Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. Have you ever looked back in time and considered
how certain defining moments have shaped your life in future? Today, John Metter, lead
pastor of Cross City Church, looks at the importance of defining moments and how we
can recognize what God is saying through them. We're so glad that you're with us this morning.
If you have your Bibles, please take them and turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 today,
1 Thessalonians chapter 5, as we talk about a defining focus today in our defining moments
series. We've had a number of messages in our defining moments series, and let me just
kind of rehash what some of that's all about. The refining moments series is about moments
in our lives where we realize God has spoken, God has done something, and our lives are
changed after that moment where we live in a different way. After that encounter we had
with God where he spoke something, he did something, he said something. For many of
us, obviously, that's salvation, the moment we come to faith in Jesus Christ. For others,
it's a certain calling in our life, a calling where the Lord has called us to something,
to do something, to be a part of an organization, or to be part of a movement of some kind.
Sometimes it's just God telling us, I want you to obey me in this particular area of
your life, or to leave something behind that has been dragging you down. But defining moments,
here's what I've found. I've found that we have thousands of experiences in life,
but only a few defining moments. I hope that you think about the defining moments in your
life where you have encountered God in powerful ways. Today, defining focus. Would you stand
with me as we read this passage today, 1 Thessalonians 5, beginning in verse 11.
Verse Thessalonians 5, beginning in verse 11. Verse 11 picks up in a very important
letter of the New Testament where Paul is writing to the church at Thessalonica. The
first 10 verses really are about the return of the Lord. Verse 11 picks up with that thought
package before it moves into verse 12, but it kind of ties it all together here, and
here's what it says in verse 11. Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another
just as you were also doing. But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those
who diligently labor among you and who have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction,
and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with
one another. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint hearted,
help the weak. Be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil,
but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. You find this
several times in the Bible. Not only how we respond to each other in the community of
faith, but also to everyone. Verse 16, rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything,
give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the spirit.
Do not despise prophetic utterances. Then verse 21, but examine everything carefully.
Hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil. There's a lot of instruction
in that passage, and it's all applicable to us. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father,
today, let this text, let this passage speak loudly to us. Father, help us to see how it
fits us here and now, where we live, where we are. And as we open our eyes to see what's
going on around us, help us to know how we are to be obedient to you as people who follow
you by faith in changing the world around us. Father, thank you for how you've worked
in the past, how you're working now, how you will in the future. We ask this in Jesus'
name, amen. Please be seated if you would. I suspect this always happens to people at
various times in their lives, but more than 30 years ago I had an incredible opportunity
to do something and a desire to do something way beyond what I had imagined. It was an
opportunity to be a part of a much larger organization, and during those years I was
seeing needs around me that I couldn't see how they were being met by the church and
the pastor that I was involved with at the time. So I was looking for a way to impact
the world. I was looking for a way to help people, to change lives. And I really looked
beyond what was in front of me and tried to see this global picture and tried to find
a way, how do I get connected with this global life changing kind of vision when I had only
a responsibility that God had placed just in front of me. And the reality, God had to
bring me to the place of saying, wherever I put you is a world changing position. Wherever
I've placed you, whatever gifts I've given you, that's what I want you to use to change
people's lives all around you and around the world. And it really came to be a defining
moment for me, a defining focus that's really guided me for more than 30 years now. And
I realized it doesn't take a big organization to change the world. It doesn't take a massive
government change to change the world. But what will change the world is when people
of God follow the God who is in control and when they follow Him, He multiplies everything
they do to transform lives around them.
And that's what I want to talk to you about today just a little bit. How do we focus our
lives to be what we ought to be in our nation at this time, in our community at this time,
in our family, our city at this time? How do we be the church God called us to be? A
pastor from England whose name is Jay John has a YouTube video out where he spoke a little
bit about the meaning and the purpose of the church and it's kind of gone viral in a sense.
Millions of people have watched this video. It's a very encouraging video. I'm going
to try to reproduce some of the words of that. And he tells the story of being on an airplane
when a woman asked him, what do you do? You know, that's one of the conversation pieces
we have when we talk to strangers. We ask them what they do and then they ask us what
we do. And he always hesitate to say, I'm a pastor because I can tell this from personal
experience. When I say that I'm a pastor, it usually shuts the conversation down, right?
I don't know what they think I'm going to do. I don't know if they think I'm going to preach
to them one-on-one on the airplane or something like that. I'm not really sure, but they don't
like to hear that I'm a pastor. And he had that same experience. So he didn't really want to tell
the woman what he did because of that. So he said, Oh ma'am, I'm a part of a huge organization that
brings change in the world. She said, Oh really? And he said, yes, I'm, I'm part of a global
enterprise with Atlas in every nation of the world. We have hospitals and hospices and homeless
shelters. We do marriage work. We have feeding programs at educational endeavors. And she goes,
Oh wow. And he went on and said, we have all sorts of justice and recovery kinds of things.
Basically we look after people from birth to death and major in the area of behavior
modification. We change lives. The lady was astounded. She said, well, what's the cause?
He said, it's called the church of Jesus Christ. And in reality, that may be an interesting and
humorous conversation, but he is exactly right. The church of Jesus Christ is bigger than anything
you and I can possibly even imagine. We can't fathom. We can't get a calculator and add up all
the representatives of the church of Jesus Christ on the planet. But if we believe God is in control,
the way that changed the world is through the church of Jesus Christ and through him leading the way.
And that's what Paul is writing about in first Corinthians or first Thessalonians chapter five,
beginning in verse 11 to a group of people that need to hear it. And by the way,
one of the principles that came out of my own experience and one that I want to share with you
today is this principle, pursue what is before you and you will influence what is beyond you.
And I believe that's true. Pursue what God has placed in front of you. Pursue what God has
allowed you to see in the position that you're in, wherever that is and whatever that is.
And God will use that, may even multiply that to impact lives way beyond what you could possibly
have imagined when you began doing what God called you to do. You know, there's a verse in the
scripture that I absolutely love. It's in Ephesians chapter three, verse 20 and 21. And you hear it
from time to time, but I want you to put it into your life for just a few moments and imagine
what would happen if you would trust God for that verse in your life today. Here's what it says.
It says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works within us. In other words, according to the Holy Spirit's
power in your own life, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever. Amen. That's a great passage. That tells us that we can't even imagine how God
wants to use our influence in the world that we live in. And it also tells us that it's God that
makes the difference, not our aspirations, not some organizations, not the government, not some
church organization, but it's us working side by side with brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
And when Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica, he's giving them some incredible insights that I
think will help us today. By the way, one of the questions that I want to answer today and want you
to answer for your own life is this question. How do we live in today's America in such a way
as to change her for the better? I'm a firm believer that we've been blessed to be in America,
but I'm also a firm believer that there's more to come. There's another chapter. It needs to be
another chapter. It must be another chapter of how we interact with people and with each other in
America. As a matter of fact, what I was looking over the last few weeks thinking about this day
and this celebration that'll happen tomorrow, thinking about what I would say to you, I began
to realize that in my lifetime, I've seen at least three versions of America and three eras of
people's mindsets in the nation and how they think in general. I can remember when I was growing up,
I felt like we were in an era of responsibility. And some people that are what are called old
timers, people that have been around a long time might say, all right, I remember that era of
responsibility, that era where the big question was not what will everything, what will everyone
do for you, but what will you do for everyone else? I think it was John F. Kennedy that says,
ask not what your country will do for you, but what you will do for your country. It's a great,
great question to ask. And it mirrored that era of responsibility. During that era, it was a very
important thing for people to go into military service. It was an important thing for them to do
to serve the nation and maybe to serve other nations that were in danger. And that's just part
of what you did. I remember growing up and my father talked about being in the Navy all the time
and I wanted to be in the armed forces. And I was actually disappointed when my hearing loss kept me
from being in the armed forces. It was an age of responsibility, an era of responsibility.
But as I grew older, I realized that things were changing. And I think all of us do look back and
say things did change. The seventies, the eighties, the nineties, I would call the era of rights. We
wanted to know what our country could do for us, what others could do for us. We wanted to know
what rights do we have. I mean, if you really began to think about it, the sexual revolution
was taking place in the sixties and the seventies and the eighties. And really Roe v. Wade, which
we talked a bit about last week, was actually enacted to take care of those that did not want
to be responsible for what was taking place as a result of sexual freedom. And that really is what
began that. So it was an age of looking for rights. How can I make sure that everything serves what I
want to do? And then I think in the last 20 years, we've moved into a very, very different era. I
would call the last 20 years to be an era of redefinition and reinvention. We're redefining
terms. We're reinventing everything. And sometimes not always for the better. We're even reinventing
what is a man and what is a woman. We're reinventing gender roles. We're reinventing everything,
trying to find some way to satisfy everyone. And my question for us today is how do we live in a
nation like that? Because how we lived in America 50 years ago is a little bit different from how
we live in America today. How do we interact? How do we deal with things like that in our nation
today as born again believers in Jesus Christ, following the same God who worked in powerful ways
hundreds and thousands of years ago? How do we do that today? And I find no better admonition than
this text we just read in 1 Thessalonians chapter five. Go back to that text for just a moment.
I want you to look at this with me for a moment and understand the background.
In that day and time, those in the church were citizens of God and of the Roman empire,
not America, but the Roman empire. These people had a freedom to worship, but were also told to
be tolerant of every other belief. Rome was a polytheistic nation. It was also a very immoral
nation. All kinds of immorality took place and were accepted in culture. But even though Christianity
was accepted in a big way, within 15 years of the writing of this letter, the tolerance for both
Jews and Christians diminished. And Nero began to falsely accuse the Christians of burning down the
city of Rome, which historians say he actually did so that he could rebuild Rome and its palaces.
And so the end result of that was Christians began to be persecuted. We find this letter written
during that age of persecution. And eventually, Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was destroyed
as a result of all those kinds of things that were happening. So Paul is writing a letter to
this church in that era of great persecution, great difficulty, when the nation itself did not
embrace their values. And he's answering questions. How then do we live? How then do we hold our
values, our morals? How do we worship our God? And all the admonitions I read to you a few moments
ago reflect all of that. Here's how to live till Jesus comes back, Paul says. I find it very
applicable for us today. I'm gonna break it down for you today. Three key things that we need to
be looking at today. And it's more important than it's ever been for us to live this out.
First of all, Paul talks about encouragement, encourage the people around you. This whole
package, this whole series of verses begins with verse 11 as it concludes the previous
verses and starts the next one. Therefore, encourage one another. And following that is
a list of things to actively do. This is as relevant as you and I can possibly imagine.
Things that we are supposed to do to encourage and to call out to people who need encouragement.
Now I have to tell you today, people need encouragement today. I have to tell you,
you need encouragement today. We're living in an era of more confusion and more discouragement,
more depression than I can possibly even remember over the last 50 or 60 years.
It's really amazing how many people are giving up on life or just giving in to the temptations of
life. So encouragement is incredibly important just as it was then. It's especially important
now. You know, the word encouragement means to call out to from alongside. That's what the word
actually means in the original language. If I were to define this word in human terms, I would point
you to the Boston Marathon and the Heartbreak Hill, which is at mile 20. Heartbreak Hill is an
incline at the end of 20 miles when they're climbing that hill in Boston and they've already
run that many miles and they just have about six more to go. But it's really literally a heartbreak
moment because they either pursue it to the top and get over the top and usually finish well after
that or they give up on Heartbreak Hill. People all over the world will fly to Boston not to run
the Boston Marathon, but to go to Heartbreak Hill and call out encouragement to people trying to
make it up on top of that hill. They call out to them while alongside them. Now that's my part of
the marathon. I'm not going to run a marathon, but I'll call out to somebody that is. And when
they're on Heartbreak Hill, I want to say, you can do it, you can do it, you can, you can. I'll be a
cheerleader for them. But that word literally means to call out to from alongside. Paul said the church
of Jesus Christ needs to know how to encourage people that are hurting. And then he gives seven
very clear practical applications. I want you to keep your Bible open to verses 12 to 15.
And I'm going to read these and show these seven practical applications for you today. Seven ways
to encourage people. And these encouragements are not just for the church, not just for the community
of faith, but we, the community of faith, are to encourage all those around us to call out from
alongside them as we go through life. First of all, love your leaders. It begins with verse 12,
love your leaders. It says to appreciate and esteem your spiritual leaders, those that labor
among you. And the purpose for that is for the church to be encouraged, the leaders must be
encouraged. And so there's that simple admonition during a very persecution oriented era,
encourage your leaders. Secondly, live in peace. Verse 13. Some of us need to hear this. We live
combative lives. We're not peacemakers. We're not peacekeepers. But the Bible says that we're to live
in peace with all people. That's verse 13. The third one is admonish the disorderly. It is important
to confront those who are irresponsible, those who are unruly. That's in verse 14. Admonish the
disorderly. Number four is to reach out to the fearful, those who are in panic, those who are
fearful, those who don't know what the next step will be in life and when the next foot will fall.
Those who are fearful of tomorrow's news, reach out to them. The fifth admonition is to help the weak.
It literally means to grab and lift them up and hold them while they are weak, provide whatever
they need in order for them to be strengthened and encouraged. Number six is a huge one. It says be
patient with all. It's an attitude command. I don't believe we live in the age of patience, do you?
I believe we live in the age of panic. We live in the age of hurry it up. But we're supposed to be
patient with all. And then number seven, pursue good for all. That's in verse 15. Not only do we
pursue the good that we think is good for us and the church of Jesus, but we are to pursue good for
all mankind. That's a huge order that Paul gives the church at Thessalonica. When you think about
these seven ways of encouragement, ask yourself the question, can I put these into practice in my
life? Can I look around me at all the needs and become the kind of citizen of heaven while being
a citizen of our country that reflects what God says I'm supposed to reflect in these words of
encouragement? There will always be the poor. There will always be the hurting people. The
disorderly will still be around in a hundred years just like they are now. But early Christians
didn't look to Caesar or Rome to take care of people. It was quite the opposite. The nation
actually looked to the church because the church was willing to radically serve the culture around
them. The New Testament church was known for doing what nobody else would do. Last week I talked to
you about the million hands of culture that try to shape the way we think. I'm going to talk to you
today about the million hands of the church that really meet the needs of the culture. And I want
you to envision that with me if you would. There are hundreds of thousands of evangelical churches
in America. You could expand that wider and wider depending on what groups you include. But there
are hundreds of thousands of organizations just like this. Millions and millions of born again
believers. Millions and millions of hands that can reach out and encourage and pick up and give
what's necessary. The pat on the back that's necessary. The word of encouragement that's
necessary. Live life so that we can encourage those around us. This passage is teaching us.
The book of Hebrews has a great verse that talks about the church and talks about what we've been
discussing. In chapter 10 verse 23 it begins like this. It says, Let us hold fast to confession of
our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider how to stimulate one
another to love and good deeds. Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some,
but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near. As the end times come
upon us, learn to gather together. I would break that down into three phrases. Stay strong, stay
active, stay together. Let me tell you that happens when the church of Jesus learns to stay strong,
learns to stay active, learns to stay together. We move together with a powerful alignment.
That alignment is based on what God calls us to do as the people of God. It really has ripple effects
in changing lives. Those of you that are part of this Cross City Church, you understand how God has
worked powerfully for us to be able to impact people's lives. I'm very thankful for how he's done
that. I'll share some stories about that in just a few moments. I wonder if we would ask ourselves
the question, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, how will different needs arise and how will the
church step up to meet those needs? It's one thing to celebrate the protection of human lives, of
unborn children. It's another thing to step up and say to those who may have unplanned pregnancies,
who may otherwise be abortion minded, how will I meet these needs? How will I deal with these
challenges? So I asked a few questions about that. How will we respond? Let me give you some data
to let you know. This is our DNA. Research already shows that adoption rates among Christians are
twice that of non-Christians in the USA. So think about that for just a moment. Those who are
professing Christians, active in local churches, adopt at twice the rate as other adults in America.
It's because we're more than just pro-life for the unborn. It's because we're pro-whole life.
It's because we're willing to step up and change really the future of our family by adopting someone
that's in need of adoption. That's what I would call a defining moment, would it not be? When you
make the decision to do that or to foster, Christians are twice as likely as others to do
that in America. Did you know that Christians give money at twice the rate other people give
for benevolent causes? For those that are hungry, those that are hurting, Christians give twice as
much than others. And the same way Christians who volunteer to help in their community do so at
greater rates than others. More than 10 years ago, we started an organization called Six Stones.
And I vividly remember a conversation with a government leader who said, one of the big
problems in our culture is that there are homes in our cities that are beyond normal repair.
They're below code. We're going to find them and they may not be able to have the money to fix the
homes. They may be elderly, they may just be poor, don't have money. There may be a number of causes,
but we can't fix these problems. And as a result, it's a difficult situation. And we just asked the
question, how can our church help bless our community? And here's what this government leader
said to me. He said, we do have enough money to be able to purchase materials for these homes that
are in need of repair, but we can't pay for the labor and we don't know how to find volunteers.
And I thought, I bet I can find some volunteers. Before long, this church stepped up, Six Stones
was started. And now in the last 10 years, we've rebuilt or repaired 800 homes in 10 years.
I think that's an incredible thing. It's a picture of the church being active. It's a picture of a
church saying, there's a need out there. So we can't depend on someone else doing that, but that's our
neighbor. That's our friend. That's someone that knows them. We're going to step up and do all that
we can. And that's what the church is known for. That's what the church should be known for. And
these days ahead, I see the need of that growing and growing and growing, but I also see the response
of that growing because we're wired to do this. We're wired to follow the compassion of Jesus, to
look at all the things that he taught us and the way he lived. We're wired to be encouragers to all
those around us. But here's some questions. Are you serving? Are you giving? Are you acting on the
needs around you? Are you encouraging those that are hurting? That's the calling we have in life.
First of all, encourage the people around you. The second principle in these verses is equally
important. Depend on the one above you. Notice what it says in verses 16 through 20, rejoice always,
pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
Don't quench the spirit. Don't despise prophetic utterances. 29 words in five verses, very short,
very to the point, but it all points to one thing. You've got to depend on God to do the things that
God is calling you to do. Listen to this quote. For me to give, for me to rejoice, for me to pray,
and give thanks in everything, I must believe that God will work every circumstance in my life for
good. It takes faith to do those things. I mean, you can't rejoice and give thanks in everything
unless you believe God is going to bring something good out of it. You can't pray without ceasing
unless it's just part of what your dependence is. You're depending on God for every little thing.
You're depending on God for every little thing in life, and so you're praying without ceasing.
You can't keep from despising prophetic utterances unless you believe that if God speaks,
then it'll be the right thing to do. You're going to listen to that. You don't want to grieve his
spirit. All that says we've got to depend on God more than we ever have before. Let me just tell
you as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, as a citizen of America, I need to be walking by faith
in how I live my citizenship at, and how I have responsibility to reflect the gospel of Jesus and
the love of God with the people that are all around me, not only in the way of encouraging them,
but depending on God to help me with that, to be led of the spirit. Every significant work
God has done beginning in our church and beyond our church, and he has done many things,
has happened through a spiritual prompting, a spiritual prompting.
Today we have a Lionheart Academy here. One of my friends and a man that served in the church staff
years ago, Stan Dobbs, was in a hospital bed in Houston going through transfusions for his cancer,
and it didn't have a good prognosis, but Stanley had been involved in many ministries, and he'd
seen God speak to him and lead him in great ways. While he was on that hospital bed, not knowing
what his future was, he got the vision for Lionheart Academy. The vision for Lionheart
Academy was this, that we would reach a whole generation of children that only secular
organizations were attempting to reach, and that we would help them have incredible child care,
incredible early education at a high, high level, but also with the gospel of Jesus Christ alongside
that. Just a few years ago he started Lionheart Academy, and now I think there are up to 21
different academies and 21 different churches, and it won't surprise me at all if he has hundreds
and hundreds of those in the days ahead. And how did all that begin? By a spiritual prompting on
a hospital bed when he didn't know his future. He acted on that, and God has done the rest.
Listen, that's why the church needs to be really alert to the things the Spirit is leading us to
do as individuals and as a church as a whole as we move into a new era. What I consider a new era
of the church in America, it's incredibly important that we depend on the one above us. And then
finally, we need to discern the issues before you. These last two verses, again, are brief,
but notice what he says there. He says, examine, examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that
which is good, abstain from every form of evil. Now some of what he says here is attached to that
previous verse which says, don't despise prophetic utterances. In other words, be discerning about
what you listen to when someone says, the Lord has told me that. But I consider that to be good
common sense as well. When someone says, God has said something to me about you, you need to use
good common sense. You need to consider it with discernment. But he's also speaking in a general
sense. He's doing this all the way through the text. This is going to affect how you look at
issues in your culture as well. It's even going to help us answer the question, how do Christians
deal with the issues in our culture? How do we help the poor and hurting? How do we meet the needs
of the aged and sick? What about abortion? We've posed that already today. What about transgenderism?
The rise of LGBTQ? What about the border? Here it is in the simplest form.
From my perspective, we've become a nation that merely talks and votes. We do not largely see
and act on needs in front of us as we should. But the scripture is going to encourage us to deal with
what's in front of us, not just what's on the other side of the continent. We're so concerned
about something we can't affect, and we're so ignorant about the things that are right here
before our very eyes. We can make a difference with those right here. God uses that in a concentric
circle effect of influence if he'll use us, if we'll let him. So how do these admonitions
respond and how we respond to them? First of all, let me say these three things about these three
admonitions. I'm just going to break them down and use everyday language. First of all, filter
everything through scriptural truth. Let me say of all the people in the world to be confused,
Christians should be the last ones confused. Wouldn't you agree with that? I mean, if we know
who God is, let me know where truth comes from. And if we know where truth comes from, we know
what truth is. It's really important for us to filter everything that we hear, everything we see,
everything that comes across our path with scriptural truth. It literally says to weigh
everything carefully. Truth is not changing. Truth is not relative. It's not murky. It doesn't
contradict itself. You can know the truth. It's become very popular today because it's
become very popular today for people to say they're deconstructing their faith, which is another way
of saying, I don't like everything that I've been told that I should believe. I don't like everything
the Bible says. And so I'm going to deconstruct the faith. I'm going to rebuild it the way I want to
rebuild it. And it can only happen in an era where people are rejecting the biblical and traditional
morals of the Bible. Tony Evans said it really well. He said, people don't reject the Bible because
it contradicts itself. They reject the Bible because it contradicts them and their own
perspectives. But the Bible is our truth. Filter everything from scriptural truth.
The second admonition that those verses hold is this one about what is good. Embrace and protect
what is good. Do you see the verse again? He said, hold fast to that which is good. Stand by good.
Celebrate good. Don't be ashamed of good. Keep what is good from being threatened. It's true wherever
you are a citizen. Embrace the good. Here's what I know. I know in our culture today when some people
stand up for good, they stand up all by themselves. And that Paul is saying, hold fast to that what is
good. Come alongside those who want good for culture and for society. What's good for all is
worthy to be stood up for. The third admonition is move away from all forms of evil. He says, abstain
from every form of evil. That's the actual translation. Now that's kind of tricky in an
un-Christian world, un-Christian culture. But here's what's true. Bad company still corrupts good
morals. It's incredibly important for us to be discerning. And it corrupts good morals by
practicing and excusing and rationalizing evil. And eventually we just give up and say, okay, I guess
it's all right. It's not so bad when the Bible says it's evil. It's still important to refrain from
every form of what God says is evil. So what you see and what you listen to, what you tolerate in
your life, what you think about, what you defend, what you lobby for, all those things are covered
under this blanket umbrella. Embrace what is good and abstain from what is evil.
Now the church should never be a political machine, but we do have to represent truth when our nation
and our community makes decisions because we are ambassadors for Jesus Christ. We're ambassadors of
the word of God. And if we think truth is best, best not only for us, but God's best for people
everywhere. Why would we be silent when it counts? And beyond that, making decisions and voting is
not all we're called to. We're called to see the needs around us and act in the spirit of Christ.
And by the way, we're the only people group that I know of that will actually do that.
He will say, we believe in meeting needs. We believe in the power of Christ and His provision.
We believe we are to help meet those needs. All the way back in 1 John, John, the disciple of love,
gives us advice to the church. I just love what it says. It says, but whoever has the world's
goods and see his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide
in him? And then the practical application is so good. Little children, let us not love with word
or with tongue, but indeed and truth. In other words, don't just talk about it. Don't try to get
somebody else to meet the need. You love by your actions and by your truth. And when one believer
does this and acts upon this passage and loves indeed and truth, then another and then another,
when a church makes a big commitment to those in need and then another and then another,
God raises up still more of this group and that group. And before long, all are acting
in encouraging ways, all depending on God, all are discerning the issues and being on the right side
of God's truth, which is the only place we can be. And that's when we're sought and light.
That's when the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to be very evident. These people are not here for
themselves. They're here for the living God and they're here to represent Him to us. That's our
calling. In early Rome, you may not know this fact, but in early Rome, Christians made up less than
1% of the population, yet they had a profound impact on the culture. By 100 AD, they could only
count 7,000 Christians in the whole civilization. That's not very many Christians, 7,000, that's it.
And yet, because Christians lived in such a winsome, loving, authentic way, they had a profound
impact on the culture. They did things that others wouldn't do. They took care of those that had gone
down in a plague and those who were sick were left by their own family members and Christians
would come back and take care of them. They lived in such a way where Christ's teachings were
exemplified, it became acceptable and even desirable to be a Christian because of that
winsome way of life. By 350 AD, just 250 years later, there were over 30 million followers of
Christ with huge influence in the world. Why? Because it's a superior way to live, mirroring
and following the life of Jesus Christ. That's why. Because there's power in that kind of living.
There's power in that kind of love. There's power in those kinds of actions that meet needs that are
right in front of us for the cause of Christ, for the gospel of Christ. When I read that kind of
thing, I say, we should do this again. We should live this out. We should go out and live it out
locally and let it impact the world globally. You may be listening to me today and saying, you know,
I'm glad you have great optimism. I don't share your optimism. Let me just say this to you. You
don't see what God is doing in many parts of the world. But if you were able to see it, you would
share my optimism. God is still at work. He's still the same God. He still works the same way.
Human nature hasn't changed and He's still able to meet the needs of those around us.
If we would just let Him work through us, be an encourager, depend on the God of the universe,
and then you reach out, discern the things around you, and act as an ambassador of Jesus Christ.
In just a few moments, we're going to have a time of dismissal. I have a couple of invitations for
you today. One of those invitations is to come to Christ if you haven't already.
If you haven't seen and realized what Jesus did on the cross for you, and maybe you've never had
a moment in your life where you said, I want to be forgiven of my sin. I want to have forgiveness
that God promises to Christ. Then we can talk to you about that. We can have a conversation with
you. You can put your faith in Christ today. I would encourage you to do that today. Not later,
not tomorrow, not next week, now. We have decision stations that are set up for those kinds of
conversations. Please stop by, talk to somebody. Say, I'm having questions about my faith in Jesus
today. So stop by and talk to them about anything, but certainly about that. The second invitation
is I would love to meet you if you're a guest. We have a guest reception center that's just
outside our center exit doors and across the hallway. Take a moment to drop in. Let me say
hello to you. Let me welcome you to our services today at the Cross City Church.
Would you stand with me as we have this closing word of prayer? Father, today I am so thankful
for all the many things we've talked about today. Thankful to live in this country.
Thankful to be a part of the church of Jesus Christ. Father, I'm thankful for the faith
that has been true through the ages and for the remembrance that you never change. You're just as
powerful today as you always have been. Father, I want to thank you today that you call us to do
something in our nation at this time. You call us to be active. You call us to be involved, to
encourage, to build up people, to meet needs. And Lord, help us do that together. Father, I ask you
today to give us a spirit of optimism and trust as well as gratitude. And then Lord, help us to do
something about the things we're concerned about. So today, Lord, we commit ourselves to you into
that. And we ask this in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.