Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.citygracechurch.com/sermons/69974/session-four-everyday-mission/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Hey, welcome back to Gospel Growth.

[0:10] This is our Life on Life Discipleship course, and we're in our fourth module. We're looking at going with the gospel, talking about things like mission, you know, what is it Christians are supposed to do? So far, we've seen that every Christian is a missionary.

[0:22] We've seen that the mission of God is broad, it's wide, it's neighbors, it's nations, it's local, it's global. And we've seen that, man, before we're commanded to go, we're commanded to wait, that we need the power of the Holy Spirit.

[0:33] We wanna take a few minutes now and just look at what does mission look like in everyday life? And so I'm gonna try to give you a couple of things that have been helpful for me, and I trust they'll be helpful for you. The first thing is that good missionaries, they do what they love to the glory of God.

[0:49] They do what they love to the glory of God. There was a really great movie, Chariots of Fire. It's super old, it was on VHS. And so if this spoils the movie for you, you've had like almost three decades probably to watch this movie.

[1:02] But there's this great movie line there where Eric, who's a Christian, who's an Olympic runner, is talking to his sister and his family. They're missionaries in China. And she's saying, you know, you need to stop running and you need to do what God wants you to do, which is come be a missionary in China.

[1:18] And on paper, that makes sense. I mean, what would God rather you do? Run around in circles or, you know, go be a missionary in China. This sounds way better than that, right?

[1:30] But Eric's response is really powerful. He says, he says to his sister, he says, God has made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure. And this is powerful, like just groundbreaking stuff to get your heart and your head around.

[1:44] God makes us certain ways. And that's so that we can be on mission, right? And so he's saying, look, look at this opportunity God's given me.

[1:55] He made me fast. And Eric went on to have phenomenal opportunities to share the gospel through this gift that God had given him to run in the Olympics. So this is the idea of going, hey, God made me good at something.

[2:10] How can I do it in such a way where I feel God's pleasure? We built a building as a church and there was a large concrete pad and everyone just assumed that we were going to, you know, put a basketball court there.

[2:24] Went across the street from us. I mean, literally you can throw a rock very easily and hit a basketball court where lots of kids and neighbors go and play basketball every single day, right?

[2:38] What was happening here is this classic disconnect between I like to play basketball and what if I used my joy of playing basketball, what if I used that in such a way where I felt God's pleasure?

[2:51] What if I did that in a way that it was connected to mission? And so lots of Christians, you know, for example, play basketball just in their Christian groups. It's a silly example, but man, it really is a thing there.

[3:03] We don't connect doing what we love to do to do it in such a way where we can bring God glory in the way we do it. I talked about this one time somewhere and a year later, a guy said to me, I got it.

[3:15] He's like, man, I love to run. And I did what you said and I went and joined a Christian running club. And I was like, man, you don't got it. Like you're still just hanging out with Christians. You know, I said, were there any other running clubs in your town?

[3:28] Oh yeah, lots of them. Why didn't you join one of them, right? We just, we have this just strange disconnect between doing what we love and doing it in a way where we can glorify God with it, right?

[3:39] So that's just a little easy one for you is what do you like to do and how could you do that in such a way where you bring glory to God? Maybe it's fishing or surfing or, you know, sewing or whatever it is.

[3:50] Like how can you take that and use it and leverage it for the gospel? But it's more than doing what we love to do. I mean, that's a good thing, but if that's the only thing we're doing, it's a bit selfish, right?

[4:00] Good missionaries also just do what needs to be done. If you think about the Good Samaritan, there's this guy in Luke 10 who Jesus chooses to profile. And he says, here's what happens is he goes and he finds someone who's just been beaten and left for dead.

[4:18] And the Good Samaritan jumps in and does something about it. Now there's no, you know, scripture or Dead Sea Scroll somewhere that tells us the Good Samaritan's hobby was picking up, you know, roadkill on the side of the road and making it better.

[4:31] No, this is just what needed to be done. And so as Christians, as good missionaries, we don't just wanna do what we like to do to the glory of God. We also wanna keep our eyes open for needs all around us.

[4:44] And sometimes it just means doing what needs to be done, right? We don't wanna just, you know, sometimes we can spiritualize our selfishness, right? That's not what I feel led to do.

[4:55] Well, maybe not. And maybe it's not what you're gonna do forever, but if it needs to be done, jump in and do it with joy, right? And then the last thing I wanna just kinda help us see is that good missionaries, they see all of life as just opportunities for mission.

[5:10] They see it all around them. I think one of the hardest mentalities for a lot of us as Christians to break, if you grew up in churches, you probably had events. You had outreach, you know, events.

[5:23] You had things that your church did that you had to invite all your friends to. And these were the moments where you're meant to kick into gear and to be on mission. Maybe it was a mission trip or maybe it was a serving opportunity.

[5:34] Those were the moments instead of like, no, all of life. All of life is the moments, right? Everywhere we go. And so I've got six little Ps that I think will help you. They start with P and maybe that'll be an easy way for you to remember them.

[5:47] The first one is just being present. Just being present. That just means looking with your eyes open when you go somewhere, being there with people, being present. You know, a big hindrance for this for me and for a lot of us is our cell phone.

[6:01] It's really hard to be present when you're looking down at your phone. But if you go to the grocery store, if everywhere you're going, you're staring at your phone, you sent a message to everyone that you're not interested in them, that you don't care about them, you're not present with them.

[6:14] But man, go in with the sense of being present. Hang out where people are and be present with them. My friend Scott Slayton says, others cannot see your good works and glorify your father in heaven if you race down the driveway, pull into the garage and go inside and watch Netflix all night.

[6:31] You have to actually be with people. So maybe a real step for you this week is just being outside some, being around your neighbors, being around your friends and don't be tied to your phone, be present, right?

[6:42] The second thing is be persistent. Be persistent. This is a very helpful thing I've found. It's just to look at your normal rhythms in life. You know, going to the grocery store, going to the gas station or going to a restaurant or a coffee shop or whatever the case is.

[7:00] But if you can pick a few of those things and you take these normal rhythms of life because everybody's like, I don't have time to do one more thing. Well, what are the things you're already doing? And how can you be more persistent in those places?

[7:12] Think about that show Cheers, you know, where everybody knows your name. How can you increase some repetition so that people begin to get to know you? And that will lead to relationship and opportunities to talk about Jesus.

[7:24] The third thing I'd tell you is to be patient. You know, this stuff doesn't happen on the first time all the time, you know? There's folks I've been loving and serving and intentionally just getting around for like three or four years and nothing's happened yet.

[7:40] But man, we just keep at it because it's up to God for that moment to happen. But man, I'm gonna be patient. I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna keep serving. I'm gonna keep loving. The fourth one is be prepared. And that's what holds that be patient one intention is man, it can happen like that.

[7:56] There's a funny story. Me and Jill were in Puerto Rico for our eighth anniversary. We found these just dirt cheap tickets. We found this dirt cheap little place to stay for 40 bucks a night. And we were in this fancy little restaurant on our eighth anniversary.

[8:09] Four seats in the whole restaurant. Just so romantic, so perfect. And we got there first and the chef comes over and he's like, we've got this kind of fish and what do you want us to make? And it was just this perfect night. And then a couple comes in and they sit at the table with us.

[8:22] This is the only table in the restaurant. We've now fully booked the restaurant with our four seats. And I'm just pretending they don't exist, pretending they're not there. And then the girl leans over and she says, hey, Donnie.

[8:33] And then I just keep pretending like no one's there. She says it again. And then I look over and she says, we've been dying to check out your church. This is a girl I apparently went to school with. They were on vacation in the same little village in Puerto Rico the same time we were.

[8:48] And they booked to go to the same restaurant that same night and they said our same table. And I wasn't prepared for that. In fact, candidly, I didn't even want to talk to them about Jesus. I wanted to just be with my wife.

[8:58] But we ended up having this dinner together and talking about the gospel and talking about how good Jesus is. Be prepared. You never know when this is going to happen, right? In John 4, Jesus is going to get water and the disciples go to get some food in this village.

[9:12] And this is when he meets that woman at the well. And Jesus was prepared for that moment, right? And this woman gets her life changed. And then she goes back into the town and the disciples come out of that town and they come back to Jesus.

[9:23] They're like, look, we got food, like high-fiving each other like they did it. Meanwhile, this woman goes and she tells the whole town about Jesus. And they all come, beg Jesus to stay. And then many, many people in this town end up getting their lives changed by Jesus.

[9:36] Because Jesus, he was getting water, but he was like, he was getting water with his eyes open. He was prepared for that moment and he loved and he engaged that woman, right? The disciples were just kind of, you know, heads down, going to town, get food, come back.

[9:50] I guess the moral of the story is you can get food, you know, you can get lunch or you can get groceries like the disciples or you can do it like Jesus, right? Man, but we want to be prepared for these moments. And then a couple more quick ones, practice.

[10:03] Just try, you know, if you're a shy person, first of all, if you're an introvert, I can identify with a lot of that. I really can. But man, our personalities are not the excuse for us to not obey the Great Commission.

[10:14] So let's push past those. But man, just try, just say, hi. And maybe next time it's like, how are you? Like you just grow in that, just step out, just try, just practice, right?

[10:26] The more repetition you get of engaging people and loving them and serving them and being around them, the easier it'll get for you. And then the final tip, the most important thing, if you don't do anything else, is pray.

[10:38] Because man, we want to trust that it's God who's going to use us, that God's going to show up and God's going to do what only God can do. Only God can open blind eyes. Only God can bring life into dead hearts.

[10:50] Only God can help people see Jesus for who Jesus really is. And so pray a lot. And I would encourage you too, to do this in groups. You know, maybe, you know, you get a couple of your friends and you guys go to the same restaurant every Thursday night and you pray together before you go in there and you ask for the same server and you tip really well and you ask questions like, how's your night going?

[11:08] And that's just become natural for us. As soon as we sit down, we look at the server and go, how you doing? And you wouldn't believe how many servers, they get emotional because they're not ready for that, right? And actually, I'm not doing good.

[11:20] They've had to roll in from whatever this life circumstances they've got. They've got to put a smile on. They've got to pretend like everything's fine. They've got to deal with people yelling at them and tipping badly and, you know, all that kind of stuff. Man, just do it together.

[11:32] Care about people. Pray together. And just, man, let's trust God that He'd get much glory through that. So take some time in your groups to talk about that. You know, talk about ways that you can use what you love to the glory of God and areas where, man, there's just a need that you can jump into.

[11:48]  And then talk about these six Ps and just, man, which one of those feels like, and I need to trust God that I can do better in that way. We love you guys. God bless you. God bless you.