Go!, Part 1: The “Go!” Strategy
⌥ Type: Sunday Morning Service
🎬 Series: Go!
⛪ Sermon: Part 1: The “Go!” Strategy
🗣️ Speaker: Pastor Tom Van Kempen
📜 Every believer is called to live with a missional mindset, recognizing that wherever they go — to work, school, or the grocery store — they are on mission for God. The Great Commission found in Matthew 28 calls us not just to make converts, but to make disciples through intentional, life-on-life relationships. Because Jesus has all authority and promises to be with us always, we can go with confidence, knowing the mission will succeed not by our own strength, but through the power of the Holy Spirit.
ℹ️ Tip: The video is set to start at the beginning of the sermon, but you can scrub the playhead to any part of the service. ℹ️
Additional Info
The info below was generated by an AI from the audio recording of the sermon.
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Use the questions listed below as a launching point to discuss the sermon points together as a family. These are great for dinner table discussions and small groups.
Opening (5 minutes) Welcome the group and open with this question: When you hear the phrase "Great Commission," what is your honest gut reaction — inspired, intimidated, or somewhere in between?
Read Together Matthew 28:18-20 Mark 3:14 Luke 15:3-7 (the parable of the lost sheep) John 1:43
Discussion Questions (30 minutes)
The word "go" in Matthew 28:19 carries the meaning of "as you are going" in the original language. How does that reframe what the Great Commission means for your daily life?
There is an important distinction made between making converts and making disciples. What do you think the difference looks like in real life? Have you experienced either side of that?
Jesus spent roughly a year to a year and a half simply being with his disciples before sending them out (Mark 3:14). Who in your life has someone invested in that way — or who might God be calling you to invest in like that?
The message compared the church to an aircraft carrier rather than a cruise ship. Do you think the church sometimes operates more like a cruise ship? What would it look like to shift toward a more mission-oriented posture personally?
The message emphasized that our job is simply to deliver the message — not to save anyone. Does knowing that take any pressure off of you? Why or why not?
Luke 15 features three stories where someone actively pursues what is lost. Which of those three stories connects most with you right now, and why?
Action Step (5 minutes) Before the next time your group meets, identify one person in your life who does not yet know Jesus. Write their name down, pray for them every day this week, and look for one natural opportunity to express care for them.
Closing Prayer Pray together that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to the people already around you and give you courage to go — not in your own strength, but in the authority and presence of Jesus Christ.
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Matthew 28:18-20 — The Great Commission
These verses were spoken by Jesus on a hillside in Galilee following his resurrection, most likely to a gathering of his followers that Matthew tells us included some who worshiped and some who doubted. This moment takes place in the final days before Jesus' ascension, making it one of his last recorded instructions to his followers.
The phrase "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" would have carried enormous weight in the first-century Jewish and Roman world. Rome understood authority through military conquest and imperial decree. Jewish listeners understood divine authority through the covenant. Jesus is claiming something beyond both — a cosmic, universal authority granted to him not by earthly power but by God the Father following his death and resurrection.
The command to "make disciples of all nations" was radical in its scope. First-century Jewish mission was largely inward — focused on maintaining covenant faithfulness within Israel. The idea that God's redemptive purposes extended equally to Gentiles, to "all nations," expanded the boundaries of what God's people had largely understood their mission to be. The phrase "all nations" uses the Greek word ethne, which refers to people groups across ethnic, cultural, and geographic lines.
Baptism in the first century was not a new concept — Jewish purification rituals and John's baptism were familiar. But baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit represented a new and distinctly Christian initiation, marking a public identification with the person and community of Jesus.
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Title: Go! — God Has a Mission for You Age Group: Elementary (Ages 6–12)
Introduction (5 minutes) Gather the kids and ask: Has anyone ever been sent on an errand or a special job? Maybe your mom or dad asked you to do something really important. How did it feel to have a special job to do?
Tell them: Today we are going to learn about the most important job Jesus ever gave — and the coolest part is, he gave it to everyone who follows him. Even you.
Scripture (5 minutes) Read Matthew 28:19-20 from a children's Bible or in simple language: "Jesus said, 'Go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach them everything I have taught you. And remember, I am always with you.'"
Ask: What do you think the word "go" means? (Take answers.) It means to move — to not just sit still! Jesus wants us to go and tell people about him.
Craft: My Mission Map (10 minutes) Supplies needed: Paper, crayons or markers.
Have each child draw a simple map of their world — their house, their school, a friend's house, their neighborhood. Then ask them to write or draw one person in each place who they could show kindness to and tell about Jesus.
Say: This is your personal mission map. These are your mission fields!
Game: Find the Lost Sheep (10 minutes) Use cotton balls or small stuffed animals as "sheep." Hide ten of them around the room before the lesson. Tell the kids that one sheep is missing and have them search the room to find all ten. Time them and celebrate when every sheep is found.
Debrief: Jesus told a story about a shepherd who left ninety-nine sheep to find just one lost sheep. Every single person matters to God — that is why we go.
Discussion Questions (10 minutes)
Jesus promised to always be with us. How does that make you feel about talking to your friends about him?
Who is one person you could be kind to this week? How could that kindness show them something about Jesus?
What is one thing that feels scary about telling someone about Jesus? What could you say to yourself when you feel scared?
Wrap-Up Prayer (5 minutes) Have the children hold their mission maps as you pray together.
Dear Jesus, thank you that you promised to always be with us. Help us to be brave enough to go. Help us to be kind to the people around us. Help us to tell our friends and family how much you love them. We want to be on your team. Amen.
Send each child home with their mission map as a reminder.
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Good morning.
It's good to see all of you in the house of the Lord today.
Today we're beginning a brand new series, and uh it's gonna take us right on up to Easter
Uh as most of you are probably well aware, Easter is our highest attended uh s Sunday of the entire year.
And sometimes it's more than twice as large as our normal Sundays.
And uh we're hoping for that again this Sunday or this coming Easter.
We we want there to be uh well over twelve hundred people in our two services that we have on
Easter Sunday.
So we're enlisting your aid.
We need your help.
But I I want to make something really clear as we get started, and that is this series is not about filling seats.
It's about you and I fulfilling our mission.
Because our mission is to go.
Say go.
Now does anybody know what the title of the series is by any chance?
Yeah, you you probably saw the word out in the lobby area.
You see it up on the on the wall right here.
You you see and if you don't understand this is
This is kind of a a roadway right here.
We're going somewhere.
We're doing something in the name of Jesus Christ.
But I need to be honest right up front, I'm at the age where I don't have as much go as I used to.
I I think some of you know what I'm talking about.
Sometimes just thinking about going gets me tired.
I I mean one of my favorite words today is stay.
Like stay in bed this morning
It was too dark.
Okay, what what I thought President Trump was gonna get rid of this daylight savings time thing
I'm just here to tell you, I am not made to get up an hour earlier any longer.
I can't do it.
And so I'm going to
petition the White House that that let's do we're we're gonna fall forward this fall because I like the extra hour, but I never want to spring forward again in the rest of
my life.
I like falling back.
I don't like springing forward.
So I'm done with it in Jesus' name.
But listen, listen, listen.
The Christian life is not about staying.
I mean last night I was sitting on the couch.
Robin walked by and I said, Robin, would you go get me a Diet Coke?
Because I just wanted to stay.
She walked by again.
I said, Robin, have we got anything to eat?
Because I just wanted to stay
I said, Robin, have we got a dessert?
She brought me a Kit Kat.
It was delicious.
And I got to stay.
But the Christian life is about going.
And we're entering the month leading up to Easter, the time of year when we celebrate the greatest
go in the history of the world and it's Jesus going to the cross.
Amen.
The greatest go is Jesus going to the cross.
But today, I want to talk to you about what he said at the very end of his time on this planet, and we call it the Great Commission.
Say great.
We call it the Great Commission.
Now let's be honest, most of us treat the Great Commission like a software upgrade.
You know what I mean, right?
It pops up on your phone or your computer, and you just scroll down to the very end, you hit agree, you don't read a single word of it.
And you just want to go on with your life.
But we do the same thing with the Great Commission.
So today I'm going to read the contract that most of us signed up for.
It's found in Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 and 20, and this is what it says.
Go, say go.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always.
even to the end of the age, amen.
Now if we're going to fulfill this contract
If we're going to fulfill the calling that God has placed on our lives, we need to begin with a missional mindset.
Now, if if that word missional doesn't seem to make sense to you or you've not heard it before, please understand it has been one of the major emphases in Western
Christianity in the last decade or so.
That there is this push for us to be mission-oriented.
And all that simply means is this that the Great Commission is not just a church-wide mission, it is a personal mission.
That God wants every individual in the body of Christ to be involved in the Great Commission
And so we need to understand what these two verses fully mean and imply for the entire body of Christ.
So if we start with the word go, it's important to know that it carries the idea in the original language of this.
As you are going.
In other words, as you're going to work this week, you need to realize that you're still on mission.
As you're going to school this week, you cannot forget that God has a mission for your life.
As you're going to Home Depot or Hobby Lobby or Walmart, we need to recognize that every cashier that we come in contact with is maybe someone that we need to be
considering for our mission.
If you're going to the gym or you're going golfing this particular week, you need to realize that the foursome that you're golfing with are just not
Three buddies, three friends, or three strangers.
They are a part of the mission.
Who can say amen?
And that's why Jesus says, go.
Now, the word that we typically use is the word evangelism, but I don't always like using the word evangelism because people get locked-knees when I say it.
Fear comes over their lives because they start thinking, oh no, the pastor's gonna ask me to do something.
Or worse yet, the Holy Spirit is gonna call me to Africa.
Or Southeast Asia.
I mean, literally I'm not exaggerating.
Every time a missionary came to my church when I was a kid, I was thinking, I'm going to Africa, I'm going to Africa, I'm going to Africa.
Now again I'm probably going to Africa this summer for the first time in my entire life.
I've been to Southeast Asia
I've been to uh the the communist part of of Europe when it before you know when all the walls came down.
I've been to South America and Central America, so the only part of the world I haven't been to yet
is Africa and I think my time has come.
But listen to me, not on a permanent basis.
God just wants me to be aware.
God just wants me to be involved.
God wants me to be a part
I haven't quit my job to move overseas.
I'm simply obeying this verse to the best of God's leading and guiding that I fully and completely understand.
So what I realize is I don't have to change my location next necessarily, but I do oftentimes have to change my mindset.
See, I'm not just a pastor at Oxford Assembly of God.
I'm a missionary who happens to have another calling.
You're not just an employee at some workplace.
You are a missionary who has a job.
You're not just a student at school.
You're a missionary with a backpack and a set of books and all of those different kinds of things.
And we when we realize that our calling
is to get people saved.
It changes how we look at everything.
And listen, if you're wondering if I'm talking to you, the answer's yes.
You are the exact person I'm talking to because God has called every single man and every single woman, every single boy, and every single girl who
understands this message into the mission field.
You can't retire from this.
You're not too young from this.
This is what God wants
for all of us, but unfortunately, most Christians have never led a single peer person to Jesus Christ.
Ouch.
And if that hurts, I'm glad.
Okay?
I'm not trying to make you feel uh ashamed.
What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get you to change the way you look at everybody in the world.
That this is a mission field and people need Jesus Christ.
And that God is calling us to go.
And He's calling us right now.
Say now
Not next week, not next year.
He's calling us now.
And the scripture says that he wants us to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
What I think is great is next week we actually have a a children's missionary that's coming to our church.
His name's Jay Reisner.
I don't know if you've ever met him before, but he's been all over the world and his emphasis is is children's crusades.
And he finds that that many people come to know Jesus Christ first when they're six or eight or ten or twelve, and then oftentimes the mom and dads come.
He's actually had a television program in the country of Kenya for decades.
And so people all over the nation know this guy because of the stories he teaches and the Bible that he preaches and all of those kinds of things.
Not all of us are called to Africa.
So God wants you to begin in your Jerusalem, which is right here.
It's in the villages.
It's in Oxford.
It's in Wildwood.
It's in uh all of the surrounding cities right here in Central Florida.
This is where God wants us to start.
Then we can move on out to Florida and maybe the nation and eventually around the world.
But together as a church, God wants us in our neighborhoods and He wants us in the nations.
Who can say amen?
He wants us partnering in all of those areas.
I think the challenge isn't with the commission, it's with the great part of the commission.
Because when we hear the Great Commission, it might seem a little intimidating at times because it is the great mission of our lives.
It is the greatest purpose for which we exist.
I actually wrote down, we exist primarily for those who don't even go to our church yet.
I don't think most people believe that, to be honest.
I think we we believe that we exist primarily for maybe our families and our churches.
And listen, we do exist for that.
We're here to have strong families, and if we don't have strong families, we're probably not going to be able to reach those people out there.
But remember
Sh the shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness to go after how many sheep?
One one sheep was so important that he was left, or he left the ninety-nine
We all understand in our culture right now that EMTs and firefighters and soldiers do a great thing because they save people's lives.
How much more important is it for us to save people from eternal damnation?
I'm just here to tell you that we are doctors in a spiritual sense.
That we are
emergency uh responders in a spiritual sense because people are going to hell without Jesus Christ
And so the reality is it's called the Great Commission because it is probably the greatest challenge you and I will ever face in our entire lives.
It's not easy.
I admit that up front.
And I understand that that you might be a little scared.
I understand that it's difficult.
I understand that you might even think that it's impossible.
But I'm here to tell you it's not just my job, it's your job also.
So the question is this how many of you have ever gone on a cruise?
Let me see.
Wow, look at the hands.
I mean, I guess we should go together sometime, huh?
Robin and I have almost been on 30 cruises in our lives
We started cruising deck all the way back in the 80s when we were just three and four years of age.
One of the things that I I don't really miss, they used to have a midnight buffet.
Does anybody remember that?
The midnight buffets.
I mean think about it.
You're eating breakfast, a snack, lunch, another snack, a dinner, a late dinner, and then they have a midnight buffet on top of it
So one time I I heard this, I said, a cruise is the only place where you find a a meal for two with only one person sitting there.
But listen, listen, the church is not a cruise ship.
We're an aircraft carrier.
We're a battleship.
We're in the eternal struggle for human souls.
Cruise ships are about comfort.
Aircraft carriers are about mission.
If your primary goal and church is comfort, you will always say always, you'll always be just a little bit frustrated.
You'll never be satisfied because the church will never be completely comfortable, especially with a good pastor.
A good pastor prods you.
A good pastor pricks you.
A good pastor tries to purposely make you uncomfortable because Jesus didn't save you for comfort.
He saved you to make you usable.
He saved you so you would go and evangelize the world.
Who can say amen?
That's why we're saved.
So the question is.
Am I developing a missional mindset?
Am I developing this idea that I see myself as a missionary?
And and and I wrote this down.
Once we realize we're on mission, the question becomes, what exactly are we supposed to be doing?
I I know we're supposed to go, but is the goal to get people to say a prayer?
Is the goal to get people to raise their hands?
No, the goal is to make disciples of all nations
And this isn't easy.
It's not a sprint.
This is a marathon process that must be done intentionally.
So when I look at the Great Commission, it says go into all the world and make disciples.
The only verb that's in the imperative tense, or the only verb that has this strong command, is make.
So make disciples is actually the emphasis.
So even if you're a missionary and you go to your neighborhood or or you go to Africa or you go to China or Vietnam
The job's not done just by going.
The going is just the starting line.
The going is just the beginning.
Our job is to make disciples, not converts.
Our job is to make disciples, not not hand raisers.
Okay?
And so sometimes we're satisfied.
Have you ever wondered, and and maybe you don't even think about this
But every year there's like a million people who supposedly get saved in Assembly of God churches, and Assembly of God churches grow by three.
Why is that?
Because they get a million hands raised, but only three disciples.
So it doesn't matter how many people do this
All that matters is people whose lives are changed permanently in Jesus' name.
That's what we're after.
That's what we're trying to change.
And Jesus showed us how this begins.
It begins by individually pursuing human beings.
It doesn't happen with the pastor preaching.
It happens with the people in the in the seats going out and investing their lives in other human beings.
In John chapter 1, verse 43, listen to this.
The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and he found Philip.
You know what that tells me?
Jesus was looking for someone to invest his life in.
When you read about the other disciples, he found a tax collector.
He found James and John and Peter by the Sea of Galilee.
He kept finding people because he was looking for people.
It wasn't just the disciples that he found in Luke chapter 19, verse 5.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he saw and said to Zacchaeus.
Make haste and come down, for today I must stay in your home.
Jesus was compelled to look for individuals
Jesus was compelled to look for the hurting, the down and out, and to make a difference in their lives.
He preaches in Luke chapter 15, three examples.
He says the the shepherd
Prioritized the lost sheep.
The woman searched diligently for the lost coin, and the father ran to the lost son.
None of these people were passive in how they were looking for the lost.
They were all in.
This was the motivating force in their lives.
And these three stories teach us that this is the heart of God.
God loves the lost
God loves those who are far from him.
And he wants you and I to join him on this evangelistic thing.
And he wants us to go, say go.
And he wants us to invite them in.
Yeah, he wants us to invite him to church.
He wants us wants us to invite him over to our homes.
The first thing Jesus said to Philip was, follow me.
In other words, he's inviting Philip into a personal relationship.
Jesus is making a decision.
I'm going to invest.
in this person.
I'm gonna teach him.
I'm gonna love him.
I'm gonna show him how to live this life.
And we need to do the same thing.
So we can think, is there anyone that I'm currently investing in?
Is there anyone that the Holy Spirit has helped me to identify as someone who needs Jesus Christ?
anyone in my neighborhood, anyone at the at the stores I go to, anyone at my school.
See our goal is yes to invite them into church, but to invite them into a relationship with Jesus Christ
And this is signified in the Great Commission with these words.
Listen to this.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
That's step two.
So we we go and we pursue them, number one.
Step two, we baptize them into a relationship with Jesus, into the family.
Water baptism is a public identification.
You don't baptize strangers.
You baptize sons and daughters.
You baptize men and women who are now adopted into the family of God.
It's a really important thing for us to understand.
And because of this, we are beginning to try and
And figure out ways of making that experience even better.
So Pastor Daniel, if you don't know him, he's our online pastor.
Pastor Daniel has come up with this idea for a
a baptism concierge.
Doesn't that sound nice?
A baptism concierge is someone who will walk someone from the beginning of the process
to the end of the process.
Here's here's the idea if you're interested.
Is is you will be the first contact if someone says that they're interested in being
uh water baptized.
You will explain to them what water baptism is.
You will make sure that they completely understand what's happening.
And then you will walk them through the process.
You will encourage them to be fifteen minutes early for the service.
You will meet with them and their family and and you will probably walk them through everything that's going to happen.
Uh you're going to show them where they're going to be baptized, whether that's up here in our traditional baptismal tank.
or possibly right here in the front in the middle of their family.
Listen to me.
That is so impersonal up there.
It's so far away.
I'm wondering, how do we make this more intimate?
How do we make this more beautiful?
Wouldn't it be awesome if they were right here on the floor and and
Family was surrounding them.
We had photographers all around taking pictures.
We do it at a wedding.
We do it for a baby dedication.
How much more important is this?
This is eternal salvation.
I'm just letting you know and then afterwards we take them into the into the lobby and and everyone in the church can shake
their hands, can greet them, can say, hey, it's so awesome that you are now a part of the family.
We can give them gifts, high fives, whatever it takes.
But I think we can make this such a more beautiful experience for every individual in the name of Jesus Christ.
And then the final step.
The final step is the instructional system.
Now what's interesting is that's what we focused on as a church for years and years and years is we've focused on teaching, and that's good
Our number one core value as a church is the Word of God.
We believe in the Word.
We want to teach the Word.
We want to do it Sunday mornings.
We want to do it in Sunday Sunday morning.
schools, we want to do it in small group meetings.
We want to teach the word again and again and again.
But it is just the really the almost the end of the process, not the beginning of the process.
And what are we supposed to teach?
We're supposed to teach all, say all.
All things that Jesus instructed them, not your favorite things.
Not the things that you like the best or that come the easiest to you.
We're supposed to teach the entire Word of God so that they observe it and they obey it.
Now listen, that's going to take some really well-informed disciple makers.
That's going to take some conversations, some modeling, some encouragement, some correction.
It's going to take some debriefing.
It's going to take some practice.
It's going to take some accountability.
It's life-on-life formation.
If we're going to teach what he commanded, we're all going to have to know what he commanded.
Who can say amen?
And so biblical literacy does
Matter.
This is why we promoted small groups so hard last week because we need people in small groups of some kind.
This is why the spiritual disciplines matter.
But but you know what matters
Maybe just as much, if not a little bit more, a partner in discipleship, a mentor, not just a teacher.
Not just a talking head who stands up in the front of the sanctuary and talks once a week, but someone who actually walks life
With another human being.
Evangelism is not an event.
It is a relationship with Jesus and with the entire church.
Who can say amen?
Listen, listen, listen.
Mark 3.
14, I love this verse.
Jesus appointed twelve that he might first be with them and that he might send them out to preach.
The being with them was the first step.
The mentoring them was the first step.
He didn't send them out to preach at least for about a year or a year and a half.
They had to walk with him, talk with him, have conversations with him.
They had to had to had to catch what it is that he was trying to communicate.
As a church, discipleship is the intentional process by which we help other people become the people of God that they need to be, that God wants them to be.
And this never happens accidentally.
This is always on purpose.
This is always intentional.
So listen.
If you're sitting there thinking this is too intimidating,
This is too scary.
I can't do this.
You're probably right.
Okay?
And that's why I'm not asking you to do this on your own.
I'm asking you to do this in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I'm asking you to do this in the name of Jesus Christ.
The go strategy doesn't start with you, it starts with Jesus' authority
And if that's true, we can trust the power and the presence of Jesus Christ.
The reason the Great Commission is possible is not because you and I are so talented, it's because we serve a great Savior.
Matthew chapter 28 verse 18.
So I did 19 and 20 first, but I kind of set you up just a little bit.
Because Jesus actually said verse 18 first, and this is what it says.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me.
Therefore, go.
All authority has been given to me.
Jesus has authority over heaven, earth.
Nations, governments, the demons, the darkness, the light, nature itself, death, hell, the grave
He has authority over everything.
We have nothing to fear, so we can go in his authority.
We can go
in the name of Jesus Christ.
The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is living on the inside of us
I I think it's ironic that that Jesus is talking to to his twelve disciples and he said, Hey guys, guys, I will never leave you, and then he leaves them.
Have you ever thought about that?
I will never leave you, but he leaves them.
But Acts chapter 1 fills in the blank.
He baptizes them in Acts chapter 2 in the Holy Spirit.
So the very Spirit of Jesus is alive in every living Christian today who can say amen.
The Spirit of God, the power of God is alive inside of us.
And we can rest in the fact that our job is not to save people, our job is to simply deliver the message.
We're not the Savior.
We're not the Holy Spirit.
We're not the one who convicts of sin.
We're just the one who brings the message.
We're just the one who who offers an invitation to the Easter service.
We're just the one that invites someone over to our house and and
through our hospitality, through our love.
They look at us like there's something different about these people.
There's something different about this group
There's something different about this woman or this man.
We can just feel it.
We can just sense it.
We can see it.
And that difference causes them to ask questions.
And eventually that's how discipleship begins to work.
in people's lives.
It's not like Paul on the road to Damascus.
We're thinking that I'm gonna be evangelizing right here.
Maybe I need to be get on my soapbox and I need a megaphone
and I need to start shouting from a street corner.
It's usually not that dramatic, just so you know.
What typically happens is is you invite someone over to your house for coffee and they just start asking you questions
Hey, can you tell me a little bit more about Jesus?
Or they bring something really needy in their lives.
My husband's getting ready to leave me.
Or my children are so undisciplined, I don't know what to do.
And through these conversations, their heart
opens to the gospel of Jesus Christ and you get to walk them down a path that personally leads them to Jesus Christ.
That's the goal.
We go in his authority.
We go in in his presence.
The very last part of this scripture says this, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.
Think about this for a moment.
He's going to be with us every single step of the way.
And what I think sometimes we forget how ordinary the disciples were.
That's what I love about the gospels.
You know, once you get into Acts and Forward, you think that they're super men and superwomen.
You think that they've just got it all together.
But don't forget who they were during Jesus' apprenticeship program.
A three-year apprenticeship program where he had to assuage Thomas' doubts, where he had to help Peter take his foot out of his mouth.
You know, James and John the sons of thunder.
You know what that means?
Anger management issues.
Okay?
They're real human beings.
They're ordinary who do the extraordinary
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, you and I can reach the world for Jesus Christ.
And if Jesus can build the church of
In the Roman world, with that ragtag group, he can definitely do it with our group.
And that's why the last point here is
The mission, the Great Commission, will succeed.
Not because of you and I, but because Jesus is still alive today.
I I mean r remember, remember, we're gonna be celebrating Easter.
Easter's the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
A human being died and rose again from the dead.
That person
astonished the disciples back then.
In Matthew chapter 28, right before he gives the Great Commission, it says they worshiped him and some doubted.
Think about it.
If some of them who see a resurrected man standing in front of them are doubting, we're going to face some doubters, aren't we not?
That's why we need to understand that the Holy Spirit will give revelation in the moment that it's needed.
Keep bringing the message because our Savior is still alive today.
When you pray for someone
Jesus is with you.
When you invite someone, Jesus is with you.
When you share your story, Jesus is with you.
You will never ever be alone on this mission in the name of Jesus Christ.
Would you stand with me, please?
If Jesus has all authority
If Jesus promises to be with us, if the greatest mission in the world is reaching people, the question is, what are we waiting for?
God wants us to get up and go in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Would you bow your heads with me, please?
Heavenly Father, I thank you for this beautiful group of men and women.
I thank you, Father God, for
The encouragement that you have given us through your word this morning.
And I understand, Lord, that there are some that have heard this message about going hundreds and hundreds, if not even thousands of times.
But Father God, I also understand that sometimes the older we get, the more difficult it is to go.
That it's so much easier just to stay.
It's so much easier to sit.
It's so much easier to let someone else do it.
But I pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you'll help us to understand that no matter where we are in life, young or old, middle-aged, man or woman, rich or poor,
That all of us have a part in the Great Commission.
That all of us, even in this moment, are called to at least
one person or one family or one community, Father God.
And in those environments we can make an eternal difference in the name of Jesus Christ.
So I pray, Father God, that you would encourage us.
I pray that by your spirit you would empower us.
I pray that over the next
Four weeks that we would be energized to go out of our comfort zones, Father God, and get on the the USS
evangelism and that we would make a decision that we are on mission to do what it is that God has called us to do and that we're not going to stop
until Jesus comes back.
I pray this today.
I believe this today in Jesus' holy and precious name.
And together everybody says, Amen, amen.
Blog Post
You Are Already on Mission — You Just Don't Know It Yet
Most people think of missionaries as people who sell everything, move to another country, and spend their days handing out pamphlets in a foreign language. But what if the mission field was never somewhere else? What if it was your workplace, your neighborhood, your gym, and your grocery store aisle?
What the Great Commission Actually Says
Matthew 28:19-20 opens with a single word: go. In the original language, this word carries the meaning of "as you are going" — not as a one-time dramatic event, but as an ongoing posture woven into everyday life. The command that carries the strongest grammatical weight in this passage is not "go" but "make." Make disciples of all nations. That is the mission. That is the goal.
The Difference Between a Convert and a Disciple
There is a significant gap between someone who raises their hand at an event and someone whose life is genuinely transformed. A disciple is not made in a moment — discipleship is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires intentionality, relationship, conversation, modeling, accountability, and time. Jesus himself didn't send his twelve disciples out to preach for roughly a year to a year and a half. He first walked with them, talked with them, and let them catch what he was trying to communicate (Mark 3:14).
Changing Your Mindset Before Changing Your Location
You do not have to move overseas to be on mission. What often needs to change is not your zip code but your perspective. The cashier at the store, the coworker in the next cubicle, the neighbor you wave to every morning — these are not just people in your periphery. They are part of the mission. When you begin to see every person through that lens, everything changes.
The Church Is Not a Cruise Ship
A cruise ship is designed for comfort. An aircraft carrier is designed for mission. The local church exists primarily for those who are not yet part of it. That may feel counterintuitive, but Jesus illustrated it clearly: the shepherd left the ninety-nine to go after the one lost sheep (Luke 15). The woman searched diligently for the one lost coin. The father ran toward his returning son. None of them were passive. They were all in.
You Don't Go Alone
If the call to reach others feels overwhelming, that is actually the right starting point. This mission was never designed to be carried out in your own strength. Matthew 28:18 records that Jesus declared all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him — and then he said, "Therefore, go." The authority belongs to him. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in every believer through the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). Your job is not to save anyone. Your job is to deliver the message and trust the One who saves.
How Discipleship Actually Begins
It rarely starts with a megaphone on a street corner. It usually starts with a cup of coffee and an honest conversation. It starts when someone notices something different about you and asks a question. It starts when a friend brings a broken marriage or a struggling family to the table and you get to point them toward something greater. Evangelism is not an event. It is a relationship — with Jesus and with the people around you.
The Mission Will Succeed
The disciples who first received the Great Commission were ordinary people with doubts, anger issues, and a habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And yet, they turned the Roman world upside down. Not because of their talent, but because of the One who walked with them. Jesus is still alive. He is still with every person who goes in his name. The mission of making disciples will not fail, because the One who commissioned it is not finished yet.
