Sent with Purpose

When I was um 22 years old, I uh I had just graduated college and literally within just a couple days, I packed up my college apartment and I I took this U-Haul trailer and packed the few things that I owned into the back of that U-Haul trailer, attached it to my Blazer, and I set out on the open road and had an idea of where I would stop, but didn't know for sure. And I landed in Colorado Springs. didn't know a soul, didn't have a job, didn't have a place to live, and uh so I checked into a a hotel, one of those places that has the weekly rates, and uh lived there for a few weeks, found uh a job eventually, and uh and even found a place to live in a little dumpy apartment. And and I wound up making it stick. And I actually landed there for about 4 and 1/2 years. And over time I began to to make friendships. Got married in the midst of that as well. And uh and it was this sort of grand adventure that happened. It was this uh this going this stepping out and and it really transformed me in many ways. I had grown up in the south um in a in a small town in the south in Georgia and you know experiencing a different culture and really it is I mean Colorado is a different kind of place. Out west is a very different kind of place for those of you that are from out west. Um, and it was really interesting. It was interesting even the conversations with other believers uh that I had and it really profoundly shaped me. And there's something in life about going that shapes us. It's the it's the stepping out in life. It's the it's the taking action oftentimes that can oftenimes set the course and the direction of our lives in new ways. And even in that journey itself, it can actually shape us and change us. The risk we take, the moment we step out, we put ourselves out there. We never know the friendship that may come from that, the relationship that it may lead to, the doors that it may open. And there's all sorts of ways in life where when we just are willing to put ourselves out there to take that step, that something happens. And something about life is very different. Today we're going to look at a passage and we're actually going to be looking for the next four weeks that really this this understanding of going or being sent. Jesus is now going to send his disciples out and it is a different part of the journey that they are used to. And God has a particular thing that he wants to work in the midst of this because stepping out changes his people. It changes us. God doesn't have to do it that way if you really think about it. Couldn't Jesus just show up in the skies? Couldn't God every 20 or 30 years just show up and announce his kingdom and make everybody believe? But he doesn't do it that way. Time and time again, he calls ordinary people, you and I, to go and to share his message, to proclaim his kingdom, and to even live it out in the places that we go. And so we're going to be looking today at Matthew 10:es 1-15. Matthew 10:es 1-15. Jesus called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twel apostles are these. First Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaas, and Thaddius, Simon the Zealot, and Judas a Scariot who betrayed him. These 12 Jesus sent out instructing them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and proclaim as you go, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons." You received without paying, give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your money belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it, and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. And if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet. And when you leave that house or town, truly I say to you, it will be more bearable in the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. This is God's word. Let's pray. Lord, there's such conviction in this message and I probably like the disciples feel the inadequacy and all of the other questions that may arise as we look at a text like this today. But here we are, Lord, making ourselves available to you even now to hear from your word and what you have to say. Just as you said to your disciples, we as your disciples, you have this word for us as well. And so, Father, I just pray that our hearts would be willing. I pray even now, Lord, that that you would increase and I would decrease and that your words might glow and shine and call us forth today to do and to be all that you call us to. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So, as we look at this message, Jesus is sending out his disciples. And one of the first things that he does is that Jesus calls his disciples to the mission. He invites them to participate in this mission. And as I mentioned a second ago, why why invite people? Jesus is doing a fine job at this. And if if Jesus has all of this power and dominion and authority and and and he wants to get his message out and distribute it, can't he do a better marketing campaign than this? Can't he appear in the skies? Can't he manifest himself in some grand way that actually makes all believe that makes all come to a knowledge of the truth? But Jesus Jesus changes or shifts his ministry at this point in time to something a little bit different. It's not that he's going to stop proclaiming, but he's also going to begin to share and invite people to own and to participate in part of that mission. And so, he calls these 12 guys together. In fact, Matthew uses a little bit of a different word here. He calls them apostles. That word from the Greek is just means that they're sent. It's people that are sent. Even the Greek word apostello is to send. these 12 men Jesus is going to send out with his message. He's going to invite them to share in the work that he is doing. And if you if you just think about that for a second, why 12? Why is he called 12 people 12 messengers? And this ultimately because Matthew we know is writing to a mostly Hebrew Israelite audience. He he all oftentimes is trying to to draw forth so much meaning and help us see that so much is fulfilled from the Old Testament scriptures in the life and in the ministry of Jesus. And we can see this 12 all the way back to ancient Israel. Jacob, who was later renamed Israel, had 12 sons. And through these 12 sons, the 12 tribes of Israel were birthed. And God began his mission and his calling and purpose through those 12 tribes. In fact, in Exodus when he leads them out of the bondage of Egypt, that's the thing that he gives them is call he calls them a priestly people that they will be the people that herald his message and shine his kingdom to the nations around to call them and all that they lived and did as a nation. Even their carrying out of the laws was different than so many of the social customs of the surrounding nations of the day. They were to be a light that heralded God and his kingdom and to call them to that. There was this missional purpose that these 12 tribes called Israel had. But we know that Israel failed in that constantly. Time after time, she wandered. She fell into sin. She forgot her way and her mission. So much so that even in Jesus's time, they really are just focused on them and they don't even have the missional purpose in mind. But every now and then, God would come along and remind them of their purpose and their calling as these 12 tribes and what the mission and the n that that God had for his people. And even here in calling the 12 disciples, Jesus is showing us that through one man man and his 12 followers, he is going to renew and call the lost sheep of the house of Israel to return to return to the king and to enter into his kingdom and to become the kind of people that God has called them to be to accomplish his purpose for the nations. God didn't start over. He didn't forget Israel and his calling and his purpose and his plans for his people. And even here, even though Israel's failed time and time again, even though they've gone their own way, they've done their own thing and God could just wipe the slate and be like, "I'm done with you. I'll start with somebody else. I'll call the Samaritans first." But he doesn't. No. He goes back to Israel once again to renew and to restore a work that he had begun long ago, hundreds of years before because he didn't give up on his people and he didn't give up on his mission and his purpose and his calling that he had for them. And so symbolically right now, these 12 disciples will become the seeds that spread the message of the kingdom throughout the nation of Israel to the all of these lost and scattered tribes of Israel. And it's it the the sort of this sort of foreshadowing or these these sort of parallels get lost on us sometimes. They're throughout scripture. And partly they're lost because we're not we're not Hebrews. And so some of that that metaphor or that parallels is lost on us. But you know, anytime there are parallels to scripture, you know, parallels that address our modern times or our modern day, they resonate with us more. They resonate in ways that we begin to understand. If you've ever watched a movie and you've seen parallels to Christ in them or you've seen parallels to God's grace, I I talked a couple weeks ago about Lay Miz, right? and this this moment in the story and in the movie, right, where there's just this incredible act of of of grace that is extended and and like stories like that, symbolism, moments like that, they resonate with us. And so to this Jewish audience, especially these 12 guys going out, it's like this renewal that's beginning to happen. You know, one of the ways that I one of the best pictures that I actually love of this is actually in the ministry of Elijah. Elijah, he ministered in a time of darkness. All the prophets are dead. Everybody's worshiping Baal. Everybody's gone their own way. And there's this showdown that this real famous scene where where essentially Elijah's going to throw down the gauntlet. He's going to call everybody either serve Bale and go off or serve God. Let's see the power of Bale. Let's see the power of God. And one of the moments that I love so beautifully is is is Bale has failed. He does not come. He's not answered the prayers. And so Elijah says, "Draw near to me." And he takes 12 stones and he rebuilds the altar. Do you see the significance? It's like this this metaphor of rebuilding this nation, this calling, this purpose, this identity. And it's like he's constructing the altar out of these 12 stones. And he says, "Thus your name shall be called Israel." And he was reminding the people of God of their calling and their purpose. And right here, Matthew through the ministry of Jesus is reminding and showing us this parallel. And the same is true for us today that God wants to carry forth his mission. He wants to renew it and restore it time and time again through every generation through the church. He calls us. The church doesn't replace it. We're just an extension of what God has done through Israel because they became that light and it transferred through them to the Gentiles and to the nations as God began to call his people and grow his kingdom and they were sent particularly to the lost sheep of Israel. We see in uh in Ezekiel 34 11 and 12 what God had promised. He said, "For thus saith the Lord God, behold, I I myself will search for my sheep, and I will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock, when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered." On a day of clouds and thick darkness, Israel, because of the failure of the shepherds and because of the failure of their own hearts, constantly went our own way. They wandered. They walked away from God. They walked away from their purpose and their mission and their calling. They lost their sense of identity and who they were as a nation. And yet God throughout, not just here, promised, I will send my shepherd. I will send my king. I will send my chosen servant. And he will gather the people. And it's a reminder for you and I that God doesn't give up and that God can restore and renew. And I think even in the sending piece, sometimes I know in sending and going out, it feels like, man, I don't get it, God. I never I never seem to be good enough at this or to do this right. I'm I'm not equipped for it. And yet God's just reminder is I will always be raising you back up. I will call my people. And he's inviting us to do that same work to call the lost sheep of Israel to call the strays that have wandered. I've shared before and I I know you guys hear me say it all the time, but you know, 25 years, 40 million people have left the church. And most of it is just because the studies show they've wandered. They've strayed. It's not usually big objections or church scandals or anything like that. They've just kind of deprioritized it in their lives. And that's not to be harsh or anything like that. It's just it just happens. We just go and we tend to sort of wander. And yet God, his purpose for his people is to call those who will hear. And many of them those who have wandered wandered away to to false thinking and false idols to other ways of life that are false. And he equips and he gives here the disciples the authority. He puts his spirit upon them. They will carry forth and do the ministry and the works that Jesus did. That's pretty remarkable. the healing, the casting out of demons, the opening the eyes of the blind, all of these different things. And it's a it's a reminder if they felt inadequate, they can be reminded they are not inadequate because God is with them because his anointing is on them. And even for us, the same is true. God has filled us with his spirit. And in all the ways where we feel like we don't have skill to go on the journey or the calling or the places that he sends us, he reminds us time and time again that he is sufficient where we are inadequate. That his gifting and his spirit lays on us. We have that we have all that we need in God. And the because the message itself is where the power is. God's word is life. It's sharper than a two-edged sword. It has life and meaning and purpose in it. And when we have God's word with it, we have all that we need. When we have his spirit on us and in us, when we have the message and the testimony and the witness of all that we have experienced in our own lives, we have all we need. The disciples have what they need because Jesus has given them and us exactly what we need. And you know, as I as I thought about this message throughout this week, I you know, a lot of I looked at a lot of like what is happening in this passage. But one of the things that I I I want to draw out and I hope I can bring to the surface as we look at this today is is the why. Why why does he use people? Why does he share in this message and invite us to participate in it? And why would we see it as a as a good thing and not a scary thing? It's because God God is doing a saving work. He's doing a restoring work of changing hearts and lives, opening eyes that were blind, opening and changing even our lives. We've experienced this in our lives. And in the same way, he invites us to share that that same hope that you have, that same truth, you know, the same life that you felt as as you turn to Christ. He invites us to participate in that same work because when you do it, you become a conduit of God's message and God's spirit moving through you in the lives of other people. You will see literally the eyes of people opened. Spiritual eyes. You will see their their ears and their rejection change as they hear these words. You will see life come into people through them. And there's something about that that is it's it's you feel the presence and the power of God when you share or when you call people to hear this truth and you can feel the presence and the gifting and the power of God. I mean if you know this these moments when you have these spiritual conversations at times do you feel the love of God? Do you feel the witness the joy? Now, you never walk away from a conversation, you're like, I got to talk about with Jesus and all that he's done in my life to someone. And do you feel like the energy in it? God invites us into that. And there's great joy and privilege and glory in it. In fact, when Paul is writing to the Thessalonian church, First Thessalonians chapter 2, he's he's talking to the Thessalonians about them coming to faith and all that, and he says, "You are my joy and my glory. You are my joy and my glory." Why? because God let him play a role that that through the ministry of Paul, he got to share the gospel with the Thessalonians and he got to see lives transformed and he felt it is a privilege and an honor and God like like I have this like glory because I got to share in this but it's ultimately God's glory and his eyes are turned and he glorifies God in that and somehow through that as we become conduits of the message of God we feel the presence of God and his love. It's joy. It will take it takes our ministry and our relationship and w with God to a new level when we understand that we are sent and when we are willing to go as God calls us to go. The the second thing that we see here is that Jesus sends his followers out. Right? So, uh, as we let me flip back there to chapter 10. Second thing we see here is that Jesus sends him out. So, the these 12 Jesus sent out instructing them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay. So Jesus first and foremost, he he tells them go. He invites them to step out. And this is a this is a complete change because before this, what is Jesus saying to to his followers? Come follow me. Right? And we like that idea. I like that idea. I want to follow Jesus. And and so we see this calling on the disciples. They leave things about their life behind and they follow and they get to see the amazing ministry of all that Jesus is doing in the land of Israel and and they're learning from him. They're hearing his teachings. But then in this moment, Jesus calls them and then he sends them to go and to do likewise. And there can be all sorts of questions about, oh, I don't I don't know if I feel equipped for this or adequate for this. And God, are you sure that we should be going? I kind of like the following part. But there is something about following Jesus where we carry his anointing and his message and we go and we see sort of this parallel or this tension which is often known like in theological circles as the gathered church and the scattered church. There's parts of our lives where we gather week in and week out and we celebrate the ordinances. We hear from God's word. We encourage one another. the fellowship that's happening in this place. We sing and proclaim God's word uh praises to one another. All of these great and wonderful graces that God gives us as the church gathers together as we remind each other of our of our commitment to Christ to follow Christ. But then also we see an element of the scattered church where God sends us out into the world day after day, week after week into our jobs and the places we play and into our neighborhoods and all these other areas and he says go with my message and my calling and yet we don't like and I know even for my own self I like comfortable. It was hard enough to follow Jesus and now he wants me to go and to step out and I don't feel adequate and I'm not sure am I equipped for this journey. Should I go? One of the best images and you've some of you have heard me talk about it that I that I really like because going changes you. Going shapes you. It moves us to different places as we step out. And one of God's reasons why he sends his people is because his work isn't just to reach the people out there. It's to transform and change us. And something changes you when you go. There's something sacrificial and submissive when we are willing to step out. When we're willing to say, "I'm not sure if I have the courage, but I'm going to have the courage and the conviction of God to speak and to proclaim and to do and to live and to be all that he's called me to be in my circles and areas of influence in this world." And and one of the stories that you've heard me say before is the story of Bilbo in Hobbit in The Hobbit. I love Lord of the Rings. I love The Hobbit. I love Tolken's stories. And uh and if if you're I don't know, some of you are probably familiar, some are not, but Bilbo lives in a hillside in his nice little comfortable home and he likes to smoke his pipe and he likes to drink his tea and life is good. And one day Gandalf, who he knows is a wizard, shows up and he shows up with 12 dwarves and he invites Bilbo on this great adventure. Well, hobbits don't like to travel. They like to stay home. They like it where it's comfortable. They like it where it's safe. They don't want adventure. And they certainly don't want things that are unknown or scary. They want to have nothing to do with that. And yet, there is something about Bilbo that feels drawn to this journey, but he doesn't really want to go. And as he's deliberating it, he actually there's a scene where he talks in the movie and in the book where he asks Gandalf, the wizard who has invited him on this journey, a question. He says, "If I go, can you guarantee that I will return safely?" And Gandalf says, "No, but if you do come back, you will not be the same." And so it is with us that as we go, as we are obedient, as we put ourselves out there, as we carry the message faithfully to wherever God carries tells us to, as we open up our hearts and our lives to people, as we go, we are changed. We are shaped for the glory of God because he works in us as much as he wants to work through us. And that's why we answer this call. There's a Jesus next then also says to proclaim the message of the kingdom. He tells them to to go forth and to uh to say that the kingdom of heaven is near. Now the the at the time there were lots of understandings that were shaped by scripture of what the kingdom is. What is the kingdom? What is this kingdom that is being preached and proclaimed? and and uh they understood that one day Israel would be gathered back and that God would gather his people and that he would establish his kingdom, a son of David. And there were all sorts of different ways and pictures and glimpses that they had that sort of foreshadowed what was to come, but they didn't know fully what was to come. And one of one of the ones that I see that I really like that I think helps to kind of encapsulate what they would have understood in their day is is Daniel. So Daniel 7 13 and 14 uh we see there that Daniel is he's having a vision. So this is what Daniel says. I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. He came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. And his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. So, there's lots of passages throughout the Old Testament, but this is one of them that talks about this figure that will come and he will usher in the reign of God and this kingdom will not end. This was a promise given to David. This was a promise told through Jeremiah and Isaiah and numbers of different prophets throughout the years that God would one day arrive. And the disciples as they go out with this message are saying that time is at hand. It's here. And if the if the kingdom is near, it also means that a king is near, that a king is coming. And the people would probably know as apostles and disciples of Jesus that there's a hint that maybe Jesus is that king. And so they proclaim the message that the ones that they have been longing for for hundreds of years as a people has come to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The scattered tribes. These people who now have are leaderless, divided, living in a dark time and under the oppression of Rome. The king has come. Now they thought it meant freedom from Rome. They had a very sort of nationalistic understanding of what was coming than what Jesus was going to bring. But nevertheless, there was this moment where they began to receive and understand with great excitement that God was finally looking down on his people and fulfilling the time that he had promised from ages past. And you know I won't say so the next thing that Jesus says is uh is to do to manifest. So he tells them to go and not just bring a message but what does he say there in Matthew chapter 10? He tells them to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cleanse lepers, to cast out demons. And ultimately what they are doing is they're not just coming with word but with power. They are manifesting what God's kingdom really is. It's not freedom and liberation from Rome. It's not political power. It's the presence of God's kingdom, his reign, his rule, his authority, his king over the land. And what does it look like? Well, Jesus has been telling us what it looks like. He went through the whole sermon on the mount reminding us of what it means to really fulfill the law, what it really means to live under the authority and the reign of God from the heart. And he began to show us the power through his ministry. In fact, there throughout chapters uh 8 and n there are these parallels of three that that show the kingdom's authority through the king through Jesus. We see these these as as we saw some of them last week, these three healings that take place. We see the power of the king manifest in its ability to transform people's lives. Before that, and we've looked at this as we looked at the prior passages, we saw God or Jesus casting out demons, right? We saw him forgiving sins. We saw his power over the wind and the rains and the storms and over nature and creation. So, we're seeing God's reign and power manifested in these groupings of three that Matthew is pairing together as he's trying to announce to the readers, to the audience of this message that Jesus is that king and he is bringing that kingdom. And his followers, his disciples begin to manifest that. They begin to show the power and the presence of the kingdom, to heal, to restore, to give life. I mean, that's the kingdom, right? I mean, it's the same today. Sure, there's physical healing. Sure, there's physical opening of the eyes of the blind. God can still move today. We believe, we should believe in that. But even more so, there's this presence always there's a spiritual parallel to open the eyes to change the heart to restore what is broken, what is lost, to renew. And just like these messengers and these disciples, so we are called to manifest the kingdom in all sorts of different ways. We go out with a message that changes hearts and lives and minds. It changed us. It changes the world over and over again. There's power in the gospel. There's power in the message. It's what every human heart needs. We all want a king. We all want a kingdom, but like scattered sheep, we often will go to the hills and to the other gods and look to other things in life to be our king, to fulfill these deep longings within our heart. But the only true thing that does not fail as we've as we as our idols that we look to fail us or enslave us as we've talked about in the past, we see that the gospel frees us. It heals us. It restores us because that's what a true king and kingdom do. They bring life and liberation. And that is what we see taking place. And in our own ways, in our own lives, our own circles, we are called to do the same to go into all the different walks of life. Um, we go into schools. We can go into senior homes. We can go into pickle ball courts. Lucas told me about two boys that w three boys that walked up to him at Carowinds yesterday and said, "You know the gospel?" I mean, amazing roller coaster rides. Hey, it's a good place to share the gospel as well. And it's just amazing places where we're called to go. And as we go, we proclaim and we manifest God's love and his power, his authority wherever we go. Jesus also instructs them in reliance. He tells them to that they are going to rely. says, "Aquire no gold nor silver or copper for your money belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or staff, for the laborer deserves his food." Ultimately, they can't travel around like the traveling teachers of their day who would profit from their ministry. You know, even sometimes in in ancient Israel, the prophets would sort of profit at times from their ministry. In fact, uh in fact, um Amos is actually sent back. He says, "Go back to go back to the land of Judah. What are you doing here?" And they want to send him on his way. Cuz they think he's sort of like this is like his career. And he's like, "No, I was a shepherd. I I wasn't called to this. This isn't I'm I'm not trying to make this a career of mine. I'm just being obedient to what God said for me." And so it is here that there's a calling for us and for the disciples, not to try to to profit or make this some sort of career or to to to to do that because what it does is it gives authenticity to the message. They don't need the people to listen so that they can survive because who's going to give them what they need? Who's going to open the doors for hospitality? Who's going to give them the provision that they seek? Who will give them the food that they need? God. God will. And so they can come freely. Just as they have received freely, they can give freely. They don't need to prepare or have the money or look for people to give them because they're bringing some sort of message. Their eyes can be on God to provide for their needs. And now with great authenticity, with nothing to lose, they can just come and say, "Here's the message. We don't need anything from you. I come to give. We come here to give." And it changes the whole way that they can come and see that they have to rely not on other people, not to look to them and hope that they'll listen or try to plead with them, but just to come freely to offer this message and there's such authenticity that the people will look and see. They have nothing to gain. These people are sacrificing their time and their lives to come when there's no profit in it. And yet they're told also to find one who is worthy, you know, and and sometimes uh in missionary circles they'll talk about finding the person of peace, kind of the the doorway into a community, that first sort of person that will kind of introduce you to the community or the people around. Uh but you got to look and part of going is just looking and trying to find. And we don't know. We cast seeds. We we talk. We have these spiritual conversations and we just see where it lands. We see where God opens up the doors and the hearts of the people. We don't have to pry it open. God does it. And so we can kind of come with this sort of we can come with this full reliance that God provides the means for our journey. But it will also provide the open doors and the opportunities to speak. Paul prayed that a door of utterance would be open to him. And we see that Paul had a lot of doors of utterance open to him throughout the New Testament church. And so we are called to pray the same and then to also go and ultimately we do this just as the we talked about why we're sent and why we go. Why do we look to God for his provision? Why does Jesus not let us profit from this? Why does he tell us to keep our eyes and trust him? It's because it ultimately teaches us to trust. I mean, so much of life, so much of life is about learning to trust God. So much of life is learning not to fear humans, but to fear God. And even here when we go and rely on God and we rely on his message that he's given. We rely on the power that he's put in us, we see in these moments that it changes us that we look not to other people and fear of them, but we look and fear God. We know that he will open the doors. And it gives us a boldness and a dependency that shifts so that God is big and humans are small. in comparison to his power and his authority. There's also a little bit of a of a of a of a what I call a solidarity with Jesus here. We become like Jesus in going. He invites us to follow in his footsteps, but then he turns to us and says, "Keep going." And he takes the training wheels off the bike and he tells us to keep pedaling. And he's not we're not alone. We're not without The spirit of God is with us when we go. Man is so with us. Sometimes it's even more tangible in the actual going that he calls. And the disciples are going to experience the provision and the power of God that they will see in this as they obey. Many years ago, I um I'm just going to illustrate this this sort of one way that I years ago, I was in a church, this is a long time ago, and I just felt like the couple in front of me, and I don't do this all the time, I just felt like I was visiting this church, and I just felt like God wanted me to put my hands on them and pray for him right in the middle of the service. And it was a very I mean, I felt like I was be going to disobey if I didn't. And I just remember, this was a very momentous moment for me, but I just remember um I just like reached out my hands, put it on him, and I just started to pray. And uh and I remember in that moment it was uh it was very startling because I felt the like just this sort of love of God for these people. Like I I could feel it almost like it was like transferring through me as I prayed for them. It was like I was this conduit in this moment. Had a great conversation with them afterwards. They really actually needed that moment. It was a providential moment. But uh but just in that moment, it reminded me that so often when we go, so often when we step out, we experience the power and the presence of God in incredible ways. And it teaches us more and more to rely not on our own strength, but on him as we look to him for these things. So ultimately, what we see is just an incredibly incredibly daunting task if we're all honest because our eyes oftentimes look on the world and the people and like Bilbo we just want to be in our safe space and I understand that we all feel that and yet God with great conviction Jesus calls us and not to to burden us not to guilt us so that we may experience the joy in greater fullness, the shaping of God in new ways, and the reliance on his power in his presence in all of these things. Let's pray. Lord, we are desperate for your mercy and for your grace. I was thinking about during our confession time this morning, Lord, how often we we don't we don't go well even when we go. Sometimes we fail to truly love those around us as that confession talked about. And yet we know that your grace is sufficient for our weakness, for our failure. And even after hundreds of years, God, you did not give up on your people. You planned to start your mission a new through the people that you always wanted to do it through. And Lord, sometimes it feels like for us that we can forget the mission. And yet once again, here you are poking, proddding, and inviting us, Lord. Lord, we pray that you would increase our faith. We pray Lord that you would fill us with greater love and greater reminder of this gospel good news so that it would would enlighten our own hearts that we might remember the joy of our first love and the beauty of this message and how lifegiving and life transforming it was and how healing it was and how some of us in the darkness of our own bondage needed this so desperately and it changed everything. And there is a world full of people that so need this message. God, we've talked about it. We've seen it in the studies. We live in an age of anxiety and depression and loneliness that are at epidemic levels. So many sociologists and psychologists tell us. We live in an age where we are seeking so many false gods, turning to so many things that even secular people recognize what's going on. There is a world that so needs this message and it is so good and so many are are hungry for it. They even kind of know it. And so you've called us with this great joy and great privilege, Lord. And I just pray even this week that you might give us doors of utterance, open opportunities, and the courage, the courage to do like Bilbo who when he stepped out, he saw amazing things just like the disciples who stepped out and saw amazing things. Not just in those days but in the in the weeks and the months and the years even after Christ returned left that they saw the transformation of the whole region and even to the ends of the earth the gospel was going out in all of its power. So God let us step in to this wonderful invitation. Let us be reminded with great conviction that even as a church that is planted here that you want us here to be light in a community that needs more churches to call people to the kingdom and to the king for the glory for your name. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.