I was converted in so whelming to North Klein was my home so longleaf Baptist Church invited me back and they were had been a church running about 250 they were down to 90 and I went there and I stayed just under six years serving that church and God really blessed the church grew up to around 700 in attendance we did a local syndicated television ministry and we were really in a great year Homer Lindsey used to say that it takes five years to become the pastor so think about it in this sense he said your sixth year should be your best year I was in my sixth year so I was excited to be in that six year we were having a good year when Woodstock came after me and Woodstock had gone through a difficulty they had fired their pastor their ministry music and the church had split and yet there was this call God's call on my life to go there and it took me a long time to assimilate that into my soul to believe God wanted me there and so we left a good solid stable church leading the state of North Carolina and winning people to Christ and went to Woodstock and so Woodstock and I didn't think about it I was just too busy in ministry but that was a revitalization it was 200 people and down we had a bad name in the community I remember when we started growing I went across the street to the hardware store and said we've run out of parking and you're not open on Sunday can we use your parking lot he said no and you know no reason it was pretty evident though that his know was a no and so that but it was sort of we didn't have a real good name and then later when the church began to have a good name he reached out to us at Morgan Hardware and said yeah you can use our our parking lot so but the church really began to grow so we we've done that and then in recent days as you know how Southern Baptist last year I think we started somewhere around 945 churches it's our best start ever now it'll take some time to see how many of those make it pulling for all of them no you are but all of them will not make it they say that we're doing a lot better seeing them make it then we used to but at the same time we lost nine hundred churches last year so if you've read Tom laners book the the autopsy of a dead church you can check and follow it so I've had calls like this maybe you've had some hey pray for us unless something happens and there's a miracle takes place our church has six six months of life left what that means is they can pay their bills for six more months and then they're gonna go under and I was asking the question in here and I don't think anyone's done the research that I know of where did they go where did those 900 churches go did the Sun associations have them did the trustees sell the property and all and divide the resources that banks take them over but 900 and here's what I know for a fact billions billions of dollars in property and buildings churches that at one time had been significant in communities are no longer in existence so I begin to get some calls like hey would you entertain taking over a church like we're gonna go under wood Woodstock just come and rescue so we we've taken three we've been in conversation with far more than that but when we went in and begin to talk about some of the changes that need to take place and here's just a statement I don't mean for it to be cruel but it's a true statement some churches had rather die than challenged and then some churches want everything to be different without any change and that I'm still trying to figure that one out we want to continue to do what we've done for the last 20 years in our decline but we want to see the decline turn around so how does that happen we took over on First Baptist Church Panama City Beach that's the furthest out there some of you know that church had built a new building around three million dollar building 85% finished and then they split four ways every deacon left every key leader left the church was taken in 1500 a week but they needed 10,000 to survive so the money they had from land sale was dwindling and they knew when it would come to an end and so they had not used a hammer on the church in three years so mold was inside and all and so the question is would you come and just take this church over and so it was a long process a difficult process but we did and so now that's been our church since May of two years ago and then we took over a shallowford Church in our association and these became Woodstock campuses and someone who say if you found out exactly how I'm doing it you may say why did you do it that way I don't know I just kind of prayed through it and felt this what we ought to do and whatever I was going to do I needed to make a decision and I've made a lot of wrong decisions but I've never been accused of not being able to make a decision okay so I can make one I can pull the trigger and sometimes it blows my foot off but I can't pull I can't pull a trigger and so we took that and then we took a church a Jasper over the one in Jasper was running 20 and taking in $200 a week and said it could not even pay the Bible occasional pastor anymore the one in Panama City the day I took it over they had 42 cent in the bank and I'm not sure they'd had a lot more money in the bank that I'm not sure where that money went but I had to make my mind up I was not going to go there with a witch-hunt from the past I was gonna start with the future and I'll just say this to you and when we do a question answer if you're curious we'll go further every one of the churches now are self-supporting it took two years to become self-supporting at the beach that was a great need the others became self-supporting day one day one and I did an open forum with our church I called our church body together the Sunday night put Mike's out like we were a state convention and we talked about the options and opportunity before us and then I let everyone in the church that had a question asked us and I sensed in my spirit from just looking at two of the churches that we would go in day one when we opened the doors and the crowd showed up and the offerings were received those churches would need no funds from first Woodstock to make it and then the other one I said I need a lot of money for three years all right so so say that just to say this been pastoring them in my I'm getting ready to celebrate 40 years of pastoring and I've been a Christian 43 years and I tell you what I believe I know about me I love Jesus and I believe you do I love pastors and we put our money where our mouth is on this car it costs a lot to say we love pastors the way we have it's someone says what keeps you awake at night the money I need to raise to continue to love esters whether it be in a City of Refuge whether it be in a ministry we started that now it's independent of us called Hope quest whether it be the Timothy Barnabas and never turning anyone away if there's a place to put them in a bed to put them in if we have to raise the money for them and so we really have genuinely tried to care and try trying to help churches now realizing those churches needed something to take over that that's not going to be the normal scenario many of them are gonna have people leading them but they they've gone south on you and they've been going south for a long time or it was going south when you got there and you're wanting to turn it north and you've not been able to and what I'm gonna do is try to speak practically into what I believe a spiritual leader needs to do to see it turn around to see it head in the right direction when I as you know I served some with North American Mission Board and our state conventions and so wrote material last year on leadership so if you came to the first one tried to give what I consider is the best lessons I've ever written on leadership why is that don't ever play this down everything rises and falls on leadership I mean it really does at the end of the day if it's on the leader and then you know the leader certainly multiplies himself through through the people but he's he's got to be brutally I have been rather dogmatic and I bet you have about the fact that when God called me to be a preacher I will give an account one day to God as to how I leave the church so I'm got a lot I've got a lot of passion and fight in me and in a good way in that if somebody tries to hijack my leadership or hijack my vision because I'm gonna answer to God God's calling me to do this so I've got to do it I'd rather be dismissed from a church not for being belligerent or ugly but because I'm so radically committed to leading to taking the lane God's placed me in that this is what I'm supposed to do I'm listen to this I'm called by God to do it I'm gifted by God to do it he's given me the spiritual giftedness to do it I quit school cause I wouldn't give a public book report so the fact that I can communicate now is it's not from college and Seminary it's Jesus did something in my life and gave me something to serve the body win I believe that with all of my soul that's why I don't believe this what I bring to the table that can make a church great it's what God has put in me and what God brought to me when he brought me to himself that allows me to serve the kingdom of God I'll believe that until I draw my last breath so I've been very tenacious in holding on to the reins of what God has called me to do even to the point that I've often said if they say we don't want you leading we are gonna tell you what to do I'm not a puppet with somebody pulling my strings I would rather the strings be severed and I take a secular job and preach us God gives me the platform so I'm just telling you a little bit of presupposition of what it means in my heart to believe that I'm called to lead leader church and people are winnable you know you can go through all the different stages and you can talk about Gen X you can talk about millennial you can talk about the builders you talk about different generation all different qualities and what it's going to take and think we can learn a lot from that but if at the end of the day all of them have wondered are we for real and it's not even at the end of the day are you for real or not but it's this message real and powerful and here we are we're in a time I've been mentioned doing it 40 years and note you've been doing what you do a long time but I am as excited to preach the gospel this Sunday as I've ever been in my life I personally feel I have the strongest message on the authority of the word of God I've ever preached in my life to preach this coming Sunday and I just say that to say we can stay fresh in this you know it's kind like a marriage it doesn't have to go stale on I'm still madly in love with the woman I've been married to for 45 years she still tells me what to do and and then secondly I still get excited and passionate about studying the Bible studying the only book God ever wrote and so spend a lot of time in the Bible all right you're not careful you you're reading everybody but God that was good I'm glad I came to hear me say that you know but but really I mean seriously you you can you can know what everybody believes and what everybody says but to spend time and in the Word of God what a difference it makes so so we've been been doing this and certainly we don't know at all by any means but we have we've learned a lot of things that have made a significant difference and so we've enjoyed seeing people come to faith in Christ I may do the intro - what I wanted to do in talking to you this morning later but I think I'm just going to dive right in so what I wrote is a set out one day and just wrote about the pastor and his mission and so I want to walk through some things in your life and kind of challenge you and see if these are really priorities in your life and I can't set the priorities in your life you you have to set those I went through a bout with cancer by five and a half years ago got a major test coming up tomorrow and so I don't feel a real spirit of apprehension about it but I know it's there so I'll be glad when that is over and hear from a man you know what I mean so uh give that behind you but during that time it gave me an opportunity to sort of zero in once again in my life and to kind of write out regardless on how many it ended up in my life it was like seven priorities that I pinpoint to look at my spiritual giftedness and to say I believe this is where God most radically uses me in my life so I want to give more time to that I just flew in last night from Haiti I've been there twice in the last three weeks I wrote a lesson entitled this stewardship of influence when you are overwhelmingly passionate about something you will never be able to serve that passion by yourself so what you do you steward your life in influencing others and you can't lead people you don't influence that's a pretty simple statement so you do these things in order to get those others to go with you so the reason I've been there twice I took twenty people with me this time 26 the last time and I'm trying to get them to buy into what I'm passionate about so they can help it to spread even a greater proportion to the glory of God and it's working I mean it really literally is working and you do the same thing in the context of the church if you would ask me of the seven things that I wrote down what's number one you ready pastoring first Woodstock why the platform God's given me as a pastor is to mobilize and he quit the body of Christ in it the greatest potential of anything God has given me in my life to do and so when I stand up on Sunday I'm gonna talk about some of the things I do as pastor in a mission to really try to make a difference in the life of those that hear me do you always hit it well sometimes I hit it and they don't get it you know and in other times they get it when I didn't hit it all right so let's be fair but I'm gonna talk about what it is that drives me and I think should drive us a pastor to try to make a difference and see our church turn around some just dive right into the talking points and I'll just tell you this if you'll read Psalm chapter 27 and I'm just gonna give you a little tip that many theologians believe that there's more than one writer in that Psalm and I'm one that doesn't believe there's more than one writer why do they believe they're more than one writer because there's such a radical change in in concepts and truths but I believe God can do that I think we've underestimated sail I read a book this summer by Ron Dunn entitled faith crisis and at the end of the day there comes those times if God's gonna use you where you have to step out in faith we've got to get out of the boat when God really calls us to do that in a attempt to walk on the water knowing that only Jesus can couldn't allow that to happen in our in our life and that's what it would taking some of our churches turn around we need a walking on the water experience and the people who have to see us walk on the water before they follow us in some churches so it's a gonna do it but basically at the end of the day here's what I believe Psalm 27 is talking about intimacy it's drawing in to God so much that the character that's in his presence is so radically changed that it would cause outside readers to believe it's not the same person not the same for I invited a young lady to church recent I went with my wife to get her nails done and I thought this is a great place to witness I mean especially for cuz most women get their nails done get their hair fixed and everything else so the bottom line is so I asked this young girl young lady she is 27 like she's 16 she's in Vietnam if she'd come to church with me and she said I've always wanted to go to church and if you're old like me you'll remember the old Members Only jackets did you know a lot of people don't know they can come to your church without an invite they think is for members only and she said I've always wanted to go and I said so I guess you went to the Buddhist temple in Vietnam she said I've never been to a house of worship hold on just moment you're 27 you've never been to any type of worship so no I said I want you to come and sit with Janet nine she came I'd like to tell you we've won her wedding wondering yet we're still working on her but she came set ups her first time ever to be in there and to experience any type worship whatsoever but but just in our not just natural context of the people that God put us in contact with we really wanted to invite them all right so here we go number one the mission of a pastor being an intentional witness I can remember showing up to Woodstock I'll never forget this my first Sunday I could call him by name he's no longer with us that would encourage some of you that we lose people to and he stood up and he said I got some visitors cards in my hand got a lot of visitors coming to Woodstock and nobody's going to visitation we need some people it's kind of like we need to go because these people came you know we're letting them down and they want us to visit them kind of that type thing and so I was always there so I'm the new pastor so my wife and I were there but sure enough they weren't anybody coming I hear guys every now and then say hey there's a church dealing with me and I really would like to leave but they don't have outreach they don't have this they don't have that respond to that statement pastor Johnny I'm delighted to that's why they need you your leader you go in and you change that you go in and you change it and how do you change it by you as a pastor in your mission so what happened I would stand down front this man was in the church just the other day and Ron Payne and ginger stood there is now with the Lord just the other day Ron came forward with his son and in his arm bringing him down forward his sons coming to give his life to Jesus I led run the faith in Christ first person I ever led to Jesus on Georgia soul and so here is so we went out so I would stand down front on Sunday and just say hey I've got a unique opportunity to baptize Ron and ginger pain tonight Jan and I went out visiting at night 11 to Christ and just about every week we were talking about we were intentional witnesses now we want to mobilize our people see our people train but we never stopped doing what God called us to do what you value the people will value what's important to you becomes important to the people now I'm gonna tell you all the way across the board that that will really really make the difference so I wrote a little statement maybe you've heard me say it but listen to this and let this sink in the longer you're in God's family the further removed you are from those he died for so heaven do you mean by that I could spend every hour it would stop with staff with church members that need to see me so I've got to be an intentional witness so where do I go to share what Emmaus had two of my young men dropped me over this morning and we're talking and this was my wife's idea but on the 15th I think that's next Wednesday night we are having a party at our house and we send out invitations I took one this morning at 7 o'clock and we're going to invite to our home everyone we can think of this service this year so I went to the laundry to that family I think they're Koreans and just said here's an invite we know their names won't you bring your whole family to our house next Wednesday night we want to thank you for service this year my wife is headed to the seamstress today and I forgot she's got a whole list and so it's about 15 families and these are people just how in the public squares and by now what we do they'll come over we'll invite them to join us and be our guests and to sit with us and our Christmas Eve service and I do write devotional books for Thomas Nelson or I'm a compiler compilation and I will give them a gift and we'll love on them but we'll put them within the context of God's family now bottom line grateful to God for faith grateful to God for evangelism explosion I've learned all of them through the years but nothing absolute facts nothing Trump's inviting somebody to church nothing Trump's inviting and we've lost the art of inviting people to church our people come by themselves 90% of the people that are baptized within the context of a Southern Baptist Church are those that someone said would you come with me now let's make it personal I'm a believer today because NW Pridgen not a deacon not a sunday-school teacher not an usher I'll never know of anything you did public but every time he saw me so I want you to come get your wife come to service with us so when I decided to go I went to NW regions Church listen to this seven years after I went there I became his pastor because I went back to the home church to serve so most people ask our congregation one day I went through and this morning I got a text there's this family that prays for me every day and they're missionaries that are retired and they're doing something else now you own up in their 70s from South Africa and they pray for me every day so I send him a lot of special prayer prayer needs because I just know they're those type people and I've got a lot of people like that in my life but he told me today that Billy Graham only went to South Africa once and he was a boy and he gave his life to Jesus Christ I didn't know that in a Billy Graham thing that is so unusual in in your church if you'll ask your people and I thank God for Billy Graham but in the light of all the people who come to Christ nowhere near as many as you think in the context of our nation so when I ask our people whether it's CWT somebody BIST in your home Vacation Bible School whatever the vast majority I would say 95% of our congregation stood on a Sunday morning and said they became a Christian because somebody invited in the church they brought him into the faith family they heard the gospel and God changed their life I got an email this morning have a business man he is alcoholic owns a big business he's divorcing his wife and his he said he didn't want anything else to do with his children and somebody I don't know who encouraged him to come to Woodstock I was doing a series on questions answered that the church asked me to deal with so I dealt with same-sex marriage homosexuality pornography and alcohol yeah alcohol by the way the number one requested sermon I've ever written I wrote 17 years ago on the biblical commitment to the total abstinence and are not written another one in 17 years on that but I wrote one shared it two weeks ago and dealing with should a Christian drink should pastors drink should our people drink and so you know what he came on the sunday of pornography when it's good in the unities he's lost on his way to hell gonna divorce his wife and he said I said something about substance abuse in there and he said listen to this this is what the Word of God does don't encourage it he said that there came a moment in the service where nobody was there but him and God only the Holy Spirit can do that and he uses the authority of the word of God listen to me listen to me have confidence in the message that you're preaching by the way God has not called me Sunday to stand up and convince my people that the Bible is true he's called me to stand up and preach the Bible because I'm convinced it's true if nobody else in the room's convinced ah to be convinced one guy told me the reason he kept coming to here he is he didn't believe the message but he had never found anybody that believed it like I did and this cuz he hadn't been to your church he'd heard he said the same thing but it is intentional so share share the gospel what water when's the last time you share the gospel now remember we're here to help one another when's the last time you shared the gospel with the intent of attempting to lead somebody to faith in Jesus when's the last time you were intentional in making a visit and you went there prayed up for this reason I'm going to share the gospel you know I just mention it and let's leave it alone we baptized so fewer last year that we did something we've not done a long time you got to go to the 40's dr. white to the 40's to find that low of a year for Southern Baptists we have more men in seminary we are more educated than we've ever been we've got the internet with its goods and its Bad's we can pull up everybody research anything and we are doing less with the gospel Johnny hunt came up with a statement it's gotten out there and I don't mean for to be offensive but it is a statement that's true we have never done a better job defining the gospel and we've never done a poor job at declaring the gospel sudden we can define it you whose book have you not read on the gospel we got to get it right have we ever heard that gosh we've gone through a whole season of making sure we get it right don't say something to you all come here don't matter if you get it right if you don't tell the people who need it and that's the difference it's a difference intentional I go to Dixie Speedway been going out there for 25 years I'm the chaplain I'm actually registered with a North American Mission Board chaplain they write me for report and I've never sent them one so if you're with North America Mission Board I'm sorry but I go out there and signing I say you really love racing don't you not really I dragged race in my early days my wife loves stock car racing loves it Lanta journal-constitution is a front-page story owner she loves it why do you go out there credible platform to make the gospel known I tell people and they they they struggle with this a little bit I said Jesus came to Woodstock on Saturday you could find him at Dixie Speedway and more people out there that needing him Saturday than anywhere else in Woodstock several several thousand people so be intentional so at the end of today we're talking about revitalization the leaders got to be intentional he's got to share the guts number two boy I'm getting a long ways be a passionate preacher be a passionate preacher and someone said I think it was John MacArthur he said God gave us the message it's like a meal you're gonna serve the least we can do is serve it hot I mean really you're going to be passionate I often say God is I write this sermon touch me so you can touch through me so I already believe we get God's message and we're prayed up and it's not just about the knowledge we give because how many of you know it's not the truth you know but the truth you obey that makes the difference and by the way did you know that everyone that's ever died that was noted as being great none of them died in greatness because of what they knew it was only because of what they did please hear me I mean there's a fine line out there and people are missing it and they think we're being legalistic and works and by the way works as a New Testament word if you'll study the book of James he he weaves in and out about don't just be hearers of the word but doers of the word but even sometimes changes it moves to works and talks about works it works as the fruit of the spirits activity within your life so so don't don't get confused out there I've had people to say we're gonna leave the church we're so into grace and we hear you talking about all these works we need to do and so they go to another church that sits there and dies while others go and try to do the work we're to do the work of an evangelist is that the word do the work of an evangelist so it is work it I was raised in the tobacco fields of North Carolina I didn't know it until I was an adult I used to always complain about dad dropping us off there soon school's out picking us up there's time to school to go back and working all day now after hearing Jimmy Draper who coined it but he said one time that God is preparing me for what he has prepared for you and I'm of the deep conviction that God used the tobacco fields of North Carolina to build within my soul a work ethic I like to work I like to get up and go to work I also like to go home I have two havens in my life if you ever get where you don't like to go to church or you don't like to go home you're in trouble so I like to go home and when the kids were there and they'd say daddy's home and when the grandbabies come over now Papa's home but I like going to I like going to my office I do I like the work God's called me to so be passionate and when I'm talking about being passionate be be intentional and know this have you ever written a sermon and you read through it and all and it was getting late in the week and you tore it up and started over why because as you're ready that did nothing for you and I don't know why you think it's gonna do anything for being them so any come up and say you know I didn't get much out of that message say neither did I so thanks they're kind of confirmed the fact it was dead in the office and a drug used to say pray that God will be with you in your presentation this is good as he was with you in the preparation you ever had to leave the study because it got so fiery in there you felt like you were gonna be consumed you just had to lay the pen down for a while I was on fire I'm serious I'm really serious about the what why because you're writing the Word of God maybe the Jews were onto something when they would write Yahweh would not use all the letters because his name was so holy they didn't want to write it I'm saying things I hadn't said in a long time so I'm still kind of excited that I came to hear me so basically do I do I practice what I preach and I would answer that I want to I don't always okay I want to it's a journey I've not mastered and perhaps no time in the immediate future there's always room for further development in the pastor's life and by the way tell that don't just tell about the great witnessing opportunity to tell about the times God moved on your heart and you didn't and then your people identify with you they'll see how that you're vulnerable and you're being you're being honest about what God really did in your life preach with intentionality let me just ask you a question I know not everybody here is a preacher but we can pray for all of us that are at the end of the day when you're through with your sermon my goal is to be through by Thursday morning's I finished again I finished it on the plane from Haiti last night and so my ministry assistant has it this morning my goal is to be free by Thursday at lunch and my sermon writing and then somebody says so you're through no I want to sleep with it a day or two I want to read through it and I want to kind of internalize it in my own soul see what I've got saying in my heart that's why sometimes grows when it's time to preach it but I want to ask this question intentionally what do you believe God could do with this word so for instance if I was preaching on giving and I was going to do a four-week series I would be a little discouraged if it didn't - four weeks nothing happened y'all right if you wanted to preach on a certain area - to hope that the truth of God's Word would be an impetus to push two people to a certain place and nobody moved it would be a little discouraging I mean it really would let's just be honest with ourselves so I want to get along with God and get a word from my Heavenly Father and let him speak in my life and then with intention and to share that and - I want to help our people our people right now are thinking and sounding just like culture like lost culture and I mean even in our church I'll get an email and it'll say something like this you marry Janet you're in love and seem to be doing fine my son wants to marry his boyfriend why does it matter to you why can't you leave it alone I think they deserve to have an answer and so so we speak very timidly and compassionately and the problem is is when God gave us the gospel he did it within the context of Ephesians chapter 5 on the marriage and if that's true the Bible's perverted it is not just a moral issue it's not just the social issue stay with me gospel issue ladies and gentlemen we are gospel preachers so I am - to defend that word that was once for all delivered to the Saints and so don't have an axe to grind I got a Bible to preach by the way this this I took preaching first as a 24 year old under Stephen Alford and when it was one day schools and Alford at the end of his school would always preach that text from Timothy preach the word I can never read that text that I can't hear him rolling his arse preach the word be instant in season out of season it's easier to preach against the ills of this nation when they're not in season when you stand up now and deal with it and you realize that 48% of Southern Baptists drink alcohol you realize that one out of two people sitting in front of you and the average congregation it would have been a whole lot better back in Billy Sunday's days when they preached they closed down the bars now we preach and they go to the bars so you know it's just you know I'm just talking teaching you know so that's it so be be intentional you know I'm gonna deal with this so you may say I want to mess with that right a hot issue would be instant in season number three seek intimacy with God I learned that early on of all people w a crystal when I was a student at gardner-webb I became minister of student of the year I don't know why but anyway what did they give me they gave me every volume he had ever written and I void of W a crystal W a crystal said always give your first hour to Jesus and that's really captivated me and so my morning looks like this I go to the same place in my house and get me a cup of coffee thank you Jesus and I take my Bible and I've got a prayer journal that modeled after my praying senior associate for 25 years Jim law and I've got daily things I'm gonna pray for top of my list I've got today I have my list for Thursday but at the back of the book it says what I pray for every day and I go through that and then I have three different devotions I like to read and I read the Psalms and the Proverbs every day so today I read the Proverbs for the tenth day of the month and the psalm for the tenth day and when I get to 30 I move on 31 32 and I read through them and then I'm in de cycling five men I personally disciple every week I'm cycling five they had to sign a contract that all five of them would take three to five within a year I meet with them every week and I'd be delighted to pass on to you what we're using but we've started this year and we said we wanted it to be organic that we weren't going to promote it other than as our testimony comes out as it is now and I'm saying I meet with these guys and here's what we do we're not reading books together we're reading the book together the only book that God ever said he would bless as his own the book that he said he would use to lead you from glory to glory second Corinthians 3:18 is the Bible the Word of God he said as you look into it you'll be changed from one level No me to the other and I can call God as my witness I'm in week 15 and I couldn't talk about it I tried to talk about it in a service the other day and I started crying because a guy that was so inconsistent in our church has become a rock for Jesus Christ a witness for Jesus and all I can attribute it to is the Word of God so to say I'm pumped pumped about what's going now whereas it grown to with it being organic and not as a program eighty groups and I've got the young man Dallas white leads this for me out of my office we have 80 groups meeting 80 and never a program or anything just people hearing what God's doing wanting to be a part of it is just oh I got to leave it alone and move on since I've already used up all my time in the first two points seek intimacy Oswald Chambers said it who can say it better we don't pray and then work prayer is the work so is here's what I would do if my church and it does Woodstock was revitalized several times already if you stay somewhere long enough if you stay somewhere long enough you'll have to revitalize the work that was revitalized okay you know I mean here's the Georgia Baptist Convention the question could be asked what under heaven are you doing reinventing yourself it's kind of like a revitalization you're sitting down and saying I think we could become even more effective with these changes so you do the same thing in church but here's what I'd be doing I would be in my Bible but I would also be on my face before God and here's what I would say Jesus lay on my heart I heard it when I was listening to Matthew West last night and he says it Casting Crowns says it but the lyrics are being found in so many different songs lay on my heart was on your heart so God you know we don't need to I just went down and I was the keynote speaker for Henry Blackaby 's 80th birthday celebration what an honor he's prayed for me through the years I had read the old book the old one of experiencing God but I thought since I'm gonna speak I better get the new one so he added about two Morse I went read that as well he sort of seemingly coined the phrase find out what God's up to so I'm gonna go start something for King Jesus he he he's on the move amen so let's find out what he's up to and see how I can join him but I'd be asking him God what are you up to how can I join you I'd be asking our people to pray I'm gonna get up on Sunday and I say turning your Bibles now you found your place look this way we're headed in the wrong direction we're not reaching people like we used to I want you to join with me maybe call them to the altar a prayer time asks God to lay on your heart what's on his and how you can reach the people in the community where you're serving is just amazing how God could begin to speak and show you what he would have you to do number four this is still part of the revitalization deal make your family a priority or guess what most of us do we have a platform exhortation for our preacher does we're always preparing sermons and you prepare one and you preach it and it's time to prepare one again one of my friends said it's like being perpetually pregnant you're pregnant with truth and you just bore it you just got pregnant Monday you give birth to that baby Sunday and you're pregnant again Monday and I've been pregnant for 40 years and this thing you know you can get weary after a while and especially when some of the children that you produce are deformed I'm tell my sister mine are all right so is what asked me said you ever heard of boring sermon heard him I preached him I never have intentionally I've never intentionally prepared a bad sermon but I have prepared something I thought I was ready when I got up it would taxi but it wouldn't it just never would take off and someone says could could you look out until they were bored yes but I was bored it's one thing for the people to sit out there and think I'll be glad when he's through but it's another thing for you to think I'll be glad when I'm through so you're you're hoping would be over soon and they did by the way wouldn't this be cool would it be cool if we could just say hey timeout folks this thing's going nowhere it's flat as a hammer god bless see you next week the officer wasn't it if you ever do that send me a video of it cuz I might I might do it but I've wanted to do that before any of you ever wanted to stop right in the middle of and just say that's not working alright there's several of you responded write that down how many decisions we had alright that was uh it was good so and young twenty-five years ago said this to me he put it in a book he said Johnny date your wife weekly so I still have a date night I'm serious yes miss Jana we date it's kind of funny I have everything in my phone now you know being around these young savvy guys I got everything my schedule in my phone now and then secondly I said but I've used a day timer so long that I don't want to give it up so I still got it you know doing so uh I'll just be honest I put my offering and the offer and play every week I am NOT going on why but just it's just me of you there's some things you're not gonna change about me I'm just as you know like a dinosaur but but I date my wife and if I so I check it off you know where date night check it off and then if I take her out an extra time weren't planning on I put credit I give myself credit for that too you know so and sometimes I'll say to her so know if you notice but uh this week they did three times and who's countin me we dialogue daily I talk to my wife every day and then we depart quarterly and you may say well can't afford to yeah you can ask your people if they've got a camper at the lake or a tent you can borrow whatever now closest thing to a tent we have now is the Hilton at our age we wouldn't go that I we we go and when my kids were smaller I'll just leave it at this but their own story is that we were there for I feel I'm disciple in my grandchildren now it's costing me a lot of money to recycle my grandchildren but I just got in from Haiti last night I've been seven times in the last five five years Katy my 17 year old spend six of those times and God broke her heart for the kids there and we recently built a house and dedicated in her honor so we were there to dedicate the house two weeks ago and it's really made to all of my kids set for the one that cerebral palsy every one of us have children a child that we support that we visit with when we're there so I went and trained Iranians and Afghans and Turkey in May I took my two oldest grandkids with me they go with me on ministry and mission and as long as I pay my daughter and son-in-law same have no trouble with it what whatsoever so we take them let me do one other and we'll do later let me just follow up on something all right we all exhort right you got a platform your Sunday school teacher your minister music your educator student pastor pastor you have a platform you exhort emulation will add incredible power to your exhortation I taught at Southeastern a few weeks ago so one of the things on my list if I've got opened the doors I was gonna make it a priority so we'll went over and it was very kind they told her a class that morning on preaching spoke to the chapel and then any student that wanted to they were dismissed from classes the whole student body to spend the day and meet each pastoral leadership some of those guys aren't going to church say sometimes you're a seminary student but you're not attending church and I said to them you're gonna stand up one day and challenge people to do what you didn't do and there's just not gonna be an edge in your ministry a good number are aren't given they're not generous givers tyler's good journey givers for strengthen 16 proverbs 3:9 not giving but they will stand up one day and ask people to do what they didn't do please hear this emulation is powerful now here's a great way to understand it it's part of leading a church well monkey-see monkey-do they see you doing your people will say this I've never shared my faith until you came what was the difference I saw you share your things the differs in May I never was a generous giver man wrote me the other day and said God's bless my company this company's worldwide now he said it was a small company you came my pastor 25 years ago and I was a tight one I watched you and Janet give and support ministries we believe our companies where it is today because you taught us to be generous givers Roy fish is with the Lord now Roy is the one who coined it mostly in his book every member evangelists vandalism when he said that evangelism is not taught it's called I want to go step further it's true of everything in ministry giving is not tall it's called now does that mean we don't teach it no we teach it but they'll catch it from you after a period if you'll be consistent with it a lot of people get it Woodstock was a hundred and fifty years old when I showed up so tell about I know I'm not the founding pastor we had never produced a missionary okay now think about that for a moment 150 years old no ever on the mission field that came out of that that's a lot of preaching in 150 years of preaching and it didn't produce what the Bible was producing in the book of Acts we've never planted another church now this is a strong one listen to this this is gonna take your breath 85% of the churches I'm told in America have never reproduced themselves now that one's sink in dr. white eighty-five percent have never reproduced themselves 80% of all quoc the protean dollars come from 20% of our churches so it's not just out there in the world is here when this we've got to stop somewhere so here to stop them because I'm a few minutes over Titus what is the assignment of Titus from Paul on the Isle of Crete go raise up elders reading for yourself go raise up elders and I'm captivated by one verse it is stunning me chapter two and verse six and I don't know how you write sermons but here's how I write sermons I'm reading a text like I did this week the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword so I want to see what that means came to find out it was a sharp pointed dagger some theologians believe Luke wrote Hebrews I don't want to get into that discussion I don't know but they said wouldn't that be something he would know more about the scalpel than anybody else but anyways just sorry but uh but it's really it's alive the Word of God is alive it's active the Word of God is active you I love what Billy Graham said Billy Billy Graham said when they asked him they said we're living in a day of real controversy about the Bible and its veracity what are you gonna do is you come to London to preach he said ah I don't believe that he said the Word of God is like a line just release it is active it's on the prowl and so it goes out and begins to work and I have to believe that I believe Sunday when I'm up and I'm preaching God is active and alive and pow when sharper than a two-edged sword and I wish had time so I would do that and I'd get through every word someone for every word went through the the the the Greek and trying to make sure I understood every meaning of the word there and in the English and everything else and I was point after point after point at the point so when I was writing on Titus chapter 2 in verse 6 it said Paul's telling Titus he says when you go over to Crete teach them to live sober minded well I write a 1 there preacher I write a 1 preacher's wife and I put it there and I said ok sober minded and I pushed it to the lowest common denominator and I believe it emphasizes moral purity and if you would have pulled me aside today and say oh you've been a pastor 40 years I I'm a pastor for two years what would be the number one advice you'd give me you're ready stay close and clean clean clean be a man of personal purity watch what you're doing your church with girls and gold finances and females alright so anyway but then I'm ready to write number two but there is no number two did it say anything else to teach he changes language and from teaching he says show thyself put yourself on display go go show the church what's important so so if I'm bombing the baptism pool and I shared the gospel with a family of three last week and I hope in the next couple weeks have opportunity to baptize them and they all three say they prayed to receive Christ and Jim law showed him an email moment ago this man says he's prayed to receive Christ with me and we want to give him a baptismal class and stuff so I would like to baptize him when I do I want to say to our congregation had the opportunity to make the gospel known to this man I talked to this family after church one of the men that I'm disciple in he's a police officer I let him and his wife to faith in Jesus Christ so I want to be able to say that I'm emulating it monkey see monkey do pastor Johnny does it you know I'm grateful I'm grateful for the opportunity to exhort and preach but it will never it will never mirror the joy of being able to tell someone how to be saved and watch them come into relationship with Jesus Christ seppings we gotta do it when ma'am challenged me on what I was going to teach they said Johnny you you've got to take this all the way back and get back to the basics and that's what I'm doing today so if this sounds like it's Wendy says well how was passage I didn't hear anything I didn't know that good thank you for saying that but I have a question for you did you hear anything that you're no longer doing did you hear anything you're no longer doing well remember we used to go out there knock on doors you still can there's still doors and you still got a knocker you know you can still you can still still do it and there's still still ways you can still witness to them see one of the things about these people that serve you know when you're going through and there's a car behind you're dropping off your laundry you can't just say ma'am look at me I'd like to talk to you for a few minutes about Jesus they'd be blowing the horn behind you she's think worried about our company but what we do is let's invite him into her home serve him a wonderful meal thank them for serving us and let's make Jesus known to all right brother Larry you coming to give us a break thank thanks for listening and I apologize I went over a few minutes and but I do it every second it would stop thanks for making me feel at home Thank You Johnny

Channel: Georgia Baptist Mission Board

Views: 328

Rating: 4.1999998 out of 5

Keywords: God, Jesus, Christian, Georgia, baptist, convention, GBC, SBC, southern, baptists, ministry, missions, church, churches, denomination, Leading, Change, Leading for Change, Johnny Hunt

Id: _sw3mVlFfY4

Length: 60min 4sec (3604 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2017