Made For Mission: Who's My Mission?

Well, good morning, everybody. In fact, we're in week four of our Made for Mission series.

And I think that I realized, I was talking to somebody earlier,

how my right foot at the top has just been killing me the last couple weeks.

And I think I might have realized where I injured it. It had to be in Love Lifted

Me the other week. I don't know.

I don't know if it was that one where we did it. But I'm trying to figure it out, Brother David.

We'll see what happens. But we're in week four of our Made for Mission series.

And you're here for the first time, maybe. I don't know in this series,

or maybe you missed some of the past three weeks, but we're going to do a quick review, okay?

Just to catch some of you up if you didn't get to catch all of it.

But week one, we actually said that we are all called, right?

We're all called. If you're a follower of Jesus, then he's put you on the planet for a reason, right?

He strategically placed you where you live, work, and play, by the way,

to join him in his mission. We looked at that.

In week two, we asked the question, what's my mission?

In a nutshell, guess what? Your mission, my mission, is Jesus's mission, right?

It's to grow in relationship with God and to introduce him to other people.

Well, last week, we unpacked how you actually introduce him,

and we answered the question, what's my message?

We learned that it's simply sharing with others how the goodness of God has

intersected with your life.

That's the good news, the gospel of Christ, sharing with others that very good news.

And I don't know about you, but I hope some of you have had an opportunity over

these past few weeks to actually start to think about some of these things,

to actually, maybe if you needed a little little encouragement to start saying

god i'm on mission for you lord help me to get out of my comfort zone right

and i hope you felt that in fact today we're answering the question.

Who is my mission? Who is my mission?

And I get it. Maybe you think to yourself, I get it. I'm supposed to share how

God's goodness has intersected my life.

But do I just walk up to random people and just start talking?

If God has uniquely placed me and you, by the way, in some people's lives to

share about him, how do I go about identifying that?

And let me say, if you're here this morning and maybe you're still checking

out the God Jesus church thing, whatever it might be for you,

this might seem a little awkward because you're probably thinking to yourself,

so you're saying I'm the mission, right?

But what we're going to talk about, it's still very applicable to you because

if you're investigating Jesus, if you're checking this thing out and what Jesus

has to offer that you need and you're looking into this,

today's topic I want you to know is a major theme in his life.

In fact, it's impossible, I want you to know this, to truly be a follower of

Jesus and ignore what we're talking about today.

Well, let's turn to John chapter four, excuse me, John chapter two to start with.

Got a little ahead of myself. John chapter two, verses 24 and 25.

John two, 24 and 25 says, but Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.

He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

And as we look at this next slide, I want you to realize today that Jesus knew

all people and he knew what was inside them.

Guess what that means for us? He knows us, right?

He knows what's inside of us. And he started his ministry here.

He gives us Kind of like two polar opposites, if you will.

Opposite examples, if you will, of the kinds of people that God loves to work in.

As we see in this next slide, I want us to listen to this next verse as we set

this up. John 3, verse 1 says this.

John 3:1

Now, there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

So get this. Jesus had a conversation with a very religious man named who? Nicodemus, right?

And we're not going to study the conversation today except to say that the author

John here deliberately placed it, get this, before the scene that we're going to read in a moment.

Jesus has a spiritual conversation with somebody you'd expect to have it all figured out.

Think like a pastor of a church, but he ends up correcting some basic beliefs

that Nicodemus was holding.

Just because somebody appears to be a super Christian doesn't mean that they're

still not struggling with questions about their faith, does it?

Not at all. In fact, Jesus leaves there and he has a profound conversation with a woman.

And Jesus makes an important point to her that we're going to see,

and that's this, that no one is off limits when it comes to talking about God.

How many are off limits when it comes to talking about God?

No one. No one's off limits. And so as we look in John chapter 4,

John 4:1–6

verses 1 through 6, let's go there.

John 4, 1 through 6 says, now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that

he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact,

it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.

So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria.

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob

had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey,

sat down by the well. It was about noon.

Now, I want y'all to think about this today. Geography actually helps us to

understand this passage.

We read that he left Judea to go to Galilee, right?

Now, most Jews would actually make this trip longer than they would have had

to by intentionally missing all of Samaria.

See, the Jewish people despised the Samaritans because they saw them as sellouts.

They were the people, if you remember, that intermarried with the people of

the land so that they were only half Jewish, right?

And so here we are in this situation.

What's interesting, though, is that Jesus actually went out of his way to go through where?

Samaria. In fact, the scene we're about to read here in the Bible is the only

scene that we read during this trip, meaning, I don't know about you,

but it really brings to significance the incredibly importants,

of this passage. Jesus sits down by the well himself, right? He's all by himself.

And we'll learn later a little bit of information we're fixing to read that

his disciples had gone into town to grab some food.

All right. That sounds like, yeah, I mean, that's a good mission, right?

I mean, the disciples, I mean, people get hungry, right?

I mean, right now, some of y'all thinking about lunch, but hey,

let's focus a little bit. John chapter four, let's take a look, seven through 14.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink?

His disciples had gone into town to buy food. We talked about that earlier.

The Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.

How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

And Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks

you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Sir, the woman replied, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.

Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who

gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?

And Jesus answered, Listen to this. He said, everyone who drinks this water

will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water that I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up unto eternal life.

So as we seek to answer this question, who's my mission? And as this next slide

shows us, I think it's interesting how the different people in this scene apparently saw this woman.

And I want y'all to think about this today. How did this Samaritan woman actually see herself?

She came at noon, right? When the crowds would be down. She didn't want a lot

of people to see her, right?

And she had shame over her past.

How did the disciples see her?

Wait a minute. Are they in this scene? They passed her by on the way.

They never talked to her even when they returned from grabbing their food, right?

At least not that we see recorded at all in scripture here. Well, how did Jesus see her?

She was worth it, church. She was worth it. She was worth, get this for a moment,

going out of his way to meet her.

Worth crossing some social barriers to meet this woman. It was worth it to him.

By the way, he also saw that she was very persistent.

You might say, well, where do you see her persistence, Brother Judd?

Well, we're gonna check out what happens next, okay?

We're still in John 4. Look at verses 15 through 18. The woman said to him,

sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.

He told her, go, call your husband and come back. I have no husband, she replied.

And Jesus said to her, you are right when you say that you have no husband.

The fact is you've had five husbands and the man that you have now is not your husband.

What you have said is quite true.

You know, I probably heard at least 20 sermons, Aaron, you know,

on people focusing on the woman's sinfulness or shame, all that.

Yet I'm sure this part of her story, you know, in this part of her story that

she has a lot of things from her past and she wasn't proud of it, obviously.

In fact, in the first century Middle Eastern culture, as you know,

it was a man-centered world.

Women were seen as second-class citizens in this culture and men had all the power.

It was It's completely acceptable, by the way, for a man to have several premarital

sexual relationships. And if a husband wanted to divorce his wife,

all that he had to do was to give her a certificate of divorce and kick her to the curb. That was it.

And so this isn't a woman that jumps around from guy to guy.

It's probably a woman who's been used and abused maybe over and over by multiple men.

And she knows what it's like to feel pain and loss. And she probably is carrying

some bitterness, anger, obviously, along with her shame. You can imagine.

Yet here she is at the well. She's not giving up. She's still going.

She's still day after day going out to the well to get the water.

I want you to see this as we look at this next slide that maybe everybody else

missed something that Jesus saw because he knew what was inside her. Do you remember?

He knows what's inside you too. He knows what's inside me. He knows what's inside of everyone.

He knows what everybody's dealing with. And that becomes obvious,

by the way, later in this story.

And check out the best part. Here we go. Chapter four still, verses 39 through 42.

Hang on to your seats a minute because This is going to get really amazing.

It says, many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what?

The woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans

came to him, they urged him to stay with them. And Jesus stayed two days.

And because of his words, it says here, many more became believers.

They said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of what you've said.

Now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the savior of the world.

I mean, talk about a little revival, right?

I mean, this was amazing. I mean, the very next verse says that Jesus left for

Galilee after two days. So again, there is an important, impromptu spiritual

revival in this community.

And as we see on this next slide, it happens among the Samaritan.

It goes on for two days. How does it happen?

The very woman church that people had cast aside, what does she do?

She comes back into a village of people that had rejected her and convinces

them to meet her new friend and Savior Jesus.

Now, don't you think for a moment, I just don't picture her handing out a few

flyers, okay? I don't picture her doing that.

Because of whom she was, it couldn't have been easy, could it?

Imagine trying to get a crowd to come and meet this guy.

She pleaded with people here, she pleaded with them to come meet the man who

told her everything she'd ever done.

In other words, she was persistent. She wouldn't take no for an answer.

That's a good woman trait, right? She wouldn't take no for an answer.

She wouldn't do it. She was persistent in what she was doing.

How many times do you think she went back into town over those two days to convince

them again to meet Jesus?

Y'all, she's one special lady and one of the most surprising and dynamic leaders

in the whole New Testament here.

In fact, if you think about this way, this was the very woman.

Be reminded again that the disciples passed by without ever saying a word to.

They were also the very same people that came that the disciples had seen when

they walked into the village to buy food.

It never crossed their minds to share with them. Yet this woman here sees people

in this town that desperately needed to meet their Savior. Amen.

That's what she sees. And I want you to listen just for a moment.

I just had a story I want to share with you. It's by author Tony Campolo.

And Tony's kind of going off the rails, but this was a great story that he shared

in a previous writing. And I want to share with you. It says,

a new recruit went into training at Parris Island, hoping to become a Marine.

He was one of those young men who seemed to be a bit out of step with the norm,

and he easily became the subject of ridicule for those who enjoy picking on offbeat people.

And in the particular barracks to which this young Marine was assigned,

there was an extremely high level of meanness.

You ever known some high levels of meanness, right? the other young men did

everything they could to make a joke of the new recruit and to humiliate him.

And one day someone came up with a bright idea that they could just scare the

daylights out of this young Marine by just simply dropping a disarmed hand grenade

onto the floor and pretending it was about to go off.

Everybody else knew about this that was there in the barracks and they're all

just standing by ready to get a big laugh.

So the hand grenade was thrown out into the middle of the floor,

and the warning was yelled, it's a live grenade, it's a live grenade, it's about to explode.

And those guys fully expected this young Marine, he would get hysterical,

maybe even jump out the window, right?

Because this was a live grenade. But instead, the young Marine fell on the grenade,

hugged it to his stomach, and he yelled out to the other men in the barracks,

run for your lives, run for your lives, you'll be killed if you don't.

In his story, he says that the other Marines actually froze in stillness and shame.

Because here's the kicker, y'all. They realized that the one that they had scorned

was the one ready to lay down his life for them.

Is it possible maybe some realize today, maybe the one you've scorned is the

one who's laid down his life for you.

You see, their eyes were opened and so it was with Jesus.

So many people, maybe even in this town, obviously had scorned all this,

didn't believe this, right?

Maybe even this woman had not fully, obviously she didn't understand until Jesus explained to her.

The basic idea here is that you have no idea. I have no idea what's inside people, but who does again?

Jesus does. He does. He knows.

So who is your mission? Who is your mission? I think Jesus was teaching multiple

lessons to multiple audiences here, and Jesus' primary focus was making disciples,

so he used every scenario to teach them a lesson in ministry, right?

And the first lesson doesn't necessarily apply to everybody,

but I want you to hear me out for just a moment.

Guess what? While we're all called to share our faith, there were certain people

that have the gift of an evangelist, Brother Ronnie.

My guess is that Jesus desired every one of his disciples to have this gift.

He would hand them the keys to, you know, a few years later when he went back to heaven, right?

So this was a huge moment in their lives they

would go on to spread the gospel but they

had to learn this lesson are there some lessons that we need to learn here at

eastwood today maybe some of us need to learn maybe something from this woman

and how she shared her faith and what god did with it the one who was despised

and rejected right so who is my mission there's that question again.

Can't hear you. Everybody. Come on, say it again.

Everybody. Everybody. If you found that you have a relatively easy time sharing

your faith with other people, there's a good chance you might have that spiritual gift of evangelism.

If you've seen God use you to

reach a number of people, that's a good shot that you may have that gift.

Maybe you've never shared your faith, but maybe God's made you an influencer

in other areas of life to open the door.

And with the right training, you could have that gift come alive in you.

It's just sitting there waiting to be developed, right?

And by the way, let me just say this. We're going to have an opportunity here

in a few weeks down the road, April 23rd, the Way of the Master Evangelism training

that Aaron and I are going to be doing together.

We're looking forward to that, to teach us all and remind us all of the need to share our faith.

We'll talk about that more in a minute, but evangelists see opportunities that

other people don't sometimes.

They're able to move ordinary conversations into ones that bring up the gospel.

Sharing your faith is not a duty that they feel guilty about,

but it's a delight that they love to do every chance they get.

Probably some of you are thinking, well, Judd, I'm pretty sure that I don't

have that gift, so I'm off the hook. Am I off the hook?

No. Well, the lesson that we need to learn from Jesus to the Samaritan woman

is this. Look at this next slide.

God has strategically placed you where you're at to reach one or some.

God has strategically placed you where you're at to reach one or some.

You could ask that question, who's your one? Who's your some?

We're going to talk more about that.

But notice this woman goes back to the town again where she was from,

probably the most difficult place she could go to to share her faith, right?

It was out of her comfort zone, no doubt.

People knew her life before Christ, but she felt compelled to share with those,

get this, who did life with her? Who do you do life with?

Here's a Greek word that's mentioned throughout the New Testament.

And I think it helps us answer this question.

It's the word oikos.

Yes, I know it's a yogurt, but oikos in Greek, right?

And it's the ancient Greek equivalent of a household, house, or family.

An average oikos is usually made up of about eight to 15 people.

In Luke 8, the demon-possessed man was told to return to his household,

Oikos, and describe the great things done for him.

In Luke 19, Zacchaeus was told salvation had come to his household, Oikos.

As we see in this next slide, in John 4, the centurion's whole household,

Oikos, was saved following the healing of his son.

In Acts 10, Cornelius was a righteous man who feared God, it says,

with all his household, oikos.

In Acts 16, the Philippian jailer had his entire household, oikos,

baptized in the middle of the night.

So what does that look like for us? What does that look like for you?

Well, look at this next slide.

Think about it this way. God has intentionally and strategically placed you

in your family, friendships,

neighborhood, and workplace to reach out to those you are already doing life with. Come on.

One easy way, I think, to think about this is to think France.

Anybody ever been to France, by the way? But to think France,

okay? What do I mean by that?

France, friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, co-workers, and classmates.

And I know you're saying, what about the E? Keep your eyes open for everybody else, okay? Eyes open.

So when you think about friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors,

co-workers, classmates, eyes open.

Eyes open for whoever God may bring to your path. You see, you might think to

yourself, okay, Brother Judd, I get this is something I should do, but I don't know.

Can I just give y'all a simple prayer today?

I just want to challenge you to pray this prayer. Taught by Hal Seed.

He's a pastor of New Song Church in Oceanside, California, and it could change

your life. It's a simple prayer.

And as we look at it on this next slide, I just want you to think about this.

Would you just start praying this prayer on a daily basis?

Lord, I don't ask you for much today, but would you give me your heart for the lost?

Lord, I don't ask you for much today, but would you give me your heart for the lost?

Come on, say it with me for a moment in this prayer. Lord, I don't ask you for

much today, but would you give me your heart for the lost?

I want to challenge you Say that prayer each day Pray that prayer,

Pray that prayer It might be something good to post on your bathroom mirror

Or on the steering wheel Or on the cover of your Bible Or somewhere you might look at it often,

If you prayed it daily If I prayed it daily I think that this is the sort of

thing That God would like to answer He would love to answer by the way.

Lord, I don't ask you for much today, but would you give me your heart for the lost?

You know, I know that's definitely true of a young man named Lauren.

Lauren actually was a member of the youth group at Oyster Bay Baptist Church.

Many years ago, probably by, I think it was around 1990.

And Lauren's church got to come on a youth retreat. It was called Beyond Belief

Youth Retreat in Panama City, Florida.

And a couple of churches joined together, went on a youth retreat.

In the first night that we were there at the youth retreat, there was a message

given why good people go to hell.

And God got a hold of Lauren's heart that night in Panama City, Florida.

I still remember Lauren's heart was broken over his sin.

And I remember when we got back to the room, you know, the bed down and the

bump beds and all that, that he was still crying.

And he got to just so got a hold of him. And I remember, you know,

we're always tempted sometimes when we think about the sinner's prayer.

You know, there's no magic formula, right? There's no certain words you pray, right?

It's the attitude and the posture of your heart. And when you say,

some people just say, Lord, help me.

I mean, God knows what's going on inside, remember?

But in this very moment, I remember me and a friend of mine,

we were sitting there with Lauren.

You know, the thought crossed our mind just for a moment to lead Lauren in a sinner's prayer.

But lauren was so obviously broken over his

sin he had heard the gospel in the message and he was

so broken inside and we just told lauren we just said lauren everything that

you just told us why don't you just tell it to god just tell it to him and lauren

sat there on the side of that bunk bed and he prayed y'all if there ever was

a sinner's prayer the most beautiful one i've ever heard.

And he truly repented. He truly told God that he was sorry, that he needed a savior.

And God got a hold of that young man's life and changed his life.

And that young man, Lauren, is a pastor today because God got a hold of him

at a youth retreat in Panama City, Florida, and showed him that he needed to meet this Jesus.

He needed to see Jesus and see what he had done for him.

Y'all, just like this woman at the well went back into her town and she shared

with everyone there, even amidst all the ridicule and scorn,

these people realized they came. And what did they say again there?

That we not only believe, we're

not believing because of what you told us now. Why are they believing?

Because they heard it for themselves and they believe God changed their heart.

They knew he was the Messiah, right?

God got a hold of their heart. So y'all, I want to challenge us today.

Let's pray this prayer, y'all.

I mean, be honest with God. Let's bow our heads just for a moment as you sit

there. We're wrapping up, but be honest just for a moment.

Have you ever prayed a prayer like this?

Will you just simply ask that God would give you his heart for the lost?

You see, I think it's easy sometimes that we get called up like these disciples

did, where maybe we end up passing people by because maybe we're just too selfish, right?

Maybe we're concerned about lunch instead of about somebody's eternal destiny.

You know, even when they went back into the town there to get lunch,

there's no indication from Scripture, period.

They didn't bring anybody back with them to meet Jesus.

But yet this woman when she was transformed by the power of Jesus she was the

greatest witness for Christ you

could ever imagine this little impromptu revival that we saw take place,

y'all it's not asking a whole lot I don't think of us to just say Lord I may not have it all together,

but Lord I don't ask you for much today but God just give me your heart for

the lost Lord Lord, give me that kind of heart that beats for you.

Lord, that I look around to the place that you have given me to live,

my neighborhood, my friends, my relatives, my acquaintances,

my neighbors, my coworkers, my classmates, everybody, eyes open.

Lord, give this to me. Give me this burden, Lord. Give me your heart for the lost.