Matthew 28:16-20

good morning everybody happy to see you all um we are so thankful that you are here worshiping with us this morning from the old testament to the new testament god has promised oh that was exciting god has promised that he will call a people from every tribe tongue and nation to himself and that they would be a covenantal people who love him worship him and show his great grace and mercy to all nations we see this in genesis 17 4 where we find god blessing abraham with this promise he says behold my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude

of nations what god said to abraham thousands of years ago revealed god's perfect redemptive plan for any one of us no matter what nation we belong to to become a child of abraham and an heir of god's promises through the person and work of jesus christ he is how the promise is fulfilled and it is through him that we are brought into the family of god and are considered a part of the covenant made to abraham this is our great hope would you stand and worship our great god who has fulfilled this promise for us and continues to fulfill it by redeeming sinners to himself

go and stand in worship with us [Music] no lord my god when i in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hands have made i see the stars and i hear the rolling thunder thy power throughout the universe display and then sings my soul my say to god to thee and how great thou are sings my soul my savior [Music] [Music] and when i think that god is not sparing send him to die i scarce can take it in that on the cross my burden gladly bearing he bled and [Music] and how great thou art and how great thou [Music] great are art how great

thou art [Music] when christ shall come with shroud of acclamation and take me home what joy shall fill my heart then i shall bow [Music] [Applause] my [Music] and how great that was my [Music] [Music] my savior thy savior [Music] [Music] how great [Music] [Music] we won't fear [Music] only [Music] our god is for us the father's your love [Music] raise your voice now no love is great who can stand against us if our god is for us [Music] is [Music] one more time [Music] will not defeat us [Music] [Music] our father's love is [Music] the father's [Music] one more time the father's love is

a strong and mighty fortress raise your voice now no love is great who can stand against [Music] is us us [Music] so [Music] you call me out upon the waters the great unknown [Music] [Music] in oceans deep my faith will stand and i will call upon your name [Music] and keep my eyes above the ways when oceans rise my soul will rest in your embrace for i am yours and you are [Music] your grace abounds and deepest waters your sovereign hand [Music] surrounds me you've never failed [Music] and keep [Music] for i am yours and you are [Music] spirit lead me where my trust is

without borders let me walk upon the waters wherever you would call me and take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my faith would be made stronger in the is [Music] is [Music] my faith will be made stronger [Music] and i will call upon your name [Music] for i am yours and you are [Music] gonna thank you so much that we have the promise and the hope that we are yours and you are ours [Music] there's nothing greater than that hope god [Music] you all can be seated for a time of confession so this morning as we go into confession we're going to

talk a little bit about fear so i know most of us have fears that kind of range they're all over the map so there's some healthy fears there's unhealthy fears i'll go through a few of mine unhealthy fear i have is of birds i know ransford was would be surprised but i'm scared of birds transferred to cena um i guess a more serious one actually yeah a more serious one i think that is a healthy fear is just a fear maybe of wasting my life um not really maybe glorifying god with my life but not really doing exactly what he's called me to or or

not living to the max for him or maybe settling um i think a good example we have here is healthy fear would be standing next to an uncaged lion realizing how strong and majestic he is or she an unhealthy fear would be going to the zoo in the fear of the lion getting out paralyzing your entire day and not being able to enjoy it but most of our fears if we're honest probably stem more from a fear of others i think as kids we call this peer pressure as adults we call it people pleasing so here's a few questions for you guys to just think

about have you ever over committed for fear of missing out do you need things like respect or admiration from your spouse or loved ones or friends do you ever feel like you're going to be exposed as an imposter do you avoid critique or feedback from others for fear what they might say these are just a few questions we can ask ourselves when it comes to the fear of others and if we are completely honest with ourselves these fears are probably the reason why our willingness to go share the gospel with others isn't as present as we are called to do i think we can all

kind of admit this there's been there's been one time or another and maybe it's like a weekly thing or maybe a daily thing just the fear of sharing our faith um for a lot of reasons and we'll go go through some of those um but let's look at peter even peter as one of jesus's inner three one of the heroes of the faith had a fear of man issue we see this obviously when jesus is going to the cross and you know he would he he denies jesus three times we see it in galatians 2 even after the resurrection we see he fears the jews

and how they will view him if he eats with the gentiles so even people that walked with jesus had this fear of proclaiming their faith or admitting their faith um but over and over again the bible's remedy for our fear of this man of our fear of man issue which is an unhealthy fear points us to a healthy fear of the lord isaiah 33 33 6 says to us he will be the sure foundation for your times a rich store of salvation and wisdom and wisdom and knowledge the fear of the lord is the key to this treasure we don't have to fear man because

god is our treasure and he is with us it's easy for us to fall back into this unhealthy fear though when we try to share the gospel i think personally i think about fear of rejection and honestly like you know there's there's those people that are random you know and there's a fear there too like i think some of the fear we see with people maybe we don't know and this happens with people we do know too but um we fear maybe we don't have anything in common with them we feel like we maybe don't know enough of the gospel or maybe we're a newer

christian we haven't been walking with the lord long enough we we think we might look dumb especially in the midst of a lot of differing opinions we fear somebody may call out our sin i know that's a big one when i've gone out on the streets especially with new believers they're like dude i have so many sin issues how am i gonna share the gospel with somebody who and and declare like their need for a savior when i have so much sin in my life and they know about it um time gets in the way when i think about especially fear of sharing the gospel

maybe with family and those people that are closer to you i think of a fear of rejection a fear of offending people or um maybe even hurting them you know especially like the more you love them you're scared of sharing the gospel because you don't want to hurt them but you realize if you don't share the gospel like you know it's like it messes with you i think sometimes it's awkward too um i know a lot of us have that like seven year host the barbecue plan you know it's like hey man like if i just have them over for a barbecue once a month

you know maybe they'll come to christ eventually and we don't actually declare like the gospel we don't actually share it with them and and not just let them view our lives and how great we can cook a steak but actually like share the gospel with them i know i've been guilty of that for sure so when this happens we disengage or we remove ourselves because of these unhealthy fears instead of engaging and understanding that we are called to share life and the gospel so as we go to confession here i just want us to think about that maybe this isn't even on our mind like

wow i haven't even thought about sharing the gospel for a while which is a confession on its own right um but let's ask that god would come and heal us of the fear of man need to remind us that he's a sovereign god that we should fear him and him only but they did empower us to do what only he can do only he can heal us of this fear and give us the strength to actually share the gospel with those that need it most so as we can as we as we confess let's proclaim the truth of the gospel of who god is and

i pray that he even brings people to mind in our our hearts and our lives right now that um that we've been especially fearful of sharing the gospel so let's let's take a few minutes and do that god i pray that you would you'd bring us to this place lord where um we treasure you so much lord that um that it's a joy to share the gospel with those around us god and i know there's a lot of people in my mind god just co-workers and family neighbors lord there's all these people that we know don't know you god and we want to fear you

most of all lord god because you've done um great things and you're worthy of our complete devotion lord jesus and god we know we can't do it without you though lord there's so many insecurities we have lord and maybe just not knowing what to say or not knowing how to defend ourselves or you know maybe fear that they'll see our sin and all those things we went through god and we know that god you can save us from those fears and so we pray that you would do that lord through this morning god that we would continue continually come to you god that we would

obviously pray lord often times i don't even pray lord for the people that i want to share the gospel with and so i pray that we'd start there god you'd make us intercessors and that we'd be open and available lord god to sharing lord what you've done for us and in us god we love you lord this morning is all for you god be with josh lord just as he brings us your word and i pray that it dig deep into our hearts lord and that it create real lasting change for your name's sake in jesus name amen all right how we doing this morning

guys good awesome um at this time we'll go ahead and dismiss all the little ones three and five six and seven to the little district three two five not three and five skip the four year olds yeah so we'll wait for those little ones to run out if you have your bibles go ahead and oh go ahead and open them to matthew chapter 28 we're going to be taking a look at a familiar passage that if you've been in church long enough you will have heard it before you might have heard us talk about the great commission matthew 28 16-20 what i hope to do

this morning though is to encourage you and to excite you in the mission that god has called us to as believers and so even though you are familiar with it or even though you may have heard it or us talked about it i am praying this morning that it is not something that you overlook or not something that you kind of just i don't know fall asleep on i i'm trying to think of the right word just to encourage you to to hear god's word to us this morning even though it is a familiar text i think we have uh times in which we can

hear texts and you're saying yeah i've heard this before i've heard us preach on it before and you kind of zone out um and so my hope and prayer this morning is that we wouldn't that we would be excited about the mission that god gives to all believers this mission that god gives us here in matthew 28 is not it shouldn't be unfamiliar with us even though you know we may have heard it businesses all around us have mission statements right and so i'm going to read a couple and i'm going to ask you guys to interact with me to see if you know them

just by their own mission statement so this first company their mission statement is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world anybody know what that is nike yes it is it is nike um so the next company their mission statement is this they are dedicated dedicated to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth friendliness individual pride and company spirit no no not chick-fil-a it's it's like the chick-fil-a of the sky maybe that'll help southwest yes southwest airlines all right so this one should be familiar at least to some of us in here this company's mission statement is

to be america's best quick service restaurant at winning and keeping customers i can't this is chick-fil-a that's chick-fil-a's mission statement man yes it is i'm sorry all right here we go okay we've got three people who have worked at chick-fil-a and one who owns it can't get that right awesome owns a store not it completely um all right let's keep moving so finally this last mission statement is for this company is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful to everyone google yes these are mission statements that we know from companies who have said hey this is this is what our

mission is in this world what we are seeking to accomplish this is our goal in the life of others but god gives us as believers a mission statement as well that we find in this great commission our church has a mission statement that flows from the great commission does anybody want to take a guess at what that is all right that's fine we got chick-fil-a wrong so i will at least read this our mission statement for the district church is to glorify god by making disciples through gospel-centered worship gospel center community gospel-centered service and gospel-centered multiplication we long to form holistic disciples who worship belong

serve and multiply themselves and the mission that we have at this church overflows from the great commission that god has given to all believers and that's what we're going to see this morning is the mission of every believer is to make disciples proclaiming the gospel the good news that jesus christ has died on our behalf resurrected three days later and is now seated at the right hand of god and for those who place their trust in him can have hope and joy in this reality so my main point this morning as we jump into this text is that gospel-centered disciples live on gospel mission as

h.b charles jr would say the church is on mission for the lord jesus christ the last command of jesus must be the first priority of his church this is our priority to be gospel centered disciples that live on gospel mission and we do this in three ways we do this by trusting in jesus's authority we do this by obeying jesus commands and we do this in confidence that jesus is present with us as he calls us on this mission so trusting in jesus authority obeying jesus's commands and having confidence that jesus is present with us is how we go and live gospel centered lives on

gospel centered on gospel mission so let's read what matthew has to say this morning now the 11 disciples went to galilee to the mountain to which jesus had directed them and when they saw him they worshiped him but some doubted as jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you and behold i am with you always to the end of the age this

is god's word this morning let us go to him in prayer and ask him to open our eyes and ears to what he has to say lord we thank you for this beautiful reality of being called your disciples that you have saved us from our sin and called us to yourself and you've given us this commission to see others find joy and satisfaction in you what a great endeavor that you have given to us help us to have the ears to hear this morning and the wisdom to receive your word so that we may be obedient to your call and to have joy in pursuing

all that you have commanded as your servant this morning lord speak through me let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you o lord my rock and my redeemer it is for your glory and our joy that we praise you this morning open our eyes to help us behold these wonderful truths from your word in jesus name amen so i want to set the scene this morning as jesus is giving his great commission to his disciples we find in verses 16 and 17 something to me very powerful and it's this reality that god uses lowly people to start

a gospel movement you see for the last 40 days after jesus resurrection we see jesus walking with his disciples who had abandoned him who were in despair who feared for their lives who ran back to their old ways of living once he died and yet in those 40 days he restores them in those 40 days he calls them to himself and reveals himself to him to them to show that hey i am resurrected i have done what i said i was going to do and then he calls them to a mountain in galilee now matthew shows us that it's the 11 that he calls some

other gospel stories would tell us that there are up to 120 disciples there as jesus is giving this great commission but what we find is that their response to jesus whether it's the 11 or 120 is worship and doubt and this is what always amazed me about these two verses some pastors like to say that jesus was ascending into heaven as he was giving this great commission and people were doubting i don't know if matthew tells us this maybe the other gospel writers do but what we do know is that jesus is with his disciples giving them their great commission to go into the world

and we see this task being given to people who are worshiping and who are also doubting what an interesting group of people that jesus would call to start a gospel movement right people who are looking at him in resurrected form and yet they still doubt these are men who ended up fleeing when jesus got arrested one of them peter literally denied jesus three times before jesus was crucified the other gospel accounts tell us that thomas doubted until he saw the resurrected christ and his scars matthew 24 shows us that there were disciples who were saddened and hurt and in despair and they ran back to

their old lives because they thought their messiah had been killed think about these disciples for a second and who jesus is giving this commission to god didn't use the strongest or the wisest or the most craftiest disciples he didn't use some authorities or leaders or rich rulers to spread his name god chose the weak and the fallible and the sinful disciples who a few days before were so panicked and scared they were running away in despair even think about the author here matthew the tax collector showing a little bit of humility even in himself that he might be a part of those disciples who doubted

that jesus is giving this commission to i say all this for our hope and joy this morning i bring this to our attention because these are important verses before jesus gives the great commission these are verses for us to ponder and think on that jesus would use these disciples who were fearful 40 days before to go and start the gospel movement it's important because if you ever believe that you cannot be used by god because of something in your life i want you to look at these disciples if you think that god can't use you because of some sin in your life or because you

have an apparent lack of knowledge or you think you have a lack of knowledge of the gospel or you think that somebody else can speak more eloquently than you can i want you to go back to these verses and look at the commission jesus gives to these disciples who doubted god commissions them to go and spread the good news of the gospel even in their fallibility even in their doubting what would give such a scared group of individuals such confidence to do this it's the same power source that we put our hope in when we go and share the gospel calling people to repentance of

their sins and trusting in the blood of christ for their redemption the same hope and power that these scared disciples had is the one giving them the commission it's jesus himself and what hope do we have in sharing the gospel here and now even in our sinful states even when we doubt even when we worry it's jesus it's not our rhetoric it's not what we can muster up our confidence is in jesus with no money and no buildings and no programs these disciples went and witnessed to the world the early church was so committed to this mission that when paul and silas showed up in

thessalonica do you remember what was said acts 17 tells us that these men had turned the world upside down that's what the city said about paul and silas because they were so committed to the gospel mission and guys the gospel still has the power to turn the world upside down do we believe it do you believe it this is our call this is our mission and god uses the ordinary people like you and me to fulfill this mission and we do this by trusting in jesus authority we do this by obeying his commands and we do this by having confidence that he is with us

so let's take a look at how we see this authority that jesus has been given through matthew's writing look back at verse 18. matthew writes and jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me if you were here a few weeks ago and we talked about jesus coming in on a donkey palm sunday what he was doing was he was announcing that he is king that he has authority over all it was his proclamation that he was coming for his kingdom by the way of the cross and now that he is resurrected and now that he

is ascending into heaven and giving his disciples their mission matthew closes with that same phrase all authority all authority has been given to me on in heaven and on earth all as dwayne said a couple weeks ago all means all all authority but i don't want you to just take my word for it i want you to take scripture's word for it so i'm going to give you i'm going to fly through these 10 points that scripture shows the authority that's been given to christ and to show you the scope and sphere of his authority that we see throughout god's word the first is that

he is the creator of all things john 1 3 says that all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made the second is he is the sustainer of the world and he holds it together by the word of his power hebrews 1 3 tells us he is the radiance of the glory of god in the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power paul reminds us in colossians 1 17 he is before all things and in him all things hold together thirdly jesus governs all of nature as the disciples in

luke 8 were crying out through a storm they see jesus stop the storm and then they say who then is this that he commands even the winds and water and they obey him jesus rules sovereignly over satan and all his demons the gospel of mark reminds us that in jesus's teaching authority they asked the question what is this a new teaching with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him first john 5 18 tells us satan cannot touch the children of god without god's permission everything satan did if you think about job everything satan did to job he had to do with

permission from god fifthly jesus rules with authority over all the affairs of history this means that no king no president no chief no prime minister no governor no mayor no congressman ever takes office except that god through christ puts him there daniel 2 and daniel 2 and daniel 4 tell us he removes kings and sets up kings the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will he does this according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the inhabitants of the earth and no one can stay his hand or say to him what have

you done proverbs 21 1 tells us the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the lord and he turns it wherever he wills jesus rules over the affairs of history sixthly he also rules over all diseases jesus has not lost any of his power and authority to heal that we see in the gospels neither satan nor viruses nor bacteria nor broken chromosomes nor cancer nor infertility no matter what disease there is even in this pandemic jesus has absolute authority and sovereign rule over it that's why we pray like shadrach meshach and abednego we pray in the power of god that he

can we pray with faith that he will and we pray and have freedom that even if he doesn't we are going to trust in his sovereign plan jesus rules and has authority over the sinful acts of man i think this is a hard truth for us to hold on to but it is true human beings cannot escape the sovereign authority of jesus even by running down the alley of sin this is important for us to understand as we live life on gospel mission because there will come a time and maybe you have experienced this where people will mock you for your faith that persecution will

come that trials and tribulations may come from others because of what we believe but we have to hold this truth tightly that jesus rules and has authority over the sinful acts of man we see this right at the center of the gospel that god has the rule over sinful man we think about the life of joseph and his brothers selling him into slavery but what does he say at the end of genesis what you meant for evil god meant for good we look at the life of job and how god continued to sustain him throughout all of his losses we look at jesus himself paul

told us in first corinthians 15 as we looked at it last week that christ died for our sins in what in accordance with the scriptures every sinful detail that is spelled out in jesus's crucifixion from his betrayal to his disciples deserting him the soldiers gambling him him being put on the cross all of the ugliness of his death was planned and scripted according to the scriptures as we were reminded last week of isaiah 53 it says it was the will of the lord to crush him he has put him to grief god saw it fit that for us to be saved the death of his

son had to happen and jesus himself tells us in john 10 that no one takes his life but he lays it down on his own accord so jesus has sovereign rule and authority even over the sinful acts of man nobody takes his life jesus also has authority over conversion we see in luke 18 when the rich young ruler comes and asks what he must do to be saved jesus says sell all your possessions and follow me and what he's revealing there is the idol in the heart of the rich young ruler because that man went away discouraged and in despair and jesus responds and says

how difficult is it for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of god for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of god and those who heard it they asked what must one do to be saved and jesus says what is impossible with manism is possible with god and i bring this story up because the very next chapter jesus does exactly what he says what is impossible for man is possible with god what's impossible for us which is raising ourselves from the dead which is having our hearts transformed

by the gospel is only possible through christ and god does just that luke 19 the story of zacchaeus that wee little man who climbs up on the sycamore tree what does jesus do he is a rich man who is stolen from his people and has all this wealth jesus transforms his heart showing us that it is truly god who saves my ninth point this morning about jesus's authority is that jesus has authority over death as we learned last week in the resurrection paul telling us in first corinthians 15 death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is your victory death where is your sting

the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to god who gives us victory through our lord jesus christ we don't have to be afraid of death because we know that jesus has conquered death on our behalf and so that when we die or christ calls us home we will be in glory in resurrected bodies and finally jesus has absolute authority and power over the mission of his church and here's the beauty of this truth here's the beauty of the great commission is that it will not fail we we have to understand that to have confidence to

go on mission that it will not fail jesus tells us he will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail this should give us confidence to go and preach the gospel because jesus has promised that it's not going to fail and it's him who saves and it's him who changes hearts and it's him who gives us this opportunity to be a part of this mission all of christ's authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him and he promises that he will be with us to the end of the age this risen reigning king of kings and lord of lords

rules over this world and has absolute sovereignty sovereign sovereignty over his mission in the church and he has called us to come alongside and be a part of it and it's in this authority that jesus gives us this commission and in this commission we can have confidence that the one who has authority over all heaven and on earth is with us and has told us that his kingdom will grow and this should excite us i've said this before and i'll keep saying it again because i think it's a great example as believers every day is take your kid to work day god is calling us

to this mission and he's not leaving us alone he's telling us that in his authority over all heaven and on earth he is with us and that should give us confidence because gospel center disciples live on gospel mission and we live on gospel mission in making disciples by being obedient to jesus's commands there's three commands that jesus gives here in this great commission and that is to go to baptize and to teach look what he says in verse 19 go therefore and make all make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit

teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you as we read these verses what i want you to see is that this is not a passive or optional thing for us as believers this is an active imperative for us to go we see this word therefore and for those who are english majors or if you've been in a sermon with me where therefore comes up whenever therefore comes up what should we be doing asking the question what it is therefore and we see jesus telling us to go therefore and the beauty of that therefore that's there is reminding us of the authority that he

has and that he is going to be with us jesus is saying in this authority go and make disciples because of my authority when you are preaching the gospel faithfully guess what disciples will be made and i want you to see here there isn't a hint of doubt or wavering that disciples will be made it isn't go therefore and maybe disciples will be made it isn't go therefore and hopefully disciples will be made it is go therefore and make disciples telling us giving us confidence that disciples will be made and if you need confidence in sharing in the gospel here it is this therefore gives

us that confidence because jesus authority and jesus's commands give us this confidence in sharing his mission so we go we go and make disciples and if you've heard me talk about going before this this phrase can be translated as you are going make disciples as you are going that's why a gospel center disciples should be living on gospel mission because everything you do should be proclaiming this mission should be seeking to make disciples so as you are going in your home at your workplace in the coffee shops at the gym wherever it might be and even areas of life that you may not want to

go jesus is calling you to go and make disciples i want you to see this because i i just picked up on this i've preached this sermon before and i have never really noticed or understood the context of all nations right and so i want you guys to see it and hopefully a light bulb goes off you see when jesus is saying to his disciples go and make go and make disciples of all nations who do you think that he is talking about that the disciples need to go to he's not just talking about their jewish brothers and sisters in the area of jerusalem we

know in acts 1 8 it says jerusalem judea samaria and the ends of the earth but think about the ends of the earth at that time where are they located first they're located in rome you know what just happened 40 days before rome put jesus to death so jesus is saying go to rome and make disciples even though they just crucified your messiah he's saying go to the samaritans who you despise and make disciples go to egypt that is the surrounding area around you even though they have oppressed you and made your ancestors slavery go and make disciples go to the pagan nations around you

who mock you because you have a monotheistic view of god and make disciples don't stay in your comfort zones go to where it's uncomfortable where people will mock you despise you persecute you and make disciples that's what all nations means jesus isn't just saying stay in jerusalem he's telling them to go and love the very people who enslaved them who mocked them and sought to destroy them and this might be hard for us to hear but that hasn't changed the gospel commission the great commission is still the same to make disciples of all nations not just people we're comfortable with so are you actively seeking

ways to do this are you actively seeking ways to share your life and the gospel with those god has placed around you as well as going into areas that might be uncomfortable for you and i don't know what that might look like because there's a lot of people in this room and so that might be different for each and every person but we are to go and share the gospel and make disciples of all nations including the ones that make us uncomfortable so as we are going and as we are making disciples we are called to baptize baptized in the name of the father and

of the son and of the holy spirit and we make disciples by baptizing them in the name of this triune god and we do this because this is the mark of a believer the mark of the people of god we found in the old testament there it used to be circumcision just for the sons of abraham but now it has been extended to all who believe this is the mark of a believer it's the outward sign of an inward change of heart and this isn't an option for us as believers we are to be baptized and we are to baptize those who have placed their

hope and trust in our lord jesus christ it is a signal to the world that our allegiance is no longer here but it is in heaven it is with the triune god and it is with his church as paul reminds us in galatians 3 when he says for as many of you as were baptized into christ have put on christ there is neither jew nor greek there is neither slave nor free there is neither male or female for you are all one in christ and if you are if you are in christ then you are abraham's offspring heirs according to the promise now i know

that we have a lot of transfer growth in our church and what i mean by transfer growth and and this is not a negative this is a good thing but we have a lot of people who've come into indianapolis who've started their families started their jobs and have become a part of the district church which i praise god for we praise god for we would not be here if it wasn't for this but the point of our church the point of the church god has called us to be is not just coming in as transfer transfer growth the mission of the church is to make

disciples and disciples seeing lost people saved sinners reconciled back to god dead people born again we long for these baptismal waters to move and we have seen them move we praise god that we've seen multiple baptisms over the last couple of years william haley bowen lynnea curiana brad and haley all of these people we can praise god for saving and that we could participate in this beautiful thing of baptism this beautiful sign that these men and women have changed their allegiance from this world to the kingdom of god but honestly guys this is the mission of our church is to continue to go out and

make disciples and here's here's a fun thing that might challenge you might not i hope it does if you want practice on sharing the gospel with non-believers i counted this week there are 18 of them in those rooms over there think about it you've got ample opportunity to share the gospel with 18 little boys and girls who need to hear it and they need to hear it from people other than their parents we want to come alongside their parents but they also need to see men and women who live out the gospel in their lives not just mom and dad mom and dad have a

huge importance and that's why we want to come alongside them but our job as the church when we do family dedication and we say yes we are coming alongside you as a family to show the gospel to your children that's what we're supposed to do that's what we're committing to we're seeking to actively show these children the gospel so if you're afraid to share the gospel out there you've got ample opportunity and you can sign up at any time to share the gospel in here so we make disciples we go we baptize and we teach we make disciples by teaching them to observe all that

jesus had commanded as i said earlier when we are making disciples this isn't just an event it isn't just one time thing this is a process that we have to understand that we are continually going and making disciples and so whether it is making a disciple in somebody who has first put their hope and trust in jesus or it is coming alongside somebody and continuing to show that what jesus has commanded that that is that is what making a disciple is as we've said multiple times throughout this year what we consider discipleship is just helping somebody love jesus more and so we're teaching how to

do that and we teach what jesus commanded now there are a lot of things that jesus taught and showed us throughout the scriptures but i want to highlight the two that he sums up as the two greatest commandments when he talks about what the old testament taught he tells us to love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength and then he tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves and what he's doing here is he's summing up deuteronomy 6 4-9 and leviticus 19 9-19 where he says the law and the prophets and the writings can be condensed in these two

commands and what he's showing us that that god has been teaching to his people throughout the old testament and into the new is that nothing has changed from the laws and the writings and the prophets to now as jesus lives and walks and teaches his disciples it's still the same call that we are to love the lord our god with all of our heart soul mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves so this isn't new for us and this isn't something new that we have to try to recreate we make disciples by teaching all that jesus had commanded which is summed up

in these two commands derwin grey in his book the good life shows a kind of three style way in which we can teach these two commands he calls it an upward way of living an inward way of living in an outward way of living the upward is that we would love god correctly and completely and this starts with us calling people to put their faith and hope in christ jesus as lord to show them that he has provided a way to be reconciled back to a right relationship that had been fractured and marred by sin and to show them that he has authority over all

heaven and over all the earth that he is the king of kings and lord of lords and we should worship him as such we are to teach our disciples we we are to grow in this knowledge and to love him with all of who we are all of our heart all of our soul our mind all of our strength this is the upward way in which disciples are to live to love the lord correctly and completely and in this love our minds are transformed as paul reminds us in romans 12 we're not to be conformed to this world but we are to be transformed by

the renewing of our minds and so we teach as and and we live in such a way that we have this upward lifestyle that loves the lord completely and correctly and then we teach disciples and and this might get a little there might be a little bit of tension with this because i understand how this inward lifestyle can be perceived and so i just want to throw my cards on the table when i talk about inward lifestyle i'm talking about this last phrase where jesus says love the lord love your neighbors as yourself and the bible depicts a way in which we are to love

ourselves correctly in light of how we love the lord completely i'm not talking about a self-centered narcissistic way in which we are to view ourselves that's not what i'm talking about what i'm talking about is we are to find our hope for all all that we are all who we can be we have to find that hope in jesus and that hope is rooted in our union with christ that's where that has to begin we have to view ourselves in light of this union with christ and i love what derwent gray actually says about this inward lifestyle he says as we begin to love god

more in a complete and correct way than we love ourselves not in our narcissistic self-centered way but we begin to love ourselves because jesus loved us and died for us he thought it was worth the wrath of god to experience the cross because of his love for us and if jesus loves us this much how could we not love ourselves correctly how could we not show ourselves compassion and mercy again not in a self-centered narcissistic way but in a way in which we are looking at ourselves through the union with christ and when we do this we begin to see ourselves as god sees us

and all that is true of jesus is true of you and me and it's because of him and him alone that we can call the father our father and that he loves us unconditionally he loves us with an unfailing never giving up never walking out on us kind of love we are forgiven of all of our shame all of our filth all of our sin and that has been thrown into the sea of god's mercy and we are now holy and blameless our guilt has been washed away by god's waves of grace all of our shame has been nailed to the cross and all of

our filthy rags of unrighteousness have now been exchanged with christ's robe of righteousness that has been given to us that is the way in which we are to look at ourselves through this union of christ and i bring this up and i i think this is important important enough i think that we should probably talk a little bit more about it in community groups so that i can move on to the next point but this is important for us to understand because i think that when it comes to sin and how we view ourselves we tend to not view ourselves the way that god views

us i tend to think that we don't show compassion to ourselves and mercy to ourselves the way that scripture reveals to us because of our union with christ now that doesn't mean that we don't love ourselves right we are told to treat ourselves anytime we can but that's not what i'm talking about i'm not talking about a a worldly self-love that only seeks to puff ourselves up to give us pride i'm seeking i'm seeking for us to understand a way in which the scriptures describe us through our union with christ and that we would preach to ourselves this union right david tripp says paul david

tripp says that nobody speaks to us more than we do so what are we saying to ourselves there's a beautiful book on psalm 42 and 43 by dr martin lloyd jones called spiritual depression and in that book he talks about how david preaches to himself in order to get out of his own depression to get out of his own head and he talks about the same mentality are you preaching to yourself this union with christ are you preaching to yourself how god sees you through the scriptures that all that you have and all that he says about you is through this lens of jesus because

honestly guys how can we expect to love others well if we can't view ourselves correctly the way that god views us how can we think to show mercy and compassion if we are not understanding the mercy and compassion that's been shown to us like you think about jonah right the reason that jonah had such a problem in showing mercy to the ninevites is because he didn't understand mercy himself and so we need to do that inward work of seeing god correctly and completely and worshiping with our whole self and then in turn looking and seeing through that lens how god views us because of our

union with christ john calvin says that knowing god this way leads to a knowledge of self it's one of the reasons why i love reading and hopefully teaching on the attributes of god at some point in the institutes because what it does is it leads me to see how infinite god is in his attributes and it shows me my limitations and how finite i am and that's what we need more of right we need more of the reality that we are finite that we have limits because when we realize limits or one of my favorite words when we realize healthy boundaries in our lives because

of god's infinite beauty and glory and majesty it frees us when i realize that i am not all all-knowing and all-powerful and that i need to be everywhere for every person because i am not god man i have freedom freedom to serve freedom to love freedom to be there for one another when i realize that i am limited i can rest and that's what i think a lot of us need in here is rest and not just sitting on the couch watching netflix wrestling i'm talking about resting in god that we are finite and he is infinite and he calls us to this rest so

this is the inward lifestyle and then there's an outward that overflows from this that we love our neighbor we love our neighbor as ourselves and so as we are pursuing god completely and correctly as we are looking at ourselves through the right lens of our union with christ we then can love our neighbors we can love our neighbors well we can love our neighbors in such a way that people see the glory of god and our joy and living on mission we are described as what paul would say in philippians 2 where we consider others better than ourselves that we look not only to our

own interests but also to the interests of others so we live outwardly that flows from how we view ourselves through the union with christ that ultimately overflows from our love of the lord with our whole self mind body strength and soul as we go about making disciples and teaching them to observe all that jesus had commanded we do this with confidence look at verse 20 with me and hopefully you can find assurance and excitement in what jesus tells his disciples he says and behold i am with you always to the end of the age this is the confidence that we have when we share the

gospel and live gospel-centered lives on gospel mission so we have assurance that the god of this universe the one who has all authority over heaven and earth is with us you see at the beginning of matthew he begins this gospel message with this phrase immanuel does anybody know what a manual means god with us yes and what does he end this book with i am with you this i am statement isn't just the first time that matthew brings this phrase up it's found throughout this book to remind his disciples of his presence with them and this is what he anchors this mission in that he

is with them the same sovereign lord who opens this book and says god with us closes his commission with his presence and so there's this personal assurance that we can have that god is with us that he has all authority over heaven and earth and he is with us as we go and share the gospel but there's also a never-ending assurance that we find here and i love this cadence that we see in verses 18 19 and 20. the great comforter jesus describes a universal statement in these verses you see in verse 18 we see that jesus claims all authority in heaven and on earth

and then in verse 19 jesus commands us to make disciples of all nations and then in verse 20 jesus further commands us to teach disciples all that i have commanded and now jesus in the end of this commission assures us his presence that he will always be with us literally all the days of our lives he who has authority over all is with us at all times this is the comfort and assurance that we can have when we are living on gospel mission when we trust and when we obey we can have this confidence that we are not on earth we are not by ourselves

we are not on our own so guys when your burden is heavy because a family member or a loved one who you have shared the gospel with countless times doesn't trust in jesus he's there when your faith is tested because of your faithful pursuit of discipleship and preaching the gospel to a world that is antagonistic who mocks you and seeks to persecute you he is there when you feel like you're ready to give up because it doesn't seem like there's any gospel fruit in your life as you've shared he's there when you lose friends or family members because of the faith that you have in

christ and in sharing the gospel he is there when your heart is broken because you have loved ones that you long to know the goodness of god's gracious mercy he's there hebrews tells us he will never leave us nor forsake us and jesus promises at the end of his commission to his disciples i am with you always to the end of the age we have an assurance that is never ending that we can have hope in that when we feel despair when we long for those friends and families and loved ones to know the gospel it just feels too burdensome he's there he is there

and you can run back to that truth so we make disciples by trusting in jesus authority obeying his commands and having confidence in his presence but i want to close with this i want to close with joy because joy is really what leads to mission right joy is what leads us to go and share this good news of the gospel that we have been saved that god has transformed our hearts he's brought us from the domain of darkness into the marvelous light and he has called us his own this should bring us joy j.a meadors in his book gospel deep says gospel mission grows out

of gospel enjoyment all that i've said to you this morning from matthew 28 i pray that you find hope and comfort but most importantly i hope that you find joy that you would have joy that god calls you a son and daughter that you would have joy that he has reconciled you to the father that you have been brought in that your sin has been defeated on your behalf and that christ justifies you before god and he's robed you with his righteousness we are like the younger brother being brought in the robe has been given the lamb is being prepared we are going to celebrate

as the younger brother that the father calls us his own and that he has brought us back in despite all that we have done against him we should have joy and this enjoyment should lead us to go and share the gospel as martin luther has said we are just beggars trying to tell other beggars where to find bread gospel mission is more than just swaying people from internal damnation it is inviting them to the table of god's glory that he and he alone can satisfy your soul and i hope that you meditate on that daily as you open the scriptures and my prayer is that

you would have joy that leads to gospel mission that overflows into your life and into the areas that god has called you to and that it encourages you to go to places that might be that might bring trials and temptations that might bring persecution that might bring tension into your life we are to go and make disciples because of the joy that we have that god calls us his own and one of the tangible ways that we enjoy this gospel message every single gathering is through communion the beautiful picture of receiving this communion this picture of amazing grace that christ would die for our sins

and that god would call us his own that he would shed his blood on the cross taking the wrath of god on our behalf dying and resurrecting from the grave that sealed our adoptions as sons and daughters of god so if you don't have the elements i would ask that you get up and go ahead and grab some and we're going to celebrate in receiving communion this morning and praising god for the joy that we have received in christ as you were sitting and grabbing the elements i want us to remember that this isn't just an individual act when we take communion but a corporate

one christ made a way for sinners to be reconciled back to a right relationship with god but when i say sinners i don't mean sinners as in a singular i mean it plural with an s that god has saved when we look around for those who are taking communion god has saved each and every one of you as we look around and see who god has reconciled to himself we are seeing those who we will one day worship in glory with so that's what i love about communion is that we can remember our past and praise god for what he's done but we can look

around and see these are people i'm going to be worshiping with in eternity forever at the foot of the throne of jesus christ and we look forward to that day and communion helps us look forward to that promise and the reality that matthew 28 that all nations that we are to make disciples of all nations will be fulfilled as revelation 7 tells us john writes after this i looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands

and crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to our god who sits on the throne and to the lamb this is what we get to look forward to and this is what communion reminds us of is not only what christ has done for us by the breaking of his body and the shedding of his blood but when we look around we see those who are a part of the family of god and we can celebrate together so i'm going to read first corinthians 11 and we're just we're going to do just that we're going to celebrate what christ has done for us paul writes

for i have received from the lord but i also delivered to you that the lord jesus on the night when he was betrayed took the bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes let us proclaim his death

here and now and i will close us in prayer and we can continue to worship in song lord you are good and we thank you for not only this mission that you've called us to this great endeavor to go and make disciples of all nations lord we thank you that you have saved us and called us your own first and foremost that you have adopted us as sons and daughters lord may this reality bring us joy and may this joy overflow into our lives where we live on gospel mission as gospel-centered disciples who love you with all of our heart mind soul and strength and

who seek to love others as ourselves lord i pray that this would be the mark of our church that your kingdom would grow and that we would be excited to share this good news of the gospel wherever we are help us have confidence help us trusting to help us to trust in your authority to obey your commands and lord to have confidence in your presence with us it's in jesus name we pray amen [Music] for our last song today go ahead and find a posture of worship if for you that's remaining seated or first if that for you is standing whatever works for you to

be able to worship the lord for our last [Music] all the thieves will come confess and know that you are holy [Music] and all will sing out [Music] we will cry [Music] and all the hearts who are content [Music] will know that you are holy oh [Music] [Laughter] [Music] we will cry [Music] go on and scream it from the mountain [Music] he is god [Music] shouted go on and scream it from the mountain [Music] he is god [Music] that he is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he is [Applause] [Music] we will cry [Applause] [Music] we will cry [Applause] [Music] and we will cry [Applause] [Music] we

will cry [Applause] [Music] god thank you for the confidence that we can have through christ to approach those around us and to speak truth to them knowing that your spirit will be at work and opening their hearts and their eyes to the truth of who jesus is and the saving work that he's done on the cross god i pray as we go into this week our eyes would be open to see people in our path that we are called to speak that truth to and to shine that light into the darkness of their lives send your son jesus name we pray amen i'll use this

mic this time um