As we think today regarding our mission as a local church, as has been suggested to us
already this morning, God is surely doing something very special and wonderful in our
midst.
Many people, I believe, since this, God's fresh working is being discussed in the hallways
and groups among individuals who speak together.
Comments and comments that have been received from some of you seem to confirm what many
are believing, that God is moving, touching, healing, restoring, challenging, and awakening
us as a church to a new era in God's purpose for us.
God loves to bless us.
God has blessed us in Jesus Christ with every spiritual blessing, says chapter 1 and verse 3.
He loves to make those blessings real and manifested in our midst.
He delights to demonstrate his goodness and his grace to us.
I'm interested in the last verse of chapter 1 which says,
And God put all things in subjection under Christ's feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
While we have earlier in the service acknowledged some of the more tangible, visible measurements
of God's working in our midst, personally I find the most exciting thing to be what
God is doing in our hearts spiritually.
The increasing desire to witness that is seen in our congregation, the use of tracts that
have been printed with our church's name on them, passing those out in the community.
You say, people are doing that?
Yes.
And we get all kinds of reactions.
I had a note from one person who wrote back and said,
You really believe all this bleep?
And then sent along a track of his own produced by a group of atheists down in Madison, Wisconsin.
You can't expect everyone to read a track and say, oh thank God for this, but at least
that person read it and the truth is there in his heart even though initially his response
was one of rejection.
In recent weeks, Pastor Sulak has asked many of you, all of us in fact, to share the names
of people that we're praying for and witnessing to.
And many of you have responded.
In fact, over 60 individuals and families have responded with names of people that they're
actively burdened for and praying for and witnessing to, representing well over a hundred
individuals that now many of us are praying for.
God is also increasing the burden in our church to work for the Lord Jesus in a variety of
ministries.
As Emily, for example, has been seeking to find people to help out in the children's
ministry, there have been some people who have not been involved before who said, I
want to do something and I want to do that or I'll try that.
That kind of a spirit, that kind of a heart, I believe, is the evidence of God working
in our midst and I find that very exciting.
Attitudes of obedience and faith seen in so many ways.
So many are allowing God to bring a new wholeness to their lives where there's been, because
of events recent and in some cases events far past, where there's been brokenness and
deep hurt and disappointment.
But there's been a new openness with God and a new healing of heart and of mind and
a wholeness that is now being experienced spiritually.
That's exciting to me.
A growing sense of waiting upon God that is developing in our church.
Not talked about a lot.
I don't think that can be promoted.
I believe the spirit of God must cause that kind of a thing to grow naturally.
But there is an increasing desire in our church to wait upon God and to pray.
A few weeks ago at another one of our Friday night all church prayer meetings there were
more than 30 people who gathered and spent an hour and a half praying over a variety
of needs.
And as you know these are happening now with some regularity in our church.
And people are invited just to come and pray.
And more people than ever before in our history are doing that.
And I believe God is stirring us.
That God is preparing us as a people for greater things than we have known yet in our 11 years.
Certainly the opportunities for ministry today are greater than they've ever been.
When we look out into the society around us and we see the hurt and we see the crashed
hopes and dreams of people.
And we see the fractures in families.
And we see the disappointment of parents and the heartbreak of children.
We see increasing abuse and disillusionment.
All of that speaks to greater opportunities that we have as the people of God to minister
in the name of Jesus Christ.
Opportunities abound today.
It's true that society has always had its problems and that the only answer has always
been Jesus.
But the fact is today society has gone through a lot of the answers it thought it had for
its problems.
And it's coming up dry.
And there are places in this country where in fact social institutions are turning to
the church, the true church of Jesus Christ, and they're saying, what are you doing?
It's working there.
You see this in big cities where Christians have banded together sometimes as groups of
churches, sometimes as bands of believers, small groups.
And they've started ministries in inner city situations.
And there's tremendous result from that.
And sincere and disillusioned social workers look at that and they say, what we're doing
isn't working.
What are you doing that's making a difference?
Today opportunities abound for us, and I believe that's why God is stirring freshly in our
midst.
God is not stirring us just to give us a spiritual high.
God is stirring us to prepare us for the work of the mission that he's given to us, because
God does have a work for us to do.
God is a God of intentionality.
What I mean by that is that he does what he does with design, aim, and purpose.
Nothing he does is ever done haphazardly or arbitrarily.
God does what he does with intention.
It is true with the creation of the universe.
God intended for that creation to point out to humanity that he exists and something about
his greatness.
When God created mankind, it was with a purpose that we in distinction to all of the rest
of creation might bear the image of God and as his viceroys rule over his creation.
There was purpose in it.
When God called Israel out as a nation, he had a purpose in that.
In Exodus 19 he tells us that it was that Israel might be his special people to declare
to the nations of the earth God's truth and to be the human progenitors of the Messiah.
Everything is purposed ultimately for the glory of God.
I think we recognize that.
God's own glory is the overarching purpose of everything that he does.
In fact, we can say that the most gracious thing that God can do is to glorify himself.
There is nothing that is selfish about God doing that.
When God glorifies himself, he in fact is bringing to his creatures the greatest happiness
we can know.
For when God is glorified, God's creatures find great happiness and joy and fulfillment
in knowing God.
Just as the creation and humanity and Israel are examples of God's intentionality, so is
the church.
The church that we just read about here in the book of Ephesians.
God has a purpose for the church being in the world.
The church is created with a design and a mission to accomplish.
For the last year, I have been seeking to build a foundation that would bring us to
the next three weeks.
Last spring we talked about the God that we worship.
We sought to discover, freshly for our hearts, what God is like in his person.
Who is this God that we worship in all of his glory and majesty?
Who is he?
Through the summer months we talked about the good gifts of God.
What God has given to us, what God has done for us because of who he is.
Through the fall and then past Christmas time into the month of January, we've talked about
who we are because of who God is and what he's done.
Who are we now?
And we've talked about the new you.
We've said that we are members of the body and ambassadors for Christ.
And we are a holy priesthood.
And we are chosen disciples.
Who are we?
Well, hopefully now we have something of a better grasp of that.
But we are who we are so that we might do in this world what God has called us to do.
That is the mission that God has sent us on.
I'd like for us to think back to 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9.
And just remember what is said in that significant verse of identity telling us who we are.
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.
That, now he's going to give the purpose.
He says, here is who you are.
And he lists several of the names, some of them we've studied together.
He says, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness
in this marvelous light.
What is the purpose for which we have been called as the people of God?
It is so that we might proclaim the excellencies of the one who has called us.
That we might make him known, that we might declare him to the world, and in doing that,
bring glory to God.
The purpose of the church is to do exactly that, to proclaim Jesus Christ to the world.
And each local church needs to be able to translate that idea into its own context.
What does that mean to Grace Church Roseville?
How can we, as a local expression of the church, be what God intended us to be?
As your leadership has sought to struggle with that issue, who are we as a church?
What are we here for?
We've come up with a statement.
It's not divinely inspired.
It's not infallible.
It's the kind of a statement that will surely be adjusted and changed as our context changes.
But for right now, it's a statement that identifies us and what our mission is.
It's found in your worship folder today, right in the middle page at the very top of it.
And it says there, 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.
I want to talk about that this morning.
As you can see, there is a diagram there and some other statements that we're going to
get to in the next week or two.
But I want us to think about that philosophical statement of mission that I've just read and
which you can read in your worship folder.
We need to ask several questions about this statement.
The first one is, is it biblical?
We have a mission, and we have at least philosophically outlined it in this statement.
But is it biblical?
Will it pass muster when it's tested by the Word of God?
Well, I believe the answer to that is yes, or it wouldn't be there.
But let's think about it in light of the Bible.
It begins by saying that we are a community of believers.
Is that biblical?
Well, of course it is.
In fact, in this very book that we're looking at, Ephesians, in the second chapter, the
apostle doesn't use the word community, but he certainly describes what it means.
You see, a community has been defined, at least by one dictionary, as a society of people
having common rights or privileges or common interests.
It's a group of people who have something in common.
That's why it's called a community.
It's a group of people who have something in common.
In the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul relates how God has taken the Gentiles and the Jews,
who had absolutely no use for each other.
There was hostility and separation and warfare between them.
And now in Jesus Christ, in this new community that we are, he has united them.
He has brought us together as the people of God.
You can see all kinds of phrases and words that identify that.
It says in verse 14, he himself is our peace who made both groups into one.
He broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.
Verse 16, that he might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross.
Verse 18, through him we both, Jew and Gentile, have our access in one spirit to the Father.
He says no longer strangers and aliens, fellow citizens rather, with the saints of God's
family, God's household.
Yes, I think we can say God's community.
Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself
being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy
temple in the Lord.
You see how God has brought together diverse things and made them one?
God is still doing that today in every local church.
For every church is a diverse body.
There are differences amongst us.
And God's plan is not that we be uniform, that we all march to the same exact beat.
Because God has made us differently than that.
But God has given us a commonality.
God has provided through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ something that holds us
together.
And what that is, spiritually speaking, is the Holy Spirit who indwells me and you and
you and you and you and all of us who know Christ, so that we are one body spiritually.
But in sense of mission, we are held together by the realization we have a common purpose
in the world.
Now we have different jobs, different vocations, we live in different places, different standings
in the world, but the fact is that we all have one basic mission given to us by Jesus
Christ.
We have a commonality about us that God has built into us because we are believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
We share a profound bond in Him and in the purpose that He has given to us.
Now as we think about the church, this community of believers, there are lots of things that
might be said about us, many ideas about what we're to do because we are the church.
We've tried to boil all of those ideas down into two that are essential.
If we're going to be the church, these two things must happen in our midst.
Number one, we must be a people who worship.
We must be a people who worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we do not do that, we are adulterers, spiritually speaking.
For we are married to Him as a body of people.
He is our husband and we come together to worship Him.
As a church, we must worship, that is part of our mission.
We are called a holy priesthood by God.
Priests are to offer sacrifices to God and to worship God as part of what we're about.
If we don't worship, we're not the church.
We can get together for services, we can sign statements, we can pass budgets, we can talk
about things we want to do, but if we don't worship, we have lost our mission at the very
first step.
We must be a worshiping people.
Are you enjoying worship these days?
Many of you are, who've given feedback that the worship is alive and real to you, very
meaningful.
But let me tell you something, it doesn't just happen here on Sunday morning for half
an hour or 40 minutes.
Worship is something that we cultivate in our lives through the week.
And get this, because it happens in our lives on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday
and Friday and Saturday, when we get together on Sunday, it's really meaningful.
That's really what worship is all about.
It's a daily thing.
It's living in Christ's presence every day of the week, and then gathering with other
believers to share that joy of Jesus Christ.
If you really want to get a lot out of the worship services here on Sunday, then begin
on Monday to prepare for it.
So that when Sunday comes, your heart is overflowing with praise to God.
And we gather together and we all overflow, all over each other, and God is pleased.
And God is blessed.
God inhabits the praises of His people.
We are a worshiping people.
And it must begin there.
That's the life, that's the heartbeat of the church worship.
But there's a whole lot more.
We've tried to condense that and make it as simple as possible.
And we've said to be the church, we not only have to worship, but we have to be prepared.
We have to prepare ourselves to be the people of God.
How do we do that?
Well, we mention some ways here in the statement.
Through biblical instruction.
Whether it be here in the service, or it be in the small church, or the Sunday school
class, or in Juana, or whatever else happens in the programs of the church, biblical instruction
is probably a part of that somewhere.
We are prepared to be the people of God by being taught the Bible, the Word of God.
We mention service.
Service also prepares us.
One of the best ways in the world to grow as a Christian is to get involved in serving
the Lord somewhere.
And to step off over your head into an opportunity where God in his strength must buoy you up
and bear you up and teach you and help you.
When you and I allow God to do that to us, when we allow ourselves to be stretched beyond
what we think we can do, we grow.
We're prepared.
We are prepared to be the people of God through our service for the Lord.
Vital.
Absolutely vital.
And then the final thing is fellowship that is mentioned.
When we get together as the people of God and we share with one another, if one is rejoicing,
we all rejoice, and if one is weeping, we all weep.
Fellowship.
Fellowship doesn't happen very much, at least, in large services like this.
It happens in the small church setting or in the flocks of the church, where we can
be more intimate and more open with one another.
That's why we keep pressing home the importance of being a part of a smaller group than worship.
Those who come only to worship miss most of what this church or any church is all about.
Fellowship prepares us as a people.
So we believe that as a community of believers, our purpose is to worship the Lord and to
prepare ourselves through biblical instruction, service, and fellowship, next phrase, in order
to evangelize the world.
In order to evangelize the world.
That's why we are worshiping and being prepared.
The end result of it is evangelism, the making of disciples who will come to know and follow
the Lord Jesus Christ in their lives as well.
If you want to compare it to an arrow, think of the shaft of the arrow as being our worship.
Maybe the worship could be compared to those feathers on the end of it that help give stability
and direction to the arrow.
The preparing of ourselves, the shaft of the arrow, and the point of it all being evangelism.
That's why we're here.
To worship the Lord and prepare ourselves to evangelize the world.
If we are content only to be a little subculture of people meeting inside these walls on Sunday
mornings, we have lost our mission.
We have lost our mission.
Our mission must go beyond these walls to see the world reached for Jesus Christ.
If you look into chapter 4 of Ephesians, you'll find preparation there.
The equipping of people.
We're not going to take time to look at the verses.
Our time is gone.
But you'll find there the equipping of people, serving, unity, and all of it.
Why?
So that the church may grow.
The church may grow.
That doesn't mean just grow inward.
That's part of it.
That's being built up and edified, but it means being extended.
God wants us as a people to be extended into the world.
To penetrate into the world with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why we're here.
Is it biblical?
I believe that it resounds with the Bible.
The second question is, is it possible?
Well, if it weren't possible, I don't believe our Lord would lay down what he's given us
in his word.
It is possible to do this.
But only through the blessing and strength and fullness of the Holy Spirit.
In Acts 1-8 he says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and
you shall be my witnesses.
The mission that we have been given by Jesus Christ is a mission that requires the strength
of the Lord.
In ourselves we are all weakness.
We can't even say, Lord, help me.
Because then it's sort of like God is our supplement.
God's the vitamin that we take and need.
The real spirit is, the real attitude that we have to nurture in our heart is, Lord,
you have to do it through me.
It's not that I'm going to do it and you be my assistant.
Lord, you do it through me.
Is it possible to live that way?
Yes, of course.
That's the Christian life.
But a third question is important.
We have a mission.
It's biblical.
It's possible.
But is it personal?
It's not enough for leadership to articulate a mission.
It's not enough for other people in the church to have ownership of it.
Each of us must buy into what we're about as a church.
Each of us must have ownership in the mission that we're about together as a community of
believers.
I think of a man in our church who's a professional who sees a lot of people in the course of
a day because of the practice that he's in.
He's personally bought into this mission.
As a result of his conversations with the patients who come to him and the doors that
God opens to him because he's available to God, there are scores of people meeting weekly
right now in Bible studies, most of them non-Christians, but they're meeting in Bible studies with
other people in our church being brought toward the point where they will understand the gospel
and come to faith in Jesus Christ.
That's one example of a person who understands the mission and who's bought into it.
And there are others with him in that.
That needs to be multiplied in our congregation.
We're not all going to do the same thing.
We will see it realized in different ways, and I want to suggest some of those in the
next week or two.
But the point is that it's critical that all of us say, this is not only the mission of
my church, but because I'm a part of that church, it's my mission in life too, to worship
the Lord and to prepare myself through learning the Bible and through serving the Lord and
through fellowship that I might evangelize the world.
I want to challenge you to make that your mission today.
To say, God, that is my mission, and in the strength and power you give me, I will do
it.
I was intrigued in reading an article this week in a magazine about a man by the name
of Brother Jonah, a Chinese believer who is 73 years of age.
This dedicated servant of Jesus Christ understands the mission that he has.
And this author of the article, Ron McMullen, who is an Asian correspondent for News Network
International, went covertly with Brother Jonah rather recently on one weekend of his
ministry.
And I don't have time to recount the article as I'd like to, but let me just read you a
paragraph that summarizes all that they did in one weekend now, and this is a 73-year-old
Christian who's got a handle on the mission that God's given him.
He says, it was an amazing weekend, nine hours of bicycle pedaling, 40 hours on a hard railway
seat, and eight hours on a bumpy bus.
Jonah led more than 50 people from a remote village into the kingdom of God.
He saw 50 people converted in one weekend.
He started a church.
He held an all-night seminar on Bible doctrine to 10 young people on that train.
He reconciled the leaders of 5,000 Christians, and he converted a high-ranking party official,
Communist Party official, through the healing of his son.
You would think, well, man, he must have been tired when he got back Sunday night.
Well, he probably was, but he went through his mail, and there he found an invitation
from another province to come and minister, and so that very evening he was on a train
to the next village.
What did Jonah, the man of God, say?
He said, rest is for the next world.
That was his attitude.
Rest is for the next world.
Let's pray together.
Rest isn't for this world, as the people of God.
It's not.
Oh, we rest in Christ, who is our strength, but our energy is to keep fervent, pointed
toward the mission.
When you say in the quietness of your heart, God, focus me on the mission.
God, as a part of this local church, write on my heart what my part is in the mission
you've given us together.
God, fill me with the Holy Spirit, that I might serve you effectively.
Listen together to the chorus that we sang before the message, with our heads bowed,
and as a prayer to the Lord, in our church, Lord, be glorified.
In our church, Lord, be glorified, be glorified.
In our church, Lord, be glorified today.
Would you stand with me, please?
Father, it is my prayer that as we stand, that each of us may begin to understand the
biblical nature of the mission you've called us on, and see that it's not only possible,
but it's also a personal mission you've given each of us.
And I pray that over the next couple of weeks, this sense of mission will grow and become
understandable, and that we'll each begin to implement what it means in our lives, because
of the great God that you are, and what you've done for us, and who we are in light of that.
May we be effective in doing what you've called us to do in this world for Jesus' sake.
Be glorified in your church, Lord.
Amen.