Mind Your Own Business

Is its mission program.

That's a vital sign.

You ever gone to the doctor and they take your vital signs.

I don't like where they weigh you, but I like it when they take your blood pressure and all that stuff and they say, hey, you're doing pretty good.

But the mark of a healthy church and a live church.

A living church is a church that's sounding out the gospel as far as it can.

And have any ever looked inside of an airplane cockpit, A big airplane like a 747?

Anybody ever peek through the door?

What does it look like?

Look at that.

Can you imagine flying an airplane?

And they say, now keep an eye on the gauges.

Well, it's kind of like pasturing.

There's a lot of gauges recently I did this just for our staff here.

And.

And that's not all of them, but each one of those represents a ministry in this church, Things that people are doing.

And it was kind of a surprise for people to see it like that all at one place.

And that's part of pastoring is how we doing in this area?

How are we doing in this area that says Sunday school and youth ministry and children's ministry and missions and counseling and special days and funerals and weddings and kitchen.

And it just goes on and on and on.

I never even counted them, but I'm sure because those are just based on what I could see and just being here a very short time.

But I want you to keep that picture in your mind.

And there's no ministry that is not important.

And so they're all connected.

You can't see the lines, but if you could come up here, you'd see each one of them has a line going to the other.

So they're all connected.

And so there's a lot to pray about.

And if you're not involved, somebody ought to.

If anybody asks you what do you do at that church, you ought to be able to tell them there's something that you do other than sit.

Thank God we have some that sit, some that come and listen.

But I think everybody.

Because you're a part.

You know, Paul said a church is like a physical body, and there's a lot of parts in our body.

And so you need to be connected.

And so if you never have or you're not sure, most people say, well, I couldn't do anything.

You'd be surprised.

And God sets you in a church for a reason.

Okay, for a reason.

A lot of people go a long time in their life and they never figured out really what does God want me to do?

At the Heritage Baptist Church, there's three ways to look at the church as far as our connection to God.

There's the upreach that's looking up, that's worship.

Then there's the inreach that's caring about each other here in the church, discipleship.

And then there's the outreach reaching people with the gospel.

If we don't have a good inreach and people aren't being rooted and deep and growing in their life, it's not going to be a very effective mission.

And if there's no worship, if people don't just can't wait to get to church to worship God, there is something more important than the work.

That's the worship.

That's the way God designed it.

You worship.

And when we worship God, we get so filled with the glory and greatness and goodness and grace of God that we want to tell somebody, okay?

So it all comes out of that.

And so each year I think we have the mission conference and then there's several other emphasis like today, super Sunday to keep missions.

First, there's only the Great Commission.

There's only thing greater than the Great Commission.

Now listen, is the Great Commissioner.

Who's that?

Who's the Great Commissioner?

Christ.

And he didn't just give it to all Christians in general, he gave it to his church.

He only started one church and that's the church that we are to pattern.

This church after is the church that Jesus started, okay, which was primarily identified by doctrine.

Did you know that Baptists are the only really denomination?

And I know we don't go to heaven by being in the right denomination.

I know that's all come from people messing up on teaching and passing down and all that kind of stuff.

But you know, Baptist is the only one that believes you can't lose your salvation.

They believe once you're saved, you're saved forever.

Because we're not saved by works.

If we were works, then we wouldn't know for sure.

But if it's a gift as the Bible says it is, then we can know.

But the Great Commissioner, just before Jesus gave the Great Commission, in Matthew 28, the Bible says in verse 17 that they worshiped him.

Did you know that's just few verses right above go into all the world and preach the gospel.

It says they worshiped him.

And that is what motivated them.

That's what catapulted them into the greatest work they could ever be involved with.

So there's a great alignment this way.

There Is a great assignment that we're to teach the word of God as a church.

We're to edify each other, we're to build up each other.

We're to teach the word of God.

We're to disciple new Christians.

So there's the assignment.

First, the alignment worship, the assignment, the church, and then there's the great attachment.

What is that?

Go ye into all the world and lo, I am with you always.

If there's no God, there's no low.

Okay?

I mean, that's what Jesus said.

That's the context.

Jesus said, I'm gonna be with you when you're doing what I told you to do, which is the great, great commission.

But everything comes out of worship.

There's the outflow and the inflow and the overflow.

You see, we ought to be living so close to Christ that our cup's running over and people are coming to get a drink because of the overflow.

Is your life overflowing right now?

Could you say with David, my cup runneth over.

I hope you can do that.

You know, in the book of Psalm 40, we'll get to our text here in just a moment.

But in Psalm 40, you remember that.

It's a very wonderful verse.

It says, he brought me up also out of an horrible pit and set my feet upon a rock.

You know what it says after that?

And he established my goings.

Goings?

Yes, he brought you up to send you out.

That's why he saved you.

If he didn't need you to do anything when you got saved, you'd go straight to heaven.

Every time somebody got saved, they'd die.

That wouldn't be so good, would it?

But he brought you up to send you out.

Are you doing anything?

What are you doing?

What on earth are you doing?

For heaven's sake, go as far as you can, then give, then send someone else.

Further, the question, ladies and gentlemen, is not are the heathen who have never heard really lost?

No, the question is, are those who never tell really saved?

You may need to learn more about how to tell and all those kind of things.

But if you don't want to tell, we can teach you the how to, but we can't teach you the want to.

I think one of the marks of a truly born again Christian is they want somebody else to know too.

Start with my family.

I want all my family to go to heaven.

I don't want to be some of my family missing in heaven.

When Jesus was 12 years old, he had been missing for a little while.

Mary And Joseph were traveling and he stayed behind.

He didn't tell them, and that's another story.

But man, they panicked.

And they had gone a day before they realized he wasn't there.

Because they traveled in big caravan, maybe sometimes up to a hundred people.

So it'd be easy maybe to lose someone, lose a child.

Oh, you've seen Jesus?

No, I thought you had him.

Well, I thought you had him.

It's not my responsibility.

Anyway, they went back a day there, a day back, and they found Jesus.

He was 12 years old and he was speaking in the synagogue to all the olders, the elders, the older people.

And when Mary and Joseph found him, they said, what are you doing?

If you allow me to paraphrase it for just a second, you know what he said?

He said, no, you're not.

I must be about my father's business.

My father's a 12 year old.

I must be about my father's business.

But then, just before he left this earth after the resurrection, he looked at his church and he said, you're the light of the world.

He already said, I'm the light of the world.

But now he's telling his church, you are the light of the world.

In other words, he said, I'm turning the business over to you as the Father hath sent me.

Jesus said, so send I you.

He turned the business over to you to me.

So I want to preach on this subject.

Why don't you mind your own business?

Amen.

That's a question that needs to be answered.

Can you imagine Jesus had a men's meeting, business meeting and they're all gathered around the table with their computers and everything.

I know that's a little silly, but can you imagine Jesus talking to them and telling them about the greatest business in the world?

There's no business like God's business.

That's the only thing that really going to count in eternity.

And yet we give so little percentage of our thoughts and our time and even our money to get involved with things that's going to last forever.

Why don't you mind your own business?

What about this business that we are in?

Well, it's owned and operated by God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

It's his business planned, actually planned before the foundation of the world.

Did you know the Bible says before God created the world, he had a plan of how you and I could be saved.

Because he was omniscient.

He knew we were gonna need a savior.

He gave Adam a free choice and Eve right there weren't predestined some to heaven and some to hell.

If that was the case, he would have never told Adam.

Now, stay away from that tree over there.

In other words, he had a choice.

He made the wrong choice, right?

And plunged man into sin.

But before even the world was created, God so loved us and the world that he had a plan.

And it all worked out according to his plan.

But now it's a family business.

There's only two families in the world.

Sin gets you into one family.

Salvation gets you into the other family.

Jesus.

Sometimes we.

We picture Jesus a little different maybe than what?

The Bible.

Because we don't know the Bible like we should.

But Jesus even told a bunch of people.

He said, you of your father, the devil.

Jesus would say something like that.

Oh, yeah.

He said a lot of things that might raise our eyebrows.

There's only.

I heard a priest say one time, there's only two kinds of people, the saints and the ain'ts.

But we can't boast about us being one of the saints of God because it's by grace that we're saved.

He didn't award it to us.

Salvation's not a reward for being a good person.

It's by grace.

And when you're saved, you inherit the business.

As a church, you inherit the business.

By the way, this is another sermon.

But Jesus gave the authority to carry out the Great Commission to the church, not to just all Christians.

People who just kind of go out on their own, start their own religion or their own church and start taking on this and doing that and all.

They don't have the authority to do that.

I'm not saying we're better than anybody else.

I'm saying all Baptists are saved.

A lot of Baptists aren't even saved.

You're not saved by being a Baptist or a Methodist or a Catholic or anything else.

But when you get saved by the grace of God, you become an heir to the business.

And here's something else.

After you're saved and you get into the business of winning souls and sharing the gospel around the world, you get to own stock in that business.

Amen.

You get to invest in it.

Maybe you right now not be able to invest your money in the markets and stock markets and all that.

I'm not saying you should or you shouldn't, but I'm saying that as a Christian, when you pray, when you give to missions, when you encourage a missionary, when you say, brother Joe and Amy, we're glad you're here.

We don't have a missionary where you're going, I hope we can.

And that encourages them.

And every time you do that, encourage any missionary, you're investing in the business.

Every prayer, every penny.

And here's something else.

There's no risk.

A lot of people don't want to invest their money in this world and the economy because it's kind of risky.

Remember, most of us are very familiar with the stock market crash in history years ago.

And people committed suicide.

And men with suits and ties and coats stood in bread lines for a little bit of bread and some soup.

You say that'll never happen here.

I don't know.

Our economy is kind of teetering right now.

But I tell you what.

I'd rather be on God's economy.

His is different.

Put me first.

I'll take care.

Don't worry about what you eat, drink, put on.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things.

We don't have to live in worry and fear and frustration.

But there's no risk.

And it's the most important business in all the world.

There's no business like God's business.

The business of reaching souls.

Eternal souls.

What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Can you imagine having a mansion and a three car garage and swimming pool and all this kind of stuff?

And there's nothing wrong with having those.

But if that's all a man has, what about when he dies?

What about his soul?

It's an unfailing business.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

It's never going to crash.

Like the stock market.

A lot of churches, unfortunately.

Now listen to me.

Too many of them.

A lot of churches have gone out of business.

And some are on the verge of going out of business.

Ichabod.

That means the glory of God hath departed.

Can you imagine being in a church where God left?

Makes me.

It gives me a chill to think we'd sit in a church and sing and worship and give and God's not even there.

Ichabod.

They're going out of business.

A lot of them already have.

You know why?

Because they got out of the most important business of reaching souls and sending missionaries.

You see, you either are a go or a sender.

That's the only choice you got.

You say, well, God doesn't call everybody to be a missionary.

I think he calls everybody to be willing to be a missionary.

But I think we're talking about four missions.

I think in a real sense, you are a missionary.

If you're saved.

You're a missionary to Haslett.

You're a missionary to Fort Worth.

You're a missionary to Dallas.

You're a missionary as far as you can go.

You're a missionary.

You're on a mission, sharing the gospel with people, telling people, showing you love them, that you really care.

Not a phony, not a hypocrite.

You genuinely care.

You're authentic, you're real.

But let me remind you of something.

It's also a hated business.

It's a hated business.

That's why the devil wants to fight churches like this, not just throw a little dart.

He wants to set off bombs.

His goal is to destroy, divide and destroy, put it out of business.

Even Paul said, a great door and effectual is opened unto us.

But there are many adversaries.

If we had time, I'd have Brother Joe come back up here and say, tell us something about the adversaries of missionaries.

And let me also say this.

It's a short term business that we're in.

We don't have a lot of time.

Time is running out.

I must work.

Jesus said the works of him that sent me while it is day, because the night cometh, when no man can work.

If you ever thought about getting involved in this business, you're in it whether you realize it or not.

But you may not be too involved.

But if you've ever thought about getting more involved, today's the day.

We have no promise of tomorrow.

Can you imagine?

Let me be a little ridiculous for a moment just to make the point.

Can you imagine calling 911 and get a recording and it says, could you hold please?

That's kind of facetious, isn't it, to get a busy signal when you call 91 1?

Well, a lot of missionaries call their churches, but they get a busy signal.

A lot of times God is calling us to do certain things, to go further, a new place.

But it's a busy signal.

You see, 911 means this is an emergency.

This could be a matter of life and death.

I can't keep up with it, Brother Joe.

But I've heard, last I read about it now it can take almost up to five years for a missionary to get support, to get to the field, going around to churches.

Can you help us out a little bit?

Can you imagine how many souls could perish in four or five years while the missionary is trying to get to a city?

And he just mentioned one, they have no knowledge of a gospel preaching church.

That's hard for us to believe.

It's Hard for us to imagine a town, a village, a city.

And there's no church.

Oh, there's religious things, but there's no church that's preaching and teaching the Bible and winning people to Christ and baptizing them and teaching them how to go.

You mean to tell me there's church?

There's places like that?

Yes, there is.

You know, there's so many different facets to missions.

And one I often think about is in Acts, chapter nine.

You might remember the Apostle Paul.

He hadn't been saved very long, but he was being let down in a basket because he was a missionary and his life was at stake.

And we have no idea who it was that let him down in that basket.

We don't know their name.

Where'd they get the basket?

Did some man or woman or lady or a couple ladies make a basket and set it over here with some other baskets and had no idea that in a few weeks or months that basket was going to be used to hold the greatest missionary that ever lived.

You and I probably wouldn't listen.

The Apostle Paul went to Rome at the end of his life to give the gospel.

Where did Rome go?

To America.

From Europe.

The Bible, the preachers, the greatest meetings in churches and revivals for years was in England and in Europe, all around there.

And then they sent the gospel to America.

But those people probably had no idea, no idea whatsoever what was in that basket.

You never know.

You take on a missionary, put him in the basket.

God may be getting ready to reach a whole continent, a whole nation.

And this church would have had a part in that.

You could have had a part in that individually.

Well, as a church.

Wow.

And they were.

Don't you think when they was letting down somebody in a basket that they were cooperating with each other?

I mean, can you imagine one of them saying, how come you get to hold that side?

That's the side I wanted to.

That's ridiculous.

A lot of churches are not getting along with each other, therefore they're getting paralyzed.

They're becoming wrapped up in the self.

Those of you that know something about plants.

My wife has two green thumbs and I don't.

I don't even have a thumb.

But anyway, she.

She says we got to transfer that plant into a bigger planter because it's becoming root bound.

If the roots can't go out, they start going around and around and around.

And if a church is not careful in spreading out and winning people, it could choke itself to death.

A church can choke itself because it's all wrapped up, up in them.

And Paul trusted those guys.

Anybody here ever been let down off a roof in a basket?

I mean, if Paul could have looked at him and said, I don't know about you guys, you don't look very strong or you don't do this, evidently trusted him.

Can a missionary trust the Heritage Baptist Church?

If he says, well, I don't know who's praying, but I've been to Heritage and I know they're praying for us.

I know we can count on their support.

They've never failed.

I know you've heard this story before, but.

And also I'll do the short version, because in this church you've been organized.

Your mission program is well organized, and it's going to get better and better.

But we have the rope holders here at this church, and it's the greatest illustrate.

I know you've probably heard it because Brother Stewart's been here and he tells it and I've been telling it for years.

Brother Joe, you may not have heard it, but it's a true story.

But I'll give you the short version.

A passenger ship going through the ocean and someone falls overboard, and everybody can't believe what they're seeing.

And they can hear him screaming and they can look over the side and they can see him doing this and holding up his hand and screaming for help.

And some man on the ship watching all this, takes a rope, ties it around in a big knot, he throws the rope into the crowd and he dives off the ship to save the man.

But everybody was so involved and so excited and so interested and paralyzed with fear as they watched the water.

And the men, no one picked up the end of the rope, and it just went around and around the feet and the legs of those people.

And there's almost everybody on the side of the ship looking over, and they saw the end of the rope go under the water.

And both men perished simply because no one held the rope.

Probably someone assumed, well, man, this is a big ship.

Surely somebody will grab the rope.

A lot of times we as a church say, well, somebody will take care of it.

Somebody will do it.

But somebody turns out to be nobody.

How serious do you take your responsibility?

In Isaiah 6, God said, who shall go for us?

And Isaiah said, here am I, Lord, send me.

You know, we all like to quote Philippians 4:19.

My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in Christ Jesus.

And that's a great statement, and it's very true, but many times we don't realize that the context of that verse was a missionary context.

He said, because you have given to me and sent me my God shall supply all your need.

I know that's not the only verse.

And I know when you honor God with tithes and offerings, he promises to take care of us.

But that particular verse was in the context of missions, in the Book of or the Book of Philippians, chapter number four, if you want to look it up.

I've never heard of a church going out of business because they spent too much money and time on missions.

I've never known a church to go broke.

We're broke.

We can't pay the bills anymore.

Why we gave all the money to the missionaries.

Maybe that has happened, I don't know.

I never heard of such a thing.

When I pastored, been pastor for over 50 years.

And we had Missions Conference.

And I said, the first thing I'd like us to do is have a missions conference.

They go, what's that?

I said, we're going to have some missionaries come and we're going to start supporting them.

God bless in a wonderful way.

You want to get involved.

There's no experience necessary, really, just commitment.

Just say, lord, show me what to do.

Tell me what to do.

You've heard my message, I'm about through.

But don't shake your head and say, well, yeah, I guess I should.

No, that's not good enough.

Don't say, well, I must.

That's still not good enough.

When you say, I will.

Now we're getting somewhere.

I will, I will pray, I will read the mission letter.

I will get involved.

I will get online and get their email address and talk with them and speak to them and let them know my name and my wife's name or my family name.

And we're praying for you today.

My.

I bet you missionaries, I never talked to a lot of them about that, but I bet you probably there's not very many people that just want to talk to them.

Just say, let you know you're being thought about today.

And my kids, just before they left a while ago to go to school, they mention your name in prayer.

Can you imagine?

Throw out the lifeline across the dark wave There is a brother whom someone should save Somebody's brother.

Oh, who then will dare to throw out the lifeline his peril to share Throw out the lifeline with hand quick and strong with why do you tarry?

Why tarry so long?

See, he is sinking oh, hasten today and out with the lifeboat Away then away soon will the season of rescue be o' Er soon will they drift to eternity shore Haste then, my brother no time for delay but throw out the lifeline and save them today Throw out the lifeline Throw out the lifeline Someone is drifting away Throw out the lifeline Throw out the lifeline Someone is sinking today what about you?

Are you in the family of God?

Do you know you've been born again?

Do you know you're saved?

Do we need to throw out the lifeline to you?

You may be a member of the church.

You may have been baptized, you might teach or be in the choir.

None of those things means you're saved.

Do you know for sure?

Not 99.9%.

Can you say if I died today, I'd open my eyes in heaven.

Because I've put all of my hope, all of my faith, all of my weight on Jesus Christ.

His life, his death, his burial, his resurrection as the God man.

Totally God.

Totally man.

We don't want to invite you in.

Just a moment to come.

You say I may be saved, but sometimes I have doubts.

Sometimes I struggle.

I'm not sure.

Then why don't you just come and let someone show you and you can say that's what I believe and you can get that assurance back.

Go back to your seat.

I know I'm saved.

That's just the devil bothering me.

I'm putting my faith in Christ, not baptism, not a prayer, not in my family's faith.

I know I'm saved.

Christian.

How involved are you in the business if you're gonna mind your own business?

If you're a Christian, that business is the business of Christ.

That's why you're still here.

That's why God hasn't taken you yet.

Some people died last night and they will this morning.

But you're still alive.

Why, you're one of the lucky ones.

No, God's not through with you.

He's not through with you.

You're here for a purpose.

Let's stand with our heads bowed and eyes closed.

Maybe you're not a member of the church and say, I don't think I need to be a member of a church that cares and not just has a.

They're not just mission minded, but they're mission hearted.

So we're going to sing a verse of Invitation and if no one comes.

We won't belabor.

But who knows?

God may be dealing with the person behind you or in front of you, or beside you.