We Are Family: What If Mission

For those of you that don't know who I am,

I'm Brandon. I'm the lead pastor of the church. I'm

glad that you are here with us this morning. We

are in the middle of a sermon series called We

Are Family. We're talking about the different values that we

have as a church, the pillars with which this church

stands on. Last week I talked about the pillar of generosity.

I hope many of you evaluated that all week long

and came prepared today to practice that value after you

perfectly thought it through. Today, I want to talk to

you about the value of mission. That's one of our pillars,

and why you understand that mission is what matters most.

Like everything rises and falls on mission, and we believe

that Jesus is the hope of the world, and it's

our mission as a church to do our best to

make Jesus famous. And what I want to help you

understand today is the importance of Him embracing and understanding

your culture and your context, because a failure to understand

culture and context hinders mission. I want to ask everyone

to buy your heads, close your eyes. I want you

to repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus

speak to my heart, change my life in Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you brought your Bibles, want you to turn to

the Book of Acts, chapter seventeen. This is a great

example of one of the most missional human beings that

ever lived, one of the smartest men that ever lived,

person that completely gave his whole life to spreading the Gospel.

It's a story in the life of Paul, and Paul

found himself in the city of Athens. Now I hear

this fairly often from Christians. I hear people say, it's

never been this bad before.

You heard that one.

I get it is so bad, it's never been this

bad before. I'm not here to mock you or make

fun of you, but I will tell you that that

is a failure to understand history. One of the things

they say about history is if you do not understand history,

history is.

Doomed to repeat itself. Well, I would argue.

That back in this point in the first century, when

Paul went to Athens, Athens is us, and it might

arguably be worse than where we.

Are right now.

But you're gonna find these crazy parallels between the city

of Athens and the city of Seattle. Now here's a

picture of me. This is me in Athens. I am

standing on Mars Hill. So Mars Hill was the name

the Romans gave to this hill. The Greeks referred to

this as the Hill of Ares or the Hill of Aripagos.

But this was a hill that had natural stone benches.

So people from the community, rulers, philosophers and scholars would

hold trials, debates, and they would discuss important matters on

Mars Hill, and they would behind them have the acropolis.

So this is like the same scenery that you would

have seen two thousand years ago, besides the restrooms that

are built here, but lots of the city is that old.

And the acropolis there.

But this is Mars Hill where Paul shared the Gospel

to the Greeks. Now I wanted to redo this entire

setting in front of you. I wanted to wear my

Zach Bryant shirt, but my wife said no. So due

to the power of Ai, it's even like prophetic what

I hope my body will look like.

In a in a little bit too. I have a

hot take.

Honor of the NFL season, coming and watching preseason games yesterday.

I know you're all Seahawks fans here's my hot take.

The Raiders will have a much better record than the

Seahawks this year.

Seahawks. Seahawks are gonna be rough this year. Year. I

hope you're ready.

And by the way, one of the things everybody always

makes fun of me about being a Raider fan, all

I gotta say is three We've won three super Bowls.

You guys are most famous. You're most famous for the

one super Bowl you lost when march On, who really

wanted to be playing for the Raiders anyways, should have

run the ball from the one yard line, Acts seventeen,

verse sixteen. While Paul was waiting for them. He was

waiting for Silas and Timothy. They were coming to Athens

to meet him. There, the Bible says Paul was greatly

distressed to see that the city of Athens was so

full of idols. Athens was the cultural center of thought

in the first century. If you were to use buzzwords

to describe Athens, you would say things like tolerance, acceptance, indulgence.

Anybody Paul walks.

Through the city of Athens, And if you have ever

gone to Athens even today, some of the archaeological sites

that you will see the historical sites are all around

the temple to a various god that they worship. Back then,

Paul walked through the city of Athens, and he saw

a god for this and a god for that.

He even laments that.

He came upon a monument that was another idol, and

it said, this is a statue to an unknown God.

In Athens, they worshiped everything. They wanted you, whatever you

wanted to worship for it to feel included. And just

in case they missed what you want to worship, they

have a miscellaneous god statue that was Athens. They let

everybody do whatever they wanted to do and believe whatever they.

Wanted to believe.

And the Bible says Paul was greatly distressed. And I

will tell you it was impossible to be a follower

of Jesus and not be greatly distressed when you walked

through Athens. You see, the Athenian culture wasn't godless. It

was everything could be God. Whatever you wanted to do,

whatever you wanted to indulge yourself with, you could just

say it was a God, and that made it okay.

So what did Paul do.

He's grieved, he's outraged, he's frustrated by.

What he sees in this city. So what does he do?

Tells us next verse seventeen. So Paul reasoned in the

synagogue with both Jews and god fearing Greeks.

So he comes into.

This city, sees things that tick him off, grieve his spirit,

hurt him inside, that frustrate him, that convince him this

is harmful to our children, this is bad for the world.

So what does Paul do.

He goes to the synagogue where the god fearing Jews

are and the god fearing Greeks are, and he reasons

with them. In other words, Paul took his frustration from

a city that he knows nothing about. That he does

not understand the culture of this city, He does not

understand the context of this city, and he goes go

to the.

Place that's familiar to him. He goes to.

The church, and he talks to people that will likely

agree with him, and he reasons with them. There is

not a way on planet Earth you can take that

word reason, study it in Greek and anywhere, find that

it could mean argue.

Let that one set in he reasoned with them.

But then it also says he went to the marketplace

and he talked about forgiveness in Jesus. So, if you've

ever visited these Roman cities and Athens, Rome had come

in conquered Athens had built up the city, and later

on the Greeks conquered it, and so it had Roman influence,

but it was Greek city. Now, these Roman influenced cities

always have two things. In fact, if you ever visit

one of these ruins, you will see a stoa or

an agora. Now, stoa and agora they're basically the same thing.

They're these covered walkways. The one difference between a stoa

and an agora is a stoa is just a covered walkway,

but in between the pillars you would have philosophers that

would sit there and they would talk about their different

stances on things, and so crowds would gather to listen.

They would gather because there was a roof that protected

them from the sun. But the difference between a stoa

and an agora is an agora is where there were

markets where people sold goods and items. So the agora

is where the regular people were because that's where you

bought food, that's where you bought items that you needed

for your house. So here it tells us that Paul

went to the synagogue and he talked to the Jews

and the god fearing Greeks.

And he also went to the He went to.

The place where the common folk hung out, and he

would walk up and down the agora, seeing people trade

goods and buy things they needed, and he would talk

to them about the forgiveness of Jesus. He talked to

ordinary people about their beliefs.

And what they thought.

He's doing this to understand culture. When you understand culture,

it enhances your ability to fulfill mission. But an if

you lack understanding of culture, it can hinder mission.

Are you with me? Okay?

Understanding culture? The word culture means understanding the ways of life,

including arts, beliefs, institutions of population that are passed down

generation to generation. And culture is that city's values and

customs and folklores and manners, the society, the way that

city operates. In our country, if you go from one

large city to the next, they feel different, They have

a different vibe, they talk different, they.

Value different things.

Because I'm a big sporting event guy, I go to

sports in states all over and Seattle sports fans are different.

Mariners sports fans are different than Boston Red Sox fans.

They just are.

You understand there's different cultures in each one of these cities.

A failure to understand culture hinders mission. I gave you

an incredible example of not understanding culture because I came

here from the home.

When I started.

Talking, I attacked your football team. Like, I know you're

all Seahawk fans. I know most of you became Seahawk

fans ten years ago. I didn't know the team existed

beyond ten years ago. That's free, but I understand that

when I did that, I was gonna get an outraged

crowd immediately.

Some of you shut me off. Some of you were like, stinking.

Raider fan, and you're thinking, I always knew Brandon was

a Raider fan. He's an annoying Raider fan, but he's

never been an antagonistic Raider fan. And that's because Brandon

understands culture. I understand if I'm gonna wear a Raider jersey,

twenty people after the service are gonna tell me how

terrible the Raiders are, and my job is just a

grin and Barrett, my job is just to think, but

not say all the things I said about the Seahawks. Why,

because I understand culture. I've survived pastoring a church in

the Seattle area being a Raider fan for twenty years

because I have an understanding of culture, and I learned

culture the hard way. There's one time I was in Modesto.

The Raiders were in the Super Bowl against the Tampa

Bay Buccaneers, and I was speaking at a conference in

Tampa that weekend.

You can't make this stuff up.

After I spoke at the conference, I got invited to

speak at a church Sunday night. It was Sunday night

during the Super Bowl process. This so the super Bowl,

Tampa's in the Super Bowl, and I'm speaking out of

Sunday night service in Tampa directly in competition to the

Super Bowl. Well, I was really immature back then. So

I spoke get this church decked out.

In Raider gear, wearing a Raider hat.

There's about seven people in the service because the rest

of them wanted to watch the Super Bowl.

And as I begin to preach wearing my Raider gear

in Tampa while Tampa's facing.

The Raiders in the Super Bowl, there was one elderly

man sitting in the front row and he wasn't connecting

with me. You notice it, especially when there's seven people,

if someone's not connecting with you.

Eventually, this guy.

Gets up, walks on the stage, and I'm thinking, how rude.

He grabs my Raider hat off my head and throws

it on the ground. The crowd starts cheering, all seven

of them.

He goes and he sits down.

I get asked to speak like everywhere, and usually whenever

I speak somewhere, I always get invited back. I have

never been invited back to Tampa ever, because of my

failure to understand culture. I'm not sure if they were

mad that I was wearing a Raider hat or if

they were mad that I was wearing a hat, because

if I really would have thought about it, this is

a church in Tampa having a Sunday night service while

Tampa's in the super Bowl, I should have thought conservative.

They probably want me to wear a suit tonight.

But a failure to understand culture hinders mission, and church

mission is what matters.

Paul understood what.

The primary purpose was mission, and he understood that a

failure to understand culture would hinder his mission.

This is the way that Paul operated. So Paul is

one of the bolder, stronger, more.

Educated, intelligent examples we have in like Christian history, like

we would never ever think of Paul as a weak person.

He's not weak minded. He doesn't placate people, he doesn't

give in. But Paul was really clear on what his

missional strategy was. He tells us flat out in one

Corinthians nine. He says, though I am free and belong

to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone.

Why to win as many as possible? Says, what I

care about is the mission, not my personal beliefs. What

I care about is the mission, not my personal identity.

Like I would describe it this way, Paul would know

his context. He was Sunday night in Tampa during the

Super Bowl.

Paul would have been wearing a suit. He'd have been

wearing a suit.

Paul understood, there's certain countries you cover your tattoos are

certain countries you act certain ways, you do certain things.

Paul got that and he respected their culture for the

sake of the Gospel.

You're gonna get.

This, I promise to the Jews. I became like a Jew.

Why to win the Jews? To those under the law,

I became like someone under the law. Why to win

those that are under the law, he said, to the week,

I became weak to win the week, he said, I

became all things to all people, so that.

By all possible means I might win some.

Then I might be able to share the Gospels and

share in its blessing. Paul understood mission, but he understood

that respecting someone's culture. By the way, respecting someone's culture

doesn't mean you embrace it, doesn't mean you agree with it.

It just simply means you understand where they're coming from

that you're trying to and you don't want to immediately

stop the conversation by disrespecting their culture. Like I will

tell you, we hate the Yankees like we universally.

Unless you're from New York, you hate the Yankees.

You don't go to Yankee Stadium wearing Mariner gear.

You just don't. You wear something very neutral.

If you get batteries thrown at you at Yankee Stadium

because you wore Mariner gear, it's not the Yankee fans fault,

it's your fault because you failed to understand culture. You

need to know where you are well. Not only if

you don't understand culture, does it hinder mission, but if

you're not cautious with context, it will also hinder mission.

So Paul is in Athens, he has been teaching in

the synagogue. He's now teaching in the marketplace, and the

Bible says that a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers

begin to debate with him, and some of them asked, what.

If this babbler trying to say?

Others remarked, he seems to be advocating for foreign gods.

So in the first century, the two major.

Your philosophical schools of thought were the Epicureans and the Stoics.

They were kind of whether they were agreed.

With or not, they were respected in their community. I

would apply it this way, like if if if you

find out somebody has a degree from Harvard or Stanford,

you know, whether you agree with everything that comes out

of their mouth, you agree they're smart, Like at least

their argument is going to come from an intelligent place

because of where their education was from. So that the

epicureansh they were people that were followers of Epicurus. Now

what's interesting about the Epicureans is they did not believe

in God. They didn't believe in God because all the

suffering they were witnessing in the world attested to them

the fact that it could not be under the control

of a loving God. You heard that one before, Like,

if God is the god of love, why are people starving?

Why is their murder? Why is their war?

Why do bad things happen to children? This was the

Epicurean thought. But they were in Greece, where everybody worshiped everything.

So they became indifferent to the gods of the Greeks

because they believed if the gods are real, we don't know.

We might never know if they are.

They are so removed from people, they just do not

care about the everyday activities of people. The Epicureans became agnostics.

Then there were the Stoics. They're called the Stoics because

they were the people that would argue in the Stoa

that I talked about.

The Stoics were followers of.

This guy named Zeno, who was a mathematician. So the

Stoics everything had to make sense, It had to be logical.

There had to be mathematical thinking attached to it. These people,

so you have, yes, amen, so you have The Epicureans

became today's agnostics and the Stoics became today's pantheists. In

other words, that the Stoics believed, well, if you want

that to be a god, it can be a god.

Whatever you want to be a god, everything is God.

They became like mother Earth people. They became like worship everything,

worship nature. So these two factions started arguing with Paul,

and they accused Paul of being a babbler. That word

babbler in the Greek means this. It means it's referring

to birds picking up seeds along the ground. They're scavenger scrapmongers.

A babbler is a person who picks bits and pieces

of information and passes it off as if he knows

what he's talking about. To be called a babbler in

Greek Athenian culture was the greatest insult. They were literally

trying to discredit Paul. They would accuse you of being

an idol babbler or a foolish babbler. You were ignorant,

easily deceived, weak minded. In a city that prides itself

in intellectual thought and debate, being called a babbler was

the greatest insult.

Church.

Things never change, like people that are opposed to what

you and I believe and our values in faith system.

What do they say?

It's because you're weak minded, It's because you're easily deceived.

It's because you're ignorant. It's because you can't think for yourself.

You take a book that's.

Generations old and you think it still has cultural relevance

for today. It's because you're weak minded. You are a

babbler today.

So that's what they called Paul called him a babbler.

I warned you. I warned you a year ago in

a sermon.

What was going to take place by August of twenty

twenty four. I said, we were about to enter into

the most polarizing election that you've ever seen. You thought

the post COVID election was going to be polarized, You've

seen nothing yet. I told you it wasn't because I

was prophetic. I was just being predictive. Because you have

our version of the Stoics and the Epicureans fighting for

your vote right now. And what was going to happen,

I told you, is that you were gonna be tempted

to get sucked in to their debates and arguments.

That you were gonna get tempted to get sucked in.

On social media and that all of this was gonna happen.

And if you'll remember that message, I warned you that

it was.

Going to be the devil's strategy to distract you from mission.

Because in the end, when you start fighting this and this,

and you fight for this candidate and you fight against

that candidate, you are saying, I believe the hope of

the world is in the political process. That is not

what we as followers of Jesus should believe.

You See, the.

Problem is we believe this theoretically, but we don't believe

it here. And I know it because I watched people

get sucked.

Into these debates.

If you truly believe our job is to make Jesus famous,

If you truly believe Jesus is the hope of the world,

if you truly believe he's always been the hope of

the world, he is the hope of the world, he

always will be the hope of the world. Then why

do you like so passionately and emotionally get frustrated with

who is in the White House?

They suck you in. Here's one of the things that

Paul said. You're told later.

So Paul gets taken by the Epicureans and the Stoics

to Mars Hill to debate him. So now he's brought

to the place of influence and he's invited in to

share his beliefs.

Paul gets this, but it says this, Paul.

It's in parentheses, and you're a scripture because Paul is

thinking this. He's saying, all the Athenians and the foreigners

who lived in Athens spent their time doing nothing but

talking about and listening to the latest ideas. You realized

both politicians lie to you, both of them.

They want to win Nevada.

So Trump is smart, goes into Nevada and he tells

Nevada no tax on tips because most of the people

in Nevada live off of the tips they get from casinos. Well, shockingly,

a week later, Kamala Harris is in Nevada and she declares,

no tax on tips. If you're somebody who is a waiter, waitress,

you get tips.

Mark my words, in twenty twenty.

Eight, four years after this election, you are still going

to be paying taxes on your tips. You're gonna tell

you what you want to hear. They're gonna come up

and argue all these thoughts and idea and.

Do nothing because nothing changes. We live in a modern

day Athens.

A failure to understand context also Hinder's mission. I want

you to notice that Paul didn't take the things they

were saying about him personally. They called him a babbler,

they insulted him. Then he could have been kicked off,

he could have been outraged, he could have rallied his

friends and got them canceled. But instead Paul understands context.

He interstands, of course, this is the way that the

Greeks are gonna talk.

They're gonna try to discredit me.

They're trying to argue that I don't know what I'm

talking about, so they throw out an accusation at me,

and my job is to not bite. My job is

to prove, because my message is truth, that I am

not offended or even h influenced it all by the

negative things they say. I want to show you how

misunderstanding context hinders mission.

I'm gonna give you a hot take.

I'm gonna say something and my staff is wishing I

wouldn't do in this service.

They hear me do in the first service.

This is something that if you just recorded what I'm

about to say, and took it out of context, I

could offend four million people. Like, literally, I'm about to

say something that's gonna offend four million people. I got

this idea because a couple of weeks ago, there was

a debate on Facebook, a political debate that I somehow

got roped into, even though I never posted or even

responded to it. But in this train of comments I

got called in one day, I got called a Marxist.

I wasn't even involved in the entire discussion, but somehow

I got brought up called a Marxist, which means I'm

about as left wing as you can get.

Several comments later.

I got called a fascist, which means you're about as

right winged as you can get. And when the people

in our church are so sweet, were getting on there

and defending me, and both of the commenters, the one

who said I was a Marxist and the one I

said I was a fascist, took something I said completely

out of context. Like I have thousands of hours of

me talking online. You want to find that I said

something controversial. If you took one sentence, you're gonna have

a lot of it, Okay, Because when you take something

out of context, it can be offensive.

So that's what happened. You ready put your phones down

all right here? It is I hate Oregon.

That statement out of context sounds terrible, Like if I

was in Portland then I said that they wouldn't be laughing,

they would be booing, probably dragging me off the platform.

But you understand the context with which I made that statement.

You know, Pastor Brandon bleeds purple, so.

I also know that this is Seattle, that this is

Husky Land. So I bleed purple. And our rival is Oregon.

Sorry, WSU fans, you're not our rival. You're our little brother.

Occasionally, one out every ten years, the little brother wins,

and you're.

Proud of them because they're not gonna do it again.

But as a UDUB fan, I very respectfully despise Oregon.

But that's not saying I hate the people of Oregon.

I love people that are from Oregon. Usually, when you

understand culture and context, it enhances mission.

Mission is what matters.

When you take time to understand your culture and your context,

it provides you with an opportunity to fulfill your mission.

Mission is what matters.

Because Paul understood culture, he was given the opportunity to

speak on Mars Hill.

He was invited to be there.

Because he understood context, and he didn't take the you're

a babbler. Paul personally knew where it was coming from.

He got a stand on top of Mount of Mars

Hill and tell the influential leaders in Athens about Jesus.

He starts by saying, basically verses twenty four through twenty

eight is literally him.

Sharing his testimony.

Talks about forgiveness of Jesus, talks about the resurrection of Jesus,

and then he brings it to their beliefs and he says, therefore,

since you and I are God's offspring, we should not

think that the divine Being is like gold or silver

or stone or an image made by human hand. Said

in your city, you guys make an idol for whatever

you feel like. But I serve the real God, and

he created you, and he knows you, and he loves

you so much that he died on the cross for you,

and he conquered death, hell and the grave, and he

is alive. And that is the God that you and

I serve. We shouldn't serve some God made by human

hands like it's throughout your city.

And then he reminds him.

Of this, and he says, for he is set a

day when he will judge the world with justice by

the man he is appointed. The thing that I love

about Paul is Paul was absolutely convinced that if someone

does not know Jesus and they die, they spend an

eternity separated from him. Parents, if there's anything I can

encourage you with with your parenting, if our kids die

and do not know Jesus, they spend an eternity in hell.

It's horrible to say it, it's not politically correct, but

do you truly believe that?

Because if you truly.

Believe that, it will change some of the ways you

interact with your kids. Paul is literally looking at all

these people and he's saying, Hey, this Jesus who died

for you, rose from the dead. He's coming back to

judge you. That day's coming. And when he comes back

to judge you, he'll say you knew me, Come enter

in my kingdom. Or he'll say, away me, I never

knew you. Paul's convinced. Paul is also convinced though this

gospel message is worth sharing to everyone because everyone has

this hole in their heart, this little hole that can

only be filled by a relationship with Jesus. Solomon said

in Ecclesiastes three, he said, God has set eternity in

our hearts.

Every person has this hole.

They try to fill it with every alternative relationships, wealth, power, drugs, success,

whatever it may be, and in the end, like Solomon,

they discover its meaningless, a chasing after the wind. The

only thing that can fill this hole in your heart

is a loving relationship with Jesus. You were made to

be in a relationship with Jesus. Paul knows this, and

he also fundamentally knows that it is his responsibility to

live missionarly, to make sure that he tells everybody this message.

That he's got to.

Make Jesus famous because Jesus is the hope.

Of the world. And then what happens next.

They responded to Paul, arguably the greatest preacher that's ever lived,

the same way that they respond to the gospel today.

Here's what happened when they heard about the resurrection of

the dead. Some of them sneered, when you share the gospel,

there's still people.

That are gonna be mad at you. They're gonna make

fun of you.

They're gonna say you're ignorant, closed minded, weak minded. They're

gonna say that, stop being surprised when it happens.

It happened to Paul all the time.

But then it says there's others who said, we want

to hear you more on the subject. These are people

that said, I'm gonna consider what you're saying.

I'm gonna come back and talk to you again.

The reason Church, when it pertains the mission you and

I need to strive to understand culture in context is

for these people. Because when you refuse to understand culture

and context, you offend these people and they never come

back to here again.

Our church is full of.

People that came back week after week skeptics, but eventually

the Holy Spirit softened their heart. They turn their life

over to Jesus, and now they're key followers of Jesus,

influential in our church because they started from I want

to hear you more on this subject. And then finally,

of course, as in with every group, some became followers,

some sneered, some said I need to think about it.

Others became followers.

So you could say a third of his crowd responded positively.

Mission is what matters.

We're gonna make Jesus famous because he's the hope of

the world. He's always been the hope of the world.

He is the hope of the world. He'll always be

the hope of the world, regardless who's sitting in the

White House come January first, twenty twenty five. Jesus is

still on the throne.

He's always been on the throne.

He'll always be on the throne, forever and always. Jesus

is on the throne. Kings come, kings.

Go, but Jesus is on the throne.

Missions what matters most. By your heads, close your eyes.

I have a question for you today. Do you know

this Jesus that I'm talking about? Do you know him?

If you don't, If you do not know him, I

want to give you an opportunity to begin the journey

of knowing him today. So what I'm gonna do is

count to three. And if you were here you do

not know Jesus, but you want to when I say three,

raise your hand. I'm also wondering if you're here, maybe

you've prayed a prayer, you've gone to church before, but

if you were honest about this question, am I in

a right relationship with Jesus.

At this moment.

If your answer to that question is no, I'm not

or I'm not sure, my advice is leave this place

knowing you are right with Jesus.

So when I say three, raise your hand. Here I go.

One, two, raise your hand now three.

Awesome.

You can put your hands down, but everyone stand up

on your feet. I'm gonna ask you to.

Pray this prayer after me. For all of you that

raise your hand.

If you mean this prayer, when you pray it, when

you leave this place today, you get to leave knowing

I'm right with Jesus. So everybody by your heads, close

your eyes. Repeat after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, I

stand before you today and I admit I've messed up.

But today I ask you to forgive me, and I

invite you to come into my life and to change me.

I choose from this day forward to serve you with

my life. Thank you for forgiving me and for saving me.

In Jesus' name. Amen,