Kyle Lounsbury: Today is Mission Sunday, and we get to give together, but also
celebrate the mission of Jesus together.
Amen?
Amen.
And so I'm really excited to be able to, uh, share some scriptures with you
guys, to be able to share the Word, and be able to take this morning to
be able to celebrate all that God has done here, and how we're able to
give to the, the mission of Christ.
Amen?
Amen.
You know, Jesus launched a mission that continues through
ordinary people like you and I.
Uh, he launched the mission many, many years ago.
Yeah.
And that mission is still alive and well today.
Amen?
Amen.
It's been over 2,000 years, and my wife and I lead our campus ministry, and I'm on
campus and I see the mission alive, amen?
Amen.
I see the mission alive on the college campus in young people.
Daniel sees it in our youth.
Jesus is still working.
He is still moving.
And the title of today's message is The Mission Still Moves.
Amen?
Amen.
The Mission Still Moves.
Let's go to God in prayer.
God, thank you so much for this morning and this time to worship you.
I pray, Lord, that you would inspire each and every one of us to remember
that your mission still moves.
Amen.
That today we get to give a special missions offering, but ultimately, Lord,
your mission is present everywhere.
Yes.
And we're so grateful and honored to be able to participate in it.
I pray that this morning you would inspire us to remember
that the m- that the mission of Christ is something so valuable.
I believe the mission can solve so many problems in our lost world.
And I pray that you would speak to whoever in here this morning maybe isn't
feeling inspired by the mission, or maybe isn't connected with the mission.
That you would put on their heart something powerful, something
s- just spiritually moving and stirring in their souls to wanna
participate in your mission, Lord.
We love you.
We thank you.
Please be with this time.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
You know, as we talk about this idea of the mission, I think it's
important that we first start with this question right here.
What is the mission?
You ever thought about it?
You ever asked yourself that?
What is the mission?
You know, in our church for a long time, and, and we still use
this scripture to this day, we use the scripture Matthew 28:18-20.
I'm sure many of you guys have this memorized.
You probably can, can quote it to me right now.
It's Jesus' final instructions on Earth before ascension, right?
And I have it here on the screen.
I think it's fitting to read it.
Verse 19, "Therefore go and make disciples," just in Orange County.
No.
"Of all nations."
Right.
"Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
You know, I had to throw this scripture in here because coming up in the
summertime, our campus ministry is going to what's called the ICMC, the
International Campus Ministry Conference.
Whoo.
Amen.
And our, our theme is to the very end of the age or to the end, and we're gonna
be talking about this idea of Jesus, God.
He will be with us to the end.
Amen.
The last day, Jesus is with us.
Amen?
Amen.
But today, I actually don't really want to use this as our, as our main text.
I think when we, when we talk about the mission, I think this is certainly
a piece of the mission, right?
This is a big aspect of the mission of Christ, but I think
the mission may be even a little bigger than just making disciples.
All right?
And today I actually wanna look at a passage I believe is so powerful
and a few, uh, years ago in our campus internship program, we, we
studied out the Book of Acts, and the Book of Acts is so amazing.
It's the, the…
Just, I know a lot of people call it the Acts of the Apostles, but
it's the acts of the Holy Spirit.
Amen?
Amen.
The Holy Spirit's just moving so powerfully, and in Acts 1:8, this is
the main scripture I want us to look at.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus says to his disciples, this is right…
This is Luke's account of before he ascend, of before Jesus ascends, and
he says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you."
That's right.
"And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria," and to what?
The ends of the earth.
Wow.
To the end.
Jesus says the mission is not gonna stay in Jerusalem.
The mission's not gonna just stay here in this small little group of my disciples.
You know, Jesus had his 12.
It's not gonna just stay right here, is what Jesus is saying, because
he gave them something powerful.
What did he give them?
He gave them the Holy Spirit.
Yeah.
And guess what?
What do we have today?
We have that same Holy Spirit.
Yeah.
The Holy Spirit that God gave us, and he gives us power- Yeah … to
go, not just to Jerusalem or Judea or Samaria, but to where?
The ends of the earth.
The mission of Jesus, the Gospel of Jesus, has reached here.
Amen.
And we get to be a part of that mission.
Amen?
Amen.
You see, Jesus did not build on top of the earthly kingdoms
established here when he came.
And this is a concept that, that for me, it took a long time to understand, but
Jesus established his own new kingdom.
And when we were baptized into Christ and we said, "Jesus is Lord,
I'm gonna follow Jesus," we no longer were citizens of this earth.
We were no longer citizens of earthly kingdoms- That's right … but
we're truly citizens of heaven.
That's right.
Citizens of the kingdom of God.
You see, Jesus started a movement called the Kingdom of God.
Yeah.
And we are a part of it today.
Amen?
Amen.
Now, many of you may be citizens of America, amen?
It's our country.
But ultimately, we associate with the Kingdom of God.
That's right.
Yeah.
The k- the disciples of Jesus.
That's why we come together on Sunday, and that's why we give a missions offering
to people we'll never meet- Yeah, yeah
because we're citizens of something bigger- That's right … than
what we can even understand.
Yes.
We're citizens of a kingdom beyond our understanding.
It's a kingdom here on Earth, and it's a kingdom in heaven.
Amen?
Amen.
And so before we jump into, to some, some scripture here, think about…
Take a moment.
Everyone just take a moment.
Think of your own story for a second.
Think of how you ended up here today.
Obviously, you probably drove, maybe if you live close enough.
I know Tim maybe could walk.
Right, Tim?
But how did you get here?
How did you find the Kingdom of God?
Who talked to you about Jesus?
Who sat with you and shared the scriptures?
Who sacrificed their energy and their time and their maybe
even finances to pour into you?
How did you get here?
You know, I wanna share how the mission reached me.
Amen.
Come on.
That's Steve and Carrie Lounsbury.
And, you know, I was fortunate enough to have parents that came in contact
with the Kingdom of God at young ages, before they were even married.
And they got connected with our church, and studied the Bible,
and learned what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus, and follow Jesus,
and give their entire life to Jesus.
And a few years later, they got married.
They, uh…
It's a long story, but basically, my, my mom came to a, a campus retreat,
and my dad showed up, and he was like, "Whoa, who's that, that girl?"
And then, then the sisters were like, "Hey, she's not a Christian yet."
He said, "Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna back off."
And then she ended up getting, uh, uh, studying the Bible.
And then on her baptism day, funny and oddly enough, uh, I wasn't around
obviously, but back in that time, only Bible talk leaders baptized people,
and my dad happened to be the only Bible talk leader at her baptism.
So by default, my dad got to baptize his future wife
And then he said right as he pulled her out of the water, he asked her on a date.
No, I'm just kidding No, very soon after he did.
Uh, and obviously, here I am.
Wow.
Few years later I was born.
Wow.
And, uh, you know, I, I share this because we all have a history.
Yeah.
Right?
We all have a story.
We all somehow, at some point in our lifetime, came in contact
with the mission of Jesus.
Amen.
And fortunately enough, I studied the Bible, and at 15
years old, I got baptized.
There you go.
There, there I am there.
And I put this picture…
I didn't put my actual baptism photo, but th- these are the
guys that poured into me.
That's Nick Anderson, Jake Rock, and Mike Bartels.
Yeah.
And those are my team leaders.
And those are the guys that said, "We're gonna, we're gonna walk with you.
We're gonna pour into you.
We're gonna show you the mission of Jesus.
We're gonna show you the love of Christ.
We're gonna teach you what it means."
You know, I did not inherit my faith by accident.
Wow.
And neither did you.
Yeah.
Amen.
I may be what's called a kingdom kid, but God chose me to be that.
Yeah.
The same way He chose each and every one of you.
No matter how you got here, He chose you because He loves
you, like Brent said earlier.
Yeah.
And He chose you to be a part of His kingdom.
Wow.
And we're here because of the power of the Holy Spirit carrying the mission
of Jesus through generations, through boundaries, to the ends of the earth.
And here we are on Mission Sunday.
Amen.
And we get to participate today in that same mission.
Yeah.
We get to give to our churches in Mexico, in Central America, in
places that need Jesus just like us.
But maybe they just don't have as much privilege as we have.
They don't have as much as we get to, to be blessed with materially.
And we get to bless that, those churches.
We also get to give to our non-profit organization, Hope Worldwide, and be
able to give to the work being done in t- in Tijuana at our Center of Hope.
And we also get to give to what's happening locally here.
Amen?
Amen.
And a lot is taking place here.
I know we've showed some videos the past couple Sundays that were awesome.
And, and Jesus is moving in the midst of our congregation.
Yeah.
He's moving, not just in the youth, but in everybody.
I believe this, even this move here is creating the mission
of Jesus in every one of us.
Right.
And so today, I actually wanna look at a scripture.
If you wanna turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 15, and we're gonna
look at really what happens when you see a church, a body of disciples,
embody Acts 1:8, where they allow the power of the Holy Spirit- To
influence this lost world for Jesus.
So I'm gonna give you some context.
In Romans 15:16, what, what we're picking up here is essentially what's
going on is the Apostle Paul is writing to the church in Rome, and
he's, uh, a missionary essentially going to all the Gentile cities to,
to preach the good news of Jesus.
And at that time, if you don't know Jews and Gentiles, Jews were, were sort of
the religious ones, were the ones chosen by God, and the Gentiles were, were not.
But Jesus comes and creates this pathway for all to encounter Christ.
That's how we're here.
Amen?
Amen.
That's how we exist.
And in verse 16 he says, Paul says this here, he says, "He gave me the
priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God so that the Gentiles
might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit."
You see, Paul had been carried along by the Holy Spirit,
inspired by God, just convinced.
He had been…
It says he had been given this priestly duty to do what?
To go and proclaim the Gospel to the places that had not heard it.
Yeah.
And then you see him say in verse 19, I love this verse.
Oh, you know what?
I don't have verse 19 up there yet.
We're gonna get to that.
But in verse 19, he says, "So from Jerusalem all the way
around to Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ."
You see, where did Paul start?
In Jerusalem.
Paul started where?
Where Jesus said it would start in Acts 1:8, in Jerusalem.
That you would start in Jerusalem, and it would be spread to Judea, Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth, right?
So he starts there, and where does he go?
I don't even know if I'm pronouncing it right, but Illyricum.
Maybe I'm saying it wrong.
But I looked it up.
You know what that, that is?
Modern-day Slovenia, Croatia, and Albania
You know, I know, uh, our Revive Eastern Europe team has been where the past year?
They've been in Croatia, and Rocky and Betty's daughter, Kiana, has
been on that mission team in Croatia evangelizing, spreading the gospel there.
Amen?
And one of my good friends and his family, Kyle Plumb, minister
down in San Diego, is leading a mission team to Albania this summer.
And the mission is still moving, brothers and sisters.
Amen.
So what was Paul doing?
Paul was literally doing what Jesus said would happen.
He's literally doing what Jesus said he would do in Acts 1:8.
He's carrying the gospel to places that had not heard
it, to the ends of the earth.
Let's continue reading why Paul had this ambition.
Verse 20: "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ
was not known so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.
Rather, as it is written: 'Those who are not told about him will see, and those
who have not heard will understand.'"
You see, what does Paul say here?
He says, "It has always been my" what?
My ambition
You see, ambition can actually be a good thing.
Yeah.
Ambition can be a powerful thing, actually.
And I know we read in Galatians 5:19, "selfish ambition."
That's an act of the flesh.
Selfish ambition, but that's not what he's talking about.
This is a holy ambition.
This is a missional ambition.
This is an ambition to change the world for Jesus.
Yeah.
My first point is the mission creates holy ambition.
When we're mission-minded, when we understand the Kingdom of God, when
we understand that the mission is everywhere and it's working in our
lives, we have a holy ambition.
Paul had a holy ambition.
Amen?
Yeah.
Paul uses that word ambition.
So I said, "Okay, what is, what does this am- or what is the Greek of that ambition?
What does this really mean?"
'Cause I was struggling with the idea of selfish ambition.
And I looked it up, and what I, what I found is it's the word philotimeomai,
and what this means is a holy aspiration.
It's, it's to make it one's aim, and it's a loving honor
Paul's ambition, I believe, came from the Holy Spirit.
Paul's ambition was holy.
It was righteous.
It was, "I just want to be used by Jesus."
Yeah.
Don't you wanna just be used by Jesus, OC Church?
See, Paul had ambition, but not for comfort, not for success,
not for his own name's sake, not for building his own kingdom.
His ambition was that more people would know Christ.
Right.
Amen.
Paul's ambition was simply make Christ known.
So I ask you this
morning, what is your ambition?
As you show up this morning, we all have different ambitions, right?
For those, we, we had our graduation Sunday last week,
and we celebrated all our grads.
They probably have some ambition.
I wanna go get a job.
I wanna go start a career.
Those are good ambitions, but is that your main ambition, graduates?
Come on.
Church, what is our ambition?
What is our goal as a church?
Come on.
Do we wanna make Christ known?
Don't you wanna make Christ known the way that w- He was known to
you, the way that you found Christ?
Don't you want to help many more find Christ- Oh, yeah … and make Him known?
You see, the mission, I believe, it changes what we live for.
It's like a paradigm shift.
It, it, the mission of Jesus changes how we want to live.
Yeah.
Don't you wanna just be a good person?
Like, most time I study the Bible with people, they say, "I
just wanna be a good person."
Yeah.
Okay, amen.
Earlier, Brent said, "Look, none of us are good."
Amen.
We need the cross.
Yeah.
We need Jesus.
But I really believe if the entire world participated in the mission of Christ,
we'd have a lot better of a world.
Yeah.
We really would.
Amen.
We'd have people who forgive.
Yeah.
We'd have people who don't hold grudges.
We'd have people who want to, to invest in each other and walk with each other,
and, "Oh, I have this gift and skill.
Let me teach you how to do…"
You would just see the world.
Guys, guess what?
We have that right here.
Yeah.
We have that mission right here.
Amen.
And we get to live it out and spread it to Orange County.
Amen.
The mission, I believe, gives ambition a different purpose.
It's no longer selfish.
No longer about you.
We're trying to give and build God's kingdom together.
Amen?
Amen.
So is your ambition to make Christ known?
You know, today's mission offering plays a role in making Christ known-
Right … in Mexico and Central America.
Right.
It plays a role in making Christ known here in Orange County.
Right.
Is our ambition to make Christ known?
You guys still with me?
Yeah.
Second point: Everyone participates.
Is this working?
There we go.
Everyone participates in the mission.
Come on.
Romans 15 verse 22
This is why I have been, I have often been hindered from coming to you.
But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I
have been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain.
I hope to see you while passing through, and to have you assist me
on my journey there after I have enjoyed your company for a while
The mission is a call for all of us.
Everyone participates.
You see, Paul continues being hindered from actually getting
back to Rome and going to Rome because he is busy doing what?
Making Christ known, planting churches, going to all these other places.
And Rome isn't actually the destination for him.
He ends up writing here that Spain is.
And Rome, I believe, then bec- in Paul's mind, Rome becomes what's called
a sending church, a church that can give, a church that can send, a church
that can build other churches up.
And I believe that really changes everything.
Because one of the things I wanna share with us this morning is that I think Paul
saw Rome as a sending church the same way that we as OC are a sending church.
Yeah.
Like, let's just say it.
We are a sending church.
We have done amazing things on the mission.
About a month or two ago, Steve was up here, and he had pages of notes
talking about all the good things we have done, all the things we have
shared- Yeah … and the way that we have participated in the mission.
Yeah.
We're a sending church, and I think, brothers and sisters,
we've gotta embrace this.
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, we have to embrace that we are a sending church.
That is the reality we face, that we are fortunate to be full of this
opportunity to be a sending, giving church
And I think Paul is also hinting at something here.
I think he's talking about this idea of the mission was never
designed for your own glory.
The mission was never designed for, like, the superstar Christian
or independent Christianity.
It was meant to be a partnership.
Right.
That's one of the things I love about our family of churches, that we have
over 700 churches worldwide that we are connected to, that we get to
give to and support and connect with.
And when you go to a different country to visit and it's Sunday morning,
you're like, "Well, let me look it up.
Oh, I can go to a church that's 10 minutes away," because
we have a global fellowship.
Yeah.
Isn't that amazing?
Yeah.
We are so fortunate.
We can't take that for granted
We have
a partnership, and Paul expected partnership from the
Roman church That's right.
Yeah Paul expected, we are partnering 'cause our ambition is what?
To make Christ known.
So we're gonna give, we're gonna serve, we're gonna, we're gonna
give to whoever we can and whoever needs it because our goal is not for
us, it's for the mission of Jesus That's right Everyone participates.
And I wanna say, many of you, longtime members, have participated
in the mission of Christ for years.
You're faithful saints, and I'm just so grateful to be a part of a
kingdom, a part of a church like this.
As a young man leading other young people, that they get to see faithful saints
participate in the mission of Christ.
Let's give ourselves a round of applause.
I'm serious.
Many of you
We can't take it for granted, the mission of Christ.
What you guys have poured in, I'm so encouraged by this church.
You've served, you've stayed, you've given, you remain faithful.
And because of that, others are here.
People in this room are here because of your faith, because of
your obedience to following Jesus.
Amen.
And for, for some of us that may be newer, or maybe for those of you who are
younger and maybe haven't participated as long in the mission of Christ, you
know, maybe you can sometimes feel like, "Well, I don't know how big of an impact
I really am having on the mission.
I don't really know if I'm really even a part of this mission.
Like, am I really doing anything impactful here?"
And for me, I'm a sports fan, and so I wanna bring in a sports analogy.
Can I do that?
Yeah.
Right now that's going on is the NBA Finals.
All right?
Who's watching the NBA Finals?
Anybody?
Yeah.
All right.
I know in, in probably, you know, about a week we're gonna start talking all
about the World Cup, so I had to get the NBA in here real quick, all right?
But the NBA Finals are going on.
It's the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.
I don't have a dog in the fight, I just want a good series, all right?
But one of the things I wanna share is that everyone on the team,
if you're on one of these teams, every single player is important.
Right.
Doesn't matter where, whether you're the 7'4" Victor Wembanyama or you are a bench
player that never sees time on the floor.
Everyone is important.
Why?
I played sports.
Because if you don't have a full team, you can't practice, right?
If you don't have these players pushing you, fighting for every minute that
they can try to get on the court, trying to make your stars better, then
your team will not be as good, right?
So it's a unified team effort that takes all hands on deck
to participate in the mission.
And sometimes I think we, we may discount our impact.
If maybe you feel like, "I'm just a bench player.
I don't have much impact.
I don't really do much.
I don't really have that great of an impact."
Maybe you think you can't really participate because you don't have as
much skill or maybe you don't have as much money or you don't have as much ability to
speak or, or y- you're not trained enough.
Whatever it is.
Maybe you feel that you can't have that impact.
I wanna remind you, you can make an impact, and you are needed.
Everyone participates.
Everyone is valuable.
And I wanna show this video here of an NBA player from about 20 years
ago, and this is his, this 50-second clip of his press conference.
Are you guys, you guys ready?
Yeah.
Speaker 17: Last question here before we finish up with the
Lakers Brian, uh, congratulations.
I'm from Europe, from the Netherlands- Oh, okay, okay … a country where
we're all interested in soccer.
But I enjoyed the finals so much, and this gr- game was very great.
But how is it for you, um, watching it from the sideline, uh, not, not able to
play even one little second in the finals?
Is that hard?
Speaker 18: Why would you think that's funny?
I'll tell you, it's not that difficult to do because guess what?
In, like, maybe now you could say y- I didn't play a second, but in five
years you guys are gonna forget.
In 10 years I'll still be a champ.
In 20 years I'll tell my kids I probably started, and in 30 years
I'll probably tell them I got the MVP.
So I'm really not too worried about it.
Speaker 17: Okay.
Great.
All right.
Speaker 18: Congratulations.
We'll see you guys later.
Thank you, Brian.
All right.
Kobe Bryant will be up shortly.
All
Kyle Lounsbury: right.
Everyone participates.
He said, "Look, I, it doesn't matter I didn't play a second in the finals.
I'm a champion."
Guys, we're all in God's kingdom.
What does that make us?
We're champions.
Yeah.
We participate in the mission together.
No, no matter how small we may think our contribution is, no
matter how great it is, we all participate in the mission of Jesus.
Amen?
Amen.
The last point I wanna share here with you guys is generosity fuels the mission.
It fuels it.
And in Romans 15:25, Paul gets to this point where he
talks about an, an offering.
He says, "Now, however, I'm on my way to Jerusalem in the service
of the Lord's people there.
For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor
among the Lord's people in Jerusalem.
They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.
For the Gent- for if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings,
they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.
So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have
received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.
I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure
of the blessing of Christ."
There's a contribution that happens here, that takes place, and, and Paul
says, "Look, it's not an obligation.
You don't have to."
But what is the response of the church?
They're like, "Pff.
We want to.
We want to give."
Yeah.
You see, generosity is not an obligation.
Generosity isn't…
You know, he doesn't treat this as, as fundraising or as, as this idea
of, like, "We just need money."
No.
He, he treats it as ministry.
Right.
There's this reciprocating ministry taking place here.
Right.
This idea of like, "Man, we are the kingdom of God, so we're gonna give.
Our brother's in need?
Let's give to them.
Our sisters need this?
Let's help them."
Right.
It's like, of course we would.
Just like your family.
If, if, if your daughter or your son said, "Hey, uh, you know, I, I work
with college students, so if they're off in college, 'I got no money.
I can't get groceries'" Of course we're gonna help them.
Of cour- "Oh, let me get you some groceries.
Let me help you."
Generosity fuels the mission.
Yeah.
It's not an obligation, brothers and sisters.
That's why we call this a free will offering, but the heart
is, of course we're gonna give.
Why wouldn't we give?
We want to see the mission spread.
You know, not everybody was traveling with Paul.
Not everybody was preaching in these different cities like Paul
was, but what could they do?
Through their generosity, they were able to participate in the mission of Christ.
Yeah.
Amen?
Amen.
And so we're gonna transition here to our time here in a little bit of special
contribution and how we get to participate in the mission of Jesus together.
That's what today represents, amen?
Amen.
And one last thing I say.
In Acts 1:8-
The Holy Spirit's in every one of us.
Let's help join in the mission of Jesus and see the gospel
spread to the ends of the earth.
Amen?
We have the power of the Holy Spirit.
You can be a witness
You can share the gospel.
You can help spread the mission through your presence, through your
love, through your hospitality, through your character at work.
That's the mission.
It's who we are as disciples.
It's who we are as followers of Jesus.
We're different.
Amen?
Amen.
And so as we close out, the mission of Jesus advances when ordinary people
like us, when we say the Kingdom of God matters more than my comfort.
The Kingdom matters more than this world.
Let's build it together.