Sermon Tone Analysis

I had only been a youth pastor for maybe a couple weeks when I received a phone call from Pastor Jake, late one night.

“Jim, I’ll be by your house around 5:30 tomorrow morning to pick you up, make sure you are wearing your warmest clothes, boots and something to cover your ears.”

“I will be ready Pastor Jake, what exactly will we be doing?”

Jake went on to tell me about a young 13-year-old boy by the name of Matt who, along with his Springer Spaniel, had gone out for a walk earlier in the day and had ended up getting lost when the heavy snow storm moved in quickly and unexpectedly.

Crews had been out searching for him all afternoon but had been able to find him.

We were to meet at the local fire station before the sun was up to organize and prepare to continue the search as soon as we were able to see.

Things looked very bad for Matt, as the snow was deep and the night was going to be frigid, and he was not dressed for either.

Jake picked me up early the next morning and took me with him to the fire station.

There we begin to organize the search parties and receive our commissioning.

There were over 100 men that had come to assist with the search and to receive instructions.

I must admit, some of the instructions were rather eerie, for instance, we were told to be careful stepping on any large clumps in the snow, as it could easily be Matt buried under the snow.

We then proceeded to go out into the Wildcat Hills above Scotts Bluff Nebraska, to finish the organizing of the search and to begin the search.

Our instructions were to be no more than 10 feet from one of the other men, and to look behind every rock, every fallen tree, any possible place that Matt could have gone to to take cover.

Every fourth or fifth man was given a walkie-talkie to be able to communicate with the fire department.

I do not know about the rest of the search party, but I know for Pastor Jake and me, as we searched, we prayed!

We prayed that Matt would be alive.

We prayed that he would be safe.

We prayed that he would be uninjured.

We prayed that he would be found.

Time was of the essence, because the longer he was out there, the less chance he had of survival.

As we searched all of us regularly shouted out Matt’s name as well as the name of his Springer Spaniel, hoping and praying that one of them would hear us and we could rescue him.

None of us felt awkward in the slightest, we understood the importance of what we were doing.

In the end a helicopter that was assisting in the search, spotted some footprints on the edge of a meadow, and begin to hover back and forth over that area.

After a short time, his dog came running out into the meadow where the helicopter was, and the helicopter contacted the search party, to let us know where they had spotted the dog.

Within a short time, Matthew was safe.

Perhaps you are wondering what this story has to do with the Spiritual Disciplines.

This story has to do with a young boy lost, and likely about to perish unless he was found.

It also has to do with the great lengths that a group of men were willing to go to in order to rescue the lost.

The Spiritual Discipline that we will begin to look at this morning, is the Next Slide

Spiritual Discipline of Evangelism.

My guess is, that if I were to start making phone calls tonight to organize a search party for a young boy or a girl who was lost in the cold and in danger of perishing, that practically every single person I called would drop what they are doing and join the rescue party.

All of you would be willing to go to where ever the meeting was set to receive your commissioning order on what needed to be done to rescue the perishing, realizing the time was of the essence.

The truth is, the story is a perfect lead in to what we are looking at this morning, you see people, people you know, people you love, people you work with, that you’re related to, that you live next door to, or just down the street.

They are perishing and time is of the essence.

None of us is guaranteed tomorrow, we aren’t guaranteed this afternoon!

It is a fact that time is of the essence, and if you haver trusted in Christ as your Savior, you should be willing to put at least the same effort into reaching the spiritually lost that you would a young boy or girl that is lost out in the cold.

Turn with me in your Bible to Matthew 28.

We will be looking at verses 18-20 this morning.

Next Slide

Matthew 28:18-20 Page 1062 in the Pew Bibles.

Next Slides

Matthew 28:18-20

As most of you know, this set of verses is known as

The Great Commission

Unfortunately for the vast majority of those that consider themselves Christian it is more like the Great Suggestion, or maybe the Great Omission.

As in people are willing to follow pretty much all the other things Christ has called us to do, but when it comes to sharing Christ with others…well that is another thing altogether.

We use excuses like;

“It’s just not my spiritual gift.”

Oh, ok, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it wasn’t your spiritual gift, you get a pass on this one then.

I mean it’s not like it is a direct command from God or anything....

Let’s look at verse 19 again; “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”

Did you notice?

This isn’t given as a suggestion or option, it’s a direct command from God Himself.

Next Slide

It is a very very big deal to ignore a direct command from God.

and sometimes I don’t think we realize that.

So what do we do, I mean the truth is, fulfilling The Great Commission is not an easy task.

I believe that there are 4 important keys in these verses that are vitally important to our fulfillment of The Great Commission.

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3 Keys to Fulfilling The Great Commission.

Next Slides

Start by believing in the Authority of God.

Vs. 18

Look at verse 18 Next Slide

The first thing to note here is that Jesus is acting on behalf of the God of the universe.

The God Who holds 2 trillion galaxies in the span of His Hand.

In other words, when Jesus spoke, God Himself spoke.

That is the authority Jesus brings to the table when He gives the Great Commission.

So Jesus doesn’t just have authority over the believer who has placed his trust in Him, He is the authority over all creation.

He continually displayed His authority during His earthy ministry.

He showed His authority when He healed the officials son without even going to see Him, He just told the official to go home, his son had been healed.

He showed His authority over the demonic realm on the many occasions when he cast out demons.

He displayed His authority over sickness throughout His ministry, over and over He eradicated sickness almost everywhere He went.

He showed His power over nature when, after an entire night of fishless fishing, he told the fisherman to let down their nets and they hauled in so great a catch that they had to call another boat and even then there were so many fish both boats began to sink.

He also showed His power over nature when he calmed a furious storm by simply saying 3 words; “Peace be still.”

He displayed His power over life and death when He raised the widow’s son in Luke 7, Jarius’s daughter in Luke 8 and Lazarus in John 11.

Honestly, I could fill the rest of our time this morning with the ways Jesus displayed His authority during His earthly ministry, but I think you get the picture, “All authority in heaven and on earth” has been given to Jesus.

This includes authority over your life!

This brings me to a very important question all of us need to answer this morning; Next Slides

Have I surrendered myself to live under the authority of Jesus Christ?

I’m not asking if you prayed a prayer at some point in time, millions of people across this country have prayed a prayer and consider themselves a Christian.

I am asking, have you surrendered yourself to live under the authority of Jesus Christ?

As I ask this important question, I want to make one thing abundantly clear to all of us this morning, if you are not telling people of Jesus, the One Who redeemed you, Who saved you, Who died a cruel death on the cross to pay the price for your sins, the answer to that question is “NO”.

You cannot be surrendered to the authority of Jesus Christ if you ignore His direct command!

Let me repeat that; Next Slide

You cannot be surrendered to the authority of Jesus Christ if you ignore His direct command!

This brings me to the 2nd key to fulfilling The Great Commission, Next Slides

2. Obey the Command of Christ.

Vs. 19

Did you know that it is possible to pray a specific prayer, then spend the next 50 years faithfully attending church Sunday after Sunday, going to Sunday School, working as a volunteer.....you know, doing church stuff....and not be used of God to bring a single individual to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ?

One of the greatest tragedies in the church today is that this is not the exception, it’s the norm, IT’S THE NORM!

Yet the gospels are clear that every follower of Jesus is a fisher of men.

Every disciple a disciple maker.

This is why you have the Spirit of God living in you!

Think about this for a minute, why would God put His Spirit in you?

So you can just sit in a worship service once a week, sing the songs, listen to a sermon and walk away filling good about yourself ?

That’s not Christianity, that’s religion and religion is for the spiritually dead.

Do you mind if I get real with you for a moment?

I received a lot of really positive feedback from people that listened to last weeks message.

They were emotionally moved by the vivid pictures of the majesty and power of God.