The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 22: Saved and Sent

Episode Date: June 17, 2018

If you have been saved, then you have been sent.

Right. Would you all please stand, and I'm going to read God's word to us this morning. Let's start in Romans chapter 10, verse 5. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commands shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down. or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

for the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame for there is no distinction between jew and greek for the same lord as lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him for everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in him and whom they have never heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word, unfailing. Your word is unfailing. And so, Father, I pray for us as we look into your word, we hear the gospel preached. God, would you cause us to hear by the power of your Holy Spirit? You do what only you can do. You open our hearts. You open our eyes. Open our ears. to see and hear.

And God, bring us to a place where we would believe in you and call on you. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, you can grab a seat. I was at the beach on Thursday morning, early Thursday morning, and I was out taking a run, which is my way of bragging to you about how I run. But I was out for a run, and it was early, and I was praying for you. I was praying for this.

And as I was running, I stopped, which I have to do often when I run. And I kind of looked to my right, and there are all these beautiful homes with all these gorgeous pools. And then I looked out into the ocean, and it was just glassy. And there was not a boat except for one little boat way out on the horizon. Just way out. You could barely even see it. And I started to think about how 2018, our hope and our dream for 2018 as a church, was that this would be a year of deepening.

Right? Our mission, our vision statement is that we would be a movement for all people. We'll get there to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we wanted this year, for those of us that call 1122 home, for this to be a year of deepening. And I thought when we jumped into this year and we said, okay, to deepen, we're going to study the book of Romans for nine months. I thought, yep, that'll do. That'll deepen us.

Like, that's the deep end of the pool right there, isn't it? just nine months of in this book of all the books. And then as I was sitting there, I thought, no, you know what? It's not just the deep end for Romans, but when we got to Romans chapter 8 about four or five weeks ago and we started to look at Romans chapter 8 and Romans chapter 9, we got out of that pool, walked down onto the beach, hopped in a boat, drove out past the horizon, jumped out of the boat, and went for a swim in about the deepest bluest theological waters you could ever jump into. because when Paul gets to Romans chapter 8, he'll say things like this in Romans 828. He'll say, for I know that all things, all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purposes.

And in us, we hear that and we go, yeah. Don't you? You're like, yeah, I love me some all things working together. I love that. But then if you stop and think about it, you're like, wait, all things? like not just all the good things but God is going to work even all of the bad like all the bad I've done all the wrong I've done all the things that I have said that I shouldn't have said all the things that have been done to me all of my pain all really God like you're going to use

all that somehow you're going to work all of that together and then on the heels of that Paul write this in Romans 829 3031 he'll say for those whom God has foreknown he predestined and those whom he predestined he called and those whom he called and those whom he justified and those whom he justified he glorified. Now think about that

if that's not like deep blue waters right? So you're telling me God that from all eternity you knew exactly whom you would put your love on and you knew exactly who you were going to call to yourself through your son Jesus Christ and you knew exactly who you knew exactly who you were going to save and who you are going to justify and who you are going to glorify.

And when Paul writes it, do you see it, writes it in the past tense, as if it's already happened. It's already as good as done. Like, does that not make smoke come out of your ears a little bit? That's deep waters, right? Or in Romans chapter 9, Paul will go on and he'll say, all this that God has done, all of it is so that God's plans of election would continue. you on forever. Or he'd say that God has mercy on whom he wills and hardens the hearts of those that he wills. Now, when you hear things like that, does it raise a few questions in you?

I mean, when Paul writes that, Paul wrote this under the power of the spirit, he writes that, and when he writes chapter 8 and he writes chapter 9, around all of those incredible statements are 17 questions. Think about it. He sees, he writes this amazing thing about God's sovereign grace and in saving sinners. And when he writes all of that glorious truth, he then follows it up and surrounds it with 17 questions. If you've got questions about this stuff, you're in really, really good company with Paul. And I know you do. I know you've got questions because this week I got all kinds of questions.

I got asked this week. So, Adam, if God knows everything and is a very good. in charge of everything, then why bother praying? Have you ever thought about that? My answer to that question is, if God's not in charge of everything, why bother praying? Or you get asked, I get asked this, I got asked this week. So if God knows exactly who's going to be saved, if God is in charge of all of that, if God's got all of that under control, if you've got the whole world in his hands, then Adam, why do we plant churches? Why do we send missionaries? Why do we go to the ends? Why do we do that stuff? to which I said, well, if God's not in control of it,

why would you ever go to the ends of the earth to do that stuff? It's because of God's sovereignty. It's because of God's knowing and God being in control of all of that that we go, but it raises up, then it raises up all sorts of questions in us. And those questions can actually cause us to become paralyzed. Things sort of cause us to disengage. We can get bogged down in all those kinds of questions. And what happens is Paul starts to write that and he starts to ask all of these questions

and you can hear him in the 17 questions that he asks. But then Paul doesn't stay there. Paul somehow moves from these enormous theological ideas to tons of questions to then his heart just aches for people to know that sovereign grace. He writes things like this. So he writes Romans chapter 8 and then at the very end, in Romans chapter 9. He says, for I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,

my kinsman according to the flesh. Paul is like, I have seen, I have tasted, I have experienced something in Christ that is so amazing. And it may raise all kinds of questions, but it also stirs something up in him to the point where he's just like, I wish I'd go to hell for you if I could help you know and understand the gospel. And he moves from those questions to that kind of ache and that kind of drive and that kind of burden inside of him. And then he writes chapter 9,

and then in Romans chapter 10 verse 1, he says this, brothers, my heart's desire, the deepest desires of my heart and prayer to God for the, them is that they may be saved, that after these huge theological truths, and after all these questions, somehow Paul shifts over to an ache and a long and a drive that others would know that kind of love and that kind of salvation. Have you ever felt that before? Have you ever thought about your neighbor that you love? And you've looked at them and you've thought,

man, you are trying so hard to keep up with the Joneses. And you are just wearing yourself out. And your heart just hurts for them. To know a piece, there's so much better than stuff. Or you go into the office and you see your coworkers or your boss or somebody that works for you. And they are striving as hard as they can. They will do anything they can do because what they want to do is they want to do is they want succeed. They want to make a name for themselves to prove that they have value and worth.

And you think they are literally killing themselves over it. Or maybe, maybe you've got that prodigal son or daughter, 12, 22, 42, whatever it is. And they just, they've run in rebellion. And you have cried more nights. out to God and over them that God would show them that sovereign grace. And you've got just calluses, right? You have permanent calluses on your knees because you hit the floor so many times praying for them. You felt Paul's ache inside of you.

Or maybe you haven't. Maybe you're like, I wish I'd feel that. I hear those truths. I ask those questions, but I wish somehow God would shift my heart from just sort of being disengaged to God, would you give me an angst and would you give me a burden and would you give me a love for people to know the gospel like that? Where does that come from?

Where does that kind of heart and that kind of pull and that kind of drive for Paul to see the gospel? Because it's bigger. It's bigger than just who Paul knows and loves because Paul's going to go to the ends of the earth to people he never has met before. So Paul writes this. In Romans 10, verse 5,

He says, for Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commands shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the Biss, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you. your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with

your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. You see, the thing in this passage, the thing that moves Paul from questions, and ideas and concepts to this burning passion is that he knows something about salvation. He knows that salvation is so much bigger and so much greater, the magnitude of it is so much further sweeping. He doesn't just think of salvation as sort of this get out of jail free card, right?

Like fire insurance. Like one day I'm just not going to go to hell. That's a little bit of it. but Paul sees that salvation is so much bigger than that. And Paul sees that salvation is so much bigger than just one day, buy and by, sweet pie in the sky. He looks at this salvation and he sees something in it that is so much greater. C.S. Lewis will say things, he'll write this.

He'll say, it's not that we desire too much, but that we desire far too little. And Paul aches inside of him. because he has seen the enormity and he has a desire to see more of the magnitude of God's sovereign salvation. Look at some of the words that he uses. In verse 9, he says, you call on the Lord, you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, and you will be saved. And you're like, oh, okay, that's great, Adam. Thanks for that, like, stroke of genius. Salvation means you're saved.

Thanks for, like, glad I showed up for that little. nugget of wisdom, right? But what Paul means when he writes that is to be saved is really to be rescued. It is to have somebody like reach their hand down into the pit of death and pull you up. I had the best job as a teenager. High school and into college. I got to lifeguard at the beach. Come on. Like when they give you a jet ski and you get to ride around in the ocean and get paid, for it. That's an awesome job. Okay? Like, I'm great. You flipped burgers and all that. Like, I got to just look at girls all day long. I remember one day. It was about maybe a little bit later than this time of year. It was beautiful. It was just glassy. And you'd look down the beach and you

could see all the lifeguard stands and all the flags out on the lifeguard stands and we're all sitting there and we're watching and it looks calm and it looks beautiful. But what had happened about four or five days earlier is that a hurricane or a storm had blown through. And when happens, man, it just, the surface may look great, but underneath everything is completely churned up, right? You know what I'm talking about? And runouts are ripping and you can't see them anywhere. And then all a sudden, I'm sitting there and I look down the beach and you can just see one after the other the flags just start falling and lifeguards just start going in the water. It's like dominoes going down the beach and I'm thinking, uh-oh, uh-oh. And then all of a sudden I look out and there's this

girl and she's swimming and then just gone. And so I bolt out into the water, and you're not supposed to do this. You're not supposed to reach out to them, but you're just to give them the little buoy. But somehow the buoy wasn't there when I went to get it. And I looked down, and she's under the water, and I reached down at that moment, and I grab her by her arm. And as soon as I got her up, almost to the surface of the water, I look at her, and I can see her in her eyes. And I can see the look in her eyes as she looked up was, I thought I was dead. I mean, you could just see it.

And you and I, in our sin, are not just bad. We're dead. And we don't just need somebody to come along and give us tips and tricks to swim better. We actually need a lifesaver to reach down into us and grab us at the point of our death and rescue us and bring us to new life. That's what it means to be saved. it means that you have been rescued from death and you have been given new life. That in Christ you are a new creation. The old, the old is gone.

The old has died. And your rescuer saved you. And then Paul uses this word, justified. It's a great big Bible word. You want to impress people. Use that word. Verse 10, he says, you've been justified. It's a legal word.

Like it's a courtroom kind of word. It means you've been acquitted. You've gotten off. You've been judged innocent. In English, it's just if I'd never sinned. It works out really well in English. It's easy to remember that we've been justified. One time I was, I lived in D.C.

And I got a ticket. And I did all the things the ticket said I had done. And so I go to court because I heard that if you go to court when you get a ticket and the police officer doesn't show up, you get off. from the ticket. Anybody ever hear that rumor? You know that rumor I'm talking about, right? So I go and I'm thinking, you know what? This is a big, this is a big ticket. Like, it's going to cost me a ton of money. So I might as well go to court. So I go to court. It's full. It's morning. It's traffic court in D.C. and I'm sitting there. And my name gets called first on the docket. Fresh judge, right? So I get called up. I walk up there. And as soon as I walk up there, I look over and there's

the police officer. Great. So the judge looks at the police officer and says, well, what happened? And he just starts reading off all the statutes I broke, right? Statutes, plural, that I broke. And she looks at me and she's like, what do you have to say? And I'm like, he's here. What can I say? I was banking on him not showing up. And then she drops the gavel and goes, case dismiss, fines paid. and everybody in the room, you guys were super quiet, everybody in the courtroom was like, because I think there was like half the group that was like, yes, she's going to let us off.

And the other half was like, oh, she just used the one freebie. But when you and I have been saved, salvation means not only that we have been given a new life, but that it is like a courtroom in which God puts us on trial for our sin. we are rightly accused of our sin. And then Jesus steps out, who is the one who could accuse us? And the judge looks at Jesus and looks at us and goes, you go free, you pay the fine. You get a new start.

You get bound up. And that when we are saved, when we experience the sovereign salvation of God, you and I are rescued and given a new life. and then you and I are justified and we are set completely free. Those whom the Son has set free are free. You are free in Jesus Christ. And then Paul uses a really big Bible word. He uses the word righteousness. Look at it in verse 6 in righteousness. And righteousness sort of carries this idea like you are, you should act right. There is perfection. But really what it means is that you'd have a right relationship with God.

That when we experience salvation, we have righteousness. We have been put back into a right relationship with the creator of the universe. Which means when you have experienced the sovereign grace of God, you get to look, think about this. You get to look at the king of the universe and call them your dad. It means you have been adopted into the first. family of God. It means that you are an heir to the things of God, a co-air with Christ, the savior of the world, that you not only get a new life, you get a free life, and then you get this

new family. You get brought into the family of God. You get to look at your heavenly father and go, that's my dad. And he looks at you and goes, that's my child. And I love. And I love him and I love her. Paul's heart explodes because he knows this. But then he says, right, you confess and you believe. And that should tell us something about the nature of this salvation. That it's not command keeping and behavior. It's confessing and believing. That's the type of salvation that it is. Jesus says, not everybody that says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

But he also says that it's out of the heart that the mouth speaks. That we confess because we believe, that our believing drives our confessing. But here's the amazing thing, that our salvation is utterly free because it's not based on our works. It's not based on anything we do. it's not based on any of our performance.

It's based on confessing and believing. But it's even better than that. Because you and I, we don't confess our confession and we don't believe our believing. You get that right? We don't put our faith in our faith. Like we don't trust that we're saved based on how good we believe

or how good we confessed. Paul says, if you confess with your mouth, look at this, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus. The basis, the foundation, the root, the rock of all of our salvation. What we confess and believe is Jesus. We don't confess our confession. We confess Jesus.

And it says if you confess that Jesus is Lord, that when you and I confess that Jesus is Lord, here's what we're doing. We are declaring that Jesus is greater and higher and bigger, and bigger and better than anything else in all of creation. We're saying there are other things that may temporarily make my life happy or easy, but there is nothing greater and nothing that can satisfy like you, God. That when we declare Jesus as Lord, we're saying everything I will surrender and I will lay down before you

because you, Jesus, as Lord, are in control of it all. You hold it all in your hand. Nothing goes by you that you don't know about, you don't cause, and you don't let it happen. You are Lord. And it says we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead. The root, the foundation of our salvation is that Jesus was raised from the dead. Christianity at its basis is not a philosophy. It's not adhering to a great set of teachings.

It's not a really high standard of morality or ethics. That at the root, the foundation, the very thing that all of this is built on is the historical fact that Jesus Christ bodily died. And three days later was resurrected to new and everlasting life. That's what sits underneath. That's what we confess. That's what we believe. We believe that Jesus was resurrected.

That's what our salvation rests on. I don't know about you, but if I think about that too much, I start to go, did that really happen? For real, I mean, he really got up and then never died again? like resurrected, not resuscitated? Really? And if that happens to you, here's what you should do. This is what I do. I go find the book of 1st Corinthians. It's in the New Testament of the Bible and go to chapter 15 and just read 1 Corinthians 15. That when you doubt, when you doubt that this thing is really real, go read 1 Corinthians 15 because Paul in it, he says, listen, when Jesus died and was raised three days later, he went around for 40 days.

showing himself to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people, some of them individually, some of them amassive groups of people. And then Paul says this. He says, if you don't believe me, if you think I made all that up, go ask the people that are still alive that saw it happen. How amazing is that? Then when Paul wrote that document of 1 Corinthians 15, that letter, there were people that were alive that saw the resurrection.

Jesus with their own eyes. And Paul says, this is not a concept. This is not a philosophy. This is not a fairy tale. This is a historic fact that you can walk up and you can look somebody in the eye and go, so did it really happen? And they would go, yeah, I saw it. So did they. And so did 398 other people. You can go see it for yourself. But Paul doesn't just get worked up over what salvation is. That's not only thing that causes his heart to just burn and explode in this desire and this longing. It's that. It's the magnitude of salvation. But it's also who this thing is for. He looks at who the salvation is for and it makes his heart burn and long for others to know it. Look at this. In Romans chapter 10, verse 9, this is what he says. If you confess with your mouth that

Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call in him. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Did anybody grow up in the 70s and 80s? Come on, raise them high.

Any 80s children around here? Big hair, rock and roll. Yeah, do you go to a roller skating rink when you were little? Do you ever do that? I remember being about 10 years old going to Julie Barnett's birthday party at the Brentwood Roller rink outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Rocking my parachute pants.

It was awesome. rolled up on there, put the roller skates on, and then we all just did what everybody else did. We all just stood around. And then the DJ looks over and he does what he did every night. He'd do this. Remember, this happened when you were there, I'm sure. He'd go, hey, everybody, it's an all skate.

Everybody on the floor. And he'd be like, I don't care how old you are, how young you are, what you do, you roller skated, you can skate backwards or do the splits or whatever you can do. Everybody on the floor. And when Paul writes this, and can you hear his heart just starts to blow up because it's it's an all skate he looks out and he goes this thing

this gospel this salvation is for everyone who believes all who call everyone who calls because I don't care what you've done where you've been what you said what you've thought in your mind right? If somebody could crawl inside your mind, you're thinking, no. Paul's like, I don't care. I don't care whether you're a punk or you own ocean front property. Paul would say,

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And then he says, look at verse 12, he says, for there is no distinction, no distinction between Jew and Greek. Let's be honest. There are culturally and ethnically differences in the kingdom of God. But they're by God's design. What there isn't in the kingdom of God is cultural and ethnic superiority. Paul Wright in Galatians 328, there's neither male nor female, there's neither Jew nor Greek, slave, nor free,

for you are all one in Jesus Christ. which means in the kingdom of God, in the economy of God's salvation, there is no one person, no one ethnicity, no one nation, no one color of skin, none of that is a, there's not a place for superiority or racism or bigotry or prejudice anywhere in the kingdom of God. It's right. And it has no place in the Church of God. Because, here's why. Every single person was created in the image of God.

Every single person. And it takes every single ethnicity, every single culture, every single color, every single tribe, tongue, and language to even crack the surface of displaying the glory of God. And there is no distinction because in our sin, we're all, level at the foot of the cross. That we've all sinned and we've all fallen short. And there is nothing in any of us by which we can say there is something inherently good in me that makes me better than anybody else. And there's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. This is Paul saying the breadth of who qualifies for the gospel. Stunning.

But then when he looks at the breadth of this thing, all the alls and the everybody who believes and the all who call, do you see what he did in here too? Look at what he says. He goes, if you confess with your mouth, you will be saved. He gives all these you and your and your and you. Then he takes it from all over the world with all kinds of people. And Paul looked at you, he would go, and you. you you are a part of the all who call that if you call on the name of the Lord right here right now today

that if you would call on the name of the Lord you would believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved you are a part of the everyone's who call, the all who call, the all who believe. And you don't need some magical prayer. You don't need some moment. You don't need some special thing to happen to you. Right now, if you believe in your heart, confess with your mouth, you will be saved. Today could be the day that you know that. And you get new life and you get free life and you get counted as an adopted child of God.

But then it gets even better for Paul. He looks and he goes, this salvation is huge. And it goes to all of these people all over the world. But then he gets really excited because he says, not only is it for all these people and it is that big and it's that huge, but God actually gave us a plan for how it would go out. His heart gets so excited because he doesn't feel like he's just left to try to

figure it out on his own. Have you ever thought that? You're like, how in the world does this thing go all over the world? Listen to what he writes in verse 14. How then? How? How then will they call on him and whom they have not believed? The answer is they can't. And how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard, they can't. And how are they to hear without someone preaching? They can't. And how are they to preach unless they are sent? They can't. Do you hear that in Paul? He's like, but how's this going to happen and how's this going to happen? And how are they going to hear and believe and how are they going to believe if they're preached? And he's not just asking questions. He's actually laying out the way the gospel goes out across all the world. He says, as it's written, how beautiful are the feet of those

who preach or bring the good news. But they've not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, so he's going to reach back into the Old Testament, and as if he's going to say, this has always been God's plan for how it'll go forth. Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. If you look at it kind of backwards, salvation always begins with being sent. It always begins with being sent. It just doesn't begin with us being sent.

That salvation always begins with Jesus Christ being sent to us. The opening verses of the Gospel John, John 114, says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. I love in the message paraphrase, the message version of the Bible. It says the word Jesus became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. Isn't that great? And the reason that Jesus does that, the reason that the Father sends the Son is because

you and I can't go up to heaven on our own. You and I can't climb the ladder. You and I can't make it up on our own. We have to have God come to us. That's what's so great about Christmas. It's that God comes to us when we could never. never get to him. That the sending begins with Jesus. And then Jesus says in John 2021, as the Father sent me, so I send you. That Jesus is the sent one of God and that you and I are the

sent ones of God. You'll see the bottom line. If you got one of the handouts this morning, you'll see the bottom line in there that says, if you've been saved, then you've been sent. and yes, you, you, you have been sent. You've been sent. And you might go, okay, well, practically, how does that work? For some of us, it may look like being sent is going across the street to our neighbor, that neighbor. For some of us, being sent looks like calling up somebody and saying, hey, can I take you out to lunch? Can I take you out to coffee? It's moving towards. them when they don't move towards you. For some of us in this room, we've said this.

You have three years to go on a mission trip around here, right? Jesus trained up the disciples for three years and then sent them out on a little short-term mission trip. You've got three years around here. And for some of you, you thought, ha-ha, that's cute. And I'm looking and I'm going, you know what? Time's ticking for some of you. Your three years might be up this summer.

For some of you being sent might mean going out after this service and walking out into the lobby and finding out. finding the partnership table and finding the short-term trip table and saying, I need to go, because I've been saved, I've been sent. For some of you in the room, it looks like finding Pastor Jeff from Doxa Church at the end of this service and going, I have no idea why I'm saying this. But I think God is sending me to plant this church with you. I think God is sending me for the next year or the two years to help you lay down a foundation for the gospel.

Maybe some of you are college students. And you're looking and you're thinking, how am I going to get a job when I get out of college? What am I going to do? Maybe you're looking and you're like, okay, I got one more year in college, I got two more years of college. What am I going to do? And maybe for you it would be I'm going to graduate college and then I am going to go be a long-term missionary. I'm going to go give two years of my life on the mission field. And that mission field might be Orange Park.

It's a heck of an admission field. It might be Orlando with one of our church plants. down there. It might be moving to Beirut, Lebanon with Marwan, the pastor that we're planting a church there. It might be going to Kathmandu, Nepal, and saying, I'll be the kids director there. It might be going to Wales. It might be going to Abu Dhabi and saying, hey, I'll take my job and I'll do my job. I'll be a nurse. I'll be a businessman there. And I will give my life as a missionary to help plant the church. That's what it may mean for you to be sent. So salvation always begins with sending, but then sending always leads to preaching.

Do you see what Paul says? Verse 15. How are they to preach unless they are sent? Or verse 17. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. Preaching is this really unique thing. Preaching is it is proclaiming. It is heralding the Word of Christ.

It's exposing what is in here. Paul says, this hearing, this preaching, this thing we preach is the Word of Christ. It's the gospel. It's the good news. It's news, which means it's something that has happened and it gets told. I mean, think about this. What if you turned on the 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock news and you were like, you know what, just give me all the news, but don't tell me anything.

Just show me some pictures. No, no, no, no. You've got to tell me what happened. Maybe you want to watch CNN or Fox and wish they would not say anything and just show you some stuff. Maybe that would be better. But preaching is this proclaiming. It's this heralding of news. But it's not just any news.

It's the good news. That if it's not good, it's not the gospel. That what we proclaim is the good news, the word of Christ. And for some of us, you may know. never get up on this stage and put a microphone on and stand up here and speak like this. But it doesn't matter where you do it. It doesn't matter how you do it. It matters what you say. It matters what you proclaim. And for some of you, it may mean inviting a friend, inviting that one more to church. That may be the way you proclaim the gospel. For some of you may be

telling your faith story saying, can I tell you my life? And not just the events of my life, but can I tell you my life and what God has done in my life? For some of you, it may look like sitting down with somebody that has wronged you,

hurt you, who you legitimately have a grudge against. And you look them in the eye and you say, I forgive you. not because I just want to sort of get this behind us, not because I'm a great person, not because I'm a nice person,

but I forgive you because Christ forgave me. Maybe. Maybe it's you not getting revenge at the moment you could take revenge. And maybe, maybe the greatest message you ever preach is by just shutting your mouth. At that moment, you know what I'm talking about?

Come on, guys, right? You're having a disson. discussion and then you say that one thing and you're like, oh, why did I say that? And then you just have the words back and maybe just not saying something might just be great news. Maybe the best thing you've ever preached. Can I tell you some good news about preaching? In Isaiah 5511, this is what God says. God says, so shall it be with my word that goes out from my mouth. not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and it shall succeed. That our preaching doesn't depend. Our declaration of the gospel does not depend on how eloquent

we are, how funny we are, how well-written our arguments are, how dramatic our story is. The way that people are saved through the proclaiming of the gospel is the power of the gospel itself. And God said, I will not let my word come back void. I will do exactly what I want to do when the word goes out. And so you can relax. It doesn't hinge on you. It rests on the word of God. And God said, it always does what he wants it to do. And so sending goes to preaching and preaching leads to hearing. That hearing, in this case, it's really more than just sound waves

coming through our ears, right? Penetrating sort of that meaty flesh in our skull. That's more than what hearing is. Hearing what Paul is talking about is this act of the Holy Spirit. It's beyond anything that you and I can control. That it's the spirit making soft our flesh. It's opening our ears.

It's opening our eyes. It's sort of breathing new life into us that we could hear at a real soul level, things that we'd never been able to do before. And you and I can't control that. We can control being sent. We can control what we say, but we can't control what somebody hears. We don't have enough power to do that, right? Did you see those big, huge J-E-A water cooling towers?

Did you see those things fall? Do you see that? So they look like they folded up like wet clay. And I just thought, you know what, never in a million years could either any of us walk up there and just like, and just with all our strength, nobody could push that thing over. You and I could no more make somebody here than we could push those towers over. But God, by the power of His Holy Spirit, loves to open ears. He loves to make people come alive and hear the gospel. and what you and I can do

is we can give them something really good to hear when God opens their ears. And what you and I can do is we can pray. For some of you, what you need to do is pray while preaching's happening. You need to pray while you're at lunch or at that coffee with your friend. You need to pray at those moments in worship

when there's an invitation that people would hear and call out to God. You can pray for that. You can do that. And so sending becomes preaching, becomes hearing and hearing becomes believing. And believing is more than just knowing some facts about God. It's more than just knowing some facts and knowing those facts are true about God.

I mean, even the demons believe. Think about this. Satan knows more orthodox truth about Jesus than all of us in this room combined. That's not believing. believing is taking the full weight of your life right now, not just your eternity, that, but right now, and believe on Jesus to bank everything in your world on the resurrected Christ. To take all the chips and push them all across the table and go, I'm going to, I don't have a plan B, I don't have anything else. I'm pushing everything across the table and I'm betting it all on Jesus. That's what it means to believe. That's what it means to believe. It's not just to believe about.

It's to believe on. It's to rest your life on. I bought our son Gavin, Kristen and I did. I'll implicate her in this too. I bought our son Gavin for Christmas flying lessons. I've told some of you all about this. He's 15. I bought him flying lessons. And then I went out with them after Christmas, and we went out to the airport. We drive out there, and the instructor is there. And the instructor looks like he's about 17, right? Everybody keeps getting younger every year. And I look at them, and they do the little pre-flight thing,

and then they walk out on the tarmac, and I walk out with them, and they get in a plane that is about as big as this table. And they get in there, and I close the door, and as I close the door, I latch the door shut, and I sort of, like, put my hand on the door. and I'm like, this is a bucket of bolts legitimately. It's just bolts all over the thing. And then they taxi out and I watch my son just take off into the air and disappear. Do you see the difference?

Buying the flying lessons, that's not believing. Put my kid in an airplane? That's believing. don't just buy some information about Jesus. But rest your life on him. That's what believing is. And so sending becomes preaching, leads to hearing, leads to believing. And even our believing is a gift of God.

Even that he doesn't leave up to us. And then that believing leads to calling. that we only call on a God that we believe in. You know what a newborn baby, the first thing a newborn baby does when they're born? Come on, moms, what is a newborn baby? The first thing a baby does. Cries, screams, bloody murder.

You and I as believers, the first thing we do when we believe is we cry out to God. Oh, God, I believe. That's the call. That is the call of a newborn believer. I believe. And it's not just that we call.

call on God one time in our life. It's that we call on God over and over and over and over. People are sent. We hear the gospel. We believe and we call in all of our life is meant to call. And sometimes I'll get asked like, I mean, I just keep calling out to God about the same thing over and over and I called out to him yesterday for this and I called out to him this and I called out to him an hour for this. isn't God just looking at me and going, would you just stop being so needy all the time? Have you ever thought about that? You ever thought maybe God is just like, I heard you the first time. Thanks. But you do know that your Heavenly Father loves it when you cry out to him.

And you continue to cry out to him. What would glorify God more than for you and I to say, God, I can't. I can't handle this. I couldn't handle it yesterday. I couldn't handle it this morning. I couldn't handle it five minutes ago. I can't handle it right now. God, I don't have anything in me that can solve this thing or get me through this thing.

I need you now just like I needed you five minutes ago, just like I needed you five days ago, just like I needed you five years ago. What could glorify our Heavenly Father more than looking at him and saying, you are the only source. source strength and power and hope. You are the only thing, and I got to call out to you again for it. And so sending becomes preaching, leads to hearing, leads to believing, leads to our calling on our heavenly father. Now I have a son, Gavin, I just told you about him. He's 15, and we were watching a movie the other night. We're watching a Liam Mason movie, the commuter, right they're all the same the same exact movie as every other one he's done so we're laying in the we're in our playroom on the couch and i'm laying on the floor sophie's kind of snuggled up next to me she's

12 it's super sweet you know showing our 12 year old a go kill a movie is awesome and uh christin is laying behind me on the couch and then gavin is sprawled out over on 95% of the couch and every once in a while his foot will just happen to slip down and hit his sister in the face right? And Sophie's sitting there and she's just like, Gavin, get your foot out of my face. It's disgusting. Like, get your giant hobbit foot. He's a foot. His foot, he's 15. His foot is huge. And he never wears shoes. So they're all like mangled up and he's got hair grown out of his toes. It's the weirdest thing. Like, it's disgusting. Feet are gross, people. They're gross. So he's like, get them out of my face. And this is a couple months ago, because this happened a bunch of things.

times. And I'm like, Gavin, your feet, like your toenails are broken off, your pinky toe is like doing a left turn, you've got calluses, you've got corns like a 90-year-old man. Like, what? Do we need to go to the doctor? Seriously, can I help you with that? And he's like, dad, I play soccer. And to him, he looks at his mangled up feet and they are like a badge of honor. To him, he's like, hey, listen, I could have really pretty nice feet if you wanted, Dad, but I couldn't have them and be in the game. It's one or the other. And he looks at his feet, and they are like a badge of honor to him because he's been in the game.

Every one of those bruises, every one of those broken toes, every one of those calluses, they all equal a goal scored or ball stolen or somebody that he juked or nutmeg or whatever you do in soccer, because I don't really understand it. And then Paul writes this. in verse 15, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. How beautiful is your life, no matter how messy it is, when you carry the gospel in your heart? That God would look at the mangled, messed up condition of our lives,

and he would go, because you carry the gospel in your heart, how beautiful are you? and how beautiful are you when you get your life messy to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Church, don't waste your life. And I mean that. Don't waste your life trying to keep your life nice and neat and tidy and manicured and clean and comfortable. Pour it out for the sake of the gospel. carry the gospel with you across the street into your office, across the world to plant new churches.

Don't waste your life trying to keep yourself nice and neat and tidy. Get your feet dirty. Look, one of our staff people sent me this picture the other day. This is her feet from Africa. You go to Africa and you get red Africa clay over everything, not just your toes. It ends up in every nook and cranny, everywhere for a long time. Getting it out from behind your ear like a month later, you're like, what? And I'm just saying, go get your feet dirty. Go get your feet dirty. Don't live a life

that's manicured. Don't do it. Don't waste it. Get it dirty. And in the end, you hear, you're beautiful because you carried my gospel. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your gospel. Thank you. Thank you so much that you would send your son, that he would declare and demonstrate the good news of salvation. That your Holy Spirit would open our ears, stir us to believe,

and give us the voice to cry out to you. God, may that happen in this place right now. May your spirit move people to cry out to you. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.