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Lighthouse Baptist Church
The Power of the Gospel
(lighthearted guitar music) - Thank you for listening to this message. Brought to you by the Audio Ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church. It's connected in New York. For more great content, please visit us at lighthousebaptist.org. Now let's open our hearts and minds to the Word of God. - And we'll read these verses. We'll open up with the Word of Prayer, and then we'll dive right into the message this morning. Titus, chapter one, beginning with verse number one, it says this, Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, aren't you thankful for that this morning church, promise before the world began. But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God, our savior, to Titus, my own son, after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our savior. Let's open up with the Word of Prayer, and then we're gonna dive right in. Then we follow the Lord, we're so grateful, Lord, for your word, we're thankful for this little book called Titus, a book that we often overlook, a book that's often not preached, but Lord it should be. I ask what each of us, Lord, would examine, Lord, really, the power of the gospel, whether we know Jesus Christ as our savior, and whether we are sharing it with others this morning. But I ask that you touch our hearts in a special way. Lord, use this message for your honor and for your glory. And Lord, we are grateful once again to open up your word, Lord, your word that was written for us, so we can apply it, help us to apply it this morning. We pray this all in the wonderful name of our savior, Jesus Christ, amen, you can be seated now, and you're not gonna stand the whole time, aren't you grateful for that, okay. But Titus chapter one, this little book talks about a lot of protocols. Aren't you glad that you don't live in like civil war days? Anybody? We're like, basically their solution was chop the limb off and not really clean anything. We're not going to the details, but it's disgusting. Most people died not from their wound, but actually from the surgery. Aren't you glad if you've been through a surgery that surgeons have protocols in place? My brother Joe is a surgical nurse. His main job is to make sure that everything that went into the operating room comes out of the operating room. Aren't you glad that there's somebody doing that, right? That's a kind of a big deal. Proper protocols. When we think of proper protocols when it comes to our Christian faith, there are many things that God expects of us to live. He says, "Hey, this is what I want you to do, "and this is why." Titus really breaks down a lot of those, and we're gonna get into some pretty amazing things. One of these areas, proper protocols, is the relationship between our older saints and the young ones. That's in the book of Titus, and so in a few weeks we'll be talking about that, but first of all, the power of the gospel. Here, right at the beginning, Paul opens up this letter like he opens up a lot of them. If you've read a lot of the Pauline Epistles, this is kind of what he does. He kind of mentioned some opening statements, but I think sometimes we lose those opening statements because we think it's just an introduction. When I read a book, I see the foreword. It's probably an important part of the book, but I'm like, I'm skipping it chapter one, right? So don't do that when it comes to Scripture, okay? Every word is inspired by God. Every word is profitable, so let's look at it this morning. So point number one, Paul's credentials. Paul's credentials, okay? This is probably too small. I try to guess, is it okay? We'll be all right, okay, I'll read it too. Paul's credentials, Titus one, verse number one. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. I want to make this very clear this morning. Paul's call was tied to his faith. Paul's call was tied to his faith. That should be, we'll get it eventually, okay. Paul's call was tied to his faith. It was not his pedigree. That's probably too small. Is that too small? Okay, maybe those are too kind. Okay, it's way too small for me to read it back there. I'm like, okay, his call was tied to his faith. It was not his pedigree. The apostle Paul, if there was anyone back in Jewish culture that could say, look at me, it was the apostle Paul, okay? He learned from Gamaliel, a guy that was well known for being kind of a teacher of Judaism, okay? It was not his pedigree. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was the guy when it come to religion in the Jewish faith. Paul's call was not tied to his pedigree. You may think this morning, well, I didn't grow up in a Christian home. You know what my answer is? So? So your call, what God wants to do through you is not tied to your pedigree, to who your parents were, or what they did as an occupation, or whether they lived a godly life. It's not tied to your pedigree. Second of all, here in his call was tied to his faith. It was not his propagation, his sharing of the faith, okay? The apostle Paul, if you look at his life, one of the things that you would see in the apostle Paul is that this guy shared the gospel, right? Are you familiar with the life of the apostle Paul? He went above and beyond what anyone would think is normal. But his call was not tied to the fact that he was constantly sharing his faith. Look at what it says, his call was tied to his faith. Look at our verse again. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, the faith. But also his call was tied to the truth. We've got to make this very clear because in our day and age, people like to tell us that truth is relative, that there is a truth for you and there's a truth for me. It's my truth and you have your truth. That is not biblical. So it was not his truth. It's not your truth or my truth. Truth is not relative. So what is truth is he talking about? It was God's truth. Look at what it says and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness directly tied to his faith. Go to John chapter 17, keep your finger in Titus 1, John 17, verse 17, John 17, 17. This verse is great because you're looking for a definition of truth. What is truth this morning? In a world that says truth is relative, what is truth? How can I know the truth? John 17, 17 says this from our Savior. He says, thank you by them through thine truth. Look what he says next. Three together those four words, thy word is truth. So what is truth? Hopefully you're holding it in your lap this morning. It is God's work. So here's what we can do. I can look at God's word and compare it to what I'm hearing and I can know whether it's truth or not, right? That's what we're supposed to do. Take in what the world says is truth. Compare it to this book. And if it's not truth in this book, then what is it? It is a lie. It's not truth. It's very clear. He says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. So what is your source of truth? It is God's word. If you go back three chapters in the book of John, John 14, six, the Jesus again makes a very clear statement on what is truth. John 14, verse number six. By the way, if you're memorizing verses for sharing the gospel, this is one you should have memorized. John 14, six says this, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way the question next to words, the truth and the life. No man come with unto the Father, but by me. So what is truth? It is obviously God's word, John 17, 17, and then what else? God himself. Obviously, the Bible is God's revealed word to us. So when I'm looking for truth, look no further than your God and his word. The Bible is very clear. It is not relative. It is very definitive and that is God's word and himself. So church, can I tell you something? Filter everything through his word, everything. There are some things the world says that we're like, oh yeah, that totally makes sense. But according to the Bible, it's wrong. And we gotta be careful, okay? Makes sense? So when you talk about the power of the gospel, there is truth and there is lie and God has revealed the gospel through his word, okay? So number two this morning, point number two. So we saw first Paul's credentials, point number two, God's promise. God's promise. Look at verse number two here in Titus chapter one. It says this, "In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie "promise before the world began." So God's promise. First of all, what do we see? The hope of eternal life, right? We see that in the verse. I wanna make this clear. When the Bible talks about hope, it's not like how some of us hope, okay? I hope to one day be a billionaire. Will that ever happen? No, I'm a pastor, okay? It'll never happen. But I hope, I got fingers crossed that it'll happen. That is not what he's talking about. The hope of eternal life is not, I hope when I die that I'll go to heaven, that's not at all what he's talking about. Hope of eternal life speaks of this, that it is an expected end. It's not like I hope, I know. First John 5, 13 says, "These things have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." God does not want you to live your life like I hope I'm a Christian. God wants you to know. And can I just take a side step this morning? If you're not 100% sure this morning, talk to me. I've got this great office, it's huge. It's got couches and chairs. And I haven't cleaned it up. So if you don't know this morning, and you're just not 100% sure, maybe you have doubt, maybe you think, but you don't know, talk to me, please. I will take the word of God. God's revealed truth and show you how you can. And that is an amazing thing. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior this morning, there's no doubt man, life is way easier. I lived my life in doubt. For about 12, 13 years I can do the math of born in '86. No, 15, wow, I was old, 15. 2001 is when I got saved. I grew up in a Christian home. I grew up in a church much like this that preached the gospel. And I knew that I was unsaved. I had doubts about it, I was struggling. And I didn't want to get saved because I was afraid of what everyone else would think. And there was an event that happened in 2001 that many of you may remember. September 11th, that day is the day that God showed me that I should not live in doubt anymore, that I need to know. And I place my faith in Jesus Christ and my life has radically changed. And I encourage you, I challenge you. If you don't know this morning, please, talk to me. I know many of you, I don't know all of you. I told someone this morning, I think we should have name tags at the front desk. Did you all write your names on? 'Cause everybody's like, "Hey, pastor." And I'm like, "Hi, you know, I don't know you." But you can know, you're Heavenly Father. Look at this verse, this is great. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promise before the world begins. So first we see the hope of eternal life. Second of all, under God's promise, we see God's character. God's character. God's character obviously revealed here in this verse that he cannot lie. Our God can do a lot of things, right? He spoke the world into existence. Hebrews one talks about how he upholds the world by the word of his power. Our God is a tremendously powerful God, but there are some things he cannot do, and one of those is sin, and obviously lying is a sin. It is impossible for your God to lie. So when he says, "Hey, you have eternal life," guess what you have? Eternal life. He cannot lie. He promised it. Whatever God promises, he will perform. I understand what I'm saying. There are some things in this book as you read God's word that you get to the prophecies later on in Revelation. You go, "There is no way I could ever see this happening." Can I tell you something? What God promises, he will perform. And you know what that means? To bring it to the gospel. One day, everyone will stand before God. And everyone will either go to heaven or to hell, and there is no middle ground. So when we think of the gospel, there is a element that we have to have an urgency about it, right? How many want the Lord to come back? All right, just read your hand. I want the Lord to come back. I am excited about it, but you and our goal should be that there are as few people as possible still here when we're all gone. Some Christians are like, "I'm just waiting for Jesus to come back." Wait a minute. If you read through Revelation and you read through the time of the tribulation, there's a whole lot that are gonna die. And I want that number to be as small as possible. I don't want my neighbors to go to hell. I don't want the person I'm talking to at Walmart. I don't want that crazy driver that cut me off 10 times to go to hell. I don't. The reality is every person you talk to is either going to heaven or to hell and there has to be a sense of urgency about this. I think as we look through, we look through Revelation, we see God's promises, we can see that his return, oh my work, oh, that was close. His return, I'm like, pfft, I see like the money flying everywhere, are we diving for it? No, I'm just kidding. God's return is coming and is coming very soon, Church. And we have got to get busy. We've got to do something about it. I'm setting you up, okay? Just FYI, I am setting you up. So just clear, clear cut. Okay, we all good? It makes sense? I'm setting you up for this final point, point number three. Oh, by the way, kind of before you point number three, go back, sorry, Harry. Okay, God has never said, oops, by the way, I have this in my notes, I want to share it. I forget things sometimes. So we're sharing, we're sharing. So we were going to go over to Sharon's house. We were going to go to Sharon's house. Gunna, that's not a word. Going to go to Sharon's house on Sunday night. We stayed around talking to people for a long time. We didn't leave church to like 232, 40, something like that. And we went over to Pete and Jess's house to have lunch. And so I texted Sharon, she was very gracious. And I said, we can't come tonight. She cried, I'm sure. But so then we moved it back to Monday. Monday, we spent the day kind of apartment hunting. We live right there, by the way. So it's kind of like, right? So we're trying to find a place to live. So we're driving all over the place. And you know, for us who lived in Clyde, everything was like five minutes down the road. Not that way here. So we're driving around. And we are like, Rensselaer, did I do it? I call it a Rensus flower, but that was going to close. Rensselaer, we were way out there. And we're driving back and like, oh, we need to get food. Completely forgot that we're supposed to go to Sharon's house. So then she texted me, she's like, hey, I just, you know, mess it, emailed me. Emailed me, she said, hey, I just heard an ambulance drive by. And she's like, I wonder if that was pasta. And I'm like, oh no. You know, that's today. You are that, whatever happened to you. So we're sitting there at Sharon's house. And we're eating dinner. And all of a sudden I get a call from Pete, past repeat. And I'm like, how rude you're calling me while I'm at somebody's house. So I ignore it. I turn my phone on and do not disturb. And then all of a sudden, my phone didn't listen to me. And he calls me again. And I'm like, OK, there's something going on. So I pick up the phone and I'm like, hey, Pete, what's up? It's like, I know you're at, you know, like-- so Sharon McDonald is dropping off a meal for you at the church. And I'm like, uh-oh. So not only did I forget about Sharon didn't, I forgot about Sharon McDonald and her food, which, by the way, both of them were delicious. We ended up eating her food the next day for lunch. And I'm fat. So everyone, everyone that has provided food for us, thank you. But here's the thing. God never says oops. There will be times that I will say things that I'll forget, OK? I'm a human being. Your God never does. He hasn't been like, oops, I forgot about you. No. Maybe he's teaching you faith. Maybe he's teaching you dependence. Maybe his delay, there's a purpose in it. For me, most of the time is because I just forgot. You went around bald. It's all the traffic, OK? It's everything going over my head and missing it, OK? You get my point here. God, what he promises, he will perform. He never says oops. No, 0.3. I had to show that. OK, point number three. God's provision. God's provision. Look what he says in verse number three of Titus 1. But half in do times manifest his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. The ministry of preaching, what is this? God reveals himself. He manifests himself through you and I sharing the truth. I don't want to make this very clear. God does call pastors, OK? He's called me to be the pastor here at Lighthouse. And I'm grateful for that. I love you all. When it talks about preaching, preaching is simply proclaiming the truth. So when you read preaching here, I don't want you to just think that that's just the job of your preacher, of your pastor. God reveals himself. He manifests himself through preaching, through you and I declaring the truth of God. God has chosen to use people like you and me to accomplish his plan. You read throughout the Word of God. It is very clear that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come for pains. God desires that everyone hears the truth and comes to know him. Is that reality? No. Even Jesus had 12 disciples and one of them rejected him. Even Jesus. So it's not a-- you know, you share the gospel. Everyone is going to get saved. That is not the reality of preaching. But God reveals himself through you and I sharing the truth. And he has chosen to use people like you and me to accomplish his plan. If you were to just look at the life of the apostle Paul, especially when he was salt, I don't think anybody would be like, yay, he's my pastor, right? A guy who's persecuting the church, bringing people away captive, stealing children and wives and husbands from their homes to be brought before the Jewish leaders to die. OK, that is what he was doing. Nobody would be like, hey, the apostle Paul, yeah. But here, the apostle Paul obviously was used of God in a great way. I want to make this very clear this morning as well. And when we speak of God's provision, the ministry of preaching, God wants to reveal himself through sharing the truth. And the second point this morning. Sharing the gospel is a command. The Bible is very clear on this. There are no exceptions. Go to Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 and 20. This is the great commission. And it is a great commission, right? It's big. Sometimes we look at our world. There's a wonderful, like, pretty map back there. You look at it like that's a really big place. How are we going to reach 7 billion people? It's hard sometimes to realize that this world is huge. And God has tasked us with sharing the truth. But look at what he says here in Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20. Jesus says this to his disciples. But that is including us, by the way. Look at what it says. The first word is what? Go. You know what that means? Go. It's an imperative. It means you go. You go. There's no exceptions. He's not like, OK. If you've gone through 12 weeks of training, go. No, he says go. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things. What survive commanded you? And lo, I'm with you all the way. Even at the end of the world, of course, there's several things included here. But for you to go and share the gospel, you've got to go. You've got to go. And sometimes it's scary. Anybody ever scared when you're talking to somebody sharing the gospel? Me too, OK. But when you read that verse, verse 19, it says, go ye. What's that next word? Therefore. So here's the question you should always ask when you see it there for. Why is that there for, therefore? Why is it there, OK? Why is it there for? Look back at the next verse. Look at the verse of previous, verse 18, OK? The verse right before it. Why is it there for? Because of the power of our Savior. Look at what it says. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Then he says, go ye therefore. You know what the amazing thing is? You can go with confidence, not because of your ability, but because of his. Do you get that? So when you go and you hang a door hanger on a door, you can go with confidence, not because you are great, but because you're a god is, and he's the one that's going to do the work. When you hand that tract to your waitress or wait her, guess what? You can go with confidence. Why? Because not because of your ability, but because of his. When you share the gospel with that co-worker and you're sharing the truth of God's word with him, you can go with confidence. Why? Not because of your ability, but because of his. When someone comes to know Jesus Christ as their Savior, it's not because of you anyway. God has to work. The Holy Spirit works in their life. He illuminates the truth. It's not your work anyway, so rely on his ability. But Church, can I tell you something? There is an element of work involved. Sometimes, you know, I know in school sometimes, this happens with students. They'll get ready to take a test. They have done no work prior. They haven't taken notes. They haven't studied. They pray right before the test. Lord, help me on this test. God has no obligation to do that. There is a level of work that is expected where you memorize verses. You do the best you can. But here's the truth. You're not going to have the answer to everyone. Every question that they're going to answer. They're going to ask. What I have found very quickly, this area is a place that has a lot of different cultures. You're not going to have the answer to every question that they ask. You're not going to be able to speak every language of every person, but you can share the gospel. Sometimes we use those things as an excuse. Well, I don't know. Well, do the work. Put in the work. Put in the effort. If you want to know verses you can memorize, I have them. I can print them off for you this morning. Put in the work. But look what also is included here in Matthew 28. Go ye therefore. And what's that next phrase? Teach all nations. You know what that means? No one is excluded. No one is excluded. They may not talk like you. They may not dress like you. They may not look like you. It doesn't matter. No one is excluded. Aren't you grateful for missionaries? Like back there, but everybody turned around. It's OK, we can do this. See that wall back there? There are missionaries all over the world that this church supports. Aren't you grateful that they go? [INAUDIBLE] Aren't you grateful that the gospel isn't just a Western thing? It is a world thing. Everyone is included. So here's where it comes down to brass tacks for us. So we must share this truth with everyone. Well, they're not going to take it well. So share the truth. Well, I know what religion they are. So share the truth. Well, I've done it 28 times, and they've rejected me every time. So share the truth. How do you unsaved family members just raise your hand? If you have an unsaved family member, I think it is one of the hardest things in the world to witness to unsaved family members. How can I tell you something? As long as they are breathing, there is hope. Do you get what I'm saying? There is hope. As long as they are alive, there is hope, church. So don't give up. Keep sharing the truth. Jay Hudson-Taylor, the great missionary of the past, said this. The great commission is not an option to be considered but a command to be obeyed. Did you get that? The great commission is not an option to be considered, like maybe if I have time but a command to be obeyed. I believe it was Jay Hudson-Taylor when he first went to the mission field, it was years before he saw his first convert. Guess what he did? It wasn't an option to him. It was a command. And I think sometimes in our world, in our society, we get to this point where we're like, eh, I showed up to church. I'm doing pretty good. No. Tonight, we're going to start a new series called Are You A Disciple? Are you really a follower of Jesus Christ? That's really the question. Because God, Jesus very clearly delineates what he expects from his followers. And I think many times we're not living up to it. So we're going to start that series tonight, so come back. So here's what I'm going to finish up this. So what are we going to do about it? So we've seen the gospel. It is a command that God expects us to obey. So what now? Right? It's great to sit down in a message and hear a message preach and to go through all of these things and to remind us that we are to share the gospel. Well, what are we, as a church, going to do about this? Because as I drive around, it's connected in Albany and Niski Yuna and every other place, it's like 18 billion towns. And I've lost them all. As I drive around, one thing is very evident. This area needs the gospel. So church, what are we going to do? We're going to do about it. Here's what we're going to do. We're starting an outreach program at starting this Saturday, by the way. We're starting it up again. Lighthouse used to do it. It stopped for a while. It's back. We'll have organized outreach every Saturday from 10 to 11. It's not included in our bulletin because I don't let Joanne-- Joanne, no, sorry my bad. We'll get it included next week. We're starting this outreach Saturday from 10 to 11. You go, well, I can't go. Guess what? I thought of you, too. OK? Here it is. We will have maps available for anyone who wants to go out who can't do it on Saturday. So if you know where my office is, like if you walk out this door, you walk past the coffee room, because nobody likes coffee, you walk past that, turn left, and you'll see a hallway that then goes back to my office around the corner. We're going to turn that hallway into what we're calling the outreach center. Our goal is to get a big map of our area that's laminated. That'll be really cool for us to track our progress. I want to put shelves up with tracks and those kind of things and maps where you can come in on a Sunday morning and you go, I can't go this Saturday, but I still want to do something. You go in there, you grab a map, you grab a handful of tracks, and you go do it on your time. OK? I notice an hour and sometimes you're like, well, I can't quite do an hour, but I could give you 15 minutes, four times in a week. That's an hour. Woo hoo, we did it, OK? Some of these maps will include a lot of areas and it'll take more than just an hour to do. And so you keep your progress and you do whatever you're doing. When you're done, just put it in my box, which is right there by the outreach center, OK? The goal is I want everyone to be involved. You go, well, I can't. I can't walk. I'm talking to Ginger this week. I love outreach, but I can't do it anymore. Here's what I want you to do. If you can't go out and walk and do it, you pray for us. Seriously, spend that hour in prayer. An hour is a long time. Yeah, pray. Pray for us. If we're not praying, Church, as we share the gospel, the gospel is not going to be planted. You understand what I'm saying? Because it's not my words. It's not what I'm doing. It is God working. And so we need you to pray. And we need prayer warriors. And our people that are going out, I challenge you every time you start on a map, every time that you go out, you pray for that street you're going to do. Why? Because the goal is getting the gospel into their hearts and into their lives. When you walk up to that door and you think that door hanging around the door, which is super easy, I was going to do it with that door, but I forgot it in my office. Mike, you want to go get me one? Do you know where they are? They're by the pile of junk. You'll find it. I've got all these boxes I haven't taken out to the dumpster yet. I know it's like five feet that way. I just haven't done it. But anyway, it is super easy. And I'll show you how easy it is once Mike gets back. And by the way, he's running. So when he comes back in, we'll give him a nice applause. Also, maybe you can help drive. Maybe you say, I can't walk, but I want to still be involved, and I want to pray while you're doing it. So some of us don't have to drive. That'd be kind of nice, wouldn't it? Maybe you got a big car, and you could take more than just a few people, and we could hit that map much faster. You drive. Whatever we will desperately need your help. For us to reach the area, we're going to try to reach, which is Gilderland, Rotterdam. Those two areas are main focus. We will need all hands-on deck. Here it is. Mike has arrived. Did you get the door hanger? Oh, you got those and said, OK, that'll work. Mike, good job, Mike. OK, here we go. So these I designed, OK? They're kind of cool. Do you know where the door hangers are? They're in a little box. You'll find them. OK, here we go. So these work, too, though, OK? I need to find a door. Here's the door. OK, we're going to move the Christian flag, OK? It's super easy, OK? You walk up to the house. I know this will lose, because it's the only one. I'll do it over there, OK? You walk up to the house. You kind of fold it like this, OK? See what I'm doing? Fold it like this, and you just put it right there on the door, and it'll stay. See that? It's miracle. It's magic. You didn't know I was going to do a magic trick for you, did you? Over here, OK? For this side, you walk up to the door. Again, you fold it like a little u to think of pastor Ali, OK? Doing like this? Put it in the door. Did you hear that snap? It sticks. That's the whole point. We've got physical door hangers that are-- they've got like a hole with a slit that'll hang on a door that are super easy. We're going to do those. Here's one. Here it is. Mike again. Whoop. Mike. OK, the other one's drunk on top. Two, I forgot about that. OK, so these ones I found in a box, OK? There's thousands of them. We're going to pass these out, and when we're done, we're going to buy more, OK? FY, these are super easy. Again, my illustration. Sorry, camera dude. OK, so take this one out, OK? Put that one in my pocket, because those are still good, OK? And this one, you just put it on the door like that, OK? It hangs on the door. Super easy. How many of you could do that? Not that hard. If somebody's outside, OK? David's outside. He's blowing his grass, or whatever. And he's wondering why some bald dude's walking up to his house, OK? This is what you do. Say, hi, I'm just inviting people out to my church. Here you go. That's all you have to say. I'm not asking you to have this huge dissertation with somebody. If they want to have a conversation, talk to them. If you're like, honestly, I got more houses I want to hit. Fine, OK? I'm not asking for miracles. What I'm asking for is that we get the gospel out as fast as we can in our community. Because I know I was from Ohio, OK? But Ohio's weather is much like New York's weather. We have got like maybe, maybe three months to do this, before the weather is going to get too cold for us to do anything. So if we're trying to get the gospel out to as many homes as we can, we are going to have to move. But here's what I want you to understand. All of us can do something. And all of us need to do something. You go out to lunch today. You leave a tip-- by the way, you should, if you're eating on a place, by the way. That's a whole nother discussion. Take a track. It doesn't have to be this one. It could be the thank you for your service one or any of the other tracks we have out there. You take a track, you put it on top of the money so they don't leave it at the table, OK? On top of the money, they'll take it all and pray that they read it. By the way, don't be a jerk the entire time if you're going to put a track out. My daughter-- oh, my word. She's autistic, so she's very blunt sometimes. Sometimes she's like, "Where's our food?" You know, and you're like, you ordered it half a second ago. You know, like, I'm not expecting you to bring my-- Well, I'm starving. Why don't you have it here yet? Are you-- She did this one time. Are you lazy? I'm like-- [LAUGHTER] We had her apologize. Don't do that. Don't follow the example of my autistic daughter. Please, share the gospel. And if I can add one more piece, if you're going to leave a tip and you're going to have a gospel track on it, be generous. Don't be like, here's my penny tip. And then leave a gospel track. They're never going to read it. If you're giving, they will. They'll find out what's different about you. Why do they pray before their meal? Why were they so kind? Why did it seem like they really actually appreciated my service? Because we're different. Church, can we all do this? Can we do this? Raise your hand if you think you could do this. I'm hard, right? Here's what we're going to do. We're starting at this weekend. We're not going to have the cool map yet. I have to do a consultation. He's got to print it. He's got to ship it. It's going to take a little while. But we will have tracks. And we will have probably hand-drawn maps for the first few weeks. But God is going to do great things. Why? He promised us that his word will not return unto him void. It will accomplish the task that he has set forth for it to accomplish. So Church, let's be faithful in sharing the gospel. Let's all stand. We're going to have a time of invitation. Some of us haven't done this in a long time. And we need to commit in a very real way to be more faithful in sharing the gospel. I encourage you. This morning, this altar is open. Your pew is open. Families, I would encourage you, if you feel the Lord leading you, you come up with your family to dedicate your family to share the gospel. Let's be serious about it this morning. Let's pray before we have our invitation. And then let's see God's work. Heavenly Father, Lord, we're grateful for the power of the gospel. But I'm so grateful for that you didn't give up on me. Let us know that each of us would do the same, or that we would share the gospel with others and be faithful. But as we start this new outreach program, Lord, that we would reach many people with the gospel in our community, so that as it goes out, Lord, that people would notice that we are different. Not because of us and our ability, but because of you and yours. But work in a mighty way, Lord, if you spoke into our hearts, would help us to move, help us to be committed. Lord, I thank you so much for the presence all in the wonderful name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen, if God's broken to your heart, please come forward. Please. (upbeat music) - We hope that message was an encouragement to you. To stay up to date with us, please follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook and LBC's connect today. If you would like more information on how heaven can be your home, please visit lighthousepaptist.org/thegospel. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (gentle music)