(7.26.26) Sermon | The Mission (Living a Sent Life) | Patrick Hardy

Well, aren't you thankful for Jesus this morning?

Come on.

Well, uh, not to make a really harsh transition, but if you drive a white trailblazer, your lights are on.

Hate for your battery to die during service.

Uh, so uh you can go check that out.

But uh good morning.

It's good to be with you today.

Uh uh, if you don't know who I am, I'm Pastor Patrick, I'm lead pastor here on staff.

And if this is your first time joining us, um I just want you to know we're so glad that you've chosen to be here today.

We know that there's so many places that you could be, um, and and we really want to honor that as well.

I know for uh myself and for many of you, going to a new church or coming back to church for a long in a long time is difficult.

Um so I hope that you feel like you're at home here today with us.

And I believe God's got something good in store for us today.

So so lean in and listen with me.

Um I'm excited for this message uh today.

Uh does anyone else in here hate email?

Anyone hate email?

I hate email.

I mean, it it's the best, but it's also the worst.

I mean, I I feel like it's one of the best forms of communication because what you can do is you can sit down and you can write like a long form piece of communication and send it to somebody.

You can attach files to that email, you can forward messages, um, and you don't have to respond instantly like a text message or a phone call.

Um, it's great until it's the absolute worst.

Why is it anytime that you have to send an important email to somebody, you always have the address wrong?

Why is it when you need to reset your password from an important website and they send you the code, it never shows up or it goes to your spam folder, you can never find it?

Why is it that when you say to someone, email me and I'll get back to you, they never actually email you and they never get back to you?

That never happens.

They say it, but it doesn't work.

Email is the worst.

Also, here's the other thing about email.

Um, everyone has like these personal email addresses that many have made back when they were in their college or high school years.

And sometimes I'll go and I'll try to look up one of your emails uh in our database and I'll pull it up and it'll be like spicygirls45 at hotmail.com, and you're like, you know, that's a little weird.

Like Pastor Gabe, you need to change your email, man.

Like, you can't be doing that.

Like it's a little odd.

Or or Alyssa for the longest time.

We got married, and her email address had her maiden name in it.

And for five, six years, however long it was, she continued to use that email.

And I thought in the back of my head, it's like, is she holding out just in case?

Like, like she doesn't want to change this email because she doesn't want to change it back.

Like, I don't know what's going on with that.

Email is the worst.

You sit down, you type out the perfectly worded email, it's carefully crafted, you send it, you close your laptop, you move on with your life, and weeks go by and you get no response.

And you learn that no one received or no one read the email that you worked on.

Somewhere between you hitting send and the destination it was intended for, this email got lost in cyberspace somewhere.

Although you wrote it, you reviewed it, and then you sent it, that message was never delivered.

The purpose of the email was never fulfilled because no one ever read it.

Over the past four weeks, we've been going through this series called Follow Me, where we've been discovering what Jesus really meant when he talks about discipleship, what it was really meant to be.

It was never meant to just be a class, a program, or a ministry.

No, Jesus' call of discipleship is to come and to follow me, leave everything else behind.

So we've been defining discipleship like this.

Discipleship is responding to Jesus' invitation to follow him so that he can transform you and send you to help others follow him.

Unfortunately, I think many of us treat discipleship like we treat an undelivered email.

That there's an invitation, but there's never really a destination at the end of it.

You follow Jesus, you go to church, you make good choices, you are a hospitable person, you may even open your Bible up regularly, but you forget that discipleship ends with being sent.

Following is easy, leading is difficult.

When you're a follower, no one's looking at you.

Everyone's proud of you, the expectations are really low, but when you're a leader, that means that you are out in front, the spotlight is on you, and everything you do is open to criticism.

When a basketball team, they're coming into the fourth quarter and there's a couple seconds left on the clock and they're down by just a couple of points, the coach might call a timeout, bring the team together, and then they will draw up a play for how they're going to score this last basket in order to win the game.

And there are a bunch of different players on the team, but depending on the personalities, there are some guys or some girls that they want the basketball.

They want to be the ones to take the last shot.

They want the opportunity to win the game.

But then there are others.

They'd rather set a screen, they'd rather pass the ball, they'd rather sit on the end of the bench and cheer if the basketball goes in, because they don't want to carry the responsibility of winning or losing on their shoulders.

If you say that you want the last shot and you miss it, then you're the guy who lost it.

But if you set the screen or you pass the ball in or you're placed on the bench, then it's not really your fault if that basketball shot doesn't go through the hoop and you lose.

In our Christian walk, we all like to be on winning teams, don't we?

We like to see baptisms, testimonies, go to conferences while we cheer on our Christian team from the sidelines.

Unlike the basketball game where the play is drawn up and only one person gets the opportunity to shoot the ball, Jesus says, the Father has sent me and now I am sending you.

Which means that discipleship doesn't end with just following Jesus, it ends with sending.

Jesus has drawn up the final play of the game.

And whether you like it or not, to follow him means that play includes you shooting the basketball.

So what does it mean to be sent?

Because when we send an email and we click the button, we hear the swoosh, and then we pray that the other person gets it and receives it on the other end, we hope that they open it.

Are we just blissfully sending emails, throwing up half-court shots, hoping that maybe it'll land in the right person's lap at the right time?

Is that what it means to be sent?

Or does it mean that all of us we need to go buy a microphone and stand out on a street corner and shout Bible verses at people in order to be sent?

What does it mean to be sent?

This morning, Jesus is gonna remind us that following is just the beginning of discipleship and that every one of us are sent with a purpose.

So if you've got your Bible this morning, open it up.

We're gonna be in John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

We're gonna be in verses 19 through 23 this morning.

If you don't have your Bible, no worries.

All of our scripture texts will be up on the screen for you to follow along.

Um, but the journey of following Jesus for the disciples, it began with Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee, and he notices some fishermen who are out there fishing that day, and he calls out to them and he says, Come and follow me.

Peter, Andrew, James, and John, they get out of their boat.

They leave the family business behind, they leave the lives that they know in order to follow Jesus.

And we learn that discipleship starts with an invitation to follow.

Then later, while Jesus is walking and traveling with his disciples, a crowd begins to form around them and follow them.

And Jesus decides that he's going to turn and he's going to address this crowd.

And Jesus knows that this crowd that's following him, they're not really followers, but they're merely fans of what's going on.

And in this moment, Jesus lays out that there is a cost to following him.

There is a cost to discipleship.

That in order for us to truly follow Jesus, it means that our loyalties must solely lie with him.

They must take up their cross daily and follow him.

Discipleship costs us, uh costs a full surrender of our lives.

And last week, Pastor Don, she reminded us that discipleship was never meant to just be done in rows like we're doing in this room right now, but it's actually meant to be done in circles.

The same way that our God is triune.

He is three and one, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

He is communal within himself.

He has made you and I in his image, which means that you and I are actually designed for community.

Discipleship is not meant to just be done in rows next to people, but it's meant to be done in circles where we do life together with one another.

It's not just something that we want or desire.

It's not just the desire for friendship.

You were designed with a need for other people to come into your life.

Now, our passage today picks up right after Jesus has died on the cross and he's buried in the tomb.

And the disciples, they had just witnessed the man that they had given their whole lives to to follow.

They had left everything behind in order to follow him, and yet their leader has been hung on a cross and they've been humiliated because of it.

Everything that they had given their lives to had just been wiped away in a moment.

Imagine you leave your family behind, you leave your job, your family business, you leave everything to follow Jesus.

Not only could there be a sense of shame in this moment, but their own lives feel like they're in jeopardy as well because of what they've done to their leader.

Because of following Jesus, their lives are at risk.

So what do the disciples do in this moment?

They go into hiding.

They are all together hiding in a room behind locked doors when everything changes.

So, with that being said, would you stand with me out of the respect of the reading of God's word as we read John 20, verses 19 through 23?

John 20:19–23

You know, when Alex preached, he talked about how, like, you know, you go to a church like this, you don't have to stand up and sit down.

I'm sorry, I'm a stand up and sit down kind of guy, so I apologize, Alex.

So you gotta bear with me.

John 20, verses 19 starts and says this.

John 20:19

On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for the fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

And with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven.

If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.

This is the word of God for the people of God.

You may be seated this morning.

Actually, stand back up.

No, I'm kidding.

So these disciples, they're huddled together in this locked room with one another.

They're scared for their lives, but they're also confused in terms of what is it that we're supposed to do now?

They're at a loss for what is next.

I mean, for three years, these guys had given up their lives in order to follow Jesus, and in a moment, all of that was taken away.

Their leader was gone.

Where do we go?

What is next?

And while they're huddled in fear and confusion, John writes that Jesus came and stood among them.

The man who they had witnessed be crucified on the cross and be buried in a tomb is now standing face to face with them.

They must have been thinking, this is a fever dream.

Like there's something crazy going on.

There's no way that this guy is actually standing in front of us.

That is until Jesus takes his hands and he shows them the holes where they had nailed him to the cross.

And he shows them the side for where they stuck the spear into him as he took his final breaths.

I mean, think about the emotional shift that these disciples are going through.

They've watched their Savior, their king, their Lord be crucified on a cross.

They don't know what's next.

They're in sadness, they're in hiding.

They're at the lowest of lows.

And then Jesus meets them right there, alive, shows them that he is with them and he's alive.

And now they're on the highest of highs.

In the blink of an eye, they went from hopeless to hope-filled.

And the reaction of the disciples is that they were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

I think overjoyed is probably an understatement, but I don't know how better John could have written it for us.

And Jesus says to them, he says, Peace be with you.

And then their joy is restored.

And Jesus goes on and says again, peace be with you.

This word for peace is this word shalom.

Shalom is a whole and perfect peace.

And when it's used in the Old Testament, it's oftentimes closely tied to this hope of the coming of the Messiah.

So when Jesus says, peace be with you, shalom, it's not this forward-looking hope in this moment, but that the peace being offered to the disciples is the perfectly manifested in the resurrected Jesus who's standing before them.

The Messiah.

The perfect peace is found in the resurrected Jesus.

And like if this were a movie, I think for us, Jesus would have walked into the room, he would have showed them his hands and his side, and the camera would have panned over to him, and he would have smirked and he would have said, Shalom.

And it would have gone to black, been like, wow, what a great movie.

That was awesome.

And then the story would be over, and you and I would all be waiting for the sequel to come out in many, many years.

And the disciples probably felt in this moment this overwhelming sense of peace.

That everything was good, that everything was okay.

That Jesus is who he said he is.

And there's no longer any doubts from anyone what has happened, what has been done.

But Jesus doesn't just say shalom and the screen goes to black and the credits roll.

No.

This movie keeps on going.

And Jesus says to them, peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

Shalom, I am with you.

Perfect peace.

Now, just as the Father has sent me into the world to be the light of the world, I am sending you into the world to be the light for others that I was for you.

The first thing you need to know is that Jesus was sent.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is actually described as sent over 40 times.

He wasn't here accidentally, he didn't miss his connecting flight and ended up landing here on earth just to hang out for a little while.

No, Jesus was intentionally sent into this world to seek, to save, to reveal, to defeat sin, and to bring perfect shalom peace.

Sending is not an idea that was come up with by church in order to manipulate people in order to serve.

No, sending is at the core in the character of who God is himself.

Jesus was sent, and God has always been a sending God.

The Father sent the Son, Jesus sends the church, and the Spirit empowers the church.

The second thing you need to know is that Jesus sends his grace before responsibility.

These disciples, they were cowering in fear behind locked doors when Jesus enters the room.

And Peter is one of the disciples, and he's standing there in this room, and he's knowing in the back of his mind that he had just denied Jesus three times, denied even knowing him, and now Jesus is standing there face to face.

These men are not having their proudest of moments.

Yet in their fear and shame, what does Jesus say to them?

Peace be with you.

He doesn't reprimand them, he doesn't bring up their failures, doesn't bring up their past, he doesn't even speak to Peter's denial, even though everyone's thinking it.

Jesus comes to them and he extends them his grace, he shows his scars and he restores their joy in this moment.

Before Jesus ever sends his disciples, he offers them his grace.

You cannot extend grace to others before first experiencing Jesus' grace for yourself.

That's what he does for the disciples in this moment.

Once the disciples have received the grace and peace of Jesus, then Jesus gives them their purpose.

The third thing that you see in this story is that Jesus sends his disciples.

Notice how Jesus doesn't gather the disciples up and go, hey guys, what what do you want to do now?

Let's collaborate about this.

He isn't looking for suggestions or gathering input from them.

There were no surveys for people to fill out.

No.

Jesus commissions the disciples that just as the Father has sent me, he is now sending his disciples out into the world.

It's the end of the game.

The disciples, they're down two points, and Jesus draws up the play and he says, I'm putting the ball in all of your hands.

Nobody is on the bench, no one's hiding in the corner, no one's setting a screen.

They are all sent into the world to share the good news of Jesus.

Although they are not Jesus himself, they are each ambassadors to the king that they serve, pointing people straight to him.

But let's address something here quickly.

The Father sent Jesus, and now Jesus is sending you.

This is like the star player getting subbed out of the game, and we're putting the water boy in.

That's what's happening here.

Like Jesus is out there performing miracles.

He's giving incredible sermons, and then he's raised from the dead, and Jesus sends us.

We get the ball and we get it and we dribble and we dribble it right off our feet, out of bounds.

It's like, okay, Jesus, you do realize these are not the same things, right?

We took out the star player and we put in the water boy.

I ain't you, Jesus.

But before the disciples could object to Jesus' commission, look at what happens here.

Verse 22 says, and with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

I mean, this is an odd detail for John to put in here, don't you think?

I mean, the guy, Jesus, he was just dead and he walks out of the tomb and he breathes on them his stanky dead guy breath.

It's gross.

But John's not making some statement about Jesus' breath here.

What he's doing is he's telling us something theological, something that is happening here.

You see, if we go all the way back to the beginning in Genesis 2, when God created man and woman, it says that he breathed life into their lungs.

And when the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew to Greek, the word used to describe God breathing breath and life into Adam's nostrils is the same word that was used here in order to describe Jesus breathing on the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit.

John is telling us that God breathed life into creation in the beginning.

And now here in this locked room, Jesus is breathing life into his new creation, the church.

The disciples are not merely receiving a to-do list of things to do, a mission to be accomplished.

No, Jesus is giving all of them a brand new identity.

They are a new people who are empowered and sent by the Holy Spirit.

And I want you to gloss over this because this is so important for us to understand that in order for us to live on mission, in order for us to live a sent life the same way that Jesus sent his disciples, we can't do it on our own.

We can't do it as the people that we are right now.

Apart from the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to live a sent life.

The Spirit empowers us to live sent.

You were never intended to carry the mission on your own.

Jesus knows that when he passes you the ball, you're gonna dribble it right off your foot, out of bounds, and you're gonna lose the game.

He knows that.

But you were never meant to do it on your own.

Jesus is breathing the breath of life into our lungs, empowering us through the Holy Spirit to be the ambassadors that we were called to be.

And in Western civilization, we live in a world where reason and logic is valued almost over everything.

We like what we can measure, what we can explain, what we can control.

So when we hear something like Jesus say, receive the Holy Spirit, I think many of us don't know what to do with that.

It feels mysterious.

Like, what does that actually mean?

We immediately start asking questions like, how does that work?

But can I encourage you with something?

The point of this passage isn't for us to understand every mystery when it comes to the Holy Spirit.

The point is for us to recognize that we have a dependence on him if we're going to live the life that Christ has called us to.

Think about it this way: you didn't fully understand how your lungs worked before you walked into church today.

But you were breathing all day long.

You don't wake up in the morning and think, okay, lungs, don't give out on me now.

You simply breathe because God designed you to depend on something outside of yourself.

The Holy Spirit is like that for the Christian life.

Jesus never intended you to grit your teeth and to try harder.

He never intended for you to carry his mission through your own charisma, your own intelligence, your own strength, your own abilities.

No, he intended you to live every single day dependent on the breath that he has breathed into you.

The breath of life, the Holy Spirit that empowers you to live the way that He's called us to live.

That's why Paul can say in Galatians 5 16, he says, I walk by the Spirit.

He doesn't sprint ahead of it, he's not dragged behind it, he walks with the Spirit.

The Spirit isn't something that we receive.

When we give our lives to Jesus, He is the very presence of God that's empowering ordinary people like you and me every day to live extraordinary lives in order to give God all of the glory.

So when that conversation with your coworkers starts moving in the direction that makes you uncomfortable, or when your neighbor is hurting and struggling, or when your child begins to ask you tough, difficult faith questions, or your friend needs some hope, you don't have to panic and go, Well, I'm not cut out for this.

You don't have to hope that you have the right answers.

You can simply pray, Holy Spirit, help me.

Holy Spirit, guide me, Holy Spirit, empower me to be who you need me to be in this moment.

Because the God who sent you is also the God who goes with you.

He's also the God who goes before you.

He never sends his people somewhere that his presence doesn't already intend to meet them.

You just get to be the vessel of God's love in that moment.

When Alyssa and I got married, uh very quickly the question that we were asked went from like, when are you two gonna get married?

to when are you two gonna have babies?

You know, like that's like the common progression that happens.

And you know, everyone who wants you to have babies never wants to help you with the babies, so that's really cool, guys.

Uh but that conversation started to switch, and we had this going, you know, discussion of, okay, when's the right time?

When are we gonna be ready?

Um and we landed on that we would have kids when we were ready to have kids.

But the truth is you're never really ready for kids, right?

You see, following is easy, but leading is difficult.

When Jesus calls us to get out of our boat, to follow him, it is with the understanding that one day we would be sent to do the same for others that Jesus has done for us.

We will always be following Jesus, but we're also sent to be ambassadors of Christ to the world around us.

We're not just called to follow, we are sent to lead.

But we treat it like young married couples treat having a baby.

That we'll lead when we're ready.

When we're ready, we'll know when we're ready, and that's when I'll step up and I'll lead.

That once you have enough, you know enough, you feel comfortable enough, the risk is low enough, then maybe I'll dip my toes into this whole leading others to Jesus thing.

Maybe once we're ready, then we can share our faith with others around us.

But here's the truth Jesus doesn't send you ready, he sends you empowered.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Paul writes this in Romans 8.11.

And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you.

You see, when you give your life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is now living inside of you.

He is empowering you.

You want to be ready?

No.

You're empowered by the Spirit.

And if the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, you don't think that he can equip you for exactly what you need to have the awkward conversation with your coworker?

You think he's not empowering you enough to do what it is that he's called you to do?

You don't think that he's giving you the right words to share with your neighbor?

You're worried about dribbling the ball off your foot when you've got the Holy Spirit breathed into your lungs who gives you everything you need in order to live a sent life.

Don't wait to be ready.

Get off the sidelines and live the empowered life by the Spirit.

So as we get ready to close this morning, I want to remind you of this.

If there's nothing else you get out of this message, I need you to get this.

Email is the worst.

Every time you need to email, every time you need to send something, it always seems to end up undelivered, doesn't it?

The address is wrong, the Wi-Fi is down, the message ends up in the spam folder, the message just disappears into cyberspace magically, never to be seen again.

Just as the Father has sent the Son, Jesus is sending you out into the world to be ambassadors for Christ to everywhere you go.

Jesus never intended his disciples to become undelivered messages.

He didn't save you just so that you could sit in church every single Sunday.

He didn't just forgive your sins so that you could keep the grace that he's offered to you to yourself.

He didn't breathe his spirit into your life so that you could stay behind locked doors, the same doors that the disciples were hiding behind.

I'm gonna invite the band to come on up.

I think I said that, but maybe I didn't.

Come on up.

I'm getting worried that I'm gonna finish and then we're gonna be awkward.

The spirit's not that powerful.

No, I'm kidding.

Um He saved you, He transformed you, He empowered you, and then He sent you.

And this week, you're gonna go to places that I'm not going to go to.

You're gonna go to classrooms, you're gonna go to your workplaces, you're gonna go to family gatherings, you're gonna meet with your neighbors down the street, you're going to put your kids to bed at night.

In every single one of those places is an opportunity for you to live sent by Jesus.

Not because you're ready, but because you are empowered by the Spirit.

And maybe that means praying with someone, not just saying, I will pray for you, but in the moment, laying a hand on them and saying, you know what, can I pray for you right now?

Maybe it means inviting someone to church, maybe it means inviting someone out to lunch.

Maybe it just is simply means loving someone so well that they see Jesus through you.

You don't have to know exactly what to say, you don't have to have all of the answers.

You don't even have to be ready.

Because Jesus doesn't send ready people, Jesus sends spirit-filled people.

And if you've given your life to Jesus, then the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you and is empowering you to do all that it is that God has sent you for.

The same spirit that breathed life into Adam's nostrils, the same spirit that Jesus breathed upon his disciples, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives inside of every believer's.

So don't spend another week just living behind locked doors, scared, fearful.

Walk through them.

Live sent.

Trust that the Holy Spirit is with you, and let him give you the words that you need for whoever it is that's in front of you.

Let him lead you to the people that he's already preparing.

He goes before you.

And the first person is those who maybe you've never given Jesus your life.

Maybe you've never accepted his peace, his grace for yourself.

And before Jesus ever sent his disciples, I need you to know that he said, Peace be with you.

And he's offering you his grace this morning and saying, Hey, come home to me, experience my love.

I have a better life in store for you than anything that you could ever imagine.

And maybe you need to stop trying to earn God's love and simply receive his grace that Jesus purchased for you on the cross.

Or maybe today you've already received his peace.

You've received his grace and his love.

You've given your life to him for years.

But the question isn't whether you're forgiven.

The question is whether you're living as someone who sent.

Jesus has been passing you the ball.

You've been passing it right back.

Don't leave here today waiting until you're ready to get in the game.

Leave here trusting the Holy Spirit, who already lives in you, is with you.

He's empowering you.

Because discipleship, it doesn't end with just following Jesus.

Those disciples, they didn't just get out of the boat and Jesus said, You're good, you're in my peace, and the story cut to black.

No, the story continues.

He says, I'm sending you.

You've been with me.

I've equipped you with everything you need.

The Holy Spirit's going with you and before you.

You can do this.

In church, I want you to know you can do this.

You can share your faith.

You can live a sent life with your families, your coworkers, your neighbors, if you're willing to let the Spirit empower you to do it.

So as the band leads us in this closing song this morning, I'm gonna give you an opportunity at the end to make one of two decisions.

I'm gonna give you the opportunity, if you've never given your life to Jesus, you need to get out of the boat and to follow him.

I'm gonna give you the opportunity to do that.

But I'm also gonna give you the opportunity to get in the game, to live empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Some of you are just going through the motions and you need to say, Holy Spirit, I give it all to you.

Empower me, give me opportunities, give me the courage to get outside my comfort zone, and I'm gonna give you the opportunity to do that.

But as we sing, I want you to be spending time in the presence of the Holy Spirit and saying, How are you calling me to respond, Jesus?

What are you calling me to do?

Where are you leading me?

Where are you sending me?

Could you pray with me?