Build

All right.

Man, we I think we've had church a little bit this morning, haven't we?

Are y'all y'all want y'all want some more?

Let's let's do it.

Let's have some more church.

All right.

I want you, hey, join with me in welcoming it.

We're broadcasting down to Social Circle this morning.

So let's give them the Walnut Grove welcome.

Come on, give it up.

Yeah.

And um, and we want to welcome all of our families that are a regular part of our broadcast that are at home for whatever reason.

Uh maybe they're they're out of town or or watching online.

Uh we welcome all of you that are with us, and I want to welcome you guys.

My name's Russ.

If I hadn't had a chance to meet you and I missed being here last week, I love being down with our social circle family last week.

And man, did Nathan just knock it out of the park?

I mean, what an incredible word that we heard from him about becoming, becoming all that God has called us to be and to till the soil and the hard work of growing into the character of Jesus Christ.

And so we we've been in this vision series over the last uh few weeks.

This is week number four, and we we we talked about the first week, believe, the word believe, and how we want to recapture this passion for people that need Jesus.

And so so if we have not believed, we we need to take that step and put our faith in Jesus.

And then we need to do the work to reach people, pray for people, pray for our neighbors, and invite them to believe.

And the next step is to belong.

We we talked about this a few couple weeks ago, is we want people to belong to the family of God.

Everyone needs the family, everyone needs the church.

There is no such thing as Lone Rangers in the kingdom of God.

We belong to a family.

Um, and then last week Nathan talked about becoming, growing as a disciple.

And today is about building.

It's about building the kingdom of God.

We're called to something, we're called to do something more than just sitting, more than just attendance.

We're called to make ourselves available for what God wants to build.

And so next week culminates.

Next week, man, there is this huge event that's like the whole world stops when this event happens.

Now I'm talking about Jonah and Reese's wedding, of course.

There's this other event, it's called the Super Bowl, and it's it's the culmination of this whole season of football.

And so there are three teams that will gather on the field.

Three teams that get together on the field, and and they they're gonna clash.

Two of these teams are gonna clash.

One team's gonna wear blue jerseys or white jerseys, the other team's probably gonna wear white or black, orange, something like that.

They're gonna clash because they're going in opposite directions and they're trying to push one another aside.

They're having a collision.

They'll engage in a three-hour conflict.

Actually, with Super Bowl commercials, it'll be more like four.

But there's another team that's on the field with those two teams.

And that team is made up of seven referees or officials, and so these team is not connected in any way to the other two teams.

As a matter of fact, the NFL offices are at 345 Park Avenue in New York City.

And the authority of that seven-team group of officials is up there at Park Avenue.

And so they will make sure that as these two teams clash, that they control the mess and the chaos on the field.

And so they take their orders from up there to make sure that there's no chaos down here.

And so each official has been given a book.

And everything that he does, or everything that, every decision he makes, is according to the directives given in that book.

Every decision, his personal opinions are subject to the book.

His perspective is submissive to that book.

Whatever he feels about either one of those teams, it doesn't matter.

And his book is where he finds his authority.

It comes from the NFL kingdom, and they apply it to the work that they have on the field.

They understand their presence is not about their popularity.

They're going to get booed at times.

They might be cheered.

Both of those are irrelevant to them as they carry out their duty.

They represent the kingdom of the NFL.

That's where they get their authority.

They're always distinguishable by their black and white jerseys that separates them from the other teams and their colors.

They represent a different kingdom.

Now, what does that mean for us?

We have a problem in our world.

And when I say we, I mean I would say humanity has a problem, but I would also say the church has a problem, especially in the West, in America.

We have a problem.

And the problem in our culture is that we have God's representatives who are meant to be from another kingdom.

They have joined cultural teams in our world.

And so people who would say, I'm a believer or I'm a Christian or I'm a follower of Jesus, some have joined the Republican team.

Some have joined the Democratic team, and yes, I'm meddling.

Some have joined the white team, some have joined the black team, some have joined the rich team, some have joined the poor team, some have joined the conservative team, and some have joined the liberal team.

And we have lost the distinction that we were created for and that we were reborn into when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

And so what we are missing today is kingdom disciples.

Kingdom disciples.

We're missing men and women who understand what it means to be a full-time follower of Jesus rather than a part-time Christian.

Many have refused or failed to distinguish themselves, to really be followers of Jesus in a culture full of chaos, that are desperately in need of clear calling and clarity.

And so what we're going to look at is in Scripture today is where Jesus calls a meeting.

Between his resurrection and his ascension, he was involved in several meetings, but he called one meeting himself.

And we know it commonly as the Great Commission.

But Matthew is different.

His is called the Great Commission.

And one reason it's called the Great Commission is because it has a word in it that the other commissions don't have.

And it's the word disciple.

The Greek is mathetes.

And so if you've got your Bibles, we're going to be in Matthew 28, verses 16 through 20 this morning, and looking at this meeting where Jesus, that Jesus calls.

Matthew 28:16–20

And a disciple is a learner.

It's a pupil.

It's a follower.

Someone who follows a mentor.

It is an apprentice to a leader.

It's an apprentice to an expert.

Someone who understands it.

A disciple is a learner, a pupil, a follower.

A kingdom disciple is one who learns and grows not for his or her own benefit, but for the growth of the kingdom of God.

A kingdom disciple is not one who learns and grows for his or her own growth, but for kingdom influence.

See, we don't exist just for our own benefit.

We don't grow as Christians just for our own personal growth.

We grow for kingdom influence.

Here's the big idea for this morning.

Nathan talked about our need to grow, the hard work to grow as a disciple.

And so today the big idea is this we grow.

We grow not just to know, but to go.

We grow not just to know, but to go and have kingdom influence.

We grow, I don't know if social circle got it or not.

I can't tell.

You repeat, repeat after me.

We grow not just to know, but to go and have kingdom influence.

There you go.

And you said it with authority.

Let's read the passage.

Let's read the Great Commission.

Matthew 28, 16 through 20.

Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

When they saw him, they worshiped him.

But some of them doubted.

Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands that I have given you.

And be sure of this, that I am with you always to the end of the age.

And so there's three groups of people invited to this meeting.

So Jesus has called this meeting.

It's after his resurrection, before his ascension.

And there's three groups of people that are invited to this meeting.

He calls the 11 disciples.

You know, Judas has had he had betrayed Jesus.

He had died.

So they haven't replaced him yet.

11 disciples are called to this meeting.

Now, there are 500 other disciples or followers that are invited to this meeting.

You say, Russ, I don't see that's in the Great Commission.

But if you read 1 Corinthians 15, it says there were 500 others.

And here, I'm not sure.

It's either 511 that were there, or it was 489, depending on whether or not how you count the 11 disciples.

But you know who else is called to this meeting?

You and me.

You and me.

You know why I know that?

Because Jesus says, I will be with you until the end of the age.

And we haven't gotten to the end of the age yet.

So we're able to sit in right here, 2022.

We're able to sit here in Walnut Grove, Georgia, of all places, and sit in on a meeting that Jesus has called.

And he is still wanting us to understand.

He is still inviting us into it.

We're invited.

So what did they do?

What did they do at this meeting?

It might have been like a mini church service.

Because it says right there in verse 17, they worshiped him.

Jesus physically present.

I mean, I cannot imagine.

I mean, I can't, I mean, in the presence of God this morning, I just, man, we're in the presence of God, He's here.

And I know some of y'all are Baptists, and y'all just can't handle the presence of God very well.

And you stand back like this, and I'm praying for you.

But I mean, I just can't hardly contain myself sometimes.

But can you imagine what it would have been like with Jesus there physically?

We'll all experience that.

Those of us that know Jesus, we'll experience that one day.

And so they worshiped him.

I don't know if they sang songs.

They may have, but they worshiped him.

Most accounts of Jesus or where God interacts with human beings, they just fall down on their face.

But it says they worshiped him.

And so worship is our heart's affection, our mind's attention on the Lord.

It's thanking him for who he is, what he's done.

It's thanking him and acknowledging that he will fulfill every promise that he has given us.

But there were some there that doubted.

That's what it says.

Some doubted, it said.

So there's some of them, just like some of you in this room, is this real?

I mean, if God is really a God of love, is He, you know, is He real?

Would He allow things to happen in this world the way He allows?

And I mean, we all think those things.

I'm human, you're human.

We I understand doubt.

Some doubted.

But then it came time for the preaching.

See, Jesus calls a meeting.

They worship.

Some of them are believers, some of them are doubting, but Jesus starts preaching.

What does he say?

Jesus came, verse 18, and told his disciples.

He says, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

What is he saying?

He's saying, I'm in charge.

I'm in charge now.

I have all authority on heaven and on earth.

And so he says, I'm in charge up there.

I'm in charge down here in eternity, in time, in heaven, in history, in the sweet by and by, and the nasty here and now.

I'm in charge.

Yes.

Yeah, don't come on.

Jesus.

And so here's the interesting thing.

He uses this word authority.

I have been given all authority.

And there's different words in the Greek that are translated into the English word authority in the New Testament.

One of the most common is the word dunamis, and it's where we get the word dynamite.

And it's this idea of explosive power.

Explosive authority.

It's like a stick of dynamite.

It's power, but that's not the word here.

There's a different word, and it has a different nuance to it.

It's the Greek word exousia.

Exousia.

It's different.

It's not explosive power like dynamite.

It is an authority and power that transcends anything physical.

Let me go back to football.

We started talking about football in the beginning.

In a football game, you have players that are young, that are fast, and they're powerful.

They've got dunamis.

And then you have referees that are old and fat and slow.

Except for Jeff Baker.

I mean, he's a lean, mean fighting machine when he's refereeing, okay?

But you get the picture?

A lot of them.

Have you seen them try to run?

Have you seen them get knocked over?

Those players will can take care of them physically.

But listen, they have an authority, exousia.

Represents their authority.

You know, you're out of line, man, the yellow flag comes out.

You're in trouble, right?

It represents their exousia, their authority.

And so players can knock them down, but the referees can put them out.

Exousia has to do with the rightful use, righteous use of God-given authority.

Dunamis is just raw power.

It's just a physical ability or chemical explosion.

And so we understand that there is legitimate authority that Jesus is saying he has.

I'm in charge now.

Nothing contradicts me.

I am the legitimate authority on earth that has been given and granted by the Heavenly Father.

And so Jesus has Exusia.

Satan has dunamis.

And it can do harm, but it doesn't compare to Jesus.

And so Jesus says, here, I'm in charge.

So here's what you're going to do.

I'm giving you authority.

Go and make disciples.

Go and make disciples.

That's what he says.

Now, I'm going to talk about the rest of the passage, but that's what he says.

He says, go and make disciples.

Go and make disciples.

Matheus, this word learner, pupil, follower.

He doesn't say go make church members.

He doesn't say go make religious people.

He doesn't say, you know, anything else.

He says, go and make disciples.

Little Christ, people that have the conduct and the character and the actions and the attitude of the authority, Jesus.

He says, go and make disciples.

And so if you look into the Greek, there's four verbs in this passage.

Make disciples, go baptize, and teach.

But make disciples is the only imperative.

So it sets itself apart.

It is the main focus.

It is the great commission.

Go make disciples.

And it's a command, it's not a request.

We grow not to know, but to go and to have kingdom influence.

The whole point of church is making disciples.

It's not getting people to repeat a prayer.

It's not about converts.

It's not about filling out a card.

It's not about attendance.

It's about availability to what God's called us to.

And so a disciple, listen to this: a disciple is a man or woman, a follower of Jesus that is progressively learning to live all of life under the authority and the rule of Jesus.

Over time, you are surrendering yourself to his authority.

And we are progressively, visibly and verbally learning to carry on in the conduct and the character of Jesus.

And so making disciples is replicating over and over into the children, into the people around us, into the people that we lead to Christ, influence to Christ, who've come to Christ, letting, allowing them to learn and to lean in and to understand the character and the conduct and the actions and the attitudes of Jesus, becoming more like Jesus every day.

Early days it was on a tape, and the the original was called.

The master.

They would write on it, the master.

And then later it was a CD.

They would write the master.

It would be the first recording of the sermon.

And you were, you had to protect that one.

And you used it to put into a duplicating machine.

And just a few minutes, 12 or 15 CDs would be duplicated of the master.

The duplicates were not the master, but they were so much like the master that they could be confused for the master.

There's only one master, but the copy is designed to reflect the master.

Jesus wants you to, he wants to influence you so much that you are visibly and verbally easily confused for him.

That the world would see you, they would see Jesus.

And we're not getting that.

We're not getting that.

But God says, I'm making this authority available to you.

It's not near as complex as you think it is.

You've got to learn, learn how to leverage it.

He gives it to you.

This authority, he gives it to you.

Pastor, author Tony Evans, pastor out in the Dallas, Texas area, in his book, Kingdom Disciples, he tells this story of his son Anthony.

Tony Anthony Jr.

His his son Anthony Jr., named after him, who is now an accomplished worship leader artist.

And so he was early in his ministry and he had begun to travel and to play the lead in music.

And so Tony went to pick up his son, Tony Jr., Anthony, at the airport.

And so this was prior to 9-11, so he could go out to the gate.

He could go directly to the gate to meet his son as he came off the plane.

And so he's standing out in that area.

We all know that area, right?

And he knows the plane is pulled up and people starting to walk off the plane.

And Tony Jr.

is the third person off the plane.

Well, immediately Tony realizes he's the third person off the plane.

That means he's sitting in a certain section.

Because if you're the third person off the plane, that means you're sitting in one place and one place only.

Anybody know what it is?

First class.

Very foreign to me, okay?

I'm in the cheap seats.

So he says, hey, uh, he know Tony knows immediately what's happened.

He says, uh, hey, uh, listen, I noticed you were third one off the plane.

It means you were, you, because I know you you didn't you didn't buy a first class ticket, did you?

No, sir.

You didn't have first class money, you didn't have first class ticket, you didn't have first class miles.

How did you get into first class?

He said, Well, I just walked up to the counter and I said, My name is Tony Evans.

And they looked at the computer, they said, Oh, Dr.

Evans, it is so good to have you fly with us again.

We'll upgrade you immediately.

And so Tony says, Hey, you have used my name.

You have piggybacked off my name for your benefit.

Can I tell you that Jesus gives you permission to do that?

Tony Jr.

didn't have permission.

But Jesus says, you can have permission to piggyback off my name and my authority.

And he says, make disciples.

How do we make disciples?

He says three three words go, baptize, teach.

In the Greek, they are participles, which really, as you are going, baptizing, teaching.

Now we're coming to an end of the time, and I'm still got a lot of sermon left.

But someone close it up.

You gotta listen really fast.

He says, go.

Now, I don't really have a lot of time because it's very complex.

If you parse the verbs and diagram the sentences in the Greek, where he says go, it's very intricate, but it means this.

Go.

Or let me say it this way.

Don't stay.

Don't stay.

Go.

Go.

Don't stay.

Go.

I mean, that's it's real complex, isn't it?

Go.

That's what he's saying.

But you've got to, in the context of all the gospels, in the context of the whole Bible, we're called to go and represent Jesus.

In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus tells his disciples, he says, Go, go to the lost house of Israel.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Go to them first.

Tell them the Messiah has come.

We're called to go.

We're not called to stay.

What we do here on Sunday is not what we were created for.

Now we're created to worship and to glorify God, but we're called to go.

Messiah has come.

And so we've got to go.

When all those football players gather together tomorrow night in Los Angeles, we don't sit.

People don't pay to watch those big old men gather in a huddle sticking their fanny out.

Now we don't mind the huddle.

As long as it's the play produces what we want.

They huddle to execute.

They huddle to play.

They huddle to go.

And so he says, go.

And then he says to baptize.

Baptize is literally the word baptizo, and it's it's it comes out of the dye industry.

Where if a mom has made a little dress for her daughter and the daughter says, I want a red dress, the mom would take the dress that she's made down to the dye maker.

And they would take the dress and dip it into the dye.

They would baptize the dress.

And it what had been a white piece of cloth now has a new color.

Re-identified, reclassified, reborn.

And so baptism is obedience to the command to you go public, re-identify, reclassify.

You go public with your faith.

There's many of you, the first step of obedience for you as a believer, you have skipped it.

And you need to sign up today to get baptized.

Next week.

And you say, well, my family can't be here.

That's not what Jesus says, and that's not the purpose.

And I understand you want your family to be a part of it.

We want the public, we want people to be invited, but we look for every excuse we can.

Go baptize and teach.

Teach.

What do we teach?

We teach the commands.

Here's the difference.

We love information.

And we have no lack of access to spiritual teaching in our culture.

We've got plenty of it.

We lack the execution and the application.

If I need surgery, I'm in the hospital, surgeon comes in, says, Hey, I'm going to be doing your surgery.

And he begins to explain the surgery.

Man, and he knows his stuff.

I mean, he's got it down.

I mean, I'm impressed how he can tell me about the body and how he could execute this surgery.

But I got two questions.

He explains everything.

I got two questions.

After he explains.

How many times have you done this?

And if he says, well, this is my first, but I made an A in the class.

I'm like, send the next guy in.

Send the next guy in.

Here's the second question.

Of all the ones you've done, how are those people doing?

Those are my two questions.

I wonder what the questions we'll have.

We stand before Jesus because there will be a judgment where we'll be accountable for Jesus.

We'll be accountable for the gospel.

Did we respond and say, yes, I believe?

But we'll also be accountable for what we did with the gospel.

Revelation 24 says he wipes away every tear.

On heaven, there's not any tears.

There's no more crying.

Well, apparently, just for a moment, there's a tear.

I don't know biblically for sure about this, but I'm gonna tell you what I think.

There'll be a moment when we'll look back, and we will look and be able to see all of the ways that we did not steward the gospel, that we didn't go, we didn't baptize, and we didn't teach.

That'll be just a moment, but it'll be strong.

And he'll wipe it away, and we'll move on.

Hallelujah.

Come back next week.

We're teaching on Romans 8, which is it's gonna, I'm it's gonna it's blowing my mind, just studying it.

It's gonna blow your mind.

But he's called us to go and build his kingdom.

Let's pray together.

Father, God, would you work in a huge way this morning?

God, draw people to Christ that need Jesus.

But Father, we want to be kingdom disciples.

Would you work?

Would you build?

God, would you call people into ministry?

Would you call people to join us as we seek this vision that you've given us?

God, to see 100 people baptized in the next two years.

Father, to see us to move to 85% in our groups and discipleship.

God, to see 200 people, 200 leaders raised up in our church, to see a new church planted, God, to see a new campus planted, and God, to send a hundred people on a short-term mission trip over the next couple of years.

God, that's what we're believing.

We're believing for your supernatural work in our lives, God.

You've given us your authority.

God, I pray that we would answer it and that we would go, that we would baptize, and we would teach.

God, that we would be available for what you have called us to as kingdom disciples.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Would you stand with me as we make