1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 Thank you, Trio. 2 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:10,060 Let's open the Word of God together to three texts this morning that tell us something about the heart of the Lord. 3 00:00:11,040 --> 00:00:13,640 The first is in Ephesians chapter 1, 4 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:19,680 verses 22 and 23. 5 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:30,840 And the Father put all things in subjection under Christ's feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 6 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:35,480 which is his body, the fullness of him. 7 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:40,080 His body, the fullness of him, 8 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:43,120 who fills all in all. 9 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:47,440 And then in chapter 5, in verse 25, 10 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:56,040 Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. 11 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:04,640 These were words written by the Apostle Paul to a body of people in the city of Ephesus. 12 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:16,040 Three or four years after writing these words, he penned another letter to the pastor of the church at Ephesus, whose name was Timothy. 13 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:29,040 I invite you to look in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and to notice what the Apostle says regarding the church as he writes to the pastor of this local church in Ephesus. 14 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:33,040 In 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 14, he says, 15 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:49,040 I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long, but in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, 16 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:58,040 which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. 17 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:05,040 Which is a way of saying that the church is to uphold the truth of God in the world as a witness. 18 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:13,040 A few decades passed, Paul was executed not long after he wrote to Timothy. 19 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:19,040 But one apostle remained until almost the end of the first century. His name was John. 20 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:30,040 John, in around 91-92 AD, received the revelation of Jesus Christ, which is the last book of our New Testament. 21 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:41,040 In that book, Jesus dictates seven letters to real, existing, historic churches. 22 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:45,040 One of those churches was the church at Ephesus. 23 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:55,040 In Revelation chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, we read these words from Jesus to the church, the local church at Ephesus. 24 00:02:56,040 --> 00:03:00,040 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, 25 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:08,040 The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this, 26 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:18,040 I know your deeds, and your toil, and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men. 27 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:23,040 And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not. 28 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:26,040 And you found them to be false. 29 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:31,040 And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake, and have not grown weary. 30 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:36,040 But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 31 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:42,040 Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first. 32 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:49,040 Or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. 33 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:56,040 The church is the heart and the hub of God's doings in the world in this age. 34 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:03,040 That does not mean one local church is the heart and the hub, but the church in a universal sense. 35 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:06,040 As all of those who have believed in Jesus Christ in the world. 36 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:13,040 And yet the church with a capital C cannot be divorced from the local church. 37 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:23,040 An assembly of confessing and baptized believers in Jesus Christ who meet together in a defined geographical setting. 38 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:26,040 For certain purposes. 39 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:32,040 Ephesus was an example of a local church. 40 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,040 And of course there were many others in the first century. 41 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:47,040 The local church which worships Jesus Christ and proclaims the word of God is where the action is as far as God is concerned. 42 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:53,040 And he keeps abreast, you will notice, of what's happening in each local church. 43 00:04:53,040 --> 00:05:05,040 He is the one who walked among the seven golden lampstands, each one of them representing one of the seven churches mentioned in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation. 44 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:10,040 And the reason that he walked among them was that he might examine them. 45 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:20,040 The church, the local church, is the heart of what God is doing in the world today. 46 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:26,040 And Jesus is vitally concerned with each local church that exists. 47 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:32,040 He wants its testimony to burn brightly and he warns. 48 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:38,040 Unless it does, he may come and remove the testimony of that church. 49 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:48,040 Jim Detmer, who is now on the staff at Willow Creek Church in Chicago, says that there are three paradigms or models. 50 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:55,040 Of a local church which need to function simultaneously in each local church. 51 00:05:56,040 --> 00:06:05,040 He says the local church is community, corporation, and cause. 52 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:11,040 And each of those paradigms needs to reflect something of each local church. 53 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:20,040 The local church is a community, that is, it is a place where relationships are built in Jesus Christ. 54 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:27,040 A local church is a corporation, that is, it is characterized by order and by organization. 55 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:38,040 And the local church is cause, that is, it is distinguished by a sense of purpose, mission, or cause in the world. 56 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:44,040 It is particularly this last theme that I am seeking to address here in the month of February. 57 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:50,040 The cause of Grace Church Roseville, its mission, its purpose in the world. 58 00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:57,040 You'll find in your worship folder again today a statement of the mission of our church. 59 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:01,040 It's in the very middle of the bulletin. 60 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:10,040 And it says, Grace Church Roseville is a community of believers whose purpose is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ 61 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:20,040 and prepare itself through biblical instruction, service, and fellowship in order to evangelize the world. 62 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:25,040 That is a philosophic statement of our reason for being. 63 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:34,040 But a theoretical or ideological statement is only so much ink on paper 64 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:43,040 until it is understood and owned by those who are a part of that organization. 65 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:51,040 The mission of any organization, whether it be a corporation or a hospital or a church, 66 00:07:51,040 --> 00:08:04,040 must be personalized and adhered to by those who are members of it, if it is to be successfully undertaken. 67 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:09,040 I read a statement recently that was given to me that said, 68 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:16,040 outstanding people have one thing in common, an absolute sense of mission. 69 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:25,040 Outstanding people have one thing in common, an absolute sense of mission. 70 00:08:26,040 --> 00:08:35,040 I suppose that you, like me, have been attracted this last week to the Olympics in Alborville, France. 71 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:45,040 We have thrilled to see athletes that have skills finely honed and prepared for the Olympic Games. 72 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:51,040 I enjoyed watching Paul Wiley last night as he won his silver medal. 73 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:59,040 It's been a joy to see Bonnie Blair this week as she has won two gold medals, and thrilled us all with her athletic ability. 74 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:08,040 I tell you the people at the athletic games in France have a sense of mission. 75 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:19,040 And for the last several years, that sense of mission to be at this Olympic game has consumed their lives. 76 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:27,040 And they are there, they are outstanding as athletes because they have had this absolute sense of mission, 77 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:32,040 I want to be in the Olympics, and they are there. 78 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:46,040 Whether for good or for evil, whether for altruistic aims or for selfish purposes, mission is important. 79 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:57,040 Whether it be George Washington or Adolf Hitler, Iacocca or Marx, Mother Teresa or Yasser Arafat, 80 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:03,040 it is a sense of mission that enables one to be outstanding. 81 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:09,040 I don't mean necessarily good or evil, but outstanding in what he does. 82 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:14,040 He makes a difference in the world. It is a sense of mission. 83 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:25,040 Mission is enhanced and strengthened when it can be somehow depicted. 84 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:32,040 When we can visualize it, an idea becomes real to us. 85 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:36,040 Someone has said a picture is worth a thousand words. 86 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:41,040 If a thought is to become a reality, it helps to have a picture of it. 87 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:46,040 This morning an architect in our church was interviewed before the service. 88 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:53,040 He is a man who does exactly this. He takes an idea that someone has. 89 00:10:54,040 --> 00:11:00,040 He takes a mission, he takes a philosophy, he takes all kinds of information into his mind, 90 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:05,040 and he envisions in his mind what this building needs to look like. 91 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:10,040 He puts it down on paper. 92 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:18,040 You and I need to have some kind of a picture of what this mission statement means. 93 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:25,040 I believe that an effective picture is that of a mission station. 94 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:29,040 A mission station, a mission center in the world. 95 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:34,040 Thus you notice that it says below that mission statement, 96 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:39,040 we see ourselves as a mission center. 97 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:44,040 Of course there are a number of biblical pictures that might be used. 98 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:53,040 The Bible says that the church is a temple, it's a body, it's a bride, it's a city. 99 00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:58,040 And each of these captures some significant idea about the church. 100 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:07,040 But the depiction that I think captures our mission statement is the picture of a mission center. 101 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:13,040 And so I want to suggest to you that we see ourselves as a mission center. 102 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:22,040 And that a mission center is the vision of what God wants us to be and to do in the world. 103 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:31,040 Now mission center admittedly is not a biblical term, but it is a description of a biblical concept. 104 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:35,040 I believe that's the kind of a church Ephesus was. 105 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:47,040 Paul went to that key city in Asia Minor and then from that city people went out to plant churches in cities around there. 106 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:52,040 Paul had never been to Colossi when he wrote the letter to the Colossians. 107 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:56,040 How did they hear the gospel? People from Ephesus had traveled that hundred miles, 108 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:00,040 won people to Christ there in that city and established that church. 109 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:07,040 Obviously the people in Ephesus saw themselves as something like a mission center. 110 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:11,040 We could talk about the church in the city of Thessalonica. 111 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:23,040 Paul says, from you has sounded out the word of God so that we don't even need to come into the region around Thessalonica and preach in the other cities because you've already done that. 112 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:29,040 The church in Thessalonica saw itself as a mission center. 113 00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:34,040 And that's the way I'd like for us to see ourselves, a mission center. 114 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:41,040 A mission center is a base of operations. A base of operations. 115 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:47,040 And it implies the presence of missionaries, its very name does. 116 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:52,040 I believe that is exactly what God intends for us to be. 117 00:13:53,040 --> 00:14:01,040 He has commissioned us as a people to live in an alien and foreign culture to be his witnesses. 118 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:09,040 And frankly our culture has never been more alien to the gospel than it is today. 119 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:14,040 One analysis of the church in our day is Kennan Callahan. 120 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:18,040 He says, the day of the churched culture is over. 121 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:23,040 The day of the mission field has come. 122 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:32,040 What he is saying is that as in generations past, the American culture was a churched culture. 123 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:35,040 But it is not so any longer. 124 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:40,040 He says today, American culture is a mission field. 125 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:43,040 And I think he's right in his analysis. 126 00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:48,040 We are missionaries on a mission field. 127 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:57,040 The problem that some missionaries have is that they grow affectionate for the godless culture around us. 128 00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:03,040 Indeed all of us are tempted to see this culture as our home. 129 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:10,040 We are tempted to accommodate to the culture, to settle down and be comfortable. 130 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:17,040 Rather we ought to be like Abraham. 131 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:26,040 We ought to see ourselves as aliens and strangers in this culture in which most of us have been born and reared. 132 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:37,040 For we have been called out of this kingdom to be a part of the kingdom of the king of kings and the lord of lords whom we've worshipped this morning. 133 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:42,040 This world is not our home. 134 00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:46,040 We need to see ourselves as missionaries. 135 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:53,040 Of Abraham it says, by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise. 136 00:15:53,040 --> 00:16:01,040 As in a foreign land, looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 137 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:13,040 Later in Hebrews 11 it says that he along with the other faithful and godly before him, confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 138 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:20,040 The writer says, those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 139 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:24,040 They desire a better country that is a heavenly one. 140 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:32,040 Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them. 141 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:39,040 This world is not our home. We are on our way home. 142 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:46,040 We are pilgrims here who are called by God to be missionaries. 143 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:50,040 And our local church is our mission center. 144 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:57,040 Ephesus practiced this in its early years. 145 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:06,040 But 30 or perhaps 40 years after its founding things were different in Ephesus. 146 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:09,040 Oh there were still good things happening. 147 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:18,040 They were still searching out false teachers and proving them to be false and they were busy in good works and they were enduring. 148 00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:22,040 But something was missing in the church. 149 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:29,040 There was a drive, a motivation that was lacking after 30 or 40 years. 150 00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:33,040 And Jesus says, you've left your first love. 151 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:39,040 He says to them, remember and get back there. 152 00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:47,040 Or even though you're doing good things, I'm going to come and remove your testimony as a church. 153 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:58,040 It is important that we not merely do good things, but that our motives be pure and right. 154 00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:02,040 That our love for Jesus Christ be the heart of our motives. 155 00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:10,040 When we say that we are a mission center, we are confessing something about our culture. 156 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:16,040 And we are confessing something about ourselves. 157 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:24,040 When we call ourselves missionaries, we are saying that we know to whom we belong. 158 00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:28,040 And we know where home really is. 159 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:36,040 And therefore we're going to make our decisions accordingly in this alien world. 160 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:42,040 We are a mission center. 161 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:46,040 It implies that we're missionaries. 162 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:53,040 And when we say that, we need to understand that a mission center is where missionaries meet or live together. 163 00:18:54,040 --> 00:19:05,040 A mission compound historically has been the grounds or the area of residence and work for missionaries in a foreign culture. 164 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:10,040 The mission compound has in the past often been protected. 165 00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:21,040 And it provided a place of solitude and escape for missionaries from the demands and the pressures of the native people with whom they worked. 166 00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:28,040 Now some people say the mission compound was a good idea, others say it was a bad idea, that's debated. 167 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:33,040 But the point is this, that that mission compound was a common place. 168 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:38,040 It was a base of operations for the missionaries. 169 00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:43,040 It was a place where some important things happened in their lives. 170 00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:53,040 So that then after they had had those things happen, they could get out into their work, their real work. 171 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:57,040 That was the purpose of the mission compound. 172 00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:04,040 We're something like that as a local church when we call ourselves a mission center. 173 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:08,040 Because we come together for certain purposes. 174 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:16,040 So that then we can go out to the real work God has called us to. 175 00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:18,040 That's the point. 176 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:28,040 What would we think of a missionary who sent us a prayer letter and said to the effect, 177 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:31,040 We have built a wonderful mission compound. 178 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:36,040 You ought to see the homes we have here. We have worked day and night to construct these homes. 179 00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:44,040 We have walls around this compound to protect us from the dangers that are very real in our culture. 180 00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:51,040 And the gardens, you ought to see them, they're beautiful here in the mission compound. 181 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:56,040 You would say, wait a minute. 182 00:20:56,040 --> 00:21:01,040 Are we supporting that missionary to go over there and build a mission compound? 183 00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:07,040 Or to win people to Jesus Christ and establish the church? 184 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:15,040 And we'd have a right asking that question because a missionary is not sent merely to build up the compound. 185 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:22,040 I want to say to you that we are not sent into this world merely to build up the church either. 186 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:25,040 As important as it is. 187 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:32,040 We are here for more than just to build a comfortable place for us to come together and to worship. 188 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:41,040 We are here so that we can come together in the mission center and do some things that must be done here. 189 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:45,040 But our purpose is not in here. 190 00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:52,040 Our purpose is out there where God has sent us to be missionaries. 191 00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:57,040 So we see ourselves as a mission center. 192 00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:06,040 Our local church is where we meet together so that then we can go out into the world. 193 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:16,040 That brings me to my final point, which is that a mission center is where missionaries choose to leave so they can fulfill their mission. 194 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,040 There's something very comfortable about being with God's people. 195 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:24,040 We're all alike, about 90 percent. 196 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:28,040 Sometimes the other 10 percent gives us problems. 197 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:33,040 But for the most part we think alike, we believe alike, we tend to look alike. 198 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,040 We use the same kinds of language. 199 00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:39,040 It's comfortable being in the mission center. 200 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:46,040 But we are missionaries and we must choose. 201 00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:51,040 We must force ourselves beyond the walls of the mission center. 202 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:59,040 We have to get ourselves beyond the comfort zone. 203 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:06,040 We have to get ourselves beyond the comfort zone of the mission center, into the culture, 204 00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:12,040 so that we can do the work God has called us to do. 205 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:17,040 The mission center is important. 206 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,040 It's strategic. It's vital. 207 00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:25,040 But the real work of the missionary is outside the mission center. 208 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:28,040 That is the work of making disciples. 209 00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:36,040 That is, winning people to Jesus Christ, baptizing them, and teaching them what he's commanded. 210 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:45,040 The result, by the way, of their doing that, going through that process, being one and baptized and discipled, 211 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:48,040 is that they then themselves become missionaries. 212 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:55,040 I want us to see ourselves not merely as church members, but as missionaries of God. 213 00:23:55,040 --> 00:24:02,040 Not merely as maintenance workers of God's kingdom, but as people who have a mission to accomplish. 214 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:07,040 I want us to see our church as a mission center. 215 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:13,040 Please, I want to underscore that what we do in the mission center is important. 216 00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:20,040 What do we do in the mission center? Well, if you notice the diagram that is in the worship folder, 217 00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:24,040 there are three things that we do inside that circle. 218 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:30,040 A church, if it's going to be a church, must do those three things. 219 00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:37,040 We are going to worship Jesus Christ together. 220 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:42,040 We are going to worship Jesus Christ together. 221 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:53,040 Inside the mission center, we're going to prepare ourselves through biblical instruction and service and fellowship. 222 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:59,040 We're going to be equipped, we're going to be built up as people and as missionaries. 223 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:04,040 And inside the mission center, there's going to be some evangelism. 224 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:10,040 People are going to be one to Jesus Christ in the programs within the mission center itself. 225 00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:13,040 That's appropriate. 226 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:16,040 Those things are important. 227 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:22,040 But the mission center itself and what happens in there is not the end. 228 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,040 It's the means to the end. 229 00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:30,040 And you notice there are arrows that go out of the mission center 230 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:40,040 to relational evangelism, to cultural keys, to branch churches. 231 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:45,040 Those kinds of things describe what the end is for us. 232 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:53,040 What happens inside the circle is the means to the end outside. 233 00:25:53,040 --> 00:26:04,040 In their book entitled Revitalizing the 20th Century Church, Lloyd Perry and Norman Shawchuck write this way, 234 00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:14,040 Visions hold one thing in common with wishes and dreams, in that they are images of a desired condition. 235 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:21,040 A vision, however, differs from wishes and dreams in certain important respects. 236 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:27,040 A wish is an image of something a person would like to see happen, 237 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:32,040 but it is believed to be beyond his ability to accomplish. 238 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:38,040 A dream is also like an image of something a person would like to see happen. 239 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:44,040 It differs from a wish in that it carries with it a significant emotional experience. 240 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:54,040 A person will feel the dream much more keenly and will spend a great deal of time pondering upon it than a mere wish. 241 00:26:54,040 --> 00:27:02,040 But a vision, a vision goes beyond either a wish or a dream to capture the person. 242 00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:07,040 A person may have a wish or a dream. 243 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:11,040 A vision, however, has the person. 244 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:22,040 Having come under the control of the vision, a person will pay any price to the point of death to bring the vision into full reality. 245 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:30,040 When we say that we are a mission center, we are saying that that is the vision of our church. 246 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:40,040 If it is only a wish, if it is only a dream, it will never be. 247 00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:45,040 It must be a vision. 248 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:52,040 And not merely the vision of the pastor, or the pastoral staff, or the elders, or the leaders of the church. 249 00:27:52,040 --> 00:28:00,040 It must be the vision of every person who is a part of the church. 250 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:14,040 35 years ago a letter came to light which was written by a young man who had originally planned to enter the Christian ministry. 251 00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,040 I don't know what happened. 252 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:21,040 I don't know what caused his life to take such a drastic turn. 253 00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:25,040 But the young man became a communist. 254 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:31,040 And this is the letter that he wrote to a friend. 255 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:41,040 What seems of first importance to you is to me neither, either not desirable or impossible of realization. 256 00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:45,040 But there is one thing about which I am in dead earnest. 257 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:48,040 That is the communist cause. 258 00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:59,040 It is my life, my business, my religion, my hobby, my sweetheart, my wife and mistress, my bread and meat. 259 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:03,040 I work at it in the daytime and dream of it at night. 260 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:08,040 Its hold on me grows, not lessens, as time goes on. 261 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:11,040 I'll be in it the rest of my life. 262 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:18,040 When you think of me it is necessary to think of communism as well because I am inseparably bound to it. 263 00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:30,040 Therefore I can't carry on a friendship, a love affair or even a conversation without relation to this force which both drives and guides my life. 264 00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:41,040 I evaluate people, books, ideas, actions according to how they affect the communist cause and by their attitude toward it. 265 00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:48,040 I have already been in jail because of my ideas and if necessary I am ready to go before a firing squad. 266 00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:52,040 Now what does this mean for us communists in a personal way? 267 00:29:52,040 --> 00:30:01,040 Well it means this, we are in the forefront of the working class in its titanic struggle with the capitalist class. 268 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,040 We take the heaviest and most direct blows. 269 00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:06,040 We have a high casualty rate. 270 00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:13,040 We are the ones who get stoned and hanged and lynched, tarred and feathered, jailed and slandered and ridiculed, 271 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:17,040 fired from our jobs and in every way made as uncomfortable as possible. 272 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:21,040 A certain percentage of us get killed or imprisoned. 273 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:27,040 Even those who escape these harsher ends of life, it's not a bed of roses. 274 00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:30,040 A genuine communist lives in virtual poverty. 275 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:37,040 He turns back to the communist party every penny he makes above what is absolutely necessary to keep him alive. 276 00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:44,040 We constantly look for places where the class struggle is the sharpest and exploit the situation to the limit of its possibilities. 277 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:50,040 We have strikes, we organize demonstrations, we speak on street corners, we fight police, 278 00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:58,040 we go through trying experiences many times each year, which the ordinary worker has to face only once or twice in a lifetime. 279 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:04,040 When we are not doing the more exciting things, all our spare time is taken up with the dull routine chores, 280 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:10,040 the endless legwork, the errands which are inescapably connected with running a live organization. 281 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:18,040 Communists don't have time or money for many movies or concerts or T-bone steaks or decent homes and new cars. 282 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:22,040 We have been described as fanatics. We are. 283 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:33,040 Our lives are dominated by one great overshadowing factor, the struggle for communism. 284 00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:40,040 I don't know about you, but that kind of commitment shames me. 285 00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:48,040 As I compare the commitment that I have to the cause of Jesus Christ to this. 286 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:56,040 And now 35 or 40 years later, his cause has crumbled in the world. 287 00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:03,040 But you and I are part of a kingdom that cannot be shaken. 288 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:16,040 We are part of the Church of the Living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth of God. 289 00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:23,040 We are a mission center. And God has called us to be missionaries. 290 00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:28,040 Yes, to do our thing in the mission center, but more than that, 291 00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:35,040 to go beyond the mission center into the world that needs us. 292 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:39,040 And there to be his missionaries. 293 00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:49,040 Outstanding people have one thing in common, an absolute sense of mission. 294 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:57,040 Let's bow together. 295 00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:02,040 How do you see your mission, my friend? 296 00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:14,040 Is this one that depicts Grace Church close to yours? I hope it is. 297 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:18,040 God has called us to be his people in the world, 298 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:26,040 that we might proclaim the excellencies of him who's called us. 299 00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:32,040 And that mission is worth our all. 300 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:48,040 Father, forgive us for our half-heartedness, our lukewarmness, for leaving our first love. 301 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:52,040 Many good things are happening in our church. 302 00:33:52,040 --> 00:34:03,040 And you know that because you examine our candlestick as well. 303 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:09,040 But we need a rekindling of a sense of mission in our hearts. 304 00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:19,040 We need a renewal of our devotion, Lord Jesus, to your person and to your cause. 305 00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:26,040 I pray that as we come face to face with this, over these weeks as we talk about it, 306 00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:33,040 that we'll be able to honestly answer you and say, Lord, it's all for you. 307 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:45,040 Not part for me and part for you, but it's all for you, my Jesus. 308 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,040 Amen. 309 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:50,040 I thank you.