Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] When you're excited about something, you want other people in your life to know about it. This is what drives social media.
[00:00:11] We want people to know about the things that are happening in our life that we're excited about. Now, I've got to admit, I'm not a social media poster, but if I was, this is probably what I would post.
[00:00:24] That's right. That's a nice fish.
[00:00:27] I love my summers. I love getting to go out and backpack in the woods. And I don't want to backpack just for the sake of backpacking. I want to go where I can catch fish.
[00:00:37] Now, I'm not an experienced poster because after I looked at this on the big screen, it was like, dude, smile, for crying out loud. Would you smile and, like, clean some of the dirt off of my face? You know, it was like. But that's what happens when you don't look in the mirror for a while and you're in the backwoods for a long, long time. And somebody asked this earlier, don't ask me how long my arms are in that picture. If you're a fisherman, you know what I mean? Because if you stick the fish out a little further, it looks a little bigger than it is, but it's not. I don't just get excited about my fish. I get excited about my kids and their fish as well. So I have a couple of other pictures. This is my oldest son, Jaden, with a nice trout. It looks like he's got his arm out there as far as he possibly can as well. This is my daughter Abby, with a beautiful, beautiful cutthroat. She is becoming a beast with a fly rod. And last but not least, my son Josiah.
[00:01:35] I.
[00:01:37] I told the kids that I, hey, I'm going to show some pictures of you guys fish. And Josiah said, you're going to show that little fish, aren't you? And I'm like, yeah, I am. I 100% am.
[00:01:48] Because we show things that we're excited about. We want to tell people about things that we're excited about.
[00:01:55] As we've walked through the book of Romans and you look at the Apostle Paul and the things that he's wrote, you can't come to any other conclusion than that the Apostle Paul was excited about the Gospel, this message that had changed his life. And he gave his life to helping take that message to the world because he wanted that same message to change the lives of. Of other people.
[00:02:20] He wanted everyone that he came into contact with to know who Jesus was and what exactly it was that Jesus had done. For them, done for everyone. That is a thread that runs all the way through the Book of Romans.
[00:02:34] So as we wrap up this series that we've done in multiple different segments, I want to look at that thread, Paul's love for the Gospel. If we go all the way back to Romans, Chapter one, a couple of verses that when we started this series, we called the thesis statement of the Book of Romans. It's this. Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel because it. It's the power of God that can bring salvation to everyone, not just a couple of people. It has the possibility to bring salvation to everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel, a righteousness of God is. Is revealed. A righteousness that is by faith, from first to last, just as is written, the righteous will live by faith.
[00:03:25] Paul wanted. He wasn't ashamed. He wanted everyone to know. When you put your faith not in your ability to make yourself pleasing to God, but when you put your faith in Jesus and what he did for you, his death on the cross, his shed blood, his broken body, when you put your faith and your trust in that, you have a right relationship with God that lasts forever.
[00:03:49] You can be restored, redeemed, rescued.
[00:03:55] This message mattered to the Apostle Paul.
[00:04:00] In chapter 10, Paul says this again for everyone.
[00:04:06] Paul always had his mind on everyone.
[00:04:08] Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. He's like, what you need to do is you need to call on the Lord. But then he gives some qualifiers.
[00:04:18] It says this, how then can they call on the one they have not believed in?
[00:04:24] It takes belief. It takes faith in Jesus, what he's done.
[00:04:30] And how can they believe in. In the one whom they have not heard? It takes hearing the message. We need to know and understand the message of the gospel. But how can they hear without someone preaching to them? It takes someone that is willing to communicate that message so that they can hear.
[00:04:51] And how can they preach unless they are sent?
[00:04:55] Paul is saying, it takes people that realize that we are called to take this message to the world.
[00:05:02] And then he closes with this as it is written, how beautiful.
[00:05:06] How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
[00:05:13] He wants everyone to have those beautiful feet that are bringing the good news, that are willing to preach. And I want to say this. Paul uses the word preach. And I want to make sure that in our culture we understand what he's saying. Because sometimes when we say preach, we think that means that you have to have a stage, some kind of a platform And a microphone. That's what preaching is. That's not what Paul is talking about. He is simply talking about someone that has the message in their life and they're willing to just simply say it to another person. That's what he means when he says preaching.
[00:05:50] You don't need a microphone.
[00:05:52] You just need a message.
[00:05:54] And lastly, a verse that Jim did a great job talking us through last week. Romans 15:20.
[00:06:01] Paul shares that same heart again. It has always. He says, it has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.
[00:06:14] The apostle Paul was just always thinking about the ends of the earth. There's not one person on this planet that doesn't need to hear the message. There's not one person in your life that you've ever laid eyes on for whom Jesus has not died. And Paul wants us to have that kind of a heart, to take that message to the ends of the earth. You cannot read this book of Romans and come to any other conclusion than Paul was excited about this message. He was focused on this message.
[00:06:47] He was motivated to take this message to the world.
[00:06:55] Are you excited about this message?
[00:07:00] If you're here today and you're a follower of Jesus, are you excited?
[00:07:04] Are you passionate?
[00:07:06] Are you focused? Has this become a focus of your life? Getting this message to the world? Are you engaged?
[00:07:12] Are you regularly thinking about how do I make this message available to the people that are in my world?
[00:07:19] Are you excited or are you indifferent?
[00:07:26] Yeah, I don't know. Someone will do it.
[00:07:31] Are you fearful?
[00:07:32] I'm not sure I know what to do.
[00:07:36] Are you distracted?
[00:07:38] You have so many things going on in your life that this just doesn't rise to top of the list.
[00:07:46] Are you ashamed?
[00:07:49] Do you wonder ever? Do I want to identify my life with Jesus and his movement and his message?
[00:07:59] Paul would want to sit down with every one of us as a follower of Jesus.
[00:08:03] He would want us to be motivated by the same things that motivated him.
[00:08:09] Paul would tell us what we need to know and what we need to do if we want to be engaged in the mission.
[00:08:17] Paul would just say over and over, we are people who are changed by the gospel, and we need to be people that are willing to bring the change to the world that the gospel brings.
[00:08:30] And I believe that if Paul could sit down with us, looking at all the things that he wrote, there would be at least three things, probably lots more, but at least three things that he would tell us that we need to Embrace if we're gonna be a part of his mission, meaning Christ's mission in the world. The first thing, friends, that we're gonna need to embrace is that we are gonna need to embrace conflict.
[00:08:53] Now you might just think like, Bob, I kinda feel like you took a, a left turn there. Actually that's my right.
[00:08:59] A turn.
[00:09:01] Let me explain. Here's what I mean by that.
[00:09:04] Give you some context. When we look at the breadth of Paul's writings, he often refers to us as the Church. He uses different kinds of metaphors to help us understand who we are in Christ. He uses metaphors like a family, he uses metaphors like a body.
[00:09:23] And he uses a metaphor that we are the temple of God.
[00:09:28] And now when he used that metaphor in his first century context, people would understand that the temple, the temple is the visible representation of God's presence. When people looked at the temple, they thought, God lives there.
[00:09:45] Paul is saying that we, when the world looks at us, they should see what's happening in here and say, God lives there.
[00:09:55] We are God's temple.
[00:09:59] But here's the challenge with this temple.
[00:10:04] We're still under construction.
[00:10:09] We haven't all arrived, have we? I mean, all of us, we're all in different places, but we're all just trying to figure it out, aren't we? How do we grow up in, in Christ? How do we become like Christ? What does it mean for us to be an all in follower of Christ? We're trying to figure that out and we're changing, but we're still figuring it out. And some of us, we're just trying to figure out what does it look like to grow together in Christ? What does it mean to be connected and identified as part of this temple of God? How do we grow together? And here's what happens. You know this. In any relational context, when we try to grow together, there is conflict and there is divisions.
[00:10:51] But Paul is going to tell us that there can't be that inside the temple of God because it does not represent God well.
[00:11:01] There should be unity and not divisions. Here. How, here's how Paul addresses this to the Church in Corinth, in First Corinthians, chapter three. And Paul is addressing disunity and divisions in the church.
[00:11:16] And here's what Paul says.
[00:11:18] He says, don't you know that you yourselves, you yourselves. He's trying to help us understand that we need to see ourselves as a collective, as a plural. We are together in this.
[00:11:31] Do you not know that you yourselves are God's temple? And that God's spirit spirit dwells in your midst.
[00:11:40] Again, this is the dwelling place of God, not only in us as individuals, but with us corporately. God's spirit lives in us as a group.
[00:11:53] Now listen to what Paul says.
[00:11:55] Listen.
[00:11:57] If anyone destroys God's people temple, God will destroy that person.
[00:12:10] For God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
[00:12:19] God will destroy that person.
[00:12:27] Can you just let those words kind of wash over your mind just a little bit?
[00:12:33] When you think of some of the warnings and the admonitions that Paul gives all the way across his letters, I don't think that there is a more stern warning than this.
[00:12:47] Paul is saying, God will destroy you if you do things that are destructive to his temple, to his family, to his body.
[00:13:01] Paul's not saying that God's going to be disappointed.
[00:13:05] He's going to be a little bummed out if you destroy his temple.
[00:13:10] He doesn't say he's going to discipline you, maybe give you a slap on the hand.
[00:13:15] Paul says God will destroy you.
[00:13:22] Do we take God seriously?
[00:13:24] Are we gonna take God's scripture seriously?
[00:13:29] If we do, friends, we've got to evaluate how is it that we relate our lives to this thing called the church.
[00:13:38] Are we giving our lives to loving the church, caring for her, serving, doing everything we can to build up to the church, investing our life in the church, this collective of people? When I say church, I'm saying the collective of people.
[00:13:57] Or do we stand back and honestly, we're kind of critical, a little bit indifferent.
[00:14:05] And you know what? When things bug us, we actually kind of gossip about it. We tell other people things that we don't like about the church. We grumble.
[00:14:15] And what does that do? It causes division. It undermines this temple of God.
[00:14:22] And Paul is saying, I will. God will destroy the person that undermines this temple of God.
[00:14:34] But the problem is, this happens all the time.
[00:14:37] There is conflict and divisions in the church.
[00:14:42] Here's the question.
[00:14:44] Why does God take such extreme offense to someone that would want to undermine the church? Why is this so grievous to God?
[00:14:55] Because we see it so much in the world today, in the church today. You don't like something about the church, you go to another one.
[00:15:02] You don't like something in the church, you make it another denomination.
[00:15:05] Divisions are just part of the deal. Why does this matter to God, that this not be the case?
[00:15:12] Because we fail to see, friends, that the mission of God.
[00:15:18] The mission of God is critical to the collective unity of the church.
[00:15:25] See, oftentimes when We. We think about the mission of God. We think about it in individual terms. Because in the west, we think individualistically.
[00:15:33] We think it's your responsibility to be in the mission, and it's your responsibility to be in the mission, and it's your responsibility to be in the mission. And those things are true. We each have a personal responsibility. But God wants us to know that there is a collective responsibility, that we need to do this together. And something should happen in the collective of the church.
[00:15:57] There should not be be divisions. Why?
[00:16:01] Why does that matter? Because when the world looks in the church, it should represent God and his values. This idea of reconciling, being connected to one another, right, with one another, not dealing with conflict with one another continually.
[00:16:21] That's why I share this all the time.
[00:16:26] This has to grab your attention. Friends, In John chapter 17, at the very end of Jesus life, he prays for the church.
[00:16:35] He prays for you.
[00:16:37] Here's what Jesus is praying for. He's praying for unity and oneness. He's praying that divisions would not be the order of the day. Here's what he prays. He says in John 17, he says, My prayer is not for them alone.
[00:16:52] That them is his disciples, his closest disciples, as he's praying to God. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. Who's that?
[00:17:07] It's us. This is what Jesus, the Son of God, prayed for you, for me.
[00:17:14] That all of them, all of us may be one, Father. How? How would we be one? Just as.
[00:17:24] Just as you are in me and I am in you.
[00:17:27] Jesus is praying that we would have the kind of oneness that would be represented by the oneness of the Father and the Son.
[00:17:36] Can there be anything closer than that?
[00:17:39] May they also be in us. Why?
[00:17:43] So that. Here's the reason that this is why it matters to God. So that the world may believe that you have sent me our ability to be one, to deal with conflict in healthy ways and to live our lives well in relationship to one another. The mission rests on it.
[00:18:06] Because here's what happens when you look outside in the world out there, divisions are everywhere.
[00:18:14] We are the most divided country in the world. It feels like sometimes I read the headlines just like you do.
[00:18:21] But what happens, friends, when people out there look inside the church and they see that there's something different going on?
[00:18:30] That yo. There's people in there that have lots of reasons to be on different sides of the fence. People that used to, one time they envied one another, they were angry at one another, they hated one another. But yet somehow, some way they are together. They love one another, they're caring for one another, they're actually mutually sacrificing for one another. What's going on in there, that is the representation of the temple of God. That represents the character of God.
[00:19:04] When we have divisions in the church, all people outside say is they're just like us. There's nothing different.
[00:19:11] Paul, Jesus know that the mission of God rests on the unity of the church, our ability to be able to love one another. That's why the Paul oftentimes referred to the gospel as the message of reconciliation. Yes, we're reconciled to God, but we're also reconciling reconciled to one another.
[00:19:35] That's why when Paul talked about what this gospel does, it actually builds relationships, it breaks down walls. In his day, the big thing was it brought Jew and Gentile together.
[00:19:48] They were hating one another and suddenly they become one male and female. So separate in that culture together, slave and free. Hierarchy that is done away with.
[00:20:03] Things that we might talk about in our culture is it separates the rich from the poor. We're together in this and we're trying to meet one another's needs. The black and the white, the Gen Z and the boomer, the liberal and the conservative, and every other social division that you'd want to name that's out there.
[00:20:29] The gospel has the power to bring it together. And when it does, and when it does it well, the world will know there's something there.
[00:20:38] There's something there that we can't replicate. We can't fix that out there. But what's going on in there, it is the spirit of God working in God's people. That's why we've got to be people that are willing to deal with conflict and in our lives and to learn how to do it well.
[00:20:58] Just a couple of weeks ago, I had an opportunity to meet with a couple of friends from our church. And I've probably known them for almost 30 years, but I knew that there were some decisions that had been made around here that just didn't sit well with them and they wanted to talk about it.
[00:21:16] And if you know me and my personality, I hate going to meetings like that. When I know that there's conflict, it's just like I'm just conflict averse.
[00:21:28] When I went to that meeting, I was thinking about them actually when I left the meeting, I was thinking even more because when they had that little thing going on in their life that just was unsettled.
[00:21:39] They had a decision to make.
[00:21:42] What are we going to do with this? Are we going to let this little thing that's unsettled grow as a seed of bitterness?
[00:21:49] Is it gonna well up so that we're actually complaining about our church? We're actually gossiping, maybe even to other people about our church, that we're maybe even gonna kind of distance ourself from the church. We're gonna just let a wall be built.
[00:22:06] No, they weren't willing to do that. They just sat down and we had a conversation.
[00:22:12] And the conversation doesn't matter, but the outcome does, in my opinion, because I left there.
[00:22:20] Like I said, I don't like going to those meetings. But I left there with my soul full.
[00:22:26] I felt connected to them.
[00:22:29] I felt respected by them, and I had great respect for them.
[00:22:35] Felt like there was a mutual love that we walked out of there with.
[00:22:40] And I loved it. They sent me an email later that just said that was really important for us to just have a meeting like that where we could see that conflict can be dealt with. It can actually pull us together, break down walls.
[00:22:55] Now I get it. I'm just sharing one little story, one little conversation. But, friends, that is a microcosm of what needs to happen throughout God's church. That we don't become those people that are willing to distance ourselves and complain and grumble because Paul is going to tell us again, God will destroy people that take that posture toward his church. We've got to be people that learn how to deal with conflict. And as I was writing this sermon, I don't know when I'm going to do it, but we've got to do a sermon series on just how do we do conflict? Well, in all the spheres of influence that we have in our. In our families, in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods, in our world, how do we do conflict? Well, because we've got to do it well in here, because the mission depends on it.
[00:23:45] That we would not be people that are divided. A second thing that I believe the Apostle Paul would say to us is that we need to embrace challenge in our life.
[00:23:58] There's something that I think we actually want to embrace. It's usually not challenge, it's comfort.
[00:24:06] We want our lives to be comfortable.
[00:24:09] But I want to say this comfort has a dark side.
[00:24:15] In fact, comfort can actually be harmful, even dangerous. Someone said to me after the nine, he said, the comfort zone is the danger zone. And I said, I'm going to use that in the 11.
[00:24:26] The comfort zone Is the danger zone.
[00:24:28] Here's a real world example of what I'm trying to say. There was a recent study that the faa, the Federal Aviation Administration did.
[00:24:37] In the study they were talking about the critical skills of pilots are actually becoming dull.
[00:24:45] Why?
[00:24:47] Because they're under challenged.
[00:24:50] They're under challenge because with these new generations of automation with airplanes, they actually pretty much fly themselves, which creates great safety. But our hunger for safety and comfort and this automation, it's actually created the place where pilots, they don't learn the skills that they need to be able to deal with the incredible challenging situations that sometimes happen in terms of their flighting, flying an airplane.
[00:25:21] They need challenge.
[00:25:26] Your faith needs challenge.
[00:25:31] Your faith can become dull.
[00:25:35] You can put your faith on autopilot.
[00:25:40] Here's what brain research tells us is that when we just get really comfortable, the analytical functions of our brain that are responsible for bringing growth and change and learning, they simply turn off a simple way to say this is. It's challenge that brings change, not comfort.
[00:26:06] We've got to be willing to go after challenge in our life.
[00:26:12] Here's my question. How do you walk in to an environment like this?
[00:26:17] What are you seeking?
[00:26:20] You seeking challenge?
[00:26:22] Like Holy spirit, you live in me, Holy spirit, you're in this community. Bring challenge to my life or do you just want comfort?
[00:26:32] Just give me my coffee with the right amount of half and half. Give me my chair that belongs to me. Nobody sitting in my. Is that what we come in here looking for? Or do we come in looking for challenge? God, speak to me, Give me some marching orders, give my life challenges. Is that how we approach a gathering like this? How do we approach reading the Bible?
[00:26:56] Do we read it and just kind of let our eyes go over the pages thinking, I've read this before.
[00:27:03] Or do we humbly stand before the word of God with the belief in our heart that this word of God is living and active? It's sharper than any two edged sword, cutting even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the attitudes of the heart. Are we willing to throw our heart open to God and say, challenge me with your word?
[00:27:26] Or do we just let our eyes go over the page, close it and move on in comfort?
[00:27:32] We've got to be people, friends, who are willing to embrace challenge.
[00:27:39] Don't let your faith go on autopilot.
[00:27:44] So honestly, just ask yourself, when was the last time?
[00:27:48] When was the last time, honestly, that you would say that you allowed your faith to be challenged, to be stretched, to come to a place that you felt Great discomfort. When was the last time?
[00:28:05] If you can't remember, it's probably been a while.
[00:28:12] I'm just gonna say this as clearly as I can.
[00:28:15] If you are always chasing comfort in your life, you are not chasing Jesus and your faith is becoming dull.
[00:28:31] Just read the book.
[00:28:33] Read the stories of those that were sold out for Jesus. Were their lives comfortable? No. Not one of them.
[00:28:40] Why do we chase after comfort when the only thing that's gonna bring us closer to him and grow our faith is challenge.
[00:28:49] When I walk into an environment like this, I don't pray these exact words all the time. But what I want to be true.
[00:28:57] Because I know that some of you are in here and you're just like, Bob, the challenge meter is, like, up to here.
[00:29:03] I don't need more challenge. I can't even breathe. I can't even keep my nose above water.
[00:29:09] I know that there are people that are like that. And when I walk in here, what I want to be true is that I would be able to, through the Word, through the power of the Spirit, bring comfort to those of you that are overly challenged in your faith right now. Because I know there are some of you, and I also see it as my job and my goal and my responsibility to bring challenge to those who are overly comfortable in your faith.
[00:29:37] It's challenge that brings change, nothing else. We've got to be people who embrace challenge. And lastly, I believe the Apostle Paul would say that we need to embrace our circumstances.
[00:29:53] And when I say our circumstances, I'm talking about all the things that are happening in and around your life. We need to be fully present in every place that God has us.
[00:30:06] Because here's God's plan for bringing the message to the world.
[00:30:09] When he inaugurated this plan, what did he do?
[00:30:14] He came. The Word became flesh.
[00:30:20] Second member of the Trinity. Jesus took on flesh and blood, so it would be life on life. And he made his dwelling among us. The Gospel comes through a person.
[00:30:33] And that is still God's plan that the message would come through people and friends. If you are a follower of Jesus, we are those people.
[00:30:45] The only question I have for you is, where has God placed you? What circumstances, what environments has God placed you where you can be?
[00:30:54] Those beautiful feet that Paul talked about, those beautiful feet that bring good news.
[00:31:01] Here's what I know to be true is that God has placed you in lots of different places in this world where Christ is not known.
[00:31:13] And I would say this. None of those circumstances in your life, none of those places in your life are an accident.
[00:31:22] And none of those places are unimportant where you live.
[00:31:30] God knows it's his intention that you would live there. Where you just think, well, I just got the money and I bought the house and I moved into that neighborhood. God has a plan.
[00:31:39] You might have thought it was your plan, but God has a plan. How do I bring a person that brings the beautiful feet of good news to that place where you work? You think, well, I just applied and I got this job and this is where I work now.
[00:31:52] No, God has an intention for you. He knows where you're and he wants you to be those beautiful feet that bring good news. He knows where you work. He knows where you work out.
[00:32:04] He knows where you go to school.
[00:32:07] He knows the traveling sports team that you're on and all the parents surrounding that.
[00:32:13] He knows the people and places that you recreate with.
[00:32:17] He knows the businesses and restaurants that you regularly visit.
[00:32:22] And in all those places, there are lots of people that don't know Jesus.
[00:32:30] That's why Paul would say, it's always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known.
[00:32:37] Those people exist everywhere around you.
[00:32:40] And every one of those people, there's not one person that you will ever lay your eyes on in the places in your life that Jesus didn't die for.
[00:32:51] And he invites us be the beautiful feet that bring good news to that place.
[00:32:59] Friends, this message and God's people, when we live his way, it can change the world. I mean, just think about the hundreds of people that called Journey their home, hundreds of people that follow Jesus. What if as you walked into the world every day, where you live, where you work, where you play, and the first thing that's on your mind is just how do I be the beautiful feet that bring good news to this place? What if everybody did that? Places would change. Places would be different. What if every follower of Jesus represented by every church in our valley did that? Our valley would change.
[00:33:40] Our world would change. There would be ripple effects. But what it takes is people that are willing to embrace their circumstances.
[00:33:49] God has me here for a reason.
[00:33:52] To be the beautiful feet that bring good news.
[00:34:00] I'm going to close with this.
[00:34:03] I want to read to you an email that showed up in my inbox this week from a sweet young gal.
[00:34:11] Her name is Reed Johnson and she sent me a picture so you can get a picture of her.
[00:34:19] She is the gal on the right.
[00:34:21] The gal on the left is a good friend of hers named Ella.
[00:34:29] Here's Reed's story.
[00:34:32] She said, hi there.
[00:34:34] My name is Reed Johnson and I found Journey at a pivotal moment in my life.
[00:34:40] I can honestly say that this church saved me and I felt the need to share and just say thank you.
[00:34:48] I'm from Maine and I attended Montana State from 2022 to 2025.
[00:34:54] Toward the end of my college years, I lost myself in alcohol and and depression and I made a terrible mistake and hurt someone badly.
[00:35:03] I thought that my life was over.
[00:35:06] I hated myself so much that I couldn't look in the mirror.
[00:35:11] I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep.
[00:35:14] I felt as though my soul had died.
[00:35:18] My father struggled with church because of his upbringing, so had no knowledge of or relationship with Jesus.
[00:35:28] My friends, my friends from a choir class had been encouraging me to come to church for some time because I had never been.
[00:35:39] So I finally decided to go.
[00:35:42] My mom, who had little experience with religion, also came because she knew I was not okay and had flown in to see me a week after I had made that mistake.
[00:35:53] We all showed up April 6, 2025.
[00:35:58] Bob gave a sermon about offering yourself to God and it couldn't have been better timing.
[00:36:06] It was as though Jesus reached down and grabbed me by the neck and said, you're coming with me.
[00:36:15] Both my mom and I cried in each other's arms and walked out of the service with a completely new perspective from there.
[00:36:25] My friend JC bought me my first Bible and I began the most amazing relationship I've ever known.
[00:36:34] Jesus saved me and I got baptized just before graduation that year.
[00:36:40] Since then, he's been with me through hard times and transition.
[00:36:44] And now I'm back in Maine trying my best to share His Word to those in my life who don't know Him.
[00:36:52] He has been. It has been an amazing Journey and my parents and I still watch Journey Sermons from Home.
[00:37:00] I am forever grateful that he came to me in my time of need, and I am grateful to the church for being the place where it all happened.
[00:37:11] I have friends still in Bozeman who I come to visit and we go to Journey when I'm in town.
[00:37:17] I know that this is a lengthy email and thank you for reading until this point. If you're still here, read I Was Still Here.
[00:37:28] So thank you so much and praise the Lord.
[00:37:37] Reid's Story I made some observations that have kind of been haunting me a little bit.
[00:37:46] Let me just make it clear first of all that Jesus is always the hero of the story, not Journey or anybody else.
[00:37:54] Jesus is the one that reaches down and grabs us.
[00:37:58] But I read that story and I was thinking about her friend JC Thinking about her friend Ella.
[00:38:08] Talk about a couple of girls who embrace their circumstances.
[00:38:14] Followers of Jesus.
[00:38:18] That choir class wasn't just a choir class to them.
[00:38:24] It was an opportunity to be those beautiful feet that bring good news.
[00:38:31] I'm trying to imagine, like, what it was like to get out of your comfort zone because you make an invitation, you don't know how people are going to respond.
[00:38:41] And it sounds like Reed didn't respond right away.
[00:38:44] Invitation, invitation, invitation rejecting, comfort grabbing, challenge taking, risk, but being fully present in the places that God has you. And it changed the life of another girl forever.
[00:39:03] Another maybe small observation that just seems like a sentence in her story, but it grabbed me.
[00:39:12] Reid is all the way in Maine right now, and she said, I'm doing my best to share the word with people who don't know know him. Reid gets it.
[00:39:23] She's only known Jesus for just a little over a year. And she gets it.
[00:39:27] She's like, it's changed my life. I want to bring change to the lives of others. I want to be those beautiful feet who bring good news.
[00:39:40] Here's the questions, friends.
[00:39:43] They've been tugging at my heart.
[00:39:46] Actually, more than that. They're more than tugging at my heart. They're haunting me a little bit.
[00:39:51] And I share them with you because I actually hope that they will haunt you, too, because I think that they should.
[00:39:58] Who is the Reed Johnson in your life?
[00:40:03] Who is the person that you frequent in and around?
[00:40:07] Maybe not your choir class, but your neighborhood, your job, your gym? I don't care what it is. Who are the Reed Johnsons around you that need someone to invest in them and to invite them to come along with you on your spiritual journey. There are people that will say yes, if we invest and we invite. Who's the Reed Johnson in your life? Who's the Reed Johnson in my life?
[00:40:35] But here's the question also that I'm asking.
[00:40:40] Will I be like Ella?
[00:40:44] Will I be like JC Willing to take risk to reach out to another person?
[00:40:54] Will I just go about my life indifferent, distracted?
[00:41:02] Or will I be someone willing to be those beautiful feet that bring good news?
[00:41:11] Here's what I've been thinking about as I wrote this sermon, this thought.
[00:41:19] As I know we maybe think about heaven. We think about what that's going to be like when God restores all things, restores heaven and earth, and we get to experience this earth fully renewed, fully restored.
[00:41:35] We're going to get to do some amazing things.
[00:41:38] Free from sin, free from brokenness.
[00:41:43] But there's One thing you'll never get the chance to do in heaven, friends, you will never get the chance to help someone come into a relationship with Jesus. It's done by then. But we have that opportunity now.
[00:42:00] Friends, it matters.
[00:42:03] The mission matters. And it matters for eternity. And you only have so long to do it. Let's do it now.
[00:42:11] Let's do it now while we still can. Let's be those beautiful feet that bring good news and change people's lives.
[00:42:21] Like Reed Johnson.
[00:42:24] Here's what I want you to do.
[00:42:27] You can see that we're celebrating communion today. And the standard procedure around communion is that we remember when we come up and we take the bread and we dip it into the wine. It reminds us of the broken body and the shed blood that Jesus did for us that created that relationship with him. We. We come to the table because we're grateful. I want you to do that.
[00:42:53] And I need to remind everybody that there's gluten free bread on the ends. I always forget that.
[00:43:00] But I also want you to not just think about your relationship that you're grateful for. Would you take just a little time and ask God's spirit to speak to your heart? Who's the Reed Johnson?
[00:43:15] Your life.
[00:43:17] Where's the choir class in your world? This place that God has placed you to be the beautiful feet that bring good news. Who's your Reed Johnson? What's your choir class? What are you gonna do about it? Would you ask those questions before you come to the table? Get an answer. Take the challenge.
[00:43:38] Take the message. Be the. The beautiful feet.
[00:43:43] Let's pray.
[00:43:51] Oh, jesus, I just feel so thankful that I had someone in my life like Ella that was willing to get out of their comfort zone.
[00:44:07] Come to me. Share with me who Jesus is and what he's done for me. Jesus, thank you.
[00:44:13] Thank you that you sent him to my life.
[00:44:19] Jesus, I'm just asking, maybe even begging.
[00:44:24] Would you stir our hearts with a compassion for people?
[00:44:30] Jesus, Would we be like you that looked out on the crowds and had compassion and said they're harassed and helpless like a sheep without a shepherd?
[00:44:39] And you said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And Jesus, you challenged us to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest field? Jesus, would you raise up laborers, people that care, people that care that there are lost people around them? Jesus, would you stir my heart, stir us afresh. Give us a passion for the things that matter, matter in this life and matter for eternity. Jesus, don't let our hearts grow cold.
[00:45:14] Jesus, we love you.
[00:45:16] We're so grateful that you've allowed us to be your spokespeople, your voice into this world.
[00:45:24] We want to do it well, and it's in your powerful and resurrected name that we pray. And all God's people said, amen.
