2019 - The Great Commission

2019 - The Great Commission

Subject – Let’s Make It Personal

by Rick Welborne

Isaiah 64:1‑12 (NKJV) 

1 Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence‑‑ 

2 As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil‑‑ To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence! 

3 When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence. 

4 For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him. 

5 You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned‑‑ In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved. 

6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. 

7 And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities. 

8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. 

9 Do not be furious, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look‑‑we all are Your people! 

10 Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. 

11 Our holy and beautiful temple, Where our fathers praised You, Is burned up with fire; And all our pleasant things are laid waste. 

12 Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O LORD? Will You hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely? 

1. To fulfill the Great Commission you must come to a place of personal crisis. 

Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV) 

6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. 

Crisis - a crucial stage at which future events are determined.

–By what you decide to do with this mission’s convention...by that, I mean it can determine your future, our missionaries’ future, and those they will reach.

–Life Church members and faithful attenders, you may find yourself at a crucial stage- a change and the future is what is at stake...I am speaking of personal crisis and responsibility.

–You may have been distracted, possibly negligent, desperate - a new day - a new future.  God sent me tonight to tell you, your future is not what it used to be. It can be awesome!

–Do you suppose it was a time of personal crisis in my life the first time God dealt with me about pastoring a great mission’s church, how about when I first became pastor of Life Church, and the first thing God wanted me to plan was a mission’s convention?

–Did these decisions set my course...did it set the course of Life Church...when I realized I was responsible to do something about the lost everywhere...it moved me to action.

–Two examples - Judas (Crisis) - Accomplished nothing - Peter - Crisis - led thousands...

2. To fulfill the Great Commission you must come to a place of personal contact. 

Isaiah 64:7 (NKJV) 

7 And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities. 

–In the midst of your crisis you must purpose in our hearts to wait on God...to call on Him…to take hold of Him

–Many of you have been waiting on God - you know He has a plan...don’t let go!

–You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness -Missions - right thing to do...it is the obedient thing to do.

5 You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways.

–You cannot stir yourself and take hold of God and not be consumed with a passion for the lost...not possible because you will have His heart.

–If we are not supporting missions - He is not on our minds - we are not experiencing His heart - disobedient.

–We need to be set free from our apathy & negligence of the Great Commission...Pastor, He has not laid Missions on my heart...does He have to when it is in His Word?

3. To fulfill the Great Commission you must come to a place of powerful confrontation.

Isaiah 64:1, 8 (NKJV) 

1 Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence‑‑ 

8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. 

–Life Church, it is God rending the heavens and coming down for us...for you! It is surrendering into the Potter’s hand in your crisis and while you wait on Him.

–It is a road to Damascus experience - a wrestling with an angel - a Brownsville.

It is an undeniable experience with the living God confirmed by a changed life.

–You cannot have a powerful confrontation with God and not love missions...not care for the lost here and on foreign soil.

–An obedient church and obedient individuals to the Great Commission - blessed- powerful confrontations ...they set themselves up for encounters with God for themselves and for those in their lives.

4. To fulfill the Great Commission you must come to a place of persistent commitment. 

Isaiah 64:7 (NKJV) 

7 And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;. 

–It is Him increasing in our lives and us decreasing.  Persistent faithfulness. Commitment. It is persistently calling on His Name (lost) and stirring ourselves to reach out.

2 Timothy 1:6‑12 (NKJV) 

6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 

8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 

9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 

10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 

11 to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 

12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 

–It is passionate discipline born out of a powerful confrontation with Him...please catch the vision of the great commission...the Godly vision:

Godly vision - the power to see beyond our limitations.  

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Helen Keller - What’s worse than being blind?  Having eye sight but no vision.

Vision:  1.the ability to see. 2. The faith to believe. 3. The courage to do. 4. The hope to endure.   

–Life Church, can you see it? Do you have faith to believe it? Do you have the courage to do it? Do you have a willingness to endure what God commands?

Isaiah 64:4 (NKJV) 

4 For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him. 

–I don’t know about you but I want God working or acting on my behalf...He will.

–Why be obedient?  Why have hope?  Why be persistently committed to Him? Jesus confronted our sinfulness and lost-ness and defeated it...Wow!  My freedom is worth me giving it all!

Romans 5:5‑10 (NIV) 

5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 

7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 

10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 

–We give faithfully because of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. We love Him because He first loved us.

–We obey Him because He was obedient to die for us on the cross...Phil.2

5. To fulfill the Great Commission you must come to a place of passionate communion.

–Passionate communion makes us cry with Isaiah:

Isaiah 64:1 (NIV) 

1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! 

–Passionate communion will make us tremble in Your presence (1-3), it will help us recognize the awesome things you have done (3), it will help us know that you act on behalf of those who wait on you!

–When we have passionate communion You gladly help us (5) and when we need to be remolded or re-made...You are the Potter and we are the clay...we become moldable. (8)

–When we have passionate communion You help us see what is important: Paul saw it:

Philippians 3:8‑11 (MSG) 

8 Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ 

9 and be embraced by Him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness. 

10 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience His resurrection power, be a partner in His suffering, and go all the way with Him to death itself. 

11 If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it. 

–I know it is not the American way of explaining our relationship with God especially when it comes to the Great Commission:

1. Paul said, “My love for Christ and His love for me is worth me eliminating things in my life that aren’t good.”  You fill in that blank.

2. Paul said, “My love for Christ and His love for me is worth me changing my priorities.”  Maybe 2019 is when you make Missions a priority and not just a token.

3. Paul said, “Nothing is more important than knowing Christ and partnering with Him in reaching the world.”

4. Paul said, “Nothing is more important than making sure others experience the same resurrection power that I have experienced!”