Remembering Who We are: How To Fight Against Missional Drift

Today's scripture reading is taken from Acts 13, verses 1-12.

Acts 13:1–12

Please follow along your Bible.

If you don't have a Bible, please do still grab them from the front of the stage or at the back near the door.

Our passage is on page 866 in the Church Bible.

866.

966.

Hear then God's word to us today.

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had John to assist them.

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.

He was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

But Elimus the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said,

You son of a devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight path of the Lord?

And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.

Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Let us believe and respond to God's true and living word.

Amen.

Hey, it is a genuine joy to be together in this room.

Like I said, in a couple of hours, there will be a bunch of people, your brothers and sisters, your family,

that will gather together in Mumbai, praying for you.

One of the things that I am really looking forward, just like you, when I die and go to heaven,

through the work of Jesus, is to see him face to face.

But along with that, I'm also excited to see many brothers and sisters that we may not meet on this side of eternity,

that has actually carried us in prayer.

And today, I actually get a foretaste of that reality as I'm standing here.

So thank you for having us here.

Thank you for hosting us.

I know that hosting comes with its own challenges.

We really enjoyed your city.

We went to a Japanese restaurant a couple of days ago, and I had a foretaste of heaven as well there.

So it is great.

It is really great to be here.

Hey, let me just give my heart to the Lord before we start.

Father, would you help us, Lord God, to enjoy Jesus this morning?

Would you help us, Lord, all the things we know in our head and believe, I pray, would explore as worship in our heart?

And Holy Spirit of God, would you help me today to lay aside all of my insecurities and teach and preach to the joy of my Heavenly Father?

In Jesus' name we pray.

To be plainly instructed and consider well that the main end of your life and studies is to know God and know Jesus Christ.

Now, believe it or not, my friends, this is the mission statement of Harvard University when it was originally founded in 1636.

Can you imagine a mission statement like this in one of the educational institutions in today's world?

It's hard to do that, right?

But yet, this is the reason why this school existed.

Harvard was started with the vision of forming character above all else, existing largely to raise up ministers of the gospel who would carry the gospel to the ends of the earth.

In fact, I don't know if you knew this, but the diplomas awarded during that time had a seal which led in Latin, truth for Christ and truth for the church.

Now, about 80 years later, a few New England pastors got together and they started feeling that Harvard has started to move away from this vision or this mission.

And so they decided that they're going to start Yale with an even more explicit commitment to Christ and his gospel.

Now, today, I think it's fair to say that we can all perhaps agree in this room that these two institutions are not the bastions of the Christian faith that it once was started to be.

So what really happened?

What really happened?

Friends, what happened to Harvard and Yale could be called missional drift.

Missional drift.

Now, the thing about missional drift is that it doesn't happen overnight.

Nobody wakes up one fine morning and decides to throw away everything that you value in your life.

Drift happens much more subtle than that.

Drift happens, missional drift happens when other things, when a multitude of different things starts to crowd out the things that we once valued in our heart.

Comfort and preference and approval and familiarity and control and anxiety, little by little, these things start to crowd out the things that we once valued in our heart.

Now, the thing about drift is that drift doesn't happen to just institutions.

Drift happens to the very best of us.

In fact, I would say that drift is probably the natural regression of life in a broken world.

Think about it.

In the world that we live in, nothing moves from chaos into order on its own.

Nothing moves from confusion to clarity on its own.

Drift happens to the very best of us.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

It happens to our bodies.

All you need to do is just gorge on that shrimp tempura and just forget that anything else exists in this world.

Right?

Stop exercising.

Right?

Stop, ignore, I mean, ignore rest completely and your bodies will remind you that missional drift is real.

Right?

Same thing happens to our bank account.

Like, stop balancing the checkbook.

You know, I mean, stop paying attention to inflows and outflows and before you know your bank account drifts into zero.

Our relationship drifts into distance.

Our homes drift into clutter.

Order requires effort.

Disorder and drift are simply the default mode.

But here is the good news that I want to share this morning.

The same God who calls our heart to himself also calls our drifting hearts back to himself.

Right?

Drift is real, but so is the grace of God that meets us in our drift and restores us back to the grace of God.

Now, the church of Jesus has faced all kinds of drifts all through her existence in history.

Right?

Throughout every cultural shift, every kind of pushback that the church has faced, the church has had to do the same essential work throughout history.

And it's not the work of reinventing herself or it's not the work of coming up with something really trendy or cutting edge.

But it's the work of going back to that sacred identity that Jesus has purchased for her and that sacred calling that has been entrusted to her.

So today, I want to take the rest of our time together to look at one of my favorite passages from Scripture that gives us a beautiful, healthy vision of who we are and why we exist.

A healthy vision that comes together to remind us our sacred identity and the sacred calling that has been entrusted to us.

And for that, we can go to all kinds of places in Scripture.

But we're going to zero in in Acts chapter 13, the passage that we just read this morning.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Now, as we get there, let me lay a little bit of context.

If you're new to the Bible, the Bible can be approached as a library of six to six different books.

And the New Testament tells us the story of Jesus and the story of the early church.

And Acts of the Apostle is found in the New Testament, 28 chapters.

And from chapter 1 to chapter 28, there's a 30-year span of time that is passing.

And in this 30-year span of time, the movement of Jesus moves from a small ragtag group of 120 people gathered in an upper room

all the way into thousands upon thousands of followers of Jesus into the very heart of the Roman Empire.

And right in the middle of all of that action, we see this small church called the Church in Antioch

that gives us the most clear picture of what a gospel community looks like and why we exist.

So today, four things that I want to show us from this passage that hopefully helps us to not only remember,

but also rehearse the beautiful vision of gospel community.

I'm going to just read a couple of verses at a time and then we'll work through this passage.

Picking it up in verse 1.

Now they were in the church at Antioch, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,

Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

So here's the first thing that we see from this passage.

A gospel community exists because of Jesus.

A gospel community exists because of Jesus.

Friends, here's why I'm saying that.

The community at Antioch makes zero sense apart from the gospel.

Imagine sitting in for one of their leadership meetings.

You got a Jewish man called Barnabas on one side,

and right across him is an African man called Simeon,

and a Roman non-Jewish Gentile called Lucius.

And all of this is happening, by the way, in a society that is so segregated, right?

And you have a guy called Manan,

and Luke, the author of Acts of the Apostle, throws in an extra detail there,

and reminds us that this is the man who grew up with a guy called Herod Antipas.

Now Herod Antipas, his dad is the one who tried to kill Jesus when Jesus was born.

And this Herod Antipas that Manan grew up with before he encountered Jesus,

is the same Herod Antipas who beheaded Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist, right?

And then, of course, in the midst of all of that, you have Saul.

You know, you have Paul, the Apostle Paul, who used to be called Saul

because he was terrorizing the church, kicking open doors,

and arresting people and persecuting people for their faith in Jesus.

What a wildly, wildly diverse bunch of leaders, right?

This is not the kind of leaders that LinkedIn will put together in an organization, right?

It's not going to go well, right?

Different backgrounds, different cultures, different stories, different experiences,

yet somehow Jesus brings all of them together and makes them one family.

One family.

Now this is hard at times, and we'll talk about that in a second,

but it's also beautiful, right?

It's also beautiful.

Friends, how are we supposed to grow if everyone around us thought like us,

talked like us, right, saw life the same way that we did

and agree with everything that we agree upon?

Like we have gospel communities just like you guys have gospel communities.

And I want you to imagine this.

Imagine if everybody in your gospel community had the same background,

same opinions, same personalities, same giftings,

the same way of seeing things.

And some of you are like, that is awesome, right?

Some of you are like, that's our dream, right?

Well, that's going to be awesome for like five minutes, right?

Jesus draws together a diverse bunch of people

and uses those differences to expose our blind spots,

to challenge our assumptions,

to teach us what it means to be patient,

and to help us to see things that you and I would never see on our own.

This is what makes the church at Antioch so beautiful.

The gospel does not erase their differences.

The gospel does not make them like a monochromatic blob, right?

The gospel does not erase their differences.

It brings their differences together under one Lord and one mission.

Friends, this is not just a historical commentary that we are reading this morning.

This is what Jesus is doing in this room.

This is not just true about the church of Antioch back in the day.

This is true about you and this is true about me

and this is true about our gathering in Mumbai, right?

Think of it like this.

With all the different personalities, interests, and stories,

this is actually what makes our gospel communities a unique offering to our watching world, right?

We are learning to put Jesus at the center.

We are allowing Jesus to teach us how to love people who are not like us

and how to move towards people who are completely different than us.

And it's going to be uncomfortable at times.

And here's why it gets uncomfortable at times, right?

Sometimes when you sit across people who think differently than you,

who communicate differently than you,

this is the perennial struggle of my marriage.

My wife is a three-point communicator.

She dreams in PDF, you know?

And for me, it takes an hour before I warm up to my first point.

In fact, Kevin has kept my passport and said that if I don't preach in a reasonable time,

I'll have to walk back to Mumbai.

So I'm going to be careful here.

What happens when the people who talk in points, three points,

and the person who's a storyteller,

usually both of them are in the same community group, right?

And what happens when they come together?

When they come together, everything in you will feel like,

man, I just need to fix this problem, right?

In the first three years of our marriage,

I was like, man, if only Cheryl can be a little bit more like me,

then all of the problems of our life would be solved, right?

But unfortunately, she was also having the same thought, right?

This is not a problem to solve.

Look, this is part of being, this is the whole point of being a gospel community.

I love how Dietrich Bonhoeffer captures this in his book, Life Together.

Here's what he says.

He says,

Christian community is not an ideal which we must realize.

It is rather a reality created by God in Christ

that we've been invited to participate in.

The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise

of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone,

the more sober-minded, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship

and pray and hope for it.

Church, here's why this matters.

You and I find ourselves living in a world that is increasingly getting divided.

The promise of connectivity,

the promise that we'll all be more connected with social media

and all the other things have kind of, in one sense, failed us.

The world is becoming increasingly more tribal, right?

Even in the last one year.

We're all encouraged to find our people, our side, people that agree with us

and then find your group, find your people and then draw lines between,

you know, dividing lines between them.

And that is happening in a culture that says that who we are is found in what we look like,

how much accomplishments that we have, what we studied, right?

What kind of resume that we have.

I don't know about the context here, but back home it is like,

which part of the city you live from, what kind of vehicle you drive.

Like, this is the culture, this is the world that we live in.

And while those things can maybe, some of those things can maybe tell part of our story,

none of those things were meant to tell us

or meant to be the deepest part of our identity, right?

So the church actually has the opportunity, through the work of Christ,

to offer the world a different vision of community

because our deepest identity is not found in what we have or what we've accomplished.

It is actually settled and secure in the accomplishment of another,

in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

We're a diverse group of people being brought together.

We're learning what it means to grow together.

We're learning what it means to be loving and patient towards one another

because Christ has made us siblings in his family.

The eternal siblinghood of Jesus has been given to us, right?

This is what we've been called to practice.

So this means that when conflict comes,

when relational tension comes,

when we feel stretched,

we don't get to take our ball and go home, right?

We're not like the kid that takes his ball and goes home.

We don't get to run away.

We don't get to triangulate.

We don't get to slander.

We don't get to say things like,

well, if that's how it's going to be,

then I'm just going to not involve or get engaged

because that's not how Jesus is moving towards you and I, right?

Even with all the things that we don't get right,

even with all the things that we drop constantly,

Jesus is patiently moving towards his bride.

And because of that,

he's inviting us in his strength

to do the hard work of moving towards each other humbly and by faith.

This means that we stay in conversation.

We listen.

We listen to own our part.

We give the benefit of doubt.

We honor, we outdo each other in showing honor, right?

Even when things are uncomfortable,

we do this because we know that Christ is at work.

And for some of us,

I think it's helpful to hear this this morning.

Sometimes the very tension that we are trying to avoid

is where God is doing his best work, right?

Because that's where we are learning to be patient.

That's where we are learning to give grace.

We can sing about grace and we love grace,

but then when you have to give grace

and when you have to offer grace,

that's when,

that's a big difference between learning how to swim through a PowerPoint

and somebody throwing you in the water, right?

Those are two different things, right?

Grace is not just a theological construct,

but it's an experience reality

in the broken community of God's people.

So here's a question that's worth sitting with this morning.

Is Jesus truly the deepest reason that we belong to his church?

Or are we here because of our preference,

because of our comfort,

because of our friendships,

or because of familiarity?

Friendships and familiarity and comforts are not bad things,

but they're not ultimate things, right?

A gospel community exists because of Jesus.

Point number two,

a gospel community exists under the authority of Jesus.

A gospel community exists under the authority of Jesus.

Look at the next couple of verses.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting,

the Holy Spirit said,

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul

for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying,

they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

I love what's happening in this passage.

Acts 13 shows us that these believers,

followers of Jesus Christ,

were worshiping the Lord and fasting.

The striking thing about this group of people

is that their worship goes way beyond singing songs, right?

They're worshiping the Lord

by obeying him as Lord in worship.

And here's how we know that.

In the middle of their worship service,

can you imagine this?

In the middle of the worship service,

the Holy Spirit speaks,

and he says,

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul.

Now there's a little bit detail in there.

It says that there were teachers and prophets present there.

That's like a unique community, right?

I imagine that the Holy Spirit is speaking

through the prophets.

Again, in today's context,

it's very rare when teachers and prophets

are working together, right?

Yet that is what is being seen in this community.

So the Spirit asks them to release

two of their best leaders,

and how does the church respond?

The church sets apart a committee,

and the church says that,

hey, let's actually talk about the merits

and the demerits,

commissions the committee and say,

give us a report in one week, right?

Let's talk about the merits and demerits

of what God is asking us to do.

That's not what happened, right?

The church responds in obedience.

The church responds and says,

yes, Lord.

And this is simple obedience,

but this is a costly obedience.

This is the kind of obedience

that's going to cost them something, right?

Two of their best leaders have been set apart.

They're willing to part with two of their best leaders,

and this is going to cost them something.

And this is one thing that I love about this passage.

I think this passage shows us the difference

between admiring Jesus and submitting to Jesus.

Two different things, right?

It's one thing to say that I really like

some of the things that Jesus says,

but it's a completely different thing to say he's Lord,

and his voice carries authority in my life.

And if you look at the ministry of Jesus,

he's always upfront about the cost of following him.

He's not building an MLM, you know, scheme.

That he's not trying to sell us

like some kind of a ponzi, bait and switch scheme.

He's always been upfront about the cost of following him.

Listen to his voice in Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples,

Jesus said to them,

if anyone would come after me,

let him deny himself and take up his cross

and follow me, right?

If anyone would come after me,

anyone means that it's a completely inclusive call.

Invitation is wide open to anyone who would hear,

anyone who is willing to follow Jesus,

but then he's also honest about what that'll cost.

Let him deny himself and take up his cross

and follow me, right?

This is why I believe true gospel community

exists under the authority of God.

It means true gospel community,

trust that God knows how we were made to live

better than we do.

That God gets to call balls and strikes.

He's made us and created us

and he knows how best human beings will flourish

on this side of eternity, right?

This means that the voice of Jesus

gets to shape what we believe,

how we live and how we treat one another,

even when we have to handle our differences.

This is what makes real Christianity different

from whatever that is heart and culture for a minute, right?

Gospel community is one way we say

we belong to Jesus,

we live under his authority

and because we belong to Jesus,

we belong to each other.

This means that between my brother Kevin and I

stands Jesus.

Like when I have to approach him,

I can't approach him outside of Jesus.

The same grace that God has offered me

is offered to him.

There is something about relating to each other

as Jesus being the mediator of the new covenant,

between each other in community.

That leads me to the third thing

that I wanted to see from this passage.

Not only is gospel community because of Jesus

and existing under the authority of Jesus,

a gospel community exists for the sake

of the mission of Jesus.

Look at verse 4 and 5.

Friends,

this church community had some really beautiful things

going on for them, right?

They had a beautiful community.

They were united together.

I mean, imagine,

they worked through their differences, right?

They had,

their diversity is seen in their leadership team

and the leadership team represents

different communities

that is a part of this church.

So they've done the hard work

and they've built something beautiful

and the easiest thing to do

would be to say,

hey, let's build a fence around this thing

and let's protect this, right?

Let's protect this.

But the Holy Spirit interrupts their comfort.

The Holy Spirit says,

set apart for me Barnabas and Saul.

So the Spirit's first command to this church

was not keep your best leaders to yourself

but send out your best leaders.

In many ways,

you and I are sitting here on the shoulders

of what this church did, right?

When this church sent out Paul and Barnabas,

this church had no idea

that God, the Holy Spirit,

would use Paul to write half of the New Testament, right?

And all of this should not surprise us.

If you've read our Bible,

this is the same pattern that God does.

God is ascending God.

The Father sends the Son.

The Son sends the Spirit.

The Spirit sends the church.

So this should not surprise us

that gospel communities

are never meant to become

this place of comfort

where we say that,

look, I've found finally my people.

Gospel goodbyes are hard, right?

Can we say that I've done gospel goodbyes?

Mumbai is a transient culture

and it seems like we do gospel goodbyes

every couple of months, right?

But here is why gospel communities are worth it

because this is the heart of God, right?

This is the heart of God.

It is never meant to be about our comfort.

It is never meant to be about saying,

look, it's us four and no more, right?

I love how Christopher Wright puts this

in his wonderfully dense book,

Mission of God, right?

Here is what he says.

He says,

it is not so much the case

that God has a mission

for his church in the world

as that God has a church

for his mission in the world, right?

It's not that God has a mission

for the church.

God has a mission

and he has a church

to advance that mission.

So whether in Hong Kong

or Mumbai

or Oklahoma City,

God keeps sending people.

Between Sundays,

God keeps sending his people

to neighborhoods

and universities

and food courts

and families

and communities

so that more people

can hear the gospel,

the more people

can encounter Jesus

and be welcomed

into the family of God.

And this has always been God's plan.

I love this verse

in Revelation 21.

Listen to this verse.

And I heard a loud voice

from the throne saying,

behold,

the dwelling place of God

is with man.

He will dwell with them

and they will be his people

and God himself

will be with them

as their God.

Until that day coming,

until that day comes,

there's a day coming

where God will make

his dwelling

amongst his people.

And until that day comes,

Jesus is redeeming,

reconciling,

restoring all things

to himself

and in his wisdom,

in his providence

and in his grace,

he's called you

and he's called me,

his church,

to be a part of this work.

Now here's what happens

when we drift

and lose sight

of this mission of God.

We become bored

and we become

inward focused.

A bored Christian

is a dangerous thing.

Right?

And here's why

a bored Christian

is a dangerous thing.

When we encounter Jesus,

when our hearts

come alive to Jesus,

our heart comes alive

to the mission of God.

Right?

There is faith

and there is passion

and there is energy,

that missional energy

that God,

the Holy Spirit

puts in our heart.

And all of that

is supposed to lean outward.

Right?

And when we lose sight

of the mission of God,

all of that starts

to lean inward.

Right?

Then we,

when we start

to lose sight

of the mission of God,

the kingdom of God

starts to shrink

and the kingdom of self

starts to expand.

Right?

Then we are caught up

so much in our little trinkets

and our little kingdom.

Right?

This is when

our imagination

is no longer captivated

by the glorious calling

of the mission of God.

Everything starts

to revolve around us.

Right?

We become,

this is when we become

easily offended.

This is when we start

to chase all kinds

of things

that promises

all kinds of things

but fails in the end.

Right?

This is when we,

we have voracious appetites

to consume

but it's never satisfied

because we were meant

to be advancing

the kingdom of God

by the power

and work of the Holy Spirit.

This is when we start

to look at,

compare our ministries

with other ministries.

This is when we start

to think about

our giftings,

shrink our giftings

as related to

somebody else's gifting.

Right?

It's a dangerous thing

to lose sight

of the mission of God.

I remember

hearing the story,

I actually met the person,

this person

who has been

a follower of Jesus

for over 40 years

who almost split a church

because somebody

asked him to sit,

scoot one space over

for a new family

that is visiting.

Like what happened?

He didn't start there.

Over time,

he lost sight

of the mission of God

and life started

to become

about our convenience,

our preference.

The self started

to be enthroned.

Right?

This is a dangerous thing.

So where has

our sense of mission

quietly shrunk down

to just our own comfort

and our own preference

and our own schedules?

And notice what happens

when the church

is sent out on mission.

Look at the rest

of the passage.

When they had gone

through the whole island

as far as Paphos,

they came upon

a certain magician,

a Jewish false prophet

named Bar-Jesus.

He was with the proconsul,

Sergius Paulus,

a man of intelligence,

who summoned

Barnabas and Saul

and sought to hear

the word of God.

But Elimus,

the magician,

for that is the meaning

of his name,

opposed them,

seeking to turn

the proconsul away

from the faith.

But Saul,

who was also called Paul,

filled with the Holy Spirit,

looked intently at him

and said,

you son of the devil,

you enemy of all righteousness,

full of all deceit

and villainy,

will you not stop

making crooked

the straight paths

of the Lord?

So the moment

Barnabas and Saul

are sent out on mission,

what happens?

They encounter opposition.

And friends,

this is not an interruption

to the mission.

It is actually part

of the mission.

It is actually part

of the mission.

Have you ever felt this?

The moment you step out

in obedience to Jesus,

resistance starts to show up.

Resistance starts to show up.

We've experienced this

throughout every season

of planting

in Cornerstone,

in Mumbai.

Kevin alluded to how

we showed up

with a lot of joy,

a lot of excitement

to be faced

with a global pandemic.

Like nobody even knows

what is going on, right?

But Jesus' plans

cannot be thwarted.

Even a global pandemic

cannot stand in the way.

And then throughout

the seasons of planting,

there has been many moments

when we've looked

at each other

and we've talked to us,

God, we know

you've called us,

but why does this

feel so hard?

Why does this feel so hard?

There have been seasons

of disappointments

and misunderstandings

and relational tensions

and loneliness,

many, many moments

when we wondered

if the cost

was even worth it.

And it's not just us.

You have your own

versions of that, right?

But here is what

I want you to remember

this morning.

Opposition doesn't

always mean

that you're

on the wrong path, right?

Sometimes it's evidence

that you're moving

exactly where God

has called you to move.

That brings me

to the last thing

that I want us to see

from this passage.

A gospel community

exists to confront

darkness

in the power

of the Spirit.

Let me say that again.

A gospel community

exists to confront

darkness

in the power

of the Holy Spirit.

Look at the language

Paul is using here.

A son of the devil,

an enemy of all

righteousness,

full of deceit

and villainy

making crooked

the straight paths

of the Lord.

I'm like,

Paul, what is going on?

Like, why are you

so mad, right?

Who is Paul speaking to?

Is he speaking

to just a fellow believer?

Or is he speaking

to a difficult person,

dealing with a difficult

person in this community?

No, my friends,

that's not what's

happening here.

Paul is confronting

a deeper spiritual reality,

right?

This is what

spiritual warfare

and spiritual resistance

look like in this context.

Throughout the book of Acts,

the mission of Jesus

is not seen as just a

battle against

difficult situations

and difficult people.

There's a real

spiritual enemy

who opposes

the advance of the gospel,

right?

And I get it.

That can sound

a little strange,

right?

But depending on

where we are coming from,

this is 2026.

We are living in

global cities.

Like, it is hard

to think about things

that we can't see,

things that we can't

quantify,

things that we cannot

logically explain.

But the Bible is clear.

The same Paul who wrote

a dense theological treatise

like Romans

also wrote

Ephesians 6.

And listen to his words.

For we do not wrestle

against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers,

against the authorities,

against the cosmic powers

over this present darkness,

against the spiritual forces

of evil

in the heavenly places.

Friends,

the book of Acts

shows us

that the Holy Spirit

repeatedly empowers

the church

to do something

that we can't do

on our own.

Like, we need

the empowerment

of the Holy Spirit

throughout the history

of the church.

Even today.

It doesn't matter

if it's the most resourceful

place in the world

or the most under-resourced

place in the world.

We have been given

a mission.

We've been entrusted

a task

that we can't complete

on our own.

We need the power

and the presence

of the living God

through the work

of the Holy Spirit

for this.

Right?

I'm not persuasive enough.

Our team is not

strategic enough.

We don't have

enough resources.

We don't know

all things

to actually

get behind

the advance

of gospel mission

in Mumbai.

But yet,

one thing we know

is that the spirit

of the living God

is fulfilling

the promise of Jesus

whether it's in Hong Kong

or Mumbai.

Jesus promised

he will build a church

and the gates of hell

will not prevail

against her.

Right?

And the spirit of God

is actually bringing

that promise

to pass

through the church.

Right?

Through his working.

Through his power.

Like it's not

up to us.

Right?

In one sense

it is.

Like by faith

we stand

but we also stand

depending on the spirit.

Like we lean

on the spirit

to have him

complete this work.

Like no one can

help us see Jesus

like the spirit can.

Right?

So we need

his presence.

We need

his work.

So friends

where do we go

from here?

The gospel community

is together

because of Jesus

together under

the authority

of Jesus.

It's together

for the sake

of his mission

and we are together

to confront

darkness

in the power

of his spirit.

So today

can we take

a moment

of honesty?

Where do we need

grace?

When you think

about these

four things

where do we

experience

missional drift

in these four areas?

Where do we need

God's help

this morning?

One of the greatest

gifts the gospel

offers us

is the gift

to come to God

needy

and honest.

I realize

that sometimes

I avoid the very

things

that makes me

that poises me

my heart

to receive

God's grace.

Right?

Beautiful gift

that the gospel

gives us

is the freedom

to come to Jesus

needy

and dependent.

So here's my question.

Where do you need

God's grace

this morning?

Where do we need

God's grace

this morning?

For those of us

who can honestly

name a couple of areas

I have good news

for you.

The same God

who called

you and I

is calling

our drifting hearts

back to himself.

And here's the

beautiful thing.

We don't have to

do this alone.

You get to do it

with the people

sitting to your right

and the people

sitting to your left.

You get to do it

together

as we gather

on Sundays

and as we scatter

all across

Hong Kong

and Mumbai

between Sundays

in community.

And here is why

we can step towards

this in both

confidence

and humility.

Wherever

we fall

short of this

Jesus has already

done the work

perfectly

on our behalf.

Right?

There's never been

a moment in his

life where

Christ has

drifted.

He has stood

firm and

completed the

will of God

in our place

and he invites

us today to

simply come

in faith

and repentance

and stand

in his work.

Stand in his work.

Right?

For all the ways

that you and I

attempted to look

towards familiarity,

move towards

people that we

are familiar with,

move towards

comfort,

right?

Move towards

people who are

just like us,

Christ has

left behind

the comfort

of heaven

and the

familiarity

of heaven

and he's

moved towards

the people

who are

nothing like

him.

Right?

And in doing

so,

he's moved

towards you

and I

in all of

our imperfection,

in all the

ways that we

experience the

weight of

brokenness and

sin,

and he makes

us family

through his

finished work.

Church,

for all the

ways that you

and I have

failed to

submit to the

authority of

God,

Jesus perfectly

submitted to the

Father's voice

in joyful

obedience,

obedience even

to the point

where he's

embraced the

Father's mission

of seeking

and saving

the lost,

even to the

point of

being broken

apart on a

Roman cross

in our

place for

our sins.

And in

doing so,

Jesus confronts

the deepest

darkness of

our hearts

and by the

power of the

Spirit who

raised him

from the

dead on the

third day,

he establishes

dominion over

death,

over sin,

and over

Satan.

And he

does that

so that this

morning,

none of those

things have the

last word over

God's people.

Jesus has the

last word over

his church.

Today,

he's both our

substitute and

our example,

and he offers

us a real

power to

repent from

our drifting

and experience

a renewal

to be the

kind of

gospel community

that he's

already made

us to be.

Right?

He's already

made us to be.

So today,

as we close,

where do

we need

God's

grace?

Where do

we need

God's

grace?

If you're

today here

and you're

not sure

about what

you believe

or maybe

you are

hearing all

of this

and you

say,

look,

I resonate

with some

parts,

but I'm

not sure

if I'm

yet in a

place to

be a

follower of

Jesus.

I'm so

glad that

you're here.

Right?

I'm so

glad that

you're here.

I want to

say this.

I want to

say this on

behalf of this

community,

that you're

among friends.

You're among

friends.

You're not

among people

who figured

it all

out.

You're among

friends.

We don't

have to

pretend that

we figured

it all

out.

Today,

the offer

of grace

stands true

for every

single one

of us.

Even in

the preaching

of God's

word,

God is

moving towards

us.

He's not

leading away

from us.

So let's

take a couple

of minutes.

Let's quiet

our hearts.

Let's bring

our hearts

before God.

Where do

we need

God's grace

this morning?

Would you

pray with

me?

Father,

we thank

you so

much for

the real

work of

your spirit

that calls

our hearts

back to

yourself.

Would you

help us,

Lord God,

to remember

who we

are?

Would you

help us,

Lord God,

to walk

out our

calling?

Would you

help us,

Lord God,

to remember

that you

have anchored

us in you?

In a million

years from

now, the

most true

thing about

us is that

we are loved

by God

through Jesus,

that we

are siblings,

brothers and

sisters brought

into a family

by the

finished work

of Jesus.

So today,

Lord God,

would you

help us,

would you

help us,

Holy Spirit

of God,

to remember

this reality,

not just in

this moment,

but when the

mundane things

of Wednesday

starts to move

our hearts to

boredom,

would you bring

our hearts to

remember,

Lord,

who we are

and what we've

been called

to do?

Would you

help us,

Lord God,

to submit

your word?

We thank

you that

your word

is authority

over us.

Would you

shape us

and form

us?

We pray,

Lord God,

that you

would light

up our

devotions,

Lord God,

as we

open God's

word,

would you

help us,

Holy Spirit

of God,

to cherish

and treasure

Jesus?

As we

read your

word,

would you

help your

word to

read us?

Would you

help us,

Lord God,

to remember

the calling

to be a

part of your

mission?

Would you

give us

boldness?

Would you

give us

grace?

Would you

give us

creativity?

Would you

give us,

Lord God,

wisdom,

Father,

to proclaim

the gospel

and demonstrate

your kingdom

wherever you

have planted

us?

And finally,

Lord,

we pray,

God,

that we

do acknowledge

that we

can't do

this on

our own.

We need

you.

So we

pray,

God,

that you

would push

back against

everything

that pushes

against the

advance of

the gospel

in Hong

Kong.

Would you

use

Watermark

Church,

Lord God?

I pray,

Father,

that our

story would

be such

that there

will be a

day when

we stand

in your

presence,

when we

say,

because of

your prayer,

because of

your willingness

to send,

because of

your willingness

to open

your mouth

and advance

the gospel,

I'm here.

I pray,

God,

that that

would be

our story.

Lord,

we love

you.

We love

you.

We thank

you.

It's

amazing,

Lord,

that you've

called us

to your

work.

And would

you help

us,

Lord God,

would you

fill us

with your

spirit and

send us

out of

here,

Lord God,

with boldness,

humility,

joy,

and courage.

In Jesus'

name we

pray.

may may