God Wants You To Pour Yourself OUT | Fight The Good Fight | Pastor Josh Howerton

Every week, release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon, it's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free, an episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now enjoy this Bible teaching. - Hey, Lake, gonna be a good day. Hey, have you got your bibles? Head over to Second Timothy chapter four. It's gonna be a real good day because, and by the way, all these people are sitting around you. So when I say this, I want you to show them how honored we are and proud of what they're doing is. Check this out. Today, at all of our campuses, we will be baptizing more than 700 people who have bent their knee. Come on, man, to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Amen, amen, amen. It's gonna be a good day, man. You're gonna be a good day, and I just want you to know this.

Those people, they know who they are. They walked in ready, but there's others of you who you don't know you're getting baptized today, but I do know you're getting baptized today. And you did not come ready to get baptized. You didn't come ready, but we came ready for you. I'm gonna talk about that later. Because while I'm preaching, we have seen this en masse every service. While I'm preaching today, there's gonna come a conviction on your heart that it's your day to bend your knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ and go public, for Team Jesus, and I'm gonna watch it happen, it's gonna be awesome, okay? So it's gonna be a real good day, it'll be a real good day. And then it's gonna be great, 'cause we're all gonna go home, and at 3.30, we're gonna watch the Cowboys beat the feathers off. The Ravens, it's gonna be awesome, it's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. In my Bible, when Noah sinned out the raven, it never came back. It got, obviously, to want anything to do with ravens. And so it's biblical. This is a Bible thing, okay? Now, let's do this. Y'all gotta listen a little quicker. I gotta make the sermon a little tighter, 'cause we got a whole bunch of people to baptize.

Let me set up, this is the last week in a series that we have to be calling fight the good fight. Fight the good fight, and it is based on a verse that the Apostle Paul tells his young spiritual son of his name, Timothy, that I'm about to preach today. Now, heart emotional gear shift, I want to set up the gravity of the passage that we're sitting under in the Word of God today. Way back in 1993. I've been doing, this is my 90s era. I've been getting a lot of 90s stuff in lately. Well, actually, let me back up. A few years ago, I read a book, it was this book. I was discipling some guys. This is a book about a discipleship. It was called The Walk, take it down. It's only like 60 or 80 pages. You can read it once sitting. And it is written by a guy that was the peak, coolest pinnacle of Christian music in about 1993. Now, only like 1% of you are gonna know who this is, but I'm gonna put his face on screen in a second. Don't do it yet. If you're like under the age of 30, this is what an absolute rock star looked like in 1993. Go ahead and put this guy's picture on the screen. Now, check this out. Does anybody know who that guy is? Anybody who that is? Okay, if you know it, go ahead and take it down.

If you know who that is, give me his name. What's his name? Who is that? Okay, you do. Okay, some of you guys do know. At the 4 p.m. last night, somebody said, Jeff Bezos, I'm gonna go like, nope. Swing it a minute, brother. It's Michael Card. Michael Card, his story begins when he was a freshman at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. Where actually where I grew up. And I think it was a newer Christian. And he walked into a Christian professor's office named Dr. Bill Lane. I'm gonna go ahead and toss that picture of Bill Lane. That's a very 93 picture. Bill Lane's hugging Jesus now. I'm gonna talk about that in a second. Michael Card walks in as a freshman. And by the way, think about this. I'll get there in a second. And he asked a question about the Bible. And Dr. Bill Lane looks at him and he says this, "Michael, take a walk with me." And he took a long walk with Michael Card around the perimeter of Western Kentucky University and watch this. A senior saint whose age started with a six. Was walking around with a young guy

whose age started with a two. And he was just talking about life and what it looked like to be on Team Jesus and follow Jesus and all the things. I'm by the word of God. And for the next six years of Michael Card's life, once a week, Dr. Bill Lane found Michael Card and said, "Walk with me." And they took a walk and they talked about Jesus. Now for those six years, Michael Card says that those walks influenced his life more than anything else. Michael Card went on, if you don't know this, Michael Card went on to sell over four million albums, had 19 number one singles, published 20 albums and 20 books and counting. He's still alive. And he points back to those walks of Bill Lane. 17 years later, as I understand it, Michael Carr's gone on and he's become a big rock star, sold four million albums. Bill Lane has moved over all the way to the left coast. He's over there teaching at Seattle Pacific University. And if I understand it right, they haven't talked very much in the last 17 years. And out of the blue, Michael Carr gets a call from Dr. Bill Lane and he recognizes the voice and he's very surprised. And Bill explains to Michael that he's calling to tell him that he has just received

a terminal cancer diagnosis. And Michael thought that Dr. Bill was calling to say goodbye. And so he prepared his little, I'm sorry, speech for Dr. Bill and he said, Bill interrupted me, he said, oh, Michael, you understand. See, Michael had gone on and done his thing and moved to Nashville. And Bill said, oh, you don't understand, Michael. I'm calling to let you know that me and my wife are moving back to Nashville to be close to you for the final hours of my life. And then he said, because we need to finish our walks together. And then he said this sentence, because the most important part of my discipleship of you now begins, I will now show you how a Christian man dies. Now back up to Acts chapter 16, the Apostle Paul, senior saying who's age probably started with a six. He sees this little kid who's age started with two. And you remember what he said next 16? He said, Timothy, walk with me. If in the next 15 years, the Apostle Paul walked around, he walked 3,000 miles on foot with Will Timothy. And he talked to him about life. They talked about being on Team Jesus, what it looked like to be a man of God, talked to him about the Word of God. He deposited the gospel in that young man's life. Nothing shaped Timothy's life more than those 3,000 miles

he walked with the Apostle Paul. And then they went their own ways. Timothy went to Pastor Church at Ephesus. The Apostle Paul went on to get into jail and then out of jail, and then into jail, and then out of jail. And then he had his head cut off, he had a lot going on. And then they went their own ways. And then you get to second Timothy chapter four of that. I'm about to preach today, and if you pay very close attention, here's what the Apostle Paul does. You'll notice the Apostle Paul tells Timothy, "Hey Timothy, I've received a terminal diagnosis. "You're gonna see it here in a second." God told me, Timothy, that quote, "The time for my departure has come." Paul tells Timothy, "Hey buddy, I need you to come back "to me one more time. "We need to hang out one more time." He says, "Do your best to come to me soon. "Bring my cloak and above all the parchment." He tells Timothy, "Come hang out with me one more time." And the Apostle Paul, in what we're about to read, what he's telling Timothy is he's saying, "Timothy, "I will now show you how a Christian man dies." And hey, Lake Point family, let me just say this to you. It is the responsibility not much talked about of every Christian man and Christian woman to show their children, their grandchildren, and everybody else in the kingdom of God.

This is what it looks like for a Christian man or a Christian woman to die well in Jesus name. Newsflash, you are already on that assignment because you are careening toward the day when you will meet your maker. So today, I will shortly preach this passage, the final charge of the Apostle Paul. Second Timothy four, verse one, Paul says this, "Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God "and Christ Jesus watch who is to judge the living "and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom." Essentially, what he's saying to Timothy is, "Hey, buddy, remember who your boss is." Lake Point family, I just wanna remind you of this. There is only one person who will judge you, God and Jesus Christ before whom you will stand. And listen, the younger you are, the more you need to hear what I'm gonna say in the next 40 seconds, because the younger you are, the less you're likely to get this. There are only two ways to live. Listen, man, there's not 200 ways to live. People think, "Oh, you can choose "a bunch of different lifestyles." No, no, no, there's not 200 ways to live. There's two ways to live according to the Bible. You will either live your life in the fear of God or in the fear of man. You will either live your life, reverse engineering all of your decisions

from what God thinks about you and reverse engineering all your decisions from trying to please God. Or you will waste your life, reverse engineering all your decisions from what people think about you and trying to please people. There are only two choices, fear of God, fear of man. The apostle Paul's telling young Timothy, because the younger you are, the more likely you are to waste parts of your life, caring about the opinions of people rather than the judgment of God. And so the apostle Paul tells Timothy, "Hey, bud, remember who your boss is. "I charge you in the presence of God and Jesus Christ "because he's the one that's gonna judge you." Now listen, I just wanna do this. And again, this is kind of like for our 35 and under crowd, like, so just, just track with me. The younger you are, the more likely you have not had it burned out of you, that you can't please people. And so there's only one person that matters who you try to please. The younger you are, you're gonna struggle with that. So I just wanna warn you, if you live your life in the fear of man, trying to please people, so your age probably starts with a four or five

that this is what you were looking like. But your whole life, it's like you're walking around with a little thought bubble above your head that has a question over it. And the little thought bubble of your head, ask this question, do you like me? And everywhere you go, you don't know what you're doing this. Do you like me? Do you like me? Do you like me? Do you like me? Do you like me? Do you like what about how I look? Do you like how I look? What about my hair? Do you like my hair? Do you like my hair longer, shorter, tighter? Do you know what I mean? I can't change the color. Do you like my hair? What do you think you did? Do you like my hair? What about my jeans? Do you like my jeans? Oh, we're not doing that type of jeans anymore. We changed the type of jeans we're doing. We're not doing the skinny jeans. We're doing the big box jeans. Oh, we're doing that. We're going back to the 1988, 1988 mom jeans.

What are we doing? Are we gonna start asking washing our jeans? That'd be amazing. Do you like my jeans? Whatever we gotta do. I'll do it. Do you like the, oh, you don't, I'll get different jeans. What about, what do you like, how I look? What about my Instagram posts? You didn't like my Instagram posts. Do you like me? I saw, I worked really hard on the caption. Did you see that caption? You didn't like that caption? I'll do a different caption next time. But I'm waiting and you didn't like my Instagram posts. And I know you saw it because you didn't like it. I texted you. But you didn't text me back. Do you like me? Yeah, I texted you. You didn't text me. I saw it. You read it because it has a read receipt. You're an insane person who does read receipts. But you have a read receipt. I gave you, I saw it. You saw, I texted you and I know you saw it because I saw the bubbles. There were the bubbles and the bubbles went away.

But I never got a text. Where did the bubbles go? Oh no, do you like? You don't like it. What, some of you today, here's what you're doing. Do you like, oh, I really think I need to be baptized today. I think Jesus Christ is asking me to be baptized. But what you're doing is you're sitting in your seat and you're going, would you like that? And would you like that? I don't know if you would like that. I don't know what about my Christian convictions. I don't know if I'm gonna have Christian convict. You don't like that I have Christian conviction. I'll change my conviction. What convictions will make you like me? I'll do whatever it takes. Oh, you don't like that I'm a Christian all the time? Well, I can just be kind of a Christian some of the time. What do I gotta do to get you like me? And watch this. If you try to please people, you will displease God because friendship with the world is enmity towards God. And you must understand this. Listen, you must understand this. Listen, you must understand this. Listen, you can't please people. You can't please everybody. You can't do it, but watch this. You can please God.

And he's the only one that matters. This is what the Apostle Paul's saying. Timothy, remember who your boss is. Watch what he says. He goes, here's how you're gonna please God. Watch what he says. Preach the, and I want you to say it. Preach the, preach the word. Let me talk about this for a second. Preach the word. Preach all the word. Don't preach part of the word. Don't preach your opinions. Not TED Talks by the way when we come in here. What we're not doing is a little Christian karaoke and then a TED Talk and then you leave early to get your car. That's how we're doing. We're talking about like, hey man, we're getting into the word of God. Not one verse, three jokes, four stories in a poem. We're talking about the word of God. I just wanna talk about this real quick. I see the little comments, I get the little things. A lot of question, one question people ask all the time is, hey man, why can't your sermons be shorter? Why can't your sermons be shorter? If you get it down to 28 minutes, real tight, we can get over to Cracker Barrel on time. Well, let me just say this, man. Let me just say this, because I talked for a long time

about the things that I love, man. As I, man, if you get me talking about stuff that I love, I'm gonna talk about it for a minute. You get me talking about my, I love my kids and where anything in the world. You get me talking about my kids, I'm all in. Eliana just got her braces off. She's crushing it, cheerleading, go Providence Lions. It's amazing, I'm having a blast, man. Okay, I see you over there. I'm having a blast. Eliana's 11, dude, she's learning chess with me. She's working on her jump shot. I'm playing games a pig with her in the parking lot. She won for the first time ever this week. I talk about it all day long. I got one, he stopped peeing in New York. It's amazing. It's great, man. You get me, can you talk about my kids? I can do it all day. You wanna talk about football? I like talking about football, I can do it all day long. God cursed me by being a Cincinnati Bengals fan. I can still talk about it all day long. My Bengals are two and oh for the first time since 2018, we actually got a defense. The Dexter Lawrence trade was totally worth it. I'm all in, man. I can talk about it all day long.

By the way, I'm all in to college football this season because a son of a former Lake Point elder is the starting quarterback for the Indiana University Hoosiers ranked four right now. Go Josh Hoover, shout out Josh Hoover. Listen man, I'll talk about it all day long. You wanna talk about bass fishing? I can talk about bass fishing. All day long, man, I don't talk about it. What they hitting on? What are they gonna spawn? What are they doing during the drought? All that thing, by the way, my pond deoxygenated. I lost all my bass, pray for me. I'm in grieving, I'm all the things, all the things. But I can talk for a long time about the things I love. Listen, when we get in here, we're talking about this and I love this thing. I love this thing. So listen man, I'm just, Here's my operating assumption. I'm assuming if you got all, you woke up early, and you got all dressed, and you got your kids in minivan, and you screamed, "Everybody make it happen." You got all the way over here. You actually came to get into the Word of God. That's what I'm assuming. And the Apostle Paul is saying, "Hey, Timothy, "make sure you preach this Word, and here's why it matters." If you're new to Team Jesus, here's why this thing matters.

Listen, because God has a plan to bless your life, and Satan has a plan to curse your life. God's plan to bless your life is in his Word, and Satan's plan to curse your life is in the world. And ultimately, you get to choose which plan you are on. The plan of the Word, or the plan of the world. And watch, a little thing Christians say that's not quite right is to say, "Oh, God blesses people. "He blessed that man, he blessed that woman." That's not quite right. In general, God doesn't bless people. He blesses a place. That place is under the authority of the Word of God. And so when you place your life and your family's life under the authority of the Word of God, you put yourself in the place of blessing. And when you step out of the authority of the Word of God, you take yourself out of the place of blessing. Listen, get, I'm talking especially you guys online, but I'm talking to everybody. Preach the Word. One of the questions you guys ask online all the time is how do I know if I'm in a good church or if we should leave? Are they preaching the Word of God? Is your pastor explaining the Bible or is he explaining away the Bible and pretending that he's explaining the Bible? And if you're in a church that won't preach the Word, man, get your family, get your kids and run

because you need your family under the preaching of the Word of God because it's not gonna just change your life. It'll change your life, your legacy and your lineage to be under the Word of God. He says, "Preach the Word." You got to preach the Word, watch where he says. Watch where he says, "In season and out of season." What's that mean? Check this out. It doesn't matter, get your little gardening hat on. It doesn't matter if you got perfect soil, perfect watering schedule, you plant a little plant, you treat as bougie as a Kardashian sister. It doesn't matter what you do. If you're in the dead of winter in Canada, you're not growing a watermelon. It don't matter. Why? Because it's out of season. What the Apostle Paul's saying, and watch, this is a warning to 2026, America, Texas, everywhere. This is a warning. He's saying that there will be times, places and cultures where the Word of God is out of season. You put faithful Christians, put tremendous energy into planting seeds, planting seeds, planting seeds. They will see almost no fruit. Why? Because it's out of season. And then there's other times, places, culture, societies,

where, man, you're baptizing 700 people in a weekend. It's level two inputs, level 10 outcomes. Why? Because it's in season. And here's what you got to understand. If you're ever in a place where the Word is in season, listen, man, we can't take credit for that. Glory to God, we can't take credit for that. Paul watered, Paul planted, Paul has watered, God gave the growth. If you're ever in a place where the Word's in season, it's because faithful saints before you planted seeds, fought battles, and did hard work to get the Word in season. And it's our job when that happens to, quote, contend for the faith once and for all, deliver to the saints so that our children and grandchildren can grow up in a society where the Word is still in season. This is what Paul is saying right here. Watch out, I'm going to give you a warning. This is a warning, man. So I'm a church history nerd. I like my family, this family history, and we're this team, she's the one family. Church history nerd. 500 years ago, Martin Luther Protestant Reformation, I think it's 1599, Nail and the 95 Theses, the Castle Door of Wittenberg. Huge spiritual awakening. Tens of thousands of people in Germany getting caught up into the gospel.

Amazing move of God, the Word was in season. If you go to Germany today, those churches are museums. And that society is 1.7% Bible-believing Christian. The Word was in season, and now it's out of season. I'm reading a biography of an old dead preacher named Charles Spurgeon right now. Priest of the London Metropolitan Tabernacle in the late 1800s in London. Tens of thousands of people in London just getting caught up in the kingdom of God. If you go to Great Britain today, in the last year, 17 pastors have been arrested for quote-unquote hate speech. That's just a fancy way to say they said things the Bible says in the last year. In Europe where all that was happening, for quote unquote hate speech and like 90% of them, that's just saying conservative Bible believing things. You guys remember, when I did that sermon series like two years ago, letters of the American church through Revelation two and three, the seven churches, like four percent of you remember that? And you remember I was the one where I went on site to all those seven churches Jesus speaks to in Revelation chapter two and three. That was the center of global Christianity, 2000 years, the center. If you go there today, guess where those churches are? Turkey, modern day Turkey. Almost no Christians, when you're at all those places that were the global center of global Christianity,

here's what you're gonna see in here. Minarets, mosques and Muslim prayer calls. The word was in season and now it's out of season. And so what the Apostle Paul's urging is hey ma'am, make sure you contend for the faith once and for all, deliver to the saints 'cause it's a big deal for your children and grandchildren to be able to grow up somewhere where the words in season for them, their family and their children's children. Does that make sense? This is what the Apostle Paul's saying. Now watch what he says, he's saying you gotta watch out. Watch out, here's what he says in verse three. There's a lot of warnings here, watch out verse three. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. In other words, he's going hey Timothy, there's gonna be places where if a man of God opens that book with fire in his eyes, loving his heart, sword coming out of his mouth and he clearly explains what that book says, they'll kill those guys. He's saying there will come a time when people will not endure sound teaching, but having watched this, itching ears, what's that mean? They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off intimacy. What's this mean? They won't endure sound teaching, they got itching ears. Here's the best analogy I got.

So me and Jana got a dog, but actually Jana has a dog and he's my friend of me. His name's Bingley, we have a seven pound Yorkie, he's barely not a cat, that's my thing. Just barely not a cat. Seven pound Yorkie, I do not recommend Yorkies at all for many reasons, I'm anti-cat and anti- Yorkie just added to the list. But we're a friend of me, we're a friend of me. We'll talk later, don't mumble right now. But here's the thing with Bingley, his name's Bingley, he's named after a Pride and Prejudice character that tells you everything you need to know. So Bingley, Bingley, here's the thing with Bingley, is every now and then he'll get like a little mite or something in his ear and his ear'll just start itching and he'll just like go crazy, dry everywhere he goes, just dry, you can't stop itching his ear. And if it keeps going untreated, the itch, watch this. A feeling of discomfort becomes so significant that he'll rub up against literally anything anywhere that will give him relief from the uncomfortable feeling he's feeling and itching ear. So like, we'll wake up and it doesn't, literally anything. He'll be like all up on a room bud, just dry, dry, dry. Anything, anything, okay. Now here's my point, the apostle Paul saying there will be, just what happened in your life, you gotta watch out for this. There will be people, family, societies

where sinful desires and instead of repenting of sins they tolerate sins and those desires continue to grow in people, families and societies. And there's a feeling of discomfort that comes, the conviction of the spirit of God, this feeling of discomfort. So the feeling of discomfort will get so big they gotta itch in their ear, they'll rub up against any quote unquote, Bible teacher, quote unquote, Bible teacher who will tell them that what they want to do is not wrong, that God is okay with what they want, that they don't need to feel convicted for it. And what they're doing is they're accumulating for themselves teachers to suit their own passions instead of finding Bible teachers that are aligned to God's desires. This is what he's saying, these men who do this, men and women, he's saying they are not prophesying, they are prophesying, they are lying to you. He's saying you got to watch out for this, this will happen, here's what it sounds like, okay? He's like my whole life, I have a weird view into this. Here's what I'll sound like, people say stuff like this, I don't like that pastor because he's saying I'm wrong, but I do like that pastor because he's saying I'm right. You see, you don't care what's true, you just care about what will ease the feeling of discomfort, okay? So let me just cook these in the bottom shelf, man. And again, I'm not angry at you.

I want you and your children and your children's children to grow up in the place of blessing. This is what I want for you. I'm not angry at you, I'm just trying to make it clear. If you're newer to Team Jesus, you need to get this deep in your soul real quick. Very complicated, okay? If you read the Bible and you disagree, write this part down, you're wrong. Write that part down. This is a really important part. If you read a Bible and you disagree, you're wrong. There's an old dad Southern Baptist preacher's guy's name was J. Vernon McGee. I grew up listening to him about dad in the car sometimes. Anybody remember J. Vernon McGee? J. Vernon McGee. He had a real funny little professorial Southern Baptist voice. I'm going to give you my favorite J. Vernon McGee quote. He said this. He said, "Well, this is God's universe. "And he does things his way. "You may have a better way, but you don't have a universe." (audience laughs) He said, "Really good. "Really good." So say, "Man, what we want to do "is we just want to go mad. "What does this say?" And I know, listen dude, I know, especially online.

I know what you're saying is you're going, "Yeah, yeah." But I found a Bible teacher that agrees with me. That's what that whole verse is about. Listen, it doesn't matter what insane, degraded, evil thing you want to do. I'm going to promise you something right now. You will be able to find some quote unquote, Bible teacher online with more degrees than Fahrenheit, educated pastor level of intelligence that will tell you what you want to hear. You will be able to find that. And they're not prophesying to you. They're prophesying to you. You will notice, watch close. You will notice they don't explain the word, they become masters at explaining away the word. So this is, listen, I'm just, listen man, I'm parking here because this is like the most important thing for me to disciple you. This is why Lake Point family, you got to read this book for yourself. You got to read this book for yourself, it's perfect. Read this book for yourself. Don't believe everything that I say. Don't believe everything that I say. Why do you think I'm begging you? Why am I begging you you think? To bring a physical copy of this to have on your lap while I'm preaching.

So that when I say something, you can look down at the words God wrote and go, is what that man said, aligning up with what God said. Why do you think I'm begging you man? To get these little, little Bible, I'll do any stupid thing to get more of the word in front of you. To get these little journals right before we do these series. So you get the word of God, you can be taking notes. Why am I doing it? Why do you think I've, you probably noticed this. Why do you think I basically switch to every sermon series? Here's all, here's all my sermon series are now. You probably noticed this if you haven't, I'm gonna give away my little trick. Every sermon series now, all it is, is me going. Here's this book of the Bible or this section of the Bible. We're gonna go verse by verse by verse by verse. Do you know why man? Because I don't want your faith in a broken messenger. I want it in his perfect message. That's, get into this, this is it. He's saying, Paul's saying Timothy, watch out. This was gonna happen. And then watch what he says. This is for you like, well, let me finish right here. It's the way Sam. He said, but as for you, always be sober minded. Endure suffering, fascinating how often he says that.

Endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill, you say it, fulfill your ministry. Like one family, fulfill your ministry. If the devil can't destroy you, what he will do is he will distract you to get you to focus on somebody else's calling so that you try to fulfill their ministry instead of fulfilling your ministry. This is one of his greatest tricks to get you away from what he's calling you to do. I'm gonna, let me just riff on this for a second because this is, you wouldn't think this. That was to give you a little thing at how it works my life. This is one of the greatest, this has been one of the greatest throws in my life. So like, honestly, I'll just be really honest. I don't think I'm a very good preacher. I'm always like, I don't know why people show up to hear this thing. Of everybody in the entire world, I think lower of me than everybody except like 3% of the internet. But it's like, I just, I finish almost every sermon walk back there and I'm a little embarrassed. I'm like, I totally blew it. So here's what I'll do is all these, all these like big name little famous preachers, everybody reads their books and they go to their conferences. Like the weird thing about my life is all those guys are my buddies. Like I know those guys.

So it's like, like friends, this week, we had a little podcast with Phillip Andy Mitchell. And it's like, yeah, I just want to point this out. In every service, people cheered for that louder than anything else I said. I just want to point that out. Okay, I'm just gonna crucify all that. Okay, now, now listen to, when I'm around, he's a buddy man, it's like, we're texting. It's like, he's just, if you don't know who he is, he's just cool. He's just the coolest person you've ever met. He's this awesome black brother from Queens. Got this radical salvation story. He spent time in Rikers Prison. God radically saves him. and he's got this, he's just cool, man. He just got his cool voice, it's low gravelly. - Time is running out, Jess. There's a clock on humanity, best of Jess. - He's just got a cool, man, he's just cool, man. And I'll look at him, I'm like, man, why can't I be, I wish I could be cool, like Phillip Annie Mitchell. Why can't I be like that? I wish I had a breach like that. One of my best pastor friend buddies, I'm going to see him this week, is pastor Joby Martin down in Florida. And it's like, right, man, I just, six years ago, I realized every preacher needs a preacher,

I decided pastor Joby's gonna be my preacher. So here's what I do, literally every Monday, every preacher needs a preacher. Every Monday I wake up, I make my coffee, oh, my Bible, when my bass aren't dead, I go down to the bass pond, and I just sit there and I open a word, and every preacher needs a preacher, and so I listen to a sermon. And it's Joby Martin every week, by the way, if you literally ever hear me say literally anything, that sounds like Joby, I totally got it from Joby. Complete, I sound like my preacher. And if you don't know, he is, he's awesome about him. Pastor Joby is like, if Billy Graham and Larry the cable guy had a baby, that's like, that's Joby Martin. And he's just, he's awesome. It's like, he just gripping, rivet, and he's freezing a word, I'm like, that's so cool, I wish I could do that. There's a pastor up in Oklahoma that's become a dear friend, his name's Pastor Craig Groeshell. And he's pastor's like the biggest, it's the largest church ever in American history. He's like 50 bajillion people go to his church. And Pastor Craig Groeshell is like, if God took a Fortune 500 company CEO and then saved him, filled him with the spirit

and made him an amazing Bible teacher, that's Craig Groeshell. So like what I'll do is I'll get, it's like hard to lead something like this. And so I want to call an older man who's been there, we'll have a little thing I'm trying to figure out, but Pastor Craig, what do I do? And he's always like doing his little brain things, like, well, John Messon, you color coded Gantt chart, with like seven, you know, seven org charts you could use. And if you'll do this little work flow with your executive team and you're supporting a team, just do this, it'll just solve your problem. And I was like, yeah, that's what I was thinking too. You know, like, yeah, I was just like, I'm like, I wish I could be like, why can't I be like that? Well, I was 35 years old when God called us the late point. Literally how I learned to preach was listening in my youth pastor office to a Dallas area Bible teacher named Matt Chandler. That's literally how I learned to preach. He's listening to Matt Chandler in my office and then walking out and doing a really bad Matt Chandler impression for like six years preaching to my students. That's literally how I learned to preach. When we moved here, I literally had nightmares where I would in the nightmare walk out to preach and none of you are here. No one came.

Everybody figured out I'm a terrible preacher and I look down and there's only one person here, it's Jana on the front row and she's playing with her phone. And then finally I'm like, babe, what are you doing? And she's like, oh, I was listening to a Matt Chandler sermon. Yeah, I was like, I'm like, are you kidding me? I'm like, so listen, what I do, here's what I figured out. Here's what I figured out. God doesn't need a second fill of Anthony Mitchell, Joby Martin, Craig Groeshell or Matt Chandler. He needs a first Josh Howardton. That's why I figured out, I figured that out. Hey, can I say something to you? Fulfill your ministry. Fulfill your ministry. Losers look at winners, winners look at the finish line. Fulfill your ministry, wherever you're at. That's your ministry. If you don't need a platform, you don't need a podcast, you don't need a pulpit, you don't need any of that. You just need to be a man or a woman of God wherever God has placed you. Are you in an office? You're the ambassador of Christ in that office. You pray for those people, share Christ with those people, start the Bible study there. That's your ministry. You stay at home, mom. You're pouring your life out for those little babies

so that a generation will not rise who knows and fears not the Lord. You're doing that? And you think, hey man, nobody sees. Nobody sees. Good. Because Jesus said, your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. You pray for those babies. You pour your life out. You pray for the advance of the gospel while you're washing those dishes. Doing whatever you're doing. God will use you right now right here on here. I'm gonna just talk to you. Because we got these 96 year old, I get your messages. I try to ask them to get all these. We got you 96 year old praying great grandmas and I get your messages and you're like, I can't get out anymore and I can't make it a church and you feel bad about it. Listen man, you're praying over there. You're winning wars. You are frail in body but mighty in spirit. Mighty in spirit. You're praying you're winning wars in the spiritual. And we're seeing this stuff happen because of you. Because fulfill your ministry. And watch what he says. Watch how he finishes it.

How we're gonna finish this whole series is the best part. He says this, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. The time about a partridge has come. I'm about to die Timothy. and henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but to all who have loved is appearing. Now, ask this question. How can the Apostle Paul, who spent the first 30 years of his life being an ISIS terrorist, for real, for real? Like, you know, some have been a lot in the New Testament, that's who the Apostle Paul started out as all. How can the guy who spent 30 years blaspheming Christ, killing Christians vocationally, smiling in Acts 8 as he watches stones cave in the skull of the first Christian martyr, Stephen? How can that guy get to the end of his life who did all that bad junk and say, fought a good fight, finished the race? Listen, you know how, because in the kingdom of God, some of you need to hear this so bad, 'cause in the kingdom of God doesn't matter how you start, matters how you finish, doesn't matter how you started, matters how you finish. (congregation applauding) There's a thing, I call them dumb thing smart, dumb thing smart Christians say.

And when people say it, they're not trying to say something dumb, in fact, their meaning is good, it's just not quite right, though, here's what they'll say. They'll say, God is a God of second chances. That's what they'll say. You know, that's actually not true. It's actually a really bad thing to say, because news flash, you don't need a second chance. If you just gave you a second chance, you're gonna screw that one up too. Out of the frying pan, into the fire, out of the food addiction, into the porn addiction, your New Year's resolution was lose 20 pounds, only 30 to go, you're gonna screw up every chance he gives you. You know that, you're gonna screw up every single chance. Listen, you don't need another chance. What you need is a substitute. Who comes in, stands in your place, takes the test that you could not pass, and then you get to turn in his finished work, and the judge gives you his reward for his work, and it's imputed to you. You don't need a second chance, you need a substitute. Yeah, you picking up what I'm putting down? (audience applauding) I got 11-year-old daughter Felicity. She's a little brilliant head on a stick. She's crushing it in a mask, got like a 98 math. I never did that. If I gave Felicity an AP-2 calculus test,

this is like one of the best illustrations I've ever heard. If I gave her an AP-2 calculus test, she's gonna fail real bad. And it's not going to be good news to her, if I say, oh, it's okay, I'll give you a second chance on the same test. She's gonna fail that test too. What she needs is someone else who can walk in the room and say, get up. Let me take your place. Let me take that test and newsflash, I'm gonna ace that test. And then I'll give you my finished work. You can turn in my work and the Lord, the righteous judge, will judge you based on what that guy did instead of what you did. And I'll do all the work and you can reap all the reward. Jesus Christ has done that for you. He is the propitiation for our sins. He is the payment that satisfies. He came and lived the life that you have not lived. He died the death that you deserve to die. And if you by faith receive him, that he is your substitute and the Lord will look at you and reward you for his finished work, you become his righteousness, he takes all your sin. That's a good trade. That's a good trade, Lord of God, that's a good trade. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna celebrate that right now.

So at all of our campuses, would you please stand with me? Would you stand? And right now, we're gonna have a big old party and I'm talking only one group of people and one group of people only. If you are registered to be baptized, I want you right now to go ahead and start moving at the Rockwall campus. You head to these two crosses on either side and all of our other campuses, you head to the back of the room. But everybody else, you stay with me. Don't look at them, look at me. Don't look at them, look at me. Don't look at them, look at me. Some of you right now while I was preaching and especially while I was talking about Jesus Christ as your substitute, there's like a thing that's like welling up inside of you. And you're realizing that you need to cross the line of faith. You're like, I've been blowing chances for 50 years. I'm done blowing chances. It's time for me to receive a substitute. And today's your day to bend your knee to the lordship of Jesus and cross the line of faith. In here in a second, I want, I'm gonna ask you to take a step of faith and move to one of these places for you to give your life to Christ and be baptized today. I just wanna get ahead of this. All the, there's like little haters that do this all the time.

I'm like, ah, you didn't even give them a class before baptizing them? Every baptism in the entire New Testament is a spontaneous baptism. prevent me from being baptized?" Philip's answer is nothing, nothing. So listen, ask you. Now, number two, some of you, you've already crossed the line of faith, but you've never been baptized after your salvation in obedience to the commands, not the suggestions, to the commands of your Lord Jesus Christ. And let me just say something. Today's your day. Today's your day. So here's what I want you to do. Here in a second, we start singing. If you need to give your life to Christ and be baptized, or you just need to be baptized, I want you to start moving at all of our other campuses. You head to the back of the room, at this campus, you run to one of these crosses, and you're like, "Yeah, but I didn't come ready. We came ready for you." And I don't have a towel. We got 30,000 towels. We have enough towels. Oh, I can't get baptized in these clothes. I can't get my clothes wet. We have clothes for you. You're not going to have my size. We have every size from like little baby to like queen size bed sheet. You name it. We got them all. Everything. Everything. We got them all, man. Oh, man. I can't. What about my underwear? We literally have underwear for you. I'm not joking. I'm for real, not joking. It's a weirdest thing we order every year. We have underwear for you. Okay. Oh, what about my hair? What about my hair? Did you listen to the first part of the sermon? And, good news. We have hair nets at every single campus. We are ready for you. Listen. You didn't come ready for him. He came ready for you. Come. It's come. Just come. Just come, man. Today's the day. Today's the day. So right now at all of our campuses, if you right now are realizing, "Today's my day, I need to be baptized." I want you right now. And the rest of the campuses, you move to the back. At the Rockwall campus, you move to these crosses. But right now, Lakewood family less sing when these people come out of the water. We're going to shout. We're going to celebrate. Less sing. Less celebrate. And you start moving. Let's go. Let's baptize.