WEBVTT 00:01.887 --> 00:07.588 [SPEAKER_00]: Could to see you, thank you, team, for that incredibly inspiring, inspiring video. 00:07.628 --> 00:17.271 [SPEAKER_00]: It's great to be with you, my name's Matt, and it's a tremendous privilege to open the word together today at the beginning of this new series. 00:17.291 --> 00:22.332 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're joining us via a screen online, somewhere welcome to you or out in the parents room. 00:22.772 --> 00:25.733 [SPEAKER_00]: Grace to you, and it's great that you're with us also. 00:33.395 --> 00:37.858 [SPEAKER_00]: on a train service called Subway 1 in New York. 00:38.639 --> 00:43.122 [SPEAKER_00]: At peak hour, a man got on that train and died. 00:45.343 --> 00:59.613 [SPEAKER_00]: And he was hunched over and for hours, people got on the train, sat next to him, got off the train, held the rail, looked over above him, moved around, no one realized that he'd passed away. 01:00.652 --> 01:07.517 [SPEAKER_00]: Just people going about their business, holding onto the rails, getting on and off for hours, no one realized he was dead. 01:07.537 --> 01:09.238 [SPEAKER_00]: They just assumed that he was asleep. 01:10.379 --> 01:18.825 [SPEAKER_00]: Another exhausted commuter, another tired man just trying to get through the day. 01:20.787 --> 01:27.792 [SPEAKER_00]: And you see most people, most of you and I spend our lives in places that no one really notices. 01:29.455 --> 01:48.641 [SPEAKER_00]: Construction sites, school pickup lines, office cubicles, hotel or hospital corridors, kitchen tables, night shifts, even late night trains. 01:50.481 --> 01:52.622 [SPEAKER_00]: We spend ourselves in ordinary places. 01:53.595 --> 02:11.744 [SPEAKER_00]: Spend our time in ordinary routines, just as ordinary people and beyond all of that repetition and beyond all of that routine, there is, if we're honest, a question that maybe rises up in our hearts from time to time, which is, does anybody even notice? 02:12.965 --> 02:16.767 [SPEAKER_00]: Does anyone see, can my life make a difference? 02:17.822 --> 02:24.288 [SPEAKER_00]: What does one person, what can one person do to impact someone else? 02:25.109 --> 02:30.174 [SPEAKER_00]: Modern life has a way of making us feel small. 02:33.197 --> 02:38.543 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think human beings probably have always wrestled with feelings of smallness. 02:39.523 --> 02:58.052 [SPEAKER_00]: Like in the ancient world, though, back in the day, humankind wrestled with feelings of smallness under nature, under the stars, under a storm, under a rain cloud, humans wrestled with smallness under empires, under big wars and things happening. 02:58.412 --> 03:01.433 [SPEAKER_00]: Circumstances that surround us that we cannot control. 03:02.494 --> 03:04.455 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet, in our modern world, 03:06.475 --> 03:09.336 [SPEAKER_00]: it makes us feel small in like a different way. 03:11.297 --> 03:16.139 [SPEAKER_00]: Not small before creation, but small inside of a machine. 03:17.639 --> 03:27.764 [SPEAKER_00]: One more employee number, one more customer, one more exhausted commuter, sitting silently on a train full of strangers. 03:30.925 --> 03:33.646 [SPEAKER_00]: And so then we currently, we carry this ache, 03:35.241 --> 03:41.205 [SPEAKER_00]: This question in our hearts does my life actually matter and would anyone really notice. 03:43.026 --> 03:55.033 [SPEAKER_00]: Because we've spoken about this before that our modern challenge is not merely guilt or shame, but it's anonymity, disconnection, meaninglessness. 03:56.634 --> 03:58.735 [SPEAKER_00]: We are actually underneath desperate. 04:00.256 --> 04:08.241 [SPEAKER_00]: to know that our lives are connected and that we're connected to something larger than just survival and routine. 04:10.042 --> 04:16.045 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, going back before June, 1999, all the way back to the year AD 100. 04:16.065 --> 04:19.748 [SPEAKER_00]: By the year 100 AD Christianity, 04:24.232 --> 04:31.175 [SPEAKER_00]: The belief and the story and the gospel of Jesus had already spread across the Roman Empire. 04:31.855 --> 04:43.521 [SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere Rome was, they built beautiful perfect roads and along those roads, people carried the gospel of Jesus to everywhere that the Roman Empire went. 04:44.401 --> 04:46.822 [SPEAKER_00]: By 300 AD, a mere 200 years after that, 04:49.427 --> 04:56.431 [SPEAKER_00]: The gospel had already moved through North Africa, Persia, India, and deep into places in Europe. 04:57.751 --> 05:07.697 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's a strange observation that historians always make about this early church spread in the spread of the gospel in those first few hundred years. 05:08.357 --> 05:08.877 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's this. 05:11.634 --> 05:19.658 [SPEAKER_00]: The early church had almost none of the things that we think were that we assume unnecessary for influence. 05:20.779 --> 05:34.967 [SPEAKER_00]: No buildings, no denominations, no Bible colleges, no social media, no podcasts, no branding, identity, and yet they spread everywhere. 05:36.126 --> 05:38.889 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, there's a name that I think we should bring back. 05:39.009 --> 05:41.712 [SPEAKER_00]: He's a historian in the Roman Empire. 05:41.752 --> 05:43.875 [SPEAKER_00]: His name was Pliny Vyonga. 05:45.336 --> 05:47.398 [SPEAKER_00]: So anyone having a child coming up? 05:47.859 --> 05:48.440 [SPEAKER_00]: Go for it. 05:48.800 --> 05:49.601 [SPEAKER_00]: You are welcome. 05:52.043 --> 05:54.746 [SPEAKER_00]: He wrote to an emperor, Emperor Trajan. 05:55.762 --> 06:03.307 [SPEAKER_00]: to try and talk about and explain to the emperor, what was happening with these Christians in this early time? 06:03.387 --> 06:05.088 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna quote it to you. 06:05.328 --> 06:10.511 [SPEAKER_00]: The quote, it's a little bit clumsy and English because it was originally written in Latin. 06:11.212 --> 06:12.112 [SPEAKER_00]: And he said this. 06:12.552 --> 06:14.854 [SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about the believers the early church. 06:15.094 --> 06:19.317 [SPEAKER_00]: They were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn. 06:20.648 --> 06:30.092 [SPEAKER_00]: and sing responsibly a hymn to Christ as to a God and to bind themselves by an oath. 06:31.392 --> 06:43.677 [SPEAKER_00]: And then listen to this, the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities, but also to villages and farms. 06:44.767 --> 06:55.770 [SPEAKER_00]: Pliny the younger is explaining to the emperor what is happening as the gospel goes out and he says to the emperor, it hasn't just gone to the cities, it's spread everywhere. 06:57.730 --> 07:03.031 [SPEAKER_00]: And that phrase that idea has stuck in my heart all year. 07:05.372 --> 07:10.973 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, of course, we wouldn't call our faith a contagion of superstition. 07:12.583 --> 07:40.022 [SPEAKER_00]: as Pliny Vyonga has called it, but the idea that this thread, this theme, this story, the message of the good news of Jesus spread everywhere with almost nothing, little to no resource in a time when there was very little ways of getting messages 07:40.640 --> 07:40.920 [SPEAKER_00]: through. 07:42.060 --> 07:46.822 [SPEAKER_00]: The early church, though, did not see themselves primarily as a place where people attended. 07:48.162 --> 07:51.863 [SPEAKER_00]: They saw themselves as a people who were sent, who would go. 07:54.444 --> 08:04.567 [SPEAKER_00]: Because one of the most radical ideas in Christianity is this, God sends ordinary people into ordinary 08:09.480 --> 08:11.021 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the message of the gospel. 08:11.942 --> 08:22.531 [SPEAKER_00]: Ordinary people in very ordinary, routine, normal places, carrying something special, something extra ordinary that's going to make a difference. 08:22.971 --> 08:30.057 [SPEAKER_00]: As Jesus said to His disciples, as the Father sent me, I am sending you. 08:32.198 --> 08:37.623 [SPEAKER_00]: Not just pastors, not just missionaries, not just chaplains or counselors. 08:39.260 --> 08:40.901 [SPEAKER_00]: ordinary people. 08:41.441 --> 08:45.364 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, church, we gather in this way to be formed. 08:46.444 --> 08:48.065 [SPEAKER_00]: God forms us up, shapes us. 08:49.026 --> 08:51.247 [SPEAKER_00]: But we exist to be sent. 08:52.488 --> 08:58.072 [SPEAKER_00]: And so if we stop the sending, we stop the primary reason for our existence. 08:58.992 --> 09:04.756 [SPEAKER_00]: We just become formed, form, form, form, form, form, form, but not really used. 09:06.031 --> 09:19.110 [SPEAKER_00]: So over the last few years, something has been shaping amongst us as elders and leaders, and it's not a strategy, it's more like a conviction that discovery might be called ascending church for the next generation. 09:20.405 --> 09:32.432 [SPEAKER_00]: Not simply a larger church, but a greenhouse, an incubator, a training ground, a place where leaders are formed and released for the sake of the kingdom. 09:32.452 --> 09:36.775 [SPEAKER_00]: This might take form of five churches, maybe 10, maybe more. 09:37.815 --> 09:40.517 [SPEAKER_00]: But the numbers, not the point, the identity is. 09:41.904 --> 09:49.288 [SPEAKER_00]: See, we carry this unspoken question does my life really matter behind our lives, does anybody really notice? 09:49.828 --> 09:55.190 [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to ask you this question today, church, to you as individuals and as a group, to us as a group. 09:57.692 --> 10:02.414 [SPEAKER_00]: What if your ordinary life is part of the mission of God? 10:04.035 --> 10:10.698 [SPEAKER_00]: What if you don't have to do anything different but rather invite God into the spaces where you already are? 10:12.781 --> 10:20.643 [SPEAKER_00]: ordinary people, regular people who matter, and who show that others that they matter as well. 10:21.323 --> 10:33.286 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's read from Acts chapter 13, this verse that we've just heard about, verses 1 to 3 will unpack it a little bit, and then we'll make some observations about how this might impact us moving forward. 10:34.007 --> 10:37.932 [SPEAKER_00]: both individually as people who love Jesus and also as a church. 10:38.392 --> 10:45.241 [SPEAKER_00]: So Acts 131 to 3, there were in the church at Antioch, prophets and teachers. 10:46.417 --> 10:55.660 [SPEAKER_00]: Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Nigel, Lucius of Siren, Manayan, a lifelong friend of Herod, the Tetroc, and Saul. 10:56.600 --> 11:06.223 [SPEAKER_00]: While there were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I've called them. 11:07.143 --> 11:13.905 [SPEAKER_00]: Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 11:16.516 --> 11:20.239 [SPEAKER_00]: When you read the New Testament, you get kind of two sorts of churches. 11:20.260 --> 11:23.663 [SPEAKER_00]: You have like Jerusalem churches and Antioch churches. 11:23.723 --> 11:34.173 [SPEAKER_00]: Jerusalem churches are the ones that form, shape, bring together, create stability, safety, and a sense of centrality in home. 11:34.193 --> 11:39.578 [SPEAKER_00]: And then you have Antioch churches that send release, equip, and go. 11:42.435 --> 11:45.396 [SPEAKER_00]: Acts 13 is one of these turning points in the New Testament. 11:45.436 --> 11:50.537 [SPEAKER_00]: Luke begins to list the amount of the people who were there, the leaders who were in that church. 11:51.157 --> 12:00.619 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you've got these people that he mentions, Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manayan, Saul, different ethnicities, different social classes, different stories. 12:00.899 --> 12:02.100 [SPEAKER_00]: They weren't just a large church. 12:02.120 --> 12:04.080 [SPEAKER_00]: They were a spiritually alive church. 12:05.320 --> 12:10.682 [SPEAKER_00]: And Luke says, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting. 12:12.601 --> 12:17.682 [SPEAKER_00]: Not strategy first, not branding first, not expansion first, but worship. 12:18.763 --> 12:20.123 [SPEAKER_00]: And church, I want to say this to you. 12:20.143 --> 12:21.944 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the reason this is so important to us. 12:22.304 --> 12:26.485 [SPEAKER_00]: The sending movement of the church begins in the presence of God. 12:30.226 --> 12:34.167 [SPEAKER_00]: Then the Spirit speaks, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul. 12:35.882 --> 12:37.323 [SPEAKER_00]: Now think about who these guys were. 12:37.363 --> 12:43.386 [SPEAKER_00]: Barnabas is stabilizing, generous, the son of encouragement, elsewhere in Acts calls in. 12:43.987 --> 12:49.350 [SPEAKER_00]: Saul goes on to become the Apostle Paul and write most of our new testament that we have in our Bibles today. 12:50.851 --> 12:53.813 [SPEAKER_00]: Their leadership team was stacked. 12:54.805 --> 12:58.267 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, if this was a modern church, these are all the kind of leaders that you want to keep. 12:58.727 --> 13:03.070 [SPEAKER_00]: You want to retain them, you want to keep them on side because they're useful, they're helpful. 13:03.310 --> 13:06.692 [SPEAKER_00]: You can talk to our men, these guys are the best people to come every week. 13:06.752 --> 13:08.093 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we really love your preaching. 13:08.273 --> 13:09.413 [SPEAKER_00]: We really love how you do this. 13:09.694 --> 13:11.975 [SPEAKER_00]: And we really love that you're here that you're feeding us. 13:12.195 --> 13:13.536 [SPEAKER_00]: You've got all of this great knowledge. 13:13.796 --> 13:14.977 [SPEAKER_00]: And what does Antioch do? 13:15.757 --> 13:16.157 [SPEAKER_00]: Awesome. 13:16.878 --> 13:17.358 [SPEAKER_00]: See ya. 13:17.918 --> 13:18.579 [SPEAKER_00]: And send them. 13:19.530 --> 13:25.634 [SPEAKER_00]: releases and they do exactly the opposite of what you and I probably what might inclination would be to do. 13:27.135 --> 13:29.917 [SPEAKER_00]: Lay hands on them, bless them, and send them. 13:30.017 --> 13:34.921 [SPEAKER_00]: And that moment launches one of the greatest missionary movements in history. 13:37.283 --> 13:44.808 [SPEAKER_00]: The gospel ripples across the Mediterranean world because one church was strong enough to release its best. 13:50.533 --> 14:04.879 [SPEAKER_00]: Antioch becomes a prototype of a mature church, not a church that just gathers, but a church that releases and so church prayerfully, this is the question that's sitting before us, could we become an Antioch? 14:07.385 --> 14:21.468 [SPEAKER_00]: Not a church with bigger services, but a church that plants, replants, revitalizes, strengthen struggling communities, raises leaders, sends people off. 14:23.729 --> 14:27.910 [SPEAKER_00]: A church where Mount Avalon is not the finished line, but becomes a sending base. 14:28.890 --> 14:31.731 [SPEAKER_00]: A church where Frankston is not like an exception, 14:33.045 --> 14:37.687 [SPEAKER_00]: but part of a multiplying story of the gospel in our city and in our nation. 14:39.527 --> 14:41.068 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the question before us. 14:42.288 --> 14:48.070 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, if you're taking notes, our first point is this, the church is called to form people, not just gather crowds. 14:49.947 --> 14:57.018 [SPEAKER_00]: One of the dangers that we have in our modern day is we just look at metrics, numbers, statistics, our things growing or decreasing. 14:57.679 --> 14:59.621 [SPEAKER_00]: How many came, how far was the room? 15:00.262 --> 15:01.905 [SPEAKER_00]: How many services do we run? 15:02.706 --> 15:05.891 [SPEAKER_00]: But the New Testament always are something deeper, which is formation. 15:08.328 --> 15:20.316 [SPEAKER_00]: Paul says to Timothy, in two Timothy two, he says, what you've heard from me, so Paul and Timothy, speaking, he says, in trust to other reliable people who can teach others also. 15:21.237 --> 15:23.198 [SPEAKER_00]: So Paul thinks for generations deep. 15:24.038 --> 15:28.481 [SPEAKER_00]: He talks to Timothy, says, what you've heard from me in trust to others who can tell others? 15:30.083 --> 15:32.184 [SPEAKER_00]: Four generations deep. 15:37.582 --> 15:50.933 [SPEAKER_00]: And if discovery becomes a sending church, every ministry area becomes a greenhouse for future leaders, kids ministry, youth, worship, production, hospitality, community care groups, not places where programs run, but where places where people are formed. 15:52.185 --> 15:55.307 [SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere in our kids ministry right now, there's a future church planter. 15:56.088 --> 16:00.411 [SPEAKER_00]: Someone in our youth ministry right now, there's someone who's ready to preach their first message. 16:00.972 --> 16:07.717 [SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere in our groups right now, there's someone who's about to launch a not-for-profit that's going to brew blessing and release to hundreds of others. 16:08.918 --> 16:14.082 [SPEAKER_00]: In the midst of what we do as we gather, people are formed to be sent. 16:16.931 --> 16:20.393 [SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom begins in ordinary, faithfulness. 16:21.593 --> 16:28.517 [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to say this, the kingdom rarely begins with impressive people, just available people. 16:30.738 --> 16:34.500 [SPEAKER_00]: The people that the world forget are the ones remembered by God. 16:35.955 --> 16:39.497 [SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, sending flows from spiritual depth. 16:40.017 --> 16:43.198 [SPEAKER_00]: We see what happens in churches through over and over again. 16:43.658 --> 16:46.980 [SPEAKER_00]: Multiplying churches are rarely grown by strategy alone. 16:47.000 --> 16:54.103 [SPEAKER_00]: They're built on spiritual vitality, white, hot, faith people who just love Jesus and who are hungry and thirsty for Him. 16:55.200 --> 16:57.562 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the real seed bed of where things grow. 16:58.122 --> 17:02.325 [SPEAKER_00]: Abiding me, Jesus says, and you will bear much fruit. 17:02.685 --> 17:05.927 [SPEAKER_00]: The abiding happens before the bearing. 17:10.550 --> 17:13.272 [SPEAKER_00]: Antioct didn't become a sending church because it was ambitious. 17:13.292 --> 17:16.735 [SPEAKER_00]: It was simply because it listened to the heart and the plans of God. 17:17.375 --> 17:22.839 [SPEAKER_00]: If we become organisationally busy, but spiritually shallow, the whole thing's gonna collapse. 17:26.122 --> 17:36.000 [SPEAKER_00]: So the deepest work for our own hearts as individuals and also as a group is a spiritual work, hosting the presence of Jesus. 17:36.992 --> 17:45.954 [SPEAKER_00]: remaining planted in Scripture, living lives of repentance, joy, holiness, and surrender. 17:46.734 --> 17:56.996 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's why our last series overflow really resonated so much, because deep within us we know that as God just pause living water into us, it becomes something that we can 18:07.820 --> 18:11.822 [SPEAKER_00]: And thirdly, multiplication requires generosity and courage. 18:12.603 --> 18:17.986 [SPEAKER_00]: This is true because a sending church thinks just differently about how they use resources. 18:18.286 --> 18:23.129 [SPEAKER_00]: Multiplication begins investing in things before they're visible. 18:23.990 --> 18:26.892 [SPEAKER_00]: Communities, investing in communities before they're stable. 18:27.772 --> 18:36.534 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, investing in churches before their self-sustaining, and yes, this is where vision offering matters, but the offering is not the vision. 18:36.634 --> 18:39.014 [SPEAKER_00]: Our vision isn't to do the offering. 18:39.734 --> 18:45.636 [SPEAKER_00]: Our offering serves the vision of being a multiplying, re-sourcing, sending church. 18:48.436 --> 18:49.916 [SPEAKER_00]: Church is where people meet Jesus. 18:50.737 --> 18:52.037 [SPEAKER_00]: We're marriages are restored. 18:53.038 --> 19:02.285 [SPEAKER_00]: where lonely people find family, where kids grow up hearing the gospel, where worship rises in places where it used to feel spiritually dry. 19:03.506 --> 19:12.473 [SPEAKER_00]: All of that takes generosity and not just financial generosity, emotional generosity, leadership generosity, relational generosity. 19:21.769 --> 19:25.630 [SPEAKER_00]: It means seeing less of people that you would prefer really to see more of. 19:26.671 --> 19:28.671 [SPEAKER_00]: It means releasing leaders you've invested in. 19:29.671 --> 19:32.192 [SPEAKER_00]: It means releasing comfort and control. 19:34.133 --> 19:39.154 [SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus said, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dice, it remains alone. 19:40.175 --> 19:43.336 [SPEAKER_00]: But if it dies, it bears much fruit. 19:44.936 --> 19:47.797 [SPEAKER_00]: And perhaps one of the signs of spiritual maturity 19:53.200 --> 19:57.002 [SPEAKER_00]: is that you stop needing to keep everything for yourself. 19:59.844 --> 20:01.364 [SPEAKER_00]: So, how do we do this? 20:01.705 --> 20:03.205 [SPEAKER_00]: What does this mean for us? 20:03.966 --> 20:05.346 [SPEAKER_00]: What difference does this make? 20:05.427 --> 20:12.810 [SPEAKER_00]: I know some of you are thinking, this is great Matt really cool to hear about what's going on at Discovery Church, but guess what? 20:12.950 --> 20:14.491 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just trying to get through my week. 20:15.532 --> 20:17.173 [SPEAKER_00]: So, what does it mean for that? 20:18.713 --> 20:19.894 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about that as well. 20:19.914 --> 20:21.175 [SPEAKER_00]: What does this mean personally? 20:22.027 --> 20:35.698 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're a parent, and you're carrying the weight of an entire household, trying to hold together finance, school lunches, pickups, and draw fobs work, exhaustion, and trying to be a good Christian all at the same time. 20:37.680 --> 20:40.282 [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps you're a trading, it's driving home tired every day. 20:41.043 --> 20:49.270 [SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, driving home from the work site, going, man, I've got to back up 7am, 630, and do all this again tomorrow. 20:51.386 --> 21:04.516 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're a young adult trying to figure out who you are in a culture that keeps telling you to build a platform, be bigger, be more optimized, get everything really tight and secure and think about your legacy. 21:06.818 --> 21:16.846 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're someone who just feels the pressure of responsibility and you don't even want to carry, you don't even want to say that worries that you're carrying around with you. 21:17.815 --> 21:23.877 [SPEAKER_00]: We know, we've spoken about this, the people in our culture, our spiritually hungry, but deeply fragmented. 21:25.298 --> 21:29.399 [SPEAKER_00]: We're more connected online than we've ever been, but we've never been more lonely. 21:30.439 --> 21:34.641 [SPEAKER_00]: We're more entertained than we've ever been, but we've never been more anxious. 21:37.101 --> 21:40.743 [SPEAKER_00]: We're more informed, but we're less planted on the ground. 21:42.403 --> 21:44.024 [SPEAKER_00]: And into that world, 21:48.358 --> 21:49.718 [SPEAKER_00]: ordinary people. 21:51.759 --> 22:11.664 [SPEAKER_00]: Not superheroes, not experts, not the ones who are endlessly energetic or charismatic ordinary disciples filled with the spirit because sending doesn't begin when you move overseas or you plan to church one day it begins on Monday morning friends. 22:18.782 --> 22:23.986 [SPEAKER_00]: It begins when a Christian carpenter carries peace instead of rage onto a work site. 22:25.367 --> 22:29.911 [SPEAKER_00]: It begins when a moment home creates a home where grace is stronger than chaos. 22:31.332 --> 22:35.976 [SPEAKER_00]: It begins when a university student refuses cynicism and becomes a person of hope. 22:37.197 --> 22:42.101 [SPEAKER_00]: When a business owner acts with integrity in a culture that is dishonest. 22:43.763 --> 22:46.405 [SPEAKER_00]: When someone quietly prays for a friend over a coffee, 22:48.630 --> 22:52.531 [SPEAKER_00]: where someone who's weary still chooses to worship. 22:54.371 --> 22:56.631 [SPEAKER_00]: When forgiveness overcomes bitterness. 22:58.232 --> 23:06.013 [SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom spreads and continues to expand through ordinary people carrying the life of Jesus into ordinary places. 23:06.513 --> 23:15.415 [SPEAKER_00]: And some of you need to hear this today, you do not need to become an impressive person to carry the gospel of Jesus to your neighbors. 23:18.452 --> 23:24.917 [SPEAKER_00]: The spirit of God delights in working through ordinary people, surrendered people, faithful people. 23:26.298 --> 23:29.440 [SPEAKER_00]: The people of the world forgets are the ones remembered by God. 23:30.681 --> 23:32.602 [SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, what does this mean for us as a church? 23:32.722 --> 23:37.726 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk about this briefly and then and maybe team you can come and join me as well. 23:38.566 --> 23:42.369 [SPEAKER_00]: It means that every person in this room has a role in the sending story. 23:44.170 --> 23:47.393 [SPEAKER_00]: Some will go, some will go near, some will go far. 23:49.322 --> 24:00.171 [SPEAKER_00]: Some will give, some will lead, some will pray, some will disciple emerging leaders, some will strengthen existing churches, some will go near and far to plant new ones. 24:01.091 --> 24:03.553 [SPEAKER_00]: But all of us come participate in this. 24:04.394 --> 24:11.660 [SPEAKER_00]: And over the coming months and years, I want us to ask different questions, not how do we grow discovery, but how do we extend the kingdom? 24:12.841 --> 24:14.582 [SPEAKER_00]: Not, how do we fill a room? 24:15.202 --> 24:16.964 [SPEAKER_00]: But instead, how do we form people? 24:18.358 --> 24:24.462 [SPEAKER_00]: And not how do we keep our best leaders, but how do we raise and release them into the world? 24:24.482 --> 24:33.048 [SPEAKER_00]: Because I think God might be inviting us into a new season of not just addition, but multiplication. 24:35.350 --> 24:39.592 [SPEAKER_00]: Not gathering, but sending, and not just becoming bigger, but becoming more fruitful. 24:41.874 --> 24:46.017 [SPEAKER_00]: Because at the center of all, they see how well this comes from, well it comes from Jesus. 24:48.615 --> 24:51.377 [SPEAKER_00]: The Father sent the Son into the world. 24:52.859 --> 25:01.365 [SPEAKER_00]: The Son sent His Spirit to the disciples and the Spirit sends the disciples into the world. 25:03.167 --> 25:05.409 [SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit now empowers the church for life. 25:06.651 --> 25:09.572 [SPEAKER_00]: The whole story of the gospel is a sending story. 25:09.912 --> 25:15.633 [SPEAKER_00]: Your ordinary life matters when it's placed in the hands of ascending God. 25:16.573 --> 25:16.873 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 25:17.653 --> 25:18.914 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's stand together, church. 25:19.214 --> 25:19.714 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's stand. 25:21.814 --> 25:22.234 [SPEAKER_00]: Come on. 25:35.615 --> 25:37.416 [SPEAKER_00]: So I would love us to just take a minute. 25:37.436 --> 25:40.138 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's close our eyes and stand before the Lord. 25:41.599 --> 25:45.562 [SPEAKER_00]: Kindness, the grace, the mercy, and the holiness, the war of our God. 25:50.686 --> 25:58.091 [SPEAKER_00]: And then ancient question that God asks, that we read in Isaiah 6, whom will go, whom shall I send to will go for us? 26:00.573 --> 26:10.920 [SPEAKER_00]: My prayer is that in discovery, he would hear resounding chorus of ordinary faithful people that say, here am I, send me. 26:17.044 --> 26:28.012 [SPEAKER_00]: We all have different parts to play, and it doesn't begin somewhere far off, it begins right here right now, it continues through to Monday morning. 26:31.055 --> 26:37.476 [SPEAKER_00]: ordinary lives, some times forgotten lives placed in the hand of a remembering God. 26:37.496 --> 26:49.618 [SPEAKER_00]: And some will be a stone in the hand of God, flung right around the other side of the world. 26:54.479 --> 26:59.360 [SPEAKER_00]: Some will be a stone that God places right around the corner. 27:01.430 --> 27:05.932 [SPEAKER_00]: And each one is just faithful with the call that God has given the Father. 27:05.952 --> 27:14.876 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to thank you today, that you would call us to discover church, to be ascending church. 27:16.617 --> 27:30.463 [SPEAKER_00]: Church that raises and releases, the church that sees churches planted, revitalized, replanted, that struggling communities would be strengthened, that would be happy to release and send our best. 27:32.157 --> 27:34.360 [SPEAKER_00]: and entrust you with the fruit. 27:35.481 --> 27:38.784 [SPEAKER_00]: We thank you, Lord God, that you're doing a work in our days. 27:39.485 --> 27:53.621 [SPEAKER_00]: We want to thank you that you call us to meet the spiritual need of our nation, about city, Lord God, about culture, right now that is so hungry and desperate for something deeper than what they can see taste, touch, or feel. 27:56.022 --> 27:58.303 [SPEAKER_00]: And into that, we hear your voice, Jesus. 28:00.883 --> 28:06.065 [SPEAKER_00]: Room shall I send to your girlfriends. 28:06.085 --> 28:10.566 [SPEAKER_00]: Empower us Jesus to live spirit-led, spirit-in-powered, spirit-filled. 28:13.507 --> 28:22.249 [SPEAKER_00]: To reach out our hand, a loving hand, with joy in the ordinary days that follow. 28:25.299 --> 28:41.936 [SPEAKER_00]: We thank you that you've called us and that the Gospel went from 100 AD to 300 AD and has gone all the way around the world well to meet us right here in the Yarra Valley in our city, in our nation. 28:45.117 --> 28:56.530 [SPEAKER_00]: and maybe be captured with the idea that you want to send us from here to everywhere in Jesus name.