She was a towering four foot ten inches for her whole life. And she was made fun of it for that. She had black hair. She envied all the girls around her who had blonde curly hair. She was bad at school too. She dropped out when she was 14. She wandered from job to job from what we would call a dollar store. to a grocery store, then a nanny, and a maid for the wealthy. Her life at this point sounded like the lyrics from a country music song. At least she wasn't a boy whose dad had named her Sue, like Johnny Cash had written about at this point. But her nannying job, cleaning for the wealthy, put her in the middle of the city, in London, and she fell in love with city life. And then she caught the bug. In the evening, she attended classes for drama, and all she wanted to do was be an actress. Something else happened to her life at about that same time that would change her life and the lives of many people in the world. She wrote, one night for some reason I can never explain, I went to a religious meeting. I hated church and the people who went there. I viewed it as a colossal waste of time. But for some reason I can never explain, I went to a religious meeting. There, for the first time, I realized God had a claim on my life, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. A four-foot-ten school dropout, a black-haired young lady pursuing an acting career had unknowingly stumbled onto the biggest stage of her life. She'd found someone she didn't know she was looking for. but she realized she needed. Or maybe we should say that Christ had found her. What was her name? Gladys Aylward. She died 1970, born early 1900s. Hollywood made a movie about her life starring an award-winning actress, Ingrid Bergman, the sixth in of Happiness, and Gladys said they got almost nothing right in the film. Soon after trusting in Christ as her only hope, she joined a Young Life campaign. I read an article about China in one of their magazines, she said, and it made a terrific, lasting impression on me. To realize that millions of Chinese had never heard of Jesus Christ was, to me, a staggering thought. And I felt we ought to do something about it. You can hear her life story on YouTube, 1950, sharing in a group in Canada. She's a fiery lady. She discussed it with her friends, pushed them, but no one seemed to care. She thought, I can bully my brother into this. She said, I thought if I promised to go with him, surely my brother would go. Not me, he said bluntly. That's an old maid's job. Why don't you go yourself? Old maid's job indeed, I thought angrily. But the thrust had gone home. Why should I try pushing other people off to China? Why didn't I go to myself? So around 30 years of age, 1932, Gladys set out from London taking the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. She would have loved if they would have accompanied her on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. A very dangerous trip for her. One of her biographers describes the scene. Her suitcase was filled with all the food for her journey because she had no money to buy meals along the way. Dangling from her suitcase were a bedroll and a tea kettle, a saucepan, a small camping type stove, and an army blanket bundled around a few clothes. This unpolished woman who had never traveled outside her own country or language, Now she was setting out alone in a new world and life, able only to guess what lay ahead. And she admitted, I didn't even know where China was. I just got a ticket to go there. Well, through many dangers and toils and snares, threats to her own life as a single lady traveling the railroad through Russia, she finally arrives in northern China. In a few years, China was not a place for Gladys. It became her home. She wrote, I lived exactly like a Chinese woman. I wore Chinese clothes and I ate their food. I spoke their dialect. I even found myself beginning to think as they did. This was my country now. The northern Chinese were my people. I decided that I would apply and become a naturalized Chinese subject. And in 1936, four years after she'd arrived, my application was granted and my official name was given that I can't pronounce, but it meant the virtuous one had been given to her. Her theology, her understanding about God was clear and uncomplicated. Here's how one of her biographer tries to describe Gladys' theology in her own words. There was a living God and she was a servant. There was a loathsome creature called Satan and she was his enemy. There was an immortal soul in every human being proceeding to an eternity in either heaven or hell. Her job in life was to convince people, but if they would but put their trust in Jesus Christ, her Lord, who had died on a cross for them, they would get straight on the road to heaven. And since Jesus Christ had come to life again and had promised to be with those who trusted him, however beset with trials the road to heaven might prove to be, they need fear nothing, for he would never let them down." In it, you hear the message of missions, the life, the death, the resurrection of Christ. In it, you hear the mission of missions. She said, I wanted to convince people to put their trust in Jesus Christ. And you hear the hope of missions. They need fear nothing for he would never let them down. Gladys was persuaded that when the Bible said you will be clothed with power from on high, it really was a promise for everyone. She thought back later to the painful events of her childhood. She now saw God's plan in her pain. She sat down with Elizabeth Elliot one time and reflected on her childhood. One had been that all the other girls had golden curls and she had black hair. The other was that everybody else in her childhood kept growing while she stopped growing at four feet ten inches tall. And then she said, I realized when I came to China, I was in the midst of people that God prepared me for. They all had black hair and none of them kept growing either past four foot ten inches. Chiang Kai-shek asked Gladys to travel to villages to persuade women to stop the custom of foot binding. She said that if she went, she would be sharing the good news about Jesus everywhere she went. That was the condition she had. You want me to go? You need to know I'm telling everybody about Jesus as I go into these villages. The government agent replied, that's fine because I've seen from you that when people become Christians, they become better citizens in China. Here's how she describes her evangelistic ministry. I would enter the village, gather the ladies, and tell them to stop this deplorable practice of foot binding. The government would be there to say it's now a law, so you must stop. In the evening, the villagers would come where I stayed overnight and ask for more stories and more songs about Jesus. Gradually, there were ones and twos converted here and there, and in each village, a little group gathered, the beginning of a small church. To the next years, as the gospel was preached, the practice of foot binding ceased, opium taking was reduced, and the witness to the saving grace of Jesus Christ was set up in many places. The Lord blessed this lady's love, Gladys' love, and even her evangelistic efforts so much so that a Chinese pastor appointed her as a Bible woman, an official position, a designation for a Christian female national who was employed for a very small sum by the indigenous church to function as an interpreter, a teacher, Bible reader, as an evangelist. One biographer notes, she may have been the only non-Chinese who ever worked as a Bible woman in capacity in China for the Chinese church. And she became a servant of the church, the Chinese church, not a mission church, and servant is not a metaphor for her. She filled whatever roles the church and pastor required of her. One of her jobs was cleaning the church building. As she swept cobwebs and the grit from every crevice, she prayed at the same time, praying God's spirit in and praying the devil out. She looked back on this time of her life with these words. As I look back, I'm amazed at the way God opened opportunities for service. I had longed to go to China, but never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that God would overrule in such a way that I would be given entrance into every village home, not just every village, into every village home, have authority to banish a cruel, horrible custom of foot binding, have government protection, and be paid to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ as I inspected the feet of women. Some of you have been given tremendous places of privileges in a similar type role or vocation with a foot binding type abuses on women and families. Be inspired by Gladys to make sure you also proclaim the gospel of Jesus as you do. And more, the same God who sent and sustained Gladys Aylward in the power of the spirit is ready to send you. Gladys was about 30 years old when she went. God's spirit, beloved, has been poured out on men and women to be ambassadors for the good news. Will you go? Will you pray about going? But who am I, you say? Just the kind of person that God actually wants to use. One of the short chapters you can read on Gladys' life, Noel Piper and Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God. This is how she concludes on Gladys' life. In spite of the inauspicious beginnings of the life of Gladys Eowart and the inauspicious persons they seemed to be, she looked back at the end of her life to see how God had worked through her. There was her own small family of adopted children. There were hundreds of orphans whose lives had been saved, who had received some formal education. Many of them had also been saved spiritually. She could foresee the end of foot binding. Productive changes had been made for prisoners that she advocated for. She could remember sick people who'd been healed, babies she'd helped to birth. A governor in China was now her brother in Christ. And believers and churches were scattered in villages throughout the most remote mountains because of her work. That's the kind of thing God does with men and women who are sent out in the power of the Spirit with intentionality to share the good news, advancing to new places and new faces. Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son and leaving us your Spirit until that work of missions is done. Well, that was a lengthy introduction to the last message of this series on missions. I hope this series has encouraged you to think more deeply. And beloved, I don't want you to think that I have it all figured out in this series that we've been going through. It has challenged me in my own life, my own understanding of missions and what the Bible says. I've been sharpened with conversations with some of you and even with those outside of Emanuel about missions and what the Bible says. And in particular, my own need to share the good news with love and courage, being reminded that I too, you too, are clothed with power from the Spirit. And not wait for then and there, but to share the gospel now and here. That's been one big takeaway in my own life. What we've been doing, if you're a guest here, we've been trying to go back to the Bible and bring clarity to what the Bible means when it talks about missions. Bringing our understanding back in alignment with the Bible. If you have bad eyesight like I do and you go to the eye doctor, this is what it's like. They put the machine over you and they say, can you see better with one or two? And you see two and they say, how about two or three? Does it look better or good? Is it about the same? And you go through this process of clarification until neither you nor the doctor can really tell any difference and then you wait until the next year and it all changes again. Well, that's just what we're trying to do. We're just trying to go back to the Bible and say, is this what it says or this? Is that a little closer? Is this a little closer? That's what we're doing. And I'm eager to see what God does with his five loaves and two fishes series, these messages, in our body now and in the future. By way of review, what we've seen is that talk of missions is muddy. We've tried to make it clear. We've tried to see without offending anybody, but we're not all missionaries, but we all are called to share the good news. Who in your life do you need to speak to about Jesus? Be a caring friend to them. Tell them the good news about the lover of your soul. We've also seen that not everything is missions, though Christians are free to do a number of wonderful things. The message of missions is the good news about Jesus Christ, His life, death, and resurrection, period. And the primary mission is, in Jesus' words, to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins in my name among all nations to the end of the earth. And what is a missionary? A missionary is one who's been sent out by the Spirit, through the church, with intentionality, advancing to new places and faces with the good news about Jesus. And this is done by evangelism and equipping churches and establishing churches. That's what we have seen. And next week, Lord willing, Lonnie Poulsen will be here and he'll share how God's working in the ministry that he's in and what's going on there. And then after that, Lord willing, we'll be back to settle in with 1 Samuel. But what I want to do this morning is just to set missions within the broader framework of what God is doing. I just want us to think about what God is doing in the world and where missions fits into this. It'll come at us in four points. God, Christ, the Church, Believers. Here's our title. The Matrix of Redemption. What's going on in the Matrix of Redemption? What's God's work? What's Christ's work? What's the Church's work? What's the Believer's work? What's all involved in this Matrix of Redemption? And where does mission split in? God, Christ, the Church, Believers. So, let's begin with God. I want you to think with me for a little bit. I know you've been doing that already, but run this through with me a little bit. Modern understandings of the world, particularly scientifically, want to say that life is random and uncaused. But if you're here today and you're a Christian who's struggling with what God's doing, or maybe you're not a Christian at all, we all know that life is not really random and uncaused. How do you know that? No matter who you are, justice and injustice are a really big deal. But guess what? If life is random and uncaused, if nature teaches you that only the strong survive, how can you actually say that stronger nations shouldn't take over weaker nations? How can we say that things like Me Too shouldn't happen if what Darwin says is actually how we all got here? Deep down inside every one of us is a drive for justice to fight against the wrong use of power. But that drive contradicts what we're told about how power plays itself out in the natural process. That it's random and uncaused, that the strong actually survive by praying on the weak. But the Bible tells you a different story. The Bible tells you a story that reflects our desires for the true and the good and the just. The Bible shares that the reason you and I feel wrong to this world is because the world was actually made with purpose. It was made with order. Only if the Bible's true, only if this statement is true, only if in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth are any of our calls for justice true. You see, we can't say the strong must not prey on the weak and then say, but that's exactly how all of our life has come about. You see, it's a contradiction. The only way you can say it's wrong is to plagiarize from the Christian story. And that's not being very honest. But the Bible begins in such a way to say that there has to be hope and justice for all. You know why? Because in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And in the middle are human beings who are alone out of all creation, reflect the inestimable glory and beauty of God. And when you look around and you sing with Louis Armstrong that the trees are green and the skies are blue, and when your heart sings about the bright, blessed day and the dark, sacred night, What's happening? Whether you know it or not, you're bearing witness to the artist behind everything. And the only right response to such a wonderful world is to sing its glory. Would you locate the last book in the Christian Bible? The very last book. If you don't have a Bible, you can listen. We're just going to look at one verse this morning. The very last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 4. Sometimes, you know, when you get to the end of a book, That's the way you turn to the end of the book, and then you can understand the rest of the book. Well, that's what we're doing in Revelation 4 and 5. That's about what's about to happen. In Revelation 4, we meet the artist, the grand storyteller behind everything. So maybe you've had this experience. You go to a concert of an artist that you like, a singer-songwriter, and just being in the same place, you get to see them. Wow. But now you get to meet them. That's even a better, richer experience. Well, that's what's happening in Revelation 4. We go behind the curtain. We get a backstage tour to meet the artist. And when we do, what do we see? Look at Revelation 4, verse number 11. This is what we see. Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. Why? For you created all things And by your will, they existed and were created." Now here we learn what we've been thinking about so far this morning. We learn that God is the loving designer, the creator of everything around us. And that since God is the loving provider and the creator of everything, that we are to care for creation. And more importantly, we're to care for one another. Second, this tells us since God made the wonderful world, He's worthy of something. What is it? What is God worthy of as the artist? He's worthy of the best of our life, the best of our time, the best of our efforts. Right here it's described as glory and honor and praise. That's what the artist deserves. And until you come, listen, I know there are deep wrestlings with God and His existence, but I want to say that a text like this tells you that until you come and meet and praise the author of your life, your life will always hang on an unresolved cord. You'll try to put the puzzle of your life together and there will always be a piece missing. There always will. He's the artist of the wonderful world. He's the writer of the greatest story ever told. Worthy are You, O Lord, for You created all things. But the grand problem is that we're plagiarists. What's plagiarism? I remember in third grade, we all went and we had this little stack, and you'd go turn your paper in, and this one young man named Chris wasn't behaving very well in the class. And the teacher said, have you turned your work in? Yes. Go get it out of the bin. Turn it in. He sits over there and he's doing this. And he turns the paper in and he had erased the name of the star student and written his name and then given it to the teacher. Like she was going to be fooled by that as she watched it all unfold and happen. That's plagiarism. Taking somebody else's work, stealing it, and then representing it as your own. Well now, If you're not a Christian today, but you protest at injustice and wrong among the nations, then you're a plagiarist. You're plagiarizing from the Christian story to make sense of the secular story. But it's worse than that. Listen, it's worse than that. We're all plagiarists who've taken from God. We've claimed things in our own life that come from Him. We've taken glory that belongs to God and claimed it as our own. We've taken the artwork of Van Gogh and Rembrandt and painted our gnomes over the top. We've blotted out God's name over our lives, and we've painted our own name over it. We're every one of us, cosmic plagiarists. We're all guilty. Have you ever thought of yourself that way? Here's one way that you might know that. How do you tend to evaluate things? When you're in the checkout line, people are in front of you. When you're in traffic, everyone is in your way. A church service is good or bad if it helped you. A TED talk was meaningful if it spoke to you. How did the writer David Foster Wallace put it? The world as you experience it is there in front of you or behind you, to the left or right of you. It's on your TV, it's on your monitor, and everyone else is in your way. Life is about us when it should be about God. We're cosmic plagiarists. The glory that God deserves in our lives, we've taken for ourselves. And that's a great problem. That's what we mean as Christians when we talk about sin. You've done it. We've done it. We've all done it. We've robbed others, and especially God, of what they deserve. And here's what that might look like. How does robbing God and others of what they deserve show up in our lives? It could show up in a number of ways. If you're married, you owe intimacy to your spouse on a regular basis, and only to your spouse. But now think of how much hurt comes in when intimacy is withheld or it's found somewhere else. We owe love and protection to children, but how much hurt comes when children are exploited? We owe the truth to one another, but how much hurt comes when we withhold the truth and we cover it up? Do you see? We've robbed others of what they deserve, love, and of God, the glory that He deserves. That's the world's great problem. Worthy are You, O Lord. Worthy are You, O Lord. And the problem is so massive. I was reading from Romans 8 as Nancy led us. The problem is so massive and all-encompassing that even the creation groans for men and women to be made right again. Nature is red in tooth and claw, and nations rise and fall, and rivers and lakes, our bodies and minds show the result of it all. We need help. So God makes a promise to fix what he did not break. God promises to restore what he was robbed of. In love, he promises that he will send a Redeemer who will save us from our shame and our guilt, and not just us, but people from all tribes and languages and nations and ends of the earth. God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for people like me and for people like you. No one knows as much about you as God does. And he still loves you. That's the heart of God's mission in the world, to save sinners from their plagiarism, from their sin that they might enjoy Him forever. That's what missions is, proclaiming this good news about Jesus Christ, calling men and women back to a relationship to God through Christ. That's the primary thing God is doing in the world, pursuing sinners for His own glory. And every one of us then, as followers of Christ, as Christians, every one of us has then this unbelievable privilege of sharing this good news with someone. And some of us can have the honor of carrying that news to the end of the earth to be a herald for people who don't know that God loves them. How has John Piper summarized this all? You've probably heard it before. It's fitting at the end of our series. Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. And when the age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It's a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever. Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. Worthy are you, O Lord, to receive honor and glory and blessing. But worship is not only the fuel of missions, it's the goal of our lives. We're made to worship the artist. We're made to have a relationship with the grand storyteller. So God works to save us from ourselves, that we might love one another, that we might love Him. God's primary work is to save people for His own glory. But now here's a great corollary. God is going to make all things new, not just people. God is going to make a new heaven and a new earth. Here's what I mean. Imagine a terrible scene in which a radicalized terrorist sets bombs all over off in a city. And those bombs not only wound people, they destroy the landscape and buildings, everything around it. The first thing, the ultimate thing the rescuers do is to save and help and restore the people. But having saved them, now they get to work to restoring the damage that's been done to the buildings and the landscape and the area around it. So it is with God. God's plan is to restore the world. We sing it at Christmas, don't we? To restore the world as far as the curse is found. The overhaul will be so complete, so magnificent that we will say with wonder, I hardly recognize this, but it'll be the same place. A smiling field of sunflowers is gloriously different from a handful of sunflower seeds. So it will be with our bodies in the new heaven and the new earth. One is sown in dishonor, Paul says, but it will be raised to honor. And we will say, I hardly recognize you. I hardly recognize the new heaven and new earth. You know a tiny bit what this is like. The longing. Your life you long to be restored. You don't even know how to put it together again. This is why He's come. I mean, you've seen a show like Fixer Upper or whatever. They buy an old house and they recreate it and it faces the people when they see the new house remade. It's still the same house, but it's not the same house. Having saved us from our sin, that's what God will do with the world. He's going to make all things new. But don't forget the order. The order is precious. The new heaven and new earth do not come without the saving of men and women first. God will do both, but one is first and primary. The restoration of all things is the glorious consequence of his redeeming men and women. The new heavens and new earth, consequence of the new birth. Without the new birth, there is no new heaven and new earth. Think of an illustration from literature. I know I need to get more sources of literature. This isn't Tolkien, but it's Lewis. It's the end of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, OK? I know it doesn't appeal to everybody, so help me. In the end of the story, they go back and they find where Aslan had been tied and he's killed. And what happens? What happens? The stone table's cracked, and death works backwards. When Jesus offered His life as an atonement for sin and rose again, death began to work backwards. And the inevitable consequence of His atonement for sinners, the inevitable consequence was the remaking of the new heavens and the new earth. Because He saves sinners, He will make all things new. Thus the gospel that God sent His Son to save people like you and me from our sin, that gospel is the fountainhead to everything else. Well, here's one reminder and one caution that gives when it comes to missions for us. The reminder is this. Alienation, separation, not being right with God is the worst human condition. There's nothing worse in the world than not being right with God. That's why He sent His Son. At the heart, then, of what God is doing is saving people from their self-worship. In all God does, He's doing that. Thus, in all we do, we should be doing that. The single greatest act of social justice is sharing the Gospel. That's what missions is. That's the reminder. Now here's a caution, and I'll lead into the next few points. We don't do everything God does. That sounds bad, doesn't it? God neither slumbers to sleep, but you better slumber or sleep, right? God will take vengeance, but none of us ever ought to take vengeance. There are some things that God does that we're not supposed to do. So similarly, our role is to show our friends and our communities the glory of God, the love of Christ in our work, and then to point them to Christ. Our role, however, I know this language is used sometimes, but I don't think it's clear or helpful. Our role is not to bring in the kingdom or to build the kingdom. When the New Testament writers speak of the kingdom, it's always in a passive sense. We seek the kingdom. We receive the kingdom. We inherit the kingdom. Thus, we share in God's work of seeking the lost, but we don't share in God's work in building the kingdom. So the matrix of redemption, God takes the initiative. He promises to send a Redeemer to save you and me from self-worship and guilt. And he himself promises to make all things new. And what a day that will be when my Jesus I will see and the new heaven and new earth. That's the first part of the matrix of redemption. Here's the second part. Jesus. Watch Jesus' work. You're in Revelation 4? Turn over to Revelation 5, or maybe it's right across the page there from you. And if you have the ESV, I'm going to ask you in a second to read this with me. So Revelation 5, we're going to read in a second, verse 9 and 10. Now, Revelation 4 introduces us to God the artist. Revelation 5 introduces us to Christ the Redeemer. All members of the Trinity participate in what's going on, but all in a different way. So the Father initiates, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies. Colossians, He made all things in the Son, through the Son, for the Son. So what we're seeing in Revelation 5 is Christ is the goal, the agent of redemption, even the goal of creation. These are the words that moved Moravians to missions. They understood from Revelation 5 that the Lamb must have the reward for His suffering. What was the promise they heard? Would you read with me? This is a giant chorus of people, the prayers of the saints. So you have the ESV, Revelation 5, 9 and 10. Would you read with me what we're told? Here we go. Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. So God's loving rescue plan focuses on in his son Jesus. And Jesus comes willingly and he lays down his life so that we could worship the one that we're actually made for. And since Christ is the agent of redemption, there is no salvation apart outside of Jesus Christ. That's just what the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, said at the end of the war, talking to Billy Graham outside of the resurrection of Christ, I don't see any hope for the world. If there is no resurrection, can there be meaning in suffering? Listen, I know that some of us have suffered lots of things, and you may not be a believer, and one of the reasons you have a question about God is because of the things you've suffered. But I want to tell you that if there is no resurrection, the problem only gets worse. If there's no resurrection, is there justice? Can there be hope? It's hard to believe in Jesus. You need more understanding. But here's what I want you to see. You may not believe in the resurrection, but you really want it to be true. You really do want it to be true. Do people get away with things in life? Have people gotten away with things they've done to you or to others that you care about and you love? What's the hope in that? You have to know. You have to know there is no perfect or ultimate justice in this life. So what does it mean? It means this, only if there's a resurrection, only if there's life after death, only if there's a judge at the end of it all, is there any hope. Is there any reason you should pursue any kind of justice work in this life? So one may not believe the resurrection, but you really want it to be true, because if the resurrection's not true, we're all hosed. I mean, we're doomed. There's no judge. And what real hope is there for the world? What real hope is there for creation? For we read in Ephesians 1, God's plan from the fullness of time is to unite all things. From the fullness of time, God wanted to unite all things in heaven and on earth in Christ. God is making people new in Christ and he will make the world new in Christ. Ephesians 1.10. But guess what? If there is a judge, there's hope for the world. But if there's a judge, what hope is there for us? It's good to know there's justice for somebody else, but there'll be justice for you, too. So what's the hope? For all the ways we've robbed others of love that they deserve, for all the other ways we've plagiarized from God, what's our hope? That's what Revelation 5 tells us. That God sent His Son not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Jesus. is the lover of our shredded souls. He's the lover of our sinful souls. And He's come that we might have life, that we might have it more abundantly. And this came at great cost. We're told here He redeemed us by His own blood. That tells us the magnitude of our sin. It took the death of the Son of God to atone for your sin. But it also tells us how much we're loved. The cost is great, and therefore, the love that he has for you is great. And not only are we greatly loved, but so are the people of every tribe and kindred and people and nation. That's the universal scope of his love for the world and redemption. What does it mean for missions? It means a lamb must have reward of a suffering and therefore we can go. We have different views of this. I just want to tell you election guarantees the success of the gospel. That when you share the good news, people will respond. How do you know that? Because the lamb will have the reward for his suffering. And part of the way that comes as you and I go and we share the news. There's no hope for people outside of Christ. There's no hope for the planet outside of Christ because Jesus is God's agent for redemption of people and the restoration of all things in this matrix of redemption. Now the church. We'll now import everything that we've tried to be talking about these last three weeks. Import that here. The church is called, I want to use this word, primarily called to do the work of evangelism and missions. The primary mission of the church is to gather and make disciples into new communities who will in turn scatter, gather, and make disciples into new communities. What that means is, here's what I want to say, that the work of the church is different than the role of individual believers. I have a story that stuck with me. One of my only claims to fame, a few in life, I was on the basketball team, coached in high school by Coach Billy Clyde Gillespie, who had the biggest turnaround in NCAA history at UTEP, and then he coached Kentucky before he had an inglorious end. But I was on the basketball team with Billy Clyde Gillespie. Tried out for the team, broke my ankle, didn't make it. I wouldn't have made it anyway. Would you stay on the team and be a manager? First few practices, I'm out there shooting jump shots with the team. And Billy Clyde rips me up and down in front of everybody in front of the gym. You're a manager, not a player. Get over here. Stay in your lane and do your role. I never forgot that. I was a manager, not a player. Yes, sir. Coach Gillespie. What's the point of that? In a kinder way, the role of the church is not exactly the same as the role of the believer. Here's what I mean. Are we to love our wives and obey our parents and to be good employees? Yes. But does that mean the church should love your wife and obey your parents and obey your boss? Why not? Because the role of the church as an organization is different from the role of the believer. And sometimes people unintentionally and unhelpfully get those two confused. There are differences between the believer's role and the church's role. Think of the difference. Maybe this helps. Between can and should. A church can be involved in many things. But there's one thing a church, as a church, should be involved in. What's the one thing the church, as an institution, can do that nothing else can do? Guard the gospel. and share the gospel. Tim Keller puts it like this, even if and when more broadly conceived it's the work of Christians in the world to minister in word and deed and to gather together to do justice, it is still best to speak of the mission of the church strictly as being the proclamation of the word. Now, as the church, indeed, we are to make the gospel attractive by our love for one another and by our deeds of mercy and love. We are to show forth His praises, 1 Peter, the one who called us out of darkness into light. And primarily that happens as we live as a new community, as we learn to love one another. The church, then, is to be a commercial, a trailer of the new community that's to come. And it happens in how we care for one another, how we spit out the rancid milk of malice and bitterness and envy, and we put on love and compassion and mercy with one another. Thus, the church's goal is not to transform the world, but to live together as a transformed world, inviting the nations by our words and deeds to the transformer, the one, the redeemer behind it all. Now, none of this, again, is meant to minimize the acts of mercy the church can do as the church institution. But don't confuse can with must. Good works and acts of mercy certainly show the love of Christ, and they win a hearing for the love of Christ. And frankly, while sharpening my own understanding of missions in general and the primary missions of the church, our church might, not should, but our church might consider supporting some vital mercy ministries in town that mix word and deed. That's not in our budget. Maybe we need to think about that. Not because that is missions or that's the mission of the church, but the church can help show the love of Christ by supporting people whose calling it is to show the love of Christ in that particular way. The church is the church, is the pillar and ground of the truth, the guardian, the proclaimer of the good news. She must be engaged in evangelism here and missions there. Why? Because, now put it back in the story again, that's the primary mission of God, saving men and women from their sins. And because God is saving sinners, we're involved in that work. And because God is saving sinners, at the end He will restore all things in Christ. Now that brings us finally to the role of individual believers. God has gifted us by His Spirit in a variety of ways. I was talking to one of you this week who will remain nameless. You might be able to guess who it is, but said, Brad, you're a shepherd. I'm a butcher. That's my gift. I'm true. You're a shepherd. We need all the gifts. You need a butcher in a community. That sounds bad. You need a... You know what I mean. There are a variety of gifts. Strike that from the record, Your Honor. Let's go back again. You need a variety of gifts and we're all gifted differently. And what God wants for you as a believer is far broader than what God calls the church to do as the church. Listen, the church, as the church, is not called to make shoes, and design wedding cakes, and to build web pages, and to land planes, and to dig wells, and to drive trucks, and to build new houses, and to find cures for cancer. That's not what the church is supposed to do. But praise God, that's what many of you are called to do. So how does the church fit into that? As the church, helping you. Here's how Keller explains it. The church should help believers shape every area of their lives with the gospel. But that doesn't mean the church as an institution is itself to do everything it equips its members to do. For example, while the church should disciple its members who are filmmakers so that their cinematic art will be profoundly influenced by the gospel, that does not mean that now the church should establish a company that produces feature films. And when it happens, it's bad art. You know that. Come on, can I get a witness? It's bad art. Let the church be the church and the filmmakers the filmmakers. One big example of that in history is the relationship of John Newton and William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce, a politician, British Parliament, who lobbied for years for the end of the slave trade. And it happened by the end of his life. Guess who encouraged him to do it? John Newton, his pastor and mentor. John Newton's role as the pastor was to bring the Bible and gospel to bear so that William Wilberforce could then go into Parliament and proclaim and act on behalf of justice. The church equips believers to do this kind of thing in the world. So what does that mean? It means that the church should encourage every one of you to carry out your calling as a believer. And at one level, that means you're carrying out the creation mandate. God calls us to be loving caretakers of His creation. We're to conserve what He's given, to create new things out of what He's given. And when we do, we show people a preview of what's coming. We show people of God's love, His plan, His beauty, what He wants to do, what He will do. But our work doesn't bring in the Kingdom. It's a giant billboard. It's a beautiful trailer. A 3-D, IMAX-sized trailer that says, this is what Christ is getting ready to do. So in all our work, whatever our work, We give wordless witness, wonderful testimony by general revelation of our work to the glory of God. And just as God's creative work gives general revelation to his glory, so our work should give general revelation to his glory. And as we carry out the creation mandate, and remember, carrying out the creation mandate is not missions. But it plays a vital role in testifying to the message of missions and what God has called you to do, to show forth his praises. All work glorifies God. And through our work and in our workplaces, then, we are called to share the gospel, just like Gladys Aylward. She said, I preach the gospel to women as I talk to them about foot binding. That's a beautiful wedding of this. And her own testimony, she says, they actually came to Christ first before I could persuade them. That is not how God made women to act. Well, this then is the matrix of redemption. God is the worthy creator. He's the reason you see beauty in every sunset. You want to go to the beach, you want to go to the mountains, you know why? Because God made it and he's calling your heart out. And He sent His Son into the world to save sinners like you and me, so that we would not see the world in black and white, but we would see it in full color. Our problem is a worship problem, and nothing will be right until you worship Him. We're all called to enter into God's pursuit of worshipers, John 4, some by going to the ends of the earth, all of us by sharing Christ. And I want us to think especially of going where people have not heard the name of Christ. That's what motivated Adoniram Judson and C.T. Studd and Gladys Aylward who heard there were people who never heard the name of Christ. And as the church, we can never forget that's our primary mission. The new creation doesn't come until that happens. And as the church, I hope that we can equip you to live a life of faithful presence, to testify of his redeeming love by the truth and the beauty and the goodness of your work that itself bears witness to him, like the sun does. And also this, that through your work and at your work, you would open your mouth and do the most radical thing, do the most radical act of love that you can do, share the good news that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom you and I are chief. And you know the only way this is going to get into our hearts and start to work? It's not by guilt. This is not motivated by guilt, nor is it by pride that I'm already doing this. Now I want you to think of how much that Jesus actually loves you. He knows everything about you and he loves you. He knows things about you that if other people knew, they'd draw away from you, or they'd keep their distance. That's just too uncomfortable for me. But the harder you run from Jesus, the faster he comes after you, the longer he waits. He loves you with a love that will not let you go. Now, don't you think other people need to know of that kind of love that you've been loved with? How could you not speak of that one who loved you like that? How dare we not speak of the one who loves us like that? Don't others need to know that someone loves them in this way too? So why not you? Why won't you share how much they're loved? Don't you know how much he loves you? Do you see how much he loves you? Who will you tell of his love to? To whom will you sing of his might and tell of his grace? May God Help us all by His love to share. He loves us. Do you know how much He loves you? Don't you think somebody else needs to know how much God loves them too?