Coming Home Pt. 4 // Return to the Mission of God

Discover what it truly means to live on God's mission in this powerful message about moving from waiting to witnessing. Learn why God's mission has a church, not the other way around, and how you fit into His cosmic story of reconciling the world to His love. This teaching explores Jesus' final instructions to His disciples and reveals the four key elements that happened when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, providing a blueprint for Christian mission today. Find out why waiting for the Holy Spirit's power is essential before beginning any ministry or outreach, and understand how the early church moved from comfort zones to bold witnessing. Explore the biblical foundation of God's mission from the Garden of Eden through Abraham's calling, the prophets, and Jesus' perfect obedience. Learn practical ways to be a bridge builder in your community, speaking the gospel in language people can understand. Discover your unique calling as a sent one and how God has strategically placed you to reach specific people who may never enter a church building. This message includes actionable steps for identifying and praying for those God has placed in your life, understanding your role in the sending movement of the church, and joining what God is already doing rather than asking Him to bless your own plans. Perfect for Christians seeking to understand their missional calling, church leaders looking to inspire congregational outreach, and anyone wanting to live with greater purpose and intentionality in their faith journey.

This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast. Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love. Visit us online at the lookout.church.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Alright, friends. Alright, friends. Go ahead and take a seat. So glad to have you with us here today. It's a good day for many reasons. It's a good day for many reasons. Thank you for joining us in single-digit weather. I know you had to peel yourself out of your comfy bed this morning in order to brave the weather. So thanks for being here. It's good to be unified with you guys, except for the dude wearing the Patriots jersey over here. I rebuke you. I'm joking. I'm joking. Kind of. If you're a guest with us, like Shannon said, so glad you're here. My name is Luke. We're going to open the scriptures today. We're a Bible church. We love the Word of God. We love the Spirit of God. And I'm excited to get into the Word today. Like Shannon said too, with the couple events coming up in February, I just want to double down on those things. The Welcome to the Lookout class is going to be an awesome time to meet some of you if you're new to the community. And then emotionally healthy spirituality. I'm telling you, Megan and I have the privilege to teach the course. We love doing this course. I've been through it a gazillion times. But we're going to do this one called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality in the Spring, and in the fall, one called Emotionally Healthy Relationships, which is about the way that we relate to each other. I'm telling you, if you need to do both parts of the course at least once in your life, okay? You need to be be a part. I know it's a commitment to come on a Tuesday night. I'm telling you, what you will walk away with, you will, it's just so valuable what you will walk away with and how it will enrich your life with God. So definitely consider that over the next several weeks. So we're going to jump into the message that if you have your Bible, you can open up to Acts chapter one. That's where we'll start. Let me just catch you up here, though, if you haven't been with us. We've been in this series called Coming Home as we're starting 2026. And, you know, it's it's it's it's really been a series about returning to the essentials of what it means to follow Jesus and what we what comes to mind for us when we think about orienting our life around Jesus. It's pretty common uh in the month of January for people of all kinds, churchgoers or not, to to kind of reset their lives, goals, resolutions for the year. What we're doing though is we're resetting our hearts and we're resetting the trajectory and we're fine, we're allowing space for God to fine-tune us around the things that matter to him. Around the lookout, the way that we describe that, what we say is our vision is Jesus, abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission. That's what we'll be talking about today. Living on his mission for what? To transform the world with awe-inspiring love. How many of you guys know that Jesus is still on mission, transforming the world with his awe-inspiring love? Come on. And some of you, that's why you're here today. That's why I'm here. Um, it's not just mediocre love, it's not conditional love, it's not love that runs out, it's love that leaves us in awe and wonder. There is nothing like the love of God. And it's open to all of us here today. So over the last few weeks, some of us have actually been fasting and praying as well. Maybe you've been a part of that. I hope you have. There's something about entering into seasons of fasting and prayer for the last 2,000 years and even beyond that. Believers in Jesus have been uh uh practicing fasting as a way of tuning our souls, our spirits, our bodies, even to the will and the ways of God. And some of you have been off of social media, maybe you've had a dietary fast, that kind of thing. Whatever that looks like for you, just want to thank you for participating. I hope that Jesus has been speaking to you. And also, how many have been following along in the prayer guide? Just give me a whoop. Yeah. Uh huge thanks to Shannon Capel, come on, for putting that together. Um she uh, yes, great a little golf clap for Shannon Capel. Um uh it's a lot of work to do that and thankful for just a shared journey of prayer and the scripture. So um, so we're kind of entering the final week of the fasting and prayer together. For me, it's been very enriching, and I pray it has been for you too. This week, too, before I get too far ahead. This week there's a couple additional prayer meetings Tuesday night. If you want to come on Tuesday night in the theater, uh there's gonna be a prayer meeting at 6:30, and then also Wednesday, midday at noon, we'll be on the third floor. So these are just extra times to come and be with other people in prayer, all right? This is what we do. Okay. So as we're coming home, though, this theme coming home, what we're talking about is in some ways a return to what matters most. It's a return to the Father's house. And so the first week we talked about coming home to God's presence. In an age of distraction, what we're doing is we're practicing what it means to be present with ourselves, with God, and with others. We do that through giving ourselves to practices like prayer and worship, through devotion in the scriptures, through Sabbath keeping, through things that help us separate our time and order our lives around God. There is nothing like living every day aware that He is with us every moment of the day, not just the spiritual, the spiritual moments, right? And I just we just have to keep reminding ourselves, God, it's not just He's with us at church, He is involved in every intricate detail, the fabric He's woven into our lives. And as we wake up to Him, we see that He's in everything. And there's nothing like living every day in the presence of God. Is anybody with me here today? So we live, we come home to the presence of God in an age of distraction. We also come home to the God's family. And this is what Jesse talked about last week. And it's a beautiful thing to know that when you come home to God's family, it's we don't come home to an empty house, we come home to a family gathered around him as well. And that's it's important for us because in an age of isolation, we need to know that we're the spiritual journey is not a solo journey, it's a communal journey. And what God did was he reconciled the whole world to himself to call to himself a people that together, as we practice unity, it actually messages something to the world about the unconditional love of God and the and and the restorative power of God to bring together people of every different tribe and tongue and political party and ethnicity and race and gender, the whole thing. We all get to be a part of God's family. That should be exciting. I love even this last week at our men's night for all the the dudes who came to the men's night, it was awesome. Um that was one of the things in our group as we were talking. One of the guys said, Man, I I I love being here. But he commented, he said, he said, if you would have told my 16-year-old self that my 31-year-old self would be at a men's night for a church, he's like, I would have thought you were crazy. And uh, but he said, Man, there's no place I'd rather be, though. This is like, this is this is what I want to do. And it was just awesome to see even men say, like, we're gonna avail our hearts to each other because that's what we're made for, right? So we come home to God's family, and so we practice that through intentional gathering, through serving, through generosity, as we've talked about. Um, and so this week we're gonna talk about this kind of third thing, coming home to God's mission, and and really what this is is in an age where everybody's living for their own story, we're practicing living into the story of God for the sake of the world. Come on. Come on, come on. So after Jesus had resurrected, he went to the cross three days later, he resurrected in the power of the Spirit. He's like, Man, I need like 40 more days with you guys. And so he gets 40 more days. It says he he walks, he's with his disciples for about 40 more days. He's talking about the kingdom of God. And so we come into Acts chapter 1, which is kind of the setup for the birth of the church. We'll get to that here in a second. But Acts chapter 1 talks about this next scene of what Jesus feels like is most important for his disciples and his early church followers as they're going to live out everything that he taught, as they're going to move forward. And so, Acts chapter 1, starting in verse 4, let's read this together. It says this, and while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me, for John baptized you with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know the times of the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria until the end of the earth. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So he spent a few years with his disciples. He's preparing them for the days and the years ahead. But what's really interesting is his, you know, this next scene after his resurrection, you think, you know, if you were writing the story, you'd think, oh, he's just gonna stay here for all of time. Like he resurrected, and he's just we're just gonna be with it. He's not gonna go anywhere. Like, just stay here. But that's not what was on his plan. And he knew that there was actually something different that he wanted to do, which was to send the Holy Spirit. And it wasn't God's plan that Jesus would say, but he would ascend to the right hand of the Father, still living and alive today. One day he'll come again. It would have been very comforting to the disciples to know that Jesus in flesh was just gonna stay here and just kind of be there, just all the time when they need him. But he said, I must go, and when I go, what I want you to do is not just charge ahead, but I want you to wait. Everybody say wait. I want you to wait for the promise of the Father, who is the Holy Spirit. I've told you about him, and he's coming. Don't go anywhere until you're baptized with the Holy Spirit. And they responded as we would have like, but Jesus, like, when are you going to make Israel great again? When are you going to restore Israel? And that was really what was on their mind. They had one picture of what this is going to look like, and he said, Listen, that is not given to you to know the times or the seasons for anything. He didn't say whether he would or whether he wouldn't. But he said, It's by the Father's authority, and he has fixed times and seasons. So I'm not going to tell you how things are going to unfold. But here's what I will say to you. For now, I'm going to give you something better, and that's this. Instead of knowing what exactly I'm doing, I'm going to give you something better. You're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. That's even better than knowing what's happening right now. That's even better than a certainty of how everything is going to unfold. You're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And out of that, you will become my witnesses here and there and to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. And those are all geographic locations, right? And just so you guys know, it's like Israel is very small in comparison to the rest of the world. You can fit about 12 Israels into Colorado, for instance. So when he's saying, we're going to start right here and go a little further out and a little further out, then everywhere. And you get to be a part of what I'm doing. So the invitation of Jesus here is really simple. He said, Listen, you're not always going to know exactly what I'm doing, but if you're willing to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit, you can join me in the greatest story of all time and invite others into it as well. Who's in for that? What I love about this is it shows us that the church was born out of the mind of God to accomplish the mission of God. So God already had it in his mind and his heart and his intention from the beginning to reconcile the whole world to himself. So, because of that, we have to kind of change the way we talk about the mission of the church. This is what I love what Alan Hirsch says about this. He says this the church doesn't have a mission. God's mission has a church. It's not that the church has a mission. Just so you know, I'm not up here saying, hey, here's our new mission. Well, I've got a new one, guys. Come follow me because I've figured it out. Here's what we're gonna do. That's not what we're doing here. What we're doing is we're opening the scriptures saying God has was on the move way before you we ever took our first breath. Before we showed up on the scene, there was a story unfolding. He has pulled us into his story, and because of that, this year, you and I, the body of Christ, along with the believers all across the world and for all of time, we are now entering into the cosmic mission and story of God as a continuation of the reconciling of the entire world into his great love. Come on. This is the story of God. So we're not here to improve our stories. We're entering into a story that will never end and will never fade. The glory of man will fade away. You guys know that. All glory fades away, but the word of God stands forever. The story of God stands forever. How comforting is it to know that when you enter into the story of God, you're entering into a story of incredible meaning and significance and purpose that can never be taken away from you. And this is why believers for the last 2,000 years have given their lives to this story. That's the only reason you're here today. It's for two millennia. Believers are literally given your lives. The reason we're we're even reading the Bible, the scripture, is because men and women said this is worth dying for. Men and women were burnt at the stake so that we could have a translation in our hands and like seven more Bibles just sitting on shelves in our house. They gave their lives. They were burned alive, literally. The persecuted church all around the world, even today, is they're risking their lives because they know it's worth it and they know it must continue. And there's no greater honor than to give your life to be in the story of God that the whole world may know. His incredible, unfathomable love. The church doesn't have the mission. God's mission has a church. And this is the story from the beginning. God has always been searching for the hearts of men and women. This was didn't start with Jesus. It wasn't like, okay, I got a new idea. We're going to go on this mission crusade. No, this happened from the very beginning. Let's just do a little recap in the scriptures. If you've read through the beginning in Genesis chapter 1, we read how Adam and Hom were created to be to live at home in the love of the Father, abiding with him in the garden. It was a world of just just complete union with the Father. And then a couple chapters in, as we know, they they were deceived in their thinking. They decided to eat of the fruit that was forbidden. And in doing so, they thought they could take a shortcut to life in God. But it was because they decided in their own way, they stepped outside of the trust in the ways of the Father that sin entered the world. It was a fracturing that happened in a single moment. And what's amazing about the story in Genesis 3 is immediately after, immediately after they sin, they they realize they're naked, they they find fig leaves and they cover themselves in animal skin and fig leaves. And immediately in Genesis chapter 3, verse 9, God calls out to them. And you need to know when he says, Where are you? A lot of times this wasn't a literal, it's not that God lost track of him, like I can't see you. It was, hey, something God, the Father, knew something had happened and they had left home. They left the home that they were made for, they left the heart of God. And so God moved being moved just Christ. Where did you go? Where are you? And this question is the catalyst that just launches through the rest of the Bible. The rest of the Bible is a response to this resounding question of God, of God searching for the hearts of the men and women who wandered from him. That would include us. So they move from this place of God needing to reconcile the ones that he created for his purpose. And out of that, we we read in Genesis 12 that God launches a kind of a new unfolding of a plan to rescue his people. And so he calls forth someone named Abraham, and the mission narrows to a man and his family. But the goal was never just them. God says to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, verse 3, I'm going to bless you, and you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. He says, He promises to Abraham, go to a land where I will show you, and I'm going to do something so incredible that it's not just going to be about you. It's going to be what I'm doing in all of the earth. And so this new family starts to be born. And they start to move and they gain an identity. This is where the people of Israel were formed because of the obedience of Abraham. And then the story of the scripture starts to continue to move from there. And to the law and the prophets. And we start to read throughout the whole Old Testament, God was always calling his people back to them. How many of you guys know? It's like he called his people to them and they said, Yeah, we're in. And then, like one page later, they're out. We're in. Now we're out. And it's like this emotional roller coaster. Oh my gosh, it's like a Broncos game, right? It's just like, are we winning? Are we losing? Who even knows anymore? And that's what you kind of read through the Old Testament, like, oh my gosh, we need some help. We need some serious help here. God knew that, so he sends prophets. And the prophets' role was to be oracles, to be people who would simply, um, sometimes painfully call the people back to the covenant of God and saying, Hey, don't forget what you're made for. Don't forget what God is doing through you. And you've lost your way, you've given yourself to false idols, you've you've been corrupted, you've been deceived by what the nations and all the culture and everything else is doing. Come back into the fold of God and remember what you were made for. I love in Isaiah 49, as he says, God says through Isaiah, I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. And you can hear even just the long the voice of God saying, Listen, I'm calling you back to myself because I want to do something through you that will ultimately be for all the nations. So God is on mission. And Jesus comes as a final kind of installment of this plan, a restoration. Jesus comes, and so as a sinless man, he does what Adam was not able to do in the garden. He's obedient to the Father. He did what Adam, he just Adam couldn't do it. Jesus came, he's fully God, but fully man, and he came sinless, dependent on the Father and the Holy Spirit. So he did what Adam was unable to do, but as a Jewish man from Israel, he did what the nation of Israel was not able to do either. And he lived faithful to the covenant of God. And by doing that and by giving his life as a perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God, the scripture says, slain for us, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. There's a lot underneath that language if that's not familiar to you. But basically through his life, but through his death and the giving away of himself, what he did was he reconciled us to the Father and He removed, just like we sang this morning, he removed the distance between us and the Father, so that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Somebody give him a praise right now. Everybody who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Well, what do I need to do? What do I, you know, what rules? Listen, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Well, so you know, so what like, but do I have to live up to a sinner? Listen, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. It's by grace we are saved through faith. It's not by your own works, so that none of us can boast, is what the scripture says. Because if it was by my works, I'd be, dude, I'd I'd I'd feel really good about that. But it the scripture says it's not by your own works. I'm gonna, he's, he came in. Did something for us that we could not do, so that we would live with an understanding of this is all mercy. This is this is an undeserved. I don't deserve this. And because I don't deserve it, I'm moved to give myself in devotion to him to do what I couldn't do. Are you guys with me on that? So Jesus gets the plot back on track. The church doesn't have a mission. God's mission has a church. And to be clear here, though, when Jesus kind of reorients his disciples, he said, Listen, I want you to go from here, and you're gonna start in Jerusalem and Judea and go to the ends of the earth. That's not just a difficult task, that's an impossible task. And Jesus knows this. This is literally mission impossible. And Jesus says, I'm gonna do something so big through you, you're not gonna be able to do it in your own strength, so you're gonna have to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit. And listen, if you think you can live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit, you are mistaken. Because you will live your entire life in your own willpower, just trying to white knuckle yourself into something that looks like morality. It will not lead to freedom, it will lead to bondage, which is why Jesus said, I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit for power from within. And the Holy Spirit will be your companion and your God every step of the way. He will be your best friend, he will be your comforter, he's gonna convict you of sin. That's gonna hurt. But he's gonna lead you back into my forgiveness and my grace and mercy because it's always there. He's gonna remind you of what you've forgotten. He's gonna give you the power to move on. And out of that, you're gonna actually have such a substance in your life that you'll actually be able to be my witnesses and you'll be able to tell the world about what I'm done in your life. Isn't that good news? Isn't it good news you haven't been left alone? And maybe you don't have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Maybe you're here today and you I mean it was it's just like you did what you did just to get to church today. You're like, man, I'm pretty proud of myself for just getting to church today. Listen, we're proud of you too. Um and I don't say that lightly. I'd like if you're just like trying to take a first step, that's awesome. I just it's such good news. My heart is just filled with you. I just want you to know God has not left you alone. And even today, he wants to give you the promise of his Holy Spirit. He wants you to feel it and to know it from the depth of your being. He's given you everything that you need that pertains to righteousness and godliness. Come on. Just thank him. Thank you, Holy Spirit. So they do what he says. Like, all right, well, I I guess we're gonna wait here. So they go back to Jerusalem, they're going, they they lock themselves in a room. Like, I don't know what else to do. So they're probably a little scared, they're probably uncertain. We don't know exactly what they're feeling, but you can kind of imagine. Your dude leaves, he just disappears into the sky after commissioning you to go into the entire world. You're like, oh, okay, cool. Well, see you later, right? I mean, it's like, what do we do from here? There's no roadmap. They didn't even really have, they didn't have a New Testament to go off of. They're just they're doing their best with all of the scriptures and the prophecies. They're like, well, I, you know, let's just do what he says. And here's what says happens in Acts chapter 2, verse 11, or verse verse 1. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues, that's kind of weird, divided tongues as of fire, appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. That's pretty round. Now they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from any every nation under heaven, and as the sound, the multit and at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of his own native language? Parthenians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphamilia, Egypt, Longmont, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytides, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongue what? The mighty works of God.

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Wow.

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And so we, many of us are very familiar with this passage. This is one of kind of our anchor point passages when we talk about life in the Holy Spirit. This moment, though, of waiting for God, just as Jesus said, they waited for him, likely fasting, and the Holy Spirit comes upon them in power. This passage, when we read in Acts chapter 2, this really was the birth of the church. Happy birthday, church. This is when the church was born, because out of this was an explosion, an explosion of movement that started moving and moving, and people started responding and responding. And it was from this moment of Holy Spirit power that the mission of God would be propelled forward. Now, a couple things I want to point out about this passage that I think is good for us today. What happened when the Holy Spirit came in power? First thing we see is that they moved out of the room. The first thing that happens when the Holy Spirit came in power, they moved out of the room. They didn't stay put and say, This is awesome. Let's just kind of soak here for a while. They're like, it led them out of the room. And I think it's it's really important for us to note it, to note that the Holy Spirit comes on us not for better church services, but to give us power when we leave the room. Okay? Listen, I love good church services. I'm a church boy through and through. I've been to the best of church services. I love it. But the Holy Spirit comes upon us to send us in his power for his mission, which has to do with the whole world. Which means when we leave, we ought to be more energized than we when we were in the room. That's his that's his that's that's that's what that's his game plan is that the Holy Spirit would come upon us so we'd catch a vision and we'd live in his power and his mind as we go into Erie, Colorado, as we work out at the rec center, right? As we go back to our accounting business. I mean, all of the things as we move out. God wants to give us his power. And so they moved out of the room. One of the things I most love about this passage, and the Holy Spirit comes upon them, they spoke in the language of the people. So it said that it's it's just it's a little weird to kind of read the language here, but like it says that tongues of fire appeared. This is the first kind of manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Tongues of fire appeared on them, and and they were given utterance. It said they were given languages. So they move out, and the first thing that happens is people are bewildered, and not because, like, wow, that's you know, that's cool that they're speaking in tongues. It's they started hearing a language they could understand. And they said, Well, I thought these are Galileans, but I'm hearing something I can understand. And what was it that they were proclaiming in the languages? The mighty works of God. It's it's it's really important to understand. Like, first, for instance, I believe in speaking in tongues. I I have a you can call me crazy. I love speaking in tongues. Okay, I have a prayer language, I believe it's in the scriptures that when that we can actually have a language with God, and I don't understand it, but I think my spirit does. This scripture talks about, we read it earlier, groans too deep for words, and there's sometimes there's things that happen inside of us that doesn't have an English equivalent. Can we just put it like that? God knows it though. So I love that. But in this passage, in this passage, when they went out, the first manifestation was people were able to hear something in their own tongue. I I think it's interesting that oftentimes in the church, we expect everybody else to come in and learn our language. But God wants to give you the language of the people to send to go to the people he sent you to to declare his works in a language that their hearts and minds are tuned to hear. Come on. Sometimes we expect, everybody, come on in here. We're gonna teach you how to speak, we're gonna give you all the vernacular, we got all the things. And listen, we have a whole history of the scriptures. There's there's a lot of really special things in the Word of God, but the heartbeat of God is to equip you with the language so that you go to the ones that God has sent you and you know how to deliver the gospel, the word of God in a way that they uniquely can hear. You are called to be a bridge builder. You are called to figure it out with the Holy Spirit how to hand deliver the best news ever to the people that God has put in your life. I love this, guys. This is like this is why I love teaching because I'm like always asking God, I just want the people of God, even us here, I just want to be able to understand what you're saying in a way that we're tuned to hear. So they went out and people started to hear the praises of God and they started to respond because they said, I know that language. I know that. And if that's what God has done, I'm responding. 3,000 people were to give their lives to Jesus that day after Peter's sermon. So, again, just to recap here, what happened when the Holy Spirit came in power? They moved out of the room, they spoke in the language of the people. They were filled with boldness. And we can't underplay how bold they were when they came out. They had the courage to share the story of Jesus, they had the courage to pray for the sick, they had the courage to move out, even if it was threatening to those in power. They said, This is what God has done, and you need to know it. May we have the boldness and courage of the early church. May God restore that in our day. The deep conviction that everybody actually needs to hear this. This isn't just for me, this is for the entire world. They're filled with boldness, and kind of the last thing here, they were they joined God in his mission. If you want to live with God's favor, you need to be a part of what God is doing. I love what Bono said. He said, Stop asking God to bless what you're doing. And it said, get involved in what God is doing because it's already blessed. How many of us need to hear that? We pray a lot of prayers. God, can you, you know, bless this and bless that. There's nothing wrong with that. But you know what's even better? To have the eyes to see, God, where are you at work in my life and who are the relationships that you've given me? What are you doing in my workplace, in my neighborhood? What are you doing in our city, in our nation? What are you stirring up? And I just want to be a part of what you're already doing that's already blessed. That's the best way to live a blessed life. It's just to obey God and to do what He's doing. Amen? So as a church, this is something we want to keep reminding us of. This is not a static thing. We are not a static people, we are a sent people. We're not a static people, we're a sent people. And we have to know there's movement all the way through the Bible, all the way through the scripture, there's a movement, and it just doesn't stop. It doesn't stop. We're on the mission of God, right? So Jesus said, as the Father sent me, so I sent you. Don't you love this? That the Father sent the Son, and the Son sent the Spirit, and now the Father, Son, and Spirit send the church. And the church sends you. It's just we're part of a sending movement. It just doesn't stop. When we forget that, then we live for less than what God is doing on earth. And what God is doing in your life is far more important than what you think. Do you understand that you were born in this time and period? I mean, you were here on January 25th, 2026. What a unique time in history. That God knew that you would be present and alive and breathing in between Boulder and Longmont and wherever you live, that God put you here. You might think that you're here on accident, you're not. You might think that you're working where you work on accident, you're not. You might think that you're living in the house that you're living in on accident, and it's because this and this and this. Listen, my view of God is so much bigger than that. God has ordained you for this time and this season for a specific purpose, and God wants to remind you that the life that you live is not inconsequential, but you are made to live as a person of great consequence on this earth. And that does not always mean doing what we call big things. It's just like Mother Teresa said, even the small things done with great love. But it's taking every day seriously that I am living as a sent one, as a missionary, right where I'm put. How many of you guys know we are in the ends of the earth right now? We're not in Israel. That means we're in the ends of the earth. And God might be sending you to another type of the ends of the earth. It could be, but even for right now, what if we all lived with the mindset that our lives matter for the work he's called us to do, for the people he's called us to live with? Are you guys with me here? So he's entrusted to you relationships, he's entrusted to you things in your life for a specific purpose. There's people in your life that only you, you, you alone, have the ability to image what God's love looks like in their life. They may never they may never darken the doors of a church, but but God has sent you to them for a unique purpose. You are the closest thing they will see to Jesus, some of you, until they meet him face to face. And that's really what we're trying to do. We say our vision is Jesus, so the question is, how do we get more people to see Jesus? How do we get more people? How can we help people see Jesus? It starts with us living into the love of God and taking seriously the places that He sent us to. If we live in that every day, this is how the world sees Jesus. So a couple things, a couple questions I want to do this morning. Listen, this can look a lot of different ways for us. And like Jesus said, there's Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. Some of us are called to massive things. Some of us are called to slightly less massive things. All of us are called to be here and now. Every single one of us. And I believe to the degree that we're faithful with what he's given to us right now, he will entrust us with more. So here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna have the ushers hand out these cards. And we did this last year, we're gonna do it again because I think this is one of the best, simplest practices we can have on a daily basis to remind ourselves I am not living for my own story. I'm living on the mission of God with God for the sake of others. And there's people that God has uniquely given to you in this time and this season. He hasn't given it to anybody else, he's given them to you. And you're like, well, geez, what does that mean? So you're gonna get this card, and it says on this card, on mission with Jesus in 2026, I commit to pray for, and it gives you room to write in a name. Here's what I want you to do. Um, there is, I I guarantee you there's someone in your life, at least one person that God has put into your life, that hasn't yet encountered the love of God. Maybe what they're facing in life, maybe they're they're far from God. Maybe uh, maybe not only that have they not encountered God's love, they don't know who Jesus is, they don't know what He's done for them, but maybe they're even living in brokenness of some kind, or addiction, or despair, or heartache, or pain, or maybe even just pride and arrogance. I don't know. Maybe things are good on the outside, but they haven't encountered God yet. Here's my question to you: whose name are you gonna put in this box? God has given you just one person this year to say every day, I'm gonna commit to pray for this person. I'm gonna commit to holding them in the presence of God, believing that God wants to chase after them. How many of you know that scripture says the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective? Now, how many of you guys did this with us last year? Just raise your hand. You you filled that out. Okay. Okay, truthfully, how many of you within the course of the year actually had a conversation or a spiritual, like an open door or some kind of movement within that relationship? Raise your hand. So almost all the same hands. Not everybody was here for that, but I'm telling you, I had the same thing. The person I prayed for, it took them all year. They were actually in the building here in this building this last week. We got to host a big party, and they were actually come into this space, which for me is a huge breakthrough. That actually happened here. It took an entire year that they were in this building over the weekend, just this last weekend. I've been praying for them all year. We've had moments earlier in this year that he had dreams, and I was able to help them interpret his dreams and understand what God was trying to speak to him. Still not there as he confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior. No, not yet. But I'm telling you guys, when we're faithful to pray for the ones that God has given us, he wants to move on their behalf through us. Are you guys with me? So I'm just gonna take a moment here. This is our challenge, one of our challenges coming into the year. Now listen, it may be more than this one person that God has given to you. He you might be called to adopt your neighborhood. You might be called to go after a bigger project or something like you know, in our nation that has to do with justice and mercy or or or serving the poor. I mean, there's there's it can mean a lot of different things. But I'm just wondering as a church, if we can be faithful with each one having a one, I would dare us to see what God would do for us on our behalf and for these individual ones over the course of the year. Are you guys with me? Okay, I'm gonna give you one more minute. I'm gonna stop talking here. And hopefully you have a pen. If you if you don't have a pen, you could probably find one in the back. But listen, take a moment, ask Jesus who he wants you to hold in prayer this year. And I want you to write down a name. I'm just gonna give you a minute here to yourself. Okay, you guys got your one? Yeah? Okay, so here's one more encouragement. This card, keep it in your Bible, keep it somewhere discreet. I wouldn't encourage you to go to your cubicle and just kind of post it on your computer. Your coworker walks by like, hey, why is my name on your computer? I'm like, well, all right, you don't have to do that, okay? I wouldn't encourage you to go public and show everybody that you're this is between you and God. This is just a little reminder, okay? Um, but here's what I want to do let's all stand together. So I'm believing in this room right now that most of us that are willing to accept the challenge to Day, have a card, have a name. This name is somebody that matters to God, it matters to the heart of God, which is just take your card. If you have a card, you guys, you youth, do you guys have a card? Alright, you guys got your cards? This matters. I want you to I want you to hold it in the air. Here's what we're gonna do: we're gonna pray together. And just like in the scriptures, when it said the Holy Spirit came upon them and moved them out, we're gonna pray the Holy Spirit comes upon us right now, but not just so we get the little goosebumps, the Holy Spirit goosebumps. We're gonna pray that God fills us with power for the sake of this person right here, for the sake of this one. And here's what we're gonna pray. We're gonna say, God, give us open doors. God give us the ability to serve this person, to listen to them, maybe challenge them when needed, but to love them well, that you would give us conversations, open doors of conversations, and that you'd give us the courage to speak up when we need to speak up and tell the testimony of what you've done in our lives. So everybody, put your hand on your heart today, and we're just gonna receive the Holy Spirit afresh, okay? This is what we get to do. We receive the Holy Spirit afresh. I thank you, God, that it's not just a one-time thing, but it's every day of life. We live in the Holy Spirit. So I just pray right now, across this room, as we hold up our ones in the air, God, I thank you this year, as we are diligent to hold these ones that you love, that you created in your image and likeness, I just pray that you would empower our prayers and that you would give us the boldness and the courage to love them well, Lord God. I thank you to put new language in our mouths that they can understand, to understand and to see you clearly and who you are. I thank you for open doors, for a bold witness. I thank you for the mind of Christ, the gifts of the Spirit, joy inexpressible, love that inspires awe, humility in our posture, wisdom in our conduct, meaning and purpose. I thank you, God, you've given us everything we need to be a representation, an ambassador, and missionary for your name, for the people you love. Holy Spirit, send us in your fire, send us in your power to love the ones that you love. And it's in Jesus' name we pray together. Come on, somebody say it. Amen. Amen. Thank Jesus together. He's given us a wand. Come on. Let's keep standing, keep standing. I just wanted to encourage you guys, don't just throw this on the backseat of your car on the way home. Laminate it. All right. Put it in a frame, you know, in your prayer closet, whatever you need to do, just don't lose it. Okay? This is important as we go through the year. And as we go today, though, we're going in the power of the Spirit. So I just want to bless us. And listen, as we leave here, we're going to have ministry team members on the sides of the rooms. And this is our team that's just willing to pray for you. If you can't, you came in this morning, there's something top of your heart, top of your mind, that you're like, man, I'd love for somebody just to pray with me. These are people that can pray with you. Maybe you haven't been, you haven't received the Holy Spirit, or maybe you don't even know what a relationship with Jesus really looks like. These are people you can talk to. We'd love to pray with you. And we're just so thankful that you're here today. And I'm just so full of hope for the year that God is sending us into. 2026 is going to be a great year, guys. Not because of all the circumstances, but because God is great and he's good towards us. Amen. So as we go, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. May He be gracious to you and lift His countenance upon you and give you rest. Go in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Alright, love you guys. We'll see you soon. See you next week.