A Request We All Should Repeat!

And I would just want to encourage you, if you have not been on one of these mission trips, make it your aim. Do, do everything you can to be a part of what's going on and connecting Jesus with different parts of the world. And when you come back home, it'll change, forever change the, your life and the way you live it out every single day. But listen, I'm so thankful to be here. My wife Christie's here with me. She came to this service today. And, um, you'll hear a little bit of her story here in just a moment. We have one son, Micah, who works at Chick-fil-A, uh, headquarters. And, uh, he and his wife, Kelly, have two sons, our grandsons, Wyatt and Jack. I, I jokingly say we call Wyatt the professor and Jack Reckitt Ralph. And together, we borrow a phrase from, phrase from scripture.

We call them the sons of thunder because when they come to Papa and Mimi's house, they bring the storm with them. And, uh, but we love it. And, uh, and God's been good to us. And we're so grateful for this, uh, this season of life that we get to share together. And we're thankful for the opportunity to be here today. If you got your Bibles, go ahead and make your way to Ephesians chapter six. And, uh, it's on page 1097 in my Bible. Hopefully it's similar to yours. Um, but Ephesians chapter six, and we're gonna focus on just a, a message that the Apostle Paul shared with a church that he loves in the city of Ephesus, an encouragement that he offered to give them and instructions about how to stand firm in the faith and live out the faith in all that we battle in this life.

And then at the end, he gives them this encouraging, uh, look at his own life as he asks them to pray for him. And it's a prayer request that I feel like we all, uh, should repeat. And so before we dive into, uh, Ephesians chapter six, let me pray for us and pray for our time in God's word together. Father, we love you. We thank you for your love for us. We thank you for the way you've expressed that love in the person and work of Jesus. And we thank you for the salvation that we enjoy. And we just pray that as we co - gather together to sing praises to your name, to call on you through prayer and to focus on your word, that Lord, you would speak to us from your word today. I pray that you would encourage every heart, speak to every life, equip us in, in stronger and better ways so that we can live our lives for your glory and honor.

But God, most of all, just pray today as we focus our hearts and our attention on you that you would meet with us and have your way in us. And we'll give you glory for all that you do. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You know, just as a, a way to introduce, um, what I wanna talk about today and what the scripture is addressing our attention on. Um, back in 2010, my wife Christie, uh, was diagnosed with cancer. It was a really kind of an odd thing. We went to the doctor for something else. We found out there was another problem and, uh, she was diagnosed with melanoma. We had caught it late and so it was advanced. By the time we got to Winship Cancer Institute, um, just that next week, um, they told us that she had less than a 50% chance to live.

And so when you get that kind of news, it's shocking. Um, I told you already that she's here with us today at 11 o'clock, so God has been gracious to us. But, um, when, after we went through, uh, the surgery and then treatments and then in the fall of that year, I was gonna be in California, uh, with the North American Mission Board trustees. And she had always wanted to go to Yosemite to see the giant Sequoia trees. It was on her bucket list. And I said, "Hey, if you feel strong enough, why don't you go with me?" She was, and so she went with me. And, uh, after our meetings, we drove up to Yosemite, which is a beautiful place, by the way. If you've never been, I can tell you, you can look at pictures all day long. They don't do it justice.

Um, it's actually phenomenal and, uh, testifies to the greatness of the creator, not just to the greatness of the creation. And, um, anyway, we, uh, we went through the valley and then we did get to go see the Sequoia trees, which was phenomenal. And on our last day there, we're making our way back down into the valley, just one more trip through. The last day we got there, very different than the first day. First day, just people scattered in different places, walking around looking at different things. The last day though, people were, um, and this is hundreds of people sitting in the valley on, um, blankets, eating sandwiches, drinking cokes in lounge chairs. And they all had spotting scopes and they were looking up into the sky and we're like, "What in the world is going on?" And as we drive into the valley, I, after a little bit, I pulled over.

I said, "I'm just gonna go ask somebody." And as I got out of the car, I started walking to the first couple and I was walking backwards just to, to look and see what they were seeing and I finally spotted it. There were two guys on El Capitan that were scaling the side of the mountain. Word had got out and everybody had come to watch them climb the mountain. Now, I'll tell you that story because it paints a, a vivid picture. Everybody was in the same place that day, but 99% of the people were on vacation and there were only two people on mission. And I, I say that to say this. God has not designed us as the church for the valley. He's designed us for the mountain. He's not called us to be on vacation as believers. He's called us to be on mission as believers.

And the truth is we just need more people on the mountain and less people in the valley. You with me? And so that's what I wanna talk about today is how do we get there and, you know, what do, what do we need to know to actually take that next step and live life on mission? And I, I'll tell you a couple of things. One, we need to know our mission. Our mission is to know him and to make him known. That's it. It's pretty simple, isn't it? Listen, I grew up in a Christian home. My, my dad's accountant. My mom was a nurse. And, um, my dad's dad was a very ungodly man. He grew up in a very ungodly, uh, situation. Um, and so when he determined, when he became an adult, his family was gonna look different. It did. He talked to us about Jesus all the time.

But, uh, when I was 11 years old, I, I, I got to do something I've been wanting to do in our church for a long time, go to a camp for boys in the summer that was at Panama City, which was fantastic. I went for all the wrong reasons. I went to canoe and, uh, shoot archery and hang out with the guys, camp out, all that stuff. But on Thursday night of the camp, a missionary told his story, his testimony. He gave the invitation a little bit different than I'd ever heard before. He asked everybody to bow their heads, close their eyes. And then he said," If you know Jesus, I want you to quiet, get, quietly get up and leave. "Everybody on the first row left, second row left, third row left, and the row I was sitting on on the fourth row left.

And I was all by myself. For the first time in my life, I was only 11, but I was overwhelmed by a sense of aloneness. I went up to the missionary, talked to him afterwards. He passed me off to a little 15 year old kid. And all I remember is he had long blonde hair down to his shoulders. He had a white t-shirt on, cut off, blue jean shorts and no shoes. We went outside, we knelt down in the sand. He took my Bible. Back in those days, the popular thing with Bibles was to have the scene of the baptism of Jesus on the outside and they unzipped and he unzipped my Bible. He opened it up. He took, went to the Book of Romans, walked me through the Romans road. And that day, I came to know Jesus. Now I didn't understand everything about my salvation.

And, and to be honest with you, I was 11 then. I'm 65 now. I'm still learning the depth of the riches of God's salvation for us as believers. But I'll tell you this, this is what I did know and this is what he said. From this day forward, you may be all by yourself, but you will never be alone again. Isn't that good news? That when we come to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God Himself takes up residence in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. He is the seal, the guarantee of our salvation, making us his own. And he calls us his children and we forever belong to him. We need to know him. And if you don't know him yet today, I pray today that you'll hear the good news that Jesus is the savior of the world. We are sinners separated from God by our sin.

We need a savior. Jesus is that savior. He paid our sin debt in full. We just sang about him. And if we place our faith and trust in him, he will forgive us of our sins, he'll give us eternal life as a free gift and give us heaven as a home. Jesus changes everything. And once we come to know him, we want to know him more every single day. And then the flip side of that is, now that we know him, now we're to make him known. Everywhere we go, we make him known. That's the mission for every single believer. It's not about vocation. It's not about being on the church staff. I mean, thank God for the people that are on church staff. Praise the Lord for God's call on their life. No matter what your vacation, no matter what your personality, no matter what your experience or education, if you know Jesus, you have a story to tell and you're to live life on mission.

In fact, I really believe the only reason that God lives, leaves us here is for us to be on mission for him. That's really the goal for every believer, every life on mission. I mean, think about it. Everything we do on this side of heaven as Christians is better in heaven, right? Think about worship. Worship band's incredible. Amen? They have incredible voices. I mean, I'm sitting over there. I got a little bit of envy in me, um, because I, you know, they love to be able to sing like that. In my head I do, but when it comes out, just doesn't get there. You, you with me? Anybody identify with me? But singing is gonna be better in heaven because we're all gonna be able to sing. And you know what I'm looking forward to? Having rhythm. I have no rhythm. So when they're up here and they say," Hey, clap and sing.

"Allright, you gotta pick. Either sing, clap, can't do both at the same time. That's just not happening. In heaven, worship teams are gonna have nothing on me. I'm be right there with them. Amen? And you know what? In heaven, fellowship's gonna be better. The community of believers is gonna be better. You say," Why is that? "There's no anger. There's no envy. There's no jealousy. Just sum it all up. There's no drama in heaven. Anybody got a drama-free life? Not if you have people in it, right? Because even as believers, there's drama, um, on this side of heaven. In heaven, that's all gone. But there's one thing on this side of heaven that we can do, we can't do in heaven, and that has introduced somebody to Jesus. And that's why we're to live life on mission every single day. That's the goal. Now, here's the need.

If we're gonna get there, okay, if we're gonna get there, we need a burden for the lost and we need the boldness to tell them about Jesus, those two things. And the truth is, once we get inside the church and we're, we become part of the family of God, the reason we're not so active sometimes in living on mission is we forget what it's like to be lost. We need a real sense of burden for the people who don't yet know Jesus because listen, we're in this church because we really believe there's a real hell, there's a real heaven. The only way to miss hell and make heaven is Jesus, putting your faith and trust in him. And God doesn't save us because we're good. He saves us because he's good and full of grace. Amen? We don't deserve it, but he gives it to us because he loves us.

Praise God for that. And so we need a burden for the lost and then we need the boldness to actually go and tell people about Jesus. That's where this text comes in. In Ephesians chapter six, again, Paul is in chains, he's in prison. He's writing a church in Ephesus, a group of people in the city of Ephesus that he loves dearly, has poured into. He's at the end of his letter to them and he gives them some encouragement, gives them instruction. And as he does, I think the Holy Spirit sparked in his heart a request he wanted to make from the church for himself. And so let's read it. Listen to what he says down in verse 10. He says," Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day having done all to stand firm. "And then verse 14," Stand therefore. "I want to mention just before we move on, Paul's talking about the spiritual battle that we in, we're in as, as believers. And listen, we have three enemies. The world is an enemy. The world, even when it appears to be running in the same direction that God's running, is not running in the same direction God's running. And then we have the flesh that's always weak. And then we have the devil that's always working. He's talking about this grand spiritual battle that we're facing and we always face every single day. And he says," Listen, put on the whole armor of God so that you may live in the strength and might of the Lord. "And then here's the, here's the win that you may be able to stand.

He uses that term over and over again in this passage, that at the end of the day, in the midst of the battle, you're still standing firm in the faith. Okay? Now, look on down. Here's, here are the elements of the armor of God. Having fastened on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith which can, you, which you, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. He gives us all the elements and then he says, here's how you put it on. Praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. And to that end, keep a Lord with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

He's saying, listen, we need these to stand firm. We need to live with the armor of God. By the way, when I pray in the morning, it's one of the things I pray for. Pray for my family, we'll all, every element, pray through every element of the armor of God that God would strengthen us in his mind, equip us through the armor of God so that whatever battle we face in the day, we're gonna stand firm in the faith. So important for us. But as he's telling them, pray for one another in this, it's like the Holy Spirit ignites in him a request for his own life. And so this is what he says. He says, and pray also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I'm an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Now, when I read that the first time, it really hit me odd. I mean, you may read it and think it's completely normal to ask to pray for boldness, but here's why I though it was so odd. Because the boldest person in the faith I have ever read about is the Apostle Paul. You read his story, you read the book of Acts, you read his letters, you've seen the suffering and trials and tribulations that he's been through for the sake of the gospel. I mean, think in one case, he was even stoned and left for dead because of his witness to the gospel. When he healed up, he didn't say this is too hard. I'm gonna quit. He just went to the next town and kept preaching and teaching people about Jesus. That's boldness, isn't it? That's boldness. And yet, while in prison, the apostle Paul talking to his friends in Ephesus says, I want you to pray for me that I will be bold in opening my mouth and telling the gospel story.

So we gotta ask. I mean, why did he do that? Why did he ask that? Why was that his request? I mean, if I was in his situation, I would' said, Hey, pray that I'll get out of prison. He didn't ask that. He just said, pray that I'll be bold. And I think there are five, at least five reasons that he asked that. Number one, he recognized the intensity of the spiritual battle, not his chains, but when you seek to live a life on mission, you just need to know the devil is coming after you. He's gonna do everything in his power to stop you, to hinder you, to prevent what you're, what he's wanting to do in your life and use you for, to proclaim his goodness and grace to the world. He knew he was in a spiritual battle. He knew he needed people praying for him or he wouldn't do it.

And so he recognized the intensity of the spiritual battle. That's why after stating all of these things earlier in the passage about being strong in the Lord and the strength of his mind and all the, the enemy that we face and the armor that we're to wear, he, he though, I need to pray. I need them to pray for me that I'll be bold. Second thing, he believed in the power of prayer. Anybody believe in the power of prayer? Anybody here believe in the power of prayer? Anybody had a prayer answered? Man, I believe in the power of prayer. We've seen dozens and dozens of prayers answered in my life. Sometimes the way I wanted to, sometimes not the way I wanted them to, but they're answered and praise God for that. My wife is here today in this service as a testimony of the power of prayer.

I mean, I remember one time I was, uh, telling my grandmother, my mom's mom, and she was a unique lady. Um, she never owned a car, never had a driver's license. She was legally blind, lived in a very small house on Po- Poor Robin Road was the name of the road in Abbeville, Georgia in Wilcox County. It had one destination, the old Muggey River. That was the only place it went. And, uh, I remember telling her one day, I was saying something good had happened in my life and she said," Well, that's just an answer to prayer, Timmy. That's what she used to call me, Timmy. "And I said," Well, no, ma'am, it's not because I didn't pray about it. That all though I was gonna get her. "And she said," I didn't say you prayed about it. I've been praying about it. "And it was an answer to prayer.

And I listen, we all believe in the power.That's why we pray.

We believe in the power of almighty God to change things and we present our request to him and say," God, have your way. "Well, Paul believed in the power of prayer. Third reason is he knew the boldness he desired would only come through the work of the Holy Spirit. And I, I say that because what, what Paul knew, we need to know. I mean, we could go out here today and say, listen, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna make sure that every person I meet, I'm gonna tell about Jesus. And we could pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, roll up our sleeves and go to work. You know what'll happen if that's the kind of boldness we have? That boldness will come across like arrogance.

It won't be received well. It'll be lacking compassion. But when the boldness that we have in this life to live life on mission for Jesus every day is stirred up in our hearts through the presence and work of the Holy Spirit, that boldness is infused with the compassion of Almighty God. And people know that you love them and God loves them in the way you speak and share the gospel. He was also confident in the power of the gospel. Well, Paul knew even in that dire circumstance that he was in, that even in chains, if he could just get the gospel out, that Jesus would be powerful to save. That's what he knew. And then the fifth thing is this, he had a passionate desire to speak the gospel at every opportunity. I love that about the Apostle Paul, that wherever he went, wherever he was, he just wanted to make Jesus known.

He wanted to make sure that every person that came in contact with his life, he wasn't worried about them knowing him. He was worried about them knowing Jesus and he wanted to take advantage of every opportunity that, that God gave him. He just didn't want to miss any. And so he's saying, listen, pray for me that I'll be bold in making Jesus known. Now, when you think about all of that, you say, what, what's the lesson that we learned? I think there's one big lesson we learned, and that is fervent prayer for boldness is essential. It's essential in the life of the believer. We need to pray. We need others pray. In fact, when, in a very practical way, we're going to look at a few things here in a minute. You think about what do we need to do knowing what we know and learning what we learned from what Paul asked in this passage?

I think there are two things that are connected to prayer here that we just don't need to miss. And one of them is this. We need to pray on our own. We need to pray that God would move our hearts to have this same kind of holy desire to make much of Jesus at every opportunity. I mean, if you don't have that passion right now burning into your heart as a believer, listen, this is what you're made for. You're made for the mountain, not for the valley. You're made for the mission. God has called you to live a life on mission. It's why he leaves us here, to live life on mission. And if you search your own heart and say, listen, right now I just don't have the, that kind of passion for it, then we need to pray. God, stir up in me a holy passion for making you known to everyone in the world, wherever you put me, whatever opportunities you give me, that I just take full advantage of pointing people to Jesus and let the Holy Spirit of God be at work in us.

Another thing we need to pray for is we need to pray for the lost. We need to start praying for the lost that we know that God's put in our life for them to know Jesus. I mean, you've thought about that, praying for them by name, by name. I mean, think about the people that are in your life. How many people that are friends of yours, that are in your family even, that don't know the Jesus you know? Man, you need to put them on your prayer list and every day you just need to take their name to heaven and say, God, I pray you save them and give me an opportunity to tell them about Jesus. You orchestrated a divine appointment. I tell you what happened. You pray that way. The next time you see them, the Holy Spirit will work in your heart and in theirs.

It'll remind you that you've been praying for them and he'll tell you, Hey, let's get this conversation to Jesus. You with me? Second thing we need to do and related to prayer is we need to infuse our churches to pray for one another to have boldness and witnessing. And I know you pray for one another and I'm grateful for the, the ministry of Bert Hickory. It's obvious that God's hands here and at work here. What I'm, I'm encouraging you to do is personally get a prayer partner, not to pray for physical needs or relational needs. You've got those kind of prayer partners probably. If you don't, I encourage you to have them. I encourage you just to have one prayer partner to pray for you to be bold in witnessing and tell, and that's all you pray for. Hey, I just want you to be my prayer partner, to pray for me that I'll be bold.

I'll pray for you that you'll be bold. Let's text each other once a week and remind each other we're praying for one another to be bold in witnessing. Just like Paul asked the church in Ephesus, pray for me that I'll be bold. Find somebody that you can enlist it to be a part of your life by praying that you would be bold in telling the gospel story. Third thing, we need to remind ourselves of the presence of the Holy Spirit. I know anytime we start talking about witnessing and living life on mission, it's just easy to bail out and say, you know what? I just can't do it. And one of the reasons that we can't do it is oftentimes we think that once we leave the comfort of this room and we're out there in the real world, that we're all by ourself. I just want you to know, I wanna remind you time and again, you are not alone.

When you got saved, the Holy Spirit of God took a residence in your heart. Your heart is not a hotel. He doesn't check in and check out. He lives in you. He has sealed you for the day of redemption. He's not gonna leave you and he will empower you to be everything that God wants you to be. Here's, here's a lesson that we all need to learn. If we'll commit to following Jesus and live a life on mission, Jesus will give you everything you need to be everything he wants through the work of the Holy Spirit. You're not alone when you're out there. Remind yourself every day that God is with you. God is in you through the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, the fourth thing, this is very important. We need to remember that the fear and the hesitation to speak the gospel is part of the spiritual battle with our enemy Satan.

It's amazing what we can talk about with people, right? Guys, we can talk about sports, can't we? You never go into a sports conversation and say, "Man, I'm, I'm sweating bullets here. I'm just really nervous about talking about that win yesterday." You know? No, you don't worry about that. And we just jump into the conversation. We can talk about the weather, we can talk about business. We can even talk about politics as weird as that world is. And we can talk about all kinds of things without getting overwhelmed with anxiety so much that we don't have the conversation. But when it comes to talking about Jesus, it's amazing. We get nervous, become fearful. Sometimes we just decide it's not gonna do it.

Now, why is that? Look at this passage. Paul's given us insight. The spiritual battle is intensified when you decide you're gonna live life on mission. And part of that fear and anxiety that you feel when you are about to share the gospel, and maybe even inadequacy, you feel like, "I don't know enough. I, I can't, I, I'm not prepared enough. I'm gonna mess it up." Just remember, Satan is lobbying his grenades at you from every direction when you decide to live life on mission. And so just know it's normal for that kind of fear and anxiety to happen. In fact, the apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth, he was talking, he says, "When I was with you, I was with you in much fear and trembling." Even Paul had that situation. It's not uncommon. I just want you to know that if you know Jesus, you know enough of Jesus to tell somebody about Jesus.

You with me? It's, it's kind of crazy when you think about it. I mean, I, I pastored Eagles Landing for over 30 years and so grateful for the ministry and opportunity there, but there were times when I had the opportunity to meet with somebody that was in our community and I would have anxiety about the conversation about Jesus. I remember one night in particular, I was going to a coach's house and he was one of those guys that just, he was just intimidating. You know those guys? And just his physical presence was intimidating and, uh, he had one of those faces that even when he was happy looked mad. You ever, you ever seen those people? And so when I sat down in his living room and I was going to go with the gospel with him, he was sitting in his chair looking at me and the whole time what I saw him saying is, "Why are you in my house?" All right?

That's what I saw on his face. And so I was a bit nervous, anxious about the whole conversation. I went through the gospel and while I'm going through it, in my head, I'm thinking, "This is the worst presentation of the gospel I have ever heard in my life. And I'm the one sharing it. This is terrible." Um, I was thinking, "You know what? If, if I was him, I wouldn't understand what I'm saying." And I got to the end of the conversation, I looked across and I though, "I'm gonna, I'm gonna invite him to trust in Christ, even though I think he probably doesn't understand what I just said." And I said, "Would you like to put your faith in trust in Christ?" You know what? He slid up on the edge of his chair and I though, oh, here it comes. And he said, "I've been waiting my whole life for somebody to tell me God loves me." Isn't that crazy?

And he gave his life to Jesus that night. That didn't always happen that they gave your life to Jesus, but I want you to know that hesitancy, that anxiety is a part of the spiritual battle that we face every day as believers living for our, our God and king. But we need to remember, greater is he that is in you than he's in the world. And God is with you and he'll give you the strength you need, even the face of that kind of anxiety. The fifth thing is this. We need to have confidence in the power of the gospel. Bless you.

Confidence in the power of the gospel. And it's so important because I think what we wait, what we waited for is, listen, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to a class. I'm gonna get more knowledge. I'm gonna get more confidence in myself. I'm gonna get comfortable with all this, and then I'm gonna live life on mission. You do that, you'll never get there. See what we need? We don't need confidence in ourselves. We just need confidence in the power of the gospel. Jesus is the one who saves, we don't save anybody. Anything you can talk somebody into, the devil will talk them out of by the time you leave the driveway.

God saves. We're not responsible for that, but we are the messengers. He tells us in this passage, he was an ambassador. We are ambassadors for Christ. We are the ones sent on behalf of another, and it's all of us. It's not about personality. Listen, you can have an outgoing personality, you can be an introvert, okay? It's not about vocation. You can be in full-time ministry, all right? You, you know, you could work at the post office, you could work at the bank, you could work as a teacher, you could, whatever your job is in vocation, it does not matter. The confidence is not in us, it's in the message. If we can just get it out, God will save people. The, the, you know, one of the most powerful personal soul winners I've ever met was my father-in-law. And he was very meek in his personality, very quiet, but not when it came to the gospel.

He was just determined. He's the one who taught me there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who know Jesus and those who need to know Jesus. And God leaves those who know Jesus here on this earth to tell those who don't know Jesus about Jesus so they can know him too, okay? I remember one day, he, he used to call every once in awhile and say, "Hey, you wanna meet me for lunch?" And they'd say, "Yeah, where do you wanna meet?" And he'd say, "Smokey Bones." Y'all have those? Have you seen Smokey Bones? I hate Smokey Bones. <laugh> But I didn't wanna miss a day, you know, have lunch with my father-in-law. And, uh, I remember we went to Smokey Bones. It was lunchtime. He was crowded. Man, he was packed out. We'd wait, got to a booth. We sit down and a lady comes, she's about 40 years old.

Her name's T, like the letter T. And, uh, she takes our drink order and he says, "Hey, before you leave, let me ask you a question." He said, "Can you tell me how to get to heaven from Smokey Bones?" And I'm looking across him saying, "Really? That's the way you're gonna get no gospel conversation? That's the corniest thing I've ever heard. That's what's going on in my head." And she said, "I'll be back in a minute." And I said, under my breath, she ain't coming back. Okay, she's gonna leave and say, there's two weird guys at booth 10, just send somebody over there to talk to them. But in a few minutes she came back, she put our drinks down, she sat on the booth side with him. She just slid into the booth right beside him. And he's, you know, he's 60 something, almost 70 years old.

And she says, "All right, how'd I get to heaven from smokey bones?" And he said, "The first thing I wanna tell you is, T, I know with absolute certainty that God loves you." And her eyes welled up with tears. And he, she sat there for the next 10, 12 minutes and he went through the gospel. He got to the end, he said, "T, would you like to give your life to Jesus?" To know him as your savior. She said, "I've been waiting my whole life for this. I absolutely, I would." He said, "Why don't you, why don't you just tell him why don't you just pray and tell him, you want me to lead you in a prayer?" She said, "No, sir. I think I can pray all by myself." Without even any... She just slid out of the booth on her knees and out loud when childlike faith, she told Jesus, "I give my life to you.

I place my... Will you forgive me of my sins and make me your child? I place my trust in you." You may be thinking, "Yeah, but y'all left and you don't really know if that was genuine or not." A couple months later, we're back at Smokey Bones. I still don't like it. Um, but we sit in a booth and this place is packed and it's loud and all of a sudden we hear this lady yell and everybody gets quiet. And we're all like, "What's going on?" And she said, "There's the man that told me about how much God loves me and now Jesus is my savior." I think that's pretty real, don't you? And he was meek.

It's not about personality. It's not about your vocation. It's not about can I be charismatic? It's about the message. The power is in the message. And so our confidence just needs to rest in the gospel. And then the last thing is this, we need to get personally involved. It's for everybody. Life on mission, that's what you're made for. Just remember, you're not made for the valley, you're made for the mountain. Tell you a quick story. They, y'all have, uh, vintage stores, antique stores up here? Okay. I heard a murmuring. So there may be a few up here. What they are is they're junkyards that got moved inside and everybody calls them vintage stores. Now everybody wants to go, including my wife. My wife loves vintage stores. Me not so much, but I love my wife, so I go. And vintage stores are deceptive. They really are deceptive.

They usually put them in a storefront. It's like 10 feet wide. But when you go inside, it's like walking in CS Lewis's wardrobe. There's like 14 buildings connected to that one building and everybody's junk from 100 miles is packed into that place, you know? One Saturday morning we got up and she said, "Hey, I, I got a new vintage store." I said, "All right, let's go." We get there. It was big on the outside. She started her shop and I went to the counter like I normally do, said, "Hey, is there a men's section?" They said, "Follow the yellow line, go to the third building, the northwest corner. There's some tools. Thank you. That's where I'll be." So I walked away. There was a counter that was perpendicular to the checkout stand, and it was one of those glass counters that had the sliding glass that locked.

In my brain, I'm looking at that going, "Why? This is a junk store. Why we got locked stuff behind locked glass? That makes no sense to me." So I'm just looking to see what's behind there. And as I walked by, I noticed there was a fishing lure, hand car fishing lure behind the glass. Though it was so strange, but it, it, it cued something in my mind because my grandfather loved fishing. My dad loved fishing. I love fishing. My grandsons loved fishing. My grandfather carved his own lures, built his own boat, built a, at a block, a co - a tank in the front yard. He'd go to the old Muggey River, catch fish, put them in that tank. When you didn't catch fish as you drove by, he'd sell you his fish so you'd have something to eat. It's one of the ways he made a living, okay?

And so, man, all that's flashing in my mind. Lady comes out, "You'd like me to unlock the glass?" I said, "Absolutely." She unlocked it. I sat down. I started looking. And then there was all kind of old reels, old bamboo rods. So I just started pulling it all out. I was looking at all. Hour later, she comes back out. She says, "Would you like to meet the lady that owns all that?" I said, "Absolutely. She's in the parking lot." So I got up, ran outside. A lady in her 80s out there unloading stuff from her pickup truck. Had a great conversation with her. Sweet, sweet lady. She tells me all the stuff in the store belonged to her husband who had passed away a year earlier. Um, and, uh, we just had a great time talking about it. And she said, "Oh, if you think that stuff is something, you ought to come to my house.

My whole garage is filled with fishing stuff. There's shelves all from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and it's cataloged by date and type and make. It's just full of fishing stuff." She said, "You gotta come over to my house sometime and see it." I said, "Absolutely, I do. That's amazing." I walked away and as I was walking away, just one more question. I went back and said, "Hey, gotta ask you a question. My, my grandfather loved fishing. My dad loved fishing. I love fishing. My grandsons and sons love fishing. So when did your husband fall in love with fishing?" She got a strange look on her face. And she said, "Love fishing. He hated to fish." And I walked away thinking that has to be the weirdest thing I've ever heard in my life. You collect all the fishing stuff and you hate fishing.

What she said was she hated, he hated to fish. He just loved all the stuff. And walking back inside, uh, still thinking, "Gosh, that's so strange." And then the, it's like the Holy Spirit spoke to my own heart. He said, "It's not strange at all. A lot of times you're like that. You don't like to fish. You just love all my stuff." And what hit me was, you remember this when Jesus said, "Follow me and I'll make you to become what? Fishers of men." And I said, "Lord, you're so right." And then this thought hit me. You know what's sad?

That guy missed the best part. You see those lures, those rods and reels? They weren't meant for a shelf in a garage. They were made for purpose, to fish. He'd done all that collecting and missed the best part fishing. Let me tell you, you and I are not made for a shelf or for a seat. We're made to be sent. We're made for the mission. We're not made for the valley. We're made for the mountain. That's the purpose of every single life. So I just want to encourage you today. You can do it. You can do it. Not on your own, not by yourself, but God never means for us to do that. That's why he gives us the Holy Spirit. So the lesson I learned as an 11-year-old boy is a lesson I still learn today. Now that we know Jesus, we can be all by ourself, but we're never alone.

And in this day, and in tomorrow, and the next one, God will give you everything you need to be everything he wants. So let's go fish. Amen?