Get Going! Series

GET GOING!

Matthew 28.18-20

S: Evangelism

C: Mission Orientation

Th: Never the Same Again

Pr: DELIBERATELY MAKE COMMITTED FOLLOWERS OF JESUS.

?: How? How do we do that?

KW: Essentials

TS: We will find in our study of Matthew 28 three essentials to making committed followers of Jesus.

CV: “We will relentlessly reach out to people with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.”

Type: Propositional

I. WE MOVE OUT TO CONNECT.

II. WE CALL FOR DECISION.

III. WE DEMONSTRATE OBEDIENCE.

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Feel God’s heart for the world.

• Express what Jesus means to you.

• Don’t separate good news and good deeds.

• Be vital to the community.

• Serve with love.

Version: ESV

RMBC 28 September 08 AM

ILL Self-Importance

The story is told of this donkey that was filled with self-importance. He felt that he had it over the other donkeys. He was very well taken care of by his humans and that made him feel all the more special. So, he was prideful that he was called in for difficult assignments. He was strong and he could carry a lot. He also knew how to give comfortable rides to passengers.

He was not surprised to be called to give a ride to a person going into the capital city one day. But he was surprised at what a wonderful greeting he was given by the crowds. People were laying down palm branches and their own cloaks on the ground before him. “Wow! I really am something,” he thought. “People are really appreciating all that I am doing, that’s for sure.”

But the truth was, the celebration was not for him or about him. It had nothing to do with him. He was carrying Jesus. He was simply carrying the Message.

As a church, it is not about us.

It is not about the donkey.

It is all about Jesus.

We are carriers of the message.

So, our job is to keep taking Jesus places.

Someone carried the message of Jesus to us, didn’t they?

When we heard the good news about Jesus, someone brought it to us.

And when we received the good news, something great happened to us.

We were “Never the Same Again.”

That has been our theme this year during our discipleship emphasis.

When we have been changed by the good news, we know that it will be good news to others as well.

It is news to be shared.

In fact, that is Jesus’ assignment to us.

He tells us to make disciples.

We are to…

DELIBERATELY MAKE COMMITTED FOLLOWERS OF JESUS.

This is our assignment.

And what is our goal?

It is effectiveness.

It is reaching people.

It is fruitfulness.

When we lose sight of that, we will get distracted by other things that are not nearly as important!

So, listen…

The measurement of success for our church is not the programs, budget or buildings, but the production and development of followers of Jesus.

It is not programs.

It is not possessing money.

It is not to have great buildings.

It is connecting with people.

Let’s go back to the programs for a minute…

Because we have a lot of programs here at Randall, and I think we have some mighty good ones.

But programs don’t reach people.

People reach people.

Programs are nothing more than framework.

And if they do not aid us in getting connected with people, then we either revise how we are doing them or we get rid of them.

You see…

Our goal is to depopulate hell.

We want to see less people there.

But, when we are more concerned with ourselves and when leadership is more concerned with keeping Christians happy, we show our lack of heart for those without Jesus.

Why is that?

Is it because we are not convinced that the people of the world are destined for hell?

Is it because we don’t care?

What is it about us that we can’t seem to get started.

We seem to be so sound evangelically, but so asleep evangelistically.

We need to have a new attitude in this area that is reflected in our core values:

“We will relentlessly reach out to people

with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.”

That adverb is really important here.

It represents a new attitude that we need to have for people that don’t have the joy of knowing Jesus.

It is not the idea of chasing people down with our big black Bibles in hand – knocking them over the head.

In fact, we would prefer you did not do that.

We are not about coercion.

Not at all.

Instead, we want to be about people.

We want to be about people having life – full life – full of joy – as God has designed it to be.