GO // INTRODUCTION // PASTOR RUSS CHAMBERS

And Jesus came and 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 I

have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always

to the end of the age. Good

morning, Resurrection Church, how we doing today?

So good to see you. My name is Russ.

If I've not gotten to meet you yet, we're honored that you're

here checking out church, joining us for a new series

today. This series is called Go.

It's our mission series. You're going to be meeting a lot

of our missionaries around the world.

Our point is not to have travel agents come in and tell you

about their trips, though. It's for you to realize the

scope and the scale of what Jesus is doing through his

bride, the church that he is redeemed by his blood all over

the earth. We are a sent people.

Our entire message is a message that is meant to cross political

lines, racial lines, economic lines.

It is meant to go to the worst of the worst and the best of the

best. It's meant to be proclaimed in

castles and it's meant to be proclaimed in the slums.

And we have been commissioned as the hands and feet of Jesus,

empowered by his Holy Spirit to carry that message to the

nation's. Now at Resurrection Church, we

have a mission that we exist for, and we believe it's the

church's mission in general. It's not unique to us, but it is

something that a Church of Jesus Christ is consumed with.

And that mission is given to us in the form of this thing called

the Great Commission. It's something that Jesus gives

us in the book of Matthew. What many of you may not know is

that though we build our mission statement out of the Commission

that's called great in Matthew chapter 28, is there's five

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

other commissioning statements that are made about the church

throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the book of Acts.

All of them have some similarities to them.

But I think it's worthy for us to take some time before we look

at the Great Commission, which is central to the mission of our

church in Matthew 28 to read through these and make 2 quick

points about all of these commissioning statements for the

local church. The first commissioning

statement outside of Matthew chapter 28 that you'll find in

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

your Bible is Mark chapter 16, verse 15.

Mark 16:15

It says this. Jesus said to them, Go into all

the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does

not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany

those who go out in my name. They will cast out demons and

they will speak in tongues. They will pick up serpents with

their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not

hurt them, and they will lay hands on the sick and they will

recover. Luke goes on in Luke chapter 24

Luke 24 · chapter mention

with another Commission for the church.

Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

Luke 2445 and Jesus said to them, verse 46.

Thus it is written that Christ should suffer on the third day,

rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of

sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning

from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these

things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father, That's

the Holy Spirit upon you. But stay in the city until you

are clothed with power by the Spirit.

On high. John chapter 20, verse 21.

John 20:21

Jesus said to them again, peace. Be with.

You. As the father has.

Sent me so I am sending you. And when he.

Had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive

the Holy Spirit. If you forgive.

The sins of any they are forgiven them and if you

withhold forgiveness of any, it is withheld.

Then in Acts chapter one, verse 8, the last commissioning

statement outside of Matthew 28, which we call the Great

Commission, we get this Acts 18, you will receive power.

When the holy. Spirit has come upon you, and

you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and

to the ends of the earth. There's two common threads

through every one of these things that should mark a

church. Number one is the presence and

the power that comes only through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is essential to the life of the believer, David

Platt said. Perhaps the greatest travesty of

the American church is the attempt of the local American

church to do the work of God without the Spirit of God.

It is powerless if it is not by His Spirit.

Every great revival in our country's history has started

with a cry from the pulpit of revering the Holy Spirit.

Where there is great reverence for the Holy Spirit, there's a

powerful church and there's an empowered people.

Where there's an irreverence for the Holy Spirit, there's a

religious people and a powerless church.

You and I have been called to live under the leadership and

lordship moment by moment and minute by minute of the Holy

Spirit. It is by the Holy Spirit that we

fulfill the calling that God has on our lives.

It is by the Holy Spirit that we become the people that are the

image of Christ so that we can mirror that to the nations

around us. It is apart from the Holy Spirit

that we become nothing but a self-righteous people who are

nothing but a greater noise in a world that's already.

Noisy. Looking for true hope that can

only be found in the gospel. If we do not Revere the Holy

Spirit in this church, we will die.

If we are not led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, our words

will be meaningless chatter. But it is through the Holy

Spirit that God has promised that He will not only begin a

good work, but complete that good work in US and in our

church. It is only by the Holy.

Spirit that we have confidence that the Commission we've been

called to as the local church is something that Jesus will

fulfill. And we are.

Promised that fulfillment in Revelation Chapter 7 where we

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

read that and the end. Every tribe, every nation, and

every tongue will be gathered around the throne of God,

declaring in one voice that He is King and Lord forever and

ever. So what do we see as a common

thread for the local church? The local church is to be a

spirit filled church. What do we see as a common

thread through an? Effective follower of Jesus

there to be a spirit filled follower of Jesus if you are

living a powerless existence is probably because you are

grieving or have not surrendered to the.

Leadership and Lordship of the Holy Spirit in your life.

The second thread that we see is that the message of the gospel

must go to all nations. It's empowered by the Holy

Spirit, but it must go to all nations.

That means this is not a message for well put together people or

Christian people who are raised in Christian homes.

This is a message that is to go to the ends of the earth.

You have, I have. We have been sent so that the

streets will be filled with the proclamation of the gospel.

Let me ask you a question. A question that I pondered in my

journal this week is the question that's been consuming

my mind. It's a kind of awkward question,

but think about it. Why do you have a mouth?

Why do you have a mouth? To speak, To breathe, To eat.

Right. There's a lot of reasons behind

this, and the Psalms speak a lot about the purpose of the mouth,

the danger of the mouth. A mouth can dis unify a church

and unify a church. A mouth can divide it and unify.

A mouth can shoot out arrows that condemn and can shoot out

words that uplift. A mouth is a powerful weapon, in

fact. Your mouth, perhaps, is one of

the greatest gifts. That you've been given, but it

still doesn't answer the question of this foundation.

As to why you have one, why do? You have a mouth, you see from

your creation, we believe you were given a mouse so that you

could vertically. Join in with the.

Heavenly Host, in praise to God. The only reason you have a mouth

is to give God His worth in your worship through your words.

Right now there is a reality that is happening over us that

you do not see, but it is nonetheless there above you.

There is a God who is seated in the heavens in authority,

reigning and ruling. And His rule and His reign are

not just authorities that are being exerted in heaven, but

they are overarching all of human history and time.

And as He sits in that authority, reigning and ruling,

there are a created people called angels that are consumed

with the presence of God. So consume that before the

foundations of the earth, there have been a group of Seraphim

angels that with two wings, they cover their feet with two wings,

they cover their face with two wings, they are flying and they

are crying out with such heartily praise that it shakes

the heavens. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.

And they're not tired of singing that song.

They're not tired of declaring that word.

It is the praise that is befitting the God whose presence

they are in. And they cannot get enough of

declaring His Holiness in His presence.

And you and I, as created people on earth have been invited as we

observe creation and we see the glory of the Creator behind it,

to join in with our mouths in that praise, to echo that same

song that we too, as a redeemed people by the blood of Jesus,

would sing with our mouths. A vertical praise in our lives

and in our words and in our deeds and in everything about us

by the Holy Spirit that He is holy and worthy and triumphant.

And and reigning and returning so that through our praise.

The gospel would be proclaimed. You see, your mouth has been

given to you so that you would. Worship God vertically but

horizontally so that you could proclaim His good news.

It's what you're here for. The only reason the believer

lives on this earth after giving their life to Jesus is to

proclaim His excellencies to the nations that have not heard.

The only reason you're here? I mean, why are you here in

church? You know there's football on,

right? And it's going to be after 10

till you leave here. Why are you here?

To appease God by checking a box to show up Because you ought to

are to be equipped for the mission that you've been

redeemed and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live.

If my words don't equip you to change your life and change your

community and see change take place in your family, then I

have failed you as a pastor and we are wasting time with the

subpar. Show the purpose of gathering

together so that you would be encouraged enough to be

courageous when you leave here. But if what we do here doesn't

matter there, then we are wasting our time.

So what's core at every commissioning statement?

What must happen if we are to be His people?

There must rise up within us a desperation for Jesus and a cry

that calls for reverence to the lordship and leadership of His

Spirit in our life that leads to us with our mouths proclaiming

to the nation's, the worship and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's what we're here for. Using our mouth for anything

else is substandard usage. It's taking what was given to us

to give Him honor and glory and using it for something else.

Using our time, using our house, using our resources for anything

that's not for His gospel is to make a great error.

As a believer, there's nothing that Jesus doesn't rightly look

at and say mine in your life. Your time is His.

Your marriage is His. Your relationships and

influence, guess who they are? His.

It all belongs to Him. So this series is a series where

we are galvanizing and challenging you to remember the

calling that you've been called to.

Perhaps there's no better church in Revelation that describes the

American church than Ephesus. Ephesus was the church that

started out on fire. It was the church that

represented God greatly. But somewhere in all of the

access to knowledge and theology, somewhere in all of

their hearty defense of the faith, they forgot about what it

was really about, which was a growing adoration and affection

for Christ. Somewhere along the line, the

Church of Ephesus lost its desperation for Jesus.

So whenever John writes to them on behalf of our Lord Jesus, he

says, remember your first love. Before I remove your lampstand

church, remember your first love.

Why is it that I'm so drawn to the hymn?

Prone to wander, Lord, I fear it.

Prone to leave the God I love? I mean, if there's an anthem of

my life on Monday, it is to walk out of a Sunday encounter with

the Church of God in His presence through His Word and to

wander away from the very purpose that I looked into,

knowing that Jesus died to redeem and give me.

So then that gets us to this thing called the Great

Commission in Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

The thing that we are trying to build this church off of, the

thing that continues to give U.S.

Open seats. Because when you challenge

people to do more than plop, pray, and pay, people tend to go

to other churches that'll let them do it, where they can hide

off mission, but holding on to a claim of trusting Jesus with

their eternity. This is a great travesty.

And not to the fault of those churches.

No, to the fault of disobedient believers who desire comfort

over calling, who want to be a part of big impact, but not with

the big cost that comes with it. We want to be there whenever big

things happen, yet we don't want to take up our cross and get in

the field and labor. So Jesus has one planned meeting

after his ascension or after his resurrection.

Excuse me, before his ascension, one planned meeting.

And the way that we know it was a planned meeting is Jesus told

some women just before Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

So the last people at the cross were women.

The first people at the tomb were women and the people who

called the only meeting after Jesus resurrection were women.

Why is this important? Well, First Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

15 tells us that more than 500 people showed up.

Obviously if you want something to get out, you tell women.

Been practicing that one all week.

They were told to go get the 11 to have a meeting in Galilee

because Jesus was going to meet them there.

Every other meeting Jesus has outside of this meeting after

his resurrection is unplanned. They're sitting in an upper

room. Jesus walks in and says peace be

with you. They are scared.

Thomas says I won't believe unless I put my hands where your

nail marks are. Jesus appears, he puts his hands

there. Jesus stands by the shore

whenever they're fishing. Unplanned meeting.

Jesus shows up for many of us. Jesus doesn't give you warning

when He's going to get you. Usually it's unplanned.

You know why? Because if He set a date with

you, you would all of a sudden get a cough.

A bunch of my pastoral friends we joke about needing good

church weather. You know what good church

weather is hot enough to where you don't want to stay home, but

not cold enough to where you also want to stay home.

It's got to be the perfect temperature.

And in Bakersfield it's a big trick because it's got to be a

perfect temperature where you can't go to the coast, but you

don't want to stay home either. Then it's perfect church

weather. It usually comes out about four

Sundays a year. Then all of a sudden the weather

aligns for you to brave it here in Bakersfield and show up to

church. So we're like, I didn't know it

was going to be this one. This is called an unplanned

meeting. Well, Jesus.

So Jesus comes to his disciples in Matthew chapter 28 verse 16,

Matthew 28:16

and it says this. Now the 11 disciples went to

Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, there's two responses.

They worshipped him, but some doubted.

Now this is one of the most fascinating things.

I've spent lots of time in the past discussing this, but the

sight of the resurrected Savior brings 2 responses.

Doubt in worship. Some see the resurrected Jesus

and they go how? And it's justifiable, right?

It's justifiable because we're told in Isaiah that he was.

Marred beyond recognition, most people didn't make it out of a

scourging alive. So from the neck down, it is

likely that there was little to no flesh left on Jesus's body

when he hung naked on the cross because he had been whipped with

the cat of nine tails or a flag run by a professional

executioner after having his hands stretched above his head

so that his ribs and his stomach.

Area will be exposed as a professional.

Executioner would have ripped the flesh off of his body.

If you had stayed to see. That which we know, the women

and John are the only ones that are still at the cross at the

end. All the other disciples have

retreated and run away. You would have seen him walk

down the Via Delarosa. Then he would have gotten to

Golgotha, the place the school where they would have plucked

his beard out and spit upon his face.

Then driving a crown of thorns into his head, they would have

beaten him until the thorns pressed into his skull.

Swelling would have been to a cure.

His face would be swollen from the hair that would have been

pulled out. He literally would have been

unrecognizable from the hours before his crucifixion.

So the idea one that three days later that person is walking

around, talking to people, eating food, showing up in

places where there's locked doors, that this is a miracle to

say the. Least but even 40 days in, even

if you had survived and not truly died, which Jesus died.

On the cross, the idea that you would walk away or be walking

around is still a highly unlikely thing.

Some of. You.

Sprained your knee and you're still not walking around.

You go to Walmart and get in that little and like my knee, I

got the right as you know. Jesus was scored, crucified,

buried and is walking. Around in 40 days, in three, and

then forty days after. Here's what's amazing.

Whether you come today to worship.

Him or doubt, you are all invited to the left being sent

and commissioned. Whether you came in today

worshipping God, giving Him His worth with your words, or you

came in today doubting God and looking for a reason to walk

away. You all are invited by the power

of His Holy Spirit and the example of His life and His

resurrection to walk out of here as they sent and changed and

commissioned people. God uses worshippers and God

uses doubters. Thank God He uses both.

Which then gets us to this incredible Commission, verse 18.

And Jesus came and he said to them, all authority in heaven

and on earth has been given to me.

All authority. All authority that.

That is to say that he not only holds authority in what is to

come in the afterlife, but He holds authority in what is

happening within time in this life.

It's to say that what he says and decrees as a reality in time

is not going to be overruled in eternity.

Because he has authority in both places, both within time and

outside of time. So his word isn't good in some

seasons of time. His word isn't good within some

cultures or good news for some people groups.

His word is good news for all people.

Because he has all authority over all of time and in all of

eternity. Guess what?

He has all authority. So because he sits in authority

over eternity and over temporary time, you can trust that what he

says to you and what he calls you to, he is going to

ultimately accomplish and do. You can trust that if He says

you are forgiven and redeemed by receiving through faith the work

of His Son on the cross, that His word is an authoritative

word, which means it is just for God to give you what He said He

would give you, being the chief authority over all time and over

all eternity. Now, many Christians in this

room live as if Jesus has authority over eternity, but you

act. As if he has no authority over

your time. And this is where the American

church has gone off the rails. We are filled with people who

profess the name of Jesus, who believe that on the last day he

is worthy of your praise and your confidence that his

salvation, his cross, his resurrection is sufficient for

you. Yet you can live your life as if

that authority doesn't demand allegiance in your daily living

today. Why would you live banking

eternity on him whenever you don't bank the temporary on him?

It makes no sense to me. I trust you for the future, but

I'm going to sit in my worry and myself righteous greed in the

present because my plan and my purpose still seems to be more

befitting and good to me than this mysterious path called

faith. Some of y'all got to get over

that. You don't have to know

everything in order to be sent. Some of y'all got to get over

that Jesus isn't going to show you everything that he's going

to call you to or send you to or use you in.

And that's part of the fun like get over your A type.

Got to plan it out, got to have a detailed reason for everything

self and allow the Spirit of God to do what he's going to do.

Here's your plan. You ready?

Plan one. Wake up and die to your

preference, to yourself, to your agenda, to your perspective, to

what you think is possible, to what you believe to be your

reality because of your worry. Die to that.

Take up your cross and follow Him.

That's how you live. That's how you honor God.

That's how you fulfill the Great Commission.

It's you under the authority of God, taking Him at His authority

seriously, so that you can be in power with that authority to be

His messenger and agent of change today.

But many of you don't take Him at His Word and His authority

seriously. Therefore you trust.

Him for your eternity, but you rebel and grieve His spirit in

what is temporal time. All authority in heaven, men on

earth has been given to me. Go.

Therefore. Now what we're going to see over

these next few verses is the four essentials to an effective

mission. Christian, if you want to live

on mission, there's four things that the Commission says the

Spirit has empowered you to do that.

If you are in obedience to the Holy Spirit, they will happen in

your life. If you're in rebellion or

grieving the Spirit, guess what won't be happening?

These four things. So what are we going to give you

a good assessment on? We're going to give you a good

assessment on how effectively you are daily living out your

walk with Jesus. What are we going to get at the

end of it? An invitation to submit to His

Spirit to be what you're not. This is not a self help thing.

This is not a try harder thing. This is a die.

Get your cross and get out of here.

The problem is you're trying to help the situation and you're

screwing it up more. Jesus is pretty clear in his

instruction. The laborers labor in vain if

God doesn't bless the work. So you can labor all you want,

but if it's not in surrender to the Spirit of God and by the

power of God, it will not be for the glory of God.

That's good. It's 4 words #1 go.

It's the entire series. Go, Therefore go therefore and

make disciples. So first word, go, go.

And where were to go? To all nations.

To all nations. This is about evangelism.

This is about you leaving your comfort.

This is about you huddling with Christian brothers and sisters

for the purpose of leaving to represent Christ somewhere else.

This is not about you being a beast in church circles and a

coward in your neighborhood. It is about you being encouraged

in your Christian circle so that you can be courageous in your

normal living for the glory of God.

Isaiah 57 verse 14 says, and it will be said, build up, build

Isaiah 57:14

up, prepare the way, remove the obstacles from my people.

Unintentionally, the church has taken methods that were

effective at one time, and we've chosen to die on the hill of

method over the message getting to the nation's.

And as a result of it, what's happening is we are making it

more difficult for people to get to the cross of Christ because

they if they don't come through our method, we're refusing to

change right now. Through the way that you live

your life personally and through the way that we do church

corporately, we are either removing the obstacles for

people to come to faith in Christ or we are adding to the

problem. Now Jesus is still.

Harvesting. It's just we aren't sharing in

it and we're going, where did the young people go?

You know where they went. They went mimicking your method.

Your preference was your God. And because your preference is

more important than your message, they decided that their

preference was to be served too. So guess where they're at?

Living in their preference. You know what they prefer not to

hear? A message that caused them to

take up the cross and follow them.

You know what they prefer? Not going to a church where they

have to leave, be a repenter and acknowledge their need for a

Savior. You know what they've done?

They've begun to worship their preference.

So they're not in our church, and they're not coming back

because we had a harvest festival.

They're not coming back because we have good Bible programming.

You know what they're going to come back for?

Because a move of God is taking place in the words of a great

soul song. Ain't nothing like the real

thing, baby. And when it comes to the Holy

Spirit, you know when the Spirit's at work and you know

when the Spirit's left the building.

And when a generation leaves, guess what it's probably in

response to? It's not in response to, here's

my favorite argument from the older generation.

Well, they left because it's just such a hard hearted

generation and we're in the end times.

And it says that people aren't going to listen to sound

doctrine and we're just sounding our doctrine.

No, you're malpractice in your practice of your doctrine.

And that malpractice is speaking to the emptiness of your church.

You have to go to where? All nations, all people, many

people don't want to go to the Middle East because there's

Muslims there and they kill Christians.

You kidding me? There's people.

I just, I just sat with the team that came back from Beirut in

Lebanon. And the harvest in the Middle

East right now is rich and the American church is scarcely

there. You know who is there?

The Church of China, Chinese people go anywhere that love

Jesus. They'll live in the slums.

They don't care. They don't need running water in

their home or indoor plumbing to carry the gospel message.

They don't care. They are out sending us.

You know why? They have a first love.

And there's a high cost of following Jesus in China.

So the high cost of following Jesus in the Middle East is just

like, well, different zip codes, same battle your privilege has

gotten in your way of your effectiveness.

Some of you got to get over this idea that you have some kind of

right to some kind of better life than what you have.

That God owes you a raise that God owes you being able to get

out of debt that God owes you like this abundant bigger house

that you think He can somehow claim and believe.

Let me just be very clear. God is not in the business of

trying to give you bigger and better.

God is in the business of trying to get you to get sent so that

you can make a difference for eternity.

At the end of your life, your kids will not remember the big

house they lived in. What they will remember, it's

the faith you modeled or the faith that you contradicted by

the life that you lived. Right now, my family is

consumed. We're trying to figure out how

to go. So you know what?

We're not doing everything that's happening in the church.

We're not doing everything that we offer because I don't have

margin in my life to live on mission, reaching my lost

neighbor if I'm here every day of the week.

So on Wednesday nights, you know what my family's doing.

Me and Luke go to the park and we shoot basketball with high

school kids. He gets the rebounds and he

remembers every kids name. It's a strange gift God has

given him. He knows every kids name.

He meets you one time, he remembers your name.

I can't remember my own children's name from time to

time. Didn't know if I should confess

that, but I feel like I'm in a safe circle.

So he remembers everybody's name.

So he runs up and calls out their names and they're kind of

like oh. But then I go and shoot with

them and I'll work on their jump shots.

And while we're working on jumpers we begin to talk about

stories. And guess what's been going to

happen at the park? They began to ask questions

like, well, what do you do? Well, I was a college basketball

player and I wanted to be in the NBA and be a basketball coach.

And what ended up happening is I met this guy named Jesus, and he

changed my life. And we start down the path of

these conversations with teenagers.

Why? Because I want to teach my son

what it looks like to live a life that's going across the

street. There's two little girls.

Her parents have been going through a lot of difficulty.

Their great grandma's been heavily involved in kind of

raising them. And every single day they're at

our house or our kids are at their house.

You know why? Because we're making margin to

go. We invited them to vacation

Bible school. Guess what they said?

No. We invited them to come to

invest with us. Guess what they said?

No. We invited them to come to our

house. Guess what they said?

Yes. More than likely they'll come to

your grill before they'll come to your Bible meeting.

So fire up the grill in the name of Jesus, set the table and

serve your neighbor. And know that when you're doing

that, you're being more Christian than the Christian

that's at church four or five or six days out of the week who

doesn't even know their neighbor's name.

So we have to ask them our questions, church.

And that is, if Jesus were here, where would he be hanging out

with the majority of his time? And the majority of his time

would probably be looking like a woman in a well in Oildale more

than it would look like a church in the Northwest on a Tuesday or

Wednesday or Thursday or Friday or Saturday for their 5th or 6th

or 7th program of the week. Jesus would be in the ecclesia,

but he would be about sending the ecclesia to the least.

Let me make sure you get the attention.

So you're not like, we don't need that church.

Don't you throw out his bride and don't you throw a punch at

her because he who defends her is a lot stronger than you.

And if you can't take the husband, you shouldn't be

talking about the bride. I'm just having fun today.

We got to go. You got to go, not me like you,

you got to go like the homeless should be served by you.

You're the answer to the homeless epidemic, the

impoverished, the poor in spirit, the hurting, the broken,

the oppressed. You're the solution.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, you are the solution.

Stop looking at government and church pastors to give you every

solution that the Spirit of God has empowered you to live out

and do here. Let me give you a blessing.

You are a chosen race. You are a chosen people.

You are a royal priesthood. I now Ding thee by the Spirit of

God. Pastors, go, go.

You don't need my approval. What am I going to do?

Oh, that, that does sound like a Holy Spirit.

Good idea. I think God will want you to do

that. Well, now you must be really

empowered to do it because fallible Russ up here said go

for it. Are you kidding me?

If the spirit is igniting a passion in your heart to go and

do it. If the Spirit is calling you out

to courageously. Act Act.

Do it? Go in What?

What's the next word? Make make what?

Make converts? No, no, no, no.

Make church members? No, that's not it either.

Not called to make converts. Not called to make make

Christians. No Make disciples.

Now it would probably behoove us to have a working definition of

what a disciple is. We used many different

definitions before, but a disciple who someone is someone

who is daily operating under the rule of Jesus Christ in their

life. A disciple is someone who is

daily operating under the rule of Jesus Christ.

It's a simple way of putting it. It's basically saying that I

live as if He is alive and living and reigning and ruling

and returning over my life moment by moment, minute by

minute, in my living. To live as if God isn't

reigning, ruling and returning over my life and desiring to

call and Commission me by His Spirit to go and be His hands

and feet is to live as a practical atheist.

You can put the word Christian on it, but you're living as an

atheist and to never make a disciple in your life is to at

best be an extremely unfaithful Christian who never got a sight

of the actual purpose for what you were left on this earth to

do. You are not a mature follower of

Jesus until you've made a disciple.

No matter how much theology you know, if you've not made a

disciple, you are not mature. You're immature and wisdom will

only make you arrogant, not effective.

If you are not about making disciples, How do you make a

disciple? Well, that's not very easy, is

it? You know why it's not very easy?

Because it requires you looking weak.

I don't know how else to put it. Paul says.

I boast in my weaknesses for Christ.

Power is being perfected in it. So there's four things I wrote

down. I'm going to talk about them.

Four things I wrote down. The keys to making a disciple.

It must be audible, number one, it must be visible #2.

It must be mimicable #3 and it must be approachable #4 it must

be audible, it must be visible. It must be mimicable and it must

be approachable. Otherwise you can't make a

disciple. It must be audible.

Why? Because we are in the business

of proclaiming Christ, goodness, message, and glory to the

nation's. It's what we're here to do.

How a lot of you have heard What?

I'm just going to let my actions speak for my words.

What you were saying is that you are a coward.

You're afraid of allowing Jesus to be the dividing line between

you and your community. I am not ashamed of the Gospel

of Jesus Christ. I take the warning that Jesus

gives us very seriously that if you deny me before men, I will

deny you before my Father. Your words speak to your God.

If all you ever do is talk about your football team and you never

talk about your Savior, then we've already identified the God

problem in your life. If all you talk about is the

government, then we've already identified the God in your life.

If all you talk about is your own finances and getting out of

your own stuff, then we've identified the God of your life.

Your words speak to your Savior so by the prayer that we see

prayed over and over again in many churches that comes out of

the Psalms. It's made the words of my mouth

and the meditation and thoughts of all of our hearts be holy and

pleasing to you to God. Your disciple making begins with

audibly talking through the gospel of Jesus Christ with

other people. What is the the gospel?

Well, we read it in in the synopsis form and John chapter

John 20 · chapter mention

20. Nope, we found it.

Oh, Luke, Luke cites it. Luke 2445.

Here's the gospel. Thus it is written, Christ

should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.

How's that good news? There's a lot of explanation

that goes into that. But what's the core message of

the gospel? Jesus died for your sins.

First Corinthians 15 as it was written in the Scriptures, He

was buried as it was written in the Scriptures, and he rose on

the third day of victory as it was recorded for us in the

Scriptures, to which there are now witnesses.

And all of the earth. If you don't believe me, go back

to Jerusalem. Paul says it's around 500 who

saw him risen from the dead, many of which are still walking

around alive. So I put such a emphasis.

On you proclaiming audibly the witness of what you've seen God

do. You may not understand

everything about God, but you if you have a relationship with

Jesus. Have had an encounter with him

and as a result it should bring an audible message of what he's

done. It should be audible #2 it

should be visible. It should be seen.

It's why I'm taking Lucas to the park with me and we're shooting

hoops and not just swinging and staying to our own selves over

on the side. It's why we're praying nightly

about the family across the street.

It's why my wife and I, for three plus years, have been

investing in a couple that we are constantly trying to make

margin in our life for so that we can share the gospel with

them. We want them to visibly get

close enough. Our kids, our church.

So that they can see the gospel at work, we want them to see

our. Weaknesses I'm not covering.

Up my stuff. That's why I say I'm the lead

repenter of my family and I'm the lead repenter of this

church. What does that mean?

When I am wrong, which I will get it wrong a lot, Ask those

that are very close to me get it wrong a lot.

When I am wrong, I am the first to humble myself because I no

longer live in shame. Jesus bore my shame.

He bore your shame so that you, in your failure, can hold your

head high, knowing that your worth has not been subtracted

from you because of your mistakes.

I live redeemed, sanctified, freed from my past, freed from

my sin. He not only paid for what I've

done, He's delivered me from the person that I've been, so I

walk. With my head high and humble

before Him, walking in the light so that when the darkness rises

in me, it is immediately illuminated.

And it is turned from in repentance so that I can receive

the healing that only comes through receiving the grace and

the mercy of Christ. So it's got to be visible.

It's got to be audible. It's got to be mimicable.

I've got to allow you to see what God is doing in my life so

that you can see what it looks like in your life.

And this is what discipleship looks like.

I pull you in close enough to see the dysfunctions of my

attempts to pursue Jesus. You know what happens whenever I

pull you in close enough to see my life and my pursuit of Jesus?

You know what happens to me. I pay attention to the way that

I'm pursuing Jesus. I pay attention to the words

that I speak. When you know someone's close

enough to see, you start taking into regard the holiness and the

power of God in your life, and what happens is you begin to

walk a little bit more carefully than you would if you were to

not think anyone was watching. Look, the generation behind us

will mimic us. They will mimic us in rebellion

or in trying to be just like what we have done.

I do not want another generation to rise up in our church.

I'm talking about your kids who feel like they have to go

outside of the church to find the real God of the universe

because of the inauthenticity with which we practiced our

faith within it. It's got to be audible, it's got

to be visible, it's got to be mimicable #4 it finally, it has

to be approachable, has to be approachable.

Jesus removed the obstacles for people to come to Him.

I want everyone to know in my neighborhood, if you need, if

you need prayer, if you need someone to meet with you, if you

need someone to talk about and answer your questions about God,

I'm here. We had new neighbors that moved

in. Three houses on our block went

for sale. None of you bought it.

I don't take it personally, but none of you want to move by me.

But I made sure that I went to introduce myself to all of them

and I'm like, I don't know if I walked over.

Here's my opening line if you need one.

I was like in the South. I think I'm supposed to bring

you a pie or something, but I'm your neighbor.

I just want to say, hey, we're over here.

We're the chambers. You have kids.

We have kids. We love for your kids to play

with our kids. We sit in the front yard some

evenings. We love to talk to you.

And I'm a pastor and there's ever anything I can pray for you

about. I'd love to pray for you.

Now, clearly that shook the wife because her look, I was like, I

didn't know you would be here when we bought this house.

I mean, she looks like she's a Hot Topic employee that's not

just trying to mimic the lifestyle, but she's fully

engulfed in it. You know what I'm talking about?

Like, I don't smile ever. My favorite color is black, and

I like to wear it every day of the week with black makeup to

let you know that inside I feel black.

I feel like there's a hole of blackness.

Nothing's in there, so don't come and stare at it.

And I'm like. Hey, come play in our front

yard, I'll bake you a pie. I love Jesus, I don't.

Care if initially if they're afraid, I want them to know that

I'm removing every obstacle I can for them to come over, that

my door is the door they can knock on, that my life is a life

that they can inconvenience when their life is going through

turmoil. Do your neighbors know that

you're available? And that's that?

Again, do your neighbors know that you are available?

See, a lot of us aren't being approached because the way that

we're living is demonstrating, communicating to our neighbors

that we just simply aren't available.

We don't have time. I have time to talk to you.

I don't have time to hear about your problems.

Now, the other day, I was crammed for time and I have a

neighbor who pastors a smaller church in the middle of nowhere.

And he was going through it. His mother's on her last leg.

He's a single guy. He lives by himself.

The church is way out of town, so he doesn't have any week

during the week community with them that he pastors.

And he was in this dark moment and he comes out and he's like,

how are you doing? And I'm trying to blow him off.

And he looks at me and says, hey, can I, can I say something

to you? I said, yeah.

He said, man, I, I'm, I need prayer.

My mom's dying, the church I'm at, it's dying, my health, it's

not good either. I'm discouraged.

I need, will you pray for me during your prayer time?

By that point in time, I got in the memo from the Lord like,

hey, bucko, be available. And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm

not going to pray for you during my prayer time.

Prayer time's right now and we're in the we're in the

driveway with all the parents that are dropping their kids off

at the elementary school down the street.

And I'm laying my hands on him and I am praying over him in his

driveway because I want to be approachable.

I want to be a Great Commission fulfiller.

If you're going to fulfill the Great Commission, you have to

go. You have to make disciples #3

you have to be identified publicly with them.

Which means you've got to be baptized.

Just because you were sprinkled as a baby does not mean that you

have gone through believers baptism.

Believers baptism is you publicly identifying with the

death, burial, and resurrection after you come to the belief

that you need that accounted to you.

So it's not your parents decision.

You're not raised up in it. I was sprinkled as a baby.

They got me wet. But it was their commitment, not

mine that was made that day. It was their commitment that

they were going to raise me to know the Lord through their

example and not in spite of it. Does this make sense?

What we must understand, what we must do is get back to a place

of recognizing that we have to publicly profess Jesus, and that

begins with doing it His way. If you've never been baptized,

guess what you should do? You should get baptized.

I don't care if people thought you were a Christian for years,

Like if you've never been baptized since personally making

the decision to entrust your livelihood, your future, your

past, and your present to God, then you should be baptized #4

the last thing that is a part of it, baptism is a part of it #4

is we must go and teach. That is to say that replication

is the is the, is the sign that a disciple has been made.

It's the Son that a disciple has been made.

Now many of us live our whole life professing Jesus and we

don't have any clue if we actually made a single disciple.

That is because perhaps we've not been taught.

So some things that I think we must do because here's what I

want you to understand. The Great Commission is not an

idea that God hopes the church will fulfill.

The Great Commission is something that the Spirit of God

will accomplish with the Church of God, and we know it because

Revelation 7 speaks of the day when it's done.

So many of us are complacent when it comes to this mission

because we're like, Oh well, there's just so many lost people

and there's just people just don't seem to be attracted to

spiritual things. No, no, no, they're spiritual

people. They're just worshipping

creation over the creator. And you've been put in their

lives so they could, they could see someone who's worshipping

the creator of creation and stop worshipping matter.

I think there's three things we have to do to become a great

commissioned church. Number one, we must eliminate

the sacred and secular divide. That is to say, God is not

housed by our buildings and He's not housed by our meetings.

Acts 17 when Paul was before the Areopagus, he says God is not

contained in the temples of man. So if we build big temples, it

means nothing to the neighborhood if the people who

come in it aren't equipped to go out and share the message that

it professes. God's temple is your life.

He put His Spirit in you. That means everywhere you go,

you've walked into a place where the Spirit of God is working

because the Spirit of God is at work in and through you.

So stop compartmentalizing Jesus and where and when He can work

and lead in your life. That's one.

Number two, we must get rid of the idea that there's this thing

called professional vocational pastors and everybody else

accept your calling that first Peter has called you to first

Peter 29. You are a chosen race, a royal

priesthood, a royal nation, a people for his own possession,

that you, you may proclaim the effluencies of him who called

you out of the darkness into this marvelous light.

Leave this place as pastors today.

People will look at you weird if you show up at Mills tomorrow

morning. Like hey, just want you guys to

know became Pastor Dave overnight because some of you

are Christian but you still swear a lot and you've got to

work on that. OK, but you are a royal

priesthood. Then why do we have vocational

pastors to equip you? That's why I have a job that

pays me full time to be mimicable, approachable,

audible, and visible in my relationship with Jesus.

So that you can mimic me as I mimic him.

So that you can learn from my repentance and learn of the

trustworthiness of the grace and mercy of God.

That that's why I'm here. It's to equip the Saints for

works of service. If what I have just done,

preaching over my time and not apologizing about it, has not

equipped you to walk out of here as a missionary for God, then

all I have done is taken more of your time and we're 30 minutes

into your football game. But if you leave here knowing

who you are in Christ, then we have become something that makes

Satan tremble because he can take out a pastor and he can

take out a few of us with cancer, but he cannot take down

the Church of Jesus Christ. And when you know who you are,

it becomes unstoppable. It becomes a movement that

cannot be contained and it spreads like wildfire through

the streets. When you know who you are, then

you go out empowered by the Spirit walking as the redeemed

people of God. And you live out a life that

denies your preference and takes up your cross daily and pursues

His glory. And His revival comes to earth

because His harvest folks, is still plentiful.

But you are the laborers that we've been looking for in the

field, and it is time for you to get off of the bench and get

into the game. Stop watching me live out my

faith and with me come alongside me, shoulder to shoulder, and

shield to shield. And lest with the light of

Christ, push back the darkness that is in our city, so that his

name and his renown and His glory and His worship will rise

from this place into the heavens where the angels worship Him.

So that we can celebrate on this day, that day that is to come,

where faith will be made sight and will join in with the

heavenly host proclaiming holy, holy, holy is the Lord, Lord for

all eternity. May His glory reign over you,

and may it start. Today, in this place as this

people.