SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Vic.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Walt.
SPEAKER_00: It's a compliment.
SPEAKER_00: That was a slip of the tongue, but I think that tells you something, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Goodness sakes, goodness sakes.
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01: It is a I know most of you know what the name Vic means, so I don't need to add anything to that, but yes, well, it's a great joy to be here and a privilege and an honor.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the opportunity to share with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: You know, allow me just to uh uh share uh a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, the Northern Plains District is a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America, and and uh Faith Evangelical Free Church has been a significant player in some of the things that we've recently been engaged in.
SPEAKER_01: Uh there was a crisis response team that spent some time in Haiti just a couple weeks ago now, and there were a couple ladies here from Faith E Free that were a part of that crisis response team just a couple weeks ago as well.
SPEAKER_01: Uh there was a district youth conference in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and uh there were youth here and people from uh faith that were a part of that experience.
SPEAKER_01: Just coming up uh next weekend is a men's retreat at Cooperstown Bible Camp.
SPEAKER_01: And I know that there will be folks here from Faith that will be a part of that men's retreat experience as well.
SPEAKER_01: Um in early April, we have our annual district conference coming up, and the district board has just determined we were planning and anticipating that it would be at our church plant in Jamestown, just realized that wasn't good timing, so we are rescheduling that event to Bismarck, and it will be hosted by the formerly first Evangelical Free Church, now known as Grace Point, in Bismarck.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a number of things going on and taking place, and I know that Faith has been involved in them and uh been instrumental in assisting some of those activities to take place.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you are involved in a significant season of life here at Faith because there's a major transition taking place here.
SPEAKER_01: And uh you're not alone in experiencing this kind of pastoral leadership transition that faith is going through right now.
SPEAKER_01: Uh in my experience as our district superintendent, I stepped into this role in 2008.
SPEAKER_01: We have more churches going through this kind of transition at this moment than we have at any one moment previously.
SPEAKER_01: There's a number of our churches that are really walking in the same experience that faith is, utilizing the resources of interim pastor ministries services.
SPEAKER_01: Our church in Wapaton is doing that.
SPEAKER_01: Our church in Christine, which is a small community between Fargo and Wapaton, is doing that as well.
SPEAKER_01: Our church in Cooperstown is doing that, and our church in Valley City is doing that as well.
SPEAKER_01: So you are not alone.
SPEAKER_01: There are a number of our churches that are experiencing similar things.
SPEAKER_01: There's a number of our churches as well that are involved in pastoral staff searches.
SPEAKER_01: Um the church in Watertown, South Dakota is engaged in doing that.
SPEAKER_01: The church in Rugby is engaged in doing that, the church in Minot is engaged in doing that as well.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Salem in uh in Fargo is uh about ready to look for campus pastors for their location in Moorhead and their location in Fargo as well.
SPEAKER_01: And along with that is that Bethel Church in Fargo is involved in a pastoral transition and is actively searching for their next pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Your prayers for your leadership as you pursue this season is critical and significant because it's a journey that you're making together and you're playing a role in the way you support and participate through your prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just encourage you to recognize and remember that there's others sharing your journey and that you join in praying for them and for God's leadership and provision for them during this similar season as well.
SPEAKER_01: You know, at our district conference this year, allow me to add this statement our new Evangelical Free Church president will be our speaker, and his name is Kevin Complin, and his home is Thief River Falls, North Dakota, and he's a graduate of the University of North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: So there is common ground.
SPEAKER_01: We have somebody from our own turf who is the now president of the Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: And I certainly encourage you as the word gets out and information is brought to you concerning that event, that you'd be praying for it as well, and even considering attending that event and getting to know Kevin a little better as well.
SPEAKER_01: You may not have heard this story, but I read it.
SPEAKER_01: I assume it's fictitious, but uh it made me smile.
SPEAKER_01: Uh there was this uh race horse whose jockey was unable to ride him in this race, and so there was this substitute jockey that came just in time for the trainer to give him brief instructions before he got on the horse to ride it in the race.
SPEAKER_01: The trainer told him, now the race involved uh jumping these hurdles, and he said, You know, your horse can win this race, but when you approach each hurdle, be fur be sure you shout out, Ally Oop.
SPEAKER_01: Now there wasn't much time for anything more than that conversation.
SPEAKER_01: The jockey got on and got the horse ready and the race started, but he couldn't help but thinking that's rather silly.
SPEAKER_01: So the first hurdle came up and the jockey didn't do anything, and the horse just burst right through the hurdle, kept running.
SPEAKER_01: The second hurdle came up, and the jockey still was thinking, this is kind of stupid.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say anything, and the horse just kind of broke right through the hurdle and ran through it.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, a little bit unsettled, the jockey kind of said, Well, I'll say something.
SPEAKER_01: So it got to the third hurdle and he said quietly, Ally Oop.
SPEAKER_01: Horse just burst through the third hurdle and kept running.
SPEAKER_01: Now, very much unsettled at this point in time, as they approached the fourth hurdle, the jockey kind of blurted out rather loudly, Ally Oop, and the horse jumped the hurdle.
SPEAKER_01: Well, from that point on, he began to get louder every time and just kept saying, Ally oop, and the horse jumped all the remaining hurdles and ended up winning the race.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the trainer came running over to him after the race and said, You had me worried there, what happened?
SPEAKER_01: Of course, the jockey was a little bit embarrassed and didn't know what to say, and he said, Well, I the horse must be deaf.
SPEAKER_01: And the jockey said, Deaf?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know he's blind, but he's not deaf.
SPEAKER_01: Would you join me in praying that we would not be deaf to God's word this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we are honored to gather in your presence today and to open your word and to listen as you would speak to us, and I would pray that, Father, you might let me voice your words, not my own, but that we would all be good listeners and good hearers to what you have to say, so that you can work in our lives, so that you might work through our lives.
SPEAKER_01: This we ask, Father, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Frequently there's a discussion about what we should be doing with our lives.
SPEAKER_01: A term that often gets associated with this discussion is the term true north.
SPEAKER_01: When it's used about what we should be doing with our lives, it's kind of associated with the term having a life mission.
SPEAKER_01: You know, this morning we're going to be talking about what we should be doing with our lives, not in the sense of what our profession is to be or where we should be living, but just what our lives should be invested in, what we should be giving our time and our attention and our energies and our efforts to as we live our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Now, literally speaking, the term true north is different than the term magnetic north.
SPEAKER_01: True north is a geographical direction that always remains the same.
SPEAKER_01: Magnetic north, on the other hand, is a point in the Arctic regions that's continually shifting location based upon the activity of the Earth's magnetic fields.
SPEAKER_01: Now, it is very possible for us to end up having our lives lived and influenced by forces around us so that, like magnetic north, they're pulled off from actually true north.
SPEAKER_01: And we can find ourselves when our lives are ended, having invested or given our lives to the wrong things.
SPEAKER_01: None of us want that.
SPEAKER_01: None of us, when it's all said and done, want to find ourselves standing before our Heavenly Father and not hearing him say, Well done to us.
SPEAKER_01: But in order for that to happen, it is important that we have a clarity in our own mind on what it is that we should be doing with our lives.
SPEAKER_01: What is the life mission that we should be having?
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about that this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We're all going to agree today that the Bible is true.
SPEAKER_01: And that all of the Bible, from beginning to end, is important.
SPEAKER_01: But I would like to suggest to you that not all of the Bible is equally important.
SPEAKER_01: And that the two passages we are going to look at this morning are some of the most important passages that there are in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And that in these two passages, in the first, that we often call the Great Commandment, we are going to find what true North is for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And in the second, often referred to as the Great Commission, we are going to find how to live true North.
SPEAKER_01: The first will help us find it.
SPEAKER_01: The second will help us to live it.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bibles open with me, let's turn to Matthew chapter 22.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Matthew is the first book in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: It is the record of Jesus' life and ministry, recorded by one of his disciples named Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: When we step into the 22nd chapter, we're stepping into this last week of Jesus' life that is spent in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: He has traveled there, and Easter is not far in front of us, and the events that are taking place in here are often associated with the Easter season.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem with the crowds shouting Hosanna around him.
SPEAKER_01: And now as that week is unfolding, he is finding himself in the city of Jerusalem and having significant conversation and discussion and debate with the religious leadership.
SPEAKER_01: They are increasingly hostile to him and uncomfortable with him because of his growing popularity and his willingness to be bold and open in pointing out their own hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: So they are looking for any and every opportunity they can have to somehow depreciate him in the eyes of the public and position him in some way that they can justify their criticism of him and even do away with him.
SPEAKER_01: This passage is set in that context.
SPEAKER_01: And we have Jesus being asked a question by a critic.
SPEAKER_01: And it's his answer to this critic's question that helps us to find true North.
SPEAKER_01: You may be very familiar with this passage, but let's read it once again.
SPEAKER_01: We're in Matthew chapter 22, and we're reading, beginning at verse 34.
SPEAKER_01: When the Pharisees heard that he, that is Jesus, had put the Sadducees to silence, they gathered themselves together, and one of them, a lawyer.
SPEAKER_01: That was a term referred to somebody that was very skilled and studied in the Old Testament law, particularly the first five books of the Old Testament written by Moses.
SPEAKER_01: This person, a lawyer, asked him a question testing him.
SPEAKER_01: Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?
SPEAKER_01: Now, certainly this was a matter of discussion and debate among the religious leaders who specialized in all of the details and kind of just becoming a student of the scriptures, not necessarily practitioners of them.
SPEAKER_01: What is the Great Commandment?
SPEAKER_01: They had determined that there was, as we understand, 613 commands in those first five books, the law.
SPEAKER_01: 613.
SPEAKER_01: So the question is, which one's the greatest?
SPEAKER_01: In some way, we would like to hear from you.
SPEAKER_01: This question is not being asked from a sincere person, asked a respectful rabbi.
SPEAKER_01: This question is being asked from the perspective we would like to get you to say something that we have the opportunity to criticize and hopefully corner you in such a way that we can depreciate what people think of you.
SPEAKER_01: What would you think Jesus would say?
SPEAKER_01: I admit that what first comes to my mind is that he probably would turn to these ten statements that God gave to Moses when he brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt and gathered them at this mountain called Sinai, where he met with them.
SPEAKER_01: He called Moses to meet with him on the top of that mountain, and he delivered to Moses these ten statements written on tablets of stone.
SPEAKER_01: And what I would think probably be the great commandment is the first one.
SPEAKER_01: You shall have no other gods before me.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm struck by the fact that that's not where he goes.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he goes to the book of Deuteronomy, and this is a passage that comes out of the message that Moses is giving to the children of the generation that came out of Egypt, who were gathered around the mountain when Moses went up and received these tablets of stone.
SPEAKER_01: They wandered in the wilderness because of their disobedience and semi-obedience to God until they, that generation that was brought out of the land of Egypt, had all died.
SPEAKER_01: And now their children are the generation that God is going to take into the land of promise.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses is now reviewing for the children what it was that God had said to their parents.
SPEAKER_01: And in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 5, Moses goes to say, this is the Greek command.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's not even one of the ten.
SPEAKER_01: But that's where he goes.
SPEAKER_01: And with all your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Now there is no question that for a Jewish person, that was a significant passage.
SPEAKER_01: It comes from the context where when Moses says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we are we are often finding ourselves being told and reminded that God loves us and he sent his son to die for us because he loves us.
SPEAKER_01: What is a good reminder is that God wants us to love him in return.
SPEAKER_01: As parents, we understand this.
SPEAKER_01: We love our kids, and we want what is best for them.
SPEAKER_01: But what really is fulfilling and just gives us that sense of satisfaction and delight and joy is to have our children love us back.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is saying, this is the great commandment.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to love him with all that you are, he wants you to love him supremely.
SPEAKER_01: Now he's answered the question, but he does not stop there.
SPEAKER_01: He adds to it something they didn't ask for.
SPEAKER_01: So he continues.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 39.
SPEAKER_01: The second is like it.
SPEAKER_01: Now they didn't ask for a second, so he gives them more than they ask for.
SPEAKER_01: The second is like it.
SPEAKER_01: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, where's that?
SPEAKER_01: That's not in the top ten either.
SPEAKER_01: He's quoting from the book of Leviticus, a set of instructions for the priests, and instructions on how God would want the children of Israel simply to relate to and live together.
SPEAKER_01: Where are you getting this stuff?
SPEAKER_01: When we think about it, this really is, in essence, what the Ten Commandments are telling us.
SPEAKER_01: The first four talk to us about how we relate to God, know other gods before him, not take his name in vain, no idols honor the Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_01: The next six, all starting with honoring your father and mother and not lying and not committing murder and whatnot, all have to do with how we relate to one another.
SPEAKER_01: When we think about it, this is really impressive.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is amazing, is he not?
SPEAKER_01: What an awesome teacher.
SPEAKER_01: He has in two statements summarized the entire Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 40 adds, on these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: On these two, loving God supremely and others as ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: This is in essence what Jesus is getting, or what God is getting across in the entire Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: I'm impressed.
SPEAKER_01: When I was in high school, I had a math teacher that I particularly enjoyed and appreciated.
SPEAKER_01: He had the ability to take these complex math concepts and boil them down into principles that I could say, ah, I get that.
SPEAKER_01: And I could figure it out and understand it.
SPEAKER_01: That is exactly what Jesus has done for us.
SPEAKER_01: And I would suggest to you that what he has done for us is told us what true North is for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: What does God want us to do with our lives?
SPEAKER_01: Why he wants us to love him supremely, and he wants us to love others as ourselves?
SPEAKER_01: Now I think you're sitting there saying, Well, I'm not sure you've really helped me.
SPEAKER_01: Because doesn't that sound a little bit kind of vague?
SPEAKER_01: Sure, I know that that's what it says, but how do I do it?
SPEAKER_01: Gary Chapman is a marriage and a family counselor that a number of years ago wrote a book called Five Love Languages.
SPEAKER_01: What Gary and his research had concluded is that there are primary ways that people communicate love to one another and also interpret and receive love.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, how do I know somebody is loving me?
SPEAKER_01: Because they are conveying love to me in this way.
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting that our oldest child is a daughter.
SPEAKER_01: We have four, and she is married.
SPEAKER_01: And in the early years of her marriage, it was very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: She spent a lot of time investing and doing special things for her husband when his birthday would come around and at Christmas time.
SPEAKER_01: But he didn't reciprocate by spending a lot of time and thinking about what to do and what gift to give and whatnot.
SPEAKER_01: And what they finally discovered is that our daughter's primary love language is giving gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And she was looking for her husband to do that in return for her.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't his primary love language, so although he thought it was nice that she went to all this work and did all these things for her, he didn't do that in return for her.
SPEAKER_01: And it was frustrating for her.
SPEAKER_01: What Gary Chapman learned was that there's five primary love languages.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is simply words of affirmation, communicating with our words that we love someone, that we respect someone, that we value and appreciate someone.
SPEAKER_01: We do that often when we sing to God.
SPEAKER_01: The second one is material gifts, and this is the idea of presenting somebody.
SPEAKER_01: This is a lot of what goes on at birthdays and Christmas time and that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_01: For some people, receiving a material gift is the way that they sense and feel and believe somebody really loves them.
SPEAKER_01: A third that Gary came up with was acts of service, doing things for somebody, communicating to them that they are important and that they are special.
SPEAKER_01: Another one that he came up with was physical touch, things like holding hands and embracing, that sort of thing, conveying to somebody that they are loved.
SPEAKER_01: Another one is simply quality time, being with somebody.
SPEAKER_01: I think it would really help us, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_01: If the great commandment is to love God supremely, wonder what his primary love language is.
SPEAKER_01: Is it words of affirmation when we gather and we sing and we express to him our praise, his praise of him and our love for him?
SPEAKER_01: Is it material gifts so we receive an offering and we make gifts to him?
SPEAKER_01: Is it acts of service when we actually do things for him?
SPEAKER_01: I wonder what his primary love language is.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you?
SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus has told us what it is.
SPEAKER_01: Just a matter of a couple days after this occasion took place, that we are looking at in Matthew chapter 22, Jesus was spending the last evening that he had with his disciples there in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: He shared with him that closing and parting meal that you and I may have heard referred to as the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_01: And in the conversation that took place that evening and was recorded by one of his disciples named John, we have it in John chapter 14, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: He made this statement to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He who has my commandments and keeps them.
SPEAKER_01: He it is who loves me.
SPEAKER_01: You see, God's primary love language is obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And it is entirely possible for someone to be disobeying God and yet singing songs of praise to Him.
SPEAKER_01: It is entirely possible for someone to be presenting material gifts to God or even performing certain acts of service and yet being disobedient.
SPEAKER_01: But to God, the greatest expression to him, not that these others cannot be expressions of our love for him, but the greatest of them, and his primary love language is our obedience to him.
SPEAKER_01: That is demonstrated for us in the story of the Old Testament when Israel's first king, Saul, was sent on a mission, and he was instructed by the prophet Samuel to go to the Amalekites, a very wicked people who had taken advantage of the children of Israel at a very vulnerable time in their experience of being brought out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: They were exceedingly wicked, involved in activities like child sacrifice and so on.
SPEAKER_01: And God, through the prophet Samuel, had told Saul, You go and you eliminate the Amalekites, everything.
SPEAKER_01: And Saul went on that mission, but when he came back, he was bringing all the spoils with him, and the prophet Samuel confronted him and said, What's all this stuff?
SPEAKER_01: And Saul said, Oh, well, we brought this back as an offering to present it to God.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 22 of 1 Samuel chapter 15, the prophet Samuel responds, Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, obedience is God's primary love language, and he knows we love him most by how we obey him.
SPEAKER_01: True North is loving God supremely and others as ourselves, but how do we live that out?
SPEAKER_01: Allow me to suggest that we live that out by obeying God in the parting mission that God gave to us through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, recorded in Matthew chapter 28.
SPEAKER_01: We'll turn there.
SPEAKER_01: The closing words that Matthew records for us concerning Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He has been crucified and buried.
SPEAKER_01: He's been resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: He's revealed himself to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He's making himself known to them, and now Matthew records this for the closing words that he has for them, telling us that this is the parting task that he has left with them.
SPEAKER_01: So let's read it once again.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16 and following in Matthew chapter 28.
SPEAKER_01: But when the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated, and when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.
SPEAKER_01: And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: If we were reading this in the language that it was already written in, it would be apparent to us, but it's not as apparent when we read it in ours.
SPEAKER_01: But there is one command that Jesus gives in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: There is one command that his disciples heard him saying.
SPEAKER_01: The command is make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever a disciple is, it's what Jesus made with these men.
SPEAKER_01: You repeat with others what I did with you, so that others might come to understand who I am, what I have said, and what I have offered, that they would respond not only by putting their faith in me, but they would join in the mission that I have been involved in and engaged in as well.
SPEAKER_01: And for them that would involve making disciples who make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: The commission was not simply to make a disciple, the commission was to make a disciple maker.
SPEAKER_01: Because that is what Jesus made.
SPEAKER_01: He made disciple makers.
SPEAKER_01: The accompanying participles that he gives are the activities that are to be involved in that.
SPEAKER_01: Going, baptizing, and teaching.
SPEAKER_01: You will be making other fellow followers of Jesus who are joining Jesus in this mission that God has sent him on as you're going and baptizing and teaching.
SPEAKER_01: And what is significant to observe is that the teaching is not simply to know what Jesus taught.
SPEAKER_01: Let's note what it says again.
SPEAKER_01: Teaching them to observe.
SPEAKER_01: Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_01: The teaching is not to know what he commanded them.
SPEAKER_01: I would suggest to you that our task is not to fill people with knowledge of what Jesus said and taught.
SPEAKER_01: Our task is to teach people to be obedient to what Jesus taught.
SPEAKER_01: So that as God reveals to them what Jesus taught, they've learned to obey it.
SPEAKER_01: In a simple way, what their task is, is to teach people to love God.
SPEAKER_01: Because after all, the supreme way that people love God is by obeying Him.
SPEAKER_01: So our task is to help people learn to love God because we love God primarily by obeying Him.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the great task that we have.
SPEAKER_01: And friends, I'm suggesting that true North for every one of us is to be loving God supremely and others as ourselves, and we do that best by making disciples in obedience to Jesus' parting commission and command.
SPEAKER_01: To love God is to further his mission of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: To love our neighbors as ourselves is to share with them the life and love that we ourselves have found in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read that again.
SPEAKER_01: To love God is to further his mission of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: To love our neighbors as ourselves is to share with them the life and love that we ourselves have found in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I'm suggesting that that is true north for every single one of us.
SPEAKER_01: That is the mission that God has for us, that that's what he wants us to invest our lives in.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do that, we will find ourselves standing before him one day and hear him say, Well done.
SPEAKER_01: And there are plenty of influences that would steer us into magnetic north, into activities that, although sincere and maybe good, will not really accomplish that end and that objective.
SPEAKER_01: And this is true north for every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: It does not matter if we are a student or if we are a senior citizen.
SPEAKER_01: It does not matter if we are unemployed or self-employed.
SPEAKER_01: It does not matter if our field is business or our field is agriculture, if it's medicine or education, it's true for every single one of us.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever our profession, whatever our occupation, whatever our circumstance, whatever our situation, and whatever our place and cycle in life.
SPEAKER_01: We are all to be engaged in continuing the ministry that Jesus Christ was engaged in, which was the mission of redemption that God the Father has been engaged in ever since sin entered our realm and separated man from himself.
SPEAKER_01: This is true north for every single one of us.
SPEAKER_01: And you and I have the opportunity to live it out every day.
SPEAKER_01: By both showing Jesus to people and sharing Jesus with people as opportunities to present themselves, but intentionally living our lives, looking for, praying for, seeking for those opportunities to present themselves.
SPEAKER_01: And following them up, helping people both to know who Jesus is, understood what he has done, understand what he has done so that they can respond to him, and so that they also can then join in learning to love God by obeying all that he commanded and join in this great mission that he's left with us with.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I still officiate high school football and basketball.
SPEAKER_01: Since I stepped into this role as a district superintendent, I don't officiate varsity-level high school football anymore or basketball anymore, although I still do football.
SPEAKER_01: But I pray for the guys that I officiate with, because for the most part, it's my opportunity to be engaged with a group of guys that I probably would not be if I was not doing this.
SPEAKER_01: And often they're guys that are not yet a part of the family of God.
SPEAKER_01: Several weeks ago, I was officiating with a new official that although we had met before, we'd never worked together before, and we were assigned a couple of games at Legacy High School in Bismarck, which is a new high school in Bismarck.
SPEAKER_01: And we got there and realized that both of us had overlooked an email we got during the day telling us that the first of our two games had been canceled.
SPEAKER_01: So what we did, we were in the officials' locker room.
SPEAKER_01: This is a new high school that looks, I mean, it's got stuff in it that most high schools don't have.
SPEAKER_01: It has a locker room for the officials.
SPEAKER_01: How many places like that have that today?
SPEAKER_01: So we were sitting in the officials' locker room, and we had an hour and a half till our next game was going to start.
SPEAKER_01: So we sat there and we visited with one another.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for these guys.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that God would allow me to be used as He works in their lives, wherever they're at in their journey.
SPEAKER_01: So Delwin and I went through the normal conversation you go through.
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: What do you do and so on?
SPEAKER_01: So, what you know comes to me, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: So I share with him what I do, and I try to use language that connects with him and his experience.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in the course of doing that, I tell him about my background.
SPEAKER_01: Because I suspect that a lot of people can relate to my background, and I share it in a very simple way that I grew up in a family that went to church faithfully, but when I was a college student, I talk about my experience of discovering that there was something that I clearly didn't understand about knowing God and how he could be real in my life and understanding what this relationship was all about, what Jesus had actually done.
SPEAKER_01: And I talked about how I came to know him as a college student and how that changed the entire direction of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And how I've come to realize that everybody needs this.
SPEAKER_01: And I talk about it from the perspective of my own experience, and then I come to the place where I ask him, would you tell me a little bit about your own faith story?
SPEAKER_01: And it's not uncommon, and it was the case in this experience, that he really doesn't know where to go, so he defaults to telling me about his church experience.
SPEAKER_01: And that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: But what we ended up with was probably a 20-minute plus conversation of talking about these kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: And so I learned a lot where he was, and he heard me tell a lot about what God was doing in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And what I know was that we had an hour and a half together so that in part God could allow me to contribute to the work that God is doing in his life, so that I could be speaking into and sharing part of what he's done in my life with him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when we finished, we ended up working that basketball game.
SPEAKER_01: There was another game that followed that, and there was a new official working that, so we probably spent 15 minutes sitting together on the side, visiting with one another and whatnot.
SPEAKER_01: But what I know is that when we ended our time together that day, there was not this disconnected relationship where I was this religious guy that he was kind of afraid to talk to, but that we were a couple of friends that got to know each other better.
SPEAKER_01: And that the things we had talked about were things that we can return to, and we'll talk about more later.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, that's our life mission for every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's true north for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: With our neighbors, with our coworkers, with our friends, with the people with whom God allows our lives to intersect.
SPEAKER_01: We are praying for that and we are looking for that because that is the mission that God is engaged in.
SPEAKER_01: And we are to be his messengers and his instruments and agents.
SPEAKER_01: True North.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, we can know it.
SPEAKER_01: It is loving God supremely and others as ourselves, and we can do it.
SPEAKER_01: And the best way we can do it is by obediently helping to make more disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: People who are also learning to love God supremely and others as themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, we can do it.
SPEAKER_01: And we can know that this is the mission that God has for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: We do it as we live our lives and we do it together as a family and a fellowship of believers.
SPEAKER_01: Will you join me?
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, how honored and privileged we are not only to be the recipients of what you have done through your Son, the Lord Jesus, but the messengers helping others to learn about this, so that they not only can understand who He is, what He has done, and the offer that He makes, but that they can receive it and join in doing it with others, so that this process multiplies in an endless growing way.
SPEAKER_01: Father, please help us to both understand, to know, and to live true north for our lives, so that we might hear you say, Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of your son, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.