Reset - Week 2 - The CORE - Pastor Mike Novotny
Reset
Week 2 - The CORE
Pastor Mike Novotny
Well, good morning everyone. Happy Sunday. Welcome back to week two of our sermon series Reset. You know, Pastor Michael gets so excited when he baptizes people, there's just water everywhere. So I was thinking, wouldn't that be epic? If I got concussed, like, slipping on the baptism water right here. On a Sunday morning, I'm excited. You're here. We're talking about how to reset our faith at this time of year. When lots of us think about our health, our sleep habits, our diet, our exercise. But we want to focus on those spiritual things, the really high-level issues for God. And today, I get to talk to you about the Great Commission.
I don't think it's just me in saying that one of the most exciting things that can ever happen to you when you come to church.
Is when someone you love is finally sitting next to you in church.
Yeah, that experience. I mean I love coming to church. I love hearing the word of God. I love the music and the worship. I love the stuff that I personally get on a Sunday morning. But I got to say there's almost no experience that a Christian can have like seen a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a relative, someone you know, and have invested in finally giving the church a chance.
And I know this means a lot to you because I've had a lot of conversations in the lobby that sound like this.
“Pastor. You're not gonna believe it. My cousin, my neighbor, my friend, my spouse is finally coming to church today.” And I say, yes, that's awesome. I high five and then you look me in the face. You get really serious and do you know what almost all of you say?
“The sermon better be good.”
Like this is the chance. Don't blow it far right faster. But I get that. I get that you just want church to be great because You know you love God and you love this person and you just want that person to experience the love of God too. Now if you're one of our guests here today, We're not so sure about Church or Christianity. Just yet. This might be an awkward Sunday for you. I'm going to kind of talk about you and how we love connecting people like you. To Jesus, but because that's really true. Nothing means more to us than seeing the people we love. Connect to the God who we believe is love. Something like it in a Christian experience. In fact, just last Sunday here at our church, a man was baptized or interviewed here. See Stephen being baptized. We had little Croix, who was baptized too. People were going crazy after that service. Like the baptism's pastor, they were so amazing like people were weeping and crying and talking about it all week. And in fact as most of you didn't even know the people who were being baptized. But there's just something about being a Christian. When you see other people becoming Christians or reconnecting to the gospel of Jesus Christ, just something that fills up our soul. There's nothing quite like evangelism.
And,
And I don't think it's just me when I say this, that there's nothing quite as Intimidating.
As trying to make those moments happen.
And maybe you're like me that you would love it. If your cousin your brother, your neighbor, your friend would come to church but actually talking about church, About Jesus. About the Bible. About religion, that might be one of the most complicated difficult, and intimidating things. That happens to us in our faith.
For a whole bunch of reasons, right? We live in a culture that says, if you're going to be a polite American in mixed company, you should not talk about politics or
Our religions, our culture tells us no keep that for Sunday, keep that for church.
And then maybe the person that you love and you're trying to connect, they've had maybe some rough and bad experiences with religion. It was crammed on their throat said questions that weren't answered. They went to a church. I was super judgmental or harsh or just kept asking for people's money, so maybe they're a little bit resistant. They're not so interested in those kind of conversations. Ravage you personally.
Just feel like you're not the type.
You're not a super extrovert, you're not really quick answering the toughest questions about Christianity. You're not a trained pastor you're just getting to know the Bible, maybe for yourself and just don't feel ready to talk about these things. You know could be the culture, it could be the person, it could be you but there's this weird tension when it comes to the Christian faith that seeing people connect with Jesus, for the first time is like, the best.
And it's also the thing that often terrifies us the most .
It's crazy to pray when you're lying in bed. It's kind of easy to come to church by yourself but, inviting someone with you to church bringing your faith outside of church. These are some of the more complicated questions that exist for our Christian journey.
That's why today I want to talk to you about that very thing. Last week, we learned about the Great Commandment where Jesus taught us to joyfully prioritize God? Because God joyously prioritized to us at the cross. But today, I want to talk to you about the Great Commission. Which is this thrilling slash terrifying.
High risk slash High reward. Thing that Jesus has given to the whole church, it's about going and making disciples. Of other nations. Apparently, this is so important, it shows up in the gospel of Matthew and some of Jesus's final words and the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke. And again, in the book of Acts, it's a big deal in the Bible.
And today because it's so exciting. It's also so terrifying. I want to unpack just a little snippet. Of what Jesus has to say to us about this, great purpose, this great mission that we call. The Great Commission.
So here's what I'm going to preach on today, let me read the whole thing to you. It comes from Matthew, 28:19 and it says go and make disciples of all nations.
If you're an organized person who likes to know where a sermon is going, I'm going to break this down into three parts. First, I'm going to talk to you about going.
And the second part I'm going to talk to you about “and make disciples”.
And you're never going to guess this in the last part. I'm going to talk about “of all the nations.” So we're going to break down the Great Commission that Jesus gave us and I hope it relieves some of the burden and excites you to carry out this huge part of the Christian faith. So let's start with the first word go.
Jesus says it here in Matthew. He says it again in Mark because Jesus must kind of know as he's speaking to these very first Christians that Inclination, and their Temptation. Would be just to stay and pray.
It was a big, complicated world out there with all kinds of people, and all kinds of cultures, and all kinds of religions. But Peter, and James, and John, and Thomas and Nathaniel, they shared the same faith. The same belief in Jesus, the same value, the same priority, it would have been tempting for them. Just have a Bible study and enjoy their worship and their fellowship and deepen their faith in Jesus.
And so, Jesus takes 2 hands with this one word and he shoves his closest friends it says, I don't know.
I love it. When you pray.
But you got to go.
I wouldn't be a lot more comfortable if you just were hanging out with each other, but I don't just love you people. I love all people. So, at the world. Doesn't share your values yet. Doesn't believe what you believe isn't behave. Like, you're trying to behave as a matter. To me, he says, “Go.”
And Jesus obviously knew what he was saying, because when a person goes, when they don't just come to church, and they don't just pray before dinner when they go to really great things happen.
I've taken notes. I’d love you to write both of these down. I'm going turns out to be very, very good for them.
And it's also very, very good for you.
Here's what I mean by that. I mean, it's good for them. It's good for your friends, for your grandma, for your next door neighbor, because a lot of people don't realize this, the message of Christianity is actually so insanely good.
No one just figures it out on their own.
The gospel, the good news of Christianity, is actually so illogically good. No one just guesses, the gospel.
Um, if you would go and ask 10 of your closest friends and family members who don't go to church, how they think a person gets to heaven.
I'll make a bet with you.
For every one of those 10 that says, well, you got to be a good enough person. You got to try hard enough, you can't do really bad things. You got to learn from your mistakes. Everyone, who thinks that getting to heaven is about human effort. If they say that, you owe me a dollar.
And if they say, It's just Jesus.
How are you a dollar?
And if you did it,
You would owe me money.
In the world, even people who grew up going to church, don't get, and don't guess the gospel.
We think if Heaven's a better place, well, you better be a better-than-average person. They think it's, it's all about effort me. How I'm improving? They don't know that. It's all Jesus. That his love was so great. It took care of our sins that Jesus on the cross actually made you good enough for God. No one just figures that out on their own. It has to be told to them.
The Book of Romans chapter 10 it says, how can a person believe in Jesus if they haven't heard about Jesus.
And how can someone hear about Jesus unless a Christian preaches about Jesus and how can a Christian preach about Jesus, unless they're sent.
And so, Jesus says to you for their sake so they have a chance to know the goodness of the Good News. So they don't have to look in the mirror and just wonder and hope that they're good enough. So they can just know. It's believe in Jesus.
For their sake, Jesus pushes us out the door. And he says, as it turns out that same process is not just good for them. It's actually very, very good for you in my experience.
There are a few things that grow your faith and your character quite like trying to persuade someone else to believe in Jesus.
Here's what I mean. Did you know that? There are a lot of Christian things that a person could do and be a total jerk.
And not advocating jerkiness right now I am saying this. If a guy was like a total selfish jerk, not patient, not kind, not gentle. He could park his car in our church's parking lot, walk in sing the song, say the prayers, and go home and still be a jerk.
And he could get together with a bunch of his friends who might be jerks too and they could have a Bible study where they really just vent about the world and what's happening in the politics and the public schools and everything else they want. Mention, they won't be kind but they could do life together in a group.
And before every single meal, he could pray and he could have some Christian books by his bedside, he could read them and say, Amen and still be a jerk and he could go on to our church's website. Set up the most generous gift in our church's history, give money and still be a jerk. You see what I'm saying? I'm not saying you should do this. I am saying you could gather in church and do life in a group and grow at home and give lots of money and still be really nothing like Jesus.
But if you're gonna go and persuade someone to give Christianity a chance. Isn't it true that you have to kind of be like Jesus?
If you go to your brother or your neighbor or your co-worker and you're just a total tool to that person all week, like you're a jerk, you're calling them names. You're starting rumors and at the end of that, you say, “hey would you like to come to my church on Sunday?”
If church turns people into people like you, no, the answer. As I don't know, I don't want any part of that.
If a person's going to have a real conversation about, something as intimate and personal as faith, or God, or eternity. It almost by its very nature. You have to be winsome. You have to be kind.
You have to be the kind of person who increases their trust spiritual conversations don't happen. Because you go to church, a lot where you have a degree in the Bible spiritual conversations happen when you're a good person.
And so, Jesus knows when you go, and you invest in people who are not followers of Jesus, it will start to refine you and make you more patient and we're gentle some more kind.
I actually had an experience like that just a few months ago.
A really cool chance to record the audio book version of a book that I just wrote. I'll show you a picture, my wife snap this picture before she left for the day, I went to this local Sound Studio, holed up in a sound booth for an entire week. I think Monday through Thursday, three to four hours every single day. And the guy who ran the Sound Studio was super talented, super hospitable, super kind. And he told me It is not a Christian.
And so all week, the only two people in the building were me the Christian and this guy, the non-Christian.
And because God has a sense of humor. I was recording that book. Taboo. Which is 300 plus Pages of the most uncomfortable, awkward, taboo topics. In the Bible. I was reading chapters I had written about abortion, abuse, adultery, pornography, politics. Race, gender dysphoria, homosexuality, sex and marriage, sex outside of marriage, living together before, Mary and I spent all week talking about the toughest stuff that the Bible addresses.
And don't happen.
As I'm sitting in that little room talking into the microphone by myself, I'm picturing him sitting by himself in a room just listening to my words.
And there were so many times. When, as I was reading, I was thinking about what he must have been thinking.
And it hit me even though I thought I was being persuasive and winsome. There were so many times in the book when I just thought. You know what?
No. I should have explained that better.
Or I'm being really simplistic about what non-Christians think about this issue. If I was saying, I'd raised in my hands and whoa, whoa, objection.
It's kind of interesting that when I typed out the book, I didn't feel that way.
And actually, when I preached many of the chapters from that book with you here in church, I didn't feel that way. But it was just me and a person who wasn't following Jesus, I knew it instantly.
And so it wasn't just for his benefit.
That spiritual conversation was happening. I realized it was so, so good for mine too.
So, can I give you a two-handed push today? It's like Jesus did with his friends.
It's so tempting to fill up all of your free hours with people who maybe share your passion for Jesus.
Sometimes friendships are a little bit easier when you have the same faith and values when you see the world through the same lens, Just think it happens in politics. It's just easier to live in an echo chamber, but it's not good enough for us.
And not for the people who don't follow Jesus just yet.
So, as you think about your schedule for this week or this month, the habits that you've gotten into there are times when you're just intentionally loving, investing, and spending time with people who aren't sure about church. Aren't sure about Jesus, I know you could attend another Bible study. I know you could join another group. There's a good place for that but not too much of that.
It said, let me send you out the door and like Jesus to his friends for their sake and for yours.
Go with a Great Commission, begins and here's where it goes, next.
Remember part two: Jesus said go and make disciples.
Now make disciples just another way of saying make more Christians, make more Followers of Jesus. Jesus, wanted his people to connect more people to the most. Important person.
These days. Some people say, you know, you shouldn't talk about religion, or you shouldn't try to convert someone to your religion. What's pretty interesting is that Jesus didn't feel the same way.
You believe that he was the only way to actually get to God that just believing anything. Would not be enough. God is so perfect. You have to be perfect to be in his presence and Jesus knew that his cross, and his sacrifice was the only actual way to make that happen. And so he said don't just go and like love whatever everyone believes he says go and make disciples.
So, how does that work?
I've taken notes. There's three words. We talk about a lot when it comes to outreach around here.
Three words are invest, invite and evangelize.
If you write those down, if you're taking notes, the process of making disciples almost always comes down to this: to invest, to invite, and to evangelize, now investing just means loving people. Well, we just covered.
And try to be the best neighbor, that you can be, for your spouse doesn't believe try to be the best, most selfless spouse. That you can try to be that co-worker and employee that your boss and co-workers can rely on and don't have to worry about resist, gossip, and slander. Be generous, be kind, forgive people. Invest in real relationships. So even if a person isn't a Christian yet, they trust you and they love you because they know that you've loved them first. That's invest.
Next is invite.
You could be the nicest person on planet Earth but no one becomes a Christian just by being in the presence of your niceness.
Okay, it's become a Christian. You need to hear about Christ.
The Book of Romans says that Faith comes Christian faith comes from hearing the message about Christ. So, “invite” is just an invitation for a person to hear about Jesus.
Maybe “invite” someone to come to church with you. If you invite them to listen to a podcast or watch a YouTube video, you invite them to read a little book, like the basics that we'd love to give away here at our church. What are you doing? You're trying to invite someone to consider, to read, to understand the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, simply invitation, by the way. Did you know, when they survey people who don't go to church? And ask them the question. “How likely are you to come to church if someone you love invited you?”
Did you know, not one out of 10 or two out of 10 or three out of ten, but a vast majority of unchurched non-christian people will say “I’ll probably come.”
A lot of Christians just assume if he doesn't go to church, he must not be into church. But apparently when you ask people who don't go to church, they say no I just don't know where to start and I don't know where to go. There's a billion churches in town but if you've invested in them, well, just invite them. It's incredible. How likely people are to come and that's why we love this. Help people invest and then invite.
And then don't miss this one. We also evangelize.
Evangelize just means to talk about the good news of Jesus in your own words.
And maybe, you know, someone who's experience with church, has been so bad, they might say no to that invitation. So we want to take the Jesus that we talk about here in church and bring it to them. Don't make them wait until they get to church to get to Jesus. We're going to preach the gospel of Jesus to them.
So we're going to share about sin and forgiveness. We're going to talk about the times we mess up and the mercy of God, we're going to talk about how all of us have fallen short, all of us are in serious trouble, unless Jesus saves us. Which by His grace and His love, He did.
So, if you want to go and make disciples Jesus would encourage you to invest love people. Well invite, give them a chance to come and hear the gospel or evangelize. Bring the gospel to them.
All right quick. Pause, let me test the room real quick.
At this point, in the sermon, we've talked about The Great Commission. We've kind of broken it down a little bit. How many of you just in your heart right now are thinking? Yep. I got it, Pastor, wrap it up. Say, Amen. Let's pray the Lord's Prayer. Get out the door. I know who I'm investing in. I know who feels super confident as an evangelist right now. It's okay. If you want to raise your hands, go.
One. All right. All right, I didn't even need two hands to count you. Holy cow. How many of you? Ernesty thinking.
Wait. No, nope. Nope. Anyone in the unsure boats when it comes to evangelism.
And if you're in the boat that you never raise your hands for anything in church.
Meant, I love you people but I don't love those people. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I feel that way too, you know, we can read the passage and we can have the sermon but at the end of the day, when you're actually going home to that person. And you got to look them in the eye or you're going back to work or the the field. Or the neighborhood. It's super complicated, isn't it?
Which is actually why I love the last thing I want to share with you today.
I have a hunch that Peter and James and John and the first Christians felt the exact same way.
For the last thing we're going to talk about go and make disciples of all nations.
Now in the past when I would think about that phrase I always thought. Wow, that is so cool that Jesus wanted the good news to get to all the nations including my nation.
That you didn't have to be Jewish, you didn't have to be from the Middle East, you have to share Jesus's DNA. Uh, it didn't matter if you were from America or Asia, you could be African. You could be Hispanic. You could be Hmong, like, Jesus's love and forgiveness is for the whole world. So go, yes, make disciples of all Nations and that's a thousand percent true. But the other day dawned on me. I wonder what the expression was on Peter's face. When Jesus spoke those words.
Did you know that all the first Christians were ethnically Jewish?
If you read the first pages of the Bible, you would find out that Jewish people had a very, very, very different and distinct. We have living.
Kosher foods the things that they would eat. The way that they would grow their beards, the clothes that they would wear their holidays, their culture, their views of sex, and divorce, and a marriage and God and spirit, like Jewish people were so different.
And then Jesus. He looks as Jewish friends in the eye and says, yep, I want you to go and make disciples.
Of all the nations.
Like the Romans.
Like the cultures that have the naked statues in their big cities.
The people who don't believe in Yahweh, the god of the Old Testament, the the uncircumcised heathen. Gentiles. Yep. Jesus says those people.
Do you think Peter's armpits were just like dripping with nervousness? This is like what? I don't think you would have raised the hand saying. Yeah, let's go. I think he was freaking out. Over the overwhelming nature of evangelism and maybe you feel that way too.
Maybe you're thinking even now in America, like the difference between Biblical values and what just the average person thinks is, so It's so different.
Our views as we try to love God and his word the most about almost
Everything on relationships. What is a marriage? What is a man? What is a woman? What makes sex good? Is it just consensual? When can a person get divorced. Who, who decides? Who you are. The Gap even in my lifetime feels like it's gotten so great. And so when Jesus says go it's pretty intimidating thing to do.
That's why before I say. Amen. And send you out on your way. I want to say three really quick things. Here's the first one: The people that do the Great Commission really well are actually just like you.
A couple weeks ago, I was thinking about people at our church who in my years here as a pastor have connected person after person after person and relative and co-worker and neighbor after neighbor. They've like invited and invested, they've had great success and evangelism. So, I reached out to these two guys and I asked them, what is it about you
Like I know you're going to try to deflect the compliment, but why do you think you've been able to connect so many people to our church and especially to Jesus?
Are you just bold when it comes to bringing up your faith? Are you? I mean are you such a great example that people want to know more about you? Um, I just really quick on answering all those big objections about Christianity. What do you think it is?
And you would love their answers. Because they said things like, “I'm not good with words” and, “I am not bold.”
Ask one guy on a scale of one to ten. How good are you at answering? Like tough questions about Christianity and he said, quote, “if there was a negative number, I would be that.”
These aren't pastors. These weren't extreme extroverts. These weren't like public debaters of religious issues. What was it about? These guys that connected double-digit people to Jesus.
Here's what they said, “We love people and when the door opens, we tell them about the God we love.”
That was the big secret.
That they didn't expect to like, stand on a street corner and give someone a Bible. And so they would just love their neighbor for weeks and then months, and then years sometimes for over a decade that they just try to. Yeah, be a good person. Establish a good relationship. And what do you know, in all the ups and downs of life? There would come a moment when a person saw that they needed more than what they had.
And at these men could say, you know, when I was a mess when I went through a divorce. God showed up.
When I was scared, when my health wasn't great. God showed up. One man, actually said, my mess has become my message, like the things I've met the sins that I've committed have been a way to relate to people and preach the goodness of God.
Don't freak yourself out thinking. You have to be a different kind of person.
Instead just be the kind of person that loves people. Well, that shows up when it gets messy, even if you don't have all the answers and I can almost guarantee that God will open a door. To talk about his love His forgiveness and the goodness of Jesus.
Next, I want to tell you that our church wants to help you with that very thing.
Just a couple weeks here at our church, we're going to host an event called everyone Outreach. If you're watching online from a distance I'm not sure if you'll be able to attend but if you're here in our community, we would love for you to attend this weekend event because the purpose of it is to convince everyone to do outreach.
It's a good title, isn't it?
Well, these evangelism experts who are going to come to our church have discovered is that you could preach a hundred evangelism sermons, but if deep, deep, deep down beneath the layers of the human heart, if you think I'm not the right person.
That all this stuff is, is for some other kind of person who's a better person or knows the Bible better has a different personality. If that's the little C, that's way down here in your heart, it probably doesn't matter what I say.
You're not going to think that you're a part of what we're doing.
And so if we can ask enough questions to get down to the heart and help you see that? Yes, Jesus really wants everyone to. He wants you. And me to do Outreach.
Peter and the first Apostles weren't the best people in town. They didn't have all the answers about the Bible. Most of the Bible had even been written yet, and yet he said, go.
I've been praying actually that 100 people from our church, would attend this event, because here's what, I know, the healthiest churches are churches that think outside of their own walls,
And if we could raise up you and the person next to you and at least, 100 of you from our congregation to think intentionally and passionately about your friends and family. We could make a massive impact in this community. For the name of Jesus.
I would love for all of you to come. If you have a communication card in your hand, if you just want to write the word Outreach on it, I will personally get you all the information that you need to attend and I especially especially want to invite those of you who think. That it's too soon.
It's like you just got baptized last week. If
You barely have read a single page of the Bible. If you're just reconnecting with your faith and think, whoa I gotta be a better. Kind of Christian before I do that. You are actually the perfect kind of Christian to reach out.
I'm just the kind of person who likely has tons of family members and friends, who don't have a church home, we don't even know the message about Jesus. And so, if you think you're not the type, let me tell you right now that you are,
And I hope you'll take a chance and invest some time so that we can convince you to be part of one of the greatest parts of Christianity. To go and make disciples of all nations.
Which brings me to my final point for today. A funny thing I want to tell you is that as complicated in as intimidating as this can be. Jesus is going to show up.
Right after verse 19 in the gospel of Matthew comes verse 20. It's the very last words of the entire Gospel. Where Jesus says this, “Surely, I am with you always to the very end of the age.”
When you go out these doors, when you go back to your home, when you go to that family gathering your neighborhood, your workplace, your school guess who has said that He will always be there with you.
Jesus.
The Jesus, who once took a demon-possessed man and turned him into a disciple?
But Jesus, who rubs shoulders with people from all kinds of nations, tax collectors, prostitutes, Roman soldiers, dead people, and turn them. Can I tell you that Jesus is pretty good at making disciples.
And when that conversation happens, when that door opens, he's not going to be somewhere far away. He said, I will be with you always. To the very end of the age.
When you think you're not going to find the words, Jesus will be there.
When you're worried about risking a relationship because you never know how people react to Jesus is going to be there.
When the Holy Spirit throws you a slow pitch and you’re just too scared to say something. He'll show up. To forgive you and show up when you need him.
And just seeing your brother who thinks that science has all the answers. Jesus will be there.
When you're reaching out to your neighbor and you think, oh, this could be the moment. He'll be. With all the ups and all the downs, all the joys and all the struggles. Jesus made this promise at the very end of this great mission for his church. He said, surely I will be with you always to the very end of the age.
After our early service this morning, by chance of my teenage girls.
15 years old couldn't even drive to church, had to walk here on a very cold morning.
And they said during this entire sermon, They kept you in the same thing. Because it wasn't all that long before today. That one of them decided to go and make a disciple.
Share the gospel with her friend and her friend could barely believe how good it was. Jesus forgiveness. Salvation, she hadn't been raised with any faith right here. Just blocks from our church. He never heard or understood the cross of Jesus until her friend decided to go.
And I wish you could have been in the room to see the joy on both of their faces, the one who had come to Faith and the one who had shared her faith, they barely heard a word of my prayer that kept elbowing each other like yes, this is how it works. It's terrifying that this is big. He’ll decline, but on the other side, might be the Salvation of someone you deeply love.
And so, yeah, maybe they don't come.
Maybe he's not interested, maybe she never shows up at church, but what if, what if they did?
Well, it's just one person that you care about came to church this year.
Was just one person that, you know, who never really understood what this was all about. What if they finally got it this year. What if you and I went and it worked.
Well, that would make the Great Commission pretty great.
So, let's go.
