Establishing the Kingdom

Message Transcription

Well, I'm so happy that you're with us this morning. We're launching A2A3 week series on missions. Many of you have already heard, as you heard just a moment ago in the video, that Mission Sunday is coming up here in three weeks. And we are excited about the opportunities that God has put before us. And so I wanted to take a couple of weeks missions committee asked me to talk to you some about this opportunity that's coming and also to remind us of some things. Broadway has always been a sending church, a church that's had a heart for those who are far from God. In fact, if you picked up our latest issue of By the way, magazine, if you haven't, I invite you to do so. Broadway has always been about trying to reach those who are far from God. And in this issue, you're going to hear some stories about how our ministry partners are trying to do that. But there's a special story in there I want to draw your attention to. Broadway also is a church that is not afraid of hard callings, of hard challenges. One of those was sending missionaries, one of the first churches in the United States to send missionaries into Germany after World War Two. And, you know, the devastation and the tragedy that came from that war and how Broadway was trying to be literally on the front lines of trying to help recovery happen, try to help people find their way, who were so lost, who were so broken, whose not only lives had crumbled around them literally, but emotionally and spiritually.

Michel Thomas, who put this all together, she went back through the history archives and found some pretty amazing things about that conversation, how that work happened. If you haven't seen that, I invite you to check that out. Here at Broadway, we do care so deeply about missions. I've been here for going on 11 years now. This summer will be completing 11 years we've been here. Our family has been at Broadway. And for that entire time, six mission points have kind of been our areas of focus. We've had Nazareth and Kenya, Peru, Ecuador, North Africa and Greece. Those have been the areas where we've been leveraging all of our attention, our time, our energy and effort when it comes to our foreign missions. Now, we also have some domestic missions. One of those may be nearest and dearest to our heart is just right down the street here at Texas Tech, the Atlas Campus Fellowship. That's a ministry that we care deeply about. We've been thinking some about some change that's coming. We know one of our mission points Nazareth has now those folks are retiring and moving off of that work. We've got some more folks retiring in Peru. So we have two spaces that are now beginning to open up to say, okay, what might God be doing in and through us? What is he doing in the world that he is calling us to partner with him on? And so I want to spend a little bit of time just getting us to think some inviting you to join me and Joseph and Holly and the elders as they have challenged our missions committee to say, help us dream about what's next for us at Broadway.

What are the next opportunities that God's inviting us to join him into? In that spirit, Missions invited a guy named Dan Buerkle who who spoke up here last year on Mission Sunday to talk to us about what do we need to do, how do we need to be thinking about this as we're dreaming of new opportunities? And he said, well, whatever you do, it needs to be tied to your mission and your vision as a Broadway family. It needs to reflect the heart and the people and the time and the energy and the resources that God has given Broadway today. And so what I wanted to do to begin this morning is to talk some about what is that vision, what is that mission that God has given to us here at Broadway, and how might that impact us in our pursuit of what's next? Some of these new opportunities to not only strengthen the ones we already have, but to think about where else is God calling us, inviting us? So I'm going to spend a little time reminding us, and then we're going to jump into our passage here, this passage that's been very important As we get to our vision and mission, though, I have to start with Scripture because that's where Broadway has started for years and years and years, 133 of them to be exact, but three Scriptures in particular.

These aren't the only ones, but these are three in particular that have helped shaped who we are as the Broadway church family. And the first one you may have memorized when you were just a little rascal. We're going to be teaching these little rascals to memorize these words as well. And if you know them, feel free to say them out loud or feel free to read along with me. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life for God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. This passage is soaked deep into the heart and the life and the fabric of the Broadway Church of Christ. We believe that God's mission in the world was not to condemn it, not to destroy it, but to redeem it, to reconcile it, to draw all men and women and children back to himself, to his creator.

And so because of that, another passage that springs right out of this one, that same heart is what Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about this reality that God is doing a work in and through. His church. He says. From now on, we don't regard anyone from a worldly point of view, though we once even regarded Christ that way. He says. We don't look at them that way any longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone and the new. It's right here. And all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ. And He gave us the Ministry of Reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And He has committed to us this ministry, this message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. So we implore you, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Be reconciled. Paul said Jesus came and a mission of love to bring about reconciliation. And not only did he come and live that and model that, he says, Now, as my followers, I want you to do the same. I want you to be my ambassador to your family, to your neighborhood, to your workplace, to your community. I want you to be my ambassador, because for so many people, and especially more and more in our world today, their first introduction to Jesus and to his gospel is going to be by an ambassador.

They may have never met before. And so we want to make a really good introduction between Jesus and his people. Paul says You are ambassadors of Christ. We've been chosen to be his ambassadors and like God, like God's belief. He doesn't want to just torch the world and start over, kill everyone and start over. Instead, he says, Jesus, would you die for everyone so that we can start over? That we share that same heart. Our desire is not to see the the planet wiped off except for all the Christians, but to say No, no, no. God, would you help us die to ourselves, to become servants, to help create an opportunity for another person to be reconciled? Back to you. Just one more. Just one more. Oh, God, Could we be used in that same way? So we see that vision happening all through the story of Scripture and the picture of it we see in John's revelation at the end of the Bible is echoing this picture that was at the very beginning of the Bible. But in Revelation 21, the third passage, I think, speaks to the heart for Broadway missions. It says, Then I saw a new heaven and new earth for the first heaven, and the first Earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea.

I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be as people and God himself will be with them and be their God, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. John echoes this same beautiful picture that was at creation, where God creates and then he dwells with his people. Jesus says it's happening again at God's great desire is to reconcile all things, including His earth. And so, yeah, that impacts how we live, how we deal with our resources, how we help take care of the world around us, how we help all areas of our world flourish. He cares about all creation, all people. And that's been the heart of what's driven us, that Jesus Emmanuel, God with us. That's not only a promise individually, it's a promise to us globally, church wide. And so we want to be a part of that. And in order to live that out, then we've tried to craft our vision statement to echo those scriptures. And so our vision at Broadway is simply this to partner with God in his reconciliation of all creation, recognizing that, number one, we're going to partner with God.

Right. That's God's work that's happening in the world. And he's inviting us to join him. It's a ministry of reconciliation that he began and he's now inviting us into. So we're going to partner with God in what he's doing in the world. Not only that, it's his reconciliation ministry that we get to be a part of, so we don't claim it as our own. We honor and recognize it's his. But also in it's all of creation. It's So we're going to be intentional about reaching out in all aspects and areas, using all the the wisdom and the resources that God has given to us to leverage all of that on behalf of the coming kingdom. Jesus taught his followers to pray. May your kingdom come on Earth as it is in heaven. And that's kind of the prayer that just echoes through all of what we're trying to do to partner with God in his reconciliation of all creation. So as we were thinking about, okay, how do we put legs and feet to that hands to that, how do we live this out? This has kind of become our mission then as a as a body to say we want to encourage and equip every believer to pursue God through genuine worship, to build community through intentional relationships, and to unleash compassion through generous service.

If you've been around Broadway very much, you're going to recognize those terms pursue, build, unleash that. We're trying to to make sure every believer has an opportunity to pursue God in relationships and in opportunities to study his word, to worship together and corporately and individually, to spend time reflecting on and thinking about all that God has done for us and what he wants to do in and through us. But not only that, we want to be about building our community, not only our church community, but our literal community, our neighborhood. We want to get really good at what Jesus said matters most, and that's loving God and loving people. And so we want to be the kind of church that helps build that through intentional, accountable relationships where we recognize we don't all have the answers, but we all know who does. And so we're going to keep pursuing Jesus. And when we are discouraged or when we hit a hard time, we're going to gather folks around us to help us continue moving forward. We're going to keep building community. We're also going to look outside of these walls and say, how can we be good neighbors to people who may be far from God, who don't know God? But not only that, because we believe that our life given to us is meant to offer on behalf of others. And so we want to be the kind of people who unleash compassion in all kinds of ways.

One of my favorite things about Broadway, about being a part of this family, is every year we give over a quarter of $1 million away to two efforts that are not our own. Two ministry partners who are doing amazing things here in Lubbock and around the world. That's non-budgeted quarter of $1 million to take care of some of these amazing opportunities to unleash compassion. And so we talk about things like how do we spend our money, how do we use our resources to bless others, to not just keep getting and getting, but to learn the power of sacrifice and giving? But also how do we look into the world and see the things that break God's heart? And how do we try to unleash some compassion in those areas? And so you've seen us be really strategic in some partnerships to be better neighbors to our friends here in the community, to come alongside our friends at full armour, whose building was devastated by a storm and then by vandalism to say, hey, we have plenty of space, would you come and share our space with us? Could we meet together? Could we pray together and study God's word together? Could we worship together? Can we help try to do what God has given us an opportunity to do, pursue, build, unleash? These are going to be words that you'll see all throughout all kinds of things.

Well, the missions committee took that challenge from Dan to say, how do we take our mission and our vision and now live into it as a missions committee? How do we help our church see through the lens of missions, how we can pursue, build and unleash? And so this is kind of what they came up with. I've been helping some with this, so if you don't like it, it's probably my fault, right? Joseph Yes. So come talk to me about it. But we're still wordsmithing. We're still thinking and dreaming. But but this is kind of where we've landed is we want to engage partners in God's ministry of reconciliation locally, regionally, internationally. Our great hope is that every member of Broadway would cross a border. Now, for some of us, that may seem a little daunting, right, For you, maybe crossing a border is that sidewalk that goes around your house that you kind of drive up and in the garage and and shut the door and go to say, would you cross the border of your lawn into a neighbor and just see what might God have in store? Others of us, it may be, would you cross a border? And like the Howdy shells, find a place where there's not a community of faith where you could start a community of faith. And would you in faith by faith, would you go and give your life, pour your life out sacrificially for others? Or it may be like some of our international ministry friends who said, I'm going to I'm going to sell everything I own and I'm going to give it away, and instead I'm going to dedicate my life to those far from God who've never heard the name.

All around the world, we want every Broadway member to cross a border this year. And I'm praying and I hope you will join us in praying about what border God's going to invite you to cross, because I think that's an important thing. But not only that, they said, okay, so if this is our vision, then how are we going to live this out? Well, it's going to be our pursue, build, unleash what that's going to look like. And so this is kind of where we come to say we want to glorify God by supporting the establishment, the strengthening and the multiplying of Christian ministries and churches around the world. We want to establish, strengthen and multiply. We're going to spend the next three weeks kind of diving into those three things to say, what does it mean to establish? What does it look like to strengthen? How does it how does it matter that we multiply? Those are going to be our our next three weeks. We're going to look at those three values in just a moment. We'll spend the remaining couple of minutes here looking at establishing.

But I also want to give you a heads up and a couple of weeks, starting on April 30th and May 7th, we're all going to be in here. All adult Bible classes will be in here together to get to hear specifically about some of the plans we're making to establish, strengthen and multiply in the coming year. We don't want you to miss out. We want you to hear all about it, because during worship on Sunday, May 7th, we're going to ask you for some money to do that work and not just a little bit, Right. This is like $130,000 that we believe God has opened up some doors for us, some opportunities that are incredible to see God's work happen, to establish and strengthen and multiply around the world, to see us as a church to build and pursue and unleash. We're hoping in unprecedented ways. So invite you. If you haven't made plans to be here that Sunday, please make plans to be here. If you don't know much about our missions, please come. Especially those couple of Sundays, you're going to hear all kinds of incredible things that are happening. But also you're going to hear this invitation. And I want to add it to our elders. I want to add it to the Joseph and Holly and their incredible team doing work right now. Would you be praying do you be praying about the doors that God's going to be opening in the next year to say, God, we have some places where that ministry has has wound up, it's finished, they're stepping out, and we've got some ideas, some energy, some resources, some some intention.

God, would you put us to work partnering with you? Would you help us to have eyes to see where you're partnering for us? All right. So pursue God, build community, unleash compassion, establish strength and multiply. I'm getting a lot of words. Let's go to the good word here. All right. If you have your Bible, turn over to Matthew 28. It's the end of the gospel. We find Jesus is on a mountain. If you've read much of Matthew, you find a lot of things happen in Matthew on mountains, right? A lot of things happen. We have the Transfiguration, We have the Sermon on the Mount. We have the final discourse on the Mount of Olives. The temptations happen on a mountain. We hear Jesus has now called his disciples and said, I want you to meet me in Galilee on a mountain. And that's where we find them. And then here's what Matthew tells us. When they saw him, the disciples saw Jesus. They worshipped him. But some doubted. I'm going to pause right there for just a second. It always makes me smile, thinking, How did Jesus not just go? Forget it. Just get out of here. Everybody who doubted.

Just get. Get out of here. Seriously, Doubt it. This is like the fifth time I've seen you since the resurrection. What's the matter with you? Why are you doubting? It just. It makes me wonder why he didn't just pause right there and push out all the doubters and instead just keep the true believers. Because it seems to me like that's who you'd want to hang with are the the true believers. That's not what Jesus does. So it got me thinking about other stories where doubt was a part of the story and in, in fact, about Peter himself, who was on this mountain. And I don't know if he was worshiping or doubting. I know from history, maybe you turn back 14 chapters to Matthew 14 and you remember the story where where Jesus has just fed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish. Right. This unbelievable story. And so as the meal is winding down, he sends his disciples across the lake and says, I'll join you later. He dismisses the crowd. He goes up where? On a mountain. And he prays. And then early in the morning he comes down and he's going to see the disciples and they're in the boat. And he may remember the wording is the the waves and the wind were buffeting the boat. And so Jesus walks out to them and the disciples are overjoyed. They're like, Awesome, Jesus. We know they're terrified.

They think they see a ghost as walking on the water to them. And Jesus says, Calm down, it's me. It's me. And Peter says. Lord, if it's you. Tell me to come on the water. Kind of an interesting statement. Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come on the water. And Jesus says, Come. And Peter gets down out of the boat and he walks on the water. Unbelievable. Incredible. Amazing. Does a back spring handstand superstar? No, that's not what happens. He walks on the water as he's coming to Jesus. He sees the wind and he sees the waves. And he gets afraid. You start sinking and he cries out, Lord, save me. And Jesus says, No, you should have thought about it before you got out of the boat. Oh, wait, sorry. That's not a different version. Immediately Jesus reaches out his hand and he catches him. And he says, You of little faith. Why did you doubt? Yeah, I thought this was. I grew up thinking this was a story about Peter doubting Jesus. Like Jesus said, come and Peter's like, I did. And I totally sank, man. You know, like Jesus wasn't sinking. You notice that there was no doubt on who was staying up in the water. Jesus was just fine. So who did Peter doubt? Jesus said, come. He gives them a command and then he empowers him to do the work. Peter starts doubting.

Peter Wright.

I think that's going to be a challenge for us as we are are standing. Sometimes it feels like we're in a boat and we're being buffeted by wind and waves and we're not sure where this is going. And we see Jesus and he says, come rather than next year, we're trusting and believing that Jesus is going to say, Come, come on out on the water. Will we receive that call? Will we stand in strength and courage or will we doubt ourself? That's a challenge for us. Will we doubt ourself? Peter doubts himself. Look at how Jesus responds. Look how Jesus responds to doubters. The folks who show up on a mountain because Jesus called them to be there. And they see him there and they're still not sure. Is this real?

Can I trust this?

Can I really give my full life to this? Have you ever wondered that? Like are these is this more than just a story?

Jesus said. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore. Go.

Therefore, you doubters who struggle.

With.

Faith, you go.

Therefore, you doubters who aren't.

Really sure how this is.

All going to work out, who are still wrestling with what are the implications in my life.

You go.

And you make disciples of all nations and baptize them into the name of the Father and the.

Son and the Holy Spirit.

And teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always.

To the very end of the age. Jesus in the midst of their doubt. Some of them probably Jesus.

Some of them probably doubting themselves. He says, you go. You come out on this water with me. You go and make disciples. He's pretty clear about what happened.

Make, baptize. Teach another pair of three. Kind of magical thing there. Thank you, Jesus. He says, You go and you establish my kingdom. You go and you live out my.

Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. N.t. Wright would say it this way. He says, Those who believe in Jesus, who are witnesses.

To his resurrection.

Are given the responsibility to go and make real in the world the authority which he already has. This, after all, is part of the answer to the prayer that God's kingdom will come on earth as in heaven.

If we pray that.

Prayer, we shouldn't be surprised if we are called upon to help bring about God's answer to it.

Jesus cared deeply about using us as his ambassadors.

And saying, Would you help me establish the kingdom?

Would you be a kingdom.

Bringer in your little sphere of influence, in your family, in your marriage.

Around the school table, lunch table in the classroom, in your workplace.

In your neighborhood, in your city? Would you be a kingdom bringer?

Would you help us establish another place where the.

Kingdom is breaking through?

Would you help us be a part of that? Church. Are we willing to partner with others who said, I want to give my life to that? I'm going to be about that all of my days. See, Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. So when he calls us to be his ambassadors, when he calls us out.

On the water, it's more than just.

Words. And he has the power to make it happen. Will we trust in that power? Will we be a part of establishing God's kingdom? Oh, Lord, I pray that we would.

I pray that our hearts would.

Echo with the.

Story we have heard today. About you empowering those who are doubt, those who have little faith, those who struggle, sometimes knowing how to make.

Things work and make it all make sense.

God, I am so thankful that you work with.

Broken people who see miracles in their lives and walk out the door and forget about it. Who Time after time after time. God, you have worked and moved. An unbelievable ways. And yet we still struggle. God, you don't disqualify us from being your ambassador. Instead, you just call us back out on the water. God, would you give us courage this week? Would you give us courage in the.

Coming year as we dream together as a church, as a as a missions.

Committee, as a leadership team, as an entire church family about where it is you want us to help establish the kingdom? What are those places around the world, beginning in our own home and our own neighborhood and our own city where your kingdom needs to break through some more. God, would you help us to be people who are committed to establishing justice in the world? Where everybody matters. Everybody has a voice. Everybody has a place at the table. It's not limited to always having the right thoughts and the right things about and the right beliefs about everything. Begin simply because you created us in your image and you've called us. Would you would we bear that image in the world? And especially maybe most importantly, to those who don't know. God, would you fill us with grace? Not anger or rage or disappointment. But instead, Father. Would you fill us with love? And God, would you help us to commit that that.

This week we're going to we're going to work on establishing a little beachhead of your kingdom just in our own life.

In our own heart. Maybe it's a particular relationship. God, were you ready for us to just. So the kingdom break through a little bit.

It may mean letting go of some resentment.

Or some anger or a tendency to gossip. God, whatever it is. Would you call us? Would you give us that same command you gave to Peter when he was in that boat? Come. Come. That you have all authority in heaven and on earth to make it happen. Yeah, but you give us courage to take that step. Lord, wherever it may be. For some of us, it may be just even in establishing a relationship with you. God, would you help us to have the courage to take our next step, whatever it may be? Lord. We want to be a church that's committed to establishing and strengthening and multiplying your kingdom. God, thank you for our mission partners. Thank you for our mission committee. Thank you for our elders. God, would you bless them as they dream? Would you bless us? As together we dream and we share.

Hearts together this next year to see where it is.

God, what's next?

What's our next opportunity? Father, thank you so much for your amazing love.

And you love your world, your people so much that you gave your one and only son that we might be reconciled back to you. Oh, God. May we walk in the strength of that power this week and be an ambassador for you to establish the kingdom? In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.