FOLLOW | Multiplication

Our teaching text tonight comes from Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority and heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you." And surely, I'm with you always to the very end of the age. This is the word of the Lord. You guys can take a seat. What's up, church of the city? Yeah, good energy at that 6 p.m. works off tomorrow. I feel y'all. Yep. If you're new here, I haven't gotten to meet you yet. My name's Billy. I get to serve as one of our executive pastors leading our ministry teams. And we're in our final week of this follow series. And today I just want to talk about living a life of multiplication. Our teaching text, if you look in your Bible, has this sweet header called the Great Commission. The Great Commission. I love that. I love the Great Commission because in some way every single person in this room has been impacted by someone obeying the Great Commission. Whether someone invited you in, whether they shared the gospel with you, whether they showed the love of Jesus with you, whether they made disciples, like if they were actually discipling you, you've been impacted by that. And if you're in this room and you're like, man, I wouldn't say that I have this relationship with Jesus. I haven't accepted him. I'd encourage you as we talk about this life of multiplication, see what's on offer for you, see what he has on offer. Early on in my walk with Jesus, I just realized if someone's willing to share this with me, then obviously my call is to share with others. And my story is filled with people who love Jesus. And what they did was they invited me in, they loved me, and they shared the gospel. I had guys in my life like Albus Brooks, who would meet me at Chili's for

unlimited strawberry lemonade, if you're about that life. And we would read the purpose-driven life and he casted vision for purpose in my life in Christ Jesus before I was ever a Christian. I got guys like Caleb Noteware, once I got saved, he comes in disciples me. One of the most humble guys I know, he's giving up his leadership telling me, "Hey, man, why don't you disciple these guys?" My man, Steve Garcia, has been a part of every major transition in my life. He officiated my wife, Kelsey, and I's wedding. And out of the overflow of the blessing and discipleship of those guys in my life, I've just gone through and just every time I find myself in a situation, God will highlight a few guys in my life. He's like, "Man, I want you to bring them together. I gather them and we read the word." And there was this one guy on my college campus at the Colorado School of Minds, a tall, skinny fellow, and I was like, "Man, I think God wants him. I think God wants him." I was talking to Kelsey and she was reminding me this week that like I kept running into him, God kept crossing our paths. And I would call her and I'd be like, "I saw that guy again. Like you keep running until God wants him." And getting ready to approach him. And you always make these things up in your mind to be so much bigger than they are, a little nervous, but I finally go up to him. I invite him to a Bible study. And 15 years later, that guy is now executive pastor of Church of the City, Tim Brown. A few weeks back, Tim shared a story of his former boss coming to faith. And it was about two years after he left engineering. I think we got a picture of him baptizing Matt. Yep. And Tim, his boss calls him.

He goes, "Man, can we get together?" They meet at a restaurant. Tim shares the gospel. He receives Jesus and Tim gets to baptize him. Now that is unbelievable. You're just like, "Dee, this is incredible." But the thing about a life of multiplication is it never ends there. It keeps going. So Tim's boss starts bringing his whole family to church. And it was at the church where I was a pastor. And so before my wife Kelsey and I moved to New York City, we get to baptize his wife at Clear Creek. Another picture, boom, baptism. They bring their kids to the baptism. They're raising up in them. I have a conversation with Matt a month ago, and Matt is telling me, he's having this crazy business deal, and he goes, I'm just trying to approach this how Jesus would approach this. A life of multiplication. I can't tell you how many times I think about going up to Tim on that college campus, and I go, boy, glad I listened to God on that one. This year, my daughter, Emory, she accepted Jesus. She's eight years old. It's a picture of Tim and Emory, and that's a picture they're holding, of Tim holding Emory at three weeks old. If this is the only thing I had a part of in the kingdom of God,

dude, it is more than enough. But Tim is making disciples. Emory is and will keep making disciples. She gets back from city kids camp, and she's like, there was pie in the face with Christina and Emily, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't wait to hear this story. She gets home to just three of my friends except to Jesus. Woo, yes, sir. Yeah, they did. More than I could have asked or imagined. What started as a small step of obedience, a small invite has turned into a life of multiplication. Next week, we are kicking off a new series called Fruitful, and I feel like a sports announcer, but like hailing from Australia back from sabbatical, the one, the only, I've seen your pastor, John Tyson's coming back. Come on. Can't wait. We're going from follow this life of following Jesus to the Fruitful life. So as we look at this life of multiplication, you might be hearing that story, and you're like, man, I'm so grateful for the people who've brought me to this moment. Like, man, I know there's these people who's poured into me. I just feel that. I'm like, I got to this moment. But you're going, I don't know if I'm living out

that life of multiplication. I don't know if I'm living that life, and it begs the question, what keeps us from living a life of multiplication? 'Cause I think we have these moments, maybe it's on a Sunday for you, maybe it's in your community group, maybe it's at the prayer room, and you get so excited, you feel like you're so motivated to go do something for God. You're like, man, I feel this conviction. I need to go share my faith. I want to be praying for people. I want to make disciples, and then all of a sudden something holds us back. Sometimes, I don't think we're quite aware. We don't realize we're choosing this, or we're not choosing it necessarily, but we just get busy. We don't create margin into our lives for multiplication. Sometimes it's not that we're busy or distracted, but we just feel insecure and adequate. We go, who am I to do this? What if I get this wrong? What if I say the wrong thing? What if I mess up their chance at salvation? I'm not the right person. God doesn't want me to do this. Sometimes, it's just the fear of man.

We're just so afraid of what people think of us. We're so afraid of our image. We're afraid to offend people. We're afraid of rejection. I'm like, what if they reject us? And so fear takes over when we shrink back. Sometimes, we think we need to be a perfect Christian in order to share our faith. I need to clean these things up in my life, and my theology on predestination is really not there. And boy, I hope they don't ask me about revelation. God forbid Leviticus, 'cause I have no idea. We're just worried about like, what if I don't answer these perfectly? And we don't multiply out of fear of not being a perfect Christian. There's a denomination that did a study that found that the average Christian makes one disciple every 26 years. Do you know someone's born every eight seconds? And equally as important for us in the urgency of making disciples, someone dies every 11 seconds. So people are being born quicker than they are dying. And so the population increases by one, not every 26 years, but every 26 seconds. And so the population growth is outpacing our obedience to the Great Commission. And so I wanna give you some ammo to battle these things today, but can I tell you why this happens?

In Matthew 28, right before the Great Commission, Jesus, he dies on the cross, rose from the dead, tells the disciples, meet me in Galilee, top of the mountain, and he gives them the greatest mission of all time. (congregation cheering) And meanwhile, the guards who are stationed at Jesus' tomb, this is 11th through 15, they're told to lie and then they get paid to circulate that story. And so whenever God launches a kingdom mission, when God is launching you on a mission, Satan is launching a counter mission. Whenever God launches a kingdom mission, Satan is launching a counter mission. Frederick Bruner says it this way, every time God establishes a house of prayer, Satan launches a chapel of hell. Satan can't have you out there furthering the kingdom, obeying the great commission, bringing peace and hope and life and eternity into people's hearts. He can't have that. But the good news is Jesus defeated sin, Satan, death on the cross. He's already won. And so how dare we let him sideline us from the life that is already ours? So if we're gonna overcome these lies in Satan, we gotta know what are we missing out on?

What's God's plan? God's plan has always been for his people to make disciples and share the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth. We are praying for revival and awakening in New York City. What's the strategy? Is it more synagogues, more buildings? Is it more services? Is it by a bigger building? No, but we would take one. What's the strategy? What's the strategy? The strategy is you. The strategy is you. God's plan has always been you and multiplying your life. In the book of Timothy, Paul writes a letter to his disciple Timothy to pass on the gospel to others and he gives these instructions on multiplication. It's in chapter two, verse two. It says in the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, it trusts to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. And so we've got this slide. It's super creative and very well done. You can see that line is connected to the circle, obviously, that I made.

So, hey, we don't have different gifts. It's okay. Paul is writing to Timothy, right? He says, hey, Timothy, the things you heard me say, what I taught you, entrust to reliable people. And then those people will also be qualified to teach others. God's plan has always been this plan of multiplication. And so if we take this life of multiplication and apply it, we go, hey, man, I'm in. I'm gonna make one disciple every year. That's it one. I wanna make one disciple every year. This is what this could look like. You're the top circle. You make one disciple every year who makes a disciple. So you're one, you make a disciple, you're two, you're three, you're four. In the second year, your first disciple makes another disciple. And then they make another disciple. And so if you make one disciple a year who makes a disciple in four years, you've got 15 new followers of Jesus going after the kingdom. Do you guys have, I mean, is it more than 15? Is that too low? Is that too low? Okay, yeah, yeah, okay, good. I mean, could you imagine?

Now, New York City roughly has eight million people, two million followers of Jesus, six million lost people. How do we reach them? If 10 people took this and go, man, I'm gonna make one disciple every year who makes a disciple. 10 people. In 20 years, reach six million. All of New York City has reached. That is the power of multiplication. God's design has always been to multiply your life and your faith. You leave that slide up. 'Cause I want you to miss this when we're talking about this life of multiplication. You can see that and be like, man, 20 years, six million people, good. Six million, that's me, I'm in. I'm a New Yorker, that's why I'm here. Big vision, big things, that's me. Sometimes, six million people, 20 years can feel ethereal. God, man, that's kind of out there. I don't know what to do with that. What I want you to miss is that circle is not just a circle, that's your dad. That circle is not just a circle, that's your best friend. That circle is your sister, that circle is your coworker. That circle, maybe that circle is someone else's brother who you don't even know, but they've been praying, God bring a Christian into my brother's life so that he would know you.

And that guy works next to you in your office. You are the answer to their prayer. If we'll take small steps of obedience, he will multiply our lives beyond what we could ask or imagine. So I want to look at our teaching text and see three keys that lead to a life of multiplication. The first key is identity. Jesus starts the Great Commission with an identity statement. Matthew 28, 18, then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Jesus knew who he was and whose he was. He belongs to the Father. He's a son. He also knows that he's the light of the world, the Lamb of God. You have to know who you are, or you will never step into what God is asking you to do. God to know who you are. You're a son, you're a daughter, beloved. You belong to God and you are part of the royal priesthood. 1 Peter 2.9 says, "But you are a chosen people, "a royal priesthood, a holy nation. "God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him "who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." There's two sermons from last year in our We Are the Church series talking about us as the temple and the priesthood. If you want a deep dive, go check those out. Cliff notes version. The royal priesthood is referring to the Old Testament, where once a year the high priest would go into the temple

and into the holy of holies where God's presence was. And in order to go in, he had to sacrifice an animal on behalf of his sin and his household sin, and then another animal on behalf of the sin of the people. And then he could enter the holy holies and sit in the presence of God. This is important for the gospel of Jesus because the payment for sin has always been death. And so the payment for our sin is our death unless someone comes and pays the price. If you don't know what sin is, sin is when you walk away from the ways of God, you go, I like how I do my life. I'm in charge now. I'm God. Anyways, we go away from God's design into our own design is sin. So the payment for our sin is death, and the high priest would sacrifice for the sin and then would come back out of the holy of holies to teach people the word of God and teach them to obey the word of God. And so Jesus, he's the one who paid the price. We don't need sacrifices anymore. We don't have to, it's not our life on deck anymore because Jesus died on the cross. And so Jesus pays the price once and for all, for all mankind, for all time. He is the great high priest. And so when Jesus died on the cross,

it says the curtain into the holies of holies was torn. It was torn, meaning we have full access to God, full access to His holiness. And it means as the royal priesthood, we represent Him and His kingdom to the people in our lives. My degree is in petroleum engineering. I worked as an engineer for eight years, got my MBA, and then made the obvious leap to full-time ministry. But sometimes you can think God will use someone else to reach the people in my life. Like you might be thinking like, I'm your best bet like Billy. You're like, dude, you're a pastor. Now, oh, you have that experience. Like you just come talk to my coworker. Look, I don't have a badge to get into your office. I don't have the keys to get into your apartment building. I don't have the relationship equity that you have with your friends. You are a part of the royal priesthood. You are the pastor. You are the pastor of JP Morgan. You are the pastor of Goldman Sachs. You are the pastor of your Broadway show. You're the pastor of your podcast. You're the pastor of NYU Pace Forum. You're the pastor of your family, of your kids. You're the pastor. You have always been God's plan. You are the pastor.

There's a guy in our church named Darren, and we do trainings on this, and he's been coming, and we were just talking recently. And he was like, man, I've had these small opportunities to bring God up into my workplace. And he found some other believers, and he started a workplace prayer. So once a week, books a conference room, they spend an hour, read the word, pray for their office, their coworkers, the city. And he got promoted recently. So he's sitting in front of the executives, and he's like, I just wanted to bring God into it, and he goes, I just want to thank God. Says that to him. He told me later, he goes, I also thank the executives. I go, that's okay, you can thank both? You can thank both? 'Cause I want to thank God. He goes, they're now coming to me to ask me about things. He's in his office. You're the pastor, can we talk? Can we talk? He's the pastor of his workplace, and he goes, Billy, this is just the beginning. He goes, this is just the beginning. He had a birthday party, and he goes, it was like my life before Jesus colliding with my life now with Jesus. He had two friends meet at this birthday party.

And the one friend says to another, hey, what's up, good to meet you? How do you know Darren? And he goes, I met Darren at Burning Man concert three years ago, how do you know Darren? He goes, I'm in his prayer group. So now, Burning Man friend is in a spiritual conversation because Darren is stepping into his identity as the pastor of his workplace. This is a life of multiplication. Caitlin, you've probably heard her story here at Church of the City. God got ahold of her a year ago, and three weeks into giving her life to Jesus, she comes to the training that we have. I would love to tell you, had the best training of her life from me and then went out and did it. Nope, on the way into the training, she talks to a woman outside of the building. She shares her faith and invites her to church. That woman's name is Elizabeth. She comes to Church of the City, and last time I saw her, she goes, can we talk? I'm interested in getting baptized. Life of multiplication. Hayes and Madison, Hayes is starting a workplace alpha at a major financial institution in New York City. We now have two workplace alphas

at major financial institutions in New York City. Madison is wife, she's on a journey of 365 days sharing the gospel. Can I tell you the smartest thing she did? She told everyone she was doing it. If you're gonna do something, just tell everyone, then you gotta do it. She was telling me, she's like, Hayes has been helpful in this. It'll be 9 p.m., and he's like, have you shared the gospel today? Three more hours, left of the day. She's gotten all this favor with people in their apartment building. She is the pastor of their apartment building. Can you believe God invites us into this life? If you're walking with Jesus, you would say, has been boring. I would just say you're missing it. You're just missing out. God's plan has always been you. He trusts you. God of the universe, the creator of heavens and earth, he trusts you with his whole plan. He trusts you, and he knows you're not perfect. Which leads us to our next key, our first key identity. You need to know who you are, or you'll never step into what he's asking you to do. The second key is obedience. Verse 19 through 20, therefore go.

Quick little side note here. Theologists pretty much unanimously agree a better translation would be therefore as you go, as you go in your workplace, as you go in your life, as you go with your family. Therefore, as you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. In telling us how to make disciples, Jesus is telling us what to do as disciples. Be baptized, learn to obey his commands, share with others. Jesus' life was marked by obedience to the Father. He said, I only did what I saw the Father doing, and I only said what I heard the Father say. And he calls us into this same life of obedience, not in a demanding way, but out of love. John 14, 15, Jesus says, if you love me, obey my commands. Some translations say, keep my commands, this is an obedience posture, obey my commands. You're already loved by the Father. You're a son and daughter. Obedience is not earning you anything, it's the overflow of what you already have. It's the overflow of love for Jesus. That's why you have to start with identity, because otherwise you'll try to step into obedience to earn something that's already yours. When you know your identity, as part of the royal priest,

is the pastor of your spaces, you'll only deepen in that identity as you continue to live it out. James Clear, an atomic habits, he says, every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. Stepping into your identity, every action of vote towards that identity. And look, it won't be perfect. Can I tell you a secret? Jesus knows you're not perfect. It's kind of the prerequisite for this whole getting saved thing. He knows, in Matthew 28, Jesus died on the cross. Mary and Mary, they go to the tomb. Angel sitting on the stone that's been rolled, and they say, hey, come and see where he lay. verse 8, they went to tell the disciples, "afraid yet filled with joy, afraid yet filled." They're afraid, but they go anyway. They aren't perfect, they go anyway. A life of multiplication requires you to do it afraid. You're nervous to go talk to that person, do it afraid. If you're worried about not doing this thing perfectly, let me free you. You won't. Do it afraid. Go anyway. By the time Mary and Mary get to the disciples and tell this whole story, I imagine the disciples had some questions. How'd the angel roll the stone away? I don't know. How'd Jesus get out of the tomb? I don't know. Some of you are so afraid to share the gospel and start discipling someone out of fear that you might not know all the answers. There's nothing wrong with saying, "I don't know." Want to read the Bible with me and find out? Hook 'em. Hook 'em. Because if we are making one disciple every 26 years, maybe it's because we think we have to reach this theological or spiritual level before we go and share our faith. And then we make disciples and we say, "No, they're not ready to share their faith. They're not ready to make disciples." Then they wait 26 years or until someone tells them that they're ready. Philippians 1-6,

being confident of this, that he who began a good work and you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. God, thank you, you're doing a good work, but it is not complete until Jesus returns, "Do not let that stop us from obeying the Great Commission now." Amen. Guys, I love the Great Commission. I love this. I can't believe this is the passage I got. Like, this is so deep in my heart. I'm like thinking about it all week. Jesus came to them and he said, "All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go 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 obey everything I've commanded you, and surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age." Matthew 28, or Matthew 28, 18 through 20. And I'm just meditating on that this week. And I hear the Holy Spirit say, "But what does verse 17 say?" Oh, curveball. I go, okay. Holy Spirit, I know the story though. Jesus dies, rose from the dead, tells the disciples, "Meet me at the top of the mountain." They go to Galilee. Jesus is there in the flesh. They worship him. Surely verse 17 is something like, "Woo, that's our guy. He did it. Called his shot. Jesus, you're the Messiah. I knew it. It was all worth it. What do you want us to do?" That sounds like the Bible, right? It's the same. Billy translation. Verse 17, "When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted, but some doubted Jesus in the flesh." Have you ever thought if I saw Jesus or if I saw a miracle, I'd be all in. I'd have no doubts. With all due respect. Nuh-uh. Nuh-uh. The 11 guys who followed him around for years watching every miracle, performing miracles with him. The ones who saw him crucified. Now we're seeing him resurrected in the flesh, scars in his hands. It's him. They're worshiping him. They doubted. Equally as shocking is what comes next. Do you know what it doesn't say after verse 17? It doesn't say Jesus knew what they were thinking and corrected them, which he did early on in Matthew to the Pharisees. It doesn't say he heard them grumbling about who's better in the kingdom and addressed them. He says, "All authority in heaven, earth has been given to me. Go and make disciples. The doubt does not face him. The doubt doesn't face him." Which means Jesus believed more proof won't help your doubt. More obedience will. More obedience will. Do it afraid. Do it imperfectly. Do it doubting. We're wrapping up at the end of our summer Bible reading plan. Bunch you guys jumped in. It's been awesome. We're hearing these crazy stories. And if you clicked on the link in the text, we have the verses on a webpage. how to engage with it.

It's this method called soaps. And a soap stands for scripture observation, application, prayer, and share. So you write down the scripture, you write, "Would you observe from it?" You said an application, and I will statement, I will do this based on the scripture. You pray, ask God, help me with this application, and God, who do you want me to share this with? You share it with somebody. Soaps. I had this group of guys that I was discipling and we're a few weeks in, and I talked about this vision for a life of multiplication, then we looked at how to share the gospel, how to share our testimonies, how to pray, and we get to the week how to learn to read the Bible. How do we engage with this? How do we read it? We go through soaps and we send out that week, we're like, "Hey, let's do this every day, let's send it out to people." And there's a guy in that group named Cam. And if Cam was standing here, you'd think we were brothers. We look exactly the same. And during the week, Cam was doing his soaps, and when it came to the application and who to share this with, he felt like he was supposed to share his soaps with his mom.

Now Cam and his mom's relationship was really broken. Growing up, his mom was incarcerated for most of his life. So sending that text to his mom was a really big deal. Can I tell you, I bet Cam was nervous. I bet that soaps was not perfect. I bet he doubted if it was gonna do anything, but he obeyed God. He had sent 30 minutes later, his mom calls him and he goes, "Dude, I would have never answered that call." But God put her on his heart, so he answers the call and she says, "Cam, I just prayed for the first time. "God, send me a sign, and I got your text. "Got your text. "What do I do?" Cam says, "Mom, go get a Bible." He teaches her how to do soaps and reads the Bible. They walk together going through it. His mom starts sharing her soaps with their whole family, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters. Revival breaks out in their family. People are coming to faith. They're like sharing scripture all over their family. Unbelievable. One year after he sent her that text, walking with her, reading the scriptures with her, she flies to him and the first person Cam ever baptized was his mom. We got a picture of this right here. Come on. You knew I wasn't gonna get you without a picture, right?

Come on. Cam gets this vision of his life, this whole life of multiplication. He's living it out. He's been living this out. I used to have this picture saved in my photos and I lost it and so I texted Cam this week, and I go, "Hey, ma'am, can you send me that picture? "I wanna share this story." He goes, "Dude, of course." And he goes, "Guess who I just baptized recently?" I go, "Who?" He goes, "My dad." Insert next picture. What are we, guys? A life of multiplication. A life of multiplication. This is what is on offer for us. We are a part of the royal priesthood. You are the pastor. This is on offer for you. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Small step of obedience will multiply a hundred times. So one, identity. You need to know who you are or you'll never step into what he's asking you to do. Obedience, small steps of obedience, not to earn, but out of the overflow. The third key is inheritance. It's inheritance, yours and Jesus receives his inheritance.

Hebrews 12-2, it says, "For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, squaring at shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. You are Jesus's inheritance." He went to the cross for you. And then he receives his eternal inheritance of being seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus looked ahead to his reward. He calls us to join him and affix our eyes on him, the author and perfecter of our faith, on our inheritance. Matthew 28, 20, right at the end of the Great Commission. And he says, "Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age." Jesus is with us, you are not alone in this. I always read the Great Commission as this command to obey, especially baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And that was a good thing, it like helped me. It was like, if I love Jesus obeys command, so I just obey, I'm gonna go make disciples, but then when I baptize someone for the very first time, I realize, oh, this isn't just a command to obey. This is my inheritance as a son. This is my inheritance as part of the royal priest. This isn't just a command, this isn't inheritance. Mark 10, 29, 330 says, "Truly I tell you, "Jesus replied, 'No one who has left home "or brothers or sisters or mother or father

"or children or fields for me and the gospel "will fail to receive a hundred times as much "in this present age. "Homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, "along with persecutions and in the age "to come eternal life. "Inheritance, in this age a hundred times "and eternal life in the age to come. "I don't want you to miss out on your inheritance." The life of multiplication, this is your inheritance. About a year and a half ago, my wife Kelsey and I were praying about moving to New York City. And we just felt like God's calling, we had all these signs and wonders, we were so confident, we were like, "Man, God is calling us." But we had this fear about our kids. I've got three kids. We just had this fear like God, what if this costs us our kids? What if this costs them? What if this is the price for moving to New York City? We didn't know a lot about the city. What if this is worse for them? And God in the kindest voice, he goes, "Yeah, yeah, but what if it's better? "But what if it's better?" We're leaving behind mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, fields, homes, friends, but what if it's better for them?

So we moved to New York City. In the first month that we're here, we're in a prayer and worship night. And my eight-year-old daughter, Emory starts worshiping with her hands raised for the first time. I think we got a picture. A month later, she accepts Jesus as her Lord and Savior. And this whole year, she can't stop reading God's word. Getting prophetic words, praying for people, stopping at us in the street to share the gospel. I had 15 pictures to show, guys, I limited it to two. The girl is on fire. She is on fire. My son Brody, next picture. He, we get to New York City and he realizes that the tops of trees all look like crosses. You never noticed. In New York City all this time, you didn't know. My son doesn't miss a thing. He doesn't miss a cross ever. He's like, "Look at that cross. "I've got like a mini John Tyson walking around. "Lift your eyes." (congregation laughing) My man, Brody. I think we have a picture of my family. That's my wife Kelsey, my boo. Emory, Brody, Brody loves church in the city. We got the mints. He's like, "Dude, that's all I needed.

"I'm in." He should have just told me that before we moved. And the Mavericks of my little guys, a little older than that now, is like two and some change. He loves to copy what he sees his siblings doing. And so they're reading. And so he likes to pretend to read. So he grabs a book and he starts going through it. And I hear him and he goes, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." Bro, did you just say Jesus? God, I fear for my kids, but what if it's better? But what if it's better? Romans 8, 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Look, this life and multiplication doesn't mean there aren't trials. Life is hard, there's challenges, there's temptations. Living a life and multiplication doesn't mean that goes away. We moved to New York City. Our ceiling starts leaking. Fourteen days, landlords don't do anything. It floods our apartment. Ruins our kitchen, our living room. Us and three kids living out of suitcases for two months in New York City. Church rallied around us, people were incredible.

We're so grateful. That season was hard. That season was hard. But the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. So if you're like, man, I'm in. I want this life and multiplication. I want more. We have specific training and equipping. We call it send Saturday and making disciples training where we go through this. And so pull out your phones. These are the dates for the fall. If you're like me, you need reminders because a month flies by in New York City. It's like a day. And all of a sudden you're like, I have taken no steps towards a great commissioner making disciples. And you need a reminder. Once a month we do these trainings. Making disciples from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. What are you struggling with? Like, what's happening is you're trying to make disciples. Since Saturday, we do a teaching and equipping, and then we go out, share the gospel. Helps you get over some of the fears we talked about on the earlier side of this message. Our next Center for Vocational Mission Forum

is Saturday, October 3rd. Tim and I are gonna talk about how we made disciples back when we were engineers. We're gonna talk about workplace alpha. We'll have a panel. So check those out. If you're like, man, I'm in, prioritize those dates. And then there's three things I want you to start doing right now. If you're going, man, I'm in, I want this life. There's three things I want you to start doing right now. Number one, make yourself known as a Christian. The most common question asked on Monday morning, how was your weekend? If people don't ask that in your office, ask them. They'll ask you back. Start a trend. They're gonna ask you, how was your weekend? Say it was great, I went to church. Pastor talked about a life of multiplication and our purpose. Great, we hung out afterwards. Saturday I hung out with some friends. We went out, it was good. How was your weekend? Make yourself known as a Christian. One, number two, pray to God. Give me one person to disciple this year. Ask God for one person to disciple this year. Can I tell you something?

He's batting a thousand on that prayer. It's his whole plan. He loves answering that prayer. God, give me one. Make yourself known. Ask God for one, and then look for the lean in. When you share that you went to church on Sunday and go, how was your weekend? Sometimes people lean out. They're like, oh cool, it was good, bye. See ya, that's great. You did your job. You did your job, now pray and ask God to move in their hearts. John 644, it says this, no one can come, Jesus says this, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them in. It's your job to share, it's his job to change their hearts. You've gotta know this, because otherwise you'll be so afraid of rejection and like, this is all on me and you're going, I gotta change their hearts, I gotta convince them, I gotta do that. And you get all spun up on it. And it's equally as dangerous because if you also go on the other side of that and they come to faith and they accept, Jesus you'll go, look, I saved him. I can't save anybody, Jesus saves. My job's to share, he changes their hearts. So, people might lean out, look for the lean in. You say that, hey, I did this at church, where I hung out on Saturday, it was great,

how was your weekend they go? I didn't know you went to church. A life of multiplication, what on earth does that mean? They lean in, they ask you a question. Be ready and engage, here's the one thing, whatever you do, they go, I know you go to church, don't defend yourself, don't defend God. He's a big boy, doesn't need it. Ask them what their spiritual background is. Ask them what their faith is. Ask, have you ever been to church? Ask them a question, start a spiritual conversation. Have it locked in loaded up, man, okay, hey, I'd love to get coffee sometime, hear the rest of your story. Or the conversation wraps up, you're like, hey man, I'm gonna go back to work, let's talk soon, I'll see you later, easy. Make yourself known, ask God for one, look for the lean in. This is a commitment to the life of multiplication and the only thing that we cannot do is nothing. I can't be our response. (audience cheering) Charles Blonden was a world famous acrobat and tight rope walker. In 1859, Blonden became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tight rope. I think we got a picture of him actually doing that here. Once he crossed Niagara Falls, he started adding stunts to this,

blindfolded on stilts, he rode a bike. Crowds would gather from all over to come watch him. And in one of his most famous stunts, he asked the crowd if they believed he could carry a man across the tight rope in a wheelbarrow. The crowd went nuts. They started shouting, yes, you can do it. They started screaming, we believe, we believe, we believe. Charles Blonden grabs the wheelbarrow, comes up to the crowd and he says, "I need a volunteer." The crowd goes silent. Church of the city, that can't be us. We can't come in, weaken and weak out, receiving the body and blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, the love of the Father, the love and passion of Jesus. And when Jesus says, I need you to step in, we go silent. That cannot be us. This is a picture of New York. If we add more services, if we add another location, we get a few thousand more people. New York City still has 6 million lost New Yorkers far from God. But if we step into this life of multiplication, we can reach the city. Jesus called his disciples to meet him in Galilee. Galilee was the city of the nations. There in Jerusalem, there's this like Jewish elitism there, and Jesus goes, come to Galilee. It's surrounded by the Gentile nations. Now I'm in the city of nations, go and make disciples. Jesus has called you to New York City, the city of nations, to receive your inheritance. Thousands of followers of Jesus all across New York City.

This is what it would look like. If you go from these locations, this limitation, you go across the city, reach 6 million people. Jesus brought you to New York City to make disciples and live a life of multiplication. Let's answer that call. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for the cross. Jesus, thank you for your blood. Thank you that you are a great high priest. Thank you, Jesus, that you welcome us into the royal priesthood. That you trust us with the great commission. You trust us with the call to make disciples. You trust us with your plan to reach the ends of the earth. Father, I pray courage over this room. I pray boldness over this room. God, whatever impartation you've given me, I bless this room with it. Father, would we not sit idly by silent, saying, "I can't go." Lord, would we be a people that says, "Send me, send me God." Jesus, we love you. We worship you. It's in your name, we pray. Amen.