Digging Ditches Wk 8

Pastor Zach Whitehead

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See right here. It's a little bit better. All right. 702. We'll go ahead and get started uh tonight, guys. And so I think you guys see why the decision is to have small groups, because we could be doing this small group in my living room and I could have my crocs on. I don't have to have real shoes. Um I preach better in Crocs now. Um coffee and all that good stuff involved. I know I saw Paul. I was I almost said something, I'm jealous. So at least I got tennis shoes on, so I I'll meet in the middle today. So Tuesdays, uh still talking about this, remember? Uh come September 2nd. September 1st would be the Tuesday, but so uh come the first Sunday, first. So oh my gosh. It is I didn't even teach today, my brain scrambled. Uh September 2nd is the first Wednesday. It's one of the days of end and why of the of the week. Uh we're gonna go back and we're gonna get prayer and communion started back up. And then after that, the following week, there will be no women there'll be no more midweek, and then we'll launch we'll launch into small groups. Uh come the I think the third week of September. I have to have to double check. Um I gotta mark down, but not in my brain enough, obviously. Uh so we'll be doing that. If you guys are interested in a small uh hosting a small group at your house, um maybe not exactly teaching it. Uh you can find somebody to partner up with to teach. Somebody could be the teacher, somebody could be the host. Um maybe if you think you live a little bit too far away and you want to do a small group, uh find somebody's house you can host it at, and um do it, you know, we can we can do it that way. Somebody, somebody can again can just be the host for the house, and then somebody can do all the teaching part. You guys work together on it. Um seeing that done plenty before too. And so tonight we're gonna continue what we talked about Sunday, just in practical application. Again, I want to preach the same message, but I want to dig into it. So, what does it mean? And actually doing that and seeking our city. So uh God didn't place his church in the city simply to have a church in the city. Um, he placed us here to seek the good of the city. And then so this would be the practical question for tonight, and everything around it is we're trying to answer this. And if our church disappeared tomorrow, who outside our congregation would notice? Not talking about the people in here. I think we would all notice. Hopefully we would all notice. That'd be a bigger issue if not. But if our church disappeared tomorrow, who outside these walls would notice it? And that's a tough question to ask, but I think if we don't ask the tough questions, we don't grow. So Tuesdays we've been talking about preparing these channels, about digging that out so the water flows. So we've dug into covenant, marriage, children and spiritual children, servant leadership, a healthy church, and then uh we talked about living that we are living blessed to be a blessing. And last week we said we aren't we aren't uh digging bigger ditches just so we can hold more water, right? We're we're digging bigger and better ditches because God intends it for the water to reach further. And so we ask, where's the water supposed to go? And the answer is it's really simple beyond us, beyond our families, beyond our ministries, beyond our building, into the city of Zachary and the surrounding areas. And so going back to Jeremiah 29, 4 through 7, and don't stress about if you can't get it on the screen. I didn't even send it in. Look at that. She's that awesome, guys. Um so Sarah, Sarah's out. You guys do pray for Sarah. She's I know she's met uh battling vertigo. Um we have that happen often at Ange the house with with her ear and uh with her infection. So totally get it. You don't want to be driving vertigo because you'll be driving upside down and everybody else will be driving right side up. Um so thus saith the Lord of the hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles uh who I'm sent from the Jerusalem to Babylon. Uh they say he said that God tells them this, he's telling them, build houses and live in them, plant the gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and sons, uh, take wives and have your sons and daughters, and then take wives for your sons. So he's not just talking about, he's not thinking about like, hey, you just go ahead and get married here, live your life out. He's talking about next generation. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters. So again, now go into the next generation. So them, their children, their grandchildren, multiply and do not decrease. And then he says this, and again, this goes up to that what we always quote in Jeremiah, you know, uh, for for I know the plans that I have for you, a future and and and a hope. This is right before that. There's literally four verses before that. But he says, seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on this behalf, for in its welfare you'll find your welfare. So this is this is remarkable because Babylon wasn't Jerusalem. This wasn't the place that God had promised to place his people. This was outside of the promised land, this wasn't their homeland, this isn't where they they the generations had built their lives. These weren't their people that they were among. It wasn't their preferred environment. Yet God said, Build there. He said, plant there, raise your families there, pray there, and then he says, seek the peace of the city. That word welfare there trans translates um as both. And so the idea behind Shalom, which is again that Hebrew idea, the Hebrew word for peace, is bigger than the absence of conflict. It's not like seek the peace of the city, that there be no conflict within the city. It's talking about its wholeness, or in this case, when they use in this translation, the English Standard Version, is the welfare, the well-being, the flourishing of the city. So God is essentially telling his people this, if if we kind of just paraphrase this down and give us the Cliff Note version, where I planted you, work towards its good. Whether you're in the place that I promised you, or you're in a place of exile because I've got to teach you something, you still, where you've planted you, work towards good. So wherever God is planting you, um, the house that you live in, the neighborhood you live in, the job you may not like right now, because God is, if you really feel that God is directing your steps and ordering your steps, if God planted you there, then he has a good work for you to do there. Walk, walk, work towards its good. And so we got to practice presence. Our first instinct with outreach can be is how do we get people here? I did mention this on Sunday. How do we get people here? And albeit that's not a bad question, because we do want people to come church, right? It's amongst an assembly of believers that uh what one puts a thousand to flight, two puts ten thousand. And sometimes it's easier in an atmosphere of uh of faith to pray for miracles, signs, wonders for people to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Uh I mean we we baptize people here regularly. Like that kind of stuff is great to happen here. But Jesus repeatedly begins with another one. It says, He also he also asks us, how do we go where people already are? How do we go to neighborhoods? How do we go to schools? How do we go to businesses? How do we go to civic life? How do we go to the ball fields? How do we go to the coffee shops? How do we go to first responders? How do we go to our teachers? And I didn't put that in there because of me. There's other teachers. How do we go to nursing homes? God has already scattered his people throughout the city. We don't all live, you know, we don't we come here together in worship, but we all don't go live in the same house together. We all don't go live in the same neighborhood together. Here's the thing the church gathered on Sunday because the church becomes scattered on Monday. We gather together on Sunday because we go back into our respective lives on Monday for Monday morning. This building should be treated as headquarters, not the central place. This is the headquarters, this isn't just the main attraction. It isn't the boundary of our ministry. This is just the place of commissioning, the place of anointing, the place of equipping, because this is headquarters, and you don't do combat at headquarters, you don't reach out, you don't do missions, you don't do reconnaissance, you don't do all the stuff at headquarters. It's where you get equipped to go out into the field. And so we need we got to start treating church like that. And so we practice our presence when we're out in the community, instead of just practicing presence here in the building, it shifts our mindset mentality. And so one thing we also have, another thing we have to do is we have to seek before we speak. We have to practice listening. And before we can decide what our city needs, even though we may be able to see some things, we need to ask. What would happen if we asked what would our city needs? Um, I'm working on it now, and and thankful that Melissa does work in that office. I like I want to, I'm I'm not just gonna go casually meet the mayor to have breakfast with him. I'm I'm gonna ask him some big questions. I'm I'm telling you right now, one of the things I'll ask him, and if you want to prep him for it, go ahead. I'm gonna ask him, um, what's three things this city, if it like what is the three biggest issues in this city right now that come to the top of your mind? I don't I don't want to wait for an answer. I want the three things that come to the time. Why? Because those are probably those are three things the church should be able to address and handle. If it's not a budget issue, we should be able to address and handle it. Um and so I want to know what is it? Because why? He sees a different perspective than we see. And so what is what is what is our what is what does our police chief see? What is um what does the captain of our uh the captains of our fire department see? Uh our the people who run our nursing homes, our hospitals, our our welfare programs, our schools, what do they see? What do they see? And oftentimes we see in perspective, maybe as parents with kids in school, or we have interactions with the hospital, interactions with emergency services, interaction with welfare programs. But what about the people who are on the other side of it? Oftentimes asking and listening to what they have to say first will allow God to speak through that, and so we can answer those things. And again, this is probably one of the most practical disciplines I want us to learn as a church is to listen before you launch. Listen before you launch out into a ministry, before you try to establish a ministry, before you try to answer a need. Listen, talk to teachers. What are families struggling with? One one thing that we had uh get one thing we had talked about uh you know was doing those meal, getting those meals together for Thanksgiving, and and that was one of the things you guys said. Let's go talk to the teachers at the school. They know and they see. So we're gonna we're gonna do that. Talk to community leaders, ask them where's the gaps? We talk to our neighbors, what do you love about this community? What then what's one great thing about this area? But then what's one thing that's not? What's difficult here? And then talk to families, ask families what would actually help? If the church had could do something that could help families in this community, what would be? And you'd actually be surprised at some of the answers that people get. Even if they're not Christians, even if they don't believe in God, even if they don't, everybody has a has this general concept and understanding that the church churches are supposed to help. And it's crazy because we on the church side of things, sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we we we leave, we, we, we don't always have that mindset, that mentality, and we just, you know, we we we want to do the Sunday part well, but then the other Monday through Saturday part gets really hard. So we can need to talk to families and ask them what would help. And sometimes churches answer questions nobody in the community uh is asking. And if we're called to be stewards of God's resources and we're supposed to, we're called to be stewards of our own time, talent, and resources that God has put into us, we don't want to spend that time and those resources and ourselves on answering questions, albeit we may be an excellent program for it, we have the right things built in the ministry and all that, but we're answering a we're answering a question that nobody's asking. We're feeling we're fulfilling a need that's only hypothetical, it's not practical. You tracking with me? Seeking the city requires listening to the city. We don't love the idea of our city, we love the people who actually live out there. We don't just love the idea of being planted in the city, love the idea of reaching a city. We actually have to love the people in the city. One thing, um, I went a couple weeks ago to go sit down with uh Pastor Cliff and just pick his brain about some stuff. And he told me one thing he does uh as a pastor is a Saturday night, he before, you know, um when when when he's getting ready, when he's before he gets ready to go to bed, he'll get in his car and he'll go drive all over town. And um, and and I was like, well, why do you do that? He said he told me he told me that could because I constantly have to put the I have to put the mission in my vision always. And if you guys know Pastor Cliff Lejeune, he always has a great way of saying things. But but he was he's so true. He said, Zach, you've got to keep that in front of your mind because you can't just love the idea of being there. You have to love the people who are there. So I drive down every street, whether it's the good ones or the bad ones. He lives in Jennings, and so you know they have they do have a rough part of town. They have problems, they have way, they have different issues than we have, they have similar issues, but he said, I drive there because I have to remember why I'm there. I'm not just here for Jesus Jesus Worship Center. I'm not just here because my family's here. I'm here because God planted me here, and I have to remember that every person that is here, that that this is who God wants me to reach. And uh we have to, we all have to keep that same mindset. We're not just here in Zachary because you show up here on Sunday and you call this your home church, and I'm grateful that you do, but we want to follow after the calling of God. If we believe that God has planted my family here for a time and a season such as this, then if we've been attached to this place and assigned to this place, God doesn't assign you to a building, he assigns you to a people. God doesn't just sign you to a building, he assigns you to a people. And so he's called us to faithfully serve here in this building, but he's also called us to faithfully serve those people who are out there. And so what we've been talking about as we're practically, we gotta, we have to dig, we have to dig the that the channels out, dig the ditches out. We've got to keep this one clean. Why? Because if we get this, we this is this we have to remove that us versus them mentality. And I know we don't want to say that we have it, but a lot of times it's kind of becomes ingrained within church culture, and we have we we we really haven't we really haven't separated that. Because one thing that that that is that can clog this is seeing the community primarily is them, the world, those people, that generation, people nowadays, the lost. But we have to go back. Jesus didn't look at crowds in disgust. Because when he this Matthew 9, 36, when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion on them. One of the biggest spiritual checks that we can put ourselves in is that if we go out in there, there are times that yes, you we should be appalled and we should separate this out. We should be appalled and we should be disgusted by sin. But we also have to realize what else can lost people do? They don't know the truth. They don't know how to sin. So we have to we have to separate it. I'm not condoning their sin. I'm not condoning their lifestyles, I'm not condoning lasciviousness, I'm not con I'm not condoning uh uh adultery, I'm not condoning promiscuity, I'm not con drunk, I'm not condoning um uh using using street drugs, I'm not condoning alcoholism, I'm not condoning any of that stuff. But behind that alcoholism is a person who's trapped in something. And this is what Jesus is, this is what Scripture is talking about in Matthew, because when he saw the multitude, he was moved in compassion with them. I should be angry not at them because they're caught up in sin. I should be angry at the enemy of our soul who has lied to them and confused them so long that they're trapped in misery, that they're trapped in sin, that they're locked away. I should see with the eyes and the compassion of Christ that when I look at them, I see past, I see, I can see the alcoholism and I can be upset at that, but I can look at them and see there's a broken man and there's a broken woman behind that. There's there's a person who didn't have a father present when they were growing up, and this is the only way that they know because it was the only pattern they ever saw. And so we have to be moved with compassion. Again, not condoning the sin, but we have to we have to be compassionate. He saw the brokenness clearly, but brokenness produced compassion, not contempt. Again, we have to separate the two. That's important. We don't have to affirm everything in our culture to love our city deeply. We know that kingdom culture is opposite to worldly culture. And that's okay, it should be. Because worldly culture is not actually it's it's counterintuitive to God's cult, it's counterintuitive to God's culture. And so we don't have to compromise our conviction to become good neighbors. I said it, I said it this week is that holiness and there whole we don't we don't have to sacrifice either one. We don't have to sacrifice holiness and we don't have to sacrifice mission. We don't have to, you know, draw back on our holiness and our separation to be able to go out and do mission. Um, but we and we don't have to back off on our being so mission-minded to make sure that we're separated and holy unto God. Holiness determines who we are, mission determines what we do out there. They exist hand in hand and they do not exist without each other. Again, holiness should distinguish us from the world without distancing us from the people who have died to save. Again, I'm not saying they're gonna have a voice in my life to speak into my walk with God, into how I should raise my family, how I should conduct my marriage, how I should construct my finances. That's not what we're saying. But what we're saying at the end of the day, people are people. They're lost in sin, they're dying, and they're broken. And when I look on them, my heart and my spirit should be moved to compassion. So don't just see the need, practice neighboring. Luke Luke 10, uh, 33 through 37 talks about the story of the good Samaritan. And the Samaritan saw that the wounded man others saw. And the people that passed by the Samaritan were people who should have known because of the Torah, because of the scriptures that they studied, because of the way they were raised, that that man needed help. And it was their God-given responsibility to do so. The difference between the Samaritan was what he did next. So Samaritans, um, it was it it this the irony in this story is that he had no promise with with what God had. The Samaritans were outside of the Jewish people. And and so this being true, honest, like transparent here, the Jews uh often call the Samaritan dogs and half-breeds because it was it was it was Jewish people who married outside of of Jewish culture and Jewish faith. And so they had maybe a mom and her dad who were who were you know Hebrew, and they had you know the other parent wasn't. And so they come from a lineage that, yeah, they were once part of God's people, but they're not anymore. And so this should have been the person who looked and didn't didn't believe like they believed, didn't read the word that they read, didn't have the traditions and the custom that that uh that that the people before who passed the Samaritan saw, but something in his spirit moved him and he was moved on compassion for this wounded man. And so he moved towards him. He interrupted his schedule. He was traveling just like everybody else was traveling. He used his he interrupted his schedule. He used his own resources. He didn't he didn't go to he didn't go and get a grant from somewhere else to help take care of this guy. He didn't go to the next nonprofit over. He used his own time and resources. He provided transportation, he made sure that we he could that he could get the wounded man from here to the place where they could find rest and treat his wounds. He paid for his care there. He promised follow-up. So when when you're reading through the story, he he promised here, you pay I'm paying for today and however many days of whatever it takes for him to get better. He promised to pay for it. And that's remarkably practical ministry. Yes, people need the gift of the Holy Ghost. Yes, people need to be baptized in Jesus' name. Yes, that is all necessary, but sometimes we have to take care of the practical need before we can get them to that step. Sometimes we have to take care of the practical need before we can ever get to that step. Jesus didn't describe a program, he described a person that was willing to be inconvenienced for it. Sometimes we have to meet the need of someone's hunger before we can invite them to church. Sometimes we have to help them meet a clothing need before they get to church. They want to come to church, but it's it's hard when they when they don't really have um a nice maybe a nice set of clothes. Um and there it's it's hard for them to come to church and they haven't eaten in a couple days. I mean, I I I have trouble focusing. I I I forgot to eat today, and that's what like I was trying to hurry up and make some French toast for dinner because I was just so scatterbrained. I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't eat today. If you've ever gone on an extended fast and you've gone beyond that like second into third day, dude, you are an absolute zombie. And to have somebody try to come in who hasn't maybe eaten for a couple days and then pay attention to what's going on and be open and receptive to what God's trying to do, their natural body will fight against it. And so sometimes we have to meet the practical need before we can meet just meet the spiritual need. And so here's a digging question for us to ask ourselves. What needs do I regularly walk past because I've decided there's somebody else's responsibility? What am I delegating to somebody else that God has prompted me to do first? And I'm not saying again, we have to do everything. I'm not talking about the mindset of in ministry and in service here and whatever team we serve on doing everything. Totally separate conversation. Talking about your spiritual walk. What needs are you walking past that God has put in front of your eyes? And here's the thing: oftentimes when you see a need that someone no one else does, is that's because God is laying that ministry and that burden upon your heart. It's a good thing. Burdens are good things. The pressure and the weight from God is a good thing. Sometimes seeking the city looks incredibly ordinary. It could be mowing a neighbor's yard, it could be feeding a family, it can be showing up at that school event that nobody else wants to help out, helping a teacher when they're short on supplies or or they there's the need in their classroom. Checking in on an elderly neighbor. I haven't had the chance yet to meet uh the neighbor to, if you're looking at my house, the neighbor to the to the right um is an elderly lady. I haven't had a chance to meet her yet. Um all I've seen is groceries that are dropped off at her house. I haven't seen her outside her house yet. Um the neighbor next to me, uh, Mr. Jacques, he's the he's the BRPD. Um said they had these guys, I don't know if they were rolling through the neighborhood, but your neighborhoods, but they were riding those like little segue things and they were selling uh pest control. And they went up to the ladies' uh Jacques was telling me they went up to the ladies' house, knocked on our door, and it was covered in flood. Flies and they thought she was they the kids are like worried. They're like, Oh my gosh, this lady did. So they went back to his house. He's like, Look, I know, I know you said you weren't gonna buy pest control. That's not why we're here. Her door's covered in flies, nobody's answering. It smells awful in there. He's like, What do we do? And so he's like, Look, he's he called somebody directly at ZP. They went over there. Turns out she's not dead, thank God. But um, she lives by herself, and so there was trash that was piled up, and it smelled awful because stuff was rotting and those flies were trying to get in. What are we are we looking for those kind of neighbors? Now, mind you, don't don't knock me for that. That all happened before I moved in, okay? So don't knock me for that. But I have I have I have yet I haven't met her yet. And I but I know because God placed me there. I love my house, but God also put me there for my neighbors. I got a pastor across the street that pastors the church of Christ. What do I want to need to do? I need one day we need to sit down and eventually God's gonna lead them to truth, and I believe He's gonna use us to do it. I'm gonna win my I'm gonna win to the people next to us. They go to another church in the community, but God's gonna lead them to truth. Are we there just to snag other church? No, but God's gonna plant us right where we're at that our neighbors around us should be impacted by us. Um sometimes we got we gotta we got it it it looks like mentoring a teenager. There are plenty of young men and what young women out there who do not have father figures, who do not have uh good good examples of a mother uh uh of a good motherly figure. Um supporting local businesses. Sometimes there are people in your community that just supporting a local business um will open up um will open up a door. Um I'm working, I'm I'm I'll be honest, I went home the other day and I told Ange, I said, I'm gonna win our banker. The lady I I was like, I need to go establish um I need to go establish a bank account here. I don't know why I felt like I need to do that. Um it was really weird going to the bank of Zachary and hearing them say that all the time. And then she they called me and I think they had to call me twice because I didn't realize they were talking to me. I thought they were talking on the phone. So um, yeah, God has a real sense of irony, you know, Pastor Zachary and Zachary. So but the lady that opened my account, I try to go to her every time that I'm there, every time that I go to the bank uh to talk to her. Why? Because it matters. She's she's a captive audience. Um pray with somebody who's at work. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal big deal, but um, a lot of times people at work will know you're Christians, but once you put that into action, they see something different in you, they'll call you. They know when they have a need, they can go to you. And then just as simple as remembering somebody's name, knowing that they exist in a world that is so fast-paced, so convenience-minded, remembering, taking the time to remember the lady's name at the gas station that you go to regularly or at the store that you go to regularly, it's a big deal. Um, when you go to Walmart, I know I know I joke jokingly said something about Walmart Sunday, but when you joke like when you go to Walmart and you see the same person often at the greeting at the door, remember their name. I know Zane said that to me the other day. I I I tried it, I looked at the guy's name tag and told him thank you and by his name um for fixing fixing the self-checkout. Do I like the idea of self-checkout? No, I absolutely hate it. I don't want to go to a store and do it, but um, but that's just the model that they choose. And so the guy, and Zayn goes, Dad, you know him? And I was I was like, no, buddy. He has a name tag on. He goes, Oh, he seems so disappointed. I don't, but I said, I said it's important. I said, hey, he's I said, Zayn, he's a person. And I want him to know that we care. And even though, you know, this was frustrating that this machine wasn't working for me, I just want him to know that that it's not his fault. And I and that we care that he's there. And so take it, take advantage of somebody's name tag. Remember their name. And next time you walk into Walmart, tell the greeter, hey, buy name, and watch their face. Because usually there are people, let me check the receipt, and they're they're usually getting explicites yelled at them, like, whatever. Watch what that kindness does. And so move from those random acts of kindness to actual faithful presence. And here's what I don't want us to misunderstand: is we don't want to occasionally do something nice for Zachary. Don't pacify your soul by just every once in a while doing a good deed. Let it become second nature for who you are. Our eyes should see that our hearts should be moved towards it. We want to be a church that is faithfully present in Zachary. A lot of times, people, that's what people expect of churches. Once or twice a year, they do a good event, they, they, they answer, they answer some kind of need. But what God is asking us to be is a church that is faithful, that is ever present. That is where people's mindsets change about Christianity and change about believers, is when they're faithful in their action. They're faithful in their beliefs, not just in their beliefs, but they're faithful in the exhibition of character and and the actions they take outside the building. And there's a difference. One outreach event is good, but we're talking about culture. So this is a thing we talk about every day. So if instead of asking only what outreach can we do, start asking, where has God already positioned us? Who do we know? What needs do we know of? What offices are we connected to? Where do we work? Where do our children go to school? Where do we shop regularly? Who's the people that live next door? What organizations are we already connected to? Or where do you already have trust and you are you already know uh people at? Because maybe God has already dug half the ditches for your relationships. Maybe God has already started digging these channels out where He wants to flow water because you already established those relationships. He's just asking you to deepen and widen those relationships so the water can move through them. So practice this. Map your mission field. Um think about five places. Number one, everybody say home. Who lives near me? Can you tell me a little bit about your neighbors? The second place, everybody say work. Who are the people God has placed me around on a weekly basis? Who are the guys who has God placed me around on a weekly basis? Can you tell me about their lives? Can you tell me about the things they like, they don't like, um, what they believe, what they don't believe, what what they have need for? Uh uh third thing, everybody say school. What families, what teachers, what students, or what administrators do you know on a personal basis? Number four, everybody say community. What organizations or businesses are you already connected to? What local, what local businesses have you have you uh made commitment to purchase from? Um do you know the people who work at Walmart? Do you know the people that when you go to Aldi? Do you know the people when you go through the drive-thru? Uh and then number five, everybody say church, who could we bring alongside us while we serve? Outreach can happen still while you're here. Who can you bring alongside you while you're serving? Um, so then we this is the this would be the next question we ask. Where do I already have relational access that could become kingdom presence? Where in my life, in home, work, school, community, or church, do I already have relational access that could become kingdom presence? And we're not manufacturing a mission field. It's already there. We're not, we're not, we're not, um, we're not looking for saddleback Sam and like like if we were reading the purpose-driven church. We don't have a target audience at the church. Everyone. We want everyone here. Not a certain demographic, not a certain socioeconomic class, not a certain thing. We want people who have needs. Um we have we want people who don't have needs. We want people who look like us. We want people who don't look like us. Um, we want people who dress well, and we want people who have along the way, we're gonna have to say, hey, we don't wear that to church. Um we want people who are who who can who can come along and help with the mission, and we want we want people here who can't give anything back. Again, we're not manufacturing a mission field or a target audience. We're just recognizing them, we're just recognizing the one that God already gave us, the city of Zachary and the surrounding areas. Matthew 5, um 14 and 16 says this, that ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. And neither do men light a candle, put it under a bushel, but they put it on a candlestick, and it gives light to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before all men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Notice this in the set of scriptures. They see something first, and then they glorify God. They see something first, and then they glorify God. Our good works aren't the gospel. Our good works aren't the gospel, but they do create credibility for the gospel we proclaim, because our good works are a byproduct of the gospel, changing our heart, changing our mind, changing our spirit, changing the way we think, changing the way we see. We serve because we love people. And when doors, the door finally opens, we'll tell them why we love people. We'll tell them why we love people. And so these uh I want to give you five practices uh of uh of how we can seek the city. And these aren't just five outreach hacks, they're they're just practical rhythms. Practice attention. Everybody say, practice attention. Notice people, guys. Learn their names. See the need. If you learn them, if you listen, you'll see you'll you'll you'll when we pay attention, you'll see the need. And the second, practice, everybody say practice listening. Don't assume you know what people need. Oftentimes when we assume people's needs will actually push them further away. Listen to what they're saying, listen to their situation, listen to their trauma, listen to their what's going on in their household, listen to what's going on at school. Ask questions, ask them how it feels, ask them what's going on, um, ask them if they're particular. Is there anything that I could do today to help you? Is there anything that that just practically besides prayer? Obviously, I want to pray for you. Is there anything besides prayer? And you would be surprised at what people would answer. Uh number three, practice hospitality. Everybody say practice hospitality. Some of us are e uh are just way better at this than others, but it's a practice for everybody. Open your table up, open your home up, open your lives up to other people. Again, I'm not talking about unrestricted access. I'm just talking about make some inconvenience in your schedule and in your calendar to have somebody at your table once a week. Once every other week. Shoot, start off at once a month and see what God does in your life. Everybody say, practice service. Meet needs without demanding anything in return. And again, this is talking about when the when when he was he was telling the people, and again, this is this is the people who who are who are dedicated to this church and understand and believe, that was a big deal that God told them to leave the corners of their fields and leave what was on the ground for for the stranger and the sojourner to come by and pick up. Because they had already given the first fruit of their fields. Okay. And so they're harvesting the 90% that would be theirs for their family, for their finances, um, to sell, to trade, because they're an agriculture community. And so God, what God is saying, I'm not, I'm not just asking you return for you to return the 10% of the tie, he's saying, I'm saying leave the corners and leave this stuff, leave the stuff behind. So in practicality, what is he telling us in the same in the same kind of manner is go ahead and budget the 10% out. Okay? Trust me with all of it so I can bless you with the 90%, but leave room in that 90%. What you what this other stuff maybe you've overlooked in the budget, and there's a small couple dollars left here between here and there, and then leave some margin so that you can be in convenience to sit down with somebody for some coffee and buy their coffee. Leave something behind so that way you have some extra. You have some extra so you can invite somebody over and feed another two, three, four heads at dinner one night. Make space in in that, uh, make space in that for it. And then everybody say, practice intercession. Jeremiah says in what we read, see, he says it specifically, he says, pray unto the Lord for it. So pray for your school, pray for businesses, pray for government leaders, whether you agree with them or not. It is not our job to, again, it's our job to practice good civic duty and vote and all that stuff, but even if the person we vote for doesn't win, we still pray for our government leaders. Why? Because they wear a huge responsibility that we don't wear. Um, we pray for our first responders, we pray for struggling families, we pray for other churches in the community. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but trust me, God can do something more. Um, we pray for prodigals and we pray for people we've never met. When you're when you're driving through your way, maybe on your way to work and you're driving through the neighborhood. God, I haven't met the people on the street yet, but I'm praying over him. Bless their homes, bless their families. They may be going to school today, they're going to work today, just like me. God, show up in their lives today. And if I have a chance, if you're leading me to them and I'm going to cross their path, God, help me, help me to reach them, help me to serve them one way or another. Um, guys, call these things out by name. Don't just pray vaguely for things. Again, for praying for people might be hard to call them by name, but uh, when you're praying for the school, call the school's name out. The business, call the business name out, call the government leader name out. The first responders you may know, um, and the ones that you don't, you know, pray for pray for the department as a whole. Call the whole department name. And so the idea is let's get practical with this. Let's not let's not just say, we want to reach our city. Well, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do besides just inviting people to church? We're gonna be a church that meets the needs, and we're gonna start not just first at a corporate level, but it should be the responsibility and the DNA of who we are, the spiritual DNA of who we are, um, to answer it. Remember in Acts 2, they immediately moved from the upper room. They went down into the street, and then 3,000 were added to the church that day. But what happened in the next series of verses after that, Acts 2 and 42, is they went from house to house breaking bread, and they would worship together, and they would talk about with the word together, and people were being added daily. Daily because they took what they experienced in the assembly and brought it out into their everyday week. And they even repeat the same thing in chapter 4. It says that they gave that they they sold it, they have and they gave and they laid it at the feet of the apostles, trusting that the apostles would divvy it up, would give to the needs that were in there. Something happened where the people had an encounter with their spirit. They realized everything that's in my hand, my time, my talent, my resources does not belong to me in the first place. It's it's God. So if if the spirit moves upon us when we invite people to our table, it's not a big deal because that table wasn't mine in the first place. It's God. The home's not mine, it's God. The finances aren't mine. They're God. The food that's on that table didn't come from me just from me working. It came from God blessing me with the opportunity to have a job and to have finances. And so again, talking about 2 Kings 3, we've spent weeks digging, but tonight I want to understand that I want us to understand something clearly is that ditches have directions. Ditches are dug with a specific direction. We're not just digging deeper, and again, we want deeper, we want excellence, we want to keep it clean, but we're digging towards somebody. This water has to flow towards somebody, toward the marriage that needs healing, towards the child that needs somebody to believe in them, towards a prodigal who needs a road home, toward a family that doesn't know where the next meal is going to come from, toward the teacher who's exhausted and underpaid and underappreciated and has way too big of a classload, towards the first responder who's carrying things that nobody else knows about, towards the neighbor who hasn't stepped inside of a church for 15 to 20 years, and just towards people who don't know Jesus yet. So just remember this: God didn't accidentally put us here. God didn't accidentally call you to this church or plant you in this community or direct you here to this. Acts 16, uh Acts 17, I'm sorry, 26 through 27, teaches us that God has determined the places where people dwell. And if we believe God can do it, if we believe Scripture, here's what we believe that we're here, we're in place, we're at this moment, and it's all for a reason. And so if Sunday asks what the Lamb is building, Tuesday ask, where do we dig, and the answer tonight is towards the city. It's towards the people out there that are lost, that are broken. So build here, plant here, raise your families here, serve here, listen here, pray here, love here, here being this city in this area, preach Jesus here, and more than anything, guys, seek the peace of the city. Seek the welfare, the well-being, the shalom of this city, because we aren't simply a church located in this city. We're a church sent to the city. You guys believe that? Amen. Let's pray real quick. God, would you help us to see this in a new light, in a new way, that we wouldn't just have this idea that we're outreach, that we're supposed to do outreach, but because we are a church, it's we're supposed to reach outwardly because of what you've done inside of us, of what you've transformed our heart and our lives. Help us to never forget whether we were born into church or we've barely been in this thing, is that ultimately we are all sinners saved by grace. And the same grace that's afforded to our life, the love and the mercy, even though you are a personal savior, God, you still died on the cross for the entirety of the world. So help us to bring that when we walk into the store, when we walk into the gym, when we walk into the restaurant, or even if we go through the drive-thru lane, that everywhere we go, that there are people, and even if they're a jerk to us in the drive-thru lane, there's a person on the other side of that anger, there's a person on the other side of that frustration. Um there's people out there that are living in sin and contradictory to everything that we believe. But it's okay, God, because they're lost. Help us to see people through their lostness. Help us to see people through their sin and their confusion, and help us help us to ask questions and listen and listen to your spirit's prompting while that's going on. So we invite them to our tables. We invite them to coffee. We meet the needs so that maybe so one day, God, it'll the door will open up. We don't have to, we don't have to shoulder it down, and the door will open where they ask, why are you the way they are? Why are you why do you love me like you love me? Why do you expect nothing in return? Why, why do you treat me like this? And we can turn around and say, It's all because of Jesus. And we can see miracles happen where we never thought they would happen. God, we believe it, and it's going to happen because you're leading us. In your name we pray. And everyone saying in Jesus' name, Amen.