Week Four - One More - Pastor David Uth - First Orlando

[MUSIC] >> Well, good morning. How you guys been? You good? Some of you are looking at me like I was walking through Faith Hall the other day, just visiting during the services and this family was sitting there having a meal together and I walked up. Man, I'm so glad to see you, glad to have you. They introduced themselves and then they looked at me and said, now, who are you? >> [LAUGH] >> That's great, I like it. I just think God is doing so much and won't thank Trey and Danny doing such a great job in this series of the Great Commission. The one more, I do believe it's defining for all of us, okay? Next week, this is the last one, we're going to wrap it up today. But next week, we start a study in the book of Daniel, okay? So you don't want to miss it, it's just a story that parallels so much of what some of our world is like today, actually. So today, if you've got a Bible, go to John's Gospel. John's Gospel chapter 20, whenever Trey said, hey, Danny's going to do Mark, and then I'm going to do Matthew and Luke. And you do the Great Commission and John. My first thought was, it's one sentence. >> [LAUGH] >> We'll be getting out early that day. No, that's just wishful thinking, sorry, it is just one sentence. But there's something John tells that none of the others tell. It's an incredible moment and with the text in front of us, if you got your Bible, I want you to open it. Chapter 20, Gospel of John, I'll start reading along with me.

Verse 19 on the evening of that day, the first day of the week. The doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven then. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. May the Lord add his blessing to this great commission from the Gospel of John. John's Gospel was written last. It's written during a time of persecution. Every New Testament book was written during a time of persecution, but John especially, he adds things that are very unique, okay? He's also the author of the first John, second John, third John, and a book you might know known as Revelation. This is the guy. He adds something. He does something. And he summarizes it in one sentence as the, this is Jesus speaking, as the Father sent me, I'm sending you. So it's a direct commission to us. As the Father sent me, I'm sending you. So the question we got to ask is, how did the Father send him? Because that's how he's going to send us. And I'll make it very simple for you. He sends us with his peace. He sends us with his love and he sends us with his power. And all three of those are simply tucked into the narrative in the short verse.

He sends us with his peace. For some of you, sharing with your one is frightening. The thought of sharing Jesus with somebody, can I just tell you, that's okay? In fact, I've always said, if it ever gets easy, you're not sharing Jesus. You're sharing you. There's something spiritual about talking about Jesus with someone that brings a little fear and trepidation, you know? I mean, you're kind of nervous about that. I want you to notice something. What's the first thing Jesus said when they saw him resurrected? I mean, the very first thing out of his mouth, when he shows up and there he is alive in front What was it? Peace be with you. And then the second thing he said was, "Peace be with you." Where were they when this moment happened? Were they having a party? Was it after Resurrection Fellowship, get together? They were hiding. They were behind locked doors. They were afraid of everybody out there. So they're hiding behind locked doors, and all of a sudden, Jesus shows up. By the way, he knows how to get in your door. Even though you put all the locks you want on it. There he is, standing looking at them. Peace be with you. Can I just encourage the church? We're not hiding from anyone. We're not afraid of anyone. We have a message that the world desperately needs to hear.

This is not a fortress to keep them out. It is a hospital to welcome sinners in. It is totally different. And so he brings that peace to us, even in our fear. By the way, peace is not comfort. You're going to be uncomfortable. And it is going to feel a little bit awkward, but there's a peace that means I can do this, and this is what the Lord wants me to do. If you follow the gospel and what Jesus taught about the church, he told his disciples, I will build my church. Matthew 16, I will build it. And I'm going to build on this rock. What rock was that? It was the rock that Peter had expressed in his faith that he's the Lord Jesus. And he says, and the gates of hell won't prevail against him. Basically what Jesus was saying is, you can take hell. You can charge hell. The gates that hell has up don't stop you. I just wish we would remember the church doesn't have gates. Hell has gates. We are the ones on the offensive. John writes later in 1 John, hey, don't be afraid. Greater is he who is in you than he who is what? In the world, you have something that should take the fear away or at least bring you enough peace that you're going to have that conversation with your one. You're going to walk across the street. You're going to go to that place and say, you know,

I'm going to be a witness here. So the second one, he sends us with his peace, but then he sends us with his love. How did God send Jesus? Why did God send Jesus? If somebody walked up and asked you that, what would you say? I would suggest you say this. John 3 16, say it with me, for God so loved the world. That he gave is only begotten Son that whosoever what? Believe it then him should not perish but have everlasting life. That verse tells me why Jesus came. He came because God loves me and God loves you. I got a question for you. Does your one know that you are doing it because you love them? Or do they think it's another church program? I got asked me that in my second church because I was all jacked up, had everybody all fired up about going and talking to somebody about Jesus. I showed up in this concrete worker. He was a great concrete guy and we'd been working on a project together. I showed up right as I started the pitch. He goes, wait a minute. Pastor, are you in my house because this is another church program or are you here because you love me? Dude, he's a construction worker. Can I just tell you, just because our friends might be far from God doesn't mean they're stupid. They know the difference in a church program.

And what I think Jesus is saying to us, he's gonna send us the same way the Father sent him and that is with love. God demonstrated his love for us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. I've had missionaries tell me they had no success reaching people and they kept crying out to God. This one man in particular in Vietnam, he said, God, what's wrong? I love you. And you know what the Lord told him? He said, I know you love me, but do you love them? Do you love them? So you know what I think that love's gonna look like? When John describes Jesus in the first chapter of his gospel, he says, hey, we beheld his glory. The glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Let's start with this. I'll tell you what love will look like when your friends describe you as being filled with grace and truth. grace in you? Do they hear that truth coming from your lips? I feel like it's something that the world is wanting to know. So we did a, we did a banquet one time called the Queen's banquet and we've done it more than once and I think there's a little bit of a stirring. We may do this again. Basically it was a banquet where we had ministries that reached women who were in battered women shelters, homeless shelters, clubs up and down the trail, OBT, street walker, I mean then we got them from everywhere. And we brought them here and we served in this incredible banquet food. We had clothing that we donated to give to them. We had all kinds of jewelry. We had folks doing makeup, hair. It was incredible. Three

hundred showed up the first time we did it. We shared the gospel. Thirty of them gave their life to Christ. It was unbelievable. Now here's the moment that got me. I'm standing out over in Faith Hall kind of saying bye and thanking people for being there. And these two girls come up to me and they go, "Pastor, you know what we do for a living, right?" I wasn't about to start guessing. So I said, "Yeah, I think I do. I think I know." They said, "You know, we've always known there was a big old church down here. Y'all are hard to miss. We just didn't know you cared for prostitutes like us until today. And we're so thankful you do." I got a question. Does Orlando know we care for them? Does our world around us? No, we care. That's how he said, "Jesus, that's how he sends us." We lead with love. You know what love does? Love makes you go where they are, not where you want them to be. Makes you go where they are. Makes you leave where you are and go to them. Think about what Jesus did for us. Paul said it in Philippians 2. He said he was with God. He was there in heaven with him and enjoying the privileges and the beauty and the splendor of heaven. But then he poured himself out and he emptied himself in the form of a servant. So Jesus leaves heaven and he pours himself out and lands in a manger in Bethlehem. And he walks among us. Why did he do that? Because we couldn't come to where he was. So he came to us. Church, as gently as I know how, we might have to leave the building. We might have to live the same way with the attitude, "I'm going there. I'm going to get outside of my little comfort zone, outside of the building, and I'm going to go there." I think that's what this lip, this sending is all about. He's sending us. Now, it involves coming here. I'd love for you to bring the ones. We've got some celebration days coming up for that. But I want you to think about it as there's somebody. If left to their own, they'll never show up here. They'll never come. Well, I love what's happening at First Embrace. I got to be a part of a celebration yesterday where we celebrated 40 years. And I want to tell you, I heard yesterday one of our dreams is to replicate what's happening here on this campus with First Embrace. We're taking it already to DeBarry. We're taking it to a coin. We're going to have sonograms being able to be done in those places. In other words, we're taking this beautiful picture of life to as many places as possible. So that those who are out there that may not ever show up here at John Young, they will have the same opportunity. Think about 11,000 lives. 11,000 spiritually changed from

headed to hell to headed to heaven. And their life was transformed by the power of the gospel. Come on, we've got to give him praise again for that. 11,000 lives. It's phenomenal. So yesterday I'm sitting there and they're these stories, incredible stories. And I hear this story of a young lady who showed up at our First Embrace and she was pregnant and she said, "I can't keep the baby. I just want to come and see what I need to do. I need help. But I can't keep the baby. I'm going to have an abortion." So they said, "Well, let us show you the baby because that's a great way. I mean, it's amazing when they see their baby and the sonographer comes in and starts doing that." So they're looking at the baby and she goes, "I know. But I can't keep the baby." Then. [BLANK_AUDIO] I hear another heartbeat, and then they see the other baby, and the mother starts crying, and the mother said, "I cannot do that to both of them." Yesterday, I got to meet those girls, identical twin girls, who are now four, five years of age, beautiful. And what made it so tender for me, you guys know we've just welcomed in our family two beautiful twin girls, identical. And all I can do is see them. So when I say we may have to leave the building, we're going to leave the building. And we're going to go places and do things that maybe some people question, I had a young lady come see me two weeks ago. I met her when she was 16 years old. She was at Student Camp at Camp Orlando. It was down in Hudson, Florida. Some of you remember when we used to go there. We're at a life camp. And this-- yep, it was a fun place. Food, maybe not, but it was a fun place. This girl, 16 years of age, was there,

gave her life to Christ, beautiful-- oh, man, it was unbelievable. I lost track of her. She came in two weeks ago. She's 35 years old now. She said, "David, I'm here because I feel like I need to get my life back where it belongs." I said, well, tell me what's going on. She said, well, I've kind of lost my way a little bit and got involved some things I didn't need to be involved in. She said, basically, I'm a dancer. I dance in the clubs on OBT. It's how I've made a living. My boyfriend is a pimp. I make good money. I said, well, what's-- I saw a name tattooed right there. And I said, is that your boyfriend? She said it was the other one. He got killed by one of his girls. And as I'm talking to her, she said, you know what used to happen in the clubs? And I don't want to be more definitive than that. But we're not talking about square dancing. We're not talking about line dancing. You use your imagination. You know what kind of a dancer she was. She said, David, every Friday night, these people, these women, would come in and bring gifts to us. And they would pray for us. And she said, I can tell you, every one of the dancers

that I know up and down the trail, when those women would come by, it was the one visit they wanted to have. They wanted to see those women because they knew those women loved them. And they bring them gifts. And they would pray over them. And then this is the moment. She looked at me and she said, would this church ever do anything like that? How would you enter that? I looked there and I said, oh my goodness, yes, we would. And yes, we will. Why? Because we have a light that desperately needs to be shown in the darkness. We are going to go to the darkest places. Why? Because the light of Jesus can change anybody's life. It's just the nature of how we love this community. So the question is, are we willing to leave the building? Are we willing to go there? That's why the 100 gospel expressions. We could just have fun in this building and never start another campus, never have another church plant, never have anything else. But basically, this church has been here since 1871. I just believe it's going to take more than being in the building to reach the city we call home. And I think God is calling us through this great commission. Are you willing to go the way God sent me? And I think we're willing.

M-C-I, our God, I want to say thank you, guys, for being a part there. Hey, they can hear you, let's welcome them. Let's let them know. We love you, guys. And it's such an honor. We would never wish, upon anyone, what you have experienced and what's happened to you in your life. But you know what? We're going to be with you. We're going to be there to show the love of Christ. And I can't wait for the day I get to come. I just want you to know you are one of those expressions that we believe God wants us to have all over the city. Whether it's in a jail, whether-- oh, can I tell you the latest? How many of you know about McDonald's right across the street? That's a great place, by the way. Beautiful people. So I just had this thought. What if I started a Bible study over there? I wonder if I could start a Bible study. By the way, I met the owner. Well, some would call an accidental meeting, a coincidental meeting. I met the owner who owned 30 McDonald's in New York City. Sold them all 'cause the Lord told him to come here. Told him to buy that one, and he's starting to buy up others. So I called him, I said, "Hey, man, I was so good to meet you. I got an idea.

It's kind of crazy. Would you let me start a Bible study in your McDonald's?" And I said, "I know it may be against McDonald's rules. I don't know what policy is for all of them." And he goes, "It doesn't matter. I own it. Absolutely. I would love for you to start a Bible study in there." So for the past four weeks, you can see some of the pictures. We've been doing Bible study in McDonald's, the Gospel of Mark, and sharing the love of Jesus. And guess what happened? Two weeks ago or a week ago, we baptized on a Tuesday, one of the workers at McDonald's. Her name is Rodina. [applause] So I just think when we are going like he came, we go with love. And that means we'll go wherever they are because he came to us. Last thing, he sends us with his power. Let me tell you something. This passage, John does something that none of the other gospel writers do. I love studying the gospels because you see the way that each writer tells the story in maybe a little unique way. You said, "Well, did it all happen? Absolutely it all happened." John tells us this, "Go back to the text with me." I'm in verse 21, "And Jesus said to them again,

"Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I'm sending you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." And then the last verse, "If you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it's withheld." Now I want to address that last verse because that's a real confusing verse. There are a lot of people that thinks we have the power to forgive sin. In other words, I'm going to forgive you if I like you. I'm not if I not. Let me tell you, there is one who has the power to forgive sin and his name is not David, his name is Jesus Christ. He is the only one. But I can live and we can live in such a way. We are a reflection of him and we have his ministry as his ambassadors and we get to proclaim declaration of forgiveness of sin in the same way that he has set somebody free. So I think that is what that's referring to. But now let's talk about the part he breathed on them. No other gospel tells this. When I read that, I began to get intrigued and I started leaning in a little bit. Did you know that the phrase breathed on them, the verb in Greek doesn't occur anywhere else in the Bible? It's called a hop ox, meaning it only occurs one place. I'm like, why, what is that?

What's the point of that moment? That verb, if you read the Old Testament in Greek, it's called the Septuagint. It's a translation of the New Testament in Greek, obviously. But it's also a test, the Old Testament and not in Hebrew, but in Greek. When you read that, that verb occurs two times. One of them is in Genesis and you know this story. This is when God took dirt and formed man and then he what? Breathe on it and it came to life. The second time is when Ezekiel 37, the Valley of Dry Bones, the prophet is standing there and there is a Valley of Dry Bones. They look like they're alive but they're dead as a doornail. They're just standing there. No life in them and what the scripture says is that the Spirit of God breathed on them. I began to let my imagination wander a little bit but more than imagination, my desire. Guys, when you come to Christ, you come in the Holy Spirit, you are baptized in the Spirit. It's the only way you can come to Jesus. And you got all of him, by the way. But there is also a feeling of the Spirit that happens over and over and over. What if we as his people were to say, Jesus, would you breathe on us today? Would you breathe again on us? Would you do something here and just pour out

your Spirit again on us? You know what I believe? What happened? A Valley of Dry Bones would come to life. A church that is going through the most and doing great. I mean, we're doing incredible but just, just breathed on us today. So you know what that tells me? That tells me that everywhere I go, he goes with me. He's with me. God, sharing Christ is not how good you can present the gospel. It's not about-- well, I read the book. No, no, no. If anyone's life has changed through this whole thing of one more, it is only because the power of the Holy Spirit worked in somebody's life. So don't be frustrated and worried. I can't share. I can't remember things. I can't memorize an outline. Can you just tell the story of Jesus? Can you speak the name of Jesus over someone? I believe the Spirit can do what you never could have done. And that's how it happened. And by the way, he doesn't just go with you. He's already there. Now, hang on. This will strain your brain. He's already working on your one before you ever even start praying for you.

He's already there before you ever have a chance to do anything. Peter and Cornelius, Acts chapter 10, Peter is Jewish. He's in Joppa. He's praying, and God is sending a sheet out of heaven saying, hey, eat all this, eat any of these. He goes, I can't eat the unclean things. The Lord says, don't you crawl unclean? What I've cleaned? Well, what was that vision about? Well, it wasn't about food only. It was out Peter, you need to go with the Gentiles. And by the way, I'm already talking to a guy north of you. His name was Cornelius. Cornelius, who lived north of him in a place called Caesarea, was having another dream. And that dream was to go get a guy in Joppa because he's going to come and tell him about Jesus. And guess what? They met up, and the Gentiles now had the gospel. It started with both sides and the work of the spirits. So this morning, somebody's waiting on your obedience. God's already working on him. He's already stirring. There's so many stories I've got. And the time won't let me, but I've got to tell you this one. A few years ago, I'm in Brazil. And I love just walking the streets and sharing the gospel. You take a pastor with me, and for sure an interpreter, I don't have the gift of tongues yet for Portuguese.

So I asked the Lord to give me that. And he told me Duolingo. So I said, OK, Lord, I got you. I got you. I'm walking. I look up. There's a church, a little church. People, vehicles, some vehicles around. I said, what church is that? He even told me the name. I said, it looks like there's people there. Can we go in? He said, you want to go in there? I said, here, let's go in. We walk in, and we end up walking in front of them. The door into the church didn't come in the back. It came right in the front. And there's a bunch of people sitting in there, and they look up. And they have this astonished look, and they start talking in Portuguese. I don't know what they're saying. And the pastor looks at me, and he said, you're not going to believe this. They have been praying for somebody to come from America. And the Lord had told him he was coming soon. Be ready. He's going to come and encourage them and to share the gospel with them.

And I looked at my pastor, friend, I go, wonder who that is. He laughed, and I said, I got it. And I got to share, and they were shouting. They were rejoicing. You know why? Because God is doing more than you could ever imagine. He is before us. He's there. So somebody's waiting on the other side of your obedience. Can we do something today to close the series? Can we just say, Lord, breathe on us? Spirit, breathe on us. I want to invite you to do something. We're just going to have a little music playing for a moment. You're welcome to get on your knees there. Come to the altar. You can stay seated. You do whatever you want to do. But would you just simply say, Lord, I need your power. I need your love. And I need your peace. Breathe on me. As the music plays, come on, let's go to the Lord. Let's ask Him to breathe on us today. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ Holy Name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ Jesus from the mountain, Jesus in the stream, Jesus in the darkness of her every enemy, Jesus for my friend, I seek the holy name, Jesus from the mountain, Jesus in the stream, Jesus in the darkness of her every enemy, Jesus for my family, I seek the holy name, Jesus so if you take all the gospels and you read the great commission in each one of them, there is one thing all of them have in common and you know what that one thing is, his name is Jesus, and we must speak the name of Jesus starting home where we live, I mean every way we have opportunity let's stand together and as we stand, there's somebody in this room today, I know that has felt like you're outside of the community of faith just here checking things out or maybe you're here with a friend, kind of just plead with you, it's not an accident you showed up today God is stirring, God is drawing, God is moving and I think there's somebody in this room that's ready to take the next step and obedience to him, I'll be baptism so what I want you to know is we're here for you, this altar will be open as we sing and at the end of this service, to have conversation folks out in the lobbies will have conversation, you can text us the word next, 407-77, but now the first line in this song says, shout Jesus from the mountain, so you know what, you don't sing that with a whisper, you just sing it with a shout, why? because we know Jesus can change anybody's life, Jesus saves, amen? He can change our life and anybody's life, let's sing it, let's give him glory, lead us guys shout Jesus from the mountain, Jesus in the stream, Jesus in the darkness over every enemy, Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the stream, Jesus in the darkness over every enemy, Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus shout Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the stream, Jesus in the darkness over every enemy, Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus your name, your name, your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life, break every song, bow, shine through the shadows, burn like a fire, your name is coming your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life, break every song, shine through the shadows, burn like a fire Shout Jesus from the mountain, amen. Thank you guys for joining with us in worship and we will see you next Sunday. [MUSIC]