Connect with the World, Pt. 1 | Sunday, May 9, 2021

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

When the gospel becomes the best news you've ever tasted, you can't help but tell someone.

A Season of Change at the Church

Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms. Moms have a really hard job, and some of us made that job even more challenging. So it is good and right that we thank them, thank God for them, and set aside time to honor them. If you are a mom watching, thank you, and may God bless you for your faithfulness and commitment to your family. God has given you a very high calling, and we pray He would further equip you to do it well, to His glory.

We're also in a season of shifting responsibilities on our ministry team. Beginning May 16th, Pastor Jason Brower, who has pastored our youth for nearly two decades, will officially shift to be our Family Ministries Pastor, overseeing ministry from the littlest babies all the way through young adults. Pastor Garrett Hatch will take on leading our youth ministry. Garrett has been a great blessing over the last five years and has proven faithful and capable in many areas. We're not removing anyone from the team or adding anyone new; we're simply moving pieces as we sense the Lord's leading into a new and fruitful season of outreach.

Reaching People Where They Are

Over the last fourteen months we've recognized, like other churches, the need for a solid online outreach. When Paul and the early church leaders first carried the gospel into the world, they reached people where they were—often targeting the largest cities of each region. On his journeys he went to Lystra, Iconium, and Derbe in Galatia; Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea in Macedonia; Athens and Corinth in Greece; Ephesus in Asia Minor; and ultimately Rome. Wherever Paul went, he aimed for the greatest impact, going to the marketplaces where people gathered. That was a strategic and God-directed approach.

Our world in 2021 gathers online, so we want to be just as strategic as Paul would be. That's why we produce our online content the way we do—the same fundamental message delivered in the sanctuary, but produced for the online environment rather than simply live-streaming the campus service. Beginning May 23rd our online services will be a little more streamlined, with shorter worship, and we'll premiere our 9 a.m. Sunday service only on YouTube. Google is the most trafficked site on the internet and YouTube, owned by the same company, is the second; we want to target our efforts where the most people are, exactly as Paul would have done.

If your only connection with this church has been online, we're grateful God has used this time to extend our borders. But if you live in North San Diego County, I'd invite you to prayerfully consider joining us on campus. We gather Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m., and it has been a real blessing to fellowship and worship together again. Nearly one hundred percent of people who visit our campus check us out online first, which is exactly why we keep providing online content. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the bell icon, and check out the four to five videos a week I put up at pastormiles.com/yt, including a series called Coffee Time.

Beginning May 23rd we'll also start a new ten-week summer study through the Old Testament book of Esther. As Pastor Jason, Pastor Mark, and I have looked at it, this book about the people of God in Persia has striking connections to our day and culture. Read through its ten chapters this week and familiarize yourself with the story, because there's important material in it for us—"for such a time as this."

Created for Connection, Broken by Sin

Our mission as a church is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. For several weeks we've been talking about that vision. I've already shared about connection with God and connection with one another; today and next week I want to focus on connection with the world—locally here in North San Diego County, and globally. If the apostles lived today, I guarantee they would use every tool possible to reach as many people as possible.

We were born believers because we are created in the image and likeness of God, made for connection with Him and with one another. We desire this at the deepest level. Even people who don't yet believe are still reaching for transcendence and for relationship. God made us in His image and then said, "It is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). He made us to be united together in perfect communion, not to live solitary, autonomous lives.

Yet we are not born connected to God or to one another. There are problematic separations between us and God, and between us and each other, because of sin. Sin is thoughts, words, or actions that are inconsistent with everything that is true, good, beautiful, or right. First John says sin is lawlessness, and since God's law is a manifestation of His character, sin is always against God. That's why we are born disconnected.

The Danger of Tribalism

Sin causes separation not only between man and God but between people. That division is more acutely clear now than perhaps any time in our lifetimes. Throughout Western culture—the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia—we are seeing an increase in tribalism, intensified by corporate news media, entertainment, and social media. Culture is created by the stories we tell, and the story being told right now is shifting us toward more division, more segregation, more separation. This is not good.

Just as it is not good for man to be alone, it is not good for man to divide into segregated and separated tribes. Every time in history that humans move toward separation, it results in tribal conflict. About eleven years ago, our guest Don Richardson—who has since gone to be with the Lord—shared with us. Decades earlier, Don and his family were missionaries in Dutch New Guinea among a tribal people called the Sawi, who, along with neighboring tribes, were literal head-hunting cannibals warring for generations. God used Don's ministry to bring peace through the gospel, a story he tells in his book Peace Child. Another great book of his is Eternity in Their Hearts, which draws on the truth from Ecclesiastes that God has placed eternity in our hearts.

We Have a Better Story

I bring up that story to make an important point: we have a better story, and we need to begin telling it. Cultures are built and broken through stories. The culture of the West has had its issues over 2,000 years, but on the whole it produced a powerful and beautiful story—more equality, more fairness, less oppression, more freedom for people. Study any other culture and you'll find problems everywhere, but the trend through the West has been a fairly good thing. Now we are watching that culture be broken by a new narrative that will only create more division and descend toward increased tribalism—and tribal conflict. Many people sense this, which is part of why they've been connecting with churches in recent months.

So what is our better story? Paul's letter gives a brief, helpful summary:

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

This is the story of the gospel—redemption, forgiveness, mercy, and grace. And it isn't just a story for pastors to tell. God has committed the word of reconciliation to all His people. You and I are called to tell it as witnesses of God's grace. This proclamation of the good news is called evangelism.

Evangelism Is Worship

When I say "evangelism," some of you get a little freaked out, and I understand. I grew up in this very church's youth group going through evangelism classes—the four spiritual laws, apologetics, tracts, the Evangecube, the Way of the Master. Then they took us out. At fifteen and sixteen years old we were sent to Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate to be street witnesses. I distinctly remember street witnessing on Avenida Revolución on a Friday night, two by two, with adult leaders watching. At seventeen I was sent door to door on the Navajo Nation in Kayenta, Arizona. So I have a little street-witnessing PTSD from those days—but that's not exactly what I mean by evangelism.

Let me put it this way. Have you ever eaten at a really good restaurant, bought a great pair of shoes, driven a great car, or visited a wonderful resort? Afterward you couldn't keep yourself from telling others how good it was. Evangelism is like that. People who know me know I'm an evangelist for Tesla, SpaceX, Apple computers, and Reese's peanut butter cups. And here's something important: evangelism is a form of worship and praise, and it fulfills our joy when we do it.

C.S. Lewis on the Overflow of Praise

C.S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, was once an atheist and a profound intellect at Oxford before coming to faith in Christ. Before his conversion he had a real problem with the praise and worship in the Psalms. In Reflections on the Psalms he later wrote:

The most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or giving honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless... shyness or fear of boring others is deliberately brought into check. The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistress, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game... I had not noticed how the humblest and at the same time most balanced and capacious minds praised the most, while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least.

I had not noticed either that, just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join in praising it: "Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificent?" The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about... I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not be able to tell anyone how good he is... to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.

What is all of that about? When we delight in someone or something supremely, we cannot help but tell others, and that telling is the culmination of our joy. Our joy increases as we share it. So evangelism is a form of worship, and God deserves our evangelistic worship. As you worship Him by telling others about Him, your joy will increase.

Sharing the Joy You've Received

We were created for connection with God and with one another. Sin devastated that relationship, bringing division and disconnection. But Jesus brings reconciliation—to God and to one another—as Paul makes clear in Ephesians 2. If you have experienced the joy of God's love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and peace in Christ, then you should tell others how good that joy is. Tell them the way you'd say the pizza at Killer Pizza from Mars is the best you've ever had, or that Apple computers are better than Microsoft monstrosities, or that Cross Connection is the best church you've ever attended. Tell people the good story of what Jesus has done for you—how He brought wholeness by restoring you to connection with God and with one another. That is what evangelism is: the joyful expression of the joy you've received from God through the gospel.

A Call to Take Responsibility

This story is far better than anything our culture is telling us. Next week I'll have more to say about why and how we connect with the world. But this week I want to close by saying that if you have received the joy of God through the gospel, it is your calling and responsibility to share that good news. It may seem frightening, but it really isn't. Our neighborhoods, families, friends, and communities desperately need this story, because it is far better than the narrative we're being fed.

Ideas have consequences. Some stories shape cultures for the better; some bring great suffering and destruction. The story shaping our culture right now, filled with ungodly ideas and unholy narratives, will ultimately bring about horrible consequences—you don't have to look far back in history to see it—unless we as the people of God take responsibility to share the better story.

So as your pastor I'm calling upon you to take responsibility for this evangelistic call. It doesn't have to be scary or mean knocking on doors or going to Revolución. It is as simple as telling people the good news of what has happened in your life through the gospel, in the same way you evangelize your favorite products or restaurant—things far less consequential than the gospel. We love to gather, worship, study, serve, and pray together, but I'm hoping God will give us a greater passion for seeing people come to the knowledge of the truth through the much better story of Jesus Christ.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would do that work in us, Your church. Give all who hear this message—whether today or months from now—a passion to share the good news of the gospel with the people we interact with. In the same way we share about our favorite pair of shoes or favorite restaurant, may we share the far more important news of what You have done in our lives through the gospel. Lord, pour out Your Spirit upon Your church and give us boldness, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.