Missional Calling - To the ends of the earth

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Keep your Bible open there to Acts chapter 1. We'll need that as we go through this morning. My name is Dave, one of the pastors here, and it's my joy to continue on wrapping up this mission series that we've been looking at across the month of May, looking at Jesus' missional call that He gave to His disciples, to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. A couple of things just quickly. That prayer thing is that's in the bulletin. Make a note of that Tuesday night. It's not this Tuesday coming, next Tuesday, it's 3rd of June. So it's the first week of June, which is the prayer week. So yeah, not this Tuesday night, next Tuesday night. Also, ladies, that bus expression of interest form, that QR code that Dylan had up, it's also available on our website. You can go to the website, go to the events page, and there'll be a link down there somewhere about the bus info. You can let us know that way. Paulo does a great job. He's our volunteer website coordinator, and we just appreciate so much the work that you do, brother, in keeping that website up-to-date and available for the community. So thank you, man. It's great. Right, let's quickly just pray and then we will get stuck in. Father God, we do thank you that you are a God who speaks, and Lord, we've heard your words this morning. Words of Jesus, our Savior, who's commissioned us, those who would follow after Him to be His witnesses. Lord, help us as we dig into this this morning to understand a little bit deeper, a little bit more about this mission or calling that you've given to all of us who would follow after Jesus. We just ask your blessing on this time now, in Jesus' name, amen. We just had the verse read for us there, Acts chapter 1 verse 8, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We're going to focus in a little bit on that final part of the phrase as we worked our way through that command of Jesus over the month of May. Today we're just going to dig in a little bit deeper on this ends of the earth business. This phrase ends of the earth appears around 46 times in the Bible, depending on which English translation you're looking at. It's right across the Old Testament and the New Testament, there's actually a similar phrase, the ends of the world, that appears twice. It's in Psalm 19 verse 4 and then the Apostle Paul quotes that in Romans 10 verse 18. We're just going to have a really quick run through some of these verses to get a sense of how this is being used in the scripture. So if you go into the Old Testament, you know the story of Moses, God chose him to lead his people, and Moses uses this term the ends of the earth to refer to places and nations that are far away. We can see that in the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. A couple of places, Deuteronomy 28, 49, Moses writes that the Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth. There's our phrase, like an eagle sweeping down a nation whose language you will not understand. So clearly far away people are going to come. And then in Deuteronomy 33 verse 17, in majesty he is like a first born bull. His horns are the horns of a wild ox, with them he'll gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Speaking about God's judgment there, coming to all the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Fast forward a little bit in salvation history. We get into the book of one Samuel, and Hannah, Samuel's mother, she uses this phrase ends of the earth in her prophetic prayer. She sings, she sings this song of praise and thanksgiving to God, as Samuel is presented unto the Lord in the temple. And in this song she highlights the holiness and sovereignty of God. She points out that God is the judge of all the earth, to the ends of the earth, the whole earth. And he's going to judge the world through his anointed king. There's this immediate fulfillment of this prophecy we know from the biblical record in the years that followed through King Saul and then King David. But Hannah's prophecy, this prayer that she prays about the king that would come to judge all the earth, looks forward to the future when Christ comes again to judge the entire world. In the book of Job, if you're familiar with Job's story, Job uses the phrase, and one of his friends uses the phrase to describe how God sees and acts everywhere, right across the globe. Job 28, 24, and Job 37, 3, tell us that there is nowhere that's off limits to God. We're going to have all these slides up on the website, so if we're going to be fast, for you taking notes, whatever, they'll be on the web in due course. If you need them earlier than that, just give us an email to the office and we can send them out to you. You go to book of Psalms, and this phrase is everywhere. Quite a number of the different Psalms, Psalmists actually refer to the ends of the earth. And in most of these cases where they write this way, they're talking about the entire world. Psalm 22, verse 27, all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will bow down before him. Or Psalm 48, 10, like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Go to Psalm 65, verse 5. You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds. God our Saviour, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. Or Psalm 98, 3. He, God, has remembered his love and faithfulness to Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. We're getting this pretty clear picture of what we're talking about here. Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, uses the phrase at least a dozen times throughout his book. And again, the phrases used to describe distant nations or Gentiles everywhere. That's everyone that's not a Jew. It's just the rest of the world is the way in which Isaiah is using that. And there's heaps more instances in the Old Testament. We don't have time to go through all of them this morning. If you're interested in having a look at all of them for yourself, just pop that phrase, ends of the earth, into a Bible gateway online or into your digital Bible app if you've got one of those. And you'll get a quick search and you'll see all of those references in the Old Testament. It's not just the Old Testament. This phrase appears in the New Testament as well. Jesus used the phrase ends of the earth to describe the territory of the Queen of the South, which was around 1,930 kilometers away from where Jesus and the disciples were in Southern Arabia. And he also used the phrase to speak of all peoples everywhere in Mark 13, 27, Mark 16, 15. And we heard Jesus use it in Acts 1, 8 as well. We get the picture. The ends of the earth literally means everybody everywhere. And so when Jesus tells his disciples that they'll be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, he's speaking literally. He's going to be my witnesses everywhere, to all people, right around the globe. Every Gentile nation starting first with the Jews in Jerusalem, then second in the surrounding region of Judea, followed by those awkward Samaritans over there, and then on to everywhere and everybody else. Friends, what we need to know this morning is that this was God's plan right from the beginning. The news of the gospel was always meant to go global. It wasn't just for Jerusalem. It wasn't just for the Jews. It was for all people everywhere. It was never meant to stay just within Israel. Turning your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12. Have a look at the first three verses of Genesis chapter 12. Genesis 12 verses 1 to 3. The Lord said to Abram, go from your country, your people, and your Father's household to the land I will show you. I'll make you into a great nation. I'll bless you. I'll make your name great and you will be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Right back in the beginning, even before God had actually called those people out and assembled them together, before many of them were even born. God had a plan that the whole world would be blessed through Abram and his descendants. Mission begins with God. This is a key paradigm that we need to grasp when it comes to understanding mission. I came across this quote during the week. It drove home the point for me. Listen to this. God's church falters from exhaustion because Christians erroneously think that God has given them a mission to perform in the world. Rather, the God of mission has given his church to the world. It's not the church of God that has a mission to the world, but the God of mission who has a church in the world. The church's involvement in mission is its privileged participation in the actions of the triune God. It's true. Our God is a missionary God. And right throughout the Scriptures, we see him working to bring the knowledge of himself to all peoples in all places everywhere. And Jesus reaffirms this idea that the Gospel, the good news of God's salvation, is for the whole world. Turn over to Matthew chapter 8 verse 11. Jesus says, I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world, from east and west, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is looking forward to this future when God's mission is salvation, his rescue plan is fulfilled. When those who've been saved gather together for that great celebration in the feast, in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says, who's going to be there? Gentiles, non-Jews from all over the world. He's saying this reaffirming God's mission and its global reach. It's not just a message of salvation for the Jews, for God's chosen people back then, but it now includes the entire human race, everyone who would believe. How do people reach that point of belief? Well, somebody needs to share the Gospel with them. That's why Jesus says in Mark 16, 15, he says to his disciples, go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation. Nobody's going to get to that point of belief if nobody tells them the truth or shares with them the good news. As we dig a little deeper this morning, we see that Jesus doesn't just reaffirm God's global mission, but he commissions us to continue his mission. And that's what we've been looking at as we focus in on Acts 1-8 over this month of May. Mark 16, 15, there in another translation, go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone, everyone. We know that Jesus commissioned his disciples before he ascended into heaven. Matthew 28, 19 to 20, they're familiar words. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. It's pretty clear, isn't it? As we get to the heart of what Jesus says about our mission or calling, this is it. We're to take the good news of the Gospel where? To everybody everywhere. We're to take it to the very ends of the earth. I guess we probably understand that at some level as we've been unpacking this verse from Acts 1-8 over the month of May. This kind of sits in our logic. It makes sense to us. But then I think there's a bit of a problem. And I experienced this when I was younger. I used to wrongly think that this mission or calling was for specific people. It was for the male and chris goods of the world. Those that God had sent out to the central desert. I used to think it was for the Ben and Petrus or for the school chaplains like Chappy Julie and Chappy Sherrill. I used to think it was for the ministry coordinators who were leading ministry teams at church. I used to think it was for the pastors or for the evangelists. As a baby Christian, as a young boy, I didn't doubt that God might use me to share the good news. But I thought that was some day. I thought that was some time in the future. I thought that was mostly for others. I didn't think that Jesus words in Acts 1-8 applied to me. I figured Jesus was telling this just to those 12 disciples who started the church. And this was for them. But I was that was a wrong way to understand the passage. Look again at Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. Notice that Jesus doesn't say we might be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. What does he say there? He says we will be his witnesses. He says it twice. First in relation to our receiving the Holy Spirit's power. And then second in understanding what that power is going to do in and through us. It's going to enable us to be his witnesses. Friends, don't make the mistake that I did all those years ago thinking that this mission or calling was only for this select group of people or was only for others but not for me. Not for you. This is a mission or calling that Jesus gives for every believer. He doesn't say we might be his witnesses. He says we will be his witnesses. And this makes sense because this is the only way the good news is going to make it its way around the world. Some years later, as I'd matured a bit in my walk with the Lord as I'd grown as a disciple, I was working in the bank and I was challenged again about this. I realized that this mission or calling in Acts 1.8 was for me. It was for every believer. And it suddenly made sense why. Because I was the only person from my church who was working at that bank. I was the only one out of all the people in my church. I was the only one who was working for that bank in that customer service center. We had, must have had about 400 staff there in the office. And I was the only one from my church in that business. So of all the brothers and sisters in my church who knew the Lord, who had the good news, I was the only one who was able to bear witness to the truth of the gospel in that place. Because the rest of the church folk weren't there. I later discovered that there were a handful of other believers working with me in the bank. That was really encouraging. We started praying for our workmates. I began to see this mission or calling God had given to me. I could tell what I knew to be true in Jesus. I could share the hope that I had in him with the folk that I worked with. Think about your week. Think about what's coming ahead for you this week. Think about all the spaces that God takes you to in the coming week. Think about work, home, maybe to the gym, to the shops, whatever, wherever you're going to be. All those likely places that you might get to this week. There are going to be many of those places, maybe most of those places, that you'll get to that I won't. So I can't share the hope that I have in Jesus there, but you can. Multiply that out across our whole church. Each one of us shares this same mission or calling. God has placed us in areas of influence where we can share with people that the people sitting left and right of us right now on the pews, they can't share in those places, but you can. We need to own that. Jesus declares it and commissions us in Acts 1.8. We will be his witnesses. We need to get that. Notice too, the and that appears in Acts 1.8. I think another mistake that we can make trying to apply this teaching from the Lord is to get stuck in each of those geographic and social locations. We've taken our time this month slowly digging in deep to each of these missional contexts and the danger is that we can focus in on one area only and stay there. We say things like, well, I can't witness to everybody to the ends of the earth because I'm too busy witnessing to my family. There's still so many of my family that need Jesus. That's where I need to be. Or I'm sure God has gifted me to witness to awkward people. I heard that message from David last week, but God has given me enough to do in my local area in my network. So I'll get to the awkward people later. Or I'll leave it for somebody else. But notice the ands in that verse. We're called to bear witness for Jesus in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. It's all of it, all of it. Most of us on any given week move in and out of all of these geographic or social issues. We'll spend time with family. We'll spend time in our local areas, in our neighborhoods and networks. We may come across an awkward situation or meet the occasional awkward person or persons. We're going to go everywhere and interact with everybody this week. And so our mission or calling is wherever God takes me today. My town and my area and the awkward places and everywhere. God's instructions to parents in Deuteronomy 6 help highlight this idea. Have a look at Deuteronomy 6 verses 6 to 9. You're probably familiar with this passage. We use it a lot talking to parents here. But these were the commandments that God gave to his people. Deuteronomy 6, 6 to 9. These commandments that I give to you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gas. We've been saying this for some time here now that discipleship is not just a class. It's not just a program. It's a lifelong journey with Jesus. And it's 24-7. It's exactly what God says to his people here. It's when we sit at home. It's when we travel from place to place. It's when we rest and it's when we get up and get going again. The same can be said of our missional call. It's all of life. It's not just a one-time event. It's not just one conversation. It's not just a short-term mission trip, but it's every day. We need to own that. Jesus declares it in Acts 1-8. Our missional calling is wherever God takes us today. And so we need to be ready to share the hope that we have in Jesus. If this is true, why don't we? If that is our missional call, why don't we? Well, I've listed a few reasons why we don't. We'll go through them pretty quickly. Maybe you can think of some more. I think one of the big reasons why we don't is we lack gospel knowledge. Probably the first reason we fail to witness is because we don't know what the gospel is. Maybe you've heard it in a sermon, a book, a conversation. You've been a Christian even for a short time. You've likely heard the gospel many hundreds of times even. But we can still struggle to articulate the truths of the gospel in a simple, coherent, and intelligible way. How about a little think about that just now? How prepared are you? Could you share the essential message of the gospel in a minute? I'm not going to ask you to do it, but think about it. What would you say? In 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3-4, the apostle Paul trained the Corinthian believers in what the core message of the gospel was. And he did it by reciting an early Christian creed that he himself, Paul, had been trained to memorize. This is what he gives them. Scholars can tell us that this is an early Christian creed that Paul had memorized. And it lays out the basic gospel message. So if you're not sure what to say, this is a good start. That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. That's it. Jesus died for our sins, as was God's plan. He was buried. He literally did die. And then three days later, he rose again victorious. He conquered sin and death, proving that he was who he claimed to be. And that what he did for us really does make us right with God and guarantee us eternal life. That's the gospel. When we master that, when you're fluent in the gospel message, it's much easier to explain to people what it means. I came across this acrostic during the week that might be helpful to build gospel knowledge, to aid in your witness for Jesus. Just the word gospel and the first letter from each of that word, God created us to be with him. Our sin separates us from God. Sin can't be removed by good deeds. Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. Now, the little helpful one to put in your tools, whether you memorize that or one Corinthians 15 or some other summary, we need to know the gospel if we're going to share it. I think the second reasons we don't share is fear of rejection. Evangelism can be scary. I've been sharing the gospel for years now and I still get a little bit nervous sometimes when I open my mouth to declare it. I think about David's message last week. He said, some people aren't Christians because they haven't met a Christian and other people aren't Christians because they have. And so when we share the gospel, I'm always doing that, trying to do it boldly, but also hesitantly, trying to make sure that my life and doctrine matches up. It's a little bit scary at times. And even the great apostle Paul got nervous. He asked the Ephesians to pray for him to have boldness as he shared the gospel. You could read that in Ephesians 6. Pray for me also that whenever I speak, words might be given to me so that I'd fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. We should pray for boldness. We should pray for one another this week as we share with our friends. I think a little fear is good when it comes to evangelism, sharing our faith, because it reminds us to depend on the Holy Spirit as we share Christ with others. Remember, that's where the power lies. It's not in us. It's not the words that we say. It's not the creative ways that we might share our hope in Jesus. No, it's the Holy Spirit. And He will give us the boldness we need to share the gospel with those around us if we depend on Him. So if you're worried, don't be worried. Stop thinking what others will think of you. We can't let that paralyze us. We just need to trust God and tell what we know to be true. Lean into His Holy Spirit. He's with us always and will give us the words to say. I think a third reason we don't share is a lack of confidence. We think that we might do or say something that'll mess it up. We worry about the tricky questions that could come and whether we're going to have an answer to it. Interestingly, what looks on the outside like a lack of confidence in our own ability can actually be a deeper issue of pride. Because when it comes to not sharing the gospel, pride makes it all about me. It's about the credit of my clever discussion or application. It's about skillful handling of tricky questions. We make someone else's belief all about our ability to get them over the line. That's pride. It's not about us. Only God can bring people to belief in Jesus. Only He can bring us out of darkness and into the light. Second Corinthians 4 verses 1 to 6. Maybe just turn to that. It's not on the screen. Second Corinthians 4 verses 1 to 6. Again, the apostle Paul writing to the believers in current theory says, therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we've renounced secret and shameful ways. We don't use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. What Paul's getting at here is there's God's role in evangelism. There's our role. God's role. He's the one who brings people out of darkness into the light. He does that through the power of the Holy Spirit. What do we do? We don't have to worry about doing that. All we do is we set forth the truth plainly. We preach Christ crucified. Jesus is our risen Lord and Savior. We share the hope that we have in Him. And every one of us can do that. Because if you're here today, you've got hope in Jesus. I'm guessing that's why you've come. Or maybe you're searching for it. You can put your hope in Him today. You don't have to have all the answers. I'm a pastor. I did years at Bible College and I did learn a bunch of stuff about the Bible and about God. But I reckon the biggest thing that I learned through all of those years of study was just how much we don't know. There's so much that the Bible doesn't tell us. It's okay to not have the answer to every question. You can always say, I don't know. That's a great question. Let me look into that for you. And you can check it out during the week and get back to them. If you're in a midweek discipleship group, you could take that question to your discipleship group and you could ask them. You could grab a decent Bible commentary or ask one of the pastors or the church council members. Ask Pastor Doug if it's a really curly question. Just kidding. It's not up to up to convince people though. We've got to remember that. God does that by His Holy Spirit. So don't get worried about your lack of ability that could be pride creeping in. Another reason we don't share is lack of proximity. If you live in a Christian family, you work with a lot of Christians, go to a midweek Bible study, go to church on Sunday and then hang out with friends who are Christians, you've got a proximity problem. It could be a challenge for those of us who are called to vocational ministry. If we're only ever in the proximity of fellow believers, it limits our opportunities to witness for Jesus. Jesus was accused again and again of being a friend of sinners. He hung out with tax collectors, he attended parties, he talked to sinful people. He hung out with the least and the lost and he reached many of them with his surprising message of grace. This is one of the reasons why as a pastoral team we have one of our regular weekly meetings down at the local coffee shop because it gives us proximity to the unreached. That's why I might meet up with you for a coffee at a cafe rather than your house or the church office sometimes because it gives us proximity to those that need the gospel. It's one of the reasons why I strike up conversations with random strangers at the shops or at the airport when we're away on holidays. That's why I played squash for years, why I played board games on a Monday night with a bunch of guys because they need to know Jesus and it puts me in the proximity of people who need to hear the good news. Don't get me wrong, we need to meet together with fellow believers too. That's why we gather on Sundays to worship God, to grow in our understanding of His Word, to encourage each other as we wait for Jesus. But that's also that we can bear fruit. It's also that we can be effective witnesses for Jesus so we can be equipped to fulfill this mission or calling that is given to us. What's your proximity place? Where can you be in proximity to the yet to be rescued so that you can build a relationship with them and share the hope of Jesus with them? It's something to think about. Another reason why we don't share is short-sightedness in the midst of a busy life. We can focus our eyes on the here and now rather than the there and then of eternity, sharing the gospel is the most important thing. We need to fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal. We know Jesus cautioned us about this, didn't he? He said don't store up treasure on earth where everything decays and destroys. Think about treasure in heaven. Think about our purpose, think about our mission or calling. This is the stuff that'll last. I think apathy can be a barrier to our accepting this mission or calling. It usually follows short-sightedness. Apathy is often based off a lack of compassion for the lost. If we're not careful we can forget what it's like to live without hope lost and apart from Jesus. We need to know that those who don't obey Christ, the Bible tells us they suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord. That should grip our hearts. Do we care that people are heading that way? We might say that we care but do we cry out to God for the salvation of our lost neighbors, our co-workers, our classmates and our friends? We should. We should pray for them. The apostle Paul gives us a challenging example of of of what the opposite of apathy looks like. His love and compassion for his fellow countrymen who didn't know Jesus was so great that he said he was willing to be forever cursed if only they would come to salvation. That's the kind of hard attitude we want to have. Don't be apathetic. Finally bad theology. Sometimes the reason we fail to embrace our mission or calling is because of bad theology. Maybe you've heard that quote it's often credited to Saint Francis of Assisi. Preach the gospel at all times. Use words when necessary. Maybe you try and live your life that way. Sounds pretty good to an introvert. It's bad theology. You'd be surprised to learn that Saint Francis didn't actually ever say that quote. In fact if you look at history it shows that he did use words. Lots of them. He was preaching up to five times a day in towns and villages in and around Italy. Why did he do that? Why did he use words? Why did Jesus' disciples preach in the marketplaces, in the synagogues, in the homes, on the roads, wherever the people were? Why do we have pages and pages of their testimony and teaching about Jesus' life and death and resurrection? It's because the gospel cannot be shared without words. It's bad theology to think otherwise. Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 10-14 how are they to believe in him of whom they've never heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching? We've got to use words. I thank the Lord for the words that I heard clearly presented when I was in high school. That's what convinced me. We need to preach the gospel. We need to use words. How can we we're going to finish quickly with this? Well to live at our mission or calling we need to go right back to those things Pastor Doug shared with us at the beginning of this series. We need to be reconciled to God. We need to receive that good news for ourselves in order to be able to share it. And so if you've received that good news you are reconciled to God. So now you have that ministry of reconciliation. We all do. So go out and share that good news. Second, we need to be available to God. We need to be willing to be used by him. Jesus said in Luke 10-2, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field. That hasn't changed in 2000 years. It's increasingly difficult in our modern society where everybody has to work. It's difficult for volunteers to get time to volunteer. There are plenty of ways that we can share the good news just as we go along in everyday life. Those of us who have a little bit more time, there's extra ways as well too. At our recent minister's network luncheon that we have with all of the pastors in our local area, one of the ladies who works in the Christian religious instruction, Christian R.I. space, she came and shared with us. There's something like nine or more primary schools in our local area. Only one of those schools has anybody teaching Christian religious instruction, even though it's law that the schools should offer. Why only one school? Well, there's not enough volunteers. There's not people willing to give up an hour to go into a school to get all the training. They train everybody how to do it. They give them all the resources, equip them, and send them. But there's not enough volunteers to do it. Thousands and thousands of kids that need to hear the gospel. Thirdly, we need to be authentic as we hold out that truth. And Proverbs 27-19 tells us that. Or the Apostle Paul again in 1 Timothy 4 16, watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them because if you do, you'll save both yourself and your hearers. We also need to be prepared to share. Pastor Doug gave us that challenging passage on 1 Peter 3 15. We need to be always prepared to give that answer to everyone who asks of you the reason for the hope that you have. And when we give the answer, do it with gentleness and respect. We do that prayerfully, trusting in the Holy Spirit's guidance and empowering to lead us. We pray continually. And finally, this is where we'll finish this morning. We need to be careful how we live. This is one that I've added in at the end. We need to make the most of every opportunity that the Lord provides. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5 verses 9 to 20. We'll finish with these words and then we can sing our final song. Paul says, for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. For the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness and truth. Find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It's shameful to even mention what the disobedient do in secret. Everything exposed by the light becomes visible. Everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it said, wake up sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Listen to verses 15 to 20. Be very careful then how you live. Not as unwise, but as wise. Making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another with Psalms and hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be careful how we live. Our lives should invite those questions because we have a missional calling in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Let's pray. Father we just thank you so much for the reminder of that missional calling. Thank you for including us, inviting us to be participants in your mission to bring the knowledge of yourself and the good news of your salvation that you offer freely to all who believe. Thank you Father for the joy that we have to share Christ. Lord if there's any of those reasons that we mentioned this morning that is stopping us would you help us to get beyond that? Stir our hearts Lord as a church as we come into prayer week in a couple of weeks time. Stir our hearts as we pray for this region that we'll be willing and available and ready to share that hope that we have in Jesus. We pray this in his mighty name.