Sermon Notes - Sunday, September 24th, 2023

DISCOVER & DISCIPLE // Our Great Commission
Pastor Chris Pletcher

Matthew 4:18-20 // From fishermen to fishers of men...
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

DISCOVER // DISCIPLE // DEPLOY

Commissioned // Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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 have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Commission = Co-Mission = Co-Laboring = Working WITH God

2 Corinthians 5:21-6:1
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

1 Corinthians 3:5-9
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

"The harvest is plentiful; the laborers are few."

Empowered // Acts 1:6-9
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

The church has too long been a place of entertainment and comfort instead of a base for training and deployment.

Ephesians 4:15-16
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Our individual GIFTS, which differ, build up the BODY. Our corporate COMMISSION, which is the same, expands the KINGDOM. A healthy BODY builds itself up so that it's MEMBERS go out to expand the Kingdom.

Key Questions for Every Member of the Body of Christ
1. How do I use my gifts to build up the base?
2. When I leave the base, what have I been commissioned to do?

Matthew 10:1-8
And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction...These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ʻThe kingdom of heaven is at hand.ʼHeal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay."

Our gifts differ; our commission is the same.