Greg Laurie - Go! (12/14/2017)
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Pastor Greg Laurie closes his Matthew series with the Great Commission in Matthew 28 and Luke 14, calling every believer to "Go" into their world and make disciples. Jesus commands us to preach the gospel with Holy Spirit power—not as a suggestion but an urgent order—promising His presence always, while warning that failing to share could be sin by omission, urging us to count the cost of true discipleship and reach others before it's too late.
The Great Commission – Jesus' Final Orders
All right, well, let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 28 and also Luke chapter 14. And the title of my message is Go. Guess where I got that title. Quick question. Have you ever bought a computer or an electronic device and you had it all set up and you were ready to use it and it didn't work, so you call a tech person and say, my computer doesn't work. Here are the two questions they are always going to ask you. Number one, is it plugged in? Number two, is it turned on? And you would be surprised to know how many times people will call with these issues and their device is not plugged in nor is it turned on.
Well here is a question. Are we plugged in to the Holy Spirit's power? More? Why is this important? Because Jesus has given us a job to do. It is a big job. Wimps need not apply. It is the job of world evangelization. And we are all called to do it. Jesus has told us to go. To go where? Into all the world. Go and do what? Go and preach the gospel and make disciples.
Now this is our last message from the Gospel of Matthew. And we are going to be looking in this final message in this series on what is often referred to as the Great Commission. These are the final words of Christ before He ascended to heaven. And effectively this is the climax, the crescendo of the Gospel of Matthew. In fact if you don't understand these words you have kind of missed the whole point of the Gospel because everything is building to this. And this is a message that is given to every follower of Jesus Christ. Every man, every woman, young people, old people, new believers, more mature believers. There are no exceptions. It is the Great Commission.
Picking Up After the Resurrection
But before we identify what that is let's pick up where we last left off. You recall that Jesus Christ had been crucified. This came as a great shock to His followers. They expected Him to establish His kingdom on earth. But instead He was beaten to a bloody pulp. He was hung on a Roman cross. And they heard with their own ears those words, "It is finished." And watched as He died before their very eyes. They never thought they would see Him again.
Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb early in the morning to anoint His body. And it is empty. She calls for Peter and John who investigate, still not sure what has happened. Then Christ Himself appears to Mary. He appears again to the disciples in the upper room. He appears even again, this time with Thomas present. Then He appears to Simon Peter personally. He appears to the two disciples on the Emmaus Road. He appears to 500 people at one time. He appears again to Peter, James, and John at the Sea of Galilee. There was no disputing the fact that Jesus Christ was alive.
Ironically it seems as though the non-believers had more faith that He would rise again than the believers had. Because if you go back to Matthew 27:63 we find them coming and saying, "We remember that when He was still alive the deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day." I mean these are the non-believers. And they are saying, hey remember, and they call Him the deceiver, remember Jesus said He would rise again. Yeah we better keep an eye on that.
Isn't that interesting? That sometimes non-believers have a better idea of what we should believe in than we ourselves have. Have you ever been busted by a non-Christian? And by that I mean, have you ever had a non-Christian call you out on the fact that you weren't acting as a follower of Jesus? You know maybe you lost your temper and you yelled and they said, hey I thought you were a Christian man. And you say, I am a Christian. Praise God. Yeah but should you be like losing it like that? If you are a Christian, well yes I can. I have a good point there.
You know years ago when I was a younger believer and we were just starting our church here, I went out to get some pizza at Newport Beach. And that was a place I had gone to ever since I had been a kid. And I took a friend of mine with me. And so we sat down and we were getting ready to order. And I looked over at a table near me and there was a guy sitting there I immediately recognized. His name was Paul and we went to school together. And isn't it funny how some people don't change with the passing of time? I mean they just, they look exactly the same. They don't change their haircut. They look the same. And this guy looked like the same guy except he was just larger than he used to be, you see.
And so I said, excuse me, is your name Paul? He said, yes. I said, well I am Greg Laurie. Well he didn't recognize me because I used to have this little surfer wave. Now I had hair parted down to my shoulders. A big bushy beard. And he goes, wow, Greg, you grew your hair out. Yeah, but listen Paul, I have become a Christian. And not only am I a Christian, I am a pastor now. So I share my faith with Paul. He is listening. He goes, you know it is a good thing, Greg, because you really were bad in school. I remember how you were always mocking the teacher and getting sent to the vice principal's office and all the trouble you caused. Yes, Paul, that is true. But I am a different person now. The Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new person altogether. All things have become new.
Well that is great, Greg. Yes. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You know, so I felt very good about myself. Boy, I told him all about the Lord. So we are waiting for the pizza to come. We ordered. My friend went to the restroom for a moment and our pizza arrives. And I had this devious thought. I thought, wouldn't it be funny to cover his side of the pizza with red pepper flakes? So when he ate it it would be really hot. See I have always been this way. I don't know what to say. I am not even going to justify it. I am just telling you. So I am pouring the red pepper flakes kind of chuckling to myself at what my friend's reaction will be. And I completely forgot about Paul at the table next to me. He looks over and says, "Haven't changed much have you, Greg?" So I felt it was only fitting that I ate my friend's side of the pizza. Now that didn't work out so well.
I read a true story about a bar that was being built in Texas. A local Baptist church started a campaign with petitions and prayers to stop this bar from being built. So work was progressing on the bar when one night lightning struck the building that they were putting up and it burned to the ground. So the bar owner sued the church saying they were responsible because of their prayers. The church denied any responsibility and any connection to their prayers and the fire. And so it was brought before a judge. And a judge read through the plaintiff's complaint and the defendant's reply. And here is what the judge said. And I quote, "I don't know how I am going to decide this, but it appears from the paperwork that we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and an entire church congregation that now does not."
Yeah, sometimes the non-believers have it clearer than we have it. The non-believers believed Jesus could rise again, put a guard at His tomb. But His own followers didn't believe it. But He was alive. And they couldn't deny what they knew was true. And it transformed their lives.
Jesus' Final Words – The Great Commission
Now Christ makes all these appearances and He is getting ready to ascend to heaven. So He gathers them together. And that is where our story begins in Matthew chapter 28 verse 16. "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the 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." Amen.
That is the great commission. Mark's version of the great commission goes as follows. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." So here we have the Lord telling us what we are to do. A couple of things jump out that are important from the original language. In the original language they are a command. That is why we call this the great commission and not the great suggestion. It was not a mere suggestion of Jesus that we as followers carry the gospel to all the nations. It was and is a command.
The commission of the church is not to wait for the world to come to us. The commission of the church is to go into all of the world. So they are a command. Number two, these words were given to every follower of Jesus. They are not merely directed to the original twelve or to what we might describe as professionals today. You know, pastors or evangelists or missionaries. No, these words were given to every follower of Jesus Christ. It comes down to this. If I am a disciple, I am commanded to go and make disciples of others. On the other hand, if I am not making disciples of others, then I am not being the disciple He wants me to be.
So here is my question to you today. How are you doing on your part in fulfilling the great commission? Are you going into all of your world? I know some of you are thinking, Oh come on. Not another message on evangelism from Greg, you know. He always drags these things out. Especially when it is crusade season. I know that. And I am not going to apologize for that. But this isn't about me giving another message on evangelism. This is about what Jesus said to us. These are His closing words before He ascended. These things are a big deal to Christ. And they should be a big deal to us. He orders us to go into the world and preach the gospel.
Let me say this. I believe to fail to do this could actually be a sin. You say a sin. Well I mean maybe we could do more. But it is not a sin if I don't share the gospel. I think it could be. Because James 4:17 says, "To him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." It is called the sin of omission. Which is not doing what you are supposed to do.
The Sin of Omission – Failing to Warn
Let's say I was in an office building and a fire broke out. So I quickly scurried down the stairs and ran outside. And I was safe. But there was a building still full of people. And I didn't set off the fire alarm. I didn't yell a warning to anybody else. All I cared about was myself. I got out of the burning building. Who cares about them? And the building burns to the ground and everyone in it dies. Was that a bad thing that I failed to warn them? Well that is criminal negligence.
Let's say that I am a doctor and I run a series of tests on you. And I find out that you have some kind of an illness that can get a lot worse. But if you take a course of antibiotics you could stop it. Or maybe a surgery is required. But I decide I don't want to confront you with this information because I know you are going on vacation. And I don't want to ruin your vacation. And besides I don't like to bring bad news to people. I find it difficult. So I decide to not tell you. Is that a bad thing? Well of course it is.
So if I have the answer to all of the problems that people face today, most notably where they will spend eternity, and fail to tell them, could that be a sin? The answer is absolutely. For many of us the Great Commission has instead become the Great Omission. I have told you that stat before that says 95% of all Christians have never led another person to the Lord. And I don't think that is true of us. Here I know you guys get out there and share your faith. How many of you have ever led another person to Christ? Raise up your hand. Well it is almost like the opposite here. And we thank God for that. But for many they are not doing that.
So what are we to do? Coming back to Mark's version of the Great Commission. "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel." Now here is what Jesus did not say. He did not say go into all the world and just be a good example of what a Christian is. I am not suggesting you go and be a bad example. I think it is obvious that we need to practice what we preach. Sometimes it is said preach the Gospel and when necessary use words. I know that is a good saying. And I think it has its place. Because it is underscoring the importance of living it out. However don't just take that as your mission statement. Go out and preach the Gospel and use words. That would be like saying we are going to have a newscast without any words. You turn on the news and they just sit there. Well we are just trying to be a good example. Oh no. Tell me what the news is. That is what the word broadcast is. It comes from a word that means to cast seed. To broadcast. To put it out. We must use words as we bring the message of the Gospel.
Why? Because the primary way that God has chosen to reach lost people is through the verbal communication of His Word. 1 Corinthians 1:21 says "in the wisdom of God. The world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those that believe." Now it doesn't say through foolish preaching. But the foolishness of preaching. Romans 10:14 says, "How can they call on Him if they do not believe in Him? How can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?"
So what are we to preach? We are to preach the Gospel. What is the Gospel? Does anyone know what the word Gospel means? Exactly right. It means good news. And for a person to fully appreciate the good news, they have to first know the bad news. Jesus is not a mere additive to a person's life that will make it a little bit better. Jesus is the one and only Savior of the world that can forgive them of their transgressions. So I have to tell them, You are a sinner. You have broken God's commandments. You have fallen short of God's standards. There is nothing you can do to fix that. All the good works in the world will not compensate for that. That is the bad news. But the good news is, Jesus Christ the Son of God died on the cross for you and absorbed God's wrath and paid for your sin and rose again from the dead. And if you will turn from your sin and follow Him, you can be forgiven. That is good news you see. That is the message we are to proclaim to the world.
Avoiding Distractions – The True Gospel
Well this isn't happening as much as it should. There are some people in the church telling us today we must preach a more holistic gospel. A holistic gospel is the idea that it is not just about telling people about Jesus. It is about other things. It is about doing good works for people. It is about modeling for them what it is to be a follower of Jesus. And one definition of a holistic gospel goes as follows. Quote, "We need to recognize that the whole gospel includes our responsibility to live in community to God's creation. That includes some of the most sensitive ecological issues of our day. Issues like pollution and deforestation." End quote. Oh really? So now our message is trying to stop pollution and not cut down so many trees? No. I am sorry. That is not the gospel. The gospel is the message of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Anything short of that or adding on to that is a distraction. And if we fail to do this we are missing the point.
Listen folks. We do not need to get all worked up about global warming. We need to be far more concerned about a global warning. That people need Jesus Christ. And they need to turn from Him. That is the message of the church. That is the message we are to proclaim. Jesus says, "Go into all the world." You say, Well that is a big job. Ok. Let us localize it. Let us personalize it. We will call it the I Gospel if you will. Go into all of your world and preach the gospel. Go to your sphere of influence.
That is why we are undertaking this large scale outreach in 2012 that we are calling Harvest America. Our goal is to reach in the next 1,000 days or three crusade cycles as many people as it has taken us 22 years to reach in live events. As you know in our crusades over the years we have seen somewhere over 4 million people come out to one of our crusades. And we have seen close to 400,000 people walk forward when the invitation is given to make a profession of faith to follow Christ. That is great. But you know what? There is a lot to do. And there is a lot of people to reach. So using all forms of media including live events where a video is streamed in and radio and television. Everything else we can use. We are going to try to reach as many people as it has taken us 22 years to reach in the next three years. That is a bold plan. And you might say, Well Greg, what if you fail? Yeah. So what if we succeed? What if we surpass our expectations?
Listen, I would rather try and fail than not do anything at all. I am a man under orders and Jesus has told me and He has told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. So this is what we are to do. But then we read here in Matthew we are to make disciples of all nations. What does that mean? It means to the best of our ability being led by the Holy Spirit we are to invite people to follow Christ. Then we are to help them get on their feet spiritually and start growing and help them move forward. That is our job. Colossians 1:28 says, "We proclaim Christ. We warn everyone we meet. Teach everyone we can. All that we know about Him. And this we do so we can bring every man to his full maturity in Christ." We want to help them grow up.
Somewhere along the line we have separated evangelism from discipleship. But we see no such distinction in Scripture. The idea is not to just lead a person in prayer and then say, God bless you. See you later. But rather it is to help them grow and mature in their faith. Because new believers need help as they make that commitment to follow the Lord.
What New Believers Need – Protection, Fellowship, Food, Training
New believers are just like new babies. And I don't know if you have any small children at home or a baby. But we have our little grandchild. I have four granddaughters now. And the youngest is little Allie. And she is one year old. And she is just so cute. And every day she does something new. She has her own language that I do not understand. But she does. She will walk right up to you and say, And then walk off. Like okay. She walks now. And she even runs. She is actually quite adept at kicking a ball around. I think she might be a future soccer player. I mean you throw a ball in front of most babies and they will just you know maybe pick it up and drop it. Allie starts like kind of kicking it down the thing like this. You know she is a pretty impressive little child. I am not biased though. But you know babies need help. Just like new believers need help.
Number one. New believers need protection. Paul speaking to the new believers in Galatia said, "Oh my dear children. I feel as though I am going through labor pains for you again. That you will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives." You know you can't just turn a baby loose in a house. You have to watch them. Because they get themselves into mischief all the time. You know Allie walks up to the plugs and puts her finger No, no don't. So I put all those little plastic things now in the plugs. We have to put a little fence up so she can't go up the stairs. You have to watch over a baby constantly because they are getting into trouble. The same is true of a new believer. They make that commitment to Christ and they are so vulnerable. Those old friends will call up and tell them to go join them. That old boyfriend or girlfriend will contact them and say, Let's get together again. The temptations will come. You as an older, more mature believer need to help them and guide them in that regard so they don't fall away.
New believers need fellowship. You know, after Saul's conversion there was great doubt among the believers as to whether or not he had really become a Christian. They thought it was some kind of a trick to infiltrate their ranks. I mean, it is hard for us to understand how notorious Saul of Tarsus was. He was the Christian killer. He hunted down followers of Jesus, tortured them, and even put some to death. It would be like hearing that Bill Maher has become a Christian. Oh, did you hear the latest? Christopher Hitchens has put his faith in Christ, the renowned atheist. Or, Richard Dawkins is a believer now. Oh, hey, Howard Stern is serving the Lord. Oh, did you hear the latest? Lady Gaga is leading worship. It doesn't make sense. Is that possible? Oh, sure. With God all things are possible. He could save any of those people. Well, that is what it was like for Saul to get saved. But even more because he was so extreme. And when they heard, Saul is a believer, a lot of the believers are like, we are not buying this. It is a trick.
But God led a man named Ananias to go to Saul and to pray for him. And he helped them in that very critical transitional moment after his commitment to Christ. And then later God brought a man named Barnabas to introduce Saul around to other believers and help him get on his feet. And this all resulted in Saul changing his name and becoming the beloved Apostle Paul. See, a lot of us would like to be a Paul maybe. But are you willing to be an Ananias or a Barnabas? That is the whole idea here. That we want to be there helping people. Because when a person first comes to Christ they can be a little disoriented when they first come to church. Do you remember what it was like for you? So I don't know about you. I wasn't raised in the church. And when I first started attending church I was like mystified by what was taking place. I didn't know the protocol. I didn't know the rules. I didn't get the language. And people are like that all the time. Because Harvest is a church that is always welcoming new believers.
So if you see someone walking around carrying one of these. chances are they either like free stuff. or they are a new believer. They have got a Start Bible. Kind of easy to spot. Bright red with a white arrow. You might walk up. Let me ask you a question. Are you new to the Lord? Have you come to faith recently? Oh yes. I am. I am new. I have got my Start Bible. You know what? First of all I want to just say welcome. And I am so glad you are here. And did you know anybody here yet? Have you met anyone? No. I don't really. Well come on. Let me introduce you to some people. Take them over to your friends. Hey this is so and so. It just came to the Lord. Amen. God bless you. Welcome. Is everything alright? How are things working out for you? Are you reading the Bible? You see you could do that for somebody. And that is what a new believer needs. They need a friend. They need someone to stand in the gap with them. That is what Saul later to become Paul needed.
They need to see an example. You see some things are taught and some things are caught. There is only so much I can do from a pulpit in teaching or any of the other pastors here. They need to see a living example of what a Christian is. You know what do Christians do in their free time? What kind of movies do Christians go to? How do Christians treat one another? What does a Christian marriage look like? What does a Christian single person look like? They need to be out there in the real world with you seeing how this all plays out. That is what a new believer needs.
Number three, they need food. You know the funny thing about small children is before they can talk they are hungry but they can't see them hungry yet. And they can't feed themselves. So they just start crying. And you are trying to figure out what the problem is. And then you realize they are just hungry. And a lot of times new believers just need to be fed. They need to be given the Word of God. You know little kids they will take food and they will start to eat. It starts obviously nursing. Or maybe with a bottle. And then they move on to baby food. And then they move on to little bits of food. You don't give a child a porterhouse steak. Chew on that with your one little tooth. You have got to help them out.
It is funny because Allie you know she will be eating something. She will drop it on the ground. Pick it up. Eat it some more. Then she offers it to me. I am like okay. So you like act like you are eating it. Oh really good. Get that thing away from me. You dropped it four times. But you see a child needs help in being nurtured. And that is the same thing you need to do with a new believer. You need to help them as they are starting to dig into the Word of God. That means sit down with them and read the Bible with them, and explain it to them. And let me tell you something. This is a fringe benefit. As you watch them discover it for the first time, you will rediscover it for yourself. Sometimes we have heard these things so many times we start to take them for granted. Oh yeah, yeah, I have heard about that. Oh yeah, I know the definition of justification. Oh yeah, I know all about forgiveness. Oh yeah, I know about the rapture and the second coming. I know all this stuff. Yeah, that is nice. But they don't. And when you tell them about it they are like, What? Are you kidding me? They will energize you as you stabilize them. That is our job. Discipling people.
And also they need training. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:11, "We treated you as a father treats his own children. We pleaded with you. We encourage you and urge you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy." Well how do you do that? How do you train a person? The same way that a father would train a child. And in Deuteronomy 6:7, and this not only applies to helping a new believer, but this speaks to parents as well. And here is how you are to train a child. "Repeat the Word of God to them. Over and over again. Talk about it when you are at home. Talk about it when you are on a journey. When you are lying down. And when you are getting up again." You see, it is not just something you do only in the morning or only at night. Wherever you go, you are just talking about the things of the Lord. That is what a new believer needs.
The Cost of Discipleship – Luke 14
We are to go into all the world and we are to make disciples. But let me ask you a question. Are you a disciple? You say, well what do you mean by that? I mean that just because you are a Christian doesn't mean you are necessarily a disciple. Listen to this. Every disciple is a believer, but not every believer is necessarily a disciple. What is a disciple? Well that is defined for us in Luke 14. That is our second passage. Let's go over there for a moment. And let's read the requirements of discipleship as given to us by Jesus Himself. Why is this important? Because I am called to go and make disciples. How can I make disciples if I am not first a disciple myself? It takes one to make one.
So let's see what Jesus said in Luke 14, starting in verse 26. "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish'? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple." We will stop there.
Now these are perhaps some of the most solemn and searching words that ever fell from the lips of Jesus. Three times in this short passage he says, If you do not do these things you cannot be My disciple. Number one in verse 26 he says that you must hate your father and mother or you can't be His disciple. I will explain that in a moment. Number two he says in verse 27, You must bear your cross or you can't be His disciple. And number three in verse 33, If you do not forsake all that you have you cannot be His disciple.
So let's start with these requirements and look at them briefly. Number one, the disciple must love Jesus more than anyone or anything else. Verse 26, "If anyone comes after Me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." Now I know that a statement like that is shocking. You might be asking, Jesus is asking me to hate members of my family. Or some of you might be saying, Well this is good because I already hate my family. And I already hate myself. So I am good with this.
Now let's understand what he is saying. He obviously is not telling us to hate in the traditional sense. How can I hate my mother and father when the Bible says I am to honor my mother and father? How can I hate my wife when the Bible says to me as a husband, I am to love my wife as Christ loves the church? And how can a wife hate her husband when the Scripture specifically says wives love your husbands? I mean for that matter the Bible even says love your enemies. So you say then what does this mean when Jesus says hate your father and mother and brother and sister etc.
Here is what Jesus is saying. Your love for God should be so strong, so intense, that all other loves would be like hatred in comparison. Or another way to put it, Jesus speaking, if you want to be my disciple and love life to its fullest, you must love me more than anyone or anything else. You must love God more than your career or your possessions. You must love God more than your friends. You must love God even more than your family. Some people would say, Oh no, no. Marriage is my number one priority more than anything else. It is all about my marriage. I am sorry. But marriage should not be your number one priority. Christ should be your number one priority. I think you know I am not suggesting you neglect your marriage. I think you understand that I believe you should be the best husband or wife God has called you to be. But here is the bottom line. If you put Jesus at the forefront of your life and He is number one, you will be a better husband. You will. And you will be a better wife. And you will be a better parent. But this is the priority God has given.
Some say, No. Our children are number one. It is all about our children. Our lives revolve around our children. Wrong. Your lives should revolve around Jesus Christ. In fact if you want to ruin your children, make them the center of your life. The best thing you can do for your children is to show them how to make Jesus the center of their lives as He is the center of yours. That is what a disciple does.
Number two, Jesus says, A disciple must deny himself and take up the cross and follow Jesus. Verse 27. "If you don't bear your cross and come after Me, you cannot be My disciple." And also in Luke, Jesus says in Luke 9:24, "You must take up your cross daily and follow Me. And deny yourself. And whoever seeks to save his life will lose it. But if you lose your life for My sake you will find it."
Now I know that you read this and you say, Oh wait, wait, wait. This does not sound like fun at all. You know if I live as a disciple I can never smile again. I have to dress head to toe in black and wear ashes and I can never pour red pepper flakes on pizza again. Not true. I do not know about the pepper flakes. But here is the thing. If you want to live life to its fullest, you deny yourself and put Christ first. If you try to save your life you will lose it. But if you lose your life for His sake you will find it.
You say, I do not understand what that means. It comes down to this. You take your goals. You take your desires. You take your dreams. Your aspirations. And you present them to God and say, Lord this is what I want to do with my life. But if you have a plan that is different than this I am willing to deny myself and do what you want me to do. Why is that a smart thing? Because as you have lived a little bit longer, you will discover this. God's plans are better than yours. They are. At times it does not seem like it. At times they do not make sense. But ultimately I am confident we will realize that God's plans for us are always the best.
You know, sometimes people will walk out of a marriage. Someone will ask them, well, you know, it just was not working for me anymore. And besides, I am trying to find myself. Jesus says, you want to find yourself, lose yourself. And then lastly you must count the cost to follow Jesus. Verse 28, "which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it." It is not easy to be a follower of Jesus. It costs to follow Jesus. But let me add this. It costs more not to follow Jesus.
We live in a time where there is a lot of hostility toward Christ. You could call it an ABC culture. ABC. Anything but Christ. I mean whatever you believe in that is cool. That is fine. But if you dare to believe in Jesus Christ and you dare to say the Bible is the Word of God and that there is absolute truth and there is right and wrong, you are going to face opposition. You are going to be harassed. You are going to be criticized. You are going to be persecuted. So count the cost. Just like getting married. Count the cost. Sometimes people rush into marriage without counting the cost. Without getting to know each other. Kim Kardashian did an interview that just came out. This was done right after she got married. She was asked the question, why did you get married so quickly? She said, well we decided why wait? Answer. So your marriage will last longer than seventy two days. That is why. Count the cost first. And the same is true of following Christ.
Go – With Holy Spirit Power
Now if I now am a true disciple I am to go and make disciples of others. Effectively to reproduce myself. So that brings us to what Jesus is saying. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." So here is my question. How are you doing in this regard? Are you going into all your world and preaching the gospel? Are you making disciples? Listen. New believers need you and you need them. As I have often said we have a choice. We can evangelize or we can fossilize. If I don't take what God has given me and share it with others I can actually reach a state of stagnation. It is not like overeating. I went to a restaurant yesterday for a birthday for my wife's father. And they serve very large quantities of food. And I kept trying to find something that I liked. And I never found anything. And so like a fool I just kept eating. You know well I will try this. Oh well that was good. Oh I will try that. And there was all the food on the table. I just kept eating. And when I was done I felt very bad. You know why? I overate. And I never feel good after doing that.
And you know you can come and you can hear the Word of God. And the difference is our food tastes good. It's God's Word. But you know we take it in. We take it in. And if we don't do something with it we grow lethargic and actually sluggish. And what we need is not necessarily more food. We need to do something with it. You were blessed to be a blessing. You take it in. You should give it out. And as you share these truths with others it will energize you. I don't know of a greater joy on this earth. Next to being a Christian myself. Then leading someone to the Lord. It is just unbelievably great.
John MacArthur said every time you bring someone to Christ you add another voice to the hallelujah chorus. Jesus said there is joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance. I mean think about that. One sinner. How much does it take for us to respond? You know we might have an invitation and four people come forward. I don't know if I am going to clap for that. I kind of don't clap for anything under ten. I mean we wouldn't say that. But the idea is oh more people will clap but you know one or two. Oh that wasn't so good. That was kind of a flop of an invitation. Don't you think Greg? I don't know. Heaven breaks out over one. That means there is a lot of applause in heaven. Every time a person believes this is God's heart. It should be our heart as well to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
You say well Greg this is a daunting task. I don't know where to begin. I don't think I can do this. I am afraid. I am afraid to fail. I don't know what to say to a person. Well I don't know where your electronic device is not working. The question is, is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Here is my question for you. Are you plugged in? When Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into all the world He also promised to give them the power to do it. He gave His last words before He ascended to heaven. Not here in Matthew. But they are given to us over in the book of Acts. I will just read them to you. Acts 1:8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." And when He spoke these things while they watched, He was taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
Jesus said, Listen. Here is the job. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Go into all the world and make disciples. I will give you the power to do it. This power will come upon you. And that power was poured out on the day of Pentecost. And the church was set into motion. And that same power that started the church on Pentecost 2,000 years ago is here for us today. Why? Because after the Holy Spirit was poured out, Peter said to the people there, "This promise is unto you. It is unto your children and all that are far off. Even as many as the Lord our God will call." God will give you all the power you need to do what He has called you to do.
So what should we do? Go. The best moment of a church service is when you go. Don't misunderstand what I am saying. I love you being here. I love to speak to you. I am not saying, you know, don't let the door hit you on the way out. What I really mean is, it is all about what we do when we leave this place. You see? It is when we go out those doors into the world, that is when we take what God has given us and put it into practice.
Invitation – Are You Plugged In?
So in closing, let me ask you, are you a disciple? Or let me take it a step further. Are you even a Christian yet? You know we have talked all about going into the world of the Gospel. What is the Gospel? It is a message that though you have sinned against God, He loves you and He sent His Son to die for you. And if you will turn from that sin and put your faith in Him, you can be forgiven. And maybe you have not done that yet. And I want to give you an opportunity to come to Jesus Christ and be forgiven of all of your sin. So you can know that you will go to heaven when you die. Because your situation is worse than a person in a burning building. Your situation is worse than a person with a terminal illness. Your situation is an eternal one. If you do not choose Jesus, you will live for all eternity separated from God in hell. That is what the Bible says. That is the last thing God wants. That is why God took such drastic measures in sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross in your place. That is the good news. And if you will turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus, you can be forgiven today.
And if you have not done that, I am going to give you an opportunity to ask Christ to come into your life. As we close now in prayer if you would. Everyone bow your heads and let us all pray. Father I pray for any here that do not yet know You. Any that are listening or watching, help them Lord to come to You now and receive Your forgiveness. Convict them by Your Holy Spirit and show them their need for Jesus Christ we pray.
While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we are praying, how many of you would say today, Greg, pray for me. I want Jesus Christ to come into my life. I want Him to forgive me of my sin. I want to know that when I die I will go to heaven. I am ready to say yes to Jesus. If that is your desire. If you want Christ to come into your life. If you want Him to forgive you of your sin. If you want your guilt taken away. If you want to go to heaven when you die. Would you lift your hand up wherever you are sitting. And I would like to pray for you. Just lift your hand up. I will pray for you. God bless you up there in the balcony. Lift your hand where ever you are, over here on this side. God bless you. God bless you on this side. God bless each one of you. God bless. Just lift your hand where I can see it. Now I can't see every one of you outside in the amphitheater. Raise your hand up. Up in the court building. Raise your hand. There in Harvest Orange County. You raise your hand as well. It is a little step of faith you are taking. And you are saying, I want Christ to come into my life today. Lift your hand up. I will pray for you. God bless you.
Now I am going to ask all of you that are raising your hand if you would please stand to your feet. And I am going to lead you in a prayer. I want you to stand to your feet if you raise your hand. Even if you did not. But you want Christ to come into your life. Just stand up. And I am going to lead you in a prayer. Just stand up. That is right. God bless you. Stand up. God bless you. Others are standing. You won't be the only one. In the amphitheater, in the court building, in Harvest Orange County, stand to your feet right now. I am going to lead you in a prayer. God bless you up in the balcony. Anybody else? Stand now. This is a prayer where you will be asking Christ to come into your life. Stand up now. One final moment. If you are going to stand, stand now. God bless you. Just stand up. Anybody else? God bless you.
Alright. Now all of you that are standing, I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. Again, as I pray, pray this out loud after me right now. Let's pray together. "Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. But you died on the cross for my sin. And paid the price for all the wrongs I have done. I turn from that sin now. I ask you to come into my life and be my Savior and Lord, my God and my friend. I choose to follow you, Jesus, from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen." Amen.