Gateway Church's Podcast
Show and Tell
I want to share today for a few minutes on show and tell, something real simple, just show and tell, show and tell. I believe that you and I are living in days when you look around us, that God has called us, He's called us as spiritual families, called us as parents and as neighbors and people in the community and the marketplace. He has called us to take the great story of grace and mercy and salvation and all the things that we celebrated last weekend about resurrection, weekend and what Christ has done for us. I believe He's called us to take that, to show it and to share it and to serve the people around us, as many people as possible around us because we are living in moments where so many people need Him today. They need our story of what God has done in our life all around us. Other people all around you that are waiting to hear your story of grace, people far from God that need to know that He cares about them, that He loves them and you and I get to have that opportunity to show that, to share that and to serve people for the cause of Jesus Christ, not a greater privilege on the world. So let's all pray. Father, we love You. Thank You for this great church. I thank You for what You're doing today at Gateway. We thank You for our great pastors and thank You for them, Lord, and their heart for so many of the leadership team here, Lord, it's just exciting to be in this house and to be at every campus, Lord, because I believe You have something to say to us today. We believe You have a word for us. We believe You want to grow us. You want to change us. Lord, we thank You that it's not by power of might, but it's by Your Spirit. We pray that we would decrease and that Jesus who we worshiped would increase in our life. We love You. We love You. We love You in Jesus' name and everybody said a good Amen. But You turn to the person next to You and say, "I'm so glad You made it to church today." Come on, look at that other person that was Your second choice. And tell them, "I'm glad You showed up also." At least you know who the second choices are now in the room. One of my favorite words that Jesus speaks in the Bible is from the cross. It's found in John chapter 19, John chapter 19, and it was celebrating resurrection weekend. It's fresh on our heart. Jesus says this from the cross, John chapter 19 verse 20, "A later knowing that all was now completed," it's an important word, "so that the Scripture would be fulfilled," Jesus said, "I'm thirsty." Verse 29, "A jar of wine and vinegar was there and they soaked the sponge and they put it on a stalk and on a hyssop plant and they lifted up to Jesus' lips." And the Bible says when He had received the drink, Jesus said these words and we even heard it during our worship time. It is finished. It is finished. With that, the Bible says that our Lord and our Savior, the Son of God, bowed His head and gave up His Spirit. It is finished. Probably three of my favorite words, one of my favorite statements in Scripture. It is finished, I like that, finished, finished. The Greek, it means completed, it means paid in full, it means accomplished, it means done. It is finished. Jesus did exactly to the assignment that the Father set Him out to do, a fantastic finish for people, fantastic finish for people. As I was thinking about that and I've been studying that, what do you do with finished things? I know that we embrace it, we acknowledge it and we thank God for it, but what do you do with finished works? And when things are finished, with Jesus said it is finished, that we walk and we live and we make our home and we live our life under and in and the finished, fantastic, completed, done, paid in full work. What do you do with the finished work? As I thought about that, just kind of thinking to myself about the finished work that I've embraced and the finished work that our church and our family, we've embraced the finished work of what Jesus did. I found out that church when something you do is finished, when it's completed, there's always a purpose for it. There's a purpose when something is finished. And I believe what Jesus did on the cross, there's a purpose for it and it's a now purpose for our life. You know, my wife is, you know, she's from Louisiana, she cooks well as you can tell. She can handle herself in the kitchen and one of the things she does is she bakes and she bakes a chocolate cake, make you want to run around the house for. I'm telling you right now, just, it is a fantastic chocolate cake. I mean, it is something, when she says I'm baking that cake today, well, I get fired up and, you know, I just get all excited, oh, what's that, what's up? It just puts me in a good mood when I walk in and I smell this chocolate cake, can I see? When she's finished with it, she puts it up on our little island, can I see? I look at it, but that's not the only thing I do. I just don't stare at it. I just don't gather everybody around and say, let's just check it out. Guess what I do? I eat it and I taste it and I hide it and I don't tell anybody else about it. How many in here you have a problem with hiding desserts? Come on, I'm not the only one. I'm seeing some folk all up in this house. You've been hiding something if you know what I'm talking about. Don't stare at it. I can remember back in my college days when you would finish your paper, man, that would be such a great feeling of turning in a paper. You turned it in. We're done and you would turn in this paper as a great one. When our kids have school projects, I'm so proud when we together and these days when a child has a school project, it is a family project. I'm very proud of my project. We do a project together. I'll be like to my daughter. We have a little 11-year-old and I won't be careful with my project. You just want to be careful with your project, but it's a great feeling. When you turn it in. I don't know if you've ever paid anything off. When you've paid off debt, man, that is a fantastic feeling. When you've paid something off, you want to tell the world what a car's paid for, baby. It's paid for. Check it out. It's paid for. I mean, I know it's in 1972, I've been paying on it for 30 years. It's paid for. You're so proud of something paid for. One of our facilities, we moved in and it was such a large step for us as a church. We were just a couple hundred people and we bought this facility for about $400,000. I remember it might as well have been a passage on $40 million. We were just two and a half years old as a church and we bought that and we went about the process of let's pay for this as soon as we can so that we can do more outreach in our community so that we can have greater margin to help the poor and we got real aggressive. And I remember the Friday when we sent in our last payment, which is three years, three and a half years later, we paid off that first facility. It was a great feeling. The next Sunday, boy, the whole church service was about, you know, here's the note and we've paid for the note. We had a big old thing. We stamped paid on it. Man, I was stamping it on people's arms and we were getting tattoos paid for. Great feeling. Great feeling when things are paid for. When things are paid for, what Jesus did on the cross, it's better than a cake, it's better than a project. His finish work changes us and it causes us to respond. It causes us to a life lived, it causes us to a story that's told and the work that He did is just something that we admired, something that activates, something in us. We share it with others and that's why I love the challenge in Matthew chapter 5 when Jesus is at the Sermon on the Mount and He just kind of says what we're to be and He says this, Matthew chapter 5 verse 13, it says, "You are the salt of the earth." After salt loses its saltiness, it's a great word. How can it be a salty again? It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out, trampled. "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it up on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house." I love verse 16. "In the same way, let your light shine before being that they may see your good deeds and may praise the Father in heaven." I think one of the greatest responses that you and I can have when we embrace and we celebrate and we say yes to the finished work of Jesus Christ is to be salt and light, to be salt and light. You know salt has its purpose. If there's any people who know salt, it's Texas and South Louisiana. We understand the blessing of salt. Salt has a purity to it but how many know salt has a flavor? I mean you put salt in something in Louisiana, we put some salt in it, we put a little something in it. Bam! Whoa! I mean salt has flavor to it. It just kind of mixes it up a little bit. It's like, yeah. I mean I've been, you travel, I've got one of my closest friends in Minnesota and I go to Minnesota, we eat some pot roast and some taters and some carrots. It's like, wow, this is incredible but where's the, bam! I smuggle Tabasco when I travel, when I look at, yeah. Salt has a radiance to it, it has a purity to it, it changes things. Jesus says, I want you to be that, then he calls us to be liked, we're to God, we're to warm, my wife loves a fire, her dad builds a fire about nine months out of the year. He gets wood for days and his old backyards would, we'll be in like May, standing in front of a fire and they'll be, oh this is good. It's about to wear me. Have you ever been in a house with a fire and you're like, I go, go outside. Somebody cut the AC on. It warms everything. Jesus says with my finish, what I've done in your life, then go be salt, go be light. Go help others, let it be seen. Let it be seen in every, every part of your world, let it be seen. Let the radiance of what I've done in your life be tasted. I love what an old missionary says. He says, there can be no such thing as secret discipleship for either the secret see destroys the disciple or the disciple destroys the secret see. Tells us that a person of faith in Jesus Christ is visible and vocal, visible and vocal. See I believe once you come through the door of grace, once you come to know him, once you walk through the door of salvation and however that's happened in your life. But once you walk through the door, we don't let the door slam behind us. We keep the door open for other, one of the greatest purposes and one of the greatest things that you and I get to do is once we walk through the changing power, the forgiveness of Jesus Christ is we get to turn around and be a doorkeeper in the house of God so that the addicted, the lonely, the hurting, the messed up, the painful, the forgotten, get to find a way to Jesus. We get to do that. Have you ever been somewhere and you accidentally let the door slam on somebody, just kind of fogging out, you just roll through it and you turn around and they're like knocks the lady back into the parking lot? Have you ever been carrying anything, somebody let's the door on you, that's not a fun feeling when someone lets the door close on you as the church and it's the people of God. We get to hold the door open. I want to encourage you, hold the door open for people. Hold the door open for those around you. You know when I was growing up, I had a speech issue, stuttered a lot and I was a little touch ADD. I know that shocks me if you hear today, wow that's a shocker. And so I would be in normal class and then be in resource for a little bit back in those days. And in normal class it was kind of hard because everybody kind of knew you were in resource and back in those days it wasn't hidden, special needs and exceptions were not blended, you were just kind of like, okay I might go to resource and you just tell, guess what's up? On the PA everybody just rolling out a funny class, resource kids, get the resource, holla. And so you would do that half of the day and then the other half of the day you would go to normal class and I didn't have much game in my normal class because of resource class, they just didn't go real well, you got bullied, got punched a couple times, things like that. But you know when I was in fifth or sixth grade I could remember, you know there were one thing that we did that I excelled in called show and tale. I got it like an A in that. I remember I was an R, Rizzo, so I was at the end of the year and just a few more and so we did show and tale and we would only do it at a certain time of the year so it came down to that month and that week we were going to show and tell and pass around and slip there just a few of us and we're going to do show and tell left and so they passed it around and I wrote down, I was looking list, nobody had, I had just, I had a really cool GI Joe, it was just a slamming GI Joe, so I wrote down GI Joe, I had to tell what you were going to show. There was a few more after me and so you know after the list went through and so I was going to show mine like on a Thursday, my GI Joe and another guy was going to, was before me on Wednesday, where obviously he saw my selection GI Joe and he copied it and he did GI Joe because on Wednesday when he did his show and tale, he brought a GI Joe. Why do you got to get up on my GI Joe for? I mean that's what I wrote down, you're copying my GI Joe and when he brought, he was like that morning I brought a GI Joe, got a GI Joe too. It's not kind of how you do it. So he brought his GI Joe and his pastor Tom was like in this cool box, it was like a collector's GI Joe, it was like never been touched and it was like you know limited edition GI Joe, look at this GI Joe, it's got like a snorkel and some fins but it's a limited GI Joe, it's never been out of the box, it's still sealed up in the box, here's my GI Joe, and then at the end, normally in most show and tell moments, you would pass around your show and tell item and everybody, oh it's amazing, it's so incredible. So you know after they were teachers like you know Johnny would you like to pass around your GI Joe? No, nobody can touch my GI Joe, I just send it on a table and they can walk by and look at it. Who also walked by and look at the GI Joe in a box and so we all walked by and he was standing by GI Joe, don't touch that dude, walk by the GI Joe, just looked at it, it's great, it's in a box and so you know I went home and I was bummed out about my GI Joe, then I got a little attitude, I was like I got a cool GI Joe, I mean my GI Joe, it had been in battle, it had been living in the backyard, I mean my GI Joe, I mean I had one day torch arm off and duct taped it back on because I want to look like it had been the Korea, Vietnam, it had been in war, one day I stuck an M 80 and blew a hole in its back, lit its hair on fire, you know half of its hair wasn't there, so the next day I just said my daddy said you bring that GI Joe, that GI Joe's been through some things, you show those people what a real GI Joe looks like, I brought my GI Joe to class, said I said it's a real GI Joe, it's not in a box, I mean it's been in the backyard, pass it around, throw it up against the wall, step on it, stomp on it, hey my man, tear its arm off, it loves it, light its hair on fire, pie out, say what does that have to do with anything related to church, I'm glad you asked, people are not looking for some perfect plastic, come on somebody, neat, better than everybody else, never been used before, GI Joe, Kristi Anity, they're looking for real lives, people that have been through some things that are not afraid to tell their story, tell their pain, tell their good, so I love your pastor, your pastor stands and tells the good, the bad and the ugly and lets you know real life, real situation that he's walked through, that's what people are looking for, guess what, they're looking for it in your life, you have something to show and you have something to tell that I can never show and tell, how do we respond to that, you know it's just a couple ways, I just want to leave you with this idea, I want to challenge you, I want to encourage you, I want to compel you with the idea because I think this is so important and this is for you that you have something, you, everyone at every campus today, you have something to show off about God Almighty in your life, you have something to show, I love what Romans 5 says, I just want to read it real quick, I love this verse and hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into hearts by the Holy Spirit, many of you, God has poured out his love into your heart, you've walked through some things and he has poured it in you so that he could pour it through you, he has poured it into your life so that it can be poured out on the campus, so that it can be poured out in the hard places, so it can be poured out during the tough times, those people that look and those people that you hear, those people that you know about that are walking through tragedy that have messed up their life, God has poured in his love into your life, into your world so that you can pour it out, you have something to show off about God, and I'll tell you the second thing, you have something to share and to serve for others all around you, so pass you to Scripture, Matthew chapter 20 verse 20, 8 it says, "Just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many," I love that Matthew 2028, "to serve and to give his life a ransom for many," there are people all around you, all around you, that are looking, looking for the love of God, they are far from God, and guess what, you're the closest person to them, they're far from God and you're the closest person to them, many of you have been watching this situation with the NFL, a little NFL block, I had a draft yesterday, and I know this is Dallas Cowboy World, and the Saints won the Super Bowl, and we still think we won it, it's odd about Louisiana, we've won the Super Bowl, we still think we're the Super Bowl chants in Louisiana, in ten years or now, if we never win another one, we will still think we are these still reigning Super Bowl chants, it's just kind of how it works in South Louisiana, we're a little deranged, but in the NFL right now, there's a lockout, they're not playing football, and there's a lot of negotiations, it's in the paper every single day, ESPN, it's on, talk radio, and in that there is a negotiator you see on about every talk radio and about every press meeting, and you'll see it in the USA today all over, there's a negotiator that is in the middle of all this, he's in New York, he's in Washington, he's going back and forth with the team, his name is Kevin Muay, Kevin Muay, he's a chief negotiator, when you see the things that are happening in the NFL, things right now you see Kevin, he's right there as the President of the NFL Players Association, Kevin Muay, Kevin Muay is from Lee'sville, Louisiana, and got a football scholarship to go to none other than the great university and the great football powerhouse LSU Tigers, there's always one in every crowd, normally one, so Kevin played football, LSU, did a great job there, went and played at the Seahawks for a while, and then got one of the highest paid contracts ever for a center for the New York Jets, played the New York Jets for several years, and then went from there to the Tennessee Titans, all pro eight years in a row, all pro center, they say he really helped change the game as it relates to an offensive lineman and a center, and then became President of the NFL Players Association, you see him in the middle of all this, I met Kevin when he was a junior at LSU, his wife was a friend of the land, they went to youth group together, and they had fallen in love with LSU and wanted to get married, and they called out to some churches to marry them, and Kevin was not a Christian, and she was away from the Lord, and they called a couple of places, and they didn't really feel like marrying them, and they didn't want to go just a piece, and she called me one day, she said, "Listen, this is Tracy, I've heard you in a while, and I just, you haven't heard from me in a while, and I wanted you to know that I'm getting married to a guy by the name of Kevin, he plays football LSU, he's not a believer, he's not interested in being a believer, now our church was about six months old, I got to tell you, I just didn't have a lot to do, I'd visit everybody in the church, we started with 12 people, you know, our first Easter, we had a handful of people, 72 people, I don't know where all that came from, and so I didn't have a lot to do, so, you know, and so, you know, I was visiting the widows on Monday, I did everything on Monday, the rest of the week I was like, "Hey, what's up?" We take some, a board pastor in an office, it's not well, I want to do stuff, so we started doing all kinds of crazy outreach, it's just reaching people, and I had this idea, I'll marry people, I'll just marry people far from God, because then when I get them in an office, I'll just tell them about Jesus the whole time, because I've only been married six years, I don't know that much about marriage, but I tell people about Jesus, and so, she said, "Would you marry us?" Because we've been turned down by three times, I said, "Sure, Tre, I'd love to marry you." You know, what y'all come over here a couple months before you get married with me a couple of times? We've met three times, we've got to meet three times from pre-maritz counselor, pre-maritz counselor. Now, we've changed things since then, but that was the early days, and they came in and sat down, and so, I just say, "Hey, it's great, gonna get married." We talked for two or three minutes about the wedding, and marriage, and I tell them all that I knew at about 30 seconds, you know, you just say yes, and just be kind, and pray, and take the garbage out. And then I began to proceed to preach the gospel, the Romans' road where all sinners, we sin, we fall short of the glory of God, but the free gift is Jesus Christ, he gives eternal life, he can change your life. And so, for three times, we did this, I got to the end of it, I'm a big old Kevin, big old boy, he said, I said, "Can we talk about Christ for three weeks? Would you like to receive Jesus as your Savior?" And he said, "No, not at all. Are you ready to pray with me to receive Christ as your Savior? I'm not interested. Would you like to bow your head and pray with me right now, and repeat a prayer after me to receive Jesus, because you're going to hell, my son, which, I mean, I just kept, I kept asking, kept asking, he kept saying no, finally he said, "I'm not interested in praying with you." I said, "Okay, Kevin, I love you, I'll see your wedding, we prayed together." And I went to the Lord, I didn't say, "Well, if you're not gonna pray with me, then I'm not marrying you. I'm gonna go to the merit and embarrass you. Delen's singing, we're gonna shut it down midway through the marriage and walk out on you." We had a great wedding, a great time. Delen's saying, "It's a great moment." And then I never heard from Kevin for three and a half years, he went on to play NFL football one Sunday as I was preaching. I looked up, there was just three or four hundred people on church, Kevin standing against the back wall. He's a big old boy, he's not hard to miss, I mean, and he's standing there. While I'm preaching, standing up, came about the last 15 minutes to service. I got done preaching, he came down and met me right here and I was like, "Oh gosh, Kevin's mad." I saw it was good, he's a big boy, man. Fertile Brown looked at me and he said, "I need to meet with you this week." He said, "When can I meet with you?" I said, "Well, we can meet tomorrow, let's meet tomorrow." He showed up, and back in those days we didn't have anywhere to meet, so we just went in a little Sunday school room, like a little barn room, actually had kid chairs. Now, he's 300 pounds, and I'm a big guy, we're like, "Promise you, we're sitting in kid chairs." And he looks at me and he says, "I've got some questions, this is something I can't sleep at night. I've gotten married, we've had a child, something's going on in my heart." He said, "And my brother passed away, and all these things are happening, and he opened up a notebook 67 questions." He said, "I don't know anybody to trust with spiritual questions but you." He said, "Here's the first question, why did God kill my brother in a car wreck six months ago?" Well, and I began to talk a little bit to Kevin about sovereignty of God, the mercy of God, and the plan of God, and then he went to the second question. He said, "Why do I know God's there, but I feel far from him." I talked a little bit about that. He started into the third question, I said, "Can't you have a hold up?" I said, "Well, I can't answer 67 questions, all I'm here to tell you is that Jesus Christ loves you. He's got a purpose for your life. You need to surrender your heart to God right now." And Kevin, that big old lineman, began to weep. And Kevin reached across the table. He said, "Now I'm ready to pray with you to receive Christ." Kevin Moir, I prayed with him. We got done. He's a big old boy. He starts crying. He's like, "That was 16 years ago. Now God is using Him in an incredible way. You never know the people around you that need the love of Jesus Christ. Let's be people of the show and tale as the finished work of Jesus Christ. Let's be more visible and let's be more vocal than we've ever been in our life because people all around us, they are far from God and God's put you in their path. Can I have a good amen? I want you to bow your heads and I want to pray with you. Father, I thank You. I thank You for every heart in this room, every person. Lord, I pray for those who know You. I pray that their knowing of You will not be a secret. Help us to be vocal and visible because You just never know. Help us Father to show, be willing to share, and to be willing to serve the least and the lonely. Even those who are on the outside look like they are not interested. You never know what's going on in their heart. Help us to be aware of that. Let Gateway Church be down as a show and tell church. Showing the love of God and telling people about the love of God. Showing Jesus, telling people about Jesus. Let it be birthed in this year like never before. From this resurrection weekend we've just celebrated. Let it be birthed like never before. Let it be a summer of showing and telling all throughout this region. Lord, I pray for that person of the day in this room who feels far from God. All across this room I'm going to pray for you. That's today's going to come and connect you. But I just want to pray for every, maybe you're here today and you feel far from God. You know He's there but you just feel far from God today. I want you to know that He is there for you. He's there with forgiveness. He's there with a new beginning. He's there to offer a fresh start for your life. The name of Jesus. Lord, I pray for every person who feels far from God. If you're here today and you say, "Dino, can you pray for me when you pray? Would you include me in that prayer?" Because I feel far from God today. I don't know why. If that's you, would you just lift your hands and say, "Dino, pray for me." Just real quick. All across this room I see hands are going to thank you, thank you. That's incredible. Thanks a lot. Just thank you so much for that. You can put that hand down. That's amazing. Let me pray for you. For every person who feels away from you, I thank you that at the name of Jesus. We call upon the name of Jesus. You show up. Lord, ignite our hearts because there are people in the room that feel like Kevin far from God and all around us, we feel like we know some Kevin's who are far from God. But Lord, we're not giving up on people because you didn't give up on us. We love you so much in Jesus' name. [BLANK_AUDIO]