BECOMING A PEOPLE OF MISSION | SUNDAY 2ND MARCH | PS AARON MORE

you can understand when we bring up

those words becoming a PR people of

prayer becoming a people of presence and

becoming a people of mission you can

understand that in some part my job

description is quite hard because

naturally all of us or or many of us

would go man I kind of struggle a little

bit with prayer or I don't know if

that's totally me like I have a prayer

time but you know most Christians you

talk to don't go Man I Feel Like a

Prayer Warrior I'm just uh in the glory

all day like that's generally not the

experience when I talk to people you

know when we talk about becoming a

people of presence you know most of us

say that is a battle for us to maintain

that focus and that connection on the

Holy Spirit you know I don't hear Too

Many testimonies yet of people saying

well I just walked into work or school

and people just fell over under the

power of God there were healings Revival

uh you know anywhere I go it turns into

a Revival meeting right and becoming a

people of mission many of us have

experienced the P push back of secular

humanism that kind of means I I now no

longer know actually what's appropriate

and what's not appropriate I don't know

what I'm allowed to do at my workplace

and what I'm not allowed to I don't know

if that conversation makes sense so you

can see it's a lot of fun to stand up

and talk about prayer presence and

Mission because naturally for many of us

there's actually this feeling of

inadequacy and so when we come to this

place of mission it's interesting

because there there is that tension

there I remember in Alexandra we had

this uh amazing faithful lady who

outreached to people everywhere she went

you know and so uh she got up one

morning and gave the testimony of just

going in to visit a friend in hospital

and she happens to go in and visit her

friend and then she just sees that

there's someone else in the room so she

goes across and chear the gospel prays

with them then's walking down and sees

someone that she used to go to school

with 40 years ago stops in prays shares

the gospel and uh it was so amazing

you're like wow what a testimony and

then I realized in that moment what

actually kind of happened a little bit

for our church was everyone was happy to

applaud that's great and at the same

time they were going to go wow that's

actually not me like that kind of thing

isn't who I am and so all of a sudden

rather than actually encouraging the

mission culture within our church or the

evangelism culture it had actually been

something where people were now actually

disconnecting a little bit because they

were like man I'm not the person that

walks through the hospital Wards calling

out names praying sharing Jesus like I

just don't know if I have that within me

and so sometimes we hear these amazing

testimonies and yes we celebrate God's

goodness but it reinforces to us well

that's not

me and when you add the cultural climate

that we live in when we come to this uh

term Mission it can be confusing for us

as to exactly what we are being called

to

do sorry I'm just having a few technical

problems we are uh in Matthew 24 Jesus

gives what's famously called the Great

Commission where he says all authority

in Heaven and Earth is given to me go

therefore and Make Disciples of all

Nations can we have that scripture up is

that

um baptizing

them what's interesting is when you go

back a verse the people he's giving this

commission to it says the Risen Christ

turned up right so Jesus is turn has

turned up the Risen Christ I love what

Francis Chan said when he was out here

um and he was uh doing the send and

convincing people to go and he said if a

man rises from the dead and tells you to

go a pastor probably doesn't have a

whole lot they can add to that like if

the weight of someone rising from the

dead and gives you an instruction like

if that doesn't become motivation for

the church well probably my words are

going to fall dramatically short because

we actually have a risen savior that

does us but the interesting thing is

this it says they worshiped him but some

doubted they worshiped him but some

doubted so they have the Risen Christ in

front of them some have doubted and

Jesus doesn't address their doubt doubts

he commissions

them isn't it crazy to think you've got

these people and some of them are

doubting like I would go hey let's do a

course on overcoming your doubt let's

not send you out now like clearly you've

got a few things going on you've got a

man that's risen from the dead standing

in front of you and you're having doubts

that doesn't sound like the team to send

forth with the hope of the

gospel and Jesus comes to doubting

people and he commissions them come on

good and that's an encouragement and a

provocation for me wow Jesus didn't wait

till the disciples had everything

together till he commissioned them why

because the power was in the one giving

the commission not in the adequacy of

those who were hearing it you see the

power was in the Risen Christ he said

all authority has been given to me and

then it's stunning that he would

actually follow that up by saying

therefore you go you see he said I've

got all authority but with my authority

what I'm actually going to do is send

forth people who are currently doubting

I'm going to send forth people who feel

that they are inadequate because as we

carry the gospel and the power of God

people actually go I realize they're not

that good there must be something going

on here and that's exactly what happened

in the book of

Acts where it says the boldness of Peter

and

John when the people saw it they were

astounded and they recognized that they

had been with Jesus see they were bold

and they saw the boldness and they were

like hey I realize

they're not that good they've been with

Jesus and there's something amazing when

God anoints you to do something and

people look and wonder what is going on

I remember in Alexandria I was uh

working with a a social agency and I

just started and I I I won't give too

many details because I was working with

a particular family though and so what

happened was I went and had two meetings

with this family they were my first

client doing this job and so I would

pull up outside their house it was

within a secular context um I wasn't

there to preach the gospel I was just

there to help them as a family I'd pull

up outside the house I'd be like God

please help me God I I don't know what

I'm doing help me and so um I'd had two

meetings with them so only a couple of

meetings and then we go into a meeting

uh with all the community support

organizations and so I'm sitting there

and there's um I'm easily the least

qualified person in the room like the

school principals there the

psychologists are there the counselors

are there and uh I remember I came in

just feeling like oh I feel so uh

inadequate to be in this place and so

I'm sitting there and uh they asked the

family to share and they say I've

actually had a good couple of weeks and

and they and the person leading the

meeting said well what do you put there

down to and uh I say this with no Pride

with absolute humility they just pointed

at me and I'm sitting there like going

don't cry don't cry don't cry because

for the last two weeks I've been like

God I don't know what I'm doing God I'll

turn up but I'm not capable of doing

this and at the end of the meeting what

was crazy was I had psychologists going

why really need to catch up with you

I've got some people you can meet and

I'm going no like I got away with this

one I'm actually don't know what I'm

doing I'm not that good if you can't

help them I probably can't but there was

something about the presence of Jesus

that people were like wow I can't

explain it he doesn't have all the

skills but I can tell you when God puts

his Spirit on us and we reach out people

notice and you see they notice the

boldness of Peter and John scripture

tells us the righteous are as bold as a

lion and probably all of us at times

have experienced push back where it's

like hey that's fine I'm really pleased

you have your faith but it's private

it's yours keep it in your box and stay

there and so we don't know how do we

deal with this idea of boldness in a

society that sometimes doesn't really

want us to be bold and we need to learn

to be respectful but how do we be

respectful and still be bold and I love

what uh Peter says where he says um you

know that you should always be

willing to give an answer to those who

ask but do so with gentleness and

respect always be

prepared you've got Peter the one who

denied

Christ he's like hey I'll give you a bit

of a tip always be prepared my worst

moment didn't go so well so I'll give

you the tip hey be prepared to give an

answer but do so with gentleness and

respect and you know we need to have

boldness and gentleness and respect that

those two are not actually opposites

they actually work together and

sometimes we've seen someone who's been

bold but doesn't have much respect you

ever seen a Christian like that have you

ever been a Christian like that I

remember one time someone telling me at

a workplace where I was working she said

my Christians are flat mate and she

thinks you're very

judgmental in the conversations that you

have with me and I remember I was

thought whatever am not and uh as I went

away and began to reflect I realized I

had far more boldness than I had respect

and that it was good to be zealous but I

actually needed to tone down the

boldness and rise up the respect one day

I'm walking down the street in

Alexandria and I'm just walking along

and I walk past this guy and we walk

past one another and as he walks past me

says repent from sin and turn to Jesus

and just keeps

walking I'm like did he just tell me to

repent from sin and didn't well I don't

know he's 100 meters down the street by

now by the time I've worked it out so I

watch him and without a word of a lie

what happens is he walks past the next

person and he goes repent from sin and

turn to Jesus they had headphones in and

so they go excuse me did you say

something and so now I'm watching this

and he's kind of like uh repent from sin

and turn to Jesus and walks

off and uh you know in a small town I'm

like h i don't don't think this guys

from here I'm like who is he so I'm like

hey come over here I'm

like um oh you're sharing the gospel in

our town he's like yeah I'm like uh do

you see much fruit from this oh it's not

up to me to see the fruit it's just me

to plant the seeds and I'm like and and

what seed do you think you're PL don't

he said don't try and discourage me I

know you're trying to discourage me but

I'm doing what I'm called to do and what

I could honestly say is the guy had

great boldness well kind of he he did

keep walking but he kind of had boldness

but there wasn't an actual engagement

with people right so here we had

boldness without gentleness and

respect

and funnily enough as I said when you

asked what the fruit was it was well I

don't know I just hope there is some

somewhere and so sometimes we hear this

word Mission and we can think of someone

like that and we're like well I just

know that's not me and obviously we will

have some people here that are like I've

been waiting for you to speak on it

because it totally is me and and man can

I say that I I so admire the people who

step out in boldness like I've done

things like preached on the streets

before quite a few different times and

approach Stranges I I I have done that

but I'll be honest it doesn't come

naturally to me it's not something

that's comfortable or that I'm like wow

it fills my tank and I'll be honest I

don't know if you've ever discovered it

what actually happens is most of the

time it actually goes okay I've had a

few bad experiences but most of the time

it goes okay you know what though I

still hate doing it the next time which

is so ironic because uh it goes okay so

I know we do have some people that

that's what really um is exciting for

them but for many of us what we're

actually asking is how do we re-engage

with Mission and can I say obviously

this morning I'm talking a a bit about

people being saved and that kind of

thing but we believe uh it's the gospel

of the Kingdom not just the gospel of

conversion so Jesus actually called them

to make

disciples but hey we say that with that

absolutely conversion is the entrance

Point people do need to turn from their

sin they need to hear the gospel to uh

commit and repent and give their lives

to Jesus that is the absolute starting

point but it's not the only thing that

mission is because disciples to become

disciples is actually to be become

apprentices of Jesus so it's not just

simply trying to get people to say a

prayer it's actually all of us the

mission is to see all of us being

transformed more into the image of God

that that is the mission that we are

called to but for some of us we will

feel like man how do I even re-engage in

this like I feel so

disconnected and then we hear you know

Jesus uh words the Risen Christ say

go and there's some debate amongst uh

Greek Scholars about the way you should

interpret Jesus saying go into all the

world and preach the gospel you see some

would say that it that that it is saying

hey go into all the world and that that

the the emphasis is primar on the going

others would say the active verb within

that sentence is actually um preach the

gospel so they would interpret it like

as you go so as you go wherever you go

preach the gospel can I say we need both

we need to actually send missionaries to

places that are not fortunate where the

name of Jesus has not been heard and

people need to hear the call to go but

we also need to know the mandate that

part of it is as you go as you go in

your daily life carry the mission of

heaven with

you and sometimes that looks real simple

and real practical when I was in

Alexandria I uh began to prepare my

messages um in a cafe I just liked being

out I was the only staff member didn't

really like doing it in the church

building by myself side would just go

out to a cafe and then one day I

thought actually what I'm going to do is

I'm going to go to the same Cafe all the

time just for the intent that why not as

I go I'll actually just go to the same

Cafe and so for probably about 3 weeks I

just go to the same Cafe a couple of

times a week you're laughing at my

coffee addiction aren't you

sue uh and so I would uh go to the same

Cafe and I would sit upstairs and I

would um work on my message and uh this

had an upstairs part so you'd order your

coffee and so um most of the time there

was a particular lady that served me at

the cafe and so she would bring the

coffee up and then after a few weeks she

said to me oh so obviously you're a

businessman what kind of business do you

do and so um I could see the absolute

disappointment when um I shared why I'm

actually a pastor and so I'm actually

coming up to prepare messages and she

was was kind of like oh okay and so I

thought that was it you know um and so a

few days later she comes up and she says

oh what are you working on

today and um I said oh I'm actually um

talking about the prodical son on um

Sunday and she said the what and I was

like the prodical son have you ever

heard the story and she said no I've

never heard the story and I was like

well I know you're busy at work so I'll

give you like the 45 second can run down

and so I shared the story with her about

the prodical son and um you know uh she

didn't in that moment break down repent

turn to Jesus but I can tell you a week

later she asked me what are you working

on this week and so all of a sudden I'm

like huh she's not coming to church but

she's listening more than what some of

the congregation

do

amazing see we can be intentional with

without making people projects we can

actually have intent you see what it

said what Peter said was always be

prepared you see you can actually have

intent as you go about your life you can

choose that you food your car up at the

same petrol station every

time just because I'm there and I may

not be trying to hum Hill song as I walk

and I might simply every time say have a

good

day and I'm just building con

connections with people as you go you

see one of the things that we've

sometimes thought is we we put our

friends into categories like we go I

have my Christian friends and I have my

uh unsaved friends and they're two

different categories and uh I just talk

like this with these people and I talk

like this with these people and that's

how it goes and I remember Aaron

Ironside was so helpful to me when I

said Hey how do I change the evangelism

culture in my life and in our church and

he said one of the amazing things is

encourage your people not to have groups

of friends just to have friends and you

know you don't be overtly religious but

you talk to people how you would talk to

people so as you're going about your day

you're not trying to work Jesus in but

when it's like wow there was this answer

to prayer that I had if it was a natural

place where you would share it with a

Christian friend you just share it you

you you don't overthink you just say oh

wow that's amazing that that happened

cuz I actually prayed about that and and

and and God did that for

me and so we actually bring who we are

into our world rather than saying well

I'm like this with my Christian friends

and then when I get apart from that I'm

I'm Different over here no we understand

we do need wisdom and sometimes it can

be customization but we actually just

turn up as we are who we are turns up to

those places if we are to

become a people of

mission you know as a church we really

believe that together we can do what we

could never do alone and individually we

can go where we could never go together

so we have the ability where this idea

of mission might be really hard for some

of us and the beauty is there's

opportunities where we can partake with

others to actually do Mission so we have

Street reach we have tiny Boppers we

have these uh Ministries that enable us

to touch base with people and actually

do things together that we could never

do by ourselves you know we go to fij we

go to Cambodia we have these uh

opportunities where we can participate

in Mission and if you're like wow I just

so struggle and I don't know where to

start why not do something

together but what I've found is this

when you are intentional about Mission

it actually opens up other opportunities

for you for example you know a member of

Street reach goes into work on Thursday

and uh someone comes in who they know

from Street reach and then the uh uh uh

colleague says hey where do you know

them from oh they come to a program a

thing I go to that I Church does on

Wednesday nights and so now as your life

is on Mission the miss Mission actually

opens opportunities for you hey I'm

heading off to Fiji what are you going

to do in Fiji are nice to be at a resort

no I won't be at a resort I'll be

listening to the Beer snore in the next

door room trying to get sleep and then

the next day we'll be going up and out

to Villages and we'll be eating fish

heads and sharing the gospel and praying

for the sick and being on Mission

actually opens up the opportunity to

share about being on Mission as we

cultivate our lives with intentionality

then we actually uh have opportunities

come for us I know I've had to be really

intentional and I I have a couple of uh

very small intentional things that I do

uh at least weekly uh one of them is

daily the other ones weekly uh just

points of mission connection and I I

actually don't even want to share what

they are because I want to have aspects

of my life that I'm doing is worship to

Jesus that don't become stories from the

platform of a stage but what I do want

to encourage you is we can actually put

things into our life to be intentionally

missional and then those things as you

put those things in your life to be

intentionally missional they actually

create other opportunities hey would you

buy a cake I'm going to Cambodia why on

Earth are you going to Cambodia well

we're going to share about

Jesus and sometimes the person won't say

anything more and the interesting thing

is sometimes it can be months later

where all of a sudden they're going

through something and they ask and can I

tell you sometimes as Believers actually

what happens for us

is sometimes there is a cost to being on

the outside of a social situation and

work or in sometimes if you're not in a

a Christian work environment there can

be a a social cost sometimes to not uh

getting involved with what everyone else

gets involved in but can I tell you when

we share with gentleness and respect

what's amazing is so often when crisis

comes who does that person turn to so

often when crisis comes if we have been

intentional just to be loving respectful

crisis comes and they phone the believer

and you know I have heard so many

testimonies of people who said I felt

like I didn't fit in my workplace and

then when their marriage busted up they

phon me or when they were having

problems with their children they phoned

me and I spent ages feeling like I

was you know on the

outside but actually God was doing

something and so when we posture

ourselves with

intentionality God uses Us in powerful

ways I had uh one of the most

frustrating days of fishing I ever had

about this time last year just slightly

earlier January last year um or we uh we

knew we were moving up to toonga I'd

always told the boys that I'd take them

to tsel to go fishing in the canals and

so we would fish uh on the cluther river

but the canals and twis all lots of

salmon up there and so we went to the

spot that we driven past so many times

and so what happens is you pull into

this this place and there's the canal

there and there's actually a salmon farm

right here and so it's like good

hopefully there's some holes in those

Nets and those salmon are coming out and

so when you turn up there's like cars

everywhere and there's this is a weekday

it was school holidays and so there's

probably about 50 people fishing along

the stretch of thing and so we pull up

and all of a sudden these big salmon

start jumping out of the water and just

jumping jumping like um not exaggerating

probably about every 90 second another

salmon would jump up and I remember my

heart began to pound I'm not even that

big a fisherman I'm like whoa salmon for

dinner tonight like I cannot wait and so

I'm thinking hey this is going to be

amazing and so uh I mean I should have

realized that even if it was amazing

there were 50 other people who actually

know what they were doing around us so

the chances of me catching any and my

boys probably wasn't that high but

anyway we begin to cast in and it's like

oh no nothing nothing nothing it's like

then you hear a splash one jumped over

there cast there so you cast over we

just weren't even getting anything and

so the boys cast in and uh he gets a

tangle and

um I'm blind as a bat so I'm no good at

fixing Tangles um and so my um

thankfully this um older gentleman comes

over and starts sorting out um Ash's

tangle and um he says oh yeah have you

caught anything I said no we haven't

caught anything he says no you won't

catch anything here I oh really he says

no he says actually I travel around in

my camper van we come and stay here

about um this is where I choose to stay

because it's a beautiful Outlook he said

but he said actually like I've been here

since last night and he said all of

these people have been fishing he said I

haven't seen a single fish caught I was

like you're kidding me they're all

jumping like just give me a net you

could almost catch them like he's like

not a single fish has been caught and

like oh and he said if I was you I would

drive out go there go over that bridge

go down there and turn right and there's

a canal down there fast flowing cast

into that and uh you know you'll have a

much better chance and so I was like

okay boys get in the car we're going so

we went down and uh we still didn't

catch anything but we saw someone catch

something this giant trout in this place

it was this fast flowing river and this

guy caught this giant trout but what was

happening was this those fish were not

interested because they had been fed too

much artificial food from the fish farms

you see there was so much artificial

food from the fish farms that they were

no longer hungry can I say in our

society you will walk into environments

where people are not hungry because they

have fed themselves with things that

have satisfied the need but I'm not

actually fulfilling

them but can I tell you there's another

spot yes where the fish are hungry

there's another spot where where where

people are desperate to hear about the

reality of Jesus and if we'll do it with

gentleness and respect we realize wow

okay right now this doesn't seem to be a

place where the fish are biting I don't

have to think well that just means I've

got nothing to offer I'll just give up

I'll just go home I mean we should have

we didn't catch anything but anyway I

I'll go down to the other spot it's

crazy they had to cast in and it had

such a fast current you had to walk down

with your line as soon as I saw them

doing that I was like I don't think any

of us have the skills or coordination to

fish in this place but this guy caught a

huge

trout I was like down the thing they're

all jumping it was a place where you

wanted to be but you actually had to go

to where the fish were going to so

sometimes we need to have that

intentionality with our mission that we

can step in that God wants us to be a

church that to together do things that

we could never do by ourselves and then

individually we carry that presence of

Jesus to a broken world that we would

re-engage with Mission and it might look

as simple as as intentionally going to

places as intentionally carrying of

saying okay I'm just going to try a

little bit not to pigeon hole everyone

into boxes I'll just be who I am and

I'll just if it's natural to share about

God I'm not trying to work it in but

where it would naturally be to talk

about Jesus I'll do it okay maybe not

for 5 minutes but I'll have feel my

heart pounding and I'll say his name and

just say wow well God answered this

prayer uh for my son and I was so

grateful and then leave it at that with

gentleness and respect we need to be

prepared to give an answer for the hope

that we

have so I know many of us have felt the

push back and I believe the Lord is

wanting to release fresh boldness and

boldness doesn't just look like standing

out and preaching in the street even

though I am grateful that happens that

that that's not simply boldness boldness

can manifest in all kinds of ways

boldness is you carrying the goodness of

Jesus into your world and not feeling

like you have to hide that light but you

can just be who you are with gentleness

and respect and so this morning we're

going to pray just that the Lord would

anoint us with fresh boldness and the

ability to be gentle and respectful why

don't you stand to your feet place your

hand on your

heart Jesus many of us have experienced

the push back of being unsure whether

people really want to know about you and

whether we should just keep things

private and Lord for some of us that's

caused us to pull back

and Lord in the name of Jesus I pray

that there would be a holy boldness that

would come upon each one of us Lord it

would be a boldness that would be

alongside gentleness and respect Lord it

would be a boldness where we could share

your goodness and what you have done in

our lives to a Dying World Lord I pray

for our church for the Lord the

outreaches and the various ways that we

reach out to people Lord would you

anoint them Lord thank you for Alpha

that's coming Lord we pray that that

would be a great harvest field in the

name of Jesus Lord we ask that you would

keep us focused on the mission of the

kingdom and Lord I just release boldness

in the name of Jesus and Lord we

pray Lord that you would help us to

become a people of prayer a people of

presence and a people of mission but

Lord all for the sake and Glory of your

son

in Jesus mighty name amen amen