Mission and Movement

6 · The pastor states the sermon's main thesis clearly: Jesus' work continues through the local church

So the main idea today is this: that what Jesus began in his earthly ministry, he continues through the ministry of the local church. What he began, he continues. And so, two simple sections today, the connection and then the continuation. And at the very end, Todd Peterson's gonna come and give us some steps to try to apply this in life that he's come up with for his community group that I think are outstanding. So, first, the connection between Jesus then and us today. We have been given a cause.

7 · The pastor focuses exegetical attention on the single word 'began' in Acts 1:1, examining its Greek root (erxato) and emphasizing its grammatical significance: an action initiated in the past that continues into the present without a stated endpoint

Now, the whole— The thing I want to point our attention to is essentially just one word in the Bible this morning, but an unexpected word. This word 'began.' It says, 'In the first book, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.' Now, 'in the beginning,' if you look at and compare different translations of the original Greek and the different English translations, there's different phrasing that people can use from the King James to the ESV to the NIV or whatever. And it— some of them say in the first book, some of them say in the first account, some say in the first place, but everybody agrees about the word began. It is the right word. The word began, it's the Greek erxato, which means to start in motion, to begin, to initiate. It means an action that started at one point but continues through the present into The future, meaning there's no endpoint given.

8 · The pastor establishes the literary and theological relationship between Luke's Gospel and Acts

And this is appropriate but surprising given the fact that this is Luke's second book of the Bible. So the Gospel of Luke, written by the physician-turned-historian Luke, that's part one, and this is part two, the book of Acts. Now, at the end of Luke, if you've read to the end of the gospel, spoiler alert, this has been out for 2,000 years, so I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything, but Jesus Dies on the cross, he comes back to life, and then he ascends into heaven, right? And you would expect then what Luke would write is in the first book, Theophilus is just the guy he's writing to, in the first book, I dealt with, you'd expect to read, all that Jesus did and taught, right? It was in the past, like, I dealt with what he did and taught in the past. No, that's not what Luke writes. He instead writes, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and began to teach. Luke is consciously connecting the Gospel of Luke with the book of Acts with this phrase, right, that Jesus began to do something in Acts that continues through the life of the church, right?

9 · The pastor articulates a critical theological distinction: Jesus' atoning work is finished (salvation is accomplished), but his broader mission through the church is unfinished (ongoing work in the world)

So you find this beautiful finished-unfinished tension as you exit the Gospel of Luke, right? Certainly, there is much that is finished. On the cross, Jesus cries out, 'It is finished.' What did he mean? He meant the accomplishment of salvation for his people, right? That is good news for us. It means that sinners can have their sins erased. Those enemies of God can be reconciled. Those far from God can be adopted, right? On the cross, Jesus hung and died and bled for our sins, bearing the wrath of God in his body so that we would never have to face the judgment of God. That, he says, is finished, right? Nobody's going to add to that. Nobody's going to change that. That is the good news resounding at the end of the Gospel of Luke. But yet Luke seems to suggest that there are unfinished things, right?

10 · The pastor traces Jesus' post-resurrection activity in Acts 1: appearing to witnesses, teaching disciples, and preparing them for commissioning

Unlike another martyr or religious figure, Jesus did not stay dead. He, as Luke references in Acts 1, he walked and talked with many witnesses. He instructs his disciples. He passes on a body of teaching to them. He continues to do something and prepare these disciples for something and then ascends into heaven And the implication here from Luke is this, that Jesus continues to be at work in the world today. Well, how, where is he at work in the world today? It is right there, right? He gives commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles. He appears to them. Well, what is he doing? He's preparing them for something. He's preparing to commission them on a mission, but this mission, as we'll see, was very much tied to his mission.

11 · The pastor articulates the central theological move connecting the two books: Luke's Gospel shows Jesus working through his physical body; Acts shows Jesus working through his corporate body, the church

So here's the connection between Luke and Acts. This is the way— I don't know if this is helpful for you, but it's helpful for me to think of it this way. In the Gospel of Luke, we deal with the miracle of the incarnation, God becoming man, and all that Jesus did through his physical body in those days, in his physical body on the earth. But in the book of Acts, We see that all that Jesus began to do and teach through his corporate body called the church. Both are stories of what Jesus did, but— or rather began to do, but each is different in its expression, right?

12 · The pastor uses Paul's conversion narrative to demonstrate that Jesus identifies so completely with the church that persecuting the church is persecuting Jesus himself

In the book of Acts, one of the key figures is the Apostle Paul, who is a persecutor of the church. He wasn't an apostle then, he was a persecutor, Saul, and he stopped on the road and And Jesus asks him, 'Why are you persecuting me?' And Saul was immediately flummoxed and said, 'Well, I—' You know, he's thinking, 'I didn't persecute Jesus. I mean, somebody else killed Jesus. I'm just here. I'm just throwing Christians in jail.' And Jesus says, 'Exactly. To persecute the church is to persecute Jesus.'

13 · The pastor traces Paul's theological development from persecutor to apostle, showing how Paul himself articulates the church-as-body metaphor

So later, Paul the apostle, now having been changed by Jesus, articulates it this way. He tells the church, 'You are Christ's body and individually members of it.' In Colossians 1, he says, Christ is the head of the body, the church.

14 · The pastor makes the claim explicit and contemporary: the local church today continues what began in Acts

So what Jesus begins in his physical body in the Gospel of Luke, he continues through his corporate body, the church, in Acts and beyond. The point is this, this local church, the local church, as it exists around the world today, is the continuation of Jesus' work in the Book of Acts. What we often do is we often take the story of Jesus and we fold it up and we put it on the shelf with a bunch of other biographies, like, 'Oh, Martin Luther King did this, you know, Teddy Roosevelt did that.' Okay, they're there. That's it. They're done. Teddy Roosevelt ain't doing anything anymore.

15 · A humorous personal story about mistakenly thinking a living author was dead illustrates the difference between a finished work and an ongoing one

I remember years ago, I was at a conference and I was at a booth at this conference and we were advertising for another conference. And so we were— our conference theme was timeless truth, right? And so at our booth, we were giving away all these old dead guy theology books. And I love old dead guy theology books, right? Because they're not going to biff it at the end. They've already gone home, so they're safe in some ways. And so we're giving away these theology books, and I was joking with people as we'd give it to them and said, 'Oh, man, we love giving away books by old dead guys.' And they would chuckle and take the book, or pick a book and move on. Well, this one lady I handed a book to, You know, I said, 'Hey, we love giving away books by old dead guys.' And she's like smiling and she looks down at the book and then she looks back at me with no smile and says, 'No, I know him.' And I was like, 'Who? What?' She's like, 'He died? He used to be my pastor. I haven't heard from him for a few years, but I wasn't aware that he died.' And then all of a sudden I'm like, 'Well, listen, I don't know. I'm sure he's He's fine. You just said he was dead. I'm sure he's not dead. I'm sure he's fine. And now I'm having to convince this lady that her former pastor is not dead after telling her and informing her that he is dead, right? And so she's like, okay, well, I was, you know, he was a great guy and, you know, I'm really sorry. Well, I hope he's okay. I'm gonna check in on him. And I'm like, yeah, don't mention me maybe. And she goes away and all of a sudden his book felt different than the other books on the book table. Because all of these books on the book table were by guys that lived and whatever they did, they did; whatever they wrote, they wrote, and that's it. But this book had a living author. And I thought for the first time, 'I wonder if he's, like, written anything else. This was really good. I wonder where he is. I wonder what he's doing. I wonder if I could hear a sermon by this guy.' Right? All these thoughts because what I thought was sort of a a finite, finished thing, was continuing. His life was continuing.

16 · The pastor applies the illustration's logic to the church: Jesus is not a dead historical figure but a living author whose work continues

So it is, Christians, with the local church. We often treat Jesus that way, like, 'Well, he did some things a long time ago and there it is on the table.' No, the book is open. He continues to work. That's what Acts tells us from the very beginning, and as we'll see at the very end. Is what Jesus continues to do. And I want you to draw the connection between this and the last few messages in our series. The church is not an optional add-on to Jesus and what he is doing in the world today. The church is the center of Jesus' mission in the world today.

17 · The pastor critiques the tendency to elevate celebrity Christian events and parachurch ministries above the local church

Now look, there are many other things that we often think, 'Oh man, that's really powerful. That's really Jesus working,' right? Like if you go to a— I mean, I don't know what you guys are into, Is Kirk Cameron movies still a thing? I'm not sure. You know, you see Kirk Cameron, like, oh, a Hollywood movie, that's where the Lord's at work. Or you go to a concert. I don't know what the kids listen to these days. Steven Curtis Chapman, are you young people listening to Steven Curtis Chapman? Just kidding. I'm just kidding. Like, love Steven Curtis Chapman, right? Or, okay, relevant. I'm relevant. Here we go. The Kanye West Sunday service thing going on last year, right? Where people are like, man, I've never seen this. People gathered hearing about Jesus. It's like a Sunday service. And I'm like, yeah, we've been doing that for like 2,000 years, but, right? We think those are the places where God's really at work. No. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 16:18. He looks at Peter, one of the founding apostles of the church, and says, 'I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.' No other nonprofit, no other parachurch has that that promise to it. No other thing is backed by the living promise of the risen, resurrected Savior that he will continue to do and teach through it. That's the continuation. I mean, that's the first, the connection.

18 · The pastor transitions to the second major section of the sermon by reorganizing the biblical categories ('do and teach') into his own framework ('declaring and demonstrating')

Second, the continuation. So what is it that continues? We get those two categories. What is it that continues? First, we see he began to do and he began to teach. I'm going to kind of reorganize this for the sake of walking through it together as declaring and demonstrating. He taught some things, declared them, and he did some things, demonstrated the reality of what he taught.

19 · The pastor introduces the first category (declaring) by showing how Jesus' ministry began with proclamation in Mark 1

So first, declaring. He began to teach. And you see, Jesus comes on the scene. And when Jesus comes on the scene in Mark 1, as we've been going through the Gospel of Mark, he does not come on the scene as just sort of a wandering social do-gooder. I heard a pastor years ago describe it this way, that Jesus is not Bono in a bathrobe walking around putting on benefit concerts for different causes. He came with a message. Mark 1 says this: Jesus came into Galilee. What did he come doing? Proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. This is what he came to do, to teach the good news about he, the King, bringing the kingdom.

20 · The pastor shows how Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2 mirrors Jesus' proclamation pattern: declaring the gospel and calling for repentance

Now, the apostles, though, continue this pattern, right? It's not as though Jesus did that but the apostles don't. No, what immediately you see in the beginning of Acts is the Spirit of God comes and causes commotion in Jerusalem, and Peter stands up and declares the message of Jesus. Of what? The message of Jesus. He basically declares to them that, 'Hey, all of you know that Jesus did mighty wonders in your midst, and this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan of foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed, but God raised him up, losing the pangs of death.' And therefore, he concludes, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.' What is Peter doing? He's just doing what Jesus did. Jesus comes in declaring the kingdom of God, calling for repentance and belief. Peter continues.

21 · The pastor argues that Peter's transformation from coward to bold proclaimer proves that Jesus continues to work through the church

Now, we know, though, that Jesus continues to work through Peter and that it is Jesus who was working through Peter, because at the end of Luke, Peter has just come off of the worst moment of his life of running scared from a girl who who was afraid he was to identify him as a follower of Jesus. He denies Jesus 3 times, right? This is not a guy who stands up and boldly declares anything at the end of Jesus' ministry. And yet, just chapters later, probably weeks later in Peter's life, he stands up in front of the whole city and proclaims Jesus. What we're meant to see is Jesus continues to work through his church, even using people like Peter.

22 · The pastor uses the founding of the Antioch church to show that Jesus works through ordinary, unnamed Christians, not just apostles

And in that work, Continues even in the normal, ordinary— although there are no ordinary Christians— but seemingly ordinary Christians in the church. In Acts 11, one of my favorite examples of this is the church in Antioch. The church in Antioch becomes a powerhouse church. They become one of the most influential churches in the New Testament. You know how the church in Antioch started? It says this: there was a big persecution wave in Jerusalem. And those who were scattered traveled. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord— hear that? Whose hand is that? The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. Right? Jesus' power is going through these people who are running, fleeing for their lives, fleeing persecution. Normal, ordinary people. One of the commentators said the reason we don't know anybody's name who came to Antioch is that none of them seemed notable. Nobody would have known their names, and yet they came with the power of Jesus and declared it to the city.

23 · The pastor conducts a live poll asking the congregation to identify how they came to faith—through impersonal media or through a flesh-and-blood Christian

Church, this still happens. This church, the Christians in this room, would not exist had Jesus not continued to work through the local church year year. Now, I'm going to take a risk here because I don't know the results of this poll before I start the poll, but when you're doing live polling, you're not supposed to normally do this, but we're going to do it anyway. So, the poll is a— you have two options on this poll. First is, if you're a Christian here because you, like, read a book or watched a movie or heard, like, a radio broadcast, there was no Christian, like, in front of you giving you the gospel, it was— you You know, no pastor or friend or whatever. It was, you know, you just read it third party. There are some people that Jesus works that way. So if that's you, raise your hand. You read something, you watched something. Don't be shy. Tom Wilkins, one of our pastors, got saved probably watching Late Great Planet Earth or something like that, some weird thing. And so it's like, hey, great. It's still— it's good. Great. Now, here is— okay, that— I feel much better about the second part of the poll now. 'Cause I never know what's going to happen. Here's the second option. If you became a Christian because a flesh-and-blood Christian person talked to you about Jesus, whether it was in his living room like my dad, whether it was a local church pastor like Mike Woods knocking on Richard Moreno's door, it was one of those real person in front of you, raise your hand.

24 · The pastor interprets the poll results theologically: the congregation itself is living evidence that Jesus continues to work through ordinary Christians in the local church

And here's what I'm willing to bet: the person that gave you the gospel was not the Apostle Paul, and it probably wasn't Billy Graham or anybody famous. It was a regular flesh-and-blood Christian person that Jesus worked through their words to bring you from death to life. Church, you are the living proof that Jesus, what he began to do, he continues to do. This place is a miracle of the living, risen, resurrected Jesus Christ working through his church. Amen.

25 · The pastor provides specific recent examples from the congregation's own ministry (Maggie's conversion, kids baptized, youth group attendee) to show that Jesus' continuation through the church is not theoretical but observable in their immediate context

He continues, we continue. Right, when our neighborhood outreach team knocked on Maggie's door down the street and she responded to the gospel, Jesus continued to work. When kids in our kids ministry just last year were baptized, a bunch of them, a number of them heard the gospel from their parents, a number of them heard the gospel from kids ministry workers, Jesus continued to work through their work. Work. We had a couple years ago somebody come to youth group, just— you may have heard her testimony— and she had never heard the gospel. And she heard the gospel and God did something in her heart and she responded and became a follower of Jesus. Jesus still does this.

26 · The pastor directly addresses the congregation's tendency toward low expectations and self-doubt

We— sometimes I feel like as Christians, our expectations are far too low for what can happen in the world around us. Because here's the reality we're always making. We're always thinking, well, I can't make that happen, or this can't make that, or my church is not going to make that happen. Guess what? Acts 1 says this: Jesus continues to make it happen. He continues to work through what we declare.

27 · Brief transition from the 'declaring' category to the 'demonstrating' category, maintaining the sermon's structure

Second, he continues to work through our work and what we demonstrate, right?

28 · The pastor explains that Jesus' miracles were not random displays of power but purposeful demonstrations of kingdom realities

When Jesus was on the earth, as we've seen in the Gospel of Mark, he does all kinds of miracles, but he doesn't just do random miracles. He doesn't just, like, make a white tiger appear and disappear like Siegfried and Roy— another dated reference. All of the Gen Z people are like, 'What is he even talking about? Does he have a medication that he takes?' I should be on something. But Jesus does not just do the craziest thing he can think of to wow people. No, what he does in his miracles is he demonstrates the reality of his kingship and the kingdom of God, pointing people to the gospel, right? So when he frees somebody from demonic oppression, what is he doing? He's not just, 'Oh, isn't that cool?' No. He's showing that he has power to release people from spiritual bondage. When he takes a paralyzed person and raises them up, what is he doing? He's not just, 'Oh, that's interesting.' No, he's showing that the paralysis that sin has us in, he can free us from. When he takes the outcasts and welcomes them in, what is he doing? He's not just, 'Oh, well, that's kind of a nice thing to do.' No, he's demonstrating the reality of passages like Isaiah where people from east and west and all over will come. And sit at the table of God, right? This is what Jesus is doing, and this is what continues in the book of Acts, right?

29 · The pastor draws a detailed parallel between Luke 18 and Acts 3, showing beat-by-beat similarity in the miracle-then-proclamation pattern

Right after this, in Acts, I think it's Acts 3, there's this parallel miracle, right? So Luke 18, almost beat for beat, the story is Jesus is passing by, a lame beggar calls out, Jesus pauses, Jesus restores the lame beggar to be able to walk, and then Jesus declares the kingdom. Parallel, Acts 3, the apostle Peter, again, not the brightest guy, not the bravest guy, just a guy, is going by. Jesus is going by, and this beggar calls out, 'Can you give me some money?' And he says, 'I don't have any money. Silver or gold, have I none. But what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.' And the man gets up. The crowd is amazed. Peter stands and declares the reality of the the kingdom. This pattern continues into the whole New Testament.

30 · The pastor introduces a necessary qualification: demonstration of the kingdom includes both spectacular miracles and subtle acts of faithfulness

Now, sometimes it is spectacular where the demonstration of the kingdom of God is some miracle like that. Sometimes it is far more subtle, right?

31 · A contemporary illustration from the pastor's recent week showing both ends of the spectrum: miraculous healing (taste restored) and sustained faithfulness (caring for a disabled child)

Just this week I was with some pastors where you see the dichotomy there, right? There was this one pastor that had a health issue and we prayed for him this week. He'd been suffering from it from 4— for 3 or 4 months. And as we prayed for him, God healed him on the spot. Like, insane. I'll tell you what it was because it's insane. So, 4 months ago, he got COVID pretty bad and totally lost his taste. And he could not— he still couldn't taste anything 4 months later. And as we prayed for them, he began crying, and then we were like, 'Are you okay, buddy?' And he's like, 'I would like to eat a grape.' And so he takes the grape, puts it in his mouth, and just starts weeping. Like, that doesn't happen, guys, like that. We also had another brother with us. His name was Ryan, who for the last number of years has been caring for a severely disabled child who can only communicate by using his eyes to use a computer screen to form sentences. That's the only part of his body that actually works, his eyes. He speaks through a computer. And we all cried in awe of him loving the Lord and demonstrating the reality of God to his community. Everybody that gets to know Ryan gets to know his son, and as they see it, they think, 'Why is this man this way? Why is this man so joyful?' Right? Two opposite ends of the spectrum. Sometimes he heals, sometimes he sustains, but what is Jesus continuing to do? To demonstrate the reality of the King and the kingdom that comes through the proclamation of the gospel.

32 · The pastor applies the demonstration principle to evangelism, arguing that effective gospel proclamation is typically preceded by demonstrated Christian character

Listen, I want to— we could go back through the flash poll and say, okay, hey, for those of you that put your hand up that somebody told you the gospel, I'm willing to bet, just from colloquially talking to a lot of people, that most people, not all people, but most people, you probably knew something about the person that told you the gospel. And for most people, something about their life commended the gospel message to you. I mean, I was just talking to my dad recently about his testimony, and at the lowest point of his life, he reached out to the Christian friend he knew that for the last number of years had been kind and gracious and acted like a Christian. So my dad, at his lowest point, reaches out to him. He comes over. This man declares the gospel after demonstrating it for years before, right? That's the way God often does it. The declaration of the kingdom of God is accompanied by a demonstration of the reality of it in the life of the person you're speaking to.

33 · The pastor provides three contemporary examples of kingdom demonstration from the congregation: Pastor JP in India feeding his village, business owners paying a deceased employee's salary, and an ER nurse sustained with joy during COVID

This is the way God continues to work, right? We saw this. I wish I could go— I have in my notes, I don't even have time to do this— retell the whole story of Pastor JP in India and the way that he, in a moment of national crisis and area crisis, went out, took risk on himself, and fed his entire village with our church's help. To demonstrate the reality of the gospel, right? I'm aware of some business owners in our church who had an employee who passed away from COVID and the normal business owner thing to do would be to show up at the funeral and offer condolences. But they told the family, we will continue to pay his salary for an extended period of time until you guys are okay. I'm aware of an ER nurse who moved to church— moved to El Paso last September, found herself working in one of the hardest hit COVID units, hardest-hit hospitals in the city of El Paso through the surge. Everybody around her, all of her friends, you know, all of her coworkers are getting depressed and having a hard time. And we're on community group call with her. And she's just— and I expected, based on hearing the story, I expected we would need a time of ministry for her. She gets on the community group call and begins smiling and telling stories of God's goodness and talking about how God's sustaining her with joy. And she seems to be the only person that's happy in her unit. But, like, sure, I'll take it. And I just thought, that's insane. That is Jesus continuing to demonstrate his kingdom through people like that.

34 · The pastor transitions to the practical application section while issuing a direct pastoral charge: this mission belongs to every member, not just some

That's what we're here to do, church, to declare and demonstrate the reality of the kingdom. Now, here's what I want to do. I want to get Todd up here as soon as possible because I think what he is going to walk us through is extremely important. But here's what I want you to get before Todd comes up. So I want Todd to come up because he's going to give us 5 easy steps to begin to do this in your daily life. Because here's what can happen. Sometimes you'll be like, 'Yeah, that's awesome. Let's do it. Let's declare and demonstrate. I'm glad somebody's out there doing it.' No, Christians, this should land on all of us. This means you. As Paul said, 'We are the body of Christ and you individually members of it.' Just think, God could— there could be another hand, there could be multiple hands in this room next year that wouldn't have been raised today because of the ministry of this local church. I see some empty seats, brothers and sisters. Who knows who the Lord could gather over this next year? And as we head out of the pandemic mindset, back into a normal mindset, may our normal mindset not just be, okay, cool, now I can finally go to brunch and go on vacation, you know, which I say amen to. I could use a brunch and I could use a vacation. But we're called to live for more. We're called to continue to do and to teach in the pattern of Jesus. Amen? So let's have Todd come up and let's welcome him as he comes to share.

35 · Todd Peterson takes the pulpit

Awkward silence while I shuffle my papers. Here we go. Good morning.

36 · Todd frames the practical steps section, acknowledging the common gap between inspiration and implementation

The point of doing this is not to be formulaic, like we need a 5-step program. But let's be honest, when you hear a message like this, it stirs us and we're like, hey, I want to do that. I want to get to that conversation where the guy— someone's asking me about the Bible, someone's asking me about Jesus. But oftentimes we just don't know how to get there. We go to work tomorrow, we're like, how do I get here? How do I get there from here? So I just want to share these with you. It's something the Lord took me through and kind of showed me from my own life that I'll share. It was just super, super helpful. If you know me, I need easy steps. So these are easy steps. So here we go.

37 · Todd presents Step 1: identifying your mission field as the people God has already placed in your life

Step 1: Identify your mission field. Who is God calling you to? So in John 4, Jesus told his disciples this. He said, look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see the fields that are white with harvest. Jesus was just saying— he didn't say, look, we're gonna all go to China, we're all going to China and start preaching the gospel. He's like, no, look up around you right now. The people you're looking at, the people you live around, the cities you live around, those are the people I'm calling you to. He was calling them to their people, not somewhere else. And he's calling us to the same. You don't have to look any further than the people the Lord has already placed in your life. To know your mission field. We go to work every day, we work around people who don't know Jesus. We take our kids to baseball practice and we're around people that don't know Jesus. God has already placed you in your mission field. We just need to identify that that's what it is. And the key here is pray that God would help you see it that way, help you see your coworkers as people that need Jesus, help you to see your fellow soccer parents as people that need Jesus and pray that God would change your heart. When you see them, that's what you would see. It's amazing the difference that that makes.

38 · Todd illustrates Step 1 with his own story of transitioning from business to identifying little league baseball parents as his mission field

For me, after 20 years of being in business where it's kind of obvious who the people were I was called to, I got out of the business and I didn't have that anymore. I didn't have that context anymore. And I realized that I needed a kind of a new mission field. And I was looking around like, who is in our lives? You know who it was? Little league baseball parents. You want a mission field? Sign your kid up for little league baseball. That's where the mission field is. And the Lord just began to show me, like, we're around these people 3 or 4 days a week, weekends, hours a day, traveling together. It's like, what are you waiting for? These— none of them were Christians. None of them were Christians. It's like, start— change your heart towards seeing these people as people that need Jesus, not just people you talk baseball with. On Saturdays. So the first step: identify your mission field.

39 · Todd presents Step 2: being known as a Christian in your mission field

Second, be known as a Christian around those people. Why is that important? We want to relate who we are to why we are. Like, let's not be mistaken, there are a lot of nice people in the world. We're not the only nice people. Christians aren't the only nice people. But what we want is when we are different, when we are demonstrating God's love, we want them to connect that with who God is. We don't want the credit. We can't save anybody. We want them to see, like, why are you different? I'm different because of Jesus. So pray that God would help you to make it known to the people around you. Simple, just be Christlike. When we're Christlike, people will know we're Christians. And listen, in our context, when we're living in the world, it's not hard to do. Just befriending the unfriendly, the people that no one wants to befriend. Just not taking part in gossip. At work is a huge deal. Talking well about others behind their backs, comforting those in distress, looking for people who need help, just demonstrating Jesus's love. People will know something is different about you. Looking for opportunities in conversation. Sometimes we forget the most obvious things. Someone says, how's your weekend? Like, oh, it's great. How about saying, that was great, went to church, heard a great message, it was awesome. That was what was great about my weekend. Simple things, simple things.

40 · Todd illustrates Step 2 with his baseball coaching experience, showing how simply refusing to curse at kids and declining to gossip made him identifiably different

And for me, so in this baseball context, I realized that I needed to just be very overt about the difference between what God had done in my heart. And so it was so simple in this context. If I just didn't curse at the kids, because I was a coach at the time, and if I just didn't participate in gossip, because if you've ever been to a Little League baseball game, you're sitting in the stands, it's a gossip fest. If I just didn't do those two things, it made a huge difference. I'll never forget, I was sitting in the stands and we've been around each other for years at this point. One of the ladies turned around, she was about to say something and she's like, 'Ugh, Todd won't gossip with me. He doesn't have anything bad to say about anybody.' She was so frustrated. I was like, see how a small thing makes a difference in who we are. She knew I was a Christian just because of that. So number— so identify your mission field, be known as a Christian in that mission field.

41 · Todd presents Step 3: forming friendships with non-Christians

Number 3: form friendships with people who don't know Jesus. Here's where the rubber meets the road. We have to be in relationship with people. We have to be in relationship for people. So pray and ask God, Lord, who do you want me to be in relationship with? You may work around a bunch of people and maybe you can't engage with all of them, so ask the Lord, Who do you want me to start engaging with? Who do you want me to start getting close with? Invite them into your life. How do you do that? Have more intentional conversations. People want to be known. I don't know if you've ever started asking people about themselves and people will just start sharing with you. People want to be known. Asking follow-up questions about their lives, remembering details about them. Here's the, here's the, here's the huge one. Invite people to lunch who you wouldn't normally have that context with. We're so used to just, hey, you want to go to lunch? Let's go to lunch. Hey, we meet a stranger at church. You want to go to lunch? Let's do that. In the world, they don't do that with each other unless it naturally happens. That's a huge element you can do. Invite people to lunch. Coming out of COVID we have an unprecedented opportunity to connect with people. I believe that they're hungrier than ever for personal interaction. We've all been cooped up together. And so take advantage of that.

42 · Todd's illustration of the nervous lunch invitation demonstrates the cultural gap: non-Christians aren't used to being pursued for friendship without ulterior motive

I realized after several years of being around this group of people in baseball, I didn't really know them. They didn't really know me. I hadn't invested in— they hadn't become part of my circle, my friends, the people I'd taken in. And I started having conversations. The Lord really convicted me. I was going and sitting next to people for hours, watching baseball and having completely meaningless conversations for hours. And the Lord's like, ask them how they're doing. Ask them what's going on in their lives. And you know what? People wanted to talk. People wanted to share. They wanted to tell you how they were doing. And here was the penultimate thing. One of these guys I'd known for 2 or 3 years, I said, hey, let's go have lunch together. And you know what he said? Why? Literally, why? I was like, just to get to know one another. And he was like, okay. Oh, I guess. He was so nervous. We went to lunch. He showed up. He was so nervous. He couldn't even get his lunch right. And I thought, this is so— people are not used to this. But I'll tell you what, an hour later, after just talking and hanging out, I said, hey, do you have to go back to work? He's like, no, I'm good. I'm good. Let's stay a little longer. Hour and a half. Don't you got to go to work? No, I'm good. I'm good. 2 hours. 2 hours we had lunch, and at the end of it, the guy who didn't know why we would have lunch, didn't want to have lunch with me, said, I'm buying the next lunch. Let's do this again. And a friendship was formed. So identify your mission field, be known as a Christian, and reach out and start forming relationships with people.

43 · Todd presents Step 4: being equipped, deliberately positioning it after deployment steps to counter the tendency to study endlessly without engaging

Step 4: Be equipped for the mission. Be equipped. So you asked me, why didn't I put this at the beginning? Don't we need to get equipped first? Well, a lot of times us Christians spend all our time equipping ourselves and we never deploy. You know, we need to deploy. And so look, we're already at step 4 and you haven't had to do anything that requires a theology degree. It's all been simple, right? But we do need to be equipped. We can't get to the conversation and have nothing to give them. We have to be equipped. 1 Peter 3 says this: Be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. That's what we need to do. How do you do that? We've got to read God's word. We have to read his word. We have to study the Bible to be able to apply his word to people's lives.

44 · Todd addresses a common fear (not knowing what to say) with theological assurance: the Holy Spirit speaks through Word stored in the heart

And listen, I want to— you might say, listen, I can read the word, but man, when it gets to that point, I don't know what to say. Like, I'm not good with words. I still won't know what to say. Let me encourage you. It is the Holy Spirit that speaks. He is the one that will do the speaking. But he does so by stirring up the word that is already in our hearts. When's the last time you heard somebody give you a story like this? You know, I was sharing with somebody and God just kind of put this word on my heart to share with them and really moved them and touched them. I'd never really heard it before, didn't know what it was, and later I found out it was in the Bible. I had no idea. Like, when's the last time— that doesn't happen, right? Because the Holy Spirit uses what is in us. He uses us studying the Bible, putting his word in our hearts, and then he speaks to us and said, hey, share this, share this out of your heart. So we have to be prepared.

45 · Todd completes Step 4 with a second element: practicing articulating the gospel

Second thing, you need to be able to enunciate the gospel. This seems like a very simple thing. We talk about the gospel all the time. We all probably know the gospel. But if you haven't practiced enunciating it, sometimes you realize, wow, I'm not sure exactly how to Say it to somebody. Practice enunciating the gospel so that you're ready to enunciate it. All right, so we got identify your mission field, be known as a Christian, form friendships with people who don't know Jesus, be equipped for the mission, and the last one is when you're at that place, apply biblical truth to people's needs.

46 · Todd presents Step 5: applying biblical truth when crisis creates opportunity

As you build relationships with people who don't know Jesus, sin and crisis in their lives will create a need and they will turn to the person they trust, the person that has befriended them, and the person that says they know God. It might be sickness, it might be relationships and marriage, family problems, but it will happen. And this will create an opportunity to apply the Bible to their lives. For this, the just the, the thing that Ricky said about his dad, that's the point we want to get to.

47 · Todd's climactic illustration shows Step 5 in action: after years of friendship (steps 1-3) and uncomfortable conversations, a crisis (impending divorce) drove the resistant friend to text Todd

And for me, After 3 or 4 years in this baseball world and starting to form these deeper friendships, nothing was super stirring. We started to have conversations about church and the Bible. Most of them would get uncomfortable about halfway through and kind of bail out. And there was one guy who was particularly uncomfortable anytime it would come up, and he would try to end the conversation with something as quickly as possible, say something snarky, and then hope we would all stop talking about it because he was so uncomfortable. But one day, that guy texted me, never texted me before, and he texted me, said this, said, I'm very embarrassed to be texting you, but I just found out my wife is going to leave me. I didn't know where to turn. Can you help me? And this guy who I'd known for 5 years, who never wanted any part of a conversation about God, the next day was sitting in my kitchen wide open saying, help me. And I said, can I talk to you from the Word of God? He said, yeah. Yes, I need to hear it. And I talked to him about his greatest need, which was Jesus saving him from his sins.

48 · Todd concludes the practical section by reiterating the five steps, clarifying they're a framework not a formula, and grounding the entire enterprise in Jesus' promise from John 14 that believers will do greater works

And so that's the point we want to get to. And I believe if we're faithful— it doesn't have to be these steps. These are just ways to say, listen, we need to know who we're called to. We need them to know we're a Christian. We need to be welcoming them into our lives and forming relationships. We need to be prepared, and it'll come. That's what we're called to do. Jesus said this in John 14: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do also— will do greater works than I do. The greater works will he do because I am going to the Father. Amen. So let's embrace those.

49 · Brief transition as Ricky returns to close the sermon

Thank you, Todd. Let's thank Todd.

50 · Ricky closes with a pastoral prayer that synthesizes the entire sermon: thanking God for Jesus' work, asking for vision to see mission fields, wisdom to discern where each relationship stands in the process, discipline to stay equipped, and faith to expect future conversions

This morning, church, we're going to respond to not only the preaching of God's Word but the encouragements from Todd through prayer. So let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for sending your Son to die for our sins, to be resurrected, to show that the sins had been paid for. And Father, thank you that Jesus now invites us into the work that he is continuing to do. What a gracious invitation. What an undeserved partnership there. And so, Lord, I pray this morning that you would help us to see where it is you've called us, to see the people that you've placed in our lives that we are to minister to, that you are are moving us toward, that you are molding us, building us together with them. Father, I pray that you would help us to see where we are on— if we don't use the, the, the 5 steps that Todd laid out, we maybe we use a different spectrum or continuum. Lord, I pray you would help us to discern where we are within those steps with each person. We may be at step 1 with some, we may be at step 4 with others. And Lord, help us, give us the wisdom and the grace to figure out where we're, where we're at with each person that you've put in our lives. And Lord, help us to be disciplined on that step 4 of being equipped. Help us to be in the word, Lord. Help us to see that as not only beneficial to us but beneficial to those that you've brought into our lives. And Lord, we look forward to the challenge that Ricky kind of spurred us toward earlier of in a year or in 2 or in 5 years looking around and seeing some of these empty chairs filled with people that you have brought into our lives. And so, so Lord, help us to do that. We ask in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen.

51 · Final brief exhortation (appears to be cut off in the transcript)

All right, so church, this week we just want to encourage you again, find out where you are on