Amen.
Well, hey guys, if you have a copy of Scripture, you can turn with me at all of our campuses to Acts chapter 10. And as you guys are turning to Acts chapter 10, I want to kind of ask you if you've ever had sort of a paradigm shift in your life, a watershed moment. That's what we're going to see in Acts 10. You know, there was this kind of way the church was doing things, and then something happens, and then everything is different, almost like an entire new world has opened up. Little silly examples, but I don't know if you can remember like not being able to drive.
And then I know we got young people in the room, so you're kind of on one side of that. But if you remember not being able to drive, and then all of a sudden you could drive and had a car or something. And it's like, man, my whole life was like this. And now all of a sudden, it's just totally different. I remember when I was, you know, when it came time to get a cell phone for the first time, okay?
Now, I grew up way back in the 1900s. All right. And so you had, you know, era, there was an era where there were people with no phone. And I remember when my friends started getting a cell phone in like, you know, sophomore, junior year of high school, I was like, I will never do that. The thought of someone being able to get a hold of me anytime they wanted, no, okay.
You could have that, all right? And it turns out I was totally right about everything that I thought about what it was going to be like, okay? But I ended up getting one when I was 18, and man, it was just like, you know, you know what I'm going with this. It's like your life was like this, and now all of a sudden it's like this. And that's what we see in Acts chapter 10.
It's like, hey, a whole new world opens up. You know, the Berlin Wall falls. One day it's like this, the next day it's like this. The internet goes public in the 1990s. One day, the world was like this, and the next day, it was totally different, totally opened up in different ways.
And that's what happens here in Acts chapter 10. Y'all, in Acts chapter 10, Peter is going to have this incredible experience that God is wiring up. He's wiring up the one who needs to hear to the one who needs to tell. And he's getting all this stuff together. And next thing you know, you're going to end up seeing.
This God is way bigger than Peter was thinking. That his mission is way more vast than he was thinking. That truly God is not one tribal deity to be worshipped in one language, but he is a global deity worthy of praise from every tribe and tongue. It was like this, and then all of a sudden Acts 10 happens, and then it's sort of like this. Here's the big idea: the gospel is for all nations.
The gospel is for all nations. I know as we come in as believers, man, you got people on your heart. And I wanna make sure you hear me say this. That's great, okay? When you're thinking about who is the gospel for, we're like, my kids' friends.
Our neighbors. Man, some of our college students might be thinking, you know, somebody on my hall, the dorm room, whatever. All of that is good and right, and the gospel is for them. I just want you to understand: the gospel is not less than those people you're thinking about, but it is for more than those people who we're thinking about. It's not for less, it is for more.
God has called us in Matthew 28 and Acts 1:8. To make disciples to the ends of the earth, to be his witnesses all the way to the ends of the earth. And that is something every one of us has to wrestle with. My prayer is that we'll all have, like, an Acts 10 kind of watershed eye-opening. Man, it was like this, and now all of a sudden it's like this.
You guys jump in with me. I want to show you the Centurion's vision, Peter's trance. And God's glory. All right? Acts chapter 10.
At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius. a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort. A devout man who feared God with all of his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.
So it seems like what we're seeing is that he's a pretty good dude. I mean, he's just, you know, the way we would think about it, he's generous, he's trying to pray, all that. Yeah. Verse 3, and about the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, What is it, Lord?
And he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
Now, this is very important, verse 5.
Now, send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter.
Now, this is very important for you to understand. Cornelius was a good dude trying to do the right thing. And yet he needed This vision from God to tell him to go find someone, Peter, who could share the gospel with him. You know why? Because being a pretty good old boy who's trying to do the right thing doesn't cut it when you're spiritually dead.
And I've thought about this and I really want to try to paint the picture of who I see in my mind's eye when I see the centurion, Cornelius, because I feel like I see a lot of him and a lot of us at Mercy Hill. And so it's very important that we kind of catch this. Who would this guy be if he was here among us right now?
Well, the way I'm thinking about it is. He's definitely a blue collar guy that has risen up in management. But in his heart, that's who he is. He's a soldier, man. Nobody is going to salute the flag better and stand at their kids' national anthem, ball games for their national anthem.
I mean, that's who he is, right? He's probably an incredible dad and takes a lot of pride in that. You can't imagine how good this dude's Smash Burgers are. Right? He's just, that's just kind of, I bet he takes care of his stuff.
I bet he has the equine version of a Chevy Duramax, okay? And he just, that's kind of, that's just, if you get this picture in your mind, he definitely has a mustache. All right. There's a lot of us in the room right here. And I'm thinking at our campuses as well.
My point is: salt to the earth. You can find this dude from Stokesdale to Archdale to McLean'sville. All right? And what you got to understand is. Giving, praying, being a pretty good dude.
If he would have died before he heard the gospel from Simon Peter, he'd have busted hell wide open. Because being a pretty good dude is not going to cut it. Being a guy who was really fired up about the Kid Rock halftime show. is not going to cut it. You understand?
Like, like trying to be good. And that's what we got to understand. He needed something else in his life, he needed a message to come in from the outside, and that's what the Lord is wiring up for him. Maybe. That's what he's wiring up for you.
You know, you could be a person here who's like, man, I'm just trying to do the thing. I feel like I'm raising my kids. I'm trying to be a good person. I'm trying to be moral.
Now we're trying to go to church. And that's all fine. But the thing is. You end up needing more than just trying to be good. What you need is to be resurrected, and that happens through admitting your sin, believing in what Christ has done, and confessing Him as the Lord of your life.
And I pray that maybe you would even do that this weekend. All right, let's get back to Cornelius's vision. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in. and say to him, Cornelius, and he stared at him in terror and said, What is it, Lord? And here's what he says: Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
Now, send men to Joppa and bring Simon Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. A little confusing, two Simons, one house. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants. I love how quickly this happens: obedience immediately, and a devout soldier from among those who attended him.
And having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. Angel shows up. You need more than your good works. You could say it like this, all right? You can follow the rules without following Jesus.
And that's what the centurion is doing. All right, man, he's given, he's trying to, he's actually what is called a God-fearer. You know what that means? It means that he is interested and worships the God of Israel, but he has not taken the step to become an Israelite. He's kind of on the outside, but he's sort of interested.
Okay. You can follow the rules without following Jesus. What does he need? He needs the message to come in from Simon Peter, and that's what we're gonna see here in just a moment.
Now, one of the things I wanna clear up is some people might look at this and say, well, it looks like he's earning his salvation because he's doing good things, and now he's gonna end up hearing the gospel. No, no one can earn salvation. Even trying to earn salvation nullifies salvation. That's what Galatians 2.21 says. Look, I do not nullify the grace of God.
For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Any attempt to earn salvation, I want you to understand, nullifies the grace of God, it renders it null and void. All right, so Galatians 2:21 is so clear. I do not frustrate, I do not nullify the grace of God because if righteousness came by the law, my works, then Christ died in vain. That's not how it comes.
That's not what happens in Cornelius's life either. But this is very important. Cornelius is being obedient to the next steps that God is putting in front of him, and those steps. Are going to end up bringing him into a place where he can hear the gospel. God is doing something in him.
Now, we don't see people get saved without somebody else sharing the gospel with them, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't wire things up to make someone interested or to bring them into circumstances and situations where they can hear the gospel. All right, so for example, there were 600 Muslim background believers interviewed by Frontiers magazine. Of the 600 that became Christians, a full 25% of them reported having dreams and visions that told them to seek for someone who could tell them the gospel. Why do I believe that? Because it's exactly what happened to Cornelius.
And I've seen it in my own life. I was, hey, a few months ago, I was in Atlanta at a pastor thing flying that morning, do it, fly back out, right? At the thing, we were talking about this very phenomenon where in churches you hear this story and people are talking about, man, Muslims having dreams and visions and seeing Jesus and that kind of thing. And then they have to go find a believer to share with them. We were talking about this, a robust conversation.
If I'm lying, I'm dying. I walk right out of that meeting into an Uber with a Muslim. All right. And you know what he says to me? He says, We start talking about faith.
He says, for six years, I've been wrestling with a dream. Tell me the dream. And basically, the dream was he could see Jesus. In a battle with enemies all around, and his followers are all around. And he was standing in the middle of Jerusalem handing out something like the Word of God, telling his followers that the Word of God would heal the enemies.
Okay, and it was, I mean, you know, and he looks at me and he's like, Do you think you have any thoughts on what this dream might mean? I was like, Oh, yeah, you came to the right place here, but I think I got you on this one. And so, you know, I began to talk to him, and I wish I could tell you he just gave his life to Christ. He was very much wrestling with it. I told him our church website, maybe he's going to hear this today, you know.
But the idea of people having dreams, my point is, and this is what I want you to understand. God is wiring things up. by giving the centurion a vision. And you might be wiring some things up even here. That might be why you're here, but more importantly for some of us, What about the people God is doing something in outside of the church because of what he's going to do in us in the church?
And we are called to make that connection. That's kind of where we're building. Let's look at Peter's trance. The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray, and he became hungry and wanted something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance.
And saw the heavens opened, and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And verse 13: There came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat, which, by the way, should be the theme verse of every man's life. I said that Thursday night and literally someone has already made me a t-shirt. It says Acts 13: rise, kill, and eat.
We need to make a brand. This needs to go viral, okay? But Peter said, By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice came to him again a second time. What God has made clean, do not call common.
This is very confusing to Peter. Why? Because in the Old Testament laws, Peter is known to be one who followed them. I don't eat this kind of stuff.
Now this happened three times and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. This is confusing because Peter is saying, no, no, no. On that sheet were, I don't know, iguanas, you know, snakes, pigs. I mean, these are things, he's like, dude, crows, probably like birds that we're not supposed to eat. He's looking at that going, no, my entire life, I have been one who is set apart because of my Jewish custom, the old dietary laws.
I am one of your people. I don't eat that kind of stuff. And here's what Peter doesn't know yet, but he will by the end of Acts 10. I hope we will all know it. This is the beginning of the Great Awakening.
This is the beginning of the watershed moment. Berlin Fall was this way, it falls, now things are this way. Internet goes public, life was this way, now it's this way. Everything's about to open up. When Peter begins to realize The gospel truly has changed everything.
The gospel changes everything. Peter's understanding is God sets his people apart by laws. Primarily, dietary laws, well, there's a few things, but dietary laws and circumcision. He sets his people apart. They will act differently.
They will physically look differently. They will be different. And if you want to be part of God's people, you have to abandon who you are in a lot of ways and come into Jewish law, accept the laws of the Jews, even though you're a Gentile. And that would be the way that you could end up becoming a God-fearer, becoming one who wants to follow the Lord. And what he doesn't understand is like, no, man, we live on this side of the new covenant.
We live on this side of the cross. The cross was far more devastating to divisions between Jew and Gentile than Peter realized. There is no division now. That we are one. There's no slave, free.
There's no male, female, there's no Gentile, Jew. That's what the scripture tells us when it comes to who has access to salvation. There are no longer those distinctions.
Now, culture, there's these distinctions. Certainly, there's a difference between man and a woman. Certainly, there's a difference between being black and white. There's a difference between being rich or poor. We have all these different differences, but in terms of gospel access, there is none.
You don't have to become something that you're not in order to accept the gospel in your life. In other words, if you are a Gentile, you don't need to become a Jew in order to become one who is following the Lord. And that's what Peter is beginning to realize. Wait a minute. There's no more unclean with the food.
And there's no more unclean with a centurion Gentile that up until this point, Peter would probably not have even sat at his table and ate with him. And now he's going to realize I am to share the gospel with him. You know, in the Old Testament, circumcision was a mark that was for God's people that would separate them out.
Okay? It was a physical mark that would separate them.
Now we have a greater mark now. We have a greater mark, which is this idea of the Holy Spirit circumcising our heart and, you know, giving us put on display through baptism. Look what Colossians tells us. All right. So I know we're talking about dietary laws, but it's very similar when you come to circumcision in the Old Testament.
Colossians 2.11. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. By putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith and the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. The point is.
Circumcision was a mark.
Now we have a greater mark. Look, I understand. Talking about circumcision a bunch can be a little bit awkward, okay? I'm just gonna acknowledge it, all right? I told my wife when I was preaching this sermon, I said, you know, it's a little weird talking about circumcision over and over.
She said, we'll just cut that part of the sermon short. I said, babe, that's awful. Terrible. It can be a little weird, okay? I understand that.
But we have to understand what the Old Testament was doing in that moment. of circumcision. It is separating the people out. I want you to think about this with me. If you are a Gentile coming into the fold as an adult, That is a heck of a mark.
That's a tough thing to do. The mark that we have now changes us in so much greater ways. The mark that we have now is the Spirit of God poured out upon our salvation. Man, it has changed our heart. It has cut away the flesh.
It has changed our heart. And it is put on display through baptism that when we go down in the water and we come out, we are a brand new person. Unlike circumcision, what we have now, this is what Peter is beginning to understand. Nothing is common, nothing is unclean. There's no difference between circumcision and uncircumcised.
What the difference is, is what's in the heart.
Now all of a sudden, we have a greater mark, not just for men, but for all. Not one that requires blood shed, but one that is based on the fact that the blood was already eternally shed for us on the cross of Jesus Christ. There is a greater mark now. And Peter is beginning to understand that.
Now, here's what we've got to understand, all right? I know this is getting a little deep. You have Cornelius, who God is working in, and you have Peter, who God is working in. One's a hearer. One's a teller.
30 miles apart, never met each other, 24 hours removed, and what we end up having is God bringing these two men into crash course with each other in order to see the ministry happen. You could say it like this: one of the greatest things about Acts 10 is when you understand that God is wiring up the hearer with the teller. That we what he's doing in you He's also doing something in someone else. putting you on a collision course with them. To see ministry happen in their life.
Now, I'm going to have to skip through this story just a little bit, all right? But here's what we're learning, man. Cornelius, hey, he has a vision. He needed to hear. Cornelius, being a good dude is not good enough.
You need the message of the gospel. Go find it. That's what he needed. What did Peter need? Peter.
The game is way bigger than you thought it was. Right like it's a it's a big deal. All right, and and I'm a god of all nations Now, both of you guys with that knowledge are on collision course with one another, and that's where we pick up the story. I want you to skip down with me to verse 38. I know we're having to move a little bit here.
Let me tell you what's happened. Peter's putting this whole thing together, and now he has found himself preaching the gospel message to a bunch of Gentiles. All right, and he's man, and he's just hammering it, man. It's straightforward, it ain't no fluff. Start, look at verse 38.
If you've never heard the gospel, this is it. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death.
By hanging him on a tree, that's the cross. But God raised him on the third day. Man, Peter, you know what's cool about Peter? Peter will change his gospel message based on context, and that's something I got to keep thinking about for a little while. You know, Paul does in his Gentile context.
He's going to try to work in there. Not Peter. Peter's like, man, this is the simple laser. I don't care if you're a Jew, I don't care if you're a Gentile, I don't care about your background. This is the set of facts that you need.
Just straight to the point. You were dead in your sin, separated from God, absolutely deserving of hell. There was nothing you could do, me neither. Jesus Christ comes into this world and lives life for us. God joins with humanity and lives the perfect life.
At the end of that life, they put him on a tree. He died the death that we deserve. Not that he deserved, but we deserve. For the wages of sin is death. He never sinned, we did.
He stood in our place. And then three days later. In the resurrection, he offers us the chance not only to have our sin debt canceled, but to walk with him in the newness of life forever. That's as straight as it gets. And you have an opportunity to accept that or reject that.
And staying in the middle between acceptance and rejection is rejection.
So you got a choice. That's what he tells them basically. And then here's what happens, all right? What happens is. They believe it.
They believe it and they accept it. And the Spirit of God falls, as it does many times in the book of Acts and in other places around the world, when the gospel is going to a brand new, unreached people. You see things like this sometimes. The Spirit of the High falls. They're now in that they're.
I mean, Peter's looking up, they're saved, they have the Spirit of God.
So, what does Peter say? Peter declares, verse 47, Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, I don't know this. But I'm going to tell you, one day in my life, I want to ask Peter what was going through his mind because I can't imagine anything other than absolute head spinning. The world is different. It was this way, and now it's this way. God, you have thrown the doors open.
For every tribe, tongue, and nation. You can say it like this. People are converted to Jesus without having to be converted to Jerusalem, to Jewish custom. This was a watershed moment. And what is it all about?
It's about God's glory. See, we looked at Cornelius' vision. We saw Peter's trance. This is all about God's glory. God's glory is on display by realizing, wait, he's not a tribal deity for one language.
You don't have to become this type of person because God is over that people. Oh no.
Now after the cross, you come as you are because God saves people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. He's not the God of one people. He's the God of all the peoples. And he will prove himself to be so. That's what we look forward to in the end.
It's why we go. God is glorified by the diversity of nations that hold him to be valuable. You know, my youngest son, Beniah, asked me, and we've all thought this. Every one of your kids has asked you this at some point if you got him around church. You've thought about this too, okay?
I've thought about it. He said, Dad, if God knew what was going to happen. Why in the world would he create the world if he knew so many people were going to reject him? You've thought that. I've thought that.
I said, hey buddy, that's a very Hard, deep question. But the answer is actually pretty simple. Everything God does. He has done for his own glory. And apparently This world, as broken as it is, but when he is shown to be the great redeemer of people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language.
You know what? He's going to receive more glory from that than he would have otherwise. That's hard for us. Listen, in an egocentric culture where we think we're at the middle, that's hard to hear, but it's the absolute truth. That's why we're here.
We're here to bring him glory and honor and praise. And we have the opportunity to do that when we seek the very peoples that will glorify him the most in their redemption because they have not heard yet. Don't you see how his value is immensely shown in the diversity of nations? I want you to think about the Olympics right now, okay? You know, there's a commercial right now where it's like, You got a basketball player from one team and a basketball player from the other team, NBA players, and they're watching the Olympics together.
Now, they're from different teams, but they're watching and cheering for the USA right now. And I hope you guys are, okay? I don't care if it's ice dancing, we want to win. All right, and so it's like, hey, something about that transcends. Think about the Super Bowl, all right?
Super Bowl. Hey, here come the Patriots. Half of the stadium stands up. Here come the Seahawks. The other half of the stadium stands up.
Here comes the national anthem. Everybody stands up. Everybody puts their hand over their heart.
Now, if I didn't know anything about it, if I was just looking and didn't know what the flags mean, I would go, well, half of them don't like that one, half of them don't like that one, but all of them seem to respect that one. That one probably matters more. That one probably has more value, weight to it. I want you to imagine a God. Who in the end, and I want you, I'm gonna read this to you.
Who in the end, receives praise, honor, and worship. from every people group on the planet. How much weight and value is that? Revelation 7, 9. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
Amen.
Hey, here's our application for this weekend. Go to all nations. Man, let us go to all nations. But some of you guys aren't in a position right now to be sent out. You know why?
Because you're the one that is being sought. You're on the hearer side of the equation. You're in Cornelius' shoes today. And if that's where you are, I want to make sure that you don't leave here without the opportunity to hear the gospel and respond to it. I don't want you to leave from one of our campuses and not have responded.
Listen, Jesus lived the life you didn't live. Died a death you deserved.
So that in his resurrection he might offer you the newness of life. Sin, death canceled, new life in front of us. Would you admit, believe, and confess? I pray that you will. That's what Cornelius needed.
Man, being a good dude, taking care of his family, being good to his men, all that kind of stuff. Many of us chase those things, and we think God's going to reward us in the end. None of those things bring you back to spiritual life. And that's what is needed in your life. And so I pray that you would accept him today.
But for many of us, sin weekend is all about this idea of being a Peter, you know, where the Lord is sort of giving us these steps of obedience because he is wiring somebody else up. that needs to hear what we have to say. Man, it is so important. Think about this, Peter and Cornelius never met. Yet their destiny was intertwined through shared obedience.
Cornelius called, Peter went, God was in it all. He had set them on a collision course for each other. where ministry could happen. And that is exactly what's going to happen for many of us if we will put our yes on the table this weekend. Let me ask you a question: Who is God preparing to hear?
as he is preparing you to tell. What is he doing on that side of the equation, and what is he doing on your heart side of the equation? I'm telling you right now, listen, I bet you anything. There's a single mom in Greensboro, North Carolina, who's being invited by somebody to bring those little kids to church. And they're going to come and they're going to have the opportunity to go into class and hear about the nations.
Hearing side. You know what else he's doing? He might be convicting you to get off the sideline and on the front line to finally say, hey, if I'm gonna be on the merry-go-round, I'm gonna take my turn to push. All right, I'm going to go to the weekender and I'm going to serve. And when you're there, you know what?
You might feel convicted to say, hey, if I'm going to be here anyway, I'm going to go for like the highest level priority of spiritual movement. I want to pour into those kids. And you're going to sign up to sign in a kid's classroom. And maybe that child who God is working in right now lands in your class because He has you on a collision course. for ministry.
It's not just the hearing side. It's the telling side. They're come together. I'm telling you right now, I bet you anything, there is a family in our community right now that is hanging on by a thread when it comes to their marriage. And some of us might need to have compassion on them because maybe you've been there.
I mean The divorce is looming. The kids are devastated. It is by a thread. They're going to give it one more chance. They're going to come to church.
They're going to give it one more chance. They're going to come to church. They're going to get in a group. Maybe. God is convicting you.
You've been sitting happy and comfortable in a group for years, knowing that you have leadership capacity in you, and God is calling you to it. And finally, you need to answer the call to apprentice and leave. You know why? Because maybe that's where that family needs to land. He's wiring up the hearer and he's wiring up the teller.
Can I tell y'all a true story?
So, we do a ministry called Families Count. We have an opportunity to bring in families who are at risk or have lost their children to the foster care system. They're doing what they can do to get them back, they're working their plan. And we have an opportunity to enter in with them and help. And we have this gospel center parenting class.
They get to come and we get to know them and all that. But you gotta imagine, that's a hard thing to do. It's a tough deal. And at one of our families count classes, one of the moms was sitting in her car outside. She couldn't come in.
She just, I mean, the thought of coming in, not knowing anybody. Just the weight of it all, everything. I mean, you can imagine, like, this is hard. Our pastor goes out, knocks on the window. Man, he's telling her, all you got to do is walk through the door.
All you got to do is come. Man, we're going to take care of you. You're going to be fine. You're going to coaxing her. She finally gets out of the car.
She's so worried about not knowing anybody. The whole reason they're there, she walks in. The first couple that she sees with their name tags on who had said yes to being a Families Count volunteer. Were the children of the person that she is a caretaker for, because that's what she does the job, is she takes care of the elderly. And she sits with them.
And for the last eight or nine months, she had been with this elderly person whose children are at the front door welcoming people into Families Count. Can you believe that? She completed the class and got baptized at Mercy Hill. Praise the Lord. Praise God.
He's wiring up the hearer. And he's wiring, I just thought, I wonder what it was like, those people and families count, when God started stirring. Having no clue who it was that they were going to get a chance to minister to, but they said yes. And many of us need to do that today. And I want to close the sermon by talking specifically about what it means.
to wire up the teller and the hearer when it comes to the nations. We have some decisions to make. Church, all across the tribe, we have some decisions to make. Will we put our yes on the table? For some of us, that means saying yes to a short-term trip this year.
For some of us, saying yes means stepping out of our community group for a session and jumping into what we call a disciple-making intensive that will change your life. It is all about the nations, all about preparing you. To see, you know, live with your eyes up and the harvest is there. Maybe that is what you need to say yes to. Maybe you say yes to a significant gift that comes to ministry or retreat center or missions or something that's preparing.
There's something that God might be calling you to say yes to. I think about the college student right now that needs to do City Project, that needs to do Second City. Why? Because maybe right now there are circumstances that God is wiring up literally in an unreached, unengaged people group. And he's wiring that up right now.
Because he knows if you keep saying yes. In two or three years. You will be the one to take them there. I don't know if you guys remember when we did this commissioning, but the one who prayed? God was the woman who prayed on there, Rachel, God was wiring up.
Unreached, unengaged people groups in a faraway land long before. She said yes to go to the nations. When she walked into Mercy Hill for the first time as a college student 12, 13 years ago, he was already working so that they could see what they're seeing right now. He's wiring up the hearers. He's wiring up the tellers.
Will you go? You know, Friday night we had a nation's night. They had a really good mover. You can't really see this. I should have put this on the screen.
But this is a cutout copy of a blank check.
Okay? And we had them all over the whole room.
Now I know if you're under the age of 18, you have no idea what this is. I got that, okay? But for the rest of us, In here, you guys know how to check how the check works. You sign that check. But if you sign it and don't put in what it's for, somebody else can just put whatever they want in there.
and exact from your life whatever it is for whatever reason. The idea for us this weekend is Will you sign the check and let God fill out the memo? Would you say my yes is on the table? God, you fill it out.
However you want to. whatever step it is that you need to take. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this opportunity. To hear from your word and hear about the nations.
And we pray that you would move like crazy in our church. I pray that you would increase the spiritual fervency when it comes to sending into unreached peoples and our missionaries. God, right now, with the ones that are being sent out, we have over 40 units that are on the field. And God, we long for the day when that would be 400. Father, I pray that you would make us an incredible sending church.
But do it right here, right now, in our hearts. Give us the desire for the nations. Christ's name we pray. Amen.
