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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] my wife judith and i are very grateful to the leadership of the church to invite us extend this invitation for us to come and worship here with you so as we begin um i want to start with as you see in the screen your mission statement i saw it on your website and it is to live out the gospel of jesus build up the community of his church and empower it for his mission to redeem his people and i as i read through this several times i highlighted three nouns and three verbs sorry for using a little bit of grammar
00:01:06 here uh and i've heard from power that you have been doing a series on these three main nouns the gospel of jesus christ his church and his mission but before that there are action verbs to live out the gospel so not just understanding the gospel but we have to put it into practice show it in our lives his church build up the community of his church that's also an excellent verb that something has to happen is the responsibility of the church leaders and everyone in the church to see the community build up
00:01:44 and another verb is to empower it for his mission to redeem his people so looking at this uh what this sunday i was asked to focus on is his mission and the purpose of his mission is as we see here to redeem his people and we'll look at it more from the scriptures from the entire bible so that is uh missions is a very broad subject very broad subject its meaning its goal its scope its purpose the theology of mission the biblical basis of mission the history of missions biographies and missions strategies of missions
00:02:29 we can spend rest of the year talking about missions but this morning i want to take a different approach a simple approach i call it and i call it as i was preparing the first step approach in missions how does it apply to me personally and how does it apply to my church so that's how we'll look at it and so in order to do this i framed these three questions and the title is the mission of god and my mission capital letter the mission of god and my mission small letters but yet nonetheless it's my mission so the first
00:03:11 question is what is god's mission and the same question can be framed what has god been doing from the beginning what is god been doing from the beginning second question is what is my role in god's mission in what god is doing and what is church's role in god's mission so we'll look at this three questions and we already read these three passages genesis john and revelation chapters 1 1 and 21. my wife and i judith and by the way she is haka chinese and ihaka people here oh wow talk to me afterwards i've got a
00:04:00 lot of history of your migration from china in the 18th and 19th century fascinating history of haka people anyway so she's hakka from ipo and so i just wanted you to anybody from ippo here oh wow man i've gotta come back here a lot of friends okay so we we came here we moved here from from the u.s in october of 2017 and and since then up until the mco started in march this year we traveled every month to the mekong region laos cambodia myanmar thailand every other month different countries to teach there
00:04:38 and then mco started and since then we have been confined mostly to our home just like all of you have been doing uh pretty much for the last several months during this time my wife and i picked up a hobby and you can see that up there making jigsaw puzzles it's quite fascinating now these are plastic pieces so we started with the first thousand puzzle and then we moved on to 2000 and now we are in the middle of this is part of it 4 000 piece jigsaw puzzle and our goal is to get it done in two months every
00:05:10 day spend maybe a few minutes or hours so whenever there's free time it just sits on the table you can just get to it and do it whenever you can while doing this i learned many spiritual lessons and that needs to be another sermon in itself spiritual lessons learning from jigsaw puzzle but there's one thing that i picked up which is quite appropriate for this morning what i want to share when you empty all these pieces on a big table it's so confusing you don't see the picture at all it's it's all pieces different colors
00:05:44 disjoin it you begin to see the picture when you put those pieces together and every piece that you put on the puzzle the picture gets clearer and clearer and clearer you might pick up one piece from the table and he said this is awkward i have no idea where this is gonna fit in and yet that piece has a place on this puzzle and without that peace this puzzle would not be complete it would not look not look good and in the similar way what i've learned is the bible presents to us a grand big story
00:06:25 a beautiful picture it paints for us and we'll look at that picture and all these pieces needs to come and fit together to see these people use the term meta narrative the big story the ultimate story that god shows in in this bible and one of the authors the book i read the mission of god by christopher j h wright he calls the whole bible story as presented the mission of god really really good book if you're interested in missions i want to tell you and myself this morning i i really enjoy doing this
00:07:08 this story met a story big story of god as presented in the bible so let's look at uh let's look at that story but i want you to before i start i want you to imagine you are in a play d we don't do that very much but i mean you know the play you go and watch it's acted out on the stage the curtain comes and the scene won and the curtain closes and second act and third act so imagine we are all this morning watching a play okay a beautiful beautiful story you play the actors actresses music and see all of that
00:07:49 uh we'll we'll try to do it and so i'm presenting the big story the meta narrative of the bible the mission of god in 7x play so okay get ready for the play god story in 7x kingdom to kingdom i call it k2k story of god right so we see the creation of god that's act one creation of god a beautiful creation of god uh a place where god wanted to dwell with his own creation man and woman creation of all things he created man and woman in his likeness in his image and his design was to dwell with them
00:08:57 forever and ever in this beautiful earth he created his own kingdom god dwelling with his people he gave them many exciting things to do you name my creation you take care of it you grow and you multiply and fill this earth and so in this play we see this beautiful creation we see god and man in personal communion in the presence of god adam and eve our great grandparents and so it has a beautiful ending we are all so happy we are cheering yes we love it this is a great story then the curtain closes and when curtain
00:09:38 opens can you can we get it there i okay now in this act what do you see as soon as the curtain opens the very first verse in genesis chapter 3 and the serpent was craftier than all other creature it's like woo you know in the movie when the villain shows up everybody kind of booze on that a lot of indians when we have that girl and boy great relationship and they're singing dancing around the trees and all of a sudden the bad guy shows up and you just scream so this starts with and we are just
00:10:20 startled wow this was so beautiful the first act ended so wonderfully man and woman his creation beautiful creation they're living together and here comes the serpent and he makes a big mess the serpent is identified throughout the bible and particularly in genesis chapter 20 as the ancient serpent so when john wrote that he was thinking of genesis 3 is the satan the devil the dragon the destroyer the deceiver of mankind and so that's him he shows up to deface and destroy everything beautiful that god had
00:10:56 created his strategy is to recruit men and women adam and eve to be on his side to be against god what happened in genesis 3 is that man became self-determined and self-reliant self-determined meaning man says i'm gonna decide what is good and what is evil for me i'm not gonna depend on god's word or god's command i know what is better for me i don't need god self-reliant meaning then when i mess up my life i don't need god i'm going to fix it myself so they hid themselves they covered themselves
00:11:31 instead of going to god so that's what happened to us self-determined i'm a master basically what man said was no to god voted satanin took on his side and he said i want to be my own masters and i believe the seeds of humanism been sown in genesis chapter 3. well of course they lost the paradise because god says you disobeyed me you will die and god is living god could not coexist with a human being who are going to die so they were expelled sin and rebellion continued and men became exceedingly wicked as we
00:12:06 read in the story and god had destroyed at one point all the people except the family of noah in the flood and and then so that's genesis 3 to 11 satan unseen and the curtain closes again and something new something new we see and we are wondering is there any hope bad news bad news bad news but curtin opens with the good news again it begins with the good news with the abrahamic covenant genesis chapter 12 god appears to abram and gives him a promise that he knew all the families will be blessed
00:12:40 and abram believed in that promise and that was counted to him as righteousness beautiful you know something very interesting apostle paul in galatians 3 8 says god would justify the gentiles by faith preach the gospel god would justify the gentiles by faith preach the gospel beforehand to abraham the same word gospel is used and paul says that this gospel that i am preaching was already preached to abraham then in you shall all the nations be blessed that means blessings of god will go to all the
00:13:17 families nations is not geopolitical nations means different people groups different communities and so that's what that's what we see in this in this genesis genesis 3 to 11 god lovingly and basically and that happens in that play and act three now i think i missed can we go to act three because i'm already speaking of that then after then the curtain closes and then genesis 12 to malachi that's where abraham comes in okay thank you so we are we're that during this is a very long act very long act god lovingly patiently
00:14:04 pursuing his people so what do you see in the old testament god missed his creation his people his desire is to be dwelling in his beautiful created kingdom together but now man has rebelled and so god pursues god takes the initiative giving promises to abraham and he goes after his people sending them the prophets pleading with them to return to him return from your sinful ways return from your false idol worships return to me i am a life-giving god and so that's his desire during this time he pronounced
00:14:39 judgment the sin is punished a lot of people get killed and yet there is always that hope within that and the hope given in the old testament is that one day god was going to do something very special i will send the messiah and the people in the old testament were anxiously waiting for the messiah to come and so there is this hope shown during this part and people are waiting for the messiah and then the story changes the curtain closes in the old testament and curtain opens act four okay thanks somehow this clicker is not
00:15:20 working for me or maybe i don't know what i'm doing so act four is between testaments story of israel and rome this is not in the bible so i'm not going to spend most of you have studied this stories between the uh between the testaments the old testament ends with the persian and is the uh ends with persian empire new testament opens with the roman empire and during this time something beautiful happened that was translation of the old testament that was in hebrew in aramaic into the greek language
00:15:57 alex that is called took place so this act ends the curtain closes again and when we open what do we see the gospels act five and we read that passage i read john first because john begins also with in the beginning and in the beginning uh genesis and john connection the promised messiah thank you finally appears on the world stage god became a man he came to redeem these people you know this story very well he's followed his ministry the messiah jesus ministry followed the same pattern as the old testament
00:16:37 what was the first one-line sermon jesus preached repent for the kingdom of god is at hand in all the gospels except john repent for the kingdom of god repentance was also his message as it was for the old testament prophets he came to save us from guilt and punishment of sin that was of a rebellion against god and he did that by giving his own life for our redemption instead of us he died in his death and resurrection we have salvation and new birth when we respond by faith and bible says that we are saved
00:17:16 by faith through god's grace and mercy jesus on this earth he taught he preached he healed cast out demons and he gave a glimpse of god's kingdom on this earth what it would look like there would be no sickness there'd be no death there will be no demonic activities when his kingdom kingdom came jesus made this clear that for men to return to god to have eternal life they had to believe in him but here's something very exciting jesus did that we missed that is important for us the first thing he did was we preached
00:17:51 repent for the kingdom of god his hand and soon in gospel of mark you will see what does he do he goes and recruits 12 men to come and work with him because he knew that in three years he would be going back and in john 13 he told his disciples i'm leaving he told them i'll build my church but soon after that he says i'm leaving and they were startled they were afraid he says the work will continue but how lord i will continue this through you so when jesus was on this earth he worked on this earth
00:18:21 jesus is still at work from heaven and that is something very key to remember that he recruited people to get the mission of god the story to continue god himself came and did something most significant for the redemption of mankind that only god could do but then he said now rest of the story you're involved and so the gospels end jesus leaves the curtain opens and where do we come we come to acts exit the story of jesus or if we move none acts of the apostles we come to that so from there to the
00:18:59 rest of the new testament this is the most exciting act in god's big story this is very exciting do you know why why is this part so important so exciting for us we are we are involved in this this is what is going on now this act is taking place now in front of us the story of the church and the story of the spread of the gospel it started in the book of acts and it continues now now if you have your bible turn to acts chapter 29. okay you're there acts chapter 29 there is no chapter 29 i'm surprised you're still looking for
00:19:55 it but good do you know why it's not there we are writing it it's happening right now book of acts ended so abruptly you know is apolly's in prison and you almost feel like hey am i missing some pages in this story the story hasn't ended yet and it's intentional john stott talks about it and people throughout the history of made comments on it why did the book of act end the way it ended it's because we are involved in acts 29 so remember that acts 29 you're writing it and we need to have our story part of it
00:20:29 we invited to join into the continuing story of god which started from the beginning what jesus began to do and teach that's how the book of acts begins luke says that what jesus began to do and teach is going on right now so this is the ministry of god this is the same story which started in genesis chapter 3 when it ended and now it is continuing that story that story is continuing now we are at work through the health and empowerment of god the holy spirit we are on the stage and the world is
00:21:06 watching us and then what is the next act seven is revelation the continuous story of god's kingdom restored new heaven and new earth and we read that in verse 5 we s we see these words god saying to john behold i am making all things new write this down this act the curtain is not closed yet this act is yet to come we are given a glimpse of the future act we know from now how and when this final piece in the puzzle will come together so there are seven big pieces in god's mission as we view the entire
00:21:51 bible in the old testament people waiting for the messiah to come the first time we are in the same situation we are waiting for the messiah to come the second time we don't know all the details exactly how and when he's going to appear but we know he will write it down he says i will make all things new because i'm coming so now what so this is the grand story very quickly i told you the whole story of the bible and three main passages we looked at to hang this story on it genesis in the beginning
00:22:23 john in the beginning revelation 21 and you can just put all this story we should be able to tell people this big story of god what god is doing and now we come to next slide you can do it so what do we what do we do now so very quickly uh as we come to conclusion let's do three lessons learned we have this big picture of human story and there's seven big pieces seven acts of god a drama coming together so we're beginning to see this picture story and then also we highlighted that we are part of the story
00:23:10 very interesting we are in it we are involved we are followers of jesus is inviting us to take part in this puzzle as more and more pieces are added to this puzzle the grand puzzle is becoming clearer and clearer each day as the gospel is proclaimed and spreading and as the church is growing around the world it's become clearer and clearer another jigsaw puzzle i'd like to make it would be huge we would need we'll need everybody and it will take eternity to make and that puzzle is in revelation 7 9
00:23:45 the vision john saw and he saw a multitude that no one could count from every tribe tongue and nation and can you imagine if god took a picture of all the leading people of all time to the end and he'll get gigantic jigsaw puzzle and ask us to get involved in it putting all the pieces together so if you see missions and evangelism as missing places where there is no witness where there are no churches there are no jesus followers and how does that fit in we'll look at it i'll tell you some of the stories so every piece that
00:24:22 comes together gets revelation 7 9 clearer and clearer and clearer so what do we learn from this biblical matter narrative it is god's story it is god's mission so first thing is mission the mission your individual or church it's not ours so let's get over it we have not come up with the idea we don't own it we did not originate it it is god's mission we are asked to participate in what god is doing that is very freeing that it i don't have to be the smartest person on the planet earth to get involved in it
00:25:02 all i have to do is show up on time when he calls me and clocking and punching your card and start working that's it that's the mission of god it's god's story it's his mission it's not ours second thing is god calls people to participate with him and we're invited to join him in his mission so when we think about mission my individual mission mission of the church it's an invitation by god for us to participate and we need to respond by in obedience obedience and the third lesson we learned that god has called
00:25:36 his church if you look at in the old testament the nation of israel was called to be the light isaiah says about light to the nations that's what the title given to the nation of israel and so god is calling the church not just the individual member but church corporately to be the witness and light in the world so these are the situations we see church history shows this also oh which i wish i had more time to go into but let me just give you a my hero a missionary i like so many of them william carey
00:26:09 how many of you heard of william curry yes what denomination was he he was baptist yes right he was called the father of the modern missions he's the one who started mission organizations and agencies the para church organization the whole concept actually very interesting story about william carey is that he started a missions organization and he was fired by the same organization something else very fascinating about william carey is that he got up in the church attending his church baptist church and he got up and
00:26:43 he said we need to go and evangelize the heathens of india because he had read so much about india he said we need to go in this god's mission the story is continuing we need to go and do something and you know what one of the elders said young man sit down if god wants to evangelize the heathens of india he'll do it without your help and without my help but that did not discourage william carey he ultimately went to india he had a not a very good health his wife and kids and but great great great missionary he put a
00:27:13 big piece in peace into this puzzle translated bible into eight languages in india 23 new testaments many churches planted one quote that i really like about william carey i'm sure some of you know expect great things from god and attempt great things for god then there are stories of sadhu sundersing in india and amy carmichael and pandita ramabai and there's read missionary biographies very very fascinating fascinating stories of how the story of the gospel has continued throughout the church history how
00:27:54 different pieces come together in gospel spreads hudson taylor in china i'm just i just finished reading a new biography by return of john sung and his biography new came out in 2012 and his diaries are published also fascinating story also johnson you need to read that and then wong ming dao and watchmen knee and other people in china how god brought these people together and put them in the story but not just these big stories my wife and i went to sabah not too long ago we were allowed to go somehow it was
00:28:30 clear and we found out doing some research in our story that my wife's great grandfather great grandfather in 1892 moved from china he was haka to kadat to be a missionary and a pastor he came to know the lord through the missionaries basel mission did a lot of work among the hakas in china and then the anglicans with basel mission was the first mission that reached out to hakka people and a lot of hakka migration to hawaii to taiwan to kodak to this mainland fascinating story of hakka people are strange they're they're
00:29:08 all over the world so they did this amazing story of these people and so we found out that was one piece in the puzzle that man with seven children he was 46 years old when he left china and came to kudat and he worked there as a pastor and a missionary until he died in 1923 we would love to go and see his grave where it is in quran we don't know my grandparents also were orphans and came to know the lord and did that now you think of the story of this big people let me tell you a story of small
00:29:40 people their books will never be returned their names will never be mentioned in history and yet those tiny awkward strange looking pieces that god fit into god's puzzle in when we were in india we started work among the slums in calcutta where mother teresa she was still alive and so we sent some people we went and spent a lot of time in prayer and the brothers they were working there rented a hut in kolkata and just started praying lord what do we do next and so every morning they would get together
00:30:12 and sing a song and praise and worship god and doing that in in kolkata one girl after a few days would come and stand outside the hut and just look inside and just listen to the songs finally they invited her to come she liked the songs it's a long story but i'm making it shorter and then god used her to bring other children to the worship service and singing and education started and they brought their families and that was the beginning of the church in that slum now there are several churches
00:30:46 so this one's significant but here's his fascinating thing this that girl died after two years of some sickness she never finished high school education never had a phone never saw a tv never flew on the airplane in two years life she lived as a follower of jesus for only two years and god used us used her to see churches started in that slum her story will never be written see i don't even know her name now this was so long ago another story is quite fascinating is uh the newest nation that was added was
00:31:24 july 9th 2011 south sudan you know sudan was one country now there's north and republic of south sudan when this separation happened the major civil war broke out in the nuba mountains on the north a lot of refugee moved to the south and created a refugee camp which is second or third largest refugee camp in sudan yida camp and my friends and i were able to go and work in the refugee camp and the first thing we noticed when we walked in there there was a group of people worshiping under a tree and singing songs just
00:31:58 fascinating story right there in the middle of nowhere there are jesus worshipers that is another piece in the puzzle as the kingdom of god kingdom of god is growing and then we just heard that in myanmar where we're working couple of buddhist ladies came to know the lord and they were baptized and it's going the stories in kolkata and other places god is working in this nation and nations around the world small people big people books written and some people their histories will never be written so what do we do
00:32:30 with the story that we know and that it is god's story it's his mission and he's inviting us to participate how what do we what do we do so i would ask us to in our response ask three questions so here is we we know that it's god's mission his story is continued since the man walked out on him genesis 3 and his story is to redeem people to bring restoration and throughout the history we looked at the old testament in the new testament arrival of god the son himself the story changed story continues
00:33:08 we know what's the end is going to look like tribe and trunk from every nation i am making all things new write it down it's going to happen okay so these are the three questions think about it as i slowly read this so the question we may ask what kind of mission god has for me so if that's what god is doing around the world right what does he want me to do what is my mission now that's a very legitimate question we need to ask that question we need to pray about it but here is let me ask you another
00:33:43 question or should we be asking also what kind of me god wants for his mission you get it what does god want me to be so that i can be used for his mission so it has a personal ramifications implications god wants us to be in certain ways in relationship with him so that he can be part of his story second question is where does god fit in the story of my life so we ask well no god says ask this question where does my life fit into ongoing story of god story of god is continuing where does my life fit into this
00:34:30 and let me just say very very briefly a few minutes i have is a lot of people and i was there as well so i'm not being very critical uh this is something we learn as we learn discipleship a lot of people seek for god's endorsement but not god's direction do you understand endorsement is you take a piece of paper and god i want to do this i want to study so much i want to study in australia america i want to be doctor i want to make this kind of money i want to do this i want to do this i want to marry this beautiful girl this
00:35:05 handsome guy make so much money we want to have our kids grandkids everything lord this is what i want to do in my life can you just sign it and put a stamp of approval endorse my plans what god says no when you come to me come with a blank piece of paper you sign at the bottom first i'm willing to do everything that you're going to write on it then after you agree god writes on it what he wants us to do so how this we ask god not how does god fit into our life how do we fit into his story which is the mission of god and then
00:35:42 what kind of mission god expects from his church that's a legitimate question we need to ask that what does god want first baptist to do but then we can turn the question around what kind of church first baptist god expects for his mission what should first baptist be like for god to include them in his mission so these are the questions i have no answers i mean this something this is homework for you so next sunday when you come here pastor ask everybody to turn in their answers okay exam and the person who gets first
00:36:23 will get a lot of things and so three pray three actions then so those are the questions how uh do we do we get involved act in obedience so three things then we can do pray first of all what happened oops the first good man acting obedience is second and third one is be strategic something happened maybe what i sent it but the first one it's not here first one is pray so actions pray oh there it is pray for god's direction oh it's one one one they're all okay they're all equally important pray for god's direction
00:37:16 and this is something i started doing and i've taught other people to do now i'm going to ask you something to do which might endanger your life okay so do you want to risk your life get ready pray this prayer lord you're building your kingdom in my neighborhood you're building your kingdom in my family extended family you're bingling your kingdom in this city in this nation in asia and around the world lord you know me what my gifts and skills are the condition i mean where do you want me to participate
00:37:54 lord where do you want me to fit in ask him in your story lord where do you want me to fit in and that prayer those kind of their two prayers say i believe that god love to answer one is this it's like a little kid you know seven year old saturday morning go to his father and dad i'm so excited i love you so much what can i do in this house can i do some work would you be thrilled i wish that would happen and so that said you'll be going to our heavenly father and lord you're building your kingdom your story your mission is
00:38:27 continuing where do you want me to participate you said i am glad you asked can we talk and then he will tell you so pray that prayer another prayer he loves to answer this is not part of this sermon is lord sow sin in my life so i can deal with it ask him to show sin in your life and he'll help you clean up your attic your basement whatever you call it god loves to clean up our lives through the holy spirit and his word and through other people so pray ask god where do you want me to fit in second one is act in obedience small
00:39:00 steps take do not be overwhelmed by the need around the world you look at the world situation there are places still no one has ever seen or heard of the gospel they're on the border of india and nepal that i've been to in eastern europe their places but start small ask god what do you want me to do in my family extended family what do you want me to do in my church how do you want me to fit into the story your story your mission in my neighborhood people at work people in school people we meet in the
00:39:33 shopping malls in restaurants the migrant workers refugees so many opportunities in east malaysia i've been there only once to saba and once the sarawak near culture people far culture people around the world start small step in the right direction and god will guide you begin with here and god will expand it and the third thing is be strategic and that is more for the church leaders uh for them to guide people who are praying and who are hoping and who are desiring to fit into the god story they want to be
00:40:14 put into the puzzle of god that god is putting together and building his kingdom and and need to find that strategic balance between the local mission and the global mission lord what do you want us to do in jerusalem samaria judea and to the ends of the earth have it's not either or i was the missions pastor for 17 years in u.s and a lot of churches struggle someday everything local we got so many needs in our city we got to do things here other people oh there's so much going on here we need to do everything overseas
00:40:48 it's not either or it's both and building that together and they each will grow when you take that strategic strategic decision so the church needs to be strategic as well so here it's i'm done with this that is the story that's the mission of god are we going to just stand on the stage you like it or not you're already on the stage what god is doing if you're a follower of jesus you are part of the drama you're part of the play are you going to just stand in a corner on the stage and just keep
00:41:21 watching everybody else acting out in obedience to god or are you going to jump in are we going to jump in am i going to jump in and take part that is the question and i don't want us to respond by guilt you know my gosh i mean all these years i'm just standing there i haven't done anything we need to respond because of his love he has loved us so much and this is so exciting this is so exciting let me just say the last thing i made this commitment oh i don't know when i was in my early 30s i'm not as
00:41:55 young as you think and i'll just tell you next year i'll be 70 years old but in in in that since then i've committed my life to get into this i've been beaten up a few times went hungry a few times had a lot of went through mild depression occasionally but there's one thing has never happened to me since i committed my life to the lord i've never been bored never got up any morning thinking what am i going to do today what's the meaning of life that has never happened you sign up in the company of god
00:42:28 which is building his kingdom you'll never be bored even during mcl okay there's this is so exciting this is unbelievably exciting that kingdom of god that he's building and inviting us to participate so are we gonna participate or are we gonna act are we gonna stand on the stage and watch we need to ask the questions and other questions that i ask let's pray father we thank you for this grand story that we have you have given us in your scripture that we can see it and i pray father for myself even
00:43:05 recommitment want to be part of that story even at this stage in my life how can we be more used and fitting where you want us to fit in and where do you want this church to fit in in jesus name amen
