The Grove @ 10 Years – Week 11

All right. Good morning, guys. It's good to see you. Why don't we get to work here? If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn with me to Matthew chapter 28. This morning, we're continuing in our sermon series. It's been about our DNA as a church. We've been looking at our four pillars, and today we're looking at our pillar of purposeful discipleship. And if you came without a Bible today, go and raise your hand. We do have some ushers that would love to get you a copy of God's Word.

If you happen to not have a Bible of your own, consider this as a gift from us to you. Use it, read it, study it. Matthew chapter 28. We're going to be looking at verse 16 through 20. This is the Great Commission. Very familiar passage. And a lot of times when we look at this area of scripture, we just think this is the mission statement for the church, right? And instead of focusing on the church today, why don't we think about who it was addressed to.

It was addressed to 11 ordinary men and in a room like this, let's just take it as being addressed to a people like us, a church of 600, 700 ordinary men and women. And so as I set this up, I want you to think about this. Is this true? I think it's very possible for us as Christians to be incredibly busy doing Christian things. Isn't it true? And lose sight of what Jesus has actually called us to do. Think about it. It's true, right? And so you can come to church on Sunday.

You're here. That's amazing. That's wonderful. You can serve in ministry. Praise the Lord, that's wonderful. You can attend a men's ministry on Friday morning, or ladies, you can attend the women's Bible study on Tuesday evening, and we can fill our calendar with all kinds of good Christian activities. And listen, those things are great. But here's the question I want to put before you this morning. Are you actually making disciples? And so I'm not asking if the church has a program for that.

I'm asking you, Christian, are you making disciples? Are you intentionally helping other people come to know Jesus Christ and grow in their relationship with him? That's the question today. Are you doing that? Because church, those are not necessarily the same things. You can be surrounded by Christians, all of your week can be Christian things, Christian activities, Christian chicken wings on Monday night, Christian stuff all week long, and never take the initiative to actually help somebody else follow Jesus.

And so here's what I want you to understand this morning. Jesus hasn't just called you or me or us to be recipients of ministry. He's called you to participate in ministry. And so that's why this fourth pillar of purposeful discipleship is so important. And so before I read the passage, let's first pray together. Can we do that? Father in heaven, we do thank you, Lord. Thank you for this morning. God, thank you for your Word. Thank you that we can have your Word open.

Thank you for the privilege of knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, for those of us who do, what a treasure, what a gift, what a blessing. God, as we look at this passage today, it's very, very familiar, I trust, to most of us. I would ask that you'd help us see it with fresh eyes, and I pray that you would help us even understand our purpose and our mission a little bit clearly. Remind us that we belong to you, that you're our savior, you're our Lord.

You've called us to something bigger, better, greater than just living for ourselves. And so, Father, I pray that we could have a heart like our Lord, that we would have a heart for the lost, that we'd have a desire to see people come to know him, and that we could help others grow in their willingness to obey and follow and surrender. And so meet with us now, we pray. Speak to us, we ask in Jesus' good name. Amen. All right, here we go. Big idea.

Pretty simple, but it will preach. Jesus calls us to make disciples who make disciples. All right? That's the big idea. Jesus calls us to make disciples who makes disciples. That's where we're headed. And so let's get started. My first point is simply this, Jesus has all authority, so follow his lead. And if I could encourage the Christian in the room this morning, I'm not asking if you have heard this passage before. I'm not asking if you've read this passage before.

I'm asking, do you follow his lead? That's the question. Jesus has all authority, so follow his lead. Notice verse 16, "But the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated." Now, before we look at the Great Commission itself, I want us to understand what is happening. Here's the context. Here's what's taking place. Jesus, you remember? He's just been crucified, buried. On the third day, he rose again from the dead.

Earlier in Matthew 28, the women went to the tomb, and they discovered. What'd they discover? Empty, right? And then an angel announced that Jesus had risen just as he said he would, and Jesus appeared to the women and instructed them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, where they would see him. And that's where we pick it up in verse 16. Once again, "But the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated." And then notice there verse 17, look there.

"And when they saw him," what did they do? "They worshiped him, but," but what does it say? "Some," what did they do? "They doubted." Huh. Some doubted. And so here they are, standing before the risen Christ, and while they worshiped him, some hesitated, some doubted. And Matthew wants us to know that these men weren't standing there because they had everything figured out. They don't. And so before he tells them what they're supposed to do, and while some are still doubting, Jesus reminds them of something that they need to know.

Verse 18, "And Jesus came up and he spoke to them, saying," and this is very important, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." And that's our first point this morning. Jesus has all authority, so follow his lead. Jesus comes to his disciples here, and he makes an extraordinary statement, right? He says, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." And so what that doesn't mean is, it doesn't mean that Jesus has authority over certain people from a certain place or a certain people group speaking a certain language.

That's not what he's saying. Jesus is declaring that no place in all creation falls outside of his authority. Not one nation, not one government, not one ruler, not one person, no corner of this world is outside of the lordship of Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying. But don't forget when this statement is being made. Jesus has just been crucified, right? From the world's perspective, he's on a losing streak, I would say. His enemies had arrested him.

The enemies won. The bad guys are winning, it seems. They're condemned. Jesus was beaten, nailed to a cross. But then, three days later, he rose from the dead, and yes, that does change everything. And this matters because Jesus is about to give his disciples a mission that would've been impossible. Remember, it's not an army of 10,000 men. It's not a group of 1,000 men. It's not 100 men. It's 11. It's not even a dozen. He says 11. Half-hearted men.

Half-hearted. That's what they are. 11 half-hearted, ordinary men. They don't have political influence. They don't have money. They don't have an army. And what does Jesus tell them to do? Well, we're going to find out in a second. He tells them to go and make disciples of everybody. Think about how impossible that is. From a human perspective, how is that going to happen? How are 11 men, ordinary, going to reach the nations? How is that even possible?

We read this and we're like, "Well, yeah, I know this. I know all about this." But just think about it in the original context. Notice what Jesus does before he tells them what to do. He actually reminds them who he is, and that's very important for you and me. I'm not sure if you guys have heard this story before. I'm getting old enough where sometimes I repeat myself, and so forgive me if you guys have heard this one. But years ago, Gretel and I were living in South Florida, and we had two very young children.

And we bought our first house in Miami Shores. And so some of us are from South Florida, maybe you guys know where Miami Shores is. Have I shared this with you? And so we owned, at that point for about 10 years, a two-bedroom, one-bath condo. Less than 1,000 square feet. And with two kids and a third one coming, we needed more space. And if you know anything about Miami, you know that Miami's real estate is high, always is high, has always been high.

It's high, so it's always high. And so what could we afford? We couldn't afford anything nice. We could afford the worst house in the entire village of Miami Shores. And so Miami Shores is a village, if you've heard of it, maybe it's like College Park or Winter Park. It's very desirable. It's a nice community. It's on the bay, Biscayne Bay. It's full of these ancient, enormous banyan trees. You guys know what a banyan tree is? It's like you're living in Pandora, like avatars swinging out of these banyan trees.

It's amazing. So beautiful, and it's a very nice desirable town. And so we found this house that I referred to. It had been sitting empty, abandoned for 12 years. Can you believe that? That's the only house that we could afford. And been sitting just empty. Nobody lived in it for 12 years. Nobody was taking care of it. Nobody wanted it. And so we look at the house and we thought, "You know what? This will do." That's what we thought, and so it did.

And just to give you some perspective, I'm not exaggerating here. I fact-checked it with Gretel because she never forgets anything. It had $75,000 in code violations when we bought the house, which means it's in pretty tough shape. In Winter Garden or Windermere, when people buy a house, they buy a house with a beautiful swimming pool. Or a nice kitchen. We didn't have any of that. We had $75,000 in code violations. And so obviously it needed a total renovation.

And when you do a renovation like that, everybody from the village offices needs to keep a very close eye on what you're doing and inspect your work. And so anybody ever been through a big time home renovation? Anybody? Anybody? Fortunately, we weren't rookies. We had done two of them at this point. This was our third biggest one. And so we had all the electrical contractors, the plumbing, mechanical, the building code enforcement. We had all the guys in and out of our house for months.

In fact, they were there so often, I started to wonder if we should maybe, "Should we just build you guys an office? You can just work out of here if you want. You're here so often." And they were giving us a hard time, and we were making no progress. It's just like one day we'd work all day, we'd get like a half a step forward, four steps back. It was very frustrating. And several months into this, I remember, man, I've completely forgotten I got a secret weapon.

And you guys know my secret weapon? It's my wife, Gretel. She's a secret weapon. I just hadn't deployed her yet. What am I thinking? And by the way, if you want a tip, if you ever have something hard to do, make sure Gretel's on your side. And so what happened, another inspector showed up one day, true story, and we had no idea who he was. Hadn't seen him before, and our patience was running thin. And, again, I'm a church planter. I'm a pastor. I'm a dad of two little kids, soon to be three.

And the guy from the city comes in, we start talking with him. Probably more accurately, we're leaning on him. We're giving him a piece of our mind. And so I'm fairly limited in Spanish, as far as giving people pieces of my mind. I can't do that very good. I'm sure that surprises you. Gretel, on the other hand, she has no such limitations. And so she let them have it, both barrels, rapid fire Spanish. And as it turns out, he just wasn't another inspector, he was actually the chief building inspector of the whole village.

We had no idea. We should've known that 10 minutes previous. But honestly, and here's my point, that was the best conversation that we could've had. No exaggeration, the chief building inspector became our friend that day. And a true story, with his help, we ended up finishing the construction project, renovation to perfection, on time, on budget. And that house from the ugliest one in Miami Shores became one of its gems. And they enjoyed Gretel so much, they actually wanted her to become a general contractor, because she has skills.

She really does. And Jason, what's the point? The point is this, everything realized when we found out who we were talking to, and that's my point. Because authority really matters, doesn't it? It matters who's speaking. And church, when we come to Matthew 28, I want us to recognize who's speaking. Jesus is not just another religious teacher. This is the risen Lord Jesus Christ, and he's the one who conquered sin and death, and he's the one that rose from the grave.

And notice what he says in verse 18. He says, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." And so here's what that means, church, look up here. When Jesus speaks, we don't get to decide if his instructions are worth following. It's never a matter of if. He's already made it clear. Our responsibility is to submit to the things that he said, and then faithfully participate in the mission that he's given us. Amen? Isn't that the point?

And that brings us to our second point. Look with me. Let's move on now, verse 19. Jesus calls us to make disciples, so get involved. Like how else can you read this without coming to that conclusion? Notice there verse 19, "Go therefore make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you." And those there are some of the most important words that Jesus has ever spoke to his disciples.

And the main command is make disciples. That's the main verb. There's three verbal participles, go, baptizing, teaching. That kind of explains what making disciples involves. And then notice the scope of the mission. Jesus says, "Of all nations." You guys know this. In other words, this mission isn't limited to one nation or one language or one people group. It's good news for all people everywhere. Praise the Lord. And that's why we're so excited here at the church.

I feel like we talk about it a fair amount, church planting, because we want to reach as many people as possible with the gospel. And so here's the question then: what does it actually mean to make disciples? Well, as we look at these verses, there's three things that I want to highlight as it relates to purposeful discipleship. Straight out of verse 19 and 20, there's evangelism, there's baptism, there's obedience. Jason, where's evangelism? I didn't see that.

I don't know if I saw that. Well, again, notice there verse 19, "Go therefore make disciples of all nations." Again, a disciple is a follower of Jesus, and people cannot follow a savior they don't know, which means they need to hear. They need to understand who Jesus is, why he came, what he accomplished through death and the resurrection, and why they must repent and believe. They need a messenger. They need the message. And that's what we're talking about here.

That's how evangelism comes in. Evangelism is proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ so that people might repent and believe and follow him. That's the hope. And so the good news is good because the bad news is awful. The bad news is you're a sinner and so am I. We're sinners by nature, we're sinners by choice. It's who we are, it's what we do. By the time you're six or seven years old, you pretty much have it all figured out With sin. And because we're sinners, we deserve God's judgment, and that is bad because hell is hot.

And that's why we're thankful that God sent His Son, Jesus, the sinless Son of God who died on the cross for sinners and then rose from the grave. And through repentance and faith in Him, we can receive forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life. And that's a message that people must hear. That's a message that you, for yourself, must respond to. And if you have responded, and then for you the question is, when is the last time you had a meaningful conversation with somebody about that message?

I would invite you even to think about it now. When is the last time between you and the Lord? I'm not talking about telling somebody where you go to church. I'm actually talking about a meaningful conversation about your faith in Jesus and how he's changed your life. I'm not talking about if you tell people that you're a Christian. That's not it. I'm talking about an actual conversation about the gospel, about the bad news of sin, the good news of forgiveness, the cross, the resurrection, the hope of eternal life through Jesus.

When is the last time? When was the last time? The reason I ask is because it's possible to become so comfortable in our Christian circles that we lose sight of the masses around us that do not have the hope that we have. And so we can go to a church. You guys go to a great church. We're not perfect, but this is a good one. We're glad that you're here. And you can serve at church. Of all the churches, serve in this one because it's a good church.

It's not perfect, but it is good. And those are wonderful things. You should go to a good church, and you should be serving in a good church. But we can't forget that God has placed people in our lives who still need to hear about Jesus. Now, here's something else. Evangelism isn't just the responsibility of pastors and elders. It's not. It's your responsibility. It's all of our responsibility. Every believer has a job to bear witness. Notice the second thing about purposeful discipleship.

Jesus says there next in verse 19, "Baptizing them." Pastor Scott just mentioned this a few minutes ago. "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son of the Holy Spirit," which is interesting, isn't it? Jesus includes baptism in the Great Commission. Huh. Which means it's not a religious ceremony that the Church invented. Jesus commands it for all people who become his disciples. Throughout the Book of Acts, you see this pattern, right? The Gospels preached, the Gospels herald.

The message is ministered. Some people respond. Praise the Lord. Some people don't. God is sovereign. The people that do repent and place their faith in Jesus, what happens? They're baptized. That's what happens. We say this all the time, baptism doesn't save you, but baptism is what saved people do, right? And so we understand that we're saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by baptism. Baptism does not save you, but baptism is an important act of obedience for those who have believed.

Jason, why? Why is it such a big deal? Here's why. Because baptism publicly identifies us with Jesus Christ, with his death, with his resurrection. It's a visible testimony that says, "I belong to Jesus." And church, following Jesus was never intended to be a private commitment, okay? It's not a private thing. We are to identify with Him openly, unashamed. And so the practical question is, isn't it, have you been baptized as a follower of Jesus Christ?

I was baptized as a baby. Does that count? Were you baptized as a believer who had repented of his sin and is seeking to identify his life with the Lord Jesus Christ? No, I guess not. Okay. So if you're a follower of Jesus Christ then, have you been baptized? And if you never have, I would encourage you to take that step of obedience. You'll have the opportunity in a month from now on December 6th. So mark your calendar. Save the date. Talk to us.

We can answer questions for you about this. I know that there's quite a few of you that have expressed interest. And that brings us to the third part of the purposeful discipleship here. Look at verse 20 again. Jesus says, "Teaching them to..." What's the word? What's the word? Obey or keep. Some of you have never seen that word. Look at it. I'm not making it up. "Teaching them to..." What does it say? Obey. "Obey or keep all that I commanded you."

Now pay attention. That wording matters. Jesus doesn't just simply say, "Teach them everything that I commanded you." Right? Right? Because that's different. Jesus says, "Teaching them..." What does he teach them again? To keep or obey all that I commanded you. Do you see the difference? The key is keeping. I think most Christians miss this. Some of you may not know this, but before I became a pastor, I worked in the medical field, mostly in South Florida, for about 10 years, believe it or not.

Ten years in the medical field, I worked in the field of occupational therapy. A lot of my time in South Florida, I worked in a sports medicine rehab facility in Coral Gables, all right? And that's where I worked, and one of the things I learned pretty quick was that people want to work with somebody that looks like they practice what they teach. Does that make sense? And so clients want somebody who actually practices what they're telling you to do.

Imagine showing up, some of you are in physical therapy or occupational therapy right now. Imagine showing up for your first appointment, and then the therapist starts telling you the importance of exercise or mobility or strength training, staying physically active. And the natural question is, "Do you work out?" We're asked that all the time. And if you say as their therapist, "Me? No, I don't work out. I don't do this stuff. I just tell other people to do it."

"So you're going to spend the next hour telling me what to do, but you don't do it yourself?" "Yeah." Do you guys see the problem in that? The point is there's something compelling about somebody who actually practices what they teach. And church, I wonder if we don't sometimes do the same thing. Is that your approach to the Christian life? We know the Bible. We know the verse. We understand the doctrines. We know what Jesus commands. But the question is, are we actually keeping it?

Are we actually living according to what he says? Isn't that the question? Are we keeping, obeying all that I commanded you? Because here's what Jesus wants us to understand. It's not enough to know his commands. He wants us to keep them. Now notice the middle of verse 20, Jesus says... You guys see it? You guys see it? He says, "Keep..." Do you guys see it? "All that I commanded you." And that's the hard part, honestly, for most of us, I would say, because we kind of like the parts that we just like, right?

I like the parts that I like, but the parts that I don't like, I maybe avoid that part. I don't like that part so much. But that's not what Jesus says. He says, "Keep it all I commanded you." It's not just the easy commands. It's not just the commands that I agree with. Jesus referring to all the commands. And so what that means is Jesus' authority extends into all areas of our life. This means in our marriages this morning, think about it. Think about it for those of us that are married.

Do you know how many times through the years I've heard couples say, "You know what, Pastor? Times are hard, right? Times are hard. We're falling out of love, right? I think God wants us happy, right? I'm not happy, and I think we should maybe get a divorce, right? Right?" No. No. What does Jesus say? Part of purposeful discipleship is teaching them, what's the word? What's the word? To keep All that I commanded you. This means Jesus has authority over our marriages.

He has authority over how you feel about your marriage, over our parenting, over our finances, our work, even our private thoughts and desires. And so once again, our second point this morning is Jesus calls us to make disciples, so get involved. Isn't that the application? One of the great ways to get involved here at the church is through our small group ministry. That's kind of the primary engine for making disciples here at The Grove. We've talked about that quite a bit in recent weeks.

Maybe I'll share something a little less familiar, but maybe some of you are getting a little bit more familiar about it. I know many of you are starting to get involved in this. It's our biblical counseling ministry here at the church. If that's unfamiliar to you, biblical counseling is just discipleship. That's all that it is. Biblical counseling equals discipleship, and it's a very practical expression of what Jesus is commanding us to do right here in Matthew 28.

It's basically the private ministry of the Word. And so on Sunday mornings, when one of us are preaching, it's the public ministry of the Word. You guys sit, listen, I speak, or whoever's preaching speaks. This is the public ministry of the Word. Biblical counseling is private. It's the same idea, except you're sitting face-to-face with a brother or sister in Christ, and you're encouraging them from God's Word, and you're walking through a passage, and you're explaining it to them.

"Do you understand this?" "Yes, I do." "How does this apply to your life? Let's talk about that." That's what it is. That's biblical counseling. It's helping parents think biblically when life feels overwhelming. It's helping a husband and wife learn to love one another when their marriage is hurting. It's coming alongside of people that are anxious, worrying, sad, enslaved to sin, discouraged, overwhelmed. That's what it is. That's discipleship.

And one of the things I love about this ministry is that it helps people move from confusion and disorder towards God's good design. And I don't know if you guys realize this, maybe you don't, but there's a lot of people in our church right now who are confused, and their life is disordered. We have our work cut out for us, and our job is to move them towards God's good design. There are so many people right now in our church looking for this kind of discipleship.

It's like the line runs out the front of the church, and it's wrapping around the back. All right? And that's the need, that's the demand. The need is great. The demand is great. If you're in line waiting for some help, please be patient. Pray for us. Right? Just be patient. Lord willing, in the first quarter of next year, we're going to have a dozen men and women that are right now in phase two of their certification process entering into phase three, which means they get to start sharing in the work of the ministry.

So please be patient. Pray for us. A lot of people in need. And as we continue developing our biblical counseling ministry here at the church, our goal isn't to schedule more appointments. Our goal is to help people follow Jesus Christ. This is what we do. This is discipleship. This is all that it is. It's teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. Now back to you. Who are you helping follow Jesus today? Okay? That's the question, isn't it? I'm not talking about the programs or the church.

I'm talking about you and your walk with the Lord. Are you a disciple who is making disciples? That's the question. I'm not asking about who you spend your time with at church. I'm asking, who do you intentionally help to grow in obedience? That's the challenge, isn't it? That's the invitation. Now, onto our third point. Notice the end of verse 20. Look there. Jesus promises his presence, so go with confidence. All right? Great promise here. Some of you have never noticed this.

Jesus promises his presence, so go with confidence. Look here at the end of verse 20. Jesus says, "And behold." What does he say? "I am with you always." When? "Even to the end of the age." Do you guys see that? What a great promise. When you think about all that Jesus has just commanded his disciples to do, these 11 ordinary, half-hearted men, making disciples of all the nations, going, baptizing, teaching. I mean, that's a very overwhelming assignment.

And Jesus doesn't just give them a hard command and then walk away. He actually gives them a promise, and it's the same promise for you and me today. It's a promise that allows us to go with confidence. The promise is, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And just for clarity, Church, the promise is not that discipleship is easy. It's not. There's nothing easy about it. That's not the promise. The promise is not that his followers will experience peace, or they'll never be rejected.

That's not it either. Sometimes they will. Jesus doesn't promise that. But what does he do? He promises us something greater. What is it? He promises us his presence. And here's what makes that so encouraging. The very one who just declared that all authority in heaven and on Earth belongs to him is the same one who promises to be with his people. Okay? And so the one who has the authority over all is the one who says, "I am with you." And maybe even today where you're at, that can be an encouragement.

Maybe you're doubting. Maybe you're discouraged. Maybe you're overwhelmed with your circumstances. Don't forget, our Lord is with you. He is with us. And so when it comes to the Great Commission, our confidence isn't in our abilities. It's not in our programs. Our confidence is in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so maybe you're sitting there this morning, and you're thinking, "I get it. I mean, I know. I've heard this sermon before. I know I'm supposed to share the message, but I'm just not very bold."

And I get it. I get it. But Jesus doesn't call us to make disciples because we're naturally gifted at it. He doesn't call us to make disciples because we have everything figured out. He calls us to be faithful, and he promises to be with us. And so therefore, we can proclaim the gospel, but only God can save. And what a comfort that is. We can teach the Word, but only God can change the heart. We can encourage, counsel, and disciple people, but spiritual growth is God's work.

And that's not meant to discourage you. That's actually meant to give us confidence. And so once again, our third point this morning is Jesus promises his presence, so go with confidence. Now listen, I'm almost done, but there's one more thing I want to say. And something I so appreciate about this church is that we have so many men and women who genuinely love the Lord here. Do you guys realize that? It's a lot. People that really love this church, they love God's Word.

This is you guys. It's remarkable. Honestly, since Gretel and I's first Sunday here, it's been almost 10 years now, Gretel and I have always been impressed with the genuine faith of so many of you. Sacrificial people, good people. Honestly, I'm proud personally to be a member here. I'm proud to be a pastor here. It's a privilege. I'm so thankful for Pastor Scott and his leadership and his example and him being obedient to that call of making disciples.

I'm thankful for our pastors and our elders and so many of you guys. Honestly, I'm just thankful to the Lord. When I see your guys' faithfulness, I see it as evidence of God's grace, that he's at work. That's what I see. I see that he's at work in you, and you're being a generous steward of what God's given you. And as I've been thinking about, here's the part that I've really been wrestling with. And Pastor Scott and I talked about this earlier this week.

But as we consider the mission that Jesus has given his church, I think there's a challenge specifically for the men here this morning. And so brothers, if I could just have your attention, if you could look up here for a minute. My question to you men is, have you ever considered doing full-time what so many of you are currently doing part-time? You ever considered that? I don't know. What do you mean by that, Jason? Many of you are already giving your time, your evenings, your weekends, your effort, and most importantly, you're giving yourself to Jesus Christ and helping him build this church, and that's a wonderful thing.

Praise the Lord. That's awesome. But I wonder, might God be calling some of you to give your lives to this work. Could it be? Now, I'm not suggesting that every man should quit his job. Don't do that. I'm not saying that. Absolutely not. Don't quit your job, everybody. All right? We need faithful Christians working and making a difference in their business or their education or in healthcare, in law enforcement, construction, whatever. But when I look around this church in particular, even if just 1% of you, if 1% of you are called by God into ministry, that's still quite a few men.

And I can't help but wonder if God might be calling some of you to plant our next church or churches. Could it be? Maybe some of you have been thinking about this, maybe you've never thought about this, but my challenge to you is this, what if the Lord is preparing you to do something like that right now? You've heard us as pastors talk for years about our desire to plant churches. Nobody works harder than Pastor Scott talking to prospective church planters.

But could it be that maybe the next church planter or church planters are right here amongst us? Could it be that God's calling you to plant the next church with us in Central Florida? That'd be a wonderful thing. And if that's something that you've been wrestling with, I want to encourage you, don't ignore that. Don't dismiss it. Pray about it. Talk to your wife if you're married. If you're not married, talk to us, of course, either way. Let us help you think through this biblically, because we're not just interested in adding more people to the staff.

That's not what I'm saying. We want to see God raise up qualified, godly men who love his word, that love his church, and have already demonstrated faithfulness in the ministry that he's already entrusted to them. And so if that's something that's stirring in your hearts, we'd love to talk with you more. Personally, for me, I remember my pastor preaching a message similar to this 20-some years ago. And like a lot of you, I had a career, and I enjoyed it.

I had a plan for my life, like you. I enjoyed what I was doing, like you. But I also had a growing love for God's Word, and I was really loving teaching it and communicating it, ministering it to other people. And I was reluctant. I didn't take leaving my career lightly. It was a very big deal. In our church of a couple hundred people, four men ended up taking a step forward and were willing to say, "I think God might be calling me to plant a church."

And of the four of us, four of us are still involved in full-time vocational ministry. And so I can't help but wonder maybe if God isn't doing something like that today. Now, don't miss how this connects to what Jesus is saying. The mission is enormous. Enormous! Nothing is harder than planting a church. And the need is great. And none of us is sufficient for the task in our own strength. But the risen Christ has just promised, what did he say? "I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

And so, brothers, if the Lord is leading you in that direction, don't let fear hold you back. Our Lord has all authority. He's given us a mission, and he's promised his presence. And what greater confidence could we possibly need? And so as I close this morning, here's what the Great Commission is, and here's what it is not. The Great Commission is not just a passage we're called to admire. It's a command we're called to obey. And Jesus has made himself clear.

He has all authority in heaven and on earth, and he's commanded his church to make disciples. And so that's the last question, loved ones. Are you involved in this work? And so let's close in prayer. Let's go before the Lord now. Father, thank you for this morning. We're done. We're out of time. I guess that's the question, isn't it? Are we participating with you, Lord, in this great work? God, we do thank you for your word. Your word is truth. Thank you for the reminder this morning that Jesus Christ has all authority over everything, and he's called us to make disciples.

Forgive us, Lord, because we get distracted really easy. God, I pray for the men specifically in the church. Maybe you're preparing some of them and have been. Would you make that clear to them and us? I pray, Lord, that you would give all of us an increased love for your word. Give us an increased heart for your people and an increased willingness to follow wherever you lead. God, you're at work. We can see it. I pray that each of us would have the privilege of being involved in that work, not just a recipient of ministry, but a participant in the ministry.

And so, Father, thank you. Our desire, as always, is that we could give you glory in all things, and so expand your kingdom, extend your reach, and be glorified, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.