Embracing the Great Commission: Hope and Discipleship

1. "We're starting this new series today called Go Beyond. And I'm excited to be able to start it off. And so we're going to be sitting in the Great Commission in this series. And these are some of the most well known verses in all the Bible. So if you have your Bibles, Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20. I'm going to go ahead and read them. They'll be on the screen if you don't have it. But here we go." [00:01:08] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "I'm just coming from a place today of of gratefulness for this church and gratefulness to the gospel that something like this could could serve me on a day like this and so if you're wondering what I'm going to speak on and it's why should we make disciples but it's helping us revisit who we are and what Jesus did and and what Jesus did and what the gospel in plain sight is and when I was preparing for this I was thinking of an analogy it's one of my favorite ones if you've heard of the caveman analogy it's this moment where I think of a bunch of cavemen and all they've ever known is to live in a cave they don't even know that sunlight exists and so all they've lived in is darkness that they don't even know is darkness they just think this is what exists and then what if one of those cavemen got out of this cave and and and witnessed sunlight what do you think their response would be? it would be to go back in and tell the rest of them look at this light that I found look at this hope that I've now received that there's something better outside of this cave and so I'm strictly just speaking of the light that I found that exists outside of the darkness and serves me in all seasons of life so I want you to hear I know that this room is a very full room and people are in a lot of trouble a lot of different seasons of life in this room if you're joyful today don't let me be a killjoy I'm thankful that you're joyful if you're grieving like me you're amongst friends if you're doubting if you're questioning if you're worried or stressed you're in the best place you could be because you're going to hear the gospel that attends to all those seasons of life and I'm going to talk about the light that I found" [00:04:24] (116 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "I feel like as Christians really quickly we we have the aspect of eternal life that we receive when we have salvation we we make that just like a a cool add -on right it's it's become like a a small detail that things that we witness in the world is more important and our everyday is more important I don't think it's a a case of what's more important I just think that I lost plain sight of that the absolute joy and comfort that it is that if you're in Christ Jesus you'll live even though you die and I'm thankful that that's the truth for my granddad today I'm thankful that he loved Jesus and I'm thankful that he raised up my dad the way he did I'm thankful that through that my parents raised us the way they did and I'm thankful that they raised me up but but but but but for the believer in the room I think you just need to revisit what it is that you have eternal life that that is an absurd thing to try and skip over or to forget about but it's the hope that I have and the reason that I'm going to share this gospel today is because there's people out there who don't have this hope there's people who don't have the peace that I have within this within this mess." [00:07:04] (93 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Jesus here is saying, I have come, meaning he's now in the world, and he's come from a place where we have not been. So Jesus here has proven that he is the truth, that he is the truth, and he's come from somewhere else. Listen to me, because I came from somewhere else, and it's somewhere you haven't been. And it's in eternity. It's at the right hand of God. And so Jesus, all throughout the scripture, if you just slow down reading your Bibles, does so many snippets of just showing that I'm not just this man. I'm not just this random person or a good person that you should follow. Jesus is pointing to his identity in this. He's the only person in all of history and all of the rest of the future will ever be able to say, I have come to this earth. You didn't come to this earth. You were created here. Jesus was not created." [00:09:53] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "If you've ever heard doctrine or the gospel ever explained that Jesus was just a human in right relationship with God, that's not true. Jesus was fully God. Fully man. He lived a perfect, blameless, matchless life because he's God. Because he was the sacrificial lamb of God. This wasn't just a good person that had good morals that we should see as a role model. This was a Jesus who could have stayed in heaven but yet humbled himself to a baby and lived a life that we live and can empathize with any of our weaknesses yet he still didn't sin." [00:10:58] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "What if we started to see us being mocked, us being persecuted, feeling separation or a sense of tension with someone else because of that separation of beliefs? What if you started to view that instead of something that you should be angry at and mad at and something that you could see that you can share with your Savior? What if you're able to see suffering as something that I have in relation to what Jesus had, even though it's nowhere near the same amount? That suffering could be something I share with God instead of something to avoid." [00:17:11] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "If you're looking for a really great marital vice, don't come to me. No, but what I've found in that short time of me being married is that within my marriage, within the bickering, within the fighting, within the coming against each other, and sometimes even feeling at war with each other, that sometimes even within that, there's complete peace between us. Why? Because we both know our greater affection, greater love, and greater allegiance is to the same God. That even within mess, there's unity. There's unity there, because there's been a sword that's separated, and we're both on the same side." [00:21:49] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "You know, I'm thankful that it's a narrow road. I'm thankful that the way to eternal life is not this broad spectrum of how to get there. If you've been told that all religions lead to the same God, that's a lie. I believe wholeheartedly that there's one way. One truth. One life. And it's Jesus, and I'm thankful there's only one way. Why? Because now I can lead others to that way." [00:22:25] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "What I get from this is that as a Christian, people should see evidence in your life that you love him. You know it's not enough to profess. You know you're saved by grace alone, but a grace that saves is never alone. It's backed up with evidence that you love him, that you follow him. People should see that the cross you carry is the one of following Jesus." [00:25:04] (25 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "I want you guys to see as Christians that this gospel that we're preaching to the world, is not a guarantee of peace. It's not a guarantee of no hardship in life. It's not a guarantee of no suffering. I'm up here speaking from a sense of grief and of pain and of suffering. But I know that that cross that I chose to carry because I know what Jesus did for me means suffering sometimes. But it means suffering, it means pain, it means grief. And knowing that I can do that and endure it because I have hope in eternal life." [00:26:07] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)