Come up for record. Acts 20. And we've got two verses here. 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 2. Did I say one? 1 Timothy 2. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about Mother's Day, initially. Happy Mother's Day to you guys. Okay, so the name of our theme today is, Find Your Purpose in This Life. That's what we're talking about today. Finding your purpose in this life. If you look at Acts 20, verse 24, and this has something to do with Mother's Day. Try to figure out how it has something to do with Mother's Day. How do you get Mother's Day out of this, Sam? Okay. But I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I have received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. I don't consider my life worth anything. No value at all. If only I can just finish this thing to testify to the Gospel of God's grace. That's how he viewed his life. My only purpose here, really, my life is meaningless, worthless. The only purpose I have is this. To testify to the Gospel of God's grace. So how does that relate to Mother's Day? Can you figure it out? 1 Timothy 2. Before we read this, I want to remember to thank you guys. I always forget to do this. When I go over to these poverty places, like I'm going this week over to Africa, I'm taking Cindy, I always try to find the worst people that need the most, the most needy people. I like doing that. Let's find the most needy guys and help them, right? So we have our things that we do, our feeding programs, and then the Gospels being preached. But I'm always careful to tell everybody, hey, I'm not the guy, I'm not the big benefactor, all this food comes from God, and the way it works is this. I have people in the United States, and they want to help you guys. And God moves their hearts to give money, so God moves them to give the money, and the money goes, and now the food is from you guys. That's how it works. But it's all from God. But I want you guys to think about this. I want you to always think about this. When you guys put the money in the box, okay, now, and you guys give a pretty good chunk of money here. Dorian gives me regularly like $3,000 a month for this outreach stuff. And that ends up being like about a third of all the money I get. It's a lot of money. But all that money, you guys know I have a real low overhead, so almost all that money goes into the belly of these kids. So here's my question. On judgment day, when it's time for everybody to get examined about what they did, like, did you neglect to help the poor? How do you get free of that? How are you free of that guilt? Well, this is a good way. So you get free of the guilt by helping the poor, by putting a dollar in that box, And the second thing is, he rewards you. Jesus says you're gonna have treasure in heaven. So there's a bank account, and he's keeping track of it, so you're converting your dollar into rewards, and you're also being free of the guilt. And my point is, it's a good investment. And I'm thankful. I'm thankful that I'm the guy that gets to go do that. I had somebody tell me recently, Sam, you got the best job in the world. You get to go around and feed all these hungry kids and preach the gospel. I said, yeah, I think you're right. I got the best job in the world. So thank you guys. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, OK? And see, it doesn't matter. I get excited. I hear about these kids that put in a little bit of money from somebody. I get more excited because remember the widow with the two pennies? It doesn't matter. We're not trying to save the world of hunger. We're not trying to do that. We're trying to give everybody an opportunity to be involved. So it doesn't matter like the little bit or the lot. You know, hey, somebody puts a million dollars in, other guy puts 50 cents in, God could think that 50 cents is more. It's all based on your sacrifice, right? So anyway, God is giving us an opportunity. Okay, so today we have all these opportunities in our day. Educational opportunities, career opportunities, financial opportunities. But the greatest opportunity that we have today is under this bigger heading of being an influencer. The opportunity that you have in your lifetime, in this life, for you to be an influencer. And you see, that's what Paul was saying right here. My only purpose in this life is to influence people about this kingdom, about this message. That's all I'm good for. So basically, Paul was an influencer. And that's what we are. That's the greatest thing we can do is influence people for the kingdom. So, what does that got to do with Mother's Day? Alright. 1 Timothy 2. This is the big verse that we use that, women can't be pastors! Right? Don't you dare. Don't get any ideas. Let a woman learn quietly, verse 11, with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man." That's in the context of the local church. It's not about teaching astrophysics in the university. It's not about witnessing to your male friends. It's not about having a Bible study outside the church. It has to do with when the church gets together, God doesn't want women to be the guy in the front teaching the men. That's in the church setting. That's the context here, right? Okay, so then women might say, well, jeez, if that's the truth, then how can I influence anybody if I'm not permitted to teach in the church? What good am I? A woman might say that, right? Well, that's why in v. 15, yet, she will be saved through childbearing. What does that mean? You know, saved is preserved also. Other translations say that word. But how is a woman saved, like what, to have eternal life from having babies? It's not that. We know that. In the context, it's about this. A woman gets her dignity, a woman gets her influence, her power to make a difference in this world by having children. Why is that? Because mothers have the influence. Mothers have the big influence. You guys know that? And so the babies are being raised, and the mother now has this great opportunity to mold that kid into somebody that can go out into the world and put a dent in the devil's kingdom. That's the idea. They can't teach the Bible from the pulpit, but they can teach this other kid how to be a powerhouse in the world. That's how the women get their power, their influence. Listen, it falls under the same heading that Paul's talking about. My life means nothing to me except that I can testify to this Gospel because I'm trying to influence my culture about this King Jesus and about His Kingdom. That's why I'm here. And see, the mothers are doing the same thing. It's about you being an influencer. And so we're all running around with this great opportunity of being an influencer in our day for the Gospel of Jesus. So let's pray. Father, thank You for letting us be a privilege, such a great privilege that You gave to us, that You will actually let us be involved in Your work. Help us to have a vision. Not that we all have to be speakers, but just every little way that we can be involved for moving the people around us toward you, toward your kingdom. Help us to see that today, to get a hold of that. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Okay, so let's start off with this about Mother's Day real quick. Just really briefly, sometimes I do this. I ask people, hey, why do you want to have kids? Have you ever asked people that question? Why do you want to have them? And then listen to the answers. Now, I googled it, and these are some of the answers that I hear, but this guy put it better. Listen. Well, when you ask the culture, why do you want to have kids? Emotional fulfillment and joy. I'll be fulfilled if I have kids. I'll get a sense of joy. a sense of purpose and happiness. I will be rewarded. I will have a fulfilling experience. I will create a family. I'll have a sense of family. Or sometimes there's a cultural expectation or a family expectation of me to have kids. Or I need companionship. You know, in the Philippines, when you ask the mothers, why do you want to have babies, you know what the biggest reason is? Who's going to take care of you when you get old if you don't have kids? And this is how it works. You have your kids, you raise them, and then when they get old enough to have a job, they're all expected to give money to their parents so their parents don't have to work anymore. So they often come to me, Sam, you don't have any kids? No, I don't have kids. What are you gonna do when you get old? I go, I'm already old. But, hey, what's gonna happen to you when you can't work? I'll just work, like what? That mentality is, if you don't have kids, some girls will even get pregnant without a husband or boyfriend just so they can have a kid to take care of when they get old. So these are different reasons people want to have kids. But you notice something in common with all these reasons? All these things have this in common, that it's all about me. I'm getting happy. I'm fulfilled from having kids. I'm enjoying the kid experience. Now, I'll read this guy. I found this guy on the internet this week. His name is Steve Schramm. I never heard of him, but he had a great article. Listen to the title of this article. What makes having kids worth it? The question he raises. A biblical answer to the wrong question. It's a great title. So I'm just gonna pull, I'm gonna read this like two minutes. It's a big article. If you want it, I'll give it to you. But just a few things he said. Even in Christian circles, quote, children are a blessing. We're thinking that children are a blessing means a blessing to us. So why have them? Have them because they're part of your mission for God to impact the world around you for many years to come. Children are worth the pain and the work and the expense many times over. It's not about the parents. It's about implementing God's plan here on the earth and populating heaven with more people to glorify God. Not only the kids, but the people that the kids are influencing to populate heaven more. They are to be a blessing to the world and bring glory to God. The cultural lie is that our children exist to bring us happiness. I thought that was good. So, you know, the Catholic way, you guys know this maybe, the Catholic way of growing the church is outlaw birth control and everybody have as many babies as possible. That's how they do evangelism. And so they've grown over the hundreds of years by that. So they kind of get it. They're kind of getting it. Babies work and grow the religion. And the Muslims do the same thing. When I was in Nigeria, the Muslims in northern Nigeria, the men were having more than one wife. They'd have a wife. They averaged about six kids. When they were done with that one, they'd get rid of her and get a new one, having six more kids. And they did it three times. The average was 18 kids per man. And they didn't take care of any of their kids. They just taught them how to be beggars and they sent them out to beg. They're all poor. And they didn't take care of their women either. But see, they're good Muslims because they're populating and they're taking over politically and religiously. But see, they're kind of getting it kind of. So what we're doing is we're making our children into these little weapons that go out into the world and influence people toward Jesus Christ. Okay, am I crazy? You guys get all that? We're done with the Mother's Day thing now, okay? No more of that. That was my introduction. I didn't want to come here without a Mother's Day thing. All right. So let's talk about this greater, my purpose. What's your purpose? And we're saying to be an influencer in this world. And so let's ask this question. Why did God create the universe? Why did God create the angels and the people? What's the point? And when you look at the big picture of why He did it, He designed, He architected the whole thing. We look up in the heavens, we see the glory of God. He architected the entire thing for the purpose of glorifying His Son. Of bringing Jesus Christ the most amount of glory. If you read this whole Bible, I think you're going to come to that conclusion. That's what he was up to the whole time. Why did he create everything and then allow it to fall into the evil and the devil and the demons and the evil in the world and now we're all in this miserable condition in this world? Why did he do all that? There's a higher purpose. He set the stage. The stage for the Lord Jesus Christ to come into the world and be the hero. He's the hero of the story, right? We are nothing but condemned people. The entire race is condemned. And we have no hope. And He comes into the world, and He loves everybody and dies on the cross and redeems His people. And now, what's going to happen? God's going to roll this whole thing up, He says, like a scroll. Remember that? This whole thing is going to be rolled up. It's done. New heavens, new earth. Now He's on to something else. What was the point of this whole thing? Here's the point. Imagine this. You're in the disembodied state. You float up to heaven and you see Him. There He is. It's Jesus. There's my Savior that loved me and He brought me here. I deserve to go to hell and He died for me. There He is. And then we go back into our body on Resurrection Day, now we're on the earth, and He's on the earth, and we're eating, it says, and drinking with Him, and He's talking to us? What's that going to be like? There He is! He's the one that loved me, and died for me, and saved my soul, and I get this paradise forever. This is so wonderful. Listen, that's going to go on forever. That's glory to Jesus for all eternity. That's what's going to happen in eternity. So what was the purpose of this whole thing? Why did God even create it? He created it, the Trinity when I say God, for the purpose of bringing glory to Jesus Christ. That's what I'm trying to say. So, what do we devote ourselves to? We are devoting ourselves to the glory of someone else. Our function, like Paul, on this earth, is to devote our life to the glory of another person, Jesus. That's our main function here on the earth. And what does it mean to give glory to someone else? Glory in the sense of public recognition, a person's greatness, their achievements, their fame, spreading the fame, the greatness and the achievements of another person. That's what it means to give someone glory. And the perfect illustration of this is that girl on TV called Caroline Levitt. Have you seen her? The press secretary? She's a genius. But watch her. Every day I see her, I always listen to her because I get a summary from her. I love what she does. She gets up there. How are you guys all doing today, all you news guys, all these media guys? Hey, we're doing OK. Look, President Trump did this. President Trump did that. President Trump said this. President Trump made a promise. President Trump kept this promise. President Trump did this. On and on, President Trump, President Trump, President Trump, this, that, and the other thing. What is she doing? She's glorifying someone else. She's using her energy and mouth to bring glory to this. Now, look, it's not about Trump being... Whatever you think about Trump, it's not the point. The point is not Trump. The point is her. She's giving glory to another person. And then they start going, well, what about Trump said this, and the tariff, and whatever. And then China guides the boats coming here, and they can't get their toys for Christmas, and what about that? Whatever they say to her, she just turns it around. You idiot, it's this, not that. President Trump said it this way, and she just, ah, there's nothing but President Trump. That's what we're supposed to do about Jesus. She's a perfect picture of what it means to glorify another person. So, it's a servant. She's being a servant to this guy. It's not about her glory. It's not about our glory. We're here to glorify Jesus to seek His fame. We're not here to build our own kingdom. We're not here to build our own legacy. We're not here to be remembered. Hey, did you guys, hey, tell me about your great-grandfather. What? No, seriously. I wanna hear about your great-grandfather. We don't even know his name. The point is, they're gonna forget you after two generations. You'll be forgotten, I'm sorry. We're all worried about our legacy. So what am I working toward? How am I going to structure my life? Listen, this is very practical. How am I going to structure my life? What are my motives? See, I'm trying to do this more and more with my life. Why am I doing what I do? Everything. Why am I doing this? What's behind this? And I'm telling you, if you examine your motive, you can start thinking, everything that I do, I want to do it with the motive of somehow bringing glory to Jesus Christ. Everything can be looked at that way. Everything you do, every little thing. And so I'm trying to pray about that. Lord, I want to do this for this motive, for glorifying You. So Paul was a great influencer. His life was worth nothing to Him, except that He could testify to the Gospel of God's grace. So, see, when we try to figure out, we can get lost. What's my purpose? Well, I've got to make money. I've got to get my career. I've got to make my investments. I've got to have my kids. We can get lost in the big picture of what we're trying to do. It's like Jesus said, His big picture was, remember He said this? He goes, The Son of Man did not come to be served. I didn't come here for anybody to serve me. But I came to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. That's a big sweeping statement about why he came. Right? He had that in his head all the time. And then he made another one. He said, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. So he's all about these big sweeping statements. And Paul made a big one here. I count my life of no value. It's not precious to me. If only I may finish my course testifying to the Gospel of God's grace. So, you know, when you look at the Holy Spirit, you know what the Holy Spirit's purpose is? The main purpose of the Holy Spirit? Jesus told us, John 16, He will glorify Me. He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. So the whole function of the Holy Spirit, here we are, we're walking around, we could care less about Jesus. Yeah, we heard about Jesus, who cares? And then the Holy Spirit goes inside of us, and what does He do? He makes Jesus look so irresistible, so big. He glorifies Jesus to us, and then we become interested in, see, He influenced us, He influenced us, right? And He made us from dead. We're disconnected. We're dead. Spiritually dead means we're disconnected from God. Now He connects us to God. He's inside of us. Now we see Jesus in a whole different light. That's His function. And somebody says, well, no, Sam, the Holy Spirit is here to comfort us. He's the Comforter. Yeah. How does He comfort us? He makes Jesus so real to you. Wow! Jesus loves me. I don't care if everybody hates me. Right? As long as I got Him, I'm fine. He makes Him so precious and so real that we are comforted no matter what we're going through, but He does it by glorifying Jesus. So, the reason I'm telling you that is because that's our function too. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. You know that verse? Revelation? The Spirit says, Come. And the Bride say, Come. That's what we're supposed to be doing. So, Jesus said the parable, remember? At the end of it, he goes, well, we invited everybody and they won't come. These guys, they're invited. He goes, well, go out into the highways and compel them to come in, that my Father's house might be full. So Peter says, you know, look it. Peter says to these guys, you killed the Holy One. But God raised Him from the dead, and He exalted Him. He's resurrected, and He's the Lord. God made Him Lord in Christ, and we are witnesses of this, and so is the Holy Spirit. There's two witnesses. We are the ones testifying about the greatness of Jesus, and so is the Holy Spirit. Because without Him, nothing happens anyway, right? So the Gospel brings a lot of glory to Jesus, doesn't it? Have you ever thought about how much glory the gospel message itself brings to Jesus? I mean, look it, the gospel message is not complicated. We are just a bunch of condemned people. That's all we are. The good sinners and the bad sinners, we're all condemned under God's judgment. We have nothing to offer God. We can't do anything. We can't pay Him. We have nothing to do. We can't earn nothing. We're in this fix of being lost, condemned. That's who we are. And what? There's one hero He comes down and He goes, I'll help you guys. You guys are all on your way to hell. There's no hope for you. I'll fix it for you. I'll live this life and die on the cross. And I'll take the punishment for all. I'll take all your sins on me and be punished in your place. And I'll give you this hope free from the wrath of God, free from the punishment. Not only that, but I'll bring you into heaven. You can be adopted as children. And you can come up to glory land. You can live in paradise forever. There's nothing like the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the thing that's so wonderful about it is He gets all the glory. All of it. So the message glorifies Him. So what's our place? Well, I'll remind you guys of this. I hope you know all this. The elect are already paid for. Right? The elect are already paid for. They don't know it. They're walking around. Point number one, Jesus already paid for them. Point number two, the Holy Spirit is sent to regenerate them. So they can have faith, they can see the beauty of Christ. And they can love Him and put their faith in Him, right? Now they're born of the Spirit. This is the mechanics of the way God works. But now you've got to get this third part. The Holy Spirit never regenerates somebody when there's a vacuum in their head about Jesus. The Holy Spirit never, now get what I'm saying here, He never saves anybody without them knowing the gospel in their brains. And guess who are the ones that put the gospel in their brains? We, God includes us in his program of we are the ones who get the privilege of putting the gospel in their brains. Now the Holy Spirit can use it. There's no such thing as a guy walking around out in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden he knows all about Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead, coming to him by faith. That's not in the Bible. What's in the Bible is we are the ones that have to tell them and it says it right here. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You guys know that verse? Everyone who calls on the Lord in the right way in His name, everything He represents, will be saved. But listen to what it says after that. How then can they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Well, they can't call on somebody without believing in Him. And then how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? They can't believe without hearing. And then how are they to hear without someone preaching? You see, we're going backwards. Romans 10. They have to call on the name of the Lord to be saved, but they can't do that unless they believe. And they can't believe without hearing, and they can't hear without somebody telling them. We play a part. God has allowed us to come into this realm and play a part in being the guys that give the message. Or being the guy who helps someone give the message. Or being involved in mercy ministries that help the guy listen to the message. There's a million different ways that God can use people that the message goes into their brains. That's our big purpose in this life. That's what I'm trying to say. That's your big purpose. Whatever you're doing, that's the big out. So it's the greatest work you can ever devote yourself to. And so somebody says, geez, Sam, that's kind of hard. Like, okay, I've got to go to school and learn how to be a... I've got to get a degree. I've got to become this guy that knows everything. Listen, you know what's needed in our day? Somebody who has a simple, simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know He loves me. I know he died for me. I want him to use my life. That's the only thing that's needed. I'm telling you. I'll give you a story about this. I've had a lot of people affect me in my day. One of the greatest guys that ever affected me I was on Hollywood Boulevard and it was kind of dead. I used to go there in Christmas time when I was off the campuses and nobody was listening to my sermons on the street. Nobody was taking my tracks. Nothing was happening. I got so discouraged. So I went, I said, Lord, I'm so discouraged. Yeah, you got to help me. I'm so discouraged. I feel like quitting. I'm going to go get a drink over here at 7-Eleven. So I went over to 7-Eleven. I got something. I came out. There's this guy ringing the bell, you know, Salvation Army. It was Christmas. He comes up to me and he goes, are you a Christian? I saw the Jesus sticker on your shirt. I go, yeah, I am a Christian. He gets a hold of my hand and he goes, I'm a Christian too. The Lord just saved me. My life was so messed up and Jesus came into my life and died for me and now I know the Lord. I'm so happy. And now He gave me a job. I'm actually helping the poor. I'm collecting money for the poor. The Lord gave me a new life. A whole new job. wouldn't let go of my hand. And I'm like crying. I'm going, this guy's powerful. What did he say? All he had was, Jesus loves me and died for me. That's all he had. He shot off his two bullets. I will never forget that guy. Ever. You see, it doesn't matter how much you know, it matters the Lord is in you, right? God's building His kingdom, we're not building His kingdom, He is. It says, Paul says, we're the treasures, we have the treasures in jars of clay. Remember that verse? But we have this treasure in jars of clay, talking about the gospel, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We're this fragile jar of clay, but we have this gospel inside of us, so that if anything good happens, it's the power of God. We're these fragile nobodies. So, how do we view ourselves? Listen, let me run this by you, okay? Who will I model my life after? Who are you going to model your life after? We have models in our day, you know, guys that do evangelism. Have you ever watched Ray Comfort? I love Ray Comfort. He's the guy that goes, have you ever stolen anything? Yeah. Have you ever lied? Yeah. Have you ever blasphemed God? Yeah. Have you ever lusted after a woman? Yeah. So God says you're an adulterer, you're a blasphemer, and you're a liar, and you're a thief. You're a liar and a thief and a blasphemer and an adulterer. You got that? How you doing? You think you're gonna be okay on Judgment Day? That's his method, right? I mean, I like the guy. It's not my method, but okay. So, then you buy a little stool and you start preaching the same thing, right? So, is Ray Comfort your model? Is John MacArthur your model? I love John MacArthur. He's probably the best Bible teacher of our day, right? Does God want me to sit at a desk for 40, 35, 40 hours a week reading books and writing things? Is that what I'm supposed to do? You know, you might come to that conclusion. I thought that when I first began. Listen, I used to read a lot of theology before I became a pastor. When I became a pastor, I didn't know the first thing about how to run a church, how to be a pastor, nothing. All I knew about is evangelism. So I started reading, reading. I was reading five hours a day, trying to devour everything and figure it all out, the Puritans, how do I do this stuff, you know? And I'm sitting there after a few years of reading and several years of preparing for my sermon on Sunday and hours and hours of preparing and catching up and learning all these books. One day it hit me, hey, you know, Jesus didn't sit down and do that. He didn't sit at a desk and read books all day. And neither did the apostles. I started going, huh, am I supposed to be doing this? Or am I supposed to be going around where the people are? I'm just telling you, who's our model? And so I want to tell you right now, listen, I want to put this in you if I can. Your model is not MacArthur. It's not R.C. Sproul. It's not Ray Comfort. It's not anybody. Your model is Jesus. We've got to get that. Jesus Christ is my model. I want to be like Him. I want to think like Him. I want to operate like Him. So I want Him to... I want to change into that somehow. Okay, now, you say, well, that's pretty good, Sam, but he's God and everything. Well, there's another guy, Paul. Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. So, now I got this other guy, Paul. Okay, what happened to Paul? After Paul got converted, what did he do? How did he live? He's my model. We got Jesus, now we got Paul. He's my model. I'll tell you what, if you make Paul your model, you're not gonna look like these guys out here doing their seminary thing. Then Peter, Peter's one of my, you know, we look at Peter sometimes. Peter, you know what he did after Pentecost? He goes up to these guys and he goes, you guys killed the Holy One. You guys crucified him. You guys wanted Barabbas. You guys murdered him. But God raised him from the dead and exalted him. So much courage that would take. They just killed Jesus and you're talking to him like that. Then they throw him in jail, remember? They threw him in jail, they were gonna kill him. And the angel let him out. You know, Pierre, you know, he's one of my models. I wanted to be like that. And I'll give you a couple more guys before we move on. Make these guys your models. You know, Jonathan in the Bible, remember what he did? Oh, the Philistines are killing us. He goes to his armor bearer, let's go up there and, you know, if they say come up here, then we'll think maybe God will give us them into our hands. The odds are way against us. There's only two of us and we're going uphill and there's a whole bunch of them, but maybe God will put, maybe God will give us the victory. So they're climbing up this thing and they're going, come up here and we'll teach you a lesson. Yeah, God's given them into our hands. It looks hopeless. And they go up there and they defeat these guys, right? Well, that's Jonathan. Now Jonathan is watching David. Nobody wants to fight Goliath. This kid comes along and he goes, I'll fight him. What? No armor, just a sling with some stones. Jonathan's going, what? This guy's like me, only like a million times better. So he goes out there and defeats Goliath. Jonathan goes, this guy's gonna be the prince, right? What's the point? See, these are the guys that should be our model. These kind of heroes in the Bible, but mainly Jesus. How do you become like Jesus? Listen, you've got to get this. There's a secret. It's in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. It's the best verse in the whole New Testament about sanctification. You know that word? Sanctification is becoming holy. Well, the best way of looking at holiness is becoming like Jesus. Isn't that our goal? We're being conformed into His image, Romans 8. Sanctification is all about becoming like Him. So how do you become like Him? How does anybody become like Him? He tells us right here. This is the mechanism that God uses. Verse 18. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, looking at, beholding, are being transformed into the same image. It's the thing we're looking at. Into His image. From one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Now look, what is this saying? We're beholding, we're looking at Jesus. His glory. The stuff He did, everything about Him. We're looking at Jesus, and by looking at Him, looking at Him, something happens. Something supernatural happens according to this. We're changed into His image. Transformed by the Holy Spirit. There's another person working. I'll give you this. This word, beholding, In the NIV it says contemplate, and in the King James it says beholding as in a mirror, because it means those same three things. It means this, looking at Jesus, and the NIV calls it contemplating. Contemplating has to do with thinking, thinking about Him. I'm thinking about Him, I'm looking at Him, and now the King James says beholding as in a mirror. So there's this reflective His image is reflected on me somehow as I'm looking and beholding and contemplating Him. There's a supernatural thing that happens to the person by the power of the Spirit where they get changed. They get changed into His image. Little by little, it says, from one degree to another. Now, how do you look at Jesus? How do you contemplate Him? There's only one way. You've got to read this book. You've got to look at his life. You've got to read his life over and over, and think about him, and think about everything he did, and watch how he moved, watch how he thought, watch what he said, watch how he answered questions. You study his life, you think about him, you contemplate him, and then something supernatural happens. You start to think like him. You start to appreciate the same things he... See, that's how people are changed. It's not like, oh, there's a picture of Jesus on the wall, and I'm going to look at that. There's a white guy with blue eyes, and that's Jesus. I'm going to contemplate. See, it's always through the Word. Romans 12 tells us what? We're transformed how? By the renewing of what? Your mind. See, your mind. My mind has to be renewed. I have to rethink everything. Rethink what I think. Rethink about everything. Who's my model? What am I doing with my life? What's my big picture? What's my purpose here? I've got to rethink everything and start rethinking like Jesus and renewing my mind to look like Him. We're not supposed to look at other Christians and other churches and go, well, that's how they do it, or they look like they do it. That's not our model. So, I want to feel what Jesus felt You know, I got convicted this week, you know. I started looking at these beggars around here that, you know, they don't need anything. They just take their money, your money, and buy drugs or something. They got food and everything. You know, they don't, they're lazy, but, you know, I started looking. You know, you're in your car and they're right next to you with their sign, the red light. You're just like, you're trying not to look at them, right? They're invisible! And you know what? I started thinking, I'm making them feel like they are invisible. Have you ever had people make you feel like you're invisible? You're in a group and they don't even acknowledge you're there. You're just like some invisible guy, right? That's not a good thing. And I started thinking, I don't want to do that to them. So I'm going to go back to my granola bar thing, where you give them a granola bar and a tract. But the reason is this. Just this. Hey, buddy. I see you. I know you're there. Have a granola bar. You're not invisible. That's all I'm trying to explain. Because you know why? Jesus didn't see people like that. Like these guys are invisible. He didn't see them like that. And I got kind of convicted about that. I remember I was thinking about this. I actually looked it up. How far away was the Syrophoenician woman from Galilee? Anybody know? He left Galilee. He walked up to the land of Tyre and Sidon. Have you read that? And he talks to this woman about her daughter. And he comes back. You know how far it was? 35 miles walking one way. I want to be like that. I want to be able to walk 35 miles to see one person. Don't you want to be like that? And then he goes up there and she's crying out, you know. Did you ever think about this? Let me switch this a little bit from this preaching thing, a message thing, into this other realm about having mercy ministry. Mercy ministry is when you're focused on suffering people, alleviating them, having compassion. That's a whole big, giant ministry that we're supposed to be doing. And Jesus went up there and she's crying out about her daughter to Him. How did she know that He would even help her? How do you think? Somehow she heard about this guy. I heard about him. He's the guy that goes around helping everybody. They lowered the guy down to the roof, right? Remember that? Why do you think they lowered the guy down from the roof in front of Jesus? Because they heard, this guy will help some. He's all about helping people. Why were they grabbing onto his, touching his, crowding in, mobbing him, pressing? Can you imagine that? People breathing on you, and like thousands of people just... That's why I think he had to go off and pray all the time, to be alone, just to recuperate. And I think he got rejuvenated by his father. I think that he got things like... The transfiguration happened to him regularly, I think. I think he heard God's voice audibly. There's going to be a woman here at Samaria. She's going to have five husbands. Here's the whole story. Go over there and meet them. I think he got all that stuff from his father. He's operating as a prophet. But he got supernaturally visited, I think, because he needed to. Well, remember what Peter said about Jesus? You guys know about him. He's at Cornelius' house. You know, it wasn't done in a corner. You guys know this. He went around doing good. And you guys all know it. Everybody knew that. Why do you think when he walked around, people would cry, Jesus, Jesus, have mercy on me, help me. Why were they even doing that? They knew, they heard all about him. This guy has compassion. This guy has mercy. This guy will help you. This guy will walk 35 miles for one person. So the point is, the mercy of Jesus ends up opening up the door. People would mob to listen to Him. I think that was one of the reasons. And see, we see this happening all the time. I see it every time I go. I go to these schools and I go, hey man, we want to help your kids. We want to help your starving kids. We want to help them with food. Really? Wow! Yeah, and I also want to teach the Bible. Okay. Do you want to feed our kids? What? What? The mercy opens up the door for the preaching. You know, we see this all the time. You guys know Dan Sem? Dan, some over there in Lebanon, all these refugees, these Muslim refugees coming in, and they all have these medical needs, and pregnant ladies, and Dan's all into the paramedic, he was a paramedic, he's all into the medical thing. He's all helping these guys. What does that do? It opens up the door for these Muslims. Now they want to listen to the gospel because of the compassion and the mercy ministry. You guys know Andy Hamilton, the husband of this lady. He's got the same story. All kinds of doors opened up for him because his wife was doing all this mercy ministry. I'll tell you what, I've seen this happen just when I was over in Nepal. This is so cool. I knew these kids from 20 years ago. They were little kids. Now they're all in their mid-twenties. And John took them in, they were all orphans, and he gave them a place to live, and taught them the gospel. They got older, and they got saved. A bunch of them got saved. Really saved. And now they want to do that to other little kids. So now there's all these orphans coming from these towns, because they hear about the Christians, and they send them over here. So John gets these orphans, and these other teenagers, 20-year-olds are teaching these kids, and they're starting to get saved, and they all want to go back to their village and talk about the gospel to their village. And the village will listen because they know, oh, the Christians, we heard they were the bad guys, and the Hindus should stay away from them, but wait a minute, the Hindus never helped us, and these guys are helping us. So it opens up the door. Look at the best story over there. This guy Raju, okay, he was a hardcore radical Hindu, smashing churches. Him and his buddies, they were beating up pastors. He actually went to school to be a journalist so he could learn how to communicate better and write so he could write against Catholics and promote Hinduism. He's radical. Justin gives him the Gospel of John. He reads it with the intention of refuting Justin. Then he gets his attention, he reads it three times, and God saves him. Goes back to his friends, tries to tell them, they all threaten him. His whole village where he's way out there, they say, that guy comes back here, we're gonna kill him. We're gonna stone him to death. We got the pile of rocks right here. But then there were some kids from that village that got taken in by John. And then somebody else from the village got real sick and they came, John took them in, paid their hospital bill at the hospital in the capital. And all of a sudden they started going, hey, these Christians aren't so bad like we heard. Then Roger goes back and they go, okay, we'll listen to you, we won't kill you, we'll listen to you. What changed them? The mercy ministry. See, my point is, there's room for everybody. You may not be a preacher, you may not be able to talk, you may not be able to do anything, but listen, there's tons of compassion, mercy-related things that God uses. It's all a team effort. Here, I'll give you another little tip. I bought this at the Dollar Tree. You know what this is? Bluetooth, earbuds, for five bucks. Why is that any good? Here's what I've been doing. You put this thing in your head, and you walk around with your Bible app all day long, all day long, and you just run the Gospels. And most of the time, you can't focus because of your other thoughts. You can only think about one thing at a time. But in between everything, you're always catching stuff. All day long, those words are going through you, and they're all in the background all the time. That's how you can think about Jesus and contemplate and behold the glory and keep your mind on that. You know, we're supposed to keep our mind on things above and on it, right? Just a little, if you want to try it, it's worth five bucks, right? Have you guys ever heard of Rosie the Riveter? Anybody? You know? Okay, man. She's a World War II iconic figure, like the girl with the work shirt, but she's doing a muscle, posing. Rosie the Riveter, okay? Well, who is that? Here's what it is. And I always talk to my dad about this. You know, when I grew up, all my dad's friends were in World War II. I grew up hearing these stories. from these guys. Horrible things. But listen, here's what happened. We were threatened by Germany, we were threatened by, not like today, that war was not like the wars now. We were really threatened, and everybody was into it, and they were all joining. All the men were joining, the young guys, they all wanted to go and fight because we were being threatened. And so all the guys were out fighting, and then we had to transform our industry into making weapons, making airplanes, making tanks, and boats, and ships, and ammunitions, and all that. And who's going to run the factories? The women. The women went in there, and they became Rosie the Riveter. Why did I tell you that? Listen. I think we're in a bigger war than that right now. There's two kingdoms. There's the kingdom of Satan, and there's the kingdom of Jesus. And it's not about real estate. It's not about World War II stuff, about who's going to conquer your land or who's going to lose their freedom. It's not about that. It's way bigger. It's about eternal souls. So you've got this negative kingdom, this bad kingdom, Satan's kingdom and all of his army. And then you've got the kingdom of Jesus here. And now there's a big war going on over these souls, right? And what are we doing? Most of us. Yeah, we heard about that war. What's on TV? Listen. We're supposed to have a wartime, a World War II kind of thinking about this. And how does God want to do it? How do we fight? We fight by bringing the glory of the Gospel in all these different ways. Mercy ministry, people talking. You are an influencer. That's your main purpose. Your main purpose about being here It's not your family. It's not your career. It's not your retirement. It's not your house. It's not your grandkids. It's none of that. Those are all nice things. That's not your main thing. Your main thing is you are an influencer and that's your purpose in this war. It's a wartime mentality. So you say, well, Sam, how do I do that? It sounds so, you know, what do I do? Look it, here's what you do. This time when I came back, I had two months. What am I going to do? I usually go street preaching. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do something that anybody can do. You're not going to get people to go street preaching. I'm going to do something that anybody can do. So I took the gospel card that we got. I love this picture because it tells the gospel just by looking at it. The sky's crossing through Jesus going up to heaven. And then there's a little QR code and you click on it and Dorian pops up and he's preaching. He's preaching and it's all about this church. The rest of the website, right? So I started going, I'm going to put this on Doors. And I started doing it, and I did a couple hundred, and I got work my way up to about 350, 400 a day. So I ended up doing about 3,000 or 4,000 of these, right? Okay. So the guy comes home, and he looks at that. And most of them are probably going to throw it away, right? So I started thinking, how do I figure out how many people are clicking on that? So I had another idea. I printed up this thing, this little business card, with a little QR code on it. And when you click on that QR code, it goes to one of my playlists on my YouTube page so I can count, I can see the numbers. So I started at zero with my playlist. And I only gave this card to 375 doors, nobody else. So anybody who hits that QR code is from the card that I put on their door. so I could measure. Is anybody looking at that? After two days, it was about 10%. After a week, it was about 25%. Over 100 people clicked on that thing. What does that mean? That means one out of four people who get this on their door click on that thing. You know what? That's pretty good. I don't know about you. That's pretty good. If you can get, if you can pass out four things and have somebody look at your, and on that thing it comes up, it's a bunch of messages that I already had on Facebook, I just stuck them on here. But now why am I telling you this? I'm telling you this because Susie, gave me the idea. She doesn't even know it. She's like, ah, I got these clients, and I don't know, what do I do, you know? And I thought, well, you tell them. Listen, pretend you're a hair cutter, and somebody's in your chair, and now you've got to tell them the gospel. You know how hard that is? They're paying you to sit in that chair. You have no right to tell them your religion. It makes it twice as hard to tell them, because they're paying you. Right? I would have a really hard time doing that. So I thought to myself, okay, Susie can do this. She can get her phone and make a little recording of her little testimony, whatever she wants to say about Jesus, whatever he did for her, whatever, one, two minute, three minute, whatever it is, and then put it on her YouTube page and link it to the QR code and make a card just like that. Same picture and everything. And when she's done with the haircut, she goes, hey man, here's my card. Just some things I believe in in case you want to look at it. You know, here you go. See how easy that is? Now the guy can look at it or not, no pressure. And I would be willing to bet that more than half the people are going to look at that. And they're going to hear Susie talking about Jesus. And somebody's going to come back and say, wow, that was pretty cool. And Susie can say, you know, if you ever want to talk about the Bible, we can meet with you and answer your questions or anything. We'd love to meet with you. It's fishing. I will make you fishers of men. Now here's my point. Then I thought, well, not only can Susie do that, but everybody can do it. Ivan's on his plumbing job. Hey man, here's my card, check out sometime. And the guy goes, oh yeah, what is it? Clicks on it. Ivan comes up talking about Jesus. Anybody can do this. So I'm going to print more of these up for me because like when I'm in the airport, you know, you guys sitting around the airport waiting for their flight and they're on their phone. Just pass them out. See, it's about being an influencer. It's about, I'm trying to make it easy to where you don't get rejected. Nobody likes rejection, right? Hey, can I tell you about Jesus? No, get away from me. Nobody likes to hear that, right? But isn't it easy just to say, here's my card if you want to look at it sometime. There's no rejection involved, right? Anybody can do this. Why would you not want to do it? See how it's so easy? And my point is, I'm here today to try to emphasize this point. The reason we're here in this short time is our purpose is to be the influencer about glorifying another person. It's about the glory of Jesus. And so we have to find ways, we have to be creatively thinking all the time, how can we bring glory to Jesus with what we're doing? That's my point today. I'm going to give you guys my card now that I got my statistics down. And then everybody can see my card and you can get an idea about what to do maybe. I will help you, it's easy. You guys know how to do it. Make a YouTube page and it's nothing, right? And then I'll show you, I'll do the QR code for you, whatever you need. Then what we can do, we can have like all these people here now spreading the glory of Jesus with their little testimony card, right? Does that sound like a good idea? Or do you guys wanna be in the battle? It's just an easy way to get in the veil. Easy, right? Sam, don't you dare tell us what to do. Is it like that? And then, if you want to get some exercise, put that on doors. Then they can get connected to our pastor. You can have them hear the pastor. Isn't that a good idea? Okay. Father, we thank You that You have the mercy that let us do anything. Why would You even want us to do this? But You give us the privilege of being involved. And we love You, Lord Jesus. There's nobody like You. We want to be the ones that bring You glory. We want to make Carolyn Levitt look like a second string compared to us. Help us, Lord, to bring glory to You. Teach us in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.