Community and Missions Sunday
Transcript
Skip the transcript0:00 Well, good afternoon. It's been great just to hear those stories this morning, and hopefully you've been inspired by what Naomi has shared, just the transformation of life, and also what Claire has been sharing. And if we had time, we could get so many other stories from what's happening locally across the church within our community initiatives, and also from our other missions family. When I was asked to come and take this talk this morning, the biggest challenge I had was trying to figure out how do I excite the family at Glen Abbey Church about mission and community? What's really going to motivate the people here to pray for, give to, and get involved personally in missions and community? I'm sure many of you are familiar year with the story about the four people named everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody. It goes like this. There was an important job to be done, and everybody was sure that somebody would do it.
1:04 Anybody could have done it, but nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was everybody's job, and everybody thought anybody could do it, but nobody realized that everybody wouldn't do it, and ended up that everybody blamed somebody when nobody did what anybody could have done. We laugh at stories like that, don't we? And it's because we relate to them, don't we? We understand the moral in it. And so often we think someone else will see a need and respond to it. Therefore, we don't really have to. And I wonder if this is how most of us, if we're being honest view our response to personally praying consistently for, getting involved in giving to, and getting involved practically in missions and community.
2:02 I recently read an article which was saying, it's hard to sell sacrifice. And I thought, wow, that's true, isn't it? It's hard to sell sacrifice unless the people value supremely the thing for which the sacrifice is being made. that makes sense to me if we value supremely what we are responding to then we will be willing to make the personal sacrifice of time, finance and involvement so this morning I hope along with all that we've heard and seen from supporting Prison Fellowships, Christmas Hope Appeal listening to Naomi, listening to Claire that in some way we will start to understand our role in mission and community. And for those of you who have never been to a At Six, which has been widely advertised this morning, we do do a regular community and missions at six get together, which are really informative. So this morning I want to try fuel a passion within you for this concept of being engaged personally in mission and community. I want to try and sell the joy of sacrifice and the blessings that it brings to others as well as to ourselves.
3:36 And to try and move us all away from the everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody mindset when it comes to these things. What do we value supremely to the extent that we will be motivated as a church to take action. I've been hugely challenged over the past number of weeks. I'm blessed by our current series in Ephesians. I suppose I've gained a greater understanding and awareness of how much God loves me. How do we ever understand the full breadth and depth and height and love of God for us? The fact that he values us, the fact that he has purpose for us in our lives, that he has prepared good works for us to do. and some of the teaching to be honest is it kind of blown my mind and it's been fresh it's moved me into a place of greater appreciation of all that God was prepared to do to save me and continues to do in my life and I suppose I have been kind of thinking this through and the desire to respond to him and his leading in my life out of love and gratitude for what I'm learning about his mercy
4:48 and his grace that has been shored upon me. And I wonder how many of you feel the same as you reflect back on what we have been hearing in that series. So over the next few minutes, I want to just look at two things very quickly. I want to consider what the meaning of mission is and our role in it. the word mission has a root in it which is the whole inference of the importance of being sent that's really at the heart this sense of sending and being sent to do something the bible is full of stories we look at joseph who was sent to a position to save lives in the famine moses was sent to deliver people from oppression and exploitation elijah was sent to influence the course of international politics. Jeremiah was sent to proclaim God's word. Jesus was sent to preach the good news. The disciples were sent to preach and demonstrate the delivering and healing power of the reign of God.
5:52 The apostles were sent to make disciples baptize and teach. Paul and Barnabas were sent with famine relief. They were also sent with evangelism and church planting. Titus was sent to ensure trustworthy and transparent financial administration. Other believers were sent out to share the gospel. Currently, we have sent out Charlie and Tanya, Stuart and Anna Clare, Gisely and Nora Clare, Mark and Newby, David and Pam from Glen Abbey. And then each one of us, if we look at what Scripture teaches, have also been sent by God into the places that he has prepared for us. So we have this idea of being sent, but we also have within the use of the word mission the concept and idea of purpose.
6:45 Many organizations have their mission statements which kind of define why they exist. You look at people, big organizations like Apple or the BBC or Antrim Hospital, even Glen Abbey, we have a mission statement which tries to encapsulate the purpose for our existence, why we're here. And so at the heart of Glen Abbey's mission, it really is the good news message, the gospel of Jesus Christ, which we seek to learn it, live it, and share it in a way that impacts the culture that we are living in. The conviction that we should have at our hearts is that Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. It's why Glen Abbey is here, to see more people coming to faith in Christ, growing in that faith, and then sharing that faith with others, being a witness to impact the world we live in with the truth and the reality of the gospel message, which we have been enlightened to understand, received, and live in the freedom of. It's why our core value within mission says that we desire to be a local church with a global impact. Because we realize that we can impact beyond our shores, beyond these four walls. It's why we really encourage people to consider mission and get behind them and send them out to serve God where he has called them to serve.
8:18 And then we have the core value of community. And at Glen Abbey, we're committed to living out the gospel through active engagement in our local community. That's what that is all about. So a way of looking at missions this morning is just being sent with purpose. That's what God is asking us to do, both locally and globally. So the second thing to consider then, well, if that's what mission is all about, well, what is our role in it? What role are we to play in mission? I was struck whilst reading Chris Wright's thoughts.
8:54 He has a book which is called Mission of God, which a lot of people would recommend when you're talking about missions. And he says this, it's 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. Mission was not made for the church. The church was made for mission. God's mission. That's some statement, isn't it? our role then is to fulfill God's mission and God's mission in human history as expressed way back to Abraham at the beginning of the Old Testament is that through him and his descendants all the nations of the world would be blessed and what we can understand now with the revelation of scripture that we have, the Bible, is that Jesus brings the ultimate blessing as a descendant of Abraham and that through his death for sin, his resurrection into new life, people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation can come into relationship with God through Jesus because of his sacrifice for their sins.
10:12 This is an incredible story that is unfolding before our very eyes. Recently, we chatted a little bit about that tapestry, that masterpiece that God is creating that we are a part of. I think it was that phrase that caught me was, you can't make a tapestry with a single strand. It requires all of them to be weaved together. the importance of church in how it fulfills God's mission. That we're his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. And I love that. Every time I say it, I say, I love that.
10:57 God has purpose in our life. And the purpose in our life is things that he has prepared for us to do. We just need to figure out what they are and get on with it. confidence because he has prepared it. And this good work, this mission is a lot less complicated than we perceive it to be. And what I mean by that is it really is about how we live our lives. It's about living faithful, authentic, real lives for Jesus. In Peter's letter, he says this, Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
11:45 Live such good lives. We need to live good lives in our family, in our workplace, in our friendship groups. And by being real in terms of who we are and what we believe, living for Jesus means acknowledging him in all that we do. It means living in the freedom he has won for us by allowing him to direct us in our everyday lives. Always being prepared to give that answer to anyone who would ask us of the reason for the hope that we have. That people see something in us that makes them pause and think and question. Living lives of integrity, of honesty, of example. It's so important in a world where those values really don't exist.
12:41 Living good lives among those who do not believe, that they see something different. But we also need to live good lives with one another. That's why it's so important that the love that we have for one another impacts a watching world. It's a huge challenge for each one of us. to realize the role we are playing is to represent Jesus where he has placed us, to recognize that as his children, he has sent us into Naby, into Ballyclare, into Belfast, Carrickfergus, wherever it may be, to be his representative. And to be his representative, we need to learn what it means to become good news people. We've got a good news story to tell people. because it's changed us.
13:32 And we want to share that with other people. And if we're going to talk about the transformational power of the gospel, we need to show evidence of transformation and what it looks like in our own lives. We can't go and talk to people about something we don't experience. We need to be experiencing that. It's just not about proclaiming a message. It's about authenticating the message that we want to proclaim through how we live our lives. This is our mission, both locally and globally. We are Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
14:15 We use phrases like being the hands and feet and the mouth of God. That's how he sees us. So God in his wisdom chooses us, his people, his children, his followers, to be his representatives so that we can be a blessing to the world, so that light can shine in dark places, so that we can be salt that seasons and sustains. And the end result is the role that we play is to impact the world by being us, by being real. And as we're changing, people notice. It's not that we're perfect, but we're on a journey. We know our destination, and we're following the Savior in that. I love it the way Paul writes this idea of being attractive.
15:15 In 2 Corinthians 2, he says, For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. Isn't that a beautiful picture? We are an aroma. Hopefully we're a good smell and not a bad smell. But we're an aroma. And it says here, to the one we are the smell of death, to the other the fragrance of life. I don't know about you but I would love that I had an aroma that was the fragrance of life that would be cool wouldn't it and then he says and who is equal to such a task big question unlike so many we do not peddle the word of God for profit on the contrary in Christ we speak before God with sincerity like men sent from God
16:15 mission with a purpose. So I think for all of us this morning, we need to recognize and accept that that's the reality. That God sends each of us as his children to be in a room of Christ, to be his ambassadors where he places us. For some of us it's overseas, for some of us it's right here in what we are doing day by day. to be his ambassador where he has placed us, to be a blessing to the world by living an authentic life, a gospel life that attracts people to Jesus and those people come to know him and enter into life eternal and the joy that we celebrate when we get together. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you this morning for the opportunity to consider mission, hear stories about what you're doing around the world. We thank you for the opportunities we have locally to engage, to show your love to other people through prison fellowship, through food bank particularly, but we know so much else goes on during the week here where we're able to engage within community.
17:29 Lord, help us to see and understand that each one of us has a role to play, That we have been sent with purpose of fulfilling your mission in this world. To be your ambassadors. To live authentic lives where you have placed us and called us to be. To live in such a way that people are attracted to Jesus. May each of us respond to this incredible, incredible privilege of being a fellow worker with God in these days, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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The speaker encourages the church to take personal responsibility for mission and community work, rather than assuming someone else will act. Mission is described as being sent with purpose, locally and globally, and the church’s role as living authentically for Jesus and sharing the good news through both words and actions.
