Rivers in the Desert: What only Jesus Can Do

What does it look like for us in our lives in very real and very practical ways to grow in Christ's likeness in the workplace, in our families, in our marriages, in our ch in our child rearing, in our workplace? What does it look like if somebody if I were to go ask somebody that knows you and I were to ask them what is the most important thing to fill in the blank? What would they say to me? Because there's a whole lot of things that can be said that are good, but there's only one thing that can be said that is the best. [00:33:20]

As a church, whatever else we might be engaged in, whatever else we might be doing when people would come into this church and when people would go out from this church into the community that it would be that we have a shared understanding that our desire is to fulfill God's purpose in this way. [00:34:41]

I want you to stop for just a second and I want you to think about this statement. Let that settle into your mind that somebody would stand on the stage of human history and make such a claim that the entire cosmos in the entire cosmos he says I am the authority. [00:38:23]

When Jesus says, "Hey, the Old Testament, the whole point of all of it is to point to me." Do you realize when he enters into history and he makes these statements and he makes these claims, it's not ego. This is divinity. [00:41:26]

And he comes with the great at the great commission to calm their doubts and their troubles and their fears and to commission them and to remind them that he is the way, the truth, and the life, the light, and the shepherd and the bread and the gate. the king. He is the king. [00:41:48]

It's really important that we understand that this claim that Jesus makes in the great commission is a claim that only Jesus can make. [00:42:04]

Do you believe this? That Jesus is the heir of all things, that he is the creator of the universe, and that he upholds everything by the word of his power. So when he steps forward and says to his disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," he's not kidding. He's simply saying what is true. [00:42:58]

Therefore, go remember these 12 disciples are very very ordinary people, very much like you and like me. And he with that authority commissions them to launch the church. And there's no way the church gets launched without his power and without his authority. That's why this is so important. [00:43:41]

I don't want us to miss that. It is the authority of Jesus that gives us the responsibility to evangelize. It's the reason that therefore all authority in heaven on and on earth has been given to me. Now you go, you go tell the world. Tell the world. And he commands them in Acts, right? Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to all the earth. [00:44:40]

Although we are bent and crooked and messy and unfixed, the good news is that despite of our rejection of God and our rebellion against his commands and our disinterest in his authority, that he still loves us and still pursues us with passion. And he comes to us and he speaks to us. Why? Because God loves to save people. [00:46:00]

How easy is it for us to forget the main thing, even if it's a good thing? Now, there's logic in this and it helps us to answer the kind of questions that as believers we're inevitably going to get. This is what people will say. What right do you have? Who do you think you are to interfere with my personal religious affairs or the culture of our day or the classroom in a public school in the realm of education? [00:47:51]

The answer is the right that I have is because I am in the service of the one who resides with all the authority on in heaven and on earth. So the answer church hear me is because we're commanded. It's not because I feel like it. It's not because I have some great opinion to give you. It's not because I might I I because I feel guilty. It's because there's an inevitable consequence that faces each human being and the whole world needs to know who Jesus is. [00:48:53]

A disciple by definition is a learner. It's a follower who is committed to learning from, being changed by, and sharing in the mission of Jesus. That's a disciple. A follower who is committed to learn from, to be changed by, and sharing in the mission of Jesus. [00:53:36]

If you've been tuned out, tune back in because this is what I want you to get. Our story to proclaim to the world is a story about something that has happened in us because of what Christ has done for us. [00:55:12]

And so I ask you today, church, we are a church that is so fortunate to be on mission together. I as a pastor have been so blessed by you and your support over the missions over the years, not just for HCM, but you just heard this summer when Erica had went and we're going to hear in February from some missionaries um from Launch Uganda and the list goes on and on and on and on about taking this gospel to the whole world. [01:01:12]

But here's what I don't want you to miss. that each and every one of us are called and commanded and commissioned if you if you're a Christian to take this good news beyond the walls of this church at Aldersgate into your neighborhoods into your schools into your workplace into your social settings. That's what we are called to do. [01:02:39]