GENERATED TRANSCRIPT

Good morning, everybody.

So, a couple of months ago, God was speaking to me in my quiet time. I was listening and jotting down some things He was saying. I kept hearing the same thing from the Lord. After a few days, I had written a lot, and it looked like a sermon. I thought, "God, this looks like a sermon. I don't know why you're telling me this because you know I don't talk to people much, much less in front of people." But here we are.

When I was looking at it, I felt like it was a sermon. So, I said, "If you want me to speak this at some point, if it comes up, I'll just say yes." A couple of weeks ago, Zach asked me, and I just said, "Yeah," and here we are.

Before I got into construction, I was in nuclear power for 10 or 15 years. We traveled around the country, taking fuel assemblies out of the cores of reactors. This is a reactor core. This is a fuel assembly going into the core. You can switch to the next one. This is a reactor core with a lot of fuel assemblies still left in it. I was a project manager and a fuel handling supervisor in nuclear power. Our division specialized in taking the fuel out and replacing it. This particular story involves taking the fuel out of a reactor and putting it in the spent fuel pool.

Different groups have to work together to do this. Our group had just three people on the core side: me as the fuel handling supervisor, Caleb as the manipulator crane operator, and another person. Caleb drives the crane that's moving the fuel in and out. He can't really see down into the core, so he relies on me and others to see all four cameras of exactly what's going on underneath.

On the plant side, they have what's called a senior reactor officer (SRO). The SRO has the license for the plant and is in charge of everything that goes on in the plant. Every decision goes through him. He makes sure the plant is in the right condition, that there's no reaction going on that shouldn't be, and that the temperatures are correct for what we're doing.

Today, it's Caleb's first time ever running the crane by himself. He just got his certs a couple of months ago. He had been moving fuel for probably six months in training, but always with someone beside him, usually me, telling him what to do and making sure he's doing it right. But today, it's all his responsibility, and he's nervous.

The process for moving a fuel assembly is that Caleb drives the crane over the core, takes it down to a specific location, and gets several indications on his crane that everything is correct. Once he gets those, he checks with the SRO, who communicates with the control room to make sure everything is safe. The SRO gives permission to latch, and then Caleb is supposed to check with me before latching. It's a very important step to ensure everything is in the right position, there's no debris, and nothing can obstruct us from latching.

Today, Caleb gets to the first fuel assembly. He drives the crane over, takes it down, gets all his indications, looks at the SRO, and says, "I have all my indications. Do I have permission to latch?" The SRO checks with the control room and says, "You have permission to latch." Caleb says, "Understood, permission to latch," and reaches over to latch the fuel assembly without checking with me. I'm a little aggravated. I come up off the floor and walk up to him while he's raising the fuel assembly.

I say, "Caleb, look at me." He goes, "Yes, sir." I say, "You have to check with me before you latch the fuel assembly." He says, "Yes, sir. I'm sorry, Palmer. It won't happen again." I say, "Alright. Don't let it happen again." He says, "Yes, sir."

We drop it off and come back for the second fuel assembly. He gets over, gets all his indications, checks with the SRO, and the SRO gives him permission to latch. Caleb says, "Understood, permission to latch," and latches the fuel assembly without checking with me again. I climb up on the crane and say, "Caleb, look at me." He says, "Yes, sir. I'm sorry, Palmer. It won't happen again." I say, "Look at me." He says, "Yes, sir." I say, "Do not let it happen again." He says, "Yes, sir. I won't do it."

We drop it off and come back for the third one. This time, I'm ready. I'm going to catch him. He's getting more nervous each time he makes a mistake. He comes back over, gets all his indications, the SRO gives him permission to latch, and I say, "Caleb, look at me." He says, "Yes, sir." I say, "Look at me." He says, "Yes, sir." I say, "I'm infinitely more important than this guy right here. Do you understand?" He says, "Yes, sir." I say, "Now you can latch the fuel assembly." He says, "Understood, latch," and reaches over to latch the fuel assembly. For the rest of the day, he doesn't miss the step.

We finish moving fuel all day. I go into the supervisor's office to do some paperwork while the crew gets ready for lunch. When I'm done, I go into the crew area, pull out my lunch, and look up at the whiteboard. It says, "I am infinitely more important than this guy right here - Josh Palmer." I look over at Caleb, and he just smiles at me. I say, "You won't miss it again, will you?" He says, "No, sir." I say, "Ever?" He says, "No."

I told the story to my family one night, and Maddie made me a painting that says, "I'm infinitely more important than this person." It reminds me of the situation.

God was talking to me through this story. He said, "Look at me." I said, "Yeah." He said, "Look at me. I'm infinitely more important than whatever you're talking about with your people at work, or your friends that you're spending your hobbies with. I'm infinitely more important than that."

The mission statement for Mountainside is we want to be a place where heaven meets earth by proclaiming the universal reign of God, embodying Jesus to our communities, and inviting our neighbors to join us in becoming real people who are part of a real family and who worship a real God.

Last week, Zach talked about being in a place where heaven meets earth and where those two overlap. He discussed the Israelites in the desert following God in the cloud and the pillar of fire. When God stopped, they would stop, set up camp, and set up the temple. God's presence would come down on the temple. That's what we're talking about—God's presence coming down and being with us like today, right now.

How cool would it be if, as a family and community, we prayed every Sunday morning for God's presence to fill our room, our gatherings, our small groups? If we prayed for that as a family, God would overwhelm us with His presence.

Let's pray for that right now. God, we just ask that you fill this place, bring your presence where we're at as a body, as a family, here at Sky Ranch today. Just be with us, speak to us, give me words that you want me to say, and let everybody hear what you would have them hear. Just be with us today. Amen.

Today, I'm talking about proclaiming the universal reign of God. What is that? It's pretty simple. It's just sharing the gospel—telling others what Jesus did for you, what God did for you, and what Jesus did for all of us so that they have the same opportunities we have. We shouldn't just keep our salvation to ourselves; we should be telling it to others so they have the same opportunities.

It should be infinitely more important than whatever we're talking about. We should be intentional about having real conversations that lead to God conversations that lead to gospel conversations. God's speaking this to me, saying, "You need to have some God conversations, Josh. The buck can't stop with you. You need to have real conversations that lead to gospel conversations."

I think the reason we don't share the gospel as much as we should is that we don't have God's eyes and heart. We often see people with our own eyes, not God's eyes, and that can be unkind, impatient, and frustrated. But if we saw people with God's eyes, we'd be overwhelmed with the desire to tell them about God.

So, how do we do this?

First, we have to live out the gospel. Matthew 5:16 says, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." We should live in a way that makes people question why we do what we do and draw them to the difference they see in us.

We should share the good news. Mark 16:15 says, "He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.'" We should be sharing the gospel in our daily lives.

We should serve others. Matthew 20:28 says, "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Serving others can be impactful. I remember when we lived in Garner, we had new neighbors, Matt and Tristan, who were trying to lay sod in their yard. God told me to help them, so I did. It was hard work, but it led to many conversations about God. Even though I didn't initially share the gospel, I planted seeds.

We should also disciple others. Matthew 28:19-20, the Great Commission, says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Discipleship is critical. Our small groups are a great starting point. We learn from each other and should take that out into the world.

Why should we share the gospel? Because Jesus commands us to. We should also be motivated by God's love. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says, "For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."

We should also obey the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8 says, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The Holy Spirit will guide us and prepare the way.

We should share the gospel to bring salvation to the lost. Romans 10:13-15 says, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

Lastly, we should share the gospel for the "Calebs" in our lives. I worked with Caleb for years but never talked to him about God. Six months after our story, Caleb passed away suddenly. It was a wake-up call for me to not miss opportunities to share the gospel.

Let's be bold and share God's love with those around us. Look at God. He is infinitely more important than our insecurities, anxieties, and fears.

So today I'm talking about proclaiming the universal reign of God. So what is that? It's pretty simple. It's just sharing the gospel. It's telling others what Jesus did for you, what God did for you. It's telling others what Jesus did for all of us so that they have the same opportunities we have, that we're saved, and it shouldn't stop with us. It shouldn't. The buck shouldn't stop with us. Once we gain our salvation, we should be telling it to others so they have the same opportunities. We should be.

It should be infinitely more important than whatever we're talking about. If we're at work, we have to do things that work, but we should also be running it through the filter of somehow working it into that conversation. Julie was listening to some podcasts, and they talk about having real conversations that lead to God conversations that lead to gospel conversations. And it's just being intentional about letting that happen. Somehow look for the opportunity. And so God's speaking this to me, like I'm processing this in front of you, like this is God going, "Hey, you need to have some God conversations. The buck can't stop with you, Josh. You got to have some real conversations that lead to gospel conversations."

Or you're just holding your salvation to yourself and not letting somebody else have it. And that's pretty selfish. And I think the reason why we don't necessarily spread the gospel as much as we should, or share as much as we should, is we don't have God's eyes. We don't have God's heart. We don't look at other people with God's eyes. I look at other people with Josh's eyes. Sometimes, if I've spent time with God, I see other people as God sees them and have a heart for them like God has a heart for them. But oftentimes, I'm busy and I get interrupted by things I'm doing, and I get distracted. And I see people with Josh's eyes. And sometimes that's pretty ugly. Like, it's not very patient. It's not very loving. It's not very kind. It can be very aggravated, angry, and frustrated.

But I would love to have what God sees in the guy in the grocery store or what God sees in the guy that I'm working with. And then I think we would be overwhelmed with the desire to tell them about God.

So how do we do this? First of all, we have to live out the Gospel. Matthew 5:16 says, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." So we should be taking what we're learning, we should be taking what we're seeing in our quiet time, we should be listening for the Holy Spirit. And we should be living in a way that makes people question why, why do we live that way? Why are we doing acts of kindness? Why do we love on strangers? Why do we do whatever it is? But it should be because God's speaking to us and we're obeying. We're obeying Him, and then they will see a difference, and they'll recognize it. And that will draw them to whatever the difference is. And that'll give us the opportunity for those God conversations and those gospel conversations.

We should share the good news. Mark 16:15 says, "He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.'" So He's telling us we shouldn't be doing this, or God's telling us we should be sharing the gospel. We should be teaching others, we should be proclaiming the universal reign of God to others in our daily lives and everything we do.

We should serve others. Matthew 20:28 says, "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." So to me, serving others is probably the most impactful way that I've seen it affect people. When we lived in Garner, we had a little cookie-cutter neighborhood with 50 houses with a loop and everything. And Julie and I would walk around the loop, and we got some new neighbors at one point. They just bought a house and they'd been working on the yard. We hadn't met them yet, and the yard was just topsoil. You could see he was trying everything, watering it every day, but it just wasn't doing anything. Well, one day I was out walking, it was about 92 degrees, probably in Garner, just completely miserable. And I look out there and there, him and his wife, his name's Matt, and Tristan, they're out there in the yard. And they've got two, three big piles of sod. And they're just huffing it, putting it in wheelbarrows and putting down sod because they couldn't get the grass to grow.

And I was walking, and God was like, "You need to go help them lay some grass." I was like, "Okay, that sounds fun, I guess." A lot of times, the Holy Spirit will say something to me, and I go, "I'm good. I appreciate it. But I'm not gonna lay sod today." But today, I said, "Okay." I went back to the house, and I put on some work shirts and pants, and I walked over there, still hadn't met them yet. And I introduced myself to Matt and Tristan. And I just started grabbing grass, and he's like, "What are you doing?" I was like, "I'm gonna help you lay this grass, man, it's miserable out here." And he's like, "Really?" And I was like, "Yeah, let's go." He's like, "Okay." So we laid grass all day. We set up the sprinklers, we did the whole yard. It was awful.

And we got done, we sat on his porch, we had a couple of beers, we hung out. And he was just like, "I've never, I can't believe you, like, started laying grass, like, what's wrong with you?" And I was like, "I don't know." And to be honest, that's the spot where I should have turned it into a God conversation and said, "Because God loves you and He loves me, and I'm doing it to love on you," but I didn't. But eventually, we did have those conversations, and it came up all the time. Like, he would tell everybody he met. If somehow the Palmers came up in the conversation, he would tell that story. So it was super impactful. Just listening to the Holy Spirit and going and laying grass, which doesn't sound like a big deal, impacted him so much. And he talked about it all the time. And we became good friends with him. And he would ask questions, and we would have God conversations. And I'm not sure if Matt and Tristan are saved, I have no idea. They've moved, and we've kind of separated now because I've moved to different cities, and we have too, so we've kind of lost touch. But I know that it brought him to those conversations, which is all we can really ask for, is given the opportunity.

Another way is by discipling others. Matthew 28:19-20, the Great Commission, says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." So Jesus, before He left, told His disciples, and is telling us virtually the same thing: go and make disciples. That's what He's telling us to do. That's the last thing He told us to do.

And we're doing this with our small groups. We're discipling each other, we're making new disciples, we're bringing people in, we're talking to them about God, we're trying to disciple each other. Our small group is amazing. There's so much input from every direction. Andy will say something that'll impact Brianna. Maddie will say something that'll impact George. And everybody just interacts left and right. It's awesome. And we should be taking what we're learning in those situations and helping to make other disciples, and therefore grow the kingdom of God.

So we talked about the how. Why do we share the Gospel? Why do we proclaim the universal reign of God?

Well, Matthew 28:19-20, the Great Commission, says, "Jesus commands us to do it." It's a direct command from Jesus to His followers. We are to obey His instructions and spread the gospel to all nations. So that's one of the main reasons: God told us to do it. If we are followers of Christ, we should be doing what He told us to do, what His final instructions were for us to do.

We should also be motivated by God's love, and this is what I was talking about with salvation not ending with us. We should be overwhelmed by God's love for us, we should be overwhelmed with our own salvation, and it should pour out to others. It should fill us, and then we should be going, "Hey, Ben, I gotta tell you something, man. I love you as a brother, and this is why, and this is what God did for me." We should be telling that to people at work, at the golf course, wherever, looking for ways to do that.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15, a little nod to the pastor, says, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again." When we understand the depth of what God did for us, it should motivate us to spread that to others. It should be just like a waterfall, filling the fountain and then pouring it out.

Another reason is we should do it to obey the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8 says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." We should be listening to the Holy Spirit when He says, "Hey, look at me. I'm infinitely more important than the conversation you're having right now." Yes, Lord. "I'm infinitely more important than the football game this afternoon. I'm infinitely more important than the job you're working on this week." We should be listening to that and act on it. We should be looking for those opportunities.

The Holy Spirit directs us to witness, and when He does, He will have it set up for you. If the Holy Spirit asks you to go lay grass for Matt, when you go lay grass for Matt, he's gonna talk about it for years to come. The Holy Spirit will lay the path for you. If He asks you to go pray for somebody because their husband had an accident last night and they're working in a hotel changing sheets, or whatever, and you feel like the Holy Spirit tells you to go, they're gonna go, "I can't believe I needed somebody to pray for me." It's gonna be ready for you. So listen to the Holy Spirit. He will tell you, He will direct you, and He will also lay the groundwork so that it's not going to be a stumbling thing; it's going to be something that's already set up for you.

We should be sharing the gospel to bring salvation to the lost. This is a repeating pattern, but Romans 10:13-15 says, "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the news of Jesus to them?

It's a humbling statement. There's a lot of people that are saved but aren't sharing their salvation. I'm one of them. God's talking to me; this is for me. I've rarely shared my testimony or shared anything. I don't talk a lot, so it's just part of my nature. But God is saying, "Look at me, Josh." Yes, God. "Look at me. I'm infinitely more important than your insecurities. I'm infinitely more important than your anxiety, your fear, your work, whatever it is. God is infinitely more important than all those things."

And also, if we don't share it, how are they going to hear it? We're relying on other ways for it to happen. My best friend in the world is sitting right here. I never really shared the gospel with Jordan, but Jordan is saved. He heard it from somewhere else, but I spent many years hanging out with him and never talked to him about it. If something would have happened to Jordan, I would be devastated. So we need to use that, we need to understand that, and to love the people we love and see them with God's eyes and love on them and share the stories, or else they might not hear.

I wasn't planning on crying, jackwagon.

The last reason is for the Calebs in our life. I worked with Caleb for many years, kind of a similar situation. We were good friends. We talked about everything. Caleb was a Georgia football fan, and I was a Clemson fan, and we were kind of rivals. We talked about how Caleb loved to hunt. He had a camp that they went to every year for two or three weeks, and they hunted, a bunch of men, his dad, and everybody. We talked about different weapons. We talked about conspiracy theories. We talked about being ready if something happened to the economy. We talked about how he loved BMWs and how he was doing this modification to his car. We talked about how I loved poker and different theories of how to play poker. And I never once, after hours and hours and hours of sitting in a nuclear power plant with him, said, "Do you know Jesus Christ? Do you know what God did for you? Do you know what God did for me?" I could have just said, "Do you know what God did for me?" and just told him that story. I never did that.

About six months after this story with Caleb, we were at a new nuclear plant in Missouri. He was on night shift. Caleb got off work. He was about 36 years old, very fit, very healthy young man. He came home, ate dinner with two of his roommates who were working with him, went and took a shower, they went to work. They said, "We'll see you in the morning." He went and laid down. He didn't get up. It was a brain aneurysm. I've talked to Caleb's dad. Caleb's dad is saved; I believe Caleb was saved, but I never talked to him about it, and I let that opportunity slip.

That's heavy. And it can happen quickly. It can happen to young people; it can happen to anybody. We just don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So we have to seize those opportunities, and we just have to make God infinitely more important than anything else. Let's share and make it important, and then we can talk about football, and then we can talk about whatever else we're talking about. But let's make that what we're doing: we're listening and we're sharing that.

For communion today, as we get ready for communion and the worship team comes up, there will be somebody in the back and somebody in the front with the elements. As you're taking it today, just listen for God saying, "Look at me." Look at me, Mountainside. Let's be a place where heaven meets earth, and we proclaim the universal reign of God. Let's make that part of our soul, part of our body. Let's make it very important. Let's make it infinitely more important than everything else we're making important. Let's make it the stepping stone, the first thing we're doing.

So that's all I got.