5 Lessons in 5 Years | Josiah Jones

How are we doing, Porch? Would you help me welcome all of our Porch.Live locations around the nation…Fort Worth, Midland, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Greater Lafayette, Dayton, Scottsdale, Boise, Fresno, and for the very first time…I'm coming at you…the Porch.Live Wheaton, Illinois. Let's go!

If you have a copy of God's Word, you can find the book of Hebrews. I'm a coffee drinker, so "He brews" is my favorite book of the Bible. Come on, somebody. That's poor. That's a bad dad joke right there, but thank you for entertaining me with that laugh. Hebrews, chapter 12, is where we'll be tonight.

Before we get going, did anybody watch the Olympics? Yeah. I love the Olympics. I'm all in, Team USA. I keep ESPN up on my browser. I'm checking it nonstop. I'm like, "Hey, are we on top still? Is Team USA on top?" We were going back and forth with China with the gold, and we ended up tying them. Boo! But whatever. They're pretty good.

One thing I love about the Olympics is the men's 4x100 relay. It's one of my favorite events. The reason I love it is it's technical, and people are getting DQ'd all the time. There's just a lot going on in the men's 4x100 relay. I don't know if you saw this a few years back, but in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the USA men's 4x100 relay team was heavily favored to win the gold. It was like the dream team.

They had 3 out of the 10 fastest men in all the world on one team. People thought they were going to take gold, no problem. That year, they did not get gold, and they failed to qualify, because in a relay race, it's not really how fast the runner is. In a relay race, it comes down to what they call the exchange zone. The exchange zone is 1.9 seconds, 20 meters, and it's what happens in the exchange zone that will make or break the race.

In the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, this is what happened. Ol' dude reaches back and chokeslams his partner. That's it. They not only didn't get gold that year; they failed to even qualify. So, I'm like, "2024 is our year. This is it. No holding back. We're going all in. Paris. That's when we're going to take the gold." And the same thing, or like it, happened. Check out this picture. The dude grabs Kung Fu Kenny's arm and tries to slow him down.

So they didn't get gold, and they failed to even qualify, because everything that will make or break that race happens in the exchange zone. You're like, "Okay. Where are you going with this, Josiah?" This is where I'm going. I share that with you tonight because in a relay race it doesn't matter if you have the fastest runners. What matters is if you pass the baton.

Hebrews, chapter 12, as we open up God's Word, is going to tell us that our job as Christians is to pass the baton. You're like, "What's the baton?" The baton is our faith in Jesus Christ. What Hebrews is going to say tonight is if you're a believer, if you're a follower of Jesus, then your job is to pass the baton of our faith from one person to the next. Hebrews, chapter 12:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…"

Do you know what the joy that was set before him was? You. The saints are "glorious riches of the inheritance of Christ." So, when he was standing in front of Golgotha looking at the bloody, horrible death he was going to endure for you and me, he said, "Hey, what would make it worth it to endure that death, to endure that pain?" Part of the answer was you. By paying the price of our sins through his death on the cross so we would be free from the penalty of sin and get eternity with him. We were the joy that was set before him.

Now, Hebrews 12 starts with the word therefore, and if you've been around Bible teaching for any time, you know that anytime you see the word therefore, you have to work backward and ask what the therefore is there for. Hebrews 11 is one of the most famous chapters in all the Bible, because in Hebrews 11, it's what we call the hall of faith, where you get 16 consecutive stories about men and women going all the way back to Genesis, stretching forward to Hebrews, about men and women who took the baton of their faith and passed it to the people around them and to the next generation.

That should serve as a reminder to you and me, if you're a believer in the room tonight, that we should do the same. Now think about this, Porch. God looked at everyone who would ever exist everywhere and plucked them out of eternity. He then positioned you in time, has proportioned your gifts, has given you resources, and planted you right here at The Porch. God has given us the responsibility to pass the baton of our faith to our generation.

You ask, "What's my purpose in life?" Listen to me. This is our purpose. The apostle Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, understood his purpose, which has become my life verse. Acts 20:24 says, "But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." Passing the baton of our faith to the people around us.

I've been at The Porch for five years now, and each week, without fail, I have a front-row seat to watch young adults file down the aisles of this place because they saw Jesus and now want to surrender their life to him. Can I tell you something? It never gets old. It's amazing. I mean, I don't want to give my life to anything else but that.

So tonight, I want to give us five lessons I've learned over the five years here at The Porch that have helped us pass the baton of our faith to those around us. It's certainly not an exhaustive list, but it's helpful, I think. They're lessons I've learned from much wiser people that I'm stealing from them and giving to you tonight.

1. Learn how to pray and abide. Mark 1:35. This is Jesus. "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed." There are four verbs in this one verse. Do you see it? Rising. Rising very early. Before his day even starts, he's getting up and spending time with the Father.

Secondly, departed. So, he went somewhere. Went is third. He actually did it. He didn't just depart, get in his car, and just sit there and scroll on Instagram. He literally went somewhere. And it says he went to a desolate place. The word desolate just means without people, without distractions. And, fourth, there he prayed. Why would Jesus do this? Because he believed prayer works.

I believe one of the first things we're going to see when we get to heaven is that prayer really worked. Everything is going to come clear, and you're going to stand before Jesus and be like, "Man, that thing I was doing from time to time… It really worked. There was something going on in my heart with his heart and my thoughts with his thoughts and my actions with his actions. He was beginning to align those things to him."

We're going to get up there, and we're going to say, "Wow! You were really listening to me. Talking to you was really doing something." Jesus says in John 15:5, "Apart from me you can do nothing." He's inviting us into a life of dependence on him. Let me read it. Jesus says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Jesus is telling us that he's the vine. He's the source of life. If you're not praying, then you're quietly confident that money, time, and your stuff are all you need in life. That's what we're communicating to God. If we're not praying, then we're quietly confident that "God, that's all we really need."

If you want to know how dependent you are, there's a simple test I can give you. Ask this question: How much have you prayed today? This simple question will reflect on whether you were dependent with the allotted time God has given you today. Some of you are sitting there right now, and you're saying, "Well, I didn't really pray a whole lot today." Some of you are thinking, "Wow! Since the moment I woke up until I came into this place, I haven't prayed." I would just tell you that you're probably not dependent on God.

God is telling us that we don't have the resources to do life the way he intended us to. I believe the most dangerous thing you and I can do today is pray and abide, because prayer affects what you expect. For example, if you expect to get married someday, then praying will begin to affect that area of your life. Praying for a spouse every day just makes sense. Not just praying that you would meet him or her, but praying that when you meet him or her there would be this connection where God is affirming that this person is the person you should marry.

I have a good friend, Grace Ball. She's also on staff. You saw her up here earlier. I love this girl. She's amazing. She did ministry with me in Kansas City, and she's now here in Dallas on staff here at The Porch. She sent me her prayer list. I asked for it. I said, "Hey, can I share your prayer list?" Because she expected to get married someday. I'm like, "I want to see what's on that list." Here it is. Here's what's on that list. Check it out. Don't worry. I got approval.

Look at this. "I want a guy who's close to his family. Family of believers." "Country music"? That sounds like a preference. "Heart for high school/young adults. Wants to go overseas. Loves dogs." (Preference.) "Competitive. Funny. Connection to Nashville." I'm not sure what's going on there. "Dimpled"? Okay. "Would impact my family's faith and add joy to our lives. Could handle my mom's battle with cancer." Like, really serious stuff. "Our missions and gifts would align. Peace from the beginning. Excitement and joy with family." That's a pretty good list. Right?

Why do I share that with you tonight? Well, it's going to be on my Insta stories after the message if any of you bachelors fit the categories. No, that's not why. The reason I share that with you tonight is because Jesus said you could pray for whatever you want. Do you know that? John 14:13: "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

Six different times Jesus says, "Ask, and it will be given to you," but many of us don't believe this because we tried and didn't really get what we wanted. I would say the problem isn't your prayer; the problem is maybe the lack of continual praying and abiding you have done with the Lord, because here's what I know: you can ask God for whatever you want because he already knows.

Some of you are trying to Jesus-juke God and say, "I don't really need a spouse," but deep down you really want a spouse, but you want him to see you as satisfied. You're not juking God. You're not going to win there. Just pray for a spouse. You can ask God for whatever you want, but here's the kicker: ask him for what he wants. Like, "I want this, but more than anything I want, I want what you want, God. I want to do your will for my life, God."

As we begin to pray that prayer, guess what God begins to do. He begins to align our hearts with his, our requests with his requests. "God, would you show me what you want, and would you give me a greater desire in my heart for what you want than what I want? And if I don't want what you want, God, help me not to want it."

This was all too real. I found myself still single in my mid-20s. I don't think I'd gone on a date in three years, and I was getting depressed. I was single and lonely. I remember crying out to God, just talking to him, like, "Hey, God, you know your brother has needs, like, sexual needs." Yeah, I just got real. During that time, I was struggling every once in a while with porn and masturbation. There, I said it.

I remember God, as I was going to him with complete honesty and transparency, showing me that my greatest need wasn't to get a girlfriend to fix my loneliness. It wasn't to get a wife to satisfy my sexual desires. The greatest need God began to show me in that season was more of him so he could be my satisfaction.

I think sometimes we shortchange prayer, and we sometimes use it to get more from God instead of getting more of God. That's the whole point of prayer, that we would go to him and not necessarily just ask him for what we want. You saw Grace asking God for what she wanted. If he didn't give you a man who was dimpled, you'd be okay. Right? Okay. If he didn't give you a man at all, would you be okay? Okay. But she just threw up her ring, because she just got engaged. Sorry, fellas.

But I know this woman. She has been content and satisfied with God. There's a tension we can manage with God. God wants you to bring your requests to him, but ultimately, he wants to give you more of himself. As he does, he begins to show you that he's enough. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." I have everything I need in him. It's so hard to walk out, easier to say. Passing the baton of our faith happens when we see our need to pray and abide.

2. Obstacles are opportunities for my good and his glory. What I love about the book of Ecclesiastes is it sums it up perfectly in Ecclesiastes 3. Here's what it says in verse 1: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die…" So, a person's birthday and his funeral. "…a time to plant and a time to uproot…" Not just with a person but with plants. It's 105 degrees here in Texas. I just uprooted all of my roses. They're just getting crushed. I did that this past weekend. It was awesome.

"…a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…" Isn't this the entire human experience summed up in just a few verses? There's a time for everything, Solomon is saying. God isn't just in control of the good times; he's in control of the bad. Everyone will laugh, and everyone will cry. Everyone will mourn, and everyone will dance. Everyone will be born, and everyone will die.

No one gets to avoid the obstacles and the pain of life. Why? Because this isn't the world we had (Genesis 1 and 2, paradise, perfection), but this is the world we have (Genesis 3, sin, suffering, and death). But listen to me. This isn't the world we will have. I've read the rest of the book. If you go to Revelation 21, he says it. Paradise lost in the garden, perfection, will be paradise regained someday.

So, that's what we can hold our hats on, because he is a good Father who has provided a way in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our obstacles, and those obstacles are opportunities to trust God more and to give him glory. Jesus says it like this in John 16:33: "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."

What do you do with the big question marks in life when the Bible is filled with a bunch of exclamation points? Like, your job isn't hitting the way it should. You didn't get the promotion. You didn't get the raise. Maybe a loved one has passed away. You found out someone has stage 4 cancer. A friend stabs you in the back. You thought you'd be out of debt by now.

What we do is we start to question God's ability to make the obstacles in our lives opportunities for our good and his glory. This is why, if you lead someone to Christ, don't tell them that everything is going to turn out well in their life right here and now. It will ultimately, but it might get harder, because a Christian isn't exempt from the pains of this world. When sin entered the world, it sent creation into chaos.

So, what's our solution? Is it deism? Like, God is just absent. He's the Creator of everything, but he went on furlough. He's just taking a break. Is it dualism? Is that the solution, that God and Satan are kind of equal, and there's this tennis match going on with God and Satan, and sometimes Satan wins and sometimes God wins? No.

Read Genesis 3:15. It's the first gospel. It's called protoevangelium, for all of my nerds in the room tonight. Proto (first) evangelion (gospel). It tells us that there's coming a Messiah who will crush the head of the Serpent. We saw that in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John where Jesus went ultimately to the cross to crush the head of the Serpent, Satan, and to, once and for all, end the curse for all men, for those of us who put our faith and trust in him.

Have you ever read the book of Job? Man, Job lost his possessions, his children, and his health. Do we have to understand all things? No, but we have to understand that God is in control of all things. I've said this before here at The Porch. If I go home tonight and find out my house was burned down and my wife and my three kids were killed in the fire, don't try to comfort me and tell me that accidents happen. I can't deal with that. I have to know there's a God who's in control.

If I find out tomorrow that I have stage 4 cancer and just two weeks to live, I can't deal with the fact that God isn't God and hasn't provided a way for me to be reconciled to him. Do you know where I'm going to end up? Going back to the bottle. Going back to an illegitimate relationship. Going to a pill. Going to what the world has offered us. That's where I will go, and I will find that that's an empty well, because I've already gone there in my past. I have to know that God is in control. You're not going to comfort me by saying God is not God.

Let me ask you this question. How many of you, in the last five years, have gone through deep-seated pain that you really can't make sense of? Just show of hands. Yeah, hi. That's a majority of us in the room. So, what's our solution? We remember the gospel. The greatest act of injustice that has ever happened happened about 2,000 years ago.

The perfect person who ever lived, Jesus, was the divine man, rejected, betrayed, denied, tortured, put on a cross, and killed. He of all people didn't deserve any of it. Jesus was the one person who did everything God required of him. He didn't fail at any point. And what did he get for his obedience and righteousness? He got tortured, nailed to the cross, and suffocated to death. What good could possibly come out of an evil like that? Yet God turned the most evil thing that has ever happened into the best thing that has ever happened.

Today we can celebrate Jesus' suffering and death because he triumphed over sin. Today we can celebrate that the grave is empty, and if the grave is empty, anything is possible. Amen? Jesus rose from the dead, defeated evil and sin, and the ball is in your court. This is the hope we have. We can be reconciled with our Creator and know that God is God and he can take our obstacles and use them for our good and his glory.

"Are you trying to tell me, Josiah, that he can cause all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose?" Yeah. Where do I get that? Romans 8:28. Look at what it says. Let this wash over you tonight. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Passing the baton of our faith happens when we see obstacles as opportunities for our good and his glory.

3. Reach your generation for the gospel. The gospel is the power of God, so share it often. In Romans 1:16, Paul says it like this: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." I believe God is going to do something amazing today, and he wants to use you to do it.

I believe God is going to do something incredible in this place. He's going to do something incredible around me, and all I have to do is avail myself to the glory of God. I have to avail myself to God and say, "God, I want my heart to be aligned with your heart so you can use me in spite of me for your kingdom purposes." That our hearts would be fully devoted to him. What if that was our prayer? Why? Because he wants to use you to reach your generation.

Second Chronicles 16:9 says it like this: "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him." To those whose perfection is blameless toward him? No. To those whose heart is blameless toward him. Avail yourself to the work of God, and watch God move in your life in ways you never thought were possible.

How do I know God can use me? You first off know God can use you when you understand you have need. The only thing you need to come to God is need. Some of us right here today are like, "I'm going to get to God by doing good works. If my good works outweigh my bad works, I'm going to get to God." Well, if that was the case, then why did Jesus die on the cross?

Not one of us in this room is going to stand before God, pull out our résumé of good things we've done, and think that suffices to get to him. It's only because of what he did on the cross that you can be set free and forgiven from your sin. I keep bumping my head against the same wall, making the same mistakes, doing the same sins. Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who returns to his folly. I keep going back to that which is disgusting, impure, and a mockery of God, and I need someone to save me, to reach into the miry pit and pull me out.

How do you know if you've done that? When you begin to talk about what he delivered you from. You're like, "No, man. I'm never going to talk about that abortion." "No, I'm never going to talk about cutting and overeating or undereating because life feels out of control and that's the only thing I can control." "I'm never going to talk about envy and jealousy." "I'm never going to talk about my porn addiction, my secret sin."

When you begin to talk about it, guess what happens. The same baggage you used to carry… You begin to talk about it to other people who carry that baggage, and he begins to use your story for his glory to help people who carry the same baggage you used to carry. That's how you know God can use you.

Have you come into this room with need tonight? Have you bent the knee? Have you surrendered your life to him, and are you beginning to talk about the things he has freed you from? All of a sudden, what the Enemy used for evil, God begins to use for good. What else are you going to give your life to? Some of you are like, "Man, maybe." Maybe? I get it. I was there.

We look at this book, we read it, and we're like, "God, can you truly use the gospel to change people's lives? I mean, it's Dallas, and there are a lot of young adults here. It's kind of the place to gather on a Tuesday night. Are people truly living the way this guy is proclaiming with the vein coming out of the side of his head?" Yes, they're living like this, and God is calling you to do the same.

You're like, "Well, give me a story, Josiah, because I doubt the gospel can still change people." All right. Here you go. I met a young adult, and he was struggling with his sexuality, gender dysphoria, the whole nine yards. He got kicked out of his house when he opened up about it. I said, "Come on, man. Come in. Mi casa es su casa. Let's go. Let's do life together." So he moves in. I make him a bed, give him a room, and we begin to process what has happened.

I just listen to him. Like, "What's your story, bro?" He begins to share his story. Do you know what I didn't do? "What?! How dare you? How could you feel like that?" I just said, "Hey, man. I get how you got there. I get why you feel that way. I get why you think that, but there's another way." I began to share the gospel with him, and he began to renew his mind by getting into God's Word, and he rejected the lies of the world.

Do you know what Jesus did? He saved him. He saved him by hearing the gospel. When did we stop believing the gospel was enough to save somebody? The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, and it can do anything as it moves into your neighborhood and begins to call you to something different. It begins to renew the mind, and you begin to reject the lies you began to believe in way back when.

Maybe this is your story. If your mind and body feel out of alignment with any type of sin… I'm not just talking about homosexuality and gender dysphoria. Can we just be honest tonight? There's more heterosexual sin going on in this room than homosexual sin. I was one of them. Sleeping with anyone who's not your spouse, pulling up the two-dimensional images before you go to bed… Anything that is inconsistent with the character of Christ will ultimately kill you.

The world and the Word are going to give you two different responses. Here's what the world says: "Listen to your mind and do whatever your body wants." But check this out. The Word says something different. Romans 12:1-2 says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy…" What he wants to offer every single one of us tonight. "…to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." Worship is more than just singing songs. It's offering our bodies to God as a living sacrifice.

Then it goes on and says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." When your mind and body are out of alignment with any type of sin under the sun, the world says, "Listen to your mind and do whatever your body wants," but the Word says, "Embrace your body, but renew your mind."

I just want to point out something. This is a normative practice in the medical field. Let me not just talk theologically tonight. Let me talk logically. Mind renewal, bringing our mind into alignment with our body, is a normative practice in the medical field. Here's an example. If an 80-pound teenager walks into the doctor's office and says, "Doc, I feel overweight," and she's anorexic, the doctor is not going to sit there and say, "Well, if your mind is telling you that, then let's get you on diet pills. Let's give liposuction. Let's have stomach-binding surgery."

He would never do that. A loving doctor would say, "Hey, let's go to work on the mind to match the body instead of changing the body to match the mind." That's what a loving doctor would do. This is mind renewal, and as we understand that over time, this is what can happen when there's a dysphoria between the mind and the body. Embrace your body, but renew your mind, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, the God of the galaxies begins to show you there's another way that leads to life and not death.

Proverbs 14:12 says, "There's a way that seems right to a man (or a woman), and that way ends in death." Just this week, The Atlantic (look it up on Google) came out with an article that says, "Fewer Sex Partners Means a Happier Marriage." I just love it when the world catches up with the Bible. Don't you just love that? It's like, "Really?" What the Bible has said for thousands of years. Fewer sex partners will actually give you more satisfaction in marriage. Hmm. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The world is going to try to tell you that you need to do you, whatever makes you feel loved, accepted, and celebrated. You need to get out there and make yours, make a name for yourself. I want you to know that the gospel still has the power to change. Passing the baton of our faith happens when we trust the gospel is enough to reach our generation.

4. Community is greater than my comforts and conveniences. Young adults come up to me every service, usually, and I listen to their story, and 99.9 percent of the time, I usually respond with something like this: "Are you in biblical community?" To which they would say, "Well, Josiah, it's hard." To which I say, "But so is isolation and living in a prison to your secret sins." "Well, it's a lot of work." And I'll say, "Well, so is your job."

"I don't really have time."

"But, bro, you work out every day, and your screen time says 5 hours. Help me understand."

Community is greater than our comforts and conveniences. Having biblical community is the number-one piece of advice I've given to people who want to change their life outside of telling them about Jesus and the gospel. Why? Because 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, "Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character.'" Proverbs 13:20 says, "Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm."

You already know this. If you get drunk going to the bar, then stop going to the bar. If you have sex with him every time you go to his apartment, then stop going into his apartment…ever! My wife and I had to do this. Thank the Lord we weren't having sex, but we were getting handsy. I'm just being honest. I had to look my Community Group in the eyes and ask, "What's the solution?" To which they said, "Quit being alone with her."

"Well, I want to be alone."

"Be alone in public. You'd better stay some late nights in Starbucks." For real.

Who you go with and where you go is half the battle. Do you know that? I've told you this before, but what God has used in my life more, outside of the Spirit of God and the Word of God, is the people of God, community. From a perverted porn addict, womanizer, partier, to the next drink, to this pastor. How crazy is that, y'all? God placed me in community with people I started to run with. It wasn't just people I had everything in common with. It wasn't even people who were in my similar life stage. It was just people who loved Jesus more than I did, and I said, "Let's go."

If you have no one to hold you accountable and ask the hard questions, the Bible says you will suffer harm. Every single week for 10 years, a decade, I have met with men in my life, and they ask me three questions: "How have you fed your spirit this week? How have you fed your flesh this week? And how have you fed others this week?" I can't think of better questions out there that somebody could ask me.

"How have you prayed and abided this week, Josiah, spent time with Jesus, renewing your mind? Where have you gone in thought, word, and action that is inconsistent with the character of Christ? And be honest. Then how are you serving the people around you? Who are you sharing the gospel with? How are you leveraging your time, treasure, and talents for the glory of God and the movement of his message, the gospel?"

Proverbs 12:1 says, "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid." I didn't say it; the Bible did. In all seriousness, if you read those questions and were like, "Man, bro, it sounds so suppressive," then I would look at you and say what sounds so suppressive is living with your secret sins, because I'll go as far as to say you'll never have true healing apart from living in the light.

True healing is found through confession. James 5:16 says, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." Maybe some of you in this room are like, "Josiah, I tried that, and I was met with shame, condemnation, and guilt, and people began to mismanage information about me."

Can I tell you something? That's not the gospel, and that's not biblical community. How do I know that? Because Jesus says in Luke 15:7, "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." The safest place to confess our sin is right here in the church. Why? Because the Bible says heaven is throwing a party over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who need no repentance.

A few days ago, my little girl turned 6 years old. Let me illustrate it like this. Here's a picture of us. She's on her bike, and your boy has bed head. I don't know what's going on with my hair. It was a long day at work. I said, "Baby girl, Daddy has failed you, because you're still riding around in training wheels, and you're 6 years old. It's time to take the training wheels off, and it's time to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels."

So, what did I do? I took those training wheels off, and I said, "Let's go. Isabella Marie, you're turning 6." We got off to a rocky start. She started to fall. She started to scrape her legs. But do you know what I know about Isabella? She's tough and she's determined. She finally got it. Check out this video.

[Video]

Go, Bella, go! Go, Bella, go! Let's go, Bella! Woo! Yeah! Woo! Woo-hoo! Let's go, Isabella! Woo! Yeah! Good job, Bella!

[End of video]

I just kept going. The neighbors were like, "Man, this guy is crazy." But can I tell you something? This is a picture of heaven. Every time we confess our sin, it's like there's a party going on. Though you fall seven times, you get back up, and heaven is saying, "Hey, let's go. I'm proud of you. Keep going. It's good. What you're doing is right. It's in the Scriptures. It's for your healing. It's for his glory."

God is getting after it in heaven, saying, "Let's go. I'm proud of you." Proverbs 24:16 says even though you fall seven times, you get back up. This is the response of the heavenly Father and those in your Community Group. Passing the baton of faith happens when we believe community is greater than our comfort and conveniences.

5. Hold fast to discipleship. Who did Jesus use to change the world? Young adults. Do you know what Jesus did? He identified 12 young adults, and he radically gave his life to these guys. What is discipleship? It's radical self-donation for the purpose of godliness and multiplication. It's another guy who's a little bit farther along going alongside a group of men and saying, "I'm going to donate my life to them."

First Thessalonians 2:8 says they loved him so much they not only gave the gospel to them, but they gave their very own lives. So, the purpose of discipleship is not just someone transferring knowledge from one person to another; it's transferring your life from one person to another. So, I've always had a group of men, since I came to Christ, who I began to invest my life into. Why? For the purpose of godliness and multiplication.

It's way more than the last point. It's way more than just community. Community isn't to multiply, but discipleship is. Every time I pour into guys for a year or so, I just say, "Hey, when I'm done, you do this for the rest of your life. At least three or four men every year for the rest of your life." This was the Jesus model. He identified men, he poured into them, and look at what he tells them before he ascends to heaven after he dies on the cross and defeats the grave. Look at what he says in Matthew 28.

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'"

He passed the baton of faith to these men. He didn't just share the gospel with them. He did life with them, and he said, "Okay, men. I'm giving you the baton so you would go and do the same." Yeah, share the gospel with as many people who will listen, but then find some men, find some women… I'm talking to the believer in the room tonight who has been poured into, invested into. You're holding on to all this Bible knowledge. You're holding on to life skills. You're holding on to just the things you do throughout the week.

God is asking you to find your women. God is asking you, men in the room, to find your men and invest your life into them for the rest of your life. Always have a group of men and women, and then set them free to do the same. I mean, I could talk about this for the next 30 minutes, but I can't. But there's a series coming where you're going to talk about discipleship.

Jesus passed the baton of faith, and it worked. The twelve disciples went out and discipled others and discipled others and discipled others until it came down to you and me. Currently, there are 2.4 billion Christians. Christianity is the largest faith in the world. It's currently almost one-third of the world's population.

Do you know the irony of that stat? There are so many people who think they're Christian but are not. They hear that statistic, "2.4 billion Christians," and say, "I'm one of them. Check," but then they fail to follow him for the rest of their life because they think it's a checkbox. They think it's just a weekly gathering where they pay their dues and just try to do more good things than bad things. You've dumbed it down to pure religion. God is after your heart. Maybe that's you tonight.

For those of us following Jesus, the mission continues. Will you be a part of it? How? By doing what we talked about tonight. By praying and abiding, by seeing obstacles as opportunities for your good and his glory, by reaching your generation with the gospel, by believing that community is greater than your comforts and conveniences, and holding fast to discipleship. Look at what it says right there…PORCH. Do you like that?

Twelve years ago, I found myself walking into this place, dating my now wife Cathy. We sat right behind that sound booth. I would drive almost four hours round trip, because love makes you do crazy things. This was our midweek date. She was an interior designer in Dallas, and I was pouring into some high school and middle school students, pastoring in Granbury, Texas.

We went off, got married, moved up to Kansas City, and I started a young adult ministry there. I took The Porch's playbook and ran it up there. It was awesome, amazing. Then I got a call out of the blue. I was like, "Man, do you have the right number?" The call was a friend from The Porch, David Marvin, and a guy named Todd Wagner. They called me and said, "Hey, we want you to come on staff here with Watermark and The Porch."

I was blown away. I was like, "You got the wrong number, man. There's no way." I began to pray about it and looped Cathy in, and we prayed, and we began to feel the conviction from the Holy Spirit that this was our next step. We've been on staff for five years. It has been amazing. I say we because she's not on staff, but I could never do ministry apart from my wife. She is my better half a thousand times. She's incredible.

Over the last several months, God has been stirring our hearts with "What's next? What's next? What's next?" We've been praying and processing with community, doing everything we just talked about tonight…praying and abiding, seeing obstacles as opportunities, reaching our generation with the gospel, seeing community as greater than comfort and convenience, and discipling men and women…holding fast to that. We can't shake that God is calling us to transition out of this ministry into what we don't know is next, but we do know our next faithful step is to rest.

I've been in ministry for 17 years, and it has been amazing, highs and lows and everything in between. God has given us incredible favor in this place. It's amazing seeing what he's doing. I told you I have a front-row seat every week to see him changing lives. But I believe God is calling us to pour into multi-generations, to use what I've learned as a husband and a father to help families, to help young men, fathers and husbands, lead their family in a way that honors God.

So, I would just ask you to pray for us as we continue to pray for The Porch and champion The Porch to do everything God would want them to do, because we love this place. It has meant so much to us. It's one of the hardest decisions we've had to make, but we know it's the right decision. So I'm thankful. I'm thankful for what God is doing in and through you and me in spite of us to accomplish his purposes. Let me pray.

God in heaven, you are a good Father who loves your children with a deep love that I tried to express, and words failed me tonight, but I pray that if anything came out of this message that was good, we would hold on to it, that we would cling to it, that we would see the beauty of Jesus, and for those of us in the room tonight who haven't surrendered our life to Christ, that tonight would be the night.

For those of us who have, God, would we get on mission to pass the baton to the people around us, that we wouldn't want to live for anything else, that we would leverage everything, that we would go all in with everything you've given us, our time, treasure, and talent, our job, our zip codes, our houses and stuff, and we would find creative ways to make you known, and you would continue to change Dallas, the nation, and the world, that we would give our lives to this. God, we love you. We thank you. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.