Sunday School - Back To Basic Part 7

Okay, well, let me pray for us this morning father. We do come before you thankful Lord for life and breath and Lord that you've given us the capacity to meet this morning

We pray Lord for our families and pray for the families that yet here Pray God that you would bless her time together and it would be edifying to your

Saints and Equipping us for the work of ministry in Jesus name. Amen All right, turn your

Bibles to Matthew 28 This is a verse that probably it's like very consequential

To the Christian life very consequential to my way of thinking of Christianity It is a fundamental text in order to understand our mission our purpose as a people and It's the departing words of Jesus Christ who his disciples in the gospel of Matthew in chapter 28

And we're going to read verse 16 through 20

Matthew 28 and so this is not basically our back -to -basics here's just kind of done

I can do more but but today I want to focus on an area of evangelism since this is still very important to the culture of our church and where we're heading as a people and so today's lesson is called commended to tell all in order to win some and so we're going to look at that from From the scriptures in Matthew 28 starting verse 16 now

The eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them and when they saw him they worshipped him but some doubted and Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the

Son of the Holy Spirit Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold. I'm with you always to the end of the age

Now as we commit ourselves to some of our core values a couple months ago when I came in as your pastor we put in some new

Core values and also some goals that we wanted to that we want to achieve. Do you remember what some of those goals are?

Maybe the big goal. What's the big goal? For our church, yeah

Evangelism, but more specifically what's the end result? What do we want to see in five years? We want to become a what

Self replicating church Which means we want to be a church that's producing churches.

So not just a church that is Barely getting by here, but rather that we grow and become a church that's able to Replicate that's able to it's almost like a division of cells, right?

If you have a healthy cell, it'll divide the way it's supposed to if you don't have a healthy cell It won't divide without without division.

You have no growth And so as a church We want to look forward to the future and see What God would do in our midst in terms of helping us be a planting church or planting another church or being ascending church?

something to that degree and Part of that way of getting there is through evangelism.

And so just a couple weeks ago or last week I think we we ended up knocking on over all the houses on this side of Lakewood Village, which is amazing

That's quite phenomenal so so praise God for that and But we still have work to do we still have much work to do and It's an exciting time for us and for the life of the church

But notice what we see when Jesus is resurrected at the resurrection of Christ he goes to his disciples and it says now the 11 verse 16 went to Galilee to the mountain to which

Jesus directed them and When they saw him, what did he do? they worshipped

But what happens right after they worship? What are the words that are added they worship but what what's the but here?

Some doubted can you imagine that? Think about that for a moment. They encountered the living Christ The Christ had been dead in the grave for three days had been risen and when they see him they worship

But some doubted It's kind of an amazing statement. It's it's it's perplexing

But really it's not that perplexing when we think about it Have you ever worshipped God in the midst of doubt?

Right It's it's not so uncommon We matter of fact some of our best worship it's when we're confronted with doubt

Some of the best praise that we can offer to God is when we are struggling with doubt This is a an important aspect because humans are prone to doubt all of us

Even the even the 11 who were standing before Jesus who had seen his miraculous works Who knew he was the

Son of Man who knew he was the Son of God who knew that he was gonna be raised from The dead and yet they doubted because the human heart is prone to doubt

Maybe some of us are doubting whether God can do this work in our midst Maybe some of us are doubting whether this church can grow

Maybe some of us are doubting whether we can personally partake in the evangelistic work Maybe we're doubting

And that's okay. We're prone to doubt. We're prone to have a heart that wanders prone to wander

Lord I feel it prone to leave the God. I love as the Great Hymn says and yet the risen

King Jesus is standing in front of the disciples in this story and The first two inclinations that the disciples had was one worship to doubt

So I want you I want you to become familiarized and okay with that tension that sometimes

Worship and doubt are not mutually exclusive, but rather There are two sides of the same coin

That makes sense And so don't be afraid to worship

God Even when there's doubt now, what is doubt anyone know what doubt is?

Give me an example of what doubt might look like What made that look like?

That's a form of doubt how about in in the Christian context Sure about really basic ones like Man, this stuff even real

Right, it's God real. This is Jesus real is the gospel real Sometimes in life life circumstances can push us towards unbelief

And so when bad things happen, our inclination is to doubt like why first question usually comes is why?

Right God. Why would you allow this to happen God? Why me God? Why my child?

Why why why we always ask and we do so often in a way that expresses our doubt in the providence goodness mercy love and kindness of God and These are all things that are

Natural to the human disposition. We are naturally prone to doubt doubt is the feeling of uncertainty or lack of convictions

That's what doubt is Right. So if you know, you'll encounter Christians maybe who will say well,

I'm not so sure about reformed theology. I've got my questions. I've got my doubts, right? Now that's one thing but someone says well,

I have my doubts about Jesus being God Well, that's a whole different story, right? That's a level of doubt that puts you outside of the

Christian Orthodoxy Christian mainstream and yet we can still doubt and wrestle with theological quarries and questions

Like you're going through the Sabbath right now, and you still got questions. You're skeptical and you got some doubts and that's okay

We all are entitled to our doubts our own our feelings of uncertainty or a lack of convictions in certain areas

It could also mean doubt can also mean however fear Right doubt and fear are usually very closely linked especially in the scriptures

This is why the Lord says do not fear 365 times in the scriptures It's why fear and doubt are on oftentimes very closely linked together.

The disciples in this story are afraid. They're fearful one of the reasons why they may be fearful is because They buried

Jesus If you buried someone and you saw them alive, you'd probably be a little freaked out too, wouldn't you?

Matter of fact, we know from Luke's gospel Luke 24 That when the disciples meet

Jesus There it says it used the phrase that they were afraid and Jesus has to bring them near and says come see that is

It myself handle me touch me see that I am myself Because a spirit or ghost does not have flesh and blood as you see that I have

Right, and so he has to let them handle him because they're afraid and the reason why again, these are real people

We're not talking about fairy tales here If it was a fairy tale the story of the resurrection would look a little bit different It probably looked like, you know, the disciples triumphantly running to the tomb and saying yes, we knew it, right?

It's like in the movies, right? But no in this case, they're running to the tomb and they're afraid or like what is going on people don't usually

Come back from death, especially after three days the body's already decomposing there's natural processes at work and yet the scriptures foretold that the

Son of God would not see corruption and That that God would not forsake his son in the grave and so these in these disciples run to the grave and they find

Jesus and they Are afraid there's some doubt there even after seeing him.

They're asking themselves. Are my eyes deceiving me? Am I actually seeing the

Lord of Glory is this actually happening, you know There are some theories in the world that say that the disciples and you know, there's a in Acts and 1st

Corinthians chapter 15 and says that there were 500 eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus at one time and and some

Skeptics have said that the reason they had this vision of Jesus or they saw Jesus was because they were all likely taking hallucinogenics

So think about that for a moment everyone everyone was eating mushrooms and then they saw Jesus at the same time usually though when you're

Having a hallucination, you know, everyone gets a different Hallucination, they don't all get the same hallucination.

So there goes that that theory but again, that's the tendency of the human heart to doubt what scripture says and to Add in their thoughts and perspectives now doubt and fear is the enemy of Obedience once you remember that Doubt and fear is the enemy of obedience for if you lack the conviction to do what's right

Remember doubt can be the lack of conviction To do what is right? You'll fall for your uncertainty

If you don't have the convictions, which is basically in the world would say have a backbone You don't have a backbone you're just gonna fall for anything and we need to have a theological spiritual backbone to believe and to receive and to do what

God is required of us and Doubt is usually the result of a lack of knowledge. It's usually a lack of faith and Conviction.

These are all things that are company without and again, we've all have a level of doubt in our lives

It's not something that like oh man, I've got doubts. And so therefore I'm I'm wicked. I'm a sinner.

That's all true, but That's not the heart of the issue is not your doubt

It's your unbelief It's unbelief And unbelief leads to doubt and so again as disciples

We've all encountered doubt when it comes to our faith but we've also Demonstrated as the disciples that demonstrated doubt to To demonstrate doubt is to be human

We recognize that it's a human tendency So the disciples demonstrated

To doubt again is to be human and even I as your pastor I have doubts a lot of things that I I have questions about or a lack of conviction about and Not everything that's a lack of conviction is necessarily a bad thing

Right, so there are certain things that some people may have stronger convictions on than you do And it doesn't mean that you're any less than right

For instance, some may have a stronger conviction on the Sabbath. Some may have a stronger conviction of You know of the

Lord's Day or other I you know things that are not necessarily trivial but are non -essential to the overall dogma of the

Christian faith and So my question to you this morning. So have you ever had an experience?

Where you're out and about and you see someone And you feel

God leading you to stop to them to talk to them about faith we were had that experience before where you're out and about and you just see someone and like man,

I feel call To minister to this person and maybe we do it or maybe we don't but if you ever had that impulse that feeling before Yeah, I Mean I get it all the time.

I you know, I I think I was in LA this week, right? Yeah, and and I was with some friends and I was just Feeling there were unbelievers.

And so I was waiting for my for my in to talk about faith because I Just felt that leading like I need to tell these guys, you know, some important things and I want them to hear me and And sure enough the opportunity

Grows and sometimes in life you'll you'll have those times where opera you you have an in you have an opportunity a window to Speak into someone's life other times.

It may be very Out of the blue. Maybe you're at the line at the gas station or at the

Walmart or whatever the case may be and you feel Leading to talk to this person about faith, whatever. There's something that has has been pressed on you to speak and Witness to an individual and I would say that that that voice but then you know the that voice that tells you to That pushes you to evangelize is one that should be heated because then what happens is that it's almost like the story of like, you know, the cartoons yet the bad angel and the good angel and Because as soon as you get that that feeling like that press

I should talk to this person about Jesus What's the next voice you hear What's the next voice?

There's a voice of doubt There's a voice that doubt that comes This is oh, well, there's this probably my imagination or you know that person, you know

Probably doesn't need to really hear this right now or whatever the case may be we start to We let that voice of doubt creep in which is why

I get it earlier. I said that that doubt is the Is the enemy of obedience

It's the enemy of obedience Because when we are told what to do in scripture and God tells us what is right? What is good and what is that we are to do that is to make disciples?

We get that little voice in the back of our head. I says now it's not a good time or you know It compounds and it robs us of the joy of being obedient Interesting how that happens doesn't it and it's every single time because it happens to me too where I'm trying to you know

I feel oppressing to speak to a person and then I hear the voice of doubt come in my mind and say

You know now it's not a good time or that person is busy or I'm busy and I got all these things going on right Now and I just I can't juggle all this right happens to me doubt is the enemy of obedience and So doubt kills.

In fact the joy of obedience And so don't keep that voice of doubt

As the disciples did when they encountered Jesus where they worshiped him, but some doubted As a church that desires to live by Bible truth and principles and to be a people of the book

That's really important. We want to be a people of the book. That's this book God's Word the inspired

Word of God We must meet doubt with worship We must meet cynicism

With obedience and it's not a matter of not having doubt for we all again have doubt to some degree

But that when it arises that we meet it with true worship So, how do we deal with our doubt?

We meet it with true worship and true worship is obedience to the law and decree of God It's not a matter again, you know of Having doubt or not having doubt we all have it

It's how we meet it and it's what we do with it So don't let doubt get in between you and your mission

What is your mission? Let's read what Jesus says in verse

Verse 18 Jesus came and said to them all Authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me

You know Jesus assures the disciples in this verse not by telling them it's okay guys.

It's me. It's Jesus again a very cartoonish Response that would have been saying

I know you're doubting. I know you're skeptical guys, but it's okay. It's me. It doesn't say that Instead how does

Jesus assure his disciples? He assures him by proclaiming the extent of his power

By saying all authority and heaven and on earth has been given to me

Jesus Christ by virtue of his incarnation and self -humiliation obedience even unto death on the cross has caught had conquer

The conquering authority even over death itself and he's demonstrating all authority is mine

He's not reassuring them by giving them some empty platitudes. He's assuring them by by demonstrating.

He's a true sovereign of all things All authority and heaven on earth has been given to me that text proof something actually really important to it proves that Jesus Christ is

Almighty God if you look at the definition of what it means to be almighty. It means to have all authority and Who has all authority?

Jesus Christ Jesus Christ said is Almighty God now some questions may arise in that How if Jesus is

God, how can he be given all authority wouldn't it be innate wouldn't be intrinsic to his

Nature to his deity and the answer is found in Philippians chapter 2 where we see that Christ in his self -humiliation takes on this form of a servant and And and by becoming obedient even as far as death on a cross

Jesus was given the name above every name. So at the name of Jesus every knee should bow every tongue confesses He's Lord to the glory of God the

Father This is a statement about his his two natures Jesus Christ is God and man as the

God man. He is enthroned with a a divine glory as man and as God that was

That is unique to his incarnation and his glorification as the Son of God and the Son of Man And so put it to put it simply the cosmos will forever be reigned and ruled by a son of Adam it is the two natures of Christ and the haplocytic

Union coming into Into full view here the one man Jesus Christ being fully and eternally glorified as the one who has all authority to heaven on earth

It is it is the the two natures as they are joined together that now as one person

We see the glorification of Christ in this way. So it's a really marvelous truth of Holy Scripture any questions so far and anything.

Yeah Correct. That's right.

That's right. And it's the answers that is the two natures of Christ, right? So Christ is God but he's also man and so in in that taking on of human flesh

Christ in his in his incarnation as the one who has all authority to heaven on earth Humanity is limited Christ in his humanities fully human, you know

But then as the one through his obedience Hebrews 3 says that as a son he learned obedience for things he suffered

And so this is not in relation to his divinity. Obviously, this is in relation to his humanity

He was truly human Philippians 2 makes that point very clear And so it's in it's as one person

Both divine and human He is now enthroned as one who's had it's been given all authority in heaven on earth

Okay, it's the it's the mystery of the hypostatic union. It's the two natures how they come together and And how

God glorifies himself in the Sun right now Jesus does say in John 17 5 father now glorifying me with the glory

I had with you before the world was so was was Jesus glorified in heaven.

Absolutely Did he enjoy the same glory as a father? Absolutely prior to his incarnation But that's why

Jesus says in the high priestly prayer in John 17 5 now father at the conclusion of my ministry Glorify me and this is glorified.

Let me enter into that glory again the same glory I had with you before the world was does that make sense?

Yeah, which that's verse would make no sense if Jesus was not God, you know John 17 5 because Jehovah says in Isaiah 42 a

I'm Jehovah. That is my name And I would not share my glory with another nor my praise to graven images

So there's no way that that Jehovah would share his glory with a creature

When God says his glory is exclusively his it is exclusive. It is exclusive to his nature and yet Jesus says now father glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was and so It's a pretty strong text

Any other thoughts or questions so far? I Think it's

You don't even have to answer, but the life is in the blood Witnesses prohibiting like blood transfusions

Those kind of things and Jesus shed his blood on our behalf.

Is there a prohibition tied more? to the Jewish way of seeing Yeah Yeah Yeah, it's my older brother

When he was born And he was a newborn. He had a blood clot in his brain

That almost killed him and he needed to get a blood transfusion in order to save his life Now my parents were

Jehovah's Witnesses and they did not want to give him a blood transfusion. This is back in the 80s and the state of Connecticut actually took custody of my brother and And they and they gave him a blood transfusion against my parents wishes which saved his life

Even though my parents did not want to give him a blood transfusion, you know, they were gonna let him die because of their belief on a blood transfusions, so it's a

Someone hits home to me You know, essentially the Jehovah Witness doctrine of not getting blood transfusion comes from your understanding of really two key texts

I think it's Acts or Leviticus 17 or 19 that talks about the blood that That you that you should not

Prolong your life by the blood of another and that blood is sacred that the life is in the blood And so it would be inappropriate for you to take someone else's life force in order to sustain your own life force

And that the prohibition against eating blood Which is a weird one because a transfusion is not eating.

It doesn't go into your You know dietary system it goes into your circulatory system, so it's completely two different things even the

Jews they don't follow that strict view of Or interpretation as Jehovah Witnesses do and they're pretty strict on blood and then they also take

Acts 15 where the Jerusalem Council Prohibits the believers from things sacrificed to idols or to blood and so there's a another

Prohibition both Old and New Testament to the blood And they say so it would be inappropriate for Christians to partake or to be you know use

You know blood transfusions, and they really view as like a martyrdom issue Like they will they know that if they were to die in obedience

There's a likely there's a higher likelihood of them being resurrected because they don't have assurance in their religion So if they died obedient through not taking a blood transfusion, it's like an easy ticket into paradise and so That's unfortunate the way many

Jehovah Witnesses view that and their doctrine has evolved over time because now they do allow for blood parts

But not blood whole so the blood is primarily hemoglobin water

Yeah, plasma. These are these are all you know just Basically three major things that make up the blood so you can they can the

Hospitals can now divide the blood into certain aspects And so you can get blood parts and Jehovah Witnesses allow for that for whatever reason

Actually, I know the reason why it's because one of the members of the leadership governing body was dying and needed a blood transfusion That was the only way out so they allowed for that And they also had a prohibition in 1960s until 1980s on Organ transplants, they thought organ transplants were cannibalism

And so you if you're a Jehovah Witness from 1960 to 1980 you were not able to save your life by getting an organ transplant that again changed when people or some of the older men in the in the

Organization started to get sick and needed an organ transplant, and they changed their theology on that so Yeah, that's that's the answer

Maybe one day. I'll do maybe next week. I'll do a whole Jehovah Witness teaching on the peculiar beliefs of Jehovah Witnesses Yeah Well, you know their cop -out is that they have what's called

They call it new light so they take Proverbs 4 18 which talks about the day of the righteous man is like the day that gets brighter and brighter until the day is firmly established and And they say that you know ours is a progressive

Organization and that Jehovah gives us more and more spiritual light So we may not have everything 100 % right

But we know that Jehovah will give us more enlightenment and through the organization he'll enlighten us to more and more truth

So anytime there's a change in doctrine. They just brush it off, and they celebrate it as oh look Jehovah gave us more light

So now we it's you know. Oh, it's not that we were being taught Falsehood, which is what they're being taught, but it's oh no they repackage it.

They say oh, it's new light. It's wonderful God's giving us more clarity on something and so that's how they they repackage

Change in doctrines. Yeah It's it's very subtle, and it's in it's it's the mark of a cult. Yeah, that's how cults act you know

That's how they operate And so let's ask ourselves some pretty important three questions in relation to the main topic today

Which is committed to tell all in order to win some What is the mission is number one? To who is it?

or So what who and why what is the mission who is to share in the mission?

And why is it important? Okay, so the first one is what is the mission and we see in Matthew 28 verse 20 the mission is

Sit in your church pews and do nothing Is that it no oh how about this

Just hire a pastor to do all the work for you That's not it either verse 19 go therefore and Make disciples of all nations

That's the mission. That's the mission is To go not sit go not just You know being the comfort of the four walls of a church, it's go therefore and make disciples of all nations

That's the call. That's the mission. That's the command the mission is to go and make disciples of all nations So in other words the mission is to we are commended to tell all

We're to tell everyone in order to win some So here's a reality ours is a mission that involves telling everybody about Jesus even though we know

Not everyone will come to receive Jesus Okay, so that's why we're commended to tell all in order to win some and the sum being the elect of God Chosen before the foundation of the earth that they should be chosen as sons of God And this is the doctrine of election as it corresponds to the doctrine of evangelism

We're commanded to tell all every person who has You know a human soul is to hear the gospel

But of course not every human soul will receive the gospel only those who are chosen And who received this gospel by faith?

By grace through faith in Jesus Christ. These are the ones who inherit eternal life And so during Jesus's earthly ministry

Christ says many times like in You know Luke 17. He says the kingdom of God is at hand this is a

Urgent matter God's kingdom is at hand in Luke 17 20 and 21 Jesus says being asked by the

Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come he answered them The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed

Nor will they say look here it is or there for behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of you

Now this is a really fascinating text because Jesus is saying to the Pharisees who are asking for signs

Everyone asks for signs, right? It's it's the natural thing to do is that we think the answer to our doubt is signs and Our brain is conditioned as such that we look for signs everywhere matter of fact

I was watching a documentary or video on YouTube or something that talks about the human inclination to believe in conspiracy theories for instance and And we and we love conspiracy theories because we love

Connecting dots and when we see dots can be that can be connected our brain will automatically make those connections

And so it is way more fantastical to believe that there was a coordinated you know dark an

Agenda to kill JFK that it is to believe that the most powerful man on earth was killed by a lone gunman in Dallas, Texas Right.

It's way more fantastically believe that no it had to be more because the truth doesn't just it doesn't satisfy

It's not it's not Engaging. It's not sexy enough, right and it's easier and it's more fun to believe that there's a more nefarious

Cause behind the death of the most powerful man on the earth like JFK Regardless of what you believe on on the death of JFK But our human minds have an inclination to quickly

Ask for signs because when we see signs we connect the dots and And that's why

Jesus is saying to him. Listen, there's gonna be you're not gonna be able to take the dots so easily The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed.

What do you think Jesus means by that? What does Christ mean by that? It cannot the kingdom of God is not coming ways.

It can be observed Right Yeah, it's not gonna be so easily

Distinguishable, it's not gonna be like the you know, the kingdom of God's not coming on the you know, any second airborne or something it's not it's it's not gonna be as palpable as The coming of a regular kingdom so to speak

Manuel you got something No, okay This is a great text for pre millennia for post millennialism as well because a lot of folks use this text for that But I would say that's also a good text for our millennialism

Because the kingdom of God is Like a mustard seed Jesus said that didn't he?

He says the king of God was like a mustard seed. I think that's in Luke 11 and It's a mustard seed.

It's very small. You know when I preach that I preached Before I became the pastor at the last church.

I was that I preached there and I preached on the mustard seed and And someone a dear sister

Came up to me afterwards and she gave me a little mustard tea She carries him with her little mustard seeds and it's super tiny.

It's like like that small you can barely Hold it and she said I love your message. I want you to have this mustard seed to remind you

I said, this is great. I love it and a mustard seed is Incredibly small.

I mean it's smaller than a grain of rice It's how small it is. It's so small out of that little mustard seed

Can grow something large and beautiful over, you know, a tree a plant that's over nine feet tall out of that little tiny less than half a grain of rice and And that's the kingdom of God it's it's small it starts with 12

Then it grows to 70 and it grows to 120 and it grows to 3 ,000 then 5 ,000 and here we are two millennials later

Worshipping the God Jesus Christ Kind of amazing, isn't it? It's the mustard seed.

It's the kingdom of God. It's not coming in ways that can be observed But it's not gonna be like one that you can say look here it is or there or finally look there

It is there's the building. There's a cathedral. There's a No, it says for behold. The kingdom of God is in the midst of you

The kingdom of God's the midst of you that is to say God's kingdom is at work in the lives of believers

The kingdom of God is growing in the individual life of the believer. That's amazing.

This is powerful stuff here So Jesus made it clear that the disciples that this disciple making work is a kingdom work and we're called kingdom citizens in the scriptures and our job is to infiltrate the kingdom of darkness and Build up the kingdom of God here on the earth

And this is fulfillment of the words of our Lord Jesus when he says in the he taught us how to pray

Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy what? kingdom come

We get the privilege of being partakers in that work We get to be a part of seeing the fulfillment of God's kingdom coming on earth.

That's our joy. That's our gift Now the question is so now we know the what what is our mission it's the

Great Commission the Great Commission is our Work it is our mission.

Now. The question is who is to share in the mission? Who's to share in this mission?

clergy Pastors who All Blood -bought believers in Jesus Christ fill the spirit are called to this work

So if you're a Christian, guess what? This is your work If you believe in Jesus, this is your work if you go to church, this is your work

This is our this is our mission. And if we're not doing the mission, what does that make us?

Let's just be real blunt about it What's that? Whips. Yeah, that's one way of putting it

Starts with D. That's that's a good word to think

I'm a little bit of a different word Disobedient Disobedient now you're in the army

Emanuel If what would it look like if you were disobedient to a commanding officer?

What would be the consequences Wow pretty serious then, huh

Pretty serious stuff and that's just with that's just the US Army Okay It would pretty powerful force on the earth right probably the most powerful force on the earth

But we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ We're talking about the Lord of Glory We're talking about the one who created all things and we would dare be derelict in his face

We will dare to say to our King to our Redeemer the one who bought and purchased us with his own blood

And we would say to him. Oh Lord, it's just not for me We would dare be derelict in our duty to him

When we would not do so to earthly forces to earthly powers. We wouldn't do that to our bosses

We wouldn't do it to the US military But we somehow feel the freedom To not be obedient to our master.

I don't get it. I don't get why we do that and It's something that that needs to Be uprooted in our lives so we can trust in Jesus and do as he commands us to do if you love me

He says you will do You will keep my commandments You will keep my commandments

And so all blood -bought Christians are to partake in this work of ministry to partake in this sharing of the

Great Commission and so By Jesus's enthronement as the risen

King of God's Kingdom. We are commissioned as kingdom proclaimers He's given us the marching orders. Here.

It is Great Commission Matthew 28 And he's given us a message and he's given us also an ambassadorship we're ambassadors of God Imploring them to repent and turn to King Jesus, but I can hear some of you already saying pastor

I'm too shy. I Can't I can't tell people about Jesus or I hear this one a lot to pastor evangelism is not my gifting

Evangelism is not my gifting Really You ain't shy to talk about your favorite sports team though.

Are you? You know, you're not shy to talk about your favorite TV program or your favorite movie or your favorite book

You're not shy on a lot of things in a lot of ways You ain't too shy to talk when you're sharing some juicy gossip either

With people instead of telling them about Jesus you see we pick and choose What we're shy about And sure, maybe some of us are just naturally shy.

I would actually here's a secret. I'm a I'm a pretty shy person Believe it or not. I know some of you guys will meet that with skepticism, but I'm a natural introvert it costs a lot of Energy for me to be as Presentable as I am to you guys and so that's why at the end of my day on Sunday, I'm just Spent I spent you know, think of an introvert or someone who has like, you know, ten coins and And think of the extra for who who starts a day with zero coins an extrovert will gain coins by his social interactions with people an

Introvert only has about ten coins to give by the end of the day. He spent it all he is tired He is done or he or she is done.

And that's exactly how I feel about my My my my gifting or area of being introvert or extrovert

But we are all called again To share this Great Commission work. We're all called To be in a sense preachers proclaimers of this gospel

Now you may not be called to be a preacher like a pastor but every born -again Christian every born -again believer has been given a spiritual gift and Ministry by the

Holy Spirit for two reasons number one to glorify God and to make Jesus know

Okay, that's why God has given the church spiritual giftings That's why the church has been given pastors and ministers to equip you for the work of ministry to glorify

God and to make Jesus No, that's why you have spiritual gifting now our spiritual gifting are all

Meant to work together for the advancement of God's kingdom so you may not be called to be Spiritually called to be an evangelist, but every

Christian is an evangelist That's very important to understand that not every

Christian is going to be spiritually equipped for instance for the work of administration But every

Christian has a level administration in their life that they are responsible for See we all have varying degrees of responsibility and all the spiritual giftings that we see in Scripture We have a responsibility a duty to them, even though it may not be our primary

Gifting. I think John is it? Paul Washer put it to death.

He says in missions There's two postures you either go into the well to rescue those who are heading towards death or you hold the rope for those who are going down either way there should be scars on your hand and so our

Gifting our talents our spiritual gifting and anointing from the Holy Ghost are all meant to glorify

God to make Jesus known for this work of ministry And here's something

I want to impress on you as well if you're a disciple Being a disciple maker is not optional

You hear that again if you are a disciple being a disciple maker is not optional optional when fear or Doubt or uncertainty about sharing our faith and Jesus creeps up Remember this truth from Jesus from John 7 verse 30 and 39.

I'll read to you Jesus says whoever believes in me as The scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water

Now this he said about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive

For as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified

So Jesus makes his promise whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water

And that's a reference to the ministry of the Holy Ghost in the believer So if you're a believer if you believe in Jesus out of your heart will flow rivers of living water

Do you believe that? Now this is a beautiful text because when you couple this with the end of the

Bible the end of all of Scripture You see this beautiful throne seen in Revelation chapter 22.

You see New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven That's the church. Okay, and you see that out of the

New Jerusalem flows a river of living water by which the nations are Given the healing of the nations.

It's beautiful. You know where that healing comes from it comes from the church It comes from the Holy Spirit working in and through us so that the nations can receive the inheritance of the

Lord What a beautiful imagery that is And so I want to again impressing you that that rejoice because it's because Jesus has been glorified the

Spirit has been given out and Out of us flows rivers of living water if you got Jesus in your heart

Let him overflow into the lives of others Let him overflow into those around you how selfish it would be then to keep this living water to yourself in The midst of a drought and thirsty world

The world is in a spiritual drought. Just like we're in a drought here in California The world is in a spiritual drought and we have within our capacity

To offer living water to those who are thirsty You were created in fact

To tell the world about Jesus You were created in God's image to reflect all that he is for his own glory and praise the

Great Commission work to in which we are commended to tell all in order to win some is the purpose of the church

Now the last question I want to answer is why? Why is it important verse 20 reveals that to us in Matthew 28?

After Jesus has go and make disciples of all nations baptized in the name of the triune God he says in verse 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and Behold, I'm with you always even to the end of the age

Here's why it's important that we partake in this Great Commission work because we're learning Receiving and teaching the nations to observe all that he commanded us

Do you know what God what the Great Commission is all about? If I can sum it up in one word, it would be love

The Great Commission is about love The Great Commission is the greatest commandment of loving

God and loving our neighbor in action So when Jesus says were that when they asked Jesus whether the two greatest commandments that on whom the law and the prophets hang it's to love

God of our hearts own mind and To love our neighbor as ourself and then Jesus gives us the most practical way of Fulfilling this commandment of loving

God and loving neighbor and it's the Great Commission The Great Commission is all about love

It's love in action And so the message we must tell

We must tell all Everyone who has ears to hear must hear the gospel in order to save some

For unfortunately not all will respond to this good news and the good news being the gospel being the

Evangelion the the good news of the death bear and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the message that we proclaim is the greatest message and The greatest news that anyone could ever hear and it's like God's kingdom rules and reigns in the hands of the risen

King Jesus And he offers life and redemption from our fallen state and world by the power of his resurrection so love for God always leads to love for our neighbors and The most loving thing we can do is warn them of the eternal

Condemnation that they are heading towards and the good news of repentance and belief in Jesus Do you see the picture why the

Great Commission is so important? Why it is so vital that we share this gospel So don't fear as the disciples did in verse 16 and 17 when they met the risen

Lord and they worshiped him But some doubted and they feared Do not fear telling others about Jesus for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power love and a sound mind and Jesus will be with us as we do this kingdom work until the end of the age

So, how can we learn to be more effective as ministers of the gospel? One of the ways that we can be more effective is by practicing is by taking the opportunities that the church offers

When we go out to do evangelism when we do evangelistic works in the community when we're doing the food ministry

These are all opportunities for us to be strengthened in the inner man so that we can be effective in the kingdom work

That's ahead because I promise you 2022 is Gonna have nothing on 2023 and the work that we're gonna be doing as a church

You know if you thought we were busy this year Wait until you see what we have in store for you next year, and it's a good work

We shouldn't be afraid of it. We shouldn't feel dragged down by it. It is like this is a good work

And we are commended again to tell all in order to win some and we want to see the gospel take fruit in this community and this city in this region in this state and So again ministry opportunities are available for you to be better equipped for this kingdom work

One of the ways that you can do that as well as what you're doing now being here in a Sunday school To be equipped coming on the

Lord's Day and using it and taking advantage of all the opportunities that we give as a church to be more

Challenged but also equipped for this kingdom work And so here's my challenge and my commissioning to you this morning for all believers

To to find and lead one person To Christ and begin discipling them this year or the next 365 days

Think of it, so I want to share you real quick. You know when I was a start my first church in Edmonton we were a small church we started with like 12 people and And we made our goal, but these were 12 very committed people which is great

And so we kind of felt like you know Jesus and the disciples, and we said okay What are we gonna? Do like how are we gonna?

Have a? Vibrant successful growing church, and I said well. It's real clear what we need to do.

I say it's gonna be a slow grind But I want us to all 12 of us

We want to identify one person Leave them to the Lord and leave them the church and we want to do that in the next you know year

So all of us if we just take one person and we we do that we do that By next year, we'll have 24 people and And then if we do that again

From 24 people we're gonna have 48 people And it just keeps it's it just keeps compounding as a compound interest.

It just keeps growing and so By by year two we had 60 people

We had 60 people and that was in In you know by virtue of what we were doing of committing to finding one person

Maybe you haven't you probably even know who the person is yet Maybe you haven't met them yet, but providentially the

Lord will lead you to a person Who you can lead help or at least help lead to faith in Christ?

Disciple them be a part of their Christian walk and lead them to a healthy vibrant and growing church and I've seen it happen before I think we could do it again

And so what a Kingdom work we have ahead of us and what a joy it is to be part of this disciple making work

Any thoughts or questions on this morning's lesson? Yes Yeah That's right to the end of the age

Which would be awkward if the predators were right because in the ages in 70 AD So I guess that means Jesus isn't with us anymore

So Any other thoughts or questions Do you feel commended to tell all in order to win some?

Good. Let me pray for us. God. I thank you that you've given us this work this work that By ourselves and on our own is impossible

But with you all things are possible. And so Lord we eagerly receive this word

Pray Lord that it would be implanted in our hearts and minds so that we may take this most sacred truth and obligation seriously that we would not put to the wayside our

Important and sacred obligation to our King and our Savior that we would not be a direct in our duty But instead

Lord that we would be faithful and be counted among those who would be righteous shining as the

Sun on that great day when you come to be revealed in your people and you bring judgment upon the unbelieving and You separate onto eternal destinies the sheep and the goats and so Lord may we be found on that day on your right side

Receiving a kingdom and inheritance from the Father We pray Lord that you'd strengthen us in the inner man to do all these things and more in Jesus name.