A Fresh Look at the Great Commission Matthew 28:16-20 Let’s take our Bibles … turn to Matthew 28 … this morning … … if you were Out of town over the 4th of July Weekend … … Welcome back … hope you had a great weekend … BBQ … We enjoyed being outside for our first time this summer … … Thank you to those who served … Children’s Ministry … … Set up crew … serving crews … clean-up crews … it was fun If you share a prayer request … praise report … connect card … If you have a comment … or a question … or recently dedicated your life to the Lord … … if you would like information about water Baptism … … drop it in the offering bag at the end of the service … I don’t know if you have noticed … sometimes … not intentionally … Sometimes … we say things … we read things in the word … We sing things … without really thinking about their meaning Without feeling the full weight of what we are singing … saying … reading Example … “Cornerstone” … what a great song 1 “My hope is built on nothing less … than Jesus blood and righteousness” … did you think about that … the weight of those words The Song … “This I believe” … … I believe in God our Father … I believe in Christ the Son … I believe in the Holy Spirit … Our God is 3 in one I believe in the resurrection … when we shall rise again … … as I get older … the idea … I will rise again … … this life isn’t what is important … but the next life … living my life … in this life … with a focus on the next … The other day … I was reading in the Book of Isaiah … … I read Isaiah 66:2 … “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word. Isaiah 66:2 (NIV) Wow … the person God delights in … the person God is looking for … … The person to is humble … contrite … who trembles at His word What would it be like … if we trembled at God’s word? … hear … this morning … … what if we weren’t coming to church to hear another sermon 2 … What if we trembled at God’s word … …What if we came with that kind of honor … reverence … respect … The next day … or within a day or two I read … Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; Psalm 98:4 What would it be like … for all the earth …to shout for joy to the Lord … … Burst into jubilant song … My grandkids were over this last week … we turned on some music … they want to sing and dance … We turned on this CD … our kids used to sing to … … we started singing … dancing … even grandpa danced … He didn’t care that he can’t dance … looked stupid … He just started dancing … it was so fun … What would it be like for the whole earth … to shout for joy to the Lord … to burst forth with Song … Someday it will … In the meantime … we get to do it by faith … Some of us have never shouted to the Lord … you have never … Some of us have never acted “Liked a child” Even though the Bible tells us to shout to the Lord … … You say … Pastor … that is not me … that is not my personality … 3 We have all kinds of reason … and all kinds of excuses for why we don’t … why we don’t really honor His word … why we don’t tremble … we kind of pick and choose what we want to believe … obey I have just wondered … Is that why the church is not … as powerful as it could be in the day we live Is that why people don’t really experience radical change …break through Is that why we don’t always experience the joy of our salvation … peace that passes all understanding … Are we playing it safe … setting our own standards … … deciding how much of the Bible we want to believe … obey? I am just asking … I don’t know … … But I don’t think the problem with the church in America … … is a lack of knowledge … sermons … books to read … I was talking to a new friend here in the life of our church … He recently rededicated His life to the Lord … … He is “On fire” … He is reading everything He can get his hands on … everything He can listen to … down load to His kindle / phone 4 There is so much available to us as believers … … there are so many preachers … teachers … … there are so many brilliant guys Our Problem … Is not that we don’t have enough teaching … Our Problem … We don’t really tremble at His word … … We don’t really honor it for what it is … This is God’s word … How many of you have ever come to church … been really convicted … maybe even said … great sermon Pastor … … or went to lunch … “Great message … great service … great Sunday … But it didn’t really change the way you live … … you were still grumpy … selfish … unkind … How many remember the story of the “Rich Young Ruler” … He came to Jesus asking … “What must I do to inherit eternal life” … Jesus didn’t pull any punches … … He just told him the truth … Sell all you have … give it to the poor He walked away sad … because he was very rich … Jesus was sad ... … “how difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven” 5 … There lives are so tangled up in their own Ideas … their own agenda … … their own goals … It would be easier to take this camel and stuff it through the eye of a needle … than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven … His disciples said … “Then who can be saved?” Jesus said … What is impossible with men … is possible with God IN the next chapter … Luke 19 … there is the story of Zacchaeus … … Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem … Zacchaeus is up in a tree … Zacchaeus was a tax collector “Very rich!” … Jesus saw Zacchaeus up in the tree … and said … “Come down” … I must go to your house today … … He went to Zacchaeus’s house … Big In the Middle of the Party … Zacchaeus stood up … … Today I am giving ½ my money to the poor … If I have cheated anyone … I will pay you back 4 times Jesus rejoiced … Salvation has come to this house … … Zacchaeus trembled at His word … took action 6 It is not enough … just to be convicted … The Rich young Ruler was convicted … … Zacchaeus took action … Jesus … “Big smile” on His face said … “Salvation has come to this house” … He too is a son of Abraham … Well … this morning … … I wanted to take a “Fresh Look at the Great Commission … we read it a couple weeks ago … … this section of scripture … is one we are pretty familiar with … I think we can overlook the weight of it … the gravity … It is one of those sections … where it is easy to be convicted … But not do anything about it … … I believe the key … is taking Action … Pray … Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV) 7 I don’t know how many times you have read this section of scripture … One of the things … I saw for the 1st time … this last week … when I read these verse … how Jesus invited them to come up on a Mountain … … When He gave them this mission for their lives Mountains were pretty important throughout the history … OT and NT … the meeting place with God … Moses … received the 10 commandments up on a Mountain … … Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal … Mt Carmel … Jesus 1st Sermon … Sermon on the Mount … giving them insight into what the kingdom of God was all about Jesus was transfigured on the Mount of transfiguration … Here when Jesus gives His final message to His disciples … … He brings them up on the Mountain … I had never seen that before … That added something for me … to the authority of this moment … v.18 …it says … “Then Jesus came to them and said” … 8 … Did you get that? … … Jesus was dead … Now He is alive … … That is amazing to me … We take this for granted … after 2000 years of church history … … “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me …” … Jesus was dead … Now He is alive The 1st thing He says … “All Authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me” … How many think that got their attention … … These are just a small hand full of disciples … … They have no position … no power … no status … influence All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me … Therefore Go … Make disciples of all nations … baptizing #1 The Great Commission is an evangelistic mission … They were up on a mountain … … this small group of disciples … … there is a whole world out there … … “Go make disciples of all nations” 9 I will never forget … when we were given this piece of property … several of us came up here … … I was struggling with the whole Idea … building a building … expanding our vision … “Believing God wanted to do more” We came up Here … looked out over the city … “Our mission field” … Every time we came up here … Our Mission field The Great Commission is an evangelistic Mission … … It is about the harvest … Jesus didn’t say … get in small groups … and disciple one another … we love small groups … I am in a small groups … It talks a lot in the NT about small groups Small groups are not the mission of the church … … they support the mission … but the mission is evangelism I was convicted about that … when I read these verses … … Discipleship is important in the church … … We want to grow … But the Mission is to reach the Lost … 10 Jesus was saying to His disciples … … “You have been with me for 3 ½ years” … You have experienced the love of God … the Power of God … You have seen what God is like … “They are like a sheep without a