God at Work in other Churches

Good morning again Church. My heart is full after our time of worship. Thank you off braving the snow to be here this morning. We appreciate that. Before we jump into the text.

often times when we come on Sunday morning, there is this strange expectation we put on ourselves that everything should be fine and we should be happy and everything is good. And for some of us it truly is we're here. We're happy. We made it through another week or happy to be with the Lord Saints and things are going well and for others you come to Sunday morning and your heart can still be joyful in the Lord, but the heavy And we have a couple of situations right now in our church that as we go to prayer before the sermon I want us to be praying about one is many of you saw the note that came out asking for prayer for made done earlier this week her brother the one who it we've been praying for we had his mechanical heart put in a had a brain aneurysm and they got in and it's surgery and he as of the last I had heard was still non-responsive. I have been trying to check for updates even this morning to figure out if there's any further updates if any of you know of any if any of you spoken to me more recently than me, please let me know but she has traveled out there to be with him and we need to be praying for their family this morning and then you all probably didn't even Realize it this morning. If you didn't know when Bonnie stood up here to start leading our announcements that she would be another one with a very heavy heart this morning as her Father James Breckinridge passed away and she'll be traveling out to be with her family and so pray for Bonnie and the rest of the family has they as they go through this time because

It is always a tough thing to work through when a family member dies, and I know our church has done very well at gathering around each other in the past. And so I trust that we can continue to do that for Bonnie's family during this time. So as we go to prayer before I even read the text this morning, I want to pray about those things and prepare our hearts to receive the Lord's word. So let's go two player.

God we do not come to you this morning flippantly. Because you are not a God to be taken lightly. Instead we come to you with hearts that long to encounter more of you because we know you are God who is inexhaustible. We just sang about all these ways in which you are an awesome God. And those and so many more are exactly what our hearts need to be reminded of whether things are going very well for us.

Or things are very hard for us. To pray for May and her brother pray that you would bring about restoration there and pray for Bonnie and her family as they grieve the loss of her dad. or show yourself to be the God of All Comfort

and Lord, we we don't we don't come knowing that we are fully having it all together. We come as people who know we are weak. That's why we love you for you are strong. And so Lord in our weakness we come to your word this morning and ask that you would speak to us through it help us to see ways in which you could use even us for your kingdom purposes. Or help us to see the ways in which you have richly blessed and not just Northwest but your people around the world in such a way as you have provided each other. We do not stand alone individually or as a church. We are part of a local body and a larger body and we pray Lord that we would catch a rejoice in that this morning. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

This morning. We are continuing our look at missions and we had talked in the beginning about these various stages of missions of this review them with you real quick e0 people in the church who don't know Jesus E1 people outside of our church that are culturally like us and geographically near us that don't know Jesus. That's who I'd be reaching out to be called Emmanuel ISM E2 takes an additional step. You either cross-cultural line. Someone who doesn't understand culture the same way you do and see if they understand their culture to get the gospel into it or geographically is distant from you. And so you have to cross some geographical boundaries to get there. That's it. We're going to talk about this morning and then III being taken over by Geographic and cultural lines to places where the gospel is, not and testifying to the goodness of God in those places as well. If you're looking for a verse to help you understand how these things work. You can just look at Acts 1:8 where they were told they would receive power from the Holy Spirit to be Witnesses for Jesus in Jerusalem. That's 31 in Judea and Samaria. That's the clothes and culturally different. And to the ends of the Earth, so all three stages represented in that one glorious a verse telling them and us what we are called to do as followers of Christ. So this morning we are in that that mid-range group and the text for this morning is from 2nd Corinthians 8 1 through 7. If you have a copy of the scriptures, please feel free to open there will be working through this text. This morning will also have it on the screen. If you don't have a copy of the Bible with you can look there or you can look in the chair Rack in front of you and grab a copy so you can read along Mary the text to us here 2nd Corinthians 8 1 through 7.

We want you to know Brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. 4 in a severe test of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their heart for the game according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the Saints and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly we purge Titus that as he said started so he should complete among you this act of Grace. But if you excel in everything in faith and speech and knowledge and all earnestness and in our love for you see that you Excel excel in this act of Grace also. Now this text points us to some bigger realities than just what's going on here, but I want to start us off by understanding. What is really happening in this situation. This is a bottle of churches helping one another see there's there's two ways to understand more than two. But at least two ways to understand the word church. There's church with a a Capital C. That would be the Church of God all throughout the world throughout history one big church. And then there are churches that are a little see now that would be like us and I know and we we put our stuff out there. We have Northwest Baptist Church in the Northwest in the Baptist in the church are all capitalized, but we are a small C. We are a local expression of the body of Christ in this place and what this text is an example of to us is when small see churches get involved with other small see churches to show that The Big C Church exists.

Macedonia this would be a church is like the Thessalonian Church, which also has some letters written to it. They took part in helping the church in Jerusalem. There was great need in Jerusalem at the time and there was a call to all the other brothers and sisters help us. We need your help. And a fascinating thing happened. These churches in Macedonia said will help.

Why is that fasten it is it is it just fascinating because as the text says they were a poor church and they they decided they would help know what's amazing is that they said will help regardless of where they were located and how much they had when the call goes out from God's people that help is needed and other brothers and sisters. Don't say that's your problem. Not mine, but instead say will help that's a grace of God. And and the fact that a church responded says Christ is at work here and so is we go through this passage just realize the fact that the reason anyone says yes, when it need is pointed out in Christ is because Christ is at work in that person. She's the motivation behind it.

But it dition Ali. This Macedonian Church was a very unique situation.

It says in verse 2 in a severe test of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

the stuff they had or in this case the stuff they didn't have didn't affect their generosity.

What causes generosity to spring up is not the abundance of stuff? It is the abundance of joy in their Abundance of Joy and their Poverty of stuff.

A wealth of generosity was created. What should this say to us? What it should remind us of is as a church, it is easy to look around at other churches and say who has the most stuff who has the most people who has the most programs who has the biggest building who has the biggest name and get concerned at ranking ourselves by stuff. You might even have experienced this personally in your own life outside of just comparing churches oftentimes. We as individuals get concerned about what stuff other people have o they have a new this though. They haven't that well this person does this and that person does that?

That should not make a lick of difference to us and how we respond to God's call on us to be a generous people. God has given us individually and corporately as a church everything that we need to be able to be a blessing to other people. You believe that. Do you believe that when you look around at the people that gather here at Northwest? This is God's gracious work in equipping a unique group of people to be able to meet a unique set of needs that he has allowed to happen and made us aware of I love that. There are things in Northwest can do that. No other church can do and there are things that every single local Body of Christ Believers around the world can do that. No other church can do.

What we have or do not have does not affect our generosity, but rather our joy in Christ when we have our eyes in the right place when we are looking at the author and Perfecter of our faith, then we have the ability to be generous because we are knowing that everything we need is being supplied already at him.

so their generosity overflows and they give according to their means Paul says he can testify they gave beyond their means. What what does he mean by that there is a giving that is comfortable. There is like a reaching out to others that is comfortable. And then there is a reaching out to others that pushes you outside of your comfort zone. Sometimes we give financially in ways that are comfortable. I don't worry. It's not a sermon on giving everybody doesn't need a freak out.

And yet it is because God has given and we given response. But we don't just give whether it be financially or of our time or of our talents. Simply because it's comfortable.

We pour ourselves out beyond our means knowing that Christ can refill us again with everything. We need the Christian need not go to bed at night bored. The Christian need not go to bed at night going. Well another day came and went the Christian can go to bed at night and put their head on their pillow exhausted knowing that this night's rest will equip me for what God has for me tomorrow. Thank you for everything you put in front of me today that applies to the days that are good and the days that are hard that applies to the the things that really call us a way out of our comfort zone and the things that God asks us to do in Daily obedience to him.

When will lean on him fully we find him faithful and so our goal as a church is to lean on him more fully. To find how deep and full his Mercy is Grace. His faithfulness is

but additionally when they give not just according to their means but beyond their means they gave of their own accord it says and then they begged earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the Saints. Imagine that you hardly have anything but you're so compelled to want to help that you're like, please take this use this if we want to get it done tonight. I still enjoy participating in this just a little have a lot of stuff. Whatever we've got give it why because they want to experience the joy that comes from being part of God's larger work. We all experience is Wheel of Fortune filmont in life, but we seek it and all sorts of really weird places. But God says, I have a mission for you individually and as a church that if you fulfill that mission will fulfill your entire life. Don't miss an opportunity to be part of that simply because I don't have everything. I need know what you have all in with Christ and let him use it as he will. Insulate They begged for the favor of being involved in helping their brothers and sisters. This highlights something important for a church like ours. We have teams that come over the summer and serve our church the team from Sulphur Springs has done an amazing job for years being a blessing to our body when they come up over the summer also through a partnership with a Missouri Baptist. There will probably be a very large group of teams coming up to bless not only our church, but a lot of other ones in our area this summer. We can use the help. And it's wonderful that other believers have answered the call of Christ to come and be a help. There are things that we can do better if other people come alongside and participate with us and what we're doing just give me an example last year team was here and they came in and worked with us on a night when we had Park Ministry and they set up all this stuff on Park all these games and everything for the kids and face painting everything while we normally just do hotdogs in water and talk with people and all the sudden we had an opportunity to have conversations with people in a very different way than we could before parents were standing there while their kids were doing stuff and they were then freed up have conversations that if they had to run around and follow their kids in the park they couldn't have with us someone came along partnered with us freed us up to do what God has called us to do even more by coming and being a blessing. Praise God for those that come but like the Macedonian Church. We are not just those who can take in. We are those who can give back God has uniquely equipped us to be able to go and be a blessing to others.

Don't get in your mind this idea that a church is either one who brings Mission teams in or church that sends Mission teams out a healthy Church does both they don't need to wait until everything's in place before they can go out and imagine just for a moment. Just imagine with my Mother's Day is coming in a few months. I know it seems hard to believe the middle of winter here, but it's coming. imagine for a moment A child maybe eight nine years old says to their parents mom. I can't buy you a Mother's Day card. Why not because I haven't finished high school and gone on to college and gotten my doctoral degree got the job pay off all my college debt completed Dave Ramsey 7 steps to Financial Freedom to the point where I'm ready to be able to buy you a Mother's Day card. It's ridiculous. Spend the $4 grab a piece of construction paper downstairs and make one right? You don't have to wait until you can do everything before you do anything.

The same is true in the church. And so many have forgotten that that's the case and there are churches even like ours that is assumed while we're not miss church or we're not that church so we can't do this. Yes, we can. We may not have the same scale, but we can have a targeted impact not just here but in helping other churches that are in need.

Macedonian Church is a model to us of what it looks like to be both a church that receives Grace from other churches and gives Grace to other churches.

Funny I don't think Paul often got caught off guard. But this was so generous of them. He says in verse 5 and this not as we expected. They they did something that was almost shocking to Paul. They wanted to participate in such a way that he was like. That's really amazing. Why why could they do that? Because they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us verse five points out something very valuable to us. This giving of ourselves shows that we trust in God and not in our stuff. If we wait until we have all the stuff then we can trust in our stuff. But if we trust in the Lord first and act in accordance with our trust in him, then it says we trust that he'll provide all the stuff that we need. We're just going to move in light of him into the mission. He's called us to this is crucially important the beginning of generous Mission starts with a giving of ourselves fully to God as a church. Your goal is not to get out there and do stuff. The goal is to give yourself fully to God and in response to that she will equip and call and mobilize us to the things that he's doing.

So where should we focus a church? Should we be having missions month? Should we be thinking it's remissions? Yes, we should was not focusing on stuff. No, it's focusing on what God has called us to do in as we lean in on him and and see more clearly what his plan is for the body of Christ at Northwest. The more fully we will be able to engage in anything and everything he calls us to do.

So Paul encourages Titus. Go to the Corinthian Church. and let them do this to Something you need to realize about the Corinthian Church. It was an unhealthy Church. Paul wrote 1st and 2nd Corinthians and it's pretty much just a a Manifesto things for wrong, but of ways in the church has a major problems. There might be a Temptation and Paul's mind to say hello. What? Let him figure their stuff out, but now he says Titus go to them and let them participate in this to why why does he want to church that's struggling with being a healthy Church. Why does he want them to participate because participation is not about having everything together participation in God's Mission can be the very thing that God uses to grow a church.

Imagine for a moment you're in church where no one likes each other. No one wants to talk to each other. No one wants to work together. If it's 5 seats between them and everybody else just so they don't accidentally say hi to each other. But all the sudden God does something and pulls them together and he gives them a common goal and a common purpose and they start moving on Mission together and they come closer and closer to Christ through this process and all the sudden those five seats apart become four and three and two and then they're sitting right next to each other why because as they have participated in God's gracious work together in his United their hearts together. It is allowed them to get beyond the petty things that separated them. Into something bigger that unites them. And so as a church fortunately, we're not in the place where we're all hating each other not talking to each other but as a church, we can always grow in our ability to love one another. Well you say is there a difference between sending people out in Mission work and and discipleship? Well, yeah, there's a bit of a difference but they kind of go together we grow in maturity with one another by our participation together in these things Paul understands this and so he sends Titus to say I'd let them be part of this too. Annie tells the church It's not that mission generosity will replace other aspects of church life. It's an additional measure of Grace. So he says that you excel in everything Faith speech knowledge earnestness our love for you see that you excel in this act of Grace. Also. He says I don't want you to miss out on any aspect of what God could do it in through. It's good that you're doing all these other things but don't miss this one in the process. Why cuz there's a Grace to be had there. The maturing disciple is not just learning things. Don't get me wrong. That's an important part of learning the truth about who God is and what he's done learning that the truth about Christ and the Holy Spirit in the truth about who we are as humans and our need for salvation learning the truth about what happens at the end and the securing of eternal life and the consequence of Eternal judgement things are all really important things to know if you're sitting here this morning and I like I have no idea what you just said. You need to know these things and we would love to work with you to help you understand them better and better. But as you grow as a disciple. What makes you more mature is not just knowing the stuff. It's translating what you've learned about God into living a life in Christ. And for Christ that that's what maturity looks like it takes what you've learned in the scriptures and it changes who you are so that you live differently. You no longer live just in light of self you live in Light of Christ. And as you've learned him you practice that life differently until Paul's desire for the Corinthian Church and I would argue his desire for all churches. Is that they're able to look Beyond themselves?

And work with other churches in the process. Okay, so where does all this lead us? Mission is something that were on as a church and we talked about it at the local level. And now this morning were talking about it at a slightly larger level are are Judea and Samaria and there are ways we can engage even here in the city in a Sumerian style Ministry engaging with those of other cultures, but I want to point out one way that we could live this out this summer.

I want to tell you about a church. The church plant. It's called Grace in the city. It's located in Minneapolis pastored by a guy named John Steger. They do a work amongst those who have very little and are often forgotten by the society around them matter fact. They got mentioned in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as well as highlighted in Outreach magazine in in on Mission because they're doing such a tremendous job of partnering with the police department with a Transit Department going out in the coldness of Minneapolis and and reaching out to folks that are homeless and saying hey, it's get you somewhere warm for the night here. Let's let's give you some stuff that you need physically to get you through this. Oh you're struggling with addiction and that's part of the reason you're here. Let us get you connected with somewhere that can get you cleaned up. And then let's reconnect you to our church once you're done there. So you have a body around you to support you this what they're doing. It's a fascinating work. I just talked to John on the phone the other day this week and he said even since I met with him back in the end of January things have been blowing up around there because it's starting to take root. People are starting to see this Hub that they run helping you become that's what Hub stands for this sort of free coffee house where you come in Foods donated coffees donated income in have a bite to eat and warm up for a little bit and talk to people about the gospel there. People are starting to realize this is the real thing. They weren't kidding there really is a place you can go in, Minneapolis.

We have the opportunity to go help him this Summer. August 9th through the 15th. We're going to take a team up there and we're just going to work with him. Whatever it is that they need to help free them up to do the things that they do. Well we're going to do those things. They need help getting out sharing the gospel with people where he won't share the gospel with people if they need help serving coffee. We're going to serve coffee. They need help just sitting around and making sure that people who come in know that they are loved by Christ. We're going to do that.

I'm planning on going. I would like a group of people to come with me. I'd like you to pray about being those people. I'd love to take about 10 of us up there and just spend the week being a blessing to another church is great. Cuz it follows right on the heels of teams that are going to be coming and helping us. The very things God is teaching us and showing us through teams that are coming and helping we're going to go out and bless somebody else who's doing the same good stuff that we're trying to do somewhere else.

So as we as we end the sermon time for today and we go to prayer I want you to pray about something unique. I want you to pray about. Minneapolis, I want you to pray about Grace in the city and I want you to pray about whether or not you are one of those people that should be going on that trip. And I want you to pray for the other people that are called to go on that trip that aren't you and then God would equip us with everything that we need to be able to go and be a blessing. I'm actually not going to stand at the door after service today. I'm going to sit over at the table and I will sign up sheet and if you feel like you're interested in coming and taking part of this, maybe you don't quite know what your schedule looks like. I might be able to work it out going to come and sign. I'll put your name down once I get everybody's name will put a date together where we can all get together and talk and pray through this opportunity and figure out for sure which of us are going and then John's going to have a couple video conferences with us. We'll get to meet him and hear what they're doing and get prepared to go. I'll lead us through a study on a book that's been very helpful to understand what it is for really trying to accomplish to have long-term benefit to communities that we serve on Mission. And then in August will get ready and go.

In addition to that if you're here this morning, you're like man, this sounds like something amazing. And you said it all starts with giving yourself fully to Christ, but I haven't read love it if you would and that's what God's prompting you to do Bill and I'll be up front here come and tell us we love to pray with you and be able to connect you in with folks who can help you walk these next steps of your journey with Christ there something specific you would like prayer for we can pray up here briefly about that as well or if it's something you want to sit down and just really work through with one of the pastors call in to the church office and get a hold of us and and schedule a time to come in and sit down we would love to be able to pray with you then. So let's take a few moments will go before the Lord and then I'll close this in a bit.