Battleship - All Aboard

Pantano, how are we? Come on, get on your feet. We're gonna worship Jesus today. ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I'll praise when I feel it, praise when I don't ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause I know you're still in control ♪ ♪ My praise is a weapon, it's more than a sound ♪ ♪ More than a sound, yeah ♪ ♪ My praise is the shout that brings Jericho down ♪ ♪ As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Oh my soul, I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ Yes! Come on, we sing. ♪ There's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I'm praying to you, I'm gonna pray ♪

♪ I'm gonna pray to you, I'm gonna pray to you ♪ ♪ I know a name, that can silence rolling waves ♪ ♪ I know a name, that can empty out a grave ♪ ♪ I know a name, it's the only name that saves ♪ ♪ I know a name, that can silence rolling waves ♪ ♪ I know a name, that can empty out a grave ♪ ♪ And it's worthy of all praise, come on ♪ ♪ I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you healer ♪ ♪ Risen and reigning in power ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you Savior ♪ ♪ I call you Savior, worthy of glory forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name ♪ ♪ I have a king with dominion over death ♪ ♪ With dominion over death, he holds the keys ♪ ♪ In his holy man's guidance, he is the key, yeah ♪ ♪ That has crossed the serpent's head ♪ ♪ Our resurrected great I am ♪ ♪ I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you healer ♪ ♪ Risen and reigning in power ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you Savior ♪ ♪ Worthy of glory forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, chains break, dry bones wake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, the gates of hell shake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, chains break, dry bones wake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, the gates of hell shake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, every time I call your name ♪

Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. ♪ Where, oh death, is now your sting ♪ ♪ And where, oh grave, your victory? ♪ Come on. ♪ Where, oh death, is now your sting ♪ ♪ And where, oh grave, your victory? ♪ ♪ Yeah, where, oh death, is now your sting ♪ ♪ And where, oh grave, your victory? ♪ ♪ Yeah, where, oh death, is now your sting ♪ ♪ And where, oh grave, your victory? ♪ ♪ Yeah, where, oh death, is now your sting ♪ ♪ And where, oh grave, your victory? ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive in your name ♪ ♪ I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you healer ♪ ♪ Risen and reigning in power ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you Savior ♪ ♪ Worthy of glory forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, chains break, troubles wake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, the gates of hell shake ♪ ♪ The gates of hell shake, every time I call you ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪

♪ Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ In the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ So much power in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ So much power in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ God, my healing in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Healing in the name of Jesus, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ Come on with everything you have. ♪ I call you Jesus, I call, I call, Jesus ♪ ♪ With the rain of love, something else I pray ♪ ♪ Something else I pray, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ I call you Jesus, I call, I call, Jesus ♪ ♪ With the rain of love, something else I pray ♪ ♪ Something else I pray, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ Amen. ♪ I pray into the atmosphere ♪ ♪ Spirit of God, you're here, you have all the power ♪ ♪ Glory, I pray over my heart and mind ♪ ♪ I am healed by your stripes, your blood declares that I am free ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray ♪ ♪ Calling on the power of heaven, I proclaim ♪ ♪ Every weapon formed against me, my strength ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I draw my permanent boundary line ♪ ♪ The enemy has no rights to come near my family ♪ ♪ No sin can ever undo God's plans, no matter the circumstance ♪ ♪ The cross has sealed my destiny ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray ♪ ♪ Calling on the power of heaven, I proclaim ♪

♪ I proclaim every weapon formed against me, my strength ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I know all the power of fear and darkness, it must go ♪ ♪ It's every key to every victory I hold ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear when the enemy comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life is the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear there's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides by the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear when the enemy comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life is the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear there's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides by the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, oh I pray ♪ ♪ Calling on the power of heaven ♪ ♪ I proclaim every weapon formed against me ♪ ♪ In my spirit, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, oh I know ♪ ♪ All the power of fear and darkness through my soul ♪ ♪ Is every key to every victory, oh I hold ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, oh I hold ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ You're worthy Jesus ♪ ♪ It's who You are Lord, it's who You are, yeah ♪ ♪ And in the mighty name of Jesus, yeah ♪ ♪ I proclaim that You have been formed against me ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, yeah ♪ ♪ I proclaim that You have been formed against me ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, yeah ♪

Lord Jesus, You're worthy of all of our praise. You're worthy of everything that we can give to You, even all the bad stuff. And Lord Jesus, thank You for Your grace that has nothing to do with what we do. Lord, someday we get to walk into heaven and we can simply just say, I'm here because of the man that died on that cross that I could be here, and for no other reason. And for no other reason. Lord Jesus, would You move, Holy Spirit, would You be in this room with us? As You dwell in our hearts, would You speak to our hearts and our minds? Lord, we bind up the enemy in the name of Jesus Christ. And Lord, we pray that Your truth and Your grace would be made known in the name of Jesus. Lord, we take communion to remember You. And Lord, we pray that by doing so that You would unify this body in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank You so much for worshiping with us today. Feel free to take your seat and to take communion when you're ready. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey, Pantano, I'm Pastor Will and I'm so blessed that you're joining us today. At Pantano, we believe life is better when we're connected. When we come together in community, if you're here in person, we'd love to meet you. Stop by Next Steps after service, and our team will help you discover your next step. Joining us online? You're a valued part of the Pantano family, too. Visit Next Steps online and fill out a Connect card so we can stay in touch. From behind-the-scenes moments to encouragement throughout the week, there's always something happening in the life of our church. Join the We Are Pantano community on social media to stay connected with everything that's going on. Over Easter, at all of our campuses, 232 people chose to publicly declare their faith through baptism. We're blown away by what God is doing in Tucson, Benson, and beyond. If you're ready to take your next step, you can schedule your baptism by visiting pantano.church slash nextsteps. At Pantano, our mission is loving people to Jesus and launching passionate difference makers.

Your generosity makes that mission possible. Because of your giving, people encounter the love of Jesus in tangible ways, lives are transformed, and individuals are equipped and sent out to make a difference in their communities and around the world. If you feel called to give, you can drop your gift in a giving box, give online through our website, or text give to 46356. Another meaningful way to live out our mission is by signing up for Serve Our City this April. It's a week where we take the church beyond the building and into our communities, showing up for people with real compassion, humility, and love, just like Jesus did. Thank you for being a church that lives on mission and reflects the heart of Jesus in our city. For more information and details on how you can get involved, visit Next Steps. Thanks again for joining us. We are so glad that you're here. We are so glad that you're here. We are so glad that you're here. I feel like this is how we should do church. I mean, look at the backdrop. Just transport yourself to a moment on a beach, on a cruise ship.

I remember the first time I went on a cruise, now, you gotta understand, my wife does not like to cruise because she gets motion sick in the bathtub, but I enjoy the water, I enjoy the beach, and so the first time we went on a cruise, I love the cruise, and let me tell you why, because they do everything for you. You get on, they take your bags, they don't even steal them, they just take them to your room for you, it's really nice. They cook all your food, they serve it to you 24-7. They bring you little drinks with umbrellas. Speaking of, hey, Chris. Thank you, sir. Enjoy. Thank you. It's water, be careful, y'all, it's church, all right? I'm not appearing in my tie-in during church, all right? We're not gonna do that. It's Waterloo, if you really wanna know, it's really good. But I love the entire piece of, they just cater. They do everything for you. You show up, you don't have to think, you get to relax. They take you on little boats to little islands. Everybody serves you there. That's great on a cruise ship, but here's what I've learned, is nobody on that cruise ship was really on mission. There was really no urgency for anything big other than just take care of me.

And see, the problem is, is we've done church that way. We like church to feel like a cruise ship in our country a little bit, if we're to be really honest with ourselves. And I started thinking about how we've turned church into a cruise ship. And let me tell you how that plays out, is maybe you show up and you consume. And consuming sounds like this in the church. We evaluate, so maybe you'll get in the car and go, hey, did you really like the music today? Yeah, I didn't really like the music either. Here's what's interesting about that statement, we're not here to worship you. If you're offended by that, take it up with Jesus, all right? Or maybe you've had this, was the message really helpful? By the way, I'm not here to help you. We're here to disciple you, to help you love Jesus better, so you actually go live out your faith. This is not self-help. This isn't even like, come along, help. This is discipleship, which is deeper than just help. This is not a. self-help environment, or maybe you've said this, did the kids enjoy it? I love when people are like, man, we changed churches because our kids didn't have fun. Hmm, fun. Now, here's what I would say.

I don't want our kids' ministry to be where fun goes to die. We want your kids to have fun loving Jesus, but if your first gauge on whether or not you're gonna engage with a church is whether or not your kids had fun, maybe ask the question, are my kids growing deeper in relationship with Jesus? And hear me, these aren't bad questions. Ask the questions, but if those are the only questions that we ask when we show up to a church, we might be missing the entire point. We might be missing why we're supposed to be doing this. And here's, I wanna start this whole series with this statement. Jesus didn't die to create a cruise ship. He died to launch a battleship. He died to launch us into this world. And some of us, we've been sitting in the deck chairs of faith. We're like, give me my little towel. Give me my book or my Kindle, whichever your preference is, Audible. You're like, books, what are those? In my communion, in a coconut. And we like the cruise ship faith. See, cruise ship faith doesn't call us to anything. It doesn't call us to do anything, but consume our faith. And let's be real for a second, because this is the tension we all feel. We live in a culture that's built on consumption.

We do. Everywhere we go, it's built on consumption. Everything about what works for me, what fits my schedule, what meets my needs, what makes me comfortable. So it makes sense that we drift into the same mindset with church. And so we begin to ask, like, what did I get out of this? What, like, does this serve me? Is this what I like? But what if we've been asking the wrong question? Because it's funny, I can spot career Christians a mile away when they come to our church. If you don't know what a career Christian is, that's somebody that probably hops from church to church to church. And you know why most people do that? It's because they're looking how they can be served better. But here's how I spot career Christians versus people that don't know Jesus yet, or just new to faith. If you've been in faith for a long time and you show up at Pantano, usually people will walk up and they'll ask this question. Here's how you delineate it. You're gonna start to be able to spot it, okay? I'm giving away the secrets. It's like those guys that Penn and Teller that tell you all the magic tricks. This is how you spot them.

This is how they, they'll come up and they'll go, man, we love your church, which they make you feel so good. And then they'll say, so can I ask you a question? What do you have for our family? Now, that's a good question on the surface, but here's what they're really saying. If you won't cater to us, then we'll go somewhere else. You know what people new to faith say? Here's the question they ask. Hey, what are we supposed to do next? How do we live out our faith better? See, that's a way different kind of question. It's now not about me. It's about how I can serve the kingdom. Like what if we've been asking the wrong question? What if the question isn't what do I get? But what if the question is, what am I called to? Like, what has God called me to? Because deep down, we all know this is true. Comfort never changed the world, calling does, calling does. Now, before we go any further, some of you are like, don't we care about our online people anymore? Absolutely we do. So we're really glad all of you are with us today, okay? Thanks for joining us. Some of you logged in and you're like, why are we getting smacked in the mouth right out of the gate today? Easter was so much fun. I know, but we got to talk about this stuff, okay?

And if you're at our Benson campus, we're so excited. They had 10 baptisms at our Benson campus on Easter. We're so pumped for all of you. And then for all of our guys at the Santa Rita unit, at the Wilmot prison, all of Gospel Rescue Mission, I'm so humbled and honored that you're with us. They've got another baptism week scheduled at the prison in May. So we're praying for all of you, but welcome all of those guys in too, if you will. We're so glad you're with us. And here's what I know, whether you're there, whether you're here, comfort has never changed the world. I've never seen anybody, man, I'm going to relax my way into changing the world. Like there's something inside of us that truly deep down wants more than comfort. Let me ask you this. How many of you want purpose? Just show, raise your hand. Okay, good. That's a lot of you. Let me ask you this. How many of you want your life to have meaning when you get to the end of it? Anybody want meaning in your life? That's good. How many of you want your life to matter? Show of hands. Okay, good.

That's most of you. Some of you guys are like, nah, I don't care. Here's what I know about most people. If you're really honest, you don't actually want to sit. the deck. You don't want to sit in the armchairs. My dad's 83. He retired about a decade ago, sold his business, and for like the first year I was like, Dad, why are you busier now than when you worked? He's like, because I refuse to sit still with my faith. Like he's doing it all the time now. He just moved to Tucson a year ago. My 83 year old father is out there handing out crosses to people, having weird conversations at grocery stores. If you run into him, he's gonna talk to you about it. He's like, I'm not called to retire from my faith. He's like, it's not I had a good run with Jesus. Now I'm gonna sit back till I meet him face to face. See there's something inside of us that we want to make a difference and Jesus talks about that. Like we have a mission statement in Pantano. Some of you may know it, and it's just simply this. Loving people to Jesus and launching passionate difference-makers. If you don't know it, it's on the screen. Loving people to Jesus, launching passionate difference-makers. I've had people go, man that's a great organizational statement. That is not an organizational statement. That is a biblical statement. Jesus calls us to love people to Jesus and then go make a difference in the world around us. So let's go to Matthew chapter 16. If you got Bibles, open them up. If you don't have one that you can open up yet, Amazon.com. Type in Bible. Thousands of them. NLT or NIV. I'm helping you out, okay? We are into April of this year and I'm gonna keep telling you, get in the Word of God. It's the lifeblood. Matthew chapter 16 verse 18. Jesus says, now I say to you that Peter, which means rock, will be your name. And upon this rock I will build my, what's the word he uses there? Church. Hold that. We're gonna come back to it. And all the powers of hell will not conquer it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. So Jesus introduces something here that's brand new. This is the first time it's gonna be introduced. He uses the word church. Now we hear the word church and we think, I'm going to church. That's such a backwards

phrase. If you just said to Jesus when he said that, so where do we go to church? He'd be like, huh? You don't go to church. You don't go to church. Here's why you don't go to church. The word church in scripture is the Greek word ekklesia and here's what it means. The called out assembly. The called out ones. It doesn't mean the come to a building ones. It means the called out ones, the sent out ones, the ones that go into the world. Now gathering is good, but when you gather, you're not going to church, you're coming as the church. You're going to a building. I would love if everybody just started putting, hey, so when are you going to building this week? You're going to start doing it now, I know. Somebody's going to make a t-shirt and wear it. I know what you guys do. Like, hey, what time are you going to building this week? No, I'm going to go to 830. What time are you going to building? Oh, we go to Thursday. There's a lot more space. A lot better parking. That's a shameless plug for Thursday night. You should come Thursday night. You don't lose Jesus in the parking lot on Thursday night. See, the called out assembly is the people on mission. The called out assembly is not nearly as concerned with going to church. They're more concerned with being the church. And so the very first thing he says about the church, Jesus, is not comfort. It's actually conflict. He says, the gates of hell will not prevail. The gates of hell will not prevail. That's battle language. That's not cruise ship language. That's not comfort language. Gates are defensive structures. That means hell is not advancing on the church. The church is actually advancing on hell. Like, you know what my prayer, literally every week is, but last week especially, Easter, I just know the enemy wants to work hard. And so I literally, I get here early and I'm praying around our parking lot, our building, praying around our campuses and where we have services. And I literally pray this prayer, God, camouflage our church so that Satan can hear us, but he can't find us. And then I prayed this, I was like, let us actually annoy the hell out of Satan. Now, some of you are offended by that. I'm sorry. Again, take that up with Jesus. Okay. Like literally like that Satan can hear God's people and can't do anything about it because the gates of hell don't get to prevail against Pantano. The gates of hell don't get to prevail against the church. The gates of hell don't get to prevail against your marriage, your kids, your life, your spouse. Are you praying that kind of prayer? See, if we're praying, little God, give me, serve me,

do for me, we're praying the wrong kind of prayers. See, this is not a cruise ship floating safely through life. This is a battleship storming enemy territory. That's what the church is. So Jesus is redefining what it means to follow him. It's no longer about simply being a disciple who learns. Should you learn, sure. The problem is, I know a lot of Christians that know a lot of scripture and have never lived it out a day. Because they're on the cruise ship. See, he's called us to do more than just be knowledgeable. This is about being participants who advance the kingdom. And we see all throughout scripture, when God calls people, he never calls them to comfort. He actually calls them into mission. It's mission. Think about Exodus chapter three. If you go all the way back to the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus is the second book. And there's this guy, Moses. You remember Moses? And Moses is out in the desert, minding his business. He's in Tucson at the Saguaro National Park, minding his business. Just being in the desert. Tending some sheep. He's living in obscurity. And then he notices a bush that's burning,

but it's not being consumed. Which again, I submit, how long do you have to look at a bush before you realize it's burning, but it's not burning? You know what I'm saying? That means you've got some time on your hands. And then he has this encounter with God. And God speaks to him through this burning bush in the desert, which I'm pretty sure was July in Tucson when everything's on fire. I think some of us combust in the middle of the summer. I'm pretty sure of it. But this is what God shows up and says to Moses. He says, now go, for I'm sending you to Pharaoh. So God didn't say, hey, Moses, I want to improve your lifestyle. How can we make you more comfortable out here in the desert? No, he said, I'm sending you to one of the most powerful empires in the world, and you're gonna set my people free. By the way, that's not comfort. That's not comfort, that's calling. That's combat. I mean, think about that. Moses is trying to live in obscurity, and God says, I'm gonna need you to go to the most powerful man in the world, and you're gonna free my people. If you go read that story, Moses is like, but I don't talk good.

I stutter. And God's like, okay, I wasn't asking you for permission. I was putting you on mission. Like, I think we want, I think we want God to ask our permission to go do what he's called us to do, and he's like, I'm not asking, I'm commanding. I'm telling you to go do these things. I mean, think about your own life. Could you imagine if God said to you today, hey, I'm gonna send you to the most powerful people in the world, and then you're gonna set all my people free? Now, some of you would be like, that sounds pretty awesome. Until you have to do it. Like, there's some trepidation and calling. But see, he calls us to battle, not to comfort. Or think about Joshua. Remember Joshua? He's like the guy in scripture that's gonna go into battle on behalf of God, but in Joshua chapter one, verse nine, before he does any of those things, here's what God says, be strong and courageous, for the Lord is with you wherever you go. Why would Joshua need courage? It doesn't take a lot of courage to sit in one of these chairs. This isn't courage. Now, if that chair wasn't made as well, it may take a little bit of courage. But there's no courage to sit in comfort. Why does he need courage?

Because he's stepping into battle to take the promised land. See, the calling of God always comes with resistance. Can I just tell you, when you decide that you wanna get on mission, just understand there's gonna be resistance in your life. Now, I know some of you are like, don't tell people that, they won't want Jesus. I don't know. I've lived in the comfort side of life, can I just tell you, there's not much mission there. There's not much purpose there. But you see, Joshua, he takes the resistance because he knows that something better is coming. Or think about David. Remember David? I mean, you won't talk about a hot mess of a human being. David. King David. Like, David, as he got older, he just started making some really dumb decisions. But if you look at 1 Samuel 17, before he grows up as a kid, everyone sees this guy named Goliath. Remember Goliath? The giant? All the Israelites are terrified of Goliath. They all run. And David, the little boy, he's like, what are y'all scared of? They're like, the giant.

He's like, really? The God of Israel is our God? Yahweh is our God? You're mad at that? Like, you're scared of that guy? Really? You don't think God can take him out? And you know the story, right? He goes out, throws a big old rock at the guy's head, hits him in the face, cuts his head off. First of all, what kind of kid is that? I'm like, man, either that guy's gonna save the world or, whew, there's gonna be some crazy stuff there. He had this moment that he steps forward to face Goliath. Why does he do it? Because David understood something. God doesn't raise up his people to sit on the sidelines. He raises them up to get into the fight. That's what he calls us to. See, like, I think about last weekend. 232 people gave their lives to Jesus last weekend here. It was unbelievable. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. But let me tell you why I could care less about the number and I care way more about the people.

It's 232 people should, in that moment, see themselves as commissioned to be on mission to now get into battle. To say, you know what, I'm dying to comfort. I'm gonna die to all this stuff and I'm gonna actually raise up to mission with Jesus. Like, resurrection is what calls us to mission. Like, if you moved into the New Testament, Jesus doesn't call his disciples to comfort. He calls them to follow. And following Jesus leads to mission. Look at Matthew chapter four. Verse 19, Jesus says, come follow me. I'm gonna show you how to fish for people. Now, fishing sounds like you should sit in that chair, doesn't it? But he says, follow me for what? Not for comfort. He says, for mission. And then Jesus models it. So he's not gonna ask you to do something he himself is not willing to do. So if you look at Mark chapter 10, verse 45, it says, for even, Jesus talking, even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve others and give his life as a ransom for many. Like, we like that first part. Oh, he didn't come to be served, but to serve. And we're to be like Jesus.

So we're called to not be served, but serve. But then there's that back half of that where he's like, and be a ransom for many. Like, that's the part of serving that we don't like to dig into. Jesus says, I didn't come to just sit. I didn't come to be served. I came to sacrifice. See, when you're on mission, sacrifice is a part of it. He came to rescue. And if we follow him, that should be our same path. We should be rescuers. By the way, when you get on rescue mission, especially in church, you know what you stop doing in church, complaining. Now, Pantino, I love you. Can I just say, of all the churches I've ever been in, you complain the least of all the people I've ever been around in church. You're like, the least. So all together, oh no. But you know what I love is you redirect each other so well. Like, we don't get hung up on things that don't matter. Like, there's a phrase I've used with our staff, and I've used in my own life, mission over minutia. Like, when you're on mission, you don't have time to get into things that don't matter. Like, when I was in the Midwest, churches used to have these things called pews. Remember those?

Why on earth did we allow ourselves to put our butts on those for 100 years? Actually, some days I wonder if we should go back to them, because maybe we wouldn't sit as long, and we'd go faster. But I remember in the Midwest, people would just, they would get so hung up on things that didn't matter. I remember churches splitting over carpet, paint on walls. Can you imagine leaving a church because you didn't like the carpet? You know how stupid that is? I go to your house, I don't leave your house because I don't like your carpet. And some of y'all have some atrocious carpet in your house. Like, the Golden Girls was in the 80s. Let's move on, okay? Let's get past it. You see, when we get hung up on things that don't matter, we miss the mission. And if we follow Jesus, he's like, listen, after the resurrection, so we just celebrated that last week. By the way, we celebrate Easter every week. We just don't call it Easter every week. But after his resurrection, Jesus gathers all his disciples, and he gives what's called the Great Commission. If you've been around church, you know this. Matthew 28, verse 19, he says, therefore, go and make disciples of where?

All the nations. Notice the language. He says, go. He doesn't say gather and wait. Don't sit and receive. Don't sit and take. We say it around here all the time. The Great Commission says go and make, not sit and take. And the problem with, actually, American Christianity is a lot of us, we like to sit and take. We consume church. We even come to church, we even get our little portable communion. By the way, that's. really good, I'm not gonna lie, that's fantastic. But we like to sit, and we like to take, and we like to consume. And we get really comfortable in this mode. Here's the problem, this is not going and making anything. We're just sitting and taking. And Jesus says in the Great Commission, and we do it really honorably, we're like, we're just waiting for what God's calling us to. You know what's interesting about that statement? God's already called us to it, to go make disciples of all nations. Preaching, teaching, baptizing, however you gotta do it, however you gotta preach people, however you gotta love people, he's already told us what we're called to do,

but we're waiting for some magical sign in the sky. We want the magic eight ball to tell us what to do. See, the Great Commission says go and make, not sit and take, we can't sit and take. The early church actually lived this out. The Ecclesia, Acts chapter one, verse eight, it says you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. And then here's what happens next. The Holy Spirit descends on the people of God, and then Acts chapter eight, you go over a few more chapters, it says but the believers who were scattered. So there's the great scattering of the church. If you've been here for the last few years, in a message a few years ago, we talked about you scattered a matter. Like he scatters his church, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth, so all these crazy places, locally, regionally, and across the world. And when they get scattered, it says they preach the good news about Jesus wherever they went. They didn't hide, they didn't retreat, they were scattered like seeds on a mission. And here's what's crazy, persecution didn't stop them. It actually propelled them. It actually catapulted them.

Like I think of people globally now, and people in our online community, like we have people all over the globe that worship with us each and every week here at Pantano, and can I tell you some of them, if they get caught worshiping with us, it could mean their life. It could literally mean their life. And yet sometimes we get hung up on, we're getting so persecuted, as we sit in our cushioned chairs with our portable communion, and our really comfortable space. There's nothing wrong with this. But if we worship this more than we worship Jesus, we've missed out. And then you see Paul, he talks about this. Second Corinthians 11, he lists everything he's been through for the gospel. Go to verse 23. And Paul starts like this, are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman. By the way, that's the first time me and Paul, I resonate with him. I'm like, I think I sound like that. Somebody goes like, you do. Okay, great, that's fantastic. But then he says this, but I've served Jesus far more. I've worked harder. I've been put in prison more often.

I've been whipped times without number. I faced death again and again. Five times the Jewish leaders gave me 39 lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, not the way you think, with rocks. Okay, some of you are all like, really? Was it medicinal? That's not what he's talking about, all right? Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I've traveled as many long journeys. I faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I faced danger from my own people, the Jews as well as from the Gentiles. I faced danger in the cities, in the deserts. I live in the desert. There's a lot of danger, and on the seas. I faced danger from men who claimed to be believers but are not. You ever experienced that one? I've worked hard and long, and during many sleepless nights, I've been hungry. I've been thirsty. I've gone without food. I've shivered in the cold without enough clothing to keep me warm. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Why would he do this? Because he understood something. The mission is worth the cost.

The mission was worth the cost. Paul didn't have to do any of this. Like, he had status as a Roman citizen and as a Jew. He didn't have to do any of this. He walked away from all of it. Why? Because he understood that the mission was worth the cost. I remember the first time I was in India. On Saturday night, our host said, hey, we're gonna go to this church tomorrow morning, but we're gonna have to leave while it's still dark outside. And I was like, okay, you're gonna have to give me some information there. He's like, well, it's an underground church. And they have to go to church under the cover of darkness so that they don't get caught. And it was an underground Burmese church. And any Burmese refugees. And we get up, and we're literally going through the night to get to this church. And we start walking in this building. We get to this building, and it looks like a bombed out building. Like, there's no inhabitants of this building. And so I'm like, where's this church service? And they're like, four stories underground. And we start walking. these staircases and as we get lower into the ground I can start to hear something. I hear people singing and I don't know the words but I can hear it

and we get onto the floor where they're at and it's resounding down this hallway and I have this moment where we walk in these doors and there's there's a room that is nowhere close to this size. Like the seating capacity may be a hundred and fifty and there's five hundred people crammed in this room. Like there is nowhere to move and they're worshiping Jesus like I've never seen before. If they get caught it's probably imprisonment, maybe death. And we walk in and I'm like why why would you do this? Like I'm coming from a Western American context. I can do this freely. We can sit in this room freely. No matter what you think about what's going on in the world we've got it pretty good right here. I've never once worried about whether or not I was gonna be imprisoned or killed because of what I do today. And I remember asking through translation why would you do this? And the answer was very similar because the mission is worth it. People knowing salvation is worth it. If it costs us our life for someone to know eternity then we're in. See that's a mental shift. They understood what Paul wrote in Ephesians 6. Be strong in the Lord put on the full armor of God. Now maybe you grew up in church and you had a Sunday school lesson with a flannel graph. You remember those things? If you don't know what that is there was a piece of flannel that paper magically stuck to. I still don't understand how that wizardry worked. But truth be told like armor is not something you wear on a cruise ship. How many guys have tried to go snorkeling with a full suit of armor on? If you did you're not here. You can't answer. You're still at the bottom of the ocean. You don't go snorkeling with full suits of armor. You don't sit on the Lido deck in a full suit of armor. First of all you know how weird that would look? People walking by they're like wow that's ultimate sunscreen right there right? Nothing's getting in that. No you wear armor for battle. You're like so now we got to go buy armor? Not quite the way you think. Like it says things like the breastplate of righteousness. You know it's interesting the only offensive weapon that God says we have is his word. This is the sword of truth. Like this is why you need to know this. This is why you need to be in this. Like this is this is where truth is given to us. It's where

battle is fought. See armor is not for comfort. Armor is for battle. And here's what we really need to understand. If you follow Jesus you're already in the war. If you claim Jesus you're already in the war. You just might not be fighting. And there's a real enemy, there's a real darkness, there's real lives at stake. Your kids, your spouses, your co-workers, your neighbors, your friends, the annoyances of your life, they all mean Jesus. And you know who God's chosen to do that? His church. His ecclesia. The called-out ones. That's you, that's me. To be a part of the mission. Like we're not called to be consumers. We're called to be consumed by the one that changes the world. Which leads back to this truth. You weren't saved to sit, you were saved to serve. You weren't saved to sit, you were saved to serve. So what does this mean for you? Well it means this isn't about just attending church. You're not attending church when you come here, you're coming as the church when you come here. You know what's great? When you leave this place, you know what this magically turns back into? A building. There's nothing inherently holy about this space when you're not in it. You know what's holy about this space is the gathering of God's people. That the Spirit is present. When you come in this place, so some of you are going, so we just don't have to go to church anymore? No, no, don't miss this. The gathering of the saints is still very biblical. It's actually where we come back from battle during the week and we get nourished, we get fed, we get our battle wounds kind of healed up together, and then we send you back out into the battle. That's what the church is. And some of you, you've never engaged with a mission. Now some of you have been coming for a long time. By the way, thanks. And you'd even say, man, we love this place. Man, I do too. I've never loved a place more than I love this one. You're like, we love the people. Me too, most of us. That's not true. I love all of you. I just don't like everything all the time. You love what God is doing? Like, I do too, man. I've never been more excited. I feel like I'm a part of the book of Acts every week when I come to church. But you need to understand, like, what God is doing in this place, it's something short of miraculous. He's systematically changing our city. But can I be honest

with you? If you're honest, you've been sitting on the sidelines and not in the game. You've been not in the battle. And I'm not here to shame you. I've been there too. But here's what I am to do, to call you. Because there's more in this than you think. There's just a lot more in this than you think. God didn't save you to sit in a seat. He saved you to step into a role. There are people that you can reach that I can't. There are places that you can go that I will never go. Those are the lives you're connected to for a reason. There's places I can go that you can't go. There's people that I can reach that you can't reach. Now mostly it's because I look like a felon on most days, okay? I went to the prison. All you guys at Santa Rita unit, those guys said to me, hey, could you just get put in here so you could just be here full-time? I'm like, no. You get out of there so you can be out of there full-time. I'm not coming. I'll come visit. I don't know. I want back out, okay? But see, God's given us spheres of influence. So let me ask you this. What's this look like practically for you? Like, who's the people you reach? Who's the people God's placed in your life, the influence he's given you? See, if you don't step into your role, can I just say there's something missing? We need you in the battle. Because you weren't saved to sit, you were saved to serve. Can you imagine what would happen if we all live this out? Not 10% of us, all of us. There was this old adage in the church when I was growing up is that 20% of the people did 100% of the work in the church. If we could get 100% of the people to carry the load together, how much more efficient would the church be? Like, what if every single person said that's here right now, that's logged in with us, one of our campuses, what if you were to say, you know what? I'm not here to consume. I'm here to contribute. I'll tell you what happens. We become exactly what Jesus said we would be. A force that pushes back darkness. We push back darkness. A people that stormed the gates of hell. A battleship on a mission. We've seen what happens when the church steps into mission before you. You saw it last week. You've seen it with Feed My Starving Children. In a couple weeks, in two to be exact, we have our Serve Our City. How many of you been a part of Serve Our City

in the past? Just show of hands. Awesome. If you don't know what that is, let me tell you. We shut down our building for our Thursday and Sunday services. We still have worship service, we just do it in our community. We have service projects. I remember when I first came here, I was like, so let me get this straight. We shut down church for a week? And Glenn was like, well, we don't shut down the church, we just go be the church. I was like, oh, well that sounds way more wise than what I thought. And then I saw it. I was like, why didn't more churches not do this? Why do more churches not have this mentality? And I would tell you, if you've never been a part of Serve Our City, it's one of the greatest events we do. In fact, I would say it's not an event, it's a springboard for how we should live our lives. We serve all over our city. We help schools, we help neighborhoods, we help organizations. If you've not signed up, go out to the guest services in the courtyard. You can get a Serve Our City shirt. They're selling those today. Maybe you've got one from the past, you're like, I'm not buying a new one. Fine, wear that somewhere. But if you want one of those shirts, go out there and figure out what Serve Our City is about. You can sign up online, you can be a part of it in a couple weeks. I would say, what if every single one of us said, you know what, we're not gonna sit anymore. We're gonna serve. We push back darkness. So here's the question, are we gonna be a cruise ship or are we gonna be a battleship? Well, what if this week you took this challenge to commit to discovering your role on the ship? Maybe it's signing up for Serve Our City. I talked to somebody today and they were so excited because they're gonna go serve in the nursery. I'm like, well that's the best place to go those people can't talk back to you at least, that's kind of fun. Most the time. Like, just an excitement to serve, to give people a place. See, there are people on the other side of your yes. People that need Jesus. So let me say it one more time, you weren't saved to sit, you were saved to serve. Jesus didn't die to make you comfortable or me comfortable, he died to call you into something greater.

So in the words of the captain on the ship, all aboard. All aboard. We're not gonna relax, we're not gonna consume, we're gonna fight, we're gonna serve, we're gonna rescue. Because we don't play church, we run a rescue mission. Jude 23 is my favorite scripture in all the Bible. It's my life verse, rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Snatching is not comfort, snatching is mission. Snatching is not, if we get to it, snatching has urgency. And when our lives smell like smoke because we've gotten so close to hell to reach people out, that's when we're on mission. And so my prayer is that, man, we smell like smoke all the time. One of our elders here, Wendell, you've probably seen Wendell, he's baptized most of Tucson. He started this morning, actually. And he knows that's my life verse. And every Sunday, we have this weird, almost drug deal looking thing that goes down. He walks up and does this with his hand. And inside of it, there's a little cinnamon mint. And you know what he says to me every week? He goes, keep smelling like smoke. I'm like, does cinnamon smell like smoke? And I'm like, oh, it's fiery, I get it. I understand now. And it's just my reminder every week that I need to help one more person find Jesus.

That this is mission, not minutia. This is battle, not comfort. And so I'm gonna ask you to stand with me, if you would. Everybody just get on your feet. And you're like, why has the band not come out yet? They're not going to. You're like, what happened to them? They're still back there, okay? We didn't do anything weird to them. They're still there. They'll be out for another time to worship. But I want to send us out differently. I want to commission us to go. That we would actually be commissioned to go out this week. That when you leave this place as the church, that you would be called out this week to go. Like just one person in your life far from God. How many of you know at least one person in your life far from God? Just show of hands. You live in Tucson. If not, go make a whole lot of new friends because they're everywhere. What if this week you just went to them and you started to love them like Jesus? On a rescue mission to help them find hope and redemption. So let me pray for you and then we're going to send you out. Father, today, God, in the name of Jesus, the powerful one, the risen one, the one that we celebrated resurrection of,

that resurrects our lives. God, I pray that maybe we've sat comfortable for a long time and we've never exercised our faith. Or maybe it's been a long time since we have. Maybe we retired from our faith at some point. We're just kind of sitting. God, reignite us. Reignite us to serve and to take back our city, to take back our neighborhoods, to take back our homes, to take back our families, our workplaces for the kingdom of God. God, that people that need hope and redemption and transformation, God, people that are literally on the edge of hell right now, God, that we would snatch them out of those places. God, you would armor us up. God, that we would take your offensive weapon of the sword. We would know it and we would use it. Not as a weapon to take good people out, but to combat the enemy so we can rescue people. God, that we wouldn't see people as the enemy, but we would see the enemy as the enemy. And God, for anybody that's here that doesn't know you, God, I pray that today they would be compelled to step into the greatest mission ever known. It doesn't just change this world, it changes all of eternity. So God, we love you. We thank you for being our God. And God, it calls us.

It calls us out of these places into the spaces of the world that we would scatter so people would know they matter. God, we love you. It's in the powerful name of Jesus we pray. God, as people said, amen. Love you church. Have a great week. We'll see you back here next week. Thank you, God. All Glory God's the only way God's the only way God's the only way high God's the only way God's the only way high God's the only way high God's the only way