You know, we’ve been talking about these big questions in life and what we shared last week for a few minutes is, "Why am I alive?" I think there comes a time that we begin to think about these type of questions and these are questions we are going to be working on these series of iLife. Last week we started this quest and our prayer is that during this series that you and I will have some deeper thoughts about life that go beyond I gotta get this shirt out of my closet, and I gotta find out did we get those brownies made, and gotta check out to see if I got those socks washed. Those are very important things -- how many know that it’s important that we don’t have smelly feet? Can I have a good amen? But there comes a time in life that we begin to ask about deeper questions. Why am I alive? Why am I here? What is my life meant to accomplish in this life? Where does life being? How did I get to the place that I am at? Why do I life? What makes me live? What causes me to live? What makes me feel fully alive?
These are deeper thoughts that I believe God is going to help us uncover so that we can live the life that God intends for us to live. Turn to the person next to you that you like, don’t turn to the one that you don’t like, turn to the one you like and say, "I want to live the life that God intended for me to live." Don’t you love just talking in church and I know it irritates so many of you and I love to irritate you, it’s one of my calls in life is not only to be your pastor but to be your pester. I thoroughly enjoy getting on your nerves at times -- I pray for it, no I’m just kidding.
I really believe that God wants us to live the life He had in mind for us to live as an individual, we talk a lot about that here, but then also as a church body, as a gathering, as a group of people that have come together for a purpose. You know the mission of our church is be a healing place for a hurting world, that is our mission. That is why we are here. We believe that’s why God put us here. I believe that’s what God had in mind for us. I believe that’s why we are in this city; I believe that’s why God put us in this region. That’s why we are in this world, and that’s why He put us here in this community 13 years ago. Was to be a healing place for a hurting world.
You know, I thought about that the other day. I came up here early to the church and our sign was on. Now our sign got damaged during the hurricane. We had some neon around it, and I don’t how many people who said when they saw that neon on our sign they wanted to know what the cover charge was. Just neon...purple. I said there’s no cover charge just come on in. But you know I would see our sign when I come here early in the morning...that sign is just like a beacon that just says "a healing place for a hurting world" on Highland Road all night long. It always thrills me when I hear stories about people that ride by late at night and they see that sign and maybe God does something. How many knows that God can use almost anything to get peoples’ attention, and we thank God for that. I had one lady tell me one time, I’ll never forget, she came and saw me she said, "Pastor, I don’t know if you know what happened this past Tuesday night...I’ll never forget her sitting in my office. She said I’ve just been going through things, I’ve had so many losses in my life, I’ve made so many mistakes, I’ve had so many failures." She said, "I was just out riding real late all by myself about 2 in the morning and I just didn’t know why I wanted to live, I just had no purpose in my life and I just felt so depressed, and I started riding down Highland Road." She said, "I was just riding thinking about how bad my life was - somewhere or another I just started to turn around, and I couldn’t find anywhere to turn around. So I turned around in your parking lot and eventually just parked there. I looked up and saw that sign...A Healing Place for a Hurting World, and if this is such a healing place, God, if you care about me...if there’s anybody up there I’m going to go in there and see if there’s anybody at this church." And she knew there would be nobody here, it was 2, 2:30 in the morning and so happens she went to the front door and it was open. Now how many knows that our church stays open a lot of times. If I asked how many people have a key to our church, half of this church has a key to our church. She came and she opened up the door. She said, "my goodness what’s going on 2:30 in the morning?" She came on inside and guess what, there were 3 or 4 guys in here talking. They were up here doing some music. Most of them didn’t even go to our church they were just believers that were using the building. She walked in and she said, "have you seen...do you know if there’s a blonde-haired guy by the name of Dino that pastors this church?" They said, "yeah, you’re in the right place." She said, "well, could you pray for me, I need help?" And those young musicians reached out and prayed for her that night. She saw me about 2 days later, and I’ll never forget, I was able to lead her to Christ in my office. And do you know, to this day she is still serving the Lord? She moved away and she emails me, she contacts us every once in awhile at the church...wants a CD set, wants our new music -- anything like that. See, that’s a beacon!
I thought about it the other day when I was thinking about why do we live and what is the purpose of I lives as individuals and also I was thinking about it as a church. You know I started thinking about it as I was looking at the sign just the other morning...to be a healing place for a hurting world, that is a bold, dangerous statement! That is dangerous to say to a community, we ARE a healing place for your hurting world. Now we know that we are only it as God moves through us...can I have a good amen? Cause how many knows, can’t nobody heal nobody, only the Lord can? We can’t save anybody, only the Lord can. But I just thought about that a little bit. I believe it’s a bold, dangerous statement because God has called us to be a bold, dangerous, outreach church. We’re to be a dangerous church to people that don’t know Christ. We’re to be a dangerous church to many time those who have become cynical towards is there a God? We’re to be a bold, dangerous group of people in the world that we live in, in the culture that we live in, in the society that we live in that many time it’s me first, it’s all about me. I believe that God has called us to be dangerous people for His glory.
When I was growing up, when we would go to church -- we didn’t go a lot, but normally as a kid we would usually go to a safe church. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a safe church -- it’s pretty much the same thing happens every week. You pretty much predict -- I remember going to a couple of safe churches that the only thing that happened was maybe somebody in the choir had a funny hair, and me and my sisters would laugh at them, and that was a great moment for us. One time we were at a church, I was sitting on the back row, my sisters and my sisters and my parents were sitting in front of me. How many know there is no better place in the world to get tickled than in church? Oh, can I have a good amen? Don’t you love to get tickled about something in church? It’s always good to laugh at a place where you’re not supposed to laugh.
And I got so tickled, there was a lady that had come out in the choir -- precious woman -- everybody say God bless this lady. Precious, precious woman. And they walked out, the choir walked out during the first song and music leaders -- blessed church, thank God for it. But it was safe. And she walked out but some how or another, she forgot to put on her wig. And she had this stocking on her head. Now I don’t know what was going on -- she had hair, it was not as if she had an issue. She had a full head of hair, but she had put a stocking on her head and somehow or another, and so she’s sitting there and how many know that if you’re 9 years old and a little ADD that is a priceless moment? You’re 9 and you’re ADD and you’ve got 2 sisters sitting beside you...we are cracking up laughing. My Daddy’s like...what? And my mother’s pinching me on the legs, pinching me. And the best thing about it -- here’s the priceless moment -- about first song in, somebody opens up the door and hands out the wig. Passes it about 4, 5 over -- she takes it, doesn’t miss a lick -- (sings). I am crying! That was the best moment of the whole environment. Incredible! I said let’s go back next week.
I thought about being a safe church, you know, they’re blessed, they’re good people but they’re safe. I wrote down 3 qualities of a safe church. We’re going to talk about being a dangerous church. This is 3 qualities of a safe church. Here’s what a safe environment strives to do.
Strives to keep all the members happy...want everybody to be happy. How many knows if you’re trying to make everybody happy, you’re probably not making the Lord happy? What is it? The antidote of not pleasing the Lord is pleasing everybody. A safe church is going to try to make all the members happy.
Avoids any controversy. Don’t rock the boat -- let’s just cruise. Let’s not make a stand for anything. Let’s not ever push out from the shore of standard; let’s not ever move from average or from status quo...let’s just keep everything safe.
It remains cautious -- very cautious. Let’s not try anything new. We’ve always done it this way. Let’s not do anything new; let’s not change anything. Let’s stay right where we’re at; we’re safe; everything feels good. I like it this way. How many knows it’s not important the way WE like it? What’s more important is the way HE likes it? Oh, come on can I have a better amen?
What’s important is the way that HE likes it! Let’s push out to the world; let’s change peoples’ lives...let’s reach out. You know, it’s interesting what I read in my Bible is a picture of people and the church and they are dangerously reaching out instead of playing it safe.
When you read the Book of Acts, you read the life of Christ, you never see Jesus or the disciples of the early church playing it safe. It’s not the picture of a safe church. It’s a picture of a church reaching out dangerously. It’s the picture of people that have made a decision that they are put on this planet not to do just self-absorbed activities but to care about other people, to share with other people, to be involved with other peoples’ lives. It’s a group of people that have decided that it is more blessed to reach out and to give and to serve than it is just to care about me and my 4.
You can see this in the Bible all over the place. Let’s look at one of these pictures. Look at Acts chapter 2, I want to read you about 5 or 6 scriptures. Acts chapter 2 verse 38, it’s a picture of the New Testament church. It said Peter replied -- this is right after Jesus had died on a cross -- Peter had denied Him. Jesus was buried for 3 days, rose again, the disciples had been wondering what’s going on -- now Jesus says I’m going to send you the power of the Holy Spirit and now you are going to do amazing things for me in the world that you live in. You’re not going to go with me to heaven, I’m going to leave you here. And I’m going to leave you here to be a dangerous individual that’s going to be a part of a church that’s reaching out to the world. That’s what I’m going to leave you to do. Well, the Day of Pentecost comes, the power of the Holy Spirit falls; and this Peter that had been scared, this Peter that had run away from Christ - all of a sudden he’s restored back to Christ and after the group gathers together, and there’s Peter with the power of the Holy Spirit on him, the Bible says that Peter stood up, in verse 38, it says each of you must turn from your sins, turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins -- then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you and your children and even to as many gentiles and all that have been called by the Lord our God. Then Peter continued preaching for a long time strongly urging all the listeners, save yourself from this generation that has gone astray.
Boy, Peter’s fired up! He says save yourselves from this generation that has gone astray. Look at verse 41, this is a great verse; verse 41, this is a picture of the early church. It says those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church about 3,000 in all. Peter gets up, talks about the Lord, 3,000 come to Christ, I mean, I’m talking about dangerous stuff. They went wild, they got fired up -- next thing you know, he preaches again, 5,000 people show up, they get saved.
Over and over again this is being duplicated. Now people are out praying for people; they are out preaching about the power; they’re serving the poor...all these things are happening. What happens -- the traditional, religious system gets a little worried about it. And the Pharisees and those that are in charge say that no, no you don’t need to be doing all that. Those that wanted to play it safe did not like seeing what happened to those that made a decision that it is a dangerous gospel, and it can turn peoples’ lives around. So what do they do? They begin to persecute them, they begin to bring threats against them, they even said we’re going to kill you if you keep talking about this dangerous gospel; this transformation; about this Jesus. You gotta shut it all down.
Now what did they do? Did they go run and hide? You know what they kept doing, they kept going for it; they kept preaching the gospel. They got more strategic in reaching people. Because they knew that the last command of the Lord was to GO. One of the last things Jesus told his disciples was that I want you to go into all the world and preach the gospel. They’re at a deciding point; they’re at a decision point, are they going to listen to tradition; are they going to listen to persecution; are they going to listen to those that are threatening them; are they going to run away in fear and decide to play it safe or are they going to keep pushing the gospel ball down the field?
And guess what they decided to do -- they decided to keep lifting up the name of Jesus. They did not want to play it safe. They made a decision that the Lord’s last command will be our first priority. They went about the whole world...and you know one of the scriptures in Acts I think is a cool scripture? It says that they went about talking about Christ and praying for people and the demonstration of power took place; people got healed, devils got cast out, all these amazing things took place. And you know what one of the writers said, the writer said that those men turned the world upside down. Turned the world upside down.
Now let’s do this -- fast forward it 2,000 years to today -- where we’re at as individuals, where we’re at as people. I think of myself as I see that picture, of how this started so e can almost look at ourselves that we’ve gotten a little civilized. See, I don’t believe God called us to play it safe. I don’t believe God called us to be in a safety mode. I think God has called us to live dangerous, to be about His purpose. I think that’s the core values of why we do the things we do. Why do we live as a church? Why do we live as individuals? I believe there are core values that help set us into purpose.
I wrote down some of our core values. We have some dangerous core values. You know why we’re here as a church? To reach people. The number one value of our church is to REACH PEOPLE.
You know what the other value is -- these are dangerous values -- the other one is to serve. How many know serving people can be a dangerous occupation today? Can I have a good amen? Cause there are people that will take advantage of you; there are people that may not serve back to you. There are people that may not care when you serve them. There are bound to be people that you serve that they’re not going to hug you and say, you are so incredible, I love you, I love you, I want to serve you back. How many knows you can serve on some people and they will step on you? It is dangerous to say I want to serve humanity; I want to serve Baton Rouge; I want to serve this community.
The other value is we are called to give. That is the core value of our church is to give. Giving is dangerous. Because sometimes you can give to somebody and they take...they use you. You can give out to somebody and they don’t thank you and say, can I have your attention everybody? Suzie just gave me a stick of gum, just out of her heart. Come on, let’s give her a round of applause...ooooooo. Sometimes you’re going to give and there’s going to be no acknowledgment, you’re just gonna give.
And the other core value is to build. To build God’s kingdom. We believe that when these core values are active in your life, when you live a life that says I want to be a part of God’s dangerous mission today, then you are gonna reach, you’re gonna serve, you’re gonna give and you’re gonna to build. I think that these are great core values. If you ever wonder why we do the things we do as a people here, as a community of faith at Healing Place Church, it’s because of these 4 values.
All of our decisions are about reaching, all of our decisions are about serving all of our decisions are about giving, all of our decisions are about building the kingdom of God -- why? Because we believe that at the outcome of that is the person who will have the opportunity to become a fully committed follower of Jesus Christ. I couldn’t think of anything greater than to become a fully committed follower of Jesus Christ. And live for the cause of Jesus Christ in the world that God has them, in the job that God has them, in the task that God has them. So we don’t want to be a safe church. We want to be a dangerous, outreach, life-giving church.
Now what I want to do is I want to share with you for a few minutes about 3 qualities of a church that reaches out. Three qualities of a life that makes a decision that it wants to reach out as individuals. Here’s the first one:
First quality is a church that decides to be dangerous reaching out it’s going to have an uncivilized approach to ministry. An uncivilized approach to serving, giving, building and reaching out. Kind of uncivilized. I mean, look at the scripture, look at Matthew chapter 3. This is the forerunner of Jesus. The one who led the way for Jesus, and his name is John the Baptist. Just to make it short, we’ll call him JTB. He was the one who came as kind of the forerunner -- the one that was letting everybody know, whistle) hey, listen up, Jesus is coming. Hey everybody, how’s it going? Listen I want to introduce somebody to you, just in a few minutes there’s going to come somebody here and I’m gonna introduce you to Him, I’m gonna tell you a little about Him. He’s the main event, He’s the main thing. Well John, are you it? Oh, no, nope, no -- He’s coming right over here. Big arrow to Jesus. People would say to John the Baptist, well you look so much like Jesus. You look so spiritual.
And you know what John the Baptist would do -- don’t you ever say that to me; I’m not worthy to latch His shoes. It’s He’s the one! He would - I do kinda look a little like Jesus, don’t I? You want to see it? Look at this profile. So spiritual. He didn’t do that. It was always about Christ. And this guy was a little drastic. Matter of fact, if you read his bio, he’s just a little demonstrative. Look at this bio, this is the one that Jesus chose to come before Him, John the Baptist. Matthew chapter 3, in those days John the Baptist began preaching in Judea in the wilderness. His message was turn from your sins and turn to God because the kingdom of God is at hand. The Bible says that Isaiah spoke of John. It says his voice will be shouting in the wilderness, prepare a pathway for the Lord, He is coming. Make straight a road for Him.
Now watch this -- look at verse 4, John’s clothes were woven with camel hair. Anybody ever smell a camel? That’s one strike against him, he didn’t dress well. Secondly, he wore a leather belt. It was basically just a little big old camel piece that they just cut a hole in, put over his head and he kinda cinched it with a belt. Kinda belted it. It said he had a leather belt and his food was locust and wild honey. Just ate some insects and threw some honey on it. The people from Jerusalem, from every sector of Judea, they would come all over to Jordan Valley, they would come out to the wilderness and they would hear him preach. When they confessed their sins, he would baptize them in the Jordan River. I love this picture because you think about John the Baptist...he’s living there in the wilderness -- he stinks, he has camel on...it’s kinda his camel cologne, he’s living outside -- he’s baptizing people; he’s wet, he’s dry; he’s wet, he’s dry. He’s eating locust, he’s just...I mean to be honest with you he would probably to us be a little bit disgusting.
Fast forward 2000 years and John the Baptist rolls up at Healing Place -- walks in, camel’s hair just kinda coat thing, a belt, his hair’s all matted, he lives out in the wilderness and he’s got locust hanging from the corner of his mouth and he’s chasing it with some honey. How many’s at that point we’re gonna think about let’s incarcerate the brother. Amen? He was a little uncivilized.
But then think about Jesus. Jesus did some uncivilized things. There’s a person there who needs healing -- they’re blind in their eyes. You know what Jesus does? Jesus says, hey Thomas, can you go out there and get me some dirt? They get some dirt, Jesus says (spits) -- Read it in the Bible, He spits in dirt, makes a mud pie and puts it on the man’s eyes. How many knows that if I did that today, I’d be arrested? If I said, hey DeLynn, can you get me some dirt? You need prayer for your eyes, spit in it, rub it together and put it on your eyes. Jesus did some amazing things. They were uncivilized. He would hang out with ex-prostitutes, ex-sinners. They were always with Him -- the unlearned, his fishermen. His approach was like that; it was not standard. The traditional, the religious system would see Jesus and say why is He doing all that? He is not doing it the civilized approach that we usually use.
You know there’s times I’ve even thought about it in my life. I know when I came to Christ there’s even been times in the 22 years of serving the Lord where you just don’t feel like at times you fit into standardized, civilized church. I know when I got saved I got a burden to reach out to people. And I can remember that I would reach out to people on the streets and we would reach out to male prostitutes and those that were dealing with sexual orientation and all these different things.
And what was happening was that the bars were closing and we were ministering to people that were coming out of bars. It was just me and a few guys, and I remember one night, I started realizing that they had opened up a new bar. And so I went out there one night and sat across the street from it; sat by this sign pole, me and a friend of mine, and we prayed for those that were in the gay bar. And we just prayed but we noticed that there was a group of guys out there, some people from other church and they were screaming at them. They were just screaming whore mongers, you dirty weirdo, I mean they were screaming at them like crazy. Just "you’re going to hell, you’re going to hell!" It was just wild.
And we would sit across the street a couple of times. I was 19 years old and I thought to myself I don’t believe that’s what Jesus would do. And they would sit across the lot and scream at them. And so, one night, I’ll never forget, I went and told my pastor, myself and my friend of mine, we’re gonna go to that gay bar and we’re gonna witness and we’re gonna share the love of Christ. Many people around said don’t do that! They’re going to hell. They’re unreachable. There’s no way you’re gonna do that.
I was 19 years old. And I remember, we just left church and said I feel this is what God wants us to do. Had a friend of mine who was a little bit older, so I had some accountability, had some cover. We went out there to that homosexual gay bar and went over there and went right up to the door and began to talk to people, share the love of Christ. And I remember that there was a couple of other guys there that were screaming -- the screamers were there that night. And they’re screaming and I’m trying to talk to people about Christ -- I’ll never forget - and we began to talk to one guy and pray for one guy and he started telling me that I was going to hell. I was like, whoa, whoa...same team, check the jersey out. And he was saying "you’re going to hell, too! You’re going to hell, too!" Cars driving by, they’re all going to hell! Everybody’s going to hell but me and my friend! It was just wacko.
But you know, I remember meeting a young man there and we started talking about Christ and he started crying. He said can we get out of here and talk? And we walked down the street a little bit and we began to minister to him. Come to find out, his father was a pastor, he’d been molested in the church...by somebody in the church. And he just had never really met anybody that cared about him. And I remember we ministered to him, we talked to him, we prayed with him, we were out there until 4 or 5 in the morning praying with him, loving on him, caring for him, letting him know that there was a opportunity for him to receive Christ. He prayed to receive Christ. Several times after that he contacted a friend of mine to say that he was going back home, he was trying to make some things right.
I thought about those things -- how important it is at times that we are radical about God’s kingdom in our life. God let those things happen. I look at my life, there was such a passion for God’s kingdom -- to reach out to people that maybe were being rejected, reach out to people that maybe other people did not want to deal with, to be radical about God’s kingdom.
Here’s my first question that goes along with our first point. I believe that a dangerous church is not afraid to have an uncivilized approach to serving and caring for people. Now here’s the question:
When was the last time you had an uncivilized experience with God? Where you just got so fired up for God? Everybody said, oh don’t do that, play it safe -- no, don’t do that. But you just feel like I’m gonna stay up and pray tonight. Oh, no, no don’t do that! I’ll tell you what, I’m going to listen to this worship album for 3 times in a row so I can have a breakthrough. That’s crazy. You’re just wasting your time. When was the last time you had an uncivilized experience with God Almighty and God Almighty got a hold of your heart and you decided I’m gonna follow Him other than man? Come on somebody. I’m gonna obey God in my life. Oh, I believe God’s called us to be dangerous people.
Let me tell you this second thing. It’s this right here -- the 2nd quality is this - a divine boldness. A divine boldness. God wants us to live a bold life. Acts chapter 4 verses 29-30. This is a great scripture, it continues on, Acts chapter 4 verses 29-30. And now oh, Lord, hear their threats and give your servants great boldness in their preaching and send Your healing power. May miraculous wonders be done through Your Holy Servant, Jesus. Here are the apostles, they have gone through some things. They had been persecuted, they had been laughed at, people have said that they’re crazy, but they decided they’re gonna walk in a boldness and they asked God for boldness.
I believe that God can still show up in bold way when we don’t care what others are thinking. He can use you in a bold way. You know, there comes a time in our life when we are gonna have to be a little bold about our home and our family. There comes a time in our life we may have to be bold about the promises of God, and we may just may have to make a decision, I’m gonna believe God. Well it looks bad. It may look bad but I’m gonna believe God. I’m gonna follow God, I’m gonna be bold in this area of my life.
The outcome was amazing when they made that decision. It says that after this prayer the building where they were meeting shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they preached God’s message with boldness. They preached God’s message with boldness. God heard their prayer.
Here’s my second big question. When was the last time you took a bold stand for Jesus Christ? I’m not talking about one that’s kinda comfortable. Because sometimes we get so comfortable that we just want to blend everything -- let’s not offend anybody with the message of Jesus; let’s not talk about the Lord; let’s just back it off a little bit...all these different things. I don’t know how many times I have been to asked to go do thing and they’ll say, now Pastor, how are you going to pray?
I was asked to go do something the other day and said, well, can you write the prayer down and let us review it? Now there’s times you may have to do something like that -- that’s cool. I’m not condemning. I told them, I said, that’s fine but I may get up there and feel a little something different...a little stir. They were like, well don’t get too stirred now. Because you know what I found out? Everywhere I go Jesus goes with me. I can’t leave Him out of something. I can’t leave Him out of my life. I can’t leave Him out of my heart and these different things.
There comes a time in all of our lives if we’re going to be a part of God’s dangerous outreach to this world, where we’re going have to ask God for some boldness in our life...just to be bold in our life. You know, I can tell you this, when all of this went down I prayed about telling you this, but I felt like I was supposed to tell you this. We had a situation in our Donaldsonville Dream Center during the hurricane and ABC from Good Morning America decided they wanted to come out there and be a part of that. About 2 or 3 times they wanted to take the stories, and take some of the things just after the hurricane, many of you were there.
They wanted to take it to a place that, really we didn’t feel comfortable with. And over and over again they would tell us that this is what is going on in New York and this is what we want, and this is kind of how it works on network news and okay that’s great. We were very gracious, very kind and Emily Morrow a young girl in our church took care of those things. But there came a point in this whole program where something went on where I didn’t feel good about. And I was sitting there in my chair -- and it’s live television. How many knows when it’s live television you can’t say, excuse me could we put it on pause? Pause the button? It’s a live feed. But it’s a moment I did not feel good about something. And I was sitting there in my chair, I’ll never forget, I was sitting there in my chair and I got so upset.
Now how many when you get upset sometimes you get kind of nauseated? Come on, anybody honest? And I felt in my heart I should go. And so I made a decision, I said I’m leaving. I’m going to leave; I’m not putting up with this. I’m leaving. I got up to leave and when I got up, I looked down at the ground and I can tell you the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, the people of God bought this ground and it belongs to Me; don’t you walk away from your responsibility as the Pastor of this house. Boy, I just....I looked down at the ground, the Lord said this is My ground; God’s people bought this out here, we bought that facility at Donaldsonville. You as a church bought all that -- you signed all that. And I got up and I said well...I felt like the Lord said, you go and you let them know what’s going on. And I remember I went over to some high level people, some very public people told them how I felt. One individual down looked at me, looked down at me and said we’ve got to address the nation -- we’re addressing the nation. Little look, and he was up on a curb and I looked about 4’2 and he looked about like Shaquille O’Neal. He was looking down at me...we’ve got to address the nation...not worried about this little...and I remember I was looking up and I said you will not -- it was the boldness of God -- you will not dishonor me in my house. I said I’m the pastor of this house and you will not disrespect me. Just a boldness! Wooo!
And then I kind of stood back and said, what’s going to happen now, Lord? What have You gotten me into now? And you know what happened? There was a backing down, and it was God -- it was Divine - it wasn’t Dino -- I mean it wasn’t these biceps or nothing like that you know. It was Divine boldness -- there comes a time in your life, every once in a while when you just need to be bold for God and just make a decision, we’re just going to stand for Jesus.
I’ll tell you the third thing. I’ll finish up with this. The third quality is a dangerous church has a risk-taking faith. Risk taking faith. Hebrews chapter verse 6. It says, so you see it is impossible to please God without faith. If you’re not willing to take a risk of faith, you probably will never please God. I’ve just found that to be true. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that He is God, and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him. You can’t play it safe and please God. You can’t be comfortable all the time and probably please God. You can’t live in convenience, all about self and probably end up pleasing God. It just doesn’t...somewhere there’s going to have to be a step of faith, there’s going to have to be a risk taking faith for the foundations of your life, for the purposes of God.
As a church we have to take a risk every once in a while, and you know why? Because we’re preserving our core values: to reach, to give, to serve, to build into peoples’ lives; continue to be what God wants us to be. God will always cause you and I -- He will call you and I to do something we can’t do on our own. To believe God for the big dreams that He has placed in our heart.
The Lord spoke this into my heart this afternoon...Jesus did not die for you to play it safe. I did not die on a cross for you to live comfortable and convenient and self-consumed. I died for you to take risks following the will of God for you life. I believe when you make a decision to be totally committed to God, it will always increase your risk. You know, I am always looking -- how do we decrease our risks whether in a business deal, in a job situation? We want to decrease the risk of anything happening.
Guess what? The more you’re committed to God, the more you increase your risks. I’ve a scripture, Matthew 16:25 -- if you keep your life for yourself, you’ll lose, but if you give up your life for Me, you will truly find it. See, just make a decision, I want to decrease all risks in my world -- then what’s going to happen is you probably won’t follow the dream of God. This Christianity is not a boring life. There’s nothing in me that believes that the life God has intended for me and my wife and my kids, and for you and for your family, there’s nothing in me that says that there’s any way that it’s boring. It’s gotta be the greatest adventure; it’s gotta be one of the greatest thrills is to pray with children; is to make a decision in your life that I’m gonna pray for my work place; I’m gonna give in my life; I’m gonna serve; I’m gonna reach out to someone whose going through something.
That is one of the greatest adventures. God’s never called us to bunker down in the blessings of God but He’s called us to infiltrate the world with His message, with the message of Jesus. We are to reach out to the rejected and those who have been tattooed, and pierced, and hurt. This is a dangerous place. Can I have a good amen? That’s who God has called us to be.
Let me finish with this scripture. This scripture blesses me...it says in Acts chapter 15 verse 25-26, so it seemed good to us -- these are the apostles speaking -- it seemed so good to us who have unanimously agreed on our decision to send you these official representatives, our beloved Barnabas and Paul -- watch verse 26...who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. It says these men that gave us what we have, they risked their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ. These are men who risked their lives for the cause of Christ.
How is it today sometimes we may have to beg to get somebody to reach out; beg to get somebody to go out and give out water; beg to serve in a children’s ministry? How is it that we have men that have gone before us that have risked their lives for the cause of Christ but we’re not willing to go out in the parking lot and serve in the parking lot for a month? How do we figure these things out? When the men that gave us...and the women us what we have, they were willing to risk their life? I mean, just ask yourself for a moment...I know...how many knows Pastor is a little intense today -- turn to your neighbor and say, Pastor is a little intense today, my goodness -- wooo (whistle). He must have still fasted, he’s angry...angry pastor.blog
No, you know what I really believe? I believe that this is a church that 5,000 people really do not want to play it safe. There is nothing grand about playing it safe in any level of life! You’ll not have a great marriage; we’ll never see our kids receive the dream that God has in their life. There’s nothing great about playing it safe and just saying well this is the way I’ve always done it. I don’t think your really want to play it safe. I think there’s a cry in your heart to live dangerously for God. I pray that.
Thirteen years ago, DeLynn and I took the biggest risk of faith we will ever take in our life. We made a decision to plant a church or to start a church or to take over a church that was in bad shape that had 12 people coming. It was the biggest risk taking faith we had ever done in our life. How many knows it makes it more nauseating when you preach and 5 of them leave and you have 7 left? At that point, it’s like okay we’re increasing our risk that we’re going to starve. We started Healing Place Church and we had this idea, let’s be a church that reaches out to the poor in this community. There’s some amazing churches here; they can sing, they can preach, they’ve got incredible kid’s programs. Our little niche we will reach out to the poor and to the hurting -- that’s what we will do. I remember people looking and saying, I don’t believe that is ever going to work. You’re gonna build a church and the heart of it will be to reach out to the poor? Well, those that are not poor are going to be bored by that. And those that are already found in God, they’re not going to care about those...I remember people stopping me saying, I don’t know if that’s gonna work.
But we took a risk and God helped us. After couple of years a couple of hundred people started coming to our church and we took a risk and said, hey, let’s move to this part of Highland Road. We started growing, started reaching out doing free events...free events.
I can remember some of the first free events we had. I went to a Pastor’s meeting and a pastor told me, would you please stop doing free events because we’re losing money on our events. You can’t do free things, you gotta charge for the food you give out. But you know God kept blessing. We took a risk. We said let’s do stuff for free. Let’s not only feed people in our church. We had another idea: let’s feed people in the community and let’s not charge anything. Let’s give out free food to the city. Just this idea. It was a risk.
I remember when the first time we did that. It was a risk to do that. Our church grew and we had to start thinking about multiple services. We cancelled Sunday nights. We used to have Sunday night church. I can remember canceling Sunday night...taking a risk because they would say, we’ve always had church on Sunday night. I was thinking we were only in church for 20 months -- always is not a long time here. Then we decided to do multiple services. I remember people thinking, well God you’re going to break up the body. I’m mean we’re not going to be able to go to church in the same room together.
But I had this thought, but remember the church is not just here for us, we may lose so that the lost may find. And right now we’re comfortable, there’s no more room for anybody else so we can’t stop. So we said, let’s do multiple services. Started one multiple serve, then we had an idea. We said, let’s do a Saturday night service. Let’s do 3 services; next thing you know we are doing 4 services. We took a risk and said, let’s do 4 services. Let’s expand our facilities...all these things started taking place. Then we decided ourselves that we’ve gotta go somewhere else...we’re getting full now as a church, we’ve gotta take more of a risk. You know what we thought about? Let’s do a video campus. Let’s get a space, let’s make it really nice. Let’s put out some chairs and let’s show a Saturday night service on a Sunday morning via video. And guess what happened? People came! And we were all surprised. We took a risk; there was no guarantee. It was not happening in this part of the state. I had not been going on much in this part of the country. We said, we’ll do a video campus and people said, no one is going to sit in a video and be blessed by it. You’re not real! It’s the night before...there’s no anointing to it. I mean, you’re not there and you know, it’s amazing,
I have been to our video campus and I have watched people, and I’ll speak and they’ll say "amen" to me...and I’m on the screen. Preach it Dino! They’ll laugh at the jokes. I went down there a while back and sat in the back at our video campus, and guys, let me tell you something, I sat with you at the video campus and one of the coolest things...I told a joke and I laughed at my own joke. It was like...ha...that guy’s crazy! I like that guy. He looks good.
They said, it’s not gonna work. We took a risk. Now we’re going to 2 services there...2 services. Then we thought, hey, if this locations works, maybe we’ll do another location. And you know we had a thought, let’s do it in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Let’s buy a building; let’s make it nice; let’s make it one of the nicest facilities on that side of the river. We went out there, and this Dream Center Church in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. And you know what everybody said? They said, that’s an African American community, they’ll never receive a white pastor. It’s not gonna work, you’re taking a risk in that community. Do you know we’ve been there about a year and a half? Do you know last Sunday we had from 400 to 500 people at a church. And guess what? Listen, listen (don’t clap, don’t clap). Not only is it a white lead pastor, now it’s a Brazilian woman that a campus pastor. Figure that one out. We took a risk and her husband...all these neat things.
We said well man let’s do it like that, we just have this feeling, let’s do that. You say, do we really have to do that? Does that really matter? Should we take that kind of risk? Let me ask you this, ask the person whose come to Christ in these environments, was it worth the risk? It was worth the risk to them. They’ve made a decision for Christ.
Then we said, let’s do it on the foreign mission field. Now we have a church in Manaus, Brazil. Last week they had service and 60% of their service attendance were children. 60% of the church is under 13 or 14 years old. It’s in Brazil. I’m their lead pastor. How do you pastor something 1700 miles from here? Well, it works.
And then there’s a group in Danville, CA who gets our DVD’s off of the Internet, and they love the environment here, they love you, they’re crazy about this church. And they just started watching DVD’s and they said, can we be a Healing Place? And people say, that’s not going to work. You’re from the South. People in California don’t think people from Louisiana are real smart. Guess what? Ask the people who are coming to Christ in Danville, CA because of your heart to be dangerous. Does it work there? Ask the people who have received Christ if it works. I think it does. We have to take risks, and we’ve not stop taking a risk.
Think about it -- we’re gonna be even more dangerous cause now we’re getting ready to build a $14 million building to be more dangerous to reach out to 3 times the amount of people that attend this building...3 times the amount of people will be able to be in service there when we do multiple services at that facility. We have about 4,000 people that attend this campus on a weekend. With our new worship space we will be able to in 3 services, cut down 1 service, go to 3 services and we’ll start out with however many services we need but we could possibly go to 3 services and reach 12,000 people from this campus right here.
Why? Because God’s called us to be dangerous, not to play it safe.
Here’s the last question...When was the last time you took a faith risk? When was the last time you took a faith risk to reach out? God took the ultimate risk when He sent Jesus for you. He took a big risk on some of you in here but He sent His Son and He took a faith risk on you. How many are glad He took that risk? Amen? Let’s all be a dangerous church, amen? Let’s be dangerous believers.
Let’s all stand to our feet. I going to pray here, I’m going to pray for those at our video campus. We’re just gonna to ask God to touch our life. Won’t you bow your heads with me?
