Hope Church LV Sermons
Missional Communities :: Make Disciples
The last thing Jesus told his disciples before he ascended into heaven was to go and make disciples. If making disciples was the last thing he said, what do you think he will ask about first when he returns? When God called my family to join in his activity of launching a new church in Las Vegas, the first thing that we did was put a team of families together. And then we relocated together all the way to Woodstock, Georgia. We moved east before we moved west. Woodstock, Georgia was where the church was located that was actually sending us to Las Vegas to be involved in starting a new church. When we got to Woodstock, the three families together, our real goal, the whole time we were at Woodstock was to just to get to know families there at First Baptist Church in Woodstock because we didn't want to just be missionaries on a page that they would occasionally pray for. We wanted to have relationships with the people. We wanted them to know us, we wanted to know them, and we literally wanted to be sent out of that fellowship on mission with God to join in what he was doing in this part of the world. So we moved there and our goal there for several months was just to do everything we could to get to know as many people as we possibly could build relationships. So we ate a lot of meals with people, a lot of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I mean, we spent a lot of time fellowshipping around tables together and there was one couple in particular that invited us as a team to come over and to have dinner with them in their home. And it was a relatively young couple. And so we worked it out. We looked at the calendar and looked out about two or three weeks and saw a date that it would work for them and for our team to all come together and to go to their house and to eat dinner. And from the moment we accepted that invitation, the husband in that household, all he could talk about was a particular thing that he was going to serve us that night when we came to their home. I mean, you know, it was about three weeks between the time we accepted the invitation we were going to go to their house and, you know, how they do church in the south, man, it's like you go every day. So we were there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Monday night, Wednesday night, Friday, and we were there. It seemed like on every time we were there, we'd bump into this couple and he would just go on and on and on with great passion and excitement about this pumpkin pie that he was going to make for us. I mean, he went into great length and great detail telling us the history of this recipe and his family and how his family had passed this down from generation to generation and how this was going to be the most incredible pumpkin pie we'd ever put in our mouths. The problem is, I don't like pumpkin pie. Now, he was so into it, I didn't have the heart to tell him. I mean, it was like the whole evening was hanging on the wonder and amazement of this pumpkin pie and it didn't matter how much effort went into making it. I wasn't going to like it because I don't like pumpkin pie. It may have been the best pumpkin pie ever made on this planet, but it just didn't do it for me. When I think about the church in America, I wonder sometimes if we are spending our lives making pumpkin pie only to get to heaven someday and find out. God didn't really like pumpkin pie. I love that. I ate enough to satisfy the moment. I'll be honest with you, I have an internal conflict. I really do. I struggle sometimes, even with what I do. Let me explain what I mean by that. I've had the opportunity to travel around the world. I've been an African, I've been an Asian, I've seen the expression of the church there. I wonder sometimes if what we call church in America, the way we package it, the way we wrap it, the way we sell it, the way we market it, even the way we go about it. What's so dangerous is it's so much a part of our culture that I'm afraid we wouldn't even realize it sometimes if we were just moving right along in something that was really far from what God ever intended to begin with. When you experience church life in America, and then you go read the opening pages of the book of Acts, man, it's hard pressed to find a lot of similarity. I've been wrestling with a question this week, it's a question we got to answer, I want to put it up on the screen, it's kind of long, but I want you to hear this question. Have we become so busy with our dreams, our plans, our programs, our needs, and our ideas of what the church is to be? That we may have missed the very essence of God's real desire for us. Let me illustrate it another way, maybe a way that we'll be able to wrap our hearts a little bit more around, especially this weekend of all weekends. If you haven't heard, there's a little event this afternoon. People all over America are going to fill living rooms and gather around a television to watch this little event called the Super Bowl, right? I mean, it's why some of you are at the 9 o'clock service, right? You got to start ships and dip early, man, I mean, you got to get home. It's Super Bowl weekend. And this afternoon, two football teams are going to take the field, and they're going to expend all the energy in the world to try to win a ballgame. And in American sports, we are consumed with statistics, and I got to be honest, I'm right there, I love it. I love the stats, I love tracking it, I love keeping up with it. And by the time the game is over today, they will be able to tell you every statistic you ever cared about and the ones you don't even care about at all. I mean, they'll be able to tell you every yard that was rushed for and who rushed for that yard. They'll be able to tell you how many yards were completed in passing. They'll be able to tell you how many first downs were made, how many third downs tries were made. They'll be able to tell you how many fumbles there were, how many intersections there were. They'll be able to tell you how many tackles were made and who made them, how many mistackles there were, how many yards were gained after broken tackles. I mean, all this stuff we're going to be able to keep up with, but at the end of the game, there's really only one thing that matters, right? First downs, it's why they call it the goal line. The whole goal of the game is to move the ball across. If they get it inside the 10 yard line, they call it what? First and goal to goal, right? Why? Because the goal is right there. Everything else that had been happening on the field was simply moving it towards what? The goal. The only reason all the other stuff even has any relevance at all to the game is the degree to which it helps you move the ball across the goal. Yards rest, yards pass for interceptions, tackles, all that. The only reason that's significant at all is the degree to which it produces touchdowns. What's the goal for the church? What's the goal? What really matters? Is it weekend attendance? How many we have in a weekend event? I mean, if you hear a lot of churches talk about it, especially, especially preachers, it seems to be all that matters. I mean, you get a group of preachers around each other. I can promise you what's going to come up real soon is. So how many of you run it? Is it our programs? Is it our budget, the offering, is it our music or our sermons or our creativity? What really matters? What is the goal? Let me tell you what the goal is. Making disciples. And the only reason any of the other stuff is important is the degree to which it makes disciples. You see this event? The only reason this weekend event is of any significance at all is the degree to which it helps us in accomplishing the mission of making disciples. At the end of the day, that's really what it's all about. Jesus gathered His disciples together. He'd been on the planet for 33 years, 30 of those years in relative obscurity. The last three and a half years, He lived in public ministry, pouring into the lives of a few people. The climax with His death, burial and resurrection, then for 40 days He made appearances to His disciples before He ascended back to the Father and He speaks the very last words that are ever going to come out of His mouth on the earth. Now we all know the significance of last words. We've read the words I'm about to read for you so many times. I'm afraid they've lost some of their significance, but when you understand the context that Jesus has His disciples and for the very last time He's about to say some things to them face to face, you and I may read past them, but I promise you they were hanging on every word. Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. Look at it. If you have your Bible, you can turn there. If not it's on the screen. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them, the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age. Now in our English text, it's not quite as obvious, but in the Greek text it's overwhelmingly obvious that everything in those two verses hangs on one phrase. Everything in those two verses, if you're an English major or you're a student of the English language and you appreciate the experience of diagramming sentences, that brings chills to some of our spines right from from days in school, if you can appreciate the exercise of diagramming sentences, if you were diagramming verses 19 and 20, everything is hanging on one phrase, it's not the one you might think, it's not go, it's make disciples. It would have been ringing in the ears of the disciples here that heard Jesus say it. So I want to ask two important questions this week and here's the first one. If that's the goal, here's a question we need to be able to answer. What is a disciple? If you're playing a football game you say, "Hey, team, here's the goal, touchdowns." It's important that they understand what that is, right? I mean, they need to know that that means you move the ball across that goal at the end of the field, that's a touchdown. If the goal is to make disciples, it's very important that we understand what a disciple is and in today's church culture, particularly in America, we tend to define a disciple in one of two ways. Let me give it to you. First of all, we define a disciple about what a person does. And if this is the way a church determines a disciple, the emphasis is on conformity to a system or a pattern of behavior and the focus is on action. We try to answer the question, "What does a disciple look like?" And the way we do that is by describing rules and regulations and activities. We say, "Man, if you're going to be a disciple you've got to go to church and read your Bible and pray and give your money and you've got to go on mission trips and you've got to be a witness. You've got to be a good husband, father, wife, mother, son, daughter, employer, employee, whatever the context may be, "Oh, and then there's this whole list of things you're not supposed to do. You're not supposed to do this and this and this and this and this and this." The kind of disciple is somebody who's able to understand the system and conform their behavior to an external set of do's and don'ts and rights and wrongs. A lot of churches, this is the way they teach discipleship, it's guilt-driven. Another way we define a disciple is about what a person knows. This is learning a set of principles or beliefs and the focus is on doctrine. So a disciple is somebody who's completed all the classes. They can answer with great pristine accuracy, a set of theological questions. They can run down the list and give all the right answers to all the right questions and we know exactly what the answers are supposed to be because we've been taught and we now understand these theological principles. Unfortunately in America, the way we define a disciple is either by what a person does, from external traits and characteristics or what a person knows. They've all decided to agree to the same set of theological principles and doctrines. You know what's interesting? In Jesus' day, a disciple was not defined by either one of those things. The word disciple that's used here, it does mean to learn and I'm not saying that behavior and belief, theology, those are not important. That's not what I'm saying, don't miss hearing me today, don't run out of here and say I'm saying something I'm not, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that's not the defining mark of the disciple. You see what defined a disciple in Jesus' day was not simply the things that they were learning or the way that they were behaving, what defined the disciple in Jesus' day was the relationship they had to the one they'd chosen to follow. The defining mark of the disciple, they would even classify people based on, oh that's a so-and-so follower. And you see this as it spills into the New Testament in the book of Corinthians when they began to argue one is a follower of a palace, one is a follower of Peter, one is a follower of Christ and they began to debate about which person, which relationship defined who they were. You see being a disciple of Jesus is not simply conforming to a system of moral behavior nor is it merely comprehending a set of doctrinal truths, it is first and foremost a relationship. You've heard us say this at hope many times if you've been attending here for very long at all and it's simply this statement, following Jesus is all about relationships. Say that out loud with me. Following Jesus is all about relationships. When we began our church, our pastoral team took an entire year, studied the Gospels exhaustively seeking to understand what a disciple is, really trying to examine the life of Christ and examining the life of Christ in the Gospels, let me tell you what we discovered. You can take every story in the Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You can take every story in the Gospel and if you are going to do this, if you are going to cut out every story and put it into a file folder, you can drop every story in the Gospels into one of three file folders. Let me give them to you. Number one is Jesus and His relationship to the Father. Everything in the life of Jesus Christ was lived out of the overflow of intimacy with the Father. He was consumed with an intimate fellowship relationship with the Father, so much so that Jesus said when you hear me preach, He said when you hear my words, it's not my words, it's just the Father's words in me. He said when you see my works, it's not me at work, it's the Father at work in me. Everything Jesus did, even to John 17, the high priestly prayer. He did, out of the overflow of intimate fellowship with the Father. Secondly, it was Jesus and His relationship to the disciples, the stories of Peter walking on the water, the disciples feeding the 5,000 over and over and over, the disciples arguing about who's the greatest in the kingdom, Jesus and His relationship to His disciples. And third was Jesus and His relationship to unbelievers, people that didn't know God, the woman at the well, Zacchaeus, Nicodemus, what is the gospel? The gospels are these stories of the life of Christ, but every one of them falls into one of three file folders, Jesus sent His relationship to the Father, Jesus sent His relationship to the disciples, Jesus sent His relationship to the unbelieving world. How does that apply to you and me? Let me show you. How many of you like Romans 828? Let me sit your hand. That's what I thought. We all love that verse, right? Let's look at it on the screen. And we know that God calls us what? All things to work together for, this is our favorite word in the verse, for what? Oh, we like that word. We know that God calls us all things to work together for good. Amen, Hallelujah, let's close it right there, right? It goes on to say, for those who love God and are called according to His, here's an important word. What's that? We love verse 28, you know the problem? We don't read verse 29, verse 29 tells us what the purpose is. And we know that God calls us all things to work together for good and those that love Him called according to His purpose for those whom He foreknew. He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. That's the good thing that He's doing. He's conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ. God didn't bring me into relationship with Himself to make me healthy, wealthy and wise. God brought me into relationship with Himself to make me like Christ. Now, if that's true and His life was a relationship with the Father that spilled into a relationship with other followers, that then spilled into relationship with people that didn't know Christ, if I'm being conformed to His image, what is my life going to look like? My life is first and foremost a relationship with God. Everything is built and founded upon intimacy with God. Then that spills into fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and then it flows out into my relationships with people both locally and globally to introduce them to the person of Christ. That being the understatement, let me give you a definition of a disciple. Look at it on the screen. A disciple is a Jesus follower, and when we say that, understand what we're saying, relationship with God, relationship with one another, relationship with the world. A disciple is a Jesus follower growing in fellowship with God and with others. That's a disciple. The goal is not to just get people to come to church on the weekend, that's not the goal. The goal is not just to get them to conform to a system of behavior, that's not the goal. The goal is not just to make sure we can all answer the same theological questions the same way, that's not the goal. The goal is to see people become followers of Jesus and to grow in fellowship with God and with others. That's a disciple. Well, then here's the second question, how do we make disciples? If that's what a disciple is, I mean, it's a lot easier to say, okay, go to church, read your Bible, pray, give some money, go on a mischief, okay, here's five things. Let's get everybody to do that. That's easier. In its relationship and growing in fellowship, how do we make disciples? Well, Jesus gives us two words in the verses that I've read for you this morning that give us some insight. He says, "Go therefore, make disciples of all the nations." Here's the first one, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son of the Holy Spirit. Here's the second one, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. Use two participles, hang on this imperative verb, make disciples, how? Baptizing, teaching. Baptizing here is the word that refers to that public celebration that I experience when I've given my life to Christ in the New Testament. When somebody embraced Christ, when they met Christ, the first thing they did was get baptized. Baptism was a public testimony that I've given my life to Jesus. So when he uses this word baptizing, he's talking about introducing new people to a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's part of what it is to make disciples. It's to share Christ locally and globally. It's to introduce Christ, to take Jesus Christ to people that have never heard of Him before, that they can embrace Christ, be forgiven of their sin, and be given by grace a relationship with God. Not all that discipleship is. That's just the introduction. Then he uses this word teaching. It's a word that means to teach or instruct by word of mouth. And it includes and involves an investment of personal time by one believer or group of believers in the life of another believer or group of believers. Meaning that this word is not just a word when he says teaching here. He's not just referring to what I'm doing this weekend. I'm going to stand up here and I am teaching the Bible. I'm teaching the Word of God and I'm preaching the Word of God so that you can hear it today. But this word teach that Jesus uses, here goes deeper than that. It's not just somebody standing up in a format like this where I'm explaining and expounding the Scripture, but it's a teaching that involves the investment of personal time, which requires fellowship. It requires being involved in somebody's life. Not just where you're giving information and you're teaching the truth, but you're actively involved in their life so that there's the application of that truth. There's the dialogue around the truth. There's the interaction with the truth personally. I'll give you a statement, making disciples involves introducing new people to Christ and coming alongside those who know Christ to deepen their fellowship with Him. Making disciples, it's this holistic principle of introducing new people to Christ, but also coming alongside those who know Christ to deepen their fellowship with Him. Now listen, this statement, making this principle of making disciples hear me, it is not possible. It's not possible, it's not possible without the personal investment of time in the lives of other people. It's not possible. Now, if I'm showing up once a week to an event, and I'm not personally involved in the lives of other people, here's the question we have to ask, am I really even a part of the church to see what's happening in our culture? We've reduced church to an event that I attend on a weekend. Somebody says, you're part of a church, how do we answer the question? Oh yeah, I go to, and we give them the name, right, X, Y, Z? We've allowed church to become simply an event that we attend. The last thing Jesus said was this idea of making disciples, and the way He described it demands the involvement of personal time in the lives of other people. I'm not even a part of the church, I'm not a part of the mission. If I'm just attending an event, I've missed the essence. The greatest model for this ever given is what we read in the book of Acts chapter 2. Turn over there real quick, Acts chapter 2, about 40 days after Jesus gave this commission in Matthew 28, Simon Peter stood up in Jerusalem and he preached the gospel, and when Simon Peter preached the gospel on that day, the Bible tells us 3,000 people surrendered their lives to be followers of Jesus Christ. Something else happened on that day, look at it, Acts 2 verse 41. So then those who had received His word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000 souls. Now that begs the question, added to what? They were added to the community, right? You see, church was not an event. They weren't added to the role of people that were going to attend once a week during the temple courts, they became a part of the body, they became a part of the community of believers, and then that community just began to express itself. Look at verse 42, and I want you to notice something. There is no verse 41A. There's no instruction of how you're supposed to do this. This just began to happen. It was a natural outflow. Look at verse 42. They were continually devoting themselves, the apostles, teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayer. You see what happened? They met Christ, and then they started doing life together. It was the natural expression of a relationship with God to get in to connect and enjoy that fellowship with other believers. Verse 43, "Everyone kept feeling a sense of all, and many wonders and signs were taking place to the apostles, and all who had believer together and had all things in common, and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing with them all as anyone might have need, and day by day continuing with one mind and a temple breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was, here it is, adding to their number, day by day, those who were being saved." Let me give you a statement. I've given it to you before, but I want you to see it again. Community, it's not what we do as a church. Community is who we are as a church. Community is who we are. Get on an airplane sometime, go to Africa, go to Asia. The church expresses itself so differently. I'm convinced the center of Christianity in the world today, it is not in America. It's in the east. Or from Africa to Asia, there's a movement of God among His people that is, it's an awakening. You see, we live in a very individualistic society, and everything we do in church is influenced by that. I mean, we even pick a church, right, based on what it does for me. Do the music that I like, do they meet at the time that I like, do they wear the clothes that I like to wear, is it preacher too loud or too soft, or does he have a southern accent? Everything about church and our culture is viewed as an individual, but as you study the New Testament, the New Testament knows nothing of a Christianity without community. It's a foreign concept. We even have gone so far in our culture where some people say, "Well, my Christian faith is just me and God." And what's amazing is we say that, and in saying that, we think it sounds spiritual. It's almost like, "Wow, man, that person's holy, they don't even need a church." Think about this, past the gospels and the book of Acts, every book of the Bible in the New Testament is either written to a community of believers or about conflict within a community of believers, meaning that the New Testament can only be understood correctly in the context of community. The books were all written to the community. Let me give you a definition of community. What is community? Here it is, sharing in the mission of Jesus by sharing life with others, sharing in the mission of Jesus by sharing life with others. Now, when you look at that, say it out loud with me, sharing in the mission of Jesus by sharing life with others. Listen to me, that is church. Whatever definition you came with in your mind, that's what church is. Church is not an event we attend, it's not a place we go to. Church is sharing in the mission of Jesus by sharing life with others. If I'm not a part of that, I'm really kidding myself about my involvement in the church, community, the mission. In the book of Acts, the Bible tells us that they begin from the very beginning in Acts chapter 2, they begin to express community in two ways, a large group and small group. The Bible says they met in the temple courts, they met from house to house. Why the temple courts? It was the largest place they could gather. It was the place that they could come. The apostles would teach, like I'm doing this morning, they would proclaim. And then the Bible says they'd get house to house and they would, around the table, they would dialogue, they would take the apostles' teaching and they would say, "Man, how does that apply to our lives? How is this hitting you, man? How are you dealing with this? How are you handling this?" And they would begin to walk life's journey together in small group dynamics. If all you know of community is the large group dynamics, you're missing out on a major component of community as it's designed in the New Testament. The reality is there are things about God you'll never learn apart from fellowship with other believers in small group settings. And I'm sharing all this with you. Here's why. I hope we've realized that we simply cannot be an event with some groups. We must be a church, a gathering of groups. I preached to you a message last fall called Blind Spot where we identified a couple of areas where we've got to do better as a church. We've got to do better at connecting people, new people to the fellowship, people that are visiting. I told you the staggering numbers of people that have visited our church over the last 30 months, over 7,000 different people visited us. But also said, we've got to do a better job at connecting people that are already in the event. They're already coming to the event once a week, but they're not developing real friendships and they're not finding meaningful places to serve. Why is that? Why is that important? Because the goal, right? The goal's not weak in attendance. The goal's to make disciples. And what have we said? The goal is to make disciples somebody that's growing in fellowship with God and with others. And making a disciple is sharing in the mission of Jesus by sharing in the lives of others. So if we just got a lot of people attending a weekend event and we're not experiencing both large and small group dynamics of community, you know what's happening? We've got all kinds of stats, but we're not getting the ball across the goal. Look at our mission statement as a church. Our mission is to connect people to live the life of a Jesus follower. Now, I've told you today what a Jesus follower is, but you see that first part? Connect people. Why did we land it, that's our mission because the New Testament principles teach us that if we're going to make disciples, discipleship demands involvement in the lives of other people, we can't even obey the command. We can't obey the commission without living that out. So I told you, we've been praying. We've been seeking God. We've been really asking some hard questions and have identified some areas. We've got to change. We've got to do better. One of them is in this issue of connecting people into small groups. Every small group of hope is going to have four focuses. And these four focuses really identify and answer the question why a small group is so important. I want to just give them to you. I'm not going to expand a whole lot on them. I'm going to say a couple of things, but I'm just going to give them to you just so you can kind of have it in your mind. Why is a small group so important? Number one is an upward focus. Every small group will deepen your intimate fellowship with God. Listen, I said it earlier, I want to say it again, if all you're doing is coming and listening to a preacher once a week, there are things about God you will never know. God designed our faith to be lived out in the context of other believers where we're dialoguing and interacting around the truth, every small group in some form or fashion be a variety of ways, but it's going to help deepen your intimate love relationship with God. And that's really what Christianity is all about. Secondly, every small group is going to have an inward focus. Every small group will walk together through life's ups and downs. Hey, let me give you a real statement, a very real part of the human experience is need. If you're a human being, you know what it is to need. Sometimes that need is emotional. You're going through something tough, man, and you're just hurting. Sometimes it's financial. Sometimes it's physical. There's a sickness or an illness and you're down and you just need somebody to help. Sometimes it's spiritual. Let me ask you a question. In a church like this, how do we ever know those needs? How do we ever know? We have, we average about anywhere from 14, 1600 people on a weekend service. We have probably, that means over 2,000 people that attend our church at least consistently regularly because you know what we know, the same 14, 1500 are not here every week. We kind of rotate around, right? So if we've got 14 or 1500 a week, that means there's over 2,000 people attending. You realize if I took 40 hours a week, for 40 hours a week and I tried to meet with you individually for one hour, do you realize that means in 52 weeks, I'd get to spend one hour with 2,000 people if I did it 40 hours a week? You know what that means, right? That's not how we meet the needs. How do we do it? And on the day of Pentecost, you know, because sometimes the reaction to that is, well, the church is getting too big. Well, I guarantee you Simon Peter heard that. They went from 120 to 3000 on day one. And I'm sure somebody walked up to him and said, Simon Peter, I liked it better when it was just you, me, Jesus, than 119 others. But apparently that wasn't God's plan. Hey, listen, I loved it when it was in my house. I loved it, 30, 40 people hanging out just spending four or five hours a day together. It was awesome when it was in my house. But if we'd stayed in my house, guess what? Most of you wouldn't be here. But when was the cutting off point right after you got in? Let me tell you how we meet those needs, small groups. You see, if you're in a group with eight or 10 or 12 other people and you guys are sharing in life together, let me tell you what's going to happen. You're going to know when somebody's got a need. Now, if all you're doing is attending the event, let me make you a promise. Your needs will get overlooked. I'm just telling you they will. There's no way for us to know. There's no way. But if you're doing life with some other people, they're going to know. And not only are they going to know, they're going to care. You know why? Because they know you and you know them. Third, there's an outward focus. Every small group will share in the mission locally and globally. Matthew 28, Jesus says, "Go there for and make disciples." Let me tell you something about that verse you may not know. It's not in the singular, it's in the plural. Here's what that means. That wasn't a commission given to the individual, it was given to the community. That means it's not my mission or your mission, it's our mission, it's our mission. And it's to be fleshed out together. Every small group together looking for ways to engage locally. How do we reach Las Vegas, the West, and the world? Hey, not out of Shane Critzer's office, our mission's faster, right? That's not how we reach the world. We don't do it out of an office. Let me tell you how we do it. As we live out the mission together, we engage our city and the nations for the glory of God. Then there's an onward focus. Every small group will challenge you to use your gifts to make disciples. Every believer has been grace gifted by God, to use your gifts in accomplishing the mission of making disciples. You know what that means? That means every one of you has been given a gift by God to be used in this fellowship to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, to make disciples, locally and globally. How do we ever discover those gifts? How do we nurture those gifts? How do we see those gifts put into action? The only way to do that is in groups. As we meet together in groups, we discover gifts and we find out about abilities that God's given our body. You know what's frustrating sometimes as a pastor? You stand up and you look at a crowd like this in a weekend. And this week, let me tell you what's going to happen. There's going to be stuff coming through our office that we hear about in people's lives. And we don't have a clue how to deal with it, but guess what? God's given some of you the gifts and abilities of how to deal with it. The problem is we don't always know who you are and where those gifts are. How do we find those? How do those come to the surface? How do we identify the, let me tell you how, groups. As we get smaller in groups, leaders begin to be identified, gifts begin to be noticed and acknowledged and it really begins to be like a net where it just connects people. The last thing Jesus said before He left, go make disciples. When He comes back, what kind of pie we've been making? Let's pray. Lord, we ask You this morning to speak to us. God, I ask You right now to open our heart, our mind, our eyes to Your truth. God help us to understand. As You sit quietly there before the Lord, I'm going to ask You to just keep your head bowed and just keep praying and talking to God because I want to ask You a question. I want you to respond, I want you to do it honestly, but I don't want to put you on the spot either, but I'm about to ask two questions and I want Your complete honesty. How many of you currently, don't raise your hand yet till I finish, how many of you are in a small group, your experiencing community? You are sharing in the life or sharing in the mission of Jesus by sharing in the lives of others. You are already in a group of believers. You're already connected in a small group. Let me see your hand. Just hold it up for a minute, just hold it up for a minute. All right, you can put it down. How many of you would be honest this morning and say, "Again, nobody look at me right now." Do you say pastor? I am not in a small group. Let me see your hand. Just hold it up for a minute, hold it up for a minute. All right, thank you. You can put them down. I hope what you've heard this morning is me sharing with you that this is what church is. It's not a program of the church, it's not what we do, it's who we are. Now listen, I understand today, there's not a thing in the world we can make you do. I'm very well aware of that, but I want you to hear me today, as your pastor, I'm asking you to seriously, before God consider getting in a small group. Not because it's a program of our church, we believe after studying the Scripture, it is the best method to accomplish the mission of making disciples. Life on life. (gentle music) [music]