2025-11-16 - Missional Mindset

[00:00:00] All right, let's jump in. You can go to the next slide there. The series that we've been in for the last few weeks has been, as you see on the screen there, the hardest habits of a healthy church. And there's three main goals in this series that I've touched on before. I just want to remind us of again. And it's this, you can see there. Firstly, to remind us of the values of these habits, there's four main subjects that we're covering. The first one we looked at was on forgiveness. Last week was on the importance of sound doctrine in the life of the church. And not just as the church we come together, but also as Christians, that is the church scattered when we're not here. And then today we're looking at a missional mindset. So the first one that reminds us of the value of these habits through instruction in God's Word. So what does God's word say about these? Secondly, to speak to the reasons that we struggle with these because these are not new things that we're covering, new subjects. [00:00:53] And then thirdly, to call us to take joy in regularly participating in these Jesus instructed disciplines. Jesus has called us to take part in this. But we want to understand through this series not only what does the Bible say about them, but also why do we struggle with them and how can we take joy in walking with Jesus heart for us in these subjects. So as we walk through this, when I say we, I don't just mean we as our church here, but also the. The church across our country. Maybe if you're a part of, or one day will be a part of other churches in the future. These are important characteristics that should mark the church as we gather together. But also, how many of you know that church is not just a location. [00:01:33] Church is God's people all over the world. And so as we consider these subjects, it's not just the gathering of God's people in a place that we call going to church, but also we recognize that we are the church. And these are important principles that we practice outside of the gathering of our time together. So that is for you and I, outside of the gathering of God's people at a location like where we are at now. [00:02:00] Let me pray and then we will jump right into the time that we have here in this subject that we're covering on a missional mindset. So let's pray together and join me. Lord, thank you that we're able to, to even have a time like this where people in this room and watching and Other places on the property right now, we've all come from different places in our backgrounds, different stories that we have, different family backgrounds that we have come from, different countries perhaps, that we have come from. And yet today we can experience an incredible unity around you. [00:02:36] We experience this. [00:02:38] As we experience this, we are reminded of what the end will look like when people from every tribe and every tongue, every nation will gather together before your throne and worship you. [00:02:47] And so, as we await that glorious day, we together here this morning celebrate the unity that we can have. [00:02:56] And also, as we spend time here in your word, Lord, we ask that you would continue to open our eyes and our hearts to how you want to transform us to look more like you in this world. In Jesus name, amen. [00:03:09] All right, a missional mindset. Now, some of you, actually, you can raise your hand. How many of you grew up in church? [00:03:16] Grew up, like, that was. You were basically. You were born, and then you was like, all right, let's go to church every single Sunday. Perhaps it was just a regular thing. How many of you didn't grow up in church? [00:03:26] All right, so different backgrounds, right? There are different places. So for myself, grew up going to church. Came to the States when I was a few months old. And right from there, like we were going to church, my family just. That was important to them. And growing up in that environment, not only was it important to them, for many years, we went to two churches because, you know, why not double up? [00:03:49] Like, you need Jesus. You really, really need Jesus. So grew up going to church. And then also summer comes along. We did all the Bible studies, went to all the VBS's, all of those types of. Of types of things. And as I look back as an adult, as I look back on that, I think in a big part for me, something that marked my Christianity. Cause I still remember when I was 4 years old, praying and asking Jesus to come into my life to be my Lord and Savior when I was four. And I don't remember anything else when I was four. [00:04:22] But I remember even looking back as an adult from that, from being four to much of the other years of my childhood, I would qualify one term with much of my Christianity, and it's this consumeristic Christianity. [00:04:40] And I know it's interesting because, like, growing up in all the church things, and churches are all about, like, serving other people and all of that. But as I look back at much of my growing up years, I was somebody who was like, all right, how much? I would learn lots and lots of things. And so you Know all the awana things and stuff, know all the verses and all the facts and all of that. [00:05:00] And yet as I look at that, I still see so much of my life as this consumeristic Christian. [00:05:08] And then where that led was there was a time in my life that a relative said, hey, do you want to go on this mission trip? And one of the things that qualifies mission trips is not just being a consumer, but someone who gives, right? And so me being a really good consumerist kind of Christian said no. [00:05:27] But also being a really good Christian said, let me anybody pray about it, right? Cause that's what the good Christian says. [00:05:35] And so I did. And so in that few moments, even of a few days of let me pray about it, the Lord very clearly showed up and said, you need to go. [00:05:49] And in that four week span of time or so that I was in the country of South Africa, one of the things that definitely changed in my life was an incredibly pivotal point for my mindset being on. I want to consume all the things that I can. For me, I wanted to grow up, I wanted to be a pilot, I wanted to stay away from all the people. [00:06:08] Ironic. And then I wanted to make sure that the goals that I had, that's the path that I followed. But when I was there, that the Lord definitely did something very, very clearly in my life. And he said, we need your mind to change. [00:06:22] We need you to have a mindset shift from being someone who's consuming, taking all the things in, to serving. And that was an incredibly pivotal point in my life. And yet, as we consider the subject today, a missional mindset, it seems also backwards because we as Christians, we've been called to go and make disciples, right, to go. And yet this consumerism saturates much of our mindset. [00:06:53] So when we think about even churches as a whole, many churches, mission statements and vision statements, right, like ours, it's about going. And yet consumerism bleeds into so much of what we do. Are you with me so far? You know what I'm talking about. It's how much can I get from all of these other. [00:07:12] So as we consider this missional mindset, firstly we want to understand what that means. So point one on your outline, you could write this in understanding a missional mindset. And I want to just define that maybe in one sentence for you. There's many things that we could say about this, but you might want to write this down in one sentence. It's this, it's on the screen as well. A heart that is And I might even add the word deeply burdened and a mind that is engaged in the mission of God for the lost. [00:07:40] And for many that's not the case. We may agree that people need Jesus, but our heart isn't burdened and our mind isn't engaged in the mission of God for the lost. And there's a value in understanding and being able to articulate the gospel because when someone we approach doesn't know about who Jesus is, we need to be able to communicate that. It's going to be like a whole other subject in how to communicate the gospel. Well, but, but primarily today, what we want to see is we want to have the same heart for the lost that Jesus did. And so when you look at John chapter three, like I mentioned earlier, hopefully your Bibles are there. John, chapter three, verses 16 and following. Want to just read that as we see the mindset that God the Father has for the world. Hopefully you know this verse, John chapter 3, verse 16, starts off like this. For God so loved the what the world that he gave. Someone say gave, gave, right. That's not God with a consumeristic mindset. That's God who gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not what, perish, but have eternal life for. And this is often missed as we consider the importance of this verse. The rest listen in. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. [00:08:57] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already. And I'll explain some of this in just a minute. Because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. And this is verse 19. And this is the judgment that light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked, hates wicked things, hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes into the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. There's one other verse I want to look at also in John, but the other end of the book, chapter 20, verse 21, Jesus said to them, so we see firstly, before I even read this, we see firstly God sent who into the world Jesus. For God so loved the world that he sent Jesus into the world. And then Jesus, the tail end of the book, he says, as the Father has sent me, which we just, he's explained clearly, I've been sent by the Father into The world, because the world is dark. The world needs salvation. The world needs light. And then Jesus, at the tail end of the book, he says this, speaking to his disciples. So Jesus said to them being his disciples again, peace be with you. As the Father has what sent me, even so I am sending you. And so we see this parallel between the generous heart of God, not the consumeristic heart of God, the generous heart of God. And then he says, and you also should have a generous heart as well. A heart fixed on, burdened with the loss and fixed on what is the mission of God for those who don't know him. We have been called. Maybe write this down somewhere. We have been called to be lifesavers. [00:10:38] We've been called to be lifesavers. And as I think about lifesavers, like, not the candy, right? The little. [00:10:44] Some of you were thinking about that, but maybe blow that candy up a little bit bigger to a flotation device and think a little bit more with me on this. A lifeguard. [00:10:53] We're supposed to be like lifeguards. [00:10:56] And as I'm thinking about this, I remember for our church camp that we did a few months ago, one of the requirements this year was that we had to have trained. We had to have lifeguards there in order for anybody to get into the water. And so that was a thing. It was a different thing, but we had to do some training. There's some of you that did this training to be a lifeguard, myself included. And one of the things in this training that they did that they had for the people who were looking to be the lifeguard there at the camp was making sure there was a lot of video training. But one of the things that was key in this training was when you're sitting on that stool, you know what I'm talking about? The stool that lifeguards sit on. They're supposed to always be paying attention and always be scared, scanning all of the time. And for lots of this training course, they talked about how important it was that if you are the lifeguard on duty, which, by the way, we're Christians, on duty all the time. But if you are the lifeguard on duty, you should have this kind of a certain amount of degrees that you should be looking. You should be scanning over this much time. You should be watching people all of the time, seeing how much are they moving around in the water? Are they not moving? Are they bobbing up and down? Are they at the bottom of the water? [00:12:03] Like, you should be paying attention sometimes. [00:12:06] All the time, right? So the Mindset of the lifeguard is I'm always watching for people because they may be in need. Their job as the lifeguard is to be life what? [00:12:19] Lifesavers, right? That's their job. What's also interesting about the job of a lifeguard is that their job is often activated. Not when someone's calling out saying, hey, I'm drowning. I need help. [00:12:31] That's not often when they're called to go and help. If you've ever seen somebody or a lifeguard jump in, usually when someone's drowning, they can't call for help, right? [00:12:42] So the lifeguard is activated, that lifeguard jumps into the water to save someone, not because the person called and asked for help, but because their mind was already looking, their eyes were already looking for someone who needed help. Right? You with me so far? [00:12:55] So in our world, it's the same thing. There might not be people who come knocking on our door and say, hey, I need help. Will you tell me about Jesus? Wouldn't that be nice? [00:13:04] But it means this missional mindset means, like the lifeguard, I'm watching, all of the time I'm watching, I'm paying attention, because they're not going to be the ones most likely reaching out to me saying, I need help. It's going to be me jumping in after them saying, I see that you're drowning. [00:13:22] So that's this missional mindset that we're talking about here. It's not sitting back. [00:13:28] Hopefully you don't see this at the pool. You're sitting back at the life. You look over at the lifeguard and he's sitting there texting on his phone or scrolling or something. Would you say that's a good lifeguard? [00:13:36] No, but he's positioned in the right place. [00:13:39] But where is his mind? Somewhere else. And yet, so often, as Christians, we can do the same thing, can't we? [00:13:46] I'm positioned. I know all the things. Like the lifeguard, I have all the tools on my belt. I know exactly what to do. I've been trained. And yet all of these people are out here. And yet here's what I'm doing, just my own little thing. [00:14:02] A missional mindset means I'm always watching. I'm always looking for those people who might be in need. Point two on your outline. You could look at this. So we know what to do. We have the gear, we have the training, if you will, to know how to engage. But where does this mindset originate? Where does this come from? [00:14:19] Because we know it's important. [00:14:22] I want to shift this analogy a little bit, not from the lifeguard, but I want you to think of a tree. Can you think of a tree? So every tree that is strong has good roots, right? So where does this, this tree, if you will, of a missional mindset, where does this tree find its roots? And I would say at least two places. At least two places. And you can write this in. It's on the screen as well. This tree of a missional mindset finds its roots in a love for God and a love for people. [00:14:49] A love for God and a love for people. If we want to have the healthy roots, if you will, of a missional mindset, we have to firstly, love God with all of our hearts, with everything that we are, right? Love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart and with all of your soul, with all of your strength, with all your might, and love your what, neighbor as yourself. Let's take these just in turn for just a moment here for the love for God. A love for God. When we love God, what we're realizing is the only way that I can actually fall in love with Jesus is because of the work of God. We love because he first. What does John say? Loved us? The reason and the way that I can love God is because he first loved me. So then that puts me in the place of. I need to recognize my own place in salvation. When my recognition every single day is I have been saved by Jesus. [00:15:41] He saw me. I was lost. I was far from Him, I was an enemy of Him. And he stepped into my world and he called me to himself because he said, John 3:16 for God. So what? [00:15:52] Love? Because God first loved me. That's how I can love God. Now, when somebody falls in love with Jesus, hopefully. Similarly, if you fall in love with somebody else, you love somebody else. You care about the things that they care about, don't you? [00:16:07] And if you don't, I would encourage you to change that. [00:16:11] One of the ways you can grow in love for somebody else is by caring about the things that they care about. And so as we say, I've been loved by God and so I'm going to love God. What are things that God cares about? For God so loved the world, and that's not just me, then that means he loves the world. So my this foundation is rooted first in a love for God. And not just that. It's rooted in what was point two there. A love for who? [00:16:42] A love for people. A love for people. I recognize God loves these people. And if I want to Love God. Well, I'm gonna love the things that God loves. And not just that God calls me to love people, doesn't he? He says, love your neighbor as yourself. And then there was this man who said to Jesus, what? Well, who is my neighbor? And then Jesus goes on to tell him a parable, doesn't he? He tells him the parable of the good, Good Samaritan. And what's fascinating about that, we're not gonna walk through that. But what's fascinating about that is that this Good Samaritan was willing to pause his journey because he saw somebody, not just as someone who was abandoned on the side of the road, but as a soul who had feelings, who had an eternity. And so for us as as far we recognize that the person sitting off over here, they may be taking us away from our plan, but they have an eternal soul. And so as we fall in love with people in a different kind of way, one of the ways we can do this, and I know this has impacted me in a different kind of way, is not looking at everyone on the outside, but considering what's on the inside. Every person that you and I interact with has an eternal soul. Everyone that you and I interact with will live forever. [00:17:53] And you and I then should be called to the mindset of asking this question, I wonder where their eternity is going to be. [00:18:01] What if we ask that question all the time? [00:18:04] What if we ask that question regularly of the people in our lives? [00:18:08] As we think about the people in the grocery store and the person who's checking out your groceries, they're scanning, they're asking, you know, small talk or whatever. What if we start thinking, I wonder where their soul's going to. [00:18:18] I wonder what road they're on right now? The person who lives down the street with a dog that barks late at night, you're really annoyed about, I wonder where their soul is. [00:18:28] The person you go to the gym and you see that same few people or whatever coming and going, asking the question, I wonder where their soul is. I wonder if they're in a right relationship with God. One of the ways I think we can miss out on this regularly is we watch movies all the time or shows and tv. Everybody that you see there, I wonder where their soul is. [00:18:46] I wonder where their heart is. They're just actors and stuff or whatever. This is just fun. I don't have to think about eternal things. They have eternal souls, don't they? When we think about this eternal mindset, this missional mindset, it's thinking, I'm gonna look at everybody as they have an eternal soul living inside of them. You're filling up gas at the gas station. You see those other people also coming and going with their. Filling up their cars. You're at the restaurant, the server. You're thinking, I wonder where their soul is. [00:19:14] I wonder where their soul is. I wonder where they are with God. Wouldn't that change the way you go through your day, go through your week? [00:19:22] So this mindset that's rooted in a love for God and a love for people, and yet we know. We know this. This is not new information, right? None of this, what I've said, is new information. And yet this mindset is still a struggle for us, isn't it? [00:19:36] It is still a real struggle. It's not new to me that I know the message of the gospel. It's not new to me that God loves me. It's not new to me that I should love other people. It's not new to me that other people need Jesus. None of those things are new to me. And yet the mindset that we have often shifts towards consumerism rather than giving, doesn't it, in so many areas of our life. [00:20:00] Why is this habit such a struggle? [00:20:02] Why is this habit such a struggle? [00:20:05] That's point three on your outline. You could write that in. Why is this habit such a struggle? [00:20:11] I want to give you seven things quickly to answer that question. Yes, there's more, but I'll give you seven because God likes seven. [00:20:23] So we'll go with seven. [00:20:25] Here's seven things. And at every one of these points, I would say we could start spend lots more time on. We're not going to. But here's seven things that I want you to think about. Personalize this. Think about it for you, not for the person next to you or the person later on or whatever, or those other people in your life. Think about this. For you, each one of these. And I'm gonna use the term we, and I'm gonna make absolute statements. But these are possibilities in some regard, or maybe very real possibilities for you, but both for you personally, for us collectively as a church, and also as a Christian church, globally, if you will, or nationally. So when I say we, that's what I'm talking about here. So firstly, why is this habit such a struggle? You could write some of these down. They'll be on the screen as well. Because, firstly, because we don't keep an eternal perspective. Because we don't keep an eternal perspective in all areas of our life. It is so easy for Us to see temporal things. Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 18 says this. We look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. [00:21:24] For the things that are seen are transient. Someone say transient? That means they're fading. They're coming and they're going. But the things that are unseen. The soul of the person next to you is eternal. [00:21:37] That's having this perspective, thinking through the eternal, what is actually eternal. And those are the things that should matter to me. So that's point one, because we don't keep an eternal perspective. Secondly, you could write this down somewhere, because we aren't listening. Because we aren't listening. Well, I remember one of the places I still remember actually very, very clearly. I'm gonna keep coming back to this Africa story. I remember we had spent a couple weeks in Africa. [00:22:04] So we're in South Africa. We're going from place to place. And every day that we were there, they told us this. When we were training, before we went in country, they said every day that we're there, you all speaking to the whole team. You all have to spend an hour of quiet time every day, an hour of time alone with you, God and a Bible. That's it. [00:22:24] And I remember at the beginning of that thinking, my goodness, an hour. [00:22:30] That's a long time. And I remember a few weeks into the time there spending. We were in this. We were kind of passing from one place to another. We stopped at this campus. We were in this cafeteria, and it was like, all right, everybody, it's quiet time. And I remember still being in this cafeteria, sitting in a chair by myself at this table and. And Bible open and reading and just spending time in prayer. And I remember very clearly, Lord, laying on my heart, like, very clearly, still remember the table in the room today. [00:23:01] The vision that you had for your life is not gonna come to reality. [00:23:08] That needs to change. That needs to change the heart that you have, the goal, the pursuit that you have needs. [00:23:16] And there in that place, I still remember the chair I was sitting in. It was a shift. And here's what happened. I finally listened. [00:23:24] Finally listened. I mean, God's not gonna be someone who says, you know what? I don't mind the lost anymore. It doesn't matter. [00:23:31] Sadly, on the subject of listening well, listening well to the Lord, instead of being people that say, I'm gonna go and pray, I'm gonna list all my things to God and make sure. I just hope that he listens to me. I want to be a person that listens well to Him. [00:23:44] And sometimes that means just being quiet for a while, saying, lord, speak to me. Maybe speak to me through your word, but speak to me, guide my direction. So often that we listen to the voices of other people rather than the voice that the Lord is speaking to us. We ask questions like this. Especially as we think about evangelism, we ask questions like this. I don't know what they're gonna say, right? Have any of you asked that? Like, oh, I don't. What if they say this? And what if they say this? What's interesting is this. We often are more concerned about what other people are gonna say than what God has already said. [00:24:15] Isn't that interesting? Point 3. Because we live in an age of comfort and convenience. Because we live in an age of comfort and convenience. This is not a new concept. But Jesus says that we are to die to self. Doesn't he die to self? Truly? Truly. It says in John 12:24, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls on the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Listen to this second part. Whoever loves his life, maybe you know, this will lose it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Again, we see that perspective change from temporal things to eternal things. In the culture that we live in, it's all about how comfortable can we get, how convenient can we make something that drive through took a really long time. I'm never coming here again, right? How fast can we? [00:25:07] And I do that too. I don't like waiting in drive throughs for a long time either. [00:25:11] That's the culture, right? Like, that's our preference is how fast can we make something go? How easy can we make something go. In reality is kingdom work is hard work. Doing kingdom work is hard work. Fourthly, because generosity isn't our default, consumerism is. I mentioned this at the beginning. Jesus, we see, lived out this generous heart coming and giving, coming and giving to the point of dying, even a death on a cross. [00:25:42] Generosity, though, isn't our default. Now, some of us, for example, like Christmas, you love how many of you love giving presents more than you like getting presents. [00:25:51] You just like, love that. That's great, keep it up, encourage other people to do the same, right? Like all about, I love giving most of the time and especially for kids, right? It's all about, like, what presents am I getting? Here's my wish list and all of that. It's built in to everything that we do. Where's your wish list? What do you want? What do you want. [00:26:08] It's our culture. [00:26:10] What are the things that you can line up that you can get from others, rather than even in a season like Christmas, that we celebrate the giving of Jesus. It's all about, what can I get from this season? Fifth on your outline? You can write this down or you can just write this in that blank space. [00:26:27] Because fear is our master, not faith. [00:26:33] One of the primary reasons that we struggle, myself included, with engaging with the lost in conversation is because we're afraid. [00:26:41] Am I alone here, just afraid what's going to happen? Ezekiel 3, 16, 21. There's the writers talking through this analogy, this picture of, in that case, Israel. But for us, even as well, there's this picture of, you are watchmen. Can you say watchmen? Watchmen. You are. Your job is to watch, to pay attention, to be looking out. [00:27:09] That requires a willingness to say, I don't have to be afraid. I have a job to do. If you've been on a mission trip, how many of you have been on a mission trip before? [00:27:19] You know, it's so invigorating, right? When you're there and you're doing the work, it can also be really scary. But as we think about this, fear and faith, fear being our master, not faith. [00:27:29] Why is mission work so invigorating and also so scary at times? Because that is where. Write this down somewhere, maybe. Because that is where faith lives in the middle of a known God and our unknown future. [00:27:42] Faith lives in the middle of our known God. I know this to be true about God, and I don't know what's coming. [00:27:49] And faith is this. I'm right in between, and I don't know what to do about this. And I know God is good, and I know he wants me to do this, and I don't know what that's gonna look like, but I know he loves me and will care for me. That's faith right there, isn't it? [00:28:00] So often it's easy for us to say, I'm just gonna side over here and not do this unknown piece. Faith can so often no longer be our master because fear dominates. 6 On your outline, we're moving right through here. Because we don't own our identity. Because we don't own our identity. This was read earlier. [00:28:20] Second Corinthians, chapter 5 says this. That is verse 16 of 2 Corinthians 5 says this, that it's in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself. That is, Jesus did the work of bridging the gap between man who is far from him and God, who is holy, not counting their trespasses against them. That means not counting the sins of man against them and entrusting to us because he took it on himself and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [00:28:50] Therefore, we are ambassadors. Someone say ambassadors. [00:28:53] That's the identity that we have been given by Jesus. [00:28:57] We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. [00:29:02] So we implore you. This is the apostle Paul writing, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Here's what we see here in is we have people who are far from God. And here is a holy God. Jesus did the work. And so the way we get from being in a place that's far from God to a holy God is we have to walk across. Maybe you've seen this picture before. You have to walk across the cross of Jesus Christ. [00:29:23] You have to trust in him that he is strong enough and the only one strong enough to get you from I am far from God. I'm a sinner on the road to hell to I want to get to heaven. Jesus is the only one who can do that. No matter how much you try to jump across the chasm from where you are to where God is, you can never do it. [00:29:41] And it's trusting in Jesus one step at a time to say, he's the only one that can get me there. I've given him my life. And then what we see in this passage is this. Here's your identity and my identity to be ambassadors, to be the people that say, hey, everyone, just want you to know you're far away from God. [00:30:01] That's my job. You are far away from God. God is way over here. You're way over here. But don't worry, there's good news. Someone say good news. [00:30:08] What's the good news? [00:30:10] Jesus is standing in the gap. That's the good news. And your job. And my job, our identity is ambassadors of Christ, is to say to someone, you're in a bad place. They're like, well, that's mean and offending me. Yes, yes, it is. The gospel is offensive. [00:30:23] And by the way, there's good news. Jesus made a way so that you could be with God. That's your job and my job. That's the identity that we're called to live in. And so what that passage is saying is God is making his appeal to mankind through us. So imagine here's God up here, he's speaking through you and I who have this missional mindset using our mouths to Proclaim to the people who are lost, there's good news. Someone say good news. There's good news. [00:30:52] That's our calling. And seventh on the list here, the last of them. Why is this habit such a struggle? Because the church, and if we were to just own this a little bit as a church gathered, here's this. And I'll explain this in just a minute. Because the church is more like a cruise ship than an aircraft carrier. And that has you thinking, and I'm gonna. I stole this. [00:31:15] Rightfully owned by an author and pastor named J.D. greer. [00:31:20] So I wanted to explain this to you. [00:31:23] When you're on a cruise ship, how many of you have been on a cruise before? When you're on a cruise ship, your brain can be turned off. [00:31:31] When you're on a battleship, you're fighting under the direction and the guidance of the captain. You're a piece of the puzzle on the battleship, but you're not probably doing most of the work. The job is spread out. [00:31:46] Now, aircraft carrier, when you're a pilot whose plane is on the aircraft carrier, you're on the aircraft carrier to refuel and to reload and then to be sent out. Because for an aircraft carrier, their job is to hold the planes and send out the planes. The planes come back, they land, they refuel, they get new ammo and they send out. The battle happens somewhere else, right? If a battle comes to the aircraft carrier, that's a big problem. [00:32:13] No aircraft carrier wants to have the battle happening on the their deck. Now, connection here. When the church's primary goal is to keep its quote unquote passengers comfortable, the church is a cruise ship. [00:32:26] When the church leaders, for example, are at the beck and call of all the members, hey, I want this, and this is uncomfortable, and you didn't serve me the right way. And I want this and I want this cruise ship much. [00:32:38] So easy can that be where we slide right into. It's comfortable there. [00:32:44] How about this? When the primary goal of the church is to do great work and to lead people to the Lord and serve the community, this is good, isn't it? [00:32:52] But oftentimes, perhaps this too. [00:32:54] The church then is like a battleship. [00:32:57] Great work. But everyone on the battleship thinks, okay, I may not be doing the shooting, somebody else is doing the shooting, the captain's in charge. I'm just doing my one little thing right here. That also is a problem because I might not have this missional mindset. An aircraft carrier, on the other hand, is this. You as the Christian, are the pilot, and you come Back to church to refuel, to get more ammo, and then you go out into the world to engage the lost, to engage in the battle. Are you with me so far? It's. The battle is out there somewhere. It's not right here. I come to church because I need to be encouraged. I need to come to church so I can learn, so I can grow. And I realize it's not the pastor's job to do all the work. It's not the leader's job to do all the work. It's my job. And I come to church and then I get sent back out into the world because there is a dying world out there that needs Jesus. [00:33:47] So how do we keep this missional mindset? It's by remembering I am the one who engages in the battle out there. [00:33:54] I'm the pilot out there, and I come to the aircraft carrier to refuel, to reload, and then I get sent back out into the world. When we have that mindset that the church is an aircraft carrier, then the mindset that we have is I'm always on mission. Just like a pilot who's flying around looking for a battle. He's like, I'm on a mission every single time he goes off that aircraft carrier. [00:34:16] So how do we grow in this? We understand all of these points. I think, how do we grow in this habit? Here's four things before we close. How do we grow in this habit? Point 4. You can write that in on your outlines on the screen as well. How can we grow in this habit of having a missional mindset in our life? Now, hopefully my aim is not this. [00:34:38] Guilt doesn't bring about this mindset. [00:34:41] It's a love for Jesus. [00:34:43] It's time with him and him shaping our hearts and our minds to align with his heart. [00:34:49] How do we grow in this habit? [00:34:52] Firstly, ask God. Spend time alone with him. Ask him to help you love the lost. [00:34:59] Ask him to help you love the lost. [00:35:02] Say God, there's a lot of people in my life who don't know you. Help me love them. Help me look at the world with different eyes. Help me look at my neighbor with different eyes. Help me drive down the street. When I look at all these houses that I'm driving around in woodland, help me remember every one of them is owned by a human. And that human has a temporal soul, an eternal soul. Help me think that person that's jogging down the street right now, not just to see them as a person, whatever they look like on the outside, but to see them as a Person with an internal God, help me to see the world differently. [00:35:31] And I promise you this, God will do that. [00:35:35] He has no reason not to answer that prayer inside of you. He already wants it for every single one of us. [00:35:42] Secondly, we can even be more particular with that. [00:35:45] Think about the people in your life that don't know Jesus. [00:35:48] Write their names on a piece of paper somewhere and pray for their salvation. [00:35:53] Some years ago we created something that I don't think there's any other name for it, something called Evangerds. And they're like little business card type size. On one side it says that Woodland and beyond would know love and serve Jesus. And on the backside it has a list of, I think five lines. And it says at the top, people that I'm praying for. I would encourage you to pick up one of those. They're in the foyer next to the stack of Bibles that by the way are free and you can give to anyone. [00:36:15] Take one of those cards, put it in your wallet, put it on your steering wheel, put it in your bathroom mirror, wherever you. Here's five people that I'm praying for that don't know Jesus. As you're doing that, your mind will regularly be shifting towards mission. This missional mindset. They have a soul. God wants them in their family. So excuse me, those things. As you're praying, God opens your eyes. Praying for specific people as we're a church. Two more things as we're a church. It's not just what can I do to satisfy my longings here will make me more comfortable on this cruise ship, if you will. But how about this? I'm going to use the energy of my mind and my creativity to think how can we as a church engage better with the lost? [00:36:56] How can we engage better with the lost? Not just that it's somebody else's job and our church doesn't do enough mission things or whatever. I want to be the change that brings about our church doing more things to engage with the lost. [00:37:10] And lastly, when opportunity comes that people need to hear about Jesus, be like the lifeguard who should be paying attention, right? And jump in and help them be ready. Not just I'm positionally knowledgeable about this, but when I see someone who's bobbing up and down in their life, they're like they're just gasping for air because they're searching, because they're hurting, because they're hopeless, whatever it is, they're bobbing up and down and you see that they need help. Be that person says, I've been on. I am on mission. I'm that lifeguard who's ready. And I'm always watching, looking for the opportunity that someone might be receptive to me jumping in to save them. [00:37:50] I want to close with a quote. [00:37:52] You can go to the last slide. The concluding thing. [00:37:55] Charles Spurgeon said this, and I'll close in prayer here. It says this. He said this. If sinners be damned, that is on their way to hell, and at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. [00:38:17] If hell must be filled, let not one go unwarned and unprayed for. Wow. [00:38:24] Wow. Lord Jesus, we are grateful for your incredible care for us, that you saw fit to call us out of darkness, that your mind was fixed on the love that you had for us as you have made us new. You've transformed our identities from people that were on a road to hell to people that can be forever in your family, known children of yours, Lord, you've also called us to be ambassadors of your kingdom, just as you were sent into the world, Lord, you send us into the world, Lord, which starts with our heart and our mind being aligned with your mission for the world. And I pray for every person here today, myself included, that you would keep our minds and our hearts fixed on your mission for the lost, that it would shape the way we look at the world. For the moms and dads here, that they would pray for their kids salvation. [00:39:20] For the husbands and wives here, Lord, that they would pray for each other to grow in their relationship with one another. For the husbands and wives here that may have a spouse that doesn't know you, Lord, I pray that you would give them great grace and wisdom as they interact with that spouse. [00:39:35] For parents here that have children, maybe even adult children that have walked away from you or have never chosen to be in relationship with you, Lord, I pray that you give them the words to say and continue to have a heart to pray for their salvation for us as we work with people at our workplaces or have neighbors, Lord, that we would love them well. [00:39:54] And that looks like caring first and foremost for the eternal part of them, their soul, Lord, that we wouldn't just be burdened with this today and tomorrow and this week, but for every day that we have breath. You've called us to be ambassadors. [00:40:10] We ask that you continue to shape our hearts in this way. In Jesus name, amen.