teaching/sermons/col-1-15-20/expansion/icoc_alpha_omega/clean/26-proclaim-his-name-jesse-ghoman-icmc-proclaim-la-jubilee-anaheim-arena-sunday-ser.md

Proclaim His Name | Jesse Ghoman | ICMC "Proclaim" & LA Jubilee | Anaheim Arena | Sunday Sermon

Col 1:15-20 prep relevance: RELEVANT

Why kept: Closing ICMC/LA Jubilee Sunday sermon, opens directly in Col 4:2-4. Preaches Paul's prison-letter charge to "proclaim the mystery of Christ" — clearly, freely, confidently. Closes the letter the hymn anchors.

Key excerpts:

00:00:01 Well, my brothers and sisters, my name is actually Jesse Gomen. [Music] God finds interesting times to keep you humble. You know what I'm saying? That's all right. But it is a joy to be here at this jubilee with all of you. It's an honor to be able to preach the sermon for y'all this morning. You know, I'm reminded of the last time that I was here in Orange County. It was about 7 years ago. And uh one of the

00:00:32 best things I've ever done in my life is marry this amazing woman right here, Alexandra. And uh Alexandra is Sam and Jerry Lang's youngest daughter. And it's been a huge blessing. And one day we were flying back from Orange County airport all the way back to Boston, Massachusetts, which is where I'm from. That's where I grew up. And we get on the flight and we turn, you know, the corner and we see

00:01:03 somebody sitting in first class and it was none other than Stephen Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith. And he looked just like this in this picture. It was wild. And we're just flying. I thought when we got to Boston, he'd be off. He'd be gone. But he was right there in the airport getting his bags. And Alexander and I are standing there waiting for a ride to pick us up. And Stephen Tyler comes walking right past us. And it happened to be Valentine's Day

00:01:34 that day. And so I looked at him. I said, "Hey, excuse me, Mr. Tyler. Can I ask you a quick question?" And he turned and looked at me and he said, "Yeah, what's up, man?" I said, "Well, this right here is my wife, Alexander." I pointed at Alexander. I said, "She is my wife. She's pregnant. She's the future mother of my children." Now, Mr. Tyler, you've been all around the world and you've seen a lot of really beautiful women. Is this not a beautiful woman standing before you here today?

00:02:04 And he looked at her and said, "Oh my goodness, absolutely." And he scooped her up in his arms. He gave her a big kiss on the cheek with his giant lips. And then his aura got to her. She got a little flustered in that moment, you know, and And you might wonder, why would I do that? Why would somebody do that? And it's because I believe that if you truly

00:02:34 love someone, you will proclaim it. You know what I'm talking about, church. If you truly love somebody, you'll proclaim it. That's what our campus disciples, we've been studying out this entire weekend together. The first one to really do this was King David. Look at this scripture in 1st Chronicles 16. >> You know, before this, God really proclaimed his own name. But David brings the ark back to Israel and he dances before the Lord and then he turns

00:03:05 to the people and he tells them, "Give praise to the Lord. Proclaim his name. Make known among the nations what he has done." My sermon this morning is entitled proclaim his name. >> You know, since David, this is what the people of God have always done. This is what we do. You know, and we we might feel insecure at times like Moses. He said, "I don't know how to speak." But

00:03:36 what does God tell him? You've got to go and proclaim my message to Pharaoh. >> Do we have any mighty women of God out there tonight? I think about I think about Esther who said, "I can't go to the king. I can't say it." And God says, "You cannot be silent in this moment." I think about Jeremiah the prophet. We got any teens who were dancing, getting crazy up here who love the Lord? Jeremiah, he was just a teenager. He

00:04:06 says, "God, I'm only a child." He says, "You've got to go and give the message to the people." How about every person that ever met Jesus? What did they leave doing? They were overjoyed at what this man had done for them in their lives. And they went off proclaiming and telling everybody what Jesus had done for them. And we do it too, don't we? Make some noise. If Jesus has changed your life, if Jesus has freed you from some sins,

00:04:39 if he's changed your marriage, if he's answered a prayer, this is what disciples of Jesus are supposed to do. Are you with me? >> You know, I grew up my entire life in the Boston Church of Christ until just a few years ago when my wife and I moved to South Carolina and we get to lead the Charleston Church of Christ. We got a great group of college students here from Charleston. And and I'll tell you, growing up in our fellowship and family of churches was so inspiring to

00:05:10 me because I looked around and saw people that really believed what we're talking about right now. I grew up and saw people that were just proclaiming Jesus. You know, it wouldn't be uncommon if if one of us saw Stephen Tyler on the street, we'd walk up to him and say, "Hey, you got to come check out this awesome new church I just joined." You know what I'm saying? That's what I grew up in. But church, I'll tell you today, something feels very different to me.

00:05:41 >> I believe it's in the DNA of every disciple. I believe every single one of you, we want to proclaim the name of Jesus. Jesus means so much to us. But I believe today there's also some other things going on inside of us. I think there's some conflict that can exist inside of us. There's some inner turmoil that can exist inside of us at times. >> All right, talk about it. >> Jesus saves us, but then over time, Satan begins to try and silence us.

00:06:13 >> You know, I got a picture of my daughters right here. I'm a girl dad. We got any girl dads out there? These are the go girls. We got Rosie and Georgia. And then we got our six-month-old who's here today, Goldie. And as a girl, Dad, I have to do a lot of detangling of hair. You know what I'm talking about? And I don't know what it's like when mom does it, but when dad does it, it's a little painful.

00:06:43 There's some tears, but the only way, really, the only way is through. And this morning, that has been my prayer and that has been my hope of what I can do for some of you today is to help detangle your faith a little bit >> to try to help you figure out what are some of the things that hinder us from proclaiming like in our hearts we want to proclaiming Jesus's name like maybe we feel like we used to to help our

00:07:13 churches to feel like we are really proclaiming Jesus in our cities. the way that we dream of. >> This past weekend, the campus ministries, we studied the book of Colossians together. >> And every single one of our main sessions, we read through the entire chapter and then we preached on it and we studied it together. And the book of Colossians was written by Paul at the end of his life while he was in prison for Jesus. And you know, at that time in his life, Satan had tried a lot of tricks on Paul,

00:07:44 but he had one left in the chamber. He said, 'If we can just silence Paul by putting him in prison for the last few years of his life, maybe we can end this thing right here, right now and extinguish the light of Jesus in this world. And this morning, I want to look at a few snapshots of Paul at the end of his life and look at some of the words of a dying proclaimer and hopefully they can help untangle us and get us centered back on Jesus here this morning. So, open your Bibles with me to Colossians

00:08:15 chapter 4. And that's where we're going to begin. [Music] >> Colossians 4 and verse 2. Paul's got a prayer request. Paul, he writes to the church in Colassi while he's in chains at the end of his life and says, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, and pray for us, too." What's Paul going to ask for? That I may get out of prison?

00:08:45 That I can have some some ease from the pain that I'm in? Some comfort in this time in my life? What does he pray for? He says, "Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ." This is what was on Paul's mind, >> for which I am in chains. He says, "Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should."

00:09:15 This is the first thing God tells us here this morning is we've got to proclaim his name clearly. >> Okay? >> You can't proclaim what you're not clear about. That makes sense, doesn't it? >> I think Paul could have been pretty distracted at this point in his life. You know, he would have been under house arrest with a Roman shoulder chained to him and he would have been living in a rented house that was probably in some slum there. And there was a lot that could have distracted him. He was still clear at this point in his life that what was the answer that everybody

00:09:46 around him needed. Jesus was the answer. >> He only has one prayer request, only one concern at the end. That was Jesus. Are you still clear, church? Are we still clear about Jesus right now? >> I think about my father-in-law, Sam Lang. You know, Alexandra, you know, like I said, she's the she's the youngest daughter of Sam and Jerry Lang. Many of you know of Sam. He was a

00:10:16 preacher for many years. I actually think some 20 years ago, the last time LA had a Jubilee, they were here with y'all. He was an author, wrote a lot about marriage and family. and uh he was diagnosed about six years ago with dementia and then passed on to be with the Lord last December. Appreciate any prayers y'all have had for our family, keeping us in your hearts. But with dementia, if you've ever seen it or experienced, it's kind of like a pie that makes up who you are.

00:10:46 Keeps losing slices of it one by one by one until there's really not much left that remains. And it was so inspiring to see Sam as he forgot who I I think I was the first person in the family to go. I married into it last, you know, forgot our names. Never really forgot Jerry and who she was, his amazing, lovely wife. But you he kind of remembered University of Florida. We got any Gators out there? You know, he always remembered

00:11:16 Gainesville. But really the the thing that remained at the end for Sam was continuing to try to talk to people about Jesus. >> They would go Christmas caroling around the neighborhood and he would wander off and start door knocking. They're like, "No, Sam, we're not doing that right now. We're we're just we're moving on." I mean, he just hounded his older brother. He would keep calling him. He kept talking to his brother. You got to get baptized until his oldest sibling finally relented and went and studied

00:11:47 the Bible and got baptized. I got a picture right here of Sam baptizing one of his grandsons. Can you imagine baptizing your grandson? This is Blake Thompson who's about to be a freshman, a disciple in the campus ministry at University of South Carolina. And Sam, he didn't he didn't even know what the questions were anymore. But he raises this up because he knew this is what it's all about.

00:12:17 Church, do we still believe? Do we still know? Are we still clear that this is what it's all about? Are you with me? >> You know, I think many of us, we get distracted by stuff that won't matter in the end. If it's not something you're going to care about in the end, it might be a distraction in your life today. >> Now, I'll tell you what, church. I think it's been awesome over the years that I've been a disciple. I'm coming up on 25 years since I've been baptized. >> And when I think about what God has

00:12:49 added to our faith, God has added a lot of things to our faith over the years. Things like it's a it's good to get outside help outside of the church with certain things sometimes, right? things like talking about mental health, things like talking about whether it's women's roles in the church, things like talking about race or social justice in the church, or or even talking sometimes about that there are different ways and methods of doing church. And I think it's awesome. Guess what? Paul had to write letters about pretty much every

00:13:20 single one of those things, too. But in the end, what he was focused on was proclaiming Jesus. And it becomes a problem for the church when we let these other topics, these other issues, these other things begin to eclipse the sun. >> You know what Satan wants to do? He wants to distract us. Church history is a history full of people who are constantly getting sidetracked and distracted by all kinds of issues.

00:13:53 And what's even sadder is when Satan turns distractions into divisions in the church. You know, Colossians 4, we were just reading. It talks about the mystery of Christ. What is the mystery of Christ? What does that mean? You know, I believe that Paul was he was just thinking about how some way somehow when we share the gospel with people, it changes their lives. >> Have you seen that happen before? Remember what Hebrews 13 says? It says

00:14:26 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and he's the same today and he's the same forever. Amen. We've got to be clear that Jesus was the answer. He still is the answer. He's always going to be the real answer. And guess what? You have that answer. You have it. When we first moved to Charleston a few years ago, a guy came out to church named Justin. And Justin and I could not be more different from one another. He's Mexican. He's from Phoenix, Arizona.

00:14:57 He's covered in tattoos. He'd been, you know, in and out of prison at different times in life. He lived a really hard life. And he started coming to church and studying the Bible. And he invited me over. We were sitting in his garage having a Bible study. He says, "Jesse, the thing that I'm having the hardest time with is just giving up substances, is giving up drugs." And he said, I and he had all these arguments and all these reasonings. And I asked him simply, 'What do you think Jesus has to say about it? I don't really know. And we simply for the next

00:15:29 30 minutes looked at a few different verses about what Jesus and what the scriptures say about this being a sin. And it was amazing just 30 minutes later seeing, you've seen this before, you see the wheels start turning in people's heads. And I started to see his heart change. And he said, "Jesse, I need to give this stuff up here and now. I want to get this stuff out of my life. The only problem is he pointed in his garage. He said, "I have about $3,000 worth of drugs in here right now." He said, "Can we maybe like go and and

00:16:00 put it in a trash bin and burn it out in the back?" I said, "I don't think that's a good idea to burn the drugs." He He goes, "Well, then can you take them home with you and go throw them out in a dumpster somewhere?" I was like, "That would be kind of radical." But wait, what if I get pulled over by a cop officer? I swear I'm on my way to go throw all of these out right now. I promise you, I'm a minister. I And so he ended up asking a friend, "Hey, will you will you come and pick

00:16:30 these up in the morning?" And his friend came and picked him up. His friend, best friend, his name was Matt. And he was ticked off at Justin for changing his life and repenting. That ever happened to you before? You know, people, they don't like the change that you're trying to make in your life. But Justin, he repented. He got rid of, he got out of his life. He got baptized. He gave his life to Jesus. And and one of the big goals and prayers for him was he said, "I want to reach out to my friend Matt." And for years, he kept talking to Matt. Matt didn't want anything to have to do with church. And

00:17:01 about two years ago, his buddy Matt said, "All right, why don't you two come over to my garage? I got some questions about God and the Bible." And for the last two years, we've been studying the Bible with Matt. And just about a month ago, we were in Matt's garage, and we were counting the cost with him. And Matt said, "I'm ready to be a disciple, but I got one problem. You see that bucket up in the garage over there? There's still some drugs left over." And

00:17:33 I'll tell you what, Matt and Justin together, they got those drugs out and they literally took a baseball bat and they smashed them and they threw them in the trash and they got rid of them out of their lives forever. Guys, I ain't no professional. I'm not no counselor. I don't know how. But here's what I know. Name your problem and the name of Jesus can fix it. Whether your problem is drugs or guns or the government or poverty, a lot of

00:18:04 other things in this life can help. There's a lot of things in life that help us. But there's only one thing in this life that changes us, that saves us. And we got to get clear again, church, that that's what it's all about. >> Don't let Satan distract you. Don't let Satan confuse you. Don't listen to the voices out there, even inside the church, that want to distract you and confuse you. Listen to Paul. Look at Jesus. Let's look at the next snapshot. Let's

00:18:34 turn our Bibles over to Acts chapter 28. You know, the book of Acts, the book of Acts ends with the end of Paul. Acts chapter 28 and verse 30. Here's the last we hear of him. It says, "For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. And he proclaimed, there it is again, he proclaimed the kingdom of

00:19:06 God." And he taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. Amen. >> You know, I believe the next thing God teaches us here is we've got to proclaim his name freely. >> It's incredible how Paul was he was in jail, but he didn't act like he was in jail. You know what I'm saying? >> This not a very good time for him to continue to proclaim the name of Jesus. But what does it say about him? It says that he continued to proclaim Jesus with

00:19:38 all boldness and without hindrance. He was hindered, but he wasn't because of God. >> Are you free here this morning? >> I'm not talking about physical chains. I'm talking about the invisible ones. The chains that we all have inside of us at times when we get tangled up in our faith. I'm talking about chains that we can have on our heart. Chains of bitterness, chains of hurt, chains of mistrust.

00:20:11 whether it's with God or his people or whatever. You know, I'm reminded, well, I'll say this. I think it's easier in a lot of ways for young disciples to proclaim freely. You know, we got these college students in here. When you're a new disciple, when you're a young disciple, it's kind of easy to proclaim freely. But then what happens to us over time in time? We get a little tangled up. We get a little shackled up. Why? Maybe your children didn't want to

00:20:41 become Christians. Maybe your children want to have nothing to do with God. That's painful for us, isn't it? Maybe you have a friend that said, "I don't want to be a part of this church anymore." And they turned to some other fellowship, some other church. Not that it's evil or something, but it can make you feel a little alone sometimes in your journey. What's wrong with me? What's wrong with our church or God? Maybe there's some promises that you thought God made to you when you said Jesus is Lord. And you're still waiting

00:21:12 on some of those promises to be fulfilled. You're like, "I'm still single. I'm still waiting on a blessing. I'm still waiting on God to change my family." And that can hurt. There's unspeakable losses that we go through in our lives. >> They chain us up. Makes it pretty hard to proclaim his name. I think about somebody else who was unjailed. He was jailed unjustly like Paul. I think about Nelson Mandela. You know,

00:21:42 Paul, it was about three years that he was in prison. Nelson Mandela was in jail for 27 years. And he once said, "As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in that prison." >> And church, the truth is, I think that

00:22:13 is how a lot of us are living as disciples today. Sadly, you're you're trying to be faithful. You're coming to church. You're giving contribution. You're reading your Bible. You're trying to do it. But on the inside, you're living your faith behind bars. You can't proclaim Jesus like that. You know, recently, I think it's even become very popular to hate on the

00:22:43 church. You know what I'm talking about? I love Jesus, but I don't really like the church. I don't really like organization. You know, I I used to love the church, but then it turned out that the bride of Christ is a bridezilla. You know, it's got drama and issues. And I think about what Jesus says here in Ephesians 5. >> What it says about Jesus. It says, "Husbands, love your wives just as Christ what? Love the church. And he gave himself up for her to make her

00:23:15 holy, cleansing her by the washing with the water through the word to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, holy and blameless. You know what that means? It means that Jesus sees the wrinkles in the church. It means that Jesus sees the blemishes. He sees the mistakes. But how does he handle it? He doesn't say, "Let's cancel the church." He doesn't say, "Let's expose the church." He says, "No, no, no. We need to wash

00:23:45 the church with the word is what we need to do." Jesus says, "I love the church. Warts and drama and mistakes and all." And you should too, church. You should too. >> We're calling this weekend a jubilee. It was mentioned before, but do you know what the year of Jubilee was all about in the Bible? every seven years and every 50th year, God told the Israelites, "I want you to cancel all of your debts. If anybody owes you money, just let it go." He said, "I want you to

00:24:15 free your slaves. If there's someone that's working for you, let them go." And there's some of us here today, we got church hurt and you have not canceled the debt that you're holding against people. There's some of us that we have maybe someone who is our discipler or a leader and we are still holding them captive as slaves in our hearts. And you know who the real captive is? It's you. >> It's you in that situation. I don't know how you do it. I don't know

00:24:46 how it's done. But I say if this is really going to be a jubilee, you go talk to somebody. You go text somebody before you leave here today and you say, "Can we get coffee soon? I got to work some stuff out once and for all. You got to give it to the Lord. And church, I get it. My life has not been perfect in the kingdom either. You know, my life I I've seen divorce and brokenness and different kinds of abuse and fighting. And I was baptized

00:25:17 in 2001 and within just a couple years, everybody in my teen ministry, all the people that were mentoring me, they all left the church. I've been through it, too. I get that life isn't always perfect, but God has never left me. God has never let me fall. You know what? God lets me stumble sometimes. God, he allows challenges to happen. Heaven is going to be perfect. He never said this life was going to be perfect,

00:25:47 but he has never let me fall. He has never let me go. And he will turn your life around yet. He will. We witnessed an incredible miracle a year ago in Charleston. On one Sunday a year ago, four different men were restored to our church in the same day. >> And you know why that blew my mind? is because helping restore people to the fellowship, that's not like a goal you have. You know what I'm saying? That's not like let's let's try to get some

00:26:18 restorations in the next few. It doesn't really work like that. That's just something that God does behind the scenes. One of these guys, he was the son of some longtime members of the church. He had been baptized, but then he wandered away from the church, wandered away from God, ruined his life, was in prison, got out of prison, and God helped him put the pieces back together, and he came back to the church. Two of these guys, they were friends of members for 10 years.

00:26:49 Their friends continued to love them, stay in touch with them, talk to them. >> The tall guy there, his name is Mike Barnes. Mike Barnes was a former evangelist in the ICO who left the church in 2003, left his wife, left the Lord, and for 20 years wandered in the desert. And this day showed me something that I will never forget. That God is working behind

00:27:20 the scenes. He really is the way maker. God is doing what he does. You know what I'm talking about. So, we got to do what we're supposed to do. We got to just keep proclaiming Christ freely, trusting that God is moving, trusting that the story is far from over. Amen. >> Let's turn our Bibles over to the book of Philippians, chapter 1, and we're going to look at our final snapshot >> of the life of Paul and his end.

00:27:54 He writes to the church in Philippi and in Philippians 1:12 he says now I want you to know brothers and sisters that what has happened to me has actually served to what to advance the gospel. He says as a result it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. You know, fear spreads, but you know

00:28:24 what else spreads? Courage. Look at the results of what happened. Verse 14, he writes, "And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord, and they dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear." Last thing God has to say to us this morning is we've got to proclaim his name confidently. >> All right. >> If you are full of fear, you just simply

00:28:57 won't proclaim his name. >> It says that Paul proclaimed in the palace. It's kind of interesting. He he was in the palace. You know, it says later in Philippians 4 that there were members of Caesar's household that were getting baptized. Do you know who Caesar was at the time? It was Nero. If I'm one of the disciples, I'm looking at Paul going, "This guy, I cannot believe he's still doing what he's doing." And Paul's courage and Paul's confidence, it's spread to everybody

00:29:29 else around him. >> Church, I think sometimes there's a time that we got to get our swagger back. You know what I'm talking about? Like for instance, are there any are there any men out there going through a little bit of a midlife crisis right now? Wives, give your husband just a sweet kiss on the cheek if he's going through a little bit of a midlife crisis, you know, and you don't feel like you're as in shape as you once were. And so you got you get some new clothes, you got a new car thing going on because you're

00:30:00 trying to get your swagger back a little bit. Listen, I'm not looking down on you, brothers. I'm there myself. I remember a couple years ago, I was walking around the house and I was helping my 2-year-old do. I was walking around shirtless and I was helping my 2-year-old daughter with something and she looks at me and says, "Daddy, your body, it looks like a snail." Savage, if that's not a wakeup call, I don't know what is. I mean, please

00:30:34 can I talk to my brothers and sisters in the LA church right here? >> I think y'all need to get your confidence in the Lord back. >> Sometimes I don't think we realize the impact that we have made for God. Do you realize the impact that this church has made for God? You know, there was a Southwest leaders retreat here this weekend. So many of the churches around the Southwest were started and planted by you. They wouldn't even be here without you and your sacrifice and your courage. When I look around at all the

00:31:06 people in here, I think about all the money that you guys have given to global missions over the years. There's so much money in this city. And y'all have said, "We're going to give it to the world so people can hear about Jesus." When y'all were thinking, "What mission field should we go to? Communism fell and you decided we should go to Moscow of all places. Let's go plant a church there, having no idea all

00:31:36 the amazing things that were going to happen. That takes courage. That takes confidence. You go, where should we go next? Maybe somewhere a little easier. Let's go plant some churches in the Middle East. This is what you all have done. This kind of sacrifice, it inspires me. But the truth is, this kind of sacrifice, it also leaves some scars sometimes, doesn't it? >> Because when you risk something,

00:32:06 you end up losing something too oftent times. And and then fear begins to grow. I don't want to lose something again. I don't want to get hurt again. this kind of fear and ends up winning the day over faith. I think Paul had a time very similar to this. In Acts 18, Paul is in Corenth and he gets persecuted and he gets beaten up and he gets harassed and he's he's decides, I'm not going to preach. I'm not going to proclaim his name anymore.

00:32:37 But luckily, Jesus appears to Paul in a dream. He appears to Paul at night in a dream. Acts 18:9. One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. I think we need to hear the same thing from our Lord. >> Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent. For I am with you and no one is going to attack you and harm you because I have

00:33:07 many people in this city. Paul had a wakeup call, didn't he? He had a wakeup call right here. My daughter gave me a little bit of a wakeup call. I think sometimes we got to look in the mirror and have a little bit of a wakeup call. It makes me think of one of the mightiest Avengers around. It makes me think about Thor. Let me show y'all a picture of Thor right here.

00:33:38 >> It doesn't look right, does it? I mean, Thor, he's normally strong and chiseled and ready for battle, but there was a time where Thor got a little bit flabby. He got a little bit out of shape, and he needed to get his swagger back a little bit. >> When I think about this picture, I honestly think that this is what a lot of our churches look like today. >> I think we have so much potential.

00:34:09 I think we have disciples that have incredible hearts, that have incredible dreams, that want to change the world for God. But sometimes we got to look in the mirror and go, I don't think we are right now. You know, what does it look like when a church gets out of shape? Like, what does that mean? I think it's when we stop growing, when we stop reaching the youth. And I think it's hard for us sometimes to even recognize we're not really growing the way that we need to or want to because

00:34:39 it's hard to look in the mirror. A lot of times what churches do is they decide, let's start redefining what our mission really is because it's hard to face. We got some things to turn around. There's nothing wrong with needing to turn things around. Like every other page of the Bible, Israel is needing to turn it around. You know what I'm talking about? Like every other page of the New Testament, the same thing is happening. We got to have a wakeup call sometimes. You know, I think when the church starts looking out of shape, it's because the members, the people start to

00:35:10 get more focused on building their own lives than building the kingdom. When we start going that way, we got some stuff to turn around. You know, we start getting out of shape. When we stop changing the world, one of the things that's awesome in Charleston, we partner with a lot of you here in LA and across the Southwest. We help support MCA, which is the Mexico Central America Missions Society. We got any brothers and sisters from MCA here? It's great to see you. I saw the flag waving

00:35:40 earlier. You know, we get to partner with you. But can I tell you something that's been discouraging me recently is we've had to make budget cuts to the funding for MCA. And there's more to come in the future simply because we're not growing the way we used to >> or maybe we're not given the way we used to. >> And I don't know really any of you. I don't know what all the reasons and but all I know is

00:36:11 the church, we can't be retreating. We got to want to be advancing the kingdom of God. >> And my brothers and sisters out here from Mexico, Central America, in Charleston, we are praying that we turn that around. I say we better turn that around. Church, are you with me on that? >> I don't want us to give less. I want us to give more to our brothers and sisters in humble circumstances. Where are we going to get our inspiration from today? I'll close out with this. When I think about

00:36:42 inspiration, sometimes our inspiration to get confident, sometimes it comes from the youth. Wasn't it awesome seeing all these ICMC campus disciples, >> praising God? A lot of them were up here worshiping God. And you know what? It reminds me of two legends of Los Angeles. I'm talking about Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Well, now I'm from Boston, so I ain't

00:37:12 going to preach too loud about it, okay? But I'll tell you one story. You know, Kareem, he had been in the league for 10 years, and he was getting a little old. He was getting a little injured. He'd already won one NBA championship, and he was thinking about retiring. But then the Lakers drafted a young Magic Johnson. And the first game of the season, Kareem gets a a pass to him and he hits a skyhook buzzer beater for the win. And

00:37:42 young rookie Magic Johnson comes running down the court and he jumps on Kareem and he's fist pumping. And after the game, Kareem looks at Magic and says, "Hey, rookie, don't ever do that to me again. We got 81 more games to go." I think that's what happens sometimes with the old and the young. Hey, let's be wise. Let's be And the young go, no, let's be enthusiastic. Let's be confident. and magic. He said

00:38:13 to Kareem, "If you hit that shot 81 more times, I'm gonna jump on you and celebrate 81 more times." And you know what? By the end of that season, Kareem is dunking on people and he's turning around looking for where's Magic Johnson? I want to chess bump him. And they went on to win the NBA championship that year and they won five more NBA championships after that. All right. I see it happen with Paul. I see it happen with Maggie Johnson. This is what faith, this is what confidence does.

00:38:46 This is what enthusiasm does. It spreads. We got a lot of young Magic Johnson's in the room here. Our campus disciples. I tell you what, our campus ministries, they've been turning some stuff around. In the last four years, the downtown Boston campus ministry has baptized 200 of their friends over the last four years. Just down the road, the San Diego campus ministry two years ago they had 80

00:39:17 disciples. They have 160 disciples two years later. They are turning some stuff around. There are campus students that went on mission teams this year to the Bahamas, to Trinidad and Tobago, to the Philippines, to Thailand, to Albania, to Germany, to Italy. This is what they're doing right now. You know, campus, we're living in a time, I want to talk to you. We're

00:39:48 living in a time where our churches need your enthusiasm. I think the campus ministry is like the heart of the church. And what is the heart supposed to do? It's supposed to just pump blood out to the body. And this is what the campus ministry needs to do. Wherever you go home to the dreams that God gave you here this weekend, the passion that you garnered for Jesus, you need to go home and you need to pump faith. You need to pump miracles. You need to pump vision into your churches.

00:40:19 >> And can I ask you, can we start that right now? campus disciples, just like Magic Johnson did. Can we get hyped up for the LA church that's sitting around us right now? I'm talking where would we be? Where would we be without them? I really mean that. LA, we are looking to you. I really mean that. How are we ever going to evangelize this world without the LA

00:40:50 church? How are we ever going to reach the world without reaching a city like this? First, we need you. Raphael Lou, he's going to get up in a minute and he's going to talk to you about a little bit of the future. And I implore you, come together. Come together so that you can proclaim his name to your city. Trust one another. What we just read in Philippians, it talks about the word confidence in the Lord. That word confidence is translated

00:41:20 to trust in God. I think trusting in God seems really easy until God asks us to trust one another. >> I implore you. Come together. >> You cannot reach a city of millions of people all by yourself and your little alone church. But together we can proclaim his name. I tell you church, are we the churches of Christ or not?

00:41:53 >> If we are his church, if we are the churches of Christ, then it is time, it's high time to throw off everything that hinders anything that's been hindering you and get back to being the proclaimers of God because he has many people in your city. And at every campus all around the world, there are so many people that are listening, that are waiting, that are longing for someone to proclaim his name.