Gospel Modeling Behaviors

Demonstrating that God has changed us inwardly isn't just about what we say—it's revealed in how we live out our daily lives.

In this sermon on Acts 18:18–28, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon continues the series through the Book of Acts by exploring three simple, practical behaviors that model the gospel to the world around us. Looking at the lives of Paul, Priscilla, Aquila, and Apollos, Pastor Neil highlights how setting intentional personal vows, living in continuous dependence on God's will, and cultivating a teachable spirit can transform our everyday witness. Discover how to move beyond basic religious routines and embrace a lifestyle that genuinely reflects the grace and power of Jesus Christ.

In this episode, we cover:

• Thinking in Terms of Cities: Shifting our mindset from personal comfort to gospel impact across our broader community.
• The Power of Intentional Vows: Expressing deep gratitude, need, or understanding through disciplined spiritual goals.
• Living "If God Wills": Replacing human self-reliance and assumption with continuous, humble dependence on God.
• Developing a Teachable Spirit: Learning how Apollos received instruction and why embracing constructive feedback aids spiritual growth.
• 4 Ways to Become More Teachable: Practical steps for seeking honest feedback, listening well, getting thicker skin, and applying truth.

Be sure to follow us:

Instagram

Facebook

Youtube

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_02 0:04

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

Yeah.

unknown 0:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Before I pray, just stay standing for a second. Let me just remind you: when we say my sins are forgiven and my future is heaven, we don't just mean the sins that you committed yesterday or this morning on the way to church as you had to beat your kids to subdue them. Here's the great thing about Christianity. I stand before you as a Christian, not as a pastor, but as a Christian, when I say, when I sing my sins are forgiven, that means all of them. Past, present, and future. It means I'm not just forgiven, but I am free from the power of sin. Sin I don't just get up and make bad choices because I can't help myself. It's in my DNA. I come from a dysfunctional family, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You see, when you come to faith, your nature, your heart changes. The Bible says it like this that God takes out your heart of stone and he puts it, your cold heart, and he puts in you a heart of flesh, and he puts his spirit inside of you, and he moves you to follow his decrees, things that he says in the Bible. So if you're here and you're not a believer, you may be an atheist or an agnostic, and you're thinking, dude, there is no way I can live out what the Bible says. You're exactly right. Neither could I until God changed my heart. Okay? And so here's what I'm saying: God's still in the heart-changing business. All right? And so you're gonna hear God's word taught today, and God's spirit is here, and you have the capacity to have your heart changed. That is not a religious experience, that is a relational experience. Uh, and so that's what Christianity is. Some of you may have had bad bad experiences with churches or preachers or or religion or whatever, and I'm sorry for that, but I'm also not responsible for it. I want you just before I pray, just to open your heart and just say, Hey, my sins are forgiven, my future is heaven. How could you live if you if that was true of you? How at peace could you be on the inside? Let's pray together. Lord, thank you that only you can do that. And so, uh, our hope today is not in a man or a place or even a people. Our hope is in God because you're the only one that can do that, that has the power to change us that way. And so, Lord, for all of us who have been changed, we want to model the gospel. We don't want to just talk about the gospel, we don't want to just learn more about the gospel. We want to model the gospel so with a fragrant aroma of Christ uh uh to those who don't know what he's like. And so, Lord, let people get a whiff of what Jesus is like and the kingdom is like because they're around us. So, Holy Spirit, illuminate your word today. It's not just words on a paper written by a bunch of men. No, it is life-giving truth, and that's what we need today. Set us free from your word and by your spirit, we pray in Christ's name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. You could have a C if you got a Bible. I invite you to take and open up to Acts chapter 18. If you're a guest, let me introduce myself. My name is Neil. Uh, I'm the lead pastor here at Grand Parkway, and we're teaching through the book of Acts. We're typically teaching through a book of the Bible. It's not like license to bore people with some religious lecture. And we're in Acts chapter 18. Verse 18, if you're like, hey, dude, I don't even own a Bible, that's okay. It'll come on the screen right up here. Uh now, if you don't own a Bible and you'd like one, come see me after the service and I'll get you one. Uh, but Acts chapter 18, I'll start reading verse 18 and I'll read to the to the verse 28. And I want to talk this morning about gospel modeling behaviors. Gospel modeling behaviors. Like, oh, okay, that wait time out. I don't know what that means right there. That means that we engage, we do certain things that model the gospel to people around us. That doesn't mean you take a Bible to school, uh, students, and put it on your desk in the fall and go, I want everybody to know. Uh, no, it's just in the everyday warp and move of life. And here, the things that I'm gonna talk about this morning, any Christian can do these things. It's not for the super mature or the super godly or the super willing. But before I jump into the text, I just want to say a couple things uh up from the top. Uh, the first is simply this one of the major differences, hopefully you've picked up on this, and as we're getting in this recent section of the book of Acts, one of the major differences in Christians in the Bible and Christians in America is that they thought in terms of cities. Uh, they thought in terms of cities like Corinth and Ephesus and Antioch and Jerusalem. Uh, and that's how they thought about it. We want the gospel to penetrate this city. We think in terms of families, namely ours. And once our family comes to faith, we're kind of like, okay, I'm good. Uh uh, but the reason Christianity was so expansive and so consequential was they thought in terms of cities. Second thing, all we ever do is talk about the gospel and come to church and learn more about the gospel, then eventually we're doing a disservice to the gospel. It's almost an offense to the gospel, um, which is why it's important that we understand and learn some practical, simple ways we can engage in what I call gospel modeling behaviors. We demonstrate outwardly that God has changed us inwardly, just by the not just the things we say, but how we do the things we do. And uh, there's three of them in the text. I just want to read the text and point to them this morning. Acts chapter 18, starting verse 18. The Bible says this. After this, Paul stayed many days longer, and then he took leave of the brothers, and he set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Centuria, he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there. But he himself went into the synagogue and he reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. But on taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you if God wills. And he set sail for Ephesus. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and he went down to Antioch. After spending some time there, he departed, and he went from one place to the next, to the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. Now, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and the and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achai, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. Now, let me just acknowledge something. This is a section of the Bible that it's easy to read and kind of go, Okay, what are you going to do with this? Okay? This is what I mean by some of you are like, mm-hmm. I'm just curious. This is what I mean by gospel modeling behaviors. There's three of them. The first one is vows. It's in verse 18. It's subtle, it kind of snuck by you that even see it. So let me back up. Uh uh, and you say, What do you mean? It says that at Centurion he had cut his hair, Paul, for he is under a vow, okay? He was under a vow. Now, what do you mean he's under a vow? Let me give you a definition for a vow first. A vow is an informed expression of understanding that one submits themselves to in order to express gratitude, need, or understanding. Let me say it again. A vow is an informed expression of understanding that one submits himself to in order to express gratitude, need, or understanding. Here's the vow that our culture is kind of taking on. It's called sober November. This would be in the need category. Some of you are like, I'm not biting on that. And so, what do you mean by a vow? For Paul, remember back last week we talked about in verse 10 of chapter 18? God came to him in a vision and said, Hey, keep doing what you're doing. No one's going to attack you to harm you. And so what happens is that Paul cuts his hair as a vow. Basically, it's a vow of gratitude. He is saying to God, hey, thank you for protecting me. No harm, just like you said, no harm came of me. Now, again, a vow is an informed expression of understanding that one submits themselves to in order to express gratitude. That's the case here, or need or understanding. I have a friend, when he's got something he's praying for, he won't shave until he gets an answer. And so I can tell how it's going based on his beard. And so I'm kind of neurotic and curious and nosy rosy. And so when I see him and I know he's like in it in this battle, he doesn't make a big thing and he'll just say, Hey, I'm waiting on some things from the Lord. And when I see him, he's got kind of like the Fred Flenson beard, and about five days later, he's got like, you know, grizzly atoms going on. I'm like, dude, and then whenever I see him and he's clean shaven, I'm like, he got an answer. And he's honest. He's like, dude, it's not always the answer I want, but it is answer. God makes it very clear. And so don't get hung up on the word vow, like, oh, this is a big thing, and it's kind of cumbersome. Uh again, for Paul, it was a it was a vow of gratitude. I met a guy once and he was always on the phone. He's at a youth camp. I spoke at, he was like, sorry, I gotta take this. Sorry, I gotta take this. For the first two and a half days of the camp, the guy was on the phone probably two and a half, three hours a day. And then he said, Finally, hey, I'm sorry, I'm closing a big deal. I volunteered to come to camp, but this thing's coming to a head. And and he said, Finally, on like the third day, he said, We closed the deal last night. I won't be on my phone that much anymore. And I just said, just out because I'm curious, I just said, Hey, how do you celebrate uh uh you know when you close a deal? He said, actually, I fast for a couple of days. And I was like, nothing, not the answer I was expecting. I said, What do you mean? He goes, I just I just made a lot of bread and I fast because I don't want God to think that I'm I want to live on bread alone. Yeah, that was my response. I was like, see, I I think I would be like, oh, you got a lot of bread? It's time for a new truck, amen? Uh and he said, I just take a couple days, and he said, My wife's the only person that knows. He said, but I just I got a lot of bread. It was a big deal, and my my commission off that was huge. And then I'm because I'm a sinner, I was like, Well, how huge was it? But I didn't ask that question because I'm a man of the cloth, okay? Uh, but let me just bring it down to you. That's a form of a vow, okay? He's just like, hey, I want again, a vow is an informed expression of understanding that one submits to in order to express gratitude, need, or understanding. Ask yourself tonight before you go to bed, how do you express how do you express express gratitude to God? How do you express need? How do you express understanding? And if you really want to get more personal, ask yourself which one of those is hardest for you to express? Gratitude, need, or understanding? Now, before you think about it, because here's what I'll just put my cards on the table. I want to ask you this question is there a vow you need to make or want to make for the next month? By the way, today's the last day of June. Tomorrow is July. It's only five weeks until school starts back, parents. So pace yourself. You can make it. Now, you tomorrow's a new month. You got 31 days. Is there a vow? I'm being serious. Is there a vow? Again, this is not obligation, this is understanding. It's an informed expression of understanding. Is there a vow that you think of it like this? It's like a goal that you set in the in the context of God, just to say, hey, this is how serious I take this. Is there a vow that you need to make or want to make that would help you better express your gratitude, your need, or your understanding? Now, before you answer that, let me just read to you what the Bible says about this whole making vows. This is from Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 1. He says, Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen. Is better, it is better uh to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. For a dream comes with much busyness or business, and a fool's voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than you should not vow, then you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words are many, there is vanity. But God is the one you must fear. See, the motivation for a vow is not to distinguish yourself, it's to discipline yourself. Like someone asked me a while back, they said, Do you read a lot of books over in my office? And I have a lot of books everywhere, and I love books. And Kim, our ministry coordinator, when I get an Amazon package, he's like, Let me guess, some more books. Like, watch your mouth, Kim. But someone said to me very practically, they said, Hey, do you read all these books? And I said, Yeah, I've read most of them a chapter at a time. And he said, Doesn't everybody? And I said, I don't sit out to read books, I sit out to read chapters. Like, for example, if you made a vow starting tomorrow that you're gonna read one chapter in a book every day in July, you could read probably two and a half good Christian books in one month. It's just simple and systematic. I don't sit out to read books, I just sit out to say, I'm gonna read a chapter every day. Now, if you want to take it a whole nother like way beyond where I am, I have a friend named Ronnie. Ronnie reads a book a week. And has since he was in college. Now, Ronnie's the guy you want to sit next to at a dinner party because he can talk about anything. He's read books, uh uh biographies about presidents, about preachers, about missionaries. He reads about intellectual engineering, he reads about chicken farming, he and his wife have chickens, he's all in, he just reads about everything. He can tell you every YouTube tutorial you need to build a house. He's just an intriguing, simple guy, Ronnie Brock, the dude reads a book a week and has since he was in college. How do you get that way? He said, A vow. He said, God, I want to. This is I I want to be a man that's always that's a lifelong learner. And it's a lifelong learner. And I said, What does that mean? He said, if I read 40 pages a day in a week and you do that, he said, most books aren't that long. So it's not really hard. And so the first thing you see, this the gospel modeling behaviors, because here's how this uh vow models uh the gospel to those around you. People see that you're living for something bigger and better and beyond yourself. Does that make sense? Say amen. They see now, by the way, here's a real practical down-to-earth where the rubber meets the road. If you want to see uh gospel modeling behavior, just take serious your wedding vows. Just say, hey, this is my wife. I don't need other women. I don't need to look at other women on the screen. I don't need to talk to other women inappropriately. I have a wife, okay? This is a vow I made. I stood before God. I was, uh did my father-in-law's funeral on Wednesday back in Pensacola, Florida. And it's old school there. You have a receiving line. If you know what a receiving line is, say amen. So we had to line up. My kids were lined up beside me, going, This is awkward. Uh, women were coming to the line going, I taught Marcy seventh grade Sunday school. Uh one lady came through and said, I rocked Marcy as a baby. And I'm in my mind, like, my wife's 57. You've been in this church a long time, lady. Uh and so just one after the other after the other came through. And it was just like, wow, this is this, whoo, man. One couple came through, and I just, because I'm busy, I just said, How long have y'all been married? He said, 71 years. And I start doing the math, like, either you got married when you were five, or you're about ready to go see Jesus, sir. 71 years. Hey, that's what a vow is. Now, if you're here in the room and you're like, uh, well, I didn't really keep my vows, I'm on my second time. I ain't mad at you, I ain't hating out on you. I'm just saying, what if you want to model the gospel, take every vow in your life seriously? Okay? Here's the second gospel modeling behavior. It's in verse 21, it's the phrase, if God wills. He says in verse 19, and they came to Ephesus and he left them there. That's Priscilla and Aquila, this couple, this man and woman, husband and wife. But he himself went into the synagogue and he reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. They were like, dude, we're digging this, we're down with this, keep talking. He goes, I can't. Verse 21. But on taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you if God wills, and he set sail from from from uh from Ephesus. Now, it's that little phrase, if God wills. It's probably the easiest of all the gospel modeling behaviors. Uh, the difference in God's will and our will is dependence versus declaration. You should ask yourself today, does your life communicate dependence on God? Or does your life declare, hey, I got this, I'm a self-made man? Because it's a little phrase like this, it just it really tips you into one of two camps. Like, don't answer this, but when's the last time someone said, Hey, all right, we're gonna go bay fishing on next Saturday, okay? Your response was great, I can't wait. If God wills, I'll be there. Now it is kind of awkward because your friends will be like, what'd you just say? Yeah, I just I just I want to take seriously. I don't want to live in assumption, I want to live in authority. And and and and though I'm I'm planning on being there and I'm looking forward to it, I'll bring the bay. All right, I I got everything. I don't know what tomorrow holds. And I don't want to I don't want to act in assumption. See, if God wills, it's like I said, it's probably the easiest of the gospel modeling behaviors, but it's also probably one of the more awkward because we as a culture do not live with this consistent sense of dependence upon God. Most people declare their intentions or their plans, whereas the gospel calls us to express this dependence upon God. It sounds like semantics, I know, but it it's if you're ever uh it's uh arresting to be around somebody who lives out of dependence on God. Like I have a friend Chad Carger. Chad's a counselor in Nashville, and when Chad was a young man, he read in the Bible uh that it says, Hey, you shouldn't just boast. The Bible calls it boasting, but hey, tomorrow I'm gonna do this tomorrow. And so he just started saying, If if God wills. Like, Chad, we're good for lunch tomorrow? If God wills, says it so much, it's a little almost annoying. And you're like, dude, it's okay, I get it if God wills. He goes, No, you don't get it. How do you know I don't get it? Because you don't say it. So I have to say it to, yeah. Well, I I think again, gospel modeling behaviors. What does the way you talk about your intentions and your plans, what does it express to people about who you believe is in charge of your life? This is why it's called the gospel modeling behavior. I referenced about in James. Let me just read to you. James chapter 4, verse 13 says this come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we'll go into such and such town and spend a year and there and trade and make profit, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? Or you're a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin. And here's all I'm asking today. I'm asking us just to walk away from this morning and begin modeling gospel behaviors by injecting this simple phrase into our vocabulary. Not a phrase, but an understanding. And it's this if the Lord wills. If the Lord wills. Hey, if the Lord wills, absolutely. Can you imagine being a teenager hearing another teenager say, if the Lord wills? You old people in here, if you're over 50, say amen. Uh, do you remember when you were 16 and you thought you were 10 feet tall and bulletproof? You never said if the Lord wills. Now that you're over 50, especially if you're over 60, you're like, I say if the Lord wills a lot. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, hey, it's a gospel modeling behavior. It's a simple thing that you do, not to be to distinguish yourself, uh, but just to kind of express, hey, my life is one of dependence. I'm not a self-made man. I'm not here just to declare, hey, this is the way it's gonna be. Uh, that my life is a byproduct of God's goodness and God's faithfulness. Here's the last, uh, uh, and probably the hardest. The last one was the easiest. This is the hardest uh gospel modeling behavior. It's called the teachable spirit. Ladies, get your elbow out of your man's ribs. Uh look at verse 24. Now, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus. Though he knew only the baptism of John, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Now, let me stop right there. Now, what ought to jump off the page to you is that little phrase right there in about verse 25. At the end of it, he said, He knew only the baptism of John. What are you what is the Bible talking about when it says he knew only the baptism of John? Uh simply put, it's a reference to water baptism, like you just saw with Ethan over here. John the Baptist was the guy who was a forerunner that came before Jesus. He tried to get people ready for Jesus' coming. He's like, You guys think you're ready, but you're not ready. You think I'm something. I baptize you with water, but he's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit with fire. I'm not even worthy to tie his shoes, okay? I mean, you guys think you're ready. The acts is laid at the root of the trees, his fan is in his hand, and people are like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right. We're ready for the Messiah, and they were not ready. So when he says he knew only the baptism of John, basically he didn't know the whole gospel. You say, What do you mean? If you've got a Bible, and I don't think I put it in my notes. Let me just uh let me just read it to you. If you skip down to the next chapter, uh, chapter 19, I think Apollos is one of these guys, this eloquent, great, young preacher, so much so that later on in the New Testament, some people were like, I follow Apollos, and some were like, I follow Paul. It was like a contest between preachers about who had their favorite preachers, okay? Uh here's a here's a problem. You've begun to take Christianity for granted when you have a favorite preacher. You've lost sight of the wonder of the gospel. But Apollos was that popular. So and so that Paul had to say in 1 Corinthians, hey, I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the increase. Don't lose sight of who does what here, people. But Apollos, at this point, he's zealous, but his zeal is not based on knowledge. Acts chapter 19, verse 1 says this. And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples, and he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, No. We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, Into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism. That's water baptism. Now, look at me, listen very carefully, okay? This is early Christianity. The gospel is just starting to spread. These people just didn't know what there's a Holy Spirit. So what we believe, what most conservative theologians believe, that Priscilla and Aquilus sat down with Apollos, this guy we're talking about, who, by the way, had a teachable spirit because he receives instruction from a man and a woman. Pregnant pause. Now, I'm not saying, oh, women are going to be pastors. No, we don't see that in the Bible. Women are going to be elderly. No, we don't see that in the Bible. What I do want you to see is that God used women in the early formative stages of the church. And this woman, Aquila, was one of them because she taught Apollos. And most people believe that he, it's like these people down in the next chapter right there. He had been baptized, but he didn't even know that. Look at what they said. They said, no, we'd have not even heard there's a Holy Spirit. Um it's very popular now. But years ago, it wasn't even here in Texas. Uh my wife and I, we said to her her mom and dad, hey, is there anywhere you guys, y'all are getting a little bit older, is anywhere y'all wanted to go, you haven't gone yet, that it'd be meaningful to you? And and my they said, you know what, we want to go to the Grand Canyon. I was like, oh, really? It's a big hole in the ground. I'll send you a postcard. Uh so we went to the Grand Canyon. We flew into Phoenix. It's actually fun. We flew into Phoenix, ran a minivan. On the plane, I like to ask locals where to eat. So on the plane, I asked a flight attendant, I said, Hey, we're landing in Phoenix. It's what, Monday? If you're dying on Friday, where do you eat at one last time? She goes, Ooh, P.F. Changs. I was like, P. Changs? I'd never heard of P.F. Changs. And so she said, Oh, P. Changs, it's in Scottsdale, actually, which is a lot nicer than Phoenix, by the way. And so we drive into Scottsdale, hoity toidy, Camelback Road, and we go to P.F. Chang's, changed my life. I had shrimp with lobster sauce for the first time. I was like, we're eating here on the way back, okay? And we did. Well, we come home from that trip. It was great. We're home for a few months. I don't know, probably six months. It's our anniversary in June. And my wife says, Let me plan our anniversary. And I said, You can plan it every anniversary till we die, okay? And so she did. And so we're driving way into downtown. I mean, way down West Hammer. And I'm like, in my mind, I wasn't saying anything, but I was like, this better be good. This is a lot of gas money. What are we gonna do? Come on. Ah! And we rounded a corner and I saw this big white sign that said PF Change. And I just blurted out, PF changes! I had no idea they were in Texas, much less in Houston. What these people right here in Acts chapter 19 say, he said, and what did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, No, no, no. We have only we we've not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. What they're saying is, PF changed. What? I remember I was like a kid. Marcy was laughing. She's like, oh my gosh. I just, oh, I'm so glad I surprised you. I never surprised you. I'm like, is that a statement about you or a statement about me? Don't answer that. Uh I was like a kid in a candy store. I was just so excited. Now, PF changed, oh, they got a big horse out front. Yeah, it's right there. Let's go somewhere else. Let's go to Shilada. It's healthier. But I didn't even know it existed in Texas unless that's right in our city. Now they got one of the circularized like, man, we got 684 restaurants to choose from. Who cares? But he only knew the baptism of John, okay? And so now he sits down with Priscilla and Quilla. Let me ask you a question. What type of person is it hardest for you to learn from? Because you have to be clear about that. Because when you get a clarity about this type of person is hard for me to learn from, then you realize that you're probably losing out. Like a long time ago, uh a man said to me who was very wise, he said, son, always listen to people who do not have your personality type or temperament. And I was like, Okay. Why is there a reason you're telling me this? He goes, No, no, no. I think you're actually a teachable young man. He said, but we tend to tune out easiest people who are not like us. Because we don't want to be like them, and we we forfeit the right to learn from them. And I was like, I wish I had a pen to write that down. Uh and so, yeah, when I say a teachable spirit, it's one of these gospel modeling behaviors. Uh, you want to get to the point where you can learn from anybody, your spouse. Like, here's a question to talk about over lunch. What's the last thing you learn from your spouse? Your co-workers? If you want to blow your coworkers away, go to work tomorrow, boss, manager, owner, CEO, and say, Hey, I just want you to know here's the last thing I've learned from you, and I want to thank you for that. They will be like, Why? How about this one? Friends, spiritual authority. I'll pull one out. How about your kids? When's the last time you learned something from your kids? My wife walked in uh yesterday with this, um, going through a parents' stuff, uh, and I said, take your time, just have it all gone by Tuesday. Um, no, we're opening a box at a time. I said, Take all the time you need. And she pulls out. My mother-in-law would print out emails and save them in a file. And I'm just like, what in the world? This is an email I sent out to the whole church on May the 11th, 20, 2015. Okay, talk about learning from your kids. Uh this I sent to the church, I said, Beloved, because Sundays are crazy full for our family. We often process a sermon with our girls over a meal just to hear what they are hearing and how they're processing the gospel. Yesterday, after preaching my guts out on parenting, I asked my youngest, who was 12 at the time, I asked my youngest, so what stood out to you about the sermon today? To which she responded, Well, I was kind of sleepy. And then I noticed that your bald head was real shiny when you were preaching. It gets better. Your bald head was real shiny when you were preaching. Oh, and Dad, with your brown pants and white shirt, you look like a cigarette. We're sitting at the table eating dinner, and I just thought, my 12-year-old, now, my 17-year-old is howling, laughing. And she's watching to see how I'm gonna respond. And here's what I took away from that. Not every moment is a teachable moment with my kids. Don't force spiritual things down on your kids. Now, I'm saying, hey, you got to model that for them, but I never, all right, kids, get in here in the kitchen, get out your Bibles, we're gonna have family devotional time. I wanted to have a spiritual conversation about parenting, about, hey, how you think we're doing as parents? What are we good at? What do we need to get better at? And my kid was like, Well, I was kind of sleepy, dad. And your bald head was kind of shiny, and you look like a cigarette. My takeaway on that occasion was I don't have to force this on my kids. So I remember it very when my wife brought it to me. I read it and cackled, I remember it vividly. But I also remember walking away going, This is good. Let me say it like this: when it comes to your kids and spiritual formation, you want to be a midwife, not a coach. A midwife just facilitates what's happening naturally. A coach is like, all right, we're gonna line up and do a three-man weave and a layup drill, and then we're gonna run yo-yos, and your kids will tune out to that. Do you hear the heart of what I'm saying? It's you just gotta be like a man. Now, I just saw that young lady, she's 21 now. She's saying at her papa's funeral. Crushed it. Crushed it. People are coming up to me going, man, your girls have an anointing on them. Don't use that word. We're Baptist, that's charismatic. I don't want to have to explain that to them at dinner tonight. They're like, no, seriously. Uh let me let me give you this four things that'll help you become a more teachable person. Four things that help you become a more teachable person. Because, by the way, if you're a teachable person, it will stand out pretty quickly because we are by nature defensive. We are by nature super defensive. Four things help you become a more teachable person. Number one, seek honest feedback by asking honest questions to honest people. Seek feedback, seek honest feedback by asking honest questions to honest people. It's that last part's hard to find to honest people. You know who to ask if you want affirmation, but you gotta have somebody in your life that you ask and you know you're gonna get the truth. Secondly, get better at listening. Get better at listening. And to get better at listening, you have to understand the difference between listening and hearing. Okay? Hearing is the auditory function of the ear. Hearing is the auditory function of the ear. Listening is an emotional commitment to the person talking. Men, get that last one tattooed on your chest. Listening is an emotional commitment to the person talking. That's why when you're talking, your wife's talking, and you're looking off, and she just stops and you look back and you recite everything she just said. It's not about hearing, it's about you're not emotionally committed to the moment. Big difference in those two. Here's the third thing. If you want to become a more teachable person, get thicker skin. Put a start by that one. In our offense-driven victim culture, get thicker skin. Uh, seek to be convicted more than offended. Like, here's a question you should ask yourself periodically. Hey, when's the last time I was really convicted? Versus, when's the last time I was offended? You want to be convicted more than you're offended. If not, spiritual formation has ground to a halt in your life. And lastly, ingest and implement. Ingest, take it in and implement it. Live it out. People come to see you as teachable when they see that they what they've shared with you actually shows up in your life. Let me say that again. People come to see you as teachable. Now, I am not saying that every time somebody comes at you with something, you've got to go, oh, well, thank you, Harry. I'm gonna incorporate that tomorrow. Because sometimes people are gonna come and they're gonna be erronous, and you're just gonna look at them, you're gonna have to look at them and go, okay, let me sit with this for a minute. I don't feel anything in me agreeing with this, but I'll sure consider it. I'm not saying your life is you're running errands for everybody else all the time. I am saying this that in Acts chapter 18, one of the reasons that the gospel was so prolific in the book of Acts in the first century is that they modeled, they demonstrated gospel modeling behaviors. Paul, who's one of the greatest men in the history of the Bible, he made a personal vow. For him, it involved cutting his hair. Uh, why? He was so overwhelmed with gratitude that God said, Hey, by the way, I'm people are not gonna attack you to harm you. They may attack you, they're not gonna harm you. And he also said, Hey, uh, if the Lord wills, when somebody asked him to do something, he said, Well, I can't, but I'll come back to you if the Lord wills. Demonstrating that my life is not all about me. My life is not about declaration, it is about dependence. And then lastly, he's teachable. This is Apollos. Apollos sits down with Priscilla and Aquila. He's just been baptized, he didn't even know there's such a thing as the Holy Spirit. Now, this cannot happen anymore because we can't go back and step in that moment. And a lot of people get some goofy, wacky theology based on something that's not a timeless truth. It's something that just happened right then. Just think P.F. Change. But right now, some of y'all are thinking, I might go to P.F. Chang's for lunch after this. Have the Mongolian beef. But teachable, teachable, teachable. If you're teachable, think of it like this, and I'll be done. Look at me. When people bring you something that they want they want to point out, what they're not criticizing you, they're not critiquing you. They're asking if they can participate in your sanctification. Does that make sense? Now, some of you may be thinking sanctification is a big one. What does that mean? Sanctification is the process by which you become more and more like Jesus in the way you live. That's all sanctification is. You should be a more patient. Ethan demonstrated it great. He said, Yeah, the people I used to hang with, they don't really recognize me much anymore. That's sanctification. I'm not better than them. I'm not embarrassed of all that. No, no. I'm just different because God's been at work in me. I've become more and more and more, and God's used my wife in my life because the love of a good woman is like the love of God. He says, God says, in his word, he says that God will quiet with his love. The love of the right woman does the same thing to a man. That's a part of the sanctification process. You should never be defensive when people are earnestly and honestly pointing something out. Because what they're really asking for is, hey, can I participate in your sanctification? Like every once in a while, my wife will come to me and she'll leave with that phrase. Hey, do you have a minute? Yeah, babe, I got a minute. Can I participate in your sanctification? You know what? I don't have a minute. I lied. I don't have the time. No. Absolutely. You know why? Because I know that's what she wants to do. She doesn't want to put me down. She doesn't want to criticize me or kick me. She wants to say, hey, I think you should be aware of this for your betterment. Does that make sense? Stop giggling, Jack. Jack loves my wife more than he loves me. Pray for Jack. Yes, I'm like Ethan, uh my friend Ethan. I'm a better man because of the woman I married. And sometimes I don't like it when she point stuff out. Uh like when people are going 40 miles an hour in the fast lane and I'm stuck behind them. And I finally get released and I get around beside him, she just starts going, You're a better man than this. You're a better man than this. I don't do anything inappropriate. I just look at them like. Yes. She's participating in my sanctification. Here's my last question for this morning. Who do you allow to participate in your sanctification? It shouldn't be just your wife. Ladies, men, you should have some men in your life that are doing that. Ladies, you should have some ladies in your life that are doing that. Let's pray to God. If you're a guest, just relax. Well I can teach the Bible and then give you some soul space. Think about it. So questions come up on the screen. That's for your consideration. You don't try to write them down. You can just be discreet with your phone, take a picture. Let me voice a prayer and let's spend a moment thinking. God, thank you for the Bible. Thank you that it's uh it's good, it's nourishing, uh, it's thought provoking. Even the parts that we read and we're like, I'm not quite sure what that's about. But when we relax our eyes and our mind and we see, oh yeah, yeah, we want to be people that express our understanding and our need and our gratitude with a vow. And so, Holy Spirit, just brood over us. I pray for anyone here that's like, hey, when I walked in here, I didn't feel comfortable. Let them know they're always welcome here. Everybody and anybody's always welcome here. Because God, you have the grace to accept us as we are and the power to change us into who we can be. That's what makes you God. That's what makes you worthy of our worship today. So, Lord, just kind of stir our head and our heart right now to think about something that had our name on it this morning. Lord, thank you that you're never in a hurry. That you're you don't rush us, you give us time to think and process and feel and understand and realize. I pray that all those things have happened in this room this morning because your word has gone out. It never comes back void, but it accomplishes the purpose for which you sent it. God, I pray you'd quiet the things in us that need to be quieted. Bring friends into our lives that are willing to participate in our sanctification that we can know we can trust. And we are better because we're friends with them. That's what you create us for. The Bible word for that is community. And this is one big faith community here at Grand Park Way, and everyone's welcome to join and be a part of it. So, Holy Spirit, do what only you can do, and that is to make people realize what their next step needs to be. We look to you for that, we ask you for that in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen. Amen. If you're our guest today, let me say uh thank you for being here. You're always welcome. Uh, you may be thinking, dude, I just came to watch my friend get baptized. That's great. Uh, but if you're not meaningfully connected to a church, I want to personally invite you to come be part of this one. And by that I mean I don't want to just be the guy that preaches to you on Sunday. I want to be the person that is your pastor. We have a team of pastors here. Julian's one of the newest ones to the team. He would love to be one of your pastors as well. All we ask of you today, if you're our guest today, is you just text welcome, that number on the screen behind me. That gives us a record of your visit. We just want to help you take the next step in your spiritual journey, whatever that may be. We've always got things going on in the life of church. We make you aware of them by our video announcements each week. So check out the screens right now.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Our next men's breakfast is on Tuesday, July 9th, from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. in the student building. We have a shaping word from the Bible and discuss it over tacos and coffee. We've made our podcasts easier for you to find. Just visit our website, grandparkway.org, hover over the watch listen, click podcast, and then you'll be able to listen to our Sunday services, Pastor Neil circling back to questions from sermons, and stories about the amazing things God is doing in the lives of our people. Or you can search for these titles wherever you listen to podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org. If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

Now, let me ask a practical question. How many of you looked down here and saw this stack of books and thought, what is that about? Say amen. You nosy people. Actually, this is a friend of mine put together a uh to call it a picture book is an insult. Uh, it's called Seasons of Suffering. It's reflections on doubt, grief, and mental and spiritual healing. Uh, my friend went through uh a very uh traumatic, is a good word, period of mental health struggle. Uh, she's also a photographer, and so she took pictures. And so this is poems and prayers, quotes, uh Bible verses with different pictures. Like this is one she wrote called the a 3 a.m. prayer. Uh it just says it feels like I'm missing something sometimes. Like Christianity is easy for everyone else. Something's wrong with me. I know others have struggles and even have clinical afflictions, obsessive, intrusive thoughts, panic attacks, depression. I must have it the very worst, though, because it is all attacking my faith all at once. Uh, here's another one called Your Voice. I feel so frustrated, so unable to see beyond the feelings that I feel. I do not know how to hear you. Am I supposed to go outside of your word? Why do we have feelings? I suppose they're helpful often, but they can be so incredibly painful. Uh, this is a very real and raw journey through a season of suffering. Uh, and it's not for the faint of heart. Uh, she's a godly young woman. She's married, her and her husband. Her husband's getting his PhD at AM. Don't whoop. All right, you provoked me. How about your baseball coach? How'd that go? The eyes of Texas are upon you, people. Someone said to me, How can you do that? Money. So here's the ground rules, okay? If you have ever had a mental health struggle, or you know someone, you're welcome to come take one book. Don't take five and give them out a Christmas present. Just take one. Now, is there somebody in the back back there in the theater seats that you're just like, dude, there's gonna be gone by the time I get down there? Raise your hand. I'll save you one. Yes, I'm your guy. I got yours right here. See, that's what you get for being honest, whoever you are. I can't even see you back there. Uh, but you're welcome to come take one if you would use it. Okay, don't just come because it's free. Uh, like I said, it's a book called Seasons of Suffering. It's raw, it's her journal, it's her honesty, uh, and it's her pictures, okay? And it's got Bible verses. She's a very godly young woman. She's actually a friend of uh of mine, uh, but she's like 20-something, so I've gotten to know her and her husband. Highly recommend this. Uh, if you just want someone that can be, hey, a companion in what it's like to struggle and overcome. All right. We conclude our service with a spoken blessing. So if you would stand at your feet and hold your hands out. The greatest compliment God gives you is that He commands you to model the gospel with your behavior. He does that because not only because He loves you, but because He trusts you. The kingdom of God is so indestructible. Jesus, let little kids play with it. You're not gonna break it. So get out of here and represent it in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless you.