Our Mission Matthew 22:37-39, 28:18-20 (Dec 4 2016) Mike Armstrong

All right, well, good morning.

I am uh glad to be in the house of the Lord with you today and excited to get into this.

So as you are grabbing your Bibles, if you would do that right now, you can turn to Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Uh it's gonna be a little bit like last week.

We're gonna jump uh back and forth kind of between uh two different passages, but Matthew 28 is where you're gonna uh where you can go to right now.

Well, hey, as you're turning to that, um, you know, if you are a parent, okay, you know that um getting your kids um up out of bed and ready and out the door is quite the task, isn't it?

Right?

You know that for sure, but as a parent, you are on mission about it.

You know that you are uh doing that for sure.

You know that the entire purpose of your life in the mornings, at least this is how it feels, right, is to, you know, get your kids, you know, up and out of bed and get your get your pajamas off and get changed and get downstairs and get breakfast in your bodies and and don't forget to grab your water bottle and your lunch and fill your backpack and grab your homework and get out the door and get to the bus and you know whatever it might be, you know, especially if you have younger kids, that's often how it is.

If you have older kids and they're like teenagers, it's like you're you put all your chips in like get out of bed basket, right?

That's it for you.

And if you have even older kids than that, it's like get a job, right?

Contribute, you know, get move out, right?

That's kind of how you feel, and you are all about this mission, and you realize that you are trying to get them to join you in that mission.

That is just such a huge part of being a family.

Well, hey, um, hopefully you know this, but you realize that um the church uh is on a mission too, right?

You know that?

You know that we have a mission, and uh it is massively, massively important that we are aware of that, that we understand uh that God has given us a mission.

Now, here's how we frame it up at our church, at Harvest Bible Chapel.

It's gonna be uh on the screen here for you, so you can take a look at that.

It's this it's to glorify God through the fulfillment of the great commission in the spirit of the great commandment.

Okay, that is our mission.

You can find that uh on our website.

You can find that I know there's a banner out there uh with it for sure.

And this is uh this is the thing.

These are our marching orders uh from the Lord.

Okay, this is what each mu each one of us must have like razor sharp clarity about.

We gotta have clarity on this, and then beyond that, we need to have passionate drive towards this so that we can actually carry out and accomplish the mission uh that God uh has given us.

Okay, how important is this that we would understand what the mission of the church is?

If we are fuzzy on this uh at all, it means that we are going to kind of be lame ducks as the church.

And so we need to know this.

This is so, so important.

What we're gonna be talking about here this morning.

We're gonna unpack all of this and see how we see this in the scriptures for sure.

But before we get into it, I think it would be good for us to just give this time to the Lord.

So why don't you join me as we pray?

God, we do come before you and realize that uh your words to us when it comes to what our job is as the church is paramount.

And Lord, I pray that as we work through these just massively uh important texts, God, I pray that you would grip our hearts with this, Lord, that you would give us such a burden to carry out this mission.

Lord, I pray that you would give us encouragement to do this as well, Lord, that we wouldn't be overwhelmed by the task because we would understand that you are with us, Lord, and you would you will empower us in this in carrying out this mission.

Lord, we know that we are we are to join you in this, Lord.

This is what you want, and you want us uh to draw alongside of you in this.

So, God, would you help us now as this church?

I pray that that each one of us would buy in here today.

Lord, I pray that each one of us would be fired up about this.

This would be uh what drives us as we gather on Sunday mornings from here on out, Lord, as our ministries gather throughout the weeks.

All of it, Lord, would be about um carrying out uh the mission that you have called us to.

So, Lord, help us today.

Help us to understand, help us to love you through this.

We pray all of this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, well, um the church, okay, we have a God-given assignment to carry out.

Hopefully that much is clear so far.

Now, first of all, before we go too much further into all of that, um, isn't that just wild?

Right?

That God would call us uh to do something like this, something so important.

I mean, the God of heaven and earth, the great I am, who could have, and you might argue should have, just wiped us out because of our our wickedness.

He should have like just crushed us like a styrofoam cup.

Not only does he not do that, but he actually forgives us through Jesus Christ and then says, He's like, hey, hey, join me.

Join me.

I've got I've got a task that I want you uh to do.

I got a plan to save the world and to transform people from the inside out, and and I want you to help me with that.

I mean, what?

Right?

Do you ever think about that?

And your mind should just be like feeling like it's ready to burst as you comprehend all of that.

Why would the Lord use us?

I mean, if we're seeing ourselves with any clarity here, we realize we don't deserve this.

We don't deserve to be used by the Lord.

We deserve to be cast aside and worse.

But he's like, no, I want I want to team up with you to do some great work in the world.

I mean, that should cause our hearts to just bow, right?

Bow in humble gratitude and just say, like, who, me?

Lord, thank you.

I mean, what an honor.

I mean, there is just there's literally nothing higher that we could give our lives to as individuals and as the church.

All right, so let's jump into this here.

You've got your notes, it's all on the screen, of course.

Okay, our church will accomplish the mission when we totally commit to disciple making.

When we totally commit to disciple making.

Okay, Matthew 28, we're gonna jump into that here, but this is what's known as the Great Commission.

The Great Commission, you aware of all of this?

And this is where Christ gives his disciples and then us, all of these years uh later, uh our battle plan.

Okay, this is the plan, this is what we're supposed to be doing, and it's really just to go make disciples, if you want to simplify all of that.

Okay, now the timeline here and where uh these verses kind of fall in the story here is that Christ has already been to the cross.

This is the very end of Matthew 28, the very end of Matthew's gospel.

So Jesus has already died, he's already risen, he has appeared to hundreds and hundreds of people.

He has spent time with his disciples, training them and teaching them and showing them that, hey, all of the prophecies all throughout the Old Testament, all through the scriptures that were pointing to a Messiah, hey, all of that is fulfilled in me.

Can you imagine that as the light bulb was coming on for the disciples?

And they're realizing, wow, what a moment in history here.

As Jesus is the Savior, and they were starting to comprehend all of this.

So he's been telling them all of this.

And what he's doing now here is he's giving them their final instructions.

It's the last words that he's gonna tell them before he ascends, before he goes into heaven and he sits down at the right hand of God the Father.

And so, hey, you gotta think about this.

If these are Christ's final words, okay, do you think that they were probably pretty important?

Probably.

Right?

He wasn't like, oh yeah, by the way, just a couple of things don't really matter.

No, he's like, listen up, this is huge.

Like this, this is this is what you're gonna be doing from now until I return and come get you and bring you to glory with me.

Okay, so pretty key that we kind of pay attention here, I think.

Okay, so here it is, Matthew 28, verse 18 to 20.

Matthew 28:18–20

Let's read it.

Uh follow along.

He says that he says, and Jesus came and said to them, This is his disciples, he says, 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 the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Awesome.

I mean, look at that first part again, though.

Okay, Jesus says this.

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

Okay, so what he's saying here is he's saying that he has the complete and total right to speak and act as he sees fit.

He's like, I've got I've got all authority.

Okay, and that freedom and that power is absolute and unlimited.

Okay, his authority, that's the word there that he uses, that's been given to him by his father.

And it's unrestricted and it is universal.

It's pretty incredible to think about that one word alone.

You know, you might be thinking about this, you know, why why does he start in with this?

Okay, why does he start in with talking about authority?

Why does he like kind of pull apart the deck and throw down the authority card right out of the gate with his disciples?

Okay, why does he go there?

Okay, well, it's because our mission to be disciple makers, it's not merely some suggestion where we can kind of act as though we have the option as to whether or not to obey him.

Right?

We kind of act like that a little bit, but no.

Because Christ's uh uh authority is absolute, the only right response is complete and total surrender to him in everything.

Everything.

Meaning that what he says goes.

Period.

Right?

That's the authority that God has.

And so as you think about the fact that that Christ has all authority over your life to command, you know, the the orientation, the focus, the mission of your life, as you think about that and how that relates to you as an individual, okay, is that something that is sweet to your soul?

Or is that something that kind of tastes a little bit bitter?

You know, how do you react to that?

How do you respond?

You know, if there's a kind of like an inner chafing within you that that rubs against Christ's authority and and against his commands, man, you you gotta kill that.

You gotta kill that because that is that is pride.

And it and it's nothing other than arrogance, and and Lord, I should be able to say how my life goes and what I should be focusing on and what church should be all about and what my family should be all about and how I spend my time and my money and all of that.

Lord, I have the authority.

That's what that is.

And it couldn't be any further from reality.

We don't have any right, any authority to do anything other than what Christ commands.

And here, and here's the other thing.

And to do it with joy, to do it with joy, right?

Again, you think about you know getting your kids out the door in the mornings, right?

And if you ever notice that sometimes uh they lack joy in that endeavor, you notice that?

One of the things that we often say uh in our home uh when it comes to obedience is do it right away, okay, all the way, and with a happy heart.

Do it right away, all the way, and with a happy heart.

I mean, that needs to be our heart as well as we think about the authority that God has over our lives.

Because when you're in a good place when it comes to all that, when it comes to his authority and his rule over you, then verse 19, that's gonna be something that you can't wait to commit to do.

You can't wait to jump and be all in on this.

What does verse 19 say?

Well, take a look.

He says, Go therefore and make disciples.

Make disciples.

I mean, you need to circle that, you need to highlight that.

That is really that is the thrust of this passage.

Okay, and and and keep in mind here that the guys that that Jesus is talking to, these disciples, these guys would go on to plant churches all over.

And this mission to be disciple makers would be the chief undertaking of these churches.

As they planted churches and discipled people and then planted more churches, and that took over and spread, okay, that's what they would do.

And Jesus says here to make disciples of of all nations, meaning that God has this, he has this aggressive plan for world domination.

If you want to look at it like that.

That's what he's going for.

In other words, he wants to use us.

Okay, he wants to use our church.

He wants to use you specifically to get work done.

That's what he wants.

Now, a lot of Christians have kind of made a bit of a mistake here when they look at those words there.

So take a look at the text again.

Those words go.

See that word go there?

Go and all nations?

Okay, sometimes people take a look at that and they think that that refers to missionary work only.

You know, as in like, well, you know, this mission that Jesus is calling these disciples to is really only for the select few.

You know, those who are gonna go be missionaries in China or Papua New Guinea to some you know indigenous tribes and spread the gospel.

You know, so let them do it.

And that's kind of a faulty mindset that a lot of churches, a lot of Christians have had.

I mean, it's wrong.

Like that's not that's not it at all.

Because that word go, it just means, you know, as you're going.

You know, as you're going, or or no matter where you are going, okay, make disciples.

Okay, can we all do that?

Are we all going at some point throughout the week?

And in our lives?

Of course we are.

That's all of us.

Now I love Acts chapter 1, verse 8.

Acts 1:8

You can actually jot that down if you like, and you can look at that um on your own time, but it kind of gives us a cool model here.

Jesus gives it to us as a way of carrying out the mission in the world.

This is what he says.

I'm gonna read it.

He says, and he's talking to his disciples again, he says, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem.

Okay, in Jerusalem.

So picture like their hometown, kind of where they're all from, their home base.

That was that was that was the starting point for them.

Okay, for us, it's it's Newmarket.

It's Newmarket, or or wherever you're from, one of the surrounding towns.

Maybe it's King City or Richmond Hill, or you're from, you know, the marsh.

You know, that that's kind of your Jerusalem.

Okay, so he says, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, that's locally.

And then he says this, and in all Judea and Samaria.

Okay, so those are like the outlier towns and cities.

So for us, maybe it's like it's it's Toronto.

Or you might even stretch that out to say throughout all Ontario and and maybe even Canada.

You know, this is where we want the mission uh to get out to.

Okay, but he's not done.

He says, in all Judea and Samaria, and then he says, and to the ends of the earth.

To the ends of the earth, so just meaning globally.

You know, and you already heard you know Maddie talk about it in the special offering that we're supposed to take up, and we're working towards here uh this Christmas is to support churches in Haiti uh and Romania.

And so we take uh uh very seriously uh this mission to go out and uh make disciples.

Okay, and that is for each one of us uh to do.

Okay, it's for you, and it happens wherever you are, whether that's here or you're at work or you're with your family over the Christmas holidays or wherever you might be.

Okay, it's to make disciples.

That is the mission.

You know, last week we looked at you know what discipleship looks like uh here at Harvest, here at our church.

Uh you know, how all mature disciples uh worship Christ, you know, uh uh walk with Christ, let's see if I can remember it, and then work for Christ.

Okay?

Worship, walk, and work.

That's the three W's.

And in Matthew 28, uh verse 19, Jesus shows us a little bit more.

He starts to unpack that a little bit and gives us a few more components as to uh what our worship and our walk with Christ looks like for sure.

So what does he say?

He says, baptizing them.

He baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And he says, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Okay, so let's take a look at this.

First of all, baptism.

Okay, baptism.

Baptism is evidence, okay, that God is at work in the church.

It's evidence that the mission is actually being accomplished.

And I love that.

Okay, disciple making is happening.

And so since we've launched, okay, we've actually uh had the privilege of baptizing uh 12 people now.

We've had three different baptism services.

Uh the first one we baptized two, the second time we baptized two, and then the last time we did it, just back in August, we baptized eight more people.

I mean, praise the Lord for what he is doing in the church and how he is discipling people and he is transforming people.

And we've we've had the opportunity of hearing uh so many great testimonies of the Lord at work transforming hearts and changing uh lives.

Right?

Amazing.

Okay, and baptism, what is that?

Well, that is really a picture of the gospel and our identification with Jesus Christ.

Okay, and so and so the way that we kind of say, uh, the way that we kind of describe baptism is it is an outward uh expression of an inward reality.

An outward expression of an inward reality.

So we have a baptism service, someone comes and they get baptized, and what's happening?

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

So they are identifying with Christ's death and burial, right, under the water.

We baptize by immersion, and then coming up out of the water is identifying with his resurrection to new life.

And it's people in the tank saying, This is what Christ has done in me, and I want to tell you about it.

This is an act of obedience and part of the journey towards my maturity as a disciple in Jesus Christ.

Baptisms are so exciting, right?

And I love that, and I love how so many of you have come to those services, and I mean, those are like a party, right?

You've been to those before, and people are cheering and clapping and going crazy because they're so fired up for what the Lord is doing in individuals' lives.

And hey, listen, listen, if you haven't been baptized yet, if you've never done this as a believer, make it happen.

Okay, make it happen.

Come come talk to me after the service and say, hey, just listen, I need to take this step of obedience and we will work with you.

Now, listen, I know that everyone's like nervous when it comes to baptism, right?

And oftentimes the thing that stops us from doing it and taking that step of obedience is that we just don't want to get in front of people.

Right?

And we're nervous about that.

Listen, I want to help I want to let you know that we help you to make that as smooth and as comfortable as a process as possible.

And if you are nervous, just understand this: so is everybody.

Everyone who's ever gotten baptized has been nervous.

In fact, I'll tell you this of all the people that I've ever baptized in my life, and it's a huge joy for me to do that, I had one person, one person only, whoever said, Yeah, I'm not really nervous about this.

But guess what happened once they got in the tank?

Nervous.

You know, usually it's the other way around, and people are like, I'm sweating bullets about this, and I'm so scared, I'm not a public speaker, and they don't want to do it and they get into the tank and they're like, oh, this isn't so bad.

Right?

Get baptized.

It's a great expression of your faith.

It's something that Christ uh commands us to do.

It's a sign of your maturity again, and it's a sign that the omission is being carried out here at our church.

That's the first thing he mentions.

Second thing he says there is teaching.

Like teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.

Okay, so teaching is a pretty major component of disciple making as well.

And of course, it is our first pillar.

Just six weeks ago, we went through all of that, proclaiming the authority of God's word without apology or unapologetic preaching.

And so teaching and preaching God's word is pretty huge to what we do here at our church.

And so, from the youngest all the way up to the oldest across our various ministries that are in place here, we're committed to teaching God's word.

You may be like, why?

Why do we do that?

Well, it's so that the Lord can reveal himself to us.

That is the main way that he does that through his word.

And so we want to dive into that.

We want to get to know him more, we want to press into who he really is, and all of these something.

Misconceptions that we all kind of carry about God in all these various small and sometimes very big ways, all of those things come crashing down as we teach the Word of God and we get to know Him for who He really is and we learn how to glorify Him with our lives.

In fact, I'm really excited even right now to be able to tell you that we are going to be kind of bolstering the teaching and really the discipleship here at Harvest, even more so in the new year.

Now, ladies, uh, you might remember that back uh in the uh earlier this year, uh we had a uh a women's study, and uh my wife Ange led that.

And uh you guys went through a book study and all of that, and I heard so many great stories of women who are just like, man, I never I never knew that we could read the Bible like this before.

This is so powerful uh for me in my life.

And so we're really excited to say that we're gonna be starting up uh another one of those uh again here very soon uh in the new year.

Now, some of the details are still falling into place, but it looks like it's gonna be on uh Monday evenings.

We're gonna be going through a book study.

Ange is gonna be leading that again, and uh, so just kind of keep that in mind, lock that away.

Uh more details uh to come as we relaunch our women's study.

Love that.

Okay, what else are we gonna be doing here?

We're gonna be launching a men's study as well.

Okay, how crucial is this?

How key is this uh is this for us as a church to begin to gather together as men and press into the Lord and grow.

And actually, what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be going through uh this book right here.

I don't know if you've ever read it before, but it's called Spiritual Leadership.

And uh it's by a guy named Jay Oswald Sanders, and this is just a phenomenal book.

Those of you who have read it, you're like, oh yeah, oh yeah, that's a good one.

And so what we're at what we're gonna be doing, it's men, we're gonna be gathering together on Thursday mornings, okay, before you go to work, uh starting on January 12th.

Okay, January 12th, write that down.

And uh we're gonna be going from 6 a.m.

till 7 a.m.

So that way we have a hard stop at 7, and you guys can head off and uh go to work.

And that way we're also not taken another evening away from you and all of that.

Um so think about that, how you can be pressing in, because um, here's a saying that uh I've been thinking about a lot lately.

It's as go the men, so goes the church.

As go the men, so goes the church.

You think that's true?

I do.

Absolutely.

And how crucial is it for men to step up and learn how to lead.

And not lead as the way the world says to lead, but lead the way the scriptures say to lead, to lead with the Lord's heart and to grow in that.

So we're gonna be gathering in the mornings and going through this book and really uh challenging each other and coming together and seeing how the Lord wants to grow us.

So I'm excited about this.

I really am.

It's something that's been brewing in my heart for a long time.

I can't wait to gather with the men and go through this.

So here's the thing you need to know about both the men's and the women's study.

Okay, we've got a sign-up sheet at uh InfoCenter right after the service.

You can start to sign up there.

Make sure you put down a legible email address so we can get back to you with all the details.

We're gonna have books available in the coming weeks uh to purchase uh at InfoCenter for both men's and women's.

I am excited about this.

Hey, listen, we want to dive deeper into discipleship, making disciples, carrying out the mission.

This is just so, so huge.

All right, and that harvest here, that that's what we're about.

And that's what we're going for.

Every single person being all in on this.

Every single person totally committed to disciple making.

Okay, where you're first of all, okay, first of all, fired up about yourself growing.

Right?

How key is that?

I you need to grow first.

And Lord, do you have that a heart for that and a hunger for that?

Lord, would you would you transform me?

Lord, the areas of my life where I'm just kind of doing it the way I want to do it, Lord, would you meet me in that?

And would you challenge me, Lord, to be to be a better Christ follower, to be more humble, to step up, to be more godly?

So fired up about yourself growing, and then and then, of course, other people growing as well, and where you can pour yourself out into them, and then of course, to see the mission being carried out beyond this wall, into New Market, out into our city, and uh and even beyond all of that, where people can come to know Jesus Christ personally, where they would come and see that you know sin is the thing holding them back.

And that that sin has to be, has to be wiped out, it has to be, it has to be forgiven, it has to be cleaned up, and the only way to get that done is through Jesus Christ.

And where our hearts would be to have other people see that with clarity and realize that the gospel is everything, and that we are carriers of the gospel, and we take that out into people where people would get saved from sin and begin this journey towards becoming a mature disciple.

So, hey, church, harvest, are you with us on this?

Are you with us?

Is your heart burning within you, as the scriptures say, to jump on board and go for it?

Okay, just like Jesus' disciples, you know, received this charge to them, you know, we must too.

You know, and be unwavering in this commitment, not get off the line of making disciples and on to something else.

You know, we don't want our, for example, harvest kids ministry to go from being disciples to be just a babysitting ministry.

That's not what it is.

It's about discipleship.

We don't want harvest youth to be about, you know, crazy games only, where we're like drinking coke through some dirty sock or something like that, and not about just disciple making.

Where we don't want our seniors' ministry, like Lord willing, down the way to be about, you know, bus trips.

Where it's like, yeah, that's that's kind of all they're good for.

We get them to ship down to Florida.

No, it's disciple making.

Right?

That's what it's about.

We've got to stay on that line.

We can't waver from it at all.

We want to accomplish this mission that God has given us.

We want to do that by his grace.

Are you kind of feeling like, wow, that's a challenge?

You know, that's a challenge.

It feels, it kind of feels daunting at times, and and and maybe it even feels you know overwhelming, and you're like, you know, I won't be used in this.

Like, why would the Lord use me?

You know, I've often asked that question many times.

You might be thinking, I, you know, I've got plenty of my own stuff going on, you know, and maybe I need to have all of that fixed before I can get involved.

Not true.

The Lord wants to use you.

Don't be phased by the enormity of the task ahead of us.

And in fact, verse 20, it was written just for that very reason.

Take a look at that.

You know, partway down there, he says, and behold, behold, you realize what that word means?

It's like Jesus kind of like snapping them to attention.

Hey, eyes up here for a second.

Listen to me, put your phones down, eyes on me, listen to what I have to say.

Hey, this is huge, this is so important.

And then what does he say?

He says, Behold, I am with you always until the end of the age.

I mean, do we take that to heart?

What a massive encouragement that is to me.

Knowing that I don't have to carry this forward in my own lame strength, in my own easily tapped-out resources.

No, the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ Himself, will be with us.

He is the one who's gonna build his church, he is the one who's gonna make disciples, and he is gonna partner with us in doing that.

He is never gonna leave us, he is never going to forsake us.

He wants to and will use you.

Are you willing?

Are you willing?

Okay, second thing and final thing here today.

Okay, our church will accomplish our mission uh when we wholeheartedly love God and love others.

When we wholeheartedly love the Lord and others.

Okay, Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

If you just flip back a couple of chapters uh to that now, uh pretty uh crucial passage as well, and and and these couple of verses here uh lay out what's known as the Great Commandment.

You ever heard of that?

The Great Commandment.

And so this is really the spirit, the the attitude, the mindset, the the you know, all of that that we are to have as we uh carry out the mission to make disciples.

This is the heart that we are supposed to have as we do this.

What does he say?

Verse 37, take a look at that.

Verse 37.

Jesus says, and he said to them, or he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the great and first commandment.

And a second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Okay, in other words, if you want to kind of um kind of zero in on what this is saying here, he's saying that we need to love God and love neighbor.

We need to love God and we need to love people.

Okay, and this is something that's not to be kind of an act that we put on.

It's not something that's to be in any way forced or fake or surfacey, okay, because it says there that we're supposed to do this with all of our heart and soul in our mind.

In other words, wholeheartedly, our entire beings are supposed to be thrown into doing it in this way.

I mean, we're to love with everything that we've got genuinely, thoroughly, passionately.

Okay, from hearts that have been just so gripped by the truth of the gospel and the understanding that that's how God loves us.

Right?

He put his all into it.

He sent his only son to die on the cross for us.

That's how much he loved us.

We are to love him and others in return in the same way with everything.

Now, you know, back to the to the mission that you have, you know, every morning, you know, as you get your kids, you know, up and ready and fed and clothed and you know, out the door, all of that.

Hey, have you ever done that in like a, I don't know, less than loving way before?

Right?

Totally.

You know, for sure.

Who hasn't done it like that?

You know, every single parent has at some point, you know, barked out orders or or you know, been too harsh or or lost their temper, or or maybe on the other end you've been you've been too passive, and maybe you should have been like kind of pushing them and and nudging them and and urging them, but you've been just kind of sitting back, and you know, I've I've kind of quit and I've given up on all of that, and and you you kind of realize that you should have probably been more on top of it.

Okay, well that approach, you know, the approach that lacks you know patience, or maybe it's motivation to do it at all, and you know, love, the approach that lacks love, it it never really works that well, does it?

Right?

You might get your kids, you know, out of bed and going, you know, but oftentimes if you're not loving, what are you doing?

You're exasperating them.

You know, and and they might, you know, they might actually go and do it, but you know, they're they're they're like tripping over their lips because they're sulking about it, right?

And and they're frustrated and they've got you know maybe a bad um attitude about all of that.

Okay, it doesn't really work too well if we don't have the right heart and we're not loving them.

I mean, there have been you know more times than I can probably count or want to admit, you know, where we've had kind of a, you know, kind of a crazy morning, right?

Sunday mornings are a classic example.

You know, you're trying, we're trying to get our kids who are pretty young, uh, out the door, and uh Pastor Dad's, you know, heart has maybe not been um, I don't know, the best.

And and so Ang just kind of you know had to kind of gently nudge me and say, you know, hey, maybe maybe you need to pray, you know, on our way to church, or as we're walking the kids uh to school.

And so many times I've had to do that, just pray for my own heart, that it would soften, and that I wouldn't again frustrate or exasperate my kids in this and and learn how to kind of gently, but but but but still with strength, motivate them uh to get on board uh with the mission.

Right?

We need to we need to be loving in all of this.

Okay, likewise, okay, the mission that that God's given us as the church to make disciples, it just doesn't work right if we don't love.

It doesn't work right.

You know, sure, from a kind of a visual perspective, it might look like we're doing all the right things.

You know, we might have lots of people into a service on a Sunday or people attending ministries and small groups and people signed up and doing all kinds of things, but if we're not doing it with love, how much do you think that's really pleasing to the Lord?

Right?

It's not.

Okay, if our version of discipleship is done with a heart of you know impatience or or coldness or just uh you know an arrogance and a self-centeredness, self-reliance in all of that, okay, then we're really missing the mission completely.

We're missing it.

Okay, love for God and love for others, that has to be our main motivator.

That has to be the thing that drives us each and every day.

That's the thing that we need to be growing in and praying into our hearts.

Lord, please motivate me with this, not with anything else.

I don't want to do this out of guilt.

I don't want to do this because simply there's a need.

I want to do this because I love you, God.

I want to do this because I love other people.

I want to see your kingdom come.

I want to see your church be built up.

I want to see you do incredible things.

I want to see you get the glory.

Okay, if it's not, then God's not getting the glory.

And we're not accomplishing the mission.

Okay, that should make us feel uncomfortable, right?

That's probably a soft word.

That should make us feel burdened if we're not doing this in the right way.

And listen, if if that kind of describes you at all and you sense that your heart has kind of gotten cold or it's not in a good place, or there's a lot of inaction in your life when it comes to carrying out the mission of Jesus Christ to make disciples, and you're not doing that in the right way, there's good news for you.

The good news is that there is grace for you.

There is the grace of Jesus Christ and the grace of the gospel, and the best way to get your heart back into the right position and to be stirred up again with love of God and love for others is to soak, is to really just marinate in the love and the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's what it is.

Think about what Jesus has done for you.

We've already touched on certain elements of it here this morning, haven't we?

How Jesus Christ, you know, could have, should have maybe sent us to hell forever.

But he didn't.

By his grace, he didn't earn it, you didn't work for it, you didn't accomplish anything.

Jesus Christ chose you, he selected you to know him.

How awesome is that! That should, that should just that should floor us, that should make us stand in awe.

Lord, thank you for how you have been so patient with me as I have grown.

Thank you for going to the cross for my sin.

Lord, please give me a heart that that wants to pursue purity in my heart, that wants to wants to pursue you in all things.

You see how thinking about the gospel begins to kind of reorient your heart, begins to change that?

And listen, that's probably not something that's gonna happen in 10 seconds.

You know, it's not just about thinking about like a 10-second gospel like you heard, you know, in you know, in uh junior high or when you were a kid in, you know, junior church or whatever it is.

It's no, it's it's spend some concentrated effort in that and really think that and pray that into your soul.

Okay, allow the reality of Christ's love for you through the gospel soften your heart again and bring you joy.

Return to me the joy of my salvation, David prays in Psalm 51.

I love it.

Would you pray that?

Pray it this morning, pray it now that the Lord would get you to the place where you're you're kind of reinfatuated with him again, and you're wholeheartedly engaged in loving him and loving others and carrying out the mission to see other disciple others discipled in that way.

Listen, we are a four pillars, three W church that's on mission to make disciples.

Okay, that is what Harvest Bible Chapel is.

That is who we are.

And we have gone through this series as we've talked about being all in on this, it's to it's to again to bring us focus on the must-haves, on the focus on who we are and what we're going for.

And so a huge question that we have asked periodically all the way through the last six weeks is is this you?

Is this how your heart beats?

Is this what you are excited about?

You know, hopefully for you, this is not just a church that you are coming to because I I guess I gotta go to church somewhere, you know, and this one's closest to home, and their service starts a little bit later than the other one, so I get to sleep in a bit, and I hopefully that's not your your reason you're here.

Hopefully you're here because you sense that God is here.

You sense that he is here in glory, he is here in power.

And as we focus ourselves on these things, these are the things that please God.

These are the things that usher his glory into this place, these are the things that he is fired up about.

And so these are the things that we want to be as well.

We want to be passionate about these things, we want to go after these things with joy, with fervency, with urgency.

So again, is that you?

Is that your family?

Is that what you are discipling your group, your family, your friends in?

Are you with us?

Are you gonna help us as Harvest Bible Chapel see this through to the end?

Right?

This is what it's gonna be.

Until Christ returns, until he takes us home.

You know, in my heart, and this is what my joy is as I think about this, is that for not just myself, but each one of you sitting here today, that at some point when the Lord returns or when he takes you home, you're gonna be able to stand in front of him and be able to say, mission accomplished.

Mission accomplished.

And that's because the Lord has done this work.

And because he has partnered with us, he has carried it out, and he has used people like us to do it.