Living Sent at Home

I just returned from an amazing mission trip to Baja,  Mexico.  We took seven folks from HighPoint along with another 50 great folks as part of Ten Day Missions.  I closed the trip with a message to the entire team called “Living Sent at Home”.  I’ve put the notes below, for those team members who asked for them.  Also, if you liked Baja, you will probably really enjoy our Kinetic Series that we preached on 3/8, 3/15, and 3/22.  For those mother’s out there, check out our Treasure Box message here (from 5/10).  For you dad’s, check out our Tool Box message here (from 6/21).  Without further adieu, here are my notes from “Living Sent at Home”: (pardon the punctuation, my notes don’t translate to writing very well so I added quite a bit of what I said to what I had in my notes…hopefully this helps those who wanted to see the notes)

Living Sent at Home (Rosarita, Mexico, August 9, 2009)

How many thought Baja Bob’s strategy of wlaking out into thte street and telling people to join us was really going to work?

I am a strategic person, with a well organized and detail militant staff.  And honestly, I wondered how it would work to just walk out into the street and invite people to join us under a tree three blocks away.

What would happen if you went back to your campus & knocked on the door across the hall and said “hey we have meeting in 5 minutes at the  student center”…or what would happen if you peeked over your cubicle and said “hey we have this thing happening on Sunday at 10″…

You know what would happen?  THEY WOULD COME!!

Researchers and church growth gurus tell us that  70% of unchurched Americans surveyed would attend church if invited by a friend.  70 percent!!!

Think about that…as open as it seems here in Baja…as great a harvest as we saw…I’ll bet we didn’t get 70% of those we approached

What could the Kingdom look like if you approached your home as the ripe mission field that it actually is?

Whether you live in Tennessee or Texas, California or Carolina, a dorm or an office, you are currently living in the ripest mission/harvest field

We need to “Live Sent”, even at home

 

 

John 20:21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” NIV

Imagine their story / it is all of our stories / I imagine He had some private conversation which scripture doesn’t include, but one thing written for all for all of them and for all of us for all time is “as the father has sent me, I am sending you”

 Within hours of the resurrection Jesus is prioritizing His work and the mission of His followers

 

The first word for sent is “Apostello”, which refers to Jesus overarching mission of redemption for all of creation.  He was set apart by His Father to bring redemption, and His work is seen in every generation.

The second word for sent in this verse is “Pempo”, which means that we are  set apart for a specific era in time

So within God’s grand scheme of redemption over all of time and humanity, each of us has a slice of time and an area where we are involved in the work of redemption

God’s story of redemption from Easter until now has been one person giving their life (Pempo) into His mission (Apostello) & here we sit on a beach in 2009 living our pempo in the grand apostello

 

BIG IDEA:  living sent is not a location but a duration

Four quick thoughts on living sent:

 1-  Be who God has made you, but let Him constantly re-make you

• John 1:1- “In the beginning was the Word…” yet John 1:14 “the Word became flesh…”
• you don’t have to be Gregg Tipton or try to flow in someone else’s gifting, but don’t stay in the same mindset when He is trying to enlarge you…
• like a college student who returns to his parents home and they still see you as their little boy…even though only 5 days have passed in Baja, you have grown immeasurably…live bigger

 

2- Hold fast to the mission…after temptation in the desert…determine it at the beginning before heaven and hell…before one miracle was performed, before one public ministry, Jesus purposed exactly what His mission was and how He was gonna roll…approaching Jerusalem set His face like flint…in the garden, not my will but yours

• What has He ignited in you?  Living sent is not a location but a duration, so what mission has he birthed in you?
• Determine before life gets hectic, before the devil comes with other ideas, before it gets hard, before it is gonna cost you something.

 3-  don’t miss “on the way” ministry,

• The story of Omar the waiter is all throughout the Bible,
• it was on the way to a ministry meeting that the lady with the blood disorder met Jesus,
• it was while walking with his disciples to another appointment that Jesus heard the cry out from blind Bartimaeus,
• it was on the way to the temple that Peter and John stopped and fixed their eyes on the paralytic and said “silver and gold I do not have, but in the name of Jesus get up and walk”
• quite possibly you are the result of  “on the way ministry”
• and if you are willing to slow down and listen to the cries around you, it may be on the way to work…to you campus meeting…to church…on the way that God is sending you to another whose cry He has heard
• this is important b/c what can has gotten ignited here you will bring back to a church that has strategic plans, budgets, targeted outreach, and I have both been the returning missionary and seen the returning missionary who now wants his entire church to now get up and do what he has done
• in the same way that Baja Bob has a plan and a strategy, so does your pastor for his local context…Living sent has nothing to do with the mission field…throw yourself into the local church ministry but be keenly aware of “ministry along the way”
• so many Christ followers sit around and wait for their pastor to define the mission field for them or tell them when to go…all the while you are sleeping in your harvest field, walking thru your harvest field, having lunch in the middle of your harvest field
• jump into the official stuff, but do “ministry along the way”

 4- Embrace the cost- Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  The word for witness is the Greek word pronounced “mar-toos”…MARTYR!  Are you willing to receive power from teh Holy Spirit to lay down your life?  Are you willing to be so led in power that you are nothing like you used to be? 

 God would never choose for us safety at the cost of significance.”          -Erwin McManus

 Conclusion

Jesus lived to die, died to rise, rose to save, and saved to send

The only step we have any role in is whether we go as sent…He put this Gospel in your heart and in your hand and expects that it would impact and grow in those around you

 Jesus’ answer for the masses is the life of His followers

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