[To download the sermon, right-click on this link and select "Save As": A Letter to the Exiles - Seek the City]

What it means to enjoy and embody the gospel by
Seeking the King first, and the Kingdom
seeking the future generations for the glory of God and good
seeking the city

Here’s our basic premise:
Jesus has SENT you (Jn 17:18 and 20:21) just as the Father sent him
For the glory of God and the good of others

And he’s sent you, very specifically, here, NOW, to this place
To SEEK Him IN this place, yes
But also to seek Him FOR this place and these people
And we’ll examine the nuances of that in a minute

Follow up:

A few years ago before we moved to St. Aug, I would come down once a week and spend the day in different places, trying to meet people and get a feel for the city
It’s called tactical recon in the military, in church planting we call it “building relationships”

I would frequent “places of gathering.” One day I ended up in B&N
Now B&N is pretty much the same where ever you find one
Maybe a little different layout, café’s in a different place…

But it’s in generic setting that you find out unique aspects of a city like St. Augustine

My informants were the odd couple and the guru
Describe situation

The guru: “This is NOT Jax!”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Jer 29:4-7 The people rebelled against God, sinned, and were sent out of the land
To Babylon
And one of the first things they found out was “This is not Jerusalem.”

And yet they were called to “seek the city where God had sent them”

Notice: not change the city, not take over the city, not withdraw from the city
But seek the welfare, the peace of the city

This is not Jax…that’s what God was showing me

That this city and these people are not just “whoever, where ever”
But these people and this city are unique
AND SO they need to see the gospel in all of its uniqueness!

If God has called us to St. Augustine, then He has called us to seek the welfare, the peace … SHALOM … of THIS city

Read Cornelius Plantiga quote, Breviary of Sin

Not to change the city, not to take it over, not to make it what it is not
But to see this city come to terms with the gospel of peace that King Jesus has sent by the words and walk of His ambassadors

We are to seek the peace of the city

>>>>>>>>>>>>

OT: people would COME to Israel to meet God … centripetal pull IN

God of the nations
Gen 12:2-3 promise to bless all peoples thru Abraham
Ps 67 all nations will praise God
Isa 42:6 a light to the nations
Isa 2:2 in the later days the nations will stream to the Lord

But the people became like carnival barkers calling people to the sideshow
They were jealous of God, of His blessings

But all along, God was jealous for His glory to be known among ALL peoples

722 BC, Assyrians overran Israel
Yet God was seeking the Assyrians
Sent Jonah

600 BC, the Babylonians overran Judah
Yet God was seeking the Babylonians
Sent the exiles

>>>>>>>>>>>>

Until finally, you get to Jesus, there is a centrifugal fling OUT … we are to GO

Mt 28: the great commission
Acts 1: the great commission re-iterated…FROM Jerusalem, not TO it

Acts is the carrying out of this often literally violent centrifugal fling
Acts 10-11 Peter, sent to the Gentiles (Cornelius)

And within a chapter, Paul’s mission “church planting” journeys to the nations becomes the focus

So that all would realize Acts 17 in their lives

We are called to that same mission
You have been SENT “on mission” for Jesus
Sent to “seek the peace of the city where God has sent you in exile!”

This is what it means to be Missional …
the purpose behind what and who you are, what the church IS

How does it happen?

Being the church IN and FOR the city

IN: Incarnational

It must be “embodied”

Just as God came and “dwelt among us”
Tabernacled, pitched his tent

So we are suppose to “dwell” where we are sent

Incarnate…EMBODY … the gospel
Live it our in and among others!

>>>>>>>>>

… but not just IN the city … but IN and FOR the city

Being IN and NOT FOR
You can “Be In” a Job, relationship, a place and hate every aspect of it

It reminds me of a tree in my backyard
This tree wasn’t growing, and then started dying.
So I pulled it up, and it came out of the ground AS IF it were still in a large pot

In fact, the rippled impressions of the pots edge were still visible
It was root-bound
This thing was IN the ground, but what FOR?

It didn’t spread it’s roots, and so it couldn’t spread it’s branches
It was not a blessing to birds or kids or anything
It was DEAD and of no benefit

But the church is to be a well planted tree, IN the soil of this city and FOR this city
Sinking roots deeply and strongly
so that the hardened sidewalks where darkness treads will be broken up
so that we can literally branch OUT and provide shade, PEACE, for this city

>>>>>>>>>>>

IN the city, but also FOR the city

IN: Incarnational … FOR: not Fornicational

FORMATIONAL

Jesus is forming and conforming the people of this city into His image thru his people and thru His church
Jesus is forming and conforming you into His image thru this city

God’s design is to make you a blessing to and thru this place

But also bless you thru this place
“For in her welfare, you will also find your welfare!”
In the peace of this place, you will find peace.

That’s a wonder gospel message for exiles

Culture: (Richard Cote) comes from “cultivation”, very organic, very agricultural
Deals with the values, beliefs, customs, language, artistic expression
God-given but sin-warped aspects of who we are

Driscoll “we are to cultivate/plow culture as we live for the kingdom of heaven among the cultures on earth.”

>>>>>>>>>>>

“For” the city doesn’t mean embracing everything

Driscoll: Receive, reject, redeem

We can be FOR this city, but not for flying rainbow flags from every post on the Bridge of Lions during Gay Pride Week
(which, by the way, was a Circuit Court Judge’s ruling against the City Commission)

What is our standard by which we receive, reject and redeem?

God’s word

Yet remember Eph 6:15 instructs us that before you hackin’ with your Sword, first have you feet firmly bound in the gospel of peace

Seeking the good, the peace, of the city, and not just out spiritually whoopin’ up on people.

Be seasoned with grace for the sake of true gospel-grown peace

In Jesus, the Kingdom of God has come into a hostile world and brought peace

>>>>>>>>>>>

There are quite a few things that threaten this call:

1. We have a transient society and culture
No one expects to be around long, we often think “I’ll be moving on in a few years”
And so we talk about how hard it is to invest in relationship b/c in our minds we’ve already moved on to where the grass is greener

You know why it’s harder for our kids to move?
b/c they give life all they’ve got where they are, when they are there

Jim Elliot: Wherever you are, be all there!

2. New fundamentalism: we’ve gone back to the old way of trying to re-create Jerusalem and call people to us instead of seeking them

Our churches have gyms and food courts where flimsy rip-off pop is played, the prices are just as high, and people are still stuck on image and appearance and vanity, but in a “nicer way.”

creating our own Christian culture that we never have to leave

The people of God are not called into the slums of isolation but to seek the city!!!

Remember the great promise of God…Immanuel, God with us
I will be your God, you shall be my people
Where you are, God will be.
As our King, where he is, His kingdom is …

Therefore we can be about the Eternal Kingdom in our Earthly Cities

>>>>>>>>

Do you consider your surrounding culture a blessing?
Can you be informed about God through your culture?

An artist who does not follow Jesus is still made in the image of God

And by being in God’s image, he will have much to say about the good, the true and the beautiful that CAN instruct someone who does follow Jesus.

Our culture mediates the gospel
God created culture and so has worked into every tribe, nation and language meaning of Himself

It’s our Task to Ask: “What aspects of this culture are avenues of the gospel that transmit the truth and beauty and wonder of God?”

These avenues need to be explored
And while we explore, we will receive, redeem, or in some cases reject

>>>>>>>>>>>>

Seeking the city implies that you seek to KNOW what the city VALUES and NEEDS

What does this city and it’s subcultures value?

Watching Mitt Romney stumping in S.C. was suddenly cut off to bring you this important, live event … of OJ Simpson’s court hearing about whether or not he should be denied bail.

What does it say about this city that …
she would spend tens of millions ($80) and 5 years to not widen a bridge by LANES, but by inches, for the sake of historical preservation and pedestrian safety?
Trademark the style and display of white lights in the city around Christmas
Many shop owners are fiercely independent
Not accepting credit, only cash, check and IOU!!!

LISTEN … seek to understand values and needs around you

>>>>>>>>>>>>

But remember, “this is not jax”

What plays in a different place (Miami FL or OH) DOES NOT NECESSARILY serve here

What plays in a different time (10, 20, 30 years ago) DOES NOT NECESSARILY serve now

b/c we do something now, today, does not mean that we will do it the same way next year or in 10 years

Our approach needs to be as dynamic and multi-faceted as the gospel itself

B/c one thing IS sure … the gospel plays in all places
The gospel transcends culture, and so if we remain faithful to the gospel, which calls us to seek the city and to seek God, the gospel will find a foothold

Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, in “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”, says:

the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is – Christ.
For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

St. Augustine is just one of 10,000 places where the gospel of Jesus is alive and real and seeking the city through the people whom God has sent here, NOW

>>>>>>>>>>

That’s the power of Christ IN you

One of the greatest summaries of union with Christ, Ian Thomas:

To be in Christ, that makes you fit for heaven; but for Christ to be in you, that makes you fit for earth. The one makes heaven your home, the other makes this world His workshop.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Practical: ENGAGING and ENLARGING spheres of influence

ENGAGE your spheres:

Where are your current relationships? How can you seek peace where you currently are?

ENLARGE your spheres

1. Where are your skills, passions, most enthusiastic?

Finance? Helping struggling individuals, single parents, newly released from prison with finances to prevent homelessness

Music or the arts: Tutoring or teaching a “functional orphan” in their pursuit of the good, true and beautiful

Construction or handiwork: Serving those who can’t afford repairs or can’t do repairs with what to you is the simplest of tasks.

This is taking the gifts and talents you have been entrusted with and employing them to God’s glory for the city.

Start with ½ a day a month (self-employed), use your personal days
Radical? Most employers will give you benefits from 32 hours and above
That’s a 4 day work week.

What if you had a 36 hour work week … That’s 4 hours out of 40
Think of that: a tithe (10%) of your work week given up
For the sake of the gospel, for the cause of the Kingdom

In full anticipation that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you.

2.Go to city/county council,
a.City meets the first Monday at 7:00 at Lightner Museum
b.County meets every other Tuesday at 9:00 a.m.
c.HOA, Art Advocacy (talk up Michelle’s ops), homeless coalition, chamber of commerce

3. Gets some new haunts
Creative tag team as spouses, families, college students and families

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Most likely, God is going to “exile” you again
He’s going to authoritatively send you
So when it happens, consider that God is sending you on mission

Don’t see it as a change in job, but as a change in mission field

And if you want to be radical:
Don’t think primarily about “how much I need…$$$$”
But think “how much does this place, this city, this region need the gospel?”

Don’t just research the company and the housing market and the schools
But research the local church
Are there solid, biblical, mission minded churches? Join it!
If not? Let’s plant one!

>>>>>>>>>>>

Read 2 Kings 7:1-10

We are like lepers who have found great riches
This is a day of good news
And if we keep that good news to ourselves, what we are doing is not right. Let’s go and tell the city!