Matthew 28
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.”
What is it that Jesus wants us to do? To go and you see that emphasis through out the Gospel and you see it later in the epistles. That we are called to go, to go on a rescue mission. We are to be giving out lives in the service of our savior to bring salvation to those who are in the mists of their own storms in life, who are in the darkness of the seas of despair and depression of hurt and loneliness, of sin and depravity.
It’s a great metaphor when you think about it, when you go out with a mindset, with the heart and the passion with the love to reach other people who are drowning in sin.
This morning and for the next few weeks we are going to begin a new series. The series is based on us reaching people, series is based around a number of themes that fall within that category, we are calling it
Each One, Be One
Each One, Reach One
Each One, Bring One
Each One, Love One
Each One, Teach One
Each One, Join One
The whole idea is that each one of us has been called, called to be sent out to make a difference. If God’s only goal was to bring us to salvation in Christ, then He would just bring us to salvation and as soon as we accepted we would be on the next transport out of here to heaven. Obviously that is not His only goal for us.
His goal for us is to save us, and in saving us to use us to be a partner with him, and that is our mission, our great commission, the reason we call it great is because it is the number one marching order that we have been given in Christ Jesus and if it’s the number one marching order that we have been given, then why do we march so slowly towards it? and lack the passion for it, even though we claim a passion for God.
In the next few weeks as we look at these topics, don’t just look at them, be challenged by them, Because they speak to where we are in our lives and in our faith, they speak to what were doing in our walk with God and where we are in our hearts with God. In the next few weeks I want you to have your hearts and minds wide open, I want you to listen, soak in, to be strengthen, encouraged, instructed, empowered, and sent out to do exactly what God has saved you and sanctified you in Christ to be doing in this world because this world desperately needs us.
Each One, Be One - What does that mean? It means before we can talk about each one reaching one and each one bringing one and loving one, teaching one and joining one, we have to begin with very basic, each one being one
You can’t give what you don’t have, if your going to bring people to Christ then there better be Christ in you.
People want to see in you first if what you say matters first of all. If your just giving from the bottom of the barrel your not giving much, reaching people for Christ has to begin by making sure that Christ has reached us.
When we talk about being, I want to share three important thoughts to think about. Three important thoughts to examine your own life about before you go out to reach one, before you reach, you know that your reaching comes out of your being.
1 John 2
3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.
What does it mean to be in Christ? Being first begins in knowing. We become attracted to and curious of the people around us who are on fire with the people around them. Imagine if you met someone who knew someone that was helping them in a way that was transforming their life or their finances and they were transforming them in a way that you needed to be transformed, wouldn’t you want to meet that person? If someone said to you, “I have this financial advisor and everything he touches is gold” and you think, “I could use that”. The first thing you would want to do is say, “Well can you introduce me? What is his address?”.
Being One
begins with knowing, the desire to know. What does it mean to know? First comes with honesty.
I. Honesty
If your going to really know Jesus to introduce him to others, then in your own life there has to be honesty. Honesty about who you are. to know Jesus, to be able to show up for the invite, there has to be something wrong with you, that your in need of a savior and you tried it your own way over and over again and it just doesn’t work. Anyone who thinks that their life is great and wonderful and they have everything they need how many of these people are rushing to know Jesus? Very few. Some people are so sucked into the stuff of this world and for the period of their lives they think they have what they need what do they need Jesus for?
Knowing Jesus means there first has to be honesty. Honesty with yourself, that you know you have to have Jesus, you know that your way doesn’t work, you know that your way just keeps lending itself to disaster after disaster and you know if you keep doing that only with it not end well for you but it won’t end well in judgement.
II. Clarity
Clarity around what? Clarity around Jesus
John 14:6
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
I can be honest about I’m being a mess but unless I’m clear about who can clean up that mess then I can never really know Jesus and if I don’t know him then I can’t be in him. Knowing means that I am clear, that there is a God and I’m not him and I am a sinner and I need a savior, there has to be a sense about who you are and who He is.
III. Sincerity
Sincerity of the heart, who you give yourself to, Christ, what you say, “I believe in who you are and I want you in my life and I believe that you can do in me and through me what I can’t possible do.”
If you believe that, then you know who he is, then if you know who he is then you begin to become like him and you can begin to share him. If each one of us is going to reach somebody, if each one of is going to bring somebody to the body of Christ, if each one of us is going to love someone and teach someone and join with them before each of us can do that each of us has to be what God has called us to be in Christ. Each of us has to know him.
5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. 7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard...
I. Obeying
It’s one thing to know, to know God through His commands, personality, nature, character, through the things that He calls us to do and be about, but in knowing His commands has to translate into obeying His commands.
Why do we obey? Do we rush into that command? no. Truth is God wants us to know him and his great love for us and part of knowing is obeying him. When you obey you bring yourself in greater fellowship with God. Because when you obey do you know what your are saying about God? God is honorable. If I go around and try to share Christ with a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of alcohol in the other hand and drugs in my pocket, what does that tell you about the god I want you to know? You would look at them and think, “I don’t want to know that god”
When we obey God, when we walk like Jesus walked and act like Jesus acted we bring honor to God and glory to God. We should be involved in such good deeds in love for other people that they look and they say, “Where did they get that moral code? Where did they get the strength to live that way, How can they have such discipline to obey God even above their own base needs and desires?” Obeying is a powerful thing and God gives us the power to do it through his spirit.
II. Knowing
When we do it we show that God is honorable, and not only that we show that God is knowable, when we obey we show that we have a relationship with God and we know him because it becomes clear in our obedience that he is very different from this world and we are becoming very very different from this world.
Because when people see the way that we act, they see the glory and honor of God and seeking to obey God, God blesses us, that God does something in our lives that is missing in their lives, living obedient lives is pleasing to others because they see the results of those lives and yet when we live disobedient lives it is just the other way. Your obeying can make all the difference in the world in showing people that following Christ makes a better person and leads to a better and greater life.
Because when you have Jesus you have life and you have abundant of it. When you have Jesus you walk in light and no longer walk in darkness and when you have Jesus you have the Truth but you can’t have the Truth if you don’t walk in obedience in God’s word.
1 John 2:9-11
9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
III. Loving
To be in Christ to be in fellowship with God means to love what God loves. What is it that God loves? He loves the lost’s, God loves people who are hurting, in despair, people who are disobedient, hurtful and who hate him and that is the love he gives to people who are truly seeking him.
God’s love stands on it’s own, how do you love? does your loves stand on its own. God’s love gives without expecting anything back, it is a love that is there and powerful, and it’s open to anyone who wants it, it doesn’t required anything from them to earn it. God’s love in us stand on it’s own.
How much is your love conditional? Based upon how well others love you? The love that God calls us to in Christ is the love that stands on it’s own. It’s the love that is transformational in us so much that is leads us to love our enemies, because love isn’t looking for what it gives back, it doesn’t have conditions. Love wants everyone to experience it.
When we are called to love others like we love God we are called to love others with the love of God and that love stands on its own. it’s a love that sacrifices it’s own. True love sacrifices. To love others mean you sacrifice you, give your time, money to give the best of who you are. If you going to be one, it means knowing, obeying and loving. You are willing to sacrifice what ever you have, what every you need to sacrifice to bring the love of God in Christ to others.
Real love is a love that supports what is good and what is true and doesn’t shrink when others are doing things that are killing them piece by piece. It’s a love that will to do what others won’t do because it is not popular, its a love that doesn’t worry about, what if I lose for doing what is right, being in Christ is this.
Do you know him? Do you obey him? Do you love him by loving others?
In the next few weeks go out, each one of you to reach one, bring one, love one, teach one, join one. Know this you will never make it happen unless you are set in your hearts and minds that “I am going to be one.”
Notes taken by: Lorelllawrence@comcast.net The notes is for you to have for review in the series, also to reflect on during the week.