3 - Andrew Scott - Something HAS to Change (RCRM 2018)

[Music] [Applause] well it's it's truly an honor to be with you here tonight I feel in many ways very humble humbled to stand in front of you and also to share the platform with David and Francis you know they are two men that I deeply appreciate in life when I'm with them I'm encouraged I'm spurred on I'm challenged my thinking is continually shaped and I'm blessed by their by their Communion and fellowship but I have to admit I have to confess that when this whole idea of having rethink was first viewed at a few months back and the idea of having Francis and David and I do this together I thought well that's that sounds like a really good idea but the closer it got to the event I'm thinking what was I thinking why did I agree to share a platform with David Platt and Francis Chan especially getting like put in the middle of the - how do you follow David Platt and Wow so I began to think well maybe they thought this could be the intermission part and we'll have that down roost and up front and just say a few things and people can go to the bathroom or maybe it's gonna be a long night so maybe they can get the the snooze in here there's the nap in here before Francis comes at the end but whatever I do feel privileged to be here and it's it's a it certainly has been a journey and really tonight I want to share some of my journey with you as someone who has been involved with global mission organization I for over 20 years have been pastoring in a church for a little while back in my home country of Northern Ireland in case you haven't guessed by now and really a few years back I went through this crisis of belief as I looked at what was going on in the world and today I just or this evening I just want to share a few of of my thoughts from that journey as I looked at the models we were had been pursuing in Mission and the messages that we have around the whole idea of missions and and really how I was coming to the point of realizing that something had to change one of those experiences was when I was driving down a pothole filled dusty road in the middle of an African slum this is not so long ago and and as I was being driven through that slum it was not a new scene to me I'd been through many of these types of scenes in my lifetime on many trips overseas and I was taking in this particular site and the ladies sitting at the side of the road selling the little pyramids of tomatoes they were dressed in beautiful multicolored clothes the man were standing or sitting or fighting or arguing in behind them as they lined the bars of the streets drinking alcohol the children were playing all around everything was covered in dust even the people and as we were driving along my I caught a little girl she was probably about eight or nine years old she's a beautiful little girl she had plaited hair with beads at the end of every plot you've seen pictures like that before I'm sure and she was in a polkadot dress and and for some reason she stuck I'd and as we were driving up coming up close to her our eyes met and as we were driving past her she looked up into the this old beat-up Toyota Hiace fan that we were in and she caught my eye and I looked back and she smiled and I smiled she smiled at the strange white face looking back at her and at that moment our leader from that part of the world uh turd these words he said Andrew do you know that in this slum I'm told that every young girl by the age of Tanner before the age of ten will be raped by someone she knows and and it was as if my mind and my my eyes took a snapshot of that moment and even as I tell this story tonight that that picture is vivid in my mind and and it's deep in my heart and so often it comes out and as I look at that picture I my heart others are cried this has to change something has to change how can it be in our generation when there's so much available to us so many resources available to us both in the body of Christ as far as people is concerned and money and yet in our generation this is happening and then we think of the whole pandemic of human slavery people being sold into slavery for both bonded labor and sex slavery this is happening in our generation not long after that I was standing in the on top of a 1000 foot tower in a middle-eastern City surveying the city below us where six million people called home the sandy colored houses just stretched out into the onto the horizon and and the minarets dotted the landscape and and as it was looking out over this hearing the signs of the traffic the horns and and at that moment the call to prayer our leader from that part of the world came over and and and we were just taking in the moment he said Andrew do you know that we don't know of any believers in this city any followers of Jesus and there's only a handful of people who are trying to change that and at that moment another snap went off in my brain and I can still see that picture and my heart others this cry something has to change something has to change you know the reality of course is that there are 2.8 billion in our world who have little to no access to the gospel they will be born live and die in parts of the world where there has there's just no access or very little access to the gospel and very few are seeking to change that that means that close to 90 percent of Muslims Hindus and Buddhists close to 90 percent will never ever meet another Christian or they will never get the opportunity hear the gospel but they'll certainly never meet another believer and see the beautiful glorious gospel lived out in front of them and when I hear that I have to cry out from the bottom of my heart something has to change we've just heard from David hi this was the mandate given to us this is what we're made for and we're going to look at that in a little minute but something has to change in this regard we have to rethink you know there are you may say well Andrew surely we're doing something about it and and I care I care as an individual I thought other people cared well when we look at the statistics and I don't want to go into a lot of statistics tonight but when we look the statistics if we were to call in an outside research company and ask the question does the church today does the body of Christ today care about the reality of what I've just described to you do they care the the research would come back and has already come back and it would say something like this that the evidence is statistically insignificant to prove that premise what do I mean by that well we as Christians give about two percent of our income to Christian causes two percent that's the new tan right of that 2 percent 5 percent leaves the country ninety five stays here we spend it on ourselves about four percent of the world's population who has lots of access to the gospel all right of the five percent that leaves the country only one percent goes to changing the reality of those that have little or no access to the gospel one percent of five percent of two percent someone once said it this way we spend more money every year on Halloween costumes for our pets than we do on changing the reality of the lis streets something has to change we have to rethink and I believe we have to rethink both our models of mission that are that are meaning that that in all of our years of history of the modern mission movement we have never gotten even close to one percent of the body of Christ saying I want to be involved in that and that number is at best stagnant today and we've only about 13,000 of our total cross-cultural mission force focused on the least reached part of the world this is the picture that's in front of us today folks and so I believe we believe that it's a time where we have to stick a step back a little bit like the men of esseker and say what is happening in our world today and what should we do as a result we need to enter a period of saying we need to rethink and I believe we need to rethink our models and we need to rethink our message and this was the personal crisis I've been going through for a period of time it's a journey I can assure you I don't have all the answers I have more questions but there are some things that I'm becoming more more convinced off as we go along and I want to share some of those things tonight but I want to say something quite upfront we're going to come to the Scriptures by the way just because you know of course David starts right there and I better get there I'll be coming he'll be coming on stage have me a Bible but so we're getting there we're getting there you know there are many exciting things happening in the world today we just had a few minutes Francis David and I had a few minutes with a couple of pastors from from Egypt amazing things blown away by what God's doing in Egypt we're sitting there thinking who are we now to go out on the stage when when what we're gonna talk about it these men are doing it amazing stories God's doing incredible things Algeria the church is growing over a hundred thousand believers they say in Algeria alone Iran the church is exploding in Iran and Iranians around the world coming to faith God is on the move in places like China well yet excited about that but let's not forget that there are still 2.8 billion and every day listen to this every day 58,000 are being added to the number of 2.8 right so by the time we get to this time next year we're going to have hundreds of thousands more unreached in the world than there are today but I want to say this is that when we talk about rethinking the models of mission what I don't want to say what I don't want to give the impression off is that I disrespect the past or I disrespect what has happened before I honor anyone and whatever model they've gone gone out faithful to the gospel faithful to the Word of God who has gone out to give their life for the sake of the unreached I honor them in fact and I honor any model and these men and women are my heroes in life these were the men and women that my parents read their stories to us when we were growing up and they were became our heroes and the people we wanted to emulate so I these are these are people I respect but you see as leaders today as people alive today our job is not our job is to honor the past but it's not to steward the past it's not to live in the past we steward the past best by taking what was handed to us and growing it investing in it and and taking it to the next level just as they did just as they went out and the work our job is to take what they handed us and steward it to further growth as we move forward we don't honor the past by sticking in it we honor the past by moving forward what what are some of the the models what are some of the teal winds the trends the headwinds that I'm seeing that we're seeing out there in the world today that cause us to say maybe the models that served us well for the last hundred and fifty years of mission are not keeping pace with the fast changing world what what are some of the things happening in the world that are saying maybe we have to rethink this well one of the big things is accessibility and I just want to go through these very quickly because I want to get to messages the thinking rather than the models but access you know that that 80% of the world's population live in countries were Mich any type of mission activity is either illegal or extremely prohibitive that you just can't get and you just can no longer get in an a missionary visa or even what's happening now more and more as these countries are saying you can't get in on of what I call the perpetual student or the perpetual tourist visa where you just keep going in and out on the same the countries are closing the doors to that type of thing like never before access we have an access challenge but we also I believe and this was part of my journey and understanding this but a credibility problem we have to understand that when we go into these communities what type of role what type of a position in the community gives us the best platform the best place of credibility that they understand who we are and why we're there and so we have to be careful that the models we use in today's world as we enter into society as we enter into community gives us a platform that is credible yes our message is credible we we know that our message is an unchanging glorious message of Jesus Christ but sometimes the type of presence we give ourselves in a community is questionable and people are going so why are you here where do you get your money from who pays you and if our presence is questionable how do we hope our message can be credible so we need to look at the credibility challenge in this next phase of mission how do we find models that place us and in a credible way and this also speaks to opposite the positioning challenge again many of these models have been effective for periods of our history but today we have to understand that some of them have now put us on the ages of society they have not put us in the midst of society some of them have caused us to to live in covert ways in these communities and so how do we find models that puts us back into the heart at the end of the heart of society that we can intersect every sector of society another challenge I believe we have as the scalability how can we change the reality of 2.8 billion people in our world with 13,000 people tweaking that number is not going to cut it adding a few more it's saying maybe a few of you will go and join this cause it's not going to cut it we need to see a mass movement I believe a mass movement of Jesus followers towards the least reach not only from America but from cultures that are near to the cultures we want to reach and actually people from within the same cultures we need to see an incredible increase in people going and then the final one I just want to touch on briefly is the sustainability Channel Challenge funding for some of the current models today caused us to there's putting a lid on the on the on our mission model and so we have to wrestle with this idea that that I don't believe that we will ever be able to see the numbers going out if we simply follow the existing model of mission which is primarily a financial a personal support model nothing wrong with that model is in the scriptures and that will have to continue on and many different roles but I think we have to find other models that are sustainable so that we can scale it moving forward and especially when we look at what God's doing in places like Africa and Latin America where the average monthly salary is $500 a month how can they join a mission agency that requires them to raise $2,500 a month or $5,000 a month it's not going to happen unless we come up with new models so these are some of the the headwinds that we see that are pushing against the effort of the global mission task today that's saying we have to rethink this we're not keeping pace we're falling behind there's things that coming against us that that did not used to be against us and we need to rethink our model so that we can can move forward in in today's world there's also of course many tailwind things that will push us forward the whole rise of the church in the global size God is raising up an amazing church that are ready to step in the mission are already stepping in the mission and their proximity of their culture and geography to the least reach makes this an exciting day to live where that church can step in and we need to come alongside and serve them on whatever way we can as the American church technology is creating I believe one of the Roman roads of today's world where technology will get the gospel into places certainly in the spoken and spoken way people will see it on TV they'll hear it on the radio through the internet and it's changing that reality I believe God's raised up a generation the millennial generation maligned though it might be by many of us older guys and ladies God has put something I believe in the heart of this millennial generation that has caused them to say I want to live my life for a cause III can't have a job that doesn't have a greater meaning towards it I've given I I don't believe in the American Dream of my parents in fact that a study recently tells us that that 70 percent of Millennials in the u.s. say that they want to work outside of the u.s. at some point in their history I believe God put that in their heart and I believing that God's going to raise them up in this day so these are some of the Tailwind but it's more than about models we have to rethink these models folks we have to rethink them it's it's but it's more than that I believe that what's hindering us today more than the models that we that we have to change is some of the belief systems that we've been we've we've taken on board and David his message beforehand was was speaking right to the heart of this so in some senses there's going to be a little bit of overlap with what I say and probably a little bit of overlap with what Francis's but you know what and in many ways this is a bit of a false dichotomy that we've created tonight about what is a how does somebody follow Jesus how do you do mission how do you do Church it's really one thing and so there's going to be a little bit of overlap but what are some of the beliefs that we have that we have on board that maybe are not as biblical as we might think and are causing our behavior to not be as effective as we might think you see if your if your thinking is wrong your behavior will be but but will also be wrong or will not get us to where we want it to be I had a parrot at one time in my life it was a yellow named Amazon pirate it was quite a big bird about the size of a crow and it was hand raised by a lady in North Carolina now I could tell you lots of things about rhudi but I don't want to take the time but a couple of things I want to say to you he he had an amazing ability to speak with the accent of a lady from North Carolina which was quite interesting in an Irish home he he also never had his wings clipped his wings were fully feathered he never broke a wing but Rudy couldn't fly why because this lady from North Carolina raised him from a small chick and at no point in Rudi's minded ever a message ever enter his head an example ever go into his mind that told Rudy he could fly every message there were lots of messages but he never worked out I can fly I can do the very thing that I was created to do so here was Rudy Rudy would climb down his perch and he would decide he wanted to go somewhere in our home and he would get down from his perch and he would start walking around the floor like a pirate does and and if you see a parrot walking you go you weren't created to do that you were created to do something else but in his mind he had received a message that that caused him to walk around on the floor like a turkey when he was created to soar around like a parrot or an eagle what are the messages that we may have heard in our lifetime even from pulpits even from people like me that have caused us to understand our role our identity our purpose in the wrong light and has caused us our light to live out our lives not in the fullness of who God has created us to be and what he's created us for but to live out our lives for a sub some substandard some purpose that's far less than for which we were created for some of these things again very very quickly because I need to I need to get to the Bible again I'm looking for for David here the idea of of the sacred secular you know some of you say wild Andrew that's so last year I can assure you that's not last year that permeates so much of our thinking to this day that there is a sacred part of our life in there's a secular part of our life there's parts of our life where where we do ministry and things for God and there's other parts of our life that we do some other stuff and it's things like our work and and how we earn money and all of that play stuff all over there and these two worlds never meet and and we get to choose what we do over here and we sort of sacrifice for the things we want to do over here and we have the sacred secular divide that causes us to live in two worlds and and and creates a wrong dichotomy and it leads to the second idea that I feel we've got so horribly wrong as the idea of calling calling is all over the scriptures but it's mostly not about what we think it is about today this idea that that somehow in time God is going to intersect your life and say Andrew it's time to go to Africa and until God tells me - Andrew it's time to go to a fright I'm not going to Africa this idea of calling being that and not alone and and we say well did God not do that to Moses or God did not do that to gideon or did God not do that to Paul yes he did it's clear that God does do that I'm saying if God ever does that Dulles airport's down the road get on the first plane and go quickly don't forget the flee side just go but Oswald ir's Guinness said this let's make sure that we don't make the experience a few of the few the expectation of the many let's not let's make sure that we don't make the experience of a few the expectation of the many because there's a grander idea of calling in the scriptures which we're going to come to in a minute me centric we live and David touch this we live in a society that that basically tells you things that you can be anything you want to be that you should define your purpose for your life you should find your purpose for your life and go live it out and we paint this we paint this idea out there that we are the picture and we have many parts in our picture a little bit like the sacred secular divide and we have our dreams we have our ambitions we hopes our plans and we we have a retirement plan we've how many houses with how many boats cars whatever it is and we've painted our wonderful picture and we've the freedom to do that because that's what people in the West get to do and then we have the audacity to come to God and say my god would you come and be part of my picture would you come and bless my picture would you come be part of my life and God doesn't want to be part of our life God doesn't want a part of our life and we're gonna see this in a few minutes let me jump because I have to get there quickly let's turn to Ephesians 1 and this is where we're going to stay Ephesians 1 and this was the passage of scripture that the Lord really used in my life when it came to me going through this crises this in my life going something has to change what have we missed what do we need to rethink in order to get in to the stream of what you're doing in the world Lord to be yet to be part of the solution to be part of what you're doing among the least reached how do we change this reality Ephesians 1 verse 4 and he chose us to be as very own joining us to himself even before he laid the foundation of the universe because of his great love he ordained us so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence for it was always in his perfect plan to adopt us as his delightful children through our union with Jesus The Anointed One so that his tremendous love that cascades over us would glorify His grace for the same love he has for his beloved one Jesus he as for us and this unfolding plan gives him great pleasure and so as I came to scripture and will be reading on down through this passage in a few minutes so keep it open as I was coming to back to the scriptures and say saying God why is it that we have about thirteen thousand people living among the least reached why is it that we seem to care so little about the least reach what have we missed not only in our model but in our messaging and going down through through these words and saying who is it you have called into this who is it you have made for this why is it that life all comes together for in in regards to this purpose and I read here in Ephesians 1 that that and Paul's taking us outside of time into eternity and a sense here Paul saying here is the purpose behind why God has created everything including you before he put the universe together before he put the atoms in place before he laid the foundation of the earth he had an idea in his mind there they were the Godhead living in perfect unity in community God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and Paul saying in that instance in eternity they thought of this idea of a people for themselves a people who would live out their lives and we'll see in a minute for for their glory in the context of their glory and get to share in their glory and and Paul is saying that before God did anything else this is what he was thinking of he yes humanity was created on the sixth day but but humanity was not the afterthought of God but humanity was the forethought of God this people that he would create and not only create them but he would choose them to be his very own that he would adopt them into his family that he would make them holy and blameless in his sight through Christ and so Paul's starting to to paint this picture for the church in Ephesus of their identity as the children of God and this is where I believe we have to start when we when we start to rethink the whole mission endeavor is go back to our identity not the identity that somebody spoke over you not the identity that has been shaped by failures and knocks and bruises throughout life but the identity that your creator spoke over you and over his people the people that he would create from the beginning of time because when you want to know the original intent the original purpose of anything you go back to the creator you go back to the original artist and here is the original artist the original creator saying it's a people are people for myself a people that I will adopt into my family and love as my own Peter puts it this way a Chosen People a royal priesthood a holy nation God's special possession that you why that you may declare the praises of his glory and Paul saying you have this amazing identity you are the child of God and then he goes on down in verse seven let's read on down through here since we are now joined to Christ since we have now been given this identity were brought into the family of God we have been given the treasures of redemption by his blood the total cancellation of our sins all because of the cascading riches of His grace we've heard about that in the last session this super abundant grace is all readily already powerfully working us in us releasing within us all forms of wisdom and practical understanding and through the revelation of the Anointed One he unveiled his secret desires to us I mean this is amazing you know when people say say to me I still don't know my purpose in life well one of the things I say right off that's not yours to determine anyway that's your creators per role let's go back to Ephesians 1 and here's what Paul's saying Paul saying here I'm laying out for you the purpose for which you were created I'm telling you about the identity this incredible identity as a child of God but there was a there's a deeper purpose behind that again not just that you would be a child of God and part of his family God has a plan behind that that he's revealing to us his the hidden mystery of his long-range plan which he was delighted to implement from the very beginning a getting of time so God's working this plan out he's working his purpose out and he's moving everything around as we read in Colossians earlier on according to this plan and because of God's verse 10 and cause of God's unfailing purpose this detailed plan will reign supreme through every period of time until fulfillment of all ages finally reaches its climax when God makes all things you in heaven and earth through Jesus Christ Paul then goes on to say in verse 11 right down to 14 is through this union that we've been claimed by God as his own inheritance Wow God sees us as is inherent the deserts are the identity before we were even born he give us our destiny that we listen to this that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart so Paul saying don't set your own purpose God has your purpose taken care of don't create your own identity God has already given you identity his identity and what is it God's purpose was that we Jews he speaks to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles who were the first to long for hid the Messianic hope would be the first to believe in the Anointed One and listen to this and bring great praise and glory to God and because of him when you were who are not Jews heard the revelation of truth you believed in the wonderful news of salvation now we have been stamped that as Gentiles with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit and so he's saying in another translation it basically repeats that same thing back to the Gentiles that you two were made you were brought into this family for the praise of his glory that your life would be for the praise of his glory and so when I was reading through Ephesians 1 and when we read 3 it's through Ephesians 1 we see this truth that God the Paul is laying out for for the people and Ephesus you before time God thought of an identity for you and he thought of a purpose for you these are the things that God has declared over your life you don't get to declare them for yourself you should not let somebody else define them for you but these are you this is your identity and the purpose you're a child of God create it to be for the praise of his glory and again david has unpack that fully so i'm not going to spend any more on that but i want to say what this means for me when I look at this when I think of how we've articulated calling there's a few people who get a special nudge from God I say no no Paul saying here you're not called with that definition in to the purpose of God you were made for the purpose of God you're not called in to the purpose of God as we would define it you are made for the purpose of God and there's no other reason for your existence absolutely no other reason for your existence and when we miss this we miss that reason for our existence and so I say tonight as we think of the future of mission I believe we have to change our message that this is for a few that are called - this is for everyone this is for everyone because there is no other reason for our existence in this way secondly I want to say that all not just that all of us are included but all of who we are is included I love that we read Colossians 1 and I'll not take time to read down through it again but in that it talks about Christ being supreme and and that everything was made by him and for him so everything that was created was created for this purpose there was nothing that was created that wasn't created for Christ and His glory and so when we think of our lives again we cannot think that it's just part of our life that we give to God it's not it's not a Sunday we give to God it's not a short-term mission trip in the summer we give to God God doesn't want part of our life God created us for himself and so he is the picture and we take instead of asking God to come and be part of our picture we say no God I want to be part of your picture I want to be part of your plan and purpose on this planet I want to be I want to put my peace I'm not gonna celebrate my little peace in my little life and live for my little peace I want to put that peace into your grand picture and say I want to be part of that and I want to put all of it in not only does he want all that it doesn't include all of who we are in that context but I believe that as we think of the mission model we need to embrace all of who people are and we haven't been very good at that so often in a mission world we have said if you want to join the mission endeavor you must step out of who you are and come do this other thing that we call ministry and we've said there's parts of your life that we can't use if you're an engineer not much used to us if you're a doctor if you're a nurse but Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 one of my favorite verses in Scripture calls continuing to talk to the church in Ephesus and he's continuing to lay out what had God decided before time and he's saying he talks about that were saved by by grace through faith and and then we often stop on that verse over Paul goes on in verse 10 of chapter 2 and he says we are his workmanship or in the Greek that means masterpiece we are his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he prepared in advance for us to do so it's in the same context as his visions 1 and 4 that before the foundations of the earth God thought of a people for himself that would be in his family that would live for his glory and and that he was going to make for this purpose of good deeds good work on the earth and I believe that's both in the context of God's people as a whole would live out their life doing good works on the earth reflecting the glory of their father back to the world around them but I also believe it's for the individual that God created every one of us individually and he created us individual masterpieces not to live for the good of herself but to live for the good of the body and Paul clearly tells us that in other parts that our gifts were to be used for the good of the body so we were created as a unique masterpiece as an individual as well as the corporate body of Christ to live out that the works that he has given us to do so what does that mean I love the the acronym that Eric Ries came up with many many years ago and he talked that God uniquely shaped every one of us that he has put certain things in every one of our lives that that we are to use for his glory the shape very quickly as spiritual gifts heart or a passion a for abilities P for personality he for experience God has shaped us for his purpose Paul says he made us a masterpiece in Christ Jesus to do good works which he prepared in advance for us to do I believe what Paul saying there is saying this that before God made you he thought of what he wanted you to do and then he made you before God made you he thought of what he wanted you to do and then he meted you accordingly he's given you spiritual gifts for the good of the body he's given you passions some of you are passionate about things like with children about sports about business about taking care of people medically these are passions that I believe God has given now of course Satan tries to distort those and get them used for your own glory or for somebody else's glory but in Christ we are new creations and all things have been made new even I believe our passions who I believe comes in the category of all things that were created by God and for God and so pay attention to your passions what has God put in your heart that you're passionate about abilities natural abilities these were one of the things that we said in the mission world for years that you lay on the altar those are the things that you not must leave behind to go and do this thing called mission and I believe we've taken the very tools that God put in an individual away from them it's a little bit like the young David shooing up in the battlefield and he sees the big giant right on the field and he's ticked off because this man this giant is dissing his God he's saying things about his gardeners people that he should never say and David was ready to go out there not simply because David believed that somehow God would supernaturally move a stone from a sling and into the Giants head but because David first of all believed in the glory of God as well he was not okay with somebody saying something bad about his god he was defending in that sense but we also know that David was back in the field for a number of years honing this skill this natural ability that God gave him as a hunter that he could take out lions and bears and this slow lumbering giant was no issue to David and off he went with the stone and they only took one and through years of skills skills honed in the fields David took out the Giant for the glory of God but what did Saul tried to do Saul said it will hold on him and David if you were going to go out onto the battlefield you need to put on the my arm because that's what soldiers do soldiers look like this and you're going to need to put this on and go out there so that everybody is gonna know that your soldier and I believe that when we think of that in the context of missions have we not in many cases put the armor of Saul and the people of God and said if you want to go on mission you must look this way you must do these things when God has created every one of us every one of you uniquely and there's only one reason he put those things inside of you it wasn't so that you could earn a big salary and buy a big house that may happen he put it in side of you first and foremost for his glory for his purpose the purpose for which he created you in the first place abilities personality with all different personalities experienced vocational education lots of different experience God shapes us for good deeds and he's thought of how he wanted us the things he wanted us to do and he's made us accordingly and so I say as we enter into this next phase of mission we need to rethink this idea and we must embrace the whole masterpiece we must understand that all of everyone it's what we need to be using and say you know what when you go into a place and and God has made you to be a nurse you're passionate about it you're good at but you're good at it if you go and be that nurse for the glory of God do it on to the Lord that that that that His Spirit living through you is going to be and his glory living through you is going to be attractive because the glory of God is attractive you know we have heard the story I met this lady she's a nurse in a very close country and she said I went there to be as a nurses on to the Lord I wanted to be the net best nurse that I could possibly be and very quickly she was noticed on the ward and they came to her and said look you're so good at what you do would you be willing to train all the other nurses and so she did she trained all of the other nurses in that Hospital and very soon the nursing standard rose in the hospital to the point that the CEO noticed and the CEO came and said hey what's happened and they said look this was we'll call her Mary Mary trained all of these nurses and he said well if that's what Mary can do she needs to train the doctors as well and so she ended up training everybody in this hospital over a number of years and that hospital ended up winning a very prestigious award for excellence in medical care because of Mary and a couple of things happen was that Mary ended up reporting directly to the CEO that CEO saw that Mary brought honor to him and that hospital and so she almost in many senses became untouchable and she had freedom to not only be the excellent nurse that she wanted to be but to live out her faith and disciple those around her in this very close country why because Mary understood that she was a nurse for the glory of God and she understood that in that context of being a nurse for the glory of God her role was to be a disciple maker in that context and God was using her in that way and so can we be a people that embrace the masterpiece of God because I believe that we're the most brilliant reflection of the of God on the planet when we be who he made us he's made us to be for his glory I I don't know about you but I I've traveled over 80 countries now and I've seen many amazing sights I've seen the you know the Great Barrier Reef the Alps the Grand Canyon all of these amazing places and and I stand there in awe and I go wow isn't God amazing his handiwork is amazing and then I have to ask the question and say but hold on a minute they don't have hands they don't have a voice they're not made in His image I am when was the last time that somebody looked at my life and said Wow isn't God amazing and I pray that we will be a people that will be so confident in the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is at work in our lives as David described earlier on we'll be so confident in the power of gospel at work in our lives that as we step out through these doors we will live it brightly and loudly in the communities where we are and also take it to the ends of the earth because a life lived out as salt and light in a community will be the thing that will draw people in because the glory of God is attractive and it will give us that reason to that opportunity to give the reason for the hope that lies within us I need to move on let me just mention this one point very quickly before my last point on not only is all of us included but all of who we are included and all of life is included we can't think of a sacred secular divide we cannot be in the fringes of society we need to be in the heart of society with the heart of the gospel and we need to have people living in every sector of society living out the gospel the way God has made them to be embracing that masterpiece and having nurses having doctors having engineers having businessman every sector society covered with these people embracing all of the life doing whatever they do for the glory of God and so I say if the majority and this is where we come to the marketplace of the majority of the people in the world spend the majority of their time in the workplace we need to rethink this idea of the workplace being the majority place of mission the place where we intersect with people the place where we live out our lives in that way so finally let me just say that not oh not only are we all included all of us are included all of who we are is included all of life included but all nations are included I've been guilty of this I've heard many preachers say this but when we come to the end of a missions message it's it's often this idea that maybe a few of you will go maybe a few of you will be called by God to go to the nations and as I went back to scripture I struggled to find this in fact I couldn't find it because when I realized this idea that every one of us were made to be a child of God and those and as we step into Christ that identity that that relationship with God is restored and we are a child of God holy and blameless in the sight that we would live for the praise of his glory and we were created as a masterpiece to reflect that uniquely back to the world that's our role in the world as as if that is true then when we come out of eternity in Ephesians 1 and to what God had decided before the beginning of time and we step into Genesis 1 where time begins and the Creator is standing in front of his creation about to give him the very date for how they should live their life we must pay attention say okay this we're children of God created for a purpose to reflect his glory in the world all uniquely shaped we know that that was the intent of the Creator that was what he wanted for his people knows about the sea tell these people here's how I want you to live and he goes and in 28 29 the God had saying after he who repeats this idea you're in my our image you're in our image you're in our image now go be fruitful multiply fill the earth and govern it now I used to think that that was all about having babies because I grew up in Ireland but what I but and of course it's about procreation but I believe there's a deeper thought going on here here's what I believe God is saying to his creation because he knows this I've made you in my image you're my child I've created you for my glory and I want my glory to fill the earth and I've uniquely shaped you to do that in the context of governing the earth working throughout the earth now would you go make more of who I have made you to be and be so fruitful that you multiply and multiply so much that the whole earth is filled with people who are in relationship with me reflecting my glory back to the earth in the unique way I've created them many years later to God the Sun stood on a hillside and he repeated pretty much the same thing to his disciples he said would you go make more of who I've made you to be teach them everything I've taught you and go to all nations until every nation has disciples those that look like you those that have entered in relationship those who are living out their life for my glory and so when we think as the people of God where does my life intersect with the mission of God in regards to global I believe we need to get away from this idea that it's a call I need to wait for and understand that it's simply a command I must obey I hear too many times I'm not called a mission but I see in Scripture that that's what we were created for I met somebody very recently in the caucus is one of the most unreached parts of the world he came to faith in prison came out of prison got married said okay I'm a disciple of Jesus I was created to make disciples where in the world are there no disciples and he find a place way down in the Caucasus where there are no no believers and off he went find a job and lives there making disciples what would it look like if if that's how we we saw our role in the earth that all nations were on our job description and can we as leaders create pathways for people to go do that every follower of Jesus now I hear some of you already saying and I've already heard this Andrea are you really for real here you mean every follower of Jesus living their life ITIN another community somewhere else in the world just going trying to make disciples even one or two would that not be chaotic would that not be messy do you think it would really work maybe I'm naive but let me read Acts 8 David read it also a great wave of persecution began that day sweeping over the church in Jerusalem and all the believers except the apostle's that work that word all in Greek means all I'm pretty sure anyway all the believers except the apostles were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria and we actually know that they went even further than that because when when when when Paul went to Cyprus and Malita and Malta and Rome the church had already been established by these scattered believers so they all went were they called no they were running for their life taking whatever they had could with them starting business wherever they went carrying on their careers wherever they went and the communities which they find but listen to this in verse 4 but the believers who were scattered remember all the believers were scattered but the believers who were scattered that must mean all of them preached the good news about Jesus wherever they went so cannot work I I believe it can why do I believe it can well it goes back to what David said before because I believe in the power of the Word of God and I believe in the Holy Spirit of God inside their life and we have to get away from this place where we feel that it's our programs and it's our processes and it's our structures that somehow prepare the people to go rather than the Holy Spirit of God preparing people to go and these these young believers believe me they didn't they didn't have the King James Version under their arm they didn't even have a Bible in those days of course they had a fresh understanding who the risen Savior was and they had come to know him in a very personal way they were deeply in love with Jesus and understood deeply who he was at least in in the context of how he changed their life they hadn't all of their theology worked out it took a few hundred years for that to happen in the church they didn't have their theology worked out but they knew about a risen Savior who had changed their life and they'd received the Holy Spirit through which they could live their life partially out in the community and off they went and everywhere they went they preached the gospel and we know the history of the early church was this that they changed an empire within a couple of hundred years an empire that was pagan and persecuting Christians to one the declared the God their God the God of the Empire I had another bird it's name was Peter it was a it was a parakeet as you call it over here we call him budgies it was a little yellow bird I got given it when I was about 14 years old and Peter was my pet it followed me all round the house we let it out of the cage it wasn't destructive it could fly but here was there was something that I thought was wrong with Peter because when Peter got out of the cage to fly if he flew once or twice floor in the living room he would end up landing on the floor and total exhaustion and I always I was convinced there was something wrong with Peter he couldn't fly very well one day I had come home from school and I was upstairs getting changed probably to go I'd to play soccer and Peter followed me up the stairs and we were having a little conversation and and he couldn't talk by the way but Peter heard my mom downstairs and so he decided to go down and see my mom so off he went and and he flew down down the hallway took a sharp left turn to him back on himself because that's the way it was and he flew down the stairs at the bottom of our stairs was the front door and to the left was the living room the front door was open Peter didn't take a left turn he went straight on right through the front door and my mom screamed and Peter's gone and so in blind panic I ran down the stairs and as I was getting to the bottom of the stairs I realized don't worry Peter can't fly and so I was seriously thinking Peters gonna be out there in the front yard wings I'd be köppen panting like crazy like totally exhausted and I ran out and there was no sign of Peter and I looked up and there was Peter hundreds of feet in the sky soaring around like an eagle and he was a budgie and and I'm thinking okay maybe he'll fall out of the sky now any minute but off he went a little yellow Peter and I never saw him again it's many years ago I've gotten over it but here's my point when the followers of Jesus when we as the followers of Jesus can break free from the confines whatever those confines are are maybe it's our models but I think first and foremost is our thinking the thinking of our identity the thinking of our purpose the thinking of our role on this on this planet that there is no other reason for our existence that any plan or purpose that we can come up with will fall miserably short of what we were created for and only bring us incredible frustration and total insignificance and we can when we can break free from all of the messages that that the world bring in and many of these messages that we have actually created in the church and in missions that have caused us to think wrongly about our role emissions if we can break free from those confines I believe what we can see in the world today is a a mass movement of brilliant reflections of our Creator God going out into the communities around here but into the nations of the world so that 90% of Muslims Hindus and Buddhists will know someone who is a believer and who will see someone who is a believer and understand the part of the gospel understand the glory of God in a very real way but here is the key and with this I finish and Jonathan is going to come up and lead us in prayer lead us through prayer here is the key Paul finishes chapter one with these words I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination flooding you with light why until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling Paul saying I pray that God will open your eyes that you will understand who you are who he has made you to be as his child that is the wealth of God's glorious inheritance that he finds in us as Holy Ones God would you just open her eyes to know who we are were your children and then he goes on to say I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God's power made available to you through faith so Paul's moving from our identity night into our purpose because you have a purpose to live out your faith your faith faith is not something private to you something between you and God it's something that you must live out in the world and so I'm saying Paul saying I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God's power made available to you through faith you're gonna need it as you go out in the world you're going to need to know that God's power is in you working through you it's for you it's the thing that's going to move you forward it's the thing that's going to empower you to go be who he's created you to be in these parts of the world where he's not knowing listen to this and he says this then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you then your lives will be an advertisement of his immense power as it works through you this is the mighty power that was released when God rias Christ from the dead God would you open our eyes so that we realize who we are and would you fill our hearts full with the knowledge of your power so that we will courageously live out who we are and step out into the world to be everything you have made us to be for your glory amen [Applause]

Channel: James Kuo

Views: 6,049

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Id: YBXSJkfo5DI

Length: 56min 31sec (3391 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 13 2018