What’s My Part?
For the last three weeks, we’ve been asking what it means to live as people who are sent by Jesus. This Sunday, we’re going to make it personal. We’re going to ask one simple question: What’s your part?
But before you answer that question, I want to encourage you to spend some time this week looking back at what God has already been saying to us and asking what the Spirit may be saying specifically to you.
You are sent. We began in John 20, with the disciples behind locked doors: afraid, uncertain, and unsure of what came next. Jesus stepped into the room and said: “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21) That means being sent isn't reserved for pastors, missionaries, or a particularly committed group of Christians.
If you follow Jesus, you are sent. Into your neighbourhood. Your workplace. Your school. Your family. Your city. The gospel was never meant to stop with us. It came to us because it is on its way to someone else. So ask yourself: Who has God already placed around me? Where has he sent me right now?
Don’t bury what you’ve been given. Then Jesus' parable in Matthew 25 reminded us that God has entrusted something to each of us. Time. Resources. Relationships. Opportunities. Abilities. Influence. The first two servants put what they had been given to work. The third buried it. His problem wasn't that he tried and failed. Fear kept him from doing anything at all.
Faithfulness isn't about having the most or doing everything. It's about using what God has entrusted to us rather than allowing fear to bury it. So ask: What has God entrusted to me that he wants me to put to work? Is there something I've been burying because stepping forward feels uncomfortable, inconvenient, or uncertain?
But if not. This past Sunday, we stood with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3. They knew God was able to rescue them from the fire. They didn't know if he would. And they obeyed anyway. “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us... But if not...” (Daniel 3:17–18) That's courage. Not confidence that everything will work out the way we want.
Confidence in God when we don't know the outcome. There will always be reasons to wait. More information we'd like to have. Outcomes we'd like guaranteed. Fears we'd like removed before we move. But sometimes obedience means saying yes before we know exactly what will happen next. So ask: Where do I already know what obedience looks like but I've been waiting for a guarantee before I move?
Now, what’s your part?
Maybe over these three weeks something has already been stirring in you. Pay attention to that. Maybe it's a person you need to pursue. Maybe it's time to serve. Maybe God is asking you to become more generous. Maybe it's joining a Group instead of continuing to do life alone. Maybe it's opening your home, stepping into leadership, sharing the gospel with someone, or helping us establish a gospel presence Downtown. Maybe it's something I haven't listed at all.
The point isn't that everyone does the same thing. And the point certainly isn't that everyone does everything. The question is much simpler: Jesus, what's my part? Before Sunday, find a few quiet minutes and pray. Open your hands. Ask the Spirit to expose fear, comfort, distraction, or anything else that has kept you on the sidelines. Ask him to show you what he has entrusted to you. Ask him for courage to obey even when you can't control the outcome.
And then ask: Jesus, where are you sending me? What have you entrusted to me? Where are you asking me to trust you? What's my part? Don't feel pressure to manufacture an answer. But come Sunday ready to listen. Because you are sent. And the gospel came to you because it is on its way to someone else.
Pastor Jeremy
