Partnering With God

Automatically transcribed — lightly cleaned for readability. Wording is the preacher’s own.

Heavenly Father, Lord, as we open your word together, I pray that you would be forming us. That as we hear what it is that you have for us today, that we might be transformed, that our minds, our hearts, our affections might be brought into conformity with your will. Lord, that you might give us a grander vision of your truth. Lord, I pray that Pastor Cameron would be led by your spirit and that we would be helped by your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Good morning, Conduit. How are you? Good, good. This is your yearly reminder that mac and cheese does not belong in Thanksgiving. All right, here we go. Shots fired. Don't worry. Next week I will be unveiling my annual list of, like, the order of pies, the best to the worst type of pies. And you will hate it equally as much as my take on mac and cheese. So,

We're grateful that you're here this morning. We are going to aim to be downstairs and packing bags just a little after 1130 this morning. I'm gonna give you a little bit of instruction about that at the end of our message this morning. Typically around this time of year, I'd like to try and bring us back to kind of a central understanding of why it is that we do things like the Thanksgiving giveaway or the, the toy drive or on a more regular basis, our food truck ministry and really any other outreach ministry that we do. We believe that being on mission with God is a central and core part of what it means to follow Jesus, to be a disciple of Jesus, meaning that our, our lives in relationship to Christ and as followers of Christ are not simply, inward facing that there is a necessary dynamic of our relationship with Jesus being inward facing. Yes. As it pertains to me, right? But also outward facing as it pertains to everyone and everything else. It's like the difference between centripetal force

And centrifugal force, right? There is a force that holds things together and internally, and there is a force that throws things outward into the world and our lives as Christians are just like that kind of natural phenomena that balances both of them, core and central to who we are as followers of Jesus being that the term that we use is, is missional. You hear that, you think, well, what does that, what does it mean to be on mission or what does it mean to be missional? You think of like missionaries and that's not, that's not incorrect or not. That's not wrong. Being missional is, is about understanding our purpose as followers of Jesus as going, as going outward rather than our purpose being how, how do we bring people inward? I know that this is, this is a, I don't want to say it's a phenomenon or anything, but it's a, it's a very widely used practice that like within the evangelical or kind of Christian church, the, the way in which, we try to evangelize or reach out to people who

Do not yet know Jesus is we say something like, Hey, why don't you just come to church with me?

Just, just come to church. Now here's a, here'd be an interesting question. Who is here today because someone invited them to come? Just don't be afraid to raise your hand. Who's here because someone invited them in the past? Not today. Not today. Who, who started coming to conduit at some point in time because someone invited them. Okay. Yes. That's a much bigger number of hands right up. Well, if it's your first time here, welcome. We love that you're here. I'm glad someone, I'm glad someone invited you. Right. But this is typically a way in which Christians do the work of trying to be on mission with God or, or try to evangelize an unsaved world is, Hey, whatever I can do to just get you to come to church. That's what, that's what it takes. That's the goal. That's the prize. That's what I want now. Listen, you're gonna get no complaints from me. I love conduit. I love the church. I think it's a great place for anyone to be and where God, God can meet anyone at any place. At any point of

Their life under any circumstances. I know that and believe that to be, to, I know that to be true, but to have an understanding of being on mission means that rather than as a church or as followers of Jesus, rather than, kind of sitting back and waiting for an unbelieving world to come and engage us, we take the example and character of God in Jesus Christ that we see in the scriptures and we incarnate that in our own lives. And we say that, okay, wait a second. God didn't wait to, for us to come to him. God came to us in Jesus Christ.

And because God came to us in Jesus Christ, we will go to others because of our faith in Jesus Christ and through the power of Jesus Christ.

So a church that sits back and says, yeah, you know, if they want to know more about God, if they want to know more about Jesus, they should just come and join us. They should just come and sit in our pews and become part of our groups and listen to our pastor and sing our songs and all that. Well, that's not a bad thing, but it is not, it is not the, it was not the methodology of God himself who was not going to isolate himself from a broken and unsaved world, but was going to bridge the gap himself by going, coming to us in Jesus.

And that should be the way in which we like, how about following in Jesus' footsteps, right?

So core to Christian theology, core to our belief in God, core to our faith in Jesus Christ is this idea that God is not an isolationist.

This is sometimes the question, maybe it's a little bit more philosophical, more philosophical than it needs to be, but the question can be asked, did God have to create us and the world? Did he have to? No, right? If we were to say, well, yeah, God had to create, God had to create it. Well, we would be saying, well, there's some kind of gap in God's character and his nature and without creating the world and without creating us and being in relationship with us, something would have been incomplete in God. And that's, that's very far from what we believe as, as Christians, God did not have to create anything. God does not need anything. He is enough within himself for all things.

Okay, so if God didn't have to create, but chose to create, then the next question is, what, when he, when he did create us, when he did create all of, all that is created, what was his relationship with that creation?

You know, some, in some kind of like apologetic circles or philosophical circles, there would be, there's this like construct or this belief that God just created everything and then stepped away from it and let it do its own thing. But he was not intimately or intricately involved in the comings and the goings of his creation or the processes of creation.

But that's not what we believe about God at all. The very core of our faith as followers of Jesus Christ is this reality that when God could have, he could have just created and left it be.

God determined and decided that he would not isolate himself from creation, but that he would enter creation through the incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ and come and be with us in order to redeem us from the brokenness and sin and darkness that we've brought into his creation. He didn't, Jesus didn't, or God didn't stand far off from us. He didn't stand far off from all of creation and said, hey, if you want to know me, you, you, you come up here and you find me.

You show up to that place at 10 30 on a Sunday morning. If you want to find me, you got to come to me. God did it the opposite way. Paul says in Philippians chapter two, that he, that knowing all authority in heaven on earth was invested in him. Jesus took the nature of a servant and humbled himself and became a man so as to become obedient to death, even death on a cross. So God didn't stand far off and far away from us and say, hey, come to me if you want to know me. The reality of the Christian faith is that God came near to us,

That God took the initiative, that God took the step while we were still sinners. Paul says in Romans Christ died for us while we were dead in our sin. God came near to us in Jesus Christ, refusing to stay far away from us and isolated because this is the real, this is, this is the truth and reality about God's missional heart is that God is always at work to redeem the whole of his creation. And the beautiful part about it is that he invites us to partner with him in it, in that work. God is actively working to redeem the brokenness of that which he created, you and I included. And the most significant part is not that God is at work trying to redeem creation, but that God actually says, hey, conduit, I would you come and partner with me

In the active work of redeeming what has been broken and marred by sin. You are my, like you, my, my followers, my sons and daughters, you are my plan A.

Come and partner with me in this work. That's what we mean when we talk about a church or people being on mission is an awareness that God himself did not stand far off from us in sin and brokenness, but sent his son into our world to come near to us so that in that nearness faith might be expressed and redemption might recur, might occur through him. And so as, as, as people who have been redeemed and renewed by the coming of Jesus in that way, we too, we now join with God and partner with him in his continual work to redeem the rest of creation.

So God, God is, God is, you know, proverbially out there on the streets, working to draw all men, women and children to Jesus Christ.

That they would be renewed, transformed, saved and redeemed through faith in Jesus Christ. That they would be given new and eternal life through the resurrection of the dead. And he's like, hey, conduit, would you come and join me in my work to redeem creation in Jamestown?

Would you come and join me in this work to redeem war in Pennsylvania? It's an incredible calling. It's an incredible privilege. We talk often about, we hear about churches mission statements, right? Well, what's your, what's your mission statement? Like, what's your, what's your mission? What's your mission? What's your mission? What's your mission? I get the language. I get the, I get the organizational and strategic like leverage that can be. But sometimes the church, I think, forgets that we don't have a mission.

We don't have a mission. God has a mission. And, and, and we are the church that fulfills the mission. Right? We don't, we don't have a mission that we ask God to come and bless and be a part of. God has a mission and he says, hey, I have a church to fulfill it. I have those who have expressed faith in me. I have those who have given their lives to me. I have, I have those who are, who are partnering with me in the redemption of the world, redemption of all creation. I have a mission, God says, and thank goodness I also have a church to fulfill it. This goes back, this idea goes back all the way really into

The beginning of God calling a people to himself. Since there, since there has been a people, not a person, but a people who have been marked by and entered into covenant with God to be his people. This has been God's desire is to partner with them in the redemption of the world. You know, all the way back in the Genesis chapter 12 verses one and two, where God approached a guy named Abram, who would later become Abraham, right? And the father of, or the patriarch of the Jewish nation. And before Abram was a big wig in the pages of Genesis, right? He was a guy that God approached. And he said this in Genesis 12, one and two, the Lord said to Abram, leave your country, your people, and your father's household and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through

You. What was God's message or call to Abram on this day? Well, the first was that God was like rushing into Abram's life and he was about to like change everything about it. He was about to completely rewrite Abram's identity. You have a country, you have a people, you have your father's household, you have your riches. I'm going to ask you to leave it all. I'm going to ask you to completely rewrite who you think you are, what you have become, or what you want to become. And this is true of like Abram's story can be and is true about for all of us, that when we say yes to the plan and purposes of God in our lives, he usually follows the same general pattern where he begins to rewrite our identity. Like Abram later became Abraham and a father of many nations when he had no sons to begin with. God rewrote his identity. Not only did he rewrite his identity, but God realigned his resources. Now, everything that Abram had was not only at the disposal of his own personal desires, preferences, passions, or plans. But God's like, Abram, I want

To bless you and all of your descendants so that you can then be a blessing to the whole world. He uses us as funnels, a conduit, if you will, of his blessing to the world. It's not what we have, it's not what we produce, it's not what we can do to be a blessing to others. It's what God has given to us. It's what God can do through us. We become a blessing because we receive from God the things that he has given to us and then employs us to use those things to bless others. And this is a completely different mindset than this idea of what I have is mine and for my benefit only.

I think, I don't know if it's been true in your life, but it's been true in my life that when I white knuckle and hold on to the things that God has given me for the purpose of blessing others, those things usually become cursed in my hands. And I'm usually like, no, this is mine, and I'm holding on to it, and I'm keeping it, and I'm controlling it, and this is one thing God's not going to get a hold of, at least not too much of. Right, then the things like that God has given to me to say, hey, Cameron, I've given you these things and I want you to use them to be a conduit of blessing to others. This is not yours. You did not produce it. It was not like, it was given to you by my mercy. It was given to you by my grace. It was given to you because you are a missional person who has partnered with me in the redemption of the world. Are you seeing these things that you have as leverage for your partnership with me and redeeming the whole world? Are you seeing them

Only as things that benefit you? Only that which improves your own position, increases your own reputation, builds your own personal kingdom. Listen, all the kingdoms that we build for ourselves, they will fade away. They will break down. Jesus says moth and rust will destroy and thieves will break in and steal. But when we have treasures that are stored up in heaven, we begin to store up things that moth and rust can't destroy and that thieves cannot break in and steal, things that create eternal blessing and promise. Now, listen, I don't want to tell you that God has called each and every one of us or that God even promises that, you know, listen, you need to be, you need to live in abject poverty so that others may be blessed. This is an Abrams story. This is not what happened with Abram at all. And that's not the point. The point is that God wants to ensure the understanding of his people, that the trajectory of their lives in him is not simply inward. It has an outward component that it's very, very easy for us to

Become so internally focused, even as followers of Jesus, that we fail to see that one of the core identities of what it means to be a follower of Jesus is that we go out into the world to make disciples not sit back in our pews, hoping they join us on a Sunday. This is, I mean, this is consistent with the rest of scripture as well, or a lot of scripture, not just in the Abrams story, but even into the, even into the stories of David's Psalm, chapter 67 verses one and two. David says, may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us,

That your ways may be known on earth and your salvation among all the nations,

That God's, that God is gracious to us and blesses us and makes his face shine upon us, not just for, certainly for, but not just for our own personal spiritual warm fuzzies.

But so that the experience and the presence of God's blessing and mercy in our lives is a megaphone through which he is made known on the earth and that his salvation is made known to the nations. But if we're basing all of this on, if we're basing all of this on, on Abram's life and Abram being the father of the Jews, oh, well, yeah, if that was the first time, you know, that people were going to be a blessing to others because, God bless them. Well, thank goodness we're not Jews, right? It doesn't apply to us. We can keep what we have.

We are not Jews by birth, at least I am not, you may be. I am not a Jew by birth, but through faith in Jesus Christ, I have been adopted and engrafted into the same family and people of God through Jesus Christ. And this is certainly the message of Paul in two-thirds of the New Testament is a good example. Galatians chapter three, verse 14, Paul says this, he says, he redeemed us. This is you and me, right? He redeemed us or he, I'm sorry, he's speaking to the Jews at this point. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might have come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Holy Spirit. And so like he, he has bringing redemption into the world. So the same blessing given to Abraham might also come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. And that blessing is I will bless you and I will give you a land and I will give you resources so that you may be a blessing. Probably the most epic passage that describes this reality is in Ephesians chapter two, where Paul goes out to say, Hey, look, at one point you may have thought that as Gentile people,

You were separate and far away from the same covenant promises that were the, that, that belonged to the Jews and that came through that original promise to Abraham.

But he's, but this is what Paul says in Ephesians chapter two verses 11 through 22. Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. So Paul begins by saying, Hey, look, you were once as Gentiles, you, me, all of us here, you were once separate and far away from the promises that were given to Abraham and his people. Wave what you're not. You weren't part of that. You weren't part of Judaism. You were separated far away from them. So if you were separate from the promises, you were also separate from the consequences. You were separate from the responsibility. It wasn't yours to keep. It wasn't yours to have. But he says, but now

Through the blood of Jesus Christ and through your faith in Jesus Christ, you are made one with God's people. And he says this for he himself, Jesus is our peace who has made the two Jew and Gentile one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh, the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace. And in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to you who were near for through him. We both have access to the father by one spirit. Listen to this. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling

In which God lives by his spirit. So through Jesus Christ, we have become one people of God, like those who come to faith in Jesus Christ, whether you come from like the line of Abraham, or whether you come from the line of the Gentiles, Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ, his blood has destroyed the barriers, the dividing wall of hostilities and has made in himself one new man. And so the promises given the responsibility of the commission for Abraham to go out and be a blessing to the world still remains with us. As we finish up here this morning, can you believe I'm saying that already? In all fairness, I'm skipping a lot of my notes.

Like as we finish this morning, I want to read, what is probably the central portion of scripture on the missional quality of the Church of Jesus Christ. Meaning the central thing, one of the central things that guides our heart, that guides our motivation, that guides our desire, that guides our passion to not just sit back and hope that the unsaved world comes to us so that your pastor can tell them about Jesus someday.

But that enlists all of us who express faith in Jesus Christ to go out into an unbelieving world. And in the example of Jesus through his incarnation, bridge the gap ourselves of relationship to get with people, build trust, look them in their eyes and be able to tell them just what Jesus has done for them. Right before Jesus ascended back into heaven, he had kind of like some final words for his disciples. Matthew chapter 28 verses 16 through 20, we call this the great commission.

He says then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. Remember, so look, context, this is the very last thing in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has died on the cross. He was put in the tomb. The third day the tomb was empty. He appeared to them in a resurrected and glorified form. Everything had been like the end of Jesus' earthly ministry in the first kind of dispensation is now over. And now here we are. Jesus is like, then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you even to the end of the age.

There is a call and a commission for all followers of Jesus Christ to go into the world to make disciples. This is not the call and the commission of just the professional Christians who have the degrees and who work at the churches. This is all those who have believed in Jesus by faith and who are now a part of his family and his body. Therefore, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. This is why, as a church, this is one of the reasons why, as a church, we believe it to be critically important and a part of our core identity as a follower of Jesus to get into our community and build relationship with and get in front of and hold and shake the hands of and be in conversation with the very world that God is actively working to redeem and to bring to faith in his Son and Jesus.

God didn't do it with us from afar, and so we will not do it with our community from afar. We will not just hope upon hope upon hope that they show up some Sunday.

No, we will believe upon belief upon faith that when we go, Jesus goes with us even to the end of the age. Surely I am with you even to the end of the age. So it's not just a nice, it's not a, listen, I don't want you to think it's just, oh, this is just a nice thing that conduit does. It's not like, no. Like, is it nice? Maybe. I don't know.

We don't do it to be nice. We do it because we deeply and fully believe that as followers of Jesus Christ, we need to be going into our community seeking to make disciples of Jesus. And you can't do that from afar. Disciples are made in presence.

Not the Christmas presents, but no, like in personal presence. You cannot disciple someone you have never met.

You must be with them. You must create trust. You must call to faith. You must pray and believe that this mission is not your own.

That it is God's mission of which we have become, that we are partnering with, and through our obedience to that mission and in our passion to that mission, the Holy Spirit of God goes with us and before us to prepare the hearts of men, women, and children who he is drawing to himself and will receive.

Jesus says in this, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." By the way, we're baptizing people next week.

So our service will be different again next week. Have baptism next week. Listen, this is why we're going. This is why we're doing what we're doing. Right? Is it a nice thing? Sure, it's nice. Do we want people to be fed and have the dignity of making that meal on their own Thanksgiving? Yes. We believe that to be an important part and pivotal part of Jesus' own ministry as well.

What we want is for them to come to faith in Jesus, to put their whole trust in him, to have the hopelessness and darkness and brokenness of their lives filled and replaced by the hope of Jesus Christ, the joy of Jesus Christ, and the redemption that Jesus Christ brings.

Dear Lord, come and be with us now, heavenly Father. Lord, we want you to hear us say that we are eager to actively participate with you in your mission to redeem the world to yourself through Jesus Christ.

Lord, 1, 700 families, six days from now will receive these bags all throughout Jamestown and Warren.

Heavenly Father, if you can bless a bag, Lord, would you bless a bag? If your spirit can go with each and every one of them, Lord, would your spirit go with each and every one? Yes. Father, would you now, even now, Lord, in this moment, work upon the hearts and minds, Lord, of each family that will receive a meal next Saturday? That you would soften their hearts, Lord, to the message of the gospel in Jesus Christ. Lord, that you would draw them to Jesus, every man, woman, and child, Lord, who is at one of these insights, Father, would you give them a deep conviction over their sin, Father, and bring them, Lord, to a person who can introduce them to Jesus? Father, we confess our own need for Jesus this morning.

We confess and repent of our own sin. Lord, give us clean hands and pure hearts.

Heavenly Father, not for our glory. Oh, Lord, I pray that you would keep every bit of recognition,

Every bit of glory, every bit of reputation building wrapped around the name of conduit, Lord. Would you just remove all of that, Father? Lord, let no one be glorified in this except you. Let no one be lifted high in Jamestown except Jesus.

Lord, never the name of conduit, always the name of Jesus, Father. We worship you, Lord. You are worthy to be praised, Lord. We don't want to hear the name of conduit in the community. We want to hear the name of Jesus. Lord, let revival come to this city. Let revival come to this county, Lord. Let revival come to this region. Father, God, would you pour out your spirit upon us that as we go out on mission with you, Lord?

That disciples are made. That people are baptized. Lord, that the kingdom is built. In Jesus' name, amen.