Let's give God some praise for our sent ones. Oh man, they are. They are very precious to us, and so man, we're excited for them to get a chance to introduce our topic today.
So, we're going to be in Acts chapter one. If you guys have a copy of scripture, take it out and turn with me to Acts chapter one. We're going to be talking about the final turn of our flywheel here: gather groups, give and go. All right, so we're gonna be talking about going and missions and all that. Hey, as you guys are doing that, I have a real quick announcement.
This is very exciting. I'm gonna introduce it with a bit of a joke that I know that many of us are gonna get, and some of us are not going to because you're brand new. But this is so funny. I walk into the battleground goodwill.
Okay, and the mannequin that is on the very prominent mannequin that is there, you know, for all the clothes and kind of you know, advertising all the clothes for sale is this shirt right here.
So shame on whoever it is that gave their Deeper shirt. To the goodwill, okay.
Now, some of you guys are like, man, I have no idea what that joke is. There's no way you would know. Our church did a discipleship initiative through 2023 and 2024 where we said, Hey, what is the deepest desire of your heart? And what is God calling you to do outside because of that? All right.
It was an initiative for us to get off the sideline, onto the front line. There was a given component to it. And so we had a lot of vision around it. And it was called the Deeper Initiative. Those are the shirts that we had given out for that.
But I want to celebrate this with you guys. Hey, part of the Deeper Initiative was, if you guys remember, there was a bunch of stuff. The Ridge campus was one.
So we're excited for that. But there was also different things, church planning, sending missionaries. One of the things was to start a worship academy, guys. And the very first beta group of the worship academy just started this past week. All right.
So we want to praise God for that. Hey. Um You say, well, what is a worship academy? Here's the vision, okay? The vision is that Mercy Hill would be a church.
All of our campuses, all of our church plants that go out would be saturated with musicians and production people and worship leaders. And if we're gonna get there, it's not because we find them, we need to form them. All right, we need to form them even from a very young age. And so this is a program that is designed to help right now, eventually by the fall of next year, it's gonna be open for adults. Right now, it's gonna be for our student ministry, middle school, and high school.
But the idea is that a kid, your kid, your grandchildren, whoever, would be able to go from zero all the way to stage. All right, and they would be ones that eventually would go out with church plants and things like that and be able to help them.
So, we're in beta testing now. My son is in it now. This is what we've learned: things you're not sure how they're gonna go, you test on the staff kids first.
Okay, so that's what we're doing right now. But this is gonna be open in 2026.
So, I want you to go ahead and make sure that you sign up if you're interested. If one of your family members might be interested, the signups are wide open for the real deal. The beta group is now, but then we're gonna kick off the real thing in 2026.
So, man, you guys, you know, celebrate that and also jump in. And make sure to To get that picture of that QR code, all right? All right, here we go. We're gonna be in Acts chapter one today. Let me go ahead and just throw out our big idea so that you guys can go ahead and start chewing on this.
Here's the big idea of our sermon today: God empowers his people to fulfill his mission. You and I have a job to do. And God has equipped us and empowers us to go out and do that job. All right, you and I live in a unique time, we live between the ascension of Christ and the descension of Christ. He went away, but he's going to come back.
And you and I have a job to do right now. In the meantime, okay? And here's what's the great thing about this: as we think about our grow, kind of the way that we, our growth flywheel, gather groups, give, go. We're not saying that's the only things you should ever do in your Christian life. We are saying that if you commit to those four steps, because they're so biblical and we see them in Acts chapter 2, that if you commit to those, you're gonna kind of move down the current into maturity.
All right, and so the last one that we come to is this idea of going. And what I mean by going is living for a mission that is bigger than yourself, living for a kingdom that is bigger than your job, living for a family that is bigger than just who's in your home.
Okay, it's eyes up, living for a kingdom that is not of this world, but that God has given us the ability to be witnesses of what Christ has done. As we go about our lives, we are the aroma of Christ, we share the gospel. And man, it's getting that gospel to places that are unreached. I know some of us might say, Man, I don't think I'm ever going to be called to go be a missionary. I'm not saying you are.
What I am saying is, are you praying for those who have gone out from Mercy Hill? Are you given to make sure that they're resourced, right? Like we can be a go type person, living for a mission bigger than ourselves, even if we never actually are the ones that are on the field. But for a lot of us, probably more than R should be thinking about: man, maybe God is calling me all the way to the field. It's this go mentality.
And the thing that we get to see today is, and I hope this just kind of rounds out our series, is that when we take a step on the flywheel. It is not only a fruit of maturity, but it's also a pathway to maturity. Think about the gathering, okay? If you are one who has come to love the gathering, that is a fruit of maturity. Man, you wanna hear preaching, you wanna sing with the saints, you wanna be rubbing shoulders with people in the lobby and hear how they're doing, and you wanna serve, and you wanna be here.
That comes from growing in the faith. But guess what happens when you actually come? And you get involved, and you hear preaching, and you sing with people, and you serve. You want to do it more. Right, so it's this idea of going and growing go together.
If you wanna grow, you need to go. And when you go, guess what will happen? You will begin to grow pathway and fruit. I think about it like this: I don't know if you like to run. You know, people like to run, they go run on the road or whatever.
I like to run if there's a ball involved.
Alright, but other than that, people have talked about reaching the runners high. Never been there. Never gotten there. I have a lot of runners' lows, okay? But I've never gotten all the way to the high thing.
And, but my wife is one. Maybe you guys aren't. There are people who love to run. You know what you call someone who loves to run? They're called runners.
And here's what I mean. Here's what I mean. They have built the cardiovascular, the muscle endurance to go run. Their running is a fruit of growth in their life. But guess what happens every time they run?
They get stronger. Here's what happens on the mission field, okay, or when we think about eyes up going. I'm telling you, I've seen this a million times. Many of our students were on mission trips this summer. I heard from many of them.
You know what many of them said? They say something along these lines. It was the most spiritually significant week of my life. Think about that. They went because they're growing in maturity.
And what did God do when they got there? He grew them like crazy. All right, so it's always this thing together. I want to push you. To be a goer, a go mindset.
Man, we're thinking about a kingdom bigger than ourselves. And watch how the Lord uses that to grow us. Here we go, Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 8.
So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
So it's not for you to know the time. But You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the very ends of the earth. We're going to spend all of our time walking all the way through this. Then at the very end, I'll read the last couple of verses 9 through 11 so we'll get.
Anchoring of where we're at in terms of the timeline of the world. And this is gonna be our time. But let's just walk through this slow. I love what they ask. They ask, Is this the time that you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
The answer Jesus gives them is twofold. Verse 7, he tells them, it's not for you to know. And verse 8, he tells them, man, this thing is way bigger than Israel.
Okay, what does he say? Are you bringing the kingdom to Israel? That's a great question. And he doesn't rebuke them for the question, but he does correct their thinking. The right question is, God, are you bringing your kingdom?
That's fine. That's good. That's what many of us are living our life for. We want to tell people about the news of God's kingdom that they can be a part of spiritually now. And that one day he's going to bring in fullness God's people, God's place, and God's reign.
That's the kingdom of God. But here's what they missed. God, are you going to do that? In Israel. Are you going to do that but for one tribe, one nation?
And of course, what Jesus is going to show them here with verses 8 is: wait a minute, no, no, no. The scope, you got the right question, but you got the wrong scope. The scope is not Israel. The scope is Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the way to the ends of the earth. See, Jesus is already going to show them in Acts 1.8, guys.
And Acts 1.8 is the thesis verse for the whole book of Acts.
Okay? I mean, it is the verse that sets it all up. It is the verse that you and I step into our lineage of what we're doing. The Spirit of God lit the flame in the church 2,000 years ago, a direct result of what Jesus says here when he says the spirit is going to empower you. And you and I have a job to do now, 2,000 years later, in a church like Mercy Hill, just like every other believer since this time.
Okay, so it's a thesis verse, it's the way that it's going to go about, it's all about the mission, but listen. It's bigger than Israel. And what he's trying to get at is: this is a mission that will go all the way to the ends of the earth. I don't know what was in their mind. I don't know if the disciples were thinking, is this political restoration?
Is it military? Is it whatever? But they may not have been able to even fathom what God was going to do and has done. Guys, I. I've been on the coast of Indonesia.
Maybe I've been in the north part of India. Man, I've been from the deserts in the Middle East to the high jungle of Peru. And you know what I found every place I've ever gone? There are disciples that are making disciples and planting churches. It's not just Israel.
It's something bigger than that. And now we got to finish the task because there are places and people who don't know. And that's the heartbeat of Mercy Hill, man. That's why we're talking about going and want you to sign up for Envision and all that. There are places that don't know.
But man, this gospel message has gone, can't stop, won't stop, all the way to the ends of the earth. Here is the big thing: y'all, Jesus died for the sin of the world. It's not just the sin of one people, one ethnic group. Jesus' vision for what the people of God will be. You see it in Acts, you see it in Revelation 5.
In Revelation 7, it is a people who are made up of all the peoples of the world. Paul says it like this in Galatians, Galatians 3.7. Know that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. The sons of Abraham, what does that mean? It's a reference to the Old Testament idea of God's people being Israel.
His point here is that if you become a Christian, you are part of God's people now.
Now, we can be open-handed with, and our Baptist tradition is very much open-handed with this. Is God still have a plan for the ethnic nation of Israel? And is that something that will play out in the end times? Man, I know a lot of us believe that, but you don't have to. You know, there's a lot of open-handedness around that.
My point here is the idea of all people from all tribes and tongues have the opportunity to come into God's people now. And that's the point. They ask the question in verse 6, are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel? Verse 7, man, he says, hey, these are things you don't even need to know. And verse 8, he says, you need to get about the mission of going beyond Israel.
From Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the way to the ends of the earth. I want to move on, but let me do this first, all right? Hey, when we start talking about the mission of God going forward, I always have to stop at our campuses as well, man. I want people to lean into this because not everybody is ready to go and be part of the mission. You know why?
Because before you go on mission, you are the mission.
Some of us have not accepted Christ. You have not admitted your sin, believed in what Jesus has done, and confessed him as the Lord of your life. And in this sense, you're not ready to go. You are the mission right now.
Some of us at our campuses right now today might say, Hey, I know of Jesus generically. I mean, I'm from the South, or I understand Christian culture, Jesus and the cross and the resurrection. And you know that Jesus can be a Savior out there, but is He yours? Is he your savior? It's one thing to know people can save.
It's another to know that he is yours. You know, September 11th, Last week, I know if you're like me, you talk to your kids, you remember the heroes that fell that day. And when our nation was attacked, And you know, a few months after 9-11 happened, It wasn't a social media environment like we are now where people can stitch all this stuff together, but different stories started popping up. of people who were talking about a man that had saved him and he he ended up being known as the man in the red bandana. And the story of the man in the red bandana.
Is that there was a kid named Wells Crowther who was working on the 104th floor of the South Tower when the plane hit. And Yeah, he was an equities trader at 24 years old, but he was also a volunteer firefighter. And as the stories began to come out, what people began to say were things like this. The man in the red bandana walked in, booming voice, very assertive. He says to everybody on the floor.
Get up. You have to stand up. Everybody up, make sure everybody is up. Follow me, we're going down the stairs. And he begins at different times to pick people up.
12 different people ended up saying that their salvation story out of the burning towers was traced back to the man in the red bandana. One person said that they saw him physically pick up a woman, put her on his shoulder, go down 15 flights of stairs, lay her down, and fall right in line with the firefighters who were beginning to make their way up, even though he had no gear. He only had that red bandana, by the way, because he used to wear it in lacrosse games so his parents could see which one was him. And he kept it in his back pocket. Ling Young actually told a news reporter this.
He is my guardian angel. Without him, we would have been sitting in those buildings waiting for them to come down. Six months after 9-11, Wells Crowther's body was found. In a pile amongst a bunch of firefighters where he had fallen as they were trying to get people out.
Now, here's the point that I want you to see. We all know that there are heroes. We have a bunch of them in this church. We have a lot of firefighters, a lot of first responders. We all understand that firefighters, in general, save people.
But for Ling Young, it wasn't an in-general firefighter. He had a name. It was Wells Crowther. And my question for you is this: Man, you've been around, you understand the game, you know the Bible, your Aunt Sally taught Sunday school, whatever. Is Jesus your Savior?
Or is he generic? You know he can. But did he in your life? I would call you to really think about that. Admit your sin, believe in what he's done, and confess him as the Lord of your life.
Now, there's two ways. Jesus doesn't rebuke, but he corrects, okay? And the first thing that he says is verse 7. They ask about Israel and the restoring of the kingdom. Look what he says in verse 7.
It is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
Now we probably don't like that, do we? I don't like that. I don't, man, you know, the idea of God knows some things that he's not going to let me in on, I don't really love that. Tough, right? I mean, just kind of tough.
That's the, hey, he's God, I'm not. He speaks, and the entire universe comes into existence, and I can't figure out how to get the TV to talk to the DVR with the remote control. Right?
Okay, there's a diff there's a gap here. And what God is saying here. To us, Jesus is saying this to them: it is not for you to know the times or the seasons. Instead, What we need to figure out is this, what are we to do? And what we are to do is, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
This is important to me to say this, okay? There are things that are so deep that we're not going to know. And these are opportunities for us to trust. Primarily in the discussion of missions and evangelism and people getting saved and going to the ends of the earth and all the nations and how that plays in with Jesus coming back. I see two danger points for churches to instead of stand in awe over God's goodness and awesome power, we want to start arguing with each other, divide up lines, go to battle, and sometimes even split churches in half.
And it's simply by this. We won't accept. It is not for you to know. If we would just trust at times that it's not for me to know, all this fighting wouldn't happen. What would happen instead is there'd be a great reverence.
So here's the two areas that I see are danger points. The first area is when he says it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, I think that actually does mean the timeline. I'm gonna say that in a minute. But before that, let me just say this. I think that sometimes churches want to argue and fight about the exact nature of how the mission goes forward in terms of God's sovereignty over salvation.
So you'll talk about election. Or who's elected, who's not elected. People start saying things like this. They start saying, well, if God already knows who's going to be saved and He's already made the elect, then why do we need to go to the mission field? You've heard people say stuff like that?
Or something on the other side, somebody might say, well, of course we have to go to the mission field. They almost make it seem like God doesn't even know. Who's like he's wringing his hands? Like he's waiting on us to do something. I want to give you a deep truth that you got to, you kind of, if you're going to follow Christ, I think you're going to have to just learn.
To get used to sometimes the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 29, 29 that the secret things belong to the Lord. And there are times where we get out over our skis. There are times where we end up in deeper water than we can handle. And we've got to just learn to live in that and trust God. Here's the statement that I want you to make sure you understand.
I think, biblically speaking, we can say two things at once. I have agency and yet God knows what is going to happen. I have agency, and yet God knows what's going to happen. It seems like when you read the Bible, our decisions are real in a real world. They make real differences.
And yet, God already knows what's going to happen. I'm going to tell you. If you may not want to think about that too hard and long, you may injure yourself. It's a tough deal, okay? But we have to learn.
Just say, wait a minute, wait a minute. You're talking about going to the mission field, but God already knows who's going to be elect and this and that. And we, wait, wait, wait. Whoever said we obey God for some outcome? We don't obey God for an outcome.
We obey God because we love Him. Because he's a father, because he's good. Because we trust him. Man, we don't obey him because we have figured out everything that's in his secret will and in his plan. No, no, no.
We trust him and obey him because he is a loving father. You know, secondly, I think in this is actually more to the point, much more to the point. He says it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. Why would we argue about the time line of events of the end times when Jesus tells us clearly these things are not for you to know? I you know guys nineteen eighty eight Book comes out called 88 reasons why the rapture of the church, which is the taking away of the church.
Uh is going to happen in 1988.
Okay.
Well 1989, another book comes out, okay? 89 reasons. Why the rapture is going to happen in 1989? I mean, there's a huge viral trend right now. When you think about TikTok and all that stuff, the rapture is now supposed to happen.
September twenty third, twenty twenty five. That's Tuesday. We may meet next week. We may not meet next week.
Okay? I don't. We're gonna see how it's gonna go, okay? But my point is, all of these different predictions and all that kind of stuff, man, this is not for us. I would say it more like this.
Instead of obsessing about how much time we have left, how about we take advantage of the time that we have left? How about we get really into stacking days? Like man, let's just think about it like this man tomorrow is a gift I'm not promised. the day after that or the year after that or ten years after that. I've learned in my life, like, guys, this is something I'm going through.
If I am thinking about the future and it's worrying me, I have clearly gotten off of the property. Of the boundary lines of my responsibility that God has given me. If I'm thinking about something five years from now and I'm worried about it, I have clearly left my responsibilities of what God has put for me to do. Because man, we got no idea what's going to happen tomorrow. It's in God's hands.
He has fixed the times and the seasons. You know, I don't know if you get a chance to be quiet in the mornings or whatever. I have a chance. Most mornings I do my prayer journal, but then I'm like, dude, I'm gonna get some steps in when I pray.
So I'm gonna go for a little prayer walk. It helps me kind of stay. a little bit focused and I've been trying to do this more and more and more is just to, in that time in the morning, in that quiet time, to just mentally even say, God, all I have is today. I have no idea what's coming tomorrow, man. I have no idea.
I've got today, and for today, man, I want to max it out. And I want to do everything I can, not for an outcome, but to honor you with what you have called me to do. And look what he says in verse 8. This is it.
Okay, so we're not worried about times and seasons. It's bigger than Israel. But you will receive power. when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be, not you could be.
Not you might be. You will be my witnesses. In Jerusalem, and there is a sequential order to this. Think about it: concentric circles going out, all right? Here, everywhere, we say all the time at Mercy Hill like this: from the neighborhood to the nations, okay?
From where you live all the way, from the workplace to the world, neighborhood of the nations. Jerusalem. In all Judea and Samaria. And finally, all the way to the ends of the earth, right? The ends of the earth.
And he says, you will be my witnesses in this way. And we will witness here, we will witness there, we will witness everywhere. It's like what I mentioned. Guys, you go to the high jungle of Peru, you go to North India, you go to the coastlands of Indonesia, what are you going to find? There are disciples there that are planting churches and making other disciples.
This is, it has gone out into the world. I can't even imagine. What was in the disciples' minds. When Jesus says to them, You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. And I'm leaving.
Okay.
Think about that. I mean, think about it. We're going to take this message to the whole world, but by the way, I'm out. I mean, it's crazy. I just can't even imagine being there in that moment.
But you know what?
Something probably the Spirit of God because this is what He does: He convicts us of sin and righteousness, He brings back things to our memory. See, Jesus had told them. In John 16, 7. And for the young people, 6, 7.
Okay? So John 16, 7, all right? He had told, Jesus said this. He said, it is better for me to go away. Why?
Because if I go away, that means the Spirit of God. is going to come into your life. And and this is this is this is amazing, y'all. Jesus leaving Enables the spirit to come, and that was better for the church to accomplish the mission. It is mind-blowing to me.
I mean, I'm in a church doing ministry, trying to equip the saints for the ministry for a living. And if you ask me, Man, how awesome would it be to have Jesus right beside you? I'd be like, man, it'd be pretty good. It'd be pretty awesome, you know? But my pastor said it like this.
He actually wrote a book and it had this really great line in it. The Spirit inside you, apparently, is better than Jesus beside you. The spirit falls. In Acts 2, we see the Spirit fall and boom. The flame is lit, and the church is on fire and has been for 2,000 years.
Something about the Spirit coming ignites us. You know, I mean, think about how crazy this is. Jesus Christ. And you know, what would it be like to do ministry with Jesus? I want you to think about this.
Students run out of snacks in student ministry, boom, multiplies a checks mix, just like that. Hey, you're at your small group, somebody in your neighborhood dog gets run over, boom, resurrects the dog right there. And it's just like miracle after miracle.
Somebody else's cat gets run over. He grabs a shovel, okay, and starts to... You know, It is very important for us to see. The connection between many times we stop. When we share the gospel, many times we stop.
We stop with death, burial, resurrection. Guys, death, burial, resurrection, ascension. Sending of the Spirit. Lights the flame in the church. And now what we have is a church.
That has done more with Jesus not in the gone. We have a church that has taken the gospel all the way almost to the very ends of the earth. We're not there yet. We need to finish the task. But think about where it has come in the last 2,000 years.
It's an amazing thing. And here's why: because every single member is a missionary in this movement. Every member is a missionary. And when we realize that every member is a missionary, we know, hey. There is a dynamite of power that has been given to us.
That's what it says in verse 8. But you receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. That word power is the word that we get dynamite from. There is going to be dynamite Holy Spirit power in the preaching, in the miracles, in the serving. The church is going to take the message to the ends of the earth.
And the church is not an organization, it's a movement. It's a movement of people. When I say the church, I'm talking about you. I'm talking about me. I'm talking about all of us.
It's not the pastor's job. It's not the missionary's job. It's all of our job to play our role. in taking this gospel, yes, across the street, into our neighborhood, but all the way to the nations. Ephesians 2.10 tells us very clearly.
That God has created works before the foundation of the world for you to walk in if you are a believer. There is a role that you play. You don't fit. in generically. You fit in very specifically.
There is a way that God has wired you, given you dynamite power in your spiritual gifting. in order to fit into his movement.
So that we see it go all the way to the ends of the earth. Have you found out what that is? Man, do you know how your gifts match up? with the works that God has called you to do. Because that's the difference in an excited Christian and a bored Christian, I'm telling you right now.
The excited Christian has figured out why they're here. The bored Christian is kind of just playing around. They haven't matched up their giftings with the calling of God on their life. And I pray that you'll jump in today. Maybe today is a great way to take a step.
Guys, you were made for more than possessions and promotions, and your kids were made for more than straight A's and soccer. We say it all the time, Jesus died to create servants, not spectators. workers, not watchers. You were not made for the sideline. Man, si the fund, the electricity, it's not on the bench.
It's when you're actually in the game. And he's called all of us to that. You will be my witnesses here. And all the way to the ends of the earth.
So here's the application for this week, and I want to call you to: hey, live on mission. Man, live on mission. Let me read this to you again and then anchor it in a time that we live in, and then I'm going to land the plane here, okay? But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
And when he had said these things as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took them. Out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, I've always thought this was funny, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? Because he just flew away like Superman. That's why we're looking into heaven, okay?
I've always thought that's funny. This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, is the whole point, y'all. This is where we live. Will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Here's the bottom line.
You want the bottom of it? Jesus ascended. And he will descend. And you and I live in the meantime in between. And we have a job to do.
And our job It is to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Our job is to share the gospel in the Triad, North Carolina, the United States of America, and the world. We have a job to do. And we are to be involved in all of those things. We don't select, we're only gonna do this one, we're only gonna do that one.
We are to be people who send the gospel message all over the world. Y'all ordinary people equipped with the word and empowered by the Spirit. The reason that our mission has gone all the way, like I said, to the corners of the globe is this. Christians carry the burden to take the message themselves. You know, we are witnesses.
What does a witness do? A witness tells of what they have seen and heard. A witness doesn't go do. A witness tells of what's been done. A witness doesn't make up a story.
A witness tells their story. This is what I learned, and this is what God has done in my life. And I'm a witness to His goodness. This is why our movement is gone. Can't stop, won't stop.
Why? Every member is a missionary. We are witnesses. We are ones who lay things down. The very word for witness is the word that we get martyr from.
We are laying down our life to bear witness. to what God has done. And it's not, listen, it is not just the pastors, it's not just the missionaries. Gosh, Ephesians 4 says that I, as a pastor, I am an equipper of the saints. My pastor J.D.
Grewer used to say it like this, guys, when you enter the ministry, you actually leave the ministry. Because the ministry is out there. The ministry is in your neighborhoods and in your workplace. I'm an equipper of the people that are going out and to do the ministry. And that's my question, are we involved?
Are we doing it? Guys, I really want to challenge you today. I want you to think about this. Are you involved? It's easy in a church like Mercy Hill that stacks wins and has leaders that want to give you vision.
And I'm always talking about exciting things that are going on because God's doing that in our midst. I want you to know that. But it's easy in an environment like that to just sort of ride the coattails of what the church is doing without really being that involved yourself. Let me let me ask let me okay, let me give you three things and there's a thousand we could do let me give you three This is incredible. This summer, three stories.
This summer. There was a moment our guys figured out time zones and all that. Three different middle school and high school mission teams in three different time zones on three different countries. at the exact same moment sharing the gospel all around the world. From this church right here.
Pretty cool story. How about this story? Greenhouse Church launched last week with 176 people. Can we praise God for that? Here's a quick picture of them.
Amen. Incredible to see what God is doing. Pretty awesome.
Some of the people that were serving there, I mean, over a decade-long story of people that were saved, baptized at Mercy Hill, now they're serving at Greenhouse Church. Pretty incredible. I was thinking about this. We have a family living in Southeast Asia right now. It was a college student here.
They had an entrepreneurial background, ends up getting out of college, gets married, they've got kids.
Now they're living in Southeast Asia. running his business, employing people, they're not there for the business, they're there for the gospel. These are incredible stories. I could give you 100 more. Are you involved in any of them?
Are you involved in any stories that are like that? I don't just mean, yeah, the church this, the church that. I'm talking about you. Man, what have you, you know, what are you praying about? What have you given to?
You know, what if you said, hey, I'm in. What mission team are you thinking about for next year? I'm not talking about generic out there, the church. Let's talk about us for just a minute. Yo, Jesus Christ came to this earth.
Lived a life we didn't live, died a death that we deserved. In his resurrection, he gives us the opportunity to walk in the newness of life. Leaves so that he can send the spirit, lights a flame in the church that we get to be a part of, and gives us a message and gives us a purpose. Nobody in this room, if you are a Christian, Has to live one more moment of your life without knowing exactly why God has you here to bring glory to His name. It's incredible, man, what he's given us.
And if Jesus died to give us that mission, And we're neglecting it. Man, we're missing out on the joy and electricity that comes from living the Christian life to the fullest. I want to call us off the sideline today. This is meant to be a little bit of a rattle the cage, grab the face mask moment, okay? And we need moments like that.
Man, when a church has a lot of success, if you want to call it that. Man, a lot of growth, a lot of whatever. That is a dangerous moment for a church. I think about it like this: you know, the book of Hosea says that God said, Hey, I gave them pasture. They got satisfied in the pasture, they forgot about me.
When we have success, we can get satisfied in that forget about God. Do you know how many churches, without realizing it, moved? From mission. It's a monument. They moved from we were a movement And now we're a museum to what God did in the past.
It happens. For a church like Mercy Hill, man, we've got to say, hey, the movement's hard. When you're in the middle of a movement like we're in right now, it's chaotic. There's collateral damage. There's, hey, there's critiques after critiques, okay?
People always want to tear down what you're doing. I mean, things get, you know, when you move fast and break stuff, okay, that's kind of where we're living in a movement. A monument's a little easier. A monument's easy, man. It's calm.
Think about a museum, it's quiet. There's no collateral damage. It's easy. But it also ain't doing nothing. Do we as a church want to live as a monument to what God did in a previous generation, or do we want to beg Him to continue to pour out His Spirit so that we can take the gospel from Jerusalem, Judea, all Samaria to the very ends of the earth?
And that's not just something we all have to wrestle with. As a church, we have to wrestle with it individually. Man, so what does it look like for you? Hey, is there somebody you need to walk across the room and invite to church? Is there somebody you need to start praying for?
Women, the women of our church, man, we haven't even announced this and it's gone absolutely crazy. Over 500 women have signed up. I want to invite you to the Abide Women's Night. This is a great place to. To bring somebody who maybe wouldn't want to come to church.
But they'll go to a women's event, okay? And a man, you know, we got whole schools that are sending this out to their women. Hey, we're gonna do this together, and that type of thing. People at your office.
Something like this, but it's that go mentality. I'm living for something bigger than myself. What about when we're at the gym? Our eyes up or our eyes down. Man, are we just kind of headphones in, rocking?
Don't want to, or is it possible that maybe God wants us to take those things out and put our eyes up in case somebody needs to talk to us? This is what I mean. Are we living with a go mentality? Finally, I would say this: hey, really to the point. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, all the way to the ends of the earth.
Guys, we have these grow cards. We've done this every single week. It's just a way for you to tell us you want to take a step and we're going to reach out to you, okay? You fill out your information here in this go right here at the bottom where it says go. I wanna invite you to two things.
Number one, would you consider being on a short-term mission trip next year? I'm telling you, there are people who the most spiritually significant moment of their life happened when they said yes to go. And God opens their eyes to his mission in a way that you can't get from this side. Would you go on a mission trip? Would you take one of our go and just write go team right there, go team?
We're on track to see over 400 people on a Go Team this year for Mercy Hill. We'd like to see 500 next year. All right. So let's see. Go team.
Hey, and the second thing is: would you sign up for Envision? Envision is a class where you get to really hear about God's heart for the nation. A little spoiler here, okay? Hey, the last part of the Envision class is going to be a dinner and learn thing with Sam James. I know many of you guys don't know who that is.
You will, okay, if you keep being around Mercy Hill, but he's like a nine, you know, he's a 94-year-old OG. of missions. um that actually planted the church that planted Mercy Hill. 1960s, okay, and he's going to be here. We're going to have a chance for you guys to go through that Envision class and learn from him.
Hey, man, what's the step you need to take? Fill that out on the way out, drop it in the buckets. All right, let's pray. Father, we come before you and across all of our church right now. Lord, I pray that you would move us towards your mission.
Give us an eyes up mentality, a go mentality. Lord, we want to see your name and your fame and your glory. Go all the way to the ends of the earth. Lord, help us be a part of finishing the task of getting the gospel to every tribe and tongue. In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
