For The One

Hey, Calvary Church, now help me give just a big, big welcome. Cohen, your best welcome to those in our second auditorium and the men and women watching from a correctional facility via Pando. I love you guys. You're not a project to us. You are family. And you also received today in your bulletin just a little card. It says, my one is. And so I give those cards out to you every single year just as a reminder that we as a church are always going after the one. The Father's heart is always after the one. And so I'm asking that you would write who that one is. Who's the one that's closest to you but far from God? And I'm asking you to pray over that card this week. And I'm asking that you would extend an invitation to one of our seven services next weekend and not only extend the invitation, I'm actually asking that you'd bring them to church with you because 86% of people will say yes to an Easter invitation if we would just extend it. And so we have to capitalize on this and realize what a great opportunity we have this week. Come on, to reach people for Jesus. Across seven services, I've created space for you. Our staff's been working. We've been filling 800 slots of Dream Team we're serving. And now we're praying and believing.

Lord, send us 350 people that are gonna give their lives to Jesus. I'm expecting, I'm praying on it, but you gotta do your part this week, all right? Bring your one to church, all right? We place incredible significance on first words and last words, first words and last words. My wife and I, Kyla, we have a disagreement over what our daughters, Andy Rose's first words were. Now I will be the first to say there were some syllables from time to time that would come out of her mouth that did sound like ma, ma. I will definitely say that. But there was a time where she clearly looked me in the face. She knew exactly what she was doing. She kind of tilted her head to the side like this. She got this half smile on her face and she said it so clear as day, da, da. And I didn't get it on camera and no one else was around, but I know that her first word was da, da. And the reason that we disagree and we debate over this, whether Andy Rose first said ma, ma or da, da first is because as a culture, as a society, we place a lot of significance on first words. We also place a lot of significance on last words. There's a story of a man who was a pastor and his son was also a pastor. They were both in ministry. And the father was dying and the son was going to see him, but he did not make it in time before the father passed.

And the father, as last words to his son before he passed, he etched on a napkin, he said, tell my son ministry isn't everything Jesus is. Now, do you think those words would have affected his son's life and ministry at all? Yes, I'm sure that they did. We place a lot of significance on first words and last words. Do you know what Jesus's first words to his disciples were? Some of you, you've been Christians for so long that the rhetorical force, the weight of these words are lost on you because you already know how it goes. And so I want you to just look at this verse today two very obvious verses. If you're a follower of Jesus, you know exactly what I'm going to say already in this message today. But I want you to pretend, I want you to pretend like you don't know how these verses are going and pretend like you're hearing them for the first time as if you just gave your life to Jesus. These are the words from Jesus to his disciples, his first words. He says, follow me and I will make you, and you already know it, but I want you to pretend like you don't know how that verse actually goes. Now, if I just got saved and I was learning a little bit about the Bible

and a little bit about faith and one of the important parts of being a Christian, I know prayer is pretty integral to our faith. I would have thought that there would have been a great place for Jesus to say, follow me and I'll make you a man of prayer. And I want to be a man of prayer. Anyone else want to be a person of prayer? We're a church that we believe in the power of prayer. Prayer is our first response, not our last resort, but he didn't say follow me and I'll make you a man of prayer. He also didn't say follow me and I'll give you more theological knowledge. And I want to be a pastor. I want to be a leader. I want to be a person that interprets the Bible in the right way, that teaches and gives you proper doctrine. But he didn't say that. You might thought Jesus would have say, follow me and I'll make you more moral and more conformed to the image of Jesus. And I want to live and look like Jesus. I want my life to reflect him. I want to move closer to him every single day. But those were not the first words that Jesus said to his disciples. The first words that Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 4, 19 are follow me

and I will make you fishers of men. What he's saying is once you know God, every other day that you have left on the planet, the reason why you are there is to help other people know him as well. I say it this way. Our responsibility as followers of Jesus is to know God and then to make him known. And that is everything that Jesus was discipling his disciples into. His first words, follow me and I will make you a fisher of men. Now I want to show you his last words. And this is where we're going to spend the majority of this message today. And again, if you've been here and you know these. words, we even have a special name for this verse. These are Jesus's last words from Matthew according to his disciples. I want you to see the highlighted words. And if you'd be even willing to say these highlighted words with me, because they really matter. Come on, let's say them together. Then Jesus came to them and he said these words, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of what? Of baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded them. And then he gives them this promise. He says, and surely I am with you always, even until the very end of the age. Now these are Jesus's final words to his disciples. And I just want to point this out. We even have a special word for this charge, a special phrase. We call it the great commission. Now notice it's not called the great suggestion. It's called the great commission. Oh, I don't think he heard me this morning. It's not called the great option. It's called the great commission. It's a command that he gives to every single disciple. And what he's saying to every single disciple is this, is that once you know Jesus, once you say yes to Jesus, once you've been

born into the family of God, you are personally responsible each and every person online, each and every person in our second auditorium, each and every person in a correctional facility and in our room today, you are personally responsible for making the gospel go out to every community, every state and every nation around the world so that every person at least gets a chance to hear the eternity saving message that Jesus Christ was crucified and died for sinners and rose from the grave because whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Come on. I'm thankful that salvation is found in no other name but the name of Jesus. We serve a risen savior who's alive and well and on the throne today. And he's the only way. And what I'm about to say is not even politically correct, but I love you too much not to say it. The prophet Muhammad, I'm here to tell you this this morning. He is dead. You can visit his body and you can see that his way was not true. Confucius is dead. You can actually walk up on a mountain today where his ashes have supposedly been sprinkled. Buddha is dead. It costs $6 and 50 cents to walk into a temple where his decaying tooth rests. He is dead and his way was not true. But Jesus Christ is the only one who is not in a tomb today. He's alive and well. He's the door to a relationship of God, forgiveness and the power to change and nobody comes to the father but by him. But scripture says he is the way, the truth and the life and everyone everywhere who calls on his name shall be saved. But once you're saved, you now have this commission on your life, this responsibility, this weight, this mandate. It's called the Great Commission. So what that means for us, Calvary Church, that means for this church and this life, we're not on a vacation. We're on a mission. I'm going to say that again. This is not a vacation. This is a mission. Now, if you're not a Christian, what I just said probably has a little bit of an edge to it. I am so, so sorry. Come back next week, seven services. It's going to be life-giving and awesome and dynamic. Worship team is going to be amazing and you'll be so just encouraged that you came. But today is just a little bit more of a challenge to those of you that are followers of Jesus in this room. Because this right here, what we're doing, what we're all about as a church, no one without Jesus. This right here, this is a mission, not a vacation. This is why I am not dumb this morning. I am very self-aware of what is going on and what is happening in our church as our church continues to grow and we continue to reach more people. That's why sometimes if we're not careful, sometimes

we can get a little immature, dare I say. We can get a little frustrated by some of the stuff that is going on because we've fallen into this comfortable mindset that somewhere along the way that we thought the whole purpose of Calvary Church was for my needs and my wants and my things to get met. Here, I'll illustrate it to you this way. Where are the people that enjoy a good cruise? Let me see your hands if you love a good cruise. All right, who are more of the hotel resort people? That is me. Give me a Caribbean beach, all-inclusive resort. That's my speed. My wife and I, when we got married, we went to Barbados for our honeymoon and we loved it so much that every year after that until we had kids, we went to a Caribbean island and we enjoyed an all-inclusive week-long vacation and then we had kids and all of that changed, all right? But I hear great things about cruises. I wish I was a cruise guy, but I get really motion sick on boats, so I did not think that cruises would be a good fit for us. But what I hear about cruises, I hear they're amazing, but what I hear about cruises is when you hop on a cruise though, everything about that experience is designed to make you comfortable and happy. Every tiny little detail. Every request that you ask, yes sir, no sir. They just want to pamper you. And I love that on a cruise. Taylor make that whole experience about yourself you want to lay out on the deck and you want to read a novel that's on deck number five you want to go to a class on hot yoga you're weird that's on deck number 22 if you want to do hot yoga you can go for that right we have hot yoga on deck 22 you want to see a stand-up comedian on deck 4 at 7 p.m. you can go see that stand-up comedian stand-up comedian it's not for you you can go see a show the musical at deck 36 at 7 p.m. you get to reverse engineer and Taylor make that experience to fit all of your desires all of your preferences and all of your wants the other thing that they have listen to my language I'm being very intentional with this illustration listen to my language they have any events any activity or any program that you would want for your liking so if you want to go swimming you get to do that you want to stop at the destination that they stop at and you want to get off the boat and you want to shop you get to do that you want to take an excursion and you want to swim with the Dolphins or ride the ATVs you

can do that you want to go to three different restaurants and one night one for an appetizer one for the meal and one for dessert because you already paid for it and you don't have to pay the bill come on that's the best part of being on a cruise or an all-inclusive you get to do that they have all of the events all of the activities and all of the programs for your liking and then number three when you're on a cruise the entire staff is there for one purpose oh sure they may have different jobs but they're all really there for one purpose and that's just to make sure that you're fully entertained would you like your chai tea latte at 168 degrees sir they're just there to serve you all the time and here's what happens here's what happens because of the culture that we live in today because of this consumer self-made self fulfill yourself get your needs met American culture that we live in today is that people walk into the Church of Jesus Christ with cruise ship expectations when this is a battleship reality oh I like those claps right there see what happens is we buy into the lie that the purpose of everything we're doing is just to make me happy it's just to make me comfortable and so then if we're not careful we start just grumbling we start griping we start gossiping a little bit and we just say oh I hate that they do the lighting that way for worship I wish the lighting was different I wish it was eight minutes away from me it's getting kind of far now on a Sunday morning I have to drive 25 minutes to church I wish they would serve a chai tea latte in the cafe that's great that they brought in a missionary with a coffee cart why don't they have a chai tea latte today that sure would be great how about this one I wish the seats were a little different it's a little brown a little ugly feels a little 2014 II in here how about this one I wish the parking lot was an episode three of the Hunger Games every single week and people think the whole purpose of the church is just to make you comfortable the other thing that people do is if they're not careful and again part of this is just the culture and the society that we live in today is that we walk in and wish that we could make church our own tailor-made experience and so you go I don't like the worship here do you

have another service that does a different type of worship oh I like the message here but I like the small groups at another church and my kids like the kids programming at the other church and you scatter yourself out that you can't actually plant someplace and give and be a member and be faithful and tithe and be obedient and actually get planted in a church as Psalm 92 says blessed are those who are planted in the house Lord for they will flourish and you can't flourish into God who has called you to be because you're too busy scattering yourself out so many other places you just say I'll just tailor make it to my own need and my own experiences the other thing is that people walk into a church and they think it's my job as the pastor to have any events any activity or any program that you want and so you'll say things like do you have that underwater basket weaving ministry for left-handed women who are 36 years old and they think my job and they think the job of the staff here at the church is to make sure that they are entertained and they are pampered and they are served the problem is what I see in Scripture is Jesus did not say go and enjoy programs in all churches he said go and make disciples of all nations and so you got to get this in your head and heart yes we want to do things well yes we want to have fun in church yes we want to create a great environment but Calvary Church we're not here just to be spiritual consumers we're here to be spiritual contributors the church is not a cruise ship to keep people entertained it's a battleship with a mission a mission that came from Jesus himself to seek and to save those who are lost I mean oh when you walk into a battleship reality with cruise ship expectations that's kind of weird and it looks kind of weird I'll give you an example of this imagine if I'm down in Florida and someone says hey come hop on this boat with me and I just assume it's a cruise ship because they invited me to a boat and I get my linen shirt and my Tommy Bahamas on and I'm ready to go and then just from a long way off instead of the bright colors of a cruise ship I see this ship and it's a big ship but it's And I'm like, that's kind of weird. And then I get closer and I start seeing some of the text, making out what the text is on

the boat. And instead of it saying, like, Norwegian or Disney or Carnival, it says the United States Navy, just stamped right on that boat. And I'm like, hmm, that's interesting. And then I hop on the ship, and instead of customers politely issuing requests to the staff, chai, tea, latte, 168 degrees, sir, you hear commanding officers barking out clear orders to commission men, and then men obediently hopping on. And what you realize has happened in that moment is you have cruise ship attire and the expectations you have placed for a cruise ship, but you've hopped on the wrong ship. You've hopped on a battleship. And how many know that's going to look kind of weird? Here, I got a picture of that. Go ahead and throw that right up on the screen right there for us. Someone say thank God for chat GPT. Listen listen to me. Listen to the illustration that I'm making today. What happens is when you walk into a church, and they say, why is he asking me to attend the Saturday night service to make room for guests on Sunday morning for Easter weekend? Why is he asking me to make a missional move and maybe attend one of our earlier services or one of our later services when we add another services? Pastor Dan, can you believe it? He reached out to me. He asked me to serve on the dream team. I don't want to serve on the dream team. I don't want to attend one and serve one. I don't want to give. I don't want to tithe. I don't want to support missionaries. Really, Pastor Dan? Four services?

That's a lot. No, no, no, it ain't a lot because as long as there's still one lost person in Burlington County that doesn't know Jesus, we will never have too many services. There's still one more person to reach and as long as it's still your lost loved one and friend and family member and even enemy, the Bible says we've got work to do as a church. See what's happening right here is this is not a vacation. This is a mission and Jesus died for you, but this life ain't all about you and so we're always going to be a church that's about the mission, the mission of no one without Jesus. We're a mission over preference church and the church just doesn't exist for you. You're a part of the church and we exist to reach the world. That's what Jesus is saying. Now the next question is this, where are we called to do that? Where are we called to do that? Great question. Now I'm going to read this verse again and if you'd be so willing, I'd love for you to read the highlighted portion with me because the power to life and death are in the tongue. Something happens when you say scripture together and out loud. It gets in your heart. Say it with me. Verse 19 of this passage. Guys, go ahead and throw that right up on the screen. He says these words, therefore go and make disciples of all nations. I think we got the wrong verse. That's okay. It's the Greek word there, ethne. It's where we get our word ethnic, ethnicity or ethnic group. Jesus is saying all ethne, pan ethne, every people group on earth, everyone everywhere. Everyone is called to do this. It's the responsibility of every single Christian to contribute in some way to reach out to our community or to our states or our worlds.

Next verse, he says this, all authority, two places in heaven and on earth has been given to them. One of the most frequently quoted passages of scripture is this promise that Jesus says, I will make the nation my footstool. What that means is he gives you all authority in heaven and on earth. That means when someone goes out to take the gospel, they're not going by themselves. No, no. If they said yes to Jesus, that same power that conquered the grave is living and active inside of them. And that means wherever they go to their workplace or across the world, that all authority in heaven and on earth is given to them. And that authority reigns above kings and rulers and authorities, and it doesn't matter what could stand in the way, Jesus is a greater authority than any principality that could stand against. He reigns above it all. And I'll show you the power of this message illustrated in someone's life, the authority to reach the nations. So there was a man by the name of Reinhard Bonnke. Does anyone know the name Reinhard Bonnke? That's all right. If you don't want to share about him today, if you've never heard of him, there's a picture of him preaching in Africa years ago. He was known as the Billy Graham of Africa. And during his ministry, there was an estimated 72 million Africans that gave their life to Jesus. 72 million. There are stories of two to three million people in Nigeria coming to Christ in one weekend event under the preaching of Reinhard Bonnke. You want to know how he ended up there? He was born in Germany, age of 22.

By the way, is there anyone here today between the age of 22 and 27, would you mind just lifting your hands for a moment? I want to speak to you just for a moment. Let me say something to you. Get an elevated spiritual vision of what God might do with your life. I know there's many distractions, many things clamoring for your attention, many things that you could look to that could take away your time. Get an elevated spiritual vision of what God might do with your life. And once you get that vision, once you get that calling, run fearlessly and recklessly and pursue it with all of your heart and get distracted by nothing. Make your life count. And I'm speaking to those who are 82 in this room as well, because the Bible says your young men shall see visions and your old men shall see dreams. If you're 82 and you don't know what God's purpose and plan is for your life, and you're not running fearlessly and recklessly after it with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you're missing out on how God wants to use your one life to make a difference. Let's get after God. Let's do something with our lives that counts as individuals in a church. So Reinhard Bonnke, he's 22 years old, and God calls him then to this predominantly lost continent of Africa. He's preaching and he's traveling and he'd walk for days and he'd only preach to five or to six people and no one would respond to the gospel. And so he decided, you know, this isn't working.

I need to take a season where I'm going to fast and I'm gonna pray for the people of Africa. And four days into his fasting and praying, he had a dream. And in his dream, he saw a map of the continent of Africa. And in his dream, he saw the entire continent of Africa washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. From Cape Town to Cairo, from South to North. And then he heard the voice of the Spirit saying, Africa shall be saved. Africa shall be saved. Africa shall be saved. And from that moment, he began preaching and it penetrated his soul. And it began to preach with clarity and with boldness and with a supernatural authority and anointing he never had before. And when he began preaching, hundreds of thousands of people got saved at each event he was preaching at. And over the course of his life, he saw 72 million people come to Jesus. He changed the spiritual map of Africa. Before he died, he preached in Nashville, Tennessee. He showed the video of some of his crusades and ministry. And he told the college students that he had began to dream again, except this time it was a map of the United States of America. And he watched as the blood of Jesus Christ washed the United States from North to South

to East to West. And the voice of the Lord cried out to him again. He felt it in his dream, it spoke to him. He said, America shall be saved. America shall be saved. And listen, some of you, you are here right now and you've been praying and praying and praying for years and years and years for a lost friend or a lost son or a lost coworker. And I just don't know. I just feel the voice of the Lord, baby, speaking to your heart right now. One more time to say your workplace will be saved. Your household will be saved. Your community will be saved. Costa Rica will be saved. Russia will be saved. Your spouse will be saved. Your one will be saved this year at Easter at Calvary Church. And when he speaks to your hearts, know this, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. See, this is the cry of the heart of the father to gather people from every tribe and every nation and every tongue and every language. It's the promise that we have in scripture. Scripture actually tells us, the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord

and the waters will cover the sea. He'll ransom people from every tribe and every tongue and every nation and every language. And the lamb will receive the reward of his suffering on the cross. And he'll get every person that was purchased will come onto him and they will be with him in heaven with no more weeping and hurting and pain. And they'll worship around the throne room unto glory. This will happen. This is the promise of God. His word actually tells us that you can ask of the nations. He'll give them to us as an inheritance. But you and I come on Calvary Church, we gotta take personal responsibility for our families, for our friends, for our neighborhoods, for our community, for our state. You know that mission phrase we say over and over, no one without Jesus, no one without Jesus. Oh, I pray that that is not just some cute phrase that we stamp up around the building here. I pray that that's not just something that's on our website from time to time and people get to see it as they scroll. I pray that that beats from every single person in this room. I pray that that beats in my heart to say, God, would you break my heart for lost people? Would you allow me to see people

the way that you see people? That apart from knowing you, they will spend eternity away from you. But God, you made a way. That's what Easter is about. And you went into that grave and you came up on that grave that as Roman 10 says, that anyone who declares that you are Lord will be saved. That's why we're moving to four services. That's why we're asking the Lord to save 350 people next weekend. That's why we partner with 135 plus missionaries. That's why we have a vision to give $700,000 away to world changers this year. It's not because we want to brag about a big number. It's because we see what Dave and Julie are doing. We see the lives being changed in Scotland. And we want to partner with that because we want to see people really have their lives changed. The gospel is only good news if it actually gets there in time. Will God use us this week to bring the gospel into someone else's life so that we might see one more person come to know Jesus. So Father God, I pray that you'd ask us right now and even in this moment, God, who is that one? God, who is that person who's close to us, but far from you? God, who is that person that you've planted in our life that we are the only light in

their life? Everything else is darkness. But God, I pray that you'd give us a strategic opportunity, a strategic chance to get to witness, to get to reach out, to get to invite, to get to pray, to get to serve even this week. Lord, we want to be a great commission church. We want to be a church that reaches people. God, we want to bring the gospel, Lord, locally, globally. We want to see more missionaries, more worship leaders, more pastors, Lord, more youth pastors, more children's pastors raised up even from this house, Lord, that want to share the gospel, Lord, in their community and context. And so God, would you help us? Would you help us do that? God, we know that lost people matter to you. And if lost people matter to you, may they matter to us as a church. We thank you for these things. In Jesus' name, just in this moment of response, every head's bowed, every eye is closed in this moment. I know today's message is a little bit of a different message that's intentional with Easter next week. Maybe you're here, maybe you're new. Maybe you realize as we're talking about the gospel today, good news, God who sent his son, lived a perfect, sinless, spotless life, went to the cross for you so that you could be made right with him. Did you realize today you have not been living for him? Or you realize today you're not in relationship with him? You've never actually professed that he's Lord. Bible's so clear. It just says, Romans 10, if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

It's as simple as that. Oh, it will demand everything of your life. Oh, there's changes that have to come. Oh, there's a lifestyle that has to change, but it's just as simple as professing Jesus is Lord. I want to invite you into that today. Every head's bowed, every eye's closed. Second auditorium, online, in-person, if that's you, I want you to raise your hand. Ready? One, two, three. Come on. Between you and God, nobody's looking around. You need to make Jesus look fantastic. Two, three, four, five, six. Come on. And second auditorium, hands lifted as well. Come on. We don't have to wait till next Easter, next weekend. God's working right now, even in this moment, seeking and saving those who are lost. You can place your hand right back down. And come on, church. With those 10, you're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time.

And come on, church. With those 10 that have lifted their hands, let's pray together. Come on. Second auditorium, in-person. Pray with me. Come on. Nobody prays alone. Repeat after me. Say, Jesus, say, here's my life, all that I am, I give you control. And just say this prayer. Say, God, I ask you to change me. I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I ask you to be the Lord of my life. And from this day forward, I'll follow you. And just make this declaration. Say, my life is not my own, but I exist for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray.