19th Anniversary Service - SouthernHills Church

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you all way, even to the end of the age, amen.

Do you know where Jesus said this?

He said this to his disciples as his final phrase.

Years and years of teaching, Jesus went with these disciples as they followed him.

And Jesus had already been crucified when this happened.

He had already been buried and he rose from the grave when this took place.

Now Jesus had spent the last few weeks with his disciples to prepare them to spread the gospel around the world,

as the apostles were supposed to.

And his very last words to them, which probably are the most important words that any man could ever say to his friends.

His final words is what we call the Great Commission.

Where Jesus sends his disciples forward and telling them that their main job is to go and make disciples.

Now that you're part of Southern Hills, you might be asking, okay, what do we do as a church?

The answer to that question is we make disciples for Jesus.

When I say what do we do as a church, I want you to say we make disciples for Jesus.

What do we do as a church?

Let's do it again, let's do it again.

What do we do as a church?

So that's all we've ever wanted to do for the last 19 years.

When Heather and I first started the church, and Robert Tate, and Jessica Graves, and Ron Solis,

all we wanted to do was make disciples for Jesus Christ to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.

And if you look at this passage, it really breaks down very simply.

There are three commands of Jesus in this passage.

He says to his followers, he says to his disciples, I want you to go, therefore, to all nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

Do you see it in the passage?

The three words are go, baptize, teach.

Say it with me.

Go, baptize, teach.

It's possible for our church to continue to do this if each and every one of us make a commitment to go, baptize, and teach.

Now, if you come from a different type of a church background, you may have a false assumption.

And that is, okay, Josh, you're the pastor, what you're telling us is our job is to tell you to go, baptize, and teach.

And I'm saying it's exactly the opposite.

My job is to stir you up to remember that it's your job to go and baptize and teach.

My job as the shepherd is to help the sheep reproduce themselves in the followers of Jesus Christ.

The shepherd can't reproduce sheep.

Can I get an amen?

Some of you need to understand biology.

Amen, right?

The shepherd can't have sheep, but the shepherd can make a conducive environment.

Oh, there goes my caramel macchiato.

Now everybody knows I'm a phony.

I'm a fake.

There's nothing in this cup.

It's a prop.

My job is to make an environment that you can safely follow the Great Commission and effectively bring people to Jesus Christ.

Go, baptize, teach.

Let's talk about all three of these.

Of the three, go, baptize, teach.

Which is the first?

Go.

Okay, let's talk about go.

How do Christians go?

It simply is this.

We as Christians do not just come and gather.

And that's what a lot of Christians think churches.

They think church is a place to gather and hear a funny man talk about the Bible.

Or maybe if it's a certain pastor, a sad man talking about the Bible.

All right, and in your mind, or some pastors, an angry man talking about the Bible, right?

That's not what church is.

Church is a place where we gather to study about Jesus, get inspired to go, and tell others about Jesus.

Go.

And this happens all the time.

Opportunities all the time.

Like this morning.

I literally was at Starbucks this morning.

And I was getting my coffee before this morning, early in the morning.

I stopped in, grabbed my cup of coffee.

I sat there for a couple of minutes, went over my notes, and I prayed.

And then I left.

And as I left, perfect timing, I walked out the door.

I went to get in my car and another car pulled up.

It was a man about my age and his teenage daughter.

And for whatever reason, he said out of the blue, he said,

Bro! And I looked over, he said, you got great hair.

Like, first of all, that's not the first time I've heard it.

You know what I'm talking about?

Like, it's something I hear.

It's something I hear.

You know what I mean?

It is what it is.

And I love it because it was just like every other dude.

Like, that's how guys, you know, compliment.

They have to begin with Bro, right?

Otherwise, it gets really awkward.

Like, if he just walked up and said, you have great hair, it gets a little awkward.

But he said, Bro! And I'm like, Bro!

And he's like, Bro! And I'm like, Bro!

And he's like, you got great hair.

And I'm like, Bro!

And I said, you got a great t-shirt.

And his t-shirt was really cool.

It was like a human being with a dog head.

And I'm like, do you got a great t-shirt?

It's just this morning.

You got a great t-shirt.

And he's like, yeah, you can buy my t-shirt.

I can't buy your hair, you know?

And I'm like, it was kind of an awkward, sad moment for everybody.

His teenage daughter was like, oh, what is happening?

We were having like a dad moment, you know what I mean?

And so I'm like, I laughed and he laughed.

He went inside to grab a cup of coffee and I sat in my car.

I put it in reverse because I had to run over here and do something before the service.

And as I'm pulling out, literally, as I'm pulling out, God says to me, go!

And I'm like, go what?

And he's like, what, you're taught, like you're a sermon, go, go invite him to church.

And I'm like, no, that's what they're supposed to do.

I'm advanced.

I was just, you know, like, it's weird, it's awkward, and I'm going to have to go back in.

So I'm like, oh, geez, okay.

Thank you.

And then I got out of the car.

Have you ever argued with Jesus?

Have you ever fought with him a little bit?

You're like, I think that message was for somebody else.

So I did.

I jumped out of the car and I grabbed one of those little, oh, and I looked in my car for those brochures.

There's a bunch of brochures.

We give them out right there on that rack out there.

And I looked in my car for him and I could not find him.

And I'm like, Jesus, I don't have them.

And he's like, that's on you.

It sounds like a you problem.

And so I'm looking, I'm like, okay, where's the brochure?

And I looked in my glove box and there were like two old ones from a while ago.

And I'm like, okay, there's one.

And I grabbed that, I walked back in and I'm telling you, you think because I've done this for 19 years,

you think it's not awkward.

It's always a little weird.

I walked up and I'm like, bro.

And he's like, he did.

He was like, I thought we were done.

You know what I mean?

I thought we did the whole thing and we're done.

He's like, bro.

And I'm like, bro.

And he's like, hey, and I'm like, okay, this might be weird, but I'm a Christian.

I go to the church down the road.

I feel like God wants me to give this to you.

And I just gave it to him, just like you would do.

Just like you would do.

And he took it and he looked at it.

He's like, man, thank you for this.

Now, I wish I could say at that moment he started crying and said, Jesus needs to save me.

He didn't say any of that.

He just said, thank you.

You say, well, what's going to happen?

I don't know, but I did just obey Jesus.

I goad.

I goaded.

I did the past tense of going.

I did go.

That's what Jesus wants of all of us to go.

Now, who are we to go to?

Yeah, you can go to random strangers, sure.

But one of the people that you could be most effective with is going to your family, friends, coworkers, neighbors.

Family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, go.

There's a really cool story about a demon-possessed man in Matthew, Mark, chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

Jesus is with his disciples in a boat coming across the Sea of Galilee.

They dock their boat on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and when they do, they dock the boat right next to a graveyard.

This graveyard was a graveyard filled with caves and caverns right up against the Golan Heights that overlook the Sea of Galilee.

And when they park the boat, it's the middle of the night.

It's a creepy middle-of-the-night graveyard scene when Jesus and his disciples walk off the boats and they arrive and stand in the graveyard.

And all of a sudden, the Bible says, a wild maniac of a man starts running out of the graveyard directly at them.

He is screaming and yelling.

He is stark naked.

True.

And he's taking stones because he's demon-possessed and he's cutting himself, so he's bleeding profusely all over his body.

Some preachers call him the nude dude with the rude attitude.

That's a dumb joke, but it's true.

He runs out of the graveyard, he runs up to Jesus, and the first thing he does is he yells at Jesus because he's filled with demons.

He says, we know who you are and we know that you have come to send us to the pit before it's our time.

The demons know that one day they're all going to end up in the pit of hell, and so they're fearful that Jesus is going to send them early.

So they run up to Jesus and they say, we know who you are and we know that you're...

Jesus doesn't direct his comments to the demon. He directs his comments to the man. What is your name?

But the demons respond, our name is Legion, for we are many.

That's the response.

So Jesus addresses the demons and long story short, he casts the demons out of the man, saves the man's life, and brings a right mindset back into the man.

The demons are gone, the man is saved. His entire life is now in front of him.

And now the Bible says he's bowing down before Jesus.

He has a robe over him, he's in his right mind finally again, and Jesus has saved him.

That's the final scene of the story. Can you picture it?

The demon possessed man looks up at Jesus and he says to Jesus these words,

please allow me to come and follow you on the boat.

Please let me come with you.

And you would think that Jesus would say, yeah, you can follow me.

But Jesus says no.

Why in the world does Jesus say no?

It's found in Mark chapter five, look at the screen.

He says in Mark chapter five verse nineteen, go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you.

And how he has had compassion on you.

Can I tell you what the message of God might be for you today?

Go home and tell your friends the great things that Jesus has done for you.

And how Jesus had compassion on you.

Have you ever lived long enough in this world that you think to yourself, man, this world is really messed up.

Not only is it messed up out there, it's messed up even in my own life.

And look at the mess that I've created.

It's not a great place.

God in heaven, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just go to heaven to be with you?

And Jesus says no.

I want you to go home to your family, friends, neighbors and relatives and tell them all the things that I've done for you.

There's a very specific reason.

Now picture it. We're sitting together over a cup of coffee. It's just you and me.

There is a very specific reason Jesus does not have you in heaven right now.

I don't care if you're 99 years old or you're 9 years old.

There's a very specific reason.

God does not have you in heaven right now.

It's because it's your job to go.

And you have a short lifespan to tell everybody all that Jesus has done for you.

Who is it?

Who is the one person in your life you're supposed to bring to Southern Hills?

Who is it?

I'm going to do something very odd.

And I know if you're new to church, this part of the sermon might not be for you.

But if you're part of Southern Hills, who is it?

I'm going to do something very odd.

I'm going to pray right in the middle of my sermon.

Right now I'm going to pray and I'm going to ask that God, the Holy Spirit,

would talk to your heart and tell you the one person that you're supposed to bring to Jesus.

Okay? God?

I'm asking you to do something I have no capability of doing.

You know all these people better than I do.

You're their savior, not me. You're their shepherd, not me.

Will you speak to their hearts and bring to mind for them individually the one person

that you want them to bring to church, the one person in their life they need Jesus?

Okay?

So look up here.

Who is it that God told you to bring to church?

For many of you, there's a name, there's a face that is coming to mind for some of you.

It's the chuchu train that's coming to mind right now.

What do we do as a church? Here's what we do.

For those over there that like chuchu train, there was a train.

Alright, never mind. Alright.

What do we do as a church? Here's what we do.

We stay on earth and we go for Jesus.

And Jesus is calling you to go and bring the gospel.

Not only do we go to our community, our family, friends, coworkers, neighbors,

we also go all over the world.

Did you know that your church is involved in what's called international evangelism?

It's called worldwide missions.

And at Southern Hills, you have an opportunity of being involved in worldwide missions,

being a missionary.

Every time you give financially to Southern Hills, did you know 10% of that goes to

international and worldwide evangelism?

But not only do you pray for missionaries and give to missionaries,

that you have an opportunity of actually going on missions trips.

One of the things that's going to change, Ron, over the last years as a church,

we haven't really been a missions trip type of a church.

We've done a few.

But Pastor Jason and I have spent a lot of time visionaring for the future

and deciding that our church is going to be a missionary type of a church.

Which means every year you're going to hear about missionary trip opportunities.

Not for you just to send missionaries, but for you temporarily for a week,

for three weeks, for a month, become a missionary,

go to a foreign field and learn what it is to bring the gospel to other countries and other nations.

In fact, we have one coming up here in November that I'm going to be leading down to Mexico personally.

And if you want to come to that, you should come.

Take the time off.

Give that time to the Lord and see what a missionary really truly does.

You can scan that QR code to find out more about it.

What's the point? What's the point? Here's the point.

The point is, if we are to be a disciple making church, first and foremost,

we must go. Say go.

Number two, what's the second word we talked about?

Baptize.

Ladies and gentlemen, why don't we congratulate one more time all those who are baptized today.

Give them a round of applause.

Give it.

Awesome.

What were they doing? What were they doing?

Baptism is not salvation.

Baptism is an outward expression of an inward decision.

What happened in front of you a moment ago was not people getting saved,

having their sins washed away.

They were already saved and their sins were already washed away

when they by faith repented of their sins and asked Jesus to save them.

So at some point they had already done that. Many of them are Starbucks.

Amen.

Okay.

The question is, have you been saved?

Have you been born again?

You say, well, I think whenever I was a kid, somebody poured water on my head,

I'm asking, have you been saved?

I've always believed in God. Satan believes in God. Have you been saved?

Have you been born again?

Is there a moment in your life where you realize,

I cannot do anything to earn my salvation, but Jesus Christ died for my sins upon the cross.

I repent of my sin and I'm asking Him to be my savior.

Has there been a day that you've been saved?

If the answer to that is no, you should meet with me and we can talk about how to get saved.

If the answer is yes and you haven't been baptized,

your next step is the outward confession of the inward decision.

It's to show everybody that you have been saved through the symbolism of baptism.

Romans chapter 6 says that when somebody is baptized,

Romans 6 · chapter mention

their old life dies and is buried in the water,

and their new life has come as they walk in newness life when they come out of the water.

That's the symbolism of baptism.

You may not know this, but baptism, baptism is a funeral service.

What you just witnessed was like nine or whatever eight people and their funeral service.

You say, what do you mean?

It means their old life, Valerie's old life is gone.

It died and was buried with Christ, Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

And her new life has begun.

Maybe you're here today, you're like, man, I need a fresh start.

I have screwed this up.

I need Christ to save me.

You need to repent and receive Christ.

And if you already have, you need to follow Him into the waters of baptism

and go through the symbolism of the old life dead that new life has begun.

But it's not just symbolism, it's identification.

When somebody gets baptized, they are identifying with Jesus Christ.

Just like this.

What is this?

Josh, you know what this is?

This is a wedding ring.

What does this tell you about me, Josh?

What that I'm cuffed.

Everybody pray for Josh tonight.

Because that was not the right answer.

Josh is one of my disciples, one of my mentees,

and I hate to publicly let you know in front of everybody, not cool, bro, not cool.

I'm just kidding, that was dumb too.

All right, all right.

It means that I'm blessed.

Yes, yeah.

And permanently chained to Heather.

Amen, all right.

What this tells you about me in our culture is that I'm a married man.

It means that I belong to somebody else.

When somebody is baptized, it's a symbol like a wedding ring.

When you're baptized, you say, I now belong to Jesus.

Now, when somebody, if I took off my ring, would I still be married?

Well, yes.

If a single man put on a ring, would that make them married?

Yes or no?

No, no.

Why?

Because this is a symbol.

It's an identifying marker.

It exemplifies an outward, an inward decision in an outward way.

So is baptism.

Now, some of you in this room may have grown up religious

and you put a lot of weight in your baptism.

You're like, I know I'm going to heaven because somebody gave me a ring when I was a baby.

That's like saying, I know I'm married because my parents, when I was a baby,

wanted me to become a married person.

Yet you never met anybody.

You never dated.

You never got married.

You're alone.

Just because you are baptized as a child doesn't mean Christ is your savior.

Bubble burst.

What it does mean is that at some point somebody was telling you about Jesus,

which is awesome, but you have to get to a place where you personally call upon him to be your savior.

He calls upon you to be his disciple.

You say, yes, I do.

You're married.

You're follower of Christ.

And then you put on the ring saying, I want to follow you.

Baptism.

Does this make sense?

No.

Now, maybe you're here today.

You're like, I don't think I've ever been baptized.

Why don't you scan?

Can we put the QR code?

Why don't you decide to get baptized?

On this QR code shows you, if you scan that, you can sign up for our next baptism,

which takes place in October.

Now, if you're new to the church, you say, what are you doing?

At our church, we want it to be very practical, very next step oriented.

What's the next thing I'm supposed to do?

And if you've not been baptized, scan that QR code.

You say, well, I don't even know that I've been saved.

Here's what your next step is.

If you don't know that you're a Christian, you've never been born again, please hear this.

Come and talk to me.

I'm a very approachable person with great hair.

Okay.

After the service, I'm going to stand right here.

And it's totally 100% on you whether or not you say, I'm going to have the courage to go schedule an appointment with Pastor Josh.

We're going to go to coffee.

We're going to talk about my own salvation.

Does that make sense?

Come and talk to me.

See, as a church, our job is to make disciples for Jesus.

We do this by, number one, go.

Number two, baptize.

Number three, does anybody remember the third one?

Teach.

When I say number three, you say teach.

Three.

We got to teach.

Now, how do we teach at our church?

Well, one of the ways we teach is what I'm doing right here.

But I'm not the only teacher of the church.

Did you know every Sunday while we sit here, there are hundreds of children that are being taught the word of God in our Kidopolis Children's program.

And could it be possible because some of you have a way with children, some of you are incredible teachers in the community, some of you are incredible homeschool dads or homeschool moms, you have a way to teach that others, other adults don't.

Could it be possible that God is calling you to help teach the children of Southern Hills in our Kidopolis program?

Did you know that while we grow to over 1500 members as a church, that that means we have many, many children who need to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ?

At the age of three and four and five, you say, well, their parents should tell them that.

That may be true, but there's a lot of parents who don't know the Bible like you do.

Which means they bring their church, their kids to church to hear the Bible from people like you.

Could it be possible that God might have you be one of our Kidopolis teachers?

What about Awana?

Did you know our church is starting a brand new program next year?

One year from today, we're starting a brand new program called Awana.

How many of you have ever heard of Awana if you have?

Why don't we hear it?

Amen? You like Awana?

It's a great cataclysm program for children to teach them scripture.

They memorize it.

When we start this 12 months from now, we're going to need a lot of workers, a lot of leaders.

Maybe God right now is putting on your heart to teach children.

Did you know every Sunday night in this room, we have many, many teenagers who come.

It's called the Ascent.

It's our youth ministry.

Ages 12, all the way to what is it?

Jeffrey like 18 or something?

And all the teenagers come and have an incredible pastor named Pastor Caleb and a great program.

Could it be possible that your teenagers should come and hear the teaching of the Word of God?

See, we not only teach children, but we also teach within our small group system.

I love small group.

How many of you are involved in a small group right now?

Would you raise your hand?

How many of you are involved in a small group?

A lot of you are.

How many of you have ever been in a small group with me?

How many of you have ever been in a small group with me?

I love, it's so much fun.

Here's one of the small groups that I've been part of for a couple years.

I think this was taken about a year ago.

Is it Enrique and Nathan and Josh, Jordan, there's David, Sal.

Every week what we do is we gather at a, guess where we gather?

Starbucks, correct, good job, yeah.

We gather at a Starbucks.

And we have, I don't know what our church is like, 50 small groups, I don't know how many.

And they meet all over the city, all throughout the week, and this is what they do.

They open the Bible and they study.

There's a reason why I go to a small group, two reasons.

Number one, I need, I need Christian fellowship.

Number two, I need more Bible study than I get.

And small group provides both.

You say, but that's what church is for.

When you come to church on Sunday morning, it's like in college or in university.

They have a lecture lab model.

Do you understand?

You have a lecture in college where in the university there's going to be one guy like this

giving a big lecture for 50 minutes.

But then they have a lab where you get hands on with what you were taught in lecture.

That's what small group is.

This is the lecture, small group is the lab.

Is it possible you've not been growing in the Bible as much as you could?

Is it possible that you've not been growing in your faith with God the way you could

because all you're getting is the lecture?

You say, well, how do I join a small group?

That's a good question.

We have something coming up.

It's called pick your tribe.

And whenever you have an opportunity to find your tribe, you scan that QR code,

it'll help you find one of the 40 to 50 different small groups that we have.

And here's why, here's why, here's why.

Because the point of the church is to make disciples.

And we cannot help you become a disciple of Jesus unless you're being taught the word of God,

teaching your children, teaching through small groups, teaching through discipleship.

You might be interested in one-on-one spiritual coaching.

We provide it.

It's called discipleship.

It's like having a spiritual life coach.

And I disciple, but there are many in our church, men and women, couples who disciple others.

And if you're interested, this is me with my disciple, my personal one-on-one disciple.

His name is Lorenzo, and at the third service, he'll be sitting right here with his three boys.

Discipleship.

We don't just provide one-on-one discipleship.

We also provide classes to teach the Bible.

Like in a few weeks in September, I'm going to be teaching every Tuesday night, right here,

a new Bible study where just like this, I'll be walking through for eight weeks on Tuesday night

to the book of 1 Thessalonians.

We teach the Bible as often as we possibly can.

You say, I want to come to that class, all you have to do is show up.

Tuesday night, 7 o'clock, 1 Thessalonians, eight weeks long.

And that's just one of the many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many classes that we provide.

You say, Pastor Josh, what's your point?

Here's the point.

You're part of the church now.

God brought you here.

I want you to get more involved.

And you have to now, because I bought you a cup of Starbucks.

For some of you, that just means to go to your friend, family, co-worker, neighbor, and bring them to church.

You already know who it is, and you're like, okay, I got to do it.

For some of you, you need to take that step of baptism.

Or meet with me and talk about salvation.

For some of you, it's to go beyond. It's to start serving and teaching.

Maybe join a small group. Maybe go on a mission trip.

19 years. It's been fun so far.

19 years of Starbucks and 19 years of preaching and 19 years of building buildings.

And 19 years of going, baptizing, and teaching.