There's Florida for several years, but I was pretty sure I knew the way to the restaurant. Men have an intuitive knowledge of those things, you know. And as our van load of family, by this time growing increasingly short on blood sugar and patience, As we were driving through Fort Myers, I knew that it was just up the street, and my wife said that one thing a wife should never say in a situation like that. Why don't you stop and ask directions? Now, everybody knows
the reason you don't ask that question. And I said, no, I saw the map said it has to be right up here. So we drove, and we drove. I said, well, maybe it's the street over. And we drove some more. And finally, we had to do the unthinkable. We had to stop and ask directions. It's important to know what your destination is and how to get there. That's not only true of us as families, but it's true of us as a church as well. In Luke chapter 24, Jesus gives us... our directions.
I invite you to look at verses 45 through 49 of Luke 24 with me. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures. He told them this is what is written, the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you've been clothed
with power from on high. Churches, like other organizations, need to understand their mission. That is, their destination on the map, and how to get there. It seems to me that here we have an outline given by the Lord Jesus Christ for the mission. of the church. It is a mission that is just as certain to be fulfilled as was his
death. That's what he says. He opened their minds to understand that the scriptures told that he would come and die for sins, he would be raised the third day, and then the scriptures also said that he, repentance and forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all nations. beginning at Jerusalem. Just as his death and resurrection were certain, so the mission of
the church will be fulfilled. The question, of course, is, will I, will we, have a part in what God is going to do through his church in this age? Our mission is to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins. in his name to all nations beginning here. We have the message. God has given it to us. It is the message that there is forgiveness with him. It is forgiveness that
is based upon the sacrifice of Christ. It is because of his death and resurrection on our behalf that we can find forgiveness with God. It's not in what we do. It's what he's done. And it's a matter of our simply believing that and receiving him. into our lives. There's a forgiveness that is not only based on his sacrifice, but it's conditioned on our own personal repentance. That is, we must personally take action to receive
this message, this good news. You and I have the privilege of representing Jesus Christ in this world and delivering this message. that there is forgiveness with God to all who will repent and believe on his Son. We have the mission. The church is not intended by God to be merely social. It is that in part, but it's more than that. The church is not intended by God to be institutional. There are organizational aspects to the church, but it's much more than an institution.
The church is missional. The church has a cause. The church has an assignment that it must fulfill to be obedient. That's why we talk of ourselves as being a mission center. Because the church is missional. Therefore, we see ourselves as a mission center. And our job is outreach. We are to continually reach out to others who do not yet know Christ. We said last week that outreach
must be balanced with nurture. Those that we reach out to and win must be brought into the church and in the church nurtured and cared for and healed and restored and built up and equipped. That's part of our mission. We must never forget that. Outreach must be balanced with nurture. with helping people in their weakness, in their struggle, helping them to grow in Christ, helping them to be healed from their hurts, helping them to be freed from their bondages through the power
of Christ. So nurture is part of it. Outreach must be balanced with nurture. However, nurture must always lead to outreach. If it doesn't, it becomes dead end. It becomes so self -focused that it loses momentum. Nurture must result in further outreach, and so there's a cycle here, you see. We reach out, we enfold others in, and nurture them that they then can join with us in reaching out to yet others. We have the mission.
We need to get rid of the idea that has crept into some parts of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church need not grow. or that church growth is a bad thing, or church growth is undesirable. In fact, it is just the opposite biblically. The church must grow, because the church is a living organism. To be healthy, it must grow. It must continue to reach out. It must for its own existence, as well as for God's glory. It is expected that the church will grow. it is
natural that the church will grow. The point that I'm trying to make in these two Sundays committed to our church's mission is this, that the mission that Christ has given to our church necessitates the participation of every person who claims to be a part of it. Believing in and being a part of the mission is not optional. It is not an elective. If one claims to be a part of Grace Church, then it is presumed that one believes in the mission of this church and
is participating in that mission. Jesus says, you are my witnesses. We have a message from Christ. We have a mission from Christ. We have a mandate from Christ. He says, you are my witnesses. How are we going to get there to fulfilling our mission? Well, let's just show you again what our mission is. Notice that it's stated this way. Grace Church Roseville is a community of believers whose purpose is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and prepare itself through biblical
instruction, service, and fellowship. In order to evangelize the world, the last three words are the point on the arrow. Not to exclude any other part of it. Worship is crucial. If we do not worship as a community of believers, then somehow we're going to lose our life. Because our life, our momentum, our power is in worship. We must prepare ourselves to do the job God's given us. When we talk about preparing ourselves, we're talking about getting healed, too. We're
talking about being cared for. We're talking about being nurtured and built up. And all of that happens through biblical instruction, through service, opportunities that we have, and through fellowship, caring opportunities with one another. But all of that happens, the worship and the preparation that takes place, so that we can evangelize the world. That is the point of the mission that God has given us. Some of that happens
inside the walls. In this next slide, you're going to see the diagram that we used last spring. Some of you have seen it then. Others of you have not seen it before. You notice the middle circle there represents us, the mission center. And inside that middle circle is a triangle. And in there, you notice three words, worship, preparation, and evangelism. That tells us what happens within the walls of the mission center.
We worship when we come together. The upper arrows represent you and me coming into the mission center, being a part of it, identifying with it. And we come together so that we can worship the Lord, so that we can be prepared and built up and equipped and healed, so that we can go out. But also, inside the mission center, notice there is evangelism that takes place, and we
expect that. And we thank God it happens. Whether it be through the Awana Club ministry, or it be through Ladies Bible Study, or it be through Single Again, or it be in our morning worship services in our small church, or in a variety of ways, within the walls, within the programs of the church, evangelism takes place. But that's not the end. You see, we come inside the mission center. so that then we can go outside, outside the circle. That's what those other arrows represent.
And when we talk about going outside the mission center, we see ourselves employing three basic strategies, at least right now. We can't do everything or be everything to everybody, but we believe that there are three strategies that God wants us as a church to employ. Let's talk about the one on the left, relationship evangelism. Let me simply point out to you that that flyer that we noted earlier in the service, in your bulletin today for the eye of the storm, is an opportunity
to be involved in that. To hand out that little flyer to some friend, somebody with whom you have a relationship, and say, how about coming with me to see this film that's going to be shown at our church? Maybe you can get a bite to eat before or afterward or go out for ice cream or do something together socially, but use that relationship to reach out to somebody who doesn't come to the mission center and who may never
come to the mission center. If you don't take the opportunity to go out to them, they won't hear. Now, relationship evangelism happens through Bible studies in our neighborhoods. It happens through... business, Bible studies. It happens through Christmas coffees and teas that some of you participate in. Just in a lot of ways, in personal witness, we use the networks of relationships that God has given us to evangelize, to take the good news, to reach out and touch the lives
of other people for Jesus' sake. Then on the right is a second strategy that's so important to us. It is cultural keys. At Cultural Keys, we're talking about creative ways of addressing the felt needs of those in our culture. That is, their hopes and their hurts. You see, people out there who have never been to a church in their lives have hopes, and basically they're the same hopes that you have. We all have hopes of having a happy family, a strong marriage,
a satisfying career. to be financially secure, or to find fulfillment in singleness, or to establish meaningful relationships. All of us have those kinds of hopes. Cultural keys is you or me or some group of us allowing the Spirit of God to create through us some way of using a hope that a person has out there to bring the gospel to them. They have a hope for a healthy marriage. And so we say, hey, you know, we've been through some times in our marriage, but God has brought
us through and we've learned a lot. Let's get together with some other couples and let's have a marriage seminar in our neighborhood, at our home, and we'll invite somebody to come and we'll just talk about marriages and how to have a happy marriage. You might be amazed how many people in your neighborhood... outside of the mission center, people who would never go to a church, who are interested in being helped with that
hope. And in creating that little thing in your home, you have devised by God's Spirit a cultural key that will help you unlock your neighborhood so that you can bridge into those homes where you're not now established in a relationship. And you build that bridge into those lives so that you can then share the gospel with them. People have hurts, too. Divorce, loneliness, loss, grief, financial bondage, addictive behaviors, homelessness, crime, hunger, lost key kids, poverty,
illiteracy. The list goes on and on and on of hurts in our world. Oh, that God would raise up... within our congregation a score of cultural keys that can be employed from time to time to reach out to address the hurts in the world around us. And doing that so that we can share the gospel with them. Cultural keys. And then the third one is branch churches. And as we said last week, whether it's Blaine or Belize, or it's Forest Lake or Finland, It knows no geographical boundaries,
no cultural boundaries. We are interested in establishing other local churches like ours, other mission centers, if you please, who can be established and then in that region where they are do the same thing that we're seeking to do by the grace of God. That's how we want to do it. That's how we believe God wants us to get there. This mission that we're talking about that God's given us needs to be a motivating force in our lives. We all struggle with motivation.
Why do we do what we do? Well, I forgot again to put the offering envelope in, the second service. I can do it tonight. Let me confess a little something to you. When I sit down every month, as is the custom in our home, to write out our tithe, the ministry of the local church, I sometimes have thoughts that come to my mind. And I don't mind admitting it because you all have the same thoughts. Boy, I think back through all the years that we've tithed, we could have bought a house
by now for cash. If we had used that money and put it in a savings account for the kids' education, they'd be able to go to school, every one of them, without having to work for it. May not be good, but we could do that. We could have a brand new car if we weren't giving this tithe. Have you ever had thoughts like that? Maybe I'm the only ungodly one, but I have thoughts like that. You see, I am not naturally a generous
person. Ask my wife. She would give away every penny that I've ever earned if I gave her a chance. I'm a wonderful balance to her. And she's a wonderful balance to me. You see, I'm not naturally motivated to give that way, but I believe in the mission that God's given us. And that is a motivating factor in my life. I believe the most important thing in the world is getting the gospel to people. I hope that as you invest in the work of Jesus Christ, The mission that God's given us is your
motivation. That it's not a sense of begrudging this. It's not, oh, I have to do this. But it's a sense of joy that God has allowed us the privilege to be involved in the greatest mission in the world. There's a group in our church. Doing the spade work for the whole congregation and trying to find out what options are before us as a church
so that we can continue to grow. Some of you don't realize this, but many of you do, that our facilities are a tremendous chokehold on the development of the ministry of Grace Church. Some of you are involved in small churches on the East Campus at Roseville High School. We thank God for that provision. But some of you have said to us that is not a long -term solution. And I put it diplomatically. Some of you feel more strongly about it. Hey, I agree with you
100%. It's not a long -term solution. You'll help us plug the gap for right now. We've got to figure out what we're going to do. Are we going to develop this site with our six -plus acres? Are we going to build here? What we need? Or are we going to relocate to some other part of the northern suburbs? Well, you say, I've got some ideas on that. Well, we all do, and we want to hear those. And there's going to be
opportunity for that. But you know what ought to drive us in whatever decision we come to? It is the decision, how can we as a church best accomplish our mission? That has to be the factor we keep foremost in mind. Not how far do I have to drive to here and how far will I have to drive to there. But God, where can Grace Church Roseville locate so that it can go on to accomplish the
mission you called us to? You see, that needs to be the motivating, driving factor in what we're about, in the decisions that we make and
what we do. over the next year or so all of us are going to be encouraged to become a part of a small group these will have different flavors it's just going to be wonderful i can hardly wait till these things get off the ground there's a group of people who are already meeting for training and because of its nature it's got to start small and then multiply and it will and so it's going to take some time but It is going to revolutionize the ministry of our church.
And all of us have the opportunity to be a part of that. What ought to be our deciding motivation, whether to do it or not, whether we ought to commit the time to that? It is, will this allow me to participate in the mission of our church? You see, God has given us an assignment, a wonderful assignment. We have the mission, we have the
mandate. It is, you are my witnesses. I know he said that to a select group of people on this occasion, but it's clear in the New Testament that he means all of us now are his witnesses. We have a message, we have a mission, we have a mandate. We also have the means to get the job done. The Lord is not going to tell us to do something and then forsake us. and leave us to wither. He's going to give us the means to get the job done, and he talks about that in
verse 49, and it's twofold, really. It's prayer, and it's the power of the Holy Spirit. He says to them, you wait in Jerusalem. You wait here in this city until you've received the power from on high. Why were they to wait? Well, they needed to spend some time in prayer. And if you go to the book of Acts and see what they did in that period of time between when he went back to heaven and when the Holy Spirit came down, you find that what they did was day after day,
hour after hour, they prayed. We want to become a praying church. And not just in small groups or individuals in their homes. I mean, that's important. But we want to become a praying church, a congregation. There is something about the power of God's people united in prayer. It causes the gates of hell to quake. It causes the demons to flee in fear when the people of God unite
their hearts together in intercession. And so you're going to see that more and more we're going to devote some of the minutes that we have together. as a congregation to prayer, because that's our resource. Through prayer, we can call down the power of God. Through prayer, we can receive provision from God. Through prayer, we can get our direction from God. Through prayer, we can find encouragement. Prayer is a resource for us. He says, secondly, that we have the power
of the Holy Spirit. We don't have to wait for the Holy Spirit. He's already here. He indwells us when we trust Christ. We have the power of the Holy Spirit bringing to you and to me the power of Christ's resurrection. The power of new life lives in us so that we can confidently go out there into the world with our mission. We're not alone, and we're not weak. We have the power of God within us to be released through us. As we walk in the Spirit. God has given us
the means to get the job done. We don't need anything more than that. You say, wouldn't it be nice if we had $5 million? Well, yes. I must confess. But I'll tell you something. We need prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit far more than we need $50 million. Because with prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, it takes care of everything else. in God's way and in God's time. We have what we need to get the job done.
We must build carefully and invest wisely in the mission center so that we can build strongly here. The stronger we build the base, the farther can be our reach. And our goal is not only to be strong here, but to reach far. And so we need God's wisdom in building. And we need your commitment and my commitment to the cause. And I call upon you today to renew your commitment to the mission that God's given us as Grace Church. This mission, pictured here in this diagram. The vision of
ourselves as a mission center. I call upon you to respond to that. Why? Well, first, and basically because of obedience to Jesus Christ. He is our Lord, and we live under his Lordship. And we respond to the mission and commit ourselves to it because we want to obey him. What he commands, we must do. But we do it as well so that we can be cared for. Yeah. So doesn't that sound selfish? Well. If it's taken to an extreme, it's selfish, but you know it's legitimate that we be cared
for ourselves. We need that. We respond to the mission. We say, I want to be involved in the mission because I need to be cared for. But then you see, as I'm cared for, then I can care for others as well. It's not dead end. It comes in. so they can go out. The arrows have to come in and then go out to be healthy. That's another reason we respond to the mission. To be mission -minded, we must use our spiritual gifts. We
must use our time, our energy. We must give of our financial investment as shareholders in the work of Jesus Christ. Now a lot of us are aware of it and we know it. The problem is that we lack motivation. We lack motivation to make a significant commitment to the mission of Christ. In our minds we say, oh yeah, man, that's right. But somehow it has a hard time getting down into our walk, into our lives. Perhaps you're like a lot of us. Early on after your conversion,
you were so excited. You had lots of friends out there who didn't know Christ, and you wanted to tell them, and you went out there with enthusiasm. You may not have done it in the best way possible, but you shared the gospel with them. And then as time went by, you began to grow spiritually. After a while, you had fewer friends out there and more friends inside the church. You began to do all of your relationships here. Somehow out there was less attractive. It was a bother.
It took too much time because we're so busy here. You continued to grow until you became a tour. And you were able to boast that you had no friends out there. And you spend all of your time with other Christians. What a wonderful fellowship. What a joy divine. And no motivation at all to see anybody else one to Christ. That's not Christian maturity. That's sin. Maybe what you've experienced, though, is something like the parable that we're about to see. It's called Rescue. Robert and
Teresa. have just escaped a burning building. Others are still trapped inside. Praise God. That was close. I barely made it out. Look at that. Fire? Oh, I almost didn't notice till it was too late. It's worse than I thought. Wait. What? Huh? Did you hear that? There's still people trapped inside. Huh? What are you doing just standing there? Aren't you going to help them? What? Go back in there? Yes, you must. I mean... I'm sure if they can find their way out by themselves,
just fine. In fact, I have faith that they can do it. That's right. Faith. Are you crazy? We're surrounded on all sides, Robert. There's no way they can make it out without our help. We know the way. There's so much heat and smoke out there, they probably can't even see. Yeah, you're right. Right. There is a lot of heat and smoke. Yeah. Times like this, though, I sure can use some chapstick lip balm. Here, try some. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going out there to help.
Hold it, hold it. Where do you think you're going? Look. It's better than us, right? Look at us. We're safe. Why should we risk anything to try and help them? I mean, why? I can't believe my ears. How can you be so cold? How can you stand here and take this so lightly? I mean, we're talking about another person's life here. Yeah, right. That's just it. It's another person's life. Right. I mean, I have more important things to do. There's a twins game on tonight I gotta
see. Twins? Matter of fact, I have to get to choir practice. I can't look back. I haven't missed choir practice in... Three years, I know. Look, there's plenty of people out here that can use my help. I, uh, I guess. Um, you think they're going through much pain in there? You ought to know. We've been out there ourselves, remember? Look, I'm sure they don't even want our help. If we were to go in there, they'd just push us away. Then we'd look pretty stupid. I
mean, probably like it in there, you think? Did you like it? The heat? The smoke? The suffering? The dying? The smell like you smell now? We never would have made it out of there if someone hadn't shown us the way. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about that guy and all the confusion. Wow. I mean, that guy was just... He was... He was an idiot. That guy was safe. Out of there. And he risked his life just to save us? That guy must have been out of his mind. Oh, yeah,
out of his mind. But if it hadn't been for him, we would have lost our lives out there. Those look pretty bad. Right. Maybe you're right. That's right. Come on. Maybe we should. No, come on. No. No, I can't. I just can't. Hey, wait a minute. Where are you going? What is he doing? What about the fire? What time is that game? Maybe he's
right. The world is burning. You and I have the opportunity by God's grace and according to the mission that he's given to us to rescue the perishing and to care for the dying because Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save. And he has sent us. I was talking with a friend of mine this last week and as we were sharing dinner together in a particular hotel, He said, let me tell you about the manager of this hotel. He said, last spring I was eating here and met him and invited him to go play golf
with me. He said, I found that the golf course is a wonderful place to relax and to present the gospel to somebody. He said, it's very non -intimidating. I said, well, he hasn't been golfing with me then because he'd fear for his life if he was out with me. He said, well... He said, I found this really a lot of fun, and I can share the gospel. And as I did, this man prayed to receive Christ. And he's become a Christian. He's coming to our church, and I'm discipling
him in the things of the Lord. And then he went right on to tell me about someone else right there in that building, in the restaurant, who had come to faith in Christ through his witness. And I said, do you think that you've got the gift of evangelism? He looked over at me and he said, well, Galen, I'm not real sure, but I'll tell you this. I believe in hell, and most Christians don't. He's right, isn't he? Oh, it's in the doctrinal statement, and we would be alarmed.
Should anyone try to remove that from a doctrinal statement? But it doesn't motivate us. So do we really believe it? The Lord Jesus Christ is the bread of life who came down from heaven to satisfy the spiritual hunger that exists in hearts. You and I have the opportunity to take that bread to them. Listen to Dave Wentworth as we bring this service to a close and to a point of commitment for each one of us to the mission God's given us. The world shows a good light when Christ
has been heard. Not one has a heart in a broken heart. the bread. Today the devil hath ruined the day longed and read. Who will have the in the breaking of the bread. Bread of heaven, bread of life, bread of life. My heart cries out, for how am I worthy of what you do? Those have passed and few have heard That Jesus Christ has bled That they might feed on him who died To be that living bread To gods of stone and land they come, yet they are never fed. For they have been murdered
in the breaking of dawn. But God, who gave thy only Son, help us, my spirit led, to tell the story. For those blessed for bread. I'm glad you know me. Go or stand. Till this blessed news is spread. And they have been. the breaking of the bread. Lord, I would give them the bread
of life. It cries out, O hear our voice. yourself a part of Grace Church Roseville, if you identify with this local church, I want to give you an opportunity in just a moment to stand where you are and to say in standing, Lord, I'm willing thy will to do. And you may not know all that that means at this point, but what you're saying is I believe in the mission that God's given us. I believe in the expression of it in this church. I believe in the strategies that God's
given us. And I want to do my part. For some of you, that's going to mean going to a mission field somewhere. And that third strategy, to plant a church in another culture, as some others from our church have done. For all of us, it means taking the gospel where God has sent us in the workplace, in the school campus. and there fulfilling the mission, the divine mission, to present Christ, to touch lives for Jesus' sake.
As Paul plays through the chorus of this song once more, if this is a mission that you believe in, and you're saying today, I have believed it, I continue to believe it, and I'm committing myself afresh to it, I would like you to stand, and if... You're saying, I want to recommit myself to it. I've lost track of it along the way, but I see it again. And I'm committing myself to this mission that God has given us together as
a body of people. I'd like you just to stand where you are, and we'll have prayer together in just a few minutes. Lord, we acknowledge to you that it's easy to forget what it was like to be in the world. We acknowledge that it's easy for us to become distracted with things that are good but not the best. We stand before you today as a congregation of people to say that We acknowledge our failures and our sins. But also to say to you, our Lord, that we will
be obedient to the heavenly vision. That by your grace and the means that you've given to us, we will seek to be the people you want us to be, to fulfill the mission. Enable us by the Holy Spirit. Give us great hearts of faith to believe you. Keep our eyes open to see the opportunities all around us. Create from amongst us cultural keys that will address the hopes and the hurts that exist in our world. Lord, like Isaiah of old, We pray, Lord, send us, use us. In Jesus'
name, amen. And may God fill us and equip us to accomplish his perfect will. Thank you.