Sermon

Joining People to God's Work of Renewal

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  1. Well, again, let me say good morning to you.

  2. I'm thrilled to be here.

  3. And I'm excited to continue in the series that we started a couple of weeks ago.

  4. We're taking time right now, just a few weeks, to talk about the DNA of our church.

  5. We've been here for about 14 years, and some of you have been here for that entire journey.

  6. Some of you, this may be your first Sunday with us.

  7. And so, in the life of any church, it's very valuable to take time every now and then to

  8. remember why we started the church, why we're here, most importantly, where we feel like

  9. God is calling us to go.

  10. So this is really about what we feel that God has called us to be and to do in this area.

  11. And so, this is week three.

  12. We're continuing to look at our statement of mission, which, Julian, if you could put

  13. that up, our mission statement is essentially this.

  14. We exist to do three things, to join people to God, which we talked about a couple of weeks

  15. ago, to join people to one another, which we talked about last week, and then this week's

  16. topic, to join people with Christ's work of renewal in Washington, D.C. and through it,

  17. the world.

  18. This is the topic that we're going to be focusing on.

  19. Another way to ask the question that we're going to focus on this morning would be this.

  20. What is our salvation for?

  21. Why does God establish the church?

  22. Why does God save and restore people and place them in the church?

  23. What's God's desire for His church, for His people to do in the world?

  24. Why are we here?

  25. Why are we here?

  26. And what we see, and this is what the Bible does again and again, is the Bible says, if

  27. you know who you are, if you understand your identity, then out of that, you will clearly

  28. begin to understand your purpose.

  29. So, if you know who you are, then you can begin to discern why you're here.

  30. And that's why we're going to look at 1 Peter 2, verses 9 through 12, because this really

    1 Peter 2:9–12

  31. speaks to those two things.

  32. It tells us first who we are and then why we're here.

  33. So, we're going to look at this in two parts, the identity of the church and then the purpose

  34. of the church.

  35. So, this is our outline for this morning.

  36. So, let's take a moment and pray and ask God to guide us as we open His Word.

  37. Lord, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You that it's more than just ink and paper,

  38. that it is living, that it is active, that when You send it out, it does not return void.

  39. It accomplishes all that You intend for it to accomplish.

  40. Lord, our hope is not in the Word of human beings this morning.

  41. It's in the Word of the God who made us.

  42. And we pray that even as we open Your Word, that it would become living in us, that it would

  43. become flesh in us, and that through Your written Word, we would come to see Your living

  44. Word face to face.

  45. And it's in His name that we pray.

  46. Amen.

  47. Amen.

  48. So, first of all, let's talk a little bit about the identity of the church.

  49. This isn't just church of the advent.

  50. This is the church in the world.

  51. 1 Peter, since we're dropping into the middle of this, just to give you a little context,

  52. 1 Peter is all about the fact that Jesus, through His resurrection, has raised people to a living

  53. hope.

  54. That's what it says in the very beginning of the book.

  55. And what that means is this is a hope of life.

  56. It's a hope that is living and active in the form of Jesus Christ.

  57. And it's a living hope for the world.

  58. That God's plan isn't just to save people so that they can escape the world.

  59. That God's plan is actually to resurrect and renew the world just as the body of Jesus has

  60. been resurrected and renewed.

  61. So our hope is a resurrected world.

  62. And He raises people to begin to live out that hope here and now.

  63. And so, 1 Peter is really all about how we do that when we live in a world where people

  64. believe lots of different things, a pluralistic society, and where increasingly people are

  65. very hostile to the beliefs of a faith like Christianity.

  66. These people were facing hostility every bit as much as we face skepticism and hostility

  67. today.

  68. And so, Peter's talking about first in the first part of the book, he's talking about

  69. the identity of the church.

  70. Who are we who have been raised to this living hope?

  71. And how do we orient ourselves to the world that we live in, the society where God has

  72. placed us?

  73. And he uses two key terms that give us a big, strong, clear sense of our place in the world.

  74. And the first word that he uses, it's a key term, is the word exile.

  75. He says, to understand who you are in the world, you need to understand that now because

  76. of me, you are all exiles.

  77. You're exiles.

  78. And he's intentionally referencing a very specific time in Israel's history.

  79. In the 6th century BC, the Babylonians conquered God's people and they took them into exile.

  80. And the Babylonian strategy was that after a couple of generations, Israel would simply

  81. become assimilated into Babylonian culture.

  82. So the idea is, it's very expensive to kill all of these people.

  83. It's very bloody and it's a big waste.

  84. We're going to benefit more as a society if they just assimilate and we gain their best

  85. and brightest.

  86. And so that's exactly what they did.

  87. And so the hope was that Israel would simply cease to exist, right?

  88. That their kids' kids wouldn't even remember Israel.

  89. And so for these Israelite exiles in Babylon, there was this big question that they were

  90. debating among themselves.

  91. How do we relate to this foreign culture of Babylon?

  92. And it seemed like there were only two options.

  93. Some people said we need to hunker down.

  94. It was the sort of fortification option.

  95. Let's fortify ourselves against the Babylonian culture.

  96. Let's keep ourselves entirely separate and let's wait for God to rescue us.

  97. And there were some prophets who were saying that's going to happen very soon.

  98. Just hold tight.

  99. God is coming.

  100. The other option that some people sort of accepted with a sense of hopeless resignation

  101. was let's just give up.

  102. Let's just allow ourselves to be assimilated.

  103. There is no hope for us.

  104. We're done as a people.

  105. And so that was really the two choices, fortification or assimilation.

  106. And God sends the prophet Jeremiah with a third option.

  107. He says, I don't want you to fortify yourselves and I don't want you to allow yourselves to

  108. be assimilated.

  109. And the option is what we might call faithful presence.

  110. On the one hand, he says, don't remain separate.

  111. Go into Babylon.

  112. Put down roots.

  113. Get jobs.

  114. Have kids.

  115. Commit to living there for several generations.

  116. You're going to be there for a while.

  117. And then on the other hand, Jeremiah says, on the one hand, don't fortify.

  118. But on the other hand, don't allow yourselves to be assimilated.

  119. Go into the city.

  120. Go into the society.

  121. You know, get jobs.

  122. Put down roots.

  123. Get married.

  124. Let your kids get married.

  125. Get to know your neighbors.

  126. Invest in the community.

  127. But don't be assimilated into their way of life.

  128. Stay faithful to me as my chosen people.

  129. Stay holy, which means set apart.

  130. Stay holy.

  131. And more than that, verse 7, seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you into exile.

  132. And pray to the Lord on its behalf.

  133. For in its welfare, you will find your welfare.

  134. Right?

  135. And the word welfare can also be translated shalom or flourishing.

  136. Right?

  137. And so this is the third option that exilers are called to in the world.

  138. And Peter is saying that Christians need to understand that we need to think of ourselves like exiles in Babylon.

  139. So God wants the church to be present and active and engaged in every sphere of society.

  140. God's vision is that Christians would be everywhere there are people.

  141. Right?

  142. Go everywhere.

  143. In every job.

  144. In every profession.

  145. In every sphere.

  146. But on the other hand, don't be assimilated.

  147. Stay holy.

  148. Stay separate.

  149. Stay set apart.

  150. Stay faithful to me.

  151. Stay salty.

  152. Stay.

  153. So it's the both and option.

  154. Right?

  155. Be present but don't allow yourselves to be assimilated.

  156. Instead, pray for and seek the flourishing of the society where God has put you.

  157. So that's the first word that he uses.

  158. Think of yourselves like exiles called to have a faithful presence wherever God has put you.

  159. And then he adds to that a term that would have gone way beyond anything that you would see in the Old Testament.

  160. He says, not only are you exiles, but you were also a royal priesthood.

  161. Because of Jesus, you're not just exiles.

  162. You are royal priests.

  163. Now, for the original audience, for people with a kind of a Jewish background, royalty was a kind of unimaginable privilege.

  164. Right?

  165. Most people didn't even know somebody who was royal.

  166. And so what they would think of would be sort of King David and the lineage of King David.

  167. Unless you were born into a royal family, you probably wouldn't even be in contact with anybody who was royal.

  168. And priests were similar in the sense that that was this kind of unimaginable privilege that you had to be born into.

  169. Because in the Old Testament, in the Old Testament priesthood, priests came from certain special families from among the nation of Israel.

  170. And they were uniquely able to enter into the holy places of God and to mediate the relationship between God and people.

  171. So both royalty and priests, they were privileges that you had to be born into.

  172. You had to be born into the right family.

  173. So the idea that everybody would be royal priests was just unthinkable.

  174. Right?

  175. Because these are massive privileges.

  176. And that's exactly what Peter is saying.

  177. He's saying that every single Christian who puts their faith in Jesus Christ is born again into a royal priesthood.

  178. You're born into that chosen, set apart, privileged family.

  179. And what this means is that every single Christian has all of the privileges of royalty in God's kingdom.

  180. Right?

  181. You have the place of honor at the table.

  182. And every single Christian has direct access to God.

  183. A kind of access that the Old Testament priesthood couldn't have even imagined having.

  184. So he says you're exiles and you are royal priests.

  185. Every single one of you.

  186. And this is extremely important for understanding the identity of the church in the world today.

  187. Because, you know, when we use the word priest, we can easily get confused.

  188. Because in the church today, we use the word priest in a couple of different ways.

  189. In one sense, we use the word priest to describe an office in the church.

  190. Somebody who wears a collar.

  191. Somebody like me.

  192. And we say, well, some churches have priests in them.

  193. And that word comes from the Greek word presbyteros, which essentially means elder.

  194. And what we see is that since the very beginning of the church, the apostles set aside certain people to serve the church as presbyteros, as priests, as elders.

  195. People to sort of oversee and manage the affairs of the church and God's people.

  196. And so that's what I do.

  197. That's what a very small number of people do.

  198. We have that job in the church.

  199. It's an office.

  200. But here's the thing I want you to understand.

  201. Our job and the reason that this office even exists is to serve you, the royal priesthood.

  202. So we are sort of priests who serve all of the other priests in God's family, in God's temple.

  203. And so as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4, the job of people like me is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

    Ephesians 4 chapter mention

  204. Our job is to equip the royal priesthood to be a royal priesthood in the world.

  205. And so our contract is essentially this.

  206. I keep you well fed so that you can go out and do all of the things, do all of the ministry that God has given you to do.

  207. And that's how the relationship works.

  208. And one of the biggest threats to the mission of the church is what we might call clericalism,

  209. which is the mistaken belief that the clergy are the ones doing the real work of ministry on the front lines

  210. and that it's the job of the church to support the kind of ordained people.

  211. You know, the pastors and the missionaries and the monks and the nuns, they're the real Christians.

  212. They're doing the real work of ministry.

  213. And everybody else's job in the congregation is to support what they do.

  214. And what we need to emphasize here is we can't really emphasize this enough.

  215. That's the exact opposite of the way God, I believe, intended his church to function.

  216. I mean, I stand up here for an hour and a half roughly every week.

  217. And you all are the ones sitting in the pews because this is the time for you to be fed.

  218. This is the time for you to come together and to be fed and to be nourished.

  219. And we all sort of come together in prayer and around the word of God and around the table.

  220. And so you need to be fed by word and by sacrament, right, for all that God has called you to do.

  221. So this is the time for you to sit in the pews.

  222. But that's about an hour and a half a week, give or take.

  223. For the remaining roughly 166 and a half hours of the week, you are the ones on the front lines and I'm the one behind the scenes.

  224. And you are the ones on the front lines doing the work of royal priests in the world.

  225. And I mean that in its fullest sense.

  226. Everywhere you go, you bring the presence of God with you.

  227. You have an ability to do what no Old Testament priest ever could have done because you don't need to go to the temple.

  228. You don't need to go into the holy of holies in the temple.

  229. Wherever you go.

  230. And it might sound ridiculous to say, you know, when you go to Costco and you're standing in line,

  231. you have with you, in you, the presence of the God who made the universe.

  232. You're a royal priest.

  233. So when you walk into a room, people may not know it, but you are the single most important person they could possibly talk to.

  234. Right?

  235. If they really knew what they were doing in terms of networking, everybody would line up to talk to you.

  236. Because you are the one with a royal priestly authority to bring them into the presence of the God of the universe.

  237. One conversation with you, and they have a chance to actually know and be reconciled to the God who made them.

  238. Because you're a royal priest.

  239. And if we understand the identity of the church as exiles and royal priests, I think that begins to shape our sense of why we're here.

  240. Our purpose.

  241. We're exiles called to seek the welfare of the society where we've been sent.

  242. To be present everywhere, but not to be assimilated.

  243. And we are royal priests who bring with us the authority of the kingdom of God and the presence of that God wherever we go.

  244. Now just let that sink in.

  245. And so the job of the people up here, the job of the people who work for a church, is to make sure you have everything you need to do that.

  246. It's to make sure you're well fed.

  247. It's to pray for you.

  248. It's to do all we can to equip you.

  249. And then when you go out and you fight on the front lines, and you get beat up and you get wounded and you get tired and you get hungry,

  250. you come back and we patch you up here on Sunday.

  251. And then we send you back out to the front lines.

  252. And that's how it works.

  253. So we're exiles.

  254. We're royal priests.

  255. That leads us into the second part, which is understanding the purpose of the church.

  256. The purpose of the church.

  257. He says,

  258. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession,

  259. that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

  260. To proclaim God's excellence.

  261. That's essentially our purpose.

  262. To proclaim God's excellence.

  263. And that means to make it known far and wide.

  264. So the word proclaim here is not just speaking.

  265. It's also living.

  266. I make God's excellence known in what I say.

  267. I make God's excellence known in what I do and how I live.

  268. That's what a royal priest does.

  269. That's the job of a royal priest.

  270. So what does it look like to do this?

  271. I wanted to give you a few examples.

  272. You see them up on the screen right now.

  273. A few specific examples of ways we as a church proclaim God's excellence.

  274. The first example is simply this.

  275. Through evangelism.

  276. That's the most obvious example of proclaiming God's excellence.

  277. And evangelism is something that every Christian is called to do.

  278. It's a part of how we respond to Jesus.

  279. You see at the end of Matthew, that passage that I just read,

  280. that Jesus gives that commandment, go and make disciples of all the nations,

  281. to his apostles.

  282. And then he tells them, go and tell everyone you know, everyone you meet,

  283. everyone who becomes a disciple, to observe all that I've commanded you,

  284. including the commandment to go and make disciples.

  285. Right?

  286. And so this is something that applies to every Christian.

  287. And it's a quintessential job of a royal priest,

  288. is to make the presence and the glory of God known to people who need to know him.

  289. And honestly, at its core, evangelism is simply proclaiming God's excellence.

  290. Ideally, evangelism starts simply by telling people stories of how God has worked in your life.

  291. That's where evangelism really, I think, should begin.

  292. You know, this past week I was in Oregon,

  293. and I found myself one night sitting at a table with just the most random mishmash of people.

  294. And we're sitting there, and earlier in the trip,

  295. somebody had asked what we all did, and it got to me.

  296. And I said, you know, well, I'm a pastor back in D.C.

  297. I'm a priest of an Anglican church.

  298. And I could tell that that was sort of an unexpected answer.

  299. You know, it's like doctor, lawyer, lawyer, doctor, priest.

  300. And they're like, okay.

  301. And so another day goes by,

  302. and then the third night we're all together at dinner,

  303. and somebody brings it back up and says,

  304. well, how does somebody, none of these people were Christians.

  305. And they say, well, how does somebody get into that kind of work, you know?

  306. And I said, well, honestly, I don't think it's going to make much sense to you

  307. unless I tell you the story of how I came to faith.

  308. Would you be interested in hearing that story?

  309. And everybody at the table said, absolutely, we'd love to hear that story.

  310. And I'm inside thinking, really?

  311. You really want to hear?

  312. Not many people, okay.

  313. And so I just begin to tell the story of how I came to faith.

  314. And I get done with the story.

  315. And then somebody asks a question about Jesus,

  316. and somebody asks a question about the gospel.

  317. And next thing I know, the entire dinner conversation,

  318. until the end of the night, we're talking about the gospel.

  319. And we're talking about Jesus.

  320. And we're talking about grace.

  321. And we're talking about idolatry.

  322. And we're talking about how nothing that we put our hope in

  323. is ever going to last and deliver.

  324. And we're talking about how Jesus is the only thing,

  325. the only one that we're ever meant to know and follow.

  326. But it all launched out of just an opportunity to tell my story.

  327. And it was fascinating to me to realize that I'm not gifted in evangelism.

  328. If you know Lisa, our deacon, she's very gifted in evangelism.

  329. I don't have the spiritual gift.

  330. But as a Christian, I know that I'm called to do it.

  331. And what you realize is that very often, you know,

  332. I didn't go in there with any kind of strategy, any kind of game plan,

  333. any kind of approach that I was going to take.

  334. I was just showing up and eating dinner.

  335. And God created the opportunity.

  336. And that when God creates that opportunity,

  337. all we have to do is respond with the truth.

  338. Well, here's how I've experienced God in my life.

  339. Here's what God's done for me.

  340. We are proclaiming God's excellence when we do that.

  341. And then when people want to know more and they want to know more

  342. and they want to know more,

  343. all of a sudden you find yourself laying out

  344. all of the core aspects of our faith

  345. and why we put our hope in Jesus above anyone else.

  346. And I think that's where good evangelism starts.

  347. And, you know, we live in a culture

  348. that I think increasingly rejects the idea of organized religion,

  349. but story has a real power.

  350. People really put value on stories.

  351. And it's interesting how when you begin to tell your story,

  352. how people begin to rethink and question their own story

  353. in ways that I think God can use.

  354. So this is something that every single one of us can do.

  355. So this is one of the ways that we proclaim God's excellence

  356. through evangelism.

  357. Another way that we as a community

  358. proclaim God's excellence in the world

  359. is through ministries of justice and mercy.

  360. You know, unfortunately, you don't often see churches

  361. that emphasize both evangelism and justice and mercy.

  362. Typically, you have churches that emphasize evangelism,

  363. but they don't talk a lot about justice and vice versa.

  364. But I think if you read Scripture thoroughly,

  365. it shows you pretty clearly how much God cares

  366. about justice and mercy right alongside evangelism.

  367. You know, you read places like Isaiah 58

  368. where God says to His people,

  369. is not this the fast that I choose?

  370. In other words, do you really want to prove

  371. that you're my people?

  372. Do you really want to glorify my name?

  373. Do you really want to show your devotion to me?

  374. Well, loose the bonds of wickedness.

  375. Undo the straps of the yoke.

  376. Let the oppressed go free.

  377. Break every yoke.

  378. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

  379. and bring the homeless poor into your house

  380. when you see the naked to cover him, right?

  381. This is God saying,

  382. if you want to glorify my name and proclaim my excellence,

  383. then you need to care about what I care about,

  384. to care the people that I want to care for, right?

  385. And then in Luke 11,

  386. Jesus actually accuses the Pharisees of hypocrisy.

  387. And what he's talking about there is,

  388. he says,

  389. you're overemphasizing certain forms of holiness and piety.

  390. You're tithing so meticulously

  391. that you're even tithing your herbs in your garden.

  392. You're tithing your mint and your cumin.

  393. And he says,

  394. and yet you're neglecting the people

  395. who are right in front of you,

  396. who are victims of poverty and injustice.

  397. He says,

  398. you're neglecting justice.

  399. And he says,

  400. this is a form of hypocrisy.

  401. He says,

  402. woe to you.

  403. Woe to you,

  404. Pharisees.

  405. Right?

  406. And so the Bible again and again says

  407. that some of the clearest evidence

  408. of genuine Christian faith

  409. is whether or not we care about justice and mercy

  410. for those who are vulnerable.

  411. And the Bible again and again and again

  412. has what many people have called

  413. the quartet of the vulnerable.

  414. Again and again and again,

  415. you see the widow,

  416. the orphan,

  417. the immigrant,

  418. and the poor.

  419. The widow,

  420. the orphan,

  421. the immigrant,

  422. and the poor.

  423. These are the most vulnerable people in society.

  424. And God says,

  425. if you care about me,

  426. then you've got to care about them.

  427. And the best evidence that you care about me

  428. is that you care about them.

  429. Right?

  430. So when we do the work of justice and mercy,

  431. we proclaim God's excellence

  432. because we're showing the world

  433. what God cares about,

  434. who God cares about,

  435. and we're giving people a preview

  436. of the kind of world,

  437. the kind of society

  438. that God is establishing

  439. through his kingdom.

  440. Right?

  441. We're saying,

  442. see this here.

  443. It's the same thing

  444. that Jesus did with his miracles.

  445. Right?

  446. Why does Jesus heal the blind

  447. and heal the lame

  448. and raise people from death?

  449. Why does Jesus do that?

  450. There are previews.

  451. There are ways for Jesus to say,

  452. one day when the kingdom

  453. is fully established,

  454. this is what everything

  455. is going to be like.

  456. And that's what we do

  457. when we do justice and mercy work.

  458. We're saying,

  459. you know,

  460. this is the kind of world

  461. that God is building,

  462. a kind of world

  463. where this is true for everybody.

  464. So this is why our church

  465. places a high value

  466. on supporting ministries

  467. like Little Lights

  468. and the mentoring work

  469. that they do.

  470. Or ministries like DZ 127

  471. and the foster care

  472. and adoption work

  473. that they do.

  474. Right?

  475. This is why we prioritize

  476. ministries that help us

  477. show the world

  478. the heart of God.

  479. It's why we have new ministries

  480. like the Antioch ministry

  481. that's devoted

  482. to building cross-cultural

  483. relationships

  484. with other churches

  485. in the city.

  486. It's the same reason.

  487. This shows the heart

  488. of God to the world.

  489. This proclaims His excellence.

  490. So we have evangelism,

  491. we have ministries

  492. of justice and mercy,

  493. and then finally,

  494. we have vocational ministry.

  495. And there's a reason

  496. that I wanted to end on this.

  497. Here's the reason.

  498. Evangelism,

  499. centrally important.

  500. Justice and mercy,

  501. centrally important.

  502. But when people ask,

  503. what ministries do you have

  504. at Church of the Advent?

  505. Get asked that a lot.

  506. What ministries,

  507. what are you guys doing?

  508. I say, you know,

  509. my first answer

  510. is pretty simple.

  511. I say, you want to know

  512. our primary ministry?

  513. It's our people.

  514. It's our people.

  515. You are our primary ministry

  516. through your vocation,

  517. through what God

  518. has called you to do

  519. and equipped you to do

  520. in the world.

  521. And the word vocation

  522. simply means calling.

  523. All Christians have

  524. two vocations.

  525. This is the way

  526. the Puritans used

  527. to break it down.

  528. They would say,

  529. all Christians have

  530. two vocations.

  531. You have a general calling

  532. and you have

  533. a particular calling.

  534. Your general calling

  535. is everything that we've

  536. been talking about

  537. up to this point.

  538. You are called

  539. to follow Jesus.

  540. You're called to evangelism,

  541. to share the gospel.

  542. You're called to do

  543. the work of justice

  544. and mercy.

  545. Everything that we've

  546. been talking about,

  547. that's all your

  548. general calling.

  549. All Christians are

  550. called to do those

  551. things.

  552. But you also have

  553. a particular calling.

  554. This is a specific

  555. occupation that God

  556. has called you to

  557. that uses your gifts

  558. and that it uses

  559. your talents

  560. and uses your aptitudes

  561. and uses your passions

  562. to do things

  563. that other Christians

  564. may not necessarily

  565. be called to do.

  566. right?

  567. So whether you build

  568. or you cook

  569. or you raise children

  570. or you paint

  571. or you organize

  572. or you clean

  573. or you lead

  574. or administrate

  575. or sell

  576. or manage

  577. or counsel

  578. or support

  579. or advise

  580. or oversee

  581. or inspire

  582. or teach,

  583. there are certain

  584. roles that God

  585. has designed

  586. and equipped you

  587. to fill

  588. roles that you

  589. play in his kingdom.

  590. And I'm not

  591. talking only about

  592. you doing those

  593. things in the church.

  594. I'm talking about

  595. you doing those

  596. things as the church

  597. in all of the world,

  598. wherever God

  599. puts you.

  600. And the thing is,

  601. if you imagine

  602. two overlapping circles

  603. like a Venn diagram,

  604. your vocation

  605. may not necessarily

  606. line up

  607. with your current job

  608. or career.

  609. Right?

  610. Ideally,

  611. your vocation

  612. and your job

  613. or your career

  614. that there's

  615. some overlap.

  616. Some of us,

  617. it may be like this.

  618. You gotta make money,

  619. but this is really

  620. your calling.

  621. Ideally,

  622. there's some overlap

  623. and ideally,

  624. over time,

  625. part of your Christian maturity,

  626. part of your discipleship,

  627. is getting more

  628. and more clear

  629. on what your vocation is

  630. so that you can spend

  631. more and more

  632. and more of your time

  633. pulling those things together.

  634. And, you know,

  635. Amy Sherman

  636. writes about this

  637. and she says

  638. that our vocation

  639. is typically found

  640. at the intersection

  641. of three things.

  642. God's priorities,

  643. your gifts,

  644. talents,

  645. passions,

  646. interests,

  647. aptitudes,

  648. and then the world's needs.

  649. You pull all

  650. of those things together

  651. and you will find

  652. where those things

  653. intersect for you

  654. a sense of vocation.

  655. And it's the work

  656. of the church

  657. to help you

  658. figure that out.

  659. That's part of how

  660. we equip you

  661. for the work

  662. of ministry

  663. in the world.

  664. That's our responsibility

  665. as a community.

  666. And so what I want you

  667. to take from this

  668. is that the work

  669. that you do

  670. day in and day out,

  671. that work matters

  672. to God

  673. more than you

  674. can possibly imagine.

  675. It is one

  676. of the ways,

  677. and I would say

  678. as a church,

  679. a central way

  680. that God uses you

  681. to accomplish

  682. his purposes

  683. in the world.

  684. And Julian,

  685. if we could put

  686. this quote up

  687. on the screen,

  688. I want you to see this,

  689. I want you to hear it,

  690. I want you to remember it.

  691. N.T. Wright says this

  692. in his book

  693. Surprised by Hope.

  694. What you do

  695. in the present

  696. by painting,

  697. preaching,

  698. singing,

  699. sewing,

  700. praying,

  701. teaching,

  702. building hospitals,

  703. digging wells,

  704. campaigning for justice,

  705. writing poems,

  706. caring for the needy,

  707. loving your neighbor

  708. as yourself.

  709. And you can add

  710. into that list

  711. however,

  712. whatever you feel

  713. called to do

  714. in the world.

  715. Whatever you do

  716. will last

  717. into God's future.

  718. These activities

  719. are not simply ways

  720. of making the present life

  721. a little less beastly,

  722. a little more bearable,

  723. until the day

  724. when we leave it behind

  725. altogether.

  726. Last sentence.

  727. Listen to this.

  728. They are part

  729. of what we may call

  730. God built,

  731. what we may call

  732. building for God's kingdom.

  733. That when you do

  734. the work that God

  735. has called you to do,

  736. that is a part

  737. of building

  738. for God's kingdom.

  739. It's building

  740. for God's kingdom.

  741. So our primary ministry

  742. at Church of the Advent

  743. is you.

  744. Doing the work,

  745. doing your job,

  746. doing your vocation

  747. with excellence,

  748. with excellence

  749. for God's glory.

  750. Right?

  751. So when I see you

  752. doing something

  753. that you're phenomenally

  754. good at

  755. and something

  756. that you love to do,

  757. when I see your heart

  758. singing

  759. because you are

  760. doing the thing

  761. that God has put you

  762. here to do,

  763. that is proclaiming

  764. God's excellence.

  765. The world looks at that

  766. and says,

  767. and this is what Paul

  768. says in Colossians,

  769. do everything,

  770. work hard,

  771. work earnestly,

  772. work with all your heart

  773. as though you were

  774. working for Christ

  775. because that's exactly

  776. what you're doing.

  777. So you're our

  778. primary ministry.

  779. You royal priests,

  780. you exiles,

  781. you who are called

  782. not only to generally

  783. follow Jesus

  784. but to the specific

  785. things that God

  786. has put you here to do.

  787. So bringing all of this

  788. back to the mission

  789. of our church,

  790. we exist to join people

  791. to Christ's work

  792. of renewal

  793. in all of the ways

  794. that I've just described.

  795. Jesus has risen

  796. from the grave.

  797. One day Jesus

  798. will resurrect

  799. and restore this world.

  800. And because of the cross,

  801. we who were once

  802. caught off from God

  803. because of sin

  804. are not only reconciled

  805. to Him

  806. but we gain the

  807. unimaginable privilege

  808. of joining in

  809. the work of renewal.

  810. And so part of what

  811. we do as a church

  812. is to join people

  813. into the work

  814. that Christ is already

  815. doing in the world.

  816. And this means

  817. supporting and equipping

  818. you in your general

  819. vocation

  820. to follow Jesus

  821. faithfully

  822. and be holy

  823. and set apart,

  824. to share the gospel,

  825. to do the work

  826. of justice and mercy,

  827. and also supporting

  828. and equipping you

  829. for your particular

  830. vocation,

  831. helping you discern

  832. what has God

  833. called you to do,

  834. how do you integrate

  835. your faith

  836. into your work,

  837. and making sure

  838. you understand

  839. the importance

  840. of your work

  841. for God's kingdom.

  842. Because God

  843. has made you

  844. for His purposes

  845. and until you

  846. understand that,

  847. your life is never

  848. going to make sense.

  849. Let's pray.

  850. Lord, we thank you

  851. for your ministry

  852. in the world.

  853. All we do

  854. is a response

  855. to your ministry

  856. in the world.

  857. The fact is,

  858. as your word says,

  859. once we were not

  860. a people,

  861. once we were cut off

  862. and alienated,

  863. but now because of you

  864. we are a people.

  865. We thank you

  866. for your ministry

  867. and we thank you

  868. for the honor

  869. and the privilege

  870. of not just sitting

  871. on the sidelines

  872. and watching you

  873. do your thing,

  874. but the fact that you

  875. call us into your ministry.

  876. You call us

  877. to partner with you,

  878. to join with you

  879. in your work of renewal

  880. in this world, Lord.

  881. I thank you

  882. for calling us, Lord,

  883. in the ways

  884. that we're all called

  885. to tell people about you

  886. and to show your heart

  887. to the world

  888. and those we care for.

  889. And Lord,

  890. I also thank you

  891. for the particular

  892. colleagues that you've

  893. given each one of us

  894. and I pray that

  895. you would give us

  896. through the power

  897. of your Holy Spirit

  898. greater and greater clarity

  899. over what that is

  900. and that, Lord,

  901. you would inspire us,

  902. that you would give us

  903. the boldness

  904. and the freedom

  905. as a community

  906. to speak truth

  907. to one another

  908. in our discernment,

  909. that when we see

  910. things happening,

  911. Lord,

  912. that remind us of you,

  913. that put your glory

  914. on display,

  915. that we would speak up,

  916. that we would affirm

  917. that in one another.

  918. Lord,

  919. I pray that in all

  920. that we're called to do,

  921. all of the work

  922. that we're called to do,

  923. no matter how menial,

  924. no matter how unimportant

  925. it might feel,

  926. that we would do all of it

  927. with our eyes fixed on you,

  928. Lord,

  929. in the light of your pleasure,

  930. seeking only to bring you

  931. more glory

  932. and proclaim your excellence

  933. to the world.

  934. We pray this in your

  935. Son's holy name.

  936. Amen.