Transcript

Sermon Transcript: What Does Jesus Want?

3/27/2023 Jeff Schwarzentraub 51 min read

Pastor Jeff:

Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise because you are worthy and you alone deserve everything that we have. Lord, as we gather here today, we are thankful that you gave us your word. You're living an active word, which every time is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that we believe that you speak. So, our prayer today, Lord, is speak for we are ready to hear what you have to say to us. We are ready individually and we are ready collectively as a church.

And so now for all those who have gathered, who desire to hear the Lord speak, who will believe what he says to you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

There is no more fascinating study in the world than the study of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean the more you study the Lord and the more you get to know him through his word, the more fascinating you see that he is. In this series called The Kingdom Invasion, we've been taking a look at who Jesus is and we started in Mark chapter one and saw all the uniqueness of his ministry, of what Jesus came and did, that he had always been the second person of the Trinity. He had always been God. And yet in humility he put on incarnate flesh, he came to this world.

He had a ministry of preaching. He had a ministry of freedom where he delivered people from demons. He had a ministry of healing and he loved the world so much that he gave up his own life on a cross, shed his own blood and died so that those who would repent and believe could have a relationship with him and with his father.

Then we took a look at some of the uniquenesses of Jesus Christ's ministry. We took a look in Mark chapter five and how Jesus had power over demons and Jesus had power over disease and Jesus even has power over death. And we studied what his ministry looked like. But we didn't stop there, we took a look at the commissioning of his original 12 and how he sent them out to do exactly what he was doing. And last week we took a look at Matthew chapter 10, and he sent them out to preach. He sent them out to cast out demons. He sent them out to heal people.

And he expected them to do everything that he was doing, because he was the one that was going to be empowering them. And yet it begs the question, what about us? We said last week, we are here because of those original 12. And many people even in the church can get to the place where they would say, "Jesus is unique. He had a special ministry and he empowered 12 people to do it. But what about me? And what about you? What does God require? What does God expect? What does Jesus Christ want?"

Because I find that those first three messages, most evangelicals around the country would nod their head and say, "Okay, I believe he did that and I believe he did that with the 12. But what about us? What does Jesus want from us?" And if you've ever wondered that, God wants to speak to you today. We're going to be in Luke chapter 10 this morning. We're going to take a look at the first 24 verses of that text. And as you turn there, we're going to answer the question, what does Jesus want? And we're going to take a look at four things that Jesus wants from you.

But just to set up that story, if you flip back just one page or one chapter, you'll see last week we studied Matthew chapter 10. Luke chapter nine is the parallel passage. So, Jesus trains the 12. He sends them out just as he said. And remember when they came back, they were all excited that the ministry worked and they wanted to get alone with Jesus. And so Jesus said, let's get in a boat and go to the other side of the lake. And when they did, there was such a huge crowd of people. And Jesus saw all these people, and even though the disciples just wanted to spend time with Jesus, Jesus had compassion on the masses, didn't he? And so he began to teach them and he began to heal them and he began to deliver them. And at the end of the day, they had no food.

And so he began to empower the disciples to give them the food that they needed. And the way he did this was he took what they had, he blessed it and he broke it. And then what did he do? He gave it to the disciples so they could pass it out to everybody and everybody ate and was satisfied. What was Jesus trying to do? He was trying to teach the 12 everything that he had just taught them, that when he sent them out that they would always have what they need for the people that they were going to, but they needed to come back to Jesus to receive more so that they could pass it all out. And he was teaching them the habit. His method was, "Come back to me, I'll give you what you need, and then you go out." That was Jesus' method.

His method has not changed. The very next scene that Luke includes in his gospel is the Mount of Transfiguration where Peter, James and John got to see Jesus in all of his glory. When they came down the mountain, there was a father that had a son that was troubled. He had a demon. And every time that the son was wanting to do something, it would throw him on the ground or would throw him in the fire or try to drown him. And the disciples were trying to heal him, trying to cast the demon out, because that's what Jesus told him to do, but they were having no success whatsoever. And so Jesus said, "Bring the boy to me." And when the man brought the boy to Jesus, the man said to Jesus, "If you can do anything," he said, "If I can? All things are possible for him who believes."

And Jesus freed that little boy so that he was fine. Later the disciples asked him, "Why couldn't we do that? I mean we've been casting out demons and healing people, but this one, we couldn't do." And what does he say? "This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting." He wasn't giving them a magic formula. He was talking about a relationship that needed to be had in an ongoing way and a hunger for that relationship in order to see the power of God released to the full measure of that situation. And then what we see is, as you can imagine being human, then there becomes this test of greatness. Because all the disciples, as they're going out preaching and casting out demons and healing people, they want to know, "Well, who's the greatest? Who's the best preacher? Who's the best healer? Who's the best demon castor outer?" Right?

Jesus is overhearing all of this, and he begins to tell them that even the Son of man did not come to serve, but to be served. He began to show them that servanthood and humility was the way to move forward. And then this chapter ends with three different vignettes of people approaching Jesus. Some that wanted to follow him and some that Jesus was calling to follow him. And here was the thing that happened. They didn't want to give him full allegiance, they just wanted to give them a little bit. One guy wanted to go bury his father first. He said, "Hey, let the dead bury their own dead, but you come follow me." Jesus said, "Anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven." He begins to say, "You want to be my follower? I need you to go all in."

That's the context of where we're going. So, he was doing it with the 12, but he was also demanding it from everybody else that he met. And that's where we pick up in Luke chapter 10:1. Notice what it says. "Now after this," after all this, after he is appointed the 12, after he's shown them what he wants to do after all this, "The Lord appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead of him to every city and place where he himself was going to come." So, now it's not just the 12 anymore, now it's 70. Your version may read 72, some manuscripts have 70, some manuscripts have 72. Don't lose your faith. We'll just say 70 today, because that's what it says in my Bible, okay?

I mean there were 70 elders in Israel, there were 70 members of the Sanhedrin, there were 70 nations in Genesis chapter 10, perhaps that's what it is. Anyway, don't lose your faith over two people. What I want you to see is this is not the 12. That's what I want you to see. What does Jesus want? Jesus Christ wants, first and foremost, total allegiance from all his followers. I'm going to say it again, because some of you heard me and you're nodding, but you don't believe me that he's talking about you. He wants total allegiance from all his followers. So, he's appointing 70 others. Now who are the 70? I mean when we study Matthew chapter 10, it lists all the 12 by name. We know Peter, we know James, we know John, we know Andrew, Bartholomew. We have all of them listed. Who are the 70?

We don't know. They're anonymous saints. What does Jesus want? He wants anonymous saints that will give total allegiance to him. See, we live in a world where we think I've got to get a title or I've got to get rank, or I've got to get a degree or I've got to move myself up. No, Jesus will take you right where you're at and pour the full measure of his grace through whomever wants to come to him. He just wants total allegiance. That's what he wants. So, he invites the 70 now. Now you would think if he's going to commission the 12, then for the 70, it's going to be a little bit of a lighter mission, don't you think? I mean these aren't the real 12, these are just 70. So, what does he tell them to do?

"And he was saying to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are a few. Therefore, besiege the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Have we not heard this prayer before? Have we not heard this request before? Did he not tell the 12 the exact same thing? What's he telling the 70 now? The exact same thing that he told the 12. And what's his first and foremost that he's asking them to do pray. Pray. Pray for what specifically? Pray that God would raise up those who would go among the lost, because the fields are white unto harvest. They are so ripe. Now, when are the fields ripe? Was it just in the first century that there were lost people? Was it just in the first century that there was darkness? Was it just in the first century there were political problems? Was it just in the first century there were social issues, or has it been every generation subsequent to that where the fields are white unto harvest?

See, there are people that sit in the church and talk about how dark it is out there. The darker it gets, the brighter the light for Christ will shine. Friends, we live in one of the greatest generations for the gospel in the history of the church. Do not be discouraged. Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

So, what's he telling them? Pray that the Lord would send out harvesters into his harvest field. And as we talked about last week, just to reiterate, what we tend to think that means is, "I'm a Christian. I'll pray for those select few, maybe the 3% or 5% that want to do missions and the sea of God raises them up and then I'll pray for them to get some money so that they can go do the mission of God. That's what I'm praying for." Here's what you need to see in the scriptures. Jesus never asks his disciples to do anything that he himself is unwilling to do.

What did Jesus come and do? Well, he preached. He cast out demons. He healed people. What did Jesus do? He commissioned people to go out and preach, cast out demons and heal people. What's he doing now? He's showing another group of people, go tell the gospel, preach the gospel. He's going to talk about healing and casting out demons that you'll see in this text. So, he's modeling for them, "Just do what I'm doing, follow me and I will make you fishers of men." So, what's the prayer He is asking all Christians to pray everywhere around the world? "Lord, here am I. Send me. I'm available, I'm ready. If there's a way you can use me on mission, that's what I'd like to do."

Now, why is that important? Because for most of us, we think Jesus' mission was simply to die on the cross so that if you believe in him, you'll go to heaven. You won't find that in the New Testament. You will not find Jesus come across somebody and to say, "What must I do to be saved?" And he says, "Pray this prayer and ask me into your heart and then go live your life just the way it is." You won't find that. Everybody Jesus meets, he not only wants to save, he's bringing them into a new kingdom, into a new family with a new mission to go and do something. If you are saved through repentance and faith, Jesus didn't save you so that one day you go to heaven, and so in the interim you just be a good boy or a good girl. He saved you because he has so much purpose in your life and your greatest purpose will be found as you live a missional lifestyle for Jesus Christ. Amen.

That's what he's talking about. He wants total allegiance from everybody. Keep in mind when we go out and share the gospel, we're not just trying to get converts. People do need to be converted. I do believe there's a moment in time where we repent of our sin and place our faith and trust in Jesus. I do believe that, but that's not the end, that's just the beginning. The Bible calls that being born again, it's new birth. What does Jesus want? Everybody that you share with, he wants them to be on mission too. In the truest sense of the word mission, every Christian is a missionary. Now you may wear different clothes Monday through Saturday. You may wear them for your business, you may wear them in your school. You may wear all sorts of different outfits to do the gospel. But the reality is wherever you go, you're on mission and as an ambassador for Jesus Christ.

So, what's the first thing he tells these 70? "I want you to pray and I want you to pray for more harvesters." "Well, how are we going to get that, Jesus?" "Well, you're going to have to go tell them the good news that I'm the king and that the kingdom has come and they need to repent and believe. And when they repent and believe you've got some more laborers to go out in the harvest field." You don't just have a convert that can come attend your group meeting, you have people that are now commissioned by Jesus to go. Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

So, he tells them to pray. He tells them, "Get ready, and get ready as you share because you're going to raise up other ones." And then what's the first word of verse three? "Go." He told his disciples to go. He's telling the 70 to go. What is he going to do in Matthew chapter 18 or Matthew chapter 28:18-20, after he says, "All authority in heaven and an earth has been given to me, therefore go." Do you see the similarity in everything Jesus does? He does it with the 12. He does it with the 70. He's going to do it with the masses. Go. Go and do what?

"Behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves." We talked about that last week. The only way that you're going to get through this is through Jesus Christ's protection, through Jesus Christ's provision, through Jesus Christ's direction. What was he saying? Stay connected to me on the mission. I'm not calling you because you're qualified. I'm calling you because you belong to me, but you need to stay connected to me when you go.

Verse four, "Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes and greet no one on the way." What's he saying there? This thing's urgent. Jesus saw his mission as urgent. As a matter of fact, if you study through the gospels, you would think that Jesus is a megalomaniac because all he cares about is himself and his own mission. And let me tell you what he cares about today, himself and his own mission. So, everywhere he goes, that's what he's calling people to do. That's why when you meet the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and says, "Good teacher, what must I do to be saved?" What's his question? "What's the least I can do and still get into heaven?" See, those are the kind of the theological questions we like to ask. "Hey, what's the least I can do and still be saved?" The Bible doesn't answer that.

Now theologically, we can piece some things together. Here's what the Bible ask. What does it look like to be a follower of Jesus? It means go all in 100% with everything you are. That's what it means. When the rich young ruler is there and begins to tell Jesus how he's kept all the commandments since he was a kid, even though we know the 10 Commandments and we studied them and nobody's kept any of them, but he's a religious guy. Jesus says, "Hey, one thing you lack, go sell everything you have. Then come follow me." Which means what? I'm going to have you do this and your reward in heaven will be great. And what does the man do? He walks away sad. He was saying, "All I was asking is how to get to heaven. I didn't want to be on this mission thing. I didn't want to go all in with you. I don't love you like that. I'm not for what you're doing. I just want to go to heaven."

And as he's walking away, Jesus said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom." He said, when you're tied to the things of this world and your life, it is so hard for you to live for Jesus. But if you study through the scriptures and you see this as a template for what Jesus wanted, you will never see him lower the standard or the bar for his mission. He expected every follower to come die with him, and he was going to model that too. He said, "I'm going to go to Jerusalem. They're going to hand me over. I'm going to be mistreated. I'm going to be beaten. I'm going to be killed, but I'm going to rise. You want to follow me? Anyone who will not take up his own cross and follow after me has no part of me."

Are you willing to come die too? I mean that is the mission of Jesus. We've watered it down so much that we think that the pinnacle is seeing somebody get saved, when in the Bible that's the entry point for seeing somebody know Christ that can then be put on mission to lead many others to Jesus Christ. Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

That's what he's telling the 70 to do. Now, keep in mind he's not telling the 12. The 12 he's already told this. These are just 70 other anonymous saints that are following after him and he's like, "Okay, you want to follow me? Then you're going to do the exact same thing I told the 12 to do." So, he is going to send him out. "Don't worry about your money, don't worry about your clothes, don't worry about your shoes and greet no one on the way." What does that mean? In the first century, greeting was the greatest form of hospitality. He wasn't saying, "When you walk, put your head down and be mean to people." That's not what he was saying.

He was saying, don't let anything get in the way of the mission. Don't let anything distract you. Don't make your shopping, don't make your resources, don't make your relationships, let nothing get in the way of the mission. Because what I care about is myself and the mission I came to do, which was to let the world know that there's a God in heaven and I have been sent by my father to be here for the world. That's the only thing worth living for. That's everything Jesus talks about all throughout the gospels. Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

So he says, "When you go, whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house.'" Now, I want to tell you something about this. I'm thankful to be part and pastor a church that preaches the word of God in its fullness. When you're in a church that preaches the word of God in its fullness, God shows you his standard of holiness. He shows you his standard of righteousness. He shows you his standard of truth. I love that I pastor a church where I can do that. So, to stand here and say, I believe that God created the world in six literal days and rested on the seventh. I believe that God created only two genders and they're male and female. I believe that God says marriage is only between a man and a woman till death do you part. I believe that abortion is murder.

I can say all those things, right? And we can clap for them, that's fine. We can praise God for that. At the same time, what can develop in our heart if we're not on mission is a callousness towards people that don't agree with that. And so we think of them as those people and that group. What does Jesus say when you enter their house, in other words, when you enter their sector, when you enter that group, what are you bringing to them? Not judgment. What? Peace. It means that as you grow in God's holiness, your heart has to stay fresh by loving the people that God loved. And why does he love all people? Because he created all people. And who did Jesus die for? He died so that anybody who was willing to repent of their sin and trust him could have a relationship.

So, when you hold a standard of morality that the people you're talking to don't, or they vote for the wrong political leaders, or they act in a way that's different, you love them. You're bringing peace to them because you realize their problem is not that they're bad people, their problem is that they're dead and they're going to spend eternity in hell and you care about them. So, you love them so much, you want them to know your Savior. That's peace. So, Jesus said when you go out among the lost, you bring peace to them. Jesus said, "Peace I have given to you, my peace I leave with you." So, we hold a righteous standard and yet we're not callous towards the lost, we want to bring peace to the lost. Notice what he says in verse six. "If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him, but if not, it will return to you."

Now, this man of peace, literally a son of peace, we'll call it a person of peace. A person of peace is when you go out among the lost and you meet somebody that is interested in what you have to say and the lifestyle in which you're living. That's a person of peace. As you pray to go among the lost, there are people that you're going to pray for specifically. Some of you have specific friends, specific family members and all that. But as you pray and say, "Lord, I'm going out, bring that person to me that really wants to hear about who you are." You will find there are sometimes a person that will come alongside and they'll be receptive to the things that you're saying and they'll be receptive to the lifestyle you're living. And there's a curiosity in them that says, "I kind of want to know a little more about this."

When you have that, your peace will rest on them. If you go out and share with somebody that's like, "I want nothing to do with you," don't worry about that. Your peace is going to come back you. You're not going to lose your relationship with Christ because you spend time sharing with a nonbeliever. Your peace will come back to you. But when you go out, what are you looking for? I'm not looking for converts and I'm not looking to convert a certain person, because I don't have the power to do that. I'm keeping my eyes open to see who Jesus may bring into my pathway, either in my neighborhood, or at a park, or on my sports team, or in my school, or in my business, or on an airplane, or in the airport, or wherever I'm going because I'm praying that God's going to bring me a person of peace.

And when somebody comes along and we start engaging in the conversation, it's going to be very obvious this person is a person of peace. They're going to be receptive to what you have to say. And here's what Jesus says. Notice what he says. "When you find someone like that, stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house." So, he's telling him, you go to households and when you meet a person of peace that invites you in, it's okay to eat their food. I will provide for you. I will protect you. Sometimes I'm going to use other people's means to help you get the mission done. I might not give you a house, but I'll make sure you have shelter over your head. I may not provide food directly to you, but I'll use somebody else. I'll be the source. I'll use all sorts of other resources to get it done.

And then notice what he says. "When you meet a person of peace, stay in their house." Why? Because sometimes when we think about mission, we think only about converts and we think our job is done when we've shared the gospel. "Well, I told him about that. I gave him a track. Done with them. If they don't believe that that's their problem." No. When you find a person of peace, you stay with them not only until they meet Jesus and are converted, but until they're on mission too. Because what's he looking for? He's looking for laborers. So, when you're sharing the gospel, you're not just sharing and hoping somebody's heart changes. Certainly you hope that, but you're sharing in the hopes that that person will become a co-labor for Jesus. And why do you stay with them? Because Jesus is not concerned with just converting individuals, he wants to convert whole households.

He wants to convert all sorts of groups. So, you share a gospel with a guy that's on a team and he comes to Christ. What we tend to do is say, "Hey, come to my church." It's always great to invite people to church. People are always welcome at Brave. You know that, right? Or we say, "Come to my small group." People are welcome to come to your small group. But what tends to happen over a couple three years of that happens is, and for some of you, this is your testimony, you came to Christ, you knew that you were lost, you repented of your sins, you got indoctrinated in the church, you came into a small group, and about a year, two or three later, they're saying, "Let's go out and share the gospel." And you're like, "I don't even have any un-Christian friends anymore. I'm so Christianized now. I don't even know who the lost are."

What if when that person on the team comes to Christ and you're there and you ask him this question, "Is there anybody else that might be interested in hearing what you just learned about?" "Oh yeah, man, there's three guys on my team and my girlfriend and this and that." "Hey, would you be interested if we started some sort of discovery group? And I helped you understand how to open the scriptures. And for all of them, we got to see the Holy Spirit work in all their lives?" And what if God converted four out of five others in addition to the one guy on the team? Would that not be exciting? That's exactly what the disciples did. They didn't just go preach and say, "How many people signed the card? Okay, good. Our job is done."

They came alongside, because they wanted to make disciples that were going out into the harvest field. Reminder, who's he talking to? Is he talking to the special 12? No, he is talking to anonymous people that said, "Lord, I want to follow you." He's like, "Okay, this is what you want to do? Then this is what you do." And he said, "Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you and heal those who are sick." So he said, here's your healing ministry. So, who has the power to heal? Through Christ, every believer does according to the word of God.

"And when you heal them, say, 'The kingdom of God has come near you.'" It's not my gift. I have a healing gift. I have a preaching gift. I have this. No, the kingdom of God has come upon you. If you're experiencing Christ through somebody's ministry. "But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, 'Even the dust of your city, which clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.' I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city."

What's he saying? The message and the method is so powerful that if people reject it and they don't want a part of it, do it publicly so that the city knows Jesus was going to come to this city. Jesus wanted to do something in your life. He sent me here for you. And you've not only rejected me, you've rejected the One who sent me. And we'll see that later in the text. Make a public display of this. Now why is this so important? Because when it comes to the gospel, you are accountable for what you know. When you go out and share, it's not your job to convert somebody. I'm not very good at sales. I'm not very good at relationship. You don't have to be, right?

I mean in John chapter nine, there's a blind guy that gets healed and they're giving him grief about his testimony. And here's his testimony. Listen. "All I know is this, I was blind, now I see. Jesus did it. You got a problem? Take it up with Him." If you know that much, you can be effective in the mission for Jesus Christ. We have this false idea that in order to do what God wants us to do, we got to go to a certain amount of school, or take a certain amount of classes, or be in church for a certain amount of time, or be a certain amount of maturity. And what happens is over time, if you're not set forth on mission from the beginning, your mission muscles atrophy and then you begin to make all excuses as to how that's just not how God wired you.

If you're a Christian, God wired you, hardwired you for mission. It's the most important thing that you will ever do. And if you're on mission, all of the other things work. If you're on mission, there's a hunger for the word like you'll never see. If you're on mission, there's a desire to pray. If you're on mission, there's a desire to learn more because you need to know how to apply the Bible in given situations. And when you see somebody that comes to Christ, there is a welling up in you unlike anything else. And there should always be a desire for converts. I mean, even now, if I watch a Billy Graham crusade from say, 50 years ago in 1973, and I'm watching a guy in a leisure suit come down with a tie about this wide, and it's 50 years ago and I'm still like crying because I'm like, there's nothing like seeing a convert.

But one of the reasons that moved me from being an evangelist to pastoring a church is I saw lots of people raise their hand and come forward to Christ. What I didn't see was a group of people. If that person is really that valuable to the kingdom, then how do you love that person enough to put them on mission so they can experience the fullness of Jesus Christ ongoing in their life? That's what Jesus was teaching. He taught His 12, he taught the 70. And when we get to the great commission where he tells them, "All authority and heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go..." What? "Make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to..." What? "Obey everything that I commanded you." Well, what's he teaching them? This. So, which disciples are going to have to do this?

Every single convert is required by God to do this. When? First and foremost, he wants total allegiance from all of his followers. Let me tell you what gets in the way. One thing gets in the way. My pride and your pride. My pride that says, "I don't have time right now." My pride that says, "My agenda won't allow for that." My pride that says, "That's just not the way God wired me. He's using me in other areas." You can make whatever excuse you want, but I'm here to tell you on the authority of God's word, that if you're a Christian, you will be admitted into heaven and welcomed and loved and all of that, but wouldn't it be better when you met the Lord Jesus Christ if not only were you saved, but you could show, "Lord, I don't know much, but I did the best with what you gave me. And was there any fruit that you bore through my life? Because I just love you so much. I want other people to know about you."

That's the mission. And Jesus wants total allegiance. Now, if you get this and see this, and once you see it, you can't unsee it. You'll see it all the way through the scriptures. Because here's how we treat people in the church. "Don't leave. Don't go to another church. Don't stop going to church. Give us your money." That's not what Jesus talked about at all. Did you know that? Jesus would say things like this, "Are you still so dull? Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I tell you to do?" I mean those are some of the questions Jesus just was asking. "You're not going to leave too, are you? I mean I'm not lowering my standard. If you're offended by this, then leave."

I mean that's how Jesus taught. Why? Because he wasn't just looking for converts that said, "Okay, I believe you're God." He was looking for missioners. He was looking for laborers to go out into the harvest field because he needed his message to be sent out. And what's his message? It's his method. His method was going among the lost and praying for the lost and gathering with the lost and then entrusting things to the lost so that his spirit could get the work done. And the reason you're here today is not just because of the 12, it's because of the 70 and everybody subsequent to the 70 that did exactly what Jesus called them to do. So, it's easier to talk about, "Isn't it cool what Jesus did? Isn't it neat the ministry he had? Wasn't it awesome that Jesus did that with the 12? Man, I wish I lived in an era where I could see those things."

Well, you do live in an era where you can see those things, but there's things that are hindering the things that you want to see because nobody's telling you that this is primary to what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Jesus wants total allegiance from all of his followers. You can look to your right and your left and you can tell the person next to you, "He's talking about me," right? Because that's who he's talking about. Second thing Jesus Christ wants is this. He wants missional engagement for the purpose of accountability through your obedience. He wants missional engagement for the purpose of accountability through your obedience. Notice what he says now. He starts talking about cities that rejected him and the disciples he sent to that city. "Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida, for the miracles have been performed entire and inside which occurred and you, they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes."

Sackcloth and ashes was an outward expression of what I'm feeling on the inside, which is, "I'm wrong. I need to get right with God." And he's saying, these cities would've repented a long time ago and here we sent missionaries to you, disciples to you, and you wanted nothing to do with it. He said, "But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. And Capernaum, will you not be exalted to heaven? You will not. You'll be brought down to Hades." And notice what he says next. "The one who listens to you, listens to me, and the one who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me."

When you go out on this mission, just know this, you can't save anybody. Your best polished gospel presentation can't save anybody. Why? Only God can save people. So, if they listen to you, they're not listening to you, they're listening to God. If they reject you, who are they rejecting? They're rejecting Jesus and the one who sent him, which is the Father. So if you share the gospel and people reject you, don't worry about it, they're not rejecting you. It should pain you that they're rejecting Jesus and the Father. It should pain you that they don't have a relationship with God. It should pain you that when they die, they're going to hell. That should pain you, but it shouldn't... I mean we're human, so when we feel rejection, it's normal to feel like, "Oh, maybe I didn't do that right? I feel bad." That's a normal feeling, but what you should really see is when people reject what you're saying, if you're faithful to God, they're really rejecting God.

There's no pressure on you to save anybody. We're not going to ask you, "How many people did you go out with? How many people did you share with this week? How many people did you save?" Been in environments like that before, it's religious and it's garbage. The question is, are you praying for the lost? Are you going among the lost? Is God bringing people of peace into your life? Are you learning how to entrust them with the gospel? Are you learning how to build into their friend group and see them come to Christ? Are you learning that, right? That's what Jesus is talking about here. And it's important for us to know that when we go out, our method and our message causes others to be accountable before God. The more you've heard the message and the more you've seen what God has done, the more accountable you are to stand before Jesus.

Here's what that means. If you attend Brave Church on a regular basis, you have way more accountability than a church that doesn't preach the word. If you grow up in America where you can tune in and listen to biblical preaching on the radio, you have a much greater accountability than those places in the world that haven't even heard yet. And by the way, if you go to Brave Church and you're hearing this message, you're accountable for being on mission whether you like it or not. "Well, I wish I wouldn't have come to church today." Well, I'm glad you're here, because you're accountable to that. So, you can't stand before Jesus and say, "Well, I didn't know. I was kind of busy with my job."

No, you know now, so you're accountable because Jesus will replay this sermon for you. That's kind of crazy to think about. But he wants you to be missionally engaged for the accountability of others. He wants you to reach people. He wants to make disciples of all nations. But even when people don't respond, God's still using what you do. Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

This verse has been very helpful to me as I preach. When I was a younger preacher, I wanted people to tell me after I got done preaching like every time, "Great job. That was one of the best sermons I ever heard." I mean the older I've gotten, I'm like asking the Lord, "Am I being faithful to the word? If I'm being faithful to the word, if people listen, they're listening to you. If people reject me, they're not rejecting me, they're rejecting you." My job is to be faithful to the word. Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

When you go out and share the gospel, it's just being faithful to Jesus. It's just telling your testimony about Jesus. It's just telling what the word says about Jesus. You don't have to worry about results. Results will take care of themselves. Let me give you a third thing that Jesus Christ wants. Jesus Christ wants to unleash his power through you, but he wants you to rejoice that you belong to him. Let me say it again. He wants to release his power through you, but he wants you to rejoice that you belong to him. Many of us in church are like, "I want more spiritual gifts." The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14, you should pray for those. God wants to dispense them through you, "Pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts." That's a good thing to pray.

However, what he's going to say is when I pour my gifting through you, don't rejoice about your gift, rejoice that you belong to me. Notice what he says. The 70 returned with joy saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name." Now, if you go back and read this text closely, he doesn't tell them to cast out demons like he did for the 12. He tells them to go heal people and tell them the kingdom of God has come near them. What do they do? What's the first thing they talk about when they get back? "Demons submit to us in your name. I mean it's crazy." Are they excited? They're elated. They think of themselves like you and I think of ourselves. We're just normal human beings. God saved us. There's nothing special about us.

No. Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me. Therefore, go, I'm empowering you to go. I will give you the gifting for every single thing you need in every place that you go." And what they're saying is, "Lord, in your name or because of your reputation or because of the power you have, here's what we're experiencing. Everything you said you had power and authority over is completely true. You weren't even there and we're telling you, I mean you missed it, Jesus, you totally missed it. We were casting demons out of people. Man, Jesus, you should have seen it. It was awesome."

So, what does Jesus say? He said, "Behold, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing will injure you." What's he saying? I will protect you no matter what. I don't think he's saying, go to your local pet store and buy a scorpion and a snake and jump on it today and see if it's true. We don't have to put the Lord your God to the test. What he's saying is there's nothing that will come your way, that you don't have authority and power over in my name. If it's something physical, if it's something spiritual, you have all of my authority and power at your disposal to go and do what I ask you to go and do.

He promises, "I will be with you always to the end of the age." That's what he's going to tell his future disciples. Amen. And notice what he says. "Nevertheless, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven." Why does he have to say that? Because there's a tendency in our sinful self that when God does something special through us, we want to make sure other people notice, or we want to pat ourselves in the back, or we want to think, "Boy, aren't I awesome?" And we want to look for spiritual gifts. And I believe God wants to dispense more spiritual gifts to his body to be used to advance the kingdom and share the gospel.

However, one of the dangers with that can be is when we live in a place of pride, then we think that when God works through us, it's because of us he did the work. "Well, you got healed because I have a special healing gift." "Well, the reason you're being blessed is because I'm such a good preacher." "Well, the reason that you got healed there and got that, I'm such a great prayer." "Now, the reason you're encouraged is I have the gift of encouragement." I mean we can tend to go that way. And so Jesus is like, "Don't rejoice at what I'm doing through you, because you know it's not you. So, quit rejoicing. But here's what I do want you to rejoice in, that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Your name is written in heaven. Rejoice in the fact that we have an eternal relationship. Rejoice in the fact that when you die and stand before me and the books are open, you will be welcomed in."

Because if you've repented of your sin and trusted in Jesus Christ on this side of heaven, the greatest news for you is your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and it can't be blotted out. It cannot be erased, right? So, rejoice in that. He's saying, even as you see me moving, even as you see me do great things and all this kind of stuff, here's what you should be rejoicing about, me, is what Jesus says. I mean I don't think it's wrong to pray for revival. I think it's important to understand what revival is. Revival is not just an encounter with the Holy Spirit where we linger longer. That's not revival. Revival is when my heart is revived and I love Jesus so much, I have to go tell others about him and we're seeing massive conversion because the Holy Spirit's doing something that we can't control. That's revival.

And when that happens, he said, "Don't rejoice at that. That's great. I'm doing all that. Rejoice that you belong to me. Celebrate me. Don't ever take your eyes off me. Don't lose your first love. It's me." That's what Jesus is saying, and I love that about him because he understands our human condition. And notice what he says, Jesus, we wish you would've been there, wish you would've been there, wish you would've been there. I skipped verse 18 on purpose. He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning." Now, there's a couple interpretations here. One can be this, in the beginning when Satan sinned against the Lord and fell, I was there, I saw it. And I want you to know something, don't let your pride get in the way of what God's doing. Pride always comes before a fall.

That can be something he was saying. But I think contextually because we're talking about mission, I think the disciples are like, "You should have been there. You should have seen it. We were casting out demons in your name." And Jesus is like, "I was watching. I have a special seat. I can see things in the heavenlies you can't see. And when you go out on mission for me, you're seeing some of the stuff happen. But I'm telling you, I'm watching Satan fall like lightning. Satan has no authority over what you're going to do for me." And here's why that's important. Satan is a powerful being, make no mistake about it. We're not called to awe him. We're not called to fear him. We are called to be aware of him.

But apart from Jesus Christ creating him, he has no power and no authority. It's not like there's Satan and then Jesus is a little bit better. There's Jesus that has all authority and power and there's a creative being, Satan, that lies to you and tells you he has more power and authority than what he does. As a Christian, he has no power and authority over your life unless you let him. Jesus has all authority and power over your life. And here's what Jesus was telling his disciples. "I was there on the mission trip. I saw it. I was watching every time you did what I told you to do. I was watching the enemy and all of his forces just fall out of the heavenlies, because there's a spiritual battle that takes place long before the earthly battle does."

That's what he was saying. I mean isn't that exciting? I mean don't you want to be a part of this? I mean I read through the book of Acts. You guys read through the book of Acts. I hear people in the church all the time say, "Wish we saw stories like that." You can, just pray and go among the lost and ask God to bring people your way and then see what he's going to do and then entrust the gospel to him and you'll be blown away by what he does through you. And then he ends by saying this.

The fourth thing, Jesus Christ wants you to experience the blessed life. I want you to experience the blessed life. Now in church, when I start talking about the blessed life, there are some people that start to coil in their seat and get uncomfortable because you think I'm going to say, "Oh, now he's talking about money. Now he's talking about houses. Now he's talking about cars. Now he's talking about prosperity. Oh, prosperity gospel." I do believe God is a prospering God, but that's not what the blessed life is. If it was, then every rich person that owned all this stuff would be happy. And I know a lot of rich people that have a lot of stuff that aren't very happy, right? The blessed life has nothing to do with the accumulation of your possessions. The blessed life has to do with feeling the Lord's pleasure as you're doing what he puts you on the planet to do. That's the blessed life.

What does Jesus Christ want? He wants you to experience this. I mean when you see who Jesus is and how he commissioned the 12 and how he went and did ministry, and now how he's commissioning the 70, what's the invitation? You can do it too. You can be a part of this. Jesus is saying, "I can use any one of you that belongs to me to do this." And notice what he says in verse 21. "At that very time, he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit." Now what does it mean to rejoice greatly? It wasn't that Jesus stood there and said, "Oh, Father, I rejoice greatly." I think Jesus was jumping up and down praising his Dad, rejoicing. Why? Because he's been working with these dull disciples that don't get it, and now he's commissioning 12 and they're going out and coming back.

Now there's an additional 70. They're going out and coming back. He's like, "Dad, you're doing it. This is going to happen. This is going to work. I praise you. Oh, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this was well pleasing in your sight." Who does Jesus keep his work from? From those who are hardhearted, from those who are wise in this age, from those who want nothing to do with him. And who does he reveal it to? Humble, childlike, faithful people that would say, "Lord, thank you for saving me. Lord, if there's any way you can use me, I want to be used by you. I'll do my best to be faithful. I'll do my best to be available. I'll do my best to be teachable. Lord, would you just use my life for your glory? Lord, reveal to me what you want."

Right? And he says, "I've kept this from generations from the wises and the learned." There are people that have lived in every generation, never knew this. There are people that died not knowing this. There's even Christians that have died not knowing that Jesus's mission was to put them on mission. Some Christians think the mission is just to get saved and go to heaven. The mission is to get saved and meet Jesus so you can be on mission so that other people can be on mission too. And notice what he says next. "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him."

So, what's he saying? The only way people are going to know who God is, is through Jesus. The pressure is not on you. It's not about you going out and, "I'm going to save 40 souls this year. I'm going to save 100 souls this year." You're going to save nobody this year, okay? But you could say this, "I'm going to pray that God uses me to see the greatest harvest that he could possibly use through my life. I'm going to pray that God uses our church to see more and more people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. And not only that, I'm praying that those people that get saved will then be put on mission to lead their sphere of influence to Christ. And we'll see multiple people coming to Christ in ways that we've never seen." That's what I'm praying.

That's what he was saying. "Turning to his disciples he said this privately, 'Blessed are your eyes, which see the things that you see, for I say to you that many prophets and kings wish to see the things that you see, and they did not see them. And to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them. Let me tell you why you're so blessed.' Jesus says, 'Because you're hearing this message, and if you hear this message and you realize you are created for mission and you'll get put on mission, blessed are your eyes that you see it now in the text. Blessed are your eyes that you see that Jesus created you for this specific purpose. Blessed are your ears that you're actually hearing Jesus today.'"

I mean every time Jesus taught, "He who has ears, let him hear," it means when Jesus preaches, it doesn't mean that every single person hears in the exact same measure. Some of you today are hearing me and like, "That's pretty good words. When is the sermon going to be done? I'm going home." Others are hearing it in your soul, you're hearing Jesus saying, "I created you for something greater than you're living for. Marriage is a good thing. Kids are a good thing. Your job is a good thing. Your finances are a good thing. I didn't create you for any of those things. I created you for relationship with me and to be put on mission and let all those other things be blessings that come along. But don't let them hinder the mission I created you for, which is to glorify me by advancing my Kingdom through taking the gospel out. And I want to use you to do it."

And if you've seen that today and You've heard that in your heart today, here's what Jesus said, "You are blessed." People search the world over, Non-Christians are always trying to find a place that they can give their allegiance in hopes they can find little doses of happiness. Christians that don't understand this love the Lord, but they're trying to find ways to find meaning in their life in addition to knowing the Lord. Christians who know the Lord and are on mission for the Lord are blessed even when things aren't going well. Jesus said, "My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you. You will have tribulation in this world, but take heart, I've overcome the world." When you're living on mission for Jesus, it doesn't mean everything's going to go your way. It means that you're going to see and experience Jesus in a way that you never have before. That's what he wants. He said, "Man, you do that. You are blessed."

I want to be a part of that. Prior to being a pastor, I was an evangelist. All I hung around with was lost people. It's hard to do that as a pastor if you're doing your job. Being around all lost people is an occupational hazard if you don't have any Christians in the church that you're discipling and training to send out into the world. I mean even as I've been reading this and studying this over the last few years, God has been stirring in my heart, "Okay, how do I get back out and how do I get into a sector and how do I get into some groups and how do I get into places where people don't know that I'm a pastor and I can be there for the sole purpose of being a missionary for Jesus?" This is what God wants to do here.

Now just to tell you a little bit of history about our church. Our church launched on November 7th of 2010. It took us a few years to figure out how to do a Sunday. What are you going to do from the pulpit? What exactly are you going to do with your worship and what exactly are you going to do with your kids? And there were some times early on that those things got challenged, especially when we launched the church thinking everybody was going to come and nobody came. We had 208 people in our first service and then we grew it over the next five weeks to 113.

And I was calling back to my mentors, "What are we doing wrong?" And there's this thing that started going off in my heart. Maybe I need to shorten the message and maybe I need to be a little more colorful and creative in the way that I teach so I can tell more stories and do all of that. And through the mentoring of some others and through the conviction of my own heart, it was not about how much we grew. It was about the type of people that would come. And so we drove a stake in the ground and said, "No, I'm just going to preach the word. And if we're small, we're small, and if we're big, we're big. But we're never going to change the preaching of God's word ever." Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

And I've been in a lot of churches for worship, and there's a lot of different ways to worship the Lord. There's a lot of different styles to worship the Lord. And if you don't believe me, you should go outside of our culture sometime into different churches and see that there are different valid expressions of how to worship the Lord. But one thing that was important to me as I've traveled around, I wanted worship to be authentic. I wanted worship to be engaging. I didn't want worship to be performance where we did two songs where everybody said at the end of those songs, "Man, those people are the most talented people I've ever seen. That's a really cool song." I wanted to see our people engage in singing in the worship of God. I didn't care how much talent we had, as much as I cared about that. Now, praise God, he's brought more talent over the years. Aren't we gifted and blessed to have people lead us in the worship here?

But one of the things I love about Brave worship, I never leave saying, "Man, we're the most talented worship." I do leave saying this, "It's fun to pastor a church where when our people back up from the microphones, I can hear thousands of people singing praise to God because they love to worship on their own."

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

But it took us a few years to get Sunday's right and say, "Okay, this is who we're going to be." And about five years ago, God began to burden my heart about prayer. We've always been a church that has prayed, from the beginning before we launched we had prayed. Every single month we had a prayer gathering, but it was always a different time. Sometimes it was Sunday at four in the afternoon, sometimes it was six at night, sometimes it was Wednesday, sometimes it was Saturday night. We couldn't quite find a time that worked for everybody.

And God began to convict me and ask me, "Is this really an important priority for you and your church or not? Because I want my house to be a house of prayer. And you wouldn't change service times every week. You wouldn't tell people it's 8:30 or 10:30 or 9:00 and 11:00 and then, but next week it's Thursday at 5:00 PM and the following week it's Wednesday at 3:00 in the afternoon, you wouldn't have anybody attend. So, pick a time and go." So, we picked the first Tuesday of every month at 6:30 and then our creative team got together and said, "Hey, let's call it First Tuesday." And so that's how we were so creative with that. And just so you know, when we started First Tuesday, even staff was asking the question, "Do we have to come to all of them? Do you expect us to be there? Do you want the worship team to be there?"

I was convicted we needed to pray as a congregation. And in church we started praying five minutes every single weekend. We still do it sometimes now, but we started praying on the weekend services for five minutes in every service. And when we would break out about 60% of the people would gather and pray, and about 40% of the people would just stand there like this looking like, "How long is this going to last?" And then I started getting letters from people. We were about 1,000 people at the time. I started getting letters from people. About 250 people left our church. And I was getting letters from some of them, people I loved, I love to this day, who said, "I no longer feel comfortable coming to church anymore because you make us pray out loud and I'm not ready for that."

And I can tell you this, when you're trying to grow a church and 25% of your people are leaving, you're trying to figure out, did I do it right or not? And I started saying, "No, God, you want us to learn how to pray. So, even if we lose people, we're going to stay true to prayer." Okay? Now last Tuesday, last First Tuesday, we had about 1,500 people. We have a time and a half more people that come to our prayer meeting than we did even in our entire church back in the day. And when I ask people at the end of First Tuesday, "Hey, were you blessed tonight?" I mean there's uproarious cheers, because they're like, "This is the greatest thing we've ever done." And so for me, Sundays took time and Tuesdays took time, but I knew we were building on the right thing.

Over the course of the last years, I'll tell you as a pastor, I want our church to be known for this too. I don't want to change what we do on Sundays. I don't want to change what we do on First Tuesdays, but I do want to be a church that's missional. And we've tried a lot of different ways to do this and it never really landed on a way to do it. But I want to do this. I know some of you want to do this. And we've been thinking about, "Hey, how are we going to do this? How are we going to train people how to really pray for the lost? And how are we going to train people to go among the lost? And how are we going to train people to come together, not just to do a Bible study, but to hold each other accountable to that and be obedient to what the word of God is saying? And how are we going to entrust this to the lost?"

And oh, by the way, before I forget, we don't even know at the time that Jesus sent the 12 out if they were even Christians, because not even till later where Peter says, "You're the Christ, the Son of the living God." We don't even know if the 70 are Christians yet. They're disciples that are learning about Jesus. Could it be that when you lead somebody to Christ, that within a week they can get non-believers around the word of God in a study where they're studying what God says and allow the Holy Spirit to work among them and save people? Of course there can. So, I said, "Well, how do we do this here? What does this look like?" And we've come up with all sorts of different ways to name this and do this, because group is not the right word.

Because when I hear group, when I'm hearing youth group, small group, group group, I start thinking community. I start thinking community. And the longer community goes without mission, the less likely a mission ever happening will become. So, this can't be a group, it can't be a Brave group. It's got to be something that's totally different. So, we're going to call these by a different name. This word actually means a group of people trained for a particular mission and what we're going to call in our church, this group of people are cadres. It's a cadre. A cadre is living the missional life that Jesus requires. A cadre is not just a different way of doing Bible study, a cadre is a way of learning how to pray for the lost, how to go among the lost, how to be held accountable with other people so you're actually obeying God's word.

And then as the person of peace comes, you're entrusting ministry to them. So, we're not just adding people to our fold, we're multiplying what God might be able to do through us. And I know for some of you that are here today, you're saying, "I'm hearing you and I'm seeing you. I just don't know that I know how to do it." To which I would say, "Totally okay." If you don't know how to pray, I'd invite you to First Tuesday. And if you said, "I don't know how to pray," I would say, "If you come, you'll learn." Prayer is more caught than taught. Mission is more caught than taught, and we want to train you. So, what we're going to have is once you go through membership, we'd love you to go through membership because we describe all of our values and we'll talk more about those next week and who we are, is take the next step, which is cadre orientation.

It's a period of time where what we're going to do is for four weeks orient you to this new way of living the Jesus mission. And I'm inviting you in, and I'm asking you this at the same time, to be patient with us as we do this. Because in order to do this well, we've wanted to do it by zip code so that when you're meeting for four weeks and we send you out, you're with people in your same zip code so you can continue to do this, right? And so for some of you, your zip code's going to come up in a couple weeks, and some of you, it may be a month or two and some of you may be four months. But we wanted to do this right. I've gone through cadre orientation twice now.

I'll go through it again because it's been stimulating my life. It's actually forced me to start thinking about who are the lost people in my life, and I was so impoverished the first time I did one of the worksheets, it embarrassed me and it made me change and go before the Lord and say, "Okay, Lord, where are you sending me? Where am I going? Because I love what I'm doing as a pastor, but I also want to be more about the mission than what I am currently Help me." And God's been bringing more names and more people into my life, which is what we want. Now let me be your pastor for a second. I realize not everybody's going to opt in, and here's what I want to say to you. I'm okay with that, because for some of you, you're probably saying, "I'm already in a group. You're going to shut our group down?"

No, I'm not. Keep meeting with your group. We love that you're here. We love that you come to Brave. We love that you come to First Tuesday. I'm just telling you what we want to give intentionality to is for those of you that would say, "I'd love to learn how to live a life on mission. I don't even know that I know how to do that, but I'd love to learn how to do that." We want to help you do that. And we want to take time to do that, and we want to do it right. And it's going to take some time and we're going to learn from one another and we're going to do this, but we think that that's so important for us because we want you to live a life on mission for Jesus.

So, again, let me just be clear. If you're sitting here today and you're digging your heels in the ground, "I can't believe they're doing cadres. That just sounds like another program." I don't want to do another program. Programs are fine. This is not a program. This is a Jesus centered lifestyle set on mission, and we want to help you do that. So, if you come here, we want to help you know the word of God. We want to help you learn how to worship. On Tuesdays we want to help you learn how to pray. And with cadres, we want to help you learn how to live a missional lifestyle for Jesus every single place you go, where that's as natural for you as breathing. And what I believe is there's several of you that have heard the Lord today, there's several of you that are seeing the Lord today and saying, "Yeah, I'd like to do that."

And if that's you, I'm just going to ask you to opt in when the time comes and just sign up and say, "You know what? I'm willing to go through that four week course." And I'm not coming in to say, "I bet this isn't very good. I'm coming to judge it." Don't do that. Okay? Come and say, "Lord, with an open heart and an open mind I'm going to ask you, is there anything I can learn from this that can help me be a better disciple for you?" Because I will tell you this, Brave, this is a special group of people. Y'all are special to me. It's very rare in our culture you can go to a place where people will listen to the word of God spoken for about an hour every weekend, and go to a place where you can worship the Lord and gather for prayer.

I mean it's a special group, but what I'm talking about doing, it's not just an elite thing. This is the normal Christian life for anybody that loves Jesus. And I want to help you do that as your pastor. I really do. And it's okay if you don't know how to do it. And it's okay if you think, "I don't even think I'm going to qualify." That's even better, right? God wants to do it. Because I tell you what, I think this church not only wants to be known for some of the values that we have, but this church wants to be known as a missional center around the world for Jesus. Denver needs Jesus. Colorado needs Jesus. Our nation needs Jesus. The world needs Jesus. And the beauty of this is if you know how to do this here, then when we do outreach overseas, you're not taking a missions trip, you're taking what you're doing here and going overseas and doing it with other people there, because this is transferable anywhere in the world.

That's why Jesus's methods are so powerful. I want to end by quoting a great missionary, C.T. Studd, who not only had a great ministry, but had probably the best name in all Christendom, who gave up his lifestyle in England for all that he had to go to become a missionary so that he could see people far from God rescued. And here's what he said, "Some like to live within sound of church or chapel bell, but I would rather build a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Oh, let me not rust out, let me not glide through the world and slip quietly out without having blown my trumpet loud and long for my blessed Redeemer. At the very least, may there be a Thanksgiving service in hell when my enemy gets the news of my departure from the field of battle." Amen.

Cadres are not about how do we grow Brave Church, cadres about how can Jesus use you regardless of your age, regardless of your background, regardless of your gifting, to come alongside other people and be trained specifically for the mission that Jesus has spelled out all throughout the scriptures. And even when we get to Matthew 28, when he says, "Go into all the world and do this," what's he asking us to go and do? This very thing we talked about. Again, don't need to dig your heels in. Nobody's fighting you. Nobody's saying you can't do a small group. "I just joined a small group. Now you're making me..." No, stay in your small group. Okay? Love you. But I'm inviting those in that would say, "There's something inside of me, there's a stirring by the spirit that says, God wants to use me this way."

And if you come, we'll do our best to pour into you through this orientation, through this practice, to let you be the fullness of everything Jesus Christ wants you to be. Amen? Amen. Would you please stand? Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. Lord, we thank you for this specific body of people. And Lord, may this be just another step as we move forward with you for how you want to use us to take the gospel out in the world. Lord, use each one of us here in ways that go beyond our ability. Lord, use us in ways that blow us away. And Lord, let us experience the joy unspeakable through what you're going to do. God, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for all you're doing in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Let's sing to the Lord.