 But Matthew chapter 28 at verses verses 18 to 20 is going to be a very interesting study tonight I've entitled the message tonight Christianity go and you'll see why in a moment I know a lot of you guys are chuckling you cut probably know where I'm going with it, but anyways verse 18. Let's read it says and Jesus came and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth Go there for and make disciples of all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age Amen How many of you have seen in the last few days? People walking around in your community with their noses in their smartphone raise your hand How many of you guys have you seen that a lot of you, right? Chances are that they were probably playing Pokemon go. I'm serious. This thing has Literally blown up. Let me give you some interesting things that are going on right now about this It is the biggest mobile game in US history and With over 21 million active or daily active users in the US That's a lot of people on this thing and not only that but it has attracted more users than Twitter And it's really really getting close to being more popular than Instagram and Facebook This thing is just crazy and it said to you that in July 231 million people talked about Pokemon go on Facebook spurred a 1.1 billion interactions That's huge that is crazy to see something like this So the question is well, what is Pokemon go? Some of you are like, what is that? Well, let me explain this to you Let me take it for I'm taking it from their website. This is what Pokemon go is it says it's an amplified reality mobile game that places animated monsters in the real world all Players also known as Pokemon trainers need their smartphone to view into this world full of Pokemon There's a picture that I want to show you what that actually looks like from the actual is there a picture Do we have a picture? We don't have a picture. There it is. You see that there's the real world in that phone But you see that little thing right there. That's what they're going after. There's a variety of monsters now This is not a lesson on Pokemon go. Okay, I'm getting somewhere here So put your phones down kids who are using this right now. This is not a hotspot right now, okay? If you see anything around me, I'm gonna kick it right but anyways Unlike the traditional video games where you would have to sit in your house and play video games and you know Statistics came out the kids were not being you know, they're not being Pushed to exercise or overweight. They're they're unhealthy. Well, this game has a lot of Physical activity because people have to be on the go. They're everywhere In fact, I was just at a park a few weeks ago and I noticed this is before I kind of Realized what was going on. I noticed there were all these young adults walking around Jogging riding their bikes skateboards walking whatever and they had their phones at it It was the weirdest thing to see all these people doing this And I'm like, okay, that's kind of odd. So I stopped a group of young kids. I said hey listen What are you doing? He says we're playing Pokemon go. I'm like, that's crazy in this whole entire park People were there and I found out that this game has these Hotspots that you find in fact it uses Google Maps and uses all these different things So you can go to these different places where you can find a lot of monsters and zap them The weird thing is it's like people get so serious with this thing And yet they're having a bit a lot of fun. Now this reminded me of the Great Commission. Yes, that's right Because you see a Pokemon players consider a trainer and I'm thinking wait a minute There's something interesting about this and I'm like that is almost like the Great Commission Because the Great Commission we have trainers in the Great Commission and that is you and me We're Christians. We're disciples. We're being trained and we are also going out training others And it's very interesting because the object of this game this Pokemon go game. They have a slogan that says this God to catch them all I'm like, that's exactly what we're doing, right? We have to go catch those who are not saved and bring them into the kingdom of God Obviously, we don't convert them, but we share the gospel with them So I start thinking about all these things and I'm like wow This is just like the Great Commission because like I said Christians are trainers We train others to follow Christ's and just like this Pokemon go game how exciting it is for many How they're having so much fun. I'm thinking the Great Commission is fun I don't know why we make a big deal about the Great Commission I want to dissect these two three verses for you tonight to kind of show you What is this Great Commission? Because there are a lot of Christians today They get scared when they hear the Great Commission because they're thinking oh man He's gonna talk about missions now. I'm gonna have to go out to Africa and really you know, no, no, let's relax We're not going there We're gonna look at this because I think this is very important for us to understand that when I look at the Great Commission I see that this is a great adventure in a real world It's not a game It's actually real life. We're dealing with real souls It's not an imaginary monster out there that we're trying to grab even though some people kind of do look like monsters They act like monsters but we as Christians have an incredible opportunity to reach the losts and There's there's a there's a joy in that there's an adventure in that There's an excitement in that and you're gonna see here why there's such a big excitement to the Great Commission but chapter 28 Jesus has rose from the dead and the conversation between Jesus and his apostles is jam packed with important things for you and I to know about the Great Commission and We see that the Great Commission Stemmed from the heart of God. It wasn't something that Jesus just picked up from another rabbi This came from the heart of God John 3 16 for God so love the world that whoever believes in him shall not perish But have everlasting life from the heart of God came the Great Commission and Not only that but Jesus was sent by the Father to earth to save sinners And this is what it says in John 17 18 Jesus says as you fathers sent me into the world I also have sent them into the world Jesus is sending us as he was sent Did you see that whole progression? See Jesus didn't just come here to down the cross and then get back into heaven and say okay guys We'll see you guys whenever you get up here There's a job here for us. There's a duty here for us and Jesus said there in John 17 That just father just like you sent me from heaven to earth. I am going to send my children to the world The Great Commission was already preached way before Matthew 28 and it's interesting because what we see here Is that the Great Commission is an exciting thing? So the questions that I'm going to answer tonight questions that maybe you may have tonight questions that are like what is Necessary to make me effective in making disciples of all nations. What are the ingredients? What are the qualifications? What are the dynamics in my life that will cause me to fulfill the Lord's command? Because inadequacy is what comes to our minds as Christians when it comes to witnessing and sharing the gospel and Some of you have fear when it comes to evangelism and I'm hoping that at the end of this message Your fears will be calmed in fact you won't have no fear and when you walk out of this place You're gonna be like I can't wait to go out there and find those sinners and bring them to Christ and We see here very clearly that this Great Commission starts with one word in verse 18 Notice what it says Jesus goes to his disciples and he says they immediately are rather I'm in the wrong chapter here actually verse 18 It says Jesus said verse 18 and Jesus came and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth He begins by telling them I have authority in heaven and on earth Now those words are very powerful because he's claiming authority and This indicates that this is an authoritative command not a suggestion In other words you probably heard this. This is not the great suggestion It's not that God is suggesting us to make disciples It's something that he's calling us to do. It's a command and We see that God is calling us to make disciples and we also see here very clearly that Jesus has this plan for us And as he went back into heaven, that's what he left us with so what does that mean? What is the Great Commission? Well before this as a side note notice there The the the word all Dominates these two verses notice it says all authority all nations all things all the days all dominates these verses Jesus's authority was proven and Proclaimed by his resurrection and ascension Just what he did there showed some serious authority to overcome death and Not only that but when Jesus lived on earth a sinless life gave him a lot of authority You know God's authority is something that you see throughout the Old Testament I mean the very first thing we see when it comes to God's authority We see that God gave Adam the authority over animals first thing he saw there We see there in Genesis the God gave him that authority You're the one running the garden. You're the CEO of this garden Adam The only thing is to stay away from that tree in the middle of the garden. Otherwise, this is yours I've given you authority over it over the animals and he named the animals God gave authority to Moses to go back to Pharaoh When Pharaoh says who do I say sent me Jesus or God said tell him I am sent you under my authority go It was a scary time for him, but he actually went God gave Joshua the authority to lead the second generation into the promised land Another man who was afraid Joshua chapter 1 you see it many times do not be afraid be very courageous do not be afraid We see that God gave him the authority to do it when God gives you authority do it When he's behind it, you do it with confidence. You do it with boldness in the New Testament We see the authority of Jesus displayed in a variety of ways Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River the heavens opened up and then we hear the voice of God the father saying This is my son whom I am well pleased his stamp of approval. He is authorizing the son. This is the Messiah listen to him The authority of Christ's and as we see throughout the Gospels We see that Jesus showed a variety of things Proving his authority Now one thing that's interesting about Jesus is that Jesus never flaunted his authority He didn't walk around saying do you know who I am? You know what I can do to you. He didn't do that He actually did not flaunt his authority. However, he didn't hide his authority either Listen to this when he was teaching Matthew 7 20 7 29 it says for he taught them as one Having authority and not as describes the teachings of Christ were with authority and People recognized that authority that he would he had something different what he was saying was so different than those rabbis than describes And yet we see that Jesus did not hide that in fact the religious leaders questioned his authority There was at one time when they came to Jesus and they said by what authority do you do these things? You remember that by what authority they understood that you got some authority He didn't flaunt it, but he didn't hide it and it's interesting to me that Jesus made it very clear that He was basically over The things that are on this earth nature the spiritual realm and we see that throughout the Gospels When Jesus came to this earth. He showed his absolute authority. He had authority over nature. He stopped the storm He walked on water He even had the authority to forgive sins which almost got him killed for that He was a man full of authority When you think about somebody having absolute authority, it's kind of scary, isn't it? Somebody who has that much authority. I mean we're dealing with that in our nation globally when there's a wicked leader a government official who has this big authority we get scared like what are they gonna do and You see we see though that in the scriptures When Jesus was tempted in Matthew chapter 4 actually in Luke chapter 4 We see that Satan said something very interesting to Jesus to try to get him to bow down to him basically to stop him from going to the cross and Luke chapter 4 verse 6 Satan came to Jesus and he said this He took he takes him on a high mountain. He says all this Authority he said I will give to you and their glory for this has been given to me interesting and I give it to whomever I wish Isn't it interesting? Satan says I All this is under my authority Wow now that is scary, right that the devil has that authority. I would be afraid of that one What happened there? Well, we know that Satan is the the God of this age He's the one who's working in the sense of disobedience He's on a long leash. He's not like absolute authority there like Jesus is But we see though in this world obviously God is using him Throughout this world as you see in the book of Revelation But yet we see though that Satan made it clear to Jesus and hey, I have authority to and of course Jesus didn't give in to that temptation With Jesus you are safe when it comes to his authority Because Jesus possessed all authority and he came here to serve people not to destroy people not to You know abuse people Jesus came without authority to serve you and I isn't that crazy? Satan however What the way he uses his authority is to steal To kill and to destroy That's how he uses his authority But you see Jesus doesn't do that. He came to save lives not to destroy lives And so Jesus here we see very clearly he says it right away. He says to them all authority has been given to me Notice he says they're in verse 18 In heaven and on earth and then he says something different notice in verse 19. He gets into this here now. He said go therefore Go therefore. What does that mean? well The go therefore phrase in the greek the idea here is not go on a mission trip The idea here is not is not just just go out somewhere Although it's not a bad idea to go on a mission trip. I mean that's that that's an important element within within christian within within church but This is a command To disciple as you are already going What does that mean robert going where? everywhere Well, let me kind of break it down the The the greek phrase here or this sentence here That the main verb is make disciples. There's not so much on the going. It's make disciples That's the emphasis here that jesus is making and he's saying it here very clearly that when it comes to the words go Baptizing and teaching those describe aspects of the process of discipleship making or disciple making So what is jesus saying? He's saying this while you are going through your daily routine You while you work at a grocery store medical office sales doctor lawyer, whatever you do He says as you are going on with that as you're going along doing what you do every day. He says disciple eyes make disciples pretty interesting Because when we look at something like this we're thinking oh that I have to go somewhere I have to you know somehow, you know buy a plane ticket and fly to another country or fly somewhere else and and disciple people Uh-uh. That's not what it's saying See the disciples were being basically set to go into judaea samaria as we see in acts chapter one verse eight They were going to be going already And jesus is okay as you are going Disciple eyes make disciples Of all nations as he's going to say here in a moment Now what is a disciple? Well A good disciple is one who listens understands and obeys jesus instruction That's a that's a disciple So as jesus is saying we as disciples are to go and make disciples as we're going along our daily routine jesus says make sure that you are teaching people Bringing them into the kingdom You know one of the things that we see in the book of acts right away Is that when the disciples are being persecuted by saw? It says it very clearly in acts chapter eight verse four Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere doing what? Preaching the word There was no specific location. They were being persecuted. They just left And it was like the holy spirit just Scattered them and as they went out they didn't go out and hide they went out preaching the gospel They went out telling people about the gospel That's as they were going. That's what they were doing And it's interesting that we see this very clearly that instead of making evangelism a special separate part of our lives What we should do here is make evangelism as an essential part of our lives Using whatever opportunities normally and naturally arise as we go about our daily services or routines As you go to work tomorrow You just open yourself up to the holy spirit. There's probably many people that don't know jesus and probably a few that are ready to come to christ You don't have to leave You can see the mission field right there, you know in our church here as you drive out. It says you're entering the mission field Did you did you know that there's a there's a sign there? I think that is so great I think that's a great reminder As you leave this church. Hey sometimes churches be within themselves becomes missionary fields sometimes You know what i'm saying, but but as you leave you're entering the mission field I think that's well said And this is what jesus is communicating to his disciples And he's telling them basically to as you go. He says make disciples He says reproduce yourself and others You know back in the 60s they had this phrase and I wasn't born in the 60s, but I know this is what they said Keep the faith remember that for those of you who were born in the 60s or lived around the 60s keep the faith Really, that's not christianity Give it out, right? We're not supposed to keep the faith. We're supposed to give it out And we see here very clearly that as we reproduce ourselves and others We want to bring people into the kingdom of christ because of what god has worked in us already Paul even said this in 1 Corinthians 11 1 he says imitate me Just as I also imitate christs That's pretty powerful Imitate me as I imitate christ And I was hey listen you want to hang out with me and all of that that's great and all but listen I am not jesus, but i'm imitating christ. So as I imitate him you imitate him too I think that's cool to see this from paul That means that every person can participate in the great commission Without ever going on a trip because we are all involved in the going As you leave tonight's service You're on the go You don't know what god is going to do as you're heading out Perhaps some of you are heading into a restaurant. Perhaps some of you are going back to work maybe tonight You are going and in that process of going be ready to disciple people Share the gospel We see here that as you go about your business making disciples This is basically the natural part of the christian life Jesus assumes you're going about your daily routine Everybody here is busy everybody has a routine everybody has things that are that you're doing every day And it's within in in those things Jesus says Disciple ice It's so easy to forget that We go to work and we think you know what i'm working eight hours here and I don't even think of christs Perhaps it's because you're busy or not. I don't know but sometimes we just don't think that way We don't think that god can use me here at my job to lead people to christs And jesus says I have all authority in heaven and on earth I can open up those doors We've got to be careful that we don't limit god in what he wants to do Each day People who do not know jesus Will cross our path And it should be an exciting thing. It shouldn't be something that we should fear And we see here that this this is something that we need to understand that as we go about our day Be ready to make disciples A great example is in acts chapter three peter and john we see peter and john We're going to the temple at the hour of prayer. It was something that they did pretty much as a routine and Whether that man that was paralyzed that was placed there at the entrance was always there or perhaps He was you know, they went a certain way. They ended up crossing his path I don't know how it went, but I know that he was placed there Perhaps different sections in the temple, but most most of the time it was at the entrance because that's where everybody came in And for some reason the holy spirit spoke to peter's heart and at that time that that man was there They crossed paths. That's when peter said I don't have money, but what I do have is jesus christ of nazareth Get up and walk and you know the story, right? How do you know that god is going to place somebody in your path? Who is ripe and ready to accept christ's? We don't know that I remember one time I was at a youth group and I was leading this youth group and there was this dude that came in He was a he was a an ex-ganger or perhaps was still in gangs. He was scary looking. He was big He's like this tall I mean this guy was pretty scary and I just felt compelled to share the gospel with this guy Even if he stabbed me or shot me. Oh, well, here I go, right? So I just shared the gospel with this guy and it took me like 30 minutes to articulate the truth of god to this man to this young guy And at the end of those 30 minutes, I kind of timed it I said to him so would you like to accept jesus christ into your life? He says, yeah, of course What do you mean? He might spend 30 minutes just talking to you. Was it that easy? I could have just said hey, do you want to accept jesus? And he would have probably didn't right there He says I was already ready See, we don't know the people That we cross paths whether it's at work Whether it's in the grocery line wherever it is. You don't know what that person's heart where it's going What's happening in there? and until we take that step to just Evangelize them encourage them and once they come to christ You begin to make them disciples Invite them to church There's a discipleship class There's baptisms coming and all of a sudden you're making disciples And it becomes this this exciting adventure and this is what jesus is telling the disciples The word disciple as I mentioned today earlier literally means a learner that denotes one who follows another's teaching And that learner a disciple is always learning We're always learning as christians God is always teaching us things I'm always blown away when I read the scriptures or god reveals things to me I'm still learning and there's never going to be a day or a time that i'm going to get to a place in my walk with christ Where i'm going to know everything Oh, I already know the bible i've gone through it already i've taught no no never there's things that god still surprises me I get excited about Because as a disciple you're always learning And so what we do is we we take what we've learned and we begin to disciple people we begin to tell people about christ Discipleship or discipling means teaching people to observe that which jesus has commanded Now the rest of the verse describes more of what it means to make disciples And notice what he says it says baptize them Baptize them he said the idea here is that I am to help people make a firm commitment to become a follower of jesus christ Baptism does not save you Baptism only confirms what god had already done in your life You're you're you're publicly saying to those listening or watching that you are identifying with jesus christ with his death, burial and resurrection So when people say well, I don't want to be baptized Why wouldn't you want to identify yourself with jesus if you've already received christ into your life? The next step is baptism because you're publicly saying to those watching I am a follower of jesus christ's And we see that the baptism that jesus is referring to here is has that idea This is what happened with philip when philip in acts chapter 8 verse 26 When god led him in that little road that that deserted road He was heading in that direction had no clue what was going on and then all of a sudden There's this Ethiopian eunuch in this chariot coming in from worship and then the holy spirit says go overtake that chariot And then when he went over and to see what was going on you guys probably know the story This guy was reading the scroll of isiah He had no clue what he was reading and he even asked him. Do you understand what you're reading? He says I don't how can I? and then it says that philip preached jesus to him From where he was at philip didn't preach a feel-good message or A positive thinking kind of message. He went right to the core and that's jesus christ's And philip was there and then when philip showed him that it was christ in that verse That man immediately received christ and then he says what must I do to be baptized? And that's what he said we'll believe in jesus christ and he did right then and there And then there was a puddle of water there a thing of water. He says well, there's some water there Let's do it and he baptizes them right there. He made a disciple That's pretty cool Sunday We're going to see a lot of people baptized if you have not been baptized as a christian You've been a christian for a while and whatever reason you maybe you haven't done it yet Your upper your your your chance your opportunity is this sunday night or yeah this sunday night You can get baptized identify yourself with christ. There's no shame in that And this is what he's telling them. He says baptize them and notice He says in the name of the father the son and then the holy spirit this literally says into the name of This is the trinity here. This suggests coming into relationship with god as a disciple Baptism indicates both coming into a covenant relationship with god and pledging submission to his lordship And the cool thing about this this baptism into the name of the father son and holy spirit Is that the experience of god here is in these three persons is the essential basis of discipleship As he's as they're baptized into the trinity father son holy spirit But notice what he says though. He also says He says I want to go back to it because I kind of missed this one But he says all authority has been given to me go there and make disciples and notice he says all nations I want to I want to hit that one real quickly because I I didn't I skipped it Jesus here commands the making of disciples of individuals from all ethnic groups including judaism And It has all it has always been god's heart Always been god's hearts or his desire to reach the world With all these lost sinners that are out there today. It's been his heart for the longest time It's been the desire of god from the beginning that he wants to bring him into fellowship with god How do I know that first timothy chapter 2 verse 4 says this God who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth That is the heart of our god And we as his people should have that same heart Because that is his desire for everybody On this earth Is for them to come into that saving knowledge of jesus christ into that relationship It's about sharing jesus with everyone if and especially if They are not like you We shouldn't pick and choose who we want to share jesus with I know sometimes the person that cut you off. You're like they can go to hell We're like that sometimes Or the person that's you know, that's that's annoying. He's like i'm not going to share the gospel with them. Oh, well, they're going to miss out That's not the way it should be. It doesn't matter We have been commanded to share the gospel With everyone Doesn't matter whether they look like you or not whether they are weird geeky. It doesn't matter That person that individual that soul is important to god And it's an important concept is important thing here for us to understand here that this is about sharing jesus with everyone And the cool thing about this is that you can do it in your own hometown You can do it wherever you're at whether you're at school at work In fact, there's probably many ethnic groups in your own in your town And even if there's a muslim living next door, don't don't be afraid of them share the gospel with them I remember when I was in bible college many years ago The mosque here. There's a muslim mosque up here. I was in bible college, you know as a young guy I remember going to bible college, you know, you're getting puffed up with knowledge, right? You're thinking you're like john the baptist, right? You ready to go to central and just start preaching the gospel to people off of central You know what i'm saying? So I remember my friend and I were like, you know what we were studying world religions here at the church here With one of the classes and I said, you know what there's a mosque down there. Let's go evangelize these guys And a little that I know about, you know, Islam I just we went out there and and we wanted to evangelize them And also we wanted to obtain a Quran because we wanted to study the Quran And so we walked into this mosque and we were like the only two Students in this mosque were walking around. I think we I mean we we were there Nobody was around and we were like kind of like in this hallway that it was echoey And we're just saying hello Hello And it was just like nobody was there and I'm thinking we're trespassing right now. We're going to get in trouble So as we're walking through my friend said, let's just keep going. No, there's a library here So we went in there and as we see up in their shelf all these Quran's Well, that's what we need And so he says no, don't take it. Let's find somebody so as we walk back out out of that that library We hear a voice. Can I help you like oh dude? We're in trouble now We're just bible college students from Calvary Chapel Chino Valley. We just want a Quran Well come in first in my office like we're dead So here we walk into the office and this is this is the the the head of the mosque And we sit down with him and and we just him and I my friend We just start sharing Jesus with this guy It's like well, you know, we just want to share about Jesus with you. Oh, we believe in Jesus We love Jesus. No, no, no, you say he's a prophet Just one of the prophets we believe Jesus the Messiah And we went back and forth back and then they bring in food for us And I don't know the culture And my friend's like, oh good food. I said, no, don't eat it I said, you serious? I said, we're going to be the first martyrs here in chino I didn't know the culture. That was what they do. They feed you I'm like, how am I going to have that? So my friend's like eating it up like I'm out of here, you know, we went back and forth back and forth back and forth with this guy And we didn't go anywhere but but we share the gospel with him I mean, it would have been easy for me to say, oh, no, they're they're muslims I'm not going to go there and share the gospel forget them No, we're just share the gospel with everybody Even the neighbor that bothers you We're just share the gospel with Because that is our command. That's what Jesus is calling us to do And so he tells us not only to baptize them, but notice teaching notice what it says The word teaching here has the idea of conveying theology The things Jesus taught and living the things I am teaching In other words, I'm to model obedience Listen guys, if you're a Christian and you're working and you're not modeling obedience to Christ They're not going to want to listen to you If you're cussing and swearing and laughing at their jokes and stealing and and just being this honest listen When they find out you're a Christian or if they already know you're a Christian They're going to look at you as a hypocrite or a phony Discipleship won't work there We have to model obedience. What does that mean that we show that we have integrity in our walk with christs That we do go to church and and that we're not like them And and we see here that when jesus says teaching them he says not only teach them doctrine But also model obedience because that's the way they're going to become effective disciples Any proclamation of the gospel, which does not have christ at the center is not the gospel And if that's what our lives are kind of showing at work, then that is not the gospel message And we see here that disciples here must not just must not just understand what jesus has commanded as as foundational as this is They must also obey it. So when we teach them, we also want to teach them to obey to obey I remember disciple in this young guy many years ago He struggled with smoking pot And I said to him he just got saved I said listen, dude, you got to get off of that And he says but but robert you don't understand every time I smoke weed man I get this boldness. Is that from the holy spirit? I said no, it's from the drug But I just I could share jesus with these guys when I'm smoking pot. I said, dude, listen, you're deceived That is not good if you're sitting there smoking a joint with your friends, they're not going to take you serious You're not modeling obedience And so when we see this here, this is an important thing because obedience is so important in the christian life Jesus even said this in luke 646 But why do you call me lord lord and not do the things which I say? That's very convicting, isn't it? Listen, we're not going to be living a perfect life on this side of heaven I'm not preaching perfection here because none of a none none of you here Including myself are perfect and you're not going to experience perfection on this side of heaven until you get to heaven But we strive to live a pure life. We strive to live an obedient life in christ's It's a believing learner one who places faith in christ and who follows in a life of learning the disciple It's a beautiful word And and a lot of you here tonight who are born again christians. You are disciples Begin to reproduce yourself in others Begin to share what what you've learned About christ from this pulpit from your devotional life and begin to go out and and bring that over to somebody Who's ready to receive jesus christ, of course We're not going to go out there and shove it to people that don't want it But there are many people out there i guarantee you jesus even said that there a lot of sheep out there And the labors are few he said That there are people that are ready ready to get right with god And we see here that jesus is encouraging the disciples to go out on this great commission But notice the final component of the great commission in verse 20 He said this He says and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age What does that mean? It means this That I am not on my own In the great commission I am not on my own in the great commission That's what it says right here Do you see you and I need the power of the holy spirit to disciple To make disciples We are not alone in this process in this adventure Jesus joins you and you're going You're baptizing and in your teaching as you disciple others He's with you And that's the cool thing about this is that jesus christ says i'm not detaching myself from you I'm going to be with you. I'm not leaving you alone. You need my power Acts 1a we I said it earlier When it says that jesus said you're going to receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you And you will be witnesses to me not that you're going to go out and witness you're going to be witnesses This is who you are with the holy spirit living in you. He says throughout all these areas judea Jerusalem judea samaria and to the ends of the earth as you're going He says you're going to just be lighting up the world like jesus said in matthew 5 right You are the light of the world. Listen. You are not that you're going to become You don't wake up in the morning and turn on a switch. Okay. I'm a light today You are that's who you are in christ now. It depends on you how bright you shine That's on you christ is we're already living in you. He's ready to just shine But we're the ones that control that depending on our obedience disobedience grieving the spirit Let me close with a few final thoughts One is that you are already going You're a busy person you're you have your daily routine You don't need to go anywhere else on planet earth to fulfill the great commission You can start that at work Perhaps at school Everywhere the street you live the town you live in Your workplace your sphere of influence are the places where you are already going Make disciples jesus would say in those places You are on an exciting mission with jesus who is with you as you do what he has commanded You're not alone It's an exciting journey It's an exciting task Because this hopefully removes the pressure of evangelism when you hear evangelism when somebody comes up and Preaches on evangelism a lot of you are like, oh, I don't like talking about jesus if you don't know, you know, or street evangelism I've done that before I've gone door to door knocking here at the church It's not comfortable for me to get the door shut in your face to say no, thank you You want to open it up say wait a minute, you know Then you go to jail But when you think about evangelism a lot of people say, oh, no, no, no, I'm not gonna call many evangelists No, great glory. No, no, no raw reason. I don't know. I'm not like those guys. No, no, no Listen, this is not about that This is about wherever you go You're making disciples. You're sharing the gospel with people on an individual basis Discipleship is more than just going to starbucks Because sometimes we look at discipleship. Oh, yeah, I've been discipling this guy. Oh, yeah Tell me about the subject. Well, he likes macchiato or caramel macchiato and um, you know No, no, no that that's not discipleship You mean you're not reading the bible with them or you're not teaching it? No, no, but the coffee's good That's not discipleship starbucks. Not discipleship unless you have a bible open and you're teaching them I've discipled a lot of people some that were you know Fruful others were not fruitful because one they did not want to obey What was being taught? I remember I spent about eight months with one young guy Meeting him at the public library going through the gospel of john with him because he showed interest in jesus I said great. Let's go to the library. Let's meet there at six o'clock One day a week and we will go through the gospel of john You can ask all the questions that you have and and and you know what I will teach you about jesus and I did that for eight months It didn't work. Why because he did not want to obey The things of christ's In fact, he did come to the lord But for some reason there was a glitch there in his life That he did not want to obey the lord I've had other discipleship opportunities where they just grew In fact many years ago, I remember discipling this another young guy in new york I passed her to church in upset new york That's why I have all these experiences when it comes to discipleship And I did a lot of young adult things with with groups that is and in teens and I remember one specific teen I remember he was so messed up on drugs He was just struggling with god and I remember spending time with him too. It didn't go anywhere I was so bummed. I moved back to california and four five years later. I get a call from this kid Now 20 years old saying to me, you know what? I know that we spent time together for a while You're reading the bible encouragement to listen to jesus to walk with him and whatnot I was listening to you But I was in a hard spot, but I want to tell you today. I am following jesus christ The fruit Came later It's frustrating at first where you're like i'm wasting my time, but you know what? It's not it's not your it's not my time. It's god's time And this young boy blew me away When he said this and here's another one recently My wife and I were at home and I get this phone call from this this young girl who was in college when I was pastoring there Who we invited the church we we encouraged her we shared the the lord with her She didn't come to christ and she called us about three weeks ago from new york And we haven't even seen this girl for six years and she's crying on the phone Telling her my wife and I I just want to thank you guys for what you said to me and the things you taught me I just came to jesus and she just started crying and she i'm like wow That's so awesome So the person you just shared jesus with today at work Don't be a don't be bummed out that they looked at you and said you're crazy Because you don't know what will happen down the road They may be calling you saying thank you for telling me that jesus loves me jesus said All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. He is he has absolute authority guys rest in that Be encouraged because the great commission here Is a wonderful task. It's an exciting journey That god has given you and i the opportunity to make disciples Of all nations amen