Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning Harmony!

It’s official now I think - winter is here.

There’s snow, finally, and while I love snow and how pretty it makes everything and how much fun I can have in the right place with the vehicles, the down side to snow is that it has an adverse affect on my desire to get out and drive on the roads - I’ll go do donuts or something all day long in the snow, but I have no desire to drive on the actual roads when it’s like this.

So if you have chosen to stay at home to worship today, I understand.

If you chose to brave the roads and come in today, I understand that too, I mean if you went to work Wednesday through Friday this week you already drove on the worst part of it I think, so that’s great.

Today we’re going to be looking at our last message in our series on the updated mission statement, which is

Our mission is to develop authentic believers who strive to connect people to Jesus, teaching them to engage in discipleship, and who desire to multiply the Kingdom in the process.

So today we’re going to look at that multiply the Kingdom in the process part.

That is a major part of the Great Commission that is our supporting Scripture, right?

Go, make disciples.

And our vision statement for this is this:

We desire to multiply the Kingdom in our community, state, country, and world.

Whether it be at Harmony, another church in our community, or somewhere outside the local community, every effort we make will be for the purpose of expanding the Kingdom.

and our supporting Scripture in addition to our mission statment Scripture is Acts 1:8 -

And we see that really manifest itself later on in chapter 2, as the apostles are proclaiming the message and many come to hear and believe the truth:

Now a part of that power that we receive that it is talking about there in Acts 1:8 is our Spiritual Gifts, like we touched on last week.

We kinda see that touched upon here in 2: 41-47, because they are all acting as one body - they were using those gifts to expand the Kingdom.

We looked at 1 Corinthians and Romans last week to learn about those spiritual gifts, but look at Ephesians and how it describes spiritual gifts here - Ephesians 4:8-16 -

Now we’re going to look at three things that we difinitively do with the information found in these verses.

And the first thing we’re going to see is

1.

WHAT WE MUST DO: CONNECT

“Go, make disciples” and “be My witnesses”

Remember when we were talking about connect, and the woman at the well in John 4, and how Jesus was connecting to each person He cam into contact with.

He made the interaction personal.

We’re all to go and make disciples, and so here’s the first thing I want us to understand - we are all commanded in these verses to make disciples.

I heard an interesting twist on this a couple of weeks ago -

Mike Whitney of the Navigators gives this thought process to consider -

Let’s say you tell your child to clean their room.

The child goes and looks up the definition and brings that to you.

Did they obey?

The child brings you their favorite toy, did they obey?

They go and clean their sibling’s room, did they obey?

No, they didn’t.

We’re to lead people into a relationship with Jesus.

We absolutely have to do that, it’s in our spiritual DNA because Christ has given us power - immesurable power - to do just that.

If we are in that relationship with Jesus, then we must obey - but here’s the thing -

it’s not of our own doing.

It cannot be forced.

We’re connected to God’s power through that relationship with Him.

But Jeremy the past three or so weeks and even just now you’ve been telling us that we have to tell others about Jesus, and that sounds kind of forced to me.

You even said if I’m not doing some things that I need to check my relationship with Jesus.

Yes I did.

And if that sounded forced it wasn’t meant to.

It wasn’t even meant to make you feel guilty.

It’s mearly meant to get us to wrap our heads around just Who it is that we are in a relationship with and the power that He provides.

So, we all have to connect people to Jesus, because that is a part of the power that God has given to us - and here’s the thing - we’re not all going to connect people to Jesus in the same way.

A couple of weeks ago I told you to take that method that you have been taught of how to lead people to Jesus and set it aside - let’s do that again, take that way that you have been taught and set it aside.

Because I’m pretty sure each one of us have been through that sermon on how to be witnesses and how to lead people to Jesus and they include your story or your testimony, or use this wording, or use this pamphlet, because they are tried and true and they worked for me, so they’ll work for you.

Soul winning 101 so to speak.

And some of you are called to do that, to be evangelists, and that’s how you’re going to lead people to Jesus.

That’s what Jesus gave to you as your gift.

He gave some to be evangelists - and that by definition is someone who announces information that is worthy of celebration to lead people to salvation.

he gave some - there are only three instances of the word evangel in the entire New Testament, and that is the only way that the word is used - evangelist.

The first one is here in Acts 4, the next one is in Acts 21:8

And the last one is found in 2 Timothy 4:5

So the first time the word is used is to tell us that some recieved the gift, the second time is talking about really more of a title for Philip, and the last time was specifically to Timothy and not to any of the churches that Paul wrote to.

Now before anyone starts saying that I am promoting Calvinism, I’m not, but I also don’t really like the title “Evangelical Christian” either, because we aren’t called to evangelize the world, we’re called to make disciples.

And while some of us have the gift of evangelism, the rest of us don’t.

My top four Spiritual Gifts - Faith, Leadership, Administration, and Encouragement.

I say top four because second place was a three way tie.

Evangelism? 9th place.

Why am I telling you this?

Because God didn’t call me to be an evangelist.

It doesn’t mean that I don’t tell people about Jesus or that I can’t do that, it just means that God has gifted me differently to tell others about Jesus.

And for some or even most here He hasn’t called you to be an evangelist.

He didn’t give you that gift.

And that’s OK.

You’re meant to tell people about Jesus in the way that God has gifted you.

What Christ did call us all to be is disciple makers - listen

If Christ is the head, and He is, then we all have to be what God has called us to be - that’s why that spiritual gifts survey is out there, that’s why I’m asking you all to complete those, because that gift is an idea of what God has called you to - assuming you fill them out honestly.

Multiplication then, cannot be identified by everyone as just winning new believers to Jesus.

Should the church be reaching the lost with the Gospel?

Yes, but that doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone, and multiplying disciples is so much more than just winning souls.

And that’s what we’re called to multiply, disciples.

So use the gifts God has given you to multiply disciples.

When we start to look at being obedient to God and the calling and gifts that God had given each of us then we start to be able to see the Great Commission as less what we have to do and more

2. WHAT WE GET TO DO: ENGAGE

We get to engage in the ministry in the way that God has for each of us.

Being connected and listening to God’s calling leads us to use those gifts and talents that God has given to each of us to make disciples.

It’s like when we were younger, we often felt like we had to go to church, and as kids that may have been the case, because your parents would make you go, but as you got older and became more mature as Christians hopefully you were able to make that transition from I have to go to church to I get to go to church.

If not hopefully you’ll be able to make that transition today, or at least see a different train of thought.

You see an immature believer often times has to go to church - because they don’t really know any better.

they have to go because they aren’t disciplined yet and they are still figuring out their spiritual gifts.

A mature believer gets to go to church to use their gifts and to be able to share those gifts with the body of believers.

As a matter of fact they want to.

They get to experience the gifts of fellow believers and use their gifts to bless fellow believers, and in doing so they use their collective gifts to make more disciples - so multiplication happens in the process of the whole body using their gifts together collectively - verse 12 of Ephesians 4 -

What is the work of ministry?

To make disciples

So instead of follwing someone else’s gift for the ministry, we’re gifted and called to use those gifts to lead people to Christ and turn them into disciples.

And we get to use the power that God has gifted us with through the blood of Jesus to do just that!

By engaging in ministry in intentional discipleship, we connect more people to Jesus and that creates a ripple affect that causes multiplication.

And a lot of people have claimed to have the right way for that to happen is for us to do evangelism this way or that way.

And for some of us again, those ways work - because that actually is the gift that God has given to you.

And for the past I don’t know how many years we’ve all been told that we have to be evangelists - we have to go and tell people the good news in a specific way to lead people to Jesus.

Stop trying to be cookie cutter Christians!

Be the part of the body that God has called you to be and gifted you to be!

And I’m open to listen to anyone that can show me where in the Bible that it says we have to go and do it this way.

Because I don’t see a do it this way anywhere in the Bible that is directed toward all.

Does that release us from leading people to Jesus?

No.