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