Exploring the Great Commission of Jesus

 TRANSCRIPT

All right, so how do I start what I want to share this morning? Probably this is the easiest way. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, far, far away, I started to wonder what, is this really what Jesus had in mind when he said, go make disciples of all nations? Is what we're doing, what, is it working?

Is what we're doing what Jesus had in mind? And I started to think about this, and I started to think about it more and more. And the more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I became because I felt like, you know what, if this is what Jesus had in mind, why is it so wretched hard? Why don't we see so much more fruit?

Why is it so uncomfortable? Why is it, every time I think about it, and I read about it, why is it this freedom is not happening? Because it's like, there's this weight on us that stops us from pursuing this freedom. And the more I thought about it, I got myself into a whopping great hole and ended up in clinical depression.

And I came to the conclusion that when it came to looking generically at the church in the West, I felt like we were just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. It's going down, but we'll do this thing over here to try and attract a few people from another part of the body, Christ. But it doesn't matter, we're still going down.

And it's like, well, we come up with all these ideas. Well, we're not reaching people. I know, let's give the place a new set of paint. That'll fix it. Yeah, but we're sinking. It's going down. Well, not that. We just need to get more better musos. More music. That's what we need. But we're still sinking. And it took me to the depths of despair to say, what is wrong here?

And I felt like I, I felt like I was sitting on the Titanic and it's sinking and I'm watching it go through the water. I'm trying to appeal to everybody, guys. I don't know what we're doing, but it's sinking. And they're going, oh yeah, but look, look at how we're cutting through the water. It's lovely. It's going down there beautifully like that.

And look at the shimmer of the lights on the ocean. It's magnificent. And the eerie sound of the violin. Yeah, but we're sinking. We're sinking. And I reached the place where. Something didn't feel right about everything in relation to the church. I kind of hit that place, I hit the wall. And I've realized over the last decade or so, it's not just me.

Other people think the same way. Is this really what Jesus had in mind? You and I bump into people all the time. Because of the way the media has kind of like... I've dealt with the church, they've got these opinions about things, and I strike it all the time. And here are some of the things, and I bet you've seen them too.

Oh, well church now is just the best show in town, there's like a massive big concert up there with the stars, and they've got nice tattoos and all that kind of stuff, it's like, and Jesus didn't, he didn't deal with crowds. Well, he did talk to crowds occasionally, he fed some, but you're right, I have to say he did walk away from crowds, because you cannot disciple a crowd.

And that's one thing. And another group thinks, well, oh, you guys are just a subculture. It's just a subculture. You've got to have your own hats, your own tattoos, your own songs, got your own language. You're like a weirdo subculture that's going on there that's got nothing to do with me. Then there are, of course, the ones that think, man, it's you guys.

The church is just a heavy handed, command and control, legalistic, abusive endeavor. And the last one, I have to say, I think we've resolved the last one, which is quite surprising that we've resolved something. This one. You know, you guys. You're a bunch of holier than thou goody two shoes running around, rallying against all the evil, pointing out everybody's sins.

Well, I think we've resolved that. You look at the media over the last 20 years, I'm pretty much, we sin the much as they have sinned. Now, they know that one's right. We fixed that one because they know that we can be as evil as them, and we can be as wicked as them, so that one's done. That one's no longer an issue now, because, yeah, yeah, I've watched the news, I see what's going on.

So you've got to understand, church, the church is known in the world for what it's against, and not so much for what it is for. They don't know what we're for. And so a lot of people that you'll engage with, they just figure church isn't for them, because church isn't for them. They just don't see, any value to the church.

Why would I go there? What am I going to get? How do you add value to our family? What, what is the point? Why would I even bother going and looking at this place? They don't see it because of the fact that it's been so tainted by a bunch of some truths and some mistruths. They just don't see us. Well, I'm pleased to announce for you, for those who's been here around, that is not the case with us.

We've allowed the Holy Spirit to take us on a decade journey of repositioning us, rethinking us, dismantling us, rebuilding us to become a church for the unchurched, which is what the first Century Church was. It was attractive. That's why the junction, it's so attractive to people because it's inclusive.

It's inspiring, it's encouraging, it's welcoming. It could do with a coat of paint if anyone's a painter. We need a painter that could just touch things up because there's so much more floor traffic going on. And they come in and then people come in and they're apprehensive because they feel like, for you guys, the church is all about laws.

And they discover a people that don't lay down the law with each other, which is what happened with Moses, but they lay down their lives for each other, which is what Jesus did. Don't lay down the law with each other, lay down their lives for each other and you become a church for the unchurched. It becomes attractive, a place where people can belong while they work out what they believe.

The amount of people from different portions of community and faith and different positions now that we're, we're integrating with all the time is amazing. And some will say, I don't know if I believe what you believe. That's okay. Hang around. You can still belong here. We'll still love you. Even Jesus said, nobody can come to me unless the father reveals them.

Reveals himself to them. I say, hang around. Maybe dad will reveal himself to you. I don't know. Hang around. You can still belong. It's so foreign to them to have something that's welcoming. And our church is about loving God by loving people. That's what we're about. Loving God by loving people. And that's why Ruth is so passionate about our church being for the Gold Coast.

We want to be for the Gold Coast. We're for families. We're for business. We're only just scratching the surface. We're for sports. We're for the business. We're for the council. We're for everybody. Any way we can add value, we're going to be here. So if you happen to be here and you don't know much about the church or you're online and you're thinking some of the stuff from before, even though you may have given up on the church, God hasn't given up on you.

And neither have we. And that's why we've been on a difficult journey of learning how to rethink and get back to what Jesus had in mind at the start. That's why we teach everybody to live mission. Living mission. Go out, love on people. Don't try and invite them to church. You are the church. Go out and represent Jesus and help them fall in love with Him and discover how much He loves them.

And then everything begins to change. You've just got to be moved with compassion. So, how do we do this? I'm just going to open up a couple of portions of scripture just to have a look at. First one is this. It's written by a guy called John. He was one of the key three disciples in there. He's got an annoying habit of writing in the third person.

I, John, the disciple that Jesus loved. You know, it's like, it must have been really frustrating. But anyway, he penned this for us. He said, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world. What does God think about the world?

He loves the world. He loves the world. Let me ask you a question. Do the people where you hang out on the rhythms and routines of your life, do they know that God loves them? Do they know that God is pursuing them to try and develop a relationship with them? Do they know that? If not, why not? I'll put it to you.

Here's a couple of reasons why not. Number one, is his people just don't show up. You know, I'm, I'm living my faith and I'm loving Jesus, but I'm not telling anybody about it because I don't want to face anyone like rejecting me or anything like that. So we don't speak up and we don't speak out so they don't know.

The other reason is because of people that go out and say they represent Christ and live the most un Jesus like behavior that people look at and go, what on earth is that? And then they say, well, you're just hypocrites. So we're not having anything to do with that. So it's, two of them hangs on us. The third one still hangs on us to a degree and that's the fact that they genuinely believe that God is angry with them because we haven't helped them to understand how to read the book.

This is a book of several covenants or contracts, two major ones. First half, close to three quarter, for ancient Israel founding a military nation. Second half, for all the rest of us. So what happens is people pick up this and they think, I'll read the Bible and they do a Julie Andrews, you know, Julie Andrews, let's start from the very beginning.

It's a very good place to start. Everybody sing with me.

That worked out so much better in my head. Perhaps it worked out better online. Dovray me. So they think the good place to start is the beginning. Listen, if you start your walk looking for Jesus in the beginning, you may never get to him. He doesn't turn up for three quarters of the book. And the reason why people are so think that God's angry with them is that they start reading and they see the creation in account.

Oh, that's really good. And they discover, Oh, Adam and Eve messed it up and walked off. Oh, that's not real good. And things start to get a bit ugly, but you get to chapter six and God looks kind of angry. He's kind of upset, you know, kind of upset to the point of this. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on the earth.

Every inclination of the heart was evil all the time. So this is what he said. The Lord said, I have regretted that I have ever made human beings upon the earth. And his heart was deeply troubled. Keep going. So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created. Ooh. Thanks, but no thanks.

And they put it down, they put it away, because they think that God is angry with them. But if he had kept going, just a little bit more,

They think he's angry with them because of the fact that that's, if you stop there, he's angry, really angry.

If they'd read just a little bit further, they'd have discovered that God was, had a change of heart afterwards. You know, he sends a big flood, wipes them all out, but then he builds again on Noah, but then... He says, you know what? I'm never going to do that again. He had a change of heart and said, even though the thoughts of your heart can be wicked and evil all the time, I will never destroy human beings again like that.

But they stopped reading. Oh, okay. There's still a judgment. He says, there's still a judgment. You've still got to stand before me and give an account for your life. But could you imagine being in that first, in Noah's group? What it must have felt like every time a rain cloud came up. Holy cow, he's doing it again.

So what did he do? He gave us a sign. Does anybody know what the sign is? Rainbow. The rainbow is not for one portion of society. It belongs to all of humanity. The rainbow is a sign to people that no matter how wicked, no matter how bad, no matter how evil you get, I will not do this again. And so it was, Oh, it comes a rain cloud.

Oh, hang on. Wait a second. Right. Oh, we're okay. Cause God loves them. But these are the reasons why they find it hard. Sometimes we don't show up and share our faith. Sometimes we show up really badly and that puts them off. Because, well, if that's what God's about, I don't want him to do that. And we haven't come to help them understand that God does love them.

Keep reading. In fact, don't start there. Go start in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. That's a very good place to start. If ever I can get to a publisher and I can switch this around, let's put the New Testament at the front, put this one back here, you read the backstory. Although there were some people that were burned at the stake for that, so I'll, I'm not gonna run into it just yet.

For God so loved the world, so he loves the world. Why? That He gave. He gave His one and only Son. Why? So that none should perish, but all should come to reach eternal life. He doesn't want them to perish. He wants them to receive eternal life. That's the whole point. He's not angry with us.

He's loving us. He's doing everything He possibly can to help us get into a relationship with Him. You've got to remember, God is interested in your long term security. He's in the long term. He's in the long game. He wants to make sure you are right for eternity. Let me tell you this. You probably haven't figured this out.

Governments are not. All the governments of the world do not have your long term eternal interests at heart. They were designed by God to manage. They were to manage secular nations to try and stop the actual, put some kind of laws around it so that it didn't implode into anarchy. That's their job.

That's what they're supposed to do. Now people could make a very good argument that they haven't done that very well for the last several years. But that's their job. They're supposed to manage. They're supposed to look after the best interests of people by running the country before God. That was their original thing.

Now it's more about just, let's face it, it's about just getting votes. See if I can stay in long enough that I can get a big fat pension and fly around the world. Instead of leading well and maintaining a standard, now they just basically pander to every issue that's around and drop all the standards and try and win votes.

Why? Because they don't give a hoot about your eternal security. They're not going to look after that. God is the one that's looking after that. And He loves people, so we've got to love people. Because the government's not going to do it. All their interest is in getting money off you so they can run the country and waste it on some other thing that doesn't work.

So we have to be for people. We're gonna, we're gonna turn up, we're gonna show up, we're gonna love them, we got to care for them, we're gonna let them see Christ in us, we're gonna help them understand the book. Julie Andrews is not a good start. Go back there later on after you figured out Jesus. But how do we do it as a people?

Practically, how do we become the right kind of person? And it's really very simple. Just one portion of scripture, again, this one's in Luke. He says, love the Lord your God. With how much of your heart, how much of your soul, how much of your strength, how much of your mind? Aren't you glad you didn't put How much of your finances

He says, if you. Will love me wholeheartedly if you love me wholeheartedly with every fiber of your being if you will orbit your life around mine You will be in a healthy position Then to love your neighbor no strings attached no strings attached and That's how you end up being for people Because God is for people and then you become his representative Paul, while talking to the church in Corinth, he wrote some things, penned some things down there where he says, blessing, you're to be blessed so that you can be a blessing.

He says, you're to be generous on every occasion, on all occasions. Even Proverbs, go back to the wisdom books under Israel, says the generous person will prosper. And that doesn't necessarily just mean money. It means that your soul prospers, your life prospers. Everything about you begins to prosper. But it's got to be this extravagant generosity.

And there's a great story in Matthew chapter 26. Matthew is one of the disciples and He thought to write some things down or get someone to write them down for him and they became an ancient manuscript that we know is accurate, historically accurate. And it's a story about a lady that goes to a house that she shouldn't go to because Jesus is at a house that he shouldn't be in.

He's at the house of Simon the leper. Well Jews never go around lepers because lepers are unclean and you cannot go and it's a place that Jewish boys should not be. So he's in a place he shouldn't be. He's having a conversation he shouldn't have. And then In comes this woman. No one knows exactly who she is.

Some, some feel like she may have been Mary Magdalene who had several demons cast out of her because of the extravagance of the gift. But she walks in, she's got this jar of perfume, this alabaster box, and she, she kind of pours it out all over Jesus. And everybody's really upset. What a waste! You should have put this here, and we should have distributed it to the poor, and rah, rah, rah, rah, rah.

Anyway, Jesus just said, hey, listen, what she's done is a beautiful thing because she's preparing me for my burial. See, there you've got, there you've got this compassionate heart in this woman, whoever she is, that has caught something in the heart of the Father because he wants his son, Jesus, prepared.

And so she's bringing this extravagant gift. It was probably about a year's worth of wages for her. That's how extravagant it was. And I love the way the diversity of the Scriptures keeps... Pointing us back to the fact it's not about how much, even though that was extravagant. On another occasion it says, hey listen, if you even give a glass of water to someone, you won't miss that reward.

God is really, really interested in rewarding those that are generous. Why? So they can be generous again. They can be loving and generous. Love for God is best displayed by love for people. Love for God is best displayed by love for people. Sometimes I run into people and they say, Well, I love God. I just can't stand people.

That's a problem. You know, that's a problem. You know. Yeah, I so love God. I just love to sit and worship Him. But I just hate those people at the office. They are a, They are a, Lord, you know, they're a bunch of Wall E's. There were several other words going through my head at that point in time, but I realised I'm on video.

You know what I mean? Love for God is displayed by love for people. That's why we're insane about saying, how can we be for our schools? How can we do something more to engage with our local businesses and support them? Everything we do is adding value. How do we engage with the arts? Which these are all areas we haven't even scratched yet.

We're just, we're just getting on the surface about what God is doing and the understanding, but we know God is for people. So we're going to be for people. So the question is, what do we do about this? I don't know. I hope you've been doing your self devotions. I hope you've been doing it because I wrote one down just a few weeks ago.

Actually, I wrote one every second day probably. It was in, on 18th of July and it was about faith and I thought this is very interesting. And it's in James, James chapter 2 and it makes this statement, it says, you see that his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what he did.

My observation was the Holy Spirit is warning us to be sure that we don't have an incomplete faith. Incomplete faith? Is that even possible? Well it is according to James who got his revelation from the Holy Spirit. According to James until our faith is accompanied by acts of faith or good works it is incomplete.

And then he goes on and says and faith without works is? Those that have been around, dead. So you can have an incomplete faith. If you don't share your faith, if no good works come out of you generously to give to others and to love people on God's behalf, you have an incomplete faith. It's the action side that makes it complete.

It's why we train everybody to be living mission. Learn to follow, look at the rhythms and routines of your life. Learning, learn to listen to someone's story. Engage yourself in their story. You share your story. Know how to tell Jesus story. To show them where they are trapped in brokenness and how God has come through Christ to set us free.

It's amazing. And all it takes is a heart of compassion, just a heart of compassion to love. You know, and I think the radical Christmas is an opportunity for us to once again re engage that compassion in our hearts and realize we can make a big difference with very small things. You have an opportunity through this and through Convoy to go do something with your neighbors.

They're not ready to come to church, even though, I mean, you don't come to church, you are the church, but that's the whole thing. But, they might be interested in, you know, do you know there's some people around that can't even put food on their table, and they have to decide, do I put petrol in the car, or food for my kids, because I've got to get to work?

We could do something together, and we could make a difference. That will do something in people's hearts. That's discipling people on the journey to Christ. And it's amazing you get that opportunity. You can do it in your work, your school, your uni, or whatever. Just go back to our website and go up to the resources tab, hit living mission, and go down and watch the videos on how to tell the three, the Sri Circle story.

That's how you tell his story. And go, go refresh it so that you know it, because the opportunity will come if you go out there and start talking. So, our job is to help people discover Christ. He's for them, we gotta be for them. And they need to know that. You know, I, I, sometimes I, I, when I read the Great Commission, I kind of drift off a little bit.

Do you ever find that you're reading the scriptures and suddenly your mind drifts off into places and you go, what's that about? And you know, I was reading it the other day and I was thinking, Jesus has got his disciples there and saying, he's just about to go back to heaven. He said, I've provided the salvation where it goes, but here's the thing.

All authority, it's been given to me right now, and I'm going to give it to you, but you need to go and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey and I'll be with you always. But I think he would have, there's this point where he just stopped and he goes, he said, you know, you need to go and make disciples of all nations.

Now, let me just say to you guys right here, just pause. I want to acknowledge this is going to be tough. This is going to be hard. But in a little while, a few thousand years from now, they're going to have this thing called the internet. Internet. And they're all going, oh, what's an internet? Don't worry about it, it's above your pay grade.

Anyway, but they're going to have this thing. This is going to be amazing. You're going to have to actually go and make disciples. But you know what? They're not going to even have to. They're just going to be able to pull this thing out of their, a tablet. What? Tablet? What's a tablet? You mean like Moses tablets?

Oh no, no, no. This other thing is going to be in their pocket. And they're just going to tweet. And people will start running to Jesus. And then they'll do stories. And then if they're really good, they get on a thing called TikTok thing. TikTok, TikTok. And people will start coming, flooding to Jesus. That's what it's going to be like.

And they're going, wow, this is amazing. But, but, sorry guys, you're going to have to go old school. It's going to be old school for you. You're going to have to go out and start getting involved in people's lives, sharing the good news, loving on them, helping them, serving them, sharing Jesus, and then help them do that with their neighbours.

And it's going to be a lot slower, I know, I know, but in the future it'll get much easier. And they go, so the 12 of them go, Oh, well, we can't get to the internet, so whatever that is, so we'll just go off and do it. And they go off, and then within the first 300 years, they're like, go from 12 to 20 million.

By the time, by the time it gets to 350 AD, there's like 33 million. And Constantine is, is flipping out, man, they're everywhere, there's Christians everywhere. And he ends up saying, let's, let's make this the national religion. That's what we'll do, and we'll build temples. They can all go to their things, and we'll do that.

Wow, that was amazing. And all that happened because they just went and talked and shared their faith. Listen, we've got the internet. And we know that there are no revivals happening through internet. You can use the internet as a tool to dispense some information practically, but discipled via the internet.

Because when you get into a relationship connection, and The Holy Spirit starts moving in you and starts sharing in someone else's story and you'll listen to their story. There is a spiritual thing that's going on there and the kingdom is being transitioned from heart to heart to heart to heart. So even though we got the internet, wonderful things that we can use for resources, we still gotta go.

We still gotta go and make the disciples. We got to live mission all the time. And I know that's tough in the world that we live now, but Jesus said the greatest will be the servant of all Servant of all, you know, I've done a lot of funerals in my time and now it's, it's kind of changed a little bit now where I, I coach people on funerals because sometimes it's more meaningful for someone else to, to lead for them.

But I often think about some of the ones that I've been at and, and you go and you listen to people, share the stories, and sometimes they come up and, and they're sharing and they're so passionate and they're, and they're going on and on and the next person's up and they're going on and on and on. Next person's up.

And I've been in funerals where it's like, yeah, they were born, did something in the middle. Now they're dead. And there's no love and there's no nothing and there's no story. It's just like, whoa. And so I have to try and pre fabricate something about someone I don't even know to give some kind of meaning to the experience.

And you know what it is? When it comes to people remembering and funerals and things like that, the amount of their life that is being given away in sacrifice and love for others is what changes the hearts of others. And when they get that, they can't shut up. We've had some memorial services in here that should go for 20 minutes, this should go for two hours, because nobody can shut up.

Why? Because this person has sacrificed so much of their life, and given so much to them in their time, their talents, and everything, that they just can't help it. I reckon, just, let's make this radical Christmas thing an all round event in our hearts, without carols.

Unless you, unless you want carols, then go ahead and knock yourself out. But let's make radical Christmas an all round event. We should carry that, that in our hearts always. It should be Christmas for us every day. And be moved with compassion and go and take advantage of every opportunity to go and love on someone for Christ and let them see God.

Let them suddenly see, hey, you guys are different. You guys actually do what you say you're gonna do. You actually show up. And you don't yell at your kids the way that everybody else does and you don't sneak around and do dodgy deals. What's the, what's the deal with you guys? You seem to be different.

Yes, that's because we're following our leader who calls us to holiness. That's why you've got the Holy Spirit in you. That's radical, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. That's what it's about. That's what it's about. So just before I pray and we just sing for a moment, I want you to listen to, I told with playing the church, I see because the big video, but I thought I don't want to have the video because I, sometimes I think the video can be a bit distracting, you know so I want you to just listen to the church I see and just,

Try and capture, this is, this is several years on now from when it first, we first wrote it. But I want you to listen to it because you'll realize when you listen to this, if God wants us to be one church in multiple locations, with multiple expressions, and we have, seriously, I have, there's not a week goes by that someone says, Could you put a junction point here?

Could you put a junction point there? And in all different sort of scenarios. We've only scratched the surface about what it's about. So just close your eyes and listen to the church I see. And let the Holy Spirit do what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your heart.