Empowered for Mission

[0:00] Just to hear what Joe's going to bring today, because I know it's going to be good. And Joe, go for it, bro. Thank you. Am I on? Am I good? Yeah. Thank you so much, Jesse, for that.

[0:14] It is definitely a privilege and an honor to be here. Like Jesse said, I have known Jesse for quite a long time. He's really good friends, our best friends, with my brother-in-law.

[0:26] And they used to all live in a house together. There was like eight of them that lived in this house called the Bergante House. And I was in high school, and I would get to visit these eight guys living in this one big house.

[0:37] And there would be video games, and there would be concerts, and there would be all these fun things that would happen. And I remember the first time I met Jesse and Haley, they were, I think, engaged or dating at the time. And there was this lazy boy chair, and they were both like sitting in that lazy boy chair together, which is a very small seat already.

[0:53] And I remember thinking like, man, I can't wait until I start dating. Like, that's what it's going to be. And so from a young age, I've seen them to just really be an amazing couple, at least for us, single guys at that time.

[1:06] And also just an amazing marriage and parents that they are. Me and Roslyn talk quite frequently how much, how well they parent their children and how great their marriage is. And we really want to emulate that.

[1:17] And so we're really excited for that. My name is Joe. I've been married for going on 10 years. It's been an amazing adventure. It feels like it's been yesterday, and yet we fall in love more and more together every single day.

[1:30] We have a little girl you see kind of walking around. She probably took your pen or trying to take your coffee or something. She was adopted a couple months ago, about a month and a half ago.

[1:40] We got to adopt her, which is really exciting. Yeah. And so we are just over the moon that God has blessed us with such an amazing gift.

[1:51] And I remember when we were at the end of this process of adoption, and there was like one more father that could have been the father, and they're doing a DNA test. And I remember feeling this anxiety and overwhelmed.

[2:04] Like, God, please don't take her away. Please, just like, we want to keep her. And it was the hardest time of my life. And I remember just one time praying, and I felt like God said, this feeling that you have for this daughter that isn't biologically yours is the same feeling I want you to have for a church that you did not plant.

[2:25] And for the bride of Christ. And when we adopted her, there was this overwhelming feeling, and we've been blessed to be part of Freeway Church. And I'm blessed this morning to talk to you, a part of the bride that is not mine.

[2:39] Yet, I want to hold you closely in my heart as I speak to you. I have prepared, and I feel like God has given me a word for you. And I want to know that he is with us now.

[2:50] And so we're going to take a few moments. I'm just going to pray really quick and ask for God to open up our hearts as we receive this word. Lord, we are so overwhelmed by your goodness. You are so kind to us.

[3:07] We don't deserve it. We can't work for it. Yet you tell us just to rest and abide in you. So Lord, we do that now.

[3:22] We forget about what the week was like this last week. We just want to forget about our to-do list today or get ready for the rest of the work week coming up. We just rest and abide in you.

[3:36] Spirit, we need you. We are desperate. We honor you. We follow your lead. Give me the words to speak that would lead people to you.

[3:49] Lord, we pray against distractions. Pray against distractions with our phones or with our ideas or with our shame or guilt.

[4:01] We might come in with preconceived kind of motives of who you are or what we think you are. We just want to rest. So we rest in you in Jesus' name.

[4:18] Amen. If you have your Bibles, if you can turn with me to Matthew 9, verse 35. Matthew 9, verse 35. If you now have your Bibles, the scripture will be on the screens.

[4:31] We're going to kind of stay in this text and stay here for this morning. It's a really important text. It's a text that I feel like God has given me for you guys this morning.

[4:43] It's in Matthew 9, 35. And it says, And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

[4:56] When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few.

[5:12] Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into his harvest. We have this portion of scripture where Jesus is going to the cities and villages.

[5:24] He was going to both the crowded places and both the villages that no one else wanted to go. He went to the places that wasn't popular. He went to the places that didn't have, you know, the AMC movie theaters.

[5:37] He went to places like Havelock and these kind of areas where no one else wants to go. And he went there preaching the gospel, the good news, healing diseases.

[5:47] And he saw these groups of people, everyone had compassion on their hearts. And so he tells the disciples as they're on this journey, he says, there are tons of people who need to hear this good news.

[5:59] Pray. Pray for more people to come to share the gospel of what he's done in your hearts and what he's doing in our hearts to both the cities and the villages, both to the popular or the unpopular, both to those who have influence and both to those who are outcast.

[6:17] And this is what's happening. So Jesus comes, we're off the bat. We see that Jesus is living out the gospel everywhere. Well, what is the gospel? Well, he's confirming an Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah.

[6:28] But we see it in Luke 4 where Jesus opens the scroll and he says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

[6:40] This is what the gospel is for Jesus right now. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty for those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

[6:54] They've been waiting for a savior. They've been waiting for a king. And Jesus comes onto the scene and he says, I am coming to bring the good news that I am here to proclaim freedom for those who are oppressed this morning.

[7:07] And so Jesus is saying, we need to live a life of the gospel, be intentional everywhere we go. We see that he's teaching the good news, that he's proclaiming the good news, that he's healing diseases in the name of Jesus, which is the good news.

[7:21] And we know that Jesus was a carpenter. He was a son to parents. He was friends to people around him. Yet he was clear and intentional on how he lived and what his purpose and his mission was.

[7:32] And a question that we can ask ourselves this morning is, how are we living everywhere we go? What are we proclaiming at work, at the supermarket, as we're driving and someone cuts you off, to our friends?

[7:49] What would people say that is your clear motives and intentions as you live? And you may think, hold on, we're talking about Jesus, who is the God in flesh?

[8:03] Of course he had a purpose. Of course there was a clear intention of what he was called to. He was God. I'm just an average Joe. There's a, my name is Joe.

[8:16] And there's a big difference between me and Jesus, right? We're just a small town. We're not Jesus. And you're right that we're not Jesus coming to save the world.

[8:29] But let's see what the difference is. We see this in John 14, 12 through 14. Jesus is talking, he says, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do.

[8:41] Let's stop right there. So, we are not Jesus, but he says, Whoever believes in what I have done, you are also called to do the same thing. And he says that you're also called to do what I do, and greater works than these he will do, because I am going to the Father.

[8:56] And whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. So we get this clear picture of what we're called to do.

[9:07] We're called to live like Jesus. And he says, I have to go, and because you are going to be ambassadors of who I am, and you have the Spirit dwelt inside of you as a seal that he is yours, but as an empowerment to go and do far greater things that one man can do, he's sending out thousands and thousands and millions of people into a broken world.

[9:27] So you may be an average Joe this morning, you may be a small town amongst big cities and a bunch of agendas of everything around us, but you have a clear purpose of how you're supposed to live.

[9:42] If you believe in him, you're called to live out the gospel. Because of Jesus, we can live out the gospel everywhere like he did.

[9:54] And a question that I like to ask is, my generation is why, right? You used to get in trouble for asking why. When my mom told me to go throw out the trash, I would say, why? She would slap me.

[10:05] When she'd tell me to go do something, you know why? That's just the questions that we ask. That's a good question to ask why in this. Why should we go? Why should we live this way? Why should we believe in him?

[10:16] Why should we live like Christ did? What's the importance of it? Well, we see that Jesus had this clear purpose to come out and live the gospel, to proclaim liberty, to heal diseases, to teach the good news.

[10:30] And the reason why he did that is because we see in that first passage that we read that Jesus saw the people and he had compassion. He's seen people and he had compassion.

[10:41] And the question is, what did he see? Well, here it says, in this situation, that he saw lost people. He saw harassed people. And he saw people who were helpless.

[10:53] When Jesus looked at the cities and the villages ahead of him, he saw people like sheep without a shepherd. He saw people who were lost in the way that they were living.

[11:07] They were helpless, nowhere to go, stuck in their sin, in their shame, in their guilt. And when he saw them, there was a compassion that Jesus had.

[11:20] And maybe this morning you're feeling like, man, that's me. I feel helpless. I feel harassed. I feel lost this morning. People actually can see what's going on in my heart.

[11:32] That's who Jesus is talking about. That's me. And can I tell you that Jesus sees you this morning? And he has compassion for you? You know, we have this very skewed idea of God.

[11:47] That if we came to God with who we really are, that we really are lost and helpless and harassed. That he would somehow pull this blanket away from us and expose us and make us look funny in front of people.

[12:01] Or he would slap us across the face and be like an abusive father. But yet we see Jesus, who is part of the Godhead, come and show us how God the Father responds.

[12:12] And God the Father says he has compassion. But there were so many people around with so many different agendas. How could he possibly see this?

[12:23] How could he possibly see the people who are harassed and lost and helpless? Well, the two reasons. One is because he had a clear mission of what he was called to. But the second thing is he felt compassion for them.

[12:35] He felt something. How do you feel compassion? You surround yourself with people who are hurting. How did the writer know that Jesus was compassionate towards them?

[12:47] There was things that he did. He responded. Jesus' compassion led to action. The writer is telling us that when Jesus seen the people, he had this compassion for them.

[13:01] And this phrase is probably the hardest phrase for our culture today. To have compassion for each other. What do I mean? Well, we don't always feel compassion. I would even argue that we don't feel compassion.

[13:14] What we feel is we feel sorry for people. We feel bad for people. We sometimes throw in our southern hospitality and say, we all bless their heart.

[13:27] Right? But we don't feel compassion. And the difference between those things is that Jesus leads to action. His compassion leads to action.

[13:38] Where our feeling just stays in that moment. We see a man on the road asking for money. All these thoughts go through our head. We're arguing with probably the spirit why we shouldn't help that person out.

[13:51] But we feel kind of bad. And so we just continue to drive on. We never remember that moment again. Or maybe you're in a family that has a lot of strife towards each other. And when you go hang out with them, you may feel something.

[14:03] You may feel sorry for your family. But the moment you leave that barbecue and go on with the rest of your life, you forget about it. Because you don't have compassion. It's just a moment. What we see in this passage is that you actually cannot see what's in front of you unless you feel.

[14:20] You actually can't see situations in front of you unless you feel something. There was a TED Talk that a scientist was speaking about.

[14:32] And she says that this generation, our culture today, does their very best to try to compress emotions. And this is the way we do it.

[14:44] We say, I'm tired of feeling bad. So I'm going to compress that feeling of compassion. I'm tired of feeling shame for the things that I'm not supposed to do. So I'm going to compress that feeling of shame.

[14:55] And we think what we're doing is if we have, like, different levels, we're compressing one, but joy is still there and peace is still there. All these feelings that we have, you know, we're compressing one at a time. But what she would say is that when you compress one feeling, you actually are compressing all of them.

[15:11] It's impossible to just compress one at a time. When you compress shame, you also compress joy. You also compress the feeling to have empathy towards somebody. You compress those things that God has given us to have feelings to love the person that's in front of us.

[15:27] He's given us feelings to be able to understand what that person is going through to be able to help them because they're helpless, lost, and harassed. We live in a time, and I grew up this way, where men are supposed to be strong and not supposed to cry.

[15:53] We're supposed to work hard. We're supposed to provide. We never show our feelings because if you do that, you're lesser of a man than the person next to you.

[16:07] Can I say, that is the biggest lie the enemy would tell us to his men. Jesus wept when his friend died.

[16:19] Jesus had compassion. There was something inside of him. He expressed the feelings that he was created in this human form. And God's given us those feelings because those feelings should cause us to lead to something that is helping other people.

[16:36] And we went further than that to say that men don't cry and that they just need to buck up and pull their straps up and just go for it. And there are moments that we just need to push forward as men.

[16:48] But that's not every moment. And if you don't learn that now, you will get married if you're not married. And you will not know how to lead your wife or have compassion for your wife because you don't know how to feel anything.

[17:03] And when you have kids, you're not going to be able to understand how to love your kids because you don't know how to feel anything. Jesus has called us men to feel the feelings that he's given us because those are indicators on how to help.

[17:19] But we've went further in our culture and we've said young women have to fight their way to the top.

[17:31] They have to make a way for themselves. Shove whoever you have to shove. Put down whoever you have to put down. Because no one's going to tell my daughter to be in the corner. And so we created both young men and young women to be fighting against each other and to compress the feelings of compassion towards each other.

[17:50] We've created this Lord of the Flies culture where we're just going to fight to the top. That's just not the gospel. Jesus saw and he had compassion.

[18:02] And his compassion was to turn to his friends and said pray for more people. And this doesn't just happen in the world.

[18:20] This happens in the church. And what happens is we create this culture of people, this group of people who are very shallow and surface level good people.

[18:30] Who say the right thing but never step into someone's life because it's just too messy and too hard. And so we only hang out with people who are able to put up with us and we're able to run with us.

[18:42] But we're not able to go to the outsider and the outcast. We're able to have friends and we go to community groups with people that we like. Because we know that's, we can just, you know, we're just going to do it together. But we don't hang out with other people who come to church, who come and visit.

[18:55] Who are on the side of the street, who are at the supermarket, who are not like us. Because we just like to be comfortable. But we see Jesus time after time step into these villages and cities that was probably uncomfortable.

[19:09] And he got messy and he got dirty because he knew there was a purpose to which he was called. And that's the same purpose that we're called to. To get messy. To get dirty.

[19:20] To feel what the other person felt. How are people going to know who don't know Christ, know that God has compassion for them unless they see it through his people?

[19:32] How are people in the church know that they're able to come forward with their sins that have been shaming them every single Sunday, pretending like everything's alright? How are they going to know they can come out unless we have compassion for each other?

[19:47] Jesus was on to something. And there is no greater society right now that needs to hear it than us. We are not called to live in Instagram church.

[20:03] You know the interesting thing about Instagram and Facebook is you only get so many characters to describe what you're feeling. Twitter. You get, you know, 52 characters and that's it.

[20:14] What does that tell us about our society is that we're shallow? And this is the way I, you can't even finish the sentence. And we do that in the church.

[20:25] Hey bro, how are you doing? Oh, I'm doing good. Though you're struggling in your marriage. Though your kids are running wild. You're being tempted at work. Oh, everything's fine. We're just quick, quick, quick. And yet Jesus said, harassed, helpless, and lost.

[20:39] And he has compassion and we should have compassion for each other. We disqualify ourselves from really helping or living out the gospel in action because we are emotionally unstable. But here's the good news.

[20:53] 1 John 1, 1-4. It's my favorite passages right now. I think I read it every week, a couple days that week. It's been very helpful for me because I struggle with this.

[21:06] I struggle with allowing my emotions to talk about it. It's hard. It's insecure. It's vulnerable.

[21:18] But this has been good news for me. So 1 John 1-4. It says, That which from the beginning, talking about Jesus, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we look upon, we have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which the Father was made to manifest to us.

[21:45] That which he had seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship was with the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ. And we are right of these things, so that your joy may be complete.

[21:57] What do we see here? Is that we have the opportunity to see who Christ is, and to show Christ. We have the opportunity to feel Christ. We've heard it.

[22:07] It's like all the senses, right? It's all the things inside of us. He has given us every opportunity to know who he is because of what Jesus has done on the cross. We can know who Christ is.

[22:18] We can sit in our living rooms at whatever time in the morning, and we can experience Christ. We can touch him. We can feel him. We can smell him. We can hear him because Christ has made it possible. We can have moments with him.

[22:31] We can saturate our lives tangibly with who Christ is. In Christ, we can be capable to have compassion and feel what Jesus felt, and also be capable to handle our emotions in a healthy way instead of being a slave to them and compressing them.

[22:51] Because of Jesus, we can have healthy emotions. Jesus stepped into their world.

[23:02] He stepped into this crowd's world, and he was healing, and he was teaching, and he was proclaiming. But he also, if you're a believer this morning, he stepped into our world. Remember where you were at when you found Christ.

[23:17] In the mud, in the weeds, smelly and dirty. Yet Jesus came to you, and he says, I love you. I'm never going to leave you.

[23:28] I'm never going to forsake you. You're going to be my son. You're going to be my daughter. I'm going to adopt you. I'm going to give you an inheritance. I'm going to clothe you with my righteousness. Because Jesus had compassion for us, he came and stepped into our world, and we are called to do the exact same thing to other people.

[23:47] And we do this because Jesus calls us to the mission that he started. He says, The harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest, and send the labors into his harvest.

[24:01] So how do we do this mission successfully? How do we live intentional gospel lives like Jesus? How do we see the people around us like Jesus? How do we feel compassion for others like Jesus?

[24:14] I would propose this, is that we 100% rely on the Holy Spirit and 100% deny our flesh. How do we live like Jesus?

[24:26] How do we live on this mission? How do we live on this mission? Is that you run to the Spirit and you die to yourself. It's interesting that Paul would write to church, he says, What has started in the Spirit you forgot about and you're continuing in the flesh.

[24:38] If we went back to that moment that you got saved, you would say it was a supernaturally natural moment. That God just, he revealed himself. It was this, I don't even know how it happened.

[24:49] It just happened and I knew that he was real. That was a supernatural, spiritual moment. And then we go from that moment and we say, What is the formula to be a good Christian? How do I work hard for this?

[25:01] How often do I need to pray and read my Bible? How many times do I need to go to church on Sunday? We make it this formula because that's the way our minds work. But what Jesus says is let's get out of our minds and go back to our hearts for a little bit.

[25:13] Right? What he's done in our hearts and he has compassion for us. Go back to those feelings a little bit and you say, Okay God, that moment that I felt, that supernatural moment.

[25:25] How do I take that moment every single day? It doesn't mean that we live emotional, weird, spiritual lives. That's not what I'm saying. It means that we take the truth of the gospel and we take the truth of what the spirit is to us and how do I live this and live intentionally every single day to be like Jesus?

[25:40] How do I look around with the gospel of truth and with the spirit inside of me? How do I see the way Jesus did so I can be an impact? With the gospel of truth, with the spirit, how do I have compassion for those I need to have compassion for?

[25:55] A couple things. The Holy Spirit is a helper and a guide and reminder as we're on mission. We see that in John 14, 26. But the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

[26:14] We see that the Holy Spirit is this helper when we're in need. The Holy Spirit is a guide. He's going to teach us how to live. So what do I do when someone comes and talks to me and I feel this feeling?

[26:25] Rely on the Holy Spirit because it's the spirit that's going to give you the words at the right time to say the right thing because it's all about him. It's not about you in that moment. But if we can stay open and be a funnel of truth and allow the Holy Spirit as we walk in the spirit like Jesus, we can then be flowing out.

[26:44] He says, I only see and do the things that the Father shows me. How do we get to that place? It's the spirit as a guide, as a helper. Well, I don't want to become weary in doing good.

[26:56] We can't be doing everything. Right? Some things that we say just to get out of mission. We go back to there where that scripture John 14 says, he says, he will remind us.

[27:07] He will bring to remembrance the gospel. The gospel tells us that it's not about work, it's about grace. The gospel reminds us it's not how hard you work, it's about how much you love him, it's about how much he's loved you.

[27:20] And in response to that, you live it out. So how do you not become weary in doing good? You live in the gospel and you live in the spirit. It's this tension back and forth. The spirit reminds me of the gospel.

[27:30] The gospel tells me I need the spirit. The spirit helps me and I go back to the gospel and it's this tension back and forth that we live that allows us to be successful missionaries everywhere we go. The second thing is that the Holy Spirit gives us boldness as we were on mission.

[27:44] Acts 4.31 when they had prayed the place in which we were gathered was shaken. How cool would that be if this building started to shake because we were praying so God wanted to do something and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and then they went back to their homes and ate dinner together.

[27:59] No. It says they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. The Holy Spirit gives us boldness to preach this good news.

[28:10] The Holy Spirit gives us boldness to pray for somebody who's sick. The Holy Spirit gives us boldness to teach the gospel to people who don't know the gospel. In order for us to live this mission like Jesus we have to be both reliant on the Spirit and truly know that He's going to give us the boldness to do this well.

[28:30] And how do you truly know? How do I know that I know that I know that my wife loves me? Well there was covenant. There was a relationship and Jesus says I've sealed you with my Spirit.

[28:42] There's the covenant. There's that connection that you'll know that you know. But then okay so that was one day that we said those vows together with my wife. How do I know that I know today?

[28:53] Well we live in unity. We have conversations. We laugh together. We go on dates. We spend time together. How do you know that the Spirit's going to come through at the right time?

[29:04] You spend time with the Spirit. You spend time with the Spirit. Spend time with the Spirit. Well what book do I read? Just open up the Bible and spend time with the Spirit.

[29:16] How long do I pray? As long as it takes. You know when I was dating my wife I would drive 45 minutes to go see her because we lived in different parts of the area.

[29:31] And I never thought is this worth it? You know I know that I have to get up at work at 6 in the morning and I'm like just driving out there at 9 just to say hi give her a hug kiss around the corner so our parents don't see.

[29:45] Like you know is it worth it? Of course it's worth it because that 20 minutes that I get with her is better than not having that 20 minutes that allows me to go to work the next day to keep working hard because I want to marry her.

[29:57] That was the motivation. So the motivation on mission isn't how many you know Christians can I get on my belt and how many jewels I'm going to have in heaven it doesn't matter. We spend time with Christ because we love him and what we see as we build that relationship with him that you will get boldness to continue to speak what you feel like he's telling you to speak.

[30:19] The third thing the Holy Spirit gives us power as we're on mission in Acts 1-8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and will be my witnesses in Jerusalem all today and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

[30:30] This is not just a helper or guide or remembrance it's not just boldness but we receive power when the Spirit comes upon us we receive power as we live out spirit-filled gospel-centered lives.

[30:42] We receive power what does that mean? I know for me sometimes it's the power to not be fearful right? Sometimes we always think that when we read that scripture it's like the power I'm going to kick down the devil's doors and I'm going to proclaim you know the angels that's not always that it's just the power to not live in myself the power to not choose Joe that morning to choose Christ because before Christ it says that I was I was I was an enemy of God unable to please him only cared about my own desires but because of Jesus I now can have new desires sometimes that power just means that we're able to get up that morning and pray God I need the power to do that this morning but it's also the power to step out in faith and say Lord would you heal this person of a headache would you heal this person of an earache would you heal this person of cancer would you heal this person and on and on and on we have been given power as we live out this mission life to live like Christ there was a guy in Seattle

[31:47] I'll tell you a story a bunch of us went to Seattle last year or a year and a half ago and we helped this church out Stone Church is a part of Advance and one night we went out and just went to the supermarket and just wanted to pray for people we were praying for people and we saw some cool stuff and God was doing some cool things and this one guy Derek Jenkins he's like oh come hey guys this old lady wants us to pray for him and I'll be honest with you my first thought was like man I don't want to waste my time praying for this lady like there's more important things more important people to pray for this is like a lady who's just getting into her car Derek just stopped her like man I want to see like manifestations I want to like like right those are the things I was thinking about and so I walk over there and we start we start praying for her and she goes oh would you mind praying for my son and we're like yeah you know and he didn't know that we were going to pray for him right which is not always a good thing and so she brings him over and she says they're going to pray for you and he's like okay and so as we were praying for him

[32:49] I got this picture of a ring on his finger like a wedding ring and then a quick picture again with a wedding ring wasn't there I saw a picture of car keys and I saw a picture of a pulpit right like was that me was that the spirit like we were trying to be missional we were trying to be like live like Jesus every moment and so I just said hey man I don't know if this is you know accurate but I'm just going to tell you what I'm seeing and I said I saw this picture of the ring and I explained this whole thing to him and he just starts weeping and what was happening is that he just came to his parents that morning and said that he was an alcoholic a raging raging alcoholic and he needed help and he also told his fiance and she she left him she gave him she gave him the ring back so that was that first picture and so he was heartbroken and it was also the same day that the parents said it probably wouldn't be helpful for you to drive anymore so they took his car keys away and we got to minister to that guy like we got to speak truth the gospel truth in that moment we

[34:00] I was bold and I I was fearful and I was naive but yet God's the spirit allowed me to be bold to share that and then his mom said you know that last picture we always she said I always felt like God said he was going to be a minister of the word which is that pulpit she said it was like it was like a security to me when he said that that God that God still cared for him well three months ago he just got baptized he's a he's a part of that church he's serving in that church him and his whole family I mean it's like it's like this amazing cool story and it brings God glory because we were Derek was had saw compassion on that lady right he saw compassion and what we did was we prayed for her and we just simply just said God would you help this her son would you give us words to encourage him and this beautiful moment happened but here's the thing there was four of us there and we all lived in

[35:06] Beaufort we came back and we never did it again why why do signs and wonders only happen in other countries why did nothing ever happen in America how often do you pray how often are you on your knees asking God reveal yourself to us how often in the moment are you relying on the spirit to live like Jesus the issue isn't Jesus the issue is us we've lost compassion for people we've forgotten that people are going to hell if they don't know Jesus and we live as if we're okay because we got the golden ticket and we're fine but everyone around us is going to have to find their own way you just got to muscle up man I'm so glad that Jesus didn't say that about me I'm so glad that my mom who who was in gangs and and and horrible situations that someone came to her and shared the gospel to her that lived like Jesus went to a bad area where they probably could have been shot and they shared the gospel to her and she responded a month after I was saved and brought me up to understand this truth that Jesus still lives you know sometimes we think of the gospel as just like our you know our just the saving grace but we forget about that we were wretched sinners it's okay to look back and say

[36:39] Paul did this all the time and I was this and this and this before Christ but God rich in mercy saving grace saved me sometimes we get scared to go back but can I encourage you if it's you know at the right time at the right moment maybe you need to do it with somebody else is to look back a little bit and remember where you've come from because that's going to give you that compassion to go and reach other people let's not forget that people in half luck right now are lost helpless and harassed and God has placed you guys as a church to be a beacon of hope to be a beacon of help a light to a dark area to show them that there is a God who has compassion not just a God but his son who came and died a brutal death a death that wasn't for that he didn't deserve for you so that you can live in freedom and because of that it transformed your life and therefore I have compassion it's the domino effect of compassion right now I have compassion for people around me finishing with this the things I've learned more often or not the spirit is speaking to me more often the spirit is speaking to me than he isn't just like little like tips right most of the time he's speaking to us this is some things that I've learned as I'm on mission living spirit filled life second thing is write down what you feel that the spirit is speaking to you

[38:02] I had a picture one time of a foot with tattoos on it and the ink coming off the foot it's like a weird picture right so I just wrote it down in my journal put it away three months later I was praying for a guy he had sandals on he had tattoos on his foot and it was the exact word I gave him I said I showed him my thing three months ago God gave me this picture for you this is the season that you're in and he was like oh my gosh alright so write down the things you feel like God's telling to you the spirit speaking to you as you're on mission another tip I've learned is go on mission with others doesn't always have to be yourself when Harvard has amazing phrase the lone rangers are dead rangers Jesus sent them out two by two Jesus was really never alone he's with his twelve men do this with other people do it as a community group do it as friends do it as couples as singles whatever groups you're in do it together next one is be normal there's nothing worse than people not really showing who Jesus is

[39:06] Jesus wasn't weird you know we're not called to speak the King James Version every time we go somewhere seriously there's nothing worse than showing up to a house and you told them you have an allergy and yet they still cook the same food because they just are it's like they don't even care about what you said we should care about what our area is telling us let's be normal last thing is when you say it move on it's not about you and do it all over again there are many times where I told someone a word and it was wrong and I didn't go oh God you didn't come through why are you so horrible I just moved on because it's not about me I put it in my book and maybe for someone later and I just keep moving on because the goal is to tell people about Jesus Jesus was the greatest missionary that ever lived and he didn't just speak he invested he taught he proclaimed the good news he came to die a death that he didn't deserve but his love for us he conquered death once and for all so that we can be compassionate to other people and he's given us all the things to do this well as the band comes up the question maybe you're thinking about is well what if I'm not a believer what if I'm just it's my first time here this is new to me can I tell you again that Jesus sees you he has compassion for you he's calling you to himself and can I tell you when you encounter this Jesus who has compassion there is freedom that is so freeing that no other relationship no drugs no car no money no career no bank account no inheritance will ever match it and what Jesus would say this morning to you who are seeking is come close abide in me draw near to me draw near to Jesus and just say

[41:09] I need your help I'm lost I'm helpless I'm harassed and see what he does in your life and if you are a believer this morning this is a reminder that Jesus has called you on mission is it good to have kids yes is it good to have a career yes is it good to go to college of course all those things are good but they don't match what you're actually called to do you have kids so you can show them who Jesus is you go to work so you can share the gospel you go fill up your car with gas at the same spot because you know that you're building a relationship with that person that hopefully is going to lead to salvation everything that Jesus did he did with intention and purpose let's live like him and the way to do that is to be spirit filled and to rely on the truth of the gospel we have nothing else outside of that so as we come to the table this morning we don't just come as just average Joes we come as sons and daughters of the most high who are sealed with the spirit of God who have power who have boldness who have courage to be able to to come forward to this table

[42:16] Jesus has allowed us to come and experience him this morning and as we come up to come up as missionaries to be reminded of why you're going to go back out there and you're going to go to lunch somewhere and the waitress is going to come up and you can either forget her or you can say hey how's your day going and we go to work on Monday and so on every single day we come this morning to be reminded that Jesus did all of that for us so that we can do what he's called this time you cannot live a mission without Jesus it's just impossible and it's your own world your own mission so when you come up this morning let's be thankful God thank you as a bread that reminds me of your body that was broken that my body didn't have to be broken and I can tell other people that their bodies don't have to be broken because Jesus was broken for us thank you for that I thank you that it wasn't my blood that was spilled it was yours that was spilled so I can tell others that they don't have to cut themselves that they don't have to live in depression that they don't have to be overwhelmed they can live in freedom because Christ did it for them this is every joyful moment let's come to the table with excitement in our hearts that in a few moments we're going to go back out of mission and we're going to be people of compassion to a place that no one cares about but you care about it because you're here well my work wouldn't be here no Jesus wouldn't be here and he's called you to live on mission but I'm just this you are this because of Jesus so Lord I thank you thank you for the cross thank you for your sacrifice thank you for reminding us the goodness of who you are

[44:03] Lord I pray now that you just speak to us remind us whatever you need to do we rest in you Jesus Jesus amen thanks for joining us