Rock Springs Reboot: Our People Blessing Mission
April 12, 2021
Who influenced you to put your trust in Jesus Christ? Who shared the good news with you that Jesus died for your sins to bring you to God? Was it your mother? Was it your father? Was it a brother or a friend, or someone you worked with?
I would say for me that God used a number of people to draw me to faith in Jesus. The first one may have been Paul Wrobruski. I worked with Paul in quality control at a place called Artz Photo. That was back in the day when we all had cameras that used film. You’d by a role of Kodak or Fugi film and put it in your Camera. Then when you used up your role of 24 or 32, you took it to the drug store to be processed and you’d pick it up your photos in about a week. Now at that time, most Drug Stores sent their roles to a Photo Processing Plant to have these roles processed. That’s where I worked with Paul on the graveyard shift. Our job was to make sure all the print and developing machines at Artz Photo were working to produce the most accurate color reproduction of the photos you’d taken. And during our shift we would test the printers three times during the night and the photo processors about once every hour. So a couple times during the night there’d be about 20 minutes of down time. It was during one of times Paul told me about Jesus. He told me who Jesus was, the Son of God. What Jesus did: How he lived a sinless life and gave His life on the cross to die for my sin. And how Jesus rose from the grave after three days victorious over sin and death. And because Jesus died for my sins and rose again, he made it possible for me to be forgiven and reconciled to God. I remember listening intently and it all made sense to me. But when He asked me if I wanted to put my trust in Jesus, I told him, “No, not at this time.” In fact, it wasn’t until about two or three years later that God brought me to a place where I was ready to trust in Jesus. At that time, God used the witness of a new Christian to bring me to the place where I began to realize that there really might be something to this Jesus.
Now I tell you this, because how I came to faith in Jesus is how most people come to faith in Jesus. God uses ordinary peopel who’ve been changed by Jesus to tell me the good news about Jesus. That’s how God usually works. In fact, when God decided how He would bring about His blessing to this world – He narrowed His vision to include one non-negotiable: people. Ordinary People.
You see, when we look through Scripture, we see that God doesn’t go after the best qualified, the highest educated or the uber talented to build His kingdom. Instead, He chooses the least likely, the sin-flawed, ordinary human beings and He blesses them so they might become a blessing. So this morning, as we take a look at our vision to be a people who are helping people become friends, family and followers of Jesus, we’re going to begin where God began; in Genesis 12:1-3, where we will see that for God…
People Have Always Been The Mission In Genesis 12, we see that Abram was the first person God called to be a blessing. Listen again as God called Abram to go and become a blessing to the nations:
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3
The first person God chose to be part of His plan to change the world was Abram. God told Abram, if he was willing to leave his country, his people, and his family God would bless him and make him a blessing. So Abram did just that. He left his country. He left His family. He left the comfort and security of the life he’d always known, to go somewhere he’d never been, and become someone God could use to be a blessing.
This was an extraordinary calling. But all it took for Abram to go, was to believe – to trust that God would do as He said He would do. So Abram trusted God and obeyed. Was Abram perfect? Far from it. He messed up on a number of occasions. Once, he figured he could make God’s promise come about on his own, so he took Sarah’s Egyptian servant, Hagar into his bed and conceived a son. But this son only brought conflict into his marriage with Sarai. This was not the son of promise. Another time, his fear got the best of him, so he lied about his wife’s true identity to save his hide. He didn’t just do this once, another time he did the same thing. In fact, Abram failed God over and over again. But God never gave up on Abram. And eventually God came through on His promise, when Sarah, well past child-birthing age conceived and gave birth to Isaac. God blessed this sin-flawed, fear filled nomad to start a family that would soon become the nation of Israel. Out of this one man’s obedience, God created His chosen people. And one day, many generations in the future, from Abram’s offspring would come a child who would bring blessing to the world. Today, we know who this child is. It is Jesus of Nazareth, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And today, when anyone trusts in the name of Jesus, you receive the blessing promised to Abram. The blessing of being made right with God. The blessing of knowing God. The blessing of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
So God used the obedience of one ordinary man to bring His blessing to the world. In fact, over and over again, God uses ordinary people to bring His blessing to the world. One such person was Joseph. Joseph, the favored son of Jacob. Joseph, who was hated by his brothers. Joseph, who bragged to them that he would one day reign over them. And his brothers, who finally had enough of Joseph sold him into slavery and lied to their father saying he was killed by wild animals. Joseph then worked as a slave in Potiphar’s house, was falsely accused of adultery, then forgotten in Pharaoh’s prison. But one day God lifts him up to be a blessing to Egypt, and then to his own family, who come to live in Egypt where they begin to prosper and grow into a great nation. God blessed Joseph to be a blessing.
Another person God chose was a prostitute named Rahab. Rahab risked her life to save the lives of two Jewish spies. Harboring Jewish spies was akin to treason. But God chose her to be a blessing to His people. And when it came time to destroy Jericho, God made certain that she was spared. What’s so significant of God sparing this foreign prostitute? Rahab would convert to Judaism, fall in love with a man named Salmon, a Jewish man from the tribe of Judah. They would have a son named Boaz, who had a son named Obed, who had a son named Jesse, who would become the father of David. God blessed Rahab to be a blessing and placed her in the line of David, through whom would come Jesus – the blessing to the world.
Don’t you love how God works? When you look at the story of God in the Old Testament, we see this over and over again. People have always been the mission. God uses ordinary people to bring His blessing to the world.
But God didn’t just choose flawed humans in the Old Testament to be a blessing; when Jesus came on the scene, he did the same. People were the mission of Jesus! We can’t miss this about Jesus. Jesus was all about including people in his mission. In Mark chapter one, as Jesus was taking a stroll on the beach along side the sea of Galilee, he saw a couple of ordinary guys fishing. And what does Jesus do? He approaches them, “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Mark 1:17
What I love about this particular exchange is that Jesus initiates this relationship. He pursues Simon and Andrew and invites them to be with Him. He doesn’t give them an assignment. He doesn’t ask them to start a ministry, to plant a church or lead a crusade. He simply invites them to go on a journey with him – to BE WITH HIM.
This is absolutely critical for us to get. Before we can be a blessing, we need to BE WITH JESUS. Why? Because Jesus says, if you follow Him He will transform your life. He will make you a fisher of men. He will make you into a blessing.
But you ask, how does He do this? Well when you spend time with Jesus, Jesus will rub off on you. That’s what happened with the disciples who followed him. John 3:22 gives us a picture of this rubbing off: Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people. Now, this phrase “spent some time with” is actually one Greek word meaning to “rub shoulders with.” The idea is that as you spend time with Jesus, He begins to rub off on you. His character, His truth, and His way of life rubs off on you. And this is important, because His way of life is so much different than our way of life. His way of life is the way of the kingdom. His is the way of mercy. His is the way of righteousness. His is the way of humility. So when you spend time with Jesus you learn the way of a servant – a servant who willingly puts the needs of others above himself.
This is why Jesus came and why People were the mission for Jesus. He said, “I have not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45. That’s why rubbing shoulders with Jesus will transform you. When you are with Jesus, He works to change you. He didn’t just come to die for you so your sins might be forgiven. He also came to die for you to show you a new way to live: a way of living and loving like Him. To be compassionate like him, to be gracious like him, to be courageous like him. There was no fear in Jesus. Because the disciples had been with Jesus, He changed them, and people took note. Listen to how people spoke of those who had been with Jesus: When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13
Think about people in your life who have rubbed off on you. Who, by you spending time with them has impacted you the most? Was it your mother, your dad? Was it a friend who was always there for you? Was it someone who walked with closely with Jesus? When I think of people who rubbed off on me the most, one of them was Dale James, my Pastor who mentored me while I was in Seminary. He had lunch with me every week for nearly four years. It was him who I bounced all my questions off of. It was him who gave me opportunities to lead, to serve, to preach. I spent a lot of time Dale. I spent time in his home. His wife was like a second mother to me. During those years I had all kinds of questions and was truly trying to find my way through the wilderness in ministry. Then one day when I sharing the struggles I was having with our youth – in the middle of that conversation God taught me something about people I’ve never forgotten. I remember asking Dale, “When am I ever going to have some normal kids to work with?” And just by asking that question, it was like right at that moment, the Holy Spirit said to me: “I didn’t save you to minister to normal kids, but to serve these misfits, so they could meet Jesus, and Jesus could make them normal.”
Now I have been fortunate to have a number of godly Jesus following men pour into my life. Guys like, Ron Heppell, who’s heart for lost people rubbed off on me. Dan Chapman, our Director of Church Planting who constantly encouraged me to be myself in ministry. And Gary Bassham who showed me how to be a friend because he was such a great friend to me. Each of these men gave me something valuable: They believed in me. They believed in me whether I succeeded or failed. But you know what’s even better than that? When you spend time with Jesus, you learn that He believes in you too!
Are you starting to get the point? God is all about people. People are the mission. People have always been the mission. God chose people to be a blessing in the Old Testament. Jesus called people to follow Him in the New. So that means, people are still the mission today!
But we can’t be the mission if we’re not walking with Jesus. Think about it. It’s Jesus who pursues you. It’s Jesus who calls you. It’s Jesus who’s proved His love for you. And its Jesus who wants you to follow Him so He can make you a blessing. For when you follow Him, He will make you into someone who lives and loves like him. He’s the one who takes sin-scared, flawed misfits and transforms us into people like Him.
So here’s the VISION that God wants to reboot in us. This is what Jesus wants to REAWAKEN in our church: TO BECOME THE PEOPLE GOD HAS CALLED US TO BE! TO BECOME A PEOPLE WHO BLESS PEOPLE WITH THE LOVE OF JESUS!
And the way God has designed us to become the blessing God has called us to be is by FOLLOWING JESUS TOGETHER That’s how He’s designed it for us to become a blessing to others. He wants us follow Him with others who follow Him. For when we follow Jesus with other Christ followers, then, the Jesus in them will rub off on us… And the Jesus in us will rub off on them.
Teaching alone won’t change you. Don’t get me wrong. Getting into God’s Word can change your heart, renew your mind, and make you like Jesus. But God included you in His family so WE can live out His truth together. He’s designed the Christian life to work in such a way so that transformation happens in the context of relationships. Think of the one truth he wanted His follows to obey: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 We can only love one another like Jesus loved us, if we are in relationships with one another. Christianity is not a spectator religion. Christianity is not a consumer culture. We are meant to be a community Christ followers who do life together so we might bless one another.
It’s when we are with one another we learn how to bear one another’s burdens. It’s where we learn to be patient and forbearing. It’s where we learn to give grace when a brother fails you. It’s where we give mercy to one who needs help. It’s where we can learn to do the smallest acts of kindness. For it’s in the context of community you learn that when a brother extends mercy to you, it rubs off on you. And so the next time someone wrongs you, rather than condemn them, you’ll forgive them. And when you forgive them you bless them and show them what it means to follow Jesus.
So follow Jesus, fan the flame of Jesus in your life. Start reading the gospels. Return to your first love. Keep your eyes on Jesus and walk with him. But don’t do this alone. Get together with others who are learning to follow Him. This is the whole reason we have Journey Groups. This is why we want to connect everyone in a group of men or women. For if we follow Jesus together, God will not only glue us together in love – but He will change us and make us the blessing He has called us to be.
That’s the vision God wants to reboot in us! For when you follow Jesus with others, you’ll find encouragement for your faith, you’ll gain strength for the journey, you won’t lose hope when the world goes off the rails. And as you follow Jesus with others, not only will Jesus rub off on you, but He will make you the blessing our world needs.
So where should we begin? One is pretty obvious. Start following Jesus with others in a Journey Group. If you are not in a group, and you’re ready to rub shoulders with other Christ followers, then take the Connect Card that you found on your chair today, fill it out, and over the next few weeks we will either connect you with an existing group or help you become part of a brand new group.
Second is more of a challenge: Look for ways to be a blessing to others. Remember, if you know Jesus, God has already blessed you to be a blessing. So begin by asking God to show you who needs an act of kindness this week. Maybe He will lead you to give someone a call and pass on a few words of encouragement. Maybe He will just put someone on your heart who could use a friend. The one thing I know right now, is that all of us have been through a trying year. Our lives have been put on hold. We never know quite what to believe with this pandemic. Many have grown weary. Some are depressed with what the future holds. The devil’s working overtime. So ask God to help you do just one act of kindness for another person. Remember, people are the mission, and that means you.
I’m reading a book right now called “Chase The Lion” by Mark Batterson, and in it I was reminded of the impact of one simple act of kindness. He says, “There are six glass towers at the Holocaust Memorial in Boston, Massachusetts, representing the six extermination camps where six million Jews lost their lives. Five towers tell the story of unconscionable cruelty and suffering, but the sixth tower stands as a testimony to hope. Inscribed on it is a short story titled, “One Raspberry,” written by Gerda Weissman Klein:
“Ilse, a childhood friend of mine, once found a raspberry in the camp and carried it in her pocket all day to present to me that night on a leaf. Imagine a world in which your entire possession is one raspberry and you gave it to your friend?”
And I say, “Imagine a world where God uses ordinary people to be a blessing like that!” God uses ordinary people to be a blessing. And He wants to use you.
Let’s pray.
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