The Cost of Doing Nothing

- Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Tim Powell and I have the privilege and the honor of being the campus pastor at our new life church, Greenbrier Campus. We are a non-denominational church located in the state of Arkansas with 19, about to be 20 campuses across the state. Our heart behind partnering with Pando through God Behind Bars is to allow your family an opportunity to connect to biblical community so that they can be growing in their walk with Christ at the same time that you were growing. So if you do have family in Arkansas, encourage them to check out newlifechurch.tv to find a campus that fits them. Thank you so much for being here. Now let's listen in to today's message. - Good life church, Greenbrier, if you would, do me a favor and welcome everyone in that is listening in through Pando and our God Behind Bars ministry. Come on everybody, can we welcome them in? (audience applauds) Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (audience applauds) And I may not have an opportunity to address you every weekend, but I want to say something really quick and that is your circumstances do not prevent you from fulfilling the calling that God has placed on your life.

And if there is breath in your lungs, there is a plan and a purpose for your life and God has it for you. And I just want you to know we love you, we're thankful for you and we're glad you're joining with us today. One more time, new life church, Greenbrier, let's give it up. (audience applauds) Thank you, Lord. Let's pray and we'll get started. Father, I thank you so much that your word does not return void. And Father, that when we lean into your word, it is the sort of the spirit. And God, that you have given us everything we need to be battle ready against the plans and the attacks of the enemy. So Father, today I just ask that each person that is listening in and every person that is present here today, Father, that our ears are open and our hearts are open to what it is that you would have for us, each person today. It is in Jesus name we pray. And everybody said, amen. So we've been in a series over several weeks titled "Building Stronger Households." And we know from Psalm 127 and one that unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.

Says unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. We wanna make sure that we're establishing a solid foundation in our homes and in our families and in our relationships. But for that to happen, we have to have Christ in the center, amen? We've talked about several different areas. We discussed the importance of our homes being a refuge. Our homes need to be a place of peace, a place of security, a place where we come together. We open God's word together. We pray, we're encouraging one another, not tearing each other down. We say this all the time, but we don't shoot the wounded around here, amen? We encourage one another and we're there for each other. Week two of this series, we discussed the importance of sharing our testimony. There's power in our testimony. And your faith has never been designed to keep to yourself. Our relationship with Christ may be personal, but God never designed it to be private, amen? So we talk through basic principles and practical steps of what it looks like to share our testimony with the people that we come in contact with in our homes, in our workplace, in our schools. Last week, Pastor Byron spoke on covenant relationships, specifically around marriage and what that looks like.

Today, I want to address something that when I first mentioned it, some of you are going to disagree, but by the end of service, I believe you'll agree 100%. And that is the cost of doing nothing. There is a cost for us doing nothing. And I know what some of you are thinking, "Well, if I don't do anything, it doesn't cost me anything." Well, I would disagree with that. There's very seldom a weekend that I speak from this platform that I don't address the importance of being connected to biblical community. God has called us and created us to be connected with other believers. But there's a cost to that. It costs you some time, doesn't it? Being connected to a life group serving on a weekend, it's going to cost you something. Well, it's also going to cost others something when you choose to do nothing. Think about your car. You cannot change old in your car for years. Well, everything is great until it's not, right? You can do nothing, but eventually it's going to cost you something. You can decide not to do any maintenance on your home. Let the grass grow up, never change the air filters, but eventually something's going to break. Doing nothing is going to cost you something. And you say, "Well, it hasn't cost me anything yet."

Well, maybe go try to sell your house. It's probably going to cost you some equity if you don't do something. Well, God never called us or did He create us to just set around and do nothing. You know, I love to work out. I know some of you say, "Well, you don't love it that much from the looks of you." You're probably right. But I do enjoy working out. The only problem is, is typically my time at the gym is the first thing that I set aside. So I get busy and I'll schedule something and I won't go to the gym. Well, I made the decision last week. I'm getting serious. I'm fixing to get my-- I'm going to get my body back that I had in the '20s. Probably not going to happen. So just so happens the first day, killed it, knocked it out of the park. It was great. Little sore that night. Day two was one rep max day. I stepped up to the deadlift bar as if I had been doing deadlifts every day for the last 20 years. That deadlift cost me two days in bed. I couldn't hardly walk. I couldn't move. So doing nothing for a season is going

to cost you something. It's going to cost you relationships. But I believe that God is calling us to do something, especially right now. You do nothing in your marriage. Eventually, it's going to begin to affect your marriage. You can do nothing in your finances. Nothing with your budget. Eventually, it's going to catch up to you. There's a quote that's actually credited to Albert Einstein. I believe it was mentioned long before that. It says, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result." So if we truly want to grow to become fully devoted followers of Christ, if we want to grow to do what God's called us to do and fulfill the purpose and the mission that He's given us, we can't do nothing. We have to do something. I'm a firm believer that we should be good stewards of everything that God's trusted us with. Would you agree with that? Well, God has gifted each one of us uniquely with different talents, just like our worship team. I don't know about you, but I'm really thankful that they decided to do something this morning. What would it have looked like if we'd have showed up to church and everybody on the worship team just said, "Man, it's just easier today not to do anything." Well, it would have cost us something, right?

When you get to Proverbs 24 or 33, 34, it gives us a great visual of what doing nothing can end up looking like. It says, "I went past the field of a slugger." Look at your neighbor and say, "Don't be a slugger. Past that you enjoyed that way too much. Past the vineyard of someone who has no sense. Thorns had come up everywhere. The ground was covered with weeds and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity, like an armed man." So look at the evidence here. You see the thorns, you see the weeds, you see the crumbling wall. No catastrophe destroyed the field. It was just simply neglected. Neglect destroyed it. The same thing can happen with each and every one of us. Nothing is what tore this field apart. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands. But here's where I wanna challenge you a little bit. The same thing happens spiritually when you don't do anything to grow closer to God. Spiritual decline doesn't happen overnight.

It happens in time. For most of us, the gap for us spiritually isn't between what we know and what we don't know. For most of us, the gap lies between what we know and what we do nothing about. So my question for you is this. What are you doing with the gap between what you know and what you've been doing nothing about? There's a cost to doing nothing. Write this down if you're taking notes. There's a cost to doing nothing in our home. In 1 Samuel, we read about Eli, who was a high priest and judge over Israel for 40 years. And Eli had two sons, Haphne and Phineas. Well, these were bad news, both of these boys. They were abusing their position and it ultimately ended up costing them everything as well as their father. In 1 Samuel 2, verse 12, it says, Eli's sons were scoundrels. They had no regard for the Lord. The problem lies, however, not just with what they were doing, but the fact that Eli knew what they were doing and chose to do nothing about it. Eli's asked, in verse 29, why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people, Israel? The reality lies too, that our kids can become an idol if we're not careful.

There is a design and an order that God has designed in our families. And it starts with him first, your spouse second, and your children to follow. But I believe one of the most dangerous statements that we can make as parents is, I just wanna give my son or I just wanna give my daughter everything that I didn't have. Can I just tell you that to grow spiritually and for your family to continue to mature spiritually, you have to make sure that you're applying all of God's word, not just the part that you wanna pick out. 'Cause God's word says very clearly that you're to honor your mother and father, doesn't it? So there shouldn't be any broke codes or sisterhoods against your kids. I know he doesn't want you to do it, but you can do it with me. While mom's out, we'll let you do this. It may be okay to go eat ice cream if you can't do it. We'll pass that. No, you need to be a united front with your spouse, with your children. You say, well, you don't know what my circumstances are. Well, that may be true. The circumstances may not be what you prayed they would be or a dream they would be, but the responsibility still lies with what you were called to steward and with what you are to do.

Mom and dad may not get along. Mom and dad may be divorced. Mom and dad may be living in separate homes, but when it comes to the responsibility that you've been given as a child, as a parent, your responsibility doesn't change with divorce. That responsibility still lies with where you are today. Verse 30 says, "Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares, I promise that members of your family would minister before me forever. But now the Lord declares, far be it from me. Those who honor me, I will honor. But those who despise me will be disdain." And the definition of disdain is to look down on someone or something as worthless, inferior, or beneath notice. Eli threw in the towel as a parent. Now we know that Eli was older and he was probably tired. Any parents ever been tired when you come home from work? I mean, you put in a long day, you come in, and the first thing that happens is the toddlers run up. Dad, I want to play. Mom, I want to play. You're like, go talk to your mother. I don't have it in me. Well, as a parent, sometimes we need to take that step beyond what's comfortable with our children. Eli threw in the towel and there was a cost of doing nothing for Eli. It cost his kids their future. And this is not just our kids.

This is in every area of our life. The enemy wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy everything that God's trying to do in you and through your family. Now, if you believe in there that there's a cod, you better believe that there's an enemy. And his greatest desire is to destroy and tear apart everything that God has designed and is putting together in you. There's a war and it's a spiritual war that we face daily. But it's those that push through the tough times, those that go beyond the comfort zone that see the fruit on the other side. I got to visit one of our prisons in South Arkansas last week. And while I was there, I noticed across the room, actually there's a couple weeks ago now, I noticed across the room that there was a man with his wife and his daughter. And I don't know why, but God just kept drawing my attention to them. I don't know his circumstances. I don't know why it was there. It's irrelevant. But I didn't notice that when the time was up for their visitation, the next thing that the dad does is he brings his family and he brings his wife in and his daughter and he puts his arm around him. He says, bow your heads. And he began to pray over his family

right there in that moment. And I just want to say there's something that we can all learn from that moment. And this man did not allow his circumstances to prevent him from being the spiritual leader that God has created him to be. Now, sometimes our circumstances makes our life a little bit difficult. It may not look the way that we hope that it would, but your circumstances also, it doesn't revoke your calling and your purpose in your life. But a lot of times we allow the circumstances that we're in to distract us and prevent us from doing what God's called us to do. I believe we could learn something from that man. We left and there was a moment where you go in and they lock the doors here, lock the gates here and they lock you here. I turned around and I looked at that family and I said, what is something at this point that is the greatest need for you and your family? And without hesitation, she said prayer. It's through God's help that we've been able to navigate and get through this season, it's tough. But we know that God is with us. Well, I'm gonna tell you, I don't know anything about that family, I don't even know their name. But I will tell you, just from what I saw at that moment, it was the husband that instilled that in them. He made sure that Christ was a priority in their life

regardless of what was going on around them, regardless of the circumstances at that time. He made it a priority and I think we can all do that. This week of prayer we've had at 6 a.m. We've walked through the armor of God. Each morning we've walked through a different piece of armor that God has given us. Now there's six pieces of the armor of God, but five of them are defensive pieces. There's only one offensive piece to the armor of God and that is the word of God. It's the sword of the Spirit. Because we know that the word of God does not return void, amen? Well, why do we need five people? will they come our way in Ephesians six, ten through seventeen says finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power put on the full everybody say full full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil schemes i don't want you to miss this part for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms therefore put on the fuller by say full again full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand stand firm then with a belt of truth buckled around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place

and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace in addition to all this take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one take the helmet of salvation and the sort of the spirit which is the word of God you know for many years my wife would pray this prayer over our family every morning and the way that she would describe it to me she says i just picture our family being in a circle and we take each piece of that armor and we place it on i believe that's some really good advice for all of us because each morning you face different challenges you face difficulties you face different things in this thing called life and when we get so busy that we begin to slide away from God's word and we we step away from spending time with him it's really easy for us to allow ourselves to get defeated and to get our head down doing nothing is not an option the proverbs eighteen nine says one who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys choosing not to give effort well it's choosing destruction your soul your marriage your relationships your church we oftentimes misunderstand what grace truly is

grace is not an invitation to be passive it's not number two there's a cost of doing nothing in our church as well when you get to numbers chapter thirty two moses is getting ready to prepare the people across the jordan into the promised land they fought some battles they've taken over some land but there's two groups the rubinites and the getites and they got comfortable they want to just settle i just just settle here you guys can go on in hoses gets picked i don't know about you but i pray that if there's ever a time in my life when i want to settle and stop short of the promised land that god's promised me that i have somebody like moses in my life that gets ticked off and kicks me in the tail that's the reason for community that's the reason we speak of biblical community being so important because you need people around you that don't just tell you what you want to hear but they tell you what you need to hear and sometimes you need people to say you need to stop settling it's time to step back up to the plate it's time to move forward i'm going to get real with you for a second it would have been a lot easier if when we found about this opportunity with panda and got behind bars it would have been a lot easier for us to just say you know what i hope another church in central arkansas decides to partner with them and do something

it would have been a lot easier it's been five months of work preparation training it would have been a lot easier so we could have done nothing when god presented this opportunity we could have would it cost us anything we could have done nothing but it would cost somebody something there's six over six hundred thousand men and women that have access to the service over six hundred thousand that's more people than we can fit into this room what if there's one person that's listening to this in another state halfway across the country that here is about the life story of throwing the towel in and giving up as a father or somebody hears about someone giving up and settling right at the point where they're getting ready to cross into the promise land well it may not have cost us anything but it would have cost them something or let's take it a step further what about Thanksgiving it would be a lot easier for us to just say you know what we're not going to think serving this year it'll just be a lot easier for us to do nothing what about christmas mall will just do nothing this year christmas mall i mean really is it really important It may not cost us anything, but I'll tell you what, thanks serving would cost.

It would cost 350 families a meal on Thanksgiving. Christmas mall would cost over 500 children, Christmas gifts at Christmas. That's just from our campus. So there is a cost to doing nothing. And is it always comfortable to do something? No, sometimes it takes you out of your comfort zone, but that's what I love the most, is God has set it up. So when we get out of our comfort zone and we get to a place where we're not the ones that's in control, God has to step up. And then when we partner with God with things like this that He's called us to, that's when we see people's lives changed. Listen, another sermon is probably not gonna change someone's life, but one moment in the presence of God could change your life forever. Well, what if God is calling us to be the hands and feet for Him? Not to mention the fact that if I had said we were not having Christmas mall, you guys would start World War III around here. Doing nothing also begins to shape us spiritually. And this is where it gets dangerous. But here's the good news. Being in the fight, it helps others, but it helps you more. The most hungry people around this church are the people that are serving, the people that are connected to a life group. They're the ones that are growing the most.

Yeah, it's a lot easier to just do nothing to just come to church, be fed, and leave. That doesn't cost you anything. Staying an extra service, volunteering for a half-time service on Wednesday nights, it costs you a little time. But let's just say, for example, that our half-time volunteers decided one day, they're just not gonna do anything this Wednesday. Been a long week, just tired, not gonna go. It would cost hundreds of kids. Not a few hundreds of kids, the opportunity to grow in biblical community themselves, to get into God's Word, and you, the opportunity to go connect with a life group. But here's a reality. It takes all of us doing everything that we possibly can to do what God's called us to and asked us to. As a matter of fact, this Wednesday night, we've got, we're a few volunteers short for half-time. We're a larger church this time this year than we were this time last year, we're growing. Well, this time last year, we had every room filled with volunteers, but not this year. If we don't get a couple more volunteers, one of the rooms for half-time is gonna have to close on Wednesday, so we need people that step up to the plate and are willing to do something. It may cost you something, but you're doing something that invests in the next generation. You're doing something that invests in far more than just yourself, amen?

There's a few things that God's stirring in my heart right now, and I'll tell you that I'm gonna follow God until I take my last breath on this earth. I'm gonna do everything in my power. I wasted way too much time when I was a young adult, chasing success, and I'm not doing it. I'm gonna follow him until I take my last breath and do everything that I possibly can. Something else, I'm gonna love my wife and my family with everything I have. I'm not putting my kids ahead of my wife. I'm putting God first, and I'm putting my wife second. I'm not putting this church ahead of my wife. My wife is number two. My kids are number three, and everything else follows, because there is an order that God has created us to live in. If we serve a God that comes from eternity, and he can see through eternity, through the future, then he can see what lies on the backside of getting our life and our families out of order. The other thing that God's stirring in my heart right now is I am going to preach the word of God boldly without apology, whether it's difficult topics or not. And sometimes, those topics, they may step on your toes a little bit, but God didn't call me to be your entertainer. He didn't. Now, we're gonna teach truth with grace. If you ever feel condemnation around this place, you can know that that is not from us or from God. But I do pray in areas that we have slipped,

that the conviction from the Holy Spirit allows us to adjust and get back on track with what he's called us to go. There's not a person in this room, including your pastor, not a person here and not a person listening in that hasn't made a mistake. Nobody, nobody, and we're a church. We're not gonna shoot people when they're wounded. We're not doing it. I'll hurt your feelings really quick. It's not our job to judge someone else's shortcomings. It's our job to deliver truth and grace. I'll tell you something else. I'm going to do everything in my power to pastor those that God places in my path until I take my last breath. As a church we're growing, but I heard another pastor say this and I've adopted this mentality. And he says, "I'm going to do for the one what I want to do for everyone." I mean, the reality is, is I can't meet with every person in this church, but with the opportunity that I have with the one, I'm going to do everything that I can for the one that I wish I could do for everyone. And then last one, and I don't make any apologies about this one either, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that we're a church that strives to reach those that the world says is unreachable. Whatever that looks like. There is no one that is outside of God's reach. And if you're a member of this church and you struggle with racism or you struggle with people that have made mistakes, you need to get right with the Lord. I don't care the color of their skin, I don't care the mistake of the past. I don't care if they come in here on a Sunday and they smell like Saturday night. We're going to love them and we're going to pastor them, we're going to teach the truth.

It doesn't mean that we continue to live our life outside of God's will. You can't dishonor God with your life and expect Him to bless it. But you can't expect that when you put Christ in the center of your life and you confess of your sins, you repent and you turn, God will be with you every step of the way. He will not forsake you, He will not leave you. We serve a God that doesn't wait on the other side of a valley. He walks through the valleys with us and He's there to celebrate as well. One of the things that I've witnessed a lot of times is people, when they're struggling, man, they're on their face before God. And then when life starts to get back to a little bit of normalcy, they begin to slip and they get comfortable. I see it so many times. I want you to stay hungry for God's words. Stay on your face before the Lord in the good times and the bad. And let's see what He's willing to do in this season and through our church. Amen? Number three, there's a cost when we do nothing for the people that God places in our path. When I got saved, it was because someone was willing to invest the time in teaching me the truth. Someone decided to do something and that didn't choose that day to do nothing. The other thing you need to understand is there's a joy that comes with serving others that you cannot buy anywhere else. You cannot purchase it. This week, we have some of our pastors in Peru. And I know these guys, they're busy. We have several of our campus pastors that flew back over to Peru to put on and host a pastor's conference for 200 pastors for up and down the Amazon River. So that they can grow in their knowledge of the word and then take that back into the communities that God's called them to pastor.

Well, it would have been a lot easier for those pastors to say, "I'm just too busy." Well, I don't know about you, but I'm sure that those 200 pastors, some of them traveled days up the river to get to this conference. They're really thankful that those pastors didn't decide to do nothing that day. There's a cost to doing nothing. But there's also the treasure of doing something for God. And there's a cost in our life when we do nothing when it comes to following the Lord. We lost a member of our church this week, someone I've known for many years. As a matter of fact, his daughter and family are here right now. And I had an opportunity this week to sit down with him and visit with him, and he made a statement that was so powerful. He said, "Tim, I'm believing that God's going to heal me." He said, "No, I don't know if he's going to heal me on this side of heaven or on that side of heaven, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's going to heal me, and when he calls me home, I will be whole and I will be new." There was a confidence at that moment in that man's life that he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. So many times when I visit someone in the hospital that's nearing the end of their life, that's not the case, not for him. You know why? Because when he was 14 years old, someone made the decision to invest the time in teaching him the truth in the gospel of Jesus. And because of that, he raised his family, and his family is following the Lord. There's a cost for doing nothing. And you may think, well, there's a cost for me to do something. But that cost doesn't even come close to the benefits of what doing something will. I want to be very clear, you don't work your way into heaven. You can't buy your way into heaven. Your salvation can't be based upon your mom or your dad's faith or what they've done in the past. It's personal for you.

It's not private, but it is personal. But there is a point in your life with each one of our lives that you have to make the decision that you're going to do something. You can come to church and not make the decision and continue to decide to do nothing every time that an invitation is extended. Or you can be bold and make that decision that I'm going to do something today. And that something is, I know and believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He was crucified on the cross. And He paid for my sins that I would never be able to pay for on my own, that He was buried and He rose again, and today He's sitting at the right hand of the Father. I don't have it all figured out. I know that I have a lot of questions. But your journey begins with a decision to do something, and that something is to invite Him into your life. But until you make that decision, make no mistake, we deserve hell. We all deserve that. But Jesus paid the price, so we don't have to go there, if you would buy your heads for me. I don't know where you are this morning in this. I pray maybe the Holy Spirit is stirring something in your heart, maybe around the area of not quitting before you enter the promised land. Maybe you're at a place you've wanted to throw in the towel. You say, you know what?

I know God's called me to more than this, and I'm not going to give up. Maybe there's some areas that you have drifted away from the Lord, and you've stepped outside of His plan and His purpose for your life. Maybe the circumstances that you've found yourself in right now has made it challenging. But those circumstances, they do not change the purpose that He has for you. I don't know where you're at in this, but I'm going to give you an opportunity this morning to do something and not to continue to come into church and continue to do nothing and leave. Right now, I want to give you the option. If you're here in this room and you don't know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you took your last breath today where you would spend eternity, but you're ready to take that next step of obedience, I want you to do me a favor and slip your hand up for me. Anybody in this room? Anybody here? I see you, buddy. Anyone else? If you're listening in right now, there's an opportunity for you to make that same decision. There's a button at the bottom of your screen that says I'm ready to accept Jesus. If you click that button, there'll be another video that comes up and explains exactly what that decision is. And you, too, can make that decision to follow Christ the rest of your life.

Regardless of your circumstance or regardless of where you're at, you see, God's not held back from your position. He's right there with you. So Father, I thank you so much for every person in this room. God, I thank you that we're a church that doesn't do nothing. But even when it's uncomfortable, even when it means that we have to sacrifice some of our time, this is a church that's filled with people that have a heart for others, and they recognize the magnitude of what taking that step of being uncomfortable sometimes is and the impact that it has. So Father, I thank you so much for your presence in this place. I thank you for your word, and that it's clear. It's not left for us to not know how to follow you and invite you into our life. God, it's very clear. So God, I pray right now that you be with each one of us as we prepare to celebrate the lives of those that are going public with water baptism. God, I pray that you be with your family. Allow their step of obedience to be a reflection to everyone around them. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Can we give God some praise in this place? [APPLAUSE] [BLANK_AUDIO]