SPEAKER_02 0:00

We have a couple of people here on stage sitting here awkwardly waiting on me to finish talking about this. No, they're these uh these are uh Colin is a new friend to me. Lindsay, I just got to meet for the first time in person this morning. Uh but this is uh Colin and Lindsay Seal. And uh they are here because we are hosting a training next Saturday, the 14th. That's this coming Saturday, actually, if that helps you. This coming Saturday, the 14th. Um, and the training is actually on how do we uh embrace what it means to be a disciple of Jesus who goes out and makes disciples of Jesus. And uh and so there's multiple parts to that, but a big piece of it is how do we uh listen to the Holy Spirit and follow his promptings and follow his leadings um as we seek to do this, because we cannot make disciples of Jesus on our own. Uh we can try and we will fail royally, but Jesus has empowered us through the Holy Spirit to actually do this. So but without me talking more about that, I've asked them to share a little bit uh about what God's been doing in your story over the last really few years now, and uh kind of changed your trajectory to some degree from what from what I've I've seen and heard. And so tell us a little bit about what God's been doing in the SEAL family over the last few years.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Definitely quite a bit. Just uh both of us have been in full-time jobs over the past few years, and pursuing disciple making has led to us quitting our jobs this year, as uh recent as uh last few weeks for Lindsay. So um we uh had a heart for the nations and wanted to go a few years back, but we realized I don't know if we've actually made disciples here in Austin where we locally live. So we might need to put a pause on that. But through that, God just radically changed our hearts and our minds to see that the fields are white for the harvest, just like he said they were, and even in our own backyard. But we have just been pursuing seeing God do, um, or just laying down our lives to say, Lord, whatever you want to do, wherever we are, we want to do that. And that's what it's been here in Austin, and we've seen some awesome fruit because of that, and just serving him the best way we can.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

So I know you said you shared you've seen some awesome fruit. Just briefly share one story uh that would just be speaking to that very issue. Because I've I've heard some of your stories, but just maybe one story on your heart that would be an encouragement to this morning of how God's at work in that way.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yeah, definitely. Well, so um there's a few of us that of our friends that knew they wanted to go to the nations and had the same hesitation of, oh, we've never seen someone come to faith. Uh, help them to make disciples and help them see others come to faith in their own sphere of influence. So we all decided, how about we be a missionary team here in Austin? And most of us were living in the same neighborhood. And so we decided, let's just go and do what the Bible tells us to and try to follow Jesus' model the best way we know how. And Luke 10 gives a pretty good description of how we could do that intentionally. And so we looked at Luke 10 and said, let's do this. Two by two, we'll go out into our neighborhood and let's see what God does. And so, through that, in the first two months that we were intentionally meeting people in our neighborhood, there was a hundred people that came to faith.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

And so we were thinking that's that's in Austin, and I think we have this stigma that God's not doing the same kind of you know conversion that we see when we go overseas. And you guys have just said, no, it's not true. God's Holy Spirit's working right here in our own city.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, we well, we didn't believe it at first, but and we still don't really believe it. But yeah, God's doing some awesome stuff. Very cool.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Um, Lindsay, uh, I know that you just have as you've walked through this, God's been using you, and I actually got to hear a little bit through you sharing. They shared at a church out in Atlanta, right? And you shared some stuff. What what would you say to encourage our body about what God's doing in your lives, but also more importantly, the kingdom of God here uh in America?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

So man, where would I start? Um I think I would start with where I started. So when I came to faith, I was 18 years old, and God pretty immediately put on my heart that I wanted to be a missionary because I had grown up in a church-ish setting, and so I thought I'd had it correct for 18 years, and so I became really passionate about letting everyone else know around me that like you might not have it right either. Listen to this, listen to how good God is. I was wrong. Are you wrong? Um, and so that took me overseas pretty immediately, and because I really had this idea that um to see God move, we had to get out of America, right? Like your neighbors, your coworkers, um, at the time it was my friends um at TCU, they've already heard about Jesus, so it's time for us to go overseas. Um and so I actually went overseas alone to be a full-time missionary as a young woman. Not a brilliant idea, but um I saw God do wonderful things, and two people came to faith in about a year, and that was beautiful, and only God can do that. But I didn't have a plan for like where they would go to church or um when it when they wanted to be baptized, there literally wasn't enough water around to figure that out. And when my then boyfriend came over and proposed and took me back to America, like who was going to disciple them? What did that look like? I was just very short geared in my plan. Um, and so what I've learned from that is that like every single person is like our charge is to go and make disciples of all nations. None of us get out of that because that's the Great Commission, right? But in that, we have to have pure heart and skillful hands. I was really lacking the skillful hands, and so I got to spend the past two and a half years in Austin seeing God bring far more people into the kingdom than I saw in an unreached people group over the same amount of time. But for them, we had simple tools and simple plan for okay, what does it mean next for this person that wants to follow Jesus? But they are not gonna step into my trendy church. It does not work for them as the first step, you know, A, B, C, and D. Um and so I've seen co-workers come to faith that I genuinely would have thought this person is the last person that would ever listen to me about Jesus, um, all the way to my next door neighbor who's a refugee from a closed country, um, immediately say they want to start following Jesus and get baptized in their bathtub. Um I yeah, I'm gonna stop there.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

So as you can tell, uh they are passionate about seeing people know Jesus and God's Spirit is working. Um and so this Saturday, I mean we we could talk all day long here, but this Saturday, because Harley's gonna preach in a minute, um, this Saturday we have training. Uh, what can we expect if we show up to this training? What what is it gonna look like and and how will this help us take steps in terms of making disciples in Austin?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Okay, we've found just from our own experiences that I think that almost everyone I've met has this desire to live in their identity as ambassadors and live in their identity as high priests, because Jesus put that in you when you started following him. But there's three things that generally kind of keep us and kept me from really walking in that, and it was fear, busyness, and lack of know-how. And so what we really want to do is um kind of help you and take care of that whole lack of know-how, because what we've seen is that that also kind of tramples over the fear, right? If you have simple tools that we're gonna be talking about on Saturday for just next step, next step, next step for really practical things, the fear goes down. And then as the fear and the lack of know-how goes down, you're gonna see fruit, and suddenly busyness isn't such a problem personally.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Yeah, and I'd add too, we've just trying to take as much as we can from Jesus' model, not just theologically, but practically, and said, let's just do what Jesus did at the best way we possibly can. And so the training on Saturday will just be simple tools that we've seen prove uh fruitful here, even in our own backyard. And as we continue to see fruit, just continue to point back to the word and say, Jesus, we want to continue to follow you because we can't do this without you. But we know you have an unstoppable, unchangeable plan to see the Great Commission completed. And what about that happening in our lifetime? So uh that's what we'll be focusing on is just giving um away the boldness that God's given us and the tools that we've seen uh helpful for us to walk out in our identity. Uh we were singing earlier, we won't move without you. And I think a lot of my life I've uh sang that song, and actually it meant I don't want to move, and I'm gonna stay right here in this seat. But as we just given some simple tools and somebody has modeled it for us, it got me fired up to say, Oh, this isn't as hard as what I thought it was, which eliminated my fear and got me starting to take the neck the first step. Um, so that's a lot of what you'll see Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Awesome. Well, as I said, we need to move on in our gathering today. But if you would like to participate on Saturday, you can go back to the connection point, my left, your right, as you're leaving today, and you can sign up. Uh, Colin and Lindsay will also be back there. If you'd just like to be encouraged by them, you can tell they're passionate as they are watching God's Spirit work and move. But I believe that um God's Spirit is moving in our in our country. He's moving all over the world. And I think that um he's inviting all of you, all of you to participate. No matter how qualified you think you are or disqualified you think you are, God is inviting you to participate in his mission. And uh and so you don't have to know everything. You just have to be willing. You have to be willing to step up and say, hey, I'll I'll I'll go, I'll be trained. And so um I just encourage you next Saturday uh to come join us. Uh it starts at eight o'clock. Okay, eight o'clock, and we'll be here at the building. Uh, and it'll go till roughly three, and uh there'll be some teaching, but there'll also be some practical application to the teaching, not just sitting there here and having somebody tell you how to do it, but actually showing you and then even letting you practice it. Uh so it's gonna be an awesome time. I'm looking forward to it, and uh, I just encourage as many of you can to join us because we want to be about making disciples, and we need to learn how to do that. We need to follow the Holy Spirit uh voice in doing that. So I want to pray over them. If you guys would join me in praying over them, uh, but also pray that we as a church would be emboldened by the power of God to do what he's called us to do. Okay? This this life's short, it's a vapor, it's here and it's gone. Let's be intentional with the time God's given us. Father, you are a loving, gracious Father, and you don't base your love on us on whether or not we share the gospel with people or not. You don't you don't base your love and your acceptance of us on whether or not we actually step up and and get out of our comfort zone and engage in mission, but you're so loving that you invite us to participate in your redemptive work. And God, we see how your spirit's moving, and we thank you for these stories of your faithfulness of just believers who got out of their comfort zone, who said, Well, maybe this is more than just having the right doctrine. Maybe this is actually about following your spirit to take the gospel to my neighbors and my coworkers and the people that live uh all around me. And God, we just thank you that when we step out in faith, you meet us. You embolden us, you give us courage, you give us compassion for the people that we're talking with, and by your spirit, their eyes are open to the truth of who Jesus is. You bring life where there's death. And so I just pray today, Father, that you would bless Colin and Lindsay, that you would encourage them as they continue to stay faithful. Would you remind them that you're with them? And when they get weary and when they are worn, and when the enemy comes and accuses and says you're not worthy, that they would remember the cross. They would remember their identity as children of God. And also we just pray that we as a church would be faithful gospel witnesses in our city. We don't want to just do church. God, we are the church, and we've been called and we've been invited. And as Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 1, we don't just take the gospel in word, but with power in the Holy Spirit. So we just pray for signs and wonders to follow your work so that people might believe that you are real, that you love them, and that Jesus, you might receive the glory and worship that you are due, that you deserve. So awaken us this morning. And right now, I pray you would help us to receive the word we're about to hear from Harley. The guide from the book of John, you would speak to us, and that we would not only just hear it in our heads, but our hearts would be penetrated, and that we would act and react, respond in a way that is appropriate to the way that you want us to grow and mature in our faith. So we love you, Jesus. We pray also your strong name. Amen.