- The church has a MISSION from the Lord.
- A disciple WORSHIPS Christ (John 4:23)
- A disciple WALKS with Christ (Colossians 1:10)
- A disciple WORKS for Christ (1 Corinthians 15:58)
- The church is DELIBERATE in fulfilling the mission.
HBCPN Mission Statement: Glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) in the spirit of the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40).
What is a Disciple?
Acts 2:42-47
How Do We Make Disciples?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:06
Throughout the month of September, we're going to be going through a series called Harvest DNA.
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Okay, pop quiz. What does DNA stand for?
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Wow.
00:17-00:20
Deoxyribonucleic acid. Okay, that is...
00:21-00:24
Yeah, I couldn't remember. I didn't write it down, so thank you for that.
00:29-00:36
You think being a preacher is hard, it's not, because if I don't study something, I just like throw something like that out there and Jay Knauer helps me out, so.
00:38-00:39
Be on standby.
00:40-00:48
But your DNA determines what kind of a person you are genetically, okay?
00:48-00:55
Your hair color and your eye color and your skin color and how tall you are or how tall you're not.
00:57-01:03
So basically the DNA contains all of the information that comprises your makeup.
01:04-01:08
And this month we're going to be talking about harvest DNA.
01:10-01:12
And really we're answering one question this month.
01:13-01:16
And the question is this, what kind of church is this?
01:18-01:26
Right, if you're visiting with us, that is probably the question that you have right in the forefront.
01:27-01:28
What kind of church is this?
01:31-01:32
What is our mission?
01:35-01:39
The title of today's message is Uncompromising Purpose.
01:39-01:41
What is the mission of this church?
01:41-01:42
That's all we're going after today.
01:43-01:44
What kind of a church is this?
01:44-01:45
What's the mission?
01:46-01:50
If you have an outline, I want you to jot this down, first of all.
01:50-01:54
I'm gonna give you a list of some things that our mission is not, okay?
01:56-02:00
Our mission is not, everybody say, these things are not this church's mission, say that.
02:03-02:13
Okay, make sure you get that because I wouldn't want somebody to mistakenly think I'm advocating these things as the mission of our church.
02:14-02:18
Our mission is not, jot this down, first of all, our mission is not politics.
02:21-02:23
Our mission is not politics.
02:25-02:32
I know that there are a lot of Christians, there are a lot of churches that wanna throw their hat in the political arena.
02:39-02:46
And please hear me, I think it is important for the church's voice to be heard.
02:47-02:54
I think it is important for Washington to hear us stand up for the word of God.
02:54-02:55
I believe all those things are important.
02:56-02:57
So don't mishear what I'm saying.
02:58-02:59
Here's what I'm warning against though.
03:01-03:04
I think some Christians really believe that we can legislate righteousness.
03:05-03:06
Do you know what I mean by that?
03:06-03:11
I think there are some Christians and some churches that believe this.
03:11-03:14
Well, abortion is wrong.
03:15-03:26
So if we can lobby and pass laws that make abortion illegal, We can turn the tide of morality in this nation.
03:30-03:32
But let me ask you, let's just be realistic here.
03:32-03:34
If abortion were illegal, would that stop it?
03:36-03:36
Would it?
03:38-03:43
You can't legislate righteousness because we're talking about heart issues.
03:44-03:47
You can't pass a law that changes a person's heart.
03:49-03:51
How about another hot topic, homosexual marriage?
03:52-04:14
There are a lot of Christians standing up saying, you know, we can't pass that as law and outraged that some states are and I'm certainly not advocating, but I am saying this, if homosexual marriage became illegal, would that stop homosexual relationships?
04:15-04:15
Would it?
04:16-04:17
The answer is no.
04:18-04:20
So yes, church, we should stand up.
04:20-04:26
Yes, we should let our voice be heard, but please, I would caution you, don't think that we're going to legislate righteousness.
04:27-04:39
If we can get Washington to be convinced that our moral viewpoint is correct, they'll pass laws and everybody's hearts in this country will be turned back to the Lord and we'll be back in the days of Benjamin Franklin.
04:39-04:40
It's not gonna happen.
04:42-04:43
Laws don't change this.
04:43-04:45
Jesus Christ changes this.
04:46-04:47
That's what our country needs.
04:50-04:58
That's why you hardly ever hear me speak on politics, because Jesus didn't talk about politics, right?
04:59-05:15
There's only one statement in the Bible that I see from Jesus concerning a stand on government, and that is, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and render unto God what is God's." I don't see Jesus making any other kind of political platform other than that one.
05:15-05:17
So the mission of the church is not politics.
05:19-05:21
Secondly, the mission of the church is not social programs.
05:23-05:25
The mission of the church is not social programs.
05:25-05:32
Some churches believe that they are fulfilling the gospel, they are fulfilling the great commission by reaching out to the poor.
05:32-05:38
Now I'm all for helping the poor, and actually this church right now is working on some outreach things, aren't we?
05:38-05:40
I just talked with the Katie's about this this morning.
05:41-05:42
We're working on doing some outreach things.
05:43-05:50
We want to reach out to the poor and to the needy and to share the gospel with them and to help meet needs in our community.
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And we're working on some international missions work as well.
05:58-06:05
I believe that is vitally important for the church to be doing it, but that is not the mission of the church.
06:08-06:09
Important but not the mission.
06:11-06:22
Thirdly, the church's mission, we are not a club. We are not a club. You know, we enjoy eating together and playing games together, and you should. We enjoy that.
06:27-06:39
We should enjoy being with each other and having fun together, and right, like last night, hanging out with the Masterinos. That was a blast, just sitting down and just chatting and visiting, and we should enjoy that, but That's not the mission of the church.
06:44-06:45
Important but not the mission.
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Okay, the church's mission is not entertainment.
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I promise you there's nobody in this room that likes to have fun more than me.
06:54-06:58
And if you would like to challenge me on that position, talk to me after service.
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Nobody likes to have fun more than me.
07:03-07:05
But I am not in the business to entertain you.
07:07-07:10
It is not the church's job to entertain you.
07:13-07:18
And then finally, the church's mission is not criticism.
07:23-07:27
I'm not standing up here to criticize any other church or what any other church is doing.
07:28-07:33
I have a lot of pastor friends in this area, and we have a group of pastors from this area that get together and we pray for each other.
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But I'm not criticizing any of those churches or what they're doing because my priority is this church.
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My priority is not the church down the road or on the other side of town.
07:48-07:50
What they're doing, that's between them and God.
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My priority is this church.
07:52-07:55
My priority is to you, okay?
07:56-08:00
So my mission is not to just stand up and just point fingers.
08:00-08:04
this church is dropping the ball here, and this church is missing the mark here, whatever.
08:05-08:08
All I care about is this church, what we're doing.
08:10-08:11
Okay?
08:11-08:16
So those things, while some of them are very important, they are not the mission of the church.
08:16-08:17
So jot this down.
08:17-08:22
Number one, the church has a mission from the Lord.
08:23-08:25
We have to start here.
08:26-08:31
It's going to be a good reminder for us, but the church has a mission from the Lord.
08:34-08:37
This is an awesome thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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What does he do?
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He calls us and then he sends us, right?
08:42-08:44
He calls us and then he sends us.
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He calls us out of the grave.
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The Bible says that by nature, we are dead.
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We are dead in our sins.
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And we hear the message of the gospel that Jesus Christ died on the cross.
08:57-09:01
God was punishing Jesus for all of the wrong things that I've done.
09:04-09:06
God's not going to punish me for my sin.
09:08-09:10
Because he put all of that punishment on his son.
09:13-09:21
Jesus took the full payment of my sin on himself, and if you've received Jesus Christ, he's taken your sin upon himself.
09:21-09:26
The Bible says he actually became sin on the cross and God poured out his wrath.
09:28-09:30
So that we could be pronounced not guilty.
09:31-09:34
So that we could receive His righteousness.
09:34-09:37
And the Bible says that Jesus rose from the dead.
09:40-09:42
And that is to promise that we will have eternal life.
09:43-09:46
Not like eventually someday in heaven we'll have eternal life.
09:46-09:49
The Bible says eternal life is something we have now.
09:49-09:52
When you receive Jesus Christ, He gives you His life now.
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That's the gospel.
09:56-10:02
So he calls us, but then he sends us.
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Need some proof?
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Just look at the last few sentences in every one of the gospels.
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I'll read them to you quickly.
10:12-10:27
Matthew 28, 19 through 20 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you." That's how Matthew ends. How does Mark end?
10:28-11:15
And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." How does Luke end? "Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. Even in John's gospel, we get to John 20, 21. Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, even so I'm sending you." Do you see a theme? He calls us and then he sends us. You notice that Jesus didn't end his earthly ministry with a "see you later." He died, he rose from the dead, he appears to his disciples and was Like, we're done, see you in heaven.
11:16-11:20
The gospels don't end with the end.
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Every gospel account very clearly says that he left us with a command.
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Make disciples, proclaim the gospel, preach repentance and forgiveness of sins.
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Be sent out as the Father sent him.
11:44-11:56
I love it because when we planted this church, I didn't have to get this group of people together to say, you know, Fredericks, what do you, you guys weren't the Fredericks at the time, you were like Frederick and Kaler, but I wasn't like Ken and Amanda.
11:57-11:58
What do you think this church should be about?
11:59-12:02
We had this brainstorm, let's get some other people and what do you think we should do?
12:02-12:03
What do you think we should do as a church?
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Like what should we be working on?
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We didn't have that meeting, did we?
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Because it's clear what we're supposed to be doing, right?
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We didn't wonder what are we going after?
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Really, it's one thing.
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The church has a mission from the Lord and this is it.
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Make disciples.
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That one thing.
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It's that simple.
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It's hard work, but it's not complicated, right?
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Everything that Jesus calls the church to do can be summed up in one two-word sentence.
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Make disciples.
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So guess what this church is about?
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Somebody guess.
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Make disciples, right?
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Like why do we have worship the way we have worship up here?
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Do you know why?
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Yes, because we're making disciples.
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part of it. Why do we preach from God's Word the way that we do? Because we're making disciples that way, right? Why do we have a church that consists of small groups? Why do we have small groups at this church? To make disciples.
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Mission statement of Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North, right here.
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This is our mission statement.
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This sign is usually in the lobby, but I got permission to bring it up on stage today.
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But our mission statement is this, "To glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission, In the spirit of the great commandment.
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That's the mission of this church.
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Glorify God by fulfilling the great commission, which is what?
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Make disciples, right.
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But the rest of the mission statement is not up here.
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But the rest of the mission statement is this, in the spirit of the great commandment.
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We believe that's important.
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The great commandment is what?
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Matthew chapter 22, Jesus was asked, "What's the greatest commandment?" And he said, "It's loving God "with your heart, soul, mind, and strength." And Jesus said, "Oh, and the second one is like it, "loving your neighbor as yourself." Jesus said everything in the Old Testament hangs on just those two things, loving God and loving people.
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And the reason that is important to include that in our mission statement is this.
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We don't make disciples through force, right?
14:58-15:00
We don't make disciples through force.
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You know, just go out this week and grab someone, tie them up, bring them here at gunpoint, and make sure that they're here to hear the message and make sure they agree with it.
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We're not here to make disciples by force.
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Also, church, we're not here to make disciples by gimmicks.
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You know, next week at church, we're going to stage this really cool pro wrestling match.
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So invite all of your wrestling loving buddies and then we'll kind of slip the gospel in at the end.
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Bad idea.
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We're not using gimmicks.
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So like, what's our thing?
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It's love.
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We want to be motivated by a love for God and a love for people.
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That's why we're doing this, because we love God and because we love people, okay?
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So our mission is to make disciples, to glorify God by fulfilling the great commission and the spirit of the great commandment.
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And you're like, well, I get a question.
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What is a disciple?
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Because if you get on the web and look on a bunch of churches' websites, they're going to have a mission statement similar to this.
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But one of the questions you have to ask is, what is a disciple?
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And you'll see the definition of a disciple, you'll see a lot of definitions.
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Let me share with you how we define a disciple at Harvest Bible Chapel.
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You can go to any Harvest anywhere in the world, and this is how we define what is a disciple.
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We believe that a disciple of Jesus Christ does three things.
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Number one, a disciple worships Christ.
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Jesus said, "But the hour is coming and is now here." when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.
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We believe a disciple worships Christ.
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That's why maybe you've seen our little Harvest logo.
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Do you know what this logo is?
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It's actually a flame inside of a book, and that is to represent spirit and truth, meaning this.
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We're making disciples, And Jesus said the Father is seeking people who do what?
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Worship Him, the flame representing Spirit, and the book representing the Bible, representing God's truth.
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So we have that symbol just to constantly put in front of ourselves, here's what we're looking for.
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Constantly striving to worship God in Spirit and in truth, because Jesus said that's what the Father is looking for.
17:48-18:12
why in our discipleship at Harvest Bible Chapel, we encourage you to be a part of our Sunday morning High Impact Service. Recently I was at a pastor's meeting and one of the pastors asked this question to the other pastors. He said, "What do you do with people who just prefer to stay home and watch church online?" Because we We live in a day, honestly.
18:14-18:23
Technology is a fantastic thing, but sometimes it causes us to be a little lazy.
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And he said at his church, they put their whole service online, so they have some people at their church that kind of wake up on Sunday morning.
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How many people woke up tired this morning?
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Anybody?
18:39-18:41
How many people wake up tired every morning?
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Okay.
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So, I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand now, but how many people were kind of tempted to not go to church today because you're just tired?
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Don't raise your hand.
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That was probably some of us.
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All right, that was me.
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I'm like, "Aaron, I'm just too tired.
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"I don't wanna go to church." And she's like, "You're preaching today." So here I am.
19:07-19:23
But there are people that are just, "Well, I'll just watch it online, I'll just watch it online." And I shared with these pastors, "Well, what we do about that, first of all, we don't put the whole service online.
19:24-19:35
You have to be here." But I tell people right up front, we encourage people when we make disciples, we say the first thing about a disciple is a disciple worships Jesus Christ.
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And we tell people up front, as I'm telling you, there is something special about God's people assembling together in one place for worship.
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There's something special about that.
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You're like, can you give me a Bible reference on that?
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Sure, I can.
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What's the biggest book of the Bible?
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What's the biggest book in the Bible?
19:59-20:00
Psalms, right?
20:01-20:04
And I don't think it's an accident that God made sure it was right in the middle.
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Right at the very center of your Bible, the biggest book of the Bible, is a book about worshiping God.
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And that's what we're going after at Harvest Bible Chapel.
20:17-20:21
A disciple of Jesus Christ worships Jesus Christ.
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I've had preachers tell me, "Well, you know what?
20:25-21:28
"At our church, the music's great, "but it's to just get you ready for the sermon "because the sermon is the main event." wrong. Because guess what? Someday we're going to be in heaven, and I'm going to be in the unemployment line. Oh, it's gonna be so cool, like the Kellers and the Mastorinos and the Edwards, and they're all gonna be like having a heyday, and they're gonna be like, "Where's Preacher Boy?" Oh, he's in the unemployment line, because everybody in heaven knows the gospel of Jesus Christ, so he's kind of out of a job right now. But I'm not gonna complain because I'll be in heaven, right? But listen, the music isn't to prepare you for the sermon. My job as a preacher is to make you better worshipers. Worship is the main event.
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Jesus didn't say the Father was seeking preachers. He said he's seeking worshipers.
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I want to help you become better worshippers. That's why we dig into God's Word together.
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A disciple worships Christ. Secondly, a disciple walks with Christ. A disciple walks with Christ.
21:49-22:22
Colossians 1 10 says, "To walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit, and every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." A disciple walks with Christ. You see that word "walk" over and over and over again in Scripture to talk about your relationship with the Lord. Walking is intentional, and walking denotes progress, right? I was here and now I'm moving here. It denotes that we're growing over time in our relationship with the Lord.
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So a disciple walks with Christ, first of all, your personal walk.
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At Harvest Bible Chapel, we want to encourage you in your prayer life.
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We want to encourage you in your personal time in God's Word, your personal walk.
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But also at Harvest Bible Chapel, part of walking with Christ is being part of a small group.
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We are not meant to do life on our own.
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Harvest Bible Chapel is not a church with small groups.
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Harvest Bible Chapel is a church of small groups.
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We want everyone that calls this church their home to be involved in a small group because that's where discipleship happens.
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That's where you are pouring into someone and you're allowing people to pour into you and mutual ministry happens, and mutual prayer happens, and encouragement, and needs are met, and relationships happen.
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You know, I've been in pastoral ministry for a long time, and the number one thing that I hear from people is this, I just, I don't feel connected at that church.
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I just, you know, I went to that church for a while, but I didn't feel connected.
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Well, the question is, are you part of a small group?
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Because you won't feel connected if you come into church late and slip out early, and you don't know anybody here, and you're not with anybody through the week, you're not going to feel connected.
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You're not going to build relationships that way.
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We want everybody involved in a small group.
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That is the discipleship tool of Harvest Bible Chapel.
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So a disciple worships Christ, a disciple walks with Christ.
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Thirdly, a disciple works for Christ.
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First Corinthians 15, 58 says, "Therefore, my beloved brothers, Be steadfast, immovable, and look at this, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
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Knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.
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A disciple works for Christ.
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That is shouldering weekly kingdom responsibility, we want you involved in what happens here on a Sunday morning, whether it's greeting people or setting things up or teaching the children or playing on the worship team.
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We want everyone involved in some aspect of what happens here on a Sunday morning.
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So the church has a mission from the Lord.
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Secondly, the church is deliberate in fulfilling the mission.
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I want you to turn in your Bibles to Acts 2.
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Acts 2, and we're going to start in verse 42.
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The church is deliberate in fulfilling the mission.
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We don't set this stuff up every week and hope that accidentally disciples are made somehow.
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We're going to see that the early church was very deliberate.
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In the Harvest Bible Chapel, we want to be very deliberate.
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So is everyone there?
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Acts 2, starting in verse 42.
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I want you to underline the words in your Bible.
25:58-26:01
When you see the church is doing something, I want you to underline.
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Like what did the early church do?
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Underline those action words, okay?
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Does anybody need a pencil?
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All right.
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It says, "And they devoted themselves." Stop.
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What did they do?
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First of all, they were devoted, right?
26:29-26:30
They were devoted.
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Jesus wasn't their hobby.
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They were devoted.
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They devoted themselves like to what?
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Well, look, first of all, to the apostles' teaching.
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In other words, the Bible, the Word of God.
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They were devoted.
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They were devoted to the Word of God.
26:56-27:01
It says, "And the fellowship." What is fellowship?
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I grew up with a particular denominational background that the word fellowship means potluck.
27:13-27:15
When I was a kid, when we had potlucks, do you know what I'd do?
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I'd ask mom what she made.
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And that was all that I would eat because that's all that I knew was safe.
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I don't know, I just had these visions of like These people at home cooking and their cat is like sleeping in their crock pot.
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They're like, "Shoo, I need to put the casserole in there." I could have been wrong, but I wasn't gonna take the chance.
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So what is the fellowship?
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We're gonna see more of that later.
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It's actually all through Acts.
27:58-28:00
But here's what fellowship means.
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We belong to each other.
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That's what fellowship means.
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It means you have a need, let us help meet that need.
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It means I have a need, you help meet that need.
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Fellowship means we belong to each other.
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The Bible says that the church is the body of Christ and we are individually members of the body.
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We have a connectedness that's much deeper than we just happen to go to the same church.
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Then it says, "To the breaking of bread," that can be sharing meals together.
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I also believe that is having the Lord's Supper together.
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And the prayers, when they got together, they prayed together.
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It says, "An awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
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They saw God at work." It says, "And all who believed were together," this is the fellowship piece, I believe this is further fleshing that out, "And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes." Okay, so they got all together to worship, but they were also getting together in each other's houses. That sounds a lot like small groups, doesn't it? See, that's why small groups isn't a fad, if I can insert that. Some people think, "Oh, small groups is a fad. No, it's not. Small groups is biblical. That's what the church did.
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It goes on, it says, "They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." We could do like half of a year's worth of sermons just on that text. But I just want you to see the broad strokes here. What was the early church about? And you see all the ingredients that the early church was committed to in making disciples. That's what we're going after at Harvest Bible Chapel. Sadly, as I was going through this passage this week, I I had this thought. I thought, "Well, what if Luke was writing Acts today? And what if in the book of Acts today, Luke was recording what the church was actually doing? What would that say?" Well, here, I want you to look at the wall with me here.
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This is what Acts chapter 2 would say. Is my sign in the way? Is this blocking people? Better? This is what Acts chapter 2 would say today if Luke was writing it. It would say, "And they devoted themselves to the cute pep talks and the potlucks, to the secular music to be culturally relevant, and to the talking about prayers.
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And indifference came upon every soul, and many creative gimmicks were being done through the apostles.
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And all who believed were together, and occasionally felt badly for people in need.
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And they were hoarding their possessions and belongings and closed their ears to the needs of all as any had need, and occasionally, when absolutely nothing else was going on, attending the temple together.
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And hoping no events were asked to be held in their own homes, they received their food with ungrateful hearts, pretending to be praising God and having favor with all the people they preferred to be around.
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And the Lord added to their number occasionally those who were being bored." Does that sound like the church today? I think in a lot of churches, sadly, I think that's spot-on. Why? God help us. He gave us one thing to do, church. He gave us one mission. And when you look at the landscape of the church, especially in this culture, oh God help us, we can't seem to get to it. We can't seem to find time to be getting to the one thing that Jesus told the church to do, and that is to make disciples.
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So, at Harvest Bible Chapel, we are going for staying on mission.
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We are going for authenticity.
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At Harvest Bible Chapel, we want to be deliberate.
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We want to be passionate.
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And we want to be real.
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We want to be real.
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You've heard me say this if you've been here before.
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How many times have I said, "We don't want to play church.
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"We don't want to play church.
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"We want to be the church.
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"We want to be authentic." We want to be people who live by and are controlled by the lavish love of Jesus Christ.
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We want to be real.
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So this morning I'd like to tell you that, you know, you wouldn't be surprised if you went to McDonald's and you saw everyone working at that restaurant in order to fulfill one mission and that is to serve bad food. Because that's their mission, right?
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That's their mission. Nobody gets surprised when they go to McDonald's and they're like, "What are you guys doing here?" They're like, "We're making hamburgers." You're, "What? That's what we do." What does their sign say for like like 45 trillion served or something, right?
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And that's like with one cow.
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(congregation laughing)
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But that's their mission.
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You're not shocked by that.
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You don't walk into McDonald's just in constant shock and awe.
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Wow, really?
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Well, you don't walk into a bowling alley and see everyone who works at the bowling alley serving a purpose of allowing people to have fun by knocking pins down with a ball, because that's their mission.
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You don't walk into a bowling alley and say, hey, can we play basketball?
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Granted, your balls are a little heavy for that, but I'm not really into this rolling the ball down the wooden floor thing.
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Can we do something else?
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They would be like, this is what we do.
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We're a bowling alley.
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This is what we were built for.
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This is what our people are passionate for.
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Do you want the ugly shoes or not?
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Right, you wouldn't be surprised.
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Well, I'm saying to you this morning, church, don't be surprised to walk in here and hear us say that we want you to be involved in being a disciple and making disciples.
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Don't be surprised if we say we want you to make being here and worshiping passionately a priority.
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Don't be surprised when we say we want everybody in this room plugged into a small group.
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Don't be surprised when we say, come and be a part of what we do Sunday morning, shouldering the weekly kingdom responsibility.
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Don't be shocked by that, because that's who we are, and that's what we do.
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We are so glad that you are here.
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We are so glad that you are here.
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And we wanna see each and every one of you grow in Jesus Christ.
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Because of that, we are going to be unashamed about asking you to be involved, true or false.
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We're unashamed.
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You're here, fantastic, we're glad.
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Let's grow in the Lord together and let's get on it.
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He gave us one thing to do.
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What are we waiting for?
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Let's do it.
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So how do we make disciples?
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We're gonna close with this.
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How do we make disciples?
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I want you to look here at this graphic.
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This is the ministry funnel.
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And this little diagram just basically shows the how and why what we do on Sunday morning for making disciples.
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But when people come to Harvest Bible Chapel, first of all, we have a high-impact worship service.
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And from that service, we invite people to party with the pastor, where they can get to know a little bit more about this church, who we are, what we're doing.
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And from party with the pastor, we invite people to a two-week membership class called Making Harvest My Home.
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And in that class, we share the gospel of Christ.
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We talk about what it means to worship, walk, and work.
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We cover all those things.
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And then after that, if you wish to be a member of our church, we sit down and talk to you.
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We wanna hear your testimony.
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We wanna hear how you came to Christ and the difference that Jesus Christ has made in your life.
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And see if you have any questions about the church.
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But that's all worship.
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And then after the membership class, we wanna really get you plugged into two things.
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First of all, you see where it says walk, we wanna get you involved in a small group.
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Meeting some night of the week in somebody's home, getting in God's word, praying together, digging deep, and also to work, getting you involved in some aspect of what happens here on a Sunday morning.
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But that flow is to sort of show you just this simple thing.
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We're being deliberate about what we're doing here.
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As I close, I'm gonna share a story with you in a second.
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But before I do, I want to tell you that we want you to make Harvest Bible Chapel your home.
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We're not shy about that.
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If you're seeking a church home, we want you to make Harvest Bible Chapel your home.
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We want Harvest Bible Chapel to be a place where you worship Jesus Christ with a group of passionate worshipers.
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We want Harvest Bible Chapel to be the place where you are growing in your walk with Christ individually and with a small group.
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And we want Harvest Bible Chapel to be the place where you actively work for Christ, serving Him in some kind of a ministry.
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mission that Jesus left the church, and that's to make disciples. As we close, I want to share a story with you. I never, I don't think in this church I've ever shared like a canned illustration or a story that I read somewhere. I don't think I ever have, but this particular story I'm going to share with you, I was at a church one time and I saw this actually on the wall of the church out in the lobby and I did some digging around online to see if I could find it and I did because the story really impacted me. And as I was thinking through who we are as a church and where we're going, I trust that you listen and and let it impact you as well.
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The story goes like this.
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On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station.
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The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.
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Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and efforts for the support of its work.
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New boats were bought and new crews trained.
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The little life-saving station grew.
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Some members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped.
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They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.
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So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and they put better furniture in the enlarged building.
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Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as sort of a club.
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Fewer members were now interested in going to sea.
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Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions.
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So they hired lifeboat crews to do this work.
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The life-saving motif was still prevalent in the club's decorations.
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And there was a miniature lifeboat in the room where the club initiations were held.
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About this time, a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people.
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They were dirty and sick, and some of them had black skin, and some of them had yellow skin.
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The beautiful new club was in chaos.
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So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of the shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.
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At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership.
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Most of the members wanted to stop the club's lifesaving activities since they were unpleasant and a hindrance to normal social life of the club.
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Some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station.
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But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, They could begin their own life-saving station down the coast, and they did.
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As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old.
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It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded.
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History continued to repeat itself.
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And if you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore.
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Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.
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God help us. We are in a lost and dying world, and Jesus gave us one thing to do as a church.
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Let's get on it. Let's pray.
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Thanks.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Matthew 28:19-20, Matthew 22:37-40
Why do you think churches get so sidetracked in politics/social work/entertainment instead of making disciples?
How do you know when an authentic disciple is made?
Breakout Questions:
What are you doing right now to obey Jesus’ command to make disciples? If the answer is “nothing, really”, what can you be doing to start serving Christ in ministry?
Pray for one another.