0:00 I'm a family member, but thank you. It's a joy to be here again with you in Austin. 0:21 Not the town, well the town too, but you folks here that meet here and gather here are dear to my heart and for myself and for our church there, we feel a kinship with you all and your desire to follow the Lord and to follow Him exactly as He has said in His Word. 0:45 That is something that I've recently become more challenged by and more captivated by, that at the end of time, God is not going to ask us about all the wonderful things that we thought we should do for Him. He's going to want to know, I gave you clear instruction in my Word, did you do that? 1:09 This is the Great Commission. A lot of people talk about the Great Commission and maybe I should start there. If you will turn with me to Matthew chapter 28. Most people when they refer to the Great Commission, they look at verses in Mark 16 towards the 1:31 end of the chapter, you can read it there. But I want to show you what Jesus really meant. Maybe we can look at both together and that's a good place to start. So keep a finger in Matthew 28 and flip over to Mark 16. And this is the end of each of these apostles or disciples. 1:52 Mark came later. He wasn't an actual one of the 12. But their account of the end, or the end of their account of Jesus' life, that's probably the best way to put it. And in this, which is a commission, and it is a great commission because it's the great 2:11 God who gave it. It was Jesus Christ who gave it. He says this in Mark 16, verse 15. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation, etc. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved. And you can read the rest of the verses. 2:29 So that's the verse that a lot of people identify as what they call, what Christendom knows today as the great commission. But one of the greatest lessons I have learned as I've grown in my Christian life is that if you only look at one verse, you can easily take that out of context and get a false doctrine. 2:51 You can get heresy. Do you know that most heresy comes from this book? It's not from the Bhagavad Gita, which is the book of Hindu religions, or the Quran, which is the book of Muslims, the Muslim holy book. Heresy comes from here. 3:06 We know that from the fact that when the devil tempted Jesus, he tempted him from God's word. He tempted him from the book of Deuteronomy. You read it in Matthew chapter 4. Because he knew that Jesus was too sharp to fall for these other false religions. 3:28 The devil didn't quote from Socrates or Plato when he came to Jesus. He quoted from the word of God. From the very words that Jesus himself had spoken to Moses and that Moses had inscribed on tablets of stone. He's going to do the same thing to us. 3:45 If he tried it with Jesus, the son of God, the son of man who came on this earth, you know he's going to try it to us. And here's the sad thing, dear believers, dear friends. I believe that many Christians are falling for heresy, for false teaching, because they're 4:02 finding verses in this book to back them up. So how do we protect ourselves from that? It's important to know the whole counsel of God. It's important to know scripture and important to know the balance in scripture. So you compare scripture with scripture. 4:18 So when I read a verse like that, I could take that and make a doctrine out of it and make that my life and I could easily go astray. Did Jesus say these words? Absolutely. They're in red in my Bible. That's how I know he said them. 4:32 And I believe it 100% that it is the word of God. But I understand the whole counsel of God. I'm more interested in knowing who God is. And when I'm after who God is, then I understand what he really means by what he said. 4:51 Because you know how in relationships with each other, if we don't know each other, we can easily take something that somebody says and misunderstand it, right? The basis of misunderstandings come from this is that we don't know each other. 5:09 I know my wife quite well. I've lived with her for eight years. We've been married for eight years. And when she says things, I can understand what she says a lot better because I know her. And as I get to know her deeper and better, I understand better what she really means and 5:25 what she says. And if you really want to know what Jesus means in the words that he says, rather than taking that verse and interpreting it the way you want, because you have to fit it into a particular mold, or you see the rest of Christendom saying, well, that's what this 5:40 verse means. And I went to seminary and I have this degree, so this is what it means. And I read the Greek and the Hebrew and all that stuff. Instead of that, if you go to God like a babe and say, Lord, I want to know you. 5:53 I want to know you. What do you really mean by this? And you compare scripture with scripture, you'll understand God. Now, that's something I cannot give you. Even the greatest teacher on this earth cannot give you. Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, wants to give it to you himself. 6:09 Do you know that when Jesus married you, when he called you out and picked you up from that pit, he married you. And he wanted a personal relationship with you. You know, that's a phrase that I think has become very, very ordinary now. 6:25 And I want to exalt that phrase a little bit, if you will, for a few moments here. To have a personal relationship with Jesus. You know, when we evangelize, often you ask, do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? 6:37 That's a good question to ask. But do we, who have a personal relationship with Jesus, and I hope you do, do we, who have a personal relationship, have we lost sight of it? That it's a personal relationship with Jesus. It's a marriage. 6:52 It's me and him. And it doesn't matter if nobody else walks this way with me. It doesn't matter if nobody understands me well. It doesn't matter if everybody else in the world thinks I'm a nobody, but Jesus' eyes light up with joy because I am the delight of his love. 7:10 Is that enough for you, my brother, my sister? Then you've understood Christianity. Then you've understood a personal relationship with Jesus. So, when I compare scripture with scripture, I turn to Matthew 28. And I will turn back to that phrase where Matthew, and that's why I think it's wonderful that we have four accounts of the life of Jesus. 7:30 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There's no other story in the Bible that is told four times like the life of Jesus. Why? I mean, couldn't God, who is sovereign and who inspired every single word that these writers wrote, 7:45 couldn't he have made it one gospel where he captures everything, condense it? You know, that's what I would do because I'm so smart. That's what we would do. And God, whose wisdom is greater than the wisdom of this earth, says, 7:55 No, I want to tell it to you four times so that you can put scripture with scripture, so that if you're really willing to delve into the depths of God, you will not be satisfied with what Christendom tells you the meaning of Mark 16, verse 15 is. 8:09 And you'll say, Lord, I want to know you. You show me. And you start to know this God who has to tell a story four times in somewhat slightly differing ways. And to the unbelievers and the atheists sometimes in conflicting ways. 8:25 Do you know that there are apparent conflicts in scripture? I don't have time to show you all of them, but if you study it carefully, you will find what appear to the intellectuals of this world conflicts. Well, it says in this story that it was that way, 8:39 and in the corresponding parallel story, it says it differently. Well, clearly there's no God. It can't be inspired. That's what they look at it. That's how they look at it. And we who know God, who have a personal relationship with Jesus, 8:52 who know him in a deep way, in a living way, in a daily way, we look at that and we see the beauty and the multifacetedness of God. And this is one example of that, where in Matthew, he expands on that, I believe. He clarifies what is the Great Commission. 9:11 In Mark 16, verse 15, it says, Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Now, I think the misunderstanding of that verse has come from this, that people have their own idea of what the gospel is. It is a man-made idea. 9:26 I see it in Christendom, and you will if you pay attention to it as well. What is the gospel? They think most of Christendom understands the gospel to mean this. Go into all the world and tell them, John 3, 16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 9:42 that whoever believes in him should not perish but go to heaven. Right? Is that how your Bible reads? It is for most people. That Jesus Christ came and he felt sorry for you. And listen, if you'll trust him, you can go to heaven. 9:54 And the gospel stops there for most people who preach it. I want to tell you, my dear brothers and sisters, if you haven't heard it before, maybe you have. Praise God for that. But I hadn't for many years as I listened to what was being preached. 10:08 What was it that people were going into all the world to preach? Going into foreign countries, the heart of Africa and Brazil, South America and India and parts of Asia. All over the world to tell this. But it wasn't the gospel. 10:21 It was another gospel about another Jesus. The true Jesus clarifies what it is we are to preach in Matthew 28. He says in verse 19, This is the gospel. When somebody asks you, what is the gospel? I hope now, if you didn't have it before, you will have an understanding. 10:39 By putting Mark 16 verse 15 together with Matthew 28 verse 19. This is the gospel. Go therefore, if you can say, into all the world, because he says, of all the nations, and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 11:00 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. This is the gospel. This is what now God has commissioned us, Jesus has commissioned us, to go into all the world and preach. 11:17 Preach this. That you must be a disciple of Jesus. And if you want to understand what it means to be a disciple, that's a message in itself, but you can do it on your own. Go home today, and if you don't have a concordance, 11:30 which I encourage you to have one, that's a wonderful tool, but you can now look it up online. Go online and look up, like Bible Gateway or Bible.com, wonderful tools that you can find. Look up for where all the word disciple comes in the New Testament, 11:43 especially in the words of Jesus in the Gospels, and your eyes will be opened to what is the gospel, what it is that Jesus came to, the quality of life and the type of life that Jesus came to give us. This is what we ought to be preaching. 11:58 Go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. So, you know, I have a, I just put down on here a phrase or a paragraph, if you will, a quote from one of the godliest men that lived in this country, 12:18 a man named A.W. Tozer, lived in Chicago, Toronto, in that area, and pastored a church, and really from, I don't know much about his personal life, but from his writings and from his teachings, I've gotten to know him as a man who seemed to really know God. 12:37 And he's opened my eyes to what it means to worship God and to dwell on the glory and the beauty of God. And he says this, listen to this quote carefully. Working for Christ has today been accepted as the ultimate test of godliness. 12:53 Working for Christ, doing some work, go and become a missionary or go and do this, go and do that. Working for Christ has today been accepted or become the ultimate test of godliness among all but a few evangelical Christians. 13:09 Let me pause there for a moment and clarify why I agree with him. Because I found that if I go to many churches, who they exalt as the godliest men or who they consider as the godliest men are, probably their pastors, or the guy who preaches in front of crowds, 13:27 or this missionary family that's out there and they have their picture in the back, you know, go pray for them. Please understand, I'm not here to mock doing that. But there is a false conception that if you really want to glorify God, 13:38 go and do that thing. Go and become a missionary and go and become a pastor. Go and become a preacher. Go and do this. Go and do that. That's what Tozer is talking about. Working for Christ has today been accepted as the ultimate test of godliness 13:53 among all but a few evangelical Christians. Christ has become a project to be promoted or a cause to be served instead of a lord to be obeyed. There's so much depth in that. I have to read it again. Christ has become, who has Christ become to you? 14:13 Pause and think about that for a moment. This is what Tozer recognized as he looked at Christendom around him. Christ has become a project. I need to go and do this for Jesus. I need to go and tell a hundred people. I need to go and do this. 14:27 I need to go out to that far off country and then I will feel like Jesus is happy with me because it's this project I'm working on and I want to be able to finish that project and say, look at my life and have people write a biography about my life perhaps. 14:40 Christ has become a project to be promoted or even a cause to be served rather than a lord to be obeyed. This is the great commission. This is the gospel. Go and teach them that I am lord and teach them to obey everything 14:59 that I've commanded them to do. Don't take a single command in God's word lightly and think, well, oh, that's just for their time or does it really apply to me? You know, it's impossible to live that life. There's no way. 15:12 And when we start to come up with these excuses for why I don't have to obey something that I haven't seen Jesus as lord. You know, in the times of kings and lords, you dare not obey a lord or a disobey a lord or a king 15:27 because it would be off with your head. That was a term. Off with his head. He disobeyed me. But today, Christians who think they serve the king of kings and the lord of lords whom they call with such terms in the songs that they sing 15:41 don't treat him as such. It is optional to obey Jesus' commands in many situations. Hasn't it become that? I know it was in my own life for many years. And increasingly, I realize I want to stand before Jesus and say, Lord, every command that you gave me 15:57 in scripture, I obeyed. Not by my strength. Not by my power. But I went on my face before God and said, Lord, I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to obey your command, but will you fill me with your Holy Spirit? 16:09 And I want to stand before God and first of all, know all of the commands that he gave me. That's why it's important to know God's word and to be able to say, I obeyed them. Jesus said, blessed are you if you obey my commands. 16:24 This is the only test that Jesus is going to ask us. He's not going to ask us how many people we gave the gospel to. He's not going to ask us how many churches we planted. He's not going to ask us how big our church was, 16:35 how many children we had, whether we raised them this way or that. Those are things that come later on. But this is the one question that answers them all. Did you know my commands and did you obey them? So, Tozer continues, 16:50 thousands of mistaken persons seek to do for Christ whatever their fancy suggests should be done. I think of this great idea. I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that other thing and sure, Jesus must be happy with it. 17:06 Thousands of mistaken persons seek to do for Christ whatever their fancy suggests should be done and in whatever way they think best, the what and the how of Christian service can only originate in the sovereign will of our Lord. 17:23 The what and the how. What we should do and how we should do it. Dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, in our daily lives, how we live our lives pleasing to God and what we do for God must originate in the sovereign will 17:39 of our Lord. That means every day I'm getting up and saying, Lord, what do you want me to do today? I know what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to go show up for work and sit in front of my computer and debug some code. 17:51 That's what I do for a living and work on projects and things like that as a computer engineer. I know that's what I'm supposed to do but let the what and how of my day today, put that day, Monday let's say, October 10th, 18:06 it will be Monday in a couple days when you go to work. Let the what and how of this day originate in your sovereign will. then I have fulfilled the great commission and when I'm living that life and teaching others to live that life, 18:20 then I am doing the will of God. Then I'm pleasing to Him. It can only originate in the sovereign will of our Lord but the busy beavers, the people who are always looking to do something for the Lord, the busy beavers among us 18:33 ignore this fact and think up their own schemes. The result is an army of men who run without being sent and speak without being commanded. I thought about this as I thought about reading this phrase right there before I got up. 18:53 I says, Lord, I know that I've been invited to come and share your word but I dare not stand up here and run without your sending me or even open my mouth to say one word without knowing that you've commanded me to do it 19:08 and I stand here today, I'll tell you this, not by your invitation, yes, thank you that you've invited me to be a part of this weekend of fellowship but I know I'm obeying God. I know that the words that I seek to speak 19:21 every single one, I seek to speak in deference to Him, my Lord. My knee is bowed before Him even as I stand before you this morning and that's the life I seek to live. One of the things that I'd like us to meditate on during this weekend 19:36 is the importance of living out our membership in the body of Christ. You know, that's what Christ calls us to be is to be part of His body. It's one body, one church that He's building but how we seek, what does it look like 19:52 to live out that membership in His body in a practical way? You know that living out membership in Christ's body is not just this fanciful theoretical thing that conceptually I'm a member of Christ's body. Do you know that there's practical ways 20:07 in which we're called to live that out? And that's what I'd like us to meditate on here as we think about that. I want to show you that Jesus as the head showed us this example first of all. I don't know if you've thought 20:20 about what it is that propelled Jesus' life. Why did Jesus come down to this earth? Is it because up there in heaven He looked down and thought, oh, you poor things, I need to come and save you from your misery? Yes, but that was secondary. 20:35 Let me show you in John chapter 14 what it is that propelled, that compelled Jesus and caused Him to leave His throne in heaven where He was adored by the angels from all eternity. What caused Him to leave that 20:55 and come down to this earth? Yes, there was an aspect of His compassion and feeling sorry for us. There was an aspect of God so loving the world that He gave His only begotten Son. but listen. John 14 verse 30 I will not speak 21:19 much more with you for the ruler of the world is coming and He has nothing in me but so that the world may know that I love the Father I do exactly as the Father commanded me. Get up, let us go from here and what did He do? 21:38 He went on and gave Himself up to be hung on the cross. So this is what drove Jesus. This is what compelled Him to go to the cross for you and I. It wasn't that He was sitting there and thinking about poor Santosh. Oh man, 21:51 He's going to die and go to hell. Yeah, that came secondary and I'm thankful for that love but His obedience to His going to the cross came out of an obedience to the Father. He says, so that the world may know when you look at 22:03 Jesus dying on the cross what do you think of first of all? Do you think of His love for you? That's actually secondary. What we ought to think of and what Jesus said this is what the world will know when they see me going to the cross 22:16 that I love the Father and I've been digging into the depths of Jesus' love to understand the love of Christ more because you know Paul says it is the love of Christ that now compels us. Why am I standing up here out of that love of Christ? 22:32 Why do I seek to serve God and share the gospel with the world with anybody that I meet? It's the love of Christ within me but it's easy for us to misunderstand the love of Christ with some false compassion human compassion 22:45 that we can feel for people around us where we see them living defeated lives and we think oh I've got to give them the gospel and if that's what compels us we will run dry very quickly. If it is a human compassion that compels us 22:59 to go and make a difference in other people's lives we will run dry quickly. It's no wonder that I hear about pastors who need sabbaticals and they're just dried up and they're at the end and they give up on their families 23:13 and they're divorced and all this stuff is going on in Christendom today and I don't sit here and point fingers at them but I say Lord I want to make sure that I'm not wasting my life on an empty thing that what fuels my boat 23:26 is not a source of fuel that will run dry and if you want that my dear brother dear sister in whatever your day looks like in the what and the how of your Christian life then tap into the source that Jesus Christ had tapped into 23:42 tap into the love that compelled Christ that can now compel you as well which was this that the world may know that I love the Father and when I hear the Father saying get up from your throne Jesus and go down to this earth 23:57 he does get up son and I want you to go to the cross now he does as much as it wrenched him to do so and I look up on the cross now and I'll tell you honestly the first thing I see is a man the son of man and the son of God 24:15 but the son of man who loved his father and I say Lord when you call me to take up my cross today if anyone wants to be my disciple Jesus said this is the great commission making disciples the disciple is one who is hanging 24:31 on his cross as well that he's taking up every day out of love for the father not out of well I'll get something good out of this and if I do this Lord you better make it work for me tomorrow if I if I you know if I cry 24:44 you know this verse that's easy to misunderstand weeping may last for a night but joy will come in the morning and so much we can think that my morning has come and Lord you better give me the joy now where's the joy I've been weeping 24:57 for so long and I've been taking up my cross for so long where is this joy that you promised Jesus went to the cross not looking for any personal gain no selfish ambition but because he loved the father and out of that he goes 25:14 and then he says in John 15 in that context now I am the vine you are the branches you just abide in me you abide in me and this same love like a branch attached to the vine will flow through you and compel you now and yes 25:29 you will do things you will give the gospel to the people around you you will be my witnesses through the power of the Holy Spirit you will go and help people maybe who are homeless or down and out prison ministries all these other ministries 25:42 come out of this I must obey the father and if we're not doing it out of that we can miss it so easily I think that it's because Christians most Christians and again when I say that I want you to understand I'm not sitting here 25:57 pointing at fingers I recognize what my own Christian life was like for so many years and the dryness and the shallowness and the lack of a passionate devotion to Jesus in my life and to the point where I said Lord if this is what 26:13 you call me to live then I've missed it because what I read in your word and what I read about somebody like Paul and the passion that drove him where he could handle anything in life it seemed like I mean if you thought about 26:25 the life that Paul lived before that he was zealous for the God he thought he was serving and then he came to know Jesus and after that his life became pretty miserable I mean he talks in 2nd Corinthians 11 towards the end 26:37 of the chapter about how miserable his life was I mean of all the ships that had to sink in the ocean the one that Paul's riding on headed to tell the gospel to somebody had to sink because the devil was behind it and of course 26:52 there's no nobody to bail him out Paul it says at one point he says he had to float tread water for a night and a day 24 hours treading water and Paul could sit there and thought Lord why are you allowing me to do this why did you have 27:04 to sink the one boat you know I'm here trying to serve you you know I'm trying to please you and you cause my boat to sink and then he gets stung by a viper and all kinds of other things happen and then he's beaten many times 27:17 this is the life that Paul lived and if I read the quality of the lives of these people read for instance Fox's book of martyrs and the life that they lived where they gave up anything they were willing to be tortured and I said 27:30 Lord I don't know that I would be willing to do that because there's something missing in my Christian life and I think the reason for that is and I see it in Christendom even now is that most Christians are taken up with the external aspects 27:44 of the Christian life so when you think about following Jesus most Christians think about following him in doing miracles and turning water into wine when you get thirsty or if there's a storm you just speak a word and it's still 27:58 or if your child is sick you just raise them right up from the dead this is what most Christians are pursuing as the ultimate test of godliness that Toza was referring to as well I'm going to do something I'm going to do some miracles 28:11 and if you see a miracle worker we tend to exalt them as greater than a humble housewife and yet in God's eyes that humble broken housewife submitting to God asking God every day Lord what it is what is the what and how 28:28 of my day look like and she's pleasing God in that and God delights over that more than the miracle working self absorbed man that's living for the applause of men and this is what's happening in Christendom today most Christians 28:44 think that the godliest person is the one that's out there apparently raising cripples back to their feet and whether it's true or not it's not for me to judge most of it I think is psychosomatic and invented on the spot 28:57 but forget about that even if it was real would we have more respect for somebody who came and did an outward miracle in our midst right here than for somebody in whom we taste the aroma of Christ and my dear brothers dear sisters 29:14 dear brothers you may be tasting the aroma the fragrance of Christ in your wife and she might have it and you may be missing it wife the aroma of Christ might be right there in your home with your husband and you may be missing it 29:32 when our eyes are looking for those outward things and that's the problem is we're impressed by outward things likewise with the third person of the Trinity most people when they think about what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit 29:47 are captivated by these outward gifts gifts of healing gifts of prophecy gifts of tongues gifts of interpretation of tongues and all these things that are genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit yes but if that's all I'm looking for 30:02 I will end up with heresy I will end up being deceived instead if I'm interested to know and experience the inner work of the Holy Spirit more than anything else then I've understood Christianity then I've understood that wonderful joy 30:20 of taking up my cross and following Jesus this is a secret thing they won't write biographies about you they won't put you on God TV and all those other television stations if you take up your cross and die because that 30:32 doesn't look impressive to the world but it is to Jesus I'd like us to think about that some more and I believe that turn over with me to Isaiah chapter 53 Jesus himself had to live this life and I believe that 31:02 you know when we seek about doing a work for God and I believe that the work that God wants us to do is to build his kingdom and what that means actually is to build expressions of what of areas where Jesus Christ is king 31:22 when it says let your kingdom come what we're saying is Lord let it be that in every sphere in which I move and operate you are king you have lordship authority let it be in my marriage that you are king that means when you 31:38 say something it is so let it be in my home that when you say something lord because I'm listening to you it is so let it be that in your church when you say something it is so this is what it means to pray let your kingdom come 31:53 this is the work that we must be doing but the thing that I see about God as I've gotten to know him is that he's not just desperate to take anybody who is willing to serve him he's not such a he's not and I think it's easy 32:09 to get this misconception as we listen to some of the preaching that I hear is that you think oh you know Jesus wants you feel sorry for Jesus almost you look at him and all he gave up and you think oh Jesus you did so much for me 32:23 I feel sorry for you so here I'll give you my 10% or I'll give you this I'll go to this conference or I'll go to church every Sunday because almost a little bit of feeling sorry for Jesus that I should you know kind of like 32:34 I feel guilty God doesn't want that read the book of Malachi which is the last prophet in the Old Testament and you'll see that the issue that God had with his people after he brought them out of Egypt and then they the kingdom of Israel 32:46 was established and you know what that history was like and they dishonored God by worshiping idols and then he sent them into captivity and then he rescued them from captivity after 70 years and then some years later along comes Malachi 32:58 in the last prophet before John the Baptist who was to prepare the way for Jesus and Malachi says listen God's message through Malachi is this listen you guys are giving me the leftovers you eat a big feast and then there's some crumbs 33:13 and you think oh right yeah we're supposed to give 10% to God here God take the crumbs off my table oh I gotta give 10% to God and I look at all my sheep and my goats and my cattle and I think God said 10% well he didn't say 33:25 the quality of the 10% so there's that lame sheep and that lame goat and that blind cow I'm gonna sacrifice that because that's useless to me anyway it's not just happening in Malachi's time it's happening today where Christians think 33:38 that they're doing a wonderful service to God by giving him the leftovers that which I cannot use for myself whether it's my time or my money I would rather do all these wonderful things and then sure in my free time I will come and give God 33:50 something and say look Lord I gave this to you and it's almost the sense I get that he holds his nose to it and says please get that off my altar I don't want that I would rather you not give me anything at all than bring me this 34:04 because you don't it doesn't come out of sacrifice it doesn't come out of your love for me and and what and so God is not interested in just accepting you know anybody that wants to come sure somebody who doesn't have anything else to do 34:22 come and give your life to God when you're retired 65 years old okay sure now I spent my life for myself so now I'll give you the leftover of my life now if that's where you are that's fine but the message to all of us is 34:34 today if you hear his voice harden not your heart don't wait today is the day of salvation today is the day that God wants all of you all of it 100% and the way that God uses people is very interesting the world looks for talent 34:53 looks for gift and when we try to build the church God's way we look for the same thing we look for talent gift look for a gifted preacher and a gifted musician you can start a church with that that's what the world thinks 35:05 Christendom is building churches based on this come to our church we've got this wonderful worship leader that's a by the way that term praise and worship is a false term wonderful praise leader or they call him a worship leader 35:18 we've got a wonderful preacher we've got I mean he's written so many books and he's got all these DVDs and you've got to listen to him you will you'll want to pay attention to him and if you have those two you can start with the church 35:28 and then you can build ministry upon ministry upon ministry you know who God is looking for God as he looks around in this world he's looking for the broken he's looking for those whom he's been able to crush through circumstances 35:42 in their life and he says I see that and that brokenness that you were able to get through the experiences in your life that were out of your control or even through your failures in your life the brokenness that God is able 35:57 to accomplish that crushing that you experience is so precious in his sight that says I can take that that's like gold I'll take that and I'll build my church with that that's why Peter to whom Jesus said upon this rock 36:13 I will build my church had to then deny Jesus three times and curse and swear and then get a revelation of the extent to which he had dishonored Jesus and then Jesus comes to him after all of that in John 21 and says listen come 36:31 do you love me come let me build my church through you come feed my sheep tend my lambs I want to use you Peter because I see now this is a different Peter from a few weeks ago who was saying Lord I'll do anything for you 36:45 I'll go to the cross for you and then he goes through that period of breaking and crushing where he realizes that all his zeal and his passion and his gift and his ability you know what Peter said at one point Lord I know all these other 11 36:57 will leave you but I won't I'm the special disciple I'm the most wholehearted one here in your midst was essentially what he was saying and Jesus had to crush that God had to crush that through allowing him to fail and he failed 37:10 and it got lower and lower and lower and finally Peter says to him in John 21 Lord I don't even know if I love you you know you know who I am you saw me when I betrayed you you heard those words where in front of a little girl 37:24 I was so embarrassed of you that I cursed and swore that I don't know you you know me Lord and Jesus said come I want to use you it's through that brokenness and brokenness is something that's easy to misunderstand but I tell you 37:36 my dear dear friends if you want to be used by God and if God is to build a church through you which I believe is our calling in life to build local expressions of the body of Christ that please him where I prove that I'm a part of Christ's body 37:52 by living in fellowship and discipleship in love with other brothers and sisters in a living way and if you don't have that in the locality in which you live pray that the Lord will do that when when the disciples heard the great commission 38:07 we know how they understood it by what they did they didn't go around and just just just preach you know you know and not do anything with it they established churches you read the book of Acts read the epistles they established churches 38:21 read the history of the other disciples of Jesus about whom we don't know much from the word of God like Thomas and Matthew and the others who went to other parts Thomas went to India and established churches wherever he went 38:32 he says if you want to follow Jesus yes you must be his disciple but you must show it the people around you the Hindus and the Muslims and the unconverted people must look at your love and say wow these are disciples of Jesus 38:45 in fact in the early first century there was a writer who once said that this is what must be said about our Christians look how they love each other they must be Christians they must be followers of Jesus who loved so much 38:58 and that's why that's why I believe that we prove our love for God and the apostle John is clear about this as well I cannot say that I love God if I don't love my brother and I cannot say that I'm showing my love for God 39:11 if I'm not showing my love for my brother or my sister in a practical living way and one of the ways in which God breaks us and in order for us to be used by him he must break us but one of the ways that he breaks us is by putting us 39:26 with others who cause us to be in situations where we're broken let me clarify what I mean that I thought I was a pretty unselfish person until I got married as a bachelor you know I was trying to follow Jesus and I thought 39:42 well Lord show me unselfishness there was only a certain level of unselfishness that I could see and I thought well Lord as far as I can see I'm being quite unselfish there was a certain level of selfishness that I could see 39:55 and I said Lord I want to be unselfish and I thought I was a pretty unselfish person and then I got married and I realized depths of unselfishness that I didn't even realize existed you know what that's like that's like having a telescope 40:07 where you have it adjusted to a certain point but then you want to see a little bit more of the universe and so you get a more powerful telescope and you focus out there and you realize wow you mean the universe is that big 40:19 it's kind of like I discovered a universe of selfishness in my life after I got married and then I realized even more selfishness in my life when I started to have children because I was tested in areas that I wasn't tested before 40:32 now God didn't judge me for that selfishness until he gave me light on it but once he gave me light he says now do you want me to deal with it this is sin essentially it's selfishness so I believe that as you walk in fellowship 40:48 with other believers in a church in a local expression of the body of Christ you will find levels of selfishness in your life that didn't even exist and through those situations God is seeking to break you and see if you will give up your will 41:02 and that's why I'll tell you this this is a message that the world rejects I can have a false sense of my spirituality or my godliness if it's never tested in how I'm able to walk in fellowship with others I can have a false sense 41:20 of godliness if that doesn't translate into unity with my wife in unity with my children in unity with brothers and sisters in Christ and so God uses those whom he breaks like I was saying but brokenness is something that's very easy to misunderstand 41:35 because when we're going through it we can think that God has it out for us we can think Lord why are you doing this to me I remember reading this verse that I had you turn to in Isaiah 53 verse 10 I don't know if you've read this verse before 41:52 or how you understood this verse when you read it Isaiah 53 verse 10 the Lord was pleased to crush him it's talking about Jesus putting him to grief if he would render himself as a guilt offering but this phrase at the beginning of that verse 42:09 the Lord was pleased to crush him what do you think of when you read that verse I remember this verse coming to me once when I was going through a period of breaking and crushing and this verse came to me well the Lord's getting pleasure 42:22 out of it and I'll tell you this it didn't sit well with me it didn't sit well with me that there was this God in my understanding up in heaven just kind of chuckling as I went through this breaking experience do you ever feel like that? 42:34 I'll be honest with you I have when I've gone through periods of breaking and I think Lord are you really getting pleasure out of this? I mean is this are you some are you some kind of morbid sadist that just looks around 42:46 at this earth and the suffering and the crushing that people go through and the breaking and you just think wow I get pleasure out of it that's what the devil wants you to think but I want you to know my dear brother dear sister 42:57 dear friend that the pleasure that God gets is out of what comes out of it not the breaking itself you have a heavenly father that knows how much you can handle and 1 Corinthians 10 verse 27 he will never allow you to be tempted 43:13 more than you're able to bear but with the temptation will make a way of escape it says and this is your father father in heaven who looks down and has a purpose has plans for you that are for your welfare for your very best 43:29 not for your calamity it's not for your just to crush you and to leave you crushed it's not to break you and to leave you broken it's not just to stamp out the very life and you know it's to crush that selfishness in you 43:41 so that the life of Jesus can come out of you so that something good comes out of it that he cannot put in this earthen vessel if it is so full of our selfishness and self-centeredness and that's the problem and my dear friend 43:55 dear brother dear sister I want to encourage you with this that when you feel the life very life in you being squeezed out what God is after is to fill you with the life of Christ more than you've experienced yet to give you 44:08 more resurrection power more joy more love more peace and to be used by him in a way that he can never use you if your self is still there I know God is using you in some ways but do you want to be used by him do you want to be used 44:23 by him even more in an eternal way that will last for all eternity let him suck out as it were all of that selfishness and that self-centeredness that we were born with and that we learned to develop so well because the world 44:38 teaches us that to make our self more powerful so what is it that pleases God let me show you in Hebrews chapter 11 and this I'm speaking this more out of a testimony about the very walk that I walked through as I pondered 44:54 this question and I remember once I was going through a breaking experience in my life and I felt this is the picture I got in my head and I don't know if you'll relate to it but maybe you will I hope it's a blessing to you 45:08 I felt like I was a rag doll in the hand of God there's an actual image I got once I was in my early 20s and I was just going through every day it seemed just like one day after the other it was just God's just breaking me 45:21 stomping on me stomping on me just really I almost like I didn't even want to get up because it was just one day after another but I got this picture like I was a rag doll in the hand of this man who was just pounding my head 45:32 into the ground every day bam back into the ground back into the ground face first back into the ground pile drive into the ground that's how I felt and in the midst of that God showed me himself and I've gotten a beautiful picture 45:45 of my father in heaven that allows me to look back on that period in my life and realize Lord I thank you for that thank you that because of that I see you as God I see you as sovereign as Lord as my father in heaven and if it hadn't been for that 46:00 I don't know that I would ever know you the way I do now but in the midst of that that's how I felt and as it seemed like every time I I went down into the ground like that rag doll this verse came to my ears it pleased the Lord 46:14 to crush him pleased the Lord to crush him in a wrong way and it was the devil who was painting this picture of God who's just out there to beat me into the ground and I want to tell you if that's what you're going through 46:25 or have gone through and you have questions yet about God's working in your life through that period through that period of crushing through that period of allowing you to lose something that was dear to you maybe it was a loved one 46:37 maybe it was a husband or a father or I don't know what it was I don't know what it is but in each of us there are those times in our life when you look back and think Lord why I wanted to I just wanted to please you and why did that have to happen 46:52 often it is through our own failures in fact that period in my life was because of things I had done I was actually reaping things I had sown to the flesh and into sin and I was reaping it and that's a law that God has but listen 47:06 if you're reaping something that you've because of something you've sown I have good news for you even that reaping God can use for his glory even that reaping because he's a sovereign God I mean when it says in Romans 8 28 47:19 you know that verse right God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God do you know that you will get a deep understanding of God when you're able to apply that verse to the reaping for sin you did it 47:34 you're facing the consequences of it but God says if you will trust me and if you will have faith I will cause that to work together for you good where it's almost like I look back on that failure and think it's a good thing 47:49 I failed because then I could reap this difficult circumstance but then God could do something miracle it's a good thing God allowed me to let this whole house that I had built burn down to ashes why because he's a God who brings beauty 48:04 out of ashes he says and if you're holding on to something that looks like a grand house to you there's something more beautiful that God wants to it's a house of wood hay and stubble which it says in 1st Corinthians will burn up one day 48:17 and when God allows you to allows it to burn down now so that out of that ashes he can build a house of gold silver and precious stones you'll be able to take it to eternity with you the very life of Christ his divine nature 48:33 so if God is burning something down in your life and you're disappointed with it you're angry at God with it and you feel like God why me and you look around at others who seem to have a comfortable Christian life and you think 48:47 Lord why me really I know I did a lot of wrong things Lord but when will this stop I ask that question too what is it that pleases God it's faith God is looking for faith because you read that in Hebrews chapter 11 Hebrews 11 49:03 verse 6 without faith it is impossible to please God yeah you can hand out a million tracts preach to a million people raise a godly home and do all these wonderful things but if you don't have faith God will look at all of that 49:18 and say sorry it didn't please me all I was looking for was faith and if you had faith you could do all these other things and it would be pleasing to me but without faith all of this stuff is just going to be burned up 49:29 I'm going to send it through a like a conveyor belt you know when you go to an airport they put stuff on a conveyor belt and there's an x-ray there and they see if you've got any stuff in it you know I get this picture often 49:40 at the end of our lives God's going to put my life through a conveyor belt and it's not an x-ray machine it's a furnace and I'm going to watch my whole life the things I did my job how much money I made or didn't make my marriage 49:55 my godly home and my home and the house that I lived in the things I did for God he's going to put it on a conveyor belt and then I'm going to watch it go and it's too late to do anything about it at that point and then I'm 50:07 going to see that furnace and I'm going to think Lord is it going to make it through that's what Paul talks about you can read about it in 1 Corinthians 3 he says that everything will burn up but the beautiful thing is because 50:19 of God's word because God has given us his Holy Spirit I get to send the things that I'm investing my life in now through the furnace now I get to send it through that test I say Lord I don't want to waste even one minute 50:32 on something that will not make it through that furnace I don't want to give the gospel for even five minutes if it's done in a way that God says I know you preached the gospel but it wasn't me it didn't originate with me 50:45 it was you in your strength saying I gotta do something for God so I'm gonna do it and that'll burn up but that which comes from faith is pleasing to God and if you don't have it you can die as a martyr and it won't mean 50:59 anything to God but you have faith without faith it is impossible to please God and then he goes on in the remaining verses of Hebrews 11 to talk about examples of faith by faith Moses parted the Red Sea by faith it says Daniel 51:14 you know it says they shut the mouth of lions that he's talking about Daniel and all these wonderful examples of faith so you want to please God have faith but then he gets to something very interesting in verse 39 if you've read 51:26 Hebrews chapter 11 I want to tell you my dear friend that the most important verse in Hebrews 11 verse Hebrews chapter 11 is verse 39 I think this is the most important verse in Hebrews 11 and yet it's probably the least known 51:42 verse in Hebrews 11 everybody knows Hebrews 11 1 now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen many people know Hebrews 11 6 the verse I just read and many other verses but do you know verse 39 51:54 I think this is the crux of Hebrews 11 this is what the writer of Hebrews is getting at in telling us that without faith it is impossible to please God and giving us all these examples of faith and then he says Hebrews 11 52:07 verse 39 all of these examples of faith that I gave you gained approval through their faith but did not receive what was promised wow you know that there was something that Moses he got approval by parting the Red Sea yes 52:27 Daniel got approval by being in the den of lions yes but even they did not receive what was promised why verse 40 because God had provided or my margin says God had foreseen something 52:49 better for who oh come on for us now here's a little exercise I want to give you when you read the Bible and you read the word us in the new covenant in the new testament when you read it put your name there make it personal 53:06 I mean this is not us you know it's us yeah it becomes powerful when you say read it this way because God had had foreseen something better for Santosh now let's say that together and you say your name there by the believing in your heart 53:23 and confessing with your mind let's do that together so let's read 30 verse 40 together then we'll say because God had foreseen something better for and you say your name there because together God had foreseen something 53:36 better for Santosh okay do you know that when Moses parted the Red Sea God was pleased with it he was pleased with the faith that Moses demonstrated that he held the rod up I mean that's what he talks about in the earlier 53:50 part of the verse and the Red Sea parted but you know that in the midst of that faith and that delight and that approval that it says that Moses got God was looking ahead and seeing you right here in 2014 in your trial in the Red Sea 54:08 that you would be facing with the Egyptian army behind you whatever that looks like in your earthly circumstance and he foresaw something even better for you that there would be a Red Sea that he would part in your life 54:19 this is why Hebrews 11 is written it's for me because he had foreseen something better for me this is faith because God had foreseen something better for Santosh so that apart from me they would not be made perfect and Moses 54:39 didn't know this Abraham didn't know this Daniel didn't know this when he was just there in the lion's den just trusting God and that's great and it says that they got approval now let's not mock them let's not despise them 54:50 because there was a context to their faith they could not have more faith because Jesus had not yet come but in the midst of that what was God my heavenly father foreseeing you because you put your name there and when you get 55:05 in the habit of putting your name in the promises of God's word where he in the New Testament you will see God as deeper so then he says goes on to say so how do I I want this kind of faith he goes on to say how you can have 55:20 this kind of faith in chapter 12 therefore you know what I like to say if there's a word therefore it's odd how the word therefore seems to come at the beginning of chapters it's a dangerous thing actually because you know 55:35 if you're in the habit of reading a chapter a day you get to 39 verse you know Hebrews 11 verse 40 because that's where your reading for the day ends and then you go on your merry day and you start over the next day Hebrews 12 verse 1 55:46 therefore forgetting what you read the day before but when you read therefore it's a very good habit to go and see what it is therefore and go back a few verses so you'll see that this therefore in chapter 12 verse 1 is because God 55:59 has something better for you your name you put there right therefore since Santosh has so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding him in the midst of this rag doll being beaten to the ground circumstance in the midst of that trial 56:16 Santosh has a cloud cloud of witnesses a cloud too a cloud of witnesses surrounding him so let him let me also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles me and let me run with endurance the race that is set 56:34 before me this race of faith how shall I do it fixing my eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith I want to share with you in the last next couple of minutes what my understanding of this perfection of faith means 56:51 I take it to mean this way Moses he had some percentage of faith Daniel had some percentage of faith I don't know whatever percentage 50% 20% I don't know but that's the maximum that they could have because they were under the old covenant 57:08 faith enough to part the waters okay some level of faith for that faith enough to shut the mouths of lions some level of faith for that but do you want perfect 100% faith look to Jesus look to Jesus if you want this perfect faith 57:23 now all the others are examples but they didn't attain it they didn't get what was promised do you want to get what was promised to you because you're a child of God because you're a younger brother of Jesus then look to Jesus 57:34 who got 100% faith perfect faith now you would think okay if he's going to talk about perfect faith so Moses had let's say 50% faith to part the Red Sea and Daniel had maybe 60% faith to be in the den of lions to shut their mouth 57:49 what does 100% faith look like you would think well there's Jesus in front of the the waters and he doesn't even need to part it he just walks on the waters he did that and is that what perfect faith looks like that you find a greater 58:05 greater miracle than what Moses had now like I said if you're looking for the external and that's sadly what most Christians want that's what you'll look for it says Lord do you know you did it for Moses part the Red Sea 58:18 do something greater for me now you raised Lazarus from the dead after four days this person's been dead for 10 days raise him back to life that's not perfect faith it doesn't talk about Jesus having perfect faith by all these things 58:32 that he did but look at what it says fixing our eyes on Jesus the example of perfect faith if I can word it that way who endured the cross this is faith he got beaten to the ground he was crushed he was broken it pleased the Lord 58:50 to crush him but he endured it that's why you know the martyrs in the first century they stood there in the den of lions and what happened the lion's mouth opened wide and ate them up what do you think takes greater faith 59:07 to stand there in the den of lions and watch your husband or wife or your children gobbled up by lions and you're praying Lord you did it for Daniel can't you do it for me too you shut the mouth of lions but and you watch 59:22 your fellow brother eaten up alive by the lions it actually happened in the first century what do you think they were thinking they were crying out to the same God and he says it pleases me to crush you but the church is built 59:36 on the blood of the martyrs Daniel could never build a church but it's because these martyrs gave their lives that we had the church has continued on today and it is this spirit my dear brothers and sisters that God is looking for 59:48 so Lord I'll pray now please understand it's good to pray that God will heal you from that sickness it's good to pray that God will change that circumstance if it will make your life a little easier yes ask for that if you've got 1:00:01 you know I don't know maybe you've got arthritis or asthma or chronic back pain or you've got cancer ask for healing God says you can come and give me with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your request known to the Lord 1:00:15 he says but don't be anxious let it be like it was for Jesus who committed his life into the hand of his father now this is the greatest statement of faith I know recently I've been thinking about this you know when Jesus said 1:00:32 we can turn there real quickly Luke chapter 22 I think no it's in chapter 23 1:00:57 it says in verse 46 let's read verse 44 it was now about the sixth hour and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour for three hours Jesus was hanging there on the cross because the sun was obscured and the veil 1:01:13 of the temple was torn in two what was Jesus facing during those three hours our sin not just facing it it says he became our sin and his father turned his face away for those three hours and he cried out my God my God why have you 1:01:29 forsaken me Jesus experienced hell on earth he experienced the worst trial that anybody any human being has ever experienced there is no human being no matter how much torture no matter how much pain any human being has ever finished 1:01:43 experienced nobody has ever experienced it like Jesus did here during these three hours when it says like we sing in that song how deep the pain of searing loss the father turns his face away Jesus had never experienced that 1:01:58 the father turning his face away and for three hours he did he cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me and the reason I believe that's recorded is because you and I in those situations where we're tempted to think that God 1:02:11 has forsaken us and you think Lord when is this going to end when are you going to help me when is it going to get better he wants you to follow to fix your eye on Jesus who after it all says in verse 46 father into your hands 1:02:26 I commit my spirit father into your hands I commit my spirit you look at Jesus placing himself in the hand of his father and the father could crush him the father could crush him I pictured it like a grape that Jesus saw his life 1:02:42 like a grape that he was placing in the hand of his father the father could crush him and out of that grape out of the crushing of that grape came the new wine of the new covenant the life in the new covenant is described like wine 1:02:55 like new wine but you know you can't get wine until you crush grapes and if you're holding on to that grape and you're watching God squeeze it and squeeze it and squeeze it this is what he wants to see faith coming out of you 1:03:07 a faith that says father I'm just in your hands you do whatever you will with my life it's fine but I know you'll take care of it you will bring something good out of this this is the spirit in which God is looking for men and women 1:03:22 and children to give themselves to him so that he can build his church I hope he'll find it in all of us Jesus said when the son of man comes will he find godly homes righteous people no will he find faith that's what he's looking for 1:03:39 faith people who said father into your hands I commit my spirit here's one one brother another brother another sister a family some children all saying the same thing father into your hands I commit my spirit whatever circumstance 1:03:53 I'm going through and on the basis of that faith we seek to be united with one another and build a church that's pleasing to him a local expression of the body of Christ when the son of man comes will he find this faith 1:04:05 on the earth I pray he will so my dear friend no matter what your circumstance that you're going through I know you don't understand it I don't understand fully what all I've gone through or will go through even but I know this 1:04:17 I have a father he knows my name when he holds out his hand in which he's crushing me and I put myself in his hand you know what I see inscribed there is my name Isaiah 49 you can read it behold I have inscribed tattooed 1:04:34 your name on the palm of my hand trust me as he crushes you see your name written there and there's a purpose with which he's doing it nothing can stop him from accomplishing that purpose no power of hell no scheme of man 1:04:51 Amen
