Thank you.

What is up, one and all?

Hey, Pastor Rory here, and I am delighted, dare I say excited, to be with you this weekend.

Today, we're launching into week number three of our series titled The Jesus Resolution. And to begin things today, I want to take us back in time, back in time to the year 2010.

Steve Jobs just introduced the world to the iPad in 2010.

And also, if you were in church circles, you knew that skinny jeans and deep Vs were all the rage.

But 2010 was also a special year for me because it was the year that I started seminary.

Now, to be completely honest, it was kind of crazy.

I had a lot going on in my world.

And there's something that you need to know about me.

See, in high school, I was that straight.

a student.

And then even in undergrad, I graduated summa cum laude from Northwest University.

But now in seminary, my life looked a little bit different.

I was newly married.

My wife and I both had full-time demanding jobs, and we had just started the adoption process.

So life was busy, and I was trying to cram a whole bunch of school into a very short window of time.

And what I found out was this, and parents, please don't hate me.

I found out that C's get degrees.

Now, to be completely honest again, here's the truth about seminary.

Seminary is wonderful, but sometimes the conversations can be mind-numbing, like long discussions on dispensationalism and then ruckus debates about paedo-baptism.

But then every once in a while, there was some classwork, some coursework that was really, really engaging.

I'll never forget.

the day when my professor, Brian Chappell, who was a preaching pastor, came and spoke to us.

And he spoke to us on this very simple theme, but it was so profound to me at the time.

Now, if you don't know Brian Chappell, you really should look him up.

He's got a ton of books that he's written and stuff, but he loved not only preaching, but he loved church history.

And he shared this one simple truth that has just absolutely stuck with me.

And what is that simple truth?

It's this, it's that changed people change people.

changed people change people.

And then he went on to tell story after story after story of people throughout church history who were changed by the good news of Jesus Christ, by the gospel, who then went on to change other people's lives.

People like A.W. Milne.

A.W.

Milne was a Scottish farm boy who was known for his profuse use of profanity.

And yet, God got a hold of his life and he actually became a missionary, but not just a normal missionary.

He actually became a one-way missionary.

What's a one-way missionary?

A one-way missionary is someone who doesn't pack their belongings in suitcases and head off to distant lands to make a difference for the name of Jesus.

No, instead they pack their belongings in coffins because they know that where they're going to go, they're going to give their life.

for the good news of Jesus.

And that's exactly what A.W.

Milne did.

He packed his belongings in a coffin, hopped on a steamship, headed out for a small set of islands in the South Pacific.

By God's grace, he was granted favor with the people of those islands and he served them for years and years and years and showed them the love of Jesus.

And then one day he died.

He died on those islands and here's what the people of those islands wrote on his tombstone.

They said, When he came, there was no light.

But when he left, there was no darkness.

That's a powerful story.

I remember sitting in the class going, wow, but that was just one.

There was another story.

He talked about this young woman, a rebellious teenager who had a lot of questions.

Her name was Amy Semple McPherson.

She met Jesus in an old school tent revival.

And then a few weeks after she met Jesus, she actually got married to a pastor slash missionary.

And they dreamed that they were gonna go to China and share the good news.

And that's exactly what they headed out to do.

They went to China.

The only problem is when they got to China, both of them contracted malaria.

Amy got sick and she recovered, but her husband unfortunately got sick and did not recover and passed away.

And the crazy thing is now here's Amy a million miles from home and she finds out that she's pregnant.

A 19-year-old widow missionary in China.

By God's grace, she's able to come back home, but she still feels this stirring in her heart that she's got to do something, that she's got to preach.

She's got to bring the good news to people.

So she does something crazy, especially for a woman in those days.

This is a hundred plus years ago.

She starts a mobile evangelism ministry.

automobiles are just brand new.

She gets a truck.

She's a brand new mom.

She hops in that truck and she and her kids and then her new husband go start this mobile ministry and they head all throughout Canada and the US.

Eventually they land in Los Angeles.

And by this time, she's grown such a following that she builds the largest church in all of Los Angeles and all of the country at the time.

In fact, it still exists today, right in the heart of Echo Park.

Angelus.

temple.

And oh, by the way, what else did Sister Amy do?

She started this little school called Life Pacific University that over the course of the past almost a hundred years has served by pouring into and building up the next generation of ministry leaders, who is Amy.

She is a changed person who changed people's lives.

And then of course there was one more.

He was a 15-year-old who got caught in a snowstorm.

His name was Charles.

Charles looked for refuge in a small Methodist church.

When he got there, the pastor came and found him and shared the gospel with him.

Within a year, young Charles was preaching his own sermons and 42 years later, he would be known as the Prince of Preachers.

Who am I talking about?

I'm talking about Charles Spurgeon, the man who wrote over 155 books, the man who oversaw or founded 66 different, charities, the man who started Metropolitan Tabernacle, the largest church in England, 6,000 seats.

Who was Charles Spurgeon?

He was a changed person who changed people.

But there's another person that I want to talk about today, straight from, straight from scripture.

Another changed person who changed people's lives.

And his name was Saul.

Saul was a card-carrying Christian killer.

In fact, one day he was on a murder mission north to Damascus when God met him.

and literally knocked him off his donkey and got a hold of his life.

And after Jesus got a hold of his life, this man's life changed.

Not only did his life change, his name changed.

He went from being Saul, this religious zealot, to becoming Paul, a missionary for the name and the sake of Jesus.

And you want to know what Paul did?

Paul was used by God to go on three missionary journeys that took the gospel of Jesus to the known world.

Not only that, Jesus used him to pen two thirds of the New Testament.

Paul had such a profound impact on history that 2000 years later, we're naming our babies after him.

Who was Paul?

He was a changed man.

who changed the lives of other people.

Now, I don't know about you, but in this series, we've been talking a lot about discipleship.

We've been talking a lot about what does it look like to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, to walk in the dust of the rabbi, to use our gifts, our talents and abilities to bring God's kingdom from up there, down here in people's life.

What does it look like to be a changed people who would change the lives of other people?

And if you're asking that question today, there actually is an answer.

And what I wanna do today is camp out on some of the words of Paul.

And as we look at the words of Paul, he's actually gonna paint a picture for us on how we might actually become a changed people who change other people.

And if you're taking notes, and I encourage you to take notes because what you write down, you're more likely to recall.

I want you to write down this.

If you wanna be a changed person who changes the lives of other people, it's this simple.

You've gotta stop trying and you gotta start training.

You have to stop trying and you need to start training.

How many of you, by show of hands, how many of you love to win?

Man, I love to win.

This past Monday, my youngest son was in a baseball tournament and he was in a very high pressure situation.

He got called in to pitch.

Bases are loaded.

The score is four to three.

His team is winning.

He's got a full count.

There's something that needs to take place.

He either needs to strike this batter out or get this batter to ground out or fly out.

Because if not...

He's going to walk him.

The next run is going to score.

It's going to be a tie ball game.

We can't have that, right?

So the pressure is mounting.

The crowd is loud.

And here's what happens.

Up the middle, man.

Up the middle.

But when I see that, my heart is a father, man.

I get so excited.

I get so pumped up because I love.

to win.

And did you know that winning is actually a godly thing?

Here's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. He says, don't you realize that everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize.

So what does Paul say?

He then says, so run to win.

Run to win.

Paul doesn't say run to finish.

He doesn't say run.

for fun.

He doesn't say run to get that participation trophy.

No, he says run to win.

And to quote the famous theologian, Ricky Bobby, if you ain't first, you're last.

See, it's in the Bible.

We want to run.

And when we run, we want to run this life, this race.

We want to run it to win.

But here's the question.

If we want to run to win, why does it feel like so many of us are actually not winning, are losing this spiritual journey battle?

And I would submit to you it's because we've been trying.

rather than training.

We've been trying rather than training to change and to be everything that God has called us to be, spiritually speaking.

So what I wanna do is I wanna show you as we unpack a little bit more of this passage in 1 Corinthians 9, what it looks like to become a changed person who changes people and how we might do that.

Now, you need to understand this passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 9.

It's penned by Paul, but he's writing to the people in Corinth.

Corinth is a city in Greece.

Every four years, Greece hosts the Olympic Games.

Every two years, they host a smaller, more localized competition called the Isthmian Games, these athletic competitions.

And so there's all sorts of different kinds of competitions within these games.

There's chariot races, there's racing and running, there's wrestling, there's even poetry, like drop a beat kind of stuff.

And the Corinthians, when they hear Paul speaking this way, kind of using these sports analogies, what they do is they start leaning in.

And so once again, Paul says, don't you realize?

that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize.

So run to win.

He continues, all athletes are disciplined in their training.

They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.

So I run with purpose in every step.

I am not just shadow boxing or punching in the wind.

I discipline my body like an athlete, training it.

to do what it should do.

Now, once again, getting into the context of where Paul is writing and the people that he's writing to when they're thinking about these games and these competitions, they would go, these athletes, they would go on these intense training regimens of like 10 months.

There would be no wine.

Some of you are like, I'm out.

There would be no junk food.

The other half of you are like, I'm out.

These strict training regimens.

Some of the runners, they would run.

nude.

And it wasn't like sexual or anything, but it was like to show the purity of the body.

But I don't know about you, but if I was a nude runner, I have this like idea that I want to get out in front because I just, I don't want to see all that.

And the wrestlers, I read an article this week about how the wrestlers trained for these games.

They would train their bodies in extreme temperatures.

They would wrestle in the hot heat of the summer, sometimes over a...

100 degrees, then they would wrestle in the snow in the winter.

And sometimes they would wrestle not just each other.

They would wrestle animals.

They will wrestle horses.

They would wrestle bears.

One article even said they would wrestle lions.

These extreme training regimens.

Now, I don't know about you, but I would probably stick with the poetry route.

And I even have a little poetry for you.

Give me the microphone first so I can bust like a bubble.

Corinth and Long Beach together.

Now you know we in trouble because ain't nothing but a Greek thing, baby.

Anyways, I can't believe I just did it.

I digress.

Moving back, here is the context in which Paul is writing this.

And what you need to understand is...

Scripture doesn't tell us to try to be godly.

It doesn't tell us to try to change.

It actually tells us to train to be godly, to train to be more like Jesus, to train to change.

Another passage from Paul says this in 1 Timothy 4, verses seven and eight.

It says, instead, train yourself to be godly.

Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.

Dallas Willard puts it this way.

We are not trying to be different people, but we are training to be different people.

People.

who love God and love others.

People who follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who walk in the dust of their rabbi, who become more and more like him every day so that we can bring his kingdom down here on earth for other people.

So, okay, we get it.

We wanna be a changed people who change people.

How do we do that?

We gotta stop trying and we actually gotta start training to do just that.

So then how?

Wow, what is the routine?

What is the regimen that will create results in our life?

How can we actually become those people that God has called us to be?

Guys, it is ridiculously simple.

It's ridiculously simple.

In fact, so much so that then an eight-year-old gets it.

In fact, there's this song that we sing with our kids in the Eldridge household, and it's going to provide the simple answer on how you might become a changed person who change people, a person who trains rather than just tries.

Here's the song.

We do volleyball play every day, play every day, play every day.

We do volleyball play every day, and you go.

Grow, grow.

And so what's the answer?

It's ridiculously simple.

It's a Sunday school answer, but it's true.

Read your Bible and pray every day.

And what will happen?

You will grow, grow, grow.

You'll change.

You will become a new person.

So number one, what do you gotta do?

If you're not doing this somehow, some way, you've got to read your Bible.

Romans 12 says, do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but instead be transformed.

That word transform in the Greek, it's the word metamorpho.

It means a metamorphosis is taking place.

There's a literal change happening.

happening in your being.

Do not be conformed to the ways of this world.

What are the ways of this world?

Fear, anxiety, depression.

Instead, be transformed.

Become a new creation by the renewing of your mind.

How do you renew your mind?

You got to get in God's word.

Why?

Because as the writer of Hebrew says, and some people think it's Paul.

It says the word of God is living and active.

That means it speaks to your circumstance and to your situation.

And not only that, it will remind you of who you are in Christ.

It will remind you of all that he's given you.

It will remind you of truth and it will change you from the inside out.

You need to remind yourself that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, that you are the head and not the tail, that you are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works that he has prepared for you to do, that you are a part of a royal priesthood, that you are a son or a daughter of the living God, that you have the power to actually put sin to death in your life.

that you have everything that you need to live a godly life, that you actually have the mind of Christ, that you have power and authority over the enemy of this world, that greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

You got to understand and remind yourself that you are gifted, that you're a new creation, that the peace that surpasses all understanding dwells with inside of you, that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, that you are Christ's ambassador, that you are chosen, justified, sanctified, holy, set apart, that you...

overflow with gratitude and thanksgiving, and that you don't need to live with a spirit of fear, but instead of power, love, and a sound mind.

And you also need to remind yourself that the spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you and empowers you to do even greater things than Jesus did while he walked this earth.

Friends, That's what happens when you read God's word.

When you engage in God's word, you remind yourself of who you are and whose you are and everything that God has called you to be.

Proverbs 18, 21 says, "'The tongue has the power of life, and death.

So what are you speaking over your life?

I've always loved this quote from Stephen Furtick and I've used it a number of times.

It says, the declarations of your lips will determine the direction of your life.

So what are you putting in?

Everything from the world?

Are you speaking that over your life?

Fear, anxiety, frustration, overwhelmment.

Or are you speaking the words of God over your life?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

I'm equipped, I'm empowered.

I have the power to put sin to death in my life.

I am more than a conqueror.

What are you speaking?

over your life.

So I'll say it again, somehow, some way, if you wanna be a changed person who changes people, you've gotta stop trying to change and you gotta start training.

And the way that you train is you gotta get God's word in you.

Let me give you a couple practical ways and a couple practical tools.

If you are a parent in here, somehow, someway, you gotta get God's word in your child's life.

Let me give you a really simple tool.

I would encourage you to pick up a Jesus Storybook Bible.

Grab that for your kid.

If you have somebody who's more like elementary age in your world, let me encourage you to get an adventure Bible.

It's like a comic book Bible, and it makes God's word come alive for kids.

If you're a junior higher, I would encourage you to get a New Living Translation.

It's a little bit easier to understand.

Grab that and start digging into God's word.

If you're a high schooler, I would encourage you to get an NIV study Bible.

and start studying God's word, not just reading the verses, but really starting to understand what it's speaking to you, the context and the setting in which God is speaking.

If you're an adult and you wanna challenge yourself, I'd get an ESV study Bible.

The thing is like a college degree all in one book.

Grab it, start studying God's word, start diving in.

And if you're not a reader at all, let me encourage you to download the One and All app because each and every day we've got...

devotionals for you, where someone else will open up God's word and unpack it for you and share a little thought or a nugget.

But then not only that, there's an opportunity for you to then take the next step.

Because somehow, some way, we've got to get God's word into us because we know that when we engage in God's word, it changes us.

And I've shared the studies that if you're in God's word one day a week, man, nothing really changes.

That means you can show up to church and nothing really changes.

Or you can even come to a midweek Bible study because if you're in God's word like two times a week, nothing really changes.

However, if you can get God's word four or more times a week, there's radical life change that will take place.

Your depression will drop.

Your anxiety will drop.

Positive relationships will form in your life.

There's so many positive benefits to engaging in God's word.

But one of the things I love about our app is it doesn't only engage you in God's word, but it prompts you to do the next step.

which is to pray every day.

Pray every day.

What is prayer?

It's simply talking to your dad.

It's talking to God.

It's talking to the one who created you and who has purposed you and put you on this planet for a reason.

And so when you pray, you're literally talking to God.

And some of you, this is not a part of your regular rhythm and you don't really know how to do it.

So I'm gonna give you a ridiculously simple acronym on how you might pray.

You've probably heard it before.

It literally is the word pray.

The prayer is pray.

P, it stands for praise.

It stands for praise.

See, all of us, we have something that we can praise God for.

And maybe you feel like you're down and out and you don't have much.

You have breath in your lungs.

You have food in your belly.

There is something to praise God for.

Some of you have so much more.

So praise God and thank God for all that he has done.

The Bible says basically this, that gratitude and thanksgiving is a breakthrough attitude.

Gratitude is a breakthrough attitude.

So praise God for all that he has done.

The R then stands for repent.

That means you need to do a little inner work and you need to ask yourself the question, is there any error in my way?

Have I missed the mark?

in any way this past week or month or season?

Is there something that needs refining?

Is there something that I need to turn away from and start walking the other way?

This is your opportunity to give it over to God, to repent because he's actually paid the price for your sin.

The Bible says the wages of sin is death.

That means you and I, we should have died.

The crazy good news of the gospel is that Jesus died instead.

He paid the penalty for your sin.

His blood.

wipes your slate clean.

You can be made new.

You give it over to God.

He takes it and you're perfect in the eyes of our heavenly father.

So we repent and we turn away from those things that we need not be doing.

And then the A, it stands for ask.

Isn't it good to know that we have a father, a good, good father who wants to give good gifts to his kids.

And if we will ask things, According to his will, the Bible says he'll actually give us those things.

I think Mark Batterson put it this way.

He said, the greatest tragedy are the prayers that go unanswered simply because they go unasked.

So ask.

It's okay to ask God for things.

And sometimes he's going to say yes.

Sometimes he's going to say no.

Sometimes he's going to say not yet.

But it's important to ask because he is a good father.

who does wanna give good gifts to his children.

And then here's the why.

And this is my favorite part.

The why in this acronym stands for yield.

And the older and older I get, the more and more I love this part of prayer.

Because in my life, with four little kids running around, the chaos of my schedule, it's so hard to find times of just being still and being quiet.

And when I can find this in prayer, oh, God works on my soul, speaks to me.

When I can just shut up and be quiet before him, this is my favorite time because I feel like there's rest for my soul, but I also feel like this is when God speaks to me most.

One person said, sometimes God speaks in whispers.

Then someone asked that person, well, why does he speak in whispers?

And they said, it's because he's close.

So God will whisper to you.

He'll speak to you.

He'll refine you.

He'll sanctify you.

Just a big fancy word is he'll make you more like him if you'll allow him.

If you'll quiet yourself enough to just listen.

And as he starts this refining work, guess what happens?

You're changing.

You're transforming.

You're training to be everything that God has called you to be.

Now, is it really as simple as reading your Bible and praying every day?

Will that help you be a changed person who changes the lives of other people?

The answer is yes.

Yes.

Because as you engage in God's word on a regular basis, as you engage in prayer, God's going to speak to you and he's gonna refine you.

And guess what he's gonna call you to do?

He's gonna call you to live out the life that he's called you to live, a life of service.

The Bible says that God did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life for other people.

And as you become more like him, you're gonna start to realize that I gotta start serving.

And I don't know where that is.

Maybe serving here at church and kids ministry and youth, maybe go to a leadership course.

and pour into the lives of some young men and some women, right?

You do life on life together.

Maybe you serve out in your community, but somewhere, somehow you're going to serve because you understand that's what it means to follow in the dust of our rabbi, Jesus.

Others of you, you're going to be compelled to start being a little bit more generous because God so loved the world that he what?

He gave.

He gave.

And so following in his footsteps, what do we do?

We give.

And we give generously and we give sacrificially.

And together, what starts to happen is we start to live this life of service and generosity in communion with God, Him speaking to us on a daily basis.

We start to change and so do the people around us because we're being the hands and feet of Jesus to them.

And then there's one other thing that starts to happen too.

You start to engage in God's word, you start to commune with Him through prayer.

He starts to speak to you.

He's gonna tug on your heart.

to actually share the good news of his gospel with other people.

And this might be a little uncomfortable at first, but he's gonna poke and he's gonna prod at you.

And he's gonna say, hey, it's time.

And so then what are you gonna do?

You're gonna have an opportunity to share with people about what Jesus has done for you.

I still remember the day that I gave my life to Christ.

I think about these crazy stories of like Amy Semple and Charles Spurgeon.

And I think about how my life, I don't know.

I don't know about this.

I might not be called to change the entire world or have that kind of impact like they did.

But I know that God has called me to change my world, my spheres of influence.

And I remember the day that God got a hold of my heart, this little 12 year old at a Christmas Eve service.

And I heard the gospel for the very first time.

Like, like heard it.

Like there was a God that loved me so much that he would step off his throne in heaven and come to this broken world as a little baby born in a manger, born in a cave.

And he would live a life that none of us could live, this perfect sinless life.

And he would die a death that none of us could die as our perfect sinless sacrifice.

Jesus would go to the cross and be nailed to it so that I wouldn't have to.

He would die so that I wouldn't have to.

His blood would be spilled so that my blood wouldn't have to.

And the Bible says that it's his blood spilled on that cross that cleanses us from all unrighteousness, that it wipes our slate clean, that our sins are wiped away.

They are thrown away as far as the East is from the West.

They're gone.

And the crazy news is that Jesus didn't just die, but the gospel also proclaims that three days later, after being buried, he raises again.

And in so doing, he shows us that he has power over Satan, sin, and death.

And he simply says this, if you will put your faith, your hope, your trust in me, you too will overcome Satan, sin, and death in this life as well as the life to come.

That is the good news.

That is the gospel.

And as you start to engage in God's word and hear from him and start walking out in his ways, he is going to compel you to share that message with other people.

And so friends, God is doing a special thing in this church.

We have seen revival in our midst, but God is just getting started.

So what do we need to do?

We need to recognize that we are a changed people called to change the lives of other people.

How do we do that?

We stop trying and we start training ourselves in godliness.

And it's ridiculously simple.

Read your Bible.

Pray every day.

And what will happen?

You will grow, grow, grow.

And you will become everything that God has created you to be.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you for your living and active word.

Thank you that it speaks to us, all of our circumstances and situations.

God, that you love us so much that you would actually wanna hear from us.

And God, that you love us so much that you would actually talk so that we could hear from you.

Lord, I pray that your spirit would do a mighty work this weekend across all of our campuses.

Jesus, we love you.

And it's in your name we pray.

And everybody said, amen.