Sphere of Influence

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So they're going to do something Saturday to 22nd to kickstart things off again. And we're going to start launching things. We're trying to get things back to normal as we are as every church. You know, we're one of the few churches that are actually meeting right now. A lot of churches aren't are still still aren't meeting because of a lot of the the the things that are put out there to CDC standards and stuff like that.

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So so we are in a series. This is the second part of that series. We started it last week called Change Your World, not change in order to change the world. We have to start with our world. And that comes from a scripture.

The theme scripture we're kind of going with here is and you all are familiar with this. If you are a part of this church and it's from Matthew 5 13, you are the salt of the earth, right? You are the salt of the earth. You are the salt. In fact, some versions say you are the salt of the human race.

You are a preservative for the whole race. Did you know that in that day it was seen as a preservative when Jesus was teaching about salt. He says you are sustaining the world. You are helping the world. You are making the world a better place.

And and Jesus has chosen his bride, his church to be the salt of the earth. He is, you know, Jesus is actually holding back. God is holding back his judgments that Peter talks about that. He says God is holding back his judgment because he, he, because of us. So that one, you know, that one person, that one person that might be reached, uh, can be reached because that's the hope that God has for mankind to know him, to come to a relationship with him and he'll do everything he can.

So because of his church, because of his bride, because of who we are, we are here in this world and we can make a difference. So my thought is the, the local church mobilized is the hope of the world. And we have a saying around here at Salt Church, a little, uh, salt always makes a difference. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are. Salt always makes a difference.

And a little bit of salt goes a long way. In fact, Matthew 5, uh, 14 says it as he goes on in this teaching on the Sermon of the Mount, he says, you are the light of the world. You are the light of the world, a city on a hill, glowing in the night for all to see. Okay. Uh, when we think of darkness, what do we think?

The Bible often uses light and darkness and contrasts each other, uh, because darkness, when we associate with darkness, we think of evil. We think of a dark place. We think of, of, of, of dark times, but light brings hope, right? Well, there's something about when the sun rises in the morning in the darkness, there's something joyful about that, right? The light of the world.

We are the light of the world, a city on a hill, glowing in the night for all to see. Don't hide your light. He says, don't hide your light. Let it shine for all. Let your good deeds glow for all to see so that they may praise who?

The father who is in heaven, that we may praise Jesus in such a dark time. We all need a little light. We need a little hope. We need, and, and the church, that's what the church is, the hope of the world. We are the salt of the earth, the way we live, the way we love, the way we reach out to others.

And, and what will people do when they see people serving, regardless of, of, of, of what they think about the person or how they feel about somebody or the ideologies of it? When we, when we serve people, what do people see? They see God and they say, you know what? I don't know about this whole Jesus raised from the dead. I'm not sure about all that, but man, these people really love each other and they love their community and they love me.

I want what they have. And that's the hope. And that's kind of the theme verse. So last week, we, uh, we took a big picture look at what that meant, what that meant, the, the, the, the salt of the earth, the light of the world. And I gave you seven mountains, seven big pictures that I feel the church as a whole needs to tackle.

Uh, Bill Bright, who's gone to be with the Lord wrote a lot of this material about the seven mountains, the seven spheres of influence that we can have on the world that, that the church can have on the world. If we can get these, and that was church, that was government, education, business, art, sports, entertainment, media, family. Uh, if we can influence these areas, if these are areas that, that he felt he received a vision, he and one of his best friends in ministry, both received the mission division on the same night of these seven spheres, these seven mind molding, uh, influences that we can perhaps change the world. We can make the world a better place. We can make the world a different place.

And I may, and, and many of you probably are asking the question, well, how do I do that? And I kind of gave you a very general statement last week. What's in. What's in front of you? What's in front of you?

Moses had the staff. He says, pick up your staff. God said, pick up your staff. It was just a staff, but he said, pick up your staff. And he's asking, what is in front of you?

What is there? So, I want to talk today, I want to pull it in and talk about our sphere of influence. Our sphere of influence. Everybody has a sphere of influence, but people typically think, well, I'm not an influencer, so how can I influence? Pastor, you're an influencer because, you know, you lead a church, and you lead a ministry, and I'm not a CEO, or I'm not a congressperson, or I'm not, you know, a head of some type of ministry or some type of big influencing type situation.

And the question is, can I be, and for most of you, can I really make that much of a difference? And that's why this message is called Change Your World. Change Your World, because everybody, no matter where you are, has a sphere of influence. You have a world that you can change. Everyone can make a difference in their world.

You can make a difference in your world. And I want to help you believe that. You need to believe that you can make a difference. Because if we all make a difference in our worlds, we can perhaps change the world. And I believe with everything that's in me, every one of you here today, if we start going out and changing those spheres that we are called to, that we are walking in, man, we can do something.

We can really do something in Virginia Beach and beyond. And I'm excited because I have some world changers in here. Amen. I've got some world changers. And I talk to world changers every day.

And you guys are it. And you're going to change the world. So perhaps I can help you. So I'm going to share from you in Scripture in Acts 16, 16 through 31. And I'm going to give you this whole, I'm actually, I only got a piece of Scripture that I kind of want to tackle.

But this story is so good. I'm just going to, I'm just going to go through this, this whole thing. It says once, starting verse 16, chapter 16, once when we were going to a place for prayer, and this is Luke, you know, Luke kind of traveled with, with the apostle Paul, and he's telling the story here. And he wrote the book of Acts. He's basically Luke 2, if you want to call it that.

It says once we were going to a place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. And she earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. So she was a fortune teller. So she could, she had this spirit in her and, and she could actually predict the future. And people were making money off of her.

They were enjoying the slave, you know, making a lot of money off of her. And so she followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, these men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved. So can you imagine this woman just running around and just yelling behind them? They're servants of the most high God. They're servants of the most high God.

I think that's interesting because, you know, she's got this spirit inside of her. And guess what happens when, when Jesus is in our, our men of God are in the presence of demons. They know, they know when Jesus was in the presence of demons, they know they begged for mercy, right? And they were walking. And this woman was, was yelling these things and it wasn't good things.

It was really annoying. In fact, it even says here, she kept this up for many days. And finally, Paul became so annoyed. I love this version of the Bible, the NIV says he came so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. At that very moment, the spirit left her.

And when her owners realized that their hope was making money or their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. And they brought them before the magistrates and said, these men are Jews and, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice. And then the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. What a day. It's a bad day for Paul and Silas.

And after they had been severely beaten, they were thrown into prison and the jailers were, were commanded to guard them carefully. And when he received these orders, he put them in an inner cell. Now, putting someone in an inner cell was a pretty far place in the cell system there. They wanted to make sure these guys didn't escape. Apparently, these were pretty big orders for this guard.

So he puts them in the, in the inner cell and fastened their seat in, in the stocks. And about midnight, and this, let me, let me just remind you, this was a really bad day for Paul and Silas. They had just been beaten severely. They're in shackles and chains. They're in inner, they're in inner place.

And about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. In the midst of their situation, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were hymns. They were praising God. They were worshiping God. I mean, what, and they're, they're just doing that.

And, and suddenly there was a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And at once, all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose. Not just some chains, everyone's chains came loose. Isn't that interesting that because Paul and Silas were who they were, even the people around them got a little bit of what they got. They got some freedoms from chains.

When you have, when you are an influencer, when you are a person that's changing your world, people are changed around you because you are salt, you are light. And the jailer woke up and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. This is pretty heavy here. He was afraid he was going to be tortured or something terrible was going to happen to him. But Paul shouted, do not harm yourself.

We are all here. And the jailers, the jailer called for lights, rushed in and felt trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and asked, sirs, what must I do to have your God? What must I do to be saved? This influence that they had on this man.

What must I do? And here's their response. Acts 16, 31. And this is the scripture I wanted to get to. It says, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

But not only you, but you and your household. You and your household. Not just you, you and your household. See this idea of... Household, it comes from a Greek word called oikos.

No, it's not the Greek yogurt. My wife loves some oikos for yogurt. Chobani. Oh, it's Chobani. Okay.

I just made a mistake. She won't correct me on that. So don't buy her any oikos for a gift, okay? But oikos. And what that means is the people in your world, not just your family.

We think of households as family, but it's actually talking about your relationship. Relational Rooftop, if you want to say it like that. Oikos is your people, your place, your passions, the areas that you go into. And when you get saved, it's not only for you. You know, it's great that you're going to heaven.

We're excited about that, and your life's changed, but it's more than that. See, when Paul said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and he didn't stop there. He could have just said, believe in the Lord Jesus. All you have to do is believe in him, and you will be saved. But he said, you and your whole household would be saved.

Now, that didn't mean that the whole household was going to be saved by virtue of just him being saved. It meant that he is going to do something with what he receives. See, he didn't want, Paul didn't want to see this man know Jesus and not go out and make a difference. He knew that this man was going to make a difference. There's a book I was reading about the oikos, and it's called, Pastor, It's Not Your Church.

And it was a real good book for me because I'm kind of a control freak in a lot of ways. I want things to run the way I think I can do everything. I think sometimes it comes across as like I'm Jesus. Hey, come on now. Well, I guess I didn't need to mention that.

I didn't know I was going to get that much response. Oh, man. Okay. But in the book, he says, do sometimes you feel like you're not reaching enough people? Do you worry about the size of your church?

Is it an indication of your ability to impact the culture? You don't need to because creating real and effective change doesn't mean you need a big stage and be successful. Real world change starts with the impact you have on your oikos, on the people around you, the people who are a part of your world. Here's what you need to do. You need to see who they are.

You need to know who they are. And that's what I want to do today. So I'm going to talk about the sphere of influence. I'm going to give you three different areas that you can consider your oikos. And the first one goes without saying, if you're taking notes, your people, my people, my tribe.

That's kind of a big word today, right? Tribe, my tribe, my people, my group, you know, the people around me. That's your coworkers. That's your classmates. That's your friends.

That's your family. That's those who are closest to you, those who are a part of your world, the people that you are influencing. They are there in your sphere for a reason. That's what I want to get you to know, that the people that are around you, the people that you interact every day with are there for a reason. God orchestrated those people to be in your life.

It's not a coincidence that they're just there. You just run into people just to run into people. They're there in your life. And sociologists would say this, that everybody has about 12 people, not 13, 14, not 10, not 9, not 6, but about 12 people in their life that they actually influence. People that you connect with at least an hour or more a week.

12 people, 12 people. And that's your oikos. It really is 12 people. And it's interesting that Jesus had 12 people, right? I think it kind of goes, I mean, it's almost biblical, you know, when you study what's going on with people socially, we can understand what Jesus was doing and the strategy that he was using to change the world, right?

Jesus actually used a strategy in those 12 people. And, and, uh, there's, there's a, there's a verse in the Bible, um, about, uh, the man that was possessed by Legion, the demon, this man was delivered of the demon. And here's what, how Jesus responded. He said, he said this, and, and, and granted, this guy was excited about what just happened to him. Legion, you know, meant many, many demons, right?

He was, and, and the demons beg for mercy, as I was talking about before. And he threw them into the, into the pigs. They wanted to go into the pigs. So he threw them in there. He just commanded them and they went in there.

Jesus is just so amazing. So awesome to hear that story. But then, um, what does Jesus do? Jesus tells this man, go home to your family and friends. He doesn't say, Oh, you're saved.

Go and just live a blessed life by yourself and just, just enjoy life. Right? He says, go home to your family and friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you because you are a witness to the people around you. People knew who you were and thank God you aren't who you were, but who you are now and who aren't there yet. Right?

But you're getting there, but God, but thank God you're not where you were and that you have a story to share. So tell people about what happened to you. Jesus understood this. He's telling us to do this. We can do this.

The second thing is my place. God has a place that's for you. God always has places for us. Where we are right now is our place. My place.

God has you in a place for a purpose. It's no mistaking that God has you in Virginia beach right now. Right? Some of you may be coming from Chesapeake. Some of you live in it.

We got people in Portsmouth that come here. We got, but that's your place. God strategically put you here. He orchestrated it. You may have grown up here.

You may have been here all of your life. Some of you moved here because of the military. Some of you, some of you may have, have, you know, moved into area recently because of some job or whatever. But listen, it's, it's all orchestrated by God. God is an orchestrator.

He puts things in place so that you can know that you can be, that you can, you can connect with people in your place. In fact, Acts 17, 26 says he determines the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Meaning he orchestrates everything to work according to his will and according to his glory and according to his purpose. So some of you are like, well, I don't like Virginia Beach. All I can think about is getting out of here one day.

I can't wait to live in, you know, so-and-so. I'd rather have a house in Hawaii and blah, blah, blah, and yada, yada. And then, but you know why you're a complainer? You know why you're, you're, you're miserable all the time thinking about the next place you want to be and how you want to get out of here and how, where do you want to go? It's because you aren't living for the purpose that God put you in this place to be.

Okay. You need to do what he's called you to do and you will be a lot happier of a person. It is no mistake. Where you are right now, you are in a physical location for a purpose, whether it's your school, your job, whatever it might be. I don't know where COVID has you right now.

A lot of you are still in the home, you know, and some of you are going back to work. But that grocery store attendant, you know, the places you shop, the restaurants you eat at. Look at Psalm 90. It says this, May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us. Establish the works of our hands for us.

Yes, establish the work of our hands. So guess what? The things that you do, the work that you do, your vocation is your ministry. What you do is your ministry. Your residence is your mission field.

Your congregation is right around you, all around you. Your church is right there. Your oikos is there where you are right now. Who are you influencing in where you are? Your oikos.

And then thirdly, my passion. You have your people, you have your place, and then you have your passions. And you have certain passions, you have certain activities, you have certain ideas, you have certain places you're drawn to. There's things that you have that God wants to use. And you know, when I'm up here sometimes sharing something, you know, that maybe the church is doing or some kind of a project we're engaging in or some kind of outreach we're engaged in, and some of you are like, eh, nah, nah, nah.

But then you think something else, you know? It's like you completely brighten up. That's God. Did you know that God has actually placed that passion in you? I mean, some of you are, and I go back to those fears of influence we shared last week, education, government, things like that.

So politics, some of you are really, really excited about politics. Guess what? I am absolutely not through it. I mean, I don't care. I could care less about politics.

Yeah, I'll vote for my values and listen and read and all that kind of stuff. But listen, I'm not interested in politics, you know? I'm not. But some of you are. Some of you are business people.

You know. You connect with people regularly. And it could be something as simple as an activity. That's why we design small groups and salt groups. Right now, COVID has kind of hit a lot of those, and we're going to relaunch those pretty soon.

So get ready. But that's why we ask you, not only does a salt group have to be a Bible study, or it could be an interest group. It could be a biking group. Mark was going to start one right before COVID hit. We had him ready to go, and it was a bummer, you know, but I'm sure he's ready to launch that again.

He was excited. He came to me. He says, man, I feel like I want to do this. I said, man, go for it. That's incredible.

That's who you need to reach. That's your oikos. That's your influence. Christian Surfers, Ron over here, is doing the local chapter here, and it's been going really well here. And they've recently connected with the church.

We as a church are going to take them under our covering and just love them and bless his ministry, and we're going to be a part of that, and we're going to reach lost service for Christ, and we're going to do some amazing things because that's what we believe. We are called. We have certain passions, maybe basketball. It may be business. It may be leadership.

Some of you are like, I could do a better job. And Leon came up there. You're a better speaker than me. Well, come on. Let's do it.

Come on. That's your passion. That's your passion. Psalm 37.4 says, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Now, that doesn't mean that if you delight yourself in the Lord, and this idea of delighting is actually putting on a bride's gown and delighting yourself, like covering yourself for God, like beautifying yourself. And it says, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires. But those desires, and we often read that scripture like those desires are, oh, he's going to give me everything that I want, right? If I delight myself in the Lord, if I do the right things, he's just going to give me what I want. But all of us know, many of us know that that's not true, you know, because bad things still happen to people who do the right things, right?

But what he's talking about here, he wants to give you the one. He doesn't want to give you what you want. He wants to give you the one, the thing that you really want, the thing internally that you really want, the thing that completes you, your oikos. Now, when you're serving in your oikos, when you're doing, when you're talking to your people, when you're serving in your place, and when you're connecting through your passions and your love and your gifts, it just does something, and it just makes you happy. And there's so many miserable Christians out there because they're not living for their purpose.

They're walking around, oh, it's so sad. I'm depressed. And I say, well, what are you doing? Get out there and make a difference because we all are meant to make a difference. He's going to give you what you really need.

You know, the reason you probably come in here on Sunday morning, you know, and you see somebody sitting by themselves, and you're like, I'm going to go sit with that person. It might be your gift of compassion. You might have a gift of compassion. We have these spiritual gifts. For some of you, it might be, you know, you see some things that are needed around here.

You've got a gift of service. You want to serve, right? You're like, oh, man, you know, they need help putting some wires away. I see some wires laying up here. Some of you are administrative people.

You're like, oh, man, I could come up here, and I can clean up these lights a little bit, and I could do this and do that. You know, you're all thinking about that, right? Because maybe you've got a gift of service. We all got gifts. We all got things.

We've got passions. So your people, your place, and your passion. So how do we do this? I gave you three motivations last week, and I want to give you three this week. How do we really make a difference?

You give me what it is, but how do I do this? Where do I start, Pastor? How do I start making a difference? Well, it really just starts with this. Number one, your manner.

Your manner. Have your mom ever told you, mind your manners? Plenty of time. Mind your manners. Mind your manners, Leon.

I remember that so many times. Mind your manners. It's having the right attitudes. It's having the right actions. The things that people see, the things that are our attitude, the way we live, the way people see you.

They are either attracted to you or they're turned off by you. Did you know that? It's so important the way we conduct ourselves. We conduct our manners in a way that people. And so it's important for us to live in a way that serves others through our attitudes.

I can tell you, one thing I cannot tolerate is a bad attitude. I can tolerate a lot of things, and I'm gracious. I can't tolerate a lot of things. I can't tolerate a lot of things. I can't tolerate a lot of things.

I can't tolerate a lot of things. Here, I can, there's a lot of sins I can tolerate, and I can work through with people, and I'm, and if you, anybody that knows me, I'm a very gracious person. I'll do whatever I can to help you, but man, when it comes to a poor attitude, I just don't, I can't, I can't do it. I can't, I can't work with you unless you have a good attitude, and I think that's for me, too. We all need attitudes.

Our manner is so important. Colossians 5, 4, and 6 says, Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation always be full of grace, and seasoned with what? Salt.

Had to point that out real quick, right? Seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. Seasoned with salt. People need to know that you care, and attitude, and manner, and the way we conduct it, it really helps in that area. 1 Thessalonians 4, 11 and 12 says, Make it your ambition.

I love that. Ambition. It means that we haven't arrived, right? We don't have it all figured out, but our ambition, we were striving, we're not there yet, but, but make it a goal and an ambition for your life to have, in your manner, in your conduct, to live the way you should live, to serve others in a way that isn't about yourself, and isn't about what, you know, live a life that's worthy of that. Be with the people.

Work with the people. Work beside the people. And it says this, to lead a quiet life. Now, that doesn't mean don't go out and share the gospel. Some people say, well, I'll just be a closet Christian.

That's not what that's saying. That's saying, stop. Stop telling people you're going to burn and go to hell if you don't vote for Trump. I mean, or whatever. You know, it's like, it's like social media and things like that that we're on all the time demonstrates that we're not living a quiet life.

We're not living a respectful mannered life. It says also this, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may be, may win what the respect of others. I love this picture that Paul gives. And it reminds me of the ancient Moravian church. The Moravian churches, they were a great missions organization.

They still are. There's still quite a few Moravians out there. And they were a great missions movement. And what I love about the Moravians is when they were sent out into communities, they didn't just go into those communities and set up a church and put up a steeple and try to proselytize everybody and go out with Bibles. And say, you need to know Jesus and things.

They actually went into the cultures and they became like the people. They lived for years with the people, worked in the community, got involved in, in the, uh, whether it's the politics of the community, or maybe it was the, uh, uh, economics of the community. They would build business. They would work. In fact, some of them would even go as far as to become slaves.

They would sell themselves into slavery. And some of them even died in slavery in order to reach the people that they were called to reach. They became like the people and they evangelized with their manners, villages, communities, cities, countries. And they were able to, to really bring, uh, uh, uh, tangible and measurable change to those communities. In fact, it says this on one occasion, uh, there's a historian wrote this.

There was an accountist. Uh, she was dissatisfied by all the riches and trinkets she had. And one day she met a Moravian missionary. She was, uh, she was wondering why the missionary was so cheerful. Y'all are, y'all are looking at me wisely on laughing because there's so many Christians that just aren't cheerful.

I'm just miserable, you know, and, and God wants us to be cheerful. We need to be cheerful. We need to be, we need to, we need to live that manner, that attitude. And then it says, he explained to the countess what Jesus had done for him by dying on the cross for her sins. And the countess was so convicted, she fell down and prayed.

In turn, she became a witness to many of the royal court, including Alexander the first. She made a difference because a Moravian man went to a culture and lived in the culture. There's a book called to change the world by James Hunter. And he talks a lot about, uh, about how to change the world and why the church hasn't been able to really make that much of a difference in the world in this current time. And he says why the, uh, he talks about why the Christians have lost in their efforts to change the world.

And his conclusion is, uh, the way we change the world is through faithful presence, through faithful presence, like wearing, uh, that, that, that we wear the burden of others. We walk life with people. We, we, we integrate into the society. We don't section off, like a lot talked about last week. We don't section off Christianity and our faith over here, but we actually walk and bear with the people.

And he talked about, you know, just ways to do that, even in our jobs, in our community and like in a dentist office, people can, you know, you can leave books and Bibles and things in your office or things that kind of actually make difference for differences for patients and stuff. And he talks about this car dealer named Don Flo from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and how Don is a successful businessman and how he's integrated faith into his community and, uh, into his business and how he's made a really tangible and measurable difference for the Lord through being one of the most wealthiest men in, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, uh, one of the most successful businessmen, even in all of North Carolina and throughout the world, he's known for, for what he does in his business. He's these radical things that he does for his employees. He gives them, uh, uh, uh, scholarships for their children to go to college. He, uh, he makes, um, he gives them health care.

He makes, he gets subsidized their health care. When health care is too expensive, he'll, he'll give them, he gives 0% loans for, for, uh, for, for certain things that they may need for like 12 months, just out, you know, just, just offers that for them so that they can, they can do and they can be successful. He gives them time off to be with their kids, to go to ball games, to go to church functions, to go to, um, to, to be, to, to give quality family time. Those things are valuable. And he says, you know, the work will get done, but what's most important is my employees are, are healthy and they're, they're, they're aiming to, to, to build healthy lives and have healthy families.

And we carry these values as Christian leaders and Christian believers. And at a Christmas party, he'll take the opportunity. He'll go up to the front and he'll share what Christmas is really all about. And he says, you know, I'm just going to share this. This is what God did in my life.

This is how God changed me. This is what God did for me. And then he'll walk. He says, you know, my office is open. If you ever want.

To talk about that, go back to the party and everything, but I just wanted to share that, but I'm wide open if you ever want to know who Jesus is. And taking those opportunities to really tell and show people who Christ is for His glory and for His kingdom, using what He has, and He talks about these things to change the world. So it's our manner, it's how we conduct our daily business, it's how we live among the people, it's how we, we are missionaries, right? We talked about that in our last series, Church and Culture, that we live on mission, we are missionaries, we all, when we become a Christian, we are missionaries to our oikos, we're ministering to people. And then there's our moments.

If you're taking notes, write that down, our moment, our moment. Because He's going to cause you and another person to intersect at some point, it's not going to be a mistake. You're going to intersect with somebody, someone, at some point during the day. And in fact, I would even ask you to see it like this. When you go out, everybody that you see during the day, even if you're just bypassing them in a car, is not a mistake.

There's a reason. Because God orchestrates those things. We call them divine appointments. When you connect with somebody, when you're able to minister to somebody, when you're able to talk to somebody, God orchestrates people, the people we see and we meet every day. Psalm 37, 23.

And I'll be closing in a minute. The steps of a good man, the people of God, the world changers. The steps of world changers are ordered by the Lord. Did you know every one of our steps are ordered by Him? And if we could start to see it from that perspective, think of the things that we could do, things that we could think about, how we respond to the way we live out our every day.

That we're not just going to a job. We're not just going home to watch some TV, hang out for our kids a little bit and go to bed. We're not, you know, we're more than that. That every day, every moment counts. Proverbs 16, 9 says, in his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

He determines every step you take. So that phone call that you get, that text message, that whatever intersection that comes in, these are determined by the Lord when we are believers in Christ. Us who follow Christ know that everything that we do is determined by the Lord. Every step and every moment, those intersections. And here's what I want.

I want hell to get scared every time I walk out the door because he knows that I'm up to something. I'm up for what I pray every day. I do this every day. And I did it from the very beginning when we started the church. I prayed every day.

And God will answer it, right? God will answer it. Put me in places where I can connect with somebody to make a difference in their life, Lord. Take me to those places. Let me meet those people.

Use my passions in that moment. In that moment, we all are world changers. And then it's our message. Thirdly, is our message. That's my last point, our message.

We have a message. In fact, 1 Peter says it like this, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asked to give the reason for the hope that you have. The hope that you have. The question is, do you have a message? We have a message.

Can you give your message in three minutes or less? All of us as believers have a testimony. My testimony is, I was, I grew up in church, but I was very religious. I didn't know God. I didn't know God personally.

I did all the right things. I thought I was doing all the right things. But one day I had an encounter with God. I learned that I could actually have a personal relationship with Jesus and he changed everything. I was never the same after that.

God came into my life. He radically changed me. He made me, gave me purpose. He fulfilled my life. Religion didn't do that.

Going to church didn't do that. Nothing did that. God took the sin off my life. He took the weight and he took the burden off my life that I was carrying for years that I thought wasn't supposed to be there because I was doing the right things. But I wasn't doing the right things.

I was doing the wrong things because I didn't place my life and my hope in a relationship with him. And I can share it and I can share it. I share it in different formats, but I can, I can, I can share it in three minutes or less. I can tell people, I can share the hope that lies within me. Second Corinthians says it like this.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ. Not counting man's sins against them. Isn't that beautiful?

Like he takes our sins away. He reconciles and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. Reconciliation, as many of you know, reconciliation means to bring the balance to zero. God brings our balance to zero. Our message is really this, and in closing, our message really is this, you don't have to live with your sin any longer.

You don't have to live with that heaviness on your heart, on your life. God, I have the message. It happened to me. God took the burden from me and he wants to change you. He wants you to change the world.

He wants you to carry that message of reconciliation to everyone you know and everyone you love and everyone you don't love and everyone that comes in your path and everyone that comes around you. He wants you to carry that message. Amen. Amen. So let's go change the world.

If you guys would just pray with me real quick here, and I just want to, I want to just pray over everybody here, whether you're a Christian, uh, you just became a Christian. Maybe you're still learning, uh, the, the, this, this, this life and this, uh, what it means to really walk in Christ. But here's what I want to, I want to pray over you for. I want, I pray God that you would just give everybody in here a supernatural stirring of purpose, that you would give them encouragement, Lord, to change the world, that, that, that you would reveal to them right now, the people, the places, the passions in their life so that they can walk in a... That the man are worthy of your gospel, Lord, and that they would carry the message of hope to a hurt and dying world, because we are all world changers, Lord.

You have given us all. Everyone is a 10 in your book, Lord, so we're just asking God that wherever people are watching right now, whether they're here or there, that you would stir in their spirits something, something that they want to take on, they can do a passion in their heart, Lord, in that same spirit of prayer. Some of you here today, the weight of sin is really heavy on you. Right now you're feeling that, and you're like, wow, so God can reconcile my sin. Yes, he gave his son for that very reason, that he could carry that balance to zero.

Today, take that opportunity in your house, or listening in a cafe, or in your car, later on this week, or wherever it may be, that you can have a relationship with God. He can take all those burdens off of you. He can take all those worries off of you. He can take that thing that you know that you're missing. He can fill you with hope.

He can fill you with purpose. And if you'll do this right now, if you'll pray this, if you'll pray this prayer, and there's nothing magic in the prayer, it's just you surrendering to Jesus today, making him Lord of your life. You say, Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God and that you died on the cross for my sin. I pray, God, that you come into my life. You come into my heart.

You change me from the inside out, Lord. Just take those burdens and sins off of me. Carry them away, Lord Jesus. I surrender to you today. I give you my life.

You are the hope of glory. And I give you everything, Lord, today. I surrender. I surrender to you. All is yours, Lord.

I am yours today. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.