Hello, how's everyone doing this morning?
So good or this evening at the U of I if you're a dad at the U of I and you stuck around
For the late night. We're glad you're here. We want to say welcome to you for you guys as well. Welcome
I'm glad you're here. This is the last installment of the heart habits series. So hopefully oh
It was what I expected, but maybe you're like yeah
Glad it's over
I'm kidding. So we have spent the last four weeks talking about the fact that God has given us a new heart
If you're a believer in Jesus here today, you have been given a new heart by Christ and that new heart came with everything
It needed except new habits. So new hopes new desires new dreams new future new Lord everything except for
New habits so for the last three weeks
Well, we are we have said what do we need to do with our new heart to cultivate new habits so that when we get to
The end of our lives, we are actually who we wanted to be and so I hope you've taken part in the 21-day challenge that we put
On the app. I hope you have broken bad habits. I hope you have new habits. I hope that your heart has been captured
I hope that this hasn't just been four weeks
I have a lot of hopes for you guys and this morning and this this evening at UI. I have more hopes for you in this sermon
So real quick. I want to give you the recap the first week
We said God gave us a new heart and that made it us made us positionally holy
We didn't earn that we didn't work for that God did that in us and from that positional holiness
We walk in personal holiness
Hashtag day by day following Jesus the next week we talked about what it means to fear the Lord
To fear the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom
So the first habit of our new heart is the fear of the Lord the fear of the Lord leads us to abide with Christ walk with Christ
Hashtag day by day last week we preached on community and I got in a little bit of trouble last week
Some of you didn't like the sermon last week. So some people were saying
That seems like a little much when I told you about the church in California
So God gave us a new heart and that new heart should be sustained in covenant community of the church
So when I said hey, there's this other church in California that has lock boxes on their door
And if you're a member you can go right on in some of you emailed like hey, man, the lockbox thing wasn't cool and I hate you
Love anonymous person so
But I recognize that some of you went home and scratched your name off the milk carton
And and I know some of you went home and had a conversation with your roommates
About how you guys could do life together a little bit more. I got a house key last week from one of my friends
he's like hey come over anytime you want and and I appreciated that's community building kind of stuff
But there's a guy on our staff who has an Excel spreadsheet going around getting people's addresses for our staff
And so if you see Russell Walgama show up to your house or to my house
Hopefully he's not there to steal things
Hopefully he is there to build community because stealing is a community killer. So don't steal from each other but rather
Know that when Russell shows up he has good intentions. I hope you guys ate each other's food this week
I hope you borrowed each other's car this week. I hope that you started the habit of living life together. So
This last habit is really connected to all three or another way to say it is this habit is what holds the other ones together
This habit kind of looks at the other two and says prove it
Like do you really walk in the other two if you don't walk in this third one than the other two are in question as well
And as I was thinking about this
These last three habits
Honestly, if I could just say to you as honest as I can the men in my life
I most look up to the women in my life
I most look up to the people that are farther ahead of me
They embody these three habits and I look at their lives and I go I want to be that when I die
And so I want to be a person that abides with Christ day by day
I want to be a person that the walks in covenant community day by day and then today
What we're going to talk about is I want to be a person who day by day lives with the habit of living sent
So so what I'm saying is I want to be a person who walks with Christ who walks in community and who walks into
culture with a mission
So this is the this is the hope of this sermon is that we could talk about what it means to live sent or the habit of living sent
in 2009
America changed when a survey came back. This said Christianity was declining
So the American religious identification survey caused quite a stir because Christians had dropped from 86 percent
To 76 percent and non people that they don't have any beliefs
So they call them the nuns so the nuns which is funny because you think of a nun like wearing you
Hey real quick. You know that nuns wear something called a habit
Like like their get-up is called a habit
So if you Google search habit you'll find like how to dress like a nun and so I saw nuns on Halloween
I'm like, look, they're wearing habits. You don't care. All right, so
I'm just trying to inform you guys thought you might care about some habits
They literally wear habits think about it
We're asked okay. I'll move on
Literally it's on them. It's a habit. They're wearing it. Okay. I'll stop
We're supposed to wear habits in our heart. You get it. Okay, cool
So the nuns had moved from 8% to 15% so they grew Christianity shrink
Newsweek ran an article called the end of Christian America based on this
USA Today ran articles called the coming evangelical
Collapse bloggers came out of their parents basement and started writing that was a joke came out of it and started writing about how
Pastors need to find other jobs because the church is going to collapse America's not a Christian nation anymore
And and this led to a study which basically said what does it mean to be Christian?
And these people came up with three distinctions of Christians. You can be a cultural Christian. So by heritage
I'm I'm a Greek Catholic by heritage or congregational Christian. I go on Easter and I go on Christmas
I'm loosely associated with a congregation and then lastly a conviction will Christian and what it means to be
Convictional based on this study and literally this is what it says is that I met Jesus and got a new heart
I was like, I'm gonna use that in my sermon along with habits in my sermon
So so these are what it means to be a Christian the three types of ways and four years later here
Here we stand in a really unique spot
So so I want to be honest with you and say as truthfully as I can the church is not dying
The church will never die last time I checked Jesus was doing just fine
And so in light of Christ being the leader of the church the leaders doing fine America might have had a little decline
But worldwide the church is fine. The church is a movement that is going to keep moving
Now the church may not be dying, but I want to say clearly the church is being more defined
So it's not dying. It's being more clearly defined things are changing stats are moving people are nervous bloggers are writing
So plainly stated
We can no longer ring the church bell and just assume people are going to show up as they did on the
1974 to 1984
Many series little house on the prairie
Little house on the prairie if you remember would ring a church bell and everyone just came you couldn't stay home and play video games
They didn't have those you couldn't play with the dog or whatever you had to come
They rang the bell and you came to church. So times they are a changing and you can no longer do that anymore
Truth is no longer assumed
Everyone would rather take truth and deconstruct truth everyone would rather grab authority and make it a non-authority
Everything is ambiguous. Everything is is on the table of thoughts. There's no black. There's white. Everything is gray
The calling has not changed, but the culture certainly has
And I think we're better for it
I think it's fine. I'm happy about it. I think that God knew all along this was coming
And I think God looked at little house on the prairie and said that's cute, but that's not the call
I'm glad you can ring a bell and people can come, but that little city and that little prairie isn't real life
So those days are dead and we need to rejoice that those days are dead because church was never intended to simply be an
Attractional place. God had something else in mind all along
And what God had in mind all along was the habit of living sent
And I want to show you that in the scripture. So if you have a Bible, I want you to grab it in turn with me to John chapter 17
I don't want to talk to you about what it means to live sent
So if you have a Bible grab if you have an app you can open your app
They're going to put it on the screen
But today for this sermon it might be a little different because I want you to keep your Bible open the whole time
And we're going to walk verse by verse through some things. This may feel more like teaching than preaching
But I have to get this stuff into your head so that you might believe it. So John chapter 17
Jesus has just wrote into Jerusalem. He's predicted that he's going to be in a church
He's predicted his death. He's watched his disciples feet and John 15. He tells his people. Hey abide in me
We talked about that two weeks ago
John 16 he tells him the Holy Spirit's coming and then John 17 what we're about to read is one day before Jesus dies
This is the day before he goes to the cross. He prays for us starting in verse 9
I pray for them
And I'm not praying for the world
But for those you have given me for they are yours
All I have is yours and all you have is mine and glory has come to me through them
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world and I'm coming to you
Holy Father protect them by the power of your name the name you gave me so that they may be one as we are one
While I was with them
I protected them and kept them safe by the name that you gave me Jesus kept his people safe by the name of Jesus
I think that's fascinating. I did it in the name of Jesus God
You keep doing it for them in the name of Jesus. That's how we are protected
None has been lost
Except the one doomed for destruction. That's Judas the one that betrays Christ
So the scripture would be fulfilled verse 13
I'm coming to you now
But I say these things while I am still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them
Jesus prayed that we would have the full measure of his joy within us
I've sent them your word and the world has hated them
For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil
They are not of this world even as I am not of it
Sanctify them by the truth your word is truth as you sent me into the world
I have sent them into the world for them. I sanctify myself that they too may be truly
Sanctify so keep your bible open stay with me verse 15 is where we're going to start walking through this and verse 15 says
My prayer
Is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from evil so john 17 verse 15 says this
it would seem
The jesus has no problem with us being in the world
In other words, you don't become a christian and then float away
You don't get a new heart and then get an elevator key to go ahead and get on out of here
You don't get a stairway to heaven not the song but like a real literal stairway to heaven after you become a follower of christ
It doesn't seem like he has any problem with us being in the world
Jesus says I gave them the full measure of joy
I gave them my word
Now the world hates them
Keep them in the world
In the fullness of joy under the protection of christ. We are to stay in the world. This is covering language
You don't get to come out from the world. You just get to be covered while you're in the world
Jesus just said god keep them in the world, but keep them under my name
Like that you would be a silo this this is star trek like beam me up all the time like you're walking around
I don't even watch star trek, but nonetheless
So you're just this walking around under the covering of the name of christ all the while not being a silo to the world
You don't get to be out of the world. You get to be in the world under the covering of christ in his name
So I know that the world hates them Jesus says
But I know the world needs them
So I know that they're hated, but I need them in the world because the world needs them
So send them into the world with the fullness of my joy verse 16
They are not of the world
Even as I'm not of the world Jesus says you guys if you're follow christ you are not of the world
So we are unhomed here. It's what Jesus is saying. This place is not our home
When you look around this should not be the fullness of your joy christ should be the fullness of your joy
You and I aren't home yet
This is not where we are finally going to be uh destined to be
So again, jesus is okay with us staying here
But jesus is not okay with us pretending this world is our home
He is fine with us being here, but he's not fine with us pretending that this world is the fullness of our joy
That this world is where we're going to end up for the long haul and secondly
He's okay with us being here
But he's not okay with us taking our little little house on the prairie christianity and keeping us from the world
So in other words, you can't hang out with those who are not of the world while neglecting to be in the world
You cannot say me and mine not of the world friends are never going to be in the world
You're to be in the world not of the world with these other people who are not of the world, but in the world
Okay, we'll keep going
Little house on the prairie
Is fine and traditionally speaking it worked
But but what happened is there's there's this church that's the building in the neighborhood
And this building in the neighborhood rings the bell and we go to the building and this building in the neighborhood
has programs and
This building in the neighborhood has activities
And this building in the neighborhood has this one guy that we pay to speak to us
And he better be funny and he better do a good job because we pay him to speak to us
And in other words the majority of my praying the majority of my fellowship
The majority of my worship all happens at this place
with these four walls.
And so if we're not careful, we think that's the point.
But I wanna clearly say to you,
the church is not a container to keep Christians in,
away from the world.
The church is not a container to keep us in.
This is critical.
Jesus wants us to remain in the world
while we remain in Christ, while we remain in community.
So simply said, Christ prays, keep them here,
keep them together, keep them protected,
but do not keep them from engaging the world.
Keep them here, protect them, keep them together,
but do not keep them from engaging the world.
So you might ask, okay, we're here, we're together,
we're protected, but we're not to keep
from engaging the world, but now what?
What are we gonna do in the meantime?
Verse 17 says this,
sanctify them by the truth.
Your word is the truth.
So this word sanctify in the Greek
is the word hagiazo, and hagiazo is just fun to say.
You should just try it while you walk around later.
Hagiazo just sounds awesome.
Hagiazo means set apart.
Like if you have a Bible, it may be down in the footnote.
Like it's down in my Bible right there.
It tells you what it means.
Hagiazo means set apart for sacred use,
or to be made holy.
So sanctify them, set them apart for sacred use.
In the New Testament, the word for church is ecclesia.
And so ecclesia is the same exact definition.
They are the set apart ones.
They are the called out ones.
They are the gathering of those who are in the world,
but not of the world.
They are sacredly set apart and then catch this.
And then they are set in the center of culture.
So now we're back in the neighborhood.
But we're not back in the neighborhood with a bell to ring.
We're back in the neighborhood as the set apart ones,
called out ones, then set in the neighborhood for what?
Well, what are we doing now?
What is happening in the meantime?
And this is where the whole sermon hopefully
will make sense to you.
In verse 18, Jesus answers, what are we doing here?
He says, as you sent me into the world,
I have sent them into the world.
As you sent me into the world,
I have sent them into the world.
The English language has a very big problem
with the word you in the plural sense.
If you're from the south, it's called y'all.
If you're from the northwest, it's you guys.
So what Jesus is saying here is not you are sent,
you are sanctified, you are special.
He's saying y'all are sent.
You guys are set apart.
You guys are going into culture together in Christ,
in community, in culture,
telling them the story of Christ together.
You guys are in the neighborhood differently now.
Y'all have a mission.
You guys have something to do here.
This is not singular.
Me and Jesus have my little life,
and my little house, and my little world.
No, no, y'all have to get this.
You guys must understand this and cling to this.
As God sent me, so I send them.
So I send you, plural.
So it seems that the church is not our refuge from the world.
The church is not where me and my Christian friends hang out
away from all the bad stuff in the world.
The church is not a building in the neighborhood.
The church is not a container to keep Christians in.
It seems that Jesus is saying the church
is a sending station to keep Christians going out.
The church is not a container to keep Christians in.
The church is a sending station to keep Christians out.
Jesus said, so you sent me, so I send them.
We are on the same mission that Jesus was on.
Do you catch that?
So the church is a gathering of goers,
set apart and then set right in the neighborhood.
So we don't go to church anymore.
We are the gathering of goers set in the neighborhood
to go to culture.
As he sent me, so I send them, which begs the question,
well, how did God send Jesus into the world?
If God sent Christ and Christ sends us, how did he send him?
And I think back on the Instagram photo
of the great God of the universe
who we should fear him because he's protecting us,
not punishing us, that God,
how did he send his son into the world?
Just think about it for a second.
Wouldn't you assume that he would send him in royalty,
in majesty, and in safety, and in covering?
No, he sent Christ into the world.
Just think about it for a second with me.
Born in a stranger's barn.
No midwife to be found.
Cold, cobblestone floor, animals all around.
Pay on the ground.
Born in a stranger's barn, grew up living a peasant's life
as a humble carpenter.
When he turns 30, he gets baptized to live a life
where he is homeless and he is broke,
and he never imposes himself on anyone.
Rather, he invites lovingly everyone to follow him.
He didn't force anyone.
He doesn't use lasers or light shows.
God became one of us, and for 30 years, no one noticed.
God moved in to the neighborhood,
and for 30 years, no one's head really turned towards him.
Christ came in the middle of a culture,
and he came completely incognito.
He moved in and from within,
influenced everyone without.
This is how God sent Christ into the world,
and this is how Christ sent us into the world.
God engaged the world with humble faithfulness day by day,
and he invites us to engage the world
in humble faithfulness day by day.
And if you don't hear anything in this sermon,
like this next part, I need you to get it.
And I know that today's sermon doesn't have stories,
and I may not make you laugh that much,
but I hope that this informs you,
and you hang on to this for the whole of your life.
But listen, the power of the movement of Christianity,
the power of the movement of Christianity,
the movement of Christianity is the only movement
that's never decreased.
It's always been moving,
and the power of that movement is that all of us,
all of you guys, all of y'all, all of us,
from the wisest to the most foolish
is invited to do the same work of Jesus.
And what I mean by that is you don't need a degree,
you don't need credentials, the cross qualifies you,
your baptism commissions you, and you have permission,
permission granted to go and do the same work
of the founder of the faith.
You and I, wisest to foolish,
is walking around with the embodiment of the mission
available to us, permission granted to us.
Can you share the gospel?
Can you make disciples?
Yes, isn't that what Jesus did?
Yes, this movement is exploding.
And the brilliance of it all is that Christ
has strategically placed in me and you the capacity
to reproduce the whole.
In us is the same capacity to reproduce
the whole of Christianity which Christ embodied.
In us is the ability to share the gospel and make disciples.
You and me have permission to seek and save the lost
just as Christ came to seek and save the lost.
Now let me be very clear, you and I do not do the saving.
Jesus does the saving, we do the proclaiming,
Jesus does the healing, we do the demonstrating.
Jesus is the means of salvation,
but we are the messengers of salvation.
This is non-negotiable.
There is no such thing as an unsent Christian.
There's no such thing.
God sent Christ, Christ sins us.
In other words, God sent Christ, Christ made disciples,
disciples made the church, the church has sent
to make more disciples that will make more churches
that will make more disciples.
Do you catch the perpetuating nature of this?
In us is the ability to reproduce the whole.
This is the capacity of Christianity in your hands
with permission granted for you to walk in this.
This is why this movement will always explode
all around the world because Christ has given us permission.
And you might ask, how in the world is this possible?
How is this possible?
And I think verse 18 answers it for us.
Or verse 19 says, for them I sanctify myself
that they too may be truly sanctified.
For them I sanctify myself that they may be truly sanctified.
So let me explain this to you.
Jesus was absolutely sinless, never had a bad thought,
never did a sinful action, never fell one time
to temptation, was tempted in the same way
that every first century man was tempted,
but he never broke ever.
So Jesus did not need to be sanctified.
Furthermore, Jesus did not need to be baptized,
but he did these things to model to us
how we would follow after him.
And in this particular scenario,
he's foreshadowing the cross.
And by that I mean, he is showing us
that he paid for our salvation.
So he saved us by his work for his work.
God saved us by the cross
so that we might be messengers of the cross.
The cross qualifies you, your baptism commissions you,
and you have in you the permission to reproduce the whole.
You and I are being asked to live in such a way
that the whole of Christianity
would recognize the whole of the gospel.
This is not just for pastors, this is for everyone.
This is for you, plural.
As I was reading about this,
I was reading some things
and some other people were sending me some articles
and one guy I read, he said this,
and this is harsh, and this was personally harsh for me,
but he said, I wish pastors would quit talking
about their new churches
and start talking more about the old cross.
He says, if I could just get my church planners
to spend as much time talking about the old cross
as they spend talking about their new churches,
their new church might have a chance to grow
because you don't plant churches,
you plant the gospel, which is the cross,
and from gospel, you have disciples being made,
and when disciples are made, you get a church.
So your new church will do great
if you'll talk about the old cross.
So when we go to new cities, we're not sending a church,
we're sending disciples who will then make a church.
God sent Christ, Christ made disciples,
disciples made the church.
The church is sent to make disciples
that will make more churches.
So this is the hard part of the sermon
because the gospel is incredibly offensive.
If you're new here today, the goal of Resonate,
I'll just show you our cards.
The goal is that every time you walk in,
you would meet people that you like,
and you would hear music that you like,
and then nothing in, from the parking lot
to the point of the sermon, nothing in that process,
whatever offends you to the point
that you wouldn't wanna come back.
None of those things would be hurdles
until this point in the program.
The gospel is offensive.
The gospel is sometimes awkward.
The gospel is difficult, but if you do not share it,
then people cannot come into the kingdom.
So as plainly as I can say it,
is you don't get to the kingdom
without going through the cross.
You don't plant churches without telling the story
of the cross.
And so so God sent Christ, so Christ sends us.
It's the church is sent by Jesus.
The church is sent with the cross.
And the church is sent in community.
And I pray that this would not offend anyone.
I pray that this would be a welcoming story
of how God took your place in Christ on the cross
so that you might come into a new community.
This is central to God's plan.
The church is not the center of God's plan.
Jesus is, but the church is central to God's plan.
We were sent with the cross, sent in community,
sent to culture to create Christians
who live sent with the cross, sent in community
to create culture who live sent, you get it.
Okay, I'm repeating myself.
This has to be a movement obsessed with discipleship.
And I submit to you all that I'm talking about
is what you were created for.
This is the purpose of your life.
Our generation is obsessed with adventure.
When right in front of us,
we have the greatest adventure ever told
and we're afraid to live in it.
You want a Pinterest worthy life?
You want an Instagram story?
I got one for you, it's a good story.
You're invited to lay down your life for the mission.
So as plainly as I can say it,
the church doesn't have a mission.
The mission has a church.
The church doesn't have a story that we need to go walk in.
There is a story being told
and we are invited to walk in it.
The church doesn't have a mission.
The mission has a church
and you and I are offered an opportunity to walk in this.
So practically speaking,
what this means is clearly as I can say it
is no matter where you work for,
you are a full time staff member of a church.
So I don't know where you work,
but I wanna say it as plainly as I can.
You are a full time staff member of a church.
Now on the left hand corner,
it might say Switzer, it might say WSU,
it might say U of I, it might say Starbucks,
it might say a multitude of things,
but no matter what it says,
you have to realize God is routing his money to you
for the sake of the ministry
that he's invited you to do in that place.
I cannot, our pastors cannot go into your workplace
and share the gospel.
God sent you there.
He is routing his money to you
so that you might embody a sent life right where you are.
You're sent to your class, you're sent to your dorm room,
you're sent to Starbucks,
you're sent everywhere around you.
We've got to quit believing that Christianity
is simply event volunteering.
That what I'm doing, I'm sent to volunteer for events.
Now it takes a lot of energy and effort
to put on our church.
This is an event that we volunteer for.
This is the church that we serve,
but this isn't the whole.
Christ did not die so that you and I
would volunteer for events.
We are called to a life of ministry.
The best carrier of the gospel is not an event.
The best carrier of the gospel is you and I
are living our lives for the glory of God together.
And I want you to know this isn't extra.
What I'm not asking you to do is a burden.
What I'm asking you to do is do everything
you've been doing with gospel intent.
What I'm asking you to do is do everything
you've been doing with a different sense of intentionality.
You already eat 21 meals a week,
or 10 meals, I don't know how your life is.
Maybe you eat a lot of ramen once
and then that's fine for a while.
I don't know, but you already eat meals.
So eat meals with intent.
You already go to the rec.
Go to the rec with intent.
You already go work out and coffee shops
and these different things.
So do these things with intent.
This is not a burden, this is joy.
And the illustration for intent,
it's almost like, let me just speak
to the guys for a second.
This is almost the picture of romantic intent.
So all of a sudden you start thinking
some girl is really, really pretty.
And then all of a sudden you're like,
I'm gonna show up to village early
because maybe she'll be there.
And all of a sudden you're saving a seat at village.
And one of your boys sits down and you're like,
dude, get up, I'm trying to save the seat.
And then all of a sudden you're like,
it's time to cook for village.
And you're like, hey, hey girl,
do you wanna cook?
I only know how to cook spaghetti,
but someone has to stir the sauce.
You wanna cook with me?
It's probably a two person job, right?
All of a sudden you're showing to village early.
You're saving seats.
You're signing up to cook.
You're taking showers.
You're trying to, you're like,
I think I own a button up shirt somewhere.
Let me find it.
And then slowly but surely over time, fellas,
you come to a spot with this girl
who sat next to you, cooked with you.
You think that she's maybe getting the vibe
you're putting out.
And all of a sudden you go to her and you say,
hey listen, this Friday or this Saturday,
if you're free, I would like to take you to eat
and maybe watch a movie and I'm gonna pay for it.
I'm gonna wear a button up shirt
and I might bring flowers and I don't know if you noticed,
but I've been showering and stuff, it's been good.
And listen, I want you to know,
if you say yes to this or if you say no to this,
that's on you, but I have some intentions.
I have a lot of intentions with this.
I think you're, I would like to move out
of the friend zone with you.
I think you're different.
And so I'm not thinking this way towards any other girl.
I'm thinking this way towards you.
I have intention towards you.
And if you say yes to this,
the no moving forward, I have intentions
and go home and tell all your girlfriends,
hey, he has intentions and he was actually clear with me.
Imagine that.
You'd have to have a DTR.
I'm gonna define it right now.
I have intentions towards you.
You look differently, you think differently, you act differently.
You move towards her differently.
You have eyes for her, you're living towards her, fellas.
So the same picture applies to living with gospel intent.
That you would see people in your life
and you would live differently, walk differently,
sound differently, invest differently towards them.
Well, my neighbor's outside raking.
I wanna come out and help him.
He had to push a car into his garage
because the battery died.
I wanna come out and help him.
And listen to me, that's not project.
That's love on purpose.
I want to share with him the gospel.
And if I'm gonna share with him the gospel,
I need to live towards him with gospel intent.
And when the opportunity arises,
I must speak a word of gospel to him with readiness.
Gospel intent will lead you to the conversation,
but you need to have readiness to share the story
of what Christ did in you.
And there might be some questions that he has or she has
that are more sophisticated
than you can ever give an answer to.
But what they cannot argue with
is a story of your life being changed.
So if you're a non-believer in the room,
whoever brought you here,
I hope that you ask them after this,
hey man, what's your intention with me?
Hey, what's up?
Like, are we going somewhere?
And they go, yeah, totally, we're going somewhere.
I'd like to ask you if we could go on a coffee date.
I got some stuff to share.
And in that, they share, are you tracking with that?
And I really hope you know,
I mean the gospel, not something else, right?
So I'm tracking with you.
So you must find yourself living with gospel intent
so that you might share the gospel with readiness.
And the gospel might be your story.
If you need principles or practices,
we have a missional living class
where we'd love to share with you
a tool on how to share the gospel.
But in the meantime, go to the class,
but in the meantime, you can share your story with someone.
My wife, Amy, is very pregnant right now.
And by that I mean like, my phone is on,
I may need someone to finish this for me, kind of pregnant.
Like, her mom is here, she's eating spicy food,
maybe that's TMI, but we're doing the whole thing.
Like, it could happen.
So I have a baby girl coming at any moment.
Yeah, that's exciting.
Thank you.
It's our first kid, so I may not be clapping in a week.
We'll see.
I'm like, I'm so tired.
Oh, why do you just cry?
Don't you love me?
So I don't know what I'm getting into,
but I know I'm physically preparing,
emotionally preparing, financially preparing,
and we're crying a lot, we're praying a lot,
we're doing that whole thing.
And I just walk in the room and I'm like,
oh man, this is crazy, and just leave,
and need to take a walk.
But it's a lot of preparation.
And so last night, in preparation for having a daughter,
Amy and I and her mom watch The Lorax together.
So it's, we're on Netflix watching The Lorax.
And it's a movie about trees, right?
You've probably seen it, a big deal.
But what happens at the end, it's a good movie.
But what happens at the end of The Lorax,
and you've probably seen this so you know,
but the thing that flashes on the screen
and the point of the story all throughout
is this Dr. Seuss quote, right?
The last thing that shows in the movie is this quote
that says this.
It says, unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better, it's not.
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better, it's not.
And so I'm sitting there, we're trying to pay attention
to The Lorax while I'm thinking about, man,
it's Saturday night, I got some sermon prep to do.
And this last thing comes on the screen,
unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
it's not going to get better, it's not.
And I started thinking about the sermon
and how there are people in our lives
who they don't even know their need for Christ,
and unless someone like us cares a whole awful lot,
it's not going to get better, it's just not.
So do you care?
I think you do, I think you want to care.
I think there are people in your life that you say,
I want to do something towards them with intent
to lead them to a conversation towards Jesus.
God sent, Christ, Christ sent you,
Christ cared a whole awful lot,
we should care a whole awful lot.
So I want to give you three very simple, practical ways
that you might have the habit of living sent
all the way until you die.
I hope these next three things I tell you
are habits of your life for the whole of your life.
These are three missionary practices I learned
that helped me a whole awful lot and caring a whole awful lot.
And the first thing is simple, it's identify.
So identify, think about five people in your life
who don't know Christ.
Write down their names, commit to identify them,
the next one is invest.
Think about the ways you can invest your life in them,
commit to prayer, that you would invest prayer into them,
you would invest time into them,
you would invest money into taking them out
and hanging out with them, you would identify who they are
and then intentionally with intent you would invest in them
and then lastly invite.
Think about when you're gonna share the gospel with them.
So identify five people in your life who don't know Jesus
and identify lots and lots of ways
that you can find five people to give your life to
and invest in them and then lastly is invite them.
Most of us stop at invest
because we don't know we have permission to invite.
I remember the first time I ever led someone to Christ
and I looked around like,
do I need to ask somebody if I can do this?
Listen, you have permission to invite people
to follow Christ.
The whole of Christianity was available to you
to multiply, the cross qualifies, you are commissioned
so you have permission to look at your friends
who you've invested in and say, hey, would you,
right now in reunion, right now in the sub,
right now in the commons that you have I,
wherever you are right now,
would you like to follow Jesus right now?
And you can pray with them and then from that,
tell your village leader, tell the church,
tell the community, tell that person,
you have a new heart, now you have a new community
and by the way, you have a new mission.
So you will abide with Christ day by day,
you will walk in covenant community day by day
and you will live sent day by day.
I challenge you to identify five people to invest in them
and to invite them to follow Jesus.
Our hope for you as a church is that this would be
the embodiment of your life so that your yes
would be on the table for God.
So you would commit to the habit of living sent.
So we ask you, hey, would you like to go to your neighbor?
You say yes, hey, would you like to go to the nations?
You say yes, that the habit of living sent is in you.
So it doesn't matter geographically where you sent,
it matters personally that you were sent.
You have to believe this, you have to put on the table,
I will go where I have to go,
I'll go anywhere that I'm called and I'm called everywhere.
So everything's on the, throw a dart, I might go.
Will you go to your neighbor?
Yeah, will you go to the nations?
Yeah, we have intentions for you as a church.
We would want all of you to spend a spring break
or a Christmas break or a summer in the nations.
We want that for you because if you go and live sent,
you will never, ever, ever want to not live sent.
It will radically affect all that you are
because you'll find the secret in verse 13,
the secret of all of this is what I'm talking about
is the fullness of joy.
What I'm talking about is the fullness of joy
that if you live this way,
listening, nothing will light your relationship with Jesus
up more than you leading someone to Christ, nothing.
If you are stale in your faith, lead someone to Christ,
you won't be stale anymore.
If you're bored with the church,
lead someone to Christ, you won't be bored anymore.
This is the fullness of joy.
This is what you were created for.
Christ does not save anyone he does not intend to send.
He saved you with the intention of sending you.
And that's the strategy of the church.
That's why this movement's going to keep moving.
So here's all I want you to believe based on this sermon.
I want you to believe that you're sent.
I want you to believe that in your head.
I want you to believe that you're sent.
I want you to believe that you're sent with the cross
and community and to culture.
And I want you to believe that God has sent you
to certain places, to certain people on purpose.
I want you to believe that there's a mission happening
all around you where God's doing things
and you're invited to join him on that mission.
Believe you are sent.
And then I want you to do one thing in light of this sermon.
And the one thing I want you to do is commit to live
with gospel intent towards five people.
That's it.
I want you to believe you're sent
and I want you to commit to live with gospel intent
towards five people.
And when you identify them and you start to invest in them,
I want you to have the courage to invite them
to follow Jesus.
I want you to know you have permission
that as a church we're equipping you to send you out
so that those around you might come to know Christ
because you led them to Christ.
And in you is the capacity to reproduce the whole.
We are invited to live sent.
So I hope that you would find these people.
You would commit to live towards them.
And what's likely gonna happen is you'll see
as you start to pray for them,
your heart's gonna start breaking for them.
And every time you're around them,
you're just gonna start to feel this ache in you.
And you're just gonna be like,
hey man, I don't know how much longer this is gonna take,
but I need to really buy you coffee
and talk to you about some stuff.
You start praying for people,
your heart is going to get connected for them.
And if you're a non-believer in the room,
I hope that someone in this room is praying for you.
I hope that you're on someone's prayer list.
If you are here and don't know Jesus,
I hope that you know followers of Jesus are praying for you.
And asking the Lord to do in your heart
what we could never do,
and that is give you a new heart through the gospel.
Christ saves, we proclaim.
That's on us.
So I wanna pray for us so that we might live to that end.
Father, I ask that we would get this.
Lord, I ask that we would commit
to living a life that is sent.
Gotta ask that we would understand
that you saved us with the intention of sending us.
And gotta pray inside of us
would be a new desire to care a whole awful lot.
Gotta pray that as we identify people
who don't know Jesus,
you would give us ways to invest in those people,
and then you would give us the courage
to invite those people to follow Jesus.
Gotta pray that we recognize this as a group project
that together you have asked us
to carry the mission of Jesus to the ends of the earth.
God made this habit be the habit of our life.
From now until we go to be with Christ,
I pray that we have a running list
of five people that we've identified
that we're gonna invest in,
that we're gonna invite to follow you.
God give us courage.
God made me recognize what you've done in us.
I made that push us to invite you
to do that same thing in others.
Lord, give us courage.
Give us names of people.
Give us a broken heart.
And may we believe that just as you sent Jesus,
Jesus sends us. Pray this and believe for this.
In Christ's name, amen.
