Mission: The Reconciling Nature of Mission

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God thanks that you've left us here.

And the fact that we're still here means that the work that we just sang about is not done.

That there's still more to do.

That your work, what you desire, your mission is unfinished.

And the beauty of that is that we get to be a part of it.

You don't just sign us up and say see in heaven.

You involve us in what you're doing in the world.

You tell your story through people.

And so, God, uh amplify your story in us, increase our understanding of the story this morning.

We want to hear a big story, not just a story of Jesus in my life and me having a relationship with Jesus.

That's part of the gospel, but the gospel is so much bigger and much more cosmic than that.

And so we want our lives to kind of be a reflection of the bigness of the gospel.

And so, Holy Spirit, speak a language we understand today.

That's what you do.

Cause the Bible to make sense.

We didn't come here to get a religious whooping.

We didn't come here to leave feeling more guilty than we walked in.

We came here to be liberated by the truth, Jesus.

You said, we'll know the truth, and the consequence of knowing the truth is that you get set free.

We want to walk out of here freed up from unnecessary stuff today.

Make that happen, we pray, and we pray that in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row there.

I'm on page 966.

And uh we are taking this month to kind of look at our core value of mission.

We have four core values as a church: gospel, community, mission, and blessing.

And mission is not about missions like going to Africa or going to different countries.

We do that.

But mission is about intentionality.

It's not about adding things to your life, extra things for you to do.

It's about being intentional with the life that you already have.

And so, as a part of that, I want to talk to you this morning about the reconciling nature of mission from 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

I'll start reading in verse 21.

But before I start reading, let me uh let me define reconciliation.

Reconciliation is you take two things that are at odds.

They don't line up, okay?

And and you and you make them line up.

You you kind of make one out of two.

That's what reconciliation is.

And the Bible's gonna tell us today that the reason God sent his son Jesus into the world is because look at me.

We by nature are not connected to God.

You're not born a Christian, you didn't inherit it from your grandma or your grandpa or your deacon, uncle, or whatever.

You by nature and I by nature are alienated.

We need to be reconciled.

We need to be made right, made one with God.

Now the Bible says it's gonna tell us this morning, not only does God do that in us, but that he commits to us the ministry of reconciliation.

So whether you realize it or not, if you're a Christian in this room this morning, you have a ministry.

And so it's not the issue is not do you have this ministry, but what are you doing with it?

And that's what you're gonna hear the Bible talk about.

We'll use the word reconciliation a lot.

Don't get bogged down or check out or just think, oh, dude, you're killing me.

Just think, hey, things that don't line up, that that are alienated, are gonna be reconciled.

They're gonna be made right.

God's about, not just in us, but in creation, in business, in the arts, in the sciences, things that don't look like they line up.

God says, I'm gonna make those things right.

Okay?

Fair enough?

Hello?

There you go.

All right, let's read the Bible.

2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

I'll start reading verse 11 so we can get to context.

Paul says, Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

We're not commending ourselves to you again, but we're giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.

4.

Verse 13, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.

If we're in our right mind, it is for you.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this that one has died for all, and therefore all died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Now I want us to kind of sharpen the focus in verse 16.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard no we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old is passed away.

Behold, the new is come.

And all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.

God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Basically, there's just three points that the text makes this morning about the reconciling nature of mission.

Now, let me say it again.

To be missional people, to be on mission is not to take on more religious duties or ramp up your effort or increase your determination.

No, it means that you walk out of here today and you just think, I want to be intentional with the life I already live.

So if I pour concrete for a living, how do I, how do I, how do I do that with it with some intentionality to it?

If I build houses for a living, if I if I'm an accountant or a school teacher or a stay-at-home mom, how do I make the most of the opportunities that I have just rubbing up against people in the warp and woof of everyday life?

There's three things the text tells us about this.

Number one is the experience of reconciliation.

The experience, you've got to have the experience of being reconciled.

It's verse 18.

Just look at it just for a minute.

He says, and all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.

All this is through Christ is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself.

You see, if I'm not right with God, what am I gonna do?

Go out telling other people about how they need to be right with God.

And so it kind of starts with me.

You gotta ask yourself, have you ever had the experience of reconciliation, of feeling and kind of understanding, hey, I once was alienated, alienated from God.

God and I didn't line up, but something happened.

There was a point in time where all of a sudden I was brought to this, for me it happened in July of 1982.

I was brought to this place of understanding that wait a minute, because growing up, I wasn't, I didn't grow up in a Christian home.

I wasn't around spiritual things a whole lot.

And so I did what verse 17 says, and we we read that verse like that in the Bible, and we just keep going looking for something interesting.

But let me just tell you this: here's how you know the litmus test that you've kind of been reconciled, that you have a relationship with Christ, and it's simply this you can no longer think about Jesus the way you used to.

And then let me say that again, and I'll demonstrate in the Bible.

One of the here's how you can tell people that have been reconciled, people that, whatever language you use, have been saved, have been converted, they've become a Christian, because you no longer think about Jesus the way you used to.

Look at verse 17 at what it says in 2 Corinthians 5.

Paul says this.

He says, Therefore, excuse me, verse 16.

He said, From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

When he says, regard him according to the flesh, in other words, I didn't look at Jesus, he says, I used to look at Jesus and think he was a good moral teacher, he was a prophet, he was a great example, he was a helper, he was like the good Samaritan on steroids.

He says, I used to think all these things about Jesus.

He says, but I don't think that way anymore.

Why?

Because he had the experience of being reconciled to God.

Paul was religious, but when he came into a relationship, all of a sudden it changed the way he thought about him.

He said, I have friends that are of the Muslim faith, and they say, they'll say, hey, Jesus, we believe in Jesus.

You can believe in Jesus and not be a Christian.

Do you know that?

You can believe in you can come to church and you can appreciate this and you can like the coffee even and never, ever, ever be reconciled to God.

Now my Muslim friends will say, Oh, I believe that your Jesus was a good prophet and was a good man.

I believe he was real and he existed.

I just don't think he was the Son of God.

The reason they say that is because they regard Jesus according to the flesh.

They just see him from a real natural perspective.

It's just kind of like, okay, good guy, whatever.

See, here's the question I want to ask you this morning.

Are you willing to have your mind changed about Jesus?

Because that's how you know who's been reconciled, is because they can no longer think about Jesus the way they used to.

For example, when I was growing up, here's the way I thought about God.

People in my life told me, hey, if you ever get down, things really get hard, God's always there for you.

Never forget that.

That's what people would say to me.

Because I was a wild kid.

I was angry, I was in trouble, I was in probation from the eighth grade on because I did things that were illegal, okay?

That's how you get on probation.

I don't know if you know that.

And so people would always say to me, Oh, Neil, if you ever get in a really dark time, just remember God's always there for you.

So growing up, the only time I would think about God is when I kind of got my life in the ditch and I couldn't get it out.

I would think about God and I would pray a little prayer.

When I was really serious, I would get on my knees and pray the prayer, okay?

And just say something like, God, get me out of this.

I've kind of screwed it up, I'll do better.

And I'm sure God's kind of going, you doing better doesn't ease my heart at all about you, my man.

But the only way I was taught to think about God was when you screw your life up, ramp up your determination and say a little prayer just in case somebody's up there, the sky fairy, might be listening.

Well, here's the problem with that, and no one told me this.

The only time I thought about God was when I'd screwed my life up.

When life was going really well, I didn't think about God.

Why?

Because I thought about God like a tow truck driver.

He existed to get me out of trouble.

If I wasn't in trouble, who needs a tow truck driver?

Did anybody get up this morning and kind of go, hey honey, call a wrecker?

You'd be like, You should not have had that last vodka last night, okay?

Get your sorry self back in bed.

And so I grew up thinking about Jesus when things were messed up, like when I had to go see the police when they came to my eighth-grade world history class and arrested me in front of all my classmates.

Thank you very much.

True story, not making that up.

I thought about Jesus a lot.

Oh a lot.

I thought about Jesus a lot the night me and my friends got hammered drunk and peeled the beer, the labels off our beer bottles and spelled out bud on the back window of my buddy's truck.

When the cops pulled us over and said, You boys been drinking?

No, sir.

No, sir, not at all.

And he goes, Well, did you get them letters on the back of your truck?

That's decoupage.

And my drunk friend laid down the ground and said, Office for you draw my picture with that chunk.

I just walked over and got in the back seat of the car.

I said, Open the door myself, I'm gonna get in back here.

Because I knew where we were going.

Now, am I glorifying that?

Not at all.

I'm just telling you, hey, because I knew what I was like, I know what it's like to be reconciled with God.

I don't think about Jesus the same way I used to.

As a matter of fact, here's the thing you gotta ask yourself.

It's not, now, now by the way, see, here's why you I say you gotta have your mind changed about Jesus because Jesus, it was through Christ that God affected reconciliation.

Let me say that again.

You gotta have your mind changed about Jesus because the Bible says that the only way you and I can get right with God is through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

It's not that we need reconciliation, therefore, Jesus is necessary.

That's what one of my friends says.

He believes another world religion.

He's like, oh man, you Jesus is necessary to the way you believe because without Jesus, you can't have forgiveness.

And I'm like, yeah, that's good theology.

He says, Well, you just want forgiveness, and so Jesus is a figment of your imagination.

And I was like, You you really think that's what drives this thing here?

You think I don't Jesus is like some mythical creature and that we just made him up because we realize how screwed up we are?

Yeah, that's pretty much what I think.

And I said, So for you, it's all about good versus bad.

He said, It's karma, dude.

It's karma.

And karma's gonna get you.

If you do more bad than good, karma's gonna get you.

But if you do more good than bad, karma's gonna bless you.

And I responded, and you live this way.

And he said, It's worked so far.

And I said, Okay, keep me posted, because there'll come a day when this doesn't work anymore.

Because one of the things the Bible says is that Jesus is central to this whole thing.

So it's not like, hey, we needed reconciliation, so Jesus is necessary.

No, the Bible says Jesus is real, therefore, reconciliation is possible.

Do you hear the difference?

Let me just, if you're in 2 Corinthians, turn to the right, to the book of Colossians.

It's actually the same passage that my friend Keith read earlier.

I want you to hear it again, and I want you to listen for the phrase in him, or how many times the Bible uses him referring to Jesus, and he is central to this whole thing.

This is Colossians chapter 2, verse 6.

Colossians 2:6

Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, karma, uh, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

You know what that means?

That means that Jesus is God.

In him, the fullness of deity dwells bodily.

That's why Jesus said to religious people, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, and they went berserk.

Why?

Because he was saying, I'm God.

He said, and the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you've been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

In him also you are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

And you were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Now, you say, we just heard that now for the second time.

Yes, I want you to understand without any excuse that Jesus is central to this whole reconciliation thing.

So if your mind's never been changed about Jesus, if you think Jesus is a prophet or a teacher or a moral example, then here's my question I have for you.

How do you get right with God?

It's all up to you.

Now you may be thinking, dude, you've you've used the word reconciliation and some other big words a lot, okay?

Just back it down to where I can get my head around it.

Okay.

You don't have to turn there, but the Bible tells this story in John chapter 9.

John 9 · chapter mention

Jesus and the disciples are walking into a town, and the disciples are kind of like, hey, hey, hey, check it out.

There's a blind guy over there.

He's been blind his whole life, and they said to Jesus, hey, Jesus, uh, who, who's whose fault is this guy's blind?

Is it his sin or his parents' sin?

And Jesus said, It's neither.

He's this way so that the works of God can be manifest in his life.

Translation, Jesus says, I'm about to set it off up in here.

And the disciples are kind of like, uh oh, uh-oh, Jesus, uh-oh, get ready.

They're hitting each other like, I told you, I told you.

Jesus calls the guy over there.

If you believe I'm making this up, just write down John chapter 9 and read it later.

John 9 · chapter mention

It's in the Bible.

They're like, uh-oh, Jesus calls the guy to him, and he basically says, Hey, what's going on?

The guy says, I'm blind, I can't see.

And Jesus, see, when you read the Bible, notice what Jesus does and notice how he does it.

That's why, for those of you who got it on time today, heard a little Pat Green, didn't you?

Some of you like, I hadn't heard that song unless I was in a dance hall with a shiner long neck in my hand, looking around, going, Who can I pick up before closing time?

But actually, the song is about progressive revelation and how God reveals himself to us wave on wave.

Wave on wave.

And some of you, today won't be the day for you, but so you they'll get a little paint on the barn that you can't wash off.

God will say something from the Bible that'll sick in your head like a mental grass burr, and you'll be like, hmm.

I don't much care for that preacher.

He wears those sea foam green shirts, but I can't.

Yes, they sell men's clothes where I got this.

I say, see, maybe looking at me.

But yeah, yeah, that kind of that kind of stuck in my head there.

But Jesus in John chapter 9 says to the guy, calls him over there, and when you read the Bible, notice what Jesus does and how he does it.

John 9 · chapter mention

Jesus basically says, Oh, you want to see?

Okay.

And spits on the ground.

And I love what the Bible says, the King James says, he made a spittle of the clay.

That's awesome.

Basically, Jesus spit the dirt and said, Come here, I got a little something, something for you, my man.

And then he anointed his eyes with mud.

Go home and try that on your wife.

Honey, come in the backyard.

I'm gonna do something.

Come on, it's okay, it's in the Bible.

You're like, I'm calling Pastor Neil right now.

You get back in here.

And Jesus spit and made a little mud, little mud pie and put it on the guy's eyes, and then he said, Hey, walk down the road in front of God and everybody.

And by the way, I'm God, so we got that covered.

Now just go walk in front of everybody and go wash your face.

Go wash the mud off in the springs of Saloam.

And the guy didn't say, Really, Jesus, can I go down the back street so no one can see me?

The guy's kind of like, Hello! I'm coming to the springs of Saloom.

Where are they?

And people are going warmer, warmer, warmer, warmer, and all of a sudden, the Bible says he went and he washed and he came back seeing.

Wouldn't you want to live in a town where you see a guy with mud on his face walking down the road?

Marco! Marco, and people, polo.

That'd be awesome.

The Bible says he went and he washed and he came back seeing.

And the religious people went berserk.

They're called Pharisees.

They're like, Why?

Because there are things that religion cannot do for you that only a relationship with God can do.

So you could come to church, you can believe that there is a God, you can pray, you can drop a whole$5 bill in the offering box on your way out.

And never, ever, ever experience being reconciled with God.

This guy got reconciled, something happened.

And so the religious people began, they're like, oh, they're gonna think that Jesus is better than us.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, they are.

And so they questioned the guy that said, Hey, what happened?

You used to be blind.

We hear you can see.

And he's like, Yeah, I can see.

They said, Who was this guy that did this?

And the man said, I don't know.

Jesus didn't like pass that business cards.

Hey, I'm Jesus, first name Jesus, last name Christ.

I'm here to Wednesday, try the veal, okay?

Look me up on Facebook, okay?

Blow me up, like me on Facebook because I'm trying to get this thing going here, trying to build a little, build some market share.

No, they were so frustrated with him, they didn't like his answers.

They called his parents in and said, Hey, it's your kid.

Can you testify that he was blind from the time he was born?

And his parents were so afraid they're gonna get kicked out of the little religious club.

They said, Well, he's old enough to talk for himself, you know.

Don't ask us.

And so they called the guy back in.

Why?

Because religion cannot stand the fact that the rules aren't gonna change your life.

Just not.

And so they bring the blind guy back in.

He's not blind anymore.

He's looking around, kind of going, Yeah, what's up?

We've talked before, right?

And they're like, Okay, who was this guy?

What do you say about him?

What do you think about him?

And they said, He's a prophet.

And they're like, No, he's not.

Because saying he's a prophet means he's sent from God.

And they're like, we got the market cornered on God.

Nobody can do stuff without our permission.

And by the way, this was on the Sabbath.

You don't do anything on the Sabbath.

You can't even heal people on the Sabbath.

Religion makes you that narrow-minded.

And so the guy said, Well, I'm just telling you.

And they said, Oh, well, they talked a little bit and then they said, Okay, well, tell us, tell us, oh, who is he?

Where is he?

And the blind guy says, This.

Here's why I'm telling you this.

Look at me.

You don't have to be smart, you don't have to understand reconciliation.

Unless you're an accountant, then you probably should understand reconciliation.

Small detail there.

This is reconciliation.

The blind guy says, I don't know who he was, I don't know where he went, I just know this.

I once was blind, but now I see.

When we talk about the experience of reconciliation, what do you point to in your life and say, I used to be that, but now I'm this?

If there's no tangible change in your life that you can point to, then my friend, you're you're a great candidate for reconciliation.

You're a great candidate for a relationship with God.

See, the second thing the Bible tells us is first of all about the experience of reconciliation.

He says, I'm back in 2 Corinthians 5, he says in verse 18, all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself.

And then secondly, he says, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That's the second thing about the reconciling nature of mission is that you've been given this ministry of reconciliation.

And you may be thinking great, I've been given the ministry of reconciliation.

You're gonna go to lunch and talk about that.

If I just left it at that, hey everybody, you've been given the ministry of reconciliation.

You would go to lunch and talk about me, and I'd have to come to your house and fight every one of you.

I don't have that much energy.

So let me tell you what that means.

The Bible says, hey, this is what he gave you, and then it defines it.

Look at the latter part of verse 18.

And he gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

Verse 19.

What is that?

Verse 19.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

The ministry of reconciliation is real simple.

The Bible gives it and then it defines it.

It's the fact that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting men's sins against them.

Now, some of you hear that and kind of go, oh yeah.

Oh yeah, God was in Christ.

God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting men's sins against them.

Yeah, that doesn't mean that God doesn't care about sins or God winks at sin and says, sin's no big deal.

No, sin's a big deal.

But the reason Jesus came was to seek and save the lost.

He didn't come for people that are healthy.

He said, I'm like a doctor who comes for sick people.

Does anybody go to the doctor's office and they say, What are you doing here?

Oh, I'm nothing.

I'm healthy.

I just wanted to wait around for two hours so I could be overcharged for something I didn't need.

No, Jesus says, Hey, I came, I didn't come for the healthy, I came for the sick.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

He was not counting men's sins against them.

Look at me.

Don't miss this.

Because you've got to understand this so you can have the ministry of reconciliation.

Because you need to go to work tomorrow and your friends say, What did you do this weekend?

You say, I realize that I'm in the ministry.

Bam.

Drop that on them.

They'll be like, uh, what, what?

Your drunken self is in what?

Yeah.

The Bible says that God was in Christ, was reconciling the world to himself, not counting men's sins against him.

Here's what you got to understand when you talk to people that God looks past their sin and sees that Jesus died on the cross as payment for their sins.

So you don't have to get mad at them because they sin.

You don't have to judge them because they sin.

Because most people live with this sense of what they deserve and how God's really mad at them for all that they've done, and there's no way God could ever forgive them.

You say, How do you know?

Let me ask you a question.

Have you ever invited someone to church and they said, if I walked into that church, the building would fall down?

They're telling you, no one's ever explained this to me.

They've never met somebody that has the ministry of reconciliation that says, hey, God's not counting your sins against you.

That doesn't mean he's saying sin is no big deal, but he looks past your sin and he sees Jesus dying on the cross for your sin.

That's the ministry of reconciliation.

Third thing and finally, this morning is a message of reconciliation.

See, if we're gonna be a part of this mission thing, this being intentional people who live intentional lives, we've got to have this message of reconciliation.

And this is it in verse 19.

He says that is it that is in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespassers or their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

What's the message of reconciliation?

Look at verse 20.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.

God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Did you hear that?

For our sake, he made him to be sin.

The reason God's not looking at you and seeing your sin, that he was not counting their sins against them, because he's looking past your sin and he's seeing that, hey, I'm gonna make him who knew no sin to become sin for you, to suffer sin's penalty in your place and on your behalf.

Why?

So that you could become right with God.

You say, well, I don't get the message of reconciliation is rooted in the fact that the only place people can get right with God is through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now this is constant.

Now, how this message gets expressed, that varies.

But let me say this reconciliation tells the truth of who you are as well as the truth of who you can become.

Anytime I talk to people, I never tell them, oh, look, you're just a sinner.

Oh my goodness.

I talked to some people not long ago, and I mean, I'm just like, okay, just stop.

I'm getting depressed.

This is bad, dude.

The guy's like, yeah, I mean, I told you I'm pretty screwed up.

And I got to smile, and he goes, What's so funny?

Could you believe in a God that's not counting all this against you?

He looked at me and he goes, Well, then why am I going to go to hell when I die?

Only because you never get reconciled to God.

Because the Bible says that the God of the Bible, because he grew up in a church where he said the preacher was a screamer.

And I said, Would you feel better if I screamed on Sunday?

Can you imagine just going to they just yell, blah, blah! I'd take a BB gun and shoot that guy.

I mean, who wants to get up in the morning and can be yelled at?

And you're like, okay, I'm good, thanks.

I've had enough of that.

What do you mean the message of reconciliation?

Here's the thing: the message of reconciliation is a big story.

You've heard me say before, if you've been here any length of time, the gospel is the only story big enough to live in.

You've got to tell a big story, big enough for people to live in.

Not just people that already believe.

The gospel is not inviting Jesus into your heart.

That's a part of it.

The gospel is a big story of the gospel, is what all God's doing to redeem and reconcile the world.

Do you hear the difference in that?

Because if it just becomes, oh, it's you and Jesus and balancing your emotional checkbook, then boom, you pray this prayer and you're like, okay, now what?

But if it's this big sweepy narrative of what God is doing to make things right in the world, perhaps Tim Keller can help us think about it.

He's a pastor in Manhattan.

He says this, he says, redemption is much more than simply saving souls.

It will ultimately entail the complete healing of creation, including social justice, the reunification of all of humanity, and the end of physical decay and death.

But even now it means bringing the health and coherence of Christ's Lordship back into every aspect of human life.

The Christian church is to be a new society in which the world can see exhibited what family, business practices, race relations, and all of life can be under the kingship of Jesus Christ.

That's a big story.

You say, Well, I don't get it.

While back I'm in the Starbucks up here at 59 and 99, and I'm standing in line, and because I've been over there reading for a little while, and I get up to get some more coffee, and the lady says, Hey, can I get your refill?

And I said, Yeah, and she goes, Now tell me what you do, because I see you in here, you read, and you put your glasses on, and you write stuff, and then you read, and I said, Well, I pastor a church, and she went, Oh.

Now, when you listen to people, this is free.

Don't just listen to what they say, listen to what their emotions are doing.

Listen to what they feel.

And she went, Oh.

And I said, Oh, we're gonna go there.

And she said, Well, you know, I just hadn't had it.

I I said, I I understand.

So tell me about what you believe, kind of what governs your life, because I pastor a church, that may not mean for you what you think it is.

It may not mean I'm who you think I am.

So tell me about you, since you've got me all figured out.

Well, I don't have you have you noticed that some of the people that preach tolerance the most are some of the most intolerant people you ever meet?

And so I just said, come on, I mean, just tell me.

She says, Well, I believe that humanity should live in a harmonious balance with creation.

And I just smiled to myself and I just thought, what a friend we have in Jesus.

You ever watch a rodeo?

I feel like I was in the chute and I was just kind of eased up on my rope.

I was like, open the shoot.

Woo! Here we go.

And she went on, we have this harmonic.

I just didn't think we should respect nature.

And it was great.

Nothing she said.

Here's the thing: don't check out and make fun of that.

Nothing she said violated the Bible.

Nothing.

It was great.

It was a little earthy and a little.

And I'm just sitting there, just kind of like, you ever blow up a balloon and you don't tie it off, you just let it go?

I'm just letting the balloon land.

And here's why you should listen because you have to contextualize the gospel.

Okay?

I'm gonna use another big word, so you're not gonna degree.

Uh it's called incarnational ministry.

You kind of hang flesh on it, not a tractional ministry that says, hey, come and hear my pastor talk.

He's the most highly functioning bipolar you'll ever hear.

No, it's incarnational.

It's, hey, how do I bring the red meat of the truth of Jesus to bear on this situation?

So she goes on, and I said, Now you said earlier something about bad experience of the church.

Oh, yeah, church is a bunch of hypocrites.

Just by a show of hands, how many of you in this room that are Christians have ever been a hypocrite besides me?

Can I see your hand?

Hold it up real high.

Look around.

She's right.

And I told her that day, I said, Oh yeah, yeah, I'm the pastor of a church, and I've been a hypocrite before.

And she's like, see, you make my point.

I said, But can I make my point?

Or you just get to make all your points.

By this point, people stop frothing milk.

People in line are like, there's an old man over by the door, and he's just got his legs crossed.

You know how old men sit like this, and he's just like it's better than the movie.

And I said, can can I make my point?

Yeah, go ahead.

See, if you love creation as much as you do and you care about us living in harmonic balance with the earth and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you would be a hypocrite not to join God who created the universe and is one day gonna restore it to its pre-fallen state.

Oh, I am not a hypocrite.

Yes, you are.

The Bible says that in in Romans chapter 8, well, I don't want to quote in the Bible to me.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

I said, okay, can I just paraphrase it?

Okay, you can paraphrase it.

Let me say this, okay?

You can be so afraid of the truth that you damn yourself to live a lie.

And so I said, okay, I'll just paraphrase it.

Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Uh the Bible says that creation is groaning as a woman giving birth.

It's a very painful process, okay?

You ever given birth?

That's none of your business.

Okay, okay.

Hey, there's a reason people are defensive.

Don't get mad.

You you you you you you gotta cultivate.

You can't curse the culture.

It's like Paul said, I planted, Apollos watered, God calls the increase.

I may just be there to plant some seeds.

I don't need to, I don't need to close the deal here.

It's not like a calf rope.

I said, the Bible says this God who's creator and sustainer of every molecule in the universe and this galaxy and all the galaxies we hadn't found yet with the Hubble telescope.

This God says that here's the deal: that creation is like a woman in the pains of childbirth.

It's painful, and it's gonna be painful in this life.

You're gonna see creation, it's not gonna be what it's supposed to be, but here's why you endure the pain, because something beautiful's coming.

And if you don't know this God, you're gonna miss out on the one thing you say you've given your life to.

It's restoring this world to the way it's supposed to be, to this utopian paradise where no one uses styrofoam.

So, what are you saying?

I'm saying, can I get a crumb cake with this?

Because you got me on the clock.

I'm gonna have to lay down some theology on you up in here.

I'm hungry now.

So, and her other coworkers were like, hmm, Kimo Sabe, you speaketh truth.

And I say, I'm not mad at you.

It's just if you really are passionate about this, you should join God in enduring the pain of the now for the beautiful thing that is to come.

Y'all are observant people.

Thought something was on fire.

I was like, My glasses.

And so she's like, and so I reached for my coffee and I said, Can I have that?

She said, Turn and walked out.

The old man by the door, give me a high five.

That was good, young man.

I don't go around zinging people.

Some of you think, oh boy, I wish I could be there.

I try to contextualize the gospel.

Where is this person?

And how do I bring the gospel to bear on where they are?

Proverbs says it like this a word fitly spoken is like an apple of gold in a setting of silver.

And I just try to speak this word, it's fitly spoken, it's fit, it fits the situation.

I didn't quote the Bible.

I paraphrased.

Because we live in a culture that's so afraid of the truth, we we choose to live in a lie.

Because we, oh, what's the truth gonna do?

Well, if you believe Jesus, Jesus said the truth will set you free.

And don't you want to be free people?

That's what you were created for.

If you go back in the very beginning and read Genesis, God said to Adam and Eve, you are free to eat of any tree in the garden.

Jesus didn't come to make you feel bad, he came to restore the freedom that we had in the beginning, that we forfeited through disobedience.

I just preached the whole Bible to you right there in six seconds.

So when we talk about the the the reconciling nature of mission, here's the thing, and I'm done.

When you go out in the world this week, you gotta, you gotta, when you leave here in just a minute, you gotta embrace this thing.

You've been given, if you're a Christian, you've been given the ministry of reconciliation.

You're in the ministry.

You the Bible says it's as if, because it is, it's as if God is making his appeal through us.

Ask yourself this one simple question: what is God gonna say through you this week?

And are you prepared to have it said?

What's because if all of us in this service and in the last service and in the service that is to come, would all just go out into the culture and just ask, what is God prepared to say through me?

Because he makes his appeal through us.

He doesn't say, stand on the sideline, watch me do it.

I'm God.

No, he says you're a great businessman.

And you're I and I'm gonna bless you and take care of you, make your house payment, but you're gonna be in some business settings with some men that don't believe in me.

And because they do business with you, they're gonna believe in me.

Because I'm gonna make my appeal.

I'm gonna say to them, Red Rover, Red Rover, let Roy come over.

Because you and Roy are in business together.

You don't need me for that.

You don't need all you need to do is just embrace that I am a part.

The big cosmic nature of the story that God tells, we refer to as the gospel, is simply this that God speaks through you.

So, what is he gonna say through you this week, and who's he gonna say it to?

Stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out.

He knows everything you ever did.

Because he knew what he was coming to do.

That's the God of the Bible.

Don't let religion put a bad taste in your mouth about God.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Depart now, because this God who saw everything you ever did looked past it and died for it.

Now trust you to speak this message of reconciliation to everybody you know that needs to be right with him.

So leave now and do that in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.