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On Mission: The Jesus Way
November 3, 2025 · 38 min
Like the Samaritan woman who transformed from hiding her past to boldly sharing her testimony, Pastor John Mark reveals that missions isn't about perfect people but about surrendered hearts.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton November 3, 2025 · 38 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Like the Samaritan woman who transformed from hiding her past to boldly sharing her testimony, Pastor John Mark reveals that missions isn't about perfect people but about surrendered hearts. ...more Show the full description Show less Like the Samaritan woman who transformed from hiding her past to boldly sharing her testimony, Pastor John Mark reveals that missions isn't about perfect people but about surrendered hearts.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
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The Great Commission: A Call to Action 0:00 You glad you're in God's house today? Yeah. Yeah. What an incredible day it's already been. 9 o'clock service now, 10 15. Glad that you are here. Also, welcome online. We are at the0:12 beginning of November, and every year at Cottonwood Creek, November is our missions month. Everybody say month. Alright? We don't just do a mission day, we do a mission month. And so I get to launch it out. No0:23 mission is too great nor too small. We are on mission. Let me tell you what I'm gonna start today, start a brand new series, when we look at missions going through today and the gift and on beyond. Really,0:35 what all is God doing through you in the life of our church? You know, when we talk about, missions, a lot of people talk about missions, but they don't do missions. We're gonna see it was even that way, in the first0:47 century. After Paul had planted all these churches, some of them said, yeah, we're done. We're gonna be selfish, we're not gonna be generous, we're gonna be, about us and not be on mission. So, we don't ever want to be0:58 that way. I ran across a survey, this week, from the Barna Research Group that among church goers, now it didn't say Christians, it just asked do you go to church? And the answer is at some1:10 point they said yes, and they said, can you tell us what the great commission is? Only 51 percent of church goers could even tell and respond as1:22 to what the great commission was. Most respondents responded back with Matthew 22 that are the great commandments. The great commandments are good. Everybody say good. Good. What are those? Jesus1:34 said love the lord your god with all your heart, mind, and your soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. Those are the great commandments. The great commission's something totally different. So, should anybody call you and1:45 survey you as a church goer, I'm gonna give you the right answer, okay? Cause I'm always about you. I wanna make sure if someone says, Hey, what is the great commission and where is the great1:57 commission? I'm gonna share it with you today. Let me tell you exactly what I'm gonna do in today's sermon. I'm gonna show you the great commission, when Jesus started it. I'm gonna go to Acts chapter 1, where Jesus2:07 talks about the chain reaction of missions. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, remotest parts of the earth. Then I'm gonna tell you, as I look at passages, what we're doing in every 1 of those2:19 areas so you will know. We do a lot of things that most people don't know about. So this is the 1 Sunday a year, I won't list everything that we do, but I wanna break it down by,2:32 Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. So let's go to Matthew chapter 28. Everybody say, Great Commission. Here it is. It is in Matthew chapter 28. Let me tell you when it2:43 is, that Jesus said it. So Jesus has died, he was buried, he rose again. Then he spent, 40 some odd days, with his disciples walking around, going to2:55 places he had been, been interacting, with eyewitnesses. So now Jesus, in Matthew chapter 28, is up in Galilee. If you think Jerusalem's in the south, we'll talk about that a little bit3:07 later. Then you go through Samaria, which is in the middle part of Israel, and then you go up into the north. We're in Galilee. So Jesus in Galilee, alright. And here's what he says, Matthew3:19 chapter 28. Says, then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So Jesus has the authority. But notice in his response, since you are a3:30 follower of me, therefore go. Everybody say go. Alright. Let me tell you what, this great commission, it's not a suggestion.3:43 It's a declaration that children of God, man, you need to go. The great commission is not something you pray about whether you're gonna respond to it. It was a commission3:55 of God to you and to Jesus, to you and me. So he says go. And what do you do when you go? You go, you make disciples of who? Of all nations. What do you do when you make disciples?4:07 Baptizing them, we just talked about 28 last week. I'll share with you, I'm gonna share with you now. I'm not good at keeping a secret. You know, we baptized 28 last weekend.4:20 From January to the end of October, so we still have 2 months to go, we have baptized 316 people who have said, identify4:32 me with the death, the burial, and the resurrection. See, I've already stole some of my thunder for later in the message, but I just couldn't stop. He says, what do you do? Exactly that. Alright, so they're saved,4:44 then they're baptized. Here on the great commission, here's what he says. What do you do? And teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. Man, I love this. And surely, I am4:56 with you always, even to the very ends of the age. If you ever wanna read a wonderful biography of an amazing missionary, go read Hudson Taylor. He was the first missionary5:08 that went to China. And as he went to China, if you when you go around China and a lot of the, Asian countries, if you see mission work, it probably goes back to this 1 guy. Here's what Hudson5:20 Taylor said, that first missionary to China. He says the great commission is not an option to be considered, It is a command to be obeyed. It's not an option to be considered. It is a5:32 command to be obeyed. So, Jesus is in that moment from the time he's resurrected but he hasn't sent ascended back into heaven. Matthew chapter 28, he's up in the northern part of Israel in Galilee. So now he makes5:43 his way back down over the next few days and weeks, and in Acts chapter 1, he is now back outside of Jerusalem, up on the mount of Olives, he's saying, making his last statements,5:55 to his disciples and he's about to ascend back into heaven. Alright, he says, I'm going back. His disciples said, no no no, don't go back. Stay with us. And, he goes, no I'm going back and the holy spirit's gonna fall.6:07 That's acts chapter 2. And they ask him the question, when are you coming back? And he goes, it's not for me to know and it's not for you to know. I'll come back when the father says come back. So now, here it is right6:19 before Jesus is going to ascend back up into heaven, alright? And here it is, Acts chapter 1 verse 8. The great commission is a great commission. Go and make disciples.6:31 Baptizing them and teaching them. So now, Acts chapter 1, he kind of gives us the chain reaction as to how mission should happen. It's like a domino6:42 falling. So let's look at these dominoes, let's look at his chain reaction. He says, but you gives them the same thing and I want you to know that you there is plural. That you there is us. Who6:54 are the you he's talking to? Certainly he's talking to specific disciples, but remember a part of the great commission is you go, you share salvation, then you make disciples. So if you are a7:06 disciple, here is the call. Jesus is talking to you. He says, but you, not the trained professional, not the pastor, all disciples, will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon7:18 you. 2 pieces of the fulfilling of the great commission. Alright? I love this. It's, that Jesus has all the authority in heaven and earth, but when the holy spirit indwells me, he7:29 empowers me to be on mission and he goes, and you will be, not my be, you will be my witnesses where? Notice this chain reaction. In7:41 Jerusalem, that's where the first domino fell, then Judea and Samaria, that's the second domino, and then the ends of the earth. So today, I'm really gonna7:52 categorize my sermon based around those 3 dominoes. Jerusalem, local. Judea, Samaria, national, United States, alright. And then ends of the8:04 earth, international. And this is a commission that we've all been given. I don't know about you, but if I were to walk out of here today and all of a sudden my phone started ringing and I looked at it and it said, the8:16 White House of the United States. I'd say, I'm gonna answer that. Probably gonna be spam. And then someone says, is this John Mark? Yeah, it is John8:28 Mark. You know, the president would like to talk to you. You got a second? Yeah. Think it do. It's gonna be good. Alright. And if he says, hey,8:39 John Mark, I need you to do something for me. How many of you think I would say whatever? Alright, I I will tell you, even if he said, you know what? We need bread.8:52 I'd buy the most expensive loaf of bread I have ever bought in my life. You know, I get the off brand for my family. I'd and and man, you would see me, I'd be flying into the9:04 grocery store and I'd say get out of my way, I'm on a mission for the president. So I want you to know, this is a call from you. And and it's See, the mission to go get bread, just FYI, my9:16 wife gives me that mission all the time, I'm not that fired up. Got it? But based on who is giving me the mission, that makes the mission more important. Jesus said9:28 to you and to you and to you and those online and me, here is your mission. Will you say yes? So what happens first of all? If I'm gonna say yes9:40 to that phone call or ultimately the call from Jesus to be on mission, missions always starts with a surrendered heart. Missions always starts with a surrendered heart. Go back to the old9:52 testament, I love this prophet named Isaiah. He kinda sets the stage for us that, man, here's how we should respond when mission comes. Look at Isaiah chapter 6 verse 5 to 7.10:03 Isaiah is just rolling through his day and all of a sudden he has a vision. He sees, the lord high and lifted up. He sees a holy and righteous god and his response is exactly the way ours should be. Here it is.10:15 So Isaiah sees God holy, has an holy encounter with a holy God and he goes, woe to me. That word woe in the Hebrew means woe. He goes, this is not good for me. Well,10:27 why? Notice what he says. He says, woe to me for I am ruined. If you look at that Hebrew word ruined, it means I'm a wreck, I'm damaged, I'm a failure. So he10:39 says, woe to me because I'm not perfectly holy like the lord god almighty. He says, woe to me, I'm ruined. He could Hebrew word also could be damaged. Just just damaged.10:51 For I am a man of unclean lips, sinful. He acknowledges his sinfulness and I live among unclean people and people with unclean lips. I love it.11:03 Isaiah starts with himself. He says, first of all, I'm broken. I'm wrecked. I'm damaged. I'm a failure. See, it's easy to do that last part and a lot of11:15 times if we aren't careful, we'll talk about how unclean this society is. Our city is broken, our country is broken, this is wrecked, this is damaged, this is It starts with11:27 us acknowledging, man, I'm a failure, I am sinful. And he goes, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord God almighty. So here's what we need to understand. Mission doesn't start11:39 with geography. It just starts with a surrendered heart. God, what do you want me to do in humility? So look at verse 6. Then 1 of the seraphim flew to me. God says, I know you're11:51 sinful. 1 of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which is taken from the tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, see, this has12:02 touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away. Everybody say amen. Alright, we all stand as sinful, failing, broken, damaged people before a holy God, but12:14 God takes care of that for us And he goes, and your sins have been atoned for. That's foreshadowing 7 years after Isaiah wrote that Jesus would die on a cross and say,12:26 father forgive them for they know not what they do. So he says, yes, I have a I have a an unclean lips, unclean heart, but God says, I'll take care of that. I've got a mission for you. So now that Isaiah's received12:37 forgiveness, alright, in our context, once you've been saved, you've been baptized, you've been taught, notice Isaiah's response. Here's the question. Then I heard a voice from12:49 the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? That word us, little Trinitarian comment. Father, son, holy spirit, not me. Who will go for us? Notice Isaiah's13:01 response. Here I am, send me. Everybody just say send me. I will promise you. Now listen, let me just start this. Here's what I fully13:13 understand. 99.9 percent of us will not be called to pack our bags, move internationally to go on mission. However, 100 percent of us are13:25 called to be on mission somehow, someway. That's the purpose of this sermon. So let me just start with that first domino, okay? What do we do in our Jerusalem? So So let me just share a13:37 couple of things with you about this. If you didn't know this, we're gonna put some pictures and images up on the screen, not all of the things that we do locally, but the ones I identified are ones you can go13:49 serve with us on, you can give on, you can connect with, and it's easy to do. So if you didn't know, locally, just here in the north Dallas area or Dallas area, we're involved in 26 different mission14:00 ministries and organizations. They are humanitarian, aid medical, pregnancy, and law centers. I already shared with you just this last year, 3 16 baptisms14:12 in our Jerusalem. Those are called. Now they're ready to be sent. So let's talk first of all, local humanitarian aid. We are connected with a bunch of groups, but here's a couple of the key14:24 groups that we are connected with. The North Texas Food Bank, Operation Care Dallas, that is a homeless ministry around Christmas, with blankets and jackets and food and stuff like that. All community14:36 outreach. If you didn't know this, this is what most of us know as Allen Community Outreach. A couple of years ago, they changed their name. Hope Medical Clinic, 1 Heart McKinney, ministry to14:48 McKinney, so Allen McKinney. And then the Samaritan Inn. So those are things that we do. That's what we categorize as local humanitarian aid and there are many more because we have 26 others.14:59 Also, we're involved in Christian crisis pregnancy centers. So someone gets, gets pregnant, out of wedlock, it's a hard thing, we step in. These ministries step in.15:11 Hope Women's Center, we have a lot of our ladies in our church that volunteer their time to help out there. Real Options for Women, same thing. And as well as a 12 12 ministry. It's a loss,15:23 infertility ministry. We are connected in those areas. Now, something else we're gonna do local, if you are somewhat new to our church, next weekend literally is my favorite15:35 weekend in all of the year. It is the gift weekend. You heard Justin announce it a few minutes ago. If you haven't done it, text the word get the gift, both words together, to 7 7 9 715:47 8. What do we do here? We're gonna pack about 275000 meals, that are it's good it's good to see families doing that together. Operation Christmas Child's on.15:59 We have Carter Blood Care. Why? Because we're always looking to reload. Here's the way we do it at Cottonwood Creek. When it comes to your blood, you can either give it or we'll just take it. Either way, we're gonna get16:08 your blood. But what do we want to do? We just want to be a part of what God has called us to do in our area. Writing cards, stuffing bags, doing angel tree, getting ready for angel tree, whatever it16:20 is. So I want to encourage you, when you come back next week, man, just be ready to say whatever I can do, I am in and it is gonna be awesome. So,16:32 Mission Jesus way always starts with a surrendered heart like Isaiah. Man, I have unclean lips, I live among an unclean people. God says I'm taking care of that with forgiveness. Then he says here am I,16:44 send me. Now here's the second thing, Mission then grew out of sending churches, alright? Churches need to be willing to say yes. So, here's the first thing you need to16:56 know. Remember, the great commission was given in Matthew chapter 28. The first church didn't start until Acts chapter 2. So, the great commission didn't come out of the church,17:08 alright? The church came out of the great commission. Does that make sense? The church didn't start the great commission. Jesus started the great commission, talked about the great commission. The church was a17:20 result of the great commission and the spread of the churches was a result of the great commission. You say, where do you see that? Let's go to Acts chapter 13. Let me just point out 1 church. You can just walk through17:30 the book of Acts and you can look at the church here and the church here and the church here and the church here. I just wanna identify 1 in Antioch. Says, now in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers.17:42 And while they were worshiping and fasting, not upon luck, they were us worshiping and fasting, the holy spirit said to them, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them17:53 to. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and then they sent them off. So this church in Antioch, you say, alright pastor,18:06 where are we at in the process? This is the second domino. Remember in the chain reaction of ministry, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. That's where we are.18:18 If you can think in your mind and remember in your mind you have Israel, Jerusalem's down in the south. Then you go through Samaria, which is the middle part of Jerusalem. Then you go up to the top, that's Galilee. If18:29 you keep going past Galilee, you will go to a place called Antioch. So here we are, Judea and Samaria. So the gospels started in Jerusalem. Now they begin to18:40 spread and share the message. Now they've planted a church. This church is called Antioch. And And what is Antioch doing? They are receiving the chain reaction and then they're sending18:53 the chain reaction because they understand there is a call to their life. So Antioch did what? They had pastors and they had prophets and they had teachers who taught God's word. Part of the word they taught was the19:03 great commission in Acts chapter 1, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth. And they said, we want to be that kind of a church. And so what did they do? As they were worshiping, as they were19:14 praying, God said to them, set apart Barnabas and Paul, lay your hands upon them, don't hold them, send them off. And that's what we always want to be as a church.19:26 We want to be a sending church. We want to be a mission minded church. We don't want to just talk missions, we want to do missions. Alright, we don't want to just talk about giving to missions, we actually want to give19:37 to missions. And so they sent them off. Now track it on a little further. There was a place in a church called Philippi. So let's let's encounter that church in Philippians. So what did it look like for them to have the19:49 gospel? Look at Philippians chapter 4 verse 15. Paul is writing to them and he says moreover, as you Philippians know in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel,20:01 alright, everybody say gospel, you can never spell gospel without first saying go, g o. Your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia Now20:13 notice this, not 1 church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving. Let me just put a pause on it.20:24 Generosity and missions is a choice. Generosity and missions, it's a choice. It's a choice for individuals to say yes or to say20:36 no. It's a choice for churches. See, a lot of times I hear people talk about and preach about, you know, the problem with today's church, the problem with today's church. We're talking about the first century.20:49 Some of the churches had already received the good news, they had received the gospel, but they forgot to go. And Paul kinda calls them out. He says, you know, in the area of21:01 Macedonia, he goes, man as we're planting these churches, I asked all the churches, many of them he had planted. He says, would you share with me as I go on my next missionary journey, as we plant another church, as we21:11 do another mission. He goes, you were the only 1. Child of God, if we were in Acts chapter 13 and Philippians chapter 4, I would want us to be21:23 that church, amen? Does that make sense? Just so I'm never gonna, I'm never gonna stop saying we need to be on mission. I don't want to be 1 of those churches where Paul's21:34 talking to somebody else and he goes, you know Cottonwood Creek, I ask them. And it was a choice. And they said no. So we want to be the21:46 kind of church that says absolutely yes, I don't want to be 1 of those no 1 else but you help me out. And so notice what it says, except you only. Look at verse 16.21:58 For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me a, notice this, not just once, but more than once. You just made it happen. He says, listen, you understood when you gave to me, you weren't losing something, you were22:10 investing in everything. K? And child of God, I want you to know, when you give to missions and when you give to this or you give to that, man, you're not losing a thing. You are investing in everything.22:22 Certainly investing in the most important things. And he goes, and you shared with me more than once when I was in need. Now jump over to the Corinthian church. Corinthian church is a pretty messed up22:34 church. If you go read the whole first book of first Corinthians, it is about Paul pretty much just saying, are you kidding me? That that's how you're living?22:46 You're doing this and you're doing that and some of you are sleeping with family members and this is in the church. I'm just, I'm not making up stuff, just go read the book. Alright. He says that some of you are are are22:58 are getting drunk before the Lord's supper and some of you are doing this and some of you are doing That's first Corinthians, then second Corinthians. All of a sudden they have shaped up because Paul spoke to them with a23:08 spirit of truth and they repented and so here he is over in second Corinthians chapter 8, same church. He says, and now brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace. Everybody say grace. He says, I want23:20 you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches in the midst of a very severe trial. In other words, they were struggling. Their overflowing joy and their extreme23:31 poverty. See, joy and trials can coexist, child of God. Joy and trials can coexist when we are saying yes to what God23:43 wants us to say yes to. Overflowing joy, and he says, and they welled up with a rich generosity. He says, if you look at their life, they were broken, they23:55 were broke, they were in severe trials, but they had rich generosity and they shared. See, I'll submit to you when you think about what he's saying there, He says a lot of times you can24:07 tell more about what a Christian values by looking at their budget than you can by looking at their bible. Gonna say that again. A lot of times we can tell more what we24:19 as Christians value by looking at our budget, not looking at our Bible. A lot of times people walk around and say, I've had this Bible since I was in high school. Well, depending on how old you are, that24:31 means you haven't read it much. Right? Or you would look a little more worn out. So what we want to do is we want to be the kind of people that, man, if I'm going through a trial, if I'm going through hardship, if I'm24:41 going through a difficulty, I want to be like those Corinthian believers, a messed up group that said, hey, all right, we're gonna give it. So notice what he says. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able24:52 to. Generosity isn't a size. I want you to know, there's not some great mark out there that makes you generous. It's not a size. He says, for they gave as much as they can, and even25:03 beyond their ability, entirely on their own. And notice what it says. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of giving. Now, hey, can you imagine? No, no, no. We wanna give.25:16 We, no, Paul says we're good. No, no, we we want to give. Man, what an incredible heart. Privilege of sharing this in this service to the Lord. Alright, so here we are. Second domino. First domino,25:27 Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. We're continuing to see the gospel spread up north of Jerusalem, north of Galilee, up, through Judea, Samaria, into Antioch, now Philippi.25:40 So, let me tell you what we are doing in our Judea and Samaria. That's what we refer to as national. I'm gonna show you some pictures up here. But first of all, we just celebrated a couple of weeks ago 2 house bills.25:52 Give God a hand for that. A lot of people, a lot of guys and their kids and ladies put a lot of energy and effort into erecting those 2 houses right26:04 out here. Then we palletized them. Then we sent them to 2 families in the Rio Grande who didn't have homes but had been vetted by 1 of our mission partners, Buckner Children's Home, that they said, you know what?26:16 This this mom and kids needs a home. So we palletized it, sent it down there, erected it. Now they're in that home. 1 of them is in a 4 bedroom home. 1 of them is in a 2 bedroom home. Okay? It's not like26:27 your 4 bedroom home, and it's not like your 2 bedroom home, but they got a home. Right? And that is an incredible thing. You say, how did that happen? Because of your generous giving through the year, we're able26:39 to just write a check. Here's what it costs for the wood, not cheap. Here's what it costs for nails and all the other thing. Here's what it costs to transport it. Here's what it costs to re erect it down there. And26:51 so I want you to know, that's what we're doing in Judea Samaria. Those 2 homes were down in the Rio Grande Valley. Did you know you're on college campuses today? We directly support 3 specific27:04 college missionaries. We'll just put your picture up there for you. One's in Oklahoma and the University of Central Oklahoma. One's in Arizona, the University of Arizona. One's in Arkansas, the University of Arkansas.27:15 Woo pig. Right? So here, if you didn't know that, those are 3 people that are missionaries to college campuses, like Charlie Kirk, like people, they are sharing the gospel with college kids. They27:26 are discipling the next generation. They are actually making it happen. College, typically with a business degree, but felt a call in their life to go back to college27:38 kids just like them and say yes. Church plants. Here's another image up there if you didn't know. We have 8 total church plants. 6 are in Texas. 1 is in Baltimore and Maryland. And 1, I know this27:50 isn't national, this is gonna shock you. One's in India. Alright. I know that's not national. But today, there's actually Cottonwood Creek, India. Alright? A church being planted right28:02 there. Give God a hand for that. So if you wanna know what's going on. Now, though, what I just showed you are some of the people that that means on a monthly basis, we write a specific check28:14 with their name on it or with their mission organization name. However, we indirectly support a lot of other things through the North American Mission Board. It is a missions group28:26 that, plants churches all over the nation that we write a check. They have, church plants, church partners, church other things. Let me tell you a little bit about the North American Mission Board. Indirectly, through28:38 your giving, you support over 767 plus church plants around our nation. Some you and I will never visit, will never see, will never know about. They've vetted these pastors.28:50 They're going, many of them, up in the north northwest, and saying listen, I'm willing to go up there. I'm willing to do the hard work. We mentioned 3 college campuses that we write checks directly to.29:02 They, the North American Mission Board, are on another 59 college and university campuses, where they have missionaries on those campuses, among the church starts. Where also what they have29:14 83 replants. You say, pastor, what's a replant? It is a church that has died. We've all seen that happen. Right? But instead of just turning that29:26 property over to a developer, they take it back into NAM, North American Mission Board. Alright? Then they try to replant a church out of that. 83 we're involved in right now.29:37 If you didn't know this, Cottonwood Creek has been doing this for over 15 years. We took over a church in Nevada, built it back up, sent them a pastor. Now they're a fully functioning church29:49 over in Nevada. We did it up in Denison. We did it out in Princeton. We're doing it again right now. Alright? Here's the neat thing. If you've been through our membership class, you've heard me walk through the history30:00 of the church. And I told you, at 1 point we were in this facility and then we went to this facility and then we went to this facility. 1 of the facilities we went to is over on, highway 5. Little little small building a30:12 couple of years ago, That building was put up for sale. 1 of our members called me and said, Pastor, you know our former, church is for sale? Well, I I thought what was gonna happen is this real estate developer was30:24 gonna go in and get it and put something there. And the guy didn't know that, I said call him and told him to take the sign out of the front yard. So we bought it back. You said because we need another building?30:35 No. Because we knew that God had a mission. That is now your Cottonwood Creek church planting center. There is a church meeting there today30:48 launching a brand new church. Give God a hand for that. So anyway, we want to be that kind of church that consistently says yes. And finally, here it is. I'm a have to hurry because somebody's31:00 talked too long. Third thought, missions reaches those who are far from God. But 1 of my favorite stories, and I don't have time to talk about it, is that woman at the31:11 well. Remember it says Jesus was making a journey from Jerusalem up to Galilee, from the south to the north. Could have gone around Samaria. Samaria was not a great place, but instead Jesus goes in and says we're going31:23 to Samaria. He sits down by a well. The disciples were hungry, like we all are. And they went into town. Jesus just sat down, Jesus didn't need a31:35 pulpit, didn't need a microphone, just needed a seat and a conversation. And all of a sudden, this woman came to the well. Came it, it says at31:47 noon time by herself because she was kind of an outcast of the community. So she's just kind of coming out, gonna get water, she's gonna hide. Jesus takes her31:59 from being a hider to a headliner. And they have a conversation, they start talking about worship, they start talking about this. And and and Jesus says, hey are you honest? Do you want to be part of the32:10 messiah's club? And Jesus asked her about her husband. She goes I don't have a husband. You said you're right.32:23 Really if you kind of read it in the original language, this is my take on it. She had more exes than George Strait. Okay. And as Jesus began to talk to her about his32:34 grace and his love and her broken story, this girl that was hiding from her community comes back into the town and he says you guys you guys gotta come out.32:46 This is the Messiah. He told me everything I had done. Told me all of my failure, all of my sin, all of my brokenness and he loved me anyway and gave me his grace. And so look at this girl who was32:58 wanting to hide. Notice what happens. Let me jump down. Y'all just follow me upstairs. Here it is. John 4 28. Then leaving her water jar,33:10 the woman went went back into town and said to the people, come, see you man. If you want to get on mission today, just those couple33:22 of words can start you on missions when you're working out tomorrow, whatever you're doing, when you're in a conversation getting your hair done, that you got to grow. Just just tell people come and see.33:36 Come and see. She didn't preach the sermon, she just she she said, hey come see a man who told me everything I did. All my exes Could this be the messiah? Notice33:48 what's They came out of the town and they made their way toward him and then look at verse 39. It says, many of the Samaritans, what? From that town believed in him because of that woman's34:00 testimony. See, gee, give God a hand. See there are some people there, I have no doubt there are some people in this room or some people online, that your story's a lot like34:12 her story. That you've been through brokenness, maybe you feel like I come into God's house and I want to hide a little bit. Listen, you don't hide. Because Jesus is the kind of Jesus, Jesus is the kind34:24 of messiah that'll take your story and make it someone else's salvation story. Do you get that? See her story, she rolls back into town, my guess is she had been slinking around34:36 town forever hiding, that's why she was coming to go water her life. All of a sudden she rolls back in town and go, y'all right. I did all of those things. And the guy that I live with now, he's not even my34:48 husband. But let me tell you, I met a dude down at the well. He didn't have he didn't have a pulpit, he didn't have a megaphone, he just needed a35:00 conversation. And I want y'all to come and see and it says many who came out of that town believed. So let me talk about this third domino and this is where we're gonna close.35:11 International missions. What are we plugged into? We're plugged into orphanages, missionaries, and indirect support. Let me show it to you. First of all, this year we went on 7 different mission trips. 635:23 of them were international. 1 of them was national. International missionaries we support. This is not all of them, but we're gonna highlight a couple of them. These are people who you can go to, you can go35:35 see. You say, well I'm Cottonwood Creek. We write a check to these. The Harbor family in Belize, the Vargas family in Bolivia, the Collins family in Cuba, the Shonoff family in Czech Republic, the Jones family,35:46 Golblazia. Many of these came from our church. Said yes. The Newport family in Greece, the Mendoza family in Kenya, the Lee family in Macedonia, the Rosendahl family in35:58 Nigeria, be be be in prayer for them if you've been following what's happening, to Christians there in mass amounts. I mean, the Williams family in Prague and the former family in Tokyo and many, many others.36:10 We're also connected with orphanages around the world. Naomi's Village in Kenya, Buckner International, Princess Promise, 25 project, Keaton Angel Homes, many others. See those are direct things36:22 we do that we say yes. But there are also some indirect things. I told you earlier about nationally, the North American Bishop Board, all the church plans, college, university we're a part. We36:34 also write a check to a place called the International Mission Board. Through the International Mission Board, it's all the churches partnering together. There are over 3600 full time missionaries around36:46 the world and some a hundred and 60 different countries. A lot of the people, the reason why it's indirect because they're in places they can't even talk about it. We have people that we support when I went through36:58 them that we can't put their picture up on the screen, but they have said yes. Child of God, we want to be that kind of church that simply37:10 says yes. Let's pray. God, thank you so much. God, the truth is in so many ways we're all like37:21 Isaiah. We're unclean people with unclean lips, we're broken, we're damaged, we're wrecked, but your grace has forgiven us. God in so many ways we're all like37:33 that woman at the well. We're broken, our story is what would seem to be unusual, unusable, but37:45 you want to take our sins that we want to hide, make them headlines for your grace. God let us be a church that says yes.37:58 To be your witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen and Amen.In this video 0:00 The Great Commission: A Call to Action
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