SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, choir, guys, for a sweet time of worship.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't it great to be able to sing that song about the faithfulness and the goodness of God?
SPEAKER_02: He is wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: And if you don't know Jesus as your Savior, I can't preach a sermon anywhere as eloquent as that testimony from this group of people who know the faithfulness of God and the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_02: And so just want to encourage you to listen to that.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're searching today, if you have questions today about what it means to be a believer, then that right there is as great a testimony as you'll ever get.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, congregation.
SPEAKER_02: Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28, and we're going to finish our little three-week study here today on the core values that we are trying to build into our church life to complete the mission that Jesus gave us in the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_02: We refer to that, the Great Commission, as a sort of a church term, an idiom that's been used through the years to explain how we go about what Jesus commanded us to do as his followers.
SPEAKER_02: And so the question is not what it is, but how to do it.
SPEAKER_02: And so these three core values we've studied over the last three weeks, and they really encourage us, they help us understand why and how we're doing what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02: It's not an accident that these things happen.
SPEAKER_02: They're all on purpose and we're all working through making all of our plans based on these core values.
SPEAKER_02: The first one we studied the first week is evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: We want to take the gospel to people who need Jesus so they can be saved.
SPEAKER_02: The presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: This is all about coming into a relationship with Jesus and being in his presence.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so grateful for the powerful message that Pastor Matt preached last week on being in the presence of Jesus and how that works.
SPEAKER_02: Corporate worship, as we just experienced that just a moment ago, to hear the voices of God in unison singing about the person of God and ushering us into his presence as our teacher, as our Savior, and as our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And then today we want to talk about transformation.
SPEAKER_02: See, that's what this is about.
SPEAKER_02: It's about transformation.
SPEAKER_02: There are all kinds of organizations in our culture.
SPEAKER_02: We're not an organization.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what we are, it's not what we do.
SPEAKER_02: We are the body of Christ fulfilling the commission of Jesus to help people to enter into a relationship with him so that he can transform us into his image.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: And an incredible testimony from Gunner and Robin about the impact that that had on them as young marriage, being involved in the church and other believers investing in them, and now them giving that back into the lives of others and wanting to invest so that they can grow and walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's an incredible picture of what we're going to talk about today in transformation.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to uh, if you have not turned in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 8, go ahead and do that.
SPEAKER_02: And on the screen we have uh that part that's called the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to back up just a little bit and get a running core into this moment.
SPEAKER_02: So you have there verse 18, but I want you, if you have your scripture, to start with me in verse 16.
SPEAKER_02: And let's see this moment here and get a context of this moment.
SPEAKER_02: Uh in verse 16 of Matthew 28, the Bible says, the eleven disciples traveled to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.
SPEAKER_02: Now, earlier in the chapter, we saw the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And so he was resurrected from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: He met with Mary and those ladies who went to the tomb, and he instructed them, go back and tell them to meet me at this mountain.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in all of the gospels, if you put them together, there are a number of events that happen between that moment of resurrection and when they come to this mountain.
SPEAKER_02: But here they are.
SPEAKER_02: They were directed to meet Jesus here because he has something very important he wants to do with them.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 17, when they saw him, they worshiped.
SPEAKER_02: Now you think for a minute.
SPEAKER_02: They saw Jesus nailed to a cross.
SPEAKER_02: They saw Jesus beaten, bloodied, and they saw him hung on a cross, and they were standing there, at least in close enough proximity, that they could hear Jesus cry out, It is finished.
SPEAKER_02: And then he died there on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: They understood when he was buried in that tomb.
SPEAKER_02: And now they are looking at Jesus alive having conquered death and sin.
SPEAKER_02: The response that we should have to a risen Savior is always to worship him.
SPEAKER_02: He is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says he is the author and finisher of our faith.
SPEAKER_02: He is the one who accomplished what no one else could.
SPEAKER_02: He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: And he, in a way that no one else ever could, he is the only one as the author of life, as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, as the creator of life, he walked out of that tomb, conquering death and sin in victory to offer us salvation.
SPEAKER_02: That is the Jesus that they are standing before.
SPEAKER_02: And they are worshiping him in his resurrected person, in his victory as our Savior.
SPEAKER_02: Now that nothing should encourage our faith and strengthen our faith any more than the fact that we serve a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_02: But it also says, but some doubt it.
SPEAKER_02: Now the question in my mind is, what is there to doubt?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Jesus walked out of the tomb and he's standing there alive in front of you.
SPEAKER_02: What are you gonna doubt?
SPEAKER_02: Most likely what they're doubting is the future.
SPEAKER_02: What's going to happen?
SPEAKER_02: How is this going to work?
SPEAKER_02: We had a vision for what Jesus was going to do, and he didn't do what we thought he was going to do, and then we saw him die, and then he rose again.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's risen again, but he could die again.
SPEAKER_02: He died once, and what's going to happen to us, and how's this future gonna go?
SPEAKER_02: And all these Roman soldiers are lying, saying we took his body and hid it, and all this kind of what's happening.
SPEAKER_02: And their eyes are not on the person of Jesus, they're on something else.
SPEAKER_02: And when we take our eyes off the resurrected Savior, it tends to allow those other thoughts and doubts to creep in.
SPEAKER_02: In that context, Jesus came near them and he said to them, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_02: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_02: And we see there in this encapsulated vision statement for us as a church, the instruction of what to do, the vision of what this is going to look like in the future.
SPEAKER_02: But also we have the how-to of how this is going to work.
SPEAKER_02: And so he is given a nutshell version that's going to be unpacked through the rest of their ministry.
SPEAKER_02: It captures the principles that he taught them all those three years that he was walking with them, leading up to that moment of the cross and the resurrection and accomplishing salvation.
SPEAKER_02: And so he encapsulates it all in this moment.
SPEAKER_02: And so it is the most beautiful place for us to understand how we go about this Great Commission and what this great commission is.
SPEAKER_02: That's where we get evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: He says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: We are to take the gospel all over the world.
SPEAKER_02: We're supposed to take it in every place where people have not had an opportunity to hear about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We're supposed to take it into the lives of each and every person who's not accepted Christ as their Savior and give them that good news of the gospel so they can be saved.
SPEAKER_02: The presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_02: All authority has been given to me, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He is the authority.
SPEAKER_02: We go under his authority.
SPEAKER_02: We go in his power.
SPEAKER_02: He is the one that makes that work.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, teaching them to deserve everything I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus has commanded.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, remember, I am with you always.
SPEAKER_02: As we go every step we take, Jesus is with us every step of the way.
SPEAKER_02: He is the one empowering us.
SPEAKER_02: He is the one encouraging us.
SPEAKER_02: He is in everything that we do.
SPEAKER_02: It is his presence that we seek.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why that is such an important thing for us to understand.
SPEAKER_02: And then transformation.
SPEAKER_02: Teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: And we're going to talk about how that's transformation today.
SPEAKER_02: He's not here for behavioral modification.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus didn't come for us to act better, do better, be better.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus came to take us from who we were as sinners and to literally transform us in every way, spiritually, emotionally, personally, our character.
SPEAKER_02: He changes us and he turns us in a completely different direction.
SPEAKER_02: And he spends the rest of our lives here on this earth transforming us into his image, creating in us the person who would be described as a disciple.
SPEAKER_02: And then he ultimately takes us home to heaven and transforms us finally and eternally to live with him there.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus came to transform us into someone else.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm going to use this term for our three points today: Jesus transformation.
SPEAKER_02: Because that's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02: It's Jesus' transformation in us, and then it is being transformed into the person and image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Look at what it is.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the one who is the object, he is the standard, he is the actor, he is the power, he is all of that.
SPEAKER_02: This is all about being transformed in the image of Jesus, and that only comes through the work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_02: The power of Jesus, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_02: Man, I'm telling you what, when we do ministry submitted to the leadership and the lordship of Jesus, and the power of Jesus works through us, man, that's when things happen.
SPEAKER_02: It is the power of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, people don't come and get saved just because we open the doors.
SPEAKER_02: It is the activity and the power of Jesus who works to save and to transform and to work and to act.
SPEAKER_02: It is the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And lo, I am with you always.
SPEAKER_02: That's why that's one of our core values.
SPEAKER_02: We must always be seeking the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We must be in the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Because when people come into the presence of Jesus, then he works and acts as the one who transforms.
SPEAKER_02: And it's the precepts of Jesus, teaching them to observe everything I, Jesus, have commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: It is what He commands us to do.
SPEAKER_02: He has put together the commands in life that we are to follow on purpose.
SPEAKER_02: They are purposeful and they work and they have spiritual power.
SPEAKER_02: Scripture, the Bible says, is God breathed and it is powerful and profitable in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: It is the precepts of Scripture and the principles that Jesus taught and embodied and that He encourages and commands in our lives that impact us.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
SPEAKER_02: It is His precepts that change us.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, we're not here making up stuff or figuring out whatever.
SPEAKER_02: It's all here in Scripture and we are following what He teaches.
SPEAKER_02: It is incredible and an honor to be a part of a church that has such a heritage being rooted in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_02: If you've not had a chance to listen to some of those Legacy Series podcasts and hear some of those former incredible men of God preaching, you need to do that sometime when you're driving or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: It changes your perspective.
SPEAKER_02: First of all, it's incredible to hear them preach.
SPEAKER_02: And second of all, it's incredible to think that that is the testimony of the generations of our church.
SPEAKER_02: And it's powerful to know and to understand that it is God's word and precepts at work in us through his power and through his presence.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, I've said it before, I'll keep saying it again.
SPEAKER_02: Everything that's good that happens in the church, it happens because Jesus did it.
SPEAKER_02: He is the one who is preeminent.
SPEAKER_02: He is the one who is acting.
SPEAKER_02: He is the one that we worship.
SPEAKER_02: Just like these people are standing here on this mountain, they are worshiping a risen, powerful, omnipotent, life-giving Savior.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what we do when we come to worship.
SPEAKER_02: When you come here, your focus is on him.
SPEAKER_02: You are taking those words as Jacob encouraged us to do, and you are thinking about who Jesus is and what he's done in us and how his mercies are new every day, and how he is faithful to us, and it is all him, and we are surrendering ourselves to him so that he can work.
SPEAKER_02: All throughout Scripture we're taught that.
SPEAKER_02: Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, he says, I have been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life that I now live in this flesh.
SPEAKER_02: I live through the Son of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: In Titus 3, 5, the Bible says, Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us.
SPEAKER_02: By the washing of regeneration, by the cleansing of salvation is what that means.
SPEAKER_02: By the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_02: Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2 says, I urge you, brothers, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice to the Lord, which is your reasonable service.
SPEAKER_02: And don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_02: Who's doing that renewing?
SPEAKER_02: The Lord Jesus, through the presence and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: In Ephesians chapter 5, when he talks to husbands, he says, Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
SPEAKER_02: And then he gives the purpose of why Jesus died for us.
SPEAKER_02: That he might present her, the church, to himself, being changed into the condition of being without spot, without blemish, or without wrinkle.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Jesus is doing in us.
SPEAKER_02: And it is him that does that in us.
SPEAKER_02: And so we surrender ourselves to him and we understand that the goal of what we're doing is Jesus' transformation.
SPEAKER_02: It is people looking more like Jesus tomorrow than they did today, more like Jesus next week than they look like Jesus this week.
SPEAKER_02: More like Jesus next month than we look like Jesus this month.
SPEAKER_02: More like Jesus next year than we look like this year.
SPEAKER_02: The whole process is my character being transformed and changed into the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, just hear me a minute.
SPEAKER_02: If you're a seeker, if you've got questions about what it means to be saved, if you are struggling with something in your life and you just don't know if the promises that this church talks about, if you don't know that those are real, if those are going to work in your life, listen, it's not promises that come from us.
SPEAKER_02: It's the person of Jesus who changes and saves.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you want to know, is there hope for you in that circumstance?
SPEAKER_02: Listen, it is Jesus who brings that hope because he transforms that in your life and he builds that in your life.
SPEAKER_02: It is the Jesus who stood on this mountain and said, I have conquered death and sin who comes into your life and does that work.
SPEAKER_02: When you learn the precepts of Scripture and the Holy Spirit works that in your life, man, it changes you eternally because it's Jesus that is doing that work.
SPEAKER_02: If you're lonely, if you have questions, if you're doubting, if you're struggling, whatever your question is, listen, Jesus is the answer to your question.
SPEAKER_02: And all we want you to know in everything that we do is to point you to the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Well, if it's about Jesus transformation, here's the next thing we understand.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus transformation, there has to be a way for us to obey this command.
SPEAKER_02: So look at what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_02: All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_02: Go, therefore.
SPEAKER_02: That is a command.
SPEAKER_02: Because of the authority he has given us, he is giving us a command to obey.
SPEAKER_02: Go and make baptizing, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: There is a command in this commission.
SPEAKER_02: We do not have an option.
SPEAKER_02: We must go.
SPEAKER_02: We must baptize.
SPEAKER_02: And we must teach people to observe what he's commanded.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus' transformation, he's not trying to hide things, he's not trying to make it complicated, he's not trying to mess it up.
SPEAKER_02: He is trying to put it on the table for us so that we can be obedient to the command that he's given us.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus' transformation involves a clear process that can and must be followed in obedience to this make command.
SPEAKER_02: Why would Jesus give us a command and then not tell us how to obey it?
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_02: Why would Jesus give us an instruction and a mission statement and then hide the ball from us?
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_02: There's no way.
SPEAKER_02: He is giving us this command to obey.
SPEAKER_02: He is going to equip and empower us to obey it, and he's given us the process, how it works.
SPEAKER_02: Make what?
SPEAKER_02: Make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: What's a disciple?
SPEAKER_02: We talked about this in the first week.
SPEAKER_02: The word disciple is an incredibly powerful and rich word.
SPEAKER_02: And what it means is someone who's learned from a teacher who has inculcated their belief system and their behaviors and philosophy and structure of life, and they now are not only living it, but they are promulgating that same process to others.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to know a disciple, let me give you a common illustration that'll make sense.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you, we have some folks here served in the Marine Corps.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you were in the Marine Corps?
SPEAKER_02: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_02: Marines are proud to raise their hands.
SPEAKER_02: Marines are disciples, amen?
SPEAKER_02: You guys can nod with me there, right?
SPEAKER_02: Once you're a Marine, you're always a Marine.
SPEAKER_02: And they make you a Marine, don't they?
SPEAKER_02: And you follow what the Marine Corps is.
SPEAKER_02: And so what happens is a guy or lady who's been transformed by the Marine Corps becomes your drill sergeant and your boot camp leader and all that kind of stuff, and they build you up in the Marine Corps, and then you go out and you serve as a Marine.
SPEAKER_02: And then someone from that unit is going to become the next trainer who takes the history of the Marine Corps, the ethos of the Marine Corps, the vision of the Marine Corps, the belief system of the Marine Corps, the how-to of the Marine Corps, and they build the next generation of Marines.
SPEAKER_02: That's what discipleship is.
SPEAKER_02: That's what being a disciple is.
SPEAKER_02: And so he gives us that command to make and to make what?
SPEAKER_02: Disciples.
SPEAKER_02: So there must be a process in which that occurs.
SPEAKER_02: And that process is really clear in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you back up, the whole process looks like this.
SPEAKER_02: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: So it looks like this.
SPEAKER_02: Here's a person who doesn't know Christ as their Savior, never been saved.
SPEAKER_02: They don't understand the power of that.
SPEAKER_02: They don't understand the glory of that.
SPEAKER_02: Someone shows them the picture of Jesus on the cross, resurrected from the dead, who can forgive their sins, and they take their life and they take everything they've been, they are, and they ever will be.
SPEAKER_02: And as a choice of faith, they give their life to Jesus because he gave his life for theirs.
SPEAKER_02: And then we do something called baptism.
SPEAKER_02: Why do we do this baptism?
SPEAKER_02: Why was baptism created in Scripture and why is it commanded as a part of the mission?
SPEAKER_02: Because baptism was a rite of passage, obedience, where you symbolically surrendered yourself to a belief system and you committed yourself to that process.
SPEAKER_02: In a general way, that's what baptism is.
SPEAKER_02: Now, our baptism looks like it does because it explains the gospel and how you're baptized.
SPEAKER_02: You are buried with him in the likeness of his death when you go all the way under the water, and you are raised with him in the likeness of his resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: We are raised to walk in newness of life.
SPEAKER_02: And so this baptism, God is commanding us to baptize and teach baptism and understand that as that step of obedience coming from salvation because it is how that person identifies themselves as I am now a follower of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: I am now a part of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: I am now committed to the mission, and I am a part of the mission.
SPEAKER_02: And then we begin that process of taking that person and we go, here's your Bible, here's how it works, we're going to obey this.
SPEAKER_02: God's going to take this and put it into your life, He's going to take that and put it out of your life, and according to the teaching of Scripture, and that's the process of how it works.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't work any other way than that.
SPEAKER_02: That's the only way it works.
SPEAKER_02: But here's the beauty of it: it works every single time.
SPEAKER_02: If you will give your life to Christ, he will save you because he promised to do so.
SPEAKER_02: And then if you will walk with Jesus, he will engage in this transformation process and change you throughout it.
SPEAKER_02: Your life here.
SPEAKER_02: And so that's how that works.
SPEAKER_02: What is he commanded?
SPEAKER_02: Well, there's a lot of pages there, and I'm not going to try to go through all those commands, but you can categorize them in six simple ways.
SPEAKER_02: This is what the Christian life encapsulates.
SPEAKER_02: Every one of those commands you can put it right into here because it's a part of this process of being transformed.
SPEAKER_02: Worship.
SPEAKER_02: That's prayer Bible study.
SPEAKER_02: That's the picture of a surrendered life.
SPEAKER_02: I am worshiping him with my life.
SPEAKER_02: I am coming to him in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: I'm submitting myself to Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: I am following Him.
SPEAKER_02: I am worshiping Him a surrendered life.
SPEAKER_02: Then you have transformation, or you can use the word discipleship.
SPEAKER_02: I've chosen not to use that word specifically for our core values because I want us to see the target.
SPEAKER_02: Discipleship is how you are transformed.
SPEAKER_02: And I want us to always keep in mind that the goal is transformation.
SPEAKER_02: It is being moved and changed and transformed in the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Transformation is a Bible word.
SPEAKER_02: Again, Romans 12, 1 and 2, that I quoted a minute ago.
SPEAKER_02: Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_02: Community, when Jared introduced Robin and Gunnar and he talked about our Sunday school class, he talked about community.
SPEAKER_02: He described in that men's Bible study and women's Bible study how Christians working together.
SPEAKER_02: Robin shared an incredible testimony about people who invested in her and how that worked and all the ladies in the church that invested in their lives.
SPEAKER_02: That's community.
SPEAKER_02: That's what community does.
SPEAKER_02: We have to be in community.
SPEAKER_02: There literally is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian.
SPEAKER_02: You cannot do the Christian life as an individual.
SPEAKER_02: You are literally in violation of the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_02: Who are you discipling and who's discipling you?
SPEAKER_02: Who are you sharing Jesus with if you're doing it by yourself?
SPEAKER_02: It literally cannot be done that way.
SPEAKER_02: And you were saved into the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It is a part of our identity.
SPEAKER_02: And so community is a part of what we do.
SPEAKER_02: Ministry, your place in the body involves service.
SPEAKER_02: And the moment that you're saved, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that He does is He activates a desire and a gift and an ability in you, a focus and a way for you to participate in the body as impacted and birthed and empowered by the Holy Spirit in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: Evangelism is not the preacher's job.
SPEAKER_02: Evangelism is the Christian's job.
SPEAKER_02: When we were with our kids, we were raising our kids, and they come to us and say, Why do we have to go to church this week?
SPEAKER_02: You're only making us go to church because you're the pastor.
SPEAKER_02: No, we're going to church because we're Christians.
SPEAKER_02: Christians go to church.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Christians do.
SPEAKER_02: That's who we are.
SPEAKER_02: We're not doing that because of the pastor.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, sometimes the pastor knows more than y'all do, and the pastor wants to not go to church more than you want to not go to church.
SPEAKER_02: We go because we're believers.
SPEAKER_02: Because that's what we do.
SPEAKER_02: And we share Jesus because we're believers, that's what we do.
SPEAKER_02: It is not the church as a whole that's doing evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: There's no mission project if people hadn't signed up and are going to England or to El Salvador.
SPEAKER_02: There's no serving on the campus like you guys did at UAFS, except you show up and you bring four tons of cookies.
SPEAKER_02: It was awesome what you guys did, and all the people that showed up to love on college students, and to be smiling faces and to show them a picture of the love of Jesus by the way that they love.
SPEAKER_02: That's how it works.
SPEAKER_02: That's evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: It happens when everybody does it.
SPEAKER_02: And stewardship.
SPEAKER_02: Stewardship.
SPEAKER_02: What is stewardship?
SPEAKER_02: That's with my money and my life and my talents, I acknowledge that he is God and I am not.
SPEAKER_02: I give not because I like or don't like what's going on.
SPEAKER_02: I give because Jesus has provided these resources in my life, and I am worshiping him because he blessed me.
SPEAKER_02: It is not my money, it is his money.
SPEAKER_02: Well, no, Pastor, I worked real hard for it.
SPEAKER_02: Well, where did you get your skill set from?
SPEAKER_02: Mom and Dad?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: You got it from a chemistry that we call DNA, that the scripture explains that he knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb.
SPEAKER_02: He designed you for who you are.
SPEAKER_02: He gave you those aptitudes and talents and desires and abilities.
SPEAKER_02: He built that into you.
SPEAKER_02: So literally, everything that we have and everything that we do comes from the Father.
SPEAKER_02: It's not my life, it's not my money.
SPEAKER_02: It's not my talents.
SPEAKER_02: And stewardship I am simply a steward of everything that God has given to me.
SPEAKER_02: And then that teaching to observe whatever I've commanded you, Jesus knows that there's a process in that.
SPEAKER_02: He's not just trying to get us to obey or march in lockstep or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: We talk about the transformation triangle.
SPEAKER_02: That's just one way to explain that chemistry of how a command of God and being in the presence of God and somebody encouraging you and showing you how, and then you stepping out in faith and being obedient, how that works to transform us.
SPEAKER_02: He's not changing our behavior.
SPEAKER_02: He's changing our hearts and our minds and our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And it works in that equilateral triangle picture that we show around here so often.
SPEAKER_02: And it's built this way.
SPEAKER_02: It's an equilateral triangle.
SPEAKER_02: My identity is in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: I have been saved and I have been baptized, which means I am a part of the body of Christ in the kingdom of God, inextricably linked.
SPEAKER_02: I am yours and you are mine because I am his and he is mine.
SPEAKER_02: That's how it works.
SPEAKER_02: That is our identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And when we are standing in their identity, baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe whatever I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: That's relationship, that's my relationship with him.
SPEAKER_02: That's prayer Bible study and faith choices that he puts in front of me.
SPEAKER_02: And in that faith choice, I am not just doing something.
SPEAKER_02: I am listening to a call from God, an instruction from God, something he's revealed in his word and has spoken to me and it's called me to a step of obedience.
SPEAKER_02: And I am looking up in faith saying, Do you really want me to do that?
SPEAKER_02: Like, are you seriously?
SPEAKER_02: You want me to do that?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I want you to do that, son.
SPEAKER_02: Well, you're gonna have to help me do that.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I promise to help you do that because I promised my presence would be with you always.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure I can do that.
SPEAKER_02: I told you all authority and power in heaven and on earth is in me, and I will help you do this if you'll step out in faith.
SPEAKER_02: And then you say, Okay, Lord, I will step out in faith, and you do that, and it is a relationship with him that transforms us into his image.
SPEAKER_02: And that transformation process is always going to involve serving others.
SPEAKER_02: It is always going to involve serving others.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody influences people around them.
SPEAKER_02: The question is not, do you influence people?
SPEAKER_02: You influence people, you have influence.
SPEAKER_02: Some people may have a broader scope of influence, some people may have a lesser scope of influence, but everybody has influence.
SPEAKER_02: A guy I used to serve with, he used to tell me that everybody has somebody that will listen to them.
SPEAKER_02: The question is not, are you influencing people?
SPEAKER_02: The question, are you influencing them towards Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Are you encouraging their transformation process?
SPEAKER_02: Are you helping them to take that step of faith?
SPEAKER_02: Are you teaching them how to study God's word?
SPEAKER_02: Are you taking them alongside you in ministry and you're showing them how to do ministry so that they learn how to do ministry?
SPEAKER_02: When you serve and you're doing ministry and your goal is transformation, then you learn, man, I can't do this.
SPEAKER_02: I gotta pray over this.
SPEAKER_02: And you grow to become more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: When you serve in a way that you've prayed over what you're doing, and you begin to see people not as people, but you see them as someone that you want to love them a step closer to Jesus, you are transformed in the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It affirms your identity in the body of Christ because now you see everyone as someone that you have a desire for them to grow closer to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And the chemistry of that works together to help us be transformed in the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You see, he's not hiding the ball from us, it's all right there.
SPEAKER_02: Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe what I, Jesus, have commanded.
SPEAKER_02: So if the goal of this is transformation, and then it happens through the person, the power, the presence, the precepts of Jesus, and there's a process that happens, how does it happen?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus transformation occurs only through the investment of the disciples' own transformation into the life of another person.
SPEAKER_02: This is a command given to eleven people to set in motion a process that all of us have been following since that day on that mountain.
SPEAKER_02: Who is going to go and make and teach?
SPEAKER_02: It's those 11 people.
SPEAKER_02: They're going to find people and they're going to lead them to Christ and they're going to baptize them and teach them what that means, and then they're going to teach them about Jesus and what's happening, and they're going to encourage their walk, and then they're going to become a disciple, and then those people are going to go find other people, and they're going to begin to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: You see, if the disciple is not making, if the disciple is not teaching, if the disciple is not investing their life in the other person, there's not another disciple.
SPEAKER_02: And the line ends.
SPEAKER_02: If this is a classroom, a student is free to get the information, pass the test, walk out, and go live life as they want to on their own, regardless of the information they've been taught.
SPEAKER_02: This is not about information.
SPEAKER_02: This is not about teaching.
SPEAKER_02: This is about transformation into the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: This is about becoming like Him.
SPEAKER_02: The classroom is the choices of faith and the decisions that I'm making and my faith in Jesus to guide me through that and my desire to try to obey the scripture as I walk through that and what God is doing in my life.
SPEAKER_02: And then it is when I have learned that lesson, I find someone else with the same question, someone else with the same struggle, and I put my life and encouragement in the middle of theirs to help them walk.
SPEAKER_02: Think about investment.
SPEAKER_02: When we invest in a business or you invest in the stock market, here's what happens: you go and you buy stock.
SPEAKER_02: You have taken money that God has entrusted to you, and you have given it to someone else, and you have put it at risk.
SPEAKER_02: Watch the stock market over the last two weeks.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: You have put it at risk.
SPEAKER_02: But here's what happens: you've put it into that system in that company.
SPEAKER_02: You've researched that company and you believe in what they're doing, and you are putting capital into that company, and they are taking that capital and they are hiring people, and they are building widgets or doing services or whatever they're doing, and then they are making money, and they presumably, for most companies, have done something honorable and they've created something to elevate society, and there are jobs that are happening from that, and in return for your investment, they give you dividends, and the value of your investment goes up.
SPEAKER_02: That's basic economics and how it works.
SPEAKER_02: It'd be nice if somebody taught that lesson to people in Washington for once.
SPEAKER_02: Not pig and sides, just saying, right?
SPEAKER_02: But here's the deal: that's a beautiful picture of what this means.
SPEAKER_02: I have been entrusted with something.
SPEAKER_02: God has entrusted me with money, and I'm saving for that and planning for retirement and trying to give something to my kids and all of that.
SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to make life work and save for a rainy day.
SPEAKER_02: So God has entrusted me with this.
SPEAKER_02: And just like the parable of the talents, I'm going to invest that, and there's risk involved.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to spend time doing research and preparing for that.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to invest that in something.
SPEAKER_02: But I am giving this risk and I am putting this resource into value creation.
SPEAKER_02: And it is impacting people's lives, and they are growing from it.
SPEAKER_02: And there is a return.
SPEAKER_02: As an investor, my investment has grown.
SPEAKER_02: That's the best way I know how to describe what it means to invest your life in someone else.
SPEAKER_02: As a disciple making disciples.
SPEAKER_02: God has given you what you have.
SPEAKER_02: Anything that you know spiritually, any belief that you have in Him, any love that you have for Jesus, He gave it to you.
SPEAKER_02: He created for you.
SPEAKER_02: Bible says in 1 John, not that we loved Him, but He first loved us.
SPEAKER_02: In Romans chapter 5, it says, God demonstrated His love towards us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_02: The people standing on that mountain who watched a resurrected Jesus share these words with him, their minds are thinking, This is incredible.
SPEAKER_02: I saw you beaten beyond recognition.
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't even recognize your face.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how you carried that thing to that hill.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how, when we followed you, you got it all the way up.
SPEAKER_02: Even when Simon picked it up, I don't know how you walked the rest of the way.
SPEAKER_02: And you stood on that cross and you said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
SPEAKER_02: You cried out with a loud voice and said, It is finished.
SPEAKER_01: And they're thinking, My sins were paid for.
SPEAKER_01: And here you are in resurrected glory and power.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, you did that for me.
SPEAKER_01: How dare you stick that in a sock and bury it in your backyard?
SPEAKER_02: The mercy and the salvation and the growth that you have, he invested in you trying to make you a disciple.
SPEAKER_02: That means you follow what he said and you believe it in so much that you live it and you go teach someone else how to live it.
SPEAKER_02: So as we close, how is your disciple being made as a disciple going?
SPEAKER_02: And how is your obedience to the command to make disciples going?
SPEAKER_02: Look, I don't want to ask as a church because we got a lot of people who love Jesus and are being transformed, and there's a lot of great stuff going on.
SPEAKER_02: I want to ask you.
SPEAKER_02: My dad used to teach me in his sort of blunt, homespun South Mississippi way of doing things.
SPEAKER_02: Son, everybody's job is nobody's job.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody's responsibility is nobody's responsibility.
SPEAKER_02: Whose responsibility is it?
SPEAKER_02: And it's every one of us.
SPEAKER_02: Are you saved?
SPEAKER_02: If not, I'm gonna invite you to come and give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: In a moment I'm gonna pray, God's people are gonna stand and they're gonna sing a testimony as beautifully as they did before, that they know what we're talking about, and I'm gonna invite you to give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: How's your disciple making going?
SPEAKER_02: Are you pursuing the presence of Jesus as Matt talked about last week?
SPEAKER_02: Are you worshiping?
SPEAKER_02: Are you in the Word?
SPEAKER_02: Your prayer, Bible study, choices of faith, is your relationship time drawing you to Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Is he convicting you?
SPEAKER_02: Is he blessing you?
SPEAKER_02: Is he talking to you?
SPEAKER_02: Is he walking with you?
SPEAKER_02: Are you feeling his presence?
SPEAKER_02: Are you living a surrendered worship life?
SPEAKER_02: Are you investing in the transformation of other people?
SPEAKER_02: Are you in community?
SPEAKER_02: Or just attending every now and then?
SPEAKER_02: Are you exercising stewardship?
SPEAKER_02: Are you sharing Jesus, inviting people to church, finding a way to be involved in evangelism?
SPEAKER_02: Are you being transformed?
SPEAKER_02: And are you investing in others?
SPEAKER_02: I want you to bow your heads as we close.
SPEAKER_02: I want you one more time, just let the Holy Spirit speak to you.
SPEAKER_02: Every eye closed, every head bowed.
SPEAKER_02: Picture in your mind's eye the followers of Jesus standing on that hill.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says, some worshiped and some doubted.
SPEAKER_02: Which group are you in?
SPEAKER_02: More importantly, which group do you want to be in?
SPEAKER_02: Come join us as worshipers.
SPEAKER_02: If you need to be saved, come and give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It is He who saves and He who transforms.
SPEAKER_02: If you got an area in your life where you need to pick up with it, move forward, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: That's what this is all about.
SPEAKER_02: It's about growing, it's about transforming.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is not trying to tap you and hold you down and beat you about something you're not doing.
SPEAKER_02: He loves you and wants to work in your life to grow and transform.
SPEAKER_02: That's the point of this.
SPEAKER_02: Make a commitment to surrender to that transformation process and know in a deeper way the presence of Jesus in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, if God has called you to teach Sunday school, go on a mission trip, if he's called you to give a scholarship to help somebody else go, if he's called you to be around college students, to invest in them, if he's called you to start a Bible study in your Sunday school class, if he's called you to get involved in women's ministry or men's ministry, if he's called you to be a part of something in the church, listen, respond to him this morning and become that investing disciple.
SPEAKER_02: Take what he's given you and invest it in the lives of others and see the impact in their life and the growth in yours.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna pray and we're gonna stand and sing.
SPEAKER_02: There'll be ministers at all of our aisles.
SPEAKER_02: The invitation is an opportunity for you to leave here more transformed than you were when you came in.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we love you and we thank you so much that your mercies are new every day, that you are faithful, that you are good, that you love us, that you stood on that mountain in resurrection power to be our Savior.
SPEAKER_02: Give us the freedom to surrender your transformation today.
SPEAKER_00: It is in Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.