Your Purpose is NOT to Die & Go to Heaven (Genesis 1:28–31)

This this last sermon of the the chapter.

I'm psyched up about this sermon.

A lot of things are going to I think get unpacked for you.

Our church's name, Frontier Church, is going to make more

sense to you. That mural back there is going

to make more sense to you. The mural that Aubrey painted of

the garden that's multi colored, that's going to make more sense

to you. In fact, this sermon is going to

begin the work of bringing the subtitle of the sermon series

into focus. We haven't even touched on it.

The subtitle is Be the the Frontier where Heaven Meets

Earth. And so I'm psyched.

I've been chewing through the leash all week, chewing through

the leash, just excited to get around to this sermon and here,

here we are. But I, I got to say something to

you up front, like a commercial for a medication.

This sermon does come with an important notice of possible

side effects. There are some.

I want you to be aware of them. You might find this sermon

wildly disorienting because it's going to go right down to the

the main framework that you use to make sense out of the Bible.

It's going to provide a lot of clarity, but it also may include

side effects of more confusion too.

It should have a lot of answers, but it will also leave you with

more questions. It'll be a mixture of light bulb

moments and head scratchers. We're going from basically the

first chapter of the Bible all the way to the last chapter of

the Bible because we are tackling humanity's purpose.

I've got a lot of work to do. I've already got my license and

registration out because I know I'm going to get pulled over for

speeding today. So just grab what you can.

On the drive I had, I had somebody from our church say,

dude, I always listen to podcast at double speed.

Not you. You already speak at double

speed this morning. Might be triple speed.

OK, get what you can. Then you can come back around to

it to to talk about purpose. And to talk about purpose.

Well, there's a colossal problem that we are up against in the

modern world, and we at least have to look at it right up

front. The modern world has told us

both explicitly and implicitly that the purpose of our lives is

to look inward and to be yourself and to live a life

that's true to you. That worldview is called hyper

individualism. Hyper individualism.

It's not the same as individualism.

Individualism is important and it's a healthy level of

self-awareness that I'm a fan of.

Now. There are some helpful aspects

to hyper individualism. I like inner exploration.

I think thinking critically about the way that you're wired

uniquely is really, really important.

But the failure of hyper individualism is making that the

main purpose and goal of your life.

Hyper individualism fails measurably and massively as an

ultimate worldview to give us purpose.

It doesn't and it can't. I like the way that Andrew

Wilson describes it in his phenomenal history book OK?

He says one feature of our modern culture is our obsession

with identity. In most cultures, the question

of identity is answered by society as a whole.

You belong to this land, this people, this religion, this

village, this extended family. Identity is usually not chosen,

it is given. But modern people see selfhood

quite differently. Who we are is constructed by our

own actions and choices, economically, sexually,

professionally, religiously, socially, creatively.

And it's our responsibility to ensure that other people accept,

recognize and validate our chosen identity.

Which of course explains the prominence of identity political

discussions. And This is why people say

things like if you don't accept this, then you don't accept me.

Or tragically, I don't even know who I am anymore.

Here's a summary statement. In the modern world, our very

selves are constructions rather than gifts, secured and

maintained by works and not grace.

And this is exhausting. Now giving hyper individualism

the benefit of the doubt, we could ask the question has has

self obsession improved our well-being?

And the resounding measurable answer is no.

No matter what major study you look at, You can look at the

World Happiness Report. That's a fun one to read.

Gallup says the same thing and it's incredibly extensive.

No matter which one you look at, they all show the same trend.

In countries and areas where a hyper individualism goes up,

life satisfaction goes down. Everywhere where self obsession

goes up, life satisfaction goes down.

It's not working. I like the way that author David

Brooks says it. Quote.

Many young people are graduating into limbo, floating and plagued

by uncertainty. They want to know what

specifically they should do with their lives.

And we tell them freedom. The purpose of life is to be

free. We're not going to impose

anything on you or tell you what to do.

But that's nothing but an empty box.

And so the students in the audience put down that empty box

because they're drowning in freedom.

What they're looking for is direction.

What's freedom for How do I know which path is my path?

So we hand them the empty box of authenticity.

Look inside yourself. You do you.

But this is useless too. The you.

We tell them to consult for life's answers is the very thing

that hasn't yet formed. So they put down that empty box

and asked what cause will inspire me and give meaning and

direction to my life. And at this point, we hand them

the emptiest box of all, the box of autonomy.

It's up to you to define your own values.

We tell them no one else can tell you what's right or wrong

for you. And you will notice that our

common answers take all the difficulties of living in your

20s and 30s and make them worse. They are floundering in a

formless desert, and not only do we not give them a compass, we

take a bucket of sand and throw it all over their heads.

So we need something outside of ourselves, a purpose that can

sustain us and give meaning to life in the modern world,

something bigger than what we can discover within our really

little selves. And so the question we should

all be asking this morning is, does God have a solution to this

problem? Does he have a compass?

Does he have a purpose to give? The answer to that is yes.

So if you're able to stand for the reading of God's Word.

God creates everything, the heavens and the earth, the sun

and the stars, the squirrels, the land and the sky.

Then he creates human beings in His own image.

And then verse 28 and God blessed them.

That's interesting. What have they done?

They just got created. We didn't even know if they'd

taken a breath. And the blessing of God falls on

them. Interesting.

And God bless them. And then God gave them a

purpose. He said to them, be fruitful and

multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over

the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over

every living thing that moves on the earth.

We'll spend the majority of our time in that verse on packing

that. We won't spend a ton of time in

these next couple of verses. They're more self-explanatory.

God said I'm going to give you food.

Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on

the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its

fruit. You should have those for food.

And to every beast of the earth and every bird in the heavens

and everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has

the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.

And it was. So I think Andrew mentioned in

passing the vegetarianism discussion.

He's like, we can talk about that next week.

I'm not talking about that this week, OK?

Those of you who know me, you know, I'm basically a carnivore,

so I can explain that position in greater detail over a steak

sometime. And God saw everything that he

had made and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning the 6th day.

Heavenly Father, we just, we just love you so much.

We love you. We love everything about you.

Everything about you is perfect and good and true and beautiful

and elicits joy and satisfaction from our hearts.

I just love to be in your presence always, Always.

And so this morning as we unpack your word at probably 120 miles

an hour, I pray it wouldn't just be words.

Just me barking endlessly up here.

Pray that you would breathe heaven into our earthly lungs.

Yeah, in Jesus name, all God's people prayed.

Amen. You can have a seat.

Verse 28 here is famously called the Cultural mandate.

The cultural mandate, that's what theologians call, that's

what academics call it. And this mandate or this

commandment is massively important for unlocking the rest

of the Bible. So if you missed the 1st 5

episodes of this TV series. God creates the heavens and the

earth. He molds them into various

things like sun, stars, water, land, animals, and the pinnacle

of his creation is day 6, the creation of human beings.

Uniquely unlike the rest of creation uniquely, humans are

quote created in the image of God.

I'm just going to steal Andrew's sermon from last week perfectly

because that explanation was great.

And if you miss that sermon, go back to it and listen to it.

An image in the ancient world was a statue that a king would

place in the the faraway regions of his Kingdom.

Kings didn't have TV's or Radios.

They didn't have Twitter. I know that's hard to believe,

but in the ancient world, kings didn't have Twitter.

And So what would they do with the faraway regions of of their

Kingdom? They would extend their ruling

reign into the regions that were far away by building statues of

themselves, then placing those statues in those areas.

People would see those statues and go, that's right, that's

what we're doing here. This is his Kingdom and we exist

to extend his reign all the way over here.

And that's what you are. You're God statue.

We're God statues on the earth. What's our purpose?

OK, what what's it mean to be God's statue practically on this

earth? Right?

And the question, what's your purpose?

If you grew up in the church, you probably know the answer to

that question, right? The purpose of my life is to die

and go to heaven, right? Well, sounds good.

Why is that not the big cultural statement that God gives in

Genesis? I don't think God said anything

about dying and going to heaven. So what?

What's what's going on? That's that's confusing.

OK, let's dig into it. God doesn't say die and go to

heaven. So instead let's look at what

God did say. There are four massive words in

verse 28 forming the cultural mandate.

I want you to circle each one of these if you've got your Bible

open with a pen. If you don't, I want I want you

to sear them into your brain. OK, the four big words that make

up the cultural mandate is fruitful.

Everybody say fruitful. Everybody say multiply,

multiply. Everybody say subdue.

Everybody say dominion. You just told me in those words

the grand overarching purpose of my life.

That's the cultural mandate. Let's start with fruitful verse

28. God says be fruitful.

Now this is a wonderful multi layered word.

The idea here is that we're supposed to look at God's

creation and he has built fruitfulness into creation.

So we're supposed to look at it and see its potentials and

possibilities and then draw even more fruit and life out of it.

Have you ever looked at something or have you ever

looked at someone and and thought to yourself, it's good

and I love it, but man, it could be so much more.

What is that? That voice in your heart is

God's design to propel you towards fruitfulness.

Let's define it this way. The command to be fruitful is

the command to go create life, create more life.

Take what God's made and tap in to its fruitfulness.

And that brings us to our second word also in verse 28.

Be fruitful and multiply. Or to recognize God's

reproductive capacity that He's built into all of creation's

order. Tap into that and then multiply

and make more of it. This certainly goes for the

human capacity for sexually procreating, for sure.

But it also extends to farming and art and culture and poetry

and literature and politics and communities.

Have you ever looked at something, maybe one of your

kids and thought, look at that little booger?

I just love him. And we got to make more of these

things. That's how I felt about our

Sunday church. I remember looking at our Sunday

church and being like, man, this community is amazing.

There's got to be more places like this on planet earth.

What is that? That voice in your heart is

God's design to propel you towards multiplication.

Let's say it this way. To multiply is to spread life.

Which brings us to our third word, subdue.

Also, verse 28, Be fruitful, Multiply, then fill the earth

and subdue it. Here's where things get really

fun. The word subdue here, it does

not have any connotations whatsoever of exploitation.

None. It follows God's pattern in

Genesis 1 of making order out of chaos, arranging things.

So have you ever stood at the doorway of your bedroom and just

taken in the joy of looking at a room that you cleaned that was

messy an hour ago and just been like, oh man, that feels so good

to see chaos turn into order. Have you ever done that?

What is that? Here's what this is that is that

voice in your heart is God's design to propel you towards

subduing creation by cleaning rooms, but also by cleaning

organizations with PowerPoints, reports, blueprints, and Excel

spreadsheets. To organize, to subdue creation

means that we also organize life.

Notice all of these commandments revolve around life and what to

do with life. And that brings us to our fourth

word, which is our most misunderstood word, dominion.

I love that word. That's also verse 28.

Have dominion. Have dominion over the fish of

the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every

living thing that moves on the earth.

Again, don't confuse that word dominion with domination.

They sound similar, but they have different meanings.

Doing whatever you want to the earth and its creatures for

selfish gain is not what's being talked about right here.

The word dominion here is actually a royal word, royal

connotations to it. It refers to the rulership of a

queen or a king. So have you ever been a part of

a team or a group that you loved, looked at it and said,

ma'am, I love these people. But with great leadership, it

could become so much more. Have you ever thought that to

yourself? What is that?

That voice in your heart is God's design to propel humankind

to ruling over creation like kings and Queens.

We'll say it this way. To take dominion is to rule life

wisely. How's that for a definition?

You guys with me, We're defining the paint off the walls this

morning. I'm feeling ice cold, so I'm

going to keep going. So here's what the cultural

mandate, the big purpose of God, gives humanity.

This is what it looks like from 1000 feet above.

We are to be fruitful or create life and multiply or spread life

and subdue or organize life and take dominion or rule life

wisely. Hear things get really

interesting. This is a spoiler alert and

chapter 2. God, immediately after creating

and commissioning mankind, gives them a little working model for

what their work should look like.

OK, I'm supposed to do these things.

What's that even look like? So God gives them a little mock

up, a little blueprint, a little prototype for the human task.

Do you know what it is called? The Garden of Eden.

That's what Eden is. Eden's a prototype of what God

wants the whole cosmos to look like.

Think about Eden really quickly. Eden has the capacity to be

fruitful, to multiply, but only if humans subdue and take

dominion over and care for it and multiply it.

So humanity's purpose is to take Eden global or one theologian.

I love the way he says it because he makes up words.

I love making up words. He says the purpose of humanity

is the gardenification of the cosmos.

We gardenify this morning or what?

Isn't that such a good made-up word?

It should be real. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Eden's next chapter. We'll get there in a couple

months. Back to the cultural mandate.

Back to the cultural mandate. Let's make it punchy and

memorable here. Create life, spread life,

Organize life, rule life. That's the job description at

this point in Genesis, though. Have you seen anybody do that

job description yet? The answer is yes.

It's a trick question you have. That's actually what God is

doing the entire first chapter. So God.

God does the job on Week 1, and then he hires somebody to do it

on Week 2. You, me, us.

On Week 1, God models it on week two, He delegates us.

Why? What's the point?

And the point is this. It's because God's ultimate

purpose is to bring heaven and earth together.

And how do humans function in that equation?

Humans are to be the frontier where heaven meets earth.

We are to take the rule and reign of the God of Heaven and

spread it on earth. We're to be citizens of heaven

on earth by being God's statues. That's the cultural mandate in a

nutshell. We are to be the frontier where

heaven meets earth. That's your purpose.

That's your mission. That's your calling, to be the

frontier where heaven meets earth.

To quote NT, right, He says the story of the Bible isn't

ultimately about people going to heaven when they die.

It's about heaven coming down to earth.

But maybe growing up you were told that the purpose of life is

to die and go to heaven. What gives?

What's So what? What's the danger in that?

It has some truth to it. What's the danger in that?

Last week I had a fun conversation with the Poison

Control Center, and I know what you're thinking.

I can see it in in your mind. No, it wasn't Jack, even though

I've had that conversation with the Poison Control Center.

Not this time. What had happened is I have a

really bad habit, OK? I'm trying to break myself of

it, and I haven't been able to broke break myself of it.

I blame my high school friends. My high school friends were this

way. Like anytime we are around a pop

or a soda that we wanted to drink or an energy drink, If it

wasn't ours, it didn't matter. We just take it, a drink of it,

grab it and take a drink of it. And I'm like, I'm in my 30s now

and I haven't been able to break that.

Whenever I want to drink or something, I'll just grab it and

take it. And it's only gotten me into

trouble twice. And I'm not going to tell you

the first time I ever got in trouble because Tracy's doing

this because that's Andrew's story to tell.

You can ask Andrew if he wants to tell you, he'll tell you.

If he doesn't, he won't. I'll tell you about the second

time it got me in trouble, which was last week.

I, I was taken, I'm taking my vitamin D because I'm a health

nut. Thanks for your applause.

I was taking my vitamin D and there was this glass of water

that was right next to the sink. So I took it right.

And I just, I, I hammered, I chugged it because, because when

you're taking vitamins, you're not like sip, sip, sip, right?

It's gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp bulb.

So I just, I gunned the thing down.

I gulp it down with my vitamin D and, and then it hits me.

I feel it. There's a tingle in the back of

my throat and I'm like, I'm like, that tastes like something

I've smelled before. And so I go, oh, man, I'm so

stupid. I go, I go, Chloe, was there

something else in that glass of water?

And she goes, you didn't, you did not drink that glass.

And I was like, I did indeed drinking glass.

It turns out that that glass had been dirty.

And so Chloe, in order to clean it, made a combination of water

and can you give me a drum roll? Drum roll water and hydrogen

peroxide. I drank a bunch of hydrogen

peroxide. Totally not Chloe's fault.

It was my fault, right? I shouldn't have just got it in

and just drank out of it. I could.

I was just like, oh, my goodness.

But in my defense, have you seen this stuff?

It looks like water. It has the likeness of water.

It has the appearance of water. It's not water.

In fact, if you drink enough of it, as they told me on the

hotline, it will poison you or enough of it, and it will kill

you. But it has the likeness of

water, the appearance of water. But it'll poison you or kill you

if you drink too much of it. That's precisely what withdraw

theology is. Withdraw theology is the name

that scholars give to the world view that the purpose of

Christians lives is to die and go to heaven.

It's like hydrogen peroxide. It looks like Christianity has

the appearance of Christianity, has the likeness of

Christianity, it's not Christianity.

Yes, it has an element of truth to it and I need you to hear me

clearly. If you are a Christian and you

die before Jesus returns, you will go to heaven with Jesus for

a short time. Your loved ones who believe in

Jesus, who have passed away, they are in heaven with Jesus.

But that's just a short stop because Jesus is ultimate

purpose is to resurrect you and bring heaven down to earth and

you will live in heaven and earth for eternity.

That's the purpose. Die and go to heaven.

Looks like Christianity has the appearance of Christianity, but

it's not Christianity. It poisons you.

This is why we have this sinner's prayer problem.

It's just about dying and getting to heaven.

So recite these words, say these exact words.

You don't even need to mean it and you're in.

You're golden. Go live whatever Pagan life you

want and when you'll die you'll go to heaven.

This is a massive problem in the modern church.

It's a massive poisoning of the individual Christian.

This is why they call it withdraw theology, because

withdraw theology results in Christians living a passive life

where I said the thing. And so then they withdraw from

the world and just privately hold on to their faith and wait

to die. And that what why is that so

poisonous? It's poisonous because it

effectively removes the influence of Jesus from the

world and all the spheres of the world, our culture, politics,

poetry, literature, communities, our careers.

And that's deadly for the world. Don't drink that hydrogen

peroxide. Yes, you will go to heaven when

you die. If you're in Christ for a short

time, There's a mission here. Don't make withdraw theology

your goal. Look at the purpose God gave

you. Look at the cultural mandate.

The point of Christianity is not to just go to heaven after all

of this, right? You're not.

You're not born with your neck in a rope.

You're here for a mission and with a job.

It's to bring heaven to earth while you live.

Picture the earth like a chalice.

Can you see that? It is beautiful on its own.

You can look at it and it's stunning, but it's not meant to

just sit on the shelf empty. It's exactly the way God has

created all of creation. It's a chalice.

It's beautiful to look at. You can look at a sunset and see

beauty and grandeur and wonder. But God did not create creation

to remain empty. He created it like a chalice.

You fill a chalice with wine in that exact same way God's

created the earth, like a chalice that's designed to be

filled with heaven, to be filled with God, right?

Habakkuk chapter 2, the prophet says the earth will be filled,

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

filled. The earth will be filled with

the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the

sea. What did Habakkuk see in that

vision? Where do you get where do you

get that idea from? He got from the Bible.

What Habakkuk saw was the cultural mandate fulfilled at

the end of time, every square inch being recreated into Eden.

Human beings are agents of heaven on earth.

That's what you are, humans. Humanity is God's heaven and

earth project. You guys feeling this if you've

so for some of us, this is disorienting.

So if you've never seen the Bible through a project heaven

and earth lens, I'm just going to tell you right now, dial 911

and when they ask you what your emergency is, you can tell them

that you had your face melted by the Bible.

Here's a quick tour. This is just this is the short

tour. This is the short tour.

OK, you ready? What?

Watch this. The first sentence of the Bible

is what God creates the heavens and the earth.

What's how's the Bible end? Read the last chapter of the

Bible Revelation. It ends with heaven coming down

to earth. That's the plot line of the

entire Bible. First page to last page.

What are humans made of? Spoiler alert, we'll see this in

the next chapter. God takes a scoop of dirt earth

and then he breathes his breath heaven into them.

That's what you are. You're you're designed literally

as a heaven and earth creature to mediate heaven and earth.

We can keep going. What happened when Jesus died on

the cross? The temple curtain was ripped in

half. Why?

So that heaven could once again invade earth and overlap with

earth. We can keep going.

Is Jesus's nature human or God? Trick question.

He's 100% God the heavenly 1 and 100% Man the earthly one.

Jesus is quite literally heaven and earth with arms and legs.

He's what heaven and earth coming together looks like with

skin on. We can keep going when the

disciples asked Jesus to pray. What's the summary line of the

Lord's Prayer? God's Kingdom come your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven, even when Israel is

enslaved in exile. Look at Jeremiah 2029.

What does God tell Israel to do when they're enslaved by the

Babylonians? Listen.

See if this sounds familiar. This is Jeremiah 29, verse 4.

Jeremiah 29:4

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of all Israel.

To the Exiles who are in exile in Babylon, he says, build

houses and live in them, Plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives and have sons and daughters.

Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters and marriage

that they may bear sons and daughters.

Multiply there and do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you into exile,

and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you

will find your welfare. Does that sound familiar to you?

That's the cultural mandate. In the desert, in exile.

Where's our citizenship as Christians?

The New Testament says that our citizenship is in heaven.

That's Philippians 3. What are Christians?

Citizens of heaven, Living on earth.

Literally the frontier where heaven meets earth.

We can keep on going. We keep on moving.

You ever notice what the Bible calls the effects of obedience

to God? It's called bearing.

What all bearing fruit. That's Galatians 5.

Why fruit? Because our obedience to King

Jesus brings the Garden of Eden to earth.

Obedient Christians are like little pockets of heaven,

popping up on earth like flowers we can keep going.

What's weekly communion? It's God's heavenly banquet

bursting forth on earth. What's the big deal in the Old

Testament with tabernacles and temples and Israel building

them? Well, that's clear by the

architectural plans he gives. God commands makeshift trees and

flowers in the temple, even if thrown for the heavenly God, and

he even commands Israel to build 2 cherubim guarding the throne,

exactly like we'll see in a few chapters for where two cherubim

guard the Garden of Eden. It's supposed to be Eden.

Temples were meant to be the frontier in the Old Testament

where heaven breaks into earth. And what, by the way, does Paul

call every Christian a temple? You're frontier, where heaven

meets earth. This theme literally takes you

from the first page of the Bible to the last page of the Bible.

It's massively important if you're in Christ.

Is God going to take you to heaven?

Yes. But before God ever puts us in

heaven, He first puts heaven into us.

You guys hanging? So how do you do it?

Genesis is clear. 4 things. Create life, spread life,

organize life, and rule over life wisely.

OK, what's we don't use those words in the modern world.

So what's that look like? Luckily for you, this isn't the

last time we're going to see the cultural mandate.

Right before Jesus ascends to heaven, He does exactly what God

does in Genesis 1. He gives a massive overarching

Commission to his people to give them work to do while he's gone.

It's called the Great Commission.

It's called the Great Commission.

Listen carefully to the Great Commission.

I'm just going to read it. I want you to listen to it.

Ask, ask yourself, does this sound familiar?

Jesus says in Matthew 28. And Jesus came to them and said

to them, all authority in heaven and on earth.

There it is, the heaven and earth theme again.

All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

So go therefore and make disciples, create life, make

disciples of all nations, spread life, baptizing them in the name

of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Organize this new life into the Church, teaching them to observe

all that I have commanded you. Over this life wisely.

According to King Jesus's teachings, and behold, I am with

you always to the end of the age.

Does that sound familiar? Make disciples.

Create life of all nations, Spread life, baptizing them,

Organize life into the church, Teach them rule over life.

The Great Commission is exactly the Genesis 1 cultural mandate

repackage for you. In Jesusy language, that makes a

little bit more sense. That's what That's what the

Great Commission is. It's the cultural mandate remix

by DJ Jesus, that's what. Where are my dogs at?

Are we eating good this morning? That's what's going.

On here. They always tell me never.

Go full coal. I'm going full coal this.

Morning. This is why you exist though,

and this is how you fulfill your God-given purpose.

You become where heaven invades earth.

You become the frontier where heaven meets earth.

How do you do that? Do you want to be that?

Do you want to see the fruit of Eden grow wherever you plant

your feet? If the answer is yes.

Here's how you do it. Fill the earth with Jesus,

people. That's literally, that's

literally the Great Commission. Fill the earth with Jesus,

people. Go and fill the earth with

statues of Jesus to spread his rule and reign in his Kingdom.

Take your faith and be fruitful with it, Multiply it, subdue

with it, and take dominion with it for Jesus.

It's all about Jesus, Amen. All about Jesus.

He's the heavenly 1. He's the fullness of joy.

He's the pleasures forevermore. He's the desire of the nations.

He's the alpha. He's the Omega.

He's the beginning and the end. He's your purpose.

He's your goal. He's your mission.

He's your heavenly reward on earth and beyond.

That's what this is about. We want to see the world be

transformed into the image of Jesus.

We're not. Gosh, I just never tire of

saying stuff like this. We're not just trying to

moralize the world and make a bunch.

Of converts to empty. Morality.

Right. The world looks at the.

Church sometimes. And they think that our end goal

is to just make a bunch of well behaved little girls and boys

who don't cuss, don't chew and don't date girls who do.

Right. Just make a bunch of boys and

girls who aren't naughty. No, that's not what this is

about. We want to fill the earth with

Jesus because we love Him. I saw it man.

I. I read a quote, heard a quote

this week. I can't remember who said it,

but it dropped my jaw. The speaker said.

The only way to possess God. Is to be constantly giving.

Him away. You do that.

There's nothing like it. There's like.

There's nothing like it like. 11 years ago, I remember I was at a

small group in Cedar Falls and we were telling our salvation

stories and like half of the people in the group mentioned

how God had used me to bring them to Jesus.

And I don't even know, I was like shocked by I was just

enjoying Jesus publicly in front of them.

I had no idea that that had happened.

And do you want to know what I felt in that moment?

Three or four years ago. When we were still at the

wedding event rental spot for gathering together as a church,

I baptized a handful of my wrestlers.

Literally guys who I had headlocked.

You don't know what that felt like for me.

Or here's one last Easter. I got to baptize my.

Oldest son, You know what that feels like Each of.

Those moments provided me. With what no achievement or

salary increase ever could, right?

Every one of those moments made me feel oh.

That's why I exist. That's why I.

Exist to make. Jesus, people, let me be.

This is practical as I'm going to get this morning.

If God took a worldwide poll of all Christians everywhere and

asked them who led you to Jesus or influenced you to be more

like Jesus? And if.

Not one soul. In the world mentioned your

name. What would that mean to?

You it would mean that though you're loved by Christ and

valued in Christ and have worth in Christ, it would mean that no

matter your salary, no matter how many items you checked off

your bucket list, it means no matter how cool things you've

accomplished, you're not living out your purpose.

And so if you're. Like, yeah man, I don't.

Think I've influenced anybody to become more like Jesus or been

the person who led somebody to Jesus.

If that's you, here's what I would do.

I would find two or three people and I would say can we meet

together and just disciple each other on a weekly basis.

We call them fighter groups at Frontier.

You can just literally start one and.

Then I would give. Myself over to discipling those

two or three individuals and you'll be surprised because

you'll recognize that every other goal in your life feels

hollow compared to that. To discipling people.

Introducing people to Jesus. Man, I was I was having coffee

with Augie this week. Is Augie here?

Good. I was going to ask him

permission to share it and if he said no, I still would have done

it. No, that's.

Not true, but I was. I was some of the Augie over

coffee and he asked me the question.

I couldn't shake it this week, he said.

If Paul wrote a letter to Frontier Church, what do you

think it would say? Right. 1st letter to the

frontiersman, second from Tyrion.

I don't know what it would be called.

What do you think it? Would say I wrestled.

A lot with that question. Here's.

The answer Augie gave me. He said.

I think the letter would say I think you're great and I love

you a lot and blessings and peace to you from our God in

Jesus Christ. There's a lot of peace and a lot

of joy and a lot of Jesus loves you in this church and that's

great. But if you.

Notice that it's not. Reaching the neighborhood

that's. What?

He said. I think he's.

Right. I think that'd.

Be the thing. I think that'd.

Be the eye that. Paul would poke.

I think he's right. And if that hurts, hurts.

Me a little bit, if that hurts, I would just begin to ask what's

it look like for? Me to pray daily.

That your Kingdom come, your will be done in Des Moines as it

is in heaven. And then I start to.

Think about my spheres of. Influence and I would pray until

God started to give me an image of what would it look like for

heaven to invade that sphere of influence.

That's what I do. Let.

Me. Stick the landing here and I'll

be done. I've said a lot.

I've been preaching at 120 miles an hour.

You guys done a great job staying with me.

Let me just say this one important thing though.

The cultural mandate is the antidote to the anxiety of hyper

individualism. I believe that 100%.

I've never met a Christian who made a lot of disciples and LED

a lot of people to Jesus, who said, you know, I just don't

find my life very satisfying. I've never met her.

I've never met a Christian like that ever.

The cultural mandate is the purpose of your life, but it's

not your worth in life. I wonder if you noticed?

That in the. Text Did you notice what came

first in the text before the task, the blessing, verse 28,

verse 28 And God blessed them. And then he said to him, do this

stuff before the mobilize, fill the earth.

So let me phrase the question, Let me rephrase it.

What did Adam and Eve do to earn that blessing?

What did they accomplish to gain that blessing?

Nothing, not squat, not a zilch. This is the gospel hiding in

Genesis 1. Before Adam and Eve do anything,

before they take a step towards taking dominion, they already,

by grace alone, have the blessing, the acceptance, and

the friendship of God. They already have it.

Yes, fill the earth with. Jesus, people, yes, be the

frontier where heaven meets earth.

But don't forget the gospel. Don't forget that Jesus died for

you apart from works. Don't forget that Christ was

crucified for your sins and to cover you in his righteousness

and clothes you in worth. And he does that by faith alone.

Apart from works of the law, apart from the cultural mandate,

apart from discipleship statistics.

That's your worth. Before you share the gospel,

before you make disciples, before you tell anybody about

Jesus, know that Jesus loves you unconditionally, madly, and

eternally because of Christ Jesus.

But you need, I know this is self-explanatory.

You need to be filled with heaven first if you want to go

be the frontier where heaven meets earth.

Heavenly Father, thank you for. Your cultural mandate, your

Great Commission, all of the Bible just makes so much more

sense when you see it through that lens.

There's. Work to be done there's.

A mission. There's a purpose, and yes,

there is peace and hope and joy in the knowledge that if death

comes before resurrection, we will be in heaven with God.

But we're not going to sit on the sidelines and wait and be

passive and withdraw. We're going to go be fruitful

and multiply and fill and subdue and take dominion over creation

for the glory of Jesus. So what would that look like in

our lives? Lord, bring that to mind.

Help us visualize it until we can see it with clarity.

It's in the precious. Name of Jesus, that all.

God's people prayed. Amen.

Let's. Stand and worship the.

Heavenly one right here on earth.