SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandPway.org.
SPEAKER_01: But we just stand in awe of who you are and what you've done for us and who we are because of that.
SPEAKER_01: We stand humbled as your daughters and sons of the Most High God, and we ask that you would meet us here and do your work in us as we submit ourselves to your word.
SPEAKER_01: We pray that in your name, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Rick.
SPEAKER_01: The new guy, Rick, the newest Rick.
SPEAKER_01: If you saw an email that we sent out with some discussion questions for today's message, you can put a pen in that and use them next week.
SPEAKER_01: I mentioned in there that Neil would be speaking today.
SPEAKER_01: Neil is pretty sick this weekend, so I got a text from him yesterday afternoon saying he wasn't going to be able to be here.
SPEAKER_01: So you know how sick he is if he if he couldn't be here.
SPEAKER_01: So it's so good to be able to be with you, and we want to continue to pray and lift up Neil, our lead pastor, and we just trust that he's going to do, God's going to do the work he wants to do here among us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So Neil is going to be preaching from Exodus 24.
SPEAKER_01: I decided not to try and dive into that this morning, but to kind of hit the pause button a little bit in our time in Exodus and just zoom out a little bit and really ask a very pointed question about Exodus, which is why did God bother?
SPEAKER_01: Why did God bother to go raise up Moses to go in and do all these plagues and rescue a bunch of stiff-necked people by God's definition from slavery and then parade them around the wilderness for 40 years?
SPEAKER_01: Which, by the way, the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, if you just look at the map, should have taken that many people 11 days to make.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God marched them around the same mountain for 40 years because he was up to something.
SPEAKER_01: So why did God bother?
SPEAKER_01: Why did God say, I'm gonna do all this upheaval to rescue this people and to do a work with them?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Well, as I began to think about that some yesterday afternoon and going, okay, God, what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to, you know, I don't know exactly what Neil's gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: I can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to take us down a road that has nothing to do with where we've been.
SPEAKER_01: I looked at our mail and I saw a graduation announcement.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone see those?
SPEAKER_01: It's that time of year, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: And in that graduation announcement, the thought came to my mind, that's this is why God did what he did in Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: And it's what he's something he's calling us to today.
SPEAKER_01: Let me explain why.
SPEAKER_01: Um, every year when we get graduation announcements, when people graduate, there is one book that's the number one choice whenever someone's graduating, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter whether it's kindergarten or high school or college or grad school.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read a little bit from it and see if you can guess who the author is.
SPEAKER_01: Ready?
SPEAKER_01: Congratulations, today is your day.
SPEAKER_01: You're off to great places, you're off and away.
SPEAKER_01: You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose.
SPEAKER_01: And when things start to happen, don't worry, don't stew.
SPEAKER_01: Just go right along.
SPEAKER_01: You'll start happening too.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the places you'll go.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be on your way up, you'll be seeing great sights, you'll see the high flyers who soared to high heights, except when you don't, because sometimes you won't.
SPEAKER_01: All alone, whether you like it or not, alone will be something you'll be quite a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Kid, you'll move mountains.
SPEAKER_01: So be your name Bucksbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to great places.
SPEAKER_01: Today's your day.
SPEAKER_01: Your mountain is waiting.
SPEAKER_01: So get on your way.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone know the author?
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Seuss.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And what's the book, right?
SPEAKER_01: All the places you go.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's kind of the the go-to graduation gift.
SPEAKER_01: I have one.
SPEAKER_01: Someone gave it to me when I graduated from high school, and I still have it.
SPEAKER_01: Um and I love Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Seuss.
SPEAKER_01: The problem for me is whenever I read Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Seuss, I start to talk like Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Seuss, so I I apologize in advance.
SPEAKER_01: Um I read an article a while back by John Ortberg, who kind of made this connection between Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Seuss's message and all the places you go with the mission of God.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to try and make that connection for us this morning to try and answer this question as to why God bothered to go through the hassle of the Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: See, God wasn't going to let 400 years of slavery derail his mission.
SPEAKER_01: God's mission is why he raised up Moses to deliver his people from slavery.
SPEAKER_01: God's mission is why he gave them the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus is about God's people being rescued and reformed to be a flourishing people for a very specific mission.
SPEAKER_01: So let's read that mission together in Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: Go back one book ahead of Exodus, Genesis chapter 12, the first three verses, give us the mission.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Lord said to Abram, this is before he got the H go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that, underline that, so that you will be a what?
SPEAKER_01: A blessing.
SPEAKER_01: I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth, not just Israel, all the families of the earth will be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: So despite my urge to kind of drop a knowledge bomb on you and just blow you away with something you've never heard before, because I'm the new guy and I want you to think I'm awesome.
SPEAKER_01: This morning I'm gonna offer you just a very simple message that's built around two words that are found in this command that God gives Abraham and his descendants.
SPEAKER_01: See, God comes to Abraham out of the blue and declares, congratulations, today is your day.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to go.
SPEAKER_01: You're off to great places, you're off and away.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham says, What places?
SPEAKER_01: Who are you?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how will I know when I get there?
SPEAKER_01: Is Sarah coming?
SPEAKER_01: Is there a map?
SPEAKER_01: All these kinds of things, and God says, No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: That would take all the fun and the adventure and the faith out of it.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone catch the first word?
SPEAKER_01: Go.
SPEAKER_01: Go to the place that I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: Go means you have to trust me.
SPEAKER_01: Go means you have to leave your familiar little comfort zone because my project, which by the way, Abraham begins with you, involves the entire world.
SPEAKER_01: All the families of the earth, all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, can you imagine how that sounded to Abraham?
SPEAKER_01: He didn't really even know God that well at this point.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, I want to lead you to a place, and he says, Where?
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'll show you when you get there.
SPEAKER_01: That's a scary proposition.
SPEAKER_01: But one thing is clear.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Abraham, you can't stay here.
SPEAKER_01: You can't stay here, you have to go there.
SPEAKER_01: You can't stay in, you have to go out.
SPEAKER_01: Which, by the way, is kind of Jesus MO2.
SPEAKER_01: I've been around church a lot.
SPEAKER_01: I've been uh a Christian for almost 35 years.
SPEAKER_01: I've basically now been in church most of my life, I've been in church most of my life, and my experience is we meet Jesus more out there than we actually meet him in rooms like this.
SPEAKER_01: Not that he doesn't show up in rooms like this, but I think sometimes as church people, we just kind of want to retreat back to a little worship space and go, okay, my escape from the world.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: You come here so that you can join me in going back out there.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to go.
SPEAKER_01: You can't stay in here, you have to go out.
SPEAKER_01: Then God gives a second command.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I will bless you, but my blessing is not just for you, it's to pass along.
SPEAKER_01: You are blessed to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So the second word is bless.
SPEAKER_01: Go bless.
SPEAKER_01: Now to bless means to add to someone's life, to enhance it, to make something abundant, to make something better than it was when you got it.
SPEAKER_01: And the first time we see the word bless in Scripture is in Genesis chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: It says, God created the creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, and God blessed them.
SPEAKER_01: See, God said to the fish, be fruitful and increase in number.
SPEAKER_01: I want lots of you, and fill the water in the seas, and when I look at the water, I want to see fish everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: You get the picture?
SPEAKER_01: God so loves blessing, he blesses fish.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how many fish did God make?
SPEAKER_01: One fish, two fish, redfish, blue fish, right?
SPEAKER_01: Not one is like the other.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01: Go ask your mother, right?
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: See, God made so many things so that he could have so many things to bless.
SPEAKER_01: God is in the blessing business.
SPEAKER_01: God loves to bless.
SPEAKER_01: And then he creates human beings.
SPEAKER_01: He creates man and woman and says, prosper, reproduce, fill the earth, take charge, be responsible for the fish in the sea and the birds in the air and for everything that moves along the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Why did he do that?
SPEAKER_01: Because you and I are made in the image of God, which means God made us not just to be recipients of blessing, but to be agents of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just receive blessing.
SPEAKER_01: At some point we have to get wrung out.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, we become the slimy, moldy sponge that stinks.
SPEAKER_01: God made us in his image, which means we reflect him to our world, so we are to be a blessing to the rest of creation.
SPEAKER_01: We're blessed to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: That's the mission.
SPEAKER_01: Go bless.
SPEAKER_01: That's why God sent Moses in to rescue his people and reform them and march them around a mountain for 40 years so that they can get what it looks like to be a blessing to the world once again.
SPEAKER_01: They could stop being victims and start being a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: God's mission is still go bless.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he made a people for himself.
SPEAKER_01: See, God's mission came before he had a people.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, God's mission came before he gave us this, a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: See, what God did was he gave his mission a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave his mission a people.
SPEAKER_01: At least five times in Genesis, God says to Abraham, I will bless you, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you.
SPEAKER_01: See, being a blessing was the mission of the Hebrew people, and as followers of Jesus, who, as we sang about and heard already this morning, who've been adopted into God's family, therefore grafted into Abraham's family because of Jesus, that means go bless is our mission too.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you and I are on this planet.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we are to get out of bed every day to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So where do we go bless?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wherever we go.
SPEAKER_01: When should we go bless?
SPEAKER_01: Well, congratulations, today is your day.
SPEAKER_01: You're off to great places, you're off and away.
SPEAKER_01: Now, people will say, wait a second.
SPEAKER_01: It's easier for you and someone like Neil.
SPEAKER_01: You guys always tell stories of how you ran into this person and you just began to talk about Jesus and the lights came on.
SPEAKER_01: But you guys are trained professionals.
SPEAKER_01: I could never do that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't ask you to raise your hand, but how many of kind of like, eh, I thought that.
SPEAKER_01: You may not feel like you're trained adequately enough, or skilled enough, or not articulate enough, or would know what to say.
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't change the fact that it's Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Sue simple today.
SPEAKER_01: Go bless.
SPEAKER_01: It's not optional.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason is because that's what you were made to do.
SPEAKER_01: Until you join God in that mission of being a blessing to the world, there's always gonna feel like something's missing.
SPEAKER_01: See, if we don't do this, it doesn't matter how much money we make or how high we climb the corporate ladder, we've missed the reason we were put on this planet.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, could you imagine if just the people in this room, the people who call Grand Parkway home, if in if in our community we intentionally lived every moment of every due day, whatever we do, whether it's behind a desk or flying around the country covering a territory or driving a bus or teaching kids or calling on clients or treating patients, whatever as we do, our our primary thought is I want to be a blessing as I do this.
SPEAKER_01: I want to enhance someone's life.
SPEAKER_01: I want to help their life to become better than it was before they met me.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: That's the mission.
SPEAKER_01: Go bless.
SPEAKER_01: So the next question then is for some of us like, well, that's easy for you to say, but how can I be a blessing to somebody?
SPEAKER_01: I don't really have a whole lot.
SPEAKER_01: So to answer this question, I thought it might be helpful to do a really quick blessing inventory, if you will, all right?
SPEAKER_01: How many heard the old song, Count Your Blessings, name them one by one?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, the good news is I'm not going to sing that for you.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: But we are gonna do a quick little blessing inventory.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so if you have a pen and paper or a little um notes app on your phone, just think about this for a second.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna count our blessings.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna walk you through quickly eight different categories.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is finances.
SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't I start there?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just go there.
SPEAKER_01: Has God blessed you financially?
SPEAKER_01: And and some of us are like, yeah, man, it's really hard.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna live paycheck to paycheck, and a lot of times that's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: But let's zoom out a little bit and say, are are we blessed financially?
SPEAKER_01: Andy Stanley writes that one of the problems most rich people have is that they don't really know they're rich.
SPEAKER_01: Um most problems in our society are rich people problems that the rest of the world would love to have.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we just moved here into our house a month ago.
SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful home, it's four years old, and within the first two weeks, our refrigerator, which of course is six months out of warranty, broke.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So we have to be slamming stuff into coolers and ice and all that stuff, and and um, I'm ranting and raving, and my wife looks at me and goes, first world problem.
SPEAKER_01: This is a first world problem.
SPEAKER_01: And we have all kinds of those.
SPEAKER_01: It's a rich person problem.
SPEAKER_01: You ever complain about not having enough good adequate cell phone coverage?
SPEAKER_01: That's a rich person problem.
SPEAKER_01: How about I I don't know where we should go on vacation this year?
SPEAKER_01: Rich person problem.
SPEAKER_01: My computer crashed, rich person problem.
SPEAKER_01: I have car trouble, or my flight has been delayed, rich person problem.
SPEAKER_01: God has blessed you financially, not necessarily compared to your next door neighbor, but compared to the rest of the creation, we are abundantly blessed.
SPEAKER_01: So just get that perspective.
SPEAKER_01: How about education?
SPEAKER_01: Has God blessed you to have access to information and knowledge that other people haven't?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, throughout history, the majority of the world has been illiterate.
SPEAKER_01: They couldn't read or write.
SPEAKER_01: So as much as you complained about school, maybe that was a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Or having a home, a place to live.
SPEAKER_01: Some people don't, some people do, but it's a hovel.
SPEAKER_01: Do I have one?
SPEAKER_01: Or friends.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have someone who loves you who wants to be around you?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, sometimes I think that's a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: People actually want to be around me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Or a spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a follower of Jesus, God has given you a spiritual gift or gifts, not so that you can just make more money and feel good about yourself, but so that you can be a blessing to the world around you.
SPEAKER_01: You can be an encouragement to the people around you.
SPEAKER_01: Or transportation.
SPEAKER_01: Does anyone have here have a car or a bike or the ability to get on a bus or a train?
SPEAKER_01: Then God's blessed you with transportation.
SPEAKER_01: Or forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: We often take that for granted.
SPEAKER_01: Because of Jesus, I do not have to stand afraid or worried before God.
SPEAKER_01: I can be guilt-free, shame free, with nothing to hide.
SPEAKER_01: As a beloved son of the Most High God.
SPEAKER_01: I never have to be alone.
SPEAKER_01: I never have to do things in my own strength.
SPEAKER_01: I can have guidance and wisdom beyond myself.
SPEAKER_01: Those are just a few blessings.
SPEAKER_01: Eight, actually.
SPEAKER_01: So a quick show of hands.
SPEAKER_01: How many say you are blessed with at least four of those?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: How many say probably all of us?
SPEAKER_01: Count your blessings.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you've been blessed, and we've all just admitted we have, it's not so that our life can be smooth and easy.
SPEAKER_01: We've been blessed to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Which begs the question: who then are we to bless?
SPEAKER_01: And this is where I want to land this plane this morning.
SPEAKER_01: See, a good practice when we wonder about the next step in our faith journey, what it looks like to be the people of God, is to always look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's the old joke you probably heard.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the Sunday school teacher says, So, um, what's brown and furry and gathers nuts for the winter?
SPEAKER_01: And a little kid says, Well, it sounds like a squirrel, but I know it's Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's always the answer when you're in church, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But in this case, it actually is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It actually is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says that Jesus is the second Adam, meaning the first Adam didn't get it right, so Jesus came as a second Adam and he did.
SPEAKER_01: It also says that Jesus is the perfect image of God.
SPEAKER_01: You and I, Genesis 1.26 says we are made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the perfect one, he's the one that got it right.
SPEAKER_01: So whenever we're wondering what does it look like to be the people of God, what does it look like to be fully human, to be the people God created us to be in this world, we look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because He's done it, He got it right.
SPEAKER_01: And when we look at Jesus and say, okay, if if the mission of Abraham was to be a blessing to the world, and that therefore that that was Israel's mission was to be a blessing to the world, and Jesus came to fulfill that mission, not only through Israel, but to include us Gentiles in that mix too, then how did Jesus go about blessing?
SPEAKER_01: Who did he bless?
SPEAKER_01: Well, when you look at the Gospels, we see Jesus hangs out basically with two groups of people.
SPEAKER_01: One group of people he got aggravated with, and there are two groups of people he loved hanging out with.
SPEAKER_01: The first group we see at the beginning of Jesus' ministry when he announces in Luke 4, he says, the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he's anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
SPEAKER_01: The first group of people Jesus loved to hang out with and to bless were those who were without.
SPEAKER_01: To people just existing on the margins, to those considered the unblessed, to the least.
SPEAKER_01: See, Jesus was constantly seeing the least and remembering the least and championing the least and serving the least and giving to the least and loving the least and blessing the least.
SPEAKER_01: That is not how our world works, is it?
SPEAKER_01: The least get the leftovers still.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, that's not how it's to be in my kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: I want to bless the people on the margins.
SPEAKER_01: I want to bless the people that you think don't have a should have a seat at the table.
SPEAKER_01: I want to bless the people you'd rather forget about.
SPEAKER_01: I want to bless the people that you're trying to step on their back so you can get yours.
SPEAKER_01: And the theme of this all throughout the Old Testament is this triad of the lease that God says we've got to pay attention to as his people.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the the widows, the orphans, and the aliens.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as the church, we kind of get the widows and orphans part.
SPEAKER_01: But as conservative Texans living in Fort Bend County, the aliens part makes us really nervous.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Because they're here illegally and they'll steal our jobs.
SPEAKER_01: Can I say that?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to meddle in politics, but I am here to say in the kingdom, we're here to bless the least.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't get to define who the least are.
SPEAKER_01: God does.
SPEAKER_01: So how are we saying, God, I will go to the least and be your hands and feet.
SPEAKER_01: I will be a blessing to them in your name, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're already doing this as a church in so many places around the world.
SPEAKER_01: We prayed for the Cardies this morning in Costa Rica.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing taking a trip to India with some orphanages we work there.
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to get to Romania and do, we're doing it to Romania this summer.
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to get to India.
SPEAKER_01: There's Visa Problems to make that happen.
SPEAKER_01: We partner with Jesus Said Love and Kids Hope and My Brother's Keeper.
SPEAKER_01: And these are things that are just getting started around here.
SPEAKER_01: And it's our hope that everyone who calls Grand Parkway home will just be compelled to be the hands and feet of Jesus to someone in their little sphere every day who's in need.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a program we're trying to start, like come join.
SPEAKER_01: We say that's on all of us.
SPEAKER_01: You don't wait for us to do it.
SPEAKER_01: You see it.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, God, what do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_01: Give me eyes to see.
SPEAKER_01: Give me wisdom how to step into this and be a part of this.
SPEAKER_01: See, we have four core values around here, right?
SPEAKER_01: Gospel, community, mission, blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Those all can be summed up in this command.
SPEAKER_01: Go bless.
SPEAKER_01: We are called to be God's good news people who accept his mission to go bless.
SPEAKER_01: And we will never be the church God calls us to be if we resist going out to the least to bless them in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not just like doing this and praying a prayer over them.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, how can I make your life better?
SPEAKER_01: How can I be someone who helps to right the injustice you're suffering under?
SPEAKER_01: How can I be someone who brings beauty out of your of the ashes of your life?
SPEAKER_01: Go bless.
SPEAKER_01: Then there's another go in Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I come not just to call the righteous, but to call sinners.
SPEAKER_01: We've sung about that this morning, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was constantly going out and hanging out with people who were far from God.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what ticked off the people who thought they were close to God.
SPEAKER_01: He hung out with all the wrong people.
SPEAKER_01: He hung out with the people who were the spiritual rejects, the spiritual losers, the excluded, the outsiders, the lost.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus ate with the lost.
SPEAKER_01: He talked with the lost.
SPEAKER_01: He hung out with them.
SPEAKER_01: He partied with them.
SPEAKER_01: He touched them.
SPEAKER_01: He included them.
SPEAKER_01: He healed them.
SPEAKER_01: He forgave their sins.
SPEAKER_01: They found purpose for their lives and hope beyond death in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: See, the greatest blessing we have is to share with anybody, we have to share with anybody is the reality that there is a better life to be had right here and right now, just not just in heaven someday, but right here and right now with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So the question for each of us is are we doing that?
SPEAKER_01: Are we inviting people into the life we found in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Are we proclaiming and demonstrating the good news, the great news of the kingdom of God has come to this earth in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Not just in a general way, but am I praying specifically?
SPEAKER_01: Who are the people that are on my radar that I'm going, God, how I'm available.
SPEAKER_01: Use me in whatever way you want to use me.
SPEAKER_01: There were a bunch of us at the secret church event Friday night out in the warehouse.
SPEAKER_01: It was really cool.
SPEAKER_01: It was long, but it was really cool.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, if you think I talk fast, you should listen to David Pratt.
SPEAKER_01: But one of the things David said really stuck with me.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What we need to wrestle with is this question.
SPEAKER_01: Am I going to be the person in whom the good news stops?
SPEAKER_01: Or am I going to be the person through whom the good news spreads?
SPEAKER_01: Am I going to be a person in whom the good news stops?
SPEAKER_01: Or through whom the good news spreads?
SPEAKER_01: And it's we can all do this.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to have an MDiv or be able to teach Bible studies to be able to share what Jesus has done in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Like Peter and John said in Acts chapter 4, 20, this is my prayer for you, it's my prayer for me, it's my prayer for my kids, is that my relationship with Jesus is so real and so vibrant, I just can't help but talk about what I've seen and heard.
SPEAKER_01: Can't help it.
SPEAKER_01: Just can't help it.
SPEAKER_01: I had this experience when I was a little league coach.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I remember one of the guys I coached with.
SPEAKER_01: We ended up practicing at this church that he attended, and one of the other coaches said, This is cool, how did you get this?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Oh, I I know somebody here.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Do you go to this church?
SPEAKER_01: Well, kind of.
SPEAKER_01: He says, What do you mean, kind of?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Well, my wife goes here.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but he says, So you go here.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Well, I go here just because I want to keep her happy.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, seriously?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, dude, I would worship the devil if it kept her happy.
SPEAKER_01: And he wasn't kidding.
SPEAKER_01: At that point, I was like, Oh, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't ask me what I do for a living yet.
SPEAKER_01: Well, long story short, he and I had become really, really good friends because we had a lot of shared interest, our kids and baseball and all those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_01: But over time, we began to meet regularly.
SPEAKER_01: Every week we'd meet for breakfast at this diner.
SPEAKER_01: And about two years in, he just looked at me and said, Dude, what is it that you have that I don't?
SPEAKER_01: And that wasn't because I threw a knowledge bomb on him.
SPEAKER_01: It was because by God's grace, I was able to live in front of my friend John this reality that life with Jesus is like the best life going.
SPEAKER_01: Not that everything was perfect, but I could have peace and joy beyond my circumstances because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So you never know how God will show up.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing like being a part of someone's journey to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be a church full of people who are introducing their friends and family and neighbors to Jesus all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Not just relying on the people with the microphone to do it, but that's your job.
SPEAKER_01: So will you ask God to make you a part of at least one person coming to know Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Go bless, that's your mission.
SPEAKER_01: See, 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus called his disciples together one last time.
SPEAKER_01: They'd been with him for over three years, and now it was graduation.
SPEAKER_01: But like all graduations, it was actually commencement.
SPEAKER_01: A new chapter was about to begin, so Jesus tells them, here's why we've been doing this these last three and a half years.
SPEAKER_01: It's not so that you can stay in this cozy, safe little place.
SPEAKER_01: It's so that you can go bless the world just as I have blessed the world.
SPEAKER_01: Join me in the mission of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says it this way in Matthew 28 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore go.
SPEAKER_01: Go as you go, is literally how it's translated, and make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_01: See, it's all tied together.
SPEAKER_01: God's promise to Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you, and surely I am with you to the very end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Go to the land I'll show you and make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_01: That command way back to Abraham, now it's coming to you.
SPEAKER_01: Make disciples of every nation, be their name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Aelvan, Alan O'Shea.
SPEAKER_01: At last, all these years after Abraham, all the nations will finally be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And all alone is one thing you will never be, Jesus says, because wherever you go, you will go there with me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, and kid, you'll move mountains.
unknown: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Seuss, by the way, did not invent the idea of moving mountains.
SPEAKER_01: That was Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If you have faith, he says, you'll say to this mountain, be moved, and it's moved.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says to his graduates, now I know it's not exactly how Matthew wrote it down, but I'm pretty sure this is what Jesus actually said.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Oh, the places you'll go, you'll travel the world, you'll stand before kings, you'll have absolutely no money, yet be outrageously happy.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be locked up in prisons and find yourself singing songs, you'll be beaten for your faith and count yourself honored to have suffered in my name.
SPEAKER_01: You'll have nothing, you'll have no 401k, you'll have no IRA, you'll have no health care, and yet you will trust me down to the absolute core of your being.
SPEAKER_01: And life will be the greatest adventure you ever imagined.
SPEAKER_01: See, Jesus invites his followers to join him in his go-bless mission.
SPEAKER_01: Because one day the father called to his son and said, Son, you're gonna have to leave heaven for earth.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna go to a manger and grow up in a tiny carpenter shop.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna go to Egypt as a little runaway fugitive who's in great danger, and then you're gonna come back and grow up to be a man who goes to banquets that no other rabbi would go to with tax collectors and prostitutes and houses where they'll make a hole in the roof so that people can just get down to you.
SPEAKER_01: You'll go to the lepers and the crippled and the blind and the impoverished and the sin-stoked and the hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: And then one day, son, you're gonna go to a cross to bleed and die for the forgiveness of the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_01: But then, this is the good part, son.
SPEAKER_01: Death is gonna find out.
SPEAKER_01: Hell is gonna find out it cannot hold you, it cannot stop you, because on the third day you will rise to life, and then, then you'll go to prison cells and hospital rooms and broken homes and broken hearts and darkened streets to bring joy to the world far as the curse is found.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the places you'll go.
SPEAKER_01: We are his people filled with his spirit, and he wants to fulfill that mission through us.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for making a way, for showing the way, for blessing us so that we can be a people through whom you bless the world and set things right and bring beauty out of ashes and right injustice.
SPEAKER_01: So we ask now by your spirit that you would begin to work in us.
SPEAKER_01: Give us eyes to see and ears to hear how you want us to be your agents of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: One of our practices here every week is after a message, we want to give you a little bit of time to really um think about this.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to encourage you right now to be thinking, okay, God, maybe your focus needs to be where am I blessed?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I I've just been grumpy about everything, and I need your eyes to see how you bless me.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're in a place where you're like, okay, God, how do you want to use me to bless someone?
SPEAKER_01: And what does that look like specifically?
SPEAKER_01: Who is that person?
SPEAKER_01: Where is there an injustice you want me to step into?
SPEAKER_01: Where is there a mess that you want to help me, you use me to help clean up?
SPEAKER_01: Where is there chaos that you want me to step in and be an agent of order and blessing?
SPEAKER_01: Where is someone who's lacking that you want me to provide?
SPEAKER_01: Ask God for a name, ask him for a face, ask him for wisdom for a next step.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we want to be your people.
SPEAKER_01: And we embrace that being your people means we're agents of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: We're your hands, we're your feet, we're your voice, we're light and darkness.
SPEAKER_01: So stir that up in us today.
SPEAKER_01: Make us restless to want to join you in your mission of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Give us an imagination for what that could be that we we we we're yet to have.
SPEAKER_01: Open doors.
SPEAKER_01: Give us eyes to see those doors as they open, God.
SPEAKER_01: Give us courage to step in and help us to know that you're with us every step of the way.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, empower us to be your people.
SPEAKER_01: The good news people.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in your name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Receive this blessing as we leave this way.
SPEAKER_01: May the Lord bless you and keep you.
SPEAKER_01: May He make His face to shine upon you.
SPEAKER_01: And may you know the peace and the joy and the abundance of just knowing and walking with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And may that be so real in your life that you can't keep it to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that God will give you eyes and ears to see how you can be a blessing this week, and that his spirit will enable you to step into that with great joy and courage.
SPEAKER_01: That his kingdom might come and his will might be done in and through you for the glory of his name.
SPEAKER_01: I pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Have an incredible week.