The Christian’s Civic Duty: Beyond the Sanctuary Walls

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:02] Well, if you've got your Bibles with you this morning, I want you to open them, if you will, to Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29. I want to do my best to put this discussion on foster
[00:00:12] care in the larger picture of what we are called to do as a church and in what you specifically are called to do in our community. We just finished up our study on Revelation a couple
[00:00:23] of weeks ago, and in a couple of weeks, Lord willing, we are going to start our study of the book of 2 Corinthians, which is going to be awesome.
[00:00:33] But in these weeks here in between, we wanted to do a little mini series on renewal.
[00:00:38] In the final scene in Revelation, Jesus had said, Revelation 21 five, Jesus had said, behold, I am making all things new.
[00:00:49] Pastor Brian pointed out last weekend that this is not a future tense verb, as in one day when I bring heaven to earth, then I'll make all things new.
[00:00:59] but Jesus said it in the present continuous tense, which means right now.
[00:01:03] In the present, I am making all things new, which is what this mini series is about, renewal.
[00:01:10] Last weekend, Pastor Brian gave an incredible message on Psalm 32 showing how Jesus brings personal renewal to us.
[00:01:18] This weekend, we're going to see how he brings renewal through us to our city.
[00:01:24] A lot of Christians wonder what effective gospel ministry looks like in an age like the one that we live in. What are we actually supposed to be doing with our lives? Is it just what we do in here in the weekend that really counts in the kingdom of God?
[00:01:38] As in, are you guys supposed to just go to work all week so that you can pay your bills and then bring your money so that you can give it here so that we can do more of this? Or does serving God
[00:01:49] in the city primarily mean that you got to look for ways to force awkward evangelism encounters into conversations wherever you can.
[00:01:58] True story, a few years ago, an American Airlines pilot was taxiing his 767 down the runway at LAX, flight 34, getting ready to take off for JFK in New York.
[00:02:11] He picks up the intercom to make his usual pre-flight announcements when he had a big idea.
[00:02:17] Maybe he thought even a God idea.
[00:02:20] You see, he had just gotten back from a mission trip with his church to Costa Rica, and y'all, he was fired up about Jesus.
[00:02:28] So at the end of his pre-flight announcements, he paused, he offered up a quick little prayer.
[00:02:33] And then he said, one more thing, folks, before we take off, could I get any born again Christians on our flight to raise their hands?
[00:02:40] People kind of looked around confused.
[00:02:42] A few people sort of gingerly raised their hands.
[00:02:45] Then he said, okay, for the rest of you, I would encourage you to use the next four hours to talk to these people who have their hands raised because they can tell you how you can know for sure
[00:02:56] you'll go to heaven when you die.
[00:02:59] People started freaking out, of course.
[00:03:01] I mean, the pilot of your airplane's telling you to get ready to meet Jesus?
[00:03:06] Well, thankfully, Flight 34 made it safely to JFK, and all the passengers disembarked with a bizarre story to tell their friends, and the zealous pilot disembarked with an immediate summons to see his supervisors.
[00:03:20] And if you're anything like me, you admire that guy's zeal, but you think, look, yes, that's awesome, that there's just no way I can pull a stunt like that and keep my job.
[00:03:28] And you're probably right.
[00:03:30] But is that what you're supposed to be doing?
[00:03:34] As you probably heard, I actually released a book on Tuesday this past week called Everyday Revolutionary, How to Transcend the Culture War and Transform the World.
[00:03:41] And this is what that book is about.
[00:03:43] This morning, I wanted to take a key passage from that book, Jeremiah 29, four through seven, and one that I build the entire book around.
[00:03:52] And I wanted to unpack that passage for you because it lays out for us the mission of renewal that we're supposed to have in our city.
[00:04:01] Now, as always, I want you to know, in fact, it's important to me that you do know this, anything we ever sell at this church does not go, not one penny of it, to benefit any pastor on our staff.
[00:04:13] All the monies just go right back into the ministries of the church.
[00:04:15] In fact, I wrote this book because it crystallizes the heart of our mission philosophy as a church.
[00:04:21] Okay, here it is, Jeremiah 29, verse four.
[00:04:23] for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses there and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce,
[00:04:38] take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters.
[00:04:44] Multiply there and do not decrease.
[00:04:47] No, seek the welfare, the prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile.
[00:04:53] and pray to the Lord on its behalf.
[00:04:55] For in its welfare, in its prosperity, you will find your own prosperity.
[00:05:01] Here's the context for this passage.
[00:05:04] The book of Jeremiah was written about the same time as the book of Daniel in the Bible, if that helps.
[00:05:09] Israel had just been carried off into captivity into Babylon because of their sin.
[00:05:15] And a lot of Israelites were wondering how they were supposed to respond to that situation.
[00:05:20] Here, they've been uprooted from their land taken to a strange city ruled by a pagan king where they are told to be servants there. And apparently there were a number of would-be prophets who were urging the Israelites to resist
[00:05:34] any form of social integration in Babylon because they said this is a wicked city and that's a wicked king. And any day now, God is going to raise up some new Moses who's going to drop some
[00:05:45] serious plague action on Babylon like he did on Egypt, and he's going to lead his people back to the promised land. So for now, what we got to do is we got to stay separate. We got to live in our
[00:05:54] little communities. We got to look inward. We don't want to get involved in Babylon because there's nothing but destruction out there. Do not listen to them, the prophet Jeremiah said, because those are false prophets. That's Jeremiah 28. No, he said, for right now, for right now,
[00:06:09] God says, do not seek Babylon's overthrow. Do not sequester yourself in little isolated holy huddles, holding hands, singing kumbaya and waiting for the rapture. No, put down roots.
[00:06:22] Get involved in the city. Seek its prosperity. Pray for its prosperity. Make your home in it.
[00:06:29] Make its problems your problems. Devote yourself to making that a better place to live.
[00:06:36] It's not your real home, of course. God says your real home is my kingdom. But for right now, while you're living as exiles here in Babylon, I want you to testify to my kingdom there by
[00:06:48] bringing my blessing and my renewal into the kingdom of Babylon. Now, these were not special isolated instructions given to one specific generation of Israelites at one unique period of history. No, in the New Testament, the apostles Paul and Peter build on Jeremiah's instructions.
[00:07:09] In fact, Peter even opens up his epistle to the church, 1 Peter.
[00:07:13] He opens it up, 1 Peter 1.1, saying that he is writing to exiles living in Babylon's all over the world, connecting what he is saying to what the prophet Jeremiah said.
[00:07:24] Now, of course, when Peter wrote those words in the first century, the actual city of Babylon had been destroyed for over 400 years.
[00:07:31] So like other New Testament writers, the apostle Peter uses Babylon as a metaphor for the age that Christians live in now.
[00:07:40] If he were alive today, he would refer to Raleigh and Durham and Alamance County and Chapel Hill as Babylon.
[00:07:49] You say, especially Chapel Hill.
[00:07:50] Yeah, probably, okay, but whatever.
[00:07:53] The Babylon is where we live because our real home is the kingdom of heaven, but it's where we live right now.
[00:07:58] And this is the city that God is commanding us to be involved in.
[00:08:01] I'm gonna distill Peter and Paul's instructions down into five action steps.
[00:08:06] five ways that we can seek the welfare of the city into which he has sent us into exile.
[00:08:12] This is a little bit of an unusual message for us because usually I just take one passage and work through it.
[00:08:17] But what I wanted to do is to take from all of Paul and Peter's epistles and say, this is how they're telling you to fulfill this Jeremiah 29 seven command.
[00:08:25] I intend for these to be a, think of it as a comprehensive job description for every single Christian, whether you go to work every day, teaching third graders at a public school or directing the operations of a multinational business conglomerate, or piloting a 767 from
[00:08:42] Los Angeles to JFK. To seek the welfare of the city, to fulfill the Jeremiah 29-7 command.
[00:08:50] Your work, whatever it is, your work should be, number one, creation fulfilling. Most of us are familiar with what we call the Great Commission, Matthew 28-19, which is to go to all the nations of the world and to make disciples there. But did you know that the great commission is not the
[00:09:10] first commission given to the people of God? No, the first commission given to the people of God is to develop the earth and make it a better place for humans to live in. It's what we call
[00:09:24] the creation commission. You see, God put Adam and Eve into his world as his co-creators. That's part of what it means to be made in his image. We are made to be creators like God is a creator,
[00:09:39] and he put us as his co-creators into an unfinished world. In fact, when God created the world, do you remember the word that he used over and over again to describe the world that he
[00:09:50] made? Good. That's right. And God saw all that he had made and it was good. Now scholars point out Good means good, but good you see is not perfect.
[00:10:02] Perfect in Hebrew means complete.
[00:10:05] It means cannot be improved upon.
[00:10:08] Good means that the raw materials are there and they are good, but there are still improvements that can be made.
[00:10:15] I used to explain the difference between those two words by saying this.
[00:10:19] I used to say that when you all see my wife, Veronica at church, she's perfect.
[00:10:25] her outfit her hair her makeup it's all 10 out of 10 perfect cannot be improved upon when i wake up next to her in the morning she's good okay she's good the raw materials of beauty are all there
[00:10:38] and they're good but there's a little work between the good and the perfect that you see now that's what i used to say when i was a younger pastor but i don't say that anymore because i have matured
[00:10:49] Okay, but you still get the point.
[00:10:51] God has put us into a world that was good, a world where the raw materials of flourishing are there, but he leaves it up to us to perfect those raw materials, to turn seeds into gardens,
[00:11:04] to shape sand and rock into buildings, to turn musical sounds into symphonies, to codify principles of justice into legal systems, to blend colors together into works of art.
[00:11:17] In so doing, we are co-creating with God, extending the beauties of the Garden of Eden to the ends of the earth.
[00:11:25] That is the creation commission, and it's an important part of our witness because as we do that, hear me, we are giving people a foretaste of God's kingdom.
[00:11:37] We are giving them a taste of the world as God intended it to be.
[00:11:42] Our work, in fact, was to be, in and of itself, our first act of worship.
[00:11:48] In fact, the Hebrew word for work in Genesis 2 is the word abad, and it shares the same root word with worship, which is abodah.
[00:11:58] The work that God gave Adam to do in the garden, the abad, the assignment, the task, was Adam's first work of abodah, worship.
[00:12:07] So it's like Tim Keller says, "'God's first command to Adam "'was not to grab a harp and compose.
[00:12:13] His first command was to grab a knife and shape.
[00:12:17] Or consider this, this will blow your mind.
[00:12:19] The first time the phrase filled with the Spirit is used in the Bible is Exodus 31.
[00:12:26] Here's where the first time we see the phrase filled with the Spirit.
[00:12:28] The Lord said to Moses, "'See, I have called by name Bezalel.'" How many of you have heard of Bezalel?
[00:12:34] This is the first guy filled with the Spirit.
[00:12:36] "'I have filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God to,' to what?
[00:12:40] To preach, to write worship songs, to pray in tongues.
[00:12:45] No, I have filled him with the Spirit of God with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze and cutting stones for setting and in carving wood
[00:13:00] to work in every craft.
[00:13:02] Get your mind around this.
[00:13:04] The first time the phrase fill with the Spirit is used in the Bible, it's about a man's artistic ability, not his preaching or praying ability.
[00:13:13] Bezalel was filled with the Spirit to be an interior designer.
[00:13:19] But why, you ask, would the Spirit of God be involved in that?
[00:13:25] It's because renewing and beautifying creation is part of how God makes himself known.
[00:13:30] A well-done job is a foretaste of the world as God intended it to be.
[00:13:34] It's how we abide God, it's how we serve God, and it's an important part of our witness.
[00:13:40] Does that make sense?
[00:13:41] I remember one of my Sunday school teachers telling me a story about the famous 19th century evangelist D.L. Moody.
[00:13:48] And the story went that D.L. Moody walked into this gigantic meeting hall, like think like the Veen Dome, where he was about to hold an evangelistic rally later that evening.
[00:13:56] The only other person in the entire place was a janitor who was cleaning it.
[00:14:00] And so D.L. Moody struck up a conversation with the janitor and finds out that the janitor had actually become a Christian at one of D.L. Moody's previous rallies.
[00:14:09] Well, D.L. Moody then pointed at the broom that the guy was carrying and asked the man, is that your full-time job or are you a full-time janitor?
[00:14:15] And the man kind of grabbed the broom and responded, no, sir, Mr. Moody, I'm a full-time witness for Jesus Christ.
[00:14:21] I just do this to pay the bills.
[00:14:24] The story was supposed to inspire me toward evangelism and it did, right?
[00:14:29] And hear me, I do believe that telling people about Jesus is the most important thing we can do.
[00:14:35] But see, that story also distorted my view of secular work, Making me think of so-called secular jobs as something we do only to pay the bills.
[00:14:46] Like they're a necessary evil, just a means to an end for funding real kingdom work, real kingdom work, which is preaching and teaching and leading worship and what we do in here.
[00:14:56] But friend, I want you to hear me.
[00:14:57] Being a full-time servant of Jesus Christ is not something you do after you pay the bills.
[00:15:02] It's what you do as you pay the bills.
[00:15:05] You see, cleaning up a room for other people to meet in, whether it's so they can hear an evangelistic sermon, enjoy a country music concert, or watch a basketball game, is a way of serving God and making him known.
[00:15:17] Again, a well-done job gives people a foretaste of the world as God intended it to be.
[00:15:22] That's the first way we live out the Jeremiah 29 seven command.
[00:15:26] And that brings me to the second way.
[00:15:29] To seek the welfare of the city in our jobs, we should be excellence pursuing.
[00:15:35] how we do our work should give people a picture and a foretaste of Jesus.
[00:15:42] Let me use Daniel himself as our example here.
[00:15:44] Daniel, who lived literally in the literal Babylon in exile.
[00:15:48] Daniel 6, verse three says that Daniel had an excellent spirit in him.
[00:15:55] Verse four says, because of that excellent spirit, they, meaning Daniel's enemies, could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy, watch this, and neither corrupt nor negligent.
[00:16:08] Neither corrupt, dishonest, nor negligent.
[00:16:11] Not only was Daniel impeccably honest, he never cut corners and never did shoddy work.
[00:16:17] He did his stuff right on time the first time.
[00:16:21] In fact, Daniel 1 verse 20 says, watch this, in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of him, he found Daniel and his friends 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters
[00:16:32] that were in all of his kingdom.
[00:16:34] in every subject, which means math, science, history, literature, biology, all of it.
[00:16:41] In all those subjects, Daniel and his friends were 10X better than everybody around them.
[00:16:47] It wasn't just in their theology or in how they prayed.
[00:16:51] It was also in how they devoted themselves to excellence in math and science.
[00:16:55] And that was the foundation of their witness in Babylon.
[00:16:59] Paul develops this idea in the New Testament when he says this, Colossians 3.17, whatever you do, whatever you do.
[00:17:06] I'm not talking about just preaching and teaching.
[00:17:08] Whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[00:17:11] Giving thanks to God the Father through him, that's the language of offering.
[00:17:15] Whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[00:17:18] That means you're doing it in a way that you are comfortable attaching the name of Jesus to it.
[00:17:26] So see, that's the question, isn't it?
[00:17:27] Is the quality of your work something you would want Jesus's name attached to?
[00:17:33] Or to use the language of offering, would you be willing to put your work in the offering plate every weekend?
[00:17:38] What if you envision here, when we take up an offering, you're putting your six days, the quality of your labor there and say, Jesus, this is my statement of what you're worthy of.
[00:17:47] You see, as with Daniel, people judge our God by the quality of work that we do.
[00:17:53] There was a businessman in our community who was not a Christian, found out I was a Christian, told me that he doesn't like partnering with other Christian businesses because the ones he's worked with did not honor deadlines
[00:18:06] or meet agreed upon budgets and expected him to excuse their sloppy work because of grace or for him to give them the Christian discount.
[00:18:17] And he just told me, he said, I've learned when they put a Bible verse in their logo or a Christian fish under their name, you better watch out.
[00:18:24] Now that is probably, I know it's an unfair generalization, but the point is few things, practically speaking, damage the reputation of Christ in our community like a poor work ethic.
[00:18:35] Some of you know that I'm on the board of directors for Chick-fil-A, and the Cathy family who owns Chick-fil-A are very committed believers.
[00:18:42] In fact, part of the corporate statement of Chick-fil-A is to glorify God in all that they do.
[00:18:47] Dan Cathy, who is the chairman of that board, he often says this, and I love this.
[00:18:50] He says to the Chick-fil-A employees, he says, "'Hey, Jesus basically tells us, "'Let your light so shine before men "'that they may taste our waffle fries "'and glorify our Father in heaven.'" Well, amen and amen.
[00:19:04] Number three, all right?
[00:19:06] This connects to our work, if we're gonna seek the welfare of the city, should be holiness reflecting.
[00:19:12] Our work should not only be creation fulfilling and excellence pursuing, it should be holiness reflecting.
[00:19:16] Peter's overarching command to exiles in the epistles is this, 1 Peter 1.15, "'But as he who called you is holy, "'so you also should be holy,' watch this, "'in all your conduct.
[00:19:31] "'Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.' Notice that word, all, all.
[00:19:38] It baffles me, always baffles me how some churchgoers can maintain faithful church attendance, tithe regularly, raise their hands in worship at the appropriate times, all the while cheating on their taxes, skimming off the top in their businesses,
[00:19:55] or just doing shoddy work.
[00:19:58] Friend, our God is not just the God of church on Sunday.
[00:20:01] He is the God of the whole creation every second of every week.
[00:20:05] And what you do outside of this place is to be a demonstration of how you think about him.
[00:20:13] Y'all listen, I read this week, a recent study that showed that the average American employee does an average of two hours and 53 minutes of work per day.
[00:20:27] The remainder of work time is spent socializing, browsing personal things online and engaging in other distractions.
[00:20:35] And this article said that they do that because basically they can get away with it and their earthly boss doesn't know that.
[00:20:41] Paul says, Colossians 3, you don't do your work for an earthly boss, you do it for a heavenly one.
[00:20:45] And even when your earthly boss can't see what you're doing, your heavenly boss can.
[00:20:48] And what you do, you do ultimately for him.
[00:20:52] Or here's another thing I saw this week.
[00:20:54] A recent study asked 74,000 high school students whether or not they ever cheated on their schoolwork.
[00:21:03] In this study, 95% of them answered yes.
[00:21:07] By the way, that one struck me as unusually high.
[00:21:10] So I checked around, just make sure this wasn't a fluke study.
[00:21:13] It may be high, but studies consistently show at least 70% of high school students cheat in some way.
[00:21:22] Proverbs 11.1 says, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord.
[00:21:27] False balance means presenting something differently than what is true.
[00:21:30] But a just weight is his delight.
[00:21:32] Abomination, that's a varsity level word in the Bible.
[00:21:37] It's normally associated with things like sexual perversion or exploitation or murder.
[00:21:43] The writer of Proverbs, however, puts shorten a customer in the same category.
[00:21:48] It's an abomination to God to not give your employer his money's worth, our employees what they are due, or it's an abomination when we lie to our professors about what we've done.
[00:21:59] Again, Daniel 6, 4, Daniel had an excellent spirit in him.
[00:22:03] And the way that manifested itself is his enemies could find no corruption in him at all because he was trustworthy. He was honest and neither corrupt nor negligent. And that was a huge part of his testimony in Babylon. What does your work, not your worship, not when you put
[00:22:20] your hands up, what is your work? What is your conduct, your business, how you conduct your day-to-day affairs? What does it make people think about your Jesus? Y'all, when I was growing up, but my church had a wall of gospel tracts
[00:22:35] we could choose from to give to people around town.
[00:22:37] It looked like this.
[00:22:38] We called it the track rack.
[00:22:40] Anybody have one of these in this home church growing up?
[00:22:42] Raise your hand, all right.
[00:22:43] I always checked each weekend.
[00:22:45] It was like my favorite thing to do at church to see if they'd gotten any new additions.
[00:22:48] And one Sunday evening, my eye was drawn to what looked like a $100 bill poking out of one of those top slots.
[00:22:55] And I thought, hallelujah, is Jesus giving me a reward for checking out these tracts and being willing to evangelize.
[00:23:02] But when I pulled it out, I was disappointed to find that it was a fake $100 bill.
[00:23:08] And on the other side of the bill, the message said something like, here's the real tip, find Jesus.
[00:23:13] In fact, here's actually what it says.
[00:23:15] Some things in life are better than money.
[00:23:18] And you were supposed to leave this track with your waiter at the restaurant, who would then rejoice when he opened it to find that you had given him something even better than tip money, And that is the path to eternal life.
[00:23:31] Now, let me just say, I 100% agree that finding Jesus is worth more than all the tip money in the world.
[00:23:40] But unless this track is accompanied by an actual really generous tip, it is unlikely to cause that waiter to start thinking about the goodness of God.
[00:23:50] And all you waiters and waitresses out there just said, amen.
[00:23:54] Y'all look, I get it, okay?
[00:23:55] Tipping has become super awkward these days.
[00:23:58] The waiter brings over that little device and then he's like, okay, you just need to answer a couple of questions.
[00:24:02] And then he sort of stands off to the side and kind of looks off.
[00:24:05] And I'm like, what questions?
[00:24:06] Why am I taking a survey?
[00:24:07] I'm like, oh, the question of how much tip.
[00:24:09] Meanwhile, the waiter is still hovering right there, kind of not watching you, but watching you and judging you all at the same time and you can just feel it.
[00:24:15] So I get it, tipping is awkward, but here's the thing.
[00:24:18] You just don't get many opportunities in life to be generous with a stranger.
[00:24:23] So be fair.
[00:24:25] And if you're gonna leave a gospel tract or a Summit Church inviter card for your waiter, and I think you should, accompany it with at least a 25% tip.
[00:24:34] Now, if you don't leave an inviter card, you could probably go down to 15 to 20%, but if you do leave an inviter card, be generous, okay?
[00:24:42] You are much more likely to give them a feel of who Jesus really is that way, a holy God of love and grace and extravagant generosity.
[00:24:51] Which leads me to number four.
[00:24:53] To seek the welfare of the city, our work should be redemption displaying.
[00:24:59] You see, our jobs give us a chance to show that God is more than just and fair.
[00:25:05] He is, but he's also full of grace and our jobs give us a chance to demonstrate that we serve a King who is generous, gracious, and redeeming.
[00:25:17] In fact, I would say few things in life give us a chance to put Jesus on display more than unexpected generosity.
[00:25:23] I once heard about a young college graduate who landed a job, true story, in one of New York's most prestigious advertising agencies up on Madison Avenue.
[00:25:33] Well, shortly after she started, she made a mistake that cost the company tens of thousands of dollars.
[00:25:41] And she expected to be fired by the end of the day, because in that kind of environment, you don't get a second chance.
[00:25:47] Her boss, however, her supervisor, went to the board of directors without her knowledge and just said, hey, I should have done a better job preparing her.
[00:25:55] Be patient with her.
[00:25:56] Why don't you give her another shot?
[00:25:57] Let the rap for this one, let it fall on me.
[00:26:00] Saved her job, literally.
[00:26:03] Well, that kind of thing just does not happen on Madison Avenue.
[00:26:06] And when this young woman heard about what her supervisor had done, she came into his office in tears, asking him why in the world he would do something like that for her.
[00:26:17] Because again, she knew this kind of thing just didn't happen on Madison Avenue, especially for someone as insignificant as she was.
[00:26:24] Well, he said, because you asked.
[00:26:27] He said, my life was forever altered because someone walked into an office, so to speak, and took the blame from me.
[00:26:34] You see, the Lord Jesus took the punishment for my sin and my place, and he gave me new life.
[00:26:39] And so now when I can, I just like to do that for other people if I have the chance.
[00:26:44] Now, I wanna be clear here in saying this.
[00:26:47] I am not trying to overturn the whole free market system when I say that.
[00:26:50] A healthy economy runs on reward.
[00:26:53] You do the work, you get the pay.
[00:26:55] You do the work well, you get paid well.
[00:26:57] You fail the job, you lose the job.
[00:26:59] That's how God intended the system to work.
[00:27:01] It's like our friend, Jobie Martin says, you are saved by grace.
[00:27:05] You are not employed by grace, right?
[00:27:07] But I'm just saying that even within that system, people who have been redeemed by Jesus have an instinct for grace that just pops up from time to time in moments of radical, unexpected grace.
[00:27:22] And it's one of the ways we are able to put him on display in Babylon.
[00:27:27] Pursuing your job in a redemption displaying way also means using your job to love people even when they don't always deserve it.
[00:27:36] When I was a teenager, in fact, I've known the first part of this story for years.
[00:27:40] I can't remember if I've ever told it to you, but there's a second part of this story I just found out this week that makes the first part even better.
[00:27:47] When I was a teenager, my dad, who is a member here at the Summit Church, and many of you know him, he was the production manager at a textile factory.
[00:27:54] The factory had about a thousand workers in it and from time to time dad had to make some decisions like any supervisor does that some of the employees didn't like and there was this one lady in particular he told me who was very vocal
[00:28:08] in her dislike of him because he'd had to make some decisions that she didn't agree with and whenever my dad would come around he told me she'd be rude to him she'd say snarky and derogatory
[00:28:18] things about him generally just complain and bad mouth about him to other people really he said she kind of hovered right below that line of probably needing to be fired. But dad tried to be patient
[00:28:28] with her. He said, well, tragically, one day her son got killed in a car wreck. My dad went to his funeral. He walked up to her to hug her and tell her he cared. He said, she just looked at me and
[00:28:43] she said, why are you here? Dad said, because I care. Because I'm brokenhearted for you. Even more importantly, God cares. He prayed with her. A few weeks passed by, she came back to work. And one
[00:28:57] of the first things she did when she came back to work is she came to his office. And she said, I need to know why after all that I've said about you to other people and as difficult as I've tried
[00:29:07] to be to you, why you would come to my son's funeral. He said, I told you it's because I care and I'm brokenhearted for you. And more importantly, God cares for you. Well, that started
[00:29:17] a relationship that led a couple of months later to this woman accepting christ that was the part of the story i knew i found out this week that this woman keeps in touch with my dad to this day
[00:29:31] he heard from her just a few weeks ago 40 years later she still reaches out to my dad sharing prayer requests she even follows what we do here at this church she's probably listening right now
[00:29:41] and she prays for us now friend that is why god puts you into the marketplace to put the love of the gospel on display.
[00:29:54] Here's one more application before I go to our last thing.
[00:29:57] Pursuing your job in a redemption displaying way means that where you can, you leverage your business to bless the broken parts of the city, to help redeem.
[00:30:07] I know of a business owner here in the triangle, for example, who reserves at least four spots in his business, specifically for youths who are aging out of the foster care system.
[00:30:21] since they say that one of the largest gaps in foster care is when the kid ages out of the system, they don't really have anywhere to go or any kind of framework that helps support them,
[00:30:30] they become legal adults and they're often left on their own with very little support.
[00:30:35] This business owner doesn't do that because it's the best possible thing for his bottom line.
[00:30:40] No, it's because he wants to leverage his business in Jesus's name to bless the city.
[00:30:46] He wants his business to where it can be, be redemption displaying.
[00:30:51] And that leads me to our fifth and final way that we are to seek the prosperity of Babylon.
[00:30:57] To seek the welfare of the city, your work should be mission advancing.
[00:31:01] Now, this is familiar territory for us, Summit, but let me not assume anything and let me just make it as clear as I can.
[00:31:07] Matthew 28, 19, and 20, the Great Commission that I referred to earlier says this, "'Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, "'baptizing them in the name of the Father, "'the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
[00:31:20] teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.
[00:31:23] The only verb that Jesus uses in the Great Commission is mathe tusate, which we translate as make disciples.
[00:31:32] Everything else in those verses that looks to us like a verb, go and baptizing and teaching is actually a participle.
[00:31:43] You say, well, okay, that's an interesting grammatical observation, but so what?
[00:31:48] well see in Greek participles grow out of and gather their force from and are organized around the verb so in other words everything else Jesus commissioned the church to do is supposed to go under the banner of making disciples that is
[00:32:08] the verb around which all of our other activities as believers are to be organized. And that applies to you regardless of your line of work. You see, here's a myth we really try to debunk at the Summit Church. It is a widely believed myth. It is the idea
[00:32:27] that calling into ministry is a sacred privilege reserved only for a select few super saints bestowed upon them by some kind of mystical manifestation. As in God appears to you in a burning bush, or he writes a message to you in the clouds. It's what I've called the Cheerios
[00:32:49] method of discerning the call of God, meaning that you expect that if God wants to call you into his service, he'll do something magical, like spell out in your Cheerios, be a missionary, teach Sunday school. And unless he does that, all he wants from you is for you to be a good person,
[00:33:05] go to church and pay your tithes. But that is not how God usually calls you. Now, to be clear, If God does spell out something to you in your Cheerios, you should pay attention, okay?
[00:33:17] But I'm just telling you, I have stared, I know I'm called to ministry and I've stared at my Cheerios for years and all they ever spelled out to me was, ooh, over and over again.
[00:33:26] And that joke never gets old to me, okay?
[00:33:27] But see, the truth is that every Christian is called to ministry.
[00:33:34] The call to make disciples was in fact, watch this, included in the initial call to follow Jesus.
[00:33:42] First time we see Jesus call followers, Matthew 4, 19, Jesus says, follow me, that's the initial call, and I will make you fishers of men.
[00:33:50] Which means when you accepted the call to follow Jesus, you accepted the call to ministry.
[00:33:57] That's why we say the question now is no longer if you're called, the question is only where and how.
[00:34:03] And for many of you, the workplace is where God has called you.
[00:34:09] You getting this?
[00:34:10] it's where you do the four things I just talked about.
[00:34:13] In the workplace, you're gonna encounter people who would never step foot in a church.
[00:34:18] And God expects you to make his name known there and to make disciples there.
[00:34:24] Billy Graham famously said that the next great awakening would happen in the workplace, not in the stadiums.
[00:34:30] And that's exactly where many of you get up and go each day at 8 a.m.
[00:34:34] Furthermore, like I've told you, skill in secular work, it can give you access to some of the least evangelized places in the world.
[00:34:42] This is what they call the 1040 window right here, which is where they say the least reached people on the planet live, right?
[00:34:49] Between the 10th parallel and the 40th parallel.
[00:34:55] I've told you this stat before, but mission agencies report that a total of 40,000 professional Christian missionaries live in the 1040 window to bring the gospel there to Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus and people in the communist bloc.
[00:35:10] 40,000, but get this, the U.S. State Department says that the number of American citizens working in so-called secular employment in the 1040 window on business, that number, two million.
[00:35:26] Two million American citizens right now, this morning, are living and working in the 1040 window.
[00:35:32] Now, demographic stats in our country mean that, what, 32% of them identify as being a born-again Christian?
[00:35:38] Let's just go ahead and say, that ain't true, okay?
[00:35:42] Now let's just cut the number in half.
[00:35:44] You know what, let's just be super legalistic.
[00:35:46] Let's cut that number in half again.
[00:35:49] If half of the half of people who claim to be born again Christians actually are, and they understand, they understood that the primary commission Jesus gave to all of us was to be a disciple making disciple,
[00:36:05] the number of missionaries at work this morning the 1040 window would go from 40,000 to 240,000, and it wouldn't cost the church another dime.
[00:36:14] You see, for many of you, the 1040 window is not a window at all. It's a wide open door. Maybe God has given you that skill so that you can take the gospel into those places, which always leads,
[00:36:26] always reminds me of one of my favorite Summit stories. One of our elders here at Summit Church, his name is Mike. He's head of neurology at one of our nation's most prestigious medical universities. He is one of the top-ranked neurosurgeons in the world. In fact, he is
[00:36:42] number one in a couple specific applications of neurosurgery. And every year, his university, because he's also a lecturer at the university, sends him to medical conferences around the world as their representative. And Mike tells me he often finds himself in some of the least
[00:36:59] evangelized places on the planet, the special invited guest of communists, Buddhists, and Muslims. He tells me, he says, I open every talk in those forums. I open every talk by explaining my testimony, how I came to Christ, and then explaining how my experience with the gospel
[00:37:17] impacts my view of medicine. I asked him, I'm like, how is your university okay with that?
[00:37:24] I mean, they're kind of on the other team with this, right? I mean, in fact, their mascot is literally the mascot of the other team. Are you dragging with me? I'm like, I just feel like
[00:37:34] you're not interested in world evangelization. In fact, you're probably downright opposed to it.
[00:37:40] He said with a twinkle in his eyes, because he's not arrogant at all. He's actually quite humble.
[00:37:43] He says, well, JD, I'm one of the top-ranked neurosurgeons in the world. I can say whatever I want. You see, Mike's life and his ministry reminds me of Proverbs 22, 29, where King Solomon says, hey, you see a man skillful in his work? I tell you, he will stand before kings. Mike does
[00:38:03] his work excellently. And because of that, he stands before kings. And while he's got their attention, he points them to King Jesus. For some of you, your skill in your career is going to enable you to stand before kings like Daniel did, like Mike does. And when you're there, God intends
[00:38:20] for you to tell them about Jesus. Listen, it's why God made you good at what you do. It's why he gave you that success, why he gave you that platform, why he gave you that skill or that ability so that
[00:38:32] you could make Jesus known from that platform, to leverage that platform for his glory. And if you're not making Jesus known from that platform, you're wasting it. And one day you'll have to answer to Jesus for why you did not use that platform for the purposes for which he gave it
[00:38:47] to you. To fulfill the Jeremiah 29, seven command, to seek the welfare of the city, your work should be creation, fulfilling excellence, pursuing holiness, reflecting redemption, displaying and mission advancing. These are the five ways you're supposed to bring
[00:39:03] blessing to your city. Living out these five things may not seem like aggressive mission work to you, but see, in a secularized post-Christian environment, it's where witness begins.
[00:39:17] Well, there's a lot more to say on this, obviously. It's why I wrote the book, and you'll just have to get a copy of it. But let me end with a vision. In fact, this is the vision I built the whole
[00:39:28] structure of Everyday Revolutionary around. The vision is of Daniel's witness in Babylon.
[00:39:33] on. You see, Daniel was the one I believe who best lived out Jeremiah's command to seek the prosperity of the earthly city and make it a better place to live. Remember when we studied Daniel a couple of summers ago, Daniel was not shy about speaking truth, right? I mean, Daniel was
[00:39:52] so courageous in speaking the truth that he ended up in the lion's den. And yet, and yet he was so beloved by the king, whose wicked decree put him there, that that very same king stood outside the
[00:40:10] lion's den all night long, weeping and hoping against hope that Daniel would make it through the night. Personally, I don't think King Darius stood outside the lion's den all night weeping because he missed Daniel's prophetic rebukes. I think it was probably because he genuinely knew
[00:40:30] Daniel was his friend. He knew that Daniel cared about him. He knew that Babylon was a better place because Daniel was in it and the king could not imagine Babylon without Daniel.
[00:40:43] My question summit is this, how do we become like that in our society?
[00:40:49] So bold and courageous that we end up in the lion's den.
[00:40:52] I get it, we're gonna have to speak truth and sometimes we're not gonna like it.
[00:40:56] So, so bold and courageous we end up in the lion's den.
[00:40:58] Yeah, but also so beloved by our community that they would weep at the thought of our being gone.
[00:41:04] It's like we've said around here for over 20 years summit, we want people here in our city to say, we may not believe what those crazy people over at Summit believe, but thank God they're here,
[00:41:13] because if not, we'd have to raise our taxes. If they were gone, who would take care of our homeless? Who would take care of our foster kids? See, what that means is that if we're going to
[00:41:23] fulfill the Jeremiah 29, 7 command, we're going to take care of the homeless, the orphan, the prisoner, the unwed mother, and the high school dropout, which is why I want to end today by directing your attention to this, this card that you should have gotten when you came in.
[00:41:38] Let me start with the backside. I want you to pull it out. The backside, it says, Serve Saturday, every month your campus hosts something called Serve Saturday.
[00:41:48] It's at every campus.
[00:41:51] It's one of the first ways you can live sent in our community.
[00:41:54] Our next one's gonna happen this coming Saturday.
[00:41:57] It's a great starting point if you've never served with us before.
[00:42:00] It's how you can take the first step in engaging the homeless, the orphan, the prisoner, the unborn mother, or the high school dropout.
[00:42:06] I want you to sign up for one of these if you've never done so before.
[00:42:09] It's a great way to figure out what's going on and how you can get involved.
[00:42:12] All right, so that's one side.
[00:42:14] I want you to flip it over because I really want you to take a look at the front side.
[00:42:19] We're gonna host here on October 17th, something called Live Scent Night.
[00:42:24] And y'all, this night is like nothing we have ever done before at the Summit Church.
[00:42:29] It's gonna be an interactive and eye-opening look inside of the foster care system.
[00:42:35] Now, as you heard, foster care is one of the most important and neediest ways we can be involved in blessing and renewing the city.
[00:42:40] Foster care is an intersection of literally everything we've talked about today.
[00:42:45] All you have to do to be a part of that night just scan that QR code right there. Now, hear me. By doing that, you are not committing to anything if you attend. You're just going to come and learn more and prayerfully consider how you can support
[00:42:58] vulnerable children and families. By the way, it may not be by becoming an actual foster family yourself. Your role, as we heard from the mayor, might be supporting and encouraging foster families. What we have learned in this process is the foster family is important, but there's a
[00:43:14] whole system behind that foster family. That's essential. Maybe some of you can become part of that supporting network, okay? So that's what I want you to do with this. I want you to bow your
[00:43:24] heads at all of our campuses, if you will. Listen, some, and I am absolutely confident this morning that their Holy Spirit is speaking to some of you, telling you to get involved. Maybe it's not
[00:43:37] in foster care, but he's just telling you to get involved in some way. I'm not the real preacher, here he is. So where's he telling you that he, maybe one of these five things, it just is like,
[00:43:49] this is what I want you to do. Maybe it has to do with going overseas. Maybe it is. Maybe something's starting in your heart right now. You're a newly married couple and you're like, I feel like this
[00:43:59] foster thing, I feel like this is for us. Maybe your last kids just left the house and that's you.
[00:44:08] I'm gonna invite you to move. I'm gonna give us probably a minute, minute and a half where I just want you to listen to the Holy Spirit. In fact, I want to invite you to come up here, kneel around
[00:44:18] this altar at every campus and just put your yes on the table. You may not even know what he's telling you to do yet, but you just say something stirring to me. Maybe there's somebody you need
[00:44:27] to share Christ with. I just want to invite you in just a moment when I stand, just come down here and just pray. You said, well, can I pray in my seat? Yeah. But I'm telling you, it's going to
[00:44:37] mean a lot more if you just come and just pray and let's just do business with the Lord. Listen, maybe you got needs of your own. You're like, Pastor JD, I can't even think about blessing
[00:44:47] and other people. My life is such a mess. That's okay. That's where you start. I want you to come and pray around these altars too. You just say, God, I have needs. In fact, let me ask our prayer
[00:44:57] teams right now. I want you to, I want our prayer teams to stand off to the sides today. Because if you want to pray with one of our prayer team members, you just slip over there to them and
[00:45:04] you can actually pray with them. If you just want to pray on your own or with a friend, you can just come and kneel here at the altar. Let me ask you at all of our campuses, why don't you stand to
[00:45:12] your feet if you would. Everybody, let's stand together right now. Everybody stand. Heads bowed heads bowed. Our worship teams are on their way here. I'm going to ask our worship teams, give us about a minute just to listen to the Holy Spirit. And whenever you want to, you just
[00:45:31] respond to what he's saying right now, or you could do it when we start worshiping in common.
[00:45:37] Let's pray around these altars and let's just say yes to the Lord. Listen, you listen and respond.