Just Do It

Join us as we explore God's Word, providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you're about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning gathering. If you'd like to know more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.org. We hope that you're encouraged by today's message.

But man, what an awesome opportunity we have studying the book of James. I know Pastor started last week. I got to go spend some time with my dad. Be refreshed in the spirit. Be encouraged by not only my dad, but my spiritual father and my mentor.

And needed that. Needed that refreshing. But I am so glad to be back and spending time with my family. And that's you guys. Salt Church is just home.

Like Sunday morning, I was up at the crack of dawn, which I couldn't beat my dad up. He was out with his calves at like 4 a.m. But I was up what I thought was early and I was sitting there and I was kind of like, man, I should be at church right now. Like I should be picking up the trailer and going to church right now.

This isn't right. And at one point on Saturday, I even told my wife, maybe I'm going to drive back early tomorrow morning and help do set up and then I'll come back afterwards. And she was like, she's like, that's not happening. I said, all right, I'll listen to you. But we're diving into James.

And as Pastor hit last week and I'll kind of rehash who James is. He was the brother of Jesus, the half brother of Jesus. Can you imagine being the half brother of Jesus, first of all? Like that is like the worst possible. I can't even imagine being the half brother of Jesus.

He didn't believe it as Pastor talked about last week. He didn't even believe that Jesus was the son of God until the resurrection. But I can just imagine like, oh yeah, that's just your excuse because he's your favorite. He's the son of God. Yeah, right.

Sure he is. You just don't like me as much. I have a personal connection with James. This James has been a book that has sustained me over the last four to five years. Brothers, my favorite verse, the verse that I have quoted to myself thousands of times, I talked about a few weeks ago, was from James.

And that was, count it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of various kinds. I have that literally imprinted on my heart, tattooed there. I will never forget that. And the other thing with James, that pastor, he sent me, he's like, here, make sure you hit this little background of James. And now I understand why.

The third thing says, very direct, but a bit preachy. And I thought, that's a hint, because I'm a little bit preachy. And I'm also very direct. But James, even in that, was gracious. And he was loving, and he was caring.

And the point of his book was one of edification and encouragement and building up. And so, as we go in to James 1, 22 through 27 today, I want you to be challenged, but encouraged by the Word of God. I've got some things in here that I know are going to be unpopular among the masses. And I have prayed all week long. My stomach in back today was literally like turning, because there's a couple points on here that I know are not going to go over so well.

I do not expect an amen or a clap on those points. But I want you to be encouraged by the point of this whole message. When I was growing up, I don't know how many of you guys were born. There's a lot of really young people in this audience today. In the early to mid-90s, there was a slogan by Nike.

Just do it. And they would run these commercials where there would be people with every excuse and every obstacle in their way, and they would show amputees from the Special Olympics. And the final frame, the final screen, every time, it would go solid black with a big white swoosh and a big white, just do it. And the message was, just go do. Get off your couch.

Get out from behind the TV. Stop just watching these athletes that are out here participating and go do it. And what James is challenging us with in this particular section of Scripture is that exact same message. Get off your couch, get out of your pews, and go do what God has commanded you to do. Go do the things that your pastor has been preaching about, the things you've heard in your small groups, the things you've read in your quiet time.

Just do it. I'm going to read through the Scripture, and then I have a couple. We're going to break it down a little bit, and then I have some real practical points this morning. But first, I need to pray, as I need it. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity we have to be here as a church.

Lord, to be here as our family, Lord, and to hear your Word. Lord, I pray that as I speak your Scripture, Lord, as I encourage today, Lord, I pray that it would have the same impact on my brothers and sisters as it has on me over the last few days as I've studied this out. And Lord, that is that it would challenge us to go and do, to be true disciples of the Most High God. So, Lord, have your way today in this place. Move me out of the way, Lord, and let your Spirit speak in Jesus' name.

Amen. We'll start with verse 22, and this is out of the ESV. That's my favorite of the versions, but you can follow along in whatever Bible you've got, and it is going to read very much like this. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror.

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forget what he is like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained or polluted from the world. There was a survey taken a few years ago in New York City.

They walked around, and you can imagine if it's New York City. And they said, they were walking up to random people, and this was, I think it was close to a thousand people that they did this with, and they asked, what organization, sect, or denomination do you believe best exemplifies the ideals and the commands in the Bible? In other words, what group is actually doing what they're supposed to be doing? Now, if you have friends in the Northeast or you know the Northeast, that is a very Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist stronghold. And you would think, coming out of that area in particular, and especially with those churches, when you're talking about the Lutheran Church itself, has about eight million members in the United States.

It's a little more, a little less. That's just the Lutheran Church. You look at the Roman Catholic Church, the numbers are in the millions upon millions. The Baptist Church, millions upon millions. It wasn't any one of these.

Anybody got any guesses? The pastor has brought this group up on a number of occasions, in fact, not too long ago. The Salvation Army. That was the answer. The Salvation Army is the group of people who are best doing what God has told them they should be doing.

They're... They're the ones who are exemplifying and the ideal message that comes out of God. They're the ones that are associated with doing, with working, with outreach, and with care for the needy. Now, I looked them up. I tried to get numbers just for the U.

S. I couldn't find that. But for the entire world, Salvation Army has 1.5 million in their congregation. The whole world.

That doesn't even, like, put a dent in the Roman Catholic Church, or the Lutheran Church, or the Methodist Church, or the Baptist Church. Like, nothing. And yet, they're the ones that people see because they're doers. They're the ones that they outsee ringing bells. They're the ones that they see when they turn on their TV and there's a disaster, and they see there's a big truck with a Salvation Army emblem on the side, and there's people handing out food, and caring for people, and ministering to people.

And people recognize that this group does. They don't just meet on Sunday morning. They don't drop in their tithes and offerings and say hallelujah and walk out the door. They act upon what God has told them that they're supposed to do as a child of God. The author of this survey pointed out that there's this trap in our churches today where we believe that coming to church on Sunday morning is enough.

We believe that we'll get to stand before the Most High God, who sacrificed His Son on the cross, and as long as we came to church on Sunday mornings most of the time, and we dropped in a little money now and again, that's good enough. And he said it's a trap. It's an absolute trap to believe that when you read God's Scripture that it is not a call to action. They could put underneath Bible on the front of your thing, just do it. It should be a reminder every time we read His Scripture that what we're reading is really a call to act.

And what happens when we're not acting these things out is there's consequences. There is a move from faith to callousness and abandonment of faith. When you're not acting it out, when you're not doing what the Bible tells you to do, when you're not actually a working member of the church, and when I say church, I am not talking about salt church. I'm talking about the church. When you're not acting it out, you move, and you go from this person that has care and love and acts, and all of a sudden you find yourself wondering all of these things.

Why am I not fulfilled? Why can't I find my purpose? Why can't I do these things? And we look in a million other places. And the truth is that if we got in our Bible, and we began to read, and we went and did what we read, you'd be fulfilled.

I'm going to jump through each of these verses, and a couple of them I've squished together, and just give a real quick synopsis of what that particular verse is talking about, and then we're going to jump into some practical stuff. Verse 22, this I just talked about, so I don't have to jump on this too much, but I'm going to read it for you anyway, because I want you to hear this over and over and over and over again. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. What he's saying there is, if all you do is sit and listen, if all you do is open up that book and read, and then shut the book and walk out the door, back to normal life, and you don't actually act upon what God has called you to do, you are deceiving yourself that one day you will stand before a God who will say that was good enough. Because it won't be.

God tells us it ain't just faith, and it ain't just acts, you have to put them together. And James is telling us that right now. To be a Christian, and to be a Christian, the definition of Christian is a disciple of Christ, one who studies it out and acts upon it, means being a doer, being a practicer of God's word. Verse 23 and 24 says, if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, I love this example, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away at once forgetting what he looks like. How many of you guys remember middle school algebra?

If I, yeah, I'm sure there's a couple really smart people in the back who also happened to be like 20 years younger than me, who if I handed out a test today would actually have a clue what that algebraic formula is. One third x times y over z with square root, and I have no idea, I don't even remember that stuff anymore. My algebra teacher would be very upset. But the truth is, the reason that most of us, if not 90% of us, do not remember that, is because we stopped practicing it the moment we got out of the class with a C. Like, alright, I just have to remember this one formula until I get past that test, and then I am done, praise the Lord, I walk out and I just dump my mind.

Hopefully I will never see that again in high school or college. That's why there's a lot of political science majors, and psychology majors, and history majors. My wife's getting angry because she was a psych major. I loved math. I loved it.

All the way through college, loved math. And I still cannot remember that stuff. It would take me a long time, I'd have to pick up a book because I stopped practicing it. And what this is saying is, when you stop practicing, when you stop doing, you forget. You don't actually, can't actually grasp the meaning of what it is.

And I might be able to throw an algebraic, a simple algebra equation in front of you, and you figure it out after time, but you really wouldn't even know the point and reason for it. And that's what James is telling us. You have to do to remember. You have to practice to know. I used to be a really good basketball player.

When I walk onto a basketball court now, it is a sad state. I went to a community center just probably five, six months ago. Put my J's on, put my old shorts on, had my tank top on, went out. I was like, I got this, started dribbling. Man, all of a sudden, these young dudes came out who played two, three, four times a week.

And I was like, I'm retiring. I'm done. Because I had not practiced. I was not doing. And so my muscles, they said no.

The things that used to be instinct to me, my crossover, which used to be my go-to move, my jump shot, which I could do, eyes closed, I was bricking every time. And it's because I had stopped doing. And what James is saying is here is, if you don't do, you will forget. It will no longer be a part of who you are. And it just will be this abstract idea, and you really have no idea how to do it.

An example that I found was, and this hits home with me, especially with my three-year-old. You tell your son, go clean your room. And you come back 20 minutes later, and you say, why is your room not clean? And he says, I forgot. He probably did.

If- If- He didn't go do it immediately. Five seconds later, his attention span was done, and he totally forgot what I told him. It was right onto Legos, chasing the dog, letting the dog out. If we don't do it after we hear it, after we read it, if we don't go practice it, you're gonna forget it. Verse 25 says, But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

This is simple, guys. I'm gonna think about three seconds on this. If you do, you will be blessed. If you don't, you will not be. All you have to do is go through God's Word, and every single time that there is a promise of blessing, there is an if-then statement.

If you do this, I will do this. If you obey my commands, I will pour out my blessings upon you. If you do this, I will do this. If you ever had computer science, that was like the if-then statement was the first thing that you learned. Gwen's shaking her head because she's been there.

They teach you how to do these if-then statements. And it's, this has to be done in order for this to happen. And if this doesn't get done the way that it's supposed to be done, exactly according to what is put in there, you are not gonna get the output you want. And what God, he's saying right here is, if you want to live a blessed life, showing up here on Sunday morning and listening to Pastor Leon, or me, or anybody else who comes up here, is not gonna do it for you. Verse 26, if anyone thinks he's religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

I don't even really need to go into that. We have a, we have another speaker who's gonna come up here in a couple weeks and nail the tongue, and so I'm just gonna kind of let that be. All I'm gonna tell you is, what he's saying here, is you have this person who's puffed up and likes to show themselves off as being this religious and spiritual person, and they probably can quote scripture, and they like to shout hallelujah, and they'll tell you all the promises of God, but they walk out and they don't do anything. They refuse to get their hands dirty. And God says, you can be that guy if you want to, but your religion is worthless.

If this doesn't challenge you, guys, all week long I was challenged. What I'm doing up here for 45 minutes, this isn't getting my hands dirty. Getting my hands dirty is when I run into someone who's hurting, and I have an opportunity to share the gospel or pray for them. I sit down with them and pour out my heart about who Jesus Christ is and how he can change their life. When someone's sick and needs help and their yard needs mowed, and so I go over and do it out of service.

I find out someone's hurting financially, and I'm in a place to do it. I get my hands dirty and financially bless them. That is doing. This is just preaching. There's a lot of people who can get up here and do this.

And that's how I was challenged. You better do. I felt like there was times I was praying for this, and God just was like looking down at me going, isn't that good? Isn't that good? What are you doing?

What are you doing, son? Verse 27, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained, polluted from the world. Keep hitting it. Just do it. Just do it.

He says what this is saying is there's a direct deal here with widows and orphans, and that is definitely two groups that we need to be caring for. But what this is saying in one big giant thing is if there is somebody in need, if there is someone hurting, if there is someone who's oppressed, if there is someone who's, we have to go help. That's our job. And when he talks about being unstained and unpolluted by the world, it means we don't do it for our name. We do it, and we give glory to the Most High God.

Because it's real easy to do things when you think it's going to get your name on a billboard, or you think it's going to give you position, or you think it's going to give you all these great things that the world tells you you're supposed to have. You're going to be famous on Instagram or on YouTube because you helped this person. I went and gave this person money. I went and did this. I went and did this.

No, that's pride. God wants you to do it in secret. And then he will glorify you. Whew. There's so much in this.

I think, I think Pastor Leon probably could do like eight weeks just on this section of scripture and probably unpack it and just keep going. Man. So we're going to talk about action and inaction. And first I'm going to address what happens with inaction. And then I'm going to hit you hard at the end with action.

Action, Jackson. That's what we need to be. We all need to be action Jacksons who go out and do. Some of you guys know who that is. Some of y'all don't.

All right. You're first. All that. And we're just now getting to the first fill in the blank. I'm in trouble.

Hearing without doing leads to callousness. Matthew 13, 14. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. You will be ever hearing but never understanding. You will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

For the people's heart has become callous. They hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them. There's a process of callousness when we are not acting out and doing our faith. And it starts very small.

If you have, if you've been in church, I have been in church since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I was a seminary baby. Born while my dad was at Fort, at seminary in Fort Worth at a Baptist seminary. So I've been around church my whole life. And this I can tell you without a doubt I see all the time.

All the time. It starts small. It could be the most faithful person at church. I have two friends who we used to hang out with that I was close with that are now both atheists. Full bore.

These guys were powerful prayer warriors. I used to sit, we used to sit in our men's group and they would challenge me daily with the word of God. They would call me and check on me throughout the week. And I have two friends who've walked away from their faith. And this is why.

It starts small. You pull out of small groups. You pull out of involvement. Which means you leave fellowship. When people leave church, the single greatest excuse of all is I feel unconnected.

I just wasn't connected. No one was connecting to me. No one was grabbing me. It is not everybody else's responsibility to connect. It is your responsibility to get involved.

It's the pastor's wife clapping and a couple of the elders clapping. And that's because they're with me. Like I would love to have every single one of you guys over to my house for dinner on a regular basis. It is just not possible. My wife is over here shaking her head like, uh-uh.

Don't even give him that idea. She's leaving today for Tampa. And she's like, okay, you can have everybody over tonight if you want to. New York. She's going somewhere.

I don't even know. She's all over the map. I'm just like, just tell me when you're coming home, babe, please. I don't know who he's. but it is your responsibility And what happens is, if you don't get involved, if you don't plug yourself in, you lose fellowship, you lose relationship, you lose people who can keep you accountable.

One of my, in this group, my greatest accountability partner is Bobby. If you have any relationship with him, you know he's unfiltered, unabashed, and he will call you on anything. You need that. You need the guy who's your boy and says, dude, I heard how you were talking about your wife. Or I, I don't know why you keep saying negative things about your kids.

Your kids are awesome. You need to build them up. You need that. And when you pull out, when you pull back, you lose it. And all of a sudden you feel like this island floating around on your own.

And then all of a sudden you start pulling back where you're serving. Because you lose that fellowship, because you lose that friendship, all of a sudden it's hands off. And let me tell you, the moment that you pull your hands off of the plow and you stop helping and stop serving and you don't get involved, it's done. The rest of this list goes really, really fast. Then you start missing church.

And it starts at once. You know, I'll be there every other week. I'll be there every third week. Look, I'm pretty consistent. I make sure that I send my tithes in.

And you get, we can, we can have an argument about church and the organization of the church. We can have that outside. You're more than happy to come talk to me about Acts and how God set up the church. But let me tell you, we need to be involved in a church. You need to be involved in a community of believers where you can come and be sharpened and be cared for.

And when you start missing church and start pulling out of that, it happens really quick. Man, it gets easy not to wake up early on Sunday mornings. It gets easy to look outside and go, it's a beautiful Sunday. I'm just, I'm just going to the beach. Guys, I live four blocks from the beach.

I'm blessed. My wife has a really good job. That's where she wanted to live. So I said, that's where we're going to live. It's hard.

Somebody's got to do it. It's real easy. There's days this morning I walked out. I was like, oh man, it's nice out here. Like I could just put my, Leon, those aren't waves you hear in the background.

I promise. But it doesn't take long and you start missing and then you just miss. And then all of a sudden you don't feel plugged in. You don't feel like anybody cares. And so you just stop and then you stop giving.

And then your finances aren't blessed anymore. And then you wonder why everything else is happening. And then you stop participating in outreach. You start sharing the gospel. Stop sharing the gospel.

You stop caring. And all of a sudden it's just done. And all of a sudden you're sitting there wondering, God, are you real? And you have no one around you to challenge you. You have no one around you to encourage you.

And you've put yourself off on this little island. And I promise you this. There have probably been people who reached out to you. Maybe through a quick text message just trying to get your attention. Maybe on Facebook.

Maybe they ran into you at a store and tried to introduce themselves again. Like, hey, I remember you from church. And because of your callousness, you forget all those things. And you start pointing fingers. The second thing, this is where I'm going to start making some real friends up in here.

We start making excuses. And excuses are like the devil's favorite thing. When you start making excuses, he's going, yeah, watch this. I can work this. I'm not needed.

There's plenty of people. There are not enough people. God's word tells us that the fields are white, ready for the harvest. There are people out there. There are souls ready to be one.

And the thing that we need, the laborers are few. Let me help you with this, guys. It's the same like six guys that do set up every single week. Same ones. Every single week.

And most of us have been doing it since September. I've missed one. Bobby's missed one. I think Carl's missed like one. Leon might have missed one.

We're doing it every single week. You're needed. And you're not just needed here on set up. When you're walking down the boardwalk, let me help you. If you live near the oceanfront this weekend, you know the world is lost.

I don't have the spiritual gift to fill that need. God will give you what you need. God will give you what you need. Pray for it. Lord, I want to fill this position.

I see a need. Can you give me the anointing that I need? We know the story of Elijah and Elisha. He didn't just want something. He said, Lord, give me twofold.

Lord, give me the anointing. He asked for it. And it was given to him. Not a good fit for the church. If you couldn't see me, that was my eyes rolling.

I'm good at that because my wife practices it in front of me all the time. So I can do it right back. I know people who've gone to 40, 50 churches. They've been to every church in Virginia Beach, every church in Tidewater. And they start like, maybe I could drive to Richmond.

Maybe the church for me is up there. You're never going to find it. You will never find the perfect church because we're here. My father-in-law, I love to death, has this beautiful building. And he says, every single Sunday, he says this.

He says, this church was perfect until I walked in. And he's right. It was great until the people showed up. And when I used to go in there on Sunday mornings, and it was just me and some real good worship music, and nobody else was there, dude, it was good. And then other people started showing up.

And here's the one. Life is too busy. My wife told me as I was talking to her about this at home, Chris, you need to be gracious, and you need to be loving and gentle. And so I'm really trying hard. The church today, thanks, Miranda's like, no, you're not.

The church today, Christians today, have a built-in excuse that they know, without a shadow of a doubt, they will not be challenged on. Do you guys know what that excuse is? Family. Family. I did a long study before I gave this message.

And you know what I couldn't find? Anywhere in the Bible where God said, you can stop doing to go spend time with your family. You can abandon doing. You can stop serving. You can do all these.

You can go ahead and just quit being a Christian altogether as long as you're spending time with your kids. Make sure your kids, make sure they, you better make sure that they get a Harvard education. You better make sure that they're an all-star in soccer or softball or basketball. You better make sure. Nowhere in God's word does it say that.

In fact, in Luke chapter 14, he tells the disciples, if you want to follow me, you must hate your mother and your father and your children. He's not telling them to hate them. What he's saying is, you have to be willing to lay everything at the cross and follow me. But there's this built-in excuse. I've used it myself.

I was preaching this to myself in the mirror this week. And I'm not saying don't go spend time with your family. I'm not saying don't take a vacation. But what happens is... We think that our children, and I have three of them guys, I'm not sitting up here preaching from someone who doesn't have kids, and doesn't love their kids to death, and who wouldn't throw himself in front of a car to save their life.

I would. But I was challenged when my daughter was young. My wife and I sat down and had the conversation, there will be no travel soccer, there will be no travel basketball, there will be no travel softball, because all of those things go on Sunday mornings. And the thing that God says in His Word is that I should train my children up in the way that they should go, so they don't depart from it. And so what my kids have to understand is that my priority has to be God.

My priority has to be putting my hands to the plow and doing what He's told me to do, because it doesn't matter how much money they have. And if you look around and find rich people in this area, you will just see how unhappy they are, because they're trying to fill a void they can't fill, because they keep trying to fill it with junk. And they keep trying to fill it with stuff, and events, and things. God's like, I'm the only one who can fill that void, you can keep on looking. But we use it as an excuse all the time.

I've heard this at least 100 times in the last year. First things first. Family first. You know, I gotta do this. I can't be involved in a small group.

I can't be involved in outreach. I can't do these things, because, well, you know, I have to keep first things first. Find that in the Bible for me. Please, someone, right now, quick. I can't.

You will not. You will find that in, first, my priorities are screwed up, chapter 1, verse 1. That's where you'll find it. That's an addition right after Revelation. I'm getting, I got 10 minutes.

This is going to be good. Nick's going to start throwing stuff. Nowhere, nowhere in the Bible will you find it. And I hate to be the one to have to throw that out there. And I'm sorry if that offends you.

And I understand if you don't like me after this. But your kids are not an excuse for you to miss being at church. Your kids are not an excuse for you not to get involved in the kingdom of God. Your kids are not an excuse to not do. In fact, your kids should be the reason that you do it.

If they see that it isn't a priority for you, it will never be a priority for them. Ever. Ever. If they don't see you put your hands to the plow and serve, they will never serve. If they see you willing to like, oh, we can skip church the next four weeks because you got, you know, you got this and that and this and that.

Your children are not the priority. Nowhere in God's word does it say they are. Nowhere. God, your spouse, and then it all kind of gets murky. I mean, God tells us when we get married, leave your father and mother and cleave to your spouse.

He says, get out. My dad told me that when I was 18. Boo! I don't care what you go do. Go do something.

Once in a while turns into all the time. We just start missing everything. We become callous. We stop seeing the needs of others. We stop seeing the importance of spiritual health and relationships.

We become self-centered. It becomes all about us. It becomes all about our children, our family, what we think we need and not what God has told us to do. And that callousness leads to total deception. And then all of a sudden, we feel worthless.

And we can't figure out why. We can't figure out why we lose our purpose. I don't understand. I can't find my purpose. What's my purpose?

Your purpose, the reason, the sole purpose of you being born onto this planet is to serve God. That's it. That's the reason Adam and Eve were put here. They were to be vice regents for God. They were to build his temple city on this planet so he could come down and reside with us.

And that purpose hasn't changed. Like, when they sinned, God didn't just go, well, whatever happens, happens. Woo-hoo! No! That purpose hasn't changed.

Our purpose is to serve God. Then we question God and his existence. We abandon our faith completely. And that leads to death. Spiritual death.

Which, if you don't stop it, will eventually lead to eternal death. In the pits of hell. Y'all are like, that went there fast. He got there quick! We all of a sudden were there.

Yeah, you are. It happens that fast in a blink of an eye. So just do it! I'm losing my voice. Just do it!

Follow Nike. Go buy some Nike apparel and stand in front of the mirror every day and say, just do it! Open up your Bible in the morning. Get into it. Look yourself in the mirror.

And give yourself a pep talk. All right, we're going to go do this today. It's time to go do it! God wants to use you now. He's not waiting for you to get perfect.

He's not like, okay, well, you know, they're not quite there yet. So you can just, you know, just take your time whenever you're ready. I know I'm working on you. No. God wants to use you now.

And He will use you in your imperfect position now. In fact, when you go through God's Word, there's a lot of people that were used that were far from perfect. Moses couldn't speak. The dude stuttered like crazy. I spit like crazy.

David, talking about a murderer and an adulterer. Noah was a drunk. Paul was a murderer. Zacchaeus was a thief. I mean, the list goes on.

And yet, we look in the mirror and we're like, well, I can't do anything yet because I'm just not sanctified enough. I don't have my white robe of righteousness yet. I just can't do it. I can't. I can't.

I can't. Like, how am I supposed to go share the gospel? I'm not perfect. Let me help you out with this. None of us are.

The only difference between the people who are doing and the people who are not doing is that the people that are doing get up in the morning and say, I'm going to go do it. It is a choice. 1 Corinthians 2, 3 through 4 says, I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power. That's the beautiful thing about Paul.

Think about Peter, guys. One second, he's this bumbling, stumbling idiot who's like totally afraid, who's running, denying God. And then all of a sudden, this dude is up in the temple and he is blowing the doors off the joint. And the only difference is the Holy Spirit. We obey with abandonment.

That means you quit making excuses and you stand before God and you say, all right, Lord, send me. Send me. Where do you need me? Where do I need to go? What do you have for me to do?

And it may start with something small. It may start with setup. It may start with teardown. It may start in here. It may start with you going to a nursing home and serving.

It may start with you just going out and handing out food with some of our groups that do that down at the JCOC. I know Melissa has done that with the youth. It could start small. Lord, where do you need me to start? Where do you want me to go today?

Who do you need me to talk to and minister to? There are people in this world that all of you guys can reach that I can't reach. I don't know them. I don't see them. I don't talk to them.

And they wouldn't like me. And there's people I can reach that you can't. And those people need us, so we have to go do. Luke 14, 16-20 is the parable of the banquet. It talks about a certain man preparing a banquet.

He sent out his servants to go announce it to all the people and every single one of the people that he wanted to come in to be a part of this banquet made excuses. Oh, I have a new field I have to plow. Oh, I have business. Oh, I have this. Oh, I have that.

And so then he said, no, go get anyone who will come in. You don't have to have a seminary degree. You don't have to have been knocked over at some. You just have to want to. You just have to want to.

And here's the beauty of this whole situation. It is a win-win. It helps you. You will be blessed. Whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues it, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing, they will be blessed in what they do.

If you know these things, John 13, 17, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. God has a purpose for you. He's got a purpose for you. Here's the deal. Quick quote.

Oh, somehow that got deleted off of here. There is a, there's a quote I believe that is up here right now. Is it up there? Kingdom-minded. The Christians who did the most for the present world were those who thought about the next.

Those who do the most are those who realize this is temporary and the reason that we're here and the reason that we're doing is because that's the place we want to go. That's the place we want to send as many people to as we possibly can. We don't do because of here we do for there. It's being kingdom-minded. It's understanding.

It's about there. I'm getting the, get this done. Sorry. Me and James, a little bit preachy. Guys, I know that there's some people out there going, boy, I never want to hear that guy again.

It's because God loves you. Like, that's the whole point of this message is that when you go and do, you're blessed and you bless other people. And that's what God wants us to do as his children. He wants us to go be tools of him. He wants us to be the extension, the hands of him.

We get to go into this world that needs God and we get to share his love with people that are dying spiritually and physically. We get to go to them and say, I have the answer for you today. If you're here today, I have the answer for you. His name is Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for your sins.

It doesn't matter what your sins were. That's the beauty of God. That's the beauty of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what you've done. The man next to him on the cross is a thief and he took him with him in an instant.

Paul was a murderer, murderer. Murderer. It does not matter. God says, I died on the cross for you and I'm willing to take your sins and separate them as far as the east is from the west and forget them. If you're here today and you've been wondering, you've been searching for fulfillment and purpose and you've been wondering, I just can't find it.

I'm in everything. I'm doing everything I can. I'm working so hard at work to get promoted and I'm spending all this time with my kids and all these sports and all these things and I go do all these things at the oceanfront to serve and I'm a part of all these community things. Those are all good, but they're not as good as having Jesus Christ in your heart. It is the only thing that will fill that void.

It is the only thing that will give you purpose is giving your heart to Jesus Christ. I promise you, my life is a mess, but the thing that wakes me up in the morning is the purpose I have to share the gospel with anybody I can, to share the love of God with anybody that I can. There is a profound fulfillment that comes with that. I want to give the opportunity if you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ and you're like, man, I don't know what this guy's talking about, but I do know that I've been lost and I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go.

I don't know what my purpose is. I don't know what I'm supposed to, where I'm supposed to head. I don't know what my direction is. I want to give you an opportunity to know and that's to give your heart to the Lord today. So if everybody would close their eyes and bow their heads and if you're here today and you want to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you would just, if you would just pray this after me.

Maybe, maybe you've met him. Maybe you had a relationship and you're one of these people who has slid and you're like, I need to get back. You can say this prayer too. Lord, I know I am not perfect and I never will be, but I do know that I need you. Lord, forgive me.

Forgive me today for my actions, for the things I've done for my sins. Today, I choose to leave those at the cross to repent of those things and run towards you. Lord, I ask you to come into my heart today as my Lord and my Savior and fill me with your Holy Spirit today. Lord, I am grateful that you died on the cross, that you sent your only son to die on the cross. And when he rose again the third day, he gave me victory over sin and over death.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.