God's Mission Has a Church - Elias Deleault

Sunday sermon recorded on May 24, 2026   

Part of the "Be a Blessing" series.   

https://linktr.ee/northpointema

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Um, we're grateful to be here with you. Uh, we have, as was mentioned, four little boys with us. Our oldest is turning 12 uh this year, our youngest is turning eight this year. They're about three. My oldest will turn 12 three weeks after. If I was doing this right, Rachel, after my youngest turns eight. So we had four under the age of four, is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Um, but because we have twins in the middle. So um we have twins that are 10 in there. So I don't know if we doubled the kids' kingdom class in there today or not. Um they're they're grateful to be here. Please uh meet them afterwards. We told them to be nice to you today when they meet you. Uh I'm actually from Massachusetts originally. I was born and raised in Westfield, Massachusetts, which is out by the Springfield area. And uh but I left at 19 to uh sow my oats and go west. And I went to California and uh moved to Los Angeles really because I didn't have anything else going on in my life, and I thought, why not just go someplace sunny and warm? And uh ended up there and uh six months later got baptized. Uh wasn't going to find Jesus in Los Angeles by any means, the opposite. But uh but I got to a place where I just was I realized there's no place I can go to actually fix what's wrong. It didn't matter if I lived a block from the beach and was working a job that I felt great about and had cool people around me, or was it just was like, wow, I'm still something's still wrong. And I started to look into the scriptures and pray and just beg God for help. And God sent disciples into my life, uh, actually into my roommate's life. He got baptized in like a week, and I witnessed him completely transform. And he just kept inviting me out to church, and one day I finally was like, I'm gonna go just so you stop inviting me. And I could say, I went to church with you finally, and I um I went to church, and you know, I I saw a bunch of people that I thought were awkward and weird because they were wearing suits and singing hymnals, and and that was just not my world, and we were meeting in a hotel room or hotel uh lobby, and my friend was getting baptized in a jacuzzi at the hotel. I just was like, what is happening here? Like, I don't understand what's going on, but they were people who were willing to open their lives up to me, make space for me in their lives, open up the scriptures with me, and talk to me about Jesus and teach me how to make sense of the Bible. And to me, that was worth the price of admission. I got whatever, whatever I gotta do to get that. Yeah, and it transformed my life. And uh uh stayed in LA for about 10 years, started in the ministry there. Rachel and I got married there. Um we then moved to southern Oregon and uh led a small church there for a couple years. Then we moved, we had our first son there, moved to Washington State, just south of Seattle, Tacoma, Washington. And uh we lived there for six years in what looked a lot like this most of the time. And uh it was we loved the people, I'll say that, about the area. And uh summers were beautiful, and we had another couple kids there, and we got uh opportunity to go do full-time ministry again in um Austin, Texas, and we lived there for a couple of years. And almost 20 years to the day, I moved from Massachusetts October of 2002. I got called and we back to Massachusetts to lead the church in Pioneer Valley. We arrived back in Massachusetts October 2022.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Uh 20, you know, 19 going on 20, moving out to LA, 39 going on 40, moving back. So it's about half my life. Felt a little biblical. And now we've been there for three and a half years. So I'm just about ready for crucifixion, and uh uh just keep the biblical theme going. Um, but it's been a journey, and it's we're grateful to be back where we are. My my kids are about a mile from my parents, so they're getting the grandparent treatment all the time. My parents are part of the church there, they were baptized in 2011. And um, and we we love the community. The the church is vibrant, um, it is uh thriving in so many ways. And there's so many uh people that are really seeing the kingdom and wanting to participate in what God is doing. And it's showing up in all kinds of new and exciting ways, and it's kind of this wild thing. We don't have control over anything. Uh we're just we're just trying to catch on with what God's doing in the fellowship and through the fellowship, and um it's a special place to be. Uh so uh that's a little bit about us, but we're really grateful to be here with you. Uh Petty and Virog, as they uh shared, they've become friends of ours. I want you to know, you know, you have really good leaders. Uh and and because they're good servants, they love God, they have high integrity. They really do. And um they they inspire us, they they have made sacrificial decisions in their journey, and you know their story, so you've gotten to know that. Um they they have strived to put God first in their family, um, to put God first in their marriage, uh, to keep God first in their ministry, which can be tricky sometimes, even. Um, and and they love you, they talk about you everywhere they go. I'm in meetings with them at you know, with dozens of other church leaders. They've come to Pioneer Valley. I've I see them in coffee shops sometimes, and what they talk about is you often, and they love you, and they love being with you. And uh, we're grateful for you. You are an inspiration to New England. I don't know if you know that or not, but in our fellowship, in our family of churches, um you're the you're the newest, hottest thing in New England, uh, the newest church planting, and uh and you are brought up as an example of faith and what it looks like uh to try something new and to to get out on the edge and and to see God start to respond and move and and work with your faith, and people are hearing your stories. So uh we're really grateful to be here with you. Um I'm honored to share a few thoughts with you about uh being a blessing. I know you are in a series called Be a Blessing, and uh we believe the church is called to be a blessing, and we're we're we're we're meant to be a congregation that is more than just cars in a parking lot, like that our neighbors see more than just cars in a parking lot on Sunday, but they get to witness our lives, and we get to witness their lives, and we belong not just to one another, but to the community we're a part of. And we're meant to be a blessing to our neighbors. Um, Jesus was a rabbi, he was training his disciples. You've heard these ideas, they were apprentices, they were, you know, people training to become like Jesus and his way of being human in the world. Paul says Jesus is like a second Adam, he came to restore what was lost. In not just what he did through the cross and the resurrection, though absolutely that, but also in how he lived and what he taught. And for us to imitate him is to go back to that garden life with God. And um, and when Jesus was thinking about preparing his disciples for bringing a mission, uh, or for completing his mission or doing his mission of bringing the good news to the world, being a blessing to the lives of others, bringing the news of new creation and the kingdom of heaven come and the liberation from corruption of your generation. He was teaching them and training them to be postured in a certain way. Not just to go out and say the right things, but to be postured towards God and towards people in a particular way. And that's what we're going to look at today. Um, Luke chapter 10. You can turn there in your Bibles. Let me just ask you this before we look at the scripture, when you think about Jesus and you know what you know of Jesus in the gospel stories, what are some of the ways he's postured towards people? Like, how do you see him interacting with others? What do you get from Jesus about how he thinks about others in his interactions? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

He met needs.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

He met needs. Okay, so he sees himself, he's like, hey, I'm here to help. That's a posture. Yeah, what else?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

He asked questions.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

He was curious. I'm really curious. They say Jesus, I can't remember the exact numbers, but it's like in the hundreds, asked hundreds of questions and answered like three. Um He just he usually asked a question to a question, right? But he was curious. He wanted to draw out. What else? Yeah. And he was full of love and mercy, making room for people who really felt like there was no room for them in the lives of other people because of who they were or what they were, how they had been marginalized. And he said, No, no, no, I'm full of love and mercy. What else do you see in his posture? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

He served and he made it.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

He served. Again, I'm here to help, and I'm I'm here to empty myself and make myself an example of how God lowers himself to love you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

He had an imagination of what people can become.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Man, he had vision for people. He looked at people and saw something more than what they were currently. Yeah, what else?

SPEAKER_02 9:51

He did he did the unexpected, didn't go with the flow.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

He got out of the box, and anytime people tried to put him in a box, he said, No, thank you. I will have none of that, right? Um, he was open, he was welcoming, he was engaging, he was receiving. Um, let's learn a little bit about Jesus and how he trained his disciples uh to be like him, to follow his spirit into the world and to fulfill his mission as he wanted them to. Luke chapter 10, uh, verse 1. After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. Go. I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or a bag or sandals, do not greet anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say peace to this house. If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them. If not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking, whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick and who are there, and tell them the kingdom of God has come near to you. But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, Even the dust of your town we wipe off our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this, the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Jesus has some interesting marching orders for his disciples. Uh what do you notice that he gives them as instructions about how to go do mission? What are some things that you notice? What does he tell them? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

Stay focused.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Stay focused. He's like, don't even say hi to anybody when you're on the way. That's kind of a kind of a strange thing, right? Aren't we supposed to be friendly and smile at people? He's like, hey, don't even say hi to anybody. Just go to the thing you're going to go to. Stay focused. Yeah, what else?

SPEAKER_03 12:03

It's not gonna be an easy ride. You're wolf, you're lamb among wolves. There will be some opposition. Yeah, he's like some danger.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

He's like, let me just put you in the right category of hierarchy here. You are prey. Right? Like, you are lambs, they are wolves. Have a good time. Yeah. That's peace be with you, right? Okay, what else do you notice about his mission orientation for his disciples? What else stands out to you? He makes them pretty desperate intentionally. Like, go with no resources. Right? Go with no resources. Um, he teaches them not to show up as the host. Like, hey, I'm here with the goods, I'm here to provide all the needs. No, no, he teaches them to learn to be hosted. Go look for opportunities to be hosted, to rely on the hospitality of strangers as a part of mission in sharing the good news. They have something to give, absolutely. They have healing, they have the word and the message of the good news of the kingdom. Um, but they have something more importantly to receive from others. And it requires discernment. They have to figure out are these people of peace, are they not people of peace? And kind of asking, what's God up to in this house? And what's God up to in this house? And how are we good here? They're called to be a blessing to their neighbors, but they're called to be open to receiving a blessing from their neighbors. That's part of their mission. God's hospitality through strangers, people of peace. These are people who are going to be essential to the mission of Jesus. And he trains his disciples to be reliant on God through the hospitality of others. God's hosting them through people they do not know. Do you know God is a hospitable God, right? He's full of welcome and embrace, he's making room at his table for you and for me and for others. Uh, do you know God's welcome and embrace was even, we know this is for his disciples. Um, he was using strangers to welcome his disciples, to show them his own hospitality. God is often offering us his hospitality, if we'll notice it, through strangers, people we don't know. And I this is a shift for us, I think, in our imagination. And I wonder if we have a hard time imagining God working in this way sometimes. And here's I'm just gonna give you a couple visual ideas about how we might sometimes think about mission and who we are in the lives of other people. Um I lost all my slides, so it's not there. But there's a video mute. Oh, I probably pushed that. Do I need to push it? Press it again. There, hey, look at that.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Now just press the arrow.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

And you're right there.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

And I'm right there. Um sometimes we think of our mission and our relationship to other people maybe like this. What I mean is we're with God, and the world, everyone who's not in the church, is not with God. We might imagine things this way. That's right. We have what the world needs, not the other way around.

unknown 15:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Sometimes we think about this, right? So the mission, if this is how we imagine things, the mission depends on us getting it right with God.

unknown 15:40

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Right? So we've got to make sure we have the right doctrine and right practices and right morality so that God can be attractive enough to the world with good with uh the good news. He can He can we can use us in some way that the world will go, hey, what's going on over there? Can we have some of that, right? Um we have to keep ourselves completely separate from the world and completely separate from any influences of those outside the church because God isn't with them at all. That's how we might think about this, right? Um this means we we kind of have strict boundaries around not getting polluted by anybody else. Right? Do you ever feel that tension? Who am I friends with? And how close do I get to people? Because I don't want to get too close, right? Because that's the world. Right? Um and we make sure everything and every situation in our faith comes through the church or comes through Christian influence. And if we just get really good at loving God, then maybe our neighbors will discover we exist and want to join us. Right? We might think of it that way. Maybe not all of us, but maybe this is sometimes how we can think about mission or our relationship to other people. Sometimes we think, oh, I keep hitting that button, sorry. Sometimes we think about it like this. We're with God and we're in the world, and so we're kind of the bridge for the world to get to God. People get to God through us. You ever think about mission that way? Um it's okay to admit it. It's all right. Some of us think that way. Or we imagine ourselves that way. We're at the center. The church is at the center of what God is trying to do in the world. So we use words like we reach out from the center to pull people in to God, right? Because if they're not with us, they don't have God. Um God's church has a mission to get people into the church so that then God can use them and they can start experiencing God at that point. So we strategize and we make big plans and we set a big target and then we reverse engineer those plans to try to move goals towards that target to make sure that we get people into the church so that they can get to God. Are you with me right there? Do you ever think about it that way? What if we thought about it a little bit more like this? What if we saw the mission of God as bigger than the church? Bigger than the world, meaning like the people that are in the world, and then instead God is up to something in all of it. Um He's actually over all and through all and in all. He's actually reconciling all things to himself in Christ Jesus. He's actually actively moving through those outside of the church to help the church accomplish his will. God is actually moving in people's lives, in their workplaces, in their schools, in their neighborhoods, in their families. And we are living right alongside of them, participating in what God is doing. Are you with me right there? Hey Denise. Good to see you. We are meant to be intimately connected to those we live with and live among, mutually reliant on one another, like we see in Luke 10. And offering ourselves to our neighbors and people of peace in love, just as Christ does through the cross. What if the cross and the resurrection are at the center of the mission? What if death and new life are springing up all around us? We just have to learn to notice it. What if good news is actually still ongoing? News, like it's still new things happening. And our job is to show up and go, there it is. We get to be the people who help interpret what's happening and go, hey, you know what that is? Do you know what's happening in this reconciling moment right now between neighbors? That's God's love. Hey, do you know what's happening right now in this moment of justice where the people who are not getting what they deserve are getting what they deserve? That's God's love. Hey, do you know what's happening right now in this moment of forgiveness between families? Oh, this is God's love. Like we show up and we interpret for people because we're actually close to people what God's doing in their lives. Are you with me right there? We have this question we ask in the Pioneer Valley, and it keeps God at the center of our story. We ask, what is God up to? And so we in good times, things are happening, things are really exciting happening. We go, hey, okay, well, what's God up to? Because we get our own ideas sometimes, and then we get really we get really serious about our ideas, because our ideas are usually the best ideas. Aren't your ideas usually the best ideas?

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Right?

SPEAKER_01 20:41

I mean, you have really good ideas, and your opinions are pretty good. Like you've great insight, and you know what should happen. And most of you know how to lead a church. And are you with me right there? Like we we go, but we instead we go, okay, well, let's let's just put ourselves on the sideline for a second, and let's put God in the center of whatever story's happening and go, what's God up to? Yeah. And can we all talk about that? Yeah and then figure that out.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

And it just helps us, it helps us keep in the right position of the story. Are you with me right there? So we ask it when things are going good, we ask it when things are going bad, we ask it when surprising good things happen, we ask it when disrupting, challenging things happen, we ask it in our marriages when we're having a hard time, we ask it when we're going through a tough time at work personally, we ask it in our families, we ask it in our small groups, we ask it all the time. If you go to the church and you go, what's the question everybody asks? What's God up to? Because we just want to keep our story as a part of what God is doing. And so that's what we're looking for. God is up to something. What if instead of God's church having a mission, God's mission has a church? What is where we're not the center, not our activity and our faith determining. What God is doing, but his activity and our participating in his work. And we learn to come out of our kind of self-serving, self-sustaining version of faith. And we learn instead to notice what God's already doing. And then go join him there. What if there are neighbors right now in, I'm just throwing some stuff I looked up this morning. On South Street somewhere. Do you guys know where South Street is? Okay, good. No, I looked up the right stuff. What if there are neighbors right now on South Street experiencing God? They're witnessing reconciliation, they're witnessing healing happen in their community. And they can give the North Point Church something you need. Could you imagine that? Something powerful that this group needs. Could you notice that kind of a thing happening?

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Yeah. Good question.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

What if there are people of peace who can host you in your neighborhood in Leminster? What if they live off Miriam Ave? Is that right? Or Mechanic Street. Yeah, we don't associate. Okay, okay, alright, I'm just checking here. What if your kids go to school with them? What if your kids went to school with them? Right? What if they are a group of people who, I'm just, again, I don't know if this is right. Coolidge and Oak Ridge area. Does that sound like an area? Okay, that's an area around here of Fitchburg. What if they're waiting to host you and give you something? Could you imagine that? What if that's God's mission? In the world? How would you learn to notice that? To go participate with that. We have a couple cool stories that God does. I mean, we have many cool stories that God's doing, but a couple that I just brought today. One is a story of our friend Kathy Margato. She's a sister in the church. She's been there a long time. Her and her husband, Marco Margato. And Kathy is she's a she's a great woman of faith. And she, a couple years ago, uh she was driving through the you know, snow, coming out of, I don't know, a shop somewhere near Walmart or something, and she looked at a bus stop, and there were all these people kind of cold and trying to figure out the bus schedule. And they obviously did not know that the buses weren't running or whatever. And so she she pulled over and she said, Hey, can I give you guys a ride? And they turned out to be refugees, I think, from Pakistan. And uh we actually have a Western Mass has got one of the largest populations of uh an influx of refugees that have come from all around the world to that area. Um, and so she gives them a ride and uh she kind of swaps numbers and she offers uh one of the young men, uh, I think a teenager, a bicycle and uh gives him their number, and and little by little she kind of becomes the underground advocate for this community. Um meaning, like, they're like, hey, we need help figuring out how to get a license. Do you know anybody? Yeah, call this lady Kathy, she'll help. And so there's call, hey, we need to learn how to drive a car in the U.S. Can you teach my kid how to drive a car? Hey, we need to figure out where do we get pots and pans or what whatever. Like, so she just becomes this like person who is helping these people uh navigate how to adjust to the US because there aren't a ton of resources right now in for them. And um a few years later, uh we are asking, okay, what's God up to? We have all these influence or influx of refugees in our community. Is there something we can do for our refugee neighbors? And so we reach out to uh a Jewish community center in our area and we say, hey, you guys are doing a really good job at this. Could you teach us how to do this? And so we have uh a Jewish woman come in and she brings in uh a refugee who's been in the States for a couple years, and um, and they come and they now teach our midweek, at our midweek, hey, here's how you, here's what's happening in your community, here's what's going on, here's what you can how you can get involved. And in the middle of this teaching, gets me emotional. In the middle of this teaching, um, if you drink water when you're crying, it physically stops you from crying. It's just a tip for commu uh public speaking. Um in the middle of teaching us, the guy looks down and goes, Kathy?

unknown 26:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

And Kathy goes, Yeah, I remember you. He goes, You gave me a bike. Transformed my life. My brother, she goes, My brother's still riding that bike.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

And this guy is his life, he's completely in a different spot in his life now. Um, a couple years down the road in a in a new country.

unknown 27:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Uh and now he's teaching her community.

unknown 27:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

What's God up to? I don't know, we're just trying to pay attention. Are you with me right there?

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Okay, another story. This one won't make me cry, I don't think. Um we have a brother in our church named Steve Miller, and uh again, guy who's been there for a long time, raised his family in the area. And um he he his son plays football or was playing football in high school, and Steve was like, Hey, can I like say something? Steve played college football. He's like, Can I say something to the boys at the huddle, his last kind of school year for his son? And he goes, Man, I'll take a risk. And he asked the coach, and the coach says, You got 60 seconds, and he gives him like some crazy time slot in the morning to go and steep. Steve's like, All right, he goes. And he just says something to this group of high school football students, and and the coach is like, That was great. Um, really loved what you shared. I've got sons, and they start talking, and um, and the coach invites him to talk more about just raising sons. And so Steve starts this conversation with the coach, and the coach goes, Let me introduce you to a couple other guys in the area. And he starts introducing to other men who are raising sons in the area, and they and Steve starts talking about how the Bible has really helped him learn to raise his sons and these kind of things, and they go, Hey, can you can we talk more about that? And and and what happens from this little prayer is over the next couple months, small groups start to happen of 40 men. Catholics and Protestants who don't get along really great in our area, um, getting together, talking about how to raise their sons from the scriptures. Now, Steve, I don't think he'll mind me saying this, is coming to me and going, What do I do? Because he's feeling the burden of how do I convert all these people or baptize all these people or what do I got to do with all this? And I said, Steve, I don't know. Just ride the thing, man. Just go wherever God's going. And so Steve goes, okay, and he just keeps going, and it's growing. And then they start having these events. They're filling uh basketball gymnasiums at the school with father and son events. And and now Steve's not leading it, he's uh these other guys are leading it, and he's being hosted at their homes, and the the community is growing. Are you with me right there? And fathers are teaching their sons how to look to God, for example, of character and strength, and how to become men in the world.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

What's God up to? And then you know what happens is Steve's son gets really inspired, and he starts doing the same thing. He starts, they show up with like 10 or 12 kids to these things. And then his friends start going, Well, we want to know more about God. And actually, a couple kids get baptized out of that.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

It's like, how did that start? Well, Steve took an invitation, he asked, and then he took an invitation to go give a one-minute speech at a college or a high school football huddle, and then he just let himself be carried along by the Spirit, kept asking what's God up to and accepting opportunities, and let other people influence him and host him, and it's kind of gone out of control, it's out of his hands. But God's doing something powerful there. The early church was a wild frontier. Spirit-led people who were on the edge of what God was up to. They were not bound by what they had already done because nothing had been done yet.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Right? It was all new. It was all, let's just try it, let's just see what happens. The good news was new. Um, and and God was doing incredible things. What do we see? I'm gonna try to move through these quickly. Um, we see a sending God in the New Testament. The Father sends the Son full of the Holy Spirit. The Son sends the Spirit to empower the disciples, the church. And then the Spirit sends the church to fulfill the will of the Father. God is a sending God, He is a God on mission. His mission or originates with Him, it's empowered by Him, and it's moving towards His will. We're not called to get Him to do our mission. The activity of God doesn't begin or end with us. Amen. It's ongoing, it's always at work. Our job is to join the ongoing work and to make ourselves available. Here's what we learn from the early church of being led by the Spirit. We're gonna look at three quick examples. One, it will lead us to surprising places. If we're going to go pursue God's mission and let the Holy Spirit lead us towards that, it's gonna lead us to surprising places. It's gonna lead us to surprising types of people. And it's gonna bring us to surprising communities that will be transformed. Okay, the first uh couple examples of this, or actually the only examples of this. We're not gonna read all of these passages and their entirety, but we're gonna kind of bounce around a little bit. I'm gonna try to kind of move quickly through these. You guys doing okay?

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Okay, Acts, Acts chapter 8. Um, we know this story. If you haven't read the book of Acts, it's an incredible story. If you read Luke, it's his part two. And uh there's so many great uh hyperlinks and connections that Luke is doing. He's he's using stuff that he said in the Gospel of Luke, and he's he's making it kind of bear fruit in the gospel in his uh letter about or his epistle, I don't know what it is, his book of Acts, um, his story of the early church in Acts. And um and and the book of Acts is really it's been called um the book of the Spirit or the Acts of the Spirit because it's all about these early Christians trying to figure out man, what is God up to and how do we go where he's calling us? And so we see here in the early stages of Acts, Acts 2, you guys know this story, right? Holy Spirit shows up, Pentecost, boom, people are born of the Spirit, 3,000 people, God starts doing incredible things. In fact, God starts doing such incredible things, other people start taking notice and they go, What's going on over there? Because all these people who are not supposed to be with each other are hosting each other, they're having hospitality together, and lives are being they're giving up stuff for each other and they're sacrificing and they're being generous with each other, and this is what's going on. And people start becoming Christians and the thing gets out of hand, but it's really not, hasn't left Jerusalem. And and then you guys know the story of Stephen, the stoning of Stephen. Stephen is uh an early follower of Jesus and he's persecuted and he's killed, he's murdered. And it and and this persecution breaks out against the church, and the church scatters, and disciples go everywhere. Some people stay in Jerusalem, but people go everywhere. We pick up the story in Acts chapter 8, where this guy, Philip, has ended up in Samaria. Now, you probably know this already, but Samaria is not some place Philip would naturally want to be. You probably have neighborhoods in this area where you go. The kind of person I am, if I showed up in this neighborhood at the right time of night, I would not feel safe. Are you with me? Whichever kind of person you are. There's neighborhoods that you might feel that way about. That's how Philip felt about Samaria. When he showed up, everybody knew, oh, you're not one of us. And he knew, I'm not one of you. And everything was set up to make him feel that way. He couldn't, he couldn't go to the same markets that everybody else went to. He couldn't participate in all the things that everybody else was participating in. And they knew that. And they used that against him. Because he was Jewish and they were Samaritan. Um, but he's a disciple, and he's learned to ask, what's God up to? And he finds people of peace there, and he's hosted by them. And what happens is God starts to move in Samaria, and people start getting baptized, and this incredible thing happens. People are seeing miracles happening, their healings, all kinds of stuff. We pick it up in verse 26, and this is what's interesting. Verse 26. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. Okay, just stop for a second. Philip has showed up in Samaria, all these surprising situations is happening. This surprising situation is happening where all these people are getting baptized and healed, and God's spirit is doing miraculous things, and the apostles are like, We gotta go check out what's happening up there. Jesus told us this was gonna happen. We were only sure, we were not really sure it was gonna happen, and now it's happening, and they go, and all, and then the church is growing in Samaria rapidly, and then God goes, Philip, I need you to leave. Imagine you're Philip. You founded this thing. Yeah, like it's going off, it's booming. The doors, people are people are filling the building. Healings, miraculous things are happening. And God goes, Philip, you gotta go. Where do you want me to go? Where's the next big thing that's happening? He goes, Actually, I'm gonna send you on this dirt road. It's a trade road heading down towards Egypt. Nobody's really going there, nobody's actually there. It leads to a whole different place. I just need you to go that way. How do you feel if you're Philip? Are you sure? Are you sure? God, because this is where all the success is happening. And Philip doesn't do that though. He goes, Okay, here we go. Because he's been trained by his master to go where God's leading him. And he's asking, what's God up to in this scenario? Not what do I want to see? How do I capitalize and make this thing bigger for me? No, what's God up to? And if it's a surprising place, like a road down to Gaza, okay, I guess that's where I'm going, right? And so he heads off. And what happens is a beautiful thing. Verse 29, Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot, stay near it. Philip ran up to the chariot, heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you're reading? Philip asked, How can I, he said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. And this Bible study happens about the Messiah and his suffering and his resurrection and forgiveness of sin. Verse 36, says they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch asked, Look, here's water. What can stand in the way of me being baptized? And he gave orders to stop the church, and both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, and Philip baptized him. Philip isn't relying on strategy. He's embraced what it means to be led by the Spirit and go where God is calling him. And he ends up in this lonely place by himself with another guy who's looking for God. And then history tells us the eunuch is credited with bringing the gospel to the continent of Africa. Like God does something way beyond what Philip would have imagined was happening. But he was willing to go, not what I think is the best thing right here. Not what I want to do, but what's God up to? And how do I go there? What's God up to? He's doing something more than 483 Electric Av, which is the address here, right? Okay, good. It's a cool address name, by the way. Electric Av is a pretty cool name. Um but let me ask you this. Would you go where God wants you to go? No. What neighborhood do you not want to be in?

SPEAKER_03 38:56

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

What if that's where God sent you next? Could you find people of peace there and be carried along into something new without having a plan or a strategy or knowing what to do next? Could you be put in a situation where you go, this is out of my control? I don't even know what's going to happen next. Would you want to be put in a situation like that? Because that's what God wants to put us in. That's what it looks like from the book of Acts to be led by the Spirit, to go where God's mission is going, not to make up a mission and hope he blesses it. Are you with me right there? Would you go? You know, we're seeing in the Pioneer Valley, where people, we're seeing people uh all across the valley find the kingdom in surprising, in surprising places. We're seeing um people who come from really rough parts of our city, challenging parts of our city, um, people who have really challenged tough backgrounds. You get to know the stories and you go, it's in you are a survivor. You are a persevering person, like what you have been through, and they're finding the kingdom. And we have people from other areas that with religious backgrounds like the eunuch that come from a different situation, and they're finding the kingdom. God is doing incredible things, but we have people that are just going, What's God up to? It's his, he's got a mission, and his mission has a church. How can I help? How can I be a servant? So, how can I posture myself towards others the way Jesus does? Um, why are you at your job? Why do you live where in the place where you live? Why do your kids go to school where they go to school? What if God led you there? What if God led you to the people that are there in your life? You just gotta be willing to be hosted by them a little bit more, willing to be a little bit more open to them, willing to be a little bit more invited in by them, a little bit more influenced by them, a little bit more helped by them, maybe to be a sheep rather than a wolf in that relationship. Are you with me right there? Okay, Acts chapter 9. Um, the story goes on. The mission of God continues to use the church with now surprising people. We know the story of Paul. Uh, he was not always Paul, he becomes Paul after. He was earlier, he was Saul. Saul is not a great guy. He's been given the authority of the temple. He's funded by the religious institution of the day to go arrest and uh give authority to the murder and arresting of Christians. So when Paul shows up to town, the Christians are not fired up to go meet him, right? This would be like being in, you know, 1940s, early 40s Poland, and you're a Jew, and Himmler comes to town. Like you're not like, hey, I God, can I go talk to him? That's not who you want to go see. People go, well, let's hide. Let's make sure we don't run into Paul. And yet God comes to this guy, Ananias, and says, Hey, I need you to go talk to Paul. I've got some, I'm already doing something in his life. I've already been at work in his life, and now I need you to go join me in what I'm doing. Verse 10, in Damascus, there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called him in a vision. Ananias, yes, Lord, he answered. The Lord said to him, Go to the house of Judas on straight street and ask for a man named Tar from Tarsus, named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias come from this come and place his hands on him to restore his sight. Lord, Ananias answered, I've heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he's come here with authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your name. But the Lord said to Ananias, Go. Verse 17. Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me to see so has sent me so that you may see and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized. After taking some food, he regained his strength. Ananias goes to a man he doesn't want to go to. But he's been trained to be a disciple, so he keeps himself open. And he has fresh eyes for Paul. He goes, God, if this is what you're doing, I'm gonna look at Paul in a new way. Like this is the thing. God's already been doing work, his mission's already been at work in Paul's life. Ananias doesn't know the whole story, but God does. Ananias' job was, God, I'm gonna trust you and I'm gonna look at this guy in a different way. And a surprising person becomes a disciple of Jesus and actually transforms our lives, transforms the Western world because of his faith. God was up to something so big. But Ananias had to have fresh eyes. He had to see Paul in a new way. You know, when you think about it, people did this for you, didn't they?

SPEAKER_02 44:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 44:12

People met you at some intersection of your life, Ozzy or Lee or Rich, and they went, I'm going to see this guy differently. I think this was Petty's posture of Jesus that he mentioned. Jesus saw people with fresh eyes. That's how he oriented himself towards others in the mission of God. And they said, you know what? I'm going to, this is not the kind of person I would naturally hang out with, but I'm going to see him with fresh eyes. I'm going to see what God's been doing in his life. Wow. What happened a few months ago? Did you guys hear Rich is getting baptized? And people in his life went, What?

unknown 44:51

Yeah, they did.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Rich is getting baptized? Rich is getting baptized. Guys, did you hear Lee is gonna get baptized? Did you hear about this? Like, no, no, he's getting baptized. Guys, Virog is gonna get baptized. This is incredible. I don't know how what? Are you with me right there? What happened? God was already doing something in your life, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

And disciples joined him, have fresh eyes for you. Showed up, joined God in his mission that he was already at in your life, and your life transformed. Surprising people became Christians, surprising people like you. And many of you have been part of people's stories of coming to faith, finding allegiance in Jesus, burying their old lives behind them, resurrecting to new life with him, who you would go in a given lifetime, I would never see myself with this person.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Are you with me? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:53

Right? But that's how God works. Because he had a mission already. Okay, final story and my favorite story, Acts chapter 10. And I love because Luke 10 and Acts 10, I think, have some really great things. We're not going to get on into all of them, but you can study them out later. But the mission of God uses the church to be with surprising communities. So Jerusalem, Samaria. And now what happens is Peter is with, he's he's at someone's house. He's out by the coast and he's praying. And these two people get sent by a Gentile Roman centurion. They get sent to go get Peter and bring him back to the centurion's house. And this guy's name's Cornelius. And Peter's praying and he has this vision and you can read all about it, but God's basically preparing Peter to go, hey, Peter, I need you to be a lot more flexible with who you think can be a part of this than who you think can be a part of this right now. You're gonna have to be a lot more open than you're prepared to be. And Peter's like, okay, I think I can be. And then these two guys show up and they go, Hey, Peter, come with us. And Peter goes, All right, here we go. I'm gonna follow God with what he's doing. And he goes with them. And they show up at this guy, Cornelius' house. And Cornelius has actually has a house full of people, and he's like, Listen, what this is what happened. An angel came to me and said to go get you. And so I sent my two disciples to go find you. They went out on mission to grab you and bring you back to us. And now we're here and we need to hear from you about what you want to tell us about God. Verse 27. While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them, You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. That's the significance of what Peter is doing right now. He's transgressing some serious boundaries. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. Verse 39. We are all witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews in Jerusalem and Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead and on the third day caused him to be seen. Verse 44. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who came, who had come with Peter, were astonished by the gift of the Holy Spirit, had poured out on even the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. There's this second Pentecost moment that's happening. Then Peter said, Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. They asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. This is my favorite story because it's those outside of the church that reach out to the church and tell them this is the next step of the mission that God has for you.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

That's so cool. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

Could we be so humble? Could a group outside of our church call us into a meeting, tell us what God's been doing among them, and then say, and now we need you to help us. Would we even be open to that? Peter's willing to step into places he knows will look bad for him. He's willing to go to those people, whoever those people are in your life, right? And share the good new news. He crosses over social and political and ethnic lines that sin has created, and he goes, God's doing something. So here I go. Are you with me right there? Let me ask you some uncomfortable questions as we get rid of this. Who do you not want to be associated with? But when you think about a type of neighbor that you have, maybe they have a certain sign on their front lawn or a certain flag flying from their front of their house, or certain bumper stickers on their car, or certain ways of living, or certain family makeups. Who do you not want to be associated with? Because you're a Christian. You go, I don't cross those lines.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

Right?

SPEAKER_01 50:25

Perhaps it's a certain type of non-Christian, those who have a particular lifestyle, you wouldn't agree with them. What if they invited you over? Would you go with them? Would you be seen with your car in their driveway? Could you imagine if you're maybe a little bit more left-leaning in the political sphere, having dinner at the home of uh MAGA nationalists? Or maybe if you're a little more far on the left side, sorry, on the right side, uh, being with you know some progressives. Would you be willing to associate with them? And then stay with them, be known as in solidarity with them because God's doing something that's not in your control, doesn't align with your strategy, but God's doing something. Those are challenging questions, right? Especially now. Perhaps it's a particular ethnicity or citizenship status. Maybe you've adopted fallen narratives about others based on ethnicity or skin color. It may not be overt, it may be subliminal, not something you're in touch with, but it's who you look for when somebody makes a bad driving decision and you drive by to see what they what they look like. Or it's how you feel when you show up in a room that's mostly made up of those type of people. Would you be associated with them? God's mission has a church. And if you read the good news and the the New Testament, Paul's like, guys, we're demolishing.

SPEAKER_02 52:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

We're bringing, we're we're bringing down the walls of hostility. We're destroying the things that sin builds. Because we go where God is moving. And it doesn't matter who he's moving among, we're going with him. We're joining his work. Are you with me right there? Okay, we're wrapping it up. What postures does God require of us? A spirit-led church? What perspectives uh does a church need to join in God's mission? Um here's just three things I think are helpful. There are others, but I think discovery, having a posture of always discovering, opening your eyes, having practices that help you notice God at work. Where do you notice God? You know, Jesus says his Father is always at work. God is working in your office tomorrow, or maybe not tomorrow, you might have tomorrow off, but God is working in your office on Tuesday morning. Are you noticing him? It may not look like how it may be surprising, maybe a surprising kind of person, surprising kind of place, a surprising kind of community, but God is doing something if you'll notice. Could you join him there? Are you discovering, looking? Hey, God, open my eyes to what you're up to. I'm open, help me discover, help me see what you are doing. Adapting. You know, joining God's mission will mean making changes in how you do things. It will mean letting go of some traditions that you have that are only for insiders. You know, when all those uh young men started showing up from uh uh Steve's group, they started showing up to church and they didn't want to just sit and listen to church. They wanted to be a part of church. And you know what we did? We said, no, you have to just sit here and listen to church and watch church because you're not an insider. No, we said, let's figure out a way for you to participate. And we had them leading songs and doing announcements and what, like just where can we make room to welcome and embrace? And it changed what we were doing on Sundays, it made it feel different. Some people got a little uncomfortable with their what they haven't been. They are you with me right there?

unknown 54:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:32

I went, okay.

SPEAKER_03 54:34

Bring it.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

But what's God doing? Where's the welcome and embrace of God? Can we be those kind of people? Are you with me right there? It will challenge, it will challenge you to be adaptive, to pivot, to try new things. Wait, Samaritans are coming to communion now? What? You know they eat pork, right? Like they herd pigs. We can't, are you? Do you know the history? Like they they're gonna come? Oh right, I guess we're gonna make room for that. And then the Gentiles start showing up. Are you kidding me right now? It's gonna challenge you. It's gonna challenge traditions, boundaries to be a part of God's mission. If you actually want to be a part of God's mission. And then participating, going and trying new things. Joining God as you notice Him, as you go, okay, I'm willing to try something different, and then actually going and doing it. We see God's mission as a church. We're called to be hosted and to be partnered with people of peace outside of the church to be a blessing and to be blessed, to follow Jesus' example, to be led by his spirit to surprising places, to surprising people, to surprising communities, asking what is God up to? And then going with him there. It's been so good to be with you. Thank you for the time. Grateful for your faith and grateful to be with you guys.