The Home And Our Commission

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

Over the last several weeks. We've been looking at a concept called covenant renewal worship, which means that when we gather together, we're expecting

That God is going to renew us in his covenant We are people

Who have broken covenant with God time and time and time again and yet God is the one who is always faithful what we've seen over the past five weeks is that that every covenant in the

Bible whether it's the Adamic or the Abrahamic or the Mosaic or the Davidic or the Noahic all of them have five essential elements that that organize them and keep them

Bound together we saw that God calls us out of the world that God separates us out from those things and makes us new that he gives us his law and That he gives us his signs and his seals because he loves us and then he provides for our covenantal future

Now our gatherings are structured in this way The way that we come into worship is structured in this five -fold pattern where we're called into worship

We're separated out from the world. We are made new through confession We're given we're given

God's laws in the sermon and in the singing we hear what God values that therefore were consecrated

We are Communing with Jesus at his table and then we are commissioned out into the world

To take these truths to the nation's Today I Want us to look at the final aspect of covenant renewal worship

That you and I have been commissioned into the battle We've been called here to worship confessing our sins and being made new consecrated unto

Christ Communing at his table commissioned to the nation's today. I want us to look at what does it mean to be commissioned?

What does it mean for us to leave here and take these truths with us? with that Let us pray and let us begin

Lord Jesus, thank you so much That there's so much depth and wisdom in your word

Lord thank you that we have the Unimaginable gift that as sinners

We've been called here this morning to worship in your presence Lord, let us never take for granted how good that is

And how wonderful that is that that you would fellowship with us? That you would call us into your presence

That you would forgive us of our sins That you poured out your wrath on the

Christ instead of on to us That you've invited us to dine at your table not as strangers, but as friends and And Lord you've given us a mission to go and take these truths to the nation's

Lord, thank you that your grace is So much deeper wider and better than we could ever ask for or imagine

It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen Today we're going to talk about seven things

We're going to talk about how we were created for Commission We're going to talk about how we fell in our

Commission We're going to talk about how God restores us in our Commission gives us power in our Commission We're going to talk how the world needs the

Commission How nothing can stop it and how God will eventually win back the entire world because of it

So let us begin with the fact that we have been made for Commission When you look at Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 my favorite chapters in the

Bible I say that about every chapter in the Bible, but but this one especially Because they're so versatile Every theme that we have in the

New Testament can be traced back to Genesis 1 and 2 Genesis 1 and 2 is the foundation where God made us and crafted us and he gave us what he expects from us our male -female

Dynamic comes out of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 marriage children family mission all of it

What it's what does it mean to be a human comes out of Genesis 1? Every single sin that we see proliferating in our cultures and attack on Genesis 1 and 2

Did God really say? Was what Satan said in the beginning now you ask did you see in society?

Did God really say that marriage is just between a man and a woman did God really say that abortion is murder? Did God really say and you can trace all of that back to Genesis 1 and Genesis 2?

every affliction that this society is going through right now is a Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 issue and as we look at What Genesis 1 and 2 are getting at we see that they are describing for us

What a human is supposed to be like what it means to be fully human what it means to be commissioned by God So let us look at Genesis 1 27 through 28.

This is where we see what it means to be human God created man in his own image in the image of God.

He created him male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth

God made us in his image Before God ascribed to us our purpose

He designed our being before God told us to do anything He told us who we are

That is a proper paradigm for how do we view Christian obedience today? We don't do anything to become something

We are something therefore we obey Being always proceeds doing and what we see is is that when

God creates us in his image? He expects from us the kinds of things that he is

So for instance God expects human beings to be creative because he's a creator God expects us to love because he's loving

God expects us to be a people of Commission because God is a commissioning

God God is not aloof an idol in Genesis 1

God is working God is being fruitful and multiplying across the expanse of the cosmos

God is ruling and subduing and bringing his dominion to created space Why do you think

God can command us be fruitful multiply spread out to the ends of the earth rule over and subdue it and Have dominion because that's what

God has demonstrated that he does in Verses 1 through 26.

He's a ruling subduing and God who has dominion if we do this being fruitful

Multiplying spreading out to the ends of the earth ruling over it subduing it. I'd recommend you memorize that verse.

It's super helpful If we do that, we image God. Well, if we don't do that, we do damage to the image of God We become unfruitful

We become divisive We become idle in the world instead of filling it we do we play the victim instead of ruling we complain instead of subduing

We're fearful instead of taking Authority and dominion we misrepresent the image of God when we do those things

God created us to image him and Imaging him is that We were created as kings and queens

Scholars call Adam and Eve vice regents for a purpose because if you'll notice in the first chapter of the

Bible There's only a couple things that are told to rule the Sun to rule by day the moon to rule by night

The birds to rule over the skies humans to rule on land

You were created with authority You were created with power. You were created as kings and queens

You were not created as victims You were not created to be weak You were created as the triumph of God's creation

We weren't created to make excuses we were not created to sit on the sidelines and say

I'll let someone else do that We were created to get involved We were created to rule subdue and extend

God's dominion A part of that now, which is so fascinating to me is that God designed male and female equal but different He doesn't design woman out of man's head so that she can rule over him

He doesn't design woman out of man's feet so that he can stomp all over her He designs woman out of man's rib so that she will stand side by side with him

Locking arms with him him protecting her her helping him. They're equal, but they're different How does a woman accomplish the paradigmatic mission of God in Genesis 1

Well, it's obvious and I know we live in a feministic society But the Bible says that women are blessed with the unbelievable ability to have children to bear actual fruit from her womb

What an astounding thing What a beautiful thing women and as far as I'm concerned should be viewed as the superheroes of culture

They're bringing new life into society in a way that I can't even imagine. I'll never be able to imagine in This sense a woman is the most terrifying enemy of Satan That's why he attacks her first Because she can have children who can grow up and crush his head

The enemy's plan against woman isn't as against women is not that ambiguous. It's pretty obvious.

He wants to destroy her So that he can destroy humanity

You think about it today women are being convinced that it's a good thing to despise motherhood go to college get a career

Have someone else raise your children if you get pregnant out of wedlock or if you get pregnant and you're not ready for it

Just murder your child that is Satan's fingerprints all over it a woman's

Commission is That she's fruitful when she has children she multiplies when she brings discipline into her home her home

She rules over her home by cultivating and crafting an environment where people can flourish

She brings glory and honor to God when she subdues her home and decorates her home not just physically but also the aroma of her home in a way that gives honor and glory to God and Again, we live in a feministic society where male and female are now flattened

To mean the same thing. I Don't know about you, but if you ever met a happy feminist

I googled feminist today. Everyone was frowning Or screaming at the sky

The reason why women are not happy as feminist is because that destroys her

God -designed purpose Women do not find their greatest happiness and satisfaction by going out into the world and competing with men

Women just don't do that. And if you believe that you do that I Would challenge you to just ask yourself.

Does that really make you happy a Woman finds her happiness by ruling over a home by being given the resources that her husband collects so that she can take those resources and Cause them to bring flourishing to everyone else

Women flourish and thrive when they're being led by a godly man and when they are

Serving in the home to the glory of God We don't we shouldn't think that that's a coincidence.

We shouldn't think that that is an accident That is by design if you if you want to know how this plays itself out

Feministic culture has taught women that their greatest value in life is competing with men So why are most nurses most teachers and most caretakers women?

Because we're naturally created by God To do what God has called us to do women are

Caretakers and nurturers and they take the gifts and the resources that are given to them and they make them glorious The Bible says that man is the glory of God woman is the glory of man.

That is not a slight on woman She takes what he has given to her and she multiplies it in a double sort of glorified way

She takes glory and makes it double glory. She takes and she brings life a woman is

The greatest enemy to the kingdom of Satan and worth protecting and worth caring for Men resource their brides who nurture our tribes.

That is the way God designed it men work to bring healthy fruit women work to make healthy people and We are blessed as a society

When we affirm this Every society that has affirmed biblical values for male and female have been blessed

Children are blessed husbands are blessed and societies are blessed Every society that not that denies this rips itself apart eventually

In the same way men don't find their greatest happiness by ruling over the home

Men go out and they build things They create industry and technology and innovation they go out they dream as children of slaying dragons

Case in point Yesterday, I was over at the Taylor's house for Sabbath dinner. I looked out and watched my children

There are two forts in their backyard Addison was decorating her fort to the glory of God Because she wanted the men to have a nice place to come the boys had swords and guns and they were slaying to the glory of God We don't have to teach our kids.

We have to indoctrinate them to think differently When men are men and there's a masculinity crisis in this country

There's a masculinity crisis in the church But when men are men Children are blessed wives thrive societies flourish

Should we think that that's a coincidence when God has laid it out so clearly in Genesis 1 Men also have the added spiritual leadership component where they're supposed to lead their wives.

Well in the commandments We're supposed to teach and disciple their wives teach and disciple their children bring the faith to the next generation

The Puritans called the family a little church Because they were trying to tell the men of their congregations that you have a pastoral responsibility in your home

Your home is a little church. You're the pastor Disciple them well teach them well

Whether you ever hold office in the church or not every man in this room is a pastor. He's a pastor over his home

He's a pastor over his children. And if you don't have children if you don't have a home yet, you are a pastor in training

That's the biblical vision for the world simple But if we would do it

Our world would thrive because we're not doing it You see all the shambles that our society has wrenched itself into What I've been surprised about is how controversial what

I'm saying has become in the church What do you mean men be men? You're talking about toxic masculinity.

I Want to I want to punch in the face every man who says that spiritually and metaphorically speaking

I Want to look at him and say man up Yes, there's a toxic form of masculinity

But me being a man who loves my wife and who wants to work hard to the glory of God is not toxic masculinity

We've spent decades shaming men for being men look in the 1980s. I grew up in the 80s every single sitcom had dad as a total buffoon and Mom had to come in and rescue him

Every sitcom I ever watched was dad is an idiot and mom is so intelligent and dad can't do anything without her help

We have shamed a society of men to thinking that we can't be men Why do you think we have so many issues now we can spend thousands of hours on this

But Satan is intelligent. We have to grant him that He didn't attack human beings in any particular way.

He tacked us in a specific way he went to the woman first and Convinced her that she was wrong.

Theologically. Where was Adam in Genesis 2 Adam was made first given the commands of God and told to share those commands with his wife.

Where was Adam? Satan subverted the family structure When Eve was falling into sin, where was

Adam? Adam was asking her protect me Share with me

Adam was being a coward Adam abandoned his masculine role to protect his wife

From any outside intruders Adam Forfeited his masculinity and as a result look at all of the damage and carnage that has come

That's toxic masculinity him hiding while Eve is falling

Satan got them to seek their own ends. He got them to think of themselves as gods and as God as not

However, you slice it humanity turned their back on God's design They abandoned their divine calling they chose

Satan sin and death instead of God righteousness and life and The consequences of that decision have been innumerable from Genesis 3 to Calvary's tree man bumbled about in the sloths of sin intoxicated with self -love and doing damage to each other so That sin was multiplied across the face of the earth

It says that in Genesis 9 the reason God destroyed the world with flood is because sin was multiplied

Over the face of the earth sin had become great We're seeing this in our society and I barely even need apply this you can see it all around Instead of multiplying.

What is the church doing in America? The church is shrinking or at least it seems that way Faithfulness is declining work hours are going up and yet productivity is going down flourishing is going down and instead of men

Working to the glory of God now, you've got bio weapons that are being created vaccines that do damage to your health technologies that emit radiation

And cancer we have distribution of wealth all over the place. You've got people who are broke and people who are ungodly rich and And that's just you just look at that's just a few examples

The thorns have not left They've just now look a little differently in the modern world

Adam's thorns that he had to go to war against were in the fields Man's thorns today are all over the place digital thorns

Work thorns everything has been infected by sin We've seen church divided 20 some thousand denominations in America We've seen families divided divorce is just as high in the church as it is in the secular world

Society is splintering right before our very eyes. Have you noticed it? You'd have to be under a rock not to see it

You've got the left and the right That have polarized themselves against each other.

You've got mainstream media talking about civil war Which is nothing to joke about and then you've got the church trying to figure out their identity in the middle of it

We've had tyranny and leadership we've had Real Toxic and sinful masculinity in the sense that some men have used their masculinity to dominate women

That's a minority. I think of the case the majority of Male sins in the society is weak and passive leadership

Where he refuses to lead his family and lead them in worship and lead them in the scriptures and sing

Psalms with them and lead them in worship Weak and passive masculinity is the greatest sin right now among men

Where men have become either lazy providers at home or workaholics at work?

Intimidated by their wives in their living room and yet overachievers in the boardroom what

I've noticed is that men will find their identity in their job and They will spend hours training and discipling someone in their work

So that they understand how to be a good employee, but they won't what they won't spend a minute Discipling their child and it's not just men

Femininity has been Damaged in this society in ways that women do not find their joy in the same things that they found their joy in centuries before us where Strangers now raise our children

Government schools are indoctrinating them in the sickest forms of critical race theory and sexuality

Daycare workers are maintaining the health of our children While we've taught our wives that your value and your identity is to go compete with men

We've had television sitcoms raise our children We've had YouTube and tick -tock influencers come in and in an implant the most godless

Ideologies and Then we send our kids off to woke universities that that completely indoctrinate them and then we wonder why?

That children are leaving the church at a rate that we've never seen before There's a breakdown in the family that's satanic and its origination

Families at a minimum stop having meals together stop going to church together men stop leading their families in worship

Catechizing their children in truth it's not It's not a magic formula.

It's just What men are supposed to do it? Listen, I've not always done this.

I want to say this. I Just started over a year ago spending active discipleship time with my family every day

Teaching them the catechisms teaching them and I have seen my kids I've seen my kids shoot off Like to the moon in their discipleship.

They have grown decades just in the last year That dedicated time of baking my kids in the

Word of God It's my responsibility and I will stand before the Lord on whether I do that or whether I don't

I Don't want my kids to grow up and be a statistic that they're just another kid that left the church

I I want to lay my body out on their path And if they're going towards hell,

I want to trip them so that they fall down on their way These things are things that in the church.

We have to recover Because when men and women go against their

God ordained design no one flourishes everyone struggles

Every generation of human beings has come up with a solution. We know better than God you can trace the

Philosophical movements through every century and every one of them have failed

Because there is no better plan than the one that God laid out the reason that our world is in the shape that it's in is because we've forgotten who we are as man and woman under God's Commission and because of sin

We can't actually have the ability by our own strength and power to obey Sinners we sin as people who are

Unrighteous we do things that are unrighteous That means by our own power. We can't do these things

That's why the gospel is so sweet And that's why Jesus came If you think about it

Jesus came to be a propitiation for our sin, right? He came to die on the cross for us

He came to purchase us and to transfer us out of the kingdom of darkness and in the light But Jesus's salvation is not just to save you from hell

His salvation is holistic. His salvation sanctifies you his salvation changes you

If God said that it's good for one man to love one woman then Salvation and Christ restores us back to that if God called men to be spiritual leaders our salvation restores us back to that Our salvation is not just to get out of hell free card where we say

I've decided to follow Jesus now I'm gonna go to heaven now can do whatever I want Our salvation was given to us so that we could do the gifts or do the the works that God prepared

Beforehand for us to do that. We had no power to do We're saved and empowered by the

Holy Spirit to do the things that God has called us to do not to save ourselves But because he's so gracious to save us now we are changed

I thought about an example of this It kind of highlights the absurdity of how the modern evangelical views obedience

I Imagine myself as a financial planner dangerous

But I imagine myself as a financial planner and there was this really trusting family that became my first customer foolish and I gave them some really bad advice on a really big investment and they lost everything

Million dollars to say that was their nest egg. That was their retirement and They wanted to have a meeting with me and I got the email and immediately

I'm like, oh no the shame that I would have felt the guilt that I would have felt and As I'm imagining this

I imagine that I have the meeting with them. I'm ready. I'm thinking they're gonna throw the book at me They're gonna bring lawsuit against me for my negligence and In this little sort of thing that I'm imagining the father reaches out and he wraps his arms around me and he says

I forgive you That's sort of a picture of what Christ has done this debt that I could never pay back

That I costed him is what he forgave me of But as I was thinking about it,

I was thinking now, what would I do in that situation? I would stand up and I would say Thank you, I'm gonna go now because I'm never touching money again

But that's not what God does Imagine the father saying where are you going? You just lost a million dollars now.

We got to work it back. I Forgave you now. Let's go do this together That's sort of what

God has done for you He forgave you of all your crimes and all your sins and all your pollutions, but he didn't say

That now the job is over Now we step into it With the power of the

Holy Spirit to do what God has told us to do Is it any wonder that Jesus in Matthew 28 after he rose from the dead did not say to his disciples all?

Authority in heaven and earth has now been given to me. So therefore go do nothing He didn't say that he said therefore

Go and make disciples of all the nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe

Everything that I've commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age

His redemption is restoration He's brought us back to our purpose and we have to ask ourself.

What was our purpose Genesis 1? He's restored us back to the thing that God created us to be doing all along Because of sin we could not be fruitful we cannot multiply we could not rule we could not subdue

We could not have dominion and now he does not absolve us of that He brings us back to that but now with his power in church

We want to recognize this every single week this facet We're not only called into God's presence

We're not only forgiven of all the sins that we confess We're not only consecrated unto Christ and we not only get to dine with him at his table

He's asked us to put on the spiritual warfare and go to war Go to war taking the gospel to the nations.

He's given us a commission. He's given us a job to do We who ruined everything

We broke every law every command. We're the least trustworthy people God knows and Yet he's commissioned us to go do something in his name and in his power in that amazing

He didn't say Jesus you go do it for them He didn't say like in some hyper hyper hyper

Calvinist situations where God does everything we don't have to do anything He just saves people and they just show up at church

He has given us a job He's given us a labor of love to do for the rest of our lives that is not based on our performance

Do you notice at the end of Matthew 28? He says I am with you always He's not saying go and do this to make yourself a somebody he's saying

I'm the somebody I have all authority in heaven on earth Now go do this with me and my power in my strength.

No more excuses No more blame -shifting like Adam and Eve for the men

This is a call for us to grow up in Christ To marry a woman to love her well to lead her in the scriptures

It says in Ephesians 5 to wash her in the water of the word to equip her for what motherhood is gonna look like to help her raise children to To be there for her to empower her to do the greatest work that has ever been designed by God to do which is what?

A woman is called to do giving her all the resources that she needs all the support that she needs to be able to do

What God has called her to do that's what we're restored to men Biblical masculinity to love her like Christ loves the church and to give our lives for her and to die for her and I'm not saying

That because any of us in this room actually live up to that, but that's what we're striving towards we're striving for that because that's who

Christ is for us and women You've been restored to the beautiful purpose that God has given you

You've not been saved so that you can go compete on the same level with men You've not been saved so that you can be idle and opine and meaningless activity.

You've been called to the greatest activity on earth You've been called to take the resources that are given to you and to create a home and Then to raise up children who raise up children and to have a thousand generations of your legacy

So that women really are the ones who change the world By her doing her work

Now women I do want to encourage you don't take Your opportunities with your husband to tear him down and to shame him

Because he is dumb We are dumb and so are you? Attacking your husband for his stupidity is like tearing down your border wall and wondering why drugs are coming across the border

Your husband's there to protect you your husband's there to be a wall so that nothing comes in your husband's there

To build you up and to love you and to cherish you and if he's not doing that pray for him but don't attack him and Men don't talk down to your wife as if you're somehow superior.

You're the grunt that protects her Treat her like she's special like she's significant like she's your greatest treasure other than Christ Don't down your nose at her

Don't treat her with disrespect. Don't treat her like she's inferior to you Grab your axe and go to war and protect her for the rest of her life

So that she can do the work that God has called her to do Discipleship is not just a spiritual activity guys

We tend to think about it like that, don't we we think about discipleship is oh I'm gonna meet with someone at Panera and I'm gonna talk about Jesus.

That's that's great But discipleship affects every aspect of our life when

Jesus said teach them to do all that I've commanded we have to understand that Jesus didn't just command what's in Matthew Mark Luke and John and Luke 24

He said that all the scripture points to me and Genesis 1 is a command of Christ We cannot forget our homes.

Yes, if you ask me, are we supposed to leave our homes to go make disciples of the nations? Yes But are we supposed to forget our homes in order to go make disciples of the nations?

No Discipleship begins in our backyard it begins in our home men

You want to see the world changed stop watching Fox and disciple your kids Stop complaining about which politicians in office because God channels kings like water in his hand

He is in the heaven who does all that he pleases. I don't care who's in office anymore Jesus Christ is my king and your king live like that to the glory of God and disciple your kids

Raise them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord and love your wife like Christ loves the church that commission begins at home and When we do that Everyone flourishes

When we do that, this church will flourish Now if you're doing that really well

Help another family do that. Well, that's discipleship Discipleship is not put

Starbucks on your calendar and go meet with someone sure you can do that But don't neglect your family to do that Get your family in order and then if God calls you to take on someone else

I was thinking about this How often do we look for special assignments from God when we're not doing the very basic things that God has given us to do

I Remember like when I was first convinced that I was supposed to go into ministry It was a it was at least seven years before I should have ever thought that thought

I Was barely a Christian I was Yeah, no way should

I have been thinking that my wife laughed at me when I told her that I thought I was supposed to Go into ministry and she was right.

I Was wanting a special assignment from God Instead of just doing the very basic things that God had called me to do and a pastor told me that he said let me

Ask you this. Are you doing what God's already commanded you to do? And I said, I think so. He said are you loving

God with all your heart? No You loving God with all your mind. No, you loving

God with all your strength. No loving God with all your spirit No, are you loving your neighbors yourself? No, and then he said stop looking for a special assignment.

You've got work to do It was the best thing that I ever heard because ministry and And discipleship are not spiritual levels in your lifelong video game

You're not more significant if you're in ministry Trust me

Ministry is hard and it's a weight and it should not be envied

You Ministry doesn't make you significant being an elder doesn't make you significant being a deacon doesn't make you significant

Having a nice car doesn't make you significant. What makes you significant is Christ That's it.

And What Christ has said about you in his gospel and how Christ is transforming you to live out his gospel

That is what's gonna make your life a success or a failure in the kingdom of God Now if you're single

Prepare well to be married If you're married Live out your marriage to the glory of God, you know, how many families are struggling even in this room?

Where we're not where we're maybe too afraid to say it where the marriage is holding on by a thread Where the children are are rebelling and walking away from God.

There's so many examples of this We've been restored in Christ gospel

To begin that work at home And to do that work to the glory of God and to trust in his sovereignty

Am I saying? That every single family here who does this work with all their heart is gonna have every single one of their children graduate into Christianity and and be

A pastor or or you know have children that follow the Lord. No, I'm not I'm not saying that There are examples of faithful families who have children who walk away from Christ My point is

We don't need To do the wrong thing just because God is sovereign so that we can lean back on his on his sovereignty

For instance, I'll give you an example When I was first married to Shannon, I was not a great.

I was not a great Christian I was probably two weeks into Christianity at that point and I was a loser Best thing

I ever did was marry her worst thing. She did at that time was marrying me. Thank God for his sovereignty. I Don't teach my children to date their future wives in the way that I dated my wife because why would

I suppose upon God's grace that just because he redeemed our marriage and It did not begin.

Well, just because he showed us grace. Why should I teach my children to test the faithfulness of God?

I Teach them to approach their lives in a God -glorifying way don't do the same things that I did

Set your life apart for Christ. These are things that every single one of us can do

I think sometimes when we think about discipleship we think about something that's that's higher than we than what we can do

I've never been to seminary. I've never had formal training How am I going to go and teach someone else but yet we disciple our children all the time

You're either going to disciple them biblically or you're going to disciple them culturally We all have a job to do and we all can step into it.

This is incredibly practical God has just called you to be fruitful with what he's given you. He's called you to multiply what he's given you

He's told you to rule over and subdue what he's given you and do that to the glory of God That means that all of us can play a part in this great mission that God has given us and just in case you're thinking

I'm not I'm not good enough to do this. I'm not strong enough to do this Well, guess what? God has given you the power to do this by giving you the

Holy Spirit of God says in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses

Both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest parts of the earth Do you see how he begins local and then he goes global?

He's saying do in your backyard these things and do them faithfully and As you do those things and as every other family is doing those things it will begin as rumblings in your home

It will become thunder cracks in the church and it will be lightning strikes in the town that you live in It will multiply if we just do what

God has told us to do Our mission as a church is that our mission is to declare the gospel?

Yes, but our mission in saying that there is a gospel is we're telling you that you've been redeemed

To now do this work That's why the church is supposed to equip the Saints for the work of ministry. The church is not to do the ministry

The church is to equip the Saints for the work of ministry and the ministry is in your home It's in the world.

We're commissioned to do that Our mission as a church is all of Christ for all of life

To see him come into every square inch of our being for his gospel to transform every aspect of our life

To the glory of Christ I Think about the church like a medical tent in the middle of a war zone

You don't want to live there you go there to get patched up and then you get sent out to go do your work.

I Think about the church as a boot camp We're being prepared for war a

Spiritual war a battle we come in here to be trained and we leave here to go to war. I Remember in in boot camp there was a guy who got out of the military because his his arches were a little too archy

And I just thought to myself brother suck it up We're going to war.

This was back when Iraq was happening in 2001 We've been called to the battle let's train for it, let's come in here and prepare for it and let's go and leave

With the mission of God on our hearts. I think about the church is a fourth quarter huddle Where we're coming in and we're looking at the field we've got the whole world before us to make disciples starting with our families and We're getting the plays to go play the game

We come to church to glorify God. Yes, and amen. We come to church to receive from God. Yes, and amen

But we don't come to leave those blessings at the altar and then go Penniless into the rest of the world.

We come here to receive from God so that we can take to the nations We come to get from God so that we can give to the world

We come here to be equipped and trained and taught to fight and given our marching orders and that's what the world needs.

I remember hearing Candice Cameron burr. She's a she's a

She was on full house back in the day, she's a Christian she's very vocal about her faith She said why would

I not share my faith? The world is diseased and we have the cure That's what we're talking about You've been given the antidote to the world's diseases and to not share them and to leave them here in this place is to look at the world and say

Be damned the world needs this more than it needs technology and iPhones and food and water and oxygen

Matthew 9 37 through 38 says then he said to his disciples The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few therefore beseech the

Lord of the harvest to send workers into the harvest Our prayers a church should be That more elders and pastors and deacons are raised up.

Yes, we need that We need workers in the fields But our prayer should also be that men in this congregation

Become the God -centric fathers that God has called them to and we send them back into their families and that wives become

Wives to the glory of God and we send them back into their families. The harvest is plentiful We got to pray to the

Lord of the harvest He would raise up workers and we have to quit defining workers as full -time paid staff on ministry

We've all been called to this Maybe you're thinking

How can I possibly have this kind of view I look around and the world is so dark

People are disengaged with faith. I Have to beg them and plead with them to come to church or they just don't come

My spouse doesn't get it. My mom and my dad mock me because my faith that happens My cousin ignores me my the state that I live in is too liberal.

I said that applies to any of us How can

I be excited about the mission of God when there's so much discouragement in the world if you ever asked yourself that What's the point?

Why work so hard when It just seems like the world is like my grandma used to say go into hell in a handbasket.

I Don't know why the world would be traveling to hell in a handbasket, but that's what my grandma said Did you know that the greatest lie that Satan has ever told you the greatest lie is?

That his kingdom is winning That's the greatest lie that Satan has convinced every single person in the church of and I hope not you

Because of what Christ has done on the cross Satan can't win. He cannot win Christ has defeated the enemy

The church is now moving forward the greatest lie that Satan has convinced us of is that our sin still

Condemns us and that the world is still getting worse My family's never gonna get it

I'm always gonna be an outsider at my family reunion. They're gonna look at me as the oddball Christian My kids are never gonna come back to Jesus My spouse is never gonna become a

Christian When Satan makes us believe that the enemy is winning that the world is continuing to getting worse

He is convincing us that fighting doesn't matter and our time could be spent better Doing something else

Why play violin on this on the on the surface of the Titanic when it's sinking?

Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you die Those are the lies that he's convinced us of that the kingdom of God is shrinking

That our effort doesn't matter and that if we just bury our head in the sand like a bunch of eschatological

Ostriches then Jesus will return one day and call us home and he will fix all the problems. But what can we do about it?

The truth is that's a lie That's a lie God never told you to live in defeat

He actually told you to live in victory. He told you to live in the power of the resurrection. He told you to make war

He told you to take your sin and make war with it He told you to take this gospel to the ends of the earth

He told you to raise up families in the fear and admonition of the Lord told you to be light in a dying world He told you to be salt in a decaying society

He told you to shine forth as lights in a crooked and perverted generation He told you as long as you have breath in your lungs to praise the

Lord He has never told us to live in perpetual defeat. He has never told us to to abandon the nation's he told us to disciple the nation's in Daniel chapter 7.

He said that the kingdom of God is like a little stone that fills the entire world. Was he mistaken and Matthew in a parable he said the

Gospels like a mustard seed So smallest little seed in the garden, but yet it grows to be the largest was he mistaken

Daniel chapter 2. He says that the Messiah's kingdom is gonna put down every single power Every one of them was he mistaken?

Matthew 16 18 spray the clearest example that we have Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not stand against it

There's two things that Jesus is promising here number one he is our captain If Jesus is all -knowing all -wise all -loving all good

How could we deny that he is going to accomplish what he said? He's going to accomplish he said my church will continue in the gates of hell will not stand against it.

Do we doubt Christ? He also said the gates of hell will not prevail do you know what that means?

That means that the gates of hell will not stand when the church is advancing The gates if you know anything about gates, they don't get up and move

They don't walk They don't take on new territory. If you do nothing, they just stand there

But if you advance on them, they will fall down You think about it where we're at in this society?

The most reasonable thing that you and I could ever do is pick up the sword of faith and advance

And advance you want to see New England come to know who Jesus Christ is advance

You want to see churches planted in this area? You want to see men raised up to be church planters? You want to see?

Churches so that there are more churches than there are people advance advance on the gates. They will fall down Jesus promised

You want to see families converted you want to see your family converted advance? You want to see doctors stopping mutilating children because of their transgender ideologies

You want to see Planned Parenthood stop killing our babies? You want to see politicians stop trafficking children and then lying about it?

You want to see marriages stop being redefined as sodomy that we have to advance If we want to see

God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven We have to stop using

God's sovereignty as an excuse for our activity Yes, God is sovereign. And yes,

God told us to advance and yes, the gates of hell will fall down when we do it God has made us will end here for a great

Commission Look at what he says and to the Roman Church in Romans 16 20.

He says the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet Shepherds Church if you take heart to this message and you go out into the world with the gospel and you advance on the gates

Of hell God will crush Satan under your feet. It's a promise and it's guaranteed The most unreasonable thing we could ever do is be idle

And what we've learned today is that Christ's redemption Has restored us to our mission which begins in our home and then it it sanctifies our home and then it affects our neighborhood and then it affects our town and then it affects our

State and then it will affect our world and we will see the gospel advance in the ways that God has said that it would

Do not lose heart and do not give up These things are for me and these things are for you

Let's pray Lord Jesus, I pray

That out of this church that you would raise up a culture of Dragons slaying men who raise up kings and queens in their family who love

God with all their heart soul mind and strength and who Take their masculine role as a honor and they do it with all their might

Lord, I pray that you would raise up women who would give birth to and bring into this world the next generation of serpent crushers

That you would fill their homes with love and mirth and that you would build a legacy from our ladies that spans a thousand generations

Lord we know that you have given us your spirit to support us in this work Lord We know that at church

We've been called into this work to confess where we fall short to be Consecrated back into it to dine at your table and to be commissioned to the nation's

Lord. I pray that we would take that Commission And that we would go with it and that we would be faithful to it and Lord.