Outwards - Community

0:00 Morning. Keith said we'd only be scratching the surface really and he was right but I've seen enough to encourage me and challenge me in equal measure already. It's really super. So up here we got a picture of what's called summit plummet. You will find it in a water park in Orlando called Blizzard Beach. If you're going to experience it you need to take a chairlift and then you climb several flights of stairs to get to what you might want to call the launch pad. And it's the scariest sight imaginable as you look over because you can't even see the chute. It just looks like a dead vertical drop.

0:39 And when you pluck up the courage, you find yourself dropping 120 feet at a jaw-dropping speed of 60 miles per hour, I can tell you it is absolutely exhilarating. However, not everyone manages to make it. Some people get right to the top, and when they look at what's ahead, they reckon the thrill isn't worth the fear, and so they end up doing the long walk of shame. back down the steps and there is no chairlift to take you down. That may have happened to someone in our family. Now, in the big scheme of things, it's no big deal. But there's another story from much longer ago when it was a big deal. Many of you will know it.

1:31 It's about spies sent out to spy a land and then coming back from a journey into Canaan. And this is what we read when they came back. It's from Numbers chapter 13. The spies came back and gave Moses this account. We went into the land to which he sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey. Here is its fruit, but the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there, giants. The Amalekites live in the Negev, the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites that live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.

2:06 But then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, we should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. But the men who had gone up with him said, we can't attack these people. They are stronger than we are. And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, the land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there, the descendants of Anak, come from the Nephilim. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.

2:42 That night, all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, if only we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to each other, we should choose a leader and go back to Egypt. God had rescued his people from Egypt with an awesome display of power. And a journey to a new future punctuated by regular miraculous interventions on their behalf.

3:29 And he brought them to the border of this great land that he had promised to give them. And when he got there and saw it, they were too scared to go. All they could see was giants. Now, I wonder when it comes to reaching out in mission to our community if we see giants. We've maybe even come to the conclusion that mission far away is easier because of the way our culture has gone. We've rapidly changed from being a society built on identifiably Christian values to a context where Christianity is not just rejected, but sometimes we feel like we're the enemy to the world around. We sometimes can feel like there's special discrimination and anger targeted at Christianity. And each time we read or hear of another issue where a Christian is taken to court for maybe wearing a cross like this lady was, or for praying for a patient, or refusing to teach certain things, or standing up for what they believe to be biblical truth, or even praying in the street.

4:41 It makes us want to retreat even further. And maybe a bit like the Israelites, we can look at all this and it just looks like giants. And we decide it's better off to retreat, to stay where we think it's safe. And yes, sure, we know it's our calling as followers of Jesus to take the good news to the world around us, but we're at a loss to know how to do it. And many times it's because we're afraid. We're afraid that we'll be rejected or embarrassed or worse that we'd actually end up in trouble if we do it. And well-meaning preachers add to our trouble when they challenge us to do it. So truth be told, sometimes we get to days like today in church when the focus is on mission, and especially mission close to home, and we're made to feel even worse about it.

5:35 so what do we do? Well I don't pretend to have a whole list of answers that will solve the problems for us and I'm certainly not going to lay a guilt trip on us because I got to tell you I find this as perplexing and challenging and difficult as anybody else does but I've been trying to look at the experience of those same Israelites to see if there's anything that we can learn from their experience and what God called them to do that might just help give us something to hold on to or pointers that will help us navigate the challenges that are before us. And they are challenges. Let's not pretend that they aren't. Engaging with the world around us, here and now where we live, may just be one of the giants that we have to face today. And the first thing that I was drawn towards is this, obedience.

6:33 Before they came into the promised land, if you read through the book of Deuteronomy, you get kind of Moses parting words, God's covenant with the people. And he had some reminders for them as they were about to embark on this journey eventually. And here's something interesting amongst what he left them with. We read this in Deuteronomy chapter 4. See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

7:45 I'm struck by that. I wonder, When was the last time that you saw obedience to God's commands as a key form of mission? It could be that somehow we've come to think that obedience is like just a kind of drudgery, or at worst, or at best something designed just to keep us on the straight and narrow, but it's way more than that. Let's remember the context in which Moses gave these instructions. These people were going into a land that had values that were very different to what God had revealed of himself. Rulers dominated people and took from them whatever they wanted. Sexual immorality was rife and was even a major part of their religions. They worshipped gods that they'd made out of wood and stone.

8:39 Now, how ridiculous. Imagine this. We've said this before. You cut down a tree, you burn half of it to keep warm, and the other half of it you worship. How ridiculous. And these people even sacrificed their children in the fire to the god Molech. And in that context, God called his people to follow a very different set of instructions. Not because they were just random notions that they thought up, but because they were designed to produce a very different kind of culture and community.

9:13 His laws were good laws. Of course, they pointed to his holy character, but it's more than that. They were designed to help people live better lives, to protect the weak, to share resources evenly, even to live more healthily. It was revolutionary in a great way. And this word for Moses was pointing to that. He's basically saying that if you live like this, it will catch people's attention. They will actually look jealously at it and they'll want some of it for themselves. And yet too often God's people turned and they followed Baal.

9:55 Baal actually means master. Instead of God, who in the words of the prophet Hosea was saying, I'm not your master. I'm your husband. Because God's laws come from intimacy. From his love for our good. not from wanting to enslave us just as a master. And as they obeyed, others were supposed to see just how different it was, how beneficial it would be, how good it is. And they would then be drawn to want to know that God for themselves.

10:36 So think about our world today. What has changed? Look at the values that drive the world around us. Leaders who can often dominate and take riches for themselves. Immorality that is rife and destructive. Even children being sacrificed, as it were, to the notions of the day. I can't help but think that something similar happens when certain ideologies appear to be driven today by some who are willing to support long-term harm to children without even involving their parents, leaving them with irreversible damage that many later regret. And how can we handle it?

11:27 Well, truth be told, we're probably not going to make much headway by shouting and complaining, phoning into radio shows and waving banners in the street. But if I read Scripture right, one of the ways that God has ordained by which we can reach a world that seems so lost is by living our lives according to His commands. Maybe we're just a little bit too quick to shout His commands at others in despair about what we see around us, and instead we need to bring the conversation home. and ask if we are living attractive, obedient lives that paint a better picture to the world. And I don't just mean the straightforward do's and don'ts that we maybe think about too quickly. I'm thinking about the kind of teaching that we've even been covering in our church in Matthew and Corinthians, from Jesus and from Paul, the kind of living that Jesus points to in the Sermon on the Mount. These kinds of commands. Going the extra mile.

12:39 Turning the other cheek. Praying for our enemies. And the lifestyle teaching that Paul showed in his letters in our families, in our workplaces, in our communities. And I just wonder if we could start to see this kind of command as mission. It might give us just, I don't know, a better hope of impacting the world around us. The second thing that stands out to me is actually in the middle of these commands that God gave his people going into Canaan. But it's so relevant. And actually, I'm going to say this.

13:21 It's so easy that I thought it was worth making a stand-alone point of this. This is what we read in Deuteronomy 24. When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

14:01 And then from Deuteronomy 15, if anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God has given you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards them. Give generously to them, and to do so without a grudging heart. Then because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. You know what? This tells me that massive way in which we can live missionally is generosity. And it comes from the heart of God himself because God is a giver. And he calls us to reflect that to the world around. You cannot read the Bible without seeing that God seems to have a special heart for those who are in need, especially the poor, the orphan, the widow, the foreigner, the prisoner, those in need.

15:07 And those instructions of, you know, as they farm the land, I think they're striking. And really what God was saying is this, instead of eking out the very last drop that you can, make sure that you leave what will be life-changing for those in need. Remember, part of God's instructions to his people was that they had to tithe. They tithe, they set aside a tenth of their crops and their profits, and that was then shared with others. But this goes further. This is about deliberately making sure that you don't keep everything that's yours, but ensuring that those who are in need are cared for. Perhaps the most famous example of it in practice in the Old Testament is the story of Ruth. a foreigner and a widow and Boaz the farmer who instructed his men to ensure that extra was left over in the fields and in his fields it was common practice for the needy to come and find food for themselves they had to work together which was a good principle too because that in itself gives dignity.

16:18 But Boaz was generosity in action. Did it matter? Did it make a difference? Will you tell me? Because in time, that foreign widow became his wife, and they gave birth to a son. And a couple of generations after that, in that same line, someone called David was born. And many generations after that, someone called Jesus was born to that same earthly line. And it started with Boaz's generosity to a foreigner and a widow.

17:04 And here's the thing about generosity. If you've picked up anything going through the service this morning, it's this. Generosity is something all of us can do, whether it's with our time or our attitudes or our money or our talents. No one can wriggle out of being generous. We've all got something we can do. And we've no idea what impact it might take on the world around us if we had that attitude. I got to finish. There are so many other things that I think we can learn from God's people in the past, in the Old Testament, that could help us live with a missional impact on our world.

17:47 But I'm going to finish with this one. Might seem a bit strange, but it's this. Pick your fights. And I'm actually thinking of a time hundreds of years after the early days in Canaan when God's people, because of their rebellion, actually found themselves out of that promised land and living in a context that couldn't have been further from what they knew, living in Babylon, the center of the pagan world. And yet in those days, there was a faithful follower of God called Daniel, who had no chance of preaching about God on the street corners. In fact, it was so hostile, he found himself thrown into a pit with lions because he dared to pray, never mind organize a meeting or a protest March. And I know we are facing increasingly this kind of situation today. Christianity is not welcome in the public square.

18:45 So what do we do about it? I do fear that too often our temptation is to want to fight, to protest, letters to the papers or calls to Nolan firing Bible verses or archaic language at a world that increasingly has no idea what we're talking about. Or maybe holding placards up, telling people they're going to hell, or shouting through loud healers, sticking up verses that warn of judgment, and rarely say anything about love or the life that Jesus wants to offer. And we get so disturbed about so many things, and we reel against them all. And the problem is, even on a practical level, never mind theologically, I'm not sure it works. Just ask anyone who has tried to parent teenagers. If you're going to fight about everything, then you've got a losing battle on your hands, and you've got to pick the fights that you're going to have. And I'm intrigued when I watch Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego.

19:52 If you read their story, you will see them having the most amazing missional impact, including with the pagan kings that they served. Two pagan kings who end up bowing the knee to God. And early in their story, I think they sorted this principle. They decided they weren't going to fight about everything. I remember Chris Wright from Langham Partnerships drawing attention to this. And he said, these guys said yes to several things before they decided they were going to stand up and say no. You read it in Daniel chapter 1. They accepted Babylonian education.

20:34 They accepted positions in the Babylonian government. And they actually tolerated their names being changed. And their names used to have the name of their God in them. Where you see El or Yah was the name of their own God. And they were given names that then the names of Babylonian gods in them. They said yes to all those things. But they drew the line when it came to eating the king's food because it had probably been offered to idols and they refused to give that credibility. But because of the way they behaved, because of the way they engaged, they saw amazing things happen as pagan kings like Nebuchadnezzar and Darius bowed their knee to the Lord.

21:16 But this is worth noting. The breakthrough came as they reached the point where they were prepared really to suffer. For Daniel, it was the lion's den. For Shadrach, Neshach, and Abednego, it was a fiery furnace. So let's not pretend it was easy. Each of us today has to work out which of the issues we should fight about. And there's no way I would stand here and tell you which ones they are. But I do wonder, if we were to focus on issues relevant to our second point on generosity, maybe that would be a good place to start.

22:05 Standing up for injustice against those who are in most need. The poor, the stranger, the refugee. or those who don't have a voice for themselves. I can't pretend to know how to walk the minefield of culture and society and doing mission properly to it. But I do know this. God calls us not to be afraid of the giant and to take his good news into the world. And I just wonder if maybe in these examples that we've got something that could at least help us as we go.

22:51 To live lives of striking obedience. To embrace generosity. And to pick our fights carefully. Maybe the giants won't seem so huge if we embrace those kinds of principles. Let's pray. Father our hearts are encouraged with what we've seen and heard this morning on screen and from interviews and yet we're also challenged we see the huge need that is around us and Lord some of us have got to confess that we don't really know what to do about it and I pray Lord that as we consider the implications of your word and the call to your people of old about how they lived their lives, that we would find something in there that gives us hope, that helps us to take another step forward, and that we might be able to see our world or people around us impacted by your love. Lord, where we are maybe not living obedient lives, would you shine your light and enable us to embrace obedience and to see it as a key form of mission?

24:06 And Father, for all of us, challenge us as to what generosity looks like. We thank you for the opportunities that have been placed before us today. Father, we pray that we would all consider what you might be asking of us to do in response. Thank you, Father, that this all comes from your heart because you're a generous God. And thank you even more, Father, that it comes from your heart because you are a loving God. And your desire for us is intimacy, not servitude to a master, but a love that is greater than we can ever imagine. Thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy to us. Help us to do better at channeling that to those around us, we pray.

24:57 In Jesus' name, amen.