The M Word: My Mission

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Lord Jesus, thank you for another Sunday to come and to listen to what you're saying to us.

I pray this morning as we as we begin to talk about missions, Lord.

Would you come?

Would you speak to us?

May this not just be a familiar topic and we just kind of write the pastor off, but may we open our ears to what you're saying to us this morning, Lord.

Challenge us where we need challenged, encourage us where we need encouraged, Lord.

Show us how we can be part of seeing your global kingdom expanding, Lord.

Here in Sugarland and to the ends of the earth, we want to have an impact, Lord.

Come and do it through us, Lord.

Your name I pray.

Amen.

You guys may be seated.

My name's Brent.

I'm one of the teaching pastors here.

I'm also the missions pastor here.

And so this Sunday, we're gonna talk about another M-word and we're gonna talk about missions.

Uh, we're gonna be in Matthew 28, 16 to 20.

Some of you are very familiar with that passage.

I like that, but in another way I feel like that's kind of dangerous.

When you get familiar with a passage, it's almost like I've already heard this and you just kind of check out.

Please don't do that.

I think I think the Lord wants to speak to us from this passage this morning.

So there's this guy once, he lived in uh in California, and one day he decides he's gonna go buy 42 helium balloons.

He takes the balloons and he ties them to his lawn chair.

He also gets some sandwiches made, he gets a six-pack of beer, he gets a BB gun, and uh he also brings a CB radio so he's able to communicate with the people down on the ground because you know he wants to be safe.

So he ties these balloons to his chair, and his plan is he's thinking, you know, he'll get up to about 30 feet and just level off there and just kind of float around the neighborhood.

That's not what happens.

He goes up at a rate of about a thousand feet a minute, and soon he levels off at about 16,000 feet.

There, there's airplanes going by him.

Literally, one of the airplanes radios into the control tower and says, Hey, I see a man in a lawn chair with a gun in his lap.

What is what's going on?

He's up here.

And I don't think the control tower believed him at the time.

Eventually, this guy realizes he's in trouble and he sends a Mayday on a CB radio, and one of the control towers hears it, and they say, Hey man, what's going on?

And they talk him through getting down.

You know, he slowly shoots the balloons down and is able to come down.

When he gets down, the LAPD police force is waiting for him, and reporters are waiting for him as well.

And here's what the reporters ask him.

I thought their questions were interesting.

His name was Larry.

They said, Larry, were you scared?

He said, Yes, I was scared.

I'm scared of heights.

I would have probably passed out at like 100 feet.

I would have been so scared.

Two, they said, Would you do it again?

He said, No, I would not do it again.

So he's not completely nuts.

He's got some sanity.

And the final question was, Why did you do this?

Here's his answer, and this is what I want you to hear.

I just got tired of always sitting around.

I got tired of always sitting around.

I wonder if for some of us this morning, that's kind of where we're at in our walk with Jesus.

We're just like, we come to church every Sunday, but we're like, man, there's gotta be more to my walk with Jesus than just coming to church every Sunday.

There's gotta be more to it than this.

This isn't enough for me.

I need more, God.

And what I'm here to tell you this morning is there is more for you.

It's gonna be our last Sunday in this building.

Next Sunday we're gonna be over there.

And I was talking to Neil this week, and Neil said, you know, we didn't build that building so that you guys would be able to socially distance.

That's not why.

We build it so that we could fill that building with disciples of Jesus that are on mission for Jesus.

That's why it's built that way.

And some of you you think, you know, well, Neil is such a good preacher.

I think he's a great preacher too.

He's such a good preacher that if we just let him preach, the church will fill up.

But that's that's not really what we want.

Because if that happens, that's that's just consumers that want to come and hear somebody that's gifted at preaching preach.

The way that church will fill up in the right way is if we go and we're a mobilized force of disciples on mission, reaching the lost in our community for Jesus.

That's how that building will fill up.

There's uh J.D.

Greer, he he he said this about the church.

He said, the church is not an audience to be entertained, it is an army to be empowered.

The large crowd will not change the world.

The mobilized force of spirit-filled believers will.

The mobilized force of spirit-filled believers, that's what's gonna change the earth.

Okay?

So that's kind of our summary statement.

That is where we're heading this morning, okay?

So let's go ahead, let's go, Matthew 28, 16 through 20.

Here's what it says it says, Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and he 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'm with you always to the end of the age.

So that's our passage for this morning.

That's God's word for us this morning.

Let's just get started in verse 16.

There's something in 16 that may have thrown you off.

It says, now eleven disciples went to Galilee.

And some of you are like, Well, weren't there twelve disciples?

Why are there eleven?

If you remember the story, one of the disciples, Judas, actually betrayed them.

And when when Jesus, he's the one that betrayed Jesus to the religious authorities, and then once he kind of gets caught for that and found out, he kills himself.

And so there's, we're we're down one disciples, what's going on here?

So there's just eleven disciples at this point.

And so these eleven disciples, they go to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had directed them.

So these guys are obeying something that Jesus had told them to do.

If you look up in verse 10, 28, 10, it says, Jesus said to them, Don't be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.

So Jesus is hanging out with these other guys, and he says, Hey, can you go and tell my brothers, my disciples, to go to Galilee and that's where they're gonna see me?

And so these guys are obedient to do that, which to us looks like a kind of a small thing, but you gotta remember the story here.

Jesus was killed by the religious authorities, and these guys were his best friends.

If your friend so upsets the religious authorities that they kill them, what are you thinking they're gonna do to you?

Same thing, right?

And so the the disciples are in hiding.

They're like, we don't want killed, we want to live.

And and Jesus now is saying, hey, you need to come out of hiding, you need to come and meet me in Galilee.

So this takes some sick courage for them to obey.

So I think kind of the first thing we can kind of pull from this is if you want to see God move in your life, you need to obey what he's saying to you.

Right?

So some of you, you know, you're you we're always trying to hear God's voice, what's God saying to me?

What's he speaking to me?

And sometimes we're like, I just I haven't heard from him in a while.

Here's my question for you if that's you.

What what when was the last time God spoke to you?

And when he did, if it was through scripture, a friend, whatever, when he did, did you obey what he was asking you to do?

If that's you, if you're having trouble hearing from God, maybe think back, what's the last thing that God told me to do?

And have I been obedient to what he asked me to do?

These disciples, they they're obedient and they they go to Jesus, and so in verse 17, it says, when they saw him, they worshiped him.

But then the author he put he puts something interesting in here.

He says, But some of them doubted.

Some of them doubted.

Have you guys ever have you ever been in a place where you've doubted God and you felt like like in my times of doubt in my walk with Jesus, I feel kind of like a second-class Christian sometimes.

I'm like, yeah, I'm doubting.

I don't know.

Am I really a follower of Jesus?

Is this okay to doubt?

Like, is there something wrong with me?

And I think this guy put this in here because it's true, number one, but I think he also added it in to tell you like the guys that Jesus used to change the whole world, they had doubts too.

They weren't perfect.

But when they were doubting, they still chose to worship him.

I mean, think about these guys, think of everything they've been through in the last like week or two here.

Jesus died on a cross.

The last time they'd seen Jesus, he was a bloody mess, and they were taking him to a tomb.

One of their best friends was murdered.

Jesus got, he was murdered.

Another one of their best friends, another one of the twelve, Judas, I already told you, he betrays them and then kills himself.

One of their friends committed suicide.

So this is only a few days, a few weeks later.

They must be emotionally so messed up, right?

Like that's the kind of stuff that doesn't just go away in a day or two.

Like it sticks with you, right?

And so I imagine when they see Jesus, they're like their first response is to worship him, but they're also like, is this really happening?

Is this really real?

So I think the key thing, when doubt comes into your life, you don't want to be the kind of person that you let that run you from Jesus.

You don't want to run from Jesus when you start to doubt.

What I would encourage you to do is when you're doubting, you want to run toward Jesus.

He's okay with your questions.

You can ask him anything.

He's not gonna be offended by it or scared by it.

Run toward him and keep going after him until you find him.

Do not let your doubt get you running from him.

Get it to run toward him.

Let it let it grow a hunger in you.

All right, and then verse 18.

Jesus came and he said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

All authority in heaven and on earth.

So I imagine they're in a group, you know, and they're worshiping, and some of them die, and but then eventually Jesus stands up and like a hush goes over the crowd, the eleven guys, and Jesus starts to talk.

And he says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

This is an astounding statement.

Astounding statement.

So, I mean, the disciples' worldview, they would think like Caesar.

Caesar's like the king of the Roman Empire, which is the most powerful empire known to man at the time.

They think he is the ultimate authority.

And Jesus is saying, No, it's not him.

I'm the ultimate authority.

I am the king of the entire universe.

Your parents are not your authority, your school teacher's not your authority, the religious authorities that killed me, they're not the authority.

That all happened according to my plan.

I am in charge.

I am the king of the entire universe.

Okay?

That's what he's saying.

And so then there's a there's a therefore.

So he's saying, because of that, because I have all authority, I'm gonna have some commands for you.

This is what how I want you to live your lives.

And here's what he says in verse 19.

He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So this passage here is interesting.

This is the call of the church.

Our call as a church is to make disciples of all nations.

But there's a word in there before that, right?

And there's a word that we often pass over.

It's go therefore.

You're to go, therefore.

And this is a word that, you know, when I was a teenager and I would hear a pastor preach on this, I'd be like, well, that is for pastors and people called to be missionaries, but that is not for me.

And really what I was saying was, God, please don't send me to Africa.

That's not where I want to go in the future, right?

Like that's what I'm thinking in my head.

And listen, this this go, when Jesus says go, I don't think the disciples get it either.

And I'll prove to you in a minute.

I don't I don't think that they they got this.

Let's go to um let's go to Acts 1.8.

Acts 1.8.

Jesus gives basically the same command in Acts 1.8, but he's a little more explicit with it.

Acts 1.8.

It says, But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

So he makes it even more clear.

Like this is like it's not just all nations, but it's Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

Like you're to go everywhere with this gospel.

That is what you're to do.

And then the disciples spend the next seven chapters staying in Jerusalem.

Like you'd think their response would be like, okay, well, let's go.

I got Africa.

All right, you get that that's not what happened.

They stay in Jerusalem.

And I'll show you.

Look at 8.1.

8.1 of Acts.

So Saul approved of this execution.

So Stephen's martyred, and then Acts 8.1, the second half of it, it says, There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were scattered, they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.

Catch this, except the apostles.

So here's what's happening with these apostles.

They like Jerusalem.

It's a comfortable place for them.

They like the coffee shops, they like the restaurants, they like their family being there.

And they're just gonna stay there as long as they can.

And God comes into their life and he says, No, you guys are followers of me.

We have a good relationship, but there's something in your life that's off.

And when we have stuff in our life that's off like this, when we're followers of Jesus, sometimes God, in his grace and in his love, will bring difficulty into your life to turn you around and to help you to recognize where you're missing him.

And that's what he does here with these disciples.

And so this is us today saying, you know, I love living in Sugarland.

I love my house, I love the restaurants I get to go to, I love my pool in the backyard, I love the coffee shops, I love my job, I love the park I get to go to with the kids.

I'm just I'm comfortable.

I don't want to go anywhere.

Now eventually, these apostles get it.

Here in Acts 8:1, they don't get it yet.

Acts 8:1

And and God ends up sending other people, normal, everyday believers go, and they're the ones that begin to build the church.

But here, they don't get it.

Later in the book, they do.

Let me show you how much the apostles eventually got it.

If you if you want to look, there's a map, it's gonna come up on the screen behind me.

This is where all the apostles were martyred for their faith.

Okay?

So Peter and Paul, Paul ends up eventually being kind of grafted into the apostles.

Peter and Paul, they get killed in Rome, in Italy, up there on the map.

Uh Paul was beheaded, and Peter was most likely, he was crucified, and when they came to crucify him, he said, I'm not worthy to be crucified like like Jesus was.

I need to die a different way.

Please crucify me upside down.

And he was crucified upside down.

Andrew went to the Soviet Union.

He also went to Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey and Greece, and he in Greece was also crucified.

Andrew, another disciple.

Thomas, he went to Syria, but then he also went to India and preached the gospel, and that's where he was martyred for his faith.

Four soldiers drove four spears through his body and he died in India.

Matthew, the writer of this book, he went to Persia and Ethiopia, and when he was in Ethiopia, he was stabbed to death.

You see what I'm saying here?

These guys, like they understood that they were to go.

Eventually they got it.

They were a little thick-headed.

It took them a little bit of time, but eventually they got that we are to go.

And I could go through the rest of them, and you'd see the same thing with all of them.

Every one of the disciples, but one was martyred for their faith.

The only one who wasn't was John.

And John was boiled in hot oil.

They tried to martyr him, he lived through it.

Okay?

So these guys understood that the gospel had to go forward.

Uh, Charles Spurgeon, he says this he says, Every Christian here is either a missionary or an imposter.

You're either a missionary or you're an imposter.

And I know that's kind of harsh, but that's that's what the text is saying.

It's saying that we are called to go.

So the question isn't anymore, well, you know, if God calls me, then I'm willing.

No.

He he has called you.

He has said to go.

The question is, where are you to go and how are you to go?

He has called you, where are you to go?

How are you to go?

Let's keep reading.

So he says, all authority in heaven on earth, go therefore and make disciples.

So the next thing that we're supposed to do is actually, we're to make disciples.

A disciples are like a learner or a pupil.

And I think many of you, you hear us say make disciples, and you're like, Well, I can't do what you're doing right now, Brent.

I can't get up in a in front of a few hundred people and preach the gospel.

So I'm I'm I'm out of this one.

I'm I don't I don't have to anymore.

And what I would say to you is what I'm doing right now, teaching, it's part of discipleship, but this isn't really discipleship.

There's a there's a little picture, it's gonna come up here on the screen.

Uh it's a there's a triangle.

And so up here at the top is information.

So this is when the pastor's preaching, right?

And when he preaches, I think a lot of churches, what we assume is, well, he preached, and now people are gonna be able to go and just do it.

They're gonna be able to innovate, right?

But that doesn't really work that well.

Like Neil preached on money last week.

And for most of you, if we said, all right, go and do it, you'd be like, Well, I don't know how.

Is there anybody that could model it for me and teach me how to do it?

That would help me a lot.

There's some people that they can listen to information and then they can just go and innovate, but that's very few people in the population.

Most people need someone to model it for them first.

And so you remember last week, Neil put those names up on the board?

What he was doing by putting those names up there is he was saying, Here are people that model it.

Go and talk to them and say, hey, I don't know how to handle my money.

Can you show me how?

Model it for me, teach me how, and they will walk you through that.

Right?

So, what most people need is they need to get the information, and then they need a person who actually models it, somebody they can imitate, and then they'll be able to do it, they'll be able to innovate.

You see that?

So, let me give you an example.

Parents, we do this all the time.

Um, so most parents do not get a podium at home and say, All right, kids, get your notebooks out, I'm gonna teach you how to live.

That's not how we assume that our kids are gonna learn, right?

What we do with our kids, like when I wanted to teach my son how to mow the lawn, did I just say, All right, man, here's the lawnmower, go do it.

I don't think any dads do that.

What you do is you take your son, you take him out to the garage.

I said, Son, here's the lawnmower.

This is where you put the gas in, here's how you start it.

And I explained how it all worked.

And I said, All right, come out here to the lawn.

I'm gonna mow for a little bit, watch what I'm doing.

He watches what I'm doing.

I say, All right, it's your turn.

You try.

And so then I'm right there beside him, I'm like, you're doing great, and encourage him, you know, do this.

And eventually he's mowing on his own.

He knows how to mow the lawn now.

That's discipleship, that's what I'm talking about.

So, what's this look like in the church?

My wife is a is a great example of this.

We we had a uh a community group, and this community group was at my um, this community group, what we would do is every Christmas, we would get um, we'd make cookies for our neighborhood.

And then we'd pass them around to the neighborhood around the church.

And in this, in these cookies, there was a card that also said, you know, when our church services were gonna be, and and we're just passing them out.

And my wife, when we're passing these out, she took her, a young lady that was a disciple of hers, went with her to pass the cookies out.

You know, we'd pass them out and say, Do you want prayer for anything?

How can we help you?

And, you know, here, just be blessed in Jesus' name.

And so she comes to this one house, in this one house, there's an older lady whose house is just full of cats.

Which for me, if I came to a house full of cats, I'd try to get out of there as fast as I could because I don't like cats.

But my wife, that's not what happened.

I think the Holy Spirit was working through her.

She sees this lady with all these cats, and she starts talking to her, and they were able to connect with her a little bit, and they left.

And as they're walking away, she talks to her disciple and she says, You know what?

There were a lot of cats there.

She said, You know what we could do?

Let's take cat food back next week.

So they do.

She and this lady, she's disciplined, they take cat food back to this lady the next week.

And this lady is overjoyed.

Could not, I don't think they could have gotten her a better gift.

She invites them into the home, they get to talk with her, and and she starts to open up about her life, and they say, you know what, how about our church is just right up there.

Why don't you come with us next week?

The next week she's at church.

The next week she's at church.

The next week she's at church.

And I think it was the third week after hearing, after I was done preaching, she comes up and she says, I want to follow Jesus.

And I'm like, this is awesome.

So I get my wife, I get this lady, I get them to come up, and we we explain things to her, we pray with her.

And, you know, we found out this lady, she used to be into Wicca, she used to be doing drugs, she had just a terrible past.

But God came and He He redeemed her, He rescued her in that moment.

And listen, that's not the end of things.

Her coming to follow Jesus wasn't the end.

Then my wife and this lady started meeting with her regularly.

The three of them start to meet.

So my wife is training her disciple in how to disciple someone, and as they're discipling this person, they're also training her and saying, we're gonna disciple you, but you need to understand that next year you're gonna go and you're gonna disciple someone else.

It's this cycle of disciples that make disciples that make disciples.

That is what we're called to as believers.

That's what discipleship looks like.

You got what I'm saying now?

That's discipleship.

Not this is part of it, but it's it's not really the main thing.

Life on life discipleship.

That's what changes the world.

So let's keep going through the text here.

It says, Go therefore, make disciples of all nations.

All nations.

This means every single people group on earth.

Every ethnicity.

This means uh people that are Democrats, people that are Republicans, people that are anti-vax, people that are pro-vax, every ethnicity.

This is like I used to, I've been in Thailand before.

In the country of Thailand, there's Thai people, but there's also refugees called the Kharin people.

Both of those people groups are gonna be represented one day in heaven.

Like in Revelation, it says, all nations, tribes, and tongues, every nation, tribe, and tongue will be represented in heaven.

In in Afghanistan, there's the Taliban, but there are also other people groups that live in that nation, and every one of those people groups, they're gonna have representatives in heaven one day.

That's why we're called to all nations, right?

So I actually looked this up for Fort Bend County.

Fort Bend County now is the fifth most diverse county in the USA.

The fifth most diverse county in the United States.

And it if you want to see evidence of this, all you have to do is you can go next door to Aliana, the neighborhood right next to our church.

Backs up against our church property.

And you can walk around in that neighborhood and you will see people from every tribe tongue and nation.

You'll see people from South America, you'll see people from Africa, you will see people from India everywhere.

There are people from everywhere over in that neighborhood.

They live right next to us.

They are our neighbors.

And these people are from nations like Taiwan and India and Vietnam, where less than 5% of the people in those nations know Jesus.

And when we hear that, many of these people, they've probably never heard Jesus, no one's ever proclaimed that to them.

When you hear that, what does that do to your heart?

This is kind of a spiritual health checkup for us, right?

Because you can't be a believer and say, I love Jesus, I'm passionate about him, and not care at all about that.

Because Jesus cares about those people enough that he was willing to die for them, right?

That's some serious care for them.

And so if you're a follower of Jesus and you love Jesus, you have, you've got to begin to love the things that he loves, right?

And those are people that he loves.

Does that move your heart at all?

I remember uh my wife and I were living in China a couple years back, and I went to Walmart in China to pick some stuff up.

As I'm leaving Walmart, um I see this man who's out there and he's beating this woman.

I don't know if it was his wife or his girlfriend.

And this happens in any country.

I I'm not picking on China.

Anywhere you go, you'll you'll you'll see things like this happen.

And and there's some blood on her face, and I'm like, man, this isn't good.

And I did what you all would do.

I look and I'm like, well, is anybody gonna do anything?

And everybody's just kind of walking by looking out of the side of their eye, and they're like, I don't want to get involved, you know?

And I was like, all right, I gotta get involved.

So I step up and I just stood right between them.

And I'm I'm much taller, so I think that helped me in this situation.

But um, I stood between them, and the guy just got even angrier, and he's like, dude, this is none of your business, you need to get out of here.

And I I I speak Chinese, so I said to him, You made it my business when you started hitting her.

I'm I'm gonna stay here until you leave.

I need you to go.

And he wouldn't leave.

And so meanwhile, this crowd starts to form, starts to get bigger and bigger, and the people in the crowd are telling me, man, this isn't any of your business.

You need to get out of here.

Don't be a part of this, it's not, it's dangerous, you don't want to be a part of it.

So I stay there until the police eventually come.

I think I don't know how long it was, maybe half an hour.

The police come, and then the same crowd that was telling me I need to leave and it's dangerous for me is now like now that they're gone, they're thanking me.

Thank you so much.

That was great that you did that.

And and here's what I did.

I hear them thanking me, and I'm just like, yeah, sure.

And I'm just like, yeah, I'm a great guy.

I helped them.

Do you guys see what I just did there?

I completely missed my evangelism opportunity.

I completely missed it.

What I should have said was actually, you know why I did that?

I did that because I'm a Christian.

And Jesus, he actually died for them.

He died that these people could be free.

So me stepping in and taking a little bit of risk with my life is no big deal at all because Jesus has already died that they could be free from their sins.

That's what I should have said.

Completely missed it.

Here's my question for you guys: how many situations do you have like that, each and every day and each and every week, that you're just you're just not seeing it?

Like you completely miss it just like I did.

I think you have more than you're aware of.

And we need to pray and ask God to begin to open our eyes that those kind of opportunities we would see them.

Because I used to think that was a great story and I'd done a great job.

But recently I was like, actually, I completely missed it.

Completely missed it.

Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So it's saying that at some point you need to get baptized, and this is public identification that you're a believer.

So when you get baptized here in America, it's great.

You get baptized, I think we're gonna have a baptism next service, right?

Yeah, and so we're all gonna celebrate, it's gonna be awesome.

I mean, that's a good thing.

And the reason we're doing that, you you can be a Christian and not be baptized, but at some point you can't be a faithful Christian and not be baptized, because God commands us to be baptized.

And the reason God's commanding that is he's saying, you can't just live your life in secret forever.

At some point you need to publicly identify with me and say, I'm with Jesus no matter what.

And here in America, that's not a big deal.

But if you go to other nations like Taiwan, where it's less than 5% Christian, when when, particularly with men in Taiwan, when they would get baptized, often what that meant for them is their family would disown them.

And the reason their family was disowning them is they're supposed to worship their ancestors.

And once they get baptized, they know they can't do that anymore.

And they're gonna bring the family bad luck, and so the family just disowns them.

It's a heavy price to pay for following Jesus.

But it's not that bad because if you go to Muslim countries, there are Muslim countries where if you get baptized, you're putting a target on your head, and there are gonna be people after you trying to kill you now.

And so this is what Jesus is saying here.

He's saying you need to baptize them.

At some point, they need to publicly say, I am a follower of Jesus, and no matter what comes, they need to stick to that.

They need to follow him.

Here's my question for you Are you living out your faith publicly?

Does the guy in the cubicle next to you know that you're a follower of Jesus?

Does a person in your class at school do they know that you're a follower of Jesus?

You know, 90% of evangelicals never share their faith.

90%.

And in a way, that's that's that's one of those stats, it doesn't upset me.

Here's why it doesn't upset me.

If you're not ever sharing your faith, the reason you're not sharing your faith is you don't understand the gospel well enough.

Because I am convinced, and this is what's happened in my life, the deeper the gospel gets into my heart, the more I realize that I deserve to be burning in hell.

But God has just absolutely blessed me and made me righteous in Him and completely forgiven me.

The more I realize how much He's forgiven me from and what He has done for me, it's not something where I gotta try to do.

Well, I'm gonna go and share my faith today, another notch on my belt.

It's not like that.

It just starts to bubble up out of you.

Like you start to get the gospel so deep in your heart that you can't help but share with other people.

So there's a church in uh Korea, and I've heard they have small groups in the church, and they have a rule in their church if you haven't, if there's no new converts in the small group in a year's time, you'll go before the elders and be questioned, and you may possibly go under church discipline.

Now that's maybe a little bit legalistic, okay?

We're not gonna do that here at our church.

But you do you see what's what it is that that's making them want to do that?

It's text like this right here.

So if that's you, if you're somebody, you know, I have never shared my faith, I don't really care about the guy in the cubicle next to me, but I want to care.

I I would just encourage you, you just need to pray.

And you say, God, come and change my heart.

Help me to love the things you love and hate the things you hate more.

Help me, Lord, help the gospel to go deeper in my heart.

I'm gonna be more grateful for what you've done for me, Lord.

I want to care, God.

And what you see then in the book of Acts is you see it's normal everyday people that have some of the most profound impacts.

Yes, the apostles do amazing things, but it's also normal everyday people.

The very first missions trip in the book of Acts, it comes right after, in 8.1, that passage where they're scattered.

Right after that, this guy named Philip, who's just a normal guy in the church, he goes on the first missions trip.

And on his missions trip, he goes to the city of Samaria, he starts preaching the gospel, and in verse 13 it says they see amazing miracles done through this guy, Philip.

He's just a normal guy in the church.

He's not a pastor, he's not a missionary, he's just on a missions trip.

And all through the book of Acts, yes, the apostles do stuff, but you also see normal, everyday people that God is just working through.

They're empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Do you know in the book of Acts, 39 of the 40 miracles that are performed in the book of Acts happen outside the church?

Only one of the miracles happens in the church.

So what that's telling me is if you guys want to see God do miracles, if you want to see Him save people, if you want to see people healed, yeah, pray for Him here, but it's actually more likely to happen when you're at a coffee shop with your friends.

It's more likely to happen when you're at school eating lunch with your buddies.

It's more likely to happen when you're at your daughter's ballet and you're talking to the other parents and you get a chance to share the gospel and and communicate with them.

That's when it's more likely to happen.

Because God's gonna get more glory from that.

You know, I think often we think of the church and we think that Sunday, like, this is it, man.

This is the game.

Like, this is what the church is all about, is Sundays, right?

It's not, though.

I would actually say that Sunday, this is like if, you know, football games, there's there's a halftime speech.

You know, you got the first quarter, then you got halftime, where the coach gets up and he talks to his team.

That's what's happening right now.

Sunday mornings, when Neil gets up and he preaches, that's just a halftime speech.

And he's encouraging you and he's telling you what to do, but the game is Monday through Saturday for you guys.

The game is at your workplaces, it's at your schools, it's at the restaurants, it's at the coffee shops.

That is the game.

That's what we're to be involved in.

Next thing it says here in verse 20, it says, Teach them to observe all that I've commanded you.

And so what that's saying is you need to teach people to follow this whole thing.

You don't get to cut and paste and pick the parts that you want.

You need to teach people to follow this entire Bible.

That's what you're gonna be teaching them.

Now, some of you hear that and you're like, Well, I've never even read my whole Bible.

I I'm I'm out.

I don't have to disciple anybody because I don't know it.

No, you're not out.

It doesn't say that you have to know it all.

It just says you're to teach it all to them.

And so here's what I would say.

If you are coming to this church, and last week, when you were here at church, you decided to follow Jesus, and then this week here at church, somebody else decides to follow Jesus, the person that's a week ahead, they can disciple the person that got saved today.

Because you just need to be about a week ahead to be able to disciple somebody.

Because listen, Neil, myself, Leo, we don't know this whole Bible.

This this book is too wonderful, too supernatural for us to understand every single thing in it.

That cannot be excuse an excuse for us to not make disciples.

We're called to make disciples, and you just gotta be about a week ahead of somebody to be a disciple maker.

That's all.

So the question is not, is God sending me?

He sent you.

The question is where and how we're called to go.

Here in America, 20%, and this is before COVID that these stats came out.

20% of churches in America are growing.

20%.

Of that 20%, only 1% of them are reaching lost people.

1% of churches in America are actually reaching lost people.

1%.

And so a lot of you, I think, you hear this and you're like, well, I need to go and I need to have like a mass crusade.

I'm gonna invite thousands of people and share the gospel with them, and that is the way that we're gonna finally reach the world for Jesus.

No.

Discipleship's the way.

Here's a good way to respond to this message.

Who is one person in the next year that's far from God right now that you can share Jesus with and then begin to disciple and disciple them in such a way that you say, next year, you're gonna go and make a disciple.

Who is that person for you?

So let's do a little bit of math.

Let's have some fun with numbers.

Here at our church, we got about 600 people that come on Sunday, conservatively, 600 people every Sunday.

So if all 600 of you would obey this commanded scripture and you'd go and you'd make disciples, how many people would we have next year?

1,200.

And if those people did the same thing, if they went and made a disciple that made a disciple, then we'd be at 2,400.

And so by year 10, if I did my math right, we're at like 300,000 people.

By year 11, 600,000.

Year 12, you're at 1.2 million.

Do you see the effect of making disciples?

It has a it has an amazing multiplying effect.

And it's so simple, any of you could do it.

Any of you could do that.

It's it's simple.

You just gotta find that one person and reach out to them.

So, how do you reach out?

Let me give you some practical steps here.

So there's right now there's about 40,000 missionaries in the 1040 window.

You know what I'm saying?

1040 window is the most lost region of earth.

That's the latitude and longitude of that region.

About 40,000 missionaries there.

There are two million, there are two million people from America that work as secular workers in that area, there's businessmen, teachers, all that.

There's two million people working in secular fields in that area.

So of those, so there's 40,000 missionaries, two million people working there.

Let's say those two million people, 30% of them are believers.

And let's say just a third of that 30%, so about 200,000 people, if they actually heard a message like this, they would be like, yes, I want to do that.

I'm not just gonna be uh an oil man in in the Middle East anymore, I'm gonna be an oil man on mission for Jesus in the Middle East.

Or I'm not gonna be an English teacher anymore, I'm gonna be an English teacher on mission for Jesus here in China, right?

If if they got that, we wouldn't, we would, we could basically triple the amount of missionaries that are serving right now if if people got that truth.

There was this guy, he was attending a church in North Carolina, I think he was a lawyer, and his law firm was located in Raleigh, North Carolina.

His pastor preached a message similar to this one, and he felt convicted.

He goes to his boss, he went to his company's website and he found out they have a location in Dubai as well.

So he goes to his boss and he says, Can I be transferred to Dubai?

His boss says to him, Man, that's not a step up the ladder, that's maybe a parallel step, or it might be a step down.

Are you sure you want to do this?

He says, Yeah, I want to do it.

He says, I want to do it because I know there's more people over there that are far from Jesus than there are here, and I want to go over there and be a lawyer for the glory of God.

And he went.

Like maybe if you're working in the oil industry, maybe you need to get on their website and see if they have any places in the Middle East and see maybe you could get sent over there and be an oil man who's working for the kingdom of God.

Maybe you could go and be a school teacher in China for the kingdom of God.

Some other practical applications.

You know, there's a there's a man who goes to church here, his name's Jim Morrissey, and he over in Aliana, he walks around over there regularly and prays and meets people.

You could talk to Jim, and and you can go over, you don't even need to talk to Jim.

You can just go over there and pray and walk around and meet people.

You'll be surprised how many people there are, and and and just they're from all over the world.

You know, this week uh you got an email from me, which you guys you responded amazingly to.

Within 24 hours, all the needs of those Afghan refugees in that hotel that we knew of at the time were met.

And and so thank you so much.

But they still have a lot more needs.

I'm probably gonna be sending out more emails with more opportunities for you to get involved in that.

There are people from our church that have gone over there and been serving, and and and I look in their eyes and there's a sparkle in their eyes.

Because they're doing what God has called them to do.

They're being a people that are on mission.

I don't know that I've enjoyed a week at church more than this week when I'm over there serving those Afghani refugees because I'm living on mission for Jesus.

Maybe that is what you're called to.

You're probably getting an email from me this week.

Um, Houston Welcomes Refugees is another organization that we partner with.

They need help.

There are more refugees coming in the next month, more than they really have are able to handle.

They need more people to volunteer and be on a team that welcomes refugees.

They need more people that are gonna get homes ready for refugees when they come.

They need more people to pack welcome kits for the refugees.

If you're interested in that, come and talk to me.

Husbands, wives, do you realize a lot of you, your children, are in unreached mission field?

And actually, probably the primary mission field that he's calling you to.

You need to reach that unreached people group.

Are you doing everything you can to display the gospel to them?

And are you not just displaying the gospel to them and hoping they get saved one day, but are you training them to be disciples that make disciples?

Are you worried at all about their friends and whether or not they follow Jesus too?

Are you training your kids how to reach their friends?

You know, maybe it's the guy in the cubicle next to you.

Does he even know that you're a believer?

Have you ever talked to him?

Maybe it's your neighbor that lives next door to you.

Have you ever talked to them?

And maybe you just need to go up to them and say, you know, I'm sorry.

I can I apologize to you?

Like, I've never shared something with you that's really important to me.

The most important thing in my life is I'm a follower of Jesus.

And I've never shared that with you.

And you need to know, do you have any questions about that?

Let's let's let's talk about it and just see where the conversation goes.

Do you guys remember a couple years ago in LA?

I think it was early 90s.

Some of you remember somebody too young to remember, but there was an earthquake in LA.

Remember, it was a really bad earthquake in the early 90s.

So during that earthquake, there's this guy in his car, the road starts shaking, so he pulls over to the side.

And he waits for the ground to stop shaking, and then he he continues on home.

And part of his trip home, it took him across the bridge.

So he begins to go across this bridge and he sees the car's taillights in front of him, and they're just kind of slowly disappearing.

He's like, that's weird.

So he starts to slow down a little bit and he's like, Why are the car's taillights in front of me disappearing?

And he gets right up to the edge where the bridge has collapsed and slams on the brakes, and he's like, Oh no, like the bridge has collapsed, and people are going over because they can't see it.

So he jumps out of his car, starts waving his arms like a crazy person, and saying, Please don't stop.

And people look at him like he's a crazy person and they just keep going right over.

He like another car goes over, another car goes over.

It doesn't matter how much he waves his arms, and he sees down the road, he sees a passenger bus is coming.

And he's like, I cannot let a passenger bus go over.

He says, Either I die or we're gonna stop this bus.

One of the two are gonna happen.

So he runs up, gets in front of the passenger bus, raising his arms like a crazy guy, and says, Stop.

And the passenger driver's like, get out of the way.

We're trying to drive.

But the driver stops.

And he gets up there and he says, Look, you were about to go over the edge.

And the driver, you know, the driver's face gets white.

He's like, Oh my, this is not good.

And so the driver then gets the bus and he's able to block the lane so nobody else goes over.

Why did this guy do this?

Why was he willing to make himself look like a crazy person?

Because he didn't want people to die.

Do you realize the person in the cubicle next to you, the person sitting beside you in your classroom at school, the person in the coffee shop, if they don't know Jesus, they're going to hell.

I don't have a nicer way to say that.

That's what each and every one of us deserve.

Because we're all sinners.

We're all far from God.

And yes, some of us now we're saved.

And he's forgiven us and made us righteous in him.

But your coworker, if they don't know that and they've never surrendered their life to Jesus, that is not true for them.

Do you care?

Lives are at stake.

And not just temporal ones, eternal ones.

And I think we want to be a church that makes disciples of all nations.

There's one more thing in here, it's very encouraging.

He says, I've commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

This is Jesus saying, the creator of the entire universe lives in you.

He has empowered you.

So when you go out and you try to talk to your neighbor, or you go and you help Afghani refugees, or whatever it is that he's calling you to do, you're not doing it alone.

He goes before you.

You know, when you're a little kid and you're holding your daddy's hand and your dad takes you to do stuff, you have no fear because you trust your dad, right?

If you trust your dad, how could you not trust the savior of the entire creator of the entire universe?

There is no being that has more authority or more power than him, and he is with you no matter what you're doing.

That should greatly encourage you.

It should embolden you.

So this new building over here, it's a great blessing.

But Neil's preaching isn't gonna fill it.

It's gonna be you guys that do it.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, you're gonna go out and you're gonna reach the people in this community, and you're gonna draw them closer to Jesus.

As you make disciples, as you boldly proclaim the truth.

So I have some questions up here on the screen.

I want you to take a little moment to think about it.

I want you to ask God, God, what are you speaking to me today?

Brant talked about a lot of stuff, but what are you calling me to do in the next week?

I need an action plan, Lord.

Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, come and speak to us now.

Show us what you're doing in our hearts.

Give us a plan.

Give us something that we can practically do this week to begin to be people that are living our lives on mission for you because there is no greater joy on this earth than to get our hearts aligned with you and begin to live on mission with you, Lord.

Lord, I'm convinced that some of us that are struggling with depression and other things, some of it's just we just we haven't been in alignment with you.

We are not on mission with you.

And if we get on mission, I think some of that stuff would start to go away, Lord.

So would you come?

Would you speak to us?

Show us what we need to do this week.

Your name I pray.

Amen.

So, Lord, we trust this morning that you spoke.

Pray give us the courage to go out and obey what you're speaking to us, Lord.

Your name I pray.

Amen.

So listen, there's a there's a video here of some things that are going on in our church.

So if you could just direct your attention up here to the screen.

Thank you for joining us today.

Here's some things we want you to know.

Next week, services will change to 9 a.m.

and 1030 a.m.

on January 30th as we gather to worship in the new building.

Bible studies will take place at 8:45 a.m.

with a large gathering in the current sanctuary, then move to individual rooms for classes.

During the 10:30 service, pre-K through fourth grade kids will attend service, then be dismissed to the kids' building during the last song to go to kids' church.

The building is open today for you to take a look, find a place to sit, and give thanks.

The table is happening tonight at 6:30 p.m.

All women are invited for an evening of worship and to have the incredible opportunity to hear from Kathy Lorzello, the co-founder of the Allender Center in Seattle, Washington.

If you're new or would like someone to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Okay, so if you want to worship by giving, there's boxes here and back in the back.

As well, if you're new here and you want to get connected to the church, there's connect cards in the back of your pew there.

If you want to fill one of them out, we'd love to get to know you.

Um and also, you heard in the video, if you want to, you're able to go over to the building after this and just check it out.

Okay?

So would you guys stand with me?

I want to pray a prayer of blessing over you.

So, Lord, this morning, I send these people out in your name, Jesus, to be ambassadors for your kingdom, to represent you.

Would you empower them by your Holy Spirit to go out and to share the good news, to share the joy that's within them?

I pray it would begin to bubble up and spill out all over people around them, Lord.

Work through them in your name, Jesus.

Amen.