Find Your Lane

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

We have been in the beginning of, or the middle of, Ephesians. We are doing a study on the Book of Ephesians really all year long. So we do, we start at the beginning of the year in, we start at the beginning of the year in, I'm getting a whole lot of feedback from whatever I'm talking, sorry, I'm just, I have to, there we go. Okay, sorry, I was like, I can't keep going. We study the Book of Ephesians. We're studying the book the whole year, and at the beginning of the year, we kind of started in Ephesians 1, just looked at that. We're in our second series on the Book of Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter 2 and 3. Last week we started the beginning of Ephesians chapter 3, and we are going to be kind of in the middle of it now. We're going to start in verse 7. We talked about verse 7 last week, so let's just read it to remember just a little bit. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 7, it says, of this gospel, I was made a minister according to

the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. Okay, so last week we talked about this, we talked about how we have all been given God's grace to steward, that we are not given God's grace as owners. We are, the Bible calls it the stewardship of God's grace. This is the beginning of Ephesians chapter 3, and it's a lot of other places in Scripture that we have been, we've been given grace to steward not own, we're not the gatekeepers of this grace, we are freely given it, and the way that we steward that well is to freely give that grace to others. The only way to be poor steward of God's grace is to keep God's grace for ourselves, to kind of hold it back. Last week we focused a lot on the how of doing that. We talked about how we have received it with power, and we have received it with authority, and so that whenever we're sharing it, we are sharing it in that same power and that

same authority, and this is all of us. I don't want to be confused on this, we're going to be hitting this a lot more today. This is all of us, we've all received this gospel by the working of his power, right? So when we read something like Ephesians 3, 7 says, of this gospel, I was an administer, you can, instead of saying I, you can put your own name, right? If you are following Jesus Christ of this gospel, you were made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given you by the working of his power. So today we talked about how last week, today we're talking about the why. All right, and we see the, we're beginning to see the why here in verse 7. He says, of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace. If you go back to Ephesians 3, 1, it says, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.

He calls himself a prisoner on behalf of other people. In other words, he is not, this isn't something he does in his spare time. This isn't something he does because he kind of feels like it's really important to do, and he should do something. This is something that he feels compelled to do. This is something that he is under. This is a choke collar, okay? This is not something that you just, kind of, that he does just leisurely. He was made a minister on behalf of Christ Jesus. He was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace. He was made a minister of the gospel, and he was made a minister according to the power that God has given him. I realize that we read these verses all the time, and it's really easy to just, kind of, let it wash in the background just a little bit. But when we read these verses, we should really take a lot of hope and understanding

that this is how we are given it. And the thing that you see here in particular, and what we've seen in the first six or seven verses of Ephesians 3, is that Paul specifically, I realize that we can put us in the eye right there, but just reading it as Paul specifically, Paul is saying that he is bound to minister to a particular people, to a people specifically. In other words, what Paul is saying here is that I disciple outsiders. Paul is saying specifically here, I disciple outsiders. I want you to remember outsiders. We've talked about this the last couple of weeks. Outsiders are people that did not, they were Gentiles. They were outsiders. They didn't understand all of these, kind of, religious things. They didn't have the commandments. They didn't have Moses. They didn't have the heritage. They didn't have anything. They weren't insiders, like the Jews were.

They were outsiders. They were irreligious. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know how to act in church. They weren't brought up that way. And what Paul is saying is that my duty, my calling, my choke collar put upon me by God himself is to minister to these people spiritually who do not have a leg up. That's my calling. I'm going to go. I'm going to find these people. I know where they are. They're not, obviously, they're not going to be in synagogues a lot, okay? They're going to be kind of maybe outside. They're going to be seeking other things spiritually. I'm going to go to them, and I'm going to minister to them. I really want to drive this point home because by contrast, so Paul is saying I'm a minister to outsiders, by contrast, Peter, who is a different apostle, he's called to the Jews. He's called the insiders, right? If you look at Galatians chapter 2.9, it's up here, Galatians 2:9 says, when James and

Cephas and John, Cephas is another name for Peter, when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, this is Paul talking, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised, or Jews, or insiders. And so he's saying, look, I've got a deal worked out. I talked to Cephas and James and John, and I said, I'm going to outsiders, you guys are going to insiders, let's shake on it. That's the calling that he's talking about here. But lest we believe that we are only in rare air here, lest we believe that we're only talking about apostles and missionaries and pastors maybe, at this point, lest we fall for that, let's look at how Jesus talks about it, because he talks about it in a different way than that, because whenever he tells his disciples to go and disciple people from all nations,

the inference here, now this is very specific, and I'm talking about Matthew 28, 19 through 20, but it's not going to be up there, but it's where Jesus famously says, go into all the nations and disciple people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, I'll be with you always, teaching them to obey all who commanded you. Sorry, I completely butchered that verse. However, should have had it up. Whenever he says, whenever he tells all of his disciples to disciple all nations, there's one of two ways you can take that. The first way, the first thing that you could think is that he's telling all of his disciples to find collections of people from every nation and only minister in those collections of people. Right? That every, in other words, that every church they start, every crowd they're in, they have to make sure it's multi-ethnic, multi-generational, multi-national, multi-all that, okay?

Now, as you can imagine, that would be an extremely difficult calling to fulfill. And so when he says, go and disciple all nations, he's either saying, you go to all the nations at once, you find these little pockets where all the nations are, or he is saying that you are called to specific people, to specific people groups, and you are called to go and plant your life among those people. Now it doesn't always have to be people in another country. It doesn't always have to be people that have a different language than you or a different culture than you. It doesn't always have to be that. But what he is saying here, what Jesus is saying, whenever he uses the Greek word, taiethne, he's talking about the people groups. Whenever he's saying that, when he's saying the nations, he's not saying that all of us go to all the nations. He's saying that you are called to go to specific places.

We get a little window into this in Acts 17. I did have this up. Acts 17, 26 through 27. This is Paul preaching to people at a place called Mars Hill. Okay, Mars Hill was a place in Rome, one of the seven hills in Rome. That's also called the Areopagus, which is the Greek name for Mars Hill, doesn't matter. Okay, so in your Bible it's gonna say something like Paul at Mars Hill or whatever. And this is what he tells the people at Mars Hill. And these are people that don't know the Lord, that are outsiders, right? He's in his element. He's preaching to outsiders. Here we go. And he made God, made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him, yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

Okay, so when Jesus calls us, when Jesus calls us out specifically, he determines the times and locations of our existence. That's wild. I mean, I want you to think about it. I want you to think about how you got physically to where you are now. Maybe that was the house you were born into and you're just there and your parents are there and you don't have much choice about where you're, but I want you to understand, like even though you didn't have much choice, even though you didn't plan that, the Lord has foreordained that from the beginning of time that you would be in that location in this period of time, in this era, in America, in Texas. God bless it. Okay, no amens, no amens. Don't do it. But that's not only true for you. It is true for you, but it's not only true for you. It's true for everybody else. So think with me just a second. If it's true for everybody else, then what's that mean?

That means that God, in eternity past, is plotting out your days. That the people that you work with, the people that you're in line for coffee with, the people in your book club, the people in your extended family, the people that you randomly cross paths with on just the side of the road, the people that you happen to be at the DMV sitting next to, right? The people that you have to be sitting at a coffee shop next to, which is what I experienced this week. More on that in a minute. When Jesus calls us, it's not some random happenstance and Jesus kind of rolls the dice and just be like, okay, good luck. It'll be good. No. Jesus has good works laid out for us to do. That's Ephesians 2:10. If he has those good, think about it. If he has those good works laid out for us to do, then what does that mean? It means that he's been lining everything else up too.

It means that he's not freaking out whenever you feel like things are derailed. It means that whenever things seem random to you, they're not to him. That God has determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. God puts people on our path so that they will seek him because God is not far from them. This is the message of Jesus, right? When Jesus came to earth, what did he say? He said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand or near, right? Right? Well, that word near doesn't mean time. So we say like the time is drawing near, right? That's one use of the word near. That's not what Jesus, that's not what that word means. That word near means close in proximity. Whenever Jesus came and said, repent for the kingdom of God is near, he was effectively saying I'm the kingdom of God and I'm really close to you. So repent, join the party, jump in, right?

The kingdom of God is at hand. Look when you are next to somebody at Starbucks, whenever you are sitting down at your desk, whenever you are having a random conversation that seems random to you, man, look, the kingdom of God is near to that person that you're speaking to. Yeah, maybe they already know the Lord, that's, hallelujah, that's great. But the reason that God puts people in our lives is so that they should seek him. Because the kingdom of God is near. Let's keep reading. We only got through one verse, for crying out loud. Ephesians 3, 8, 9, look at those two verses. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. Now we talked about this last week, that the mystery hidden is revealed.

So that mystery hidden is more like an open secret. Now it's not a mystery like Scooby-Doo has to solve. This is a mystery that has already been solved. It's already been revealed. But he's saying, he's saying, look, I disciple these people and what I want to tell you is that if you follow Jesus, then you disciple someone. If you follow Jesus, you disciple someone. You are made to share the gospel. And really what I want you to consider this morning is that you are made to share the gospel with specific people. Not just to go out as you would think randomly, I'm not telling all of us to grab a megaphone in a street corner and go to town. I'm telling you that you are called to disciple people specifically with how you're made, with the allotted period of time you're in and the allotted location you're in. I don't mean that you need to hop on a plane and go to Brazil to share the gospel.

Although Brazil needs the gospel just as much as we do here. I'm not saying don't go to Brazil. I'm saying you don't have to though. That you disciple someone. You are made to share the gospel to specific people. You are made to help them find Jesus in a relationship with them. However that relationship happens, we'll kind of talk about that. But if we're going to talk about that, if we're going to talk about how you are specifically made to disciple people, if we're going to just, if I'm just going to lob that grenade over, what I do need to say, there are barriers to this. There are barriers to this. And I also, I need to help you see that you're a discipler. Because look, I know, I know whenever I'm talking about like you discipling people, you are thinking that's not me. I'm not gifted that way. I'm not an evangelist. I'm not whatever, right? I'm not equipped.

I'm not made that way. I don't know enough. Okay, there's a lot there. There's a couple of barriers. And although Paul is being humble, when you look in, even when you look in verse 8, it says, to me though I am very least of all the saints this grace was given. I think that whenever you talk about yourself as a Christian, a lot of times it is very easy to demote yourself a couple of levels. Like I'm not a leader. I'm not a discipler. I'm not missionary material. I'm not minister material. I'm not whatever, right? Like we kind of, we want to be Christian and take the lower place at the table. I get it. I do. I understand that, okay? I don't know if that's what Jesus was talking about, but that's at least our inclination is to say, I can probably do less than I think. Right? Is that a fair assessment? Right? You're thinking that, that look, if I'm going to go do this, if I'm going to go like be

a discipler, I can probably, I need to start small. I need to like, I need to take baby steps out. Right? But not before you admit some barriers. I think that it's helpful to admit these barriers because they're there. The first barrier, there's two big ones. And I think there's an underlying cause. The first big one is that we fear what people think. We fear what people may think. And if you are under the age of 40, you will say it this way, that you don't want to be awkward. Okay? I don't want to be awkward. I don't want to be awkward. Listen, I understand what you mean, but let me be absolutely clear. When you say that you don't want to be awkward, I want you to know what you're actually saying. When you say I don't want to be awkward, that's code for saying I love social acceptance more than allegiance to Jesus. That's tough. That's tough to hear, I'm sure.

Because in our head, it's kind of innocuous. In our head, it's like, well, I don't want to be awkward. I don't want to make things awkward. I don't want to seem awkward. I don't want to, look, I get it. But what you're, what you are referring to are made up social rules. What you are referring to is trying to navigate what people think about you. But what I want you to understand, Jesus was probably pretty awkward sometimes. Okay? You think it was awkward whenever there was a dead girl and Jesus was like, she's not dead, she's asleep. And people laughed at him. You think that wasn't awkward? You think somebody wasn't like having secondhand embarrassment on behalf of Jesus in that moment? Of course they were. Whenever Jesus is like, hey, I'll feed everybody. And they're like, we only have five loaves and two fish. He's like, that's fine. You think the disciples actively questioned kind of what was going on?

You think some people didn't snicker? You think that wasn't awkward? And what about the disciples? The disciples are going, excuse me, and they are, you know, they're trying to heal in Jesus' name. They're trying to preach the gospel. They're doing, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. You think the disciples batted a thousand? How did you think they fell whenever they failed? How did they fail whenever they kind of messed up the testimony? Oh, you don't think that happened? Oh, that totally happened.

Look, man, you think the disciples were like, just like, pop out, easy bake oven, ready-made, like, yeah, we're just gonna go, hey, let's just go preach everywhere. It'd be awesome. No, man, it was horrible. I'm sure. If you've ever learned how to do anything, you know that your first attempts look stupid. Okay? Like, I play guitar. Play guitar. I can play a guitar. I don't play a guitar. You don't want me to do that. It'll make you look great, though, Shane. It'll be so great if I get up there and do it. No, only VBS last year, and that's it. That's how I'm done.

So, you know the first time I picked up a guitar, and Shane, you can testify to this, sir. The first time you pick up a guitar, it's the most awkward thing you've ever done, right? It's just, you just feel, and you're trying to get your fingers right, and all the strings sound like, you know, it sounds terrible. Look, man, some of you just haven't ever done it, and you're afraid to look stupid. I get it. I do. I don't want to look stupid either. But for the gospel, man, for the gospel, let's look stupid. Let's be okay to be awkward. It's okay. Like, they don't think, they think things about you, right? I got to be honest. You know how much other people think about you in a given day? It's pretty small. It's super small, actually. Most people think about themselves the majority of a day, okay? So even if you, like, make a complete fool of yourself, you're only going to be like

a faint memory. Like that instance will be a faint memory in a day and a half, I promise, okay? Doesn't matter how awkward it was. Okay. So we fear what people will think, okay? People are going to think you're awkward, but we fear that. That's a barrier. And to that, I just say, embrace it. I don't say, like, no, it won't be that bad. No, it might be. It might be totally that bad. Embrace the awkward. Second, we rationalize silence. I do this, silence. I do this, too. We rationalize silence because we don't know what to say. And it's almost like we want to say something, but we know that's not right, or that that's not the thing to say. And it's not because we're chickening out. It's because we honestly don't know what that next statement should be, okay? So we honestly get tongue-tied. It happens. It does. That's fine, okay? And it's not even because you're afraid of the awkward, but it's because you're kind

of running that scenario in your head and you're thinking, okay, I don't know what to say, kind of next. I get it. That's going to happen, too. Let me just say, listen. You kind of don't know what to say, and you kind of blur something out, and it's weird and awkward, and you don't really know how to recover. Look, just apologize and try to move on. It's fine. You're not always going to be like, it's not always going to be gold. Do you know what I'm saying? And it's weird. We think about this all the time. Let me, let me, so if you're, let's just say you're playing baseball, okay? I know a lot of baseball fans in the house. Okay, let's say you're playing baseball. Okay, do you know this thing called practice? All right, practice. I'm going to get Allen Iverson in here and say, practice? Practice. Okay, we're talking about practice, man. Practice. Um, okay. That's an insider joke.

I'm sorry. I was quoting Allen Iverson. When you have practice, when you have practice, the understanding is that you're going to mess up and that the stakes are lowered. That's what practice is. If you are at batting practice and you do a foul tip, are you going to like, you shouldn't, but you should not slam the bat down and walk out of the batting cage. Okay. You're taking it too seriously because it's practice. It's practice, man. Okay. It is practice. Why do we not have that mentality whenever we're talking about practicing spiritual gifting or whenever we're talking about practicing discipling, when we're talking about practicing evangelism, we need to understand that there's a way to do that. There's a way to talk about it. There's a way to train, but there's a way to try where, look, man, the stakes are lowered. It's not as if there's 10 people lined up and they're like, you know what,

man, this is your job today. You know, God's like trying to prep you here. It's like, listen, this is your job, dude. You're going to share the gospel with these 10 people. And if you don't share it perfect, they're all going to hell. So don't blow it. Have a great day. Okay. All right. But we laugh, but that's kind of how we think about it. We feel like it's always eternal stakes, always. And because it's always eternal stakes and those stakes are up to us, then we better not blow it. And if we think we're going to blow it, we better not try. That's real. Like, that's what we think. We think this is a big deal and I don't want to mess it up. And it really kind of clamps us up. And we can't talk about it. We can't be free. And so we don't practice and we don't get better at it. And every time we open our mouths, we feel stupid and it reinforces this thing. I know a good friend of mine and she is really nervous to evangelize at all because back in

high school, she went to Dawson McAllister student conference, right? She went to a student conference where it was like evangelism was like the big deal. So then for the afternoon of the conference, they all went to the mall and shared the gospel cold with people in the mall. Okay. That happened when she was a teenager. She is not a teenager anymore, but she remembers that. She remembers that bad experience because she was basically set up to fail because there was no moment where there was like, you can practice, you can figure this out and you can train, you can do this. There are some serious barriers to us discipling people, to us sharing the gospel with people, to us talking about our testimony with people. And it's a lot to fight through. You're fighting through the awkward. You're fighting through the, I don't know exactly what to say. Like I feel confident in what I need to say, but I'm not quite sure what to say first.

Right? Here's some truth for you. Okay. Because I'm not trying to say it's easier than you think. It's not. It's hard. I'm not sure I say that you're going to win every time. You won't. You'll fail more than you win. Okay. Here's what I, here's the good news in that. The good news is that God always lines out provision with his calling. Always. He always lines out provision with his calling. It doesn't mean that you don't ever look dumb. Doesn't mean you, you know, that you always are successful. Okay. This is, this is real life we're talking about. But it does mean that God lines out that provision with his calling. And so the answer to the, to the insecurity of, I'm not sure I can share the gospel today. The answer to that isn't sure you can. Come on. That's not the answer. The actual encouragement to that is not, not more information. The answer to that is repentance.

And to say, I'm not, I'm not sure that I can share the gospel today for whatever reason. And your need is not to look up a YouTube video on how to share the gospel. Your need is to pray in that moment and say, God, I want to share the gospel. I don't know how. I feel dumb. I feel like this is going to be awkward. Tell him it's not like the Lord doesn't know those things. The Lord knows all those things. He knows exactly how you feel. He sees you. You feel like you're just feeling in private all the time. God sees all that. God's not worried about it. God's not teasing you. He's saying, look, I want to help you do that. We need to see God's provision in his calling. Now, what I want to do is I want to, there's, and there's several kinds of provision, but let me just say one kind of provision is kind of this invisible provision, right? It's a, it's a provision that is like, God will give you strength.

God will give you the words to say. God will give you all these things that you kind of have to like leap before it's all there. Okay. And we can trust God to provide those things. That's true. That's good. Hallelujah. And Amen. I'm not talking about that provision right now. I'm talking about a different kind of provision. I'm talking about how you're made. So I want you to write something down. I want you to take. I want you to read a paper. Your worship guide has notes section on the back. You can do this on your phone too. It's fine. You don't have to, it's not like you got to turn it in for a grade. Do it on your phone, but I want to ask you a series of questions and I want you to write on the answers. You might not be able to answer all these questions and that's okay. They're about you. So you know, there's no, it's not, it's not a trick. Okay. It's just, they're about you.

So I want you to think about you. Okay. I want you to think about yourself. And I'm not, I'm not going to try to get too kind of deep or crazy with this. I just want you, these are just kind of normal things, normal things. Okay. And I want you to write these down. Kind of bullet point. It's going to be about, I don't know, seven, eight questions. Okay. I want you to name something, write something down that you are passionate about. Maybe you feel called to do something that you're passionate about. And again, this could be like playing guitar. This could be lots of things. What are you passionate about? Doesn't necessarily have to be your career. Can be. Doesn't have to be your career. What are you passionate about? Write that down. What are you passionate about? Second question. What is something that is unique about your backstory or your childhood? Something unique about your backstory or childhood.

Okay. It doesn't have to be like you're the only one in the world, but it's something that it just kind of, maybe it helped define you in a particular capacity. Maybe you had like a severe speech impediment when you were a kid. Maybe you, you know, you went through a traumatic car accident. I don't know. You know, the things, right? Is there something unique about your backstory or childhood? It could be something about you. It could be something that happened to you. Okay. Maybe like, you know, I know a friend, like a big marker in his life was that his dad went off to war. That was a big deal. Big deal for him. So that was part of kind of part of his backstory. Third question. What have you, what have you done very well in? Like if you had a trophy case, what would that trophy case be about? Okay. What are you good at? Whether you actually got a trophy or not and you high achievers, this is your moment.

You can just write it all out before the Lord. It's going to be great. Look what I did. What have you done very well in? What have you, what have you had victories in? Okay. Switch it up. What is one thing that makes you extremely angry? It could be lots of things like, you know, picking on little kids. It could be, I mean, that makes everybody angry, but you know what I'm saying. Is there something particular to you? It doesn't, you don't have to get the whole thing, but it's something that particularly makes you angry. What makes you angry? What makes you extremely angry? This is kind of a repeat, but it might, it might hit different. What is a big marker in your life? And that can be positive or negative. So we kind of talked about this already, but big marker in your life, maybe like a big failure, big trauma, big victory, big overcoming something, right?

A big marker in your life. A big marker for my life was, it sounds dramatic, it's not, but I was, I was, I was almost run over by a car. Okay. That's, I was not. So I'm fine, but it was scary. That's all. That was a big marker for me. I just remember that. It's my sophomore year of high school. I can remember kind of what I was wearing. I can remember, and my life really did kind of change. Okay. Okay. Next question. We have two left. This question is like, what is your personality type and or Enneagram? Shutter. You can just talk about the kind of person you are. That's fine. Like a label on this or anything, but just like, like I'm a protector. I'm like, I'm an explorer. Like whatever. However you want to define that is fine with me. I'm not, we're not, again, we're not turning this in for a grade. And then lastly, what is a particular maybe expertise or vocation or career that you

have? Maybe like you're, you're really good at like Excel or something, Excel, Microsoft Excel, or you're really good at editing papers or you're really good at flying a plane. I don't know, man. I mean, there's different expertise out there. Okay. Okay. Give you a few more seconds just to run through them very quickly. Something you're passionate about or calling, unique about your back through your childhood. What have you done very well in slash victories? What makes you extremely angry? What's a big marker in your life? It could be failure trauma. It could be something positive. What is your personality type slash Enneagram slash Disney princess character? And then last, what is your expertise slash vocation slash career? Okay. The reason I am making you write that out is because I want you to kind of see the whole. I want you to kind of look at it together.

I want you to see the whole thing and ask like, what kind of provision is already in your life? Right? How has the Lord God like made you situated you, grown you up, given you this kind of family, given you this kind of job, given you this kind of expertise, given you these proclivities, these things that make you really angry, really happy. These things that you feel called to for some mysterious reason, all those things kind of just trying to wrap that up and begin to ask the question, like what kind of provision is already there? And I don't want to hyper spiritualize your personality type. What I want to tell you though, is that you need to begin to ask the question like, what could God do with that? And if you want to get real brave, you can ask the question of somebody else and show them your list. Okay. So like trembling like, okay, here's me. Don't reject me.

And just say like, what do you think I could do with that? Right? This is what we mean when we say find your identity. Okay. When we talk about finding your identity, we mean to say that you are made in a particular way. And I could go off on this. I mean, I could really go off on this. I won't. If you read Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, it's all there. It's the fact that we are made differently from each other to form a body together. We are one body, many members, one body, many parts. So the way that the Bible illustrates this is that some of you are an ear, some of you are an eye, and some of you are like, you know, like a little tiny, like, I don't know, metatarsal or something, right? Like you're just, you're really kind of inconspicuous and small, but you're really, really super helpful. You're like a big toe, okay? Like you're... And so the reason that's important is because it really does, it really should let our reflection

on how we're made inform how we contribute to the kingdom. Because if we have about four slots of the kinds of people that can contribute to the kingdom, and we don't fit in any of those four slots, then we're out, right? If it's only people that are extroverted, if it's only people that can share the gospel and like 50 people get saved, like at the moment, you're like, how did that happen? It doesn't matter. If it's only people that, you know, that feel called to a foreign country, right? Those are the three slots of people that can hear from the Lord and disciple people and have confidence in ministry and be able to kind of go out and like, and like see their life and legacy as discipling people in the kingdom of God. If it's only those three people, then the rest of you may just, hey, just binge on Netflix. Just chill. It's fine. Just don't do anything.

You're not called to anything. But that's not the reality. That's not the reality. That's the fake. The real is that you're made and you're called. Let me pick on Daniel Oster for a moment. Yes. I live for this, man. I'm not going to pick on him. I'm just going to use him as an example. Okay. That's it. Just use you as an example, sir. That's all. Daniel Oster is passionate about discipling and about our church. He's passionate about those things. When he was a kid, his family moved abruptly from the coal mines of West Virginia to the hood of Southwest Fort Worth. Okay. Big change. Culturally, big change. You were 13, 12 at the time. 12 at the time. Tender age of 12. You can imagine that would be a big marker. When Daniel Oster tells his testimony, that always comes up every time. Because it was a big marker. It's fine that it comes up every time. It should come up every time.

It's a big marker. Right? Daniel Oster is good at focus. He is good at stacking wins. He's good at listening to people. He is so good at these things that he's rewarded for these things at work. Okay. He is highly praised at work. He started at the mail room. He's made his way all the way up to really high. I'm not going to pretend like I know exactly, but it's high. It's real high. It's all I need to know. He's rewarded handsomely for these things at work. He hates, hates glory hogs. I mean, he just hates them. If you're a glory hog, I'm sorry. I'm sure that you can be friends with Daniel Oster, but you're going to have to curb that if you guys are going to develop a friendship, okay? Because he doesn't like people that just revel in glory every time. And if you're prideful, he really hates that. Daniel is humble. He's a stand-up man. These are qualities about him.

These are things he's rewarded for. These are things that other people have told him that he's good at. So I'm not telling him anything new. And for you personality type people out there, he is an ESTJ. But of course he is. And he is working in, he has expertise particularly in corporate insurance. I think I covered everything, right? You want to broadcast anything else? No, you do not. Daniel is made, made by the Lord God in heaven to care for people in an organized way. You want somebody to care for a bunch of people in a way where you have to do the small things over and over again and be completely disciplined about it. Daniel's your guy, right? I'm not your guy, for sure. Daniel's your guy. That's his, that's exactly what he's made for. That's exactly what he's good at. That's in the wheelhouse for Daniel Oster. If you put a megaphone and a sandwich board onto Daniel Oster and you stick him on a

street corner in Fort Worth, he would preach. It would be awful. It would be awful for him, it would be awful for other people. It would just be this big hot mess because that's not what he's made for. He's made to love people in a disciplined, consistent way. So what are all of his discipleship relationships like? They look like people that he works with. People that he is, he's involved, the kids are involved in the same similar baseball team or they have been before. He's known them a long time. He's talking about the gospel. They come to him now with questions, spiritual questions of just like, hey, I'm reading this, I don't really understand it. Those kinds of things are happening to you now because you have been faithfully stewarding, consistently praying for people. Sorry, Daniel, I know that you hate all of this and playing This Is Your Life is not

fun for you, but it is a, you are a helpful example and anybody else would have just wilted under that, so you're welcome. Wahl is better with structure. You give him some unstructured environment where you're just like, I don't know, figure it out. Like, that's just not, he's not excited about that. I mean, he'll do it, but he's just not, that's not his cup of tea. He needs to know that about himself. He doesn't have that about himself. You need to know that about yourself. Some of you are more structured, some of you are less. Some of you buck at tradition, some of you embrace tradition. You love tradition. Some of you are completely extroverted. You can talk to a wall. Some of you can only talk to people that you know extremely well or it takes you a long time to build those relationships. That's fine. Look, there's a way for you to disciple people in any way that you're made.

There's a way for you to do that. It's still going to take risk. It's still going to take risk, but instead of trying to do something, and some of you are made for this, some of you are made, to be honest, Street Corner, God bless you. That's great. The majority of you are not. My encouragement, our encouragement from scripture, and we're looking at Paul and he's saying, look, I'm made for outsiders. I disciple outsiders, right? It doesn't mean that he's just like ignoring every Jew that he sees. It just means that he is pointed. I'm going to Mars Hill. I'm going to these places where I know Greeks are and Stoics and philosophers and why? Well, because Paul had those proclivities, right? Paul was kind of philosophically minded. He was kind of like gravitated toward these people, right? And so if you don't, if you would rather watch a soccer game than have a philosophical debate,

then go to a bar and watch a soccer game. Get to know people there. And if you're more comfortable having a philosophical debate, then don't go to a bar and watch a soccer game. Join a club or find a group of people where you guys can debate philosophy. When Jesus calls us to disciple these specific people, taking a step in the direction of discipling these people, hear me, is more than, it's much more than, than getting better at a technique, right? In other words, like whenever we talk about discipling people, when we're talking about evangelism, which is the first step in discipling somebody, when we're talking about engaging in some kind of evangelism, look, you need to have a way that you can kind of think about, we have training on that, we call that three circles, super easy. But like it's not a script, you know what I mean? Like if you go up to somebody and you just start reading the script, like, do you know

where you would go if you died, right? You know, like, we don't need that exactly, right? There's, there's got to be a way for you to, to understand that it's, it's not, it's more than getting better at a technique. Techniques can help, but only so far. What really is going to help is for you to find your unique identity and begin to pray for the people around you. Let me just say that again, I have it up here, I want you to hear it. The best thing that you can do is not memorize a technique. Techniques are fine, they can only take you so far. To make some real progress on this, you need to understand, find your unique identity, and you need to begin to pray for the people around you. And when you say which people, my answer back to you is, which people are you called to? Right? And I'm not saying that's like, that's not like written somewhere, like you can't read

like Hezekiah 3.1 and figure out the people that you're called to, right? This is something that is, is very difficult. It takes practice, it takes failure. Okay? I have learned over the years that I am good at talking to people I sort of know and deepening that relationship and being able to talk about the gospel there. I recently had a conversation, this is funny, Cash and I were praying, my son and I were praying, I don't remember, this is last week sometime, maybe Wednesday or Tuesday, and we're praying. And Cash prays for me, and it just stuck in my head for some reason, he just said, like, help dad share the gospel with just anybody, right? Like anybody who, whatever. I'm like, okay. I just took note. And so I kind of had my head on a swivel that day, and I go to the coffee shop, and lo and behold, about 115, and at 115 I really needed to do some work, okay?

Just to be completely honest. I had a meeting, a morning full of meetings, and I really needed to work on some sermon prep, bad. And so I was like, oh, you know, really got to get to this. And so I sit down, and I'm doing, you know, just doing some sermon prep at the coffee shop, this is what I do. I sit at coffee shops and work on sermons, and I talk to people, apparently. And so I'm walking, I'm listening, I'm doing my sermon prep and just typing away, and I'm like hyper focused. And there's this cat who sits next to me, not an actual cat. Sorry, Emma. What an actual cat. A guy who sits next to me, and his name is Jesus, okay? And when I tell you Jesus was super nice, and my, I just, I know when people are really nice like that, they're probably Mormon or Jehovah's Witness. That sounds weird, I know, but that's what I was thinking. Okay, I was like, this guy's way too nice.

And this guy would not leave me alone. I mean, I was giving him every nonverbal leave me alone, and he wasn't, bless him. And so we're just kind of typing, I'm just kind of typing away, and he's asking a few questions, and I'm not looking at him, I'm just answering his questions. I'm not being rude, I'm not, you know, whatever. I'm being my normal charming self. And sorry. So like, I'm just, anyway, as I'm typing that, I'm under conviction, because I'm writing this sermon. And I'm like, okay, okay, fine. And I remember Cassius' prayer, and I'm like, okay, you know, okay. And so I just said, I was preparing for, anyway, I just asked him about, randomly about the sermon, and I was like, he said that he had had some kind of church background, so I, you know, I kind of knew I had him picked. Anyway, I said, so what do you think he meant by this? And it was just a random question, and I asked him kind of out of the blue, but he took, he

wanted all that smoke. He was like, yes, let's talk. And so he's, man, he's into it, and he's asking me questions and all that. So I start asking him some questions, and the more I'm asking him, I mean, the Lord is just like lighting my brain up, like I'm remembering all these verses, and I mean, it's just, you know, I'm like so glad that I memorized them, versus, you know, like just calling things to mind, just left and right, just so good. The Lord had used things that I had kind of packed away. He had used previous experiences. This guy was Jehovah's Witness. It wasn't my first time talking with somebody who's Jehovah's Witness, but I did have a first time that went awful. This time didn't go awful, okay. You see that corollary there, right? It had to be awful first, and it was less awful this time with Jesus. And so it just so happened that I drank a ton of water, so I had to use the bathroom

like twice during the conversation. And the second time I go and use the bathroom, I'm praying, because I kind of feel like the conversation's over or that we're kind of stuck or something. We weren't arguing at all. We were just listening to each other. It was great. And I pray, and I was just like, what do I need to tell this guy? And so I sit down, and the Lord gave me the question of, hey, Zeus, do you know that you're going to spend eternity with Jehovah? So Jehovah's Witness is called God Jehovah specifically, so I use that word, use that title. And he just stopped. He was like, no. And he was very warm, but that no was pretty cold. And just like, there was some sadness. And so I just said, listen, man, I just want to tell you, I have every confidence that the Lord is going to bring me into his kingdom, that we are going to have eternity together. It's going to be so great, and it's not just going to be me there.

It's going to be a lot of other people there, and that God is building a family right now, and I can be assured that I'm in that family. And in fact, if I wasn't sure, it would change the very fabric of the kind of relationship I have with him. Like, if I was always worried that if I was going to get rewarded at the end, or God was going to be faithful to his promise to me, or if God didn't say that he had a promise, it was kind of like, if you are okay enough, maybe. I was like, man, I'm sure, and you can be sure too. That was it. And here's what the Lord did. There was another guy that sat down on the other side of Jesus. I didn't know this guy, right? But this guy was an absolute Bible thumping believer, okay? And this guy catches my eye as I'm talking to Jesus, he's sitting on the other side. He catches my eye, and I could tell, you know this, you can just see it in people's eyes,

they want to say something. He was like, oh, he's chomping at the bed, he's excited. And so I just kind of left it with that, and this guy, his name is Israel, because of course it is. I'm sitting next to Jesus in Israel for this conversation, so it's not making this up at all. This happened Wednesday. Add a coffee, add roasted beanery just down the street. Down the street. That's all right. Down that way. Down, whatever Levi and Candace point to, they know. Okay, so that way. Roasted beanery. I literally pointed this way and believed it 100%. Don't ask me what directions are. Okay. This actually happened, and so Israel chimes in, and he's like, look, I don't know that guy pointing to me, and I don't know you. He's kind of a tough guy. I don't know either one of you, but I can tell you, like, I have assurance that the Lord God is going to bring me. When I die, I'm going to be one with him.

We're going to be in heaven together, and that is a sure promise, and you can be sure. And this guy, Jesus, he was like, I don't know, man, that guy's probably 19 or 20. I mean, he's a young fireman at the Burleson Fire Department, potentially. So Israel started talking about that. I had to go, because actually I had to get work done, had a meeting, and all this. Anyway, I had to go, so I just, like, bid him farewell, but I left that guy with Israel, and they were just talking. I mean, I don't know, like, what decision Jesus is going to make, but I do know that I was faithful with the opportunity in front of me. Right? So, like, the Lord God in heaven has a desire for Jesus, the guy sitting next to me, not Jesus. That's not how I'm talking about. So it has a desire for Jesus to be reconciled to him. The Lord God in heaven does not desire for Jesus to die and go to hell, separated eternally

from the Lord. Right? That is true. That's truer than anything else I know. And I can share that with him. I can help him understand the gospel. I can maybe, like, make points of clarification. But if my goal was, like, I wanted Jesus to repent and fire to fall from heaven, and for him to become a Christian, like, right then, then I failed. Then that whole story I just told you, which is true, would be an F. One an F. I mean, the Holy Spirit was, like, A-plus in that thing all day long. Right? The Holy Spirit was, like, encouraging my son with his prayer. The Holy Spirit was encouraging me that I could, like, pray and say, like, God, I don't want to say right now. Like, how many want to say? And then he gave me something to say. He gave me this really penetrating question to ask. And I was like, oh, that was great. Like, as I was asking the question. Man, look, I'm telling you, it might not be in a coffee shop with Jesus and Israel

comes on the other side. Okay? It might be with the conversation, like, the fifteenth conversation you have with your co-worker, workout partner, or somebody that you're in a knitting circle with. It might be the 45th time you talk to somebody. It might be the person that you're praying for. It might be the neighbor that you never talk to but that decides to just have a conversation with you today. But look, what I'm telling you is if you were going to make progress on that, then you need to know your part on that is knowing how God made you to disciple people. You have to know it. And I don't care if it's personality type or whatnot, but just how did God make you? That's why I made you do that exercise. How did God make you? And then are you praying for the people that are just around you? Are you praying for them? Do you burn for them? So he says, I'm like halfway through my sermon.

I'm going to stop it early. You're welcome. But I just want to end with Ephesians 3:10. Because this is the why, right? He's like, I disciple outsiders. I'm giving God's grace. I'm giving God's grace to Stuart. I'm giving his power. I'm giving his authority. And you and I are given all those things, right? So we're not different than Paul. We're the same. Paul is writing not to say I'm special and different. He's writing to tell the church and us that we're all in that boat. So what does he say? Why does he do all this? So that, verse 10, so that through the church. Oh, the church, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. So that through the church, so much to say. Okay. I will leave it with this. I will leave it with this. That word manifold wisdom, that word is only used once in the eternity testament and it

means very extremely complicated. Okay? Very layered, very multi, multi, multi-faceted. Okay? Okay? That's what that word manifold means. Okay? And what he's saying is that the manifold wisdom of God, the unsearchable, unknowable, so much depth, wisdom of God, it's so thick. It's so there. We're gonna demonstrate that. We're gonna make that known to people. How are we gonna do that? Are we gonna explain it? No. We're gonna talk about it a little bit. But if you wanna show people the manifold wisdom of God, you demonstrate it. You serve them. You love them in their moment. And what you will find is as you do that, as you pray for people, as you discover your unique calling, as you discover how you're made, what the Lord God has given you in provision already, you will find doors begin to open. You will find that you have opportunity to display the manifold wisdom of God.

I'm gonna call up the worship band. Man, there's so much to say, so many things. What the Lord is calling you guys to do, man, and calling me to do, look, I'm not above it. I'm doing it too, right? It's a beat sometimes. I did not wanna talk to Jesus that day. I didn't. I was busy. I had stuff to finish. But I engaged in a two-hour conversation and I do not regret it. And the Lord's still provided for the sermon today. I only got halfway through. So you guys didn't even get to the unfinished part. It's perfect. I mean, it kinda worked out. But I'm not some celebrity. I hope that you know that. I'm pretty sure most of you do, but I'm just the word clear. I'm not some super Christian. I have bad days, good days too. I have opportunities to share just like you. Sometimes I check it out. Sometimes I say something. But do that spade work of knowing how God has made you.

Do that spade work of praying for the people that are around you. I will say on the table out there, so out and to your left, not the start table, but the other table, there is a place where it's starting points for discipling. It's a big packet, but it's because there's every personality type in there. You can just find yours and it will give you some ideas on where to start, how to start. And I would bet that most of you would be surprised on how you're encouraged to start discipling people. Spoiler alert, most of them don't involve a megaphone. Most of them don't, some do.

That's my encouragement. Man, take that step. They're out there, it's just a white packet. It just says starting points for evangelism, or discipling, excuse me. How am I gonna disciple people? Where do I start? Man, start there, start with that packet. Look it over. Let me pray for us. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for making us in particular ways. Thank you for bringing us into your presence

and healing us and directing our lives in such a way that, man, we are made to share that with others. We are made to steward your gift in the lives of others. Embolden us, give us grace, invite us into your work, and that we pray, amen.