Live Sent

Living Sent

We have been on a series simply called Multiply.

It is where I am fundamentally unpacking what it means to be a multiplying church.

And the reality is that in order to be a multiplying church we have to become a multiplying people...

Our lives need to produce fruit

Last week we looked at the chief analogy of humans in the bible is that we are supposed to be like trees…Being fruitful…staying connected to the main tree which is Jesus

And I think one of the good things to understand about fruit is that it was ancient dessert …It was the good stuff that only really came around every so often

Fruit is the Good stuff that comes from following Jesus

Like Love

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Gentleness

Joy

Goodness

and Self Control

So when Your life starts producing the good stuff out of your relationship with Jesus then God is freed up to use you in powerful and profound ways

When my life produces fruit, I can be the key to unlock salvation for someone else.

Now can God use people who’s life is is not producing fruit for his Glory, Yes…Of course..

If God can use a donkey to turn a life around he can use anything

But the life that produces fruit is far more effective at reaching others for christ

So I wanted to start with this scripture:

The apostle Paul is talking about salvation here and here is what he says

Romans 10:14–15 NIV

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

A faith multiplier lives a sent life

As a christian there are two ways in which we can approach the world.

We can come to church and consume…Great message…Great worship…Great life group…And you can even serve maybe in facilities or security or something like that

But then you leave here and all you are is a consumer and you never see yourself on mission to reach the world for Jesus

This path leads to spiritual gluttony

Or you can choose to live sent.

We come to church

we come to life groups

we can still do all the church things but the shift is that you view yourself as the key that will unlock faith in someone else

And that every day that job you hate can actually be transformed into a mission field

Every day that coworker that just drives you nuts becomes the person whom you pray for

See you can either live as a spiritual consumer or choose to accept that your story can be a key to faith for someone else.

So what I want to focus on today is what it looks like to live sent lives…and I want to call all of us to live in a way that is intentionally sent out of here to the rest of the world...

Discipleship to Jesus leads us to a sent life

So the first call of Jesus is to be on mission with him!

Matthew 4:19 NIV

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

I like the older translation of this a little better only because I think it might be a bit more faithful to the original Greek

19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

When I am a disciple of Jesus, he will transform my life to make me into a sent person

There are three parts to this call

Come Follow…And some of you are there

I will make…Jesus will remake your life…He will prune the branches that are not bearing fruit, Often times this is where people get really serious about following Jesus or they flame out

Into Fishers of Men…Into the sort of person who is on mission with me...

Being a disciple means that you are an apprentice of Jesus

Apprentices need to learn from someone who is a master and a teacher...

And here is an impotrant question...

Many of you have accepted Jesus as your savior, but have you ever accepted Jesus as your teacher? as the best one to learn about life from?

have you ever thought about that before…We say Jesus you are my savior but we look to the world often times as our teacher

Our favorite podcasts, youtube channel, the pundits on the news we allow them to be our teachers...

But have we really surrendered to the fact that Jesus is our teacher

And when Jesus is our teacher in all of life then that is when we can truly flourish, be made new and reach this world for others

After Jesus spent three years with his disciples and allowed them in to every part of his life he gave them what is known as the great commission…let’s go there

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So here Jesus is saying to his people…go make disciples!

Sometimes we mistakenly believe that if we go make a new church then we will get disciples

But what Jesus actually said was go make disciples and guess what…wherever you make disciples you will always get a church

So disciples live sent lives but then churches for years, we changed evangelism methods all the time…Like a new pair of pants

And none of these are bad, I mean they were getting christians mobilized to share their faith

There is evangelism explosion,

the roman road

the four spiritual laws

Friendship evangelism

And again anything that gets you to share your faith us wonderful

but some feel like putting a square peg in a round hole…Some of you might remember that the church as a whole used to go door to door and then you would basically read from a script and ask the question “if you got hit by a truck tonight where would you end up? “

Its an impotrant question…what is your eternal destiny?

But its not a very natural question to ask of someone you don’t know.

Its really because of these styles that rubbed me the wrong way that I was not a very good evangelist until I understood that Jesus had a different model of evangelism...

But before we get there…I want to tell you a story

When I was in my undergrad in college, Campus Crusade for Christ would send people out two by two to evangelize the campus

I remember this interaction clear as day.

One guy walked up to me and said, Hi do you mind if I ask you a question?

I was unaware that I was about to get the Jesus sales pitch

They asked me if there was ever stuff in my life that I was disappointed in

I said yes all the time

They said, do you ever wish that stuff could go away

I said, yes all the time

They asked have you ever heard that Jesus died so he can take all of your imperfect stuff away

I said, yeah I had heard that before

They said do you believe that there is an actual heaven and Hell?

I said, Yes I believe that...

I mean I am answering everything they way they want…all roads for them was leading to a salvation...

Then they said, well do you want to accept Jesus and get that forgiveness and go to heaven?

and I said, oh no I don’t want to do that

And I took the wind right out of their sails…they said why...

I said guys, I am a christian and not only that I have been working as a youth pastor for the last year…You just asked me basic questions that everyone would answer the same way to without even getting to know me.

I am not going to invited Jesus into my life with you guys because he’s already there...

They didn’t take any time at all to ask about me, who I was, what was impotrant to me, they didn't realize that they were trying to convert a youth pastor

Now I don’t fault these college kids at all…They were living out the faith in really bold ways, while the rest of the church sat on its hands...

But these guys hadn’t learned the really easy method of Jesus...

So here is my point on this:

We come up with all sorts of methods to “live sent” and they are all well meaning...

But what if we just read the Bible and did what Jesus said to do?

I think this is way easier...

Turn with me to Luke 10

in Luke 10 we find the strategy of Jesus and it is totally freeing!

Luke 10:1–12 NIV

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Jesus send them as a team: Luke 10:1, and He sent them out two by two

See Jesus never sent anyone out alone...if you are trying to share the gospel all alone then you are walking with a leg cut off…You need a team!

Who is another Christian at the office?

Who is someone you can partner up with?

Maybe your married to your ministry partner…

Maybe one of your kids can help…

Jesus never sent people out alone, he always told them to go two by two

Jesus reminded them to pray for the right Time: Luke 10:2, The Harvest is plentiful

The harvest comes at a particular time….can you harvest a crop when it is just planted? NO!

If you have ever grown your own food before…You know there is a right time for the harvest…Don’t harvest too early…but just the right time

What Jesus is saying is that there are times that are better than others for people to respond to the gospel…

Some people will be in a season of life where they will be receptive to this…some will not!

Here is the thing…you can not know when the right time is!

your not called to determine when the right time is time is, You are simply to pray for the time...

your just called to tell your story. For some people it might be the exact right time…

For others they might brush you off….This point is not meant to be an excuse….All Jesus is saying is that there is a harvest out there so go after it…

Jesus gave them a Target:Luke 10:6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them.

See Jesus is sending us to particular people, we can just call them “people of peace”

See what Jesus really did is sent his disciples out with a target…

Luke 10:5-6

5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you.

A person of peace will:

Like you: They will welcome you into their home (10:7)

Listen to you: They will listen to what you have to say (10:9)

Serve you: “Eat what they sit before you” (10:8)

And I cant stress this point enough…in order to find people of peace out there…you need to be a person of peace.

From time to time I will lead a discipleship group and I will stop here in Luke 10 and talk about being a person of peace...

One time I felt the spirit prompt me to end the group here...

So I told the people that I was discipling that I want to show them how easy it was to find a person of peace…they had 1 hour to go to target, and find a person of peace and just talk to them...

And I said…here is the key…You will only find a person of peace if you are a person of peace.

And it was amazing…We had people coming back talking about how they almost didn't make it back in time because they were talking to so many people!

Jesus gave them a Task: Luke 10:9 demonstrate and declare the kingdom of God.

Now Jesus sent them out and said heal the sick among you….He always told them to demonstrate kingdom power before he told them to preach…so this is a strange thing in America today….What do we do about this verse…

1. I think we have a tendency to think that this is saying, fill up a bathtub and walk on water…But there are a lot of ways to demonstrate kingdom power before you preach. Or to heal a paralyzed person

a. But what about good old love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control;

b. Is that not kingdom power?

c. What about something that is the ultimate kingdom power, Forgiveness and restoration?

i. Is this not kingdom power?

2. When you meet someone who is sick or has cancer, why not ask to pray for them right there.

3. And then declare to them the kingdom…that is your story…How has the presence of God changed your life

See when you meet someone who is a person of peace this is not hard to do…

Jesus reminded them that they would face Trouble: Luke 10:10, when you are not welcomed, then leave

And if you have a problem with that then don’t email me, take it up with Jesus because he said it not me.

I want to give you an example of this…a few years back I was at the park with my kids and another family came up and their kids were playing with my kids and so the parents engaged me in a conversation…

We had a really nice conversation…at least I thought it was going well…

After we talked for a while they asked what I did for a living and I said, I was a pastor at a church…They had a ton more questions about what that meant…and really these people couldn’t have been nicer people…and so I invited them to church…I said, if you guys are interested I’d love to invite you…

They both laughed at me…and said…um no!

And they took their kids and walked away…

Now, I just have to be obedient to what Jesus has asked me to be obedient to through his word…

I simply answered their questions about church and then invited them…

I didn’t feel bad about that one bit…I was obedient. Maybe that interaction planted a seed, I will never know!

Who knows what God did with them after they left…who knows what questions arose in their marriage…

So I shook the dust and moved on…no big deal

But see

The only way this all works if you are a person of peace.

If you’re a jerk no one is going to want to listen to you

If we are going to boldly love this world we have got to share the gospel with it…

And I think Jesus’ strategy is actually the most freeing way of doing this…

See you’re not selling a used car or a timeshare, you are sharing about the author of life has radically transformed your life

Application:

I am not here at REC to help you all grow into cozy christians who are nice people and tip well

I am here to grow multipliers…People who bear fruit and who live as if they are sent

There is a question that God asks Isaiah...

Who will I send?

And Isaiah responds, Here am I, send me

Church, God has been fashioning and shaping you into a key that will unlock faith in countless people....

Will you put this key on your keychain as a reminder that God wants you to live sent?