Viola Solid Rock Assembly
Guest Speaker
Good morning, everybody. I'm super happy to be with you guys here in Viola, Arkansas. I got the Viola experience, I feel like, this morning, I went out to see if I could find some donuts for my family, y'all got no donuts around here, y'all got a dollar general store in this church right here and a bunch of beautiful people and I think that out of everywhere that I've been, this church is about the best place that I've seen. Y'all got a beautiful property here, we got to stay last night in the, I don't know if you call it an evangelist quarters or what it is, but we feel very well taken care of. This place was full of kids last night that were really going after God. These altars were full and I feel like God did some incredible things and I'm sure you guys will get the testimony of that in the coming weeks as they speak to you about it. They played really, really aggressive dodge ball and I feel like the youth sponsors did not at all go easy on the kids. They really wanted to take their heads off and so there was some severe competition going on, but we had a really good time, it's been awesome to be here and to get to see this church. Y'all have awesome pastors, don't you? You guys want to give it a hand to your pastors? Yeah, I've heard the story of what's happened around here and it seems like y'all have just had some amazing progress and they speak highly of you as a congregation. So I'm super happy to be here with you guys. My name's Michael, this is my wife Tiffany, we've been married coming up on 18 years now, we got married when we were 10 years old, so that means we are 28. I've been married 18 years now, we've got three kids, my oldest son is 12, his name's Kai and he's a lot like his mom and I guess he's back with the kids, he likes to read, he's in love with Jesus, he's respectful and doesn't really talk a whole lot but he's a good looking kid and my second son, Zeke, who is nine is a lot more like I was and he is wild as can be. He's probably coloring on your walls right now, I'm sorry for that in advance. He's got a hairstyle that is like, it's similar to like a Muppet baby I think, if you comb it with water it will look exactly the same, it just sticks up everywhere and that is a physical manifestation of what's going on in his heart, he's a wild kid and then I've got the most beautiful, sweetest little girl, Ember Joy and she's right here four years old, about to turn five and we held out and we got that little girl so and I think that made the grandparents as happy as anybody else so that's our family. Tiffany and I have been with Kai Alpha for the last ten years before that we were in world missions in Tanzania, East Africa. Now Kai Alpha is a campus ministry and just to help you wrap your mind around it a little bit and what they do, they are a discipleship based ministry that is very, very much so in pursuit of people. So they have a service where they're trying to gather people and we worship the Lord together but if you never get gathered you're still going to hear about Kai Alpha on the campus because they're going to come and annoy you, they're going to knock on your door, they're going to beg you to come to a discipleship group, they chase people down, they are the ninjas of the kingdom and they are in pursuit of lost people and so that's been a very impactful thing in my life, Kai Alpha has been. Kai Alpha has raised up and sent out over 200 full-time missionaries in the last thirteen years from Arkansas alone, only in Arkansas. All over the world they've been sent, seventy percent of those have ended up planting other Kai Alpha's are on staff with a different Kai Alpha and then thirty percent of those have gone overseas and they're working cross-culturally. There's a gap there that I saw a couple of years ago, Tiffany and I were burdened because in those percentages we don't have people that we've sent from Kai Alpha into the local church as pastors. So two hundred in the last thirteen years and we haven't sent out a single pastor until just recently. So Tiffany and I created a new program, it's an on-ramp from Kai Alpha called the bridge that is for people who feel called into church ministry. So we're putting vision for local churches in front of young people who are feeling called into ministry and then we're aiding them as they step into pastoral roles and so over the last year we were able to send one to Atkins, one to Pine Bluff, one to Lamar, we got one in Russellville, we got one we're sending to North Little Rock and so Kai Alpha is raising up people and we're able to send them back into the local church. How many of you guys believe that the local church are the frontline suppliers for every missions effort in the world? I believe that and I think that if we don't focus on these front lines there will be no way to send and the world is hurting and broken and lost and America is slowly but surely becoming one of the greatest missions fields and missions efforts in my opinion in the world. You know people are sending from Africa here now, they're sending missionaries to America. You know that Gen Z is the least reached generation we've ever seen. 4%, they say less than 4% now have a biblical worldview of Gen Z, that's the ones that are coming into college. 4%. We've got to do something about that, we have to live more missionally. And let me tell you this, this is something that I believe. I don't think that it's time for our grandmas and grandpas in the church to pass a torch. That might be a controversial view, I don't think it's time for you guys to pass a torch. I think we all got to come together and put our hands on the torch and run together. The church is not just made up of young people, it's got moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and here's what I've found in the last couple of years. The people that are right around 60 years old and up, those are the people that are going into retirement, a lot of those people have time and they have money and they understand hospitality and they're full of the word of God. Man, these are people who are just equipped to be missionaries to this next generation. So I want to put that challenge in front of you and say please don't think that your time has come and gone and it's time to pass a torch, we need you now more than ever. We've got a fatherless generation, we need dads to step up and take young men under their wing. Show them how to do some stuff, show them how to work on a motor, open the word of God, show them how to build something, we need dads, we need nurturing moms and grandmas. And so I'm speaking on behalf of an entire generation. If you're not connected to a young person, young people, if you're not connected to somebody that has impartation power in their spirit, find somebody, get connected, ask them questions, love on them, let's bridge the gap between the older generation, the younger generation so that we can be the body of Jesus. What do you guys think about that? Amen. Hey, I've got something on my heart that I want to share with you guys. I think it's important when you're born and raised, especially in the Bible Belt, I think it's important to take an inward look at the faith that you have, the faith that you were raised in, the faith that you grew up experiencing, to take an inward look and ask the Lord to show you, is this something that I own for myself or was this gifted to me by my parents solely? It's a good thing to raise your child in the ways of the Lord. And the word says that in their older age, they will not depart from it. So that's an awesome thing. But I think that each and every one of us, when we stand before the Lord, we're going to be standing before Him by ourselves. Don't you think it's important that at some point, we own this Christianity. We own this faith. I believe it is. I believe it is important. So some years ago, I remember having a little bit of a, I don't know if you'd call it a crisis. I don't guess it was a crisis, a coming to God moment where I'm starting to sift through and realize why do I believe what I believe? I believe that it's true and mainly I believe it's true not because I was told but because I've experienced it, I've seen some things that are undeniably God, undeniably supernatural. But who am I? What do I think? What do I genuinely believe? And do I believe it because of tradition and religion? Because I'm supposed to or have I sought it out for myself? And so you know what you do, you pick up the Word of God and you begin searching for yourself. You can't live on someone else's regurgitated revelation. Hey, at some point, you open this Word right here and God will speak directly to you and He knows how to talk to you, sons and daughters. He knows how to speak directly to you. So I open up this Word here and I take a look at the life of Jesus. Why is that? Well because we're Christians. Do you know what the word Christian means? The word Christian means like Christ or small Christ. So do you know what you are Christian? You are Christ-like. Well, how do we know what Christ was like? We've got a standard right here, okay? And here's what I found and this is very interesting and I hope this doesn't ruffle too many feathers but the word Christian is only actually used a handful of times. And that's not even what believers in Jesus referred to themselves as. That's what they were labeled by others. I think it was only four times in Scripture you see the word Christian. You know what word they used, disciple? Over 240 times in Scripture you see the word disciple and/or follower of Jesus. So am I Christian? I'm trying to be but I'll tell you what I am. I'm a follower of Jesus before anything else, a follower of Jesus. So do we want to be like Christ? Raise your hand if you're a Christian in here. We've got any Christians? Thank you Lord. I want to be like Christ and so we have to consume directly from the source. And here's what I found really early in the gospels and this was a little disheartening to me. I found a little bit of a discrepancy in what I was told growing up versus what I see in this word. Here's what I was told growing up. I was told that I'm born and I live a life either a godly one as best I can or a life of sin and then at some point I die. And when I die I go to one of two places. I go to streets of gold or I go to lake of fire. That's what I was told. Now how do I get to streets of gold or lake of fire? Well I guess it has something to do with how much I've been sinning. Have I been a good boy? Because if I was a good boy for the majority of my life maybe then I get streets of gold or maybe not. Maybe if I was a bad boy right at my last days even if I was a good boy maybe I don't maybe I get lakes of fire. You hear what I'm saying? That was the story that I was given. And everything was about let me get out of here. And it really wasn't even in my heart it wasn't even about Jesus. It was about I don't want to get a spanking. And you know what that didn't produce a love for Jesus inside of me it produced a fear of hell. And I'm not saying we shouldn't fear absolute separation from the presence of God. Of course it's terrifying but is that our mobilizing factor? Is it love for Jesus? I don't know I'm a little confused. And then I start to read early in the Gospels and I see that Jesus came and he got baptized and he was tempted. He began his ministry and then we have what Jesus preached. He didn't preach that we go anywhere not that we don't. But his main message was something's come to us. Think about it repent. This is his message repent the kingdom of heaven has come near. You guys feeling that? That's kind of creepy isn't it? Are you feeling it? I felt a discrepancy and you know what changed inside of me? I don't have an escapist mentality. I'm not trying to get out of here as fast as I can. If he wanted us out of here we'd be gone by now don't you think? What if we've got something that we're supposed to be doing? What if there's something more to this faith, to this walk and what if it has very little to do with us and very much to do with the lost coming into the kingdom? But you know his last command was go and make disciples wasn't it? Are we making disciples? I look at the life of Jesus I see that he preached repentance and that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and then he goes and he does supernatural works. He lays his hands on people and they're healed. He casts demons out of people. You know by the time that I get to the book of Mark there's this beautiful little section right after the great commission where it describes what you look like as believers? Here's what it says. And these signs will accompany those who believe in my name. They'll cast out demons. That's who you are. You'll cast out demons. You'll speak in new tongues. If you pick up serpents they won't harm you if you drink poison it won't kill you. You'll lay your hands on the sick and they'll recover. That's who you are if you're going to be like Christ. Here's what I know. I know that as I look through the gospels there's an opportunity at first for you just to come and see him. Come and see, come and taste, come and experience. I remember being a come and see. You guys remember that early early on when you're just getting your first experiences with Jesus? Do you remember what it was like? Do you remember first love? Do you remember the excitement? Do you remember some of the questions? Some of the confusion. Do you remember some of the judgment you may have received as a come and see? I do. Here's what I want to put before you. We need more come and see people, lost people in this building. And in Jesus name I declare that will be the case. These seats will be full of people who are hurting and broken and lost and you'll have an opportunity to disciple. Look around you for people who are just coming to see who Jesus is. Invite them into community. Do you remember being a come and see? I heard an awful joke the other day. This old dusty cowboy came into a church and he sat on the back row. He sat through the whole service. The pastor came up to him after service was over, said, "Did you like the service?" He said, "Yep. I loved it. Had a great time. Thanks for having me." He said, "Hey, I'll tell you what. I want you to before you come back next week, I want you to go and ask the Lord what you should wear when you come to church." He was a little dirty, kind of stinky, probably had just come out of the field. He said, "I'll do that, pastor." He went, prayed, week went by, he came back and he came dressed just as dirty and as stinky as ever before that next week. And the pastor came up, greeted him, said, "I'm glad that you came back. Did you get a chance to go and ask the Lord what he thinks you should wear when you come into his house?" And he said, "Yes, pastor. I did." And he said, he didn't know, he's never been here. Are we okay with having some common sees? Are we okay with a cigarette butt in the parking lot? Are we okay with some tattoos and some piercings? Will you let people come and see and taste that he is good? You were once a common see. And at some point you became a follow me. Come and see and follow me. I would argue that the majority of the American church today is at least, at least, a follow me. You come, you ask the Lord for direction, you learn about Him, you consume the Word, maybe not even just from pastor. Maybe you've got a prayer closet in your home and you're just consuming, consuming, consuming and you're following and you're learning and you're in love with Jesus and it's like you can't get enough. I think no matter where you are on this spectrum, you will always be a follow me. There's always more to learn. The Word of God says it's the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to uncover it. There's a hunger inside of us to know more about God. How many of you guys are at least a follow me? Raise your hand if you're a follower. A follower of Jesus, yes, a follow me. Thank you, Lord. But don't you think that we should eventually become fishers of men? You come and see and follow Him as He's doing what? Fishing for men. How many of you guys are fishers? Are you asking God when you wake up in the morning for a divine appointment and expecting that He's going to give it to you? Look, here's how that goes. When you go to the gas station and you buy a drink and then you talk to the lady behind the counter, you say, "Hey, how's your day?" And she's like, "Oh, not so good." You don't say, "Oh, I hate to hear that. See you later. Ask why." Say, "Why? What's going on?" And then give them some time to express themselves. And then guess what? Lay your hands on them. Pray for them. God will do something miraculous. And if God does something miraculous in that moment, say, "Hey, can I have your phone number?" And invite them to church. "I'm not ready to go to church. Go to my house. Open your homes. Be fishers of men." There's this crazy story about this little white-haired man on George Street, I guess in London, England, if I can remember correctly. His name was Mr. Ginner. And this story was just a wild one. I can't remember all the details, but basically there was a pastor who was going around, he was speaking at all these different conventions, and he kept finding that there were people who had been changed by this man, Mr. Ginner. And the story went like this. They would be walking down George Street, they're doing some shopping, and that this guy would just step out of the doorway of his house. He would ask people on a daily basis, "Do you know the Lord? Are you saved? If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?" And he would lay his hands on people and pray for them, and they would be impacted by it. Well, he heard this story a couple of times, and so as he traveled and spoke, he began telling the story of Mr. Ginner and Mr. Ginner's very simple but powerful effectiveness in just sharing the gospel any chance that he got. Well, as he would speak, he would have more and more people raise their hand and say, "I was saved because of this guy's efforts." And then he found that there were even missionaries who were leading entire missionary crews that had been saved by this guy and pastors and leaders in society and political figures all because of this one little guy, Mr. Ginner, and he never did anything more than step out of that doorway, find people, and ask them, "Are you saved?" If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? Do you know Jesus? Very simple. Lay his hands on him and pray for him. Well, toward the end of the story, this guy ends up over close to George Street, and he's asking some of the locals, "Does this guy still live here?" And they said, "Yes, he still lives here." As a matter of fact, he doesn't go out in the streets as much, but they're in his doorway, he will, and he's still sharing the gospel. And this guy said, "Can I go and meet Mr. Ginner?" They said, "Sure." So they took him to Mr. Ginner's house, knocked on the door, and this very frail old man comes out, greets them, invites them in, and makes them some tea. And the guy said that his hand was trembling. He could barely even hold his tea without spilling it, and they asked him about all of these efforts, and he said when he got saved, when he was a young man, Mr. Ginner, he made a promise before the Lord, "Every day of my life, I will tell somebody about your goodness. Every day of my life, I'll share your gospel." Now, when they told Mr. Ginner that through his efforts he had reached over 140,000 people, this is what he said, "I've never heard of a single person giving their life to Jesus because of my efforts." That's what he said. He had never heard of a single person saying yes to God. He just prayed. He was just obedient. He looked for opportunities and said yes, over 140,000 people. Can you imagine when Mr. Ginner stepped into the kingdom of God, the hordes of people standing behind him, that he got to lay at the feet of Jesus, will you be a fisher of men? One of these days, you're going to stand before God, and your entire life's work will be laid at his feet, and Scripture says it'll be tested, it'll be lit on fire, purified, and everything that was kingdom will last, and everything else dust in the wind. Are you going to have treasure to lay at the feet of Jesus? You will if you'll be a fisher of men. I believe that you will be able to stand before the king, and behind you there can be lineages and generations of young people who told somebody who told somebody who told somebody because you were a discipler because you were a fisher of men. He's coming soon. Are you going to have something to lay at his feet? Our hope is that we will be disciples of Jesus. Come and see, follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. Now I call you disciples. Disciple has a little bit of a different connotation to me than the word Christian. Does it to you? To me, Christian, as a follower of Jesus, I start to think of the forms, you know, and you don't have to, and maybe I'm not supposed to, but that's what I think of. The connotation behind the word discipler is reproductive. It is that others are going to experience what Christ has done in me. It's going to happen through me, and others are going to get to experience that. This is the call that I want to put before you this morning. Will you be a disciple of Jesus? Will you take some young people under your wing, find somebody, and give them the gospel, and then walk with them? We're not just looking for salvation. We want to get people to a place of reproductivity. Amen? Come and see, follow me, fishers of men, disciple of Jesus. Now this is a different sermon, so I'm not going to go too far down this road. How in the world do we disciple people? We do it like Jesus did. You can open the Word of God and you can watch and see as He put a strong call in front of people. There's something I see inside of you is what He would say, and then He would call it forth. Can you do that by the power of the Spirit? Can you see something laying dormant inside of somebody and call it forth and say, "Man, you were made for so much more than that." This is what I believe the Lord would do in you or through you. You put a call. You could put a call or a charge to war. Look at this nation and look at where it's headed. Will you put your hand to a plow? Something that will speak to the heart of somebody laying dormant and they'll come alive. And then you show them. You know the phrase that I hate the most? I hate it when people say, "Do as I do, not as I say," or, "Do as I say, not as I do." That's the way it goes. I hate that. Isn't that just a terrible phrase? Do as I say, not as I do. What does that mean? I'm a hypocrite. What does that mean? Here's the deal. People will become who you are long before they do what you say. If you want to see the people around you do and something, then that's what you need to be. Okay? So we call. We show. We teach them. We give them the word of God. Jesus did this through parables. We entrust people and we send people because they don't stay in your house forever. People stick around for too long. They live in the basement. They're 35 years old playing video games, their mouth breather. We got to send them at some point. People will all show, teach and trust, send. This is what I want to say to you. No matter where you are, no matter what seat you're sitting in, I believe this morning the Lord would call you to move over one seat. Can I get the worship team to join me? Would you bow your head and close your eyes? Thank you, Lord Jesus. I'm going to give you guys an opportunity to respond before the Lord and I was telling the students last night, knowledge without application just puffs up. And so we have to be doers of the word of God. And I believe that these altars can be a transformative place. So this is what I want to do. I want to call you to an altar and the purpose of that is not just a form. It's so that you will be altered. I want your life to be changed. I want you to hear the word of God and if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, I want you to come and I want you to get in these altars and I want you to allow the Spirit of God to alter your heart, your actions and your thinking. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. And so I'm going to pray for you and then I'm going to give this altar call. Lord God, we belong to you. And I profess before you, God, that I'm unashamed of you and I'm unashamed of your gospel. And I profess before you, God, that everything I have is yours. It belongs to you. My family is yours. My children are yours. My time. I don't have any. It's yours. I don't have any money. It's all yours. My job is not mine. My home is not mine. It's all yours and it can be used for your kingdom purpose, God. I surrender everything to you. I take my hand off of everything ill-fitting. You are the King, not me. And I pray that you would be speaking to our hearts today. Just to receive from you, Lord, and let us be altered in your name Jesus. Keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed. The first invitation that I want to give will be a bold one. But it's for those of you who have come today and you feel like you are still a come and see. You've never quite fully committed to be a follower of Jesus. For whatever reason, haven't been ready, you've been worried, you're afraid of what that means, that's okay. That's good that you're counting the cost because it will cost you everything. But what he has for you, I promise you, is so much better than anything you could ever dream or imagine yourself. If you're a come and see and you would like to move over one seat and you want to commit your life to Jesus and begin that walk down that road as a follower, I want you to come on up to the front, come up to these altars, and this is what I'm believing, that God is going to meet you here and he's going to wrap his arms around you and there's going to be a celebration in heaven, anybody. You want to move from being a come and see to a follower of Jesus. Thank you Lord God, and in Jesus' name I pray that you will bring more come and sees into this church God. Bring in people who are hurting, bring in people who are far off, bring in prodigals God, bring in people with addictions Lord. This church is not going to be a judgmental one, they're going to wrap their arms around them God. We make that commitment before you God. We will allow people the process, the due process of seeing who you are. Thank you Lord God. The next invitation I want to give is if you are a follower of Jesus. If you've been following him, maybe you've been following him for years, maybe you have spent your whole life following Jesus and you're full of the Word of God and you've seen him do miraculous things but you've not yet asked God for the boldness to go and fish for men in your workplace, maybe in your family, in the clubs that you may be a part of with the people that you know. If you are a follower of Jesus but you want to say before the Lord boldly this morning I want to be a fisher of men, I want you to stand up and come on down to the front and I believe the Lord is going to meet you here, thank you Lord, thank you Lord. Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord. Thank you God. This is what I pray, Lord that you would begin to open doors for divine appointments like never before. I pray over their eyes God that they'll begin to see opportunities, to speak your word and that you'll fill them so much with your boldness it'll be impossible for them to keep it inside of them God. That they'll be looking all day long God for opportunities as you begin to open doors, they'll see the hurting and broken. I pray that their hearts would be burdened God like your heart was burdened. I pray that they would have eyes for the harvest field God. They wouldn't just go throughout their day and the forms and just doing what they had scheduled and planned but they would even be willing to give up their to-do list and take a moment and be a little bit late to that next appointment because they've got kingdom duties to perform because you've given them opportunities to speak truth and Lord I know that whenever they are obedient in that in the moment you will give them the words to say God even though they don't know what they're going to say you'll begin to open their minds and remind them of passages you'll fill them with testimony God so that on the tip of their tongue at all times they'll have something to say that we'll be giving you glory and we'll be giving you honor God. I pray that as people look at these fishers of men they will see these people have truly been with Jesus. Thank you Lord. Let it be even without speaking sometimes people will know oh man there's something different about them I got to ask them let it be that people even come in pursuit of them God in your name Jesus. Lord we want to be genuine we want to be real we don't want to be cultural Christians we don't want to go through the forms we want to look like you and live like you we want people to look at us and say that person looks more like Jesus than anyone I've ever met so fill us with your grace God fill us with your Holy Spirit and with the equipping power that only comes by your spirit in Jesus name. Maybe you've been in church your whole life you've come you've seen you've been following Jesus and you also have had the boldness to speak the word of God to your friends and to your family but you have not yet become reproductive which means you can't point at people beneath you that have come to Jesus because of you and others are coming to Jesus because of them if you want the Lord to start producing lineage in your life so that when you stand before the king in your last hours you'll have some treasure to lay at his feet if you'll come to the front I want to pray for you if you want to move from fishers of men to disciples who make disciples who make disciples who make disciples you don't just want to be a Christian you want to be a warrior you want to put your hand to the plow and see hundreds and thousands through your efforts over the years and generations come to know him. God we belong to you we belong to you the only prayer request that Jesus ever made was pray to the Lord of the harvest that he'll send laborers into his field and God I proclaim before you this morning we see your field and here are your laborers God we are your laborers send us God we are willing I know that you're opening doors and you're filling us with the Holy Spirit now I pray a spirit of reproduction over everyone that has come God make them fruitful make them multiply spiritually God bring young ones sons and daughters into the kingdom through their efforts and then God I pray that we'll have granddaughters and we'll have grandsons as well and we'll have great grandchildren and great great grandchildren Lord because of this spirit of discipleship we know that as we stand before you even when we pass on for generations to come after our death there can be people hearing about you because of our efforts because of our obedience let it be in Jesus name we love you God we worship you and we belong to you spend some time with the Lord and worship him. (gentle music) [MUSIC PLAYING]