Carried Out by the Church

And guess what? It will not be smooth sailing week to week, year to year. But God is still faithful. We trust because he has gone before us. Do we have all the right leaders? Do we have all the right people in the key positions? Can we do this on our own? And the emphatic answer is no. Here's what excites me so much about this is this is just the start. that my prayer over this next week, as next Sunday is our commitment Sunday, that as you leave, there might be a commitment card that you have at your house if you've been with us this month or if you want to grab one at our lobby display as you leave, but that you pray over that card and you ask God of what is he going to call me to do? How is he going to call me to be a part of it? And as we gather next week, my prayer is that the 78 families who have led us and started out in this journey, that we can follow their lead and we can be a part of something that is so much bigger than us. And maybe you're hearing this and you're like, man, this is my first week. Welcome. You picked a great month to come to Cross Church. And maybe you're newer to the church and you're like, I don't know if I'm ready for this. But here's what's exciting is you're going to see truly what we are passionate about, what God has called us to do, what God has moved in us, and ultimately what we believe Cross Church needs to be all about. And through this month in this series, we have talked very openly and very specifically and very detailed about that is this theme for this series is going to be the theme for this next two years is we believe that God has called cross church to be fulfilling the great commission one church at a time that as we start churches. So when we start a church, a church reaches a community, they preach the gospel, people are saved, and then those disciples are made out and then go start more churches. And this isn't something new. This has been something that has happened through 2,000 years of church history. And it all dates back to what we see in Matthew 28 to this great commission, this great burden that Jesus has given the church and that he calls us to. And as we've started to go through this series so far, we've seen how we've seen kind of the the why and the what's behind this. We started out the first question I would ask if you come to a church and they say this is what we want to do. We want to start more churches by raising more money and raising more people. The question is why do we want to do that? And as we saw in the great commission, the why becomes ultimately to the depth of worship. That if we believe that Jesus Christ is the creator of the universe, that he is the God who started, who sustains and propels forward everything we know, then we can't help but to worship him and to tell more people about him. We continued on and we say, well, what is the power behind this? Because I don't know about you is I am not smart enough or talented enough or charismatic enough to pull this off. I am not that pastor, right? And you're like, "Yeah, I agree with you." But the good news is, as we saw throughout scripture that God does not call us to be. Instead, he says he empowers us with the Holy Spirit, the very presence himself in order to equip us to do this work. Last week, we looked at where this reach is going to go. Jesus calls us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, but not just to the ends of the earth of what we know it right now, but from generation to generation to generation. And Pastor Jackie last week did a great job in seeing how that what we are doing here in this season will have ripple effects that go beyond us. But today I want to answer the question of how. How does the church, how do Christians, how do those who follow Jesus, how do we truly make Jesus known in a way that has a meaningful impact in the world around us? And I want us to spend some time answering this question is how does the church specifically carry out the mission that God has entrusted us to? Last week, uh I was gone, my wife and I, uh we had a quick uh vacation and kind of a two-day trip. Um, and it was, here was the beautiful thing. It was just me and my wife. We pawned off our four kids, split them up. Two went to one grandparents, two went to the other grandparents house, and we made a quick trip to California. And we went to California, and we went to Carl'sb. And there's this place called the Flower Fields. It's exactly what it sounds like. It is fields and fields of flowers. The most chick place on the entire planet that you can go to. All right. Makes some great pictures, though. And we went to Flower Fields and we went to the stopped at the beach, had dinner, and then we went to and some of you will judge us for this, but that's okay. And some of you will understand why. But we went to Anaheim and then we did a day with no kids, just us in California Adventure in Disneyland. All right, some of you say that sounds fun. Others are like, you are an idiot. All right, and you're on one of the sides of the fence. But we had a great time and we enjoyed it. But on our way back, we took the I 10 coming home. And on the I 10 from California, about 300 of that miles is a two-lane highway. And and and here's the thing is what I found out and I've known a long time is people do not know how to drive on a two-lane highway and drive on a highway in general. Cuz let me ask you a question is how do you use the left lane? What is the purpose of it? >> Passing. I wish I was driving with all you guys. Instead, I was driving with a bunch of morons who didn't know how to use the left lane. And it was so frustrating. Like I would go and I'd get around someone and I'd get over and wait until I had to pass a truck again and all of a sudden like 30 people fly by me and then it got congested and if you gave up your spot in the left lane that you're not supposed to be camping out on all of the sudden you'd be stuck in the right lane for like 10 miles and all of a sudden we just kept on going. It was like we're going 95 and keeping up with a herd of 20 cars and then we go down to like 60 and I was going to lose my mind. I'm like gesturing at people trying to make some nice notes. A guy told me after he's like, "Do you ever want a after first service a big LED screen that can write messages to other cars?" And I was like, "That is genius." All right. I don't know how that hasn't been invented. Probably cuz it would lead to a lot more road rage. But here's the deal. It's just how people don't know how to use the left lane. I think as Christians and sometimes as a church and sometimes when you come to a church and you're not even a Christian yet, we don't know how God calls us to carry out the great commission. And today we're going to look at how God has called the church to be on mission for him. How God has called the church to do something greater, but how God has equipped us and how has showed us and has pushed us of how do we truly carry out this commission. And we find it again in Matthew 28, these verses we just read, verse 19 and 20. I want to read those again where he tells them, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." But here's where he gets into the how. He says, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. In two small verses, we get three movements of the church of how we carry out this mission that Jesus has called us to. And you see, the first one is so simple. He tells us it right in the middle of verse 19 is he's saying as the church, we must be baptizing people around us. And when we talk about baptizing, here's the question that comes with it is what is that? Baptism is the mark of belonging. When you look at scripture, you know, when people are baptized, when they're baptized, there's no holy water. It's not magical. All of a sudden, you don't go down as a sinner and you come out a saved person. Baptism does not save you. But it is the outward symbol of an inward transformation that Jesus by his death and resurrection has saved you. And when we are baptized, what it is a symbol of is it's this symbol that we belong to God. We belong to Jesus and the father and the holy spirit. As it is laid out here is baptism is the first act of obedience after faith. It is publicly declaring the internal transformation that we have had. As I told you and maybe some of you judged me for, we went to Disneyland. And as we went to Disneyland, we got this thing called a lightning lane that you pay a little extra for. Totally worth it. All right. And here's what it is. Is you get to skip the line. So, as all the peasants wait an hour and a half, you scan it. I'm just kidding. You scan it and then you skip them all. All right? And and it's on your app and on your phone and like you would scan one and then I'd have to swipe to the other ticket and it would scan again. And I would scan both tickets on my phone and I'd start to go, but I'd look back on my wife and be like, "She's with me." All right. So she can go through because she's with me, the lightning lane guy that spent more money to skip a line. All right? And and here's the deal is when we're baptized, it's almost this same idea is we're declaring that we're with God. That God looks at us and all of a sudden he's like, "He or she, they're with me. They're no longer with their life of sin. They're no longer bound by the ways our world has. Instead, we're with God." And that authority, that power, it means something. Romans 6:4 fleshes this out for us. It says we were buried with him being Jesus by baptism into death. It's this symbol how Jesus died, our flesh dies as well in order so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, just as he raised from the grave to defeat sin, so we may too walk in newness of life. I love this verse by Paul because in in this verse we almost see the trinity. This three nature of God that says we were buried with Jesus the son that just as he died our sins was dead with him but when he raised again all of a sudden we were raised with him. And why did he do this? He did this for the glory of the father. And then it says the newness of the life that we walk in this we walk in this new life because the holy spirit indwells us and goes with us. You see, baptism, it's not this ritual that saves us. Instead, it's this witness that says something to the world around us. It says, "Something has happened inside of me, and I want the world to know about it." That's why, man, I'm so excited as we celebrate Easter in two weeks. In case you didn't know, it's Easter in two weeks. So, get eggs ready if you have kids or I don't think you have to buy an Easter gift for your spouse, but have a nice clothes to wear on Easter. You have an Easter dress you probably have to go get. Uh my wife can help you find one at Goodwill. She's good at that. Um but as we get closer to Easter and as we celebrate Easter weekend, here's what I'm excited about. As we baptize people, we get to see people declaring that I'm starting this journey with Christ, that he has saved me, that something is different in me, and my life is going to look different as a result. And here's what's so beautiful about this is Easter is one week after next week is our commitment Sunday as we talk about this campaign of let's go in this two-year initiative that we embark in. And I just love it that when we get to baptize people on Easter, it is people who have given their lives to Jesus. Some of them for the first time maybe in recent months. Some of them have been carrying that decision for years and finally are making that projection. Maybe some of it is people who are hearing the gospel today. But here's what's so amazing about that is when those happens, when people are dunking into water and coming up, those are great commission moments where we are seeing the mission that God has called us to be lived out. And every baptism that is a great commission, everything that we get to celebrate, it is a story of life change. Uh last Easter we baptized people. It was so great to be able to celebrate that. But one of the ones that was close and dear to my heart is I got to baptize my nephew and he's the oldest one on my family. He's actually he was at my house for a 2-year-old's birthday party uh yesterday and um he uh is 13 years old. So I think by virtue at 13 years old, you're kind of a jerk, right? Every teenager at that age um 13-year-olds, it's okay. You can agree because we were the same when we were 13. It's just inevitable. Um, but he's this, it's so awesome. Last Easter we got to baptize him and be a part of that declaration of him saying that he knows Jesus saved him and that it's going to change the rest of his life because he knows that truth. And you see the church, the church lives out the mission when we create space for people to publicly identify with Jesus. A church that does not baptize is no longer a church because we are not fulfilling the mission of what God calls us to do. And when we talk about let's go and starting more churches, we want to create more of that space, more churches in more communities, more Sundays where someone steps into water and the church breaks into applause because another life has been changed for now and all of eternity. You see, baptism, it is the mark of belonging. And the church's job is to keep making disciples who need to be baptized. And here are some questions before we continue to go on and we see the nuance of what we are called to do through this piece of scripture. But I personally want to ask you if you are sitting here today is do you belong to God? Do you belong to him? Have you declared that he is your God? That he is your savior? is he looking down from heaven and he's saying he's with me. He knows me. She knows me. He's walked with me. We've publicly declared that to the world around us. Are you with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the God of the universe that can change your life? Are you skipping the line of your sin, your shame, your failures? Spoiler alert, that line goes on for eternity and it's worse than a Disneyland line because it never ends and it leads to eternal damnation. Are you skipping that line and going into this with a savior of the universe who you belong to? Have you publicly declared that? And maybe you are already declared that. And if you are for the first time, we want to have that conversation. We'll leave space at the end of our service for exactly that. But here the church doesn't stop at baptizing. You see, that's actually the first level. That's the first mark of how we continue to go. But he continues on in verse 20. He says, "Not only are you baptizing the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, but he says this, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you." Here's the second thing we see is not only are we baptizing, we are teaching. And here's what teaching is. Teaching is the method of growth. Notice what Jesus says here, and it's important. He doesn't say, "Teach them everything I've ever said." We don't have all the words of Jesus recorded in scripture. Uh we have the three We have the three synoptic gospels and John, the fourth gospel, and they contain many of the words Jesus said and many of the and many of the stories he told, but we don't have everything Jesus ever said. He doesn't say, "Teach them every single word I've said." said instead he said teach them to observe to obey the commands that I have given you. He says you know the important stuff I made you write that stuff down. You know the important stuff my Holy Spirit inspired you to say you got to get these things right. The things I have told you to do of loving God and loving others and how to practically do that. He said that's what you need to teach the church. And here's the deal is the goal here is not just information. It's transformation. Think about how relevant this is in our society today is we have kind of moved from a a society that knowledge used to be more powerful. Knowledge was a thing. Remember you used to have an argument and and you used to be able to argue for things like this is what it is. This is what it is. And you could talk about it and you could prove you're smarter or not. Now you don't even get to argue about things cuz you just Google it or you ask chat or you just ask it and then you're like you were wrong. I was right. Thank you. And then the conversation's over. And it's like we have all the knowledge our world has ever assembled at the tip of our fingers. But what is more valuable than ever is wisdom. How do we discern that knowledge? How do we know what is true and what is not true? And then once we decipher what is true, here's the harder thing is wisdom is then saying, how do then I apply that to my life? How do I not just know it, but how do I apply it? How do I all of a sudden put it into practice that makes a difference in my life? And you see when we talk about knowledge and application, it is so rooted in God's word. A famous and faithful pastor Charles Spurgeon once wrote that a Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't. Man, I love that. Right. And just so you know, I change out my Bibles because they fall apart. So, I have nice preaching Bibles. You should see the one in my backpack right now. All right. the binding has ripped off. I think that's a good sign. I kept trying to glue it back together and it was not working. But when our Bibles are falling apart, it's a sign that we're actually in them, that we're reading them, and we're actually attempting to apply them. And then this goes further because not only are we applying what's in the Bible, but we're doing it within the church context. 2 Timothy 3:16 uh says that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, I love this, equipped for every good work. You know, one of the we have three values here at Cross Church. We're going to talk about this in more depth in our pizza with the pastor as we kind of break these down. But our most important value, our flagship one, as we talk about here at Cross Church, is we want to be a biblical church. That if it doesn't say it in the Bible, then we don't want to say it. If it's not guided by scripture, then we don't want to be guided there. That we are above all biblical. Whatever the Bible says about culture, about how to live our lives, we go with the Bible over whatever else is out there. And we let that be a lamp unto our feet as scripture says. And the reason for it is just as we see in second Timothy is when the Bible is read is preached when it's prayed over but then when it's practiced in relationships it changes everything about our lives. That's one of the reasons when we encourage our small groups here we call Bible groups because there's sermon based Bible equipment that or group material that what we say on Sunday we go more depth than through the week is we want to get in our Bibles and have relationships around them. I I love our Bible groups and our Bible group leaders. And it's funny, some of our best Bible group leaders are the ones that I have to convince to start a Bible group who don't want to do it. All right. I'm like, "I see something in you." They're like, "Nope." And I'm like, "I really do." And they're like, "Nope." And then I pester them and I pester them and I wear them down. No, I'm just kidding. Um, but I do have a way of getting people to agree with things. And then they're like, "I don't want to do this." And then they come back to me six months later and like, "I am so glad I did this." but one of those amazing couples and actually right now um we're in the middle this weekend of Luke days where you've probably seen some jets flying overhead and the blue angels and the Thunderbirds are here. Uh but one of our um we have a couple in our church and we have quite a few of these. We have a pilot in our church but Chris and Becca amazing family and he's a pilot for the Air Force and I said I want you to start a Bible group. I was like I've been to your house you've hosted me. You'd be great at this. He's like no no no no I don't think so. I'm like you got to do it. And he's actually been at Luke Days this weekend. and I asked if he was flying. He said, "No, I'm selling t-shirts on the tarmac instead." I was like, "That's cool, too." Um, but Chris and Becca have done an amazing job. And and here's what's awesome is as I was checking in with their Bible group, seeing how things were going, is they have transformed this this group into truly a community of living it out is they have a bunch of kids and a bunch of couples in there and so many kids like could destroy their house, but they just love it. But they start their group with a meal. That's how I know they're Baptist cuz they start with a potluck. All right. Yes. >> Well, they start with a meal and they eat together and they do life together. They talk with one another and then they dive into God's word. And you see what happens there is all of a sudden that knowledge is becoming transformation. All of a sudden, the reading of God's word is infiltrating our hearts and affecting our relationships and we're spurring one another on guided by God's word. And here's the thing, this is why we invest in Bible groups. This is why we preach every week like it matters because it does. The great commission isn't just about the first step of baptism. It's about the whole journey that sees us through disciples who go on to make more disciples who baptize more people who start more churches. And we see the cycle continue. But here's the deal. When we plant a church, we're not just creating a new gathering space. We're creating a new center of teaching, a new community where the word is opened, where lives are shaped, where people are equipped because people have been baptized and all of a sudden it continues to grow and eternities are changed because of it. You see, church, that's what's at stake with Let's Go in these next two years. a church that is baptizing and teaching that grows in depth personally in our spiritual life but grows in depths of reaching more people and but this continues to culminate we don't just baptize we don't just teach but check out the second half of verse 20 and he says in remember Jesus doesn't say remember in the other things he's like you got that but he says remember this because it's so easy to forget this I am with you always to the end of the age. We're to be baptizing. We're to be teaching, but we're also to be trusting inside the church. And you see this trusting, this is the motivation for our perseverance to keep going. Here's what I love about the great commission is Jesus had spent three years building these men to be ready to change the world. But as he leaves and three years he spent with them, he doesn't leave and say like, "I've you've done it. Like, I bet you can't do it. Go try your hardest." He doesn't challenge them. He doesn't try to get their competitive nature going. He doesn't try to rally them up with a speech at all. It's not a challenge at all. Instead, it ends with a promise. He doesn't say, "Good luck. I believe in you. I hope you succeed." Instead, he says, "I am with you always to the end of the age." The word always here in the Greek it literally means all the days. Jesus like all the days I am there. I'm not here one day and gone the next day when it's really hard. But instead all the days I will be with you. I'll be cheering you on. I'll be equipping you. I'll be I'll be yelling at you from the sidelines. I will be there to give you everything you need. William Kerry is often called the father of modern missions and in 1793 he left his home his comfort in England to go to India and he would spend the next 41 years of his life without ever returning home but staying on the mission field on the mission field in that 41 years he buried his wife he buried his son he watched his printing press containing years of translation work of translating the gospel burn to the ground in a and he started over and kept on going. There was one letter as he's talking to a colleague back and forth and his colleagues asking him like, "How do you keep going through this? How how do you not just stop?" He said, "I can pl I can persevere in any definitive pursuit because to this to this he's talking about the mission that God has given him. I owe everything." You see, what kept William Kerry plotting for four decades in the face of grief, loss, and setback is the same promise that Jesus has made on the mountain 2,000 years ago that I'm with you always. He didn't endure because he had the resources. He endured because he had the presence of God. And we see this presence throughout scripture. He Hebrews chapter 13:5 gives us the same promise that I will never leave you or abandon you. Here's what I love. This this is not just a motivational phrase. This is a covenant word. The mission we are joining through let's go. It will have hard moments. There will be times when we start churches and it's not an easy go to just kick off and be done. This past week actually is we celebrated the 10year anniversary of Crossurch Phoenix. Can we give God a hand for that? 10 years ago, my wife and I with a team from here in Surprise went and started our first church outside of this location. And let me see, in that 10 years, it has not been smooth sailing. And actually, in the last two years since I've been gone, Pastor DJ has done a way better job than I did. All right. He has done a great job in that community. But those early years, there were times where I remember sitting when when the room wasn't as full as I had hoped it would be and the finances didn't look as nice as I thought they could that I'm like, "God, I don't know if this is going to happen." That God, I don't know if we've called Cross Church to do this. God, I don't know if we have what it takes. I don't know if we have the right strategy or the right systems or the right spirit to be able doing this. I don't know if we are equipped to do this. And Jesus is like, "Cuz you're not, but I am." >> Amen. And in that process, it was this trusting God that he knew what he was doing. And 10 years later, he knew what he was doing. And we've replicated it in Cornville, Elmari. We're going to see this in Mayor in a glacia de la Cruz. And guess what? It will not be smooth sailing week to week, year to year, but God is still faithful. And God's mission still pushes forward. There will be people, there will be times when we question that, why isn't why am I in the stage of life that God, I'm not seeing the fruit I want to see. God, why are things not lining up the way I have? But he gives us this promise in the midst of this commission that I will be with you always, every day, all the days to the very end of the age. You see church, we trust because he is with us. We trust because he has gone before us. As we step back and we look at this and say, "And that's great. As the church, yeah, I agree we should be baptizing. Yeah, as a church, I agree we should be teaching. Yeah, I agree. As a church, we should be trusting." And these are not three programs we just kind of like institute. These are healthy rhythms of church that we see time after time that grow churches to start more churches. And all this is great and all this is awesome. But then the question becomes up, are we truly have everything it takes to do this under our own power? Do we have all the right leaders? Do we have all the right people in the key positions? Can we do this on our own? And the emphatic answer is no. that when we do this and we try to go out, maybe a leader tries to go out on their own or a church member tries to accomplish more than they can do and you in your personal life, you try to take on more and bear the weight of what God has called you to do in your family, in your community, in your neighborhood. Can you do it? And the question is emphatically no. But we have a God who gives us the resources to do it. And you see all this when we talk about a church that baptizes, a church that teaches, a church that trusts God, it leads to this foundational truth, this beautiful thing inside this text. We see this throughout scripture is this commission that God has given us. This mission that he has given us, it is too big for one person. I can't do it. Pastor Jackie can't do it. Pastor Tyler and Elm Mirage and DJ and Phoenix and Jackson and Cornville and Lyall and Mayor and Jav and Eglacia de la Cruz and those to be done. We cannot do it. It is too big for us, but is not too big for his church. And that is exactly why we see the model that God gives us is he doesn't give this to men to do alone. Doesn't give it to women to do under their own power. But he gives it to the church to carry out this mission. I love it. We see this throughout scripture and we see how God weaves this throughout. And Paul gives this imagery in 1 Corinthians 12. He says in 12:12, "For just as one body or just as the body is one and has many parts in all the parts of that body, though many are one body, so also is Christ." and talking about the church. He's saying the church is made up of all these different people and all these people make up this one church, this one body who have different functions. And here's the deal is every part of the body matters. Every part and function of the church matters. Not just the visible parts, not just the parts that preach or lead worship, but it's the parts that give, the parts that pray, the parts that serve in kids ministry, the parts that made sure your kids in it cracked their head and fall off the stage as we were getting them on and off. That is a logistical nightmare, let me tell you. And we did it. All right. Two services, no blood. Fantastic. A+, right? Yeah, you can clap for that. All right. Clap for no blood. But we'll clap for blood on Easter because there's lots of blood in the shedding of our sins. Okay, a different sermon. But the parts of the church that greet with a big smile, the parts of the church that pour into our men and men's ministry and pour into our women and women's ministry, the parts of our church that invite our neighbors, that show up to the gospel, that make disciples in our Bible groups, in our neighborhoods. You see, that is you. You are a part of the greater body. You are part of the church. in the body cannot carry on the mission without you. You see, the church does not work when the people are not here. Cuz when the people are not here, the church does not exist. I come over here during the week when this room is empty and this room is not cool empty. It is depressing if I'm being honest. But when the people fill it up, all of a sudden this building doesn't go just to being a building that you have to have AC to make cool and it's already 105 in March. Instead, when the people come in here, all of a sudden, now it's a church and not a building. And what God calls us to do when he commisss this mission, he calls us all to be involved. He calls all of us to come together to be a part of something that is so much greater than us. Next week is our commitment Sunday in this Let's Go series. And as we have challenged you to pray about how God is using you, again, our goal is not to make that big old number we threw out there. That is a number to fuel the mission. But if we don't reach that number, God's going to make sure we do other things to fuel the mission. But here's the true goal. And I think actually if we meet that goal, we'll probably meet the other one. The true goal is having a 100% engagement from our church. that whatever that looks like from you, for your church, for your family, and you're part of the church, however that looks like for you, is you praying to God is how am I a part of this? What role of the body do I play? How much can I give financially back to God? But more importantly, how much of my time, my resources, my heart, my soul, my investment can I give to being a part of something that is so much bigger than myself. Part of a church that baptizes. seeing lives changed here in Surprise and Phoenix and Cornville and Elmarrage soon to be in Mayor and a glacia deus and places that I can't even think of yet and hopefully I can't even say yet. We even talked about Kennetark and Cebu City in Myamar as well where that same thing is happening. had to be a part of a church that teaches not just the knowledge of who God is, but the application of living our lives out in fear and trembling, working out our salvation, doing life together when it is tough, but relying on one another and God's word through it all, and ultimately a church that is trusting that even though we don't have the ability to do this, our God does cuz he is with us. He is with us always. All the days, all the moments, for now and for all of eternity. Here's the deal. I think a lot of times we hear a message like that and say, "Okay, this is how God works out this great commission. This is for 2,000 years. This is how he started a movement to make Christianity the largest religion and the largest movement history has ever seen. It's because he sent out churches to baptize and teach and trust. That's great. But like, how do I fit into that? How do I make sure I know? Sometimes I don't think we see that cuz we can't slow down our lives enough to look. told you about my road rage issues on the way back from California trying to communicate to people how the left lane works and here's what happened when I was doing that and we were going from 60 to 95 by the way it was a 75 so not a 65 so only speeding by about 19 miles over instead of a 29 but as we're doing that I was kind of frustrated and trying to motion to people how they're supposed to properly use the left lane like over over like hand waving as we're going 90 on the 10 and then trying to do it with one arm so I'm not literally losing it and dying and I'm like trying to teach them how to use the left lane while we're going 90 miles on the freeway and you know what it was not successful they didn't listen and they didn't learn they still don't know how to use the left lane hopefully I can send them this sermon if I run into them later but I think the truth us. We don't know what God has called us to do in being part of the mission. We don't know how God is reaching the nations through his church because we are so busy that we can't just stop and slow down and ask God, "Where do I fit into this? How am I a part of this? Who can I share the gospel with? What church can I invest my time in? How can I trust you knowing that you are the God of the universe and no matter what happens that you will provide? this week as you leave these doors, my prayer is that you slow down that you seek the father and you ask, "How can you be part of a movement, part of a church that wants to make Jesus known by baptizing, starting new believers, by teaching, developing those new believers into disciples, and by trusting, relying on the God of the universe. knowing that he will provide no matter what life throws our way. Church, let's leave these doors and tell our God, Lord, let's go where you may lead.