Our journey within these audio walls traverses ancient times, drawing poignant lessons from the Tower of Babel, where humanity's pride clashed with the divine. As we unpack this narrative, we confront our own temptations to seek glory over obedience, unity over self-aggrandizement. Pastor Chip's insights illuminate the paradox of God's magnificent pursuit of His church against our flawed human nature, emphasizing a life lived for His glory as the ultimate act of honor. We find ourselves at the crossroads of gathering in His name and scattering to share the gospel, a dichotomy that challenges and inspires our mission as believers.
The crescendo of our conversation is the stirring image from Revelation 5:9—where every tongue and nation unite in worship. This vision isn't just a distant hope; it's the heartbeat of our calling to mission and salvation. As we close, I encourage each listener to ponder their path, to consider the power of a life dedicated to Christ, and to embrace the support offered to those stepping forward in faith. Join us in celebrating the transformative power of salvation and the shared purpose we find in the gospel.
Find out more at www.fbcps.org.
Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram or visit our Website.
Our journey within these audio walls traverses ancient times, drawing poignant lessons from the Tower of Babel, where humanity's pride clashed with the divine. As we unpack this narrative, we confront our own temptations to seek glory over obedience, unity over self-aggrandizement. Pastor Chip's insights illuminate the paradox of God's magnificent pursuit of His church against our flawed human nature, emphasizing a life lived for His glory as the ultimate act of honor. We find ourselves at the crossroads of gathering in His name and scattering to share the gospel, a dichotomy that challenges and inspires our mission as believers.
The crescendo of our conversation is the stirring image from Revelation 5:9—where every tongue and nation unite in worship. This vision isn't just a distant hope; it's the heartbeat of our calling to mission and salvation. As we close, I encourage each listener to ponder their path, to consider the power of a life dedicated to Christ, and to embrace the support offered to those stepping forward in faith. Join us in celebrating the transformative power of salvation and the shared purpose we find in the gospel.
Find out more at www.fbcps.org.
Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram or visit our Website.
Amen. Aren't you glad you came to church this morning, wouldn't that great? Put your hands together one more time for Pastor Mark Perry, our choir, our orchestra, and just what a great job they do in leading us into worship of Jesus every Sunday morning, every Lord's day. It is so good to see all of you here today coming together to be in worship of Jesus and be under the Word of God together this morning. I can't wait for next Sunday Super Bowl Sunday together. Get to see all of your team colors. Pastor Mark's already got the choir in his team color this morning, and so he's just working a little ahead of time here, and so it's just so awesome to just to be a part of everything that God is doing.
Speaker 1:I've always thought if I could preach more like John Darnell man. What a great job that he does every morning. So I'm going to try this morning. Amen, amen, amen. We appreciate that. I'm going to give him my best shot. There was a boy who wanted a rabbit one day. Just kidding, just kidding. We're not going to do it. Not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you. God, you're so good and, father, we just give you all the glory, god, this is all from you, it's all by you, it's all for you. We pray that you would fill us with your spirit this morning. God, we pray that you would exalt Jesus, your son, this morning. And, god, we pray that we would give you all of the glory this morning. We love you in Jesus' name and all God's people said Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite parts of every single day that I get to do is to take my little girl through her children's Bible every single night. I just love reading the children's Bible to Brooklyn. She's four years old I'm going to turn five in March and there are sometimes in the children's Bible to where it's just kind of working in through and into the gospel, and so there are times, even that when she was three and she is four, I've asked her Brooklyn, do you think one day that you're going to give your life to Jesus and you're going to let Jesus save you? And Brooklyn has always had the same response. She has always told me Dad, I will when I'm ready, when I'm ready one day, I will. Dad, I will when I'm ready. I'm like you're four, what are you talking? What are you waiting on, right, and I don't say it out loud, I don't want to push, and I don't want to pressure and or force or anything like that whatsoever.
Speaker 1:And and so it was this past Sunday, just a week ago, I hung a picture on our wall and it was a picture from my wife's brother. He gave it to us a Christmas a few Christmases ago, and it was from her brother that had just recently passed away. And so we put it, the picture up on the wall, and the picture just says love, l-o-v-e. And it's the verse, one of the love verses, from 1 Corinthians, chapter 13.
Speaker 1:Well, brooklyn and if you haven't met Brooklyn, she has cerebral palsy. She's not able to walk on her own, she, so she. We often have to move her around, and especially when she needs to go to the restroom. And so she says, daddy, I need to go potty. I need to go potty, we're at home. So I pick her up and I'm carrying her back to the bathroom.
Speaker 1:There's a new sign, which is that love picture, just right as she's going into her room and she says, daddy, what does that sign say? And I said, brooklyn, it says love. And it was from your uncle, chris, who's now in heaven with Jesus, with your grandma and all of that. And so, and she said, dad, when I go to heaven one day, I'm going to get to hear his voice. And so I thought she was talking about her uncle, chris, and I said, well, whose voice do you get to hear? She said, well, I will get to hear Jesus's voice one day, when I get to go to heaven. And I said, baby, you're exactly right, you'll get to hear his voice when you go to heaven one day, but first you'll have to one day give your life to Jesus in order to go to heaven.
Speaker 1:And she looked at me on the potty, on the toilet, and she said, daddy, I am ready to give my life to Jesus. And I was like, right here, right now, I mean. And so here we are, praise God. I'm like, well, can we get off the toilet first? Is that okay? Like I don't want to, I don't want to mess this up, I don't want to miss the moment. And I said, okay, let's do that. And so we take care of her, and I take her into a room right there and I put her on the floor and I said you want Miami to come in? And she said yeah, I want Miami to come in. I said Miami, could you come in? And Michelle walks in the door and Brooklyn says Mommy, I want to give my life to Jesus, right? Michelle's like, oh, my goodness. And so we're just frantic. You know, she's our first child giving her life to Jesus.
Speaker 1:And I just said, brooklyn, do you know that you're a sinner? And she said oh yeah, daddy, I'm a sinner. I'm like I know, I know, I know you are, just want to make sure you know you are. And I said Daddy. I said, brooklyn, do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? And she said oh, yes, jesus died for my sins. I said Did he stay dead, or what happened? She said Daddy rose from the dead. I'm like I know. I just want to make sure that you know.
Speaker 1:And and I said I wanted to ask her a Lordship question make sure she understood that it requires believing in Jesus as the Lord, the leader of your life. I said, brooklyn, if Jesus asked you to do something you wouldn't want to do, would you do it? She sat there, she thought for a second and she said yeah, dad, I would do it. I would do it Jesus wants me to do so. We got to lead her through the prayer right now and she prayed to receive Jesus in Brooklyn if you're watching from sick from home this morning with mommy, so proud of you, baby girl and and she prayed to receive Jesus and we said Amen, and a few moments later she looked up. She said I have the Holy Spirit now and so we're raising raise a little Pentecostal, I love it, we're so excited about it. And so just put your hands together. Are we so thankful?
Speaker 1:Praise God for what he's doing in the next generation and that has a lot to do with what I'm talking about this morning from Genesis, chapter 11. You can open up your Bible in Genesis, chapter 11. And we find our place in the scriptures to where God has so designed it that one generation was called to pass on his promises, who he is, his character, his nature to the next generation. As you remember, we have we studied in this series. We started off in Genesis, chapter one, as our series is called the beginning. We're looking through the book of Genesis together and over the next several years we're just going to walk through the Bible together and just understand all of the storyline of scripture, because there's nothing more important for us to know in life.
Speaker 1:And so we go back to Genesis one and we remember that it is where God created everything out of nothing for his Son Jesus. He created everything by his word from his word. Why? Because his Son is the word we see in John one. And then we studied in Genesis one, genesis two, how God created all of humanity in his image, that were created in God's image. Only humanity is created in the image of God so that we can reflect him in his likeness. And then we we learned about the fall in Genesis three and how, how Satan brought in sin and temptation in the world, and and how we, our sin, chooses to follow and obey Satan rather than God whenever we choose to sin. And then last week we talked about the flood, and we just see the devastation of sin. We see God's judgment in sin, but also we saw God's salvation in his grace over sin.
Speaker 1:And so now, if you can imagine what it would be like to be one of Noah's children, one of his sons, one of his daughters-in-law, is, god tells Noah the same thing that he told Adam. Now I want to bless you and I want you to. I want to make you fruitful. And I want you to go and I want you to fill the earth, that is, to fill the earth with the image of God, because when we fill the earth with the image of God, the purpose is to fill the earth with the glory of God, amen. And so the whole purpose was that they would go and they would fill the earth and they would tell their children, their children would tell their children and their children's children, and generation after generation after generation, spreading the glory of God and telling the story of God so that they could believe in God. So I want to show you very quickly this morning three things that you can take from Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel this morning.
Speaker 1:Here we find ourselves in Genesis 11, verse 1. And the first thing that we see I want you to write this down is the problem of sin in us, the problem of sin in us. Genesis 11, 1, if you're there, say word. Genesis 11, 1 says now, the whole earth had one language in all the same words. They all shared the same words. They were all able to understand each other, they were all able to communicate with one another. They all shared the same language, all the same words. Why? Because they all came from the same boat. They all came from the same man.
Speaker 1:All of the earth, maybe billions of people possibly, were wiped out by the flood. There were eight people remaining Noah, his wife, their sons and their sons wives. They all came from eight people. They all spoke the same language and God gave them all the same command to fill the earth to spread his glory. So they all had one language. This possibly could have happened. The tower of Babel, possibly a hundred years or later or later, probably much later, probably hundreds of years later than the flood, because we see so many people here on the earth. We don't know how many, but it seems to be like a great group of people.
Speaker 1:Verse two, genesis 11, two. And as the people migrated from the east, they found a plane in the land of Shinar and they settled there. Could you imagine what it must have felt like to be Noah, or his wife or his sons or his daughters-in-law, to have that special privilege to be chosen to spread the story and the glory of God through their generations, through their children, all throughout the earth? What a privilege, what a pleasure, what a promise. And as they were supposed to go and to spread. The Bible says that they stopped and they settled Because that's exactly what the enemy wants you to do as you are following God, as you are obeying God. Maybe they got a little tired, maybe they got a little fearful, maybe they just got tempted. We don't know exactly what happened, but we do know, as they were supposed to spread, as they were supposed to disperse, as they were supposed to fill the earth, we do know that they stopped and settled. And that's my question for you this morning have you stopped in your obedience of God and you've settled for sin in your life? You know, it's fascinating that when we stop and when we settle is when we really see sin start to settle in into our lifestyle. And I know it's not just me, don't look at me all. Spiritual Issue two, verse three.
Speaker 1:And they said to one another come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bit of men for mortar. You know, we see here that they were coming together, they were uniting together. God loves it when we, as His children, unite together. He loves it when we gather. He loves it when we come together as one, as His children, to worship Him and to serve one another and to grow together and to do His will for our lives and to reach people. I believe that we can do more together for the Lord, amen. I believe that we are better when we are together, amen. Someone said in leadership that you can go faster alone, but we can go further together.
Speaker 1:But they come together for the wrong reasons. See, sin loves unity too. Why? Because Satan knows the power of unity. Satan knows the power when people get together for evil scheme and not for the obedience of God. In fact, isn't it interesting that they said come, let us make bricks? Isn't it interesting that that is the exact same wording when God created us, when God said let us make man, humanity in our image. What are they doing? They're mimicking God, they're rivaling God. They're coming together and they're saying let us set ourselves up like God. That's exactly what our sin wants. See, our sin. Satan is fine if we are in community together, because he knows that God created us in his image and so we desire community. The problem is that when we desire or when we find community in other places and other people that become more important community than us, then the community that God has called us to as a part of his church, with other Christians. We find community in place with people that we resonate with or that we find identity with, when it comes to, maybe, our work, our school, when it comes to our sports teams, when it comes to our neighborhood, when it comes to the friends that we love to be around. Many people find community in a bar or a bowling alley. Why we love community, but God created us to find our ultimate community in him. Not that we can't have community outside of our church, but our greatest community should be within, inside of our church. Can I get an amen?
Speaker 1:Isn't it fascinating that they it says that they made bricks and they burned them thoroughly, and they had bricked for stone and bit them in for mortar. What was going on here? Bitumen was a mortar that would waterproof a building. In other words, they were waterproofing this building and we're about to see that they built it very high. Why? Because they knew that they were rebelling against God. They heard the story of their ancestors and the flood, and what they were doing was they were waterproofing this building so that God could not flood them and judge them again when we fall into sin and we allow Satan to deceive us and attempt us. It tends to dumb us down and to make us numb to the power and the glory of God, to where we think that we can withstand him, that we think that we have found a better way than his way, that we think that we are safe from God in our sin.
Speaker 1:Verse four they then said again come, let us build ourselves a city. So now they're building a whole city. Why? Because they're settling there in a tower, so it's not just a tower. In fact, the towers only mentioned once, the city is mentioned several times. They built a city and they built a tower with its top in the heavens and they said let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. What is Satan trying to do here? In their sin and in our sin, satan wants us to make a name for ourselves so that we won't make a name for God. That's what he wants. He wants you to make a name for yourself. He wants me to make a name for myself. He wants us to make a name for ourselves wherever we go, that people talk about us, so that we leave people our reputation, that we leave people our testimony, that we leave people who we are. We leave people impressed and impacted for ourselves and not for the name of God.
Speaker 1:It says that the tower they were building it so its top would be in the heavens. What were they seeking to do? Some people tell us that this tower was most likely a temple. Some people tell us that they were trying to get to God. Other people tell us that they were trying to worship other gods, that they were seeking to be in the heavens so that they could in some way experience the divine. It is probably in this scene that there is some type of false God, other religion, demon worship that is happening because that is where our sin leads us to Any other form of worship than the worship of Jesus. Any other worship of a false God, of a false religion, is ultimately the worship of Satan.
Speaker 1:They said they wanted to make a name for themselves. They wanted other cities to come. Look at us, look what we've built. We're the best city, we're the best community, we're the best around. You need to come from us and you need to glory in us. You need to praise us, you need to talk about us. You need to find your identity or even how to learn how to be like us.
Speaker 1:And they were saying we don't want to be dispersed. They said they did this or we will be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. In other words, they're not dumb. They knew exactly what God had called them to do. And this is our sin, this is my sin and this is your sin, where sin stands in rebellion of God. And isn't it interesting Then, I would imagine, they probably didn't want to spread throughout the earth because of how difficult that would be to spread into dispersed the glory of God. But at the same time, how difficult is it to build a tower, a temple that reaches into the heavens? See, whether you choose Jesus or sin, you're gonna work hard either way. The question is, who's the most important one to work hard for Is fascinating how hard people work in their sin, people that get into sin and they get into lies and they try to keep up with all the different lies that they've told and they're living a secret life and they're trying to remember what they told everybody else. And they've got different cell phones now and different email accounts and different things going on and they wanna make sure that nobody can connect all the dots and draw the lines altogether. Why? Because they're so deep in sin that they're having to work real hard so that no one finds them out. So are you building a life, are you building a career? Are you building a name for yourself or are you building a name for Jesus?
Speaker 1:I remember, even as a young boy, I would be out in my driveway Is my dad submitted a basketball goal there in my driveway, and in every day I would dribble around and I would always say three, two, one, and I would take a fade away shot and try to hit it. And if I would hit it, I would say and the crowd goes wild, right, because every young boy wants to hit the buzzer beater of the NCAA championship or the NBA finals. Every young boy wants their name, chanted by a huge crowd, to be the hero of the game. And that's not just my sin, it's not just the sin of a little child, it's the sin of all of us, because Satan's ultimate sin in us is pride. That's why Psalm, chapter one, verse 15, chapter one, 15, verse one says not to us, oh Lord, not to us, but to your name, we give the glory. Philippians two, nine. Therefore, god has highly exalted him, jesus and besold on him Jesus, the name that is above every name, so that, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In other words, you and I exist. We exist for the name of Jesus and not for our own name. Can I get an amen? Because here's what I believe.
Speaker 1:I believe that a church that honors God is a church that God honors. May this church never be about our name. May this church never be about the name of First Baptist Church Powder Springs. May our goal, may our desire, may our aim may never be that people speak well of us, that people say have you heard about what's going on at First Baptist Church Powder Springs, man? What a great church they are. They're a church that honors God, man, what a great church they are. Have you heard about their worship? Have you heard about how nice people are? Have you heard about how loving they are? Have you heard what God is doing and how God is growing them? What a great church that is.
Speaker 1:As soon as we start to desire that God stops honoring his church here, cause we are not about our name. It's not about your name, it's not about my name. God is going to do some things in your church that you're not gonna like cause it's not your church. Is his church? God is gonna do some things here that your pastor doesn't like because it's not my church. Is his church Gonna get an amen? It's not our church, it's God's church, a church that honors the name of Jesus as a church that God honors. And, in the same way, a life that honors God is a life that God honors. You want God to honor your life. You want God to bless you. You want God to give you his favor. You want God to give you his blessing. You want God to move in your life. Do you want God to do what only he can do in your life and you not to do what you can do in your life? Honor him, make a name for him. Talk about more of what he's doing than about what you're doing. Talk about more about his strength than your strength. Talk more about his strength than your witnesses, than your weaknesses. Talk more about Jesus than yourself, because that is what our sin doesn't wanna do, but that's what God's spirit does in us. Can I get an amen?
Speaker 1:Number two the pursuit of God for us. The pursuit of God for us, genesis 11.5. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. We see here that God pursues us while we are in our sin. Don't we serve a gracious God? Man has God. Have you ever been caught up in sin? And God came and he pursued you. I know that he has me. God pursued me. I'm so thankful that he did. By the way, I see, yes, my parents are leaving this morning. Yes, they are leaving. I didn't offend them. My kids are sick at home. They're going to help my wife. They're coming, babe, they're coming, they're on their way. Here we go. God pursued me in my sin. God has pursued you and your sin.
Speaker 1:And he tells a little joke here. It's so funny. He says the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. In other words, humanity was trying to build this tower all the way up to God Could have been even building it for hundreds of years and it's just getting higher and higher and higher and they never made it. Why? Because God had to come all the way down from heaven just to see it. Just to see it. Just a little joke in scripture that God's just trying to make us chuck a little bit, just laugh a little bit.
Speaker 1:Could God have seen the tower of heaven? Of course God can see everything, everywhere, at all times, because God is omnipresent. He is everywhere at all times. But it's called an anthropomorphism. An anthropomorphism is just a long word. You can use it at a party sometime and impress people. There you go. An anthropomorphism is just a word that means it helps us to understand God in a human-like kind of a way. In other words, god is coming down to our level.
Speaker 1:You know, religion says that you can work your way to God, but the gospel says God comes down to you In God. We can't make a tower to God. We can't work our way to Him. You can't have enough good works, enough righteousness to impress your way to God. No, jesus came down and he made a way of our salvation. Amen, verse six.
Speaker 1:And the Lord said behold, they are one people and they all have one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do now will be impossible for them. See, god pursues us to stop us in our sin. Let's notice here when he says that there is nothing that will be possible impossible for them to do. All things will be possible for them. You know what he's saying. He's not upstairs, he's not in heaven scared, he's not afraid. Oh, my goodness, what are they gonna do next? Are they gonna make it up here? Are they gonna overtake my throne? Are they going to do things that I will never be able to undo? Are they gonna do such great things that they're gonna ruin everything? God is not afraid of them. He's afraid for them. He's afraid of us building a life, a name for ourselves and never getting to experience the very purpose that he created us for His glory, which is far more satisfying.
Speaker 1:It's terrifying how far that we're able to take our sin if God allows us. It's terrifying where our lies go. It's terrifying where our lust goes. It's terrifying where our pride goes. It's terrifying where our greed goes. It's terrifying where our power goes. It's terrifying how far our sin is able to go without the grace of God. One of the most gracious things that God can do in our life is to make sure that we get caught, if you've ever gotten caught in your sin. If you've been caught in sin recently, that is the grace of God, because he loves you enough to do whatever it takes to get your sin to stop.
Speaker 1:Verse seven they said come. God says come, speaking of the Trinity. Let us go down there. They're trying to come up here. Let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. God pursues us to fix our sin. God came down at just the right time. Notice how. God did not flood, god did not judge, god did not cast them throughout the earth. No, god did something far more wise. He did something far more brilliant. What did he do? He said let's go down and let's confuse their languages. We see here an act of God's grace so that they can no longer understand one another's language.
Speaker 1:My sister adopted three kids from the Ukraine Isabella, joshua and Jared. And Joshua. Joshua's just two. He's 24, 25 now, but he was just two when he was adopted and he knew a few still a few of those Russian words. And whenever Josh would say thank you, because he knew Russian, he would say updub. He would say updub. So whenever he'd say thank you, updub. It just does a little, two year old. And so a friend of mine was going over to Russia on a mission trip and so I taught him some of the words that Joshua used and I said and, by the way, updub means thank you. And he went over to Russia and he used some of the words and he came back and he said, chip, thanks a lot. Updub does not mean thank you, thanks a lot, chip. And apparently he was telling everybody updub, updub, and they were just looking at him like what are you even talking about? Right? And apparently updub was a two year old gibberish that didn't have any meaning. And so this kind of like is a little bit like that. All of a sudden you can talk, you can make plans, you can direct, you can build a building, you can make it higher, but all of a sudden you don't understand each other. And that's what God does here. Why? Because God came down at just the right time.
Speaker 1:I remember one time I was playing backyard football in my neighborhood with some of our neighbors. Something happened and one of the kids got mad. He was bigger than me, he was kind of the leader of the neighborhood, and the other kids joined up and they said. They said we're gonna beat you up. Kind of a deal, right, we're gonna beat you up. And I said you gotta catch me first. And I ran home and they were chasing me. I ran home as quick as I could. I was a fast kid, I was a big kid, I was a fast kid and I ran home and I'm getting closer and closer to my front door but they are right behind me and I'm wondering what is going to happen. Like, am I gonna run in the door and they're gonna run in after me and beat me up in my own living room? Am I gonna hit the door and it's gonna be locked and they're gonna beat me up in my own front door? Or am I gonna be able to get in and turn around and close the door before they can get in? And I run up to the front door and, in a miracle of God, my dad opens the door and I run inside and they run up to the front door and my dad is bigger than them. My dad looks down at them and he says I don't know what y'all are up to, but y'all need to get out of here. And they turn and they ran the other way. My dad came through just in time. I love that.
Speaker 1:Romans chapter five, six says that Jesus, he says, for a while we were still weak. At just the right time Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus came down at the right time, he came to fix our sin problem. I love that when Jesus came the first time, he didn't come to judge us, he came to be judged for us. He didn't just blast us with his wrath, rather he became our sin. He bore our sin, he bled for our sin.
Speaker 1:We see here the brilliance of the gospel and I need you to see if it's the importance of never losing the awareness of our sin, the conviction of our sin, because the more we are convicted in our sin, the more that we are moved to our need of Jesus Christ in our life. If you have not been saved, you find your salvation through the forgiveness of your sin in Jesus. If you have been saved, you keep going to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin. The way you live saved is the same way that you get saved. You keep going to the cross, you keep believing in the resurrection.
Speaker 1:Number three and I'm done the purpose of the gospel through us. If number one is the problem of sin in us, number two. Number two is the pursuit of God for us. Number three is the purpose of the gospel through us. The question is, what is God doing in us and what does God want to do through us? He didn't just save us from something. He saved us for something. He saved you from your sin and he saved you for a mission to help others get saved. To Number eight.
Speaker 1:So the Lord dispersed them from there over all of the face of the Earth and left off the building of the city. Therefore his name was called babble because there the Lord confused the language of the earth, and from there the Lord disperse them over all the face of the earth. It's so funny. They built a tower, they built a temple, they built a city to make a name for themselves, and do you know what? The name ended up being Babel, meaning confused. In that, true, the harder we try to become great and other people's eyes often the dumber we end up looking. We just end up looking confused. Why? Because a life that honors God is a life that God honors, amen. And so what is the whole purpose of the story? Let me just sum it all up for us together very quickly.
Speaker 1:The whole purpose of the story is this, and I want you to write it down it's the importance of gathering and scattering. It's the importance of gathering and scattering. See, here's what God has called us to do as a church. Is we make? How do we make a name for Him? Here's how we make a name for Him. We gather together in worship. We gather together in group. We come together as the church of Jesus Christ. We lift His name high, we preach His word. We don't make a name for ourselves. We are a church that honors God, so that we can become a church that God honors, and we make much of who he is, because he is the greatest thing in the universe. He is the glory that we have been created for. We gather together in worship. We gather together in teaching. We gather together in community. We gather together in friendship and relationship, all for the purpose of scattering. We scatter on mission. God brought them together and then God said I want you to disperse, I want you to fill the earth For us. God is saying I want you to fill Powder Springs, I want you to fill Cobb County, I want you to fill Pawnee County.
Speaker 1:It's not just about coming, it's about going. It's not just about worship, it's about mission. It's like the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, james and John are up there on the mountain, there's Jesus and there's Moses and there's Elijah. And Jesus shows up in all of His glory and Peter says oh man, jesus, we gotta stay here for a long time. Let's set up some tents, let's stay, let's worship you on top of the mountain. And Jesus says look, I'm glad you came, but you can't stay. Thanks for coming, but you gotta go. In other words, here's what Jesus is saying Not everyone can go to church, but the church can go to everyone. What is our purpose? Our purpose is to come in, to come together and to get filled up with relationship, to get filled up with worship, to get filled up with preaching and teaching from the word of God. And the purpose is so that we can go and we can be a ministry. God has called every one of you to be a minister in this community. And how do you do it? What do you do when you scatter? Just very quickly.
Speaker 1:Number one I would just encourage you just name drop Jesus. You know how we typically name drop the most famous person that we know. Well, guess what it's Jesus. Just talk about him. It's crazy what happens when you just say the name of Jesus. You can't help but get a reaction from somebody today. But also it's the name by which everyone can be saved. It's the name by which the spirit of God moves. Just speak his name. Number two just serve people. In some way Jesus served us before he saved us. Number three if they give you the opportunity, just tell your story of how Jesus changed your life. And number four Lord willing, they give you the right, the opportunity that you can tell the gospel story.
Speaker 1:Why do I preach the gospel and give an invitation and pray the prayer of salvation every single Sunday? Because I don't know on any given Sunday who's come and it is their day of salvation. But also when you get into a gospel conversation out in the community, you don't know if it's their day of salvation either. And so I do it every single Sunday because I'm praying that repetition is the key to memory. The more you hear me do it, the more that you are able to do it, the more that you are able to lead to the Lord Jesus. If you're not comfortable, bring them here and, man, I will preach the gospel to them, bring them to your group and they will get to see the gospel of Jesus Christ, but you also have the opportunity to share the gospel as well. So we come to worship, we come and we group together, we serve together so that we can go and we can scatter and we can live on mission.
Speaker 1:Because in Revelation, 5.9, says after this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, in peoples, in languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the lamb. Did you notice that every language is going to be there? Every language is going to be represented. We go and do mission in our community and I can't wait for the day that, as a church, we get to go and do mission to other countries, to other languages, to other peoples. Countries have come to us. We do ministry to them, but also we go to other countries and we see the spread of the gospel, because God has called us to gather and to scatter to make a great name for his son, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes, with every head bowed and every eye closed. What an honor it is to have you here this morning and I just wanna encourage you and ask you how is God speaking to you this morning? How does God want you to change from today? Have you been making a name for yourself? Have you been struggling with sin? Does your life need to honor God so that God honors your life? I just want to give you an opportunity right now, if you've already given your life to Jesus, that you just pray right now and you say God, help me to make a name for you, help me to live on mission with you, help me to share the gospel Wherever I go, just to name drop Jesus, for an opportunity to talk about him. And maybe you're here this morning and you haven't given your life to Jesus yet. Maybe God is speaking to your heart right now that this moment is the moment that he is calling you to invite him into your life.
Speaker 1:I can't save you. I can't pray this on your behalf, but I can lead you through this prayer that you can make Jesus the Lord of your life and you can say Jesus, I believe in you, in Jesus, I need you. From your own words and your own heart you can say Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and I ask you to forgive me. And Jesus, I want to turn from my sin and I want to stop living for my sin. And Jesus, I want to start living for you. You can tell him Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead, you're alive and you're real, and I call on you to be the Lord of my life. And the Bible promises if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved In Jesus. We believe that. We thank you for that promise and we pray that in Jesus' name. And all guys people said amen.
Speaker 1:Would you put your hands together for anybody that gave their life to Jesus this morning? God is so good. Let's all stand together. I'm going to ask our pastor, alan. Pastor Alan will be up front, our senior associate pastor, and I want to encourage you. You can take that next step card. If there's any decision that is reflected on that card that you need to indicate, you can take that card to Alan to our next step station after our last song. If you want to come and join the church or anything like that, we are here for you. In any decision that God is leading you to make, let's sing to him right now.