Video Transcript: The Missional Leader

So, you know, as we've been, you know, when people ask you, Hey, where do you go to church? Which is the typical question, right? Where do you go to church? Which is a weird question anyways? You know, biblically, I don't I don't think that was asked a whole lot, where do you go to church, but we've created this thing where there's this place you go to, and you attend. And rather than being a family being a group, uh, you know, I've used the analogy of the gang, you know, you don't say, hey, where did you go to gang? Do you join a gang, you're a part of a gang, you're always a part of them. And, and so with that, even even with the wording of our of our gatherings. And even the title of we, our church, it was always just meant to be like, that didn't even make sense for a name. And it was something you had to explain, Well, we don't believe in just going to a place and calling that church like, We are the church. And, and with that, I know that sometimes we've been saying, you know, we have these house churches, and that's kind of verbiage I've been using. But we've just been exploring the idea of just rather than calling them house churches, more like family churches, because of what that communicates. We're not inviting people into a house as much as we're inviting them into a family. And the idea is adopting people into your family that, that the mindset of family carries with a commitment, you're committed to your brothers and sisters, the idea of family is, I don't necessarily choose my brothers and sisters, like, okay, you can be my brother's you can be you know, that's, that's, you're stuck with them, and you're committed to them for life. The idea of family is that we raise our kids to be independent, you know, and, and to start their own families. And so, you know, I think we're just exploring that idea of, you know, just our verbiage and what that communicates. And rather than saying, house churches, it might be more appropriate to say we're doing these family churches. And then when you invite people over, even understand, like, you're inviting them over to have dinner with your family. You know, you know, for those who had cool families, like you could invite your friends over, you know, for a family meal, or even a family vacation, or whatever it is, my family wasn't like that growing up, it's like, we don't allow people in our house and we kind of kept distance and everything else, but I was always jealous of my friends, families, you know, that would just let me come over have sleepovers or, and they just made you feel a part of that family. And so just a thought I, I think it's, it's cool if we don't really spend too much time on naming ourselves. I think that's a big thing in America coming up with a cool name, and calling yourself that. Whereas it was really the unbelievers in the world that called the disciples Christians, in on gave them that label, because they're acting so much like Jesus, I'm just thinking, as we describe ourselves as people ask, you know, let's, let's try to keep that mindset of family, in our mind, and I think it'll help us look at each other differently to and think through you guys be in my brothers and sisters and living that way and thinking that way. And then we're really inviting people into relationship rather than a location. But one of the concerns whenever we get to this topic of a house church or even a family church is one of the dangers is we can become very inward.

And a lot of times people leave the big church because I'll we're anti, this anti that in. So we're gonna have our group and we're just stuck together in our little huddle here. And, and there's something nice about hey, we can really get to know each other. But biblically, you can't get past the fact that we are on a mission. We're here to get the gospel to the ends of the earth. And while it's true that sometimes your church can be too focused outwardly, it's also true that it can be too inward and, and, and just just try to think of it as the two wings of a plane. You can't really just drop one for the other. You need them both, you know, and one might be weaker than the other in case strengthen it up. But let's not let's not give up one for the other. We have to keep focusing because we're on a mission and you think about the house churches in China that kept multiplying, not that they even call themselves that I think that's the house. That's the name we gave to them, because that's where they met. And it just kept spreading and spreading and spreading because everyone was making disciples. Our job as pastors is to keep people missional I think this is a real easy thing to ignore. And I think sometimes we want to ignore it. I don't know what your personality is like. But I think most most Christians, I mean, in America, are a lot like me, and that the last thing we really feel like doing is talking to someone who's not a believer, and telling them that they need to repent, be baptized and filled the Holy Spirit that they need Jesus. It's difficult. It's an awkward conversation. Every time I sit next to someone on the plane, it's like, okay, here we go. Like, I don't want to do it. There's so many things I would rather do. You know, during week, I would much rather sit in an office and prepare a sermon. I'd much rather have leadership meetings, I'd much rather do this. It's like, it's the thing that if we're just really honest, it's it's hard. Because it's hard to be rejected. It's hard to be looked at, as, I mean, no one jumps on a plane hoping that they'll sit next to someone who will tell them about Jesus. Right? And you know, your co worker in wake up, you know, that he or she's not going to wake up tomorrow. And I hope, you know, I just hope Aaron comes up to me starts talking about Jesus, you know, and so you go into a knowing that, gosh, this is unpopular, I can talk about other things, digging wells in Africa, caring for the poor, you know, whatever, racial reconciliation, but when it gets to the gospel nowadays, it's like, don't go there. Don't go there with me. And

so pretty much most of the people in our gatherings will think that way, and feel that way. It's just hard to get motivated. And this isn't a new thing. I mean, as believers, we're supposed to gather like this and pray for each other's courage. I think I think it's just important to lay some of these things out on the table, and go right in this true, you don't really want to go knock on your next door neighbor's door. There are a lot of other Christian activities. They're a lot easier to do, go to a Bible study, go to prayer, all good things. But sometimes I think we do this to avoid and people to spend a lifetime studying and debating with other believers and writing stuff or whatever else, all good stuff. But at the end of the day, we're supposed to be on a mission. And what's comforting to me is in Scripture, you have Paul, remember reminding Timothy, hey, this spirit of timidity that you have right now, this fear, this isn't really what God gave you, to gave you the spirit of I remember, we laid hands on you, come on, go, go do this thing. You have Peter and John, you know, which Acts 4 I think, is verse 13, or 17, you know, talks about how people were amazed at their courage. And here they were, you know, locked up in prison. And when they're released, what do they do? They go, and they gathered the believers, and they pray for more courage. And Paul tells the Ephesian church, he goes, would you guys pray for me, that I would proclaim the gospel boldly as I ought, and, and that that those are encouraging verses to me, because sometimes we look at the Apostle Paul and go, Man, that guy wasn't afraid of anything. He would go anywhere. But why? Because he was honest and goes, I need your prayers. I want to preach this boldly. I don't want to back down. I don't want to shrink back. That's not who we are. And it's cool to know, okay, Peter, and John did that. And Timothy needed that and Paul needed that. And so we as leaders, we need it. I pray that for you, I pray for that courage. I pray that your relationship with God is so intense, and that you're just so close to him and you're so sure that he's watching you right now that it's like, okay, you're the only one I care about. And so I can I can speak boldly about you, I can tell people about what a great relationship I have with you and it's a very natural. Okay, so the idea as leaders is yes, we want to get the people to love one another. We will be known for our love Want to develop people who are prayerful, but let's also remember that we have to develop people who are missional. And we're all afraid so we have to raise that courage level. You know, it's like in Joshua, I love that passage in Joshua, when, when Moses is dying and, and Joshua is about to take the helm. And in Joshua chapter one, you'll have God who tells Joshua, hey, I'll be with you, just like I was with Moses, I'll be with you just be strong and courageous. You know, and Moses tells Joshua, look, God will be with you, everything will be good. All I'm asking is Be strong and courageous. And the people tell Joshua we'll follow you, just like we followed Moses, just be strong and courageous. Wow, that's a big deal. I don't know about you, but I get insecure at times, I get timid at times. And sometimes it's like, Man, I don't know, I don't know. And sometimes in the church, we can be good at like, telling someone when they're wrong, you know, confronting or questioning something, they say, but we're not real good at coming alongside people and come in, right on, don't back off of that message. You nailed it, you nailed it, you nailed it, keep going be strong, Courageous don't back up. And I feel like this is the time where we need it more than ever. Where we in this group are looking at one another and go, Man, I'm so grateful for that courage you have, and I'm going to pray that it gets even stronger. You know, this idea of being missional. I just want a little bit of a timeout or parentheses here. I remember when I was in junior high. My mom took me to see this evangelist at First Baptist Church. And, and he was just screaming, trying to remember his name something Wilson, or something like that. And he was just screaming.

And at the end, he was like, You got to deny Jesus, if you denied Jesus, it'd be better for you to bite your tongue off and spit it out. You know, and he was just talking about hell and that's like, wow, that's, you know, and that was pretty normal back then. And then, as I got a little bit older, you know, high school college, you start hearing more about less about heaven and hell, but or just less about hell, and you just God loves you and wants a relationship with you. Which is true. And he wants this and he offers this and then, and but as time went on, and especially in the last 10 years, then it's like, hey, hell doesn't even exist anymore. And, and now, it's just this promise of reward for everyone. And, and it's weird how I'm finally at that age where I'm like seeing cycles, you know, rather than just the world I live in, it's like, wow, there's a big, big change and a big, big difference in the way that we think. And that's fine in the world. The question is in the church, I agree that back in the day, we made everything about where you're going to go at the end, Heaven or Hell. And I agree that in Scripture, there's a lot more than that. It's not just about when you die, where do you go? Eternal life is about right now. You know, like when Jesus said, This is eternal life that they may know you. And you know, when John says, Okay, this would make my joy complete. He doesn't say, to know that you can go to heaven one day. It's like, I want you to have this fellowship, right now. This would make my joy complete. He's like, the father and I are one it's me, the Father Jesus, the Lord make my joy complete as if you would join in. If you could have the fellowship with us. It was about a here and now and it's about joining the kingdom of heaven. Like right now where we're a part of it. Like we're a part of this kingdom. Let's bring people into this kingdom. And yes, the benefits of this kingdom of course, one day, we continue on with Jesus, like we never leave him, but we jump into it right now. We're about this kingdom. That doesn't change. It's an eternal, invisible kingdom. Okay, I totally get that. And it's not just we go to this kingdom when we die. No, we're a part of it now. And it's just going to get better. And there's gonna be an amazing transition one day, and we look forward to his appearing because we'll finally get to see our King, face to face and it's not just about faith, but it'll be sight and it'll be right there. And we can't wait for this. This wedding banquet. This actual marriage. that takes place. But it happens right now. And the relationship starts right now. But in that which I agree it wasn't complete back then. Or at least I didn't hear people talking that way. I think there's been a whole transition now to where we don't want to talk about judgment at all. And that's, that's very unbiblical. You know, when people say, wow, I don't like talk about judgment, I want to talk more about love. But Jesus talked about judgment, and he was pretty loving. The prophets talked aboit it, the apostles talked about it. In fact, it was their love that caused them to warn others. You got to understand the whole flow of this book. God warns Adam and Eve didn't he? is, look, if you take up this fruit, you're, you're gonna die. Like that there's there's a consequence. And then every single prophet had two jobs.

One was to promise, you know, tell them the promises, the rewards if you follow God, and the other one is to warn them of the judgment. If you disobeyed God, as real simple, read every prophet, it's the same thing. If you do this man blessing if you do this judgment, and Deuteronomy 27, like he tells the people of Israel to here's what I want you to do, like in verse 11, that day Moses charged the people say, when you've crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people. Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse, Reuben, Gad, Asher's. Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. So So what they did was, they said, Okay, you six tribes go on this mountain, you six tribes go on that mountain, and you guys read one of the blessings. And then you guys read one of the curses, then you read one of the blessings and you read one of the curse? This is what this is what they did. It was like there was always just like, with every prophet, here's the promise of blessing. Here's a warning of judgment. That's the way God worked. And then when you come to Jesus, what is Jesus do then Jesus gets on a mountain, right? Sermon on the Mount, and what he do, blessed are those woe to those blessed are those Woe to you. It says blessing Whoa, blessing, whoa, promised judgment, promise judgment. And then you you finally get to the book of Revelation. And it's just the all ultimate blessing, and then the ultimate judgment. And if you read I mean, as we've been reading through the prophets, I mean, every year we get through to this time, where you're like, oh, man, judgment after judgment after judgment, and it just hurts your heart. And you realize, while when you read through the Bible, there's a lot of Judgment in this book. Now, I'm at least half it seems like more on that side. But let's just, my question is, is if this book is 50% judgment, why are 99% of the sermons about the promises? You know, it's, we're trying, and I understand, because we don't want to hear about the judgment. But we can't just pretend it's not there. I want to be faithful, you know, to do what I saw the apostles doing and what the prophets were doing. And that's why Jesus says, Woe to you when all men speak well of you. Because that's what they did with the false prophets. But blessed are you when they curse you when they insult you. Because that's, that's what they did with the true prophets. And so, all that to say, Man, when I was younger, there was more teaching like this. And over time, we've just kind of taken away Mount Ebal, and we just want to preach from Mount Gerizim. We've taken away the Woe to you, and we just want to say the blessed Are you. We want to take away, you know, most of the book of Revelation, and just hit when it gets to the good part.

Right? And in yet The truth is, is when I was in high school,

it was my concern about judgment. That motivated me to talk to my friends. It was embarrassing, it was difficult, but I kept picturing my friends going to hell. I picture my friends under God's judgment, that picture the book of Revelation and think of my friends, not being on the right side of that. Start thinking Matthew 25 and the separation and seeing yourself on one side and your friends on the other. And I understand it's not all about the very end, but there's a lot of about it. And that should motivate us. And remember, that was the motivation that caused me to start just telling my friends on camera, I was just scared for them. I was concerned for them. I remember as a junior just grabbing my yearbook and calling different seniors I knew they were graduating because I just thought I'll never see him again. And I gotta say something, because I care about them. And I don't want them to face that judgment of God. And, and I'll admit, I've been kind of influenced and I don't want to think about it, I don't want to talk about it. It's just too heavy. And yet, that's the very thing that motivates us to finally speak up sometimes is the heaviness the weightiness of this book and the book of Revelation. And we want to, and that's what we want to motivate us is that type of love. In Romans 9. See Paul's heart in in verse one, where he says, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Here's why we don't like this. Paul says, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

I don't really want to

have that. And if I think about judgment, that's what'll end up happening to me. great sorrow and unceasing anguish, anguish. Try to think of the last time you felt anguish. Not like a little tear. But like, everything in you just you know that term anguish like this is Paul says, This is what I feel all this, it's unceasing. I don't I don't get it. I mean, I kind of do. You know, Paul is the one who says Rejoice in the Lord always. And he has this amazing joy that never ends. And he's always rejoicing, never worrying. And yet, he says, I have this unceasing anguish in my heart. And it's this is the tough thing about what we believe, right? There's, there's like this tremendous joy that we have in Christ. And then there's just unceasing anguish that we have too this hurting. Where Paul saying, Gosh, I, I love these people so much. He says, I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers. I've never felt that. I've never loved anyone that much. In fact, I remember in the first few times I read this passage, I thought that's impossible. It doesn't even seem possible. I mean, I can say I love you guys. And I think I really do and I'm praying for you guys again this morning. And, and when I think of your faces as it comes up in prayers, like I have these warm feelings towards you but I'm not going to hell for you. You know, like that? I am sorry, you know, there's a choice. And by you know, it's just, it's just it. I can't even fathom that. And I go, I don't I don't get it. You know, how can you love that much? And, you know, one of the things I know I'm not there yet, but I can picture myself getting there. This passage is always one of those where I go, Gosh, Lord, I don't. Is it possible to get there? And then when I read it, I think Paul's lying. There's no way. But that's why he starts it off by saying I'm telling the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. Like it's almost like he knew that we would go You're lying. It's like no, he goes, Look, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Here's how bad it is to me. Man, what an example. It's that type of example of love that put Jesus on the cross. Right? And for the Father, He so loved the world that even as his son is crying out Daddy, Abba father is there any other way, take this cup for me, come on, you can do all things. And the father is looking at his son. And he had such a great love for us. And he says, I'm going to watch this. Because I so love this world. And I think a lot of times when we talk evangelism or being on mission, we don't talk about this heart of what motivates you. This is what we got to pray for God, I want this type of I know it's gonna make it hard on me to live this way to have unceasing sorrow, great sorrow, unceasing anguish. But I believe that's the type of love that drove you to the cross. And father drove you to watch your son. So this starts with us, this is where we pray going hard. This is not my heart for the last. I want that because remember, we're the example. And people are going to follow our example. And if it's just about, hey, let's go out and evangelize. That's not all, as is talking about, it's about let's have such a heart for these people that we just have to say something, I have to tell you something. And I remember as a kid, you know, just calling some of my friends and knowing I'll never see him again. Because that's the nature of high school, right? And just going I feel terrible, never telling you this. And I couldn't live with myself unless I at least tried to tell you something.

Here it is, and, and maybe even this, it causes people to come to mind right now that we as leaders, we set the example. Because and if we're not that example of being missional, how can we expect our people to be that way. But the other thing about being missional is, you know, we talk a lot about being unified. But really, it's the mission that unifies us, it really is. If we're if your church is not missional, eventually you're going to start fighting with each other. It's the mission that that makes this byproduct of unity. And that's what Paul's talking about in Philippians 1 when he's like, Man, I want you striving side by side not afraid. And that the few times I've felt that have been on mission trips, or the times I've walked around with some of you just sharing the faith with other people, whether it's walking into projects, or a walking in the tenderloin, or just just walk in wherever. It's, here's what I mean, okay, like we used to do this ministry. In the tenderloin, we started this ministry called adopt a building, some of you guys were there. And it was just, it was cool. It was just like, oh my gosh, we always just go to church and sang and talk. And then we go home. And where's the sense of mission? And, and why don't we? Why don't we be a church that goes and does this? Like, why don't we spend, you know, an hour out talking to people, and then coming back and worshiping and so we started doing that in every Sunday afternoon. And so you'd have this group of people, you know, maybe this size some weeks and weeks, a lot bigger and, and people that you wouldn't normally hang out with. But as you saw them out on the street, there was a bond. It's like, oh, man, I love these guys. They gave up their Sunday afternoon. And they're going out and we're getting rejected together. And there's a bond. It's like, man, there's nothing to fight about right now. I'm just glad you're here. Because not everyone would do this. And, and that's the idea of being missional as a church is, if you're not out doing things that scare you, then you end up just started. You just start arguing about the dumbest things. You know, and that's what what people in the armed forces will say, you know, it's like, gosh, when we would just put people out there and they weren't quite at war yet. Eventually, they just start fighting with each other. But once they get on that battlefield, there was just this immediate bond. Let's go Let's go. We're a team. We're, we're a family. And so, so understand, a lot of times our fights are because we're in the wrong fight. And then we're created to be on a mission. And when we're not in that, we just split over the dumbest things, things that we shouldn't be fighting about. Why because we don't have this unceasing anguish in our hearts. And we're not focused on those who don't know Christ. But the other thing is, you know, we talk about we want to develop people who love Jesus and really experienced him and know him. But I think that's a byproduct of being missional as well. Because when you look at the Great Commission, you know, Matthew 28, go, you know, make disciples of all nations, baptize them, you know, teach them obey everything I commanded us this, and I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. You know, people say, Why don't experience the presence of Christ, I go, Well, have you been out sharing your faith? Because it's in the context of telling disciples, man, go, I want you to make disciples of all the nation's and that command, Jesus rising from the dead and giving that command did not mean make disciples, like get in small groups. No, because he was saying, Get to the ends of the earth. They don't know anything about my resurrection. They don't know that I came back to life. They don't know what my commands are. Go find those people, I want you to get to every when he said, go make disciples, he was talking about reaching the unreached. And teaching them to obey. It was not about discipleship groups within the church was about being missional. And then at the end of that, he says, and I'll be with you,

always. And I, you know, when I look back in my life at those times when I was scared, and times when I was being missional, that I really got to experience Jesus in His presence with me. And you see, these crazy things happen when you're afraid, and you're out being missional. And so really, even for the sake of your people, a lot of times we think, Well, I want to experience God. So I'm going to go to a mountaintop and be quiet. And that's awesome. Do that. We need that. But that's not the only way you experience Him. You really want to experience him, man. Go do something that scares you. I mean, that's where you really see the presence of God in this book, right? It's Daniel when he was in the lion's den. It's Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they're in that fire and another person appears there with him. You know, it's, it's, it's what's his face? Steven, who was you know, when he's being stoned, right? That suddenly he's like, I, I can see Jesus now and how like, he could I see the Son of man on the right hand of God doesn't say go and throw the rocks kill me. I don't really care, because I see God right now. And I've heard stories like that of people as they're out, doing something where they really experienced God. Because in our culture, our church culture we think experiencing God is just when we're together singing a song, as we sing another one sing another one, I almost felt him, you know, and and yet, biblically, when did the people really experienced him? It's when they were doing what they didn't really feel like doing right? And taking a risk doing something that scared them. And like, No, I'm going to get the gospel to the ends of the earth. So it's about unity, isn't just about the laws, which obviously, that's enough. You know, it's about God's glory. It's about how this is how we'll be unified. This is how we'll experience God. One last thought I have is, I remember when I first when I was a young pastor, and the church was growing. But I went to one of my first conferences like church growth type of thing. And, and remember, this pastor of a really large church at that time was, was speaking and he was talking about their Christmas musical. And he was saying, how, man, we have people come here, 10, 15 hours a week rehearsing. And we've been doing this for months. And just talking about the commitment level, because they wanted excellence. They Oh, man, we want to have an excellent Christmas musical. And because unbelievers will come to this and, you know, so they explain how much money it costs. I mean, go this is first rate, and I'm not judging the the say, I mean, that's great. That's great. That's what God calls you to do. Man, he goes, we've spent I forget the number back then, like $100,000 with a lot of money. I still think it's a lot but I was like, man, $100,000 we have, you know, hundreds of people all involve coming 10, 15 hours a week. And so when this production happens, all these people come to the church. And remember afterwards go man, that's really cool. I said, but 10 or 15 hours a week. What if those same people had spent 10 hours a week talking to their neighbors and inviting them over the house for dinner, and building relationship? I go Wouldn't that have reached even more people? and it would have been free to know. Like, what what? And and his answer to me back then was he goes oh, yeah, totally. But people won't do that. And I remember back then going, Yeah, you're right. Like it. And so that was my thought back then was like, yeah, he's right. People won't do that they're not going to actually share the gospel with someone else. But they will perform in a Christmas musical, and they will invite their friends to this. So let's just have them do that. And now I have a whole different mentality. Don't wait, no, you don't change it and make it easier for the people. Like, ah, you know, I'm not going to tell someone about Jesus, but I'll dress up like a reindeer, you know, and then sing Silent Night. Okay, okay, we'll do that, then we'll take that we'll take that. No, that that's not, you know, Paul didn't tell Timothy, I know, you're scared. So let's do this instead. You know, it was just, okay, this is a scary thing we do. Man, but it's gonna take a miracle. Like, we want to grow people who are confident and go.

Yeah, the gospel is never going to be a popular thing. But I'm going to say it. And I want to, I don't want to be a coward. You know, that's that list in Revelation. It's like those who overcome, you know, here, they're going to receive this crown of life. But it's the cowards. It's like, Nah, I don't want to be that. And you don't want to be that. I mean, there's something in all of us that knows, I shouldn't be this bashful about shouldn't be this ashamed of it, I need to be more courageous. And so, you know, we got a choice. Either we change the system and make it easier for every one, are we do what they did, and say, you know, let's pray for this courage. And let's strive side by side, striving for the sake of the gospel, not afraid of anything, you know, want to be this army. And I think this is what God wants, look at my people there. They're not afraid, they're going after it. See, that's, that's that there's so much more than, hey, go share the gospel with someone. There's a lot behind that, which is this heart of pain, because we love people. This belief that Christ will be right with me, as I go do this. And I want to experience in him, you know, I want to strive by side right side by side with this group of people that are not afraid. And I believe that's what God wants of his church. And so success. And our gatherings is, man, we want everyone sharing the gospel in our churches. That's the goal is that we're all that bold, that we can do that no matter what age you are, whether you're an elementary school, or you're 70 years old. Man, that you, you're not afraid we're not ashamed of Jesus. In fact, that's a weird thing even say that I'd be embarrassed of his gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's a power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, and develop those types of people. And so successes and is in one of your gatherings to look at all the people around the room and go, Man, she shared the gospel this week. So did she So did he So did he So did he, because remember being at one of the gatherings one time, and looking around with a big group 15 to 20 of you. And as you guys were sharing what happened during the week, I realized, every single person in that circle, told a story of someone they shared the gospel with. And I thought, This is awesome. Okay, that's now was the room all packed? Because everyone gave their lives to Jesus and No, but you know what I was like, that's awesome. That's like 100% Like everyone there shared the gospel, that success. Because really, in a church of, let's say, if you just went to any church or 500 people here in America, how many people do you think actually verbalize the gospel that week? Out of those 500? Maybe five, do you think five that mean? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's just it's one of those things, right? Where it's just, we don't do that anymore. Because we don't have this heart that's concerned about the things that Christ is concerned about, and will do anything to avoid being missional. And so as we look at what does God want of his church, from what I see in Scripture, he wants us all to be disciple makers. He wants all us all to walk around with this type of courage, this type of boldness, where we verbalize the gospel. And it's tough. It's It's so hard. So hard this week, I was having lunch with this one person who was a mother Islam in one who was a Buddhist, and yet, they're both very interested in speaking with me because of my care for the poor. And it'd be very easy to just talk about that. Right? And the whole time, I'm like, I gotta turn this, turn this, like, oh, man, my heart started to break for them, I care about them, but they're not going to like this. And, and it's just that whole on I got I went like 80% That way, you know? And then it's like, do I kind of, do I get the judgment thing? Do I tell him how I'm concerned about? You know, how far do I take it? Man, I'm just telling you, it's very real. Where this wrestle of, please pray for me, because I don't want to back back down talking to another person who was just kind of your typical San Francisco, everything gets you there. You know? And it's like, you just want to nod your head? Yeah, yeah. You know, as long as you believe in any type

of God. But that's the, that's the opposite of his book. I mean, God was always telling them, Look, if the idols are not gonna do anything for you, you got to carry him around, they don't even talk? Are they gonna tell you the future? Are they going to save you in the end? What are they going to do for you? This whole book was like, there is no other God. And out of concern for people, you know, out of love for people, there should be this anguish, and my prayers that we don't try to just ignore it. But we'd say, Okay, God, changed me, I want that anguish there. Because I remember times when it was there in full force, and I would just weep for people cry for people. And that would motivate me. It's not just duty, or whatever. It's like, let's pray that we become those people, and then start praying for people, that they become those people. And some real practical things you can do. In fact, I, I did it this week, was just writing out a list of maybe the top 10. You know, people in your life that you love, that don't know, Jesus. And just so do you have a prayer list that you're consistent with? I haven't been consistent with that. And as I was studying for that, I realized that so I thought, you know, let me just write down 10 names of people that I really love right now that don't know Jesus. And thank God give me a greater burden for them. And let me pray for them consistently. And let me feel this anguish towards them. And then start thinking through the people in the congregation and encourage them to do the same thing. And just remember what success is getting our people to care that much that they're out sharing the gospel.