Well, now, for the balance of our time this morning, we have a doctor. Are you a doctor, Paul? You have one of those didn't-do-its, right? Sorry, that's a little inside joke. If you have a DD, a Doctor of Divinity, it's an honorary degree, so we always call it a didn't-do-it doctor. So, I'm sorry. Paul is, I'm sure, capable of doing the work. He just didn't do it. Paul and I have been friends for many years and I met Paul on the mission field. I spoke at his field conference back in 91 or thereabouts. He was a missionary in South Africa. He's an MK. His parents were missionaries to Africa. So Africa is near and dear to his heart. But we brought him back here to the States in about 16, 17 years ago and he's been the executive director of our mission, Biblical Ministries Worldwide, otherwise known as BMW. And so it's a little confusing for people. So Paul, just a delight to have you here. I serve on his board. I'm currently the chairman of the board. And so it's just a delight to have Paul here. He's been with us before. So Paul, God bless you as you come and share with us from God's word. I want to say thanks to you for allowing your pastor to be a part of what we're doing in our ministry. I realize by him serving on the board, it takes him out of Santa Rosa three times a year to spend a couple of days with us over there in Atlanta, Georgia. But we we are so grateful for his ministry, for his heart, for missions, for his heart, for us. And so glad that you're willing to release him to do that. We recognize when he's there, he's not here serving you. And so we appreciate your sacrifice on on that on our behalf. Just a joy to have him serving as the president of our board. He served that way before, and then someone else took over, and then they were considering they needed another one, and I said, please, take it again. I enjoyed so much the working relationship that we've had together. And for this church that has been such a great supporter of missions over the years, we've been the recipient of so much of your heart for missions, and we are deeply grateful for that. 1st Peter chapter 2 is where we're going to go this morning. 1st Peter chapter 2 we're looking at a couple of verses there that hopefully will draw our attention towards the theme that has been assigned to us here this morning. Voltaire was a disciple of Charles Darwin and Like oftentimes, disciples almost take what their mentor says and takes it to an extreme. Voltaire was an enemy of Christianity. He hated Christianity. And he would spend a lot of his time and his efforts trying to combat Christianity. And one of the things he did was he did these lecture circuits where he went around teaching against Christianity. And he was doing that in Dublin. and got to talking too long in one of his sessions, realized he was late for his next appointment, his next speaking appointment. So he finished his lecture, ran out of the lecture building, jumped into his carriage, this was back in the horse and carriage days, and told the driver, I'm late, let's go fast. And so the driver cracked the whip and they started screaming through the streets of Dublin. As Voltaire sat back and relaxed a little bit, he realized that he had forgotten to tell the driver where to go. And so he leans outside the carriage window and he says, do you know where we're going? And the driver leans back as he cracks the whip again and says, no, but we sure are going fast, aren't we? But that sort of epitomizes so many of our lives, doesn't it? We're cracking the whip. We're going fast. But have we stopped to consider where we're going and why we're doing what we're doing? This morning, we want to, in the next few moments, think about that topic. During this conference, we're trying to answer these four questions here, who, how, why, and where. Last night, we talked a little bit about who and where, and the short answer for that is everyone, everywhere. Now, that makes it pretty simple. That's what Jesus said, everyone, everywhere. And we talked about the fact that we're not really quite there yet. We haven't accomplished that vision that Jesus set forward. This morning, we're talking about why. Why missions? And I'm going to actually take a little bit of a twist different from maybe just talking about the broad picture. In a church like this, you know the why. That Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of people around the world. And it is our job to take that to Him. I want us to take it from that as a sub-theme. I want us to think a little bit more about why you should get engaged in this thing called the Great Commission. why you have a certain responsibility in this thing that we call evangelism and 1st Peter chapter 3 addresses that issue there's a lot of places we could go but this is one of those passages that sort of raises us to about 30,000 foot and helps us to look down on the big picture of our responsibility towards missions now right off the bat in verse 9 He gives us four names. Now hang in there with me for the next few minutes. I'm going to sort of walk us through the text, explain the text, and then I'm going to spend the rest of the time this morning showing you how this looks in real life. or how it should look in the life of the believer. But there are four names that Peter gives under the inspiration of God to those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ. We're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession. Four names. Now, let's back off and take a look at those four names for just a moment because each one of them has the implication that we are here for a purpose. In other words, we're not just screaming through the streets of this world right now, racing in our lives mindlessly. There is a very specific purpose for why we're on planet Earth. Now, before we look at this, I wonder if you could fill in that blank. What you might be able to do since you're in church this morning, say, I know what it should be, but in reality, does it show up in your life that you have filled in that blank the right way? Do you know what your purpose is in life? That's going to help to answer this question, why? Look at the first name that he gives to us. We are a chosen race. It's actually that word elect. We are chosen by God. He picked us out. And I can't explain to you how that works. I'll leave it to the big heavy-duty theologians to put all the pieces together and explain God's sovereignty and man's. We're not going to deal with that this morning other than simply to point out the fact that you and I have been named as a chosen race and elect people. We pick something for what? A purpose. My wife bought this sports coat for a specific purpose. It was when I speak in places like this that I have something to wear. And if I were in the garage mopping up grease off the floor, she would be quite disappointed because that is not the purpose for which you bought this piece of cloth. That's the idea of election. God chose us for a specific purpose. And the very idea of choosing us has the idea intrinsically built into it. There is purpose. The second name, we are a royal priesthood. Not just pastor that's a priest. Everyone here is a priest. Things changed from the Old Testament where there was sort of this select group of people that were a priest. Now he says we're all priests. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are a priest. That's why we refer to the priesthood of the believer. We are a royal priesthood, belonging to the king. The priests in the Old Testament, the one of the 12 tribes, had a very specific function and purpose in the nation of Israel, and they knew exactly what that was. And the reason why God picked out this particular group of people and said, out of the 12 tribes, you guys have some very specific functions to accomplish, in the same way you and I as believers today, as God picked us out and said, you have a very specific purpose on planet Earth. So whether we're called a chosen race, there's purpose. Whether we're called a royal priesthood, there's purpose. Whether we're called a holy nation, there is purpose. And basically the idea of holy simply means to set something aside, to set it apart from other things. And we do that. This specific piece of iron up here is set apart. There's nothing holy in the fact that there's something mystical or magical about it. But it is set apart as a piece of furniture for this particular meeting place. So we don't use it other places. It's dedicated to this. But the whole idea is there is purpose for this. So when we talk about the word holy, just built into that term is this idea that there is a purpose for this particular nation. And then the fourth. You are a peculiar people, the King James says. This is my translation here. It says, you are a people for his own possession. There's an interesting word that is sort of tied up in that phrase there. It's actually the word from which we get preservatives. Those of you that are gardeners this summer, you're going to have too much fruit or too much vegetables, and you're going to preserve them. And what you do is you put them in a bottle or a can or however you do it or freeze them. And you're basically preserving them because middle of winter when the garden is no longer producing fruit, you can pull it out and you can enjoy. That's the term and that's the idea built into that word. God has chosen us and preserved us as his possession. There is purpose. So each one of these names, if you're a believer here today, apply to you. There's purpose for you being on planet Earth. What is that purpose? Why? We don't have to go much further because if you just keep right on reading, it says that or so that. Why are we these? So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into light. There is our purpose. The reason why God has you on planet earth while you're not in heaven right now is so that you will proclaim. And that word is simply the word evangelize. So that you would evangelize forth The greatness of God. That's what missions is all about. Those of us who are missionaries are just traveling around the world different places and we're telling people, hey, you guys are worshiping a God, but let me tell you about the God. You're worshiping a God that has a severe limitations in so many different ways, but let's talk about the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, the God of all gods. And basically our story is to go around the world and tell people this is the true God. That's what we're doing. This is the core of missions, that we are to evangelize forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into light. And basically, we go around the world talking about God and what he did in our hearts and our lives, giving our testimony. As Chris mentioned, my parents were missionaries in Africa, in Nigeria. I grew up there. I was born here in the States, but when we were four months old, they headed back to Africa. They pioneered out into a part of northeastern Nigeria where there had never been any missionaries before. They had worked before in Nigeria, but this was an area that they had surveyed by ear. They saw all these villages out there that hadn't been reached yet. And so they really wanted to pioneer in there. And so they bought a Jeep, a four-wheel drive Jeep, while we were here in the States and shipped it over there. And we headed up country and headed up into northeastern Nigeria. And when we got to the end of the road, they just kept right on going. They made their own road at that point, because there weren't any roads out there. We were the first white people in that area. And as we moved into that area and established our home and started living there and started evangelizing, building churches in those areas, I had the privilege of growing up in that part of the world. And of course, I was the only white kid around, other than my sister. And all of my friends were the little black kids that were there. And I had a very special friend by the name of Bullis. He and I were just like that. We spent a lot of time together. And one day, I still remember it as if it were yesterday. We're both seven years old, same age. He shows up at my house, and we're going to go out and play. And as we're starting to walk away from our house, he says, you know, last night, we had a church service. I don't know why I wasn't there, because my dad being the missionary, we were always there. But for some reason, I wasn't. He said, you know, last night, we had a church service. And he said, you know what? I accepted Christ as my Savior. And as a seven-year-old kid, in my arrogance, I sort of thought, well, great. That's wonderful to hear that, because that's why my dad came here to Africa. And I was sort of rejoicing with him a little bit, but thinking, yeah, that's the reason why. Little pagans like you need to receive Christ. And he turned the tables on me. And he said, but Paul, what about you? Are you a Christian? And I said, well, of course I'm a Christian. My dad's the missionary. He says, I don't think that counts. I said, yeah, but I'm from America. We're all Christians from America. He says, you know, I don't think that's right. And we got a little bit of an argument there in the bush in northeastern Nigeria. And we're having this theological debate, two little seven-year-old kids talking about whether I really am a Christian or not. Finally, I said, the only way I'm going to sort out my buddy is to take him in and have my dad sort out his theology. Well, we went in and talked to my dad, and my dad sorted out my theology. And for the first time in my life, I realized It didn't matter the color of my skin, where I came from, anything else, none of that mattered. The only thing was that I stood as a sinner before God unless I reached out and accept the salvation that God had freely offered to me. I too would go to hell and I received that gift of salvation. Now what I've done in the last three minutes is I told you my story of how God called me out of darkness into light. This is all it is. Let's not make it any more complicated than this. Our purpose on planet Earth is to walk around telling people how great God is and what he did in our hearts and lives. And I hope this morning, if we were to give you the mic and ask you to come up here, that you would be able to tell your story of how God called you out of darkness into light. If you can't tell that story, you might want to start thinking through some of this because maybe, just maybe you're like this little seven-year-old kid in Nigeria. that you need to come to the point where you reach out and accept that free gift of salvation. And that's why we're here this morning is to declare that. But if you have your story and you could give your testimony this morning of how God called you out of darkness into light, and you are out there telling that, you are fulfilling the basic purpose for why God put you on planet Earth. You get the picture? Now he expands on this, and we're not going to take the time this morning to look through all of this, but in the next few verses he sort of gives, as the Bible does often, gives the commentary on on the passage, so you and I don't have to guess what he's talking about. We won't study this right now, but if you take the term chosen race and circle that and draw a line down to verse 10, the first part of it, you have the commentary on it. You were once not a people, but now you are God's people. And then if you take that phrase, royal priesthood, last part of verse 10 is a commentary on that. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have reserved mercy. That's what the priesthood was all about. It was about helping the people, the nation of Israel to receive the mercy of God. And so he amplifies a little bit more on that. And then you can circle the word, the holy nation. And bring it down to verse 11, where he says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which war against your soul. What does it mean to be a holy person, to walk in holiness? He expands on that a little bit in verse 11. And then the last phrase, or the last word, name that he gives to us, a people for his own possession. Tie that with verse 11. Keep your conduct. among the Gentiles honorable." How do we evangelize the world? It is by conducting ourselves in the midst of unbelievers in an honorable way so that when they may speak against you as evildoers, instead they will see your good works and they will glorify God in the day of visitation. That day of visitation either being the judgment day or perhaps their day of salvation. But notice he gives us some ideas as to how we are supposed to fulfill this basic purpose. My purpose as a chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for his own, is to declare what a fantastic God we have and how he brought me out of darkness into light. There's no question about that. That just nails it. How are we supposed to do that? Well, what we do as missionaries is we travel the world doing that. We go into places where the gospel has not necessarily been before and we start connecting with people that have not yet heard the gospel and we start living among them and demonstrating the greatness of God and living our lives in a transparent way so that those who want to see Jesus Christ modeled can see that in their hearts and lives. It's a strange thing that churches here in America are okay with us as missionaries going somewhere else to do that. In fact, you'll even pay us to go and do that. But we don't necessarily do that here. I live in Atlanta, Georgia, and it's not my home. I'm not from there, but that's where our office is, so that's where I'm located right now. You guys have Pizza Hut here, right? Out West? You have Pizza Hut? Pizza Hut started off with this particular business model. They built these restaurants, and if you wanted a pizza, you came in and you sat down in their restaurant, ordered it from the waitress, she brought it to you. If you wanted a pizza, that's how you got it. Then along came another company called Domino's. Do they have Domino's out here? Domino's? Okay, Domino's Pizza. What's their byline? We deliver. They changed the whole model. In fact, I don't think you can go into a Domino's and eat a pizza. Well, unless you want to stand there. But they don't have a restaurant where you can go in and sit down and order your pizza. You take it away. Or they deliver. Now, I realize the Pizza Hut sort of caught on to that model, and now it's different. They'll do both. But here's the deal. Domino's came up with a different delivery system for their pizzas. I was, we were downtown Atlanta a while back, a number of years ago, July 4th, watching the fireworks go up. And there's thousands of us sitting out on this parking lot watching the fireworks go off. And I don't know, five, 10,000 people out there. And in the middle of this, right in the middle of fireworks, here comes a Domino's pizza guy with a stack of pizza. Somebody obviously had gotten on their cell phone and said, we're watching the fireworks, bring us some. I love the spirit of Domino's, don't you? It doesn't matter where you are, you just tell us where you are and we're gonna come and deliver it to you. You know, for too long, the church has been using the Pizza Hut model. You know, if someone wants to find God in Santa Rosa, they're gonna have to show up here at 8.45 Sunday morning, because by 11 o'clock, we're done. tough on you if you don't like this building this time you're just not going to have a chance to hear in the gospel and that may be a little brutal for us to face but I'm trying to build this contrast to show that that the potential for evangelism is not limited in fact if it is limited to Sunday mornings we have severely limited the impact of our lives and the purpose for which we live the only the time that we live out our purpose is not on Sunday morning it's really the rest of the time during the week We need to grab on to the Domino's Pizza We Deliver kind of mindset, because that's really what missionaries have done. They've said, you know what? It doesn't matter where people live around the planet, how comfortable it is, how convenient it is, how cold it is, how hot it is, how far it is, how expensive, none of that stuff matters. Let's find out where people are, and let's deliver. We have many of us. live our lives cocooned away from the very people that we are to be delivering to. You know, the Bible says, love not the world. But then we go a few verses later and it says, for God so loved the world. What's the problem there? There's a bit of a contradiction, isn't there? Don't love the world, but God loves the world. What's he talking about? Well, we have to realize there's two different concepts that are being discussed here. One is a world system that we are not to love, but God loves the people of the world. And problem is, in many of our kinds of churches, we have tended to isolate ourselves from the very people that we are supposed to be impacting. You know, if you've been a Christian for a while, you may not have that many non-Christian friends. When's the last time you spent some social time with unbelievers? You come to Christ and you sort of walk away from that crowd because they're all doing stuff you don't want to be doing. And you start building friendships here at the church. And if you're going to go out for dinner or play golf, it's going to be with Christians. It's a whole lot easier. And there's that affinity and that bond. And we love being together. But you see, the reason why we're on planet Earth is not only to be doing that, and we need to be here meeting together regularly, but the bulk of our time, the rest of our week, if we're gonna fulfill our purpose, 1 Peter 2, we have to be out there with the very people that need to see what Peter is saying. They need to see our good works. We need to be living our lives in such a transparent, obvious way that they will glorify God in the day of visitation. But it's not going to happen as long as we cocoon ourselves. And unless we're building friendships with lost people, if we're not spending time with unbelievers, you're basically contradicting everything that you're doing with your paycheck as you send us as missionaries overseas because this is what we are doing overseas. We are hanging out with lost people. We are developing friendships with people that are lost. We need to be doing that same thing right here. This is not something just for missionaries. This is the purpose for which God created all of us. Those four names are not just given to missionaries. They're given to all of us. And so one of the problems that we have in evangelism for most of us is we don't spend enough time with lost people. Oh yeah, you might go to work, but you sort of bury your head and you do your work and you race home and cocoon yourself. And we isolate ourselves from the very people that we are supposed to be reaching. Now here's the big idea. There is a difference between where your heart is and where your feet are. Now, let's pretend for just a moment the platform up here is out of the world, and you're all in the world, okay? So I'm not in the world, you guys are in the world. So where are my feet right now? Well, they're out of the world. Now, where could my heart be right now? Well, you can't see my heart. You can see my feet, but you can't see my heart. My heart could be out of the world, or it could be in the world. You see, it's possible for a person to have their feet out of the world, but their heart really to be in the world. I travel to college campuses, and I see Christian schools, and see different places where we sort of cloister as Christians. But I find some people, though their feet is not in the world, their heart really is there. Now, it's also possible for my feet to be out of the world and for my heart to be out of the world. Now, having my heart out of the world is a good thing, but the question is, is it right for my feet not to be in the world? Well, most of us live that scenario. You're godly people trying to do right, live with God, do the things that pleases God, but your feet are over here. There's a big difference between here and here. The biblical instruction is Our feet are to be in the world, but our heart is not to be there. It's to be out of the world. And the problem is, as we've taken our heart out of the world, we've also taken our feet with us. And basically what missionaries are doing is saying, you know, we're going to continue to live godly lives, but we're going to have our feet in the world. We're going to go to all these places around the world, and we're going to be in pagan lands. We're going to be rubbing shoulders with people that are lost. We have to spend time with people if we are going to impact them with what 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 says. So how are we doing? Are we fulfilling the purpose for which God put us on planet Earth? We are not to be isolated. We are to be insulated from the world that is around us. We're to be like firemen who put on the protective gear and the helmet and race into burning buildings to rescue people. We've got to do that. And for so many times, we've been sort of like the firemen that stand outside the building and hold the net and say, why don't you guys jump? We don't want to go in there. And what I'm calling for us to do, and what Peter is definitely saying is, you've got to get your feet into the world. You're going to have to race into some burning buildings. Someone's going to have to get to these different countries in the world and put themselves in danger in order to take the gospel to the place to the people that need to hear it. We're not to be isolated. We are to be insulated. One of the things that sort of takes some of the tension out of evangelism is when we begin to realize that evangelism is a process. There's a tendency to think that, you know, you sort of walk up to somebody, you whack them over the head with the gospel, if they don't receive Christ then you just walk away from them. But missionaries who have to spend many years oftentimes evangelizing, working with people, have learned the fact that evangelism is a process. As I thought back and sort of categorized all the people I've won to Christ over the years, I can only think about three or four people that the very first time I talked to them about the gospel, they received Christ that very first time. And then as I found out their story, someone else had already been talking to them about the gospel before I got there. Everyone sort of works through this process. Remember when Paul was before Agrippa? He was evangelizing King Agrippa. Agrippa sort of pushes him off and he says in Acts chapter 26, do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to become a Christian? I mean, think about it for just a moment. The single most important decision and radical decision that someone will ever take. We expect them to make that decision just like that. And our experience in missions is that people have to hear the gospel repeatedly and they have to hear the story and the Spirit of God and the Word of God continues to work in their heart. And our testimony before them as we live transparent lives and show our good works and demonstrate the love of God to them over a period of time, it brings people to that place where they reach out. Because every person is going to face one of two things sooner or later. They're either going to face a crisis in their life, or they're going to have a question that'll come up in their life. And guess what? If you've built a friendship with that lost person, guess who they're going to come to for the answers. But if we are not spending time building relationships with lost people, if we don't have lost people as our friends, I realize when we talk this way it sort of maybe rubs us the wrong way, but may I remind you of the fact that Jesus was called a friend of sinners? Apparently there was a bunch of people that hadn't yet accepted him as the Messiah, but they still considered Jesus their friend. Jesus got himself into trouble repeatedly with the religious people by going to dinner with lost people. Remember the story of Zacchaeus? Remember the story of Matthew, who was Levi? And Jesus was hanging out with these rebels, with these despicable people of society. And the religious people were constantly criticizing Jesus for doing that. And you may have that tendency right now, and I can take the heat because I'm leaving town. You may not like what I'm saying, but if you're going to be like Jesus, you're going to have friends who are sinners. So here's the way to measure this. If I were to come up to you after the service this morning and say, could you list for me, by name, the lost people who they would consider you their friend here in Santa Rosa, would you have anybody on the list? That is the reason why we're on planet Earth. that if we're not there involved in declaring to them our personal testimony and showing to them good works, we don't have much of a chance to get the gospel to them. That little village in Africa where I grew up, everyone else lived in mud huts, but we sort of built somewhat of a Western kind of house. It was very simple. It was made out of mud. It just had some plaster on the outside with whitewash. But we had glass windows. The average mud hut didn't, but ours had glass windows. And because we were the odd ones, I mean, we were like, you know, Disney World had come to town. The circus is here. And so we were obviously being observed all of the time. And part of my growing up, we just got used to this. It was not abnormal to us that almost any time of the day or night, there were some noses pressed up against the glass looking in our house at what we were doing. You know, they talk about pastors living in glass houses. We literally did live in a glass house. There was no privacy. And we are so private. And I'm a private person. I don't really like that kind of thing. But as believers, if we're not living transparent lives in front of lost people so that they can see how we're living our lives and they can see the good works that are taking place in our lives, how are we going to evangelize them? Imagine for just a moment that you went up and down your street this afternoon and ask people on your street, I'm gonna have a Bible study on Thursday night, seven o'clock, would you come? What percentage of people in your street do you think would say, yes, I've been waiting for you to invite me? Or what percentage would say, hmm, you're a good guy, but not right now, you know, we got something else on. Well, I don't know what percentage you would say, but I would guess the majority of us would say here at Santa Rosa, you know what, maybe 90% of the people at least would say, not really interested, no thanks. Maybe at the most optimistic, there could be 10% that would say, yes, we've been waiting for this, but probably not even 10%. You know, most of our evangelism is aimed at the 1% or 2% that might be interested. What do we do with that 90% that aren't interested? Peter gives us the answer. Jesus gives us the answer. You stay engaged in their lives. Why? Because our role, according to 1 Peter 3, is to, through our good works, our good deeds, living transparently before them, demonstrate God's goodness to us. But there's sort of a spiritual arrogance that we can get as believers. Because we're blood-bought. We can use all the terminology. We're safe. We don't do that kind of stuff. And I'm not suggesting for one moment that your heart go into the world or that you love the things of the world and you have to realize like a fireman racing into a burning building, it's danger ground when you're together with lost people. But our job is to go there. But there's a certain arrogance that we as Christians have as we look down our noses at people that may not be exactly like we are. The poet put it this way, I was shocked, confused, and bewildered as I entered heaven's door. Not by the beauty of it all, nor the lights or its decor, but it was the folks in heaven that made me gasp. The thieves, the liars, the sinners, the alcoholics, and the trash. There stood the kid from seventh grade who swiped my lunch money twice. Next to him was my old neighbor who never said anything nice. Bob, who I thought was rotting away in hell, Sitting pretty on cloud nine, looking incredibly well. I nudged Jesus and said, what's the deal? I'd love to hear your take. How did all these sinners get up here? God, you must have made a mistake. And why is everyone so quiet, so somber? Give me a clue. Hush, my child, he said. They're all in shock. No one thought they'd be seeing you. You know, we just need to get off our high horse and realize we're just plain old sinners, just like everybody else. That God in his grace reached down, and in my instance, as a seven-year-old dirty, rotten kid in the country of Nigeria. That was my timer to stop. And that, but for the grace of God, whatever I see despicable in another person's life, that's me. And my role is not to isolate myself from him or to depart from him, but to run forward in with warm embrace, begin to build a friendship with that individual, because sooner or later, I can guarantee you, they're gonna hit a crisis. You're not gonna have to force this situation. They're gonna hit a crisis or they're gonna have a major question in their life, and you can't help but do evangelism when you have that relationship. But for many of us, We have chosen instead to neglect 1 Peter 2 9, 10, 11, 12. We are not engaged in people's lives who are lost like the missionaries do around the world. We think it's okay for them, but we don't do it here. May I encourage you this afternoon, here is your assignment. Take out a piece of paper and make a list of all of your unsaved friends. Now, it may be one person. It may be zero. It might be 30. But whatever it is, make the list of all those unsafe people. And for them to be a contact of yours, you need to know their name, and you're likely to see them again. But make a list of all of the unsafe people that you would consider your friend. If there's zero on that list, well, you know what you need to do. Well, make some friends. It's just as simple as that. This is not, look, there's nothing special about us as missionaries. This is all we're doing. We're going out and making friends with lost people. And whatever it takes to build that friendship, whatever the common ground is that is not gonna compromise your walk with God, go and do it with them. And start building your list of, you know, when you get that list built, guess what you have just done? You've identified your mission field. Not your pastors, not mine. They are your mission field. God puts you here for a purpose and it's for you to demonstrate the greatness of God and your good life in front of them. But if you're not building that relationship, you're not gonna be able to do it. So my encouragement to you today is get out there and do what missionaries do. Tonight we're going to talk a little bit about how to take that a step further and how this church can continue this great legacy of missions. But for this afternoon, could you think through this one idea? That I'm here for a purpose. The big question mark is, am I fulfilling it? This message has been brought to you by the Santa Rosa Bible Church. Our purpose is to lift up the Lord by living out the word, loving one another, and leading others to Christ. Be sure to visit us on the web at www.srbible.org or come visit us in person at 4575 Badger Road, Santa Rosa, California 95409. You can also give us a call at 707-538-2385.