#The Call to fulfil the Great Commission – Part 2

Been in our call series and we've been unpacking what it is

to be called. As we have a recap, the first

call that we have, our primary call is called to be with Jesus.

That is our number one call. It is to be with Jesus.

We are called to someone before something.

Then we looked at the second call, which is the call to

holiness. That as we are with Jesus, we

are called to be like Jesus. And that really is a a good sum

up of holiness that we've been called to be set apart from the

world and to be consecrated to him.

And now we move on to what it means to be all to fulfill the

Great Commission. This is, if you like, the doing

part of the call, and it is in that order, intentionally so,

because we do read in the scriptures of that focus and

that priority. And we've been looking at Luke

chapter 51 to 11 to unpack all of this gold.

So why don't we turn together if you have your Bibles in the room

or indeed online? If not, it'll be on the screen

and it'll be on your device as well.

And what I want to do this morning, rather than read this

all, is I want to zoom into the second hallmark that we've been

looking at. We've been looking at the 10

hallmarks of the call to fulfill the Great Commission, those

signs of authenticity that this is something of God.

And I we looked at the first one last week, which is God will

often call you in a place of weakness.

And we see this in this story that Jesus calls Simon at a

place where he is exhausted, having toiled all night, and

rather than God allow him to go home and have a shower and get

some coffee, he said, hey, come into the boat with me.

And we said, why is that? The why is that the way?

And I'm sure many of you will recognize that in your own life,

that there are those times where God calls you to speak to

someone or pray for someone or move into something new at that

point at which you don't quite frankly feel like it and quite

frankly don't feel your strongest self.

And we looked at the reasons why that is the case as we search

the Bible. So if you miss that catch up.

And so that brings us to the second hallmark of the 10.

And I decided as I was preparing that I'm just going to keep

extending this series until such time as I cover it.

Cover the ten. I think I was a little bit

optimistic in thinking that I could do 3A week.

This is only the 2nd. But anyway, that's fun, isn't

it? It means I don't have to worry

about what we're going to do in November.

There we go. What is the second hallmark?

It is this. It will require us to go deeper

than we did before. It will require us to go deeper

than we did before. Now where do we see this in

here? Well, I'm hope hopefully you

kind of know where I'm going to go with this.

But in verse 4, this is what Jesus said, he said.

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put

out into the deep and let down your Nets for a catch.

Now at this point, they had already gone out a little way,

and now Jesus is asking Simon to go out even further.

And we could just read that as a narrative of a story.

And of course it is. But really, as we'll see in the

rest of the full council of God's scripture, that what is

here is a dynamic, a hallmark of how God often operates with us,

that he calls us to go deeper than we have before.

And remember, at the start of this series, I outlined my

heart, which I believe is God, laid on my heart that as a

people, God is calling us to go deeper, to move away from the

metaphorical splash park into the deep oceans.

And with that is an intentionality that we have to

walk in to say, OK Lord, I'm going to pursue you and pursue

the depths of you. And so, as it says in here,

Jesus said to Simon, go into the deep, now, why does God call us

to go deeper with him? Why does?

I was doing some study and research, and I came up with a

list of at least six reasons that we uncover in the Bible,

six reasons why God calls us to go out into the deep.

And can I just say, just as an aside, I recognize that in this

series I've given you lots of points.

There's lots of numbers, you know.

Typically you should have a three-point sermon.

I've clearly broken that rule multiple times.

Please forgive me, but my heart for this is to teach you and to

teach us and myself. Because I think if we're going

to go deep with the Lord, we have to go deep into the word

right. And I'm hoping that my heart's

desire is not pleased here. My heart, it's not to overwhelm

you and think, Oh my word, 6 points.

I'm hoping that I'm going to share with you some golden

Nuggets of wisdom that you can take away and pray through and

that will bring you life. So please hear my heart on this.

I'm not trying to serve you up an indigestible meal.

I'm trying to serve you up something that's going to bring

health. So with that disclaimer out of

the way, let's look at the first one.

Why does God call us to go deep with him?

This is the first one, and I'm hoping that you will know this.

It is this. He is wanting to reveal more of

himself to us. He is wanting to reveal more of

his kindness, his goodness, his mercy, his grace, his power, his

loving kindness. He is wanting to reveal himself.

And as we looked at last week, and a lot of these points are

going to overlap, you're going to see the the beautiful thread

and fabric that this weaves, that God's intent, motivated by

love, is to reveal his glory to us.

Because when we experience His glory, that is when we feel our

deepest fulfillment. And so while it is true that in

that place of weakness, his glory is revealed in us, it is

also true that in the deepest parts, in those deep places that

we go to, God reveals himself in a deeper way.

And you see, what happens is he takes us on a journey where he

reveals his riches to us and invites us to dive into, pun

intended, his endless goodness. Let's look at Romans 1133,

because I think Paul does a really good job of of providing

some language around this. He says this oh, the depths of

the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments and decisions?

And how unfathomable and untraceable are his ways?

And I'm reading that from the amplified version.

Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge.

And when Paul says how unsearchable, he's not saying

that we cannot search them and we're not cool to dive into

them. What he's saying is they're just

so vast. There's a reason we we need

eternity, because you'll never get to the end of the glory and

the goodness of God. And you see, what God is

inviting us into when he calls us to go out into the deep, is

to experience more of his richness, more of who he is.

And Job. In Job 11/7, it says, can you

discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of

the Almighty? No.

But isn't it amazing that God doesn't say, hey, I am out of

your field of understanding, so back off people.

That's not what happens. God says, I invite you to search

these most amazing riches of my glory and of my nature.

And what a glorious God that would do that that would invite

us into that. Listen, let's just take a step

back and understand what's happening here.

The God of the universe that created time and space, that

knitted us together in our mother's womb, that flung the

stars into space, that same God is inviting us to know him more.

Isn't that bonkers on one level? And yet that is why God calls us

to go deeper, because that is his heart for us.

And I would say that every time I've stepped into the more of

God, his heart towards me has been to show me more of himself.

You know, I, I in my life look back.

And I'm so grateful to God for the deep places where there was

a moment where I thought I couldn't swim.

You've been there before. I'm, you know, completely out of

my debt. Floored.

What on earth are you doing? I know what I better do.

I better get on my knees and pray.

And it's in that place of seeking God that you experienced

his grace in a way in which you may not have experienced before,

That time where you walk into a place where God has called you

and you've never been before. Maybe it's about being a

peacemaker. Maybe it's about praying for

someone. Maybe it's about leaving your

job without knowing what you're going to go into because God has

said, I've got a plan for you. And in that place you're like,

Lord, you better show up right now.

Because if you don't show up, I am in danger of falling flat on

my face. And God shows up in a way in

which you go wow. And I think if you reflect on

your own stories and your own journeys, you can probably see

moments, some of you where that has been a reality that you see.

You don't experience necessarily the depths of God in the highest

mountaintops. You experience him in the deep

places in the underground, places in the places of pain and

difficulty and challenge. Mountaintop experiences are

wonderful. And don't we want to set up some

tabernacles like the like the disciples did when Jesus was

there on the on the mountain? A transfiguration with with

Moses and Elijah. I hope I got that right.

I think I did. And we want to camp there, don't

we? We want to stay there, but

they're wonderful. But you're not going to go deep

in those places. You'll just stay high.

That's quite, that's quite a lot of wisdom right there.

You got that one for free. Well done, Mark.

Good job. So when we pray, show me your

glory. We have to expect that he's

going to say OK, ready. You see when we pray.

Show me your glory. This is how I pray.

Show me your glory, Lord, Show me your glory.

Show me some angels. That would work.

That's that's not as good. But show no.

OK, show me something. And he's just waiting.

You want to see my glory? OK.

Go over there. It's really deep.

You'll find me there. But that is the truth of it.

And we see that we've throughout whole of scripture that if your

heart's desire is to pray, Lord, show me your glory, then you

need to recognize you're playing, you're praying.

Send me into the deep, Lord, that's what you're praying.

If you want to experience more of his mercy, his grace, his

power, then you're going to be like Simon at some point when

Jesus says right, this little shallow part part well done,

time for the deep okay. So that's number one.

Why else does God call us into the deep?

Why is that a Kingdom principle? Here's the second one.

He wants to break our God boxes. God is intentional about

breaking our God boxes. Maybe you're asking me, sorry

Mark, what's a God box? Do I buy this on Amazon?

Do I get Prime next day delivery on this?

We all have a tendency to create a God box whether we know it or

not. You see, a God box is a view

that we have of him and typically the way God boxes

work, and that means there's a restriction on what we think God

can do. Our God boxes are constructed by

our experiences. Our God boxes, listen, are

constructed by as deep as we've gone before.

And so the God boxes are informed by our experience of

God, not necessarily by the truth of who He is.

Now, that's not to say that your experiences are not valid, and

we often say here that God gives us faith for the future because

of His faithfulness in the past, and we build on our experience

with the Lord. But what I'm trying to say here

is that we have an experience of God.

We say, wow, you know what? God really showed up there.

That was amazing. And then God says, I want to

call you to leave this work. And I've got something else for

you. And you go, well, I don't know

how God can do that. Yeah, because we're based on

what God can do based on what he did last in our lives, which was

there. But you see, the hallmark of the

call is that we're called to go deeper because God's glory is

unfathomable. His riches are so deep and so

our God boxes are constructed not not by the word of who He

is, but by our own experiences. That's why reading His word is

so important. Reading His word is a demolition

of our God boxes every time we read it.

That's why His word is so important.

He's He says do not be conformed along to the pattern as well,

but be transformed by the renew of your mind.

That also applies to do not be limited by the God box you have

constructed through your own experiences that be transformed

by the renewing of your mind as you read about who God actually

is. Yeah, and So what God does in

going deep is he says, listen, I'm going to break your God box.

I'm going to show you my power and my might and it says in

Ephesians 320, let's just look at this now.

To him this is God who is able to do so far more abundantly

than all that we ask. Think according to the power of

work within us, it says in the Amplified.

If we can just go back. Eddie, thank you to the start of

that. Now to him who was able to carry

out his purpose and do super abundantly, super abundantly.

More than all that we dare ask or think.

That's the experience I see. God wants to do more than you

think he can do. God wants to show you He's super

abundant based on who he is, not your previous experience.

God is wanting to demonstrate his power in you and that's why

He calls you into the deep. See why this is so important.

Infinitely beyond our greatest prayers.

And we can carry on as we read that hopes or dreams according

to his power that is at work within us.

Wow, what a God. And that's why you see God calls

us. That's why God calls us to the

deep so He can break some boxes. And I would say as an aside, we

need a bigger vision of God and we need a bigger vision of

ourselves in him. You know, when we're a

childlike, we dream big, don't we?

How many of you wanted to be an astronaut when you're a kid?

How many of you wanted to save the planet?

How many of you want to do something so amazing?

We look at children going with ah, that's cute, isn't it?

I'll bless you. Life will show you that that's

not going to happen at some point.

Stop singing. I can do whatever I dream

because that ain't true. I mean, just look at your father

and mother. We're battered and bruised.

I used to think like that, but then, you know, life happened.

I actually think that childlike dreaming is from God and life

and the world squashes that out of us.

And so in this scripture, God saying dream like a child again,

I mean, talks about the importance of a childlike faith.

A childlike faith is not limited by their experiences, right?

They dream big because of what God's put in them.

I think we should just pause on that.

God is inviting you to dream bigger than you've ever dreamt.

Dreamt before. This scripture here is an

invitation to dream big. God's like, OK, you dream big

and I'll do it even bigger. Come on son.

Come on daughter. Stop with this small thinking.

Stop with this mindset that I haven't got the riches to do it.

Stop thinking you can't do this and you can't do that because,

well, I'm I'm like this and Lord, you only did that for me

last time. Stop thinking like that.

Dream big, dream like you did as a child.

Think about it again. Dream about changing the world

like you wanted to dream about doing, inventing something that

will that will benefit. Man can't do those things

because that's got in you. And that leads me on to the

Third Point. We are created in His image.

It's what we have been created for.

You see, the reason that we are called to go deeper and deeper

and deeper is because that is the image of God in us.

Are we here in this? We haven't been created to do

mediocre stuff. We haven't been created just to

stay in the splash park. We've been created to go deeper

than deeper than deeper than deeper.

OK, let's look at what happened with Adam and Eve.

What was Adam's first task? Anybody.

Well, it's not a trick question. Name the animals.

Well done. And that's a big task, isn't it?

Can you imagine that? Task number one.

And I was like, name that plant. I've got this name that is a

daffodil. That's a flower, isn't it?

Anyway, I wouldn't have been very good at this.

No. God says Adam.

Name all the animals. What?

Say what? All of them?

Yes. Now, what would happen after

Adam had named all the animals? What would have happened next if

there wasn't the fall? Do you think God would have gone

up to Adam and said, why don't Adam?

Unfortunately, you peaked too early.

It's just downhill from here. To be fair, you've done all the

animals and that's it. You've done well done.

You're going to leave for live for another thousand years.

Of course it was preface. So for a long time eternity of

whatever it the plan was. But unfortunately you peak too

early. That's not God, is it?

I mean, even just saying that you realize that's not God's

character. I suspect that if Adam and

clearly this is not gospel truth.

It's my assumption. If Adam hadn't fallen, Adam and

Eve, God would have said well done, right?

You see those planets out there, see those stars?

Let's go start naming those. And once we've done that, I'm

going to show you some other universe.

Like that's how God works. He doesn't go, go deep, right,

You're done. Head back in the shallows, come

on, time out, you're done. You're peaked.

He doesn't work like that. He's because we've been created

in his image. We've been created to create be

hearing this. We are God's image bearers.

And so we reflect the glory of God as we create for him and in

His name. And so we therefore we should

expect to go deeper. I mean, I'm quite frankly, I'm

in. I'm in such deep water at the

moment. Not in trouble, of course, but

metaphorically speaking. You know, the Lord called

Stephan I to to be this, to lead this wonderful church.

And what a blessing it is. But you think I looked and

thought. Heading back to the splash park.

How boring. No, I was like, you kidding me?

Well, go deeper. Even more.

I've just founded two companies. I just sold one of them.

I just. Steph and I just traveled the

world. Because you said now you want to

do this, Steph. And I've seen it in our lives

play out time after time. Going deeper, going deeper,

going deeper. Because that's the image you've

got in us. We've been created that way.

Do you understand #4? When we're faithful with the

small things, he gives us more. This is another Kingdom

principle of why God calls us to go deeper.

OK, Parable of the Talents. Matthew 2514 to 30.

We haven't got time to read it. Go ahead, go away and read it

this afternoon or during the week.

A great parable. Now whilst it's speaking about

when Jesus comes again and there will be treasures, there's a a

judgment of works if you like. When we're not judged for our

salvation, for those that believe in in Jesus Christ and

the work of his blood on the cross, we're saved by grace, not

by works of course, but there is the beamer seat of Christ,

that's the judgment that we have.

The way he he dishes out rewards, that's essentially what

that is. The Beamer seat was a seat they

used to use in the Olympics way back where they would hand out

the crowns for rewards. So it's not a judgment of you're

a bad boy, you're a bad girl. This is I want to reward you.

And so this power of the talents is essentially talking about the

fact the master came, gave talents to three, three guys.

He said I'm going to go away when I come back.

Let's see what you've done with it.

That's about the life that we're in now the here and not yet.

And so the first one makes more, second one makes more, third one

buries it. And he's in trouble, of course.

So whilst this is talking about the fact that there are

treasures, a way to knows that rewards, there is a Kingdom

principle that operates. Now do you understand, which is

that when we're faithful in something, in a call that God's

placed on us, He says, well done, my good and faithful

servant. Now here's the next bit for you

to do. Here's the next bit.

And so I want to say this, If if you are faithful in the smaller

things, your expectancy should be this.

OK, Lord, thank you. What's next?

Have we ever prayed that? Oh, Mark, that's just pride,

isn't it? No, it's not.

No, it's not. It's humility.

Well, how's that humility? Humility is about recognizing

that he is God and we are his. And it's in alignment with that.

And so when we say, when we feel that in our spirit, well done,

my good and faithful certainly say okay, thank you, Lord Okay,

What's next, Lord? I'm ready for the next bit.

That is what's going to happen in your life.

And I believe that Okay, here we go.

I believe that some of you have yet to be called to go in the

deeper. Because Jesus is waiting for

some of you to say, I'm ready for the next bit, Lord, I'm

ready, I'm ready. I'm ready to go deeper.

I think some of you need to be praying that and saying that to

God. I'm ready to go deeper.

I'm ready to go deeper #5 Another reason that we go deeper

is this. He builds our giftings and

capacity. God has all given us different

giftings and he wants to build those giftings in us.

He doesn't just give you the gift and say go ahead and have a

play. It's not like when you, you know

when you give a child a gift for Christmas.

You know the ones that you've got to build or something.

You don't just say right, off you go.

You sit down with him, say right, let's look at the

instructions. Let's work on this together.

Let's try this out. I was going to use the example

of a Mikano set, but I don't. I don't even know if they sell

those anymore. But you know, Star Wars, Lego

Millennium Falcon, that's a huge one.

You know, I enjoyed doing that with my my son.

But here's the thing. You see, God gives us gifts and

then he puts us in deep places to grow in them, whether that's

a prophetic gift in that you have, whether that's a gift in

for words and knowledge. He says, you know what?

I'm going to put you in a really what may be to you, a scary

place. But I want you to go around the

room and I want you to speak a word over 10 people.

That's a deep place, isn't it? You've seen it.

You've seen you prayed for someone's elbow and they got

healed and and got this right. I want you to go to your

neighbor who's suffering with that terminal illness, and I

want you to pray for them. I mean, that's a deep place,

isn't it? But you see what God is doing in

that. All those other things we've

looked at, He's also given you an opportunity to grow in the

gifting that God's given you. And that also might be a gift of

administration. It might be a gift of being able

to build things. It might be a gift of

organization. Whatever it might be, God is

going to look to develop your gifting and put you in places

where it stretches you. And so we should expect that

number six. Oh, this is the last one.

Happy days. This is, this is, I would say #1

and #6. If you want to just remember 2,

remember these ones. He is conforming us to the

lightness of Christ. You see all things work together

for good for those that love him in a court according to his

purpose. Romans 828.

I'm sure we've heard that many a time all things work together

for good. For those that love him in a

court according to his purpose, read verse 29 where it talks

about conforming us the lightness of his Son.

That's the reason. What is the good that he works

us towards? The good is conforming us of

Jesus Christ because in the natural something happens.

You know. Well there's no good in that,

but you've just been in the place of bearing fruit brother

and sister. And as we bear fruit, we are

conformed to the lightness of Christ.

You see, and we the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5/22/23,

we we pray that we can bear fruit, patience and kindness and

and all those things. If we are praying that, then God

is not going to put you on a mountaintop and say right, I'm

going to sprinkle some fairy dust on you and you're going to

become patient overnight. Why, Lord, that would be really

helpful. He's going to put you in a deep

place. He's going to put you in a place

where you're going to feel the pressure.

He's going to put you in a place where you feel difficulty, where

you've got to call out to him. He's going to put you in a place

where you recognize that you can't do it on your own, that

you've got to do it with Christ. And you see, when we go into the

deep, that is the place which conforms us to the lightness of

His son. You know, as I was prepared at

this point, the Lord just brought to to my mind diamonds.

Sorry, Diamond darling, it wasn't about you.

I have to say, it wasn't going to buy you anything, but, and

I'm sorry about that, maybe I misheard, but you know, I think

it was in relation to he conforms us to the lines of

Christ. Because I did some research and

I kind of knew roughly that diamonds are, you know,

pressured and what stuff. But I I did some research and

this is how diamonds are made. Diamonds are a crystallized form

of carbon that grows from a primary carbon source.

Welcome to science lesson, by the way.

Subjected to very high temperatures and pressure,

almost all commercially mindable diamonds are formed in an area

of the Earth's mantle. Guess how deep 150 kilometers

below the surface surface Isn't that wonderful imagery for the

deep places that God calls us to?

The area is often known as a diamond stability zone, where

temperatures are about above 1000 degrees Celsius.

There's also tremendous pressure at these depths, between 45 and

60 kilobars. I've got no idea what that

means, but that sounds like a lot, right?

And what's interesting with diamonds, as I kept reading,

which I didn't realize, is that what happens with with movement

of the of the earth's crust and what is invoke it comes it, it

gets brought up to the surface. The diamond doesn't do it

itself. It's brought up to the surface.

And you see, here's how God works, brothers and sisters.

He wants to reveal his glory in you.

He wants to conform you to lightness of his son.

And so he puts you 150 kilometers under the earth's

mantle into the deep places. And he puts allows the pressure.

Oh, Lord, please, would you help me?

He puts you under high temperatures.

This is really difficult, Lord. And in that place, He is turning

you into a diamond. But you know what?

He doesn't leave you there at the right time.

By his spirit, he brings you out of those deep places.

Isn't that beautiful? Why?

So that you can shine for him. Why?

Because we we, we image bearers, we're here to express and bring

him glory. Can I invite the band up as I,

as I end? And so brother and sisters, God

meets us where we are at in our weakness.

And he says I wanted to be with you.

And in that place of being with him and in that place of walking

and holding us, he says, right, let's go into the deep.

And it's in that place of deep that we meet with him, want to

ask you a question, Want you to stand.