There's Florida for several years, but I was
pretty sure I knew the way to the restaurant.
Men have an intuitive knowledge of those things,
you know. And as our van load of family, by this
time growing increasingly short on blood sugar
and patience, As we were driving through Fort
Myers, I knew that it was just up the street,
and my wife said that one thing a wife should
never say in a situation like that. Why don't
you stop and ask directions? Now, everybody knows
the reason you don't ask that question. And I
said, no, I saw the map said it has to be right
up here. So we drove, and we drove. I said, well,
maybe it's the street over. And we drove some
more. And finally, we had to do the unthinkable.
We had to stop and ask directions. It's important
to know what your destination is and how to get
there. That's not only true of us as families,
but it's true of us as a church as well. In Luke
chapter 24, Jesus gives us... our directions.
I invite you to look at verses 45 through 49
of Luke 24 with me. Then he opened their minds
so they could understand the scriptures. He told
them this is what is written, the Christ will
suffer and rise from the dead on the third day
and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be
preached in his name to all nations beginning
at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
I am going to send you what my Father has promised,
but stay in the city until you've been clothed
with power from on high. Churches, like other
organizations, need to understand their mission.
That is, their destination on the map, and how
to get there. It seems to me that here we have
an outline given by the Lord Jesus Christ for
the mission. of the church. It is a mission that
is just as certain to be fulfilled as was his
death. That's what he says. He opened their minds
to understand that the scriptures told that he
would come and die for sins, he would be raised
the third day, and then the scriptures also said
that he, repentance and forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name to all nations.
beginning at Jerusalem. Just as his death and
resurrection were certain, so the mission of
the church will be fulfilled. The question, of
course, is, will I, will we, have a part in what
God is going to do through his church in this
age? Our mission is to proclaim repentance and
forgiveness of sins. in his name to all nations
beginning here. We have the message. God has
given it to us. It is the message that there
is forgiveness with him. It is forgiveness that
is based upon the sacrifice of Christ. It is
because of his death and resurrection on our
behalf that we can find forgiveness with God.
It's not in what we do. It's what he's done.
And it's a matter of our simply believing that
and receiving him. into our lives. There's a
forgiveness that is not only based on his sacrifice,
but it's conditioned on our own personal repentance.
That is, we must personally take action to receive
this message, this good news. You and I have
the privilege of representing Jesus Christ in
this world and delivering this message. that
there is forgiveness with God to all who will
repent and believe on his Son. We have the mission.
The church is not intended by God to be merely
social. It is that in part, but it's more than
that. The church is not intended by God to be
institutional. There are organizational aspects
to the church, but it's much more than an institution.
The church is missional. The church has a cause.
The church has an assignment that it must fulfill
to be obedient. That's why we talk of ourselves
as being a mission center. Because the church
is missional. Therefore, we see ourselves as
a mission center. And our job is outreach. We
are to continually reach out to others who do
not yet know Christ. We said last week that outreach
must be balanced with nurture. Those that we
reach out to and win must be brought into the
church and in the church nurtured and cared for
and healed and restored and built up and equipped.
That's part of our mission. We must never forget
that. Outreach must be balanced with nurture.
with helping people in their weakness, in their
struggle, helping them to grow in Christ, helping
them to be healed from their hurts, helping them
to be freed from their bondages through the power
of Christ. So nurture is part of it. Outreach
must be balanced with nurture. However, nurture
must always lead to outreach. If it doesn't,
it becomes dead end. It becomes so self -focused
that it loses momentum. Nurture must result in
further outreach, and so there's a cycle here,
you see. We reach out, we enfold others in, and
nurture them that they then can join with us
in reaching out to yet others. We have the mission.
We need to get rid of the idea that has crept
into some parts of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The Church need not grow. or that church growth
is a bad thing, or church growth is undesirable.
In fact, it is just the opposite biblically.
The church must grow, because the church is a
living organism. To be healthy, it must grow.
It must continue to reach out. It must for its
own existence, as well as for God's glory. It
is expected that the church will grow. it is
natural that the church will grow. The point
that I'm trying to make in these two Sundays
committed to our church's mission is this, that
the mission that Christ has given to our church
necessitates the participation of every person
who claims to be a part of it. Believing in and
being a part of the mission is not optional.
It is not an elective. If one claims to be a
part of Grace Church, then it is presumed that
one believes in the mission of this church and
is participating in that mission. Jesus says,
you are my witnesses. We have a message from
Christ. We have a mission from Christ. We have
a mandate from Christ. He says, you are my witnesses.
How are we going to get there to fulfilling our
mission? Well, let's just show you again what
our mission is. Notice that it's stated this
way. Grace Church Roseville is a community of
believers whose purpose is to worship the Lord
Jesus Christ and prepare itself through biblical
instruction, service, and fellowship. In order
to evangelize the world, the last three words
are the point on the arrow. Not to exclude any
other part of it. Worship is crucial. If we do
not worship as a community of believers, then
somehow we're going to lose our life. Because
our life, our momentum, our power is in worship.
We must prepare ourselves to do the job God's
given us. When we talk about preparing ourselves,
we're talking about getting healed, too. We're
talking about being cared for. We're talking
about being nurtured and built up. And all of
that happens through biblical instruction, through
service, opportunities that we have, and through
fellowship, caring opportunities with one another.
But all of that happens, the worship and the
preparation that takes place, so that we can
evangelize the world. That is the point of the
mission that God has given us. Some of that happens
inside the walls. In this next slide, you're
going to see the diagram that we used last spring.
Some of you have seen it then. Others of you
have not seen it before. You notice the middle
circle there represents us, the mission center.
And inside that middle circle is a triangle.
And in there, you notice three words, worship,
preparation, and evangelism. That tells us what
happens within the walls of the mission center.
We worship when we come together. The upper arrows
represent you and me coming into the mission
center, being a part of it, identifying with
it. And we come together so that we can worship
the Lord, so that we can be prepared and built
up and equipped and healed, so that we can go
out. But also, inside the mission center, notice
there is evangelism that takes place, and we
expect that. And we thank God it happens. Whether
it be through the Awana Club ministry, or it
be through Ladies Bible Study, or it be through
Single Again, or it be in our morning worship
services in our small church, or in a variety
of ways, within the walls, within the programs
of the church, evangelism takes place. But that's
not the end. You see, we come inside the mission
center. so that then we can go outside, outside
the circle. That's what those other arrows represent.
And when we talk about going outside the mission
center, we see ourselves employing three basic
strategies, at least right now. We can't do everything
or be everything to everybody, but we believe
that there are three strategies that God wants
us as a church to employ. Let's talk about the
one on the left, relationship evangelism. Let
me simply point out to you that that flyer that
we noted earlier in the service, in your bulletin
today for the eye of the storm, is an opportunity
to be involved in that. To hand out that little
flyer to some friend, somebody with whom you
have a relationship, and say, how about coming
with me to see this film that's going to be shown
at our church? Maybe you can get a bite to eat
before or afterward or go out for ice cream or
do something together socially, but use that
relationship to reach out to somebody who doesn't
come to the mission center and who may never
come to the mission center. If you don't take
the opportunity to go out to them, they won't
hear. Now, relationship evangelism happens through
Bible studies in our neighborhoods. It happens
through... business, Bible studies. It happens
through Christmas coffees and teas that some
of you participate in. Just in a lot of ways,
in personal witness, we use the networks of relationships
that God has given us to evangelize, to take
the good news, to reach out and touch the lives
of other people for Jesus' sake. Then on the
right is a second strategy that's so important
to us. It is cultural keys. At Cultural Keys,
we're talking about creative ways of addressing
the felt needs of those in our culture. That
is, their hopes and their hurts. You see, people
out there who have never been to a church in
their lives have hopes, and basically they're
the same hopes that you have. We all have hopes
of having a happy family, a strong marriage,
a satisfying career. to be financially secure,
or to find fulfillment in singleness, or to establish
meaningful relationships. All of us have those
kinds of hopes. Cultural keys is you or me or
some group of us allowing the Spirit of God to
create through us some way of using a hope that
a person has out there to bring the gospel to
them. They have a hope for a healthy marriage.
And so we say, hey, you know, we've been through
some times in our marriage, but God has brought
us through and we've learned a lot. Let's get
together with some other couples and let's have
a marriage seminar in our neighborhood, at our
home, and we'll invite somebody to come and we'll
just talk about marriages and how to have a happy
marriage. You might be amazed how many people
in your neighborhood... outside of the mission
center, people who would never go to a church,
who are interested in being helped with that
hope. And in creating that little thing in your
home, you have devised by God's Spirit a cultural
key that will help you unlock your neighborhood
so that you can bridge into those homes where
you're not now established in a relationship.
And you build that bridge into those lives so
that you can then share the gospel with them.
People have hurts, too. Divorce, loneliness,
loss, grief, financial bondage, addictive behaviors,
homelessness, crime, hunger, lost key kids, poverty,
illiteracy. The list goes on and on and on of
hurts in our world. Oh, that God would raise
up... within our congregation a score of cultural
keys that can be employed from time to time to
reach out to address the hurts in the world around
us. And doing that so that we can share the gospel
with them. Cultural keys. And then the third
one is branch churches. And as we said last week,
whether it's Blaine or Belize, or it's Forest
Lake or Finland, It knows no geographical boundaries,
no cultural boundaries. We are interested in
establishing other local churches like ours,
other mission centers, if you please, who can
be established and then in that region where
they are do the same thing that we're seeking
to do by the grace of God. That's how we want
to do it. That's how we believe God wants us
to get there. This mission that we're talking
about that God's given us needs to be a motivating
force in our lives. We all struggle with motivation.
Why do we do what we do? Well, I forgot again
to put the offering envelope in, the second service.
I can do it tonight. Let me confess a little
something to you. When I sit down every month,
as is the custom in our home, to write out our
tithe, the ministry of the local church, I sometimes
have thoughts that come to my mind. And I don't
mind admitting it because you all have the same
thoughts. Boy, I think back through all the years
that we've tithed, we could have bought a house
by now for cash. If we had used that money and
put it in a savings account for the kids' education,
they'd be able to go to school, every one of
them, without having to work for it. May not
be good, but we could do that. We could have
a brand new car if we weren't giving this tithe.
Have you ever had thoughts like that? Maybe I'm
the only ungodly one, but I have thoughts like
that. You see, I am not naturally a generous
person. Ask my wife. She would give away every
penny that I've ever earned if I gave her a chance.
I'm a wonderful balance to her. And she's a wonderful
balance to me. You see, I'm not naturally motivated
to give that way, but I believe in the mission
that God's given us. And that is a motivating
factor in my life. I believe the most important
thing in the world is getting the gospel to people.
I hope that as you invest in the work of Jesus
Christ, The mission that God's given us is your
motivation. That it's not a sense of begrudging
this. It's not, oh, I have to do this. But it's
a sense of joy that God has allowed us the privilege
to be involved in the greatest mission in the
world. There's a group in our church. Doing the
spade work for the whole congregation and trying
to find out what options are before us as a church
so that we can continue to grow. Some of you
don't realize this, but many of you do, that
our facilities are a tremendous chokehold on
the development of the ministry of Grace Church.
Some of you are involved in small churches on
the East Campus at Roseville High School. We
thank God for that provision. But some of you
have said to us that is not a long -term solution.
And I put it diplomatically. Some of you feel
more strongly about it. Hey, I agree with you
100%. It's not a long -term solution. You'll
help us plug the gap for right now. We've got
to figure out what we're going to do. Are we
going to develop this site with our six -plus
acres? Are we going to build here? What we need?
Or are we going to relocate to some other part
of the northern suburbs? Well, you say, I've
got some ideas on that. Well, we all do, and
we want to hear those. And there's going to be
opportunity for that. But you know what ought
to drive us in whatever decision we come to?
It is the decision, how can we as a church best
accomplish our mission? That has to be the factor
we keep foremost in mind. Not how far do I have
to drive to here and how far will I have to drive
to there. But God, where can Grace Church Roseville
locate so that it can go on to accomplish the
mission you called us to? You see, that needs
to be the motivating, driving factor in what
we're about, in the decisions that we make and
what we do. over the next year or so all of us
are going to be encouraged to become a part of
a small group these will have different flavors
it's just going to be wonderful i can hardly
wait till these things get off the ground there's
a group of people who are already meeting for
training and because of its nature it's got to
start small and then multiply and it will and
so it's going to take some time but It is going
to revolutionize the ministry of our church.
And all of us have the opportunity to be a part
of that. What ought to be our deciding motivation,
whether to do it or not, whether we ought to
commit the time to that? It is, will this allow
me to participate in the mission of our church?
You see, God has given us an assignment, a wonderful
assignment. We have the mission, we have the
mandate. It is, you are my witnesses. I know
he said that to a select group of people on this
occasion, but it's clear in the New Testament
that he means all of us now are his witnesses.
We have a message, we have a mission, we have
a mandate. We also have the means to get the
job done. The Lord is not going to tell us to
do something and then forsake us. and leave us
to wither. He's going to give us the means to
get the job done, and he talks about that in
verse 49, and it's twofold, really. It's prayer,
and it's the power of the Holy Spirit. He says
to them, you wait in Jerusalem. You wait here
in this city until you've received the power
from on high. Why were they to wait? Well, they
needed to spend some time in prayer. And if you
go to the book of Acts and see what they did
in that period of time between when he went back
to heaven and when the Holy Spirit came down,
you find that what they did was day after day,
hour after hour, they prayed. We want to become
a praying church. And not just in small groups
or individuals in their homes. I mean, that's
important. But we want to become a praying church,
a congregation. There is something about the
power of God's people united in prayer. It causes
the gates of hell to quake. It causes the demons
to flee in fear when the people of God unite
their hearts together in intercession. And so
you're going to see that more and more we're
going to devote some of the minutes that we have
together. as a congregation to prayer, because
that's our resource. Through prayer, we can call
down the power of God. Through prayer, we can
receive provision from God. Through prayer, we
can get our direction from God. Through prayer,
we can find encouragement. Prayer is a resource
for us. He says, secondly, that we have the power
of the Holy Spirit. We don't have to wait for
the Holy Spirit. He's already here. He indwells
us when we trust Christ. We have the power of
the Holy Spirit bringing to you and to me the
power of Christ's resurrection. The power of
new life lives in us so that we can confidently
go out there into the world with our mission.
We're not alone, and we're not weak. We have
the power of God within us to be released through
us. As we walk in the Spirit. God has given us
the means to get the job done. We don't need
anything more than that. You say, wouldn't it
be nice if we had $5 million? Well, yes. I must
confess. But I'll tell you something. We need
prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit far more
than we need $50 million. Because with prayer
and the power of the Holy Spirit, it takes care
of everything else. in God's way and in God's
time. We have what we need to get the job done.
We must build carefully and invest wisely in
the mission center so that we can build strongly
here. The stronger we build the base, the farther
can be our reach. And our goal is not only to
be strong here, but to reach far. And so we need
God's wisdom in building. And we need your commitment
and my commitment to the cause. And I call upon
you today to renew your commitment to the mission
that God's given us as Grace Church. This mission,
pictured here in this diagram. The vision of
ourselves as a mission center. I call upon you
to respond to that. Why? Well, first, and basically
because of obedience to Jesus Christ. He is our
Lord, and we live under his Lordship. And we
respond to the mission and commit ourselves to
it because we want to obey him. What he commands,
we must do. But we do it as well so that we can
be cared for. Yeah. So doesn't that sound selfish?
Well. If it's taken to an extreme, it's selfish,
but you know it's legitimate that we be cared
for ourselves. We need that. We respond to the
mission. We say, I want to be involved in the
mission because I need to be cared for. But then
you see, as I'm cared for, then I can care for
others as well. It's not dead end. It comes in.
so they can go out. The arrows have to come in
and then go out to be healthy. That's another
reason we respond to the mission. To be mission
-minded, we must use our spiritual gifts. We
must use our time, our energy. We must give of
our financial investment as shareholders in the
work of Jesus Christ. Now a lot of us are aware
of it and we know it. The problem is that we
lack motivation. We lack motivation to make a
significant commitment to the mission of Christ.
In our minds we say, oh yeah, man, that's right.
But somehow it has a hard time getting down into
our walk, into our lives. Perhaps you're like
a lot of us. Early on after your conversion,
you were so excited. You had lots of friends
out there who didn't know Christ, and you wanted
to tell them, and you went out there with enthusiasm.
You may not have done it in the best way possible,
but you shared the gospel with them. And then
as time went by, you began to grow spiritually.
After a while, you had fewer friends out there
and more friends inside the church. You began
to do all of your relationships here. Somehow
out there was less attractive. It was a bother.
It took too much time because we're so busy here.
You continued to grow until you became a tour.
And you were able to boast that you had no friends
out there. And you spend all of your time with
other Christians. What a wonderful fellowship.
What a joy divine. And no motivation at all to
see anybody else one to Christ. That's not Christian
maturity. That's sin. Maybe what you've experienced,
though, is something like the parable that we're
about to see. It's called Rescue. Robert and
Teresa. have just escaped a burning building.
Others are still trapped inside. Praise God.
That was close. I barely made it out. Look at
that. Fire? Oh, I almost didn't notice till it
was too late. It's worse than I thought. Wait.
What? Huh? Did you hear that? There's still people
trapped inside. Huh? What are you doing just
standing there? Aren't you going to help them?
What? Go back in there? Yes, you must. I mean...
I'm sure if they can find their way out by themselves,
just fine. In fact, I have faith that they can
do it. That's right. Faith. Are you crazy? We're
surrounded on all sides, Robert. There's no way
they can make it out without our help. We know
the way. There's so much heat and smoke out there,
they probably can't even see. Yeah, you're right.
Right. There is a lot of heat and smoke. Yeah.
Times like this, though, I sure can use some
chapstick lip balm. Here, try some. Well, I don't
know about you, but I'm going out there to help.
Hold it, hold it. Where do you think you're going?
Look. It's better than us, right? Look at us.
We're safe. Why should we risk anything to try
and help them? I mean, why? I can't believe my
ears. How can you be so cold? How can you stand
here and take this so lightly? I mean, we're
talking about another person's life here. Yeah,
right. That's just it. It's another person's
life. Right. I mean, I have more important things
to do. There's a twins game on tonight I gotta
see. Twins? Matter of fact, I have to get to
choir practice. I can't look back. I haven't
missed choir practice in... Three years, I know.
Look, there's plenty of people out here that
can use my help. I, uh, I guess. Um, you think
they're going through much pain in there? You
ought to know. We've been out there ourselves,
remember? Look, I'm sure they don't even want
our help. If we were to go in there, they'd just
push us away. Then we'd look pretty stupid. I
mean, probably like it in there, you think? Did
you like it? The heat? The smoke? The suffering?
The dying? The smell like you smell now? We never
would have made it out of there if someone hadn't
shown us the way. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I almost
forgot about that guy and all the confusion.
Wow. I mean, that guy was just... He was... He
was an idiot. That guy was safe. Out of there.
And he risked his life just to save us? That
guy must have been out of his mind. Oh, yeah,
out of his mind. But if it hadn't been for him,
we would have lost our lives out there. Those
look pretty bad. Right. Maybe you're right. That's
right. Come on. Maybe we should. No, come on.
No. No, I can't. I just can't. Hey, wait a minute.
Where are you going? What is he doing? What about
the fire? What time is that game? Maybe he's
right. The world is burning. You and I have the
opportunity by God's grace and according to the
mission that he's given to us to rescue the perishing
and to care for the dying because Jesus is merciful.
Jesus will save. And he has sent us. I was talking
with a friend of mine this last week and as we
were sharing dinner together in a particular
hotel, He said, let me tell you about the manager
of this hotel. He said, last spring I was eating
here and met him and invited him to go play golf
with me. He said, I found that the golf course
is a wonderful place to relax and to present
the gospel to somebody. He said, it's very non
-intimidating. I said, well, he hasn't been golfing
with me then because he'd fear for his life if
he was out with me. He said, well... He said,
I found this really a lot of fun, and I can share
the gospel. And as I did, this man prayed to
receive Christ. And he's become a Christian.
He's coming to our church, and I'm discipling
him in the things of the Lord. And then he went
right on to tell me about someone else right
there in that building, in the restaurant, who
had come to faith in Christ through his witness.
And I said, do you think that you've got the
gift of evangelism? He looked over at me and
he said, well, Galen, I'm not real sure, but
I'll tell you this. I believe in hell, and most
Christians don't. He's right, isn't he? Oh, it's
in the doctrinal statement, and we would be alarmed.
Should anyone try to remove that from a doctrinal
statement? But it doesn't motivate us. So do
we really believe it? The Lord Jesus Christ is
the bread of life who came down from heaven to
satisfy the spiritual hunger that exists in hearts.
You and I have the opportunity to take that bread
to them. Listen to Dave Wentworth as we bring
this service to a close and to a point of commitment
for each one of us to the mission God's given
us. The world shows a good light when Christ
has been heard. Not one has a heart in a broken
heart. the bread. Today the devil hath ruined
the day longed and read. Who will have the in
the breaking of the bread. Bread of heaven, bread
of life, bread of life. My heart cries out, for
how am I worthy of what you do? Those have passed
and few have heard That Jesus Christ has bled
That they might feed on him who died To be that
living bread To gods of stone and land they come,
yet they are never fed. For they have been murdered
in the breaking of dawn. But God, who gave thy
only Son, help us, my spirit led, to tell the
story. For those blessed for bread. I'm glad
you know me. Go or stand. Till this blessed news
is spread. And they have been. the breaking of
the bread. Lord, I would give them the bread
of life. It cries out, O hear our voice. yourself
a part of Grace Church Roseville, if you identify
with this local church, I want to give you an
opportunity in just a moment to stand where you
are and to say in standing, Lord, I'm willing
thy will to do. And you may not know all that
that means at this point, but what you're saying
is I believe in the mission that God's given
us. I believe in the expression of it in this
church. I believe in the strategies that God's
given us. And I want to do my part. For some
of you, that's going to mean going to a mission
field somewhere. And that third strategy, to
plant a church in another culture, as some others
from our church have done. For all of us, it
means taking the gospel where God has sent us
in the workplace, in the school campus. and there
fulfilling the mission, the divine mission, to
present Christ, to touch lives for Jesus' sake.
As Paul plays through the chorus of this song
once more, if this is a mission that you believe
in, and you're saying today, I have believed
it, I continue to believe it, and I'm committing
myself afresh to it, I would like you to stand,
and if... You're saying, I want to recommit myself
to it. I've lost track of it along the way, but
I see it again. And I'm committing myself to
this mission that God has given us together as
a body of people. I'd like you just to stand
where you are, and we'll have prayer together
in just a few minutes. Lord, we acknowledge to
you that it's easy to forget what it was like
to be in the world. We acknowledge that it's
easy for us to become distracted with things
that are good but not the best. We stand before
you today as a congregation of people to say
that We acknowledge our failures and our sins.
But also to say to you, our Lord, that we will
be obedient to the heavenly vision. That by your
grace and the means that you've given to us,
we will seek to be the people you want us to
be, to fulfill the mission. Enable us by the
Holy Spirit. Give us great hearts of faith to
believe you. Keep our eyes open to see the opportunities
all around us. Create from amongst us cultural
keys that will address the hopes and the hurts
that exist in our world. Lord, like Isaiah of
old, We pray, Lord, send us, use us. In Jesus'
name, amen. And may God fill us and equip us
to accomplish his perfect will. Thank you.