Sent

I’ve been trying to write more lately. It’s a really good way for me to think and process, and most of it I really enjoy sharing and getting feedback, so blogging has been a good outlet. I didn’t write much last week, though. That’s because I spent 4 evenings/nights with high school students from Grace Church who were on their Spring Break mission trip.

They stayed at our downtown campus Sunday-Thursday and did service projects around our city each day. At night, one of our high school pastors taught and we had small group discussion. Since I had to work, I was only able to go for the message and small group time (and of course dinner, because I love to eat). Some nights were better than others due to fatigue and how late we started discussion a couple times, but overall I think we had great dialogue.

The theme of the week was “Sent.” We talked about Isaiah, Abram, Jonah, and the Disciples. One of the first things said during the talk Sunday night was that God has a plan to bring people to Himself and He’s using people to do that. He’s using His children – created in His image, loved by Him, chosen by Him, forgiven by Him, and sent by Him.

Each night, we talked about how each passage we studied pointed to Jesus, as does all of Scripture. We talked about how in order to be sent, we must first be forgiven because we, like Isaiah (Isaiah 6.5-7), are men of unclean lips. We talked about how we must have faith, as Abram did, to be sent, but that God’s covenant promise to Abram (Gen. 12.2-3, 15.18-21) includes us and is accomplished through Christ. We talked about how in order to be sent, we need to die to self and our sinful prejudices, as God showed Jonah, and instead look to God for perspective (Jonah 4.9-11). We talked about how our faith is weak if it doesn’t cost us anything and how being sent is worthless unless we point people to Christ, as it was with the Disciples (Luke 10.20).

I love that these teenagers are being challenged. I love that they are being pushed and held accountable. I loved watching them process, discuss, and ask questions. I loved that for at least a few minutes, they counted the cost of discipleship. In America, it is often hard to truly count the cost of following Jesus, but when we look to His words we begin to understand just what it will cost:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ – Luke 14.26-30

I love that they are counting the cost because though it may be difficult for them and it will cost them something, God will use them to impact the world. He will use any of us who are willing. Because the reality is, if we call ourselves followers of Christ, we are all sent. He sent us.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore 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 observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28.18-20