Be Engaged in His Mission
Sermon Notes
Water that stops moving becomes dangerous. The oxygen drops, bacteria grows, and what was meant to give life starts taking it. Brad Kirby opens the fourth week of Made Here with that picture, because a Christian life can work the same way when everything flows in and nothing flows out. From 2 Corinthians 5, he shows that the same grace that makes us new also gives us a new job: we are ambassadors, representing our King wherever God has placed us. Then he walks through four movements that turn belief into action. Serve here. Share near. Go far. Multiply everywhere.
Key Takeaways
The gospel that came to you is supposed to move through you. God never meant for you to become a reservoir that only collects, because what He pours in is meant to flow out to somebody else.
Saved people are sent people. Jesus took the language He used about Himself, sent by the Father, and placed it on His followers in John 20:21.
A new creation gets a new job. Paul says we are ambassadors for Christ, which means there is no Sunday version of you and a different Monday through Friday version.
Mission starts with the person seven feet away. Before you think about someone seven thousand miles away, look at the family, coworkers, and neighbors God has already placed around you.
You are the witness, not the attorney. You don't have to know everything before you start sharing something, because a witness simply tells what he knows.
Discussion Questions
Where in your life right now does the water feel like it's flowing in but not flowing out?
What would change about your week if you actually believed you were sent to your job, your street, and your kids' ballfield?
Which of the four circles, biological, vocational, geographical, or volitional, has people in it you've stopped really seeing?
What is the honest reason you hesitate to talk about Jesus with someone who knows you well?
If someone asked where you're serving right now, what would you say?
If you stopped growing in your faith today, whose spiritual growth would actually be affected?
This Week's Challenge
Write down one name from your everyday circles and pray for that person daily this week.
Transcript
Dead Water Equals Dead People
I read a story about a man who signed up for a wilderness survival class. He expected to learn how to make rope out of tree bark and start a fire with two rocks. Instead, the instructor spent most of the class talking about water.
Not just water. The right kind of water. To survive, you have to find flowing water, not stagnant water. Water that stops moving becomes dangerous. The oxygen drops. Bacteria grows. Dead water equals dead people. Flowing water is constantly receiving and constantly giving.
Christians and Churches Can Become Stagnant
I have thought about that picture many times in relation to discipleship, because Christians and churches can become stagnant. There is still water in the pond. There are still sermons, Bible studies, and activity. But the water keeps flowing in and almost nothing flows out.
God never intended for you or for CityBridge to become a spiritual reservoir whose main purpose is collecting more information. The gospel that came to you is supposed to move through you to somebody else.
The Fourth B Is Where Everything Moves Outward
That is where we come today in our 4B journey. The gospel saves us. The church forms us. The Word equips us. Then Jesus sends us.
If we are not careful, church becomes things Jesus never intended. A movie theater. Walmart. A restaurant. But Jesus did not intend the life of a disciple to be a spectator sport. This fourth B is where consumers become contributors, where spectators become participants, where come and see becomes go and tell.
Saved People Are Sent People
Mission is not just for pastors, missionaries, extroverts, or people who enjoy talking to strangers in checkout lines. If you are a disciple of Jesus, you have been sent by Jesus.
One of the most repeated ideas in the Gospel of John is Jesus describing Himself as the One sent by the Father. Then He takes that language and puts it on His followers. "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." Friends, do not rush past that. If we belong to the Son who was sent, we become a sent people.
A New Identity: Ambassadors for Christ
Paul develops that idea in 2 Corinthians 5. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." Then he keeps going. God entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us."
Our guilt does not define us. Our shame does not define us. Our past does not define us. But Paul does not stop at the new identity. Because of what Jesus has done in us, we also have a new job. You cannot be an ambassador without being made new, and you cannot be made new without becoming one.
There Is No Sunday Version of You
An ambassador lives in one place while representing another kingdom. He does not arrive in a foreign nation and offer his personal opinions. He shows up saying, "Here is the message of my King."
Christian, that means you are God's representative wherever God puts you. At your job. At school. At the ballfield. Even at Walmart, when the person in front of you has a cart full of groceries and you picked the quick line. There is no Sunday morning version of you and a different Monday through Friday version. If Jesus is Lord, He is Lord over all of it.
Grace Does Not Just Save Us. Grace Sends Us.
Back in week one we read Ephesians 2. We are saved by grace through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast. And then this: we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. Grace does not simply change where you are going when you die. Grace changes how you live while you are alive. Salvation is not the finish line. Salvation is the starting line.
Get In The Game
Imagine joining a football team. You get the jersey. You memorize the playbook. You can explain the offense better than half the coaches. Then Friday night comes and the coach says, "Get in the game." And you say, "Whoa, Coach. I thought my job was to sit here and evaluate how everybody else plays."
You were never trained just to know the plays. You were trained to run them. We study the playbook. We highlight it. We take classes about it. Then Jesus says, "Get in the game," and we say, "Can I take one more class first?"
Serve Here
Let me show you what getting in the game looks like. Four movements. Serve here. Share near. Go far. Multiply everywhere. It begins inside the body of Christ.
Peter writes, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another." Notice "as each." Not as each pastor. Not as each staff member. If you belong to Jesus, God has entrusted something to you. Then notice "use it." God gave you something meant to bless somebody else. Don't frame it. Don't compare it. Use it.
The Church Is a Body, Not an Audience
Imagine if your physical body behaved the way Christians sometimes behave toward the church. Your right arm wakes up and says, "I've been part of this body for forty years. I feel like I'm in a season where I just need to attend." Your legs say, "We'll be there twice a month, assuming the kids don't have travel ball." Friends, you have a serious problem.
A body is healthy when its parts function. Maybe you teach, encourage, organize, welcome, pray, give, build, fix, or notice the hurting person everyone else misses. If you don't know what your gift is, find a need and serve. You may discover your gifting while you are using it.
You are never more like Jesus than when you are serving. So the question is not simply, do I attend church? The question is, where am I serving?
Share Near
The mission cannot stop inside these walls. "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." The mission is global, but it begins where you live. Before we talk about somebody seven thousand miles away, we need to ask who God has put seven feet away.
Sometimes we pray, "Lord, use me to reach people," and God says, "Okay. His name is Mike. He has worked beside you for five years." And we say, "No, Lord, I meant something more missionary." Friends, that is missionary.
Your Circles of Influence
God has already given you natural circles. Your biological world: parents, children, brothers, sisters, in-laws. Yes, even the in-laws. Your vocational world: coworkers, clients, classmates. Your geographical world: the family three houses down. Your volitional world: the golf course, the gym, kids' sports.
Those relationships are not spiritually random. God has populated your life with people. The question is, do you see them?
Never Underestimate One Invitation
I love the story of Andrew. He encounters Jesus and becomes convinced He is the Messiah. And what is his first instinct? He finds his brother Simon and says, "We have found the Messiah." Then he brings him to Jesus.
No elaborate program. No perfect presentation. He simply brings his brother. Then consider the ripple effect. Peter becomes a central leader of the early church. Peter preaches at Pentecost and thousands hear the gospel. Andrew did not preach that sermon, but Andrew brought the guy who did.
Tell Them What the Lord Has Done for You
In Mark 5, Jesus meets a man whose life is shattered. Demon possessed. Living in the tombs. Alone. By the end of the encounter he is healed, clothed, and in his right mind.
When Jesus leaves, the man begs to go with Him. You would think Jesus would say, "Absolutely. Get in the boat." But He says, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you." They knew who he was before Jesus. Now let them see who he is after Jesus.
You Don't Have to Know Everything
Some of us are terrified of sharing Jesus because we imagine somebody will ask the one question we cannot answer. What if they ask about predestination? What if they ask about dinosaurs?
Jesus said, "You will be my witnesses." A witness tells what he knows. Imagine sitting in a courtroom. The attorney asks, "What did you see?" And you say, "I never went to law school." Nobody asked you to be the attorney. You're the witness. Tell what happened. Keep getting equipped, but don't use "I need to know more" as an excuse to stay silent.
Do Good and Speak Good News
If somebody is hungry, feed them. If somebody is lonely, sit with them. If somebody needs their yard cut because they are walking through chemotherapy, cut the yard. And then tell them your story of how Jesus has changed you. Don't love somebody enough to give them dinner but not enough to tell them where eternal life is found.
Go Far
Acts 1:8 does not stop with Jerusalem. Matthew 28 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." The heart of Jesus has always been global. Revelation 7 shows the end of the story, with people from every nation, tribe, and language gathered before the throne.
We should passionately love our city, but Jesus will not let the church shrink the mission down to our zip code. There are communities with little or no gospel witness. There are places where someone has to leave what is familiar, learn a language, and take the gospel there. Somebody has to go.
But At Your Word
That is why I love Luke 5. Peter has fished all night. He is exhausted and frustrated. The nets are cleaned. He is finished. Then Jesus says, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets." Simon answers, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets."
Have you ever had to obey Jesus like that? Lord, I do not understand this, but at your word. I am scared, but at your word. Peter drops the nets and the catch is overwhelming. Peter caught fish. Jesus caught Peter. Then Peter began catching people.
Church, the fish generally do not jump into the boat. We cannot unlock the building on Sunday, have excellent music and coffee, and wait for a world far from God to come find us. Somebody eventually has to drop the nets. Serve here. Share near. Go far.
Multiply Everywhere
One of the things I love best about our 4B strategy is that it is not a straight line. It creates a circle. Someone hears the gospel and believes. That new believer belongs to His church, is equipped in His Word, and becomes engaged in His mission.
And then what happens? They help somebody else do the same thing. Again. And again. That is multiplication. Disciples multiply disciples. Churches multiply churches.
What Is Getting Beyond Me?
Paul gives the clearest picture of it. "What you have heard from me entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also." Paul's concern is not simply, did Timothy learn? It is, will what I put into Timothy get beyond Timothy?
We ask, what am I learning? Good question. But who am I teaching? We ask, who is discipling me? Important. But who am I discipling? So here is one of our measures. If I stopped today, whose spiritual growth would be affected?
Churches That Send Their Best
One of my personal dreams is that we would apply that same principle to the church itself. Instead of adding endless services, we take 150 of our best people already living in an area that needs a solid church, train them, and send them out.
That is Acts 13. The church at Antioch is worshiping and fasting when the Spirit says, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul." They did not say, "Those are two of our best leaders. We cannot afford to lose them." They laid hands on them and sent them off.
What Kind of Church Are We Going to Be?
The church does not exist only to gather people. The church exists to send people. That requires us to hold people with open hands. When God sends someone we have grown here, we should not say, "We lost some good people." We should say, "We sent some good people."
Our mission is to call all people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. So what is success for us? Are we getting bigger? Or are we asking how many are serving, how many are sharing, how many are discipling somebody, and how many people far from faith are being pursued because CityBridge exists?
