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Watch Online Sermons 2025 » Craig Smith » Craig Smith - The Church Has Left the Building

Craig Smith - The Church Has Left the Building


Craig Smith - The Church Has Left the Building

Well, hey! Welcome to Mission Hills. So good to have you with us today. A special shout-out to our Castle Rock campus that’s meeting for their first time in their new building. We love you guys! I really feel like I need a monitor or something where I can see what’s happening there. That would be awesome. Tech team, if we could get on that, that would be awesome! Love you guys, however you’re joining us and wherever you’re joining us from. We’re so glad to have you with us today.

I want to talk to you today about the power of the mission, about the power of embracing the mission that God has for your life. You know, we’re in a series right now called Unshakable. Jesus said that if you hear my words and put them into practice-that’s a key piece-then you’re like the man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down and the floods rose up, but the house still stood because it was built on a firm foundation. We’ve been talking about what it looks like to build our house on that foundation, and I know God has been using it in some significant ways.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who’ve said, «Yeah, I realized there was this area of my life that I really needed to shore up. I wasn’t building on this thing, and it’s making a difference. I’m feeling less easily shaken by the storms of life.» And that’s great! I’m so glad God has used it that way in your life if that’s been happening. But you might be here thinking, «I’m still waiting for that to happen, and I need it. I know I need it.» The thing is, like so much of what we’ve talked about already, I’ve already kind of embraced that. I believe God is good, and I believe that he wants to bless us. I believe that Jesus is the only way, and I’ve put my faith in him. I’m working on that humility thing.

Anybody got the humility thing all nailed down yet? How many of us are working on it, though? We realize, «Okay, yeah, that’s a foundation.» Okay, so you’re working on it. You know, I’m holding on to hope, like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, like Jeff talked about last week. I’m leaning into community with other believers, but honestly, I’m still really easily shaken. If that’s where you are, what God might want to say to you today might be a little surprising. It might be that what God wants to say to you today is the reason you’re so easily shaken is because you haven’t embraced the mission.

The reason I say that might be surprising is that I think what happens a lot of times is, «Well, I will embrace the mission that God has for me when I’m on solid ground, when I’ve got this faith thing figured out, when I’ve got life figured out. Then, you know, when I’m not so easily shaken, then I’ll embrace the mission.» What God may want to say to you today is you got it backwards. It’s actually embracing the mission that makes it harder for you to be shaken. There’s some tremendous power that comes with embracing a mission.

I know that right now because I’m going to be honest: I’m exhausted. Over the last three weeks, Clint and I have crossed the Atlantic four times. Great ministry opportunities, but that’s 40-plus hours sitting in economy seats. By the way, if you ever wonder, does Craig fly first class? He does not! Forty- plus hours in economy seats-I’m worn out. I picked up a head cold that I’m fighting. When I woke up this morning at 3:00 AM because my body has no idea what time it is, there was a real part of me that was like, «I just want to stay in bed.»

Anybody have a «I just want to stay in bed» morning today, even maybe? Good job being here! Unless you’re watching from home in bed, in which case we still love you. We really do! But we know it can be hard.

But here’s the thing: I didn’t stay in bed. I got up, got dressed, got in the car, got to the church, engaged with the Word, and got into prayer. And I got up here. And you know why? Because I have a mission. Because God has given me a word for you, and I’m on a mission to deliver it. And there’s something very powerful about a mission. We said a couple of weeks ago that hope is what gets us through what we’re going through, but embracing the mission, honestly, that’s what gets us up and gets us going when we’re facing challenges. And yet, I find that a lot of Christians are struggling because they haven’t really found the power that comes from embracing that mission. And so that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Before we do that, though, let’s do this.

Would you pray with me? And maybe, if you’re okay with it, put your hands out, palms up. This is a posture of receiving. And God, we just want to ask that you would speak to us today as we look into your Word. Would you plant your Word in our hearts? And would you teach us not just to understand what your Word says, but would you give us a clear understanding through your Holy Spirit of what it looks like to actually put this into practice in our lives? Would you speak to each of us specifically and clearly? In Jesus' name, Amen.

If you want to follow along, we’re going to be in Luke chapter 10 today. So while you’re making your way to Luke 10, let me just say, if you’re kind of new to church, Luke is one of four books in the Bible we call the Gospels. These are the stories of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. They’re called Gospels. Gospel is worth it; it means good news because Jesus came as a human being so that he could die on the cross to pay the price for our sin. He rose from the dead, and that is all really good news.

So we have these four books that we call the Gospels, the good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We’re going to look at an incident in the life of Jesus, kind of mid-ministry. Chapter 10 in Luke, verse 1 says this: " After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.»

Now, it starts off by saying «after this,» and the reason Luke says " after this» is that he’s cluing us in that what just happened is actually really important for what’s about to happen. Okay, so what just happened that helps us to understand what’s about to happen? The answer is that Jesus did almost exactly the same thing but with a smaller group of people. He sent a group of people out on a mission, but instead of 72, it was 12. It was the 12 apostles, the 12 kind of leaders of this movement that Jesus was building that we call the church.

So using very similar language and a very similar mission, he sent the 12 out, and now, after this, he sends out 72. And that’s an important number for a couple of reasons. It’s a significantly bigger number. It’s also a symbolically important number. It’s a significantly bigger number. I mean, it doesn’t take a lot of math to figure that one out, right? It was 12; now it’s 72. And that would be-oh, you guys are fast today! Okay, yeah, I had to do that on paper, but whatever. Yeah, it’s a 6x increase. And what that means, and this is really important to understand, is it’s the same mission, but it’s being assigned to a different group of people.

So what’s happening now is this isn’t the leaders of the church; this is the members of the church. Does that make sense? It’s not the leaders of the church; it’s the members of the church. By the way, when I say «members» here, I don’t mean they went through some formal interview membership process and got voting rights and things like that. I just mean that they’ve said yes to following Jesus, and that has brought them into this thing that we call the church. Okay? They’re now members of the church. The same thing goes for you. You may not be a member of Mission Hills because you haven’t gone through the formal process, which means I’m sorry you can’t vote on the budget.

And I know everybody’s broken-hearted about that, but if you really, really want to vote on the budget, okay, you can go through the membership process. But as a follower of Jesus, you are already a member of the church, okay? And that’s what Jesus is doing. He’s expanding the mission from the leadership to the members of the church. So this isn’t the leaders of the church; it’s the members of the church. The second reason this number is significant is because it’s symbolic. Seventy-two is symbolic of the number of nations that the Hebrew people believed existed on earth in those days. They thought there were 72 nations.

And so when Jesus selects 72 people, he’s communicating the mission. This is about reaching every nation on earth. Okay, now, not that these 72 are going to get there, but he clearly is saying that’s the ultimate goal. That’s the end result of the mission. You know, the mission, should you choose to accept it, is ultimately to reach every nation on earth. In America today, in the United States, we have diplomatic relationships and recognition of 197 nations. If Jesus were doing the same thing today in America, he probably would have selected 197 church members, and we would have been like, «Oh, okay,» because that’s 197 nations. So when he did it, they all got it. They went, «Okay, this isn’t the leaders of the church; it’s the members of the church, and this is about reaching every nation on earth.»

Now, by doing that, he’s telling us something really important about this thing that we call the church. And what he’s telling us is the church exists because there’s a mission to be accomplished, which is really important to understand. Sometimes, if we grow up going to church, how many of us have grown up going to church? Yeah. In fact, how many of us got up this morning and said, «I need to go to church»? Yeah.

See, that’s a really common thing to think. Here’s the problem: You failed. You didn’t come to church because the church isn’t a building, okay? It’s not a set of programs we participate in. But that’s how we often end up thinking about it. But the reality is that the church is all about mission. In fact, one of the things we say here at Mission Hills all the time is: the church isn’t a building we come to; it’s a mission we choose to embrace. The church isn’t a building we come to; it’s a mission we choose to embrace. But we lose track of that, especially if you grow up in church. I grew up in church, and I’m grateful for that, but there’s also some weirdness that comes with it. One of the weirdnesses is I used to be in Sunday school as a little kid, and my teacher would do this: «Here is the church and here is the steeple; open the doors and see all of the people.»

I’m going to tell you something that’s cute, but it’s really cruddy theology. It’s really bad theology. Because here’s the thing: this isn’t the church, and it didn’t become a church just because you put a steeple on it. This isn’t the people in the church; this is the church. Do you understand what I’m saying? The people are the church. So you didn’t come to church; you aren’t in a church; you are the church. In fact, why don’t you just tell somebody near you? Look at them and say, «You aren’t in a church.» Tell them, «You are the church.» If you are a follower of Jesus, you are the church.

And here’s the crazy thing: we think, «I got to go to church.» And maybe, on some level, we add a layer; we’re like, «I’m going to be the church in the church.» But we are never more the church than when the church leaves the building. Are you with me? Because the church is a missional organization; that is the only reason we exist. We exist because God loves the world and wants them to know it. If the church existed just to disciple us, to make us more like Jesus, then when we baptize people, we should hold them down until they stop wiggling, because when they go into the presence of Jesus, they’re fully discipled; they’re fully transformed. But we’re not going to do that, partly because it’s illegal, and partly because I’m pretty sure it’s not what Jesus wants, but also partly because the church isn’t-it’s not a discipleship organization; it’s a missional organization.

Now, do we have to disciple people so they can engage in the mission? Yes. Is it possible? You know, I say this a lot: I say, «Listen, saying the church is a discipleship organization is like saying that the Marines are a physical fitness organization.» They’re not. Now, can the Marines accomplish their purpose if they’re not physically fit? Of course not. Could we possibly do what we do as a church if we’re not discipling people? Of course not. Those are fundamental to what we do. But when we talk about why we exist, we have to recognize we exist because of a mission. By the way, this is one of the reasons at Mission Hills we don’t have a missions program. A lot of times, Christians come to Mission Hills for the first time, and they go on our website, and one of the questions I get a lot is, «Why don’t you have a missions program?» No, we have a global outreach program. We have more than 50 evangelistic partners and church planting partnerships in 20 countries. We’re deeply committed to world evangelization, but we don’t have a missions program.

And the reason we don’t have a mission program, what we say it is, we say because missions isn’t a program of the church; it’s the purpose of the church. And we don’t want anybody thinking, «Oh, that program over there, that’s the mission.» No, no, no, no. Everything we do is oriented around accomplishing this mission. And that’s what Jesus is trying to help us understand here. He says, «Listen, this is a foundational truth in Christianity: we have a mission to accomplish.» And so he pulls these 72 aside; he moves from the leadership to the membership, and he told them, «The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.»

It’s so interesting to me; he pulls these 72 in. And so it’s a radical increase -it’s a 6x increase in the number of people involved in the mission, right? And then he looks at them; he’s looking at this group of workers, this large group of workers, and what does he say? He goes, «Man, there’s just not enough of you. The workers are few.» And they’re like, «There’s 72 of us, Jesus.» He’s like, «Yeah, that’s not even close to being enough.» It’s a good start; it’s a good move and symbolizes the movement from the leadership to the membership. But the reality is that every member of the church must embrace the mission of the church, or the mission will go unaccomplished. You with me?

Every member of the church must embrace the mission of the church. But the reality is that’s not what happens. It’s just not. Remember, I was a young youth pastor, and by God’s grace, the ministry was growing. I was trying to recruit more people to help with this growing ministry, and I was just having a really hard time with it. I complained to one of my pastors who was mentoring me, and he said, «Oh, you’re running into the 80/20 rule.» I asked, «What is the 80/20 rule?» He replied, " The 80/20 rule is true in churches all over the world. Twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work.»

How many of you have ever heard that? Yeah, I hate that rule for a couple of reasons. First, I think it’s overly cynical. I don’t think that’s true. I think there are a lot more people engaged in the mission than sometimes we have. Sometimes, we have very limited, very narrow definitions of what it looks like to be engaged in the mission. We’ll talk about that a little bit later today, but I believe more people are engaged in it.

But here’s the thing: What I really don’t like about it is that it’s just stupid. Okay, can I just be real? It’s just stupid because here are the facts: Twenty percent of the people can’t do eighty percent of the work. It’s not mathematically possible. If it were true that only twenty percent of people were engaged in the mission of the church, do you know what percentage of the work twenty percent of the people can do? Twenty percent. If only twenty percent of the people are engaged in the work of the church, then that means that eighty percent of the work of the church isn’t getting done, and that’s a problem.

Jesus acknowledges that it’s a problem. That’s why he says you need to pray. Pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out more workers, that he’d inspire more people to embrace this mission because twelve to seventy-two is a good start, but unless every member embraces the mission, we’re not going to see the mission accomplished. The reality is everyone is called, but few are contributing. Everyone is called, but few are contributing. I don’t say that to guilt anybody. If you’ve been coming here for any length of time, you know that that’s not my style. Honestly, I don’t even say it just as a challenge. It is a challenge to you, but honestly, it’s not about what I want from you. I don’t believe it’s what God wants from you. I actually think it’s partly what God wants for you.

I’ve discovered in my life that the more I embrace the mission of God, the more I take my eyes off of myself, and the more I take my eyes off of my circumstances, the less shaken I am by the storms of life that come against me because I have my eyes set on something that is bigger than me. There is an unshakableness that comes as I embrace the mission, and I want that for you. Jesus wants that for you. It’s not just that he wants the mission accomplished; he also wants you to experience what happens in your own life when you embrace this mission because it’s a powerful thing. So I just want to ask you this question. I want to ask you to wrestle with this question: Am I contributing to the mission of the church, or am I just consuming? We want to feed, we want to instruct, we want to disciple, we want to encourage, we want to inspire, we want to heal. We want to do all those things, but the reason we do all those things is so that we can be healthy. We want to be healthy so that we can go on mission, so we can live on mission with Jesus.

Sometimes what happens in the church is we get into this sort of place of consumption. We just consume and consume and consume. I get this message, and then I go to this Bible study, I listen to this podcast, I read this book, I study the Word, and I have my two-hour quiet time, and I do all these kinds of things. Those are great things, but at a certain point, the consumption has to turn into contribution. We have to actually engage in the mission of God, or there’s a problem. There’s an unhealth that has to be addressed.

Now, what it looks like to contribute to the mission varies from person to person. We’ll talk about what that might look like in your life before we’re done today, but I want you to wrestle with that question: Are you just consuming, or are you also contributing? And again, it’s because there’s something that wants to be done in the world. There’s a mission that wants to be fulfilled in the world that God wants fulfilled. But there’s also something that God wants for you in that. There’s an unshakableness that comes from embracing the mission.

Now, the mission is scary, and I think Jesus knows that, which is why he says this. He says, «Go; I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals, and do not greet anyone on the road.» So he says, «Okay, you got to go.» So he says, «Go, get moving. I’m sending you out as lambs among wolves.» Does anybody else feel like, «Jesus, you need to work on your marketing strategy»? Like, that is not inspiring, Jesus; that is terrifying, right? «I’m sending you out as lambs.» Why is he saying that?

Honestly, I think what he’s doing is he’s saying, «Hey guys, I know this is scary. I know that embracing the mission is scary, and you and I know that, right? We know that thinking about sharing my faith with somebody at work is scary. We know that thinking about inviting a neighbor to come to church with you is scary. Just letting people know sometimes that you’re a follower of Jesus, that can be scary.»

My daughter works at a lab up in Boulder, and just this past week, she was walking into the lab with a big day planner, but it was leather-bound. One of her bosses saw it and kind of looked at it funny, and then saw that it had the day planner written on it. Her boss goes, «What?» and Len goes, «What?» Her boss said, «I thought it was a Bible.» Then her boss looked at her and said, «You can believe whatever you want, but you can’t walk around with a Bible in here.» Of course, Len thought, «That’s intimidating!»

I mean, it’s my boss, and you know, my career is-you know, that’s what happens when we live on a mission with Jesus. By the way, the boss knew she was a follower because she’s vocal about that. And her boss said, «Now you’re bringing it into work.» And can I tell you? My daughter brings it into work every single day, and they’re aware. But you understand what I’m saying: I get it, it can be scary. But can I tell you something? Yes, embracing the mission is scary, but not as scary as living without it.

It is much scarier to go through life without a mission that is bigger than your life. Embracing the mission is scary, but not as scary as living without it. Unfortunately, we live in a culture where, let’s face it, the theory of naturalistic evolution has robbed us of meaning. The philosophy of nihilism has robbed us of mission and purpose, and a culture of materialism and self-obsession has blinded us to what’s missing. This is the reason that anxiety and depression are at record numbers because our lives are empty. So yes, embracing the mission is scary, but it’s not nearly as scary as living life without it. And Jesus goes, «I get it.»

By the way, I think it’s also interesting. He said, «I send you out as lambs among the wolves.» I think he’s actually hinting at the method for the mission there, about how we go about the mission. Because he could have used a lot of different animals, right? I wish he had, honestly. I’m sending you out as mastiffs, right? Big, scary dogs against the wolves. Or even, I mean, if you want to go with sheep, how about a ram, right? I’m sending you out as rams among the wolves. At least they have the horns and can headbutt a wolf if they have to, right? And he deliberately ignores all of those possibilities, saying, «I’m sending you out as a lamb,» a completely defenseless thing.

I think he’s hinting at some of the method of the mission that we’re going to see him talk about just a little bit later. But here’s the thing: because the mission is scary, we have a tendency to procrastinate. Any procrastinators here? Some of you are like, «I’ll get my hand up there eventually.» But it’s just, anybody ever procrastinated doing something because it was scary? Anybody ever procrastinated going to the dentist because it was scary? Going to the doctor because it was scary? But by the way, I know this happens every week, and it just amazes me that we get the privilege of seeing God use us this way. I know every week on our campuses there are people who are new to church, and maybe they’re new to church for the first time. They’ve never been to church, or maybe they just haven’t been to church for a long time, and something has led them to come back.

And whenever I meet those people, I love welcoming them, and I love asking the question, «What brought you here today?» And you know, I’ve never heard-in 33 years of vocational ministry, I’ve never asked, «What brought you here today?"-and I’ve never had them say, «I just woke up this morning and decided to go.» What I’ve heard a lot is, «I’ve been feeling for a long time like maybe I needed to get back to church or maybe I needed to find out about Jesus.» And I go, «What took you so long?» And they’re like, «Christians are weird.» You know that about us, right? We are.

And sometimes we can be a little bit scary, not necessarily through any fault of our own, but that’s the point. It can be scary. We procrastinate what’s scary. And so Jesus says it’s scary, and then he says, «But you got to be careful not to procrastinate.» It’s why he said, «Don’t take a purse or a bag or sandals.» Each of those things were really extra supplies that you’d have to work for a while to collect. The bag was a coin bag. Most people in those days carried a coin or two in their belts as they walked around. But the bag means you had to go gather a substantial amount of money. Probably means for most people you would have had to go work for a while and earn it, and then get a bag to keep it in because you’re like, «I don’t want to go out unprepared,» right?

So I got to get some money, get some cash in the bank, and then I’ll be good. And then he says, in a-what is it called? A bag that was a knapsack, kind of like a backpack. And so you’d have an extra cloak and some extra clothing, undergarments, and maybe some extra food and extra water supplies. And again, it’s going to take you a while to collect them and keep them in there. And then he says, «Take sandals.» They weren’t walking around barefoot; they probably had sandals. He’s talking here about extra sandals. He’s like, «If I got to go on that journey, then I might wear out my sandals. And then what would I do? So maybe I need to have somebody make me a set of sandals or find somebody who’s willing to sell me a set. I might have to earn some money before I do that.» And the point is that all of this is a certain amount of preparation. Does that make sense?

And so Jesus says, «I don’t want you worrying about any of that.» He says, «Listen, don’t get delayed by over-preparing for the mission. The mission is too important. Don’t get delayed over-preparing for the mission.» And the reality is sometimes when God calls us to live on mission with Him, we say, «I’m absolutely going to do that, but I’ve got to get prepared before I can really do that, right?» And what happens is preparation is really a code word for procrastination.

We say, «I can’t share my faith until I get a lot more answers to my own questions. I can’t invite somebody to come to church until I’ve established a longer relationship with them. I can’t go on a short-term trip because I don’t have enough PTO saved up, and I couldn’t do the vacation and the short-term trip, so I’ve got to save up for more PTO. I’m definitely going to do it, Jesus. I’m absolutely going to live on mission with you, but I’ve got to get prepared first.» And Jesus says, «Man, that can be a trap. Don’t get delayed by over-preparing for the mission.» And can I just tell you something that I hope you find encouraging? You don’t have to be prepared to be powerful.

Sometimes we think, «Until I learn more Bible verses or get some more theology under my belt, or until I’ve been following Jesus for longer, then I can’t have a powerful impact on people.» But the reality is you don’t have to be prepared to be powerful. In fact, you know the number one time in a Christian’s life when they have the largest impact on the mission of the church? It’s in the first 12 months after they say yes to following Jesus for the first time. The first 12 months, it’s when they’re least prepared but they’re most powerful. And the reason is pretty simple: It’s because when they know people who aren’t Christians, they already have longstanding, intimate relationships with them.

Honestly, a lot of times those relationships drift as they get into the church, and they get into their Bible study, and their little Christian bubble, and they lose some of those relationships. But in those first 12 months, those relationships are strong and vibrant. That’s when we have the most impact. Often it’s when they’re least prepared but when they’re most powerful. Listen to me: Sometimes you’re delaying going on mission with Jesus, living on mission, embracing the mission because you think you’ve got to get more prepared. Jesus says, «Don’t make that mistake. You’re actually missing an opportunity to see God use you in ways that honestly you can’t even imagine right now.»

By the way, He also says, «And don’t greet anyone on the road.» And that sounds rude, but in the ancient Jewish world, greeting was a very elaborate, involved custom. There was a lot of back and forth, rituals that you went through, things that were exchanged, different kinds of greetings and prayers that were prayed and blessings given, and it could be a really long, time-consuming thing. And that was the expectation; that’s what the world sort of expected of you.

And so what Jesus says is very powerful. He says, «Listen, don’t get derailed by the world’s expectations of you.» I mean, the world has some expectations for how you’re going to do life. And if you listen to those expectations, it’s going to be really hard to embrace this mission. I remember when I asked Coletta to marry me; her parents gave me permission. And afterwards they were talking to Coletta and they said, «Well, what is Craig planning on doing for a living?» And she said, «Well, he really feels called to be a pastor.» And her mom cried.

And there was a part of me that was like, «Oh no, do I need to maybe work a regular job for a while first to prove that I can support her?» My parents were kind of worried about it too. That’s why I have an undergraduate degree in audio engineering, because they were freaked out about the idea of me going into pastoral ministry. Those were expectations placed on us, and I know what it feels like to feel those expectations and think, «Well, maybe I’ll just delay, or maybe I’ll do this,» and that can get derailing really fast.

I don’t know what those look like in your life, but I promise you your neighbors have some expectations of you, and your boss has some expectations, and your family has expectations. Sometimes when we begin to embrace the mission, embracing the mission runs head-on into the expectations. Jesus says you have to be careful when that happens because there will be a lot of pressure to give up on the mission and embrace the expectations. But he says, «Don’t let it happen. Don’t get derailed by the world’s expectations of you.» He says, «When you enter into a house, first say, 'Peace to this house, ' and if someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them. If not, it will return to you. It’s not lost. You tried to proclaim peace, and they didn’t want it. You haven’t lost it. Take it to the next person.»

But I think this is such an interesting thing, and I said earlier when we talked about the lambs and the wolves that I think Jesus was hinting at the method of the mission. Now he’s starting to talk a little bit very practically about the method of the mission. He says when you go into a place, the first thing you proclaim is what? It’s peace. Why? Because that’s what the gospel is. It’s the proclamation of peace with God. It’s the proclamation that God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to pay the price for our sin. He raised him from the dead so that we could not only have forgiveness but also have the power of the resurrection working in our lives so that we could overcome those sinful tendencies and habits by the power at work in us. Then we could actually become the people God created us to be.

As we become the people God created us to be, then there are no barriers between us and the Creator, who created us to be in relationship with us. So we have peace. The gospel is a proclamation of peace, and Jesus says you have to start with the proclamation of peace. Because listen, we can’t proclaim peace unless we promote peace. We can’t proclaim peace unless we promote peace. You can’t proclaim peace with God as a possibility if you say, «Hey listen, God loves you,» but they get the impression that you hate them. Your proclamation is not going to go very far.

If you start with condemnation, the proclamation doesn’t have a lot of legs. «See, God wants to save you, but I kind of want to kill you.» That’s a hard platform, right? So Jesus says, «Listen, we can’t proclaim peace unless we promote peace.» Now, does that mean that we water down the truth? And all God’s people said, «That was really weak! Maybe you were a little unclear. That was the right answer. Let’s try it again. Does proclaiming peace mean that we water down the truth?» And all God’s people said, «No!»

Does proclaiming peace mean that we refuse to call sin, sin? No. But there’s a way to proclaim truth in kindness and not antagonism. We’re called to be kind, not nice. Nice holds back the truth. Kind speaks the truth, but it does so out of care and concern for those people. And I think sometimes the church struggles with this. Sometimes the church thinks that we just need to communicate how unhappy we are with the world and how mad God is with the world. And we need to pay attention to the fact that Jesus came and He said the first thing you’re going to do is proclaim peace. They may not receive it. And if they don’t receive it, you know what you’re going to do? You’re going to hit them.

By the way, right before this-another thing-right before this is the 12 were going on a mission, and they were trying to go into a Samaritan village to prepare the way for Jesus, but Jesus wasn’t welcomed. The Samaritan village rejected Him. And the leaders, the disciples, they said, «Jesus, yes! You want us to call down fire on that village to consume them?» They were like, «This is going to be awesome-just like Elijah! Come on, let’s get after it!» They didn’t want you. «All right, we’re going to destroy them!» And Jesus rebuked them. Not the village. He rebuked His apostles for that attitude. They don’t want peace. That’s on them. If we’re going to proclaim it, we also have to be willing to pursue it. And He says, «When you enter a home, first say peace.» And then He says this, verse 7: «Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages, and so do not move around from house to house.»

When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat whatever is offered to you. And what He’s talking about here is, I think, one of the biggest obstacles to living on mission, and that is the desire to be comfortable in three different ways. He addresses the barrier of comfort. He first says, «Stay there. When they offer you a place, stay there and do not move from house to house.»

In the ancient world, what would happen is that when an itinerant speaker would come into a community and they weren’t very popular, nobody knew them. Usually, they would be offered a room in a pretty humble setting. It wouldn’t be very comfortable-no great accommodations. But as they became more popular and people knew them, then somebody richer would offer them more comfortable accommodations. And so they would move to the more comfortable accommodations. And Jesus says, «You’re not going to do that. Whoever opens the house, you’re just going to stay there because your comfort is not something that we’re interested in.»

And then second, He says, «Eating and drinking whatever they give you.» And you notice He says it twice: «Eating and drinking whatever they give you,» and «When you’re welcomed, eat whatever is offered to you.» It’s about comfort. Has anyone ever gone into somebody’s house and they offered you something you really hated? It’s uncomfortable. I was in an Eskimo house once, and they offered me muktuk. It was a piece of whale blubber with the skin on the outside and the fat on the inside. And wait, there’s more-they put it in the ground and ferment it. I was offered this and it was uncomfortable. I popped it in my mouth and the comfort level decreased dramatically. It was the worst thing I’ve ever had in my mouth. It was something like somebody had gone out of their way to make tires taste bad. But you do it because you' re being honored, right? It doesn’t matter if it’s comfortable.

Now, for the Jewish disciples, it was uncomfortable; it could have been unkosher or prepared in an unkosher way, and so it was religiously uncomfortable. But Jesus says, «You’re just going to eat it because your comfort is not what’s important here.» And He says, «The worker deserves his wages.» And that’s actually about comfort too, because some of the disciples probably thought, «Well, I don’t want to get paid or taken care of for proclaiming the good news about Jesus. I shouldn’t get anything for that. That’s really uncomfortable.»

I’ve been there. I was in a church in India a couple of years ago, and I preached in this church. Afterwards, they gave me some money, and I was like, «Oh, I don’t want this. I’m coming from a rich American church, and this is a poor Indian church. I can’t be taking money for this.» So, I was about to send it back, and one of the guys I was with said, «Hey, don’t do that. Don’t send that back.» I said, «That’ll be really dishonoring to them. They’re just trying to obey the Scripture’s command to take care of the worker and give him his wages.»

Honestly, it’ll communicate that you think they have nothing to offer. I had to walk out with that money, and it was incredibly uncomfortable because I don’t preach the gospel to make bank. It was uncomfortable. But what Jesus is saying is, «Listen, the gospel can’t be carried by people too worried about comfort.» That’s a word for some of you today: the reason it’s hard to embrace the mission that God’s called you to is simply because you’re too worried about comfort. That’s a trap. Jesus says, «When you enter this town and come to this place, heal the sick who are there and tell them the kingdom of God has come near to you.»

I want you to pay attention to the pattern. He says, «Heal and preach. Heal and proclaim.» Not «heal or proclaim,» but «heal and proclaim.» I think the order is significant too: heal first, then proclaim. Take care of people first. Meet needs. Serve people. Why? We all know this. You’ve probably even heard somebody say it before; I didn’t come up with this, but the truth of the matter is that people don’t care what we know until they know that we care. So, He says, «Care for people,» and that creates a platform for proclamation. It’s the reason the church has historically fed the poor, cared for immigrants, and protected the oppressed. It’s why we do it as a church: because we’re communicating that we care.

That’s an incredibly important thing. I think sometimes, in the modern era, the world knows that we care about what they do. I think the world knows that we care about what they believe or don’t believe, but I don’t know that they always know that we care about them. So, Jesus says you’ve got to show it. By the way, this foundation of communicating that we care is why every member of the church must embrace the mission of the church. The leadership of a church cannot communicate care for your family in the way that you can. The leadership of a church cannot communicate care for your neighbors, your co-workers, and the people on your teams and in your spheres of influence. They can tune in and hear content; they can hear what we know from me or other church leaders, but that foundational piece to the proclamation? That’s your mission. This is why every member of the church must embrace the mission of the church. Okay.

So what does that look like? Let me give you a very simple practical grid for thinking about this. I think that we embrace the mission of the church by living generously. We live generously in four areas: our time, our treasure, our touch, and our territory. We live generously with our time. We use a portion of our time to serve others in the church and in the world. We live generously with our treasure. We use a portion of our finances to advance the gospel. My family tithes to Mission Hills because Mission Hills is advancing the gospel.

But beyond that, we support missionaries and children through the compassion program and a number of other places. We use finances to support the mission and advance the gospel. We’re living generously with our treasure. We live generously with our touch. By that, I mean we use kindness, forgiveness, patience, and grace with the people in our lives. We’re generous in that way. We live generously with our territory. How many of us know somebody? I’ll wait. You have territory; you have a sphere of influence that God has given you. We live generously with our territory by using the places where we have influence as our mission field. We love, we care, and we proclaim. It’s not an «or»; we love and we care and we proclaim. We tell them our story and what Jesus has done for us. We invite them into a relationship with Jesus. We invite them to come to church with us. We do all these things as God leads us. In all this, what we are doing is embracing the mission and planting our feet on solid ground.

So God, I just want to pray in this moment that your Holy Spirit would move and speak. In this moment, I realize that some of us are hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit say we need to live more generously with our time. I wonder, just with every head bowed and eye closed, if you’re sensing the Spirit saying that you need to live more generously with your time, would you just lift your hand? Thank you. Some of us in this moment are hearing the Holy Spirit say you need to embrace the mission by living more generously with your treasure.

If that’s you, would you just slip your hand up? Thank you. Some of you are hearing the voice of the Spirit say you need to live more generously and embrace the mission by living generously with your touch-with grace, kindness, and patience. If that’s you, would you have the courage to just let me know? Thank you. Some of us are realizing we have territory that we can be living on mission with Jesus, but we haven’t lived generously with that territory. If you’re sensing the Holy Spirit leading you in that way, would you just lift your hand? Thank you. Holy Spirit, we thank you for clarity, and now we ask you for courage that we might trust you in a new way and embrace the mission because that’s what honors you and loves those you love. But also because it’s where we find solid ground to face the storms of life, giving us clarity and courage. In Jesus' name, Amen.