Ordinary
Transcript
Alright, good morning. Grab your Bibles, go to John chapter 17. Today's going to be a little bit different. We're starting a new series. This whole series may feel a little different to us. John chapter 17 is on page 527, if you have one of these white Bibles.
We're going to get there eventually. We're not going to start there this morning. And the reason this series is going to feel a little different, most of the time, or I would say the majority of the time, which I guess that means the same thing, we just walk through larger sections of Scripture. We'll walk through a whole book of the Bible. We just got finished walking through three chapters in Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount. And even when we're doing a more, we're not actually going to walk through a whole book, we'll do like we're going to do in a couple of weeks or a couple of months when we're going to start in the summer going through Psalms.
And we're just going to park in one large section of text and just study it and talk about what it tells us, even as we're just kind of bouncing around because we're not going to walk through the whole book of Psalms because that would take a really long time for us. But today what we're going to do, we're actually starting a new series where we're going to look more at concepts that are found in the Bible, and we're going to be bouncing around a little more. So if you're used to us going to one place, staying there, walking through what it has to say, this series may be a little bit different, but we're still teaching biblical things. We're just going to have to look around a couple of different places to see it.
So I tell you that to tell you it's going to be a minute before we get to John. Don't start stressing out. You can say that, Dan. We're going to show some other Scriptures on the screen here in a minute. But as we get started with this series, I want to talk about a concept that I think will help us think through this.
There's memes on the Internet. For those of you who don't Internet very often, a meme is a picture with some words over it. There's memes about you had one Job, and when I used to spend more time on Twitter, I used to follow a Twitter account that was you had one Job. And basically it's just you take a picture of something where somebody messed up something that seemed pretty simple. You put you had one Job on it, and boom, you're a memest. You have made a meme.
But I want to show a few of them to us this morning as we get started. I like this one. And I can just imagine. I want to see the person who actually drove up and stopped at that gate because you can be sure it is the same person that would raise their hand at the end of class and say, you forgot to check our homework. That's who stops there. That gate is accomplishing nothing.
There's another one. I like this one. It pretty much sums it up itself there. The next one. Isn't that great? Like, I don't know which side was done first, but they had to be dodging something.
Or at some point he was like, look, I'm going to draw a picture and just started just driving around. And I don't know the rules there. Do you have to go around it? This one I like. You have to be trilingual to get this one. I guess technically he had two jobs.
Either way, didn't get him accomplished. This one, that's our second to last one here, came in first place. I think it makes you feel a little bit better because it rhymes with first. It's still third. And then this one, which is a little bit eerie. Unless you're going to culinary school, that's kind of scary.
But basically the concept with these, you had one Job, is it was a simple thing. There was just one thing you were supposed to do and you messed it up. And the truth is, that's kind of the church. Not that we've messed it up, but we have one Job. There's one thing that we're called to do as God's people. We have one Job.
Matthew 28 says it this way. This is Jesus. He's come. He's lived. He's walked with his disciples for three years. He's been training them.
They've been walking through life with him. He has been brutally murdered on a cross. He was wrapped up, buried in a tomb, dead. Three days later, he rises again, fulfilling all of the Old Testament promises, fulfilling the promises he had been making to his disciples and offering free grace and forgiveness to all those who would place faith in him. And then he takes his disciples and he says this. He tells them, go therefore and make disciples.
So he's talking to disciples and telling them to make disciples. So he's saying, go make people like you. A disciple is someone who knows Jesus and follows Jesus. So he says, you disciples, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. That means that they would place their faith in Jesus and be baptized in his name, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, meaning teach them how to follow in normal life. Teach them how to walk with me.
And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. So this is called the Great Commission. And this is where Jesus takes his followers and says, here's your job. Be disciples who make disciples. Now, everything that we're called to do rolls up into this one command. Now, there's a lot, but we really have one Job.
Be disciples who make disciples. Know, love, follow Jesus and help other people do that. Believe and follow and help other people do that. Train them, teach them, share the gospel with them, tell them about the free forgiveness and grace offered through Christ and his vicarious death and resurrection on our behalf. That we would see and savor Christ and all of his goodness and all of his glory and that we would want others to know it. And in Acts chapter 1, Jesus says it, that he says you're going to be my witnesses, meaning that you're going to go proclaim this news of what I've accomplished to, and he says to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
That's his call to us. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says it this way, that all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. So what he's saying is that God in Christ was re-inviting the world back into a relationship with him. That Jesus was overcoming our sin that had separated us from God. Some of you maybe in here in this room are saying, I don't know how to, like, what do I have to do to be close to God? The truth is there, your sin stands in the way of you being reconciled to him, but that God through Christ made a way.
He re-invited us into a relationship with God. He reconciled us. And then Paul says he gave us the ministry of reconciliation, meaning that the church has now been called to go tell people this, to be involved in bringing people back to God. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins, trespasses against them, and entrusting to us, the church, the message of reconciliation. In this passage it says, therefore we're ambassadors, meaning we represent God to the world. In Romans 1, Paul says it this way, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship.
So he's specifically talking about the apostles. That would be the disciples and Paul. He's saying we've received grace, meaning he doesn't hold our sins against us. And we've received apostleship, meaning we've been intentionally sent into the world. That's what an apostle is, is a sent one. So he's saying we've received grace, free forgiveness, Jesus' work on our behalf, and sentness through Jesus.
And the truth is you could say that about the whole church, that we've, all Christians have received grace, and been commissioned, been sent, into the world. And then he says why? To bring about the obedience of faith, so that people would believe and follow Jesus, that they would, they would be disciples who make disciples, that they would be baptized, that they would therefore obey everything he's commanded. That's what he's saying. The obedience of faith for the sake of his name, that's Jesus, among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. This is our job.
This is the call to the church, to be disciples who make disciples, for the sake of Jesus' name, and his glory, among all nations. That's all people groups. So Jesus says go therefore, baptizing them, and make disciples of all nations. That's what we're supposed to do. That's the church's Job. That's what we've been called, commissioned, and equipped for.
And it's revolutionary, and eternal, and spectacular, that people would come to know Christ, place faith in him, and have their eternities altered, through his work, and his salvation, and his name, for his glory, that he's accomplished for us on the cross, and offered us free forgiveness. This is what we're supposed to do. That we believe that sin has broken the world, that it's marty, that it's wrecked shop, but that Jesus did not sit far away from us, but joined us in order to rescue us. That God in Christ was reconciling, bringing the world back to himself. And now, we're called into that.
That if you belong to Jesus, you've got one Job. It can be complex at times, it can be difficult at times, it's going to be a lifelong adventure, but it is to be a disciple, who makes disciples. And we see in the book of Acts, there's something in us, that calls us to this. In the book of Acts, you read where they catch a few of the disciples, they tell them, don't proclaim the name of Jesus anymore. The disciples say, we're going to do what God tells us to. Which I love that response.
Later, they catch those same disciples and say, I thought we told you not to proclaim the name of Jesus. And then they beat them. And the disciples leave, excited. They rejoice. It's a celebration. They walk out of their beating, and I can just assume, if they weren't so sore, they would have chest bumped.
And they are excited, that they received the glory and the honor, to be beaten for the name of Christ. And they tell them at one point, we're going to do what God tells us to, because there's no other name under heaven, by which men can be saved. We're not, like there's nothing else for us to do. There's at one point, they catch some of the disciples, they drag them into a different part of the world, at this point. And they say, these are the men, who've turned the world upside down. And if you've been around the church for a while, our church, in Christianity, grew up in the church, maybe you've read books, like David Platt's Radical.
Maybe you've listened to sermons, that call this forth in you. Maybe there's, there have been times, where you've read your Bible, or you've been reading through the book of Acts, and there's something in you, that says, I want this. You hear about missionaries, and you think, is that what I'm supposed to do? Is that what I'm called to? There's something in you, there's a fire in you, and at times, it's like someone takes billows, and pumps it, and just, it swells up in you. And there are times, where you look at your job, and you look at your life, and you say, is this, is this what I'm supposed to be doing?
You get off of a two hour long conference call, you hang up the phone, and you think, is this how I'm going to spend my life? You, you spend a week in classes, a semester in classes, and then you think, is this what I'm going to do? Am I not called, built for, more? There's some sort of internal longing, because God has equipped his church, and commissioned his church for this. There's a quote, from the Bourne Identity, I think that's the first one, it's the first Bourne movie, that I think kind of resonates with me, in this picture. He's, he's sitting, he doesn't know who he is at this point, he's a, he's some sort of like, assassin guy, and so like, on a park bench at one point, some dude tries to touch him, and he just like, kills three people, and then he has to run away.
So there you go, you're pretty much caught up, with the movie at that point. But he doesn't know who he is, he's lost his memory, but he has all these skills, and he looks at somebody with him, and he says, I can tell you the plate Numbers, of six cars in the parking lot. I can tell you that our waitress, is left handed, and that the guy sitting at the counter, weighs 215 pounds, and knows how to handle himself. I can tell you, that the best place to find a gun, is in the gray pickup truck outside, and that at this altitude, I can run flat out for half a mile, before my hands start to shake. And then he says, I don't know how I know that.
And he says, how on earth can I know all of that, and not know who I am? And there's part of that, that resonates with me, because there are these moments in life, where it just feels like, aren't I supposed to be doing something else? Isn't there something I'm supposed to do more? Shouldn't there? You hear a sermon about, or you read in the Bible, where it says that, somebody found a treasure in a field, and they sold everything they had, because it was so valuable to them, and you just kind of sit before God, and say, God, I want that for me. I want to so love you, and your kingdom, that this makes sense to me, that I would sell everything, that I would give up everything, that I would join you in everything for this.
There's something in us, when it says, these are the men, who've turned the world upside down, that go, I want to turn the world upside down. I believe that's infused in us, in Christ, and maybe you go longer periods of time, before you have that feeling, maybe you've never really had that feeling, but I think, as Christians, it's something that happens naturally, and normally at times, where that gets stirred up in our soul. So my question, for us as the church, as those who have been commissioned by Jesus, and have one Job, how's it going? How are we doing? Do you feel, after this past week, like a world flip upside downer?
Do you feel like this past month, I'm a world changing agent, for the kingdom of God? I think for most of us, we have these moments, where we feel this tension, we feel this call, we feel like, is this all I'm supposed to be doing? Is this all that there is? And there are places where we're serving, and working, and trying, but there's, it just feels like, I feel like I'm supposed to be doing more, and I think a lot of times, we feel like, I really want that, but normal life has gotten in the way. So I want to be a missionary, I want to live my life for his kingdom, but I'm going to, I got to pay back student loans first.
Yes, Jesus and his mission, but it's going to have to be week after next, because I got finals. Well, then I'm going to be on vacation for two weeks. Three weeks, three, four weeks from now, that's when I'll be freed up to have time. Some of you are saying, if I could just get my child to sleep at night, all night, then I'll have the mental capacity to do this. Right now, I'm doing great, just to not shout at my spouse, every second of every day, because I have zero mental, maybe some of you are saying, once my kids get out of the house, once they're in elementary school, some of you are saying, no, no, no, once they quit playing sports, some of you are saying, no, no, no, it's once they move away, and I'll have to see them twice a year, then I'll have the freedom, then I'll have the capacity, then I'll have the room, to actually be a part of God's mission.
Some of you are saying, yeah, I really want that, I want to join him in this mission, I know this is what we're called to do, I've heard this a thousand times, but I'm working really hard right now, to pay my light bill, and my water bill. It feels so often, like ordinary life, has gotten in the way, of this extraordinary call, that God's placed on us. That we're supposed to be actively at work, to see people's eternity changed. You know, so often people, people go to work, they fight, they labor, for someone's future on earth, so they'll argue with you, about saving money, or they'll argue with you, about the goodness of an education, and we actually, have been commissioned by God, to go to work, and to fight, and to labor for eternity.
The ultimate destination, for people in a place, where this life is about this big, and eternity keeps going, and going, and going, and going, and there's something, that feels like, I know that matters, and I know it's important, but life gets in the way, if I'm honest with y'all, at my house right now, we have a two year old, a lot of days, it feels like the main goal was, did he eat something, that resembled food? Did we brush his teeth? Is he wearing pants? Like if we can do those things, it was a successful day. And by the time, we finally get that boy in bed, he's not asleep, he's just in there, and the door is closed.
It's just exhausting, and all I know is, I'm going to go to sleep, and do that the next day. And for a lot of us, it feels like that's life. Like we're just, I'm just fighting to get, get his teeth brushed, get his pants on him, there's a lot of screaming, and a lot of crying, and that's just me and his mom. And this is the best we can do right now. I want to tell you all two stories. Well, I want to tell you a story, and then a couple of stories to kind of follow that up as we think about that this morning.
There was a Scottish guy named John G. Patton. He was in the mid-1800s. He felt called to go be a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands off the coast near Australia, but he was in Scotland. He felt called to go do this. There's islands where cannibals were, and part of his story, and I'm kind of paraphrasing this, he's telling people he's raising money, he's trying to raise support to go be a missionary there, and he has one of the pastors, elders of his church say, there are cannibals.
You're going to be eaten by cannibals. Wrote that to him in a letter. And he responds in a letter, basically, sir, with the utmost respect I have for you. You are on up in age, here soon to pass away, be placed in a box, be placed in some dirt, and eaten by worms. And whether I shall be eaten by worms or cannibals, I tell you the truth, I really don't care, as long as I get to spend my life for Christ and his glory. That for me is when billows hit the flame in my soul that I'm like, yes.
That's so beautiful. I hope I one day get to say, I don't care if I'm eaten by worms or cannibals, I'm just going to slide it into conversations where it doesn't even make sense. Like, it's so good. He goes. In his first year, he buries his wife that went with him, his children that went with him because of sickness. Spends the time perfectly alone on an island where everybody hates him.
There's a time in his life where he has to hide in a tree because some cannibals were trying to catch him. Had they killed him, it was very likely he would have gotten eaten. I don't know if at that point if he cared still or didn't care still. It says that he prayed and in that moment he felt closer to God hugging that tree than he had felt anywhere else. Eventually, some people on the island began to become Christians. Eventually, through God's providence, grace, and work of His Holy Spirit, the entire island comes to Christ.
So there was a guy in Scotland halfway around the world who felt called to go do this, was unwilling to say no, travels to an island he knew very little about, and sees it ultimately come to Christ. If that doesn't light your fire, your wood may be wet. Like that is an exciting Jesus at work story. I want to tell you another one. There was a lady who's part of our church family who moved to South Carolina from Iowa. Her name is Dawn.
She went to get her hair cut. There's a lady in our church family named Kelly who is very nice and talkative and invited her to come hang out with our church. Said, you should come. Oh, you're new. You don't know anybody. You should come hang out with our church.
Our church is so welcoming and loving and our community groups are great. And she said it all in a very clear and compelling way. And Dawn thought, no, no thank you. First of all, I'm sure y'all seem nice. I'm willing to bet you're all terrible. She's pretty close on that one.
We are sinners, but Jesus is at work in us. But she, by God's grace, has short hair and so she has to get her hair cut every five weeks, which I had to ask, like how often do you get your hair cut? Because of my hair, I have to cut it like every two weeks so it starts looking really weird. But like my wife goes once a quarter or something like that. I can't really keep up with it. But by God's grace, she has short hair, has to get it cut every few weeks and Kelly Weed does not stop inviting her.
Dawn does not stop not accepting those invitations. Eventually, Dawn felt like, okay, maybe I should give this a shot and I'm pretty sure Kelly will never shut up and I don't want to have to get a new haircut or a person. Sorry, Kelly, I couldn't think of the name right then. Stylist. And so Dawn comes. Starts hanging out.
Eventually starts hanging out with a community group and places her faith in Christ and has her eternity changed because she moved to South Carolina and had to get a haircut. There's a guy in our community group named Mike who hung out at a video game store, met a girl who worked there. Eventually, he had some stuff going on in life and asked her, you know of any churches? And she said, yes, mine. So he started hanging out.
He placed his faith in Christ. I got to spend some time last week studying the book of Colossians with him and I asked him, what was your take on spiritual stuff before you became a Christian, before you started hanging around? And he said, oh, nothing. I was like, did you believe there's a God or anything? He's like, no, that always sounded kind of stupid. I think bogus may be the word he used.
Bogus. It sounded bogus. And I was like, okay. But then you started hanging out, started believing there was a God, started believing that he had joined us on earth as Christ, had died for our sins and that you could have forgiveness and salvation through him. And he said, yep. Now, neither of those stories, unfortunately, have the pop and sizzle of cannibals.
I don't know how often Kelly went to work in absolute danger for her life and had to learn how to use her scissors as a weapon. I'll be glad to share some of those stories later. Hanging out at a video game store sounds so nondescript. And God, in his act of grace and sovereignty, was using it to change the eternity of people who live right here in our city and are now part of our church family. I think we're tempted to say, well, John G. Patton led a whole island to Christ.
And I would argue, no, he probably didn't. He led some people to Christ and then a whole bunch of fishermen led other fishermen to Christ and a whole bunch of islanders who were building nets. And they began to, I don't know what happens on islands a whole lot, but I've watched Moana recently. So something with coconuts, coconut getters, began to lead other coconut getters to Christ and that the whole island became to Christ through a whole bunch of normal people being Christians in their normal lives and pursuing their families. Now God had to use John G.
Patton to maybe set the spark. But we would say, yeah, but my life's so normal, it's so ordinary. And my question to you is, how much did God's grace have to go to work to save Mike and Dawn just as much as it would have to save anybody on that island? And how much did Jesus have to spill his blood to affect how much of an eternity in all of those stories? And it's the same. And here's what we're going to look at as we walk through this series is that God intends to use our ordinary, everyday lives for his spectacular, extraordinary purposes.
That God intends to use our ordinary, everyday lives, cutting grass, having hobbies, going to work, hanging out at a playground. He intends to use all of our normal to see eternities changed in the lives of those around us because that's what he's always done. John chapter 17. Told you we'd get there. This is Jesus praying the night before he's going to go to the cross. He's praying for his disciples.
We're going to pick up in verse 15. I do not ask that you take them out of the world so that I there is Jesus. The you is God, the father, and them is the disciples. So he's saying, I, Jesus, don't ask that you, the father, take the disciples out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. So the intention for his disciples is not that they would escape the world, but that they would be protected in the midst of the world.
That you keep them from the evil one. It's the enemy that's actively at work to see people not come to faith. They are not of the world, meaning that they have tasted, believed, in Christ and his gospel and that they have been transformed into having eternal life so they belong to him just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them, that means change them, grow them, build them up in the truth. Your word is the truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. and for their sake, I consecrate myself, meaning I'm going to the cross, that they may be sanctified in truth.
I do not ask for these only, these men that were with him right then, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. If you are a Christian, Jesus just prayed for you. He's at work praying for you. That those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Jesus takes his disciples and says, I'm sending you into the world just as I've been sent into the world. And I'm praying for you that y'all would be a team, that you would be one, that you would be in me as I'm in the Father so that the world will come to know that I've been sent, will come to believe the truth of the gospel.
But I'm sending you the same way I was sent. After this, Jesus leaves. He is crucified. He's buried in a tomb. He rises again victoriously and we're told in John chapter 20 that he shows up in a house where the disciples are which terrifies them. He shows them the holes in his hand and his side and then he says this, Peace be with you as the Father has sent me even so I am sending you.
That is what Jesus is doing. He's saying, as I was sent, you're sent. So I think it's fair for us to ask how was Jesus sent. Let's just make a few observations about the way in which he was sent. Most of Jesus' life was unspectacular. He lived in a rural town to poor parents.
Angel showed up at his birth. I'll give you that. But he was born in a barn so it's got to even out somehow. He lived his life working. He at one point goes back to his own hometown and he's doing miracles and teaching things and they're like, Isn't this the carpenter or the carpenter's son? Like, we know this guy.
So for most of his life he seemed like a normal kind of unspectacular, maybe gracious, maybe loving, maybe really good, obedient son, but he wasn't doing miraculous things. And then even in his three years of walking with his disciples, he performed miracles. He went actively at work to proclaim the gospel in so many beautiful ways and tangible ways, but a lot of his time was spent walking and talking and eating, sharing meals with people. One of the main issues that the religious leaders had against Jesus was that he partied too much. They accused him of being a drunkard and a glutton. Now he didn't party too much, but it sure looked like he almost did.
Because there was on a regular basis he was at somebody's house eating, spending time with them, celebrating, that he walked in the normal rhythms of life, that God, when he sent Jesus, sent him to be a human. The Son of God could have just cracked the sky open. He could have shown up like a lightning bolt. And instead he shows up like a baby and then lives his life in so many normal ways. It's surprising how much of Jesus' life was normal and ordinary given the fact that he was the Son of God. He had a surprising amount of a normal, ordinary life given the fact that he was the Son of God and we're sent in the same way which means move in, wear the clothes, speak the language, take part in the celebrations, be a normal person in normal life, actively, intentionally working that for God's glory and his name and his fame among the nations.
That's what we're called to do. Jesus did radically call us to allegiance to his name above all else that we would believe that every penny, every ounce of energy, every amount of money we spent for his name and his glory was worth it. And he does commission his disciples to go out into the world but as they go out into the world and people come to Christ they start up churches and say y'all stay right here and keep pursuing the city that's here. Some of you are meant to sell everything you have, to come up on stage one day like we're going to get to with Chris Romalia soon who is a friend of ours and talk about the place that you're going to be among the poor, to be among the hated, to be among those that hate you and we're going to pray for you and we're going to hand you dollars and we're going to send you out.
Some of you are meant to stay in the same job you have for the next 20 years being a disciple who makes disciples in the normal life where God's already placed you. See, I think we're called because we're sent as Jesus was sent into normal life. I think we're sent with a life apologetic. Apologetics is the field of argument where we give reasons to believe so that you'll have things like someone has a good reason why it's very likely that the world was created by a creator rather than just exploded out of nothing and there'll be arguments for these sort of things but we as the church are given a life apologetic meaning that as you live your normal life around the people around you your life bears testimony and gives a reason for faith. that the people around you begin to see you believe that this is real to you that the way you spend your money and your time and your effort and your energy and the way you neighbor and the way that you work and the way you raise your kid points to your love for Jesus and his gospel.
That's why so much of the New Testament is spent writing to household managers and household servants and moms and dads and husbands and wives and how to interact with the government and whether or not you should pay your taxes. If everyone was supposed to sell everything and go somewhere else the New Testament would read like why do you still have a job? Why are you still married? Run away! But it's written and so much of the bulk of the New Testament is taken up with here's how to have a marriage that points to Christ.
Here's how to spend your time and work in a way that points to Christ. Here's how to spend your money in a way that points to Christ. Here's how to actively live a life so that those around you see Jesus. The third way Jesus I think models this for us is that he lived a life of intentional invitation. He used to live the life of intentional invitation that he was constantly calling people to come be around him because ultimately his entire life was the intentional invitation of God to humanity for us to have a relationship with him again that we were designed to be God's children and we broke that and ran from that.
That's why whenever anybody says well we're all God's children the Bible says no that's actually not true. That was the intent but we've all run from the household. But that Jesus came so that God could adopt us again so that he could welcome us back in that we could become sons and daughters again. That Jesus' entire life was an intentional invitation. That God intends in our lives as we are sent as Jesus was sent into normal everyday stuff he intends to take your ordinary life and do extraordinary things with it. That's the point of the series title.
See what we did there? That's the intent. That your mundane that your simple and small would be used by God to change lives. And just think about your life if you're a Christian how did you become a Christian? Think about this for a second if you would say no I believe without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ died for me and that that truth has altered my eternity. How many of you grew up on an island as a cannibal?
How did you become a Christian? Think about this for a second if you would say no I believe without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ died for me and that that truth has altered my eternity. How many of you grew up on an island as a cannibal? How many of you just went to a normal middle school and had another student who was 13 years old who would not quit inviting you to a youth group because they had pizza and cute boys and eventually you heard the gospel
And it clicked. How many of you it was a co-worker who just you could tell that they loved you and that was weird for you at first until the day when your life hit the wall and they were the first person you thought of to call. How many of you it was a co-worker who invited you and invited you and invited you and invited you to the point that you thought I might just have to quit this job and you ran out
Of excuses so eventually you started hanging out and at some point it clicked and Jesus saved and rescued your soul and how many of you would look back if someone said tell me how you came to Christ you'd say nothing really to it nothing that special I just had a friend and you've just said my eternity was changed through some ordinary stuff that's what Jesus intends to do there's a story in Ezekiel 47 where Ezekiel the prophet
Is taken and he's getting to see a vision and there's an angel walking around with him and the angel's measuring everything and telling him showing him the temple and he's measuring everything and so a lot of this vision is taken up with Ezekiel being like and this is how big this room was and this is how big this room was and so when you're reading it it's hard sometimes to like keep staying focused on what we're looking at here but in Ezekiel 47 the angel takes Ezekiel out of the temple
And he's measuring the outside of the temple and they come to the side of the temple where a trickle of water is running out underneath one of the doors it's a trickle if you say that a lot it becomes where it doesn't mean anything but it's a fun word to say it trickles it's just a small amount of water like you kind of turned a faucet on like if you took a water bottle and you were out somewhere and you had to wash your hands so you couldn't do if you just turned it up that would be too much so you just trickle some on your hand
To get some of the dirt off maybe some of y'all have never had to do that but that's a thing it's a small amount of water coming out from under the door which is weird because it shouldn't be doing that but it's coming out of the temple and what we learn in this vision is this is a picture of what God's going to do so he's reset up his temple and there's a trickle of water coming out and then what we're told is that the angel says come on we aren't actually told that he says that but he somehow says let's go and water's trickling out
And they walk 500 yards this way and then the angel says stop and they walk across the water and when they walk across this water it's ankle deep now that is shocking and none of us are shocked so I'll explain why that's shocking trickles of water don't turn into ankle deep water without more water being added into it so a river becomes a river because of tributaries which is extra creek water runoff
Rain this is a trickle of water that has turned into ankle deep water this is shocking if you took your water hose and laid it at the top of a hill and just turned it on the amount of water would never get greater than the amount coming out of the water hose the ground's going to soak it up it would get wet but as long as it's a hill it's no point turning into a river and what we see is a trickle of water coming out and it's suddenly ankle deep
They walk 500 more yards they walk across and it's knee deep they walk 500 more yards they walk across it's waist deep they walk 500 more yards and they can't cross it and the angel looks at Ezekiel and says do you see this and then we're told that that river begins to wherever it goes it turns salt water into fresh water which means it brings life and that there are trees that begin to grow alongside of it and the tree of life grows alongside of it and the leaves are for the healing of the nations
And that those trees bear fruit that bring joy and life we're given this same picture at the end of the bible where there's a river running out of the city of God and the tree of life is there and the leaves are for the healing of the nations and what we're shown in that picture in Ezekiel is that what's going to start so small as a little Jewish man being nailed to a cross where trickles of blood run down and a little group of men who fell apart after that happened but he brings them back together and there's only about a hundred of them
Men and women that he sends out to be his church is going to become an unstoppable river because this was God's intent all along that something so mundane so simple so small so unnoticeable was going to miraculously spectacularly extraordinarily turn into something that's unstoppable and the truth is he's designed that to happen in our lives that we would join him in the normal parts of life and see eternities changed that God would take your ordinary
And do something spectacular and glorious and eternal with it that he would take the simple daily parts of your life and do something amazing see we believe if you're Christians that sin has messed up the world that there's brokenness and pain disease fear depression destruction loneliness and that we're commissioned by God to be his active agents to bring the gospel to bear
In all of those situations to see people freed and loved and welcomed and one of the ways we do that is we live normal ordinary lives of intentional invitation and so I just I want to put this out for us this morning as we think about this if all the Christians in our church all the people in community groups would intentionally build a relationship and invite one person into your life we would see the size of our church family double
If every Christian in our church family all of our members all the people who are in community groups would intentionally build a relationship with one person begin to invite them into our lives we would potentially see the size of our church family double we'd see people come to know Christ we'd see people welcomed in we'd see eternity changed through simple things like hey we're having a cookout you want to come
Through simple things like hey we're going bowling you want to come simple things like you want to go grab a cup of coffee helping someone cut their grass getting to know your neighbors there would be eternities changed now for some of you who've been around for a while you maybe just felt weird inside and here let me explain why when I said we'd see our church family double some of you went
Not because you don't want our church family to double but for some reason that sounds really church growthy and what's the point want to see just a whole bunch of people in this room there's some sort of skepticalness to you and that has to do with how we got started here's what I mean we started talking about this concept I started thinking about this concept I hated that sentence so some of that comes from me when we got started
As a church we intentionally started with eight people terrible church planning strategy by the way if you read any kind of church planning strategy stuff they see you need at least about 75 to be a church that exists and lives so if you get online and just google that they'll say don't start without 50 don't start without 75 your church won't make it we started with eight I was leading a community group I had never done that before
I've never been a pastor before I'm just winging it some of y'all think he's really bad at this I'm learning on the job you guys when we got started there was just eight of us and all we said was we wanted to be a family we wanted to love each other we wanted to know each other we wanted to pursue Christ in normal life and we were only willing to multiply groups and we weren't going to do anything on a Sunday where we invited anybody in until we had something real to ask them to join we did not want to
Open up put out signs have banners put out mailers get a bunch of people in a room and say Jesus is good we'll see you next week we wanted to say Jesus is good come see what that looks like in a bunch of people as they try to live a normal life changed by him we wanted to have something real to invite people into and the truth is we do you and your community group we have something real to invite people into now here's the other thing
That's real for me when I think about okay build a relationship with someone and invite them in and our church will grow we'll see more people become church family with us and some of that feels a little bit like we want a really big church like the point of it is a really big church but if I actually will think about my community group over the past couple of years and you would tell me that that means there's another Don you would tell me that there's another Mike
That there's another Russ that there's another Jack that there's another Ashley that there's another Quincy I'll sell out for that if you could look at your community group and know who wasn't there two years ago and say you mean to tell me if we hustle and grind and if I pray and if I'm intentional and if I open up my door and my house and my life to somebody we'll get another one of these we'll have another Tony yeah let's just do that and I know part of me and I've talked with my group about this before part of me knows
Things will have to change if we grow groups will have to multiply some of the people you've been walking through life with you won't get to see as much anymore and I've told my group the only thing that helps me with that because that hurts and that in some ways is so terrible to me to think that half of my group would have to be somewhere else as we invited people in and that by inviting people in and seeing people come to know Christ would mess up the great thing that we have and the family that we have right now but the truth is
I've got to love what we have so much to be willing to invite people in but the one thing that helps me get over that is that all the little tables we share right now are just a picture and a hint and a glimpse of the table we'll get to share in the kingdom you see the picture of this river it keeps going and we're told in Revelation that it's there in the kingdom and that there's going to be a wedding supper of the Lamb where Jesus takes his bride
To himself and I can't help but feel in that moment some of the people that I used to be in a community group with some of the people that I used to get to walk in life with that I don't get to see as much anymore that I'm going to get to see them as they sit at that table next to someone else who wouldn't have been there if our group hadn't have multiplied as I get to see them at that table as I sit with people who wouldn't have been there if we hadn't have been on our hustle there's going to be a moment where we make eye contact
And we're going to know without a shadow of a doubt every ounce was worth it every bit that we were willing to leverage our ordinary lives that we were willing to risk being made fun of that we were willing to put ourselves out on a ledge to make an invitation every time we made up a thing so that we could invite people into it all the money we spent bowling just so we could invite somebody the time we worked out a thing to go to Dave & Buster's
And invite people in and none of the people we invited came and we still had to spend all that money at Dave & Buster's that's a true story and it made me sad to tell it just then it's going to be worth it it's going to be absolutely worth it as we get to see people brought into his kingdom if every one of us would begin to pray intentionally and invite intentionally into our lives I'm not saying Sunday morning some we got people in our church
Who came the first time on a Sunday morning and became Christians so we're not anti that y'all know we every Sunday open the Bible and talk about Jesus you can invite anybody you want to here we're going to tell them about Jesus some of the people you're building with this room terrifies them and that wouldn't be the best invitation that wouldn't be intentional some people you're building with the first thing they need to be invited to is your community group we've had people who came first
To what they thought was just a Bible study it ended up being it's more than that and they eventually became Christians that's a great invite some people that's terrifying want to come to a house with some people who study the Bible that you don't know no some people your first invite is hey you want to sit at this table in the break room when we get our break today some of you it's hey
You want to walk down here and get a cup of coffee some of you it's hey a few of my friends and I get breakfast every week some of it's hey a few of us go get wings at 50 cent wing night at D's and that's the first invite but the goal is to see somebody walk in life with you so that maybe now maybe a year from now maybe five years from now as you built a genuine friendship and something happens
In their life where Jesus begins to pull on them by his grace he started something now so that an eternity is changed and there's one more voice gathered around the throne proclaiming the goodness of Jesus and his excellency forever the band's going to come back up if we begin to be intentional and invitational into our lives we'll get to see more people invited into the family Jesus' family that we get to be a part of all of the things that you love
About our church about your community group about how this gets to work are offered through the gospel to everyone in our city and most of them do not have this and do not know him here's what we're going to do for the next four weeks we're just going to talk about how do we do this next week we'll get to talk about normal everyday rhythms of life and how to use them intentionally for the kingdom the following week we're going to talk about how to use your house that every single one of us lives in a home and it's our most paid for asset and God has actually designed it
To be a weapon for his kingdom we're going to talk about the reasons why you don't want to do that and then why it'll actually be good the following week we're going to talk about how to share the gospel how to actually tell someone about Jesus clearly lovingly helpfully and then we're going to talk about how we get to do all of this together with our community groups I would encourage you not to miss if you do to catch up online so that you can walk through this in our groups with your community group
I would encourage you if you've just been hanging out a little while and you're a Christian and you want to be a part of Jesus' mission hang out for the next couple of weeks maybe join a community group just for the next four weeks so you can walk through this and see how we're going to try to apply this and be used by God in all of our normal and some of you God has been stirring in your soul to bite off way more than you can chew and I would encourage you to do that he's been stirring in your soul the billows have been blowing
For a while for you to sell everything and go on a mission somewhere for you to maybe lead a group maybe for you to say I think I'm called to lead a community group and I know that may not happen for another year and I'm terrified of that because from what I understand it's really difficult to walk with a bunch of sinners through life and to help them and pastor and shepherd them and I would tell you yes it is and it's beautiful and you'll get to see more of Jesus in it
And maybe some of you that's what you need to do but all of us are called to leverage what we have for God's kingdom and he'll take our normal our mundane our folding clothes our going to the park with our dog and use it for his spectacular purposes and I'm excited to see him do it among us as we get to love and know him more y'all pray with me God we ask that you'd use our ordinary and that we wouldn't waste it help us not to make excuses that keep us from taking all the things you've given us
And using them for your kingdom God I pray for the people in this room right now who've been postponing joining your mission that you would shatter their excuses that over the next few weeks you'd help us to see how we get to use our normal our ordinary for your kingdom I hope over the next few weeks you'd help us see the things we have to let go we have to give up we have to say no to in order to join you in your mission and God we praise you for all the ordinary that's happened to completely change our lives
For the better and for your glory in Jesus name Amen
The Great Commission
Transcript
How are we doing this morning? This side's doing pretty good. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We've got two more weeks. This is the second to last week of our Home Sweet Home series.
We've been walking through and just asking, what is the church? How has God designed the church? What makes for a healthy church? How are we supposed to organize ourselves? What are we supposed to look like? Today is very important for us as we kind of talk through this.
If we kind of miss today, we miss a lot. Maybe even like the essence of what the church is supposed to be and to do. And so it's a big day for us as we kind of are wrapping up this series and trying to look at, okay, this is how we're supposed to organize. This is how we're supposed to be designed. These are things that go into us being a healthy church. And now we're kind of asking, like, what do we do?
Why does the church exist? And so we're kind of answering that question. But I want us to, we're going to kind of start big picture as we get into this this morning. And so God created the world. He designed it beautiful and made it glorious so that we even now can look and just be taken aback by how majestic there are, things are in the world. Like I've been watching this TV series called Africa on Netflix.
And it's just crazy. Like every, I'm just, there's this, they do such a good job of like sucking me in on, I watch two giraffes fight each other. And like by the end of it, I'm like, who's going to win? And like they just, like one giraffe knocked the other one over and it's this English guy. And he's like, will this be the end for the king of the giraffes? And it's like, I don't know what's going to happen to the king of giraffes.
And it's like, and there'll be times where they're just like panning over a flower that's in the middle of a jungle. And I'm just like, that's crazy looking or zooming in on ants or like it's, there's just God made this world beautiful and amazing. And he put humanity on it. And then because God put so much good into us and because he made us with intelligence and personhood, like we as humans could choose to respond to God appropriately, to worship him and to relate to him the way we were designed to, or we could choose to hold ourselves as supreme. I don't want to spoil it for you, but we chose the second one.
We chose all of us to believe that we are the most important, that our happiness and our joy and our life matters more than others. Like we chose to promote ourselves over worshiping God. And here's the thing, worshiping God is the only right way to relate to God. A buddy of mine recently was getting, he was getting mad at a friend of his because his friend was being disrespectful to his mom. To his own mom. And so my buddy said he got in his face and was like, don't talk to her like that.
That's your mama. Like that's your mama. You don't act like that towards your mama. Like his, his only argument was she's your mom. You can't talk to her like that. And I agreed with his argument.
His point was just because of who she is, just by the nature of y'all's relationship, she's to be treated a certain way. Period. The end. And that's our relationship to God. Just because God is God, just because God's the creator, we're actually designed to worship him. It's the only correct response for creatures to, to respond to their creator in worship, to hold him up as holy and honorable and to praise him.
And what we said was, no, we want to be supreme. So this is where selfishness and racism and all of our pride and envy and murder and war come from believing ourselves to be supreme. So God's got a massive problem. He created the world to be good. He put some creatures on it that were designed to relate appropriately to him. And he poured a lot of himself into them.
And they immediately turned around and said, no, we're going to be supreme. They started making much of themselves. And so now God really kind of has a choice. He can just be done with it. He can just start over or he can try to fix it. He can try to fix the problem.
This is what we're presented with right at the beginning of the Bible. Now you may be wanting to go, okay, time out real quick, real quick. Two questions. One, if God made people and they turned bad real quick, isn't that his fault? Like, shouldn't that be on him? Like, didn't he make them poorly?
My response to that is, first of all, I don't really know. It doesn't seem like it would be. But secondly, and this, I think, is a better response than my first one. I want to talk to you about goldfish. You ever had a pet goldfish? Let's say you own a pet goldfish.
Let's say your friend did. You go to his house and he says, I want to show you the most loving and righteous and good and glorious of all goldfish. Still be just kind of a goldfish, right? Like, if you have a goldfish that is pure evil and a goldfish that is pure goodness, can you tell the difference? Like, there's not going to make much of a difference. Now, let's move to hamsters.
You got a hamster that's like a great hamster and like a mean hamster. There's some difference there. Like, one of them is going to bite you. The other one might, I don't know, like watch TV with you. I don't know what hamsters do. A cat?
Hypothetically, let's say there was a good cat. I know. I know it's hard. It's hard to get your brains there. Work with me here. Hypothetically, there's a good cat.
Like, there's some difference between like an evil cat and a good cat. Like, there's some difference. A dog? More of a difference. An eight-year-old child. You ever met like a really cool, great eight-year-old?
Yeah. Okay. You met a terrible one? Uh-huh. Seen him at Walmart? Like, there's some difference there.
Like, a really bad child or a really good child, there's a bigger gap there. What about like a full-grown adult? Yeah, bigger gap. What if that adult's more intelligent or has more power, stronger, or has more money? Here's the thing. God poured so much good into us.
He put so much intelligence, so much ability for emotion, so much of himself into us that we actually have the ability to be very good. But when we turn that, it actually makes us far worse. See, it's God putting so much good into us that makes humanity capable of so much bad. So it's actually that God poured himself into us that we could turn that one way or the other. And so I don't think it's his fault. I think that he poured good things into us.
Now, you could say, well, couldn't he made it where we could never do anything bad? And it's like, yeah, but not with us still having some choice. And is goodness really goodness if you have no choice? I think it's because God put so much into us that there's so much potential for bad. The second thing you may say, okay, well, all right, all right, well, why can't he just forgive us? If these first humans rebelled against him, why couldn't he just say, well, no big deal?
I had a friend ask me that recently. He is a very tall, kind of aggressive guy I've been hanging out with. And so I asked him, I said, okay, if we're hanging out with you and your friends, and let's say I walk over to you and I slap you. When I asked him that, he went, like, leaned forward at me like, are you serious right now? Like, you slap me, are you serious? And it was like, I said, I didn't actually slap you, just hypothetically, calm down.
But what if I slap you? I was like, what are our options? Who's going to pay for you being slapped? He said, you are. I was like, okay, that's an option. I was like, you aggressively assault me for slapping you.
I could pay penance for me slapping you. What if you don't go with that option? What are your other options? Who pays? He's like, well, I do. He's like, yeah, you pay for being slapped.
You take the pain. You have no outlet for your aggression. Your friends think you're a punk or they make fun of you or there's some kind of shame going along with having me slap you. Like, immediately it made sense to him. Now, some of you maybe don't think about life in terms of being assaulted. Let's say I was at your house and I just accidentally knocked your TV over.
Let's say I maliciously knocked your TV over and broke it. You can make me pay for your TV. You can pay for your TV. Or you can have no TV. But once it's broken, there's no option of just forgiveness without somebody paying.
So once we slapped God in the face, once we broke his good creation, he can't just go, well, magic forgiveness, because there's actually an exchange that's happened. Someone has to pay. And so what I want to tell you the story of this morning as we get started is the story of how God said he was willing to pay. How he was willing to pay for our sin, our brokenness, our rebellion, how God was willing to step in and pay for it. The same as if you decided to take this lap and be okay with it or you decided to replace your television and not make me pay for it. God stepped in and said, okay, it's broken, but I'll fix it.
Here's what he did. He tells the first people who rebel, I'm going to make this right. Then he picks a guy named Abraham out of the middle of nowhere and says, I'm going to turn you into a family. And through your bloodline, you're going to show the world what it's like to run away from sin, what it's like to know me. You're going to show them who I am. So he picks Abraham and Abraham begins to have this family.
But here's what we see throughout the Old Testament. There was not going to be a bloodline that kept sin out. So Abraham's family, it's like your family, really messed up. Some of you have your families here with you. Just don't make eye contact. Keep straight ahead.
But Abraham's family had sin and problems and distress and brokenness. And so God then tells his family, he says, okay, I'm going to take and make you into, I'm going to give you my rules, my laws, my morals. And I'm going to make you into a kingdom of priests. I'm going to turn you into a whole group of people who worship me correctly. And you're going to show the world what it's like to worship me. And through you, they're going to come to know me.
But the problem was even in the priesthood, even in the morals, even in the law of the Old Testament, they couldn't do it. There wasn't going to be a moral set of standards that people could live up to that could keep sin out. So then he looks and says, all right, I'm going to give you a border. I'm going to give you a land. I'm going to make you into a kingdom. And through this kingdom, you're going to show the world what I'm like.
And through you, they're going to come to know me. But it turns out no amount of border patrol could keep sin out. And that kingdom doesn't last very long. And sin is consistently a terrible, rampant problem. And so God says, okay. And he comes in the form of Jesus, which was his plan all along.
He'd been taking people and making them into a group of people to proclaim to the world what he was like. And then he comes as Christ. Jesus steps out of eternity. The Son of God comes, lives perfectly on our behalf, and goes to the cross to pay for our sin. But Jesus does what we couldn't do, fulfills the law, lives the way he ought to have, doesn't rebel against God, puts God first, worships him, and then swaps places with us to pay for our sin.
You see, sin was the issue. Even in the family, even in the priesthood, even in the kingdom, sin was the problem. It kept coming in. And so Jesus pays for sin. And then he does what he's always done. He grabs a group of people, and he says, you're going to represent me to the world.
And through you, the world's going to come to know me. And that's the church. You see, that was God's plan all along. He kept grabbing people and saying, through you, I'm going to show the world what I'm like. Through you, the world's going to come to know me. But see, Jesus had to pay for sin, and then he takes the church and says, okay, sin has been dealt with, and now through you, I'm going to show the world what I'm like.
And that's the church. That's our mission. That's our goal, to be a group of people called by Jesus to show the world what he's like. So we're going to go to Matthew chapter 28. So all the stuff we've been talking about in this whole series, how we ought to look, how we ought to act, what we're supposed to do is for the purposes of this mission that we've been given, of God's plan to redeem and save the world, that God has decided and chosen to use people to represent him to the world.
That's his plan A, is to pay for sin through the cross and then take a group of people and say, you're going to represent me to the world. Let's pray, and then we'll start reading in Matthew chapter 28. God, we thank you for your grace. Thank you for your goodness. We pray, Lord, that you would equip us to be on your mission, that we would see it clearly in your word and that we would follow actively for your glory. We love you and praise you in Jesus' name.
Amen. Okay, so we're going to pick up in verse 16. So Jesus has died on the cross. He was buried and he rose again and he told his disciples, meet me at this specific place and he's going to tell them what he wants them to do. Now the 11 disciples, so that's all of the disciples except for Judas who betrayed Jesus.
So these are the guys who've been following Jesus around for the past three years, seeing him perform miracles, being taught by him, doing ministry with him. The 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Just so you all know, those are really the two options. Jesus walked around telling people he was God. They watched him brutally murdered and then he came back alive and started talking to him.
And those are really your two options. There's not really much of a middle ground. Either you realize this is Jesus and he's alive and so you worship him as God, the guy who's conquered death, or you just kind of doubt the whole thing. We're here. This is us. Like we're either kind of doubting or we're worshipping.
Those are really our options. And I love that this is the 11 disciples. So they're worshipping, but some of them who've fallen around are going, I don't know because of how dead he was really, really recently. And I'm having a hard time with this. If they were just trying to make up a story to convince us, I don't think they would have included that. But they were like, no, we need to be real about the fact that some of us were really having a hard time with this.
So they worshiped in some doubt. 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. So Jesus calls his disciples together.
He calls this group together that's been with him. And he says, go, it's your mission to represent me to the world. He's doing what he's been doing this whole time. Grabbing a group of people and saying, you're going to be my representatives. Through you, the world's going to come to know me. Peter, one of Jesus's disciples who's here in this moment.
Later, he's writing a letter to some churches and he explains it this way. We're going to have it on the screen. But he understood exactly what Jesus was saying. So how y'all been? Things going good? Boom.
Stay focused, guys. But you are a chosen race. So who's that? That's Abraham. That's the family. You're a royal priesthood.
Who's that? That's the people that God called together and gave him the law. You're a holy nation, a people for his own possession. So what Peter's saying is, we're the fulfillment of this now. God's plan all along was to grab a people, to make a priesthood, to make a nation, and he's saying, this is what he's done with us, with the church. We're the same thing.
We're the group of people who are going to represent God to the world. A people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. That's the church. The people of God who've been forgiven.
Who he's not held our sin against us because Jesus paid for it on the cross. And now he's called us together to be on mission to represent him to the world. That's our task. That's what we're doing. That's why what you're a part of the church is to worship and glorify Jesus and see more people worship and glorify Jesus, to proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. So we're just going to walk through and talk through this, what Jesus commands us to do, what he tells his disciples to do and how that applies to us and what that gets to look like and try to just understand what's going on here and what this looks like for us now.
That's our goal today. Some of you have been around the church for a while and you've heard this passage taught over and over and over and over again. Good. It's important. I heard Francis Chan put it this way one time and I thought it was very helpful. He's a pastor.
He said if he told his daughter, I need you to go upstairs and I need you to clean your room. She said, okay. And then later he went up to her room and it wasn't clean and he was like, what are you doing? And she's like, well, I've been thinking about what you said. I even memorized what you said. I can quote it back to you.
Go clean your room. He's like, yeah. She goes, I've written in my journal about what you said. I've even invited some of my friends over today and we're going to talk about what it would look like for me to clean my room. And he said she would have completely missed the whole point. She's supposed to just clean her room.
When I was in college, I had a guy I met with on a regular basis and at one point we had met, I don't know, for some weeks and he looked at me and said, hey man, I don't know if I want to keep doing this because every time we meet you tell me the same thing. I said, yeah, because you hadn't done it yet. I'm cool with us not meeting until you start doing this stuff. We're not moving to step two until step one's done. The reason we keep talking about this and I keep saying the same things is because you've never shown up. So our job, we're going to talk about this today, but our job is to do it.
To actually follow through with what he's commanded us to. All right, so let's see what he says. Some of you are new, you're new believers, you haven't been around the church too long. This may be new to you and that's great. This is why you're a Christian, because Jesus has used his church to do this. Jesus said to them, this is verse 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Okay, so this election cycle has been pretty crazy. Donald Trump doesn't have anything on that. He hadn't come close to saying anything like that. Could you imagine him starting one of his rallies like that? He plays a little music, he comes out. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
I'm huge. Like, could you imagine? Like, if this isn't true, this is like the most cocky statement you could possibly say. Jesus said he's in charge of everything. And he just rose from the grave, so I'm inclined to believe him. He says everything belongs to me.
All authority on heaven and earth, like all of it is mine. Go therefore. Bible study tip. If you see the word therefore, it's referring to something that's already come before it. So here it's pretty simple.
Why do we go? Because of all the authority given to him. Because all authority belongs to him. So go therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Okay. First thing we're supposed to do is go.
I think mostly that just means be intentional. Get up. Get after it. Make a plan. Go for it. It does mean go to the ends of the world.
Go to the people who don't know him. Go to the people who don't have a Bible translated in their language yet. Go to the people where you have to learn the language just to tell them about Jesus. But it also means go to work and go to class realizing that your job is to make disciples. Go to your neighborhood picnic. Throw a neighborhood picnic realizing that your job is to make disciples.
Have some intentionality behind what you're doing. Because we're all, as the church, called to this. Go therefore and make disciples. Okay. Now. You're a disciple.
Now. You're a disciple. Now. You're a disciple. Go make disciples. Immediately.
You're having like flashbacks. Because you know what he's talking about. So if you were in a math class. And the teacher got to the end and said. Would you come up? Called your name.
Told you to come stand in front of everybody. And said. Okay. Next semester. You're teaching this class. And then like handed you their stuff and walked out.
You would know how to teach math. Only because of what they had taught you. You would just reproduce what they did. So when he says go make disciples. He's talking to his disciples. So immediately they're going.
Okay. What did he just do? Like if you just. Somebody taught you how to run a forklift or a cash register. And then they said from now on you're going to train the new people. You're going to teach them what they just taught you.
So he says go make disciples. Well how did Jesus make disciples? Well. He called people out of normal life. Expected that he would be the most important thing to them from then on. Expected a lot out of them.
And built relationships with them. He was around them all the time. They walked around. If you read through the gospels. A lot of it is going to or from eating. Or to or from a party.
They hung out. They were around each other. In normal life. He had specific times where he taught them. He had specific times where he sent them off to do ministry. And then they kind of debrief it.
But he was around them. So when he says go make disciples. Yeah that means once a week at a coffee shop. It also means way more than that. Building relationships. Getting to know people in normal life.
Average everyday stuff. Intentional ministry. Like it. They immediately knew what he was talking about. Go and make disciples. Of all nations.
So the church is supposed to see people become followers of Jesus. And we're supposed to do this of all nations. Friends. When the gospel was first preached at Pentecost. Everybody heard it in their native language. Because God created everybody.
He speaks all languages fluently. In heaven. We're going to talk about this next week. John says he sees everyone from every language and tribe and people and nation. Do you know that when we get to heaven. You don't suddenly become less your ethnicity.
Because God designed them all. And they all belong to him. Muslims will be quick to tell you that God speaks Arabic. And if you want to hear the words of God. You've got to know and read Arabic. God speaks Arabic.
He also speaks Hebrew. And Spanish. And Yoruba. And English. All very very fluently. Because they all belong to him.
And there isn't one correct nationality or race that belongs to God. It's everybody from day one. Recently the United Methodists were getting together. And they're voting on some stuff. And there's been some increased kind of liberal tendencies in the church in the United States. And one of the things that we read.
That I read recently was that. One of the reasons that the United Methodists have stayed as conservative as they have. Is because 40% of the people that are a part of the United Methodists live in Africa. And Africa has been untouched by some of our cultural things going on in the United States. And I was so proud of our African brothers and sisters this past week showing up. And one of the things I read was they said.
I don't know why we're not reading the scriptures. And holding fast to them. And why we're allowing culture to affect us the way it is. And I was like thank you Jesus for being at work in the church in Africa. Even where you may need to be leading us to repent here in the United States. Like it's beautiful that the church does not just exist in one place.
But that it belongs to all of God's people all across all languages. All borders from the very beginning. And we're supposed to proclaim it to all nations. That's why a white church, a black church. They don't really exist. You can have a church that's primarily made up of white people.
A church that's primarily made up of black people. But the church is Jesus' church. And it's all nations all the time. Go make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to obey.
Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Okay. People should become Christians through the church. That's what baptizing them means. So teaching them to observe means training people how to follow Jesus.
Baptizing them means proclaiming the gospel and seeing them place faith in Jesus. The people who are baptized in scripture are the people who've placed faith in Jesus. So as a church, we should see people come to know Jesus. We should have baptisms all the time. Because that's a celebration of someone's place their faith in Jesus. So we should see people baptized.
And we should teach them. And I've noticed that some people kind of lean one way or the other. So it's either like I just proclaimed the gospel. And if they believe in Jesus, good. See you later. Best of luck to you.
And some people are like my job is just to teach people. And it's like no. The whole church is to do all of it. Christians don't really believe in this vague progressivism. People talk about like this person's a progressive or we're working towards progress. And it's just kind of this like vague all of the world just slowly moves towards betterness into the future.
Have you noticed this? Like in general, like our culture is like anything that happened in the past was probably pretty bad. Because we're all just riding the wave of progress. Okay. First of all, that doesn't motivate me to do anything. Because if I'm just going to progress naturally, leave me alone.
I'll get there when I get there. I'm on the wave of progress. Just because I'm a few waves back. Don't be judging me. Progress will get me there. Take it easy.
See Christians don't really believe that. We don't believe progress is a tide. That even though it looks like it's going backward and forward, it's slowly coming in or slowly going out. Christians believe in active, open rebellion and reformation. We believe that we are called to rebel against hell and sin openly and actively now. Led by Jesus who openly and actively rebelled against sin in the way of the world.
When he made sure that he was going to openly and actively rebel against that. To the point that he was hated so much that he went to the cross to pay for our sin and our debt. And we openly, actively rebel against sin by walking into our places of work. And walking into our neighborhoods. And walking into our schools. And proclaiming that people are sinners that need to repent.
And they need to know that Jesus died for their sin. That the gospel is real and is actually good news. That's what we're called to do. To actually tell people about Jesus. To actively, openly tell people about Jesus. We live currently in a society that says that all viewpoints are equally valid and true.
If you are a Christian, you do not believe that. Because it's nonsense. It's dumb. All positions aren't actively valid or true. You can have your position. I'm not mad at you.
But if I believe that... Let me... My wife and I. I have a jacket that is obviously gray. My wife for years has told me that it is green. We have never said, you know what?
You see green. And I see gray. And the jacket is gray to me and green to you. And that's both true. We've never done that. Do you know why?
Because that jacket actually exists and is an actual color. Gray. And I pray for my wife that her eyes will get better. But we have continually... And she tells me that I don't know how to see. But it's like we continually point back and say, no, it's one or the other.
I was reading a book recently. And the guy's preface to the book, he wrote it to a friend of his. And he said, to my dear friend, who I believe most everything you believe is ridiculous and bad. And he said, and this has been the basis of a very good friendship. And he said, there's something to a good manly disagreement that has been the basis of our friendship. And I hope it never goes away.
And honestly, we've lost some of that. We've lost the ability to say, this is true. This is where I stand. I'm not mad at you, but I do disagree. And we've been told, keep your opinions to yourself. Don't share your religion with anybody.
Don't... Look, nonsense. If you're a Christian, you believe that this epic story we just told a second ago, it's true that people are destined for hell, but have a Savior who's paid for their sin and their debt. And we're called to tell them. We're supposed to see people baptized. We're supposed to see people come to know Jesus.
And we're supposed to do that now. We're supposed to actively, openly rebel against hell now. One of the goals and missions of our community groups is to be people that represent God to the world and actively, openly rebel against sin, rebel against the evil that is in the world, and fight for good and fight for holiness and point people to Jesus. One of the things that I pray on a regular basis, for people that I know aren't Christians but I'm not around a lot, when I get around them, I'll pray, you know, God, use me, help me to have good conversations with them, whatever. One of the things I pray for them, especially if they live in another place, is I'll pray, God, use your church.
Make Christians move in as their neighbors. God, give that Christian the courage and the boldness to harass this person every time they see them. God, use your church. God, send them Christian co-workers who love them and won't quit talking to them and won't quit chasing after them and won't quit sharing the gospel. God, use your church. And you know what I hope?
I hope that there's a mama who's like 85. And I hope and pray that every day she gets on her face before Jesus, four states away, and she prays for my neighbors and she prays for me. I hope every day she lays on her face and says, Jesus, chase my son down. Jesus, chase my daughter down and use your church. And I hope God has placed me there specifically to use me for his glory and to answer that lady's prayers. I hope in your classroom there's someone sitting two seats in front of you whose mom and grandparents every day lay on their face before the throne of God and say, send your church.
Use your people to proclaim the gospel that my son and my daughter and my granddaughter might believe. You see, let me ask you a question. Your neighbor's been sharing the gospel with you? Your co-workers been sharing the gospel with you? Have your friends at school been sharing the gospel with you? Do you know why God put you there?
Because he's using his church to infiltrate this world because it's his plan to redeem the world. It's to grab a people and say, you're going to represent me to the world and I'm going to use you to proclaim this gospel. The gospel's already happened. Sin's already defeated. But people got to know, we as a church should see people baptized because we should be opening our mouths and telling people about Jesus, that they need to repent of sin, that they need to place their faith in Jesus, and that he's the only way to God.
That, as John says, that those who would believe in his name, he gave the right to be called children of God. We're not all children of God. Those who believe in Jesus are children of God. Everybody's created by God, but we're not all his children. And honestly, I hope this is offensive. And our culture says, well, that's offensive.
You shouldn't say that your viewpoint is better. It's like, I don't care. I believe it. And I hope it's offensive enough to lead people to repent. I hope it's shocking enough so that my neighbors will turn away from sin. 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.
Okay. I love that it says observe, and I love that he says that I commanded you. Do you know what you need to do to make disciples? Be a disciple. Teach them to observe all that I commanded you, which means bring them in with you. He said this to 11 guys.
They heard this individually, but they knew the mission wasn't individualistic because Jesus had them together all the time. They weren't supposed to each go out and conquer the world on their own. They were given a team. And he says, proclaim the gospel and then teach them to observe. Show them what it's like. Follow actively after me.
And he says, all that I've commanded you. What did he command them? Love God with all their heart. Love their neighbor as themselves. Love their enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.
Oh, love the... I just want to point this out to y'all. Jesus says to love your neighbor as yourself. Okay. To love your enemies. And to especially love the church.
Who's excluded? He tricked us. Love your neighbor and your enemy. Everybody else falls in the middle. And then he says, and also love the church more special. More double special love.
He's like, okay. Like we're called to show people what he's like through the way we love them, through the way we serve them. He also says, deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. That everything belongs to Jesus. I love how unequivocal his call is throughout the gospels.
People are like, hey, I'll follow you, but let me go do this. And he's like, no. And it's like, whoa. Take it easy. Apparently you think you're something really special. Yes.
I think I'm God. Very special. Like that's, that's really like throughout the Bible. He just shows up to people's workplace. He's like, hey. Two second notice.
Give it to your boss. Let's go. That's, we're supposed to follow him with everything. That our wallets, that our time, that our efforts, that our energy, that our jobs, that our relationships belong to Jesus. Period. That's what a disciple looks like.
Period. These guys had jobs. They had things. But Jesus says, no, follow me. Now, for some of us, going means go to your job. Jesus put you there on purpose.
Some of it, it means quit your job and go to another country. Learn another language. Live your life pursuing the glory and the fame of Jesus because currently you're just pursuing the glory and the fame of you. You see that the undercurrent of our rebellion against God was that we were supreme. That's why Jesus comes in and says, deny yourself. Because he's reversing that.
We're not supreme. He is. So, that we would be disciples who make disciples. That's the call. Jesus says, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. This is it.
It's all about Jesus. This is the call to the church. And guess what? It's worked. Plan A has worked. These 11 guys see the most rapid growth in any kind of organized belief system ever.
And it's traveled through Europe. And it's traveled through Asia. And it's taking names in China right now. And it's traveled through Africa and South America and the United States. And Jesus' church has continued to expand and to grow. And here's the thing.
We've gotten really comfortable. But this is our call. This is why we're Christians. This is what he's called us to do. He saved us to proclaim his excellencies and to make us into a group of people that would follow after him, making sure everybody else comes to know Jesus. If you're a Christian, you believe this story.
That our major problem is that we've removed God from his position, mostly placed ourself there, and that all of us are destined for an eternity, either set free from sin or absolutely completely engulfed in it, engulfed in the wrath and the havoc that sin wreaks on our souls. And God has saved you to proclaim his excellencies to your friends, to your family, to your coworkers, to your neighbors. And honestly, if they don't like it, if they don't like you, love them enough to not care. This is our call. This is what we're supposed to do. Two questions.
Are you a disciple? You following after Jesus? Does he own your time? Does he own your wallet? Does he own your life goals? Have you signed a blank sheet of paper and slid it across the table?
Said you fill it out? I'm yours? Question two. You making disciples? That's what we're called to do. When was the last time you told somebody about Jesus?
One of the things I think we think a lot of times is like, well, I'm not good enough. I don't know enough. I'm not far along enough. If you were going to help me go up a mountain and you were at the top of the mountain and just yelled instructions at me, I would get eaten by a bear and it would be your fault. Part of the best way to lead me up a mountain is to be two steps ahead of me so that you can see the bear first. And take off running.
Like that's one of the ways we make disciples is I just know a little bit more. Like I just, I'm just fumbling through this with you, but I'm trying to follow Jesus in normal life too. You know what I love about this call that Jesus gives? He starts it off with, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Jesus gives this call after the cross.
Every time I read this, I feel terrible. Every time I read the Great Commission, I'm like, I'm such a horrible person. I don't love people enough. I don't believe this enough. I don't trust God enough. I don't have enough faith.
Jesus gives us this after the cross where he's already paid for all of our weakness and all of our doubt and all of our rebellion and all of our lack of faith. And he calls us in his authority and in his presence to just be a part of his mission. You don't need to feel guilty. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. You don't need to feel terrible or scared. Like all of his authority and all of his presence, you just get to go.
Well, that's the hope we have in Jesus. But that's the point of the church. It's one of the reasons we focus on groups so much because we think it's the best way to make disciples. If we come up with another one, we'll talk about groups. We'll talk about something else. If we realize our church isn't making disciples, if we go through stages where we're not baptizing believers, if we're not helping train up leaders, if we're not multiplying groups, I'll actively work to shut this down.
If we quit proclaiming the gospel, this is what we're called to do. This is our job. This is our goal. This is our hope. We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, died in our place for our sins so that we don't have to be good. Do you know how good that news is?
Do you know how terrible we are? How little we deserve? And how much we take the little bit of piddly mess that we have and prance around with it in front of God and act like He owes us something? And Jesus took everything and paid for our sin to welcome us to Him, and we're free. And then He says, go share this. Go share this hope and this life and this joy and this, my glory and my holiness with everybody else because they're all running around trying to fix themselves.
They're all running around with no hope whatsoever trying to win a losing game. Do you know how good the gospel is to your soul? How freeing it is when you think about it, when you remember it, when you meditate on it? Why on earth would we not want to share that with our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers? If you believe the gospel is burdensome, you don't believe the gospel. Someone has told you something wrong.
I would love to talk to you afterwards and explain to you very clearly how ineffective you will be at saving yourself. I can say it now. Very unaffected. Ineffective. Unaffected isn't a word. Somebody help me out, y'all.
Band's going to come back up. We're going to sing. When we leave from Sundays, I think sometimes we say stuff like, you're dismissed. That's not really true. You're sent. You see, we exist as the church on mission.
That's our call. And I pray that we believe the gospel so much as a church family that we don't care if our culture thinks we're offensive because we believe that it's true. And I pray that we believe the gospel so much that Jesus so grabs our souls that we can't help but in his authority and with his presence help other people come to know Jesus. I want you to take a minute and think about the places God has placed you because you've been sent. You've been equipped by his Holy Spirit. You've been given the gospel information, the knowledge that you need and the faith and the hope of Jesus and you've been sent.
And I want you to think about the people around you who don't know Jesus. And if you're here today and you don't know Jesus, maybe you haven't picked this up yet. That's all we want for you. I want Jesus for you. I've had friends before at work and they're like, oh, you want me to become a Christian? It's like, yeah, that'd be great.
That's exactly what I want. That's kind of one of the reasons that I will harass you forever. That's what I want. I want you to become a Christian. I think it's great. We're unashamed of the fact that Jesus saves and that he redeems and that he makes us holy.
I stand before God, holy and blameless and above reproach, Colossians says. I didn't do that. I actively every day do things to undo that. But Jesus did it and it's done forever. And that's my hope and that's our hope and that we've been called, we've been commissioned. God's taken a group of people and he said, you're going to represent me to the world.
So let's do that. God, we pray that you would empower us for your mission, that you would use our groups for your glory, that people would come to know you. There would never be a significant amount of time before we have to rebuild that portable baptistry and baptize people in your name. And I pray that we would be active in calling people to observe everything that you've commanded, that we would be disciples and make disciples. That you would empower that in us, that we would accept the call that you gave to your original disciples as we continue in that line of people who've believed in your name, who've been called out of darkness and into your glorious light.
We would proclaim your excellencies as the people called to represent you on earth. God, I pray that you would help us to submit everything to you. Most of all, our own names, our own glory, our own fame, our own happiness, all the things that we seek to fill ourselves up, that we would know that hope and joy and fulfillment only come through you. God, I pray that you'd send us exactly where you want us to use your church to see more people come to know you. I pray that there's a large section of people in Columbia in heaven because this church exists. People in West Columbia that get to gather together and celebrate that you equipped and sent Mill City Church to be a part of this city, to see people come to know you.
We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
May 22
Everyday Mission
Transcript
G'day everyone, my name is Raz. This morning we're turning to our last chapter of Anchor Series. If you've been with us for the last little while, you'll know that we're talking about what it is that anchors us as a church. What it is that we turn to, what it is that makes us foundationally a church, and what we believe and how we believe the church functions as we're out in the world. And if you've ever seen anything that we've ever printed, t-shirts, cards, giant banners, you'll see that we use the phrase, a gospel-centered community on mission all the time. For the first five weeks of this series, we've talked about what it means to be gospel-centered.
The first three weeks, we've talked about gospel-centered. The next two weeks, we've talked about what it means to be community. And today we're kind of turning to what it means to be on mission. But immediately we've run into this problem when it comes to the word mission. And that's that lots of different people use a different definition of the word mission, particularly when it comes to the church. This is kind of common in English language in general, and particularly for me, miscommunication based on wording.
I'm from Australia, and I live in America, and so I say things different, and I get in trouble all the time. For example, if I learn something for the first time, or something makes sense for the first time, I might accidentally, this would be wrong, but I might accidentally say, ah, I just joined the dots in my head. Everyone knows you don't join dots in America. You connect dots in America. And for someone to suggest that joining is the same as connecting in this country is craziness. Similar confusions can also get you in trouble sometimes.
In America, you have a kind of footwear that is commonly referred to as the flip-flop. In Australia and other areas of the country, other areas of this country and other areas of the world, it's not called a flip-flop, it's called a thong. This can get you in trouble at times if you're not careful. Hypothetically speaking, and I'm not saying that this happened to me, but it might have, you might be away on a youth camp with a bunch of teenagers, explain a card game to them in which one of the rules is that when something happens, you remove your thong and slap the person next to you with it, and suggest that you are going to do that repeatedly to a 15-year-old.
It could happen to anyone. I'm not saying it happened to me. It was obviously a friend of mine. But the main problem that we have with this word mission is that different people use the same word to mean a bunch of different things. There's some people who think that mission means overseas. You've got to be out of here.
You can't be in America because that's not mission. You've got to go to China. You've got to go to Russia. You've got to go to Belarus, wherever that is. You can't do it here. You've got to be somewhere else.
And some people say that's trash. That's not the truth. What you've got to do is cross a cultural barrier. That would be talking to Chinese people who are here in America or talking to people who don't speak English. If you speak Spanish and you speak in Hispanic neighborhoods about the gospel, that would be mission. But other people say, no, that's trash as well.
Every time you leave your house and talk about Jesus, you're on mission. Some people say there's like this umbrella category of mission and evangelism is under that. But some people say, no, that's trash. There's an umbrella category of evangelism and mission is under that. And some people say missions and some people say mission and they get confused between the two of them because they're two separate things. And so you could be on a mission trip, but refer to it as a missions trip and people think you're weird.
And you're just like, I don't know if it's missions or mission. The problem is there's too many different people in the world who use the word to mean different things. There's too many definitions. So this morning, we're going to be looking pretty specifically at what Jesus said about it, what Jesus said about mission. And we're going to look at the great commission that he sent his church to accomplish. Ultimately, though, God himself has his own mission.
And that is to bless all of humanity, all of creation, to bless all nations and bring them back, reconcile them, bring them back to himself. And he does that through his son, Jesus Christ, who he sent to pay the penalty for our sins, to reconcile us to him. And then Jesus himself invites us into that work and sends us out into the world to continue it. And we're going to look at Jesus' words today on that topic and how that applies to us here in Columbia, South Carolina. Let's pray.
Father God, we praise you and we thank you for the work that you've done in Jesus Christ on our behalf. And we thank you that you've given us a mission. We thank you that you've trusted us with that mission. And we pray that we can do it to your glory for the rest of our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, if you've got a Bible, go ahead and open to Matthew 28.
If you've got one of these blue ones, it is on page 542. It's right at the end of the book of Matthew. If you get to Mark, you've gone too far. This is the very last little paragraph in the Gospel of Matthew. At this point in time, Jesus has come to the earth. He's been born as a baby in Bethlehem.
He's lived the first 30 years of his life. Then he was sent out and he preached the word for three years. He gathered disciples to him, preached. Then he died and he resurrected three days later, proving that he was God. And then we're going to step into the story in that period of time between when he was risen from the dead and before he ascended back into heaven. This is right in that period of time.
This is from chapter 28, verse 16. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, this is the Great Commission, 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 I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
Jesus, he comes out swinging. He makes his point hard and fast. He says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. I'm the boss man. And so when you're at work and the boss man comes out and says, I'm your boss. I have the authority here.
You know he's about to say something that you have to do. And he's allowed to do that because he's got authority and you don't. Jesus comes out swinging. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. It means that whatever comes next is pretty important and he expects us to do it. But it's also really encouraging because he says, I'm Jesus.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. You are my disciples. Go out and make disciples. Let's read. The Great Commission. It says, 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 the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. It doesn't really leave a whole lot of room. His command is, make disciples. Make disciples of everyone. It says, make disciples of all nations. It's a translation from a Greek word, ethne, which really means ethnicities, all people groups.
It's not just saying all nations that we've given names to and have territories. It's not saying China, Russia, England, France. It's saying all people, all people groups. Everyone. Make disciples of everyone. And that's really it.
When it comes down to it, that's the basis for what we're talking about when we use the word mission. The mission is to make disciples. Make disciples of everyone. And the cool thing for the guys that Jesus is talking to is that they were his disciples. He's gathered his disciples together and said, go and make disciples. He's perfectly modeled to them for the last three years what it looks like to make disciples.
And then he sends them out and says, go and do for other people what I've been doing for you. Now, when we make disciples, what we're really doing is making followers of Jesus. That's what a disciple is. It's a follower of Jesus. It's taking someone who doesn't know Jesus and introducing them. But it's also taking people who do know Jesus and giving them next steps towards Jesus as well.
So they might already know him, but not be very good at knowing him. And we just need to teach them some more things about him and how that's involved in life as well. And we push people baby steps towards Jesus. And that's what it means to make disciples. Now, it might not seem super logical to us in the English translation. It is logical.
It's really logical once you understand the basis of how this works. In Greek, and if you want to geek out with me, I love this kind of junk later. So we can talk about this. In Greek, there is main verbs and supporting verbs. It doesn't work the same in English. We usually rely on sentence structure and word order.
But in Greek, there's main verbs and supporting verbs. And so in this sentence, the main verb is make disciples. And then all the supporting verbs tell you how to do that. So we're commanded, make disciples, and then told what it is you could do in order to make disciples. And we're told the other three verbs, the supporting verbs, are go, baptize, and teach. That's how you make disciples.
As you go, you baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And you teach to obey all that Jesus has commanded. Let's look at go. What does it mean to go? Here's what it looks like. As we make disciples, we go.
It's not saying pick up your bags and leave. Go. Get out of here. It's saying as you go, as you go about life, as you go about daily life, as you go about your rhythms, as you go to work, as you go to school, make disciples of everyone. It's inherently movement-oriented. It doesn't imply that you can stay and do nothing.
You are supposed to go. But some people have twisted this word go. It's what causes most of the confusion with the Great Commission and what it means to be in missions in general. Some people say when it says go and make disciples of all nations, that's why you've got to get out of here. That's why, because he says go all nations. It's like, it makes a lot of sense to leave and go to another country.
But actually he's saying as you go about your daily business, be making disciples wherever you are. This is when definitions become important. And this is where I want to help us out a little bit by clarifying all the different types of missions. And I think all it usually needs is a helping word. Because people say the word mission and think of a bunch of different things, when if they had have just clarified, it would have made a whole lot more sense from the beginning. So let's clarify.
Let's talk when it means to go and make disciples of all nations, and you're thinking of get out of this country, go to another country, be a missionary, which is a perfectly legitimate life, a perfectly legitimate way to be in obedience to Jesus, to get out of this country, to go to China and make disciples over there. That's perfectly legitimate. Let's call that overseas mission. Let's call that overseas mission. And it immediately cuts the confusion. Overseas mission is when you leave your country to go to another country and make disciples there.
It's perfectly legitimate. But the thing is, the Great Commission is bigger than overseas mission. The Great Commission is bigger than that. Then there's another group of people that say, when it says go and make disciples of all nations, that's quite easy in the U.S. because all the nations have come here. Australia has come here. Chinese students have come here.
Indians have come here. Lots of Hispanic-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Hispanic countries, people have come here. It's easy to make disciples of all nations right here. And what they're talking about is what we're going to clarify as cross-cultural ministry. Taking the word to people from another area so that you can empower them to reach people from their area and the gospel spreads cross-culturally. Let's call that cross-cultural mission.
But the Great Commission is bigger than that as well. It's perfectly legitimate. Take the gospel. Go, all nations. Perfectly legitimate. But it's not the end.
It's not the end. Let's call what the majority of us aim for. What is also perfectly legitimate within the Great Commission. Let's call what we do everyday mission. That's what we're aiming to do. Everyday mission.
And the thing is, not everyone is called to overseas mission. Not everyone is called to cross-cultural mission. But everyone, if you call yourself a believer, is called to everyday mission. It's without exclusion. If you're a Christian, if you're a disciple, if you call yourself a Christ follower, you're constantly hanging on the word of God for truth, for life, for sustenance, for direction in life. Your job now is to make disciples of all nations.
And you can do that just here. It's to make disciples of everyone in daily life, in the normal goings about of what you do in your daily life. Make disciples. So this includes everything. The only thing that it really excludes, and exclusions are annoying, but the only thing it really excludes is laziness and apathy. So that would be 14 hours of binge Netflix by yourself, home alone, secluded from the world.
Video games until 4 a.m. by yourself. Maybe talking to people on a headset, but that's not the same. Beating people is not fun like that. The only thing that's excluded in going to all people is not going to anybody. So what does this really mean?
What are we supposed to do? What's the structure? How do we do the next thing? Well, the next instruction is baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Interesting you should mention that. Shameless plug.
We are having a baptism party in a couple of weeks. A baptism is what happens, what we do when a person who doesn't believe in Jesus becomes a believer in Jesus and publicly declares to friends and family and anyone who's there, I am now a person who completely trusts in Jesus Christ as my Savior and my Lord. And then we grab them by the face and power dunk them in water and lift them up again and we cheer because Christians are fun. And grabbing people by the face and almost drowning them is fun. Don't almost drown them. You get to hold your breath.
It symbolizes the death to the old life, the cleansing by Jesus, and then the raising to new life. And we do that as a representation of the work that Jesus has done, but also a public declaration of faith so that everyone in our family and our friends and in our lives know that we believe in Jesus. And we're commanded to do that. That's the second step in what it means to make disciples. It's beautiful. The last instruction says, teach them to observe everything that I've commanded.
This one, this one's a process. This is not like on the checklist of how do I make a disciple. Tick, done, tick, done, baptized, good, taught everything about Jesus. Tick, done. It's not like that. It can't be done so simply.
This is pretty much what we've been talking about for the last five weeks. It is teaching each other all that Jesus commanded is gospel fluency. It's speaking Jesus into every life situation whenever it comes up. It's repenting from our idolatry. It's understanding that we need to live in the context of relationships with other people. It's beating the gospel into our head repeatedly.
It's grabbing other people's heads and beating the gospel into their heads repeatedly. It's repenting and growing in community and teaching each other all that Jesus has commanded us to obey. It's a lifelong process that we do in the context of a gospel-centered community. And that's exactly what we've been talking about for the last five weeks. And so that's it. That's the mission.
That's what we're called to do. Make disciples. Make followers of Jesus out of everybody. As you go, we make disciples of everyone. We baptize them. And we walk with them in the context of community to teach them everything that Jesus has commanded.
That's the Great Commission. That's our mission. That's what it means to be a gospel-centered community on mission. And it seems like a heavy burden. Like a giant task. Make disciples of all nations.
It seems out of reach. It seems so intangible. Like you can't just touch it and feel it and do it. It's out of our reach. But notice how Jesus bookends the Great Commission.
If you look down, he says, He begins with, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus has unlimited power to do as he pleases. Then he gives us the Great Commission. He says, Make disciples of all people. And then he says, And I am with you until the end of the age. We're not alone in this.
Especially if we do things in the context of community. We have teammates around us. You're sitting next to your teammates now. But also, Jesus is in us, in our teammates, in our communities, working his miracle magic to allow us to transform lives. You're not alone in this. And so, the burden is not so big.
What does this mean for us? What does it mean for us in Columbia, South Carolina? How do we make disciples? Well, you probably don't feel like a massive world changer. The normal structure of a day is wake up, make breakfast, shower, go to work, eight hours there, boring, go home, maybe stop at the grocery store to pick up some groceries, maybe work out if you're anyone but me. You might make dinner, eat dinner, watch some TV for a little bit, and go back to bed.
There's next day, same thing again. There's not a whole lot of time within that structure for world changing, for disciple making, for all the nations and all that jazz. So, what is it that we can do in the context of that? Well, it seems like making disciples is the job of someone else. Full-time pastors, full-time missionaries, people who get paid to do that kind of thing. Not necessarily true, or at least not as far as Jesus is concerned in the Great Commission.
Here's what's different about you, and here's what's different about your life. If you're a part of the church, if you're part of this church, if you're part of any church, then you're part of Jesus' plan. And if you're part of Jesus' plan, then he has empowered you with his mission to go and make disciples of all nations. And if you're sitting here today, you're surrounded by teammates on all sides. If you're sitting here today, you're surrounded by teammates. If you're in a community group, you're surrounded by teammates who all want the same things as you do, which is to make disciples of all nations.
And you have Jesus' promise that he will be with you till the end of the age. And he's there with you, and there with your community group, and that he has entrusted you with the message of the gospel, and there is nothing insignificant about that or your life. There's nothing insignificant about that. When you drive around Columbia, and I assume if you're here, most of you have driven around Columbia a good bit. If you drive around Columbia, do you see a city that is completely and utterly wrecked and transformed by the saving power of Jesus and his grace? I know when I drive around, that's not exactly what I think about.
When I moved here about two and a half years ago, I was coming here to go to CIU, a school just here in Columbia, and there was some vague statistics about the city on the website. They say that there's between 600,000 and 700,000 people, which I assume now that I'm here kind of includes the surrounding areas, and that there's 800 churches within that area. And my mind was blown. I'm from Sydney. There's like 800 churches in Sydney and 15 times that population. And so I was like, man, that's awesome.
This city is going to be amazing. It's going to be like the evangelical Vatican. There's going to be amazing angels singing on every corner. And then I got here, and I didn't have a car for a while, but when I got a car, I started driving around. And I was like, man, what are all these 800 churches doing? What's going on in this place?
And I stayed here for a bit, and not too long after I was here, the city tried to make homelessness illegal. What? This is a city with 800 churches, and they're trying to make poverty a crime? What? What? And then you learn a little bit more about the culture.
I didn't go out a whole lot, but you know that there's areas that you're not supposed to go at night. Everyone knows this. You don't go over there at night because, you know, guns. And I'm like, what? This is a city with 800 churches. That's like a church for every 900 people.
What's going on? And then I learned the most shocking statistic of all, and that's that there's seven Moes in this city and only three Chipotles. How on earth is anyone supposed to live in hope when Moes more than double a Chipotle in any given city? Crippling statistics. But seriously, what would it look like?
What would it look like in Colombia if every street, if every street had a gospel-centered community on it? It doesn't have to be a Mill City-sponsored community group. It can be any church. It can be any group of believers. What would it look like if this city had a gospel-centered community on every street or in every office building or a factory or school, if they had a gospel-centered community on every sports team? The city would be rocked and it would change everything.
What would it look like if people everywhere you turned, when you went to Walmart, when you went to get groceries, when you go to the downtown Soda City markets, what would it look like if everywhere you looked was people empowered by the Spirit to love, forgive, repent, and show mercy like Jesus did? We would be living in a very different-looking city. Here's our plan. If you're a note-taker, this is a good time to start taking notes. Here's our plan. Step number one.
Start by being you with all your interests, with all your desires, with all the things that you like. Start by being you, as a Christian, in love with Jesus. Start by being you, as a Christian, in love with Jesus. That's what we call being gospel-centered. Step number two is get in a community group. A community group is a group of people who are doing step number one.
A community group is a group of people who are being themselves, as a Christian, in love with Jesus. And they do it together. That's called being a gospel-centered community. Step number three. Go out into your life and invite people who don't know Jesus to do things with your community group. That's called being a gospel-centered community on mission.
Step number four, and this is the easiest one, it should go without saying, let Jesus do his thing. Jesus in the Great Commission says, and surely I will be with you until the end of the age. He's going to be there. He's going to be helping. Let Jesus fulfill his promise. You do what you've been called to do and let Jesus do what he said he's going to do.
And that's, he's going to change people. He's going to transform people. If you think it's your job to do that, you're wrong. Your job is to show them the gospel. As we go about our daily lives, we invite those we encounter to hang out with our community group and take next steps towards Jesus. That's what it means to make disciples of everyone.
But what does that look like for the church in general? What does it look like for churches out in the world? There's two main kind of categories, two main strategies that exist for churches and how they operate. The first one is what we're going to call a come and see mentality. Come and see the church. This is any church that typically has like, their main mode of operation is the Sunday service, the Sunday gathering.
Come and see what we have to show you. You've got to come to our event, our thing, our building. Come to us and we'll show you how to live, whatever that looks like. American culture has taken this to the extreme. They've kind of exploded it. You can watch it on TV.
You can watch it on the internet. You could go to an actual church building and still watch it on TV. You could hang out with laser beams and fog machines and like professional musicians and it's this big thing of come and see. Come and see what we've got to show you. That's one mode of operation. The second mode of operation is what we're going to call go and be the church.
So it's no longer come and see the church, it's go and be the church. Now if you haven't guessed, our primary mode is not come and see the church. And if you're here today and that's what you were thinking, then this is it. It's not the best thing in the world. It's okay. But we believe that we're primarily called to go and be the church.
And if you haven't experienced that before, it's actually, for us at least, a lot better than this. If you're here today and you're just coming to see the church, then you're actually missing out. And we're called to go and be the church. And to go and be the church, it means leaving here today and not thinking the church is over. Because church isn't just Sunday morning, church is Monday night. It's Tuesday at lunchtime.
It's Thursday when you hang out with your group. It's Friday when you walk the dog with friends from your community group. It's Saturday when you go and play with your Frisbee disc golf club or whatever you do on Saturday morning, Saturday night. Family doesn't cease to be family when they leave your house after dinner. And for some reason, we think that church does when we leave here. That's not true.
Church family exists all the time. We're called to go and be the church. Well, what do we do with this then? Who is the target audience, for lack of a better word? Who's this mission for? Who do I take it to?
Well, my question is, who are you already around? Who are you already around? Let's think specifically and practically about this. I think, I think there's two main categories, two main categories of people in our lives that this would include. There's friends without hope and there's strangers without hope. Let's talk first about friends without hope.
This is people you already know. This is not necessarily friends, but colleagues, workmates, family members, people who you're on a first name basis with have had conversations with before. This is friends without hope. It's not strangers without hope. What do we do with our friends that we already know who don't have hope? Well, it's actually pretty simple.
After all, you're a pretty normal person. Your friends are pretty normal. Hanging out with you wouldn't be torture, I don't think. It could be. You don't have to be weird and creepy about your faith. You don't have to slam Bible verses down people's throats all the time.
You get to be you in love with Jesus. Granted, you're in love with Jesus. You get to be you and do normal things anyway. And in the context of friendship, you can show other people what it means to be a Christian. Here's an example. You might work Monday to Friday.
You've got a nine-to-five Job. You work Monday to Friday. You don't know everyone there, but you know most of the people there. Actually, there's this one lady there who annoys you quite a bit. She's pretty annoying. And the annoying thing about annoying people is how annoying they are, which can be frustrating.
And frustration springs from annoyingness. And I'm a master of being annoying, but I hate being annoyed. And she's an annoying person, which is annoying. Annoying. Annoying. Annoying.
Am I being annoying? That's the goal. Never mind. There's this annoying person at work. You don't know a lot about her. You don't want to know a whole lot about her.
You kind of just wish she would leave you alone, but you're stuck with her for eight hours a day. You do know one thing about her. She loves her dog. She doesn't have photos of kids and family up and around her desk. She's got photos of her dog. You know this lady is crazy about that dog.
And so you think, huh, how am I going to reach this lady? You go to your community group. You hate dogs, obviously, because you're an intelligent person. But you know there's some unintelligent people in your community group who like dogs as well. So you go to your community group and you say, community group, does anyone like dogs?
Does anyone want to start like a Saturday morning dog walking thing? And they say, yeah, sure, why not? And boom, perfect. You've got this avenue to invite this annoying lady from work to hang out with Christians. And the best thing about it is that once she gets involved, assuming she does, once she probably does, she likes her dog, once she gets involved, you get to put her in a group with your friends who get to do all the heavy lifting for you. You no longer have to deal with her.
Your friends do because they can bond over the dog thing. She'll probably rock up with her dog in like one of those tote bags for the walk. It might be weird, but you can get over that. People are weird. The heavy lifting is done by others. All you've really done is orchestrated a situation where someone that you know, a friend without hope, is hanging around with Christians doing things that they like doing.
Here's another example. You have a friend, he's a guy, he's been not around Jesus for a while. He's grown up in church, thinks he knows some stuff, but at some point in time, you don't really know what happened. He got burned by the church, doesn't really trust Christians, doesn't really trust the church anymore, doesn't hang around with anyone. You've invited him a few times, you've said, hey, come hang out with us on Sundays, and he's just not biting on that. He doesn't like that idea.
The thought of being around Christians, being judged, he's got some things that he's ashamed of, he doesn't really want to buy into anything like that, and you think, dang, hitting a wall. And then, one of the guys in your community group says, hey, let's all get together and shoot guns at a range, and you think, bing, perfect, he's a guy, guys like shooting guns, at least around here they do. And you think, this is perfect. I'm going to invite him to come and shoot guns. And he bites. You say, hey, do you want to come and hang out with some of my friends and shoot guns all morning?
And he says, yes, obviously. And all you've done is orchestrated a situation where a friend without hope gets to hang out with friends who know Jesus, and he gets to see that they're not that weird after all. He gets to see that they're just normal people who love Jesus and go about their lives in light of the fact that they love Jesus. It's not, you don't have to be a weird guy who dresses up in a suit and puts his bow tie on and carries a clipboard and a huge Bible and knocks on people's doors and says, would you like to know Jesus today? I mean, you could. There's no way to make friends.
Instead, orchestrate situations with your current friends your community group mainly where you can invite other friends easily to that and they're going to say yes because who doesn't want to shoot guns and walk dogs? One of the biggest hurdles for people becoming Christians is that they don't know what Christians look like. They think that you're weird Bible-thumping, praying, sitting in a circle, holding hands, singing Kumbaya. You could do that. That's weird. You're just you being in love with Jesus, doing it in the context of your community group.
And you get to do that and do fun things and invite people in. That's called being a gospel-centered community on mission. Dog walking, fishing, crafts, coffee, breakfast, football, soccer, which is actually football, frisbee, Pinterest parties, painting each other's nails, jams. Yeah. I know you ladies know what jams are and if you're a married man you probably know what jams are as well. I know you ladies love that stuff.
Invite your friends to that. It's fun. Jams, everyone. When you and your community group have this great commission outlook, every day is full of disciple-making moments. When you and your community group have this great commission outlook, every day is full of disciple-making moments. We meet people where they're at and we allow them to see Jesus through us and our community groups.
Now let's turn to that second group, the group called Strangers Without Hope. This is the category of people that you don't know. This is someone who when you saw them on the street you would not know their name or anything about them. Strangers Without Hope. I think, and I think I'm right in this because I think it, I think that the most underutilized, most overlooked, most underthought, most duh kind of people group that would fit this category in our lives is our neighbors. And it's interesting to me because I remember this guy called Jesus who said, the greatest command is to love God and love your neighbors.
But I know you guys, I know you're Bible scholars and academics and when he says that, he's not saying you're actual neighbors, he's saying love everyone, which is great because for some reason that means we get to ignore our actual neighbors. Despite the fact that he said the words love your neighbors. It cannot not mean neighbors when he says love your neighbors, even if he means love everyone. I've been reading this book recently, it's called The Art of Neighboring. My wife and I are planning to move into apartment community soon and we're just reading a bunch of things that's involved in that and how to make friends with your neighbors.
I've been reading this book called The Art of Neighboring and they have this diagnosis test in the book. It looks like this, it's a three by three grid, the middle square represents your house and so you put your name in your house. There's eight other squares around that and they represent the houses of the eight geographically closest houses to your house. So it's not Bob who lives down the street and three houses down around the corner, it's the eight closest people to your current house. The diagnosis test is this, step one, write the names of your eight closest neighbors. Write all their names in the boxes, each one represents another house.
Step number two, in the middle of the box, write some basic thing about those people. It can't be an observation that you could see from the street, it can't be that he drives a red car or that he gets up at seven in the morning to go to work, it has to be he's a carpenter, he likes fishing, something that you would only really know from a conversation, a basic level conversation, hey how are you going, picking up your mail, what do you like, that kind of thing. The third diagnosis, which you would write at the bottom, is some deeper level issue that's happening with that person at the time. Can't find a job, family member in hospital, that kind of thing, some deeper level something that's not just a basic conversation starter.
Now according to the book, and I think that these statistics are inflated, 10% of people can fill out the names of their closest eight neighbors. So in a room this size, it's probably seven or eight of us. And I think that's inflated. Maybe, I don't know. The second step, only 3% of people can fill out a basic something about those eight people. So in a room this size, that's maybe one or two.
Less than 1% can fill out an important something underlying life issue of all eight of their closest neighbors. Less than 1%. So in this room, it's probably zero. It might be, might not be, but it's probably zero. Now I'm not saying this to make you feel like a bad neighbor because I'm a bad neighbor as well.
I filled out three boxes and then guessed the name of the fourth box because I wasn't really sure. My point in this isn't that I'm good and that I know how to do this and you don't. My point is that none of us are really good at this anymore. And when it comes to this category of strangers without hope, our neighbors are an incredibly obvious one that we just don't put a whole lot of effort into. But what would it look like if Christians made a habit of getting to know their neighbors and caring for them, looking after their kids, helping them in times of need or even knowing when times of need exist.
Here's a crazy thought. Get your community group together. Throw a block party. They don't really exist anymore, but you can do it. Throw a block party. Invite ten of your closest neighbors.
How hard could it be? Set up a grill. Get some hamburgers grilling. Smoke up the area so that everyone can smell it down the street. Set up cornhole, can jam, frisbee, whatever you've got. Set it all out on the street.
Invite ten of your closest neighbors to come and hang out. And even if only three of them turn up, get to know them. Have the people in your community group. Get to know them and invite them to some stuff. Have a plan for what you're going to do the week after. Hey, we're all going fishing next week.
You want to come? Great. You know that field at the end of your street? Why not start a weekly soccer game there? Or t-ball game there? Or kickball game there?
Get all the kids from your neighborhood. If you don't have kids, don't do this. But if you've got kids, start up a regular game and you get to hang out with all these people from your neighborhood and it gets to be this regular rhythm that everyone gets to enjoy in the neighborhood. Why not start at work and get coffee with one person from work every Monday? Get to know them a little bit. Find out what they like doing.
Do something like that with them. Help the old lady next door taking her groceries. Take a buddy from work out to get wings. Get your group together and go to the markets. Either the nice ones downtown or the sketchy ones out on Augusta Road. Everyday mission is not as scary as it seems.
Making disciples of all nations doesn't have to be this heavy burden that we feel all of the time. It's not only for paid missionaries. It's not only for paid pastors. It's for us in the context of our community groups, our gospel centered communities who are out on mission. We can fulfill the great commission when we're intentional with the time that we already spend. It's not about freeing up time to make time to do this in excess.
We're already spending time anyway. Let's be intentional with the time that we already spend. We do it in the context of our gospel centered community. community, we have teammates who are there, surrounded by Jesus, who are able to help us out. So here's what we're going to do. Let me just explain everything and we're going to do it after I'm done explaining. Everyone should have a Mill City blue card.
If you don't have a blank one near you, you can get a blank one because there's some empty chairs. There's also some more at the back. Take out a blank card and take out a pen. We're going to write down the names of anyone who's come to mind throughout this entire time. Anyone who we know exists, who's a friend without hope. Write down anyone you work with who you want to reach with the gospel, who you want to invite to something.
Write down your neighbors. If you've got that annoying person at work, write that annoying person down. If there's a person that you don't like being around at work, write their name down. Then you're going to write down something that you know about that person next to it. It doesn't have to be important. It can be they like dogs.
It doesn't have to be super important. Write down whatever you can think of when it comes to that person. If the only thing you can think of is that they really annoy me, write that. Then we're going to spend some time praying for those people. We're going to play some house music and spend some time praying for those people. You can move around.
You can get people from your community group together. You don't have to stay where you are. And we're going to pray for those people. See if we can think up some kind of way to present to our community group that we can reach those people. Then on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, whenever you meet with your group, bring this list along.
This list is gold to your group. And in your group times, you get to talk about those people that you want to reach. You get to talk about things that you can do together, that you can make rhythms, fields that you can play soccer at, places you can walk your dog. Rangers where you can go shoot guns. You get to bring that list to your community group and brainstorm different ways that you as a group together can be a gospel-centered community on mission. So I'm going to pray.
We're going to play some music. Take some time to write some names down. Feel free to move around. And then after a few minutes have gone by, a chat's going to come up. This is it for us. We're going to spend time praying.
There's no more songs. Ted's going to come up later and close up with announcements and stuff, but this is what we're doing today. We're thinking about people that can be reached, people that we already know, things that they like doing, and we're going to pray for them. So I'm going to pray for us and then that's what we're going to do. Father God, we praise you and we thank you. We know that you can do immeasurably more than we expect, and we pray that you do that as a result of today.
And we know that you have the power to transform this city, and we pray that you use us to help do that. God, be showing us people in our lives that we can reach. Be showing us people in our lives who need hope. Teach us how to reach them and empower us with your mission. Pray that we can reach Columbia, that we can reach our friends, that we can reach our neighbors, and pray that you be with us until the end of the age as we do it. It's in your name we pray.
Amen.