[0:00] I want to talk to you this morning about missional discipline. Missional discipline. Because this is a church plant, you don't get the luxury of not thinking like a missionary.
[0:11] In a church plant, everyone must act and think like a missionary. Because kind of like what Seth was talking about a couple weeks ago, where maybe when you're a part of a bigger church, you can rely on part of the healthier, more established parts of the church and not realize whether or not you're actually doing those things or pulling from the right sources.
[0:35] You can't do that anymore when you're in a smaller church. The props are pulled out from underneath you. There's no one else who's going to do it if you don't. And for a church to be established and for a church to grow, there's no one to farm it out, no one you can farm out mission to.
[0:54] Like, well, if I don't do it, they'll do it. Who? Who's going to do that? You know, look around. You're looking at it. You can't say, oh, somebody else will do that.
[1:07] That is a church that will not get off the ground. That is a church that will not really reach people. And I know that you all have a sincere desire to reach people for the gospel.
[1:18] But your sincere desire to reach people for the gospel, although admirable, is not going to cut it. Desire isn't going to get you anywhere alone.
[1:29] Desire alone will not get you anywhere. It must be accompanied with missional action, and I would say even more specifically missional discipline. And I'll explain that in a second.
[1:40] But let's just ask the question. And don't laugh. If Raytown were a foreign city, it may feel that way sometimes, but if Raytown were a foreign city, and you just got sent here as a missionary, what would you do?
[1:55] Okay? Like if this was like a foreign country, and you got plopped into this foreign country in America, and this wasn't your home country, and Raytown was the city you got plopped into, okay?
[2:09] But you speak the same language, okay? What would you do to establish a church? How would you spend your time? Where would your focus be? How would you plan?
[2:20] What would you prioritize? This isn't hypothetical. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like that sounds like a hypothetical question, because in one sense you didn't get plopped here, but in another sense, by God's sovereign will, you are plopped here for a purpose, to establish his kingdom on the earth, through the church, by making disciples of those who don't know Jesus, okay?
[2:48] And so you must think that way. And that's not just for the apostolic leader to think that way, although he should be the tip of the arrow. We all have to think that way.
[2:59] And you'd say, well, I don't know if I want to think that way. Sorry, if you're a part of the church, you have to. You have to. That's not an option. You're a part of a church plant? Not an option.
[3:11] You have to think that way. You have to be someone who is willing to embrace building something from nothing. This is your task.
[3:22] Should you accept it? Okay? It is a mission that seems impossible, right? Right? That you are building something that doesn't exist. You can't see it.
[3:35] Okay? You're building, you're not taking materials that exist and then building something from those materials. The apostolic task is to build something from nothing.
[3:49] And that's what you signed up for. Here you are. Here we are. Okay? My main text is from 1 Corinthians 9, 19 to 27.
[4:00] 1 Corinthians 9, 19 to 27. Paul says, For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
[4:12] To the Jews I became a Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law.
[4:25] To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak.
[4:38] I have become all things to all people, that by all means, I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
[4:51] Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.
[5:02] They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.
[5:22] So the title of my sermon, Missional Discipline, comes from that last verse. I discipline my body is his conclusion from all the stuff he said before. Let's look at this a little bit.
[5:33] Okay? He said, though he's free from all, he made himself a servant to all. All right? So he, though he doesn't have to be restricted, he voluntarily restricts himself for a specific purpose that is higher.
[5:47] What is it? That he might win more. That he might win more souls. Okay? If you want to win souls, there's a sense of restricting missional discipline that must take place.
[6:01] Okay? Where we restrict ourselves from legitimate pleasures of this world, legitimate ways of using our time, legitimate things for the greater things of seeing people come into the kingdom.
[6:14] This task of mission requires us to give up things that aren't bad in and of themselves. Clearly, you should give up sin.
[6:24] Clearly, you should give up the deeds of the flesh, this kind of thing. Okay? But Paul's talking about something altogether different here. Paul is saying, though I'm free from all, I've made myself a servant to all.
[6:37] Voluntary restriction. Voluntary servitude that I might win more of them. And then he goes on to say, I become like all these different groups of people. Jews, Gentiles, under the law, not under the law.
[6:53] He's the weak. He's becoming like all these people in order to win them. Okay? And then he makes that amazing statement in verse 22 that I just, is like the quintessential mission statement.
[7:08] You don't get any more quintessential than this. I have become all things to all people. It's the first thing he says. Okay? What are you becoming?
[7:21] Since joining this church plant, we're almost three, after the end of this week, we'll be three months in from when we launched those two missional communities that we deem to be the official launch of our church on May 1st.
[7:33] Okay? So we're three months in. Let me ask you the question. What are you becoming to reach people? Now, Paul had specific people. He's like, okay, I got Jews I'm on mission to.
[7:46] I got Gentiles I'm on mission to. I got those under the law. I got those outside the law. I got the weak. He had specific people groups that he was reaching out to. What's yours? Where's your mission at?
[7:58] Who are you targeting? Who are you specifically praying for, reaching out? And then what are you doing? What are you becoming to reach them?
[8:10] He said, I've become all things for some people. No, he says to all people. That's why he lists all these groups. He's like, whatever it takes, whatever group of people that God has put before me, I'll become all things to all people.
[8:26] That by all means, okay, whatever means that needs to be deployed, he's saying, I'm in. I'm in. If there's a means that needs to be deployed, I will deploy it that I might save some.
[8:39] That's the goal, that I might save some. And then he says, I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. Wouldn't you like to share with lost people in the blessings of going from darkness to light, from being lost to being found?
[8:57] That's your goal, that's your vision for the sake of the gospel, that Jesus would be glorified through the saving of souls. That's the vision that we have. If that doesn't captivate you, you won't become all things to all men that you might win as many.
[9:12] If you're not captivated, if you're not energized, if you're not smitten by what Judah was just saying as we took of the Lord's table together, if that isn't real to you, if that's not a present enjoyment to you, if singing songs to Jesus is kind of like a downer to you, it's kind of like, let's just get this over with.
[9:30] If you're not enjoying the Lord on a regular basis and enjoying who he is and what he's done for you, if you're not enjoying the person of Jesus and the work of Jesus, then why in the world would you become all things to all men that by all means you could win some?
[9:46] Why would you do that? You wouldn't. He's doing it because he wants to save people and he's doing it for the sake of the gospel. For the sake of the gospel. I think that the first message I preached at this church was doing it for the sake of the gospel.
[10:02] Are we in on that? And if you are, then it looks a certain way with your actions. And he brings up, it just happens to be that the Olympics have started.
[10:14] Not necessarily advocating you watch it. Maybe if you watch the races and avoid the opening ceremonies. But typically we might watch a race or two from the Olympics, right?
[10:27] And they all run. But all these people are the greatest runners in the entire planet. And they're coming to race. And they have gone into strict training for years preceding the Olympics.
[10:40] For years. Years of training. Full-time. Full-time training for years. All to get a prize that won't last. All to get a medal that people will forget about. All to get accolades and notoriety that will soon fade away.
[10:54] And most certainly fade away once they're gone. And they do all that. And we applaud them for it. We watch them for it. Advertising dollars come into the commercials because people watch it.
[11:06] Okay? People watch this. They're excited by it. Because we love to see people giving their all for something. This is for a race.
[11:17] This is for, you know, 30 seconds sometimes, you know. These shorter races. And that's it. And that's what they're giving themselves to. He's basically saying, you know, every athlete exercises self-control in all things.
[11:35] They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Okay? So, since we're running for something way greater, we should do it differently. We should have a more extreme commitment.
[11:48] We should, and we shouldn't just run. He's saying, those people don't just run. It's not like the people in the Olympics, they just run and like, man, I'm just happy that I got to run. This is great. They're running to get the prize.
[11:59] They're running for the gold medal. Right? No one gets on that microphone and just says, yeah, you know, I didn't make it, but I'm just happy to run. You know? No, even some people will get the silver.
[12:12] You can just see it and they're just like, I'm the first loser. You know, like, I came for gold. I didn't come for silver. And you can see the disappointment in their eyes when they're even interviewing them sometime.
[12:25] You know, they're trying to, you know, have a good attitude for the camera, but they wanted gold. They're running to get the prize. How are you running when it comes to mission? You just showing up on a Sunday morning, doing your part during the week?
[12:39] Are you focused on mission? Who are you focused? What's their names? What are the group of people? Have you set aside time to pray for the lost?
[12:51] We inadvertently set aside sometimes time to complain about, man, I wish there was more people here. I wish there was people getting saved. Well, where's the time being put in to connect with the one who saves?
[13:04] Where's the time being put aside to get on mission, literally, to actually preach the gospel to people, to build relationships with people? If we're not putting, if we're not running to obtain the prize, we're not going to.
[13:16] That's why he says, I don't run aimlessly. I don't box as one beating the air, but I discipline myself. There is a discipline that comes with mission. And listen, if you're looking for some quick fix where all of a sudden God sends thousands of people to us or hundreds or I don't know, whatever, whatever it is, the number that you're looking for, maybe it's just 20.
[13:37] Whatever it may be, listen, that's just, that can happen, it has happened in church, but we're not living for revival, okay? We're living for Jesus.
[13:48] We don't get up and down whether there's revival or not. We're looking for the steady state discipleship, day in and day out, consistency. Where are the consistent missionaries?
[13:58] Where are the consistent prayer warriors? Where are the consistent gospel preachers? Where is the consistency? We got to have consistency. There has to be discipline. You know that none of those runners who lack, the ones who lack discipline, they don't win.
[14:13] They don't, they don't win. You know, when they interviewed Tom Brady now that his career's over, more Super Bowls than any quarterback, they interview him, you know, he talks about these young guys and he just kind of scoffs at them.
[14:26] He's just like, they'll be good. They'll be good football players, but they're never going to be champions. You know, it's like, why? Because they don't put in the work when nobody else is doing it.
[14:39] If you want to win like nobody wins, you've got to train like nobody trains. And, you know, he kind of just looks at it and just says, yeah, you know, it's not like I was gifted with all this amazing ability.
[14:52] I had to work for it. And there is a certain level of work that comes into anything that God gives us to do. Yes, we're trusting in God, we're believing in God, we're trusting in the work of Christ, but that doesn't mean we don't work with him, that we don't co-labor with him.
[15:08] And there needs to be a consistent missional discipline for us to see a harvest. Just like a farmer can't just say, well, I don't feel like going out there today.
[15:18] He could lose the whole crop with that. He's got to go in day and day. He can't just say, man, it's early. I'm sick of getting up early. Why do I got to keep getting up early and getting in these fields? Because that's what a farmer has to do in order to reap a harvest.
[15:31] And no farmer reaps a harvest by just randomly going out when he feels like it. He doesn't reap a harvest if he does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, the way he wants.
[15:42] There's many times he has to do things he doesn't want. He has to do it when he doesn't want. He has to do it when other people are doing things he'd rather do. And yet he has to put his nose to the grindstone and say, I've got to keep plowing.
[15:54] I've got to keep planting seed. I've got to keep weeding. I've got to keep removing rocks. I've got to keep watering. I've got to keep doing the things I'm going to do or there will be no harvest and fall.
[16:07] And Jesus calls the bringing in of the lost, he calls it a harvest. And his question is, where are the labors?
[16:20] He says the harvest is plentiful, but that's not the problem. The problem isn't that if the work is done, there won't be any result. He makes that clear. Do you hear me on that?
[16:32] Like, I think sometimes in our mind we think, oh, it's not worth it to do the work because I'll do it and there won't be a harvest. No, that's not the problem that Jesus is describing. He's not saying, you know, there's so many workers, but you know, sometimes it's just not a harvest.
[16:48] He's saying the harvest is plentiful. The issue is the workers. The workers are few. Harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. There has to be missional discipline.
[17:00] Do you have missional discipline? And I know some of you have discipline in other areas. I've seen it. Do you have discipline when it comes to mission? Do you have discipline when it comes to the steady state, praying, gospel preaching, planning, strategizing to win the lost?
[17:19] Just like if you were plopped in here as a missionary, you wouldn't just, you know, land in here as a missionary and get comfortable with the culture and just think, well, I hope God brings souls and I hope he establishes a church. Now you'd get to work doing what needs to get done to see people get saved.
[17:33] And you'd realize it's going to take time, but I can't let up. I've got to run as someone who gets the prize. I've got to discipline my body and make it my slave so that I'm not disqualified for the prize. Let's look at some Bible verses, some more Bible verses.
[17:47] Luke 19.10, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Who are you seeking? Who are the specific people you're seeking? Has God given you a burden for specific people? Has God opened the door for you to reach out to specific people?
[18:01] Who are the specific lost people you're seeking? You already have an area. How are we reaching this area? How are we making inroads? What are we doing? How are we getting there?
[18:14] Jesus came to seek and to save. He was seeking it out. He was looking for opportunities. Matthew 4.19, he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Do you trust God that he'll make you into that?
[18:27] He says, if you follow me, I will make you a fisher of men. I'll make you a fisher of men. I'll make you someone who goes fishing for men. Someone who's seeking out how to catch men into the net of the kingdom.
[18:43] Do you believe that? Those of you who lack confidence, those of you who maybe lack power in this area, do you believe that if you follow Christ, he will lead you right into the place of being a fisher of men?
[18:54] That's what happens. Matthew 28, Great Commission, 18 to 20, Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.
[19:17] Okay? He came to them and said, go. Go. You have to go. The church has been converted into this weird, we've changed the Great Commission to come.
[19:32] Established buildings and services and programs that revolve around come. Get them to come to you. That was never the Great Commission. We've turned Christianity into some attractional mode and I know some people feel better about it because they say, oh, we don't do that on Sunday mornings.
[19:49] We don't invite a bunch of people on Sunday mornings to try and have them hear the gospel and get saved. We're better than that. But then we do the same thing in a smaller setting called a missional community and instead of doing the hard work of getting in people's life, reaching out to people, plowing and plowing and plowing in prayer and in the gospel, we just trade that for a meeting invite to a missional community gathering.
[20:17] Instead of going to where they are, instead of going into the world to preach the gospel, instead of going to lost people and building relationships, instead of going to the place of prayer and saying, God, open up the doors.
[20:29] Who are the men and women of peace? God, bring them to me. We have to go. You have to go. You can't stay where you're at. You can't stay comfortable. You can't stay in doing what you were doing when you weren't winning souls.
[20:43] If you've been in a place where you're not winning souls, do something else. Go somewhere, like change it up. Get into a different action. God, give me a different strategy. I want to see it.
[20:56] Romans 10, 13 to 15, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him whom they've not believed? And how are they to believe on him in whom they have not heard?
[21:07] And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. How are they to hear without someone preaching?
[21:20] We've got to preach. We've got to preach. You might say, I don't know who to preach to. Do you believe that God wants you to preach to someone? Do you believe that God wants to give you those people?
[21:32] Are you confident in that prayer? Are you praying that with unbelief? Are you a double-minded man when it comes to praying for the lost? You shouldn't think you receive anything from the Lord. When you pray, do you believe that God wants you to preach, that he has people preordained to hear the gospel, people who are ready for harvest, that he's just waiting for laborers to go to?
[21:57] Do you believe that that's you and me, that we are those laborers that God wants to bring forth so that they can hear the gospel? Do you pray like that? Do you pray that there's literally nothing that can stop that?
[22:10] That if I'm preaching to someone that God is calling, that God is drawing, that God is saving, they can't resist that? Are you kidding me? The power of that?
[22:22] Just like, you know, think of all the things we did to try to resist God. Think of all the ways that we stiff-armed him and pushed him away and said, I don't need you and our arrogance and pride kept pushing and said, I got it on my own.
[22:35] This religion stuff, it's not for me. I'm fine on my own when deep inside knowing we didn't have it on our own. Think of how many times we did that and God never gave up on us. God pursued us.
[22:46] He broke down our walls. He broke down our resistance. He broke down our pride. And then sometimes when we get in prayer, we don't believe that God will do the same thing to other lost people. We think, oh, they're too prideful.
[22:57] They're too independent. They're too resistant of the gospel. Wasn't that us? Have we forgotten where we came from? Have we forgotten that we were the ones who rejected the gospel?
[23:10] Have we forgotten all the times that we pushed God away and God just kept breaking us down and breaking us down and breaking us down until finally we received it with so much eagerness we actually thought it was us who bid it in the first place?
[23:24] That we were so eager to do it, we just almost, now at this point we kind of think, oh, yeah, I kind of did that. No. Nobody comes to the Father unless the Father draws them.
[23:36] Right? The Father draws people. He's drawing people right now. He's drawing people in Raytown. He's drawing people around us and in our life, even right in front of our eyes.
[23:47] But, they have to believe and how can they believe unless they hear and how can they hear unless someone preaches? We've got to preach to them.
[23:58] We've got to preach. So, we've got to be confident in prayer. We've got to be confident in the gospel. If we're not, we need to be filled with the Spirit of God. We need the Holy Spirit to be poured on us so we can speak the Word of God boldly, so we can be as witnesses in Raytown, Kansas City, in the ends of the earth, wherever He may take us.
[24:20] Right? But someone's got to preach. We need some beautiful feet. Are your feet beautiful? You know how your feet are beautiful? Not because you manicure them and you, you know, stick them in a pond with those fish, whatever, that eat all the bacteria.
[24:34] Your feet are beautiful when you preach good news. Those are the feet that are beautiful. Do you have beautiful feet? Do you have feet that come from a body that is preaching good news? Okay?
[24:48] So what are we going to do? We got to get specific on this. What are the people and places you're targeting? Like, if you can't answer the question, the who, like, who are you targeting?
[25:01] What places are you targeting? Or, where are you already spending your time? And you don't have any kind of strategic focus on that as a missional community together and most certainly individually at a minimum, you have a, and the difference between the two, right?
[25:19] They're not the same. You're always going to be called to be on mission wherever you're at. The people you're on mission won't always be the same people that your missional community will be on mission together with.
[25:30] Now, as much as possible you want to do that, but don't have this weird expectation that every single person you're on mission to, your missional community is going to. You start with getting on mission yourself with people and then as much as possible as you can bring people together that you do that.
[25:47] But, we always have to be on mission to the people we're working with, the people that are around us, the people that we're interacting with and then as much as possible as we can see, okay, where there's intersections between who, we're all, people that have already been placed in our life, the places we're already frequenting and, you know, where we spend our time, where do we, can we intersect with other people?
[26:12] Are we looking about that? Are we having conversations about that? How many conversations have you had with people like, okay, where's the missional intersections of our lives where we know some of the same people and we're reaching out to them, we visit or frequent the same places or businesses or small business owners, you know, whether it's the same place we get our hair cut or get our car fixed or grocery store we go to or coffee shop we frequent, whatever it may be, what are those same places and then what are we doing to specifically reach them or what are the new people in places and just getting specific about that, like, who are these new people we want to reach out to?
[26:54] Praying for God, like constantly just crying out to God, are you doing this daily? Are you doing this before the Lord as a church plan? I'm saying, I know I want to do this more. I need to do this more.
[27:04] I'm convicted myself of not praying enough for this. I want to press in more in prayer for this church and just say, God, give us souls. Give us new people.
[27:15] Give us people. Give us young people. We should specifically be praying for young people. This morning I prayed for young people. Why did I pray specifically for young people? What about old people? We don't like old people? We do like old people.
[27:26] Okay? I'm a middle-aged person so I like both people, right? But no, we need both people but as older, we should always be turning our hearts towards youth and if we're a new church, there's no future without young people.
[27:39] You want a future church? We got to reach out to young people. We have to. Always, always to the end. Always reaching out to young people. If you're an older person and you get too entrenched in your ways and you can't reach out to young people, you're not being a good Christian because you have no vision for the future.
[27:55] If all you care about is your generation, you have to be turned towards young people. Turn towards people and say, this is the future generation. I'm not going to just say, well, I'm older.
[28:06] I don't need to do that. I paid my dues. I did my time. No way. No way. Always turning our hearts. Looking for double portion sons and daughters. Never giving up on that.
[28:18] Okay? So praying for specifically for young people to come into this church, that should always be a prayer focus for us. That's the future. And when older people come, we love them and we welcome them.
[28:28] That's great. But then we get those older people to pray with us in the same way for young people. You know what I'm saying? For sure. We have to. That's the future. That's the future.
[28:38] Okay? Who are those specific people? If I were to ask the individual missional communities and say, who are you on mission to? Do you have a specific answer? I'm not talking about a generic answer. And it may be specifically that we don't have specific, but we're praying for specifics and we're intentional.
[28:54] We're making time for this. Just as much as we're making time to be a family together, we are spending just as much time focusing on being on mission together. Don't relegate that to the side.
[29:07] Don't relegate that to a small portion of your missional community life. That has to be just as valuable. They're not just communities. They're missional communities. Do you hear me? You're just cultivating community and not cultivating mission.
[29:20] We're missing it. Not to mention, the best way to cultivate community and sense of family is getting on mission together. Ask anybody who was in the military for a long, protracted period of time what they miss most and they will say they miss the camaraderie, the sense of vision, vision-focused community.
[29:42] That like being together on the same mission, that mission brought them closer together. I'll never forget an interview I watched with Stanley McChrystal saying that. He said, I asked him, what do you miss the most?
[29:52] A career military guy. He said, I miss the mission and I miss the camaraderie of the men. And they go right, they go hand in hand. And we're not in the military but you are in the Lord's army in a sense.
[30:04] You're soldiers for Christ. You're not serving, you're serving your commanding officer. And so our mission should bring us together. Sometimes we have a hard time being brought together by other means because we have too many differences and lack of similarity.
[30:20] But we always have the fellowship of the spirit and we always have the mission that can bring us together. We always have those things. And if we don't have that specific in our missional communities, there's going to be something lacking in our familial community because we don't have something bigger than ourselves.
[30:38] If we're aiming at something so small as ourselves and being in community with ourselves, we're missing it. It has to always be bigger and that's what brings us together. That's what brings us together.
[30:49] So we've got to figure out, we've got to be praying, Lord, what are the friends and family that I can be focused on? What are the neighbors and neighborhoods? What are the co-workers or workplaces? Like I said before, whether they go into the same restaurant, the same store, same grocery store, same coffee shop, same barber.
[31:08] I remember years ago, one of the guys in our missional community is like, I got this guy, he cuts hair, he's not a believer. What do you guys think about us all going to this guy?
[31:19] Yeah, that makes total sense. You're going to sit there for a half hour, hour and you're going to, you know, not going anywhere, right? And you're going to talk. And what if all these people all go in there strategically, praying for the same guy, going to the same barber on purpose, same thing with a hair, you could do with a hairdresser, right?
[31:37] For the women, same mechanic, same chiropractor, right? Done that before, going to the same chiropractor, as other people. And it's like multiple people are preaching the gospel to the same person.
[31:50] That's awesome when you do stuff like that, going to the same park, frequenting the same places over and over again. I was just reading a book on evangelism by Mark Dever.
[32:01] And he says he always goes to the subway by the church building where he's at. And it's not because he has this particular love for subway. It's because he has a particular love for the employees at subway and he's got to eat.
[32:15] And so he goes to the same place. And when he meets people, he says, let's go to subway. He's like, why do you want to go to subway? He's like, because I have people there that I want to frequently be in interaction with because I'm preaching the gospel to them.
[32:28] I love that. That's great. Okay? Who are those people? What are these ways we can get in? I remember in the early days of Bellicose, there was so many times you're just like, who are we going to reach out to?
[32:41] How are we going to, how is this going to happen? How is this church going to get on its feet? How, who are we going to be the people? And in those early days, it was hard to believe. You're building something out of nothing. You can't see it.
[32:52] But we, there was this, there's an excitement in prayer when you realize God wants to give those people to you and that he will. He will. Do you believe that?
[33:03] Can you pray and get excited while you're praying even though the answer hasn't come yet because you're anticipating the inevitability of the answer. Do you understand what I'm saying?
[33:15] Where your excitement comes from the inevitability of the not yet answered prayer and it gives you excitement and fuel to keep praying for it and you begin to see things in the spirit that are coming and it makes it, it makes it less, it's not invisible anymore, it makes it easier to build.
[33:35] The hardest thing to build is what you can't see. So, you need to see it. Well, the only way you're going to see the invisible is through prayer and the only way that's going to happen is when we come into unity around these things and pray together and we begin to start seeing things in prayer, we begin to start seeing things prophetically and we begin to pray into them with excitement and a sense of an inevitability that causes us to be just joyful in what's going to happen and then we just wait in the Lord and just see it happen.
[34:08] We do it in rest. We're not striving. We're not having to muster some church thing up. We're not feeling this pressure to make the church cool. We're not feeling this pressure to make it enjoyable and to get good friendships.
[34:21] No, we are resting in God's desire to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves in ways that are way greater than we could ever do because He cares for us and He loves us and He wants us to have friendships and He wants us to have new people and He wants to save people.
[34:41] Okay? But we have to have missional discipline. We got to get, we have to have specific people and groups and places. It has to happen. Do you hear me on that?
[34:53] I know I've said that a million times but I don't know if it's totally sunk in yet. I think we have kind of this, we have desire for it, we have value for it.
[35:05] Maybe we're lacking the discipline in it though. Do you hear me on that? Have desire, have a little bit of strategy but do we have the discipline to see it through?
[35:16] Do we have the focus that is required to literally see a church established beyond just the team that got sent and a few people coming in here and there who are already believers?
[35:27] Like do we have the discipline to see it through? You got to ask yourself that question. Okay? And then we got to figure out ways that we're going to engage these people.
[35:41] Once you have those specific people, what are the ways we're going to engage people? Okay? Three really easy ones are eating, planning events, and serving and blessing people.
[35:51] Okay? Just eating together with people. Doing barbecues, parties, meals. Okay? Not inviting people to your missional community gathering unless you've set apart a specific gathering for lost people.
[36:06] But just saying, hey, come over to have a meal or let's go out to eat or let's go grab something to drink. Okay? Giving meals away. Maybe having like a regular thing, like a night of the week where this night is always open to have people over.
[36:19] Like I've set that aside or Sunday afternoons to invite new people who've come to the church. which, you know, that's a little sparse now but maybe down the road that'll become more and more. I mean, at Bellacook now you could do that until the cows come home and you'd never run out of people because there's just influx of people.
[36:36] Didn't used to be that way. Didn't used to be that way at all. Okay? It's got to start somewhere. All right? Maybe doing like a night of just having coffee together or desserts together, you know?
[36:49] Especially as it gets cooler. making it fun, you know, doing some kind of food contest together. Best dessert, best dip, best barbecue, best pizza. I don't care.
[37:00] Anything like that. Just doing stuff that you can get around people and build relationships. Or events, sports. In one month, football season starts.
[37:12] I know that whether you're a Chiefs fan or not, whether you're a football fan or not, a lot of people are. And we just happen to have a team that's won the Super Bowl two years in a row. They're going to be trying to win a third one.
[37:23] You think people are going to be interested in that? You better believe it. Okay? You might say, well, I'm not interested in that. Well, other people are. So, will you become all things? Maybe you become a Chiefs fan to win as many for Christ.
[37:37] You know what I'm saying? It happens every week. It's like a weekly rhythm. You could literally have a plan in place like, okay, we're going to watch the Chiefs game every week and we're going to invite people in that we're on mission to.
[37:50] Talk about a natural, normal, neutral setting that's not going to wig people out as some religious weirdos. Right? Just wait, you're going to go, you're going to, you want to watch a football game together?
[38:02] Oh yeah, I could do that. You know, no one's going to be like, weird. Okay, but that's what I'm saying. Like, but planning stuff like that, just say, it's coming up.
[38:12] I'm not saying you have to, have to do that. I'm just saying, ideas like that, looking at the season you're in, football season's coming up, using that for that purpose. Right?
[38:23] We're going to literally regularly open up our home for Chiefs games and then bring lost people and bring neighbors in. Most of your neighbors are already doing that. Just do it with them. Hey, are you watching the Chiefs game?
[38:34] Yeah, I am. You want to watch it at my place? Like, we'll provide all the food. You don't need to bring anything. Yeah, I'll be there. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's easy. That's low-hanging fruit. And then when you're there, don't just watch the Chiefs game.
[38:47] Talk about their life. You know, get it, lay the groundwork and as soon as you see that open door, you preach the gospel. And if you don't see the open door, make one.
[39:00] Make one. Make the most of every opportunity. Make an opportunity. Do you know what I'm saying? You know, we've talked about block parties, bonfires, game nights, holiday celebrations.
[39:12] I think that's always a good time. And that's why I think fall is such a great time for mission. Right? It's always a time to launch things, to do things. But Halloween comes and all your neighbors come to your door.
[39:25] They come to you. Right? Do it up better than anybody else. Okay? Thanksgiving is a great time to just have people over for dinner. Christmas.
[39:36] Christmas parties are so easy. Right? Another American holiday, Super Bowl. Right? Okay? Easy to do that. You have this holiday time and you have all these easy things to just invite people into.
[39:49] Are we being intentional with those things? Do we have a plan for those things? Movie nights, you know, dancing, cigar pipe nights, Bible studies, where you just say, hey, we're going to do a Bible study for this amount of nights and we're going to invite people to come to it.
[40:06] One-time events, weekly events, monthly events, whatever they may be. Or serving people, like how can we do house projects, yard projects, helping someone financially, neighborhood cleanups.
[40:18] Just identify at least one way to tangibly express the gospel on a regular basis through serving and then sticking with it long enough to move beyond just tasks to relationships.
[40:32] Opening the door for the gospel. Right? Opening the door for the gospel. What are these things? Listen, if you don't have an answer, that's okay. But don't be okay with not having an answer much longer.
[40:46] Because God wants to give you an answer. He wants to give you people. And like, what did Paul do? Did Paul just say like, well, I just hope God gives us something. He said, no, I'm aiming at specific people.
[41:00] He said, Peter's called to these people, I'm called to these people. He's like, I'm reaching these people this way, I'm reaching these people this way. Do you have multiple people that you're on mission to that you're reaching in different ways and you're becoming different things that you might mean as many people through as many means as possible?
[41:16] That's what church should look like. Not just creating some weird gathering, religious gathering that majority of people will never come to and hoping that some come to. That's what church has become.
[41:30] Why? It should be us strategically getting on mission to people. Never ceasing, never stopping, always on the offensive. When the Bible says, Jesus says, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
[41:45] Have you ever walked by a gate and a gate just attacked you and knocked you to the ground and started beating you up? Gates don't do anything to you. When he says that, when he says that the gates of hell shall not prevail, he's talking about an offensive attack at the gates.
[42:02] He's talking about an infiltration of enemy territory that was protected by gates. You are pressing through the gates. He's not talking about some gates that are, you know, you're just doing your comfortable church thing and these gates come attack you.
[42:16] That's bizarre. That never happens. That's not what gates do. He's talking about an offensive into hell territory and depopulating hell with the gospel. Gates of hell shall not prevail against the onslaught of the offensive weapon of the church.
[42:34] Is that church? Is that your experience of church? Is that Christ church right now? Is Christ church on the offensive? Is Christ church pressing in and through the gates of hell to depopulate hell through the gospel?
[42:48] To literally say, no, no, no. Snatching people from the fire is the language of Jude, right? Hating even the clothing corrupted by sinful flesh. You see that language? That's not an attractional language.
[42:59] That's not, let's just get, you know, the right worship team, the right child care and the right aesthetics and the, you know, the charismatic preacher so that we can just invite people and have them do the work.
[43:10] No, that's the language of a missional church that is on an offensive onslaught to break through the gates of hell and to win lost people. Can you get excited about that? Anybody can get excited about that, but can you be consistent in that?
[43:25] Can you be disciplined in that? Can you be excited about it and be disciplined in it and keep doing it when no one else is doing it or other people don't want to do it or other people are burnt out in it, tired on it, weary on it or in unbelief about it?
[43:38] Can you stay in faith because you're a church plant and you have to? You have to. You got to stay in faith because who else is going to do it if you don't? Who's going to lift you up if you don't?
[43:49] You got to keep crying out to God, keep me faithful, keep me full of faith. God, I need you. If what I'm saying doesn't drive you into Christ, then what does?
[44:00] I'm not, this isn't, you need to just figure this out on your own and become some self-dependent, muster it up kind of people. I hope you're overwhelmed by the task I'm giving to you and it drives you into Christ.
[44:13] And you say, God, I can't do this without you. I'm prone to unbelief. I'm prone to inconsistency. I am missionally undisciplined. I do it when I feel like it and not when I don't.
[44:26] I do it when everyone else is doing it and not when no one else is doing it. I do it when there's a strategy but not when there's a strategy. I do it when everyone else is praying but not alone in my prayer closet. This is not, this is not, that doesn't work.
[44:39] That's not going to work for a church plant. We have to be missionally disciplined. If I want to win the prize, I have to discipline my body. This body right here needs to be disciplined missionally.
[44:51] Are you? Are you doing your part? Are you doing your part? And real practically ask yourself two questions. What will I stop doing and what will I start doing?
[45:03] What will I stop doing and what will I start doing? It might mean we have to stop doing some things and start doing other things. Answer those questions. Answer those questions.
[45:14] And then we get on, we get on mission to people and become missionally disciplined. I, I, I brag about Christ's church to other people and say it's a great group of people.
[45:29] I, I was preaching to Velikos the other day and saying how I see elements of the five-fold ministry in this church. I think it's a great team of people but a great team of people just like a great athlete is wasted if there's no discipline.
[45:42] So, I commend you for the greatness of this team that God has put together but if we aren't disciplined and consistent for the long haul, I'm sorry.
[45:55] It's not going to happen. But if we are, if we throw ourselves on Christ and say, God, we need you. We need you, Jesus. We, we can't make a church appear out of nowhere and we've pulled out the props that would draw people otherwise.
[46:11] You think they're going to come into a warehouse like this because it's so cool? You know? You think that when they see our carpet squares at the new building, they're going to be like, man, this place is awesome. Chris is like, yeah.
[46:25] You know? Maybe not. But what will they see as awesome? Well, these guys love one another. These guys are passionate about what they believe. They're serious about the gospel and I heard the gospel here and it cut me to the heart.
[46:40] It cut me to the heart. I heard it from these people. They weren't limited to a building and a service. They were only limited to the Holy Spirit in them, which is not, not a limitation.
[46:54] Right? Amen? Amen. And it made it