Lord of Mission

[0:00] So, let's just be honest, this isn't just another Sunday. We got Dorian coming our way, and realize that, I realize for a lot of us, Florence is still very fresh in our minds.

[0:13] And so, while we were worshiping, I just, I felt maybe God put this on my heart, I just wanted to share it with you. There is two ways we can live. And one is, is that things like Dorian or circumstances, that's the big headline on the newspaper of our lives.

[0:30] That's kind of what we're focused and is drawing our attention. And then way back in the newspaper on page 8 is, and God is sovereign. And actually, it's, you know, what we're calling, what God is calling us to is the headline of our newspaper is, you know what?

[0:50] God is sovereign. And then, you know, the sub-headlines underneath, maybe page 8 is, oh yeah. God. And then there's things like hurricanes.

[1:01] There's some, there's probably some other things you're coming in with. And so, I just wanted to give that to you today. Maybe that's you today. It's just something that you need to be reminded of, man. In these circumstances, it's, I don't want to invalidate what you're feeling.

[1:14] You may be feeling a little scared, a little stressed out, a little anxious. And I'm just saying, hey, that is okay. That is totally normal. But man, go to the God who is good. We were just saying that, Lord, you are good.

[1:25] And it's hard to understand it and sometimes believe it in that moment. You may be thinking like, man, Lord, I am not ready to go through something like a Florence again.

[1:36] You know, can I have a reprieve? But still trust that the Lord is sovereign. Are we going to pray that this thing moves off and gets taken out to the Atlantic? Absolutely. We would prefer it not to get hit.

[1:47] But if it does, Jesus, if it comes our way, Jesus is still on the throne. And he can turn all things that are bad and evil towards his good. We may not see and be able to connect it in the moment.

[2:00] But later on down the line, like Joseph, we can look back on a life of God's faithfulness and see how he can have purpose for even the most disastrous circumstances in our lives. So anyways, that was just an aside.

[2:11] Before we get into it, I just wanted to let you guys, I just wanted to say that. So, yeah, because I love you. All right. So we are finishing our Colossian series.

[2:24] This is the last sermon of our Colossian series. Yeah. There's not an amen. There's an amen right there. So that was cheesy.

[2:37] So it's the last part. Good news is we are going out with a bang. And I'm not talking. I'm not promising that the rapture is going to happen. But it's coming out strong. It's ending strong.

[2:48] And that's what Paul does. He ends the letter to this church, not in a whimper, but very strong, very front-footed. And he's giving us our marching orders as a church, which is be on mission.

[2:59] Be on mission, proclaiming Jesus, spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. And here's the thing. We need to hear that because so much energy that we spend as Christians is just avoiding boredom, if we're honest with ourselves.

[3:14] Too much of what we do isn't purposeful and intentional about being on mission for Jesus. It is just that. It's avoiding being bored. And actually, that's not just true for Christians.

[3:25] It's for honest. That's for everybody. If you look at how often we spend so much of our life, it's like not running to something meaningful and purposeful. It's actually just running from being bored.

[3:37] And so we've lost this sense of living with a greater purpose. Our life has kind of lost greater meaning. We run around trying to find meaning, right?

[3:47] But like you too, we still haven't found what we're looking for, for so many of us. And what is missing isn't more stuff. It isn't better experiences.

[3:59] It's actually giving away our life for the sake of Jesus's mission. Jesus is Lord. He's not just Savior. He is Lord. Headline, He is Lord.

[4:11] And He has a mission for you and me to be on. And that's the essence of our life. He saves us to be in relationship with Him.

[4:23] But He also saves us to be on mission for Him. He saves us into His mission, which means we put Jesus and His mission first. Now, if you're like me, the first thing I want to do is kick back and say, wait, objection.

[4:40] Mission is for missionaries. It's for those like confident people, those outgoing people, those crazy people. It's not for me. Or we can stop and say, wait, wait, mission stuff.

[4:52] You're the pastor. That's not me. I'm just a dude in the seats. I'm just a gal in the seats. Pastors do the mission work. Pastors are the one that do the evangelism, not me. I'm not qualified to do any of that.

[5:03] But as we're going to see in this passage, the work of mission isn't really what we think it is. Colossians 4, verse 2 to 4, it says this. So the first big task of mission isn't picking an Amazon tribe to go minister to.

[5:38] Or it's not picking a seminary to study at. Paul says it's prayer. Your first task of mission. Our first task of mission. Everybody.

[5:49] It doesn't mean if you're up here preaching, playing an instrument, or in the seats, whatever it may be. Our first task is prayer. Prayer propels the mission forward. That's what we have to realize.

[5:59] That's what we have to be convinced of. See, we don't do that. And if you're like me, I'm really bad at calling my family. It's one of those things I'm always like, man, I need to get better at it.

[6:12] But mainly it's because when I do call them on the phone, it's like a two-hour commitment. And I know it's a two-hour commitment. And so I'm like, where do I find time for two hours to talk to my dad or my brothers or sisters, you know?

[6:24] And so I just kind of put it off and put it off and put it off until at some point, one time a year, you know, I'm just like, well, I'm going to make the big plunge and go for it, you know? But do we think of prayer that way?

[6:35] Is that how we think of prayer? It's like, man, I know I got to do it, but, you know, if I do it, I got to spend two hours doing it. Where do I find two hours? We're not told, what we're told in this passage is continue steadfastly in prayer, which means be consistent, right?

[6:51] Be consistent. It doesn't say be consistently long. It says be consistent in prayer. That's it. Think about this. Jesus taught his disciples to pray. It was a one-minute prayer he taught them.

[7:03] At most, some of us can speak so fast we can get through that sucker in 20 seconds, right? Our Father in heaven, how to be your naked, you know, just like timing it. And the first third of that prayer, I want you to think about this.

[7:15] The first third of that Lord's Prayer is all about mission. It's all about mission. Man, God, be glorified. That's what hallowed means. Be glorified, be valued, be praised.

[7:26] And to the ends of the earth, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is the clarion call to mission. That is what we pray into.

[7:37] So if you step back from that, that's a little, that could be a little 20-second blast for you. All right? If you don't have 20 seconds in your day, you are a one busy person, right?

[7:49] I want to challenge us. Man, don't think my prayer, I can't pray because when I come to God, it's got to be an hour long or two hours long or whatever it may be. Man, 20-second blast.

[8:00] Boom. Boom. When you remember it, pray consistently. It doesn't have to be long. It could be short. Man, and if you're going to pray anything, pray that prayer. Because when you pray that prayer consistently, I'm going to tell you what, from experience, that prayer goes from a head thing and it just sinks into your heart.

[8:15] It just starts getting in there. You start thinking about that all the time. You start, yeah, you know, your kingdom come, your will be done, not mine, yours. Let me think about your kingdom. I really do want your name to be hallowed.

[8:25] I really do want your name to be valued, not only by me today, but like everybody around me. My brothers and sisters in Christ and our church and around the world, you start thinking about that.

[8:36] It starts to be one of the things that's like topmost in your mind and in your heart. But you know what? It ain't going to happen without you being consistent. What Paul's saying to us here, steadfast in prayer, okay?

[8:49] And give yourselves a break, guys. It doesn't have to be 20 minutes. It could be 20 seconds. 20-second prayer blast, boom. A few times a day. It's an amazing, it's amazing what happens to your heart. Mission prayer like this is praying for souls to be saved.

[9:04] It's praying for places that are close to the gospel for God to open them up and for lives to be transformed. That is prayer for the mission. That is prayer that's praying for the mission to be propelled forward.

[9:18] And that not only changes things out there, it changes things in here in our hearts. So what it does, prayer opens our eyes and focuses us to see God's activity.

[9:28] Right? And it says, Colossians 4 verse 2, continue steadfastly in prayer. Why? Being watchful in it. Or how? Actually, not why. How? Being watchful in it. The Bible often gives us this picture of prayer of people that are praying being like watchmen on a wall.

[9:45] Which is kind of an odd thing to think about today. We're like, well, what kind of wall? I can stand on a wall, humpty dumpty, fill off a wall. Like, what's the big deal, right? But back then, people would have understood it this way.

[9:55] Cities often had walls surrounding them. And those walls kept the good in and the bad out. And on top of those walls were soldiers.

[10:08] And those soldiers served as watchmen. From their higher perspective, they could see both far and near. They could see and be aware of the activity all around them.

[10:19] And that's what prayer does. That's what prayer does. It opens our eyes to see what God is doing. It makes us aware. It makes us thoughtful to his mission and to what he's on about.

[10:30] And the activity he's doing all around us. And it's not just the stuff right in front of us, which is cool. We want to see those things. We want to be in our neighborhoods and at our work and in our schools. And all around us, seeing what God is on about.

[10:42] But it even opens our eyes to what's going further out there. You know, all around the globe. His mission is a global thing. It opens prayer. It opens our eyes and our ears to see and to hear what God is doing.

[10:53] Not just right now, but what he's doing ahead of us. Where he's at and what he's calling us to be. So, prayer. We pray because we don't pray to get God working for us, right?

[11:06] We don't pray, hey, God, get behind my agenda. And we pray to find out where God is already at work. And we pray because we want to know where he's already at work and we want to go there.

[11:17] We want to get behind that. And that's an amazing thing. But there's another important reason why we pray. It's that prayer reminds us that it's God's mission. And he propels it forward.

[11:30] Like verse 3, it says, So, the Bible teaches us that prayer seems to activate God's influence and power.

[11:55] It's what it does. And it's not only the Bible that's teaching us this. Like church history confirms that time and time again. It's not just this theological hope, this unproven theological hope we have.

[12:07] Man, it's a confirmed promise. We can look. In revival moments over the past 2,000 years, we're preceded with the church rediscovering and practicing the primacy and power of prayer.

[12:18] You see it time and time again. And so, if we don't pray, I want to ask us this. If we refuse to pray and we're not given to praying diligently for the mission, what are we leaving on the table in our generation?

[12:31] What are you and I leaving on the table? What are we foregoing? What birthright might we be giving away to feast on the stew of prayerlessness? Or its twin brother, busyness to escape boredom?

[12:43] See, if the Bible is true and church history is right, then this is what I want to do. I want to die on my knees, praying for God to move in big ways.

[12:58] Not just here, but all over the world. Maybe I get to be a part of that. Maybe I'm just priming the pump for the next generation. But you know what? Either way, I don't want to forgo my chance to be used.

[13:12] And I realize that starts with prayer. In Tolkien's classic Lord of the Rings, every sermon is a great opportunity to bring in Lord of the Rings, if you're me. So, anyways, in Lord of the Rings, there's this moment in the Fellowship of the Ring where all the good guys, they first realize what they have to do to destroy the ring.

[13:33] So Frodo, this tiny hobbit, the weakness of the weaklings of this whole company of people, he laments to Gandalf and he says, I wish it need not have happened in my time. But that is not for them to decide.

[13:53] All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. We don't get to choose when or where we live.

[14:05] Acts 26 reminds us, man, God allots the times and the places we're going to live. He sets those boundaries for us. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

[14:18] Frodo and Gandalf recognize there is a mission to be done. They can't kick the can down the road and leave it for someone else to do. And that's what happens with praying people.

[14:29] We realize that we have to, what we have to do with the time given to us. There is a mission and we got to get about doing it. See, one big danger of prayerlessness is we miss God's mission.

[14:43] We waste our life pursuing the wrong things. But there is arguably an even bigger danger to the church. We can be on mission and see things happen and never pray.

[14:55] And we can start to think that we did it. We start to think we can do it without God. Who cares about prayer? All we need is killer lighting, smoke machines, and a pastor with skinny jeans.

[15:09] That's what's going to get the mission done. That's going to propel the mission forward. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with those things, except maybe the skinny jeans. All right? There's nothing inherently wrong with those things.

[15:22] In fact, you could be a praying church and have all of what I just talked about, but recognize that God is the one doing the great things, man. So I'm not like saying those things are bad. I'm just saying this.

[15:33] If we ditch prayer and put all our hope and style and methods, then we can start to think that we're doing this without God. And that's crazy. You, me, and our smoke machine can't change a heart.

[15:45] All right? Only God can change hearts. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. We have to realize that we need God's power for the mission. And too often we think, man, you know what?

[15:57] This is how mission gets accomplished. It's the really talented people, the spiritual gurus, the PhDs that can teach apologetics. Those guys do the work of the mission. They're the ones that really get accomplished.

[16:07] Us simpletons, us nobodies. Man, we just pray and pay and root them on. No. Well, pray for those guys. That's good. You know, we want to see those guys succeed. But, man, it's not just them. It's you too.

[16:19] Not you too, the man. Like you too. You know? Like Y-O-U-T-O-O. It's us. It's all of us. His mission is ordinary people doing ordinary things that make opportunity for an extraordinary gospel.

[16:36] Colossians 4, 5-6. It says, walk in wisdom towards outsiders. Making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious. Season with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

[16:51] Paul doesn't just say, pray for me. I'm doing all the real missionary work out here. No, he actually is encouraging us here. But those verses we just read, does any of that sound impossible to you?

[17:06] Does any of that sound extraordinary? It's actually, he just, he says, walk in wisdom. He doesn't tell us, walk on water. But we act like that is what mission takes.

[17:18] I have to walk on water to be able to accomplish this. Actually, it's the exact opposite. It's way more unimpressive than we realize. He says, walk wisely so that outsiders, those that don't follow Jesus, can see Jesus in you.

[17:33] Can see Jesus through your life and how you live. That is ordinary Christian living. So what does that look like? How do we do that? How do we walk wisely?

[17:43] How do we walk wisely? So here's some practicals of ordinary ways that make opportunity for an extraordinary gospel. First thing, do life with people that aren't Christians.

[17:55] Do life with people that aren't Christians. Man, outsiders can't see your life if you're locked up in a Christian bubble. All right? That's pretty easy, kind of like first step, right?

[18:05] It's okay to enjoy the company of non-Christians. All right? You're not a turncoat if you do that. In fact, Jesus was called the friend of sinners.

[18:17] He was super comfortable going to their parties, being with them, eating with them, talking with them. And you know what? The great side effect of doing this, it will make you less judgy and more gracious as you spend time with people that aren't like you.

[18:36] Those Christian folks, man, that put mean slogans on picket signs, say ugly things and yell at people. And I would say those people have probably been living way too long in a Christian echo chamber. They probably don't have too many non-Christian friends on speed dial, I'm guessing.

[18:50] So enjoy friendships with non-Christians. Seek them out. Sometimes that could mean joining a club of some kind. Robin Rice, he joined a motorcycle club recently.

[19:04] And one of his great reasons and primary reasons to do that is like, hey, there's guys in there that don't know Jesus, and I get to spend some time with them. And so that's what he did.

[19:16] Another friend of mine, Elliot. He has a hobby. He loves to play ultimate Frisbee. So he goes and he plays ultimate Frisbee. And one of his big reasons that he loves to do that is he gets to spend some time with guys that don't know Jesus.

[19:29] And build friendships with them. So make some time. Find ways to get with people that don't know Jesus. And that's awesome.

[19:40] And when you're with them, make it count. Be intentional with the time you have around others. Whether at work or school or grilling out in your backyard or birthday parties that you're going to.

[19:51] Whatever it may be. Be a good witness for Jesus. Now, what I'm not saying is show up to those places with a three-point sermon and an altar call ready to go. Right?

[20:01] That's not what I'm talking about. Okay? But don't be foolish at the same time. Don't do the opposite of walking wisely. Right? Don't gossip.

[20:11] Don't get drunk or plastered or whatever it may be. Don't play Candy Crush the whole time on your phone. You know? Avoiding everybody. Don't be foolish. Use the time well.

[20:23] Seize the opportunity. Prepare yourself. Don't be the guy at the party alone in the corner with all the chicken wings. Bad call. Think about what you're getting into.

[20:34] Think about what questions you're going to ask. Ask good questions. Arm yourself. Get to know them. Let them get to know you. Engage. Here's another way. Look for opportunities to serve. Right? Hurricane Florence.

[20:45] We had massive opportunity to serve. Was it horrendous? Absolutely. Would I want it again? Absolutely not. But you see those moments that you seize on them. Their opportunity to get into people's lives.

[20:58] To minister to them and care for them and love them in just real practical ways as well. It's a way to form friendships and relationships. Think about Dorian. That may hit us.

[21:08] Man, we hope it doesn't. But if it does, man, we want to respond. We want to respond in a way that, hey, this is an opportunity to serve people that are hurting and need our help. You may be saying, Jesse, I still got PTSD from that last hurricane.

[21:24] I'm tired. I'm wore out. I don't feel like I have anything left to give. And I totally get that. I totally get that. I want to encourage all of us, man. Because I'm feeling that too.

[21:35] I'm encouraging you all to tap into the strength of God's grace. If that's you, tap into the strength of God's grace. He never gives us more than we can handle. He promises us that.

[21:48] But that doesn't mean he won't put us into tough circumstances. Right? Think about the wife of Joseph. Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers as a young man, a very young man.

[22:02] Imagine being a teenager. And your brothers take you and sell you into slavery. No rights. Bad position. And then he gets put into jail.

[22:14] Again, just man. Just knockdown after knockdown in his life. But what we see at the end of that story is that he looks back and he sees, oh my goodness. What I couldn't see was God was using this tragedy to turn it into his good plan to save a whole bunch of people.

[22:33] And that's the thing, guys. Like, we don't know in our moments of trial and tribulation, we can't see what God's going to do on the other side of us. Right? But that doesn't mean he's not going to do something on the other side of us.

[22:47] And stories like Joseph. Man, help us. Because we get to look back. We get to see the whole thing like God sees it. We get to remind ourselves. Okay, God, no matter what it looks like or what it feels like, no matter how hard it is in the moment, God is in control, and that's a test of our faith and just believing and knowing.

[23:06] Tapping into his grace. The strength of his grace is sometimes just like God is sovereign. I am not. He knows the end from the beginning. I do not. I'm going to trust in that. Jesus doesn't save us into club med.

[23:20] We will still suffer as Christians. That's the reality of it. But now we get to lean into his grace. Some of you are thinking right now, Jesse, that's a really bad sales pitch.

[23:31] For jumping on Jesus' team. But that is the reality of life. To live, to be alive, is to suffer. That's the reality.

[23:41] But it's going to hit us all at some point. In various ways at different levels. Coming to Jesus doesn't mean a magic wand gets waved over us and all the bad stuff stops.

[23:52] That's not how it works. But it does mean that when we suffer, there is a greater purpose. And we don't suffer alone. Jesus is with us.

[24:04] He walks with us in that suffering. We know the Holy Spirit is with us. The Father's love is comforting us through our suffering. And not only that, but we also have the church.

[24:15] We also have fellowship. We also get to do this together. We suffer together. We don't do it in isolation. Because mission is a team sport. Verse 7.

[24:30] Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. The dude named Tychicus. He is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the gospel. I have sent him to you for this very purpose.

[24:41] That you may know how we are. And that he may encourage your hearts. And with him Onesimus, our beloved and faithful brother. Who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.

[24:52] Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you. And Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. Concerning whom you have received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. And Jesus, who is called Justice.

[25:03] These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God. And they have been a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you. A servant of Christ Jesus, greets you.

[25:14] Always struggling on your behalf in his prayers. That you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you. And for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.

[25:27] Luke, the beloved physician, greets you. As does Demas. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea. And to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you.

[25:39] Have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans. And see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus. See that you will fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.

[25:51] I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. What stands out to me in that passage. Is the variety of names and giftings and roles.

[26:06] That's what stands out to me. All the dudes he names, right? And each of these guys have a unique God story behind them. So we see Tychicus, this faithful brother, minister.

[26:18] He's a trustworthy guy. Coming to give and tell the Colossian church. This letter and all the other stories that Paul has told him to pass on. We see Onesimus mentioned, right?

[26:29] We talked about him the other week. This runaway slave. That now has been given his freedom. Because his master believed and lived out the gospel. Now he's doing ministry with Paul. We see Aristarchus, apparently a convert from Paul's prison ministry.

[26:45] We see Mark, the fallout boy. This young guy who made some mistakes. Paul said, sorry, man. Me and you can't do this ministry together anymore. They separate.

[26:55] But now we see this restoration happen. Mark's brought back. They're doing ministry together. We see this awesome God story behind his life. Then we see this guy named Jesus.

[27:05] Man, I wish, maybe his name was Jesus. I'm hoping so. Just for the sake of like, love seeing like the diversity of the kingdom on there. He and Mark, they were the only Jewish Christians.

[27:16] Which is why he talks about like the circumcised dudes. Which is like, Paul, too much information. Didn't need to know that. You know? That's all right. And then we have Epaphras, a Colossian himself.

[27:27] There's Luke, the physician. This well-educated guy. Like, he was like the journalist blogger for Paul's team. Like, keeping everything up to date. And the rest of the church up to date on what's going on. Nympha, this wealthy lady, opened her home for the church to meet there.

[27:41] And of course, Paul, the apostle in chains and prison for the gospel. Paul mentions all these guys. He wants us to know, guys, I don't do mission alone. I'm not going to leave anybody out here.

[27:54] I'm going to, I love that these guys were included. Because it wasn't. Paul's saying, it's not all about me. I'm not their hero here. Man, mission is a team sport. He didn't choose to steal all the credit for himself.

[28:08] Man, he cared about the mission. Reaching as many people with the gospel as possible. And that only happens, guys, together on team. We think of, like, what we can do separately.

[28:20] It's like, if we all just, like, live in isolation and be like, I'm just going to do mission by myself. It's like, you know, fingers on a hand and we're, like, trying to make an impact, you know? But, man, together, we bring those fingers together.

[28:33] We make this fist. And we do mission together. Boom. The impact is exponential. It's a beautiful thing. A variety of people with a variety of giftings and a variety of backgrounds.

[28:48] Man, all these different Jesus stories. Me, I'm a pastor's kid. Delivered porn addict. Self-righteous jerk. That's who I was. And then Jesus saved me. And he's using me.

[28:59] Maybe you're here today. Maybe you're an addict of some kind, some way, shape, or form. Jesus is going to save you or he has saved you. He has delivered you out of that. You're part of the team.

[29:10] If he's saving you today, man, join the team. I'm hoping if you're here and you don't know him that you join the team today. Maybe you're here and you're in the military. You're a Marine or Navy or Coastie.

[29:21] Maybe you've always thought, man, it's core first. Core and country first and God's always second. But God's worked in your heart and he's flipped that around. It's like, man, God first. His kingdom first.

[29:32] Maybe you're here and you're at that age where you get to retire. You have retired. You just want to, you know, the temptation is just to kind of cruise in the rest of your life into eternal life. Life is about fishing and golfing, seeing the grandkids on occasion, and getting a really cool seashell collection.

[29:50] You've retired from your job, but have you retired from God's mission? John Piper, he wrote a book. This is a pastor in his 70s. He wrote a book, and it says this.

[30:01] Don't waste your retirement. Get back in the team. And if that's you, you count. You matter. I want to just brag on some people here. Not to boast in them, but to boast in God's grace on their lives.

[30:14] Carolyn Warner, she was helping a friend of hers who's sick and bedridden. She takes food to this lady. She's been doing it for years. Spends time with her. And this lady, her Echo Alexa got disconnected somehow, and she needed it back.

[30:27] So she said, hey, can somebody help me? And then, boom, I just reached out, and we had Jim Lynch go and help this lady out that he doesn't know her. Just a friend of a lady in our church helped connect her Alexa on Saturday.

[30:42] Thinking, big deal. But guys, ordinary people doing ordinary things. Making opportunity for an extraordinary gospel. Maybe you're here, and you're thinking, nah, I'm just too young.

[30:56] I've got to wait until I get older and get it all together and learn enough, whatever. Mark, a young guy. Didn't have it all together. Didn't wait. He went on missionary trips with Paul.

[31:08] He put himself on the team. He put himself in the game. He served. He learned. Young guys here. Junior high, high school. Young 20s. You don't have to wait.

[31:19] Join the team. Be on mission. We need you. For all of us, here's some simple, practical ways. Man, jump into community. We talked about community group signups.

[31:31] Join a community group. Youth ministry. Jump into youth ministry. Jump into one of our serve teams. Great way to serve, help, and be on mission. And all of these groups are just full of ordinary people doing ordinary things.

[31:45] Making opportunity for extraordinary gospel. We get to do it together. We get to be on mission together. The point for all of us is, this is what I want to leave us with. We have one short life to live, you and I.

[31:56] One short life to live. Right? Every gravestone that you see has a person born, dash, died. Yeah? The year they were born, little dash.

[32:09] And then the year they died. That little dash is our life. And it goes fast. What are we going to do with our lives?

[32:23] What are we doing with it? Let's live a life. Let's live a life. Praying. To the Lord of the mission. Hoping that he propels his mission forward.

[32:34] Hoping that we get to be a part of that. He opens our eyes to that. We get to be included in activity. To see him spread the gospel. Not just in our little area. Yes, in our little area here.

[32:47] But all over the world. That he would use us in amazing ways. And it starts with just ordinary people. Like us. Doing ordinary things. For an extraordinary gospel.

[32:58] If I could have the band come up. If you're here and you're not a Christian. I want to call you, man.

[33:09] Don't waste your life. Jesus is Lord. That has been like the resounding message of Colossians. Jesus is Lord. Lord. He's a savior who saves.

[33:22] He's a Lord to be submitted to you. And man, he's calling you today. Man, to surrender to him. Man, cast your cares on him. If you're feeling, man, guilty of your sin.

[33:34] Because you were a sinner, man. You have a savior who died in your place. He shed his blood for your sins. So you could be saved from them. He washes you clean of the guilt and the shame of all your sin.

[33:45] And the picture we get in one passage in the Bible says he washes you and makes you clean. White as snow. Everything is gone. Everything is gone.

[33:56] And he's inviting you today, man. I want to call you, if that's you today, come and surrender to him. Put your faith in him. Join us in his mission.

[34:06] If you're here today and you are a follower of Jesus, you're a Christian, man, I want to say don't waste your life. Don't waste your life. Don't make your life following Jesus about escaping boredom.

[34:19] There is an amazing mission to live for. So let's do that, guys. Let's pray.

[34:30] Pray, pray, pray, pray for the mission. Pray for the mission. Pray for the mission. And leverage our lives, man. Our ordinary lives to do extraordinary things for him and for the sake of the gospel.

[34:41] And if you're here and you're a Christian, we're going to just come and respond with communion. And communion and what we see in communion is a reminder of what mission took.

[34:58] Man, mission takes surrender. Jesus surrendered his will to the team's will. He said, not my will, Father, but yours be done.

[35:09] Father, we wouldn't be taking communion today if he didn't follow through on that. The mission's message is written into this communion moment.

[35:20] Jesus' body was broken. His blood was shed for sinners like you and me. He came for us. He calls us. He died for us to redeem us, to be on his team under his lordship.

[35:33] And before you come, I want to invite you today, just do business with God. What adjustments do you need to make? So before you come, I just want to invite you to just close your eyes right now.

[35:46] Bow your head. Close your eyes. Take a minute to pray. And when you're ready, come. Grab the elements, communion elements. Take it back and you can take it. Amen.