Hope Church LV Sermons

Clear Head, Holy Spirit-Filled Hearts, God Uses!

We wrapped up our "Compelling Disciples" series with Pastor Scott teaching from 2 Timothy 4:3-5. In this sermon, we looked at the last two characteristics of Christ's life in us that He desires to live out through us which is sober-mindedness and self-control. Sober-minded disciples are watchful against the enemy, diligent in their training as a Jesus follower, and shares their story with those who are far from God.

Duration:: 42m
Broadcast on:: 30 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

thank you for joining us on the Hope Church LV podcast we're excited you came across this message if you're joining us for the first time I want to be the first to say welcome to Hope Church go ahead and open up the Hope Church LV app or visit hopechurchlv.com and click connect with us to fill out a short digital connection card if you haven't done so already make sure to subscribe rate and review our podcast to help spread Hope Church to the world once again thanks for joining us today good morning Hope Church my name is Ken Haredy my wife and I are members of Hope Church we've been attending Hope Church for 531 days I have the privilege of serving on the spiritual formation team and today's teaching text is 2 Timothy 4 3 through 5 for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths as for you always be sober minded endure suffering do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry this is the word of the Lord and thank you Ken as he's mentioned amen as you mentioned go ahead and grab your Bibles if you haven't already second Timothy will be there in just a little while but we have been studying God's Word we do study God's Word every week but over the course of the series we have been memorizing God's Word as well so some of you already know where I'm going we have been memorizing Colossians chapter 4 verses 5 and 6 and I need to ask a volunteer to stand up and from memory quote Colossians chapter 4 verses 5 and 6 who's got it at the 10 30 service oh right there I love it I love it give it to us the best okay right on that was that was a different translation and I memorize it but let's all read it out of the ESV together one two three walk in wisdom toward outsiders making the best use of the time let your speech always be gracious so that you may know how you ought to answer each person amen amen just because the series is ending does not mean our memorization of scripture has to end we want to strategically across the year be people that love and live in God's word so we'll be doing that again hopefully you jump on board we love to have our church love and live in God's word let's get to work second Timothy 4 again open your Bibles will get there I watched a video this week very cute video I highly recommend it it was called kids marshmallows and the psychology of self-control maybe you've seen a video like this they take toddlers about probably two to five years old and they put them in a room with a paper plate with a single marshmallow on it and they said here's the deal we're gonna walk out of the room and if you don't touch that marshmallow or eat that marshmallow when I come back in the room we'll give you two marshmallows and so they walk out of the room and set a ten-minute timer these kids are staring the marshmallow down they're singing songs to the marshmallow some of them aren't even looking at it because they're trying to have self-control because that's exactly what this is this is a test of self-control it's incredibly cute you can go watch the video later but it got me thinking where we're headed in the text today what would be your test of self-control maybe for you it's not a marshmallow but what are the marshmallows in your life that would tempt you to to want to devour to want to jump in to want to do what they said you shouldn't do what is your marshmallows in your life a test of self-control where you are tempted maybe before we ask and answer that question we have to ask the question what is self-control what is self-control and the New Testament language of Greek it's the word nafo and it's translated as sober-minded or self-control they kind of use those interchangeably for the same Greek word it refers to one's watchfulness over what they are responsible for literally the word means the ability to think clearly or rightly the word shows up six times the New Testament and it's always a command given to Jesus followers who live in a world with a lot of proverbial marshmallows at our options options for us to take hold of the call we've been talking about for four weeks of a Jesus followers life is to live differently to live differently and so we are called as followers of Christ to be sober-minded to think clearly in a world full of marshmallows show I used to watch many years ago I talked to several people after the last two services who also enjoy the show maybe you've heard of it it's called Friday night lights if you like football you probably like Friday night lights there's a mantra in the show all throughout the show and you already know what it is if you've watched the show here's the mantra clear eyes full hearts can't lose over and over again you hear this mantra in Friday night lights well if I had to title my message today here's the message title for the remainder of our time together clear head holy spirit filled hearts God uses that's what we are going to study together today as we conclude our four week series compelling disciples living a life that can't be ignored you've been journeying with us you know this I encourage you if you haven't been on the journey with us to go online and watch the messages from the last few weeks we've been studying as a church the heart of this series are these few subtle characteristics in the life of a Jesus follower specifically these are characteristics of Christ's in Christ in us and as we've studied some of you guys know this these are not usually the character qualities that get the sermons we've been seeing some things that you might not even look at on the surface is very compelling we've been reminding us that we've been given a promise and a mission from Jesus himself it's the same promise and mission that the early disciples were given let's look at it one more time in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 this is Jesus telling these early disciples you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you that's the promise and you will be my witnesses it's Jerusalem and all your day and Sumerian to the end of the earth that is the mission the same promise the same mission is ours if you're a follower of Jesus right now in this moment the Holy Spirit of God dwells within you that's a promise you have the power of God living in us but we've also been given a mission to be a witness to the people around us the question we've been asking is how did God use these early disciples and us today how is he using us to be witnesses it's the same way he's been using Jesus followers all throughout the ages here it is Jesus followers were living lives that could not be ignored we've said this numerous times but as we closed this series I want to remind you I believe this is why you're in the room today at the 1030 service on June 30th 2024 this is what led you being in the room today for 2,000 years disciples of Jesus people following the way of Jesus have lived differently they took seriously the commands of God on their lives they walked in obedience and the way of Jesus exploded from city to city nation to nation and generation to generation Jesus followers living compelling lives that demanded attention they lived out what Paul said in Philippians chapter 2 I love how the new living translates it he said live clean innocent lives as children of God shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people as the early disciples did that the church spread like wildfire an explosion of God's activity and why I review a little bit of that for us today is because what's been on my heart the question I've been asking that led to this series becoming what it has been is if we've already seen God do that in the past won't he do it again won't we see a move of God in our midst that we could say it's like the church is exploding and spreading like wildfire what if the Jesus followers of hope church took our mission seriously and lived compelling lives in our schools and our workplaces in our homes in our gyms living lives that demanded attention by the grace of God would we not see him do what he's always done to come in people and transform them into compelling disciples this is what we have been studying and today we close our series by looking at a characteristic that isn't actually something you see on the outside last few weeks we've seen some outward characteristics like hospitality being gentle and respectful and being gracious with our words well today we close our series with an inward disposition that drives everything about our lives here it is sober mindedness and self-control I use both of those because again that same Greek word is translated both throughout the New Testament sober mindedness and self-control I know what some of you are thinking I have never heard a sermon on sober mindedness maybe you have but can we agree this might not there may not be a more apropos characteristic we could use in our world today then some sober mindedness and self-control some clear thinking I mean how would you agree we could use some more of sober minded clear thinking in our world today if you believe that raise your hand yes amen amen we could use that in our world today let me remind you the characteristics we're studying are not for the world out there darkened by their lostness the characteristics we are studying are for the church who has been called to be lights in the midst of the darkness so what would it look like for us as a church to be clear in our thinking to be sober minded self-controlled followers of Jesus and the text that was read for us earlier it's going to help us as a jumping off point to study this idea in our lives second Timothy chapter four anytime we parachute into a passage of scripture it's always helpful to remember the context of this if you don't know what second Timothy about is about it's a letter written to a pastor named Timothy it's written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the Apostle Paul written to a pastor named Timothy who's pastoring a church in the city of Ephesus some of you are familiar with that it's the church in Ephesus there was a letter written to that church it's the book of Ephesians and Timothy is a pastor in Ephesus and if you study ancient Ephesus there's a lot of stuff going on in Ephesus he was dealing with a lot of people chasing a lot of different things that were ungodly and so Paul under the inspirational Holy Spirit is writing a letter to his mentee historians tell us Paul is writing this letter from a jail cell it's actually the last letter Paul would write before he would go home to glory with Jesus in heaven and he's in jail because he's being persecuted for preaching the gospel like Paul had been so many times before in his life and so he writes this letter and what the passage we're gonna read was relevant then and it's just as relevant today because it's the word of God as we read these words can we not see this happening in our world today 2 Timothy 4 starting at verse 3 God's word says for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to truth and wander off into myths as for you always be sober minded endure suffering do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry Paul tells Timothy listen Timothy there's gonna be people that they don't want to hear your truth they want their own ideologies their own philosophies and they are going to chase those their ears are itching to hear what only they want to hear the things that will suit their lifestyle and they are going to wander off tell me we're not seeing that happen right in our midst right now but look at verse 5 as for you he's saying hey Jesus follower there should be a difference for us this is a contrasting statement hey this is what the world is doing but as for you if you underline things in your Bible I recommend you underline those three words this is a call to live different as for you and what's the first thing he says always be sober minded clear in your thinking self-controlled endure suffering do the work of evangelist fulfill your ministry I need us to see these are not four equal imperatives in this verse four equal commands in fact it's one umbrella command that allows you to live out the other three what do I mean only when we are sober minded clear in our thinking self-controlled can we actually endure suffering fulfill our ministry do the work of an evangelist being clear thinking being sober minded allows us to do all the things God has called us to do I say that because maybe up to this point in the message you have not been convinced that being clear in your thinking sober minded or self-controlled is really all that compelling like really this is how we're gonna end the series talking about being clear in our thinking being sober minded but I want to submit to you today that only when we are sober minded can we actually live out the things he's called us to live out only when we see things clearly and we're walking in self-control can we actually fulfill anything he's called us to do or say it to this way only with clear thinking are we able to do the compelling living you may have heard it said right thinking produces right action I agree I believe right thinking produces right action and that causes real curiosity from people as we live as lights in the darkness not being tossed to and fro but being calm and steady and clear in our thinking people will look at your life and say something's different about you there will be a a demanding of attention from your life as we live this out so what does that look like that's what we'll talk about the rest of the message but I want to give an example of what it doesn't look like from my own life but I first want to pull the room I believe there are a couple groups of people in the world one are the night owls and one are the early birds I want you to raise your hand if you are a night owl in here today I want you most yeah most of the 11 or the 10 30 service or night owls that's why you picked the 10 30 service it was a little different at the eighth I will raise your hand if you're an early bird early birds okay yeah you guys are all more godly amen amen amen just kidding I am an early bird and here's what I seriously this is as practical as I can be here's what I've discovered over the last few years it has been a game changer sometimes when I'm stressed when I'm not seeing things clearly when I'm easily irritable here's what I need to do I need to go to bed I've learned over the last few years my wife could attest like at a certain point when the clock hits a certain hour I won't tell you that hour so you won't judge me when it hits a certain point it's time for you to go to bed Scott why because I'm not clear in my thinking I'm not so reminded I need to get some rest I need to wake up early I need to get a cup of coffee getting God's word in the presence of the Lord and I can start to be clear in my thinking everything changes this is a very very practical way for us to walk this out for me one of the ways I fight not being sober minded get some rest maybe for you too I love how Warren weirs me talked about this idea of sober mindedness he says to be sober minded means to be alert to live with your eyes open to be sane and steady we could use some more sane and steady followers of Jesus in our world the sober minded believer has a calm sane outlook on life he is not complacent but neither is he frustrated or afraid he hears the tragic news of the day yet he does not lose hearts he experiences the difficulties of life but he does not give up he knows his future is secure in God's hand so he lives each day creatively calmly and obediently you show me a person like that I'm gonna show you somebody who's life will demand attention stuff going on around all the news is bad news and this person is calm and steady and thinking clearly why because he knows who's on the throne and he worships that one who's on the throne and he knows it is going to be okay this is how we are clear in our thinking so every time we gather I ask the question how is the word of God going to bear weight on our lives how are we going to feel the conviction of the spirit of God through the word of God and here's how I would ask you to evaluate what are the barriers to you being sober minded and self-controlled in your own life just practical for me it's I need to get some sleep I know that is one barrier for me not being self-controlled and sober minded what are the barriers for you I would I would submit that to all of us one of the barriers is not spending time in God's presence that's why we're constantly encouraging you to be people of the book to love and live in God's word the Bible says in Romans 12 that we are not to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds how do we be be transformed by the removal of our minds when we get in God's word we experience God's presence if we're not doing that we will be conformed to the world and our thinking will not be clear we will not be sober minded in our thought process that might be a barrier I believe that is a barrier for every Jesus fallen not having consistent time with the Lord maybe for you like me it's lack of sleep maybe for you it's different substances drugs alcohol there's a reason they call the the lack of those things in our lives being sober when we have those things it clouds our mind am I saying all of those things are a hundred percent absolutely not wrong altogether not necessarily but I'm simply saying for some of us we know we we allow one or two drinks to become three or four and it clouds our judgment and we allow some things to cloud our thinking and we're not sober minded listen maybe as simple as it is the practical application of God's word for you is just to ask the Lord have I taken it too far in this way maybe for you it's lust lust can so overwhelm us and get us thinking completely opposite things of the Lord maybe for you it's sinful anger you ever lost your cool and realize you're not seeing things clearly let's just do this 1030 service anyone else want to admit like me I lost my cool this week anyone raise your hand okay just a few people who are honest I lost my cool this week let me tell you why I lost my cool several times my wife and my oldest son have been in Thailand for nine days praise God they're on a mission trip I love what they're doing with the student ministry I'm getting all the updates and I'm really happy but what that means is that means I have been alone with three other kids by myself for nine days listen I love Jesus a whole lot but I need my wife okay shout out to you mom it's like wow I lost my cool my kids my two of them in the last service like I've had to apologize to them I like lost my cool there's a reason they call it seeing red because my sea red I'm not seeing clearly but seriously some of us know we when we allow sinful anger to enter in this a very practical way I'm not sober minded in my thinking I'm not self-controlled see how practical this is what if we took seriously the call on our lives is followers of Jesus to live sober minded clear thinking self-controlled lies what might he do in and through us listen we all know what it's like to be some around somebody who's not sober minded in their thinking so me or even thinking of some names right now like you you see them constantly listen you know what those people are those people are not winsome when we're that way we're not compelling we're actually not very fun to be around this is why all over God's word we're called to be sober minded clear in our thinking why so we can live out the commands of our lives that he calls us to by his grace so with all of that is kind of an umbrella idea of the message I want to close this series in this message with three applications of being sober minded very practical as we live out sober minded following of Jesus what will be some applications in our lives here's the first one sober minded disciples are watchful against the enemy sober minded disciples are watchful against the enemy many of you know this but we need to be reminded we have a very real enemy the Bible calls him the devil or Satan and he has been defeated by the cross of Christ hallelujah amen but he is not fully vanquished yet he is at work and alive right now in our world and some of you are feeling that and yet the Bible says that we can be aware and prepared for the enemy I want to show you how it says one of the ways we can do that look at 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8 be sober minded here's one of the ways we we are watchful of the enemy by being clear in our thinking by being self-controlled by being sober minded be watchful your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour the enemy is not an idea hope church not a force he is a spiritual being that is as real as the seat you are sitting in and the only way we can be on the lookout for him is if we're clear in our thinking for sober minded in our living aware of his schemes and dependent on Jesus to help resist him try to illustrate by sharing with you that me and my family have become the proud owners of some chickens we have some live chickens in my house right now as we speak the egg production is unbelievable by the way the price of eggs gone out we got some chickens and now I got a bunch of eggs in my fridge we've had six chickens but right now we only have three reason is we lost one to natural causes one was a rooster so we gave it away because I didn't want to handle that noise and the final one I want to tell you about unfortunately was taken out of this world by a coyote well the the benefit of the world that we live in is the technology that we have see I have a ring camera over the chicken area of my house and all of this carnage was caught on camera I actually want to show you the video real quick I'm just kidding I'm just getting some you're like no chicken lovers and you're gonna go eat canes for lunch it's like okay let me paint the picture for you my chickens are just mine in their own business they're pecking at the ground this is all on camera I went straight to my ring I saw it all okay pecking at the ground and out of nowhere you see the ears of the coyote pop up above my back wall that coyote jumps up and this thing's prowling like a roaring lion coyote jumps down now in that moment my chickens had two options option number one which would have been the silver minded option run to the coop because in the coop once they run up the little stairs that I made for them there's a hole where they can fit but the coyote can't there was safety in the coop I've already let the cat out of the bag that's not the option they chose what you see on the ring footage is these three chickens running around or four chickens rather running around the tree aimlessly trying to outrun the coyote they are not going to outrun the coyote in about three seconds you see a big puff of feathers and our deer chicken honey is gone now as dark as it is as I read this passage in first Peter that's exactly what I thought about and I got convicted because we see it playing out on my ring footage I think how how foolish of you run to the coop there's protection in the coop and yet how many times are we just like my chickens running aimlessly around the trees of our lives thinking we're going to outrun the enemy that is way smarter and way more powerful than you but there's a coop of our protection Jesus Christ has the one who has defeated the enemy we don't have to run around aimlessly the trees of our lives from our own self actualization and our own self willpower no we can run to the coop which is our protection where we are free and we can be the enemy that has been defeated can be defeated in our lives I want to show you in first Peter chapter five right after these verses here's how we are told to respond resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world and after you had suffered a little while check this out the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore confirm strengthen and establish you to him be the dominion forever and ever amen we have a couple different options when the enemy attacks in our lives a sober minded option is to run to the safety of the coop which is Jesus and trust him who has already defeated the enemy to do what he said he will do so let me ask you when the enemy strikes how do you respond do you run to the safety of the coop or do you run aimlessly around the proverbial trees of our lives thinking you will outrun the enemy listen some of you have felt the effects of this you will not outrun the enemy so run to the one who's already defeated the enemy that's our call but you guys know it's not just the amen somebody's excited about that it's not just the enemy without we have a an enemy that's prowling around like a roaring lion but there's also an enemy within and just like you my flesh is deceitful and some of us have been ravaged by this enemy within our flesh because we are not thinking so remindedly about our lives we're living like civilians when we should be in the middle of a war the war on our lives is real I love how pastor John Tyson said he said if you live like a civilian in a war zone you will become a casualty and some of you are feeling that right now listen the call on your life today is to trust the Lord for sober-minded clear thinking that's self-controlled so you can fight and be watchful of the enemy both within and without sober minded disciples are watchful against the enemy here's the second application sober minded disciples are diligent to train sober minded disciples are diligent to train to think clearly you have to be intentional pastor John Piper talked about this in his book don't waste your life I've recommended that book many times he has an illustration that you have to follow closely to really feel the weight of he he talks about the world we live in like the tide of an ocean it's strong and powerful this cultural tide and he says you have a couple options in this tide that we live in you can either be a dolphin or you can be a jellyfish look at what he says he says if you swim in the culture be a dolphin that cuts through the currents not a jellyfish that goes with the flow listen the only way we remain sober minded and self-controlled in a cultural tide full of jellyfish is to intentionally be a dolphin and the only reason you and I have the power to be a dolphin in a jellyfish world is because of the grace of God on our lives look at Titus chapter two the good news for us is if we need grace to be a dolphin he's given us that grace look at it for the grace of God has appeared somebody who's the underline that in your Bible because the only reason you're in a relationship with Jesus is because the grace of God has appeared and opened access for you and I'd have a relationship with the King of glory and to be a dolphin in a world full of jellyfish bringing salvation for all people because all that's true look at the next part training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and live you guessed it self- controlled upright and godly lives in this present age by the grace of God we have been saved but now he has called us by his grace to train to grow too mature and there will be evidence of that in our lives we talked about this last week pastor Trenton preached on this but the evidence is shown to us in one passage Galatians chapter 5 Bible calls it the fruit of the spirit look at it once again the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and once again self-control against such things there is no law why is this verse important this verse is important Jesus follower because it just said if you are training by God's grace the way he desires for you to if you are maturing the way he desires for you to growing in your faith these things will become more evident in your life they are fruit of a maturing follower of Jesus so I by God's grace will be more loving and more patient and more self-controlled than I was last year or five years ago why because I by the grace of God am training for this dependent on his grace and seeing him work out of my life what he desires that will not happen by accident but it happens intentionally we we don't receive these things passively we don't earn them we didn't deserve them but he has given us everything we need for life and godliness and so we train according to that grace for life and godliness we try to remind you over and over and over again every single one of us are being formed either by design or by default it's not a matter of what you're being disciple it's not a matter of if you're being discipled it's what are you being discipled into to be clear thinking you have to understand that the Christian life is not you trying to earn something but it's you it's you training with what you've already been given in Christ Dallas Willard had the iconic line grace is opposed to earning it is not opposed to effort earning is an attitude effort is an action the Christian life is us striving not for God's grace that was given freely to us but striving by God's grace there's a lot of illustrations of this all throughout the New Testament the New Testament is not ashamed at all of sharing with us that we are to train by his grace uses a lot of athletic references I know some of you don't love athletics but the New Testament uses a lot of these athletic references look at one of them the first Corinthians chapter 9 word of God says all athletes are disciplined in their training if you're an athlete you know that to be true to be good at what you do you have to train they do it to win a prize that will fade away but we do it for an eternal prize so I run with purpose in every step oh that the followers of Jesus and hope church could say that by God's grace in their lives I run with purpose with every step I'm not just shadow boxing I discipline my body like an athlete training it to do what it should otherwise I fear that after preaching to others I might myself be disqualified some of you know it takes discipline and dedication to be an athlete no one ever just says I'm going to become amazing at this sport by doing nothing and yet so many followers of Jesus say thanks for the salvation Lord now make me awesome as I sit back and do what I want to do with my life we will never become what he wants us to without our participation with the Spirit of God in us it needs to be said church we will not become the followers of Jesus he desires for us to by coming to a worship service once a week and then doing whatever we want the rest of the week in the same way as somebody who wants to run a marathons never getting there by running by going on a walk once a month nobody's becoming an Olympic weight lifter by never touching a barbell we know that practically in those types of situations but when we live it out spiritually we think it's going to be different by God's grace we train by God's grace we ask him for more growth we strive by his grace this may be new for some of you in the room we did a whole series on this last year if you weren't a part of that I encourage you to go back online and you can watch that you can go to hopechurchlv.com/rhythms we did a series called rhythms of grace we'll really unpack all this idea but I'll close this section by a convicting quote from D.A. Carson see if this challenges you like it challenges me he says people do not drift toward holiness apart from grace driven effort people do not gravitate toward godliness prayer obedience to Scripture faith and delight in the Lord we drift toward compromise and call it tolerance we drift towards disobedience and call it freedom we drift towards superstition and call it faith we cherish the in discipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation we slouch toward prayerlessness and dilute ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated we can be dolphins by God's grace in a jellyfish world and when we do it will be compelling and the only way we actually make that happen is to be sober minded in our thinking sober minded disciples we train intentionally we're diligent to train here's the third and final application as we around third sober minded disciples live with the end in mind sober minded disciples live with the end in mind this entire series has been about living as lights in a world by such a way that our lives would demand attention we've said over and over and over again that we have to see people from a spiritual perspective every single person that has ever existed right in this moment is in one of three places they're either in heaven they are in hell or they are here and that should do something to us as followers of Jesus we can't just sit back and hear that and go yeah I'm good with just a casual attendance to a church service if you're a follower of Jesus with the Spirit of God in you you've been given a mission we live with the end in mind I love our first Peter chapter 1 verse 13 says it therefore preparing your minds for action and you guessed it being so reminded set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you with the revelation of Jesus Christ listen the reason we live on mission the reason we are actively trusting God to give us grace in our lives that can't be ignored is because there is a time coming and we look forward to that day where the king of the universe will come back and reign in the world he created he will come back to be on his rightful throne as king over all that he made but until that day comes he's given every follower of Jesus a mission and we should live with the end in mind but that day is coming what's my role now my role is to trust the promise of the Spirit in me and go on mission with what he's given me to be a witness not sitting back idly but preparing our minds for action and we can only see that when we are sober minded clear in our thinking so again let me ask you very practically who in your life is far from God that you can share your story with maybe even this week see how practical this is there are people in all of our lives who are far from God but listen let me remind you they are far from God but you by the blood of Jesus and but brought near to God so maybe God brought you near to the people far from God so you can show them that they can also be near to God this is how we are living compelling lives this is how we live with the end in mind preparing for action we realize that those friends we have that family member those co-workers maybe God has brought you near to them so you can show them and share with them the story of how we saved you listen we talked about last week it is not your job to save people because you can't it's our responsibility to share and it's God's responsibility to save so who this week as you live a sober-minded self-controlled life who this week could you share your story with and trust the spirit of God could open their eyes and they could maybe enter into a relationship with him you see how the clear thinking leads to compelling living to your follower of Jesus you've been given the promise of the spirit you've been given the mission of God to be witnesses as soon as the service is over my family and I begin a time of vacation very much looking forward to getting away with my family and spending some time but I just had to let you know as my church family I'm so excited for what God is doing in our midst I'm excited to rest I'm excited to get some memories made with my family but I cannot wait to get back and to continue to see what he's doing in our midst I'm believing that there are some people that are feeling what I'm feeling that we're not just called to be spectators in this thing but we've been called for such a time as this to be participants in what he's called us to do here in our city coach Eric Taylor and Friday nightlights would send his team out on the field with the same mantra every single game clear eyes full hearts can't lose as we are sent out followers of Jesus to the field that is our homes and our workplaces and our schools and our gyms maybe our mantra should be clear-head Holy Spirit filled hearts God will use and as he lives in and through us we will live compelling lives that demand attention amen let's pray Jesus thank you for your word thank you for how you use it in our lives to challenge us to convict us to change us Lord now as we respond for a few moments pray you give us the grace to respond obediently for here today and you don't know Jesus every time we gather we want to give you the invitation just like we read and tied us to the grace of God has appeared his name is Jesus and he came to save sinners like me and you he did everything necessary to save you from your sin he stands ready today to save you and enter in a relationship with you a friendship with God maybe you're here today and you know your eyes have been open and you need to say yes to that invitation we have a prayer team up here we'll have some pastors and prayer volunteers we would love to talk to you about what it looks like to follow Jesus but for every follower of Jesus in the room where has God in his grace convicted you today by his word maybe for you it's a call to live more so remindedly maybe there's some things in your life that you know are barriers to you living this way that you've been called to live by God's grace maybe just want to get to this altar just surrender those things maybe there's some things you want to pray about in your life we are available to trust the spirit of whatever he wants to do as we follow him obediently in response so Jesus go before us now would we respond with obedience you're good we trust you we love you thank you Lord for what you're doing here at our church we ask you to do more of it Lord for your glory for our good and so that the city in this world would come to know Jesus we love you Lord we praise you in Jesus name amen let's stand let's respond as he leads [BLANK_AUDIO]