Becoming A Person Who Preaches The Gospel

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May 2, 2017

Watch and share this powerful and challenging message on becoming a person and church that preaches the Gospel. Pastor Jeff Durbin spoke at Apologia Church on the subject of evangelism. What are some of the things that will kill evangelism in our lives and churches? Listen-in to the message that many at Apologia said challenged and convicted them. For more, go to http://apologiastudios.com. You can sign-up for All Access and get every TV show, every After Show, and Apologia Academy. You can also listen to hundreds of hours of radio programs and podcasts with a host of theologians, scholars, scientists, and pastors!

00:00: Hope you forgive me for taking off my jacket, it's a little warm up here. Matthew 28, 18 through 20,
00:06: Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 28, 18 through 20, the last words actually in the
00:14: Gospel according to Matthew. That's the spring text for today, what we're going to leap off of so much that can be said about this particular text, but I wanted to use it as a basis of all that we're talking about today in terms of this is the call, this is the great commission, this is what
00:33: God calls each of us to, this is the mandate, this is the mission, everything else, secondary, you name it.
00:45: What do you think is of greater importance, it comes second to this, this is the mission of the
00:52: Messiah in the world. So, as you're getting to the text, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, hear now the words of the living and true
01:02: God, all, and Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
01:14: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
01:20: Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold,
01:29: I am with you always to the end of the age. Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired
01:37: Word, let's pray together. Father, please bless this time together in your
01:43: Word. Bless us, God, as we open this treasure, this gift from you,
01:49: God. Let us see it as such. God, bless us, God, with intimate acquaintance today with you and your ways, your
01:59: Word. Bless me, God, as the minister of these people. Bless, God, and help me to teach.
02:06: God, please open our eyes to our own sin. Open our eyes,
02:12: God, to our lack of love for you and for others. Fill us now, God, as a church with understanding that can only come from your
02:20: Word and your Spirit. I pray with all my heart, God, that you would, Lord, take away fear,
02:27: Lord, that we have within us that often stops us from reaching the world. Take away,
02:32: Lord, our secret sins that stop us from reaching the world.
02:37: Take away our idolatry that stops us from reaching the world. Take away our faction -building that keeps us from reaching the world.
02:47: Take away, Lord, our bitterness, our strife, our malice, our harsh words.
02:53: Take away, Lord, our selfishness. Take away our lack of desire to lay everything down for the cause of Christ.
03:04: And bless, God, I pray that you would cause me to decrease Christ to increase and bless by your
03:11: Spirit today, in Jesus' name, amen. The Great Commission is powerful, it's amazing. The Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew has a story to tell.
03:19: We've been in this book for a long time now. Some of you guys are like, I know, okay. Verse by verse through Matthew, and it's really, it's actually amazing, the text of Matthew.
03:29: Matthew knows the story of the Old Testament, and he's bringing everybody along to show you that this is not a novelty.
03:35: I'm not dropping something new on you. The story of Jesus isn't novel. It's not something like a plan
03:40: B dropped into history. The story about Jesus is in fulfillment of all that God said he was gonna do in the world to win the entire world.
03:48: That's really the story of Matthew. Jesus is the Messiah. He's the expected King. He's arrived on time as planned.
03:56: Here is the treasure that should be sought above all treasures. This is the purpose of the world, the glory of this
04:03: Messiah. Matthew's story just moves you through to show you that God's kept all of his promises.
04:09: He keeps his covenants. The Messiah has come and accomplished his perfect work, and he's pointing you to that Messiah to trust him.
04:17: And it's amazing because you get to the end of Matthew, and it's not an accident that it ends where it does. Matthew's a storyteller under divine inspiration.
04:24: The Spirit of God is giving us this revelation. The 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17, we know the text well at Apologia.
04:33: All Scripture is theonoustos. It's breathed out by God. We say it a lot at Apologia because we want to talk about what is this
04:39: I'm holding in my hands. This is breathed out revelation from God. God gave us this text, and God is telling us a specific thing.
04:48: He's getting us to understand the story in the gospel according to Matthew. And understand this, that in the second century of the church,
04:55: Matthew is the most quoted of all the gospels, four gospels, and this is the most quoted from in the second century of the church.
05:03: After the apostles die, this is what Christians were feasting on. They were feasting on this letter in the midst of great persecution in an empire that hated them at many points.
05:15: You could die for being a Christian there. It was seeped in paganism. They're throwing their children out to die of exposure to completely pagan culture.
05:23: It's not a Christian culture. Christians are the minority here, and yet Paul can say in Romans chapter 1 that in his lifetime near the end that he said their faith in Rome is being proclaimed throughout the entire world.
05:36: The whole world is talking about you, Paul says. That's happening. God is doing big things, of course, in the early church, but it's still a minority.
05:44: Rome is still persecuting Christians. In the first century, it's Rome and the Jews versus the
05:49: Christians. God destroys Jerusalem as promised in Matthew, and you still have, though, this ragtag bunch of believers, right?
05:57: I mean, you could die for owning a text of Scripture in this time, and in the second century, this, this text ignited passion within the church to go and reach the world.
06:10: This was the text that Christians 2 ,000 years ago were standing on that actually caused them to want to give everything up for Jesus, for love, for their neighbor, so that people would know
06:20: Jesus and come to peace with God, be forgiven, and enter into God's kingdom.
06:26: This was that text, and it's really amazing how it ends. It ends with a commission. Jesus is the king.
06:33: Jesus fulfills all the promises of God. Jesus accomplishes redemption, and then it ends somewhere very specific.
06:41: You can actually understand why the church turned the world upside down with something like this in Matthew, and it's weird because I say this a lot.
06:50: You guys have probably heard me say this a lot. It's kind of redundant at this point to say it in an apology at church, but it needs to be said.
06:58: It ends with a powerful statement that we turn into pithy slogans and bumper stickers and t -shirts.
07:07: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Christians know that text. They memorize this as the basis for evangelism and to go out and to risk everything for Jesus and the world, the great commission passage.
07:18: But that text, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. I know
07:23: I say it a lot, but Christians were perfectly fine with Jesus being king of heaven. That's where he wields his authority, unfettered, right?
07:32: The angels, totally submissive, no sin in heaven. Every saint that's gone on before us is before the throne.
07:38: They're fully in submission to his authority. Jesus gets to tell people what to do in heaven because, hey, he's the king over Neverland.
07:45: It's that second thing, right? All authority, not some, not a little bit, not almost all, but he says, all authority on earth has been given to me.
07:59: There's the charge towards Christians that actually has them turning entire empires onto their heads.
08:06: There's what causes people to go into places that are seeped in paganism where it's dangerous to even be a
08:12: Christian, to mention the name of Jesus, and it causes Christians to go into places that don't know him and to give everything up so that by the end of their lifetime an entire nation comes to Jesus.
08:22: How can they do that? Why? What causes somebody to risk so much?
08:29: What causes somebody to let goods and kindred go and their mortal lives also?
08:35: What causes somebody to abandon reason and to risk everything for this person who is a
08:43: Palestinian Jew who died as a common criminal? It's that Jesus, when he accomplishes his redemptive salvation, he says to his followers, mostly fishermen and blue -collar workers, not mighty, not the super eloquent and erudites.
09:01: These are common people, he says to them, he says, all authority in heaven and on earth is mine.
09:07: I'm the new king of the world. I have all authority. Nobody is above me.
09:12: Nobody is beside me. I'm the king of the world. And Jesus tells them to do what? Something powerful and something that doesn't really make a lot of sense.
09:23: If you think about it. See, we see these things in Scripture and you have to admit something. I'll admit it. You get mellow -headed.
09:31: There are so many grand statements in Scripture, so many powerful, amazing, beautiful things that you see them so much that you get mellow -headed and you don't actually let it sit into your head and heart and actually take root so that you live like it's actually true.
09:45: So many grand things about God and his sovereignty and his power and his might and his salvation.
09:51: You let it get you in the eyes and never actually enters in and becomes an anchor and a foundation for you.
09:59: It doesn't. I get mellow -headed. But it makes sense that the church turned the world upside down because the commission goes, all authority, heaven, earth, mine, and he tells this ragtag bunch of believers that the world thinks is foolish, he says, now go conquer the world.
10:18: And you see it and you don't stop to think about what they might have been thinking.
10:25: They just saw Jesus murdered on a cross. Now he's alive. This is already freaking them out, right?
10:33: They're already struggling with this whole situation. This is a pretty powerful thing in front of me now. He died.
10:38: I saw him dead and now he's alive in front of me and then Jesus now is going to ascend to his position, to the right hand of the father where God says he's going to put him until he puts all enemies under his feet.
10:50: That's the promise. That's where he's going now, up to the father in fulfillment of Daniel 7, 13 through 14.
10:57: That he'd have dominion that would never pass away, a kingdom that would never be destroyed. And here's that moment in time that they've been waiting for.
11:04: They knew it was coming. They were waiting all this time for the Messiah to come and now he's here and now he ascends.
11:10: But before he does, he says, go conquer the world. Go take over the world, guys.
11:18: There were 12 of you and one of them was a snake. One of them was the son of perdition.
11:24: One of them betrayed me. And now you're dwiddled down now to 11 very confused apostles, 11 of them.
11:32: All right, now you 11, I want you, here you go guys, ready? I want you to see the Roman Empire, see all the power, you see the armies and the generals, you see all the weaponry and you see the big buildings, you see all this stuff, right?
11:43: You see the whole world, right? It's a globe, by the way. You see the whole world, okay?
11:51: I want you to, I hate that I have to say that, okay? I want you to go and I want you to conquer that entire world.
11:58: I want you to take every nation and I want you to bring every nation into obedience to me. All the nations, baptize them in the name of the
12:06: Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And he says, teach them all to obey. Jesus has sent you and I, he sent the body of Christ, the bride of Christ in a mission to go and win the entire planet.
12:19: And you understand, of course, that that is where the world is going, under the feet of Jesus.
12:26: If you don't believe me, read Psalm 110 .1, all enemies under the feet of Jesus. That's where we're going.
12:33: If you don't believe me, read Psalm 2, where the Father says to the Son, long before Jesus comes to earth in his earthly ministry, he says to the
12:40: Son, ask of me and I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession.
12:47: God says to the kings of the earth in the very same passage, after he promises the world to Jesus, he says to the kings, be wise, oh kings, obey the
12:58: Son or you will perish. That's the promise, that's where we're going, that's the mission of the church.
13:05: Now there's so many things that dramatically impact us actually believing that, in terms of our own unbelief, there's so many other things that dramatically impact our ability to believe this because we have all these other doctrines and side issues and we have our circumstances, we see difficulties on every side, we're beset on all sides by persecution, difficulty, sin, we see all these things and then we look at the
13:29: Great Commission and we say that would make a great t -shirt. I don't know if I actually believe it.
13:37: I don't know that it actually includes me, that I'm really actually a part of this Great Commission.
13:43: I mean, does Jesus really intend for this ragtag bunch of believers in the first century to take the entire planet and to put it under the feet of Jesus?
13:54: It's really what He calls us to? It would not have made sense to them given their circumstances.
14:00: Just consider it. You look at your circumstances, I look at mine. We look at our difficulties, the government difficulties, family difficulties, church difficulties, education difficulties, media difficulties, see all these things and you look at them and you think, it couldn't be me, couldn't actually take place with me and my generation, not with my failures and my sins.
14:23: You see all those things and you don't believe it actually, but that's actually the commission.
14:30: Jesus says, go and conquer the world, win every nation, and you think at that time what they must have been thinking, this is impossible.
14:42: Why would you choose me? How can you choose us? We're not in any positions of power.
14:50: We're not wise according to the world's standards. We don't have all these degrees on our walls. How are you going to choose us for this commission?
14:58: Now you look today, 2 ,000 years later, with difficulties along the way, suffering, trials, murders, bitterness, gossip, backbiting, slander, persecution, all these things that have taken place as the kingdom of God, the rule of Jesus has gone into the world with the ministry of reconciliation saying to the world, come, be reconciled to God.
15:22: You see the difficulties, the ups and downs, and yet here we are 2 ,000 years later in a desert on the other side of the planet, believers who love
15:33: Jesus, who trust in Him, who are being sanctified, who see
15:38: Him as the prize above all prizes, the treasure above all treasures, the joy above all joys. We see
15:44: Him as He is. We love Him. Nations today that have come to Jesus, a history of giants of the faith that God has used to turn the world upside down over and over again, you can see that God is fulfilling
15:58: His promises to Abraham. What was that? You can have descendants as numerous as the stars.
16:05: He's fulfilling His promises to put every enemy under His feet. You say, what enemies? Well, you, for one, me.
16:13: He's winning the world. There's so much that needs to be understood in terms of why could this possibly be so significant to Matthew?
16:23: Why write it? Why bring it up? They had a difficult time then getting communication from place to place.
16:30: They had a difficult time then writing things down, storing things. They don't have flash drives. They don't have email.
16:36: They don't have what we have today. And so you're not wasting space when you write something, and Matthew ends with that.
16:42: I want to suggest to you he ends with that because that's the climax of the story. I want to suggest to you that he ends the way that he does because that's your primary mission.
16:52: Matthew's like, I got to make sure that they understand the final word, right? The banging on the pulpit, the last thing that you say that people will remember.
17:00: They're not going to forget this. And Matthew ends his story with, you remember that He said, all authority is
17:09: His. Heaven, earth belongs to Jesus, and our call is to go conquer the world for Christ, to go win every nation, to teach them to obey.
17:19: And here's the thing. That's the sum of the story, because when you start at the beginning of your Bible, you see this glorious God, this triune
17:26: God. Let us create man in our image, and He creates us, puts us in a garden. He says, be fruitful, multiply, have dominion over the earth.
17:35: God tells us to be that. We're supposed to actually be light, the light of God into the world, and we fail in that vocation before God.
17:46: In a garden, perfection before God, and we sell ourselves for sin.
17:56: We chose something that was not even a treasure to be a treasure above God, and we rejected
18:03: God. We've fallen to sin, and death enters into our experience, and we are cast out of the garden, but not before God says something in Genesis 3 .15
18:12: to the serpent. He says what? I'll put enmity between your seed and hers, the woman's, and He says what about the woman?
18:19: That the woman's seed will crush the head of the serpent. He's going to deliver the death blow to Satan.
18:26: Don't forget that work. The promise of God, that first proclamation of the gospel in Genesis 3, right after the fall is recorded, it's the woman's seed, virgin birth, that's going to deliver the death blow to Satan and his work.
18:43: He brings it into the garden. Death falls on us there. We rebel against God, and God says
18:49: He's going to do something to Satan in the world. His story starts to move on.
18:55: God's keeping His promises. Now Abraham comes into play, and God says to Abraham, I'm going to have a seed through you and Sarah, and He says through this seed,
19:05: I am going to give you descendants as numerous as the stars. It's a lot of stars, and God promises all of these things about the
19:13: Messiah. He's going to be our redeemer. He's going to be our king. He's going to be our mediator, our priest, and the story moves on.
19:20: God performing these amazing redemptive acts in history. He's just filling up the world with testimony to His goodness,
19:28: His faithfulness, His power, and He's doing it in His people, people that are not good.
19:34: They're not righteous. They're not many wise. These are people that are small.
19:39: He says so. I chose you. You only have I known among all the nations of the earth.
19:45: He chooses them, and He says about them, not because you're more in number. They weren't.
19:50: They were this small community of people, and God chooses to elect them and give His grace to them.
19:56: What does He do? He starts promising. Here He comes. Here He comes. Here He comes.
20:02: The Messiah is coming. Who is He? Isaiah 9. He's God. He's coming with a kingdom, and there's going to be an increase to His government and His peace.
20:10: It'll never end. Psalm 22, all the families of the earth are going to return to worship the
20:15: Lord. Psalm 110 .1, every enemy under His feet. Psalm 72, He'll have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.
20:24: Psalm chapter 2, the nations are your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession. God's promising it over and over and over.
20:33: Psalm, sorry, let's go ahead now. Isaiah chapter 2, that the mountain of the
20:38: Lord is going to be raised up, and all the nations are going to stream to it. God promises every nation,
20:43: I'm bringing them all. Daniel 7, 13 through 14, every tribe, tongue, nation, belonging to the
20:50: Messiah, dominion He has that never passes away, kingdom that's never destroyed, and they're waiting.
20:57: Tick, tick, tick, tick. The time is just moving along, and yet no
21:02: Messiah, no Messiah, but we know He's coming to bring salvation. We know He's coming to redeem. We know He's coming to do what?
21:08: What? To bring every nation to God, to restore what was taken by the enemy, to bring salvation.
21:16: And understand this, you've got to understand this is very, very important, and we've lost it in modern evangelicalism.
21:23: Jesus wasn't coming simply to save a couple people from their sin. He was coming to win the world back to God.
21:31: He was coming to restore everything the enemy had taken. He was coming to save us from our sins.
21:37: He was coming to bring the nations back to God. He was coming to redeem, to take away the darkness, to bring a rule that would destroy the rule of Satan, the rule of darkness.
21:48: They knew that was coming. And Matthew, at the end of the chapter here, he reminds us of that.
21:56: It's here. He has that authority you thought He was going to have, and now it's time, guys. It's time to win the nations.
22:03: I want to say something just for a moment. Do you think? I think so. I think this, I think that there's a way to look at the first century and what they believed in the
22:13: Messiah. I think that they thought that the messianic kingdom was going to plop into history and obliterate it, right?
22:21: Like you see all these promises of all the nations coming to God, the earth returning to worship
22:26: God, the ends of the earth for His possession. And do you think that they actually thought it was just going to be sort of like a switch, like a light switch?
22:36: Like the Messiah was going to come and it was going to be like, click. Now all the earth is like, we love God now. Look, right?
22:42: Oh, now all of a sudden I love Jesus and I'm following the Messiah. I think there was probably elements of that. They thought it was going to be this quick turnover where all the earth was like, boom, now it's light, belongs to God again.
22:55: And Jesus comes in meek and lowly riding on a donkey. He comes in and He says, no, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.
23:04: It's just smallest of the seeds and He says, when it grows, it becomes a tree like the size of a man.
23:12: He says, it's like leaven in a lump of dough. You put in that dough and you can't hear it working.
23:17: You don't hear the chainsaws and the hammers and the clanking. You can't hear the building, but that leaven goes in that lump of dough and it permeates the entirety of the loaf.
23:27: It fills all of it and Jesus describes the kingdom, His rule. His rule, the spread of His gospel in that way.
23:35: That's by the way how history has worked. You need to know that God's way of transforming the world is mustard seed to large tree.
23:44: It's a small insignificant beginnings everywhere it goes, small to tree, small to tree.
23:50: And that's how it took place. I think it probably surprised Him. Jesus now king of the world, you're the boss of this entire planet.
23:57: They're probably looking around thinking, who are you talking to?
24:05: Us? You're going to use us? What do we have?
24:11: What can we possibly add to this? What do we possibly have to do with this? Us? You're the king of the world?
24:19: Imagine going into the Roman empire in that day where Caesar is Lord, Caesar is savior of the world.
24:26: Neither is there salvation in any other was the Caesar. That's what He said. And now
24:31: Peter at Pentecost, catch it, it's huge. Peter at Pentecost goes before that crowd that understood that about Caesar in the
24:40: Roman empire and he flips it. He flips the statement about Caesar. He says, neither is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved.
24:51: They said that about Caesar. Peter says it about Jesus. How do you like them apples?
24:58: That's massive. Like they would have thought they were fomenting revolution because they were saying there was a new king of the world and this is what's crazy.
25:06: They said that their king was crucified, murdered on a tree. And get this, there are people in the first and second century that talked about crucifixion and they basically didn't talk about it because you don't.
25:21: It'd be like talking about going to the bathroom. It's just crude. You don't bring that up in public.
25:26: You don't say it publicly. It was like talking about that, what you do in the bathroom.
25:32: And now here you have these people saying, hey guys, the new king of the world who rules over everything, this king over the entire world now has accomplished his salvation.
25:40: And they're like, oh really? Tell us about that. How did he do it? Well, you see, he was actually killed on a cross.
25:48: They would have thought, eww, eww, how is that victorious?
25:55: How is he king of the world? I mean, you're talking about the gutter. He's the king of the world.
26:01: I mean, this is the message we have that's changed the world. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.
26:08: He's given us the ministry of reconciliation and what we proclaim to the world is a God king who took on flesh to save rebellious, unworthy people like you and me.
26:18: He's the ruler of the world. He has all authority. He's king over everybody right now, everybody.
26:25: That's our message. And we are telling the world there's salvation only in him, only through Christ.
26:31: He is the only way. He is the truth. He is the life. Salvation is only in Christ. That's our message to the world and it doesn't make any sense.
26:39: And he did it through this small huddle of believers. Go win the world. Can I say something to you?
26:46: I got to go to Ireland and it was like a year ago,
26:53: I think a little over a year ago, I got a phone call from some Irish people and that was always, that's fun by the way, and they were part of the
27:04: Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland, which is a hardcore, solid, like solid reform.
27:11: These are not, they're not playing with their reformed theology. They're not like, I'm reformed on the side. Like I'm poor. They're like covenanters.
27:17: These are like hardcore, pipe -hitting reformed people. They're like serious business, right? They have a long history of amazing stuff and they said, hey, we want you to be the speaker for our national conference for all of the covenanter churches all over Ireland from north to south.
27:33: We come together for a national conference, we want you to speak for it. And I thought that was amazing that these
27:39: Presbyterians wanted a Reformed Baptist to be the head of their conference. I thought it was awesome.
27:45: And it was either a great display of unity or they are just trying to evangelize me.
27:51: I don't know. So I said yes, but I didn't know if it was actually going to happen.
27:56: And I found out near the end of last year it actually was going to take place. I said, okay, great. And I was talking to Claudia about this today.
28:01: I honestly, I was excited, but I have so much to do here and we have so much going on as a church.
28:07: I thought I'm excited, but like, you know, there's so much that needs to get done right now. But I went and I just want to say that while it was a lot of teaching, like over 20 hours of teaching,
28:20: I think, and a lot of driving and it was a lot of work and hard, it was glorious and magical in so many ways.
28:27: But I wanted to say something that was on my heart about it. So we go to Ireland, this place where you have,
28:34: I think it's on here, no, it's not, where like Dublin was founded at the end of the ninth century, ninth century.
28:44: So like it's like 988 AD or something, like there's like cities there that are over a thousand years old and you come to these places and you see the remnants of a
28:57: Christian civilization everywhere you go. And I want to bring this to your attention because it's so important.
29:03: Remember when we talk about this great commission, please listen. You walk into a place like Ireland and we don't get a lot of this here, but everywhere you go, you're driving around, you're seeing the remnants of a
29:13: Christian civilization. I mean, literally the remnants. You see the broke down buildings, the old buildings that are barely hanging on for dear life.
29:22: You have buildings that are like literally, like this is the oldest building in Belfast. It's like a thousand years old, right?
29:28: And it's still operating there as a pub, right? I mean, the bricks are barely hanging on. You see, when you go into a little town that's out in the middle of nowhere,
29:36: I'm going to preach in places that are just like far away, these little villages, and they're really called villages.
29:42: And all you see is like huge church made out of brick, like so old, and then another church made out of brick.
29:48: And you see just the remnants of a Christian civilization everywhere you go. It's everywhere.
29:54: Everywhere. And yet, and yet, Ireland, which was once truly a
30:01: Christian nation, and you see it everywhere, the bricks, everything, has lost in many ways its way.
30:10: And I started to think about that while I was there, and on the way back I've been thinking about it like here's, you can't walk into Ireland without seeing the vestiges of this
30:18: Christian civilization. Not that it was a utopia, but you can't miss it. It's everywhere. I thought to myself, what happened?
30:27: What happened? Because it's not the same. Things are so different now.
30:32: What happened? And I've thought a lot about that. Jesus sends us into the world, go in the world, teach the nations to obey me, win all the nations, bring them back to me.
30:43: And you have these moments where you walk into a place where you go, yeah, it was happening. It was happening here and there, and look, you see it there, and you see the effects of the gospel in a
30:52: Christian civilization here and everywhere. You can't miss it. What happened? If I could just say that I think, just quickly,
31:02: I have so much more to say here, I think that when you look at a situation like that where you see the gospel was penetrating a culture and people were coming to Jesus, and you can see the old buildings still hanging out from some believer that built that with their hands because there were
31:15: Christians there worshiping Jesus, and they needed a place to keep them dry in Ireland, so they're building places to do so.
31:24: I think we fail because I think we assume it.
31:30: Don't we? You just assume it. You assume, well, God's going to do what he does, and the gospel's going to go out into the world, and Jesus is going to win the world, so you just assume it.
31:41: You just assume Christianity, you assume the work of the gospel and the Great Commission, so maybe you let go.
31:47: Maybe you don't work so hard, you don't labor so hard, you don't fight, you don't give it all that you've got, you don't risk everything for the gospel because you just assume
31:56: Christianity. You don't remember that Jesus is winning the entire world that belongs to him, and he calls us to be the means to let that take place.
32:06: And I think you see so much, even in our own nation, you see Christians who risked everything to bring the gospel places and to lay down a foundation for us, and you see the descendants, the heirs of those people letting go, giving up their birthright, forgetting the call of the gospel, forgetting what
32:27: God put you here for, why are you here? Is it just to make a paycheck and to have a career and a nice house and a car and a dog, couple kids?
32:40: What is it God has called you to? Is it to have some fun and just have some moments of pleasure and go on a few vacations and to lay down your head and just have left behind a few really grand experiences?
32:55: What's your call? What are you here for? I think we have to remember that because your call and mine is to win this world to Jesus and to give everything up in that cause, no matter the consequences.
33:09: Now I want to point you to what Matthew knows as he's talking about Christ's authority, all of it that belongs to Jesus.
33:18: He knows the script. He knows the Old Testament. He knows the
33:23: Messiah's work in the world, and I'm going to point you to something. In Revelation chapter 11 verse 15, this is another thing these apostles knew.
33:31: In Revelation 11, 15, they understood where the world was going. What's its current context?
33:38: What's happening here? Is it what we see? Is it what we experience? Is it what we feel?
33:45: Is it what somebody else tells us or is it what God says? And this is what God says. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of the
33:56: Messiah. Everywhere you look around you, whatever it looks like, the kingdoms, whatever difficulties, whatever hurdles, however big it looks,
34:07: God says through divine inspiration that all of that rule in the world has come underneath the rule of this
34:13: Messiah. That's the context of the world. That's the kind of authority Jesus has. That's the kind of authority he has, and you and I are his ambassadors.
34:24: We are the ones sent out into the world to herald this message and to tell the world Jesus is the new king of the world.
34:31: He's accomplished his salvation. Why don't you all come quietly? Why don't you all come to know the
34:37: Savior? That's the context. Where are we going? What's the world supposed to look like?
34:43: Well, Jesus says, disciple the world. Teach the whole world to obey me. Win the entire world.
34:49: I have all authority. Well, there's another text that shows the understanding of the apostles and what the commission was.
34:56: I want you to hear it. It's in Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 verse 9.
35:01: I'll let you get there as I start reading in verse 9. Listen to what they understood. I want you to see that they did understand that it was to win the world.
35:10: Everything in submission to Jesus. Here's what he says, Colossians chapter 2 verse 9.
35:15: He says this, for in him, that's Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
35:22: He's God in the flesh. And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority.
35:29: Stop. There it is again. It's one of those statements that I read for years and I was extremely mellow headed.
35:36: I just like let it go past. It's a great t -shirt. It is.
35:43: But do I understand that? Do you get it? He is God in the flesh and he says what?
35:49: He is the head of all rule and authority. There it is again. There's that king of kings and lord of lords motif.
35:58: There's that all authority in heaven and on earth statement. And he says this, in him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.
36:20: And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood between us with its legal demands.
36:36: This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Ready? He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
36:51: Jesus triumphed over all of the spiritual darkness and wickedness.
36:57: Here is Jesus crushing the head of the serpents. What Satan brought into the garden, what destroyed the world, our sin, our death, it says here
37:08: Jesus disarmed them. He's taken away their power. So many Christians oftentimes are so afraid of the psychic phenomenon, they're so afraid of the paranormal and the evil and wickedness and witches and witchcraft and all the stuff communication with dead and mediums, and you ought to be concerned with that stuff.
37:27: God calls it an abomination, but you ought not be in fear of those things because Jesus has triumphed over the enemy.
37:37: He's already got, by the way, you know when it says disarmed there, the language there is essentially the
37:43: Roman soldier disarmed and disrobed. Essentially it says Jesus put Satan in his spiritual underpants at the cross.
37:51: That's essentially what it's saying. Now watch, as Paul talks about the work of Christ in the world, as he talks about the mission in the world,
38:12: I want you to see what he says. In verse 19 of chapter 1, he says, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.
38:44: Think about it. Here is the mission of the Messiah according to Paul. Here's the kingdom of God according to Paul, that all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
39:04: Jesus is reconciling. He is reconciling to himself all things, all things.
39:12: That's where history goes. Every nation under the feet of Jesus, the whole world disciple taught to obey, and Jesus is reconciling all things to himself.
39:22: What's he mean, by the way, by all things? We ask that question, right?
39:30: Should Christians be involved in education? Yes. Is it a thing?
39:38: Then it needs to go under the feet of Jesus. Should Christians be involved in politics? Yes. Why?
39:45: Is it a thing? Then it needs to go under the feet of Jesus. Should Christians be involved in business?
39:52: Yes. Is it a thing? Put it under the feet of Jesus. If it's in this world, it must give glory to God and come under his reign and rule.
40:05: Jesus calls you to win the entire world, brothers and sisters, and if you think to what extent, that's to the what extent, all things.
40:14: In 1 John 3 verse 8, I want you to go here. I want you to go here.
40:20: Don't just record the text. I want you to see it. In 1 John 3 verse 8, remember that picture in the
40:34: Old Testament that God gives? What's he saying about the Messiah? He says that he's going to do what to the serpent's head, guys?
40:40: What's he going to do? He's going to crush it, but he's doing it with his heel, right? He gets crushed and bruised on his heel in the process, so with this simultaneous act in history, he crushes the head of the serpent while he's wounded.
40:54: He's destroying the works of the devil, reconciling all things to himself, winning all nations with all authority, and look what
41:02: John says in 1 John 3 verse 8. He says this, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.
41:10: Take it seriously. Don't let that miss you. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
41:20: There it is, sinning from the beginning, going back in your mind to the garden. The reason the
41:26: Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Why did
41:32: Jesus come? Well, here's the reason. He came to destroy the works of the devil, so you look around you in the world today and you see it the way that it is, and ask the question, how much of this does
41:44: Jesus expect to go under his feet? How much of this do I need to preach to and teach to and talk about?
41:52: Brothers and sisters, God calls us into every way. That's not to say each of us are on the same exact mission, it's not to say you're each called to the same thing, it's not to say that everyone's called to be a preacher and a pastor or a specific missionary to a specific people, but here's the call,
42:07: Jesus is destroying the works of the devil. All things under the feet of Jesus, that's the mission, it's total world conquest, baby.
42:18: So here's the thing, is your perspective that about the gospel? This is what I want to get across to you as your pastor,
42:24: I want to ask you, is your perspective that? Is it seeing the world in the context of it belongs to Jesus?
42:31: I have this ministry of reconciliation, God is reconciling the world to himself, he calls me to be the means of it.
42:39: Jesus being called to destroy the works of the devil, and I'm going to just point you to one more passage, just one more,
42:45: I have a list here, but I want this one in your hearts and minds. Go to Revelation 21. Revelation 21, it's of course the book that you should never, you should never as a new believer go to this book first and try to start like really understanding what
43:03: John meant by a harlot drinking blood riding a seven -headed ten -horned beast, because you'll end up like David Koresh, right?
43:11: This is not our playground, so be cautious with the book of Revelation, it's the word of God and you ought to read it, but make sure that you understand it in the light of all of Scripture.
43:21: But I want you to see this, in Revelation 21 verse 5, I want you to see what
43:27: Jesus says. Jesus says this, and he who was seated on the throne said, behold,
43:38: I am making all things new. Now pause, wow, that is amazing.
43:48: He doesn't say, behold, I'm making all new things, I'm making all new things, right?
43:55: Like Jesus isn't taking his creation because there's sin in it and just tossing it away saying
44:01: I'm not concerned with it, I don't care about it, it's all evil, he actually says in the context of his redemption and a world still with sin and disease and sickness, he says about this world, he says, behold, look, listen,
44:18: I'm making all things new. I'm renewing everything, that's what they were expecting, the renewal of all things.
44:25: Jesus is the king of the world, Jesus has all authority, Jesus has salvation,
44:31: Jesus died, Jesus rose again, the call is to repent and believe the gospel, he's the king, reconciling the world to himself, putting all things under his feet, destroying every work of the enemy, of the devil, and Jesus says, behold,
44:45: I'm making all things new, that's what he's doing. So why am I saying this?
44:53: Well, Jeff, you're a motivational speaker. No, I don't believe that that is effective.
45:01: You see, what you get out of this message today is that, well, that was really encouraging and that was a great motivational speech, then you don't hear me.
45:10: You don't hear me. You're not understanding, I'm failing, something's happening.
45:15: If we're not getting to the point, if you think that this is about motivating you, you're not hearing me. I want to give you the hope because I'm telling you the story before it happens.
45:26: What I'm telling you is this, this is what God is doing. Here is what he has promised to you, to me, to the world.
45:33: Here is where it's going, and now he calls you, he bids you to follow him in that mission, to go to this place, which is him winning the world for his glory, and he calls you to come.
45:50: He calls you to speak. He calls you to be filled with that hope, hope that this is the promise.
45:59: It is not your circumstances, it is not your failures, it is not your smallness.
46:06: It is not your insignificance that matters. Here's what matters, the
46:12: God of the universe who created all things has promised that he wins the world with his gospel, and he's already done it with you.
46:23: You see, you might think that, you might think, I have to confess, I'll confess, I'm the one on stage, so I'll confess it.
46:31: You see things out there in the world, you see fallenness, you see brokenness, you see sin, you see the enemies of God, you see all the hurdles we have to get over, and I confess, it becomes difficult to believe that we can actually affect it.
46:46: It becomes difficult when you see giants in the land to believe that your slingshot can do a thing.
46:54: It becomes difficult when you see so many armies around you to believe that you can have any effect on it at all.
47:02: I know that it's difficult if you're a mom with children in front of you to believe that your work is at all significant for the kingdom of God.
47:13: I don't have a multi -million dollar ministry, I don't have degrees on my wall, all
47:19: I have is these three children, these five children.
47:24: All I have is these kids, I'm, like Nate Wilson says, just a mom, only raising heroes, only raising the people that God is going to use to change the world.
47:36: You see, here's the thing, we look at these circumstances and we often think, how could God possibly do that with all of these difficulties?
47:45: Here's how, and this is what I want underneath you, this is it, listen closely. God promised,
47:51: He said He's going to do it, He said He will, that's where history is going, whether you believe it or not, whether you feel like it or not, that's where the world is going, and He bids you to follow
48:05: Him into it. Will you come? Will you come?
48:11: That's the call. Will you come to die? Will you come to die?
48:18: Will you love God and neighbor above yourself? Will you love
48:23: God and neighbor above your idols? Will you love God and neighbor above your fears?
48:31: Will you love God and neighbor above your feelings of inadequacy? Will you love
48:36: God and neighbor above your doubts? Will you love God and neighbor above your secret sins that rob you of your intimacy and joy in Christ that would cause you to go into the world with fire?
48:59: So that's the foundation. I assure you, Jesus wins the world, and I don't care if you feel like it.
49:09: I don't care if you feel inadequate. He has all authority, amen?
49:16: It's so good to be back in a Baptist church, by the way, where you guys actually talk back.
49:24: Presbyterians, I was working really hard to get those Covenanters to even make a facial expression. Like, I'm going up there to check their pulse.
49:31: Are you alive? Okay, all right. He hasn't gone to glory yet. Okay. You're still ready for the Word. God has given us the ministry of reconciliation, and I want you to hear it, and I want you to see it.
49:43: So go to the text, 2 Corinthians 5 .19.
49:48: I want you to see that God has given to us this. It's what He's doing in the world, 2
49:53: Corinthians 5 .19. Now I want you to see it first, starting in verse 17, because you know it.
50:05: I hope you know this passage. It's great hope for those of us who have come to Christ especially out of darkness and brokenness and evil, and you know what it tastes like.
50:16: You know that switch. Some of us are raised by the grace of God as children that came to Christ, and so you haven't quite tasted that.
50:23: Praise God you haven't. But here, this is a significant passage. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
50:32: The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. You're living as new creations.
50:42: All this is from God, who through Christ, reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
50:52: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
51:02: Therefore, we are ambassadors of Messiah, God making His appeal through us.
51:09: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Wow.
51:17: God is reconciling the world to Himself. He's given you and I this ministry of reconciliation.
51:23: That's really the foundation. That is the atmosphere that we breathe. That's what's happening with you and me.
51:29: You are God's ambassador telling the world about this Messiah that God is bringing reconciliation and you're imploring people.
51:37: Be reconciled to God. God is calling you to have peace with Christ, with God.
51:44: Be reconciled to God. He is reconciling all things to Himself and all things contain little image -bearers of God all over the world, like you and like me.
51:56: And so think about it just for a moment as I pause just for a second. Okay, so here's the question to ask.
52:05: Has He reconciled you to Himself? Is that you?
52:12: Do you believe in Jesus? Do you trust Him? You've been reconciled to God.
52:20: And now God fills you, abides within you, and He puts that message of reconciliation on your lips and He tells you, go, send it.
52:30: Go. I'm reconciling the world to Myself. I did it with you. Now go, get them. Go, tell them.
52:36: Go, give to them that call of the gospel. He takes you and me and He saves us.
52:47: And you see the world and you think, nah, there's no way that God could use me. And I just want to say, when we look at the world and the difficulties around us as ambassadors of Christ, at this ministry of reconciliation, when we look at the world as no way, no way this guy's coming to Jesus, no way this girl's coming to Jesus, there's no way this is actually taking place, you don't understand the miracle of God that it took to save you.
53:13: To save you. And you look at these difficulties in the world around you and these giants in the land and you think, nah, no way.
53:20: What does that say about what you think about your sin? That maybe I wasn't so bad.
53:26: I wasn't as bad as that guy or that girl. I wasn't as much of an enemy of God as this person was.
53:32: There's no way God could save that person like He did me. I was a little better off. The truth is,
53:39: God saves sinners and you and I were wretches and as much enemies of God as the next.
53:45: But He saved you and then He takes your beautiful feet and He says, go. Tell them.
53:53: And what does He call you to tell them? It's a simple message. You know the context.
53:59: He's a holy God. We are sinners. We are condemned. We are worthy of death. We are not righteous.
54:05: We are not good. However you want to tell that story, there's much to be said about that. You can tell it in the way that you want.
54:12: God is holy. You're a sinner. And this is what God has done in Christ. God took on flesh, lived blamelessly, righteously, obeyed the law, did what you did not and would not and could not.
54:27: And He died a death you deserve and He conquered it and rose from the dead. And He's the King. He has all authority.
54:33: This is the mission and the call. Repent and believe the gospel. Be reconciled to God. Come to Christ for life.
54:41: Turn from your sin to the living God. Put your faith in Jesus. And then
54:46: God begins to save the world and change it. Here's the question. Here's the...
54:51: Listen, we're going to end soon. I just want to tell you some quick things.
55:00: But look, there is a lot of things that can be said here and I don't want to give the impression that in my giving you some things that I believe stop us, hinder us from preaching the gospel,
55:11: I don't want you to think that this is like the five divinely inspired points that hinder evangelism.
55:20: There may be a different way you want to cut the cake and that's fine. But I've thought and prayed about it and I think that these are some things that dramatically impact our ability to reach the world with the gospel.
55:31: I hope that you'll think about these and meditate on these things. Just a couple of things I want you to consider. Number one, what causes us to stop preaching the gospel?
55:41: What causes us not to reach the world with the gospel? I have five points. I like five.
55:49: One, fear, fear. We're afraid. We're afraid of a lot of things.
55:56: We're afraid we don't know enough. I can't do that. I can't reach that community. Why? I don't understand why. I don't understand what they believe.
56:01: I don't understand everything. And so what do we do? We don't go. We don't go reach them. Why? Because I'm afraid that I'm going to go and they're going to ask me something
56:08: I don't know. I don't understand their whole history. I don't understand every doctrinal belief and I don't understand the whole
56:13: Bible. So what do we do? We don't go. Why? Because we say we're afraid. We don't know what? We don't know enough.
56:20: And so we don't go. And so we lose the ability to reach this entire community because we think we need to know everything before we can tell them something.
56:27: And the truth is, is you know the gospel. I'm not saying that you shouldn't prepare to reach, say, somebody in a cult.
56:34: What I'm saying is if we say because of fear of not knowing enough, I'm not going to reach these people or speak out or try to touch them and reach into their lives, then we are losing our ability to communicate the gospel because you can always know more and there's always somebody you don't fully understand.
56:51: But do you understand the gospel? Do you understand the truth? Somebody said to me in Ireland, Pastor Jeff, I have these missionaries that come to my door.
57:01: Should I talk to them? I said, are you kidding? They come to your door? God brings the fish to your boat?
57:08: Should you talk to them? Yes. He said, but I don't know everything about them. I said, have you ever studied a little bit?
57:14: He said, yeah, I've watched your videos. I've read some stuff. I said, great. Do you know the gospel?
57:20: Yes. Then go. What are you waiting for? It's not you that saves them.
57:25: It's not your fancy theological arguments and fancy philosophical footwork. It's the gospel that's the power of God for salvation.
57:34: You preach the gospel and God ignites it into their hearts. Listen, here's the thing. I have to confess something.
57:40: In all these years of preaching the gospel to so many different religions and worldviews and cults, I can't tell you how frustrating it is at times when you go out and lay your life down and sacrifice time away from your family to go preach the gospel to people and you see nothing.
58:01: You see nothing. All you have is opposition. You see no fruit, no conversions.
58:09: Like people think they're going to go out to like say the Mormon temple and preach the gospel and people are going to fall on their knees like tearing their robes and throwing sackcloth and Arby's french fries on their heads.
58:20: I don't know. Right? Right? Like, there's an Arby's there, okay, or was an Arby's there. It used to be.
58:26: That's right. It's gone. Okay. Like it doesn't happen.
58:32: You go out and you tell and sometimes people ask questions you don't know the answer but you tell them the gospel and you don't see these radical amazing like Paul falling off a horse like in light and like, oh, right?
58:43: It's not those experiences. You go tell them and sometimes you find out a year later, two years later, three years later that they came to Jesus because you told them this one verse
58:51: God used. It wasn't because you were an expert but he uses people in these small little moments and besides, of course,
59:00: I have to tell you in second Timothy one seven, if you're afraid, if you're full of fear, that that's not from God.
59:08: God, God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of sound minds and if you're, if you are absorbed with fear to go preach the gospel, then that is either one, you need to deal with your unbelief, sanctified, trust him or you are under spiritual attack and you speak the truth against it because that fear is not from God.
59:41: It is God who saves sinners. He saves them. It's not up to you so you have nothing to fear.
59:49: You need to know that if you are afraid, then you are too self -dependent. You are too self -dependent.
59:57: If you're afraid to preach the gospel because of fear, then know that that's not from God and if you're still afraid, you are too dependent upon yourself.
01:00:07: You need to know the word of God and just tell him because what does the
01:00:13: Bible say? The gospel is the power of God for salvation. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
01:00:22: That's how they believe so go tell him his word. It's not up to you. Go tell him. Tell him the truth.
01:00:31: You must be dependent upon his promises. What does Jesus say? Have some text, guys. When you're afraid, how about this?
01:00:38: When you're afraid, you remember his promises. John 6, I've come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me.
01:00:45: This is the will of him who has sent me and of all that he has given to me, I should lose nothing. My sheep,
01:00:51: John 10, hear my voice and they follow me. You trust his promises and abandon your fear.
01:00:59: Second thing I think that stops us from preaching the gospel. Second thing I think that stops us from preaching the gospel and this is the one that hits the most home,
01:01:07: I think, for all of us. Our secret sins. Our secret sins.
01:01:16: We don't preach the gospel because we're not even intimate with God.
01:01:25: Jesus isn't a treasure to me anyway and so I don't go telling people about what a great treasure he is because he's not really to me anyway.
01:01:34: What is? My lust. That's a treasure to me.
01:01:41: That's where I find my joy. That's where I find my pleasure, my happiness. What else is?
01:01:48: Well, it's my alcohol addiction. It's my drug addiction. My secret sins that consume me.
01:01:56: It's my anger, my constant anger. It's my rage. It's my wrath.
01:02:02: I'm consumed with wrath and rage. It's my gossip. It's my lifestyle of gossip.
01:02:10: It's my bitterness. I can't tell the world about Jesus because he's not such a treasure anyway.
01:02:17: What is a treasure to me is what I'm consumed with. My bitterness, my clamor, my hostility, my gossip, my backstabbing, my pornography addiction, my lust, my adulterous relationship and affair.
01:02:31: I can't tell the world about Jesus with a side chick. I can't tell the world about Jesus when
01:02:43: I'm living a life apart from him as a treasure. My secret sins.
01:02:50: So think about it. Please, please don't let this be a moment of a talking head.
01:02:58: What are your secret sins that stop you from preaching the gospel? Because I'll tell you right now, listen, you can't have four hours of pure lust and walk away from that moment and turn a switch and all of a sudden now
01:03:11: Jesus is glorious. Jesus is a treasure that the world needs to know. If your life is seeped in your secret sins and you have the shell of Christianity, the shell of love for God, trust me, that doesn't actually translate into the gospel in the world.
01:03:28: It never will. We don't evangelize because of our secret sins.
01:03:37: And so what's the answer? Not getting away from your secret sins for the sake of evangelism, but you need to turn from your secret sins because of the glory of God, because he's a treasure above all, because he's worthy of your life, not those idols.
01:03:53: Because he's right and you're wrong, but he calls you to turn from your idols to the living
01:03:58: God. He calls you to reject cisterns that can hold no water anyways.
01:04:08: So what are your secret sins? Because I can tell you right now as a church, if we are consumed with our secret sins and we never go about the business of repenting together over our secret sins, we are reaching no one as a church.
01:04:21: I believe that God will stamp the light of this church out. He will put this church to death if we don't start repenting of our secret sins.
01:04:31: So what is it? What are your secret sins? Is it pretending like you're having righteous conversations about other believers in church that are just for the sake of prayer?
01:04:44: It's nothing more than gossip and bitterness and you know it and you've known it for a long time and it's a thing you're consumed with.
01:04:54: Think about it. You can't desire to reach the world with the gospel if your life is absorbed in yourself and your own self -interests.
01:05:06: You can't reach the world as a church with the gospel if you are a church that puts up with gossip and bitterness and strife.
01:05:18: You can't reach the world with the gospel if you spend most of the hours of your day addicted to your lust.
01:05:27: So confess your sins, rejoice that you're forgiven in Christ, repent, put it to death, get back on your feet, wipe yourself off and go reach the world.
01:05:38: You are the means of God winning the world. What are your secret sins? When will you turn from them?
01:05:45: When will you get free? Because God has called you to himself to forgive you, to cancel your debt.
01:05:50: Why are you holding on to your idols as though they were any kind of a treasure over Jesus?
01:05:57: The third thing I think that destroys mission in the church and the gospel work we have to evangelize, to tell the world about the gospel, is factions in the church.
01:06:09: Factions, cliques. In Galatians chapter 5 when
01:06:14: Paul, listen, in Galatians chapter 5 when Paul is talking about the works of the flesh, he brings up a few.
01:06:21: He says drunkenness, he says outbursts of wrath, he actually throws orgies in there.
01:06:27: That was the thing they had to deal with then. But then he says factions. What's that mean?
01:06:33: Well, it's like cliques. It's what we do as Christians. We all do it. Happens everywhere. It's in our history.
01:06:39: 2 ,000 years. Paul addressed it at the beginning. Faction building. What do we do as Christians? Well, we fall in love with Jesus, we're overjoyed at our salvation, we want to know
01:06:49: God and learn about Him, and all of a sudden we start picking up these little side issues and beliefs.
01:06:55: We start doing certain things that we think are righteous and this is the right kind of piety. And so we start forming little groups in the church.
01:07:03: This group looks like that in the church. This group looks like this in the church. This group looks like this in the church. This church over here looks like this.
01:07:10: This church over here looks like that. And what do we do? We start building factions where all of a sudden, now ready, watch this, we're not trying to actually shape people into the image of Jesus.
01:07:19: We're trying to shape people into the image of me. And we fail to reach the world because guess what?
01:07:26: Our churches are just little clubs where their own personal preferences and likes.
01:07:32: It's not about, ready, the world doesn't reject certain churches oftentimes because of the doctrine. Sometimes they reject them because it's not their culture.
01:07:41: Because you dress a certain way, look a certain way. I'll give you a good example of what
01:07:46: I'm talking about. Please follow me here because this is so important. I didn't grow up in church.
01:07:52: And so when I did start going to church, I went to an independent fundamental separated Baptist church. Many of you guys know this.
01:07:57: And you have to say it like that, by the way, independent fundamental separated Baptist church. And if you're not independent fundamental separated
01:08:03: Baptist church, it's because you're not really Christian. That's how it works. You probably may be a
01:08:09: Christian but not really saved. I don't know. That's how you feel. So I'm in this church one day and have all kinds of rules.
01:08:16: You had to have your hair cut a certain way. You had to wear a certain kind of clothes. It just didn't, we didn't, we would have said you shouldn't be legalistic all the while we were putting all these things in this
01:08:28: American culture that we were putting on ourselves saying this is Christianity. And I remember
01:08:34: I was in church one day before service. I was only 19 years old or so.
01:08:39: And this girl comes in, I don't recognize. She's in the pew in front of me. We're all standing up. Everyone's greeting each other in church as we do.
01:08:46: And she's in front of me and she's dressed appropriately. She's wearing a dress that's probably about down to here.
01:08:52: She looks great, totally modest. And I saw one of my professors from the seminary who's an elder in that church walk up to her and he's so sweet.
01:09:01: He's this sweet old man. He's like, oh, thank you so much for joining us today. She's like, well, thank you for having me. I just came into town this week.
01:09:06: I'm new here, trying to find a church. I don't know anybody out here. He's like, oh, we're so glad you chose to come. And he's just so sweet.
01:09:12: He's like, yeah, we're so happy. We want to figure out how we can serve you. He goes, do you mind if I took you down the street to the thrift store to buy you some appropriate clothing for today?
01:09:28: He said, because what you have on isn't appropriate. Would you mind if I did that for you? I'd be happy to do that for you.
01:09:34: And I felt in that moment, my heart fall into my stomach. And I knew at that moment, something's wrong here.
01:09:43: Something is wrong here. You're building a faction, you're building a group, not based around Christ and righteousness and what glorifies
01:09:51: God, but it's a group that looks like you. It looks like you.
01:09:56: And I want to say this, in Ireland, they're dealing with this so much. They have the Protestants in the North, the
01:10:02: Catholics in the South, and if you were to ask the Protestants or the Catholics, why do you hate each other? They wouldn't say because justification through faith alone and Christ alone for the glory of God alone.
01:10:12: They'd say, because I hate the Catholics. Why? Because they don't look like me, have churches that look like me or feel like me.
01:10:20: It's all cultural. I don't even know why they're really fighting. They just hate each other. They just don't like each other.
01:10:26: Why? Because here's the faction and there's the faction. What do we do? We spread a culture, not
01:10:32: Christ and his image, it's just a culture. Now watch, that's large scale.
01:10:38: That's Ireland, two sides, Protestant, Catholic. Don't even care about the doctrine. It's just the click.
01:10:45: But that gets, watch, worked down into smaller groups where someone says, hey, Apologia Church doesn't look like me.
01:10:52: Their pastor has tattoos, church looks different, right?
01:10:58: And so they must not be Christian truly because, well, you've got people there that wear polo shirts and khaki pants.
01:11:04: You have other people that have tattoos and torn jeans and beards, which actually is righteous.
01:11:12: Okay, just kidding. But you know what I'm saying? All of a sudden now, you have now churches warring against each other.
01:11:18: Why? Not because of Christ and righteousness and the law of God, but because you don't actually like what
01:11:23: I like. You don't have my preferences. And then watch, it gets smaller. It goes from nation against nation to church against church.
01:11:30: And then within churches, we have faction building where we start doing what? We get little groups within our church trying to get everybody to look like us.
01:11:39: And when you focus on that, you're not focused on the mission of the gospel. You're focused on pietism, falsely, false piety.
01:11:49: You're not focused on having everyone be the image of Christ. You're trying to make people look like you. And as long as that's your mission, to build a culture within a church, you're not focused on the mission of the gospel, to reach the world with the message of peace with God.
01:12:05: So we have to repent of faction building. And watch, you have to always be looking for it in yourself and in others.
01:12:12: What's the mission? It's to reconcile people to God. The best church, watch, that's doing what its job is in the world is a church that looks very different, different colors, different styles of clothing, some different convictions around the adiaphora, the side issues.
01:12:36: But it's a church that understands that we're all different, but we're all in the same Messiah.
01:12:43: Watch out for your factions. Fourth point, quickly, idolatry,
01:12:48: I'll just say it quickly because it relates to the second one, secret sins, quickly, are idolatry.
01:12:54: We're not going to reach the world with the gospel. We're not going to evangelize anybody. I won't if I spend my time worshiping idols.
01:13:06: Because watch, listen, if this thing is more of a treasure to me than God, if this thing, if this mission is more of a treasure to me than Jesus, then
01:13:17: I don't go about the business of actually pointing people to Christ as the ultimate treasure because these are actually my treasures.
01:13:25: These are my treasures. And Jesus, kind of, but this is what I'm consumed with.
01:13:31: This is what takes all my mind and my time. This is what I sacrifice to. So here's the question
01:13:36: I ask of myself, where are your idols? What are your idols? What do you treasure above Jesus?
01:13:42: Because here's the truth, we will not reach the world with the gospel. We won't sacrifice everything to reach people with the gospel if we're consumed with passion for our idols above our passion for Christ.
01:13:56: What do you worship? What do you sacrifice to above Jesus? And the fifth point, this is important so I want you to meditate on it.
01:14:08: You may not come up with the answer right now. I think we fail in evangelizing the world, one, because of fear, two, because of secret sins, three, because of factions, four, because of idolatry, and five, because we are not being intentional.
01:14:24: Now, watch, I'm going to say this, I hate when pastors use that word. It bugs me. I always think of the pastor like on a stool with all kinds of fog and lights in front of him.
01:14:33: He's like, guys, we got to be intentional, right, or something. I hate that word intentional when it's used in church, but I'm actually going to use it.
01:14:41: And I don't want to use it in a way that's just pithy. I mean, sincerely, we're not intentional in our pursuit of reaching a particular group or the world.
01:14:53: Just some points, if you would, you can write them down. One example, Jesus was intentional about what his mission was, but like in a specific kind of way.
01:15:03: In Matthew 15, 24, he says to the woman that I've come and I've been sent to the lost sheep of Israel.
01:15:10: So you've got like a Gentile, but Jesus' intention is to reach the Jews. Now watch, he still was reaching the
01:15:17: Gentiles, but his primary intention at that time in his ministry was for the lost sheep of Israel.
01:15:23: He knew what his goal was and his intention was. It's not to say he did nothing else, it's to say that this was his intention and he was focused on that mission.
01:15:33: He knew that was his call. What's your intention? What is it? What are you called to primarily?
01:15:43: The apostle Paul knows the same thing. In Romans 11, 13, he says that he's the apostle to the
01:15:48: Gentiles. In Galatians 2, 8, he talks about Peter and himself, watch, and he says,
01:15:54: Peter has like this mission to the circumcised Jews, I've got the mission to the uncircumcised.
01:16:01: Does that mean that Paul didn't reach Jews? No, you know he did. In Acts chapter 9, he went right to the synagogues.
01:16:09: He's constantly in conflict with the Jews, preaching the gospel, pointing them to Jesus, but his primary intention and mission was to be the apostle to the
01:16:17: Gentiles. That was his mission. He was intentional. Jesus knew what his mission was.
01:16:24: He was intentional. And here's the question I just want to ask you. Meditate on it. Pray about it.
01:16:32: Are you intentional about God's call in your life and how he intends to use you for his kingdom?
01:16:40: Are you intentional? There are a few people at Apologia that God is sending to Kauai, and they're being intentional about getting there, going on trips and raising money to get out there to figure things out.
01:16:56: There's some people that have actually given up places they're living to live in other places to save money, to be intentional about getting out to Kauai to sacrifice their lives and their family, to go and preach the gospel, to win that island to Jesus.
01:17:10: They're being intentional. There are some people that spend their lives preparing to be missionaries in some other foreign field, and they're learning the culture now and learning the language now.
01:17:19: They're being intentional, and God is using them. There's certain people that God is calling to reach the Mormons in the area, and so they're being intentional.
01:17:26: They're training. They're learning. They're watching videos. They're reading books. They're being intentional. There are certain people that feel called to say, my kids are my primary mission field, and I'm going to give everything
01:17:37: I got to be the best mom, to be the best homeschool mom, to be the most
01:17:44: God -honoring wife that I can be so that my kids see me and the glory of Christ in me, and they want him.
01:17:52: Listen, be intentional. Are you repenting of your sin regularly? Are you confessing to your children your sin so that they see that humility within you?
01:18:02: Are you preaching the gospel to your children? Are you being intentional? Are you trying to learn to be a better mother, a better father?
01:18:10: Are you spending time trying to be shaped yourself so that you are that mother and father
01:18:15: God's called you to be over this mission field? Are you being intentional? I think we fail in evangelism when we're not intentional, when it's sort of just random hodgepodge.
01:18:24: So you might be asking, how do I know? How do I know? Okay, this is why you need to pray and ask
01:18:30: God to show you. If you're not quite sure, how is he going to use you? Here's what
01:18:36: I'd like you to do. Ask yourself, who or whom are you passionate about?
01:18:48: What does God put on your heart? Okay, so if God is calling you to be a missionary to India, he's called you to be a missionary to India, he's going to give you a passion for Indian people.
01:19:10: And so you should probably not focus on things going on in China and learning about Chinese culture while you have a passion that God has given to you naturally for Indian people, right?
01:19:19: And so the question is, what are you passionate about? Because God, ready? He's going to give you as his child the desires of his heart, what he wants for you.
01:19:28: So what is it? You might be saying, watch, I know what it is, it's been there for a long time.
01:19:36: I think God told me a long time ago, he put it on me, what he wanted me to do. And I would ask you, what stopped you?
01:19:41: What stopped you? Well, I was afraid. Well, repent. While I'm dealing with this secret sin right now,
01:19:48: I have been for like two or three years, and so I would say to you, confess your sins, rejoice, repent before God, delight in the joy of your salvation, get back on your feet, wipe yourself off, and get back on the field.
01:20:03: What's God called you to? Be intentional. Who do you love?
01:20:09: A lot. Who do you love a lot? So I'll give you an example, just quickly, my story is not that important.
01:20:17: But for me, I have all these people I love to reach, right? But like there's certain people, like groups, that I don't know why,
01:20:25: I have a passion for them that I'll never let go of, I can't. Like Mormons, I love that community so much.
01:20:34: I get angry when I see people abusing Mormons, because I love them so much, because I want to see that entire church come to Jesus, and come to know
01:20:43: His peace and salvation. I can't get over it. And if you ask me why, I don't really have an answer. I don't know why.
01:20:49: It's divine. I don't know where it came from, except God. I can't answer it. It just came from God. And some of you guys feel that way about adoption, but you haven't been doing it.
01:20:58: Why? Are you afraid? Are you dealing with secret sins? Are you wallowing in unbelief? What is it?
01:21:05: Some of you guys feel that way about Jehovah's Witnesses, some of you feel that way about your streets. You want to win your entire neighborhood to Jesus, right?
01:21:12: That's your intention, good. Praise God. And get to work, win, right?
01:21:19: Like I love John Knox. He wins Scotland to Jesus, right?
01:21:26: And what was his intention? You say, a one man is like leading an entire nation to Jesus Christ, so that at the end of his life, it was
01:21:34: Christian up to the parliament, right? So like, broke down, idolatrous, pagan, and then he ends his life and the parliament is essentially
01:21:43: Calvinistic, whoa. Not just like nominal Christian, but like Calvinist.
01:21:49: That's pretty hardcore, right? But what does he say? John Knox says what to God? Scotland, or I die.
01:21:58: God, give me Scotland, or I die. Do you feel that way with the authority of Jesus and him reconciling all things to himself, winning the world with his gospel, putting the message of reconciliation into you?
01:22:12: Do you feel that way about the community that God has put you in? Do you feel that way about your street, about the community that he's called you to reach?
01:22:20: Do you feel like that? Kauai, or I die. Adoption, or I die.
01:22:29: Mormons, or I die. Jehovah's Witnesses, or I die. Roman Catholics, or I die. My children, or I die.
01:22:38: Do you feel that way? Are you in tension like that? Pray for it, brothers and sisters, and let's go win the world with the gospel.
01:22:48: Let's pray. Father, only you can do a work in us as a church that would cause us to confess our unbelief and to repent of it and trust you.
01:23:03: Only you, God, can do a work within us that would cause us to repent of our secret sins that you know well.
01:23:13: Only you, God, can do a work within us to cause us to repent of our gossip, our slander, our bitterness, our faction building that disrupts the mission of the gospel.
01:23:27: Only you, God, could change us as a people so that we are actually living lives of missionary sacrifice with an intention to be used by you as the means of your grace to save your people.
01:23:49: Please use us. Father, please, right now in this moment, I pray that you would please convict those in this room who don't know you of their sin.
01:24:01: I pray that you would grant to them repentance and faith so they turn from their sin and trust in Jesus and what
01:24:08: He's accomplished. I pray, God, that you'd do the work that's necessary in the heart of this church to give us new strength, to give us new legs to stand on, to give us new faith, trust, to give us
01:24:28: Lord a refreshment, new joy, a desire to pursue you.
01:24:34: Please, God, use this church for your gospel and purposes.